Happy. Heat. Heat. Hey, hey, hey. Heat. Heat. Calling the meeting to order. Calling the meeting to order at 4:01. We're starting the meeting now. >> Okay,
>> roll call. >> Wait, ladies and gentlemen, may we have your attention, please? We would like to get started with the meeting now. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. Trust >> Okay. Jennifer Holy
>> Scott Harden >> here. >> Kimberly Kenny Mson Bailey >> here. >> Patrice Marshall McKenzie. >> Dr. Jarma Velasquez. >> Tina Frederick here.
>> Dr. Elizabeth Blanco here. Nathan H. >> Uh, Trusty Velasquez, is there a public comment for closed? >> Yes. The board of education acknowledges receipt of public comments via email. These comments will be made part of the
permanent record for this meeting. Be um uh we have three public comments for close session. Um I see. >> Thank you. >> Okay. Thank you, Trusty Velasquez. Uh
first we'll have the special recognition of Sierra Madre Middle School students recognition for participation in the operation mosquito grid growth reduction increased detention. Dr. Chanhill. >> Thank you, President Frederick's. I want
to invite up here um members of the San Gabriel uh mosquito and vector control district, Carol, Ann and Christian, who will recognize our students. There we go. Thank you, B uh board president uh Frederick's uh honorable
board members and superintendent Blanco. We are education specialists from the San Gabriel Valley. Mosquito and Vector Control District, uh a local public health agency for 26 cities in the valley. We're here today to thank and recognize
contributions made by Sierra Madre Middle School students in the creation of a public health video used to walk students through our AY's public health comm community science projects, Vector
Inspectors, and Operation Mosquito Grid. Grid is a community science program for middle school students brought to Sierra Madre Middle School in partnership with Mr. Dev, eighth grade science teacher and our agency.
So the video these students helped create aids in the facilitation of both programs for u many schools within our jurisdiction. And this video shows participating students clear examples of what they must do throughout their participation in the programs,
eliminating countless instructional hours for our district staff and our participating teachers like Mr. Dev. So, we're most grateful for their hard work making this video possible. Um, and we would like to acknowledge their creative contributions. So, our public health
communication champions are as follows. Arya King, not here. She's not here today. Noah Marquez. >> When you hear your name, come on up. >> And then you can stand up there. We'll
take a photo. Sebastian de los Reyes. Thank you so much, >> Holly Kim. Alicia Dixon. >> Thank you. Congratulations, Josiah Dev. Andenhaniah. Emma Ivasian.
Good job, Emma. >> And our student director overseeing the entire project, Ava Ivan. >> Awesome. And then we of course would be remissed if we did not appreciate Mr.
Dev who really made all of this possible. Thank you so much for always putting in the extra effort. He's an amazing teacher. So, thank you so much. >> Yes, we have some things for you.
>> We'd like to invite Principal Newsome, Mr. Dev to join the mosquito. >> Let me get one of just the kids really quick. Thank you so much. Did any trustees want to make a comments? >> Trusty Harden,
>> I would also uh congratulate the students and to Mr. Dev as well. uh may have a family connection to Mr. Dev. So, um thank you very much for all your hard work. Um very appreciated. >> Thank you. Now, uh next item is Los
Angeles County Math Field Day recognition. Uh recognition of Pasadena Unified School District's math field day teams who placed with top honors at countywide competition. Dr. Chan Hill or Dr. Anderson.
>> Thank you. welcome Karen Anderson who can describe the embarrassment of riches that has overcome our teens. >> Yes. Good afternoon uh President Frederick's board of education, Dr. Blanco, and the superintendent's
leadership team. Uh yes, I am here to celebrate celebrate our incredible Pasadena Unified Mathletes. Um, I will say at the LA County competition, it really was almost embarrassing how many
times they said Pasadena and our teams ran up, right students? Like there was a there was a there was a groan in the crowd after a while. They were like Pasadena again. So, uh, just to describe what this is,
on March 28th and every year, we have a Pasadena Unified math competition, math field day, that mimics the LA County competition. So, teams from um, each school gets two teams per grade level, and they compete against each other in
conceptual understanding and problem solving. And they're also judged on their teamwork using a rubric that's based on the standards for math practice. After our uh March 28th competition, we had overall winners. So, we had winners
at each grade level. And those teams participated in the LA County Office of Education math field day on April 18th at that cap. Can you hear all the medals? They're just they're just clinging over there.
um at that competition there, well there are about 80 districts represented in LA County and there were over 50 districts represented there. So it was heavyduty competition and our students shown. So I
would like to um recognize our students by grade level. Um, so we already know that these were the winning teams for our district, but I'm also going to let you know what happened at the competition. And what I'm going to do is I'm going to call each grade level
and then we're going to just sort of line up here and then we'll come around for a picture that way. So we're going to start with fourth grade. This team is from Field Elementary. Can you please come up? Fourth grade team. come right over here and line up. Listen
to that rattle. So, this team and as you can see, you can you can face this way so they can see you and then we'll turn around. As you can see, every student who participated at LEO had uh Pasadena Unified Mathfield Day t-shirts because they're representing the district, not
their school at that point. This team not only won problem solving the gold medal at the LEO competition, they also were the overall fourth grade winning team at LEO.
>> So this is the trophy from the LA County. So, on this team, we have I'm just gonna say your first names and then I'm going to give you all of them and you're gonna pass them out. Okay. We have Heidi, Maris, Jordan, and Kate. And
there, did I say it wrong? Maris. >> Marcus. >> Marcus. It's missing a K. We will reprint your >> Okay, it's missing a C. We will reprint your certificate. And uh this team is coached by Wani Woo
and Wing Zu. So, thank you so much. It's okay. You keep it for right now and then I'm going to get you a new one. Okay. And you guys can move this way. And Logan is the Yeah, there we go. And Logan as well. Thank you. And we're going to go to the
It's okay. You're going to hold on to it and you'll give it to your teacher. Thank you so much. Stay here. Stay here. Thank you. I know it's difficult. We're not doing math right now, so it's hard. Okay. Thank you. >> And can I have my fifth grade team come
up? Fifth grade team. >> So, this team is the team from Sierra Madre Elementary School, and they won obviously overall at our district. They are coached by Natasha Comr and represented here with principal Jod Marqueso. Um, and this team at the LEO
competition won problem solving bronze and conceptual understanding silver at LEO. So, congratulations to the fifth grade team. And we have Aiden Anderson
is not in fifth grade. Excuse me. Fifth grade. We have Mithran Kosik. We have Lena. We have Hugo. And we have Dean. And we have Brendan. Correct. >> Yes. >> Here right now. >> Dean is an alternate. >> Dean was the alternate. He gets a
certificate. >> All right. Congratulations. It's okay. We'll figure it out later. >> All right. Congratulations to the fifth grade team. Um, okay. Great. Let's have our sixth grade team come up, please.
Thank you. Okay, this is two members of our sixth grade team. They are represented from Marshall, third good Marshall Secondary School and they were coached. And I do want you to see, thank you for
bringing the trophy. These are our new Pasadena Unified Math Field Day trophies. Brand new this year. We had the old ones for, I think, 30 years. So, we we upgraded this year. Um, their coach is Ron Cedo. And on this team we
have Nathan Zu, Michael Arabian, Hamid Moadam, Freda Lukan, and Daniel Kira. Yes, there. Thank you so much. >> All right, let's get our seventh grade team, please.
Our seventh grade team is also from Thood Marshall Secondary School. Here you hold it by the Hold it by the woods so that the Yeah, there we go. Just in case we don't want that pop to top to pop off. Um, and this team is
composed of Zach, Walton, Lucas, Franciscoca, and Kiara. Congratulations to our seventh grade team. Awesome. All right. Next up, we have our eighth grade team,
which um is rep is from Octavia E. Butler. Come on up, eighth grade. >> Just Why don't you guys come over this way? Yeah. then we'll have some space. Awesome. So, this team also
um fiercely competed at um Mathfield Day LEO. I have to say um every the last few years I've had the privilege of proctoring at LEO and it is competitive. It is super hard. So, sometimes some of our kids I think because we won so many
medals, they're like, "But we didn't win a medal at Leo." But they did so well. It was really competitive. I was in an eighth grade room and I was extremely impressed with the students there. So, great competition. Um, we have on this team, oh, coached by Mr. Jason Trap.
Thank you. We have Diego, we have Aiden, we have Grayson, and we have Kai, and we have Lily. So, congratulations to our eighth grade team. Are we missing them? And then we did in the last few years
we've added high school teams. So we do have ninth and tth grade teams that competed. Students from all the high schools have the opportunity to apply to be on these teams and they're coached by Dr. Dylan Repel at Pasadena High School.
So these are Pasadena Unified teams. So if I could have my ninth grade team come up, please. Ninth grade. Do I have any of them here? Yay. I have one of my ninth graders here. This is amazing. So, the ninth grade
team won our conceptual understanding the gold medal at the LEO competition. And on that team, we have Justin, Mila, Reese, and Terry. So, congratulations to our ninth grade team. Oh, wait. I forgot
they won two medals at LEO. Excuse me. They also won ninth grade problem solving bronze. So, they won a bronze and a gold at LEO. Congratulations. All right, one more. Where's our 10th graders? Come on up. >> Yeah,
I think some of these students, it would have been really impressive if they wore all of their medals since fourth grade because some of them have been competing for many years. So, this team really was incredible at LEO. Not only did they win 10th grade
problemolving gold, they won 10th grade conceptual understanding gold and they took the overall medal at Leo. So, that's the the Leo trophy and this and that's the LEO trophy. So,
congratulations to our 10th graders. We have Castello, we have Juliet, we have Le Levi Sbec Anderson who's not here right now. And we have Shara. Did I say that right? Okay, thank you. You can take Who wants to take Levis's? Okay, great. Thanks. So, congratulations to
all of our mathletes. And let's go this way. Oh no, that's fine. We call her >> that was literally almost every Yeah, that's why you >> Yes.
I know you're too tall. All the smiles. >> Excuse me, guys. Let me let me get back here. I got to back up. I got to back up. And then you'll get your opportunity to take pictures. Congratulations everyone. All right. Congratulations,
>> trustees. Did you have any comments? All right. Next item. All right. Black History Living Black History Living Museum winners. First, second, and third place students will recite their speech as their chosen
person. Uh, African-American parent council. Oh, >> Miss Bailey. Got it. Hello again. All right. Um, first of all, thank you guys for having us. It's an honor to be here today. So,
the Black History Living Museum is a celebration of identity, legacy, and student agency. And before I even complete what I was going to say, I just want to congratulate all the PUSD students who were recognized before us. We have amazing students in our
district. So, I just want to just give a special clap to them. So, this event is very special to us. We come here uh year after year to showcase our amazing students. And before I get started, I want to thank do some thank
yous because and I wrote them down and I still might forget someone and it's unintentional. So I'm sorry in advance. Um so this is an experience that turns traditional learning on its head and our students step boldly into the instructor transforming into their chosen person.
They really embody their person and we're so very proud of them. And this doesn't happen in a vacuum. So we want to take a moment to congratul I mean excuse me to thank our partners. So the community and family engagement office the face team some of which is in this
room tonight our amazing communications team Dr. Turley's office including Danny and Angela Dr. Blanco's office. Fatima sitting in front of me. Kalarn. Oh my god. Thank you, Kaylearn, for
documenting this amazing event and really bringing light to it. To our PUSD teachers and principles. Couldn't do it without him. So, thank you so very much for all of our PUSD school principles and teachers.
Scott and Sora have been designing our certificates year after year. So, thank you so much for that. One of our uh AAPC members, Nate at FiveM Media, has been doing our marketing and graphic design for free.99
for years. So, thank you so much. Courtney Scrabbback and the Mure Design Lab has been dedicating their time and energy to making costumes for our students and so we thank them for that. Ernesto Kovarubius at the Jefferson Children's Library who's been helping us
also with making sure that students have the research and information that they need to our judges that I won't name for the people that they couldn't select so they don't get harassed on the side, but you know who you are. Thank you so much to one of our first donors, Beverly
Tate, who gives books. and uh for Robinson Park Recreation Center who houses us no matter how crazy it gets and we dip in the hallway and take over. Thank you for that. And most importantly to our incredible students and their
families. Thank you so much. We appreciate you so much. And of course to our organization to the African-American Parent Council. I'm going to thank ourselves. So, with that said, I'm going to go through our students and I'm going to
start with our third place winner. Emil Griffin is one of his names, but he's coming to you tonight as the outstanding Floyd Norman. He's a third grader at Jackson Elementary. Yeah, it's just test. Test. Okay.
>> Okay. Come on. >> Sorry. >> You good? >> You good? All right. >> Test test. >> Test test. >> I'm Floyd Norman and in between a story artist and the first black anime at the Walt Disney Studios. When I was invited
to work at Disney, it was a wonderland, a dream come true. Here I was at a studio filled with incredible men and women who literally created magic. The Disney Studios in the 1950s was thriving. They were making short cartoons, feature films, and building a theme park called Disneyland. The Disney
Studios in the 1950s was thriving. They were making short cartoons, feature films, and building a theme park called Disneyland. After work, I didn't want to go home because there's so many writers, artists, and creatives to learn from. I first worked on sleeping beauty as an inbetweener which is the artist
responsible for ining frames that make the transition smooth. Then I was an assistant animator for 100 window missions and soaring the stone for Jungle Book. I was a story artist. After Walt died in 1966, I left Disney and co-founder of Vignet Films with Leo
Sullivan. We worked on Fat Albert and Sesame Street projects that featured more black characters. Then Disney called me back. So, I worked on a couple more features like Humptrek of Notre Dame, Mulan, Toy Story 2, and Monsters Inc. I think storytelling through animation is incredible because you're
taking an idea and making something relatable that people can connect you. My advice to young people will want Disney. If you have a dream, you got to believe in and put in the hard work. Hopefully, this one's great. Thank you so much. All right. And next we're going to
introduce Enz Barnes as Ruby Bridges. Hi, my name is Ruby Bridges. I was born in 1954 in Mississippi and I grew up in New Orleans, Louisiana. When I was 6 years old, I made history. After the Brown v. Board of Education
decision, I was chosen to attend an all-white school. I was the first black child to go to William Friends Elementary School in New Orleans. Every day I walked past angry crowds. The US Marshalss walked with me to keep
me safe. I was very brave even when I was scared. In my first grade year, I learned in a classroom all by myself with my teacher, Mrs. Barbara Henry. She supported me and and believed in me. I never gave up.
Because of my courage, schools began to change. Today, kids of all can learn together. My story shows that even one child can make a big difference and be brave. Thank you.
And now our first place winner, who was our second place winner last year and came home and took it all, uh, Langston Griffin as the great Jimmyi Hendris. And if I can just say, he literally said last year, I'm coming back to win this
year. >> And he did. >> You all may know me as Jimmyi Hendris, but at birth, my parents named me Johnny Allen Hendris. When I was 15, I purchased my first acoustic guitar. I'm left-handed, so I just flipped that thing around and played blues like Muddy
Waters and rocked out like Chuck Barry. When I came back from the army, I went by Jimmy James and tooured as a pickup artist with Sam Cook, Lil Richard, and Chris Mayfield. Then I moved to New York and played with the Aussie brothers and and the animals basis Chash Chandler
decided to manage me. This was a side that Jimmy Hendrick experienced with Mitch, my drummer, and No, my basis. People say I had some hits like Stone Free, Purple Haze, Winkard, Mary, Bed Love, Food Child, but I really don't live on compliments, you know. See,
there are a whole lot of musicians out there here today hearing all these compliments so they get comfortable and satisfied and forget what music and art is all about. And that's not hard to me, you know. My goal is to create electric church. I believe that people can not only get
electrified through their eardrums, but through their heart and soul. I made a song called Machine Gun for those fighting in Vietnam with hope that love can overcome violence. When the power of love overcomes a love of power, the world will know peace. Who I say, I say with my guitar. So move over and let
Jimmy take over. So, we're gonna have our students come up so they can take a picture. >> Did any trustees have any comments? Trusty Harden, >> you've outdone yourselves once again. U so many years, this event, you know,
it's been such a community unifying event. And thank you African-American parent council for showing up for Black Excellence. I I love you all. Appreciate you all for doing this wonderful gift to the community. >> Thank you so much.
>> Thank you. Any other comments? Okay. All right. Let's have a picture. >> Okay. so many great accomplishments tonight. All right, next item is the introduction to of our new administrators, our CBO
and senior director of special education, Dr. Kell. Well, it's definitely tough to come after all of that. No pressure at all. I do not. That was the cutest. Um, I'm going to I am going to call uh two folks
up to the uh to be beside me. Uh Mr. Avanessians and Laura Barbara, if they can stand up for a second. I'm going to embarrass them a little bit, but if the kids can be up here, uh so can you guys. So, it is my pleasure to introduce Mr. Oric Aanessian at Pasadena Unified
School District's new chief business officer. Mr. Aanessian brings more than 20 years of experience in educational finance and operations, including leadership roles as business manager, chief business officer, and assistant superintendent of business services. He holds a degree in accounting and
business administration, a school business management certificate from USC Phon, and has earned the distinguished chief business official distinguished designation from CASBO. Throughout his career, he has demonstrated a strong commitment to fiscal stewardship, operational efficiency, and
collaborative leadership, including overseeing major facility projects, and implementing systems that improve organizational effectiveness and accountability. Most recently, most recently, he was recognized in 2324 Santa Cl Valley's Association of California School Administrators as
business office administrator of the year. We're excited to welcome Mr. Aanessians to Pasadena Unified and look forward to his leadership and expertise he will bring in support of our students, staff, and our community. Welcome, Aric. It is my pleasure to introduce Miss
Laura Barbara to my right as Pasadena Unified School District's new senior director of special education. Miss Barbara brings more than 26 years of educational experience spanning preschool through adulth, including extensive service as teacher, instructional leader, and district administrator. Throughout her career,
she has demonstrated a deep commitment to of improving academic and social, emotional, and postsecary outcomes for all students with particular expertise in special ed, MTSS, and student support systems. Most recently, she has served Pasadena Unified as the coordinator of
comprehensive coordinated early intervention services where she has supported school initiatives focus on literacy, attendance, discipline, compliance, monitoring, and equitable learning opportunities for students. Miss Barbara is recognized by her collaborative leadership style dedicated
to meaningful professional development and strong partnership with families and the school community. We are thrilled to welcome Miss Barbara into the important leadership role and look forward to the positive impact she will continue to make on behalf of Pasadena Unified students and families. Welcome, Laura.
>> Thank you, Madam President. >> So excited to have you on our team. All right. Next will be um item D1, approval of new Pasadena Unified School District Parent Group, Boses Unidas.
Uh Dr. Mumalo, is there any public comment? >> There are two cards. We can do it after the presentation. >> Okay, great. Good evening, President Frederick's, members of the board, and Dr. Blanco. My name is Nancy Molina, and I'm here with Dr. Shannon Mumulo representing our
office of family and community engagement. It is my privilege to introduce Boses Sunnidas, a group of dedicated parents who have come together with a shared commitment to strengthening partnership, belonging, and elevating the voices of Latino
families in our communities. Tonight they are here to share their vision and seek recognition as an official PUSD pairing group. >> Good evening. Um, good evening, Superintendent Blanco, board members, and the PSD community. My name is Diane
River, and I'm the president of Boss. And I wanted to go ahead and let the board also introduce themselves. >> For having us, I'm Liliana Cornetto. I serve on the board as the communications chair. Hi everyone, my name is Luciana Lald and
I am representing the elementary schools. >> Hello everyone, I'm Heidi Garbaldo and I represent the middle schools. Hola, my Vernandez high school.
>> Hello, my name is Gracia Nernandez and I'm the student representative for Boss. Thank you. Thank you. So who we areas means United Voices. Excuse me. Thank you. And that's exactly
what we hope to build a stronger voice for families across PUSD. Um Sunas was formed. Sorry, do you mind going back one? That's okay. Was formed by Latino parents across PSD to strengthen the connection, representation, and collaboration between families and
schools. Um, our families deeply value education and want to be active participants in our children's success. But many families still face barriers and it makes it difficult to fully engage. Whether those barriers are language, access to information, or simply not feeling represented in educational spaces. For many of us, this
is long overdue. Um, we believe Latino families deserve an organized and collaborative and respected voice here at PUSD. Um, in our community, education has always been um connection to sacrifice, resilience, and hope.
This message is especially personal um to all of us and to all of our children. And I think back on Himescalante, who was a great educator here in the Los Angeles area. And he once said, "The key to success is education." His belief was simple that students are supported, encouraged, and truly believed in they
will rise to the expectations. And that's what we plan to do with BOSAS. And our vision um our vision is to build a united, organized, and represented community of Latino families that work alongside PUSD, not against, but with in
collaboration with PUSD to support student success. And Heidi will go ahead and read our mission. I won't go over the whole mission so you can read it on your own, but in summary, what we are is we help Latino families and communities have a voice in PUSD. We
support student success and we bring families together to connect, share, and work with PUSD for positive change. Then >> I know we introduced ourselves earlier, but this is our leadership team and Oh, no, you can go ahead. Sorry.
But over the last year, we have been meeting with uh different schools um elacs meetings and um sorry, we've attended school events across the district, hosted community conversations, partnered with organizations, and facilitated listening
sessions with families. And what we continue to hear is parents want to help, parents want to participate, and parents want to support their children. And I'll turn the time over to Liliana. >> Thank you. So, as as Diane said, we have been engaging and meeting directly with the community at different school sites,
at different community events. And I know this board, a number of folks have been supportive and have attended those. And what we've done is try to kind of pull from that information what our parent community, our Latino community, and families need from a group like this. And so, we have identified four
priorities. I know that the slideshow was submitted to you, but I'll go over them very quickly of the things we hope to focus on. Uh first and foremost, as Diane said earlier, we hope to strengthen communication with this district transparency and family engagement. We want to be an ally. We
want to be a partner in lifting up our families and communities. Next slide, please. Uh second priority would be to boost academic support for our families and educational opportunities. So a very clear focus on student achievement. We have heard that loud and clear from our families that they need support in that
area. Our third focus area and priority would be to promote holistic well-being and safe environments for our children. At every virtually at every meeting, we heard from families that they have concerns around uh bullying, around safe spaces, special education, around
discrimination and racial inequity. Um and so we heard that loud and clear and we have prioritized that as well. Our last priority um and we realize we're being very ambitious but there is in a compelling need for these um services and for this group. Our last
priority would be to strengthen the unity, representation and empowerment of the Latino community. We all in this I think in this city and this space know that the Latino community has been frankly quite challenged and under attack on all sorts of levels and we want to be sure to recognize and support
our community um as a Latino community and know that they are valued and important part of this city and district. Um we have uh a few next steps here that we plan to uh we have some representatives already at some school sites um and we have this board but we
need to uh fill it out some more and create a representative ideally at each school site. I want to give a a shout out to APC and their model and that we are borrowing a lot from them leading their leadership has been um inval very very valuable. So thank you for that and
so we hope to have that same kind of structure. uh we will try to start implementing these priorities um um slow and steady. We realize we are ambitious. We realize that there is a great need and we think we can help attack it in collaboration with this district. Um and
then we want to develop clear systems to support the communication between our families, the district and this uh governing body. I'll turn it over back to >> Diana. Okay. Mexico. Gracias.
Marshall fellowament. I want to say thank you. Uh I want to just mention this is a whole pillar. Uh we want to I want the support of you with the parents, the school, the communities. Uh all this is a group. We
need your support so we can uh take it uh support on schools or cities. And um I want to say thank you pretty much. Thank you for all your support. >> Okay. All right. Sorry. I just wanted to make sure that Lucy's uh remarks were translated, but they're much along the
same lines. Um and in really just expressing gratitude to the school sites and to this district for allowing us this opportunity. In closing, um I want to give a few thank yous. um because I would be remiss not to thank some of our community partners who have shown up today, submitted public comment and
opened their doors, specifically the Boys and Girls Club and Mario over there. We have G Albert from Collaborate Pasadena also been very supportive of this effort. Um folks at PF, folks at P at Penn also have been very supportive. Again, a number of
trustees on this board have been to our events. Thank you very much. Uh Dr. Velasquez, thank you also for your support in this effort. Um, so we'd ask uh respectfully for your support in recognizing us as an official PUSD parent group so that we can uh get to
work together. There's a lot of work to be done. Thanks so much. >> Thank you. >> Any trustees have any comments? Oh, did we do that? I don't Did anybody have any comments? Okay. Public comment.
>> There are two speakers on this item. The first is Susan Schwarz, followed by G. Albert. I'm afraid to touch it. Right. Hi. Good evening, uh, board members and Superintendent Blanco. Oops.
Yeah. Um, I'll keep my remarks brief. I'm here from Pasadena Education Network. My name is Susan Schwarz and we're just here to say how excited we are about the VOSUS Unidas initiative. Um and just as we
have seen with AAPC um and and any time that parents work across the district, across schools, uh to come together and support all of our children, everybody benefits. So, thank you. >> Uh good evening. Uh my name is G. Albert
and I serve as executive director of collaborate Pasadena. I'm here tonight to offer our enthusiastic support for the approval of BOSUS who need us as an official uh district affiliated parent group. First, I want to congratulate the board for your openness and responsiveness to this important
initiative. Your willingness to create formal structures for family voice and represent and representation reflects the best of what a school district can be. Collaborate Pasadena has the has had the honor of supporting PSD's community schools by facilitating focus groups
with parents and caregivers conducted both in English and Spanish at each of our community schools. My most consistent and striking takeaway from conversations with Spanish-sp speakaking parents was a deep desire for an organization an organized body that truly represents their interests and
concerns and that empowers them in ways that go beyond their current primary avenue of engagement which is through ELAC. This mirrors what I've observed over many years supporting PTAs at our schools, particularly those with predominantly Latino parent membership, where the hunger for meaningful
culturally grounded representation has long been present. We have seen in our community the transformative power of the African-American Parent Council, an organization that not only supports black children and their families, but has actively and positively shaped policies and programs that benefit all
childrens in the in this district. We believe Boss Sanenas can be that same kind of powerful community rooted force for the Latino and indigenous students and families. Collaborate Pasadena is committed to providing BOSUS with whatever technical,
logistical uh and other support that they might need. We're invested in seeing this organization grow and thrive. We look forward to your vote tonight to formalize Vosus Unidas as the official as an official district affiliated parent group and that the great and the great things that we will
accomplish together. Thank you. >> More public comment. Okay, Trusty Kenny, >> it didn't say on the board report specifically, but I was wondering what does it mean to be an official district affiliated group? Are there uh some benefits? Is there certain supports that
are provided? >> Yes. So, uh, Nancy Molina, our assistant coordinator in the office of family engagement, has been a support as the group has been, uh, emerging and developing their goals. And so, we would continue to provide that ongoing support
as well as meeting space, uh, supporting child care when they have events. Um, but really this is by parents for parents and we're open to hearing what types of supports that they feel they need and to see what we can provide wherever appropriate. So, >> and they'll be incorporated into the
LCAP engagement process. >> Yeah. So, Dr. Turley does spend time with our parent groups to look at their recommendations as and share with them our LCAP goals and uh I know that we're about to start a new three-year cycle and goal development. So, their parent
um input will be really important as we develop the new goals for the next cycle. >> All right. And I don't, this may be um a little premature, but I I'm wondering if they will be following the Green Act along with some of our other advisory committees, including AAPC and foster
youth. There's a administrative reggg that we have that lists all the groups. So, but I don't know if if they're familiar with that, you know, the 72-hour notice being open to the public, having public comment. So, >> I'm sure that our parents want as many other parents as possible to know about
meetings in advance and we can share those guidelines with them um as a best practice. >> Okay. Let us know if we need to update uh our policies to reflect that. And then I had a comment. >> Um are there any inquiries other questions?
>> Okay, now we're in advocacy. Thank you. >> I just want to say um thank you to do Dr. Velasquez for for planting the seed for this committee. Um, I was there on the day it happened. participant. I am not going to translate. Thank you
so much to the parents of leaders of bosses for this presentation and the work. Um, I want to acknowledge that this effort grew out of years of conversations with Latinos in the district that wanted stronger representation, connection and a voice
in PSUD. For many, many years, the only space of formalized connection was Eli. But um Eli had its limitations and it developed and invested in leadership that then had to abandon once they understood the process and the system of
this districts and its organization. So it is important for us to have a space that can capitalize on the investment on growth and leadership among all of these wonderful women. Um for the last two years I've been advocating for the
urgent need for this space and I just want to to thank this wonderful group of women for making it happen. We owe you this. The entire Pasadena Unified owes you this, owes you the service for this. And I'm very proud to be able to support you. Thank you.
>> Any further advocacy? Trusty Harden. >> Well, I just want to say this is far far overdue and I'm so happy that we've gotten to this moment and thank you to Dr. Velasquez for really that spark to or the seed is what said to start the
process. Um I think this is going to have farreaching uh implications positive on uh student achievement, cultural awareness, uh fellowship with other parent groups. Um it really is going to be shared advocacy and I'm so
excited about that. Um my experience with this group and its formation has just been to experience the love in the room really. There's just uh uh the the the leaders that the initial board uh the support of the leaders have really shown that love and
support uh for the community and love for the students. So there's um I'm just couldn't this organization couldn't be starting off in better hands and I'm I'm proud to support this. I'm really excited. Any further advocacy?
Okay, ready for the vote? Preferential vote. Trusty Hong, >> I'm sorry. >> I would like to place a motion to approve visas as a recognized group for Pacina Unified. >> Is there a second? >> Is that >> okay?
>> Go ahead, Chie. The student assembly and council voted yes on this item due due to its influence and importance. Latino students and families make up a large portion of the school district and allowing them to advocate for themselves in a stronger way increases
collaboration between the board and individuals. >> And your preferential vote is okay. All right. All those all those in favor any extensions or anybody against motion passes unanimously.
