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e good afternoon and welcome to the regular March 11th 2025 meeting of the Los Angeles Unified School District Board of Education meeting I hear an echo is there an echo down there that anyone else is
hearing may I have my tech people come out and push that one button that makes it stop echoing if we can tolerate the echo I'll take roll and then hopefully they'll come out all right Miss nubil present Dr Ras present Mr meloy
here miss grigo here miss gones present Miss oti Franklin present board president sharlon present and student board member president okay I have the honor of doing the pledge of allegiance would you please rise everyone on and face the
flag place your right hand over your heart before we begin our uh board president reports I'd like to have uh a few words from our um Sue stangle who is our Inspector General a message from Sue let's go ahead and cue that slide
for the oig please good good afternoon I'm sue stangle the Inspector General for L USD promise there is a slide coming the office of the Inspector General is in the midst of developing our annual work plan for fiscal year
2026 and an important part of this process is conducting our risk assessment and soliciting input from stakeholders and the larger LAUSD Community about any areas where you believe there is high risk or exposure to the district so each year we present
a survey for anyone and everyone to take and this um slide presents the QR code to access the survey the survey right now is only in English but it will be available in Spanish in the next couple days we encourage everyone to please
complete the survey it is extremely important and helpful to us as we prepare for our work plan for next fiscal year thank you thank you Inspector General we're now going to begin with our labor partners and I see in our audience I see
SEIU if you're ready to come up SEIU you're welcome to be first e we play a vital role in ensuring School runs smoothly and that our students receive support they need to thrive I love working with kids and seeing them
Reach important mileston especially achieving their IEP goals my work is essential because students rely on us it will be impossible for teachers to do their job effectively without the support we provide whether it's assisting in the classroom preparing
nutritious meals maintaining school facilities our behind the scenes work directly contributes to the Student Success and the strength of our communities every day we address urgent needs in our schools because of my commitments to the students and my work
I am here to raise concern about the unassigned days in the instructional calendar these are the days that we that can be used by students to catch up on schoolwork extra tutoring or lifting up their grades these are also days when dedicated School workers can come to
support students learning as we earn extra income to support our family like many of my co-workers I struggle with rising cost and financial un uncertainty special education assistance teachers assistance Food Service workers and
others are not paid during unassigned days the the proposed change to the instructional calendar will only deepen the economical hardship SE Local 99 members face I'm unassign days affect not only only our pay but also affect
students academic progress before moving with the instructional CH calendars I remind you that we must bargain over these changes to ensure that any modification to the calendar truly supports the students and students like and staff like myself thank
you hello and good afternoon board members uh my name is Michael Smith and I am also a proud member of SEIU Local 99 uh I've uh been employed with the school district for 40 years 5 years as a bus driver and 35 years currently working in
Fleet Maintenance servic servicing all district vehicles trucks cars buses other words anything that has wheels something that you may have rode in on this morning and as a SEIU Local 99 member we play a vital role in ensuring schools operate smoothly and students
have the support that they need to succeed it I've taken pride in keeping La usd's transportation system running safely and efficiently so students can travel to and from school safely without worry since I since I've started with
the district I've upheld the high standard of safety and service that LUSD Transportation demands ensuring every vehicle is properly maintained at top quality the importance of our job is that without our work our the transportation will not run the way it
is designed nor will it function safely our role is just as essential as any other in the district every day we handle essential tasks that keeps our school running that's why it's vital that our work be valued respected and
given the investment that it deserves the uh proposed changes in the instructional calendar will increase economic hardship for SEIU Local 99 members um seu Local 99 members are among the lowest paid employees at La USD earning
an average of $33,000 a year that is right near the property level for families that are for in the Los Angeles County as a former bus driver I firsthand uh I have seen firsthand how schedules changes hurt workers bus
drivers already struggle with reduced hours a calendar with continued unassigned days would only make things worse so I urge you this afternoon that the district would ensure that we have a Frontline work that as that we ensure
that we the Frontline workers have a voice in the process we ask that you negotiate with us I urge that you come to the bargaining table to ensure we secure a calendar that truly supports the needs of our students and the dedicated educational workers of L USD
my time is up and I thank you for yours thank you very much SEIU our next member will be from utla welcome come on up good afternoon uh my name is Alex Orosco utla secondary vice president I
have Karen Murray here with us she'll be speaking in just a couple of minutes on some very important special education issues um couple of things on the agenda today Charter renewals um just want to make
sure that you all understand that we are in favor of granting the extension agreements to high performing Charters that are five years but we understand that there are a few today being uh considered for more than that six years
and upwards we do not uh accept that and we want to make sure that you don't do that because there's no need to um everything has been working fine with the five-year extension um also we' like to recognize
item 24 grigo schon's um motion resolution to celebrate and recognize Ramadan thank you for that that's very special to our staff students communities also uh item 26
gones Kelly gones supposing Federal funding cuts that will harm students and families we absolutely strongly support the spirit of the resolution and stand in solidarity with you miss gones um in item 27 uh Dr Rivas expanding opportunities
celebrating dual enrollment awareness month we strongly support all efforts by the district to expand College and Career Pathways for all students in grades 9 through 12 thank you for those three resolutions coming up um and on the special education issue we
are currently uh having difficulties getting the district to acknowledge and pay about a hundred of our special education Educators you will hear from one of them in just a second um we have filed a grievance on behalf of over a
100 utla members who believe they are owed a stien um utla and L USD agreed in the current uh CBA in a current contract that effective June 30th of 2022 any special education teacher who teaches an
SDC class with two or more students over the SDC cap will re will receive either a 625 stien or a $1,250 stien per semester we have not seen that for over a hundred of our
members and we have filed this griev on their behalf also add adding to the confusion we have just learned from the district that these stiens are no longer retroactive to the fall of 2022 conflicting with our agreement that we
signed this last bargaining cycle this is a small stip in for our special education teachers who are teaching classes over the cap providing Education and Care to LAUSD students and now I'm going to hand the the mic over to miss
Karen Murray a special education teacher good oh not good morning sorry it's been a long day good afternoon everyone uh my name is Karen Murray and I am currently a coordinator at canbury Avenue Elementary and gifted magnet in
arita um I have a lot to say about this subject but for the time because I'm on a timer here I'm gonna read from a statement okay but if you if you were on the side I could have I I could say so much about this
um again I'm a coordinator currently at the school where in 2020 uh 2 2023 school I was a teacher in an Autism alternate curriculum classroom educating our District's most vulnerable population uh as a special educator at
the Los Angeles Unified School District I am deeply frustrated by the lack of professional respect the district has for special Educators this is highlighted by your willingness to drag your feet on your contractual obligation despite my class size being consistently between two to five
students above the cap for the program not only have I not received the compensation outline in the contract um but there are many more who have not as well in addition to this there are even more special Educators
who have received an incorrect amount for classes above the cap the classroom that I left in 2023 to become a coordinator at the same school um the teacher that took over that classroom is currently over the norm by three the
other classroom which is the same type alternate curriculum classroom is the same uh nine students three over the cap again can inconsistently receiving stiens that are incorrect in the amount or sometimes not receiving it at all
according to the agreement special educators are to be compensated when their class size exceeds the cap by two or three students the additional workload and responsibility that comes with managing an overcrowded classroom not only affected my ability to provide the level of attention and support my
students deserve but also left me feeling undervalued and unsupported it is disheartening to see that the commitment to uh supporting both students and Educators not being honored particularly when it directly
impacts the quality of education and Services we strive to provide for the last year and a half I have patiently waited to receive the compensation owed to me despite the clear Provisions outlined in the LD
utila contract throughout this time I have consistantly reached out to special education school and family services and I have communicated with Carla price and Essence Kendrick both by phone and email the only response I've received is
that an over Norm stien inquiry was submitted on M March 4th 2024 exactly a year from ago last week on March 4th Ruby abara emailed me to inform me that there is
still no update on the status of my stien inquiry to add to my frustration I was told that the over Norm stien began in the spring of 2023 not fall of 2022 despite my class size exceeding the cap
during the entire 2022 2023 school year again this lack of clarity and the prolonged delay in addressing the issue is both disheartening and demoralizing it feels as though the district is not honoring its commitment
to support Educators who go above and beyond for their students all special education teachers are asking for the exact same thing that we we provide to everybody on our school campus and in our district professional
respect I respect each and every one of you where you are at this time in your career and what it took for you to get there all I am asking is that you do the same for us thank you again I can go on but thank you so much thank you thank you for your
time and we have uh Maria Nichols speaking remotely uh Miss Nichols please press star six to unmute yourself and you'll have a few moments to give us your thoughts Maria Nichols from Alla Miss Nichols if you're there please
press star six to unmute yourself yes good afternoon can you hear me we certainly can please go ahead oh thank you so good afternoon superintendent carvalo and board members I am Ria Nichols proud and optimistic
president of all our team to local 2010 I come before you today on behalf of the dedicated and tireless members of all the Teamsters Local 2010 our approximately 3,000 certificated and classified workers who are the backbone
and heartbeat of La USD our members are the heart and and are essential to the district's success and we are here to demand the respect fairness and Equitable treatment we rightfully deserve since taking off office in July
2025 I have led with One Singular Focus advocating for our members and ensuring that our work is valued and respected we've reached a critical juncture in our negotiations with L USB and Stakes have never been hirer on March 5th 2025 we
began collective bargaining with the goal of securing a contract that prioritizes fair working conditions reasonable workloads and work life balance this is not a request but a need we are demanding changes that
directly address the concerns of our members for certificated workers we ask for improvements to working hours job responsibilities and rights as all a Teamster members for our classified workers we ask for adjustments to work
hours job sred representation and stronger protections for workers these proposals are not just improving conditions they are about restoring dignity and respect to those who keep this District running without our members La USB would grind to a halt we
are standing firm in our commitment to fair treatment and we will not back down the time for empty promises is over we are preparing for our next negotiation s session on March 19th 2025 and we expect
real tangible responses from LAUSD we urge the Board of Education to immediately engage with us acknowledge the urgency of this situation and take Swift action to address the needs of our members the clock is ticking and every
day we wait is another day our members are left waiting for the fair contract they deserve this is a call to action this is about fairness respect and a commitment to the future of valy USD we
cannot afford to delay any longer and I hope and expect that the board come to the table with meaningful Solutions and a genuine commitment to the people who make this District run thank you for your immediate
attention and partnership in this matter thank you for your time that concludes our labor Partners yes thank you very much any other labor partners that we may have missed okay then we're going to go on with our
committee reports and uh committee chair for committee of the whole Dr Rivas yes thank you board member scharon um so the committee of the whole met on February 18th 2025 and learned about the following Financial oversight and
planning the district reviewed audit findings to ensure Financial accountability and strategically strategically planning for upcoming budget consideration related to State funding uh navigating state and federal fiscal pressures California school districts including LUSD are
experiencing increasing Financial strain from ex U expiring pandemic funds Rising costs and potential Federal funding shifts necessitating proactive advocacy at all levels this was presented um by
um what was it who services financial services yes thank you instructional account calendar planning the board is carefully considering the 202528 instructional calendars balancing Community needs and academic impact
which will be voted on today uh our next meeting of Committee of the whole will be held on Tuesday March 11th 2025 this year thank you Dr Ras and our next report will be the special education committee chair and that is Miss
grigo hi we had a a great meeting last week um with the special education committee and these are some of the things that we discussed we first um celebrated World Down syndrome day and autism awareness month we uh which is
World Down syndrome day is on March 21st and World autism month is during the month of April um we heard from the Department of speech and language um Las services and they gave a presentation on
um the role of a augmentative and alternative communication supports for our students with speech impairments that includes such things as low Tech visuals uh to high-tech speech to text tools we also learned about assistive
instructional technology which includes any tool or device um that supports students with disabilities some tools include um could be integrated into applications uh or it could be a low Tech things such as a pencil holder or
mag magnetic numbers um at the end of the presentation we had the committee engage in discussion and some of the things that the committee wanteded to know more of is how does a district support and celebrate students uh with autism and down syndrome Beyond March
and April how can we make our schools places where our students can feel included throughout the whole year and celebrated throughout the year uh committee and parents also wanted to know more about what our school can do to ensure that all of our students are included um that school culture is more
accepting and welcoming um they also wanted more information about how we are thinking about using Ai and how we are supporting parents at home to support their students their children uh they also suggested more observations in the classrooms to see if other students need
more supports beyond what is included in the IEP sometimes things don't pop up immediately but they might show up in the class classroom um we also heard from families who came and spoke to US during public comment and some of the comments included more information or
more attention to our inclusion program as well as uh parents wanted this type of presentation at their school sites because many had said that they didn't have this knowledge ahead of time and they wish they had it so we are meeting
again in two months in May on May 5th I believe thank you so much really quick can I make a correction our next Committee of the hall is next week March 18th not the 11th so I made a wrong date duly noted okay thank you our next
report is from our student board member anelli thank you for president sharlon over the past month I have had the privilege of engaging with our student population across the district and Beyond listening to their concerns and working towards meaningful Solutions with them the student superintendent
student advisory Council met yesterday on March 10th 2025 where student leaders across LUSD shared their experiences concerns and ideas to make a more Equitable and inclusive learning environment and working towards our outc cap the local control accountability
plan and implementing student voice in our food services department we will be continuously meeting with our elcap team to continuously improve and include the student voice in our budget next our dedication um students dedication and
their willingness to serve their communities continues as the students Embark student board member finalists are chosen we have 10 students running for the student board member position and I strongly urge the board and teachers counselors School Personnel to
urge students to use their fundamental right to vote they have options it is on school there will be more information coming out from the student empowerment unit to continue promoting Civic engagement not only within their schools but within their broader communities students continue having
pressing concerns regarding immigration status and documentation status continuingly continuously living in uncertainty and shaping their ability to focus on their education I urge the board to continue to provide their unwavering support to these students
with resources advocacy and unwavering solidarity this P past month additionally students also attended the A Dream Deferred college board conference and the Latina hope conference thanks to board president scharon and the the team's Conant advocacy for students to engage with
their Los Angeles community and continuously learn from our active Community leaders and as a finally as a representative of LUSD I continuously connect with students and many have felt the need for me to con to advocate for
our lgbtq plus Youth and that we continue acknowledging the great research that has been done in this department and I will be sharing some of that today 20.7% of LZ students identify as non-heterosexual reflecting a broader
National Trend as student identities become more diverse schools most actively Foster inclusive environments that support all sexual orientations and gender identities despite 60% of high school students and 45% of middle school students reporting lgbtq plus acceptance
there has been a concerning decline from the previous year years amplifying the need for schools to intensify efforts to improve School climate and inclusivity lgbtq plus youth face disproportionately High rates of
bullying often even before openly claiming to be part of the community addressing identity-based discrimination regardless of a student's identity is crucial for shaping a safe School environment the Trevor Project a suicide
prevention hotline for youth has reported a Sevenfold increase of calls from lgbtq plus youth reflecting a deep mental health toll and societal political challenges I urge the board to continue standing in unwavering support of all
students regardless of documentation status race gender identity and that our students are not only empowered but continue to Advocate and take deliberate action to protect and support every student in LD and that concludes the student board member report thank you
board president schron and thank you and next we will hear from our early Ed committee and that would be Miss gones thank you board president um this is a report out from February since I I missed that during last meeting um so in
January we held the most recent meeting of the children and families and Early Education committee the focus was enrollment Trends and our early education programs so this included reviewing uh TK Trends Statewide versus LA County school districts and how this
interacts with State preschool programs to help us understand where La USD fits into this broader context we also learned about our Recruitment and promotion efforts for our Early Education Centers and our utk programs at elementary schools and examined enrollment throughout our spectrum of
programs this school year um which in many places shows improvement over previous years which is exciting um as always we appreciate our fantastic Early Education team for supporting us as well as Dr Bruce Fuller professor Prof ameritus at UC Berkeley goar um whose work is focused on child care and Early
Education um he joined us to present on those broader Statewide Trends our next meeting is next Thursday March 20th at 10:00 a.m. we'll hope you'll join us online or in person we'll be focusing on numeracy and socio emotional well-being mental health um support and Trauma
informed care for our Early Education students thank you Miss gonz and a little bit later we'll have a report by the uh school safety and climate committee run by Miss Ortiz Franklin and that'll be when she is on screen to give us her report so thank you very much
everyone now are we able to move to the consent calendar okay let me just tell you a little bit about the consent calendar I know you heard it some people have heard it a hundred times already some people have hear it for the first time so the consent calendar is a
procedural device that allows us to vote on multiple items at the same time it's very efficient it's a very efficient way of doing things and these are items that come to the board on a regular basis and routine business and we as board members
have discussed this in briefings or than two in briefings and what happens is we ask all of our questions and we're ready to decide yes consent or no I want to not put it on consent so if a board member decides to
ask a question or just make a little comment that item is pulled from the consent calendar and it'll be voted on individually it'll be heard after public comment is had so I'm urging my school board members if the item that you hear
and see will not affect it being pulled off the calendar no change then it should be remaining on the consent calendar and here we go Mr mle okay tab one instructional calendars for the 25 26 26 27 27 28 school
years tab two I'm sorry yeah uh tab three renewal of the transition partnership program okay so question from board member Grio and uh Tab four 2024 2025 second interm report and multi-year
projections discussion certificate tab tab five certification of measure us results and establishment of a separate capital projects fund consent uh tab six align funding strategies for three school facilities projects programs funded by certificates
of participations with school upgrade program framework and measure us priorities and implementation strategies consent consent T six yeah no discussion let's see tab seven and eight
cannot be on consent uh tab nine to find and approv 24 classroom upgrade projects and amend the facilities services division strategic execution plan to incorporate therein consent Tab 10 toine and approve seven playground and campus exterior upgrade projects and amend the facil
services division strategic execution plan to incorporate therein consent consent uh tab 11 Define and approve four Board District priority and region priority projects and amend the facility services division strategic execution uh plan to incorporate
therein uh tab 12 Define and approve four charter school facilities upgrade projects and amend the facility service division strategic execution plan to incorporate therein consent discussion discussion Dr Ras all right tab 13 approval of the renewal
petition for Community magnet Charter Elementary which will be a public hearing consent I have a question discussion discussion uh tab 14 approval of the renewal petition for Justice Street Academy charter have discuss a
discussion discussion uh tab 15 approval of the renewal petition for center for advanced learning discussion discussion tab 16 approval of the renewal petition for pente Charter yeah discussion discussion uh tab 17 approval of routine
Personnel actions consent consent uh tab 18 provisional internship permits consent tab 19 donations of money to the district consent tab 20 report of cash dispers dispersements requests to uh
reissue expired warrants tab 21 2024 2025 non-public school agency npsa approval of Master contracts I'm hearing consent tab 22 approval of procurement
actions discussion uh tab 23 approval of contracts facilities contract actions I'm sorry approval of facilities contract actions consent consent then we have a number of resolutions that will have a Time certain they can still go on consent but
since they're on a Time certain generally should be voted on separately is what I'm thinking okay so um we're going to put uh tab 24 on discussion tab 25 on discussion um and then it looks
like uh tab 26 you would you consent or just consent great okay tab tab tab 27 okay with the time certain discussion
with the time certain all right uh we have an initial announcement on Tab 28 for Action so that doesn't require any board action uh resolutions requested by the superintendent re appointment of the member of the school construction Bond citizens oversight committee
consent uh let's see tab 30 report of corresponden consent and tab 31 minutes for board approval consent all right okay so we can move to public comment on
the consent items one moment okay uh for consent we have tab we have tab five I'll just go through the Whole Thing tab two we have discussion uh tab three discussion Tab four discussion tab
five consent uh tab six consent I mean sorry tab six discussion tab n consent Tab 10 consent tab 11 consent tab 12 discussion tab 13 discussion tab 14 discussion tab 15 and 16 also discussion
and then tabs 17 18 19 20 and 21 are consent tab 22 discussion tab 23 consent tabs 24 and 25 discussion tab 26 consent tab 27 discussion uh tab 29 30
and 31 are consent does that sound about right okay we get to the public speakers Mr McLean just regard to tab 26 that's on consent it's as amended board members have a copy of the amended resolution at the table and board member
of the Franklin is added as a co-sponsor okay outstanding and we also have copies of that in um the booth in the back of the room so items with consent and that have public comment will we take those
now scrolling through to see all right tab 18 let's see Chui c h i c u eii I'm so sorry if if I've uh undoubtedly un mispronounced that this is for tab 18 are you here in person not here for tab
18 and the rest actually we are um on discussion and have and have comment associated with them so we can take the we can vote on the consent C calendar now would someone like to move for the consent calendar second okay let me take roll would you
mind if I make comments on my resolution since we're voting on it okay that's right I'm so sorry that's okay um well as I noted before I would like to move version two of this resolution it's tab 26 opposing Federal funding cuts that will harm students and families which includes amendments to reflect um some
of the latest actions in Washington as well as adding board member or Franklin as a co-sponsor um in the last month as you may all already be aware um the Senate and House of Representatives approved budget resolutions cutting billions of dollars from education spending as part of an ongoing effort to
advance this administration's agenda an agenda which threatens act as to a fair equal and high quality public education for all students as part of this effort we continue to face the threat that this Administration will dismantle the US Department of Education an agency that
plays a central role in protecting the civil rights of our most vulnerable student populations dispersing Title One funds for low-income students and protecting students rights particularly for students with disabilities lgbtq plus students immigrant students and students who have face racial
discrimination unfortunately our public schools have become a stage for conservatives to play out a cruel agenda with aggressive attempts to reverse the progress we've made in how students learn about race history and the lgbtq plus community as just a few examples as we are likely aware in the coming days
we will see a final spending bill and it's important that we urge our representatives to vote against any actions that would cut funding for our families such as Medicaid which helps support the needs of our students with disabilities and the basic health services that many of our students and families rely on any other resources our
students depend on to fulfill their potential and any actions that would weaponize or strip the US Department of Education of its core civil rights purpose um or dismantle it um so I I bring this resolution for the board's consideration and I hope that we support it to send a strong message to
Washington about where we stand in support of our schools and our families this the time to co-sponsor co-sponsor great I have just some comments for that sure um well I'd like to strongly support this resolution
opposing Federal funding cuts that will harm our students and families and I like as I said to be added as a co-sponsor um I want to specifically acknowledge also Martha Alvarez and her team in the government relations um for their continued prioritization and
engagement in this crucial work of advocating for our students needs their expertise and dedication are invaluable and especially in these trying times where threats against our community are a persistent concern it is vital that we amplify our voices and clearly voice our
opposition to any cuts that would further endanger the well-being and educational opportunities of our students as I'll be engaging with our legislators in Washington DC next month this resolution provides crucial backing and highlights the district's unified stance in this critical issue so thank
you very much board member gones for bringing this forward thank you I have a comment too but who would anyone else like to speak be added as a co-p co-sponsor Mr to be add something to say yes okay Miss GGO yes thank you for
bringing this forward um yeah it is critical right now that we as a district uh we continue to push our legislators in DC uh to oppose any cuts to public education the suspension of these funds will impact our most vulnerable students
in LAUSD our students with disabilities our students who are lowincome our English language Learners and even our earliest Learners we must stand strong against any efforts to dismantle the public school system and the values that it represents so thank you m gones for
putting this forward and I'd like to also be named as a co-sponsor thank you wonderful anyone else anelli comment thank you board member gonz just to reciprocate all the sentiments shared today many students
that I've connected with are recipients of the direct funding that comes ferally title one college prep programs organizations and programs that otherwise would not have pushed students towards higher educ ation and if we allow these cuts to happen most as we
have mentioned in this resolution the most vulnerable student populations will be affected that disabilities language barriers hunger that these students may get from many students I know school lunch is only meal of their day the only way they're going to feed themselves and
cutting these will be simply cruel so I am in sincere support and would also like to be added as a co-sponsor thank you wonderful thank you Mr superintendent just want to add my voice uh to the cores of support uh for this important resolution uh it is very clear that
under the guise of uh National def efficiencies local deficiencies uh could be the result deficiencies most importantly impacting those students in our communities that most desperately need the resources that are allocated federally the dismantling the the the
possibility of the dismantling of the Department of Education Beyond uh perhaps elimination of the entity that uh as board member gonz correctly stated the entity that for decades has protected the interests and the Civil
Rights and the personal rights of students and workforces across the country uh is the possibility of uh reductions in funding or the establishment of new protocols for the distribution of those dollars uh providing possibly a dilution of Title
One entitlement programs that benefit the poor in our community necessary funds for English language Learners in the title three or the protection that should be afforded to students with disabilities under idea there's too much to risk there's too much to be lost and
this is the appropriate position that the board would take thank you thank you um let me just also quote besides being a co-sponsor let me thank you again uh Miss gones but uh cutting funding for
the education department is uh one of the most counterproductive things we can ever do in our lives and by doing so we limit our students Futures we destabilize our communities and we give up any hope for
progress and it does make no sense not at all and I just want you to know that I have worked with the superintendent recently and the LA County delegation and the county delegation to support each other and next week I too will be with great City Schools and we're going
to fight like heck to make sure that we have no cuts for our students education thank you anyone else sure go ahead Carla I mentioned many vulnerable populations but I did not mention our lgbtq plus community and they too are very vulnerable
particularly our trans students and uh community members so I want to make sure that they too are protected well said thank you Miss gonz oh thank you I'm excited about the unanimous um co-p sponsorship for this resolution and just to know in addition to the great work
we're doing led by um Miss Alvarez thank you Dr Ras for noting that this is also part of a nationwide effort among the coun Council of great City Schools districts um to all be contacting our legislative representatives to make sure they're hearing a unified voice from our Urban school districts that we will not stand for any um funding cuts that will
impact our Public School families um so just wanted to highlight that this is a nationwide effort as well thank you so much okay Mr McLean we do have some public comment associat with this I don't see a whole lot of the folks here but I'm going to read the names if you're here please come on down Macky
Draper LMA khil Smith Randy Jones Dylan Chastity Eli Gala Manning Martinez
and jiah Fields folks are here this also requires a rule 72 waiver but since this is on consent the rule 72 waiver I'd say is subsumed into into the consent calendar okay it's been moved by Dr revas
second seconded by Scott and uh well here we go tab 26 uh Miss nubil yes Dr Ras yes Mr melvoin yes m g yes Miss gonz yes Miss Ortiz Franklin proudly yes oh she's with there you are
yes for Miss orti Franklin board president schmon yes and student board member Lopez Cortez yes Mr mclan while we have Miss uh Ortiz Franklin here would you like to do your committee report while you're on screen sure if that's okay I'll I'll be
brief sure um we met with two new board members welcome to miss dubel and miss Grio to our school safety and climate Committee of the year uh we are focused on looking at data from The District's perspective on uh incidents around safety both in school and out of school
physical safety and emotional safety and this time we looked deeply at mental health and particularly our uh vulnerable populations as we've just been talking about immigrant students black students lgbtq students um and heard directly from school sites as well as District staff operations and
wellness on exactly how we're supporting these students and so I want to give a big thank you to Drew Middle School and the vsap program there as well as Maya Angelou and the newcomer program there uh really appreciated the engagement on thinking about how the district both systematically and on the School site level protect some of the students who
need our support uh the greatest um stay tuned for our next two meetings of the year we're going to keep looking at incidents of um student safety data in and around campus we're hearing often from our community about uh what is happening and how we can do better so we welcome public comment and we look
forward to finding more solutions together thank you thank you Miss Ortiz Franklin our committee reports are now complete Mr McLean okay it's 2:00 and we have a number of items that are flagged for uh discussion shall we take tab
to so here we are on tab two there was folks who wanted to have some discussion on item yes thank you Mr McLean and I don't um I just pulled it to vote no I don't need to belabor the point I've spoken on the calendar over the last few weeks um appreciate the team juggling a lot of
competing interests uh but just remain frustrated the process that this calendar is coming so late and that also I I think we're still an outlier when it comes to breaks and start dates and starting the year on a Thursday ending on a um on a Wednesday it's just not student or family or parent centered so
I'm going to vote no I do just have one question um uh as we finalize the calendar maybe for um uh um Dr estada or someone on the instructional team I'm curious if we know the dates of summer school and summer enrichment um over the
years we've really expanded our free summer offerings which have been great but I've heard from families that they're posted the dates are posted so late that families have already availed themselves of other sometimes costlier child care so I'm just curious if we can talk about summer school summer enrichment or when that will all be
posted so they are working on finalizing with the instructor calendar they are finalizing the dates we were trying to figure out also some prep days for teachers so that will be posted on our website that will go live very soon so I will have those dates for you very soon like this
week uh yes definitely because it was just finalizing a couple instructional calendar elements as well as some prep days for teachers so yes okay great so we'll be sure to share that with families about the summer various enrichment and summer school options which are again I think high quality and free and then I do while I don't support
the the instructional calendar I do appreciate that at least we're locking in a three-year calendar so that um we have certainty for families and schools who are trying to plan over the next few years so that's it for me Mr Schmelson thank you very much Mr
McAn beg your pardon charlette I just had a question or comment as we talking about child care um are we working with our community and Civic Partners to ensure the appropriate child care and youth activities are available I
know with the city of Los Angeles we've aligned some activities um but what about our other I think we're adjacent to about 25 other cities that serve within L USD I don't know who can answer that question if there is someone working with those other
agencies there is ongoing Outreach with not only entities that have a countywide presence jurisdiction um but also uh a across a number of different municipalities it is one of the top areas of concern that are negotiated uh
when we enter into compacts with different cities and we have now I believe 10 nine compacts a 10th one on the way uh and uh we will continue to do so we'll provide to the board uh if the board would like an informative as to how expansive and of particular interest
the agencies that we partner with the most both through cities uh the the YMCA other entities as well as NAFA profits in in a variety of different areas thank you that would be great because I know many of our families are looking for those Alternatives when we
have three weeks off or two weeks off thanks thank you any other comments on number two number two no go ahead Mr mle all right we have uh one uh person slated as speaking in person Eli gala are you here not here okay so we just need a
motion in a second to take the vote and we'll moved by uh second move by Miss gonz seconded by miss nuil and miss nuil yes Dr Ras yes Mr mvo no Miss Grio yes Miss gones yes
Miss Ortiz Franklin Miss Ortiz Franklin come back okay uh board president schmon yes and student member Lopez Cortez yes that's uh five eyes one no and we're waiting on waiting on one okay tab three renewal of
transitional transition partnership uh program contract for 25 through 28 it was put on uh for a discussion I I'm I should I just go with my question all right so I just had a question about um the kinds of jobs that
students get placed with through the department of rehab what are some of those uh places that our students get placed okay Chad all right thank you thank you for that question um so there's there's a
variable uh of job a variety of jobs that our students get placed in one thing that I will say is that um as this program is out for all students uh at every school um there's a partnership that we have with do where we we we place students in jobs we we provide
them with uh uh subsidy for working and some of the jobs that they get may be at a store uh working like a CVS or even with our Partnerships that include supporting our after school programs whether it's atast best or working with the boys and girls club um I also have
our coordinator here who can shed some more light on some other options that are available to our students so Jackie told hi thanks so much um so students that are placed by our district program through work-based learning we have with all of La UniFi after school programs
are LA's best are beyond the bell um we have M with um eight of the nine Boys and Girls Clubs in the LA region with YMCA and so the students that we place are placed at those programs right now and we're currently continue to explore
additional M us um as Dr stto shared students that are placed by um Department of Rehabilitation through their fccc program can be placed at retail businesses and stores that don't currently have M with Le unified and that is allowed if the
department of rehab places a student in a place that we don't have anou like say CVS or Walgreens it is so through the fccc program so any student that is um a contract client is also a client of Department of Rehabilitation so
Department of Rehabilitation then has the ability to intake the student for a work-based learning program on their side and then that is allowable I see so what about when it's our teachers the transition teachers and they can place students in in uh jobs is it only with
our M our okay only through Theus correct right thank you I have a question if I may so um are students also being encouraged to apply for jobs uh within La
USD you know and I know that that's definitely something that we promote uh especially when when we're uh talking with students about potential opportunities in the future after graduation um I know that that's something that we definitely encourage
uh especially with the route of special education assistant or or even our buildings and grounds those are things that we definitely promote that's true and you know there are a good qualified Workforce and lot to offer uh employers
especially in our district and um you know in society in general General unfortunately these individuals are often overlooked due to a unique condition or a disability they may have and I want to make sure that our
district is a leader in this space expanding opportunities uh for all individuals and um I hope we can do that and last question about the funding is this a general fund or a specific grant that La USD applied for it is it is a
grant um that we're continuing uh we've been we've had this partnership for over 25 years we're extending it now for three years excellent yes so we're just asking for board approval to extend it for till 2028 got it keep it going thank you anyone else I'm
sorry there you go okay sure follow up sorry um are there any ways that we can connect uh our students to any unions so that they can start on that path to perhaps getting working with the Union um and then also do we follow
the trajectory of these students um Beyond this uh this uh placement yeah so um there is actually a federal mandate that we follow students for a year after graduation and so every spring we're right in the middle of it
right now we actually call all of our students who left last school year and we get data it's considered the federal indicator 14 also the state indicator 14 as well and so that data is collected Ed and so we do have that data um you know
we don't currently have data from Department of Rehabilitation for these specific contract students but we do have data on all of our students that we get and how do we access that and we actually physically call each student so every Spring right now we have our 12th
grade students that are leaving our teachers get you know best contact information that we have for them and then next spring for these your seniors they're actually going to physically call each student so and when I say call it's phone calls it's you know students respond in a variety of ways so
sometimes calling kids on the phone is not the best way to reach them so we get their you know Instagram handles whatever we can get so that we can get in touch with these kids year after they've left and where do we store that information and how can we as board members or the public um grab that information yeah so we store that
information in our welligent system and then it's reported through calpads to the state and so um it's it's open information um it's in our federal indicators all right thank you okay thank you very much Mr McLean
okay tab three GNA take the vote Miss nuil yes Dr Ras yes Mr melin yes Miss Grio yes Miss KES yes Miss Ortiz Franklin yes uh board president schmon yes and student board
member Lopez Cortez yes all right and Miss congratulations yeah Miss orti Franklin while I have you there may I collect your vote on tab to also yes thank you thank you I appreciate that and I uh apologize for doing this out of order I was moving too quickly on the public comment and I missed uh Mr
