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Regular Board Meeting 02-11-25

Added Feb 12, 2025 •

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in person I will entertain a motion to or to to move to close we go to close all those in favor say I I I hello everyone welcome to our regularly scheduled board meeting we are back from closed session I'm going to call this meeting to order at 6:03 p.m. and we'll start with a roll call of all the members we have all members present um 3.2 are flag salute uh Dr Lucas can you lead us on our Plex absolutely everyone please stand your right hand over your heart ready begin I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands 1 nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for thank you thank you 33 Orlando Mr Greer would you lead us in Orlando College we acknowledge our presence on the additional and system and unseated territory is there with a long when the original prepared for that Q 34 public announcements of action taken by the board in closed session there were none um 5.1 adoption of deduct adoption of the agenda what do we have any modifications colleagues or staff now okay we have a motion 1 second great all those in favor say I I I 61 Awards recognitions and presentations we have a proclamation and recognition of Black History Month should we will read the proclamation first and then we'll present it to those who are here to accept that Proclamation um Mr lockman if we could start with you and we'll do to to to paragraphs each turn that on uh Black History Month is an oh sorry Proclamation in recognition of February 2025 as Black History Month whereas Black History Month is an annual celebration of the achievements culture and history of African-Americans in the United States observed every February and serves as a time to recognize and honor the significant contributions made by black individuals throughout history and whereas black history is American history and the rich Legacy of African-Americans is woven into the fabric of the United States shaping its culture economy politics and identity and whereas the 2025 theme for Black History Month is African-Americans and labor which highlights the significant role African-Americans have played in the shaping in shaping the labor movement fighting for workers rights and advancing economic Justice throughout American history and whereas the Culver City Unified School District believes that fostering a deep understanding of the history and culture of African-Americans is essential to building compassionate and inclusive learning environments for all students promoting diversity equity and respect for each individual's identity and whereas the Culver City Unified School District recognizes and celebrates the important contributions of historical and contemporary black figures such as Harriet Tubman Dr Martin Luther King Jr Maya Angelou John Lewis James Baldwin Malcolm X Shirley Chisholm and countless others who have shaped the path towards Justice equality and freedom for all and whereas it is essential that the stories of black human release past and present be told and taught in our schools inspiring students to understand the power of resilience creativity and solidarity and overcoming adversity and whereas the Culver City Unified School District is committed to fostering an environment mint where the history voices and experiences of African-Americans are celebrated year round and where students staff and the community are empowered to engage in meaningful Dialogue on Race equity and social justice now therefore we the Board of Education of Culver City Unified School District dear do hereby Proclaim February 2025 as Black History Month and encourage all student staff family members and the Greater Community to participate in activities and events that honor and celebrate the achievements of African Americans and the ongoing struggle for racial Justice furthermore Culver City Unified School District will continue its commitment to building an inclusive educational experience for all and will provide opportunities for students to learn about and engage with the rich history culture and contributions of African-Americans thank you board president azador members of the board Dr Lucas I would like to introduce those that are coming to except the Black History Month Proclamation and we would like to thank the co-director of the Black History Month event Nicole and Reggie Austin would you all like to come forward and and take a photo thank you so much we'd also like to bring forward and thank Lorraine echo on the black family Council steering committee we'd like to thank Antoinette Stewart en co-director of the Black History Month events we would also like to thank and honor Fallon Purdue tax unit Union coordinator we would like to bring forward a Nia Francis black student union president we'd like to bring forward also the black student union vice president zakiya Ross did I say that for wrestling oh thank you so much thank you Orange okay item 6.2 Proclamation recognition of National School counseling week from February 3rd of February 7th um colleagues we can each do a line and whoever ends you can just continue yeah oh yeah we'll start over here okay um Proclamation and recognition of National School counseling week February 3rd to 7th 2025 whereas school counselors are employed in public and private schools to help students reach their full potential in whereas school counselors are actively at committed to helping students explore their abilities strengths interests and talents as these traits relate to Career awareness and development and whereas school counselors help families focus on ways to further the academic career and social emotional development of their children and whereas school counselors work with teachers and other Educators to help students explore their potential and set realistic goals for themselves and whereas school counselor to seek to identify and utilize Community Resources that can enhance and complement comprehensive School counseling programs and help students become productive members of society and whereas comprehensive development developmental School counseling programs are considered an integral part of the education process that enables enables all students to achieve success in school now therefore be it resolved that the Board of Education the cover City and private school district here by recognizing recognizes and honors the contributions of school counselors and proclaims February 3rd to 7th 2025 as National School counseling week this 11th day of February 2025 oh thank you now it's on thank you board President we now have certificates to pass out out and a photo opportunity if that's all right with everyone the and I see some counselors that are online so if they could um turn their cameras on when we call their names and some counselors are present so if you could come forward or turn on your camera when your name is called first we'd like to honor Karishma barot Molly Borg Sophia dugad deer dalila Gonzalez Steve dies Lakisha Jerome Katherine lassi oh here you go thank you you're welcome thank you um Katherine oh we're just read your name twice okay no oh yes yes Daniel laam Katherine linky Ivy Lou Janine lazat Adrien Madrid a Stephania Montes I was looking to see if I can see everybody Christopher Ordonez Sarah Clemens James Smith congratulations Alexis Thompson Dianna ulo Serrano belma Valverde Yasmin Velasco congratulations Unice Vines congratulations counselors don't worry about 1 1 2 3 thank you guys thank you for coming thank you thank you for coming all right now to be public recognition portion of the meeting we will start with uh item 7.2 from members of the audience items not on the agenda so now would be the time if you have a public comment on items not on the agenda to either turn in your speaker card with the superintendent's assistant or if you're watching virtually to please raise your virtual hand okay so we have 1 online and 3 in person okay um okay 1 line 3 person okay well is that it well support before yeah the rest of the 4 yes okay so what that uh so we'll now close public comments at 4 comments and I'm fine with 3 minutes for each commenter okay sounds good and before we start just if I may we have a a Time system just to make sure everyone gets the chance to be heard um we're going to have uh time cards it's not meant to Target anyone everyone gets subject to the same uh same process we just want to make sure everyone gets that chance so please don't take it personally if we're just making sure that we're observing the time limits uh out of respect to everybody thank you so with that we will start with uh Carolyn leuser okay thank you good evening board I wanted to uh make a quick reference to the uh walk out that was at the high school last Thursday and I want to address it from a fiscal stamp point and the loss of ADA that always accompanies uh when students leave without or or they're not at school for any given period of time and also I want to say as a former teacher I really believe that students do need to be in class now there's only 180 school days in the year and we really need to be in there for every single instructional minute and you know I really thought about it because Wednesdays we have early dismissal and I was didn't understand why the students were encouraged to use Wednesday after school for their um protest activity and so and I saw that the number of board members were essentially condoning it which is their obviously their prerogative but I think that the board and others really should be encouraging students to have those sort of activities after school because we really need when a austerity times right now and we really need every single 88 dollar that we can bring in okay thank you uh I don't have a last name uh Moline unless that is the last name the sun okay cool um hello there I first want to start by saying um today is my 18th birthday and it's an honor to start off my adult life speaking to the board and I also want to thank the board for their great work in protecting EI during this um during this time of peril in American politics and without further Ado I will start my public comment hi I'm Moline Moscow friend president of ready culture at Culver City High School um I'm here to today to address the issue of religious accommodations in Culver City Schools hundreds of students are forced to choose between attending school and participating in activities related to their faith culture on specific holidays that should be recognized on the ccusd calendar but are not many students and staff in Culver City take the day off to participate in crucial holidays in the Jewish Islamic and Hindu faiths this not only negative Li affects the education of the students celebrating these holidays but also the students who do attend school as due to the shortage of staff and teachers who celebrate these holidays these days become unproductive on behalf of ready culture unity and Muslim Student Association at Culver City High School I would like to ask the school board to strongly consider giving students teachers and staff the following religious holidays off and finding other days to make up for the lost and calendar day is we don't pretend to know how difficult it is to organize the calendar but we do know how important diversity and cultural representation is to Culver City schools these holidays include Russia Shana the Jewish New Year Eid Al ra a feast that marks the end of the holy month of Ramadan Diwali the Festival of Lights and the Hindu New Year and yam Kippur the holiest day in the Jewish faith that includes a 25-hour fast 2 of these 4 holidays are already included on the LAUSD calendar which serves most of the students in the Los Angeles area given our large Jewish Muslim and South Asian populations in such a small area as Culver City I believe it would be in the best interest rest of our mission as a district of developing a diverse Haven of Excellence by adding All 4 of these holidays to the calendar please know that in putting these holidays onto the district calendar as off days will do a great service to student staff and the community of Culver City as a whole thank you very much thank you and just as a note um public comment uh taking names is now closed so we have the names that we have here that we received to date with that in mind uh we now go to um Gianna Wong hi everyone I'm Gianna Wong co-president of abpa Music at cover City High School and I would like to share a little bit about the music program and what we're up to right now uh first I'd like to invite all of you uh to attend our district music concert that's happening tomorrow night uh it begins at 6:30 p.m. at the Robert Frost Auditorium and there will be a total of 450 students performing from all of our elementary schools middle school and high school and at the end we will all come together to perform our finale which will be a performance of We are the world uh it's free so I hope to see you all there uh other than that we're also in the middle of rehearsing for our spring musical uh which will be Greece I'll be playing in the Orchestra um the show opens on March 6th and will go on for 2 weekends um as always for information about the shows and anything else going on in abpa you can visit our website at abpa.org thank you and uh last in person uh Sharon anger hi so I am also here to talk about the walkout um I know that there were it's important to walk out it's important to protest things that you strongly believe in so I don't have an issue with people protesting 1 side or the other the issue that I have was that it was a protest against deportation but from I don't remember Stephanie Laredo posted students um with the bullhorn it turned into a protest for free Palestine so I also heard and I don't know if it's true but if there were teachers who were escorting students is that true or not true on the protest the walk out I don't know that's what I read why wasn't the bullhorn taken away from that student who was saying free Palestine when the whole walk out was supposed to be for deportation it's very unsettling um sometimes to hear that as a Jewish person and uh I don't think that those things should be posted on a district website unless it was you know for the intended walkout which was against deportation and not a pro Palestinian um idea now mind you I don't have an issue with people um siding with the Palestinian people I too want them to be free I don't want them to be marginalized I don't want them to be murdered but I don't think that it was um an educational I'm losing my words I'm sorry I don't think it was a teachable moment to have the um protest turn into something that it wasn't intended to be the bullhorn should have been taken away and the protesting that was happening for from The River To The Sea should not have been posted on a school website social media whatever you want to call it I don't know so that's what I have to say so thank you for listening thank you I appreciate it thank you I think that concludes in person and that brings us to online uh we have Daryl meny uh you have 3 minutes to speak and just so people will know we're not allowed to respond to individual comments so that we may or may not do it in our board comments but uh that that's the reason we're not responding on this is that we're we're actually not allowed to do that so thank you okay uh Daryl go ahead thank you um and forgive me for not turning on the camera here I want to discuss my disappointment and displeasure at the way of the District administration handled the student protests last Thursday uh parents heard there might be a walkout to protest Trump and deportation I think many of us were excited to see students doing this but then the district got involved and made some unforced errors the school sent emails to all parents promoting student activism and basically advertising the event then the high school opened the gates during a school hours and the administrators counselors and security is scored to the students out at least 1 School Board member came to this wasn't a walk out it was a field trip and when you have an event like this the school district is taking responsibility for the students what happens there so when the walk out against Trump goes in different directions shall we say that is suddenly the school's problem it's a practical problem a liability problem and a constitutional problem let me be clear we all know that if this has been a group of pro-trump students the school administrators would never have opened the gates for them and walked with them and what lesson are the students learning when the school district which is an arm of the government after all essentially helps organize a protest I protested in my life I've stood in front of riot police police you take risk when you do these things but this sort of thing isn't teaching the kids about political activism it isn't teaching them about taking risks to stand up for what you believe in this is teaching us cynical lesson about power and Conformity there is no need for the school district to act this way the school administration needs to put out a clear simple message anytime they hear about a planned student protests that message is that students are expected to attend classes and that School cannot guarantee the safety of students who leave that authorization the students then can take responsibility for their own actions and their own political development thank you thank you and uh oh did did Rachel Schneider sign in beforehand or okay so uh Rachel Schneider let me just uh reset the clock here if I may all right go ahead Rachel Rachel you're muted there you go hi um my name is Rachel Schneider I'm a 31-year teacher here at Culver City High School I have spoken before to the board about my concern regarding the rising attitude of anti-Semitism in the Culver City Unified School District after last week's student walkout I find myself dismayed and heartbroken to hear that our students that my students turned an event which was supposed to focus on immigration policy become an event of hate I was shocked absolutely shocked to hear our students chanting anti-israel and that's anti-jewish slogan from the river to the Sea Culver City High School has been my home for 3 decades but the actions of these students are beginning to make me question my place in this District thank you thank you that concludes the list thank you so much uh we will now move to item 7.3 CC employer group so that we usually hear from Miss hammy on Zoom Miss hammy if you are on Zoom that would be the time to unmute hello uh this is summer McBride our president Debbie hammy is unable to speak tonight so I'm speaking on behalf of the association of classified employees as the as secretary Ace met with the district last week for our first negotiation and we're pleased with the initial discussions and