As Burbank Unified School District meetings go, the most recent gathering on Thursday at city hall was brief, lasting two hours and thirty-four minutes, but informative.
One highlight was the 4-0 vote and adoption that proclaimed November as Youth and Families In Transition Awareness Month.
Nationally, three percent of all school-age children will experience some form of homelessness.
More than half of all children in Housing and Urban Development shelters are under the age of five and homelessness in infancy and toddlerhood has been linked to future child welfare involvement, and concerns related to mental health due to the impact of trauma caused by being homeless and early school failure.
The well-being of our county depends on the value we place on our children and youth, and in particular, on our actions to provide these vulnerable children and young people with opportunities to acquire the knowledge, skills and abilities they need to find and maintain stable housing and develop into healthy, self-sufficient adults.
Overall, the number of homeless in California is 181,399 and the percent of homeless in the city of Los Angeles is 12.7 percent and in the county it is 5.1 percent.
In summary, the BUSD Superintendent of Schools, Dr. John Paramo, and the Board of Education recognize housing insecurity continues to be a serious problem for many students and families across Los Angeles County.
There were several five-minute speakers who addressed the four members, President Dr. Emily Weisberg, Vice President Dr. Armond Aghakhanian, Clerk Abby Pontzer Kamkar and Charlene Tabet and one was former Burbank High Athletic Director and longtime mathematics teacher Patrick McMenamin.
McMenamin was passionate in his plea that the Burbank High Library should be renamed after Dave Thomson, a beloved history teacher and mentor who began his career in 1985 and across thirty-five years, had an immeasurable influence on his students.
Thomson taught United States History and Advanced Placement U.S. History and was a key member gathering the school’s history for its centennial in 2008.
Several others spoke reverently about Thomson, who was named the Los Angeles County Teacher of the Year once, was a soccer coach, and retired in 2020.
Three of the student representatives were on hand and Monterey’s Vivian Munoz started it off by mentioning her school spent a great deal of time talking about Native American Heritage Month and that her school had an interactive feature that spoke about the importance Native Americans have had on this country.
Lauren Nestor from Burroughs was next and she said the Associated Student Body is having a canned food drive and that the ABS is working on its Winter Formal.
Nestor also mentioned the Bears kicked off their boys’ basketball season with a 55-39 nonleague win over Northridge Academy.
Burbank’s Rose Ilangesyan, who is a member of the girls’ water polo team, was last to speak and she mentioned the Bulldogs lost a CIF Southern Section Division IX second-round playoff football game to Highland [Palmdale] 42-28.
Ilangesyan also mentioned the winter sports, boys’ and girls’ basketball, boys’ and girls’ soccer and wrestling, are about to kick off their seasons.
