Roll call. Here. Here. Here. Here. Here. Here. Presente. Here. Here. Did we already do won't call back? I don't do it again. Okay. Mhmm. Alright. There you go. I thought we'd, do we go straight to resolutions? Or Yes. Okay. So, student think oh, sorry. Item B resolutions, student think tank, Black History Month resolution. Come on up, whoever's designated to present.
Thank you. Good evening, president Fredericks, esteemed board members, and district leadership. My name is Jamari Fernandez. I'm a sophomore at CIS and a newly elected member of the student assembly. I am here today in support of PUSD resolution 2,855 to honor national black history. I was moved by the entire resolution, but here are some aspects that spoke out to me directly. Where our students learn about black history month achievements of black people throughout the school
year, national black history month is established in response to the inadequate and oftentimes biased depictions of black history and black communities in history books and schools curricula. As a young African American student, this resolution resonates with me because it acknowledges a frustration I've often felt sitting in a classroom. The feeling that my ancestors' stories are either missing or being told through an inauthentic perspective. Growing up, I've seen how history books can sometimes reduce the black experience to just a few painful chapters, skipping over the brilliance, inventions, and everyday leadership that helped save
this country. Knowing that Black History Month was created specifically to challenge those inadequate biased depictions makes me feel seen and acknowledged by my ancestors. It reminds me that my history isn't just a footnote or a special project for February. It is a vital ongoing truth that deserves to be told accurately all year long so that boys and girls like me can see our full potential reflected in stories we learn in school. Another aspect that resonated with me is whereas the development of schools skills learned during
National Black History Month will contribute to every student becoming an advocate of the right individual, the right of black people, and the rights and responsibilities of citizens in a democracy. This segment shows me that learning my history is more than just memorizing names and dates. It's about preparing me to stand up for what is right. The skills I put picked up like understanding the struggles of my community facing, bias,
and struggles. I can use in my own life these moments to empower myself. It's nice to learn that advocates like Martin Luther King Junior and Fannie Lou Hamer can help me become an advocate for my community and others around. This aspect of my resolution reassures me that my education is teaching me how to be responsible citizen in our democracy and fight for justice for all people. The adoption of the National Back History Month resolution feels like a promise that I am finally being seen for who I truly am and what I am capable of
achieving. Knowing that my culture is being celebrated through culturally relevant activities makes me feel like my history is not just a footnote in a textbook, but a vital part of my education that deserves respect every single day. Even more importantly, the commitment to closing the achievement and equity gaps gives me hope because it acknowledges that the playing field has not always been level. It makes me feel supported. To know that my school district is dedicated to removing the barriers that have historically
held students who look like me back ensuring that my future is defined by my hard work and dreams rather than the gap in resources and expectations. Thank you. Thank you. Any comment from the board? Trustee Bailey? Yes. I just wanna thank you for your courage and your time to to stand up there and and say those words, very, very valuable words. I commend you. It's it's it's just amazing that not just your generations, but the generations before you
have had to have the same experience that you just expressed up there at that podium. You know, that's one of the reasons why I'm sitting in the seat that I am sitting in, because one of my goals is to do everything that I can from this position to address those gaps that you are talking about in those words that you just brought forward. So thank you very much. Thank you.
Trustee McKenzie? Thank you so much for your reflection on this resolution. As you may know, the theme for Black History Month this year is a century of celebrations. So I think that while we are focusing on teaching black history as American history, I think that we need to focus on elevating that history every day because history is made every day. And there are people who make history not because of the desire to be important
or the desire to be to have notoriety, but it's because it's the right thing to do or it's simply because those are principles that they believe in. Some of those folks would be Claudette Colvin, rest in power, who just passed away. Before there was a Rosa Parks who did not give up her seat, there was Claudette Colvin who did. We don't know her name as well because at the time, the profile that she had as a candidate for a litigation case was not one that was deemed to
have been, quote, unquote, friendly to the courts. She was a teen mom, and they didn't think that that would play well in terms of the guard or exhibit with the public. But we don't know her name. We don't say it often enough. There's also Joanne Robinson who lived in Los Angeles until 1992. Joanne Robinson was one of the women who organized Montgomery bus boycott. Before Martin Luther King came to town, the faculty and staff at Alabama State University were organized by Joanna Robinson to establish the boycott.
They chose doctor King to be the face of it because they had families, they had careers, they had community, and they had a lot more to lose in Montgomery than he did being a new person entailed. So we say thank you to Joy Robinson, who lived in Los Angeles for many, many years. We also say thank you to Terrence Roberts, who was one of the Little Rock Nine. He is still alive and living in Los Angeles. So these people took steps that at the time were ordinary. We see them now in hindsight as extraordinary.
So know that because you are not setting out to become a history maker, it doesn't mean you will not. I also wanna acknowledge the fact that every single movement for civil and human rights has been built upon the labor, the weighing, the gains, and the wins of black people in this country. The labor movement, the women's rights movement, the LGBTQ plus movement, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera. These movements have all been modeled behind the investment, the sacrifice, the struggle, and the
courage of black people in this country and around the world, to be honest. So thank you for those who came before us. We are grateful to stand on your shoulders, and we continue to move forward for greater struggle, greater progress. Thank you, trustee McKenzie. Trustee Velasquez? Hi. And in line, with the comments of trustee McKenzie, I would like to highlight the work of Arturo Alonso Schomburg, an Afro Latino historian, writer, and activist best known for
building the most important collection of black history in the world. His legacy is the building of the personal collection that became the foundation for the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in New York. His contributions bridge not only Afro Latinidad, Caribbean studies, and the black diaspora history. Thank you. Thank you, doctor Velasquez. Trustee Harden? You know, this is very, the month of February is a very special month, and I think that one of the things that always resonates in our specific PUSD community
is how much we celebrate black excellence. Every year, the the African American Parent Council puts on the Black History Living Museum, and I think that's an opportunity, for the community to come together and really learn about the lives and the struggles of all of the, all of the wonderful contribution to our history. We've said before, Trustee, Mackenzie said that, you know, black history is our history and we have an opportunity in February to really learn just how much that is.
And so, I'm excited this month, or in the month of February rather to, to dive in and learn more and educate myself, to to just really appreciate how much of our country, and what we aspire to be, maybe not what we are today, but what we aspire to do, to be has been modeled by black excellence. Thank you, trustee Hardin. Trustee Hawley? I wanna thank you for standing up here and coming from CIS and addressing us. It was well done. I learned something, and I appreciate that you came in to address us.
Thank you. Any other comments? Like to entertain a motion to approve the resolution. I know approval. Second. Any other further discussion? Trustee Baker, what is your preferential vote? Yes. Alright. All those in favor, raise your hand. Motion passes unanimously. Thank you. Next item approval of resolution 2856 Fred Korematsu day. Good evening, esteemed board members. My name is Lula Matsura. I'm a sophomore at John Muir High School and a member of the student assembly. Where areas are I'm here today in support of the district's resolution two eight five
six to honor mister Fred Korematsu. Where are the model curriculum for human rights and genocide by the California State Department of Education describes the urgent need for social science and history educators to teach about the importance of human rights including the forced relocation of Japanese Americans during World War II listed in the model curriculum as an example of extreme human rights violation. As highlighted in the resolution by the California State Department of Education, it is essential
for students to learn about human rights. In 1942, approximately a 120,000 Japanese Americans were forcibly removed from their homes and relocated to internment camps. These prison like camps made life for Japanese Americans a struggle each day. Yet, Korematsu still resisted the order that challenged his and every Japanese American's basic human rights. Now more than ever, students need to be educated and aware as we see history
repeating itself in our present situation with ICE detention centers where people of Latin, Asian, and African descent are racially discriminated against and kidnapped. Fred Korematsu's story serves as a reminder that the fight for human rights is ongoing and continues to this day. Korematsu once said, if you have the feeling that something is wrong, don't be afraid to speak up. So, as we remember and honor mister Korematsu's bold actions of resistance, let us also
remember the importance of letting your voice be heard in the face of injustice so that we may enable change. Thank you. Good evening. My name is Mathea Niake Trapp, and I'm a sophomore at Pasadena High School and a member of the student think tank. This resolution is very personal to me. Two thirds of the 120,000 people who were incarcerated as a result of executive order nine zero six six were or second generation Japanese who were American citizens. One of these nisei was my great uncle Lawrence who graduated from Manzanar High School.
I simply can't imagine what that would be like, going to school in tar paper barracks, playing basketball on packed dirt courts. A high school experience like that for an American teenager behind barbed wire and under armed military guard. My great grandparents who lived in Hawaii during World War II had to be married in secret. Under martial law that imposed curfews and prohibited Japanese Americans from gathering in groups of more than 10. At the very same time, my great uncles were bravely serving in the one hundredth battalion and four hundred and forty second regimental combat team, which remains the most decorated
unit in military history and was primarily composed of Japanese Americans. This complicated, painful, and proud legacy strengthens my commitment to this resolution. In particular, the section that reads, whereas the battle for civil liberties has been championed by ordinary Americans who have had the courage to stand up and fight for their basic constitutional rights. Fred Korematsu was one of those people. Korematsu refused to comply with executive order nine zero six six because it violated his basic rights and those of the broader Japanese and Japanese American community and was unconstitutional.
During World War two, the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 was invoked to justify the arrests of German, Italian, and mainly Japanese immigrants called Issei of first generation. Thousands of Issei men were arrested by the US army and the Department of Justice, considered enemy aliens. Many were held at Fort Bliss in Texas. As Lula also said, history repeats itself. Right now, Fort Bliss is the site of an ICE detention center called Camp East Montana where thousands of immigrants are currently being detained.
The Alien Enemies Act has again been invoked by the current administration to authorize the rapid detention and deportation of targeted individuals and communities. And so we declare, never again is now. In light of all going on in today's world, it's critical that we honor and celebrate individuals like Fred Korematsu who fought for civil rights. We must commit to living out Fred Korematsu's legacy by exhibiting in action the courage to stand up for basic constitutional and human rights. Therefore, we strongly support the Board of Education's motion to pass resolution number two eight
five six declaring January 30 as Fred t Korematsu day. Thank you. Any comments from the board? Okay. Trustee Velasquez. The early presence of Japanese Americans in LA was significant in communities like Boyle Heights, communities that they couldn't go back to and then transform into mix the centers of Mexican American organizing. And, I bring all of these examples because this city has a history of racially
diverse neighborhoods and, interracial organizing. And and in this case, as in many other cases, as very well, my colleague, trustee McKenzie, indicated, there is a long standing, tradition of community supporting each other in the face of marginalization and injustice. So thank you so much for your words, and may they continue to serve us
as a reminder, that in moments like today, of a history of solidarity. Thank you. Thank you. Trustee Hawley? Thank you for your words and bringing it to the present. I'm I admire those words because I think it's really important for people to be brave right now and to speak up, and you did that. So I really appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you. Trustee McKenzie? Again, thank you to the students who have presented today and for all the students
who are here, all the students who are serving on the council and the assembly and in the think tank as well. I think that it's easy for us to forget that many of the movements were actively, led and fueled by young people. So you are leaders now. We are grateful and appreciative of your courage now, your thoughtfulness now, and we encourage you to keep using your voice. Thank you so much. Any other comments? Well, student leaders, you stepped up.
I asked, if you would like to, introduce these resolutions and you just knocked it out of the park. And I'm I don't wanna say too much because I'm gonna start crying. But I felt I felt all of you, and I can't wait till each of you have an opportunity to join us. So bravo to all of you. Thank you. And I would like to entertain a motion to approve this resolution. I'm gonna approval. Second. Any further discussion? Trustee Blicker, what is your preferential vote?
Yes. Okay. All those in favor, raise your hand. Thank you. Motion approved. Your mic is good for the seat. Okay. I think we're or any comments for closed? Okay. Adjourning to close. This is HS, The USA Spanish channel. Just Alright. Let's see the board out from closed. Correct? Yeah. Alright. Public announcement of closed session actions taken concerning item D1 case number 2025090365 by a vote of seven to zero. The board took action to approve of the settlement of special education litigation in accordance
with the items of a written agreement. Concerning item d two, case number 2025090561, by a vote of seven to zero, the board took action to approve the settlement of special education litigation in accordance with the items with the terms of a written agreement. Concerning item d three, case number 962732 by a vote of zero seven to zero, the board took action to approve of the settlement of special education litigation in accordance with the terms of written agreement. The announcement of closed session actions is complete, and the closed session stands adjourned.
We would like to take roll call. Actually, should we wait or just no? No. You have four rooms, so you can Okay. K. Here. Scott Hardin? Here. Here. Here. Superintendent doctor Blanco, would you like to help us lead the pledge of allegiance? Sure. Thank you. Thank you. How many public comment cards do we have? There is one card. Trustee McKenzie, if you read out the Yes. Online submissions? The Board of Education acknowledges receipt of public comments via email. These comments will be made part of the permanent public record of this meeting.
And with that, I will call Maureen Noble. Talk? You mean that? Alright. Good evening. My name is Maureen Noble. I'm a PUSD parent. I teach fifth grade at Jackson Elementary, and I'm a proud member of UTP. I'm here tonight regarding two invitations that UTP has extended. So first, on behalf of UTP, thank you to the board members who have accepted our invitation to spend time at school sites. Board member Fredericks, we were thrilled to have you at Jackson earlier this week, and PHS is eager to receive you there. Board member Hardin's visits to Willard and OEB are in the works, and arrangements are
being made for board member Hall Lee to spend some time at Madison and Hamilton. To the board members who have not yet responded to our invitation, the offer still stands. In fact, the offer will never go away. So please reach out to us to let us know which schools or programs you are interested in seeing as well as your availability. We'll coordinate visits for you. As we said in our invitation, we are confident that when we work together, students will benefit. And second, on behalf of UTP, I'm pleased to invite all members of the board
and all district leadership to a rally we are holding on February 7 at City Hall. Teachers, school staff, families, community members, and community organizations will gather to proclaim our support for safe, stable, fully staffed schools because our students deserve nothing less. Your presence will be welcomed and appreciated. Thank you for your time. Thank you. Any other comment cards coming? No. Alright. First next item is comments from labor groups.
If you can keep it to three to five minutes, that would be wonderful. Alright. So, welcome, everyone. I Wanna give my ETP labor partner comments. First thing I wanna highlight is, we've had a lot of amazing success in with the community school steering committee. They met this last Tuesday. And, before that, there's a team of three, ETP members that went to, do a community school check-in. It was in Vegas, but, it was with a lot of other, associations doing powerful
work elevating student, parent, educator voices about how to surface assets in the community and connect instruction across schools and within the POC, context. Sharon Momolo and Veronica Alcantar's leadership is keenly felt in making this, community school steering committee and the community school work happen. So grateful for that. On the contract management side, we have level four grievance that's now moving to arbitration. The scheduling is in progress. We're also awaiting confirmation. Some of the displaced teachers from last year were supposed to be paid their longevity
and interest, and I've not received back a response from my latest inquiry on on the progress on that. On the good news side, we, were able to resolve that, pregnancy, paid leave counts toward years of service. Special education teacher missed assignments to IB seminar classes to make sure that they're properly credentialed for the classes they're teaching. And then, there was a PE class safety issue, which was resolved quickly, which we I appreciate that. So, I would do you wanna bring forward to you the concept of power of us in co writing local control, accountability plans.
So I truly believe that we're missing the boat, and this is why board goals and state student outcome metrics are not where they should be. Teacher, parent, and community and labor partners must be cowriters, not just give input, on the local con control accountability plan. Our country is built on the premise of checks and balances and empowerment of all voices. The current process ignores research, local means, and assets. Contrast that LCAP best practices, which I've gone over before, the class size reduction, reducing turnover, and PD, are the things that we should be emphasizing of the link right
there. Contrast that to the cuts, which include two science teachers, seven art teachers, three IB teachers, 29 MTSS, and other TOSA's supporting PD. Librarians, we are depriving the plan is as we've heard it, is to deprive middle schools of full time librarians despite thousands of books being checked out. This will not be able to happen nearly at the same rate, without those librarians full time. Counselors, we're removing the ones that are specifically focused on college and career readiness. I'm not clear how that, jives with the plan to try to promote college and
career readiness. The overall picture here is that cuts that are planned, that are approved right now do not match POC Board of Education goals. PE, music, art, and science have all been proven to improve math. Math as well as PE, music, art, science have all been proven to increase critical thinking as well as reading comprehension. Cutting librarians clearly undermines our literacy goals. Removing our MTSS coaches will step back planning and collaboration time along with the elimination eliminating the specials and the PLC plan will also remove enrichment for our students.
