School board roundup

The Gilroy Unified School District Board of Education discussed a variety of topics during its March 6 regular meeting including whether to increase the budget of the Christopher High School track and field project when additional costs were discovered after construction began.
School board trustees also discussed increasing the stipend for school board trustees, proposals for contract negotiations with teacher aids, district translators and instructional assistants and the high number of English language learners who continue to not test fluent in English even after they’ve been in U.S. schools for more than 10 years.
English language learners
More than 30 percent of English language learners who come to the U.S. and learn English as a second language are still not classified fluent in English by the time they start high school, according to a report from Kermit Schrock, GUSD program administrator for student assessment.
Of the 107 students who were still not fluent in English by their senior year of high school, 68 had been in U.S. schools for more than 10 years.
“I just wondered how a student could make 13 years of English instruction and not have made that leap,” said school board trustee and former teacher Pat Midtgaard.
For this year’s report, the language proficiency level of students was defined by results from the English and language arts and math sections of the California Standards Test (CST) and the California English Language Development Test (CELDT), which begins in kindergarten and assesses English language proficiency levels every year through high school.
Schrock noted that some of the students who classified as English Language learners in high school were special education students and also suggested some students may not have taken the CST seriously, which could mean they aren’t testing “fluent” in English, even if they are.
Christopher track budget
The budget for Christopher High School track and field project was increased for the second time in nearly four months – this time because a soil engineer found the site has a type of clay that expands and contracts and could cause the cement of the track to buckle.
“I’m just going to put it out there straight: We do have an issue that we did not know about,” GUSD Superintendent Debbie Flores said.
The roll call vote was unanimously in favor of finishing the project, though many trustees voiced their discomfort with the increased costs to a project that was supposed to be funded by donations.
School board trustees agreed to increase the cost of the project by $300,000. The district will kick in up to $150,000 of the district’s Measure P funds – the $150 million general obligation facilities bond voters passed in 2008. The Christopher family provided a matching donation. Read more here.
Proposition 13
The board unanimously voted in support of closing the Proposition 13 Commercial Loophole, passed in 1978 and meant to limit property taxes, which would be reassessed only when the property changed hands. Corporations found a loophole and learned they could avoid a tax reassessment during a change in ownership if no single party owned more than 50 percent of the company, officials said.
Property taxes are a funding source for public schools, so modifying the way that commercial properties are assessed could net additional resources for public schools, according to the district.
Teacher stipends
The school board voted to change their monthly stipend from $240 a month to $400. In the roll call vote, James Pace cast the one dissenting vote.
Flores recommended the board take the increase and said they had been eligible for a higher stipend under the education code but refused to take the increase in previous years due to very tight district budgets. The cost of the stipend increase will be $13,440 annually.
Stipends pay for defraying the costs of participation in school board including gas and national organization membership.
Proposing more pay
The Gilroy Federation of Teachers and Paraprofessionals, which serves teacher aids, district translators and instructional assistants, asked for a 9 percent increase in salary as part of their proposal for contract reopeners for the 2013-14 school year.
“It has been seven years since we got a raise,” said Arcelia V. O’Connor, President of the Gilroy Federation of Teachers and Paraprofessionals, who asked a full room of meeting attendees to stand if they were paraprofessionals or supported paraprofessionals.
Kim Filice, director of classified human resources, presented the GUSD initial proposal for contract reopeners, which included increasing employee salaries “within the fiscal constraints of the district” and discussing the terms of agreement.
Now that the district and the bargaining unit have aired their proposals in a public setting, negotiations between the two parties can begin.
Coming up
The next regular School Board meeting will take place at 7 p.m. Thursday, March 20 at the district office, 7810 Arroyo Circle. For more information, go to www.gusd.k12.ca.us/.