If all seven trustees make it to this Tuesday’s Morgan Hill Unified School District board of education meeting, a new school board president and vice president could finally be voted in.
And it will mark the first time there will be seven sitting members of the local school board in nearly a year.
At a confrontational Aug. 2 meeting, where education researcher Tom Arnett was sworn in as the newest and seventh trustee, only six members were on the governing dais with Trustee Donna Ruebusch out of the country. That led Board President Bob Benevento to leave the board reorganization vote off the Aug. 2 agenda.
However, Trustees Rick Badillo, David Gerard and Gino Borgioli objected to its absence based on a Dec. 2015 promise to do so and refused to approve that night’s agenda until a reorganization vote was included. The board was stuck in a 3-all stalemate. But, after lengthy debate, Gerard eventually withdrew his motion and swung his vote to allow for the meeting to continue as originally scheduled. That vote was 4-2.
The Aug. 16 agenda now includes a board reorganization item that has trustees set to vote on a new board president and vice president. However, it will be an abbreviated term as the November election will be followed by another reorganization vote for that new board before the end of the year.
MHUSD’s board had been operating with six members since former Trustee Amy Porter-Jensen resigned in Oct. 2015. The remaining trustees were unable to come to a majority on an appointment. The public then voted in Arnett over Pamela Torrisi to finish out Porter-Jensen’s term in the June election. Arnett, however, was not sworn in until early August. During that time, Benevento has been serving as board president by default on an interim basis since the board failed to break a 3-all tie last year on its reorganization vote.
After the reorganization is sorted out, the Aug. 16 general business includes:
• Public hearing for additional Service Employees International Union Openers; and
• Approve two more Provisional Internship Permits (one for science at Martin Murphy Middle School and one for special education at Barrett Elementary School).
Special meeting Aug. 16 on new individualized learning school
School officials have scheduled a special meeting for 8 p.m. Aug. 16, immediately following the regularly scheduled proceedings to discuss “the establishment of a grade 6-12 individualized learning secondary school to begin January 1, 2017.”
According to the lone item’s rationale, this comes in response to the unexpected closing of Morgan Hill-based charter school Silicon Valley Flex Academy, which left hundreds of secondary students and their parents scrambling to find a new school for the 2016-17 school year.
Through feedback from Flex parents, district officials found enough interest in establishing an individualized learning school, similar to the Cyber High used for credit recovery and course acceleration by existing MHUSD high school students.
“Of the displaced SV Flex families, staff estimates that between 20 and 30 students at grades 6-8, and between 20 and 30 students between grades 9-12 would immediately enroll in an individualized learning school if MHUSD would begin one in the Fall 2016,” the item reads.
It would also include in-class support from teachers and be housed at the Loritta Bonfante Johnson Education Center on Tilton Avenue which is also home to Central High School.
