REGULAR MEETING

OF THE BOARD OF EDUCATION

LENNOX SCHOOL DISTRICT
Tuesday, March 12, 2013 at 5:30 p.m.
A Regular Meeting of the Board of Education of the Lennox School District pursuant to Section
54956 of the Government Code was held in the Cafeteria of the Jefferson Elementary School,
10322 Condon Avenue, Lennox, Los Angeles County, California, on Tuesday, March 12, 2013 at
5:30 p.m., to discuss the items listed below.
MINUTES
I.

CALL TO ORDER The Meeting was called to order at 5:45 p.m.

Trustees Cruz, Fajardo, Ibarra, Navarro, Saldaa, and Youth Trustee Perdomo were
present.
Dr. Barbara Flores, Superintendent; Mr. Jose Dominguez, Assistant Superintendent of
Facilities, and 350 guests were present.
The Pledge of Allegiance was led by Dr. Flores.

II.

APPROVAL OF AGENDA
It was moved by Trustee Saldaa, seconded by Trustee Ibarra to move the Public
Comments after the approval of the Agenda. Dr. Flores also stated that she would
like to move from under Presentations, C and D, to Action Items under B, Business
as 5 and 6; the presentations, Lennox School District Organizational Study and LMS
Assessment Study Recommendations to the Business Services portion of the
Agenda. She repeated that she would like to move them to 5 and 6. Number 5
would be the Lennox School District Reorganization and 6 would be LMS Needs
Assessment and Reorganization.
On the motion of Trustee Saldaa, duly seconded by Trustee Ibarra, and by a vote
of 4 - 1 the Board of Trustees approved the Agenda for the evenings Board meeting
with the moving of Public Comments to after the Agenda approval and with Dr.
Flores request to change from under Presentations, Items C and D to be Action
Items under B, Business, as 5 and 6.

III.

Board President Cruz asked if everyone that wanted to speak had filled out a form as
she would not be accepting anymore after the first speaker and indicated that the
forms were in the back of the room. She asked further if there was anyone who
needed interpretation to put their hand up as there is assistance than can be provided.
She repeated this announcement in Spanish and stated further that as they got the
equipment organized she read the rules regarding the public addressing the Board
and some other various rules.
PUBLIC COMMENTS
Board President Cruz stated that they would start with the topic of Reorganization, and
called Mr. Hector Viyera.
Mr. Hector Viyera
Mr. Viyera greeted the Board members and the community and introduced himself and
shared that he represents the committee and he is here to he thinks that everyone is
aware of the problems we are having and this is very, very, very, extremely important
that they unite together as a community for our children. He shared that he was one of
those children; money is being cut, everyone knows the finances, he doesnt need to
sit here and tell everyone that has already been hurt and either they stand together as
a community; united they stand or divided they will fall, he can guarantee that they will
fall if they are divided so they have to come together and it is extremely important. He
explained that he has a niece and a nephew; he doesnt have to have children but as
long as he is a resident of Lennox and he is a taxpayer, they are able to stand there
tonight and express their voice. Its that simple, just be a resident and a taxpayer and
he is both so please, this is extremely important for everybody. The authorities are
going to get involved; its not going to look pretty; its going to get really ugly and hes
just stating the facts. He stated that the facts are there already; he doesnt have to
present any new facts. He further stated that concerning the Board members who got
attacked from anonymous people, step up, if theyve got nothing to hide, and asked
what they are hiding from. He commented that whoever attacks his raza is an attack
on him and the children, especially the children. It is an attack on his niece and
nephew so if they are going to attack, step up, thats all he has to say to step up and
see who they are. He expressed that he is stepping up and he is saying who he is; he
has nothing to hide; he has nothing to lose. Someone in the audience replied their
job. Mr. Viyera stated that he is a volunteer, thats good enough. He also
volunteered for the Latinos for Obama in Lennox. He stated that he just wanted to
express this and said to please, dont be scared to come up and talk. He stated the
same in Spanish to please not be scared to come up and voice their opinion; even the
children as well as it is very important that they unite now for the children. This is for
the children, for the future, because he is old now; one day hell be gone and thats it,
but for the children, for the grandchildren, those are the ones who will follow. He

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(Public Comments on Closed Session Action Items, Mr. Hector Viyera, continued)
further stated that Lennox has produced a lot of professionals and said to thank their
teachers and stated that some of his teachers are his friends, and his time is up.
Ms. Teresa Canch
Ms. Canch greeted everyone. To reorganize means to change something or
restructure something old. This evening Ms. Cruz, Ms. Ibarra and Ms. Saldaa told
her that because Mr. Navarro and Ms. Fajardo closed the doors, they have put two
opposing vote. The last time that they dealt with this topic, Ms. Fajardo left in the
middle of the meeting because the things didnt go her way. She commented on the
large amounts of money that have been wasted stating that all they have to do is to
read the Minutes from the years past. The way they pay in Lennox, she asks that
every employee in the District that makes over $50,000 per year, present
documentation that certifies the aptitudes that they have in order to do the job that they
were hired to do.
She thanked the Board President for being present and thanked her for being there;
she thanked her for making changes for the wellbeing of their children. She stated
that these anonymous people only criticize because they are going in a good direction
and they dont even say where they are from. She stated that she is not anonymous
and named Ms. de Leon and herself, Ms. Canch, stating that they have always been
there bravely showing their faces without representation of any organization, simply
representing their children and the other children saying what no one has ever said.
No one has ever said what they have said and maybe for that same reason, the last
Superintendent left running not returning the master keys that are worth $100,000.
The moment has come to decide what side you are on, show the parents, the
teachers, and the community why they have to support for the next elections of the
District. She asked them to show their maturity, speak with actions. Maturity shows
them how to live when a person has the desire to be honest.
Board President Cruz announced that if anyone needed translation equipment that it
was available to them.
Ms. Julie Smith, LMS 7/8 Teacher
Ms. Smith greeted the Board President, Board members and Dr. Flores, all parents,
administrators and teachers and thanked everyone for their presence stating that it is
obviously a very, very important meeting and tensions are really high right now so it is
very important for people to express themselves. She shared that she personally
would just like to say that for many years teachers in Lennox have asked that Lennox
funds be directed back to the classroom. What happens in the classroom with the
education of the student in this community is the only reason this school district exists
today and she personally is very glad to see that all of this other stuff is going by the
wayside and the importance is being placed back on the students and the classroom
and she would like to say as a National Board Certified Teacher, Title IIA funds were

4
(Public Comments on Closed Session Action Items, Ms. Julie Smith, continued)
supposed to be used to help teachers become highly qualified and she doesnt know if
any teacher in this District has ever been afforded the use of those funds to get
another credential or to get National Board Certification so she would really like to ask
that this rearrangement of funds continue and she would like to also say that they
would like a planning period.
Ms. Yvonne Chirino
Ms. Chirino greeted everyone and introduced herself sharing that she is a parent
volunteer at Moffett and LMS6. She only wanted to say that the society and
community of Lennox are in agreement with the changes and she thanked Ms. Ibarra
and Dr. Flores for being here.
Ms. Shannon Thomas-Allen
Ms. Thomas-Allen greeted everyone, Board members, Dr. Flores, respected Board,
and teachers, administrators, and most of all parents. She stated that she came to
them this evening to speak on many things but most of all she comes to speak to them
about all of the shenanigans that are going on in this District. This ignorance has to
cease and desist. She stated that for her as a parent, it is quite frustrating with the
way that things are going, for example people being questioned and accused of their
citizenship as well as their place of residence, their qualifications and their educational
background. While everyone is questioning those anonymous allegations, to her she
feels like this is a distraction to deviate their attention from the real problems, which
are missing money, people leaving the District in the middle of the year, creating
positions at the District to justify overinflated salaries, making even more cuts in our
classrooms, but most of all what really gets her is all of the anonymous e-mails and
letters and the reason why she is saying this is because all of these things are floating
around and it is really ignorant. She further commented that one thing she could deal
with is the need to hide and everyone is pointing fingers but she will not tolerate
certain anonymous things being sent to her, District employees, different staff because
right now they are running around in a mist of God knows what. She expressed that
she is not even going to finish but she will say that at this point in time, she thanks Ms.
Ibarra, Ms. Cruz and Dr. Flores and Ms. Saldaa because right now through the act of
transparency, she has seen some greater good. She is an active member of her
Parents Union and as most of them know a lot of them do know her because she is
always everywhere. She stated that she will fight for the teachers, once again she
and her mothers will fight, they will continue to be there for them but one thing she will
say as a parent of this union, they are at a point where they are tired of being
demonized. She is going to put the fire out. She doesnt want to blame; she doesnt
want to get rid of them; she doesnt want to fire all of them, what she does want to do
is she wants to collaborate, she wants to continue to do that. These people have
shown that and if anyone has a problem with them, thats fine, but dont put the blame
on her because she doesnt know who has been doing that and whoever they are, she
asked that they please hurry up and show their face.

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(Public Comments on Closed Session Action Items, continued)
Ms. Margarita Melgar
Ms. Melgar greeted everyone and stated that a year ago, she never in a million years
would have thought that a group of mothers, very brave mothers, would get together
and launch a movement that she is so proud of, and nobody thought they could do it,
nobody. But she is here tonight because being a former employee of this beautiful
Lennox District, she admires all the teachers, all the administrators, but her former
administrators would come to her and tell her what she needed to improve on and she
took it. It wasnt easy to hear the things she needed to improve but she took it. But
she guesses what is just drowning her out and just really tiring is the personal attacks,
the anonymous mail, she asked what does that prove. In her opinion, talking to Dr.
Flores, bending if you will, what her frustrations are as a parent of twenty years here in
Lennox; she listened but she didnt hurry in, she took her time, and if that makes her
the bad guy because she is taking her time to sort the mess that our former
superintendent left us with, then God bless her for that because honestly, people are
talking about how much money she makes when our last superintendent got a nice fat
paycheck and bounced on all of them. She commented that she had heard about
keys that are missing and asked where are those keys. It makes her wonder but
nobody seems to be griping about keys that are going to cost their budget some
money to replace, but it seems to be okay to point the finger at the person who is
trying to sort things out. She told people to work with their administrators, work with
their leadership, it is that simple because honestly, as a member of the Parents Union
of Lennox, not Parent Revolution, they are parents first and honestly, they will not
move her out of Lennox but she is there to support each and every one of them but
please, put all of this fingerpointing to the curb, it is enough already. If they are going
to say something, do it, but get their job done right and lets move forward. This is
about the kids, right; if its about the kids, then lets move forward.
Board President Cruz called up next Mr. Jose Luis Nuo
Trustee Navarro stated that for the record, Board President Cruz was not going to be
accepting any more papers after the deadline. Board President Cruz stated that they
were in Public Comments at this point. Trustee Navarro asked didnt she say that no
comments were going to be taken after the deadline that she set earlier. Board
President Cruz expressed that all of the Public Comments are here before her and of
course she is going to do the Public Comments at this point. Trustee Navarro stated
that for the record she is not complying with what she said. Board President Cruz
called up Mr. Jose Luis Nuo.
Mr. Jose Luis Nuo
Mr. Nuo commented that this is one of the things that she would like to talk about
today. He stated that first he did not know if they had some kind of an election with the
parents and he doesnt know about the parents union or Parent Revolution but he
asked to be allowed to ask all of them if they have a name. He expressed that there

6
(Public Comments on Closed Session Action Items, Mr. Jose Luis Nuo, continued)
used to be a group of parents from a long time ago, Padres de Lennox, about ten
years ago, and they didnt come and brag about what they did but today is here with a
deep sorrow in his heart. He further commented that many years ago people in
Lennox had shared a dream, a vision for the children in Lennox. It has been more
than a decade and that vision was accomplished and today, he asked for what. He
told them to look at themselves, one is against the other just because they dont like
what they say, they dont like what they do, they dont like things they have been doing
one to another. He asked what have they accomplished and stated it has been almost
ten years when they started something and the changed the whole Board and that
was for something. He further expressed that we all have our problems in life, in this
life we are not perfect. He stated that today he is here as a friend trying to reach both
sides of the table. Today he chooses one more time to get involved because that is
what their parents do, trying to help put things together, especially when the children
are involved. Not like some friends that they decide to step aside and say those things
between you and them and he doesnt want to have anything to do with it. First off to
see what is wrong, what did you make wrong, what mistake did you make, and remind
yourself of all the good things that you accomplished, all of those good moments in
life. This relationship is more like a marriage and if everyone pulls in one direction,
you accomplish a lot, but one everyone is pulling from different sides, you accomplish
nothing but if they would all get together, it would be for the best of the kids. He
expressed for the kids, please, to look deeply in their hearts, put aside the differences,
resentments, accusations, pain, indifference, maybe they will see a little flame in their
heart and they will work together again. He expressed that they are here for a reason
and that reason was the kids in Lennox and that reason is still alive.
Ms. Leticia Murillo
Ms. Murillo introduced herself and shared that she is the mother of four children, one is
in the Academy, another is in LMS, and two that are in Buford. Being a member of the
Lennox community, she is only here to tell them to please stop going around
gossiping, for the teachers to work with the Board members for the children. They
want their children prepared for the university for professional preparation. She stated
that she left her food half done and she got her bicycle and she came because she
wants a future for her children and she knows that they and the teachers can do it.
She stated further that she is very grateful for the changes that have been made, Dr.
Flores and the others, because they, as parents of families along with teachers, can
achieve a better future for the children.
Ms. Rosie Dillon
Ms. Dillon greeted everyone and stated that she was going to speak in English since
she has been here for 11 years, but because she has an accent they might suddenly
think she is not an American citizen. Today more than anything she is present to
support of Ms. Mercedes Ibarra and the Superintendent Irma Flores because she has
seen the things that they are doing. She corrected herself that she meant Dr. Barbara
Flores. She stated that she has always thought when united parents, teachers and

7
(Public Comments on Closed Session Action Items, Ms. Rosie Dillon, continued)
students will achieve academic success for their children. She has come before
always in support of the teachers and now for the Board, for her they are working very
well. She thanked Ms. Ibarra, Marisol Cruz. She thanked Barbara Flores for
supporting them and as she said, to support the teachers and their children, who are
the future.
Ms. Vanessa Arauza
Ms. Arauza stated that just seeing the bickering is really disturbing and shared that
she is a parent who has a five-year old autistic child that attends Felton Elementary
School and her six-year old who attends at Jefferson Elementary and the teachers
have done a phenomenal job; her son if they could see him, her five-year old has
improved so much. He is speaking and has improved tremendously and it is thanks to
them. She knows that there is a lot of activity about Dr. Navarro being said and she
knows that he is no longer here, but she does want to say that thanks to him, special
needs have improved at Felton, they have a classroom that is adequate for their
children now. They were moved thanks to him; she had to do a lot for it but he did that
for them, for the school and the children and some other things that they did not have
before at Felton and no disrespect to anyone, she respects everyone here and she
knows they are here for a reason and she knows they are making great changes, but
one of her concerns as a parent is communication. She expressed that she thinks that
maybe she is not involved as much as she should because she has a child with
special needs and that distracts her from being so involved but she drove by and she
saw that there was a press conference the other day and she had to stop and ask
what was going on; she saw the media crew there and she asked what had happened
and it was concerning as she had come to the school to pick up her son who cant
have lunch here because of his allergies and she asked what was going on because
she didnt even know and she came around and she asked Marisol what was going on
and she was told that it was a press conference and she had no idea and she thinks
that it is important that they know what is going on, what was the press conference for,
who put it together. Ms. Arauza stated that she checked on the news that night; she
checked online and she couldnt find anything so the lack of communication, she didnt
know what that was all about and she would like to get more information so that she
can get involved and help support the community so she would like to ask that there
be more clear, transparent communication with parents so that they know and they
can give back and be more involved. She shared further that she asked around and
no one had any idea that had happened so she asked if she could just ask for that
from the Board: more communication.
Board President Cruz stated that just for the record, it wasnt the District that held the
press conference, it was spearheaded by the community; it was parents, community
members, taxpayers, stakeholders and Lennox residents getting together and just
speaking their minds before the press and she was invited and many things just
happened and she was there as a Board member to support her community, so that is

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(Public Comments on Closed Session Action Items, continued)
what that press conference was about; it wasnt by the District or by the Board, it was
by the community.
Mr. Mario Franco
Mr. Franco greeted Board members and Dr. Flores and stated that before he began he
just wanted to clarify something at the last Board meeting; he wanted to clarify and let
his colleagues know, his two SDSs, that they have been phenomenal help for him and
this is his experience, Mayra and Christina have been very helpful to him and he
wanted to make sure that he cleared that in case they took offense last time he spoke.
He further expressed that today he wanted to speak to them about something that is
very concerning to him. Back in January he was asked, actually the Science
department was asked by their Principal, Ms. Johnson, to attend a meeting with Ms.
Isken about a Science training that was coming up at LMU. He attended that meeting
and Ms. Isken spoke about that training, and to be honest, he had no interest at that
time; he never signed up for it and never showed any kind of interest and quite bluntly,
he didnt even look her way. Then he came to find out that at one of the Board
meetings that his name was put onto one of the Agenda items without his permission,
without him signing up for that. He tried to address it that evening but they didnt have
quorum that evening so he had to wait until another time but at that time he did e-mail
some of them to notify them that this was incorrect asking for reimbursement for this
training that he never signed up for, that he never attended and what bothers him the
most is that it was signed for him without his consent and the last time he checked,
that was illegal, it was against the law to sign something for someone without their
consent and this was done, and not just his; he has three other teachers who the
same thing happened, two of them who didnt even know about this training and it
concerns him because this is an illegal incident here that he wants investigated and he
wants to know who, because the last time he checked, and he believes it is called
closure when you sign someones name without their permission and he would like to
ask the Board President to please initiate an investigation on this. He stated further
that he had some of the copies there for her.
Board President Cruz stated that this was very disconcerting to hear and she thanked
him for bringing it to light. She asked Dr. Flores to follow through; there are a few here
with that same concern and they cant be putting peoples names on the Agenda and
signing them up for programs that they have not given authorization for so she asked
her to please look into that matter.
Mr. Martin Hernandez, Academy Soccer League
Mr. Hernandez greeted everyone and stated that the comments he has been hearing
for him are problems like the corruption of the District and the manipulation and with
their permission he is just going to put that right out there and let it stay. He has been
a member of the Lennox community for 30 years, his three children, one is married,
one is in school, and one is in LMS and he has a marvelous teacher, who is here, and

9
(Public Comments on Closed Session Action Items, Mr. Martin Hernandez, continued)
he is grateful, and this before anything, he wants to thank Dr. Flores for her work; the
members of the Board, Marisol, Mercedes, Ms. Saldaa, that have done a good job
and the comment that he has about this is that these things that they have done, he
hopes that they continue with this and not go back.
Mr. Mark Friedman
Mr. Friedman thanked everyone for the opportunity to speak. He introduced himself
and stated that he is a teacher at Animo Leadership and has been the Director of the
Department of Science for ten years, and a teacher of many of their children. He
further expressed that it is his passion to help the students and he wants to continue
helping the students to be successful in school and in life. He is here to support the
community and their fight to reclaim education in Lennox, it is their right and we must
defend it. He expressed that this community is under attack, primarily by the
government in Sacramento and Washington that cuts the necessary funds for
education and carries out wars against working people in other countries.
Secondarily, by a group of racist and reactionaries who are against the parents, the
teachers, the students and leaders of this community, immigrants and the Latino
community and its rights. All who are parents in this community must defend it and
fight for their human rights, civil right, and for education. It doesnt matter if some of
them are undocumented, everyone has rights. They are not going to play the game
with the government and the owners; they are not going to permit them to create a
division among them. They must unite the unions and the community, it is the basis of
their power. He hopes that they will continue the campaign, possibly through petitions
or other actions that they decide in order to defend this community and public
education. If they do not respond, the lawyers, the DA will think about removing
leaders of this Board and the community. Only with a united and determined
community can they straighten out and reject these attacks, local, state, and national,
that deprive the students of a better future. It is an honor for him to participate in this
campaign.
Because Mr. Friedman did his own Spanish to English translation, Board President
Cruz shared with him that there was a translator present translating from Spanish to
English and English to Spanish for the sake of time.
Ms. Bertha Rios, LMS 7/8 Library Technician
Ms. Rios greeted everyone and stated that she was present as a Library Technician
and that she has been in that position for 15 year and referred to the false
accusations. She shared that in May of 2000 she was privileged to befit the new LMS
Library Technician and that she had a vision for the LMS Library which included the
making of a media center, making the library more accessible, friendly and safe for the
students and she was never going to give up until she accomplished her mission. She
further shared that in order to make her vision come true, she decided to have three to
four book fairs per year to fundraise for the monies needed. In 12 years she raised

10
(Public Comments on Closed Session Action Items, Ms. Bertha Rios, continued)
$18,000 from book fairs for which she has used to benefit the library to purchase
artwork, authors fairs, new books, and the media center, now with 27 computers and
their furniture. She stated that in reference to the false allegations, in June 2012, the
ASB personnel asked her to keep records of every student and every item each
student purchased, but when running three departments, the resource copy room and
library, and dealing with the chaos of the book fair by herself, it was impossible to fulfill
that request but she has all the documentation of the funds raised proving an honest
job well done. The same ASB personnel were then negatively speaking about the
funds raised as if it was a sin to have raised so much money for the benefit of the kids
and their library. Again, referring to the false allegation, if any one knows these socalled donors, please introduce me so that I can collect these so-called donations for
their students. All LMS teachers and administrators are witnesses to her dedication,
her passion and love for the library, which she calls her second home, and her
concern for the students academic well-being. She concluded with that she believes
in making a difference, she believes in helping many students, parents, grandparents
and teachers in as many ways as possible. She believes that Lennox can be what it
used to be and asked to let them stand together to make that happen.
Ms. Sandra Thorman, LMS 7/8 Teacher
Ms. Thorman stated that she would like to say first of all that she represents no one
but herself. She commented that respective of the Board it seems like were missing it
tonight, just a little bit between a couple of Board members and as long as there
seems to be a call for stability, it seems that just as we are all role models for kids, we
should also be roles models for each other and that maybe that recommendation for
stability could be extended to them as well and in a minute they will realize why she is
saying this. She stated that she is not a racist and nor does she consider herself a
reactionary. She continued with a good evening to everyone and stated that she
would like to refer to the latest article in the Daily Breeze. She stated that with a
limited time to talk, she would focus on just a couple of items and talk really fast, one,
to the Superintendent, is her belief in the first amendment that she imagines that all of
those present believe in as well. She stated that she has lamented that it is
unfortunate that the letters written were anonymous and that the finders were not up
front with her. After finishing reading the letter, she felt in her heart a heaviness
thinking of the pillar of trustworthiness, which on the wall in her classroom includes
having integrity and she knew that she wanted to share that she is one of many who
are very wary of her credibility of being our Superintendent. She expressed that she
doesnt want to hide that; she has tried to contact her and she doesnt think she has
known that because she dropped by her office and so with the exception of the e-mail,
she probably doesnt know that she has tried to do that. She further commented that
she is not one the six that were referred to in the article, she doesnt know who they
are, and again, she reiterated that she is speaking only for herself as a person, just
her, and speaking for herself. She stopped and then went on to say that it seems like
communication is a big problem tonight and so a lot of this is in regard to

11
(Public Comments on Closed Session Action Items, Ms. Sandra Thorman, LMS 7/8
Teacher, continued)
communication and so her disbelief in certain things is because there is a lack of that.
Right now she has to say that she is disbelieving in the Superintendents sense of
integrity, which needs to be reflected in her resume. She stated that she has yet to
explain the validity of her resume and what she actually has her degrees in. There
was some question about degrees and she would just like to have that cleared up.
She further stated that secondly she has heard and this has also not been cleared up
and not in the open or just a rumor, that she was hired without the process of an
interview with teachers on the panel. This is contrary to past practice, if it is true, and
she would enjoy hearing clarification about both her resume and her hiring process.
She doesnt know about all the gossip; shes the last one to hear it so she can fully
hear what someone said about communication. She commented that she did see on a
recent version of her resume where she lists Beyond Borders as her latest program
that she is involved with and she is wary and disbelieving of this also. Seeing as Patti
Martin has indicated that she has never been in her room once during this past five
months any of the two times per week that the program was in session. The other
teacher in the program, Erica Smith, says she does not recall her ever being in there
but she is not positive. So again, a little communication. Ms. Thorman questioned
how it could be possible that she be involved in a program if she is not visiting those
rooms; and how is it possible to make a connection. She added further that earlier in
the year, at a really early Board meeting, probably the second one or so, she asked for
verification about the Beyond Borders program and stated that Dr. Flores had just
finished talking about a system that she had finished in San Bernardino about how she
had addressed issues on people who were bringing things up and that was October
and this is March and she still hasnt heard from her yet. She further expressed that
she is wary of her ability and desire to know her employees. She shared that at that
very same Board meeting she walked up during the break to her to say hi to her
because she was new and her boss and there was no one between them; they were
closer than they are now, such a small space and she walked right past her and she
was left thinking that she didnt even deserve her hello as her new boss or her as one
of her new employees.
There were comments from the audience telling Ms. Thorman that her time was up.
Trustee Navarro asked that people speaking on the podium be respected and that
everyone is entitled to their time.
Ms. Betzy Greenberg, District Office Accounts Payable Clerk
Ms. Greenberg introduced herself and shared that she is the Accounts Payable Clerk
for the Lennox School District so she pays all of the bills and she sees everything.
She stated that she would like to say good evening to the Board and she would like to
thank Mr. Navarro and Ms. Fajardo for opening their ears and listening really well to
the spendings of this District and stated that they are the only ones who have
questioned many of the invoices that are huge; she said that he (referring to Trustee

12
(Public Comment on Closed Session Item, Ms. Betzy Greenberg, continued)
Navarro) is the one questioning them; they (referring to Trustees Navarro and Fajardo)
are, and she stated that she would like to thank them and say that she totally
appreciated them. Ms. Greenberg expressed that she is not one of the six, but she
does see things that go on here; she does see spending that is ridiculous and beyond
that should not be spent on the things that they are. She expressed that they are not
going to the kids; they are not, and she asked people to please open their eyes; thats
all she asks.
Ms. Mirna Saucedo-Hernandez
Ms. Saucedo-Hernandez greeted everyone and stated that everyone knows who she
is. She thanked Dr. Flores, Ms. Ibarra, Ms. Cruz, Ms. Saldaa, Miss Jocelyne, Ms.
Fajardo, Mr. Navarro and Mr. Dominguez. She stated that she is present because a
lot is being said about false allegations or truths; people are being demonized just
because they are fighting for our kids. One of the packages that was given to one of
their parents anonymously and said if I am a coward for defending the students than
so be it, let me tell you, you cannot change the definition of being a coward. A coward
always hides behind, a coward always hides his face to what is being said. She
further stated that she is coming to them as a parent; she is coming to them to thank
Mercedes Ibarra because she represents the many people that live here and she
stated that she is one of six, seven, eight, nine ten, eleven, one hundred people that
come to support this lady here because she is doing her job. She directed Dr. Flores
and parents stating that they always want input and they really thank them for that
because nobody has ever wanted input from the teachers, from the community, from
the parents. If anything can be called defending, she thanks the teachers because
they stating that they are blessed, all of them because they are here for their students,
they are blessed. She asked them to not allow the false allegations to brainwash
them. They think that they are not a community that can actually do research, they
think they dont vote, they dont pay taxes. She further stated that they may be
Latinos, but they are Latinos united, dont ever underestimate. She clarified that there
is also black, they are all colors here. These are their schools; these are their
teachers; these are their students, these are the people that are fighting to make
things better and they are trying to have an impact in their classrooms; yes they are
because she doesnt remember a teacher having an assistant. This community
defends students first.
Ms. Erin Smith, LMS 7/8 Teacher
Ms. Smith greeted Dr. Flores and the Board and introduced herself as being a Special
Education Teacher of English Language Arts at LMS for many years and she would
like to respond to some of the assertions made by the Needs Assessment at LMS
concerning the Special Education program. First, it was stated that core textbooks
were not being used in Special Education classrooms. Their English Language Arts
Department has worked very hard to make sure their students receive the same
content as their General Education peers and that they have access to and utilize

