Good morning, everyone. I'd like to call the April meeting of the Committee of the Whole to order. Happy Tuesday, everyone. Thank you to my colleagues, staff, and members of the public joining us today. We have two important discussions before
us for today's Committee of the Whole. First, how we define and measure student success, including social emotional learning, which is so so important. And second, presentation our budget and our budget and how we are aligning resources
to meet student needs in a more challenging fiscal environment. These conversations are very closely connected. How we measure success should guide how we invest, and our investments should reflect what students and schools need every single day. Before we begin,
I also want to note that the regular board meeting, including closed session items, which convened on April 22nd, have been recessed and will resume today at 12:00 following the Committee of the Whole at 12:00 p.m. And now, if there are any labor partners present who would
like to come up to the podium. Okay, seeing no no movement from from the audience, so we will move on then to our first presentation. Our first presentation on the social emotional learning goal for the 2026-2030
strategic plan. As you may all some of you may remember, I know us here on the board, we had our strategic um a meeting to go review our our goals for the next four years. And social emotional learning, we agreed needed to
have another another discussion to see where where the staff has is going to recommend or us with our discussion the metrics for social emotional learning for our goals. As we think of student outcomes, we know academic success is closely tied to students' sense of
belonging, well-being, and and ability to navigate challenges. This conversation is about how we measure that in a way that is meaningful and workable across the district. So, I would like to welcome up to the podium Mr. William R. Johnston, senior
director, or I should say Dr. Johnston, senior executive director of strategy and Mr. Justin Lawer, director of middle school instruction. So, the floor is yours. Please come up ahead and um let's begin our first presentation. Thank you.
All right, thank you, Dr. Rivas. We will jump right in. So, today we're going to talk about the strategic plan that we are in the middle of drafting, the the social emotional learning goal, district goal that we would be putting into the strategic plan.
And so, we'll begin with a broader recap of where we left things from our March board retreat. We had a January board retreat and then a second board retreat in March. And at that March meeting, we settled on the first four goals that would be in the strategic plan that are
going to guide the work. And then, as noted, the social emotional learning goal is the item that we are going to focus on discussing today. So, just really quick recap on the rest of the goals for literacy, numeracy, and science. Science again being a new goal in the in the new strategic plan that
was not in the previous one. All of these metrics are geared towards targeting the objective of having our students on average performing at grade level standard in English language arts and math from the Smarter Balanced assessment. And then in science from the California science
test. And that science that science metric is going to be using a new a new a new bit of lingo from the state that we are going to be adopting as well called science points. And this essentially it's it's a similar way of measuring student performance to see that are you on standard or are you
a bit above standard or a bit below standard. And our our target is going to be to get on average students are performing at grade level standard. And then finally, post-secondary readiness, we landed on a two-part goal that will keep the post-secondary readiness goal from the the previous strategic plan of
having 70% of our students graduating with college ready being defined by completing all A-G courses with a grade of C or better. And then, we are also going to be incorporating career readiness and having a a second goal within that of 85% of our students
graduating college ready and or career ready as well using the the indicators of completion of a CTE pathway or the JROTC program that we have in the district. And then finally, for the social emotional learning goal, we're going to be discussing that right now, and for that I'll turn it over to
Dr. Lawer. Thank you, Dr. Johnston, and uh good morning, Dr. Rivas, board members, acting Superintendent Chay. Today go ahead to the next. There's our objectives for today. We're going to review district goal four measurement options.
We are going to share measurement tools and considerations. And then we'll respond to your questions for clarification. This will support your decision-making as we move forward toward recommendation for measuring SEL proficiency.
As part of the strategic plan development, board members asked us to review the following options for SEL measurement. Number one is continue with the SEL portfolio or school experience survey. Number two, review the options to use
report cards. Number three, review pre-designed surveys and assessments. And number four, further review of the SEL application diagnostic, a district-developed tool. Today, we will walk you through each of
these options. This slide um outlines the five specific measurement options, which is on the next one. There we go. Under consideration. So, these are the five specific options. We'll briefly define each one and then
review them in more detail. First is the SEL portfolio. And this is a teacher-assessed tool where students complete reflections and submit artifacts that demonstrate their understanding and application of the SEL competencies. Second, report cards, both existing and
new. This option includes either leveraging the current report card system or developing a new report card aligned to directly to the SEL competencies where teachers assign marks based on observed
student behaviors and skills. Third, external instruments. These are a vendor-developed assessments and surveys that provide standardized measurement of SEL, typically through student self-report or teacher ratings.
And fourth, the school experience survey. And this is the district's existing survey that captures student perception of SEL-related skills and and school climate. And it is administered annually. And then fifth, the district-developed SEL application
diagnostic. This is a proposed in-house tool designed to measure how students apply SEL the competencies in real-life situations using scenario-based prompts administered at the beginning and at the end of the year.
Each of these options measure SEL in a different way, whether it's through artifacts observation perception or application. Which are important as we consider alignment to the goal of measuring student proficiency. We'll begin with option one, which
focuses on the continuing use of the SEL portfolio as a measurement tool. The portfolio has been effective in promoting the integration of SEL into daily instruction but has been proven difficult to scale, limiting its effectiveness as a
system-wide measure. Some of the pros are is that it measures student artifacts. It promotes SEL integration for teachers and support staff. And it also measures SEL application to guide instruction. Some of the cons, however, it's
difficult to scale for district-wide goal measurement. It's time-consuming and complicated to navigate as reported by teachers. And the planning time offered to engage in the process is not sustainable over time and unsuccessful
to scale. This option explores using the existing report card system to measure SEL competencies. The pros are that it integrates into existing systems, which will reach all students. Number two, it provides a longitudinal
view of student behavior across marking periods. And it reinforces SEL as essential to college and career readiness. The cons to this of leveraging the existing report card are that teacher ratings are subjective and they lack coherence across different grade levels.
It's time-consuming and excuse me. I I wanted to provide example on the elementary versus the secondary marks because there's different criteria with each report card. And they're primarily primarily focused on student
observations of behavior by the teacher. The second con is it only partially references the SEL competency language. And third, it does not provide a comprehensive measurement of SEL. For example, secondary report cards, they
use work habits and cooperation. And that may general generally capture behaviors, but they don't specifically measure uh specific competency language like self-management or responsible decision-making. As a result, the the
connection to the SEL competencies there is indirect. Um while this option is highly scalable uh and already in place, it presents limitations in alignment, consistency, and specificity to the SEL competencies.
This option considers developing a new report card that is directly aligned to the SEL competency language and the prompts. Uh the pros is it integrates into existing systems again that will reach all students. Uh it provides a longitudinal view of
marking across marking periods. It promotes teacher integration of SEL into instructional practices. And the cons are different. Um similarly to the existing report card, the ratings may be subjective, but they would vary by teacher classroom, school
context, um and and any existing systems that schools have in place and how they measure this. Uh it requires extensive time and resources to train and develop uh and train the field. And it requires extensive time to
collaborate with stakeholders. Uh option three would be to use predesigned instruments. Uh these are externally developed SEL assessments and surveys. The pros is it can be implemented immediately. Another pro is that surveys and assessments are validated by the vendor
for use. And number three, data supports monitoring of individual student growth across all levels. However, the cons are that district-wide costs would be ongoing and substantial. Uh second, off-the-shelf tools lack
customization and do not fully align to grade level or specific instructional needs. And third, it requires ongoing individualized teacher and student assessment cycles, uh making it time-intensive and and necessitating
investment in professional development. Option four would be continuing to use the school experience survey. The pros are of the survey are that it is validated tool and it measures the measures are aligned with the Castle competencies. Uh two, the data is available since 2008 and nine of uh
allowing us for longitudinal analysis. It is no cost. It is teacher-friendly and already required by schools. And fourth, it has high response rates. Uh 94% in fact for students, 99% for teachers.
The cons are that it is based on student self-reporting and can be affected by recent events. Uh currently, results are only shared at the school level, not at the student level. Uh it is given only once per year in spring
and is currently administered administered administered to grades 4th through 12th only. Option five would be to develop a new district assessment or what we call an application diagnostic. The pros of this um
tool would be that it is validated uh in in in it's a validated tool um and it measures uh and the measures are aligned with the with the uh excuse me. Back up. It's right here. Uh the pros are it's it's customizable
for district needs. Uh number two, the data is collected twice a year, beginning of the year, end of the year to inform schools and regions. And number three, it's low cost, uh teacher-friendly, and will only be and will be required or um uh
included in any curricular selections made by schools. The cons is it doesn't already exist, so it would have complex issues must be navigated such as cultural and social desirability biases. Uh it cannot compare to other the
results to the other districts such as the SEL portfolio. And it requires time for development, piloting, and refinement up to 2 years. And now I will invite Dr. Bias who will lead us in discussion. Right. Thank you very much, Dr. Lower. Good
morning, Acting Superintendent Shade, board members. Um so now you've heard the five metrics that we are recommending uh for us to track the social emotional learning competencies of our students. So we're hoping that at this time um we would engage in discussion and and
respond any questions that you may have related to the five different metrics. Um and hopefully at the end of this meeting, you'll point us in the right direction as to which one we're going to put all our energy in and and um bring it home with our strategic plan.
Thank you, Ms. Bias, and thank you, Dr. Lower. So I will open up the floor for my colleagues if anyone has any questions from to start off the discussion. Yes, Ms. Ortiz Franklin. Sure, thanks. I think just for the board's consideration, what's our timeline for decision-making here? We've already adopted or we have
adopted the other goals or at least given some direction there, um but at what point do we need to decide and do we need to include other voices before we make that decision? I don't know if this is a staff The second part, I don't know if it's a staff or a board question. From from a staff perspective, a as soon
as possible. Um because we need to have this and be able to have it ready to go and write it in our strategic plan, have it ready for you to review uh and approve at the board meeting in June. So I think that we've spent quite some time reviewing this SEL and and responding to
board questions and digging deeper and doing the research, so um the sooner the better. And of course um with every one of these, we've had teacher cadres who've been giving us feedback about either the portfolio rubric or any one of those metrics. So that's just from a staffing perspective.
Um I would I would add that we've also had significant stakeholder engagement around this. It's Carolyn in the back. Sorry Carolyn sorry. >> [laughter] >> Sorry, I should have yeah, I just kind of came out of nowhere, but we've had significant stakeholder engagement as well for the last few months. Okay. And
so the five options are equally uh recommended by staff for the board to consider or um is there a direction that you want us to consider more or less of? I think ultimately, you know, we're deferring to you as the board to to select one. We're not necessarily putting our thumb on the scale on one
versus others. Based on prior discussion that I've been a part of, you know, when we've had retreats around this, I think there's a couple that I know that there's not as much appetite to consider. I might say school experience survey seems like maybe that's not one that there's necessarily a lot of uh
energy around, but ultimately, we defer to the seven of you all. I'll pause there cuz I'm not sure where I land yet either. Thank you. Well, I I appreciate um I think I was one of the people who wanted options and and pros and cons, so just appreciate the responsiveness of the
presentation to that request. Um it seems like the SEL competency diagnostic is was the original recommendation that staff presented at our last retreat. I'm wondering I I personally after reviewing all the options, I still somewhat lean
towards the report card model, but I understand that that would be an extremely significant undertaking like in terms of time and staffing and also impacts to classroom practices across the district. So um I'll set that aside for a moment. To dig into what I think staff had
originally recommended, can you walk us through what would the diagnostic look like? What would that experience be like for teachers and and students in both in terms of time and preparation? And and I think my additional question is how would we envision that informing
instruction because I think ultimately um all of our data tools around our goals are both for us to set a North Star as a district and to hold ourselves accountable to ensure that our students are um meeting those North Star goals that we set, but it's also hopefully
ideally to inform instruction in our classrooms and ensure that teachers can utilize that feedback and it's impactful to them and to their classroom practices. So if you could touch on those things. >> So the diagnostic would consist of a pre and it would consist of a post and it would be a multiple choice um uh
assessment where we ask questions to the students related to the application of SEL competencies. Now this tool is not developed yet, but we have some sample questions that um we are looking at to of course build out. So according to the SEL competencies, we would have we would
ask students questions related to their application, its real-world application. So applying that skill for example, in a math lesson or something that occurred on the playground or on their way home from uh from school, something that is developmentally appropriate um where
students are able to connect to that question understand reflect and respond, but it is multiple choice so that we can get a um we can get the results pretty quickly. Because it's not developed, similarly to the report card, that report card
section is not developed either. So it would take probably the same amount of time to have both tools fully developed and piloted before we administer each one of them. And then that would establish your baseline data. So year one of the strategic plan, we
wouldn't have either one of them, neither this report card nor the internally developed. Or year two, probably by year two we'd be ready to pilot and then be able to get a baseline and then move forward from there. And we would definitely create a first timeline, but then accelerate that timeline knowing the importance. Your
second question is the connection to instruction. So um the SEL instruction would come from the teacher using the curricula that schools selected and then of course it's all integrated and so teachers say for for the report card
teachers would grade a student based on how students performed in an assignment throughout the year in in the SEL integration and then also for the diagnostic it would be done through multiple choice and again the curriculum
would be driving the instruction and of course multiple opportunities throughout the day for the teachers to incorporate that into their lessons. And then I think you spoke to timeline for implementation to get to baseline but in terms of time to administer
the how would that impact instructional time in class? >> Well in terms of time because it's not fully developed yet we don't have a recommendation yet but I think at this point we wouldn't spend more than if it's multiple choice more than 30 minutes where a student would be able to a teacher would be able to administer to the whole class since it's multiple
choice so it's something that would that's that's the approach that we would take. Got it. So it's a it's a minimal in terms of test taking amount of time and then do would we envision it as a measure TK through 12 that we would use or just tested grades for Sback and up?
