Grass Valley School District: December 2022
The Grass Valley School District held its final board meeting of 2022. Here’s what the board voted on (all votes were unanimous).
Board Policy 5125.3 Challenging Student Records
The board voted on a policy for challenging student records. You can read the full draft on the publicly-accessible board packet for this meeting. The draft seems to say that a parent or guardian of any student may request correction to their child’s records if there is any information that is inaccurate, unsubstantiated, a conclusion made outside the observer’s area of competence, not based on actual observation, misleading, or in violation of student rights including privacy.
Certificated Contracts
Approval of Alexandra Valencia as a temporary full-time dual immersion teacher at Bell Hill Academy for Jan-Jun 2023 and Lindsay Ward as a discovery study teacher at Grass Valley Charter for Jan-Jun 2023.
2022-2023 Interim Budget
You can view the Interim budget in the publicly-accessible board packet. Expenses include $7.6 million for certificated salaries (teachers), $3.3 million for classified staff salaries, and an extra $5.0 million for their benefits. Salaries and benefits add up to roughly $16.0 million. That’s over 60% of the total budget.
The other 40% of the budget falls into the following categories: the district is budgeting $2.0 million for supplies, $2.6 million for services, and $3.4 million for capital outlay (money spent on the facilities such as building upgrades). The budget also includes $1.3 million for “other.”
The district notes on page 7 that it was able to offset the high cost associated with giving teachers raises by reducing the number of teachers.
Resolution to Teach
This resolution allows teachers with multiple subject credentials to teach in specific assignments. The vote applied to: Kimberlee Veale (math), Michael Day (social studies), Jennifer Vielhauer (math and science), Esther B. Pearcy (language arts and social studies), and Jakyline Gonzales (language arts and social studies).
California State Preschool Program
The board voted to enter into an agreement for child development services and general child care and development programs with the California Department of Education.
Designation of a representative to SRIMG
The board voted to designate a representative and alternate to the School Risk and Insurance Management Group (SRIMG) Joint Powers Board for the 2023 calendar year
The board voted for Andrew Withers to be the district representative and Brian Martinez to be the alternate.
Approval of out-of-state travel for the EL Conference
The board approved Grass Valley Charter School staff to travel out of the state for the EL Education Conference. The conference was held in Chicago, Illinois. Under “Who We Are” on its website, EL Education includes its general approach, its partners (public schools and public school districts, the most common states of which are Colorado and New York), and its history (a chronological list of achievements). Also included is a page on equity and antiracism, which explains their approach in those areas and states, “we also draw on our organizations roots in an education philosophy dedicated to the power of student resiliency, agency, and leadership for social justice.”
The 2022 conference included sessions on topics such as diversity, equity, and inclusion, and a keynote by Dr. Gholdy Muhammad, a professor who studies Black historical excellence in educational communities with the goal of reframing curriculum and instruction in schools. Her keynote was entitled “Cultivating Genius: An Equity Model for Culturally & Historically Responsive Education.” Gholdy Muhammad, in an interview with Education Week in 2020, promoted criticality, saying that it is helping “youths to be woke socio-politically.” In a more recent article on KQED, Muhammad says that “curriculum should always connect to justice, equity, anti-racism” and is often featured talking about diversity and equity.