4-1-1 on the April 19 Irvine Unified School District (IUSD) Board of Education Meeting
An Ordinary/Standard Meeting
Full disclosure- I had a schedule conflict and was not able to arrive to the meeting in person until 7:30pm. I tuned in digitally from 7:15-7:30 and watched the replay of the meeting in its entirety on the 21st so as to provide an accurate depiction of the part I wasn’t present for in person.
The Tuesday April 19 Irvine Unified School District Board of Education meeting was “run of the mill”. There was hardly a mention of COVID-19 in read outs, discussion or agenda items. The meeting lasted less than 90 minutes in total- called to order shortly after 6:30pm and adjourned at 8:00pm. Four of the five members of the Board were present (Sharon Wallin was absent). Two of the five Student Board Members were present in person and seated with the rest of the Board- Sonia Fereidooni from Irvine High & Sara Ghaem from University High. There wasn’t a mask in sight amongst the Board or members of the audience. Public attendance was light- roughly 20. Most of the roughly 20 in attendance were there to present on something and left upon concluding their presentation(s). By the end of the Board meeting audience had dwindled down to about 5 counting my mom and myself.
Discussion of “Items of Business” for the meeting commenced at the 50 minute mark. As a first item of business, there was a public hearing to announce the commencement of bargaining between IUSD and California School Employees Association Chapter #517 (Union that represents Classified Staff). At the close of the Public Hearing, the Board (via unanimous vote of those in attendance) authorized the bargaining process to move forward. The other items of business discussed during the meeting were:
Vote on Resolution 21-22-30: Non Re-Election of Temporary Certificated Employees—Outcome: Board unanimously approved the motion for Non re-election of temporary certificated employees
First Reading of Proposed Revision to Board Policy 5141.52 Suicide Prevention—Outcome: 2 Public Comments were shared in response to this agenda item and are noted further down in this post. Board unanimously approved first reading, waived second reading and approved publication of 5141.52 as revised.
Vote on Resolution 21-22-27 Statutory School Fee Increase**—Outcome: Motion to adopt 21-22-27 was unanimously approved by Board. **I will dedicate a future sub stack post to this topic as there is more substance to this than I can cover in this post.
Vote on approving Irvine Public Schools Foundation Funding Priorities 2022-2023— Outcome: Screenshot of the funding priorities can be found towards the end of this post. A motion to approve the submission of the request was unanimously approved by Board.
The order and flow of the meeting was as follows:
The meeting opened, per usual, with Roll Call and pledge. The pledge was followed by a moment of silence in memory of “longtime educator, leader and legal counsel for the district” Jackson (Jack) Parham. From there, the meeting proceeded with the approval of the minutes from the Feb 16 and March 1 meetings and the adoption of the agenda for the present meeting. There were 2 special presentations. The first was a presentation from Amy Liao (The Legislative Advocacy Chair) and High School student members of theLegislative Advocacy Program. Amy noted this is their first year coming back from a trip to Sacramento after two years of pause due to COVID. Participation was high with representation from each of the IUSD High Schools and the trip to Sacramento was a success. Several students who took part in the Sacramento trip, including student board member Sonia Fereidooni, spoke about their experience meeting in person with Legislators. Highlights and key take aways from their experience are as follows:
Virtual meetings are not an adequate replacement for in person face-to-face hands on experience
Seeing and meeting legislators in person provides great perspective as to who is representing education on the legislative side and shaping policy
Student voices matter, are being heard, are being considered and are being factored into policy decisions
Through the comments shared it is evident the Student Advocacy Program is an enriching experience for those involved. Amy & the students thanked the Board and key sponsors for their support of this program.
The second presentation was from Mary Earl Spencer President of the Assistance League of Irvine. Mary announced this year is the 32nd year of the “Young Masters” art show sponsored by the Assistance League of Irvine. The theme for this year’s show is Discover The Stories of Orange County. The winner of the cover art contest was announced and was in attendance: Mahima Wuppalapati a 6th Grade student at Santiago Hills Elementary. This year’s show will display more than 735 pieces of art- one piece of art from every elementary classroom through sixth grade. The display will go live on the IUSD and Assistance Leagues websites on May 7th. In closing, Mary shared the show was started 32 years ago because the Assistance League believed that a student's education should include visual and performing arts and that creativity should be rewarded.
Public comments followed the special presentations. There was only one public comment not related to items on the agenda. The public comment which starts at the 14 minute 48 second mark of the meeting was from an IUSD mom advocating for special education and seeking to bring transparency to short comings of the current IUSD Special Education Director in fulfilling the basic responsibilities of her role. It was noted that the IUSD Special Education Director has a history of abdicating the responsibilities of her role per a judge’s ruling in a lawsuit filed against Compton Unified School District during her tenure as Special Education Program Director there. Her closing remark to the Board was “Will Ms. O’Malley be allowed to continue to ignore the needs of students with disabilities in violation of the law and knowing the harm that is caused to these children.”
