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Proposed raises for senior cabinet members, another bond-funded laptop purchase and an integrated waste management policy are among the agenda items for the Pleasanton school board’s meeting Tuesday night.
Following the board’s approval of raises for classified and management/confidential employees at the last meeting, trustees will be asked to approve comparable salary increases for assistant superintendent of educational services Odie Douglas and deputy superintendent of business services Micaela Ochoa.
Ochoa and Douglas’ salaries would go up 2% retroactive to July 1, and they would receive a one-time bonus equal to 1% of their salary this school year that would be calculated after the 2% increase is applied.
One year extensions on their current employment agreements are also being proposed Tuesday.
Ochoa’s contract, which currently runs through June 30, would be extended from July 1 through June 30, 2019. The agreement with Douglas would start July 1 and run through June 30, 2020.
The compensation increases are respectively estimated at $6,048.39 and $5,949.40 overall this year. Effective July 1, Ochoa’s salary would be $205,645.26. Douglas would receive a base annual salary of $200,940.
On Jan. 16, the board approved the same raises for classified and management/confidential employees, along with a three-year collective bargaining agreement with the California School Employees Association. That followed their approval of comparable raises and a new CBA between the district and the Association of Pleasanton Teachers in November.
Tuesday’s meeting will get underway in the district office boardroom (4665 Bernal Ave.) at 7 p.m. following closed session at 5 p.m.
In other business
* Trustees will consider a recommendation to spend $259,000 in Measure I1 funds on laptops and external DVD drives for teachers instructional staff.
In September, the board authorized the purchase of 450 Macbooks and 132 external DVD drives for K-8 teachers and instructional staff at a cost of $432,000 in bond revenue.
As part of the next phase in this Measure I1 project, administrators are proposing that 27 Windows laptops, 225 Macbooks and 30 external DVD drives be purchased for high school and district office teachers and instructional staff.
Administrators plan to return to the board several times between now and spring 2019 to request to purchase more laptops and dispose of ones that have been replaced.
In another bond-related item, the board will be asked to approve administration’s recommendation that MeTEOR Education be selected as the furniture vendor for the Lydiksen Elementary modernization and rebuild.
Administrators presented the recommendation for discussion at the Jan. 16 meeting.
If approved as the furniture vendor, the district would purchase pilot furniture for up to three existing classroom prototypes — kindergarten, grades 1-3 and grades 4-5. Students and staff would test different furniture styles and configurations for at least one full school year beginning this fall before a bulk order would be made for all classrooms.
The estimated furniture budget for the project is $400,000.
* There will be a first reading of a proposed new board policy regarding integrated waste management.
In 2012 the Alameda County Waste Management Authority approved a mandatory recycling ordinance requiring businesses, institutions and applicable multi-family properties in participating cities to sort their recyclables from trash. It included a second phase that would later require entities like restaurants and grocery stores to sort compostables from their trash.
The city of Pleasanton was among those that adopted the ordinance, initiating Phase 2 on Jan. 1, 2017.
The food scrap recycling policy applies to PUSD, staff noted in Tuesday’s board packet.
“The district has been a participant in recycling activities for many years; however, a consistent, district-wide effort related to food scrap recycling is recommended to ensure compliance with regulations,” staff wrote in recommending trustees consider adopting board policy on integrated waste management.
The draft policy states that the superintendent or a designee would implement “a cost-effective, integrated waste management program that incorporates the principles of green school operations.”
The Go Green Initiative, a Pleasanton-based nonprofit founded by resident Jill Buck, and Amador Valley High’s Local Leaders of the 21st Century club have volunteered to partner with the district to implement a food scrap recycling program.
Pending board discussion, the policy will return to the board for approval on Feb. 13.
* The board will receive updates on the proposed 2018-19 state budget as well as the Tri-Valley Regional Occupational Program budget.
* Trustees will be asked to review and approve the district’s programs for this summer.
The district plans to offer summer courses for high school students who need to recover credits and children requiring intensive academic intervention, as well as a special day class for identified students and pre-kindergarten for incoming kindergarten students who have not attended preschool. There will also be fee-based enrichment classes offered through the Adult and Career Education Department.
* There will be first reviews of a proposed copier/printer fleet and graphics color printer replacement project, board audit committee bylaws and new middle school chorus instructional materials.
* Trustees will discuss elementary educational specifications.
* The board will consider approving the redesign of student academic intervention and integration support proposal for next school year.
* In closed session beginning at 5 p.m., the board will consider appointing an acting assistant director of special education, discuss anticipated litigation with legal counsel and engage in discussions with deputy and assistant superintendents.
At 6:15 p.m., trustees will take part in a reception for certificated employees moving from probationary to permanent status.
I am flabbergasted that PUSD is AGAIN asking the Board to spend one-time bond money for purchasing consumables that will need to be replaced every few years. The Board should have said no the first time, and should say HELL NO this time. This is absolutely stupid, unsustainable financial malpractice. An educational organization should not set this sort of example for the students of the district.
In a well-run organization, consumable items – those which must be replaced frequently when they wear out – are part of the operating budget, not the capital equipment budget. A dedicated revenue stream is used to replace them periodically.
Bonds are one-time funding. They make sense for buildings and other types of capital equipment that will be around for a long time, which will bring in revenue (e.g. state funding for new students) to pay off the cost of that equipment (plus the bond interest!). Laptops and IT equipment are NOT in that category.
What the Board is being asked to do here is the equivalent of buying laptops with a credit card. when they have no dedicated income stream with which to pay off the credit card balance. And when they should be using those funds to build or renovate schools for the growing student population.
But hey, if the people of this town want to be paying interest for the next 30 years for laptops that will be gone in 2-5 years, there are plenty of Wall Street sharks who’ll be happy to buy the bonds and use the proceeds to put their kids through the colleges that our kids should be attending instead.
Because Wall Street kids are smart enough not to borrow money for computers, while our kids are only being taught how to squander taxpayer money … and then they’ll be paying taxes for the rest of their lives to pay the interest on their parents’ mistakes.
Uh…you buy the big ticket items first, and if there is left over then “ice the cake”
Where is our new school?
Laptops should be the last purchase as they’re the least expensive, only get cheaper with time, and expire the fastest.
This money should be earmarked for construction overruns then spent on laptops if still available.
Never again.
I am interested to see what the expansion of summer classes will look like. We need more affordable or free classes for kids during the summer. I am hopeful they will have a variety of things for kids to choose from.
NBC, the laptops are on short term bond, not 30 years. But I think your point is otherwise well stated. The interest from the Sycamore Fund was intended to be the refresh source for technology, but it was borrowed from, eliminating the accumulated interest and some of the corpus. While it is repaid, it will be some time before there’s enough interest to fund tech.
Its bad policy, but the laws governing bonds have been adjusted to allow monies normally allocated for capital projects to be redirected to expenses. A concept that would appalled any first year finance major. On the other hand, by paying for expenses with capital monies, more money can be directed to pensions.