13
(Public Comments on Closed Session Action Items, Ms. Erin Smith, LMS 7/8 Teacher,
continued)
those Core materials. She asked the question is it necessary for them to utilize more
than just those Core materials with their students and responded, absolutely! She
shared that many of their students require that they represent the content in multiple
ways so that they are able to access it. If they did not do that they would not be
effective Special Education teachers. The only Special Education classrooms that
dont use Core texts are the Reading Intervention classes which use state approved,
research based, Core replacement program for Tier III students. So their department
feels that the Needs Assessment did not accurately reflect the truth in this matter.
Second, it was stated by the Needs Assessment team that there were not high
expectations for Special Education students. As someone who has been a part of
Special Education in the Lennox School District for 16 years, she can say that their
expectations for Special Education students are higher now than they ever have been,
in fact they expect their students to master the same content for their grade level just
as their General Education peers. The Special Education teachers use pacing plans
that are aligned with General Education plans; the only difference is that they may
spend more time on some standards and that they have identified standards that are
essential for their Special Education students. In addition, they assess their students
using the Standards Based Assessments, just like General Education. Up until this
year, their Special Education Department was part of a very comprehensive staff
development plan that included time for data analysis, classroom visits, coaching, and
professional development. This was provided by Cathy Waller, the previous Program
Specialist, and an outside consultant. Both of those ladies were very knowledgeable
in curriculum and instruction for students with disabilities and she just wants to say
that is not happening anymore and she asked what the result was of all of that work
that began in 2006 - 2007. A total API growth for students with disabilities of 242
points in six years, from 448 to 690, a 40 point growth per year average. And one
more thing, students with disabilities at LMS last year grew 27 points on the API, which
was the same growth rate as General Education students at LMS.. She would just
please ask them to really consider what she has said and if they would like to see any
data, she would be more than happy to send it to them. She thanked them very much.
Ms. Yvette Diaz, LMS 7/8 Special Education Teacher
Ms. Diaz greeted the Board and administration and introduced herself sharing that she
started working for the Lennox School District in 1998 as a Teacher Assistant, then
years later as a substitute, and is now a Special Education Teacher at LMS 7/8. She
asked that it be noted that she is speaking on behalf of the Math Special Education
Department at LMS 7/8. She continued with that she strongly disagrees with the
Needs Assessment results statement that there are low expectations for Special
Education students at LMS 7/8 and that she has the same expectation of her students
with special needs as do her colleagues in the General Education Math Department.
She expressed that she also wanted to mention that out of a total of eight Special
Education classes, only two classes were actually visited. From the two classes that

14
(Public Comments on Closed Session Action Items, Ms. Yvette Diaz, LMS 7/8 Special
Education Teacher, continued)
were visited, one of them was being taught, and is still being taught, by a substitute.
With this being said, she stated she would like to note that her Algebra class was
NEVER visited by the Needs Assessment experts, and asked so how can these
experts make a general statement about the Special Education Department subject
matter not being rigorous?
Next, the Special Education teachers do collaborate with the General Education Math
Department with the assistance of Ms. Christine Fonseca. Ms. Fonseca has helped
them with the modifications to the Math SBAs in order to mirror the California Modified
Assessment to prepare and expose their students to what lies ahead in terms of state
assessments. They also use the same lessons and teach the same content standards
as their General Education counterparts do with modifications to fit the needs of their
Special Education students. Ms. Diaz further commented that she wanted to add that
they not only collaborate but also reflect on data with their General Education Math
colleagues. They listen, they take notes on what worked and what didnt work for the
General Education Math students so they can refine their Special Education lessons to
better serve the needs of their students.
Ms. Diaz added that the Needs Assessments results also noted that they do not use
their textbooks, however, they, as teachers, when designing lessons, hand select the
most rigorous Math problems from the textbook that in her opinion, relay the standards
the best. So just because the books may not have been open at the time of these
observations does not mean that they dont use the books at all. They constantly use
the textbooks for student homework, for reference, and not as core curriculum; not
only because the books that they have are outdated and have been used for at least
ten years, but because the standards are what guides the curriculum and not the
textbooks themselves.
She further stated that it was mentioned that the LMS 7/8 Special Education model
was outdated and that they should look into the LMS6 grade model and shared that it
is safe to say that in the past few years there has been a trend in seventh grade
Special Education Math at LMS 7/8 where the classes tend to be larger because the
children who transitioned from sixth to seventh grade General Education math, later
found themselves failing because they needed more support. This year, this trend has
been minimal due to the fact that there was a transition Math meeting between LMS6
and LMS 7/8.
Ms. Meg Sanchez, LMS 7/8 Assistant Principal
Ms. Sanchez introduced herself and shared that she is one of the assistant principals
at Lennox Middle School and she first came to Lennox in 1980 so she has been here
for quite a while. She stated that she is speaking about the same subject that Ms.
Smith and Ms. Diaz just spoke to them about and a lot of them at LMS are very

15
(Public Comments on Closed Session Action Items, Ms. Meg Sanchez, continued)
concerned about the restructuring plan for their school. She further commented that
they were a little bit stunned at some of the recommendations that were given to them
by the needs assessment group. There was no mention of their Special Education
being an outstanding program; there was no mention of their Physical Education
Department being absolutely astoundingly successful. There were some positives and
they appreciate those positives, but they were followed up with so many negatives that
they were really, really surprised and saddened and she has just one request of the
Board, that being before they make any decisions regarding restructuring of LMS, she
sincerely hopes that they dont make too many decisions regarding this, but before
they do, please talk to the teachers at LMS, the administrators at LMS, and the
students at LMS, in a much broader assessment than the needs assessment did
because she truly feels that the school as they know it, was not represented by those
individuals.
Ms. Patti Kent, LMS 7/8 Physical Education Teacher
Ms. Kent greeted everyone and stated that she was speaking on behalf of their
Physical Education Department and shared that when the needs assessment team
said that they had visited every single class except the one Algebra class, she
personally did not get observed; nobody came out to the field and observed her class
and saw her objective or saw what she was doing with the students so she wants the
Board to know that she was not observed.
Ms. Karen Korzelius, LMS 7/8 Physical Education Teacher
Ms. Korzelius greeted the Board and stated that she teaches Physical Education and
with regards to the needs assessment representative saying that only one Algebra
class was not visited, she reported that she was not visited either.
Ms. Carrie Ann Ortiz, LMS 7/8 Physical Education Teacher
Ms. Ortiz greeted the Board members and stated that it was becoming a trend. She
referred to the presentation when the needs assessment team shared that they were
in every single classroom and since the word classroom was used, she thought that
they meant within four walls, not an outdoor classroom, which is how she teaches, and
so at the end of the presentation, she did go up and speak with the presenter and
shared with her that she was curious on their rationale for not visiting as this is a
comprehensive audit for assessment and she wanted to know their rationale behind
not visiting their department because they are very proud of what they do and the
impact they make on their students and she looked at her and said, I went to all
classrooms, she even put on her special sneakers and made sure she visited every
single Physical Education classroom, but her classroom was not visited.
Mr. Rick Hornstra, LMS 7/8 Physical Education Teacher
Mr. Rick Hornstra greeted Board President Cruz and the Lennox School Board, Dr.
Flores, District administration, and the community. He shared that after they received
the needs assessment overview, he took quite a bit of time and thought through what

16
(Public Comments on Closed Session Action Items, continued)
he had heard and he first of all wants to let them know that he truly appreciates the
difficulty, the challenge and the hard work that went into the development of the LMS
needs assessment. He expressed that he was sure it was a daunting task and he
thanks the team for their efforts.
Mr. Hornstra stated that overall he was very surprised with the needs assessment
report. He felt there were many voids in the report if it was intended to be a
comprehensive, big picture of their school. He felt the Fine Arts Department was
completely overlooked. He heard no mention of the high quality Music, Dance, Art and
Technology programs that their students are so fortunate to be able to participate in.
He further added that in addition to the oversight of Fine Arts within the report of
findings, he heard no mention at all regarding the LMS Physical Education program.
They have and continue to work as a team to provide the best program possible for
their students and establish a safe learning environment. Their department consists of
six teachers and they instruct each and every student in the school. Of the six
teachers, two have earned the prestigious ranks of being National Board Certified.
They have been recognized as Program of the Year by the State Professional
Organization two times and they are one of only a few programs nationally that have
been recognized with the Federal PEP Grant award two times. They have been
highlighted in newspapers four times with in-depth articles. Over the years they have
been honored to accommodate six student teachers. Each year they host between 50
100 visitors from surrounding universities and schools that come to observe their
high quality Physical Education Program and each and every time they visit, they have
been overwhelmed with the positive feedback related to the tone and climate of the
school and the high level of respect our students show them during their visit.
Mr. Hornstra continued that to him this hardly seems like a portrait of a program that
should be overlooked in an overall school needs assessment. He stated that he
inquired with all of his department members and none of them were spoken to,
observed, or even had an inkling that the assessment team noted their standard or
daily objective that is written on the board each day.
Another issue was the bullying issue. It was brought up and to some degree
highlighted in the report. He expressed that he feels that bullying just happens to be
the current buzzword for education. One of his questions to the assessment team
would have been to be to share a middle school that is free from bullying. To be
honest with them, he sees it all around our community and between all groups, from
students to parents and even at Board meetings.
Mr. Hornstra further commented that just as he believes that there is no middle school
free from bullying, he also believes that there is no middle school that cannot get
better. Lennox is a District that has always strived to get better. His concern is with

17
(Public Comments on Closed Session Action Items, Mr. Rick Hornstra, LMS 7/8
Teacher, continued)
this baseline assessment that has voids and inaccurate information that their pursuit to
improvement might be lead in the wrong direction.
Ms. Kathy Rodriguez, LMS 7/8 Teacher
Ms. Rodriguez greeted the Board, Dr. Flores and the community, introducing herself
and sharing that she is a teacher at LMS 7/8. She directed her comment to Dr. Flores
saying that last week she had come to their school to address their concerns about the
needs assessment teams results. At one point one of the teachers asked if there had
been a focus for the study; did the needs assessment have a focus, and she had said
that she didnt know and suggested they come to the meeting to ask parents. She
was not the teacher that asked at the staff meeting last Wednesday but she is here
today to ask was there a focus to the study and if there was a focus to the study, how
did the team arrive at this focus.
Board President Cruz stated that they would follow up with an answer to that question.
The Board recessed at 7:20 p.m. and reconvened to Regular/Open Session at 7:30
p.m.
IV.

RECOGNITION/PRESENTATIONS AND SPECIAL ORDERS OF BUSINESS

Facilities Update
Mr. Jose Dominguez
Mr. Dominguez greeted everyone and stated that as requested at a previous Board
meeting and for those who do not know him in the community, he introduced himself
as Jose Dominguez, Assistant Superintendent of Facilities and Special Projects. The
purpose of this evenings presentation is to provide them with a facilities update and
specific to Huerta/the old Whelan Project and Close-Out audits, LAWA project status,
Jefferson ORG project status, the LMS Gymnasium, and then next steps about moving
forward. He shared that this evening he has Julie Avnit, who is a Facilities Consultant
that specializes in the Office of Public School Construction Close-Out Audits and
reviews and then also they have with them this evening Ms. Pam Johnson, who is also
a Specialist Facilities Consultant and is assisting the District with the LAWA projects,
specifically. With that being said, he stated that he would hand it over to Julie so she
can give a breakdown on the Huerta/Old Whelan Project and the Close-Out Audit.
Ms. Julie Avnit
Ms. Avnit greeted the Board, Dr. Flores and the community, sharing that they had
decided to start these monthly updates for facilities so that everyone is aware of
everything they are doing. She stated that specifically directed to the Huerta/Old
Whelan Project Close-Out Audits, they wanted to give them sort of a status of where it
had been and where it is at this point. There has been a lot of information floating

18
(Facilities Update, Ms. Julie Avnit, continued)
around so they decided to give them a few bullet points to clarify. Ms. Avnit stated that
the preliminary estimate of what they are calling cost overruns, and that has to do with
what the District got as financial hardship funding from the state and currently what
they had to report to them as being spent, has been reduced to approximately $6
million from a previous $11 million, and that had to do with accurately separating the
expenditures between the projects because if they go to bullet number two, the District
received two separate apportionments for that project. One was called financial
hardship/new construction and they got $24.8 million, and the other was called
financial hardship/modernization, which was a portable replacements funding and that
was just a little bit less than $3.5 million. When the previous reports had been filed,
before she came in to help the District, OPSC had looked at those and thought that the
District had overrun by nearly $11 million. They were able to correct that and correct a
lot of information in terms of how it had been reported to reduce that down to right now
approximately $6 million. She stated that this is not a hard and fast number yet; they
are still in negotiations with them and that leads to bullet number three, potential
further reduction of the $6 million by another approximate $1.2 million for LAWA
related expenditures that they will want to take off of the state report. Those were not
off when she first put those together because at that time she wasnt aware of those
LAWA expenditures and these are all ongoing efforts to reduce these cost overruns.
In addition, leading to bullet number four, the OPSC is currently reviewing costs
associated with site acquisitions and the clean-up, meaning the demo of those old
structures and any clean-up associated with those. As to what she can tell from
documentation, those costs were higher than anybody could have anticipated at the
time for a variety of unknown reasons and OPSC has acknowledged that so they are
working with them to provide all the back-up documentation in the hopes of getting
additional eligibility, which means again that they would be able to reduce that $6
million even further and its a process of negotiation and finding all of the
documentation, etc. Trustee Fajardo asked Ms. Avnit if she could tell us what years
they were going back to because she thinks it will frame the conversation to the public
as to which years we are talking about. Ms. Avnit stated that was absolutely right and
shared that the Huerta/Old Whelan Project was constructed in the years it covered
about two and a half years ranging from she thinks it was about late 2006 through
about 2008 and the process to get the funding started much earlier but that was the
approximate construction period. Trustee Fajardo clarified that she is going through
the 2006 through 2008 documentation. Ms. Avnit responded, exactly, all of that past
documentation in the archives within the District. She further explained that this is a
required audit; this is not unusual to the District, this is something that happens with
every district from OPSC. They change their audit procedures occasionally but there
is always an audit, particularly when there is a financial hardship funding that was
received. Ms. Avnit continued on going down to bullet number five, they are
researching the portable kindergarten area for back-up documentation that is going to
be key because of a combination of some new construction funds and what it was
allowed to be applied for, and the portable replacement because if you recall, people

19
(Facilities Update, Ms. Julie Avnit, continued)
that have a history with the District, that site prior to this new construction had a school
on it and it was, as she understands, primarily portables and so the combination of
these funds was given to the District to allow them to tear those down or move them
off and build this permanent school. Board President Cruz asked Ms. Avnit about
going back to the first point, the preliminary estimate of cost overrun, it is mentioned
that it was reduced to $6 million from previously $11 million so she questioned how
much we are in the hole; how much do we owe at this point. Ms. Avnit answered that
at this point it is approximately $6 million but then they are taking into account the fact
that she will be able to remove from that the $1.2 million that were identified as LAWA
expenditures that she had included not knowing that LAWA existed at that point; they
need to take those out. Board President Cruz stated that her question is because of
the funds, when they looked at the funds that they discovered as the audit came
about, so she questioned what funds these were, were they LAWA or ORG. Ms. Avnit
responded that she would clarify that, these funds were not mingled together per se;
the state funds were in one, shall they say, and the LAWA funds were in another but
when the project was constructed and bid out to a single contractor, they did the entire
work which encompassed both the state funds and the LAWA so they just have to go
through and pull out the expenditures that are appropriate for LAWA and pull those out
of their state report so she wants to be very clear that the funds were not mixed
together at that point, just the expenditures that werent separated cleanly, and that is
what they are trying to do now. Mr. Dominguez further explained that it was just going
back in time to try to tag what is new construction, what is modernization, and what is
LAWA but they are going back in time to try to find those documents, receipts and
invoices to show those funds were spent accordingly. Ms. Avnit stated that finally, part
of all of this just as a summarization, bullet number six says that they are researching
and organizing the Districts archives because as with any change in staff of any kind
over that period of time and from six, seven years ago, they are finding files in various
places and documents in various places and part of this whole process is to find what
they need and also organize the rest of it as they go through this because they wont
know what OPSC will want to see until they ask and so the process of researching
some of this that they have already mentioned, and then organizing the rest of it so
that they can find it easily. Dr. Flores stated that she wanted to ask a question, that
question being whether it is customary to have the invoices all over the place or should
they be located should accounting be done in such a way that it is organized. Ms.
Avnit stated that it should be organized and it is not unusual but there is quite a bit of
scattering of information right now and she reiterated that a lot of that happens when a
a staff turnover at any level has been involved. She stated that her recommendation
in moving forward is to have a set organization for the files, specifically for facilities
and specifically for their projects; for each project a separate file system and have
them all in one place; it just makes it so much easier and it is less work for the District
to try to find that stuff later. Board President Cruz asked if the information was found
because there was a big gap in the 2010 2011 year, she asked if that documentation
was found. Ms. Avnit stated that is referring to the Jefferson ORG project and they

20
(Facilities Update, Ms. Julie Avnit, continued)
have continued to find more of the information that they have been looking for in
various places so that is part of the same thing, they are trying to organize that into
something they can make sense of and be able to find it when they need it when the
state asks.
Mr. Dominguez informed everyone that they would now be moving on to the LAWA
project status and he would hand it over to Ms. Pam Johnson.
Ms. Pam Johnson
Ms. Johnson greeted everyone and stated that as they well know, the District is
eligible for reimbursement from LAWA for sound attenuation for aircraft noise in the
schools. The program has evolved from a maximum of $111 million dollars, that was
potentially available for sound mitigation measures to the currently accessible $30
million. She shared that she is just finishing a comprehensive report that will give
them the details of how the program went from $111 million to $30 million; it will give
them an update on the projects that are in that $30 million and it will give them options
for the Board to go after more funding. The major part of the reduction was when the
FAA determined that portable buildings were not eligible in the program. Trustee
Fajardo asked when she says it has evolved from $111 million to $30 million, does
that mean that they reduce it from $111 million to $30, and thats it. Ms. Johnson
answered that is what has happened, and in the comprehensive report she has set it
out for them step by step, through a series of documents starting with the settlement
agreement, thats where the $111 million first appears, and it was an estimate and it
was always subject to FAA approval, so then since 2005, every time the FAA made a
ruling, it got constricted and constricted. The major reduction was when the FAA
declared that portable buildings were not eligible to be sound attenuated. They said
that they wouldnt withstand the work. They also said that they would not replace
portable buildings with permanent buildings; that took out $56 million. Trustee Fajardo
clarified that the FAA had changed the rules. Ms. Johnson answered that they kept
redefining the program and explained that the projects that are left now in the $30
million are Felton, LMS, Buford, Jefferson, Jefferson Preschool, Moffett, LMSTA/the
old Huerta, the new construction at Jefferson, the Animo Leadership Academy, and
the temporary classrooms that can be used during sound attenuation work. Those
projects total $29,700,000; if they add Whelan (now Huerta), then the total is
$30,800,000. Board President Cruz asked regarding the portables, prior to this school
year when they started with the findings and they came to find out that the money that
was approved by the Board to purchase those portables, there were discrepancies
and they had to reapprove funding, in other words, it never got paid orand she
asked Ms. Johnson to clarify this for her. Ms. Johnson asked her if those were the
Jefferson portables. Board President Cruz stated that she believed so because they
had approved them a while back, they had to get rid of the prior ones because they
were not DSA approved, and then they had to purchase those and that was done in,
she believes 2010 2011, and then they had to do it just recently so she asked if she

21
(Facilities Update, LAWA, Ms. Pam Johnson, continued)
could please clarify that discrepancy of the money that was spent once and why they
had to approve it again. Mr. Dominguez explained that was an unforeseen cost to the
District and that was in regard to portables at Jefferson school site, a portion he would
say of approximately ten portables, some of those can be for LAWA and the other
portion was due to the Jefferson construction for the elementary school site. The
process when the school district looked at interim housing, thats what they call that, is
to put the students temporarily in portables while construction is going on, and once
permanent classrooms are completed, then you release the portables and you send
the kids back to the permanent classrooms, so that is interim housing. The interim
housing the District did not follow proper bidding procedures and because of that, they
were liable to pay a claim outside of court, or to avoid a court ruling or a claim, so they
settled out of court and had to pay that amount to meet that obligation and that was to
Edge Construction. Board President Cruz asked if he could please state the amount.
Mr. Dominguez responded that the amount was a little over $300,000, thats
approximate, and that claim was paid out of, a portion of that and they worked very
hard on that as a staff to attach that much to LAWA as possible, but as he explained,
not all of those portables were LAWA portables and some of those portables were
Jefferson ORG and that would hit the General fund and so that is a claim that the
District had to pay to settle out of court. Trustee Navarro asked if to avoid this
process, didnt they have to do some kind of Board meeting, a Special Board meeting,
because he remembers in the past this came about about the portables not being DSA
approved, the ones from LMSTA, but now that they got the new ones, he remembers it
was mentioned to them as a Board that there was a process for them to avoid the bid
process, that they didnt have to pay that money, and he does recall that being said by
an attorney as to whether or not there was a process before even knowing that there
was supposed to be a bidding process. He stated that he did recall that they had that
presentation so he doesnt know if they have looked into that because they did have
that presentation in the past to avoid all of this right here. Mr. Dominguez answered
that they would look into it and one thing that they also found out is that these
portables were in good condition. They are doing research to find out with the DSA
and the state to find out how come those portables were not recalled at close-out as
approved for use. For one reason or another, the District did not go down that path to
get the approval for those portables and so now were trying to backtrack and say,
there is a question mark there, as to why didnt the District do that and that had a
domino effect for the District being in the position it is now but the District could have
when we had the old portables, they could have worked with the state to make those
approved portables and he just wants to be clear on that. Trustee Navarro asked for
the record who had identified the fact that there was supposed to be a bidding process
and we didnt do it; who looked into this. Mr. Dominguez stated that that would be the
team in front of him. Board President Cruz clarified that because the bidding process
wasnt appropriate, they had to pay $330,000. Mr. Dominguez said that it was
approximately $300,000. Board President Cruz confirmed that $300,000 of the
Jefferson ORG but a portion of it did come out of LAWA funds and a portion from

22
(Facilities Update, LAWA, Ms. Pam Johnson, continued)
General funds. Mr. Dominguez stated that this was correct. Board President Cruz
asked if they knew what the percentages were. Mr. Dominguez stated that they had
provided that to the Board at the last meeting but he can get that again for them.
Board President Cruz stated just to have it clear on record for the public to know what
the Board is facing; she wants to be as clear and transparent in this whole process as
we move forward. Ms. Johnson continued with what the FAA has done to the
program, another impact was a recent ruling requiring all of the work to be done by
September 30, 2015 if it is going to be reimbursed. She further shared that staff has
been working on two fronts, the first is to get the projects moving so that we can meet
that new deadline. And second, to work with LAWA to secure more funding that was
spoken to in the settlement agreement. Trustee Fajardo asked Ms. Johnson if that
was common that FAA changes the ruling. Ms. Johnson responded that this is her
first experience with LAWA and the FAA but in the settlement agreement it did say that
LAWA was agreeing to this but the FAA had to approve it so they are the ones that
appear to be in the drivers seat. So the projects are moving; a description of the work
in more detail will be in the comprehensive report that the Superintendent will share
with them at some point but for tonight, they have just given them some highlights.
She stated that broadly speaking, Felton is ready to go, LMS is ready to go, and the
existing Jefferson plans are in DSA. So as soon as an architect is assigned to Buford
and Moffett, then those two projects will be in design. The sound work on the new
construction at Jefferson is part of the larger project so it will continue as that project
starts up. Animo Leadership Academy is done and of course Whelan Elementary was
finished in 2008 so if they keep moving, they will make the September 30, 2015
deadline. She further shared that during the last five months they have had many
conversations in meetings with LAWA personnel and she feels that the staff has
developed an excellent working relationship with them and will be able to move the
$30 million projects forward with their assistance but they agreed, LAWA agreed, that
when it comes to additional funding, they cant help us anymore. So the next step is
for Mr. Dominguez to meet with the local FAA people and he has been in touch with
them and is waiting for a date for them to get back to him but after that meeting, if we
are in the same place, then they will be coming back to them to strategize about next
steps.
Mr. Dominguez continued that they are in the process of working with the FAA in
establishing to increase that funding amount and to also discuss the settlement
agreement and potential future funding. On Jefferson ORG, DSA approval is
imminent; it will happen. They have jumped through every hoop that DSA has put in
front of them as a District. As he mentioned in a previous Board meeting, they are
critiquing the plans very thoroughly through each of the plans but they have been
successful with working with them making sure they can accomplish that goal to get
those approved. They have a follow-up meeting with DSA next week and hopefully
they have more good news after that meeting. So the project team for Jefferson ORG,
they have been working on value engineering to bring the project budget into

23
(Facilities Update, LAWA, Ms. Jose Dominguez, continued)
alignment and doing what they can to maintain the quality of the campus but seeing
where they can save money. As part of the Overcrowding Relief Grant funding, 34
portables must be identified throughout the District for decommissioning from
classroom use at the end of the project and right now they are working with doing an
inventory and making sure that they can tag those 34 classroom portables that they
need to decommission as they can no longer use those portables. Board President
Cruz asked when he says decommissioning, does that mean they would be out for
auction. Mr. Dominguez stated that it could either be for auction or if they have
difficulty releasing those portables, they could donate to other non-profits if they need
those type of portables that can be used. Board President Cruz asked if they are in
use and if they could donate them to non-profits of their choice. Ms. Avnit answered
that the first part of the regulations require that they either demo or like they say
decommission or take them out of use as classrooms; they cant use them for
classrooms anymore; that was part of the agreement to get the money. How they
dispose of them, she doesnt know of any details in the regulations that dictate how
they can dispose of them. It might be something that would be local Board Policy or
other regulations, but in terms of getting this ORG funding, it was simply that they
agreed to demolish them, take them off sight, or otherwise remove them from
classroom use and we are now as part of this portables inventory Districtwide
determining how they are currently being used, where they are at, how many there
are, and identifying those that they can apply towards the 34 portables. Mr.
Dominguez added that they are providing a cost analysis and shared that
decommission means non-classroom instruction so its another thing that the District is
in need of is storage space so they are also looking at what it would look like if they
kept some of these portables and relocated them just for storage only. Trustee
Fajardo asked if those 34 portables have to come from Jefferson or they can come
from the whole District. Mr. Dominguez and Ms. Avnit answered that it was throughout
the District. Ms. Avnit explained that when the original application was put to the state
there were four sites identified. What she can tell them right now as far as regulations
is that it doesnt specify that they have to stay with those four sites, but they have to
get rid of 34 portable classrooms in terms of using them for classroom teaching space.
Knowing OPSC, they may initially come back and say it has to be these four sites and
these numbers on these site but the other reason they are doing this portables
inventory is because if they have hypothetically, if there is one site that has a handful
of portables and some are in worse shape than others, then they would like to be able
to go back to the state and say to let them get rid of the worst ones and keep the
others and she believes that is a negotiation point that they can work on. Board
President Cruz asked if they are being used by students at this point. Mr. Dominguez
responded that that is part of the process of the inventory; some are probably being
used by students, some are not and thats what they are going to look at. Board
President Cruz asked for a brief clarification, she is wondering because these
questions were asked previously with the previous administration and Superintendent
and he said the portables had to be disposed of, the ones from LMSTA, and used for

