Chico Unified School district delays collecting new construction fees

CHICO » The Chico Unified School District School board met Wednesday evening and voted on a series of resolutions.

The board voted 5-0 at the beginning of the meeting to approve a field trip request for the Chico High School girls’ varsity volleyball team to attend the Nike Tournament of Champions in Phoenix, Arizona from Sept. 28 to Oct. 02, 2022.

The board voted 4-1 to delay a resolution until the next meeting regarding Level 1 School Fees. According to the board agenda, school districts are allowed to collect fees on new residential and commercial/industrial construction to alleviate the impact of new developments on school grounds. These fees are generally referred to as statutory fees. By statute, the developer fees are capped.

The caps are adjusted every two years by the State Allocation Board to account for inflation. In February 2022, the developer fee cap for residential development increased by $0.71 to $4.79 per square foot.

Board Clerk Matt Tennis asked to delay the resolution until the next school board meeting to discuss it more and said it wouldn’t have any negative effects if it was delayed for a couple of weeks, and most of the board members agreed to put it off.

The board voted 5-0 to a Measure E and Measure K General Obligation Bonds Audit. Measure E and K bonds are paid through local property taxes. The district emphasizes Measure E and K building funds to account for expenditures of bond funds for facilities and Measure E and K debt service funds to account for bond principal and interest payments, according to the board agenda.

It also voted 5-0 to authorize the filing of applications for preschool, transitional kindergarten, and a full-day kindergarten facility grant program. In anticipation of the filing of applications, the grant program staff has identified the recommended sites where the district will provide full-day instruction for the applicable programs.

On March 9, 2022, a motion was made to ask admin staff to draft a resolution or to write a letter to legislators to approve the use of a three-year average of the American Disabilities Act as a third choice in continuance. The district’s administration wrote a letter addressed to State Sen. Jim Nielsen(R-Red Bluff) and Assemblyman James Gallagher (R-Yuba City) for the board to look over. The board of trustees was asked to review the letter and take action.

At Wednesday’s meeting, Tennis objected to a paragraph in the letter. In it, a paragraph stated, “The Chico Unified School District successfully reopened our schools to inperson instruction on October 19, 2020. At all times during this pandemic, Chico Unified has placed a strong emphasis on ensuring our students are attending school and receiving a high-quality educational program.”

Although Tennis rejected the letter based on that paragraph, it was passed 4-1.

A special meeting of the Chico Unified School District Board of Education will take place May 4, 2022 at 5 p.m. at Marigold Elementary School located at 2446 Marigold Ave.

The next regular school board meeting takes place May 18, 2022 at 6 p.m., also at Marigold Elementary School.