POC has a values crisis, not just and not a spending crisis. Twenty twenty five, twenty six is the fourth year in a row, where POC is spending less than 55% even when you remove fire expenses. Meanwhile, contractor services have all, this was in the December documentation. They've all been popped up to a 150,000,000 a year for the next three years even though we still don't have a clear plan on how that's gonna be spent. That means that our cuts to school sites are barely 10% of that outside contractor
guarantees. These contracted services margin for error is much greater than even our critical site services. What am I why am I talking about error? Unaudited actuals show $10,000,000 extra in funds from last year that we didn't expect to have in our ending balance. The first interim showed $17,000,000 in extra funding compared to the adopted budget. That even just that 17,000,000 is greater than all the planned site cuts. No changes to the bottom line despite the $27,000,000 swing in terms of how much money we have. The community deserves an explanation on that.
There are some other ways that we can, get further revenue and enhancement and and, funding enhancement. 6.5% in, expected loss of ADA, that's based on the budget documents. If we recovered as much of that as possible, that could be up to 20,000,000 a year. Now with the state changing the way it does things, we could recover ADA for after school classes. We could do it for summer school days that are after July 1 as well as the normal typical Saturday school. Also and I know that this is on the agenda, for half of tea.
The facilities. You could get back as much of the 6,000,000, that are currently being spent on utilities as possible. There's also, we're also planning to spend way more than it looks like we will spend. We need to shift special education professionals from outside contractors to PSD employees. And I just wanna be clear. The current set of cuts amounts to a rounding error on all the money that we are rolling around. So do we really wanna be here next September and have a surprising 20,000,000 plus
surplus after defunding our schools and student experiences, how will that look to POC area voters in November? I do wanna say thank you, and welcome to 2026. We're excited to have those board members that are touring our schools. I'm excited about the TK Kendo program review and working with the IPD and child development departments to come up with an even more inclusive supportive program. And I truly believe that collaboration and, working together across all interest holders is the true power of all of us. And I I hope that that will set a great tone for this calendar year.
Thank you for your time. Thank you. Other labor representatives? Good evening, board members, doctor Branco, and leadership team. My name is Rebecca Pena. I'm, chapter vice president for Pasadena 434 and I'd like to just read a card for, the board. In recognition of school board trustee appreciation month, the California School Employees Associations Pasadena chapter four thirty four would like to express our gratitude for your leadership and service.
We appreciate your hard work and dedication making vital decisions that shape the future of our students. We look forward to a great year ahead and continued collaboration in the best interest of our students and the entire school community from Pasadena chapter four thirty four. And I would just, may I approach to pass these to you? And, that's that's my our card to you. And thank you. Thank you. Any other labor groups in the room?
Okay. Thank you so much. Now we have item j, student board member report. Trustee Bleecker. Thank you, president Fredericks, esteemed board members, superintendent Blanco, and leadership team for your continued contributions and commitment to the students of USD. 11 new student assembly and council members were welcomed to USD student board, which now consists of 14 students from five campuses. Four juniors will take turns attending USD's board meetings. On January 12, the assembly and council met for the first time this year alongside the student think tank.
We had an orientation where we began to learn about our responsibilities as we serve on the student board, and this Tuesday, we held our first voting meeting. President Fredericks joined us as a guest. Thank you. We are all very excited to be a part of the board and to be a voice for our fellow students. Recently, our community observed the one year anniversary of the Eaton Fire, and we would like to recognize the thoughtful vigils that remember the lives lost and impacted. We are proud to see our former think tank student from PHS, Paulina McConnell, speak at the grocery outlet vigil attended by thousands. Currently, hundreds in the PUSD community, including students, are still suffering from the fire and
are continuing to rebuild their lives after the severe devastation. We appreciate the support that the district and PEF have provided for impacted families in their commitment to ongoing support. The Student Assembly and Council stands with our Pasadena, Altadena, and Sierra Madre communities who are being terrorized by ICE. Our hearts go out to the students whose family members have been kidnapped by ICE. We thank the district employees and community members that are supporting the families and continue to monitor the situation and ensure students are safe at school. Finally, resolution twenty eight fifty two has caused a lot of consternation among students regarding
the future of our schools. As the board and district contemplate the process going forward, the student assembly and council continues to have concerns about school closure and consolidation. We think it causes undue harm to students in the local community, which has already been through so much over the past few years. We do not think it solves the underlying issues of fiscal stability and waning enrollment. Rather, it risks families leaving PUST because their school has been closed and leaves even more vacant properties. That said, we recognize that this board voted to evaluate school closure and consolidation, so we hope that the process set forth tonight will take into account the student perspective.
We desire that as a part of the district transformation process, the board will put student and family welfare at the forefront of their decision making calculus. Calculus. Thank you. Thank you very much, trustee Krieger. Now that takes us to the action items, k one. Doctor. Are you presenting, or are we just making a motion? Yes. Motion to approve. Okay. Do I hear a second? Second. Sorry. I should make sure, trustee Blicker, if you have any comment on this item, you wouldn't you should make it now.
The student assembly council would unanimously on this, so we don't have any comment. Okay. Thank you so much. Now we go to so I'm just reminding about the inquiry period that we're gonna start, and then we do advocacy. So questions on the item? Trustee Kinney? I was just wondering, I know this is our third j 13 waiver that we've sent to the state. Why are we sending them at different times, and why is this one coming this much later than the others? Sure. There's different reasons of those, j thirteens were submitted.
Initially, it was for the days of the closure, the initial. One of them was for the subsequent days. As you remember, we opened in phases. This one seeks, because the governor, removed the threshold of 10% requirements, we are now seeking from the state to provide us with, the difference of all the subsequent days, from when the fire took place all the way to the end of the school year now. And so that him removing the 10% just happened recently? No. It's happened. It's just been a lot of work for us to provide put together for every single day we had to do a report for every day to the end of
this school year. Okay. And then so this would potentially change our average daily attendance figures for 24, 25, and those were used to calculate our revenue for this current year, 2526, will it change after the fact the revenue that we're receiving this year, or will it only help us going forward? The idea is it would help us going forward. Okay. So we probably wouldn't recoup. Okay. Great. Thank you. Thank you. Any other questions? Hearing none.
All oops. Trustee Bleeker, what is your preference to vote on this item? Yes. Thank you. All those in favor, raise your hand. All those against? Any abstentions? Motion passes. Thank you. Item k two, approval of consulting services agreement with Total School Solutions to provide a school closure consolidation study. Doctor Buonco. Excuse me. Thank you. Let me just give a little context to the presentation that's gonna be before you. On December 11, the, board voted to pass resolution twenty eight fifty two, establishing optimal
school size by grade level for the Pasadena Unified School District. As part of this resolution, which is the amended version is attached just for reference, you're not voting to change the resolution or approve the resolution this evening. That was a reference material. The board, directs the superintendent to develop and bring forward a proposed district transformation planning process that includes community input, instructional programmatic stability, considerations for optimal school size, community and
fiscal impacts, and a potential consolidation scenarios. An initial draft of the planning process shall be presented to the board by February 2026. So, it also asked that to support informed decision making, the board authorizes the superintendent to engage in an independent, reliable, unbiased external expertise to conduct enrollment projections, facilities analysis, and scenario modeling. The resulting findings and recommendations shall be provided to the board as part of the district transformation plan process.
The, resolution also said that recommendations, if any, shall be presented to the board no later than October 2026. So, I've worked closely with, Total School, Solutions and their, asset management attorney and the SLT to follow the directives of the board that were given to me on December 11, and that's what will be presented, this evening. So, I'll let them go ahead and present. We have, Joseph Paldoffo from Total School Solutions here this evening, Serene Abrahamian, which you're
familiar with, from Orbach, Hutt, And Henderson, who is our asset management attorney. Hold on a second. Did anybody have any question or context of what Doctor. Blanchard is? Okay. Thank you. Good evening. Again, my name is doctor Joseph Pandolfo, and I'm the executive vice president with Total School Solutions. A pleasure to be here and to talk about this subject. And just to before I start the presentation, just to tell you a little bit about us. So our firm has been around since 1999, and we basically provide advisory services and demographic work and reporting to, school districts all across the state.
We've worked from, all the way from the Oregon border to Trinity Unified. I've been there, so I know it's right on the board of Oregon way up there. All the way down south in San Diego County and all over dozens, if not, you know, over hundreds of school districts, that we've worked with. I myself have been in public education either as a teacher, administrator, consultant for about thirty nine years. I have a dissertation from UC Davis on the efficiency of school districts, and I've worked with quite a few. Lately, we've had a lot of, although we're, you know, we're certainly a full service
advisory firm, we've had a lot of, interest in helping districts try to get, deal with declining enrollment. So So I'll just tell you a few of the districts we work with in the area here, for consolidation. Baldwin Park Unified, Hacienda La Puente Unified, Duarte Unified, Inglewood Unified, Linwood Unified, Saugus Elementary up north, Vallejo Unified, and McKinley, Franklin McKinley up north as well in Santa Clara County. We also do, work in the area other than that. And so a lot of this demographic work, sometimes it's preclosure work depending on the district, what they need.
But we worked at Newport Mesa Unified, Compton Unified, Bellflower Unified, Alhambra Unified, Santa Unified, Bassett Unified, Burbank Unified, and Orange Unified. So we're we're very well versed in schools and very well versed in this area. We probably do more work in this area than any other, area of the state. So with that, let's talk about our, presentation tonight. So what I'm gonna talk about tonight is California and Los Angeles County actual projected enrollment, And, of course, the, the whole school consolidation, movement has been driven by the
the enrollment. And and and if I'm sure you're aware of that, and you'll see exactly what that looks like. We'll talk about Pasadena's unit actual and projected enrollment, and also why school districts consider closure and consolidation of schools. You know, what what, you know, what's the rationale behind that? What what are they thinking when they do that? We'll talk about Assembly Bill nineteen twelve. And so before Assembly Bill nineteen twelve, you know, CDE, California Department of Education, had some loose guidelines on exactly what school districts should do for, school closure.
But AB nineteen twelve, codified exactly what school districts in financial distress need to do. And it was also recommended by the state's attorney general that all school districts follow this process to avoid any type of discrimination and to also avoid, litigation and to have a open inclusive process. And we'll talk more about this the potential PSD school advisory committee as well. So in terms of California and Los Angeles, it's been losing a lot a lot of enrollment. So so California itself has lost about 450,000 students over the last few years.
So to put that in perspective, the whole state of Wyoming I think is about 530,000 people, so we've almost lost a state full of students, 420,000 students, about 6.75%. And, you know, it would be great if there was a projection that said, hey, this is going to turn around. But looking at, and what demographers look at a lot is birth rates and then look at what percentages end up in the public schools. But that doesn't look like it's going to turn around. So, the state of California projects even more declining enrollment. If you look at Los Angeles County, it has really taken, you know, the lion's
share of this decline. Almost 250,000 students between 'fifteen-'sixteen and 'twenty five-'twenty six. And it's about 16.2% of all the enrollment. So the state, Department of Finance expects again further decline in enrollment by another 18%. So it doesn't look like there's any turnaround on this soon. It looks like it's going to keep getting worse at least in the foreseeable future. So it's a big problem for school districts because school districts are generally geared towards a certain enrollment. That's why they set up their district the way they do.
And then when they start losing that enrollment, the educational benefits can be damaged because there's less students in that school than there used to be and the system wasn't really set up for that type of enrollment. If you look at our graph here, you can see, you know, that the state has gone from over 6,200,000 students to, a little over 5,800,000 over this time period. You can take a look at the county, about 1.5 down to one point a little under 1.3. So again, just massive decline in enrollment. Now let's look particularly at the district.
Now most, most school districts we work for, and I read a list of a lot of the ones we work with, you know, basically they're going to mirror the county. I think a misconception I think school districts have is, hey, what are we doing wrong? What do we need to do to recruit more? And really that's essentially not the problem. The problem is there's just less kids in the pool and every school district basically essentially is declining enrollment, especially in Los Angeles County. Not all, but most. So between 1516, 2425, the loss is about 3,400 students.
So if you think about that, you know, as a, you know, it's a number, right? But if you think about that in terms of schools, you know, how many schools worth of kids is that? If, you know, think about how big your high schools are, how big your elementary schools are. And so 3,400 is a lot of students. It's about 20%. The recent, Pasadena's had a report from, MGT, which used to be Davis Demographics, and they project that this is going to continue to decline. And it could be another 18.7%, which is not that far off from what, you know, the state predicts for the
county. So it's, you know, decline it doesn't look like you know, hopefully, like, when you look at those graphs, you'd like to see a U where this, you know, enrollment is going to dip and come back. And at some point, it may, but it's not really in the predictable future. So here's the the, Davis or, MGT updated their projections, with the heat and fire, impact, of course, which is tragic and it certainly didn't help the enrollment projection. And and you can see it's it's projecting to decline, further. So the next section here is why school districts, look at consolidation.
Because consolidation is very, very difficult. It's very contentious. You know, it's it's not a subject that's gonna make most people happy. Most people are very protective of their schools. There's usually long histories with schools and and people, and especially parents, feel very, protective of their schools And, you know, change is hard for everyone, especially students. So, you know, why would school districts look at this in the first place? So we look at, you know, first, I think, you know, all excellent school districts
keep the students set in mind. And so the school district wants to provide improved student programs. When schools decline in enrollment, it's hard for the district to offer the same quality of program and the same amount of programs at these smaller schools for a lot of reasons. But it's difficult to do when the school starts getting smaller. Large enrollment may reduce the number of combination classes. So in other words, school districts, there's things, there's classes called combination classes, which are basically multi grade level.
And I've heard people make the argument like, Oh, those are great. You know, combining grade levels is great. You know, the one room school houses do that too. And that's a perspective and I kind of respect that. And there's some, you know, amazing teachers who can just do fabulous things with a combo class. However, the industry standard in education is a single grade classroom. Like, people don't usually go out of their way to create multi grade classrooms. And I've I've never actually seen that only when it's absolutely necessary. So so combination classes as as an industry standard are not favorable. So so that and and so when the schools get too small, they'd actually have
to combine grade level classes to function. The other thing too is the teachers. The teachers are you know, we're all social animals, including teachers. And teachers really have this synergy with each other that they can get together and talk about a student and share experiences and, and try to improve the educational program for the students. That's really hard to do if you're the only student at that teacher at that grade level or maybe you're the only teacher at two grade levels. So there's no synergy with that with those schools. So that's very difficult. Larger schools enhance the opportunity for extra and co curricular activities.
If there's more masks, there's more of a chance the school district can at least maintain programs. And also the closure allows more investment for classrooms. So the the concept is if if you're more efficient with how you're spending money, you can direct more money towards the classrooms than than overhead. And that's that's what you wanna do is reduce the amount of overhead, that you're creating. So the financial considerations, you know, finances should never be like the lead on on something like this. But but they are a consideration because the educational program is financed is paid for
with money. So you do have to look at, that. And as the district enrollment increases, revenues decline. So schools are generally funded on average daily attendance, which is based on enrollment. So basically a factor of enrollment. As enrollment decreases, the revenue decreases, the ADA increases, and then therefore the revenue decreases. So that can be a problem. But the fixed costs remain the same or go up. So if you have a school, with 500 students, say, you know, you have like a principal, an office manager, utilities, certain overhead with that school.
But as the enrollment shrinks, the cost per student goes up for those because there's less students there. And of course, if you spend the money on the fixed costs, there's less for everything else. This stress can lead to struggles for the district support programs and services, and also be competitive in the market for employees. Maintenance money for facilities decrease. Typically, there's a routine restricted maintenance account for all school districts. It's for the financial geeks in here, it's Resource 8,150. Typically, that is in 3% of the gross revenues.
And if that, if there's less students, of course, there's less revenues of maintenance money, so that goes down so it's harder to maintain the schools. And of course, the bond money, nobody has enough bond money to make all the improvements to schools. So as that decreases, as the students decrease keeping the same number of schools open, basically spreads out that bond money and it can't be directed to schools in a focused way that could really improve students' learning environments for students. Okay? And so finally, we have AB nineteen twelve, Assembly Bill nineteen twelve.
