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Board approves new middle-school math curriculum, debates travel funding and tables multiple purchase orders
Summary
Trustees approved adoption of Amplify Desmos for grades 6–8 (projected $1.7 million over eight years funded from lottery funds), debated out-of-state travel and learning-loss fund uses, and voted to table several purchase orders and expense items for staff to provide executive summaries at a continuance.
The Hacienda la Puente Unified School District board on April 17 approved an adoption of Amplify Desmos as the district's middle-school math program for grades 6–8. District staff said the adoption will order roughly 4,124 textbooks/consumables and related digital content and professional development, at an eight-year projected cost of about $1.7 million (approximately $214,375 per year). Staff said the purchase would be funded from lottery funds and that teacher training and piloting are complete ahead of an August rollout.
Trustees also discussed a slate of student field trips and out-of-state travel requests. Several board members and community commenters asked whether specific trips were funded by donations, site funds, or grant sources such as learning-loss recovery funds. The debate singled out one large line item—a reported ~$50,000 trip to a national speech-and-debate tournament—where trustees asked whether expenses align with the original intent of federal and state recovery grants and whether opportunities are equitably distributed across high schools.
Separately, trustees raised multiple questions about purchase orders logged in the consent agenda, including VAPA (visual and performing arts) purchases, band instruments, iPads and other technology, and trailers or vehicles for campus food-service operations. Some trustees asked for executive summaries of the largest items and for documentation tying expenditures to previously approved board authorizations. After discussion, the board voted to table a set of the pulled purchase orders and asked staff to provide clarifying summaries and any contract constraints at the meeting continuance so trustees could avoid potential compliance or budget issues.
Administrators said many purchase orders correspond to previously approved contracts or plan authorizations and that pausing to provide additional documentation would not, in most cases, prevent timely payment. The board set a continuance and instructed staff to bring the requested summaries to the next meeting so members could vote with fuller context.
