Bonsall school board hears complaints, approves reopening plans

The Bonsall Teachers Association and the California School Employee Association Bonsall Chapter No. 703 both had some harsh words for Bonsall Unified School District during the Wednesday, Aug. 12, meeting of the governing board of trustees.

"Since June 23, in our attempts to keep the lines of communication open, Bonsall Teachers Association's negotiations team has worked to collect information regarding potential staffing concerns, safety issues, learning models, requests for optional summer professional development, offered scheduling ideas and provide additional ideas on how to roll out our different instructional models," the BTA representative said in the Zoom meeting. "Many of our teachers have worked an inordinate number of unpaid hours to learn how to become adept online educators and provide the most engaging instructional experience for our students.

"Our district has been willing to meet with us numerous times over the course of the summer, but resolving key issues like what virtual learning looks like was not prioritized. Even though BTA repeatedly expressed concern, time was running out and educators and parents needed to know what the plan is.

"We have heard that we aren't 'working with them,' we have been told that the answers parents and teachers were so anxiously waiting for, did not require response up to and until we meet our students Aug. 24," according to the BTA representative.

The representative said the district's stance only changed when they felt pressure from the community, but the representative said, the teachers still don't have the information they need to prepare for the school year.

According to the district's reopening plan website, Aug. 7, Superintendent David Jones said that teachers would return to work Aug. 17, for school site staff meetings and planning. The report indicated that teachers would receive professional development in online teaching and learning Aug. 18-19, and would have time to plan and prepare for the new school year, Thursday and Friday, Aug. 20-21.

"To our families, we ask that you please forgive us," the representative said. "We can't answer your questions. We'd really like to help you out, but evidently, our questions are not worthy of answers."

Cara Starkweather of the California School Employee Association Bonsall Chapter No. 703 also addressed the board during the reports section of the meeting.

"We're looking forward to going into our negotiations this Friday with the district we're hoping that we will have great communication and I'm hoping that they will realize that the classified employees are just as important as the teachers are," Starkweather said. "I feel like at this point we have kind of been given misinformation. We were told our start date was going to be the 21st. We received an email saying that there's a districtwide staff meeting on the 17th. I'm really confused about if that's districtwide or is classified getting paid for that? How does that work?

"There's been conflicting information, I have members reaching out to me on a daily basis asking what's going on," she said.

Starkweather also asked for a justification on a proposal on the agenda about cutting a couple of classified positions.

"It is saying on the agenda that it is for lack of funds or lack of work," she said. "That's a little disappointing with the governor not cutting our budget at all. I think we should be showing good faith effort in saying the governor gave us the money, there is no lack of work. What's going to happen with that work when they are gone?"

According to the superintendent and the executive director of human resources, based on the data identified in the 2020-2021 budget, eliminating those two positions will save the district $193,989 in the unrestricted education general fund.

The resolution to eliminate two positions was ultimately approved unanimously by the governing board, though some members expressed disappointment in having to do so.

The board also approved the BUSD Reopening School Plan put forth by the Reopening Schools Task Force, which met on several occasions to develop all required categories of the reopening plan.

According to the presentation, there will be synchronous and asynchronous learning for students and the task force was developing a website for the community to navigate the plan.

On Wednesday, Jones and task force members presented an overview of the plan for reopening and the information to be contained on the website.

The district had yet to formalize some of the details of the plan, but had expected to finalize the plan with BTA the following day.

"What Mr. (David) Moore communicated was a presentation of the distance learning plan," Jones said. "We also communicated that some of the challenges and the difficulties that we've heard from teachers and a lot of our frustrations is related to that we have to finalize some of these details through the negotiation process and so that was communicated as much as we possibly could communicate until we finalize this tomorrow. So, that's for everyone's information."

The full reopening plan is available at the district's website. Zoom meetings were also scheduled for parents and guardians Monday and Tuesday, Aug. 17-18, to provide more information.

"There may be districts giving out 60-, 70-, 80-page documents, we didn't want to do that," Jones said. "We wanted to create a website to have it be easy to navigate for our staff and for our parents."

The board approved the reopening plan unanimously, along with revisions to the Bonsall Unified School District 2020-2021 Instructional School Year Calendar.

In other action items, the board also approved the 45-day budget revision after hearing a presentation from Laura Castro, executive director of business and administrative service.

In the presentation, Castro announced that the district received $1.4 million in learning loss mitigation funds. She also addressed what the district can expect next.

"The road ahead is certainly a bumpy one," Castro said while acknowledging that the financials will be stable for this year and the next. "We don't really know how the next year the state budget will impact the district funding. We don't know what we're going to be facing next year. We can't control how much revenue we will receive from the state.

"Experts are not seeing an economic recovery soon. ... right now, we are facing a recession. In addition, the district is declining in enrollment. This is a California wide issue. Historically, we can show what is coming in the following years, a continuing decrease in enrollment," she said.

Castro reported that in three years, the district will be operating at a deficit, estimated to be $1.3 million.

"That is a major issue that needs to be addressed," she said. "The district needs to be realistic and conservative and needs to take action to maintain fiscal solvency. The budget committee is recommending continuing with a budget reduction plan as possible."

The board also unanimously approved the consent calendar which included the ratification of the personnel register, revolving cash report, commercial warrant report, purchase order report and the acceptance of the 2019-2020 fiscal year donations received through June 30.

The governing board also approved tuition agreements for special education students who attend out-of-district programs in Fallbrook and Vista; approved the non-public agency master contract with New Haven Youth and Family Services and TIEE Urban Skills Center, T.E.R.I. Inc., Maxim Healthcare, Community School of San Diego, North County Academy, The Stepping Stones Group, North County Family Counseling Specialists, Dependable Nursing and approved an independent contractor agreement for occupational services with Annette Rodriguez, L. Leigh, T. Simpson.

The board also approved an agreement with Loma Linda University for educational and instructional programs.

Jeff Pack can be reached by email at [email protected].