24
(Facilities Update, LAWA, Mr. Jose Dominguez, continued)
an auction and there were public comments on whether they could have access to
them and it was asked where the auction was going to be so she is just very in awe at
this point with their responses and the responses of the previous cabinet and previous
Superintendent because there were no answers to that if they could actually give them
to non-profits or keep them for other type of use because that is money that is just
leaking out of the District and they have to make sure that they try to retain it and give
it around the community where someone or an organization could really take
advantage of it so she thanked them for their responses. Mr. Dominguez added that
they would follow all state and all OPSC and DSA guidelines and will do what they can
to save this District. He continued that the next piece he is really excited with the
discussions are on the three cell phone tower companies. Right now on the South end
of the property they have temporary cell phone towers and they are in discussion with
those companies to negotiate staying on the property permanently and creating a
potential new revenue stream for the District so they are very excited and this will be
accomplished and make it a win-win. One of the things that they noticed in the
community in their facilities is that there are no lighted playfields in the community and
so that is a need for the District and for the children in the community so if they can
accomplish lighting such as stadium lighting and have these cell phone tower
companies piggy back off of the tower or the lighting structure, it can be a win-win and
then they get revenue, they get the rental income on a monthly basis from those
companies so that is in process and they are in negotiation and discussion with them
right now. Mr. Dominguez commented further that for the upcoming short week for the
Board meetings, they have proposed change orders, those are called PCOs that are
currently being negotiated and will be brought to the Board shortly and this team is
working very hard with Jefferson ORG to negotiate and get them the best price
possible. PCOs typically include four general types, either it is imposed by a code
requirement, design clarifications and/or unknown conditions. An unknown condition
could be plans and/or old school site plans with something that didnt show, like a gas
line or a water line so it was unexpected, unknown, and they found out about it during
construction, and then if the District requests, so thats another option that causes
change orders to come forward and change orders can either decrease or increase
the cost of a project and they will make sure that they outline that when they come
forward. Trustee Navarro asked before they moved on, in their professional opinion of
the team that is looking into these matters, he asked why was the Jefferson ORG
project stopped by DSA. Mr. Dominguez clarified Trustee Navarros question as being
in their professional opinion why was the Jefferson ORG project stopped by DSA and
to the point, the project was stopped by DSA because the District started construction
with non-approved state plans and once the Division of State Architects found out that
they were moving forward with the construction project with non-approved plans, they
put them on hold and that is to the point and that is why it is on hold. Now they are
working very hard to get that stamp of approval to get back to work. Trustee Navarro
asked if there was documentation to support those statements. Mr. Dominguez
answered that he had not seen the documentation. Board President Cruz stated that it

25
(Facilities Update, LAWA, Mr. Jose Dominguez, continued)
had been provided to the Board during Closed Session and at this point it is all out in
the open public but the Board was presented with information even at the time of
closing and at previous Board meetings as they have been doing the audit, as they
have been working through the process and trying to come out with the documentation
for all evidence so they could get on track with their District funds, our kids monies, so
it has been presented. Trustee Navarro stated that she may have gotten it but he
didnt get it. Mr. Dominguez asked Trustee Navarro what the District has done as well
is that they have obtained a facilities attorney, an attorney that specializes in facility
litigation to assist the District in reducing their liability for potential further losses but he
can assure him from the direction of this Board and from the Superintendent, that they
will hold all those involved accountable for moving forward with non-approved state
plans and that is the other reason why they have a facilities attorney. Board President
Cruz stated that she is not sure if Trustee Navarro was there present or if he left early
on the day that this information was presented to the Board but it has been. Trustee
Navarro stated that the problem that he has is that every time he requests for a report
of anything, it is either ignored, it is either delayed, or its not there so what can he say.
Board President Cruz asked Trustee Navarro if he wanted to request the information.
She referred to Dr. Flores. Dr. Flores stated to Trustee Navarro that there wasnt a
report, it was a presentation in Closed Session and he may have left early or absent
that day but it was not a written report that was given and they had requested the team
to give the a chronology and the fact that DSA stopped the work, they did not know it,
she thinks they stopped December 10th and they did not become aware of it until the
second week in November. Mr. Dominguez corrected her that they stopped the work
in mid October. Dr. Flores continued that from that point on she requested that the
team look into it and they gave us that chronology in Closed Session. Trustee Navarro
stated that he understood that but as the Superintendent, he asked her doesnt she
believe that all Board members should be equally informed on everything that happens
in the school district no matter if he left for medical reasons. Dr. Flores stated that she
agreed with him. Trustee Navarro reiterated that he has requested several things and
she had said he was going to have some kind of conversation with Mr. Dominguez, a
conversation that happened but was very limited. Dr. Flores stated that they werent
privy to any written report, it was a presentation and she asked Mr. Dominguez to have
a conversation with him because that was his area. Trustee Fajardo stated that since
it is now out in the open, can the team put together a timeline so it is there, so it is
actually a physical timeline that the public can access as well as the Board in staying
with transparency as they continue to talk about it, she thinks it is important to have a
timeline of what they have found so it is there as documentation for the public. Mr.
Dominguez stated that he would open to transparency but he would like to check with
legal counsel, their facilities attorney first, because as he mentioned, its not in his
previous reports he said that the potential for litigation, but we will have litigation now.
Board President Cruz stated that she thinks what she is hearing the Board say is that
they want the timeline documentation but because of the legal nature of the situation,
maybe for the next Board meeting or a couple Board meetings, she knows that they

26
(Facilities Update, LAWA, Mr. Jose Dominguez, continued)
have a lot of work before them, but agendize it in Closed Session so all Board
members could have access to the timeline, the supporting documentation but it would
have to first, before going to the public, be in Closed Session. Dr. Flores stated that
she would direct Mr. Dominguez and the team to check with legal counsel first and ask
them what they can divulge and she stated to Trustee Navarro that if that they would
go forward and do that but they have to ask legal counsel what they can permit
publically at this time. Trustee Navarro commented that since they are on legal
counsel, there are some concerns that he has because personally, he believes that he
has been lied to about something that happened in Closed Session so he urges them
as they have had this discussion in Closed Session with the proper attorneys because
there are a lot of ifs going out and about so he wants to make sure that they get the
proper information and he does not like being lied to. Board President Cruz stated to
Trustee Navarro that while they have their Board meetings for him to stay through the
Closed Session information, because when they are absent or leave early, information
gets missed, but they will go ahead and have their attorney look into this matter and
see how they can have these items in Closed Session, just so all Board members can
have the information so she again asked Trustee Navarro to please stay through the
Closed Session so he can have that information.
Mr. Dominguez said that in moving on, they have the LMS Gymnasium as they know
its a resource and a staple of the community and he is very excited to say that plans
are under review at DSA and they are pending. The work includes new hardwood
flooring, new retractable bleachers, basketball and backstop repairs, painting and
relocating the drinking fountain and also handling the plumbing leaks that associate
with that, new court runoff pads, new lighting and automatic controls, new sound
system with assisted listening, and other components. Trustee Fajardo asked if they
have an estimated date of when this would happen. Mr. Dominguez answered that it
is under review right now and this is going to be a planning decision that they are
going to have to review because as he mentioned, this is the staple of Lennox School
District so as they know the gym is being used for music, sports, community events,
etc., and so when this happens, the gym is going to have to be shut down and they
are going to have to do a communication not only throughout the District but to the
community because that is something that in the long term is going to benefit all of the
kids but its going to be shut down for probably the summer and that is something they
are going to have to work on planning but they are also going to get input from the
student body and school site administration on the painting, the school logo and they
want to show school pride in that gym and they want colors.
Mr. Dominguez said that moving forward, as he mentioned, he is focused on getting
the DSA approval on the Jefferson ORG. They have a meeting scheduled within the
week; the goal is to resume construction on Jefferson ORG and get that completed.
The components, he knows the Board asked the last time, for LAWA they have the
bidding on Felton that is coming up, and then they also have the bidding on LMS

27
(Facilities Update, LAWA, Mr. Jose Dominguez, continued)
LAWA project, and then to continue to locate documentation to further reduce old
Whelan audit figures, so he knows that Julie touched on that it was $11 million, they
got it to $6 million; they want to get it lower and thats what they are trying to work on is
continuing locating that documentation to help them get that dollar amount lower.
Schedule a meeting with the local FAA Dr. Flores commented to Mr. Dominguez
that the reason they need to get that down lower is because if they do not get it down
lower, they will have to repay it out of the General fund so that is why it is so important
that Ms. Avnit goes forward and tries to find every single invoice so that we dont have
to pay anything back. Mr. Dominguez continued that the other piece is to develop an
inventory of portables to identify the 34 portables needed for the Jefferson ORG
project, and then to see if there is flexibility in the 34, if they can pick and choose the
ones they want to give up, not them telling them which ones they have to give up.
Upcoming requests for Board approval, as he mentioned, they have the architect
contracts for Buford and Moffett coming up soon and then the testing company for
sound attenuation, so whenever they do LAWA work in a classroom, theres a pretest
of sound decibels, and a post test, and that is done by an outside company so that will
be coming up to finalize for Animo, and then the change orders on Jefferson ORG
project, those are going to be coming to them shortly and the change orders will be on
an ongoing basis so they will the first ones coming to a Board meeting soon, and thats
all they have.
Board President Cruz thanked Mr. Dominguez and asked if the Board had any
questions at this time. Trustee Fajardo asked Ms. Avnit if they had a timeline on when
this fine or something is going to kick in or are they giving us time. Ms. Avnit
answered that according to regulations, once a project is reported as 100% complete,
OPSC has two years to open that audit and then from there its just a matter of
negotiations until they can arrive at an agreeable figure to both. She expressed that
her mindset is zero dollars but there is no timeline other than that. She stated that she
can honestly tell them that in the last couple of months, because of staff changes and
how much they have been having going on, she had gotten a little concerned that
maybe OPSC had sent a letter and it wasnt reaching the right people so she
contacted them and to our benefit at this time, OPSC had lost their own file; they lost
their copy of the Districts file, which buys them time to continue to find the stuff that
they need to find. Other than that there really is no timeline.
The Board thanked Mr. Dominguez, Ms. Avnit and Ms. Johnson for the information.
Dr. Flores stated that she personally wanted to thank the team as they have spent a
lot of time working with this and it will benefit them as a District, in all the different
projects it is very, very important because these projects are for the children, they
have the Huerta School, they do not want to have to pay a fine because that money
would be taken from the budget, the General budget and would negatively impact the
District. The LAWA funding, she is very encouraged because the LAWA people they
have a very good relationship with and she wants to thank them personally and

28
(Facilities Update, Dr. Flores, continued)
publically because they have pursued developing those relationships and they are now
on track, all of their reports now are submitted on time and they are not at risk of losing
the funding because of their efforts and they slightly said that the beginning of the, or
the restart of the Jefferson ORG project, the new construction that we have here at
Jefferson is imminent and it hasnt been an easy job because DSA is very, very
particular and it is to their benefit of their political and interpersonal relationships that
they have established with the Director, that they have at DSA downtown L. A., they
are fasttracking us because they do not know but every day that the construction is not
on, the District pays a fine, every single day, and so we have to make sure that we
move forward in terms of getting our construction started again so she thanked them
very much and asked to give them another round of applause.
Second Interim Budget Report and Other Budget Information
Board President Cruz announced that they would now be going into the Second
Interim presentation with Mr. Dominguez and Pheno Taylor. Dr. Flores stated that she
would like to introduce Ms. Pheno Taylor, and asked her to stand, sharing that she is
the new Interim Director of Fiscal Services. Mr. Dominguez stated that it is all about
accomplishing these things and you can accomplish more in teamwork and he says
that because LACOE highly recommended Pheno Taylor. She has 45 years
experience in working in school finance; she came highly recommended from LACOE
and the District is very lucky to have her as part of Lennox School District serving in an
interim capacity. Mr. Dominguez further commented that he would also like to thank
the business staff that assisted in retrieving the financial data to complete the Second
Interim for this evening. Mr. Dominguez stated that he would go ahead and start until
they got the PowerPoint up and running so the Board will have the presentation. The
interim certifications, and this is for the Second Interim and by Ed Code school districts
need to provide a certification to the county and then to the state and those
certifications are a positive certification, a qualified certification, and a negative
certification. Positive is that a district will meet its obligations in the current and
subsequent years so a positive is that you meet your financial obligations all three
years. Qualified certification means that you may not meet the financial obligations in
the current or two outgoing years. And then the negative certification means that the
district will not meet its obligations in the current or subsequent years, so for the
Second Interim the District is self-certifying qualified due to growing deficit spending.
The fiscal challenges that we face as a District and that we have faced as a District by
is the full revenue limit funding reduced by the State of California by 22%, so the state
has cut the Districts funding by 22.2.% from full funding. He posed the question of
what does that mean sharing that it means that the Disrtrict is getting .77 cents on the
dollar, so the District is getting cut by the state but still have to run the educational
programs in the District but if it takes a dollar, the District only gets .77 cents for that
dollar. Tier III programs reduced by 25% since 2008 2009 with no restoration
projected by the state so it is sad, its kind of reality that the Tier III programs have
been reduced by 25% since 2008 2009 and there is no hint or inkling that districts in

29
(Second Interim Report, Mr. Jose Dominguez, continued)
the state are ever going to get that money so the state is probably just going to keep
that and the districts in the state will never see it. The other challenge that we have is
in the District is declining enrollment, which equals a loss of revenue. Another
challenge is uncertainty of construction liabilities, and as they mentioned during the
facilities update, potential penalties and legal costs in association with Jefferson ORG
and the Whelan/Huerta project. Depleted 3% reserve in June for the fiscal year 2014
2015 and he will show them that in the multi-year. And then the county has also
requested a need for a fiscal recovery plan directly related to ongoing shortfalls and
deficit spending. Trustee Fajardo asked Mr. Dominguez when he said qualified, so
right now as a District, it may not meet its financial obligations, asking if that was what
it means. Mr. Dominguez responded that in the third year out, yes. She confirmed in
the third year out, not this year right now, not next year, but in 2014 - 2015. Mr.
Dominguez answered that was correct and that the reason the District is able to meet
its financial obligations this year and next year is being they are taking a huge hit to
the Districts reserves and he will show them that. He further stated they are doing
everything they can to take that on in the reserves to minimize the cuts throughout the
District. Moving on to revenues, Mr. Dominguez stated that revenues after first
interim, $425,000 plus, a slight increase in the revenue limit, new mandated cost
reimbursement, a slight decrease in local revenues, and a slight decrease in
encroachment and so that is the impact of the revenue, the key bullet points that he
wanted to point out. Expendituresthey have obtained a positive adjustment of
projected certificated salaries of $548,000, and classified salaries of $242,000,
recognition of savings from benefits associated with these salaries of $135,000, an
increase of $793,000 for books and supplies and services. And there is the
unexpected construction claim capital outlay expenditure of $393,000 and that is split
between LAWA and General funds. Trustee Fajardo questioned whether that money
had been paid out. Mr. Dominguez answered that it has been paid out as an
expenditure and as in the bullet point, he put it is unexpected because as a District
they are not planning to pay that; it was an unforeseen claim that came up. Revenues
continue for 2013 2014 and 2014 2015, he just wants to stress to the Board and
the community and staff that the local control formula is not finalized and not included
in the Second Interim budget; its not official and so therefore not being official from the
state, its not sent down to the county and districts in California. Trustee Fajardo
asked what the local control formula is that he is talking about. Mr. Dominguez
explained that the local control formula is a new funding formula from the Governors
office and the Governor has proposed a local control formula model for districts in
California, however, it needs to go through the legislature and the various budget
committees so it hasnt even been approved yet. Right now theyre negotiating in
politics and they are reviewing the whole formula and more to come in the May Revise
but that is not included in this Second Interim because it is not finalized. COLA is
included for 2013 2014 at 1.6% and 2014 2015 at 2.2%. The deficit factor included
each year at 22.2% and moving on to the next page, this is something that he would
like to thank the Business staff and Pheno for assisting him in this, the previous First

30
(Second Interim Report, Mr. Jose Dominguez, continued)
Interim they had a decline of 100 enrollment and he will show them the chart later on
in the presentation. They adjusted that to be more realistic or an alignment with what
they have been losing and now they adjusted that and projected to 50 kids that they
will be losing in 2013 2014, and once again 50 kids in 2014 - 2015. As a District
they need to work on holding their own and that is something that they will work on.
QEIA revenue included through 2014 2015 and then they are using the state
categorical flexibility to the full potential that they can. Trustee Fajardo asked when
QEIA ends. Mr. Dominguez answered that QEIA ends in 2014 2015 but there are
rumors on the street and legislation is being drafted through CTA that they have taken
the lead on this on reestablishing that funding. Dr. Flores shared that CTA is taking
the lead and because we are keeping our QEIA, we are in line to, if they do reallocate
the money that is left over in reserves, we are poised to receive that money. If we do
not keep QEIA, we would not be in line to receive that money so she commends us as
a District in terms of investing in small class sizes and also maintaining our QEIA. Mr.
Dominguez stated that this was a good point because the Districts that stay in QEIA
the way it is kind of written now are the only ones that are eligible for the funding in
those outgoing years so right now Lennox is still participating as long as we can. Mr.
Dominguez continued that the District self-certifies qualified, and as he mentioned, has
certified its abilities to meet its obligations in 2014 2015. The Second Interim does
not include items not certain, such as retirement, layoffs, and other proposed budget
adjustments. It is from the First Interim to 2012 2013 and 2013 2014, current
bargaining unit agreements included and projections, and then in 2014 2015, those
agreements expire and so employee compensation restores to the 2009 2010 levels,
no furloughs and no reductions in pay as of 2014 2015, and thats where it comes to
as a District to continue to work together. He went on to the multi-year, the revenue,
the one key thing he wants to point out is when they look at their revenue for 2012
2013 and the outgoing years, for the first year it is 25.6, the expenditures are 28.0,
which is a deficit of $2.5 million. Going to 2013 2014, 26.5 for revenue, the
expenditures are 29.2, which is a deficit of $2.6 million. In 2014 2015, 26.5 is the
revenue, expenditures are 30.8, which is a deficit of $4.3 million. With that being said,
Mr. Dominguez went to additional available reserves, and this is what he pointed out
earlier, $7.3 was the initial reserve amount. Because of the deficit spending, it took a
hit and if you look at it 2013 2014, it has dropped down to $4.6 million. Then going
to 2014 2015, now they are in the negative $237,000 on the reserves, and so they
are doing what they can; the reserves are taking the brunt of those hits because of
deficit spending and we need to, as a District, review everything that supports that
excess spending and make those adjustments. So there is where they have the facing
the challenge and as they notice, it is in 2014 2015 that they do not have the
reserves to take on that hit nor the capacity financially and that is the question mark so
there is work to be done. Moving on, Mr. Dominguez further shared the revenue
assumptions, 3.2 for COLA, as he mentioned earlier, 1.6 in the outgoing year, and 2.2
in 2014 2015, there is a deficit factor of 22% and thats where they get .77 cents on
the dollar. On student attendance, he wanted to point out that has been adjusted from

31
(Second Interim Report, Mr. Jose Dominguez, continued)
100 down to 50 and he wanted to mention to the Board and to the community and
administration present this evening that the budget is a living document that changes
every day and they assume that it would be 50 kids that we lose; if they lose 45, then
that is great news and they adjust the numbers for 45. If they lose 60 kids, then they
have to make the adjustment for 60 kids. Then the ADA budget adoption is also listed
there. Moving on is where he would really like to point out the enrollment. In 2007
2008 we had 5,832 kids. In 2009 2010, we had 5,548. Then in 2011 2012, we
had 5,202. And then in 2012 2013, we have 5,152. So we are decreasing declining
enrollment; it has slowed down but we are still losing kids. We need to figure out why
and look at the competitive advantages. We have neighboring districts neighboring
charters; we need to take a whole review of the District and hold on to the kids that we
do have and the other component of that is the 5,152 kids that we do have, we need to
increase our average daily attendance so that is something that as a District we will
work on. Mr. Dominguez commented that we are doing good and he wanted to
commend the principals and teachers because they are doing a great job on our
average daily attendance and as an elementary school district, he hasnt seen or they
are usually in the mid to high 80s, and here in Lennox, we are at 93%; that is probably
one of the lowest as a district so they are doing a great job. Mr. Dominguez continued
with changes in enrollment, this shows the projection so for 2007 2008, they
projected a loss of 245, in 2010 2011, they projected 239, and he just wanted to
point out 2012 2013 and 2013 2014, they are going with 50. Expenditure
assumptions, this hasnt changed from the First Interim. Grade K, option 2, fully
implemented 100% funding, grades one to three, fully implemented 100% funding, and
that goes forward. In 2014 2015, grades one through three, fully implemented 100%
funding, some reduction due to sunset of legislation but as he mentioned in the
previous discussion, that is pending. QEIA, fully implemented at the various sites and
then grades four through five, 29 to 1. Moving on to other assumptions, employee
compensation, there are the agreements and he commends LTA and CSEA local
chapters for Lennox for working together and coming together at the table and
because of that, they were successful in taking eight furlough days, less 3%, and %
restored as of December 2012 and it is outlined there but he would like to point out
that in 2014 2015, those agreements expire. Staff reduction certificated, retention of
Class Size Reduction Districtwide, and QEIA, and moving forward and they were
going to try to hold on as long as they can so they can obtain that funding for the 2014
2015 school year. Reduction of five teaching FTEs, full-time employees, due to the
decline in enrollment, he would like to mention that is approximately 2.5 teachers now
because now they made the adjustment from losing 100 ADA to 50 so that needs to
be an edit there so from 5 to 2.5. Staff reductions, classified currently staffed and
budgeted and moving forward and now going into health and welfare benefits; this is
an interest cost to try to put a target on. Actual costs are budgeted in the Second
Interim for the outgoing years, he would not want to put this District in jeopardy so they
are being very conservative on their 10% assumption and that would also be adjusted
when that cost is a reality to the District. Mr. Dominguez then posed the question of

32
(Second Interim Report, Mr. Jose Dominguez, continued)
so what is next? District negotiations, coming back to the table as a team. District
stakeholders continue to brainstorm on solutions to eliminate deficit spending in order
to maintain positive status in the long term and then with direction from the Board to
keep cuts and reduction as far away from the classroom as possible, submit a Second
Interim report to LACOE by March 15, 2013, adjust current year budget and multi-year
budgets as needed and then we are, as every other district, awaiting the release of the
Governors May revise and budget update and then coming soon to our District is the
FCMAT review of all of our financial documents, policies and internal procedures and
that is where we are at. So, its good news, the pain is not as big as in the First
Interim, but they still have work to do and they have to work together to accomplish
that.
Board President Cruz asked Mr. Dominguez regarding sometimes the fluctuations in
the interim reports, sometimes they give them a number, then they go to the Second
Interim report, and then they get the actuals. She asked if he could explain a little bit
on the fluctuations, why that discrepancy. Mr. Dominguez explained that this varies
per area but in laymans terms, the easiest way to explain it is that in the beginning of
the year they budgeted $100 for fuel cost, and so they say it is going to take $100 for
fuel to transport Special Ed students to the county programs and by mid-year they
realize that that theyve spent $60 but theyre not done and then by the time towards
the end of the year comes around, it looks like theyre going to on pace, hit $120 in
fuel costs, so they make that adjustment based on the previous months of
expenditures and so then in the Second Interim, they will see either an adjustment
going up or down, and fuel costs is a good example because fuel prices change and
that is something they cannot forecast but they try to chart it as best as they can.
Others are staffing, they need to hire more teachers, hire more classified, that changes
the budget amount that they had set for classified or certificated salaries if they
budgeted a certain amount for teachers, hired some teachers and then put a hold on
that because of declining enrollment the need wasnt there, so those are assumptions
that play out throughout the year. Board President Cruz asked if they were not
projecting the ADA, the students daily attendance. She stated that yes, that fluctuates,
but she doesnt think it fluctuates as much as the actuals in the interim, in other words,
they have so many students that it seems to her that it would be a given that they have
so many services to provide for every child given that every child differs regarding the
programs, but they have a number set and she is still kind of curious because yes,
prices change and it is really out of our control but when it comes to the students, he is
saying we have like a 50 student decline, at least that is the projected number, and
given that number and given the actual ADA or daily attendance of the students, she
asked if they can be more accurate with laser point type of projections so they are not
hitting and missing. Mr. Dominguez responded that he thinks with the comparison
with the First Interim to this Second Interim, he thinks that we accomplished that,
becoming more efficient in projecting our costs and so that is why we have in the multiyear projection, he knows in the previous discussion they were looking at a $6 million

33
(Second Interim Report, Mr. Jose Dominguez, continued)
dollar cut, now theyve gotten that down so they have done their due diligence in
adjusting the budget to meet current costs and where they over budgeted or the
assumptions were out of alignment, they realigned those assumptions and make that
necessary in the Second Interim so they are on the right track. Board President Cruz
thanked Mr. Dominguez and stated that what drives the budget are the people, the
children of this community, they are the focus point and it all revolves around them.
Again, her question regarding the ADA and doing the adjustments, she thanked him
very much for getting them closer to servicing the children with what they need and
projecting these numbers accurately.
Trustee Navarro stated that just for the record, if anyone is interested in seeing the
budget trends that they have in the school district, it is available on the website. There
are different PowerPoint presentations and reports as to what has happened in the
past and how it is effecting us now so everyone can do their due diligence by checking
on the website. Mr. Dominguez thanked Trustee Navarro and stated that one thing
that he is working on in the District is transparency and open lines of communication
so Trustee Navarro, in a discussion that he had with him previously, also mentioned
on how important it was for the Board and so what they would like to do and what they
are going to do is post an electronic copy of all of their financial audits and the
interims, the First Interim, the Second Interim, and the Adopted Annual Budget and so
any one in the community, parents, staff, can see those.
Dr. Flores added that she would also like to thank Ms. Taylor because it was a team
effort between Ms. Taylor and Mr. Dominguez and expressed that she did a
phenomenal job as well just coming on board two or three weeks ago. Ms. Taylor
stated that it had been four weeks. Dr. Flores continued that they both worked really
hard and she wanted to thank her very, very much because it is due on March 15,
2013 and she wanted to remind the Board that they will be adopting it in the action
items and she thanked them again.
V.

REPORTS
A. Lennox Students (ASB and Officers)
None
B. Youth Trustee
Ms. Perdomo greeted everyone commenting on the fact that maybe the reason there
were no officers is because it was very late and maybe something to consider. She
stated that she was going to keep it brief sharing that talking about kindergarten
enrollment at Moffett that is going on, and commented on the upcoming Science Fair,
which should be really cool. She continued on the Dr. Seuss event which is next week
and further shared that at Dolores Huerta every month they have a student of the
month and so this month they were rededicated to students in Math and they are

34
(Reports, Youth Trustee, Miss Jocelyne Perdomo, continued)
having a spirit week next week and she is proud to announce that the cheerleading
team that they have there won first place in all categories in their last competition. At
Jefferson their drill competition was supposed to be two weeks ago on Saturday but
now they are having their competition on Sunday, so hopefully they will win. Buford is
also having their competition this Saturday and Sunday and they had a walkathon
recently and raised $200 for the students and so yea to them, she is very proud of
them. They are also going to participate in the Science Fair that is coming on May
25th. Felton is already started with Cinco de Mayo so with them participating they
know that is going to be great. She commented on the soccer team having a game
last week and they have a new lighting and sound system and they are going to use it
for the first time for the carnival and that is thanks to Mr. Gonzalez and Mr. Tutt. At
LMS6, the fifth graders met today and they are talking about placement. They had a
kickball game, students versus teachers, and she is sad to say because she is a
student that the teachers won but it was really great. She shared that only 45 kids
didnt attend so that was really good and instead of attending they had communication
about how to improve their grades, how to keep on target, how they can attend the
projects, etc. Last Saturday for the CIF championship, the boys soccer team won. At
Moffett, this Monday she went to tutor and be a mentor for ten of the students from
Interact. They are counting on more students attending. And one thing she wanted to
bring up to the Board is that the AP Psychology students at LMSTA still dont have
books and she brought that up in December; thats a whole year that theyve gone
without any books and she doesnt know why. Dr. Flores asked that she repeat what
she had said. Ms. Perdomo reiterated that she knew for a fact that the AP Psychology
students did not have books and that they are using photocopies. Ms. Perdomo asked
the Board and the public if there was anything that they would like her to report on
because right now she is just kind of going to each school asking them what is new
and what they would like her to present to the Board but she knows that Dr. Flores had
given her a subject of seeing how LMS 7/8 wants to be reorganized; would they like it
to be more like LMS6 so she just wanted something more straightforward that she
could go on so she was just wondering. Board President Cruz thanked Ms. Perdomo
for her report and further stated to Dr. Flores that it is very disconcerting that the AP
Psychology students dont have textbooks and are working with copies stating that the
money is for them and asked her if she could please look into that and she stated that
regarding an assignment. Ms. Perdomo asked if there was something in particular
that the Board wants her to look for. Board President Cruz shared that they are going
to have a Leadership Retreat, theyre still looking at the date, but as soon as that is
established, she would like the Youth Trustee to join them for the length of time, it is
pretty lengthy but they could adjust their Agenda so that she doesnt have to be there
for the whole thing but they could work together. She stated that was one option but
she would love to talk to her further as there is always room for improvement. Ms.
Perdomo stated that is what she is there for, if they have any questions or anything in
particular they want the students to speak about. Board President Cruz stated that
they would start doing a list and she would like the Youth Trustee to join them at their

35
(Reports, Youth Trustee, Miss Jocelyn Perdomo, continued)
Leadership Retreat during the Open Session and she thanked her for her enthusiasm
and to go forward with her leadership.
C. Lennox Parents (PTA/DELAC/SPAC/School Site Council)
None
D. Associations
I.
Teachers Association (LTA)
Mr. Brian Guerrero, LTA President, greeted everyone, saying that he had spoken
several times this year in appreciation of the work that the District has done at the
direction of the Board straightening out the Seniority List and peoples personnel files.
A lot of people put a lot of work into getting the job done right and he feels like it was a
tremendous step forward for all of them. The District has also taken several other very
positive steps this year at their direction and he stated that they dont want to lose a
single one of their amazing teachers but the number of RIFs issued this year is at least
a reasonable number given the Districts current budget projections, 22, rather than
the wildly inflated 100 of last year. The District is offering a generous early retirement
and voluntary separation program, which may actually alleviate the need for some, if
not all of the RIFs. And the District is looking for other ways to make cuts away from
the classroom and away from students, but there is one area in which he feels that the
District has taken a bit of a step backwards. He is sure that everyone remembers the
huge controversies last year about skipping groups of teachers because they
participated in one program or another and he remembers the courageous step that
they took when they said no, and they decided to respect teacher experience and
seniority above all else. And then they all came together and they all sacrificed to
make sure that last years class sizes were maintained and not one teacher lost their
job. This year in this years RIF resolution, they all have a criteria of skipping again
and asked that he be allowed to be clear, the union and teachers absolutely
understand that sometimes, someone, no matter how good they are or how many
years theyve been teaching, simply doesnt have the right credential for a particular
assignment. Putting a junior person in a position like that isnt skipping, its
compliance with the law. Skipping is when you go beyond the law and when you start
picking and choosing who stays and who goes. To paraphrase this years skipping
criteria:
Number one, No Child Left Behind compliant teachers are over non-No Child Left
Behind compliant teachers. Now there isnt any problem with that, that is compliance
with the law.
Teachers who have the credential to work with EL students and those who dont,
again, thats a compliance issue and everybody in Lennox has a credential to work
with EL students, so thats not a big deal.

