Coast Unified school board welcomes 2 new members

The Coast Unified School Board seated two new members, welcomed back two others who successfully stood for election and chose to retain the same board officers for the upcoming year during its Dec. 8, Thursday night meeting.

Dennis Rightmer and Samuel Shalhoub took their seats, replacing outgoing members Cindy Fratto and Sue Nash, neither of whom sought reelection. Tiffany Silva and Lee McFarland, who won election after previously serving as appointed trustees, also were sworn in.

Finances

The meeting featured financial updates in the form of the annual auditor’s report and Business Manager Annie Lachance’s summary of the first period interim financial report.

Alex Hom of auditor Moss, Levy & Hartzman, CPAs, reported four problems, most of which he described as minor in nature. (For instance, a receipt was missing in one case out of 20 considered for transactions involving the ASB.)

Hom said the most substantial issue involved the district’s failure to meet a California requirement that 55 percent of a district’s expenses be spent on teacher salaries. Coast Unified, he said, was at 45 percent, but could seek a waiver from San Luis Obispo County.

On the first interim report, Lachance said the district had a projected deficit of $631,251 for the 2016-17 school year, but that the ultimate figure would probably be lower. The overall figure consists of $525,084 in unrestricted funds and $106,167 in restricted money, she said.

Much of the deficit, she added, was made up of “carry-over for expenses budgeted in the current year for funds received in the previous year” for projects such as the new athletic field and a portable building at Santa Lucia Middle School. In other words, the funds were received during one budget year and spent on next.

Lachance said reserves are estimated for this year to be at 8.37 percent, or slightly more than $1.13 million, dropping to 5.82 percent for 2017-18 and 4.11 percent for 2018-19.

“Those numbers will more than likely be higher than that, but this is a snapshot in time as of Oct. 31,” Lachance said.

Science teacher

In other business, three community members spoke during the public comment period to address concerns over a science teacher’s prolonged absence from the high school.

Daniel Schalk, who teaches seven classes at Coast Union, has been on leave because of health issues regarding his son, who is being treated at Stanford, Coast Union Principal Scott Ferguson said.

“The subs we have don’t have any lesson plans,” parent Gary Stephenson told the board. “They’re day subs. … We would love to see a long-term sub in there.”

Parent Scott Stern said student learning “has been significantly diminished.”

Andy Zinn added, “This has a huge impact on the SAT scores — everything in the future; they can’t score high enough test scores to qualify for Harvard or Berkeley or any of these high-end places.”

Ferguson announced on the Coast Unified website that Schalk would be returning to classes Nov. 28, but said Thursday he is not able to be in class every day because of his son’s condition. Two qualified science teachers have been serving as day subs in his continued absence.

“My own daughter’s in there — my own daughter’s affected, so I understand” the parents’ concerns, Ferguson said.

He and Superintendent Vicki Schumacher said the district had conducted a hiring search but had received only one applicant for a long-term substitute position.

“She was fantastic,” Ferguson said, but she had to cut her commitment short because her father was having health issues.

“We need to do more research regarding the willingness of a long-term sub to return,” Schumacher told the board.

Social emotional learning

Schumacher also gave a report on social emotional learning, in which she shared the results of a survey for middle school and high school students.

The survey showed, for instance, that Santa Lucia Middle School students were more likely to feel harassed or bullied than the state average, and to experience chronic sadness or hopelessness. They were also, however, more likely to feel safe at school and feel a part of the school, she said. A fifth category, “Try hard on school work,” was on par with the state average.

At the high school level, Coast Union students responded at or above the state average in 4 of 5 categories, falling short only on “Try hard on school work.”

The superintendent covered possible themes for addressing the situation, including caring, “grit” and self-advocacy. She said it was important that the district work on “capturing kids’ hearts” and create a strong social contract with the students.

This story was originally published December 14, 2016 at 10:30 AM with the headline "Coast Unified school board welcomes 2 new members."