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Regular Board Meeting 9-26-23 (Part 1)

Added Oct 06, 2023 •

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baby stuff a good evening everyone it is Tuesday September 26th it is 615 apologies for the delay in starting my name is Paola Amezola and I'm the school board president for ccusd I would like to call this meeting to order at 6:15 and moving us to the next agenda item which is 3.1 Roca we have 5 board members present can I get a volunteer for 3.2 flag salute oh excellent even better right hand over your heart ready begin I pledge allegiance to the flag United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible just and justice for all and now can I get a volunteer for our land acknowledgement 3.3 we acknowledge our presence in the traditional ancestral and unseen territory of the keychain tongva peoples who are the original caretakers of this land thank you 5.1 adoption with the agenda for the agenda a board member can you provide emotion for that please thank you for 3.4 Public Announcement of actions taken by the board in closed session no action was taken in close now can I get it motion please 511 I would like to move to adopt the agenda with an amendment to accommodate our student rep board Representatives who are with us tonight and there's a conflicting event at the high school that's very important so I would like to move 7 52 mediately after adoption of the agenda can I get second the staff would like to pull 13.1 and 13.9 off this agenda if this is the appropriate + 30.1 + 13.9 thank you 13.9 is absolutely of a Professional Services contract Karen junker and restorative practice 13.9 and 13.1 as second reading and approval of updated diversity equity and inclusion religious and cultural Services calendar I would like to request a staff please provide a rationale during their board report if that's their cabinet report please so the public understands where we're doing that thank you would you like to amend your amended motion sure so I will move to agenda with 7.5 move to immediately after the adoption and the removal of items 13.1 and 13.9 please second all those in favor say aye hi 7.0 7.6 members 7.5 student representative reports good evening these two two weeks have been calm there is some student concerns about the student parking lot at closing too early for students about a first. On Wednesdays but I spoke with security and dr. Thomas and that has been resolved to opening at 9:30 or 2 closing at 9:30 dr. Thomas about the implementation to make sure all teachers have window covers on the doors for safety reasons and she told me she would add that to her concerns for her safety walk other than that from the soon as I talk to you everything has been going well and will we be hearing from Miss amarachi yes she told me she's on to you can unmute yourself Miss amarachi remember I'm rich e e s t e r so I got the high school we have a tower assembly last week on Wednesday and was successful we had to assembly one for an oppressed and I will forever class Man movie introduced are going to the new cabinet base B and you Island camping I'll be at the high Tower Club Fair last week Thursday which went smoothly as soon as I learn about different Club on campus and joy new clouds we have our back to school night tomorrow from 6 remember to be there at 12 to help her homecoming tailgate game and dance happiness there all on Friday and Saturday and we have new customization for school so the windows. office had been redone and lastly of a Serb exercised and have psoriasis of the idols at school where students of every second. Class can talk to me about things they want to bring to the board about it started later this week thank you so much and can we hear from four member Banky is that how you say it hi I'm Vince Spanky I'm the representative for Clover Park there's no report for today thank you thank you so much for your reports and we will come in we will continue with aboard 6.1 board members Community it is my distinct pleasure to ring back or amplify student awards to remind you of the criteria Amplified student voice Awards Spotlight members of the ccusd community that have demonstrated outstanding commitment to amplifying and uplifting student voices around issues of social justice and inclusion this honor shines a light on the use of leadership scholarship Service as a change agent to create a tangible impact in the ccusd community promoting Equity Justice and inclusion nominations can be submitted by board members District inside Atman teachers and staff students and community members the areas of outstanding commitment tonight or to honor mental and social Advocate health advocacy and student board members so the mental social health advocacy this award is dedicated to students who seek to create resources awareness empathy and strategies to the growing mental and Social Health crisis in teens this recipient can I have Miss Cosette over, at the Ford do that if you want you to stand up and take a picture so I just a little bit of background on September 13th so that hosted a parent team safety Workshop during a segment at the frost she talked about with teen impact raising awareness at the number one killer of teens is due to driving accidents change some of my behavior that particular night thank you close at our next awardee is for student board member recognition goes to students who share their voice in the public Arena representing their fellow students to ensure that student perspective is part of CeCe usd's decision-making process I am so pleased to acknowledge and Spanky Culver City I mean Culver Park High School so a little bit about vintage shared how they have championed the reopening of Culver Park from the very beginning that he has spoken of meeting a place that is a good fit for them to be there at bentick South Vincennes fashion for Culver Park was the Catalyst for men being asked to serve as our student board member which they happily agreed to and look forward to representing the Culver Park Community congratulations. photos photos the Market's getting thank you so not only do so happens here when we forget to turn on mic moving to 7.1 public recognition guidelines persons wishing to address the ball items on the agenda can do so under item 7.6 individuals wishing to address the board on items agenda will be next and 7th too many items not on the agenda is 7.2 individuals will be granted up to 3 minutes please prior to addressing a board please complete a card if you're here in person or if your be assumed please raise your hand at this time the next agenda item and 7.2 members of the audience can provide public comment on items on the agenda if you wish. what's the board via Zoom raise your hand at this time and please remember to state your name identify the