36
(Reports, Associations, Lennox Teachers Association (LTA), Mr. Brian Guerrero,
President, continued)
Special Ed teachers with autism authorization over those who dont is also a
compliance issue.
The fourth one however, this is where they start to see some problems. Teachers with
single subject credentials who are currently teaching single subject classes are
skipped. Thats not compliance. Single subject credentials are great; he has them.
But a teacher with a multi-subject credential who has been cut from an elementary
school can teach at the middle school. Its how many of them at the middle school
actually got started coming from elementary so to ignore the experience and the
seniority and not let elementary school teachers move to the middle school because
they dont have a single subject credential is a choice on the part of the District. Even
worse, some of the elementary school teachers who have been RIFd do have single
subject credentials and authorizations but because they are not currently using them,
they are blocked by the resolution from moving into the middle school.
The fifth, teachers with National Board Certification Certificates are skipped. Now
National Board Certifications are a fantastic thing but they were never meant to be a
tool to be used for skipping over this teacher or that teacher by putting priority on those
versus those who have worked in the District for students for many years.
Theres a sixth criteria that follows the same as the fourth in protecting teachers with
single-subject credentials at the middle school. Mr. Guerrero stated that just like last
year, they, the teachers are willing and ready to work together to find a solution to the
budget issues that we all face and they hope to fully avoid the RIFs in one way or
another. At their direction, the District fixed the seniority list for the first time in years.
Now he asks them all to respect that and respect the work that was done and please,
just following the seniority list.
II.
California School Employees Association (CSEA)
Ms. Bertha Rios, CSEA Vice President, greeted everyone sharing that she is the Vice
President of CSEA. She further expressed that there have been continuous
anonymous false allegations about her as the CSEA Treasurer. For the last three
months false, anonymous letters have been circulating the District and even given to
parents with false information. Since she felt the rumors were childish nonsense, she
didnt care, but now that they have gone to an extreme by falsely accusing her to the
District Attorneys office, she feels it is imperative that the rumors be addressed. She
will address the rumors by stating that she has evidence disproving all of these false
allegations and will gladly show them to whoever doubts her. In 2007, she was
elected by the CSEA members for the Secretary position. After nine months she felt
that she did not fit with that specific E-Board so she decided to resign as the
Secretary. In 2010, she was elected as the Treasurer by the CSEA members but was
never officially the Treasurer by Corporate Office. Assuming the unofficial role of

37
(Reports, Associations, Classified Employees Association (CSES), Ms. Bertha Rios,
Vice President, continued)
Treasurer, she requested the ledger several times but it was never given to her. She
has proof of all of the requests as well. In 2011 she was elected as the Vice President
of CSEA. Part of her role as the Vice President is to keep in constant communication
with HR to do her job representing the members and fighting for justice. She is
confused as to why this blasphemy on her character as the Treasurer when this has
already been investigated by the authorities. Ms. Rios continued with information
regarding an issue of being sent to a budget conference and issues in the Human
Resources Department along with Ms. Luz Riley, who went in place of another person.
E. Superintendent
Dr. Flores stated that she only has four topics and they have already heard two of
them, those being the Facilities and Construction Presentation and she just wanted to
reiterate that given the circumstances, she hopes that they will mitigate any kind of
fines so it doesnt hit our budget. And given the Second Interim presentation of the
budget, it is very, very important that they work together to mitigate again, any layoffs.
She commented that Mr. Guerrero just mentioned about the PARS, about the early
retirement, and that was a recommendation that she brought to the Board because
when they do that, they can mitigate any kinds of layoffs and they suggested that it be
very attractive so that teachers could take time to also make decisions as she
understands that last year it was done in a very rushed way but now they have a
timeline and everything is open and transparent so this was very helpful and she
assured them they will look into the budget and try to mitigate any layoffs that they can
because they do not want to impact their classrooms. The direction of the Board then,
to her and Cabinet is to stay away, as far away from the classroom and they will do
that and they should know and have the confidence that this will happen. The next
study that will be presented later on during action items will be the Lennox School
Reorganization Study. They asked Total School Solutions Dr. Alvarez to present that
later and it is with that in mind in terms of redirecting funds so that they do go back to
the classroom and to the children and that they streamline the administrative services.
Lastly, they have the Lennox Middle School Needs Assessment presentation that will
be presented by Ms. Becky Wetzel and her team; they are here tonight and that again
was based on parents requests. She expressed that she believes that the parents,
whose children that we teach, are very important, that they have to listen to them, they
are the first teachers of the children and she thinks they should work collaboratively
with them and they requested this so the Board honored it and she wants to thank the
team ahead of time for their hard work. They did an incredible job in a short time that
was given and so they will be presenting. She stated that she wanted to also move on
to the Health Fair at Huerta, an upcoming event will be Saturday, March 23rd and
asked if they could please hand out the green leaflet, she commented that Lennox is
very community oriented, they have had this tradition of having health fairs for the
community, for the Lennox community, and as they can see in the flyer, again it will be
on Saturday, March 23rd at Dolores Huerta from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. The services offered

38
(Reports, Superintendents Report, Dr. Flores, continued)s
will be doctor visits, mammographies, dental screenings, visual screenings, and health
workshops. She asked that they please share this with their parents and community,
as it is open to everyone. The Superintendent continued that she wanted to move to
handouts and she would like the Board to have the current Enrollment Report so that
they can see it, and because of time, she handed out the Superintendents Follow-Up
Report. She shared that for those who had never been to a Board meeting, she
implemented a follow-up report on requests and questions from the Board that include
audience and also Board members and there is an update that they give every Board
meeting. This was implemented so they follow through. Sometimes they cant follow
through in a week or two but eventually they do and it just depends on the request so
she would like to give the Board an update on this as well, and that is her report.
The Board recessed at 9:01 p.m. and reconvened to Regular/Open Session at 9:17
p.m.
VI.

NEW BUSINESS
A.

Instructional Services
1. On the motion of Trustee Fajardo, duly seconded by Trustee Ibarra, and by a
vote of 5 - 0, the Board of Trustees approved expenses for Dr. Jose Fuentes,
Neuro Psychologist, to do an independent education evaluation for the 2012
2013 school year, as a result of a settlement agreement for Special Education
due process hearing. Cost to be paid with IDEA-Basic Local Assistance
Entitlement funds.
(Est. cost $5,000)
(01.3-33100.0-57700-11100-5810-0000019)
2. On the motion of Trustee Fajardo, duly seconded by Trustee Navarro,s and by
a vote of 5 - 0, the Board of Trustees approved expenses for Arlene Bell,
Attorney, as a result of a settlement agreement for Special Education due
process hearing. Cost to be paid with IDEA-Basic Local Assistance Entitlement
funds.
(Est. cost $5,000)
(01.3-33100.0-57700-21000-5820-0000019)

39

B.

Business Services

Trustee Navarro questioned why they were just getting the report today. Dr. Flores
stated that because they had just hired the Director of Fiscal Services, they worked
over the weekend. She stated that she did ask them to get it done but it was just a
tremendous amount of work and so they worked Saturday, Sunday and all day
yesterday. The next one, because they will have a Director of Fiscal Services, this
wont happen with but that is the reason. Trustee Navarro stated that with all due
respect, they are hiring so many consultants that cant they have a timely report. Dr.
Flores answered that she was not hired until like three and a half weeks ago and had
to learn all of this and she doesnt work every day; she comes in two or three times per
week because she is part time. She stated that she is a retired Director of Fiscal
Services, this is why. Trustee Navarro asked if they were going to be training
consultants. Dr. Flores responded that she is not training, she is a veteran, a retired
person, and they are very lucky to have her otherwise they would not have met the
deadline for this report. Trustee Fajardo asked if they are still going to conduct a
search. Dr. Flores answered that yes, they were, in fact the position is flying now in
search for a permanent person and he is correct, they dont want to be a training
ground for young inexperienced people; they are going to search for people who are
veterans and have the knowledge and expertise. Trustee Navarro asked what she
meant when she says young, inexperienced people. Dr. Flores responded that she
shouldnt say young, she should just say inexperienced; they may not be young, they
may be old.
1. On the motion of Trustee Fajardo, duly seconded by Trustee Navarro, and by a
vote of 4 - 1, the Board of Trustees adopted the Second Interim Report.
Board President Cruz asked that because of the same Board Policy regarding some
unforeseen situations with the community, and she just wanted to make sure and
reassure and guarantee that all stakeholders like from Lennox Little League, to
Academy Soccer, to AYSO, to all leagues, that they have been privy to this Board
Policy because she wants to make sure that they are at the table because it will affect
them, and ultimately, the children in this community. Dr. Flores stated that at the next
Board meeting they can have a Public Hearing and then have it as an action item for
them all to approve. Mr. Dominguez added that he wanted to check and see if there
was anyone from any of the sports leagues still present. Lennox Little League was still
present. He further stated that he did gather input from all of the leagues that they
have that participate here in Lennox, that includes Lennox Little League and he
thanked them for staying. He said they also have Los Tigres, the soccer youth group,
and then AYSO, the other soccer league, and the list goes on. So all stakeholders
that this policy impacts has been involved in reviewing the Use of Facilities Policy and
regulations and fees, the brochure that he handed to them and so he asked that he be

40
(New Business, Business Services, Item No. 2, New Board Policy, Facilities,
continued)
allowed to start off with the brochure because the Board Policy supports the brochure
and it kind of mirrors that. He stated that he had a couple copies that he can give to
the LTA President and CSEA President or representative and the focus is on kids and
they are, with that in mind, the fee schedule has been adjusted so and drafted in the
sense that the fee categories, there are three groups.
Group One, which the stakeholders of our sports counsel participate are all included in
that, and that is free use, non-profit youth serving groups and this is an information
item only and proposed. The Board shall not charge any use fees for the use of
school facilities or grounds for groups that meet after a school day when an alternative
location is not available for activities of non-profit organizations and clubs or
associations which promote youth and school activities. Examples of groups that
qualify for free use are any District sponsored events, school sponsored groups or
clubs, Lennox Coordinating Council, PTA/PTO, Booster Club events, Boy Scouts/Girls
Scouts, and the list goes on. They already have partnership with the registered voters,
senior citizens, Kiwanis, Lions, etc.
Group Two are non-profit groups that charge or accept donations or contributions.
And Group Three are fair rental value and those would be private entities, businesses,
local businesses or industries, and/or clubs, such as karate or boxing clubs in the
surrounding area. That also includes churches and/or religious organizations so they
would be included in Group Three. And going to the left hand side on top, the rates
listed below are hourly, Group One, so if they are servicing youth and are based here
in Lennox and they can prove to him that 80% of their roster are Lennox students, then
he will waive all of their fees for the multi-purpose room, classroom, gym, and he put
pool in there because you never know, and the playfields, and he included the kitchen
because they also want to provide opportunities for fundraising activities, so for Group
One they waive those fees.
Group two, as he mentioned earlier, if they are a non-profit but youre out to make
money or a profit, or charging or soliciting contributions, then they will charge them
$50 for the multi-purpose room, $25 for a classroom, $50 for the gym, and the fields
$25.
Group Three, if they are a private business entity, a church or a religious organization,
then its $100 for the multi-purpose room, $35 for a classroom, $100 to use the gym,
and $50 for the fields.
Salary reimbursement, they tried to look at being fair and a service and he listed the
various positions from custodians, grounds person, lifeguard, food service worker and
security. Some of the non-profits need security at their events, others do not, and so

41
(New Business, Business Services, Item No. 2, New Board Policy, Facilities,
continued)
they made it where if they need security then they will be charged $35 and if they do
not, then the security is not needed and so that would be an additional savings and its
redirected back to the kids in the community and that is the intent. The responsibility
on the part of the right hand side, they still have to show proof of $1 million liability
insurance, naming the Lennox School District as an additional insured, proof of a
501C3 non-profit status. There are certain things that they cannot do like cut locks,
chains, fences or damage equipment and the Facility Use Agreement states they will
be held accountable if there is any damage to our property. And then it also goes on
to liabilities and damages and that we reserve the right to refuse the use of District
facilities if the request is more than the District will be able to handle and/or if it
conflicts with a school District event or activity. He further added that if they flipped the
brochure onto the backside of the brochure, then it talks about the rules, regulations
and policies and then additional conditions for use, which he kind of went over. The
group, and he commends their input, the timeframe that they had for functions shall
commence no earlier than 6 a.m. and close by 7 p.m. and that was input from the
committee and then custodian and security rates will apply. So that was the input and
they are going to have a second meeting with the sports committee coming up after
getting input from the Board and having time to review, theyll go back to the
committee and gather more input from everyone. Regarding the Board Policy, as a
District they had some Board Policy on school facilities but once again, they are
bringing it up to date and so Board Policy 1330, and he gathered all of this information
working with CSBA, the California School Board Association in Sacramento, and so
they provided him with some draft policies so this is where his reference on these
Board Policies come from. And then they move on to the Administrative Regulation of
1330 and what that looks like, encourage and assist groups desiring to use school
facilities for approved activities and then the General Provisions of Ed Code. It also
gives key points that they cannot discriminate to any organization and it states that
within the Policy but then it also states very strongly language regarding no intoxicants
or narcotics, alcohol, drugs, smoking, gambling, fighting, etc. on our facilities and they
have the authority to disallow that agency, if something is violated, for not using our
facilities in the future. Also an exhibit of the schedule of fees is also included so that it
is a clear and consistent message and it is directed by the Board and so is the
brochure premiered in the exhibit and you see that on the fees and the fair rental value
for commercial use, Group One, Group Two, and Group Three, and then it is outlined
there, damage and liability, and then the rules and regulations. Mr. Dominguez
expressed that he thinks this is a huge step in the right direction. Lennox, as they
know, is a community where the kids are in need on the education component, but
also after school programs, recreation and education, activities on the weekdays and
the weekends and as he mentioned at a previous presentation, nighttime lighted fields
are also a huge need in our community and they are working on that with the sports
council but they are looking forward. Mr. Dominguez asked if there were any
questions or comments.

42
(New Business, Business Services, Item No. 2, New Board Policy, Facilities,
continued)
Board President Cruz commented that for the next reading she would like a list of all of
the leagues that are using the District facilities past and present to maybe five years
back and she stated that everyone is already all on board as they have met, they have
gone over it, came out with a brochure, everyone is on the same page. Mr.
Dominguez stated that was correct and based on that five years going back, he will
gather that information and they will have a follow-up meeting with the sports council
to review everything as a whole and then they will be proposing for March 26th and the
are excited to move forward. Board President Cruz had one more question regarding
the security asking if they can pull that contract as well as she would like to see it, the
contract that the District has, she believe that they started it last, the policy that they
are revisiting there was a security component and they contracted; she would like to
see that contract as well. Dr. Flores clarified if she meant the security company.
Board President Cruz responded the security company that is actually securing the
Districts facilities on the weekends when these leagues are using the facilities, she
would like to see their contract. Mr. Dominguez stated that he would get that for her.
2. The Board of Trustees had a First Reading of New Board Policy on Use of
School Facilities.
Trustee Fajardo stated that there was no dollar amount and she questioned that it was
coming out of General funds and she just wants to know the dollar amount. Mr.
Dominguez stated that it should be on the back on Exhibit. Trustee Fajardo stated that
they ask that it be on the Agenda. Mr. Dominguez stated that it is in there. Trustee
Fajardo stated that it is not on the Agenda. Mr. Dominguez explained that so for
Trustee Fajardo stated that on the back it has the hourly but they dont have a cap nor
does it say anything, so she questioned if they were just approving a blanket contract.
Mr. Dominguez stated that the contract is for per hour and as he mentioned in the
previous, the rate for the Interim Director comes from the General fund. This is from a
savings in the General fund because the position is vacant so it was a budgeted
amount for the previous Director of Fiscal Services, Alva Diaz, and so that line item is
being used to pay for Pheno Taylor as the Interim at a rate of $140 per hour, and that
is only a temporary cost until they fill that position on a permanent basis. That is a
question mark because the position is being flown right now and depending on
interviews, and from his understanding, once this position was previously vacant, there
was difficulty in filling that position but they are doing all that they can to make sure
they fill that position, including CASBO, EdJoin, LACOE, and other areas where there
are financial service type positions. Trustee Fajardo asked if they could put a capped
dollar amount and then if they go over it, they can relook at it. She stated that she
doesnt feel comfortable voting on something that doesnt have a cap; she thinks that
is one of the things they have talked about in the past about always having a cap so
they have an idea of what it is and not going over that. Dr. Flores asked that he
estimate a cost right now so that they can they dont know when they are going to

43
(New Business, Business Services, Item No. 3, Agreement with Eric Hall, continued)
hire the permanent Director of Fiscal Services and she thinks calculating probably the
cost until June 30, 2013, the remainder of what Ms. Diaz contract was, she thinks that
would be sufficient because she doesnt think she will go over that. Trustee Fajardo
asked if it had to be approved tonight. Mr. Dominguez stated that they got direction
from the Board at the last Board meeting and it needs to be approved with whatever
the Board would like to decide as far as a stipulation because then he can pay Pheno
for helping him. Trustee Fajardo asked if it was $10,000, $20,000, $30,000, $40,000;
she asked that they give her an estimate. She stated that she would like an estimate.
She stated that she doesnt know how the rest of the Board feels. Trustee Navarro
stated that he felt the same way. Trustee Fajardo asked if they could ballpark it.
Trustee Navarro stated that before they ballpark it, he thinks they need an estimate or
something in writing. Trustee Fajardo stated that they can amend the item. Dr. Flores
added that it says that her fee per hour and asked if he could estimate how many
hours, and that she had to do the interim. Mr. Dominguez stated that he thinks what
the Board could do and it sets parameters is not to exceed the budgeted amount of the
Director of Facilities and that keeps them within the realm of the position of the
previous director. Trustee Fajardo asked if he could e-mail her a dollar amount; she
would like a dollar amount to be reflected in the Minutes. She stated that she is okay if
they have a dollar amount reflected in the Minutes. Board President Cruz stated that
because they dont have a ballpark number, but she feels comfortable going ahead as
long as they have the budgeted amount for the Director of Fiscal Services, to her she
feels comfortable capping it there. They already have it in the budget and most likely
she wont be here with us until the end of the year because they are already flying the
position and already looking for the person and they just need to let the contract go
through. Dr. Flores stated that she would recommend that they cap it at $50,000, that
would be her recommendation to the Board, because they have the May Revise that
she has to do. Trustee Fajardo added that then if it needs to be revisited, they can
revisit. Trustee Fajardo further stated that she would like to amend, since she was the
one that moved, she would like to amend the item to state that it is capped to a
maximum of $50,000. Trustee Navarro added that he would like to know how many
hours has she worked in the District. Mr. Dominguez responded that for example,
because of the Second Interim, they worked on it on Friday, Friday night, Saturday,
Sunday, Monday and today, but now that that is complete, he doesnt foresee her
more than two to three days a week at the most. If they cannot find a permanent
Director of Fiscal Services and the May Revise comes out, he is going to need
someone to help him put in the budget, the data input with the numbers. Trustee
Fajardo reiterated that it can be revisited; that they can revisit it at that time and added
that she needed someone to second her amendment motion. Board President Cruz
asked Trustee Navarro that since he seconded the motion, was he okay with the
amendment. Trustee Navarro stated that he was okay but that the majority of the vote
says. Board President Cruz stated that on the amended motion by Trustee Fajardo,
seconded by Trustee Navarro, and asked for the vote to approve agreement with Eric
Hall & Associates, LLC, capped at $50,000.

44
(New Business, Business Services, Item No. 3, Agreement with Eric Hall, continued)
3. On the motion of Trustee Fajardo, duly seconded by Trustee Navarro, and by a
vote of 4 - 1, the Board of Trustees approved the agreement with Eric Hall &
Associates, LLC, for professional consultant services necessary for the scope
of services as described in Exhibit A, per the approved schedule of fees (Exhibit
B). Cost capped at a not to exceed $50,000 amount, to be paid with General
funds.
(01.1-00000.0-00000-73000-5810-0000012)
Board President Cruz asked if they could send her a thank you letter and shared that
this was the lady that was present earlier, one of the consultants, just showing how
they go above and beyond even if its a consultant so just to say thank you to Ms.
Johnson.
4. On the motion of Trustee Ibarra, duly seconded by Trustee Navarro, and by a
vote of 5 - 0, the Board of Trustees accepted a donation of a drum set from Ms.
Pam Johnson to the Lennox Middle School with an estimated value of $300.
Total School Solutions Presentation, Dr. David Alvarez
Board President Cruz introduced Total School Solutions Dr. David Alvarez. Mr.
Alvarez greeted everyone and stated that it was a pleasure for him to be present this
evening to talk to them about the organizational study that was commissioned by this
Board. Dr. Alvarez stated that first he wanted to commend the Board of Trustees for
being courageous in taking a look at having an outside organization come in and take
a look at very detailed information about the Lennox School District and the
operations. He further stated that they, as a Board, need to be aware that this is a
very challenging process. Their firm came in and reviewed the structure of the school
District, including a number of management and non-instructional staff. The other
purpose of their work was to make recommendations regarding an organizational
structure that is aligned with District goals and support for schools, which would
include reductions to District personnel, if possible, while ensuring that critical District
functions are not lost. And lastly, identifying comparing the Districts organizational
structure at a number of similar type districts in and around the Los Angeles area.
Their firm took a look at a number of different areas. They focused on the Fiscal and
the Business Services, Administrative Services. Trustee Navarro asked if before he
continued if he could please give them a background of their company and where they
have worked in the past, in which school districts, and if he could share a little about
himself too as well. There was discussion between Board President Cruz and Trustee
Navarro related to his request. Board President Cruz stated that this information had
already been provided to the Board as the agreement had already been approved.
Trustee Navarro stated that he believed that there was some very important
information that the public needs to know, just to be aware. Board President Cruz
stated that when they came to discussion, they could go ahead and address those

45
(Total School Solutions presentation, Dr. David Alvarez, continued)
issues. Trustee Navarro stated that since they are having a public presentation like
they did previously, he thinks they are entitled to this. Board President Cruz argued
that they needed to give Dr. Alvarez the opportunity to present to the public at this
point and they will have time for questions and she asked Dr. Alvarez to proceed. Dr.
Alvarez stated that he did want to share with them that he wanted to apologize that he
didnt give an informational background regarding his expertise and his background
and his experience in education. Trustee Navarro asked where his original document
was because he had notes on it and it was taken. Board President Cruz stated that
because it was in Closed Session, they all gave the documents back, because Closed
Session is confidential sometimes and they, as Board members, sometimes are privy
to information, and then documents are returned back to staff to have the
confidentiality. Dr. Alvarez stated that he would come back at the end of the
presentation to review about his background and his role with Total School Solutions
and previous positions that he has had during his career as an educator. He
continued with that their firm took a look at reviewing the Business and Fiscal Services
divisions, the Administrative Services division, Instructional Services, the Human
Resources Department, Food Services, and school site support. This whole process
was involved with them coming into the District, looking at numerous documents, and
also meeting and interviewing all of the staff in the District Office that they needed to
touch bases with. One of the areas that he wanted to highlight to the District was
regarding the Districts critical issues regarding the budget and the next several slides,
about four or five slides that are going to be highlights, but he wants to share this with
you that this evening he was very impressed that in the back listening to Mr.
Dominguez and the Interim Director of Fiscal Services, addressing many of the issues
that they had identified previously about two or three weeks ago. So between the time
that he met with them two weeks ago and to today, they identified several areas that
needed to be worked on and he is going to highlight several of these but they have
identified and have direction already to the Board and they have accepted the First
Interim and Second Interim Report and moving forward. But one of the key elements
in terms of this District budgets process is making sure that they understand what the
Governor is proposing and one of the critical items is the Local Control Funding
Formula. They believe that this formula is going to be passed because there is a lot of
general support for this and this is going to impact how school districts receive dollars
in terms of revenue and how they can expend those revenues. It is definitely going to
increase the unrestricted fund over the next several years and they are going to have
to be able to plan for that. He continued that he does want to share with them that a
couple of weeks ago he was very confident that when he took a look at the Districts
budget and took a look at all of the data, that there was a lot of historical data that
came to light that there was a lot of significant shifts in terms of what the beginning
balance is, the ending balance, the actual spending, and there was a lot of
assumptions that were really not accurate that they could identify. In addition to that
there was a lot of spending swings, which means that if you take a look at some of the
examples that occurred in the 2012 2013 approved budget, there was a negative

