Long Beach Unified board meeting, Sep 16, 2026
2 h 07 min · 8 public speakers
This board doesn’t post agenda times. Click a board member to jump to where they first speak; we list only members whose voice our check named. Video length 2 h 07 min.
- Who spoke · first speaks at
- Diana CraigheadMember
What happened
What happened at this meeting
Long Beach Unified board accepts Board Goal 2 monitoring report on 5-0 vote 1:46:29
- Speakers at public comment raised concerns about screen time and artificial intelligence in schools. 23:53
- A district staff member reported that the district deficit spent by $50 million, which was expected, with an ending balance of $328 million. 46:20
- The board approved the consent calendar 5-0 with 1 preferential vote. 53:44
- Board members and staff discussed the monitoring report for Board Goal 2, which covers reading acceleration, and the board accepted the report 5-0 with 1 preferential vote. 1:46:29
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Item by item (11)
- Opening and agenda adoption 0:01
- Student representative report 3:57
- Recognitions and student board member report 15:54
- The board viewed a presentation on the screen about the 5th annual BSAI Symposium. 15:54
- The student board member reported that on the 26th, LBUSD high schools' ASBs would attend an ASB training. 17:52
- The student board member acknowledged Yom Kippur, which begins at sundown on Sunday, September 20th. 17:59
- Public comment 19:48
- Diana Craighead said there were no speakers for items listed on the agenda, and another speaker said there were 8 speakers for items not listed on the agenda. 20:07
- After one speaker spoke about multiculturalism and Islam, one board member said hate-filled speech was not welcome. 20:30
- Several speakers at public comment raised concerns about student screen time, commercial education technology and the use of artificial intelligence in schools, and one speaker called for regulations like those in other districts. 23:53
- Superintendent advisory group reports 40:59
- Diana Craighead said a policy or 2 would come to the board at its next meeting. 41:24
- Maria Isabel López reported that 183 intervention and support courses were offered at the middle school level and 281 credit recovery courses at the high school level during the school day. 41:38
- Erik Miller reported that more than 175 classified and certificated staff members would participate in 16 leadership development programs this year. 42:55
- Unaudited actuals financial report 44:26
- The staff member said the district had 59,828 students, a loss of over 1,600 students from last year, and that deficit spending was expected to continue and accelerate. 45:09
- A district staff member reported unrestricted general fund revenues of $870 million and expenses of $722 million, with deficit spending of $50 million and an ending balance of $328 million. 45:36
- One speaker asked whether the district had looked at ways to explain its spending to the community in a one-pager or video, and the staff member said the district was always looking for ways to make the budget easier to understand. 50:00
- Consent calendar 52:21
- Board Goal 2 monitoring report 53:50
- The superintendent said approximately 52% of students in the not met group on the 24-25 state test were English learners, students receiving special education services or both. 55:52
- A staff member said the June 2026 data point showed 27% of students meeting the scale score growth target, and that 4th graders needed 118 points of growth while 7th graders needed 80 points. 58:58
- One board member asked what changes would be considered based on the results and called them completely unacceptable, and another board member asked for tangible examples of what is working. 1:17:41
- The board accepted the monitoring report 5-0 with 1 preferential vote. 1:46:30
- Governance implementation timeline 1:46:30
- Board member reports 1:51:19
- Erik Miller said they would attend back-to-school night at two campuses. 1:51:27
- One board member said they were concerned about what the discussion looked like to the community and hoped to visit all assigned schools by early October. 1:54:52
- Maria Isabel López thanked staff members and parents who helped organize the 5th Annual Black Student Symposium, and Diana Craighead recognized staff who organized a training event for early education employees without a budget. 1:56:41
- Superintendent report and adjournment 2:00:24
- The superintendent said attendance was at 95% and that every 1% improvement equates to $8 million for the district. 2:00:24
- The superintendent said the maintenance team completed over 1,200 work orders during the first 2 weeks of the school year and announced a Latino Heritage Celebration on Saturday, October 10th. 2:00:24
- Diana Craighead said the next regularly scheduled meeting is Wednesday, October 7th. 2:06:55
Written by software from the meeting's transcript and checked sentence by sentence against it.
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Video: posted by the district as “(English) Meeting of the Board of Education, September 16th, 2026”