##VIDEO ID:ZTnXPiDaAbA## e e e e e e e e e e e e e testing 1 two 3 English testing 1 two 3 testing testing testing testing this is the English Channel One 2 three testing testing English Channel testing testing e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e good morning everyone I am um good morning welcome to the first meeting of the committee of the whole for 2025 and I am uh Dr Rosio Rivas board vice president and also the chair of this committee so thank you uh all for coming here joining us today it's a privilege to Welcome All of You leaders Educators community members partners and fellow board members and District leadership to this very important meeting today we have um several presentations so first of all um we will hear from our labor partners and then we have um some presentations first one is the update on District Housing Initiative second is the LA UniFi 2025 we1 presentation um and then we will hear from our student board member who has some remarks uh for us from um her fellow um peers for here today and also lastly we will have a Community Partners immigration support and resources uh presentation from several Partners um that have partnered with the district uh so first let's start off with our labor Partners so do we have anyone here I see Miss Mar Miranda from utla welcome hello everyone I'm Maria Miranda Elementary VI vice president at utla I'm here today to share our concerns with the an annual audited financial report um our concerns boil down to two issues transparency and compliance per Ed code the district must review the results um recommendations and findings of the audit in a public forum before January 31st 2025 we do not believe that superintendent carvallo's brief comments on the audit results at the January 14th meeting meet state requirements the superintendent simply announced that LAUSD received an unmodified opinion on its reported financial statements which just means that the financials were presented fairly and in compliance with accounting principles he made no mention of the auditor's finding and recommendations on the 13 significant def efficiencies in internal controls over the financial reporting and the 77.1 million of request cost identified by the Auditors those are um those are million dollars of the 13 deficiencies raised in the audit there are at least three question costs that should be discussed in detail with staff and the Board of Education in a public public forum one fall short of instruction for the fourth year in a row LAUSD has failed to comply with Ed code 41372 is requirement that 55% of current education expenses be spent on classroom salaries in 2023 through 2024 L USD spent only 47.8% on salaries or $763 million below the required minimum LUSD continues to blame Co expenses for not meeting the 55% threshold even though each of the large California urbans has had no no problem in meeting the threshold in the years during and after the pandemic there should be a more detailed explanation of how covid expenses are still causing this Ed code violation utk penalties is the second one the audit reports that LUSD incurred over $5 million in penalties for the failure to meet State CDE mandated average utk class size and adult to student ratios in 25 regular district schools and four Charter Schools the over $5 million of funding that the state will withhold from LAUSD funding entitles entitlements because of the violation penalties could have instead been spent on increased utk Staffing and it's indicative of LUSD failure to recruit and retain teachers and investing in instruction and third prop 28 in proprieties there was over $200,000 in employee work hours were improperly charged to prop 28 fund the district enforced the Auditors that they will correct this issue through clear communication to District admin administrators about prop 28 funding practices and by sharing the fiscal year 2023 2024 audit findings with District leaders I'm also here to speak to you um regarding the assault that occurred at lawence Middle School on December 6 2023 um this 13-year-old student was attacked by a parent we believe it was racially motivated um that had serious consequences for the student one of our primary jobs at a school district as Educators is to maintain the safety of our students clearly Lawrence Middle School has failed that student and we are asking as utla that you support the family in their asks and that you support the community and that you support the student and that you uphold that that uh promise of of having a School site be a safe place this school deserves a better leader they need to have someone there that can maintain every student safe um and I also want to talk to you about our immigrant students I just came back from being at two elementary schools where teachers and staff distributed know your rights pamphlets to the community to parents and it was incredible to see the fear in some of our members and the hope that they know that our staff in schools is supporting them so I want to also make sure that you know that utla is doing what we can to support our students and families and that we hope that we can reach out and work together and to continue collaborating on this issue because our students and their families are in great need right now and they need to know again that the adults that are there to maintain their safety really are now coming through and doing that um thank you for your time thank you very much um any other labor partners that want to come and speak I thought I saw Miss Maria Nichols no okay all right well um thank you oh she's coming okay Miss Maria Nichols there you go the floor is yours welcome thank you thank you good morning uh first of all thank you for providing me the opportunity to meet with you this morning and I want to stop start off by um continuing the conversation that my U partner discussed the we are one campaign this is one thing that I want to acknowledge that LAUSD is doing right and I want to thank you for that as an immigrant child myself I know what it's like to feel fear to not know that your parent is going to be showing up and coming home because I was that immigrant child whose mother was illegal for8 years and many of you know my story so what we are doing to ensure that our students and their families have safe haven and hope is really extraordinary and so I want to applaud that with LA USD and I thank you for the work um although it is again one more thing for principles to navigate it is one thing that we need to keep in mind that we're putting back on principal plates and it is that one thing that we need to have Grace for for other responsibilities currently that are on the plates of my principal leaders and others that are developing programs to support our school support administrators and other members that push out these initiatives to ensure that it's getting to the school side because a lot of this requires training and training takes time uh currently principles are also engaged in budget development and I come to you really with a very heavy heart regarding the budget cuts at the school sites I have been in close communication with my u partner Miss CES my Cruz because many of the um programs and many of the um actions that take place really do fall um and impact teachers and principles and then ultimately students and Community uh the special education budget cuts are dire I have members reaching out um letting me know that they have a four or five day apis and they're going down to one day I have apis reaching out letting me know that they're going to be assigned to three schools next year or already are um I have great concern over our coordinated supports psws PSAs that have been completely ripped away from the school side with just ours assigned and these are the support systems when we talk about joy and wellness and mental health for our students um and so again I ask that you revisit the budget and I ask that you revisit the area that affect students the coordinated services that we're talking about so that we you can take a close look at the cuts PSAs all those all those coordinated supports are being slashed and again what impact is that going to have on the School site what impact is that going to have on leadership the principal APS we've already slash assistant principls last year so who's going to be left to support and so again I am uh opening doors with my labor Partners to ensure that we are collectively engaged in conversation and common um needs and proposals because we are all going into collective bargaining uh so please revisit that budget please look at all the cuts that you are making for coordinated supports especially around joy and wellness and mental health supports cuz that is critical uh to our to our students and I want to end with just one um one sharing regarding what you uh Allah and Teamsters 2010 has done uh because our hearts continue to be heavy and we continue to pray and have all our uh uh brothers and sisters in our hearts with the loss of the fires we have to date given 18 of our members um relief funds between and $7,000 each that's a very small token of everything that they have lost and we continue to reach out um and to ensure that all the members that qualify under our labor union receive that additionally I am currently working with AXA to provide them names of folks that are also AXA members and also working with other uh federations to ensure that we can support with housing Airbnb again this is a time for all of us to come together Unite and work as a family and Community to help those and uplift those that need our help now uh thank you so very much for your time thank you very much Miss Nichols any other labor Partners who would like to speak well um well I want to thank our our labor partners for your Insight and your ongoing efforts and collaboration with the district thank you for your commitment to ensuring that schools remain places where all students and Staff feel supported and safe and thank you for your tireless advocacy and dedication to uplifting our Workforce so thank you for that uh next we are actually I want to um mention that we have some board members online right we have Miss Tanya Ortiz Franklin and miss gonz so we have all board members are here present we have two online so there's Miss uh orti Franklin saying hello uh so now we are moving on to our next presentation it's an update on District Housing Initiative and we have three presenters Miss Christina toes Chief facilities executive um Mr Isam dul director of hope I pronounced your correct your last name correctly uh director of facilities and planning and development and also Mr Matthew Bohanan uh vice president of braford and dun dun Ley dun Ley so uh thank you Miss Christina toes welcome and um we are all ears to hear your updates great good morning members of the board superintendent senior staff it's a pleasure to give you an introduction today about our Housing Initiative and provide you with an update of the important work that we've done today um I will be presenting an overview and recap of the work that we've done today then we have our consultant brailsford and dun leevy who um undertook a large comprehensive survey of our staff l usdm employees as well as our families experiencing housing insecurity and then Assam dul who is our new director of asset management is going to talk about next steps so let me just frame um The District's experience with affordable housing our goals are to attract and ret retain qualified teachers and staff make sure that LAUSD is a competitive employer of choice support better work balance we know that many of our employees because of the affordability issues in the larger region have to travel Great Lengths to get to their jobs and provide stable and affordable housing for families to enhance student wellness and academic success so let me talk a little bit about the work today I think most of you are familiar that the district has developed three housing projects in the past um those opened several years ago there was a preference for District employees at those um housing uh developments they were developed on District property by nonprofit housing developers um and this is really to undertake now that those were done before covid covid is behind us um what is this next phase of housing for the district going to look like what did we learn and how should we undertake it so there's really two big components of work that we've done to date to make sure that we're doing this in the most strategic and impactful way the first is we compiled a comprehens ensive list of all of our district properties um determining which ones were underutilized and we identified nine sites um that we were essentially going to Target for potential interest from the development community and you'll see that list up here these are sites that are um not schools or uh uh at large schools that might have what we would call like too much space but these are really at Parcels of land that the district has that really have no occupants or no use at them at this time um so you can see everything from vacant parking lots to um completely unimproved lots to actually a medical building and a storage building so we solicited what is called a request for expressions of interest to us um people who are experienced in Housing Development so this could be housing developers um financial institutions but folks who had industry expertise to see what um advice did they have for the district what sites were they of Interest what new models in the past 10 years should the district be aware of so key findings from that and this was shared in a board in formative several months ago was there was a lot of interest there were five sites in particular particular that we received more interest from um these are larger sites um where we would expect housing would be of interest they also focused on things recommendations for the district to make sure we follow like a clear and transparent process Community engagement and making sure we're leveraging legislation so that we can remove blocks and challenges when it comes to developing affordable housing and also the financing is going to be a key component in our past projects the district did not put any District funds towards those projects we just leveraged our land um and we'll be talking about some of the implications of in the housing that we want to move forward with what would be options for financing that housing as well so with that I'm going to turn it over to Matthew bahanan of brailsford and Dunley who's going to go a deeper dive into the housing um survey results that we did of both our District employees and our families and then with that um Assam will be talking about next steps and then we can take any questions you have good morning and thank you for the opportunity to share a little bit about the Housing Initiative and the survey the interaction we had with your employees and families sure I got the E it uh as we start I wanted to focus in on a few key terms that we think are important that are going to be talked about throughout our presentation and some of it's simply as what do we mean when we're talking about housing insecurity and housing insecure population and these are the the participants in our s the respondents that said they may have stable housing at the moment but are afraid of losing it so they may be on a month-to-month lease they may be at that point where there's going to be significant increases in their rent coming up in the near months and they're worried about where they may have housing the other term that we're using a lot here is houseless uh we use that houseless versus homeless uh because it is looking at an unhoused population as a part of this uh and we are looking at those that do not have stable housing so they are couch surfing they are sharing houses with others in a very short term they're utilizing a hotel or RV or sheltered housing as a component of that uh and it's important to note that our survey and when we were looking at this was looking at the point in time so houselessness is not a permanent situation for many people and so that impacts how we are looking at the data the units we may be looking at the considerations for housing going forward one of the other key elements that is important to look at is area median income or Ami so this is one of the key benchmarks and required benchmarks when we're looking at things such as means tested housing or affordable housing it all comes back to household income the gross income of the household itself um and it depends upon number of individuals in that household it looks at uh County based all of this and the information that's provided on the screen is done through the department of uh Housing and Community Development for the State of California uh they are our equivalent of HUD Housing and Urban Development on the federal level uh they look at it by County every year they put out what is the ratios of of area median income and the perent percentages of that that go into acutely low income the extremely low income so it's basically 0 to 15% of median income 15 to 30% 30 to 50 roughly 50 to 80 80 to 120 as a part of this it is important to note uh that if you're looking at median income uh which should be between low income and moderate income it actually is lower at a lower amount at $98,000 compared to the 110,000 that's a part of the lwi income line there are a number of counties in California uh particularly our Coastal counties such as Santa Barbara montere Santa Cruz San Francisco that are in alignment with this where there are additional measures and factors in place based on the the difference between housing costs and local income in the area and that disparity actually bumps those up because it allows for a greater range of individuals to fall within the affordable housing criteria uh so it's not just that 90,000 we're actually looking above that as a part of it so our survey and the the qu the quantitative efforts that we had as a part of our Outreach effort was conducted last year uh May through September uh getting out in terms of our employees uh the email was distributed to all current employees at that time uh we had 16% of employees respond so over 11,000 nearly 12,000 participants in the survey uh and include a diverse range of employee categories backgrounds tenure with the district age uh and we see that our survey sample was very representative of the overall District employees the survey also went out to families that were identified as being houseless or housing insecure and that list and those those roughly 15,000 families that were part of that were identified by student health and human services and so they were our vehicle to outreach through that survey through emails through phone calls through their staff supporting uh those engag and we're able to collect over 800 responses from that population we will often be caught talking about our houseless families as a part of this just to denote this group this sample population is not to say that all of them were houseless at the time but it is just for ease of reference right now to that specific group overall I I don't think this is surprising to anyone here but that the high cost of housing is a significant impact to and retention to our quality of life and Student Success uh out of our sample or out of our respondents of roughly the 12,000 over 5,000 employees considered leaving the district because of high housing costs uh and 2,000 of those were actually thinking about leaving the complete area because of housing costs for our houseless families uh 400 out of the 800 indicated that that has a severe negative impact on their students success in our schools with the lack of Housing and similarly with a as a as a key element of that now demand is is significant across La unified's District land uh we project that there's demand for more than 25,000 units of affordable housing which is inclusive of our employees and those families that are part of this uh District employee demand is predominantly spread across the district fairly evenly while we do see a slight variation in family interest and demand more towards our North more towards the West parts of the dist district and obviously as we looked at the income bands and elements of where we start seeing that demand the bulk of that uh from our employees is really in the that mid-range it is the low and low income population of 30 to 80% of Ami uh and our families those experiencing houselessness are falling in the 30% and Below household income so we're getting to those that are acutely and extremely low income as a part of this uh and so that's the breakdown of how we look at those units with a lot of those weighted towards the lower income needs of our population I think the other thing on the the chart here to reference is looking at what the average rental rate is for a studio one-bedroom or two-bedroom in the LA metro area now this was done and taken September of 24 so it has increased since then but you'll see based on the income levels of those areas how much of a difference that is in terms of what the average rent is versus what the range of people should be paying based on affordability now we saw meaningful interest as you say that demand is tied into interest levels out of our 12,000 employees a little over half expressed interest in affordable housing it's not to say that all of them would be qualifying for it I may have an interest but my income is higher than what those thresholds are I'd like to have an interest in housing but I really want a a three-bedroom huge yard on a culdesac probably not going to be something that's available either and so we look at a series of weight factors and determination to basically say we filter out those so really out of that 12,000 uh uh survey respond of population we're about 3,000 of those that are looking in terms of interest for that and that's what we started extrapolating our demand off of uh recognizing that 43% of respondents are worried about losing their housing at this moment and are classified as housing insecure uh and that 5% of employe employees at the time were indicating they were houseless housing costs do have that direct impact on quality of life uh 34% of respondents have indicated that they have had challenges housing challenges the past 12 months related to paying rent choosing between utilities and basic necessities as a part of their living situation supporting other opportunities for their children uh and we are seeing that direct impact on things like retention where nearly half of employees considered leaving their job do the housing costs and 177% again said that they're likely to relocate from the area in the next 3 years now those that had more stable housing we didn't see this trend it it actually for those that have in that are housing at secure and elsewhere they are the ones that are more prone to looking and answering responding that they'd be leaving the district so for a sample of where we're looking at and and our population that we Reed from our respondents as well as the employee population you'll see that we're fairly close in terms of the disposition uh of responses and types of responses out there so our survey sample and employee population between certified and classified is well within the range and margin of Errors we look at these types of surveys uh as well as when we're looking at the distinction between things like age uh and looking at what that population represents you'll see the comparison bars between certified and classified that were pretty consistent in those areas as a part of our analysis um when looking at interest by location as I mentioned earlier there is a broad range of Interest across the district areas for our employees some slight variations but we're going between 10% and you know 16% as a range so pretty consistent the real factors that drove into this were proximity to work uh by and large was the largest factor in terms of determining a location uh in order to it was basically double that compared to Neighborhood safety which was still a key factor uh and the regions that we've identified here were more so as we were looking to be more discret in our areas and using either major highways road s topography to break up some of these regions because there is going to be differences between these parts of the area now as we look at our family population uh I'm have a number a few numbers here are repeats of before but we did look about 62% so roughly 5 100 of our respondents identified and classified themselves as houseless as a part of this and that is because out of that population some have found uh housing stable housing since they were part of shhs uh uh program they are it's important to not that these families that are housing insecure or houseless are still contributing financially to any type of housing situation they can have so that's ranging from motels it is paying someone else uh if they can live in their house for a while it is a lot of the temporary housing even campsites that are a part of this uh and are those families that are identifying as houseless are looking at a gross uh or an uh household income annually of about $25,000 so if we're looking at what that means a third of that to