topic and before making a public comment make sure you unmute yourself what president we have one we do not have any speaker cards in the room for an agendized topics if you would like to provide public comment on item not on the agenda I see raise your hand on zoom and I see two Joanna shaneman and Melissa Sanders and you can at this point let's do 3 minutes Miss Williams could you please allow sharing for me thank you recording in progress so we have two are we closing public comment at this time we're president Wells public, and I think individuals had enough time to raise your hand up so I miss you man if you could start when you work for your ready let me know if you can hear me I'd like to start by welcoming the new principals in the Acting Superintendent you may have noticed since your time here a lot of frustration in the community that is due in large part to even real lack of responsiveness to important concern and specifically related to lack of responsiveness to repeated requests to agendize items of importance the wise person taught me about 4. I live 9322 and I quote and part any member of the public can place on the agenda and item within the jurisdiction of the Borg however I would like to share 5 or class from the community set the following items be placed on the agenda that have been voiced in the past few months and and not responded to remember one it's been requested the place on and it's the agenda this action of unlicensed newerth providers using Medicaid funds instead of hiring unionized after an accredited counselors second has been requested several times to put see back on the agenda so we can have a discussion about school safety and infrastructure amongst other things certainly we have requested to agendize discussion of the plans to create a bond measure to build undesired housing for teachers in the public session instead of the many special and closed session meetings that have occurred with expensive Consultants including today 4th we have requested to place on the agenda a plan to increase rather than decrease the veil ability of advanced classes for all of our students as well as to measure the impact of eliminating honors English that request was initially made on February 14th 2023 lastly it has been requested many in the community that we place on the agenda the problem of overcount overcrowding and the Mystery of the extra approximately 1,000 students that appear to be enrolled at cchs feeling bad use this public comment section to vent these important concerns without response and without putting is very reasonable request on the agenda is really what feels Community frustration and makes us feel that this board is not listening to us in the community I genuinely hope that we can turn over a new Leaf in our community and that the new Acting Superintendent can help our school board to follow Boy by LaLa 9322 and I really hope that request to place reasonable items on the agenda will be honored starting today if there's a particular protocol you would like us to follow please inform us that we can have these important Community concerns be heard in a method other than speaking off the agenda review misanthropy that preparation only going on okay to say first of all data to Joanna but more importantly really get it clear that we do have approximately 1,000 students were claiming residency that are clearly not resident You Are by now law required to do an audit on the student population that's required so you guys need to actually start knocking on doors do an audit and figure out where these extra thousand kids came from because you're also at the same time knowing this information attempting is part force of bond for residents and property owners of Culver City for the school district that is ignoring huge violation not like a couple dozen kids are pretending to use their grandparents address kids no one is going to trust a district with a dollar let alone $280 when you're refusing to look at the basic facts that we have a thousand extra case year that are lying which is a single you are diluting our resources are hurting our facility but these extra thousand kids the green team has all of these things they want to do about traffic and stop sign do you know what he'll not having an extra thousand coming to our campuses that don't need to be there and shouldn't be there that would really help with the traffic everything that we talked about is going to be a fun fact thousand extra kids dinner District that don't belong there but should be at other districts other District should be getting those headcount should be getting those monies from different resources but for some reason are here so stop hurting our kids whether they're on permit or actually live here stop hurting community members and taxpayers and do something about the district / pop that would be a huge thing for us to finally see you put forward something that is obvious clearly a legal and a daily damage to our district thank you that concludes our public comment 47.2 moving to 7.3 ccusd employee groups and we will commence with Miss Debbie Hemi there were a couple of things that I wanted to bring to your attention this evening one of them is on behalf of the teachers at El Rincon and I don't know whether or not there are other teachers across the turn off the GE I survey that was sent out on September 20th they're feeling that they didn't have a long enough opportunity to respond to this survey and they are asking the board and District administration to play important survey discuss was very concerned at the last minute Game reality not allowing the union to participate in cue the extent that we feel that we can add to the process I think that there is a precedent set a few years ago we were allowed to interview the candidates sentence of the unions and Max were allowed to interview the candidates to see which one that we would recommend that the board hire I think in view of our partnership we have to work together to make sure that we for our next superintendent that hopefully be here for several years and I think it's time to replace our interim dr. Keller I think that the idea of confidentiality and thinking that if we involve the Union's that confidentiality cannot be I find that a little bit concerning I think that we of course Ray and I and our membership understand the meaning of the word confidentiality and you can trust us to keep anything that needs to be kept confidential confidential so I'm hoping that you will consider involving the Union war in the actual selection and interview process and then there's just one more thing that I wanted to mention and ask about something that sits on the I understood from mr. ronchetti that we had made a lot Headway in the hiring security officers for the district but I see an expenditure for cozine