Martinez who was online to speak to tab 26 he was signed up before the um before the item was voted on and I just moved too quickly so Mr Martinez U the time is yours I appreciate your patience please press star six to unmute yourself Mr Martinez and you'll have your two
minutes to speak to tab 26 afternoon everyone this is Channing Martinez co-director of the strategy Center um I think everyone said quite a few good things about this motion it is a very important motion given the federal landscape and the Trump
Administration going after um anyone who does not support their set of politics um but I think the other thing I just have to say is that you know there's nothing that says black again in here um
and I think we do have to reflect that during a democratic Administration this District allowed the Department of Education to come in and dictate the way that it runs the black student achievement program including removing
race as a key metric for selecting schools to receive Bap resources uh you know just the last reflection of this is during any time of any year social movements are very courageous and I think this motion is a
step in the direction of courageousness but I think we also have to not just protect people's rights but to fight to expand their rights including addressing race directly and not being scared to do so and putting our bodies on the line and putting things at risk because
that's what the Republicans are doing they have no care in the world and they put things at risk and they're fighting like hell and I think it's time for L USD to do the same thanks so much thank you for your time and your patience sir okay this brings us to Tab
four 2024 2025 second interm report and multi your projections um shall we do the presentation first okay please I'll just uh thank you very much I'll introduce it as Chris Mountain his
team uh step up to the mic um what uh what your board and the community are about to uh to to see and hear is the required report on the status of the uh school systems
of Financial Health uh this midyear update to the current fiscal year the 2025 fiscal year general fund budget um will be provided alongside a forecast of the next two fiscal years uh the stronger takeaway uh is is the fact that
um uh we are able based on the current available information to recommend commend that the board certify um the three-year Outlook as positive if you recall last time were a number of conversations prior to today's
presentation considering economic shift Statewide and an end of year fund balance for the three years there was a possibility that the third year would come in negative however as a result of uh internal strategic reduction specific
to uh budget to actual calculations as well as reduction of administrative costs non-school side administrative costs um we have been able to rectify that position and present to the board uh an interim a second interim update
that forecasts a positive balanced third year obviously between now and that third year a lot of things could change but at this point based on the information available to us that is uh the anticipated position with that said let me introduce um
the the main speaker for today's presentation uh our CFO please take it away thank you superintendent good afternoon board members superintendent Community uh we are going to go through the presentation of the second interim as the superintendent just nicely outlined uh
we are recommending adoption with a positive certification from the Board of Education which means that we are able to pay our bills for the current year uh and two additional years as far as those bills that we are aware of so yes things can change uh but as of the creation of this report which goes through the end
of February uh that that remains the fact and we've improved our position in the current year and in the next two years by some of those strategic budgeting activities uh I am waiting if the presentation could go up
and I'll get started may we please summon the it folks to come out and put on the presentation for the second interim that you have e there we go now we're cooking with fire as they say so uh we are presenting for you today the second interim report
which is inclusive of all known expenses through the end of February so remember the process is we adopt the budget in June the first interum covers all expenses and changes in revenues and expenditures through October and the second one covers everything through February and of course then at the end
of the year we come back and do from March through the end of the fiscal year which is June 30th uh so this report is due uh by March 15th and you can adopt it in one of three ways you can approve it with a positive certification which
is staff's recommendation today which means we meet all of our current year expenses and two additional years of expenses you can adopt it as qualified which means we may not meet uh our expenses for the current and two fiscal years or negative which means that we know that we will not at the current
time so we are recommending that positive certification for you today some highlights to keep an eye on when we keep uh presenting our budget it's the current year plus two years so this is fiscal year 25 that third year
we always say the third year out so that's the two additional years that's fiscal year 27 so in the general fund unrestricted which is our main uncommitted operating budget our most flexible money uh our ending balance is projected to be 3 325 million that is
$239 million higher than we reported to you at the first interim just a few months ago in December that's largely a result of the hard work in reducing expenditures uh through strategic budgeting general fund for this year at the end of the year uh we are projecting
to be at 1,978 million that is $54 million higher than we reported in December at the first interim so we are improving uh increment our our fiscal position uh so that we have a bit more cushion in those
out years before any changes are made this is just a gentle reminder of the budget timeline so this is where we are in the current fiscal year of course the next step is that we'll be providing updates to the January budget proposal in the May Governor's revise that's in
May uh and then in June we'll be coming at the end of June I believe it's on the 17th and then the 25th uh to do the budget hearing and the adoption uh which will be the adoption for next year's budget fiscal year 26 and the next two
years in a very similar format so we mentioned Savings in year uh have been realized and that is through our efforts in strategic budgeting uh We've identified efficiencies uh in the current year this is actually a little bit unusual for the district so we are actually making
changes during the year to the existing budget to try to yield savings not just in the current year but the next two years because we're removing those line items from the budget so what have we re removed uh just looking at the unrestricted general fund we have closed
321 positions that were vacant in the district office in central offices that were vacant for more than 6 months some of them for much longer than that that yielded $50 million of unrestricted general fund savings that's the 54 we said we improved this year about 54
there's about 50 of it and we reduce budget Authority for underspent accounts that means that if we were giving people budget authority of let's say $10 million but they were only spending 9 million year after year we removed that additional million that they weren't spending we need that money to not sit
on the sidelines because we do have a structural deficit right now so we don't want to leave any money on the sidelines so that was a savings of about $18 million this year and each additional year and we are maximizing restricted funds what does that mean so that means that we move things from the
unrestricted side of the general fund to the restricted side so most recently we we re-budget the elop because we were not spending it as quickly as we need to and so in that rebud getting we were able to move some expenses from the restricted side I'm sorry the
unrestricted side to the restricted side so we really focused during the interm reports on the general fund this is the main operating budget of the school district and these charts all are very similar they're laid out out in the same way at the interim report so you'll
see budget adoption first interim remember that was in December and now the second interim today you'll see the changes from one report to the next and that's what we're required to report to you is the changes so the beginning ma balance means the money that we started with in this fund these are often
referred to as carry forward or reserves the revenue how much money we're actually getting from state and federal sources throughout the year expenditures how much we plan on spending and how we're doing in that spending plan and then the revenue less expenditure so this number is either positive or
negative if it's negative then we are spending down those reserves to afford our spending plan and then a projected ending balance for the current year so if we look at all of our general fund both restricted and unrestricted in our beginning balance we've slightly
improved it and that was from some audit adjustments of course the audit was presented in December and January to the board and so there were some minor increases to our carry for or our reserves revenues have gone up a little bit this is mostly due to our investments we do invest all of our
available cash in the County's investment program as we're allowed to by law and we've yielded slightly more than the average so our revenues are up slightly expenditures are also up mostly because of liabilities that had not been budgeted for liabilities also are called
settlements or or decisions that we make in legal actions to pay a settlement or a claim against the district I know the board is familiar with those and then the important number to pay attention here is revenue less expenditures so all General funds you are seeing that at the
beginning of the year we started with a 1 b777 million projected deficit that was if everybody spent every dollar they were budgeting where we'd be at the end of the year and at this point because expenses have gone up so have revenues a
little bit but our net position we are anticipating as much as a $2.2 billion deficit in the general fund by the end of this school year which is of course June 30th then you look at your ending balances and so this is where we hear a lot of our colleagues and staff and and
as well as ourselves talk in public about the large amount of money that we have saved that's that $6 billion that's up in the beginning balance you can see that we are spending that money to pay for expenses uh that exceed how much money we're taking in and that's what we mean by a structural deficit so that $
6.3 billion beginning balance ends up being close to at this point being a 4 billion1 188 million ending balance showing you the speed at which we are spending down our reserves now we're going to move just to
the restricted side so this is resources that we receive from the state and federal government that are restricted restricted means they are specified and usable only for specific purposes these are funds like titles 1 2 3 4 5 and six as well as elop or prop 28 so any of
those things that come with restrictions or guidelines that provide instruction to us in how we can spend them this is an interesting slide again laid out the same way the important thing to note here for the board and community and colleagues is that the deficit in our
restricted side has increased that's actually very intentional uh so earlier when we said that we were maximizing unrestricted dollars by moving expenses to restricted resources that's what you see going on here so earlier this year and included in the first interim was
that we had used the learning recovery emergency block grant to provide general fund relief so that was $700 million of this shift uh and so we are making sure that the deficit shows up more in the restricted side it's harder money to spend you always want to spend your
hardest money to spend first and so we are demonstrating this practice in our financials the general fund unrestricted this is I like to spend the majority of our time this is the fungible money of the district this is the money that we have the most say over this is the money that the board can can determine how
they want to spend it as long as it's for an educational purpose it's our most flexible money so laid out again in the same manner so our beginning balances went up slightly to 4.6 billion right about $10 million
difference that's that audit adjustment revenues have actually gone up a little bit here and that's our investment return but our expenditures have also gone up a little bit so the net deficit in the general fund unrestricted our most flexible money notice that we've
shifted some of those things to the restricted side so our deficit in the unrestricted has gone down from an anticipated adopted budget of almost $1.6 billion of deficit spending we are now down to a projected $1.2 billion of
deficit spending leaving us an ending balance in our more Flex ible dollars of about $3.3 billion now I'm going to pause here because I'd like to make a really important point the board has received a tab in its materials it's available to the public we always
publish it and it's our cash flow and the important thing to do is to look at your cash flow when you're in a net deficit to see if indeed you're really in a true deficit or whether you're in what we call a paper deficit so if the board looks at the cash flow statement
you will see that we are spending cash faster than we're taking it in in 10 of the 12 months of the year and the deficit is real so it will account for This 1.2 billion and then there's about another 600 million that we had in
restricted cash so you're looking at this point about $1.8 billion Less in the reserves in the savings account at the end of the year I'm pointing it out because we hear all the time the third year never comes our job is to make sure the third year never comes right we
don't ever want that third year to come so we're improving our position but if you really want to see where the deficit shows up cash is still King when it comes to operating any organization you can see that in the cash flow report and it matches these deficit projections uh fairly radically right on within about
aund million so two multi-year projection slides this is again all funds restricted and unrestricted uh this slide I'm going to spend very little time on the blue is the restricted right that's that restricted side you'll notice that we are spending down unspent
money in the blue we are trying to make better use of our restricted funds particularly elop and title one which have traditionally been a little UND spent or underutilized so that we give as much fund relief to the general fund unrestricted as possible so I'm going to skip and take that blue bar out and just
go right to the unrestricted side this is our most spendable cash again and I want to spend a little bit of time on here with the colors of this bar the light blue at the top that is our reserve for economic uncertainties that's 1% of all of our general fund
expenditures every year it is statutorily required it is not spendable right so people will often say well how much of this money in the general fund can you spend that's this slide so the blue part you cannot spend it has to be in reserve according to law the orange
color are assigned balances and most of those so if you see this year at the end of the year we we anticipate $1.2 billion in the orange portion of unrestricted that money sits at school sites that is school sites
carry forward it has been the local practice and that is money sitting in school sites so that's also not spendable that actually sits in our local school sites the rest of it is money that the board has set aside to make sure that next year we can still meet our commitment to
seni as well as some other commitments that are still in there uh from the past few years remember we Unwound a lot of those which made the green bar grow earlier this year to give us a clearer picture but we still do have some assigned balances notice that that
is going down to about a half billion dollars and staying consistent after this year so the largest portion is indeed the fungible portion of our budget the money that truly is uncommitted at this time that is money that the superintendent and board have purview over that is the money that is
not currently allocated to anything but it is being used to pay for the deficit spending which is why if you look at it you can see it going down this year and the next two years and where we are in fiscal year 27 now fiscal year 27 looks much much better than it did when we
started the year at the beginning of the year this was under $50 million we are now at a projected balance of 963 with a small portion of it but growing the 325 being in the unrestricted uncommitted this is just a comparison of the first
interim in December when we came in front of the board and reported out on the status of the budget and the second interum so you can see that we've slightly improved our position between the blue dotted line and the green line to its right this is also a reminder of
what is in the multi-year projection and what is not in the multi-year projection so things that are not in here future changes in compensation uh that would be any changes to our contracts from our labor Partners we don't see any potential reductions in
federal funding we do track that as a potential concern uh but until there's an action we would not include it in a report and at this time we are not seeing those reductions although we are concerned and monitoring them there are no new programmatic Investments reflected here until the
board uh or the superintendent makes such a commitment no unrecognized claims so in other words we don't put something in here that we're guessing at so until we have a claim amount or a settlement amount we do not add it to the budget any of the proposals in the
January Governor's proposed budget are not in here except for the cola and the increased revenues for TK to support the 10:1 ratio in TK classrooms which is in the second box right there
it is our responsibility to report out to you on other funds that are not the general fund and the importance of this is is really primarily that if your other funds that are associated with our general fund ever go into a negative fund balance the general fund which is
intended for our TK through 12 students is required to backfill these funds so hypothetically if the adult education program for example went into a negative fund balance the general fund would have to pick it up La has been in that situation for so we monitor These funds and make sure the board is aware of
their fiscal Health at every report so you can see the adult education fund has been pretty stable this year they are running about a $17 million a year deficit they do have enough in their own reserves to cover that for about two more years uh but they need to close
that up because we do not want to impact the general fund uh before they went into a negative balance it before they've eaten up all their reserves in other words the cafeteria fund I I love a bright spot and the cafeteria fund uh just makes me happy to look at it I see folks
that are managing their budget very well remember our cafeteria fund also called the nutrition services fund this is reimbursement from the state and federal government as well as a little bit of grant money that they get they they like to get some some Innovative grants like Farm to Table grants this is their money
that they manage and you can see they've done a really good job at the beginning of the year their budget reflected a $24 million deficit and you can see that as of the second interim they have closed up expenses and they are projecting an addition to their fund balance this year this is the one fund that that's true of
always important to manage this fund and monitor it as well because if it ever goes negative it is also the responsibility of the general fund and our Child Development Fund uh so this is for our Littles that have not reached the TK age yet uh throughout the district and you can see that actually
this is also a success story they still have a bit of a ways to go but look at how they have been working on their deficit spending so at the beginning of the year they projected about a 50 million deficit and they've already mitigated that uh it's $15 million lower
eight months into the year so they're doing a good job of moving forward and they have a couple of years worth of reserves too uh to be able to make up that time and and close that Gap so just a reminder of the State fiscal Outlook we did present my myself
and Martha in government relations did uh present to the board uh sort of the overall State Outlook uh so it really hasn't changed that much I would just uh advise the board to continue to watch current activity uh we've seen a lot of volatility in the stock market recently
that's important in California because the majority of our state revenues actually come from our wealthiest individuals who are paying taxes on gains made through Investments right so seeing the largest drop yesterday so far this year as well
as some record setting drops in the S&P uh should cause us a little bit of concern unless unless it corrects itself uh so we are not seeing a correction yet but it is something to monitor as well as those potential Federal Cuts so we continue to monitor what is done and
said at the federal government and once there's an impact we will make sure that the board is aware all reminder we come back in June to adopt next year's budget and of course we come back after that to close out this year's budget once we close the books and with that we will pause for
any questions and I do have my team with me in case it's detailed questions that I miss we do have a procedural matter we have a Time certain of 2:30 for Miss gonz's uh resolution so if if the members of the deas could could remember
the questions they were going to ask in this very moment and then we will shift to um Miss gones um well I'd love to Mo move version two of this resolution the amendments are at the deis and also uh out in the public area um and and hear
from speakers first yeah of course so moved gz and seconded by Mr schmon okay so we have three public uh speakers who are signed up so do we have uh Jorge Bo here come on up sir please take your
time you'll have uh some time to address the board when you get here absolutely yes of course let me just turn make sure your mic is on if you could lower the microphone a little bit and then uh once you begin you'll have two minutes to
speak thank you sir okay thank you um especially board member gones for uh taking leadership and sponsoring this resolution recognizing one of our courageous
leaders uh Cesar Chavez and the uh resolution has almost all the important events so you have a great history lesson there I
would like to mention that um I taught at San Fernando High School from 1968 to 2002 to and one year 880s we had Cesar chabas uh speak in a schoolwide
assembly and I also um was on a picket line when in San the city of San Fernando one year when Cesar Chavez spoke to the picketing workers and Community
people and I also was at a Convention of the Union where there were about 1,200 delegates all members of the uh ufw and I was there for that event and
so probably the one project that most people are familiar with was the great boycott now some of you are a little younger than when that boycott was going on but I wonder if any one of you seven board
members remember the grape boycot and that some of you not eat grapes for uh a while I see a few heads shaking well there's a big lesson about that boycott
now during that boycott it was mostly workers and volunteers who went through all the major cities in the US oh my goodness please please finish your thoughts you're a guest of the okay I'll finish my thought uh as cesa was
organizing the workers to go out on the boycott he told one of the workers you're going to Bar you're going to Boston and they would give him a bus ticket and a few dollars and a name or two as a contact and the worker said
barsto I know Baro I worked there for a while and SAR says no not barsto Boston and the worker says don't they stop Boston you know the worker said where is Boston well he worked with
people like this and yet they organized and successfully took on some of the most powerful uh grocery agricultural interests the country has ever seen and that's a testament to the working people
and the teers but also to the genius of Cesar as an organizer and also especially this month to the L wera and I've been here a few times I've never seen a board that has as many women as
you do now I I've been here when the board was all white men and so congratulations to the muhas on your achievements thank you very much
and I would like to present each board member and the superintendent uh this poster by ignasio GES it has all the important events in his life and thank you board member uh board president uh smon because you have
helped us in the past and miss gones you have helped us in the past thank you very much thank you for your time sir and maybe before we get to Mr B I'll just mention that Mr Resa in addition to just being a story government teacher at San Fernando High School for many years also
educated the likes of US senator Alex badia congresswoman Luc Ras and many more leaders in the northeast San Fernando Valley he continues to be such an important Community leader um so thank you Miss aressa for being here and and for continuing your leadership we're so
grateful um hi everyone uh my name is Jor Bo I'm a member of the Cesar Chavez commemorative committee and I'm also utla chapter chair for mlay middle school I'm also sped department chair for mlay middle school and I'm also atic
dancer fori um I'm here to express my support for all La USD schools participation in the Cesar Chavez March scheduled for March 30th 2025 this event aligns with the spirit of California Senate Bill 984 which
established Cesar Chavez Day as a state holiday and emphasized the importance of educating our youth about about his legacy um by participating in this March um it provides an excellent opportunity for our students to engage in a meaningful community-based learning
experience this event serves as a practical application of the curriculum guided developed by the State Board of Education bringing Cesar Chavez's teachings to life outside the classroom by supporting this March uh board
members our LAUSD schools can demonstrate our commitment to Civic engagement and social justice it will provide students with Hands-On learning experience about the farm labor movement Foster a sense of community and shared purpose among our students honor Cesar
Chavez's Legacy in a visible and impactful way and for some of our declining pop uh enrollment it will promote School enrollment showcasing a positive School culture environment among students teachers families administrators and staff
I believe that participating this March uh followed by classroom discussions and activities in the classroom would create a comprehensive and memorable education experience for our students it would allow them to connect historical events with current social issues and Inspire
them to become active and informed citizens um one of the main things ladies and gentlemen a lot of La us all USD schools have been participating for the last 33 years and one of the main things things and I am sorry that my time is almost up just give me 10
seconds guys um it makes our students Community contributors it makes them self-directed Learners it makes them effective communicators and it makes them critical thinkers for the past 33 years ladies and gentlemen schools have been participating from LAUSD from bands
from clubs from teachers from students from kindergarten all the way to 12th grade Service Learning has been a big impactful thing some of my students have actually gone and done service learning where now they are teachers now they're psychologists now they're social workers now they're doing many things in the
community and they're trying to give back um some of our board members have also been part of this uh former Monica radliff uh Miss Kelly gones and also other teachers that speakers in in this March I urge you guys to please do
what's right and make sure that this becomes a a a powerful movement for our students here in La USD and in the words wise of doesa because it is women's month thank you for your time we have one more speaker uh speaking remotely
that's erinda Morita erinda um Believe Miss Morita is going to speak in Spanish so if you'd like to hear what she's saying in English as she's speaking Spanish please put your hands up and we can get you these translation headsets so miss morit is going to speak in Spanish and you'll be hearing it in
Spanish and if you'd like translation headsets please put your hands up and we'll get you Linda Morita good afternoon my name is Alinda Morita the heritage of Mr Chavez he refor he forced himself for the public
and to have voice we need to keep in mind that the educa authentic education should focus on giving the best of our students what books can be valuable than the
humanity as a mother I ask that you include us in the decision making and in the right of our students we ask for you to listen to our voice we want safety inside the schools we want schools to uh students to
prepare themselves we want students to be a society that has that has kindness and let's help each other and right now we are seeing many issues with drugs death because of
weapons substances therefore we should come together and help each other and this is the legend that he left and to us as Latinos and other races to help each other because we are going through so many problems
and we need help from everyone and this is the month of the women congratulations to all women but we also need to come together not be in arguments and we need to be strong to
help the rest of the people to help the students that is my that is my thankfulness to Cesar Chavez and to all people that makes this world a better place thank
you thank you that concludes the public comment for this resolution thank you well I'll just again acknowledge and pay my respects to Mr Bo from mlay middle school who's also an activist and a community leader in Board District Six Mr Alex Resa um as well as Maria Resa his his better half who is a former L
teacher administrator and Community leader with feminil kirka Children's Health fund and many other things um we're grateful that you all came down um from the Northeast Valley it's it's a long Trek um Cesar office' fight for justice was never just about Farm Workers it was about dignity human
rights and the power of collected action today as we witness the rise of anti-immigrant policies attacks on workers rights and the targeting of our families we reaffirm loudly his call for justice the same struggles that Chavez stood against exploitation
discrimination over government overreach are happening today across the country there are growing efforts to CRI criminalize immigrants roll back workers protections and separate families our Lu families have already been directly impacted by these senseless and cruel immigration actions javz knew that
Injustice anywhere is a threat to Justice everywhere and as a district we must stand firm in our commitment to protecting and supporting all our students and families this resolution importantly is not just about honoring the past it is about action today we reaffirm our commitment to keeping our
schools safe advocating for IM and labor rights and ensuring that no student or family lives in fear I'll note that the resolution has been updated and I appreciate Dr rias's additions to the resolution which emphasize the ways that our communities can honor Chavez's Legacy by engaging in Civic action and I
would Echo the message of our speakers to urge that our students staff and our broader communities take action March protest get involved make their voices heard in advance of March 31st this year that is a powerful and important way to live out sesar Chavis is Legacy here in
the present a heartfelt thank you to my fellow board members for standing in solidarity and supporting this resolution I hope um e laucha Dr Rivas thank you um I'd like to be added please as a co-sponsor for this
important resolution honoring The Life and Legacy of sad a Chavis uh thank you board member gones for bringing forth his resolution and for accepting the friendly amendments that you mentioned that added curriculum resources and the inclusion of various community events in
B2 I just want to read really quickly the the resolve that um was graciously accepted uh resolved that the LUSD Unified School District will provide curriculum and resources aligned with the Cesar Chavez Foundation ensuring students have access to educational
materials that highlight the historical and ongoing imp impact of T A Travis's work and social justice labor rights and Community involveed uh Community empowerment um providing these opportunities can help deepen student
understanding of social justice labor rights and Community empowerment furthermore highlighting different events such as the march in Paka and the celebration of two added I added two other events the East Los Angeles
library um has a wonderful event um for families and also the Family Day LA pla de Cultura in Ares provides our students and staff and Community with multiple opportunities to honor his legacy and participate in meaningful um engagement
and um unfortunately these were the only two events that I were I was able to um Locate in not only Board District 2 but throughout La so I was very unfortunate uh which is why the march in pomi so important and I hope that with this resolution and moving forward
forward particularly as our students are more engaged in um different service projects and learning opportunities that we expand the recognition of this such an important important um hero for a lot of us chos and mexican-americans so
thank you for being here and thank you for accepting me as a co-sponsor Arla yes uh first thank you to the Educators who spoke I appreciate your words and the Beautiful poster really appreciate appreciate that um the legacy
of Cesar Chavez includes one of taking direct action against unjust labor practices and part of the larger civil rights and chicken x movement um Cesar Chavez is a symbol of Courage of love and of justice and as a
school district we must follow in his foot in his footsteps and we need to ensure that we do right by our workers by our employees who work hard to provide students with safe clean and VI vibrant learning environments every day it is also important for our students to
learn about these historical events and how they can take action against Injustice today our students are in dire need of this kind of activity so I'm grateful that you're presenting this and a great opportunity on Monday for students to March and use their voice to
affect change thank you yes thank you let me just add that cesa Chavez made it clear that we cherish and we preserve the ethnic and cultural diversity that nourishes and strengthens the community and exra and
also our nation so we must always remember this important Legacy always remember thank you Mr Melo sure just a brief note um I'd also like to be added as a co-sponsor and appreciate the folks coming in thank you for this uh as well
I think we have a poster in our office of Cesar and um uh Bobby Kennedy the the better Bobby Kennedy um uh and I remember being at the the old Ambassador Hotel you know our RFK schools a few years ago celebrating the the lot of
50th anniversaries with uh colleagues on the board and and honoring the legacy of Cesar um and Miss wera was there as well I just wanted to pull up one of my one of my favorite um sayings or quotes of of Cesars which is so important for this
time is that you cannot uneducate the person who has learned to read you cannot humiliate the person who feels pride and you cannot oppress the people who are no longer afraid uh and I think it's that Legacy that continues especially through the dark days that we're facing right now so thank you all so much thank you Miss gonz and uh
appreciate uh being a co-sponsor eching the sentiment of gratitude thank you so much it's a beautiful poster I look forward to posting this in my AP government class um the legacy of J Chavis is deeply personal not only for me but for many
students across our district the fight was never just about wages or working conditions it was about dignity it was about ensuring that those who feed this nation are never forgotten that their sacrifices are honored and that their
struggles are recognized too often we learn about history as if it only exists in our past but the battles s chave fought are still being waged today Farm Workers continue to endure exploitation students from workingclass families
still face systemic barriers to higher education and communities of colors are still struggling to be heard I look forward to co-sponsoring this resolution as more than a celebration it is a call to action C is
not just a chant of the past but rather a declaration of our fight in the present because a fight for justice the fight for human dignity in our immigrant communities and farm worker communities are not over and it is one and it is students who continue to be at the Forefront of this
fight and I look forward to seeing how students continue to be empowered civically and use their voice to wrot out hatred and Injustice especially in these politically divided times thank you so much got he going after you but I do want to say thank you um
and for bringing this forward and for the words that we heard today um and in the words of sister SZ one of the quotes that he does say and share with us pertinent today true wealth is not measured in the money or status or power it is measured in the Legacy We Leave
Behind for those we love and for those we Inspire and I appreciate you sharing your story because as you share stories as we do um that is the Legacy we continue to educate our students through our stories and I appreciate you and your service to our educator to our
education system and to our students so thank you for sharing this and thank you for our gift as well thank you thank you so much and let me just add one more person to the thank yous and that's Maria Risa because I think I know her more than anyone up here she has
dedicated her life to the children of the San Fernando Valley as a teacher and as an assistant superintendent and always always fighting for the children always fighting for the children so Maria thank you also thank you
and uh before we vote I I'll just note the March the annual March for justice in pcoa is Sunday March 30th starts at 10:00 a.m. so we encourage all district students um families in the community to join us for that March we look forward to it okay so we'll take the vote I do need
to take the vote on the rule 72 waiver I forgot to do that Maya Copa moved by Dr revas second okay and seconded by um Miss gonz so one moment so we'll vote on that first and then we'll vote on the underlying motion which has already been underlying res which has already been
moved in second and so uh Miss nuel yes Dr revas yes Mr melne yes Miss Grio yes Miss gonz yes Miss Ortiz Franklin yes board president schm yes and student board member Lopez cour yes okay and now
for the actual resolution Miss nubil yes Dr revas yes yes m okay Mr meloy see there you go Miss griga yes Miss gones yes Miss Ortiz Franklin yes board president schmon yes and student board
member Lopez Cortez oh and Mr McLean can you add me as a co-sponsor too please absolutely thank you we can clap after that one if you guys [Applause]
want okay um well the time is now 3 p.m. and we have another another time certain so we're going to hit that time certain now it's for tab 27 um opposing
um I think there's a photo being taken okay yeah yeah e I'm in the middle right here all right thank you you okay so we have a Time certain for tab 27 expanding opportunities celebrating
dual enrollment awareness there's also um looks like some Amendments have been made some friendly amendments or amendments by the resolution maker herself Dr revas so we have copies of those to the de and copies in the back if anyone needs them and they'll be
posted online shortly um this also requires a rule 72 waiver so um one two may as well do the rule 72 waiver now so move by Miss gones second seconded by Mr schmon so we'll take a quick vote on
just the rule 72 waiver so miss newbill out there somewhere Dr Ras yes Mr melin Miss grigo yes Miss gonz yes Miss Ortiz Franklin yes board president schmon yes
and student board member uh Lopez Cortez yes all right so can I have a move in a second to bring this motion to the table to discuss and talk about can I move it yeah I'll move all right Dr Reas has moved it and board president shlon has
seconded could also wait until everyone's back too for this part I'll go ahead and start it while we wait yeah awkward silence here um um first of all I'm honored to introduce the resolution expanding
opportunities and celebrating dual enrollment awareness month this resolution is a testament to our District's commitment to providing Equitable access to high quality education opportunities for all of our students and to the transformational
power of dual enrollment dual enrollment is a critical pathway way to Student Success it accelerates academic progress Bridges the gap between high school and college and provides students with invaluable Real World experience the
data is clear dual enrollment significantly increases College retention completion rates and ultimately career Readiness it empowers our students spe especially those from historically un underserved communities
to achieve their full potential I want to express my sincere gratitude to The District staff who have dedicated so much time and energy to promote dual enrollment with our students and families in particular I want to acknowledge Dr Francis bayz Brenda pensamiento and Shelley alaves whose
expertise and commitment Have Been instrumental in advancing the district's du the enrollment work and their their dedication to our students is truly commendable so thank you uh this resolution designates March as dual enrollment Awareness Month and it also
reinforces our commitment to fostering a culture of academic excellence and career Readiness it highlights The Proven benefits of dual enrollment including increase uh College retention completion rates enhance Workforce Readiness particularly for our black and
latinx students who often face opportunity gaps and easing the financial burden of college particularly taking all of those student loans the strength of his resolution lies in his collaborative nature we want to recognize the vital contributions of our
College partners and for Board District 2 it has been East Los Angeles College and the California Community Foundation together we are working to provide our students with the tools they need to succeed in college and Beyond we
are we are also highlighting all of the district's vital College Partners within the Los Angeles Community College District such as Los Angeles City College Los Angeles Harbor College Angeles Mission College Pierce College um La Trade Tech Southwest College
Valley College and West Los Angeles College lastly the resolution calls for a pro comprehensive report by December 2025 on the district's dual enrollment programs this will enable the district to gather data on our existing work
establish a clear Baseline of student participation and support and lead to concrete three-year goal goals for Student Success and this is just the beginning the hope is this report will provide a road map for expanding and improving duelan Roman opportunities in
alignment with the district's strategic plan I'd also like to acknowledge the tireless work of blanca Gomez dean of Outreach and recruitment in East Los Angeles College Jack suas uh sua Laris Community Affairs Deputy on my staff on
bd2 Whose dedication has been very instrumental in advancing dual enrollment and their work on this resolution I'm proud to have joined be joined by student Board member Miss Cortez Lopez serving as co-author and to ensure our students voices are at the
Forefront of this initiative and that our students have the opportunities they deserve I now yield to miss ctez Lopez for her remarks thanks much for the introduction for Dr R Ras for two long students from historically marginalized
background groups have been tone directly or either indirectly that higher education is just not for them whether it's your community your background your socioeconomic status they felt as though it was not in their reach but dual enrollment is a powerful
equalizer for that it is more than a program it is a line to success in higher education it is a pathway for college for students who might have believed it never could have been possible I know students who have walked onto a college campus for the first time
because of dual enrollment who have realized that in those classrooms with these professors that they are just as capable just as intelligent and just as worthy as anyone else to be in a room and deserving of a higher
education it provides students with confidence college credits and unwavering belief in themselves to show them that they belong in these classrooms by passing this resolution we are not only recognizing dual enrollment
awareness month but are making a commitment to expand these programs break down barriers and to ensure that every student has access to college level courses I've heard a plethora of support from students who support the collaboration with the Los Angeles Community College District that have
access to a plethora of courses on a multitude of campuses whether it's a high schooler a middle schooler a title one or non-title one school part of the reason why the collaboration with laccd is so supported is due to its accessibility and sentim and its
sentiment to ensure that every student regardless of where they come from has access to a campus near them a student in South La can visit a school can visit Los Angeles Southwest College a student East LA EAS of Lake Community College
and so on it's accessibility to academically rigorous and skill enriching courses is why we present this resolution here today let this be the district where opportunity is not dictated by privilege zip code but by potential and let us say that to every
student embarking on their dual enrollment Journey that your future starts now and we will stand with you every step of the way thank you thank you Miss CZ Lopez beautifully beautifully said uh so we're very both excited to introduce his resolution and
now we want to share that excitement with you by bringing forward some important voice voices from our community I'd like to invite Miss Dr Miguel anel duas vice president of student services at East East Los Angeles College a proud product of La
USD and Bell High School Miguel um Dr I'm sorry Dr duas um has dedicated his career to Student Success with over 20 years of experience in LUSD and now at East LA College and his leadership is in instrumental in our partnership with Los
Angeles Community College District uh Dr DZ thank you so much the floor is yours well thank you very much uh greeting board members uh board president Schon vice president Rosio Ras uh superintendent carvalo greetings on
behalf of uh uh super I'm sorry Chancellor Chancellor robberto Roman on behalf of laccd we are so pleased to be here to to speak on behalf of do enrollment speak on behalf of the opportunities that D Roman that provides