be able to pay towards housing it's very challenging for to pay for that within the rents that are in La now as we were looking at at the interest we see nearly 70% of those surveyed in this group this respondent group identified that they have an interest in affordable housing that the district will provide in a rental capacity now these challenges directly impact Student Success and wellness we we saw in the responses the the significant View and and challenges that parents and students are facing that our housing and Security in facts have the academics has the attendance issues uh it has a negative impact on the quality of life and it's also important to note that a number of items came up as a part of the survey and responses when thinking about affordable housing or when thinking about uh rent it is not just about that specific dollar amount that we have to consider it is those other barriers to entry so rental properties like to see three times the amount of rent in your income statement probably don't have that looking at what it means for cash for first and last month's rent or a security deposit difficult to be able to save up for that as well how are we looking at in terms of credit scores all these other factors to say that we can't just think about one price point we do have to look holistically at the barriers to entry for these these families and we did get a snapshot of where our houseless families uh that indicated um where they were right now where they were living so 56% of them identify that they're doubling up they are living temporarily with friends families relatives as a part of this uh you'll also see some elements that go into shelters motels other places uh and we did have those that are living in trailers and other um items that may not be appropriate for for individuals really be living in I mentioned that there is a slight difference in terms of where families have an interest in living compared to our employees and you'll see on this chart a waiting as I mentioned a bit more towards the North and the West for uh housing and this is actually fairly consistent with where shhs has seen the interest and additional applicants and and participants in their program from these areas of as well and as you see nearly 80% of the distance to their child's school is the primary factor in terms of why uh and where they would want to be living and followed up not too far of a distance second but second is the safety of the neighborhood that they will be living in and so as we walk through some of those key points you know we do realize that employees and houseless families are thinking about the high cost of housing they understand that a direct ly impacts their success the employee retention quality of life we have significant demand across the board from our our employees from our families where they may be living uh and that we do have to pay attention to those household incomes because it is tied to Ami it is tied to that element of what we can do where we can have the right price points to be able to meet that need uh and we have disperate populations in some ways where a uh fam is may be looking at something that is in that 30% or below Ami support while employees may be at a higher range and those do require likely require different Financial Solutions to make those types of support mechanisms work as we look to the Future moving progressing forward with potential housing um developments we do need to be thinking about a range of issues from how the financials are going to be working as was noted uh by Christina there's prior projects that the district have developed through third parties that have uh not been impacting the general fund of the district uh it's been all on the Standalone bases and we need to be sure that we are looking at whatever uh opportunity comes forward that we are not putting additional risk to the district through this there are tax credits and subsidies uh to consider uh some of those do have requirements in terms of occupancy or reporting that we just need to be aware of going into it some of them are highly competitive in terms of the product that they can provide uh we need to be thinking about our Target populations the housing eligibility so that we can manage and be sure that we do have resources and housing available across the life of the various units and that does again influence potentially location influences scale and development and the financial realities of what could be developed as a part of this we also want to REM remind you all that this is a spectrum of need and it is a spectrum of of families or employees that are a part of this and so this is a slight graphic representation of how some of these standard positions or families May land in terms of these bubbles but it does depend because a single uh teacher that is younger in age is going to have a different position on this chart than a partnered or married teacher with 10 years experience of the district uh where we are looking at geography has an element too in terms of where some people are going and where they view their housing affordability and and security and the size of the family comes into play so something like our teachers May be falling into at at the start a medium income bracket falling into the 80 120% but could easily move beyond that while some two employees that District may be in a very different position here uh and so as we look at potential opportunities for housing and again assessing what Target markets a site can provide or we can focus in on May limit who may be able to be a part of these housing units there's a lot going on right now outside of the things we can control that is important to realize and do our best to mitigate any risks going forward Financial considerations we're having increasing costs of construction uh that may require larger subsidies if we're balancing out the same type of of capital costs smaller projects don't have the efficiencies of scale to develop so there may be higher per unit costs we need to be looking at regulatory challenges or rather what opportunities they may provide for other funding sources and what does that mean for us what are those Partners we have to bring in how do we support them how do we look at at elements that may be District only versus broader for the LA Community uh and also thinking about the legal impacts of these because as we Implement projects we need to be sure that we are looking to the right target population that's financially viable for the district that we have uh understand where and what subsidies should be applied to what level for the groups and we have to be conscious of the sites selected the environmental considerations of that and the community feedback because th all of those May have an influence on the final design may have an influence on the final concept and the ability to actually develop a project there so all these really are to mitigate those risks we need to be sure that we're validating that we are make uh providing the right resources and protecting the district appropriately while also building the stakeholder consensus and finding the right partners for this so that we can get the community outreach a key element of a plan to be sure that we're transparent in this uh with the engagement with the process with the understanding of the outcomes uh and be sure that we have the strategies to really inform the community of these plans going forward hey good morning Assam dul I'm the director of facilities planning and development and I'll be walking through the next steps um for our Housing Initiative um so this upcoming month um initially we're going to be providing a copy of the detailed survey um results um to the board as well as posting in our site we've provided a summary here but we'll be providing a more detailed um response um that you guys can have a copy of it's 100 plus pages long um additionally we're also meeting with utla this week um sorry next week to provide an overview of the survey as part of our Joint Task Force meetings we've had three different meetings with um utla the last one being in October as part of our um Joint Task Force that was set up as part of the Housing Initiative um additionally we're going to be doing a financial analysis we should have the results um for two of the spe sites the Collins and Fairfax sites we got a jump start on those to understand what the potential um development on those sites and financial feasibility of those sites will be and then last but not least we are U preparing an RFP for a real estate advisory firm that will be um assisting us as we move forward with the Housing Initiative and I'm pleased to announce that we'll be able to release that RFP this week um so that will be going out it's um with contracts ready to go and um one question might come up is why do we need a real estate advisory firm um to assist us and so as Matt pointed out in the last few slides um we've got um you know developing housing on School District property um is not an easy undertaking it's a very complicated um Endeavor with a lot of um issues that um to consider and so there's a lot of factors that need to be considered and so even though our team does have some experience with developing housing it's technically not our core competency in terms of housing we did do some housing developments in 2015 16 and 18 but it's been a while and a lot of the laws have changed and there's getting a real estate advisory firm um to assist us is um prudent and so that real estate advisory firm will be helping us we hope to have them under contract and ready to go by the second quarter of 2025 they're going to be helping us prepare financial feasibility analysis on all of the nine sites as well as financing recommendations of what we can do with those sites and how to best utilize the sit for either development or if there're smaller Parcels maybe um packaging them up for some type of land swap to see if there's something we can do to utilize the sites um but maybe get housing built sooner um leveraging those properties and then um very important is community engagement we need to have a thorough Community engagement process and so the real estate advisory firm will help us with that um Community engagement so that we're out there um informing everyone um of what the um process will be and the PO potential for development on any of the sites that we plan to move forward with um additionally they're going to be helping us prepare a request for proposal for the development of the sites um the goal being that we would have an RFP um and a scoring rubric for how we're going to select um the development so how are we going to score those proposals um as part of the real estate advisor um assistance and then during the RFP process they would also assist us with the evaluation of the RFP so that we can U make a wise recomend recommendation to the board on how to move forward and so timing wise um uh we're planning to come back to the board in the third quarter to request authorization to issue a request for proposal for the utilization of specific sites so we'll have the housing developer uh sorry housing advisor assist us as we move forward with the intent that we would go through the community engagement and such in the second quarter of 2025 and then back to the board in the third quarter of 2025 um where we would then bring forward a request for authorization to move forward with any of the specific sites at that point um I will point out this is overall an aggressive timeline but we feel confident we can move forward um with this and we look forward um to moving forward and receiving development proposals um once the RFP is uh released in the third quarter and at that time we'll have a better idea once we actually have more details of what we can actually do and what the proposals may say on what might be done on any specific site um so with that said um this concludes our presentation and we will now open it up to questions thank you to all the presenters um Miss toes Mr ul and Mr Mr bonan thank you foru up insightful updates um so I would like to open it now to any questions from my colleagues go ahead Scott quick question I was thinking with about the workforce that we're going to need to do all these things we have the Palisades rebuilding we have the Altadena rebuilding we have measure us we have the remodern isation and the and I how are we going to make sure that we have the right number of people to work and besides all the other stuff going on in the city the right number of people to to get make this happen and what is the priority you know to me the first thing is to build the houses of the people lost them in the fire but I don't know I don't know how that works so I was curious about your uh opinion uh thank you board member scharon so I think that's the uh preent question on everyone's mind in Los Angeles right now right we have the unanticipated um uh destruction of the fires uh in both the Altadena areas in the Palisades area obviously you know um the priority is to rebuild those communi ities as soon as possible we know that there's already a housing shortage in the LA area and these fires already exacerbate what is a challenging condition and we're already seeing the stressors of that in the housing market with rents already escalating um and we also foresee that there is going to be a crunch in terms of the labor market on the labor forces who are going to be able to do the construction um as we know that there's changing policies around immigration that impacts the construction industry um and there's going to be an unprecedented amount of work I don't think that changes though our direction of needing to provide housing right we are just one element along with the city and the county and now the feds on how do we address housing both in the short term from the fires and both in the long term um as we just see that this is a regional issue that is not going to go away thank you Christina thank you Mr M go ahead thank you all for the presentation and thank you Dr Rivas for uh agendize this and putting on the cow I know that this is uh responsive to my resolution which we um still on the agenda for our next board meeting and that we're working with the team on so um I I appreciate it I also before um voicing some uh anticipated frustration about the timeline and some questions I just want to take the opportunity publicly to thank the facilities team for the incredible work over the last few weeks when it comes to the reloc ation of the Palisades Elementary School the cleaning and mitigation of schools throughout the district the help with P high and independent Charter put on La unified land so I just I want to be sure thank you Miss toes um I know your team has been working diligently more than diligently tremendously around the clock and so I want to thank you all for that um yes uh this has been something that we've discussed as a board my entire tenure we had a board meeting 20120 because I we were on Zoom during covid where the board I don't I think voted down but we were thinking through this and it former superintendent Butner had hopin publicly about 2,000 units and so uh I am frustrated I know that um Mr dul said this is a aggressive timeline I would say it is a very slow timeline given where this started but now I appreciate that there's this momentum you know I'd also just add a goal miss toes articulated the goals on slide three you know I I would add a fifth goal which is that as a public entity with public resources we should use them better in the public interest and I think this has been a theme of this board when it comes to Community School Parks keeping our schools open on the weekends we need more support from the city and county but you look at the pro one of the properties uh in my district the Collins Property which is um which is uh's what on the second slide but um 6 and a half acres that has been closed for 30 40 years I'm I'm sure miss Toes has the uh exact but like way before my tenure maybe even my life and uh so just sitting there that on District owned land in a time when we have a regional housing crisis and had it or when there's a community that just has a blight in it I mean so in addition to supporting our employees and families which is pre uh prom you know preeminent I just want to say the reason I've been on this um uh issue or on this train for a while is just because we have these resources at a time when the region could use it and so while we want to benefit our employees and our families there's also just need out there and so it's I you know the fact that I think it's a real abdication of the district's responsibility to the public well before anyone on this board was seated here that like we just haven't done anything with these properties um I also say uh you know as was discussed I think that the need now given the recent wildfires has only increased in terms of displaced employees and families um I also think that the survey you know is undercounted because of that uh also because we only had you know a small percentage of employees um and and families fill it out and also just because and and the reason I was frustrated that we weren't doing these on Parallel tracks is that we have a wait list for the existing three properties and so we knew like I could have you know I really appreciate the work that went into this and I think it's going to be helpful as we articulate uh the brass tax of going forward but like we all could have told you there's a need for housing uh and so the fact that we were so delayed for the survey is frustrating I also think to Mr Sharon's Point um yes and I think at our facilities and procurement committee meeting later today we'll talk at the ET a little bit and I'll have some questions about how fire is impacting the regional market but this is going to be an opportunity regionally for a huge massive public and private Works project as we're rebuilding schools in the two districts we're rebuilding homes and this should be part of it um and that's why we need to get these rfps out ASAP uh I also will note that the REI that you um uh mentioned we got those results back months ago and so again I just it's frustrating that this presentation was just in our inboxes this morning when we've been at this for a while but I know there's a lot going on the the other thing I'll just say is um one I hope as we're looking at these properties we're also looking at uh creative ways to get folks into housing soon I know we've discussed land swaps for example where basically we might see that a developer says I have 160 units of affordable housing TurnKey ready to go in Chinatown and exchange for properties I know you're all looking in our our consultant will look at the finances but even if we're on this aggressive timeline by the time we you know start building and by the time folks get in we're talking years uh and so if there are creative opportunities to get folks in in a matter of months and I know some folks have reached out to me at least into our office saying we might have an opportunity to swap land or do that I'd want us to look at that and then the other thing and Miss Tok and I have discussed this a while is just we just we can't let the perfect be the enemy the good here there are I mean countless things we can do on a piece of land we look at the West Hollywood Community Day School Fairfax in Santa Monica in my district I mean you could sell it to the highest bidder you could uh use it as swing space for the Fairfax Construction you could do Workforce housing you could do family housing you could do a green part I mean there's so many different things we're going to have to choose and move and I think the challenge is that every few months when we have a conversation sometimes it says well we don't know the board's Direction uh so we can't do anything so I think it's incumbent upon the board members to say you know and I appreciate your meeting with the utla housing task force I SP I spoke to utla about this yesterday actually um is understanding like we're not able to do everything with these nine properties um but we have to choose and if that's a mix of Workforce and family or but otherwise we'll be here in 10 years saying well what should we do with this this 3/4 of an acre lot um so you know that's just my me and my Soap Box on this I guess um before I have some questions about the timeline and just trying to get more specifics one of the other challenges I've seen and and I'll acknowledge that this is not our baywick this is not like we do schools we don't and so um but who is running point I one like when we have some you know finger pointing is too pejorative but when we like when the board says you know have we hired that consultant where's the RFP who is the owner of this internally who is accountable to the board and to the public on this is it facilities is it Finance is it like um it's facilities um so I as the CFE will be um owning this initiative um specifically we have a real estate department they have overseen the afford able housing um developments in the past um and they report to Assam dul he comes from a real estate background um and I think that we are fully um now have a team on board who are working quickly to move this forward okay so that's helpful to know and and I know and we've met on this and I appreciate you being here so I guess just looking at slide 27 my last question Dr R is just can we get any more you know specifics on so you mentioned the RFP for the real estate visor will go out this week the financial feasibility study on Collins and Fairfax we should have back you know if you could just and and then the other thing would be if we um if the board authorizes uh in Q3 which would be over the summer how long would that RFP typically be out there are we talking four weeks two months like when would we then have biders uh and because the one thing that's missing we issue the RFP is like when are when are we selecting the winning bids so that we can actually be moving forward forward yeah in terms of what would happen after we release the RFP I would imagine we'd need at least 60 to 90 days roughly um in order for us to give the developers a chance to put to put a proposal together typically you want to give them 45 to 60 days and then a 30 day window for us to do the review um and then from that point we would then make recommendations and then bring it to the board um and then looking just more uh immediately so the the col the Financial feasibility C for Collins and Fairfax will get that back so we're supposed to get that back in the middle of February so it's a couple of weeks from now so I would imagine by the end of February we'd have something to share and that that will be shared with the board yes um and then RFP for Real Estate advisor will go out this week correct drafted and ready to go how long is that RFP that RFP will take approximately two months and we're forecasting to get to the board in I believe it's April for for approval of the contract and then once that advisor there from April until you know June is they'll be both meeting with board members stakeholders utla others yeah we're anticipating between April and June they would do their analysis as well as any stakeholder engagement so that'll happen before the summer and then with the intent that we would be able to get back to the board um in the third quarter once we have the recommendations on how to move forward with the RFP for the actual sites themselves and and I think too I mean you know when we put out that RFP I know that we do it on procurement website but I would say when we did the REI there were some folks in the space who aren't aware of the REI to some extent that's on them but my hope would be with this advisor too we do whether it's Town Halls forums like all you know advertisements really talk about this uh I think you know I'd like to help to same where that I can as well to let everybody know that this is what we're doing submit your best proposals because I think these are important priorities and I also think too I mean we've we've done we've done three projects that Miss toes mentioned that were by most accounts quite successful um it's a shame it's taken us so long there's also this was that kind of first tranch of loow hanging fruit like you said in terms of things that have been closed there's a next tranch of before you even get to the oh we have a school that's 12 acres we're only using four of it there's also you know the site colins site there's two others one in Mr schon's district one of mine District that are quite similar that have just been old elementary schools that have been shuttered since the 80s or 90s so the idea behind getting this is proof of concept because we know that these you know whether we do the first two in my district or we do eight um uh then um like the hope would be we do this and then we continue to do this you know until until we've really solved the crisis which will be a while the last thing I'll say too and I don't want to speak for my colleagues here but I know some of the internal push back or or feedback I've gotten from staff around this is community engagement and yimes and I just want to say to the extent that there are two in my district like we have a