>> Sorry. Quick thank you also to Nancy who has been with us the whole time. I apologize for not mentioning it earlier but thank you guys so much. Nancy She's been fantastic. Don't worry. >> All right. Thank you. Now, uh, now the public comments for
closed. Trusty McKenzie, are there any public comments for closed? >> No public comment on closed session items. >> Oh, wait. >> But these are on the
>> Oh, apologies. We do have three cards. Um, the first speaker is Warren Bleecker. Oh, sorry. >> Three minutes. Okay. >> You ready? So, I understand that um you're going to go into close session and do an a performance evaluation of
Dr. Blanco. And um as you know, I've done some PRA requests and I found some things that are a little bit concerning. Um there's a number of text messages from this fall between Scott Harden, Kim Kenny, Tina Fredericks, and others complaining vigorously um and sometimes
unprofessionally about Dr. Blanco not favoring school consolidation and being an obstacle to their school consolidation plan. And around that same time frame, um, according to these text messages, apparently it was Tina Frederick's began advocating support for
adding back closure criteria to performance evaluation for Dr. Blanco. So, one could look at that and say, "Oh, Dr. Blanco is an impediment to my school closure plan. Maybe we should decide to give her a performance evaluation based on how she blocks or doesn't block our
closure plan, which is a problem." Um, there's a text message from Scott Harden to Dr. Blanco, reminding Dr. Blanco that TF was advocating support for adding back closure criteria to performance evaluation. And Dr. Blanco responded that, well, clear direction would be
helpful. Unless she has clear direction, then she's being evaluated on accomplishing the goal. And creating an evaluation tool without direction is a little backwards. saying in case we decide we want to do in saying in case we decide to do what we want in the
evaluation tool is a little strange to me and I agree with that. If you're going to give um performance evaluation to the person you are supervising, it's important to let them know what the criteria is ahead of time. And if you're concerned that she and her professional
um judgment is blocking your particular school consolidation plan and you're using threats to her to force her to allow you to do that plan, that's a problem. Um so we will be watching this. We will be watching what happens and we
will make sure that you are held accountable for your actions. And it is not correct and it's not appropriate to blame Dr. Blanco for poor decisions or poor actions or unlawful actions you have taken. And it is not fair to blame
Dr. Blanco for concealing information from Dr. Blanco and then trying to blame her for the consequences of your bad decisions. And if that's what in fact is happening, and I hope it's not, but if it is, that may violate the law. And you will be sure that we will hold you
accountable for that. Thank you. The next speaker is Sarah Poji. >> Hi, I'm Sarah Poji. I am a parent of two former Don Bonito students and two current Marshall students. I am also here today to speak regarding the close session
item pertaining to Dr. Blond Blanco's performance evaluation and I wanted to note that regarding the SCAC process and the current potential litigation related to Brown Act violation, taxpayer fraud
and waste and others that rest solely on the shoulders of four board trustees. That's on you. the ESC recommendation against closing schools and the attendant fallout. That's on the four of you.
Do not blame Dr. Blanco for your failures and your backroom dealings. To do so would be disingenuous. It would be unfair, misplaced, and invite additional litigation. Do not project your failures
onto Dr. Blanco. And the last speaker on this item is Liliana Cornado. >> Hi again. Thank you uh for the time. I just wanted to uh comment uh about uh Dr. Blanco and uh terms of her
evaluation when you go into close session. Uh I'm a very engaged parent in many aspects at my school site and now at the district and I've had lots of occasions to interact with SLT and Dr. Blanco specifically and I just wanted to uh support her in the very challenging
work that she has to do as a district even excuse me as a superintendent in this district even before the challenges that we are facing now with potential consolidation etc etc. I think um I have had many occasions to reach out to the district and to Dr. Blanco specifically
and to her team um about um different issues at my school site, different challenges, different requests, including uh visas, which you just approved. So, thank you for that. Um and she has been steadfastly supportive, responsive, communicative, and
incredibly student centered. Um so, I just wanted to share that. That is my experience with her over the last um uh even before she was the superintendent, but certainly over the last few years that she's been um in this in this very challenging role. Uh I know that she's
continuing to engage with the community uh about this consolidation process or potential consolidation process. I know she cares deeply and I do appreciate um her being a role model for uh our district and specifically for the Latino uh community uh as a woman of color in
this uh role. So I just wanted to comment on that and and share my personal experience. Um and uh thank you for your time. >> Any further comments? Thank you. Recessing to close. Heat. Heat.
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doo. Doo doo doo doo doo doo. Heat. Heat. Woodwork. Calling the meeting to order >> concerning item F1. One, case number concerning item F1, case number 958203. By a vote of 7 to zero, the board took
action to approve the settlement of special education litigation in accordance with the terms of the written agreement concerning item F2, case number 2026040166. By a vote of 7 to zero, the board took action to approve of the settlement of special education litigation in accordance with terms of written
agreement. Concerning item F3, case number 2026010371 by a vote of 7 to zero. The board took action to approve of the settlement of a special education litigation in accordance with the terms of the written agreement concerning item F4 case number 20260828
by a vote of 7 to zero. The board took action to approve of settlement of a special education litigation in accordance with the terms of a written agreement concerning item F5, case number 2026020547 by a vote of 7 to zero. The board took action to approve of the settlement of
special education litigation in accordance with the terms of written agreement. Concerning item F6, case number 2026020752 by a vote of seven to zero. The board took action to approve of the settlement of special education litigation in accordance with the terms of a written
agreement. Concerning item F7, case number 2026020759 by a vote of 7 to 0. The board took action to approve of the settlement of special education litigation in accordance with the terms of the written agreement concerning at item F8, case number 2026030611
by a vote of 7 to 0. The board took action to approve of settlement of special education litigation in accordance with the terms of written agreement. Public employment discipline dismissal release in a close session. board. The trustees approved a resignation
agreement and general release between district and employee number YN3657210. Under the terms of the agreement, the employee shall resign from employment effective June 30th, 2026 in exchange for the release of all existing claims against the district. The vote was as
follows 700 Z. Conference with legal counsel existing litigation GC 54956.9A in close session. The board of trustees approved a settlement agreement between the district and CSEA resolving public
employment relations board case number LA6912E. The vote was as follows. I7 no zero abstain zero abs absent zero. The announcement of close session actions is complete and the close
session stands adjourned. >> Can we please have roll call? >> Here. >> Here. Here. >> Here. here. >> Here.
>> Here. >> Thank you. Trusty Hong, will you do the honors of leading the pledge of allegiance? Okay. Trust Dr. Dr. Blanco, can you lead us? Thank you, Dr. Blanco.
Uh, we have a question about the um public hearing moving the students up. Did we have a answer? Okay. When we get a response, we can address it then. Right. So, how many public comments we have at the beginning
of the meeting? >> Believe the number is 64. >> All right. Uh, one minute. >> Yes. So, I understand that we have reduced But we are doing so in order to allow
every who has taken their time to be here to have the opportunity to speak. So I do hope you understand that and I hope that you will respect the time limit so that we can allow as many people as possible to be able to have their voices heard tonight. We've tried to um pull out the students
who have signed up so that you all can speak first. The first group that I have is the Roland Bond and the JOTC. Okay, we'll come back to Roland when they're ready.
Leonardo Don back to Leo. Gana Dolick Gilana Julian. Okay, that's one. When they're when they're in, we'll call their names there again. Maya Matasuki,
>> Brendan You'll have one minute when the timer begins. And please state your name for the record when you start. Hello, my name is Roland Fawn and I represent the Blair JOTC. I'm sure that over the course of these reviews, you
have heard many examples for the reasons to keep Blair Middle School and High School open. We here to represent another program for which Blair has that is unique to the district. Once upon a time, there used to be several JOTC programs, but now there's only ours. Blair High School's JOTC program in the
PUSD district. The most community-f facing program in all of PUSD. From performing opening ceremonies for Congresswoman Judy Chu to presenting the colors for Mayor Gordo's Veterans Day celebration to the American Legion's Memorial Day ceremony. I'm sure I'm not
the only student, but instead I represent the majority of our participants when I say that the program teaches us how to be better and more involved citizens while also giving us a sense of pride in volunteering for the community. In addition to leadership skills, the program teaches us to be proud for what we believe in. BL has
invested so much in this program that it would be a shame to lose it. >> Thank you. Calling again for Leonardo Donlet. >> Good evening. My name is Leo and I'm in ninth grade. To me, Blair is more than just a school. It is a community where
everyone is welcome. Students from the International Academy and people with different backgrounds. I'm speaking not only for myself, but also for students and families who are afraid to speak publicly right now because of the fear that many immigrant families are feeling. For many of us, Blair is a safe place. It is where we feel accepted,
protected, and supported while we learn, grow, and prepare for the life ahead of us. After CO, the fires, and with so much racism and fear around us, the board should be ashamed to even consider closing schools now. Blair's success should be celebrated, not erased. Please protect our schools. Please protect
Blair. Good evening. My name is Julie and I'm a 10th grader at Blair. Blair is the place where I found my voice. Before Blair, I was quiet and barely spoke in public. Because of this school, my teachers, and this community, I became middle school validictorian and gave a speech to in
front of hundreds of people. Now I am speaking here in front of you. My dream is to become a veterinarian and I'm about to begin the full diploma. I was excited about my future, especially seeing this year's Blair seniors accepted to the best colleges
across the country. Now I am scared. If Blair closes, I lose that path. My teachers, my friends, and the school community that helped me become who I am. Please do not take that away from us. Thank you. >> Uh good evening members of the board and
Dr. Blanco. My name is Maya Madesi. I'd like to start by telling you how PSD's plan for possible consolidation inspired the topic for my 10th grade personal project. For those of you who don't know what the 10th grade personal project is, it's an IB thing. It is the final project at the end of the middle years
program currently only available at Blair. School culture. I can attest to the academically rigorous culture we have with Waldo IB. Even if they don't participate in the IB diploma or career program, all students at Blair benefit from the culture and philosophy of IB. We are a school filled with global
minded, inquiring, and caring young people. On the official Instagram page I created for this project, I asked for alumni input. I believe the value of IB is that students can feel more confident and equipped for higher education beyond, says Jordan Fleshman, a freshman at UCLA. Ailio Stewart Albon, a student
at Columbia, says, "The high amount of writing required for the IB program specifically made my transition to college easier. IB helps these students thrive in all types of colleges. Thank you for your time. I'm asking for all of you to Hello, my name is Brendan and uh I would like to talk about one of my favorite
parts of Blair. Uh I'm in eighth grade and uh I chose to go to Blair partly because of Ovations Theater Company. Uh every fall we do a um Shakespeare play and we dive thoroughly into the text analysis of that play which helps us a
lot academically un works with English and then we also act that out on stage and I've learned some of the most about theater through ovations. Um, and I would also like to say that 25% of the student body o at Blair participates
innovations and it's unrealistic to think that it could be moved without disrupting what makes it work. Part of what makes it work is the fact that Blair uh is a high school and a middle school and closing Blair kills ovations. Please keep Blair open. Thank you.
>> Maline Katon Hi, my name is Maline Keane and I'm here today to ask you to please keep third Marshall open. Marshall is more than just a school to me. It's a place that helped me find myself and become more confident in who I am. One of the biggest reasons why I chose Marshall was because it was a 6 through 12 school. Being able to grow up in the same
community has made such a huge difference in my life. I've built strong relationships with my teacher and staff. After the eat and fire, having a stable and supportive school community has became even more important to me. Before coming here, I didn't I didn't always feel like I fit in. But Marshall gave me a place where I could grow and feel accepted. The teachers and staff pushed
students to succeed, not just academically, but personally, too. Please don't just look at the numbers or budgets. Think about the students whose lives are being changed here every single day. Marshall has helped me and helped me and so many others too. Please reconsider your thoughts and keep thood
Marshall open. Thank you. Elsa Pelzan. >> I'm sorry. If you can pronounce your name when you get to the mic, it'll be helpful. >> Um, I'm Elsa Peltzer. Thank you. Hello, PD board members. My name is Elsa Peltzer. I am 15 years
old and my house burned down last year and I go to Marshall. I would love to continue to go to Marshall, but because of your unfortunate financial decisions, that probably won't happen. You have made it extremely difficult for me and my peers to stay in Pasadena. I myself might have to move 4 hours away to a
town no one has ever heard of because Marshall, the most diverse and college accepted high school in Pasadena, might close down. My parents are saying opportunities will be better in Vicelia, will be closer to my grandparents, and I can always make new friends. But I don't want to make new friends. I don't want
to have to learn a new campus in my junior year of high school. I have already gone through enough. Why do you have to take away the one thing I have left? There is only so much a teenage girl can go through before she gives up. Marshall system works. Why should we change that? Because you made a mistake. >> Thank you.
>> Thank you all. I'm going to ask if you can maintain order in the room so we can continue to get through the speakers. There's a lot of speakers tonight. We want to be able to hear from everybody. Fiona Paul. >> Fiona. >> Hi, I'm Fiona Pit Cough.
Our school is more than just a built Oh, have you started the timer? Do I do I just go? Okay, sorry. Our school is more than just a building. It's stability. It's community. And for students like me, it's an anchor. When I lost my home in the Eaton fire, everything familiar
disappeared overnight. But one thing didn't. This school, it was the place where I could see my friends, talk to teachers who cared about me, and feel some sense of normaly in a time when nothing else felt normal. Closing the school wouldn't just shut down classrooms. It would take away the stability for students who need it the most. There are others like me who are
dealing with loss, uncertainty, or hardship. And this school is one of the few places where we can still feel grounded. We are not just numbers on a budget sheet. We are students with lives, struggles, and futures. Please don't take away one of the few places that helps us keep going.
>> Thank you, German Ever and then after that Nanette Ko >> if Nanette's here go ahead we'll come back to German when he's in the room >> German Ebender but if Nanette is here come on up
>> Gemma >> I'm sorry Gemma good evening board members my name is Gemma Ever and I'm a nth at Marshall. Before coming to PSD, I attended a private school. My family chose Marshall
because we believed in this school, its students, and the opportunity it's given us. If Marshall closes, many families like mine won't stay in the district. They will most likely return to private schools or leave PC completely. Closing Marshall would mean leaving behind all
the memories we have made and splitting up so many people that have known each other for years. Marshall offers a strong community that makes students supported, welcomed, and motivated to succeed. That environment is hard to replace and leaving and would leave so
many students like me without a strong community to rely on. I have learned more at Marshall than any other school I've gone to. And I firmly believe this is because of the amazing teachers and environment Marshall has. Moving around, moving us to PHS may sound simple on
paper, but really it pushes But really, it destrupts many lives and pushes families away from public education altogether. Thank you. >> Hello members of the board. My name is Nanette Ko and I am a ninth grader at Marshall. I'm here tonight to ask you to
please keep Marshall open. Marshall is not just another school. It is one of the highest performing schools in our area. Marshall was named number one high school public or private in the San Gabriel Valley by Money Inc. and ranked number one in PSUD by US News and World
Report. In 2024, Marshall enrolled more students into top UC schools like UCLA, UC Berkeley, and UC San Diego than any other public or private school in Pasadena. That success comes comes from giving students opportunities to take in rigorous classes while also
participating in arts programs, athletics, leadership, and other activities that help us become well-rounded people. Marshall has also consistently had the highest graduation rates and A throughg completion rates in the district, even without receiving additional funding. Closing Marshall
would take away opportunities from students who are thriving here. Marshall has built a strong community where students are supported academically and personally. Please continue investing. >> Thank you so much. >> Okay. Thank you.
>> Okay. Michael Burner Lab Jessica followed by Jessica Vulpi followed by Tona Rodriguez. We'll keep calling names and come back to them when they're in the room. Sarah Poji. Oh, Michael's here.
>> Hi, I'm Tona Rodriguez. I served on the consolidation committee and what I experienced wasn't community participation. It was community alienation. This committee was a great group of thoughtful people dedicated to the success of our district. And none of our input resulted in even the slightest
change to the proposed scenarios. and don't believe the consultants. We didn't give up our power. We didn't ask for fully formed scenarios. We asked for and never got clear, actionable information for decision-making. Shut out as we were, many of us voted no to express no
confidence in the process. We would have loved to give a more constructive recommendation. Student success requires collective buyin from students, parents, teachers, staff, administrators, the whole community. Listen to us. Do you
want community buyin? Do you want a thriving district? Slow down. Build a real community engagement process. Do it well now or pay for it later. Good evening board. My name is Michael Burbar Laauo. I'm been a teacher of
music at Blair since 2008 and I'm this year's teacher of the year. >> And my name is Jess and my name is Jessica Bulpi and I am the theater teacher at Blair and I've directed the last two all-star musicals. You're going to hear many emotional
pleas tonight about school closures and consolidations. However, Mr. B and I are quite pragmatic. Over the last 20 and five years, respectively, we have built extraordinary arts programs at Blair through Modern Band and Ovations Theater Company.
>> And so, we're here tonight to ask you to fully consider the weight of these decisions and their long-term impact on students and school culture. These programs are not easily programs are not as easily moved as people are. What makes these programs successful is the stability of the community and the
collaborative partnerships built over decades. Thank you. >> Thank you. Calling them into the next three speakers, Sarah Poji, Matthew Strusi, and Pel Morales. Thank you. I'm Sarah Poji. I'm a
Marshall parent. For those who might know how we got here today might not know, I'd like to read the following email dated December 1, 2025 in which TSS CEO copying TSS executive vice president Joseph Pandalfo emails Trustee
Frederick's Velasquez and Harden referring to their past secret video conferences and potentially other calls and communications. Hello there. Interestingly, when we were in our meeting, Elizabeth, that's Dr. Blanco called and spoke with Joe. That's Joe
Pandalfo. She was asking about the process, our availability, and wanted to discuss a contract. Joe is arranging a meeting for her and me. I think it would be best to not mention our discussions to the superintendent and let her own the process. In my meeting with her, I'm
not planning to bring up our meetings and conversations with you guys. Joe hasn't done that either. Please let me know if you would like to handle it differently. Thanks >> Tina. I agree and very interesting. >> Hi. Uh my name is Matthew Struski. My
daughter Rain is a sixth grader at Blair. I'm here to urge you to keep Blair open and all the schools open and rethink this consolidation process. Recently the board adopted resolution 2852 which established optimal school sizes for schools with grades 6 through
12 as a student population between 800 to 1200. Blair has 951 students and is projected to stay in the optimal range for the foreseeable future. The current plan would move Blair Middle School students to Octavia Butler Middle School. The combined enrollment would be
938. The resolution states the maximum should be no more than 900. The current plan would also move Blair High School students to John Mure, bringing the combined population to 1778, which is 178 students above the optimal population. And Mirror has a capacity of
only 1698. So in Blair's case, the plan is to take students from newer campuses, an environment the board itself has described as optimal, and move them into older campuses that will be overcrowded on day one. How does this make sense? Just rethink this process.
Pablo Morales. I don't see Paulo in the room. Mimi Fitzgerald. Hello, my name is Mimi Fitzgerald. I've been a resident of Pasadena for 42 years and I'm a retired teacher. I taught in
LA Unified School District for 20 years as a special ed teacher and I know how painful this is because we went through it there too. I know that consolidation
is a very painful process for students, families, teachers and administration. Unfortunately, and reality is that it is a process that
will provide the best education for our students whom we all love. Did you start? Oh, hi. Unless our children learn to live together. Oh, unless our children begin to learn together, there's little hope that our people will learn to live together. This
Thood Marshall quote opened my film about the history of PUSD. So, I found it interesting that the former fundamental school changed from John to Thood. In the 70s, this very room was often filled with angry families intimidating boards with recalls because
the school's special white communities were threatened. Every time the board caved, a federal judge had to come in and do the right thing. In 1976, an appeal and the Supreme Court, he voted against
those families wanting to reegregate. Today I rate parents were sold that their special schools and programs were better with when their specialness is just fewer at risk kids. They were sold better not
>> that's not true >> not equal. >> I'm going to ask that we maintain order in the room if you don't mind. >> I feel like I get into five more seconds at least. Today, the fight between creating fewer inclusive, equitable, and
excellent schools versus maintaining four hollowedout campuses with resource partying with good marshal support. >> All right. All right. >> Great. Let's
>> I need everybody to maintain order. We are trying to accommodate everyone's voice in the room >> and we need you all to be respectful in order for that to happen. >> Okay. We're going to wait. >> We're gonna We're gonna wait. >> We're gonna wait.
>> Okay. We're going to wait. >> Again, this is a meeting of the board that the public is allowed to watch. We're asking you as a courtesy, please allow us to be able to get through all of the names so that everyone can have a chance to speak tonight.
>> And if you are disrupting someone else or taking someone else's time and that's not right, I'm going to move on to the next three names. Jane Patel followed by Anushia
Leeno. I'm going to ask for forgiveness of pronouncing the names as well. And then Franchesca Mariani. Good evening board members. My name is Franchesca Mariani and I have two children in PSD schools and I'm asking you to keep Blair open like many of our
friends here. Blair is succeeding at something the district desperately needs right now. Retaining families. PSD does not just have a birth rate problem. It has a retention problem. Every family that leaves the district takes funding with them. And the truth is it's not a mystery how many students we will have
10 years from now. Many of them are sitting in first grade grade grade classrooms right now. The question is whether those families will still choose PUSD when their children reach middle school and high school. Blair gives us an important clues about how to answer that question. While enrollment declines
across much of the district, Blair's enrollment remains relatively stable because families choose to stay. Blair offers something unique. The district's only 6 through 12 IB program and Spanish 9010 dual language immersion program. IB is not reserved for small groups of
students. Blair is wall-to-all IB and any student can take um classes in IB. So um please do not break what is working and keep Blair open. Thank you. >> Thank you so much. >> Is Jane Patel in the room? >> Good evening.
Uh let's be clear about what this recall threat is really about. It's about being framed or it's being framed as accountability, but in practice, it is an attempt to punish a board member for forcing POSD to
confront a reality everyone knows is coming. declining enrollment, underused campuses, rising costs, hazardous contamination issues from the eaten fire, risks that the district could lose local control if it
refuses to make the difficult decisions in front of it. There are legitimate questions about transparency, and those questions should be reviewed openly and seriously, avoiding assumption and conflation.
But a recall is not a substitute for that process. A recall is a political weapon and right now it is being used to stop an honest conversation about what kind of school district PSUSD can actually sustain. >> Thank you so much.
>> I'll just end and say >> thank you so much. >> Tina Frederick's being targeted because she is willing to face a structural >> finish your last sentence. >> Thank you. Goodbye. And I'm gonna ask again for order in the
room. >> Thank you. Go ahead, ma'am. >> Hi, my name is Anushia and I am a PSD parent and a community member. I hold PUSD dear to my heart and want what is
best for every student, teacher, and staff in the school district. For this reason, although painful in the short run, I support school consolidation in order to expand opportunities for all students. Declining enrollment and the financial deficit as a result of that is
a fact and not anyone's mistake. Further delays will only push the transition by two years, leading to another year of significant layoffs. If we don't take action now, the county will assume control of the district and place it in receiverhip, which would result in
losing our local representation. I urge the board to prioritize consolidation as the cornerstone of building a better Pasadena Unified School District. A new path forward begins with the board's affirmative vote for consolidation.
Thank you. >> Thank you. The next three speakers are Dawn Dennison, Terry Richardson, and Philip Solomon. >> Good evening, board members. Don Dennison. I'm a recall organizer, apparently, according to the newspaper.
Tonight, I'm here to formally serve Tina Frederick's with a notice of intent to recall. Despite what some people think, it's not a political weapon. It's about standing for the process and the substance of what this community stands for. This action is not taken lightly. The
law and the trust in your leadership is broken. Multiple Brown Act violations, closed dooror deliberations, and lack of transparency surrounding anything of this has broken all of it. You focused on real estate development when your responsibility is student development
and achievement. You lied to constituents. Let me get through my minute. I got 15 seconds. You lied about a transparent process while asking the consultant the nicest, softest words for closures. You also issued an email about the board self-evaluating its actions while filing
your 2028 election papers and looking to your political future. This needs to end here and now. We need real leadership. Good evening. My name is Terry Richardson and I am commentating as a proud POSD parent. It is rare today when
twothirds of a diverse group of Americans can agree on anything. But that is exactly what happened with the SC. Twothirds of the SEC came together to say no to school closures and consolidation. As a board who voted to spend $230,000
of public tax money and countless hours of time, sweat, and energy of 30 community members, you must honor their decision and put a halt to this painful process. If there's anything positive that came from this process, it is that families from many of our amazing schools abandoned past mistakes of
pointing fingers at each other to save their one school and instead work together hand in hand to be PUSD proud in support of all of our schools and students. You can do the same. You can roll abandon this process, roll up your sleeves, and do the hard work of finding ways to bring in additional necessary funding to operate our schools. It is
past time for you to make asset management a priority. This should be a regular agenda item at every board meeting. >> Good evening. My name is Dr. Solomon. I am accompanied with some other gentlemen who are concerned fathers in our community. Um, speaking on behalf of a
group of involved fathers who are concerned about the use specifically of screens in early childhood education, we're not anti-technology. We understand that tech has a time and place, especially for accessibility, accommodations, and older students. But for preschool, TK, kindergarten, and
first grade screens should be rare, intentional, and teacher guided and developmentally appropriate. Young children do not learn best through tablets or web-based platforms. They learn through human interaction, movement, play, storytelling, conversations, and eye contact. These
early years are critical for attention span. LUSD has already moved towards restricting usage for these young students, including delaying schoolisssued devices until second grade. They we should be following the same suit. Pasadena Unified should have no way uh should really be held to the
same u standards and criteria of LUSD to consider what the neurological impacts are going to be impacting these children at a young age. Thank you, gentlemen. >> Could I The next speakers are >> Leah Curillo.
>> Well, actually, I was just wondering >> brief clarifying question. >> Could Dr. Hills speak to them and let them know about our our progress? >> Oh, Dr. Hill. Yeah, Dr. Hills got Thank you. Thank you. >> Hello, my name is Lea Gario and I'm a sixth grader at Marshall. I came here
tonight to address the decision of closing schools and why it is a horrible decision. One of the things that makes Marshall special is the school being from middle school to high school. Being able to stay in the same school community from middle school through high school helps students feel supported, comfortable, and confident as they grow up and learn. We build strong
relationships with teachers, staff, and classmates. And that stability really matters. I've also spoken to many students who do not want to attend overcrowded high schools. Here at Marshall, there is much more opportunities like school musicals, sports teams, ASB leadership, and academics honors. Students want the
chance to participate, grow, and feel seen, not feel lost in a much bigger school. Closing schools doesn't just affect buildings or budget. It expects families and future students who hope for a strong academic path in the future. This is a turn I've spoken because the students are facing the
consequences the board is just because the students are facing the poor actions that the the board is making. The next speakers are Lisa Cruzie, Marisel Tanzy, and Steven Cole. Good evening. I brought for you a
research paper um that I hope everybody will seriously consider called Preparing Schools to meet the needs of students coping with trauma and toxic stress. As we all know, the process that we've gone through has not been communitydriven. It
has not been transparent. There were plans made beforehand. This has been extremely stressful. And contrary to what many are saying, we are not at risk of being taken over by LEO right now. That is not true. So when you can't be
honest, you can't be transparent. So if you can't be honest and you can't tell the community the truth that we are not at risk, that there are alternatives which you have not explored, there's revenue optimization that you can do. If
you want to downsize something, two of you could resign and we could have a five member board. >> Good evening. My name is Marty Sultansy and I'm a long fellow parent with this being my first year at PUSD. Tonight, I am here to formally serve District 4
board member Scott Harden with a notice of intent to recall. Mr. Harden has fundamentally broken our trust. In 2019, he publicly opposed school closures. Yet, after being elected on those very commitments, he reversed course to
support a consolidation plan that disrupts thousands of students, families, and teachers. Public record indicates he participated in private closed door coordination regarding these closures, raising serious concerns about transparency and Brown Act compliance.
He ignored a committee of parents and teachers who rejected every single closure. And he pushed ahead despite acknowledging this moves won't save money. Elected officials must conduct public business openly and honor their commitments to their students. This
recall is about restoring accountability and ensuring District 4 families finally have a voice. >> Hello everybody, Steve Cole from uh Blair. Um I'd just like to let you guys know that currently the IB program and
its 612 configuration is the optimal configuration for the program. The program is growing. We have more diploma candidates than we've ever had, more diploma recipients than we've ever had, more CP candidates and recipients than we've ever had. The uh the solution that
was provided by TSS. Um they're actually uh we're paid about three times my annual salary. So just remember that when we talk about COLA, that was just an aside. Um, but basically their solution of splitting up the IB, separating it into two things, not only
costs more, but is the least efficient configuration for actually getting students through the program and giving them access to the program. This needs to be a much more open process so that we can actually discuss what the merits and demmerits are for how we're actually
finishing and moving about any kind of process to combine these schools. The 612 is the best that we currently have. so much Mr. Cole. >> The next speakers are Sabrina Lewis, Violet Taher, and Lando Marches.
>> My name is Violet and I'm a student at Third Good Marshall Secondary School. I'm here tonight because Marshall is not just a school to me. It is my community, my stability, and a place where I have grown into the person I am becoming. Marshall is my school of choice. The 6 through 12 model has given me something
that is very important to students my age. Consistency. I've been able to build lasting relationships with my teachers, classmates, and mentors. That stability helps me feel safe, supported, and connected. One of the things Marshall may that
makes Marshall special is the sense of collaboration among students because we grow together. Um, over many years, we learn how to support one another and work through challenges. Tomorrow is my interview for the Bente program at Marshall, and I can't help but feel worried that this great program that
I've been preparing for will be ripped away because of the decisions here today. As a Latina student, my education means everything to me and my family. My family has worked hard to give me opportunities, and Marshall has helped me. Okay,
thanks. >> Thank you so much. Good evening board members. My name is Lando Marquesy and I'm an eighth grader at Marshall. As I'm promoted to 9th grade, I've been reflecting on what made my middle school's experience meaningful. It was feeling like I belonged. Starting middle school can be
challenging, but at a 6th through 12 made that transition easier. Seeing high school students everyday gave me the role models to look up to and showed me what I can grow into. This year, a senior named Waverly Knight wrote me a letter about our time working together in drama program. She told me how much she valued my contribution even as a middle school student. That moment meant
a lot to me because it showed that at Marshall, younger students are seen, respected, and encouraged by older students. That mentorship is something you can't easily recreate. Marshall may not have a turf field or an air conditioned auditorium, but it does have dedication. The students here care deeply about the school. At these recent rallies and meetings, Marshall students
have continued to show up, speak out, and fight for the place they love. That says something important about our school. Marshall is more than a campus. It's a community where students feel connected and supported. Closing this school would impact everyone and destroy a model that has helped so many young people succeed. Please don't make the wrong decision and upset more people than you already have. Key Marshall open
and the 6 through 12 model that has helped so many students grow. Thank you. >> My name is Sabrina Lewis and I made a public comment at a prior board meeting. Things have changed since the last time I was up here and much has been revealed.