>> It would have to be TK 12 because that was one of the things we're solving for that school experience survey only looks at grades 4 through 12 so this would be TK through 12 and of course we would look at developmentally appropriate questions to ask the student for those that are at the younger age it does
administration would look different because they're not readers or not multiple so it would look a little different and would probably take more time again I don't have the concrete time because it's not a fully developed diagnostic yet. So those are just some things to consider. Okay that's helpful. I have
more questions on the report card but I can I can pause till others ask. Yeah although happy to then defer back to Miss Ganas because my questions are about the report card too. Um Why is it why is it such an undertaking? Three is three years what you mentioned
to get a report card to >> By the third year we should be able to implement it district wide. So by looking at the section in the report card marks we want to make sure that the prompts were that the statements that we're using are aligned to the Castle competencies that
we work with experts in the area so that they're they're valid in terms of like these are the areas that we would want our teachers to understand. We would need to provide professional development. We would need to speak to our labor partners involved in this. We would need to also include parents.
Typically when there is a development of report card we do include all stakeholders and we review those components with stakeholders so that's part of that timeline. Again with this timeline we would want to accelerate it so that we get this data out to the public as fast as possible to show
how we're progressing in our strategic plan. So the first year would be development would be piloting second year would be professional development. So I'm anticipating by the second to third year we'll start develop we'll start seeing a stronger baseline
and so that's basically the Yeah it just strikes me that we can do it more quickly. I mean I don't this was a while ago but I don't remember any professional development in report card filling out when I was a teacher in the district so maybe that's changed but it
also it just strikes me that this is the it's something teachers are already doing. It is not student self directed. We already get feedback or at least I get feedback from educators and parents around the report cards really not aligning with where needing to be updated anyways and so
this seems like a good way to do it. You know I think teachers like yeah it just seems like if we if this is where the board decides this is something we should be able to roll out. I understand stakeholder feedback. I understand piloting but that we should be able to do within a year or a year
and a half and it seems like it given the spirit of collaboration we just had in in with our labor partners that if this is one of the district's only four goals or the board's four goals and we need labor to work with us then we should we could have those conversations starting tomorrow. So I just I guess I'm just
saying three years strikes me as about two years too long and I pretty strongly in the camp that the report card makes the most sense. Yeah so just to follow up on on what Mr. Melbourne just shared you know obviously we've had a lot of discussion about this ongoing and in specifically yesterday in
preparation for this presentation. We also looked at a couple of different timeline models the the one that Dr. Bias laid out is is very authentic and very deliberate. I think there's a universe where we could get this rolled out system wide by year two. So I would want
to look at you know again a timeline where first semester of next year if you all choose to go with the report card model first semester of next year would be labor engagement stakeholder engagement development of the actual metrics in the
report card. Second semester would be more of a pilot model where we could roll it out at a few schools. The biggest lift here would be actually for secondary. For elementary you know as a former elementary teacher elementary principal we have a certain level of comfort already with these kinds of
marks. At secondary it would be a sea change so we would have to to manage for that but I could see a place where we could have this out systemically and at least establish the baseline data for 2027-2028. Great. Thank you. And I guess my only
point on the process would be I think the board will probably need some decision making process whether that's we all just submit kind of soft vote or we continue our one-on-one conversations but I think I do appreciate the pros and cons too but without some like
process for how we're going to decide I feel like we'll just kind of spin wheels. So ideally what we were hoping for you know from from the perspective of leadership management leadership and then and staff is that similar to the discussions that we've had before if you all landed a
place where you feel pretty comfortable with one of the models that's presented we could basically have essentially you know kind of a thumbs up vote like we had for the other strategic goals so then the team can start operationalizing it. If you don't feel like you land there at the end of this presentation we can certainly look
at one-on-one briefings a couple of folks at a time. But again I feel like there's been a pretty robust amount of conversation here. I'm hoping that we can get get the plane landed by the end of the meeting ideally. So Dr. Bias what since
this is going to be handled mostly by teachers and by principals so could you tell me what you've done to reach out to teachers and principals for a feedback? I mean our feedback is great but you know what's more important than teachers and principals at the school site? Right. So
we have a cadre of teachers that have been given this feedback. They're the ones who gave us the feedback on the portfolio rubrics. They've given us feedback on the school experience survey. They have been guiding us every step of the way because they're the implementers as well as our administrators and
throughout the year we collaborate closely with human resources to to meet with our administrators twice to connect with teachers so that they can give us some feedback and input. Every year we have a SEL symposium and at the the the steps leading up to the SEL symposium
where there's a presentation of student work consists of getting feedback understanding what worked what didn't work which has led us to this point where we can provide you with some recommendations because it's the work we've been doing all along. As we're analyzing our data we've had to pivot
every step of the way to ensure that we're responsive and that we're getting as much um much feedback from students about their achievement in applying the SEL competencies. I appreciate that because without the feedback from the teachers and the principals I think we're going to get
ourselves in trouble unless we hear from the field. So thank you thank you for doing that. Thank you. Appreciate the responses as far as the pros and the cons of each option and I guess as we're looking at obviously a new tool which would take
some time. I guess my question would be of the things as we're talking now things that take time what happens in phase one of that because if we're going out to two years for actual tool that assessment what happens year one or year two for the
fact that we said year three what is taking place in those two years prior? Our goal is to get this to year two as acting superintendent Chief Just mentioned. So the first year really is the is the planning phase. Now the work doesn't end. We have other
data that we've collected as well in terms of usage of the curricula and ensuring that this is occurring but so there are other ways to collect data on instruction all other ways to demonstrate students achievement in these areas so
what we need that year to develop but we're not going to let go of the teaching the instruction and the expectation that we apply that students apply their competencies. So would the the option for year one be what's already existence would they as a
educator be able to select you know I'll do the portfolio or we'll rely on the survey what would be option one look like >> Option one would be the school experience survey. It would be the school experience survey. That's what we currently have in place and that's what we would continue using until we're able
to roll out the new the new option. Got it. And then just for clarification with the report card secondary because I know in a couple decades there was transition from some comments within secondary report cards that had changed
over the course. I'm not sure exactly how that happened as a teacher on this side. Didn't know, just knew that there were different options available to comment for students. Do you know how that process came to be? You're asking about the previous report card. I'm going to ask Dr. Vladivic if he could come and just answer that
question related to how we went about adding those comments into the report card. In the report card was updated. We had a focus group with stakeholders who are involving teachers just to solicit their input with regard to some of the changes that we had implemented.
Do you know the process or the time that it took for that to go into effect from the time that the focus group started? You know, I could have follow up with you. I don't recall the exact time cuz it was about a year and a half ago. So, let me follow up with you on that. Okay, thanks. Before I move on to Ms. Ganas for her
second set of questions, I'm I'm leaning towards ideally I I love to have a new develop a new district assessment, but I know that will take time and the reason for that because it'll be more customizable to our goals and what we
you know want to see and measure and then it's also calls for innovation. I mean, I think it's always good for us as the second largest district to provide something that's more innovative, right? And um and also to meet um the goals of for
social emotional learning and I'm also leaning towards a new report card developing a a new report card as well because for the same reasons, right? Um it can be more um focused on you know what where where we want to measure in terms of social
emotional learning. I know it takes time, but um I agree with Mr. Milvoy that you know taking 3 years will you know, we can do it faster. I know we can, you know? Um so yeah, so I was wondering did you contemplate maybe a combination of some
of these tools of having a diagnostic and the report card or the report card and um the survey and how you know is in order to be able at least to triangulate some of the data um and you know to get it more um
stronger sense of of a social emotional learning. Sure. So, there's two things. So, in terms of triangulation, we do hope to continue with the school experience survey if we go the rather of the report card because the report card there is a tendency for subjectivity and so we want to be able to see what is the
teacher perception, but then what was the student perception through the school experience survey. So, there we see that coupling. Um and then the other option, of course, is in order to justify a grade the teacher could potentially use that diagnostic if it's already been
developed and it moves in that direction or they could potentially use the portfolio rubric, but having after hearing the feedback, the portfolio is not the popular way to go. So, I think the report card marks the justification for a report card maybe how students performed in an assignment during their
lesson using the curricula that we're currently administering or implementing in the classrooms. Mhm. Um Ms. Ganas, did you or Ms. I'll give Ms. Gregor some time cuz I know she just arrived. Yes, so Ms. Ganas, if you want to answer your other question. >> Uh well, glad to hear that there seems
to be some energy around this and I certainly believe that whatever route we go since it is different like will require a lot of collaboration with our stakeholders with teachers, with principals, with staff, and with students and families to ensure that everyone
understands the metric, we can implement it successfully, and that it yields the information that we want to see ultimately. I think just I wanted to dive a little bit into the issues of bias and subjectivity because I know that that is a concern when it comes to the report
card marks, but but potentially with any non-test based assessment of social emotional competencies, how are we thinking about ensuring that our teacher evaluation of student
competencies is free of those biases? Is that something that we would intentionally plan for as part of our professional development training around this? Absolutely. So, that was So, as we know in the history of LAUSD, one of the ways that we were able to you know
perfect our skill in grading is was equitable grading and instruction. And so, that was a way that helped us identify what is the the learning target that students will be focusing on and what are the multiple ways that students will demonstrate proficiency in that particular subject. We're going to
mirror that step with when it comes to limiting or avoiding or eliminating any subjectivity. We want teachers to have calibration across the board. So, the professional development would require calibration looking at samples of student work, looking at what would
constitute a grade, why a student would get a particular grade if it's a low grade, and of course really encouraging student-led conferencing so students can describe how they got to that grade. So, all of those would reduce bias so that there's a common understanding of what
constitutes a particular grade. Um just similarly to what we did with the equitable grading and instruction, we would do something like that for the training and professional development to diminish the bias. Okay, yeah. Well, I mean I I and it's it's helpful that we have a successful implementation of EGI
under our belt so that we we could potentially implement it here. Um I also wonder like for neurodivergent students or students who have experienced trauma, we know that that can affect the ways in which emotions come out in the classroom for example or executive functioning skills.
Are we are we thinking about opportunities to differentiate for the unique needs of those types of students? >> That would be a requirement because we have a diverse diverse group of learners throughout our district and we would definitely need to differentiate according to our students' ability to
demonstrate and also given being sensitive to trauma that students have experienced. That's helpful, thank you. Sorry. Oops, hold on. Let me go back. Um Okay, so apologies for coming in late,
but I was briefed on this so I do have it. I have some notes here. Um and so I'm wondering um the SCL measurement, how is that going to support the goals around PBIS and RJ and or positive school climate?
And what kind of tools can help us connect all of these strategies? So, I think there's a there's a very nice correlation to what you just listed here with the restorative justice practices and positive behavior supports with the six Castle competencies.
Self-awareness, growth mindset, self-management responsible decision-making self-efficacy and social awareness. All of those when you break those down constitute will lead you to an RJ moment because the students
had self-awareness, responsible decision-making, could reflect and explain why they chose to behave a certain way or how their behavior affected somebody else, reflect and then think about how they would approach the the problem differently. Right? With which all lead to those RJ moments. And
so, this is almost the basis Do you have That's the foundation of getting students to understand how to how to then go through an RJ circle or be able to um to repair a situation that was a bad moment for them. It was They were not
being the best version of themselves, but that they can repair. And I think the Castle competencies are a first step. Thank you. I mean I agree with you that they're all connected, right? They're all interrelated. I do think that now they are not the way that we function is not that way.
Everything kind of works on its own, but I'm just I'm hoping that maybe doing this um this putting this as a goal in our strategic plan will help us focus on how we can make that connection between the classroom and outside the classroom and
then find ways that we can not just internally know that or expect people to kind of make those those connections between PBIS, RJ, and SCL, but actually we explicitly show how they are all connected and how why it's
important that we just continually draw those connections for our staff. Not just for educators in the classroom, but for everyone at a school site. And I think this poses an opportunity to be able to start doing that work. Yeah. And if I
may just and that's really good feedback. We'll definitely take that back and do that just that. Just something that just to be aware of is in the professional development that we conducted throughout the years, we also focused on campus aides and campus support and those that were in the playground because we wanted them to
understand how we were approaching SCL in the classroom and make those connections on the yard. So, when there were fallouts between students or things happened on the yard or during nutrition or lunch that the adults would be able to to help them with that repairing and and getting back on track after that.
>> Thank you. I'm glad that was done. I would even say let's train everybody on campus like including the office staff. Right? Because they interface with students on a regular basis. So, you know, cafeteria workers, custodians, all of these folks can be trusted adults on a campus and so it would be great for
them to also be trained in this. But thank you for doing that work already. Um Remember the video? Is it okay Apologies for cutting you off. I wanted to jump in there because I see the same opportunities that you laid out and actually as part of the every school safe blueprint, the monthly trainings that we do, we have two modules that
relate to PBIS welcoming environments and also essentially how to deal with conflict. For those, everyone on campus gets trained, everyone, cafeteria staff, you name it, for all the same reasons that you already laid out. As we land this, I think there's a very nice opportunity here to connect the two
things and make them more authentic to the classroom. Yes, thank you. And then regarding the SEL portfolios, which I know it was an attempt to try to get to this and it's been challenging. But what were some of the learnings and what and I
know we're going to I mean, at least as of now, it looks like we might continue with that because there are some folks who already trained, some folks that did it. But what were some learnings and if we are to continue with it, what are some changes that we can make to make it more
useful? So, some of the learnings was it was time-consuming for teachers to be able to grade all of those and then upload them onto Schoology. We had a platform at the time that we would be able to disaggregate data, which because of funding we wouldn't have that available.
It's something that I feel it well, not I feel, the feedback provided was that it was time-consuming. The upload was a little challenging. The the the glows were that the prompts were relevant to what students were experiencing in the classroom at the moment. They were developmentally
appropriate and it helped with the calibration because it was a cadre that was piloting the portfolio before it was launched district-wide and it kept changing. We we got a lot of feedback from them and every time we get we receive feedback, we kept modifying.