look forward to our next meeting hoping it will be equally productive um we're also hopeful that as we're facing potential cuts that the message is received clearly that those cuts need to be thoughtful and have the least impact on our students learning and safety in light of that Asus also concerned that today's press conference is out of touch with the challenges that the district is facing financially board president is or I appreciate your motion shortly after joining the board for the district to develop a black student achievement plan however we're asking you not to prioritize filling management positions before Labor and their needs you may not realize that Dei has been and then initiative and CCSD since 2016 I've personally served on the equity advisory Council the inclusion respect and diversity task force and our district inclusion committee I currently work closely with our black family Council steering committee which was tasked with spearheading the creation of our black student achievement plan there are many members throughout our school Community focused on Dei and the implementation of a more comprehensive inclusion plan to serve all of our students the work is being done and instead of adding more assistant superintendent to an already stretched budget a more effective and less performative approach would be to continue working closely with the sites listening to our members who work directly with students and supporting the tireless work of many of our parent affinity groups we just need the district to actually prioritize the work that's already being done to support Dei efforts I would also like to remind the board that we don't have a benefits plan Beyond this year now more than ever the district needs to reaffirm its commitment to caring for our students by meeting the needs of the adults who care for them thank you ready okay um so uh thank you so um first of all um happy for the counselors and National counseling uh week so um great job at our school counselors do with the school and uh you know definitely uh much recognition to all of them and also uh recognizing Black History Month as well uh this month too um I'd also like to Echo and thank Dr Gooden for the work in bargaining the bargaining sessions have definitely been um or productive and smoother and uh organized and I really want to thank you uh for that effort as well too so echoing on Miss McBride um the budget so we have a situation you know with our budget where we um are you know we don't have the that we do um ccft for 3 years had been sounding a warning to the board previously uh that we were spending on positions that we could no longer afford positions with 1-time funding but the board and District the time continued to do that and now our entire Surplus that we once had which was a pretty significant Surplus um I just received a uh report from CFT that looked at the historical data and our significant Surplus is gone and we are barely meeting our Reserves at this time this is not the time to add management positions there is work that we are doing in this District now with our current current staff and I want to give a big big shout out to our teachers artosis our district level and site level administrations for the great work they are currently doing on Dei at the site level everyone has to pull through this if teachers are going to be asked to sacrifice and do more with less and counselors and our lowest paid classified staff then management will also have to pull their weight and do this work as well this has to be a priority like Miss McBride said we still do not have a benefits plan Beyond this year take care of the people that are taking care of the students that is a priority I finally wanted to make a comment just on the calendar so we have um negotiated a calendar both Ace and ccft uh with Dr Gooden and we definitely look forward to working with the board and strengthening our absences policies making sure that you know on days when there are significant religious holidays that students are excused and that no major tests or assignments or other things um happen those days and we want to get that in writing we want to make that a board policy so our staff isn't confused by it and let's continue to strengthen that policy as well um calendars are very very tight as we all know with the amount of days um and as you even heard tonight there's a lot of you know different groups that would like a lot of different days and you know that is very difficult this time but we have to do that kind of work work around our excused absences policies and that could include any kind of training that we also feel that staff need as well so I think those are all things that ccft totally supports um but this calendar that we presented to the district in the district countered back with 1 from their surveys of the community reflected what over 80% of our membership wanted and included a 100% ratification vote on this so thank you everyone thank you so much we'll now move on to item 7 board superintendent support give me 1 second to share my screen so um the zoom we're loading the presentation here in the room for everybody okay I think we're ready to go um I do want to start um off by talking just briefly about the walkouts uh we like to clarify that the uh that this demonstration was not organized or sanctioned by the school of the district the walkout was initiated by students exercising their first amendment rights to funeral speech and peaceful protest uh the district and site administrators and local law enforcement were present solely to to ensure student safety as the student safety is our number 1 priority we take the well-being of our students very seriously and we have clear policies to reinforce a safe and respectful environment for all students and will always reinforce those policies we will always remind students of our District's expectations for responsible and considerate dialogue and just a quick comment um on on the Ada in regards to uh the the afternoon actually the Ed Education Code allows for excused absences exact exactly for this reason um and so if the parents had indicated the uh excused absence then that absences excused and um not kind of towards Ada because they were attending school earlier in the day so I just verify that but I do appreciate the um the viewpoint um and so with that I'll go ahead and dive into our superintendent's report for today um I just want to give you a couple of quick updates first off which is uh this is breaking news as of last Friday and congratulations to the Culver City Middle School team that they were Redd designated as a middle school to watch in the state of California it's uh a tremendous accomplishment of all the amazing things that are going on at that school that had been awarded that um designation I want to say 4 or 5 years ago I'm not entirely sure of the process but just went through a revalidation um to get it again to be re-up for it so thanks to the entire staff faculty and student body there at the middle school I thought I saw some folks applauding and yeah it's really it's really cool stuff um and that was just as of last Friday so um and 1 of the I just want to point out with that 1 I went to the verification visit myself uh for part of the time so I met some of the reviewers and the school did an absolute awesome job of having students lead the entire verification visit they were the ones walking the uh the reviewers through the school sharing information about what is working so well it's at the middle school my next quick little update is just uh you see it there um on the screen uh we have a series of students uh who will be recognized at a later board meeting for having submitted uh banners which are offline throughout the streets of Clover City here um and it's for the screenland screenland 5K um and so this is just 1 1 of our students examples but it's great to see their artwork having selected and a part of our community throughout our streets and just lastly um last couple of weeks if you've seen a variety of our schools um I just think it was a wonderful week of kindness week where students were focusing on different ways to I'd be kind with each other and be kind with themselves and I appreciate that Focus that uh some of our schools took over the last couple of weeks uh so now on to some other sorts of conversation here um I am sharing this of the current state of the budget we've been talking about it uh several times in board meetings and I know Mr Rajiv through her variety of updates on the budget has also been keeping us up to date on the status um you know as Ray often does sometimes steals my thunder um in regards to his comments um in mind directly following but we are in a situation where our we are just making our minimum Reserve which you have to have a required amount of 3% within our school uh School budgets and what these charts are just sharing you is setting a little bit of the context for what we're experiencing with our budget um and you know as we all know enrollment and attendance drives Revenue into the district and you see over the years um that has dropped some um and uh I will say it's not as bad as other districts that I have worked with and know in California but we do have a drop of enrollment that affects the number of students who um you know have uh funding funding for our district I want to just also share the on the upper right hand side is the number of employees um that we have had in the district and this is both certificate and classified and administrative and just 1 you can probably guess what the the little bump is a result of uh it's not so little though it's a relatively large bump of about 43 positions and that indicates positions that we had um uh added over the course of coid and with the use of Co dollars um and which were uh you know given to districts again all across the state and that's this is not unique to Culver City either in uh that positions were higher to support a variety of needs we had increased Healthcare needs of students um with all the screening and the testing and those sorts of things happening we also had increased uh mental health and wellness sorts of um needs and so you can see that we did have a increase in number of employees that has dropped down some if you recall those of you who were um last year are um Springtime we did uh make some reductions in some positions across our district um so it did result in in some uh dropping of the number of employees but as you can see we're also not back to preco and the last thing I just want to share is that the bottom there of the screen is you can see our total revenue coming in or total expenditures and uh that the 3% Reserve that we've been talking about for this current school year 2425 is we are just just at that line and that's kind of continuing across for the future projections of years there's a little bit of space in 2627 to do some increased activities we've been working on here within the district um but we're needing to make sure that uh we have um you know adequate resources for everything that we want to do within the district so I'm just setting the context here about this the situation that we are currently in I want to remind um the board and uh we have a couple new board members who weren't um on the board last spring when we did this work um that I just mentioned it that last spring when I first came on board that we did make some reductions we did make some reductions in staff excuse me we also substantially reduced Staffing contracts if you remember we had a variety of different Staffing contracts that have been eliminated um and are not in use anymore um we have eliminated substitute Staffing contracts so those were uh Subs that we again during coid uh with some of the increased in absences and and longer absences and off Subs being absent themselves for their own health and needs uh we had had a substitute setting contract that has been removed uh we eliminated the services with new Earth we also reduced out-of-classroom Staffing which are several times but there it is 1 more time out of classroom Class Staffing in Spring 2024 we've been working on a couple of avenues uh to increase revenues uh you all may recall that there was during coid there was a potential loss of over a million dollars for a school shutdown that the district experienced at that time and those we did receive with the support of the board and support of the California Department of Education and our state senator we were able to uh recoup those dollars which is um about a billion dollars worth you also may recall uh we had a a finding in regards to TK Staffing and uh we were able to get that penalty wave which is about 187,000 worth and then also again um with the board's leadership we were able to renegotiate the lease for 1 of the properties that we have here within Culver City that is uh least by a private entity and that's an increase of uh 1.1 million per year over the course of the of the lease and I want to add in I I'm sorry I don't have a number here for this last last bullet point of increase in attendance um but we have seen an increase in attendance which is great uh we latest numbers are saying that we are we are close to if not at preco attendance rates so I want to applaud again um everyone at the school sites and our teachers and having invigorating and engaging instruction and our administrators following up into our families for really working on getting an increase in attendance um back up so that's been very helpful of course every additional increase is a good thing so uh we're still working on those efforts and I believe um essay isn't it about 700,000 dollars per increase in percentage point of ADA right I'm sorry 800,000 okay all right so um so with all of this said we uh needing to take a look at right sizing within the district um I'm going to scoot back to this um slide again looking again number of employees of these competing factors we still have uh you know larger number of employees than we've had in the past when we even had more students in the district so um I want to just let everyone know the priorities that we are looking for this sort of work is that it stays away from classrooms is similar to the last spring but just reiterating staying away from classrooms maintaining student counseling and mental health supports our priorities we are identifying reductions by attrition as much as possible so uh we are not uh um always going to basically finding positions that we know will be vacant that we an analyze kind of the work involved with that position and are we able to close that position based on attrition um and then um I know this is very important 1 of the things I absolutely love about working in Culver City is maintaining our breadth of options as much as possible possible we have a lot of options for our youngsters in regards to different courses different coursework different activities we heard some about it today from APA um and then you've seen different things that board meetings recently and so really maintaining that breadth of options as much as possible those are our priorities um and I just want to uh re reiterate again the maintaining core counseling and mental health positions across all schools is absolutely I know I mentioned coid brought in some additional mental health um folks and we all feel and I think the community has been very loud and clear about this as well that we do need to uh maintain that work within our schools even though a lot of that was brought in with the co funding that we received from the um um during the co uh and I'm already mentioned maintaining cream programs so some things we are taking a look at are reducing out of classroom teaching support or intervention assignments at both the school sites and the district and reassign those to classrooms we are looking at reducing some clerical across the district office and secondary schools we are looking to be conversation a little bit later tonight but reducing Administration through the reworking of the Dei position not eliminating the Dei work but reworking that position we are looking at uh reducing 8 it support um and also taking a look at uh reducing health care support and I want to make sure that this very very clear I'm going to say probably several times and I know the board if I ask more questions about it um being extremely aware that we are have full-time Staffing at every school in regards to health care support so there will be a full-time Personnel uh and at uh definitely able to elementary school and the multiple support Folks at the high school and middle school and the Culver Park but just taking a look at that kind of coverage and seeing how we can make that most efficient and uh that is just a quick overview of kind of our status of where we are in regards to a budget work and some of our thinking and our priorities I'm going to ask Dr Gooden now to share um some information uh this is actually applicable to later item we may repeat some of this information when we get to the item but just sharing the information now as well good evening thank you Dr Lucas um tonight I just wanted to take a few minutes to share the calendar survey information that went out to not only parents and Guardians in our community but also staff in our community um so we had 1,142 parent parents that completed the survey first question was about Thanksgiving break um whether families preferred Thanksgiving to great to be a full week or if there was a preference to have 3 days that are holiday and then to take the other 2 days from that week and use them for different days throughout the school year um and you'll see for parents 81% preferred the full week to be off and 19% preferred the 3-day um with 2 days spread throughout this school year um same question next slide same question of Staff we had 469 staff that um completed the survey and again very similar numbers 83.6 preferred the full week off 16.4% preferred to have just 3 days off with 2 days spread throughout the school year calendar again same question was asked about spring break and if there was a preference for 2 weeks versus 1 week with day spread throughout the school calendar and 7 95.4 percent of parents um wished for 2 weeks of spring break and 24.6 um selected the other option of 1 week with other days spread throughout the calendar and then staff were asked the same question um and for them it 80.8% um that prefer the 2 full weeks off and 19.2% the preferred the 1 week um with floating days throughout next slide okay um and then we had 2 other questions that we asked parents that we did not asked um staff members um when was asking about um we have the 2 days spread throughout the year for staff professional development and if there was a preference to have those on a Friday or Monday or to have them during the week and overwhelmingly 96.1 % asked that if we are going to