Regional Crisis here uh we need to build we need to up Zone we need to densify and so I am I I'll take the slings and arrows in my district I hope my colleagues would be the same and we have to have conversations we have to have real engagement we're not going to steamroll communities but I'm willing to make the case to my constituents that like we have an underutilized asset we have a Regional Crisis we're going to as a public entity connect those um and that means that we have some some nimes and others who are upset like let them be upset with me I just just I'm saying that publicly I don't want that to be a reason we don't do it so uh thank you Dr Rivas and again thanks for the helpful presentation thank you thank you Mr moan I I go your same same sentiments uh Mrs Miss Carl uh grego car hi thank you uh for this information um you know it is really moving and it's really sad especially when you actually know the stories of the numbers behind this right um you share that uh the barriers are not just making the rent but it's all these other things that families have to come up with that make it very difficult and um I was a utla member and I was at that conference when our Union decided to put housing as part of the things that we felt were necessary to advocate for because we know that our children cannot learn if they are if they are hungry and if they are worried about where they're going to sleep and yet they show up you know every day to eat our breakfast and to try their best to learn and to play with their friends um so I'm glad like Nick shared I'm really glad that this is finally coming to this place where we are having this conversation and I'm wondering about the task force you mentioned the task force and I know that they've met several times and I want to know where is their voice in this especially in the next steps um what has what work has been uh going on in that task force and how is that work uh shown here and in the next steps that we're taking and then also are we working with other entities that are working around housing there's a lot of money coming into the county for housing and there are a lot of organizations that have an interest in this who are willing to work and have great ideas about how to be creative with affordable housing among them is social housing and so I'm wondering if you've looked into that uh mixed uh housing mixed income housing housing that can uh not only provide um uh you know uh place to live but also daycare centers or Parks or things like that like this is a great opportunity for us to be able to bring all of these things together for our families and for our employees so can you share more about that and then the other question I have is regarding the survey um was the survey sent to all of our employees and was it sent to all of our our um student our families or was it was it um a group that was selected um that uh to whom this was sent those are the two questions I have so far thank you great so I'll answer the question about the utla um task force and then what we're doing with other uh government agencies who are also looking at housing and then I'll let Matt talk about how we distributed the survey so we've had three meetings with utla um per the utla agreement uh the folks on that committee have been our Student Health and Human Services um especially when it comes to their expertise on dealing with our um housing insecure families um office of government relations because obviously there's a lot of other agencies that are working in housing as well um representative from the uh superintendent office Mr Torrance and then a representative from our real estate division Mr grazioli who is now being uh who has left the district and we have Mr borison who attended the last meeting I think at this point it has really been kind of sharing what um information that the district has as well as hearing utla's interest um they've been very clear that their interest is around addressing homelessness for our families experiencing homelessness and we've seen that need evident in the survey information that we got as well now that we've shared this information with our board we're going to be able to share with them in more detail the results of that survey also as as s said it'll be posted publicly on our district website so any member of the public can read it's a 122 you know uh page document of every question and the results to those questions um I think moving forward they are key players and um um working with the district on our housing initiatives I think the key point that we're going to come come back to this board and also share with utla are those financing mechanisms because at the end of the day we know that there's both Finance challenges on the district side and the deeper the affordability that we want to get the the larger the subsidy that the district has to find to uh be able to pay for um very low income and extreme income low income so that's the next conversation is really then how does the funding of this works and that they will be a key player and understanding with us what those ramifications are once we have a development advisory services on board in terms of working with other government agencies um Martha Alvarez from our office of government relations has been very helpful in reaching out both the county and to the city um we've had discussions with them about potential land swaps if there were properties that they had that we could use or if they we had properties that they could use um we're basically looking at the same types of Sol Solutions together but we do expect that funding is probably going to need to come from County city um as well as state resources um just like they did for our other projects as well if the district is not going to put up funding so all of that will be flushed out but obviously this is not something the district can do alone we've also had great agency support when it's come to different um legislation that we've passed and that was also with the assistance of Martha and her team where we've um been able to eliminate some of the roadblocks when it comes to developing housing in California um her and her team were able to help us identify key pieces of legislation that will remove some of those Bo roadblocks of developing housing for District employees um in regards to the survey I'm going to turn it over to Matt but the simple answer was we sent it to all of our District employees we actually got a pretty positive feedback with 16% of all employees um responding so I'll have Matt talk a little bit more about that effort yes that is correct as as in May uh the email invitation and distribution went out to all active employees which is about 75,000 individuals that were invited to participate in the employee survey uh we did get nearly 12,000 responses out of that so that 16% response rate uh gives us about a less than 1% margin of error on the data when we look to extrapolate that across the entire employee population of the district for our families that was a little bit more distinct uh and so we did not send it out to all families that were there we we sent it out to the population that was a part of as hhs's database of those that have indicated that they have experienced houselessness they've experienced housing in security so we were really focused in on the population of need not looking at the broader sense of that uh and with the 800 or so responses we did collect from that sample population our margin of error is about 4% wait are you talking about the folks the family members who fill out that sh HQ form where they self identify that they're experiencing okay thank you um do we have Miss tantis Franklin or miss gones with any questions yeah I'd love to just briefly thanks for the presentation um and I know this has been a priority of ours over the years um there was a site near one of my really high need schools on 112 that I don't see on this presentation did any of the sites change or was it left off for some reason and if there's a followup needed I'm happy to wait for a followup sure the nine sites that I listed on the presentation did not change from the original sites that we issued an REI for but miss Ortiz will look up specifically um the address that you referenced and we'll get back to you as to where that is and what the status is great thanks and you know anything I can do to help speed things along I'm you know with Mr mvo on um you know it's great to get the information from our families and our staff um I I wonder what we could do simultaneously to you know make the match um more quickly with the financial work and the um the need that we're you know now very clear on um though we likely could have anticipated you know some of the results of the survey particularly for our um our families and um I guess the the next question is that um how we determine you know who gets to benefit from these um facilities when they're built um and I'm assuming that is the role of the district and not of the developers if it's more geared towards employees or families or a mix thereof um and I don't know that that is clear from the timeline like when does that decision happen of who gets to live in these places thank you that is the key decision that we um will need to determine before we issue an RFP because when we issue an RFP we the district are telling the developer this is the you know housing range that we're targeting um and that could be a mix of you know for Market to include affordable to everything to you know very low income um the part that is really going to determine that is the financial modeling that will determine what is that level of subsidy needed and where can the marketplace provide that and I think that's why we need the financial advisory Services um so that we can then have that conversation back with the board of when they look at these specific sites and they look at what is the target rent um that would be charged at fair market versus then the low income very low income Etc what is that Gap in financing and where could it be found in the marketplace place and then again with the district's Assumption of is there any other funding that the district is putting into it and if not this is kind of where then our limitations are but that will be definitely something that we're going to be coming back to the board with with input on at this point um you know we need to get that information to have that discussion with you all yeah so it sounds like that's going to be happening at the same time as budget conversations this February March and it looks like 2 Q Q2 um um for for that decision to be made so um I guess I would just you know encourage the team to help the board be responsive and the time that you need to stick with this timeline so that we're not delaying too hard and given all the other priorities for our budget it does need to line up so that we are either deciding to move forward you know this year um or given all of the various challenges uh that we anticipate and we'll also have to be weighing um you know what might need to move a little faster move a little slower so just please keep us updated on how we can keep things moving um so that either our families or employees can look forward to something sooner rather than later um but thanks for the presentation I look forward to the followup on the the 112th site great and I will say um at this point there's been no discussion of using general funds for housing that's not typical um for housing districts to use General funds there other funding mechanisms but at this point that's not being contemplated wonderful thank you um our student board member would you have any comments or any questions no okay um for me just um want to know how oh miss charlette I'm so sorry go ahead and Miss oh and Kelly um go ahead do you have need Miss charlette okay go ahead good morning and thank you again uh I think this has definitely been well waited for um and just you know the ideas of us uh utilizing things that have been unutilized or than district is definitely great to hear about it um and so thank you for the presentation one of the things that uh as mentioned by my colleagues I just want to reiterate because as we talk about Community engagement and making sure that where these properties are and where these developments are that the community engaged um often times uh within communities of color that's not often taken it taken into consideration and then also when we talk about legislation making sure that the language within that is speaking of equity uh too often it's not it's inferred and making sure that the language is written such that it's it's it's explicit and that we can see that um and appreciate the survey uh to the employees um and then again being able to determine on the size of land that's there what gets built there um and whether that's a zoning thing or whether it's because I've seen zoning change in in Los an Angeles uh in the last 40 years that I never would have thought um but it has changed and communities have not always been uh happy for that whether you know there's property there that now uh is vacant there's many units in areas within bd1 that I see often that are vacant so if we talk about affordability making sure that it is Affordable as we look at the statistics and we talk about uh price in which folks can afford the homes and knowing realistically would those be those individuals that work for LUSD that would qualify for those homes so just wanted to reiterate that and then also with the time frame as mentioned by my colleague with the budget conversations coming up how realistic does this happen and how do we have these conversations with all the information so that we can make the best decision to make this work in Fidelity so that's all I want to say and thank you again thank you and miss gones you have questions yes thank you for the presentation and thank you Dr Reas for agendize this um I have been a long time pushing for this issue I think it was back in December of 2018 that the board passed a resolution around utilizing our district sites for housing for our families experiencing homelessness um so I just echoed the urgency we know that um housing has long been um in a crisis in Los Angeles but even more critical today um with the huge increases in rent that we're seeing I think upwards of 250% increases in certain areas in the valley um in particular so it just goes to show um how pressing this is so I do appreciate the the projected timeline um I wanted to just get some clarification so I do have a sick baby at home so I missed some of it but in terms of the next steps are we um I know there was two sides that were specifically mentioned that we were moving on a faster timeline perhaps could you help clarify whether um all nine of these this first trch of sites will be proceeding on that timeline that's listed on the proposed next steps or is it a select number you could help clarify sure so uh the two sites we're really using as just a modeling to see how much it would cost to construct um units on those sites and what is that Gap financing and we chose those two sites because they're both um where we would expect to see the largest or kind of most demand for housing and highest demand of what the rents would be that we could obtain and then we could step to see what are the levels of graduation we're not moving forward any faster in regards to doing rfps on those sites or Community engagement on those sites they're really just kind of a testfit for us to better understand what the costs are going to be and what is that kind of Gap in terms of the finance ing needed um our financial adviser would be a deeper dive into then where could we find that financing from and what are the other options of uh financing besides what the district has done in the past got it that's that's helpful um and then I was also wondering I know that this first group are the sites that were not specifically connected or adjacent to a school site I know that there is another group of properties some of which include um Board District areas that are um totally vacant not being used for educational purposes but are more close to a school site um and I just wonder given um the length of time it's taken us to get here for this first group whether we have thoughts about how we might accelerate um future efforts for those upcoming groups of properties so that we don't encounter the same level of delay I know the housing costs just continue to escalate so it seems like speed would be uh prudent to help keep those costs um in line yes I think we're going to uh know a lot more in the next three to four months and if we see that there's opportunities for sites that weren't on this initial list that can be then folded in and included um we can definitely look at that great thank you um and then I just wanted to appreciate the the work on the survey I think the feedback is really while we knew that there was a need for housing I think the geographic distributions what particular issues are on folks Minds is really helpful um and I will just continue to push for um you know it's it's a need for both our employees and for our families um I'm I am positive that our numbers around how many families are experiencing homelessness is an under like a significant undercount probably and uh we cannot forget about addressing the needs of those families in these efforts but also recognizing that many of our employees are also our family and and face similar needs um so I appreciate that around potential mixed income opportunities we know that some of our employee groups were left out of um the current affordable housing properties we have because they made their income was too high to qualify so I think I think it's possible to do both and um and I I would encourage us to to contemplate that as we move forward thank you all so much thank you thank you for all the questions U from board members I um Echo the same sentiments and I would you know chime in on the urgency of of um the the housing uh needs of our communities so thank you for your presentations very much thank you just want to say that um this Housing Initiative is an essential step in addressing the broader needs of not only our students and their families but also our employees and ensuring uh that we are retaining our best employees and also supporting the whole child housing is a vital component of addressing um so many needs um whole child needs but also the needs of our um employees when our students and their families and our employees have access to stable housing they're better positioned to uh serve this district and also for students to thrive academically socially and emotionally so now uh with this in mind we turn to our superintendent um Alberto carvalo whose leadership continues to guide us in creating safe supportive and resilient environments for all of our students so now I open um the floor to Mr kavalo who will um bring us into a presentation on we are one thank you very much uh Madame uh vice president and uh chair of the committee of the whole um if we were to say that the current conditions in our community our state and across the country uh are not Frau with crisis uh uncertainty uh tensed by a degree of fear uh not seen prior to recent events which include environmental catastrophes fires a near hurricane a bit over a year ago and certainly now a condemnation at many levels of many individuals who represent the fabric and the texture of our community if if we were not to recognize that certainly we're not paying close attention to the realities surrounding us this board this District uh has taken proactive action uh well in advance of the end of the year we reaffirmed U our values we reaffirmed what we stand for who we stand for and the extent to which we're willing to go to protect rights to protect All rights for all people within our community certainly within our jurisdiction and in partnership with many entities beyond our jurisdiction we are a school system that is oriented on the values of protection and representation and we are based on principles that humanize everyone everyone under our care we're not just talking about the students we serve we're talking about the workforce and the families we represent we will always work always work to provide a safe and welcoming and inclusive environment for our students our families and our employees I want to be absolutely certain that every one hears us loudly and clearly our schools are protected ground period these safe places in our schools are for our students to come together to not fear to be educated to receive nutrition to receive the social emotional mental health support they need and deserve the same is true for our Workforce this board and this Administration shall not waver from our commitment regardless of threat insinuation indictment or accusation we shall not capitulate to the nonsensical irresponsible rhetoric that sometimes persists on social media we understand where it comes from just like we understand who we are and the values we represent and that applies to those who today in many instances in our community and across the country are being forced into Dark Shadows dark corners of society out of fear I've told the board and I've told this community and I continue to say it as loudly as I possibly can that for some this is our professional responsibility and it is we are Guided by law we are guided by policy to protect all we have to respect the law and I want to be very clear when it comes to the rights of our students regardless of immigration status we are on the right side of law we have no choice but to do the right thing and that right thing is actually protected by law it's protected by our policy it's protected by state law it is protected by the Constitution of the United States of America under its equal protection Clause it has been reaffirmed back in 1982 under the pler versus Department of Education case that clearly affirmed thus establishing that as the law that we follow clearly affirmed that any student in our nation regardless of immigration status has a right to a free public education we're also gued by federal law that specifically protects the Privacy rights of students and their families we as an education institution do not require seek obtain or maintain information about immigration status of children or their families nor shall we we protect the Privacy rights of our children and their families it is not our intent to run a foul of the law as we are following the law and we will continue to embrace the diversity of our city our schools in all of its forms we will welcome support and protect immigrant students in our community we will protect the rights of girls and women we will celebrate All including our lgbtq plus students Workforce and Families we will continue to provide free meals to our students we will ensure our students see themselves represented in everything we do in the way we do it we will celebrate them yes we will advocate for the rights of our Workforce to engage in collective bargaining and other protected Union activities we know what the consequence are if we abandon those practices we will advocate for the importance at all levels of our nation locally Statewide and federally the importance of an entity that represents the interests of students in public education I have to deviate and pause for a second and speak about a major source of concern that we've learned about overnight with the announcement that federal grants are being paused across the country we're still trying to make sense of this decision and this announcement but I want to be clear as far as the potential impact for a district like ours when we talk about the pausing of utilization of federal grants that's a mixed bag it includes anything from legitimate reimbursements for connectivity for eate maybe even FEMA to formula entitlement and discretionary Grant programs the entitlement programs like title one that benefit children whose parents earn little salary low socioeconomic level it impacts students with disabilities it impact DOA benefit from title three program funding that benefits English language Learners title four Title 9 it impacts impact a than college assistance programs it could impact food and nutrition funding that supports our district now since this announcement we've heard that the entitlement programs may not necessarily be imp impacted as those are forward funded meaning the title one and Ida those funds have already been sent forwarded to the states therefore we have direct access to them but there's so much more annually depending on the year we benefit from federal Investments anywhere between close to 700 to an excess of $800 million if you add all of the other reimbursements as much as 1.2 to 1.3 3 billion any deviation from the funding streams that we have received could be catastrophic to a district like ours and for those who who would argue that that is a lot of money we are a large system with a disproportionately poor student population that requires these Investments we will support who we are and those we serve we will strengthen our restorative practices and social emotional support in our schools we will support all students celebrate all students employees and families