Good morning, all. The time is now 10:30 on 09/03/2025. Welcome to this special meeting of the Los Angeles Unified School District Board of Education, including closed session items. I'm going to take a role. Miss Newbill? Present. Doctor Rivas? Present. Mister Melvoin? Miss Griego? Here. Miss Gomez. Here. Miss Ortiz Franklin. Hello. Board president Schmirulson. Present. And I see mister Melboin is here. Here. And I see the superintendent is here. Yes, sir. Okay. I'm going to report out on the purpose and authority for today's meeting.
I'll read the today's purpose and authority for the meeting, and then we'll take, public comment, and then the board will recess into closed session. And I'm gonna read it slowly for our translations folks. Under tab one, a conference with legal counsel, anticipated litigation government code section five four nine five six dot nine, there's one case. Under tab two, personnel pursuant to government code section five four nine five seven, there is public employment, for chief financial officer and deputy chief procurement officer and the superintendence
evaluation. Under tab three, conference with labor negotiators, pursuant to government code section five four nine five seven dot six, The negotiator is doctor Murphy, and the employee organizations represented are associated administrators of Los Angeles Teamsters twenty ten, 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, SEIU Local ninety nine, Teamsters, United Teachers Los Angeles, and district
represented employees and contract management personnel. The negotiator for, is miss Nevara Reed for the, unrepresented employees, chief financial officer, and deputy chief procurement officer. Now we will go directly into item specific comment. And the first individual signed up to speak is mister David Tokofsky. I think I saw you in the audience, mister Tokofsky. There you are. You'll have two minutes to speak once you begin. Thank you. Thank you very much. I'm speaking on potential litigation.
As you know, the test scores in the virtual schools of LA Unified are abysmal. They're damaging to children's education. They're equity. They're equal opportunity. You need to take a look at those and see if there is a point of litigation that you could pursue against the federal government for it's damaging children's education by creating an atmosphere of fear in which they are taking refuge in the Florida virtual schools or whatever standards are being used because the achievement level, if you look at it just for a second, math, and is three standard deviations below the districts.
Even though the district has improved in general, the virtual schools are pretty damaging. The state budget, you're bringing on your new new or re renewed, CBO today. Have you formed with the governor? We're we're now at the point, even though we're finishing up legislation, we're now at the point making asks from president I mean, governor, who is pursuing visibility when the Trump administration's cutting and damaging education. He's pursuing education.
This is a perfect time to be speaking about agenda items, hundreds of millions of dollars to put on his agenda, for his January announcement, which will be done roughly, Thanksgiving time. And finally, counterintuitive. It took me a long time. I know enrollment is really important in a school system, but Prop 98 gets little discussion and little understanding. If you look at LA Unified's budget over the last ten years, the amount of money LA Unified has received from the state has grown each and every year.
Grown. It's increasing. And the number of students is decreasing. When the students decline, it doesn't mean you get less money. You get money based on prop 98. That means you're getting more money per children per child, which is roughly about $25,000 a kid now. It was about 10,000 when I sat in your place. And so you need to look at that growth of revenue, and when you talk to your CBO, see if he understands Prop 98. Thank you. Thank you for your time. The next individual signed up to speak to tab one is Cosette. Cosette is not signed in online right now.
Are you in the room, Cosette? Not here. Okay. We'll go directly to tab two. Personnel, we have, Matt Rethley calling in. So please press 6 to unmute yourself, mister Rethley, and you have two minutes to speak once you begin. Matt Rethley. I see you're on the line with us, mister Rethley. Yes. Good morning. I'm sorry. I was just unmuting. Good morning, board. Just calling in again about the, superintendent evaluation here. I, Matt Rethley from Broadway Elementary and other schools in the district. Wanted to talk briefly about how really the decisions that the superintendent has made have,
you know, well well intentioned, maybe have not always been to the advantage of all the students around. Specifically, he may be getting some misguided information from folks in District West, which I know many of my parent counterparts has spoken about. I would really recommend that the board emphasize with the superintendent when they deliver his review that he needs to listen to all of the stakeholders and that if he makes a mistake, he should be allowed to fix that mistake.
We're still reeling at Broadway Elementary from the poor decision made by the superintendent and by his staff to get rid of Rochelle Garman as our principal. It's not the the way it was, and, really, it's an opportunity for us to hopefully set course right here for us to keep Broadway as one of the top schools. Broadway is the top language immersion school in Los Angeles Unified.
Why would we not wanna continue down the path of of making Broadway one of the best schools? Please make sure to focus on allowing him the grace to correct these mistakes and allow him to get this fixed over at Broadway. We really are still reeling quite a bit. Thank you. Thank you for your time. Looks like Cosette is now online with us. Cosette, please press 6 to unmute yourself. And you have two minutes to speak once you begin to tab 1. Cosette.
Okay. Thank you, board, for your time. My name is Cosette, and my child is a student in LAUSD. I'd like to reflect on past lawsuits that illustrate the need to foster equity towards the Asian community. On Mandarin language, students and their families remain neglected by the district. One notable case focused on harassment and bullying. After reports emerged that administration had not properly addressed incidences, the settlement led to special programs and training to ensure a safer school environment. Yet, MI families have been bullied by an eccentric parent through illegal recordings and harassment, which we've complained about but have not heard back.