have those days to have them on a Friday or Monday and then the last question that we asked was just about the number of calendars um this is fairly late to be um adopting a school calendar for the following school year so we asked parents if there was a preference of to to um adopt 2 years versus 3 years where no preference so you can see that 57.6% of parents requested that we do 3 years of calendars um 32% had preference um oh see about 10% at a little bit over 10% that's not good math um Wanted just to have 2 years of calendar so with this calendar information um we worked with ccft to come up with 3 years of calendar ERS to propose to the board this evening um and then next slide I just wanted to share a few calendar considerations that went into play as we were working with our labor Partners in developing a calendar and the first 1 is is that um where is there is a very diverse District however in order for districts to um to add holidays or celebrations to a calendar um there has to be a very specific reason why those days are dropped so whether we're showing a drop in attendance or for example not having substitutes available available on those days um and in this case our district did not have data that supported either of those um so it was really important that we um develop calendars that have a sec purpose um when we're looking at specific days to close school and then just something else to keep in mind California Education Code 46014 and 76121 both allow for students to be excused from school for religious and cultural internal observations and are as was mentioned earlier um we do have a board resolution which was 92023 2024 that reaffirm reaffirmed excuse me the board's commitment to honoring celebrations and observing observing and the community for all of our families thank you Dr good and I appreciate that information and with that concludes the superintendent's report for this evening thank you so much we'll now move to item 7.5 student Representatives report good evening board members um as you all know February marks the beginning of Black History Month and SB is holding events to honor the special month and we're really excited to do it um so starting next Tuesday um we will have a historical figures photo shoot um or a photo booth where you can take pictures with cardboard cutouts of like Kobe Bryant Malcolm X I'm in a gourmet Louis Armstrong and many other influential people and it's going to be very exciting for Thursday 20th we're going to host the Bingo and word search for black music artists and then on Tuesday February 25th students can can choose from 2 special pause sessions um either black inventors such as George Washington Carver or um hair and the various hairstyles and importance of hair in Black Culture and for 7 27th pause session on be surrounding black actors and stories will be hosted and then finally on February 28th um there will be an I have a dream day where students can write their dreams for the future um and gain a wristband saying I have a dream followed by like certainly the king's famous speech and um to finish off black Black History Month uh we are going to have our annual black business expo and it will be celebrated on the same day February 28th from 4:30 to 7:00 p.m. at CCMS everyone is welcome to come as it's open to the Republic and we're very excited because we have many amazing vendors here very excited to show off this stuff uh also ASP has concluded David Busters field trip ticket sales and also the annual Apex band razor will come to end on Friday 14th and that's it thank you hello superintendent Luke a board members and community members my name is Benicia Mora fedrin and I'm the student School Board member at large for the high school um seniors are trying to get uh are starting to get sentimental as our last ever second semester as well underway some deadlines for the yearbook have just passed those being senior quotes and baby photos so seniors make sure to get those in if you have not um now what I will say about the student walkout to clear up prior questions made in public comment um is that it was not just meant for deportation policies but it was essentially a walk out against president Trump his policies in the current state of our federal government um and as Dr Lucas said they exercised their First Amendment right and use their 1 day of excused absence for civic engagement to peacefully protest and articulate what is important to them um finally with the current situation on the DI position my only hope as a representative for the students is that I hope that with whatever decision the board makes is that it guarantees that all students of color are given the proper resources to read write and learn to guarantee their future and whatever career they choose thank you and happy Black History Month hello everyone I'm Justin pouncy the ASB vice president at the high school I don't have much to report if I want to let you all know that ASB has their Valentine's Day spirit and Valentine's Day spirit week this week so Tuesday is just about your type so you dress up as your type Wednesdays iconic Duo day so come in a matching outfit with a friend Thursday is Super Bowl Thursdays so we're a football jersey to honor the football uh Super Bowl that happened last week and Friday is Valentine's Day so dress up and red or pink then also please take a look make sure you take a look out for the BSU Black History Month spirit week that's happening next week then I also want to give a huge shout out to our our ambassadors Natalie and Jaylen for amazing work on the talent show last Friday that's how to report thank you hi I'm Zoe um lower part continues to make Grace dryers towards course completions with our seniors receiving more College acceptance is actively planning their next steps for graduation and beyond our recent family FASA night was a success helping more students move closer to their post-secondary education goes today 27 of our students took a significant step by applying for employment through our Partnership of America's Job Center of California and we are excited to launch our dual enrollment class with West and we are excited to launch our Duo Roman classes with West LA College this March February is a Black History Month let us remember that black history is not just about the past it is a living Legacy that continues to shape our present and expired our future this month we honor resilience achievements and contributions of black individuals who have transverse transverse society as we reflect and celebrate may we also carry um for their Spirit of progress Justice and excellence okay great thank you so much um we'll now move to item 7.6 members of the audience items on the agenda so if you have public comments on items on the agenda now would be the time to either turn your speaker card into the superintendent's assistant or raise your Zoom hand I know uh we have uh the same rules apply as before uh we uh with respect to the timing and the time the timers uh I do note here um there we go that um uh that uh uh that will still have these hopefully within the time frame that um when we tell people time is up it's nothing personal um and we are not allowed to respond individual comments uh when they are given but we will uh some May respond uh in our individual board comments with that in mind I have 1 in person and 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 5 uh online so uh with that in mind what is the time limit 3 minutes 3 minutes all right so we talked start with Dr Carolyn leuser in person sorry now we're closing oh yes and we are closed closing there we go do it yeah because I have okay okay there you go uh thank you board and uh it's good to see you again but uh 1 of the things I want to speak to is item 15.3 on the agenda which is purchase orders and it's wonderful to see a return to fiscal responsibility and especially all the things that are no longer on the purchase orders like dollars of paper consistently which I think was about 30 cases or 30 uh 30 pallets of 400 uh cases each anyway uh thank you and I also like to see that large items are no longer buried in the purchase orders as they were in the past but I also wanted to make 1 comment about the um agenda in general and I know many people have been asking or requesting that we return to the system that we have before where the audience was allowed to speak on individual items as much as in the city council and it's just a way of you know further engaging with the community and so some of us are asking that the board consider um agendas in that as a topic of a potentially returning to to that uh type of a system so thank you thank you all right we will now move to the online comments um we will start with Ron levenson hello everybody thank you I want to start by expressing disappointment that for the next 3 years of calendars Yom Kippur and the equivalent holy days for Muslims Buddhist tindu and those of other religions were not recognized with days off but with that said I fully understand that the survey results indicated a preference for the 5-day Thanksgiving week it's just disappointing but I do very much appreciate the way Rey couched it um with uh teacher and staff responses so it is what it is and I appreciate the out reach with the surveys and everything what I really wanted to do was mention surrounds the El master plan up for approval tonight big shout outs to doctor's Baxter and tarv for reaching out to me subsequent to last week's meaning when I mentioned uh having so many comments and notes which unfortunately there were so many of them I was unable to get the notes to them until last Friday which apparently was not in enough time to make this week's uh draft so again thank you Dr Baxter for being so receptive to including them um with that said while I very much appreciate the commitment to incorporate them I feel very strongly that since the current draft the draft that that the board has tonight has so my mistakes in it and I will use the word mistakes that the board hold off on approving it until the next meeting on the 25th it's only 2 weeks from now and if for some reason there we have to push it Forward because because of the reclassification parameters that those cannot be held off for 2 weeks I I don't know why they can't but if that's the case then just approve that part but when the current draft includes things like conflicting deadlines that make both unachievable and you have the elac and DAC alternates being allowed to be elected as officers in 1 paragraph and then 3 paragraphs down um they're not even allowed to vote among other 40 other fixes we still have the possibility of closing down elac boards and turning them over to site councils and we have a lot of Parental engagement that I know are going to be put in but they're not in this draft so again I urge you to please not approve this draft until it's cleaned up and I know the intention is to clean it up so thank you for that but please hold off um for the next 2 weeks thank you very much uh thank you next is Susie Sandoval go ahead Susie you can unmute yourself hello can you hear me I'm in my car I'm sorry go ahead no worries you can hear me okay sorry about that thank you so much good evening everybody uh my name is Susie Sandoval I am CCMS elac rep and dacvp uh thank you members of the board for allowing me to speak tonight about my concerns and my question um or question regarding the El master plan as uh Ron just mentioned um and I stated in the agenda notes you know dlog did approve the master plan on January 7th um however the approval seemed very rushed we received the plan to review days before the winter break and we had to approve it days after the return of the brake so my question tonight is why is there a rush to approve this plan um I was communicated by the district that there will be more updates in particular the deluxe requests to incorporate a more robust plan um to train elac board members um something that I have not received you know training in the last 4 to 5 years that have been part of elac um you know although records will be found that trainings have occurred I just don't consider you know reading slides and what each role means in in in in things like that that I can find online I don't consider that training um so what do you like is requesting is a more robust elac handbook I've sent the district a sample of elac handbook where details the roles of the district the school administrator Traders eloc officers and the election uh specifics including the collaboration and accountability of those um admins or officers um you know just you know that's responsible to oversee and support the ELD and elac uh which I know that there's a big opportunity um sorry I think my can you hear me I'm so sorry I'm I'm in my car and I'm not sure if you can hear me but I believe that this handbook is essential to incorporate in the eel master plan as there are many opportunities in our ELD program as as stated in how elac and DAC operates uh what I would like to see is a Bonafide plan not just a document that is required by the state um you know just I would like to see an increase in parent engagement I think the labaya at this point you know there's a friction you know there's an actual um elac committee that um are very eager to to to Really a difference in this community and I also would like to see staff participation in elac meetings and going and and gaining the trust in the community I don't think there's a lot of trust by providing them more training that gives them the tools necessary to navigate the school system thank you thank you for your time okay so we have uh uh Katherine Graco next and then council member ammani McMoRan last Katherine go ahead are you there last call oh she's trying to unmute okay no oh no it says she's unmuted but we can't hear you yeah can you hear me now yes there we go I couldn't unmute I'm sorry about that now you can see me and hear me um okay sorry about that um ready okay um I don't think I've ever had 3 minutes so um but I'm gonna take those 3 minutes I am here to speak about Dei on the agenda um I have to be honest with you I am this message that was put out don't Trump Dei is it's misleading it's deceptive and it is really disrespectful of the very important work that we are doing at our schools that we are so proud of at our schools and that has been done as Miss McBride said 2016 but what I think is ironic is that I think I've seen the most gains in this work and the last year and we haven't had anyone in the S position for that last year um as I understand it Dr tarvis took the lead on running the Dei committees I think at my school I have heard only positive feedback on the outcomes of that I think there's been more engagement more involvement I've seen more programs for all cultures to celebrate all cultures and I think we have to be very careful about the words we use when we are trying to prove a point so I don't think this discussion would be complete without let me mentioning the budget those of you who know I came for 3 years to every meeting and I sounded the alarm Bells about the budget I am a member of CBC I'm not speaking for CBC but I know about the budget because I am the Union up on the cbac committee um I have full faith in Miss reie I I am thrilled to be working with her I'm excited to be working with her and I respect her evaluation of our budget and our budget is really bad but I'm not surprised because for 3 years I came and I said we're overspending we're overspending we're overspending and I feel like it fell on deaf ears and I'm speaking directly to all the board members tonight to say I feel like often we sounded the alarm Bell and you did what you wanted anyway and I know some of you are new and so I'm not picking on anyone but that's what happened and although many districts are in Financial Times many are not because they manage their money better so I'm asking tonight that you listen to labor this time that you listen to the community that is consistently asked to keep Cuts away from the classroom and when we say we have robust EI programs and we don't need another management position that you will hear us because we are in dire dire Financial Straits right now thank you for your time and for your work thank you council member go ahead you can unmute yourself there you go thank you it wasn't letting me before so thanks for that uh good evening uh board president board members superintendent staff and Community my name is Yasmine Imani mcmurren I serve on our uh Council but I am not speaking in that capacity I'm speaking in the capacity as my role as Director of Education Equity at Children's defense Fund in California um and I just wanted to lift up uh concern about potential to the office of Dei this evening and I think that's item 11.1 uh so I just want to elevate um the current climate and LA County we just saw the highest rate of hate crime times ever uh in 2024 and we are all already know what's happening in the news and there is a complete regression and stepping away from investing in um what makes us unique as a country As Americans and so you know I just I know there's a lot of different viewpoints and you know we are a very diverse Community here in Culver City but it is my hope that CC will continue to invest in all of our students um I recall being a part of the initial Equity plan that I think was adopted in 2019 um forgive me if maybe that year is a little off um I think it the finally passed maybe in the pandemic and I really hope and just Elevate the fact that we really should be looking at our data to drive our investments of our for our young folks for our disabled students for our lgbtq I a press students for students of different faiths for black students for brown students for aapi students for our POC students and it really benefits all of our students um even if they do not identify as members of a traditionally marginalized community and I know that you know there are some views about many things um but it is bigger than any individual board member it is really about centering the needs of our students um and really investing in them um and I do believe that while I respect and and think it's wonderful to hear tonight all the work that is happening at individual School sites but it is really important to have a function um in office and individual and again um I know there were um concerns about uh the last person potentially who was in that role but it's worth getting it right it's worth to try when we're starting something new we can't expect that something new is going to be completely perfect um and our student are worth that investment it is worth it to get it right it is worth our time energy and investment so I'm asking for our board for our staff and community members to Value the difference that is present in our community and our school community and to make sure that budget is reflecting