Campus to stay open — for now

The Big Oak Flat-Groveland Unified School District governing board has not voted to close Don Pedro High School — but it is considering it.

At Wednesday night’s special board meeting, acting Superintendent Marianne Quinn presented a letter to the board summarizing discussions with the Mariposa County Unified School District regarding Don Pedro area students.
 

“The decision to close the Don Pedro campus has not been made,” board President Ian Morcott said Thursday. “We are looking at ways to reduce costs at that campus as much as possible and also get community input.”

Morcott said Don Pedro residents and residents along the Highway 132 corridor have wanted their own school system for some time.

Morcott said the BOFG district is exploring ideas with Mariposa County schools to see if they’d be interested in taking the Don Pedro campus over. However, Morcott said, it may not even be feasible for Mariposa to do so.

“There’s so many unknowns at this point,” he said.

There were 22 students at Don Pedro High during the 2008-09 school year who are residents of Mariposa County.

At Wednesday’s meeting, Quinn told the board that if BOFG closes Don Pedro, the Mariposa district would open a ninth-grade program on the Lake Don Pedro Elementary School campus and create an independent study program for 10th through 12th-grade students.

Any plans to share or rent the Don Pedro High campus “will be a long-range plan,” Quinn said.

In other action Wednesday, the board discussed posting an opening for a substitute superintendent and substitute district administrative assistant and district chief business official. The board will discuss those same items at tonight’s meeting.

District Superintendent Mari Brabbin has been on a medical leave of absence for two months. Morcott said he could not comment on how long she will be out and Brabbin did not return a call for comment.

In the interim, Quinn, who is also the Tenaya Elementary School principal,  has been the acting superintendent. The district’s administrative assistant is also on leave.
 

The board accepted the resignation of Chief Business Official Tonya Midget, whose services were contracted from the Summerville Union High School District for the last nine and a half months. Midget’s last day of service to the district is Aug. 13.

Trustee Mike Malloy resigned as board clerk and the board voted 3-2, with Malloy and trustee Gloria Marler dissenting, to appoint trustee Lori West as the new clerk.

The district also approved an agreement to participate in the Yosemite Regional Occupational Program but will investigate ways to cut costs in the program. The program encroaches $45,000 on the districts general fund.

The district will offer ROP programs in fire science, elementary education, culinary arts and possibly digital photography, Morcott said.

The board also directed Quinn to schedule a meeting in September between the trustees, the district’s financial auditor and the Measure M Citizens’ Bond Oversight Committee who requested the board have an in-depth audit of the $16 million general obligation bond projects in the district.    

Tonight the board will hold another special meeting and open session will begin at 6 p.m. in the Tioga High gym.

The board will meet for closed session at 5 p.m.

In open session they will continue discussions over the superintendent, administrative assistant and chief business official positions. They will also consider appointing a board vice president.

The majority of the meeting will be spent on developing the district’s strategic plan.

Meeting attendants will be asked to write ideas on how to save money on three large sheets of paper, one for each school site. Then they will each get five sticky notes to post next to the ones they deem most important.

“We have to adapt to the budget and make sure we can make it through the school year without any negative consequences,” Morcott said.

Morcott said the last time he checked, the state will be taking $80 million from Basic Aid (property tax) funded school districts. The district is also unsure of the full implications of the recently passed state budget, he said.