Only staff and board members were in attendance for the duration of the full board meeting following student of the month recognitions. Highlights as follows:
1) Board Member Comments - One board member explained that board members had participated in a board workshop lead by an expert on how boards should function to facilitate a healthy school atmosphere. She stated that she wished teachers had attended this workshop. [NOTE: This was ironic since teachers were specifically asked by administration not to attend this workshop.]
2) Superintendent Comments - Talked a little about board workshop. Mentioned that she is working on going through files and reports to become more familiar with what’s going on with the district. Stated that she has an open door policy and is happy to meet with all staff and community members. [NOTE: Suzette Davis just took over last month and will serve as interim superintendent until March 2020.]
3) Maintenance - Talked some about issues regarding earthquake recovery. In particular, mentioned that three new fire hydrants and a paved access for firetrucks are needed to make a state agency happy so that the district can move forward with plans to adjust facilities to meet the needs of students and staff. At any rate the plans the district would like to move forward on have a price tag of about two and a half million dollars, but the fire hydrants and paved access must be taken care of first and no price tag for that project was provided.
4) Community Park - Before the earthquake the district was talking about leasing land for a community park. That project was mentioned, but there was no indication of much happening on that one for awhile.
5) Time Capsule - A time capsule will be buried near the flag pole area of the football field.
6) HS Principal - An idea to open a continuation school was discussed. Currently the district has an independent study program, but is considering opening a continuation school. I won’t go into details here, but there are a number of advantages to having a continuation school, but lots of things to carefully consider before committing to opening one.
7) BLM Royalties - The BLM is attempting to deprive the local school district of a portion of the potash royalties paid by the plant and would like to keep the money for itself. This is a huge concern to the district since the district depends on these funds to provide services to students attending its schools.
8) BUDGET - A board member had questions about two expenditures: 1) $15K for photography equipment and 2) $15K for computers. Administrators and financial office workers provided explanations for these expenditures.
9) ACSA, CSBA, and CASBO Membership - ACSA stands for Association of California School Administrators, CSBA stands for California School Boards Association, and CASBO stands for California Association of School Business Officials. The board approved funds to pay for membership in all three associations. These associations primarily provide legal guidance to help schools deal with legal issues involved with running a school district.
10) Financial Report - The earthquakes will cost the district a lot of money and reimbursement for expenditures are uncertain. Although the district may receive up to a seventy-five percent reimbursement for expenditures, this is subject to an audit to determine what portion of the expenditures are deemed necessary and appropriate. An advisor from one agency is providing some guidance to help the district know what will be reimbursed and what won’t be reimbursed, BUT the final decision will be made by an agency which will look at the expenditures retrospectively and so there’s no guarantee that the guidance being provided to the district will be accurate or not. Additionally, funds received from the charter school (something in excess of $1M) have been set aside. Some or all of these funds may have to be paid back to the state. All said, the district will be deficit spending this school year to a tune of at least $4.8 million.
11) A number of other items were discussed and/or approved, but the above were the most interesting. The next scheduled REGULAR board meeting is set for January 09, 2020.