DUSD Board of Education
Our Philosophy
The DUSD Board of Education believes that:
- Education is a lifelong process of learning and living and our schools are dedicated to the challenge of providing the opportunity for individuals both youth and adult to gain the knowledge, skills, and attitudes necessary to work and live successfully and to assume the responsibilities inherent in a democratic society.
- Students must be prepared to encounter the daily challenges of the present diverse, multicultural environment and to resolve the constantly changing problems of their future. Not only is education charged with preparing the student to meet life as he/she finds it, but it must inspire him/her positively and morally to affect and improve the world itself.
Board of Education Trustee Area Map. To view a larger map, click here.
How will we accomplish our goals?
The Board of Education believes this can best be accomplished by establishing educational programs within each emphasis will be placed upon the following:
- Provide opportunities for all students to become competent with basic subject matter areas by:
- Gaining the necessary information and tools by which they can learn and develop the skills of communication–listening, speaking, reading, writing, and spelling.
- Learning to handle abstract and concrete concepts in mathematics and science, with a realization of how this knowledge may be applied to daily living, and how to apply these tools to drawing conclusions.
- Involvement in the experiences needed to develop skill in the fine and practical arts with emphasis on potential creativeness, inventiveness, and originality.
- Having meaningful experiences that will develop a basic understanding of our nation’s and the world’s economic structure.
- Developing skills in the use of tools and machines and an understanding of the role of machines and technology in mankind’s present and future.
- Individuals should be taught by precept and example to respect authority and to understand that they, too, may someday be in positions of authority, and that respect must be earned and given by:
- Teaching individuals to be tolerant of their fellowman and to respect the rights, dignity, and worth of the individual and his/her property.
- Developing within each person the insights to interpersonal relationships which are needed to live harmoniously with others with respect for their rights.
- Encouraging in each student a high standard of honesty and morality.
- Developing in each student an intellectual curiosity and the ability to experience the joy of discovery.
- Enable all students to develop themselves to the ultimate of their potential in a district which will be a model for a just and equitable society.
- Develop an understanding and appreciation of the culture, responsibilities, and heritage of our democratic society which will be reflected by
- A deep sense of pride in our American heritage.
- A devotion to the country in which we live.
- A sound belief in the advantages and opportunities of a democracy.
- A belief in the destiny of our country as an example of a world leader in a free society.
In this dynamic world these goals of the Downey Unified School District will be reevaluated continually for their worth. Only to the extent that each person achieves these present goals and develops the ability to adjust to the goals and circumstances of tomorrow’s world will the home and the agencies of society, including the schools, have achieved their purpose.
Further, the Board conceives of the District as being a cooperative enterprise in which home, church, school, and other community forces all share in the educational development of individuals. In these, our community schools, the Board of Education urges all parents and citizens to become its partners.
The Board of Education accepts the responsibility delegated by the community at large to commit the human and material resources necessary to implement an educational program designed to achieve the curricular, instructional, and managerial expectancies as stated within a framework defined by the adopted Philosophy of Education.
Board of Education Members
Tyrone Conde
Clerk
Trustee Area 1
12/2022–12/2026
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Tyrone Conde has been a proud member of the DUSD Board of Education since December of 2022. He has two kids in DUSD schools and is an avid supporter of the philosophy that our kids deserve the best.
Tyrone grew up in the Boyle Heights neighborhood of Los Angeles. He earned his Baccalaureate of Science degree in Marketing and Masters of Business Administration from California State University Los Angeles. He has built a career in business administration and marketing through multiple roles in advertising agencies and spent 11 years as a member of the marketing team with the Los Angeles Lakers – where he collaborated with some of the top business brands in the world. He is now a member of the executive management team at Downey Federal Credit Union.
He is passionate about education. Tyrone believes this is a vehicle for betterment, and how we continue to build a community of character. As one of six children to Mexican immigrant parents, he understands firsthand that our students require an inclusive range of solutions throughout their educational journey. Tyrone lives in Downey with his wife and two children.
Jose J. Rodriguez
President
Trustee Area 2
12/2024–12/2028
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https://web.dusd.net/blog/rodriguez/
Giovanna Perez-Saab
Member
Trustee Area 3
12/2024–12/2028
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Giovanna “Giggy” Perez-Saab has been a proud member of the Board of Education for the Downey Unified School District representing Trustee Area 3 since 2018. She rapidly immersed herself into attending many Downey Unified school events, programs, and activities where she quickly connected with Downey Unified’s students, staff and families. Mrs. Perez-Saab serves on the Audit and Enrollment committees for the district and is also a member of the Los Angeles County School Boards Association and the California School Board Association (CSBA), where she completed her Master of Governance certification.