I work in television and what's happening with this district right now feels like a scripted drama series. The optics around this board's consolidation plans are not good, but it's not too late to fix that. The recently released communications surrounding the school
consolidation process has made this community feel betrayed. Our family is new to this community and we moved here so that our daughter could attend Dom Bonito. I never imagined that I'd be walking my family into the chaos surrounding this district. But we're here now and I will not back down. The
four board members that betrayed the trust of this community are now like the villains in a superhero movie. Our job as parents is to put on our superhero capes and fight back. We are gathered here today to stand our ground and ask you to do the right thing and put an end
to this consolidation process. Avoid litigation and avoid more disappointment. Thank you. I'm also Oh, sorry. I'm also returning these um employee appreciation uh pins on behalf of some employees that do not feel appreciated.
The next speakers are Amelia Marquez, Nikki Arakawa, and Susanna Castro. Good evening. My name is Nikki Arakawa. You Ford board members are the toxic chaos. You are the four re You four are the reason that the outsiders from our
district say terrible things about us. You perpetuate false narratives and give them life. Let me be an example. On March 21st, I met with Scott Harden for coffee at Phils on Lake. It was a typical meeting, albeit long. I asked for advice on how to approach Tina
Frederick's because it because it is known that Tina is not inclined to meet with her constituents, particularly the ones from Don Bonito. Scott suggested that she be treated gently and with love. Otherwise, she'll retreat and leave. Imagine my shock,
Scott, when I go to read your texts to Trusty Kenny, saying, "I just met with the angry Dom Bonito mob." Me. Shocker. A white man in leadership falsely characterizing a Latina mom as an angry mob. Scott, there was no anger that day.
There was no mob. Shame on you for selling a lie to your colleague. President Frederick's, shame on you for never coming to support our school. >> Thank you. >> Good evening. As a Marshall parent, I want to express my deep disappointment regarding the serial meetings and daisy
chain communications connected to the hiring of TSS and the discussions surrounding potential school closures. The Brown Act exists for a reason. To protect transparency, preserve public trust, and ensure the community has the right to witness how decisions affecting our children are made. Parents should
never feel that decisions of this magnitude were shaped outside of a transparent public process. Our community deserves accountability. Our children deserve decisions that follow both the letter and spirit of the law, especially when decisions carry such life-changing consequences for families.
I will say this again. School closures are not simply operational or budgetary decisions. They impact families, children on every level, emotional, mentally, academically, socially and financially. They affect students stability, sense of belonging, future
opportunities, and overall overall sorry students at receiving schools will also face their own set of challenges. Thank you. Hi, I'm Alia Marquez. I am a PhD parent and believe that the school consolidation process should be
cancelled. The process is illegitimate. It was predetermined amongst board members Frederick's pardon Kenny Velasquez who had consulting firm Total School Solutions come up with the sham consolidation study to justify school closures. According to an external
analysis, TSS equity impact analysis report has 49 mistakes alone and lacks overall credibility and validity. Parents are taking concrete steps to hold PSUD accountable for their corruption and are organizing in ways I
have not seen before. And this gives me hope that leaders with integrity will be ushered in and the ones that are corrupt will be weeded out. I brought my kids here today so they can w so they can witness democracy in action and what standing up against
leaders that are actively abusing their powers and cheating the system for their personal and political gains looks like. I ask that PUD cancel the consolidation process and that the board members involved resign. Thank you. The next three speakers are Alexandra
Santiago, Lisa Santiago, and Fiona Burgess. >> Hi, my name is Allesandre Santiago. >> Hi, my name is Madison Castro. With the closure of Marshall, we would be losing the opportunity to take rigorous
courses. Currently, we are halfway into getting associate degrees as sophomores because Marshall has provided so much opportunities for ourselves. As class of 2028, we'll also be affected as senior year of high school, which is supposed to be a time for creating memories to cherish the last moments with our Marsh
community we have been with since sixth grade. But instead, we're going to be going through a drastic change, having to adapt to new teachers, new classes, new peers. With this, we would be losing our sports clubs, leadership positions, and all of which we have worked extremely hard to accomplish. And most
importantly, friendships would be destroyed. We would sadly be forced to go to separate schools and go down separate paths. Please consider the students and the community we have made. >> Good evening more board members. My name is Lisa Santiago. I'm a proud parent at
Marshall, a proud parent of Alexandra Santiago and another student who's graduating this year. I cannot imagine Pasadena Unified District without the crucial opportunities Marshall offers. As a person of color, I value the diversity at our beloved Marshall. It is
the most welcoming community, no matter your background. The academic opportunities and resources are too many to list. It is truly a campus that nurtures and promotes student success on all levels. If our school is closed, you are
eliminating a community of thriving students, engaged families, outstanding faculty, and passionate administrators. Please listen to our plea. Open your eyesights wide open, your hearts wide open, and be fair to the diverse
population you serve. Thank you. Hello. Good evening. My name is Fiona Bergos. am a Blair parent and a nine-year PUSD parent. I urge the board to halt all school closures and commit to restarting a transparent
community-led visioning process for the future of PUSD. Superintendent Blanco's Friday communicate from May 8th made it clear that closing Blair's IB program is financially and operationally
unfeasible. It's requires massive staff retention and costs over 300,000 plus 90,000 for potential reertification. Merging with PHS is impossible due to the block schedule requirements and MUR lacks the capacity and financially this plan
completely fails. We will lose 140 students that are inter in interd district families involuntarily because they will lose their approval to be in PUSD which will erase the pro most if not all of the projected savings. Please
don't close Blair. Thank you. Thank you, Pamela Negler and Steve Ngler. We are Pamela Negler and Steven Negler, retired local public high school teachers. We are here tonight because we
spoke. We support school consolidation. As former educators, we know what school consolidation can do to optimize student outcomes, particularly for high school students. Right sizing high schools means that a school has enough critical
mass to field the water polo team, the debate team, the visual and performing arts, uh, an IB program, the AP environmental science program, etc., etc., etc. Bill Gates and 2000
experimented with the idea of small high schools and he actually had to uh pull the he spent millions of dollars hundreds of millions of dollars on the project. He pulled it because he actually realized that he wasn't getting the results he wanted from this from the
experiment. Um so um >> thank you so much Miss Nagler. Even with reclining and miss your time has expired. >> Stephen, if you could read he we have
two minutes between us. >> Okay. Okay. They have two cards. >> Fine. That's fine. Okay. But we uh we're I want to make >> Okay. >> Stephen Nagler can speak for one minute.
Okay, >> you don't want to. >> Hi everyone. We are students from Blair High School. We are here to ask you to keep Blair open. IB is a globally recognized rigorous educational program for students. Taking away the IB program takes away from our opportunities and
the plans that we have in our future and is plainly just unfair to us considering no surveying has been done to any students whatsoever when deciding the propositions for our school. Blair has also given an opportunity to learn and grow not only academically but
also as a person. Blair provides them with daily instruction in English language development so they can live their daily life without feeling like outsiders in this country. Especially in times when the government is targeting Latin community like ours. >> Additionally, Blair is creating many opportunities for students in high
school to pursue opport uh the medical field and soon become the next generation of doctors, nurses, etc. Blair's Blair High School is the only health career academy in the PS in PSD and that should not be taken away from us. >> Blair is the only non LA USD school to offer students from LA which trains
students to compete in the LA Marathon. It teaches students commitment, perseverance, character growth, and much more. >> Thank you. Thank you so much. Julia Dy and Monty Lever, the next two
speakers. >> Hi, my name is Julia D and I will be speaking on behalf of Zyra Frius, another student of Blair who is currently working on her finals. The closure of Blair's dish is harding and kills my motivation to work. In this decision, it seems only the money is ever considered. Currently, for general education classes, our rooms are already
filled with 40 students. I don't see how relocating our student population to PHS would make our learning any more beneficial or we plan to double this number of Blair closes overwhelm our underpaid teachers with more students than they manage and sufficiently teach. Is impossible for one human to inspire, motivate, support, and help so many
students grow. We see low enrollment for our public schools as parents are choosing private schools and homeschooling. However, we are failing to consider the low-income families such as my own. People like me have a future because of public school. Shutting them down may save you money now, but you are taking away crucial opportunities for young people like I to thrive. Going to
Blair allows my hardworking parents to not have to stress about my tuition, my transportation, or my expenses on lunch every day. We have already watched our homes burn down and their neighbors being taken away. Don't defund my community that keeps my mind, soul, and body alive. Thank you.
>> Good evening. Uh my name is Monty Lever and I am a junior at Blair High School. I'd like to speak not as a student, however, but as someone who has always loved trains. Blair High School and Marshall are the two PSD high schools closest to LA Metro train stations. I could gush all day about this train
line, but to keep it short, I cannot emphasize the number of different neighborhoods which the metro passes through. After school, every single day, I see an enormous amount of students travel to Filillmore Station in order to get rides home, which they may not be able to get otherwise. Consolidation would take this resource away from them.
I myself can attest to the train's value for field trips, which are much more fiscally accessible through the use of trains. As a member of Blair Choir, I've taken the train multiple times with my classmates to perform at the Walt Disney Concert Hall. The value of having access to such superb public transport cannot be understated, and it would be
devastating to take this away through consolidation. Don't don't derail students lives. Thank you. >> Thank you so much. The next speakers are Stephanie Ward, Tatiana Baau, and Emily
Stal. I guess the others are in the other room. >> Hi, my name is Emily Style. I am I have kids at Blair and Mir. I've been in the district for 11 years. Um, I'm asking you to stop the consolidation process. I'm asking you to restart a real
community visioning process where we can all talk about the great programs and the great things about the locations of our schools. The real community visioning process will engage students. It will ask them. It'll ask educators. It will ask families. It will ask staff about what's
important to them and what they need at their school. Not every school needs all things. And we need active outreach to make sure all groups are represented and not just the ones that have time to go to board meetings. We want real back and forth
collaboration. We want conversations, not just times where we say what we want and then we listen to what you want. This process can't be rushed. It will take time. Other school districts that have done this successfully have taken a year. So, I'm asking you to stop and
take the time and engage us. Thank you. My name is Tatiana Brutico. We live in Los Angeles and in 2014 we declined a spot in an LUSD school for Jackson Elementary. I'm here representing the 140 out of out of district students
currently at Blair on in interd district permits for its special programs. If Blair closes and those programs go away, we are forced to leave PUSD because permits require program continuity when changing schools. If the governor's
budget revision passes in June, PUSD gets $28,000 per student. That's $4 million in funding from Blair's out of out of district students alone, twice as much as the operational savings claimed by TSS. PUSD is in this situation
because of low enrollment. Blair has attracted 140 students to PUSD. We need more than more than four months in actual community involvement to develop a plan for a healthy PUSD with or without consolidation. What is the plan
for out of district students? >> Thank you. Calling again for Stephanie Ward. Maline Harbison. Hi, my name is Maline Harbison. I am an alumni of Blair High School and I received my international balorate
diploma in the summer of 2025. I just finished my freshman year of college where my IB training helped me by developing my skills in time management, research, and intensive writing. My IB extended essay titled, "The extent to which capitalism and a desire for new markets were a leading cause of housewife culture in the 1950s, which I
wrote under the guidance of our amazing IB educators, helped me practice higher level thinking and research skills. IB requires mastery across subjects, global thinking, and skill-based learning rather than simply memorization, helping Blair graduates in college and beyond. It is an incredibly unique and important
program to maintain available in PSD. Keep Blair open. Keep IB existing. Calling again for Stephanie Ward. Carolyn Oropez. Carlin Oralopez. Right. >> Thank you. Hi, I'm here this evening in
my Altadena hat and my Blair uh sweatshirt. Um, as a MUR alumni alumnist, uh, I just wanted to say that, um, you know, fire impacted families like mine. Um, we've really lost trust
in all the institutions that are here to protect us. Um, we saw one fire truck deployed to all of West Aladina. um act uh evacuation systems that completely failed, neighbors died.
Um the one institution that remained steady through all of the fire and all the aftermath was our schools, your schools. Um they were one
place for stability, consistency, um that we could depend on while we tried to gather our lives back together. And um we really need you to commit to a true transformational process, resist
closing schools, um and explore all options. >> Thank you, >> Ellis Colomi. Hi, my name is Ellis Coni and I've attended PSD for 11 years. I went to Dominito and have been at Thood Marshall since sixth grade where I am now a sophomore. I speak for a lot of students
when I say that this is an unfair process where a small group of adults are making decisions about our future without knowing how it feels. I can say for myself that I have felt increasingly sad, powerless, and hopeless. After spending five years at Marshall, it has become my home. I've built an such an incredible community there that I love
immensely and for that to be taken away all because of poor decisions and mismanagement is devastating. I'm proud to be part of Pasadena and part of PSD, but this doesn't represent the strength and resilience of our community. Although I didn't lose my home in the Eden fire, I have many friends who did. We as a community have endured so much loss in the last two years and this
feels like salt in the wound. I understand that PSUSD is facing very real challenges and that this is a difficult situation to navigate, but closing schools is not the answer. I know of many students, including myself, who are planning on leaving the district if our schools close. School closures will only lead to reduced enrollment and
lost revenue. Please know that this has a huge impact on my life and the lives of many others. Don't close our schools. Thank you. Thank you. The next three speakers are Neil Tyler,
Matthew Lorshider, and Molly Dodge. >> Good evening. I'm Neil Tyler. I'm a parent at Jackson. Uh you're seeing me here once again, maybe the sixth time this year to talk about the budget. Buried at the end of the agenda are some great things. Lots of teachers, staff
have been saved as compared to a few months ago. But if you look at where that funding is coming from, it's not district funds. It's PEF. It's outside grants. It's other nondist funds that are sh that are saving all these teachers and staff. There's about two
months for you to act, for you to look at your budget, look at what LEO approved, look at the actuals, see all the extra money that has come in. It may not be a lot, but there's extra revenue and there's less expenditures, and you can look at it and not just call those
one-time funds, but look at your two conservative budgeting process and determine what is going to be there for the next few years. You can save more teachers. you can put more staff in the schools and benefit the whole district rather than have everyone be pitted against each other just to save their
own school. Please do what you can to fix the problems and financial mismanagement and save more teachers and staff. >> My name is Matt Lorsher. I have kids at Jackson. One will go to Octavia Butler next year. Um, I'm just here to say that I don't want to advocate for any
particular school to either close or not close. I understand that the district's financial situations have left them, as I said before, in deep and there is a need to potentially consolidate schools. I think the community outcry
warrants revisiting the process even though I supported the process, but I just want to remind people in the room that the school district is going to get smaller every year whether we close schools or not. All right, we're going to run out of students for these schools. We're already almost the size
of Burbank that has half the number of high schools and middle schools we have. All right, and kids at Mirror also lost homes in the fire. So did kids at Octavia Butler. Let's have some sympathy for each other. Let's work together instead of being pitted against each other, being tribalistic and just worrying about, you know, the next few
years for our own particular kids. Let's look at the big picture. Thank you. >> Good evening. My name is Molly Dodge. Uh I'm an Altadena Arts and a rising Elliott parent. Since the fire, I've engaged uh with the district at length
in an effort for common sense safety measures at our AAM campus in Altadena. I've had really respectful, thoughtful, and um listening conversations with President Frederick's, with Trusty
Kenny, with Trusty Harden, and with Trusty Velasquez. I appreciate those conversations deeply. Reflecting on this investment of your personal time as well as your actions and your board votes,
it's made the recent cycle of rumors and misguided outrage deeply upsetting to witness. I see in you all the leadership our district needs to face our complicated problems and stop the annual downsizing of teachers that directly
impact all our kids and strip our programs to bare bones. I know I'm out of time, but having spent a year and a half away from my kids campus, I have to say to all of you, the building is not the school, it's the people in it.
>> Thank you so much. The next speakers are Stephanie Scriber, Ina Sedano, and Hendrickk Cap. Napa is going to need translation, so if someone can call the interpreter. Okay, I'm gonna keep calling names until
the speakers are in the room. Is this Kayn Pel, Susan Kaine, Jonathan Ferman? I don't have a visual on Emma Green. Hello, my name is Stephanie Scaner and
my children attend Aladena Arts Magnet. Time and again, board president Frederick's and trustee Kenny Harden and Vellesquez have shown that they put students first. Last November, for example, these four trustees voted to protect career technical education from proposed budget cuts and reduce cuts to
high school athletics by 25%. Now, these same trustees are facing accusations of Brown Act violations and malicious intent simply for addressing difficult issues. However, the cure and correct request does not demonstrate that more than three trustees participated in any alleged serial meeting. In fact, it
specifically references Frederick's making a deliberate effort to remain within Brown Act limits by keeping discussions below a quorum threshold. President Frederick's took the initiative to research school consolidation and explore ideas before deciding whether issues warranted further public discussion. That is what
due diligence looks like. Additionally, the ideas in her consolidation 2027 document did different sorry document differed significantly from the recommendations ultimately proposed by the consultant which undermines the claims that there is a predetermined plan. >> Thank you so much.
>> Okay. My name's Hendrickk and I graduated Blair with my IB diploma last year. >> Hold on a second. Um, Trusty McKenzie, we were we're allowing people to finish their final sentence, correct? and she did. >> Okay. But people were there was a little
bit of noise. So I just want to make it clear. >> If you could if you could >> Anyway, >> if you could be please be respectful. >> Can you restart the time for this speaker, please? >> Am I okay? Okay. Anyway, I graduated last year with my IB diploma. And one
year ago today, not today, but in March, I stood at this podium to address your failure to support our teachers. And yet here again I stand to see it's deep deeply disheartening to see that absolutely nothing has changed. So let's break it down. The abhorrent disregard
but of parliamentary integrity and process by ignoring the efforts of the consolidation advisory committee. Cough, Miss Frederick's cough. Second, the terrible idea to disclose to close my alma mater isn't a funding issue. It's a priorities issue. Just like last year,
it's something this board cannot seem to figure out. Perhaps if you wanted to save some money, consider the $432,000 in compensation paid to our superintendent. This represents a fundamental betrayal of public trust. But the solution is clear. Those
involved in this failure have officially forfeited their mandate to lead. For the sake of this district, your immediate resignation is required. You've demonstrated you're no longer capable of serving the interests of this community. Thank you. >> Thank you. And have the night you deserve.
>> Hi, my name is Susan Kaine. I live in Pasadena. Uh I sat in your seat as a board member some 25 years ago. At that time, enrollment in this district was over 23,000 students. Today, it's under
14,000. At that time, 25 years ago, we were opening schools, believe it or not. Uh we reopened McKinley after it had been closed for decades. We opened uh San uh Sierra Madre Middle School, and we were
looking to buy property to open a new uh elementary school in the Northwest. Thank goodness we didn't do that. We were making those decisions. We made those decisions on the basis of current enrollment and demographic data at the time.
Now, we are well beyond the time for you to face reality based on our current enrollment and enrollment pro and demographic projections to consolidate our schools, consolidate our middle schools, consolidate our high schools.
We need to do the fiscal responsib consolidation committee. It's a terrible job. Everyone hates you. But we looked at the numbers. We followed the numbers, made recommendations, the school board closed some schools, and the district
moved on. I would commend uh your consultants for including in their report some of the raw data, particularly on page 12 for the recommended attendance levels and page 93 on appendix C for the actual enrollment levels. It seems to me that
there's a word to describe what happens when public servants are willing, maybe in a ham-handed way, but are willing to face the numbers head on and make recommendations to the community to try to guide us through this problem. And I
think that word is leadership. And I think you've shown leadership because we can't kick this down the road. The numbers are straightforward. We've got to respond. Thank you. >> Hi, my name is Sedina with the Madison family would like to petition the PC
superintendent Elizabeth Blanco and the board members to keep Maria Perez as a full-time community assistant at Madison Elementary School. Although our district is facing difficult times, what our schools should never sacrifice our dedication, difficulty, and staff. Please sign the pet. We signed the
petition to keep our beloved community assistant Maria Perez who absence from our community with case with case and reparable harm will cause in reparable harm to our u families and students especially right now with the economic economy straits and imig immigration
rates. The hold of medicine will support community assistant Maria Perez. Please consider our petition. Thank you Kayn Hill. Hello, I'm Emma Green. Um, I have a current Marshall student and have been a
parent at six different uh PUSD schools. Um, so here are the apparent inaccuracies and misleading claims I can identify from the TSS equity report. It says the process is transparent, but the committee itself reported missing information, data inconsistencies,
rushed process, ineffective facilitation, and concerns about TSS board interactions. It frames closure as improving student experience but does not adequately weigh documentation documented harm from school closures
including lower test scores, attendance behavior impacts and long-term college employment earnings impacts raised in the public comment. It treats the ESCAC process as meaningful input while acknowledging the ESCAC voted against every closure
consolidation option. It lists thood Marshall 9 through 12 as a potential closed school which is misleading. Marshall is a 6 through 12. Removing grades 9 through 12 dismantles a secondary model. >> Thank you.
>> Good evening school board members. My name is Kayn Palen. My daughter is a special education student at Don Bonito Elementary School. I'm here to strongly urge you to accept the school consolidation advisory committee's clear recommendation not to close Don Bonito
or any of the schools in the scenarios and pause the consolidation process. Our students and PUSD family deserve a thoughtful, holistic, and ethical process that is not predetermined from the start by backdoor deals, secret meetings, and Brown Act violations. We
chose Don Bonito for our daughter for the campus's location, community, and history of supporting special education students. My daughter is thriving at Don Bonito, but no student deserves to have any of these schools closed based on a
rushed and prescripted process. Please honor the committee's decision, listen to the stakeholders and everyone in this room, and take school closures off the table and instead focus on creative ways to support and invest our schools. Thank you.
>> Hello, my name is Britney Purr and I'm the parent of a junior at Blair and I specifically chose that school. I had to fight to keep her in that school because it's a 6th through 12th school. And that consistency is key. Consistency is key for these students who have been through
COVID lockdowns. Consistency is key for these students who have been through fires, who have had their famil family's homes or their friends family's homes and egregious losses. These kids have been through ICE standing outside of their school and lockdowns through that. And these kids
have been through swatting. And now you guys are doing another rugpool that could have been completely avoided with complete transparency. So I'm asking that this process of consolidation be halted, be held, and that community input is taken because within this room,
within this talking points, you can tell that the people that have no stake, zero stake, are the ones who are for consolidation, >> right? >> But those who are against it are the ones who have everything to lose from this. Especially students who have been
through so much trauma, you are choosing to put them through more. I want you to think about that continued failure. >> Thank you so much, ma'am. >> This is just period fail. Thank you for your comments. >> The last two, if we can get to the last two speakers, thank you for your
patience, everyone. Um, Felita Keeling followed by Ranata Cooper. >> So, good evening. My name is Felita Keeling. All my notes I have to throw them out the door. I'm a PUSD alumni. I am the parent of two African-American students, graduate of Thood Good
Marshall Secondary School. So, everyone knows Marshall is an open enrollment school. So, every student here tonight who spoke on behalf of Marshall chose Marshall. We don't have an enrollment, but anyway, I'm going to change the whole thing. So, something was said tonight, but made me think today we got
to celebrate our validictorians and our saludiatorans. So today we named four students, two saludiatorans, two valadictorians. They were a Japanese, an African-American, a Filipino, and a Hispanic student. Two males, two
females. One's going to UCLA, two will attend UC Berkeley, and one has a full ride scholarship to Georgetown. Those are the students that they're good at Marshall Secondary School. And those are just a few of the amazing, brilliant school students at Marshall. There's
brilliant students everywhere. We want to celebrate them all because they have all made choices. Thank you. Thank you so much. >> I I don't see Miss Ronaldo Cooper in the room just yet. >> Oh, she's coming. >> She's got a card.
>> So, and then Ranata Cooper. >> Okay. In the meantime, I want to read the statement that accompanies the voluminous email correspondence has come in in public comment and that is the board of education acknowledges receipt
of public comment by way of email. These comments will be made part of the current record of this meeting and here comes Miss Cooper. >> Interesting to be on this side. Okay. My name is Ranata Cooper and I'm Liza's grandmother.
Liza Spears. She goes to Marshall. She's on the part of the award-winning dance team at Marshall. And when she started Marshall, she came home the first day totally excited about the student government
association and that she wanted to be a part of that and she has been the entire time she's been there. They do a lot of right things at Marshall and the enroll and I understand the demographic issues that face the community, but I think it's important to do things the right
way. not in private meetings, in public meetings. And if you want to make significant changes to the school district, then you should do so in such a way where you have buying in from the community that you are elected to serve.
So is that my time? I'm beeping. I don't know. >> That is your time, Mr. We were >> That is my time. Okay. So I'm done. So I'm ask I'm here to support Marshall. I'm here to to speak as a as a grandma. So leave it alone. >> Is there any more public comment? Trusty
McKenzie. >> That is all for the general public comment. >> Thank you. >> portion of the meeting. >> We have items speakers at the item and there's also a public hearing coming up. When we get to those items on the agenda, we will call your names.
Okay. So, >> they were telling people the wrong color in the hallway. >> We asked for that. So, when are those going to be called the blue? >> Um, okay. So, did we ask get the response from legal?
>> We were told to fill out blue. We were told that we be called at the beginning. >> Did you want to say something? >> There are cards that requested to speak at the actual item and not at general public comment. When the item comes up on the agenda, we will call your name at
that point in time. >> That's not what we were told. >> Is there someone who filled out a blue card who wanted to fill out a yellow card that did not get to speak? >> Yes. We're gonna go up. We were told when I specifically asked
is it yellow like last time and they said no it's blue. >> Okay. >> I was misguided why >> if if the board doesn't mind can we just >> me let me ask the board actually. >> Okay. >> So the >> your suggestion is trusty McKenzie to
get the support of the board. Correct. >> Yes. >> Okay. >> How many people are in this scenario? There are five of you. >> All right. >> I see five hands. Take the five, please. >> Trust uh board, are you okay making this exception?
>> So, so just so I'm clear, so we're asking people if they want to speak now and give up their option to speak during the public hearing. >> No. >> Oh, we have public hearing cards and some people filled out the public hearing card erroneously. I think they want to speak now instead of at the
public hearing. So, I'm wanting to be >> mindful. Yes. So, >> okay. I'm sorry. Yes. >> So, just pretend those are yellow cards, basically. >> That's correct. >> Okay. Come on up, whoever wants to come up now. >> Please state your name for the record when you get to the microphone so we can
find your card. >> And um can I can I make a request? >> Yes. >> Can we prioritize the students because we're in finals week? >> Thank you. Let's leave all the students that are speaking go first and then all of the
adults, please. Thank you. Okay. There's too many people talking. >> Go ahead, please. >> Does this work? >> Okay. Hello, members of the board. I'm Uh Herur, entering my junior year at what might not be Blair High School. I have followed the process of this
district for a vast majority of my high school experience. And for the last few months, I have been plagued with nightmares, both metaphorically and literally. I have seen time and time again my friends and I being used as statistics to justify the termination of our own community. I have seen countless spreadsheets listing the experiences of
nearly a century of generations as a commodity to be moved as pleased. And I have seen the fear of parents, teachers, and students as a threat of uprooting the last five years of our lives is tossed along as an inevitability to stop the bleeding. Never once have I met someone at these schools who's visited
me or any of my fellow students at the source and asked us how we feel, where we'll go after these closures. And to me, this is absolutely insulting. Teachers will move to places that don't threaten hundreds of layoffs every year. Students will go to a place with stability for their education, and it is
not PUSD. If you truly believe that closing schools will improve your experience, I want to see the IB program in my senior year. Not our juniors, but the class of 2023 30s. Mine. This is my future and I do not want to see it wrong.