with different talents and abilities we will Elevate the voices and histories of our communities through culturally responsive curricula and teaching we will protect Health and Welfare benefits for all we feel compelled to bring this presentation at this point because of what we're hearing from our students and their families I'm sure everyone represented here today has been approached by a child by a parent by a Workforce member expressing quietly sometimes concern because if they themselves are not being directly impacted they know someone they're related to someone they are married to someone they are connected somehow to someone who is at risk we are on the right side of law we have no alternative but to do that which is right but that which is right is also legally sound on the basis of the legislation and constitutional protections that I mentioned earlier and then for some of us and I want to be very very clear about this so that no one has any Illusions about a shifting position for many of us or some of us it transcends the legal or professional obligation it's a moral responsibility as well I don't know how to be both an immigrant once undocumented and not fight for those who today face The Plight The Challenge and the fear that I once felt so for some of us we have no choice but to stand on the position that built us so with that said I would like to before we go to the staff who shall conduct a presentation uh pass it on briefly to our general Council d'vorah AA Reed for some brief comments that I believe are equally appropriate with the chair's permission thank you superintendent and thank you to Dr Rivas for agendize this really critical and important discussion today at the committee of a whole we are on the right side the law today we will present on what those laws are we will focus on our we are1 La unified campaign and the law and resources the district has been collating to equip our school schools are families and students with critical information during this time we are proud to say that we are one was established in 2016 as a resource for our families the we1 campaign has continued to be a hub since then to provide families and schools with information and resources and various segments to support inclusivity We Are One stands for non-discrimination We Are One stands for for educating all students as superintendent carvalo has indicated regardless of any status immigration status gender disability all of the protections under the Constitution and our education code it stands for inclusivity and lastly it stands for equal protection under the law so with that I'd like to introduce and turn it over to our presenters today first one is Jackie Dy who's assistant general General Council for the ogc who has been so critical and instrumental in connecting with various legal partners and organizations next we will have Antonio Placencia who's been spearheading efforts to provide information to our families and Dr Francis Bas to discuss financial aid and resources for our students Jackie over to you thank you thank you good morning superintendent and members of the board and um thank you for that brief introduction um General councel d'vorah NAA Reid I'm going to cover um on the agenda non-discrimination laws California attorney general Rob bonas's U guidance for K through 12 schools along with state laws and um Antonio placentio will be covering we are1 La unified engagement and Dr bayas will be covering Student Financial Aid planning so at the heart of all of this is really that all students all La unified students deserve and need a safe and supportive learning environment California has codified that in the safe place to learn act and that's found in edod sections 234 at SEC all persons regard regardless of their immigration status have um equal rights and opportunities in schools La unified remains committed to a learning environment that's free from harassment intimidation bullying and abusive conduct these are all um part of our non-discrimination policy which is um translated in multiple languages and posted throughout our schools that non-discrimination policy linked there it describes all of the specific prot Ed categories that were mentioned and a complaint process on where to file the complaint if needed if there's any complaints of discrimination harassment intimidation abuse of conduct or bullying a process has been established within La unified to handle and process those complaints pursuant to the California code of regul regulations additionally we have developed a safe place to learn resource guide that resource guide um provides very I resources for schools on um connecting and ensuring that the civil rights are protected of all of the students and employees that are part of the LA Unified School District so a short summary of attorney Bona's um a through K through 12 guidance includes that right to a free public education The Landmark case that was mentioned by superintendent Carvajal uh 1982 pler all student have a right to equal access to free public education regardless of their or their parents or Guardians immigration status in information that's required for school enrollment there are Alternative forms of information that can be submitted in terms of school enrollment including alternative methods of providing proof of residency and proof of age schools are not required and do not keep copies of documents that are used um for proof of a student's age La unified policies are consistent with these um guidance areas that attorney general Bon has laid out including the confidentiality of personal information consistent with the family education rights Privacy Act and state laws that re enforce the protection of student education records and personal information La UniFi ures that those rights are protected the sharing of student and family information is highly regulated as well by law districts are prohibited from collecting citizenship or immigration status information as part of enrollment as part of um the school's um attendance any of that information is prohibited from collection there's the restrictions again furpa family education rights and Privacy Act along with additional overlapping and additional Productions in the California Education Code absent exent circumstances and consistent with the attorney general's guidance access will not be provided at any of the LA Unified School sites these are the state laws that were mentioned by superintendent Carvajal earlier the existing state policies and legal rights of all students the trust Act was passed to protect immigrants from deportation and limits the number of days that local law enforcement can hold people for deportation it limits law enforcement cooperation with Immigration and Customs Enforcement unless that person has been convicted of serious crimes it also protects people from being held for immigration purposes if they are arrested for minor crimes assembly Bill 60 um driver's licensures um driver's licenses are available for individuals who are unable to provide proof of legal presence in the United States but who meet California DMV requirements and are able to provide proof of identity and California residency assembly Bill 699 the education Equity immigration citizenship act status assembly bill that confirms that all children have a right to attend our Public Schools regardless of immigration status prohibits the collection of information regarding immigration status requires adoption of model policies to prevent immigration enforcement on school grounds and prohibits discrimination based off immigration status our district La unified has adopted policies that are consistent with all of these requirements including Senate Bill 54 um law enforcement which is the California values act it ensures that no state or local resources are utilized to assist Federal immigration enforcement going back to the individual rights uh that were mentioned by superintendent carv all members of our immigrant Community have constitutional rights regardless of their immigration status that includes Fourth Amendment individuals um have the right to um be protected from unreasonable searches and seizures and the Fifth Amendment right to remain silent when confronted by law enforcement La unified also has um two methods of reporting hate crimes and bullying there is an app that has been developed uh it's accessible through the link there and or contacting the LA School Police Department the number is on on the screen it's 213 625 6631 again our non-discrimination policy prohibits discrimination harassment intimidation and bul in based on a student's actual perceived character characteristics including nationality ethnicity or immigration status that that information is posted on our website in multiple locations including the we are1 web page our La unified office of student civil rights handles the receiving investigation of complaints based off of immigration status among other protected categories this is a important public message beware of fraud in terms of not notary publics who represent themselves as attorneys in many Latin American and European countries the notorio publico has the equivalent of a law licensure and is qualified to advise and represent clients before the government in the United States a notary public is not is only qualified to witness the signature of forms and they are not qualified to represent individual and immigration proceedings in the United States only an attorney or an accredited representative through the Department of Justice olap representatives for short are qualified to give you legal advice accredited representatives are non-attorneys who have demonstrated to the Department of Justice that they have the Education and Training to provide certain Immigration Services they must work at a recognized nonprofit organization if you've been um harmed by a notorio you can report them by visiting the LA um County Department of Consumer and business Affairs and the phone number is there is 1 800 5938 222 or you can file a complaint online with the dcba with that uh thank you very much and I'd like to turn it over to my colleague Antonio penia thank you again of you for your leadership in allowing us to elevate and to serve as a leader in our community and getting our we message out to our communities um I want to begin by sharing the story of Weir one and just some brief highlights and letting you know that we started to work on Weir one last fall identified it the curated content that was available within our content from 2016 and from that moment we've started to work with various communities organizations our know your rights providers that are trusted entities in our communities as well as the leadership of our offices and our division contact with in Los Angeles Unified to review the content that was made available in um the 2016 time frame while our message in 2016 was deeply rooted in standing with immigrant families we have gone back to look at the realities of what we're feeling what we're seeing in our parent and family centers and in our schools and leveraging language that announces to our community that whether it be through your immigration status lgtbq plus status black African-American members of our community and all students um the content here is going to be adapted and updated to offer resources and information based on what we are experiencing in our communities in this segment of the presentation I will be highlighting for you the support that will be put in place in a very structured manner so that our school sites can continue offering the engagement that is being requested by our students and families and I will also speak to you about the family Academy region engagement as well as our webinar learning that is made available and uh to our students and our families before getting to that um the content we've curated incorporates input from our district divisions and offices and has been reviewed by our general Council to ensure it aligns with the needs of school communities offering general information the public can visit our website that you see before um the screen at the moment lusd.org we1 to access the LUSD 2025 we are1 informational resource guide for students and families the guide includes a disclaimer stating that the content for is for informational purposes only and families are encouraged to consult with experts for advice tailored to their personal needs the site also provides access to videos in multiple languages family preparedness PL templates downloadable red cards information about our wellness centers and Clinics and general details about how to request School site engagement before I continue I do want to highlight the importance of what might be an additional like an initial item to make available to our families we are promoting the importance of messaging the family preparedness plan templates available on our website it is a resource to cons is uh to consider and to be prepared as stated in the immigration resource legal resources website every family should have a family preparedness plan in case of an emergency it is critical for immigrant families to think ahead and set more concrete plans for immigration emergencies that can arise this information is in our guide and in the We Are One web page as you all may know red cards were also made available at our school communities coming back into the spring semester we are very grateful to school operations for working alongside us and Repro Graphics to deliver these to our school sites downloadable copies that can be made available in parent and family centers and in spaces in our schools are also included in the we are1 guide um for easy access this web page is available to the public and will be um updated uh as new updates and resources are made available through the we1 network in addition to the family preparedness plan we also Al have our family guide the family guide that is downloadable includes information about our general rights our District's discrimination policy highlights key messages for our lgtbq plus Community transitions into know your rights general information taking some of the highlights that Jackie shared with you a moment ago and we also dive into the health housing and education rights um we will be arranging this content to mirror in a PowerPoint module that includes a PowerPoint presentation and a facilitator guide we're also promoting access to our wellness centers and our clinics so that our families can request reliable medical attention by our District's experts one other element that I do want to highlight is that as a part of our campaign we are also informing our parents and Guardians to update their contact information especially phone number and email information this will equip our district to provide access to resources information and new um items that may be coming up so we please make sure that you're following on your this website to access real-time information as updates are made available I also want to speak to the workshop model that we've made available through the we1 the War 1 workshop model proved effective in 2016 through 2020 and featured Ed two presenters a know your rights partner who presented on legal rights what's exciting about the content of our know your right segment of the PowerPoint is that it has been developed over the years and curated and updated with our partners including chla gesen it has been also Ved by other organizations like asian-americans advancing Justice and just recently we did go through a recent update as we heard of new changes happening at the federal level our district co-presenters will be joining our know your rights Partners to present on the health housing and education rights it is a team approach that allow our families to connect well with District Partners as well as our know your rights providers to receive the information starting in February um our team will begin accepting requests from school sites for we one workshops to be held during school site meetings how we're going to be setting that up is that our school administrators can call the 213 241 3840 number this is our student and Family Wellness number our team there will have a survey readily available at which point some of our team members will work with our regen family engagement team and point that will be helping to schedule the know your rights provider with the district presenter this allows us to ensure that the information we're sending through our schools is aligned to the message of the district and no educators are put in a situation of presenting information that might not be accurate the Family Academy in the meantime has offered um know your rights workshops in webinar format and will continue offering these segments to provide families with timely updates the time the content from the most recent know your rights webinars was emailed to families and text messages guiding them to lusd.org gfamily Academy where the content is available incl including the recorded content a second series of know your rights webinars will be available through the Family Academy in the month of February those schedules will be released very soon another key engagement effort is a rooted in resilience series which helps families learn strategies for managing the emotional impact of the political climate we are encountering in various spaces this engagement will also feature our know your rights Partners who will Prov families with valuable informational content what we're experiencing in our communities is that stress that anxiety that fear of even navigating in spaces that many of our families were seeking to access and what we will'll continue doing is offering the engagement in a manner that allows us to self-care for our own Humanity as we think about how we address the conversation and the knowledge that is offered through we are one we look forward to continuing updating our content to provide families with up-to-date information in partnership with our organizations I want to wrap up by saying that we are truly one and we're very grateful that we are working alongside over 40 organizations an example here is that in December on December 13th we brought together various Community Partners and I'm thrilled to say that our Partnerships uh um accepted the call to join us in this effort offering whether it be services also offering General support with presenting the know your rights content the division of communications engagement and collaboration is serving as our District's convenor very grateful to mamuni and Mariana vafana who are working on the side of the campaign to bring our division and district offices together to maintain and update the content as well as working alongside Jackie to integrate our know your rights providers and we're coordinating together to also Loop in our partners that are to access the same information this is an example of some of our partners that have already um shared with us that they want to work with us we've established a process for them to join us in the Journey of Engagement and messaging this work and as you'll see um in front of here um this picture is representative of educational providers know your rights partners and various um organizations that have shared their their commitment to We Are One at this moment um I will transition it over to Dr Bas who will speak to us about Student Financial Aid planning okay greetings La USD superintendent Madam chair and Board of Education my name is Francis b a chief academic officer in the Los Angeles UniFi school district and to continue on the supports we are offering our students under we are1 I'd like to provide insights on the free application for student aid often known as FAA and the California Dream Act application k financial aid is offered to students to receive grants and scholarships to pay for college that is that is the function of the FASA and the cata we are reaching out to families and students on the process to apply for financial assistance for mixed status families where there is a combination of documented and undocumented members students can apply for college assistance through the California Dream Act application families can go to www.la usd.org through for support and click on the button that says for more financial aid support click here for the financial aid success toolkit that will have these resources students can also see their school counselor with respect to FASA also mixed student status families can apply for FASA we've provided training to school Personnel about support to students to reach graduation and for access to FASA and cata we are offering office hours to seniors and families with FASA and Kata every Thursday from 1:30 to 2:30 except on holidays in addition regions are offering Virtual Office hours to provide personalized support and they're also hosting fairs across the district for personalized help we receive support with family and caretaker workshops from first generation empowerment so calamp Cal soap and the Los Angeles Community College District and the California Student Aid Commission they support our regions in that targeted support and they also help at school sites and help counselors to reach out to families and that concludes our presentation on We Are One we're open to questions thank you all first of all I want to thank uh our superintendent carvalo for your vision and leadership in making our schools and true Havens for safety support and opportunity for all students um and also thank you to our presenters um Dr Francis Bas and Mr Anton Placencia and Miss Jackie day for that comprehensive update on the VR1 2025 initiative the progress we are making in supporting our families and ensuring their safety and well-being is truly encouraging and I thank you all for all of your work um at this time I'd like to pause and open the floor for any questions or comments from my colleagues please feel free to share your thoughts or ask any further clarification or any questions uh from the presentation that you may have Mr Scott schmon first for um our Council you mention the word exigent and that's a nebulous word and how I know it's a nebulous word is because when I was a principal social workers would only be able to come to school and and pull a kid out to speak to if it was an exigent circumstance so after that rule was made every circumstance was exigent so you know it's kind of a nebulous what do you think about the how would you describe Exogen in your opinion thank you for that question uh so exent circumstances is actually described as National Security or terrorism imminent risk of death violence or physical harm to any person fresh pursuit of dangerous felon protection of evidence in a criminal matter I appreciate that thank you thank you you I appreciate that also um on Slide Five we talk about federal and state laws protecting student education records and personal information how about the employees are their records also protected they are also um protected information as well um and it falls within um different set of laws in terms of employees rights and um it's codified in state law and federal laws and I'm glad to hear that let me just add that I have some information that we have some employees that are not citizens and they may need assistance in uh getting their immigration status and proof of employment taken care of and some of them have mentioned that they're kind of afraid to go ahead so what what do you recommend for these employees who need to fix up their immigration status and their proof of employment with LA USD so what I would recommend is that they reach out to um there's two um websites that have immigration attorney providers um and it's through the Attorney General's office I can provide those um at a later date um immigration ca help um and I I can provide the second one that would be great that would be great I appreciate that and also last one on slide 11 the contacts I would love to know what services they provide and by Board District especially if that's a possibility it's a lot of work I know but there's lots of names there but I would sure like to know what services they provide and by Board District if possible if possible uh which slide are you referring to slide 11 is it 12 oh the partners uh that's contact sheets in the we one guide we have been working alongside Jackie to update very ious know your rights providers and it does include information about even some that's specialized in youth related Services versus General immigration related Services um and we will see if there's a way to determine they're from our understanding they're available to offer assistance across regions but we'll look and see those that may have offices in other areas as thank you and I really appreciate the information for our employees because they're really worried and I thank you very much for that very welcome I I just want to just add on that point I know we have other organizations like elk who does provide um you know your rights and a lot of legal services and advice for our communities and I know we have a representative here and I know they would definitely love to be included and I don't know if I don't know if I see public Council here on on this list public Council actually recently did a um wildfires um webinar for La unified