that at the district level for all of our students um especially in this time so thank you thank you that concludes the list of there's some someone else who came in though oh Rachel Snider Rachel go ahead thank you cannot see that Rachel you can unmute hi again um I'd like to speak about the calendar 14.1 um and I just kind of like to address the process that our district has used kind of it seems forever for creating our calendar for for upcoming school years uh for as long as I've been a teacher here when the calendar committee ends up meeting they're essentially handed a list of directives from the district when the teachers are surveyed we are asked do we want a week at thanks giving or to teach Monday and Tuesday 2 weeks or 1 week for spring break but we're never given a chance to offer creative suggestions alternatives to our school calendar for example in August why are we starting midweek we could address some of our the desires by our community for religious holidays being off or how about we end school on a Wednesday in June so that there's enough time for the school to transition to summer school the following week personally I'd like the weekend before school starts after we've had our back to school PD to prepare for the new school year it actually gave me a chance to incorporate any new information that we have received during those PD days in recent years we have turned the day after Halloween into a PD day I believe it helps out our elementary teachers so they're not dealing with sleep deprived sugar induced students yet we have this random day now in March that would be great if we could move it to the first Monday after we're back for winter break this would benefit the middle and high school teachers who are starting new semesters and need time to plant especially since we are repeatedly told to have self-care and not work over winter break in 3 years when a new calendar is going to be discussed again it'd be great if there was an opportunity for real input from District staff not just whether we prefer to start the school year on Wednesday or Thursday thank you thank you very much so much um well now hear from members of the board colleagues do whoever the order member Carlson member lachman member grew up vice president and myself hey hey much uh board president um first I just wanted to wish a happy Black History Month to everybody in the district um I'll just go ahead and and get started with some of the things I've been up to over the last couple of weeks or so since our last meeting so um Friday January 31st I joined most of my colleagues here on the board and thank you board vice president lauretta for leading this um at the ccsda aanhpi Night Market um featured some really great food small businesses entertainment uh my family and I had a great time there almost shut it down um at the end and we're looking forward to participating again next year um following Sunday went to the Middle School improv performance uh those kids are so talented so brave uh to be able to get up there and perform in front of you know hundreds of people um and they're funny and just wanted to thank uh give thanks to the parent and community volunteers for making that happen um and also the contributions that all of you in the community make towards CEF to ensure that it is funded um there's just this last Saturday I had my second Community listing session we have more than double the amount of people showed up to this 1 is did the first 1 in January discussed a bunch of things um measuring facilities funding budget CTE programs school safety honors courses School initiatives such as opportunities to participate in student exchange programs inquire in the upper grades um because of that um I'm going to have 2 sessions in March um I'll probably explain this again like towards the the end of the month that our second meeting but uh happy hour on Tuesday March 4th and then in the morning on Saturday March 8th um you can follow me on social media and subscribe to the email newsletter for more details on that um also on Saturday I had the opportunity to hear stories of 4 black women in the community including an errand con bomb at an event at the all that and more Boutique in the Rain Tree Center um it's a black owned business it's a woman-owned business it's been there for quite a while and um Can Dance who owns the business does this celebration in Black of black history month every year and it was a really f fantastic event um Friday February 7th I went to my son goes to school at El Marino I was at the passport night there it was a really wonderful opportunity to come together share our cultures with each other uh our diversity is truly what makes our country great and immigrants get the job done and in the words of a very famous music poet um I put together the display for Sweden as a country of origin of my paternal grandparents my paternal grandfather's family excuse me very specifically smiling which is in the south of the country and that's over my great-grandparents emigrated from from around the 20th century and um I visited some family members there uh who are still there about 20 years ago as wonderful memory so that's my dad's dad's side of the family uh my dad's mom's side of the family is a bit of a different story I spent most of my life thinking that my Grandma's family were lutherans from Germany and no reason to question that it wasn't until the end of her life at age 97 shortly before she died in 2014 that she opened up in the story started coming out my great-grandfather spoke Yiddish men with  hats visited her home from time to time when she was a child 1 time a man came to visit and her dad told her to stay inside but she disobeyed him and hid behind a door that was slightly cracked open and heard them singing in Hebrew and when she and her siblings were in school they were teased by their classmates thanks for having a Jewish dad uh which led them to leaving the school and enrolling elsewhere and this was in the late 1920s and early 1930s here in America so why am I bringing this up now um it's because my family story is not unusual that same story has had happened in the US to many families not to mention throughout the world and I've been reflecting on the environment that we've been creating in Culver City for our Jewish families particularly over the past couple of years it's really crucial that we remember our history and that as parents we encourage our children to understand the power of their word words and how they can make others feel unwelcome and unsafe sometimes and importantly that when people tell us that their words hurt them and especially when they give us the gift of explaining so eloquently from the heart why that is we believe them and then we change our Behavior and just to end comment on a positive note I want to commend Dr Lucas for establishing a Jewish families Council in the district and working to repair relationships that have frayed so particularly over the last couple of years I also want our Jewish families to know that I will do my best to be an ally to you on this board as well and I encourage you to keep bringing issues to our attention thank you thank you um first of all um uh I would like to congratulate all the participants of both the Culver City uh improv Middle School impro group you all killed it um and also uh those who uh took part in the Culver City High School talent show which I had the opportunity to attend a as well these were both great shows and enjoyed every moment of it um I'd also like tomorrow I'm planning on releasing a calendar where I'm going to be sitting down and talking to folks in various parts of the city um uh it just took me a little while to put this together uh because I want to find locations in various parts so people can feel that they can come from their neighborhoods uh and be able to uh and we can be accessible no matter where you are in the city um so um I want to following on um what was said earlier uh I I want to thank um uh super tenant Lucas for the Jewish families uh uh uh meetings uh it's very important to regain that trust and you have done a wonderful job and doing so so uh thank you for for doing that uh as well um I also would like to talk a little bit um here um so when I was sworn in just over a month ago I highlighted a number of principles that we in ccusd are committed to in writing most notably that we're all invested in in Student Success as a community and in these times we have challenges those principles both the messages and those principles are being principles are being challenged both in the messages we're hearing from Washington DC and those that we Face here at home at times and my focus as a parent and a school board member uh and I would point out also as someone who is married to uh a first generation immigrant uh as well uh is that every student she feels safe and supported and that safety is challenged right now it's challenged uh by immigration policies where our kids have to worry that when they get home their parents may not be there it is challenged when we have students who have to worry about their Safety and Security because of their sexual orientation or their gender identity it is also challenged um in a way uh by those who may limit or seek to restrict the options with respect to access to health care sports or career options for girls those should be unifying principles in which we all come together as a community it is the reason Mr Guerrero and I myself attended the Forum bayona to educate uh parents uh about what their rights are with respect to immigration and answer security concerns and uh and at least there was also why we were told that why students from the high school in the Middle School we're coming together to protest to stand with marginalized communities however at the end it did not quite appear to be the case uh decision was made um by some that wanted to focus on Middle East and foreign policy issues which like the other issues we've discussed do not directly affect our students and in which there are some differences of opinion and across our student body and I respect very much that our students have free speech rights and we should respect those rights on a personal note I I feel in these times when there are those who wish us to turn on each other it would be smarter and more strategic for us as a community to focus on the issues that unites us and not knows that would divide us um but I I I do understand that after the March uh completed uh Veterans Park a number decided to go over to City Hall and proceeded to have a second rally that focused on uh on these other issues that uh where there isn't that unimity and I'm not sure that whether there were speakers only at the rally who were students and or not um I do not know that I heard from parents who were concerned because their children wanted to show up to support fellow classmates who are going through a fearful time because of these challenges in their lives faced by their immediate family and came away from that second rally feeling as if they had been targeted scared and concerned now when I ran for this position I promised when I would if I saw something I would say something that I didn't think was right or that promoted either you hate or a misunderstanding and I and I I'm this is 1 of those cases the phrase from the river to the sea has a very distinctive meaning to the mainstream Jewish Community it means the destruction of the removal of Israel as a place that is a safe haven for Jews it does not address the civilians who have been killed in Gaza who have been caught between Hamas and Israel which I understand does impact families here even in Culver City those who have lost relatives but if we were to understand each other better we need to focus on a community how to deal with each other and treating each other with respect but targeting or inflaming does not do that we need to do a better job of learning from each other and coming together to stand together and as parents the school board members we want our children to feel confident and understand that they are heard but also to understand how to make good decisions and respect each other and 1 of benefits of Dei and why I am such a strong supporter of it is because it's intended for us to be able to educate each other and learn tolerance and respect for each other's experience particularly from a variety of marginalized communities whether those imig or immigrant communities communities of color lgbtq plus or Jewish students and I suggest that perhaps we can look at how we can incorporate these viewpoints into our anti-bias training to make sure that we're considering all of these groups as I know we're not yet offering training with respect to anti-semitism awareness or islamophobia awareness I do however want to point out uh that this event was not in fact sponsored by or condoned by the school district there's a challenge and a balance between as was pointed out ensuring student safety and Free Speech uh and against those that could open up the District of liability in other areas that risk include is that providing staff to ensure student safety we also open ourselves up to having to have other marches or protests or subjects under the legal doctrine of viewpoint discrimination ation I do understand that that balance needs to be struck and we're all a work in progress this is learning for all of us but I would suggest that perhaps we can have a review and figure out how to address these scenarios in the future to balance our legal risk this is a learning experience for all of using a chance to come together and I appreciate everyone who has come together to talk about how this affects us these are challenging times and reminder of what's important in our communities our family and those who are dear to us thank you thank you uh Happy African man History Month happy Black History Month uh to everybody um abpa I just want to uh give a couple of things and and thank you to the the student speaker who shared those tomorrow Night February 12th we've got the district music concert at the frost uh 2 hours of free music it's a good time uh next week February 19th we have Beyond Time and places uh a play uh in later in February we have the District spelling bee for some nail-biting action there um and then in March we have Greece coming up so there's a lot of abpa events a lot of students involved in this and it's a great time even if you don't have students in the district um or if you've got young students uh it's great to see the different performances uh and go out and support that um board member lachman mentioned it I really want to give a huge shout out to the parents at labona elementary school um who a need um some concerns in the community around immigration enforcement um and did a lot of work kind of gathering parents Gathering some speakers and things like that um there was tremendous support from the principal and the vice principal and the counselor and then from District staff um thank you everybody the teachers at the site um great speakers giving parents some a lot of information just about how what their rights were and how to keep themselves and their families safe um so thank you to everybody who supported on this side um 1 of the things that the this the staff and the parents were producing are these little red cards which you may have seen at this point that have a bunch of Rights and things on that I've been working a little bit with Dr Lucas about trying to get kind of a little stand at each School site um to get those out I have a ton of them in Spanish and English um I'm actually working on getting some in a lot of other languages you know obviously they're everybody is concerned about their rights we tend to focus on Spanish speakers but there's a a lot of folks from a lot of different communities who this information is important to um if you haven't seen it just kind of goes over people's kind of First Amendment uh writes this 1 is is in Spanish um no fee um if you don't want to talk to them um and so again working on getting these out there making them available it's it's folks rights you know there's no agenda here there's no politics here this is folks rights um and making sure they have that and just getting kind of a little uh opportunity for anyone who wants them um not forcing them on anybody but getting making sure we get those out to the side so again Laona that was fantastic I I understand that there's similar efforts at some of the others schools kind of Grassroots um I know I was talking to the counselors at the high school about uh lafua um the Latino student organization wanting to do some work around this and some of the Spanish classes wanting to do some work and get information so they could bring that back to their families um so it's a it's a great effort and I'm very supportive of that um I also just kind of really quick closing we we've been talking a little bit about Dei tonight we've got a great opportunity to have that conversation um later I really want to thank the folks emailed us um with their concerns and their their support of it um I I think the good news is and I don't want to speak for my colleagues but I will um I think everyone here supports you know diversity equity and inclusion I I think there's some discussion about what is the best way to handle that um you know there's a lot of work going on at the sites and at the district on this very bored um you know and figuring out what is the best way to deliver those services but I do not sense um and you know we'll see in the conversations tonight but I don't sense any desire to go backwards on that certainly not the crazy National level um you know and just figuring out what is the best way to provide those Services um and and supports and advocacy for our students and our staff so again thank you to everybody who's reached out with the concerns um you know I think the we'll we'll get this figured out but I don't think anybody's got to worry about um you know that we're programs or or anything like that that we're going to retrench from those types of of efforts so thank you very much good evening everyone uh first I'd like to just thank folks for coming out and connecting with the community at Asian-American native Hawaiian Pacific Islander owned business Night Market uh we had about a thousand guests and uh 40 organizations that were um partnering with with us and this kind of work this kind of work that uh really shines a light on our um all of our community members does not happen in a vacuum it happens in community with 1 another and in support with 1 another so thank you so much um and uh and thank you to my colleagues for supporting I I know Mr lachman would have been there if he was in town um and uh so so thank you so much uh I also uh want to just shine a light also and just um we are continually iterating in um Improvement I think that you know