>> Your time has expired. >> Let me remind you all that uh the if it beeps then just finish your final sentence. Thank you. >> Good evening board members. My name is Leonardo Tahari and I'm a seventh grader at Marshall. I am here to present you with a student petition currently signed
by 438 Marshall students. These students represent all grade levels 6 through 12 and all cities within PUSD. This petition will continue to circulate and may be resubmitted at a later date for your consideration. On behalf of the many students in this school community, here is a summary of the petition we've
signed. We do not want Marshall to consolidate with any of the other schools. We value the opportunities we have and feel those opportunities may diminish if Marshall is forced to consolidate. We want a 6th through 12th grade experience and feel strongly that this model is beneficial. We feel Marshall adds great value to our communities like diversity and social
connections across the district. We understand the district is trying to find money, but budget issues are not our fault. So students so students should not have to pay the price. We believe we should be able to choose our school. If our leaders are truly student centered, our choices should be respected. Lastly, many of us have
suffered because of the Eden fires, but our school did not burn down, and it would not make sense to close it when so many of us are still struggling like me to get >> time has expired. S, I need you to fill a card out cuz I can't find your card. >> Hello board members. My name is Cameron Taherryi and I am in seventh grade at
Marshall. I do not understand why we'd want to close my school or any schools in this district. First, Marshall is one of the highest performing schools in PUSD. It has the most students and has been a part of the Pasadena community for over a hundred years. Second, Marshall has many students like
me who are affected by the Eden fire and who need their school to continue supporting them. Marshall has kept me strong. Many of my friends feel the same way. Why would anyone want to mess that up? Lastly, the consolidation committee that you put together strongly voted against
all merger scenarios. The committee had lots of community members who are knowledgeable about our public schools here in Pasadena. I researched the role of PUSD board members and found that that one of your duties is to reflect the community's values and priorities and ensure their input is integrated into district
decisions. I hope you will carry out this responsibility and show your integrity when it is time to vote on consolidating schools. I hope you will think about all the students like me who need you to take a stand and keep our schools open. Thank you. >> Hi, I'm Edward Martinez representing
Blair High School. When I first came to Blair, I was absolutely stunned by all the opportunities it gave me and all the programs they offered. Those same programs got got me into my passion for playing music and I was able to participate in ovation to play guitar for it. Now, I can never see a future where my school closes down because the
district cannot make good money decisions because this is my home and I'm sure it is for other students. Since I came to the school, it gave my sense of community to its purest form, which is why I'm here at this meeting. I hope the board will be transparent and fair for the sake of the students, staff, and
Blair families. Thank you very much. >> Good evening, board members. My name is Darcy Naganuma and I have been a teacher at Marshall for the past eight years. During that time, I have watched students grow from children into competent young adults and I can say without hesitation that Marshall is one
of the most extraordinary school communities I have ever been part of. Marshall was recognized as a California exemplary arts education award program school. Our school has produced Olympians, a World Cup chair, and a Super Bowl champion. Academically,
Marshall consistently achieves outstanding results while remaining one of the most cost-effective schools in the district, spending approximately $2,000 less per student than PHS or Blair and hundreds less than Mure. We are doing more with less, and our
students continue to thrive. Finally, despite a quarter of a million dollars being spent on a proclosure consultant, the ESCAT committee voted against closures by a twothirds majority. I urge you to listen to the students, families, educators, and community members you
serve. Please keep Marshall open. Thank you. >> Good evening. My name is Jennifer Collins. Those who say it's time to make hard decisions for the greater good and accuse a few parents of prioritizing our own children are ignoring who under the
proposed plans will actually bear the consequences of these hard decisions. I'm asking all of you, even those who support closures, to pay attention to the serious problems with the equity impact analysis. One concerns McKinley, a school my daughter attended. This
school has the highest concentration of black students in the district. The equity impact analysis served up by Total School Solutions, acknowledges the McKinley serves 18.06% black students and that closing it would burden those families with longer travel distances. The California Attorney
General's guidance cited in that same document requires funded transportation mitigation in exactly that situation. Yet, the document concludes there is no disproportionate harm to any racial group in these closures closure scenarios and no transportation funding
appears anywhere in the document. In the rush to close schools, this inconsistency should not be brushed aside. Thank you. Good evening. I'm Anne Matrunich, a Blair parent and a Pasadena resident.
Please respect the consolidation committee and protect our schools. Stop this process. Of the 11 schools that were recently closed, nine, according to Elizabeth Pomemeroy's editorial in Pasadena Now, nine of them were fully or partially
occupied by schools that compete with PUSD. Let's establish a vision for the district in a new process. Let's involve City of Pasadena experts as I have asked. It is reasonable in Blair's case for Pasadena taxpayers to expect PUSD to
operate a high school south of the 210 when it has three north of it. Blair is public property paid for, maintained, and improved over generations. Closing it would shrink enrollment while maintaining the same tax burden. Blair's a modern 612 school. the most convenient
to affordable housing along the train and the closest to the biomed and arts careers partners. If you aim to reduce costs, generate revenue, or privatize public assets, then please close this building and protect our schools. Thank
you. My name is Adakus Moes. I'm a youth leader at Pastina Learns at Sir Majre Medical School. I came out in support of Tina Fredericks in her decision to consolidate schools and close Marshall Fundamental. About seven years ago, I was here with Marshall's former principal, Dr. Mark Anderson, and
advocated to keep my childhood school open. However, I recognize that this problem of school funding is not a problem created by Tina, by billionaires defunding public education. This is truly an act we should all grieve. Today, the real reason I am here is to help the children like me who cannot
frame this in a way to deal with the grief and pain this defunding has and will continue to impact our city. However, to fund public schools, Tina and I have worked to ensure that Tommy Star will win the governor's race and endorse healthc care for all through the billionaire's tax. This June, make sure
you vote for these principles. Thank you. Hello, I am Jen Deus. I have been a student through PUSD. I have been a parent throughout PUSD. I am now a teacher in PUSD. I teach music at at
Blair which offers a extremely unique curriculum uh which I think many of you are aware of as you are connected to it in some way. Um, the IB program is the only program that centers the arts in the curriculum. By definition, every student, 6th through 10th grade,
has either a visual or a performing art. You've heard students say that 25% performed just innovations. There are more once you add in all of the instrumental music, once you add in the choir, all of the these things, right? Um,
I would say that the IB program is worth saving simply for that alone. Um, I know that there are many economic considerations that you need to make, but uh, serving students is the most important and closing Blair would not
serve your students. >> Thank you. Um hello, my name is King Gadoros. I'm a parent of two children at Blair. Um the skeleton school concern is real, but consolidating into two massive high
schools treats enrollment as the only variable worth optimizing and it isn't. Blair and Marshall families have already chosen the 6 through 12 model. That's demonstrated demand, not sentiment.
Destroying the IB program to fund more sports teams is a trade many families never agreed to make. Location also matters. Blair is the only PUSD school, secondary school south of the 210 with easy metro access. Coming from Highland
Park, that proximity was a real factor in our decision. Blair has also received significant recent investment. Keeping it open and potentially incorporating the Allenale campus for additional space makes practical sense. I'm not sure why the option of a third campus has not been part of this
conversation. Um, thank you. Good evening. My name is Kim McDuffy. I'm a five-year parent at my son's seven-year desired career at Blair's middle and high schools. We live in
Highland Park, just down the road from the freeway. We are one of 140 families coming from outside the district for the unique community that only Blair provides along with the exceptional education opportunities for our son who
will complete his his biiteracy program this year and move on to the IB program next year while playing basketball with a group of young men whom 80% come from outside the district and 75
5% of those young men are on the honor role. Some travel as far as one hour with many opportunities between their home and PUSD, but they choose Blair as we did. Not necessarily PUSD, but Blair.
Thank you. Good evening, board members. My name is Anelica Romero. I have two PUSD students at Marshall. I'm a resident of Altadena, a taxpayer, a voter. The horrific eaten fire just a year and a half ago traumatized a lot of students in this
school community and displaced families continue their efforts to stabilize. But there's still a long road ahead. You can just drive up there and look and see. The losses that families are grappling with should have been more than enough for any school board who purports to be student centered to halt the discussion
of school consolidation. And yet this process with all its bias and its flaws continues. So let me be clear. Our communities have not healed from this tragedy. And what is needed now more than anything at this stage is time, not school closures. Perhaps the quarter of a million dollars that was wastefully
spent on TSS consultants could have been better spent researching the impact of school closures in districts who have displaced students as a result of wildfires. Studies indicate that districts must avoid closing schools in an effort to provide students with stability, routine, and normaly.
>> Thank you. >> Good evening all. Here we are yet again. Multiple PUSD boards have kicked the can of secondary right sizing down the road so many times. down the it so many times that it
appears we have finally reached a four-way stop, a crossroads if you will. But when you guys vote this down yet again, and you will. I'm afraid the next time this issue arises, the entire community and you, the board, will be stripped of your
voices and your powers when LEO comes in and orders high schools to be closed. We will obviously be in receiverhip by then and I'll probably end up retiring from PSUSD with the district still under LEGO's thumb and I hate that for us. But hey, I guess I'll just have to get over
that in order to finally get the right thing done because I have zero confidence that this board will do the right thing and rightsize skeletal secondary schools right now. Good evening. My name is Elizabeth. I am a proud former Don Bonito parent and
Upper Hastings Ranch resident. Tonight I submitted 535 written signatures from neighbors and 339 online signatures from verified PUSD stakeholders. 928 signatures supporting keeping Don Bonito open. We are here because the community
has spoken. On May 11th, the superintendent's own school consolidation advisory committee rejected every closure scenario and specifically protected Don Bonito. The committee recognized that closing schools will not solve enrollment loss.
It will make it worse. Many families have made clear that if Don Bonito closes, they will leave PUSD entirely, taking vital ADA funding from them. Saving short-term costs while losing students and long-term revenue is not
sustainable. We urge the board to honor the advisory committee's recommendation, listen to nearly 10,000 stakeholders, and reject consolidation plans in the June vote. Work with families to strengthen enrollment, not displace
students, ma'am. Keep Don Bonito open. Thank you so much. I'm just following the ones you brought in to support you. There we go. Okay. I'm Kathy Greg, also an Upper Hastings Ranch resident, and I I'm oldest girl of eight kids. I love
children and I am happy to say that K through five classes and children are as important as anybody else. They are, you know, they're there to get things
started, get get out on, you know, the right foot to make things happen. And so I really care about Don Bonito School and it's an exceptional school with
great teachers and I love to see that these young kids are blessed with good teachers, good school. So uh God bless all of them. So anyway, that's
all I have to say. Good evening. My name is Patricia Herrera and I have proudly lived in the Upper Hastings Ranch community for over 30 years where Don Bonito has served generations of Pasadena families. I'm here for Don Bonito, but also for all
the schools that this board is closing. Today is a very, very sad day for the city of Pasadena. Closing neighborhood schools is not just a response to decline. It becomes a driver of decline.
Schools are one of the main reasons families choose where to live. When Pasadena closes elementary schools, middle schools, and high schools, it sends a message that our city of Pasadena, a beloved city, is shrinking
and losing confidence in its future. Families want stable neighborhoods, schools, strong academics, and confidence that their schools will still be there tomorrow. School closures do the opposite. They are getting people
out of the city of Pasadena. >> Thank you so much. >> Good evening. My name is Jonathan and I'm an Upper Hastings Ranch resident. What I don't understand is why we are even here to discuss closing more schools. You already closed 11 schools and you
still can't get the budget right >> and now you want to close more and six more. You want to close six and merge six more. What are you going to do? Close so many schools that you don't even have a district anymore and then you'll be out of a job
>> or do you need the state to take over? You will then be stripped of your power, which wouldn't be a bad idea. >> Get it right or get out. What kind of legacy are you gonna leave? >> Thank you very much. >> My daughter started at Jefferson
Preschool. And while I cannot claim to have fully endured a school closure, I was at the board meeting when that vote happened in 2019 and was heartbroken by the reactions of the people around me. What I would assume I would feel five years in at our school now. I will say
though that Longfellow is a full thriving place with lots of new faces and great programs. From my perspective, I can see the positive impact of consolidation. I once again want to reiterate that I know if my kids school was on the chopping block, this would be a harder pill to swallow. I guess
without ciding one way or another, I am really hoping that the outcome of this will be a clearer vision of what it means for our aching school district. I do believe that school consolidation can be a positive step for our district but only if it is done with care and intention and at this time there is so
little trust and so much division between the board and the people and the people and the people. I know that there is a lot of chatter about money how much or how little will be saved. But I guess I'm interested in more than just numbers like what do we get out of this? What
instead of just what will we lose? Thank you so much. Thank you. >> Good evening, board. I'm Donna Perkins. I live down the street from Blair High School. I'm also a school occupational therapist working with special needs
youth. So, I know how painful it is to close schools like Don Bonito. And I'm concerned that a LEO takeover will do just that and also take away our voice in what happens within the rest of
our district. So I support Tina Frederick's and I support consolidation now in order to immediately expand opportunities for all students. Any delay will just push the transition two
years away, resulting in another year of significant layoffs to our precious teachers. Thank you. >> Hi, my name is Denise Arnst. I'm a resident of Upper Hastings Ranch and my children attended Don Bonito and
Marshall. And I'm here today to ask you actually to urge you to stop the discussions about closing schools. When schools close, enrollment declines. School closing schools hurts the students and also hurts the surrounding
community. The PUSD's own strategic plan cites school closures in 2019 and 2020 as one of the reasons for declining enrollment. When enrollment declines, funding goes down. Closing schools will only make the district's current financial problems worse. Please work to
find alternative solutions. Thank you. >> Is that all the public comment? >> I think we've made it. Okay. >> Part one. >> All right. So, we're now at the item uh comments from recognized employee organizations.
Um, so we'll change it up. Today we'll have our bargaining chair and vice president, uh, Bethl LRA, and she will be presenting. >> You click it. Sorry. Click this to move. >> Okay. I'll try and be five minutes, but might just be a little bit over. All
right. Good evening, school board. Dr. Blanco Blanco Beth El Dura Marshall teacher UTP vice president bargaining chair here to talk about the state of bargaining and UTP's perspective.
This presentation provides the school board with a bargaining update from our members perspective. The educators working directly and in support of our students every day. What we do at the bargaining table is we bring
proposals forward. And here is what we value as we write those proposals. Learning conditions that improve student outcomes and well-being, recruiting and retaining highly qualified educators, strong schools, and a connected district
community. We come to the table to advocate for the safe, stable, fully staffed schools our students deserve. priorities PUSD itself has publicly identified in its strategic pillars. We've reached a few agreements this
year. Some of them include health and welfare benefits, maintaining the status quo for our members, special edou continued supports for teachers and students um in the special ed program. We've also added to the language
something new this year which are fade plans and staff training to support increasing student independence. We're continuing the joint special ed committee and I think that's been a really positive collaborative effort between the two parties.
Where do we stand current and upcoming 202526 bargaining cycle? We still have unresolved class size and salary and then going into 2627 we have proposed some salary and hours.
Um so the district has those now in their possession. Class size students and and teachers need support. Our current class size reality outdated staffing ratios are producing significant imbalances in
class sizes. We see for example 44 students in a sixth grade cla math class, 70 in a secondary PE class, 36 in upper elementary. Those are some examples. Those erode our ability to effectively meet the needs of today's
students. Some necessary changes, class- size caps that support effective teaching and meaningful student learning. Oversized classes undermine student learning, educator retention, and family confidence in PUSD schools.
For 2526, salary, competitive compensation supports, excuse me, student stability. Currently, we are in the bottom quartile in LA County for mid-career educators. Inflation has outpaced now our prior
salary improvements and inconsistent and e uneven salary schedule progression. We'd like to correct necessary changes a 2.35% cost of living adjusting adjustment
sorry add longevity steps 1621 and 26 to support recruitment and retention of experienced educators. California gave PUSD and all the other districts an annual COLA funding. Yet, the employees of the district haven't seen any of it
apply to their salary schedules. Teachers can't afford to live in this community and stay in this profession. for 2627 professional wages for professional work for salary. Our current reality is extra
work is paid at a fraction of people's hourly rate of pay. Uh consistently PUSD budgets less than 55% on classroom instruction. necessary changes, a 5% cost of living adjustment, career and
technical educator pay parody, and fair wages based on our salaries for supplemental work. Show educators that their contributions and expertise are valued by paying them what they are worth. Competitive compensation is essential to retaining experienced
educators and maintaining stable school communities. And for hours 2627 bargaining cycle respect teachers time to strengthen student outcomes. Our current reality only one day for parent conferencing at
the elementary through middle school. Uh inconsistent weekly planning time for elementary teachers and there are no limitations to workload. Necessary changes dedicated parent conference week. We've brought this idea before. Um, our teachers are 100% behind this.
Guarantee 100 minutes of planning time weekly for elementary teachers. Compensate and limit adject duties. Establish a sustainable number of course preparations for secondary educators. And minimize combo classes and compensate teachers for the additional
workload when assigned. Sustainable workloads and working conditions mean better prepared teachers and better learning environments for our students. So PUSD's upside down budget priorities. Our current reality less than 55%
budgeted for classroom instruction. This goes on repeatedly. 20% is spent on contracted services. Um that's more than neighboring districts. No planning for increasing employee compensation instability for students and educators.
What do we need to change? 60% or more of the budget should be for classroom instruction. Greater investment in students, classrooms, and the educators who work with students daily. Budget priorities that center classrooms and support student success. Teacher working
conditions equal student learning conditions. whose interest. In our bargaining sessions with the district, we have repeatedly been told that our proposals are not in the interest of the district. We believe strong schools require
investment in both students and the educators who support them every day. To date, there has been no movement on class size or salary, and the district has now received our salary and hours proposals for the 2627 bargaining cycle.
As the board adopts next year's budget, these unresolved issues should be placed at the top of the list with planning that also reflects our 2627 proposals. Again, we urge the board to prioritize students, classrooms, and the educators
who make student success possible. Keep PUSD strategic pillars in mind as you budget for safe, stable, fully staffed schools. Thank you. Do I have to do something? Any other um
recognize employee organizations? Booya. There we go. So, I'm here on behalf of ABSA. Uh, want to say first, uh, good evening, President Frederick's, uh, board members, Superintendent Blanco, and SLT. Uh, we're just here to say something. Um, it's a very special
day, and we can't let this day go by without saying something to this person. So, we wish Dr. Blanco a happy birthday from ABSA. I know there's a lot of other places you'd rather be, but you are here this evening with us. So, thank you for giving up your time on your birthday to be with us. Uh, and also just we just
want to thank you for your leadership and for your support and u appreciate all you do, Dr. Blanco. So, happy birthday from Absa. any other labor organizations out there? Okay, thank you. And then we have the student board
member report. Thank you, President Frederick's, esteemed board members, Superintendent Blanco, and PSD leadership team for continued contributions and dedications to PSD students. We appreciate how in 2023 the board accepted the student think tank's
proposal to give students a platform for our voice and the student assembly was found. However, today we are left with the question whether our voice truly has an impact on board's final decisions that impacts the students. With all the issues unfolding, it leaves
us to wonder what is the value of our voice? How does our voice affect the board's final decisions? Sometimes we feel the voice student assembly has been tokenized, leaving us feeling that we aren't being treated as an equal partner.
Right now, the district is navigating a deep crisis of trust. And it's very disappointing to see where our district has come to. Since the consolidation committee was first formed, the student assembly and council has voted and spoken out against school consolidation at this time. When
we voted against school consolidation, we're worried our position where the school consolidation advisory committee's recommendations would not change the majority of the board's final decisions. School closures will impact all students lives.
If solutions to PUSD's ongoing physical challenges are to be found or created, we believe the process needs to be truly collaborative. A different process or method must be found. We appreciate that students were invited to participate in
the SCAC. Our colleague who served on the committee told us, quote, "It was weird to have an outside party evaluate our district because they didn't or couldn't understand it like how members of the committee would.
Some of the proposed situations didn't make sense. Many committee members didn't feel as if they had a say. We had to hold questions until after presentations. important questions weren't really being held heard or listened. Overall, it wasn't a nice environment for people to
speak up. As a high school student, the the student assembly understands that all campuses will be affected by consolidations or mergers. We understand that action has to be taken so that the district doesn't have to continue laying off our essential
teachers and staffs. actions that ultimately impact us. We are not sure what the solution is yet, but we will work over the summer to present some new ideas. The student council has always been putting student voices first. As a
junior from PHS, I can share that when student assembly and think tank gets together. There has never been hostility or tensions between students from different campuses. Instead, we operate as equals working together with mutual respect and unity. We have a rigorous process of
preparations for each meeting. This makes it incredibly disheartening when major decisions are happening behind closed doors. It inherently leaves our student board members without a meaningful platform to voice our group's positions. We hope to move away from a superficial inclusions
and towards a shared ownership. We do appreciate board members visiting us in our and your interest in our views. This week, President Frederick's attended our meeting and answered some answered some inquiries and questions. At the end, she invited us to share our voice and our
agenda and told us we can make a difference. We are taking her up on her invitation. And today, we are here to say one, a different and more collaborative process needs to be solved, needs to be used to solve the district declining enrollment and consequently financial issues. We
agree with the school consolidation committee. None of the closures proposed by TSS should happen at this time. Thank you. >> Thank you. The next item is um is Mr. Jsky here? No.
>> Okay. So once he gets here, we could All right, that was the options for order of election for the PUSD. So next item is uh public hearing um will be conducted to allow for public
input regarding 2627 special education plan budget and service plan for PSD SULPA. Uh a public hearing will be held. Do I need to read this? No, just if there's anybody uh
want to speak on the Okay, thank you Trusty Mackenzie. >> Okay. >> Okay, Mr. Johnson, did you you want to speak now? Yes. Okay, might as well.
Okay, back to item M. Thank you for being here. >> Thank you. >> How you doing? Mark JSK, city clerk. Uh just to go over the resolutions for the upcoming election.
Um school districts election is coming up Tuesday, November 3rd. Uh the board of education districts are 1, three, five, and seven that are up. It'll be a plurality election. Um so that's the
most votes decides the winner in each race. Uh in the case of a tie, the charter says section 706, the winner will be determined by lot. So u has not been a case since I've been here uh in
21 years. Uh each board member serves a 4-year term uh and that would start on December 7th, 2026. The nomination period, excuse me,
uh will open on July 13th. Um and that happens in the Pasadena City Clerk's office. We will administer that. Uh eligible candidates must be registered to vote and live and be registered in the same geographic subdist.
The period will be open from uh July 13th to August 7th. In the event that the incumbent does not file, the deadline will be extended to Wednesday, August 12th. Uh for everyone except for the
incumbent, there are two resolutions before you. The first resolution is to call and give notice of the election. Is a standard resolution. Um it declares which seats are open. It submits a request to the county superintendent of schools to to
consent and agree to the election consolidation with the statewide uh election that occurs on on November 3rd. Um and then the county would then direct the registar recorder county clerk to run the election on behalf of the POSD. Uh in the resolution it also
acknowledges that PUSD will pay its prora share of election costs and uh that will be as build by the uh RRCC's office. The second resolution uh sets forth regulations relating to candidate
statements. Um and these are the standard uh regulations that we've used in the past. The candidates are responsible for paying paying for paying for their um printing of their statements in the candidate booklet.
Uh the school district will pay the cost for the translated statements. Um the statements are limited to 200 words and it's related to the candidates's qualifications, nonpartisan, and they're due at the time of filing nomination papers. uh working with the county that
the deposit amounts have been set at $600 for each board of education race. If you look at the uh chart that I've provided here, so English only, $600 for each race. If you choose to uh to print
an English and Spanish translation of your English statement in the English book, uh it's $1,200. So, you're paying for both statements. Um, and the the county only allows Spanish as the uh alternate language to be printed in the
English book. They also offer, and this is new, a uh online only uh uh option that's less expensive, $279. Um, but if you choose English or English
Spanish option, uh, that's included. You don't have to pay the extra. So, uh, before you there were requests from, uh, board members, uh, to me to see if there are opportunities for election
cost savings. Um, and so there's a section that we can add to, uh, um, the calling of the election resolution or not. Uh, if you don't add that, then it's status quo. So, all races, regardless of the number of qualified
candidates, would proceed to the ballot. uh contested and non-contested races appear on the ballot. So in the case of the last election, there was one race where someone ran unopposed that stayed on the ballot. There's another reason for that, too, because there was a measure and when you have a measure
that's district-wide, then you don't have the option to cancel any elections because the the election code says if there's another election in the same agency that covers that period, you cannot that area, you cannot cancel. But in this case, you're not going to have a
measure on the ballot that I'm aware of at this point. And so um you have the option uh to appoint in lie of election due to insufficiency of candidates. And this is provided by educ educ education
code sections 5326 and 5328. So, um, is the is the process of cancelling a school district sub geographic race in the event there's only one or no qualified candidates nominated during the nomination period.
And we've never had a case where no qualified candidates has ever has ever happened for a race. So, we in all the history that I've seen for PUSD, there's always been somebody who's run for an open seat. So, uh, but in the case of
this, this would allow if there's one qualified candidate, you could consider an option to cancel that election rather than just put that out to the voters. Um, but an election race cannot be cancelled if a race is contested, meaning there's two or more candidates.
So, you cannot obviously that just proceeds. An election race cannot also be cancelled if a petition is signed by at least 50 v voters in that geographic subdist and they submitted to the elections official prior to the close of the nomination uh period requesting that
the election can be held. So even if you adopt the resolution, the community has a right to force an election even if you have this resolution in place. they can uh circulate a petition and say we want the election to proceed because they
want writing candidates. So um if by the close of the nomination period either August 7th or August 12th there's only one or no qualified candidates then and we haven't received a petition uh then the city clerk's office would notify the
registar recorder county clerk. Um the RRCC would then post a list of canceled elections. If you look at attachment C in your packet, uh I given you an example of what just they of the notice that they just posted for June 2nd.
So it so in the event uh this happens if one candidate if there's one qualified candidate that qualified nominated person this is pursuant to the education code shall be seated at the organizational meeting of the PUSD board
of education and shall serve as if for uh elected for the four-year term if there were no candidates that qualified during the nomination period and we didn't have a petition in case, then it would be the PUSD board uh um uh to act
collectively at a meeting prior to the election to appoint a qualified registered voter from the subgeeographic uh district. And the appointee would serve the four-year term as elected as if elected.
Just so you understand um the cost that's coming up for this election. This is the estimated cost for PUSD general election. Uh the general election is about $295,000. Uh the actual costs will vary on several factors. Number of candidates on the
ballot, the fluctuations in voter registration, vote by mail uh counts, things of that nature. So when you're considering this um I wanted to also point out that in that attachment C and I took a little screen grab other school
districts do take advantage of this education code section. Um and they do appoint in lie of election due to insufficiency of candidates. So Arcadia Unified School District they may be elected at large and so they didn't have
an election this last period. Uh Compton Unified School District cancelled two uh races in area A and in area G. Uh and Long Beach Unified School District canceled their district three race. So what is the fiscal benefit of
cancelling the election? uh running an election with only one candidate. When you send that out, when you send out the ballot materials, you send out the vote by mail materials, um it costs approximately60,000 to $75,000.
So, if you were to cancel it, you would not be spending that that money uh on that race. By cancelelling though, you do eliminate one aspect of the election, which is the writing candidate period. Um my
suggestion on how to proceed is if there's public comment you obviously take that and during your deliberations or following your deliberations you would make a motion uh to include or exclude the provision and that way you can come to consensus as a board and
then a motion on the overall staff recommendation incorporating whatever action you take whether to include or exclude whether to allow for cancelling elections or not allow uh and just proceed as you have in the past. And
with that, I can handle uh answer any questions. >> Thank you, Mr. Johnsky. >> Trusty Kenny, >> on the newer resolution, I just wanted to point out that there was a typo on the first line of the last paragraph on
page three. It just says where geographic subdist is not held. I think the word election might be missing. So, >> okay. >> Um, >> so the city I was going to ask if the city does this, but it sounds like this is based on education codes, so they
wouldn't have an opportunity to do it. >> Uh, right. And we haven't, uh, in this last election, uh, district 5 is, uh, running unopposed, uh, and we're proceeding with the election. >> But I mean, would the city ever contemplate doing this?
>> I've never been asked by the council to contemplate it or bring it forward. There's options for us to do that as well, I think, uh, in the elections code. >> Okay. >> Um, but at this point, we haven't. >> So, it it seems like some of the trade-off or the main parts of the
trade-off is saving the money and losing the opportunity for right in votes. >> That's correct. >> Thank you. >> PCC does it. PCC. >> Okay. Trusty Holly and Trusty Harden.
I was Hi, thank you for being here. No problem. >> Mr. Jsky, >> I guess my question is at PCC, I know that they had one trustee in the last election who ran unopposed. Was that trustee on the ballot?
>> Um, I don't run PCC elections. Um, and I'm >> okay. >> Not familiar with what they've done. >> I don't know if they chose not to do that or not. Uh I just uh in terms of city council elections, I've uh we have
not cancelled elections in the past and that's what I'm that and PUSD. I know in the PUSD there have been just in the last since 2010 there's been three instances where uh a PUSD board member
ran or a a candidate ran unopposed in a seat. Um, and in one of those three cases, I think it I believe it was in 2011 with Ranata Cooper, there was a writing candidate. Um, >> so you have had experience with writing? >> I have. Um, it's interesting with the
writing candidate because the um deadline to be a writing candidate is October 20th, I think. Meanwhile, the ballots have been out for a week and a half or two weeks pre previous. So, it's almost as if you're people are voting
once they get their ballots, people start to vote right away. So, you're already losing the opportunity to get those votes if you're not a right qualified writing candidate um as ballots are sent out to voters. So, uh it's a little
um interesting that there's a deadline that's at, you know, so late in the process and yet ballots are still out and people are voting. So because once a ball ballot's cast and then then your opportunity as a writing candidate to gain that voters's vote is is lost.
>> People have done it. >> They have there has been write in candidates that have um been successful. The one that I've heard of and I don't exactly remember the agency, but it was an incumbent that missed a deadline or
something like that. And so they had name recognition and then they ran a very strong writing candidate campaign. But to be a qualified writing candidate, you have to go through the same nomination process as a regular candidate. You have to circulate your
nomination petition, get your signatures, um, and you still have to pay your $25 for the filing fee and things of that nature. Um, so you're still doing the same work as a candidate. you just do not get your name on the ballot. And so
people, the voters are not going to see your name. They have to know that you are a qualified writing candidate to write in your name. And um and so there's there's a number of um ways to handle that. >> Thank you,
>> Trusty Harden. >> Mr. Jsky, good to see you. Um you >> I just wanted to clarify in the instance where there's one candidate uh and they're not you know they've considered nominated um that's an automatic seating
process there's no board action where they actually have to >> right >> appoint the person it's that's only in the case of no candidate okay >> that would be the appointment >> okay just check >> pros cons you're right I I don't know. Do you have a personal opinion on the
two options? >> I, you know, I don't have a an opinion on it. The b the pros are you save 60 to $75,000. Um, if there's a race that is unopposed,
I do know that voters often question why a race is on a ballot at all if they're running unopposed. um because you technically only need one vote for for that person to be elected unless there's a qualified writing candidate in which case you need to count the votes and they need to if it's a plurality
election they need to have the most votes but um I don't have pros or cons beyond that it's up to the board and actually do we just need to do a motion on one of them is that How do we
>> right? I would I would suggest you you take up the matter of whether or not you want to include the section that allows for the uh election to be cancelled or not include the section. That would be the way I would handle it. And then you
could just take a motion on the the rest of the staff recommendation. >> It was agenda as a board discussion. I was under pressure that you guys were going to discuss and >> um decide on which option and we were
going to bring it for approval at the next. >> Okay. Okay. >> Then I don't >> Yeah. So did did someone have an opinion on leaning to one or the other at this point? >> Trusty Harden >> saving money. I mean that's I mean the
right in issue is is a little bit of a concern but I think it's expensive you know to run a a race in a precinct with one candidate. So >> are you talking about the insufficient candidate option option? Okay.
