Tension and barbs over the past flared up between trustees at
the Aromas-San Juan Unified School District Board meeting last
week.
Trustees traded insults and insinuations throughout the
three-and-a-half-hour meeting over issues including a financial
report, a joint-use agreement with Monterey County and
interdistrict transfer requests. Trustee John Ferreira was
absent.
Tension and barbs over the past flared up between trustees at the Aromas-San Juan Unified School District Board meeting last week.
Trustees traded insults and insinuations throughout the three-and-a-half-hour meeting over issues including a financial report, a joint-use agreement with Monterey County and interdistrict transfer requests. Trustee John Ferreira was absent.
Trustee Jeff Hancock questioned numbers in the 2002-03 unaudited actual financial report. The 35-page report contained various budget information, some of which Superintendent Jackie Munoz did not know off the top of her head. Hancock was trying to understand where certain funding came from and where it was going.
Munoz and the other trustees suggested Hancock bring the questions to Munoz before the meeting.
“This is not the place for a fishing expedition. You need to go to the (district) office and look at the files,” Trustee Andy Hsia-Coron said.
The financial report, which is required to be sent to the County Office of Education by Oct. 15, was passed 3-1 with Hancock dissenting.
Substitute teacher Lisa Diamond asked the Board why the head of finance wasn’t at the meeting to answer such questions – like at other district board meetings.
Trustees also quarreled about two of four interdistrict transfer requests – the two were recommended for denial by school staff.
Hancock and Hsia-Coron expressed their belief that all students should be given choice and supported approving the transfers. Trustees Sylvia Rios-Metcalf and Rachel Ponce said they thought the judgment and recommendations of the administrators at each school site should be trusted.
One denial was because of lack of room at Aromas. If the transfer to Aromas was approved, Munoz said, the district was risking losing class-size reduction funding by having classrooms larger than 20 – an amount of roughly $800 per student. The transfer was denied 4-0.
The second disputed transfer request was at issue because of discipline. The school’s administrators recommended denying the request to secure the safety of students at the school.
“We know what we’re doing here. I’m asking you to trust us,” the school head said. Details are being left out to protect the confidentiality of the student.
Hsia-Coron and Hancock voted to give the student a chance and accept the transfer request. Rios-Metcalf and Ponce voted to deny the request. The request was denied because of the 2-2, non-majority vote.
Also at the meeting, more than 40 teachers attended in support of fair contract negotiations. They wore tags saying, “All we want is a fair share” – a fair share of the district’s budget. The teachers’ contract expired in June of 2002 and negotiations have been ongoing for those 13 months.
During public comment, teachers union President Barbara Brown pointed out how the district over-projects expenditures and has more money than it lets on – money that could be used for teacher salaries.
“Historically, the district has over-projected what it’s spent,” Brown said.
In other business:
– The Board approved 4-0 the joint-use agreement with Monterey County for the construction of a gym at Aromas School.
– Munoz presented a report on first-month enrollment. Compared to last year’s average daily attendance numbers – different from enrollment – enrollment is down 56 students at Aromas School and 15 at San Juan School, while enrollment is up two students at Anzar High School.
Student mobility out of the district is at 104 for k-9. Fifty-seven students moved out of the district – mostly to the San Joaquin Valley to areas like Modesto and Bakersfield, Munoz said.
– Construction on the district’s bus barn is progressing, Munoz reported. The building is up and awaiting drywall on inside walls.
“As you may have seen, we have a building on the other edge of Anzar,” Munoz said. “We’re moving toward moving inside.”
– Munoz and Anzar Librarian Paul Stampleman presented a new Web site that allows schools in the county to post a calendar of events for free. The site – www.sbcoe.org/scripts/publish/webevent.pl – allows the public to locate event times and places, like sports games, committee meetings, field trips, assemblies and parent events.
The next Board meeting is Nov. 5 at Aromas School at 7 p.m.
