More than fifty protestors, most who had children attending Friendly Hills Elementary School, gathered at last night’s Morongo Unified School District board meeting to protest a district proposal that, if adopted, would move three elementary school teachers to different schools in the district. Reporter Andrew Dieleman was there, and files this report…
The Morongo Unified School District’s proposal would move one teacher each from Friendly Hills Elementary, Twentynine Palms Elementary, and Oasis Elementary; placing two of those teachers at Joshua Tree Elementary and one at Condor Elementary. Protestors criticized the board for what they called “poor staff planning” and stated that the move would create unnecessary hardships for students. After the meeting, board Superintendent Tom Baumgarten stated that, while moving teachers is always avoided when possible, the difficult decision can be necessary to ensure fair student-teacher ratios. The board will make a final decision on September 17.
In other business, the board held a closed session to review employee disciplines and dismissals. Following the closed session, the board held three work study sessions. The board reviewed unaudited actuals, a comparison of the district’s 2017-2018 budget estimates to actual expenses; reviewed the hiring process and codes-of-ethics for district coaches; and reviewed the student achievement plans for Onaga Elementary School, La Contenta Middle School, Yucca Valley High School, and Friendly Hills Elementary School. In open session, beginning at 7 p.m., the board heard a presentation on the upcoming school bond, Measure O, on the ballot for the November election; confirmed the use of the old Joshua Tree Elementary School building for non-school purposes; and adopted the student achievement plans from the work study session.
FRIENDLY HILLS PROTESTORS NOT SO FRIENDLY AT SCHOOL BOARD MEETING
