This meeting was attended only by board members, employees of the district, students getting awards and their families, and one student representative. The following are what seemed like the most important items:
1) Superintendent's Report: Mr. Olney talked about a number of things including:
A) Honor Roll - Thirty-four students at the high school made the honor roll for the most recent grading period. There are three levels to the honor roll with the highest level, called the Superintendent's Honor Roll, reserved for students who earned a 4.0 GPA. Six students achieved at this highest level and they will be treated to a dinner as guests of Mr. Olney and Ms. Soto.
B) Budget - Mr. Olney shared some information regarding the governor's budget. He said that state revenue is up and that increased funding for schools is anticipated. He also talked a little about changes in funding for career/technical courses, GAP funding, and Necessary Small School status. TJUSD had a couple of funding options and using Necessary Small School status was most advantageous.
C) Retirement System - The state has projected a shortfall for the certificated and classified retirement systems. As a result districts will be required to make progressively larger contributions towards employee retirement accounts. During 2012/2013 districts contributed an amount equal to approximately 8% of an employee's pay to an employee's individual retirement account. That amount will increase incrementally to 19.1% by 2021. Similarly, the amounts for 2012/2013 for classified employees was 11.44% and that amount will increase to 20.4% by 2021.
D) Also mentioned were AVID, Anger Management as well as Grief and Loss groups, and the old elementary demolition (all asbestos abatement is complete).
2) WASC Report - Ms. Wilhelm briefed the school board on the upcoming WASC visitation. She explained the process and presented highlights of the WASC report, including findings of the self-study and the action plan developed during the self-study. The actual visitation will take place in March and the visiting team will review the report and verify that THS is actually doing what is reported in the report. Ms. Wilhelm also presented the schedule for the WASC visitation. [WASC stands for Western Association of Schools and Colleges and is one of six accrediting associations in the United States. See http://www.acswasc.org/ for more information about WASC and the accreditation process.]
3) Personnel - Five people were approved for paid positions with the district. Three were unanimously approved and two were approved with 4-1 votes. The dissenting vote was cast by a different board member in each case. For more information contact me privately.
4) AVID Fieldtrip - An overnight fieldtrip for AVID students for the purpose of visiting three different college campuses was approved unanimously. The colleges to be visited include Cal State Fullerton, Cal State San Marcos, and Cal State San Bernardino. Students will spend the night at a private residence in Escondido owned by a school employee.
5) Vector Resources - The board approved a couple adjustments in an agreement with the company which installed the wireless network for the district.
6) Gym Roof - Mr. Goins talked about specifications for the gym roof. He talked at some length about the company and his inspection of a roof the company installed on a gym in another district located in the desert. The total cost of the project will be $784k. The project should be complete by some time in May 2015. The board approved this project.
7) Upcoming board meetings. The dates for the March and April board meetings have been changed to March 11th and April 16th.