Ty Humes removed as Board Trustee, special election to be called
District is in poor financial condition
Permanent Superintendent appointment update
Committees to be created for sports
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ON JUNE 10, 2021, THE SDUHSD HELD A BOARD MEETING AT THE DISTRICT OFFICE.
President Mo Muir began the meeting by announcing that the County Board of Education notified the District that a sufficient number of signatures have been collected to nullify the appointment of Ty Humes as Trustee for Area 5. As a result, Mr. Humes’ appointment to the Board was terminated on June 9, 2021. A special election will be called to elect a new Trustee for Area 5, although no specific date for the election was provided. The County has estimated that the cost of the election will be $450,000 - $600,000, which must be paid for out of the District’s general fund.
The Board must now operate for several months without a Trustee for Area 5. This not only makes it harder to conduct business (three votes are still required to pass a Board resolution now, out of four seated Board Trustees, instead of five), but it also has an immediate impact on our graduation ceremonies. Mr. Humes was scheduled to hand diplomas to the graduates at Canyon Crest Academy, but now there will be no board representation at the ceremony. This will be the first time that a Board Trustee has not performed this duty in the history of the school. The move to terminate Mr. Humes’ appointment was pushed by the San Dieguito Faculty Association (the Teachers Union), and its President, Mr. Duncan Brown.
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FINANCIAL UPDATE
Associate Superintendent for Business Services Tina Douglas provided the Board with a District financial update.
The District is forecasted to spend $174 million in the coming 2021/2022 school year, with revenues of approximately $160 million, for a net loss of about $14 million. This will reduce the District’s cash reserves to just $13.6 million, approximately 7.7% of revenue. The forecast shows the District losing $4.3 million and $1.7 million in the following two years, reducing the cash reserves to 5.6% and 4.5% respectively.
For comparison purposes, the average reserves for high school districts across the state is about 17.8%.
In addition, the District has deferred maintenance on many of its assets, and as a result has built up a significant liability.
The take-away is that the District is running a budget deficit, is forecasted to be in a deficit for the foreseeable future, and has dangerously low reserves. The District is in poor financial condition.
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SUPERINTENDENT SEARCH
Staff reported that only three executive search firms responded to the request for proposal (RFP) to engage in a process to hire a new, permanent superintendent. The low response rate was due to the failure to conduct sufficient outreach to professional recruiting firms. At a prior Board meeting, I advocated for a committee of two Board Trustees to conduct outreach to ensure a robust response to the RFP. Trustee Young advocated to have the entire Board (rather than a committee) be responsible for the search firm selection process, and the Board eventually agreed to that framework, not realizing that would prevent the Board from conducting day-to-day oversight. The law on public meetings requires that Boards only meet in public, with a noticed agenda that allows for public comments, etc. The rules effectively limited the outreach that could be conducted by the Board and was the primary cause of the poor response to the RFP.
During this discussion Trustee Young suggested that one of the difficulties in attracting responses from professional search firms was the perceived difficulty the District would have in finding qualified individuals who would accept the superintendent role due to the level of instability in the District. The upcoming election for a new Board Trustee for Area 5 (Ty Humes’ former seat), and the union-led recall of me is creating a perception of instability. I suggested that the level of instability would decrease if the teacher’s union accepted the results of the election and dropped their recall efforts against me. I asked her if she would join the rest of the Board in expressing opposition to the recall efforts. Trustee Young refused to renounce the recall attempt, instead claiming that it was not her place to opine on the issue.
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PERMANENT SUPERINTENDENT APPOINTMENT DELAYED UNTIL 2022
All the Board Trustees expressed disappointment that only three firms submitted an RFP to conduct a search for a permanent superintendent. This is not a reflection of any of these firms, although a more robust number of applicants would be at least 10, to be eventually narrowed down to about three before making a final decision. Considering this and the amazing job that ISI Lynch is doing, the board extended ISI Lynch’s term of appointment to the end of the calendar year. The outreach for search firms will continue after the summer with a more vigorous approach. It is also hoped that more SI applicants will be available later in the year.
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SPORTS COMMITTEES
Finally, the board discussed creating two superintendent committees to explore improving our athletic programs. First, an aquatics committee will study potential locations for swimming pools in the district.
In addition, a committee will be created to explore the benefits of having a district-wide athletic director to coordinate all sports-related activities across all campuses. This past year suggests that a dedicated AD position will benefit our student athletes and their families and continue the important legacy of athletics in the district.