for our students in our community I believe that the partnership that we have has yielded great success for our students but not just them but also in our community as some of the work that has been done around this uh the UC Davis wheelhouse has conducted a research that identified that in California high school students there
about 12% of high school students participate in dual enrollment the national average is 11% we are on our way we are on our way to make a difference provide students the opportunity to get their F their first step in the class I'm sorry in the college classroom from a safe
environment from their from their school School site AB 28 ab30 have provided opportunities for us to expand the work that we've done around dual enrollment with K12 districts this is important because this is the the the support that we need to expand the work expand the
word and opportunities for our community our expansion of our partnership leads to more opportunities for our students to find find their way to education higher ed and to the workforce uh through inclusivity of our leadership Partners as mentioned earlier Brenda and and Shelly that are so
instrumental to working alongside with our vice our Deputy Chancellor Al Nicole alal Lopez have risen the collaboration that La unified and La CD have seen I've been doing this work for about 10 years when I transitioned from La UniFi to elac and I've just seen the tremendous
growth this is this is exciting to see this but along this journey we need to have our students present we need to have our our schools side staff present and our parents and community members this is a family affair this is something that we all need to do together to ensure that our students
students have access to uh education and on the words of our our Chancellor education is a great equalizer and we believe that is so true so thank you very much and I will introduce Vince let me in thank you Dr doas and now i' like to invite uh Mr Vince
flowers senior program officer of Youth Development at the California Community Foundation uh Mr flowers brings nearly two decades of experience working with educational and government agencies and his current work with the ready to rise partnership demonstrates his deep
commitment to positive Youth Development we're gra grateful for ccf's support and partnership and expanding dual enrollment opportunities thank you Mr flowers thank you so as was just said I have the privilege of serving as a senior program officer of Youth Development at the California Community
Foundation and ccf's mission is to improve the lives of those who live work and play in LA and we've been doing that for over a hundred years and along those lines we're excited to sit share that over the last 10 years since 2015 we've awarded more than $2.3 billion to Our
Community Partners uh including L USD and so one and one of our top priorities is to advocate for a high quality education for all students and that's why we created our broaden initiative and broaden stands for it's an acronym
which stands for broadening the dual enrollment narrative and we're really trying to help shift The Narrative and change the narrative from dual enrollment is for privileged students to dual enrollment is for all students and why is it important that we democratize dual enrollment because I like to say
dual enrollment isn't College preparation it's college practice dual enrollment isn't college readiness it's College rigor and dual enrollment isn't College dreaming it's College doing and so we really want to I want to take this opportunity to thank board member revas
board member Cortez Lopez as well for introducing this important resolution that designates March as dual enrollment this month thank you very much thank you so much and lastly finally I'd like to invite Miss Ashley Lis a 16-year-old Junior from City of Angels and
chairperson of her schoolside Council to share her experience Ashley is a dedicated student has been actively involved in dual enrollment since her freshman year her leadership and commitment to amplifying student voices and truly inspiring uh so as Ashley
comes forward please come forward to the microphone and I just want want to say that she is a remarkable remarkable scholar and she has been participating in our dual enrollment webinars and is she's just fabulous so go ahead Ashley thank you for being here thank you so much so I have could you hear
me could you hear me now okay can you hear me now can you hear me now okay so I've been taking taking many du enrollment courses starting from my freshman year to my current junior year and I have gained many valuable insights from College and Career Readiness through
taking the courses and I am currently pursuing multiple AA degrees and a certificate in the field that I am interested in and all of the community college courses I have taken has expanded my knowledge on what to expect when I become a full-time college
student and considering that a vast majority of L USD are low income as myself this opportunity will prepare them not only for college but it would also prepare them and their families and it will save them money and time this
opportunity will certainly encourage them to pursue a higher education and I find it crucial for others to be made aware of do enrollment and how to start to expand their knowledge and learning opportunities I'm also very grateful
that I was given the opportunity to facilitate the do enrollment webinar that was hosted by Dr Ras and her team I have spoken at the webinar starting from last semester to this semester and I have been able to speak to students and families about college resources and
giving advice from my personal experience the webinars have been very informative and have helped many families um and students to learn about do enrollment and the process and how to get started with taking a college classes and I also wanted to mention
that taking these college classes and being part of of Dr Ras student advisory Council and speaking at facilitating her meetings the webinars they have improved my leadership skills and advocacy skills which encouraged me to run for the Youth
seat in my neighborhood Council and I was inspired by Dr Ras to continue to bring awareness about resources U one being du enrollment not only for the district but also to my community thank you well I'm so glad I was in neighbor Council myself so you're my footstep
that's great uh so thank you Dr duas Mr flowers and Ashley for your powerful testimonies your support underscores the importance of this resolution and its potential to tr to transform or continue to transform lives of our students and families we appreciate your partnership
and advocacy and now I yield back the floor to Mr McLean or any of my colleagues who wish to speak or yeah I don't know you were so popular Dr Reas really that's wonderful it's so nice uh I think the nicest part about
this dual enrollment is when our kids go to a community college and see that they actually can do it and do it well it encourages them to continue going and I know that in my area of Board District 3 we have uh Valley College and we have um
Pierce College and many many of the students are coming out with one or or two associate of Arts degrees it's amazing and if you remember Mr carvalo you and I went to Harvard prep College this young man had three AA
degrees so it's just amazing what kids can do kids what what students can do when they put their mind to it so thank you for for bringing this up and I want to co-sponsor your resolution if I may okay thank you so appreciative of this coming um forth
because I so many times I go in the community and when you share that the dual enrollment opportunities are there so many families are like I didn't know I didn't know I didn't know and so I think this just amplifies the importance
of us being able to share with our families and our students that this opportunity is there and it's a ailable and just the um the opportunities when you share that someone can have an associates degree uh and starting at
ninth grade to be able to unfold this so I am so grateful and as mentioned um some of our schools within our communities uh that already share some of the uh schools on site and I am proud to say I'd love to
co-sponsor thank you I see Tanya with a comment thank you I too would love to co-sponsor and I have one tiny little amendment I hope would be considered friendly not sure if we would need to vote on it um but just in the fourth
resolve to further enhance student participation I'd love to add and equity in dual enrollment programs um just those two words and Equity I think a a paper copy went around um but really excited to get the report from staff and and dig in to see where we're doing
really well and where we can grow and I know this District is committed to equity so I'd love to add those two words if that would be amendable to the authors yes of course thank you uh accepted okay accepted so we were not going to vote on this thank you thank
you so much Kelly yeah um I will also thank um Dr drias and our amazing student board member for your leadership and reinforcing our commitment to dual enrollment and expanding the opportunities for our students we know that dual enrollment means um making College truly affordable and accessible
to all um but I particularly want to appreciate just the focus on historically underserved schools and ensuring all of our students within our schools have access to higher education um this is work that we do in Board District 6 in partnership with La Mission College and Valley College who are wonderful partners and I know this
resolution is just going to build on the great legacy that we already have in La unified around access to dual enrollment um and I would also love to be added as a co-sponsor thank you wonderful Nick yeah just briefly again I appreciate the resolution would love to add be added as a co-sponsor um I think
additionally um or in addition to dual enrollment programs for our students thinking about how we can better partner with the LA Community College District in other aspects would be helpful um I was just at the groundbreaking of one of their new academic buildings at Valley at Pierce College a few weeks ago and
talking to them about right across the street we have West Valley Occupational Center and we both have interest in building Workforce or student housing or family housing and those are two properties that we've spoken about that have tons of has land um Dr sa who is the new Vice Chancellor and head of
facilities has also graciously joined my facilities and procurement committee at La unified to help share best practices uh on the public infrastructure side so just want to note that in addition to the dual enrollment thinking through you know I've I've joked uh that we should just kind of annex the Community College
District uh it's a joke but I think when we think about like students uh kind of the pre adult Pipeline and you know finding out if you're a student in the valley who's at Taft High School and down the street you have Pierce College and West Valley Occupational Center what are your options with LA unified and the
Community College District and how do we navigate that and then just work U best together on behalf of our constituents in this case students so love to be at as a co-sponsor and appreciate the report that will come out of this car yeah I appreciate this and I I one of the things that I'm hoping for is that
we will be able to expand this right I know at my daughter School the dual enrollment class could only be held during a certain period And if your schedule didn't allow for it you couldn't be part of that dual enrollment program and so I also hope that we are
intentional in really uh encouraging our black students our latinx students our students with disabilities uh to also enroll this in in these classes thank you for bringing this forth yes thank you thank you for all
the co Partners I really appreciate that yes this is the first step and this can like I said this is there's more to come there's so much more potential and this part ship um I can think of even um community service right maybe having something where students can get some
Community Service uh credits I don't know I mean the the there's Limitless potential on what can come out of this partnership so appreciate that yes thank you very much Mr Crane Mr Crane Mr McLean so
sorry I'll take that as a compliment maybe some way he's here somewhere in spirit we do have public speakers to this item well I'll call the folks who are in person first and then we will
transition to the folks who are waiting on the phone uh Nikolai Robin are you here I'm sorry he's Ryan Chu are you in person here Ryan Chu not here how about Jana kuang are you here come on up Miss kuang you'll
have two minutes to speak once you be begin can you hear me okay um Hello thank you board members and superintendent carvalo for your time my name is Jana kuang and I'm a freshman at Abraham Lincoln High School I am also a member of the superintendent student advisory Council of La USD I recently
took two college classes last semester du through dual enrollment students can take college level courses while still in high school which gives them a head start in their education not only does this allow students to experience the academic challenges of college life but it also helps them accumulate college
credits that can reduce the time and cost of earning a degree the professors are very knowledgeable and experienced providing Insight on the subjects that they teach for example one of my professors last semester is also a probations officer she informed me of she informed my class of real world
examples of what she had done in her line of work allowing me to synthesize what I learned from the course and apply it to real life situations I personally want to go into a future career linked to law but my school doesn't offer courses in that pathway if it weren't for the administration of justice dual
enrollment class I wouldn't have been able to learn more about what I am interested in I was even able to experience writing and drafting a research paper receiving valuable feedback that I can now use one of the most significant benefits of dual enrollment is that it opens up higher education to a more diverse group of
students regardless of social economic background for students who might not otherwise have access to college preparatory resources or who might face Financial barriers due enrollment can be a pathway to Affordable college credits often at no additional cost this can be
particularly valuable for particularly valuable for students who may not have the means to attend a four-year University right away or who want to get a jump start on their col college education while still in school encouraging more students to take advantage of dual enrollment ensures that education becomes a more accessible
to all creating a greater equity in the college growing program by participating in these programs students can graduate from college sooner saved money on tuition and potentially set themselves up for greater future success all while gaining valuable exposure to the academic and professional world thank
you thank you for your time I'll call on Ryan Chu again are you in the room Mr Chu okay so the remote speaker is Nikolai Robin Nikolai Robin uh Robin online all right uh thakur Singh I see
you're online please press star six to unmute yourself Zur Singh please press star six to unmute yourself and you'll have two minutes to speak once you begin good afternoon thank you happy Tuesday I am theur Singh I am an LUSD
junor at the leadership and public service Virtual Academy and a member of the government relations student Leadership Council here today to speak in support of the resolution by board members Dr Rivas and Cortez Lopez on the matter of dual enrollment dual enrollment has made a tremendous
difference in my life I started taking college courses last year and they've been key to advancing my education expanding my knowledge and preparing me for the future but it's not just about academics it's about making higher education more accessible and affordable
for students like me as the son of a single mother who fled domestic violence and who raised my sister and I all on her own my family has experienced many struggles just like many families across the district we've experienced homelessness living in shelters and fighting for stability but dual
enrollment has helped me gain college credits while in high school allowing me to save thousands of dollars on tuition in the future that's money I won't have to worry about and it's a huge weight lifted off my shoulders this isn't true for just me this is true for many of my
close friends and my sister who also recently began taking dual enrollment and can open doors for many others dual enrollment is an opportunity for all students especially those who face Financial challenges to get ahead reduce costs and build a brighter future it
will put LUSD further ahead of the nation as my peers and I excel and raise the roof of achievement higher and higher this is about giving everyone a chance to succeed regardless of their background and building a brighter future for all so I urge you to support
this resolution when we make dual enrollment accessible to all we invest in the future of students like me and ensure that no one is Left Behind thank you so much for your time have a great day bye bye thank you thank you for your time Michael ision I see you're signed up to speak remotely but I I don't see
you online are you in the room Michael I Elana arega I see you're online please press star six to unmute yourself and you'll have two minutes to speak once you begin Elana arega hi can everyone hear me yeah please go
ahead okay good afternoon everyone my name is Alon I got in a junior at University High School charter a region West tile one school and a proud member of the student empowerment unit when I returned to the US for high school after being in Ethiopia for Middle School my ninth and 10th grade math credits I took
in eth grade were accepted this setback could have slowed me down but dual enrollment changed that for me last year I had the opportunity to accelerate my learning by completing Algebra 2 and PR calculus in person at East Al Community College and because I completed both with an a I'm now an AP Calculus this is the first time anyone had ever done this
in the history of my school but I was only able to do it because I took advantage of doing it starting in nth grade I've taken courses like biotechnology web development with HTML robotics Spanish and Python Programming with West Val Community College by June next year I'll be graduating with two Associates degrees but not only that I've been able to take even more AP
classes within school because I took required classes like Spanish through dual noral this is one of the reasons why I'm running first in my grip these casses have truly expanded my academic knowledge and helped me explore potential career path as someone inspiring to become a neurosurgeon these experiences have been invaluable I know other students will value it as much as
I have as well but most importantly like one of the board members amended I believe this resolution is about equity and ensur that we have the opportunity to grow and dream bigger without Financial or systemic barriers holding our back thank you so much for your time and your consideration thank you for your time
salik Manan salik please press star six to unmute yourself and you'll have two minutes to speak once you begin salik mean good afternoon and I hope you all are doing well my name is solic mean and I attend chapis Charter High School and I'm calling to offer my support for the
dual enrollment board resolution I believe that dual enrollment is a pivotal opportunity for students in high school and uplift students to explore diverse careers mining schools limit the number of classes a student can take to only six in one year to graduate there are a number of required courses that
limit the amount of free space the student has to explore different fields for students in a magnet program stem program or other program the number of required courses increases further restricting how many electives the student could take on their own for that reason dual enrollment offers a
versatile and rewarding alternative students may take as many classes in dual enrollment as they wish to take on and dual enrollment itself is very flexible allowing students to complete a course asynchronously if they choose to dual enrollment classes include Arts stem and any career that students wish
to pursue and dual enrollment gives students a preview into what their college experience may look like and also gives them a new route to ensure they graduate on time and are prepared to take on higher education in the past I've taken two dual enrollment classes one was introduction to music and the
other was an economic class in both experiences the professors were extremely informative and supportive the coursework was accessible and engaging and absolutely opened my eyes to a new topic that I would not have been able to squeeze into my school schedule otherwise I found my love for economics
through this class and I wish to go on hopefully to study it further in college dual enrollment is an Avenue for learning like no other its flexibility and engagement allows students more autonomy and opportunity to take charge of their education SCH enrollment is a
key experience in the students High School careers and the educational value it brings must be recognized and honored thank you so much for your time thank you for your time Stephanie lerde I see you're online Stephanie lerde please press start six to unmute yourself and
you'll have two minutes to speak once you begin Stephanie lde hello can you hear me yes please go ahead okay thank you good afternoon my name is Stephanie Landa from Carson High School and I'm calling to offer support for the dual enrollment board resolution I believe
that dual enrollment funds every student's education and paves the way for higher education I believe that having the expansive amount of Cl class cataloges is beneficial for students across the district District my experience in taking dual enrollment classes starts all the way from my nth
grade year it's been nothing but insightful and just life-changing I was able to be exposed to classes that go further than what is offered at my school I took philosophy and astrology and those classes are apart from the regular cours work that high school students take and I found what I'm
really truly passionate about and it's all through dual enrollment it has been insightful to explore courses that I have not have been able to have access to otherwise and because of dual enrollment kids like me from different backgrounds have access to these
opportunities and have access to the pathway to higher education allowing dual enrollment creates early exposure to experience college level courses and it's so important especially because of systemic Soo socioeconomic factors that have hindered the ability for students
from underserved communities to attend and Excel in college because of dual enrollment kids like me from communities that are from Title One schools have the ability to access these courses and feel more confident in going into college and
feel more confident to be ready and prepared and to be successful thank you thank you for your time uh Valentine shinaman I see you're signed up to speak remotely but I do not have you signed in are you in the room Valentine that concludes public comment
on Tab 27 it's now time for a vote if appropriate following the vote I'd like to just take a quick break for us to take a photo of this momentous occasion okay okay ready okay roll call vote Miss
newbill yes Dr Ras yes Mr melbin yes M Grio yes Miss gonez yes Miss Ortiz Franklin we will come back to miss Ortiz Franklin board president schmon yes in student board member Lopez CZ
yes okay passes and then you're going to take a [Applause] photo e e great I wrote in the thank you so
AB thank you everybody so Mr Mount I believe that you uh are um coming back to answer a few questions that the board may have following your uh the presentation that you have already concluded so if the the board members
could reorient themselves to the second interim discussion Mr Mount would you like the slides up there for your use in case they're referenced or that's up to you yes okay for already up that's
good e e okay so like I like I had mentioned I think there's some questions about the second interum let me um get my comments and questions here okay
so okay so I'll start so on page um three of the highlights of the second interim I just want to read off and then I'll follow up with my question um it says on sorry it's on
page page three I don't know which version of the board book it is but it says um one of the bullet points for fiscal year 25 26 and 27 La unified is projected to meet its Financial commitments while maintaining the
statutory one 1% reserve for economic uncertainties however there is a projected reduction of 377 million in the local Reserve fund 17 which we voted not too long ago from 5% to 2% which is necessary to meet
Financial commitments um and then it goes on to say on the reserve level section in addition an additional local Reserve 593 million is in the newly established fund 17 uh Special Reserve for other other than capital outlay
projects which is approx which approximates 5% of the local Reserve approved by the board um and it is still anticipated that funds will need to be transferred from fund 17 to the general fund of fiscal year 26 and 27 thereby
reducing the local Reserve to 2% so I just wanted to read that so the public knows um the questions that I'm asking so my question to you is um fund 17 is projected to decrease as I mentioned can you clarify the process of withdrawing
funds from fund 17 does this uh I wasn't since we voted on it I was under the impression that uh the board had to approve on a separate board item uh to to approve such withdrawal um but now that it's here on this report so us
voting for this for yes on this for second interim is it also included that we're moving These funds from fund 17 by voting on this yes it's actually an affirmation uh the board approved it uh to be managed in that way when we adopted it at the first interim uh to
use fund 17 in year three to make sure that we were in positive certification so that's actually just remained the same and it's restated in the second inter room um so my qu my other subsequent questions so the um California Department of Ed includes a nonspendable
clash portion of the general fund balance as well as a fund 17 in the minimum Reserve calculation is that correct yes yes uh why is it not reflected in the slides or in your presentation on the unrestricted ending balances or in the multi-year projections or why was there no mention
of fund 17 in your presentation just it was there but we actually haven't done anything new with it since the first interum report so the interims are to reflect any changes from the last time we reported so the activity happened at first we haven't done anything different with with fund 17 since then so you didn't
need you didn't feel like it needed to be highlighted again since no it's it's in there just as a reminder but nothing new happened y okay nothing new happened um and lastly according to uh the standardized account code structure saxs forms in the second intern report the
board approved operating budget for professional Consulting Services um that has been there's been an increase of 122% from the original budget budget uh from 339 million to 7754 million um is there a reason for
such a significant increase and are we looking into uh really exploring the professional uh Consulting Services as a way to reduce our budget no Professional Services is a group of procurement so every time that you approve a
procurement that is not for a commodity it adds to the amount that we're spending throughout the year or that we are are marking for those Professional Services so that's everything from like the tutoring bench to the Arts bench or anything like that it's not necessarily for a consultant they're referred to as
Professional Services and it includes all of those items which are provided for outside of Staff of the district so if these These funds are in spent on in a particular time span does it return back to the general fund or how well so
when you pass items on your procurement agenda and and particularly for Professional Services typically for three four or five years and there's a maximum value established so one of a number of things happen either they hit the maximum value before the contract is ended in which case they might bring it
back to you and ask for more value to be added to it but you're actually not allocating funds to that Professional Services you're establishing a cap and then the Departments or the schools that are sponsoring that contract are using their funds to access it to the maximum value you establish so as they do that
and that's actually a part of your expenditure report that sort of of uh itemized in the procurement section as they do that throughout the year that's the addition you're seeing to Professional Services or or con what they call Professional Services or Consultants vendors that are not staff
right and so that keeps going higher as the year goes on until the end of the year captures all of their spend in that category and then we restart again in July one at zero so for instance like as I me as I asked if the threshold isn't met or it hasn't been spent do we revise
it take a look at it and say okay maybe we need to adjust these numbers I know sometimes it does come to the board but is there um another process where it doesn't come to the board and you make those adjustments automatically uh we do not make Financial adjustments automatically so the we cannot exceed
the value that the board establishes in aggregate but most of those are for three to five year periods of time so I think that a lot of people sometimes forget all of the contracts that are out there that people are charging against it's only when we exceed that maximum that we bring it back and we ask for an
amended value uh from the board uh at times if it's a centrally funded contract or bench of contracts that's being sponsored by for example a district office then we would also bring it back and if they're paying for it then you would not just see a dollar amount maximum but they would identify
that they're paying for it centrally versus it just being an open contract or bench for everybody to I just I wanted to add a little part of the actually exercise that we've gone through is reviewing existing contract authori to actually reduce our spend against
those contracts so to what Chris is saying is we don't exceed what's been authorized but we are going through division by division contract by contract to see when are there opportunities to reduce spend against those contracts and then right siiz them so that we're actually not obligating
ourselves to Future spend that we don't need and that that's exactly what I was trying to get that okay thank you thank you for those ones Mr superintendent do you want to say something that's the point I was going to make so he spoke about the possibility of a contract being exceeded which would require board approval what I was going to mention is
as Pedro said we are strategically review budget to actual so specific to contracts this is what we budgeted but this at the end of the the day or the Year this is what we spent and uh we adjust that so that those dollars either
revert back to the general fund or their account to be used for other purposes thank you and one last question this is a question I get all the time so I just want to just for public you know disclosure um the books and supplies budget has grown from 1.2 billion in the
original budget to 1.9 billion in the current operating budget uh why such a significant increase and do the are these numbers which um these numbers seem to be much higher in 23 24 actuals as well as the current projections of 24
25 25 26 and 26 27 uh why is there such a contrast between budgets and actuals in this category just so if you can just on that just a just a general Trend I think it's a few different things so number one uh books and supplies in other words buying things is is much
easier and faster to get to the school site so our school sites uh can access those items very quickly right and is as well as instructional materials right so they can access those things very rapidly and so they're easy to buy and have delivered almost immediately to the school site so it's a very easy
transaction the other thing is that uh our practice has gone from 100% carry forward for our local sites we've been doing the um I'm going to get it right here the 60 no uh 90 8070 so the the
clawback um for uh underspent carry forward and when we do that it's incentivizing people to spend right so they're spending down their carry forward so we have seen an increase in expenditures over the last two years since we implemented that as people are trying to spend down their carry
forward thank you that all thanks you back Carla yeah I had um a question regarding assigned um there was I'm trying to find it now it's a one page I think it's page 13 in your book um was it
maybe um yeah I had it and now I lost it but there's a line that says assigned and so can you explain what that is and sure you have a schedule of all the assignments uh Victoria is that page 13 is that correct yes it is page 13 in your book uh so we used to have multiple
pages of assignments and commitments and one of the first exercises we did this year was We went through and that's the orange portion of the bar in your multi-year projection we went through and it used to be much larger and the green portion was much smaller and we released all the ones that had aged we hadn't been reviewing them on a regular
basis and vetting them so we released them so the remaining ones that are there the first group of them that you see are all school specific so you'll see things in there like uh filming Revenue so some of our school sites are used as filming sites and they get to keep a portion of those proceeds and
they get to keep it in their piggy bank until such time as they spend it so that whole top portion the majority of the lines are specific to schools or programs that have money set aside they don't get a new allocation every year it's just money that they've saved in a very specific restricted type of money
that is just staying at their school until they spend it uh and then you'll see a couple that are centrally managed so you'll see one for example for 300 million that says syny and you'll notice that that orange goes down significantly that 300 million was set aside so that we could fully fund senny next year in
next year's budget because we knew that we weren't going to have enough revenues to keep funding it so we at the full amount so we set it aside to make sure that we had the full amount for next year's budget um and there's a couple of others in there that say to be released so one of that one of those is the actual money that's been taken back from
carry forward and is being held centrally so you see a couple of those tsp uh hold back centrally a CI hold back centrally and so those are releasable by the board uh or or the superintendent in the future per the memos that were released on those topics and they're released for those
particular assignments or they're released for they're currently held the ones you see centrally are held until they're released for one of the items that was specified in the memo which was fiscal distress distress a Central Central Sunny program uh funding allocation or onetime amounts that come
up that are not covered anywhere else for s I see is that um would that be something what would be an example that that for a School site let's say so we've reviewed with uh board members how we go in when there's an a request for funding and we
make sure that the school or the the district uh region District doesn't have the funds and if there is a real need and that's a collaborative process that's done by ourselves and instruction uh and and the regions and there's a need but the funding isn't there that's one the things that we would take out of
that I see all right thank you sure Charlotte just for clarification uh Dr Rosia had mentioned um uh she said materials and I'm not sure on page 13 of this particular it says lower projected
textbook expenditures is reflected in this second inim how is that different or the same or is it yeah so textbooks are included in a special item called instructional materials textbooks are pre-approved by the board and they can
be spent at any time either to purchase replacement books or to make sure that a site can meet its Brown requirements instructional materials are are pre-approved so they're associated with one of our curricula and they don't need approval because the board's already adopted them and so schools are buying
extras or they're buying consumables or they're buying support materials and so we haven't spent as much in that category this year the other category that's gone way up that you heard about was books and supplies and materials that's everything else that hasn't been pre-approved but is under the purview of
a School site to purchase at need got it and then um you mentioned just for clarification you said something about the hardest money to spend in the beginning can you explain to us what is the hardest money to spend restricted funds uh so it's it's called the first
dollar principle we always want the first dollar we spend to be the hardest money so that we have the easiest money to spend that's left over more flexibility for the school board uh so the hardest money for example the most specific in the district is probably nutrition services money right it can
only be used to fund a food service program for students at a reimbursable rate it it can't be used for anything else Bond money it can only be used for capital projects by law or for those that are working full-time to develop those capital projects it cannot be used
for anything else so first dollar principle is spend your hardest money first in which ever way you can leaving the most flexible money for the Board of Education to have authority over got it and then um one other thing I wanted to
ask you mentioned on the cafeteria we talking about nutrition money that that obviously brought um these are reimbursable funds are these reimbursable funds through state or federal funds yes yes
so and I and I say that intentionally so I'm sure you remember during covid when the governor said hey you only get X number of cents per meal I want to match it so that the that that not only is the meal higher reimbursement but we're also
going to give you money for any student that doesn't qualify for a federally sponsored meal because we want every school to be able to every student to be able to access meals at a school site and we do a breakfast a lunch and a program and snacks so all of those are
the reimbursables some from the state some from the federal some from both and that's how we see uh kind of no change but kind of not a negative they're actually they started at a negative and they've really worked to cut their expenses and get more students
participating which really drives them getting more reimbursements so they've done a nice job this year at that that's what that sheet is showing us and then just for clarification are there any dollars held for potential salary increases given that negotiations with
labor partners are still going on no and if there are reductions in federal funding as we talked how would those losses impact our ending balance oh wow it really depends on the type of federal funding that would be reduced uh
we haven't been able to anticipate we have done analysis and backup plans of all the different Federal funding that comes into the district even some of it that's passed through the state and we have cross referenced that um I know we're told that there's not necessarily A on toone Match but we have cross referenced that with project 2025 and
what the plans were uh initially uh and we are tracking of course the news to to watch that and see how it developed so that if there is an impact we can let the board know about it uh your office of General council's been coordinating those efforts to make sure that we're all sort of on the same page as well as
Government Affairs so that's an ongoing I it's more than weekly it's it's all the time we're tracking that uh What's the total if we looked at all different sources of funding in the district including nutrition services it it it's over $1.5 billion
annually okay and then just for our school sites in the reporting documents where do you find the School site lines kind of just oppose them with the new ending balances so your school sites are all rolled up
to the region that they that they belong to so you'll see it says region north south east and west and all of the schools in the district all of our programs all of our campuses all roll up to one of those except for the central Office programs and they roll up to the district office
okay that's it in uh following along with uh charlette so this is kind of a crystal ball kind of a question but what suggestion should we consider to safeguard crucial programs that may be under threat you
know when I say crucial I mean like um programs for students with disabilities uh staff training what what what do we what do we consider what are we thinking of doing to protect ourselves well the only protection we
can provide ourselves locally in a financial manner is reserves right so the board currently has strong reserves but uh and and we've been very transparent about how we're spending those we're currently spending a third of our reserves this year uh and so that
means that that's why we're in a positive certification we're on track to spend about that much again next year and then the year after we're out of reserves right so if we want to provide protection for programs that might be discontinued from federal sources then the Board needs to consider setting
aside significant enough reserves to potentially cover uh for the loss for however long of a period of time they would want to do that so if it's 100 $ million a year program and we want to make sure we have enough for three years you got to set aside another $300 million got it got it if I may the other
strategy considering as Chris said the uncertainty specific to Federal entitlement Appropriations nobody really knows what's happening in fact uh was an article just posted that the Department of Education is is laying off is firing
1500 U federal employees out of the Department of Education so the beginning dismantling of the Department of Education is a real thing as a significant a number of Staff members are are are being let go we know also that uh the federal government again according to the news is already
eliminating not the traditional breakfast lunch program but investments into Community meals often distributed through schools or in supportive schools that's already gone um so the uncertainty and the unpredictability and
the volatility associated with uh the Appropriations process which will impact the next Fe Federal fiscal cycle um um cannot be underestimated so in addition to uh rely on reserves for personal intensive programs as is the case with
title one as is the case with Ida as is the case with title three and these are disproportionately uh done at the school sites a lot of teachers a lot of support Personnel but there are some that are employed at central office non School sites it is prudent as possessions come
open through retirement to the extent that they're not in school to actually actually not higher right away because more than likely if there is a significant shift in funding that would result in um in Personnel impacts uh secondly uh it is prudent also and look
I'm not as concerned about Ida because Ida has bipartisan support I don't think that much will be touched there but uh even if tital one funding levels nationally remain the same that itself is a
reduction considering inflation right and and considering higher salaries beyond that beyond that we're very concerned not just with funding levels being maintained but we're equally concerned about the
possibility of restrictions being imposed on the funding or greater latitudes being provided to the funding so restrictions meaning anything the federal government deems as Dei related anything the federal government deems as specific Ally benefiting historically
disadvantaged communities that could be in restrictions imposed on it we're going to fight that but simultaneously there's a danger associated with greater latitude given to some of these Federal programs what I mean is you give the same amount of
money but part of that money now needs to go to different entities that previously were not eligible so vouchers for charter school programs for example um Investments uh at a different level
into non-public schools there are all kinds of diversions that could impact what we ultimately get even though Congress May approve the same level of funding but we at the end of the day get a lesser amount many different ways of
really playing that game therefore the instability and certainty not just with funding levels but actually the policy that is adopted uh when those money are are appropriated I appreciate the explanation um I realize that one of the
things that you've done in order to keep us solvent is that 321 positions were closed due to vacancies that were over 180 days and I understand that so is this certificated and classified vacancies uh they're all at central
office uh we do have a combination of both certificated and classified working on both sides so for example I'm certificate certificated I'm working in a classified role uh so it's a mix it's any it's any position in all of our different funds central office funds
that had been left vacant for at least six months but it's it's mostly mostly classified so so positions that we find that are crucial to maintaining the district's uh ability to function do we
have um the ability to open these positions again yes okay very good actually before they're closed to the they go before the freeze committee and to the extent that they are indispensable positions they're crucial critical to Mission uh they remain open but it is kind of hard to explain right
if a position is critical but it's been vacant for six months I hear you right okay thank you very much Nick anything go ahead oh yeah thank you oh sorry Miss gz she had had her hand up for a while I just didn't you didn't see I am sorry go
ahead Miss goon that's okay no worries um well I thank the team for the presentation and actually it's kind of a related followup to what you were raising Mr scharon um just to distill it a little bit because I think you know slide three mentions that sec in interim the picture looks better you know we
have a higher um unrestricted ending balance in FY 27 uh higher unrestricted in FY 25 but I so but I don't want folks to leave the conversation with saying oh it's it's better than we thought it was going to be it didn't just happen um right it's
it's attributable to actions that we have proactively taken so as to protect School sites from feeling impacts I don't know if you want to slightly expound on that Mr yeah and and I also don't I'm not trying to uh paint a rose-colored picture I mean we
still have a very large deficit right a a well over1 billion that's that's real money right we are rapidly spending down our savings account but is it our job to consistently work at it to make it as good as possible yes because we want it
to we want to delay the impacts or any potential negative impacts for as long as possible abely that's the The Prudent thing to do and and I think it is responsive to what we hear from the community who ask well you know what's happening at central office you know that's where we should be looking and and that that's the approach that's been