So, we changed the language from like the it used to be numbers and then we went to the proficiency, approaching proficiency. We used three different criteria. So, we just we kept evolving because we kept getting feedback from them. But really it's just it's time-consuming. It's been one of the most one of the one of the feedbacks
that we've been getting. And as of now, are we going to continue with Is that one of the things on the table right now that we're considering to It would depend on It would depend on what this board decides because we don't want to give teachers too many tools. We want to make sure that we use the tool that
everyone decides here, use it correctly. And if we're finding that it's an opportunity to leverage those portfolio rubrics to justify a grade, that might be something we incorporate as well. But we really want to start with what is that one tool we're going to use first, do it well, and then all these other
options may be considered as we move along. Okay, thank you. And I did see in the notes that there was a suggestion to include educators in in the discussion about this. I think that's very important just because it will fall on the teacher and we want folks to embrace
this and see a a meaningfulness in this, right? That it is connected to improving school culture, to improving the experience for kids, but also for our own employees, right? As they deal with whatever issues come up in the classroom, they can see this that this is also going to help with those kinds
of issues that may come up. So, if I think that's important to include our our also our labor partners, that's always a good, you know, start as well to connect with them and then the educators at the school side. And students, too. I think it would be at the high school level, it would be good
to hear from students how they what they think would be a useful way to self-assess. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Thanks for the robust discussion. I want to take us back when we first started the board goals conversation in 2021, we were really motivated to have student
outcome-oriented goals to motivate how we make decisions on policy and budget. And so, you know, reminding us that that's what these five goals are for. And so, four of them, Math, ELA, College, Career, and Science, have an external tool already. This is an interesting opportunity for us to figure
out like, how do we measure so that the board can make changes about dollars and decisions. And, you know, I was very anti-school experience survey because that was student perceptions of their skills at a
moment in time. And also, it might be the tool that gets us to, you know, through the next couple of years, hopefully one year only, as we develop the thing that helps the board make decisions best. And so, I love what Dr. Rivas said about the district-developed tool. If we have the
ability for staff to have a student outcome based assessment, is essentially what it is, diagnostic assessment, whatever. But it's it's a demonstration of their skills, right? That's what we had really said back in 2021 and that's what all of the other assessments show is a demonstration of their skills, not
teacher perception, not student perception, but student demonstration. I am nervous though about staff time getting us there given, you know, our experience with the portfolio, given dwindling resources. Is the best Is this the best use of staff resources at this
moment? I'm not sure. And so, while I like the idea, I think I'm leaning towards report cards because that will also be a big lift, but we see how we have seen how much it's helped with mastery-based learning and grading, aka equitable grading and instruction,
because it's about diving deeply into the standards for academics, the skills here for SEL. And so, it would require, you know, years of of training and digging. And in fact, I'm not even sure that we have a clear list of what are those, you know, social-emotional skills. It's, you know,
the five castle and growth mindset. But do we have them clearly defined per grade level span? Before I had this job, I was at an organization where we did this. We came up with standards in the six domains with teachers. It was a summer project and we
paid people for their time to really market, you know, what is K through two learning, what is three through five learning, and then how are we able to capture, you know, student performance on these various skills. So, you know, I agree it would take a lot of time to figure out what it would look like, but
I don't want to keep wasting time on report cards if that's not giving families or educators or this board, you know, what we the information that we need to know to be able to make the best decisions to improve our student outcomes. And so, to the extent we want to adjust our practice on investments
or, you know, improve student outcomes. I I think, you know, we we want to have a tool that is is long-term. So, you know, all of that to say, I think my vote or however the decision-making process will go is is putting staff time into developing a report card with the
educators who will be implementing this, but also have the closest pulse on what these skills look like at these grade levels, in particular because we don't have a, you know, state or national assessment on this yet. As opposed to using an outside metric or, you know, the portfolio that's been a little bit
of a struggle. But potentially in the meantime, since we're revising our school experience survey, we can also use some of those questions in the meantime as we, you know, get closer to what we want the report card to really look like. So, I think that's where I am today.
So, just as you all have been discussing, I've been kind of taking notes and and kind of looking at the ones that seem to have gauging the interest and the ones that maybe don't have as much interest. With the school experience survey, I think we all acknowledge that at least for some period of time, we will have to
use the school experience survey as a fallback measure here because whatever we go with will require some level of time, development, stakeholder input, and so on. But in general, I haven't heard anyone and please do correct me if I'm wrong, advocate for the school experience
survey to be the tool of record for the entire life of the next cycle of the strategic plan. I also haven't heard any advocacy and again, please do correct me if I'm wrong, for the so-called off-the-shelf product because if we're going to go with something, we want to be able to
tailor it to the the specifics of our district. And lastly, and this is no reflection on the value of the portfolios, it's more about just the the amount of time and the implementation. I haven't heard any advocacy again for portfolios to, you
know, be scaled out and to become I I think it's aspirational and ideal. As a teacher, I think that's probably might be sort of the North Star, but acknowledging that on a practical level, it's challenging. I I also haven't heard anyone advocating
for using the report card in its current format as the the measurement tool. So, I think where we're landing is either a district-developed tool or, you know, with a pre and post, essentially a diagnostic
or a new iteration of the report card. I think from the part of of of leadership and and staff, I think we can commit to in either one of those scenarios, we can already have it I was going to say, don't kill me, Dr. Bias, but you're retiring, so it's okay.
>> [laughter] >> I think we can commit to a timeline where by year two of the strat plan, we have this in place. So, year one would be a planning, stakeholder engagement, development, piloting second semester,
and so on. For year two, it would be establishing that baseline data, whether it's as the progress report or the district-developed diagnostic. So, let me stop there. I think that's how I'm reading the room. I agree with you. You're so great at synthesizing. That
was very helpful. Thank you. >> [laughter] >> Yeah, so at this point, I wanted just, you know, after what acting superintendent just summarized for us, I is how are we leaning here? We're leaning towards the report Let's
go down so see yeah. Go ahead, Mr. Kamus out. >> putting in perspective. And I guess for me, obviously looking at the tool that we would use, whether we develop our own, and I'm I think we're more than capable to do that, And presenting a new report card, however, I'm also concerned
of what we keep right now. And I know we talked about the portfolio being the best and what do we do to make sure that in the in-between time, because the things that have elevated will take time, what are we going to use and give
support to our teachers? Because we said time is an issue, it's time consuming. What will we put in place to make sure we still get the measurements we need for our students and that feedback. So, that is kind of how I summarize where
I'm at. I agree 100%. Thirded. >> [laughter] >> Well, um I think I like the idea of us coming up with our own or creating our own diagnostic in-house. I do I not like
you, Charlette. I have confidence in our staff. We have plenty of folks who can do this work and they can do the research. They're very capable. So, that's one. Um in terms of the report card, I I do agree with the report card. I think that is something that we should do, you know, as a long-term plan, cuz I
know it is going to take some time. Um I do think that there is I although we want to do it in a year, I do know that it can take some time with training and calibration and all that stuff. Um and then lastly, the school experience survey, I do like the idea right now and I wonder, I mean, we're in the midst of
creating re- revamping it, right? So, can we put in some questions that address some of the SEL competencies in there? This is an opportunity to do that and it'll be done by what, August or September? It hasn't,
but the problem is that it is one moment in time and a student may not be in the right mindset. It's um it's only and it's not application, which the board wants to see how the students are applying the SEL and it's not doesn't do that. It's really perceptions. >> But at least it gives us some in the
meantime, as we continue developing um these other tools. >> will speak more to that. Okay. So, just a couple notes on the school experience survey. So, um I think whether we go with the the the diagnostic option or the report card option, the school experience survey
will continue, obviously, through through next year, which would be the stakeholder engagement and piloting year. And so, I think especially for the report card, we wouldn't want to continue with the school experience survey, which does currently, in its current form, ask many questions. There's a battery of questions around
the the SEL competencies that we are looking to refine, of course, and as we as we go into our sort of 2.0 of our school experience survey. If we if we go with the report card as the option, I think it's going to be important to keep the SEL going for a while to again, as this was mentioned before,
uh to triangulate. You know, we so and you know, if we see incongruence between what a teacher is saying and what the students are themselves saying, that in itself is a very important data for us to spot. And if you know, finding schools where there is that gap is are is that's going to be an important strategy and policy uh place to focus.
Now, if we go with the diagnostic tool, I do see a situation where eventually, as that once that has its solid grounding and has some implementation, we could peel that we might be able to take the SEL questions off of the school experience survey, because they would be
very redundant um and we wouldn't need to ask those pre and post for the diagnostic and also in the school experience survey. The overwhelming comment we're we're doing a lot of community engagement. There's a open for the public thought exchange right now on um people providing us with feedback about the school experience survey. The
number one, by a landslide, comment we're getting is that it's too long. And so, we would you know, we would this could be an easy opportunity to take out a significant chunk of questions for students um from that if we were to go with the diagnostic route. Now, if we were to go to the report card route, I
would I would advocate, at least for the first few years, keep it in there, keep the SEL items in there for that triangulation purpose. So, um school experience survey is here to stay, no question about it. It already touches on a lot of SEL and we would keep that for the for the amount of time that would be appropriate.
All right. Yeah, and I mean, I I actually like a couple of ways of measuring SEL, just like we do with other, you know, like in IEPs, when we're looking at student performance, we look at different measures to avoid that one moment in time, you know, aspect of it.
I don't know if I was clear what what my vote is, >> [laughter] >> Uh how will you decide which parts of the school experience survey you'll remove to make it more uh workable? How how how are we going to decide that? Um that's a good question. Um I think
there's a few uh few areas where we're going to be making that consideration. One is obviously the feedback that we're getting from from the thought exchange that we're doing. We're having focus groups. We've we've met with board members. We're having focus groups with staff and with families and students as well to get their feedback on what are the types of things they they most value
in hearing. Um the one another piece is that we're looking at best practices um for school school climate surveys, you know, administered nationally. Um looking at so you know, there's there's a robust you know, research literature on how to best measure school climate and which
which factors are most salient for you know, being predictive of student student performance thereafter. And so, we're using that. Um you know, school climate's different though than student social emotional well-being. And so, you know, we you know, there is a world where the new school experience survey is very very centered on school climate
and as as the core of the survey. And then we might have other items that that are in addition to that, like SEL as appropriate. There's other things that are coming up, screen time. Um you know, we had some questions this past year on the on the cell phone ban and implementation of that. Um and so, there
will be a need for, you know, um you know, for a few years, a certain hot topic that is coming up. But we would keep a core survey and then we would have additional items thereafter. Um you know, that that may come and go. Mhm. When is in the Ms. Franklin? Um no, well, I appreciate the discussion and I
think what I took from it is that we would be working towards a new report card longer term and then in the interim, the we would be utilizing the school experience survey for for some data. I mean, I can I agree that the we need the um SES information on student perceptions around school climate, but I
think it was never exactly the right fit for um assessing student competencies. And I would just say, I mean, I think um Superintendent Chace's uh delineation of year one as a planning year, I I think that sounds great and I just want to emphasize like the need for collaboration with teachers during that
time and to really hear from them, what do they need to implement this successfully? Maybe that's more planning time. Maybe it's more support. Um I think we just want to ensure that we don't move too fast, because moving really fast sometimes means that we don't do it well. Um so, I think there's
a balance between the urgency and the effectiveness of our implementation. I like what Acting Superintendent said. >> [laughter] >> Okay. Well, um I hope Oh, did you want to you want to say anything else? Go ahead. Well, so I I've been doing some tally
chicken scratching here. So, I I think I have at least three folks that have come out pretty clearly, maybe more than three. Again, always looking to be corrected as publicly as possible. Um for a report card, report card 2.0,
right? Um is there any other interest in landing in that direction? So, I have Yeah, so the the the three that I think I've I've heard and again, could have misheard, but the three that I've heard from so far that are aligned
with the report card, uh Dr. Reavis, Mr. Melvoin, Ms. Gones, I think also Ms. Ortiz Franklin. Okay, so that's four. So, Ms. Gregor, report card also, okay. We I over here, I'm sorry. We we we just
can't land on one. I was like, I like report card, but I feel like we can develop a tool. So, I'm sorry, but I there just wasn't one option. It was two. Fair enough. [clears throat] Good. Yeah, we're split. We're split. Both important. I
I I I do think, I mean, if I can say, I think this is the kind of thing where we would need true consensus, not just a majority. Um I think it's it sends a different message as far as the alignment around the goals. That said, we do have at least five folks that are
leaning towards report card 2.0, let's call it. Um what what I can do is ask staff over the next couple of weeks to do some briefing. >> Good. Okay, so we have We're just split. We we just wanted more. I'm just saying
I wanted more. I wasn't you know, cake and some ice cream. I'm sorry. I wanted more. If I put my teacher hat in in I'm going to soapbox here for a minute. Um SEL is something that that to me has always been near and dear to me, going all the way back to as a teacher and as
a principal. Uh when I was a principal, we used to have this phenomenon at at Chase Street Elementary, home of the Cougars. Um where every Monday morning, kiddos would come to school and they would bring whatever had happened in their lives from that weekend. Some of them brought
amazing things. They'd had, you know, quinceaneras, gone somewhere fun, so on. Other kids brought stress, trauma, things they'd experienced at home. One of the biggest changes that we saw at our school is I went hat in hand, you
know, begging, pleading to my teachers and said, "Can we all commit to doing Second Step as the very first thing that we do on Monday mornings as kids come in?" And it took some persuading, not because people didn't agree with it, but because there was this thought of like, "No, we should dive right into instruction and
did it which a lot of that makes sense, right? When we got the complete buy-in, when every single teacher began the school day on a Monday with that 20 20-minute second step lesson, office referrals went down, issues at recess and lunch went down
because the kids had a chance to be sort of heard and engage in at least a little bit of dialogue. You know, like we say in Spanish, desahogar las penas, you know, let a little bit out before we had them shift and become the the academic wizards that we know that they could be. So, the reason I say that is because I'm
with you. I mean, of the options that we have, I think there's some here, portfolio, a district developed tool, that I think are aspirational and that we can look at uh in terms of future iterations. What I like about the report card is I can say as a district dad, like that is
our measurement of record for our kiddos, right? You know, like when my girls bring home their progress reports, like if I haven't already looked at it on parent portal, like I'm looking at it right away. So, it lends some weight to an SEL measurement if we embed it into the report card. So, again, just my two
cents. I think we've all landed at report card at updated version of the report card as the measurement tool for this cycle of the strategic plan, acknowledging that we're going to work as a team. Well, Frances will send good wishes from whatever [laughter] beach she's on, but
those of us that are not so lucky will work on this, you know, with a goal of getting it implemented by 2027-28 while acknowledging that we want to be thoughtful about it. We're not trying to just rush it to rush it. Thank you. Thank you very much. >> Yeah, so we're not voting. This is not an official vote. This is just some
feedback to you. So, when you come back to us in in in June, then we'll officially um make a vote there as as a board. Thank you very much. We really appreciate your feedback. Thank you. Wonderful. Well, I'm glad we landed um
somewhere in the middle of report cards and and an assessment. So, now we are going to move on to our second and last presentation, our fiscal and program update um which follows up on the board requested information. As we continue to navigate
this period of fiscal uncertainty, one of our primary goals is making sure resources are aligned with student needs, that we are protecting core core services, and that we are planning responsibly for the years ahead. That also means taking a close look at where we are seeing changes in spending,
understanding what is driving those shifts, and being clear about what is sustainable over time. We make sure that as we make adjustments, we're doing so in a way that minimizes disruption at school sites and keep students at the center of those decisions. So, today's
update is an um an opportunity to better understand those trends, ask questions, and make sure we have a clear picture of what uh where we are headed. So, we have Mr. Saman Bravo-Karimi, Mr. Anthony Aguilar, and Dr. Frances Baez
uh for the next presentation. So, Mr. um Bravo-Karimi, the floor is yours. Thank you so much. So, as Dr. Rivas mentioned, this presentation is largely a follow-up from the presentation at the Committee of the Whole back in February. Uh back in
February, we provided information on historical spend on what we were call what we call non-labor. Um as part of that presentation, there were a lot of questions and and and requests for additional information, and so you'll see that uh in today's presentation. We'll start with a general budget
overview as we often do in these presentations. Then we'll dive into non-labor expenditures. And then I'll be joined by my colleagues to talk about both special education and the expanded learning opportunities program or ELOP.