And that changed, a few things. And again, I mentioned that before. It's a state law that has a mandated process and and the attorney general recommends this process. There's a written report that follows this process called an equity impact analysis and the state is very concerned, especially, there have been some closures that have been pretty, shall we say awkward at the least. And so the state is very concerned about discriminatory practices that school districts can get into if they don't really look at their data in a very organized and thorough
way. And this law really mandates that the district take a thorough look at this, so that they're not, being discriminatory against students of color or other students based on their needs. It's, it reduces the legal risk also. So districts who follow this are, in court, are less are first off, less likely to run into a foul with the attorney general's office and also less likely to be sued. And the successful equity impact process can work with experts to create a community advisory
group, and this group is one that goes through and looks at these metrics that we'll talk about and decides, you know, what the recommendations are for closure, if any. So the basics is we have equity impact analysis, written report. There's gotta be community engagement. That's part of the mandate of AB nineteen twelve. There's transparency that, everything that the superintendent's committee does or this committee does is transparent and it's posted and, everyone can see what they're looking at and looking at the
same data they're looking at. And really, it looks at equity. You know, it's really focused on a lens of equity to make sure that, the final result is equitable for everyone in the district. So the AB nineteen twelve metrics, so what these metrics are really data points that the, committee looks at and analyzes. And the state has recommended these, metrics. And, and if you think about these, these are important to look at if you're when you're looking at, possibly closing schools.
Like the for instance, the physical condition of the school, you know, so you look at that from two lenses. What is the physical condition of the school and was there any discriminatory practices going on that made it that way? So that's part of what this analysis is, is to make sure that, you know, what is the physical condition because, you know, if, if schools are run down and they have to be repaired, you know, there's limited bond dollars to do that, it may make sense to consider a school for closure. But you want to make sure that there wasn't anything discriminatory historically going on with
that school. We look at operating costs and we talk about that a little bit. We talked about capacity of other schools to absorb students. So you're gonna look at the committee's gonna look at these schools and decide what, capacity the schools have based on local standards and what would how these schools might be able to be combined so that the students could be housed at the schools and still be successful. Special programs are looked at and can they be transferred, especially, special education. You know, because special education students, sometimes they have special facilities that are on different
sites and that needs to be looked at to see generally generally programs can be moved, but you wanna make sure you're aware of what you're moving and if there's facilities enough. For instance, if you have medically fragile class in one school, you know, is there a facility available for them somewhere else? Environmental factors, you know, typically in LA there's a lot of, environmental factors, that are, you know, that are consistent through the whole county. Balance of the people demographics. So, it looks at ethnic groups, you know, African American, Hispanic, and do any, combinations, you know, are they gonna cause any issues by, if any of the any of
the schools are closed. Transportation is looked at. Another big, metric is aesthetics and opportunity for blight. And, so basically the district, should have a process, and I believe this district does, about, you know, if if a school is closed, what are the next steps so that it doesn't, not only not become blight but actually becomes a benefit for the school district. And some school districts get pretty creative with how they do that and that's part of a different committee. That's not this committee. This committee identifies which schools it recommends for closure.
And then the impact on feeder, attendance patterns. Those are the metrics from AB nineteen twelve that were codified. I often do these, as you can see, quite a bit of these. And the question comes up is like, Hey, we want to add more. And my recommendation is don't do that. And the reason I don't recommend that is because the, school district the one school district I know who did that was Oakland Unified and the attorney general was not happy with, what they did and basically, you know, basically, you know, really, opined that
that was they were engaging in discriminatory practices and that they shouldn't stretch beyond what the state had recommended for metrics. So is it, is it legal to add to the metrics? I believe you could, but I do think you opened yourself up to possible litigation and possibly problems with the attorney general's office. So that but those are the metrics listed here of what's standard in AB nineteen twelve. There's other good things about AB nineteen twelve. So, and, you know, the factors used to identify the list of schools are included, which, you know, are basically the metrics. The equity impact I talked about, the plan for the schools proposed for closure consolidation.
And basically, that means you have a plan to decide what to do with them. It doesn't mean you have to have it decided, you know, when you decide what school closed, what it's gonna do next, but just so that there's you're transparent about the the plan. The criteria used to assign displaced students, you know, how is the district going to handle that? And the options and timelines for transitioning pupils. You know, there's also things in that legislation about like, having the plan available in, the language of people if the district needs to do that, to make sure that people can actually read it and understand it.
So those are all part of AB nineteen twelve. So, this next section is if the district decides to move ahead with a consolidation advisory committee. So basically, this is the advisory committee I was talking about, and the districts utilize the committee to make, recommendations. That being said, you know, being up front, the board has the final say on what schools can be closed. That's this is a final authority so that the site could recommend something or the committee could recommend something and the board could reject that because that's the board's purview. They can do that. But the committee is, an impartial, as much as possible, impartial, people looking working in
good faith to try to make good decisions for children and students in a school district and to move forward with this. They, they review background information, they have, discussions and they have different experiences in the district so it tends to be a robust process where a lot of perspectives get shared and a lot of opinions are shared. The data is specific to the district. You're looking specifically at, the district and the metrics. The other thing too is the committee is not like there's nothing in law, to
my knowledge, that says the only thing they can look at are those metrics. So if other things arise that they want to look at like, typically, the committees are going to look at enrollment. You know, it's important to look at school by school enrollment. That's not necessarily a metric, but it's a data point that they're going to look at. And there may be other data points that the committee wants to look at too as it goes on. And then, of course, like I mentioned, they make recommendations and the board decides to accept or reject the, recommendations. So this committee is proposed to meet seven times, and that's typical from what I do with school districts.
They meet seven times, and approximately every other week between February 23 and May 11 is the proposed, timeline. They'll provide a recommendation to the board in May for the board to consider, at least the initial one, the the effective closure of the end of the 2627 school year. The boundaries would need to be redrawn. Usually, when when school districts are closed, the parents need to know if they move into the district what their assigned school is. So typically, districts redraw the boundaries, you know, quickly after deciding how they're going to
if they're going to close schools. And, they may also this district in particular may consider changes to the current open enrollment system if it's not going to, you know, work with the consolidation plans if there are any. So some of the key timelines here are the, the press release, January 23, for applications for the Committee. Then I mentioned the seven plan meetings. The, and the agenda and the, and the presentations are all posted on the website. All the data that the committee gets is transparently posted so anybody can look at
it. There's a plan for community February, a survey in February. Two town hall or public meetings, one live, one virtual, one public hearing, and also, board updates at the regular board meetings. And then the board makes a final on this schedule, the board makes a final recommendation on June 25. So this is just a draft schedule to give you an idea of what the, the committees would look like. Typically, if the Board moves ahead with this, we'll revisit this with staff, make sure
that they're comfortable with, you know, the topics that are listed here. But generally, this is how it would go. You know, basically looking, you know, first committees get the committee established, start looking at enrollment, boundaries, kind of get familiar with, you know, the big picture of the district. And then, you know, then they start going through the metrics, condition of the schools, the capacity of school. Another big thing it's not a metric but committees look at it is the geography of the district. You know, for instance, you know, districts generally don't want to close all the schools
on one side of town, so they want to take a look at that whole district and look at, where the schools are. And so basically these meetings are just running through the metrics, and then at the end of the meeting, there's a recommendation from that committee to, you know, to decide whether to close school, make a recommendation to close schools or not and, which schools, if any. And then then then there's a board meeting on the twenty eighth, and then a resolution on the twenty fifth.
And then there's, the the twenty eighth, there's a public hearing where the parents can comment on or community members can comment on the the report, and then there's also will be another public information, or public, opportunity for public to speak in between those meetings. And then the twenty fifth, again, you know, the the board can receive public input, and that would be the final board meeting where they decide to adopt the resolution. Yeah. And then going going forward, I mentioned about the boundaries. That would be wise to do, soon afterwards. And then, presentation, on the boundaries and then final approval of the boundaries.
Okay. So that's that's, a I would call it a 35,000 foot overview of the process, and I'll be glad to, take any questions. Okay. Thank you. So, questions for, Total School Solutions? Anybody? Trustee Harden? Can you, oops. Thank you for the presentation, by the way, and the details and process. I know, there were questions, that we were able to sort of submit, beforehand, and
one of them was about, in the final recommendations that are brought, that are brought forth from the committee to the board, a concept of rolling out or implementing, the consolidation over multiple years. And a specific example would be, you know, high school for instance having students that can matriculate out of the program before the change is made. And I think the response was that was ill advised and I just wanted to
dive into that a little deeper if you could, shed a little bit more light on why that is based on your expertise. Yeah. So we would recommend that for, at least a couple of reasons. For one, when you you know, typically, there's attrition and enrollment in every school. So typically, when you announce a school is closing, it's going to be difficult for anyone to want to enroll into that school because it's closing. So they know that's closing. They're going to go elsewhere. And also, the programs can, you know, if like a high school, for instance, has
a special program, it most likely can be at least temporarily moved just to let the students, finish that program. So that's a difficult thing. It's also the benefit of the consolidation, if if you like with a high school, for instance, if you do that over three or four years, you know, you're gonna have, you know, three or four years before that actually you can actually close the school, so all the overhead is still gonna remain with that school. And, that also, you know, kind of defeats the purpose of actually trying to close the school. It's just kind of elongated.
So I haven't typically, we haven't seen that. There was one exception where the school was, scheduled to be seismically renovated and they stopped accepting students for a couple of years and then they decided just to close the school. But that was that's the only time I've ever been involved where they actually phased out the school. Trustee Hardin, are you done with the questions? Yeah. I that I'm good on that question. Thank you. Okay. Trustee McKenzie. Hi. I do have a, a series of questions. Can you talk about within the equity impact analysis, are there, best practices or is
there a benchmark in terms of how to do a good analysis? I heard the criteria, but, like, in terms of once you complete your document, like, what does that look like in terms of doing a really good job at that? Yeah. So, that's an excellent question. The the the committee will go through the data and to me, I I think, one of the things that comes to mind for me is we the Committee needs to be careful that this isn't necessarily a quantitative process, but more of a qualitative process. So you have to kind of look at the data and make sure that the, you know, what you're seeing is reasonable and makes sense.
And so, like for instance, you could look at, like one of the data points is, the, either the ethnic diversity or the special education population. So I've seen districts where they, say, oh, well, this school has a higher, you know, percentage of special ed population than others, so therefore it would be discriminated to close it. But if you actually look at the numbers, the reason the percentage is high is because the school is very small and there's actually fewer kids to be if the school is going to be closed in that particular case. So I think that's kind of an example of, you know, we don't it's beyond
just, like, the best practices. Don't just look at the numbers, but look at the story and be able to, understand that and to and definitely lean on district, knowledge to be able to understand the facilities, capacity, and what, you know, what the needs of the the students are so that the candidate make a good recommendation. So are there any identified, expert? I would say, in crafting these equity impact analysis? And or, has anyone created a rubric of sorts to sort of evaluate the analysis
once it's been completed? Yes. In terms of, you know, who does equity impact analysis, I haven't, I haven't actually seen anyone else, except our firm, do equity and impact analysis. So and in fact, we were the I think we're the only firm that worked with the two districts that are on receivership, Vallejo Unified and Englewood Unified, to get them through that process because that's the one that's mandated and those are the, reports that really need to be, intensely scrutinized because the attorney general is looking at especially
at those schools. In terms of, you know, is there is there something beyond the metrics that's kind of a guide to to, you know, decide what's proper action? I haven't seen that, and I'm not sure, I'm not sure that would be the best practice on something like this, because I think this is more of a, you know, a data presentation with a conversation about the data rather than just kind of digging into like what, you know, what at what percentage is this not good and what percentage is as good.
I think that could be problematic. Well, I don't know that I'm looking at it in terms of it being that, methodical. Just being able to ensure that, you are touching the right, points in terms of being really thoughtful about how are you analyzing your data, how are you analyzing the input, what are the best practices in terms of ensuring that, your community engagement is reflective of your community that's going to be impacted, be it for evaluation or assessment,
etcetera? Like, how are we doing due diligence in terms of ensuring that the voices that need to be represented in the process are actually done? Yeah. And that's that's another good question. So the, you know, in terms of, like, like, what's the proper number of meetings for a district and, you know, what's the proper number of outreach and it's you know, I've I've worked with dozens and dozens of districts and, the thing I learned about school districts, if you work with one school district, you work with one school district. Every everyone is different. So I I wouldn't say there's actually a standard with that, but I I do know what, you have scheduled is reasonable.
And there's there's there's adequate opportunity for voices to be heard. And I think, it's, I think one of the things about the process is it's, it's hard to get equal representation of voices because there's people who feel very strongly and they have very loud voices and there's other people who, you know, may be okay with things and and don't have as loud a voice, but they still their voice still matters. So that's what's kinda difficult with the process. But I think there's, there's there's more than adequate opportunity for public input on this,
whole process from what was, presented. Any more questions? Justine Kedzie? I'll pause for now. Thank you. Doctor Velasquez. Trustee Velasquez? I have a situation because I had some original questions, but I have some follow ups to some of the things that they said. So the first follow-up is a follow-up to, Harden's question is, due to your explanation of the phased out process, can you envision a situation where we are forced to
do a phased out process due to capacity? Yeah. I mean, if if there's not enough capacity to accept the students at other schools and you still wanted to close, a school, but there wasn't room for them, then, yeah, that would that would be an instance where I think it would make sense, to to phase out if you wanted to start right away. You know, of course, you know, it might make more sense to just wait, you know, instead of phasing it out, just wait and to close the school at a certain point in time. But, I mean, that that's something that can be discussed. And and the board has leeway with that, of course, you know, because, like I
said, I work with a lot of school districts, but there's different unique situations. And a follow-up to her questions. You say that, there's a combination of qualitative and quantitative data, and I think that this is very important because we're seeking for, a neutral data. But can you give us an example of qualitative data that it's used in your process? Yeah. Well, I think I I provided, like, the the this, like, for instance, the special
education situation I said before where this, you know, the district, this school has a higher percentage of special education students, but when you look at the number, it's a lower number, okay? So even though if you're just basing it on the data and the percentage, you would say that that school shouldn't be touched. But if you actually look at the number of students, it it tells a different story on on, on that. I think too, like, with, you know, sometimes in discussions with facilities I'm not clear how that's qualitative, but Yeah.
Well, it's not to me, when I say, quantitative, there's a number cut off and you follow that. Qualitative, you're looking at the data and you're making a nuanced decision based on, okay, if you're going to base it on percentages, the school qualitatively is, quantitatively is got the highest special ed percentage. But qualitatively, you know, because it's the numbers lowered actually doesn't, you know, it isn't that percentage doesn't really matter as much. But you also have things like facilities and things that rise out that maybe, there's
certain, there might be certain things about facilities that don't show up on the data, but people know about, you know? So let's see. I think we have a different understanding of qualitative. Okay. Now to my original questions, which are, how is program demand, enrollment, and, family choice evaluated in the process? I'm sorry. Could you repeat that? How are program demand, enrollment, and family choice evaluated into the process? Yeah. So the so part of the, metrics is, you know, program.
So we're gonna be looking at the schools and presenting what programs they offer and when and comparing different schools. And, the the thing about programs is generally programs can be moved from site to site. So, usually. So, typically, it's good to be aware that there are certain programs. The state is more concerned with, special education programs. So, we want to make sure that those are looked at and to make sure that that's, you know, if there's gonna be a if there is gonna be a closure that it actually works for, you know, the the special education population.
What were the other points of your question? Program demand, enrollment, and family choice. Program demand, enrollment, and family choice. Okay. So program demand, when, you know, when we talk about when that comes up in discussion, you know, that can be part of the discussion if there's a if there's a demand for program, you know, the committee can look at that and discuss, you know, if that's a factor. Enrollment is looked at because, it's another data point that's not really a metric, but it shows the, you know, what the school each school is, looking like.
Usually there's a school by school, projection to where it looks like the school is going. So that's just another data point, although not the decisive one to close a school. You wouldn't just close a school based on low enrollment, but it is a data point. And then family and family choice was the last one? Yeah. So family choice, I think, is the, as a district works through the process, there has to be a, a recommendation on what the enrollment process is for this district and if it's going to continue.
I understand it has open enrollment, throughout the district, I believe. So if that's what it is and it's going to change, then, that would be probably a discussion that needs to come back to the board, to to to talk through the advantages and disadvantages of of, you know, the how the enrollment's gonna work. Finally, are you familiar with the, resolution that we already passed? Yeah. I think it was the one that was posted on the, Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah. So yeah. Okay. And so how do you see, if possible, incorporating some of the resolution that we already passed into the process? Yeah. So I think the the the resolution has, you know, breaks up enrollment, you know, basically minimal enrollment, ideal enrollment, maximum enrollment by grade level four, the different, school configurations. And I think that would be also, presented to the committee about this is, you know, what the Board intent was in terms of looking at schools.
