Summary of the Board of Education Meeting on April 15, 2020
Virtual Meeting
The April 15, 2020 meeting of the Board of Education began with the following announcements out of Closed Session
- The Board promoted Edith Navarro, principal at Kings Canyon Middle School to Administrator at Curriculum and Instruction
- The Board appointed Bryan Wells, Executive Officer at Instructional Services to Assistant Superintendent at Goal 2
- The Board appointed Heather Allen, Executive Director at Career Education to Executive Officer at Instructional Services
- The Board promoted Kali Isom-Moore, Principal on Special Assignment to Instructional Superintendent, School Leadership
- The Board tentatively appointed (pending budget) Sandra Aguayo, principal at Winchell Elementary School to Administrator, School Leadership
- The Board tentatively appointed (pending approval) Jennifer Stacy-Alcantara, principal at Webster Elementary School to Administrator, School Leadership
- The Board took action on one workers’ compensation claim
Next, Superintendent Nelson provided a brief report to the Board of Education including:
- Highlighting that the due to COVID-19 crisis, the loss in revenue is not going to be easy to handle but our Business and Administrative Services team is leading the way across the state and federal landscape with some modeling and planning; anticipating student and staff needs and considering possible risks and offsets. Thank you, Deputy Superintendent Ruthie Quinto and her team, for setting our district up to deal with a crisis such as this, and for leading the way.
- Next, the Superintendent recognized the work of Food Services team during this time. They show up every weekday to feed our community with love and compassion. Since the beginning of school closure, we have served over ONE MILLION meals for our community. More than 85% of those meals have gone directly to students, with the other 15% serving other family members in need at this time. Thank you to our partner at Fresno EOC, Every Neighborhood Partnership, and our faith community for stepping up and serving our families on Good Friday while our food services team and site leaders took a much-needed holiday.
- Superintendent Nelson stated that since the beginning of school closure, the Parent University team has been manning our COVID-19 Call Center. A total of 17 staff members have been answering calls and supporting parents in English, Spanish and Hmong. As the frontline of crisis response to the many questions of our families, students and community – this team has been strong and taking care of one another during this heavy lift. Since the call center was set up on Saturday, March 14, they have taken over 7,500 calls.
- Superintendent shared that the ATLAS/LCD Help Desk has been fielding calls from families and students as well to help with technology need during this unprecedented time. In February, they took 700 calls and then experienced a huge jump to over 2,400 calls in March. In just the first half of April, they have received over 3,000 calls. All of this has been done with two permanent staff plus help from others from the Technology team. Technology is working on setting up a call center specifically for technology support. Thank you, Technology team and site leadership teams for getting out an additional 10,000 devices since the beginning of school closure.
- Superintendent Nelson highlighted that more than 2,000 educators registered for professional learning to build their skills in providing distance learning, the number of students engaging in online learning growing each week, and seeing our teachers finding creative and innovative ways to engage with their students. We recommend checking our website as often as possible and following along on social media for regular updates. Also, for parents, please ensure your phone number and email is up to date in the ATLAS Parent Portal to ensure you are getting SchoolMessenger calls and Rapid Alert text messages for crucial information. For specific updates on grading, IEPs, and SPED services, please head to our COVID-19 webpage on the Fresno Unified website.
- Last, Superintendent Nelson congratulated Principal Rebecca Wheeler and Executive Assistant Annette Montague for moving on to the next phase to compete for Fresno County Educator of the Year Award. Additionally, he congratulated the Communications team for receiving three awards at the 2020 Cal-SPRA Excellence in Communications Awards. They received two awards of merit for efforts around teacher recruitment and Employee Zone newsletter and an award of excellence for visual communications for the Retiree Celebration. The district is still working on scholarship applications and will be announcing recipients in the coming weeks. Early learning registration is available via phone and electronically for the 20/21 school year. Details are available at the early learning page on our website.
Next, the Board of Education took the following action on the below consent agenda items:
- Approved Personnel List
- Approved Provisional Internship Permits
- Denied Appointment to Citizens’ Bond Oversight Committee (Andrew Fabela)
- Approved Appointment to Citizens’ Bond Oversight Committee (Lindsay “Cal” Johnson)
- Approved Award of Bid 20-20, McLane High School Library Modernization
- Approved Award of Bid 20-30, Roosevelt High School Cafeteria Modernization (Board member Jonasson- Rosas abstain pursuant Board Bylaw 9270)
- Approved of Award of Bid 20-36, Sections A & B, Hoover and Sunnyside High Schools Shade Structures and Site Improvements
- Approved Award of Bid 20-40, Cooper and Fort Miller Middle Schools Electrical Upgrades
- Approved Budget Revision No. 04 for Fiscal Year 2019/20
- Denied Claim GL19-0910-4945
- Ratified Grant Application to Kaiser Permanente Community Benefit Program for the 2020 Grant Cycle and Approved Contract with TCG Advisors and Foundation 99 [a 501(c)(3) public charity]
- Ratified Change Orders for the Projects Listed Below
Bid 19-10, McLane High School Construction of New Aquatic Center
Bid 19-20, Section A, Multipurpose Room Improvements for Roeding Elementary School and Cooper Middle School
Bid 19-41, Wawona K-8 School Classroom and Restroom Additions
Bid 19-55, Phoenix Secondary Academy Portable Infrastructure and Site Development
Bid 20-03, Ventura and 10th – Old Juvenile Hall Demolition and Remediation, Phase 2
- Ratified the Filing of Notices of Completion
- Ratified Purchase Orders from January 1, 2020 through January 31, 2020
- Ratified the Addendum of the Deaf and Hard of Hearing Service Center, Inc., Services Agreement
- Ratified Amended Independent Contract Services Agreement with Springboard Collaborative
- Ratified Grant Application to the Fresh Fruit and Vegetables Program 2020 Grant Cycle
- Ratified Change Orders for the Projects Listed Below
- Ratified the Filling of Notices of Completion
Next, the Board of Education discussed and took action on the below conference/discussion agenda items:
- Discussed and Approved the Dailey Elementary Charter School Renewal Petition
- Presented and Discussed the 2020/21 Strategic Budget Development
- Discussed and Approved Proposed Board Meeting Dates for 2020/21 and 2021/22
The next regularly scheduled meeting of the Board of Education will be a teleconference meeting on Wednesday, May 06, 2020. Complete minutes and agendas are available online at https://go.fresnou.org/board