Rancho Santa Fe school board elects new leader

NORTH COUNTY

RANCHO SANTA FE

The Rancho Santa Fe School District board elected Scott Kahn as the new board president at its organizational meeting last week. This will be Kahn’s first time in the leadership position; he has been a board member since 2016.

Past board clerk Kali Kim was elected as the new vice president and Jee Manghani was named the new board clerk. After the gavel was passed, Kahn and Manghani thanked outgoing president Sarah Neal for navigating the board through what was a difficult and at times contentious year for the district.

At the organizational meeting, the board was set to approve a change in its meeting time schedule for the 2020 school year, moving from the practice of alternating meetings between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. to all 9 a.m. meetings.

Teacher Amanda Valentine, representing the RSF Faculty Association, requested that the board not change meeting times in an effort to “promote transparency and open dialogue about what is best for students.”

After the faculty association found out about the proposed changes, Valentine said they sent a survey out to the teaching staff and asked what times work best for them to attend — 95 percent of those surveyed had a preference for 5 p.m. meetings or the alternating schedule.

“(At 9 a.m.), teachers can not attend because they will be working, not to mention many working parents will be unable to attend,” Valentine said. “It is important in public school districts that teachers are stakeholders in matters of curriculum, safety and more. In order to be valued stakeholders, teachers need to be able to attend school board meetings.”

Neal said she appreciated the input received from the staff survey and said that in order to make the change to all 9 a.m. meetings they should have parent outreach, possibly included in the end of the school year parent survey. Neal voted to keep the board meeting schedule consistent to “demonstrate that everyone’s voice is valuable.”

The board voted 3-2 in favor of keeping the alternating schedule, with Kahn and Seltzer opposed.

U-T Community Press