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Board Approved the Teen Talk Curriculum Pursuant to State Mandate at its April 23, 2019 Meeting
After making the Teen Talk curriculum available for public review and having two public hearings on the subject, the Board approved the curriculum at its April 23rd meeting. Subject to the availability of the Los Angeles County Office of Education trainer, there will be both parent information nights and teacher training before the curriculum is introduced at Huntington Middle School and San Marino High School in the Fall.
The Board welcomed and recognized many individuals and groups:
- New Huntington Middle School Assistant Principal Daryl Topalian
- HMS students who recently excelled at the Science Olympiad State Championships: Audrey Jung, Nora Chang, Sean Killackey, Sebastian Liong, Olivia Wang, and Lillian Panning, along with their advisors Suzanne Nitta and Cynthia Wong, coach David Zheng (SMHS grad at Cal Tech), and helpers Alisa Quon (former HMS team member at Cal State LA) and Wesley Huang (SMHS)
- SMUSD teachers and counselors (California Day of the Teacher, May 8, 2019)
- SMUSD classified employees (California School Employee Week, May 20-24, 2019)
The Board also considered the issuance of a Tax and Revenue Anticipation Note (TRAN) up to $6.8 million, which will allow the District to temporarily borrow money at a low interest rate in order to address cash flow shortfalls due in large part to timing differences between its anticipated receipt of revenues from the State and property tax collections and its expenditures.
The Board will vote whether to approve the TRAN at its May 14, 2019 meeting.
To listen to the entire meeting and obtain more detailed information about the April 23rd agenda items, please
click here for the audio recording.
Facilities Advisory Committee Busy at Work
The Board of Education's Facilities Advisory Committee, comprised of parents, community
members, and both a teacher and student representative, has met several times since it was
initially formed in February. The Chair of the FAC, Mrs. Jeanie Caldwell, with the support of
Board Member representative Mr. Corey Barberie and various District administrators and consultants, is facilitating the FAC's review of the District's deferred maintenance needs, capital improvement project concepts, the assessment of school security, and traffic studies. Thus far the FAC has delved into analyzing the school sites' facilities needs, received information on the District's budget, and toured the school sites to see first-hand the building and classroom conditions.
At its March 28, 2019, meeting, the FAC began to review the deferred maintenance needs at
the school sites with Julie Boucher, Assistant Superintendent, Business Services, providing an
overview of the District's budget. Among other things, Mrs. Boucher described how the large
majority of the District's budget is committed to teacher and support salaries and benefits, and
that the state no longer provides dedicated deferred maintenance funding to school districts,
which means that any monies needed for deferred maintenance have to come out of the limited
general fund budget.
On March 30th and 31st, the FAC spent hours touring each of the school sites to receive a
first-hand look of the current conditions of the school buildings and classrooms in order to better
understand the needs for deferred maintenance, building improvements, and school security.
The FAC also toured the nearly completed Barth Athletics Complex at Huntington Middle
School.
At the FAC's meeting on April 25th, the Committee reviewed various other reports prepared by
the District and outside entities/agencies on the condition of its classrooms and buildings.
Scott Jenkins and Tim Wright, past members of the District's former Oversight Committee, also attended the meeting to provide the FAC with an historical perspective of the District's past capital improvement projects over twenty years ago (1996 - 2006), the improvements made during that time, the projects that were not completed due to a lack of funds, and the former Oversight Committee's final report to the Board of Education.
To view the FAC guidelines, membership, agendas and minutes, as well as the District's various
facilities reports, click Facilities Advisory Committee Info. For more information on the FAC and its upcoming meeting schedule, please contact the District Office at 626-299-7000.
Superintendent Search Update
Today and Saturday, the Board will meet in Closed Session to conduct interviews of six candidates for the position of Superintendent of the San Marino Unified School District. Each candidate brings great qualities and experience to the table, and the Board will do its best to get as close as possible to hiring the best candidate who meets the high expectations of the Board and the San Marino community. The Board plans to meet in Closed Session on Monday, April 29, to finalize the hiring decision.
Click here to review the notices of the meetings that were posted as required by law.
The Board's next regular meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, May 14, 2019, at 7:30 p.m. in the District's Board room.
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