Although members of the Board are not to respond to public comments for items not on the agenda, Mr. Glasky stated the following upon the conclusion of the public comment:
Board policy and 9323 talks about rules of conduct as relates to our meetings including not initiating or making allegations against any individual employees. And so I don't appreciate you trying to impute an action that may have occurred at a different district on one of our employees. But thank you for coming this evening.
Student Board Member Reports, the Superintendent’s report and individual Board Member reports followed public comments. Excerpts from each are included below.
Highlights from Student Board Member Reports
Spring has been busy across all the high schools with Academic competitions, Fine Arts week, Performances, Student Body Elections, Athletic events, Pep Rallies and forthcoming proms
Fundraisers are ongoing throughout the High School campuses with focus on raising money to support Ukraine.
Seniors are looking forward to all the special events leading up to graduation day
Students are happy to have been able to re-establish a sense of community this school year and all are enjoying the events and festivities- things are starting to feel more like normal
Superintendent’s Report
Mr. Walker’s report started at the 28 minute mark. His remarks commenced by noting continued positive trends in the Orange County Health Association’s COVID Metrics. He noted the whole state of California is now in “green” per the CDC metrics. He addressed the initiative that has been announced with Orange County Power Authority sharing that IUSD has excelled in its sustainability efforts and is on track to “be net 0 emissions by the end of 2022”. He noted the District has one of the largest solar installation profiles and portfolios of any K12 school district in North America. This commenced in 2010 and continues to expand generating energy savings of nearly $3 million for the district. Mr. Walker acknowledged the strong academic performance of IUSD students noting that they are also well rounded. IUSD has recently received recognition for music and performing arts earning the accolade of “best community for music education”. He acknowledged the role that strategic partnerships with Irvine Company and Irvine Public School Foundation have played in enabling IUSD to earn such accolades. Much of Mr. Walker’s report was devoted to the subject of Mental Health. Here is the excerpt:
“Last time I talked about children's hospital seeing 40 percent increase in mental health admissions. The CDC came out with a report that was also really highlighted [this]. [This is data that] keeps us up at night. Depression, self-harm and violence, and drug and alcohol use, suicide, all of those things where we're very focused on. We have been and will continue to be focused on this. I want to thank Rep Katie Porter for drawing attention to this and for specifically acknowledging the work that IUSD has done. We're a model district as far as the investments that we've made, leading the way and guiding folks in how they might utilize limited resources to support mental health. We recognize that [mental health] is foundational to our students success, happiness, confidence and hope. This will remain a top priority. We will sustain the current investments and will expand partnerships.”
Board Member Reports
Board members in attendance shared that they have been busy visiting school campuses, interacting with students, attending school events and representing IUSD on the various committees they are appointed to. Each Board member acknowledged and commended the talents of IUSD students. They expressed gratitude towards PTA and IPSF for supporting the student programs.
The Consent agenda was breezed through after the Board Member reports and “Items of Business” (as highlighted at the top of this post) followed. I included the outcomes for each of the “Items of Business” at the top of this post. Below, I drill deeper into the first Reading of Proposed Revision to Board Policy 5141.52 Suicide Prevention item of business as this was notable because there were 2 public comments shared on this agenda item. Tammy Blakely, IUSD Executive Director of Student Support Services, introduced the agenda item. She remarked that an Assembly Bill came into effect in 2021 that requires there to be Suicide Prevention Policies/ Services for students K-12 (previously it was required for grades 7-12). The new requirement has prompted IUSD to modify existing Suicide Prevention policies to bring them into compliance with the K-12 Assembly Bill requirement. The floor was opened for Public Comment.
Ryan Heath, President and CEO of The Gavel Project, was the first to provide public comment on Suicide Prevention. Mr. Heath raised concern about the results from the recent CDC survey (which Mr. Walker referenced in his read out) that was specifically focused on the effect Pandemic response has had on mental health of our youth. He emphasized that school districts bear direct responsibility for the escalation in severity of the mental health crisis because of the policies they instituted and enforced over the past 2 years. The Board provided no response to Mr. Heath’s comments aside from “Thank You”. The entirety of his public comments are included in the Appendix below and I strongly encourage you to read and share them. I was the second to provide public comment. The entirety of my public comments are also included in the Appendix below. I echoed Mr. Heath’s sentiments sharing that my daughter’s mental health suffered as a result of strict enforcement of pandemic policies. Furthermore, I contested chosen verbiage for the policy that places emphasis on one specific “high risk” group as I believe the chosen language is ideologically motivated and driven. In my opinion, the need for explicit language surrounding “high risk” is un-necessary. Members of the Board raised the question to Ms. Blakely as to the presence of the language and where it originates. Ms. Blakely stated the language is boiler plate language from GAMUT that is fully vetted. GAMUT is a software that provides vetted legalese and is endorsed and preferred by California School Board Association. It was decided by Board that the language I was contesting should remain as is. Prior to approving the reading and waiving a second read there was general discussion about screening processes and parent notification process.
