This week's 3/25/19 closed session begins at 5:00pm. The board will reconvene for open session starting around 7pm in the LASD Board Room. The entire agenda and supporting documentation can be found here.
Every year, representatives from each LASD school present at a board meeting. Loyola School will present this week about teacher and student collaboration. Please note, there is no official update about LASD and BCS negotiations on the agenda for this meeting. We are still in active and productive negotiations and are hopeful that both LASD and BCS will have news for the public as soon as the week of April 1st. Please know the Board is working hard to make sure we are doing what is the best interest of the entire district. However, these negotiations will involve difficult compromises from both LASD and BCS that will ultimately lead to the long term health of LASD, BCS and the greater Los Altos community. Ms. Green will present School Safety Plans to the board for review and approval. Her presentation and plans for the District, Almond, Blach, Covington, Egan, Loyola and Springer can be found under agenda item I.1 using the link above. This is an action item and Ms. Green is asking for the board to approve all the plans. The CA Education Code requires that each school have a Comprehensive School Safety Plan and requires annual review by the school site and approval by the Board. The requirements not only focus on physical safety, but also on emotional wellbeing and safety. I look forward to Ms. Green's presentation! Next up, Mr. Baier and the three board members that attended the CSBA Legislative Action Day on March 12th will share their experiences. I was one of those board members. It was a great event organized by the California School Boards Association for school board members to meet with their legislators to advocate for legislation in the best interest of all school districts (and more specifically for one's own school district). Please note, this is just the highlights of what is on the agenda for the 3/25/2019 meeting. You can inform yourself about the rest of the agenda at the link provided above. As always, feel free to email me with any questions. This Monday's 3/11/19 closed session begins at 5:00pm.
The board will reconvene for a District Budget Study Session at 6pm in the LASD Board Room where Randy Kenyon will present solely on the inner workings of the District budget and answer questions as they come up. Study Sessions are basically less formal board meetings. We still get work done, but in a less formal way. Open session will convene around 7pm. The entire agenda and supporting documentation can be found here. Every year, representatives from each LASD school present at a board meeting. Blach Intermediate School will present this week about their balanced literacy program. First up in Action and Discussion items, Mrs. Elizabeth Leach of the Curriculum and Instruction Department will present a Summer Student Data Update showing the follow up data on all the students that attended the Challenger Summer school this past summer. This is a discussion item and requires no action. Her presentation can be found under agenda item I.1 using the link above. I look forward to her presentation. From my review of the presentation, it looks as if we have made some progress with these students, but there is definitely more work to be done. Next up, Randy Kenyon will present the 2nd Interim Budget. This is an action item and Randy asks that we approve the 2nd Interim Budget. His presentation and the budget can be found under agenda item I.2 using the link above. This budget shows our actual expenditures for the school year up until 1/31. It shows that we are fiscally solvent and are projected to remain so for 2 more school calendar years (a requirement for "positive certification"). Randy does warn us that we are not without our challenges. First, our reserve is getting low. Second, our buildings are in need of repair and we cannot continue using our general fund to pay for them (it bites into funds we could otherwise use to educate the children). Third, the current state of our budget, makes it hard to hire and retain teachers because our salary range can't be stretched anymore to be competitive. Lastly, BCS's enrollment increase puts a strain on LASD's bottom line. Please note, this is just the highlights of what is on the agenda for the 3/11/2019 meeting. You can inform yourself about the rest of the agenda at the link provided above. As always, feel free to email me with any questions. |
Jessica SpeiserThanks to your support, I joined the Los Altos School District (LASD) Board of Trustees in December 2016. I finished my tenure as Board President after serving as such from December 2018 to December 2019. I am currently Board Vice President. As usual, I will use this blog to continue updating you on upcoming Board meetings and make you aware of upcoming office hours and community events. Archives
May 2024
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