Enterprises for $450,000 and I was wondering if we get more information about what Daddy's for her thank you very much. Mystery long I left at 1 to welcome our new Culver Park board members I just want to say how happy I am to say that that we have a Culver Park High School in Beauregard percent of here tonight the issue of pay still continues to plague over City Unified School District I do believe ccusd is moving toward a plan to improve its payroll practices to ensure that employees are paid in a timely manner for the work completed I recently had an extremely productive meeting with Mike Reynolds and Sean Kearney and which we identified several issues and collaboratively brainstormed on ways to fix them HR and business services also conduct trainings and both departments and have trains at work site to improve many of the issues that have plagued the system for years Mike and Sean have also agreed to have standing monthly meetings with ccft to continue to climb great and look into both payroll and Facilities issues I want to thank them for that I also want to thank Sean and his team for working on the retroactive pay for summer school teachers and staff that will also be issued this week that being as president of my local is my duty to report to both the board and members in this public forum that we still have a major issue with pay for a few of our teachers at Culver City Middle School one way to alleviate overcrowding in active sections is for a teacher to give up their prep. And teach extra sections this is commonly known as a 120 because you're teaching an extra 20% generally the need for these sections are then find an early August so the assignment begins usually on the first day of school a PR is submitted from the site and the extra. Is paid out with your normal paycheck usually beginning on October 1st sometimes even on September 1st depending on when the assignment was first assigned the only time an extra assignment would not be paid on October 1st at the extra section were added after school begins which does occasionally happen it's more, that the high school when we have a p drops I have a lot of kids dropping a piece sections we have to add a section in a week for week 5 sometimes and those teachers obviously don't expect to get paid there iccms teachers began their assignment on the first day of school August 23rd they have worked this assignment now for five weeks there 20% a Time assignment is not on tonight certificated board report to be approved because it is currently sitting at the district office on step eight of nine that means that Miss Jackie Madrid Miss Christina Hernandez Avalos mr. Nathan Davis Miss Phyllis Yarbrough Miss Bianca Hernandez and a few other teachers who I did not get a chance to speak with and I did not want to use their name without permission will not get paid for work next week that's at that point they I have done six weeks worth of work and being that there's not another board meeting they will have work for 9 weeks without getting paid tell me an industry where you go 9 weeks without getting a paycheck I would ask I want to tell me an industry where that happens where you go 9 weeks without getting a paycheck keep in mind they are taking on this extra assignment voluntarily they are keeping class sizes lower helping our students and helping their fellow colleagues and are giving up their prep. Which they're going to still have to do because they have to prepare for their classes and they're going to have to do that mornings or after school please fix this I asked nustep be completed and that Mr Missoula call a special board meeting to specifically approved these PR's so these are employees are paid for the work that they perform for this District we all you need to continue to work on reducing outside contracts and get over the 55% that we should be spending in the classroom first we need to come up with strategies to feel special ed teacher vacancies by ccft since we have at least three contract to special education teachers and at least three vacancies and we have to figure out a way to solve this problem I really want to thank dr. Keller mr. Alarcon for working with me on this issue I also want to work District on creating new positions to replace the non-union outside contractors for New Earth we need to identify her needs and begin to work on what positions are needed to fully replace non-unionized new Earth we need to start working on this now we can do this starting of the labor-management partnership or even create a task force with our current Council of Administrators Union and the Side Apartments we also have to get to work on the 55% 55% spending in the classroom ccft does not support in any way of hardship waiver because we do not have a hardship you can simply look at the 2018 Staffing audit and see how those patterns have continued even more so over the years since 2018 I am suggesting that the district and for put a pause on all in on essential hiring that is outside of the classroom with the exception of the Farragut and adult school principals the superintendent and assistant superintendent of Business Services the district should not put Ford and the board should not any Personnel that would count against the classroom spending finally I would like to discuss the superintendent search the last special board meeting my words that I spoke were used when I said that in the next superintendent search The Board needs to do the opposite as a history teacher I always teach my students that context is very important when we allies quotes and documents we also need to look at everything that is said and not cherry-pick the portions that might fit the narrative that we want as a labor negotiator I also know context is important many times I have looked at the contract with c c u and we passed one another what's the context here is that the spirit of what was written as matter fact I want to commend my with that lens we have many times sat down very ambiguous language that we both don't understand and I'm trying to figure out what did they really mean here okay because we look at this through the lens of context but with history with old contra when would you less I have a time machine it's not so easy to find out what you mean but with my statements it's really easy because I'm here so I'll set the record straight with the board or membership in the public with what I meant by that comment when I said do the opposite last time at that meeting what I meant was that the last time we had a superintendent search labor in the community felt they did not have enough meaningful input so do the opposite we were left two candidates that did not have superintendent experience and many just did not know Stu did not knock her socks off we ask who else for candies see who else was out there so do the opposite the