Last night the Morongo Unified School District Board of Trustees held their first regular meeting of the 2024-25 school year at Joshua Tree Elementary. This was the first MUSD meeting to be recorded for full transparency and to be accessible by the following day for those unable to attend. The meeting began by recognizing Wayne Hamilton, who organized the district’s back to school giveaway July 19th where 500 backpacks were distributed to MUSD students.
Assistant Superintendent of Secondary Education Amy Woods introduced Vonda Viland, who gave a presentation on the 5th year of DODEA (Department of Defense Education Activity). Viland confirmed goals accomplished by the program included creating a Career Technical Education Feeder program to increase CTE participation, completion rates, articulation, and military connected parent contact.
Assistant Superintendent of Business Services Sharon Flores gave a furniture update, reporting that Phase 1 was complete, which includes installation of student desks and chairs at six MUSD schools where they have also removed surplus furniture. Phase 2 will install the same at 12 more campuses, and Phase 3 will install teacher desks and podiums. The design of these new student desks offer the option of attaching them together in a hexagon shape for group projects.
Assistant Superintendent of Human Resources Stacy Smalling gave a presentation on Teaching Assignment Monitor Outcomes, reporting that MUSD has an “overall slightly lower percentage of teachers with fully cleared credentials to teach in their assignment than the county or state and slightly higher percentages of intern and out of field credentialed teachers.”
Superintendent Dr. Vargas presented a preliminary data update with positive outcomes for the district, including a 5% increase in math scores. Vargas reported that in the 2021-22 school year, there were 11 student groups in need of technical assistance due to low performance in academics, school culture, or general well-being. However, in 2022-23, that number went down to only four groups, and Vargas projects that by the end of this school year they would get that number to only one student group to focus on.