Mrs. Perez-Saab grew up in Miami, Florida and moved to Downey to start her family. She has been married to her husband, Alex Saab, for 15 years and has three children: Dominic, Gianna and Alexander. As she has been an active volunteer in different organizations most of her life, she has chosen to exemplify and demonstrate what volunteerism and commitment to one’s community should be and hopes her children will follow her path to help others. Mrs. Perez-Saab has actively served on her son’s PTA Board at Rio San Gabriel Elementary, has been selected as the Chairperson of her children’s School Site Council and continues to be an active classroom parent. She is also involved with Downey Unified’s new Global Language Academies of Downey (GLAD) at Carpenter Elementary where her daughter is attending. Mrs. Perez-Saab is also involved in her children’s extracurricular activities, as she supports them with Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts of America.
Mrs. Perez-Saab is a graduate from Florida International University with her Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology. She is a certified Substitute Teacher, licensed Real Estate Agent and certified Yoga Instructor. Ms. Perez-Saab worked with Sandals and Beaches Resorts as their Spa and Fitness Corporate Manager and Public Events Coordinator and has traveled throughout the Caribbean. She was also a top Pharmaceutical Sales Professional for Schering-Plough and Adeza Biomedical, where she was ranked in the top 5% of the country.
Mrs. Perez-Saab serves on several community organizations that assist families through service, fundraising and scholarships. She has served as President of Soroptimist International of Downey with the goal to Educate, Encourage and Empower Soroptimist members and those within the community through many hands-on service projects and scholarships both locally and internationally. She is a member of the Assistance League of Downey and actively assists with Operation School Bell Service Project and acts as a puppeteer with Kids on the Block, a program established to educate school-aged children on important issues they encounter. Mrs. Perez-Saab also serves as Co-Chairperson on the Downey YMCA Board as well as the YMCA Membership Committee where they strengthen communities through youth development, healthy living and social responsibility. She has served on the Supervisory Committee of the Downey Federal Credit Union (DFCU) to help serve members and has participated in DFCU’s annual Feeding Children Everywhere Food Packing and Steam Festival events. She received several awards including the Red Triangle Award for outstanding service to the Downey YMCA and to the community, the Kiwanis Int’l Foundation’s George. F. Hixon Fellowship Award and the Soroptimist Women of Distinction Award.
Linda Salomon Saldaña
Member
Trustee Area 4
12/2024–12/2028
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Linda Salomon Saldaña joined the Downey Unified School Board of Trustees in November of 2020. Her three children currently attend DUSD schools; Warren High School, Griffiths Middle School and Price Elementary School.
Linda began her journey volunteering with Downey Unified in 2013 at Price Elementary. She served as the PTA Reflections Chairs, Room Parent, PTA President, Vice President and Parliamentarian. She has served on the Local Control Accountability Plan Committee (LCAP – District budget oversite) as the school representative and on the English Language Learner Committee (ELAC).
In 2016, Linda founded the Downey Foundation for Educational Opportunities (DFEO) with the help of committed community members and DUSD alumni. DFEO is the non-profit education foundation dedicated to serving the students of Downey Unified with a focus on the Arts, College Prep and Health & Fitness through afterschool programming and during school opportunities such as 5th grade science camp. Recently Linda has stepped down as Executive Director of the Foundation to serve on the Board of Trustees for DUSD.
Linda was born and raised in Montebello, California. Her mother was an elementary school teacher, her father, a business owner and Vietnam War Veteran. Upon graduating from Schurr High School, Linda attended UCLA then transferred to USC, where she graduated from the School of Journalism. Following an internship with the KTLA Morning News, Linda was hired at KCBS News Los Angeles and then KNBC-NBC4LA, working her way up to Producer. In 2000, Linda decided to take a position as Director of Communications for LAUSD’s Facilities Division, who at the time was working on a $2.4 billion local bond (Prop BB) building project. She returned to local news as a Special Projects Producer for Telemundo 52 KVEA/KNBC where she won two Emmys and a Golden Mic for investigative reports.
Married in 2001 to her husband Refugio, they moved to Downey to begin their lives together. As business owners and parents, they have been involved with several City of Downey organizations such as Northwest Downey Little League, Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, Downey Rose Float Association and attend Our Lady of Perpetual Help Parish. Linda was awarded the City of Downey Servant Heart’s Award in 2019 and has received the PTA Honorary Servant Award twice.