search firm was not the first choice of anyone so do the opposite which it seems like you did only two board members took time out to speak to labor and here are input and concerns so do the opposite and that doesn't mean do less that means do more just so you have the context to suggest that my a man up do the opposite would be to have it completely code flows process is not only very disingenuous does almost willingly trying to make a mockery of my statement I hope the board has a very robust conversations with the community and can involve them in any way however I can only speak for the 400-plus members that I represent that feel that labor needs to be an integral part of this process if the worry is confidentiality then let's openly discuss it and figure out ways that all parties can be comfortable if there are other concerns it's best to discuss them and come to a solution the superintendent is the board's only employee and I am in no way saying the right to make that decision should be taken away from the board or something should be forced upon the board however there is something to be said for Colette duration this is a golden opportunity for those of you who sing the Praises of labor at the state and National level to practice what you preach and do that here at the local level this is a continuing our for those of you who have been very supportive of Labor and show that you want to continue to support of us and this is an ideal opportunity for those of you who have had continual missteps with labor and our staff and to change your course of Direction and finally show support to the employees of Culver City Unified School District thank you this time I'd like to him mister ronchetti mister marchetti was out I'm not sure he's in the audience thank you and thank you for that and like to invite 7.4 superintendent report and again I'd like to invite our staff if there's anything that you can come with regards to public comment and or our labor Partners this is a good opportunity for you to highlight your knowledge that you have on specific topics thank you sure thank you very much if you think the first I did that when I made meet with our labor Partners one thing I just want to share to the board is as a former name of 16-year superintendent and paying attention to how processes for the selection of new Superman that's are conducted I'm happy to shed some light to our labor Partners how certain superintendents happily Embrace that method and the farmer Jordy do not and I'll explain why the print the pros and cons in the into the board and labor can do with it what they but there are some potential pitfalls and so I just I welcome the conversation and I welcome a healthy disagreement as well one thing I will tell you that I'm headed to do in this district is what I've always nevermind her life and that is to continue to get to school sites to see where the action is to see our great employees doing what they do best and that is elevating the lights for children that we serve and so the second piece of that is not just getting to the campus itself. getting in the classrooms because that's where the magic happens I think we would all agree here as Educators so last week visited Farragut and I was able to visit Farragut OCD office of Child Development I think I got a right and as well as last week free classroom at Love by Leona and let her know and then this morning I was at every class with our solid assistant principal principal of you know dual immersion at its finest male Marino and approximately 800 if they're so tight I do want to let our parents know I'm getting out as much as possible and not just getting out to the campus to be seen But actually watching instruction happen and I can assure you if you're a parent in this community as a parent myself you should be very happy I was looking forward to going to the other side can I spend plenty of time at the middle school and high school where most of our students are in the next week and I'll be heading to a few of the other sites but the goal is to get into nearly if not every classroom every classroom and to support the wonderful things that our staff members are doing the one thing I will tell you how many steps I did get to see instruction the board had a study session previously from 4 to 5:15 ish about our facilities and it's a person who came from a district that had Stellar for there are certainly some spots that are you know I'm unsightly to say the least and so I will tell you of all the things that they're disheartening are the state of our facilities and we are working hard and I know that is a team here and it is aboard your we're we're doing everything we can to to enhance the the look of not just the facility but to improve the quality of the classroom itself but there's limited dollars in limited resources but I will tell you we are making and I want to thank the board for pushing forward on that I do want dr. Baxter to highlight the El Rincon routes give me El Rincon steam event that occurred recently and then I'm going to have dr. Smith Share why we're pulling 13 1 13/9 thank you dr. Keller members of the board would like to congratulate El Rincon Elementary PTA for earning two more prestigious Awards they are 2020 to 2024 National PTA school of excellence and a California PTA Spotlight award for earthfest El Rincon one APK California PTA Spotlight award for environmental awareness their Arts Fest which is an annual celebration held on the El Rincon campus that celebrates a fun way for ccusd students and families to learn about the invite about environmental awareness and practices especially thank you to Theresa Wong Jennifer Matt's Veronica Herrera for their work on Earth Fest as a national PTA School of Excellence El Rincon joins a select group of ptas Nationwide recognized for their call in building a strong effective Family School partnership that is enriching the educational experience and overall well-being for all students some highlights of last year were there Multicultural programming the perch Forever book vending machine creating a unique autism acceptance month program a Maker Faire steam family night and their dedication to the students these Awards follow El Rincon GTA 2022 Jan harp Dominic diversity and inclusion National PTA Ward all of this was made possible by the Fantastic parents family teacher staff and students and Guardians who support the rocket Scholars thank you and I'll have dr. Smith Share whatever Point 13 139 thank you dr. Keller 13-1 was a diversity equity and inclusion religious and cultural service calendar we did reach out and get significant community and put however we need more the calendar is agendas for tomorrow's Equity advisory Council general meeting to be able to Garner. before we bring it back so that is why it was removed 13.9 this