taken even though some of these positions I think we we would all say are really valuable and impactful um if we have to make a choice about where we find our savings we we want to protect School sites and the ability for them to preserve staff and preserve programs as much as possible um and then with regard
to the deficit uh maybe you could just you know Mr Mount what what's the risk of running a deficit over over multiple years like we are doing and also why why are we deficit spending what how do we find ourselves in this position so so
big picture and I know we've we've presented to the board including in public session before uh we find a number of things all happening at the same time so we are in over 20 years of consistent declining enrollment right uh so 25 years ago 760,000
students this year 403 right uh we have normed and capped a lot of our positions particularly teaching positions which has kept them more in lined with how many students we have but we have not normed and capped a lot of other positions so for example we did a big one last year with assistant
principles because those hadn't been done so we need to probably continue that's actually the most positive impact to the budget we can do because it gives predictability to the system based on the number of students that we have enrolled right so that's really the big picture so fewer students our our our
funding per student has actually gone up as lcff has gone up but the costs have gone up faster so we also find it more expensive to provide the same amount of service year after year without a very large infusion the other biggest factors that are going up in driving expenses uh
retirement costs so the the annual contribution to stirs and purs uh the stirs one is actually maximized out right now I'm going to say 19.7% I'm usually pretty good recalling the figures uh that's the maximum but perss is now uh well over 20% it's actually
well over 22 or 23% right so these costs continue to go up and we have decided locally to also provide Lifetime Health Care benefits for a large portion of our staff so we have a 1010 billion uh long-term care uh bill that we pay
between three and $400 million a year just in our operating budget to pay for folks that it's not about the folks that are still here which we also pay 100% it's not a cost share model it's 100% right me included anybody here included
but for folks that have served us for a great number of years for their profession we don't pay for them just at like the standard through Medicare eligibility at 65 we pay for them and their spouse potentially up until they pass away uh so these are very large
liabilities for a if I may I think your question was what happens if if right well yeah if if we would continue to to to run these level of deficits there a wide spectrum yes the most immediate impact um if a structural deficit
position is not I wouldn't say cured but addressed at least giving those who evaluate and analyze the stability of our budget if they don't sense that we're taking steps the first uh the first impact is a reduction of our credit
rating uh the if our credit ratings are significantly reduced then the cost of us doing business increases so anything that we buy on credit or our access through the markets to a tax anticip anticipation uh
note the state does not give us all the money we need at one time so sometimes we need to go to the market to engage in short-term borrowing uh that cost goes up significantly so we'll be using general fund because we're paying higher interest there's a long Spectrum the the
worst that could happen to the district is a condition like uh like San Francisco is where you as elected board members uh could lose the power you have over your own budget and an independent entity could take over to oversee all budgetary transactions thank you and and
as far as the the broader variables that you mentioned like enrollment decline we know that declining enrollment is happening across the state and um Nation nationally as well in urban centers especially um are other districts you know facing themselves in in a similar
position and and what steps are they taking yes uh and so and you see it on the news right last year and this year a lot of districts have been doing layoffs to try to balance their budgets uh we have been declining more rapidly in LA county than a lot of other areas because it's also more expensive to live here as
a coastal area uh but districts around the state are doing that you just saw I'm sure you just saw it for some of our neighbors on the news it's been on the news for the past couple weeks folks are announcing layoff there have been significant ones both last year and this year but we have we have assured folks that we are not doing that this year yes which is very important I'm just like
three T smaller more detailed questions so one I know you mentioned one of the strategies we're using is maximizing our grant f for example elop um it is noted I think let's see which page is it on uh page seven it says lower lower projected
expenditures in elop 31 million so if you could just me understand the we're we're utilizing it but there's lower projected expenditures between second so so some of our restricted programs uh that we were discussing earlier they
everybody submits a budget plan but some programs they submit a plan and then they find it hard to execute on all the potential impacts that they were looking for maybe it takes them longer maybe they didn't imagine how difficult the implementation was going to be maybe they underestimated or overestimated the
types of expenses and how much they would come in and so we've gotten better at that so so previously you saw a lot more money uh left on the table budget versus actual and we're tightening that up so we are dynamically rebud getting those programs throughout the year and
the you're going to see a pretty significant like you did in the slides today you're seeing us now increase the deficit in our restricted programs which means we're spending them faster to give general fund relief so we are addressing that we're getting better at it are we
the best ever not yet but it's a big program particularly title one elop and we need to make sure that we are are definitely uh programming and spending as much of that as possible before we go to the general fund unrestricted side so both things are true we we are maximizing it but also we but it's still
not as much as I want all the EXP yes both things are true and then um on page five in terms of our revenues the changes from first to second interim it notes 95 million due to a higher value of Investments uh can you say more about what that's in reference to yeah so if you look at the
cash balance sheet all of that cash for the district we don't keep a lot of people will say well you keep all the cash on your floor right no no actually none of us have access to cash that would be considered a problem so all the cash is actually held in the county and we hold them in something called laif investment accounts so we are unable to
invest in the market uh right now many of you would probably be grateful for that because we would be losing money right but we can invest in what are considered safe public Investments but we have to do that through the County Treasury and so we invest all of our cash with the County Treasury and they
every month will tell us how much our investments yielded and then they will so so that adds to our cash accounts and for each fund we keep track of how much interest they've earned in those Investments and because this last year the stock market performed well the
Investments did better than we anticipated now that can go the other way too so now we're seeing the stock market fairly rapid decline that tells us that next year our interest Revenue actually might go down great and then last question is just to follow up um Dr rias was asking
about the books and supplies line I think I I got a little confused so I want to make sure I understand I think it's on page 15 the it says the First Column is original budget which says about 1.1 billion and then the board approved operating operating budget 1.9 billion
and then actual to date about 196 million so this row is telling us what exactly about books and supplies so so I I I'm assuming you're reading the sax forms which I don't have the sax forms in front of me but what you just that's okay what you just read was the budgeted
amount so that's what all the schools and offices give us and we aggregate it up to one big number for the district the second one is how much you've seen the board approve in materials and supplies contracts and the third is the actual spend year to date so it's not like with the action today we are
changing what we've approved from 1.1 billion to 1.9 billion it's not a growth of 800 million in books and supplies you're reflecting what what has happened correct so when we come to you we actually aren't unless we make it explicit which would be in one of the
actions that you're taking as a part of our report we are just reporting changes since the last time we reported right so all the new expenses that we've recorded in the last four months are there uh now can a budget go over budget yes can a budget end up under budget yes lower
spending higher spending so we are just reporting out incrementally what that's looking like year to date okay thank you so much sure no point yes thank you a lot of my questions were asked and at least
partially answered um just a few a few things one slide four which is the timeline um there's the one thing that's missing is the board weighing in on on budgetary prorities so I'm curious I mean there are a few things like one of the things we'll discuss today over procurement for example is that we're
pulling back on providing at home internet because of erate funding and changes of the federal government but the district could fund it with general fund dollars for example so the board budget input sessions um to discuss some of our favorite subjects like carryover are I just am curious when and maybe
that's a question for our board president but when in that timeline there's board budget input I can answer that so this reflects only uh the timeline specific to sort of mandatory statory requirements so to
address your point and I've discussed this with some of the some of the board members uh that process will begin in Earnest actually April 2nd um when we will have our Retreat and strategic priorities will be addressed obviously there will be a robust budget
conversation that hopefully will be aligned to board priorities we'll be looking at where are we in terms of of goal attainment by 2026 what do we need to fund more of what do we need to abandon or shift or change right and then it is our goal to hold just as we
did last year at least two significant board intructions the likes of a board budget Workshop uh with the board prior to uh final budget recommendation great appreciate that um and then on slide just going through the slides Qui on slide F five um I think various board
officers have asked but could you send I don't know that we've gotten the list of the positions the closed positions the 321 vacant positions that were closed I think we've asked but I don't know that we've received them we we have sent it on to be to be given to you okay I'm getting nods right we haven't got okay
so that would be helpful um I think on if you go to slide nine I mean Dr Rivas asked this but I would just say understanding that we made the fund 17 allocation last board meeting I do think and you would know better than I but a chart like it would still be helpful to have that on a chart like this because
even the you know took it out I mean you also to to miss grego's question you kind of talked about assigned versus committed but I do feel like while nothing sneaky is intentionally going on that it can look like wait you have this whole other hundreds of millions of
dollars that is not on this so so we can certainly put that in the future typically if there's no change it's not a part of an interim report but I I hear you and we can add that in uh we did change the multi-year projection slides as well but this was with board input requesting that they be simpler so
things that you don't see there anymore like unsp cash and revolving funds like they can't change uh they are just required to be in there uh but you can't touch them or change them we were told that that the slide was too noisy and confusing so we were just trying to be
responsive to the request of making it easier to understand yeah and I think it is so I hear that and then just saying you know maybe on those because I know also um there not in the presentation there's information about the fund 17 or special out non- Capital outlay whatever
Special Reserve fund whatever Reserve 5% Reserve yeah um in the presentation but just an acknowledgement could be helpful um speaking of things in the presentation I also just appreciate you kind of shouting out the various departments that are doing great by their budget and just to to Mr Singh and
others and cafeteria fund I know that we've had over the years challenges uh with cafeteria fund and spe specifically so that appreciate that um and then uh yeah questions about books and supply supplies and other uh unrestricted adding balances I think have been asked
last thing I think it's alluded to on slide 11 but I just you know because we're in the midst of negotiations I just want to note and for the public that this presumes this budget these ending balances presume no salary increases correct so so the way that we
have to reflect in your budget is only once you approve so the process for reflecting changes that significant uh they generate something called an B 1200 uh and assembly Bill 1200 was actually conceived of because uh a board in Richmond School District was not paying
attention to what would happen with their uh new bargaining agreements and the school district went bankrupt it was the first one in California to do so which is what ab1 1200 uh law came out of and so when you get a final proposal
from your negotiating team and you accept it then I'm required to go off and do an analysis of every fund and how much it will cost and give it back to you and that has to be approved by the county as well the as well as the Board of Education to understand what are the impacts but until we do that process I'm
not allowed to reflect a guess in here y got um I think that's it thank you thank you ready for you Mr McLean okay we have one person who signed up for public comment on Tab four that's Jenna noise Jenna please
press star six to unmute yourself and you'll have two minutes to speak once you begin Jenna noes Tab four good afternoon uh let's take a moment to think logically so la is a vast City a true Melting Pot of cultures and demographics which brings Beauty and
learning from one another however in today's society students face challenges that many of us didn't have to deal with when we were younger challenges that hinder the kindness we should be fostering among each other the public spaces like Library hospitals colleges apartment buildings and even shopping
centers all have security measures in place to prevent negative behaviors and address issues quickly yet our students spend at least seven hours a day in schools without the same level of security while drills and safety committees are important they are limited by District restrictions and
financial constraints it's encouraging to see that L USC's finances are stable but that doesn't seem to translate into the resources needed to ensure student safety we can't implement finus campaigns or anti-bully programs because of costs we can't provide calming rooms
or proper consequences for fighting due to financial limitations we can't hire campus police officers to deter negative behaviors because of budgetary issues staff training on deescalation and Crisis Intervention is limited to special ed staff and we can't expand roles like campus AIDS or par
professionals or create mentorship programs all due to funding constraints the these are just a few ways schools can improve student morale and safety but the response continues to be that it costs too much what has been done in the
past clearly hasn't worked resources are continually cut yet the question remains where does the money go why is so much being allocated for self-insurance is it that just a cover lawsuits if their's funds were redirected towards student safety and well-being we could avoid
much of the turmoil being faced I urge LC Board of Ed to continue prioritizing safety of our students staff and amilies the financial allocations highlight in the report must include comprehensive funding for both proactive and reactive safety measures including expanding
campus security investing and updated surveillance and communication systems increasing mental health support and ensuring that safety Protocols are up to date thank you very much for your time okay that concludes the public comment on Tab four um can we have a a
motion to vote move it move by Mr schmon second seconded by Miss nuil uh Miss nuil yes Dr Ras yes Mr melne yes Miss Grio yes Miss
gones Miss Ortiz Franklin board president schmon yes and student board member Lopez Cortez yes five eyes um we now have a time a 4:30 time certain or
tab 24 that's Miss REO yeah shall we shall we um do the I think we actually is this a uh rule 72 one yes so let's do the move in second on the um rule 72 and then we'll move in second to bring it to
the table and then we'll have the discussion and the move it move it I second oh okay hi I second okay okay so for the rule 72 AER Miss
nubel yes Dr revas yes Mr melin yes uh Miss grigo yes Miss gonz Miss Ortiz Franklin board president schmon yes and student board member and uh Cortez yes okay so the rule 72 passes um can we get
a motion in a second to bring the bring the reso to the table I move it or okay so Dr Dr Ras and uh would you like to Second yes I'll second please go ahead all right I'm very excited um and
honored to bring forth this motion to celebrate and to recognize Ramadan I'm going to go ahead and give some space to the speakers who are here um to speak on this resolution and then uh we will close it with some more
words all right so I have a number of speakers to begin with let's start with one moment please okay uh Nilofar are you here come on up you'll have two minutes to speak once you begin and then after neaar is Tariq and
then after Tariq is Amina time start we start it for you so when you start talking the timer goes all right respectable board members superintendent and Community leaders my name is Neil farul and I stand before you today as a
proud mother of three uh spirited daughters in LAUSD schools one in high school one in middle school and one in elementary school with special needs I'm also a mother of M I'm also a member of Muslim parents Association which represents the interests and
concerns of thousands of Muslims parents um kids across La USD I'm here to ask for your support in recognizing Ramadan and E and ensuring Muslim Students feel seen valued and supported growing up in LAUSD I remember feeling isolated during
Ramadan Unsure how to explain my fasting from sunrise to sunset without food or water to teachers and classmates I don't want my daughters or any other Muslim Students to feel the same sense of exclusion today my older daughters are balancing academics extracurriculars and
fasting pushing themselves physically and mentally simple yet impactful um steps like informing teachers about Ramadan offering a quiet space for prayer or allowing fasting students to take home a meal can make a world of difference districts like San Diego
unified and Anaheim are already doing this Ramadan is more than just fasting a reach a self-discipline empathy and compassion values that reflect L usd's mission of nurturing well-rounded caring students at a time when Muslim Students
face increasing hostility due to islamophobia these actions would send a powerful message that LAUSD values every child celebrates diversity and stands for inclusivity a council on American Islamic relations Care La survey found
that nearly half of Muslim Students ages 11 to 18 in California have faced bullying and feel unsafe or unwelcome at schools a trend that has persisted for about a decade and is projected to increase um I urge the board members to make a
meaningful steps and in recognizing Ramadan in need thank you for your time your commitment to our students and your leadership and building a stronger more inclusive community system thank you thank you for your time uh Tariq
Tariq Hussein Tariq are you here come on up you'll have two minutes to speak once you begin dear board members my name is th Kain and I'm a student in the looc school district specifically at William H Taft High School I'm here today before you to speak on behalf of myself and
tens of thousands of other Muslim Students in the LA in LD who participate in Ramadan every year Ramadan is one of the most significant times of the year for me and my fellow Muslims it's a month of fasting from sunrise to sunset self-discipline and reflection and giving back to the community but in school it often feels like it doesn't
exist for years Muslim Students have been quietly navigating the challenges of fasting while keeping up with their school workk tests and extracurricular activities many of us sit in the cafeteria during lunch surrounded by food we aren't even eating teachers don't always realize that we're fasting it can be uncomfortable to explain repeatedly why we're not eating why we
may be tired or why we might need a quiet moment to pray it shouldn't have to be this way I've experienced this firsthand having to struggle through important exams tests and physical activities on an empty stomach a simple acknowledgement for example sending out districtwide bulletin to teachers and
students about Ramadan this one small action would make the world of a would make a world of a difference for me and the Muslim Students the past present and future who I'm speaking for today if teachers knew we were fasting they could offer small accommodations like allowing students to leave the lunchroom or being
mindful of scheduling intense physical activities schools could also designate a quiet pray quiet space for prayer which would means so much to the students who don't have anywhere to go during the school day we are simply asking for the bare minimum of awareness a bare the bare minimum of
awareness and understanding Ramadan is about resilience empathy and kindness the very same values that schools work to instill in us the students by recognizing Ramadan and making small accommodations El would send a message that every student regardless of background and religion will always have
a place where they can feel that they belong I am pleading with you to take action help make our schools a place where Muslim Students feel welcome and where our experiences and struggles are acknowledged and especially where we don't have to choose between our education and Faith thank you for your time and consideration thank you for
your time Amina Couture Amina Amina Couture are you here okay uh shik Alam come on up you'll have two minutes to speak when you begin honorary L board members I am
Samir and I am exhausted I am dehydrated and I'm sleep deprived yet here I am speaking this is how thousands of Muslim Students feel after a long day at school during Ramadan our day begins at 4:00 a.m. with a quick meal the only one we'll have for the next 14 hours after
that not a single drop of water or grain of food enters our mouth the struggle is the most difficult during lunch when our stomachs are rumbling and our minds are begging for just one bite yet we sit quietly waiting for the time to pass despite the physical exhaustion we push
ourselves to stay focused we work through the rigid calculations of Ip calculus and the complex essays of AP Lang because we see dreams with our eyes and we are determined to make them a reality but after a month of struggle on
the day of Eid we finally get to C C just for one day Eid is supposed to be a day for joy and celebration it's the biggest day for Muslims around the world a time to visit family share meals and embrace happiness but the next day at
6:00 p.m. my parents received a call from school it has been recorded that your son has been absent to avoid a potential penalty please send a note explaining his absence I could see the worry in my parents' eyes the fear that I might be falling behind I couldn't
reassure them because when I returned to school the next day a pile of overdue assignments awaited me each one a reminder of my absence so I ask you is my religion really a burden to my future are my beliefs an inconvenience to you L
says we are one but why do we feel isolated this motion isn't just a demand it's a plea for recognition recognition of our determination to succeed despite the challenges we face recognition of the need for accommodations during
Ramadan recognition that we are all part of the same Community working towards the same goal to thrive thank you for your time thank you for your time I believe that was Samir but I had called Shake is Shake here oh thank you sir come on up you have two minutes to speak once you
begin honorable members of The L School Board I start my speech by reminding everyone that samir's experience doing Ramadan is not an anomaly but reflects the reality faced by thousands upon thousands of Muslim Students across the second largest school district in the
nation as upper classmates in our school Community my friends and I felt a deep responsibility to not only advocate for ourselves but for our fellow Muslim Students who share the same burden the same struggle at us fortunately because of the immense passion and dedication shown by Muslim student at my school we
able to we were we are already able to secure almost all the items listed in this motion today on our campus already to reiterate nearly every single Demand on this list has been fulfilled by high school student in my school and many others we were able to achieve this
because our requests are not radical it's not burdensome to anyone quite the opposite but quite the opposite but if pass it will have a sincere impact on Muslims just like it did in our school and will have the same effect throughout the district take for example securing a
space for Muslims in campus that we in our school used as a prayer space while the room may have only been 100 square ft this room was a symbol of belonging for us in that small room we found comfort from the challenges of fasting during
Ramadan even if it was even if it was for a brief moment the academic pressures we Face seem to fade away even when it feel like America itself did not want to embrace us that small room that small space reminded us that we did in fact belong that we are just as smart just as curious and proactive as any
other student I conclude my speech with this our demand in all honesty are small but will have a profound impact on thousands of Muslim Students across LUSD change is not only possible as demonstrated by student leaders at my school and many others but also urgently
needed given our political atmosphere the responsibility of making School a welcoming place for all student Muslim or not goes beyond the students themselves it lies with the district to not just continue with its empty gestures but take meaningful action to
address this diverse student body thank you thank you for your time uh tala Sultan tala Sultan come on up you'll have two minutes to speak once you begin good afternoon board members my name is tala Sultan and I'm here today
not only as a student in L USD but as a proud Muslim standing before you with hope and conviction we often hear L USD Pride itself with the phrase We Are One a powerful statement of inclusivity but words without action are simply performative today you have the power to
turn those words into action by passing this resolution to recognize Ramadan and accommodate Muslim Students I've seen firsthand what happens when a school steps up at my school my peers and I in the Muslim student Alliance that we created ask for accommodations during
Ramadan a space to pray understanding for fasting student athletes and simply acknowledgement our school listened they even put up a Ramadan Mubarak poster and for the first time we felt seen my faith wasn't an inconvenience it was embraced that moment showed me how powerful real
inclusivity can be but here's the truth that experience shouldn't be rare no student should have to fight to feel like they belong in their own school district and that is exactly why we are all here today because what my school did for us should be standardized what my MSA did creating space fostering
understanding and promoting inclusivity is something that you L USD one of the largest school district in Los Angeles is beyond capable of doing for our students and frankly we aren't even demanding for much we are simply asking that you pass this resolution to formally recognize Ramadan and accommodate fasting students this is a
simple step towards Equity a step toward ensuring that Muslim Students like myself don't feel like an outsider in a district that Prides itself on its diversity and in a time where we're watching entire governments refuse to protect marginalized communities the least our school district can do is
ensure that their students feel safe valued and supported and and when the next School District when the next school calendar is created I will be standing right here in front of all of you guys again demanding that Aid be recognized as an unassigned day because our faith deserve the same level of
respect as any other Faith but today I'm asking you to take the first step pass this solution show us that we are one is not your tagline but your promise to all its students and I hope the next time I stand Here is to thank you not to ask for it again have a wonderful evening
thank you for your time okay so we have Bayan namani Bayan come on up and then Rema so Bion and then Rema so please two minutes is yours honorable members my name is
bayana mani and I work as a teacher in the Dual Arabic dual language program at Elizabeth Learning Center in kadah and I'm here to advocate for my many of my students who observe the month of Ramadan this year and every year I'm here to ask for accommodations from our
students at uh across la la USD um first for them to have um designated area during lunchtime since the students are fasting it would be very convenient if we can uh designate an area for them where they don't have to be sitting at
the lunch tables and it would be perfect if that designated area could be a sa a place for them to um to do their prayers which happens to be at the same time during lunchtime another thing is if we can uh ensure that these students uh can
we find alternative um activities for students who uh during PE times especially that fasting in Ramadan it means no water no food which can uh cause dehydration so uh finding alternative activities could help students uh stay
dehydrated and um um definitely um recognizing as the celebration after 29 or 30 days of fasting is the most important day for all Muslims and having that as an an assigned day could mean a lot to all
students and teachers across La USD and ensure inclusivity for all thank you thank you for your time Rema mcdash could you come on up Rema are you here oh sure you're right after Maria
please come on up you'll have 2 minutes to speak when you begin hiam alikum all of our board members um actually I wanted to start first my name is Maria K and I'm a dual language teacher in the same school Elizabeth Learning Center on East LA and
we teach dual language program in our school we teach Arabic in our school I wanted to start like just with some words talking about my own kids as a mom for my kids like you know they spent all their Elementary and Middle School in a private Islamic school where they could practice you know
Ramadan where they could practice their fasting with all this accommodation they you know make their life easier in Ramadan with like you know coming to school later in the morning and leave the school earlier afternoon and now as a teacher for like you know L students with a lot of Muslim Students in my
classes I feel like you know I compare and I feel that's not fair with the students in L USD so I know that's private school but I mean also our like Muslim Students in La they have the rights right to f with all this like accommodation they they can you know they could have as my you know my
colleague like you know mentioned the like maybe PE like you know accommodation activities for them because you know when they fasting they no food no drink and they really like suffer from this so all these students are struggling now and they need help and I'm focusing a lot about Eid like
you know like Eid day because I have a lot of of my friends they don't you know like they they don't like agree to like take the day off just want to S send the kids to school because the kids they have exam that day or the kids have a lot of project that day and we always tell them ask the principal tell you
know talk to the teachers not to but I mean it's not I mean nobody care but I mean they have a schedule for the test right they have schedule for all the like school activities so they don't want to do any changing in the schedule any of the calendar because of Aid day so that's why the students they you know have to go to school because they are
really like you know they respect these like you know calendars so for me as a mom and as a teacher I always ask for the that day to be off so the kids can Muslim kids can practice and you know all the religious holidays and all these like you know activities thank
you thank you for your time I'm going to call for Rema one more time just to make sure that she's not here Rema all right then we have uh Fatima bachara who Who's online speaking remotely Fatima please press star six to unmute yourself and you have two minutes
to speak once you begin Fatima um alikum hello my name is fatimaa I am Lebanese Muslim and currently serve as the ASB president at ba high school at ba high school we have a diverse Muslim Community that includes
both Shia and sunn students during the Ramadan we observe fasting from sunrise to sunset which can be physically and mentally challenging many of us sleep around 300 to 4: a.m. leaving us with less than four hours of rest throughout the day we experience thirst hunger and
fatigue since Ramadan shifts back appro approximately 10 days each year it sometimes Falls during the hotter months making it making fasting even more difficult for Muslim girls who wear the hijab participating in PE can particularly be challenging there have
been instance where I have had to walk around the track exhausted and dehydrated simply to just to maintain my grade I believe that teachers should be more understanding and accommodating during Ramadan as fasting takes a significant s on our physical AB ility additionally I have noticed that many
teachers are unaware of the challenges that doublons presents when students struggle to focus in class or perform well on Tas it is often not due to a lack of effort but rather than physical strain on of fasting one of the simplest ways to show support is by considerate
being considerate if you know a classmate that is fasting try to avoid eating or drinking in front of them especially during school hours it's a small gesture but it shows respect for their practice the little understanding can go a long way I believe that if LD implements districtwide awareness the
teachers would gain a better understanding of Ramadan and the impact that it has on students this awareness would encourage great flexibility and support for fasting students uring a inclusive and accommodating learning environment thank you for your time and consideration thank you for your time
that concludes public comment on Tab 24 shall we take a vote oh please go ahead yeah I can say it at the end okay um well first of all I was tearing up when I heard the students speak and frankly
this motion came out of listening to students um and the words that resonated in hearing all the speakers right now were seeing
understanding feeling like we belong and support and I don't know why I'm getting emotional except that I know what that feels like to not be that to not be in a district where you are not that and so
this motion is about Ramadan it's about being seen it's about inclusivity and I want to thank the students always the youth leading the way always for speaking up and
demanding demanding that you are respected and that you are valued and that indeed when we say we are one you are that you are part of that so I want to thank the students I want to thank the Educators from Elizabeth Learning
Center my district has uh Muslim people in Bell and in Kad it's a big Muslim Community but we also have Muslim Students in Scotts um district and we have Muslim Students everywhere and our
district as diverse as we are we need to this is very important that we lead that we lead in demonstrating awareness and sensitivity and inclusion of all cultures of all ethnicities and of all
practices and for our Muslim Students and our families Ramadan is a month-long observance that requires them to be committed even while they were in school and I heard the students talk about the commitment that they have right during
school and still they Thrive and they're focused in their school and by recognizing and supporting our Muslim Students and our families as they celebrate Ramadan we are modeling what it is to be a welcoming and inclusive school
district and like I said earlier bd5 in particular has a sign significant number of Muslim Students and so I am proud this brings me joy and I'm crying because I am just thrilled that we are
doing this and I am so grateful once again to the students for motivating this for inspiring me to to to bring this forward and to recognize you and uh through this
resolution though it really encourages schools and principles to open up spaces for you to be there for educators to use curriculum that is inclusive of your of your experience of your culture um and
it it puts in place some protocols that will support you so I'm very proud to do this and I I thank you for coming out to speak in support of this and I I hope that my colleagues will support this I I
know I I got very emotional just because I I I'm very moved by by your stories so thank you uh when Miss GGO called me and told me about her resolution I was so thrilled and she said to me would you be
a co-sponsor of my resolution and my answer was of course I would be of course I would be and I just want you to know when we support our Muslim Students our Muslim employees and our families our Muslim families during Ramadan we
respect empathy and understanding during this important time and we are so proud to ensure that our schools are safe places for everyone this is so important for all of our schools to know this information not just schools with lots
of Muslim Students but all the schools that may have one or two or three Muslim Students everyone needs to know and everyone needs to be respectful thank you for this resolution thank you rosil um I think this resolution is so
long overdue and I'd like to definitely be added uh as a co-sponsor to this very important resolution um thank you Miss greo for your thoughtful leadership and ensuring our Muslim Students have a supportive and inclusive environment during
Ramadan um I was also very much moved by your by your statements and your experiences and [Music] um and I hear you we all hear you very loud and clear this resolution know only addresses the real meaningful
accommodation needs of our Muslim Students during this significant time but it also sends a powerful message of respect and understanding to our entire School communities throughout La USD it is important that our Muslim Students
have a welcoming and caring School environment and climate and that they feel seen understood and know that they truly truly do matter we heard very very powerful words and experiences from the students here
um but I know they also represent the entire Muslim Community so I know right now they're jumping for joy and thanking you for being here and being their voice Muslim Students can no longer be dismissed or ignored and it is time that
we all see you and know that I've see you very very very much so thank you Miss grego for this and thank you Mr schmon for also Co so can bringing this forward we got some strong clappers there I hear you yes go ahead uh yes uh
definitely want to say uh so appreciate this opportunity um as uh a coach who had a student who celebrated Ramadan it was it was it was challenging because she was the only one on her team and for
her teammates to understand what she was experiencing when they would take a water break and she wasn't um but the resilience of that and we saw that today and we heard that and as I was listening seeing and Valu was one of the things that stood out um meaningful steps and
obviously an apology on behalf of the board to say we have never been able to do this before today and the compassion that we heard from you we definitely want to to say you know what we hear you
we see you um we are in the trenches with you um the message of value to our students was also heard very loud and clear and especially to providing those spaces uh appreciate the examples that have been set by the communities have
already done that in the schools who have Set uh a standard for having a space for you to go and to pray because that is important as you stand for your faith amongst others who may not understand and so as we move forward and
making uh a resolution and correction to things that we have not done correct um I am so appreciative of this time to be able to share this and appreciate uh your leadership greo and smon president smon for bringing this forward and I too
want to be a co-sponsor to this thank you Mr mvo no I'll follow our board member well that's actually I don't want to follow our student board you know what good point I'm going to go first so then she can have the last word I just want to say um thank you for bringing it I'd love to be a co-sponsor as well uh I
appreciate um the compelling testimony of everyone who's here Ramadan Mubarak who those of you who are observing um I and just I want to say that I'm really in awe with you know Samir and others hearing your testimony it really my faith um requires a fast of one day and I find that very difficult and so to do it for 29 or 30 days with school and
Athletics and stuff um and really do it in in silence but you shouldn't be silent you should be celebrating your culture and your faith and we should be learning and observing uh as well um and making it easier for you and and as inclusive as possible so just so thank you I think this resolution and your
compelling testimony taught us all a lot as well um and so like my colleague said this is an important First Step uh um and you know just appreciate the co-sponsorship and uh and we'll definitely be voting yes today thanks anelli thank you for the floor
board member Meo echoing the sentiments of gratitude thank you board member greo and board president schmaren for presenting this to the board and as a student leader i s an unwavering support of this resolution because true inclusivity is not just about tolerance
it's about respect recognition and action and that is exactly what this resolution aims to do as taking the first steps towards acknowledging Muslim Students in LUSD who deserve tangible support as they observe Ramadan as many of you have demonstr here today A Time of deep spiritual reflection and
Community bonding I can only imagine sitting in crowded crowded lunchrooms while fasting surrounded by the scent of food feeling isolated because your faith calls for the sacrifice being an athlete pushing through practice while your body is
deprived of nourishment or a student taking an exam with a mind yearning for energy these are the realities faced by many of our Muslim classmates and today we have the power to change that as many have mentioned today quiet spaces alternative activities and
flexibility for Eid we are not granting special treatment we are simply ensuring that all students can practice their faith with dignity as a district that Prides itself on diversity we can uphold our commitment to equity not just in
words but in meaningful action and that is what is being done through this resolution thank you student leaders for your bravery and commitment to uplifting your communities and to board member grego and to board president scharon for co-sponsoring and presenting this resolution here today thank you and
thank you so much and our last word will be from our superintendent uh first uh Ramadan muak it is um anytime this board has an opportunity to do the right thing for the right reason at the right time we in
fact get closer to being one and I think this is the right move for the right reason for absolutely the right people so uh thank you uh board member grego and thank you president shurson and the entire board for doing the right thing at the right time with that
said Ramadan uh kadim thank [Applause] you take the vot okay time for the vote um Miss nubil yes Dr revas yes Mr melin
yes Miss Grio yes Miss gones Miss Ortiz Franklin yes board president schmaren yes and student board member Lopez Cortez yes right passes
can I implore some of the folks who uh were part of the presentation to stay for a photo with a couple of the board members thank you while they're taking the photo I want to thank those who were here for public comment approximately 4 p.m. I want to thank you for your I appreciate I
appreciate you Mr mle while they're Gathering can I record some votes I might have missed yes let's do that right now so miss Ortiz Franklin can I I collected your vote on two may I collect your vote on Tab four the second
interim yes and the dual enrollment reso and the only other thing I'm missing was a vote on the waiver of board rule 72 for tab 24 oh yes but also on the dual enrollment res I wasn't sure if I recorded that okay but I me double check
I have you is um actually yeah you voted for the rural uh board 72 but may I record your vote for the actual underlying reso yes thank you very much thank you okay now we're moving on to general public comment we have a lot of folks who are here in person so as usual I'll
call the folks who are here in person first and then we'll transition to those who are speaking remotely so the first four people to come on up please uh Mr ma tro are you here I think I saw Mr tro out there you're up first and then after uh
Mr tro is mavius Moore Mr Moore you're after Mr tro and then after uh Mr Moore is uh Mr Joseph Williams okay uh Mr mreo is here and yielding his time just if you could give me your name no come on up the floor is yours sir you have two minutes I just uh I didn't
quite hear your name and then let let some of the folks exit so we can we can't quite hear you okay please go ahead it should be all good now good afternoon super good afternoon superintendent
carvalo members of the board and my fellow students and community members my name is Cody gavara and I'm a senior at Nathaniel narbon high school here as a leader with students deserve today I stand before you to ask a simple but
urgent question why does LUSD spend over $70 million on school police while failing to fully fund programs that actively support black undocumented and lgbtq plus students right now right now
we see black students disproportionately targeted by school policing facing higher rates of suspensions and unnecessary disciplinary action these resources should be going towards education mental health support and student well-being
not criminalization imagine what we could do with $70 million instead of fueling A system that makes students feel like suspects rather than scholars in LUSD we don't need more police on campus we need counselors
psychiatric social workers and restorative justice programs students are asking for queer affirming spaces fully staff dream centers for undocumented Youth and a real commitment to Black Student Success through an expanded Bap program but