So, the overall budget accounting structure of LAUSD is organized first based on sources of revenue. So, this is a slide that we've shown several times before. At the very top, you'll see uh the primary sources of revenue that
the district receives. And then that is funneled into different funds. And so, these funds are the different funds that we are required as a district in California to report. So, we report the revenues in the appropriate fund and then the corresponding expenditures in those same
funds. So, you'll see operating funds, and there's several different types of operating funds, which I'll cover in a moment. We have capital projects bond funds. We have debt service funds, the funds that we use to account for uh when the district makes payment on
the bonds that are issued. We have internal service fund, the biggest example of that is our health and welfare fund, where we pay for the cost of employee health benefits. And then fiduciary fund and special revenue fund. So, you'll see highlighted
in yellow the operating fund first, and then under operating funds, the biggest and most important in terms of providing the core programming for transitional kindergarten through 12th grade is our general fund. And that's why we focus so much in our presentations on the general
fund. And as you know, within the general fund, there's unrestricted and restricted. Unrestricted meaning can be used basically for any educational purpose. Restricted is when it's restricted by law. And again, I know we've meant discussed this uh several times, but uh when something goes into
the general fund restricted, it's not at the district's discretion. It's based on uh the how it's been restricted by law. So, examples of restricted are programs like Title I, our special education program, uh etc.
Other operating funds, the big ones are the adult education fund, child development fund, and cafeteria fund. You can think of those also as restricted in a way. They are uh the revenues are are can only be used for the specific purposes for those programs. Um and then we also track the
expenditures. So, whenever you you see different financial documents from the district, whether it's our first and second interim report, our budget document or budget book, um you'll see it organized in these different funds. Also, AB 1200s that are the form that
shows the financial impact of labor agreements are also organized by these funds. And so, you'll recognize and as you go through some of those documents how it's organized by these uh different funds. So, quick overview I think folks are are very familiar with, but over time, over
the last several years before last school year, uh we were building reserves, and starting last year, uh we uh started deficit spending for the first year uh in in a while. Uh deficit spending, as you know, just means that we had expenditures that were
higher than our revenues. In other words, we spent more than we brought in. And that's only possible because we had uh those reserves. And so, the main factors contributing to this change from building reserves to spending them down
uh is of course rising labor costs, the expiration of the COVID relief funds, declining enrollment, which has been the case for for over two decades, and then of course the evolving needs of our students and the supports that we we provide them. As a district, we have begun to reduce
the deficit spending, not not eliminate the deficit spending, but but reduce the deficit spending uh principally uh through the fiscal stabilization plan. So, as you know, the district approved a fiscal stabilization plan back in June, and since then it has
been uh implemented and reflected not only at our first interim report in December, but also in our second interim report in March. Also, there are important processes that are continuing to be implemented and expanded to uh ensure that there's
vigorous and rigorous oversight of of spending. So, if you look at the graph there that just kind of shows the the numbers behind what I just described. So, the blue is revenue, the orange is expenditure. So, if you look at the blue, you'll see a substantial increase in revenue from
the '21-'22 school year to '22-'23 school year. That's largely the the COVID relief funds uh that districts nationally received. But you'll see if looking at just the blue, uh high point in '22-'23, uh slightly lower in '23-'24, and now uh
lower in each year uh thereafter. So, the '25-'26 school year, that's the very last set of bar graphs, are of course uh projections as of second interim. The current school year obviously is not finished, but those are projections as of December.
So, the revenues, as I mentioned, went up substantially during the pandemic year and now have regressed. Um now we're just kind of feeling the full brunt of of declining enrollment with without the benefit of those COVID relief funds. And if you look just at the orange bars, that has been uh on an upward
trajectory. So, of course, increased uh largely during the pandemic years as well, uh but have kind of continued on that higher trajectory even after the expiration of COVID relief funds. One very very important point about that last orange bar, '25-'26,
it is what's projected as of second interim. Importantly, it does not include the cost of recently uh tentatively tentative agreements with with our labor partners, specifically our largest labor partner. So,
as part of those agreements, any costs for salary increases in '24-'25 last year, as well as any costs for salary increases and other changes for '25-'26, the current year, all of those expenses for last year and this year will all be reflected as expenditures
in '25-'26. And so, that orange bar will substantially change uh when we show updated numbers in in June. All right, so the next section is non-labor and I think it's important to like I just gave a broad overview of the
different funds and focusing a lot on the operating funds. There are also different accounting categories that are we're also required to report on. So as school districts in California, there's a California School Accounting Manual that governs how we're supposed to account for different expenditures
and that document it's it's lengthy, but it it it describes the different categories of expenditures. So first kind of labor, there are labor categories. The first is certificated salaries. So examples of course are certificated teacher salaries, other
certificated salaries and the numerical code that corresponds to certificated salaries are those between 1,000 and 1,999. So basically anything that starts with the number one is a certificated salary. So the largest of course are going to be
our teacher salaries, but there are other certificated employees whose salaries will be reflected in certificated salaries in this category. And so this is both in terms of how it's budgeted and also how we track the expenditures within that budget.
The next category is classified salaries. So this is 2,000 to 2,999. Again, just anything that starts with the number two. So this examples of classified are classified instructional salaries, classified support salaries. So basically any classified employee,
the salary will be reflected in this category. Again, this is just the way we're required as as a district to to report not just the budget, but the expenditures for the district. The third labor category are employee
benefits. This is 3,000 to 3,999. So anything that starts with the the number three. So big examples of the types of costs that are reflected as employee benefits are of course our contributions that we make for
teacher pension. So the CalSTRS, the district makes a contribution, an employer contribution towards our certificated employees' pensions. Same for our classified employees. And also the health benefits are reflected
as expenditures in this 3,000 category. So when you look at labor cost, it's important to include all of these. Certificated salaries, classified salaries, and then of course all benefit costs, which include not only health benefits, but pension benefits as well.
Then we have everything else. And everything else is what we call non-labor. So just want to clarify the labor and non-labor, those are not official designations. These are just ways that we are trying to kind of further simplify the way our expenditures are
presented in our financial reports. So non-labor includes first books and supplies. Books and supplies are 4,000 through 4,999. So anything that starts with the number four. And books and supplies is a little
bit of a misnomer because I think when people see this in our budget documents or our different financial reports, they think of books and and [snorts] and and think of just those kind of very specific things. But it's really any physical thing that
is not capital. So it's it does include things like textbooks, instructional materials paper pencils ink toner things of that nature. So as well as non-capitalized equipment. So things that don't have a long useful life are are considered in this very broad
category. Next we have services and other operating expenditures. This is 5,000 through 5,999. So anything that starts with the number five. And this includes a number of different types of professional services that the district
has. So there are sub-agreements for services, there's insurance costs, there's professional consulting services and operating expenditures. These are just some examples of what falls into this services and other operating expenditures category.
Sometimes when folks think of of contracts, when we speak of contracts, often folks are thinking about this entire category. But it does include things that maybe the general public might not really think of as a contract such as insurance or utility costs.
But but sometimes the folks think of contracts as something more specific like the professional and consulting services, which is a subcategory within this larger services and other operating expenditures. And then finally
in non-labor is capital outlay. This is the 6,000 through 6,999. Examples of this would be new equipment, either technology or other types of equipment that have a longer useful life and that were required by accounting rules to treat as a capital outlay.
So for the purposes of this presentation, just like in February, we are focusing on these three non-labor categories. We're going to show some information showing them all together. And we're going to show some other deeper dives or zooming in on certain
portions of these based on questions we received back in February. So the first look is total non-labor expenditures. So those three categories that I just showed you on the last slide, books and supplies, other operating expenses and capital outlays. And so some of this information
we we shared previously, but we had questions about not just the expenditures, but also the budgets for each of these in this historical look. So at the bottom of each of these subsequent slides, just important for for members of the public, you'll see kind of some notes about what types
which categories are included and which of that in which cases these are projections or the preliminary budget. So you'll see the blue is the budget for each of these years starting 1920 going all the way through next school year 26-27. Of course next year's budget is a
preliminary budget at this time. The the board will be asked to adopt it in June. So not surprising as you saw the trends on the expenditures when we looked back in February where there was a large increase in spending during the pandemic
years looking at those orange bars and then a beginning to revert back to pre-pandemic levels starting more recently, the budget figures also show the exact same trend. So the budgets in these in in these non-labor categories increased very substantially during the pandemic
years peaking in the 22-23 school year and now have reverted back towards pre-pandemic closer to pre-pandemic levels. You'll also see during the pandemic years where you saw the biggest divergence from what was budgeted in
blue and what was expended in orange. There were large influx of revenues like I mentioned before, the COVID relief funds and so the budgets were set at high levels to correspond with those really high levels of revenue. But the expenditures weren't as high,
but you'll see the difference between the budget and the expenditures, the blue and the orange has has tightened starting last year and and projected to also be the case this year. So you'll see the 26-27, we obviously don't have an orange bar for that for
next year yet, but we do have the preliminary budget and you'll see it is in total $1.8 billion. So already representing in non-labor categories a very substantial decline from the pandemic years and actually
just a little bit higher than where we were in the first pre-pandemic year of 1920. You'll see that that budget amount in 26-27 of $1.8 billion is actually even lower than we're projected to spend in the
current year. So not only does it represent a reduction in the budget, but is also going to actually necessitate by definition a substantial reduction in what was spent in what's going to be spent in the current year.
So next, that was all of the non-labor categories. This is kind of zooming into books and supplies or the 4,000 series. Same time period. Blue again, budget, orange, expenditures. And you'll see kind of highlighted there at the top
that we had a substantial increase in budgeted amounts for books and supplies. Also kind of tracking the the pandemic trend where you see this kind of bell curve, a large increase in budgets and expenditures during the pandemic years. And you'll again you'll also note
in 26-27 the budgeted amount of about $669 million substantially lower than what was budgeted in the current year. In books and supplies as as has been noted several times before by by board members, by members of the public, is where we have seen the largest
divergence between the blue, what's budgeted, and orange, what's spent. And I think we've we've mentioned several times before a large contributor to that divergence between the budget and the expenditures for books and supplies is
when budgets are allocated either to schools or budget holders and and carry over school carry over is a really good example of this. And if during budget development when budget holders maybe don't know exactly how they will spend that money in the in the following school year, it's kind of by definition,
by default, budgeted in this broad category. Not to say that it's literally for books, but it's kind of in this broad category of books and supplies, which is why you see such a divergence between the blue and the orange.