we as a board also are continuously learning about um ourselves and how we can uh do better um be better leaders and um I uh I also want to talk a little bit about the walk out and how um how proud I am of uh courageous voices to uh to organize against the current state of federal um uh Administration and how it feels like a um you know an attack on uh the identities of many of our students and Families um as was said before none none of the chance none of the uh things that were said were passed through any District staff and any School site staff and um you know even uh there's always folks that are going to be critical of protests and also more discourse to be had in terms of uh making sure that we have as much of a culture of care and belonging in the district I do want to uh to iterate to reiterate to folks that um no 1 was hurt um physically in the walk out while LAUSD there was a student that was stabbed and so I want you all to be aware that you know our uh for the folks that did go with our our students um just to make sure that there wasn't any outside influences like adults that do not belong to our community um messing with our students that that goal of safety was accomplished and I saw um admin really uh going uh uh up to an adult who was uh in the cross who who did disrupt our with our students and try to engage with them um a a stranger from our community and um I'm I'm very glad that that person was separated from our students because it could have been a a potentially um unsafe situation so I am glad that that same um that their safety and protection was uh was held uh on that day last Thursday uh and I I want to say that it is uh I'm going to plus 1 so uh some of the things that my colleagues have said in terms of hearing from our um our community and how uh folks are all in for making sure that we have a culture of care here that that is um supporting our diversity Equity inclusion belonging and Justice efforts um here and and that we are continued to be unified in our purpose for success for all it takes us all um this is a place where we should have this discourse and um and make sure that we are continually striving to make things better for everyone and so I'm looking forward to um to taking up some of this discussion with all of you um later on in today thank you thank you so much colleagues for um all of your reports I'm in a plus pieces of of of I think all of yours and keep my comments very short happy Black History Month I am hoping that now we can go on a break 10 minute break 10 minute recess great we'll be back at 7:48 when Governor Brown actually implemented a new lcff funding formula so the status if you see here the annual investment the orange band that you see on top every year for 2021 there is an there is a gradual increase in our um investment in education so that's what this shows so this is the funding Factor so this is the page that I think now um starting from here how it's going to impact us so for school districts um you know we have 4 um great spans According to which we are funded so the first row shows the current year based funding so that's the base funding and on top of it we are going to be getting a 2.43% cola cost of living adjustment approximately 240 to 290.25 we will be getting so the increased Revenue base Grant the revised base grant for next year is going to be 10,200 to 12,000 and then you have all of these add-ons at the bottom the 1 important thing over the here is the supplemental Grant if you see is 2,200 is based on our unduplicated people count um and then the 65% concentration Grant we are not eligible because we are not at the threshold yet um and then if you see the TK there is an TK add-on gets an additional dollars because the ratio the adulterer ratio the classroom is changing from 12 to 1 to 10 is to 1 so that's why there's an dollars but we have approximately 200 students so that that's approximately um 600,000 so what does it mean for um Culver City so if you look at the Culver University um the the r budget um for this is just the revenue um projection for 2526 our base funding would be 70.3 million and then all of these the total revenue that we will be based on this January proposal the state we will be getting 78 6 million dollars and then let's go back to the next slide if you see here in 2423 current year um we will be getting 78 um 3 million right so if you really go up again to that slide 10 7 8. 6 1 we were so what does it mean so 2.43% percentages the call out that you're getting so that I just wanted to restate the numbers here so 2425 we got a call of 1% which was 78.2 million and then current for next year we are getting 2.43 Cola so we are basically getting 339 increase only why uh because of the Ada loss we should have received 1.9 million if we were to get 2.43 and there was no reduction in our Ada attendance and no declining enrollment we would have had 1.9 so we got only 3 339,000 so what does it mean to us that means although the state is giving us 2.43 Cola the real Cola that we are going to be getting is only 43 percentage so the loss in funding is .5 million so the real change this particular slide just shows um you know every year if you see the First Column shows um we got 13.26 is the cola but the the blue 2 shaded column is actually the real Cola that the school districts received in terms of you know actual Cola because of the declining enrollment and the Ada laws so for 2425 1.07 percentage was the cola for current year but actually we got minus 2% because of the Ada loss for 2526 we got we we should have we supposed to get 2.43 but in reality for ccusd it's 043 so 1 time funds and I I just wanted to share here um so this 1-time fund was actually um a blessing in disguise because most of the school districts um in California use this to optimize their fund balance and how they spent their dollars so average school district Unified School District Reserve is more than around 22% in California so I just wanted us to remind um with this dollars but we you know we have um 3% and little bit little over 3% for current year and then um around 3% um for the next 2 years so how much did ccusd um received in terms of 1 time funding we received 23 million in those last the the co years so if you look at this 1 time funding how much was spent um they just comparing 22 23 out of 4.3 billion dollars um the out of the total uh 1-time funding uh 6 person was spent on personal um expenditures salary and benefits so I'm looking at our budget so we received 23 million we spent 14.8 million on salary and benefits what it tells us we spent almost 65% percentage of our 1-time funding we spent on positions and um so the 2223 um you really look at it um or increase in actual expenditures where it almost 9% we spent on using 1 time funds a total expenditures increased with the 1-time dollars on salary and benefits um okay the 1-time funding is it still there no it ended in September 30th but we even spent it last year so we don't have any 1-time funding but the the positions go what we added during the year no there are still positions attached which were added during the 1 time funding are still there in our books and that's why our Reserve um is we're trying to have a plan to address that um the deficit spending that we have so next steps next steps for our 2526 budget development is you know include this 043 Cola which is 313,000 in our budget and then I make adjustments for the expenditure um based on what we see right now we may have to restate our budget and then um 1 of the thing here is um there is some good news but we don't have the details yet um on these but we do know as of now discretionary block grant um it's going to be approximately 323 dollars per Ada we don't know what conditions and restrictions are there in spending hopefully it's a discretionary dollar then we are thinking it will be roughly 1.8 million for ccusd and then there is um um the TK add-on um again I said 640k um that's that's what we could that's the amount that I could estimate as of now so these are some things uh we'll wait and see how the May um budget comes along I do know that the the the V the fire actually the impact the state is definitely it has eaten all the Surplus that we have right now right so we don't know we have to wait and see and these are the um again the financial projection these are the numbers and ions behind our budget for 2526 the the cola change you see 2. 4 3 we already included in our budget 2.93 Cola actually State reduced it from 2.9 3 to 2.43 so just um we will be making some adjustments there and then I think rest of these factors remain the same and thankfully um the employer rate the casters and Calpers remain the same um next slide I just wanted to show our enrollment you see Dr Lucas shared about this um the declining enrollment um 558 students we lost approximately 6 million dollars in the last 4 years in terms of declining and enrollment and the Ada and um if you really see the orange 1 I want to focus on this Orange Line only reason is because that's up so up is basically um gives us um supplemental and concentration dollars the our unduplicated students are based on um who are English Learners and who meet the income requirements and their eligible for free and reduced and then Foster youth so these are the students who are counted in here if you see the present age in um 2122 we had 4 1. 7 3 percentage of our student population was unduplicated students but right now um in 2425 it is 36.3% so our supplemental dollars are going down the important factor in the the the way we um ident identify a student is um especially for the low income student If the percentage is dropping um I urge parents to submit the alternate income verification form because that's the only way if you're qualified we just get more funding the more funding means already we are spending on counseling and the things that we do as ccusd is other districts are providing those additional services with supplemental and concentration Grant we don't get that much of supplemental Grant we only get 36% but then we are now um we are not getting concentration so any even 1 student um ID is identified as low-income um student or English learner or you know any any of those students will get as approximately plus another $6,000 if we increase the if the threshold reaches exceeds 55% so um I urge all of you to um submit the income verification form um so that way we can um accurately claim um identify the up count and then we will get more funding if we qualify this is the just the state budget process what are they going doing the state like government will be negotiating deliberating with both Senate and assembly and then finally they have to have a budget by June 30th oh I'm at the end of the presentation happy to answer any questions you might have thank you Mr for that uh presentation are we the the screen oh sorry um okay great thanks do we have any questions I do not have any questions but I just want to thank you for really thorough and interesting presentation thank you no questions at this time uh just 1 quick 1 so you talked about um declining enrollment that's part of ADA and the Ada but so is attendance rate um I know we've been going up on a attendance rate a little bit do you know off the top of your head where we're at 9 4. 7 so we were actually we are back to so we are back to preco number so preco and then I think the last few percentage 2 or 3 percentage during coid and then the to or we were but even 1 person if you increase we would get 800,000 more 2% 1.56 so that's that's something we are focusing on okay thanks thank you for this and I just want to uh reaffirm something that you said a little bit earlier and I think I I've mentioned it before as well that until we get to May and this could all change and that in the past when there has been a wildfire disaster in the state that has affected potentially the change between January and the May revised and so I just want to remind our public that just because right now it looks like we're going to be very close to flat or you know that point whatever 4 4 3% that it means very little when it when we come to until we come to May and so this is the projection and we just have to hold on to our seats and see what happens correct yes you're right thank you thank you so much for the presentation I don't have any questions all right moving on to action items 111 discussion on diversity Equity inclusion Department Staffing thank you Mr rezidor this item is to have a discussion about potential change to our continuing work regarding diversity Equity inclusion and belonging let me start by sharing this is not a recommendation to eliminate this important work in our district it is to refine it and to give it uh a a refresh board members you are aware of the VAC see in the assistant superintendent of Dei position currently in our district we are interested in a conversation in regards to a reclassification of the position which would serve directly under me with a dotted line connection to ed services the ed services team and school sites ptas have done a great job during the vacancy and maintaining and championing the work in fact Dei has become the focus of the entire ed services team and we've seen notable achievements such as increased black student achievement and expanding growing Affinity graduations including they're looking at a new inclusion uh inclusion uh plan and work and Analysis uh so this work has been continuing uh throughout that vacancy uh I do not have a specific job position for you review tonight this is a conversation but I do have some thinking for your discussion um and the thinking is we would plan to have a specific job along the lines of coordinated diversity Equity inclusion and Community engagement again that title is not set in that's just an idea um and it remains dedicated a position it remains a dedicated position reporting to me we would do a market study on similar positions and place the salary accordingly um I want to read this is maybe a little bit too much to read but I want to share a potential draft of the job description overall just to give you an idea under the direction and supervision of the superintendent the coordinator of diversity and Equity inclusion and Community engagement is responsible for the planning development organization management Direction and implementation of programs designed to promote equity and diversity the coordinator serves as a district liaison with interest groups including cooperating agencies Community Services School sites educational rights holders and caregiver caregivers supports the research Planning and Development preparation and evaluation of the lcap actions and services and other programs projects for underrepresented student population and ensuring compliance with laws codes and regulations governing schools so with that kind of wordy intro I turned it over to you all for the conversation um and this is an action items do we need a question before we discuss there's no action oh I think I want to clarify this is not an action item we're not voting on anything it's an action so I just don't know do we need a motion or no no there's no action okay cool discussion colleagues um as this is my first time participating in discussion um is this just sort of like we kind of just speak yeah I think the superintendent presented yeah an idea for our discussion and so if we have particular feelings about it supported if we have you know questions for clarification staff if there's anything you want the colleagues to understand of of your Viewpoint and what you think would be right yeah I mean I guess I'm fine with sort of going first on that um you know I really appreciate all the thought that's been put into this um you know and particularly in light of the budget issues um and just sort of building a board member Guerrero said I think all of us and I'll go ahead and speak at least for myself but I kind of know you all pretty well too and I think all of us are you know big Believers in diversity equity and inclusion generally I mean I'm you know personally somebody who's hired promoted sponsored um mentored people you know different background on myself and um run a really high caliber team of attorneys who frankly are quite diverse and my day job um you know and I I know diversity is something that's great and makes us better um so I just I want to get that out there just because it seems like there may be based on some feedback that we were getting over email today um and I'll have another item in the the new um things for items on the agenda later about this but um you know folks have been kind of providing their opinions to us over email regarding Dei generally or diversity of inclusion Justice belonging um the the general category and I think there may be some misconceptions out in the community as to maybe who brought this up or why or what's exactly going on here um you know just want to make sure that we're dispelling any rumors that may be out there that we are attempting to eliminate Dei in The District in any way shape or form and certainly not something that happening this is more of a professional discussion and a you know a staffing discussion a budget discussion around you know what that should look like going forward and kind of the level of position that um has been promote proposed so I just you know I just want to encourage the public generally do you know when there's sort of things going around and Whisper campaigns happening and you know what what was doing you know it's perfectly acceptable to approach us and ask us questions about that and certainly don't you know assume any intentions on any 1 individual's part um you know I definitely appreciate those who have approached us who are seeking to work together on it and ensure a safe and supportive environment for all of our students um as far as any specific comments I'd like to see kind of a little bit more development of a position before I can really Express opinions regarding what's most appropriate level as coordinator director you know assistant superintendent like we had in the past um so I don't really have concrete thoughts at this point other than that um first of all let me say I I had the uh pleasure of uh uh serving on the equity advisory committee before I was elected and Tristan I want to thank you for a lot of your leadership and this is where as well as the staff here um I think you know some of the products that we've had as a result of our efforts including um the uh these black student achievement plan is a reflection of our commitment and that commitment continues and it wouldn't be possible without the leadership of uh of of of you You Tristan but all of us uh here as well as the staff for helping make that happen um I I don't want to speak for anyone of us individually but no board member I'm aware of is calling for the dismantling of Dei and I'm