instead of addressing these needs L USD continues prioritizing policing this is not just an issue at one school across LAUSD students have launched a mass sticker program over 10,000 stickers and flyers have been spread out in schools to spread the
message that we demand change we're not just speaking up today we're building a movement so I'm here to tell you we will not stop until LD L USD listens we will rally we will protest and we will show up to meetings like this again and again
because our safety and future matters more than any police budget thank you for your [Applause] time Mr mavius Moore come on up M check all evening my name is is
maai Draper I'm a senior at dorsy high school and a proud leader in students Reserve as always I'm here to tell you guys what you need to work on as board members what we need for you to do as the head of the district is to protect your students we're currently in a nation of disorder and with your entire student population under attack by
federal policies and conservative groups across the country black students are under attack by groups that you succumb to you failed to defend beap over the summer by removing racist criteria and you are still failing to defend this group now as you haven't turned to original state we demand that you undo
your wrongs and on top of that additionally fund Bap in order to make it make it the program that truly should be undocumented students are under attack more than ever with the new pres presidency hate crimes or propaganda have been spreading like wildfire as a portion of the LA student body is
undocumented we expect you to implement dream centers and fully commit to the district's s Sanctuary policies in order to protect this group in today's political climate lgbtq students are also under attack like the other the demographics I mentioned this is another group that is that is under more fire
due to this new presidency we need you to add more gender and sexuality affirming curriculum into schools to educate on this community in order to help protect these students from stereotypes and hate crimes Los Angeles needs this District to get their feet out of the mud and protect us students when we need the most protect black
undocumented and queer students right now and forever as we are not going anywhere and we need the support from every direction if you can't seem to do what's right and protect these student the maybe you guys shouldn't be sitting in those seats and those positions are not meant for you when some students are under attack it affects everybody so
stand with us don't say as your students the students you work for are under attacked and ordered on your campuses protect all students protect black students protect undocumented students protect lgbtq students protect Muslim Students and this is your District your
campuses and your county do more do better thank you thank you for your time Mr Joseph Williams Mr Williams is here and his yield his time please go ahead the two minutes is yours good evening members of
the board my name is cha Goyo and I'm a senior at Garfield High School a student leader with students deserve and I stand before you today as a student deeply rooted in a legacy of resilience and activism in 1968 students from Garfield High School and other East LA schools courageously walked out of their classrooms protesting systemic
inequalities and demanding educational Justice their actions ignited The Cho civil rights movement and the a significant reforms in our education system fast forward to 2019 when Garfield students once again took to the streets this time advocating for the rights of Docker recipients hundreds walked out standing in solidarity with
undocumented peers and highlighting the ongoing struggles within our community today we Face A new challenge recent ice rats have instilled fear among our undocumented classmates disrupting their sense of safety and belonging no student should have to choose between their education and their family security I share this not as a distant Observer but
as someone personally connected to this narrative my father journeyed from Panama at 20 arriving with nothing but hope my mother at 16 and Pregnant in a trunk of a car crossed the Mexican border risking everything for a better future their stories along with the stories of thousands of students across L USD demonstrate the sacrifices many
families have made for the promise of opportunity in honor of this Legacy and in response to current threats I along with my peers and community members urge the immediate establishment of dream centers on every LD campus our predecessors taught us that change is born from action the students of 1968
and 2019 did not wait for permission to demand Justice they led the charge now it's our turn to continue that Legacy I implore you to act now Implement dream centers across all LD campuses if we truly believe in equity we must ensure that every student regardless of
immigration status race gender or sexual identity feel safe supported and valued thank you so much your time okay ch [Applause] CH uh hello board members uh I'm a Ros I
am a senior at theore Roosevelt High School and I'm a youth organizer there uh I come with a set of Demands that our youth have said schools and LUSD are designated safe zones ice cannot be allowed on campus regardless of whether
they are whether they have a warrant how sad has our education become when students worry more about ice than about their exams the Gestapo was what they were called before today they are known as ice our students must now wonder whether they will be taken from within
the very walls of their school taken from the place where they are supposed to be learning about Science and History the idea of freedom and safety is questioned when your friend is dragged away in handcuffs between lessons on algebra and government when they are taken at their most vulnerable without a
voice taken away without with never to be heard the presence of ice in our schools is not just an in is not just intimidating it is demoralizing it is deliberate and calculated attack it is a distraction so powerful that no student
can be expected to learn when the possibility of being ripped from your families lingers in your minds we are told to worry about cell phones in class they expect students to focus on their future when their present is under siege we are told our schools are safe that ice cannot access our records without proper legal Authority and yet those
with that very Authority are the same ones who fund expand and defend ice there are two heads of the same monstrous destructive Hydra the people do not want ice in our schools in their homes in their neighborhoods it is the power it is the powerful who want them not the people ice has no place in our
schools you can di with fear neutrality with pacifism with oppression with the forces that wish turn to turn a place of learning into hunting grounds but know this the people below are watching the students the families the workers and the people they are watching and history will will remember and you will hold and
you will be held accountable personally thank you for your [Music] time okay I'm going to call the next three people Sierra Leon Ian kiry and Cheryl cono so Sierra Leon Ian kiry Le
is Ramadan all right come on up [Applause] jamaa my name is Jamia I'm a junior at Washington Prep High School and I'm a youth leader at Community Coalition
Federal F cust L USD poses a huge risk to programs like the black student achievement plan and safe passage which would definitely hurt L USD students and families there's a situation that occurred about a week ago that speaks to why we need safe pastors back on campus which is what we've been
demanding on February 8 28th I almost got jumped by three people all because one of those people who is a guy could have take no for an answer and will take accountability for it the same day they were threatened to put me in the hospital hospital and said literal death
Dr to me and now me and my friends are Pally getting stalked they know what time I get to school and didn't know half of our class schedules this has been very very frustrating and uncomfortable this same group through water at me and my friends and it's
annoying that there wasn't anything done about this I want to feel safe at school and safe past being fully supported and invested in is the only way to do that why I replace George McKenna who was already bad enough with someone
who's also Pro fce a black woman why should my mother have to leave her job early to make sure I'm okay when that is literally what say passage is supposed to be there for y'all ignore stuff like this as if I want to be stalked walking in and out of school and
get called out of my name behind my back then wonder why yall get talked to any kind of way look at how yall rush out the fact that your black rout in lgbtq students are being mistreated by people who supposedly care for our safety and super attended who and I will put his name on the line for us but we know that
was a lie clearly y rather let an organization from Virginia not La tell Y what to do with Bap but when it comes to your own students all of a sudden it's out of your control can you make it make sense Cara and the rest of the school board can play it up all they want to
people or mute somebody's mic but at the end of the day that's not going to stop me or any of us from holding you accountable we demand an AP a public apology for not taking into account the massive impact your failures have had on black students we demand you guys to put back safe passes at Washington along
with other schools in this District respectfully get your priority straight and put the black back in B thank you for your time and Mr kirs is going to yield his time to this young man um good afternoon School Board hi my name is khil Smith I'm a junior dorsy
and the leader as soon as Reserve this is a time in history where we're seeing minorities being targeted more openly whether it's by the president or in this case the school district you want the majority of LD students and staff to believe you support the students in need but in reality you give into the changes
that we know will negatively impact minorities like taking race as a criteria for Bap a resource made for black students this isn't the only District this isn't only this isn't the only issue in the district don't change Bap don't allow ice onto
campuses make sure that lgbtq students have safe places on campuses we know what the true motives and priorities are in this district and US students will not allow for anyone to be denied the recognition and support that they deserve we've launched a sticker
campaign and passed out 10,000 stickers across L USD this means there are way more people informed about the fight we're bringing to the school board it's everywhere on water bottle mods computers phones Etc from my personal experience alone I've seen how excited
students are to fight back on what they know was right there are so many students that will benefit from the board doing the right thing by actually implementing these changes and protecting black undocumented and lgbtq students this isn't a fight this isn't a
fight you can avoid or ignore it you can see and will continue to see how many people are informed and are willing to keep speaking up and to fight back this won't be over until the district decides to protect their students thank you thank you for your
time Cheryl koono come on up good evening I'm Cheryl koono psychiatric social worker um La had previously promised Central District funding for one PSW for every School site to meet the needs of all students although we were moving in that
direction now only 208 schools uh that have 600 or more students have Central District funding the national ratio is 1 PSW to 250 students if LUSD were to at least have a 1 to 400 ratio for psws more schools would receive Central
District funding to meet the needs of our students research studies show that without school-based Mental Health Services um students struggle with mental health issues have difficulty concentrating engaging in school relating to others Reg regulating their
emotions socially isolating and may experience suicide self-injury risk leading to poor attendance low academic achievement and school behavioral problems so no one can replace school-based psws in providing comprehensive services to LUSD as per
the social School social worker Association of America what we do is we do uh it bring unique Knowledge and Skills to the school system we trained professionals lcsws who can assist with mental health behavioral concern conerns and behavioral positive behavioral
support academic support consultation and individual and group therapy so there are enough psws available with enough graduates as per the Bureau of Labor Statistics in California has one of the most mssw graduates in the nation
with an average of 3,300 graduates annually and has one of the largest networks over 85,000 social workers 68.3% of all School social social workers in California are actually School social workers and the number of social workers in California is expected
and contining to grow so LD this is a call for Action to all of the board members and superintendent to provide Central District funding for all psws to all of our schools for all of our clinics and for all of our students thank you so much for your time appreciate it thank you for your
time okay here's the next group of folks with Marsha Doss please come on up and then uh Maria Daisy Ortiz okay so Mara giving over to jacqulyn okay and so after Mara then Lizabeth VI
aobos start all right you all have two minutes once you start thank you okay hi my name is Jacqueline Alvarado I'm a youth I'm a sophomore at Washington prep I'm a youth leader at youth at Community Coalition and I want to share with you the demands I have for superintendent
Calo and the school board with how often you speak on trying to do what's best for students you sure don't seem to prioritize the comments from students who attend in to who who attend schools in La USD taking care of students means listening not just acting like you hear our needs and demands we are arguing you
to put back the black andb app and provide better funding for black students also do not feel students also do not feel safe on their campus because of your failures to fully Implement safety measures that actually work we need more safety for immigrant students to be comfortable and have support when
attending schools and support for students struggling to learn a new language queer students also deserve to feel safe and free to express themselves I have been in LD schools oh fine school is all my life and I have witnessed and experienced the lack of care for students we need more
staff members that care about the safety and well-being of students I know I am I know many of my peers would appreciate having a person who can support them and can they can trust while attending schools I was bullied for my race my physical appearance and my sexuality I know what it feels like to feel
uncomfortable and unsafe at my school at some point I was scared of going to school and some of my friends were also disturbed by how they were being treated when my friends told an adult the adult only told the other students to change their actions but nothing else was done it's concerning how you manag to allow
our stool our schools to become this unsafe this is also why many students lack trust in our in adults we are more than just kids we are youth leaders who pass through the doors of the schools you manage who are faced with real conditions like deportation gangs and bullying we demand that you do more than
just whatever you think makes you look good fully invest in Bap and safe passage and commit to keeping us safe and protected thank you for your time Elizabeth bobos Elizabeth come on [Applause]
[Music] up good morning good afternoon excuse me my name isth V Vios and I'm a 12th grader at Emanuel arts high school and I'm a youth leader at Community Coalition our demands have yet to be enacted and we still continue to fight how many more students have to come up
here because they live in an environment where their safety is not guaranteed how many more times will you dismiss it and continue to be ignorant to the students and staff whom you represent I advise you to pay attention and listen when we say school police are not the solution endless testimonies and experiences from
us students expressing to witness an unacceptable amount of aggressiveness and failure to deescalate situations from the school police that you reenter into our campuses there is one solid answer to this school police does just it doesn't work you are funding the
wrong security and it's hurting us all there was an altercation between two girls at my school and it had gotten to a point where the school police had gotten involved and they had seemed more aggressive than the two girls they shouted louder than them they escalated the situation more than solving it this
is unacceptable and yet this Behavior continues not solely on my campus how many more incidents have to happen for the board to recognize this if the if you would Implement our demands the majority of incidents of violence could be prevented student safety would Fe would be prioritized where students can
feel there in a genuinely safe environment where they're in the sa were they're in the safe passage's best interest have you changed your mind yet Mr carvalo on my way home I was robbed on the street right after school a block away from the campus the following days
after that incident I didn't want to go back to school I didn't want to walk home out of school out of fear that I'd get hurt again if safe passage was there if they were available during the time of that incident I would have had the support I needed I would have had someone trustworthy to get me home but
because they aren't I continue to experience this torment and I shouldn't have to even more so I have to be out on the street knowing that the person who robbed me is roaming through my community I shouldn't have to wake up every day dreading that this was some that something will happen to me again
no student should have you decided to prioritize your students Mr superintendent listen as we tell you you are taking the wrong steps to student safety listen and understand that when we tell you it's an urgency that you abolish school police and fully implement the safe passage program and the community based safety thank you for
your time thank you for your time okay Maria Daisy Ortiz Maria Daisy Ortiz come on up Miss Ortiz is going to speak in Spanish so if you'd like to hear what she's saying in English as she's speaking Spanish please put your hands up and we'll get these headsets to you okay
graas thank you good afternoon everyone it seems like you are not in compliance since it was at 4: and we're almost at 5:30 first of all I'd like to say that this report is only in English and this is another way we're
left without information it's a report that is very important to understand I'm here to clarify the lie that we've been told for years that the only thing you want is to stop the parent voice and the leadership of parents here it says and this was responded by the
state with certifications of the Committees that are appropriate in the district including deac that this the evaluation of these committees and approval of them so since we don't
have a committee of low income I ask in this committee that the correspondence be done correctly because the law states that the district District must but is not obligated but if the parents ask for it the district must do it because they
receive categorical funds for parent involvement so that this law can be uh complied with and under 520 621 and two it states that the superintendent of the school district as a minimum have a
meeting with every committee with parents including the English learner committee not like last year who was sending an invitation to the chairperson and only her you need to show your face also when the children reclassified
there's four years of monitoring but the district has taken the parents of delect because they have reclassified who are the ones that re that monitor the committee the of first English Learners so if there's four years of monitoring
since I don't confide in you all to do so because the data is clear it is not working so you need to correct that as well because that is in congruent because elect over there we even to have school Personnel being part of elect
this is a problem so please do the appropriate Corrections necessary immediately if you celebrate C Caesar Chavez he defended the rights of the workers in the fields so you defend the parent rights to be included in
decisioning thank you and have a good afternoon thank for your time okay so here's the next three folks uh Sai please come on up Sai and then after Sachi are Rosalia Ria and then Joseph Bernie so Sachi and then
Rosalia and then Joseph hi my name is Sai here Amora I am a senior at gala and I'm a leader in students deserve I wanted to use my time here today to to remind you of something that has been important to many people throughout history and today something that is incredibly important to me my
family important to many people in this room and Beyond and I think you too equality on February 14th the Trump Administration published a letter standing up for equality they claimed race-based programs specifically race-based programs and stated by many
educational institutions that are targeted towards disadvantaged groups create inequality and thus should be ended but what be came clear when reading this letter is that the Trump Administration is ignoring the centuries of discriminatory practices practiced by this country that has disadvantaged
certain groups of people especially black black people they are ignoring the inequality that is evident not only by looking at the academic achievement Gap but the economic Gap criminal justice Gap Healthcare Gap and more when the Trump Administration intentionally ignores these facts they will not be
able to create true true equality th thus they are not truly standing up for equality one of the founding principles of this country on the contrary in February of 2021 you the laus board truly stood up for equality when you finally began to address the inequality
that is ever present in this District the inequality that is seen clearly in the achievement gaps between black and non-black students and that has been created and perpetuated by racial discrimination practiced by our country as well as our school district you made the Revolutionary decision to approve
bap and that decision showed me as well as other people across the school district and beyond that LC stands for equality but unfortunately unfortunately last summer you took a step away from equality when you removed race as a criteria for Bap allocation and
unfortunately it is also a time in our country where many people and communities equal rights are under threat from the federal government I am here today because I hope you will begin to stand up for True equality again as you did in 2021 you and approved Bap superintendent carvalo and board m members we look forward to working with
you to put the black back in Bap we also look forward to working with you to protect black undocumented and lgbtq Plus student rights thank you for your time Rosalia get off your phone the two minutes is yours please go ahead good evening board member
superintendent carvalo my name is Rosalia Ria I'm and I'm a psychiatric social worker with the Ramona School mental health clinic as we recognize National Social Work month and the impact that our profession has had on our students and families I'd like to take two two minutes of your time to
remind you of the great work we are doing here at La USD my colleagues and I have been delivering quality Mental Health Services across 14 Clinic sites within LUSD addressing trauma depression anxiety and other mental health challenges that significantly impact our
students abilities to learn and Thrive Clinic psws play an important role by supporting students emotional and Social Development helping families navigate challenges and creating a safe and supportive environment our school
communities often identify our Clinic programs as a resource in providing tier two and tier three support our services are intensive individualized consistent and effective in restoring the social emotional functioning of many students
despite an increase in the need for mental health services our Clinic program has not grown on the contrary it has been impacted by budget cuts we recognize that our school-based psws are also working diligently to meet the demands of their school needs and the
benefits of collaborating with our colleagues to provide the individual family and small group support that our students require to improve their well-being is more important than ever I ask that continue to advocate for school mental health by demanding that funds be
allocated to support the growth of all of our programs including our Clinic program advocating for in-house Mental Health Services will allow psws to continue providing quality care that is easily accessible to students and
families in doing so we will ensure that our students are equipped with the tools necessary to overcome adversity lead successful lives and prepare for the world thank you thank you for your [Applause] time okay Mr Joseph Bernie are you here
Joseph come on up and after Mr Joseph Bernie is Leo seron and then jalah Burns floor is yours superintendent carvalo school board my name is Joseph Bernie I'm a senior at Hamilton High School I want to use my time here today to speak for a group of students who
need your attention and your protection I'm sure you're well aware but right-wing bigotry in the conservative movement is on the rise the Trump Administration has launched an agenda of anti-blackness in a vicious attacks on what they call Dei which is a euphemism for any program that seeks to empower and support black students in the wake
of this there are those who fight that pressure and those who cave to it students from all seven board districts have passed out thousands of stickers and info sheets urging you all to protect black undocumented and lgbtq students government officials across the country who care about marginalized
people such as the US attorney for New York have opted to resign minor refusal to obey Donald Trump now not just the superintendent but the seven of you elected officials have to make the decision of whether to defend and even double down on programs such as Bap or to forsake black students I want you I
want to trust that you'll take the noble stand for my brothers and sister's education but I've seen LD cave to bigoted pressures before you already caved to racist right-wing pressures when you refuse to stand up for black students and listen to a lawsuit from Virginia telling you to essentially kill
B Bap do you see why it's hard to trust you now but even then I want to trust you superintendent knowing your background as a young immigrant and your genuine concern for students I want to trust you I respect the regard that you demonstrated yesterday Schoolboard I want to trust that you'll stand up and
refuse conservative pressure by putting the black back in Bap but you have to actually do it the only other option is complacency with the Barry attacks on the very students of ostd you claim to cherish and serve it is in fact aiding and edding the agenda of JD Vance of
Donald Trump Elon Musk Mitch McConnell and the Republican party it doesn't matter if you're not wearing the red Mega cap thank you your time leoon Leo siron come on up um good evening my name is Leo Sone
I'm a junior from from mclc and I'm a leader with students reserve and I'm here today to talk about the importance of keeping and fully supporting the black student achievement plan be was created by students to provide essential academic and social and emotional resources it is not just a program but
is a commitment uh to um to see the students succeed uh black students continue to experience some of the highest rates of suspens suspension rates in a time where many programs like Bap are being under attack cutting or altering Bap would be a step back um we
need LZ to take action be bold in the protection of black students changing the racial criteria out of um taking out the racial criteria of Bap will make it harder for these students to get the resources they need thank
you thank you for your time sir Jia and then after after Miss Burns we'll be uh Gypsy Vasquez aala and then Amir Casmir um Julia Burns sent an email yielding her
time to Connie so she's going to speak on her behalf today Julia wasn't able to make it okay thank you have at it Connie um hello my name is Connie may I please ask you to just lower the microphone oh sorry and then we got to restart the timer so just let my staff restart the timer and then okay please go ahead
hello my name is Connie I'm a sophomore at Washington prep and a youth leader at Community Coalition I've come here today to share the demands I have for the school board and carvalo I want you to put the black back and B up and expanded by 100 million annually and to formally apologize to black students and families for the Decades of anti-black policies
that denied us of equal education I honestly really think you guys are doing this purposely like honestly taking the opinion from people not even related to the LAUSD School Board to open Bap for everyone is like weird to me why do you listen better to people outside of L USD District than the people in the district
like hello because of your unnecessary decision this program is no longer being prioritized for black students black students are receiving less support than what they should be receiving like the whole point of bab was to help support black students it's like you guys forgot what bab stands for so I'll remind you black student achievement program that's
what beep stands for another thing I want to bring up is because of your discriminatory practices whenever a colored student has behavioral problems you guys are so quick to give that student an IEP and place that kid in special classes that they don't need to be in but why kids don't get put in those special classes for Behavioral
issues do they for example my brother has had behavioral issues and soon after he was put in classes that he didn't need to be put in if my brother was being supported by LD and had the support had the right support in programs the result of his situation would and could have been different you guys also installed those phone pouches
that cost 100 per pouch when that money could have gone somewhere else more important for example supporting the minorities in the LD District like as a black student myself I feel targeted I don't feel supported by the LD District right now and I'll continue to feel unsupported until you formally apologize to black students and expand B set by
100 million annually we don't work for you we work for [Music] us thank you for your time uh gypsy Vasquez AA and then Amir Casmir my colle please outstanding come on up please just say your name and
you'll have two minutes to speak once you begin good afternoon La USD board members I am here on behalf of aspire Public Schools um my name is paa Navaro and I have the privilege of serving as the parent coordinator for Aspire Junior Collegiate Academy but beyond that I am
also proud of I am also a proud aspired parent I chose to enroll my own children in our charter school because I hardly believe believe in the mission and vision of aspire to provide all students with an exceptional education that prepares them for college career and Beyond at Aspire Juni Collegiate Academy
we're not just educating students we are Empowering Families Our parent Community is engaged in meaningful work ensuring that our voices are heard and that our children receive the best education opportunities possible we have created created a thriving parent group that not only support School initiatives but also
Fosters his own book club providing a space for shared learning and personal growth the collaboration between famili Educators and students is what makes our school so special I would also like to share with you that right now we have um a workshops for parents and letting them know uh know your rights with all the
immigration going on we have hosted a couple of workshops and we'll still host another Workshop the 13th of March and for this I would like uh to invite you guys to come see the incredible learning that's taking place and meet the dedicated families who are sharing the future of education and witness the
firsthand the impact of strong parent advocacy to together we are building a brighter future for our students and we're allow for you to be part of it thank you thank you for your time Amir cmir are you here hello I'm leading my yielding my
time to J thank you sir hello sorry good evening La USD School Board my name is Jade Santini Ron I am a black lives matter member of Los Angeles and a parent leader of student deserve I am
here this evening to State the demands of that you reinstate black student population as a criteria for Bap School allocation honor your commitment to black students by immediately restoring this factor and reaffirming Bap as a rep
reparative program designed to address the Decades of racially discriminatory practices that violated the civil rights of black students with all the attacks coming from Trump the right-wing parents from Virginia attacking every aspect of
Education that addresses the needs of black indigenous and other vulnerable student populations LUSD carvalo and this Board needs to develop and Implement concrete protocols to ensure that our children will continue to have
the support and that Bap brings for them an expand Community Based safety on every LAUSD campus we can not have our children being hospit hospitalized by racist parents from other ethnics excuse
me from other EIC groups my phone messed up you guys I'm sorry that's okay um from other ethnic groups nor can we have our children feeling unsafe at the hands of some of their peers who
may be taking their trauma out on others either empower the Bap steering committee next the office of etto needs to Grant real decision-making power to beap steering committee and analyze quarterly boards reports from steering
committee appointees to ensure authetic collaboration on the growth of implantation of BF and lastly this Board needs to vote to permanently expand funding for B Bap allocate an additional 100 million annually to Bap to ensure it
suspend and fness and meeting the needs of black students now in the future now like I said before out of respect CU I know it's out of time be the seed of that change make a difference from these kids they need you go home and know that you made a difference and you was that
change what God put you to do put the black back in Bap a thank you for your time four we have four speakers left Alana hassanin Alana and then after Alana Mariah
Williams and Maya Sanchez and then Drew mcnight so Alana Mariah Maya and Drew please come on up Alana you have two minutes to speak once you begin good afternoon my name is Lana henin I've taught in public schools
across the country including LD for 15 years and hold a Masters in Education leadership from UCLA as the only Jewish teacher on staff for most of my career I took bu building bridges into my own hands because I am aware of how needed it is in our schools
I am both ashkanazi Jewish and Egyptian I grew up in Jewish organizations and educational settings it is where my love for education and building a more Equitable world comes from the adl's involvement with ice and the detainment of Mahmud KH is
unconstitutional the ADL have jeopardized the safety of countless individuals and organizations throughout our nation it is my mixed identity that makes me keenly aware of how the ADL pits my people against each other this Zero Sum game that the ADL is committed
to playing in the US is not only dangerous in a trump presidency it endangers our children's well-being and the future of our democracy any curriculum that denies the live experience of our Palestinian and Arab students and their families does not belong in our schools nor does it combat
anti-Semitism not only is their curricula factually misleading it is unethical to put our students and their families in such a vulnerable position Public Schools were founded to ensure democracy and prepare children to be responsible citizens of
society while I do think anti-Semitism should be addressed the adl's method is anical to its purpose I asking that the Le sever its partnership with the ADL to not adopt the adl's curriculum no place for hate and Echoes of Reflections and to not partner with the ADL for
professional development under sb277 when the Trump when Trump was elected this District put out a statement that our schools would be a safe place for our students and their families please ensure this happens drop the ADL thank you thank you for your
time Mariah Williams come on up Mariah Williams hi LD School Board my name is Mariah Williams and I go to San Pedro High School racism is increasing Trump and his followers are using police ice and executive orders to attack black
immigrant and lgbtq folks so why is LUSD attacking Bap and spending 60 million on school police hate crimes in La reached record highs black people are 9% of La County's population but 4 9% of victims black people are
disproportionately targeted and schools were one of the major sites undocumented youth are facing deportation and getting separated from their families trans and nonb binary youth in quer forming curriculum are facing increased attacks and in the last few months black and brown students have been attacked by
school police and by Trump supporting anti-black and anti-immigrant adults near campuses in 2020 we ended years of El's overp policing by kicking cops off of campuses and cutting their budget we also created Bap to bring counselors therapists black studies and more to
schools serving black youth but LD removed race as a criteria for Bap schools even after failing to fully Implement programs like safe passage does LD really think Decades of black anti-black discrimination was fixed by four years of Bap does l wizd really
think immigrant students and lgbtq students will be safe if the Deion doesn't take action we demand LUSD one put the black back in Bap and expanded by 100 million annually two apologize to black students for decades of anti-black policies that deny them an equal
education three guarantee Sanctuary protections massively expand and fully staffed dream centers supporting undocumented students and ensure the is's lay start app doesn't report immigrant status four Implement queer forming spaces and curricula and current and culturally responsive supports for
lgbtq plus Youth and five abolish school police and expand and fully Implement safe passage and Community Based safety thank you thank you for your time Maya Sanchez Maya come on up and then after Miss
Sanchez is Drew mcnight good evening can you hear me we sure can please go ahead okay today I stand before you and I ask that you make public schools safe havens to refuse entry to ice and no matter the circumstances as schools and as communities we have drawn Upon Our own
resources to provide know your rights trainings to our students and our parents but this will not be enough ald needs to be vocal they need to call on their students their families their teachers their staff and you board members to take a vow to protect their students and families that are under
attack by ice in this Administration you hold enormous power you hold the safety of hundreds of thousands of students and families families that sit at dinner tables tonight discussing what is up to you to stay silent is not an option I want you
to remind yourself of The Vow you took when you said you were going to take care of the children as a board member will you allow ice in the schools will you stay silent I know each of you will go home to your own life after this you will call your mothers make dinner for your kids or talk to your partners about
your day don't you think undocumented children and their families deserve the same tonight I assure you there is a little girl or a little boy sitting at their dinner table and they are just as scared as everyone else they too have a mom they too have siblings and perhaps
they are the best spell in their class perhaps they are the fastest in the mile sometimes they are the valid dictorian of their schools it is your job to make sure these kids stay safe not in fear not in a cage not in handcuffs as they are dragged out of their schools humiliated in front of their peers your
silence and your lack of action is not a disservice to these children it is their endangerment I understand the fear I understand the fear of this Administration but with the privilege you hold and with the power you hold with the accountability you hold you may not stay silent to stay silent is to
allow the sacrifice of thousands of ALC kids to allow for their suffering and their detainment so I ask you who should be more afraid you or them children should never live in fear of being ripped from their families or schools a place where they should be curious creative and safe make sure schools stay
safe thank you thank you for your time uh Drew mcnight Drew [Music] [Applause] mcnight okay hello my name is Drew mcnight and
I'm a sophomore at Washington prepatory High and a youth leader with Community Coalition and I want to share with you the demands I have for superintendent carvalo and the school board my peers and I have come forth multiple times only for you to continue to sit there and act like you know what's best for
our students without ever putting any putting forth any effort to any action to protect us our school board should make an our school board should make an effort to make sure we feel safe and protected in our schools and the lack of
resources that you have given us shown that you are doing a terrible job walking to and from school I can constantly see that my neighborhood is not safe for my peers and I to be walking through black students in my community are underresourced and feel pressured to support their families and have the protection of a group when
walking streets these problems have made their way onto my campus during my time in the school I have witnessed multiple students showing up with Firearms fult fights involving gangs in the death of one of my close peers and we do not have the stay of Staff trained to handle
these situations during my time at Washington I have been so close to these kinds of fights that I could hear them punching each other you say that you have safe passage but these fights can go on until someone's bleeding or heavily injured before any staff can get to them our vice principal is the one to stop these fights instead of the people
that you supposedly hired for this one day these fights will get go too far and more of our students will be killed or harmed if you can put the same effort into safe passage as you do for Yonder pouches and phone Bands then we can bring down the chances of losing
more of our students due to gang violence Bap has been around since 2020 and it is now 2025 and you are attempting to strip away the only Recess Recess resource you have given black students put the quickness you put into foam bands into
protecting black students when a student spends majority of their time on campus it is your job to make that a safe learning environment for students to go through whether that be investing in more Mental Health Resources staff members who understand the conditions my
peers and I go through and a system that allows students to walk safely to and from school we should never and I mean never worry about our safety and a place where we come to learn and better our education we need people who understand what our go students go through to tackle what
our students go through safe PES has the potential to be amazing and we got it thanks to Bap we are here not to to to ask but demand that you put the black back in Bap expand Bap by 100 million annually abolish school police and fully Implement safe passage and Community
Based safety thank you for your time that concludes general public comment and that brings us to tab six six tab six aligned funding strategies for three school facilities
projects also known as cops um can I have a motion in a second to bring all this discussion to the table move it moved by uh Mr schmon seconded by Dr Ras again this was set up for discussion so
there are members here today so we have questions any questions no no okay I'll have I'll I'll I'll go for it then um okay so tab
six um I just want to make some want to make some general comments and then I'll ask my questions but I want to start off by saying that I generally believe and think that the objective the the okay great okay um is that was saying I
I generally uh think the objective to offset substantial burdens to our general fund is fiscally responsible um I understand that the proposed strategy to pay down cops is intended to save money for the district um however another perspective that we
have been hearing is through this strategy uh will not necessarily save money uh but more accurately we will lose less money over time would you um Mr Mount agree with this assessment no uh no so the transaction
so if the question were is the bond program saving money the answer is no right uh but essent what you're looking to do through this transaction is De fees the portions of the cops that are traditionally aligned with the bond
program uh we say 250 million it's actually 238 uh which is the amount of the proceeds it will take to take out the bond money and pay off that portion of the cops and then over that 30-year period what will the principal and interest be paid back in that property
taxes it's about 264 but the long-term savings to the general fund fund is 304 right and so that's a difference of still positive if you look at an all funds view $40 million right so but the
but the transaction is designed to make savings to the general fund it is not to make savings to the bond program right very very explicitly so and no one's ever said that but there is still a net if we looked at all funds if we if we pretended like bond funds and general funds were the same is there still a
savings from paying them off early yes it's $40 million but the long-term savings just in the general funds is 303 million inclusive of that 40 um so given the thank you for that answer given the risks associated with cops such as balloon payments and high
interest rates and and uncertainties and state and federal funding how would the district ensure that future debt issuances uh remain sustainable and fiscally responsible moving forward huh that's a complicated question so I
only transact and my position only transacts at the direction of the board right so the board should be looking for the analysis which we provide of the short and long-term fiscal impacts before making the decision to send me to Market to issue debt right so that
process was was followed with the cop and it was a way to get capital projects done that were not yet conceived of by the bond program the idea when the board considered a bond uh and I was here during that time time I had not been here when the cops were issued but I
remember the discussion very clearly of community and board members saying well could we use some of those proceeds if we can pass the bond to pay down these cops that we're paying for out a general fund and the answer was yes and that's how they conceived to putting that language in there as one of the options to do that and it's still at the board's
discretion if that's what they want to do right so if we want that savings to the general fund which has been one of the goals of the board because we do need general fund relief then this is one of our option is to pay off that portion of the cops from Bond proceeds um it's also statutorily recognized so