Karen yunker is a a Mainstay in our community this is part of a continuing psaa so the policy I got clarified with Mike or how to work it through this year mcjunkin will be working with elementary and middle school teams that we create to create trainer of trainer so that we can start to build our own Cassidy increase our capacity to implement Community Building circles academic circles problem solving and restorative practices so that that is why I need to come back in the budget approved form thank you that's all I am update on the Seville I didn't plan for him to speak but if you would like him to you can wanted to make sure it was an oversight from fix so then that can goes to 7.6 members of the audience items on the agenda so this is the time where the public who is here in person please submit your speaker car he would like to speak on items on the agenda for those who are the has noon please raise your hand if you would like to speak on items on the agenda so this is please raise your hand if you would like to speak on items on the agenda which is item 7.6 Ford President we have one speaker we're in in the room and so far to undo okay great will do 3 again if you are on in Zoom land please raise your hand right now if you'd like to speak on item on the agenda once you come to the podium and or you your name is called the assumed please state your name States the agenda item you would like to speak on and commence to move forward okay and anybody else raise their hand note to in person and one in person to assume so let's do 3 minutes and I'll close the public comment at this time thank you for and I are in a room speaker is Luiz noise stuff is you can correct me if I said that wrong please you could approach the whole East Louisa and your you have 3 minutes and the timer is on that Chromebook in front of you there so that you will know how much time that you have left you have 3 minutes. So the first item for exhibit is my protest this is regarding the exterior painting at the Forest City High School and Middle School if you look at the last paragraph I'm trying to make this quick site you know I have such a short amount of time it says a bitter that committed I'm sorry I would like to emphasize the importance of the law which states slow responsive and responsible if you go to the next page you'll see a m asbestos quote at CMA provided dated 53 you see the their contractors license is from Park Casitas from Park and it's for the Culver City High School you go to the last page you can see where the bid was a modified and I circled the over here it says May 11th and you can see the name modified the bid but it's dated May 3rd Sosa backdated quote on the next page you see the response from CMA regarding my first protest the beer that was doing me you stayed seemed a painting to obtain a quote from a qualified licenses best being a contractor with a c 22 certified certificate and license this quote was provided to the district is referring to the quote that he fabricated on 511 which you can see on there he continues to say seemed a painting crew doll labor material Services profit or overhead insurance bonds taxes and all other incidental cost of sub and suppliers and it's B perform this project so you saying all the work is included in that so the reason had to have it at 2850 was cuz you don't listen anybody as a subcontractor he had to be under half percent the next item is the trainees your trainees letter that I received and it said preferred color  have provided legal sufficient evidence that seeming Alyssa sleeps with just drinking some beer to knowingly false information and just returned home to the district was hard because now instead of doing this job during the summer you have to do it during the school year it's a huge and can some students the teachers the principal has to do with coordination and there's a lot more risk involved when you're doing schools do school like that during the school year they further you know what to say there could have been several reasons allegations included this communication from parkour CMA but there was no miscommunication if I'm Park you please finish your sentence that your time's up so if you continue over here the definition of Fraud is wrong for criminal deception intended to result in financial personal game over here sorry I'm going to have to stop you we have the documents thank you so much and I know we received an email also back in May so I welcome the board to read that email also thank you so much for coming and speaking to us I apologize we have a long again. Item okay can we connect with online please the next speaker is Melissa Sanders and just as a reminder if you could please let us know the agenda item that you are referring to in your comments it would help us thank you and then late payment but apparently when you don't pay Archie is on time and other staff on time like what do you do are you giving them extra pay that would be really nice I also have concerns again about all these US bank statement charges under the gei there's over $6,000 between the lines on page and a page to the beginning of page 3 nothing other than US bank statement so again why are there so many charges or whatever feces car for under GI it for over $6,000 actually almost 7017 I believe and I forgive me if I'm wrong if Verizon is renting District property I'm a little concerned that we're now using them as a contractor and if that's any kind of conflict with doing that I don't know the details so I'm just asking as a concerned citizen forgive me and then 9.19 you guys trying to get this exception is utter nonsense once again this is a district problem isn't the school board problem this is for years you know mainly Kelly can't cuz she's been there the long list but you guys not paying attention to the budget shopping this is again to go to be repeated or you going to try to go for an exception for this past school year as well and this upcoming school year cuz once again you guys keep approving budgets that are not properly within compliance and if you're going to try to get an exception for one year then I just don't understand why this is your problem you put your the situation so maybe think about actually doing something in compliance correctly. Adding administrative positions and focus on the actual a kid just a thought I know it's hard for you sometimes so please stop that I was going to comment about 13.9 that once again you're doing stuff with another company that newer claims to be doing but I guess we'll save that for another agenda thank you text is Miss two notches please correct me if I'm not saying that correctly and if you could also please let us know what you're speaking on thank you can you hear me but it's okay cuz it gets pronounced differently speaking I don't know if its 9.4 or 9.5 are we