With the Morgan Hill Unified School District’s board of education set to convene March 6 for a regularly scheduled meeting at the 15600 Concord Circle headquarters, three of the seven board members will participate via teleconference for varying reasons.
Board president Tom Arnett (from Austin, Texas), as well as trustees Gino Borgioli and David Gerard (both from their respective Morgan Hill residences), will not be present at Tuesday’s meeting. But they will be listening in, commenting and casting votes via teleconference as necessary.
Fittingly, the first order of general business is titled, “Telephonic Participation and The Brown Act,” which will delve into the open meetings law as it pertains to “the requirements for Board member telephonic participation at Board meetings,” according to the March 6 agenda. MHUSD’s legal counsel, Manuel F. Martinez of the Lozano Smith law firm is listed as the presenter.
Some intriguing sections of state education code require the following in meetings where one or more trustee is participating via telephone:
• At least a quorum or majority of Board members must participate from locations within district’s boundaries;
• Each teleconference location must be accessible and freely open to the public, including a trustee’s home residence;
• All votes must be taken by roll call;
• During Closed Session, “Trustees who teleconference into closed session should ensure that no other individual without an official role in the meeting be able to listen into the teleconference at their location.”
School safety
School board trustees will hear a presentation on school safety and be asked to adopt a resolution banning assault weapons.
Glen Webb, Director of Curriculum, Instruction and Assessment; Linda Row, Director of Student Services and Enrollment; and Student Resource Officer Jeff Brandon are expected to provide an update on school safety.
Attachments to this item include a parent-student letter sent out by Superintendent Steve Betando and the resolution titled, “Action on Gun-Related Violence Prevention.”
Twenty employees to face layoffs?
District staff have presented a plan to reduce the unrestricted general fund by about $2.4 million, according to the March 6 agenda.
Trustees will be presented with an update on the “Right Sizing the Budget” process and the final budget reduction plan from Kirsten Perez, Assistant Supt. of Business Services, as well as Supt. Steve Betando.
Proposed cuts consist of eliminating more than 20 full-time positions by removing Teachers On Special Assignment positions, reducing master scheduling offerings at the secondary schools, increasing class sizes in third grade and decreasing Special Education paraprofessional staff.
This is an update and not listed as an action item.
Other general business items
• Update on the Charter School of Morgan Hill Memorandum of Understanding;
• Request to approve 2017-18 Second Interim Budget for the General Fund;
• Request to update the Level I Developer Fees for Residential Construction and Commercial/Industrial Construction; and
• Request to decrease the Full-time Equivalency (FTE) of classified positions due to lack of work.
