SPECIAL MEETING

OF THE BOARD OF EDUCATION

LENNOX SCHOOL DISTRICT
Thursday, February 28, 2013 at 5:30 p.m.
A Special Meeting of the Board of Education of the Lennox School District pursuant to Section
54956 of the Government Code was held in the Board Room of the Lennox School Distric, 10319
Firmona Avenue, Lennox, Los Angeles County, California, on Thursday, February 28, 2013 at
5:30 p.m., to discuss the items listed below.
MINUTES
I.

CALL TO ORDER Board President Cruz called the meeting to order at 5:35 p.m.
Trustees Cruz, Ibarra, Fajardo, Navarro and Saldaa were present.
Ms. Barbara Flores, Superintendent; Ms. JoAnn Isken, Assistant Superintendent of
Instructional Services; Mr. Luis Camarena, Assistant Superintendent of Human
Resources; Mr. Jose Dominguez, Assistant Superintendent of Facilities, and 20 guests
were present.
The Pledge of Allegiance was led by Trustee Ibarra.

II.

PUBLIC COMMENT ON CLOSED SESSION AGENDA ITEMS

Mr. Brian Guerrero, LTA President and LMS 7/8 Teacher
Mr. Guerrero greeted the Board members present and stated that tonight his
understanding is that they are all going to hear at least the preliminary kind of results
of the audit or the review done by Total Solutions. The association has said for a while
that everything needs to get looked at these days with the finances and things and he
has said this before but he wants to say it again today on record, that he thinks it is
very important for them all to consider this to be the first step in the process but not the
end of the process. There are an awful number of stakeholders in this District whether
its teachers or administrators or parents or classified employees, so he really just
encourages them all to listen to the report tonight, get some ideas from the report
tonight but make sure that there is a step in this process that involves talking to all of
the stakeholders, talking to teachers, talking to parents before they make any
decisions, just to make sure that this is the most informed decision; there is a lot of
perspectives out there and he thinks an outside perspective is great, sometimes
something we have lacked in the past, but asked them to please make sure they also
get some perspective from the various stakeholders here in the community before they
make any final decision.

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III.

CLOSED SESSION
The Board adjourned to Closed Session at 5:40 p.m.

IV.

OPEN SESSION
Reconvened into Open Session at 7:50 p.m.

V.

REPORTING OUT OF ANY CLOSED SESSION ACTIONS

Board President Cruz reported that in Closed Session the Board took action to ratify a
final settlement agreement on behalf of OAH Case No. 2013010071. The members in
favor were five; members against were zero, so the motion passed as unanimous.
Board President Cruz asked if there were any Board Requests or Follow-ups. She
then stated that before that, just for the record, the Board has not taken any action in
Closed Session other than what was previously reported for the case on behalf of the
parent and the Lennox School District.

VI.

BOARD MEMBER REQUESTS AND/OR FOLLOW-UPS

Trustee Saldaa stated that there was something she wanted to request that she
didnt get to request the other night and she asked if they could do a resolution for
Autism Awareness Month. Dr. Flores asked her if that was for next month. Trustee
Saldaa stated that it was April. Trustee Fajardo clarified if it was a resolution.
Trustee Saldaa confirmed that it was a resolution for Autism Awareness Month. Dr.
Flores asked her; since there were so many members in the audience, to give an idea
about this. Trustee Saldaa shared that in April they are going to celebrate Autism
Awareness Month and they are going to be asking teachers to submit their student
artwork and they are going to hold an auction here at the last Board meeting and
auction off the artwork to raise funds for their autistic students and they would be given
more details as they move along.
Trustee Navarro commented that they had a presentation on the District
Reorganization in Closed Session, however, he stated that he would like it to be in a
presentation for the public so they can be aware of what the was presented to them
and when they are talking about District reorganization, consider our employees as
part of it, however, based on the Minutes of October 9, 2012, they have not had a
proper discussion on the Superintendents contract so that is something that needs to
be done a.s.a.p. before they move forward on having any further consultants having
any further moving forward towards anything else. He further commented that it is
very important as a Board that they do their due diligence on this and it hasnt
happened; so far he hasnt seen the contract and they havent had any discussion
about this so based on the Minutes from October 9, 2012, page 17 under HR, that was
one of the conditions that they have not met so he thinks it is very important that they

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(Board Requests and/or Follow-up, Trustee Juan Navarro, continued)
go ahead and proceed with this. He continued with that he had also received some
reports on how much money is being spent on consultants and attorneys, however, he
requested more specific detailed information as to why they are spending that much
money on many past consultants and why are they spending that much money on
attorney fees because he knows that in the past, they had a cap to determine how
much money they were going to be spending on attorney fees and it is something that
he doesnt know if that past practice has been lost or what so they need to have a
discussion on that and he just needs to see a fully detailed report on the reasoning
why to support those attorney fees and to also support all the monies being spent on
consultants.
VII.

ADJOURNMENT
Board President Cruz stated that at this time she needed a motion for adjournment.
After the motion and second for adjournment, Board President Cruz reminded the
audience that the next Board meeting was on Tuesday, March 12, 2013 and to stay
tuned. The presentation that was done today was just for the Board to just have
some background information on what they will be presenting to the public as they
have agreed upon. An audience member confirmed on the 12th. Board President
Cruz stated that on the 12th, at 5:30, in this room.
Time: 8:30 p.m.
On the motion of Trustee Fajardo, duly seconded by Trustee Ibarra, and by a vote of
5 - 0, the Board of Trustees approved the adjournment of this evenings Board
meeting.

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Dr. Barbara Flores, Secretary
__________________________________
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.