>> So can you clarify what we're go can we have like a recap on the two options? >> Oh you want to ask him for a recap? >> I can ask him for a recap. The option is no no action >> meaning you wouldn't add anything to your resolution. You would just leave it
as you've had in the past. So not adding that not including that section. I think it's section five in one of the in in the resolution that you would add that I think it's section five or if you wanted the option to cancel
not the option if you choose to cancel elections if someone runs unopposed then it would be uh adding that section to the resolution >> just >> yes >> I'm sorry so um insufficiency of
candidates so I'm sorry that made me think If we go with our status quo and no one runs, which as you said has never happened, I'm assuming something takes over, but by having this language, it's a more streamlined process.
>> Well, if if no one were to qualify in the in the nomination period, you would still have and you didn't add it, then you would still have the right in candidacy option. I mean, that would someone could be a writing >> would still run the election even if no one qualified.
>> Correct. because there would be >> do this >> right >> and then if no one did a write in then we would then we would still have to appoint >> you would have to appoint >> I mean I'm assuming there's another procedure somewhere that tells us what to do if no one wins an election >> right
>> but this is >> we could we could cross that bridge when I don't I haven't seen that happen >> okay >> we could cross that bridge when we we get there >> you have a question Dr. So I believe we are the consensus is to go with insufficient what what is on the
item. We need to figure out >> I believe this is a discussion item so we don't have to take action on it. So, >> well, we need to we need to be able to give direction to what should be on the agenda next time. Unless you want both of them there and we choose at that time.
>> Well, wouldn't that be creating a >> Okay. Well, so I heard I heard your views and and I think >> if someone runs unopposed, we'd want to save the money. So, we really don't want to leave it as you want insufficient candidates, >> right?
>> I just want your opportunity to express if you need to. you want to weigh in? We're not really voting. We're just expressing. >> So, given that we just heard an hour plus um public comment that has expressed significant unwitness about
our fiscal situation, I think that we should be exercising all options in our power to be able to save money. >> I agree with those sentiments. this this process does not impact um the candidates, but it only benefits
the district. So, I'm in support of it. >> So, it sounds like you're uh moving forward to include it. And so that would be the resolution that would include the section and uh allow for you the option again and just for you and the public if
there are two or more candidates the election proceeds as normal. >> Um in the event that there's a petition that's submitted by voters that they want the election to proceed no matter what the election would proceed as normal. In the event that there's no
petition and there's only one candidate, that's the option when it would be cancelled and you and the district would save the 60 to 75,000. Okay. >> Do you have any more? You look like you have a question. >> I just want to make sure that Miss
Mononttoya is okay with this because this is going to be on for next month. >> Actually, no. We were planning to bring it back on June 11th. >> June 11. Thank you. Thank you very much. >> Trusty Bailey has a question.
>> I do have a question about if um a trustee is appointed, are they afforded the same rights and the responsibilities that been elected?
>> Yeah, this is uh under the education code and the wording that's in the education code and I think I provided that as an attachment. Let me just >> And so there's nowhere where it says that
>> if no person has been nominated or if an insufficient number is nominated, the governing board shall appoint a qualified person or persons as the case may be at a meeting prior to the date fixed for the election. And such appointee shall be seated at the organizational meeting of the board as
if elected at a district election. That's the wording in the education code, >> but it doesn't say that. It doesn't say who specifically the appointee is. So, does that mean that it could be a board
member who is running unopposed who should be appointed? But if the board decides that there's someone else who's qualified, >> no. So in the case of one candidate >> or sorry one >> qualified candidate that goes through
the nomination period and is nominated and is a qualified candidate and they are unopposed then per the code they would just be seated. In the event that no one is nominated, then the board would make an appointment and that would be of a
qualified elector of the district that the board chooses and they would do that before the election. Does that make sense? >> It makes sense, but there's always a loophole somewhere. I'm finding >> not always something. So, so then my
next my next question um is whether or not that appointment can be withdrawn by the board at any time. >> No, once you make an appointment, then
they are uh seated as if elected. That's the language in the education code. >> Okay. >> I'm just reading from the education code. I'm not an attorney. You may want to talk with your legal counsel, but that's my understanding of how it works.
>> Okay. Do you know any districts that have done this? >> Um, the appointment part, I haven't heard of a district that had to. I've I've heard of districts that have canceled elections when there's just one qualified candidate that's uh done the nomination. >> And those are the ones you showed us on the
>> That's just the ones that happened in June 2nd. There are probably others. >> Okay. Thank you. You're welcome. >> And so for this to take effect, it has to go on the June 11th, no later, >> right? >> Thank you.
>> You're welcome. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Next item. >> Good to see everybody. >> All right. We're at item N, public hearing. Now we're at the public hearing um for the SULPA.
The governing board of the Pastine Unified School District is now opening the public hearing for public input regarding 2627 special education plan budget and service plan for Pastine Unified School District SULPA. Anyone wishing to comment either verbally or in
writing may do so at this time. >> There is one person who sent to give public comments under this public hearing. Cindy Jin. Okay. >> How many minutes? three minutes.
>> Good evening, board members and superintendent. I'm requesting that the board withhold approval of the 2026 2027 Sulpa plan until it is amended to accurately reflect the significant restructuring of the special education department and presented transparently to the public. The current public
hearing notice references approval of the SPA plan. Yet, it does not provide the public with critical information regarding restructuring of the special education department, changes to administration or fiscal fiscal oversight, staffing changes, allocation
of the idea part B funding, low incidence funding expenditures or medical billing reimbursement revenue, and how those funds are being used. As board members, you have a fidiciary responsibility and oversight obligation to ensure that the public funds designated for students with
disabilities are being used appropriately, transparently, and in compliance with the IDEA requirements. I have serious concerns regarding low incidence funding, which reportedly totals approximately $1 million. These funds are intended to support students with low incidence disabilities through
specialized equipment, materials, services, and supports. The public deserves a clear accounting of how these funds are allocated and whether they are directly benefiting students asend as intended. I also have concerns regarding medical billing reimbursements generated
from special education related services such as speech therapy, occupational therapy, counseling, nursing, and other services provided to students with disabilities. The board should publicly clarify how much reimbursement funding
is received, whether those funds are deposited, whether those funds are being redirected into the general fund, and how much is being reinvested directly back into special education programs, staffing, and student supports. Additionally, if the district is significantly restructuring the special
education department, the board should not approve a SEPA part B plan that may no longer accurately reflect the district's operational structure, fiscal oversight, staffing model, or service delivery system. Before approval, I respectfully request that the board
require a publicly updated and amended SEPARB budget and service plan, disclosure of restructuring impacts, transparency regarding special education funding streams, and confirmation regarding whether the California Department of Education has been notified of these significant changes.
Parents and the community deserve transparency, accountability, and meaningful participation before decisions affecting students with disabilities, funding allocations, and FAPE obligations are approved. Thank you. Cindy Jyn, parent of students with
IEPs. >> Are there any additional comments? Hearing none, the public hearing for input regarding 2627 special education plan budget and service plan for Pest Unified School District SULPA is now closed. Uh we're now at item 01
AB1912 school consolidation board member statement regarding records disclosure. Uh anybody would like to go have a turn. >> Okay. You want to go first? >> Okay. Trusty Harden.
>> Public trust and transparency are essential to effective governance. The Brown Act is a valuable check against conducting the public's business in private. On this, I want to be clear. At no point was there any intention or attempt on my part to facilitate
majority discussion of any topics. Effective governance also requires that board members diligently prepared for public deliberations through independent research, rigorous factf finding, and a commitment to finding common ground. The compromises that led to the passage of
resolution 2852 were centered around granting the superintendent the necessary authority and autonomy to stabilize our district, including consolidation scenarios should they be required to ensure that we protect the vital programs and services
that PUSD provides to every student in our community. The resolution was intended to initiate the process, not enter a final conclusion. Furthermore, there was never any attempt on my part to influence the selection of
any consultant. It had always been my position, one well communicated in the public disclosures to allow the superintendent complete autonomy and authority to select a consultant as she saw fit. I was invited to a single
meeting with Total School Solutions so that I could watch a presentation of their services. I made no effort to endorse them, recommend their hire to anyone, direct their work, or conspire to achieve any specific result.
On the matter of informal personal texts between myself, individual board members, or members of the public, I made sarcastic and cynical statements in references to others. I regret having made these statements. I value the engagement of the public in our
governance process. I have been myself a longtime member of various parent advocacy groups and I know that while words matter, actions matter even more. And I believe my record of showing up in our community supports how I truly feel about those in it. My sincere apology
extends to anyone I may have offended by any of the comments made. Finally, as it relates to the portions of communications that have been referenced in various publications, I observed some misconceptions about some of the messages. I would encourage the public
to review the entirety of messages and understand the context context in which they were sent. Transparency is essential to public trust. >> Thank you. Anybody else? Trusty Kenny. >> I believe in parent and community
engagement and transparency with our school district. These beliefs have been a focus of mine since I joined the district as a parent and they have continued during my time on the PUSD board. I believe strongly in the Brown Act and its goal of allowing the public
to see what the government is doing with taxpayer dollars on the public's behalf. As a result, I'm careful to avoid participating in communications that might cause a violation. Additionally, I want to make clear that I did not meet or talk with anyone from
TSS until the day they presented their proposal at our January 22nd meeting. Also, Miss Frederick's did not share any plan for specific school closures with me, and I did not see any part of it until reading the summary in the recent newspaper article.
I do regret my sarcastic tone and facicious texts with fellow board members. While I believe the messages as referenced in recent media have been taken out of context, it was never my intention to do something that would cause a distraction from the important
work we are trying to accomplish. Anybody else? As a board member, I take my responsibility of making difficult decisions and seriously and I want to acknowledge
that public trust matters especially during a moment like this when our district's facing serious finan financial enrollment challenges that affect every school community. Our community is asking the district to
preserve teaching positions, protect academic programs, maintain student opportunities, provide wages that reflect the rising costs of living. These are all important,
but financially they're increasingly in tension with each other. I have not made up my mind or have a final determination regarding any specific school closures, consolidations or outcomes.
My concern has been the long-term fiscal structural challenges facing Pasadena Unified and the need to address those responsibly. I also recognize that these conversations are deeply personal for students, for the educators that are
impacted by those by the neighborhoods and both as a board member and as a parent of two children in this district. I take that responsibility to balance those needs of the current students and
the future students of Pasadena. I have been guided by I what I believe in good faith to be the long-term interest of the district and its
students. I want to briefly address my consolidation slides that recently shared through the public records process. These slides were first created in October 2025 as part of my own personal notes created independently
using my personal email account. October 2025 was when the district was addressing its 35 million fiscal deficit. I saw I saw school consolidation as a potential solution at least in part to address the district's ongoing structural deficit.
The facts are number one, I started working on the slides before total school solutions was hired. Number two, I met with total school solutions on a recommendation from board members from multiple districts. At no time did total T total school solutions ever review or
contribute to my slides. This was intentional because I wanted to ensure the integrity of the process. Part of being a board member is being well informed. As such, I met with toll school solutions forformational purposes only to ensure the process is correct
and to understand what services they would provide. Notably, the conclusions of total school solutions were significantly different from mine. Number three, the fact that Total School Solutions was eventually independently chosen by the superintendent is just a
coincidence. Total School Solutions is well known in the school consolidation space. So, it's not unusual for them to be consulted for information and not unusual for them to be chosen as a facilitator. But the board had no part in the selection of Total School
Solutions. Any assertions or accusations that the creation and existence of the slides in any way tainted or influenced this process is patently false. I apologize that these documents have distracted others from the good work that this
board is doing. In particular, the board has taken care to make sure the process involves appropriate factf finding, recommendations, and discussion among interested members of the public. I hope that we can continue to move forward, understand the state of our district,
and work toward the best solution for our students. It has been my goal to keep this process open andformational, and we will continue to do so in the future. All right. Item Z2, total school solutions presentation on the equity
impact analysis report, including the school consolidation advisory committee recommendations. >> Good evening. I'm Dr. Joseph Bandalfo and this is Dr. Jody Wells uh with Total School Solutions. And uh tonight we're going to go over the draft equity impact
uh report uh that you've received. Um this uh AB1912 process is the gold standard in the state and and it's really designed to help um school districts avoid uh disproportionality or discrimination when they're considering
closures. Um so the whole process is is is really um geared to look at metrics um that that can lead uh to the district to making wise decisions when when it has to consider closure. enclosure. Of course, you know, we do a lot of this type of work with a lot of school districts all over the state and and
it's these are very difficult um conversations. They people do tend to get very upset. It's a very personal uh matter. Closing schools are part of the community. Their places of belonging and it's understandable that people are upset and have strong opinions on this.
So, um what we're going to talk about tonight is just the background information uh that led up to this process. uh we're going to talk about the superintendent school advisory committee uh that met and and and u how that uh decisions they made and
information they saw and then we'll talk about assembly bill 1912 the metrics and other factors that were reviewed during this whole process. Um and that being said um any one of these topics in this report you know could be a couple hour
presentation. So that's that's for a normal board meeting. That's not something we typically do. And the board does have a study schedule uh a study session scheduled that can get into a lot more detail than what we're going to go over tonight because this is going to be more of a a 35,000 foot view of the
process. So, um I think what's driving this discussion uh like most of the districts in LA County is just the historical enrollment and projected enrollment. You can see that uh you know since 1516 you know thousands of students have been lost and um of course
the school districts are always geared up for whatever their enrollment is and as they lose students it's difficult difficult for them to cope with that in a lot of ways but this is really what what what drives the conversation mostly. Um there was a board resolution that was referred to previously uh 2852
about enrollments that established minimum optimal maximum enrollments and that also put all this uh motion this uh process in motion to start looking at this um gave the superintendent specific instructions on next steps and and part of that was the superintendent form
formed a committee um to look at this. So this committee um and and h having led the uh facilitated committee, you know, really impressive people on the committee, very dedicated, very passionate, very intelligent. Um
everyone shared um personal experiences about how this district impacted them personally or their families. Um so there there was a lot of ownership of that committee and they took their uh job very seriously. There were 33 members, over 150 applicants. I think it
was more like 160 something. Um they they're they were tasked with reviewing the board approved metrics and factors and um they began by trying to narrow down a list of schools. Um basically to funnel down the number of schools that
would be looked at a little more closely for consolidation. It's a big district. You wouldn't want to look at every single school for closure. That wouldn't make any sense. But there might be opportunities with some of the schools. So they were asked to do that at about I think it was the third meeting. We had a roundt discussion and they were um the
committee was pretty vocal about uh feeling like that the the schools it was causing a lot of stress on the schools to feel like they were under microscope about closure and that um it was there was a discussion. My interpretation was they wanted me to come up with some scenarios to come to to um to to come up
with some types of closure scenarios so they could you know move the process along and and make some good decisions. Um so that's what I did and I brought back scenarios and we started with the uh TK8 scenarios and then we went with the high school scenarios and there there is an infinite um scenarios and
and TSS works with a lot of school districts and and does that type of work. So, we were we uh were accustomed to doing that. We brought and narrowed down some selections. Um, and what you're going to see in the EIA is actually every um every scenario that was brought forward to the committee.
That's a little bit more unusual than most districts with this report. Typically, it's already narrowed down to, you know, a couple of schools or so that that they want the board needs to consider for closure. This has scenarios. The board would could not um
uh approve all the scenarios because some of them are conflicting nor was that the intent. It was just to give the committee options. But since the committee made no recommendations, all the options were brought forward to the board for their consideration. Um and at the May 11th meeting, the committee decided not to vote for any closures at
this time. Um the committee always reviewed the board desired outcomes um because that was important. And I think the board did a good job of really kind of setting um the committee on track to what they wanted the committee to do. And they and and so you know part of these outcomes was were uh were always
reviewed especially about you know um you know what the students would get out of this. That was always a big part of the conversation because that was important to the board. And then there were also objectives. You can see the last bullet. um they could recommend to consolidate not to consolidate schools, recommend
consolidate one or more schools at the end of the process or um recommend future years consolidation and they just voted not to consolidate anything. Um this is the the final vote. So it wasn't consistent. Um some of the schools uh
you know were fairly close in the in the in the vote tallies so that um you know it wasn't it wasn't all the same because I think some of the situations weren't all the same. So people were um you know voting on what they thought was best. So with AB1912 like I said that's the um
gold standard. Um and again all the options were included in the in the IIA that the committee saw um and they were through these metrics um and uh the the board can uh you know the board has the ability to accept the committee's recommendations to reject the
committee's recommendations. uh that board can come up with their own recommendations. If the board wants to come up with different scenarios than what was presented, it can also do that. However, that will um extend the timeline because it has to go through this whole process again and that has to
be analyzed through equity impact analysis. But that is possible if there's a feeling the board wants to do that. Um and um and the options that were analyzed, this is a TK8 options. So you can see the potential closed school is on the second
column. So that would have been Bonito, Webster, Kums, and Webster and Kums. There's a 2A and 2B because those are um inverses of each other essentially with um you know Longfellow uh as a likely receiving school on 2A, but otherwise
it's an inverse. And then there was McKinley um and that was broken into 68 and TK5 into two parts um because it's a because it's a K8 school and then the secondary options um there
were there were um you know basically two schools looking at to be uh closed here Thood Marshall and then Blair and then there were um with Thood Marshall there was really only one option um and then Blair um depending depending on what happened with Thood Marshall had
several options in terms of where the high school students would go or where the middle school students would go. And so that was all analyzed. And so uh when when narrowing down the schools, the geographic locations and where the students reside was looked at.
Um that's obviously an important factor. You want to put have schools open where students are. And then of course enrollment is a factor, you know, and where that enrollment is. the the one very unique thing about Pasadena and one of the committee members said the greatest strength is with a school district is it's its um district choice
and and students can enroll anywhere in the district. That also makes for some really unorthodox um analysis of this because students for some of the schools uh most of them in many cases don't live by the school. So, it's not typical um in in many districts, you know, they're
neighborhood schools. And so, if you're talking about merging schools, it's pretty clear that the students will go from this school to that school, but in a situation like this where the students don't live by the school to begin with, um that's less assured. uh for for purposes of the study, we had to assign them to a school just so um so there
would be um you know a proof that they could actually the district could house those students, but they may not necessarily go to that school since it's a district of choice. Um and and so that that's a little bit unusual. Uh the metrics um you know the and these you've
seen before they were approved by the board and that other other required information that's also in the plan is listed here. Um and so and that's the AB1912 uh you know meets the criteria that's required. Um uh there's also uh the
important part of AB1912 is you may have noticed that there's draft on this uh report which may seem a little odd because you know it's it's a report being presented at the board but that's um the reason that is is because um the report isn't final right now. it's still
a living document and as as public comment comes in and and um ideas come in um the report can be modified and it's required that those comments are are responded to. So as the process goes on there may be some some comments that
um change essentially change the report or change the the closure plan based on the comments that's in the report. So it's it's it's an opportunity for the public at this public hearing. There's another public hearing. There's also a website for people to write into and those comments will be responded to as
the process goes uh uh through. And then again the metric analysis these are the these are all the uh this is a summary of what was in the um in the report. And again, these are each one of these topics is is most of them are pretty big, take a a while to go through and um there's a scheduled study session
that would be uh you know, a lot more detail on all of these uh topics, the metrics. Um and so the um the the the equity impact analysis which is posted that has all the the information in it.
Um, also there's there's a website uh that that people can um uh write their comments to and I believe it's uh help me Miss Fatim as a >> public comments. Could you repeat what it is? >> Public comments at PUSD us.
>> Yeah, public comments at PUSD. Okay. So that's that's where a public can write in and we'll notate those comments and we'll we'll we'll respond to them and incorporate comments into the report. >> You would ask that they increase impact analysis as part of their subject line. >> Yeah. And the subject line uh if people
going to write into that shouldn't should say uh EA EIA draft public comment. So we know that that's what it's about because other comments come into that um line as well. Okay. Okay. And so the next steps which the board is going to look at and consider later, but this is currently uh
what uh the the um process is um on May 28th tonight, we have um the SESAC recommendation of the board and the draft um analysis. And the draft analysis is just basically the board is just asked to acknowledge receipt of the
uh document, not approval of it, just that the the board received it. Um and then on June 11th there's a second public hearing that the p the board can get more public comment. Um on June 13th there's scheduled a board study session and on the 25th uh on this schedule will
be the final um uh meeting where the board would decide to take action or not take action on any of the uh proposed closures. Okay. So that is um that is the uh presentation and uh Dr. Dr. Wales and I
will be glad to answer questions on the report or the process. >> Before we continue with the conversation, I would like to make a motion to extend the meeting till 12:30. >> Second in favor.
>> Good. >> Okay. We're we're we're an hour behind the schedule time in the agenda. >> Miss Kenny says possibly longer. >> She's asking for longer. Oh, okay.
>> 12:30 is an hour and 30 minutes. >> He hearing would take a significant portion of that. So 32 >> 1 a.m. >> 1 a.m. Just in case. Just in case. >> All right. Thank you.
Okay, we'll try. Trusty Harden, then Trusty Kenny question. We need to vote. >> Oh, okay. Sorry. Motion uh motion to extend to 1:00 a.m. and
then I I seconded it. All those in favor? All those against? Abstensions? Okay, motion passes. Okay, back to >> I just want to add I I know I can't stay that long. >> We'll try to finish as as much as
possible. >> Okay, >> any questions for Mr. Pandalfo County? >> So, this is a discussion item. So, I should do a question and any comment simultaneously.
So um if I were to ask you why did you not recommend Don Bonito to Webster was and the reason behind that question is I'm trying to understand whether there was analysis and and how
you ended up on these selections. >> Yeah. I I think um and in reflecting back on that I I think the thought was that um Webster is got an enrollment about 250 students and it looked like that would e Webster was either going to
be closed or merged with another school. Um so uh Webster wasn't really available for Dominito in that in the scenarios we had. Um so um uh you know so that's why it wasn't considered further.
>> Okay. Thank you. Um I think that the reasons for having a transformation and consolidation conversation now um the reasons for it still exist and are still urgent. And the two reasons, at least for me, are the very impactful cuts we approved in
November, which took away services from students at schools and districtwide that we'll be implementing next year, and the fact that we're in the middle of spending 500 million of bond funds and are planning how to spend the next 1 billion without a clear understanding of
our decisions are prudent given the future use of each building. And these are funds the taxpayers will be paying off for the next 25 years. The board gave direction for a draft district transformation process to be prepared. The board hired a consultant
in January with a proposed timeline. From the beginning, there were concerns about that timeline. If you go back and look at the January meeting, as I observed the committee process, my concerns multiplied, but there were no opportunities for the board to discuss the process, modify the process where it
was lacking substance, ensure that the town halls and survey were authentic engagement. engagement or any opportunity to slow the process down when it felt rushed. This process as designed was not transparent for the majority of our parents in the community.
I think that most would agree that at the SCAC process and the outcomes are problematic. Entire components of the stated timeline were given little time. For instance, programs at sites and feeder patterns to name only a two.
Looking at the new attendance zones, transition timelines, and an overall view of the potential changes were not part of the process or proposed scenarios. There should also be a recommendation for the future l use of any closed sites, as the community has often pointed out.
I think there are numerous issues with this EIA that I don't have enough time to point out tonight even with the extension in time but I would not be able to support these scenarios at written at this time
this it's not clear to me that the selected consultant was a good fit for the process that we needed and that the board requested. I would have also liked to have been informed about the pre-existing relationship between our legal firm and TSS.
>> These short changed areas and missed areas need to be addressed before the board reviews the proposed scenarios. Parent and community questions and concerns should be at a minimum answered if not incorporated into the plan. All the components of the plan need to
be shared and be part of the decision on how to move forward rather than put off into some later phase as has been proposed. This is needed in order to meet our own board goals for the process and to regain the trust of the community.
We have a similar review process going on with our facilities master planning starting off with a report from a demographer and review of our site capacities. Then there is planned outreach for each of our school sites. These steps are also part of district transformation and can help us move
forward with this work. Okay. Trusty Kenny, are you expecting a response or this is just are you expecting do you want him to respond to some of it? No. Okay. Or you're free to respond if there's any issues you want to address.
We of course respect the board's input. >> Okay. Any other questions for Mr. Pandalfo? >> Oh, Trusty McKenzie, >> I think I have um two questions. The
first one is um given your statement that it's unique that this is a open enrollment district. And typically if there's a recommendation to consolidate schools or programs and the
feeding schools or receiving schools are typically in neighborhoods where students live given that that is not our reality. Um, what experience does your firm have in advising communities on how to
navigate such a scenario? >> Well, I think um it it just makes uh you know, it makes the closures of the schools um for you know, a little bit more hard to predict where students will you will go. So, um, you know, it it might be just a little different
perspective in terms of, um, looking a little closer at where the students reside rather than where they go to school because if the schools can move closer to where the students reside, you know, that actually makes, you know, makes some sense, too. So it's so to me
that's a little bit different you know like um I I think with McKinley if you look at the scatter plot maps and the heat maps it's it's the the school is not well enrolled but the area isn't um the the en the area seems to have uh
considerable enrollment. So you know there's a little disconnect there. um you know is that um you know would it be better to get something that's more attractive in an area that more students live in? Um so you know that that's just kind of an observation that's a little bit different from uh you know because
other school districts have open enrollment but I you know the when you look at and you see in the report there's these scatter plot maps of where the students live. I mean it looks like the universe because there's a there's you know there's there's some students who live around the school and then they're all over the district. So, um
you know that that's um you know it may be more important you know where the students live per se than the enrollment at the school um in in a district like this. >> So then what information do you use to make recommendations then? What kind of data are you gathering? What kind of um
information is used to make an appropriate assessment or recommendation? >> Yeah. Well, I mean typically it's it's you know the the enrollments for the school where the students live. Um, and you know, I think the added layer with this is, uh, you know, what, you know,
what programs are attracting the students and where they're located and is that makes sense? You know, where they're at for where the students are at since the um, you know, the the enrollments just dispersed. Um, so it's, you know, I mean, that that's just my opinion, but that's that's what's a
little different here. But if we've already established that geography is immaterial essentially to where students go to school, then how are we relying on geography as the basis for making said recommendations? >> Well, I I didn't say geography was not
important. I I still think geography is important. Um but you you know it's I think it's uh you know where the schools are at and um you know if there's you know if you have one school in the northeast corner of the district does that make sense regardless of where the student is going to close it if it's
well enrolled. You know I so it's not it's not you know things like this aren't like a straight ahead math problem. It's it's something that's got to be analyzed and looked at from a lot of different perspectives. I'll correct my wording perhaps not immaterial
but definitely different. And so what I'm hearing is that you've identified scenarios that are atypical but a typical process was still used. And I don't know that that's going to net us the opportunity to have the appropriate
information, due diligence or um data that would be needed to make an appropriate informed assessment. Trusty Velasquez. I don't even know how where to start. Um I guess one of the questions I have is
um why wasn't it considered if we were having if if if some of the scenarios were considering schools like McKinley and Blair, why a consolidation of uh McKinley into Blair, was it considerate among the scenarios?
>> Yeah. Well, I don't think um the scenarios catch every possibility. There's just ones that seem logical to us and and and maybe that's one that could be considered. >> Okay. uh and and and
what type of information did you use to or did you rely on to make these assumptions or this conclusions? >> Yeah. Well, the board provided guidelines and essentially there's you know enrollment geography where students live you know that that's that's a big
uh part of it and um and that was the basis for you know you know at least the first step at looking at you know what schools might be considered for consolidation. So outside of what's required from the law, the only other category that this
board requested was for the sake of this conversation, it's geographical location or where students live. That's the only category that this board approved to add to the metrics. >> Yeah. The other factors were enrollment
and uh geographic location slash where students live. >> Right. So that was a decision from this body. >> Yes. >> Okay. >> Trusty Harden. >> Um in the comments that came from the
committee as they were doing their work, a lot of recurrences of, you know, we need more time. You know, that the process felt rushed. In your experience, has that happened with other districts where a committee has said, in other words,
first question is, is was this a standard footprint for the kind of work that you normally do with districts in terms of a time duration and and then also have you experienced committees that would say, you know, we need more time and then what was the process to
extend that? >> Yeah, that's a good question. So I think um you know anecdotally anecdotally typically the uh committee would meet more like once a month. Um and I think uh that gives the committee a little bit
more time because I think one of the complaints with the committee is like they would get um data on Friday and then have to meet on Monday and go through it and then some there were there were one time where there were um you know backtoback meetings. So it was it was pretty tight. So typically with
the work we do, there's a little bit more time in between those meetings. Um and and by the end, you know, not, you know, it's it's typically typical with these things that not everybody's happy about the decision, but it it's um it's unusual to
have a majority of people feel like the process was rushed. Um, okay. Oh, I'll put you down. Uh I want to go back to McKinley and just sort of the theme of you know there could have been different configurations
and just from uh the the pattern I saw I think is that you know you looked at the capacity enrollments you know you're basically trying to fit two schools together at a you know if smaller school larger school
they had space put them there but then the other layer I saw was the programmatic alignment and that's I think that's what sort of is the tiebreaker. Just correct me if I'm wrong. If there's three schools and then you can put this
school here or there, it's the tiebreaker is really like the programmatic similarities. And so um is that how generally you came up with scenarios or Thank you. The um specifically with
McKinley because it is already across the street merged with Elliot and the program focus is very similar between the two schools. We looked at that as a reasonable fit moving forward for a continued consolidation. Merging it with
another option of Blair seemed programmatically very diverse. So we looked again at the very rich art programs um at those two schools as they existed harmoniously across the street and felt that moving forward that that was a good
continuation. So yes in that case then it was the programmatic tiebreaker. >> Okay. And then sorry followup uh what what was involved in that programmatic analysis like what did you get from our district and was there any sort of your
own insight into that? Thank you. Um I used a a a significant amount of different research primarily though looking at PUSD's program matrix that they keep through their education
division looking at magnet programs DIP programs IB um you know early um like the the um in early college. Yes, excuse me. It's
very late for me right now. Um, and so I um I looked at that. I also looked at the school accountability report cards which is housed on dataquest through the state. It also shows programmatically what um schools have. I looked at school
websites. Um I I looked at the different sources and they are listed in your EIA report. the the websites that I used to gather that programmatic data. And under each of the scenarios, there's a summary of the programs and how within those
merged programs, those programs could enhance one another. >> And did did the district kind of get a secondary review of your scenarios or or you just took their information and then you did your additional and that was it?