We do expect that divergence to be much, much smaller next year. You'll see the budget amount alone is very, very low and just a little bit higher than what was what is projected to be expended in orange for the current year. So, we do expect the difference between the budget
and expenditures to be a lot tighter. Um and also, as you're aware of the fiscal stabilization plan included uh no carryover in the two major school carryover programs. That's student equity needs index SENI
and the general fund school program. And so, uh as you see highlighted there, the FSP implementation begins kind of starting next year and so, that's why you see not only the budget amount being lower, but while we all while we also expect to see um expenditures much closer to the amount
that that was budgeted. Okay, next is a zoom in on the 5000s or the services and other operating expenses. Uh here you'll see the divergence between the blue and the orange, the budget and the expenditures uh a lot tighter. Uh you'll still see
the same kind of bell shape uh in terms of not just the blue, the budgets for these types of services, but also the orange and the expenditures. I'll also highlight, just like everything I've shown so far, the preliminary budget for next school year
shows a little bit over 1.1 billion dollars uh for these types of services. Substantially lower than what was budgeted in the current year and substantially lower than what's projected to be spent in uh the current year. So, right now
we're projecting to spend about 1.5 billion dollars in 25-26. Uh the preliminary budget for next year represents a over 400 million dollar reduction from that level. You'll probably notice that unlike books and supplies, where the budget was much higher than the the
expenditures, not only they're much tighter uh here, uh but in 24-25, uh slight slightly higher expenditures than what was budgeted in the adopted budget and same for the what's projected in the current year. And what we talked about a little bit before is that
this is not there's nothing necessarily wrong with in certain categories spending being higher than what's budgeted. Uh we've mentioned before that often money is {quote} parked in books and supplies, but might ultimately during the school year be moved to another
budget category and spent in a different category. And so, what of course what the very important for us is to track the entire general fund budget, the entire operating budgets. Um and so, what we do and this is we encourage schools to do this as their student needs change to of course, make
decisions during the school year, where they might move funds from one category like books and supplies uh to another. In the next couple slides, we're going to zoom in even further within this category of of services and up other operating expenditures to show kind of some of those
uh some of the the more detailed trends that explain more about uh what you're seeing here. Okay, so we're zooming in a little bit further. We we looked at books and supplies, we looked at other operating services. Now, this is within the other
operating services uh specifically, it is sub agreements. So, this is within the 5000 series of object codes, within the 5000 series of expenditures, this is specifically 5100 only. So, this reflects an increased demand
for mandated special education student support services from third parties. And so, later as part of the presentation, you'll get a lot more information about special education specifically. Um but many of the services that are provided to our students through their
IEPs are of course, provided directly by by LAUSD employees, but often also provided by uh third party providers or what we often call non-public agencies or or non-public schools. And so, here you'll see uh uh the that trend, where the the
budgeted amounts kind of increased during the pandemic years and have somewhat leveled off. Uh but then the expenditure amounts, you you do see a large increases over over time. Um which tracks with our overall spending for for special education. So, this is one piece
of that entire budget, um but it does closely track uh not just with the overall special education budget, but also with the student uh demographic data. And so, you'll see this a little bit later in the section of the presentation on special education, uh but you'll see kind of the
demographic the the trends in terms of the number of students that are identified um as well as the types of of of services and supports that that they need. Another subcategory within other operating services, this is specifically
professional and consulting services. So, you'll see there on the bottom left-hand corner, this is specifically object code 5800. Examples of the types of expenditures that would be in this subcategory are tutoring, professional development,
field trips. Um and so here again, you'll see the little bit of that same bell curve. Uh substantial increase in the 21-22 school year as we reopened schools for in-person learning, substantial spending on
uh COVID testing is kind of the biggest example of what you would see in that in that school year. And then subsequent to that big increase in 21-22, you'll see uh the budget in blue decreasing as well as uh the expenditures um from that 21-22 school year, but you
do still see in the recent years um a slight increase even in in projected for the current school year. So, when we look at 26-27, what we've budgeted for these services of for other operating expenditures and and I should mention, this is a roll up of all budgets. So, school budgets,
central office budgets, it's all rolled up together into this subcategory. It's about 466 million dollars for next school year uh preliminarily budgeted, lower than uh what was budgeted for the current year and substantially lower than what is projected to be spent
in uh the current school year as well. Okay, so those were uh again, follow-up, there were a lot of questions about you know, we showed the expenditures, let's look at the budget as well. Let's also look at kind of what's projected out in the future. And so, in summary, uh in terms of the data that we just
showed you, uh big drivers of of the increase in in budget and spend for for non-labor were of course, uh the existence of one-time funds uh during the pandemic, the expenditure of those one-time funds during the pandemic
uh and generally a reversion back to pre-pandemic levels and a substantial decrease as the fiscal stabilization plan has begun to be implemented in these categories for next school year. Just a little overview of non-labor
contracts generally. So, um while I mentioned before that when when kind of the general public talks about contracts, they often uh are focusing on the services that are being provided to the district or our students by by vendors or or third parties. But we also enter into contracts for the the the
purchasing of equipment, the purchasing of supplies, for the construction of schools, for the purchasing of food for the cafeteria program. And so, the contracts, regardless of the type of thing that we're paying for, whether a service or a thing, um the district has
uh contracts for the purchase of the of those items. So, the scope and volume has of course, evolved uh with the district needs, but very, very importantly, we always must follow the California education code as well as the public procurement code. There's a lot of
detail within these codes that govern the procurement of different types of things, but it always must be consistent with the law. At time, we use benches uh in targeted areas to streamline procurement, but very, very importantly, contract
capacity or bench capacity does not necessarily equate to what's budgeted. And further, what's expended for these things. Okay? So, a contract capacity can one spend multiple years and what it
what it is what how it's what it serves as is a maximum amount that the board is approving to be spent either with that specific vendor or with that bench of vendors. So, in some cases, that contract or bench might cover 5 years
and that capacity is the maximum amount that can be spent over that 5-year period. But when a contract is approved by the board or bench is approved by the board, it doesn't necessarily follow that that dollar amount is budgeted. And I'll give
you a really good example. Let's say we have a bench contract for the purchasing of IT equipment like like Chromebooks. Different budget holders like an individual school or department will budget how much they think they'll need
for, let's say, Chromebooks next school year. And so, that is how much is budgeted. Then a budget holder, in this example, let's say a school, can make use of the bench contract to purchase those devices.
So, the contract capacity is almost like a credit limit, but what's budgeted is depends on each budget holder, what they're planning for the upcoming school year. And then what's expended is only what actual purch- devices were were purchased. And
so, the reason why I'm I'm pausing here to kind of describe the distinction between a contract capacity versus the budget for different categories of spending versus the expenditures is because reducing a contract or not renewing a
contract does not necessarily result directly in budgetary savings. What is required to reduce spending is reducing budgets or allocations or during a school year putting forward processes which we already have in place
that will slow or control spending with approval processes and such. So, the life cycle that you see here, it is a cycle. So, as I mentioned, there's kind of school and central office planning and budgeting. Um then often uh sponsors like contract sponsors which are typically divisions
will will put will work with the procurement division and then a solicitation will be issued. There are different ways that a solicitation might be issued which I'll cover on on a subsequent slide. Then based on the type of solicitation, the vendors will be evaluated and
selected based on on on certain criteria. And then of course the board will either approve or ratify a contract. Sometimes contracts are amended. Um and then the contract activities proceed based on board actions. There are all kinds of
controls within the system that are part of each of these different kind of steps in in this kind of cycle. So, on the budget side, uh departments and and schools, there are certain controls in how much gets spent to make sure that they're not spending more than they have budget
limits for in terms of non-labor. So, that's true for all budget holders. There are those kind of controls in place to make sure that spending does not exceed the overall budget um limit amount. So, there's a lot of other information. I know that there's going to be a
presentation a little bit later at a at a another committee meeting giving a lot more detail on kind of contracting and and procurement. But this is just a high-level overview of that. As I mentioned, we have different methods of soliciting contracts.
I'm not going to go into too much detail, but you're familiar with a lot of these. There's a request for proposal or RFP for certain specific types of professional services. This is also what's used for our benches. There's an invitation for bid when we know there's a very specific thing that
we are trying to purchase whether a service or thing. Uh then an invitation for bid where we're largely focusing on the price. There's request for qualifications. There's informal request for proposal when the dollar value is under $250,000.
So, even though the dollar value is under 250, it's still important to have competition which is why we have still an informal process. Um then we have piggyback contracts where certain vendors have gone through a competitive process with another government entity
and then different government agencies are able to kind of piggyback those agreements because it's already been through a competitive process elsewhere. Um and then there's single and sole source which are used only in certain circumstances where either only one vendor can provide services and and it
must be justified. So, at a high level, there's criteria that's set to determine what is the ultimate firm or company or vendor that is selected under these different methodologies. Uh best value is often
the most important criteria. In some cases, price is the most important criteria. And depending on the way that we're procuring these different services or things, those different criteria may be given different weights. And so, we of course work with our different sponsors to determine the appropriate weight so
that they can properly so that the the proposals and bids can be properly evaluated. As I mentioned, at times there are benches that are used to leverage multiple vendors for certain broader purposes. And so, they're used sometimes for that in cases where it's going to
benefit the district to have a bench of many different providers for certain types of services. We obviously have a lot of individual contracts for very specific purposes or projects. And in terms of the contract length, EdCode limits goods and materials or supplies to a maximum of a three-year
agreement. EdCode limits services to a maximum of five years. And so, often you'll see five-year limits for certain services whether it's through a bench or through a direct contract with a with a a firm for five years. Often going for a
five-year term helps us secure better pricing for the duration of of the contract. So, that's why often you will see multi-year agreements if we feel that it's going to benefit the district in terms of the pricing that we get. Just in the interest of time, you know,
we're moving Yeah, if you can >> I will speed it up. >> Okay, thank you. Gladly. Okay. So, there are since 2022, uh the board and the district has approved many many different contracts of different term limits and of different values. What you see here is a
snapshot of all of the contracts whether a bench or an individual contract where the dollar maximum limit, again, not the amount that's budgeted or spent, but the amount that uh the maximum capacity of $75 million or greater. On the left,
you'll see that organized by funding source by the primary funding source. So, of course, the the largest funding source is going to be our our bond funds. And it makes sense. Individual projects for construction can sometimes be in the hundreds of millions of
dollars. And so, you see 41% by funding source of these large $75 million plus vendor contract agreements are are in bond. And then you'll see a large amount in the health and welfare fund. So, these are providers like our health care providers that are part of our our
employee health benefit program and so on and so forth. So, you'll see cafeteria program called out. Of course, we're buying a lot of food for the cafeteria program. And then general fund, you'll see there at about 30% of the total for these large vendors. On the right-hand side, you'll see it
organized by expense type. So, you'll see construction, computer devices, bussing, transportation tutoring printing meals, instructional material, health and insurance. A lot of these are closely correlated with the pie chart on the left-hand side. You'll see the
amount for construction is very close to the amount for bond funds which makes sense because the construction is is is principally covered by bond funds. And so, this is just kind of showing a broad the broad categories of by funding source and expenditure type of our
largest vendors. So, next step, uh of course, continuing to implement the strategic measures outlined in the fiscal stabilization plan, further reducing expenditures with that rigorous oversight that I mentioned. Um and I'll just pause and say,
we are going to come back with a fiscal stabilization plan in June. As I mentioned, we we the fiscal stabilization plan from last June did not eliminate the deficit spending, but it did um reduce it. And then after second interim, we have
some some labor agreements that we're going to have to incorporate the costs of. And so, the fiscal stabilization plan, even though we've already reduced substantially the budgets in these non-labor categories from this year to next year, uh any fiscal stabilization plan will of course need to include a further
examination and reduction of these type of expenditures. But I need to be transparent that the fiscal stabilization plan in June must include other strategies. This is a very important one. This is one we've talked a lot about publicly. We're very
committed to continuing to reduce even further what we've already reduced. But the plan in upcoming in June which we're going to be required to to present to the board will need more than just reductions in these non-labor categories.
All right. So, next I will hand it over to Mr. Aguilar. Thank you, Simon. And good morning, Dr. Rivas, board members, and acting superintendent of state. So, right now I'm going to transition us into the special education portion of this presentation. This section is intended
to provide a deeper insight into program needs, cost, and trends. I'll walk through enrollment, services, and how those factors connect to expenditures. As a single as a single SELPA, LAUSD is responsible for providing the full continuum of services to meet the needs
of students with disabilities. Over the past several years, we have we have seen two key trends. First, we've seen an increase in special education enrollment. Second, we are seeing a shift in enrollment that I'm sorry, second, we are seeing a shift in student needs with a growing number of students
requiring moderate to severe support. These trends impact how services are delivered and how resources are allocated. While general education enrollment continues to decline, special education enrollment continues to increase. As a result, special education represents a
growing percentage of the students total student population. This trend has implications for staffing, service delivery, and overall budget planning. I do want to call your attention to the increase between '22-'23 and '23-'24. This reflects the return to consistent
in-person instruction which allowed for more comprehensive student observation and assessment supporting the identification of learning needs and increased access to appropriate services. On this slide, you can see the shift in the profile of student needs with an increasing proportion of students
requiring moderate to severe supports. This shift directly impacts how we design programs and deliver services which I'll explain further in the next slide. Program requirements vary based on student needs and are aligned to established service models. Students
requiring more intensive supports are typically served in smaller instructional settings with additional adult support. These program structures are designed to ensure appropriate access to instruction and services. As we connect student needs to resource allocation, this slide highlights the
gap between available funding and the cost of delivering special education services. Federal and state funding contributes to, but does not fully cover the cost of these services. The district supplements these resources to ensure that students receive the
services as outlined in their IEPs. To better understand that gap, this slide shows how special education expenditures are structured. Special education is primarily a labor-driven program. Approximately 80% of costs are attributed to staffing, including
teachers, aides, and service providers. The remaining 20 20% reflects non-labor costs such as transportation, contracted services, and due process. This highlights that services are primarily delivered through staff who directly supports our students.
The largest driver within non-labor is contracted services, and we heard Samon mention that earlier. These services These service needs are identified through the IEP process, including behavioral and health-related supports. As shown in the chart, they represent
the majority of non-labor expenditures. These services ensure students receive the supports as supports as aligned to their IEPs. Most contracted spending supports provided through are are provided through non-public agencies and non-public schools. Together, these account for
approximately 2/3 of the contracted costs. Additional costs include transportation and due process-related expenditures. Overall, this reflects that spending is directly aligned to student services and access. In summary, special education enrollment
continues to represent a growing share of the district student population with increasing levels of service service intensity. The district will continue to align resources to ensure students receive the services and supports outlined in their IEPs. Federal and state Federal and state funding contribute to
but do not fully cover the cost of providing these services. In closing, at its core, special education is a legal obligation tied to individual student need. I'll now hand off to my colleague, Dr. Reyes. Thank you, Mr. Aguilar. And so, I will
be sharing a little bit about the Expanded Learning Opportunity Program. Uh so, since the first investment, the district used the ELO P to expand and improve upon student enrichment activities. Starting in the 2026-2027 school year,
the district anticipates reduced ELO P since the carryover has decreased. So, I will share the way that we plan to sustain the meaningful enrichment programs um that we have introduced to our district. As a reminder, Beyond the Bell enrichment is the base to the Expanded
Learning Opportunity program, and the additional offerings are above and beyond the base. The quality standards for after-school programming calls for safe and supportive environment, active and and engaged learning, skill-building, youth
voice and leadership, healthy choices and behaviors, and we've aligned all of these to the strategic plan to ensure coherence in our programming. The programs we offer close access gaps in the areas of math, language arts, science, and STEAM.
