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.

PACIFIC GROVE UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT
Minutes of the Meeting of February 5, 2004

The Board of Education of the Pacific Grove Unified School District held a meeting on February 5 at the Pacific Grove High School.
I. OPENING BUSINESS

A. Call to Order: 6:30 PM

B. Roll Call: Members Present: Beth Shammas
Jessie Bray
Mark Cameron
Richard Schramm
Mike Niccum

Student Representative
Present: Bonnie Kwon (7:00 PM)

Administrators Present: Patrick Perry, Superintendent
Robin Blakley, Assistant Superintendent

C. Pledge of Allegiance: Recited

D. Adoption of Agenda: MOTION (Bray /Schramm) to adopt agenda. Motion CARRIED 5 to 0

E. Identified Closed Session Topics:

a. Conference with labor negotiators. The employee organization: Pacific Grove Teachers Association.
PGTA contract language for combo classes and summer school
Certificated Retirement Incentive Program
b. Public employment and conference with labor negotiator (Gov code 54957 and 54957.6)
Agency negotiator: Board ad hoc Committee
Unrepresented employee: Superintendent

F. Public Comment on Closed Session Items: None

II. ADJOURN TO CLOSED SESSION 6:33 PM

III. RECONVENE IN OPEN SESSION: 7:06 PM

A. Report Action Taken in Closed Session:

a. Conference with labor negotiators. The employee organization: Pacific Grove Teachers Association.
PGTA contract language for combo classes and summer school and Certificated Retirement Incentive
Program. CARRIED 5 to 0.
b. Public employment and conference with labor negotiator (Gov code 54957 and 54957.6). Will reconvene in
Closed Session after Public Session is complete.

IV. COMMUNICATIONS:

A. Written Communications :

Bray: Received invitation to PG Pride gathering on February 22.
Shammas: Received 2003 first interim report from MCOE. Includes certification of financial solvency. Report is positive.
B. Board Member Comment:

Kwon: Mock Trial Team very exciting. We lost against Palma but made championship. Large turnout expected for Winter Ball this weekend at Rancho Canada.

Schramm: Commented about Monterey Herald articles. The CSU system is being forced to reduce enrollment. We should make sure that eligible students are able to get into CSU. Freshmen in the State are failing to meet English and math requirements. We should keep in mind when doing budgets to include a provision to make sure our kids don’t just qualify, but are successful. This item will be put in the Long Range Planning packet.

Bray: Commented on the Mock Trial. A Pacific Grove High School student, Allisa Bell, was the only student in California to achieve a score of 36 on the ACT. She was one of only 5 students out of 65,000 in the country to earn the highest score possible.

Shammas: We need to have a recognition event at future Board meeting for Todd Buller. Schramm suggest a letter of recognition from the Board for Alissa Bell. Perry: Invite Todd and Alissa to next meeting.

Shammas: The approval of the Chartwell contract sparked an interest in her in what they are doing. Would like to see a report and feels it is important to know as to how we can further use this in our District. The project is intervening at Kindergarten, 1st, and 2nd grade when a student is having difficulty with reading.

C. Superintendent Report:

Perry: A documentary on the decline of the State’s education system will be airing on 2/5/04. Educators and Boards will be asked questions. Pat will try to get copy of video

V. PUBLIC COMMENT: No comment

VI. CONSENT:.

A. Acceptance of Donations
B. Certificated Assignment Order No. 8
C. Classified Assignment Order No. 8
D. Minutes of January 8, 2004 Regular Meeting
E. Minutes of January 8, 2004 Special Meeting
F. Special Education File Review
G. Board Policy 5131.65 Second Reading
H. Warrant Schedule No. 428
I. Revolving Cash Report No. 6
J. Cash Receipts Report No. 6
K. Approval of Revision 2 to Middle School Plan 2003/04 and Related Budget
L. Approval of Contract for Pacific Grove High School Writing Program Services – Patrice Vecchione
M. Approval of Chartwell Contract Proposal (Third Year)
N. Approval of Revised High School Safe School Safety and Violence Prevention Block Grant Expenditure Plans (1999/2000, 2000/01, and 2001/02)
O. Approval of High School Gymnasium Bleacher Project Bid Award
P. Approval of Change Order #2 and Filing Notice of Completion for Forest Grove Phase II Project
Q. Employment – Lisa Morgan District Newsletter
R. Readmission of Student #600579

Motion (Schramm/Bray) to adopt agenda. Motion CARRIED 5 to 0

VII. INFORMATION/DISCUSSION:

Sub Committee Reports
Community Human Services (Kraus): No report
City/District (Bray/Niccum): Interest in joint meeting with city council regarding common issues; could be beneficial for both. Suggested we do this at the staff level. Perry: recommend we hold until we get letter back from Sage Institute.
Negotiations (Bray/Shammas): Negotiations with PGTA March 9, 15, and April 2.
ROP (Schramm): The Governor’s proposal is a 1.8% COLA next year. Workforce Investment Board provided 30 laptops to the District, 15 for ROP and 15 for the Adult School. Library (Bray): No report