They didn't get a second pass, too. No, they they were checked. >> Oh, they did check it. The district staff did look at your scenarios. >> We I ran my my program to make sure I hadn't forgotten anything.
>> Okay. So, >> um I'm going to have Trusty Hong first and then Yeah, because he didn't get turned yet. Um, a major concern from the student assembly was that there was no survey
and the students were not consulted. And I would like to restate that a different process or method needs to be used like what board member McKenzie said. >> And um, I have to get Trusty Holly first
and then Trusty McKenzie. Do I have your mic? Um, in your vast experience, which I know you have, the resolution that was that was passed here had timelines and dates in other districts. Did this
process have significant, you know, specific dates to follow? Yeah, usually um when the process starts um like in most school districts for instance, they're trying to make sure
that they make decisions by March because those are the deadlines for um any types of layoffs or you know any type of uh you know effect that might happen with consolidation. So that so that the calendar usually works backwards that they want to have a decision by January or February. So
then, you know, they typically want the draft EIA in October and then another hearing November. So then that backtracks to, you know, how often they meet. So that that's typically the how the timeline is put together. >> So you would you backtrack it like from
a January January February date, you backtrack. Would it go all the way back to spring? >> Would seem to me. >> Yes, ma'am. It's it's you it's usually uh you know, these meetings start later in the spring. Uh sometimes they go through the summer. Um, and then, uh, you know, they finish up sometime in the
fall, >> but this is how this process would go. >> I'm sorry. >> This is how this process would go in other districts. >> In other districts, that's it's typical, but it's, you know, um, it can vary, but that would be, you know, my opinion, typical. >> Okay. Thank you.
>> Trusty Mckenzie. >> Just have one more question. Um I want to make sure that I heard correctly that if in fact um the board does not consider um the SCAC recommendations, does that mean that we have to complete
a new um equity impact analysis? if if um the the only reason you would have to um put a scenario through the equity impact analysis um would be because it's something that isn't already in the report. So if there's a
different idea for consolidation, then you you wouldn't necessarily have to reconvene a committee, but you could um have that um analyzed to to see if that was um you know, you know, for the reason they have AB1912, make sure it's not disproportionate or unequitable. So
yeah, it would to to follow the AB1912 process, you would have to um you would have to add that or or add it or have a new report with that scenario in it. >> And then what would be the process for obtaining um any amendments or
modifications to set analysis? Is that your firm who does that body of work or information gather? I mean, so, uh, you know, going forward, you know, the district of course can do whatever it feels it wants to do or work with whoever it wants to work with, but the,
um, but the, uh, the format would have to stay the same and and the format is pretty well laid out on what, you know, what the crit, you know, what the criteria are and what you're looking at. Um, so it could, um, it would have to be done typically by an outside party and that's that's um, the attorney general
recommended that Oakland Unifi tried to do it in house and, uh, the attorney general wasn't pleased with that. So, it's it's probably better to get somebody on the outside to do it. >> Thank you, >> Trusty Bailey. >> Yeah. My question is,
did you all use this metric analysis these these um metrics to make your recommendation on your metric analysis overview sheet?
>> Yeah. So the so the process is um you know first to so so based based on you know the basically the other factors that kind of narrow down the list of what um is possible you know because you know certainly you know for instance
like um Pasadena High School not possible or MURE to close it you just there's nowhere to put the students um so so that would be you know not something that would be considered but as it's whittleled down to what is possible then the metrics come into play in terms of evaluating what's the impact
if that school were to be closed. >> So, I'm asking because I don't know that these are listed in order of um any type of priority. Um but you have condition of a school facility as your number one bullet. And I just want to
know, have y'all visited Blair? >> Yeah, the the information we get on the facilities is from the facility master plan. and and so we're trying to be an objective um benchmark. >> Blair Middle and Blair High are two of the most modern buildings that we have
in this district, yet you have them on your list as a potential uh campus to be closed. So, I'm just concerned about the the strategy that you use to apply the
metrics to come up with the selections that you did. I mean, I can't that you came up with I cannot see um a pattern >> on how to follow how you were able to come up with the selections that you came up with.
>> Yeah. So, I think with the secondary schools, you know, a lot of it comes down to capacity and uh the the report shows options, not recommendations. So, it's looking at well, what what could be done, not what should be done. So, um, the the the option for like the
secondary schools, you know, there were some options with Marshall and and being close to passing a high school and and the upper grades and then there was an option because Marshall's a smaller, you know, 6 through 12 school that that could also fit in other places. So, that that was um that's not that wasn't
possible with the other secondary school. But if you look at where the students live, our students all live in almost one major geographical area, right? And so they're
transferring to go to Marshall and Blair and PHS. And so if you look at where they live, I can see that, you know, that wasn't considered because of the schools that you
considered moving the students to which are further away from where some of them live. So I'm trying to figure it out because >> yeah, >> the condition of the school facility, I would say the Blair campus, both middle and high school, that that's number one.
I wouldn't think of closing that campus for one. And then when you talk about moving Marshall to Pasadena High School, you're moving those students further away from where they live. Marshall doesn't even have a zone. So those students are coming from somewhere. And
so I'm just for me it's it's a challenge trying to even accept what you're presenting here. um as something that should be considered because it just it's not
making sense um just in the way that it's written. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. >> Any more questions? Trusty Bailey or >> Trusty Kenny?
>> I wanted to follow up on something Trusty McKenzie said. I think what I was expecting was that the EIA would look at the overall plan. Um, especially when looking at how it impacted different groups because I
think if you look at each piece of it in isolation, you may not see anything, but if you look at it in totality, um, when I was looking at just the elementary ethnicities, um, Normacums and McKinley, um, have two
two there like one, two, or three of the highest percentage of African-American students and yet we're talking about touching both of them. So it wasn't clear that it was kind of looking at the totality of what does this mean for the entire student body if we make all of
these changes at the same time. And so that's what I was looking for. So I just want to express that >> I have a question. Um, I want to Yeah, I want to go back to McKinley. Uh, with the concentration of African-American students, um,
we'd be breaking up that community to the three schools. So, what is the how is that equitable? Can you explain how that would not be a concern, you know? >> Yeah. Yeah. Well, I think of Yeah. I
mean for for one thing um the the board of course gets the final say. So if the board feels that there's a disproportionate impact of any of these scenarios u then they obviously don't happen because the board gets to decide on that. I think when when we're looking at um uh the you know the the
demographics and the the ethnicity and the percentages um the state average for African-Americans is about I think it's about four and a half percent. uh Pasadena districtwide is about 9%. Um so uh you know when you start getting to
some of these schools that are um you know over the 9% at what point especially if the enrollment is fairly low at what point is that considered disproportionate um and also the uh you know McKinley is at 18% and and the report does uh highlight that and say
that you know that's care needs to be taken if that is going to be considered because um the you know the school does have the highest percentage of African-Americans in the in the district and that's a that's a group that's been historically discriminated against. So, you know, obviously there needs to be caution taken if that's going to be
considered. >> Trusty Velasquez, >> um, hi. Could you share um the formula that was used to determine the uh to determine the condition of each of the
schools? >> Yeah. So the um the district has a facility master plan and the facility master plan rates has a rating for the schools and I think um like most the and I think the report even says and none of the schools would be considered for
closure based on their condition. Um there are some that are considered over 10% uh rating by this whoever did your last facility master plan which I think was J something. But yeah anyway they so they rated it.
That's what we used in the plan. That's um that that plan was used for capacity and also for condition also for cost of um you know of of how much work uh was needed. That plus the five-year plan which is more up to date.
>> So that's our number. >> Yes. Can you speak to the transportation? uh for those who are not have you know not able to have transportation to a new school because uh you know they normally
walk to school and I think uh it was stated that because we are you know we have choice that that no longer matters or I didn't quite understand the logic of >> yeah and and certainly transportation
matters. Um the the difference is because um like I think Webster is a good example. There's um there's a core of students if you look at the scatter plot map that live around Webster and everybody else is all over the district. So the people who are all over the
district are likely driving their student to Webster anyway. So if they go to another school instead of driving to Webster, they'd likely drive to the other school. So So from that standpoint, you know, there's not probably a change for them. the the change is going to be the people who live near Webster in this case because
they can't walk to their neighborhood school. So, you know, that the district does provide transportation and passes for the public transportation system that um students can get to school with. Um so, that would be the the option for those students or their parents would have to transport them. The um the state
um special education transportation doesn't change because it's mandated by the state and it's in the IP. the district has to do that. The district doesn't mandate home to school transportation. So in a way that's a task endorsement of it's not a district
responsibility. Um so the district doesn't have to provide that because it's not mandated. So if if there's a if a school is not within walking distance, you know, the district has to work with the parents to, you know, figure out the best solution for that situation. >> Any further questions from the board?
Okay. So, we are at Oh, so public comment at the item. Okay. How many cars we have? Okay. So, we I feel like one minute because we did one minute for Okay. >> We have to be I feel like we have to be equal.
>> Okay. One. No, but we're doing Yeah, we're doing the yellow. I think we've done the same We've done the same amount of time as we did with the public with the >> Well, there I think there's two
different issues here. These are the people who signed up specifically to speak to item O. We haven't gotten to item P, which is a public hearing. That's a different set of cards. These are speakers at the item specifically. >> All right. So I hear two. >> There are six of them.
>> I mean I'm sorry. Two minutes. >> Okay. Two minutes. >> Two minutes. >> Lahara Jimenez. Am I saying your name correctly? Or is it Ilhana? Lilyana Jimenez. I'm sorry.
This this handwriting has tested me tonight in ways that you don't know. Um, I'll call her back when she comes in. Um, this is Pamela Negler, Steve Negler. Gone too, Donna Perkins,
Molly Dodge, Skip Higen Bottom. There's one in the room thus far. Uh, good evening. Um, the last time I was here, I sued you guys, so sorry about that. Um, >> I'm sorry.
>> I'm sorry. Excuse me. >> Uh, my name's Skip Hickim, Elkimbot, Jr. The name on the outside is my father. Um, like I said, the last time I was here, I think I filed a lawsuit against you guys, so I apologize for that. settled that um the elephant in the room
is to take over by LEO. I don't know if it's imminent. I don't know if it's coming this year, next year, or you know, the year after, but I've heard a lot of talk this evening about the how good schools Blair and and Marshall are. I have no doubt that's true. They seem
like they're very good schools and they seem like uh the people who go there are very passionate about that. But I think the choice is not whether or not we close Blair or school or the choice is do we have the take the consolidation of
schools the closure of schools done by this board or by LEO. Um we've already closed 11 schools. I went to Franklin that's closed. My father went to Cleveland that's closed. Um I went to Elliot you guys are talking about closing it. I went to Webster you're
talking about closing it. I think to suggest that you can deal with your structural budget deficit without closing schools is wishful thinking. Sooner or later there's going to be more school closures because we have declined enrollment. I heard it go from 23 to
14,000 and the projection is not for more students but for less students. So if you kick the can down the road again then the next person who persons who sit on this st will have to make that choice. If somebody successfully get
recalled, the person who takes that person's job will have to make that choice. So, particularly to my friends, Miss McKenzie Marshall and Miss Richardson Bailey, I appreciate your service on this board and I appreciate your ability to make these tough
choices. They're not going to be popular, but somebody has to step up and keep this district from being taken over by LEO. So, I appreciate your time. Thank you very much. One more call for Liliana Jimenez. I'm not sure if she's still here.
Okay. And I think that's all for this item. Thank you. We are at the um Yeah. Item P1, the governing board of Pass Unified School District is now
opening the public hearing for public input regarding the equity impact analysis for school consolidation. Anyone wishing to comment either verbally or in writing may do so at this time. So this is the blue cards. How many do we have? I have one
specific card for the item and then I have the 32 public hearing cards. One one minute one minute is the consensus meeting. >> So for the public hearing cards,
the time to speak will be one minute. I'm going to call names in groups of three. Isabella Aken, >> Ellis Con Okay, >> one minute. Okay. Tona Rodriguez spoke
earlier. >> It's so late. I'll be quick. >> So, yes, just real quick nuts and bolts kind of stuff. Three items stood out to me. um one on page 14 when it says that
the consensus was reached that the facil facilitator would provide options for closure. We need to modify that wording in the document make it clear that the committee requested actionable information and the consultant interpreted um the request as providing
options and I'll follow up on all this by email. In section two, the probable cost comparisons for the 6 through 12 schools need to be split up into 6 through 8 and 9 through 12 when they're compared with their respective middle
schools and high schools. So, we have an applesto apples comparison. In section five, um you're all smart. I'm not going to lecture you, but I think that the academic benefits that are laid out are greatly superficial.
So, please ask TSS for additional details as needed on those matters. >> Britney, Maya Matasuki, and Sarah Poji. >> Go ahead.
Uh AB1912 prohibits any affirmative action to implement closure until the district adopts a resolution concluding that community engagement in the process has been completed. The SCAC voted against recommending any closures
um a lot due to their concern regarding interactions between board members and TSS. The questions that I would like answered are what contact did TSS have with board members and or district admin
prior to the SCAC's formation? Did any of those communications involve the identification of schools for potential closure or the structure of the scenarios the SCAC would evaluate? And for each, please provide the date or
dates of those communications and a description of the communications, including written communications, video conferences, phone calls, text messages, and any other form of communication. Thank you. Sue Parker,
Franchesca Mariani, Dr. Denise Rob will follow. Hi everyone, my name is Franchesca Mariani. Um, I want to critique the equity analysis and urge you to reject any closures based on this report. Uh, where is the equity analysis? We heard
the report today and there was no discussion about equity. The this report reads like a cost cutting report with the word equity placed on the cover page. There's no meaningful analysis of transportation, walking access, commute patterns, how families navigate an open
enrollment district. No serious discussion of Pastine's history of segregation and school boundary disputes or how these proposals could reinforce those patterns. The report recognizes many of the district's most vulnerable students, including students with disabilities, those that are struggling with trauma and mental health
challenges, LGBTQ students. Have you asked where those students are located in our district at all? Students involved in ch child welfare welfare systems and still recovering and those still recovering from the eaten fire. How many students in affected school communities lost homes and um where are
they located? Um, please do not uh make decisions based on this report. Thank you, >> Denise Rock. Hi everybody. I'm Dr. Rob uh from Blair and I want to tell you some things missing from your report. You didn't
mention that five weeks ago PUSD um PUSD got a positive budget certification from the LA County Board. You didn't mention um in the report it says declining birth rates are going to level out. So that means they're not
going to keep declining. Plus you didn't mention the 2,000 affordable housing units large threebedroom that are being built right now and in the next couple years. Um, you forgot to mention many schools share resources instead of closing.
Um, equity. Poor families can't just drive anywhere. Blair is across the street from the metro. And the research, there's so much research about how dangerous and damaging it is to students to close schools, declines in student
achievement, displacement of students, modest or uncertain long-term cost savings. Um, last I'll just close with uh one of the reports says uh Trump's plan is to dismantle education and we
may be doing just as much to undo public education as Donald Trump. >> Thank you. The next speakers are um Yuna Lee Jo, Carla Orza if she signed up again
um and Stephanie Ward if she's here. Hello everyone. I'm Unily Yoast, PD parent and um on PSD's website um under PSD values, it says our students come first. Our decisions are driven by what is best
for them. And this includes a commitment to using evidence-based approach. But nowhere in the 97 pages of the equity analysis analysis uh do I see any reference to research on school
closures. And in fact, it contains conclusions that contradict what the research shows. Two weeks ago, Stanford released Getting Down to Facts Three, the most comprehensive review of our California public education system, produced by leading educational policy
researchers around the country, which includes a technical report just on the fiscal consequences of school closures in California. And the technical report concludes, the findings are clear that school closures do not improve the financial outlook of school districts.
>> Thank you. have more, but I know >> Monty Lever >> Natasha, spell your last name, please. >> Natalia Kushima. >> Canila. >> Yes. Thank you. Okay. Hi, everyone and
good good evening. So my name is Natalia Karnosa and uh my son tends dominito and he's a special education student. He feels safe at that place and he's making a lot of progress. I'm asking you to not move forward with
the consolidation. I'm asking you to do your research and listen to the parents and take a look at the research rather than looking at this report that we heard today. It's a joke. And I hope that taking the bus or giving
parents a tap card is not going to do be the basis of you for you to close the schools and actually um create a scenario where you have more um students leaving the districts. you're you're
creating a scenario where you have an enrollment of um I think it was 50 seats um at Don Bonito uh I'm sorry at Willard. 50 seats. Is that really worth it? >> Thank you so much.
>> Thank you Ashley Lincoln. >> Ashley Lincoln. followed by Emily Sta and Neil Tyler. >> Good evening. I've spoken with you previously about how scenario one of the consultants elementary school recommendation sending Dominito students
to Willard makes no sense and I don't understand how anyone who did appropriate factf finding could have suggested it. The reasons have not changed. Merging an early start school with a late start school. school staff being forced to manage nearly 200 IEPs at a single elementary school site and Don Bonito families who intentionally
chose a school without an IB program who wanted a traditional elementary school experience. No IB, no deal it, no magnet. Some families still want that. In a district that values school choice, who are you to tell us that our choice is wrong? My children are thriving at Dominito despite an overdue IEP and IP amendment which has little to do with
the dedicated on-site school staff and everything to do with PSD systemic sp issues. How could you uh can creating a sped superconus at Willard save us more money? More sped lawsuits will not save the district money and perhaps more creative solutions are needed to fix that problem. In closing, the CAC voted
down scenario one. Overwhelmingly, 20 out of the 29 members who voted said no. I encourage you to listen to the community that you trusted to represent the PD PUSD community. Thank you. >> Thank you. Hello, I'm Emily Sao. I'm very disappointed in the report. Um, the
equity analysis, uh, the POSD consolidation fact sheet says, "An EI anal analyzes metrics regarding how consolidations affect students and communities, reviewing impacts on student groups, access to programs and services, and plans for smooth transitions, and future use of closed
sites." I didn't see any of that. The report also ignored that 6 through 12 is a special program. It ignored fire survivors as a demographic. It largely ignored transportation by saying, "Oh, open enrollment, it's fine." It also ignored where out of district families
live. The report compares demographic numbers from closing schools to receiving schools and says, "Ah, these are close enough. That's equity." I don't think that's an equity analysis. It also has a lot of qualitative words about increased peer collaboration and broader
perspectives, but there's no way to quantify that. Those things haven't actually been measured, and we need real data before we can make decisions. Thank you. >> Is Neil Tyler still here? >> Okay. Tayia Edwards. Kaitlin Wheeler.
Hi, my name is Caitlyn Wheeler and I'd like to talk about an aspect that the equity report did not address. In 2018, my daughter joined Blair's ASB. The president that year was a young woman who graduated with an IB diploma and went to Binmar College, a prestigious women's college that provides amazing opportunities for women in STEM. Last
year, my daughter served as Blair's ASB president, graduated with an IB diploma, and just finished her first year at Binmar College, where she's majoring in math. This past fall, my son played Charles in a Blair production of Beetlejuice Jr., which was entirely produced and directed by high school
students. This winter he assisted direct he assistant directed a one-act play entirely produced and directed by students. These are just two examples of the modeling, mentorship and opportunities that come from 6 through 12 schools which TSS has completely eliminated under the equity impact plan.
There's also benefits like preventing the academic drop off of transition years, helping students develop relationships with our teachers, making transportation easier for families, and allowing continuity of programs like IEP uh like I international academy, the
middle years program of IB and the Spanish DIP. Thank you so much. The next three speakers are Susanna Castro, Lisa Santiago, and Alesandre Santiago. >> Aland.
>> Hello. Super inclus superficial inclusions. This student assembly and council council hit the nail on the head. Instead of spending nearly a quarter of a million dollars on a consultant to simply check boxes, facilitate meetings, and produce a report that fails to adequately reflect
the diverse needs of our district. Those funds could have been invested directly into our schools, expanding student opportunities, strengthening community outreach, and marketing the incredible successes of PSUSD students in order to retain and attract more families to the district. Again, I'm urging the board to
reconsider school closures and instead explore real sustainable solutions to generate revenue for our district. Merging schools will affect all students and I repeat all students. Students that are receiving schools will face overcrowding, reduced opportunities, and strained resources. The reality is this
consolidation will directly affect college admissions opportunities for high achieving students navigating this merge environment and it may negatively alter the trajectory of our students futures. Good evening again board members. I start behalf
of all the immigrant parents that do not have the freedom to speak up during this difficult time in our country. This process has left everyone highly disturbed, let alone those who face greater struggles to comprehend it. Please use your power wisely. I am sure
you chose this profession for a reason. Do not misuse your power. I urge you to please work on strengthening our district and developing budgets that can work long term for entire district. Our district needs to align with the beautiful city we call home. Please
remember you are shaping the future generation. My Latino community chooses Marshall by a large number. 70% of us chose Marshall. This is no coincidence. Marshall works for a diverse community. Please keep it open. Thank you.
I'm Carlin Arop. I wasn't going to talk during this time. I did do a blue card um on accident, but I noticed that nobody mentioned um that the >> Say your name again, please. >> Carlin Arop or O R O P E Z. Um I noticed
that the equity report doesn't take into account or mention that Blair is the most accessible SCU school for students with disabilities. you have a student in a wheelchair um who can go to class um with everybody else and ex fully access the school campus and um that parent has
mentioned numerous times the difficulty of being able to do that at other school campuses. So um please consider that piece that was left out. >> Is Lisa Santiago still here or she gone? No, >> ah, very good.
>> Thank you. >> Um, is Julia Dy still here? >> I don't see Matthew Lord Chester. Emma Green gone. Oh, Em's still here and was hiding in the back. And after Emma Green, we Lisa Cruzie.
Thank you. Hello, Grim. Um, it so the document claims there would be no reduction in services for Marshall 6 through eight, but removing grades 9 through 12 changes the school identity, staffing structure, mentorship model, culture, course pathway continuity, and
all those 612 benefits that you've been hearing about. It assumes Pasadena High School can absor absorb Marshall students because capacity exists. But capacity alone does not equal program equivalency. student fit, safety, academic continuity, or preservation of
school choice. It presents bond savings as a benefit, but these are not operating budget savings and does not necessarily solve the stated financial problem. It says the district would likely save several million in bond funds, not guaranteed general fund
savings. It claims PHS improvements would be appreciated by Marshall students, but that's speculative and does not address what Marshall students lose by leaving their chosen 612 campus. Thank you. Um, I would like to address
um the email regarding Don Bonito to Webster. This is from Tina Frederick's. Don Bonito is one of my schools and it has the worst ADA violations of any PUSD school. She goes on to say, "Based on the student hate app, Webster is closer
to where more students live. Choice is only available to those who have transportation. Don Bonino is also located in a prime real estate location, ideal for additional housing. When you passed measure R, I'd like to remind you that you did a five-year bond
plan. I'm not just bringing your attention to doito. This is 23 pages PUSD sent home in English and in Spanish asking parents to help you pass this bond. And now you're telling me that you
need to save this money and close our schools. It says one of the things that will be done is that you will be providing ADA access to lower field and enhancing ADA accessibility throughout the campus to ensure all buildings are
compliant and accessible to everyone. You would not have passed this bond without our help. >> Last call for the last two speakers, Stephanie Ward and Maya Mazuki. I think Maya's gone for Stephanie Ward here.
I think that concludes the public hearing speakers at this point. >> Thank you, Trusty McKenzie. >> So, um >> Oh, so the Next item is the item Q1 AB1912 school consolidation
process action item approving receipt of the draft equity impact analysis in compliance with and pursuant to ED code section 41329. Oh, Miss Oh, somebody representing Miss Abraham
OH Mr. Yeah, I think it's to speak on the um approval of the receipt of the equity impact analysis. Oh, >> okay. So, the resolution before you is
just to uh receive approve the receipt of the draft EIA and then to move forward with the next steps. Again, this is a draft. You can direct uh further changes to it, different scenarios that you want.
Again, this is not something that's being presented as final. We do have a public input process, a public comment process that's been noted earlier with you can send in by email or mail comments on the EIA and the consultant
in working with the district. will prepare responses to those and incorporate it into a next iteration of another draft and then there will be uh further revisions and then finally at one point if it's decided it'll go final
for consideration. But tonight you're not taking any action on closing or making any recommendations on that. you're just accepting the draft report and essentially opening up the public comment period for official comments to
be submitted. I mean, of course, the what's been said today is recorded and will be included in the analysis, but written responses will be generated in the end and incorporated in the next version of the of the draft. >> Thank you. Any questions on that? Trusty
Kenny, >> at the bottom of this uh resolution, it says section three, the superintendent or design is directed to carry out all necessary actions to implement the resolution. Can someone clarify what
that what are the steps or actions that will be needed to implement this resolution? Yeah, that's that's pretty much a a coverall, but essentially we're going to move forward with the next steps, which is continue on with the public comment
period, get analysis of those comments, and then modify the EIA as the draft EIA accordingly, and move forward with the process. >> That's it. Any other questions? Trusty McKenzie,
>> who is tasked with responding to the comments that come in on the draft EIA? >> That'll be the consultant in consultation with the district with district staff. >> Is there a requisite turnaround time in terms of when um members of the public
can expect to receive a response to their inquiries? It'll be when the next draft version comes out and I believe that's would be the close of comment period would probably be around June 15th. So thereafter that that would be
incorporated into a new section of the EIA which is the comments will be presented and the responses will be included with that and then any changes that are necessary for the EIA would be included would be essentially redlined in the document. So for clarity, if a
member of the public um submits comment on the document, they have to wait to see the next iteration of the draft to see what their response is their comment. >> Yes. Because that has to go through an analysis by the by the consultant along with district staff in order to come up
with with that response and how to incorporate that into the new draft. >> I I understand. I'm just trying to make sure that I'm clear about what the expectation is in terms of how responses are received so that people are not, you know, watching their inbox
waiting for a response to their questions. >> Oh, the response will not be uh directed back to the the commenter. It's going to be what I was looking for. >> Yeah, it's just going to be incorporated into the next version of the document and any member of the public will have
access it access to it and can read it and see what the response is. But there's not going to be a mailing uh to each individual. That's just that's impractical. >> Thank you, >> Trusty Velasquez. >> So, what happens if we don't approve?
Then then you the process the process essentially halts. >> Okay. Um other question was uh in line with Trusty McKenzie. the questions that we get from the public, will the
U report have a link to that raw data to the original questions? >> Yes, it'll it'll present just like with environmental documents like with an EIR, you get public. It's set up the same way. you get it'll be outlined and
then there'll be an identification number for that particular comment and then that number is going to be used in the response and so you can see the direct the question or the comment from the from the member of the public and you can see the response that's going to be detailed in the report.
>> The question will not be altered. >> No, it's okay. >> No, they'll be presented in the fashion that they were received. So, it'll be it'll be just an image of that email. uh or letter that has come in and with an identifier and then the next page will
have that identifier with the actual responses to it. So there's there's no alteration, no summary. It's presented as is. Has it ever um I think I was I'm thinking of Trusty Mckendy's line of thinking is is there a
way to provide the answers earlier than separately from the report just sort of post it on our website or >> that made available earlier? Well, earlier the the the the problem
with that is is that there can be responses, but then if there's requirements for changes in the actual draft TIA, you're not going to you're not going to get that. You're going to be missing a piece of the of the response. So, part of the response is going to potentially alter some of the
analysis in the EIA. So, I mean, you could do that, but then you're going to be missing part of the the overall response because the answer is going to be, "Oh, yes, we need to make a change, but why not have that change available as well as the
response?" >> Oh, so you're saying a question could result in a change in the recommendations or the an the analysis? >> Yes. >> Okay. >> All right. Any further questions? >> I guess I don't know. This is classified
as advocacy. I I'm not sure, but All right. So, is there a motion to approve the receipt of the EIA? >> Well, I actually I'm not going to say it. Well, what? >> Yeah, you can say it after we do the motion. Okay. Is there a motion?
>> Okay. I would like I will make the motion. Is there a second? I'm moving to approve the receipt. Motion to approve receipt of the draft EIA. I'll second it.
>> Okay. Any >> any question? >> I mean, sorry, now is the advocacy portion. Sorry. Okay. So, here are some of the concerns that I have. Um,
starting in August of 2026, in two months, um, Mckenley and Elliot will share a principal, an assistant principal, two community assistants. Um
they will share a clerk uh clerical staff, elementary staff and um they will start sharing electives that is a procedural consolidation.
It already happened. Yet, we do not have guidelines or a process to evaluate the long-term consequences of that that already happened.
I am concerned about that because it already happened. It's not like it can happen. It's hap it it's it's implemented in August. We do not currently have a system, a
recommendation, a process on how to manage that. We do not. We have a resolution that says that we will rebuild Elliott. That's a resolution. It's not a plan. But let's
say that we go ahead and do that. What is going to happen? Are we going to have a principal that's going to be half of the day in Elliott, half of the day in McKinley? I don't know. Are we going to move everybody in McKinley to Elliot? I don't know. Is there a space to have a
conversation currently? No. I don't know. In December, excuse me. In December, I made the same point.
In January, I made the same point. I am probably refraraming rephrasing it. But this is a real concern that I have. What is going to happen long term with this thing that already happened? It's
not like a potential. It happened. Similarly, we have similar scenarios happening in elementary. We have an elementary that in August has one TK,
one kinder, one first grade, one second grade, two third grades, one fourth grade, a combo. That's an entire school.