The program restrictions call for offering eligible students in the TK through 6th access to at least 9 hours of programming per instructional day. These are the examples of how the 9-hour day may be formed. They either could either be part of the instructional day plus after school,
before school expanded learning, after school expanded learning, summer and intersession programming, and tutoring. These are examples of allowable program offerings such as tutoring and academic intervention in literacy and numeracy. STEAM and STEAM robotics, coding, and
visual and performing arts are additional examples. We fund summer school, summer enrichment, winter and spring out of ELO P as well. These programs are all part of our comprehensive expanded learning program. Since the inception of ELO P, the
timeline to spend the allocation has shifted, and currently we have 2 years to spend the allocation. We had We began with an initial entitlement of 243,000 4400 243.3 million dollars, which was approximately half of the annual
entitlement since it was issued late in the spring of 2022. The allocation is based on the unduplicated per pupil count, which is 2,750 per student. Here you see the allocation year over year along with the spending deadline.
I would like to show a comparison of the revenue versus expenditure through the years. In the first 2 years, ELO P dollars accum- accumulated since we were leveraging one-time dollars through the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund, better known as ESSER.
Then in the years 23-24 and then 24-25, we offered a wide array of programs, which brought us closer to spending the entitlement. Programs in STEAM, art, tutoring, internships, language arts, and math are some examples. We are at a point where we no longer
have carryover. Over time, we have increased expenditures of the Beyond the Bell services to 185 million dollars to expand to multiple schools. Greening and M&O were meant to pay for utilities, custodial supplies, and related costs
associated with keeping our campuses open after the academic day. Intersession and investments have increased to account for the two additional days for winter academy and for summer school. High-dosage tutoring is paid out of ELO P, and I will speak more about that
later in this presentation. The Culture Arts Passport offer students trips or instruction in the arts. The field trip line is is designated for students to visit destinations like college trips, history museums, and extend the learning in the
unit of study during the academic school day. While these two are side by side, I do want to distinguish that they they have two different purposes. The Culture Arts Passport is focused on the arts instruction, while the field trip line, though it allows students to go to
destinations outside of arts venues. The Extended School Year is summer school for students with an IEP. The Academic Extended Learning Opportunities offered schools a number of programs run by teachers consisting of STEAM, arts, academic athletic internships and more.
Summer professional development was designed for teachers who offered programming to students after school. So, if teachers indicated that they would be working after school, we would leverage these dollars for professional development for them. The Multilingual Expanded Learning Programs are for English learners and
international newcomers who can also participate in all the offerings across the district. This pie chart distribution shows the contract value associated with the programs. High-dosage tutoring represents 79.7 million dollars of contracts paid to the providers who
offer and deliver tutoring to our students. Beyond the Bell contracts are designated to after-school providers who offer programs. And that's about 26 of the providers, and they are often assigned multiple schools. You can see the remaining distribution
of contracts by program in this pie chart. This is the proposed budget allocation for the fiscal year 2027. The Academic Expanded Learning Opportunity Programs operating at schools such as clubs, academic enrichment, and STEAM programs will be
allocated over 6.9 million dollars. Through ELO P affiliated charters, schools receive their own funding, and they were informed about their allocation during budget development. So, over 6.4 million dollars has been allocated there. Athletics consist of the purchase and
reimbursement of athletic equipment, transportation, staff salaries, uniforms, fees, and so on, and that is over 20 million dollars. Beyond the Bell consists of the staffing and enhancement of programs. We have increased programming, and now all elementary and middle school programs
have an after-school program. We have earmarked over 147 million dollars to these efforts. The Culture Arts Passport consists of arts instruction or trips that deepen the learning that occurred during the instructional day, and that is 65 million has been allocated there.
The Extended School Year offers summer school to our students with an IEP. That's 30 million dollars. And for Foster Youth programs, Dr. Miranda offers services to our students and to our families. That is 500,000 dollars that we've earmarked for that those programs.
The Greening Utilities and M&O expenditures are designated for maintenance and utilities to run after school, and that's 22 million dollars, over 22 million dollars. The High-dosage tutoring offers students tutoring after school, and we've allocated 74 million dollars to this
initiative. Internships give students work readiness experiences in the students' industry path, and we're allocating 1 million dollars here. Intersession comprises all three of these programs, summer, winter, and spring, when school is not in session,
and we have earmarked 45 million dollars here. Non-CAP field trips offer students an opportunity to attend field trips that are not arts-related, such as history museums, aquariums, and excursions related to the students' instructional experience throughout the day.
And this constitutes $5.5 million, which sums up to $425,167,039. School While the fiscal environment is challenging, we continue to align ELOP allocations to student academic and enrichment needs. An area that I would
like to expand on in this presentation is tutoring. Tutoring is one of the academic programs that yields results for students, and with the new Shah settlement, there is a criteria we must follow for eligible students to participate in. In the '21-'22 school year, we provided
tutoring based on Title I funding, and it was centrally managed, meaning that schools were predetermined, and a set curriculum was taught. Schools offered tutoring using their own funds, and we call this locally designed. In the school year '22-'23, we introduced high-dose tutoring using
ESSER and ELOP funds. In the school year '24-'25, we began allocating additional ELOP funds to schools for locally designed tutoring through the academic enrichment program. In the '26-'27 school year, a new high-dose tutoring model led by teachers
will be introduced. So, what we're proposing is that teachers will be delivering high-dose tutoring at schools that are demonstrating that they can staff their schools, and when teachers are not available, then that's when we will tap into those contracted providers. At this point, after a survey that we've
recently administered, most of our schools are demonstrating that they will be leading the high-dose tutoring that is teacher-led. The district established a tutoring bench, and through the years, these providers have delivered tutoring at schools where teachers are not available
for after-school tutoring services. At this time, we have 25 vendors on the tutoring bench that offer tutoring to students. And in the '24-'25 school year, we spent $92.4 million in contract, staff salaries, and transportation to run our tutoring programs.
For the school year '27, Beyond the Bell will centrally manage tutoring, and the funds will be allocated to schools based on their enrollment. Teachers will lead the high-dose tutoring based on 45 hours of tutoring per year offered to eligible students in
groups of three to five students. In the upcoming year, we look forward to teacher leading the teachers leading high-dose tutoring, since it is the preferred mode of tutoring. There will be a limited number of in-person and virtual vendors still available, and the tutoring dosage meets the Shah
settlement requirements, which is three times per week, 45 minutes per session, 45 hours total over 20 weeks in small groups of three to five students for three academic years until 2028. There will be an internal program evaluation as required by the
settlement. Now, I'll pass it back to Saman to summarize this presentation. Thank you, Dr. Bias. So, as I mentioned before, we do anticipate further reductions in non-labor expenditures, ongoing efforts to improve
budget transparency, not just generally budget transparency, but also with respect to contracts and kind of non-labor spending, and so we've been working on um some tools that will be sharing soon. Continue to advocate for adequate state
funding. I know this is a huge um big part of of what we need to do over the next couple months. Um the work has started months ago and will continue between now and and importantly the the May revise, which will be in in in mid-May. Um and specifically with respect to
special education, as as Mr. Aguilar mentioned, the funding that we receive from both the federal and state government is is not sufficient to cover the costs of of meeting the needs of our students. As always, we remain [snorts] committed to ensuring that our students have the resources and opportunities they need to
succeed, and all decisions moving forward, importantly including with respect to the fiscal stabilization plan, will be putting students first. Thank you. Thank you so much. Um so, we have been presented with a lot of
information and data. So, I we will do one round of questions. I want to ask my colleagues if you can keep to one or two questions, so we can be cognizant of time, because we still have public comment when we want to leave sufficient time for that. So, who would like to get us started? Mr. Schmelzen.
Just to say very well done, Francis and Saman and Tony. Really, very, very clear, very explicit. I appreciate that very much. My one question is uh for special ed. Um
for school year '23, it's on slide 21. For school year '23-'24, the '24-'25, there was a giant increase in special education expenditures. It went from 1.7 billion to a little over 2
billion. And do you know the main cause of this spike? Could you think of what caused this giant spike from 1.7 billion to 2 billion? Offhand, I know it's a kind of a off-the-cuff question. >> The only and you guys can correct me if
I'm wrong as I'm reading into this, cuz just remembering some of the initiated contracts and settlements that we had, anytime we have an actual contract that's that's being settled, our contracted services as well are looking to get comparable salary increases. Not
that they always do, but we try to make sure that that we are giving a competitive workforce, even those those that we contract with. Thank you. That's my one question. Okay. Thank you, Scott. Who wants to go next? Okay, Ms. Grego.
Um regarding special education, I know that you said that the numbers have gone up, right? So, I'm just wondering, is it identification that has gone up, or is it enrollment? Like, are we getting more students enrolling um into our district that already have an IEP, or are we
identifying more students? It's a combination. I think we at times could call ourselves the district of destination. We we oftentimes offer really good programming when it comes to our moderate to severe students. But the other factor is, I think we're definitely doing a better job of actually identifying our students early
on. We are actually getting students at an earlier age, which means that the observations that we're getting, we're able to see if there's some kind of learning discrepancies to be really be able to identify them ourselves to be able to get them those services that they need. Okay. Thank you.
Mr. Melvoin. Great, thank you. I'll just echo the gratitude. Very comprehensive and appreciate the opportunity, Dr. Rivas, to have the conversation and have these presentations. Few quick questions. I guess, Saman, what throughout the presentation and
mentions a preliminary budget? It sounds something we really see. The board kind of sees the budget in June and approves it, and I know we've discussed from a process standpoint, like the city of LA, mayor submits the budget, city council committees go through it. So, can you just talk about what the preliminary budget is and like
why there aren't more opportunities for like an iterative process? Yeah, so the timing is this is true for all districts in the in the state. The timing is always challenging, because we are building our budget for next school year
earlier and earlier each year. And so, this year and last year is a good example, where the budget development for schools and central offices started uh basically in December and January as we started developing the allocations, and even more so when the district has a fiscal
stabilization plan. And so, the preliminary budget is is is in our budget system, and it's the result of the development of budgets by schools and central offices basically in in January and and then in February.
But that's before the board approves the budget formally in June. And this is unfortunately always going to be the case. It's always going to be the case that a school boards will approve a budget in June after allocations have already been provided to schools months earlier, in
some cases almost six months earlier. So, the preliminary budget is is exactly that. It's it's the the kind of aggregate of all the decisions that have been made during budget development that were communicated as early as last June as part of the fiscal stabilization plan in terms of changes in allocations,
changes in the carryover policy, uh substantial reductions to central office. And another reason why the timeline is what it is is in order to meet the statutory that timeline for reduction in force, which unfortunately many, many districts
are are facing, not just this year, but even 12 months ago, in order to comply with the the first deadline, which is sending notices to impacted employees by March 15th, we also have to start the process of deciding based on the allocations that are being provided,
based on the budgets that are being allocated to schools and and departments, um what the impact is going to be on staffing. And so, I I I wish there was a a better way to kind of get the timelines in in a different order, but but unfortunately this is
this is going to be an ongoing sequence. That's helpful, and I think that the conversations, I know the team has had with the board to say, here's what's going to be different in the school site allocations ahead of time, and giving board the the board the opportunity to weigh in have been appreciated. Um two notes and then just
some ELO questions. One just because it's come up I you know that the increased demand for third-party special ed services. I know this is something we've been discussing with SEIU in particular, but I will just reiterate that until we require training for our district hired BIIs, I don't think we're going to see a
decrease in that demand because there is just whether it's a perception or reality or a perception grounded somewhat in reality. If if we don't require any training for these district hired aides, then parents are are going to likely continue to request outside providers. And so I
think there is a way to kind of reduce that expenditure. It just requires some more training. And oh, Kristen, thank you or Dr. Kristen. >> Thank you. So as part of our recently negotiated agreement with SEIU, we will be offering three days outside of the
work day for additional training as well as requiring training some initial training for anyone who prior to them being assigned as a BII. So we'll have several different phases of training. Great. Thank you for that update.
I'll also just note one of the things you mentioned with professional and consulting services or field trips are in there. I think one of the reasons some of us have been asking for this presentation for a while is to debunk some of the myths or just narratives out there about what we're spending a lot of money on. I
mean I don't I think most parents would support field trips. But and that's not really a professional like when they think of consulting, they think of high you know high paid consultants. Tutoring is also in there. I'll note too that on the resolution the board approved last
week around screen time that audit of technology contracts to seeing how much of that is hardware versus ed tech all that. Okay, just two quick questions on on ELO for one of you. Which bucket is the ELO enhancement in because I know providers
have expressed they cannot provide services with some with a 75% cut. And one of the things that was just a response to Ms. Grego's question was that sped contract budget has gone up keeping pace with district salary increases. That's also what we hear from outside after school providers that like
they have to keep up with our paces with our salary when the reimbursement hasn't been increased I think in like seven years. And in that time horizon we've had like a 50% almost wage increase. So what bucket is that in and can you talk a little bit about the ELO?
