At last night’s meeting of the Morongo Unified School District Board of Trustees, the board continued discussions on the district’s return to athletic conditioning plan for students. After lengthy discussion on the pros and cons of authorizing the plan, Trustee John Cole moved to allow athletic conditioning to begin, but the proposal ended in a split vote of 2-2 (Trustees John Cole and Hilary Slotta voting yes and Trustees Kerri Condley and Karalee Hargrove voting no) and did not pass. Reporter Andrew Dieleman has more from that meeting…
At last night’s meeting, Assistant Superintendent Sharon Flores also announced that the school district will receive a portion of two CARES Act grants totaling $2.9 million and another two grants totaling $1.5 million towards the district’s LTE tower project. The board also voted unanimously to appoint Megan Burge as the new Trustee for District area 5, replacing former Trustee Chris Proudfoot. Lastly, board President Hillary Slotta honored outgoing Trustees Karalee Hargeove, John Cole, and Chris Proudfoot with a slideshow of district photos from the past 10 years. The trio shared numerous good memories of days gone by and were showered with best wishes for their future endeavors.
The board also discussed the district’s first interim financial report. Compared to the original annual budget, the District is projecting a $10.5 million revenue increase from local, federal, and state sources; but also $15.4 million in additional COVID-19 related expenditures. Assistant Superintendent Sharon Florez stated that the district may need to utilize reserve funding to offset projected deficit spending.
Also during the meeting, Assistant Superintendent of Instructional Services Amy Woods announced that the district will receive a $20,000 grant for the distribution of meals and activity kits for district students over winter break.
In other action items, the board voted unanimously to approve the contract appointing Doug Weller as Interim Superintendent for the District; scheduled December 15 for the board’s official reorganization meeting; adopted the Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF) budget overview for parents; and authorized districtwide contracts for re-painting, re-roofing, sewer hook-ups, nutritional services, and Wi-Fi upgrades.