VIII. ACTION/DISCUSSION ITEMS

Pacific Grove Middle School Auditorium – Naming of Facility

Perry: A committee made up of Middle School staff, Jessie Bray, & members of the Arts Commission met. One of the Middle School staff developed proposed signage, which was unanimously agreed upon. The sign will be located near Forest Avenue (not on the front of the building). Pat has also established an ongoing consulting group for this project. The facilities function is still part of the Middle School, but other functions will be communicated via the sign. Bray: Felt this has been one of the most effective committees she has ever served on.
Public Comment: None
Motion (Bray/Shammas) approval of an exterior sign board similar to the graphic shown and also specify no name change for the Pacific Grove Middle School auditorium. Motion CARRIED 4 to 1 recuse

2003/04 Bond Building Budget Revision

Blakley: Explained that Measure A funds are run through separate fund other than the General Fund. This is primarily money for the Middle School and Robert H. Down construction projects. Revision #1 includes an adjustment to reflect the revised estimate of interest revenues, an adjustment of the beginning fund balance, and an adjustment to the expenditures anticipated to occur within this fiscal year.
Public Comment: None
Motion (Bray/Cameron) CARRIED 5 to 0

Resolution #728 CSBA Cash Reserve Program

Blakley: Explained how we use short-term borrowing to cover cash shortfall, especially in November/ December to meet payroll. This money must be repaid within the fiscal year. We can also invest proceeds and earn interest.
Public Comment: none
Motion (Niccum/Bray) CARRIED 5 to 0

Resolution #729 CalSTRS Retirement Incentive Program

Blakley: Explained the new program that is available for certificated employees that are 55+ and have over 5 yrs of service.
Public Comment: None
Motion (Cameron/Bray) CARRIED 5 to 0

Approval of Professional Services Agreement – Peter Carton, Attorney at Law

Perry: Peter Carton has been practicing school law for 26 years. He is extremely knowledgeable about current cases, and is very accessible. The meter does not tick every time you call him. District staff would have unlimited access to him. A lot of billing from Lozano Smith is on telephone inquiries. Schramm/Cameron: requested accounting of how this goes by August. Perry: said we will compare to what we would have done with Lozano Smith and report back in August.
Public Comment: None
Motion (Schramm/Shammas) CARRIED 5 to 0.



Approval of Revised Facilities Improvement Plan

Blakley: The plan must be revisited to reflect both revenue and expenditure changes. In September we revised the David Ave lease payments downward as our tenants had asked for relief. We also are using some of this money to pay for maintenance/grounds ($100K). The Middle School project will likely be $150,000 over original budget. We ran into a number of issues that needed to be addressed, including dry rot on roof, plumbing, and drainage. The result is that projects need to be rescheduled later. Schramm: has concern about maintenance/grounds positions since we haven’t as a Board acted to put them back into the General Fund. Currently we have people dependent on that money, but we’re showing it’s only available if the money shows up. Suggested a future agenda item to act on this or look at how we do account for the money for these positions: Perry: this will be addressed in the Budget discussion at the next meeting.
Public Comment: None
Motion (Bray/Niccum) CARRIED 5 to 0.

2003/04 General Budget Revision #3

Blakley: Discussed the General Fund Budget Revision #3. Major items noted on this revision are: State Funding Reduction Reserve (reduced to match estimated categorical funding reduction); decrease in State Funding/Basic Aid Reserve; expenditure increase due to the 2% contractual retroactive 2002/03 compensation adjustment salaries and benefits, various Board approved mid-year restorations, and legal expenses (a total expenditure increase of $642,379).
Pubic Comment: None
Motion (Bray/Cameron) CARRIED 5 to 0.

Approval to Proceed with Community High School Project

Blakley: Community High School proposed timeline was reviewed. Schramm noted that a total plan considering broader needs should be developed. After lengthy discussion, it was noted that the project should move forward. SAGE Institute’s timeline should be linked with the May Community High School report to the Board.
Public comment: none.
Motion (Niccum/Bray) CARRIED 4 to 1

2004/2005 School Calendar

Blakley: recommend 2nd draft . There was no discussion or public comment.
Motion (Bray/Schramm) CARRIED 5 to 0

Board Calendar/Future Meetings

Shammas: An additional meeting was proposed to discuss negotiations and District interests. February 28 at the District Office, 9:00 AM – 12:00 PM, was selected.
Motion (Cameron/Schramm) CARRIED 5 to 0

Future Agenda Items
Bray: If any Board member has an item to place on agenda, submit request form to District Office. The form will be sent out with the Friday Update.

IX. ADJOURNMENT OPEN SESSION: 9:04 PM

X. ADJOURN BACK TO CLOSED SESSION: 9:05 PM

XI. RECONVENE IN OPEN SESSION: 10:19 PM

A. Report Action Taken in Closed Session:

a. Public employment and conference with labor negotiator (Gov code 54957 and 54957.6)
Agency negotiator: Board ad hoc Committee
Unrepresented employee: Superintendent
No decision was made at this time. Item will be discussed again at next meeting (February 19).

XII ADJOURNMENT: 10:20 PM

Submitted by,


Patrick Perry, Secretary
Board of Education
Pacific Grove U.S.D. Home Page
Monterey County Office of Education

This page maintained for the PGUSD by Bruce Cates
Comments or questions to: bcates@pgusd.org
updated: 2/25/04

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