Nancy A. Swenson
Member
Trustee Area 5
12/2022–12/2026
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Nancy A. Swenson has been a member of the Board of Education since 2005. As a Board member, she has been a very hands-on member of various teams. Nancy has been a member of both the Budget and Audit committees, as well as members of the CHARACTER COUNTS! Coalition and the Late Start Committee. Because of her passion for getting technology into the hands of teachers and students, she has been on the Technology five-year planning team and was the Board of Education’s representative on the Common Core Coalition transition team. Nancy has coordinated several visits between Raytheon engineers and some of the Project Lead the Way (PLTW) engineering students. She attends many after school functions that include: music and drama presentations, back-to-school nights, open houses, student awards, and Trunks & Treats events (where you can occasionally see her dressed up and handing out treats). She annually visits school sites while classes are in session, participates in Read Across America events at various schools, and coordinates and participates in annual student interviews for the Mary R. Stauffer Foundation scholarships. She truly enjoys interacting with the students and staff.
Nancy is a very active volunteer away from her role as Board member. She spends many hours supporting the Mary R. Stauffer Foundation, where she holds the position of Chief Operation Officer. She has been a member of the Assistance League of Downey Gypsy Johnson Auxiliary since 2010. As a Gypsy, she has held the position of Chairperson for two years and has been the Operation School Bell Gypsy chairperson for the past four years. She is also currently the assistant treasurer for the Gypsy auxiliary. Nancy is also a member of Downey Symphony Guild, Sister Cities Association and has been a member of Gangs Out of Downey (G.O.O.D.) since 2005. She has received the Soroptimist Distinguished Woman award and was one of the inductees into the first Warren High School Hall of Fame. Nancy was even appointed to the inaugural Green Team for the City of Downey.
As a Board of Education member, Nancy has always been driven to do the best she can to see that all children in Downey have an equal opportunity for an optimum education in a safe, learning environment that provides all students with college and career readiness skills. She is so honored to be a part of the Downey Unified Board of Education and to have the opportunity to give back to a community that has given so much to her family.
Nancy has been a resident of Downey for almost 40 years and is a graduate of Warren High School. She earned an A.A. degree from Cerritos Community College as a Computer Programming Analyst and continued on to earn a B.S. in Business Administration: Computer Information Systems, with Honors, from California State University at Dominguez Hills; this was accomplished by attending night classes as she worked full-time to support her family.
Nancy has two children who also attended Downey Unified schools and graduated from Warren High School. She volunteered her time while both her children were active in the Downey Little League and supported them as members of local Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts groups. Nancy tutored high school students in Algebra and even helped set up and operate the first computers for neighborhood family members and friends. Her daughter was an Assisteen within the Assistance League of Downey and is now a Downey Unified elementary school teacher. Her son was on the football team at Warren High and currently oversees several warehouses for a logistics company in Carson, Calif., where he is a supervisor.
Nancy recently retired from Raytheon Systems in the Space and Airborne Systems division after 28 years. Over the course of her employment at Raytheon (previously Hughes and GM/Hughes) there were several reorganizations. She was often called upon to lead and/or participate on many teams related to financial changes and process alignment. Her daily responsibility were to supervise various teams that were responsible for ordering and tracking an annual multi-million dollar budget for equipment and software in support of the West Coast operations.
D. Mark Morris
Vice President
Trustee Area 6
12/2024–12/2028
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D. Mark Morris has been on the Downey Unified School District Board of Education since 1982. He has served as President of the Board of Education six times. He also is a member of the California School Board Association and the Los Angeles County School Boards Association. He was inducted into the Downey High School Hall of Fame and has a campus building named in his honor.
Mark’s community service includes past membership on the City of Downey Community Services Commission, the Water Board, the Redevelopment Project Area Committee, the Cerritos College Advisory Board and was the founding President of the Alumni Association.
He is currently a member of the Boy Scouts and has been a Scoutmaster, Explorer Advisor, President of the Frontier District and was a Silver Beaver Awardee. He is also a member of PTA and is active in his church, having served a two-year mission.
Mark is a lifelong resident of Downey and graduate of Downey High School. He holds an Associate of Arts degree from Cerritos Community College, a Bachelor of Arts degree from California State University, Fullerton and a Juris Doctorate degree from Western State University College of Law. He also speaks Spanish fluently.
Mark retired from the City of Downey as a Housing Planner after 28 years. He also worked six years for the cities of Norwalk, Paramount and Alhambra. Mark is married to his wife Pam, a teacher, for 45 years. They have six children who have all attended Downey Unified schools and four grandchildren.