one of the statutorily state recognized uses of bond funds is to do that but you also put it in your bond language well when the cops came to it didn't came the cops didn't come from the board it came from you know your predecessor or from the superintendent so it's not something that we pushed
forward it was something that was informed to us that we should you know the cops were going to be are the best way to um fund some capital projects because there were insufficiencies in bond money so it didn't come from us
yeah so it's it was the only option that you had if you couldn't rep prioritize or see your way to getting those things paid for in the bond program so if if the desire to get them done was there but they couldn't be absorbed into the bond program then it is your only other option as a school board that's correct
so if measure us had not passed well what alter alternative strategies would the district have pursued to address the existing cop obligations without measure us there was no alternative so it would just come out of the general fund there would been so there was no plan
to yeah so cops can they're actually guaranteed against two things when you go to market they they do look for a property value to to basically pronounce a lean against just sort of like a mortgage what's the property you're going to pledge but it's guarant guaranteed against your general fund y
so it is a general fund loan um you mentioned that you were not you know the CFO during the time that we voted on the cops uh would you have taken the same approach why or not had you been in that position um that's more
in the area of opinion and and training my my background is not to engage in cops when you have a bond program uh when you have a bond program uh and we have a large Bond program uh you know we have 16 or 17 billion in outstanding issuance still then if you want to get
work done then the board typically would engage with the folks working on the bond program to rep prioritize and make sure that their current priorities are reflected in the near-term project execution uh and and that would be the way to make sure it's encapsulated by
that Bond now I don't know that that's happened I've only been here for a sh short period of time but if but if they were not acceptable expenses to the bond program then you do only have one other lending mechanism which is a cop okay thank you for that um I just I
we did receive a a letter from the bond oversight committee um that was not included in the on the board book because it came after so I just want to um just read if if you know if you all will indulge me indulge me in this and some of the
um concerns that they expressed um from the cop so one um they said the action circumvents the responsibility of the BC to provide fiscal and program oversight to consider projects before approval and I know this came to them rather um
hastily the same that it came to us although we I know we did have opportunities to ask questions but it you know it came you know at a point that if we don't do this now uh we will not have another opportunity later on so the district um continue reading what
they said the district brought this proposed AC to amend the SCP and utilize bond funds to pay for projects after the projects have been approved by the district and funded by cops in December of 2023 reviewing the projects after the fact prevents the bo from having
meaningful input in the prudence and permissibility of the projects and I do agree with them there's a reason why we have the boc um it is difficult for the boc to carry out this oversight role when it is not involved or informed in a timely manner of matters that impact the bond
program written materials for this action were made available to the boc and the public less than 48 hours before boc's consideration for this extremely complex item um at its February 27th 2025 meeting their second concern while
uh while advantageous to the district's general fund the action is detrimental to the district's Bond program the action Saves The District's general fund approximately 300 Million by Shifting the costs of the three projects to the bond fund while there would no while
there would be no net increase in assessments paid by taxpayers the bond program essentially loses 250 million in Project value projects that cannot be funded and constructed because of this action it is also now assumed that any
cost overruns of these projects would be paid from the bond programs uh Reserve this would be an additional cost to the bond program that is now not now quantifiable um they also mentioned while this may have been the appearance
of financial advantage to save 300 million in a general fund by reallocating 250 million in bond funds to general fund expenditures this does not account for the time value of money and the cost of inflation because the savings occurs many years into the
future and the impact on the bond fund is more immediate the overall impact is a loss further the district's own analysis estimates that in today's dollars not on a net uh present basis across all funds the overall impact is a
loss of $4.4 million do you agree with this or what is your opinion on that so the short-term loss analysis is $4.4 million in the first three years but we look at the entire transactional period and so the savings is $33 million and all funds it's still 40 million they uh
and further down they say as press presented this proposal will result in taxpayers paying interest and principle concurrently on both newly issued measure US general obligation bonds sold to fund this Defence as well as on Cops which are not calable um until October
1st 2023 is that true yes M so um I don't feel comfortable um are comfortable in in voting for this so I would not be voting for this it just to let you all know and want to you
know and agree with the bond oversight committee's uh concerns just just a couple of things that were referenced uh that uh that need to be clarified so this is not the only opportunity for the board to do it we were suggesting that the board do it now before our ratings were degraded
because of our our fiscal deficit right now right so we we want to always go to market at the best financial time for the district we are already going to sell bonds uh for measure us a portion of that sale would be used for the defant if the board would like but that was also at at the board request so this
wasn't something that we were moving forward with uh at my behest it's just another part of a transaction for me right so the board has asked for relief for the general fund this is one of the Avenues that you have um what is the loss for going later it'll be more
expensive and you know the $22 million uh for that we could be saving this year and next year would be lost so that's an opportunity cost that doesn't have a a an emotional value to it it's just that's the opportunity cost of waiting at this time and we are looking
at potentially not having the same uh fiscal rating as we do currently and and I'll just reinfor I'll reinforce that point because I I think board member Ras you asked you know what does the staff do to ensure that we're managing Debt Service in a thoughtful way so that we
aren't incurring greater cost and so when we choose to issue in particular periods we weigh those particular criteria areas that that Mr Mount just hit on um when you're looking at ratings when you're looking at the market
favorability um that does inform interest that is incurred as a result of the issuance and so um we're choosing to act now because we think the market is favorable to issue against um uh the bonds as well as def fees the
cop um real quickly so if measure us funds were already planned to uh cover for the cops why did you come why did you not why was not this brought to us prior to now why why not in was voted in
November if it was planned in you know December or January February why come now and not prior at least to provide Bo with ample time to weigh in so I believe uh measure us was was approved by the voters in November uh December was was
too soon to get anything on the board agenda so we got the first agenda in the new year before we're going to Market so we're going to Market in April uh that's when we'll be issuing the first us uh new money issuance as well as refunding between three and 400 million uh of old bonds for which we can find better
interest rates currently and so it's best to do all those transactions at once we don't go to market throughout the year there's cost with doing it over and over again so we try to get as many of our transactions together at once and if we're covering now these cops would
these 200 or 238 million um take away from the projects that were already planned for this because now we have less money for those project it comes out the 238 million comes out of the $9 billion of of bond authorization absolutely um that is that's never been stated anything else this is to
literally pay off something that's coming out of your general fund with something that was conceived of by putting the language in measure us to look for general fund relief and and that's been discussed publicly by the board that's the only only reason it the the language went into the measure it's
the only reason we're proposing the transaction uh like I said if the board doesn't want to do the transaction we don't get the general fund relief There's an opportunity cost there and that's a choice but we have to bring it when the board says that they want us to look at it and Mr Mountain the who does Kelly
okay go ahead Kelly then I'll ask after thank you Mr scharon um I I appreciate the conversation and and I think you know if we were redoing this in present day 2025 with a An approved Bond I'm I'm certain that we wouldn't
necessarily take the same approach of of going the cop's route um I guess just to to provide a little bit of rationale in my mind of of why that step was necessary um one project that we've actually already voted on Tab 23 the um
contract the Construction contract to uh complete the electrification of the Sun Sun Valley bus yard this is a bus garage that we utilize um for over a 100 school buses here in the valley it's right next to a span school um in my district the
only uh bus site that is directly adjacent to a school site because it's not a school location it's not eligible for Bond projects so we couldn't utilize any other funds to do this upgrade and it's a really essential um effort in order to protect the health Health um of
our students at Sun Valley magnet who have been demanding that we do something about this bus garage that um is bringing Fuel and fumes every day where students are playing Just across the fence so I I do I just want to highlight that there are some projects like that
that were not Bond eligible um that we were only able to undertake um to improve the environmental health um and physical health of our students and staff because of the cop um so I I and note that the project came
in under budget as well so I thank the team who was able to achieve that um and then more generally you know this effort is um does save us money in the in the general fund I think that that's the the immediate takeaway is that um there are
savings that we are generating here and we need to utilize those funds for a lot of other things such as school supplies vital staff positions you know we just had this conversation about the second inter um where we're looking at um the long-term Outlook and our concerns around how do we protect School site
programs how do we protect staff at our sites when costs are going up um so I certainly hear the boc's concerns I appreciate Dr Ras um walking us through them um and I hope that we can work in in close collaboration with them moving forward but I think that this is an
important thing to do for the overall fiscal health of our district and again to the overall end of protecting our our school sites from the likely economic impact acts that we're facing in future years so Mr Mount the um positive
savings to the district by voting yes today would be what what amount you you said so so this there savings are split into different ways so there's no savings to the bond program right let's just be clear on that people keep saying what's the savings there isn't one we're using that money to pay off the debt
taken out in the general fund so the savings to the general fund is 303 million over the next 14 years and 40 million of that is is Savings in paying off early for for interest and and and early payments right if we look at all
funds so if I was imagining that the bond fund and the general fund were the same there's still a $40 million savings by by pre prepaying so anytime you pay off a a loan you do get a bit of a savings now this isn't a traditional loan our investors are looking to get back some of their money so it's not as
much of a savings but it's still a $40 million savings got it got it Mr superintendent yes I I appreciate the narrative and the questions and the explanations um I just want to be clear about a couple of things number one uh to the point that was made earlier it is absolutely true that uh this is an idea
that was proferred actually by speakers when the cops item was first uh entertained also by some degree of board commentary that sought to relieve as much as possible general fund liabilities because those funds are the funds that primarily support schools so
much so that when a measure us was drafted the language that individuals voted on explicitly included the the viability of utilizing measure us bond funds to relieve cops
payment correct it is in language so this was actually widely advertised to the community prior to the community voting on this uh secondly um and I appreciate the important question so what would be the alternative to
Cops uh if we did not go in that direction to satisfy a number of projects some of which are generated by board resolution when the bond does not allow them to be included as a liability meaning it is not legal to use Bond
dollars to pay for some of those Investments there is no other alternative I mean you could go out and and borrow money from a bank to the extent that you could at this level not feasible at much higher interest rates but these are the only two vehicles it's
it's a bond referendum which is paid overtime or cops and uh the intent here consistent with what was discussed when the cops item was first entertained by the board was you approve this now with
the commitment that we would explore the feing reducing this liability that obviously rationally needs to be interpreted that in in a way that if you do that yes you are removing some of the bond funding but I want to
be very clear measure us the $9 billion is spread its utilization probably over the next 15 15 years we've taken great Care As We examined where would These funds or what
projects would be would have the least impact as they were as they would be now the the revenu shifted over to eliminate cops and if the board um looks at what's being proposed are projects that
probably will be at the tail end of the bond my assumption and this is where I derve some degree of comfort is that by the time the board gets to a point where projects funded by measure us would become a reality meaning before
the board's vote this board probably will be entertaining another Bond referendum so there will be continuity what there's no continuity for is without cups some Investments would not be able to be made now if this ises
not move forward you know Chris is not going to lose sleep he's not going to lose sleep this was an idea that was entertained over an emphasis on relieving as much as possible general fund revenues because those are direct investments into schools salaries
increases Health Care Etc it's not bondable um so the pros are at over $300 million reduction in total liability net $40 million benefit to the general fund
and and um no measurable loss of investment in the bond programs that we envision because those are years down the road but a direct investment into board priorities without which we would not be
able to build the Sun Valley charging stations for example uh so that is the reality this is not something that we are dying to do it is simply a vehicle to reduce uh the general fund liability
uh while protecting the board's priorities which are reflected in some of the projects are being funded yeah go ahead and then we're going to have public comment okay um for me it's the fact that when when measure
us went before our our our angelinos our taxpayers voters it was presented to address the needs of our facilities of our schools 80 years of um of of facilities needs that are our schools needed we didn't have enough
money the this bond this measure us did not go forward to our taxpayers saying oh we're also going to use this Mone money for the debt that we incurred it was it was not presented that way so in a way I understand how you know are some taxpayers may feel
like they were misled and how these measure us funds were were going to be utilized that was not the message that we sent to our taxpayers and yes I do agree that we need to release some funds from General um um from the general fund and then we needed these projects for
our um the electrification and I know that those are the goals I completely understand that it's just the way it was presented and the way we went about it um that is my concern I I just wish that uh we would have been more upfront about
it and everything that I read about measure us never said that it was going to be paying for the debt that the district had incurred a year before it was to address the needs of our schools the schools that our student that our students deserved and that's how it was presented to me and to all of Angelino
so I feel that and you know to the bond oversights committee um to to their points as well I mean we have an oversight committee for a reason and if we're not taking their concerns seriously then why even have one so that
that's just my concern my reservations about this is the way we went about it was just not I think very um fair to our our taxpayers that's all that's where I'm coming from I I'd just like to stress very clearly
that um what we're doing here is funding the priorities that voters um were articulated during the election electrification uh Safety and Security investment in a number of projects uh
districtwide um and so when we talk about alignment and promise this is very much align to what voters uh received in in their advocacy thank you yeah I was going to say quickly just as a point of clarification without Weighing on the the merits I do plan to
support this I am pretty sure and maybe someone that measure us did say explicitly one of the things we would do is pay down or um refinance and defease the cops so I just um correct yeah just for the record I want to I don't want to yeah
misso yes thank you so um I wasn't here when that happen with you all neither were you when and all these decisions were made so if you can just um share with me um what um how these the the I I looked
at the list of priorities um in the presentation and um so was that something that the board decided so there's the electric buses but also enrollment modernization student Information Systems upgrade student
support application modernization campus safety system improvements student data analytics reporting and dashboards cyber security Improvement program and green schools for all program so that was all a board decision so there were there were actually 14 items brought to the
board and they prioritized and funded the top ones and at that time there was also a conceit that we would be continuing to issue bonds to fund the totality of that but when the cops were issued is when the the push back of using the general fund uh to pay for projects came out when we had a bond
program so that was when the board said well if we get another Bond let's put the language in there to make sure that we can pay off this debt so this was decided in 2023 and then um the bond decision happened when early 24 last when I mean
it was on the but when did you decide that you were going to put it on the ballot August of 2024 okay so and then the the cops were decided oh gosh in when in 23 um it was
June of 2023 was when it was approved by the board so there was no talk about a potential Bond coming up in November you guys had not thought about that at that point that was a year a year and a half before so we hadn't okay so you didn't think oh we can do it in November
because you knew there was an election coming so I think one of the the elements that is important to know I think uh Miss gones talked about priorities and execution the intent was to execute on a number of projects that Were Meant to align to priorities of the
board electrification electrifying the Sun Valley yard uh answering the call to the community around some of the Safety and Security concerns cyber security was one elements as well that we had recently experienced and so absent our ability to access any Capital bond funds
with for those things that were eligible um this was one of the mechanisms to actually fund those immediate needs and actually amortize them over time so you didn't incur one lump sum hit to our general fund you spread that over time um but when you look at the annual
expense right now the debt obligation to pay off uh the cops is about $36 million annually what we're proposing here is to uh free up the annual expense of about $21
million um which will then be freed up in our general fund for other expenditures I appreciate that and I bring it up because one of the the the points that the boc made in their letter is that when these issues come up then why not reprioritize instead of taking
on a cop that's going to you know we have to pay it off using our general fund why not you know pause and think well maybe we need to rep prioritize where we're spending our money so I just think it's it's one of those things that it's advice coming from an organization of folks who are looking at this
information and I think that for the future maybe we can pause and think about about well you know do we want to continue getting these things in light of these B these cops in light of the fact that we have to pay it off using our general fund and that is such precious that's such a precious fund so
I just think that um I appreciate the boc's um letter because I think it's they're giving us insight and some advice on how we do things right and it's calling us out
on the fact that you know you all circumvented the process you went you you did this after the fact and I you know I accept that and I think that we we take a moment to to think about how we move forward um I am going to support
it because um I know you're saying that it's going to save us money in the general fund and I think if we can pay something off um sooner than later and it's going to save money um in the general fund I'm all for that but there
was a a public uh a person who spoke earlier today who said that actually you're not going to save money because there's going to be some uh penalties I guess for paying it off early and so in the end you're not going to wind up
saving so that's one thing that kind of stuck with me and I'm wondering about that and if you can address it and then the second thing is in the letter um the be in the the boc's letter they said further the district's own analysis estimates that in today's dollars on a
net present basis across all funds the overall impact is a loss of 4.4 million and so where is that statement coming from from from the BLC I don't know if you answered that already by the way it's actually coming from me uh so I do
an analysis uh with Tim and if Tim would like to speak to it so so people are confusing short-term impact mm with total impact so in the first two years there is a negative impact in other words we're paying more out of the bond than we would have out of the general fund but I'm looking at the entire
payoff amount okay right so the entire payoff amount saves money in the general fund only and if I was to combine them again it still saves $40 million than what we would have paid out of uh over in in interest in payments over the over the length of the cop when will we start
seeing that savings when will so we'll see it in the general fund immediately but again if if people keep saying what is the savings to the bond fund there is not one they are paying off the debt right so so yes there is a a it immediately it's more expensive for
the first two years to pay it off out of the bond but long term it's cheaper and it's saving us long-term in in uh general fund as well as shortterm okay all right did you want to address the did I explain all that correctly it's
all correct thank you so are we ready for uh public comment everyone we're ready public comment we're ready for public comment okay thank you he we have six speakers it looks like five of whom are in person or four of whom are in person so I'll call on
the folks who are in person first and then we will switch to the folks who are remote so the first three folks are Maria Louisa Palma come on up you have two minutes to speak once you begin then Juan Jose mandhi and then after Mr mandhi is I think I think I S saw Dianna
guen who was here in person not not remotely so Maria Lisa Palma Juan Jose mandhi and then di guen good afternoon I want to remind you of this booklet that went out to all of us
voters and in this booklet it clearly says that there is such a thing as an independent citizens oversight committee required by law for the bond program it says the purpose of the committee shall be to inform the public concerning the
expenditure of bond proceeds in accordance with provisions of the Ed code the committee shall actively review and report on the proper expenditure of taxpayer money for projects on the bond project list in accordance with the Education Code so the letter that you
have from the bond oversight committee is in that that intent to inform you and the public on what they consider to be the proper use now the quotes that you keep getting that I read out of the board Reports say that you are saving
Debt Service of 303 million over the 14-year period but the bond oversight committee is trying to tell you when you're talking about money you can't talk about future money as an exact dollar amount you have to discount it
back that's what they're talking talking about on the Net Present Value basis okay so it's fine that perhaps Mr Mount says that over a long period of time there is a savings where is that analysis you should have a schedule in
your materials that show the exact payments how much interest is being paid prepaid if that is so I believe it is on the cops and then what will you pay an interest on the new issue of the bond that's what I want to see as a taxpayer because yes Mr Mount agrees there is no
savings total because the bond program will still be paying for this so all of that comes out of our pocket the general fund comes from our pocket the bond funds come from our pockets so I want the best use of those funds because
otherwise if you are double paying interest during this period I will consider that a waste a misuse of public funds perhaps fraud if you don't have that information all we ask is for you to get the schedule to get the exact dollar amounts all those calculations we
have not been able to see those calculations in the public you keep asking about them apparently you haven't seen them either please get those before you approve thank you for your time Juan Jose mandhi are you here Mr Mandi does anyone see Mr Mandi okay then
miss Ken please come on up Miss Ken's gonna speak in Spanish so if you'd like to hear what she's saying in English please put your hands up we'll get you these headsets so you can experience simultaneous okay list good afternoon members of the board first of all I just want to thank Miss
Rosio for asking these questions about this that you have it under consent that it was going to be approved and I want to say Mr carvalo that not something because it's illegal is legal I'm sorry it is correct and also Mr salido that you don't have ethic in wanting to
approve these types of B bonds now since the tax pay it's taxpayers money the oversight committee the bond committee they are telling you clearly what is happening and you have to listen to them or you will also be like the paring committee
that you're going to ignore them completely and you're going to just do whatever you want or you as board members will you approve everything that Mr carvalo is saying that it's okay you need to have reasoning you need to have know what's happening and the misuse of
funds that is happening do you have a deficit who is responsible all of you each one with your vote you need to decide what cuts need to be made because we can't have everything we wish we could have it all but you cannot you have to decide and Miss GGO I ask you to
consider your vote since this will affect families you're always talking about all the families poor families immigrants but you know what all of us immigrants will pay that for 30 years our children and my grandchildren will pay for it so you need to really think about how you're going to do this and
when the voters did this this will be paid out in 30 years you need to have transparency and that is why we need to review these transactions and that is why we have this um Bond committee to take them into consideration not just because here and just because Mr garval
and Salo say that it's okay you can do it no you need to make your own assessment and see all the deficit that the district have because all this money we will pay as taxpayers and you have made very poor deis that's why we're in this hole but you don't need to have the
public faith for it you need to be responsible in better managing the money thank you thank you for your time uh let's see David Gray are you here David Gray come on up Mr Gray you'll have two minutes to speak once you begin and following Mr David Gray is David to
kovski so David and then David hello school board and Mr cabado my hat is off to you you all uh today's been quite a stream of information and ideas um to think that our capabilities have doubled every year may not even be close to
reality War's law may not even be real anymore um we've seen nvidia's new handheld AI supercomputers a super computer that you can hold in your palm of your hand we've seen IBM Google and Microsoft's quantum
computers uh and massive neuro networks have created a whole new world of computing at speeds at subatomic speeds um we can so shouldn't we utilize these Technologies to best protect our children teachers and give them a warm
inviting and comfortable learning environment the problems and emergencies that you all deal with daily are not just how to identify weapons or trigger alarms much of the misinformation and Chaos that First Responders deal with
comes from what happens after the alarms are Tri triggered um a holistic approach to Emergency Management has to include what comes after those alarms are triggered our current emergency communications are
dangerously lacking we are far um we are for the most part still depending on voice Communications over 911 phone calls Simplex radios and Standalone cell phones to communicate life critical information and planning we have the
technology for Teacher over staff and AI controlled alarms technology that supports instant decentralized communication systems that instantly unite all First Responders with the children and teachers whose lives depend on them this Communications vehicle
needs to be visual via Instant bidirectional Video visual conference calls just like you guys do every day on your cell phones my ask for this body is for an opportunity to show you that technology thank you thank you for your
time uh and now Mr David doovi thank you very much I spoke to you two years ago when the cops were being put before you I warned you it was about the general fund it is a good idea to defease them get them off the general fund but you have a burden and a responsibility to bring the bond
oversight committee right here and talk to you in public not through a letter talk to them directly maybe the superintendent and team could ask questions that bring common ground but to go ahead today and not wait for them to speak is very
questionable you heard a moment ago that the voters approved measure us they also approved the bond oversight committee okay that was in the ballot don't you want to take a moment to hear from the county auditor controller who voted yes
but had the questions bring them forward you're going to approve him later in the meeting okay so don't approve him unless you want to bring them in did you ask how much were paying the advisers the bond councils the others that ran around you're paying them once
to issue the cops you're paying them again and you'll probably pay them again and remember this was on the agenda for 1.3 billion thank God the superintendent whoever stepped in and put a stop to the 1.3 because it was headed to that higher number and we knew there was a
structural deficit and we knew there were general fund problems but we still went ahead with it did you ask was there competitive bids to get the deal and why are we only putting 250 of the 500 million back did you get an answer to that these are
things you should get answers to before you move ahead is f facilities a problem are they not doing what they should do are we blaming them let's figure it out ask the questions we knew the Cyber attack was September of 2022
okay we didn't even go to the cops till much after that go out to the Sun Valley bus depot see how much electrification has happened in two years Greg dannis your lawyer naara Reed your lawyer said I never advise my school districts to
use cops never cops and robbers is what I learned this building if you love it was funded by cops because it was a political nightmare and we didn't want to put it on the bond I encourage you to pass this but not tonight get answers
come back thank you for your time we have one remote caller Lauren aam Lauren please press star six to unmute yourself and you have two minutes to speak once you begin Lauren akam hi thank you my name is Lauren aim and I'm the climate codirector at the
alliance for new economy where working with diverse partners for climate progress to win real change for workingclass communities and communities of color and a big component of this is healthy and green Public Schools so I really appreciate um all that the board has done to consider this and the ways
in which various resources of the district can help move that forward we know that clean air and relief from extreme heat are crucial for racial Justice and Equitable learning outcomes and obviously funding is a big part of that and so I appreciate this discussion
and the resolution adopted earlier today around ofli to F funding I've been trying to wrap my head around this so I really appreciate Dr Ras and board member guo's questions and Miss gan's comments on the importance of the buffard electrification and from what I
understand what I can understand I'm glad to see the district relieving pressure on the general fund um uh for some of these important projects that said I also look forward to hearing more about how the US will approach resourcing continued progress towards
the district commitments to clean energy and fleets and green schoolyards given that the bond would be needed to back sell funding for some of those projects that had already been committed for schoolyard Greening clean bus and charging projects and those solar projects discussed last month so I would
love to continue to work together and hear more about how we can bring additional resources um for future projects that will help ensure a healthy green future for LD students and staff and again really appreciate all of the thoughtful questions from the board members on this important and very
complex item and know that we and the public also appreciate those questions because they help us understand these um very complex issues thanks thank you for your time that concludes public comment on this item so Mr McLean we are ready to vote
on this item that's correct okay okay roll call vote on Tab six uh Miss nubil abstain Dr revas I just want to say preface by saying that yes um this fiscal move is
smart but the process was very opaque and not very inclusive and we disregarded our boc and as I mentioned it was voted in the measures and that's why I'm voting I'm going to abstain um Mr Melo yes Miss
grigo yes with the caveat that we need to uh really um be more transparent not transparent but more open and and stop and consider things before we enter into these cops again
uh Miss gones yes uh Miss Ortiz Franklin moose artiz Franklin uh board member schmon yes all right so that leaves us with one
two three four yeses two abstentions and one unrecorded vote sh uh in any event it passes shall we leave the role open for Miss orti Franklin okay we'll come back to that I I want to
note that we have one two three four five six seven eight nine items of business remaining to conduct some of which have about I think uh two two 15 public comment uh slots filled each um so we have a good amount of business
ahead of us for the evening just want to let everyone know so tab seven cannot be on consent um can I have a motion in a second to bring this to the table move
it moves then Mr uh meloy seconds no one had alerted as to any discussion but maybe there is some now no okay let's do roll call vote uh Miss nuil yes Dr
Ras yes uh Mr meloine yes Miss Grio yes Miss gones yes uh Miss Ortiz Franklin board president schmon yes okay
that is one two three four six yeses we will come back to miss Ortiz Franklin okay tab eight I have a motion in a second to bring it move it uh moved by um Mr mvo and
seconded by I believe that was Miss gones yes yes okay roll call vote uh Miss nubel yes Dr revas yes Mr melne yes Miss Grio yes Miss gonz yes yes Miss Ortiz
Franklin board president schmon yes okay that's six eyes okay tab 12 Define and approve four charter school facilities upgrade projects and amend the facility services division strategic execution plan to incorporate therein this was placed on
discussion some folks wanted to talk about it this is tab 12 I I seem to be recalling bd1 or two but I can't remember remember which okay so no discussion on this second okay move by Mr melin
seconded by uh Miss Nill all right Miss nuell yes Dr Ras is this for item 12 that's correct yes Mr Mel yes Miss Grio yes Miss gones yes
uh Miss Ortiz Franklin yes board president schmon yes sorry yes okay so seven I's while I have um Miss Ortiz Franklin here can I capture your votes for tabs seven and eight yes and
yes thank you thank you um and Miss gonz can I record your vote for tabs 4 and 24 yes I was just going to note that for you um yes and yes and if it's not too late to be a co-sponsor on 24 I'd love to be
added okay thank you I'm just checking for public comment just give me one moment please okay this moves us to tab 13 I have a public statement to read about tab 13 okay before action is taken on board
report number uh 222 d2425 approval of the renewal petition for Community magnet Charter Elementary a public hearing must be held this constitutes that public hearing and a maximum of 15 individuals who wish to address the board on the item will be heard those who wish to speak should sign up online
speakers will be called by name so this is tab 13 do we have any presenters on Tab 13 I don't believe that we do um all right so we have one public speaker that is Mr David rovski okay is there I believe there is
discussion on Tab 13 oh here comes Mr doovi oh Mr doovi just in time sir thank you you'll have two minutes to speak why don't you begin thank you very much for the opportunity to speak on Affiliated Charter Affiliated Charter is a charter that is
uh part of the district it used to be called a dependent Charter by the previous General Council and I changed it to an Affiliated because dependent doesn't really give you a good sense of the opportunities and you have opportunities this Affiliated Charter and the second one coming
up are utla represented charters they are part of the district and you could expand the number of Affiliated charters in fact if the superintendent wanted to I know it's a little difficult because it's very decentralizing you could make every school in the district
an Affiliated District Charter that means if your schools are performing better than other districts instead of lying about your address you could actually just transfer in you could be and in fact that's happening the previous head of strategic enrollment
said in front of the public that all the Affiliated Charters were full first of all that was either a lie or it was a testimony to how successful they are if they are all full then you should be banking more of them should continuation schools
opportunity schools kids who go to other districts have the opportunity should a small school that's about to be strategized to be closed should a small school just prevented but become an Affiliated Charter develop its
own autonomy this is a question that I raise Palisades High which all of you represent currently has over 1500 kids of its student online and I may not be up to- dat of the exact situation at
sirs robu but let me tell you you should be enrolling 1500 kids not in a three-hour online but at unihi and at Westchester and at dorsy and other schools because those kids live all over the district they don't live online this is an opportunity Affiliated
Charters are an opportunity and superintendent cortinis understood that because he prevented all the Affiliated charters in your District Mr Schon from becoming independent Charters thank you for your time we have some discussion on this
item yes um I just want to ask Mr Jose ker to be here um I do I have some concerns about extending um Tri renewals for six years given the fact that um because of covid a lot of schools the
the charters uh you know were extended for a few more years so um wanted to ask you if you can provide us with your rationale for providing why would a school oh well I know here we're we're you know the school is community magnet
Charter but I'll be asking the same question for the the schools I got six years um what what was the rationale for providing five six or seven and how do the each dep each Charter that is of you know before us for Renewal why did they meet that
criteria thank you for your question Dr R and good evening everyone first this is grounded in state law when the charter schools Act was amended through ab55 in the um about 2020 when it was became official or so uh there was a
provision in law that allowed for high per performing charter schools which are classified by the state you're either High middle or low based on the state's classification the district receives that and the law allows those schools to be considered for a five six or sevene term but the law does not provide nor do
regulations exist saying what are the different criteria factors so after the the law was passed the district brainstormed you know uh did our research and came up with some of those factors to consider that are in the district's board policy but also there's
some in practice so for example for Community magnet on page 966 we share some of that rationale uh and these are uh included but not limited to first we look at our oversight record in the areas of
academics governance Etc and want to make sure that um for those areas that they have higher marks so we have posted on our website and in the policy the demarcations uh for those criteria okay so in this case 7year which is the
highest you need to be high performing through what we call Criterion one okay that's the state Criterion one blue and green on all your dashboard indicators Community Magnum missed it by one in chronic absenteeism in I think 22 23 otherwise
it would have met Criterion one would have probably recommended a seven-year term they did it they got it through Criterion two where they're their academic uh indicators for all students is higher than the state and their majority of their student groups are higher than the state they meet that
hence they they are qualify under R review uh to start there for a six-year term then we look at other areas they have received a majority of fours uh and no scores in three and you'll see in the record they have fours and threes they have not received any notices to cure in
the last two years that's the case here we look at other additional uh factors do they have benchmarks not the case here are there any issues with equity and access these this school and our Affiliated schools follow our unified enrollment process we have not been made
aware do we see concerns at this time regarding those access and Equity issues and any issues with school climate and culture and we do not have those their suspension rates as one point are very low so considering all those factors grounded in state law the factors we
consider in the boorder approved policy um they Merit six-year term so I I'll stop there for any other questions no that was all I just wanted to you know just for the public record how you came about to to the six years and giving the six years and knowing the
the landscape we're in overall right L um enrollment is going down for even for Charter Schools um and the the uncertainties that lie ahead for Budget were there any concerns and giving six years I mean it's a long time anything
can happen within those six years um so what is your oversight in making sure that Within These six years is long term you know that you there the schools the charter schools are remaining you know fiscally viable or anything can happen
within those six years absolutely this would apply for independent or affiliate this is an Affiliated Charter School uh a district operated school Under the board's governance for example in this case with your leader leadership and the superintendent we have very active oversight based on policy and law and so
our record annually and not just with our one visit we'll do as many visits as necessary announced or unannounced depending on the school's record to assess that so for example this school is glowing with its results um certainly uh the finances are
attached to the district so we always have to be mindful of that their enrollment um is overall in a good shape so we're we're we're on top of it each year and then for any other school that maybe uh has weaker enrollment we look very carefully at their numbers we'll
ask them for an updated plan each year our team reviews their audits we review their reserves their rate different ratios Etc and where there are concerns like sometimes you'll see some schools in the county letters where they have maybe a projected negative fund balance
we follow up to see what they're doing how they're making those corrective actions Etc it may rise to letters to notices but the short answer Dr revas even if the board approves pursuant to law a six-year term we're confident given the active oversight that we can
have a sense we can always take action if there are um some appropriate ways to to deal with them during the term uh but our team and looking at the record of this school um do not have those concerns at this time yeah I just wanted you know not everyone
has uh has had although everything is heing your report you know just for public record they may not have an opportunity to read the rationale for five six or seven so I just wanted you to to just address that so that's my only question and then moving forward for the next other schools just State
your rationale just to go over there yeah um and I I also noticed that in some areas like students with disabilities there's no color or no num there's not a number is because well tell me why smaller uh they they they're have a very small number say fewer than
11 students so they're not reported I see and were you able to visit this school myself our our team okay has visited yes every year we visit every single school okay I saw their video and it was very impressive um and I noticed