guarding the teacher pay I believe in the state of California Department of Labor there's penalty pay for each day and employees paid late up to a certain point so I haven't seen anything and in any of the documents that have been shared that talk about finance charges related to pay if it was there I missed it I just want attention to that and I'm hoping that there is no way I know you guys have a lot on your plate to prioritize that it's just in this day and age we really need to automate our payroll and I know I emailed before and I sound like a broken record but it's something that I'm super passionate about if the Department of Labor steps in we're going to have pull up more problems and so I really would just love to see our teachers get paid on time they're working so hard I know you guys are parents too and I know that it matters to you but whatever needs to be done like we need to get the red tape out of the way and willing to volunteer time to come in and help I have a payroll background so anything I can do to help I want to write I want to just complain without offering a solution but it's kind of embarrassing that we keep bringing up teachers not getting paid on time so my comment thank you and I can get the rest of my time back thank you for president that all the public, tonight thank you so much members of the board and I want to also let our audience know that we did not complete our closed session items and so we will need to go into closed session after members of the board provide the report just a reminder for the for our audience okay let's commence with the ghetto good evening everyone just want to say hello to everybody out there and and thank you to everybody who's been communicating and sending it your thoughts and all keep that up I just one item this week I really like to apologize to the Middle School teachers who are getting doing the work and getting paid late I'm into it too long and too 54 that that that's not okay staff any any thoughts on where that process is lagging without putting anybody by the name on the spot here is it isn't that the PO or whatever that the paperwork isn't getting submitted from the site is it getting stuck in the process at the district because it has several steps and I I spoke to mr. Reynolds today and he and I are going to get together tomorrow morning because as as Mr long stated there was one person who's that step 8 in the approval process or there are many steps so we really have to identify where the problem is so we can I said well we moving forward as well because I I see that this keeps happening for various reasons but we need to get to the bottom of it so it doesn't continue to reoccur right you know what part of that review if maybe looking at the steps process the fact that there are nine the steps to do that seems like a lot and I know we don't want to issue a warrant and erroneously so that the checks and balances but you seem to be out of balance free with the number and we'll look at that and see how we can streamline that that's a lot of extra periods and then we will get that straightened out so thank you thank you I wanted to start by commending middle school for back to school night last week it was such fantastic energy really really a beautiful evening every single teacher that I had the pleasure of interacting with her visiting was outstanding with her family is and clearly on behalf of the students that families at the middle school are really gauge this year it's just such good vibes so I wanted to express a lot of gratitude to every single teacher and staff member there and in particular principal Williams for doing the work that it takes two lies and look forward and it feels really good and I'm also a parent there and it was a pleasure to be there as a parent I wanted to request that that I want to acknowledge my colleague board member Loretta for bringing it to my attention board policies to 120 and 2121 that should likely come to us in the near future as we are higher in the process of hiring a permanent superintendent there's soup of schools and soup contract and they haven't been updated since a long time ago and it's probably in our best interest to look at those and on that note we'll just generally expressed gratitude publicly to my colleague for being such an effective subcommittee partner it's been a pleasure to work with you it's been very efficient and impactful and then I will just end with a request will first an acknowledgement to mr. Reynolds on dr. Keller for meeting with r c c a t president on these matters of paying the delays and I also would love it if mr. Reynolds if you have the time or some other administrative designee could call Mista nasis back and just speak to her questions and offers or the or the family's questions and offers I think that would go a long way I would appreciate it. Thank you thank you so much for president at 1 want to join doctor tenant amending the middle school for an amazing back to school and I also want to come in love Iona Elementary School for also throwing a wonderful back to school. I got two out to do both and I also want to come and on top of that it was a busy busy day that day I want to commend mr. Who we were there earlier today but myself I saw Doctors live there as well. That time to driver safety workshop and and learning that she did in collaboration with at safety organization about to really build capacity but also to and some students and families I'm in parents about safe driving and and driver safety and what to look for and what not to do with the rec center so I want to congratulate her and a Time I'm at the middle school in La Ballona for that is what I wanted to briefly I won't add on to the conversation but joy my colleague Mr Guerrero and dr. Ken and I'm sure the rest of my colleagues and also showing concerns about I'm late today I look forward to a very fast and slow solution to that Alice is going to briefly mention I had the privilege this weekend I had to get a DC or Congressional Black Caucus or Congressional Black Caucus there they do an annual Celebration Center annual conference every single year for like elected officials in the US but also people who are stakeholders it was great because they were all so the caucus was also celebrating the 50th anniversary of hip hop in the theme of the conference was defending our democracy in house intersects with I think ddiwork and intersects with representation of making sure that we are acknowledging believe the contribution. Black Americans and people call Retard in our American culture and and celebrating it and said it was just really great to be there to listen to our workshops and and round tables about intersectionality between hip hop and politics in effect on an issue that we're seeing today we're talking about what's happening with our