Saugus Union moves ahead with supe search

Governing Board members review applications for position, discuss new buildings and school security at meeting

Saugus Union School District officials are moving along with plans for a new superintendent for the next school year after a discussion at Tuesday’s regular Governing Board meeting.

“We had a special board meeting (Monday) to review superintendent candidate applications,” board President Christopher Trunkey said in an email. “We have interviews scheduled for the weekend of April 28.”

“There have been so many great candidates who put their names forward,” board Member Paul De La Cerda said. “There is nothing more important to me than finding the next superintendent and keeping the public engaged in the process.”

New buildings and school security were also on the agenda for Tuesday’s meeting.

Plum Canyon and James Foster elementary schools are both eligible to receive new one-story classroom buildings pending the submission and approval of a CEQA report, or California Environmental Quality Act, a statute that requires local agencies to identify significant environmental impacts their project may cause.

The school district also accepted a proposal from PlaceWorks, Inc., who will perform the CEQA of both schools’ projects for a cost of $7,933 each, despite Plum Canyon receiving only one new

building opposed to Foster’s two, according to officials. The work regarding the environmental impact report is scheduled to begin April 18, 2018, and be completed by Dec. 15, 2018.

Officials expect construction on the new buildings to commence some time in 20192020 using funds from the recently passed Measure EE bond measure.

“The multi-purpose room project was identified as a need in the facilities master plan we did in connection with our Measure EE bond measure,” Trunkey emailed on Tuesday.

The board also approved the issuance of the Measure EE Series B bonds Tuesday night, which means more than $25.6 million in funding will go toward repairing projects identified in most recent facilities master plan.