A New President, A New Budget and Two Less Students
Ketta Brown took her place as the 2010 president of the school board, which met this past Tuesday. She succeeds Jan Vickers, who has served three different stints on the board including as its president in 1994, 2005, and 2009. Theresa O’Hare succeeded Brown as clerk, and thus is set to take up the gavel when school board members rotate the job a year from now.
Norma Shelton, the district’s assistant superintendent of business services, also delivered an interim budget report, which showed the district can meet its financial obligations this year and for at least two more under current revenue projections.
In addition, the school board unanimously agreed to expel a Thurston student and a Laguna Beach High School student for unspecified reasons. Administrators declined to identify the students or the reasons for the disciplinary action due to district policy. According to the district’s posted policy, the board considers expelling students subsequent to a hearing about the alleged offenses, which include possessing a weapon or an explosive device, selling a controlled substance, robbery, or attempting to commit a sexual offense. Five students were expelled during the 2008-09 school year, according to district records.
The board’s departing president received an award for her service, which noted Vickers’ “encyclopedic historical knowledge” of the board and praised her contributions to improvements in student wellness, academic rigor and operating procedures.
“Her every decision has been founded in a firm belief in a worldclass education for every Laguna Beach UnifiedSchool District student,” the award read in part.
In response, Vickers said, “The most special thing to me is what people say, because they don’t have to say anything. I’m really grateful when they are complimentary to what I’ve done.”
On the budget front, school district revenue from property taxes, the primary source of funding, climbed by $1.4 million more than projected, though those funds have yet to be received. “We don’t know until the end of the year how much money was given back to homeowners due to depreciated property values,” Shelton explained. The county treasury expects to refund $21 million this year, compared to $6 million in 2008, she said. “It is difficult to know how much of that Laguna is going to be penalized,” she said.
While state aid decreased
817,477, largely due to the district’s revenue limit being met by property taxes, federal aid increased $564,115 due to
one-time federal stimulus bonus, plus prior year carry over, among other things. The district also received $225,292 in gifts, including $125,000 from School Power and $50,000 from the School Power Endowment.
Board members were also treated to a brief concert by third-grader violinists from Top of the World and El Morro. The string players are part of an expansion of the elementary music program, assisted by the district’s purchase of 74 student violins. Led by band teacher Richard Hartford and accompanied by TOW principal Ron LaMotte, who is learning to play the violin alongside his students, the group played six short songs.