democracy were talking about you know a pre Africa AP African-American studies and all these great things that we should really great to be there that's what happened you hello good evening until the search is moving forward thank you to my colleague on the ad hoc committee doctor test for helping to do this the coronation height Community surveys available now you saw it probably lasts in Cobra Pride last week is available in English and Spanish you can go to their District website to fill that out it is on Survey Monkey ccusd. Org you'll you'll find a way to it the timeline and search process input information is also available on our superintendent search page and so I really want to thank Miss Rebecca Williams and with your free Villalobos and team for helping us to smoothly on get that information out to the people that need it in terms of all of the community input that we need to be collecting. mine and off and to be a liaison for the ad hoc committee and with leadership Associates and we so appreciate their their support and engagement in that so now that's cool flea infestation are parents and committee are parent caregiver and Community committees are up and running again I attended this month's environmental sustainability committee and while. Still looking forward I see so many great things that are being planned along the way and I really think the parent volunteers that have been involved in keeping that together for the year because we were supposed to have a sustainability coordinator really trying to and they really are filling in a gap that we didn't have it staff for it and that staff member who in the past has really been able to identify places where we could reveal value and put back the money that we put into that salary has come back to us many times over because of the rebates and grants that would have been applied for and one and one of the grants in the past I think that and it may not be necessarily through our sustainability coordinator of it was also in conjunction with I think Julie Garcia and passwords for dishwashers do we have a grand for dishwashers that I know that has probably not going anywhere yet but I don't know whether or not have any we have to spend that within a certain time frame so I'd appreciate it if mr. Reynolds could look into that so in addition to Res you needing which is open everyone we also have more opportunities for our community to get be engaged including I know that certain many sites have already asked for nominations for and probably voted for their school say committees that's important for safety for our Vince's well I don't think all of our our sites have put that call out for action and so I really am looking forward to seeing who is interested in being involved at our high school as well I am looking forward to seeing our El Cap pack be start up again too because this is a rebuild a new cycle for El Cap I think that we need Diller looking for measure K folks and the AC is starting up again the general meeting is starting up again tomorrow and dr. Smith can speak to whether or not that that is you continue to meet or if you're going to have are you going to have new a new membership at some point in the year yes she will have new membership at some point in the year I also attended dcma back to school night with our wonderful Panther families including Polly and PD Panther they I love the energy and I love the spirit that was on campus and I think that there's just a general like we're back to camp and like it's great to see everybody again and and and meet with their Community tables and get gear my myteen and my spouse went to cuz that ogres parents driving education night and which is really timely and wonderful for my team because they currently have their permit and I felt like they needed it for real so I really thank her for Miss okra for providing a great service to our community I also went to the API school board members Association presentation on unique barriers to success for Southeast Asian students and families and this particular group as opposed to the motto of the the greater Asian American Community these are groups that like our Cambodian Americans are vietnamese-american to come from likely Refugee families who have unique barriers and I thought it was wonderful all the one of the main speakers with a stoolie councilwoman from Long Beach to Lee a sorrow recently honored at at a event that the door and I went to about 2 weeks ago and she told us her story about being a refugee and having a really difficult time getting the services that she needed in order to Excel and just she just happened to have a friend that she just said hey we're going to like apply to be in a piece I'm going to find it. I'm going to match I don't like it's actually what you like but like I'm just going to do what you're going to do and she was lucky in that way and not all of our students are lucky in that way so I'm so glad that she was able to are those opportunities because she's doing so much good in her community I did go to the El Rincon pts a general meeting to celebrate their state and National recognition by the PTSA sand I am as a well you know you're never really a former rocket you're you're always a rocket at heart right I was so happy to get to celebrate those those folks and the accomplishments that they've had a special you know we we all know that some of us officially Elementary we have some Equity issues amongst our our neighborhood schools and so to see them being in such a way that is really has to do with a sustainability and Noah and ways that they have supported their students in culturally relevant ways is just amazing to me because when we were first Rockets it was just like oh my gosh this is still in a Title 1 school this is like this is we don't get as much attention or funding or whatever like in terms of precedent previously this was how many years ago 55 56 years ago so and now to see them actually like applying for a Wards and and winning them is just it's it's it means so much to me in dislike short amount of time that they've been able to do I also attended the Culver City Wok and Roll Festival held at gcms and it just a wonderful way to celebrate Community or alternate motive transportation I want to see so many students engaged in being so Fancy free on their wheels it's just I need to see the the energy and the passion and excitement in their faces learning to signal properly and look for hazards it I mean it just warms my heart to try to get more students out there enjoying walking and rolling to school I'm in that which leads me to our first walk to school day most of them are October 6th Friday so I'm hoping to see y'all out there I don't know which school that I'm going to be yet but I hope that all of my colleagues will be joining me and I think after Kent