And again, you don't close a school based purely on enrollment, but it's, you know, if the Board wants to analyze the school when it gets down to a certain enrollment, that that to me makes sense. Any more questions, Trustee Velasquez? No. Okay. Trustee Bleecker? Regarding the timeline, I just had a question on why are we deciding on a school closure in June during summer vacation when a lot of people, especially students, will be gone and won't be able to share their opinions? Yeah. I think the, the schedule is put together because I think the decision on, because
these are gonna be school if there is any closure, schools that are closed at the end of next year, and it wants to be it needs to be completed in time for the enrollment process, which I believe is October. So everything was backtracked against that. So that's the reason for the, for the schedule. And, you know, there's, you know, schedules are always open for discussion or draft and that's something, you know, the board can discuss if they're not comfortable with. Any other questions? No, thank you. Okay. I'm going to make sure everyone gets a first turn and then get back to
you guys. Okay. So trustee Kenny followed by trustee Bailey. Good evening. One of the comments that was at one of our, our citizens oversight committee last night, and I wanted to ask the question is we recently had a superintendent's committee where I think the application period was relatively short, and they were hoping that this one could be, like, three to four weeks long. It kind of takes a little while sometimes for people to realize there's an application
process going on and and to get their application in. Is that is that a feasible at least three weeks? Is that feasible? I think doctor We have a time line. We're sending out a press release this evening if it passes, and the application will also be in, my Monday message. So our cutoff is, February 9, so we can stay on our time line, which is two weeks, I think, in three days. We didn't have any problem getting applications in for the last committee, so it's gonna be advertised, widely and I think this is a topic that will have a lot
of interest. We run jobs for ten days and we get a good applicant pool, so I'm not concerned about the timeline. My next question, I wanted to make sure I understood. On the PUSD projected enrollment I don't know if we can put that slide up again. So these are not the full enrollment. These are the numbers from Davis Demographics, MGT, and they subtract out about a 120 to a 150 kids because they don't, because they're projecting by attendance at neighborhood schools. They don't they cut those kids out.
Right? So people wouldn't necessarily see these numbers on Dataquest. Yeah. Typically, the demographer, if if the purpose of the study is to look at, the school site demographics, you're right. They're going to pull out, like, the kids who are non public schools or other kids who don't actually attend a physical building. So, yeah, they may not match the the Dataquest numbers. And so I just noticed that, like, for '25, '26, I think tomorrow is our the cutoff date for finalize finalization of CALPADS, we're about a 100 less than that
number that's up there. And then our projections are to lose 400 for each of the next two years. So in other words, we're already kind of below that line. I just wanted to Yeah. Clarify that And if, if MGT got within a 100, that's pretty good. Yeah. Because this was last year's estimate. Yeah. Yeah. And I think they revised it somewhat recently, but I don't think they knew what this year's, seabeds was. I think we're getting a new one within the next three or four weeks, is my understanding. Alright. In your phase one of your contract, it talks about the fourth bullet says, based
on the board approved enrollment guidelines, and I am assuming that means the resolution. And using enrollment and facility data, identify which schools the school consolidation advisory committee should further study. It it doesn't have a subject for that identify verb, so I wasn't sure. Is that you recommending schools for closure? Yeah. Well, all firm will go through, because typically, to kick the committee off, the the committee doesn't typically well, the typically get committee usually gets some guidance from either the
consultant or staff about, okay, you know, these are the schools and these are the ones that we think from the data the initial data we look at, that we should look forward looking at further. Now, that being said, if the committee says, well, wait a second. You know, you didn't you should look at this school, then there's a discussion. It doesn't mean it's not included. But usually, there's a starting point somewhere instead of, like, you know, looking at all 20 something schools and saying, oh, these are all on the table. Because sometimes, you know, sometimes it's clearly like I've worked with school districts where, you know, the, they had two high schools and there just was no interest in, you
know, closing either high school. So that's not really a discussion for the committee. They were just kind of like, okay, well, let's not spin wheels on things we know aren't gonna happen. Because I did notice that the selection of schools seems to happen at the very first meeting, and that's I wanted to kind of understand a little bit better if so going into that meeting, you would have a list of schools to recommend to them? For further review. Yeah. It's not it's not like, it's not a list of schools we're recommending for closure. It's a list of schools we're recommending to look at further.
Okay. And that's where I think I at the beginning of this, I was very confused about the metrics. And the metrics, at least in the ed code for AB nineteen twelve, they are the ones in the equity analysis to evaluate whether you've chosen the right ones. They're not necessarily the metrics to help you choose the right ones. They they help you reflect on whether you chose the right ones. Right. But it does talk about factors used to identify the list, and it says that the board needs to report on those.
And I guess I just wanna make sure that we understand what those are. It sounds like right now, it's mainly enrollment. It's mainly enrollment as to to use to generate that initial list. Yeah. Typically, we'll look at enrollment. We and we'll also typically look at, if there's a facility master plan and what, you know, what kind of condition schools are in, because that that's also another one that may, you know, trigger a, you know, a question about, okay, well, should that school be included on the list because it's, maybe the enrollment's okay with it, but
if it's not if it needs more work than every other, you know, double the work of any other school in the district, then maybe that's something that's, you know, the committee should discuss. And so that's where factors and and metrics kind of overlap in that you'll use it to pick the list, but then the committee and you will go back because facility condition is then one of the later meetings where you reflect on Yeah, exactly. I mean, I really to me, it's the first meeting is try to get the ball rolling, get a kickoff, and the committee, of course, can, you know, it's their
committee, so if they're feeling like there's schools that, we're not recommending on the list that they wanna look at, you know, we we certainly would add them. So it's not it's not a it's not a definitive list per se. Okay. And and I want to double check a a little bit about the equity analysis because I know it talks about looking at the demographics of what you currently have, and then it talks about looking at the demographics after the closures. And I think it also has an aspect of, like, understanding transportation needs or, I
guess, kind of, what the migration patterns would be, you know, all of that, the feeder patterns. I'm trying to understand it feels like that we would have to make some of the boundary decisions with this incorporated into that because if we didn't know what the boundaries would be, how would we know what the resulting demographics of once we close schools would look like? Do you see what I mean? Yeah. I yeah. It's a good question. I I think, so to answer that, what we do is we work with scatter plot maps, and we'll look at where students reside.
And we'll typically assign students to the closest school, that's by their, residence. And then, you know, the boundaries can come later, but for the purposes of the study and for purposes of SQL, we're saying, well, this is this is likely, you know, we're going to assume that students are here, are going to go to their closest school, to their house, and if there's open enrollment, you know, that obviously, that's just an estimate that's going to be wrong, but it's, but it's an estimate to get, you know, to work through the report. So it's almost kinda like a draft boundary, if you will, and then we'll finalize
them later. Yeah. I mean and I was trying to understand. It almost seemed as though we might and I don't know who who this question is for. We might be wanting to look at boundaries that are unrelated to closures just to try and rebalance things between schools. Is that did I read that somewhere? I misunderstand that. Yeah. So I I think, if you think about our last consolidation, we knew where children were going and we looked at how it would, impact the demographics of the schools and whether they could fit there and we never redrew the boundaries, right, but we
knew the students were gonna go from Franklin to Altadena. That's an example. So, we did have a, suggestion from Kollenberg about redrawing the boundaries at that time. They suggested that we divide the district into quadrants, I believe. That was based on some of, the, desire to have, socioeconomic in integration across the district. It was part of the, the magnet study. So we never redrew our boundaries after the last consolidation because COVID hit us and
then we just didn't get around to doing it again. I guess I would just say that it it they feel really entwined, and I I am a little uncomfortable with I think there are some tweaks you can do after, but it feels like they do kinda need to be integral to the kind of plan. But Okay. Trustee Gagnon, you all done? Yes. Next, trustee Bailey. Yes. My question is for doctor Blanco. So I understand that you're forming a committee and the committee is gonna meet, but what is the opportunity going to look like for community, input or participation outside of
the committee? So currently, we have planned a community wide survey internal and external. And then we're gonna have two town halls, and then every board meeting will be a standing agenda item. That's an update from doctor, Adolfo, and he will come in on Webex and, so you will have public comment, I'm sure, because the he's gonna report on, the committee's discussions and findings to the board, get input from the board, and that will be a time for public comment throughout the process.
Okay. And then my my next question, and no offense to you, doctor. So given our current, budget situation, the last time that we did this, we did not have an outside consultant. And I'm just trying to to understand exactly what what is the word I'm looking
for? The role of the consultant is going to be that we could not do on our own. I'm just trying to understand whether or not it really makes sense right now to pay this kind of of money to an outside consultant when we're going through what we're going through. Well, I this time. I think we don't really have staff capacity to do that, but more so the
directive to me was to get an unbiased, person and consultant in the resolution that was passed. So I'm following the directive. Trustee Bailey, any more questions for now? No. Okay. Okay. Trustee Hawley. So thank you for the presentation. Question I had is you mentioned that, one grade one grade classes are industry standard. When you talked about that? So I was wondering where you had that data because I multi grades, like if we have a class with two grades, which we have now, there are benefits and
there are whole schools that are built around multi grades and 28% of, United States schools have multi grades. So I was just wondering why you mentioned that. Yeah. Well, that may be too, but I I think, out of that 28%, how many are doing it because of necessity and how many are doing it out choice? And just and and just as a practitioner, I've been in schools I don't think I've ever actually got out of schools. I've been in schools my whole career, but it's it's not typical that I see choices to make a combination class unless there's, enrollment needs that cause that.
So and, again, it's it's, you know, I'm not saying that there's, you know, no benefit to having a combination class. It's just from what I see in the industry, it's standard to have single grade level classes. And, in most of the schools I work with, that's what they have unless they have to have a combination class. Mhmm. Just just my perspective. Do you have any perspective on, oh, never mind. I'm fine. Thank you. Thank you. Alright. And my turn. These are hopefully short questions.
Is the consolidation committee open to the public? I think we, but we had that open to the public. Yes. Okay. Every every district does it differently. This one, yes. Okay. When is the application to apply to be on the committee and the deadline? And who are who's qualified or not qualified who are we looking for, maybe a little sense of who we're looking for. So the application will go out, this evening if this, contract is approved and, again
on Monday. And we have a similar makeup as we had in the, superintendent budget advisory committee and the superintendent's facilities advisory committee where we are getting representatives from across, the district, labor partners, and administration, teachers, and community members. It will be due on February 9. Okay. Thank you. And then May 11 is the when the recommendation the committee makes the recommendation. So does that how are we wanting to publicize is that when it's publicized, or
it's just their own deadline and we are not informing anybody till when? Yeah. So the the committee makes a recommendation at their last meeting, which I think is May 11 on our schedule, and then that recommendation will go to the board for a public hearing at the at the next board meeting. The May 28. Yes. So there was a concern about the public hearing of on May 28. You know, it's sort of the end of the year, you know, May and then there's another community meeting in June, which maybe a lot of families are gone to
vacation. So would it be possible to have an additional public hearing at, say, a special May 14 meeting, which is the second Thursday? And would that how would that impact compliance to AB nineteen twelve? And I'm not an attorney, so I'll be careful with this is just my understanding of the law, but I think, it requires a public an initial public hearing and then the second, meeting, where it's, it's on the agenda. And so, you know, so it's open for public comment.
And if you wanna put more information, I you know, more public information, you know, the district certainly can do that. But it's not but but the schedule meets the minimum requirement for, you know, for it actually goes beyond the minimum requirement of, well beyond it for for public input. Does I mean, does the I I know Serene wants to answer, I think. I was just gonna add, thank you, Joe. Thank you, board members, for having me. When the draft EIA, equity impact analysis, is presented to the board for consideration and
the, community has the opportunity to provide public input during the public hearing, that first meeting has to occur at a regularly scheduled meeting. When the board makes a decision about closure, if they do, that has to occur at a regularly scheduled meeting. The board is free to schedule additional special meetings, if it wants to receive additional input or provide an opportunity for additional public hearings. Sounds like it has to be after the introduction at the May 28, though. Correct. Is that one?
Okay. Oh, you wanna answer? So I don't think that we need to be concerned about the public coming to every board meeting that we have after we start the process and giving us comments. And I do appreciate what, miss Bleecker said, but I think, you know, my many of our students and families attend, summer school. Our pro our summer programs are very well attended, so I don't believe that there's gonna be this exodus out of the school district in June. We have our LCAP public hearings at the same time as well as other budget
hearings, but I've built in plenty of opportunity for, the public to be engaged in this process, and I expect that we will hear from the public and our students throughout the process. And I I did wanna add just a little bit of detail to, what Joe presented as far as the AB nineteen twelve process. When the EIA draft is presented, the goal of that is to receive community input during the public hearings in addition to the board receiving the draft EIA and providing their input. And all of that input is collected and it becomes the EIA becomes a living,
breathing document. So the input that's collected from the public as a separate attachment to the EIA, which would come back to the board with further, responses and how those concerns by the community are gonna be addressed is something that gets attached to the EIA. So if in the first public hearing there's a lot of concern around transportation, let's say there are 10 public comments around that. Then, of course, that would become one of the main concerns from the public, and
there would be a response to that as to how the district plans to mitigate that concern or mitigate the transportation issues. And that would be brought back and incorporated into the EIA in that attachment, and there would be further public input on that. So you continue to receive the input, respond to the input, and again, it's a living, breathing process. So EIA equity impact analysis. Yeah. So then, you know, say you're not on the committee or you don't go to the meetings, but you want to stay on top of the developments, how do people
find the information, the progress? We'll have a page dedicated on the website to this work. And as trustee Kenny pointed out, like, some of that those numbers were off, I believe. The accuracy of our data is really important. So how are you going to ensure? Because enrollments at some schools, plus 50, plus you know, plus minus, it does matter. Yeah. So, in terms of enrollment accuracy, you know, the in terms of the the enrollment
projection, of course, the projection is just a projection it's going to be incorrect. If you look back at, you know, historic data, you have to know what the demographer is including, and that that has to be clear. So, you know, if if it's not including NPS, it just has to be clear, and the source has to be clear, which is, you know, typically for school districts, the gold center's data quest. And if there's if, and I can certainly you know, look at any of the data, but I'm sure our team looked at that and it's solid. So, you know, we can but we can if somebody has an issue, you can
let me know what it is, and I'll go back with our team and see what's, you know, see what's going on. Thank you. I think everyone has gotten a chance to do inquiry, but I believe some additional questions are let's see what we have. Trustee Hardin, then Trustee McKenzie, that's all I have so far. Anybody else have additional? Trustee Kenny. Okay. Trustee Hardin. Thank you. I wanted to follow-up on some questions asked earlier, regarding the community survey that's indicated
in February. But I'll also to preface it by saying and I think many of my colleagues have heard me talk about kind of, you know, giving the community a chance to say what is it we want? You know, what is the district of the future? Intentionality. Long we've called it long term visioning, you know, different different, words that I realize this process is is is rapid. And so, you know, that kind of, scope is is probably not realistic. But when we look at a community survey and I think there was a question asked. I didn't I don't know that I saw the answer.
What what was the intention what were the types of questions that would go to the public in that survey? Well, I think, when we've worked with districts before with these surveys, they're they're generally looking for, like, what's important to your school district? What do you value? And because a lot of that, will drive what, you know, decisions come next. So it's it's it's they're usually broader questions regarding, you know, what, what the community wants out of their schools. And it's what the committee wants out of their I'm sorry. What the community wants out of their schools.