through our family Academy last Friday um in addition to the wildfires materials they also presented on impact um in terms of applying for FEMA and other wfire Disaster Assistance related resources if there were um if the individual was from a mixed status family or may not uh may be undocumented great thank you any uh questions Miss um Carla grego yes I just want to follow up on that term exigent so if and and can you explain to me do they have to show proof that it is whatever Authority comes and they say it's exigent and I need to come in the school do they have to have some form of proof like they do in other cases yes they would need to um show some type of proof um but those uh proof in terms of warrants would need to be reviewed by the office of the general counsil and it would be um depend on the type of Warrant that was presented okay so they do have to have a warrant and it does have to say there that it is under this accident okay um and then in terms of the um the workshops um you mentioned a know your rights School site meeting um that would be so is that uh uh meeting during the school day for families and parents or for staff the the setup of know your rights is that the partners that you saw on screen have already given us general information that we collect as a district to ensure that they're able to you know engage with us out in the field some of the partners yet you probably don't see like public Council maybe it might be that they have not given us their insurance certificate but we are collecting that um with them they are included in the know your rights U family guide for the workshop request we will be collecting from the school site uh point that contacts the 3840 number the 213 241 3840 we'll collect general information in the survey meaning date location time and audience and we'll arrange to have a know your rights presenter along with the district presenter at the time that is convenient for the School site but it won't be a webinar it'll be an actual presentation in person cuz I heard you say webinar as well we're trying to speak broadly about the model of engagement at the moment but we can give you more information um uh separate to this thank you and as a followup to that um for our know your rights presentations they're available in um two times the ones that are done on know your rights as they relate to immigration policy one is done during um the day and there's watch parties at the schools um from 10: to 11:30 then the other time frame that it's been conducted is the 5:30 to 7:00 p.m slot so that enables a wider engagement in terms of families that may have people that are working during the day and if there's any School District employees that would like to attend or staff to attend so that they can um bring that information back to their individual School sites and family communities and how can Community organizations that are doing this work that are not currently on that list how can they get on the list excellent they can email donations at lausd.net that is the um email account to our development and Civic engagement team under monei and we will uh onboard them as we um to describe the model and the process we schedule a training um a train the trainer to review the content we've curated with cisen um and we will invite them to Future meetings with our partners but the email again is donations lausd.net thank you other members with questions Miss um Hy newbill yes I just had one question for the training of the particulars at the school site exactly what stages do they go through in the training and how does how do we know that they've taken the training is there a certificate as we do with child abuse or how do you know that they've done the training in Fidelity thank you for sharing that question um the division of school operations supported our schools with training for principls as well as for staff members um so that they can get an idea of how to respond should there be an incident where um um a federal agency should show up at the site there's no certificate or anything provided but it is training for all employees we also made the training available for employees that work after hours those that come in super early um so we did provide that support for those uh School site Personnel the training is like a video it's a what is training so how do you know that they are equipped to be able to go and face this cuz it's scary so how do you know that they're equipped and ready to go thank you for asking it's a training that provide it's a PowerPoint presentation in person so it's engaging uh questions can be asked uh we also provided red cards that um gave uh information for folks to get uh information with regards to the constitutional rights but the training in itself is uh a training designed to show our staff members how to respond um in that in the event that they are facing uh federal agents thank you I just have a quick question on on that um line of questioning some schools are reporting varing imple varying implementation of the policy and different resources being proactively shared uh with students and families While others other schools um are expecting students to request the information or parents to request the information so I understand the reasons why but how can we ensure um how families have the printed resources in school without having to ask for it thank you um with regards to the resources we've provided a website on our district website um available for parents and um others uh but specifically for principes and staff we do have materials that have been uploaded to the principals portal um that those materials provide uh Communications for parents it provides various uh Resources with regards to um supports um the handbook that Antonio shared earlier that's posted on there we also have um um additional references to help support all schools all families so that they understand what the procedures will be how to respond how to get help um to reassure them that we have welcoming environments in La unified for that and just another question um students are also reporting a lot of Mis misinformation regarding changes in Immigration and other federal law how are we um ensuring that our students are also receiving the training so they can have access to the accurate information information the information through our know your rights presentations that are through our vetted immigration partner S as Ken um as the new um changes have been recently announced um we've invited them back to do followup know your rights trainings and that information is available on our website the we are1 website and one last question for Mr web um how about other departments or divisions like the translation Department who want some training can they reach out to your office and request for trainings yes most definitely um division leads were provided with information in terms of how to respond should they need supports and so that was given out last week um we also have additional information that's provided again this week the goal for us is to make sure we overc communicate so any support that's needed they can definitely reach out to our offices okay thank you so much um Miss tantis Franklin or Miss gones if you have any questions up in Zoom no I don't oh there we go Miss gones hi thank you all so much for the presentation and just for your work in general I know it's been a high area of interest in the Northeast Valley and I've heard a lot of positive feedback regarding the supports we're providing um I may have missed this but was wondering about mental health um support psychological uh first aid um in general for our families for our employees who may be affected and also for our students whether this is work that our psychiatric social workers can help um provide within our classrooms and schools and that is very at the much at the center of our campaign um our content is opening with our rooted and resilience segments that offering uh for anyone that would like to experience either the recorded webinar of rooted and resilience or just to see our presentations um they are available at um lusd.org Family Academy all details are available for our families um in addition to that the guide itself does include strategies for developing resilience and how to deescalate the emotions and the feels that they are experiencing um the family resource guide has a wonderful section that Mr jol Nettles um and Miss Marquez arranged from school mental health that include access to our Wellness Center and our district clinics that are also available to assist families I just also want to add uh at the beginning of the semester we also launched our par portal access to our uh T Mental Health Services through Hazel and so families can self-initiate through the parent portal to connect with a provider and so we've been been able to expand that service and access after hours so that families can access over the weekend and they don't have to rely just on the availability during school hours those all sound like great resources for students specifically though um because those seem very geared towards our families which is much needed as well um are there things we're proactively doing in classrooms like during socio emotional times um to to provide proactively mental health supports um for our students who may be impacted so absolutely we have uh been working with student health and human services so our social emotional learning team is working with that team to put together resources they've already been published and sent out uh to our schools uh so it's a matter of just really spreading the word that these resources are available to them so we do have tools for them great thank you so much our student Board member Miss uh Cortez Lopez thank you I want to extend my deepest gratitude again as we have all shared a Shar sentiment of gratitude because I have seen the word work really being showcased on platforms that students typically use which is social media and I have been seeing just a roar of Applause towards the district um towards this campaign the we1 campaign and students are really feel feeling that support from the district firsthand so I want to extend that gratitude as well as um some of the work I previously shared with Mr Placencia and concerning that question regarding uh students role in in the we1 campaign um I have seen previously that the fostering Health relationships through dig digital citizenship um drafted by board member scharon um actually had webinars available to all students during the advisory period to ensure that all students were able to see that the first thing in the morning they came in and it was available to all students um without the need to go to a separate website firsthand so I believe that would be something I look forward to continuing in uh with the we1 campaign and hopefully execute so all students have the ability to share resources and have that information firsthand uh within the classrooms and eventually share that with their peers and community members and Miss Gregory you have one more question yes how are we confirming that principles and staff um all staff have been trained is there a form that they complete a Google sign out sheet how are we tracking that uh each region is responsible for tracking the uh actual participation in the training uh so they will give me an update uh at the conclusion of the day and each week we'll get an update to make sure all principes have been trained and then principls are actually monitoring the training at their school sites um for all of their staff uh we're expecting principls to also train parents or actually have a conversation with parents uh at coffee with the principal pizza with the principal for next week uh um just so that parents are aware that um we are um we have a safe environment for our students and um I'm particularly concerned about the folks who are not on site um but not on site during the school hours when the principal might be uh giving this um this training so how are they how are we tracking them and then lastly could you let us know um what that information is what percentage of our staff has been trained so far what we're missing is that something that you can provide to us we'll do we'll get that information to you all uh in terms of the after uh our staff like our Beyond Neel staff they are being trained they have been trained by the school principles the leadership um is being trained uh I'm not sure if they were trained excuse me should be for today for the leadership that uh has not necessarily had a chance to for the beyond the bell staff you want to go ahead um Mr vvo and then we'll go to miss um new bill yeah I think most my question questions have been asked by my colleagues including our student board member thank you and I just want to reiterate the Gratitude and kind of the unified commitment to the work around the we are one campaign and the work to support our students and families also thank you Dr Bas for the financial aid presentation you know just a reminder to folks the deadlines have been extended given the challenges with the role out of FAFSA so um yeah I don't think I think my questions have been answered but appreciate the support um and the updated information and I know we'll stay you know uh stay apprised of it in coming days and weeks and do what we can to support our community thank you uh it's kind of in connection with what was said about the resources that Dr B has um referenced are those resources connected to the training so that they know once they've done the training that those resources are there and that the students also have that access because as mentioned I have gotten some phone call calls about the anxiety that's on the campuses that the students are feeling and now once they're trained do they have direct access to the resources so they can kind of infer as mentioned in an advisory be able to plug on a video or watch a webinar so that the students can get some information directly after that teacher has been trained thank thank you for sharing yes the principles have been provided with the information uh within the principal portal so they're able to then uh see the actual uh guides that we've been the scripts for each of that facilitator guides I'm sorry for each of their trainings in addition there's resources uh also within that uh principal's portal um we just developed RC just developed the U uh student guide which actually has a one pager that makes it a lot easier for students to grasp it it it it's pretty it enhances what's already in the red card um um that we distributed to schools earlier this week and so they'll be encouraged to get it or they have to like she mentioned would they have to go and look for it how would they just all receive it as part of their course of the day it's made available um for all principles through the portal but it's after the AOS or excuse me administrators of operations made the training they exp explicitly shared where to get this information so it's easy for them to access they're used to going in and accessing the portal thank you any oh we have another question by Miss Ortiz Franklin go ahead just want to reiterate my thanks um and I know lots of folks are working on these issues collectively so uh look forward to more shared support um one quick question and it can be a follow-up but do we have any uh data on attendance this last week with the various announcements and how that's impacting our students whether it's or staff attendance and um if we don't have that today uh would love to see that as a followup um but I see the superintendent might want to respond yeah so when you look at attendance Trends and comparing to last week to now we aren't seeing any significant impacts but we are hearing you know antidotes Case by casee uh reports by principles conversations concerns that are articulated by community members and family members but we are keeping uh I would say a record to the extent that we can of the trends one of the areas that we want to disaggregate for is the impact of the fires in our community as well folks are still you know normalizing there as well so we are being purposeful about looking at what are the trends and the impacts we've also communicated that with our regions and region directors to also keep a close eye so that we can push in support and actually push in additional Communications and alternatives for our families as they're considering choices at their school sites thanks yes Mr boa goad one quick question the red cards are printed in what languages English Spanish do we also have Korean I what what are the languages that those are going out to families in or schools the current print uh was available in English and Spanish uh but they're probably I think it's about 15 languages that it can be reprinted uh so if a School site needs additional uh red cards they can reach out to us we can assist them in doing it or they can print them out themselves uh this is something where we deliver 200 red cards um uh initially for all schools we then also distributed 10,000 red cards to all of the uh each region um and then we have additional as needed that's good to know and we can communicate with schools it might also be helpful just centrally if there are schools where there is a high population of speakers that aren't Spanish or English Korean Armenian like maybe we can proactively just give those schools as opposed to putting it on them so not every school but maybe you know if you look at a certain percentage and I know there are a few that come to mind it would maybe we can just do that we we'll definitely handle that thanks Dr Rob with that any other no more questions um first of all I want to thank each and one of you and all of your staff and everyone that has been working with um also our chief um Andress Chate all of our region uh superintendent and their staff I know they've been working very diligently and making sure everyone has all the resources and the red cards and and the workshops have been um I get the the notices so I know they're taking place um very frequently and um accessible at all times for our students and that they're also recorded in webinars and that's great so I really want to thank you um from the bottom of all of our hearts and all of our families and and employees thank you so much um Okay so if your school or Community is in need of additional support please don't hesitate to reach out to all the appropriate staff and we you heard here exactly the telephone numbers and the we are one website um and we are here to listen coordinate response efforts and to ensure every family and employee receiv receives the care and resources that they need from mental health um to you know connection with our Community Partners so all of this work is very essential so now now we have the honor of hearing from our student Board member Miss anal Cortez Lopez as a student leader anal brings an essential perspective to today's discussions a voice that reminds us of the real and immediate impacts of the work on the lives of students and families so anal thank you for your dedication and advocacy and the floor is yours thank you for the introduction I would like to extend my gratitude to the board again for the sentiment shared today I believe that having these conversations openly um will ultimately benefit the vast majority of the student body who are concerned um about the current events taking place federally I would like to begin by again introducing myself and sharing a bit about my background uh which will pertain to the information I will be sharing um I proudly serve over 500,000 students that currently reside in Los Angeles Unified and like many of my incredible peers I am a proud student of a federally funded Title One school I am part of Upward Bound a college preparatory program funded by the Department of Education and a proud daughter of immigrant parents today I am here not only as a student but to my peers as a friend and someone who has deeply listened to the concerns and hopes of our student body concerning policies regarding our undocumented and newcomer families I am in constant awe of the resilience many of our district students found amilies and community members have showcased in these past few weeks I have heard countless conversations with my peers and there is one thing clear there is a shared sense of fear and unease about what lies ahead I want to take a moment to validate these feelings it is okay to feel overwhelmed by the whirlwood of information so easily at our disposal and that is why I am here today to share that you are not alone I would like to begin by highlighting and emphasizing ing the importance of the we1 campaign and quoting directly from the we1 website per 2024 La unified board resolution the district is a sanctuary district and a safe zone for families threatened by immigration enforcement the district has protocols for responding to immigration Personnel requests for information about students family and staff students our district is working hard to be as proactive as as possible in supporting students and families during these times they're collaborating with Community Partners offering resources to ensure that sufficient information is being distributed but as students we also have to recognize the power that we hold and the resilience that we have shown time and time again I want to highlight an important resource for our community that was recently shared with me and the vast amount of resources available at our consulates across Los Angeles Los Angeles holds the most amount of consulates generals in the entire United States it is great resource to use for legal entities and so they can be connected with legal advice that come either free or at a subsidized cost for undocumented families I know that these moments are especially heavy and there is a mental toll that comes with the uncertainty and from my peers it's something that I see many are secretly carrying it's going into a exam worrying about your relatives working agriculture it's using lunchtime to not catch up on assignments but rather translate legal documents for your family at home it's a scare about filling out the Kata or FAA because of your parents immigration status it's a vast amount of energy mentally that should be devoted toward schoolwork yet student finds themselves in a position where they must support their families and communicate with each other during these times I want to emphasize that their are mental health professionals on campus who are here for you whether it's a oneon-one conversation or sessions with your counselor the support is here and it is catered to your needs please reach out it is okay to reach out there are psychiatric social workers on campus and it is brave to take that first step whether you need just someone to listen to you the referral and help is there another important point I would like to bring up to students is the importance of meeting literacy we have so much information readily available at our disposal and on various social media platforms being media literate means knowing when to question when to research further and when to use our voices to correct falsehoods it's ensuring that we not only consume information but also responsibly contribute to a culture of Truth and understanding by fostering this media literacy we can also Bridge gaps between communities and bring true importance to the re resources that our community needs in conclusion I am in awe of the constant resilience that our students face they constantly show up not only for themselves but for their peers for their families and their community members this is to say that I want to emphasize the students role in this conversation and to ensure that when we talk about the resources available and the information that is being shared on our campuses through webinars through sites that students want to be involved and as we've seen in the past we're regarding the palage fire and the fire all around Los Angeles they are there volunteering sharing information whether it be on social media with their peers or simply in their communities they want to be heard and part of the conversation I look forward to collaborating with the we1 campaign on uplifting the student Voice through the know your rights webinars and workshops um because of the deep interest our students hold in these ideas and How Deeply affected they are by them and I want to leave this message uh to any student feeling afraid to know that you are seen you are valued and you are not alone I will end once again with the we a quote from the we1 campaign the district will do everything in its power to protect and defend students family and staff and defend all students right to a public education thank you [Applause] I also have the speech in Spanish since I know uh many of the board meetings are watched by families um and we have a large percentage of students who come from Latin American family so I'm just going to say in Spanish um if they need translation devices or any of that sort so as you speak it in Spanish uh here we'll hear it in Spanish over the mic and then it will be translated into English for those who would like to use translation devices like these they're going to come out right now I can hear them