Upon approval of the revised Suicide Prevention Policy, the final items of business on Statutory School Fee Increase and Irvine Public Schools Foundation Funding Priorities were discussed.
Irvine Public Schools Foundation (IPSF) Funding Priorities
Mr. Walker and Members of the Board were very supportive of the IPSF Funding Priorities as presented below and shared the following remarks:
“All of these are directly connected to staffing and there and there are high high importance every every one of them. Mental health and wellness just want to reiterate, we make a very robust investment in mental health and wellness and end. It can be stronger and it is strengthened by this investment.”- Mr. Walker
“The funding allows us to really support a lot of items that are incredibly important.” Mr. Glasky echoed by Ms. Brooks & Mr. Bokota
Figure 1- Irvine Public School Foundation Funding Priorities as published in Board Meeting agenda.
Upon approval of the IPSF Funding Priorities the meeting adjourned.
APPENDIX
Ryan Heath Public Comments on Suicide Prevention
My name is Ryan Heath. I'm president and CEO of the gavel project. I’m here, not on behalf of any clients tonight, just here as a citizen and just want to talk to you all about the suicide issue in particular. This is a tragedy that we're facing right now as not only in a locality here in California at Orange County, but across the nation. I just heard something that broke my heart. We have a K-6 suicide prevention program coming up. I think all of you understand the seriousness of that. I think that all of you also need to take into account that you are all accountable. This is the responsibility of not just you but school boards across the nation, across the State of California. The people who were running the school boards, the people who are running the schools are the folks who were responsible for the fact that a recent CDC study show that 44% of respondents in 9- 12th grade indicated that they had, and I quote, “persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness for most of the pandemic”. When I was a kid, I got to go to school without a mask on all the way through. You decided for the last few years to basically just throw the norms out the window and to abuse children in the name of the greater good for a disease they have a 99.99% chance of surviving. Most disgusting is that now we have nearly 1 in 5 respondents indicating in this CDC study, that they seriously contemplated suicide within the last two years. The numbers for girls are even higher at 1 in 4 respondents indicating they contemplated suicide seriously. I'm a father of two little girls. This is disgusting. This is very sadly directly attributable to the policies adopted by this school district and by other school districts similarly situated across the nation and across the state. The fact is, no matter how much money you throw at this problem, you've already lit an entire pile of money on fire in order to cause it. We're still in a state of emergency in San Diego- perhaps even here. San Diego just voted to extend the emergency even though one person has died the last 10 days in that county which is crazy. But what we have here today though is tragic. We need to take very seriously our role as parents and our role as adults in the room when it comes to overseeing the mental health and wellness of our children. We cannot be isolating them any longer. We need to watch out for their best interests. Thank you.
Tiffany Craft Public Comments on Suicide Prevention Policy
Good evening. Thank you for the opportunity to address you with regard to the suicide prevention policy. I apologize for my late arrival. I was actually at my daughter's softball game, so I'm happy I got to take that in and come here and support you too. I'd like to echo what Ryan was speaking about. I want to talk about my daughter specifically. She is just one example. She’s in second grade and this winter faced six weeks of suffering- she didn't want to go to school. It was agonizing, it was painful to watch. This happened January 15th all the way through February 22nd while we had to wait for a mask medical exemption to be approved by IUSD. She couldn't take it anymore. I'm grateful that this is all over and done with. May everyone here please, please, please make a concerted effort to never let this happen ever again. Suicide, this shouldn't be happening. I support the policy, but I agree that merely putting money towards it is not the answer. If we talk the talk, we have to walk the walk to go along with it. On that note, I did read the policy and I did just have some concern about language that was pretty explicit in it and I want to question the need for the language to be so explicit. Specifically, it states on page two of 5141. 5 2 at the top of the page, “the training shall be offered under the direction of a district counseling under the direction of district counseling staff / school psychologists/ licensed staff and/or in cooperation with one or more community mental health agencies and may include the following: Item number 1…” (This is what I would like to question), identifying risk factors, which is great. I'm okay with that, but I don't like what follows. Identifying risk factors with an emphasis on high-risk groups including but not limited to LGBTQIA+ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex, asexual). So I question why the need to call that out? I understand the need for focus on high risk groups, but there you do allude to there being more high-risk groups than just LGBTQIA+. I just I think you're walking into a landmine by putting that kind of language in the policy. I would kindly ask you to reconsider and leave that out. Thank you.