46
(Total School Solutions presentation, Dr. David Alvarez, continued)
cash balance of negative $1,066,551.79, and then in the First Interim Report there is a
cash balance of $4,615,774; thats a huge swing, however, what they have seen and
what he believes and will demonstrate this evening why the big discrepancy is that
they really need some folks in Business Services that understand how to complete a
budget, how to make sure that all of the assumptions are being included in that budget
and this evening he was impressed with Mr. Dominguez and the staff and the Interim
Director of Fiscal Services that have addressed this specific issue and it was really
clearly identified this evening that they are moving in the right direction. Trustee
Navarro asked if what he was saying was that the previous Director of Fiscal Services
that the District has had didnt do their job. Dr. Alvarez said that what he will say is
that there is a number of different criteria that they have looked at that there are folks
in certain positions that did not have all of the skill sets to complete a budget as
required by the school district. Dr. Alvarez continued that in addition to the multi-year
projections in terms of looking at the multi-year projections, they heard the
presentation this evening and he wont delve into this because he thinks that that
information is more recent that what he has there, but it gives an indication of the
concerns that they had when they came in to look at the multi-year projections in terms
of looking at that. In addition to that, they took a look at some of the assumptions, and
those assumptions were clearly identified by Mr. Dominguez in terms of how they are
identifying their budget in terms of including Class Size Reduction, waivers, QEIA,
class size, and making sure that all costs, for teacher costs, general fund costs and
other categorical contributions to staff is being included in the budget presentations.
They also wanted to make sure that there was a communication and understanding of
all budget assumptions as the Board of Trustees play a more active role in
understanding what takes place in terms of budget development. Some of the key
recommendations that they have made and are making to them as a Board of
Trustees is that they need to hire immediately, if not sooner, a Director of Fiscal
Services. He commended them for finding a very qualified Interim Director who has
come into the District and done a lot of work already and they can see just by tonights
presentation that work in progress and Mr. Dominguez indicated earlier, he spent the
last four or five days working on this presentation and Dr. Alvarez commented that it is
very evident to him that things are moving, and moving in the direction that they need
to have them move. But in addition to not only finding a Director of Fiscal Services, he
does want to add that he thinks it is critical that when they do look at candidates, that
they find a candidate that is skilled, has the skillset and is very knowledgeable to work
this position. It is his recommendation that this Board not take a look at candidates
that are going to learn on the job and he expressed that the District is in a position and
a situation today that it needs someone that is really skilled and knows how to do this
particular job, as evidenced by the Interim Director of Fiscal Services. Dr. Alvarez
stated that this is a critical position for a school district in this time in the school district.
They also recommend that they take a look at a budget development process,
including the Board being part of that and community discussions and input from the
community regarding what are the budget priorities that this district wants to look at in

47
(Total School Solutions presentation, Dr. David Alvarez, continued)
terms of allocating dollars and resources. They need to realign categorical funds and
the General funds and resources in the most efficient manner; he thinks that is critical
in moving forward in this school district.
They recently hired an Assistant Superintendent of Special Projects and
Facilities/Maintenance. This person oversees a multi-million dollar facilities project
and the maintenance and operations division and currently is also covering the
Business Services division, overseeing that on an interim basis. He thinks that tonight
they heard from the facilities consultant some of the drastic issues that they are
dealing with; these are challenges that really are affecting the District financially almost
on a daily basis when projects arent moving forward and they brought some folks in to
help them to identify those processes to rectify those so that the District can move
forward and one of the areas that the Assistant Superintendent of this division is to
review the status and report to them directly what fiscal impact that hurts and helps the
budget and the school district. He expressed that he thinks they are moving in the
right direction.
One of the areas that really needs to be looked at carefully and almost monitor on a
monthly basis is the enrollment. If they took a look at indication of the slide that Mr.
Dominguez presented earlier, this is a declining enrollment district, there is also a lot of
fluctuation from month to month as to how many kids are here and how many kids
have left the District and they also need to take a look at other areas where they can
recapture some of those students that left the District as far as what are the reasons
and what are the challenges that the families here are facing that are causing them to
move out of the school district because every student is a valuable commodity to the
district in maintaining the district status. The other area that they looked at in their
review was Instructional Services. They really believe that in terms of looking at
Instructional Services, they want to look at how many individuals work in that division
and when they take a look at the administrative structure of that division and theyve
taken a look at the administrative structure of this division and there are nine full time
equivalent staff members. In a comparison to that of administrators, it is 5.8 full time
staff members in other districts of comparable size. In addition to that they have 22
teachers that provide special assignment services outside of the classroom working at
the District Office. They would like to recommend that they analyze the value and the
benefits derived as compared to time, effort and resources spent and how they
allocate those positions and how those positions are being utilized. They also have a
program that is called the LEAP After-School Program and he shared this with them at
another meeting that there are some concerns from their position that these positions
may become District positions and that adds an additional element to them having to
support these positions. In other districts where they have worked, all of these were
separate entities that worked outside and they worked in the district but they were not
through the same payroll and that is an issue that they need to address. Trustee
Navarro questioned how many employees were interviewed during this process in

48
(Total School Solutions presentation, Dr. David Alvarez, continued)
Instructional Services or at District Office. Dr. Alvarez responded that he didnt have
the exact number but he can tell from his interviews, he believes that just about
everybody in the District Office that is related to this particular issue. He further
commented that he interviewed secretaries, he interviewed the President of the
teachers association, Mr. Guerrero, he interviewed the President of the classified
employees union, CSEA, he interviewed some secretaries, the Director of Facilities
was interviewed, all the Assistant Superintendents, the Superintendent was
interviewed. Trustee Navarro asked that since he is giving a report to the public
involving these positions as well, shouldnt he know how many people exactly he
interviewed from each department since he had just stipulated that. He thinks it is
important to know and he would like to know what questions were asked, who was
interviewed, and if there was any follow-up done after those interviews. Dr. Alvarez
answered that there was some follow-up on specific areas that they did not get some
information; they made phone calls calling a lot of people on the phone and in addition
to that, he came back to the District and did follow up interviews with certain
individuals, so yes, he did do that and they followed up and did interviews with people
that werent available to them so he did come back to the District and spent a
considerable amount of time interviewing additional folks. Trustee Navarro expressed
that it was concerning to him that he says he interviewed but he wants to know the
number and who. Dr. Alvarez responded that at this hour he cannot give him that
number of how many he interviewed, to be honest he cant even remember, but he
knows that they interviewed all of the assistant superintendents, the directors, Food
Services, the basic operations, association presidents, Superintendent, some of the
secretaries in Human Resources and some of the secretaries in the other divisions as
well. Trustee Navarro stated that he would appreciate if they are going to have
another presentation that they be more prepared with this information since he got a
heads up from the last time that he asked the same question.
Dr. Alvarez continued that he wanted to move on to the next area of the Human
Resources division that they took a look at and he wants to share with them that the
Human Resources division, there is a definite need to have this position and this
division looked at very carefully. This district in terms of number of folks who work in
this district, they are almost on target with the number of folks but what they recognize
is that there are many systems that are not in place for this department to really
function efficiently and making changes will need to take time because they need to
come in phases. They believe that there is an under utilization of technology and
highly inputting of data to essentially maintain compliant, active personnel records,
which is currently not being adequately managed in their opinion. Staffing projections
for projected enrollment needs to be completed immediately. Position control is a
critical area that needs to be defined and coordinated with Business Services and
should be an integral part of the financial system for the school district and basically
what he is sharing is that the bottom line is that they need to make sure that when they
hire somebody, that there are dollars and a budget allocated for that particular position

49
(Total School Solutions presentation, Dr. David Alvarez, continued)
and that needs to be coordinated between the Business Services division and the
Human Resources division. Job descriptions for this district need to be reviewed;
there are some that need to be created and they need to be approved by the Board of
Trustees so that they are articulated for all employees and then utilized as a
bargaining foundation to evaluate all District employees. Trustee Navarro commented
going back to the job descriptions part, he asked if they were able to look into the
employees files to see whether or not their job description pertains to their duties. Dr.
Alvarez responded that they asked for copies of all of the job descriptions in the school
district and there were lots of job descriptions that were not there. Trustee Navarro
asked Dr. Alvarez such as? Dr. Alvarez answered that he couldnt give him a such
as but he can tell him that in his interviews with folks, they handed him job descriptions
that were really more of job notices of vacancies than job descriptions.
Dr. Alvarez continued that in the area of Food Services, the District currently has an
offer versus serve program; the requirements of this program should be both clearly
communicated to the staff and the parents so that there is clear understanding that
students are choosing what they eat from the items offered. They also believe that the
District needs to do a better job in identifying students who are eligible for free and
reduced lunch. They believe that the District is eligible to move into a Provision II
process where every student in the District is qualified for free and reduced lunch if
they identify and go through an identification process. They believe that this is a
critical area that the District needs to address. Initially in moving to a Provision II
would be an expenditure of about $14,000 but they believe that staying in the current
process of serve versus offer is that the long-run is going to cost more money and they
really believe that they need to do an outreach to the community to make sure that all
parents are given the information so that their children have an opportunity to eat here
in the school district on a daily basis and he feels very strongly about that. Trustee
Navarro asked Dr. Alvarez what kind of outreach he would recommend. Dr. Alvarez
shared that what he has seen in other districts that he has worked with is that some of
the community liaisons, folks who arent able to return those forms back, they get a list
of them and they make visits and go to the homes and another district that he worked
in as a consultant, sometimes family members go to work at 4 a.m. and dont get
home until 8 p.m. so theyve got to figure out ways to make sure that the District
reaches out to those parents on their schedule so that they can be given that
information about how this impacts their children on a daily basis so actually, they
know the community better than he does and what works and doesnt work but they
have to have some folks that are specifically given the task of going out there and
finding these folks and making sure that they have the information so they can be
qualified, eligible and qualified to receive these services.
In the area of technology, one of the critical areas that they identified was that they
currently have an E-Rate application for the technology plan that has not been
updated and must be approved by the State of California by June 30th. If this

50
(Total School Solutions presentation, Dr. David Alvarez, continued)
application is not completed and not turned into the state and not approved, the
Lennox School District will lose over $400,000 this year. The E-Rate funds that they
have in the District really maintain the infrastructure for technology, phones, all
different sources of technology that the District really needs so he would recommend
that the District assign this to someone to complete as soon as possible or if they have
to, and he is not recommending it but if they have to hire consultants, but find
somebody that knows how to do this so that they can get this done as that $400,000 is
a big grant not to take action on so if they dont have anybody in house that knows
how to do it, find somebody that can do this for the District. Trustee Navarro stated
that he thought they were already looking into that, it was to his understanding that
they did have some kind of consultant to do the E-Rate but it wasnt approved by the
majority of the Board and it was decided upon that to seek other consultant firms so he
thinks it should be for the record that as a District they are doing their due diligence,
that he just cant say that they are not. Board President Cruz stated that just briefly,
Mr. Dominguez was not present but yes, they are being very proactive in all that they
do and they are already addressing this issue. Dr. Alvarez responded that he
appreciated to hear that and he just wanted to identify this as one area that they
noticed when they came into the school district and stated further that one of the
challenges of looking at technology is that there is always the discussion on should
technology be an Instructional Services or should it be in Business Services. Its
always a discussion on should that be part of the instructional program or business
services. Later on in his presentation and report, he will be making a recommendation
to them but that is always a critical issue as to what department it should fall under
and his recommendation, and they will see that later on, is that it be in the Business
Services division in terms of flowing and in terms of how it should be structured here in
Lennox.
They also took a look at the non-management positions here in the Lennox School
District and he wanted to share with them that they did a comparison and they noticed
that Lennox in the Business Services had 22 full time staff members and in
comparison to that of districts that they compared with, there were 20 staff members.
In Human Resources there were three in Lennox and in comparable districts in other
places, 3.7. In Instructional Services you take a look at 16 full time support staff, plus
the 22 teachers on special assignments gives them 38 folks, and in comparison
districts, that is 16.3 full time employees. Board President Cruz clarified that he was
saying that at this point we have under Instructional Services we have 38 people
compared to 16.3 for this district size. Dr. Alvarez responded that was correct and the
identified those 22, these are teachers on special assignments. Trustee Fajardo
clarified that this is throughout the District. Dr. Alvarez stated that they are under
Educational Services. Trustee Fajardo stated that yes, but they are not in one place.
Dr. Alvarez responded that was correct, they may be assigned to different places but
they are all identified as working at the District.

51
(Total School Solutions presentation, Dr. David Alvarez, continued)
Dr. Alvarez continued with that one of the challenges that they took a look at in terms
of looking at the District and how they could assist the District in identifying sources of
revenue, looking at the reserves, and adapting some of the challenges, is that they are
recommending that they downsize the cabinet here at the District office and they took
a look at the entire school district and some of the things that he will share with them
may raise some eyebrows with them as Board members, may raise some eyebrows of
the community, and some people are going to say why they would be making this kind
of recommendation. They have come into the school district and looked at the budget,
they looked at the status in terms of revenue, they looked at whats happened in the
past and theyre taking a look at whats going to happen in the future; where the
District is in enrollment, the growth and the challenges they have in the school district.
No question that they want to try to maintain the highest amount of dollars directed
towards students. They want to see their dollars in their school district and make
budget recommendations and cuts from other areas other than students and teachers
in the school district and hearing that message, they are recommending the following
looking at the past configuration which worked in this district this size. Dr. Alvarez
went on to explain that the past configuration included a Superintendent, a Deputy
Superintendent, a Director of Business Services and of Human Resources and other
folks rather than having an Assistant Superintendent. The current school district
configuration in terms of the cabinet has four assistant superintendents. In other
districts that they looked at, that was almost unheard of having four assistant
superintendents and having coordinators. One of the recommendations and it is a
strong recommendation that they had is that they revert back to the old configuration
of having the Superintendent, the Deputy Superintendent, and having directors in HR,
Business and Instructional Services. Trustee Navarro asked if there was a reason
why they didnt see the salary of the Superintendent in the report. Dr. Alvarez
answered that it is because they are not going to replace the Superintendent; that is
not their recommendation at all to replace the Superintendent. They are looking at
everybody below the Superintendent; the District needs a Superintendent. Dr. Alvarez
further shared that in the first Cabinet level reorganization, it is the recommendation
that they eliminate the Assistant Superintendent of Administrative Services, the
Assistant Superintendent of Human Resources, the Assistant Superintendent of
Instructional Services and the Assistant Superintendent of Facilities. All of these
positions, if they take a look at the column he has, although it is hard to read, he
knows he cant read it so he knows it must be difficult. Board President Cruz stated
that she wanted to make sure that everyone sees the numbers. Dr. Alvarez stated
that he would try to point them out to them as well. He continued that currently the
Assistant Superintendent of Administrative Services, HR, Instruction and Facilities all
make the same amount of salary in terms of the structure, $141,000, in those areas,
so if they take a look at the Assistant Superintendent of Administrative Services, with a
salary of $141,000, eliminate that position and replace it with a Deputy
Superintendent, the cost for the Deputy Superintendent would be $165,000, which
costs the District $24,000. He posed the question of why they are recommending this

52
(Total School Solutions presentation, Dr. David Alvarez, continued)
and they are recommending that they eliminate the other Assistant Superintendents
and make them directors. This is going back to the old organizational chart and the
Deputy Superintendent will assume all responsibilities of the current Assistant
Superintendents and supervisors and directors and coordinators. The Deputy
Superintendent will also supervise and evaluate principals and the position will
change, this position change will address the issues of fostering bitter relationships
and communication between departments. In other words they will oversee all
departments will be reporting to this individual. Board President Cruz stated that she
had a quick question before he proceeded and asked if the salaries that are being
recommended comparable to other similar districts. Dr. Alvarez stated that he could
not answer that right now; he cant remember, to be very honest, he looked at the
salaries but at this point right now, he just cant remember if they were higher or lower
but he would back to them on that. Board President Cruz stated that she wanted to
make sure that as they decrease their salaries for these positions, they also want to
bring in and maintain quality as well so just kind of concerned with yes, that they bring
them down but they keep it at a rate that we can compete. Dr. Alvarez added so that
they can get qualified candidates and he stated to Board President Cruz that he totally
understood what she was saying and further commented that when they took a look at
the salary of $141,000, that is a very good salary and they would bump up that salary
for the Deputy Superintendent to $165,000 but it would be more responsibility. He
asked if Trustee Fajardo had a question. Trustee Fajardo stated that her question was
that she just wanted to say for the record that they had not seen this dollar amount as
a Board; this is the first time she is seeing this dollar amount at 10:10 p.m. and there
are a lot of changes that are being recommended and she would like to know if legal
counsel is here because she wants to know how this is going to impact contracts
because some of these individuals they are in contracts so if they are going to
eliminate their positions or change their pay, how is that going to put them in a liability
as a District. The other thing is whether they have notified all of the members of the
organization that their job is going to change and their pay is going to be reduced.
And the last thing as she was looking at this is that she was the one who requested
dollar amounts so they know what they are voting on and she asked if he was
suggesting that the TOSAs and SDSs are eliminated, she asked who is going to do
that work and her concern is that they are going to increase teacher workload. Dr.
Flores stated that she wanted to respond saying that they are seeing this for the first
time because she is correct, she stated to Trustee Fajardo that she had asked for a
dollar amounts and so this is what they asked them to generate. Likewise, legal
counsel is in the house and the $115,000 per director is what they currently pay
directors in the District. Board President Cruz stated also for the record, because it
was during Closed Session, they were just given the information but generally
everything was going to be out in the open and transparent as they are having it at this
moment. And so, as they know, Board is privy to information and as they get ready,
they divulge it to the public as they are doing right now. Mr. Mike Wilson introduced
himself stating that he works for the law firm that represents the District, Leal Trejo.

53
(Total School Solutions presentation, Dr. David Alvarez, continued)
With regard to Ms. Fajardos question regarding impact on the contracts for
administrators, it will depend on the notice provisions in the contracts he believes a lot
of it, but without having seen the actual contracts, he cannot give them a definitive
answer but depending on the provisions, usually there is a requirement in there that
the administrator has to be informed by a certain date they will be released and
reassigned... Trustee Fajardo added that it was March 15th, which is Friday and further
started that they also have classified secretaries, they also have a lot of other groups
of people and this is going to impact the classroom, so if they are reducing 16 staff
developers, they are going to go back to a classroom so they are going to bump
somebody, so her question is whether they have been notified so if this change is
made, they have until Friday to inform them. Mr. Wilson stated that whether they have
been notified he cannot say for sure. Dr. Flores stated that on February 26th, the
Board directed her and they passed resolutions and action items to inform people by
March 15th and so all personnel have been informed, including managers, she directed
Ms. Fajardo stating everyone. Trustee Fajardo stated then going back to the
contracts, she questioned that they have to look at each contract to see if they are
going to be in a liability and further stated that she doesnt want to make a decision
and then know that she is going to end up in court because she is violating contracts
of certain individuals that they have. Mr. Wilson responded that the contracts, whether
there is a boilerplate contract that all administrators get or if each individual in the
District gets their own unique contract, he has not been part of the drafting of those
agreements so he is assuming there is language in each contract that does require
notice, whether the administrator is to be released or reassigned but if they have been
notified by March 15th then this reorganization would be compliant. Trustee Navarro
asked if making a decision based on the recommendation that they are getting from
the presenter today, wouldnt it been better for them to do their due diligence and
make sure that they are not breaking any laws and making sure they are respecting
everybodys contract so they wont be held accountable later on in the future. Mr.
Wilson stated that again, without having a chance to review each and every contract,
but there generally is a provision in each contract that requires notice and if that is in
the contract and the notices have been sent out, then the District is complying with the
terms of the contract. Board President Cruz asked Dr. Alvarez to proceed. Dr.
Alvarez continued on in terms of looking at all of these positions on the current page,
this is the top cabinet positions. There is a total savings of $54,000 in this area. He
stated that he was going to move on to the next area but he wanted them to keep that
number of $54,000 in savings by going into this reorganization for the District. In the
director and coordinator positions, looking at all of those positions they were taking a
look at the Director of Fiscal Services, right now it is a vacant position, the salary is at
$115,000. He expressed that they need to fill that position and they are not
recommending that they do anything other than fill this position as quickly as possible
and hire somebody that has the skills to do this job so thats the position that they are
saying is critical to get this position on board as quickly as possible. The Director of
School Readiness, salary of $115,000; they are recommending that they eliminate this

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(Total School Solutions presentation, Dr. David Alvarez, continued)
position for a savings of $115,000. Due to the size of the District and the
responsibilities, it should be assigned to the Director of Instruction on a regular basis
and the Director of Instruction within a District this size should be able to assume
those responsibilities. The Coordinator of Pupil and Parent Services, they are
recommending that they eliminate this position for a savings of $92,000. While the
comments above apply to this position, they also see that there is a need within the
District to ensure that credentials of individuals on special assignments reflect the
requirements for that position that they are assigned. They have found several
incidences, several situations where people were working in positions that they were
not qualified or credentialed to be in those positions so that is something that as a
District they need to rectify; looking at the credentials and who has a credential to do
that specific job is critical. In the area of Coordinator of Math Student Assessment,
they recommend that they eliminate this position for a savings of $92,000 and the
functions of this position should be performed for the District by the Director of
Instruction. The Coordinator of EL Liaison, if they eliminate that position for another
$92,000 in savings. The Director of After-School Program position salary is $115,000;
they recommend they eliminate this position for an additional $115,000. Due to the
size of the District, these responsibilities should be reassigned to the Director of
Instruction. And they have school site coordinators at all of the school sites, they
should be assuming some of those responsibilities to do those duties. And the last is
the Coordinator of Educational Technology, they recommend that they eliminate the
position of $92,000 and these duties will be assigned to the Director of Technology
Manager. That is a savings of almost $600,000. Trustee Navarro asked why they
would recommend them to eliminate their Coordinator of Educational Technology. Dr.
Alvarez explained that in terms of a District this size and they looked at other
comparable districts, they had one person doing that particular job rather than two
individuals like we have here. Trustee Navarro asked if what he was saying was that
we have two individuals that are doing this kind of job right now. Dr. Alvarez answered
yes and that they recommend that they eliminate one of those positions, which is the
Coordinator of Educational Technology. He further commented that this saves about
$698,000. Dr. Alvarez continued in the area of classified confidential positions, in the
Superintendents office, they are recommending that they eliminate the current
position of Confidential Secretary and replace it with an Executive Assistant. The
current salary is $74,000; they recommend that the Executive Assistant would have a
salary in the range of $55,000. This is a savings of about $19,000. This position
should include general office operations and responsibilities and coordinating with the
Districtwide and cross divisional and initiative on behalf of the Superintendent, which
requires a high level of trust and confidentiality between the Superintendent and this
position in carrying out this function with the Superintendent. They believe that this is
a position that needs to be addressed. Trustee Navarro asked if they didnt have that
right now. Dr. Alvarez answered that they have a confidential secretary that is a
management level position but the duties and functions of this particular position do
not relate to what the Superintendent needs to do her particular job. Trustee Navarro

55
(Total School Solutions presentation, Dr. David Alvarez, continued)
stated again, going back to the question, where is the job description of all of these
positions. Dr. Alvarez responded that in many cases they found that there were no job
descriptions in many of these jobs that they have identified in the reorganization.
Trustee Navarro asked such as? Dr. Alvarez answered that such as, but then stated
that he couldnt give them a position that he looked at but there were many positions
that they looked at, positions in the District that people gave them a sheet of paper that
said this is my job description and to him it was very obvious that it was a job
announcement just talking about the position in general but not a job description. This
District needs to, in fact one of the recommendations he made earlier, this District
really needs to take a look at every job description in the entire school district and
make sure that the Board approves of the job description that they are using, to Board
approve it to make sure that that person does do the job that they are hired to do and
are performing, and to use that as an evaluation tool to evaluate that person. Trustee
Navarro asked if what he was saying is that when we are hiring an employee, there is
a hiring process and there is a hiring panel for some positions so none of those
individuals who have been related to that, they havent done their due diligence or their
job when it comes to the process. Dr. Alvarez answered that they did not find a lot of
job descriptions for the Lennox School District. Dr. Alvarez continued that in the area
of Business Services, they recommend that they eliminate this position; it is a savings
of $53,000 for the District. They also recommend that the Purchasing Assistant, that
this position be eliminated for an additional savings of $53,000, for a total savings in
this area of $125,000. Trustee Navarro commented that they are recommending to
eliminate all of these positions and asked who is going to take over the jobs and duties
of these eliminated positions and asked wouldnt it be naive to give more workload,
more responsibilities to certain individuals. Dr. Alvarez stated that when they are
taking notes on the recommendations that they are making, they took a look at what
responsibility these individuals have in a school district this size, they believe that
these positions should be eliminated based on other districts of comparable size and
that they are doing those exact responsibilities with fewer people. Trustee Navarro
commented that he mentioned right now that they are comparing with other districts
but yet, with lack of information comparing salarywise with other school districts, and
he asked so how can he say that when they dont have the full information. Dr.
Alvarez stated that they need to do a salary justification study that would determine
what other districts are in terms of salaries; they took those numbers from the
Districts, these are the Districts numbers, these are numbers and they didnt create
these numbers. The $115,000 for a director that you see here, so they didnt go out of
the district to look at other salaries; that would be a different type of work that they
would ask them to do. They took a look at the current salary structure here in Lennox.
Dr. Alvarez continued in the area of Instructional Services, they currently have four
secretaries that work in this division. They recommend that two be eliminated. This
definitely is a classified position that would require the District to work in conjunction
and partnership with their association, CSEA, to the impacts of how this layoff would
be negotiated but it is one of their recommendations; it is a savings of $96,000. In the

56
(Total School Solutions presentation, Dr. David Alvarez, continued)
area of staff development specialists, there are 60 positions. Each of these salaries is
$91,000; eliminating 16 would save the District about, almost $1.5 million dollars in
terms of savings and those monies can be used or redirected toward student learning
and in the classroom. The total savings to the District this would generate will be over
$2 million dollars that could be redirected by this Board to other areas that they feel
are high priorities currently, student instruction, student learning, and putting this
money into the classroom. Trustee Fajardo stated that there are some concerns that
she sees, for example, many of the staff developers are teachers, they have tenure,
theyre not going to get rid of them. Dr. Alvarez stated that this was correct. Trustee
Fajardo continued with that they are going to go back to a classroom, so she goes
back to her question of the workload of the individual in the organization is going to
increase so if they dont have a staff developer that does that work, somebody else is
going to pick it up and that is her number one concern. Her second concern is that
she is being asked at 10:30 p.m. to make decisions on a lot of positions that is a lot, so
to her when they met in Closed Session, they didnt have this information; they
requested it so to her she is looking at it right now, shes reading it, shes analyzing it,
and she is expected to make a decision. She stated that she doesnt think this is a fair
process. Dr. Alvarez commented that he fully appreciated what she was saying and
further stated that he is not directing them to take any action on this at all, he is here to
present. Trustee Fajardo stated that it was an action item so she is just stating. Dr.
Alvarez continued that he is just there to give the information and give them the data
that they requested so that they can make an informed decision. He understands that
they are just seeing these numbers for the first time and probably in her tenure as a
Board member, she probably has never seen the salaries of these individual positions
but his job and all that work for their firm was to come in and do an analysis of trying to
save this district some dollars because that is what they asked them to do, to take a
look at everything, and nothing, from what he heard, nothing was a sacred cow. They
took a look at every position in the District and take a look at how they can save the
District and generate some dollars. Board President Cruz stated that this was correct
and asked Dr. Alvarez if this was a good way to headway into talk a bit about the firm
of Total Solutions and a little bit of history of where he worked and a little bit of
background, although they did have that information when they approved the contract.
Dr. Alvarez apologized to the Board members and the members of the community that
he didnt articulate what his background was working for Total Solutions and his
educational background as well. He commented that it is late in the hour and he
knows when he was sitting back he was thinking about all how he wanted to say all of
these things and then you start getting tired and it is his fault. He continued that as
they know he works for Total School Solutions but in addition to working for Total
School Solutions, he is a former educator. He shared that he has been a teacher, a
high school counselor, he has been an assistant principal of a middle school, a
principal of an elementary school, an assistant principal of a high school, principal of a
middle school, coordinator of curriculum, assistant superintendent of curriculum and a
superintendent. He served over 22 years as a superintendent and he retired three