Joseph E. Manacmul
Member
Trustee Area 7
10/2025-12/2026
2026-27 Board of Education Goals
- Downey Unified will increase College and Career Readiness for all students by achieving at least a 5% growth in SBAC assessment performance in grades 3–8 and 11 (English Language Arts, Mathematics, and Science), while increasing CSU/UC a–g course completion and College/Career Indicator (CCI) attainment by at least 5% for high school students.
- Downey Unified will maintain student enrollment by expanding access to and participation in the District’s Areas of Focus, including Career Technical Education (CTE), AVID, rigorous academic pathways (AP, IB, GATE), Visual and Performing Arts (VAPA), Dual Language Immersion, personalized technology integration, and the Sports Academy.
- Downey Unified will continue to emphasize a relationship-centered approach to attendance, given that attendance rates are a strong indicator of student connectedness and academic achievement. Through these efforts, the District will reduce the chronic absenteeism rate by 3% and increase the average daily attendance rate by 1%.
- Downey Unified will use the results of its Elementary Curriculum Review Process to strengthen early literacy instruction and support reading success for all students. All students in grades K–2 will participate in a reading screener that helps teachers understand each child’s strengths and areas of growth.
- Downey Unified will expand inclusive practices for students by implementing TK and grades 4-5 inclusion pilot programs, continuing to grow early childhood inclusion opportunities, and increasing access to general education settings. The District will also strengthen co-teaching and push-in support models at all secondary schools.
- Downey Unified’s Multilingual Learners will demonstrate measurable annual progress toward English Language proficiency, as measured by the California Dashboard English Learner Progress Indicator (ELPI) by growing at least one ELPI level per year.
- Downey Unified will implement its Artificial Intelligence (AI) Guidelines and create a Responsible Technology Use Framework to include usage guidelines for all students. The District will provide professional learning for staff, educate students on responsible AI and technology use, and engage families in understanding the opportunities and responsibilities associated with AI and technology use.
8. Downey Unified will continue to elevate teacher effectiveness through targeted professional development and enhance student engagement through the purposeful integration of educational technology across all classrooms. The District’s final two middle schools will achieve Apple Distinguished School certification, while eight elementary schools will be redesignated as Apple Distinguished Schools. Additionally, all high schools will complete the transition to a full Apple learning environment, with students in grade 9-12 utilizing iPads to support personalized, innovative and engaged learning experiences..
9. Downey Unified will strengthen the capacity of its Classified workforce through a comprehensive system of professional learning that equips employees with the knowledge, skills, and competencies needed to provide exceptional service to students, families, and staff. Through targeted training and leadership development, the District will expand opportunities for professional growth and advancement.
10. Downey Unified will integrate TLC and Community Schools into a coordinated system of support that strengthens collaboration among schools, families, and community partners. Through this unified approach, the District will work collaboratively to improve access and monitor referrals to resources and services that support student success and family well-being. .
11. Downey Unified will complete modernization and new classroom construction at the Phase I elementary school sites (Carpenter, Garcia, Rio Hondo, and Rio San Gabriel), advance planning and architectural design for Phase II sites, resulting in the submission of projects to the Division of the State Architect (DSA) for approval. The District will finalize layouts for the remaining elementary schools while collaborating with the Board of Education to prioritize future construction of remaining TK-K complexes.
12. Downey Unified will sustain and strengthen its financial position while maintaining high-quality programs. The District will work collaboratively with an independent employee benefits fiduciary consultant and the District’s bargaining units to complete a comprehensive review of employee benefit programs, evaluate long-term financial sustainability, benchmark benefits against comparable districts, and develop fiscally responsible benefit options.
13. Downey Unified will engage in a collaborative process to review and identify key priorities and investments that will develop a Strategic Plan roadmap for the next five to seven years. This Strategic Plan will showcase the coherence of Downey Unified by enlisting input from a variety of educational partners throughout the District. The Strategic Plan will identify key performance indicators that align to Board Goals, District initiatives, and the LCAP.
Board and Superintendent Operating Procedures and Protocols
Purpose
The Board of Education is the educational policy-making body for the District. To meet the District’s challenges effectively, the Board and Superintendent must function together as a leadership team. To ensure unity among team members, effective operating procedures, or protocols, must be in place. There are general protocols and those that are specific for the Board and Superintendent.
Effective Governance
The Governance Handbook reflects the Board of Education’s work on the creation of a framework for effective governance. This process involves ongoing discussions and agreements about unity of purpose, roles, norms, and protocols that enable the Board to continue to perform its responsibilities in a way that best benefits all students.
