Local voters will decide on something its board of education failed to do before the end of 2015 as residents will take to the polls for the June 7 presidential primary election: select a seventh school board trustee.
Taxpayers are footing the $58,000 bill, which will come out of the district’s general fund, to elect a trustee who will serve out the remaining six months of former board member Amy Porter-Jensen’s four-year term.
Porter-Jensen resigned from the board in October 2015 and the remaining six members had until Dec. 29, 2015 to appoint her replacement. They were split 3-3 on two finalists (retired Ravenswood School District assistant superintendent Adam Escoto and City of San Jose Vice Mayor’s Chief of Staff Anne Groen) with neither side budging to avoid the cost of an election.
At the Jan. 12 school board meeting, the district is asking the board to approve a resolution that allows for the funding of the election.
“Consolidating the election will result in a significant savings for the district,” the MHUSD agenda reads. “The estimated cost to the district of a stand-alone special election is approximately $450,000 whereas the cost for a consolidated election is approximately $58,000.”
Having a seventh member to the school board will eliminate the 3-3 split votes that have prevented MHUSD’s governing body from appointing a president and vice president for the current year. Presently, Trustee Bob Benevento is the acting president since he served in the same capacity for the previous year.
The vacant seat is one of three up for election in the November 2016 general election—at which time the district’s trustee elections will change from an at-large format to a trustee-area system.
Also part of the Jan. 15 school board agenda are:
—Update on the district’s technology implementation. “Staff will present data metrics on performance for the infrastructure upgrades as well as student devices,” according to the item;
—District’s request for approval of the 2014-15 Annual Financial Report;
—District’s request to approve publication of the 2014015 School Accountability Report Cards known as SARCs; and
—Information on the district’s representative to the Charter School of Morgan Hill’s board of directors.
Consent item
—District is asking for a $159,360 change order to add a 12×40 restroom module to the San Martin Gwinn Environmental Science Academy, which is adding two grade levels next school year in becoming a kindergarten through eighth grade site.