Sorry. Okay. Alright. So, and that would launch in February and how, generally, how long would that be in the field? We would I would talk with Doctor. Blanco and see what's reasonable for the district. But we, you know, we'd make sure it was a reasonable time, that we got enough, responses that it would that it's meaningful data. Now the other question I'll ask, and I know this isn't in your scope per se, but have you have you facilitated or taken those types of questions to perhaps
an early town hall that engages the public in that respect. And maybe it's a single session, but it's something that that isn't a survey per se, but it's an active listening, you know, kind of in person event. Yeah. I I haven't. I haven't. I haven't. Sure. Doctor. Blanco has a response. Okay. Sorry. Yeah. Our our early town hall that was going to be virtual just because many of the activities that are going on in the community was gonna be more of an explanation of the process, but we could certainly build in some, of the questions from
the survey as well. We're envisioning a similar process to SBAC where, as many people that might not be comfortable coming to a, tell home right now, get the information about what's going on. And then later in the process, we're going to have an in person, like with SBEC that was a little bit more interactive that would be also, televised in, you know, on our KLearn channel. So we can work on, you know, making sure the questions are built into the
initial one that would be about the, value statements and, really looking a lot for, what, you know, our younger families, not younger people families, but with younger children envision and what, the outside community envisions for the school district, right, like, similar to what we did with the graduate profile. Okay. Great. Thank you for that. And then follow-up to kind of the conversation about interleaving, boundary scenarios a little bit
more with the Committee's work and doing that rather than sequential inasmuch as practical rather than, you know, so that perhaps twofold. One, we can the process of the committee's work and the recommendations it makes to the board can possibly take a little longer and less time. You know, you have a three month allocation really for that boundary work, that that footprint could come down a little bit. So the end result is an October deliverable for, you know, boundary redraw, but it's
happening more in context with the actual, consolidation recommendations that the committee is making. So that's just a question for you really more of is that have you worked in those models before where it's been a little bit more interleaved? Not exactly like you're saying. A lot of times the districts will, you know, start the consolidation process and then the boundary study is kind of a whole separate, you know, project. But I I do think, you know, that if if the if the if the
district it's hard to, since you don't really know what schools the district's closing, it's hard to get too far ahead of that, I guess. But I I think the data you have with the scatter plot maps and the assumptions of where students attend are are gonna be, you know, probably speed up the process to, you know, those boundaries. The other thought being, and maybe less for you and just for the board to consider, is is the the, giving space to some creating environment of what is what does the district look like after we've made these changes and creating kind of welcoming
schools and that kind of thing. But, you know, potentially using that time to sort of project forward and say, here's what the here's the opportunity, you know, for students actually. There's there's benefits and here's what it looks like. Right. Yeah, that kind of thing. That's it. Thank you, Trustee McKenzie, then Trustee Kenny. So, doctor Bandolfo, you started out saying that, you know, money wasn't the objective in terms of, making the decision about is it cost that's driving sort of which direction
to go. But somehow, all of the scenarios, all of the, data points, all of the kind of things for consideration have been financially based. So I'm trying to figure out how are we, managing that saying that it's not the driver, but it sounds like it is the driver. So my real question is if the priority for making a decision, be it to, consider school, not consider school, etcetera, etcetera, is not based on enrollment or not based
on finance, then what is it based on in terms of evaluating the potential for, consolidation? Yeah. Well, I think, we talked about the, you know, as I just kind of pulled up this, slide, you know, it's it's you know, the whole process is centered around the students. And like you mentioned, you know, of course, finances do go to pay teachers and programs, so you can't just, you know, divorce that from the conversation. But there's things like, we talked about the teacher collaboration that doesn't that's not really a financial consideration.
That's an academic, you know, you know, synergy, opportunity that teachers really can thrive on. So, you know, so that the, and also the programs, if it is more efficient, then you can hopefully maintain more programs, because I think that's that's going to be a struggle with smaller schools. Yeah. And and then plus the, the the, you know, the the the resources that you can direct towards a classroom, to me also, you know, granted, it's a financial thing,
but if if you're paying less in overhead, there's more opportunity to invest in the classroom. So I think, I just what I'm trying to say is it's not all about money, but money does drive a lot of this because you can provide better things for the kids, if if it's, you know, if if you're being prudent with your resources. Could I just have one more question? I know that, like, words matter and names matter and the idea that we are calling this consolidation when there has not been a decision to do that, I think
that, to me, is a little bit troublesome. I understand that there is a need to do a very sort of, like, holistic assessment of kind of where we are as an organization, what are our priorities, what are our needs, and how do we utilize, that information to determine how best to serve our students. I get that, but out of the gate, calling it consolidation feels to me very problematic. I think that you're going to put our community on edge, not you personally, but like our community is going to be on edge.
Our community has already suffered immensely given that we are still very much in raw recovery from this fire and to now sort of put this on our community in this sort of, like, nomenclature, I think is going to set us up to fail before we start. So can we think about a way to sort of, like, rebrand, reframe, and sort of give a greater scope and sequence and kind of, sense of, objective to what
it is we are wanting to accomplish with this body of work because I think that we need to be very, very sensitive to our community right now and I really want us to be thoughtful about, utilizing this process for the benefit of making some really smart decisions long term in terms of who PUSD is today, who are we going to be tomorrow, and who can we be in the future. Definitely appreciate all of that, board member McKenzie. I they did not name the committee. I did. I believe in being transparent, and the underlying premise of this resolution was to close
schools. So I do not feel comfortable calling it something other than it is unless the people who voted for it are changing what their goal was. Alright. Trustee McKenzie, any other? Thank you. Trustee Kenny. It does say district transformation in the resolution, but that's neither here nor there, it sounds like. On 05/11, when the committee makes its recommendation, it doesn't mention the draft of the EIA, but it then mentions that the draft EIA comes on, May 28 to the
board. So is the draft economic impact analysis kind of it's being written in between those two? Is that should I understand it that way? Yeah. It's, it's it's being drafted as it goes. So, like, for instance, if we're looking at, the ethnic breakdown of the the, schools, everything in the EIA is gonna be discussed at that meeting. You know, so it's like a summary of what was looked at. So So you're building it as you go along, but you don't necessarily present the draft at 05:11. You definitely will on the twenty eighth.
Yeah. Typically not because we need to button it up and, it's a formal draft. That's what I want to clarify. Thank you. I do want to add to that, that the goal would be to, publish that EIA, sometime before the first regularly scheduled meeting where it's being considered and where it's being presented to the community just so, of course, the board as well as the community has, sufficient time with it so that they can develop their comments and provide, robust input. Okay. So we typically, post on a Friday before a Thursday meeting.
That kind of time frame, or you're talking, like, more like ten days, like, public hearing type time frame? More like ten days. Okay. Thanks. I think we're at the end. Final trustee bleaker. Anybody else? I think we're wrapping up inquiry. Okay. Are your enrollment numbers taking into account the students that are absent due to the ICE raids that are currently taking place, and families at risk will not be able to be in public with their comments? So how will their concerns get heard? Well, I I think the, no. So the data for enrollment includes, you know, the historic number includes who has been
in the district historically, and then the projection is based on it's based on a lot of factors, but it's, you know, one of the one of the important ones is called cohort survival. So it's basically looking from one grade level to the next, what typically happens in this district. So if, like, from eighth grade to ninth grade, the district enrollment increases 5%, That's assumed as it goes. So so those students are it's assumed that they're gonna continue that, you know, that that, you know, that what's what's going on with the immigration situation is not depressing
those numbers, because there's no way for the demographer to know that. And then the, the second question, yeah, of course, given if people are afraid to come speak out, that's going to be a challenge. But there is at least one virtual session. And I'm not sure if there's other ways for you know, folks who who are, you know, are are afraid to come out can can speak up and get their voice heard. Thank you. Last call for inquiry, and then we'll move into advocacy.
Actually, we need a motion and all that. But before we have the motion, I wanna make sure our trustee Bleecker has an opportunity to speak on the item if there's something you the the student assembly want to say. We just wanted to say that the student assembly and council spent forty five minutes discussing action item two, also talking about legal relation to action item three. And the members who voted yes explained that it was in the best interest of schools most at risk of consolidation, and the price paid would ensure a more complex
analysis of the issue. And the members who voted no or abstain explained there were unanswered questions that left the decision unclear. I'm so sorry. I think I missed Trustee Hardin. You had an inquiry? No? Okay. Okay. All right. So in line with our protocols, the next step is to entertain a motion to approve the item. So I will, move approval of the Total School Solutions contract, but I would add the condition that the board hold a study session, to game out potential refinements to
the presented process, broaden and clarify transformation factors and criteria, not clearly defined in the previously approved resolution twenty eight fifty two? Please repeat that. Sure. Any slower. Sorry. I move approval of this total, Total School Solutions contract with the condition that the board hold a study session to game out potential refinements to the presented process, broaden and clarify transformation factors and criteria not clearly defined in previously approved resolution twenty eight
fifty two. I would second. Does anybody have any questions on what that amendment is? I can speak to Rasch now. Oh, no. I just wanna know if there's any questions. It should be Yes. Yes, please explain if you expect support. Okay. Further detail about Yeah. So, I I think it's important I appreciate the comments made by, Trustee McKenzie. I think it's important to us as a Board to take a short breath on this process, and have a moment of intentionality, you know, to ensure that we're delivering
results that align to our intended our Board's intended outcomes for this process. I know the time frame is tight. I think the purpose of this would be essentially to give the superintendent a bit of clarity around, the why behind this work. And I also think we owe, the committee itself that we form, and the board razor sharp clarity around our intentions, the reasons for it, the benefits that will come from it, and how we're moving forward.
You know, I think it was said a few times, you know, consolidation is a tool in the belt, but it's not necessarily a means to an end. So I think we have to be clear that in addition to the metrics that, you know, what does success look like for this process and what are the desired outcomes? And there are a few of us in this body that were not, you know, that were quite articulate about not being in favor of consolidation. And I think we have to give them voice in that process too. So the idea that we come out of a study session, which I, you know,
would propose, I know we have time coming up in February, early February. I know there's other agenda items, but taking some time in that process, maybe at that, I'll look to the president, for ideas on how we achieve that. But, I think that's sort of a necessary step zero, before we kick off this work, with the committee. Any other questions for the amend the amendments? Well, I wanted to I have a question. Doctor. Blanca, you don't see an issue with scheduling in the February 12 special meeting?
That that's your retreat. So if you would like to schedule this during that time, I'm fine with that. I think one of the things we have to be clear on is that we're voting and improving a scope of work with Total School Solutions. So if that scope of work is going to change in any way, then we can't, that would have to be done through an amendment of their contract. If you're just trying to clarify directions to me and keep the scope of work the same would be my question. Yes.
So I think that there is potential impact to the scope. I think that, the contract does give clear guidance on how we go about scope change if we need to. But I think that if it that would be part of the desired outcome of this study session would be what are the impacts. If we include additional factors, We have some clarity in the resolution that we approved in December about certain criteria, but I think as we've discussed, there are other important
priorities to consider as we do this work. So I think that we just need clarity around that. We need a little bit of consensus built around that. Okay. Then my question is, does the scope change potentially open up potential litigation of not quite following a b nineteen twelve. I don't eve I can't even predict what can happen, but with this session, this would be a Ms. Serene question. The primary procedural steps under AB1912 to get through the process and stay in compliance
are for the board to approve the metrics, which is on the agenda for tonight. And then the first public hearing where the EIA is presented in draft and the board and, public have an opportunity to provide their input. Mhmm. And then the final meeting where the the, final version of the equity impact analysis is once again presented and a closure resolution is approved. Those are the required procedural steps. So as long as those are occurring as part of the process, the district would
be in compliance. If the schedule is gonna be modified to build in a little more opportunity for community input or for the board to have more time to provide further clarity and guidance, then as long as those major procedural steps occur, the the district would still be in compliance with the statute. Okay. Thank you. Trustee, Mackenzie and then trustee Velasquez and trustee Kenny. So hearing what Serene just explained, I'm not sure that it's necessary to make an amendment to the item as presented.
I think that we have the, jurisdiction within our body to determine if we want to add a study session to be able to determine how we want to approach the process. I think the process is laid out, you know, gives us some statutory, compliance in terms of being able to have conversation. But what we discuss in said process is up to us. Are you asking for friendly amendment to go not have the amendment? I I don't think it's necessary based on what I just heard. So I would ask that the maker and the butcher the amendment. I I that was gonna be be my point.
The same? Yeah. That was gonna be my point. I just don't understand what the so the re my next order because I don't know if that was her comment. Okay. Well You can have your comment. Yeah. Comment, and then you two can decide. Okay. So to kind of your question about the scope of work, it's not clear to me that we can say right now whether the scope of work would change. I would say probably not, because it already talks about there are potential other factors, and so if if we identified other things we wanted to look at.
But what I heard Serene say, it could change the schedule. And so we asked in the resolution for a draft of the process by February, and so we have a draft of the process now. But I agree. I I highly encourage us not to hold two meetings in June to close schools when the teachers are on their summer break, the students are on their summer break, and the families are on their summer break. I heard that we have LCAP hearings and POJA hearings, and we know that we get exactly zero people at those public hearings.
So, I think that if we want to show that we are very in tune with hearing from our community and making them part of the process, that would work against it. So I think what mister Harden has said is having a get together with the board could change the process. Now that's that's my concern. I don't know that that changes our relationship with, Total School Solutions in terms of
the amount of work, but it might change when it's scheduled. So that I mean, that I'm not saying that's not there is an impact there, but I'm not sure that the scope of it changes. So that's why I think it's important, and I am a little uncomfortable with only using the numbers that are on the resolution at this point to develop the list of schools without some conversation, because we didn't have a conversation as a board in December about what we want from this. And so I'm not suggesting that we don't have a conversation.
I'm just saying that I don't think we need to have an amendment to sit rest of the, motion on the floor to have that conversation. If this motion if the motion is presented without the amendment does not mean that we have approved the process. I agree with you. It's just the process is baked into this document tonight. And so if our approval of this means full steam ahead with this exact schedule, that's that's why they don't take understand that to be the case. I think this is a recommendation for the process. There are components that need to be followed, but it doesn't have to be as
exactly prescribed on those exact dates. I think that's what I understand and what I'm hearing. Am I understanding that right? Doctor DeBlanc, go ahead. Thank you kindly. Thank you. So, in terms of the process and the press release that we're releasing this evening, if you approve it, it will say the application and it will have the dates and the date of the first meeting. If you would like to, postpone the hearings to August and say, welcome back. We're closing your schools, we can do that because that is you know, I was trying to put an end to this pain and move forward in the next following
year. But if you feel strongly that we should carry it over, we can still meet the deadline for the, 27, 28 closures. If you take all of the other processes and start moving them down, we will not move meet the deadline. But in terms of public hearings moving to August when everyone returns, that's not a problem, and we should make that amendment in their contract this evening. Okay. So would you Hold on. Hold on. Oh. Oh. I have a follow-up. Go ahead. Well, I was just gonna say, I mean, we've asked a number of committees with
community, parents, our own staff to meet twice a month. I guess, I'm just saying, you know, I would like to revisit the schedule and understand what the new schedule would be. And, again, I don't know where that's happening then if it's not happening at the proposed amended meeting date that we're adding. Doctor trustee Velasquez then trustee Hardin. I think that it's hard for me to be eloquent when I'm like because my instinct is to be blunt. Oh, thank you. I need my asthma medication.
I agree with, trustee McKenzie. I also I am open to changing sorry. Thank you. I really need this. To revising the calendar if that's it. That's the breaking point here. But I guess I'm less optimistic that more conversation between the board members is gonna change anybody's position, but, hey, you seem like a very optimistic guy. But most importantly, here's here's the core of my point. Right now, we have an entire city functioning on gossip and speculation, and I do
not think that is helpful. And in a way that we are able to clarify what we mean as soon as possible and establish clear guidelines and how that aligns with people's decision, the better. I don't think that it's gonna be less painful, but it is highly damaging to the morale of schools, but also to the overall city to continue to, you know,
function without facts just based on so and so told me and so and so knows because they have access to like, it it that is not helpful at all. And I understand the concern about June. I'm open to have it in August. Fine. That's fine. But we need to move forward. Trustee Hardin? Yeah. So I mean, I think it's yes and. So I think I am an I'll say I am an optimistic person, but I also think some of the clarity around the process you know, if nothing else, clarity
around the process and the why behind the work and what we value. You know, we have metrics. I understand that. But there are other factors in terms of, programmatic stability. If you look at other districts that have, either authored resolutions or the superintendent has brought forth a plan, there's generally a bit a a set of desired outcomes that are associated with the work. I think the discussion, if we are fortunate if to have that discussion perhaps at our retreat, I think it it's net positive for the public because it gives greater
clarity around what we expect to get from this and what a success looks like. It's goal setting if you really think about it. And I we had a resolution that we approved in December, and it had a set of criteria for consideration. But I think that that was rather narrow and I think we heard from the public that way. It did the benefit of the resolution is that it kicked off the process. And to doctor Velasquez's point, it got us going. So I think this is, this is a level setting exercise and I don't think
it has to take a lot of time, but I think it is important. And I'm happy to withdraw, my modification if there's consensus among the the the board members that we can have this discussion, at at a at an opportune time and hopefully on the twelfth. Okay. Well Yeah. I think we do now have to have an amendment because I'm not gonna start doing separate votes. Miss Kenny? Trustee Kenny? I guess for me, this goes back to what board member McKenzie said about the
approach and and sharing what we're thinking about it. And and I do think that positive where are we where are we trying to go a closure is a step that could happen on the way to where we wanna go, but we haven't really talked about where we wanna go. I'm not assuming that closures will come out of this. I know that doctor Blanco, I think, said earlier that the resolution clearly stated that we would have closures. It's not clear to me that Please do, because I'm I'm it says there's an
annual update, but that's not this necessarily potential consolidation scenario. So again but until we I certainly hope we wanna approach this work as where do we wanna go, what do we wanna look like, how do we wanna provide the best program possible with our limited funds for our students, now how do we get there? Like, but if we won't talk about what it looks like, I don't know. I'm I'm really worried that we'll pick some I'm so sorry.