that one of the things that they talked about was social emotional learning that that is in fact what they Center and uh they lead so if you could just give me some some insights that uh you may have had when you visited the school in terms
of curriculum and terms of the kind of work that the students do are they uh it sounded to me like they're more involved in Hands-On learning project based learning um if you have any insight that would be helpful yeah let me see if one of my team members who may have visited
if we have any for Community magnet yeah uh we could we do have a staff member who visited upstairs but um there let me say this about the school and if we if we'd like we can get you some more information this is a magnet school at the liberal arts program okay
um and if you'd like we have also the oversight report that we could provide that will have more details in terms of the visit not only the results of their academic program but some of the other observations if that would be helpful that would be helpful so we'll send that to the Board of Education thank you
thank you I'm good and just to add to that because as we know as Charters were here to help us understand or to kind of pilot some things for us to be able to come back to Community Schools to be able to show in that report that you give uh are we able
to see some of the samples of you know best practices especially for forther discussion we should uh that should be included but if now we can add some additional points for that yeah thank you thank you Miss
GES hi um to go back to the earlier question about the longer um length of renewal term I was just curious if since Affiliated charter schools are LUSD Charter Schools they're overseen by like the same levels um you know our regions
uh their community of schools directors Etc as all other L schools whether we considered like differentiated criteria for them just in this one it seems like the only area where they aren't generally speaking in blue or green was
that chronic absenteeism in the 22 23 school year which like I'm sure many many many schools in the state of California were struggled with chronic absenteeism this year um so I was just curious if we thought about since these are schools that we directly oversee you know we can intervene at any time if we
have Financial concerns or performance concerns whether we thought about a different approach for them thank you for the question we we had have had those discussions uh board member Gomez gones but we are applying it consistently this year um this is
something that we want to look at given this is our first year back it was applied in 2020 in the last round of renewals as well and we may want to consider additional factors uh moving forward because we going to have more data we'll have a couple more we'll have a a new classification for schools
coming out later this month as expected by the state if all goes well um so we did consider it we maintain the consistency at this time across the schools hence didn't deviate from that even though you note the one area that um that kept them out of the Criterion
one so I I would offer that and ultimately the the decision of firm is the board of education's decision these are this is staff's recommendation as to the term uh but we're trying to apply it uh consistently um for all of our schools independent or Affiliated thank
you thank you go ahead I was going to say very briefly because I I am proud to represent Community It's a Wonderful school with a very rich history it initially open in the 70s I think it was on LA's campus and then moved up to where it is now in belir but it's a full magnet um and I
think it's has to have one of the longest weight lists for any one of our affiliate Charter or magnet schools I mean like you know thousands of kids um and I'm curious too just with chronic absenteeism I know it notes some things like vacations but it is I mean every student there basically takes the bus
because of where they're coming from and so I also wonder too when it comes to tardiness and you miss the bus and then kids don't show up but it's a gem of a school um I would approve it for 10 years if we could and I think Miss GGO and others to see if you know especially given it's one of our schools but I'm sure many Charters would welcome this it would be great you know come visit
anytime I was actually there a couple weeks ago they did a nice celebration of bus drivers because they were also one of the schools that was evacuated during the fires uh and so the students were thanking all of our La unified bus drivers and but it's it's a real wonderful community that does have a focus onal and Hands-On learning and
Project based stuff so I mean maybe we can find a time to visit too um prin have a lot of faith in principal clue who's been there for a while and uh yeah so I would ask for folks support but um it is uh kind of one of the gems of the district so I'm proud to support it today I'll move it if we need to moved
by Mr Mel second seconded by board president schmon okay this is tab 13 approval of the renewal petition for Community magnet Charter Elementary Miss Newell yes Dr Ras yes Mr Mel yes Miss Grio yes
Miss KZ yes um Miss ortise Franklin come back to you Miss orti Franklin board president schmaren yes okay that's six eyes six 13 okay tab 14 I have a public statement
to read about tab 14 before action is taken on board report number 223-242 approval of the renewal petition for Justice Street Academy charter a public hearing must be held this constitutes that public hearing uh and a maximum of 15 individuals who wish to
address the board on the item will be heard those who wish to speak should sign up online speakers will be called by name so this is tab 14 public hearing and it looks like we have a single public commenter Mr David
tolkovsky thank you very much I I began to say that super superintendent cortinez and to some lesser degree Tamar gallinson before Mr schmon took over kept all the Affiliated Charters from going independent in the West Valley they were
all going to go independent which is about 30,000 kids which I calculate is about $750 million dollar per year which could have been going out for 10 years but they became Affiliated and we had to argue that we had to say why it
was good to be part of the district I just don't see any of that happening at all in the Strategic enrollment so you got kids online at palad high you've got kids from my neighborhood in Eagle Rock who go to burn down charters in Pasadena
and now they're accidentally coming back into the district come on where's the Strategic plan to bring them back in Mr Cole Gutierrez is on the mark you have the options of 56 and 7 nobody should be yelling that it has to be five just because they're Charters it should
be based upon the data that you see and so let's take that out of politics there's a law and it's he mentioned it finally if you're telling the role is still open on on the cops and people can change their vote and again I'm for deesing them but I think you need to
answer a lot of questions if you and your staff have truly read this Mr schmon if you have read this through and through every single piece of it then fine your vote is good but if you haven't looked at it then you ought to be aware that you're about to approve
the man who wrote the letter to you from the bond oversight committee for another term fine also you're about to approve Item B in the contracts for uh $250,000 of cops and another one in item
e and some that haven't even started and until you vote on these contracts they're not legally bound bound so you are approving more cops miss grego this meeting they're yours you own them okay get the answers before you jump into it
and you still can get to Wall Street and probably get a better rate than going on right now thank you thank you for your time all right so uh tab 14 was pulled for discussion so I believe Dr Ras did you have yeah my f my same question for um for Justice Street
Academy charter just the rationale for six years particularly given the fact that there have been some declines uh from 2023 to 20 2 4 um and some of our you know like Latino socioeconomically disadvantaged students so anyway but I
know they did are higher than in the data so I just wanted to understand that thank you in brief pursuant to the factors that we consider that have been posted since 2020 we also looked at their um High performing status they they got in through Criterion to so
they're all students group in math and Ela their academic indicators are higher than the state and the majority of their student groups are higher than the state in this case I believe all of their numerically significant student groups are higher than the state in their oversight record on page uh 999 for
example you'll see that they're uh proficient or accomplished which would be three or four on their oversight report we don't have concerns in the areas of access and Equity um School culture and climate uh notices to cure
Etc you're your note about declines yes and we note that for all of our schools will continue to monitor that engage what they're doing about it Etc but they're still higher than the state so uh and based on the the consistent application they Merit the six years in
our in our humble recommendation that's all tab 15 tab 14 any more discussion on Tab 14 okay can I have a motion in a second move it second second by miss nuil all right
Miss nuil yes Dr Ras yes Mr melne yes Miss GGO yes Miss gones Miss Ortiz Franklin board president shlon yes okay we'll come back with those those two
votes brings us to tab 15 approval of the renewable Charter for center for advanced learning I'm going to read the public hearing statement and then we have the two-minute presentation and uh
so forth uh before action is taken on board report number 224 d2425 approval of the renewal petition for center for advanced learning a public hearing must be held this constitutes that public hearing and a maximum of 15 individuals who wish to address the board on the
item will be heard speakers who wish can sign up online and speakers will be called by name let let me just confirm if the petitioner wishes to do the presentation uh at this time
I have a loudspeaker would the petitioner like to make the two-minute presentation at this time shook her head and no answer that was a no okay so um we'll move to the public speakers right off the bat for uh tab 15 okay your dear G come on up you'll
have two minutes to speak once you begin appreciate all y'all's patience thank you very much good good evening board members and superintendent carvalo we thank you for this opportunity my name is Janet Bailey and I'm a charter school staff member our
parents seems like most of them had to leave due to the lengthy day and the schedule they needed to get home to their children and their families so we will end up passing for a lot of our speakers if you need to go through the names okay well you're on the list so do
you do you want to finish up with that minute and a half while you're there it's true I am on the list as I said my name is Janet Bailey and I'm here to request that this board um approve center for advanced learning's
recommendation for Renewal um if you ask me what I love most about our school and what I think makes us great I would absolutely have to say it's the positive climate and culture which is Apparent from the moment you walk into our campus
um our staff is um friendly our staff is congenial our parents feel welcome our parents have access and as a mother of five and a grandparent of 15 I cannot tell you how important something like
access is in the life of a child and in the child's education so knowing that parents at center for advanced learning can make appointments to speak with leadership members teachers are invited
to campus are welcome to campus and frequently come on to campus to volunteer to participate in observations and to support our team is just an incredible thing to witness um am I supposed to watch this
or am I supposed to listen for this it's up to you I mean when it dings I think you have another 20 seconds thank you very much so as I said the access that is available and the the commitment of our team we have a high rate of
returning teachers and staff so that's that's also something important and speaks to my point about the climate and culture at center for advanced learning and on that note once again I would ask that you support the CD's recommendation
for approval of our school and I thank you for your time thank you for your time Paula alria pass okay um let's see araseli madrano come on up you have two minutes to speak once you
begin good evening board superintendent good evening to everybody else my name is arel medano I am the office manager at center for advanced learning for the past 15 years but before working at Center for advanc Journey I was a parent
a parent of four so my all four of my kids graduated from Cal now they're alumni and one is a senior so why am I here I am here because uh Cal I asked for you to please
give us another opportunity to give us a a new renewal we deserve it Cal is a second home to me um Cal has done so much for my kids that made me work there
and now I am providing that support help and all the Necessities to our parents um I just want to say that everybody is welcome at the school all the parents as you can see we had a whole full roll of
parents here supporting uh unfortunately it got late so they had to leave but I speak as both parent and staff um I can only say that U Cal has given me the opportunity to work there just because
of the staff that we have there um it just everything that we do there is for the kids we support 100% the parents um we the team we are a team we have a great team at our school and um like Dr
Hammond used to say Teamwork Makes the Dream work so I will always keep it in my mind um another thing is that we always recognize what um our mission and vision is we always make sure that we go through our mission and vision and our words for our kids is Excellence is our
only option so I ask and beg that we do get a renewal thank you thank you for your time uh Raina Diaz pass right uh Jessica
Lopez pass uh let's see I'm going to mispronounce this name I fear yente Livingston pass Bianca Rodriguez pass also had to leave thank you thank you apologies Victor
pinetta Victor is here come on down Victor come on up Victor Victor's here no sorry oh we are going to yield that time to one of our alum
outstanding come come on down thank you so hi uh my name is Alexis Gino and I graduated from C in 2013 so I'm here to speak to you as an Alum of the school so recently I have graduated from the University of California Irvine where I earned my Bachelor of Science and
pharmaceutical science there I gained not only research experience in a pharmacology research lab but I I'm also a co-author to a research paper that has yet to be published so I'm here to speak to you about how cow helped prepare me for the path that I have taken now I
could speak to you about the academic rigor of the school one that prepares all its students for any subsequent challenges that they'll face in the following grades but I believe that is something that is self-evident and something you can easily find what I want to speak to you more so is about
the community and the team building and the commity and the um collaboration that the students have with one another I'm sure I don't need to emphasize that in our modern day interdisciplinary collaborations and teamwork is essential to anything and
everything and it is vital for Success the students here are a part of a close-nit community it is not a situation where a student will be struggling and one thinks to themselves oh it's just someone in my English class struggling or someone in my math class
struggling it is their friend their that is struggling those students see this and they help each other it's not just the students that help each other lift each other up it is also the teachers as part of a small the small class sizes
allows each and everyone to know each other and to help each other and to build each other up so I implore you to renew the school and I am asking you this not just as an Alum but also of the Big Brother of a little sister who is currently attending the school
thank you for your time uh Carla hialgo pass uh concepion Morgan pass Stephanie beltron come on up miss beltron you have two minutes to speak once you begin good afternoon dear superintendent
and board of directors my name is Stephanie Beltran this is my first year as principal of Cal and actually it is my first year as principal ever so you can imagine what this feels like being uh up here as you know speaking for this
firee renewal it is definitely a learning experience that I very much appreciate and I wouldn't pick another school I cannot imagine doing this for any other school besides cal um so I'm just going to go ahead and read what I said so my journey at center for advanced learning began not too long ago when I decided to step out of the
classroom within months Cal began to push me to my full potential a potential not even I knew I had now I stand before you as the principal of center for advanced learning a title I am so proud to hold but my story is not unique here at cal cal is a center where we strive
for excellence from both our students and our staff our students become leaders at Yale Stanford and UCLA and UCI I'm so proud of him and our staff move up to very um to leadership positions Cal is the foundation for growth empowerment and success we are
not only an element Elementary School we are where students come in and say Excellence is our only option the people behind me and the people who were here our parents and the people who are on campus now and will always make sure that that is true and I want to thank
you for your consideration this afternoon thank you thank you for your time Nicole Sims come on up you have two minutes to speak when you begin good evening board members and superintendent my name is Nicole Sims and I'm the
reading specialist at the center for advanced learning I'm originally from the Inland Empire when relocating to the Los Angeles area I had the opportunity to interview for a variety of schools cal made my choice so easy Cal's loving
family environment and commitment to a growth mindset really stood out to me Cal has adopted the motto Excellence is our only option this model is special to me because it reminds me every day that we are committed to ensure our students
succeed we will not fail them at the end of every day every ounce of energy is spent making sure our students are learning and growing we have made great strides this year and we just like our school mascot the rocket our desire is
to shoot for the stars we offer literacy classes for our community an enriching after school program Extended Learning opportunities and much more we have grown our Student Success team and have been intentional to be certain that we are meeting the needs of all of our students I humbly ask you to
continue to support the center for advanced learnings growth and improve our renewal so we can continue to make a difference in the lives of our students and the communities that we serve thank you for your consideration thank you for your time Winnie
Peterson come on up you'll have two minutes to speak once you begin uh good evening Schoolboard member superintendent and friends my name is Winnie Peterson and I teach second grade at the center for advanced learning I love our school I have been a classroom teacher at the school since it was
founded and I absolutely love working for an organization that values its staff and students I am so appreciative of the opportunity that c has given me to really get to know my students as well as their families and friends we are more than a school we are a family this can be evidence by the events
schoolwide theme days and weekly uh and weekend extra credit projects we organiz for our Scholars which include classroom spelling bees honor rooll assemblies schoolwide parties like our I ready celebration Multicultural Festival Hispanic Heritage Month Spirit Week
Thanksgiving food drive Red Ribbon Week Black History Month Spirit Week Dynamic field trips bring your favorite blank to school day which allows for or presentation skills to be improved create your own blank as an introduction to a new academic unit we also offer
wonderful online programs to our students on their own classroom Chromebooks such as epic which is the Netflix of books for kids cahoot and bit competitive online review quiz apps that make learning a lot of fun 99 math which is also an online uh platform that helps
students develop math skills through games extra math online math fluency program that helps students develop quick recall and automaticity of basic math skills I ready freckle and Prodigy uh a small list online learning Pro platforms that allow students to
practice math and English language arts at their own levels which is very important examples of these can be seen in these super cute yearbooks that I make for my students every year if you would like to see uh I am proud of the school we have built together it is a place where our many different students
can feel loved seen heard and appreciated we have a schedule that empowers our sped students and English language Learners and celebrates the various modes of learning we emphasize and use which is social and learning strategies and programs even Adele gave
us a shout out I feel blessed to have been a part of this magnificent school and I ask that you support Cal's renewal so that we can continue to serve the students and community that we love thank you for your time thank you for your time uh Cynthia Hernandez come on up you have two
minutes to speak once you begin good evening board members my name is cynia Hernandez I am the fifth grade teacher at um Center for Advance learning before I get started I want to give you a little background of my uh uh teaching career I started as a pair
professional for LUSD I work for L uh LC for six years then I went to a parochial school a private sector for nine years and now I this is my 10th year at Cal why Cal because Cal takes in consideration the social emotional of
students and um staff members they cater to our needs they are family they will go beyond to actually help meet the needs of the students and mostly the and also the teachers you know if a teacher is not well she's not going to perform well and I what I'm
very proud of the background um res all the resources everything that CS provides for the teachers because then we can become a successful teacher in the classroom um what I like about Cal is as soon as you walk in you can see diversity diversity um we focus on
sympathy equality um embracing each other's unique Ness and I personally have had uh parents that have that I've taught their children like three or four of their children so if the parents keep coming to our school that means a lot
they want to stay there and now some of them left because obviously this is the LA um late meeting but many of them had have had uh students attend Cal and I'm talking about one of my parents had five students and there's one more left so
that shows a lot if parents want to come back to us if they want to continue bringing not just them uh their children but also the community students is because we're doing something good we're not the we're like I said I don't want to say we're perfect but we are perfect
because we continue to better ourselves and try to make ourselves better every day and pass that on to our children like they said I could um excellent is our only option and that's the Moto that we live by thank you thank you for your time that concludes public comment on the item um
can I have a motion and second uh just a motion to bring it to the table and discuss and then we can vote thank you Mr Mel second second and Mr schmon this tab 15 hi I have a I'm wondering I was looking through their uh data and I
didn't see the comparison to the residential schools thank you for the question uh Miss GGO so pursuant to the policy we would do the resident schools analysis in a sense when it was needed the first level is the dashboard
analysis compared to the state so why don't we go to that um briefly here so page 1026 we will see an Ela we start with 2122 we see they were
lower all students in that group but higher for all of their numerically significant students student groups and that's the same for all three years okay so that would pass muster as we've consistently applied it to all the other schools given the Maj all in this case all of their student groups the all
students certainly would like to see that but the state includes all student groups all tested grade levels so it's something to factor in but the fact that all of their numerically significant student groups there um were higher than the state that was favorable for them and that's the same story in mathematics
okay then we go to the next academic indicator LP they were two out of three years higher than the state did have a a decline here also in the last year a little bit bigger to go lower than the state but two out of three were higher they did not provide verified data but
based on our consistent analysis the dashboard pass muster we did not need to go to resident schools let's say it were more of a mixed record or less than a majority for ELA or math then we would have likely gone to the resident schools since they didn't provide verified data
um and that's been the the approach we've taken through this renewal season what about in uh for students with disabilities and um I see here uh let me see here for ELA and for
math um in 23 English language Learners declined significantly yes um students with disabilities declined significantly in 23 and uh it stayed the same um in math
for students with disabilities um so that's why I was asking because I'd like to know how that compares with the residential Schools are they you know is that also happening at the residential schools got it well I'll make a couple notes to your first your
observations we also noted those and that'll be something as part of oversight we we will address um they did decline significantly for English Learners as you noted uh still landed higher than the state so still need to address ongoing um what's
happening there students with disabilities um doesn't have a color they have a small uh group of students but that's an area that they'll need to continue to monitor that's why you don't see them with any classification compared to the state just two things there the the note about the resident
schools um I would just State briefly it's an area obviously it's per policy when we need to go there I think we need to continue to be judicious of when that is necessary if the dashboard analysis already passes mustard the reason
is previous to the ab55 changes everything was essentially a comparison to where students would otherwise attend or resid in schools one can argue that that that's a different bar some may say it's lower some may say it's higher depending on who you're comparing and so
we we reserve that analysis for Middle performing schools pursue into the board's policy when a the dashboard analysis doesn't pass muster B verify data whether they submit it or not doesn't pass muster then we will go to that analysis so that's that's I would
just advise that um um and then again when there's no color or there's an asterisk then that means that the number is significantly low right uh the number of students if there's an asterisk so
for black or African-American students in ela uh for 2023 it's there's no color and there's an asterisk and then it says no change level right so I mean but how
do we know how the students are doing how that I mean I understand why you don't do it but at the same time we need to know right and what page is that ma'am just that one is 1027 yeah let me go back to well and to be clear this is
pursuant to how the state reports it on the dashboard so 1027 um I'm seeing the the charts there I'm not seeing maybe it's a diff um is it the data set oh the data set I'm seeing
so let me look there the short answer is one year a student num a student group could be numerically significant for the purposes of dashboard another year they may have dropped But to answer your bigger question regardless of the numeric uh
significance pursu to the dashboard we still look at the data for all students that are at the school site you're right that the data then are not purported fully because of the rules that the state has established given the smaller numbers but we are still having the conversations with the school to us make sure that all students whether they're
quote unquote numerically significant for data purposes are being served okay and there's no narrative I wonder if um not that want to give you more work but for those situations I wish there was like a narrative that said okay this on the dashboard you can't see it but based
on our other analysis of other data this is how these populations are doing um these are you know students with disabilities uh black or African-American students English language Learners sometimes there we may not have the full picture based on this
data and not necessarily that we would not not approve something but we want to be aware of it and have that communication with the charter that you know we we these areas need Improvement if they do need Improvement or you're doing amazing in these areas but
whatever it is I I I feel like we need to have that yeah info let me take that back I will share that we've also worked to streamline the materials a bit given the volume but let's see where there's a happy medium but I will tell you we used to have more language in the reports
we've kind of streamlined it a bit to what you see um but let us take that back reflect on it and uh offer some recommendations of superintendent uh balancing that given our our high numbers um but but wanted to provide you what you need
thank you okay that's it for questions all right roll call vote Miss newbill I don't know come all right Dr Ras yes Mr melvoin yes Miss grigo yes Miss gones yes you miss Ortiz
Franklin Miss Ortiz Franklin uh board president scharon yes here's Miss nuil oh miss nubil how do you vote on tab 15 yes I heard a yes I heard it too is a yes yes okay we will come back to miss
Ortiz Franklin for tab 15 then oh Sor sorry I'm a yes if it's not too late okay that's a yes so can I also record your votes for a couple other tabs while we're here yes please all right how about tab uh
14 uh yes okay how about tab 13 yes and how about tab six cops yes okay thank you and
then yes they know you know yeah yes you all are renewed yeah thank you moved kind of quickly um and Miss gonz while you while we have you um I believe I need your
vote for tab 14 that was uh just Street Academy charter yes thank you so much okay let's move on to tab 16 I'll read the public statement public hearing statement for tab 16 uh before
action is taken on board report number 225-242 25 approval for the renewal petition for pente Charter a public hearing must be held this constitutes that public hearing the maximum of 15 individuals who wish to address the board on the item will be heard those
who wish to speak should sign up online speakers will be called by name and by the looks of it we have a two-minute presentation from you yes good evening everyone um my name is Brenda Messa and I'm the principal at bla charter school thank you for the
opportunity to speak on our rual petition I have a really short presentation for you and it's really reiterating our data for 2324 Academic School year on the first slide you see the results for English language arts
and math for our school on the right you see the results for the state and the district on the following slide you can see the results for our English language proficiency as well as the result um the
comparison data for state and District as you can see bua results surpass State and District outcomes we currently hold a high- performing School status based on the California Department of Education criteria such results can be
attributed to a variety of things mainly to our school culture of accountability for all of our staff as well as our parent Community we Contin continually strive for a strong home to school connection these outcomes can also be attributed to
the intentional and datadriven instruction delivered by our highly engaged team of teachers coaches par professionals and support staff buente um also engages in targeted professional development on a weekly basis with
topics that are D that are driven by data and lastly as a community school buend has intentional Community Partnerships in support of our staff um our students and their families thank you for your time and consideration of a
six-year renewal thank you for your time um looks like we have a full boat of public comment which we'll go to now we have folks are listed as speaking remotely and in
person we wish to wave our speakers okay I'm I'm going to I'm going to make sure that there aren't any folks who uh weren't maybe with your group um and make sure we didn't wave wave them but I'll just read the person then you you'll probably be able to identify
them um let's see Matt Wells we wave the speaker okay uh Isabelle Calderone wave okay Andrea grigo wave right um Jerome Greening
wave the Jasmine madrano wave right Dominic arender wave and Michelle wolf wave the remainder just so the public knows the remainder of the folks on my list are listed as speaking remotely and I don't
don't have anyone signed in speaking remotely so it's not necessary to go through and do the whole wave wave wave thing um this item uh was pulled for discussion so now is the time for discussion hello Mr Jose KZ same
question uh six years but um also raising concern concerns in regards to English learner the out of all the subgroups the English learner seems to have the highest um DFS for Math and Ela
so just wanted to know how um you ask you know how they're um planning to address the the high DFS just for English Learners although I know that they were higher than the state they are the DFS is higher than all the other subgroups
and all students as well so just wanted to right thank you so first for the uh consideration of the six years following the criteria that I've mentioned the factors uh we we applied the same uh methodology here so the school uh is high performing as designated by the
state through Criterion two they're all students higher than the state majority of student groups higher than the state as well and their oversight record also meets the criteria that I've discussed in terms of notices to cure threes and fours on the no notices to cure uh threes and fours on the oversight visit
um no concerns that are uh material for for student discipline climate culture access and equity and the like so applying that criteria we uh came forward with a six-year renewal uh recommendation in terms of let me go to
the data set just to to see the the information there um so as you noted and similarly um we we note schools that are um performing well certainly this is an error any declines we're following up with them on uh and and the principal noted some of their efforts um and so
this is a case for English Learners with uh as you noted uh Dr Rivas in English language arts with a negative um no sorry a negative um 34.2 on the uh 2223 and 35 negative
35.2 in um 2324 while they're still higher than the state you know by about 30 points uh they they've mitigated the declined from the prior year 30 negative one still need to to to proceed further
um from our team's review it's it's a very individualized um smaller school and um provide that that individualized instruction um I did an unannounced visit um and spoke to one of their coordinators uh that day who talked
about some of the declines in the uh scores for English Learners and some of that individualized attention that they're doubling down on uh from that conversation um so those are some things I would note from that unannounced visit that I had and certainly our team also did the oversight
visit individ individualized attention are they adding more supports or how are they changing that or I don't know if they're adding additional staff I'd have to defer to the school but they do have a an assigned coordinator that provide that reviews the data works with the team she was sharing about some of those
um data conversations and trying to address it to to not only mitigate the declines but turn it to the positive okay thank you thank you board members any other questions no
okay all right can I have a motion to a motion was that Dr Ras yes second second and seconded by Miss nuil uh Miss nubil yes Dr Ras yes Mr melin yes Miss grigo I'll obain
Miss gones yes Miss Ortiz Franklin yes uh board president schmon yes and student board member Lopez Cortez yes okay that's a six eyes one Obe passes Let's
see we have tab 22 approval of of procurement actions was pulled for discussion believe was that Mr mne yes um I just had a quick question that is not as much about I guess it's
about this procurement item but more about our Global question on um at home internet so this is tab 22 item J um and I don't know maybe this is is so hail but one of mine and the board's priorities particularly during covid the last few years was at home internet for
families um and I think as of today we still have about 57,000 students connected and I understand as Federal the emergency connectivity fund ended in June of last year and the federal government particularly this federal government is not particularly supportive but and so so this contract
his $72 million out of mostly eate funds for hotspots as part of this bridge but as we all know a hot spot is not as reliable as you know at home connectivity so I just wanted to flag that transition for you the board the superintendent and get a sense of H how are we notifying families of this change
are we stop like have we been just paying for their internet and now we're not and so they have the option of paying it themselves or getting a hot spot how are we notifying them how are we advocating around this um I you know I you know understand that we're losing the federal resources we were relying on
but given that we still nearly 60,000 kids using at home internet thanks to the district which was a huge success and win I just want to make sure we're thoughtful about this bridge as we've been call as you've been calling her to this transition so I just had some questions and wanted to make sure that
everyone was aware about what this item was good evening board member I'm so kle Chief Information officer so um we started this program as you recall uh when the digital divide resolution passed we implemented the ECF program
back then the funding for the ECF ended um in the previous school year and uh with authorization of the superintendent and discussion with the board we got the breach contract internally and we use District general fund to cover the um duration of this
work during the last year we were working on the advocacy effort to make sure we can secure this uh program ECF to the eate funding there was a event actually is one of our highest schools the FCC chair back then uh came and we celebrated the passing of the eate
transition of ECF to eate program it was a successful effort um and uh we were able to uh get the authorization to apply for the E rate for the next school year so as of as you indicated as of now
we have 57,000 uh families they are using our service uh since the program ended we froze the portal we are not receiv new application because we didn't have enough funding to increase the number we sustained those families but we were in constant communication with
them at the same time with the public through the websites and every everywhere else that we were discussing that the uh future of the program is depending of the continuation to the eate program uh but the passage of this contract we're going to start the communication because we didn't even
have the contract to start uh making assumption they're going to be the bridge uh process we're going to make the community communication with their families and essentially Define what are the guidelines because fcc's guideline is different than what we had before before we were covering the fixed
Broadband such as uh Spectrum or AT&T fiber optics on unfortunately under the guideline of the eate none of those are allowable because by some legal virtue in the language of the FCC authorization
they can lend the service they can lend uh something and they needed physical asset to be lended so when we were in Washington DC discussing with the FCC that was the only way that FCC was able to authorize this program so uh despite
that we are using the program the same way the goal is to uh being constant communication with the family and transition them to the hotspot um process but at the same time we are sharing the other uh lowcost services that is still available through the
lifeline and other opport Unity for the low-income families there are Flyers that back then we were using through the ACP the goal is to Comm continue those Communications so the parent can take advantage of those uh lower cost Services as well and I do appreciate I
mean I know we paused it now but I was seeing on buses or Billboards kind of All Families connected in the um advertisements over the last few years to get internet so we were physically were we reimbursing families for their at home internet or were we just paying for it um for the we just paying
directly we are not reimbursing actually the contract is directly with the district there was a contract we passed we pay the service provider and service provider just connect the service and we are constantly monitoring the utilization of the service so based on new federal guidelines around eate we can't do that so instead we're going to
those families and saying here's a hot spot that we'll pay for um so you will still have no cost it's just a different provision of Internet it is a different provision but it still parent doesn't get into the contract with the service provider we handing over the hotspot and I'm noting so 90% is eate and 10% is
General funds can we use Bond dollars and this is Operation usually for operation you cannot utilize the bond dollars because for Bond we need to equip the schools and unfortunately at this time we don't we didn't see provision for that and that 10% is the match from the district from U like any
other eate program is part of free reduced launch but we can discuss with our legal council and do more verification if it's needed um and then as families I'm sure this is on your radar but as families are transitioning off if they're going to do our hotspots
they'll um I don't want them to be on the hook for any costs of like the uh you know vestages of their own home internet so like with Spectrum for example would Spectrum just come and collect their equipment like because the contract is with us families won't be charged anything in that transition no they're not going to be charged and
actually we specifically in the contract we have a language that the service provider they are not allowed to get in touch with the families so all of those communication comes through us and the H and equipment and all the services need to be returned back yes correct but the communication is through the district
not okay yeah I mean it's I think it's unfortunate at the federal level of course because at home and broadband and spectrum and all those are I think higher um uh quality than hotspots in many cases that's why we went there in the first place but if this is the best we can do I appreciate that we're doing
it um just wanted to have some clarity about how we're communicating with families so thank you thank you go ahead Rosio good question um why are we using only 90% of eate funds and not 100 and why are we using general funds why would
so that dichotomy the way that FCC uh structured the allocation for any e not just this connectivity is based on the calculation of the student in the entire District that they are in free redu launch program so that calculation for district uh for our district for
category one which is a category to provide the services directly like our internet service is 90% And for the category two we are at 80% so we usually leverage between 85 to 90% but that's a FCC guideline so the rest of it District
need to put the match okay we now have uh three oh I'm sorry go ahead go ahead go ahead item H so it's also for you uh Mr Catal my question is second um there have been reports of national trend of
price gouging targeting school districts um responding to cyber security breaches and threats how are we ensuring that from this bench there's due diligence and smart investments in this area particularly as we're allocating 101 million for this bench bench so um
obviously the uh as far as the pricing the price overall during the inflation and everything else for commodity and services are going up we are aware of that the therefore the contract has provision for protecting our um um essentially pricing for both category
the discount or the price list or the services that being provided this is Avenue that actually we can control for the next 3 to 5 years make sure we have enough control obviously there are multiple vendor in the bench so when we solicit to the bench is still we looking for the lowest price between them and
low better better service not just a lower Serv and lowest price but better service service and more Optimum solution from the vendors but uh and that that and that time we're going to do more analysis to make sure the service with the support of the procurement to do more analysis to make
sure the service that we are getting is accurate and usable to the district um my next question given that 22 of the 35 vendors are existing pre-existing contractors how did the competitive RFB process ensure that we are receiving the most competitive pricing I think you
alled to that already and avoiding potential price gouging espe officially with the large contract amount so I think you've already addressed that right yeah but I want to defer do you want to make any comment from procurement because this is more procurement process sure so um during
the procurement process there's a number of um teams that actually go through the scoring process and so as part of that they're scoring individual vendors or contractors based on a number of factors which includes price so as part of that scoring um of course price is a
component of that yeah and how has a cyber security budget changed over the past few years and what are the projected funding needs for the future and what are the penalties for these vendors if there is a data breach due to their negligence no um obviously there
is a a report that we sent to the board the ex uh the entire um expenditure that the district does around the cyber security program is in indicated in the quarterly report um and we are right now I would say the second year of the
program we still have about I would say one or two more years to complete or get to the maturity level that we expect but uh for further detail I can uh send the informative updated informative with your question or we can discuss it in the close session as far as your second
question was uh sorry can you what are the penalties for these vendors if the data breach if there's a data breach due to their own negligence there is a language terms in the contract that protect us uh for any type of data brid they have a deadline that they need to
notify us and at the same time they are there is a liability language uh which I our general counil usually uh work with us to develop those language for the contract and at the same time additionally we have our own cyber security insurance that covers um on top
of that so there are three level of protection liability insurance and as well as the cyber security clause and data uh protection as well sure sorry about that I thought Nick was the only one who had the question of thean I'm sorry we should have written