It is in the Beyond the Bell. So under Beyond the Bell is where we have the So if we look at the itemized sections under Beyond the Bell, one of them is the enhancement dollars. And the enhancements were meant to increase the reimbursement rate for services to
students by school. Typically ASES and 21st Century provides a certain reimbursement, but it's just does it's not keeping up with what our providers need. And so we have leveraged the ELO dollars to braid those the different funding
sources to increase the reimbursement. We had been doing that up until this time, but with the decrease in the or because there's no carryover and the current financial situation we find ourselves, there was a reduction. And then we do hope to ask our providers to support us with
more coherence when it comes to our steam programming, but I hear you about our program providers needing to continue with the what the reimbursement has been, but it's it's going to be a challenge to meet that requirement, but definitely something we'll continue to to look at in our review. >> Yeah, and warrants further discussion
just because as our salaries have gone up dramatically, then when we're cutting this enhancement, it's going to be very hard for these providers. I know they've been reaching out. I also my understanding is that ELO dollars in all these buckets are allocated equally across schools. And I would just encourage us especially with
reduced budgets to look at a per pupil expenditure. But can you just confirm that it in all these buckets it's per school like equal allocation per school? It really varies. So for example, summer school is going to have a different funding formula as winter academy as
spring as the internships. Internships is just for high school students who are interested and who apply who go to these internships that are for work-based readiness in their industry sector. The cultural arts passport there is a set amount. I think that's probably one of the only ones that one and the field
trips that are allocations that schools receive during budget development. That is a per pupil. The rest of them are all programs and opportunities that were offered to schools and if they wanted to participate they could. So those two are the only ones that are really formula based. CAP and and field
trips are per pupil or per school? They're given to school and based on an enrollment. Okay. Great. Thank you. Continuing questions on ELO, um slide 34 in my briefing last week I had asked for this by student and number
of either events or hours whatever kind of helped us understand the results of the investment at how many students and we're having an impact on. When can we expect to receive that? Sure. So when we went through the briefings with each board member, we were able to collect all the
information. Our meetings concluded just yesterday. And so anticipate having that in the month of May. Early month of May or because We're going to aim for the early month of May. Great because I think this could help us as we are looking at the budget for June where we want to continue to deeply invest and where we might make
adjustments. And for me it really matters is how many students are being impacted by these programs along the same lines of our after school partners and providers. If we're impacting you know three times five times the number of students after school and I'm guessing because I haven't seen the numbers here as opposed to the cultural arts passport for example, then maybe we
should be investing more in our daily after school programs than in the field trips if that's really where we're impacting the most number of students. But I don't know that without the data. And so I'd really like to see the data sooner rather than later. Absolutely. Thanks. Again, thank you. I know this is a conversation I'm sorry
we have to kind of whiz through it, but wanting to definitely appreciate the work put into it to be able to create some of the dialogue and questions. On the topic of ELO seems to be the the magic pool of money here.
But wanting to ask one the the one of the programs here and you broke it down the third program here athletics. Going to speak on behalf of athletics. 20 million the budgeted amount here. Is this something that is also augmented
somewhere else? Is this all that's given to athletics for the entire No, this is just what is associated with an after school program. And so that's why we're using ELO to fund that after school program for athletics, but it's not the entirety of the allocation for athletics.
So what is covered because you some as you were going through you were like staff, uniforms. So what is the other place or where is the other supplement come in for athletics? >> invite Cornelius to come up and to provide us a little bit more this Trent
to provide us a little bit more details unless you Pedro. I I believe this is the entire budget for athletics program. >> Oh. Okay. Well, you coming up to say that I mean save your trip. That's what I was going to And and to be
extra clear that's consistent with the levels of funding that athletics has had historically even pre-ELO. So it's always and you know speaking from lived experience, it's always lived in that 20 some odd million budget range.
And and we know over the years that this has you know been an area of concern. I mean as a former athletic director, former coach and we were way behind. I mean where you know obviously other partners have unions to be able to advocate, this is
one area that did not. And so obviously as we look at this right now to for a comprehensive district of our size, this is to cover everything. There are certain costs that aren't reflected here that include
transportation that are held by other budget holders, but to the superintendent's point it's it's a budget that has remained fairly flat over the years when you're talking about ongoing investment and size for our district.
Right. Okay. And so as we obviously And Cornelius I see you walking back. I don't know if you wanted to share anything. >> [laughter] >> You you walked up closely. They got it. They covered it all. I I guess in this the uniforms cuz I
know at a point in time these these are things that stay with the school site. This is still the practice with the items that stay at the school site. Good afternoon. Yeah, that this is the total budget. The main buckets that are not included in
that almost 21 million are the transportation and school policing. But when it comes to all the uniformed equipment and salaries of all the staff uniforms, it's in that bucket right there.
Got it. And even with cost of things going up, it still remains the same. Still remains the same. One of the expenses that's escalating a lot is officiating. The officials have gotten huge raises over the years and
it's something that is not necessarily reflected in this cuz it's flat. >> Correct. Okay. Appreciate just being able as we think about it folks and we know that this is an after school program that touches a lot of lives of
our students, and we do um I think benefit, as we talked about earlier in our first presentation, social social emotional connections. I think this is one of those area that kind of lapse into it because our coaches are definitely one of those spaces that come in trauma informed to
help our students um across the way. So, um wanted to ask uh on our special education contracts, the non-public agencies, I know uh Melvoin you alluded to BIIs, is that all that's in this bucket? I know it says
schools, is that our schools, is that How many students are in this number here in this pie chart on 24? When we talk about this This is a big Look like Pac-Man. It's a big part of the pie. >> [laughter] >> So, for our non-public agencies or for
non-public schools, there's about 1,500 students that are attending non-public schools. And an additional 36 are attending a non-public schools uh that are uh rec residential treatment centers. Um to further dig into I think the
question you also had regarding NPA, we currently Those are students who are actually um at our school sites that are being serviced by agencies to provide BIIs, and that's approximately 3,400 students. So 3,400 are being provided services at our
schools by agencies outside of our school. >> That's correct. And then the 1,500 are students that Clarify that one more time. >> They're attending a non-public school. So, their placement is not in an LA Unified school. It's actually like at Help Group um for example, and they're
attending one of our non-public uh schools that are all listed in our um non-public schools aggregate when we bring it up to the board. And then the last number you gave me, the 36 >> 3,400. 3 3,400, 1,500, you said 36. What was that? >> Oh. I meant 3,400.
>> [laughter] >> Got it. Got it. And then of these contracted services for our students, is it spaces where we could provide that service, or they have to be in these in these provided uh vendors? >> The The right answer There's There's
actually two right answers to that. Yes, we could provide those services if we have people available to do that. However, this decisions on whether you decide to go with what service level is it really an IEP IEP determination. So, we never would want to remove that kind of determination as we're evaluating what provides the educational benefit
for the student. So, ultimately, yes. Now, one area that we don't really can't provide the services, and I think we talked about it at our last board meeting, is regarding service uh nursing services. So, if there's areas that we can't provide services, we would have to actu- actually contract out. Got it.
Thank you. Board member Gones, Yes, I have a lot of questions about all of it, but I'm going to try to narrow in um in order to respect the request of the chair. Um so, just really quickly on the special education budget question,
just like for clarification, um does the amount Sorry, I'm trying to flip to the page. Um does the amount that's listed for the '26-'27 school year include the increase in the AB 602 base rates?
So, these are projections as of second interim, and at second interim, we did not reflect revenues that are just proposed uh per the LACO guidance. So, the answer to your question is it does not. Do you have a sense of how that might
affect the the revenue? I think, if I remember correctly, and we can certainly follow up, the combined impact of the higher the higher base rates for sped, I think was about $25 million per year of additional revenue. So, not
nothing, certainly an important uh increase, um but we can follow up if if that number is is more significant. Okay. Yeah, that would be helpful, and I I certainly think that continued advocacy around AB 602 and the way that the state of California funds
special education, in addition to the obviously the IDEA, is is a huge contributor to um the lack of sufficient funding to to cover the needs of our students with disabilities, but also California uh exacerbates, does not correct for, exacerbates those problems
in the way that it funds special education as well. Um so, I hope that's part of our advocacy conversations. >> Let me amend. 20 Estimated $28 million uh per year for the increase to the special education base rate. That's an
estimate. It's not included in this total. Got you. Thank you. Um and then uh I I second um Ms. Ortiz Franklin's request for more data on ELOP and sort of program participation. I would also lift up um not just uh per student, but
also for uh students in our highest needs communities, to what extent are they benefiting uniquely from the programs that we are offering? Um and then just one quick question on the high-dose tutoring. Um uh
just because it seems like um we are bringing forward a new model as a choice that's led by teachers um for high-dose tutoring, but there's also a mention later on the slide of potentially needing to increase the tutoring bench as well. So, I'm trying to uh square
those two things. If you could help provide some context. >> Sure. So, um we are going to tap into that bench into the contracted providers when there's a school that doesn't have the teachers that will stay after school. And uh I'm anticipating by by the end of
this year, we're going to expire that bench of tutoring of tutors. So, we're going to need to come back uh for an increase uh to support the schools that won't have the teachers at the school site to provide the tutoring. And have we um discussed our
implementation of a tutoring plan to meet the Shaw settlement with UTLA since it since part of our plan is is teacher-led high-dose tutoring? Yes, so that is something that we're also going to be working with um with them as as soon as we have crafted all of the guidance. We know that that what
the preference is from schools. We also need to find out from schools whether they will have the teachers who will stay after school because we need to hit the ground running in August. So, we need to prepare for all of that this spring, and we're we're having ongoing meetings internally to prepare all of that guidance, and then um and then
ensure that it's ready to go. Uh and of course, part of that includes always collaborating with our labor partners. Great. Board member Gones, that was part of the discussion around the subcontracting agreement that we reached with UTLA was that um that work
would be offered to teachers first, and that it would only be offered to a a contractor if there were not there was not sufficient interest. So, we look forward to um working. We also know that those teacher-based programs are very effective. So, we look forward to
working to maximize that. Right. I I know that that has been a priority for our labor partners, and and also we know that teachers know their students best. Um and so, it would seem that this is a shared priority to ensure that we're that there's a high level of take-up on the teacher-led model, and that we have
enough teachers who volunteer to be able to implement it without needing additional vendor support. >> Yes, that's our goal. Thank you. Ms. Grego, would you like to go next? Thank you so much, but actually um uh Board member Gones uh asked questions, I
believe. Um Wait, but actually no, just one more question. Now that I'm thinking about it, um about the uh contracts that um Charlette asked the the uh special ed contracts, you mentioned the BIIs, who
are like the one-on-ones, right, for students. But what other contracts and there's the nursing ones, what other contracts uh do we have under this category? >> So, we also have any um OTPT or LAS uh
via MPAs that are also providing services at our NPSs, right? So, we have some of those. And then again, yeah, the nursing contracts would be the other ones. And then for the OTPT, which are what um um physic occupational therapy physical
therapy physical therapy and speech and language, right? So, for those, um we have those employees here. So, why would we contract out if we already have some of those folks employed by us? >> So, we also have some that are offering these services for our students that are non-public schools, right? So, we want
to make sure that they're being provided those opportunities to receive those services. If, however, we do internally, for example, if in speech and language we are falling short, there's opportunities to tap into uh an agency to support our students in meeting their their minutes if you will,
we would have to contract out. If we are falling short for whatever reason um in our own labor. Okay. But we do have a plan. I Kristen. Oh, thank you. >> Yes, so thank you. So, uh we will be working with UTLA to identify where there are opportunities
to bring that work back to the district. I know that some of that work, it's like compensatory time that happens on weekends or evenings. So, we are again committed to offering that work first to our existing um LAUSD
employees, second to looking where there might be an opportunity to bring that work to us by hiring additional OTPT uh SLP here. Um so, we'll we'll be looking
at at that, how we can minimize the um use of outside contractors and maximize the use of existing and new LA Unified employees. All right, thank you. Great. So, I too have a lot of questions, but I'm going to stick to two
since I did two. Stick to my own request. And it's just two requests. So, as you know, you're providing Dr. Baez information, you know, you know, in May. My request is for tutoring if it can be broken down by
vendor. The number of students served, the number of hours provided per student, I can any you know, academic progress made that they can be connected there. Just to so we can also look at the SSC
effectiveness of each provider. And as you mentioned, you may be coming back for you know, a refresher on the bench. So. >> And most recently we did provide the analysis of student outcomes in the interim while there is the research study that's going to be conducted. So,
and it is broken down by your your exact specifications. Um so, I will send that to you to have it handy to refer to that. Thank you. And the other request is on non-special education. You know, as we work to better understand and manage the cost drivers
in special education, if we can be provided with a list of providers for both non-public agency and non-public school categories for any provider receiving over 500,000 along with the number of students served and the average cost for each student that can
be provided for us. Did you have a question? Just clarification. I think it was mentioned, but you said you'll be able to provide us average cost per program on our ELOP. Was that something that was also mentioned? Yes. I think
>> Yes. Okay. Yeah. Board members asked for that as well. Okay. Well, thank you so much. And if any other questions, I will surely send them over to you um to help us yeah, with that as well. So now after that second presentation, we're
we're moving on to public comment. So, Mr. McLean. All right. We have a full boat of public speakers today. I will call on the folks who listed themselves as being in person first. And then we will call on those who listed themselves as speaking remotely.
All right. So, the first three speakers are Maria Luisa Palma. Come on up. And then Irene Quinteros. And then Maria Hernandez. So, first Ms. Maria Luisa Palma. Then Irene Quinteros. And then Maria Hernandez. The mic is already on
and you are ready to go. You'll have 2 minutes to speak once you begin. Good afternoon, everyone. My name is Maria Luisa Palma and today we had an enlightening bit of information on the school experience survey. We've always
wondered out here in the public, our parents, if that experience survey is actually anonymous. But it was mentioned here more than once this morning that the staff data could triangulate with the report card or the diagnostic. Did I
hear that correctly? But how would they be able to do that if that survey was anonymous? We've wondered very much so on that point because every student gets their own specific direct sign-on for the school experience survey. I had tried to take
my son off that survey for many years and he still got the invitation year after year after year even though I opted out. Although what state law says in Ed Code 51513 is that it's supposed to be an opt-in, but the student student parent student handbook says it has to
be an opt-out. So, here you are talking about more surveys, more invasive psychological profiling because those surveys ask how the student feels about themselves. When parents hear survey, they think that the student is going to be rating the school, how well the school operates.