not aware of any intention for us to stand down for our commitments to maintaining a safe and supportive environment for all students um on a personal level and I'm just coming from a principal standpoint uh and this is from discussions I've had a long time ago um I I want to make sure that we're committed that we have a staff member responsible for managing uh Dei with a clear and distinct set of responsibilities uh a coordinator level from what I understand from a budgetary standpoint I understand but you know needs to be something higher than that I don't think you know with the budget realities uh we're dealing with that we we have to remember that whatever we add we take away but this needs to be a priority for us as well um so if we you know the the the higher we go up the means we have to take away from from somewhere else and we have to deal with that um I do think we need a budget dedicated for Dei programs I know or from the response the questions I asked that um you know that it currently uh exist under the lcap I just wanted to make sure that those responsibilities and the goals and the accountability lies with the individual who's responsible for this so that we can back them up and we can show our commitment and what we're doing with respect to that right now impression was a lot of this was sort of spread around and it would be good in some ways for us to show our commitment by by uh adhering to these principles um I I want to make sure on the other hand that we're doing this in a manner consistent with how neighboring districts manage uh and maintain their Dei programs uh and which is consistent with our budget constraints uh I know uh LAUSD has an executive director position uh from what I understand Santa Monica uh I couldn't find a distinct position it's a much it's a bit those are both much bigger districts um you know I would be interested in seeing how rodando handles it just in the sense that it's frequently 1 that we look to as a comparable 1 in size as well um but to be clear we're all as far as I I personally am on board and all of us want to make sure that our commitment to protecting and promoting diverse uh voices including those voices and seeking equity in education uh so that all students have the chance to succeed no matter how they learn or what their background is of value I think we all share um I like the outlines of The Proposal that I'm hearing so far I mean it definitely needs more work and more development um you know and and kind of a little bit more field testing with some of the different uh interest holders that are going to be involved with this um I'm very I'm very grateful for the work that the sites have done uh whether it's site di committees or Equity committees or or just groups of folks working on these types of issues I do think we need some Central coordination and accountability um I like the idea of not that every position doesn't report directly to the superintendent but this being kind of part of the superintendent's office um to a certain uh extent that means we hold you Dr Lucas accountable for the the performance of this person and and the success of of that position if it were to um be structured in that way um I think when I first joined the board the current position was fairly new I don't know how long it had existed um and I think you know coming from a classroom perspective um I was always very leery of the solution to a problem being a new administrator um and so when I hear you know some of our labor partners to share that kind of thing I've I've been on that end of these things and so that was something that was I was always a little bit uncomfortable with um I think in some ways we kind of got into a habit of the more cared about something we looked at the higher that position was as being reflective of something we care about and we we cared about diversity Equity inclusion a lot and so it became an an assistant superintendent because that's about as high as you go other than superintendent um I don't know that that served us as well in that position um as I as I you know just this you know the department wasn't necessarily fleshed out and it was kind of evolving and things like that so I think I'd very interested in seeing you know that that specific job description that specific all right this is the role this is how it interacts with other positions this is type of support maybe this is what the budget it is because it's you know not just giving it a pot of money but saying the these are the projects that it's working on this is how it pulls together efforts that are already existing and and in an effort to kind of coordinate those and and better support those through it you know we had some discussions a while back of some of um the Affinity groups and and the work that they're doing at the at the high school not necessarily getting as much support as they should you know because we were doing other things and so having that Central person to kind of oversee that and and maybe having a little bit of a budget not again not a budget but coordinating the budget that's already being spent on those things in a more efficient and effective way um I think it's a a definite positive so yeah I look forward to hearing more about it but but in general I'm supportive of the the suggestions you're making hello I'm gonna um plus 1 in general what my colleagues are saying I think that uh over the past year or so Mr Guerrero and I have talked a lot about the points that he just made and so I'm I'm not going to re repeat those uh what I am concerned about most of all is not just the we we've had a president a previous boards or previous leadership create new positions just because they because they saw a gap because in the system that we were looking at um I say we but I wasn't here but the in the system that was in place at the time they saw that there was gaps to be filled and instead of uh filling those gaps with the roles that were already in place or addressing them within the structure that we already had it was well let's add more um more bodies in order to address this in some cases that was the correct thing to do and and in some cases that's not exactly the correct thing to do because if you need to reimagine the whole system if you need to have practitioners of belonging of diversity equity and inclusion in place or have more um training so that you have a culture of care then that's what we need to do and we need to hold ourselves accountable to making sure that we're giving the right resources to tools and everything that our Educators need in order to make sure that these things are happening and we are closing more gaps it doesn't only rely on 1 higher that is the practitioner it relies on a whole system of care and so we can't just look at it and say our investment is in 1 role 1 person 1 Department this is the responsibility of all of us and all of our community members and so I'm going to challenge us to say every time that we're looking at either a new hire or retaining somebody or or even like the options in uh training and resources that we are providing that we're providing them with the a that everyone um can be held accountable for these items so that we are creating a better system overall um and I I also want to say that we have gone far too long on the backs of volunteers of Staff volunteer time I mean I'm glad that you had mentioned that like okay you know in the absence of an assistant superintendent or whatever that role was before that the Affinity graduations have gone on these events have gone on like things like that have gone on but it feels exploitative it it feels like we're exploiting the time that all of these um these books some some things should be volunteer things because you know we're asking the community to be involved but also we're asking for um there have been so many studies to say that our staff of color or our staff that are supportive of of certain you know initiatives are doing so much work in terms of representing their culture representing their Heritage and being the person to give you know feedback back and support and sometimes they are even retaliated against in order to support the the folks that they need to to to close these gaps and to continue to provide the um the events that we we all have come to know as tentpole events like the Affinity graduations people might not know that the counselors and staff members that participate in those events are giving of their own time they have to pay babysitters to stay they don't not get compensated for that you know at Once Upon a Time some of them were getting compensated for some of that work but they are not and so slowly they've been like you know peeling away because they need the work life balance and so these are things that I think that we can have as more of a conversation in terms of how do we support or do we just need to compensate with you know extra um extra hours or you know is this all coming from you know this you know how how do we how do what is important to us as a district or as a School site in order for us to really um you know whatever funds 1 time funds that we have to be planning it on a whole whole year-long um in a year long way um people might not know the night market was not supported by CEF it was not supported by District funds um this was really something that came out of uh Community effort and um would it have been easier to do it with some kind of funding yes does but I also don't want to diminish that there was so much support coming from our facilities team too and other folks that just knew that the importance of this you know Temple event was you know also uh a spotlight in you know how we show our um show our facilities our new sun shade our new state like the the way that the the stage the patio is and make sure that our our uh facilities are in good working order for such an event to host so many people so I want I want to thank the folks and um also security and s s name for making it a place that was welcoming for us um but if it was just another parent who was doing this which it would normally be it would be very difficult for them to continue this without you know support from somebody like a Dei coordinator somebody like somebody who is empowered by your office and so I I again I don't know what that level needs to be and what our budget can bear yet and so I I'm interested in learning more and I am full throated Lee saying that there needs to be something and um and I'm I'm glad to hear from my colleagues about this thank you thank you so much um superintendent colleagues for engaging in what is is and going to be a really difficult conversation as we talk about budgets and we talked about Cuts cuts are an easy as we all know in education there's never enough money and it is my humble opinion and perspective that we as a K12 level of government are in the unique position to show our community and our students as a model what is our belief and what we stand for as a district and is with the utmost respect to the superintendent and all of my colleagues that I I fundamentally agree with this move and it is my humble opinion and perspective that this is a major step back in all of the work that we have been saying um since the time I've been a student in this district and my time on the board and we can continually say it was great Dr Gooden to hear from your presentation earlier on the calendar and how much uh data was put into that decision um and I would have liked to have seen that level of data be presented to this board at this item when we talk about this department um I know Dr Lucas in the presentation we touched on or you touched on um seeing an increase in black student achievement um I'd love to see that data but I would love to see our overall data on the increases for our students who are continually being underserved and left behind I think it's great for us to talk about the importance of affinity groups in community events and that work is important but I think it's also important for us within the context of Dei to really underscore teaching and learning in this exact moment I think it is unfortunate because when and not just in this correct I think nationally when we talk about Dei work and being fully committed to that work we expect Perfection from those roles and if and if Perfection is not produced it is the first thing on the chopping block and so while we talk about Dei and I am appreciative so appreciative of the community who has stepped up and offered their free labor to do this work over the entire time I've been on the body I've been a community activist In This Very City that work alone is not going to be enough and I think that it is important to really underscore in this moment that we talked about the draft job description also emphasizing the importance teaching learning hiring and policy in that role as well I appreciate my colleagues or I don't remember who but those who mentioned um that this role in this position being in the early stages and I agree and it is my belief that we don't take a step back without having a full-fledged plan and a full-fledged job description that support with data to support this decision I think that there's a lot of different ways that we can say what's happening right now in this moment I think some say this is a reclassification some say this is a switch it is my belief that we're getting rid of a department when we have an office with 2 positions and we get rid of those 2 positions that is getting rid of the department full stop and I can and will not support a step back with no data no structure no no no no no no real concrete plan because at the end of the day as we sit here when you flush out these ideas as we talk about what a job ship is going to look like as we fly the position we engage in the interviews we all know kids are still being underserved and so while we do that work it is important for me that we have a position that is fully committed to that work right now it is my belief that when we want to talk about this being a principal or a beacon as we look at this painting every time we're in the boardroom that says reach for the stars it is important to me that we not demo or give a lower title to something that we say is uh as important as we're saying it is uh right now and so um colleagues I I I I can't I don't support the proposed plan I I I cannot support the roll back of such a crucial position and work uh not in this exact moment not in the moment we were year ago not ever it is my belief that if we're saying that something is being put on a pedestal and is a priority for the district that it is our job to make sure that we are uplifting and amplifying that position and not lowering it know we heard from our labor Partners uh and public comments today and then their speeches and I really appreciate their commitment to um their members about uh salary and benefits I think that's very important and I also think that the 2 cannot be mutual exclusive I think that in the same time that we talked about fully committing to benefits and liveable wages for our staff we can to also talk about Dei being a priority in this district and how we can best support that role in that position again not just as a community um a community events planner or someone who engages with all of our Affinity spaces or Affinity groups but someone who is fully committed to education and to the Reading Writing graduation and math expectations that we that we believe is important to all of our students thank you point we're in a clarification do you need direction from us today like what what what it or does this discussion suffice for now no I mean it's I've I indeed yeah so where where we need to move forward and if there's any any I mean I've gotten some clear Direction I hear from each of you but we need a conversation and direction would be great but it's not voting maybe this is enough for right now and then we move forward with iteration of the work and um and go from there I I actually just want to add to Mr to president isador's point I I do absolutely agree with you that Dei is a lot more than celebrations and a lot more than people feeling good about you know this or that or holidays or that kind of thing that this position all of us but but this position in particular needs to focus on the deep deep work of as you mentioned hiring and what is our curriculum look like and does it reflect our students and our due to our students feel seen and represented and do they feel you know able to engage other types of students and you know who identify differently and and all of that um I absolutely agree with you on that I don't see that being specifically tied to this title or that title um you know and that may just be something that we we agree to disagree on um but I but I absolutely agree with you about the kind of work that needs to be done um to move this forward if I could just click my colleagues to meet this also isn't about this position or that position I think it's about the responsibilities that we put in the role and then the pay that reflects it and so if we're going to copy and paste the job description of assistant superintendent and put it under a coordinator to me I think it would be a intentional oversight for us to expect the same results to happen under a lower classification of a title and so we can call it what I'm happy to call it whatever you want to call it I'm focused on the job description and a list of qualifications and the salary range that reflects the work that we're expecting to come out of this this person this this office Department um I uh can you can you reflect or maybe you need to go back and take a look at um what was said here today in terms of also and and I think that we've said it in other places too um where we've said like you know we may be changing a position or changing changing roles in general changing the system so that it's not you know although you have this jobs description that it's really like dependent on all of your positions to to really make sure that this is going you know going to be successful right like from uh from every single educator standpoint and you know I'm going to challenge you to just you know so um to think about holistically how that's going to look because you know like I said this was created this this particular position was created because we have a um because we couldn't problem solve in the system that I say we again but I wasn't here um because it there wasn't a a problem uh ah ah ah solution to overall how how do we uh how do we challenge ourselves to take on these these problems and to to eliminate gaps and increase belonging and so you know if we could also look at it holistically and say like you know we're all and and have this commitment for for all uh for all of our positions to also have and which is why also the EAC in the past under the um under the guidance of Dr Mara has also