As those kids move from one grade to another and the ratios change, right? The ratios in kindergarten first are not the same as four and fifth. What will happen? Is it our responsibility to say
combo classes cannot be the standard? Is that our responsibility? I think so. Combo classes are not necessarily the ideal scenario for the student. They're not necessarily the ideal scenario for the teacher. I don't know what the solution is. I
don't have a solution from that from the district. I it is my responsibility from the perspective where I'm sitting to ask for alternatives to deal with this.
Our kindergarten class, it's 847 students. We have 23 schools. Our kindergarten class is 847 students.
It is possible. I guess it's improbable, but it is possible that we remain and we keep Yeah, there there is. I'm >> Maybe you should get to your point. >> Trusty Bailey.
>> Okay, trust just get to your point quickly. >> Our kindergarten class is 864. 4767 students. As these students move forward, we can expect some level of attrition.
Again, we do not have a plan for this. Okay. Uh Trusty Holly, then Trusty Bailey, then Trusty Kenny. >> I'm going to pass right now.
Trusty Bailey, >> I just had my hand raised for the point of order. >> Okay, Trusty Kenny, >> initially I just wanted to speak about the fact that the resolution says that we've been provided we've provided this EIA in both English and Spanish in time
for the public hearing. If you look on it, it does say English and Spanish. Um, and the Spanish was only available today. So, it's not clear to me that there was sufficient time for anyone and everyone to read the uh report. But now
that I'm looking at the ED code, it says the governing board shall provide its recommendations regarding school closures and consolidations to the public at a regularly scheduled meeting and share how it provided its lists. That's this. But these are not our
recommendations. these recommendations in this economic impact analysis. Some of them conflict with each other, so they can't all stay there anyway. So, it's not clear to me that we can move forward with this report as
written. I don't know that accepting it gets us anywhere because the next the next step would then be to review all the feedback and present the final plan at the next meeting. And since we're not anywhere close to that, I don't think I
don't know that. So I can't vote to accept this this evening. >> Which doesn't mean that there's not a process to move forward, which is our next agenda item. >> I have a question for you. What you just mentioned. Um what is it that's
conflicting in the EIA? >> I believe we still have school A going to school B and then school B going to school A and then we have a high school that's going to two different places. I believe all the scenarios were there. Am I Am I correct? >> Dr.
>> Yeah, Stan can help clarify, but I think what you read is an ED code of recommendation. These are not recommendations. These are scenarios for the public hearing for the public to give comment on. So the recommendations and the current timeline would not come
until June 25th and you have your study session where you can talk about what you want the final recommendations to be. Um, so this is a public hearing for comment on the EIA report and then there'll be another public hearing on
June 11th for comments and then my understanding is the finals coming to you after those two public hearings and I understand that that is the process that we have been given. It's not in ED code. So that feels like an
interpretation of ED code. So what I just read you is the first time that the recommendations come to a a board meeting. Public hearing actually isn't anywhere in the ED code. So that's an interpretation. So since this was the first presentation and the first public
hearing, this would correspond to 2A here in the ED code. The 2B is when they come back again and we make the make our decision. So that's what's in the ED code that I thought we were following. AB1912 that created the ED code section.
So again, I I think there's an interpretation of how this has been implemented in school districts, but this is the equivalent of the first draft EIA report and public feedback. >> So you're saying that we're taking improper advice from our attorneys who
are practicing this? Okay, let me let me let me ask I don't know who can answer this question, but if we don't pass this, do we also not accept public input? >> What does this I think you've already been advised if you don't pass this to process dies.
>> That's right. >> I'm not So when you say dies, what do you mean? So >> I'm not >> I think we need to be careful because when people when the public reads this
item they have to understand if it has a side effect they also have to know that about that side effect. And that was the reason we had to agendaize the board discussion because we had thought this was a
formality and then this would the board discussion would actually drive the the next step >> that was the purpose of the board thinking in terms of the AB uh 1912 process and the way it was explained to
me. doesn't mean that the board can't give different direction on school consolidation outside of the process that we've set up to follow. There would not be another public hearing. This process that you've we've set up to follow um with legal advice would no
longer be a process if you don't accept this first public hearing is the way that it was explained to me. Stan, would you like to make a comment on that? I hope I'm not misinterpreting what your firm has told me. There's no specific requirement for an
actual public hearing. There is we need to do public engagement and so this is part of that process and this is the very first time you guys the board members and the public has seen the EIA and it's the very first step and
we're taking comment on it and to see what things need to be looked at and how it can be refined or or modified and to move that and that would be the very first step in the process. Yes, you've got to also realize that this this
process is not mandated because you are not defined as a school district in distress. It's recommended that you follow this process, but it's not required. And so we're doing this, it's
being done anyway to pro provide maximum public input and to make sure that everything is being considered appropriately and making sure that there is no um promagation of of racial bias or or that
type of of of problems that the attorney general has has identified in its guidance documents. So my understanding is though if we don't accept it, we're not going to incorporate the public input into it and we're not going to come back with
another iteration of it. Is that >> Well, I mean it's it's subject to your decision. If you're not going to accept the draft, how can we move forward with the next draft? >> I think there's a lack of clarity here. So, do we need to um
um get the legal to >> still point of order? We have you have a motion and a second on the floor. >> I understand, but people need to understand what their vote means.
>> Well, you got a motion in a second. >> So, somebody needs to withdraw the motion if you want to go backwards. >> Okay. So, Yes. So, would you like to withdraw your second? I will withdraw my motion
so we can go back to discussion. >> I know. >> Okay. So, we both withdraw. We're in the inquiry now. Trustee, >> I was >> I was under the impression that we had to have a motion in order to have a discussion. So, if we didn't have a
motion, we couldn't have this conversation. So, If if now we don't need the motion, let's withdraw it. Like I don't know. >> I don't understand. I don't understand why we have to
address. You're saying people aren't clear. Who's not clear? You because I'm clear. >> Okay. Do you have a question or advocacy? >> I have a question. >> Okay. So, she has a question. So, he needs clarity. >> So, you said section three. I think Miss
Kenny uh referred to that as as kind of a boilerplate, you know, formality. If we struck section three and simply accepted the report while we figured out what to do next, is that a compromise that >> that's fine?
>> Okay. So, I I would move approval of this uh this uh resolution striking section three. Trusty Velasquez, did you officially withdraw your second?
>> I did and I withdraw my motion. Okay, so we're back to >> Yeah, let me figure out what you just said. superintendent or designate is directed to carry out all necessary actions to implement the resolution. So, we figure out what to do next. We accept the document because it's a
deliverable and then we we move. That's how I interpret it. >> Okay. Well, there's a motion on the floor, but I think I don't I don't understand the motion. So, and we need a second.
>> Fair enough. But that's my >> Is there a second to his motion? >> Okay. >> Can Can I second it and then have a conversation about what that means? Okay. So, I'll second it for the sake of the discussion, but I need to read
section three to understand what you're asking. Okay. Clarifying questions. >> So, folks don't understand. Trusty Velasquez. Oh, >> what I heard is Trusty Velasquez needed to read the section.
Okay, we need to clarify the motion. So, let's let's start there. So, please read the part again. I guess >> section three reads, "The superintendent or designate is directed to carry out all necessary actions to implement the
resolution." the resolution of accepting accepting the EIA. >> In other words, accept it and and let's not do anything with it until we figure out our next step. That's how I understand. >> Can you please do you understand what
he's uh >> Yeah, he's he's >> right. Mr. Harden is is asking for you to just simply accept the report with and taking no further action on it. Whereas in section three, it's
essentially directing the superintendent to move for move for accepting the agreement. I mean the EIA and moving forward with the process. >> Okay. Trustee Trusty Bailey then trustee Holly. >> Okay. Okay. So,
I think I'm having a hard time with this. And I'm having a hard time because this process,
the integrity of this process. >> Okay. I We need to focus on the motion right now. >> Hold up. >> No, no, it's my turn. You're changing the topic. I am focusing on his motion because my point is, >> okay, but we're not in advocacy yet.
>> Why make the motion when the integrity of the process the way that it is now has been flawed? It lacks the trust of the community. >> The item is a agenda. >> It lacks the trust of the community. We
need to drop this. We need to start with a brand new process >> so that we can have full support. >> I'm not saying we shouldn't have a process. We need to start over item >> the motion >> because we have lost the trust of this
community and we cannot I don't even see how we can sit here and talk about moving forward with what all of us have just had to endure. Do you think it's easy to sit here and hear all of you spoken to the way that you've been spoken to?
>> And not even be able to do anything or say anything? >> This has been really hard on the full board. >> Okay. >> And we have we we have a room full of people who are saying to us, you lack integrity. We don't trust this.
>> Okay. You are out of order. This is not the item. This is not the item. Oh, are you you got a real bad habit of yelling at me. >> Sorry, but I have been saying it very nicely. >> Let me say what I have to say. >> No, you have to do >> this is out of order. Motion on the floor.
>> I would like to make a friendly amendment >> to your amendment that we drop this in its entirety and start with a new process >> later in the next year.
>> But we can't move on. We can't move forward with this. We just can't. We're not going to get anywhere. >> We are at We are at >> So, I just made a friendly amendment. >> The friendly amendment is Can you please clarify the friendly amendment?
>> Say it again. >> That we drop this right now. >> Dropping of the uh approving of the receipt. Is that is that what you're saying? >> Absolutely. >> Okay. So, but then that is just going back to Yeah, just
>> Well, then why waste the time talking about it? >> Okay, the motion. >> That's what I'm saying. >> On the floor >> is the amendment to >> We're wasting time. >> Resolution 2882. We are at theformational part of it.
Does anybody have any questions about what that motion is? >> I'm sorry. I thought we were in advocacy because we have a motion that's been >> No, no, no. >> I don't understand. I made I made a friendly amendment and >> no one had the opportunity. You didn't ask for a second on that,
>> right? But you're you're asking >> basically to vote against this. So the motion is on the >> but I still I made a >> Okay. What is your friendly amendment to his amendment >> vote? Um, I would like to make a motion
that we not receive this document, this analysis or whatever it's called. I don't have it up. >> I'd like to second that. >> The resolution. >> What that means is a no vote on this current aem not amended by Trusty Harden. That's
what >> Are you asking him to withdraw his motion? >> I'm just making a friendly emotion to his motion. He can drop his motion if he wants. Now, usually when somebody makes a friendly emotion, you ask for a second. >> But I don't know that it's friendly to
say, "I want the opposite of your motion. That's not probably typically classified as friendly." >> Well, um, but that's but that's my motion. >> So, so what what do I Rosenberg? Can I make a new motion? >> Okay. The motions on the floor. You ask.
>> So, you can have two motions on the floor at one time. >> It's a substitute motion. >> Okay, then fine. Can I make a substitute motion? >> Is that correct? >> Yes. Substitute. >> Okay. What's your substitute motion? >> That's my substitute motion. >> I don't even know what that is. Okay. Go ahead. >> Already officially seconded the
substitute motion. >> So my clarification question was the following. What is the difference between between a no accepting and an accepting without implementation. >> What is the difference between those two
things? >> Well, by not accepting the EIA, but let's let's put it in terms of the resolution. If you do not adopt the resolution, >> then the EIA is the draft EI does not
get accepted and the process is not going to move forward. >> Yeah. >> Okay. Okay. So if you prove the resolution, you accept the EIA and the process moves forward. >> No, no, no. But he's asking for
accepting the the document and having no implementation. So then the the the difference between those two things becomes a little blurry. So, >> right. Well, I mean, you can you can do that, but it it I don't know what real
significance that has by still accepting the draft and then saying we're not going to do anything essentially. >> Right. So, that that was my point that in essence he's saying accept it and do nothing and you're saying just do nothing. It's an argument about the same
thing. >> Well, can I say something? The reason why I'm saying that is because if we do it the way that you're doing and we're not like words smmithing this resolution line by line, there could be some things that gets caught up in this resolution
that when we decide to go back to it, >> okay, then we're looking and we're going, "Oh, no. We didn't want that. We didn't want that. That was a problem the last time." And you know, start from scratch. >> I mean, we have the framework. We have the framework. So, but we need to start
over with a new process so that we can align everything properly. Like it's just been too confusing. It's been it's been too this process has been convoluted to say the least, you know,
on top of everything else that's going on and it's causing too much strife and contention in the community. And that's the last thing we should be doing as a school board. We should not be on this page with our
community. >> Michelle, can So that's the next agenda item. And it would be good to get there so that we could all have that conversation. >> Well, if we vote this down, we won't need to get there, >> right? >> Well, yes, we will. >> What? It's still about that.
>> What is What is the next step? See, this is this is assuming a certain next step. The rejection of this means we're not going forward with this document. >> Okay. Dr. Dr. Blanco has something to say, >> but this is still it says TSS brief description of
>> Dr. Blanco has something to say. >> So Stan, if we do not accept the um EIA as is, then does that invalidate any further discussion with the data in it >> because we're not accepting it? >> Yes.
>> Yeah. So yeah. Okay. So then we wouldn't have a further public hearing, but we could have a a study session, but we couldn't really talk about the data that's been produced so far, right? >> We could if it was presented to this SCAC.
>> Okay. What I'm hearing is if this is voted down, then we cancel. >> I just want I want I need just clarification. I'm asking for clarification of what happens if it's voted down in terms of usat >> using the data that is presented in it.
>> Well, I mean you can always use the data over again in in another you know another analysis but using the document as is drafted you would not I mean the data the the data and the data doesn't get uh destroyed just
because it's in a report. It's data and and it can you use the data accordingly. It's just how you analyze it. And if you're gonna if you're gonna not accept the the EIA, then that's the analysis that's in there is what you're
essentially rejecting and you're you're you're going to start over with new data or not with with this data and possibly new data, but you wouldn't throw this data out. >> Okay. Thank you. I want to call for the vote. I'm sorry. Trusty harden his hands up.
>> Yeah. I just want to I I to clarify what you're said or to restate what you're saying. We could go back to the anything that was produced as part of the committee. What whatever however we value it or don't, but we could go back to the committee's work. Look at that data that EI if we if we reject this
document, we can't we'd have to produce a whole new >> EIA. >> You would have to create a new EIA. Yes. We need a new >> with new scenarios and everything. Yeah. >> So, I just want to make sure I understand Michelle's motion so I know
how to vote. It is to >> So, this is a substitute motion and it will be to drop the process and start all over. >> Oh, well, I don't think that's proper
then because this is to approve the receipt. So I don't think you can say drop the process because that's a different thing. >> Just doesn't make it worse. >> Not approve the receipt. Then if that would if that will cause a subsequent action where we go back
to start this process. >> Well then we're going to maybe just >> but the next agenda item still mentions TSS and I think that's part of our problem. We need to get rid of the problem. don't get rid of the issues in
their totality. We need to start over. >> So again, >> this whole process has been compromised. >> So I just want to >> if we're going to move to the vote, we all have to be clear on what the motion is. So >> may
I interject just one? >> Go ahead. >> Okay. So because you have it broken up really in two parts, you have this acceptance as a resolution as as item Q1 and then you have uh R1 which is next
steps. If you if you're wanting to stop the process or change the process, it's it's more uh proper to do it under R1. And if you want to if you don't want to move forward then you can just say
don't adopt don't adopt the resolution and then in R1 you can then give direction on next steps because it's broken up into two parts. >> Okay. So the substitute motion will be to to not
not accept the resolution. Right. and then Miss Bailey motion and then um second. >> Yes, that's to not accept this. >> Do not accept the resolution. >> The motion is to not accept the resolution. Uh any other further
clarifications you're not >> by not accepting the resolution, you're formally not accepting the equity impact analysis. So, you're you're stopping the AB1912 process.
>> Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Why? >> Hold on. There's a difference here. >> We're not accepting We're not accepting the report. >> That's right. >> Dr. Blanco just said by
>> not accepting the report. >> No, no. That's why I want to clarify. Yeah. I want to make sure because it's broken into two parts. We want to take this surgically in each piece. The first one is you're not if you're going to if you're going to not adopt the resolution, then you are rejecting the
EIA document. Okay? Then the next part is in R1, you then get to discuss and decide what next steps there are. So if that is to send it back for a new EIA, you can do that or you can say we're or
however you want to specify your next steps because that's what's allowed under the agenda item. You can discuss that and make your decision. >> So we're just isolating the document. That's what we're >> right now. You're just making a decision of whether you want to accept the EIA as
a report, you know, as a as a document or not. If you if you say no to the report again that doesn't destroy the information in it, it can still be used the analytical and the data whatnot as
as uh Mr. Harden had mentioned that you then you can still use that information, augment it, supplement it, however you want to do it. It's fine. But then the actual EIA is not that was presented to you tonight does not get modified or
accepted. You you will then ultimately have to create a new one if you're going to go down that path. Does the voting down of the acceptance also mean breaking of breaking the responsibility of TSS to
the process? >> No, it just is it's just saying that you're not going to accept the report. Yeah. You're not going to use that report. So I I think there would be um additional costs from TSS if you wanted
them to create things over like we you know have a certain process um >> we have a certain process that has you know a um creation and an amendment. I don't know how many amendments that would be willing to do in the current
contract. So we would have to check with them on that. Like I guess what I'm saying is we paid for two amend two amendments. one development, one amendment, right? Okay. >> Okay. So, the the motion on the floor is to reject the receipt of the EIA then.
>> Okay. Um, Trusty Hong, what what is your preferential vote? >> Um, since there's a motion and uh and we need to reach a consensus
to actually by preferential vote. I cannot since there's a motion. >> Okay. Thank you. >> All right. All those in favor of rejecting the receipt of the EIA. >> Yes. And then the original motion since it's
the opposite >> I don't think >> yeah the meaning of it cancels it. Okay motion passes. Now we are at the R1 board discussion school consolidation process next steps.
Any ideas for next steps? Trusty Harden. >> Okay. So, um, as we've seen, um, and as it been said, this process has been anything but ideal. Uh, and I will be the first to admit
that. Um, I think it's left gaps in critical analysis and detailed programmatic opportunity modeling um that I think are crit critical to this board making an informed decision and and especially when it comes to
secondary schools. Um I don't think the the scenarios that we received or that the committee received um visualize in usable detail uh what life would be generally like for students and families if they go into
effect program consolidation uh integration transportation all those necessary things. Um clearly the committee said no to any of the scenarios presented. uh but given many of the comments from the feedback surveys, I think a significant amount of
the committee participants realize that we need to do something to uh address declining enrollment and funding is instability over the long term. I have said it's no secret or surprise. Um my prim primary rationale has been to
address um stability issues to preserve opportunity and student experience uh with the money that we have uh and less about savings uh that closure may or may not bring about. Um so I think the first thing that we need to do moving forward
is we need to rebuild trust. Um, and I believe that starts with opening the doors um, and letting the comm uh, community in in a meaningful, productive way. Um, so I support a course correct to this process. Um, I
I'm less concerned about hitting an open enrollment target date uh, than I am about making decisions and getting this right. Um, and we haven't gotten this right. So, um I would support a process that allows for some community healing,
uh some del uh deliberation, uh uh a visioning, if you will, about you know, what are one understanding what what are the problems that we're solving? What's the why behind this work? And what is the community's vision for what they
want for their schools? Um I think the the public doesn't fully understand what the true cost of inaction is in on this issue and um and so I think you know by resetting and kind of taking a moment to
look at appreciative thinking um and then I thank you. So I propose that we use the June the June 13th study session to piv pivot and engage with willing community leaders to
sort of co-design a a healing framework. Um and and carry out that sort of long-term visioning. Um, and I would also, and I've said this before, um, that we need to better align with our our facilities master planning
process so that we know the number of schools that we need. Um, I know that we have RSSC that we've already approved their contract and some of the things that they are doing at scale in the community could possibly be uh, co-opted.
Obviously, their scope would expand but co-opted to do some of the engagement that I'm talking about. So, uh but the public needs to understand what that visioning is, what it's not. Uh so I would propose that the 13th be used so that we can figure that out.
>> Trustee uh Holly then trusty Kenny then trusty McKenzie. So, this has been a really trying time and one of the things I've always talked about is that trust with the community begins at the board. I know you've all heard it. I know some people have rolled
their eyes about it at this stis. But I think what we've seen is how true that is that if we misbehave, if people misbehave here, there's no trust out there. You can't have a visioning process without trust. And
I What I'm reluctant to do is to hear a board member or two try to define the future. Every person here is equal. I have an equal voice. And
everything that has happened in these last few months has been so disturbing to me. I don't know if we can do a prisoning process. I think the people can, but I'm not so sure about the way this group is right now. And the healing
is in the community. Yes. I think there's healing that needs to be done right here because there's been so much disrespect to the people on this board. >> Okay. And I think when we get to June,
it'd be nice if we all just took a breath and just relaxed and really thought about the why. And that goes back to being a board member 101. Why are we here? And we need to do that. And I know that some
trustees don't want to do that and they're making that visible right here. But if you run for this board, you have to have a Y. >> Can we talk about the next steps for this?
>> Thank you, Trusty McKenzie. >> Oh, I'm sorry. I thought it was Okay, >> Trusty Kenny. >> Um, as I said the at the previous item that and and to echo what board member Harden said, we do have a similar process going on with our facilities
master planning. uh starting off with the report from the demographer and the review of our site capacities and then there's outreach in that process as well. Um we do need to make decisions if we're going to move forward with our facilities master plan. We did not do
that for measure TT in 2008, but we did GKK did have us say here's the tier one schools, here's the tier two and tier three. And the tier ones were the schools that we knew were not going to close. And then we did eventually make
some decisions in 2010, but we can't keep spending money on schools that were going to close. Um, and I know that it's a concern to put off construction for long periods of time. So, um, some ideas of what could be
included in the process, a clear rationale. Why would the closing schools be positive? Look at our demographic context. If desired, include the option of keeping all schools open. What changes would this include? Does that mean no athletics at some schools?
Shared principles at elementaryaries under 400 students, say shared support staff, um instructional coaches, for instance, community assistants, nurses, librarians, some of which we're already seeing um with the cuts we've made and that maybe we're staving off some of
them with onetime money tonight. Using capacity and enrollment projections, determine the least number of high schools, middle schools, and elementary schools possible and look at what locations that could be as another possible scenario. So, one's no closures, one's maximum, and many others in between. Review our current feeder
programs. I heard we don't have them, but we do. We have attendance feeder programs that we've created and we have program feeders and we actually should make sure they're a little bit closer aligned and they have to fit with whatever our scenarios are. Look at our programs. We said our
goal is reviewing for duplication. We need to look at the cost per student. Um some of them are very very small. We were told back in January that we would have a report about which programs are serving our students best. um which
programs can coexist at a school and how many what are the supports needed for the programs? Special schedules we heard about eight period day support staff other and the broad outlines of our trans transition plans. Um special education review the current segregation
and possible remedies. Look at reducing student time on buses across towns. Attendance zones. Are schools without attendance zones? What will the new zones look like? And can school capacity absorb the new zones? I don't understand how we do boundaries later without
understanding whether they'd fit at the plants uh new scenarios. Plan transportation for general education. We have to have a serious conversation if we're going to support longer commuting distances or that would give equitable access to our special programs. We said
a long time ago that we might do that and we never have because we're spending all of our transportation money on special education. And then I think we need a high level transport transition plan if we're doing a multi-year phase in or not. And what is the support for the transition? What dedicated personnel
would that take? And how can people finish their high school programs? Like you have to have that conversation when you make the decision, not three months later, otherwise there's no support for it. Um and then a discussion on whether there's a concern amongst us
regarding racial and socioeconomic segregation in our schools and if we want to do anything about it. >> Are you also suggesting June as the next step or >> I think it would be a good idea to have that to start having a conversation about how we would move forward. But
again, I think there's an outline in our facilities master planning process already that would incorporate some steps. You both are kind of same. You utilize what we have. We've already hired somebody. Okay. We can ask them
if they can incorporate that. Any other ideas? Trusty McKenzie. I want to say a couple of things. First, um I think our primary obligation is to serve students. And when we're not serving students, I
think right now we need to focus very intently on rebuilding public trust and restoring the public trust because we have certainly lost that. um regardless of who is alleged to have done what or not,
we are one board and so we operate on the premise of one band, one sound. So everybody has a responsibility to play in restoring public trust. Um, I've heard a lot of talk about transformation tonight and
I think that we didn't give an opportunity to really talk about transformation or at least to determine what that could be because we don't have a baseline of where we are post those cuts in November. We went from making the decision to make those
cuts to going right into um the consolidation process without having a chance to figure out where the dust is settled, what is, what isn't, and where we are. So, we don't even know where we are, and we're trying to go somewhere else. That's a flawed plan out of the gate.
um with the purpose of you know I I just I have a lot of thoughts and I'm going to say that we saw um one of our students um represent
her research on Ruby Bridges. This is a woman who is still alive. her experience is not ancient history. And we are having the same fight today about resources. We're having the same fight today about winners and losers.
We're having the same fight today about um making decisions about who deserves a quality education and who does not. We may not be calling it the same thing. We may not be throwing things at people, but we're doing the exact same thing with this process. And that is
unacceptable. 70 years later. Um I think that we need to take a beat, focus on um acknowledging the fact that our community is still very much grieving.
We are still very much grieving um the trauma and the harm from the fire, the loss of community, the loss of um many many people's homes, businesses,
etc. And if we're going to be thoughtful about how do we think about how we put the pieces of this community back together, we have to do so with all of these um challenges in
mind and not just sort of these isolated pieces. It has to be done way so more so in a systemic a systemic process. We've got to be thoughtful about it and you have to go I believe we we need to be more
focused on going slow and thorough than trying to run through the finish line. I think it's going to take us a significant amount of time to determine what our next steps are and how we want to proceed and what decisions need to be made. And I would rather us take a little bit more time to make those
decisions and have those conversations than to feel as though we're on a time clock because we are not on a time clock at this point. Um, so I'm happy to have further discussion about where we go next, but I certainly think that we need to be doing so in a way that is
transparent, that includes our community's voice. We may not be able to promise you that we can give you everything that you want, but we have to at least honor the fact that we are here to represent you. We are here to serve at your pleasure and we owe you the obligate the opportunity to give
meaningful um and credible input into the process as we continue to have these conversations because every one of us lives in this community, serves here, and deserves to have a voice in how we shape the future. >> Trusty Bailey. So,
I've been saying this for some years now. The differences, whatever they are, that we have with each other here on this board really need to be addressed.
They really need to be addressed. We as a board will not be able to move forward in our work if we don't
resolve our differences with each other. Whatever they are, no matter how small they are, it is evident that they exist. It's real.
We see it. We feel it. Now we've read it. We're not in a good way up here. And it feeds into
the vibe that we send to the community. I've said over and over, we need to decide what type of leaders we want to be. Do we want to be the type of leaders that promotes calm and confidence
or do we want to be the type of leaders that keeps the community stirred up in a contentious way. And we really need before you talk about starting this process over, moving
forward with the next steps, we need to come together and have a real family discussion about us as one body. You don't have to agree with me. That's
fine. You don't even have to like me, but my goodness, agree to work with me. Let's agree to work with each other in a harmonious, professional way for the
children, for our young scholars, for our families. It's not about what I want. It shouldn't be about what you want unless it has something to do with our school community and our children. That's where
our focus should be. And until we start putting the children first in our discussions, our deliberations, our conversations, we are going to stay where we are feeling like we're not being successful.
And right now, I don't see how we can move forward with this process and be successful when we've got this relationship, this contentious relationship up here on
the dis. And I can no longer act as if it's it doesn't exist because it does because you know what? Now it hurts and it's hurting us. It's hurting our community. It hurts all over. That's
what I want to say to you, each one of you. Okay? When I got on this board, it was because I cared. I cared enough to want to get up here
and work with six other members on matters that would benefit our school district, our children, our classrooms, our teachers, our classified staff, period. Our families.
And I don't feel like I'm being successful in doing that because of all of the the the the stuff I have to maneuver through just trying to work with each one of you. And I believe that some of you probably feel
the same way about me cuz I don't back down. You know that. But that being said, we really need to decide what the message is that we want to send out. collectively
to this community each time we leave a meeting. We should all be sending out the same message. We have half of the community thinking that we so desperately need money that we have to close schools that
there's a sense of urgency and we need to do it now. And that is not true. That is not true. >> Thank you. >> Hold on. >> Can I finish, please?
>> Okay, I lost my train of thought. I'm so sorry. But the other thing our next meeting in June. Rather than jump right back into this process,
I would like to have a process where we talk it out so that we could at least come together and agree to work together for the betterment of this district and of this this school community.
We can't. It's It's like a family. If If mom and Paul aren't getting along, what do you think the kids are doing? What do you think they're seeing? You know, that's us. We're M and Paul.
So, we've got to do better. We've got to make sure when we go out amongst our community that we're putting the facts out there. We're not just saying things because we have an agenda that we want to meet. Okay. The other thing that I wanted to
mention, you know, when I think about where we are right now, we had gone through the goals for this year that we wanted to accomplish. And I think when things are done out of order,
you can sometimes get chaos. And this was one of those times because school consolidations was not part of the goals for this year. For some reason, they became a priority, but they weren't part of the goals for this year. And when you do things like
that, when you when you try to add on top of a whole bunch of stuff that you already got going, sometimes it just causes chaos. And I think that's what happened. We did not need to be talking about this
right now. There was no sense of urgency. No sense of urgency. And when you rush through the way that we did, you get what we got. So, I just want to
implore you guys to to take a different mindset about each other. Let's agree to come together to work out our differences first so that now we can go and put good
vibes out into the community because that's what we need to do to heal. We got to start at home with us first so that we can heal the with the community and then let's talk about moving forward.