But no. So, Mr. Melvoin, the Schools Beyond Screens parents, have you told them? Are they aware when they have all these issues, these questions about privacy with the tech companies? Do they know that the school experience survey is a data harvesting
method that you sell that research for grant money? Have you told the parents? Do parents know they can opt out? Do the parents know that even as fourth graders now, they get asked their sexual orientation? And now the question is, is the survey
truly anonymous? So, we have a great big concern on this point and is that legal? And Ms. Rivas, why do we only have 10 speakers for this committee? We have more parents that weren't able to get on here today. How is that possible? If we really want
parent engagement, pillar three of the strategic plan, why just [music] 10 speakers at this meeting? Thank you. Thank you for your time. Eden Quinteros, come on up. >> [clears throat] >> Ms. Quinteros is going to speak in Spanish. So, if you'd like to hear what she's saying in English, please put your
hands up and we will get you these translation headsets. Buenas tardes. Mi nombre es Irene Quinteros. Good afternoon. My name is Irene. I come from Theodore Science Center and the problem that is going on in the school
that there is lead. I invite you all as a district to go and to meet with the Science Center so that you can have a dialogue and do something for the school because the students are getting sick. I think that when we work as a team, things will be
done better. Another issue is that in the school, there's always been a problem that it there's a lot of cats. The students I step on the defecation and they have their fur. And
also the bathrooms are so full. I so dirty, I'm sorry. And the principal Sanchez says that from the Science Center that it's the one that has to deal with the school. But I think that he in the same way has to have an assigned person, designated person, so
that they can clean for our students because they cannot be in a school that looks more like a pigsty. And how the students are going to be able to be there. In the bathrooms, there's pee, there's defecation. My student had a
bunch of uh poo on his on his shoe and the school never let me know that he had that in his shoes. And it was sad for me to take him without shoes because I had to throw those shoes away once he got out of school.
How is it possible that those types of things can happen in a school? I think not even in Central America or South America or in Mexico those types of things happen in a school. And how is it that the school of this great country are able to act this way? I think that
the principal needs to >> [gasps] >> do something about it. And I invite you to come to do an audit of every single school and to see in which way the personnel works for our students. I hope that you are able to do something
about it because it cannot continue the lead in that school. >> Thank you for your time. Maria Hernandez, Maria Hernandez. Maria Hernandez, are you here? I'm checking to see if she's on the line. She's listed as being in person. I'll come back to her when we Yeah, she
is online, but we'll come back to Ms. Hernandez when we're done with the in-person speakers. All right. Deonna Guillen. Come on up. And after Ms. Guillen is Monica Razzola and then Graciela Navarrete. Come on up, Ms. Guillen. You'll have 2
minutes to speak once you begin. Buenas tardes, members of the board. My name is Deonna Guillen. And we really do have a lot of concerns due to the presentation today because you are talking about how to measure
social emotional learning. And I ask myself, could that really be measured? When we have come here, we have told you, how is it that you can measure if a all that social emotional support that
that students get works, but it doesn't mean to say that you will measure what our students are thinking. You could measure the social emotional indoctrination, of course. How many students are you indoctrinating with ideologies about gender? That could be
measured. Because I don't know what you're trying to look for. Who will be the person that will say who is a person who will going to judge if this student is okay, this student is not okay emotionally? I think that is something for the families and you need
not concern yourself about that. But if you're going to measure about indoctrination, of course you can do that because you do it very well in all schools. And you still want to have a diagnosis or a diagnostic? You will see that in many of the schools. You have said that for many
programs and even you have sent about health that they've stolen information, hacked information. All that information since you made everything digital, nothing is protected. You say that you protect, but 2 years ago you sent a
uh survey that they had hacked the information of our students, and our students do not have their security and their personal information. And now you want to know how the students feel? You have no right to do that. Please focus on what you need to do, which is math,
to learn how to read, that to learn how to understand. That's what you need to concern yourself need not focus on those things that issues that are for parents. You have our students that are putting our students against us instead of empowering them for us to be a united family. You are making our students so
that they are against their own parents. Thank you. >> Thank you for your time. All right, Monica Razola, come on up. You'll have 2 minutes to speak once you begin. Listos gracias. Buenos días, mi nombre es Mónica. Good afternoon. My name is Monica Razola, parent of two students. I come
with you, Ms. Carla Grego, because yesterday at the school that I have always been saying what is going on, yesterday there was a fight of 20 students at 3:39 p.m. That cannot be happening, Ms. Carla.
20 students, 20 students fighting outside of the street coming out of school. That cannot be happening. Please, we want the police. We want the school police. We want them. It is urgent. We need them. We cannot be like
this. What mother can be in peace knowing that their child is coming out of school? And if this fight of 20 students they bring out a gun and they start shooting, there is going to be a lot of dead bodies. What are you waiting? What do you want?
Please, start thinking. Look at things in the place [snorts] in which you are. We want school police. What are you waiting for? You're waiting for all the students to be dead? This is something that truly bothers and frustrates. What do you
want? Safe passages already showed you. They're selling drugs at schools. And even then you're still thinking, is it true? Is it a lie? We're playing or what? You are not paying attention that drugs are being sold at schools. And I'm putting my life in danger because I am
telling you what is going on. Yesterday they were screaming those those 20 people fighting, they were screaming about a Salvadoran gang saying, yes, there are gang members. I'm putting my life in danger because that I'm here saying something and you are sitting down doing nothing. So what do you care?
You don't want the police, but you do want to have them here to take care of you and protect you and nothing happens to you. But what about our children? What do you care and what do you What is your interest? It's something very important. I'm not a parent that's just coming to see what's going on or to create a show. No, I am here to speak
seriously. We need police officers. Leave your passages. That is your decision. Put safe passages for yourselves to take care of you, not the students, please. Thank you for your time. Graciela Navarrete, come on up. Graciela Navarrete. Good afternoon. Can you hear me?
Hello. My name is Graciela Navarrete. I am a very worried parent in regards to our students' safety. I live in the South area, South Central,
and I know there are many meetings, many parents have come to advocate so that you as leaders can listen to us, listen to us immigrants. Our representative is you, Ms.
Shirley. Uh my apologies if I don't know how to pronounce it correctly. All the parents are very worried about the increase of homeless encampments
around the schools. And I am here to ask if you have a plan with the city in order to eradicate this problem in the streets in which our children walk by.
It is time for you to do something so that it is noticeable because there they are urinating, etc., etc., etc. I wouldn't be able to finish. Thank you. Please, do something about this issue. >> Thank you for your time.
>> All right, Maria Daisy Ortiz, I see you're out there. Come on up. You'll have 2 minutes to speak once you begin. And then after Maria Daisy Ortiz will be Mr. David Tokofsky. That's my key. Okay. Muy buenas tardes.
Good afternoon, everyone. I am Maria Daisy Ortiz, and I am here because in reality firstly seeing about the public comment is only 10. That is so saddening. You want to just shut things down. You continue doing the
same corruption as always. It is very unfortunate that in reality you are saying that you are here for the children and all you do is make up things in order to pay for political favors creating positions. To say it in that way, I have told you very clearly
that the way that you bleed out the money is with mental health. In reality, not the district has the personnel that is trained in that branch in order to give services that are appropriate to our children. I [snorts]
have always believed that our children are not a problem because there is no problem child nor a bad child. There are children with necessities, but you do not put the priority as the children. You put the priority in your positions,
in your retreats, and in your political payments because safe passages, one of you can truly just discuss me to see that you have put people for the children's
security and safety, people that have a very doubtful reputation, like they say, habit does not identify habits don't identify the person, but it does. And those people with safe passage, sir, Mr. Superintendent, I need
to know how much do you finance safe passages and whose idea it was to put them around your home because they are their family members, their friends, or who knows. But in reality, I have been in meetings
in which those people have intimidated me. No one intimidates me. The person that can come to touch me, I will sue them and I'll sue whoever hired them because these meetings are public and I am a person who pays taxes and I demand
excellent education, not the mediocrity you are giving to our children. >> David Tokofsky. Come on up, Mr. Tokofsky. You'll have 2 minutes to speak once you begin. Mhm. Thank you for a wonderful Fast and Furious 6 movie. Good topics. Remember
the budget is always iterative and can be changed at any time during the year. Previously it was a dual adoption so that you would have a second budget come after the trailer bill and everything is done. Perfect year. There are about 11 days yet left to lobby.
Special Ed, the governor has put a half a billion more in, he could put another billion in if you were up there on the Special Ed right away. Remember, all students in the district are search and serve under the law. And so you narrowly presenting kids only as expenses and
revenue creates a hostile environment, which is not what you're supposed to be doing in Special Ed. There are some transportation buses, I think it was asked, that are non-union buses, Mr. Schmelson. I you should hop, skip, and jump on that one.
In addition on the ELOP, there is no plan for this tutoring. There's no negotiated agreement. You didn't see a plan today. Um there are kids getting ELOP money that are not in low-performing schools, which is the purpose of the ELOP money
unless you segregate the money as Mr. Chay would know how to do such with Title 1 money. Um [snorts] let's see. Um the tutoring data, thank you for asking for that. It's been 4 years. I don't know why we're waiting for a study
after 4 years. The tutoring companies have that data. There's been a gag order in not allowing them to present publicly, a gag order to not let them present them the data to you. Some of you may have seen some of it. Um and in the strategic plan
SEL, be careful. There are off-the-shelf ones that PLAS and others may use. Use those. Don't invent new stuff yourself. And finally, coming attractions, the one piece that was missing out of this wonderful committee is facilities, but
Mr. Melvoin's committee this week will have a talented review and you should all be watching that because that is the largest chunk of money going on right now. Thank you. Thank you for your time. Now we will go to the remote callers. Maria Hernandez, I see you're on the line. Maria Hernandez, please press star
six to unmute yourself. And you'll have 2 minutes to speak once you begin, Maria Hernandez. Senora Hernandez portal Good afternoon, can you hear me? Buenas tardes. Good afternoon, I'm Ms.
Maria Hernandez and I am a parent and grandparent of a student from uh Theodore school from Science Center. The reason why I am here is because I would like to ask to please try to see
if you can train the office personnel since when parents get close or come in to ask more information, sometimes we go to pick up our children, the
personnel treat us parents as if we aren't important in that place. Another point, a parent and they spoke about the needs in the bathroom, children are getting sick
frequently, that is true. I am asking please for the district to take action and to stop spending our funds, our children's funds and other things that aren't as important and to see the importance of what we need. Another
point is the training for the representative parent representatives because they are not helping the parents adequately. Our information that the information that the district
asked for that is personal, then the district will wash their hands and say they do not have our personal information and they aren't helping us correctly. I apologize if I am speaking something that isn't good, but I need to
see facts. You speak about programs that in reality aren't a benefit for the children. When that you give us these tools, the teachers for any reason, for anything that the children may do, they see everything as a psychological
problem. Gentlemen, there are more real problems that our children have. Focus on what our children need, safety at schools, which is something that we don't have that have been taken away. We need it. Thank you. >> Thank you for your time. Uh we have two
more callers, Melchisedec Absalom, I see you are calling in via computer. You need to call in using the telephone number provided in the order of business. So, I'm going to call on the Victoria Antonio so that Mr. Melchisedec Absalom can call using the instructions listed in the
order of business. Uh Victoria Antonio, please press star six to unmute yourself and you'll have two minutes to speak once you begin. Victoria Antonio. Buenas tardes, me escucha? Good afternoon, can you hear me? Si mire. Hello, my name is Victoria Antonio. I am
a parent that comes from Alexander's Science School. I am here with the other parents that spoke about the lead problem. This is something very important for the health of our children. We are scared that our children may be getting sick. They are closing only parts of the school. I
think that a specialist should come in and to see and go through the school to see if all of the school has lead because I don't think it's only part of the school. If there is lead, you need to go verify that and check into that so that later on it doesn't become a bigger problem.
As well as there is an infestation of cats and they defecate all over the place saying my child stepped in to defecation and they asked me to go in to change my child and I had to change my child because my child smelled. I had
to go change him. And that's the cats defecate, urinate and that's exactly where the children sit to eat and that is not hygienic for them as well as in the kitchen, everything must be looked into. My children have mentioned that sometimes they receive
food that has gone bad. They warm it up and they give it to the children. All of that has to be revised. The children will be getting sick and that would be a big problem for the district. As well as like the other mother mentioned
in regard to the restrooms, they're very dirty. We need more personnel or I don't know what you need to do, but you need to go verify and check into that. I don't think it's only our school, I'm sure it's various schools. Focus on all of that and like the parents say
don't spend money on other things that are not necessary and use it on things that are necessary for our children. Thank you very much. Thank you for your time. All right, we have one more caller listed as being remote. It's Melchisedec Absalom. I do not have you on your
phone. In front of me is a reminder to the folks who are calling in, we list a telephone number in the order of business. The instructions are clear in both English and Spanish. If you want to call in, you have to use the number listed there and call in from the same number that you listed when you signed
up to for remote participation because we do not do remote participation using computer to computer. Oh wait, he may have showed up 2011. Here he is. You made it, uh Mr. Absalom. Uh please press star six to unmute yourself and you'll have two minutes to speak
once you begin. Gracias. Computador. Gracias. The the death of a student. Why? First of all, you speak How can I say this in a uh social emotional way?
And they are not They're not being cared for and we've always asked for school police participation. If many people get confused, they think that it's LAPD. No, it was school police. It would They were removed. Why?
Because I believe they weren't doing their job. Oh, well, suddenly uh school police is where you are now and they do support. Secondly, uh a student uh Ivana passed and many
other students keep dying. Many fights, many aggressions. Safety is not working at the schools. Social emotional is not just mental, it's also physical, it's emotional. Because
there are many things that many students that don't want to come to school because of what's happening. We began with 600,000 students and now it's less than 400,000 students. What happened? Yes, they graduate, many graduate and many uh con- are changing districts.
They're moving from one district to another district. Why is that? Because they're not comfortable. They're not comfortable in any sort of way. Therefore, what is it that we're doing? We're just They're just words, words and words. That is it. There is nothing
else. Who Who's interested in the children? Who? Who's Us, the parents. We're the ones who care about them, the ones that are going to be grandparents. Thank you for your time.
That concludes public comment. Thank you, Mr. MacLean. Um thank you to our presenters and teams for the thoughtful presentations and for the work you're leading across the district. Thank you to our public um speakers and uh our next Committee of the Whole meeting will take place on
Tuesday, May 19th and with that, this meeting is adjourned. Thank you so much. Okay, we're going to re- uh reconvene the meeting here, just me and uh the board will reconvene in closed session shortly.