The Morgan Hill Unified School District held its regular Board of Education meeting Tuesday night. Here is a roundup of some of the items that were discussed. The next regular meeting will be held at 6 p.m Nov. 12 at the district office, located at 15600 Concord Circle.
Charter school saga update
While one charter petition is on its way to the Santa Clara Office of Education on appeal, another is again in the hands of Morgan Hill Unified School District’s seven-member Board of Education.
Next up to bat is Redwood City-based Rocketship Education’s charter petition, which will be voted on during a Nov. 5 special meeting at the district office (located at 15600 Concord Circle).
Earlier this month, MHUSD’s Board voted 6-1 to deny Navigator Schools charter petition. Prior to the vote, the Board held a public hearing to gain community input on Rocketship’s petition.
If Rocketship is denied by MHUSD, organizers plan to appeal to the County Board, which has approved 12 of 16 petitions since 2003 that were previously denied by a local district.
MHUSD trustee Shelle Thomas attended the County’s Oct. 19 Charter Schools Study Workshop and came away with a less-than-favorable view of that Board’s process for reviewing charter petitions.
“[The County Board] is out of control,” said Thomas as she filled in her fellow trustees and district staff during Tuesday’s MHUSD board meeting.
Thomas continued that, from her perspective, the County Board’s mission seems to be to help facilitate the opening of countless charters throughout Santa Clara County.
Recognitions
The Board handed out certificates of recognition to two Live Oak High School students who were named semifinalists in separate scholarship programs.
James Gabbard was one of 16,000 students nationwide selected as a semifinalist for the National Merit Scholarship program, representing the highest-scoring entrants in each state and less than 1 percent of each state’s high school seniors. The scholarship competition will award approximately 8,000 Merit Scholarship awards worth $34 million in the spring.
Fellow Acorn Mahyar Molaiepour was one of 1,600 high school seniors chosen as a semifinalist for the National Achievement Scholarship program. He is competing for scholarship awards worth about $2.5 million offered next spring.
“These are prestigious honors and exemplify the high level of commitment to learning and academic success at Live Oak High School,” reads the agenda item.
Consent items
The Board unanimously voted to approve 17 consent items in one swift motion. Items approved included:
-Two contracts totaling $74,512 for special education services, including $73,752 to Rebekah Children’s Services for one student “whose specific needs cannot currently be served appropriately within MHUSD programs/staff”
-A $13,500 (from Title II) agreement with the New Teacher Center for three school administrators “to receive coaching through participation in the New Administration Program” that serves first- and second-year school administrators
-An $11,500 (from Title I) agreement with the Silicon Valley Educational Foundation “to provide consulting and project support services to facilitate the School redesign process for San Martin Gwinn Elementary to become a focused academy beginning in 2014-15”
-A $267,917 contract with Aedis, Inc. as the Architect of Record “for the construction of a new multipurpose room for the Charter School of Morgan Hill”
-A $357,108 contract (from Measure G) with Alfa Tech as the Engineer and Architect “for roofing, mechanical and restroom upgrades at Jackson, Paradise Valley and Nordstrom elementary schools.” Note: This item was pulled from consent list and later given a separate unanimous vote by the Board.
Not-so-routine public hearing
A routine public hearing and proposed adoption of a resolution “to declare sufficiency of textbooks for the 2013-14 school year” was unexpectedly delayed Tuesday based on comments made from an unidentified Central High School student in attendance.
The student told the Board there are not enough books in her civics class, so they are not allowed to take them from the classroom. Apparently, students in different periods share them throughout the day. The student said she has to return at the end of the day to retrieve the textbook for homework assignments.
Trustee Shelle Thomas made a motion to approve the resolution, but, before a second was made, trustee Claudia Rossi questioned how they could vote to approve after hearing what the student confessed.
The resolution, which was not adopted, states that the Board “has provided each pupil with sufficient textbooks and instructional material consistent with the cycles and content of the curriculum framework.”
Since that was not the case, the Board then agreed to have the district get to the bottom of it and return the item for a vote at the next school meeting scheduled for Nov. 12.
