Meeting Recap: 'Pivoting' on Performing Arts Center Upgrades; Lee Elementary Presentation; Board Policy Revisions

Here are three things that happened at the Nov. 18, 2025 meeting of the Los Alamitos Unified School District Board of Education.

LEE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL PRESENTATION

During the workshop, Richard Henry Lee Elementary School principal Gary Willems and Lee students delivered the school’s annual report to the board. Each of the district’s nine campuses presents once to board each academic year. The Lee choir also performed before the presentation started. 

During Lee's report, Willems and the students spoke about the programs and events beloved by the Rossmoor campus. “I've had so many amazing experiences at Lee that have made elementary school so stupendous, remarkable, spectacular, even,” fifth grader Sabrina Nunez shared, citing Lee’s book fair, school carnival, and S.T.E.A.M. fair as highlights.

During his portion of the presentation, Principal Willems pointed repeatedly to the strength of the “Fami-Lee,” the campus community that was represented in the board room filled with Lee parents, students, teachers, staff, and volunteers. 

Willems said everyone works intentionally to build trust between these groups. A recent staff meeting focused on how past teachers had built that trust and how the campus can continue to foster relationships during a time of transition. The school welcomed 11 new staff members this year and plans for the anticipated retirements of some longtime educators.

“It is my job to ensure the newest staff is cognizant of how Lee has been able to build and maintain [the] community’s trust so they can keep it going in the future,” he said. He credited that work to Lee’s defying a trend of shrinking student populations. “In a time of declining enrollment in Orange County, California and the nation as a whole, Lee grew. Why did we grow? Because of trust,” Willems said. Lee has 637 students this year, an increase from 608 last year.

“It is clear that the community feels valued, that their voices matter, and that their opinions on how to improve Lee are listened to,” Willems said. He said this is evident by the school setting a new fundraising record during “Leo Olympics,” the school’s annual fundraiser held earlier this year. Lee raised nearly $125,000 in the effort, guaranteeing full funding for the school’s media center, S.T.E.A.M. lab and push-in intervention teacher for grades first through fifth next school year. 

“Yes, I had to eat dog food, dye my hair pink, and kiss a pig, but that's what we do, because it's all about our kids and their future,” Willems said with a smile, listing the incentives he personally delivered on for students meeting Leo Olympics fundraising goals. “Thank you to our ‘familee’ for that.”

Willems also talked about the school’s academics by referencing students’ performance on the California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress (CAASPP) tests taken in the spring of 2025 by third, fourth, and fifth graders.

Released last month, the results showed that 83.78% of Lee students met or exceeded the state standard in English language arts (ELA), which represents a decrease of 2.5 percentage points from 2024. In math, 84.07% of students met or exceeded the state standard, which is an increase of 2.4 percentage points from 2024. By comparison, the district as a whole had 75.91% of students meet or exceed ELA standards and 64.43% of students meet or exceed math standards.

Willems said his goal is always 100% proficiency for all students, but noted that some student groups came incredibly close to meeting that. “Of our 102 fourth-grade students last year, 89 were proficient in ELA and 96 were proficient in math. That means all but six of our fourth graders tested proficient in mathematics.” For fifth graders (now sixth graders) all but 12 of the 104 students tested proficient in ELA. “Academics are incredibly strong at Lee and continue to trend towards our school goal of 100% proficiency,” Willems said.

He also discussed the school’s commitment to cultural celebrations and the teachers’ enthusiastic adoption of the social emotional learning approach R.U.L.E.R., which has been phased in at all six of the district's elementary campuses over the past few years. “Emotional intelligence is the key to moving our Leos forward. When our staff at Lee feels like we have a program that will help children, they jump all in,” Willems said. 

The principal also named the school’s Master Gardener volunteers, Jennifer Fudal, Sue Gilbert, Donna Halker, and Kathi Urango as Lee’s “Hero of the Heart” award recipients for this school year. Willems said the group teaches Lee’s second and third graders how to maintain and prepare soil and plant fruit and vegetables. The group also leads a Junior Master Gardening club for fourth and fifth graders.

BOARD POLICY REVISIONS

Frequently board policy revisions show up on school board agendas. Oftentimes, these are routine updates to previously established policies in response to changes in California law, education code, or due to new rules established by legal cases. The revisions are frequently based on guidance from the California School Boards Association, a lobbying and advocacy nonprofit that counts most of the state’s 1,000 school districts as paying members.

At the November 18 meeting, the Los Alamitos USD board had 18 different policy revisions to consider. Most were adopted collectively, without a second reading, in a 5-0 vote, including the revision of the district’s policy on the “Recognition of Religious Beliefs and Customs.” The policy is being updated, in part, to include the provision: “When required by law, the district shall notify parents/guardians that they may, via written request, opt their students out of instruction on the basis of their religious beliefs.”

This follows the recent Supreme Court decision in Mahmoud v. Taylor, a case where parents were seeking to opt their students out of instruction involving LGBTQ+ storybooks.

During the meeting, Board Vice President Diana Hill spoke about the district’s practice of providing opportunities to parents to opt their students out of instruction that may not align with their family’s values. “I am a really strong proponent of that, because I believe that a parent is the one that has that jurisdiction over … their students,” Hill said and added, “I believe we have amazing professionals and teachers that are doing phenomenal work in this district. But I also believe that every family's values are different, and that that's something that needs to be respected.” 

PIVOT FOR LAHS PERFORMING ARTS CENTER RENOVATION 

The board and district are “pivoting” in an effort to get the renovation of Los Alamitos High School’s Performing Arts Center (PAC) “back on track” after some delays. The facility is frequently used by the high school’s Show Choir, Dance Program, Drama Program, and many more students throughout the school year. 

The board voted unanimously to terminate a contract with one architecture firm (Huckabee & Associates, Inc.) and signed on with another firm (Westgroup Designs) for the estimated $14 million project to upgrade the PAC.

“We just aren't satisfied with some of … the delays. And really, I felt like we needed to move in a different direction to get this project back on track,” Superintendent Andrew Pulver, Ed.D., told the board. The board approved a nearly $1 million contract with Westgroup Designs, which is the same company that worked on the S.T.E.M building and the recently opened Griffin Center gymnasium. 

“Our construction manager is optimistic that it's possible that we could have the timeline back up to have construction (on the PAC) possibly start in August,” Dr. Pulver said. 

The goal is to limit construction to just one academic school year to minimize disruption to the many performing arts groups and students that use the PAC. Dr. Pulver said the district has been working with these groups throughout the process.

“We are pivoting to try to get this project back on track, because our students in this community really deserve an opportunity to enhance and modernize our performing arts center,” he said.

>>> Read the district's Board Meeting Highlights here.

✏️ The next Los Alamitos USD Board of Education meeting is scheduled for Dec. 16. At this meeting, a new Board President and Vice President will be voted in by fellow board members.