57
(Total School Solutions presentation, Dr. David Alvarez, continued)
years ago as a superintendent, and has had the honor of working in many school
districts, working in elementary school districts, he worked for a superintendent for six
years in the Lancaster Elementary School District, he was the superintendent of Chino
Valley Unified School District, also worked as a superintendent of Gilroy Unified
School District and the superintendent of Calexico Unified School District, next to
Mexicali, the frontera of Mexico, where he spent seven years in Calexico working as a
superintendent. His work in terms of providing information is that some of the hats that
he wears working for Total School Solutions is that he is a data provider and works
with some of the most challenging school districts in California providing data services,
working and training teachers, working and training principals, working with
superintendents and district office folks in terms of improving instruction in classrooms
and at district level. In addition to that he works in the area of business services and
has identified areas where districts need some assistance in business services and in
some cases working with facilities as well, taking look at the things that will work in
there. He guesses some of the work that he has done is a strong background in
bilingual education and fiscal services, human resources, and leading school districts
in challenging times, so that is his background and experience of working with school
districts so he sat where they are as a Board member for many, many nights over 21
years as a superintendent so he is really honored that he has had that opportunity in
his career. Trusted Navarro commented, going back to the companys report, he
asked didnt his company have some kind of a problem going back in the bay area,
asking if it was the Modesto School District, hes not so sure which one it was, he is
looking at the article and it states that there was a ratified contract that was originally
for $33,000, and over all it cost the district $124,000 and it was cancelled and the work
wasnt finished and the same situation happened here with them, not as much money
but he remembered at the past Board meeting they had a ratify the contract again for
more money so he asked what was going on with that. Dr. Alvarez stated that he
didnt believe that they had ratified for additional dollars for their contract at all.
Trustee Navarro stated that they did. Dr. Alvarez stated that not as far as he knew,
they didnt. Board President Cruz commented to Trustee Navarro that the comments
that he was making at this point, she was sorry but the decision was made the day
that they had that action item with the Total Solutions contract on the Agenda for that
day. Trustee Navarro stated that with all due respect, this is public funds and they are
talking about putting them back into the classroom, then how can they deal with a
company or how they can they deal with an individual who is presenting upon them to
make certain recommendations based on their credibility. He further asked that did
they really follow as a Board, did they really follow Board Bylaw 3600 when it came to
consultants; did they as a Board do their due diligence; did they have a bidding
process. He stated that they didnt follow any of these steps and they have legal
counsel to determine whether or not, as a Board, they did some kind of wrongdoing
spending all of this money on these consultants. He expressed that he has had it with
spending a lot of money on consultants without probable cause. Talking about putting
back the money to the children, he questioned how about not spending that much

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(Total School Solutions presentation, Dr. David Alvarez, continued)
money on consultants and they put that money that they spent back into the
classroom. Trustee Navarro continued that now that they have legal counsel here, he
would like to know if they followed the Board Bylaw when it came to consultants. He
further stated that he knows that there was a history and tonight it was said that
because they didnt follow a bid process when it came to the portables, we got hit with
that penalty. So that tells him that if they didnt do their due diligence; how is this
going to affect their credibility, and he asked if they going to get a fine for not doing
their due diligence when it comes to consultants. Board President Cruz thanked
Trustee Navarro for his comments and questions. She further stated that the reason
why they asked for Total Solutions to come on board was because the Lennox School
District the way they have been operating cannot continue in order to maintain class
sizes as they have and maintain the quality as a teachers job, they need to start doing
things differently. She further commented that it is not easy; theyve been holding on
and holding on but now is the time, she is sorry but they are not projecting the third
year out, they are already into deficit spending, its hard, its not easy, believe me its
not easy to see oneself in the mirror and see how they have been doing this, how have
they been operating as an organization, its not easy, its peoples jobs, its not easy. It
is going to be families that being affected and she is sorry, she stated she is so sorry
but she is there as an elected representative for this community of the families that live
in this community, of the children that they serve, and because of that, they need to be
brave enough and see themselves and evaluate what they have been doing, our due
diligence, and make sure that they, as of today, start seeing the numbers, the numbers
are here and if this is what it takes to save teachers jobs and cut away from the
classroom, they have to cut. They have to cut somewhere and she reiterated that she
was so sorry, they have to, they cant continue operating doing business as usual.
Many districts around them have been through this process; its now our time. They
have been holding on as much as they could but its 2013 and they have to cut. She
again stated that she was sorry and further stated that this is the reason that they
brought them on board because they need to self-evaluate and see how theyre doing
it, how are they allocating those funds and looking at the numbers to see how the
impact to the classrooms. She stated that to her this seems like a very healthy
process; she thinks that they have been very open and transparent, and the
recommendation is here, its up for action item. She asked if there were any other
comments, questions from the Board at this time. Trustee Navarro answered yes,
stating that she talked a lot about doing their due diligence as a Board, putting the
money back to the students, so what he would like to know is does the same principle
apply to Board members as to how much money they spend when they go out to
conferences and stuff like that because as of today, he only saw a partial report on
how much money is being spent for Board members at conferences, and not only that,
the usage of credit cards from the school district. Board President Cruz asked Trustee
Navarro if he had seen the number before him; if he had seen the savings, and that
will have the least amount of impact to the children. She commented that it is either
that or start laying off teachers. She apologized again stating that they needed to cut

59
(Total School Solutions presentation, Dr. David Alvarez, continued)
and they see numbers and they have been very open and transparent and at this
point, the reorganization is a vitally important and it requires the District to act so they
can get their fiscal house in order as soon as possible; they need to act immediately to
put into place and implement the reorganization. Board President Cruz stated again
that the reorganization is of vital importance and requires the District to act to get the
fiscal house in order as soon as possible; they need to act immediately to put into
place the key persons and administrative persons needed to implement the
reorganization. She stated to Dr. Flores that she was directed to find a person to fill
the Deputy Superintendent position to assist her with this task. Fly the position and
take the necessary steps to find qualified candidates. In the meantime, because of the
Districts urgent need to implement the reorganization, she may appoint a person for
an interfacer to assist her with the reorganization while they conduct their research for
a permanent Deputy Superintendent. And before she goes forward she needs a
motion, she asked for a motion to approve the recommendations made for the
reorganization and give Dr. Flores the authority to take steps to begin implementing
the and she redirects Dr. Flores to fly the position for Deputy Superintendent and to
report back to them at the next Board meeting.
After the motion, Trustee Fajardo asked if they are voting on the entirety and totality of
these changes and their Board President has put in motion that they act immediately
and need to displace one of the positions, she asked if that is what the motion is.
Board President Cruz explained that the motion is to approve the recommendations of
the reorganization presentation and to give Dr. Flores authority to take steps to begin
implementing them and directing Dr. Flores to fly the position of Deputy
Superintendent and to report back to them at the next Board meeting and to appoint
someone as soon as possible to begin the reorganization, if possible, by tomorrow.
Trustee Fajardo pointed out that on the Agenda they are going to approve today for an
action item the reorganization. She continued that on the Agenda it does not say that
they are going to go ahead and move for a Deputy Superintendent. Board President
Cruz stated that was part of the reorganization process. Trustee Fajardo reiterated
that it doesnt say that and asked where legal counsel was. Board President Cruz
asked for legal counsel and stated that they did have it. They have it as the Assistant
Superintendent of Administration on the report under recommendations, so it is there.
Trustee Fajardo pointed out that it said Lennox School District Organization Study; that
is what it says on the Agenda. She further commented that what has been presented
is not what it says on the Agenda for a motion to vote right now. Mr. Wilson stated
that the Agenda so far is descriptive language, it generally applies descriptive
language to enable the Board to discuss the item. There is adequate descriptive
language in the Agenda for the Board to discuss the item. The motion that the Board
can make can include whatever direction is necessary to implement the motion and if
the motion is to adopt the recommendation of the reorganization, and a key
component of that is a Deputy Superintendent, then if the motion is to adopt the
recommendations and appoint the Deputy Superintendent, then the District may

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(Total School Solutions presentation, Dr. David Alvarez, continued)
Trustee Fajardo asked if he could point that out on the Agenda because she must be
blind because she doesnt see that stated on this Agenda. Mr. Wilson stated the
specific language for a motion does not need to be verbatim in the Agenda. Trustee
Navarro asked didnt it have to go with their policies in the Board Bylaws. Mr. Wilson
responded that he does not know of them but as far as the Brown Act compliance
goes, the item requires 20 words or less for a description of an Agenda item to enable
the Board to discuss the item and there is a discussion item on the Agenda that meets
that requirement of the Brown Act. Board President Cruz stated that if it is an issue,
they could break it down to motions but she feels comfortable with the motion that has
been provided. Trustee Fajardo stated that it was already seconded so they have to
vote. Trustee Fajardo asked for a roll call for the vote. Board President Cruz stated
that they had a motion and a second and asked if there were any other questions.
On the motion of Trustee Saldaa, duly seconded by Trustee Ibarra, and by the
following vote:
Trustee Navarro No
Trustee Fajardo No
Trustee Saldaa Yes
Trustee Ibarra Yes
Trustee Cruz Yes
the Board of Trustees approved the recommendations provided before them for the
Lennox School District reorganizational study to begin implementing as soon as
possible and fly the position of and fill as soon as possible for Deputy Superintendent.
5. Lennox School District Organizational Study.
The Board recessed at 10:30 p.m. and reconvened to Regular/Open Session at 10:55
p.m. Board President Cruz asked for silence in order to proceed with the LMS Needs
Assessment Study and recommendations.
LMS Needs Assessment Presentation, Ms. Becky Wetzel
Ms. Becky Wetzel addressed Board President Cruz, Members of the Board and Dr.
Flores stating that it was a pleasure to be present and that she applauded her for her
tenacity of being there and hanging in there with them. She said that first of all she
wanted to say doing a needs assessment is always a challenging assignment because
the name of the report is a Needs Assessment so the idea is they came in looking for
things that may need to be changed or may need to have some modifications to it so
that was their purpose for being here but she has to say that the staff was very
welcoming and very open; they did not find anybody on the staff that was oppositional
or try to take them down a bad path so they thank them for their welcoming ways. The
report, as they know, has been shared with them but has yet not been released and
after tonight, she assumes that it is a public document and there is lots more in the
report than is in the slide presentation and she wants to assure the staff of that. She

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(LMS Needs Assessment Presentation, Ms. Becky Wetzel, continued)
further shared that she wanted to just basically give them a little bit of background that
this last fall Dr. Flores requested a needs assessment based on a request on the part
of parents and she contacted her and she works as an independent contractor and
she will talk a little bit about that. Trustee Navarro asked just for the record, could she
tell how the needs assessment was required. He stated that he was told that there
was some inquiries made by a group of parents and he was also told that if they didnt
have the needs assessment plan, that the Parent Trigger Law was going to be
imposed. Ms. Wetzel responded that this was her understanding as well was that
parents had indicated that they would consider pulling the trigger for the parent
charter, that was her understanding, however, as she goes through and talks about
this, she wants to be really clear that they heard from a small group of parents initially
but they really heard from lots of other parents, so they are going to talk a little bit
about that. When they came, they were actually at LMS in October and November
and a little bit in December the team was there and the team was there at different
times, sometimes they were there altogether and sometimes different members of the
team because they needed to go and do some follow-up specifically. They did pick up
the classroom observations and they did conduct a review of documentation that both
the principals were very gracious in providing them and they had a great deal of
documents to review and they conducted interviews with staff, with students, and with
parents and when they conducted the interviews with staff, they conducted those
interviews both on an individual basis with teachers as well as with a focus group.
Trustee Navarro asked about how many parents did they interview. Ms. Wetzel
responded that she would say that they had in one session they had between 35 and
45 parents and the other session they had probably about 25 parents. Trustee
Navarro asked what the total amount of parents that the Lennox Middle School has,
roughly an estimate. Ms. Wetzel answered that she could not tell him that. Trustee
Navarro stated that his concern is whether equal information shared among all
stakeholders meaning all the parents of the Lennox Middle School. He further
questioned whether they had some kind of survey for those parent to inquire on how
they felt about the Lennox Middle School. Ms. Wetzel answered that they did not put
out a survey; what they did was they had one parent focus group in which the parents
were selected by the school staff; they did not select them and they left that to the
principals to identify and select whom they wanted. They said they needed to have
some representatives of English Learners, students with disabilities, they wanted to
have some representatives of sixth grade, seventh grade and eighth grade parents,
but they really pretty much left that up to the school to identify and invite the parents to
that group. In the evening the District sent out a ConnectEd call to all parents and all
parents were equally invited to come to that meeting and were there to ask any
question that they wanted and have a conversation with them so they also notified
parents throughout that they were available and in fact several parents sought them
out while they were at Lennox to talk to them individually so they tried to be open with
parents and make sure that any parent that wanted to have access to them did have
access to them. Ms. Wetzel stated that she would like to move on and introduce the

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(LMS Needs Assessment Presentation, Ms. Becky Wetzel, continued)
rest of her team, which she thanks for being there tonight and being there so late. She
introduced first of all Mr. Howard Bryan, sharing that is focus is on English Learner
and he was most recently the Director of English Learner programs in the Santa Ana
School District and has been a principal as well as having work right now doing a lot of
work at the Los Angeles County Office of Education working in the Title III office and
has worked on a number of DAI teams, District Assistance Intervention teams, as well
as other kinds of work such as this and they are available to talk. Ms. Wetzel stated
that also present was Ms. Linda Peralta, sharing that she has also served as a
teacher, as a principal, as director, as assistant superintendent, and sitting next to her
is Mrs. Sandra Thorsman, whose focus is on Special Education and has served pretty
much on every kind of job that you can think of that has to do with Special Education,
both at the school level and at the District level, so they had a comprehensive team
because of what they were asked to do and their scope of work that was described to
them when they started was that the concerns were communication at the school
between parents and staff was challenging for some, that the rigor of the educational
program was not what people had hoped for and there was not equal opportunity for
all students and they were concerned about the transitions from LMS6 to LMS 7/8 so
those were the focus, that was their focus of their work and as a result when they went
on to do their study, that was what they focused on in terms of looking at that. So the
report is focused in several areas and she wanted to start off by talking about the
many positive things that they saw at LMS and she wants to stress this because
earlier this evening she heard some of the speakers and she has really done a lot of
these reviews, a great many of these reviews, and she has to say that she doesnt
always see this number of scripts at a school so the fact that this team saw the kinds
of things that they saw is a tribute to the staff and a tribute to the community and the
efforts that have gone in, and it was very clear looking at the DAIT report that the
District had a few years ago, as compared to what is happening now, some of the
changes that have occurred at LMS. First of all, they did have pacing guides, teachers
talked about the pacing guides, benchmark assessments that were in place, teachers
have received training in direct instruction; there was a focus on that and that was
evident. There are standards based textbooks that have been provided for all
students. They did see that there was a placement criteria for students both in core
and interventions and schools were providing an English Language Arts intervention.
Another area that they categorized was the area of what they call structure and they
saw that LMS6 had established an alternative middle school structure; they had made
some effort to do something a little different. They noted clearly the low class sizes
and they really are commended for holding on for as long as they have for those low
class sizes because that is not easy and she knows having worked at the Los Angeles
County Office herself and working very closely with the QEIA people, she knows how
many schools have dropped out of QEIA because of the financial burden of it so they
are to be commended for that. Ms. Wetzel commented that the kids feel very
connected to their schools, whether it was LMS6 or LMS 7/8, they feel connected and
they like their schools and they have most respectful students; they have wonderful

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(LMS Needs Assessment Presentation, Ms. Becky Wetzel, continued)
students and she is going to say this and she doesnt say this at every district
commenting that if she doesnt have anything nice to say, she doesnt say it, but in this
case, they have some very lovely children and while they were there, the kids would
come into the room they were working in and would stop in and want to chat with them
and they were friendly out on the campus, friendly when they were in classrooms, buy
beyond friendly they were very respectful children. She further commented that the
campus is clean, that is a tribute to the classified staff as well as the students and the
certificated staff but the campus is well kempt. There is a very clear student-centered
vision at LMS6 and it is based on a needs assessment that the staff goes through on
an annual basis. It is not that they didnt see a student-centered work at LMS 7/8 but
when they asked questions specifically about a vision, it was very clear that there is a
process at LMS6 that is articulated based on the needs assessment that is done on an
annual basis. And the response to intervention, thats the RTI, is much more
developed at LMS6 currently. In the area of parents, what they heard from parents is
that there is a strong desire for some of the parents to have additional involvement at
their schools and they heard from some parents that are very active currently, they
heard from a group of PTA parents that were very strong and had a lot to offer, but
they also heard from parents that didnt know exactly how to get in, how to become
part of or how to get involved at LMS. Parents view the school as the center of their
community and they heard that today in several of the other reports but parents do
view the school as the center. The parents value the college fair that has gone on at
the school but what they heard a lot about was the work that the staff did on the
transition fair last year and how much they appreciated that transition fair and how
much they hope that can continue and actually be expanded upon so they appreciated
that work. They also had some things that they wanted to share with them positively
about the staff. She explained that they found that the staff unusually hold multiplesubject credentials and they also have single subject authorization or single-subject
credentials which has the authorization and that brings strength to the school as a
middle school; it brings strength to have some of those subjects in specific areas and
they have a number of teachers that have the B-clad credential, which is above and
beyond, obviously, the clad or the EL authorization. The staff is very connected to the
community and support staff is available. The teachers sort of bubble enthusiasm for
the school and the support for their kids at that school and they are very highly
connected to this community and they are very dedicated to the success of the school.
Teachers want the students to be successful and they talk about that and she thinks
they have a vision for how that would look. Teachers and counselors and
administrators, they were very impressed with the idea of the home visits they were
conducting and that is a monumental effort and it did not go unnoted by them; they
found that it was a very impressive effort on their part. The classified staff, the office
staff, everyone that they met was welcoming and friendly and teachers reported to
them that they felt supported by the principals. The students, what they saw as a
strength or area of potential was that the students were also equally positive about
their teachers and they dont always hear that as well so they heard middle school

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students, whether they talked to them individually or in the focus groups, talked about
the kinds of things that they like about their teachers and the students, whether they
were LMS or LMS 7/8 students, expressed they like the experience they had with the
kind of team structures that they had at LMS6 and they reported that they felt more
connected because of the structures that were available to them. The students felt
that the teachers encouraged them to do well academically and that the celebrations
that were at those schools were very much appreciated by the kids, that they really
appreciated, they were very complimentary that LMS6 had the library computer lab
open to them on Tuesdays and Thursdays and they were very appreciative of that and
like the parents, the kids were also very appreciative of the transition fair and found it
to be very beneficial. Ms. Wetzel stated that she wanted to now move to some of their
key findings so the way that the rest of the report is that there are key findings and
then they have some recommendations, and again, their findings were around the
focused areas that they were asked to come in and look at to see about rigor and
communication and transition so they were looking at those specific areas. So one of
the things that they found was although they have been doing some work with direct
instruction, it was not fully understood by everybody. She further commented that is
not necessarily unusual but they have spent a lot of time and energy in the area of
direct instruction. They saw what they would consider a low level of student
engagement, they saw teachers doing a lot of work but kids not maybe doing as much
work. The students were more passive; they werent engaged in higher level thinking,
they werent involved with the questioning that they would like to see, the kind of
student talk they would like to see students engaged in. Trustee Navarro asked how
long did they spend in each classroom. Ms. Wetzel answered that they spent,
depending on the classroom, they had two separate visits and in some cases they
were there for a very short while, maybe a five minute visit, and in other cases they
were there for ten, probably no more than twelve or thirteen minutes but she said she
was going to tell them that she is in classrooms, she is in about 100 classrooms per
week in what she does and she can come in, when they have been in as many
classrooms as she has, she can sort of tell exactly when they see engagement or nonengagement and what part of the lesson is occurring and what part is not occurring
and part of what they also did was talk to students while they were in the classroom,
as long as it wasnt interrupting the instruction. What they was that students, again,
the idea that students, in terms of their level of engagement was at a lower level,
mostly because the teachers were doing a lot of the work and in classrooms where
they saw increased student engagement, what they see is that the students are doing
more of the work and the teachers are being more of a facilitator. They did not see
technology used very frequently and they saw a lot of use of teacher-made versus
District adopted materials and this is not necessarily a bad thing because they are
moving into Common Core and in reality one of the things that she recommends to
many districts is that they dont follow their textbook but what they do is they begin to
look at and keep parts of the textbooks and make some decisions on how to match it
to the curriculum. Their concern about the material was that if she is a teacher in one

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class and she is creating materials and Mr. Bryan is in a class and he is creating
materials, his materials may be better than her materials and so she cant ensure that
the kids are getting the same or equal level of rigor. Now if the teachers were creating
the materials together and there was some way that they could them to be traced back
to the curriculum, that would probably satisfy some of their concerns and they did see
that in the Math department; the Math department does do that but they saw a lot of
teacher-made kinds of materials. The criteria that she talked about that we have was
not always followed so there is criteria but it is not always followed in terms of
placement of students and the goal expectation for students with disabilities and for
English learners, they did walk into classrooms and she knows that there were some
concerns that they were not in all of the Special Education classrooms but they
checked their data and they were in all of the Special Education classrooms and the
rigor in the time that they were there was not as great as what they would like to see.
Ms. Wetzel shared that she has a background in Special Education and when they
looked for the kind of rigor, they understand that there is a need for modifications and
accommodations but that does not mean that the level of rigor cannot be equal and it
was for sure an issue for the English learners that they definitely see that for English
learners that the rigor is not there because not every classroom is using the kinds of
strategy that help students who are English learners access the curriculum so that was
an area of their concern. Trustee Navarro asked if this was sufficient time to visit a
classroom for ten/fifteen minutes or maybe less. Ms. Wetzel answered that it was
sufficient and when you do as many walkthroughs and classroom observations as
people like them do, it is very easy to be able to recognize all of the kinds of things
they did and they saw and it is something that is pretty much standard in terms of
classroom walkthroughs in terms of how walkthroughs are done in terms of collecting
data and in a large majority of classrooms, they were able to visit classrooms twice
with two different walkthrough tools for two different specific purposes and they did
that purposely so that they could collect data in different ways. Trustee Navarro asked
what tools those were. Ms. Wetzel explained that they have tools that have been
created and they certainly can provide those for them and they did provide them to the
school, the school saw those tools before they went into the classrooms so they were
aware of what they were going to use before they walked in. Ms. Wetzel continued in
that their recommendations are really this and this is really kind of because they are
moving into Common Core and they think that a lot of the work that they have to do
should be around Common Core and the Common Core state standards allow lots of
different ways of teaching students so they would like them to be thinking about
increasing the rigor to support that transition to Common Core. If they dont increase
the rigor now, when the Common Core comes into place they are going to have some
challenges. English learners are not reclassified; she thinks that they have done a lot
better with that in the last year, in fact even over the time that they have been in
Lennox, the reclassification has been more rigorous but it is so important to reclassify
students before they even get to LMS and she cant stress it more and this is not an
LMS problem, this is a District problem. LMS is the recipient of having students that

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should have been reclassified prior to coming there and she knows that LMS6 has
tried to reclassify so they dont get to LMS 7/8 but the fact of the matter is that once
they are in the middle school, it is very, very difficult for the teachers at the middle
school and the organization, it puts some compliance requirements in place that is
difficult for students in terms of access which then leads to the next one which is they
have to figure out how to increase opportunities for English learners in Social Studies
and Science because they have so many kids that werent reclassified, theyre having
English language development and theyre taken out of something like Social Studies
or Science, which is not what they want for their citizens; they want them to be well
rounded and they want them to have Science and Social Studies so theyve got to get
them out of English language learners so that they can get into Social Studies and she
and Howard talked about how they might be able to figure out strategies to still give
them some access to some Social Studies and Science even if they are remaining in
ELD. Then they have support classes in English Language Arts but they do not have
a curriculum for that class; its not aligned, its just sort of a class that teachers or sort
of doing the best they can but its not very focused and they need to if they are going
to invest in having kids spend extra time in those classes, then they have to have a
curriculum and expectations for those. An area that they decided to classify some of
their findings was what they call decision-making because remember one of their
focuses was on communication and on transitioning so what they found was that there
was a lot of mixed messages about how school level funds are made, decisions
regarding school level funds. They heard LMS staff say that the District made all of
the decisions and they heard the District staff tell them that all of the decisions were
made at the school level so no matter what they tried to do, they couldnt figure out
what was the right way. Board President Cruz asked when she says staff, what level
of staff, she asked if she was talking about administration. Ms. Wetzel responded that
they had asked that question of teachers and administration and they asked the
question of parents; they asked the question about how school level because as they
know, there is a School Site Council and the School Site Council knew what their job
was but other than the few parents on the School Site Council, there was not an
understanding of how funding decisions were made. When they came up to the
District level and asked this question at the District level, the District staff they said that
of course, the school makes all of those decisions but that was not the understanding
of most at the school level staff. The process for student discipline appears to them to
be complex. There are lots and lots of levels and layers that they go through to get to
a resolution and they are using counselors, counselors who are being paid for out of
categorical dollars, which is not an appropriate use of the categorical dollars and she
is not here to be the compliance officer but she knows compliance very well and she
cant not tell them that how they are funding the counselors and what they are doing is
not compliant. Board President Cruz asked if counselors at this time are not having
one-on-one with students. Ms. Wetzel responded that she believes that they are
having one-on-one but they spend a lot of time doing discipline; the counselors are
doing a lot of discipline. The counselors are the first level of discipline at the schools

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and so do some kids get to the assistant principal, sure they do; some even got to see
the principal but the kids, the teachers, everybody told them that the first level of
discipline was the counselors and they do have academic counselors and that
academic counselor was not involved as much in discipline but was more involved in
academic planning for students. Board President Cruz commented that with other
schools, what would be the first. Ms. Wetzel answered that it would be the assistant
principal; the first level would be the classroom teacher and the classroom teacher
would handle the discipline and then the second thing would be to go to the assistant
principal. She asked to let her also say that one of the things that they looked at was
that the school told them that they were involved in a possible behavior intervention
support but it does not seem to have gotten off the ground yet in terms of a very
systemic way of doing it; she thinks there are pockets of things happening but it has
not gotten off the ground yet and some of the procedures that are handling from class
to class are not consistent so she thinks there is expectation from the administration
that there is a discipline process and that there are rules to be followed but they didnt
see that consistently being followed. They found that there is limited articulation
between LMS6 and LMS 7/8 and they asked the question in different ways between
counselors, between teachers, between or with parents, so this was not just you know
the teachers telling them this or the parents telling them this, they asked this question
of different folks because transition was a big area that they asked them to look at so
they specifically were looking at that area so they want to see that there is a clearly
defined process and rules for parents and all staff in decision making. Right now a few
people get to make decisions, whether they are on School Site Council or they are on
some kind of a leadership role at the school but it is not clear how all of these decision
are made and with that means that there should be some leadership training for staff.
They believe that the organizational, that the administrative structure at LMS6 and 7/8
need to be reorganized. How that is that is the Districts decision how that is and they
have been very clear that they have not said that there is one way or another way but
the fact is that right now what they have right now what they have is two very separate
schools that operate on the same physical space and there is not a lot of commonality
and since some of the concerns they heard were things that parents said to them,
Well we used to have a concern when they went from 5 to 6 and now they have
concerns from 6 to 7, and she posed the question of whether that was normal,
responding that yes, it is normal to have parents concerned when their students go to
middle school but here they are on the same campus and the whole idea of being on
the same campus is to lessen that kind of stress so how do they organize
administrating she thinks it would be critical in terms of that transition and those
connections and she was happy to hear people say today that maybe QEIA would go
away and maybe somebody knows something more than she does but they were very
concerned that with the potential reduction in the funds for QEIA, if that happens, they
are going to have fewer teachers because of the class size unless they find other
kinds of ways of doing that and thats going to create a change in the master schedule
and so how do they do that; this is an opportunity for them to begin to explore different

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ways. One of the things that she will tell them is that there are many middle schools
that are looking at having a non-master master schedule or how can they go into not
having such a rigid schedule. It is not easy to do but it is one in which a lot of schools
are beginning to think about how can they think differently about their young
adolescents because they know that a traditional middle school that is like a small high
school does not always work the best for this age group of kids. Board President Cruz
asked if she had any schools that have been flexible, that have something in operation
like a model. Ms. Wetzel stated that yes, there are several schools throughout the
state, throughout the country actually, there are schools throughout the country that
are doing different kinds of schedules in response to trying to find ways to connect with
middle school students and theres a lot of research right now about looking at flexible
schedules, for example with Common Core, its the connection between all of the
disciplines so between Social Studies and Science and Math and Language Arts, why
do they have these very 45/50 minute blocks when they might be able to take some of
that and do some bridging and connecting because sometimes Science teachers need
more than 45 minutes if they want them to do hands-on kind of work. Or if they want
an Art teacher to be involved in terms of supporting the Common Core over here, how
do they make that happen if they are in these little blocks of time so the schools all
over the country are really beginning to look at this in response to that so there are
models of that in different places. Board President Cruz stated that she would like to
look into that and possibly share it with the Board and start researching on their own.
Ms. Wetzel continued with that the next area they looked at was parent involvement
because that was an area of concern. When they were brought into the District it was
like they had so many parents that expressed concern, so they again heard that
parents wanted to me more involved and they heard that parents liked the structures
of LMS6 as well and they heard that universally, not just from the additional group of
parents that came to Dr. Flores, but when they started to ask the question of a lot of
parents, they talked to them about LMS6. Some parents, not all, but some parents
expressed a concern that their students werent ready for high school and some of
those parents when they asked if they had other students who had graduated from
LMS and gone to high school and have not been prepared, and in some cases the
answer was yes. In some cases they did not have the experience of high school yet
but they were worried about that. Again she posed the question if it is normal for
parents to worry about students moving to high school, and answered that yes, that is
a normal kind of transition but whether it is perception or reality, they have to deal with
the communication part in terms of helping to ensure parents that their children when
they leave LMS 7/8, are truly ready for the rigors of high school. Trustee Navarro
asked for a rough estimate of how many parents showed concerns about that. Ms.
Wetzel responded that she would say probably about half of the parents that they
interviewed expressed some level of concern about that and she added that parents
express concerns for safety and the issues of safety were twofold, one which she
believes that the District has already begun to address and one she is not sure about
but most of the conversation they heard was around bullying and so when they heard

