Pacific Grove Unified School District
Note: This web page is a copy of the minutes from the Board of Education Meeting.
Minutes are NOT OFFICIAL until approved by the Board.
The official Minutes are available at the Board Office.
Address any questions to the Superintendent, Dr. Ralph Porras, or call the District Office at 831-646-6510.

The Board of Education of the Pacific Grove Unified School District held a meeting on February 21, 2002 at the District Office and Community High School.

I. OPENING BUSINESS

A. Call to order: 5:50 pm

B. Roll Call: Members Present: Jessie Bray
Anne Hall
Debi Page
Richard Schramm
Beth Shammas, arrived at 5:55 pm
Student Rep: John Mothershead, arrived at 7pm

Administrators Patrick Perry, Superintendent
Present: Robin Blakley, Assistant Superintendent, arrived at 7pm

C. Study Session with County Superintendent Bill Barr on Roles & Responsibilities and Boardmanship and The Brown Act.

II. RECONVENED AT COMMUNITY HIGH SCHOOL ­ 7:00 pm

A. Identified Closed Session Topics
a. Threatened/Pending Litigation ­ Special Education Placement

B. Public Comment On Closed Session Items: None.

C. Adjourned to Closed Session: 7:05 pm

III. RECONVENE IN OPEN SESSION ­ 7:45 pm

A. Pledge of Allegiance: recited.

B. Adoption of Agenda: MOTION (Hall/Shammas) to adopt amended agenda. Pulled Classified Assignment Order No. 12 and placed in Action/Discussion as Item IX. D. Motion CARRIED 5 to 0.

C. Report Action Taken in Closed Session: No action was taken.

IV. COMMUNICATONS:

A. Written Communications: Email received from parent commending the outstanding work of Sydney Dacuyan and Deanne Hurst. Political advertisements received in the mail.

B. Superintendent Report: Have visited most of the schools in the district; surveyed the progress of the playground at Robert Down and observed some Science projects as well as attending the DARE Graduation at Robert Down.

C. Board Comments: Mothershead ­ Winter Ball was very successful with a record turnout, thanked event chair Jessica Hall. Mr. Perry visited the High School Leadership Class recently. John thanked Mr. Perry for his participation ­ the most he has witnessed from a Superintendent. Also, the grass is growing at the High School. Hall ­ had an opportunity to visit schools in the District: Community High School, Forest Grove and the Robert Down DARE Graduation. Thanked all those that made her visits so informative and welcoming. Shammas ­ Happy to be at Community High and this visit reminds her that she is very much interested in pursuing a suicide prevention program with peer counseling in our district and would hope this item could be added to pending items in the future. Schramm ­ Thanked Community for hosting the Board. Attended the Facility Task Group Meeting and was impressed with the community support and desire to upgrade and improve our facilities and the concern regarding maintenance and upkeep of what is improved. Attended the Technology Committee Meeting and is pleased to see the Superintendent developing a small task group to look at integrating curriculum with technology. Thanked Matt Bell for his tour of the RHD playground. Page ­ Thanked Community for hosting the Board.

V. PUBLIC COMMENT: None to report.

VI. PUBLIC HEARING: Sunshine California School Employee Association's Topics for Negotiations for 2002-2003 Contract

The Board of Education opened the Hearing for comments from the audience regarding the Sunshine of CSEA Negotiation Topics for 2002-2003 Contract. There were no comments and the Hearing was closed.

VII. CONSENT AGENDA: MOTION (Bray/Hall) to approve consent agenda. Motion CARRIED 5 to 0.

VIII. INFORMATION/DISCUSSION:

A. Sub Committee Reports:
City/District (Page): Nothing to report.
Negotiations (Bray): Attended negotiations on February 13th. Joint communication was agreed upon and noted the positive outlook of the group. Future dates have been set.
ROP (Schramm): Next meeting March 13th.

B. Community High School Presentation: Barbara Dickinson welcomed the Board. Currently the enrollment is at 35 students with 19 on track to graduate in June. CHS has begun the process to become accredited, a visit to Carmel Valley High is being planned. To address a comment made earlier in the meeting by Ms. Shammas it was pointed out that Suicide Prevention does a presentation every year at Community as well as Rape Crisis Center, Planned Parenthood, Cancer Society, anti drug and aids awareness. The school's counseling program had a slow start but is now in full swing with students meeting in the Dome for individual counseling. Brad Woodyard spoke regarding the Digital High School and a recent increase of a computer requirement for graduation. The DHS has been a valuable opportunity for curriculum update in all areas. There are enough computers to serve 35 students (about 14 total). There is a T1 line installed and many students are using multimedia for their senior projects. After the Board spoke to some students Barbara invited all the Board Members to visit Community High any time.

