Board appoints Ty Humes as Trustee for Area 5
Full time in-person education for 2021-22 reaffirmed
Graduation full steam ahead
District to sell $85 million in school bonds
The Board of Trustees of the San Dieguito Union High School District held its regular meeting last evening. A number of decisions were made in both open and closed session that have important short and long-term impacts on the District.
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BOARD APPOINTS TY HUMES AS TRUSTEE FOR AREA 5
The Board appointed Mr. Ty Humes as Interim Trustee for Area 5 to fill the vacancy created as a result of the resignation of former Trustee Kristen Gibson.
The Board received seven applications for the position, and the four existing Board Members each commented during the meeting that the quality of the candidate pool was amazingly high.
After interviewing each of the candidates, each Board Member selected a short list of their three top candidates, and Mr. Humes was the only candidate to make the list of all four Trustees. Given that result, the Board unanimously passed a resolution to appoint Mr. Humes as Trustee. He was sworn in at the end of last night’s Board meeting.
Per California law, this provisional Board appointment can be annulled and a special election called by garnering a sufficient number of signatures within 30 days of the appointment. In that event, the District would need to fund the cost of that election and go without a Trustee for several months. Estimates are that a special election would cost the District in excess of $500,000. This money would come out of a fixed bucket of funds that would otherwise be used for general education expenses (teacher salaries, etc.).
Unfortunately, a group of individuals led by a leading District agitator has threatened that they will, under any circumstance, lead a petition to force an election.
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FULL TIME IN-PERSON EDUCATION FOR 2021-22 REAFFIRMED
Superintendent Haley reiterated that the policy of the District for the 2021-22 school year is full-time, in person education, from the classroom, with no Concurrent Learning (internet simulcasting) taking place. This policy was adopted by the Board and remains in place.
We do not yet know what legal restrictions may be in place at the time the new school year starts. As of today, the District does not expect to offer a Distance Learning Option, unless required to do so by law.
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GRADUATION FULL STEAM AHEAD
A committee on senior graduation events has tentatively concluded that if the County COVID Tier were to drop to the Yellow Tier by the graduation date (not a sure thing, but perhaps probable), then each high school should be able to conduct a somewhat typical graduation ceremony, meaning one ceremony with all graduates with a reasonable number of tickets available for the families of each graduate (5 to 6 tickets each).
Apparently the State and/or County will be releasing additional guidance for graduation ceremonies next week. We will pay close attention to this and report on any changes as we learn them.
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DISTRICT TO SELL $85 MILLION IN SCHOOL BONDS
The Board approved a plan to refinance some existing school bonds to take advantage of the low interest rate environment and use that savings to sell an additional $85 million of bonds to finance District capital expenditures at no incremental cost to taxpayers.
The facilities committee of the Board will be meeting in the coming weeks to review alternative capital plans and priorities. The Board had a brief discussion on the benefits of building an aquatic center or pools on District property, and this will be a topic of discussion at the Facilities meeting.
There will be more to report on this meeting in the coming days.