This doesn't feel like an inquiry or anything. It feels like we're getting and he said to kind of clarify what the motion is on the floor. It's getting muddled. I was trying to I was trying to add I don't understand where I Yeah. I was just trying to okay. Can I finish that sentence? I was trying to advocate for the amendment and why having such a meeting. I I hear mister Harden saying he will withdraw it, but if that means that there won't be that type of process, and when you said when possible, I think
that needs to happen before the first meeting of the committee. So if we can't, as a board, say we all want to have that type of conversation before the first meeting, that's why the amendment's there. I'm not sure that I'm allowed to this is an allowable amendment to the item. That's what I'm not clear on. Although your vote depends on knowing where our our board is on it. So we have, Serene, in the audience, what we would like Claire to see from
a legal perspective is the amendment to a contract, the way that Mr. Hardin, mentioned it, a legal way to make that kind of amendment. Is that within the Brown Act? Well, I don't think his motion amends the contract. It's just asking for an opportunity for the board to have a study session or a meeting to establish further clarity around what the schedule would be. So the question is, is it better for the board to do that through consensus and not through this action item?
Or, that's what we just want clarity on. Correct. Madam President, can we take a poll among the board for consensus for this? Okay. Well, if the trustee It's dependent on Yeah. It's dependent on it. So I gotcha. I gotcha. Trustee Bailey trustee draw your Trustee Bailey had gave me a good idea, which is I have the ability as a board president to just set the agenda for a special. So I will set the agenda for special for the, the meeting that you have
just defined with so I will not we will not need to have this amendment. On the twelfth? On the twelfth. Okay. Alright. Then I'll withdraw. Okay. A clarification. Yes. So, what missus Kenny described to me is, more like a visioning process that would take more time than, four hours. Is am I misunderstanding you, missus Kenny? Or do you think that, that twelfth study session would do what you're saying? Point over board. I'm sorry.
We have a motion on the floor. I thought you just dropped the part that your amendment. No. But he had added Yeah. Can you clarify what just I did withdraw my whole motion. So, So now we need a motion for just the item. I mean, for then I'll I'll, approve the motion as stated as as written. Okay. And then, miss Kenny trustee Kenny, are you I'll second it. Okay. Doctor Vasquez second it. Okay. Now we have question have a question or any discussion on the motion? Well, I know it it caused some other questions, so I'm just gonna no?
That works? Seeing there is no further discussion, I will ask oh, sorry. There's a advocacy period. Yeah. So, trustee Holly. Alright. So, miss Bleecker, I'm gonna quote you because I liked your statement. When you're talking about this particular item, you mentioned undue harm to the community, and I really appreciated that because Altadena is still in crisis. We have people who have PTSD.
They lost their homes. They lost their school. And this is a very difficult time for Altadena. And this is a school closure process. It is not a visioning process. This particular resolution that was passed four to three last month is called optimal school size. And I'm gonna say it again, there is no such thing as optimal school size. It does not exist. You can Google it till the cows come home. And it just doesn't.
Sometimes a small class is great, sometimes kids can do well in a big class, sometimes a small school is great, sometimes a big school is great, look at Muir or look at, you know, PHS. But it's really important that we work with facts all the time. I know that I feel the Altadena rebuilding situation every single day And I would have preferred a visioning process which is something that we talked about in the retreat a few times because we had Chris who where Long Beach Unified is in a
visioning process Long Beach Unified Community Visioning 2035. And what that does is it mitigates the undue harm to people. And it is absolutely true that school closures hurt student achievement. This has been talked about, it's been studied, it got national attention after COVID. Children who are in schools where there is a closure have a drop in scores, they have a higher chance of not graduating and they have a higher chance of not going to college and when they do graduate, they have lower wages.
It is kind of an assault on a child, in a sense, and it makes their sense of security in the world uneven and shaky. This is not something I wanna do with our district, particularly this year. We are elected as trustees and our top priority always in everything we do is student achievement. That's the top of the list. Everything we do, we have to talk about how it affects children and our students.
So, I would have preferred a competitive process and not just kind of be handed this one contract because I'm not feeling very comfortable with some of of a lot of what I saw and I'm not comfortable with what I heard. I'm not seeing an expansive process. I'm not seeing a visioning process. Pretty much all school districts are gonna have to go through revisioning because we're in the twenty first century now, and everything's changing including technology in the classroom. We are seeing things anew and right now there's such an assault on public education
that the stresses in our community of the fire, ice, layoffs and what's happening nationally are having an effect on all of us. I I think this will do undue harm to our community. I do not believe we have to do this right now. Although I would be really excited to have retreats where we could come to a unanimous decision about a visioning process for the future of PUSD with a branding process
of what we do, who we are, and that takes into all sorts of things. And that's where we can come together unanimously and all put our and put everything forward for the students in the future and not create stress for people. And that's all I have to say right now. Thank you. Thank you. And I have Trustee Bailey, then Trustee Velasquez, then Trustee Kenny. Okay. So my first concern is that we're tying a resolution to this process that we
have not and we are feeling that we have not fully vetted as a board. That's a red flag. The the lack of clarity in this resolution is part of the the disc the negative discourse about this process that we're hearing from the community.
And the fact that the interpretations of what this resolution is representing seem to be, so indifferent from what I'm hearing the intent of the resolution is. I'm not understanding the sense of urgency. I believe that this the timing for this, as I've said before, is off.
I don't see any deadlines in here for the board to make any decisions on school consolidations or school closures. I'm not comfortable with the numbers, that are represented as far as the, grade level configurations, nor am I comfortable with hiring a consultant at the amount that we're being
asked to approve in the board report when we have been told that we've had to tighten our belts. And my thing is one or two more of these coming across our desk and we approving them, you know, it starts us on that trajectory to to being right back in that same position where we are increasing our deficit spending, contributing to the
increase in deficit spending. Now, you know, when I think about the district's the district's budget, I think about my own. If I don't have the funds or the capacity to pay for some goods or services, then I just have to do without them and make the best out of what I have to work with. And until we take that seriously and start operating from that lens, from that perspective,
we're going to continue to find ourselves having to go through this process of potentially being taken over by the county. The whole entire time that I've been on the board, we've had to deal with this. And so I can't, in good conscious, support any of this tonight. I just don't feel that the foundation of this process is solid enough.
There's too much ambiguity in how we're gonna move forward. So what am I going to vote for? What am I going to approve when I'm not clear? I'm not hearing clarity from anybody up here. So, you know, I just wanna caution us to to think about whether or not this is the right time. I know that it needs to be done eventually. I said that I'm willing to have the discussion, but this sounds like we're already
we've already started the process. And somewhere, we started a process where only a few people are clear or on board, I guess. I'm still trying to find out who that is, but I can't get clarity. When I can't get clarity, I can't bring clarity to the community, which is who I have to engage in this role. And so, that represents a problem to me. And I have to answer to my constituents when they look at me and say,
how are you all approving consultants to come in when you have to lay off employees? How can you be doing that? When you participated in this process years ago and you didn't have a consultant to do that. And I hear when doctor Blanco says the staff doesn't have the capacity. Okay then. Is the time right? Should we be rushing through this? And so, I just I I can't support this tonight. Thank you. Thank you. Doctor Velasquez followed by, Trustee Kenny.
I think that we need to compartmentalize our views on consolidation and what we're voting on, which is whether or not to approve this contract. Those are two different things. Should we support consolidation is one question. Should we move forward with the approval of this contract is separate. In my case, I support both. I believe that this contract is important because we need a process that's neutral and unbiased precisely because we have experienced lots of crisis in the last academic year.
Everybody is functioning out of emotion, and this is gonna be a very difficult decision to make. I don't find it necessary to relitigate the board approved resolution from last month. However, I think that it is very important that we are very clear. Whether we wanna call it consolidation or not, it is already happening. It already happened. Why do I say that?
Because in the budget proposal that we approved, we are streamlining certain positions already. That already happened. So whether or not we wanna call it a consolidation or not, In effect, the budget that we approved already approved that. I am very interested in supporting the needs of students and families. And for me, what that looks like is given the position where we are and
the decisions that we need to make, what is the best possible scenario for a student? How do I create an environment in a school where they have the most possible choices? Campuses. That means expanding the academic choices for a student. Right now, we have open enrollment, and we have not provided families in Pasadena with sufficient information about how their sports teams are gonna look like, how their classes are
gonna look like, how is the class offering gonna look like. Are we gonna be able to continue this program that you're coming to the school? We have not provided that information open and clearly to anybody in open enrollment, not to my satisfaction. I have a student that is moving to a different grade level, who is an athlete, I am not certain. I, as a board member, I'm not certain which are the schools that are gonna
provide that sport. Now I'm sure I can get that information. But, can everybody? And that is not an okay position to put families in. We need to provide families. And more importantly, you know, I really shouldn't say this, but I don't care about the parents that much. I care about the students. We should be able to provide students with the opportunity to take an AP class and a music class in the same school.
And if we're only offering one, because that's how much we can afford and those conflict, we won't be able to. So we need a critical mass of students that need that programming so that we can offer that to all the students when they need it, when they want it. And don't get me started on academic outcomes because I have a lot to say in a couple minutes. So I support them moving forward with this contract.
I am very emotional about this. Everybody is. And I am trying to understand the bigger value in the small sacrifice in the big sacrifice that we're gonna ask everybody to make. Trustee Kenny? I don't feel like this is quite as much to say. I feel like a lot of it's been said. The budget cuts that we made, where we are asking schools to share administrators, where
we are reducing support staff and potential opportunities for students, and and making the day to day experience for our classroom teachers more of a struggle so that they can provide the same opportunities for our students. I don't think we wanna continue that, and I am concerned that if we don't make some decisions, we will be looking at similar budget cuts next year. So even if we didn't cut something this year, it could come back next year.
We already saw that the the COLAs for the next two years are lower than what was originally projected. We don't even know what might happen financially. So we need to be in a place where we can protect our programs and make sure that they are optimal for all kids. So the timing is not ideal from all of everything that's happened, from the pandemic on through the fire. And yet, we're in this position financially that impacts our, offerings to students and families.
And so that's why this is unfortunately the time we need to start looking at these decisions. So I'm supportive. Trustee Harden, did you have the Just very briefly. I mean, I heard a very important set of statements from, doctor Velasquez about her why to do in doing this work. And what I expect to get out of going through what's an incredibly impactful, and
emotional process. And I think that's that's where I'm at when it comes to us declaring those intentions as we move on and move forward. That gives the, that gives the, committee valuable input to say these are the values of the board and we will move forward accordingly. So that's my piece on that. As for the out does that as for as for the outcome of consolidation, again, I I said it it I don't I don't view it as a means to an end. I know that, we made a deliberate, effort.
I think in the I think the resolution spoke very clearly to transformation, and that means building a district that's resilient financially. Program I think some of these points were brought up in the presentation by TSS that there is opportunity for programmatic stability, and ensuring that, opportunities that parents and students identified when they enrolled their children will be there for them because we do this
work, because we'll have a district that we have the gift we can give to the community is a district that thrives in a very inhospitable environment for public education. So I am in contract. Okay. Trustee Hawley? Thank you. I've listened to everything here and I understand. We're not here for I. We are a governance team. We're here for we. We're elected to be a part of a governance team with the superintendent.
That's how this works. We're also supposed to think about everything we do affects on student achievement and the facts are not with school closure. It's good to have a seven to zero decision on a visioning plan for Pasadena 2035 in line with Long Beach Unified and other districts. This will cause undue burden on the community because of the pain the community is already in. I am not in favor of this.
We don't have to do this now. We can take the time. We can kick this off in six months or so as a visioning plan keeping student achievement. I don't understand why there's such a rush to close schools. Something's going on. Thank you. And I'm feeling it. Thank you. I appreciate if you, your points well taken. Thank you. Okay. So, did I miss anybody? Okay. I guess I'm my final comment is, I do want to acknowledge, doctor Blanco.
She took the resolution that we approved. My interpretation was we were tell we're giving her the directive to define her own process, which is what she did. She got a external consultant, which is what she did. And, you know, I'm not I I'm I'm accommodating the additional process, but it feels like a process on a process, but that's okay. You know? That's fulfill something and it it maybe communicates a vision to the public that and
it's within the timeline and I am supportive of that, but I I do appreciate all the work that doctor Blanca has done to her best ability, and I I am concerned that any potential change or scope change will impact doctor Blanco and I I her work. I trust that she knows what's involved. So, I, I am grateful. So any further advocacy?
Point of clarification is the point of clarification. Okay. So I am under the impression from what I have heard from Serene that what we are approving is a scope of work for Total School Solutions. I also understand that there are some milestones that have to be completed within said scope of work. The date for which those milestones occur is up to us to have some flexibility and autonomy over.
Yes. That's correct. And the contract itself doesn't have the schedule built into it. I think the schedule that the board is speaking to is what was part of the presentation. So some adjustments can be made to that at the board's direction. Thank you for that. I also am checking for understanding with my colleagues that we have also agreed to have conversations in our retreat style or study session meeting to sort of give some greater framing and context to what it is we're getting ready to embark upon.
Do I understand that correctly? Yes. That is what we agreed on. Okay. I I think that, there is where where I'm seeing right now is being able to sort of differentiate between the scope of work for the consultant and the sort of wider kind of governance responsibility that we have as an organization and also the kind of, like, body work we need to take on in terms of determining what
our goals are as a board from this process, what we see as kind of like, I guess, the I think we should I want us to be able to go into this with the end in mind. And the end for me is where and how do we end up being a district that serves students, provides programming, that benefits our students in terms of their academic
needs, in terms of their kind of post graduation needs, their kind of career and future life needs, their, you know, kind of development of them as civically engaged and evolved human needs, their needs in terms of us sort of supporting and molding them as they become and continue to become the leaders who are going to shepherd this
community in years to come. To me, that is the end that I have in mind. And as an organization, I think we all have a significant responsibility to ensure that what we are doing in this building and any of the other buildings that are providing teaching and learning are functioning with that end in mind. And I want us to think about the best way on how to get there. And I'm gonna be very clear on that consolidation is not my plan a.
It is not. But I do not want to be on the menu for a conversation that's going to happen whether I like it or not. So I wanna be at the table. I wanna have a voice. And I wanna be able to ensure that what my vision is, what my end is, is very much front and center in terms of this dialogue, this process, and this plan as we move forward. And also as a vested member of this community, as miss Bailey said, I am accountable to people who have elected me to be here.
And my responsibility to my constituents is that I'm going to deliver high quality education at every turn. Full stop. Thank you. Thank you. Alright. And to your your comment, we I can receive your input regarding the agenda for that special, for anybody that wants to provide it. Alright. So are there any further, advocacy points? I see none.
Trustee Bleaker, what is your preferential vote? The, the assembly voted a yes because the assembly council accepted the December vote on resolution twenty eight fifty two. And based on that, we made the decision that it was in the best interest of the schools most risk of most at most at risk of consolidation to go through this process. However, the assembly and council did have concerns about the price. Okay. Thank you. Alright. So, motion seconded. All those in favor, raise your hand. All those against? Any abstentions? Alright. Motion passes.
Thank you. Next item is the resolution statement of conformance with the equity impact analysis metrics for consideration of school closures and consolidations pursuant to Ed Code 41,329, AB1912. Do you have any presentation or no? Okay. Any questions on the item, doctor Velasquez? Can you talk to us a little bit about the relationship between the resolution that
we already passed and this one? And is there any impact? I wouldn't say there's necessarily an impact, but this is the first step pursuant to AB nineteen twelve to give the committee that's going to be formed, the superintendent's advisory committee, metrics to focus on and assess in order to make a recommendation to the board. So if that process is going to kick off within the time line that's been identified, it's a very important first step for the board to approve the metrics so that the committee is tasked with reviewing those particular metrics and building their recommendation.
So during the previous conversation, the, the other speaker mentioned the previous speaker has mentioned that changing the metrics would put us in uncompliance, but we have now two resolutions that don't necessarily completely align in terms of criteria. If this passes, we would have been two risk two board approved resolutions that don't necessarily match. So how do they coexist? So I think what doctor Pandolfo also mentioned is that the metrics are the the
state mandated criteria that the committee and the board have to approve and then move forward in order for the committee to do their work but and would be the basis for a closure and equity impact analysis as well as a closure resolution. If there are additional criteria to consider, which we were talking about, for example, enrollment is not a metric but is a very important data point that becomes part of the discussion and is part of what the committee reviews.
