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The Pleasanton Unified School District Board of Trustees will be voting on updating the employment agreements for the district’s three assistant superintendents, which includes reducing the number of work days for the three top officials and their overall annual salary, during Thursday’s regular board meeting.
Ed Diolazo, assistant superintendent of educational services; Ahmad Sheikholeslami, assistant superintendent of business services; and Nimarta Grewal, assistant superintendent of human resources will all be getting their updated agreements submitted to the board for approval as part of the district’s annual contract review process, according to the May 22 staff report.
Per the three separate, but identical, updated employment agreements, the three officials will have their terms extended by one year through June 30, 2028 and will see a “temporary reduction in workdays from 220 to 217.”
While the report states that the agreements will have no additional fiscal impacts from the prior agreements, each of the top PUSD employees will see a couple of thousand dollars less in each of their salary schedule steps.
The board’s open-session meeting is scheduled to begin at 6 p.m. Thursday (May 22). Read the full agenda here.
In other business:
* The board will be reviewing a presentation on Artificial Intelligence (AI) initiatives for the 2024-25 school year.
According to the staff report, the update will include a progress report on the district’s two AI initiatives: Community of Practice and the Teacher Learning Community.
“These two initiatives represent the district’s informed and intentional approach to leveraging the power of AI to improve student outcomes, enhance instruction and increase efficiency in administrative tasks throughout our system,” the staff report states. “They will integrate responsible AI use into educational and operational practices, enhancing learning outcomes and district efficiency while ensuring ethical and secure application.”
The Community of Practice initiative, according to staff, focuses on drafting an AI guidance framework that emphasizes “ethical use, privacy, and academic integrity, while supporting student and teacher agency.”
The Teacher Learning Community engages with 15 teachers in professional development for “practical AI application in classrooms” and is dedicated to “exploring AI tools, developing lesson plans, and sharing best practices across schools.”
* The district will be asking the board to approve the Association of Pleasanton Teachers (APT) and the district’s initial bargaining proposals for the 2025-26 school year.
Under California law, each party is required to present their proposals prior to formal negotiations related to the Collective Bargaining Agreement between the APT and PUSD.
“Both the District and Association of Pleasanton Teachers (APT) are presenting successor proposals in order to initiate formal negotiations for the 2025-2026 school year,” according to the staff report.
Some of the initial proposals for the new bargaining agreement will address the following articles: hours of employment, transfer and reassignment, class size, and special education.
* The board will be voting on approving the 2024-25 “Me Too” tentative agreement with the California School Employees Association (CSEA) Chapter 155 bargaining unit, which represents classified employees at the district.
The agreement is meant to give CSEA members the same “total percentage adjustment (not less than zero without negotiating with CSEA regarding alternatives) that is uniformly applied to the APT salary schedule plus any portion of the negotiated adjustment that was re-directed by APT and the District for other purposes.”
Per the agreement, the district agreed to a 1% salary increase to the CSEA salary schedules after the tentative agreement for the APT for the 2024-25 fiscal year was also 1%. The agreement also includes a 0.54% “me too” increase to CSEA salary schedules that would be effective July 1.
* District staff will be recommending that the board adopt Amplify Caminos as the Spanish Language Arts program designed for kindergarten through fifth grade students who are in the Dual Language Immersion program.
According to the staff report, the recommendation to adopt the material follows a two-year pilot at Valley View Elementary School, which offers the Dual Language Immersion Program.
“Caminos emerged as the preferred choice due to its strong alignment with LETRS-based foundational skills, well-organized phonics scope, and culturally relevant content,” according to the staff report. “Teachers praised its structured, spiraling phonics approach as the best support for early literacy development in Spanish, noting its alignment with PUSD’s adopted English screened (UFLI) and literacy goals.”
* PUSD staff will be asking the board to give Sheikholeslami authority to award construction contracts for the Harvest Park Middle School Measure I project that aims to upgrade the school’s play surfaces and create a new synthetic field and track.
The construction documents for the play surface and athletic fields projects at Harvest Park have been prepared and construction is set to be completed in two phases. According to the staff report, the first phase includes repairing the existing asphalt and restoring while the second phase includes the installation of the synthetic track and field.
But even though the design for the first phase was completed and the construction work has been publicly bid, the district cannot award contractor bids until the expiration of the “bid protest period” is over. That’s why staff is asking the board to give Sheikholeslami the power to award those construction contracts after that period is over in order to ensure that the project is completed over the summer and is ready for use by the start of the new school year.
“This approach eliminates delays associated with waiting for a subsequent Board meeting and allows for timely contract execution,” the staff report states.
Staff is also requesting that the contract be awarded if the bid amount is equal to or less than the $1.2 million threshold.
* The Pleasanton Partnerships in Education will be presenting its annual update on what the nonprofit has been doing. According to the presentation, the PPIE — which raises money for the district — raised $135,000 during its fall gala and $103,500 during its Run for Education.
It also funded over $700,000 in mental health and wellness support, elementary music support, extra librarian hours, outdoor education transportation and other grants.
* The board will consider approving a resolution to recognize June as LGBTQIA+ pride month.
* The board will be looking to approve the addition of a regular board meeting on June 5.
