The Morongo Unified School District Board of Trustees unanimously approved the district’s preliminary budget for the 2020-2021 school year at last night’s board meeting. During budget discussions over the past few months, the board was forced to make many proposed budget cuts due to lack of state funding resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic. With the state budget still undergoing constant changes, the school district budget will likely see many more revisions before being finalized. Reporter Andrew Dieleman has more from the meeting…
The MUSD Board of Trustees also received a presentation from Director of Secondary Education Dustin Howard on current guidelines and cautions from the National Federation of High Schools on 2020-2021 sports and athletics programs for students. While bringing back athletic programs is ultimately up to the school district, Assistant Superintendent Amy Woods stated that sports are not currently considered a factor for MUSD’s reopening.
The board also cautiously approved the 2020-2021 school attendance calendar with the understanding that in-person classes may not be available by August 24 based on student safety related to COVID-19.
Discussions on renewing the district’s lease with the Town Center Mall in Yucca Valley for the ACCE programs led to nearly an hour of discussions over whether the classes could instead be held on the Yucca Valley and Twentynine Palms high school campuses. The board ultimately voted 3-2 (Trustees Karalee Hargrove and Chris Proudfoot voting no) to approve the three-year lease while the option of moving the classes at the end of the first year is further explored.
The board also issued a declaration of need for fully qualified educators in the district (Trustee Hargrove abstaining), announced that the district will approved a modified purchase of up-to-date science books for K-6 classes at a reduced price without lab kits, and voted to receive a $32,000 grant for the Districts summer feeding program.
