The Morongo Unified School District Board of Trustees will meet tonight (December 14) at Joshua Tree Elementary School for their final regular session meeting of 2021. Assignment reporter Chris Fleischman breaks down tonight’s packed agenda…
The Morongo Unified School District Board of Trustees will meet in a busy regular session tonight at Joshua Tree Elementary School at 5:15 p.m. At the beginning of the meeting, the board will reorganize and select new officers for 2022. The board will then adjourn to closed session to conference with labor negotiators from the Morongo Teachers Association and the California School Employees Association, among other items, and afterward they will convene for an open work study session on the district budget and changes to trustee districts resulting from the 2020 Census.
Open session will then convene at 7:00 p.m., and Twentynine Palms High School’s Select Choir will perform for those in attendance. There will be a public hearing and presentation from David Daniels, Director of Maintenance and Facilities, regarding the statutory report on school facilities fees. The board will then vote to adopt an expenditure plan for the Educator Effectiveness Block Grant, in addition to voting to certify that the district can meet its financial obligations for 2021-2022 and the two subsequent fiscal years. Trustees will also vote to approve a contract for sewer improvements at Yucca Valley High School.
After the board votes on these and several other action items, they will review the updated policy for evaluating students for special education, which reaffirms the obligation to fully implement the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) during the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition, the trustees will review the updated policy for students with disabilities enrolled in private school by their parents. There will also be first readings of policies regarding instruction and intervention, student well-being and social-emotional learning in professional development, and updated high school graduation requirements for mathematics and for students affected by the pandemic. As mitigation efforts continue in the district, there will be a reading of the updated policy to reflect that districts are obligated to comply with COVID-19 mitigation requirements from multiple jurisdictional authorities including the California Department of Public Health (CDPH), the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health (Cal/OSHA), and local health authorities.
