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The Pleasanton school board will be reviewing several key items for approval at Thursday’s board meeting, including the final adoption of the Facilities Master Plan.
This master plan has been in the works since spring 2021 and will serve as a blueprint for redevelopment and construction of several buildings and classrooms across the district, according to district officials.
Some of these plan updates were presented at last week’s board meeting where LPA Architects — the main firm working with the district to update the master plan — returned to the board with a finalized priority list.
The list contains qualitative and quantitative data on what students, faculty, community members and the board feel are most important in regards to buildings that need renovating and what programs need more funding.
Some examples of these updates include the most recent proposal to reconstruct the gyms and theaters at both Amador Valley and Foothill high schools.
An estimated $203 million is set aside in the master plan so the music facilities can move to a new building to make way for three fitness and wrestling rooms. Foothill would also get an updated theater and gym that would be closer to the outdoor fields.
While the master plan assigns cost amounts for the sake of securing funding for these projects, it does not mean these plans are set in stone, officials said.
Some of the other priorities that the master plan is set to tackle in stages will be: deferred maintenance to things like bathrooms; modernizing and new construction of classrooms; more funding for transitional kindergarten; restructuring of the visual performing arts in high schools; cafeteria and air conditioning and heating equipment.
But in order to fully fund the master plan, the district would need to pay $983 million. This is where, in a separate agenda item, the board will review a draft of a resolution ordering a school bond election this November, which would help fund the master plan.
In other business:
* Board members are set to potentially approve the final 2022-23 school budget plan, which includes continued staff right-sizing and a more conservative budget overall due to inflation and economic challenges.
During the June 9 board meeting, Ahmad Sheikholeslami, assistant superintendent of business services, said the rightsizing is due to the district losing about 800 students from 2019 to 2021.
According to a district staff report, there will also be a $7.1 million deficit to the expenditures budget. Sheikholeslami said during the last board meeting that the district will have adequate funds to handle that deficit and meet the 3% requirement for a reserve fund.
There will also be an increase in the cost-of-living adjustment to 6.56% and an increase to salaries.
“The proposed 2022/23 Budget meets the required 3% reserves for economic uncertainties for the current fiscal year and through 2024/25 as required,” the staff report reads. “The General Fund reserve including the undesignated/unappropriated balance will be 3.65% for 2022/23, 3.67% in 2023/24, and 3.31% in 2024/25.”
Business services staff are still waiting for the enacted state budget for 2022-23 to be signed off by Gov. Gavin Newsom once the district’s budget is approved and submitted. After that, the final budget outline will be brought back to the board in August for final review.
* The board is set to receive a draft of a resolution ordering a school bond election this November that will be used to help fund the Facilities Master Plan.
Board members will be specifically reviewing the bond language to make sure it aligns with their goals so that voters will be more inclined to vote to approve the bond.
On May 19, the board received a report from bond consulting firm Clifford Moss LLC and FM3, a public policy-oriented opinion research company, on potential community support and feedback on the proposed future bond measure.
“This Resolution Calling the Election (the “Resolution”) must contain the exact language of the bond proposition in the ‘specifications of the election order,’ ” a staff report reads. “Under Proposition 39, which permits passage of the measure upon a 55% ‘yes’ vote, certain additional matters must be addressed in the bond measure, including a specific project list to be funded from the bonds.”
If the bond resolution is adopted in July, it must then be delivered to the county Registrar of Voters and the clerk of the county Board of Supervisors. The election for the bond will be consolidated with the statewide election to be held on Nov. 8.
* The board is also set to recognize three retirements in different administrative positions.
Induction director Kim Ortiz, along with director of assessment and accountability Pam VandeKamp and Janelle Woodward, assistant superintendent in the teaching and learning division will all be retiring this year. They will be coming to the board for any final comments.
The school board meeting is scheduled to start at 6 p.m. Thursday (June 23). Read the full agenda here.
This is the same district, that with its last bond, diverted $19 million to pay off prior debt (COPS – certificates of participation). As a result, the operating budget was relieved of a huge operating expense. It was done very slickly — avoiding the pay-off going through the county treasurer’s office, where it might have been flagged.
Does anyone see “paying off prior debt” as a permitted use of Proposition 39 bond funds in the California Constitution? In fact, using Prop 39 bond funds for operating expenses is expressly prohibited.
Misuse of public funds is a violation of Penal Code 424(a)(2).
Now you can all go back to sleep again.
Right-sizing? Please. Use real words. The district plans to cut staff through attrition and/or layoffs. Reporters should not buy into these meaningless BS terms made up by bureaucrats.
How in the world can the district be tight on funds? Our federal gov’t was throwing piles of cash at gov’t entities. Where did all that cash go? Masks? A zillion covid tests? Ridiculous DEI studies? If businesses were run as poorly as public schools are run, we would have no businesses in this country.
I’m concerned about “right-sizing.” Many teachers and staff retired or resigned this year, for myriad reasons, yet the district office has added many, MANY new positions or increased department size over the past few years. For example, look at the past and current staffing of the Assessment and HR departments, while the award-winning TV-TiP program, which supported new teachers, was dismantled. Noticeably, support to classrooms has not increased, but the number of folks analyzing or directing classroom activities has exploded. Let’s “right-size” overhead downtown instead of PUSD’s classroom support, which is where the focus of this “business plan” should be.
Laid off and retired teachers are rehired in most instances by PUSD as substitute teachers.
PUSD mailed a flyer to registered voters this week highlighting I1 money they spent on upgrades, none of which went to a new school. The flyer announces a potential bond this November general election.
The flyer provides a link to PUSD on the bottom of the page asking recipients to provide their opinion for that possible bond this November.
That link is no good. It does not link to any PUSD voter survey for opinion.