C. Resolution No. 692, Intention to Dismiss Certificated Employees: At the November 15, 2001 Board of Education Meeting the enrollment projections for the 2002/2003 school year were reviewed. The Education Code requires the Governing Board to take action prior to March 15th in order to reduce certificated staffing. A resolution has been developed related to this board action. If the Board chooses to pass the resolution it will allow the Board to review staffing during the Spring of this school year as it relates to overall instructional and budgetary needs for the 2002-03 school year. Approval will be requested at the March 7th Board Meeting. Representative teachers from the Middle School spoke regarding the Resolution as did Principal Sherry Boyle and PGTA Co-President Ellen Coulter.

D. Middle School Modernization Scope of Work: The Middle School Modernization Project is the third project being funded by the Measure A bonds. Rick Fedelem, project architect, has been working with the Middle School Modernization Project Committee and District personnel to define the scope of work to be included within the project. A outline on the progression of the scope of work as it proceeded from September 2001 through the last meeting in January was presented, the construction budget, projected project budget and schedule as well as a diagram of the projected work to be done. The board reviewed and commented on the proposed scope work. No formal action was required.

E. Board Policy/Regulation ­ Approval Process: It has been the past practice of our district's Board of Education to rely on district administration to develop board policy and regulations that help guide the school district in its operation. Regulations need to be modified to meet the developing needs of the district or changes in the law. At the present time these regulations must be revised, brought back to board for review and then at a separate meeting requested action. This two meeting process draws out the regulation revision process and differs from the procedure noted in Board Policy 0600. The Administration believes that if the Board would direct Administration to make the appropriate revisions in regulations as they currently do to reflect changes in district procedure or law and presented them to the Board in a single review process that the revision process would be streamlined and improved. After a brief discussion it was decided to have this item return as an Information/Discussion Item at the March 7th meeting.
F. Reduction of State Pre-school Teacher: During the 2000-01 school year the Board of Education became concerned about the overall financial viability of the State Pre-school program. This program is funded solely on allocations from the State of California. During the school year two update reports have been offered to the Board of Education. These reports initially indicated low enrollment in the State Pre-school Program and possible budget issues. The second report noted that full enrollment had been achieved and that the financial projections for the remainder of the school year may realize a balanced budget. In reviewing preschool enrollment patterns for the beginning of this year and related declines of enrollment for the District's general K-12 education, the administration believes that pre-school enrollment for the 2002-2003 school year may decline. The District State Pre-school teacher is a certificated employee and has full employment rights as noted in the State California Ed. Code. Notification procedures for reduction of the State Pre-school teacher needs to follow the same timeline and procedure of regular District certificated staff. Therefore, the administration would like to request that the Board consider the reduction of 1.0 FTE State Pre-school instructor in their staffing discussions for the 2002-2003 school year. Approval will be requested at the March 7th Board Meeting.

IX. ACTION ITEMS:

A. Revision to High School SIP Plan and Related Budget: MOTION (Schramm/Bray) to approve revised High School SIP Plan and related budget as presented. Motion CARRIED 5 to 0.

B. Approval of Consultant Agreement to Conduct Capital Facilities Improvement Plan: MOTION (Shammas/Bray) to authorize the execution of an agreement with HBFL and the District to conduct Capital Facilities Improvement Plan as indicated and to include the District Office and Community High School. Motion CARRIED 5 to 0.

C. Approval of Outside Professional Activities: MOTION (Bray/Hall) to approve the Superintendent to perform outside professional activities for compensation. Motion CARRIED 5 to 0.

E. Approval of Classified Assignment Order No. 12: MOTION (Schramm/Hall) to approve amended Classified Assignment Order #12. Motion CARRIED 5 to 0.

X. FUTURE MEETINGS: Next meeting of the Board will be the Long Range Planning Committee on February 28, 2002 from 6-9 pm. The next regular Board Meeting will be March 7th at the Adult School.

XI. ADJOURNMENT OF OPEN SESSION: 9:50 pm

XII. ADJOURNED INTO CLOSED SESSION: 9:55 pm
A. Report of action Taken: No action was taken.

XIII. ADJOURNMENT: 10:03 pm

Patrick Perry
Secretary, Board of Education

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