said you know all of our hiring we have to have some kind of you know um statement of um you know that these folks have to be uh to be a part of the solution in terms of success for all and and Equity not just that we value diversity but also that we are striving for for equity and Liberation through our education so you know I I'm going to challenge you to look at it not just as a single person but as you know overall what are we doing as leadership as a leadership team you know to for to further these goals um I just wanted to add a couple of comments uh too and I think you know this has been really informative from everybody um as somebody who writes a lot of job descriptions myself and and engages in a lot of cop analyses I know that can be a complicated process and that's in part why I wanted to hold off on saying you know what level I think this should be because I'd really like to see a vision that comes from you all um Dr Lucas as well as our other assistant superintendent and I think something maybe also to potentially consider as you're thinking about putting this job description together and who it reports to um is really you know to what extent are we doing student facing things to what extent is this staff facing you know I mean we're looking at our like our hiring practices for example so you know should there be some interaction more with our our HR um you know and just kind of putting some intentionality into it and I do think actually I actually completely agree that Dei is not just celebration and holidays I mean that's you know it's a lovely experience I talked about my experience with the Merino passport night for example that parent run and probably something that should be to be quite honest um you know with some support from the district as well but it really is you know the actual practice of um making sure that um practices within the district are you know sound with respect to Dei Justice belonging all of these things that we're all talking about so I think it sounds to me like we're all pretty much on the same page I don't I mean I don't have any sort of specific points other than that but I'm I'm looking forward to seeing what you all do with this and and bring back to us I guess if I can um I appreciate that we're also looking at what we can do better and we're learning along the way right before the the the assistant superintendent didn't have a budget right so we're looking at how can we Quant you know making sure that we have the resources available and to achieve our Unity of purpose to uh uh for the goals of Dei and it's what we've said here it's not celebration it's it's it's so much more in terms of making sure that we see that these students see themselves and their education that they're that they're encouraged that if there are systemic gaps that we can address those gaps um amongst many others and I appreciate the the big picture but I I just want to commend you know the fact that we're looking at what we can do better uh to make this happen and make sure that we can get the right tools and the right job description uh into whoever this person will be hands so that we can continue to move forward particularly in light of the challenges that we know are going to face ahead well it seems like we may be wrapping up the conversation today I think it's important for us to note that although we aren't taking maybe any really firm or official stances on what um the outcome of uh this job uh will be colleagues were being asked to vote on removing not today at the next meeting um we are being asked to vote on um the elimination of the department As We Know uh without a full concrete plan in this exact moment and so for me I think that may be the textbook definition of putting the cart before the horse I'm sorry what are you saying that is going to come at the next meeting we are voting for we are voting on reductions and the next meeting we're voting on notifications stopped could there be some clarity on what we're voting so if the excuse me the next meeting will be bringing forth to resolutions that would have um potential positions that could be cut that allows us to then notify employees you potentially will be cut um I do want to just to a point of clarification that the assistant superintendent job that we have because it's a contracted position it actually does not go onto a resolution that would be coming to the board um at the next meeting that would just have the certificated positions and the classified positions not contracted positions on it um but yeah so that would just be the potential cuts that could be coming um with the final notification for all employees by the end or by I'm Sorry by May 15th thank you for calling just 1 question here because just because we have a assist superintendent does that mean we have a department necessarily um my understanding and I may be wrong is we didn't necessarily have a department although we had a a mission in a position to fill so I I just I I'm new to this I don't understand what the differentiation is so I I just want to put that uh get some clarification on that as well I think uh the department but maybe the use of the word Department was a little bit of loose so I mean the department really existed of that assistant superintendent role and an executive assistant um I mean I came on remember shortly before that change but I mean that's right colleagues right I mean that that was the department I guess yeah I think they oversaw a bunch of other and at Services was divided um with school Family Support Services and special education under the Dei assistant suit now we we're back together all right colleagues uh we will now move on to item 12.1 our English learner master plan thank you board president asador this is brought forward to you tonight as a second read and up for Action we've heard a lot of um comments tonight of which we plan to incorporate those uh additional edits and suggestions and bring back to DAC for approval at next Tuesday's meeting and then bring it back to you all if you so choose to approve it tonight we'll bring it back um at the February 25th meeting for another round of approvals but approving it tonight would mean we can move forward with the reclassification criteria that are that are more updated and aligned to the state of California which then would help support students on their path to acquiring English can I have a oh okay can I have a motion colleagues a motion before discussion a motion for discussion yeah I'll move on then move an item and then we discuss and then we have the actual vote okay so we have a motion from him across in the second Mr Guerrero discussion colleagues um so I I just wanted some clarification on this because I I will admit that I do not fully understand exactly what the conversation was back and forth between um a Community member but um and and you uh so you know there were some pretty significant modifications that were proposed to the report and it seems like there's a little bit of a difference of opinion with respect to whether um it's okay to approve the report right now we have to prove the report right now um if we don't approve the report are there significant consequences to not doing that before our next board meeting thank you for that question it just delays our ability to reclassify students under the new criteria however we want to I want to elevate the importance of the edits that were suggested and we are fully to including them with Deluxe approval okay so with that delay then by 2 weeks the reclassification of some students it it would it would just it would just delay delay that piece okay do we generally do like a rolling reclassification of students then we do data polls okay weekly to see who else can reclassify Okay so this may be essentially 2 rounds then of potential reclassification okay and and those folks would just um be waiting essentially until we approve the report and then potentially reclassified in 2 weeks what what sort of impact that does that have on their ability to um sort of continue to receive an education are they they're just considered still as English language learners yes but still support for 4 years after even when they've reclassified it it it just changes options and we had told delac the past couple of meetings that this was what our plan was and our trajectory so um pulling it before the meeting started I didn't know what the unintended consequences of that would be either because we did receive um further and suggested edits after the agenda and the attachments were posted so we we did our best to try to make make sure it was very clearly signal that we were going to include all of this um but we'd already posted okay yeah I'm just I'm just mostly concerned with the consequences of waiting and just you know doing 1 round of voting on this and getting it right as opposed to doing a round right now then let those changes happen and then doing another round you know in 2 weeks um so I don't know my colleagues May understand this a bit better than me so I'm going to wait and hear what they have to say um I appreciate I know you and I discussed a little bit more about including and we also got feedback about wanting to include the parent plan parent Outreach plan and that's going to be in the next iteration as well uh I just want to make sure I think it was mostly addressed in in um uh board member Carl questions about what the delay means and why we need to move forward now and how that would affect our students but also there's that commitment that these changes will be made uh and corrected within 2 weeks so if there's any inconsistencies they will be corrected quickly yes that's correct thank you thanks I always appreciate I know the importance of deadlines for what you deal with and that that impacts our students so you've always been so amazing at making sure we stay on track with that thank you yeah I think I was I think I began the evening kind of inclined uh like board member lockman and we actually talked about this a little bit but I I was taken aback a little bit by the the the not not the passion but just the the issues brought up by some of the folks that are on DAC or at least 1 of the folks that are on do that um I think the other person is on an elac um not currently on any of the last um yes okay but with a history of of lacking um so you know but I I yeah I I I I want to get this right um and if 2 weeks gives us the time to you know deal with some inconsistencies and things like that um gives DAC and other chance to take a look at this um with the the idea of where we're doing rolling kind of reclassifications you know it's always good to get that done as we can but you know there's not like classes aren't changing in March or anything like that and you know it am I wrong or or I mean I know we always want to get kids at reclassified as soon as possible but is there it depends on the intervention it depends on the scope and the plan of for the child but this iteration of what has been deemed for reclassification to move forward has not been put in play yet since we've been working on it since December so really we're you know several weeks but it is the purview of the board to delay the approval of this and will bring it back with all the technical edits that were suggested how significant is the change in in reclass criteria from what we've been using to what this ask me that question so for example the rubric score the basic 6 skills of assessment is more aligned to the state and what assessments we currently have for example the Lexile level and I ready is current whereas before it was uh you know local assessment and it was a agnostic reading score which is not as clear and concrete additionally on page 15 there were um more items for teachers to choose from so we particularly worked with this with many uh work through this with many English learner teachers to make sure that we had this correct and looked at the state criteria and Alignment so again I don't want to um you know I just we wanted to move this forward for children and make the technical edits at the next meeting but it is up to the board's discretion in that regard we are aware the edits that we were sent were really great we just got them after we were it was posted so yeah just let me to end my comments I I am inclined to wait at least 2 at this point I think yeah so board members I think what we can do is someone wants to amend their motion that to just table the item and then uh we can bring it back if that 1 more question because I'm under the impression before we table sorry um I'm under the impression that because we did not align with the state uh with the state um until now it's that that that it's not just about the next 2 weeks that you can reclassify but do you have a backlog of students that need to be reclassified right and so I get it that we're saying these students can wait another 2 weeks it it's and we will get there um but I just want to understand do you know how many have been waiting that's a great question I did not realize that we were not going to be able to move forward with with the technical edits not made until very recently so we would pulled those numbers for you um but at any rate I'm sorry I didn't ask earlier but it didn't come up until now no no it that's what I'm alluding to I didn't know to have that pulled but we will um we will look forward to having this approved when we bring it back if that's what you know is the decision of the board is to have the technical edits made we can do that what are they what what are we missing out on when we're I mean I know that you don't have the number of students I just have a great deal of impatience when it comes to doing things for children and that's just who I am thank you so that's where we are I just want to make a comment on that though I don't think that anybody here is is trying not to do good things for children um you know and uh and and you'll probably find this with me I'm very detail oriented person and I have issues with approving things that are sort of less than ready to be approved um and I'm a little bit concerned I guess maybe that the the report was in the state that it was such that we had community members and um apparently a d like member commenting on you know the the state of the report and how the things that need to be improved before they believe it to be ready so that's that's kind of where I'm coming from on this it's not that I don't want to reclassify students um I just don't know that it it seems a little to me to approve it once go back make some medicine approve it again but um I'm happy to hear more about what my colleagues think about that um oh okay okay have your thing and then something what made the motion yeah yeah no it's fine I just had I just had 1 comment before we before we make the motion I appreciate Dr Rex for you and your team um for bringing this and and the doubling down on the commitment um for kids and making sure that we meet their needs I think that we all share that um that Northstar and that that that that that vision and that end point I think it's also important that for kids we have to get this right and if that means taking the time because we didn't have all of the edits in time for the agenda to post I think that it um it would be important for us to wait to make sure that we get that right so if we're Carlson did you make the motion I did and I guess oh I'm in the motion to table it yeah um thank you great a point of clarification this is a table till time specific for the next meeting sure Mr Roberts all those all those in favor say I I um all right 131 okay the next item is um selection of the audit firm 13.1 um we've recently completed an RFP request for proposal and um we have based on the selection criteria we have looked at their um understanding of the scope of these audit firms who was submitted the proposal they audit approach and their experience and the partners experience their qualification and the references and client feedback and the timeline for completeness and the responsiveness um all of these factors and then the cost proposal from these firms we looked at and then we not not my team actually put together the plan panel recommend that um cwdl and I also um um I'm also recommending the same approval um it's a 1 year contract with the provision for 2 year extension with the firm cwdl move to approve and I forgot discuss oh you're not he's not done I'm sorry yeah so I think we have a partner Stephen Curry's here um from C cwdl and Joseph Tarantino who's the senior manager from cwdl of them are here today thank you welcome thanks for sticking around did we have a second coffee are you second discussion any discussion members right all those in favor say I I I thanks for coming 132 looking forward to getting to know you so the next item 13.2 is renewal of an contact with spectrums so last time I came we came with AT&T approving AT&T contract you were asking about um what about other schools other school sites so these are the other school sites that we are going uh we are not choosing AT&T although they're a little bit um you your lower in price but I believe District in the past had lot of connectivity issues at the high school and color Park middle and fargate elementary school so for that reason we are recommending on spectrum that if the price difference is actually 1,600 will be more for the district but I think there's a continuity in terms of connectivity so we recommend um 60% of the expenditures of the the cost is paid by the year rate funding which is a federal funding and then the 40% is paid the district so we will be paying 8,200 um for all of these schools so that's mentioned here AT&T is the we request you to approve the renewal of the contract with Spectrum move to approve second discussion colleagues none all those in favor say I I uh 141 school year calendar good evening president edoor um this evening I'm bringing forth to you 3 years of calendars 2526 2627 and 2728 school years these were put together Based on data that was collected from um community and staff survey um and has been excuse me um ratified both of our labor partners moved to approve discussion colleagues from across in sure um okay so this has always been point of contention I think in the community and I think you've heard most of what it's about here so I you know some of these questions I know we've discussed before but I just want to make sure that we're kind of getting them out there on the record so um why can we not just take rashishana and Yaniv um is their particular reason um I think it's important to note that um schools cannot create a calendar based on religious holidays um and while there are surrounding districts that have certain days off um they would have data to support those dates coming off so as we looked at calendar development for these years we pulled the last 3 years of data to look at