Trustees of the Chula Vista Elementary School District ended the year with a bang.
At a packed and boisterous school board meeting Wednesday, leaders of California’s largest elementary-only district made major changes to schools and the district’s administrative office.
Trustees voted to overhaul rules governing access to school campuses, discussed millions in possible budget cuts for next year and parted ways with a senior administrator who had been under investigation for multiple issues in the district’s human resources department.
The changes come as the district faces an enrollment decline, shrinking revenue and mounting calls from parents for transparency and accountability.
“This is not isolated to Chula Vista,” said School Board Vice President Francisco Tamayo of the forces driving some of the changes board members addressed Wednesday. “Budgets are reducing all over California. We’re not alone.”
Tightening Access Rules
Parents at the meeting were especially vocal about the one of the changes trustees adopted Wednesday – rules governing when and how parents and other members of the public can enter school campuses.
Last month, trustees took an initial vote to adopt what is known as a closed-campus policy that bars parents and other members of the public from entering schools without prior authorization while classes are in session.
Trustees said the policy would make schools safer because staff would know who was on campus at all times. Teachers’ union president Rosi Martinez cited two recent incidents when a person entered a school carrying a weapon and staff at another school discovered that a man who had been entering campus regularly was a registered sex offender.
Other districts in San Diego County, including San Diego Unified, Poway Unified and, recently, San Ysidro Unified, also have adopted versions of the closed-campus policy.
Parents said they agreed with the goal of making campuses safer. But they balked at being barred even from accompanying their young children to classrooms in the morning.
Waving signs and red flags at Wednesday’s meeting, parents called out to board members that they felt the policy was designed to prevent them from seeing what was going on inside schools.
“We had safety issues in the kindergarten recess and administrators didn’t respond,” said Anthony Fabian, a father of two girls in Chula Vista schools. “How do we know more safety issues won’t be ignored?”
Trustees on Wednesday said they heard and agreed with parents’ concerns. Before giving final approval to the policy, trustees amended it to enable parents to enter campuses when dropping off their kids at school in the morning.
Schools will use background check software to screen parents before they enter campuses. Parents must exit schools before the first bell rings for the start of instruction.
Parisa Hill, a district parent who helped organize parents’ presence at Wednesday’s meeting, said she was satisfied with the amended policy.
“It was a sigh of relief,” she said of the vote. “We hope they continue to engage parents…Our kids deserve this.”
Budget Cuts on the Horizon
Trustees also heard a grim financial update from Mark Pong, the district’s assistant superintendent for business services.
Pong said the expiration of one-time pandemic-era funds combined with anticipated declines in state finances and district enrollment would require $5 million in cuts.
Without the cuts, Pong said, the district was on track to deplete its economic uncertainty reserves in just three years. Already, Pong said, the district faces a deficit of $30 million.
Among possible cuts, district officials are preparing to reduce counseling and behavioral support services that were paid for with one-time infusions of pandemic-era funding.
Board President Lucy Ugarte said district leaders “have talked about staying away from the classroom as much as possible” when making cuts. But, she said, “80 to 90 percent of our expenses are staff-related.”
“It’s the fault of the system,” said Tamayo of the district’s financial challenges. “If we continue on this [current] path, we’re just going to delay the hurt.”
Embattled Administrator Departs
Earlier this year, I reported that the district had placed its assistant superintendent for human resources, Jason Romero, on leave following a district-commissioned audit that found numerous problems in the department’s record-keeping and hiring practices.
This week, that leave became permanent. Trustees on Wednesday approved a separation agreement with Romero following a district investigation into what two sources inside the district said were irregularities in the human resources department, including a pattern of intervening in hiring processes to help favored candidates get district jobs.
In a terse read-out of the agreement, Trustee Delia Dominguez Cervantes on Wednesday said the board had voted unanimously to part ways with Romero. Under terms of the agreement, he will depart the district with an undisclosed severance package.
Earlier today, I reported on one instance when the district hired an elementary school principal who had no prior school leadership experience – but who was connected personally and professionally with Romero’s wife.
Parents said the school experienced numerous problems under the principal’s leadership. She lasted just 14 months on the job.
In Other News
Call it the new San Diego County Supervisors buddy cop movie. South County Supervisor Paloma Aguirre on Tuesday teamed up with East County Supervisor Joel Anderson for a policy-focused tour of Aguirre’s supervisorial district. The duo visited the Tijuana River Valley (of course), an affordable housing complex in National City, a park that has contended with homelessness in Spring Valley and a budding film studio complex in Chula Vista. The supervisors, who both have a track record of working across the partisan aisle, said their districts face many of the same challenges. Anderson said he hoped the tour would lead to further “partnerships to improve lives across the county.”
The Chula Vista City Council on Tuesday voted to extend its contract with the operator of the city’s Elite Athlete Training Center and explore possible improvements at the facility. (Union-Tribune)
Teachers’ union members in the South Bay Union School District on Wednesday rallied outside district headquarters to draw attention to protracted contract negotiations and to protest possible district plans to close schools amid declining enrollment.
State Sen. Steve Padilla last week introduced legislation to update and clarify state air quality standards for hydrogen sulfide gas. Hydrogen sulfide pollution is one of the main problems affecting residents near the sewage-choked Tijuana River.
Also: The San Diego County Air Pollution Control District voted late last week to spend an additional $1 million to purchase air purifiers for South County residents affected by pollution from the Tijuana River. (Union-Tribune)
If you have any feedback or ideas for the South County Report, send them to jim.hinch@voiceofsandiego.org.