I can hear them getting these ready for you so if you'd like to hear again what the student board board member said in English as she's speaking in Spanish uh put your hand up and we'll get these headsets to you thank you all right good afternoon I am here with you my name is aneli Cortez Lopez and I am a student of a title one school Gardina high school and I'm also a proud daughter of immigrant parents today I'm here before you as a student not just as a student but also as a classmate friend and somebody who has listened profoundly the concerns fears and hopes of the student community in La unified we are living very difficult times not only for the students in our district but also for their fam friends and members of our community I have had so many conversation with my classmate but there's something that is very clear there is a feeling a shared feeling of fear and um not knowing what is before us I want to take a moment to validate those feelings and I know that you might be fearful or not not know what lies ahead and it's okay to feel um overwhelmed what is not okay is to face those things alone and that is why I am here today to remind you that you are not alone I would like to start highlighting and emphasizing the importance of our campaign we are one and to receive this information from the website directly for We Are One and according to the uh La Board of Education board resolution 2024 the district is a sanctuary District a safe zone for those families threatened due to Immigrant immigration actions the district has protocols to respond and for form for personnel and immigration for students families and employees our district is working hard to be as Pro active as possible to support the families in these times they are collaborating with social with Community Partners offering resources and making sure that there is enough information distributed but as students we must also recognize the power that we have the resiliency that we have shown one over and over again together we are stronger than we can even imagine for the families students that are undocumented I know that these moments might feel extremely difficult and there's a mental load that comes with being UNC the uncertainty and I see so so many students and my classmates that carry these in secret is going to an math exam worrying about the family that works on the fields is to use lunchtime to translate legal documents for your family it's to use an enormous amount of mental energy that should be dedicated to studies but many students find themselves in the position that they have to support their families it's okay to find help and there is help available in our schools with your counselors that are available and ready to hear your needs another issue that I wanted to highlight for students is the important of media literacy we have so much access to so much information that promotes the different platforms on social media and it is important to know how to use the social media responsibly and to know what resources are real and what are those to promote fear by fting the media literacy we can close gaps across community and give attention to the resources and opportunities that can Elevate us all I am amazed by the constant resiliency that I have seen in each one of my classmates incl uh even though of uncertainty and fear you still continue to appreciate it not just for you but for your families your classmates and your community that strength is what will move us forward I hope to collaborate with the district campaign we are want to elevate the student voice in uh workshops know your rights and I know that many students have expressed many times that they want to elevate the student voice and I hope to continue the webinars and the support for our undocumented population to any that is feeling lost or feeling fearful please remember that you are seen you're valued and that you're not alone I will end again with a quote from the we are one campaign the district will do everything in the reach to protect and defend students families and EMP employees and will defend Advocate the right for all students to receive a public education thank [Applause] you thank you so muchas thank you for your words you um for providing the voice of students so many that feel voiceless and uh as you mentioned they're afraid and also you know because they're having to be the ones that for many having to be the ones to be to act as their family's lawyer or adviser because um you know they have to help the F their families their parents and cousins or uncles whoever may be so thank you so much and uh for your thoughtful remarks and as I said for lifting the voices of students um and also for saying it in Spanish and espanol so must be linguist um so before we move on to our next uh presenters we have uh Community Partners um and immigration Support Services I will be remiss to also not mention the uh gratitude and appreciation for our principles as we heard earlier this is another task that they have to do but I know they're doing it with a lot of love and a lot of um and Leadership for their their students and also for their employees and all the staff members and teachers who are also there to protect and to make sure that the students are all students are receiving the the education that they uh legally deserve to have so now we are moving on to um our next um area or topic uh in our um agenda we are going to hear from um several Community Partners and we're starting uh now with um Miss IL um escovar a political organizer with utla so please um welcome Miss esage as she will share some and I know she has a presentation as well so welcome thank you appreciate that hi everybody how are you doing on this beautiful Tuesday afternoon um even though there's a lot of tough things happening we appreciate the space to be able to share with you all um what we're doing as Educators and utla um alongside um other labor Partners as well in getting ourselves educated and trained up to be able to respond to um intimidation tactics by the presidential Administration that have already affected how we all feel and show up to work um show up to community spaces show up for each other so um let me go through it one one F first thing is um deportation and detention is in the news a lot right now it's not going to come off the news and that's on purpose um every every executive order signed every new directive the one that we just heard about the directive within the immigration custom enforcement um directive to eliminate sensitive locations tomorrow it Lake and Riley the ACT will be likely signed there'll be a big press event about that um some signed by Trump which is an anti-immigrant immigration bill um and more importantly even all last week a lot of us have been um in the thick in the trenches of verifying and confirming any immigration agent um sightings and they have been in the community um a lot if just so folks know they have two signs on their back it says police but on the bottom it'll say HSI so it's two two different verifiers HSI Homeland Security investigations those are immigration agents not police officers um sometimes it's confusing a community um we they've been spotted in shopping plazas like the parking lots um it's un un I don't I don't have insight as to um they haven't I went to go verify one actually um and um they weren't conducting an immigration raid in that shopping plaza my understanding though in from hearing what neighborhoods they were trying to find people in is that that's where they were grouping afterward or beforehand um to go and try to find a person so it's real when when you're hearing these reports um and I'll explain a little bit more about training ourselves up when when we share that information because to the student board members um points we got to verify and confirm them before we go and repost them um so um I think next slide do I like oh oh perfect for some up here doing slides great um these here we've distributed these to all our members um last week our us what our KN one in and labor unions as shop stewards where our chapter tars at utla were trained on the uh policy um of La USD to keep students safe sanctuary and safe zones and they were also given these buttons to wear at all times especially this morning when they were giving out uh leaflets to parents on knowing their rights um we our educators will be wearing them because we know that a lot of times is a student will a student or or parent will feel really safe telling an educator about their fears um questions about FAFSA or California Dream act so this is like an indicator for our Educators to have to continue that line of communication with um with parents and families and students next one these were also distributed to our me uh uh chapter chairs and to and they took as many as they could as made sense for folks at their school and they've already been put up in their classroom this classroom is a safe safe space for immigrants and then for our psws PSAs this office is a safe space for immigrants similar and it's also translated in Spanish there so these you probably seen these all over campuses have has anybody seen these yeah no wanted to see have you all seen these on the campuses yeah woohoo it's good we um it's really important again because we want to get ahead of anybody feeling like they can't come to school and per the um earlier report it doesn't look like there's been a huge drop off but that doesn't mean learning disruption hasn't happened because people are scared so let's keep the students in school let's make sure the families are coming are are bringing their kids to school um and we're hoping that these these um basic visuals work because sometimes it's more about what you how you make folks feel than what you say and these were the parent leaflets we distributed this morning they are very text Heavy um they were in English and Spanish this is the Spanish version but it's so that um parents and families are aware of all the different Protections in the state um and and plyer versus uh Department of Education P versus do doe um and and then also the the state the district policy and this is important important because um really what we have in our state and in our district the school district um and in the city with the sanctuary ordinance is not any evasion of the federal law what it is is ensuring that students and families and Educators have um um due process and that that due process is what these policies are really about is is is not just simply kidnapping somebody somebody from their neighborhood and um and and Expediting the removal from the country it's making sure that steps are followed so that everyone has a right to um plea their side before uh the government to be able to stay here and and be a from you know be able to say why they're here from Asylum cases to just having a legal right to being here and those that's what really these policies are about um and that's really important the district policy here relies a lot on our um brothers and sister the um principles um and and the or designes and um that is important because you we have given our um leaders in the schools everything we can to make sure that no students rights are trampled on and that's really important because our student learning conditions are also our Educator's workplaces I got to say that all right and um we wanted to point out uh even though um uh this district has adopted those due process policies under sanctuary and safe Zone which comply with state law we also think that it's important to support the state so the SB 48 and ab49 those are laws proposed um bills right now in the assembly and Senate that would help um additional districts across the country that haven't had um as robust and good policies like we do so it'd be good to support those as a district um and be the the hope for um other districts especially in like the Central Valley where our food is grown and harvested um those school districts were really worried about them and those families because um the resour there's a lot of concentrations of resources here um it's very hard to spread that to the state so i' I'd really implore Schoolboard members the superintendent to support this type of um have this type of advocacy even though we have our robust um policy here and that concludes my report thank you so much we uh we look to continue oh I'll say one more thing sorry on um training wise we we we are um training up our Educators as well um and uh we will have a series of trainings for them to understand the policy we've been describing family preparedness we're even going to offer inperson know your rights trainings one thing we know is that a lot of this is embodying it um because once you have an immigration agent in front of you sometimes you just get really scared and um uh and so we got to remind people of what their rights are a lot of that has to do with not opening doors and staying silent or not um um exercising the right to remain silent and again it's it's people are going to have to hear the information a lot and then and then practice at home to know um because again it's scary once um these folks are in front of you because they do have um they have a whole Fleet of people with them likely so we want to make sure that people both know the information and embody it thank you so much um thank you so much the UT educators are with immigrants thank you Miss Escobar um I'll I'm going to ask the board to we'll hold our questions until all presenters have shared their remarks so next uh we welcome Sophia wrench Equal justice Works fellow with the public Council and Miss Ana Cruz Coalition coordinator with the Garment Worker Center welcome the floor is yours thank you so much everyone uh my name is Sophia wrench I you she her pronouns I am an attorney with public Council which is a nonprofit Legal Services organization based in Los Angeles and part of my job is working with the sanctuary Coalition which pushes for Sanctuary laws to protect immigrants thank you everybody hi uh my name is anai Cruz I also use she her PR prouns um I'm Coalition coordinator for the Garment Worker Center uh we're a nonprofit organization combating sweat shops in Los Angeles um and garment and organizing garment workers in La uh gwc was also part of the sanctuary La Coalition alongside other uh worker centers and Community organizations so as many of you know the city of Los Angeles passed its Sanctuary ordinance late last year and it went into effect immediately and so we wanted to take a moment to help everyone understand what the city of Los Angeles Sanctuary ordinance means and as you know LAUSD and the City of La do collaborate in several spaces for example the family Source centers and the youth Source centers and it would also affect any La USD staff if they are considered City staff as well and it also affects any contracts or subcontracts between the City and LA USD in that anyone who contracts or subcontracts with the city has to confirm in writing that they will not share personal information collected for City Services with immigration authorities and this law is also likely coextensive with much of lausd's own Sanctuary policy which prevents LAUSD Personnel from voluntary voluntarily cooperating with any immigration enforcement action including sharing information about students and families immigration status with any immigration agent or agency and I did want to affirm IR what your general councel has said which is that despite the Department of Justice memo and statements by the White House officials that say that Sanctuary laws are illegal there is no legal Authority that supports this and in fact there's ample legal history and case law that supports that local authorities cannot be required to Aid or assist Federal officers in Immigration enforcement and that people cannot be punished for refusing to cooperate with requests from federal immigration enforcement and so here are some brief specifics about the city of Los Angeles law first it says that no City funds may be used to assist immigration enforcement and that City staff may not respond to any administrative requests from Ice to detain someone they may not participate in any Joint Task Force transfer an individual into ice custody or make a person available for an interview for example if a child or parent has a criminal convict ition or a removal order staff may not help ice identify that person and they may not help them um arrest that person cannot say that person is present that day that they're in classroom 8 or help them identify who that individual is but they can say things like I am not authorized to speak with you or I will not be answering any questions and it sounds like you all have some great know your rights materials being created already City staff may also not Grant ice access to any non-public areas of the city without assigned judicial search warrant um so already immigration authorities are allowed to enter wherever is open to the public but if an area is not open to the public so an area where you have to sign in get permission to enter you may not Grant ice access to that area and obviously the exception is if you have a signed judicial search warrant and staff should be trained to know the difference between Ice uh ice warrants and judicial warrants which it sounds like is being covered in some of the know your rights materials the city also cannot ask about or collect information about a person's immigration or citizenship status or place of birth unless it's required to provide a city service and you also cannot share personal information that could be used to trace a person's immigration status um so that could be information about a prior address in a foreign country that could be used to presume that the person is not a citizen so that's just a brief overview and I'm happy to answer any more questions um and we also have business cards and we've also passed out a one-pager that explains the law um and I'm going to pass it over to anai thank you Sophia um so thank you so much for contextualizing you know how the LA Sanctuary ordinance could impact the LA USG Community I want to shift gears a little bit and think about you know what else can we do to support our school communities so as previously mentioned the Coalition who helped pass this La Sanctuary ordinance this past November um is a network of La based organizations dedicated to to Ser serving local communities of of all kinds um and we wanted to highlight you know how schools um can tap into this network of organizations uh to support with like advocacy whether it's for students parents teachers um as well as potential legal support which Sophia will touch more on um so you know why is it important to empower and educate our school communities and immigration and civil rights issues at large um youth are are highly impacted by Ice raids of a family member um you know this experience can have detrimental impacts on their mental health and well-being leading to anxiety depression behavioral changes academic difficulties um and long-term psychological trauma even just the fear of an arrest is is enough um I speak from personal exist experience um therefore it's really important I think we've already covered this repeatedly right it's important that the adults are not the only ones being trained you know youth also deserve to be trained as well um and so organizations um within this network there's a huge network of La based organizations which were're Happ to you know connect you all outside of the ones that are already connected to the district um can provide things like covering uh you know what immigration enforcement looks like I think we covered that a little bit um a little bit ago practicing your rights out loud and like skits and and just general information on what to expect um this information is is not just useful for immigration enforcement but just even law enforcement in general um so these trainings Empower students and parents and Guardians to um by teaching them about their constitutional rights again from personal experience I wish I had something like this when I was in school um I wanted to give the example of the Garment Worker Center um so the Garment Worker Center where a workers rights organization and you know we organize garment workers in the LA area um gwc uh our goal is to a end wage stft for workers and provide like leadership development popular education organizing support for workplace issues but garment workers are also a largely immigrant Workforce therefore we're very cognizant about what's happening um at the federal level um and at large and so you know we're working to provide workers with training but we also want to empower families and their communities as well so we have a youth program um our youth organizer is actually here with us today um and our youth organizer conducts Outreach at schools uh where children and relatives of garment workers attend so for example the Miguel contas luring complex is a hub for garment um worker youth relatives children um and our youth program for kids and teens between the age of 14 and 22 are trained on on Advanced labor rights political education organizing our organization's campaigns um and so that's really just to point out that these organizations already have an extensive curriculum developed um that you know can be shared with youth um and and teachers as well and I think the overall go goal of these type of Youth uh programs is to deepen students political analysis organizing and Leadership skills and I think someone already mentioned this again but these programs really help ease that anxiety and that fear um and feel a little bit in control as to what's going on in this country um and provide also just a sense of belonging um and you know it also helps non-immigrant students understand live experience and I think really importantly dispel any anti-immigrant rhetoric that is uh widely being you know displayed um we have like a list of some organizations that have youth programs which I'm happy to follow up with um for example garment Worker Center cison Community Coalition roots for peace students deserve again we can definitely follow up and share um and this is just a very short list of um an extensive network but um you know schools should should look into turning to the LA based Community organizations worker centers legal aid groups to provide support and training you know outside of what um the amazing work that's already being done within the district um so for example if a teacher who's an adviser of a club wants to reach out to an organization or let's say a parent directly wants to connect a student to an organization um you know we can help connect folks to that Network and we really hope that the board can continue to explore you know how is it that we can just connect folks to this community of of further resources outside of just what's you know the awesome resources that are provided within the district but there's also this plethora of information and support outside as well um so I'll pass it back to Sophia thank you so those were some of the ways that students can get involved and know their rights we also wanted to talk about legal support for the district as a whole um you may have heard that the Trump Administration rescinded the Biden administration's guidance which had said that schools and churches and hospitals are protected or sensitive areas he didn't issue new guidance but this order did create a lot of fear in the community and we can see that this Administration could negatively impact LAUSD in a couple of specific ways for example as board member Ortiz Franklin raised decreased attendance or enrollment because of US citizen children being forced to leave with a deported parent students refusing to come to school out of fear or families moving to a different state and also school officials being forced to comply with Federal immigration enforcement meaning providing access to schools or sharing information which could mean that school staff are being coerced by the administration into violating local Sanctuary protections to enforce immigration law and if those things come to pass we want to know and we want to help you explore what legal remedies you may have because ultimately this is about easing anxiety and improving well-being of all students and families in LAUSD and we are here to support you thank you thank you thank you very much for all the information and resources and yes we would love to have that list of um to um Empower our youth so that's wonderful thank you so much uh now I'd like to invite uh Mr Winston Lea education and Outreach programs manager uh with Chira welcome hello thanks for uh for the space um again my name is Winston Lea I'm the programs manager at uh chera the Coalition for Humane immigrant rights uh we have been in existence for about roughly 37 years and since we have focused on providing uh legal immigration services to our imig community at large meaning we do not serve only one ethnic group we serve immigrants from every country or any other country um and shout out to our uh uh the other uh Community Based organizations who actually uh protect and Advance the uh the rights of our immigrant communities as well shout out to our compa here for