Board to consider survey results, interim budget
CHICO >> Survey results regarding Chico Unified School District teachers’ interest in returning to a fulltime in-person setting will be unveiled at Wednesday’s board of trustees meeting.
The meeting begins at 6 p.m. and will be held at Pleasant Valley High’s Center for the Arts. Due to COVID-19 restrictions, the meeting is not open to the public. It can be streamed on the district’s YouTube page at https:// bit. ly/3jPUFKa.
During the meeting on Feb. 17, the board requested that a survey be conducted to see if teachers are interested in a full- day, in-person reopening that adheres to the current COVID-19 safety guidelines.
The impact on classrooms and school campuses will also be discussed as well as the outcome of the Feb. 24 negotiations meeting with the Chico Unified Teachers Association.
Jim Hanlon, assistant superintendent of Human Resources, and Ted Sullivan, director of Elementary Education, will speak on the topic.
CUSD has been operating in a hybrid a.m./p.m. model, in which about half the students attend campus in the morning and half attend in the afternoon, since Oct. 19.
The board will also analyze the second interim budget which will be presented by Kevin Bultema, the district’s assistant superintendent of Business Services.
The second interim budget will show changes and adjustments that were made from the previously approved first interim budget. The second interim budget will also show actual revenues and spending that occurred from July 2020 through Jan. 31, 2021.
A “mulit-year projection” will also be revealed in the second interim budget. The board will consider allocating the one-time funding through the Coronavirus
Response and Relief Supplemental Appropriations Act into the budget as well. The district is set to receive $10,020,283 in Elementary and Secondary Schools Emergency Relief funding.
The budget findings will also help indicate the costs of what it will take to fully reopen schools in the fall. Discussing a potential full reopening in the fall isn’t scheduled until the April 21 board meeting.
At the Feb. 17 board meeting, CUSD Superintendent Kelly Staley said her goal is to fully reopen schools in the fall if the current county tier permits it. Staley also noted that looking at the budget will help the district put a solid online program in place if COVID-19 cases surge like last fall.
The results of the CUSD Safe Schools survey will be also be unveiled at the meeting.
The survey, which was conducted at the request of the board, asks school principals if the students, parents and staff of their respective schools have had any on-site safety issues or any issues on the way to and from school over the course of the school year. Sullivan and John Shepherd, the director of Secondary Education, will present the survey findings.
Speaker cards for the public comment portion can be submitted to the board by noon Wednesday or comments can also be emailed directly to the board at publiccomment@ chicousd.org.
Public attendance is still prohibited for board meetings. In-person participation will be allowed once Butte County can enter and stay in the red tier for two weeks.
Second rally planned
The Chico Parents for In-Person Learning group is planning a second rally to be held prior to Wednesday’s meeting from 4:30 to 6 p.m.