School site construction projects in various phases of planning and implementation throughout Morgan Hill Unified School District will be discussed at the first board of education meeting of the new year scheduled for Jan. 17.
Closed session is set to begin at 5 p.m. inside the district headquarters, located at 15600 Concord Circle, while public session—which includes 14 separate items up for discussion—will start immediately following at about 6 p.m.
District staff will review and consider the “design construction delivery method” for Britton Middle School, for which the school board approved a $50 million construction project in November 2016.
“Prior to moving further into the design development phase, staff would like to present to the board information on the two project delivery method options available for the physical construction of Britton Middle School,” the agenda item reads. “This would provide an opportunity for the board to ask questions and provide feedback.”
Casino Fajardo, the MHUSD Director of Construction and Modernization, is expected to lead the presentation along with Assistant Superintendent Kirsten Perez.
The board will hear again from El Toro Elementary School in its staff’s effort to transition to a health science focus academy and vote on approving its plan. El Toro would join the district’s cache of focus academies along with Jackson Academy of Math and Music, San Martin Environmental Science Academy, PA Walsh STEAM Academy and Paradise Valley Engineering Academy.
Other school projects (detailed in the consent items listed below) are the costs for work at Paradise Valley, San Martin/Gwinn and El Toro primary schools.
Contract negotiations
Morgan Hill Unified’s leadership has successfully negotiated contracts with pay increases for two of its three employee groups and will hold public hearings to outline both proposals for the school board.
The Classified Employees of MHUSD have been offered a 6 percent pay increase to its 2016-17 salary schedule retroactive to July 1, 2016 and a 3 percent increase to the 2017-18 salary schedule effective July 1, 2017. The district has requested board approval for those salary increases.
“The Classified Employees of Morgan Hill Unified are meeting soon to elect officers for a new employee association and to determine a team in order to meet and confer with the district regarding items of interest to both parties,” according to the Jan. 17 agenda item.
A separate public hearing scheduled for Tuesday will present MHUSD’s Morgan Hill Educational Leaders Association similar contract parameters with a 6 percent raise to its 2016-17 salary schedule, retroactive to July 1, 2016, and 3 percent to the 2017-18 salary schedule, effective July 1, 2017.
MHUSD’s third bargaining unit, the Morgan Hill Federation of Teachers, has yet to come to an agreement with the district in their contract negotiations and both sides are scheduled to meet with a mediator later this month.
Schools as a Safe Place for All
District leadership is requesting the board to approve a resolution for Schools as a Safe Place for All.
“National reports of bullying, harassment, and intimidation of K-12 students based on ethnicity, race, religion, primary language, sexual orientation, gender identity, or socio-economic status, and immigration status have alarmed communities across the nation of the need to declare schools and those communities they serve as safe,” according to the agenda item’s rationale.
The board’s adoption of the resolution would “welcome (all students, parents and guardians) on our school campuses regardless of their immigration status,” the resolution states.
Other general business items to be discussed include:
• Approve 2015-16 Annual Financial Report;
• Food services update;
• Approve another Provisional Internship Permit, this time for a chemistry teacher at Ann Sobrato High School since the position was “posted, but no qualified teachers have applied;” and
• Board of Governance calendar for 2017-18.
Consent items
Items considered routine, grouped together for approval by the board in one single vote are listed under the consent calendar unless otherwise requested. Those items include:
• $38,074.31 contract (transportation budget) with Zonar for bus pass system “to provide the most advanced real-time school transportation information to parents, schools, and the transportation department,” according to the agenda item;
• $66,000 contract (deferred maintenance fund) with Weston Miles Architects for design services to replace roofing at El Toro Elementary School;
• $18,500 agreement (1999 bond funds) with Aquatic Design Group for design services to re-plaster and renovate lights for Sobrato High School’s swimming pool;
• $237,150 contract (Measure G bond) with McKim Design Group to provide design services for the Paradise Valley Elementary School’s administration modernization and classrooms;
• $136,703 in contract change orders (capital facilities fund/one-time discretionary fund) with DRP, Inc., AP+I Design and Weston Miles Architects for the San Martin/Gwinn Elementary School’s administration modernization and classroom projects;
• $150,000 College Readiness Block Grant Plan through 2019;
• Appointments to the California Career Technical Education Advisory Committee; and
• Publication of the 2015-16 School Accountability Report Cards (SARCs).