powerful speech as well and weal of the students I'm an actually uh an immigrant myself uh and I came back in the 80s as an ACC company minor so I live and breathe immigration rights and immigration issues as well and so once again thanks for the space so uh on behalf of cherla what we're done is uh number one we um we bring some uh recommendations that Echo um actually what our previous uh speakers uh mentioned and that is actually the uh the increase of immigrant uh legal services for our communities we also want to reaffirm our commitment uh with LA usd's campaign as well uh we have enacted uh several workshops uh that are aimed not only uh to educate our communities on know your rights but also we are targeting the staff School staff principles teachers and everything and a shout out to the teachers and principles who are actually standing on the right side uh and protecting our more uh vulnerable communities as well and students and so um our workshops and just to give you a snapshot of in addition to the workshop we are uh also uh bringing this uh information as we understand that information is power and so our community uh it's very fearful the fear is very palpable we are the uh uh we're boots on the ground we we uh we understand the the P of the community and it is rather traveling uh from uh here and from our community all the news coming from uh other states and other parts in the US where um raids have been conducted in uh in schools uh s uh churches and so forth so it is it is understandable and that's the reason why we uh want to reemphasize uh to the board that as an organization we are we are here to reaffirm our commitment to bring this uh Vital Information to empower our communities and the way we do this is by uh uh we we attend uh Open Spaces providing this work workshops primarily uh in English and Spanish although we can also accommodate any other language uh any other language needed uh we also um attend and are in close uh communication and also uh collaborating with consulates uh this includes also the schools from K through 12 to community colleges fouryear schools and this also uh includes bringing information and uh regarding uh uh the situation right now uh on the uh immigration but also on the know your rights uh information to our communities in high food traffic uh spaces and more importantly uh we're one of the very few organizations that have actually enacted and uh for a few years now uh our immigrant assistance line and uh that has actually produced a lot of trust even more trust in our community where immigrants uh regardless of what country they come from or the language they speak they can actually reach out to us they can communicate understanding that we understand them we speak their language we understand their needs and uh and so everything is confidential so the uh immigrant assistance line is actually available to anyone and not just for questions related or pertaining to immigration services but also for emergencies or even uh referrals that we would actually vouch for this also helps us to uh re uh diminish the uh possibility of uh an immigrant uh being uh becoming Vic victims of fraud as a result of the circumstances and so just wanted to also share um effectively uh and right after the uh uh November's elections uh as an organization we have revamped the uh workshops and once again uh this has produced over 200 plus activities and this out of the 200 plus activities that we have we have reached successfully over 25,000 uh community members since November and once again I want uh lastly I want to uh reemphasize our commitment to uh to the board and to the LA USD districts but also not just L USD we have currently staff in the field in our communities doing precisely the same providing workshops on know your rights virtually in person and training the trainers as well uh not just in LA county but from Central Valley down to uh Southern California and thank you thanks for the space I can take any questions thank you so so much for that we're going to ask questions once we hear from our last presenter thank you so much um lastly one of our key Partners in this critical work is Salvador Sanabria executive director of el resc welcome thank you Dr rias and good afternoon members of the school board superintendent and an ear great presentation and speech very powerful I'm Salvador Sanabria I'm executive director of el rate and for those that do know us uh we were founded 43 years ago uh this is going to be our 44th year uh of working with the Immigrant community in Southern California although we are based here in Downtown LA PCO Union West Lake Marto Park uh we serve the entire region the majority of our clients come from Los Angeles County but also they come from River Site San Bernardino Orange County Ventura and other places we have been proud members of the Together We rise Coalition now it's been more than a year and our partners are the California Federation of teachers the American Federation of teachers utla El Rancho uh teacher Federation nalo educational fund salf and El rascate and other labor unions that have joined us in this effort but the partnership with Dr Ros Riva has been a great enhancement in our capacity and our reach out to our immigrant Community we have developed with her collaboration and her great team more than 10 events in different schools in her district and we have served even before Mr Trump was reelected we've been serving those communities by providing them workshops about their rights as immigrants no matter their legal status in this country we have provided them one-on-one consultations to identify if there are immigration remedies available for them and their families and we have assisted more than 700 people to become new American citizens in the Los Angeles area very important this morning I had the honor to join the teachers of the young uh Middle School Academy in Miss GGO uh District Distributing the leaflet of our next event uh this coming Saturday will be an O rights Clinic there and we will have attorneys available for those who need a one1 consultation to find out you know if they have any uh immigration remedies available for them and also we were Distributing the red cars you know they came uh ready to get those cars you know and share it with their family members or any uh co-workers uh that might or friends that might need them so we're going to be doing that uh I want to report that this morning uh we were contacted by SAR mooning uh formally to invited to become members of your great campaign uh in the district uh we've been joining that effort since last year you know with all the meetings but today she requested some formal documents from El rcat that we already provided to her so we are happy to be part of this effort we're ready to serve we're a small organization but passionate driven you know to serve our our community uh we served last year more than 27 different immigrant nationalities in La including you us born and naturalized citizens thank you for your effort and we're here to cooperate partner with you and serve our community thank you Mr sria yes is small But Mighty very passionate uh so thank you all for the Community Partners for sharing such invaluable resources and insights here today I certainly have learned a lot your collaboration is critical uh in ensuring that our families are well supported and informed so at this time um I will pause and open the floor for any questions or comments uh from the board uh or um yeah so the floor is open for any questions or comments that youall would like to make no no I think okay go ahead Miss grego yeah I first I want to thank you Dr Rivas for adding the community partner section to this agenda um it's so inspiring to see so many folks who are doing this work it makes me feel so good that in spite of all of the negativity that we're seeing in the news that we have so many folks on the ground who care about our students who care about our families and who have the guts to stand up to any attacks and who are here to let us know that they want to partner with us they want to help us they want to work with us and I want to appreciate all of you who came here and offered that because we do need you every single one of you offered an Insight um you know IL say sharing about how scary it is to stand up to somebody in uniform to somebody um who has Authority and if you are somebody who has had a negative experience if you have that experience of facing ice as a child then you are doubly triple scared to stand up and so what you shared El say about having to practice to use those words allowed to roleplay so that when that moment comes it it might be scary but we'll be able to use it and I think it was Ana who shared that she wish she had that as a young person so I am hoping that our schools and I know that our Educators want this for our students and for the families I know that they want to empower them and I also know that they're ready to stand up to defend our students and to defend their families so whatever way we can partner with all the organizations that you shared on IE that can support our students in um we know they have a lot of courage and we know that um that they've gone through a lot but um they they that empowerment will help them be able to face that that fear that inevitably will be there um and um so I want to appreciate that a lot and I'm hoping also that you know in this moment we invest more somebody said I don't remember who said about investing maybe it was you I think about social social emotional and mental health supports and I think it is critical that we we do have psychiatric social workers but we don't have them all at all of our sites and they're not there all the time so this is a critical time for us to look at how we are supporting our students with their social emotional needs how we are making sure that our wellness centers and our health clinics are fully staffed so that they can be there for the families when our families need them and um and that we uh provide as much Seal training for our teachers any Community Building exercises that we can support them because this is the time to build community at the school sites to start in the classroom building community and spread that because like Ana said it wouldn't be just empowering for the students who are facing this but even for those who are not what a great lesson it is to show to teach how we can be there for others how we can defend others and how we grow from that what a great lesson and what a great opportunity for us as a district to offer that for our students so once again I am so grateful I am so inspired by all of you and I am just so motivated and um uh elkat has been did he say 43 years he did did and I remember El rcat I was born in El Salvador and El rcat was one of those organizations in the80s that was outspoken and supporting all Salvadoran families who were here because of the war and so was kisen so you're very dear to my heart and I'm so glad that you are now on our official partner list thank you thank you M grego for your words anyone else would like to make any L comments Mr Moo well I I don't want to follow that I just want to Echo uh um Miss GGO and thank you Dr revas for agendize this and just say thank you I know it's unfortunately deja vu all over again as they say when it comes to some of the coalitions we built you know in my kind of the first Trump Administration with with the partners here I appreciate that we're memorializing it and um how quickly folks have mobilized to support communities and families and I appreciate how unified willingness to open up our arms to embrace Partners who have been doing this work for a very long time um and I want to appreciate appreciate you all for being here and partnering on uh whether that's know your rights presentations or others or um or or being there for for one another so thanks for the opportunity of bringing in our partners I think that's always great when we can show that we're not in this alone we are truly one um and thanks Miss GGO for uh for those passionate words and just second it yes just wanted to say appreciate it because I think um it just gave a testament to what we were saying as far as if Partners were not on this list that it is actually happening and so you are a testament to that as you shared here that you reached out and now you will be a part of the organization and allowing us to continue this work together and so uh in the words of you know mentioning what you said you know wish we had this and I do too 40 years ago wish I had this as a student in the schools as a daughter of immigrant parents because it was frightening it was scary to face every day coming home to wonder if your parents would be there and so to actually do this together uh it just brings a warm space in my heart to know that we are moving forward and we're doing this together with our community and that our schools are going to be able to benefit from this so just thank you again and Dr Rivas for bringing it to our attention and to making it a public conversation thanks that's right Cortez Lopez just echoing the Gratitude from everyone here I believe all the sense Shar today really just emphasize the need of community and that we are stronger when we come together and share these resources as a community um one thing I would like to bring up and I have seen uh uh when you mentioned um Factory workers and and I I came to mind about how undocumented status and migrate children are much more likely to be exploited for for um for labor exploitation and I believe that would be beneficial to include somewhere uh as we're we're looking towards our immigrant families and our newcomer youth including that information somewhere in there regarding their rights uh specifically for minors for our students um regarding youth exploitation how to identify and and where to call and the resources available um regarding youth exploitation so I appreciate you opening up that dialogue and conversation and looking forward to more Partnerships in the future thank you beautiful um Miss Ortiz Franklin or Miss gones if you want to pop up if you have any questions uh while we wait for them if they want to um provide any comments I just you know um want to say again Echo the the words of my colleagues and and our student board member a heartfelt thank you for our community partners for your unwavering dedication and for sharing such essential resources for with our families but also for your Warrior hearts and all the work that you're doing on the ground um it is your Collective efforts reflect the unity and strength we all share and ensuring the well-being of our students and families and and employees together we are building a resilient Community with every family so that every family and employee can Thrive as we continue this work we are committed to deepening our collaboration and strengthening relationships across all uh the district and our board offices by coming together and coordinating more effectively we can ensure that our responses are unified and that every family receives the support and care they need so now I will open up the floor to our superintendent for any words he want to share thank you very much um I I'll join the the ches of appreciation and gratitude to those in our community who rally around our students our schools our families the value of public education and uh celebrate not only its value but uh join in Partnership and protecting the rights of all uh this is a proud moment for our school district and uh in times of challenge communities good communities come together and I think we're witnessing uh this happen as we speak and uh our students and their families are in good hands thank you very much you thank you all uh so now we will open up the floor for public comments uh another very essential aspect of this meeting so Mr McLean okay so folks have already signed up online we have a full boat of public comments and I'll call on the folks who are listed as being here in person and then we will transition to those who are listed as being remote so Stanley Anan Anan Stanley are you here come on up you have two minutes to speak once you begin and after Stanley is Clarissa palasio so Stanley and then Clarissa and then after Clarissa will be Maria Daisy Ortiz please go ahead the floor is yours good afternoon superintendent carvalo board members and esteemed Community Partners thank you for coming together today United by our shared dedication to the children youth and families of La my name is Dan Anan and I'm honored to serve as the managing director of paralo Nino charter schools for 45 years paralos NS has been a Cornerstone of support for the greater La Community offering Early Education Charter Schools Mental Health Services youth Workforce programs and Family Support Services together we know this work is about more than Services it's about people Children and Families navigating some of the most difficult circumstances imaginable homelessness displacement poverty and Trauma plin is proud to be one of the only children's Youth and mental health providers on Skid Row this means that every day we see not just the struggles but also the resilience strength and hope in the families we serve over the past two months we have strengthened our colle collaboration with organizations across the city to ensure our teachers social workers mental health therapists case managers and school leaders receive proper training and essential tools that our families have access to vital resources and support and that we continue to prioritize our students mental and emotional well-being through implementation of our cell curriculum restorative justice practices counseling services and Mental Health Services we know that this Collective effort with all of us working working together will continue to strengthen the educational and supportive services our communities depend on and we know that we will not get through this period in our history alone or in silos We Stand United together and in partnership with you and on behalf of our community as partners we are united in this effort Bound by our shared responsibility to serve the children and families of LA and we extend an invitation to board members to come and visit our schools andas yes we can and yes we will gracias thank you for your time Clarissa come on up you have 2 minutes to speak once you begin thank you I am Clara palasio proud daughter of Mexican immigrants and I defer my time to my making colleague good afternoon my name is Brenda vag and I am a proud mother of two amazing boys a supported wife a dedicated educator and Al USD Alam go rough writers a proud Mexican immigrant and a daa recipient I worked hard in high school believing education was the key to a brighter future for my family but when I Was preparing to apply for college I found out that I was undocumented in an instant my dreams felt Out Of Reach but and I obtained my uh my bachelor's degree and my master's degree in 2009 I joined chla as part of the California D Network where I began fighting for immigrant rights when Dhaka was signed I brought it brought me a sense of relief and hope that I was finally able to achieve my career in education last year my family and I joined chirla to highlight President Biden's executive order to keep mixed status families together but it was blocked by a Texas judge preventing thousands of families like mine from adjusting our status in October I joined Chas delegation at the DCA Hearing in New Orleans a powerful and inspiring moment in the fight of our community's rights that got to share with my sons and my husband sharing my immigration status nationally was not an easy decision but my family understood the power of repres representation today I join L USD Community a sanctuary place to Stand United in as one and share this message in challenging Times Like These knowing our rights and having a plan is more important than ever this is why at innovate we proudly stand with LA USD and our resilient families by hosting know your rights work Workshop passing a sanctuary School resolution and training staff to create a safe and pathetic space for learning this work is only possible with the support of organizations like cha L USD ennovate and organizations and courageous immigrants and allies who have paid the way your fight for justice has created safe heaven where we can learn grow and Rise together United as one because I still believe that through unity and Collective action change is possible yes thank you for your time Maria Daisy Ortiz come on up Maria Daisy Ortiz 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 translation headsets to you and then following uh Miss Daisy Ortiz is Maria Louisa Palma and then Diana guen okay gracias yeah yeah bu good afternoon distinguished members my name is Maria sty Ortiz and I am here seeing how really you are that the district is reacting how it's affecting in fin uh financials and these campaigns that we are one so what happen with the transparency in accounts and budget and decision making you don't say the same thing that we are one so let me tell you one thing first of all Mr superintendent you have given you a lot of responsibility and right now you need to delegate the work to the police the police school police is the one that needs to work because there's different hierarchies but they know the legal movements so you right now have the authority for school police that they're facing this phenomenon that is coming about that really I'm concerned because you are fomenting fear cultivating fear and I am more concerned because I think it's a smokees screen that you are using in order to keep people entertained so that people don't ask about budget so that people don't ask about compliance it is true that Donald Trump talks a lot but we also need to know that there's no words but actions it's good that rcat Chira is here because I do have connections with them and I'm also Distributing the cards but Ella UniFi needs to focus on education and not to change things for other things so superintendent this is the time for school police to return to schools so that they can cultivate safety because it is a department that was placed there for that reason because the schools are not just vulnerable to fights but to drug sellers to pedophiles and for drug um trafficking so we need to do what's right and I hope that you do what is right thank you and have a nice afternoon thank you for your time all right Miss Diana I mean Maria Louisa Palma come on up you have two minutes to speak once you begin and then after Miss Palma is Dian Guan we are one are we though are we all of One mind is that what you really think because today's presenters and all of their contributors their Affiliates I do think that they all participate in group think but we have different opinions out here in the public we know what parents really need to know my name is Maria Luisa Palma I am here to tell you which apparently you all of these people including the office of general counsel forgot that we do have parental rights enumerated in California state law specifically sections 5 1 1000 and 51101 and I've brought that here for you in case none of you have this information handy please pass this out to all of you board members and office of general counsel we have all this information here this is about parental involvement including specific rights for parents to know that they have access to access all of their students records and question anything in their records they can review the curriculum none of us is mentioned any of these documents you pass out today none of these resources mention any of these code sections in state law you pass out this SE this thing about parental rights and responsibilities but this is not the same as state law this document includes rights and responsibilities which appears to condition the rights on the parents responsibilities it is not the same as telling the parents their rights If the parents knew about their rights they perhaps could be in control of their children's education not just waiting for you all to protect them they would become empowered to speak for their children in the topic of academics instead the information you give them helps them go away with fear this is our most vulnerable community that you continue to talk about yet you have given a spokes an an open microphone here to utla and their Affiliates but not to the true parents where are the parent voices and all of this where are they start Minimon by telling them all of us their rights I have a some information here that I have translated into Spanish on parental rights as well thank you for your time uh Miss Diana guen come on up you have two minutes to speak when you begin miss guan's going to speak in Spanish so if you'd like to hear what she's saying in English please put on these headphones for simultaneous translation come on up Miss Guan we're ready for you thank you good afternoon members of the board my name is Diana guen and I'm here representing the parent Community for the school police we've already collected 5,000 signatures so that school police can come back and we love to see how you are uniting to say we're all one but who are all one you're you're creating fear in our schools