it down okay thank you thank you very much so we have three board members who have a uh motion closing motion well we're gonna we need to we need to move the move the item and then we'll vote on it uh I apologize again I guess it's getting late okay all
right move it who who move it whose disembodied voice was that was Miss gones okay thank you Miss gones I appreciate it so miss gones moves who is a second uh Dr revas uh Miss nubel yes Dr Ras yes Mr
melin yes Miss grigo has just stepped out uh Miss gones yes uh Miss Ortiz Franklin Miss Ortiz Franklin okay board president schmon yes okay board student board member Lopez
Cortez yes yes let's uh if you don't mind let me just call in um Miss Ortiz Franklin one more time Miss Ortiz Franklin okay that concludes um all our action items for okay so we do have
three board members rosil and Kelly and Carla who have a adjourning motion let's start with you m Rosio thank you um this adjourning motion is um in the memory of Guadalupe um also known as Lupe
Rodriguez she was a teacher's aid at East LA Skill Center uh Lupe Rodriguez a devoted mother grandmother and cherished Community member passed away on February 23rd 2025 at the young age of 65
born on December 12th 1959 in guara halisco Mexico Lupe was raised with strong values of perseverance kindness and dedication to family she later made uh she later uh made dowy California her
home where she resided for over 30 years creating a life centered with love Faith and Community for more than 25 years Lupe was a dedic dedicated LUSD School District employee working at East LA Skill Center as a teacher's aid she took
great pride in her work always striving to make a difference in the lives of others family was at the heart of Guadalupe's world she was a loving mother and doting grandmother consistently placing the needs of her loved ones above her own she found
immeasurable joy in spending time with her beloved Son and two cherished grandchildren who were the light of her life Lupe was known for her kind Ness generosity and quiet strength she touched the lives of so many with her compassion and
unwavering Devotion to those she loved she made an indelible impact on all who knew her and experienced her kind kind kindheartedness through a warming Grace a thoughtful advice or simply her reassurance Aura through her physical
presence though her physical presence will be deeply missed her Legacy of love and kindness will live on in the hearts of her family friends co-workers and all who have the privilege of knowing her May Lupe rest in Eternal peace and love
and may her memory continue to bless those who have loved and worked alongside her rest in peace Lupe thank you Rosio thank you Kelly thank you board president today I would like to adjourn this meeting in honor of Mr Luis Fernando Gonzalez a
dedicated educator mentor and coach at San Fernando High School for nearly three decades a UC Berkeley graduate with a master's in education Administration Mr Gonzalez began teaching social studies in 1996 inspiring generations of students as
head wrestling coach he led his teams to 17 CIF championships multiple state titles and National recognition he was awarded State teacher of the year coach of the year five times and National coach of the year yet his greatest
reward was seeing former students return to thank him for the impact that he made in their lives his legacy is one of dedication excellence and deep commitment to the San Fernando High School community and the broader northeast San Fernando Valley he truly touched hundreds of lives over his time
tonight we honor Mr Gonzalez for his lifelong service and I ask that we adjourn this meeting in his name with our honor and deepest gratitude thank you Kelly and Carla and I would like to adjourn this meeting in the memory of Alex lades 12th
grade student at Richard Alonzo Community Day School who passed away on February 2nd 2025 Alex ladis was someone that had an incredible gift for art and his drawings spoke volumes capturing emotions and stories with a depth and beauty that was
beyond his years his work was not just skillful it was a reflection of his inner World his thoughts and the way he saw beautyy in the world around him each piece was a little window into his heart and we were all privileged to witness it
but beyond his talent it was his character that truly made him stand out Alex lades was respectful to everyone he encountered he treated everyone with a level of kindness even on the toughest days he was determined to arrive at
Alonzo CDs Alex Lattis will be missed but his legacy of kindness will continue to inspire and remind us of the incredible person he was thank you thank you Carla okay unless there's any objection the meeting is adjourned no objection
okay the time is now 7:56 thank you everyone [Music] Part: 2
e e e e testing testing Goose EG microphone in the translations Booth we are now testing the mic in the translation Booth Goose snake microphone mic check 1 2 one
two 3 1 231 23 mic check in the gooseneck microphone in the translations Booth 1 two 3 one 23 now I will jump over to the Spanish headset e that's it
e e e e e e to e e e e
for e e e e e they're great aren't they just e e e e
e e e e good morning welcome to the March 11th 2025 meeting of the Los Angeles univi School District Board of Education uh the time is now
9:03 hearing a bit of an echo I think the echo should be gone now still there check check on the echo well we're going to press forward because uh I don't want to hold up our business probably the the laptop right there thank you okay I'll
take rooll Miss nubil present uh Dr Ras present U Mr melvoin Miss grigo uh miss gones here uh Miss Ortiz Franklin and board president schmon present all right so
that's four we have a quorum other oh Mr Melo has arrived all right we now have five okay and uh we have other board members arriving imminently I'm going to go
ahead and read the purpose and Authority for what will be discussed in close session and following that we will take public comment on the items that will be heard as well as general public comment all right uh under tab one student Discipline matters pursuant to Education Code 48918 CF under Tab 2 Personnel
under government code section 54957 uh Public Employee discipline dismissal and release and the superintendent evaluation Miss Ortiz Franklin is here now welcome under T three conference with legal counsel uh pending litigation pursuant to government code section 54956.9
D1 Alex G at allv L USD La Superior Court case number 25 s CV 3723 and that case numbers listed on our website along with the order of business if you want to go look that case up and
there is one uh piece of anticipated litigation and that will be heard pursuant to government code section 54956.9 D4 under Tab four conference with labor negotiators pursuant to government code section 54957.6 um The Negotiator is Dr
Murphy and employee organizations discussed our Associated administrators of Los Angeles California School Employees Association Los Angeles County building and construction trades Council Los Angeles School Police Association Los Angeles school police management association service employees International Union SEIU Local 99
Teamsters United teachers Los Angeles and District represented employees and contract management Personnel who um all right that's all we have for uh the close session items to be heard we will jump right into public comment uh the way our public comment works is you can
sign up to speak to a specific action item so that we call that a tab or if you made it in time you can speak to General Public comment which are comments uh relative to any business that the school district is involved in Period all right so under tab one
student Discipline matters Ashley lades are you here Ashley L AES I don't see anyone online for uh name Ashley also um let's see David Gray are you here David Gray I do not see a Mr Gray online
either and then we have under tab one erita morinda Morita is uh erinda Morita is here for tab one call in uh I don't see um Miss Mor Marita here
I don't have Ron line in front of me so that swiftly brings us to uh tab three conference uh with legal council we have someone listed as an educator uh calling
in I have you there uh educator please press star six to unmute yourself and you'll have two minutes to speak once you begin tab three an educator thank you I am
here hi so I looked uh over District email and it stated that there was a weeklong event with regards to your affiliation with Sandy Hook promise this is a very sensitive topic
but it is uh valid for me to address I have spoken to a few administrators I had been a news report order for a professor who has looked extensively
into what we all feel is a tragic event uh he has evidence that something different happened to what the official narrative was and I find as an educator it's only right for me to bring this up
to you because there is a donation button and a whole lot of people that feel that this was done one way and it would be wrong for me not to say anything so this professor actually
went to court with his evidence and the judge would not allow him to present it they also would not give him his constitutional right to a jury and as an educational institution
we do tell our students that uh they have rights we all have rights in the United States of America so I'm going to uh ask you to please put him as an item on the agenda for your
California Education Code where if a member of the community would like to speak that is appropriate he will be speaking more to his case and that's what I wanted to say
today it's important that people are not silent and when people are that's very questionable thank you very much for your time we appreciate your time thank you okay uh let's see we have a do Fetzer online Dr Fetzer speaking to Tab
3 conference with legal counsel uh Dr Fetzer saw you online a moment ago there you are Dr Fetzer please press star six to unmute yourself and you'll have two minutes to speak once you begin Dr Fetzer thank you so much my name is Jim
Fetzer PhD I'm a retired professor of philosophy from the University of Minnesota theth in order to sort out the ambiguities of Sandy Hook I brought together a group of 15 experts including
six phds to figure what actually had happened and published a book about it 440 Pages we discovered the school had been closed by 2008 that there were no students or teachers there and that it
had been a FEMA drill presented as a school shooting to promote gun control we already had the manual for the event which I included as appending say in the book which I entitled nobody died at Sandy Hook and Amazon banned less than a
month after it went on sale even though it had sold 500 copies I was taken to court to try to get the book suppressed after I released it for free as a PDF and the judge as Monique has observed
would not allow the pro apologize for the interruption sir but is this relevant to pending litigation before the district right now no no it's relevant to your association with Sandy Hook promise because uh the participants in the drill
reached out to me over the lawsuit because they were upset that I was being sued they informed me that everyone in the community had participated in the drill likeed the book because it was honest you can find information about it
now including provided by them on my blog at James HF Fetzer do org entitled fake news the truth versus Alex Jones including the Connecticut feem schedule showing this exercis is
l366 right on the schedule which was provided by the participant who was cast as Emily Parker little blondey school your time sir that's all the time you have [Music] today that concludes tab three conference with legal
council okay going on to Tab four conference with labor negotiators we have one David toski come on up Mr toski you'll have two minutes to speak once you begin thank you very much David T kovski speaking of course there's plenty of
litigation on the shootings around schools uh um and that litigation unfortunately um comes on our burden here at the public of La unified I'm speaking on negotiations uh always with negotiations is to protect the general
fund general fund provides money for the instruction program the most important thing we do uh the programs the curriculum and of course it it is essential to your negotiations for salaries and health benefits So Def
feing what we used to call def fleecing of cops because cops fleece the general fund is a good idea but what you need to see is how much general fund has been paid down how much you're saving and how much you you expended already and the
itemization of it that is not in the materials for later good news your three-year uh second interim today shows a growth of general fund but it doesn't tell us how it went from 6.5 billion down to 4.1 good to see you back again
meeting um and and how uh those 6.5 to 4.1 itemize it it would be great to see that where did it go what is it being dedicated and three years of course is a ridiculous item ab1 1200 requires three years of expenses with only one year of Revenue it needs to be part of the
legislative agenda to figure out how the third year is basically to to hone in the unions and their asks um so again um today protect the general fund so you can negotiate and and not defer money to a
third year because children are here now they're learning right now the more money and dedication we can put in to the right now now and not defer it like the 500 million from FEMA that we bought for four years ago is now being spent 7 years later put the money in now support
your programs support instruction and support the adults who do that for the children of La UniFi thank you thank you for your time all right that concludes item specific comment and we'll now go to General Public comment as is uh my usual policy I'll call on folks who are
in person first and then we'll transition to those who have listed themselves as speaking remotely so the first uh three speakers uh we have Mark Wiki Mark W if you're here come on up you'll have two minutes to speak when you begin and then after Mr W is our
Maria Lisa Palmer and then John kramper uh please go ahead the two minutes is yours all right good morning president smelson superintendent cavalo and board members I am Mark wki a retired La USD social studies and English teacher a
taxpayer and a concerned Community member I Rise to draw attention to the district's egregious mistake in providing links on its websites to material from the Anti-Defamation League the ADL the board should know that the
ADL is a Lobby group for the state of Israel masquerading as a civil rights organization the ADL has a unabashed political agenda to support the genocidal actions of the Rabid extremist zionists who have taken control of the
Israeli govern government the nation magazine has called the ADL the Israel's attack dog in the US in 2020 more than 100 civil rights and Community groups including the cent center for constitutional rights and the national lawyers Guild published an open letter
warning that the ADL quote has a history and ongoing pattern of attacking social justice movements led by communities of color queer people immigrants Muslims Arabs and other marginalized groups while aligning itself with police right-wing leaders and perpetuators of
State violence unquote indeed a visit to the adl's website that the ad L USD links to reveals that the ADL distorts Jewish teachings unjustly demonized Palestinians and their supporters and ferments islamophobia material provided by such a
political charged racist and hatefield organization such as the ADL is but propaganda not education and has no place in at La us d i urge the void board to remove the link and refrain
from any future Association or promotion of the ADL and any of its literature thank you thank you for your time Maria Lisa Palma come on up you'll have two minutes to speak once you begin good morning everyone my name is Maria Lisa Palma as a long time
professional in the financial services industry I come here today to speak to you about this proposed Defence of $250 million uh of the certificates of participation do any of you know what this is this is a financial calculator
hp12c classic use in the financial services industry back in the day I'm an old-timer before we all had computers sitting on our desks my name is engraved in the back because somebody else might walk away with my calculator I believe you have a need for a little bit of training on the time
value of money concepts of prudent Finance of capital assets let me give you an illustration about the concepts let's say that you got a car loan with a 14-year term with a 10-year prepayment penalty you can only prepay after the 10
years let's say that your mom owns a real estate property so before the two years are up you ask your mom to take out a 30-year mortgage to give give you the cash and a lump sum to pay off that car loan so you're going to ask that she
your mom makes the payment on the mortgage of both principal and interest so if she gives you all that cash and you pay off the outstanding principal and therefore all the interest that's due between now before year two and the 10-year Mark can you kind of imagine
what happens to that interest amount you would be paying 10 years worth of Interest over a 2-year term that you actually borrowed the money for can you imagine what the effective rate of interest for that is so if you go ahead
and approve that Defence of those certificates of participation over a two-year term and you pay the entire interest which is how I read that document that you will have a prepayment penalty of 10 years worth of interest on
that you will be in this position where we will be paying as taxpayers for all of the interest for that period and we will be paying the interest on the bonds that you replace that debt with so please consider this please call me if you need more information on these
Concepts this is math and the time value of money calculation thank you for your time Miss Pama uh John kampner come on up you'll have two minutes to speak once you begin and then after Mr kampner will be Diana guen and then Marie Germaine good morning uh my name is John
kramper uh I oppose the district website's link to the Anti-Defamation League's Echoes and Reflections curriculum in addition to being a retired teacher of English as a second language in the adult division of
LAUSD I am also a Jew growing up in Brooklyn I attended the Beth Elohim synagogue in Park Slope I was bar mitz there in 1965 over the last year year and a half I have watched in horror as Israel has
engaged in a campaign of genocide against the Palestinians the Anti-Defamation League does not speak for me nor does it speak for the Jewish Community its Echoes and Reflections curriculum Echoes the party line of the
right-wing extremists who now rule Israel and it reflects a mindset of intolerance rather than defense of the Jews as a Jew I have experienced anti-Semitism opposing genocide is not
anti-semitic saying Palestinians are human beings with legitimate National aspirations is not anti-semitic criticizing Zionism an ideology controversial among Jews since its Inception is not
anti-semitic curricular material which implies otherwise is not educational it is propaganda and yes it is defamatory it does not belong in L USD the Ado's curriculum twists and
deforms my religious Heritage into a cudu that deprives other religious and ethnic communities of their basic rights as American citizens please do not use Echoes and Reflections or accept any curricular input from the hate mongers
of the ADL thank you for your time de come on up miss gan's going to speak in Spanish so if you'd like to hear what she's saying in English please put your hands up and we'll get these translation headsets to you Miss guen oh there she
is one more on the back it looks like Mr tolkovsky has his hand raised okay Leos gracias good morning members of the board my name is di Guan and I'm here to represent the parent Network for school safety I truly hope you heard the manyi
class you got regarding Finance because this money we are going to be paying for all the contributors since you're taking unilateral decisions that don't necessarily benefit all of the public Mr melin you you said you were graduated from a great school hopefully you can
demonstrate then taking care of the money of the public in the committee in the subcommittee of this uh school police we've asked for the incident data and we haven't been delivered this
information and it the last meeting is this this month and we'd like to know when we're going to be provided these documents because how are we supposed to provide feedback in a way that is based on information
since in February in 2021 Miss Goldberg when you decided to create Bap and remove school police from the school sides she said she was going to vote Yes but just in case she was mistaken with
this decision she said I want to be analyzing the data significantly so if it was important to change the decision you could do so but it looks like over the past four years you have not wanted to hear or seek the
information you've already had a question onto the public and we retriev 5,000 signatures of parents demanding school police in school grounds we have a crisis here and you're
not listening Miss ortis you're saying you're here to defend the African-American Community but you're not talking to them and so many of them want school police Poli and like you said here is a paid group not actual parents who want school police it's not
just African-American people that are asking this in their schools but in you seem to not know how these people live you've been here for years and now we have a crisis of safety in all the
community or Marie Germaine there we are good morning board member MERS and superintendent I am Marie Germaine I worked for 25 years as an elementary school teacher and I'm a member of the UTA board of directors I will speak to the need for paid planning days for
teachers as you know C bases employees that is teachers are off during the summertime and are not expected to work a day past the pupil free day at the end of the school year and they are not expected to return in August until their people free day but many teachers do and
this is on their free time and without Pay Teachers have to set up classrooms that are academic vibrant inviting and inclusive for all students they create spaces for small group instruction centers for students to rotate through throughout the day technology for the
class flexible classroom designs that support the need for students to have movement during learning and so much more utla members are asking for the Board of Education to approve our requests for one paid teacher prep day
at the beginning of the school year and one paid prep day to close out classrooms at the end of the school year while this request for two paid days falls short of honoring the weeks of unpaid work time teachers put in before
and after the school year our dedicated members deserve two full days of prep pay we are asking for thank you thank you for your time Basha Jam Basha Jam okay Jennifer Anderson come on up
you have two minutes to speak once you begin good morning I'm Jennifer Anderson I'm I'm a 21 year teacher and um I'm also on the board for utla and I'm speaking about the paid prep days that the union is asking for at the beginning
of every school year in every classroom across this District a new family is created whether that family is dysfunctional or not depends on the teacher and the way that they set up their classroom in over 20 years of teaching I've seen teachers volunteer
weeks of their time ahead of the school year in order to prepare for students to come the environment they set up in their classroom inspires friendship exploration Play learning and success for the students who will call at home
for the next year the district needs to acknowledge the thought and sweat that teachers put in before the classes open to children with paid prep days a teacher will use a first day just to clean set up furniture and supplies
that have been stored away for summer and look at how many students are on their roster and need to be prepared for this includes a call home to introduce themselves to make sure families get a brief introduction to the person their children will spend a large portion of their year with day two starts a
creation of bulletin boards opening cumes and putting library books on shelves and books in desks if the teacher's lucky family and friends will come donate their time as well to help set up this environment for their classroom I just want to note that a
teacher has not even started lesson planning yet that will come later in the week two paid days of preparation is not enough we need to respect the process that teachers go through to set up and take down their rooms and prepare for instruction by paying them for some of
their time if we expect instructional time to be used for instruction then we have to give time for all of the other duties that surround teaching and a school environment thank you thank you for your time Rebecca husseini Rebecca come on up
you'll have two minutes to speak once you begin good morning my name is Rebecca husseini I'm the vice president of operations and administration at the Muslim public affairs Council today I represent the Muslim Community which is deeply concerned about the implications and
effects of external influence on our K12 schools the primary focus of our schools should be to provide a balanced education that encourages critical thinking and a broad understanding of diverse perspective Ives however the involvement of third-party groups with specific political or ideological
agendas Rising this balance compromising our core educational mandates and influencing the academic freedoms that are the foundations of our institutions we then mold young minds to fit a particular narrative rather than fostering an environment of learning and inquiry the influence and fear-mongering
eily parallels dark moments in US history such as the Red Scare and the imposition of loyalty Oaths within the UC system where fear and discriminatory bias plagued academic Integrity just as those actions and periods were reviewed with regret this may also be our path if
we continue to allow our schools to be swayed by such pressures the American Muslim Community has noted an alarming rise in islamophobia within our schools correlating with the influence of the ADL that conflates cism with anti-Semitism and vilifies American Muslims for Palestine it is not just
about preserving the Integrity of our educational practices but about protecting the future of our children and ensuring they receive an education that is free from hate let's keep the ADL and special interests out of our classrooms so we can educate and not indoctrinate I look forward to our
Collective efforts to deliver educational excellence and promote critical thinking thank you so much thank you for your time okay Mr Juan mandhi come on up you'll have two minutes to speak once you begin Mr Mandi is going to speak in Spanish so if you'd like to hear what
he's saying in English as he's speaking in Spanish please put your hands up we'll get you these translation headsets then after miss man Mr manani will be Monica Rola and then Mar Marcy Winograd so Mr
mandhi then miss arizola and then miss Winograd please go ahead well good morning I don't know if to laugh or cry because you know to come here is like talking how's it called where the gods
lived and you know those things Asgard or the kingdom of the Gods something like that they did not care about looking down at all do you know how many students we've lost in the last five years Mr Schon about what we talked
about that this would happen I told you if you know that if you knew what the Cassandra syndrome is I told you once why don't you uh kneel when the tsunami and the um explosion is coming or did I not say that what would happen right now
how many students we've lost in the last 5 years and you are guilty don't tell me you are not because you ignore about the realities in the community and what are you doing today to change that image that way to help parents don't come to say that you're interested in the
community you are false just like the others because you have been able to do good things for the community because you do know but what are we doing here how many students have we lost and what we would continue doing where's parent
engagement that you have supported that is the secaria of the parent engagement which is anonio who's done stupidities and it's uh furthering parents uh from being in schools what are you doing you are the chair the president it is time
for you for the first times to uh pull up and make changes because this is uh make changes because if you're not doing this look at all those things about finances because so many of you are are pro bonds paying debts with debts and we're going to be paying for this for 30
years I don't know where's the man from Harvard oh here he is Mr melne he knows so much about finances but maybe he's perverse because he sees that you can make an error that you're going over the edge because you don't have the information and to um advise the
district that we truly need because we are in crisis in uncertainty and to stop doing what has not worked and what's not good I think Schon this is a call to action because you know what we're going through thank your time uh Miss arzola come on up I'll see you out there please you have two minutes to speak once you
begin mon Rolo good morning my name is Monica rasolo I have two students in the district I am here because I continue to support the police the police is having the support of parents the PTA is also uniting so they can help the police it
is very important that school police returns to our school it is very safety is very important and truly every single day we don't know in what second in what moment we can lose a life we give you our children well and you return them
dead or or criminals or that they're thieves delinquents criminals Miss Rosio you that are Latina please support us please walk with us to look after our children it is so important please represent us as Latina that you're an
immigrant as well please uh be in our shoes as a parent thankfully your son is okay but unfortunately some others are not and you more than anything know that these crimes have increased in 300% this is incredible and it's something urgent
that we need to take action and sometimes you get so frustrated to come and go come and go talk to parents and the parents are saying that how their children are doing and a African Americans we've spoken to them that they too are concerned about what's happening
I don't know where that information comes that you said that they don't want it because I've spoken to parents I don't speak English but I've been able to speak to them in my little English that I do understand how they are also wanting school police in schools because their students are victims now with this
new change in president there's been more violence it is so sad that another person that is not a Latino to say to Latino that they don't know what race is but because they're Latino they say Mexican oh say Mexican you're going to get deported that's something so sad for
our children our students are born here and they're telling them that they're going to be deported when they don't even know what that is that should not happen I ask you miss Rosio to please support us as Latino thank you so much thank you for your time uh Marcy winegrad are you here Marcy W com on up
you have two minutes to speak once you begin president sharlon board member superintendent Alo I'm rcy winegrad great to be with you thank you for your commitment to our Student Success I a retired LAUSD English and government teacher a voting member of the utla
House of Representatives a member of Jewish voice for peace and the organizer for code Pink's National drop the ADL campaign I'm here to ask you to sever your relationship with the Anti-Defamation League a pro-israel Lobby group that spent a million dollars
last year on lobbing the adl's curriculum Echoes and refle I'm deep into it I think it would be shocking if you looked at what they are teaching our students and that is to conflate anti-zionism the rejection of political critique the rejection of an
ethnonationalist jewish state that privileges one ethnicity over another with anti-Semitism persecution discrimination against Jews my great-grandparents were murdered in a Nazi concentration camp I Say Never Again never again for anyone I say we
cannot whip weaponize the Holocaust to justify the occupation of Palestine the genocide in Gaza right now two million people being starved to death we cannot indoctrinate our students into this and please take a look at the ADL website
which now says we no longer focus on anti-bias training we are now solely focused on Judaism the Holocaust and anti-Semitism no the ADL is focused on vilifying peace activists on genocide denial and on complicity take a look at their Twitter page with the Trump
administration's persecution of Peace activists thank you so much again for what you are doing for our students I'm really really grateful best bye thanks for your time uh Isabel Gonzalez come on up you'll have two minutes to speak once you begin Miss Isabelle
Gonzalez Miss Gonzalez is going to speak in Spanish so if you'd like to hear what she's saying in English as she's speaking Spanish please put your hand up we'll get you a translation headset good morning members of the board you members of the board have a lot in common with the PO uh Democratic
politicians it's simple you just don't want Wellness for your community who are the children and those children are most vulnerable we have gathered more than 5,000 signature or 6,000 of cons concerned parents due to the increase
and violence in and outside of schools in L USD and you are deaf your ears are deaf to these uh petitions requests you don't listen to principles in schools that uh yell out to control uh violence
in schools you are blind and deaf to the positive assessments of having school police having school police the students feel protected they create safety they create they create confidence in
themselves the behavior of the children Becomes of respect towards the Law and Order academic achievement of children is positive but it looks like you don't like that the wellness and safety and the future of the lives of our children
are should have never been negotiated we demand that school police return that you return the financing or funds for school police and that you are not respecting students rights to study in a
safe environment thank you thank you for your time Marcela Garcia you're signed up to speak remotely but I do not have you online Marcela Garcia David kleene David kleene please press star six to unmute yourself and you'll have two minutes to speak once you begin David
Klein Mr President superintendent car Alo and board members my name is David Klein I'm a retired professor and a member of Jewish voice for peace I've given dozens of professional development
lessons to LUSD teachers in past years and I have grandchildren about to enter LAUSD schools I'm here to ask you to cut all ties with the Anti-Defamation leak the
ADL is a pro Israel Lobby group much like APAC masquerading as a civil rights organization the ADL smears human rights organizations that oppose Israel's genocide of
Palestinians and it silences Jewish and Palestinian voices calling for the protection of Palestinian lives a coalition of more than 90 organizations has denounced the ADL in writing
and called upon schools not to partner with the ADL these organizations include Jewish voice for peace American friends service committee movement for black lives code pink and the Council on American Islamic
relations among many others please heed the advice of these prestigious organizations by severing all ties with the Anti-Defamation League please do not allow Zionist indoctrination of our
students and the normalization of genocide thank you thank you for your time Jerome palasio meerson I see you're online Jerome Myerson please press star six to unmute yourself and you'll have two minutes to speak once you
begin hello hopefully you can hear me my name is Jerome Clos Myerson thank you board members your ongoing dedication to our children's education I'm the parent of a first grader at SAR Elementary in district 6 I'm a devout Jew I can read and write
Hebrew I have walked the length of Israel from Lebanon to the Gulf of AKA and I have several Israeli friends including many that live there to this day that being said the ADL doesn't represent me and has no place in a public school system ADL curriculums offer simplistic approaches to complex
issues increases Division and trivializes viewpoints that don't align with the Israel first mentality they may be welcome at a private conservative religious school but not one as diverse and far-reaching as lusc I agree we should all stand up to anti-Semitism but
prioritizing that ahead of other forms of bigotry is political and unjust and what is anti-Semitism anyway this term was literally created by Nazi Germans to provide a scientific veneer for anti-jew hatred meanwhile the notion of anti-zionism is several decades older and was born in the Jewish Community
from those that oppos migration to our Biblical homeland in Palestine conflating these two ideas is is inaccurate and just one example of how the ADL fails to help teachers Express Nuance for developing Minds I'm not here to say the ADL is evil I'm here to say it simply doesn't fit with LA USC's
mission of providing a rigorous culturally relevant education for all students please remove all references from La USC web pages please decline meetings with them do their partisan approach and please remember Jews are a diverse population with several perspectives blindly supporting the state of Israel is only one of those
perspectives thank you thank you for your time Estee Chandler I see you're online Estee Chandler please press star six to unmute yourself and you'll have two minutes to speak once you begin Chandler SD Chandler hi thank you as a Jewish
Angelino it's troubling to see that the LA USD website promotes the Anti-Defamation leagues teaching about anti-Semitism in schools as the nation magazine reported last year posing as a Civil Rights group The ADL has long operated as an intelligence organization
targeting Israel's critics to their point about a year ago following a pro Palestinian demonstration in New York the ADL released a report listing over 3,000 anti-semitic incidents committed in the first three months of Israel's genocidal assaults on Gaza but it was
quickly found that the incident cited in their report were actually actions directed in Pro protest of Israel's conduct of its war on Palestinians not attacks against Jews due to their religious or ethnic identity forcing the
ADL to later admit to making up nearly half of the incidents they cited in fact former ADL staffers confided to the Jewish currents magazine last year that the CEO had redirected the group's dayto day work to Target Pro Palestine
activism rather than focusing on anti-semitism in American Life a shift they said quote seriously undermines the organization's credibility end quote one stopper was quoted saying the CEO is Waging War on Pro Palestinian activists
according to Jewish currents reporting green blat the CEO has even battled against the Ado's own civil rights office over legislation targeting criticism of Israel quote choosing repeatedly to privilege Israel advocacy
over the prot protection of civil liberties end quote under the circumstances it seems like malpractice for an educational institution like La USC which I graduated from to consider let alone utilize any anti-de defination
League materials for the teaching of students of any age thank you for your time thank you for your time Karina Lopez I see you're listed as speaking remotely but I do not have you online Karina Lopez are you in the room no uh let's see Jenna noes I see you're
online Jenna please press star six to unmute yourself and you'll have two minutes to speak once you begin Jenna noes good morning members of the board my name is Jenna no and a PT Executive Board member representing Valley Hills Council Apperson Elementary and mount l
Middle School so just last Friday along with many other parents I kept my child home from school due to a serious threat made by an eighth grader who reportedly had a hit list and threatened to shoot up the school initially many dismissed it as rumors but as I received phone
calls and text messages from concerned parents students came forward for the information late Thursday evening after sharing names and screenshots with the Watch Commander I was told they were unaware of the situation and would begin investigating however the school failed to be transparent falsely claiming the
situation had already been handled and resolved even before the school day began so the situation highlights a deeper issue that I'm concerned about the safety of our students unfortunately what emerged from this incident was not just a threat but a cry for help from the student who due to bullying and
personal struggles felt the need to express their pain in such a dangerous way I speak from experience having witnessed my own child endure bullying how can we ensure that the student gets the help they need as well as address The Bullying issue at its core when
interventions like peer mediation and the Dean's office are ineffective bullying and tier rejection are known risk factors for school violence and we cannot ignore that another pressing concern I want to bring to your attention is the alarming number of safety incidents at the school in just the short month of February there were
four severe safety incidents and now in March two fights and a gun threat this level of violence and disruption is out of control how can we ensure the safety of our students when such incidents seem to be coming the norm it's crucial that we take stronger measures to protect the
children why can't there be specific campus police check-ins why is there a lack of transparencies with families about incidences parents and community members deserve to know the facts and we can collectively work to prevent further violence and create a safe learning environment I urge the board to take
immediate action train campus AIDS bring back campus police and most importantly collaborate with families and Community to make the necessary changes the current approach is not working and we need to do better for the safety wellbeing of our children thank you very much thank you for your time Maria Daisy
Ortiz I see you're on the line Maria Daisy Ortiz please press star six to unmute yourself and you'll have two minutes to speak once you begin Maria Daisy or this is good morning to all my name is Maria Daisy Ortiz and as a citizen I am a
taxpayer and I'm here I'm asking you as as board members that there should be more transparency with the categoric funds knowing that as a parent we haven't had for years we haven't had
a glossery or an explanation of the categoric funds and I'm talking about this because within those category funds there is a program of secure schools in which we don't don't know how many funds we receive or how much funds we receive
how much the School receives uh therefore this should change Mr Scott as president I've had meetings with all the mechanis mechanisms from the state Title One title three lcfs and
honestly I want to reveal the light that has been covered by Salo and Placencia by Pedro Sala and Mr Placencia saying that categoric funds only DC committee are the ones who endorse it that is a huge
lie therefore we ask for changes so that there can be transparency there can be parent inclusion this is why you receive the categoric funds now now uh in regards to funds and the
bad decisions that you've made in this board we our children are paying for it they're the first ones with the education because the results with the English Learners and I ready is 1% Mr carvalo therefore 5% is in math is
in math and English science all students are at 8% compet in competency and 70% of all the students don't have competency in mathematic and English therefore if you will renew the contract
I believe that you should think about it because he has dismantled this with money but he does appear at school saying asking for parents to participate so that federal funds aren't removed just to secure his position thank you for your time and let's see we have
Eddie pistolesi Eddie P please press star six to unmute yourself and you'll have two minutes to speak once you begin Eddie P Mr pisty you're uh your I see you're online in hello hi go ahead
Edie hi my name is Edie pisty and I am a retired public school teacher I taught in inner city public schools for nearly 40 years my children attended LAUSD public schools and I understand public education from the inside for that
reason I am appalled at the plan for La USC to partner with the Anti-Defamation League to use a curriculum that actually suppresses oer opposition to genocide this Zionist indoctrination has no place
in public schools there is no place for a curriculum that excuses Israel's murder of Palestinian people tens of thousands of whom are kids from newborn infants to teenagers this curriculum of
implicit violence and hate has no right to exist anywhere and especially not the kids in the LAUSD public school system thank you thank you for your time and we have
one late arrival um erinda Morita you're online please press star six to unmute yourself and speak to tab one student discipline erinda Morita when of the US uh so good morning my name is erita I would like to know what is the
discipline that you're implementing in the schools last week at John Ley Middle School uh at around Union Avenue for students had adhere alcohol and other substances therefore schools aren't secure there aren't officers to assist
for emergency situations the discipline is failing inside the schools you need to create a campaign against drugs and bring the official and counselors so that they can bring conscience to the problem that we're living as parents we are the most affected ones let's get
school police back to schools well within the academic academic area schools are you're failing to the students there's no structure as coming from professionals we need to work on this so that we can help there are many students that are very low in
mathematics in English and therefore this is something that that needs to instead of bettering it's getting worse and I've seen many students leaving L USD therefore what are we going to do you need to start
working on this thank you thank you for your time that concludes public comment the time is now 9:53 a.m. and the board is going to recess into close session e e e e
okay welcome back the time is now 1:03 p.m. we're going to reconvene the March 11th 2025 regular meeting of Los Angeles Unified School District Board of Education 9:00 a.m. meeting which included closed session items I'm going to report out on action taken and then
we will adjourn the meeting and after about 5 10 minutes we will open up the 1 pm meeting okay under tab one student discipline the Board of Education approved the expulsion of students in case numbers 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 and 72
with their recommended dispositions uh the Board of Education denied the conditional enrollment of the students in case numbers 17 18 and 19 the vote was seven I on all student Discipline matters then under tab two uh Personnel Employee discipline dismissal and
release the Board of Education authorized the dismissal of one class ified and two certificated employees the vote was seven eyes and I'm realizing now that before I read that out I didn't um establish our Quorum so uh Miss nuel
present Dr Ras present Mr Mel Miss Grio miss gones here miss Ortiz Franklin and board president schmon present okay and I'll note that all seven board members were physically present during the close session including the superintendent and Team
all right the time is now 104 um unless there any objection we'll adjourn the meeting and prepare for the next one okay thank you we'll be back shortly e