um teacher absences sub coverage student apps is on specific holidays um that um would correlate to some of these observations that are more um that are more popular in our community and we were not able to find any discrepancies with attendance or staff attendance or availability of substitutes on these days so we did not have a specific reason that we could say was secular reason for adopting a calendar that had those um religious holidays on it at this time okay um and then uh sort of correlate additional question to that because when when I say that to people in the community I often hear back well LAUSD has those days off or such and such other district has those days off um if it's a legal to do this do you have any understanding why other districts are able to I mean I wouldn't have their data but there had to have been some reason whether it's their Community whether it's their attendance whether it's their substitutes that they would add these um I should just add that there are court cases where there's been districts where this has been Challen before San Francisco for example had to go back and change their calendar and take these dates off of their calendar because they did not have the data to back up why they were adding these specific holidays to the calendar okay um as a career litigator I appreciate that uh that response um so I guess just at this point then um so this calendar was bargained basically between yourself and our bargaining units um and it's kind of being presented to us as is right so I think you know 1 of the things that we need to make sure that we are doing um given prior practices and some incidents that I've heard over the past few years just making sure that we are taking some steps and I guess you know if you can maybe explain to me what steps we're taking to make sure that our Jewish students are not discriminated against or targeted for harassment based on their families decisions to observe holidays this goes for any other individuals that may be taking other you know holidays off or whatever their religious agricultural reasons are too it's not just that I'm going to jump in and then finish up Dr Gooden um so thank you also for that question you know this is the issue around the board resolution 9 that was passed and we mentioned it in a superintendent's report uh which was um emphatically reinforcing Ed code which already uh has clear very clear Provisions in regards to excused absences for religious or cultural observations um you know the the board at the time uh again 23 24 school year reiterated that and recommitted our work to that um so it's uh it's it's uh that is 1 of the things in place in regards to making sure that our students um of of many different religions and opportunities uh have the same uh opportunity to have an excused absence on those days uh but I also I'm going to add in you know we uh we'll also continue the communication around those the holidays I know we're talking about Yom kipur and rashash Shana but that also as our student speaker very first today was talking about other cultural celebrations throughout the year and just ensuring that our Educators throughout the entire District know early um and in advance which is early but uh in regards to expectations around those days and how we can uh change uh and ensure that uh that the expectations are reasonable for those days so students celebrating those celebrations are not affected um anything else seemed yeah okay fantastic um and then you know I'm not a expert in this space but it's been suggested by some folks tonight and otherwise that you know this could be I mean this is certainly a practice that we have and some guidance that we've been given I don't know that it is an official policy at this point and whether it would be a district policy or a board policy initiated um I don't know if any body has any perspective on that uh I'm looking to my left here as well um if you all don't know maybe maybe board member Lotto does so we do have the the board we do have a board policy about excuses the ABS absences and so um what uh I know that there were folks earlier today that were talking about policies but really what they're talking about is procedures and protocols and ones that you would find in a handbook for our in our student handbooks and so if this superintendent can work and and that's what he was talking about a little bit earlier about if he can work more closely with our school sites in order to have Norms protocol and School site like like these are our um the holidays that affect absences or affect like uh productivity and to be uh cognizant of how we are teaching new or putting tests around those dates that's really going to what that's really what's going to increase our level of belonging rather than because the policy over arches like it it's a be covered it's a matter of what protocols we have in place to actually make it a welcoming uh campus and so I I know that sometimes our our public you know mashes together policy versus protocols and this this is 1 of those and so I'm I'm looking forward to seeing how the superintendent is going to be able to do get ahead of that communication and not just be on that day because a lot of our teachers plan their lesson plans well ahead in advance and so doing it the speak of or the the month of doesn't allow them that flexibility and and it throws them off a bit and you you don't we we want less of that and more careful planning around it okay yeah I think that that pretty much covers it and I think that's you know the excuse absence policy certainly covers absences for religious reasons I think you know the the sort of other half of that is making sure that those excused absences do not result in the student falling behind in some capacity right so um all right that's enough for me so you covered all the good logical questions uh um so you know I was going to open up by just you know quoting gestures Warren Berger said let us not always assume the majority is always right uh in this particular case whether it's 19 or 20 24% that's not a small amount uh and it's certainly something to consider um in terms of the impact of things uh I also very much respect the fact that we have to negotiate with our labor Partners to put this together um but I have uniformly heard from the community concerns that not just from the Jewish Community from the Muslim Community as well um that the excused absences policy as it is now is not being enforced in a way which gives teachers the guidance they need and the uh the strenuous of the point being made we had no less than 6 or 7 incidences around Russia Shana this year and that's frankly 6 or 7 instances 2 um and so um you know rather than point out that uh you know we don't have any federal holidays in October and having went around October 2nd with you know there there are there are some good uh reasons not religious just once of course to point that out I I think a better approach here and 1 that I would like to hear from you all is um is 2 parts 1 is that we have a commitment to what ccft pointed out of having an excused absences policy and procedures which put in place to make sure that we don't have a repeat of what happened whether it's more advanced notice um I noticed I was on the committee that dealt with the calendar uh before I left uh I specifically added guidance about what days teach students do not work for a variety of religions and when I saw the last draft they all seemed to not be there it could be that I submitted it late but I made a point of making sure that would be there and did not see that there that kind of guidance is so important to teachers because if we're not going to take those days um and have secular holidays that a secular day is for whatever reasons we have to give the teachers reasonable guidance to understand when students do not work because of their religious beliefs and the fact that some people wanted to take it out because you know they didn't want to take you know or or wait things I found very problematic because many of these folks it's not out of any kind of 110 they just don't know and we have to give them that guidance so what I'm asking you today is say that we're going to follow through on what ccft recommended number 1 making sure that we have uh that we put in place a real uh and enforceable excuse not enforceable but 1 that has a little bit more teeth to it and guidance to it so that we don't have a repeat of what happened this year and secondly a calendar that provides real guidance to those teachers so they will know when not when it is reasonable not to expect to expect that their students May in fact not be there there's a difference as I as a you know as a Jewish example we have a holiday called to Bishop it's like Arbor Day for Jews we plant trees no we don't skip work for those days but that is different than Russia Shana and yam Kapoor where we don't eat and we're supposed to for 1 of those days and it's a very important solemn holiday similarly with the Muslim Community uh or Diwali are some of those other ones so can you give me those at least that confirmation that we're going to be committed to that approach over the next 2 years and we can see where we are as we all work together to try to work this out yes Mr lachman and the board I I commit to that I our cabinet commits to that and we've heard our labor Partners commit to it and I teaching staff is committed to it I think it needs a bit more clarity a bit more advanced not a bit a lot more advanced notice and uh and deeper coverage so I mentioned that and I I just want to add I think that developing that calendar in advance and and kind of the distinction that board member lachman made about these are observances these are observances that affect students ability you know whether it's staying up late the night before or a day when you don't do certain things things um and getting that to teachers no reason not to do that years in advance if we can develop a 3 year calendar for work days we could develop a 3 year kind of holiday and observance calendar it's probably a different group of folks doing that and that's a great opportunity engage with different interest holder communities um something for EAC or or some other kind of committee to to work on developing I think the other part is also just developing some training around this type of a thing whether it's a Community member from a particular cultural background or religious background doing a 5-minute video on this is what Ramadan is and this is how we celebrate it and this is how it might impact your students or something like that putting those together into some type of of you know educational piece for our our staff and whether that's office staff you know who may have to have special considerations for people coming in or hey why didn't somebody call me back on this day well because we don't do that on that day um or or our our Educators and instructors um I know 1 of the other ones that we were running into is not just the instructional side and what's happening in the classroom but some of our events having the deadline for this application fall on a holiday or something like that you know so the farther we can develop this just kind of calendar of things to be sensitive and aware of you know as people go oh okay I'm gonna have an application or I'm gonna schedule this night on here or we're gonna schedule this game there you know to be able to to avoid those things thank you if I may just 1 comment around that I I want to say you know the Jewish family account has been valuable for me we just got started we'll continue the conversation but 1 thing I did hear specifically was around the idea of oftentimes there'll be social events on a Friday night and so there was kind of a request of like can we be considered of that can we think yes on Fridays yes some Saturdays yes on Thursdays right and I'm just so I've heard that message and then that will be communicated not just specifically about social events like you know the Hopscotch dance or whatever but but uh just comment ing on on I I don't know I don't glitterball glitterball getting a little bit late let's say a little bit late but um yeah so thank you so much for this um I don't know if someone said it but think that it was important to note that I believe that we can always amend count the calendar to be was that was that stated earlier yeah and it's written I think also on the board item that um calendars be admitted and we would just have to bring it forward as another action item yeah okay great and just as a as a last point and thank you for bringing 3 years I think it's really important for families to be able to see us start and end date for planning purposes but just to remember Carlson's question earlier about La unified it's because they don't have a substitute teachers to compensate for the teachers who take off the days and so they have to close because they don't have the Staffing capabilities for that we don't have the same um we don't have the same hurdles um we're this is an action yeah all those in say I I concern move to approve the agenda consent agenda as presented thank you there's no polls great all those in favor say I corner calendars it's exciting are so exciting yeah so uh the calendar is exciting and also uh we just and it didn't come up here but um we just published our brand new digital policy manual and that is um that is a very exciting writing thank you Rigo thank you all of our leadership team and colleagues yes she's at the leadership team too I want to thank everybody because this is more transparent we're still trying to figure out the Kinks but I mean it it should be exciting to our community because they've been asking for for for such a thing too great so calendar and the policy manual that's part Corner you've got the resolution somewhere else right or the proclamation and the those don't need to do board Corner that can appear so those are regular okay yeah those those will appear just like history yes um great 162 appreciate an item I I have well too I guess just a reiteration of the um see if we can bring up the gift policy again and have a conversation around that um yeah you mean like districts well no like the um when we were talking about the Press Box and the things yeah yeah yeah okay that's basically that right so I mean brought that up a couple last couple meetings um and then the other 1 would just be a discussion about mod potential modifications to public comment procedures um just you know there was an individual comment tonight about you know maybe the possibility of us being able to hear comments on items on the agenda in a different way um you know I think we've had a Community member bring up to us that you know the sort of 15 to 20 seconds of okay we're opening public comment okay we're opening closing public comment you know sometimes people are fumbling and not necessarily able to get to the microphone or you know raise their hand in time um the city council does this in kind of a different way where people sign up to give public comment and they kind of call people off by name they tend to have more commenters in us and hopefully it stays that way but um you know it's always kind of nice to be able to give that notice um and I think also you know it seems to me just based on the last I guess 2 months ish or so that now I've had a district email address that folks seem to think and there's a little bit of uh lack of clarity around like what it means when you email board members at ccsd.org and whether that is a public comment or an ability to just vent about something to us um but you know it might be nice to consider a little bit more formal like um procedures for written public comment as well so it's a great question uh does that do we need an agenda item for that can we just make those changes do we it's my opinion that the well public comments since we can't discuss now yeah that's the that's that report to discuss I was asking staff if we need to agendas or we can just make the changes it's my understanding that at Le at least the part about the structuring of where public comments lies is in the in the purview of the chair who runs the meeting but I think that there's a conversation care about maybe a a a contractor approving some type of function or we can have more formal if they were to maybe make a proposal to us or something well I'm just wondering does that need to be a actual agenda is conversation or can we just look into that um well I think it's some of both if I could say that right right I think there's some things that maybe the whole Board needs to decide if we're making kind of more than just Place changes or communication changes because I think I hear some things about communicate a little bit better around public comments okay sort of an idea but then if we're making any other sorts of changes that I think are broader than well the procedures were changed a year or 2 ago I think um to kind of consolidate all items on the agenda and I I think that was a ward conversation at least so you know I think it was I think the work group I think the chair just changed it yeah it was changed just just so you know there is a bylaw regarding public comment which is how this procedure came about it wasn't just enacted there's a bylaw so if you would like to work with someone to suggest any changes and then bring it up to agendas then that's to discuss then I I think that that would be the best because we're running into the like this is this is starting to be discussion and so just um you know and this is good too because we haven't had our Retreat yet and I'm looking forward to it because what I'm finding is like you know I want to help y'all like find your way to say like okay this is what I want to do and it doesn't whether it's not it doesn't matter whether I agree with you or not it's a matter of like hey what you want to do this like this is the way to it or you know and maybe that kind of thing so um so I'm looking forward to that okay great so we have that written down any other yes yeah um proving a letter in support of the support that a Transit Coalition yes yes yes that too which I think is already okay yeah yep it's just I I don't know if I have to bring it up again but I just want to be safe okay thanks for bringing it up again I appreciate the items colleagues no no I will entertain a motion to adjourn colleagues if I could ask and I actually meant to say it earlier whoever makes the motion to adjourn could could adjourn in in memory of Margaret Lucas and I think that that may mean something to our superintendent and so colleagues whoever chooses to make that motion to please include that like to move to adjourn in memory of Margaret Lucas second all those say I I I um no

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Regular Board Meeting 02-11-25

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