April 3, 2014 Board Meeting

Board of Education Meeting Contact the Board of Education Office

4:30 p.m. Closed Session
6:30 p.m. Open Session

Agenda Items

CONSENT AGENDA

8.1a     Approve Grants, Entitlements and Other Income Agreements, Ratification of Other Agreements, Approval of Bid Awards, Approval of Declared Surplus Materials and Equipment, Change Notices and Notices of Completion 

8.1b    Approve Personnel Transactions

8.1c   Approve Resolution No. 2787: Adopting Specifications of the Election And For Consolidation with Statewide General Election

8.1d   Approve School of Engineering and Science Field Trip to First Robotics Competition in Las Vegas, Nevada

     8.1e   Approve Board of Education Meeting Minutes for February 20, 2014

8.1f  Approve Minutes for March 6, 2014 Board of Education Meeting

8.1g  Approve Minutes for March 13, 2014 Special Board of Education Meeting

8.1h  Approve Mandatory Reporting to the Sacramento County Office of Education – Uniform Complaints Regarding the Williams Settlement Processed for the Period of January through March, 2014 

BOARD WORKSHOP/STRATEGIC PLAN AND OTHER INITIATIVES

10.1   Approve Resolution No. 2791 Notice of Layoff: Classified Employees – Reduction in Force Due to Lack of Funds and/or Lack of Work 

10.2   Approve Resolution No. 2788: Tax Revenue Anticipation Note (TRAN)

10.3  Overview of Section 504 and Health Services 

 10.4   Approve Coherent Governance Policy Operational Expectations (OE) 7,  Asset Protection

10.5   Approve Coherent Governance Policy Operational Expectations (OE) 8, Communicating With the Board 

BUSINESS AND FINANCIAL INFORMATION / REPORTS

11.1  Business and Financial Information: Enrollment and Attendance Report for Month 6 Ending February 21, 2014

Watch the Meeting

Cable Viewing

This meeting of the Sacramento City School Board is being videotaped in its entirety and will be cablecast without interruption on Metro Cable 14, the government affairs channel on the Comcast and SureWest Cable Systems.

 

Live Streaming

 

The archive will be available the Tuesday after the meeting. 

Response to Public Comment

Q: Now that the Board has indicated that the district has researched other school districts for their policies regarding teacher healthcare benefits and types of plans that are typically made available to teachers, is this research data available to be provided to the public online?  If not, could you please share the source and where to find or request this data?

The information was obtained from a copyright protected document from School Services of California, Inc. School Services has expressly stated that this information may not be shared publicly and be used for direct district use only. While not in as much detail, total salary benefit information for all certified employees is available at Ed Data for fiscal years 1992-93 through 2012-13.

 

Q: The Board has indicated that both the Board of Education and the Administration have as one [of] their highest priorities to work with labor organizations to work towards reducing our overall costs of benefits through the negotiations process as required by law and that changes to contracts with our labor partners must be negotiated.  Does the Board have the authority to change district policy on employee benefits?

The Board has the authority to change district policy but it may not unilaterally change benefit packages that must always be negotiated.

 

Q: In 2011/2012, Washington Unified’s class size was 25.9. This is much lower that SCUSD’s 32. Please explain how their class sizes are not as low as one may perceive.

Response:  Your original question to the Board was “Will the Board be looking into how Washington Unified is able to offer low class sizes (20)?” From this question it appeared that the perception was that Washington Unified had average class sizes of 20. The data showed that their class sizes were actually 25.9 on average.

 

Q: Will the Student Advisory Council be granted a place on the Board agendas to provide updates and recommendations to the Board? Will this committee learn legislative advocacy? That is where they could make a great impact in addition to the work they do for the district/schools. Are they being educated on how to analyze the SCUSD district budget and other data in order to make recommendations for the LCAP?

SCUSD’s Student Board Member is also a member of the Student Advisory Council. She provides the Board with updates and recommendations and advocates from the students’ perspective during Board sessions. She also takes information she learns at meetings – including information about the district budget and other data — back to the Student Advisory Council where it is discussed. SCUSD is not mandated by Ed Code to have a student representative on the Board but chooses to do so to give students more voice.

 

Q: What is our district doing at the federal and state level to advocate for lower healthcare costs?  Doing so at the state level will result in more funding all around for services.

The District, through its lobbying efforts and associations, continues to point out and request assistance in dealing with ever increasing health care expenses. More importantly, we are working through the negotiations process and with our new health benefit broker to determine what can be done locally and internally to decrease our cost of providing health care benefits.