Additionally, lawsuits were settled relating to overcrowding in schools. Concerns were raised about inadequate facilities which impacted learning experiences. LAUSD committed to infrastructure improvements. The class cap is supposedly 20, but our Mandarin students remain in class sizes of 25 plus each year with no TA support from the district. Currently, LAUSD is facing litigation over alleged misuse of 77,000,000, redirecting funds meant to hire new arts teachers to other expenses. Likewise, our forensic accounting team found similar redirection of funds intended for students at Broadway
that were illegally spent on other initiatives, showing disregard for our Asian community and devaluing our Mandarin students as though they don't deserve the funds allocated to them by law. Yesterday, I became aware of the ACLU's letter to LAUSD regarding the district's attempt to silence Broadway parents. Agnes Kamau violated our first amendment rights when she forbade us from using social media or the Broadway name in unofficial conversation. These lawsuits serve as a reminder to hold the powers that be accountable. The district preaches about access to educational resources in underserved communities, yet the issue of
systemic of systemic Asian hate led by Lydia Acosta Stevens must be resolved. Our students have been left without standardized testing, without a Mandarin curriculum, without Mandarin books on library shelves, and without any Mandarin speaking representation within the ranks of NMED. This neglect towards the six other immersion programs within NMED, who are largely made up of immigrant families undermines the equity in access to education that LAUSD supposedly claims to stand for. Thank you. Thank you for your time.
Okay. Moving on to tab three, conference with labor negotiators. We have in person and remote callers. I will call on the in person folks first and also note that miss Ortiz Franklin is here with us. Let's see. Diana Guillen. Are you out there? And after miss Guillen is Maria Daisy Ortiz. Miss Guillen is gonna 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 you these translation headsets so you can experience simultaneous translation. Good morning, members of the board. I know that you will have a a special closed session meeting or with labor
negotiators. And, honestly, we're very worried. As parents, you should probably as parents are in, I believe that you should probably be as well. There's a rumor. UTLA has said that they would ask for a raise, which is 40%. And I believe that is an insult. Last year, they were given 20 or 25% of a raise. And besides, they had received a retroactive pay. And we are asking for parents to give to receive a tip so that they
can have dinner somewhere because of the work that parents do. But this is a retroactive pay. This they're giving the money based on something they haven't done. I believe it is an insult knowing that you will be asking and announcing what the parents, union are asking for. Excuse me. The teachers union is asking for. I went to my son's school, and this is one of the best middle schools in the area. And the teachers were saying that it is a 100 to 81% a, b, 70 to 81%, c, 60 to 41%, and d is 40 to 21%.
Basically, 20% and below is an f. And I remember that when my children, my older children were at school, 50%, and before below, it would be f. Therefore, you are lying to our children now. Stop lying to our children and stop agreeing with this mediocrity politics or policy that they're asking for. In the contrary, you're lowering the standards. Why? Because you are approving this or you're not realizing, why are you sitting here? Don't pretend you don't know.
Honestly, it sends me knowing that you're lying to my child, telling him he's he's he will be he will be obtaining the grade of a b when he's, dust. And And you're lying to the community, and they're not progressing. Miss Maria Daisy Ortiz, I see you're out there. Please come on up. Miss Ortiz is gonna speak in Spanish. So if you're using the headphones, please keep them on. Yeah. Good morning to all. My name is Maria Desi Ortiz. And, well, yes, obviously, you will always hear from me, education is not a negotiation. Because the only thing that our students have to succeed in life is to have
a quality education in which you are not responsible of or you are not satisfying the necessity and the competitive necessities of our students. In the contrary, you are disturbing their dreams because of the the of what you're doing. Honestly, I wanna tell each and every one of you, especially the superintendent, that there is a goal called academic excellence. Academic excellence? What is excellence to you? To have teachers that are not located the appropriate place, having, bad campuses, that's another
deficiency. And graduate children with the d's, that's another deficiency. Is that what you're calling excellence, or do you not know what excellence means? For me, it's it's academic falseness. And you can't continue to stag our children's education, negotiate with the unions, but with results. Because teachers continue to give a mythology that symptoms doesn't allow our children to learn. It is very low. And, therefore, you need to have innovation.
You need to have creation, and you need to have a projection to where children explore their potentials. It is not a good teacher if he gives enough f's. In the contrary, it's a teacher who shows the chill the child or the student to have content. This is why you what you should negotiate. When Burbank was a focus school, it was a focus school because it was a trash school of LAUST. All the teachers that worked that did a bad job at other schools were sent there. They had to work with electoral agreement to let everyone can reapply, and 85% were
new. And also with the curriculum of instructions, that's what you should negotiate, quality of education. Thank you, and have a great day. Thank you for your time. Okay. The next speaker is Marcela Garcia. Marcela Garcia signed up to speak remotely, but she's not online. Are you in the room, miss Garcia? Next is Raquel Diaz. Raquel Diaz. You signed up to speak remotely, but you're not online, and you're also not in the room. And Karina Lopez, also signed up to speak remotely, but not online. That concludes, item specific comment. The time is now, 10:44, and the board is going to recess into closed session.
Okay. Welcome back. The time is now 02:58PM on 09/03/2025. Miss Newbill, doctor Rivas, board president Schmerlson, and mister Malvoin are all in attendance, so we have quorum. I'm gonna report out on the items, discussed. Just tab two personnel. The Board of Education appointed Saman Bravo Karimi to the position of chief financial officer with the term beginning on 09/17/2025 and ending 06/30/2027. Terms and conditions will be available upon the finalization of the agreement. The vote with seven ayes. The board of education appointed Dana Greer to the position of deputy chief procurement officer with the term beginning on 09/17/2025 and ending 06/30/2026.
Terms and conditions will be available upon finalization of the agreement. The vote was also seven ayes, and now we're joined by miss Griego. So we have five board members. That concludes business today. Unless there's any objections, shall we adjourn? No objections? Okay. The time is now 02:59.