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that from some parents, they began to explore that with kids and they are going to see
that later on they found that with kids and a speaker earlier said something about,
well, bullying is at every middle school and sadly, thats true but it doesnt mean its
the right thing to do so when she hears that there is bullying at any school, it makes
her feel that they have to figure out what to do to lessen that so just because they
have it at every school doesnt mean that they want to condone it. The other part of
the safety was the openness of the campus. Their team came on and off that campus
and no one stopped them. They didnt know who they were. They didnt have
badges; they just came on the campus. In the morning they kept them but when they
went out to lunch, they came back and no one was there and the campus is very open;
people can come in and out of campus so they expressed a concern immediately to
Dr. Flores about that and she believes that some of that is being addressed as they
speak. And parents were concerned, and this was a very interesting conversation but
the nighttime meeting that they had with parents was open; they didnt have specific
questions and the thing that came out the most was their concern about their children
not being reclassified and as a result not receiving a rigorous curriculum and when
they talked to the staff they had the same concern so it was a shared concern with
parents and staff having that same concern that not moving them out of ELD would be
a problem. So what their key recommendations; they think there should be
opportunities for parents to receive parent education involvement but because of the
community, because they have hardworking parents and theyre not always available
at the times that school people are available, they have to think differently about how
to involve parents and so there are different models of how to do parent involvement
and the time is late but they can get into that, there are other ways of looking at getting
parents involved in their kids lives at school. They think that parents, that they have
to create opportunities for parents and administration to communicate on a regular
basis and the administration believes that they are reaching out to parents and some
parents told them that, that if they needed something that they could go to the
administration and get the support that they needed. But there were enough parents
that told them that there were not those opportunities so they believe that they need to
create more opportunities for parents and the parents expressed the desire to have
further development of the transition fair and maybe expand it to some kind of an
orientation program for students so that was something that they would like to see
happen. In the area of professional development, they found that most of the
professional development decisions were made at the District level. The school
people said that and the District people told them that, that they were very focused on
having that and that is also not unusual; she is a DAIT lead, a District Assistance
Intervention Team lead, and one of the things that she recommends often to the
districts is to centralize their professional development but there is a point where they
have to let it go back to the school and let the school look at their needs and begin to
establish some professional development that they need to have at their site and they
think that right now the professional development has been totally committed to direct
instruction and there has been very little work on how to support students with

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disabilities and how to support English learners and so they think they need to have
more of that kind of work happening at the school level and the vertical articulation;
they would like the Math teachers at LMS6 to talk to the Math teachers at LMS 7/8,
and the English teachers at both schools to talk and they would like even if vertical
articulation would extend to the elementary schools so that they see that kind of thing
happening. So their recommendations for professional development is for the school
to develop a multi-year professional development plan that is based on their own
needs assessment and the role of the staff development specialist, there is a site staff
coordinator, a staff development specialist, a program specialist at the District and she
knows that they just went though this reorganization but that they have people and
their roles were not clearly defined and different people told them different things about
what the expectation of the roles were so regardless of whoever they have who
provides support for teachers has to be clearly defined and unfortunately, in some
cases, the staff development specialist was doing some administrative kind of work,
not doing the kind of work that you would expect a staff development specialist to be
doing. Some of their key findings for school structures were that the schedule at LMS
7/8 is very traditional and they talked about that; it doesnt allow for that kind of
flexibility that the Common Core is going to ask you to think about. The response to
intervention is more limited at LMS 7/8 than at LMS6 partly because of the size, its a
much bigger school, its much more difficult to expand that, thats why they have to
look at some different kind of models for that. Theres a perception on the part of
teachers that students are not disciplined appropriately; they heard that from a number
of teachers. Counselors are used primarily for discipline; they talked about that and
that the service delivery model for students with disabilities is a very traditional model.
She commented that she also heard a speaker earlier tonight say that there were
issues about kids not being prepared for Math and obviously the issue is that they
want kids to be prepared but they have to find a service delivery model; how do they
operate Special Education program that a., is cost effective, b., meets the needs of the
kids, and c., gets them ready for the next level, which is to get to high school or where
theyre not going to have that kind of traditional approach in all cases, so how do they
help with that, and again, there are lots of different models, people are exploring all
kinds of models in Special Education because districts are in the same position that
they are in where Special Education is costing a lot, kids have lots of needs,
curriculum is getting more rigorous, so people are trying to figure this all out. The
vision at LMS6 and LMS 7/8 is not a shared vision and as long as they dont have a
shared vision, then they cant have that commonality, that communication, and she
quite clearly thinks that is what the parents sensed and they were concerned that this
school feels very separate from this school and she thinks what they want to see is
how they can make that bridge so that it is not so separate. There is a lack of
understanding about what collaboration is; teachers have an idea of what they think
collaboration is and for her teacher friends out there she will say very clearly that they
were very clear that they would like to have a prep period, she knows that, in these
days of budget, she doesnt know how that could happen but there are ways of

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creating times for collaboration that will help maybe mitigate some of that so their
recommendations is that they create some structures and address those things and
she is going to go through all of that but she does want to also say that are excited
about the prospect of positive behavior intervention and support and they would really
like the school to continue to work on that and whatever process they go through to
sort of kick-start that she thinks would be important because she thinks that is one of
the ways they can start to address their bullying concerns that they have. The vision
obviously she thinks they need to have a cohesive vision and she thinks on the issue
of collaboration, they want them to use their data to have their conversations on
collaboration, and then lastly, the definition of what all the support administrators need
to do to support student needs and if indeed they are moving forward with some sort of
reorganization, this is really a prime opportunity to begin that conversation. In terms of
student safety, they talked about that it was a state of concern from every group they
talked to; every group they talked to said there was a concern about safety but the
students reported to them that the highest concern was for them was not their physical
safety, but it was around bullying, and when they asked if they could go talk to an
adult, they said yes but they werent sure what could be done about it; they werent
sure whether there were vehicles to take care of it and so again, she thinks they are
12/13 year-olds who sometimes dont have all of those answers and they are just
concerned about the size of LMS 7/8, its a big campus, they have a lot of different
parts of campus and its not secure during the day so how to address that so they
think it is important that they increase campus security and that they look at the school
safety plan. Their final recommendation is this, and people say that they have a
restructuring plan; they dont have a restructuring plan because the agreement that
they have with the District when they came was that they were going to come in and
do a needs assessment and then they wanted to collaborate with the staff at the
school to create a plan. They didnt want to come in saying this is the plan because
they believe that the strength is in the teaching staff; they have a very strong teaching
staff with a lot of wonderful ideas about their students and somebody today said to
come and talk to the teachers, well, she 100% agrees with that, they need to talk to
teachers but that part should be around their recommendation is that a committee that
includes parents, teachers, administration come together and talk about the structures
that will help address some of these recommendations, but more importantly, they
want those structures to help with the rigor. It wasnt just the rigor for Special
Education, it was rigor across the board and now would they increase that rigor, that is
that student engagement piece and then they want to talk about how they can set up
some structures that help parents see that they are valued and that can facilitate that
connection between parents and the school to ensure that they have clarity around
those key issues, around what they need to do so really from their vantage point, the
ball is in the Districts park now in terms of how they can, and they are here to support
and help and facilitate, but their job really is about taking the Districts good ideas,
knowing the community and what they think is best for their students and their parents,
and now to create what they already have is some foundation of some very good

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things happening at the school, to make it better as they are transitioning into a whole
new world of Common Cores, so this is a great opportunity for the school to do that so
again, on behalf of their whole team, she wanted to thank them for the opportunity to
come and do this review, she knows it is not a happy thing for a school to go through
but again, they found the staff very welcoming and they again, thank them for the
opportunity.
Trustee Fajardo stated that she actually, and this is where she needs clarity, she
thanked her for the time they spent and she expressed that LMS IS a great place and
the teachers are great; she worked there and she thinks there are ways to find tune so
if there isnt a recommendation, they are not recommending a model, so she asked
why is this an action item on the Agenda. Board President Cruz answered because it
is an action item. Trustee Fajardo asked to do what. Dr. Flores responded that it is an
action item to adopt the report. Trustee Fajardo asked to adopt the report to do what,
and that is why she is not clear because Ms. Wetzel answered that she thought that
the intent was that from this report they would form a committee and do the work.
Trustee Fajardo stated that is what she is asking, to adopt this to do what. Ms. Wetzel
stated to come together to do this work. Trustee Fajardo stated that one of the things
that she said is that the strength is within the organization going top and telling them
how they should do it, she doesnt think it is successful, but its not clear so that is why
she is asking for clarity. Ms. Wetzel stated that as she can see in her final
recommendation it is about coming to a committee of parents, teachers and
administrators together and collaboratively coming up with how to respond the
recommendations and that is their final recommendation.
Trustee Navarro asked further if they had a chance to review what they recently had
an Instructional Services Report on the data. Ms. Wetzel said she was there at the
Board meeting when it was being presented. Trustee Navarro asked how it could be
possible that, of course they know that there are some weaknesses and he wouldnt
say just at LMS, but among other neighboring school districts, they could say
nationwide, there are such huge concerns about the resources that they currently have
statewide and nationwide. There is talk about bullying and stuff like that, but like it was
mentioned earlier, bullying doesnt happen just at LMS, it happens in many other
places and he thinks that based on the data that he saw from that presentation, how
can they explain that LMS throughout the past years has grown tremendously thanks
to the work that the teachers do and the support that is given to parents and stuff like
that, and also what intrigues him a lot is when he asks how many parents they talked
to, he is not trying to diminish anyone but when they make recommendations like this
based on what parents have to say, he would have liked to have seen input from all
parents. Its hard when they make a ConnectEd call based on what was mentioned
earlier, that sometimes yes, they have very hardworking parents, sometimes they
cannot make it and stuff like that, but did those parents that couldnt make it, did they
do their due diligence of listening to them, thats why he brought up the idea of a

73
(LMS Needs Assessment Presentation, Ms. Becky Wetzel, continued)
survey. If they were doing such a study, wouldnt it have been appropriate for them to
do some kind of survey from parents with some very standardized questions to know
what they think. Ms. Wetzel stated that she thinks this is certainly a fair point and she
knows that people do surveys; the result of many surveys is a pretty low response but
its not necessarily a bad idea and its not the end of the road. They still have a middle
school; they still have the parents and they still might want to get their input but she
asked him to remember that the parents are a piece of this study, that was only a
piece of the study. They wanted to see if they could see trends. If they only heard it
from a small group of parents, it didnt make it into this report. They had to hear it from
parents and teachers and they had to see it so it was something and that if he noticed
in the report it said some parents because if they didnt hear from all parents, they
didnt say all parents. They heard from some parents that this was an issue, not from
all parents that it was an issue so she thinks its a fair thing to say that they could
survey. Most schools that receive Title I do survey parents annually and she cant
remember right now at this time whether or not they actually saw a copy of a survey
but there is usually a survey done every year with that.
Board President Cruz said she wanted to make a brief comment that because a group
of parents brought this to light, the Board as well, as an organization, they were
already having discussions and just seeing the issue and having our Lennox Middle
School be in Program Improvement for how many years, she asked. Ms. Wetzel said
it was many. Board President Cruz commented that it was too many, for the same
reason they did the LMS6 component, the school within a school, because that was
again trying to remedy the situation and in many cases, again, many things improved
but then they have LMS 7/8 that kept on bubbling situations and just seeing the
finding, you know, that disconnect and just trying to see how they could, again, make it
better, so she just wanted to say thank you to the parents because they do need their
support, they do need their voice. It takes a few group of committed individuals to
make things happen and its not just the parents, its a whole community effort, its
leadership, its District within and out, in the community because its something that
they need to remedy. Ms. Wetzel stated that she assumed that they want to improve
their school every year; she assumes that every Board wants to, and she assumes
that they want to continue to improve. Board President Cruz stated that this is correct
and something to move towards that improvement; this is why they were brought in.
Its something that they want; its something that they all have in common, thats what
shes trying to say.
Trustee Navarro commented that also based on the comments that were made earlier
by the public towards the assessment plan, he is not so sure if all stakeholders within
the organization at LMS whether their opinion was heard or not so he asked how she
can respond to that. Ms. Wetzel answered that she thinks that they have four of them
who are very experienced, they did not sit in on all the same interviews, they did not
go to the same classrooms, and yet the four of them came up with independently

74
(LMS Needs Assessment Presentation, Ms. Becky Wetzel, continued)
similar observations, they heard similar things and they compared what they heard,
what they saw, what they reviewed and thats what came up. That is why they have a
team of multiple people to do that. If it was just her she might say that maybe that
could be her opinion versus somebody elses opinion but there were four of them that
have a considerable amount of expertise and years of work that saw very similar
things and she has done this work long enough to know that somebody at the school
is going to be unhappy with what theyve said, she understands that and she also
understands how proud the staff is of their school and she thinks that is something for
them to really be proud of because trust her when she tells them that she goes to
some schools that are not proud of their school and the fact that they have a staff that
is proud and that is willing to be here and willing to stay this late and willing to be
invested in what the conversation is, is a tribute to them and so she thinks it is a great
thing so they are professionals and they can agree to disagree but she thinks what
she hears is that they want to move forward to improve their school, which is what
every school should want to do, which is to be better. Its not about being afraid of
change, its about moving forward to be better. This isnt about that they are not
compliant or theyre being bad, its about what are their needs and what do they go
from here so that is really what they want to do. Board President Cruz expressed that
it is reflective. Ms. Wetzel agreed. Board President Cruz further commented that it
takes time and investment and she thanked them again.
Trustee Navarro asked that based on the previous results on the API scores that they
got from LMS, wouldnt she say that they were headed in the right direction right now.
Ms. Wetzel answered that she would say that they are doing some things well and
there are some things, like she said, there are things they could do better at and she
thinks that yes, and that is why she started the report by saying all of those positive
things that have led to some of the successes that we have but there are some areas
that are still areas that can be better and that, she thinks all they are saying is that she
doesnt think that they would look at their data and say that if she recalls that students
in the 40s, 50s and 60s and in that range, and she doesnt have their data in front of
her, and thats like saying if it was 40%, thats four out of every ten kids, theyre doing
okay, that means six out of every ten are not. So they need to make sure that its not
just four out of ten but they want it to be ten out of ten, so thats all she is saying is how
do they get LMS to be ten out of ten and not just be okay with. Is it something to
celebrate to be better than they were, absolutely, but its not about just being okay with
that and what is a good thing is that she thinks they have the raw material to do the
good work; they have some great staff to do the work so she thinks theyve got some
things going for them.
Board President Cruz asked if there were any other questions. Trustee Saldaa
asked if when the walk committee go into classrooms and they spent about five or ten
minutes and they credential schools, or like she said that they spent a certain amount
of time in the classroom, that is common practice. Ms. Wetzel said that yes, this is

75
(LMS Needs Assessment Presentation, Ms. Becky Wetzel, continued)
very common practice. Trustee Saldaa was given a microphone and she reiterated
that she was commenting on the walk committee when they come in and they observe
their classrooms they spend about five or ten minutes in each classroom and their
observations are used to credential classrooms, and the second thing was that they
have always been asking schools when they come and do their presentations to tell
them the good but also tell them the bad because they want to know what needs to be
worked on; they cannot get better if they only hear what is good, they need to know
what needs improvement so that they can work on that and so she would like to make
a motion that they accept the report but also that they have Dr. Flores assemble a
committee of stakeholders to be part of the process for looking at these findings and
recommendations. Trustee Fajardo stated that she would like to add to her motion to
include teachers, parents, staff and community members in that stakeholder is broad
but she wants to make sure that is put in there. Board President Cruz commented that
she believed as stakeholders, that would be inclusive. Trustee Fajardo commented
not necessarily. Board President Cruz asked if there were any other comments and
further stated that at this point they have a motion on the floor and asked if there was a
second. The motion was seconded by Trustee Ibarra. Board President Cruz stated
that at this point they have a motion to adopt the LMS Needs Assessment and the
Final Recommendations Report, at which time she did an open roll call for the vote,
which was as follows:
Trustee Saldaa Yes
Trustee Ibarra Yes
Trustee Cruz Yes
Trustee Fajardo Yes
Trustee Navarro Yes
Board President Cruz thanked Ms. Wetzel and her team stating that they had brought
a lot of light to the issue and they are excited to move forward.
6. LMS Needs Assessment and Reorganization
On the motion of Trustee Fajardo, duly seconded by Trustee Saldaa, and by a vote of
5 - 0, the Board of Trustees approved the Regular and Food Services Purchase Order
Listings (Exhibit Bs), attached.
Board President Cruz asked to make note for the record that Trustee Navarro took a
break from the meeting at this time.

76

C. Human Resources
Trustee Fajardo asked who they are opening this for. Dr. Flores shared that they are
amending the parameters for eligibility for the PARS release incentive and it is going to
be open to Certificated, non-management employees that the following shall apply:
Must be actively employed as of February 26, 2013
Trustee Fajardo confirmed that the question that it was Certificated and nonmanagement certificated, so that would be the classified, because it didnt say that it
would be classified. Dr. Flores corrected this stating that this is not classified yet. This
is certificated, non-management and certificated management. That means they are
including a lot of people if they are under 55 and must have at least seven years of
service and they are opening that not just to people that are 55 and older, but 55 and
under with seven years of service. Trustee Fajardo clarified that it could be somebody
who might be 40. Dr. Flores stated that was correct, that it could be someone that is
40 that has worked 20 years. Trustee Fajardo stated that was a possibility because
they could have been TAs and moved on. She thanked Dr. Flores as that answered
her question.
1. On the motion of Trustee Saldaa, duly seconded by Trustee Fajardo, and by a
vote of 4 - 0, the Board of Trustees approved the amendment to parameters for
eligibility for the Districts Release/Retirement incentive.
On the motion of Trustee Fajardo, duly seconded by Trustee Saldaa, and by a vote of
4 - 0, the Board of Trustees approved Human Resources Report (Exhibit A, attached),
with the exception of Item No.s 5, 7, 9 and 10, to be discussed further (see below).
Item No. 5
Board President Cruz asked if Lander Espinosa was a Special Education Teacher at
Moffett and it really took her back to see her resignation here tonight and stated that
she would like to table this item for the next Board meeting because there is some
information that she would like to discuss with the Board in Closed Session regarding
this item. Dr. Flores stated that Mr. Camarena was not present at the meeting so she
would not be able to speak to it because he is the one that handles this. Trustee
Fajardo added that they are not agendized to speak about this. Board President Cruz
stated that she knew that and that is why she was asking to table and she thinks its
okay to table. Dr. Flores asked for legal counsel but they were gone. Board President
Cruz asked if someone could catch them. Ms. Mary Willis was still present so Board
President Cruz explained the situation to her how she wanted to table an item for the
next Board meeting because there was some information she wanted to discuss the
resignation of Lander Espinosa, but not now, later, but to just table. Ms. Willis
explained that if they just wanted to pull the resignation off, the management has the

77
(Human Resources Report (Exhibit A), Item No. 5, continued)
authority to accept a resignation anyway, without Board ratifies it so they could just pull
that one item. Board President Cruz clarified that they could go ahead and
Vote:
On the motion of Trustee Fajardo, duly seconded by Trustee Saldaa. The motion
was then amended by Trustee Fajardo, duly seconded by Trustee Saldaa, and by a
vote of 4 - 0, the Board of Trustees approved to table Item No. 5 for future discussion
in Closed Session. Trustee Fajardo stated that she also wanted to make sure that
legal counsel is present when they do discuss this item as she doesnt want liabilities.
Item No. 7
Board President Cruz commented on this item that this employee is requesting a
second year unpaid leave of absence and she knows they brought this up in previous
Board meetings that they have been accepting second year leave of absences but
given the situation, given the budget crisis, given people potentially getting laid off and
what have you, the question is whether they should continue to provide people with
second year of unpaid leave of absences. She commented that she thinks that the
circumstances of the person should be considered before a second request because
people Trustee Fajardo stated that HR is not here so she would like to pull this item
because she also thinks this might be bringing them some liability because they have
been approving second year leave of absences for other people and she thinks that
now if they exclude this particular individual, it could be considered as a possible
liability. Board President Cruz stated that she would like to suggest to table this item,
just for further discussion because this has been their common practice but shes not
sure if, again, the way theyve been operating can help them get through these coming
years. Trustee Fajardo stated that she thinks a clean slate would be that if at the end
of this school year the Board decides there will be no more; she thinks it is a
conversation they should have.
Vote:
On the motion of Trustee Fajardo, duly seconded by Trustee Saldaa. The motion
was then amended by Trustee Fajardo, duly seconded by Trustee Saldaa, and by a
vote of 4 - 0, the Board of Trustees approved to table Item No. 7 for future discussion.
Item No. 9
Board President Cruz asked for a motion to carry Item both items. Trustee Fajardo
pointed out that they are different positions so she would have to do them separately.
Board President Cruz stated that it was the same question for both and just for the
sake of time. Trustee Fajardo asked if that could be done for different job categories
and referred that to Dr. Flores. Dr. Flores stated that she thought they had to take
each one by themselves. There was discussion and clarification on this issue. Board
President Cruz asked if she could just go ahead and suggest to table Item No. 9 and
asked for a motion. She explained that the reason for tabling is because they are in

78
(Human Resources Report (Exhibit A), Item No. 9, continued)
reorg and they are self-examining themselves and they are putting Substitute
Supervision Duty Aides, effective date to be determined, it is very broad, she doesnt
have a date, she doesnt know if there was a process in place, there are a lot of
questions and also given the situation that they are in a reorg and also the
recommendations on LMS 7/8, she just wants to have some time to visit this item for
the next Board meeting.
Vote:
On the motion of Trustee Saldaa to table, duly seconded by Trustee Ibarra, and by a
vote of 4 - 0, Item No. 9 was approved to table Item No. 9 for discussion at the next
Board meeting.
Item No. 10
Board President Cruz stated that this is the same as Item No. 9 and asked for a
motion to table. After the motions she explained that this is the same as the previous
one, given the situation she wants to make sure that they have enough time to look at
the budget, to see how all of this will fall in line for employment, effective as noted, on
these two sub custodian positions.
Vote:
On the motion of Trustee Fajardo to table, duly seconded by Trustee Saldaa, and by
a vote of 4 - 0, the Board of Trustees approved to table Item No. 10 for discussion at
the next Board meeting.
VII.

CONSENT AGENDA
At each meeting, the Board approves a group of routine action items typically referred
to as the Consent Agenda. Items may be pulled and acted on individually. If any Board
Member or the Superintendent requests that an item be removed from the Consent
Agenda, it will be taken up in the order indicated on the agenda.
Trustee Fajardo asked for clarification on if the Consent Agenda was for 39 items or
44 items. Board President Cruz stated that it was 39 items. Dr. Flores corrected her
stating that it was 44. Trustee Fajardo stated that there was a break in the Consent
Agenda. Dr. Flores explained that it was done by categories. Dr. Flores shared that
just as a point of information, the Board had asked her to put the Consent Agenda
items all together and divide them by category so it would be easier than going section
by section. Board President Cruz commented further and that was in moving towards
restructuring their own Agenda for the Board and she thanked Dr. Flores for clarifying
that.
On the motion of Trustee Fajardo, duly seconded by Trustee Saldaa, and by a vote of
4 - 0, the Board of Trustees approved the Consent Agenda items listed below, with the
exceptions of Item No.s 22 and 23:

79

Instructional Services Items

1.

Approve amendment to October 23, 2012 Consent Agenda Item No. 7, salary
expenses for Carmen Martinez and Jacqueline Gomez, Felton Special
Education teachers, to include Maria Ceja-Martinez, LMS 7/8 Special
Education Teacher, for an additional cost of $250, and a total revised cost of
$700, to be paid with IDEA-Basic Local Assistance Entitlement funds.
(Est. cost $700)
(01.3-33100.0-57700-11100-1130-0000019)

2.

Approve amendment to February 12, 2013 Consent Agenda Item No. 10,
salary expenses for Ruth Culqui-Quinley, Special Education Teacher to share
a home teaching assignment, to change the funding source from IDEA-Basic
Local Assistance Entitlement funds to General Ed Instruction and Home
Teaching funds, with no change in cost.
(Est. cost $450)
(01.1-00000.0-11100-10000-1130-0020000)

3.

Approve amendment to February 12, 2013 Consent Agenda Item No. 27,
salary expenses for two LMS 7/8 teachers to create plan leading to CST that
will provide additional assistance to EL, Below Basic, and Far Below Basic
students. Item should be for twelve (12) LMS 7/8 teachers, with no change in
cost (cost shown was based on 12). Cost to be paid with LMS 7/8 EIA funds.
(Est. cost $3,192)
(01.3-70900.0-11100-10000-1130-0080000)

4.

Ratify salary expenses for four child care providers, at the appropriate hourly
rate, not to exceed 20 hours in total between February 12, 2013 and June 12,
2013, for parent workshops and/or parent meetings. Cost to be paid with
Huerta Title I Parent funds.
(Est. cost $2,000)
(01.3-30101.0-85000-24950-2920-0060000)

5.

Ratify expenses for refreshments for parent workshops and/or parent meetings
between February 12 and June 12, 2013. Cost to be paid with Huerta Title I
Parent funds.
(Est. cost $262)
(01.3-30101.0-00000-24950-4355-0060000)

80

6.

Ratify salary expense for John Ely, Substitute Teacher, at the appropriate
hourly rate, not to exceed 20 hours from February 1 through April 30, 2013, for
a home teaching assignment. Cost to be paid with General Education
Instruction and Home Teaching funds.
(Est. cost $800)
(01.1-00000.0-11100-10000-1130-0080000)

7.

Approve salary expenses for two drivers, at the appropriate hourly rate, not to
exceed 4.00 hours each per day, to provide transportation required by IEPs for
Special Education students during ESA from April 1 5, 2013. Cost to be
paid with IDEA-Basic Local Assistance Entitlement funds.
(Est. cost $1,200)
(01.3-33100.0-57700-36000-2230-0000019)

8.

Approve salary expenses for eight LMS6 Spring Intersession teachers, at the
teacher hourly rate, not to exceed five hours each, to develop lesson plans for
Spring Intersession from March 13 through April 6, 2013. Cost to be paid with
LMS6 Title I funds.
(Est. cost $1,480)
(01.3-30100.0-11100-10000-1130-0070000)

9.

Approve salary expense for Blanca Estrada, LMS6 Staff Development

Specialist, at the teacher hourly rate, not to exceed 20 hours, to provide
coaching and lesson plan support for LMS6 Spring Intersession teachers from
April 1 6, 2013. Cost to be paid with LMS6 Title I funds.
(Est. cost $700)
(01.3-30100.0-11100-10000-1130-0070000)

10.

Approve salary expenses for six LMS6 Spring Intersession teachers, at the
teacher hourly rate, not to exceed 20 hours each, to teach Spring Intersession
from April 1 6, 2013. Cost to be paid with District Title III funds.
(Est. cost $4,200)
(01.3-42030.0-11100-10000-1130-0000013)

11.

Approve salary expense for one LMS6 Spring Intersession Teacher, at the
teacher hourly rate, not to exceed 20 hours to teach Spring Intersession from
April 1 6, 2013. Cost to be paid with LMS6 Title I funds.
(Est. cost $700)
(01.30100.0-11100-10000-1130-0070000)

81

12.