is at at walk to school day either meet up site or at the sites themselves and Leslie and I hope that dr. Smith puts this out in maybe over pride is that the district does indeed have a team walk the American Foundation For Suicide Prevention out of the darkness walk on Saturday October 21st starts at 9 at Santa Monica Pier the walk starting at 10 a.m. and so hopefully I mean I have put out some links on my social media but I hope that we have a district communication so that more team members can join from the school community so thank you so much for leaving that and I'm looking forward to two friends walking thank you for members I also want to mention that it's always heartfelt to hear that there is a 20% late payment I believe that's what it was at 20% late payment to come over CC miss or is it 100% 20% late payment to all our season 2 knots to some of her ctms to teachers and I just want to say I'm really really sorry that that is happening and I look forward to hearing how we're planning to resolve that and so I hear my colleagues that we all would look forward to a resolution there just for clarification it's a 120 which is an extra assignment which comes to 20% of their salary so that's what the payment is that the teachers got the regular salary but this is teaching an extra. So it's the extra work that I need to get paid thank you thank you thank you for the clarification I also want to ask our staff Mike Reynolds and I know you just started so I'm giving you Grace but it's not pressure it's just I want to remind our community that we have asked for a plan on how we plan to resolve the 55% because there is many solutions to that and I know for a fact that Nationwide and not every state has the same requirement but Nationwide this is a problem names of dollars came into the school district and the districts sent right for us we spent more than two million dollars just hiring individuals that would support are schools we hired assistant principals at every Elementary we hired counselors at every Elementary we hired tosas we hired tailed peas we hired and yes these are Mission positions and these are also position that we needed because if we didn't need them then we wouldn't be here right in this position so I like just a reminder that we had the board has asked for a plan when it's ready please do let us know so that we can agendize it and and see how we can resolve that problem and I'm looking at my cannot dr. Keller because I know that your time with us is limited so I'm not but we agree with you and we are working on it thank you I want to elevate a a passion project that I have literally been caring for since I met Linda fans worth at the last year's this year not 2023 but 2022 I met Linda fans worth and she talked to me about this incredible Adult School curriculum which help parents who are English Learners gain which accusation and the skills to support their children education and become parent advocates for their children and I want to say that I want to elevate this because both Linda Phan worth and now miss Elva and the deluxe vice-president Tuesday Sandoval and Doctor God be at Leba Yona have actually put this in place and I'm just want to say congratulations love by Jana is composed of omo 70% Latino and it's so important for us to build the capacity of our parents in it cool site and maybe this needs to become a district-wide event if program if we had enough English Learners at other school side this is really an ask for our community that if you know of some please let them know to enroll in this program they are currently having a hard time recruiting families for this program and and and also they have it on their website social media newsletter and paper flowers and this is a question for our staff is there anything we can do to support the site with touchpoint with r English Learners family's meaning can we provide one-on-one phone calls or something like that where we reach out and say hey this programs available if you're interested sometimes it's word for people who are monolingual to read a newsletter or to be on social media or to be you know so I board president so we have the position under way that the El Cap approved and afforded that would be able to reach out to and duplicated students and HR is working hard on getting us that position because it required a salary schedule and it was started a job description so that we can facilitate and support this work so we're working on the back end to make sure we have somebody who can make those calls in and do that to communicate with the community and there's one for school starts thank you I'm so excited to hear that thank you for the teamwork there and I I want to also in this is a man in my comment here in this is board business needs to be conducted in public we most of us know this and we have been impacted affected by a multitude of items this year that have really given made our meetings super long with the agenda items we have put it's important to acknowledge that not all of the challenges topics items issues can be effectively addressed in the board's public deliberation while the board is committed to transparency and openness I am committed to that I've heard here for my bored all the time that they're committed I have to recognize that some difficult problems May benefit from more intimate and focused approach and I to commend mr. Ray long for talking about working behind the scenes to getting many of these challenging topics resolved and and I want to say that we have we are fortunate to have very capable staff we're fortunate to have very passionate teachers and staff members and that we're constantly in a tug of war tug-of-war but like discussion of like is this a topic that needs to go to the agenda or just a topic that can be resolved one-on-one and a small meeting and I recognize that this is a balance that that we as a board need to have public transparency and that effective problem solving sometimes needs to be done in smaller settings and because they need to investigate they need to negotiate we need to discover the nuances of the problem and so I asked our community to please know that not every issue needs to come to the board and that we need to entrust that we have affair the problem solving staff that can help us take some of these challenging problems that we may not be able to deliberate on the in public in the Borth I wanted to mention that to our community thank you so much for the opportunity for being here today and instead of recessed for the board we will go into closed session to finish are closed session which we hope will take this a few minutes can we get election all those in favor say aye

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Regular Board Meeting 9-26-23 (Part 1)

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