Orange County Board of Education Meeting December 16, 2015 Transcript Welcome Call to Order Hammond: Well good morning everyone and welcome to our December 2015 regularly scheduled meeting for the Orange County Board of Education. And for those who don’t know our meetings are held monthly at 11:00 o’clock in the morning unless otherwise noted and we just ask that anyone that wishes to address our board please fill out one of the cards in the back. We have multiple staff members here that can help you to fill out the card and get that turned into us. Um, if you do want to speak just know that we give you about three minutes. Basically no more than that and you can’t hand off your time to somebody else so it’s not like you can get three people to show up with you and do about a 20 minute speech. And we do have about 45 minutes. We give 30 minutes in the front, 15 minutes near the tail end. And we just ask you to be very respectful and of course anyone that is disruptive could be asked to leave. Um, and so with that for the benefit of the record this regular meeting of the Orange County Board of Education is called to order and the gentleman that we had to do the invocation was unable to make it at the last minute so with that Madam Vice President I’m gonna call on you. Would you be willing to do an impromptu invocation? Invocation Lindholm: I will. Will you all please rise. If you’ll be with me in the spirit of pray; dear heavenly Father we are gathered here together for one purpose and that is to serve the children of all of Orange County and to be respectful of their parents and to applaud the teachers who give so much of their time. We also want to at this time when our service men and women are not able to come home, be with them, give their families peace, give them joy. Be with all of them and protect them as they protect use and keep us safe. In your name we pray, amen. Hammond: Amen. Pledge of Allegiance. Um, you know I was gonna ask if by any chance Mr. Steve Venz, am I saying that correctly, would you be willing to lead us in our Pledge of Allegiance. Pledge of Allegiance Venz: It would be my honor. I Pledge Allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Roll Call Hammond: Miss Darou, roll call please. Phouangvankham: Trustee Boyd? 1 No answer Phouangvankham: Trustee Lindholm? Lindholm: Here. Phouangvankham: Trustee Hammond? Hammond: Present Phouangvankham: Trustee Bedell? Bedell: Here Phouangvankham: Trustee Williams? Williams: I am present. Hammond: Um would like to note that for the record Trustee Bedell, sorry you are always here on time, that Trustee Boyd is going to be late. He is taking care of a personal matter so we look forward to him joining us as soon as possible; hopefully within the hour. Introductions Hammond: Introductions. Do we have any introductions please Miss Nina Boyd? Nina Boyd: We don’t have any introductions at this meeting. Hammond: Alright. Come to our agenda for our adoption and by the way just for my fellow board members last Thursday, December 10th President Obama signed ESSA, Every Student Succeeds Act into law. Because of this I’ll be adding a comment about this under board member comments. With that Chair seeks a motion in regards to the agenda. Agenda Lindholm: I have a couple of items Mr. President. Hammond: Fire away Lindholm: Um I would like to remove item number 14 as item 13 is a clearer version of the same. It’s almost a duplicate. So I’d like to make that here. Um, I’d like to add with our President’s concern we have wasted many meetings that we need uh board security to protect the public and the children who are here and the board members so I’d like to add that as a discussion item. And then secondly we have also discussed and it did not make the agenda and I’m not quite sure how that happened but a part-time staff member to assist the board with regular duties. We recognize the need for back-up and research material as needed by the board 2 to conduct regular business that’s a carry-over item. So that will be under discussion. And I would like to make those two suggestions as we approve the agenda. Williams: I’ll second that motion. Hammond: Alright um… well I think you discussed it pretty well um Doctor’s Williams or Bedell, any other comment on the agenda then. Bedell: No sir. Williams: No sir. Hammond: Alright, then all those in favor of approving the agenda as so moved signify by saying AYE. AYE. No oppose and Mr. Boyd is not here. Motion passes 4-0. Minutes Hammond: Minutes. Chair seeks a motion in regards to the minutes. Williams: So moved. Bedell: Second. Hammond: Any discussion? Hearing none, all those in favor of approving the minutes signifying by saying AYE. AYE, AYE. Opposed? Motion passes 4-0. Wow, we’re like two minutes ahead of schedule. This is awesome. Um, well what I’d like to do is do two things here. One I’d like to introduce Mr. Steve Venz, Visual and Performing Arts Coordinator. Um, and eh, while you’re coming on up I’m gonna invite my fellow board members to join us down in the front row, we get the Bob Uecker seats for a wonderful Christmas presentation. So I’m going to turn the microphone over to you sir while we scamper on down and let the kids… Lindholm: We have to scamper? Steve Venz: So Board President Hammond and the board members and Dr. Mijares, it is my pleasure to introduce to you Sean Oliu as well as we have his parents here, Robbie and John. And then we have accompanying him, I wanna call you… Oliver: Oliver! Steve Venz: Oliver! I was going to call you David cause I know a great band director in LA whose name is David Savala. So we have Oliver Savala joining us. As you guys step up and get ready to perform I wanted to explain a little bit not only where Sean is from but also why Sean exemplifies doing this presentation here today. So Sean is an 8th grader at Sycamore Junior High School in Anaheim. He went to the school district in Anaheim City Schools and we talk about in Orange County, we talk about wanting our students to learn and to really be able to develop within the five C’s. So we have communication, collaboration, critical thinking and creativity. 3 As well as we have that extra C of character. And this is the time of year where character really does play a role and we see the world around us. We see how character really is important during this time of what everything that’s been happening. And so Sean, he has, he started off with this talent and then through grit and determination has really taken that talent and brought it to a whole nother level which you’ll be able to see. And on top of that is that Sean exemplifies someone who’s really giving. And what he does is he goes to, I’ve seen him perform at California Department of Education. I’ve seen him doing fundraisers for Anaheim, for the City of Anaheim. He’ll do fund raisers for the Anaheim City School District. So taking time to do that and giving of his talent and abilities to do these things I think it’s really a wonderful thing for him to be an example for the students who, a middle school student doing this. And just last thing, I know what makes this so important to is that music, the power of music and music in education is now really starting, we’re starting to see how crucial that is. You know there’s all this brain research that demonstrates how playing a musical instrument it’s like a brain full workout. Because what you’re doing is you’re taking that mathematical, that analytical side of your brain and you’re taking that linguistic side of your brain and you’re really strengthening both. And their looking, neurologists are studying this and their seeing how amazing and how powerful that is and there’s nothing else that matches that. Not sports, not visual arts, nothing, but playing a musical instrument. And the thing that I find that’s so important that we do the work here in Orange County Department of Ed I think that key thing is about access. It’s about making sure that our children have access to this. And so Linda Wagner, Superintendent is creating that access and realizing the importance of that in Anaheim. And what’s amazing about Sean is that he has partnered his family I know that Robbie has partnered with them to start to create access to this beautiful gift and this beautiful thing of education, music education. So with that being said, it is my pleasure to introduce to you, Sean and Oliver. Applause Sean Oliu: Thank you everybody.