Just because the board is approving a set, state approved metrics does not mean that there aren't additional considerations that the committee can review and that can be incorporated into the EIA analysis and brought to the board for their review. But he did mention a precedent of a previous school board. So what does that mean? So yes. So the the school a school district that is under receivership did add additional metrics, at this stage of the process, and the attorney general did provide very strong comments
that those metrics would lead to inequality and wouldn't lead to an equitable process and an equitable EIA analysis. And so there's the danger that if the board adds metrics that So then I don't understand. Can we or can we not? Like, it seems like we can't. We it is at our discretion to add additional metrics, but then it is not our discretion to add addition. So that's where the conflict comes. It's allowed pursuant to the statute.
It's not recommended from your legal counsel. So we go back to the first question. Then how would the two resolutions coexist? There are additional criteria that the that the board has built into that first resolution that, again, can be part and parcel of what the committee reviews. They do not have to be approved as a metric in order for the committee to review them. Trustee Arden? I think Oh, wait. Are we you're in questions though. I'm sorry. I want that to say. Okay. I just wanna and I think that's important. There's metrics and then there's Data points.
Data points and factors as was defined by TSS. And those are things that we, the board, based on its values, which is what we will talk about hopefully, will lead to a definitive set of those things. Correct. Yes. And then the metrics, we can feel comfortable approving metrics because those are best practice for the metrics piece of the process. Yes. Any other questions? Question? Doctor Blanco? Yeah. So I think, we talked about this last time, but some of the maximum enrollment
sizes in the resolution are already below what the size of some of our schools are. So, there was some concern that came forward about does this mean you're not going to allow my school to enroll additional pupils? And I do believe that we agreed at the last time we discussed this that we're not stopping enrollment for those schools that are already over the maximum amount. So I just want to state that for the public again and maybe in the retreat we can have a more deeper conversation about those numbers, and make any adjustments
at that time. Alright. If there's no fruit oh, I'm sorry. Trustee Kennedy, you have a question? I thought you had advocacy. I was about to move approval. Oh, okay. But I wanted to wait for you to say the word, so all I did was turn on my But I wanna make sure trustee Bleaker had an opportunity. Did you have something from student assembly to comment on? Okay. Alright. So entertaining a motion to approve the resolution as written. So moved. Do I hear a second? Second. Okay. Alright. Let's, have any, advocacy at this time? Well, a couple things.
I just wanted to say to doctor Blanco, so the enrollment isn't one of these metrics, but it's it's one of the factors we'll talk about later. I did wanna just express a concern about transportation and the impact on feeder. I didn't see them in the schedule that was in the presentation, but I know that we will address them and that they have to be part of the the economic equity impact analysis. Doctor Pandolf was saying yes. Okay. And, I would wanna express a concern. So, you know, per the ed code, it says that, the board should develop the
set of metrics and that we, make them public at a regularly scheduled meeting so that the public can provide input. I would just say that when we put something on a board agenda and send it out on a you know, post on a regular Friday, I'm not sure that's really actually trying to let the public know that something's happening that we want their input on. So I would say, hopefully, we'll be doing a better job of that in the future. So, again, we had no one here tonight to talk about this. I did read the case on Oakland, and it it was an interesting letter that
the attorney general wrote because he seemed to say one thing and then he seemed to slightly say the opposite. It it seemed as though Oakland used interpretations of the metrics. So the way they did, I think it was capacity. Mhmm. They penalized schools for having special day classes, which have smaller enrollment. And so they said, so those schools are under capacity. Therefore, they should close. And he was saying, well, that is creating a discriminatory ex discriminatory effect on students
in special education. So I think part of this is also making sure that when we put these metrics in our analysis, that we're not introducing So just these names of metrics is not enough to not be discriminatory. We need to be intentional about how we use them. Okay. Any other advocacy? Okay. Hearing none. Oh. None. Oh, okay. So I am, wanting to ask trustee Bleeker for her preferential vote. Yes. Okay. All those in favor, raise your hand.
All those against. Abstentions. Motion passes. Thank you. Thank you. Alright. Thank you for your patience, Steph. Oh, should we have a break? Yes. Yes. Let's have a motion to extend to what time do you feel like? Eleven? 10:45. Motion to extend the 10:45. All those in favor? No. Eleven. 10:45. Okay. Thank you. All right. Let's have a five minute break. Doctor. Blanca, are you running for the bathroom? Yes, I am. Why So should I talk well, you're the Franklin. I've talked to you about Franklin. Did did we talk about What about telling about the toxic.
And and I guess we're doing a lot of work there, and we're drilling Talk to, the CDL, person who's in charge of this. I thought you were in charge of the facility. I thought you were in charge of facilities. I am, but that's hours management stuff. No. No. No. No. But, I mean, the person was saying, why are we doing this work if if this notice is gonna they wanna know why we were drilling on the campus and jackhammering. Like, are we disturbing the soil? Why? Because That was the concern, is that I'm getting a thing saying you wanna hear about this, and we're not gonna touch the soil, but I hear you jackhammering. So how is that possible? Okay. The soil. Alright.
And then just prop two. For the charters, we want to ask for prop two. We there's something we have to do. We're not doing it. We don't have capacity to talk to Sergio. He's in charge. So the board resolution just said Folks, colleagues, we have seven stars so far. Good job. All right. So staff presentation, Doctor. Chan Hill and team. Thank you, president Fredericks. I wanna introduce, doctor Nadir Naio, our director of curriculum and instruction, alongside, her coordinator, Lilia Romero, and the coordinator of the language assessment development department, David Barra.
They are here with me tonight to present, some context and background over, our priority to, create student success for our Latino, and Hispanic students. So good evening, President Fredericks. I don't know where Doctor. Blanco went, but good evening to her and the board and SLT. As, Doctor. Chan said, my name is Nadir Nio, and I'm the director of curriculum instruction professional development in EdTech. And we're here to present on the commitment to Hispanic Latino student success.
I'd like to say before I begin that the terms that we use within this presentation are not meant to dismiss or disrespect any people or, and how they identify themselves who are part of this demographic. Just real quickly, our strategic pillar, which is learner focused instruction, is where we always put our priorities. And here, when we talk about why Hispanic Latino success and why now, part of this has to do with the board resolution 2,586, that was passed in 2020, which
noted the historical inequities related to racial discrimination for Latinos and Hispanics and, actually, indigenous as well. And it recognized the need to harness the cultural capital or the funds of knowledge of these of this diverse population of people. We Pasadena has a Hispanic Latino students comprise of about 57% of the population. Yet, our work towards this resolution has been occurring primarily with English learners. And what I wanna say before I say working towards it, prior to this resolution,
we were working on this. So the resolution was not the impetus for this. But the one thing we did notice, what the resolution did point out, is that expanding our work because we were focusing on, English learners specifically, is an opportunity to realize the intent of the full intent of the resolution. Because with that said, most oftentimes here in Pasadena, we conflate English learners with HispanicLatino, and that's not necessarily the case. And particularly Spanish is the predominant language of English learners in PUSD, but not all
English learners are Hispanic or Latino, and not all HispanicLatinos are English learners. There are about 16 some English learners we have 16% of them are a subgroup of the Hispanic and Latinos. And they have very different needs from those who are not English learners, which we'll see in the data, to come. And before we present the data, this is kind of the data is based on the Board of Education academic goals. Highlighted there are the Hispanic Latino students, where we want to be in literacy for third grade over the next four years.
Mathematics, in fifth and eighth grade are the metrics, and for college and career indicators at the bottom. I'd like to bring up, Ms. Romero to present the data that we're talking about. Thank you, Doctor. Nio. Good evening, everyone. So looking inward, we collected data, that would be in alignment with those academic goals that, Doctor. Nayo, presented on right now. And approximately 50% of our third grade Hispanic students and approximately 11% of Hispanic English
learners show proficiency in, English language arts. In approximately twenty four percent of the eighth grade Hispanic English learners and approximately four percent of English learners show proficiency in mathematics. We are going in the interest of time, we are advancing some of these slides, but you have access to our presentation, in order for us to talk about and share with you what the data shows with regards to the graduation rates. Approximately ninety one percent of PUSD students graduate.
And more recent dashboard data shows approximately 90% Hispanic students and seventy eight percent Hispanic English learners graduate from our schools. Finally, we collected data with regard to the college readiness gap. And you will note that out of the approximately 78% Hispanic graduates, approximately 5% Hispanic English learners graduate having completed a through g requirements. And we know that this isn't just numbers and bars.
It's quantitative data we wanted to share, but Mr. Ibar is going to talk a little bit more about the qualitative data of this, student demographic group that we are proud to serve. Good evening. So with this slide, looking inward, we wanted to share the experiences of our English learners as an example of things that, we've done and we wanna continue to do. So if you look at the slide, we have three different, perspectives. We have students, caregivers, and staff.
And so one of the things that we participated in was CSLX, which is Community Schools Learning Exchange. And one of the strategies that they, helped us incorporate were called platicas, and they're just, very intentional discussions with different stakeholder groups to see what's working, what's not working. So if you, read here, the stars kinda highlight, some positives that's going on with, those different subgroups. The glasses kinda share opportunity for us to look a little bit deeper to see
how we can better, support and service, our the subgroup. And so as we move to looking around, I know we discussed earlier, there are a lot of services and programs that we are, currently doing. This is a list. This is not an exhaustive list. There's definitely more here, but you can some of the highlights, we have an ELD curriculum that we adopted in elementary and in secondary. We have a Puente program that service just our Hispanic students at three of the
four high schools. We have the International Academy at Blair, which supports secondary, newcomers to our district, dual language, AVID. So there's already a lot that we're doing. And then kinda to the next slide and the last slide is the looking forward. On this one, I think one of the things that we definitely wanna highlight is the, organizational coherence and that collaboration. Going through the process of CSLX, one of the things that I learned was how many other departments that we can tap into and really support each other.
It's not just lab that's supporting ELs, but we have different divisions and how can we, create that collaboration so that we work, more effectively and utilize all staff. We also wanna highlight, being able to flex our community. We have a lot of organization organizations and associations in the community that we can definitely leverage, to support, our Hispanic EL students, across the district. And then we also wanna make sure that kinda with the last, point there, to
continue to build teacher capacity capacity and intentionally expand their understanding of who their students are, continuously monitor their growth, and plan for strategic supports for this subgroup. And questions? Thank you. I know. I gave the notes on time. Thank you so much. Appreciate it. And I'm really sorry we had to keep you so late. We'll have to switch the order next time. Okay. Any questions? Trustee Kenny, any other questions? Okay. Trustee Kenny, then, Trustee Bailey, and Trustee Vasquez.
I went back in and was looking at some of the words in the resolution and then looking at, kind of progress over time. And I want to say I think there was a very large improvement since 2020 in the grad rates for the Hispanic Latino group. It's more moderate growth, it looks like, in A through G, but but I think those are probably related. So as we graduate more students, the denominator for A through G is getting larger, so there's more opportunity for more kids to meet A through G. But again, it's a larger group, and that could be, why that's a little bit
more moderate. CASP is a more a little more of a flattish line for both English language arts and for Hispanic, not just, English learners. And I guess I I'm hoping that we can delve into a little bit what do we think is going on here. You know, what are some of the causes or or may and maybe this is work that you're working on, and you can share it more with us. When I look at a lot of the graphs, the socioeconomically disadvantaged and the Hispanic
lines are extremely similar. And when I looked, at least for the last year, about 82% of our Latinos were socioeconomically disadvantaged. So, as we're looking at, you know, what supports are needed, you know, what are the needs, I think that's gonna be one of the factors. Also, when we're looking at test scores, they're very heavily weighted into elementary and middle, and that's where our English learners our English learners don't make up a majority.
I don't think they're I'm gonna say they're a third. I looked this up, and I forgot I don't know where I wrote the number down. But But it's a it's a 25% to a third of our Latinos are English learners. But that is going to be heavily weighted towards the younger students who happen to be the ones who are taking the test. And I will reiterate, I don't believe that measuring English learners by how well they do on the CAASPP is legitimate. I want to measure them by how much progress they're making towards English proficiency. So I will say that.
And then I would encourage us to to, as often as possible, to use multi year graphs so that we can see, you know, what what is the progress? What is the growth over time? Rather than just kind of a static one year. Thank you. Trustee Bailey, then trust Trustee Velasquez. Yeah. I just wanna thank you you all for this. I am just happy to see this resolution finally, actually being presented, in the way
that it is, because 2020 what was that? Five years ago. And I know that we've been doing the work, but, you rarely hear this resolution referred to. So I appreciate this coming to light and I do wanna commend your commitment, especially to this learner demographic and providing this information. My question is, is this on the district's website somewhere, this information?
The actual information that's in the slide deck? Mhmm. But we we were pulling it from the, from the dashboard and from So it's on the dashboard. Data person. Yes. Do we have a place where these kind of presentations live on our website? This exact presentation will obviously be included in the board, on the board website. However, we're also, we're gonna bring to you soon an update on the district dashboard where information like this can be filtered. That will go on our website. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Trustee Velasquez? PSD has little over 13,000 students.
Out of those, around 7,500, 400 are Latinos. 4,675 composed the 36% of non English learners that are not up to grade level in English, and that number is even higher in math. And we do not have any meaningful way that we engage that population ever. We do not engage with Latinos non English learners ever, and 5,000 of them are
failing. That is a significant number. That is not a marginal population. That is a core instructional challenge of this district. And to have a chart that says that in spite of not teaching English and not teaching math, ninety percent of them graduate is offensive. Because clearly, they don't know and they don't have the basic competencies that would be required for graduation, so it's a farce. Would you like to explain, doctor Alanko?
I can't explain your statements or your opinions, but I would say that we engage very carefully with closely with all of our parents. We have parent teacher conferences. We have PTAs where our Hispanic parents are part of. We have other parent groups at schools. And the graduation standards are the graduation standards. And I've said many times that I do not agree that the SBAC is a predictor of life success, especially for students of different cultures and different ethnicities because these tests are not normed for most of the children that we serve.
Okay. So let's look at the, we skipped over the slide on gait, and let's look at the process of identification of, gifted children. Do you mean to tell me that of all the English learners, only one percent is identified as gay are identified as gay students? So language is the main predictor of whether or not a student is gifted. Is that what we're saying? That if you speak a language other than English, you cannot possibly be a GATE
student? Or is there a problem with our identification process? I would agree that there's a problem with the identification process. Again, the standardized tests that we use for gait identification, do not usually show results with, different students. I've talked to the gait coordinator about this before, and we should look at alternative measures for identifying the giftedness in all children. Yeah. This is actually a point of clarification that we also had when we received the data. This does represent students who are identified, GATE through testing.
We also have a robust, process called secondary review, which is, it is more manual because it is comprehensive through a profile, review that the teacher conducts with with students. That is something that is prioritized across all of our schools but was done as a sample run at Madison and Washington Elementary several years ago first when showing that it does increase the, diversity of students who are identified through GATE. We applied it across all schools. So, this data will need to be updated to include all students who are gait
identified, not just identified through testing because, yes, the tests are not necessarily normed for them. I'm gonna say this in Spanish myself, not through the translators. Board members. All of the parents of this district need to ask and demand more from their teachers, demand more from their principals, and demand more of this board members. This is outrageous. This is not acceptable, and we need to do better. And I would ask all of my board members, fellow board members, for consensus for bringing back a presentation of saying, what are you going to do about it?
Because none nothing in this presentation says what is going to be the plan. And I understand that under the new economic conditions, we are going to close some of the positions that have been serving students and families. But those positions have not shown any percentage or significant percentage difference in the outcomes of those students. So it is regrettable that we're losing those positions, but those positions did not change the outcomes. So we didn't lose much.
We hear, very often hear, from families that have a lot to say and a lot to criticize about our educational instruction. And those are the families that benefit the most out of the services and systems that we provide. We do not hear enough from the students, the parents of these students that are the ones that are failing. And so I ask my fellow board members, would you agree, is there consensus on bringing back a proposal on what are we gonna do about it?
Because just showing us that we're not being successful is not enough for me. It's not clear on what this seems like another discussion on identifying what you're asking. I I am not sure what is the value of this presentation without some plan. Okay. So we'll put a hold on your consent your call for consensus. Trustee Bailey, do you have a inquiry or No. I I I'm sorry, but I can't I can't take this.
