NLMUSD Trustees Tables Waste Contract, After-School Tutoring Agreement

CONTRACT QUESTIONS: Norwalk-La Mirada Unified Board President Robert Cancio, left, and Trustees Espie Free and Norma Amezcua look on as a speaker addresses the board. The trustees tabled two contracts after raising questions about documentation for a nearly $459,000 waste-disposal agreement and the use of an outside provider for after-school tutoring.

August 24, 2026

By Vincent Media, Contributing Writer

Trustees questioned documentation for a nearly $459,000 waste-disposal agreement and whether district teachers were given the first opportunity to provide after-school tutoring.

NORWALK-LA MIRADA — The Norwalk-La Mirada Unified School District Board of Education tabled two contracts Monday after trustees questioned the documentation supporting a nearly $459,000 waste-disposal agreement and whether district teachers had been given the first opportunity to provide after-school tutoring.

The first item involved an extension of the district’s existing waste-disposal contract with Ware Disposal Inc.

The original contract, awarded in September 2024, covers collection of mixed waste, recyclable material and green waste at district schools. It began as a nine-month agreement ending in June 2025 and allows annual extensions by mutual agreement for up to five years.

The proposed 2026-27 rates include a 3.6% increase. Three-cubic-yard waste containers, for example, would range from $195.44 for once-weekly service to $357.83 for service five times per week.

Including the Consumer Price Index increase and additional services, annual base services would cost the district nearly $459,000.

Trustee Espie Free said she was dissatisfied with the documentation accompanying the proposed extension, including an internally prepared rate sheet.

“I think Ware Disposal owes it to us to give us a clean contract,” Free said. “If we are going to extend a contract, I don’t believe that we should be plugging in the rates for them and then adding their name to their sheet.”cFree said the amount of money involved warranted better documentation.

“We’re paying over $30,000 a month,” she said. “And so therefore, I believe we owe it to the public, to the taxpayer, to provide better documentation, a better written contract, not scribbled in in any way.” District staff told trustees the proposal was essentially a continuation of the existing multi-year agreement and that staff prepared the internal rate sheet for clarity.

Board President Robert Cancio said the documentation still fell short.

“We don’t have the basic premise of a contract,” Cancio said. “And I think at the very least, being the Board of Education, we’re doing their homework, essentially.”

Trustees said rates accepted by the vendor should be incorporated into a formal contract or rate addendum.

The board tabled the agreement and directed staff to return with a more formal vendor-signed rate sheet or contract package.

The second item involved an agreement with Parker-Anderson Enrichment to provide after-school programs at Dulles Elementary School.

The proposed program includes enrichment classes and clubs, family engagement nights, a math high-intensity workshop, large-group tutoring and high-impact tutoring.

Services would run from Sept. 1, 2026, through June 4, 2027, using Expanded Learning Opportunities Program funds.

Board Member Narciso Brasov questioned whether district teachers had first been offered the tutoring work.

“Here are these contracts at the beginning of the school year, I don’t know if the teachers were even asked,” Brasov said. “I mean, they’ve had two days in the classroom, three days including today. I personally would like to see us wait on this.”

Trustees confirmed during the discussion that ELOP funding could be used to pay district teachers to provide the after-school tutoring.

Brasov suggested separating the outside enrichment activities from the tutoring portion of the agreement, potentially allowing district teachers to handle tutoring while an outside provider conducts other activities.

District staff said school sites generally attempt to use school or district teachers first and turn to outside providers when internal staffing options are exhausted.

Trustees ultimately tabled the Parker-Anderson agreement as well.

The board requested additional information from the school about how similar programming performed during the previous year and how it supported classroom instruction before considering the agreement again.