Approve salary expenses for 22 LMS6 Language Arts and Math teachers and
two staff development specialists, at the teacher hourly rate, not to exceed
eight hours each, to collaborate and reflect on CST Mirror data between March
27 and April 5, 2013. Cost to be paid with LMS6 Title I funds.
(Est. cost $6,720)
(01.3-30100.0-11100-10000-1130-0070000)

13.

Approve expenses for 576 ice cream bars for LMS6 students for an incentive
reward for March 15, 2013. Cost to be paid with LMS6 Site Allocation funds.
(Est. cost $175)
(01.1-11000.0-11100-10000-4355-0070000)

14.

Approve salary expenses for all Jefferson second through fifth grade teachers
(eight second grade; seven third grade; six fourth grade, and six fifth grade), at
the teacher hourly rate, not to exceed 6.75 hours each, to attend CST Data
Reflection/Teacher Planning on March 29, 2013. Cost to be paid with
Jefferson Title I funds.
(Est. cost $6,700)
(01.3-30100.0-11100-10000-1130-0020000)

15.

Approve expenses for 15 substitutes, food and refreshments for LMS6 and
LMS 7/8 teachers to attend a Project Alert training between March 13 26,
2013. Cost to be paid with TUPE Grant funds.
(Est. cost $2,200)
(01.3-66900.0-11100-10000-1160-0000013) substitutes
(01.3-66900.0-11100-10000-4355-0000013) food and refreshments

16.

Approve expenses for food, materials, salaries for cafeteria helper and
custodial support for the Huerta Health Fair on Saturday, March 23, 2013.
Cost to be paid with LACEF funds.
(Est. cost $1,000)
(01.3-91087.0-00000-21000-4355-0000013) food
(01.3-91087.0-00000-21000-4353-0000013) materials
(01.3-91087.0-00000-37000-2230-0000013) cafeteria helper
(01.3-91087.0-00000-82000-2230-0000013) custodial support

17.

Approve salary expenses for two LMS LEAP staff members, at the appropriate
hourly rate, not to exceed eight hours each, to take students to the Pantages
Theater to attend West Side Story on April 11, 2013. Cost to be paid with
After-School Education and Safety (ASES) funds.
(Est. cost $320)
(01.3-60100.3-11100-10000-XXXX-0080000)

82

18.

Approve salary expenses for six LMS LEAP staff members, at the appropriate
hourly rate, not to exceed eight hours each per day, to take LMS LEAP
students to El Espejo Overnight at LMU on April 12 and 13, 2013. Cost to be
paid with After-School Education and Safety (ASES) funds.
(Est. cost $960)
(01.3-60100.3-11100-10000-XXXX-0080000)

19.

Approve salary expenses for three LMS LEAP staff members, at the
appropriate hourly rate, not to exceed eight hours each per day, to take LEAP
Drill to a competition in Las Vegas, NV on April 19 and 20, 2013. Cost to be
paid with After-School Education and Safety (ASES) funds.
(Est. cost $1,440)
(01.3-60100.3-11100-10000-XXXX-0080000)

20.

Approve salary expenses for five LMS LEAP staff members, at the appropriate
hourly rate, not to exceed eight hours each, to take students to a dance/drill
competition at Sierra Vista High School in Baldwin Park, CA on April 28, 2013.
Cost to be paid with After-School Education and Safety (ASES) funds.
(Est. cost $640)
(01.3-60100.3-11100-10000-XXXX-0080000)

21.

Approve material expense and salary expense for Tamara Premsrirath, Huerta
GATE Teacher, at the teacher hourly rate, not to exceed 26 hours between
March 13 and June 6, 2013, to provide GATE programming for Huerta GATE
students in an after-school program. Cost to be paid with District GATE funds.
(Est. cost $1,490)
(01.3-97140.0-11100-10000-1130-0000013) salary - $555
(01.3-97140.0-11100-10000-4310-0000013) materials - $935

22.

Item pulled for further discussion, see below.

23.

Item pulled for further discussion, see below.

Study Trips
24.

Ratify Lennox Middle School and Moffett Elementary HARP students trip for
ten students and two adults to the Long Beach Convention Center on
February 15, 2013, for the HARP students to perform at CABE 2013. Cost for
transportation to be paid with Title III funds.
(Est. cost $445)
(01.3-42030.0-11100-10000-5894-0000013)

83

25.

Ratify Lennox Academy trip for 225 ninth through twelfth grade students and
15 adults to Corona High School on March 2, 2013, for the LMSTA soccer
team final game. Cost for transportation to be paid with LMSTA Site
Allocation funds.
(Est. cost $2,200)
(09.0-00000.0-11100-10000-5894-0090000)

26.

Lennox Academy trip for 284 ninth and twelfth grade students and 11 adults to
the Long Beach Convention Center on March 13, 2013, for freshman and
senior class students to learn about environmental and air quality issues.
Cost for transportation to be paid with LMSTA Site Allocation funds.
(Est. cost $2,000)
(09.0-00000.0-11100-10000-5894-0090000)

27.

Huerta Elementary School trip for 86 second grade students and ten adults to
Big Al (Fish) in the Lab in Dana Point, CA on April 16, 2013, to enhance the
study of Science. Cost for transportation and entrance to be paid with Huerta
Cultural Horizons funds.
(Est. cost $800)
(01.3-91002.0-11100-10000-5894-0060000) transportation - $400
(01.3-91002.0-11100-10000-5880-0060000) entrance - $400

28.

Lennox Academy trip for 30 ninth and tenth grade students and one adult to
UCLA on March 15, 2013, as a motivational youth summit. Cost for
transportation to be paid with LMSTA Site Allocation funds.
(Est. cost $445)
(09.0-00000.0-11100-10000-5894-0090000)

29.

Lennox Middle School trip for 70 sixth through eighth grade students and
seven adults to the California Science Center in Los Angeles, CA on March
16, 2013, for LMS LEAP students to view the Shuttle Endeavor. Cost for
transportation and entrance to be paid with After-School Education and Safety
(ASES) funds.
(Est. cost $1,424)
(01.3-60100.3-11100-10000-5894-0080000) transportation - $1,004
(01.3-60100.3-11100-10000-5880-0080000) entrance - $420

30.

Jefferson Elementary trip for 60 third grade students and six adults to the
William O. Douglas Outdoor Classroom in Beverly Hills, CA on March 21,
2013, to enhance the study of Indian habitats, at no cost to the District. Cost
for transportation to be paid by the William O. Douglas Outdoor Classroom
through the Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority.

84
31.

Lennox Middle School trip for 200 sixth through eighth grade students and 20
adults to the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach, CA on March 23, 2013, to
enhance the study of sea life for LMS LEAP students. Cost for transportation
and entrance to be paid with After-School Education and Safety (ASES) funds.
(Est. cost $5,095)
(01.3-60100.3-11100-10000-5894-0080000) transportation - $1,335
(01.3-60100.3-11100-10000-5880-0080000) entrance - $3,760

32.

Lennox Middle School trip for 51 eighth grade students and four adults to the A
Noise Within Theatre in Pasadena, CA on April 20, 2013, to view the play
Grapes of Wrath. Cost for transportation to be paid with After-School
Education and Safety (ASES) funds.
(Est. cost $445)
(01.3-60100.3-11100-10000-5894-0080000)

33.

Lennox Middle School trip for eight sixth through eighth grade students and
two adults Knotts Berry Farm in Buena Park, CA on March 24, 2013, for the
LMS LEAP Dance Competition. Cost for entrance to be paid with After-School
Education and Safety (ASES) funds. Transportation provided via LEAP vans.
(Est. cost $675)
(01.3-60100.3-11100-10000-5880-0080000)

34.

Lennox Middle School trip for 18 sixth through eighth grade students and two
adults to the Santa Monica Museum on March 13, 2013, to enhance the study
of Art for LEAP Art students. Cost for entrance to be paid with After-School
Education and Safety (ASES) funds. Transportation provided via LEAP vans.
(Est. cost $90)
(01.3-60100.3-11100-10000-5880-0080000)

35.

Lennox Middle School trip for 11 sixth grade through eighth grade students
and two adults to the Pantages Theater in Los Angeles, CA on April 11, 2013,
to enhance the study of musical theater and variety of techniques within dance
for the LMS LEAP Dance Team. Cost for entrance to be paid with AfterSchool Education and Safety (ASES) funds. Transportation provided via
LEAP vans.
(Est. cost $540)
(01.3-60100.3-11100-10000-5880-0080000)

36.

Huerta Elementary School trip for 34 fifth grade students and four adults to the
Edward Little Water Recycling Facility and Sea Lab in Redondo Beach, CA on
April 25, 2013, to enhance the study of Science and to get a tour of the water
recycling facility, at no cost to the District. Transportation to be provided by
the Edward Little Water Recycling Facility and Sea Lab through American
Transportation.

85

37.

Lennox Middle School trip for 45 sixth grade students and four adults to the
Getty Villa in Pacific Palisades, CA on April 18, 2013, to enhance the study of
Ancient Civilization, at no cost to the District. Transportation to be provided by
the Getty Villa through Four Winds Transportation.

38.

Jefferson and Felton Elementary Schools trip for 100 kindergarten through fifth
grade LEAP students and ten adults to Edgewood High School in West
Covina, CA on March 17, 2013, for the LEAP Cheer and Dance team to
compete in the SHARP competition. Cost of transportation to be paid with
ACCESS funds.
(Est. cost $1,200)
(01.3-41245.3-11100-10000-5894-0020000) - $600
(01.3-41245.3-11100-10000-5894-0050000) - $600

39.

Jefferson Elementary trip for 120 fifth grade students and 12 adults to the J.
Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles, CA on March 25, 2013, to enhance the
study of Art, at no cost to the District. Transportation to be provided by the J.
Paul Getty Museum through Four Winds Transportation.

Business Services Items

40.

Approve amendment to December 11, 2012 Consent Agenda Item No. 39,
agreement with Julie Avnit, for an extension of services related to the
Jefferson Elementary School ORG state funded project; continued research
and preparation for closeout audit on old Whelan project; analysis and
preparation of resulting overall cash flow history and projections; forensic
reconciliation of Measures A and L, as per the contract, for an additional
$40,000, and a total revised cost of $70,000, to be paid with Los Angeles
World Airport (LAWA)/General funds.
(Est. cost $40,000)
(40.2-98018.0-00000-85000-6293-0050000) LAWA Whelan
(01.1-00000.0-00000-72000-5810-0000010) General fund

41.

Approve agreement with Diabetes Camping and Educational to provide camp

facilities for the fifth grade Outdoor Science Camp between May and June
2013. Cost to be paid with District funds and partially reimbursed with Site
and PTA funds.
(Est. cost $30,000)
(01.1-00000.0-11100-10000-5890-0002510)

86

42.

Approve salary expenses for up to 48 cafeteria staff members, at the

appropriate hourly rate, not to exceed 3 hours each on April 12, 2013, to
participate in a True Colors training to develop techniques on getting along
with people at work and basic communication promoting positive attitudes and
enhancing self identity. Cost to be paid with Food Services Site Allocation
funds.
(Est. cost $3,800)
(13.0-53100.0-00000-37000-5220-0000016)

Human Resources Items

43.

Approve amendment to August 14, 2012 Consent Agenda Item No. 25, to
include meals (original item only specified materials, supplies and
refreshments) for interviews that were held on November 26, 2012, for an
additional cost of $100, and a total revised cost of $300, to be paid with
District (location 17) funds.
(01.1-00000.0-00000-74000-4353-0000017)

44.

Approve reimbursement of Carrie Ann Ortiz and Julie Smith, LMS 7/8 teachers,
for the renewal fee for the National Board Certification in the amount of $1,250
each. Cost to be paid with Northrup Grumman N.B.C. donation.
(Est. cost $2,500)
(01.3-91078.0-11100-10000-5880-0000017)

Items pulled for further discussion and action:

Item No. 22
Board President Cruz again suggested to table this item. She explained that because
of the findings that have been reported to the Board regarding the counselors having
a lot of time taken away from them to do primarily for disciplining, and shes also
heard other ones in previous years that they do much administrative work and she
just wants to make sure that they have something in line, a plan for the District to look
at their counselors and see what is the plan, what is the vision, and so they can
really, again, laserpoint and see how their duties and responsibilities are being
implemented and how the role is being carried out and she knows that this is at no
cost to the District, which is awesome, but still, now in the long-term are they being
self-sustaining, so thats the reason behind the table. Trustee Fajardo stated that she
just wanted to make a clarification whether this organization does counseling for
emotional because she thinks it is important for the Board to know that there is
different counseling credential, there is school counseling and there is counseling for
emotional so she would like to know if MASADA is like Richstone; they are doing
counseling for emotional children, which a school counselor doesnt have a credential

87
(Items pulled for discussion, Item No. 22, continued)
to do. Dr. Flores stated that she would like to recommend that they bring back
information on the services that both of these entities provide. Board President Cruz
stated that it is the same question on both items but given that now they are on Item
No. 22, they are moving to table with bringing back more information and possibly
looking into a counseling plan that they can uniformly adopt across the District but
again, that is for further discussion.
On the motion of Trustee Saldaa, it was moved to table, duly seconded by Trustee
Ibarra, and by a vote of 4 - 0, the Board of Trustees approved to table the
Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with MASADA Homes Services, to provide
school-based counseling services to the District for the 2012 2013 school year, at
no cost to the District.
Item No. 23
Board President Cruz asked again for a motion to table Item No. 23 for the same
reason as Item No. 22.
On the motion of Trustee Ibarra, it was moved to table, duly seconded by Trustee
Saldaa, and by a vote of 4 - 0, the Board of Trustees approved the Memorandum of
Understanding (MOU) with Richstone Family Center Services, to provide school-based
counseling services to the District for the 2012 2013 school year. Cost to be paid
with School Safety & Violence Prevention Grant funds.
(Est. cost $25,050)
(01.3-97391.2-11100-10000-5810-0000013) - $25,000
(01.3-97391.2-11100-10000-5100-0000013) - $50
VIII.

PUBLIC COMMENT ON CLOSED SESSION AGENDA ITEMS

There were no public comments on Closed Session Agenda Items.

IX.

CLOSED SESSION
The Board adjourned to Closed Session at 12:07 a.m. and reconvened to
Regular/Open Session at 12:47 a.m.

X.

REPORTING OUT OF ANY CLOSED SESSION ACTIONS

Resolve the following 41599-103012-8 be readmitted to LMS 7/8 from expulsion.
On the motion of Trustee Saldaa, duly seconded by Trustee Ibarra, and by a vote of
4 - 0, the Board of Trustees approved the readmission of Student No. 41599-103012-8
to LMS 7/8 from expulsion.

88
(Reporting Out of Any Closed Session Actions, continued)
Board President Cruz stated that for the record Trustee Fajardo left before Closed
Session so she was not in Closed Session but they found Mr. Navarro and Mr.
Navarro was there for Closed Session. Trustee Navarro questioned what Board
President Cruz meant by that they had found her since he was here already. Board
President Cruz responded reminding him that he had taken a break.
Board President Cruz continued that from Closed Session that the Board of Education
directs staff to provide confirming notice to temporary certificated teachers 8886, that
their contract will expire at the end of the 2012 2013 school year and stated that
would be a direction for Dr. Flores. Dr. Flores stated that she would follow through.
Dr. Flores also stated that they didnt need to vote because they already voted. Board
President Cruz confirmed that they had already voted and at this point have given
direction in Open.
XI.

BOARD REPORTS
Trustee Navarro shared that he has some concerns about what happened tonight
based upon the decision that was made on the presentation by Total School
Solutions. He further commented that there are so many Board Bylaws that in his
personal opinion that were not followed such as Board Bylaw 3600. He asked
whether they did as a Board their due diligence on this Board Bylaw 3600 which
specifically talks about consultants. He further asked if there was a bid process; was
there a background check on all these consultants that came upon them today, and
also when is it convenient to forget about all Board Policies and Board Bylaws when
they are not going to follow them all of the time. He commented further that tonight,
they supposedly followed them but he thinks otherwise that they didnt but he will ask
again, did they follow proper protocols and procedures; did they follow Board Bylaws
when it comes to the appointment of the Superintendent, Board Bylaw 9321, asking
again whether they followed that. He further asked whether they had held a
discussion in Closed Session to appoint Dr. Flores as the Superintendent; did they
follow proper procedures when it came to her contract. As of today he has never
seen a contract from Dr. Flores in any other way. He asked again whether they did
as a Board their due diligence about that. Trustee Navarro stated that was something
that they needed to look at. He further expressed that as a Governance team, not
just a Governance team of one, two or three, but a Governance team of five, as
individuals have they done their proper Board Bylaws. Trustee Navarro asked why
do they have the need of going to these consultants and going based on what their
recommendations are if as a Board they havent even done a process when it came
to the Superintendent. He asked why are they hiring all of these consultants, again,
he goes back to Consultants Board Bylaw 3600 and have they done their proper due
diligence. There are just a lot of ifs so he is requesting formally again that they look
into the Superintendents contract as well as an evaluation of the Superintendent.
Trustee Navarro stated that he wanted to know why he was being ignored when he

89
(Board Reports, Trustee Navarro, continued)
puts in these official requests so many times, he thinks this is going to be his third or
fourth request and he has been ignored several times. He expressed again, it isnt a
Board of one, two or three or four, it is a Board of five and shouldnt equal information
be passed among all members of the Board. He stated that personally he feels that
he has been ignored several times to what he requested from their previous reports
and seeking on whether or not they did their due diligence when they hired the
Superintendent. He asked why they are going again to these consultants and further
questioned whether it is because the Superintendent currently cannot perform all of
her duties as a Superintendent and why did they go through this process about going
to Total School Solutions when the legitimacy of their company states otherwise.
Trustee Navarro also asked why they didnt have the information on salaries in
Closed Session and why did they just get them today and why didnt they have the
appropriate, the Second Interim Report in a timely manner. There are just a lot of ifs
going on so what he is requesting is for them to go through legal counsel but not Leal
Trejo because they need somebody who is going to be familiar with their Board
Bylaws, their Board Policies and their protocols and procedures because today he
asked the attorney that was here and he didnt know about their Board Bylaws or
anything like that so why was he here during the whole sitting of the Board meeting;
who authorizes all of this spending on consultants and attorney fees because he
knows if they go through their policy and procedures, they have specific Board
Bylaws, they have specific policies and procedures when it comes to consultants and
when it comes to how much money they are spending on attorney fees. He
expressed that he is not happy and the answers that he got tonight; he is not happy
with the answers that he got from Total School Solutions, and he is not happy with
most of the answers that they got from the assessment plan from LMS. There were a
lot of unanswered questions and the majority of the Board took action upon these, so
again, are they doing their due diligence.
Board President Cruz stated that it was mentioned about this month being Art Month
and in addition she had an e-mail from a Lawndale school Board member, Ms. Amy
Phillips, the one that she shared with the JPA, because Lawndale School District
recognizes students in the arts, she thinks they do a weekly recognition, and she was
just asked if she knew of students, which she sure does, and she is just kind of
spreading the word, if they have any students deserving of recognition for their art
skills or contributions or activism or you-name-it, so if anybody knows, please relay
that information to her so she can recommend someone to Ms. Phillips in Lawndale
and in that regard, she informed Dr. Flores that this is the month of arts and she
knows that they approved a Take Part Art resolution last year and she would like to
explore possibly for the next Board meeting, bringing a resolution but not a five
school district resolution but just one of their own recognizing the Arts and taking
advantage that Lawndale and many other school districts have programs in place and
have these types of recognitions, kind of like with autism as well, just having those
awarenesses and having the recognition of students with those types of interests in

90
(Board Reports, Board President Cruz, continued)
the field, for example in Arts. Dr. Flores confirmed that what she wanted was a
resolution, to adopt a resolution... Board President Cruz added for the Arts but for the
Lennox School District, that they had one before but it was shared and this one is
more with their special type of need and saying that, March 8th was also the
International Day of the Woman and she knows that last year they approved a
resolution to recognize the women, recognize their efforts and their leadership
positions and what they do when they are given those responsibilities and she asked
Dr. Flores if she could please go back and see where that resolution is and she would
like to revisit it. Dr. Flores asked Board President Cruz if she wanted her to bring it
forward. Board President Cruz asked her to please bring it forward because she
wanted to see how they could not just stay as a pretty looking resolution, but how can
they bring in speakers, bring in a book, something that puts into action that
awareness, given that they already have a resolution, she wants to revisit it and see
how they can put some action into it and with that said, she asked for a motion to
adjourn.
XII.

ADJOURNMENT
Time: 1:00 a.m.
On the motion of Trustee Saldaa, duly seconded by Trustee Ibarra, and by a vote of
4 - 0, the Board of Trustees approved the adjournment of this evenings Board
meeting.
__________________________________
Dr. Barbara Flores, Superintendent

_________________________________
Member, Board of Trustees
Note:

Any individual requiring disability-related accommodations or modifications, including auxiliary aids and
services, in order to participate in the Board meeting, should contact the Superintendent or designee.

91
Human Resources Report (Exhibit A)
March 12, 2013

CERTIFICATED PERSONNEL
Employment, effective as noted:
1. Mariela Beiza Rocha, Substitute Preschool Teacher, effective March 13, 2013.

Resignation/Termination, effective as noted:

2. Ratify resignation of Elizabeth Trujillo, Substitute Teacher, effective February 25, 2013.
3. Ratify resignation of Deborah Rennie Waynesmith, Substitute Teacher, effective February 27,
2013.
4. Ratify resignation of Martin Estacio, Substitute Teacher, effective March 1, 2013.
5. Resignation of Lander Espinosa, Moffett Special Education Teacher, effective March 14,
2013.

Leave of Absence, effective as noted:

6. Alicia Garcia, Preschool Teacher, requesting childrearing unpaid leave of absence beginning
January 10 through April 14, 2013.
7. Mary Colburn, LMS 7/8 Teacher on Leave (former LMS 7/8 Science Teacher), requesting
second-year unpaid leave of absence, beginning July 1, 2013 through June 30, 2014.

CLASSIFIED PERSONNEL
Employment, effective as noted:
8. LEAP Leaders, as follows, effective date to be determined.
Robert Alvarez, LMS 7/8
Jocelyn Rivera, Huerta
Maria Marceal, Buford
Diana Sanchez, LMS 7/8
Daisy Otzoy, LMS 7/8
Vanessa Zambrano, Buford
Michelle Cruz, Huerta

92
Substitutes LEAP Leaders:
Sandra Arbildo
Luis Fregoso

Natalie Vallejo

9. Rosalind Harris, LMS 7/8 Substitute Supervision Duty aides, effective date to be determined.
10.

Substitute Custodians, as follows, effective date to

be determined.
Apolonio Lopez-Flores

Carlos Tinti-Mazariegos

Resignations/Terminations, effective as noted:

11. Ratify resignation of Brenda L. Garcia, Buford LEAP Coordinator, effective February 26,
2013.
12. Ratify resignation of Emmanuel Gomez, Huerta LEAP Leader, effective March 8, 2013.
13. Ratify resignation of Rodolfo Sanchez, LMS 7/8 Campus Supervisor, effective February 27,
2013.

STAFF DEVELOPMENT
14. Ratify Vanesa Mateu, LMSTA Teacher, to attend the LA Stars Preparing Students for the AP
Examination in Spanish Language and Culture Conference in Los Angeles on the following
Saturdays: September 15, October 20, and November 20, 2012. Cost of transportation to be
paid with LMSTA Site Allocation funds.
(Est. cost $99)
(09.0-00000.0-11100-10000-5220-0090000)

15. Ratify Daniel King, LMSTA Teacher, to attend the Northrop Grumman High School Innovation
Challenge Competition in Redondo Beach on February 22, 2013. Cost of one substitute to
be paid with LMSTA Site Allocation funds.
(Est. cost $125)
(09.0-00000.0-11100-10000-1160-0090000)

93
16. Amendment to February 12, 2013 Human Resources Report (Exhibit A), Item No. 44, to
include parking expenses for Leticia Varela, Coordinator of Categorical Programs, (and
others), for an additional cost of $40, and a total revised cost of $770 (all total), to be paid by
Project Stellar funds.
(01.3-91102.0-11100-10000-5220-0000013)

17. Christian Mendoza, Buford Teacher, and Polo Marquez, LMS 7/8 Teacher, to attend the CTA
Political Academy in Pasadena on March 8, 2013. Cost of two substitutes to be paid with
District funds and reimbursed by LTA.
(Est. cost $250)
(01.1-00000.0-11100-10000-1160-0002110)

18. Jasmine Lua, Preschool Teacher, to attend the California Association for Education of Young
Children (CAEYC) in San Jose March 14 - 16, 2013. Cost of registration, parking, supplies,
and two substitutes to be paid with California State Preschool funds.
(Est. cost $775)
(12.3-61050.0-00010-10000-5220-0000022)

19. Martha Padilla, Felton Teacher; Silvana Fusco, Jefferson Teacher; Brian Guerrero, LMS 7/8
Teacher; and Justin Catalan, Moffett Teacher, to attend the Spring 2013 QEIA Site Contact
Meeting in Pasadena on March 19, 2013. Cost of four substitutes to be paid with District
funds and reimbursed by LTA.
(Est. cost $500)
((01.1-00000.0-11100-10000-1160-0002110)

20. Maria Castellanos and Meg Sanchez, LMS 7/8 assistant principals, and Maureen Romero
and Erin Smith, LMS 7/8 teachers, to attend the Good Teaching Conference in Los Angeles,
CA on March 22, 2013. Cost of registration, parking, meals, and two substitute teachers to
be paid with LMS 7/8 EIA funds.
(Est. cost $450)
(01.3-70900.0-11100-10000-5220-0080000) teacher registration, parking and meals
(01.3-70900.0-00000-27000-5220-0080000) assistant principal registration, parking and
meals
(01.3-70900.0-11100-10000-1160-0080000) - substitutes

94
21. Allison Gribben, Disabilities Specialist, to attend the California Preschool Curriculum
Framework, Volume II in Pasadena on March 22, 2013. Cost of registration, meals, and
parking to be paid with IDEA-Basic Local Assistance Entitlement funds.
(Est. cost $80)
(01.3-33100.0-57700-72000-5220-0000019)

22. Lorena Marin, Preschool Parent Coordinator/Literacy Coach, and Diana Hechinger,
Preschool Staff Development Specialist, to attend the 6th Annual Preschool Teacher of the
Year Awards on April 4, 2013. Cost of registration and parking to be paid with Los Angeles
Universal Preschool (LAUP) funds.
(Est. cost $450)
(12.3-78105.0-00010-10000-5220-0030022)

23. Brian Guerrero, LMS 7/8 Teacher, to attend the CTA Lobby Day in Sacramento on May 22,
2013. Cost of one substitute teacher to be paid with District funds and reimbursed by LTA.
(Est. cost $125)
(01.1-00000.0-11100-10000-1160-0002110)

24. Brian Guerrero, LMS 7/8 Teacher, to attend the QEIA Workgroup in Burlingame on May 23,
2013. Cost of one substitute teacher to be paid with District funds and reimbursed by LTA.
(Est. cost $125)
(01.1-00000.0-11100-10000-1160-0002110)

25. Matt Duffy, Robert Collins, Dave Misraje, Celina Morales, Efrain Pinedo, and Julie Smith,
LMS 7/8 teachers, to attend the Common Core Connections: Implications for Science and
History Social Studies Workshop in Downey on May 24 and 31, 2013. Cost of 12 substitutes
to be paid with LMS EIA funds.
(Est. cost $1,320)
(01.3-70900.0-11100-10000-1160-0080000)

26. Leticia Varela, Coordinator of Categorical Programs, to attend the Developing Text
Dependent Questions Aligned with the Common Core State Standards for the Middle School
Anthologies Conference in Long Beach on March 25-26, 2013. Cost of meals and parking to
be paid with Title III, Part A LEA funds.
(Est. cost $40)
(01.3-40350.0-00000-21000-5220-0000013

95
27. Ratify May Webster and Susana Perez, Preschool Teachers, to participate in a Los Angeles
Universal Preschool (LAUP) Interview for the Preschool Teacher of the Year Award
Ceremony in Burbank on March 11, 2013. Cost of two substitutes to be paid with Preschool
Reserve funds.
(Est. cost $260)
(12.3-78105.0-00010-10000-5220-0040022)