I can't as a former employee of this district, I am offended that a board member would sit here and insult employees who are losing their jobs because in your opinion, they are doing nothing. The issues that are going on in this public school system is not exclusive to
this public school system when it comes to students of color. And if it were not systemic, then I might agree with you that these folks are doing nothing. But it is insulting to think that an elected official would say that about someone in their employ. And I take offense to that, and I wanna apologize to each and every employee who may fit in that category that was just discussed.
It is not appropriate for us to display offensive attitudes, no matter how passionate we get up here, towards anyone in this community, whether they're an employee of this district, a parent, a student, or a committee mem a community member. Thank you, trustee Bailey. I think we've gotten off topic here, so, I will we can speak outside of this meeting, but, yes, please let's maintain a safe space here.
Nobody's here to berate or be berated, So let's dial it back. So please maintain respect. Thank you. Okay. Are there any other questions on this item on the presentation? Okay. Thank you so much. Thank you. I would like to request a a consensus. Okay. Can we bring that to the end of the, meeting? You could bring it back, and we'll do a consensus. And then if you could draft what we're calling consensus around, that'd be helpful.
Actually, then I would like to ask, what are we what what were we supposed to get from this conversation? What was the goal? Okay. That is the inquiry question. Doctor. Chan Hill is brief response, and then we'll move on. The intent was to actually initiate next steps to to address the fact that we respect the board's decision to, prioritize Latino Hispanic students and black students in the academic priorities. We do think that it is, important to provide the context of the data, which
is alarming for the fact that 57% or more of, percent of our district are Latino, and Hispanic. We know that it is a structural systemic concern, and a structural and systemic solution has to be made and not individual projects. So we don't necessarily have the answer. It is far larger than, than we can come up with ideas on. And so it was an introduction of the concept of us, engaging more community members who are not beyond our EL families, but also inclusive of them, and then to
be able to essentially continue the work. We are more than happy to provide updates as needed. But it it it is if it was not clear, our intent is to say we're prioritizing this. We understand the status, and we are moving forward. Okay. Thank you. Alright. Thank you. Good night. Thank you for your presentation. Now we're at item M, Board Committee Reports. Anybody have a recent, committee meeting to report out on?
Upcoming committee. Okay. The Legislative Advocacy Committee will have its first meeting of 2026 on Monday, January 26 at 05:30. I believe we will be here in this room. You're invited to join us. Okay. Anybody else? Chairing committee? I mean, myself, I guess. So let me bring up my notes. So the facility cap facilities and capital projects committee met last Tuesday, and, we went the Blair Fencing is underway moving actually, on the agenda, I guess, potentially moving forward.
We streamlined fixed monthly reports. We are seeing progress on the new lease leaseback process starting with John Muir modernization project. Timelines and budgets are on track so far. The Linda Vista bid has gone out January 15, and the deadline for questions on those bids is February 16. Selection of a developer is sometime after March 30. And our next facilities meeting is February 10. Is it February 10?
Okay. It's a Tuesday at 06:00. Just a tag on. We did have to reschedule the COC meeting for February from its normal time to the day after facilities on February 11 because of conflicts with other committees. With the SVAC. Okay. We're meeting every sorry. Other committee reports. I think we just started the year, so we're just some committees have not started their meeting yet. All right. Any other items on that? So we're at the consent agenda.
Any pools? Yes, Trustee Bailey? I have a question. I don't know if we need to pull it. On, three what is it, three L? Three. Is it Covello Group Incorporated? Yes. Okay. So you just have a question? Yes. So So I don't think we need to pull it if it's just a question. Anybody else on polls? What? Okay. Motion two. A sweet motion for the entire consent agenda. I'll move to two. Do you want to wait until I ask my question or do we take a
motion and then we'll do the question? So I move to approval. Move and then we second it. Okay. Any questions? Oh, I thought it was Doctor. West. Okay. So Trustee Bailey had a question on N3L. And then I have a question on N5N. Okay. Yes. My question is on this contract for nurses not to exceed $400,000 and reason being, I guess, you need some subs or something in place for nurses who are out.
I'm not I'm not clear about why we're entering into this contract again for such a high amount when we need to be tightening our belt straps. And what is the comparison between, hiring a couple of nurses as opposed to I don't think it's gonna exceed 400,000. I'm not even sure that it would exceed 200,000, but that's my concern, my question.
Good evening. The I did miss the first part, but we're asking about the increase in the excuse me, I ran upstairs. I didn't realize I was out of breath until I started talking. I actually was kinda surprised to see you standing there. I thought it was gonna be for doctor Kanell. But, no, my the first part of my question, I'm just questioning why are why are we hiring or letting go and then turning around and and hiring an agency Okay. For this amount. Okay. For Covello. So, we rely on Covello for our school nurses, if we need a school nurse.
So we look to them for their RNs and then also for LVNs. So that's why health programs uses Covello. We started the year with a vacancy, so we did enter the contract and we hired a school nurse to cover the vacancy. We do have three new school nurses this year and then additional three from last year, so a good chunk of the, staff are relatively new. So once we filled our last vacancy, I did keep on the, RN that was covering and an additional one for floating so that we could allow time for the
new nurses to go shadow the other nurses and then participate in their LACOE training without, any conflicts on their time. So that's why I did keep the floaters. And then in that one of our nurses went out on on leave for, about two and a half months. So the floater then filled in for that. Recently, I received a resignation from one of our, new hires, and so that is another reason why we need to increase the contract. Because now I need to keep another one that we've already had trying to keep
them on to the end of the year to cover that position. It's just to the end of the year? Yes. And what's the plan for next year you're gonna hire? Well, we have, an elimination already, a reduction in force. Okay. But this goes away at the end of the year? Yes. Yes. We will probably enter a contract though into next year just in case there is somebody again out on leave. And that's something I didn't anticipate, but it does happen. Or we have, a change in staffing. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. Question on n five n, which is, the certificated report.
So I just wanted to, it looks like we're hiring some more temp teachers, and one of them is special education. I I guess I thought we were trying not to hire SPED as temp teachers, the one at Webster, it looks like. Yes. The temp teachers would be, for example, on a special ed, we are hiring them. We are not hiring on temp unless they do not have a clear credential. So if there's somebody so if somebody's working towards the credential, and have not fulfilled the all the obligations for a probationary contract, that's the only reason they would get
a temp special ed. Okay. So, again, just remind me, the the temp teachers are teachers that we can terminate at the end of the year, the at the end of their contract without giving layoff notices or, you know, pink slips. Yes. Okay. And I don't know. We must be at 20 of those? Yes. We're significantly under from compared to previous years. Yes. Okay. But we have at least 20? Yes. Okay. And again, it's it's a a tool to use. So this doesn't change the number of positions we are closing, but it changes the
number of people who will receive pink slips, although these people would potentially also be at the end of their contract and not be renewed? Yes. Okay. Any further questions? Okay. So all the preferential vote by Trustee Blicker, please? Yes. Okay. All those in favor of approving consent agenda items? All those against? Substantions. Motion passes. Thank you. Okay. And let's see. Public comment, nonagendized items.
And finally, board requestsquestions. Doctor. Velasquez, did you have a request for consensus? Yes. I would like to request some consensus on requesting updates or a plan on what we're going to try different. I mean, I acknowledge that this is a systemic problem. Okay. That's fine. So what are some of the things that we're gonna try next? Trustee Kenny, you want a clarification question or Well, I guess what I want to
reflect is that when we talk about having goal so we've set our goals. And when we talk about having goal monitoring reports, which we kind of talked a little bit about when we were talking about the governance calendar, it is to reflect on performance and intermediate performance, not just year end performance, and have the superintendent tell us what actions she's taking. And so that's that's why we have that's why we that's the reason behind having
goal monitoring reports, which is why I'd hope to get one, if not every month, every other month. Because when we get one that lumps English language arts and math and CCI and everything all into one, I don't think we can do any of it justice. So if we were having something just on English language arts and we were focusing just on Hispanic students or black students or you know, we've set these goals, but they can be compartmentalized into different anyway, I think that would be valuable.
And it it's not So what I hear what I heard you say is, oh, that's gonna be part of and the superintendent is gonna present that to us? My understanding of how goal monitoring works is we get to hear about the goals and our progress and the work that's being done or how those issues reflected in the data are being addressed. I mean, I know there was So doc doctor Blanco? Yes. Yes. You wanna chime in into this conversation? Well, I don't think it's me that presents.
I think it's our staff that presents. Right? That's what you're referring to, missus Ken? Okay. Thank you. Doctor doctor Hill She's the only one who can hold the count. I'm not I'm not sure if you heard or can translate or have ideas of Well, I'm I'm here. This will be materialized. What I'm understanding is that there was a request to have an update specifically on Latino, Latin, and Hispanic student success in terms of what we will try next. That's one. And then a separate request on having a goal monitoring report provided monthly by individual
goal. Well, I I find that more useful. I I don't know about what Kim is saying, but I find it more useful if, when we get this information, the the part of the presentation is this is this is the next step. Okay. And so I think my clarifying question is, what is the what is the directive? Both of those are possible. If you want to combine them, then I just need to understand what would be
acceptable in terms of am I coming with goal monitoring reports overall with a specific highlight of the next steps and things specifically for Arlan? So my suggestion would be, that in the future, when we have this type of presentation, it comes with next steps. And because this one didn't, we start by adding the next steps for this one.
Within the goal monitoring process. That would be my suggestion. But, that's why I asked for a consensus. Okay. So repeat that directive and so, the rest of us can do a thumbs up or thumbs down on that? That when we have presentations like the one that we had today where we are monitoring our goals. Right? That's what the presentation was about. Mhmm. We also have, at the end of that presentation I guess the order doesn't matter. What are the next steps or how what are we planning to do to address
some of our findings? And that in the absence of that second step for this particular presentation, we bring back some next steps to the board. So because there was it was lacking in this presentation, we are now directing you to bring back next steps. Clarifying the expectation moving forward and trying to go backwards to address that need. And so next month on our governance calendar, we have goal monitoring, literacy, math, and college career readiness. Plus, we have a midyear LCAP update. Okay. So we'll just come back at that time.
But, again, I'm I'm gonna say that if we're goal monitoring all of our goals across all of the subgroups, across all of the grades that we're testing, that's a lot. When Chris Steinhauser talked about it, he said, you know, we spent a day on it if you're gonna cram it all in. And that's why if we're gonna do it in one hour chunks at a at a board a regular board meeting with our other stuff, it should be pieces. Like, tonight, we looked at the Hispanic students. We could have looked at English language arts. You're advocating to combine or not separate? She's advocating to separate. Separate.
Which I advocated in December. I repeated this. I think that I think that now we're talking about two processes. So consensus number one, do we agree that presentations should also include next steps? Yes or no? Alright. Thumbs up or thumbs down on that one. Okay. Number two. Do we agree that because of this new realization, in the few we should bring back just the next steps for the presentation that we saw today?
Yes or no? Wait. Latino students Yeah. Multiple indicators. Right. Yes. Sorry. Now the new item that Kenny introduced is, should we separate the goal monitoring into sections? I'm not comfortable with that because well, well but we didn't request it. It just happened. Okay. We did request having a Hispanic student. But I didn't request it, but consensus on We all request it, I guess.
Separating the subgroups or math and EL? Can I'm not confused with that. Okay. So I didn't hear any consensus. Then what are you proposing if you're not mistaken that? Trustee McKenzie. She asked me which way I would split it up. I'll leave that to staff. Okay. Okay. Trustee McKenzie has the floor. I think my point of clarification in this conversation is if we are monitoring our goals, then is there a value in seeing a plan, so to say, for or
a road map on how we aim to achieve all of the goals that we actually just set, what, maybe sixty days ago. So this is probably the very, very first option we've had to have any sort of, kind of baseline status of where we are versus where we're trying to go. So do we have, well, we probably don't have yet because we staff has been doing lots of things. So I my my belief is that staff will come to us with sort of
an overarching plan that says, okay, we are at point a, and the goal for the board within x number of years is to get to point, you know, you know, that Really turn the a plus. C. Let me say it that way. To get to that a plus level in terms of getting from the starting point to this ending point. And we haven't had a chance to sort of have the opportunity to get to see kind of what their thinking is around how do we get there and what
the sort of, like, academic, you know, instructional inputs will be in terms of helping us get there. We haven't seen that yet. So perhaps that's what we we're asking for versus Okay. Yeah. I think we're, yes. But that's the same change. So you guys are kind of this is going everywhere and it's for consensus here. No. I think we're But no one is actually saying We're asking for the plan. I think that we're kind of either I think we're putting ourselves ahead of the
plan. I think we need the overarching plan before we start getting into more granular pieces of the plan. Okay. Alright. Yeah. But I'm just you guys I haven't talked yet. So We're we're gonna just do consent. Do you have a request? Or are we I think what We're we're getting into a discussion here. All we're saying is what cons what are you calling for? And then we can thumbs up, thumbs down this. So you're treading into the nonagendized items? Well, she But if you have something you want to We're discussing a a consensus
that she's asking for, so I think the discussion is relevant. Okay. So I thought that I thought you were speaking to trustee Kenny's item, not trustee Velasquez. Right? It all bubbles up to that. So trustee Kenny pointed out that our governance calendar does have various points in time when the staff will bring reports about our academic progress to doctor Velasquez's request about having a plan to address, how we meet our goals that are laid out in
what will be academically monitored, I think that having a greater sense of the plan overall before you start looking at pieces of the plan would be helpful. That's all I would suggest. Not trying to add any new work stream, not adding a new work product, not adding a new discussion item. But I just wanted to clarify understanding of actions relative to goals. And when you said the road map, that's essentially what it is. What does implementation look like to address what Doctor. Velasquez is talking about, but also on a broader scale what we're going to be
monitoring in the next month according to the calendar? Sorry. I didn't quite know the path there. Okay. So that didn't require a vote. Right? We were just kind of understanding context. But we we need to give, like, so for next month, are we asking for steps forward or next steps or no? No. We already voted on that. We did thumbs up on that. Yeah. What you said was already voted on.
Consensus. So, doctor Hill, you got that part. Right? The next steps? No. Okay. Clarification on Yeah. I really have no idea of where you are or what we're talking about at the moment. So So I wanna say I heard that, we have the goal monitoring already set on the calendar. So in the when we bring back the goal monitoring, you want to know what our plan is to address any students that are not meeting the standards, right? So that's something that I heard and our board goals focus on, Hispanic and black
children so we should bring information on how we're addressing students that are not meeting those standards because those, groups were specifically called out in your goals. Clear on that one? Okay. Mrs. Kenny is suggesting that we do not look at all three areas of math, ELA, and college and career at the same time. So if you're all in agreement with that recommendation, we need to adjust the governance calendar, and then I need to know, doctor Hill needs to know which area you
would like to focus on next time. Like, do you wanna focus on ELA, college and career, or math? But miss McKenzie said that there is use to seeing everything. Okay. So trustee Kenny wants it, separated into not holistic, but separated into groups. Right? I am reflecting that to do it justice, to do everything all at once is longer than an hour. Okay. All those in favor of what Kim, trustee Kenny is advocating for, please indicate with
your thumb. Alright. Alright. Consensus. It says move forward with that. So we can can we know which one you would like to see next month? ELA, math, or college and career? Or it doesn't matter. This is why Okay. If that if that's up to us, then we'll decide. Then it's up to you. And then we'll adjust the governance calendar for the other months. Then bring it back. Okay. Okay. I have a board request as available to them now. I have a board request as well, asking for a board consensus to have the superintendent bring back in February 26 meeting a contract for an external unbiased consultant for
professional services to conduct a staff audit of the district's central office to improve organizational structure and reduce operational costs, which would improve services and the delivery of support of instruction? I think central office chiefs can handle that. We're planning to bring in February the, reorganization of the district. So maybe if you could wait and see if that's sufficient before we spend more money on consultants that take up a lot of our time when we're running several committees right now. Oh, I wasn't aware of this. Well, we you expected us to bring forward a reorganization, correct?
So that we were planning to do it by February. No. We never I don't think we directed. But if you wanna do it on your own, that's that's fine. So can you clarify? You are bringing back something in February? We're gonna bring back what our departments would look like with the budget cuts. So you're gonna Oh, no. This is different. This is looking at central. It That's That would be us. So not what we approved. Well, you approve several central office positions to be eliminated. So the goal was to bring back what the central office will look like, what
duties will no longer be able to be completed, and what you know, some things, obviously, if we don't have staff, we won't do anymore. So we plan on bringing the initial information about that. Oh, okay. If you hire a consultant, they're going to tell you we don't have enough people in the central office because we don't. Alright. This was