utla saying that you're helping but a lot of parents are telling them about this red um thing I lost that I don't know where it is but you're talking to first graders and the ones that are newcomers get the red card my son said oh my my teacher lean reading this to us this is a adult theme not for kids and you're making our get scared you want to protect them this isn't the way to protect them talk to the parents the parents are the ones who need to communicate what they're the ones that are going to do the plan how are they're going to protect their kids but how are you getting involved in with this utla propaganda when even they haven't supported us with academic things we want kids to have success parents that say uh that are going to be deported it's it's it's fear and we're not saying it can't happen but the only thing we can give our kids is a good education academic education that's good what where am I going to go if you're only here you're talking about politics you're not talking about education where are the parent rights in the paga committee we want to put a motion on the floor because we want to get together with the board members and Mr Placencia blocks all of this work that we want to do because he has the power so how are we one how are we are one when it's of convenience to you when you're afraid that the federal government is going to take away funds because you're not rendering results that's what we're saying give results and that money will be for the district for all the employees but we want results that are academic for our students enough stop talking about all these other topics that are important that's what these organizations are for all these organizations are supporting our community thank you very much for your time you do your part which is our kids education stop inserting fear in our communities with the first graders telling them they're going to take them to a foster home when they're deported enough with that thank you Miss Ken Jenna noise come on up you'll have two minutes to speak once you begin hi you guys okay um I was fortunate to have organized a school safety meeting with Administration from region north uh with concerned parents and several principles so during this meeting we addressed a wide range of facts concerns questions and answers and it became clear to me that we all share the same goal to ensure our schools are safe however achieving this requires changes that can only be made by you the board so we discussed wanting comprehensive anti-bullying programs implemented schoolwide we want campus AIDS in classrooms since class sizes have increased we want campus police in addition to these social emotional learning programs we also want transparency and accountability from both students and schools for their actions the safety and and success of our students depend on one key factor collaboration so it will take a blend of ideas and effort to make it happen I understand that this is all it all comes down to data and funding I know that budgets are already being planned for next year and I urge you to consider putting this on the agenda the US Department of Education guiding principles for creating safe inclusive supportive and fair school climats state that these principles are encouraged to use school officials to make decisions out school-based police after Gathering significant input from their Community have you really done that I don't recall having any say or discussion at my Children's Schools get the data ask the principls and teachers ask the families in your region and what they want and need so this decision should be made with input from the community and should consider the specific needs of each region and School site so I leave you with a quote to ponder from Martin Dr Martin Luther King Jr the true Med meure of a person is not how they behave in moments of comfort and convenience but how they stand during times of controversy and challenge thank you thank you for your time okay the next couple speakers are here in person Jass Stewart are you here Jass come on down you have two minutes to speak once you begin and then following Jass is George Mendes and then Carla Lopez Valdez so first Jass then George and then Carla so come on down you have two minutes to speak once you begin Jess so good afternoon um Madame chair Mr superintendent um committee members I'm Jay Stewart representing Alliance College ready Public Schools uh we have 26 campuses located in the heart of LA's vibrant Latina black and recent immigrant neighborhoods serving more than 12,500 Scholars and their families and yes while we are a nation of immigrants much closer to home LA and Alliance are communities of immigrants from Asia and Africa from Central and South America and Beyond in fact at Alliance 98% of our 12,000 plus Scholars are black and Latina and 65% speak a language other than English at home and our 1500 Educators and staff members are equally as diverse I want to start by saying thank thank you and applauding you for your strong stance and standing up for our immigrant communities your leadership in this area and your work has been noticed so thank you in December alliances board publicly and proudly stated that we see I quote we see it as our moral responsibility to ensure our schools are a safe place to learn and work and that Alliance will exhaust all resources to ensure the rights of our Scholars and staff are protected so to this end we have sent multiple messages directly from our CEO Pablo via vencio to all staff Scholars and families that we got your back no matter no matter the threat we've held listening sessions with parents and families from across our Network to learn about their concerns so we can address their needs we published and shared with the entire Alliance Community know your rights information and pocket cards on how to deal with potential ice interactions we have mobilized on every campus our parent engagement Specialists and Community Schools coordinators as part of an Innovative network-wide immigration rapid response team and starting tomorrow actually we are offering a series of know your rights workshops for Alliance Frontline staff and community members in conclusion it is heartwarming to hear today how the entire La Community is coming together to ensure that the people we love on our campuses and in our communities are cared for and protected and we look forward to collaborating with you and others to ensure that our families are supported so thank you thank you for your time uh George Mendes come on up you love two minutes to speak W you begin good afternoon board members and superintendent my name is George Mendes and I am a parent volunteer at NOA Vista Elementary uh 2378 located in the City of Bell um I would like to make you aware that there is ongoing leadership turmoil within our school um the parents are having uh coffee with the principal on Thursday January 30th at 12: p.m um the parents are meeting with the regional director on Friday January 31st at 9:00 M uh the region East superintendent is also aware of our leadership challenges um since our school falls under Board District 5 I would like to make uh board member GGO aware of our situation and uh that there may come a time when the parents of NOA Vista um will require her guidance thank you that's it thank you for your time okay the next speaker is Isabelle Gonzalez I'm sorry she's online uh Carla Lopez Valdez are you out there Carla Carmen loera are you here Carmen L good afternoon board members and superintendent my name is Carmen loera and I am here representing the California Charter School ass Association I'm here to address a very real ISS issue impacting our communities um as we as the new sorry um as new deportation directives are enacted Nationwide uh we've been here before we've seen this before family separated eyes entering schools homes and workplaces we all know no matter what kind of public school our children attend we're all part of the same community and we know that our family students and staff in both Charter and District public schools are facing increased fear and uncertainty a student cannot learn if they have fear being separated from their parents or worry that ice is going to come to their school and take them away I know this fear personally growing up my mom would tell us constantly don't tell anyone where you were born if something happens call your Aunt or your or our neighbor and she would reassure us we're going to be okay but deep down inside I did not know we were going to be safe families today are having having similar conversations with their little ones making similar plans and embracing uh embracing for the if and when in 2024 over 103,000 English Learners attended public charter schools making up 10% of the state population and at least 16,000 recent immigrant students are enrolled in public charter schools um ccsa and Charter Public Schools across LA are focused on supporting our community our schools have the responsibility to ensure academic success they also need to be safe welcoming environments where students physically and emotionally well-being are being prioritized we have been ensuring uh ensuring families know their rights and connecting schools with resources related to immigration DACA lgbtq protections and other civil rights we've encouraged charter schools to adopt safe School resolutions like the one you all passed in November and we're also offering trainings um sharing Lessons Learned From the Past and linking um charter schools and families to local um immigration legal services like the ones here today so I just want to thank you all for prioritizing this discussion and the Community Partners that are here today as well and others working together to ensure that all students feel safe and supported in our communities thank you thank you for your time Edgar Ortiz are here Edgar come on up you have two minutes to speak once you begin hi good afternoon my name is Edgar Ortiz I am the economic Justice policy manager for the California immigrant policy Center it's a pleasure to be addressing The Honorable board members here today as well as superintendent carvalo we want to Echo the sentiment expressed in the previous presentation by Chira utla public Council and rate as always extend our gratitude to the LD leadership Union staff Educators and other community members who've been working really hard to reassure and equip our communities with information about their legal and educational rights during these difficult and challenging times with that said we would want to encourage the district to double down on the work work that y'all have been doing by prioritizing proper implementation of the sanctuary policy that you've been working so hard to develop and pass at the same time deepening Community Partnerships with organizations like the ones who presented earlier today and also to the extent where it's possible continue to spread the word and share information and resources with communities across the district in various languages um I know English and Spanish tend to be the ones that have the highest level of representation but there are also other ones like Korean Chinese seol and many others where there are Community needs so just want to encourage you all to think about that some more and further we just want to conclude by urging this uh the board to support pending State legislation that will support our immigrant communities through various measures including limiting the data that uh can be shared with the federal government restricting ice access to public school campuses and also preserving access to Urgent safety net and other public programs that our vulnerable families continue to rely on for support thank you so much for your time thank you for your time Karina Lopez come on up Karina Lopez uh Monica Rola come on up Monica mother of two students and I am here because I've always asked for so for school police to come back to school and I want to tell you miss Garla that uh last uh about eight days you were at stem at the stem school and you put words in the parents mouth saying that they don't want school police and that's a lie there are parents that called me and said that you were present there was a f a photo where you are saying that not all parents want school police back we all want school police and when you'd like anytime that you'd like whenever you'd like I am ready to walk with you around the whole school so we can ask all parents if they want school police back or not and before I forget I also want we want to be volunteer volunteer parents I have it's been four years that I've been trying I've been trying to be a volunteered parent this is my fourth year because this is my last year that where the TB where my TB ends and it's incredible that in four years in three different schools I haven't been able to be a volunteered parent an official volunte parent it is incredibly it's incredible that if I don't have a portal a parent portal I can't be a volunteer parent uh do I need to create a portal parent and in order for me to create a parent portal I need to create a an email I need to create a password and if I forget a letter or a number within my password I I have to start from the beginning I would like for us to go back to the times when we were able to go to the parent Center it was we had a form we would fill it out and it was turned in in 3 days I was a volunteer parent it's been four years now and I can't be a volunteer parent and it is sad that these are the obstacles that you are putting so that us parents we can't go into the schools as volunteer parent officials and it is incredible how at the times that we were living in and I am I I feel sad that technology and myself we don't get along but it's not but I won't stop being a volunteer parent so please return the documents to school so we can turn them in and be thank you okay we'll now go to the folks who are listed as calling in and I believe Karina Lopez is on the line Karina Lopez please press star six to unmute yourself and you'll have two minutes to speak once you begin Karina Lopez hello hi hello oh Lopez Lopez hi good afternoon I'm Karina Lopez Zuna and my comment is in regards to the obligations that have for the following honorable super superintendent Mr carbo I believe that everyone thinks different you should reinforce yourself so that you can achieve Student Success and also to the ones who speak Spanish uh speak students who speak Spanish they are the ones who are at BIR ey and it is important that this comes out so that they are not afraid because they're afraid of deportation as of now even though though you prepare yourself even though you are we are in a sanctuary place that is the past and this is old and this should be renewed Mr Trump doesn't care about that he's Federal and he is above all of us in even above you you have no power above the president as of now therefore we need for school police to be directly in charge and support and train the whole school Community it is very important because they have the same language and you lack of that competency thank you Raquel D please press star six to unmute yourself and you'll have two minutes to speak once you begin Raquel good afternoon members of the board good afternoon Mr superintendent my name is Raquel Diaz I'm a of two students that assist La us and my petition is for you to please help all the students more than anything for them to be calm and peace based on what's happening because of the raids my daughter is 14 years old she was born in the states and she's panicked she's frustrated she's at fear and to say they're saying mom immigration are going to be at the bus stops I said you should be calm nothing will happen I tell her and everything will be fine with yourself don't worry and she says yes Mom but my colleagues they are not in legal status they came and therefore this is something very frustrating it is very sad they also gave her the red uh card and I told her you don't need that my dear just be calm and the only thing that I want to say is there are a lot of petitions in regards to per se for special needs students because my daughter has the dyslexia and there's much more above than students education at this moment but I would like is for you to support us to help us to protect the children and in reality we need school police to come back to schools so that they can also protect them in case instead of them being given to immigration this is a petition that I'm asking you in a kindly way please I hope that we are being heard and and I hope that you protect our children our students and our grandchildren please thank you very kind of you okay Isabelle Gonzalez I see her on the line Isabelle Gonzalez please press star six to unmute yourself and you'll have two minutes to speak once you begin Isabelle Gonzalez when good afternoon members of the board I'm a worried mother because of the insecurities the school insecurities and I believe that you are giving too much importance to something that is not that you don't have and you are adding the lack of the parents in L USD we are one and we are Community Alliance and this is a discrimination campaign in less words you are calling us delinquents illin quents illegal delinquents they are the ones that are afraid because they are the ones who are refugees that that go to churches and they are the ones that are not certain just like anemico said not us the parents every day we have to go out we work we buy groceries we take our children to school we take our children to play at the parks you community colleagues the ones that are firming for this signing for this to be a sanctuary City it is your fault because you are not giving data of all of the bad people you're not giving this to ice what they're asking for they're taking everyone with them whether it be schools churches and wherever this bad person is stop being a low political person what we want is we want our rights to be respected to receive education in a secure place the only thing that you're provoking is for our students not to want school police with them it is incredible that at these moments our students from L USD continue to be vulnerable inside and outside our schools why is it that they don't have school police in school security just like as you have it there and you know very well that the school police inside the schools students create a positive Ambience where because school police plays a big role that allows the students to build a cordial relationship they become more responsible inclus thank you for your time Miss Gonzalez okay and the last speaker is Vivian de Leon Vivian D Vivian de Leon please press star six to unmute yourself and you'll have 2 minutes to speak once you begin Vivian Deon hi good afternoon hi my name is Vian Deon I'm here representing parents from Trinity Elementary School the majority of teachers are scaring our elementary school age uh children they're coming home scared they're not aware of the they were not aware of the fact that their parents were undocumented until teachers told them teachers are being are promoting a fear comp pain and this is the perfect opportunity for utla and board members to speak ill of law enforcement and spread misinformation in my opinion and several parents opinions teachers are hiding behind a much bigger agenda their parents and children maintain them terrify of law enforcements parents agree that adult issues should be discussed with adults only several kids came home crying teachers are telling our babies that once law enforcement those monsters take their parents and Deport them they will be taken to faster homes with people they don't know those teachers do not understand your slogan we are only We Are One in schools if schools really want to inform parents as they claim an assembly should be arranged with parents to offer other information and and unite not divide leave our kids out of your utla and La USD board anti- police agenda leave them out of it we want school police vacan schools we want teachers to stop telling our our babies that they will be taken to faster homes with strangers in case you don't know the Latino Community the Latino parents will not please listen well will not allow their kids to be taken to strangers if they are deported they will take their kids with them m g one surprised you're from El Salvador because salvis or at least the ones I know stick together ma'am and we are very proud of being Latinos this is a fear campaign your your you're handling here you're not empowering anyone or supporting any of our kids at all Miss Gregor please answer your emails I've been notifying you of what's going on in other schools like Clinton Middle School like drug sales fights and you like Miss Goldberg do not answer any emails bring back school PD and stop using this to to instill fear in our kids our babies do not need to listen to that thank you very much for your time we appreciate your time this concludes public comment thank you to oh we already had 16 Mr Tok kovski uh there were I apologize wait list is full Mr toosi come on down you'll have two minutes to speak once you begin thank you for the uh opportunity to speak and thank you for the committee of the whole on two important topics uh housing particularly uh which was not even mentioned in A9 billion construction Bond if it is truly a policy goal to do housing one would think the Board of Ed in conversation with its labor partners and superintendent would have put $100 million into the bond $50 million into the bond so be careful maybe maybe it's not a district initiative maybe it is figuring out how to do it with other partners on the immigration topic I just say I I'm I'm I'm not a lawyer like two of your board members and your general Council but to rely on plyer verse do is like thinking that women's right to choose is going to be protected by the Supreme Court it's a five to four decision the five justices are all justices I like but they ain't the justices of today and it was a reverse case it was a case of a state doing something Texas that violated the 14th Amendment this is a whole different Beast here when you have the federal government and the executive doing something third the budget I invite you all to be watching uh Capital Advisors ACTA any of the budget reviews that are happening right now the governor's been good the state budget is solid he's up here speaking right next door at Dodger Stadium talking about his additional efforts coming in to help school districts and the area so make sure when you have uh summer school classes being proposed that you do something on media literacy see if there's one school that offers that in summer or immigration topics or history itself or the Holocaust or anything of interest and finally when you do housing we have 500 new units in Lincoln Heights 500 units that should be about 750 children to help out under enroll schools thank you for your time Mr toski thank you for thank you thank you and that concludes um public comment I just want to say a last some last few words before we adjourn um as we take in all that we have learned here today let us Center ourselves on the critical purpose of our work schools are meant to be safe havens a place where our children come to learn grow and feel protected and that's exactly what we're doing yet for too many students fear and intimidate intimidation can overshadow the Safety and Security they deserve our Collective mission is to change that reality and ensuring that every school is a place of hope trust and opportunity this work as you have learned here today cannot be done done alone it requires collaboration compassion and a shared commitment to the well-being of every student employee and family that's why today's commune of the whole meeting reflects a collective power of collaboration and the many voices perspectives and efforts that fuel our progress I want to acknowledge the crucial work of our labor Partners in this work their dedication and advocacy not only uplift our Workforce but also directly impact their environments where our students learn and grow the remind us that the safety and success of our schools depend on the people within them I also want to take a moment to thank our incredible Community organizations the work Al that work alongside us to support our families your efforts to share immigration resources and guidance and advocacy with our students parents and communities at large make a tremendous difference you remind us that we are stronger when we work together Building Bridges to provide tools for our families that need not to navigate these challenges es and Thrive and thank you all for your collaboration and be here today and lastly just want to say as I scroll here uh the work we do here does not stop here it is through our Collective efforts strong Partnerships and shared Vision that we will continue to create meaningful change and ensure that every family feels supported heard and empowered alongside our students and employees let us continue to stand United as we move forward because when we come together there's no challenge we cannot overcome thank you all for being part of this vital conversation let's carry this momentum into our continued work and remember we are stronger together this meeting is adjourned