And that's my ask of each one of you. And although you threw me off my game, I'm going to stop right there. >> Thank you. Just Alli, I know that there have been questions
about teacher layoffs, imminent LEO takeover, and um our budgetary problems. And I would like for the superintendent to briefly address that right now. Actually,
I don't know is this with if you don't feel comfortable. This is not agenda. So, we can defer this unless you want to answer that. It's up to you. This is not really part of this item because it's
it's up to you. I I think in terms of like next steps and and some of the framing, we do need some clarity around some of these things. Um you know, uh I have a response about next steps and
maybe I can include the answer into the next steps. So, you know, as a superintendent of Pasadena, I have the privilege of uh serving this community and working with a really talented uh group of people, right? the superintendent's leadership team and just like every member on this board of
education, we care deeply about what's best for students and the future of the district, right? And so I want to say that I know that um no matter how this has turned out, the intention was always to make sure that we have a bright future for
the students in our district. And um you know the leadership team has led the district through um some really thoughtful strategic planning for the future of our district. And you know 2023 we embarked on a strategic planning
process that was um a lot of community engagement in partnership with the board. Right? I think the full board was on board and we launched extensive community engagement, designed new values, mission, vision together and we
have a strategic plan imagine PSUSD which was designed right and I think we intended that to um set the vision and uh direction for the school district in 2020 till 2028. we had a lot to um take
on in that strategic plan as leaders of the school district and we didn't really talk about you know consolidation during that time and you know 2024 uh the board president at that time I was the new superintendent
in a response to declining enrollment changing demographics the district's fiscal realities that we were struggling with then asked me to do a presentation on what my recommendation would be for um school consolidation. And I don't
know if you recall, we did um come forward on February 21st in 2024, and this is still online if you want to look it up. And we made a recommendation for um long-term planning to the board. And the recommendations were approved by the
board that night and we established a framework that was going to be responsible for planning the future of the district. And uh we suggested to engage in data collection and the evaluation of uh asset management and a program review which Mrs. Kenny
mentioned tonight. And we also made the recommendation not to start any conversation about school consolidation until 2627 because we wanted to have an opportunity as part of the process um to take time
to evaluate the data around those two areas. uh program review and also uh the opportunity to see what we could do with the 11 properties that we had already consolidated to enhance revenue. Um our recommendation was, you know,
let's generate some revenue with the property we own. Let's work with our community partners. Um involve some professional experts to help us. And we briefly talked a little bit about visioning, but we had just come off a really heavy strategic planning process. And you know, we were debating with
whether that was the right time or not because part of the visioners told us they would develop a strategic plan and we felt we didn't necessarily need that at the time. We also asked to allow for um the litmus test, right, to really
make decisions that would tell us if we were harming certain populations in our um school district. And I think that's some of the questions that Mrs. Kenny has brought up this evening. And most of all, we said we wanted to learn from past experiences, right? And we agreed
to present the findings in the summer of 26, which would have been this year. Uh that action was approved by the majority of the board. And I just want to say at no point did I or anyone else say on my team that we would not entertain or
support conversations around consolidation. We asked for time to evaluate the current landscape that was happening. you know, we're all fairly new in our positions either to PUSD or to the cabinet level and we really wanted to
have time to try to figure out a long-term plan. Um, we acknowledged that we had closed 11 schools and we had not taken advantage of the potential revenue opportunities. Right? Then on January 7th, the community faced the biggest tragedy that we've ever probably faced,
which was the eaten fire. This delayed the asset management planning and the program review findings. And so given these unique circumstances, I guess we kind of assumed that we would have an extra year to come back with the
findings from asset management and um the program review. I would say that you know Dr. Chan Hills team has been actively working with the person we hired for the program review and you know our hope is really to have it probably at the end of this year or bring it as a launch for next year and
even though we had a lot of you know focus on rebuilding and restoring after the fire we have moved forward with some asset management projects the staff housing the Linda Vista project we'll be bringing to the board before you know to make a decision before the end of the
year so we haven't like abandoned in those two ideas of program review and asset management. So, um you know, our role as a leadership team is to faithfully execute what the direction of the board of education is. I think it
was said here tonight, we're all one team. We're, you know, I'm on the governance team. My team is directed and works to support the board. We participate in professional development with them. And you know we want to know that you know we are acknowledging that
we have enrollment problems that we have financial realities and we want a sustainable future and some of the ways that we've addressed this is through advisory committees with the community right so it takes a lot to run an advisory committee it takes a lot of
time like maybe you all thought TSS just came here and did the work and pulled the information out of a hat no we spent hours with them giving them information because we all want what's best, you know, for our school district and a sustainable plan for the future. So, um
it was no different, you know, the processes that we follow as a leadership team when the passage of the resolution 2852 for optimal school size was passed. We immediately executed what we believed was the direction of the board and hired
TSS. And I want to say in public that not one board member on this team ever talked to me about TSS. Um I had uh recommendations from colleagues in the area that had consolidated schools and that was why I reached out um to TSS
because they had done the work um in the area. And I did have knowledge that our attorney worked with TSS and other school districts and the other superintendent told me that was a good thing. Right. if you have your legal counsel familiar with the process and
that's something that um you know they had experience and it the partnership seemed to work very well. So there was no secret about that. Um you know we thought we were hiring you know an unbiased consultant. We still like to
believe that we hired an unbiased consultant. I would say that Dr. Podel has been um very easy to work with and I know that you know in my opinion he carried out exactly what we tked him to do. If you go to the PowerPoint that was
presented with his contract, he followed the uh recipe that TSS has for school consolidation. And so I know that um he's taken a lot of criticism because of our situation and how emotional this is, but um you know he he did what we asked
him to do and I I do appreciate that they you know they were able to come with some recommendations. It was very emotional for all of us and I do believe that, you know, we do have to go back and look at what we said on February 1
that we wanted to do in 20124. We need to like reset and finish some of the long-term planning that we're already um engaging in, right? We should have the information about our programs and the information about our assets to make
informed decisions about school consolidation. You know, I've been accused of being a non-consolator and a resistor. I served on three of the four consolidation committees in the Pasadena Unified School District. When the speaker came
and said he was the chair, I was on his committee at that time this evening. So um I think for you know I what I felt was that we might have been trying to use it as a um solution to our structural deficit in our budget and if
you look at all the scenarios added up I think someone commented on that tonight it doesn't even it adds up to a drop in the bucket right but should we be looking at efficiency and should we be looking at efficiency of the bond money that we have absolutely right but I just
think we need to engage um take a step back, use our community partners who are very engaging and have the pulse of the community and engage in more um community engagement. So our our budget going back to that's a long answer to uh
Miss Holl's original question which was about um declining enrollment is what really perpetuates layoffs, right? we and we have less students so we're going to have less staff and that's very painful
for us to go through. Um we the other thing I think you asked about was do we need to um close schools because this is a rumor that's out there. Is this what LEO has asked us to do? No, we created a fiscal stabilization plan and we are
fiscally stable with a positive certification for right now and a lot of that depends upon the spending habits that we have moving forward. we're going to get a windfall of one-time money from the governor again and we have to be very
careful to spend it in ways that benefit the students and not create a lot of uh extra staffing again and that those are you know decisions changes that we have to make but um we do have to address the
decline and um we can probably strategize ways together with a lot of our community input to do that. Um, so I think that's all I have to say. >> Trusty Kenny, I remember. I just looked that up. So
that was our long-term uh planning idea at that time. And actually, I think we amended that. And actually I don't think there was any time in it to come back. So it was indefinite when when we would
come back to talk about >> that that was >> indefinite. I think we removed the timeline for consolidation but we had a timeline when we would present >> understand program review findings to >> but I'm saying that 2728 that was no that was not what was approved that
night but but things have changed. Um, we've had an increased decline in enrollment, more than we probably thought at that time. We have had to make significant reductions and in ways that
point to us spreading our resources across perhaps more schools than we can maintain. We haven't given a raise to our staff in two years during a time of increasing inflation. And when we look at our balanced budget.
There are no raises in it. So when we if we agree to a raise in year three after two years of no raises, those numbers will start to change. Um and then we had a almost $1 billion bond
pass that we seem to be very eager to spend, but we haven't clarified where we need to spend it. and it's not going to go as far as many people think. So, we probably don't want to just throw
it away quickly. So, again, things have changed. That was a decision that was made at that time and things have changed and we made a different decision. The board made a decision in December to start this process.
I I think we I think we want to be clear that When there's a board decision, the board has decided whether everyone agrees or not because that has been impressed to me during many many many CSBA trainings.
>> Okay. I'm not hearing consensus on any on one thing. Oh, well, okay. Trusty Bailey and then trusty. Uh Kim, to your point about the board's decision,
so does that mean we should reverse decisions that the board made prior to a new decision? Because if we agreed to table the discussion about consolidation
indefinitely, but then we came in December and made the decision to do it. What happened to the previous decision? Do we undo that or we just ignore it and
make a new I'm sorry. I I listed the things that changed in between those two times. >> But it's but it still doesn't matter. We still had made the decision not to have the discussion. We we put it off indefinitely is what you're saying. and
then all of a sudden I don't think that we made a decision to go away from that. Um just trying to understand the other thing that I'm trying to understand
is it it feels like we're jumping to consolidation as the fix and we're not looking at the 11 vacant properties and getting them in
a situation in and presenting them where they can become revenue streams. for us. To me, that should be more the priority because once we get the revenue coming in, then we would not have to focus on school closures. The other thing is even
if we close the schools, if our intent is to turn those those properties or those facilities into revenue streams, we still have to maintain the facilities. they still would need to be
somewhat lightly modernized so that people would want to enter into them to work or whatever they're going to do with them. So that to me it's just half a dozen of how do you say that? A dozen of one half a dozen of another. I
mean, we got to consider all of those things before we just jump into saying, "Let's just consolidate schools because that's not necessarily the fix." What What is to me when I look
at the benefits, right, 11 properties, that's 11 opportunities for revenue closing how many schools? We were looking at what, four or five schools? six schools
and we upset the culture of each school when we do that which is their own community and we upset students ability to concentrate and learn and we upset teachers ability to go in every day into
the classroom and focus because they're thinking that their school is going to be closed every day. So that's going to be the first thing on their mind. I've been in those one of those schools where that happened as an employee. So, I know what it's like. Okay. And then we're think we're not thinking about the
stress that is put on the families, which we heard tonight, you know, and so should we be looking at revenue first? Should we also be looking at housing trends? We haven't even given
our own housing development a chance. That's the other thing. We haven't looked at what the city is doing, which I believe they have a project going on now to for family housing.
So, and how many units is that? So, I mean, there's other things to me to consider where we could already be bringing revenue into the district if we would prior make that a priority as opposed to making the priority closing
and consolidating schools. Thank you, >> Trusty Velasquez. >> I have two children in the district. Um, they currently go to Blair and
I love Miss Kelly and her projects. I love ovations and the magic that they're able to make in a courtyard. I love Miss Garcia, Miss Yepes, Mr.
Escalante and the International Academy. I love Miss McInness. I love um Miss Mclofflin. I don't think that anybody loves Blair more than her.
I love how in the spring the flowers bloom and are yellow and in the background of the green leaves it makes the colors of the school. I love many of the people that have come
here to speak about me, about this sport. Every day for the people that know me, every day I do acts of service for this
school district every day that are not advertised, that are not photographed. In fact, rarely I look for the spotlight or for a picture. Rarely.
And every day. Every day. I wake up thinking about students. I've devoted my entire life
to think about students and educational outcomes. My entire life with dignity. And for anybody that has ever heard me speak in this board to ever question
that my motivation is not ensuring the best educational outcomes has not listened to me, has not seen me act and to for anybody to insinuate
a positive path forward while simultaneously misrepresenting that. I challenge you to look at that with some skepticism. This bene this district benefited
financially from a pandemic. We were able to do things that we would have not been able to do last year. This year, the schools that we all have are built upon a cushion
based on insurance money. That is not a speculation. for us to rely in crisis, pandemics, natural crisis to fund a district.
Seems shortsighted regardless of who defends it. My intentions are clear and I still believe that there are some key issues that are
unresolved as we move forward. Again, I want to repeat the procedural consolidations already happened and that's okay. If we want to ignore
them, that's fine. That's fine. Wishing for the best. is not a long-term strategy. I am invested. I moved to Pasadena to send my children here. I have gone to all of my
district schools. My children are still here in middle school. I am with you in this process. So, I you know, a lot of us I I've heard a lot of similar things voiced in different ways in this this group. We
talked about healing. We talked about healing on the board, but I'm I I want to go back to what I was saying earlier. I we need the community's help to rebuild trust. It's obviously within the board, but it also is in within the community. I think that we need to in
our resetting process, we need to align to the problems we're solving for. What do we want for tomorrow for this district? And it's not just the next two years, three years, 5 years, it's the next 10 years. We're designing for the future. That's what we do as board
members. Um, and what gets us there and what's standing in the way of us getting there. And these are these are questions that we can h ask partners that we've worked with for many
years to help us engage uh the comm community in an intentional way. And I I would reject what my colleague said about the vision of two people. It's about the vision of
all of us. And I might not like what I I might not agree with somebody's vision of this district, but it's important for us all to get that out and on the table and come to some consensus points on what is it we want for our schools
and encapsulating or dealing with some of the problems that Dr. Velasquez just surfaced that aren't going to go away. We can wish them away, but they're not. We have a a declining enrollment problem that is not going to go away. We have
one-time money coming in that is is good, but that is not going to stay forever. Um, we're going to go into the economy will take a downturn and nothing affects public education like a downturn
economy. That will happen. It's certain. And so we have to figure out how to ensure that this district is stable and and from my perspective that we maintain what we we are a district that
tries to be all things to all people. It's one of the reasons people come to PUSD. Our we offer so many things, so many choices, so many pathways, so many opportunities. But it is and and I don't
think the public realizes how expensive and cost if inefficient that is. And so we have to look at that. Do we care about do and I appreciate what Superintendent Blanco said about programmatic review and ROI because
that's important. We need to do that. I was sitting in the audience with you back in February uh February 1st of 2024 and when you presented that plan I said right on that's what we need we need to do those things and so I support us
while while we're doing while if we're if we if the board agrees that we can bring in trusted community partners to help sort of facilitate a long-term visioning process we can be continuing with some of the things that you intended to do, Dr. Blanco, with your
staff, uh, as capacity limited as they are to, uh, to to make progress on that programmatic review and all of the other things that you were going to do in service of and as I've said before,
consolidation is a tool in the belt. It is not the end all be all but and so this reset will give us an opportunity to go back and say what do we want? How do we get there? What do we have to do to get there? And some of
that may include consolidating schools. >> I guess this is about everyone having their little say. Um uh with even if we you know converted
our sites to revenue generating um sites, there's still the declining enrollment issue. And for example, I always think of two schools that have half-time nurse here
and halftime nurse here. And if they were together, one school was merged to another school, they would have a full-time nurse for all those students. That's a very basic um benefit.
And um there's also sports teams that have limited number of players on them. So by that's the declining enrollment issue as well. Even though if you generate a ton
of money, there's still the declining enrollment issue. How do we have fuller teams? How do we have frost soft junior varsity varsity level pipeline a pul a pool of talent? You know, that's
still an issue no matter how many I'm sorry. I I have the floor right now. I think everyone had a chance to speak without being interrupted. I I have the equal share. Um and the
um budget cuts there was a drastic uh cuts of staff. And so while we have these timelines, I just don't know how much longer we can
have those type of cuts where it's I mean it's already really we're going to feel it really significantly next year. And that's really just the urgency level like how how long can we do this?
So, um, so I'm I'm trying to somewhat agree with Trusty Harden and Trusty Kenny. Anyway, I think we are at the discussion item process for next steps. Thank you.
Does anybody have any other feedback? All right. So, let's move on to the board committee reports. Anybody like to report out? Policy committee, ledge committee. Oh, sorry, Trusty McKenzie.
So, the legislative advocacy committee has had its final meeting for this particular school year, but look forward to additional things to come in the future. We will continue to um keep our eyes on opportunities to advocate for additional dollars from the state and
federal level as well as um find ways to um continue to um engage our community in redesigning and envisioning what public education looks like
in the future for our community. Trusty Kenning. Um, we'll be having our next policy meeting on June 16th. There are some policies that are related to a bill SB848 for preventing sexual abuse that have to
be in place by July 1st. So, we're going to meet in June to get those done for our end of the June meeting. And then for facilities committee, we had a really pretty extensive facilities
bond program update which I think we the board will receive that same presentation at some point in the future. And our next meeting is Tuesday, June 16th. That's it.
Consent agenda. Any polls? Oh, I'm sorry. I thought Yes. Go ahead. Oh, yeah. You weren't saying Miss Kenny. Go ahead. Sorry. T2 F and G. F. Okay. T2 F and T2G.
Okay. >> I was also going to pull 2G, so I guess I don't need to. I would like to pull three G and three H. >> 3 G and 3 H >> and three I >> three I
>> and then I just have question questions on some of the others that I'm not pulling. >> Okay. So just those five. Anybody else pulls? >> All right. Is there a motion to a sweet motion for the rest? Motion to >> second
>> further discussion. Oh yeah, I had the one item >> actually it's on two of the items. So on um the reper repurposing positions which is BR50-P item T5J. So, uh, we're taking a benefits
specialist position and it's becoming a benefits coordinator, which from the attached, this is more a comment than a question, from the attached salary schedule is a supervisor schedule. So, we're taking a person who's not a supervisor, making them a
supervisor, but it's not clear they'll be supervising anyone. So, I just wanted to point out that we're moving someone into APSA to supervise themselves. So, that's that one. Um, on the new and restored
positions, I um I wanted to clarify. So we're we are restoring positions and so I wanted to understand if for instance we restore a teacher on special assignment with this approval does that mean that someone that we laid off a few
weeks ago will be able will be called back? >> Yes. >> Okay. So if we'd made this two weeks sooner that might they might not have had a layoff. And then I wanted to understand
a little bit more about the tossas. So when we approved the ESBACK, we said there was going to be four schools that kept their TOSAs because they're part of the superintendent schools, Madison, Washington Elementary, Butler, and
Elliot. And now we're adding other TOSAs back to other schools. So we're ending up between MTSS TOSAs and intervention TOSAs with 14 schools will have a TOSSA and only nine schools won't.
We're putting six TOSAs in the central office and then we have two that were changing them from being CCIS teachers to being MTSStosis. So I don't know if their role will change in
supporting schools. So I'm trying to understand again I thought like we were sharing five TOSAs between every school except the four but now a lot of people will have their own TOSAs. So how does that change or is there a plan? Maybe this is not an easy question to answer on the
spot but it would be good to understand if those shared people are now being shared amongst fewer schools which would benefit everyone. >> Yes. >> Okay. If if we could kind >> also receive an update on all of those changes. Oh, that would be fantastic. I think that would be really helpful so
that we can understand. I mean, it sounds like quite a few schools will have more um MTSS coach. >> Sorry. >> Oh, I don't know if it is it on Okay. Sorry, I'm in sleepy mode. Um the NTSS
coach situation. Um you'll notice that in the update that we have for all of the transition of school services, you'll be receiving a communicate tomorrow. we had to unlink the MTSS schedule because we if tonight um we do approve these positions, we're going to have to reorganize the services of the
remaining five who are at the central or six at the central office so that we can designate support to the schools who did not receive um or acquire funding to bring back a position. >> So I saw that two of them are assigned to CIPD and the other four say districts.
Does that does CIPD in the designation of their job title mean that they're they have a different job than supporting school sites than the ones that say district? >> All of them will support the school sites. They're being evaluated at sorry the supervision is at the CIPD department because they'll be a case
load carrying different schools. >> So two say CIPD and the other four say district coach >> forsa one >> forsa one on tonight's agenda. >> Okay. Maybe that's something that clarify. Then I I saw that we were reopening two senior accountant
positions, but we did only close one. Um, so I just wanted to point that out. So I don't know if that's actually a new position. Um, or if that's filling a vacancy, then we wouldn't need that second position at all. And that's wasn't clear. Um, sorry. And I it took
me some time to get around to analyzing this last night. Um, so from what I added up across all of these resolutions of restoring and repurposing and new positions, it looked like we were spending about a million dollars of unrestricted. So we we're putting a
million we're spending a million dollars that we had originally saved. Now, you know, with the cuts we made, we're putting a million back. And then I did want to say that the answer I received about the Prop 28 arts monies was that it's not supplanting to have
laid off the people, the arts people and then use Prop 28 to support them next year. And that was not what I thought I had been reading in terms of other districts um who have been having problems with Prop 28. So just wanted to mention that.
Thank you. Actually, I do want to speak or ask about the the new the rehire positions, the ones that PF helped us to fund and I think it was about
half of it or a good portion, maybe 40%, I can't remember, but it was just supplemented, right? And so I guess um there's questions about the timing because
I've heard questions about why why can't why don't we know that before we the March 15th you know or before the May and also the type of positions that can be funded I guess like hey I would love
to have community assistant filled why can't PDF help with that like where is I I'm imagining there's different categories for what PF can fund. So can you explain? >> Yes. Um I'll touch first on the first
piece. Uh something we've discussed quite a bit that um the timelines in terms of when we have our statutory deadlines um to notify uh folks and for us to do that doesn't align when we learned of either um grants that are going to be allowed to be able to use
the next school year. So sometimes there's grants that are ending and there's balances to those grants and we have to ask uh through LEOB to get a request to be able to expend those funds the following year. Um that's one example in terms of grants grants that are ending but still have a balance with
them that we have to ask for permission whether or not we can continue to use those funds. Um therefore if we're not aware whether or not those funds are going to be able to continue and it be available uh to use um the statutory deadline if the answer is no that we cannot use those funds and we miss the
statutory deadlines that's an example of where we would bring forward uh to your recommendation in terms of a layoff not knowing whether or not those funds are going to be available that happens way more often than not um the same is done um when we get um the PF when you speak
to that there's a a couple of different versions of PF. Um some that are directly with PF, some that are site um uh uh raise funds that go through the PF process, but those site funds, for example, may be something that's delayed
in terms of the total amount of that they're raising in order to be able to sustain a position. That is well beyond the February statutory deadline where I bring items to the board. All of that typically does happen in the spring, uh, which is way after the deadline for it
to occur. Um, wish it would be able to be much earlier and we would be able to avoid some of this. Um, but that has to do with the statute of deadlines that we would have to bring to you. >> Any further questions on the sweep?
Right. All those in favor? Okay. Motion passes. Let's have the T2F and T2G. I'd like to ask that we table action on both these items because I believe that items that pertain to the governance
team as a whole should be discussed as a whole before any recommendations are made. So, if possible, if we're going to have our June 13th study session, can we add these two items to that agenda? So, the reason I was pulling G was that I missed it and this really
should have been a separate action item on our agenda. So, um I don't know if people had a chance to read it. It was to define what an information item is because we've been using information items, but we didn't have a definition.
And then to say um that during board discussion items and staff presentations that we can ask questions, express opinions and discuss the agenda's items. And then it talks about the superintendent as a member of the district governance team and being allowed to when they can speak at
meetings and and so it was really just kind of going back. So it should have been a separate item. I don't know if everyone read it and saw those two paragraphs or not. um it's fine if we bring it back. >> I just think it merits discussion that the whole body should be able to have
together at one time versus it being >> discussed that policy and then coming to us for action without the benefit of having any input on it. >> Okay. Again, I was just trying to reflect things we've already implemented. >> Well, they're all sort of related, so we should
>> Well, the policy one was really in response to CSBA changes. It wasn't this was this one on meeting a meeting conduct was internal again to reflect changes but the other one was CSBA. So
>> okay >> I still this this makes me go back to requesting that we have an agenda item where we discuss how we're going to review policies where PUSD specific
language is added. Um, that's my concern and there's a lot that's being added if in fact that's the language that's highlighted. Um, >> those are the two new par >> and I and I have concerns because there
are some red lines through some things that should I think they should be there and now they're being um lined out. So, we really need to look at things as a
whole board. You may not want to do the first and second reading, but I really think it's important. >> Okay. So, we let's let's postpone that. Let's bring it back to the a future board retreat to >> Well, why don't we just bring it back on
the 11th if it's just a matter of the board speaking about it? >> A nonregular board meeting basically. >> But if we're tableing, don't we need like a motion? A second motion. >> So, wait. I have a question that >> Oh, okay.
>> My request was for it to come to our June 13th study session for a conversation about the change in proposed language before we take any action on it. And that'll be the time we can have some actual discussion on it. I was >> sorry, say that again. June
>> 13th. >> June 13th. Is that Isn't that what you said? Oh, I'm getting those confused. >> We have a special meeting. >> Yeah, Saturday. >> Okay. Okay. So, you said Tuesday. >> It's the 11th >> 11th.
>> We don't have a meeting on the 13th, right? >> We do. We have a study session. >> We have two meetings in one week. >> So, June 13th. >> So far, we have a study session scheduled on Saturday, June 15th. That's what we were discussing earlier. So, I guess my question is if we wouldn't we
we could have a discussion on the we could bring it back as a discussion item on the 11, wouldn't we do that? I mean, it's going to be the same thing, right? Like if we do it in a retreat or we do it on the 11th, >> it's a retreat item.
>> I just think it needs the benefit of all the voices of the board being able to have >> Yeah, this is >> input on the um >> Yeah, I'm not disputing that. I'm just saying. >> So the 13th is a retreat, not a special. >> It's not a special >> study session to
>> Yeah. So I would think the June 13th would be more appropriate, right? >> Fatma, you said we have other public hearings on the 11th, right? Or since we're not going to have a second one on EIA, do we need the meeting? >> We still have we still need the public
hearing for the Lup and the budget. >> Thank you. So, why can't we do it all night? I don't know. I I have a question. At the retreat, are we going to have a session for us just for us? I'm requesting since it's the retreat.
>> Yeah, I think we were going to do defining the process. >> Defining the process of um reviewing protocols. So, we would >> No, >> we would talk. >> That's not what I'm You >> But we would decide as a group what the
process would be, >> right? >> No, that's not what I'm talking about. >> I'm suggesting that for us to be able to move forward, we need to do some healing. That's what I'm suggesting again. >> Okay.
>> So, I want to know if that's something that we can do on the 13th at the retreat. >> We're currently on consent. >> Weren't you guys just talking about the 13th? >> We're talking about where when we would bring this back, the item.
>> Yeah, but you were talking about agenda items for the 13th. So, I mean, >> okay, let's let's do it. >> I can wait. That's my request. >> I know we want to bring it back. We just need to figure out when. Okay, we we'll
survey we'll survey the board and then we want to make sure everyone's here because uh she's not able to pipe up right now. >> Okay. She doesn't come anyway. >> All right. So, we'll bring back FNG, right? >> I think I think Miss Mononttoya would
like someone to make a motion >> and a second and a vote so that she knows what to record in the minutes. I was getting a vibe. So, I will make a motion to withdraw items T2, F, and G from tonight's agenda
and ask they be revisited at a future um meeting where the seven of us as a governance team can have an opportunity to discuss the proposed language changes before they are um returned for action. >> Second. Any questions? All those in
favor? Okay, motion passes. Okay, now we're at 3G. I pulled 3G and 3H. I have one question. Um, in these two leases for Elmaforte and
Averson, there's a section that says inloo agreement, but the board report itself um outlines how they followed the Prop 39 timeline. So, I wasn't clear if these
are Prop 39 leases or inloo lease uh inloo agreements. These are not Prop 39 agreements. We did follow the Prop 39 process because that was the original aim was to um come to an agreement on with via the Prop 39
process. Um in the final back and forth, uh it was determined that they would prefer a facilities use agreement instead. All right, that I it would be great if that actually was reflected in board reports going forward. I I think that our other board reports for the
other um leases were were clear. Um I I can't vote for these. Um we we did attempt to follow the Prop 39 and and we missed deadlines and we missed several um deadlines ourselves
and my other concern and so I feel that these are coming very very late for these charter schools for their families to make any plans. Um, you know, I know that we may not like that we have to offer space to our charter schools, but we still should follow the law and and
in good faith try and bargain with them. If if we and then I would say that because we did not follow um if I may cut in because I don't want misinformation to be out there. We we every time we did not meet a statutory
deadline, we asked for an extension. We did not We and we received it >> except in February when I think there was >> we have communication for all schools >> and then what we're doing is we're charging the same rate as the prior year
which had some one-time insurance expenses that we passed on to the charters. If we had followed the ED code and recalculated that it would have been a smaller amount. And what I've been told is, well, the charters agreed to pay the prior year amount. I don't know
that we told them that the current year would be less, but again, the law says annually to recalculate. So, those are the reasons I can't vote for them. Alternative agreements, correct? Are any of them Prop 39 agreements? So, I also want to clarify in alternative
agreements, you're waving Prop 39 process. So, we could have asked them to pay $12 a square foot and if they agreed to it, that would be fine. >> Okay, that was on 3G and H, right? >> I move approval of how many items? >> 3G and 3 H.
>> 3G. Second >> 3 GH and I >> 3G and H I move approval. >> Second. >> Okay. Any further questions? Advocacy. All those in favor?
Anybody against? Motion passes. Three. Hi. Um, this is the green school's yard green school yards agreement and so this has been designated to happen at
Webster with a commitment to maintain it for three years. And I again am I'm wondering why we're picking a school that has been under a lot of conversation.
Um, so again, this is just one that I can't support. >> Any further discussion? Advocacy. Oh, does he want to speak? Okay. >> Any motion? >> Oh, wait. Dr. Dr. Blanco. >> Um, even uh the discussions that it's
been under our preschool children are there and we just built out a lot of um portables for them. So, I'm not sure if that is a benefit at all. Maybe Mr. conding you know or Helen is the green schoolyard going to benefit the preschool children in any way?
>> Uh this particular project is uh attached to the where the soccer field is now. It's mostly adding about 24 trees and I believe uh one play apparatus that or it is um it's used by the upper grades for the most part.
Okay. Do we have a motion? >> I'll make a motion. >> Second. All's in favor. Those against. Any abstensions? Motion passes. Okay. Now we have
that's it, I guess. Meeting adjourned. >> We have one more item. Comments from the board. >> No, there's no it's not there. I thought I saw >> Thank you. >> I thought I saw it on the agenda.
>> I just saw it on the That's why I held back my question. Well, I have a question, Dr. Blanco, for you.