The Board acknowledged fifteen personnel that will retire after this year 

TEMPLETON — Templeton Unified School District (TUSD) met for their regularly scheduled meeting on Thursday, May 27 at 6:15 p.m.

The Board had nothing to report on closed session and moved on to item 6.0

Item 6.1 was the adoption of resolution #R21-15, Acknowledgement and Appreciation of Employee Service. A presentation was made of the fifteen retirees that will be leaving at the end of this year, followed by a short reception.

Item 7.1 was the Governor’s May Revision to the Proposed 2021/22 State Budget. In short, there is a $16 billion excess of the Gann limit, that the state is obligated to return, which affects budgets.

The biggest news is the COLA (cost of living adjustment) is due to go up to 5.07 percent, which is an even bigger improvement than the almost four percent that was projected in January.

The state is also looking into adding funding over the course of the next few years so that Transitional Kindergarten (TK) will be available to all four-year-olds, rather than the current five and almost five-year-olds. While this won’t take effect for a few years, the procuring of funding to facilitate it is beginning now.

The Board Member Report spoke on the Girls soccer that is heading to CIF, as well as the middle school promotion and senior graduation that will be upcoming.

The Board spoke to future meetings with in-person participation that would accommodate roughly 20 seats for the public for regular meetings with three-foot spacing between individuals and that this would be continually evaluated as more guidance from the state becomes available after the Jun. 15 lift of restrictions.

Nelson Yamagata spoke on the idea of in-person meetings and erring on the side of caution for social distancing and mask-wearing to continue to be part of the foreseeable future of meetings. “Just for the foreseeable future, if we open up especially…I wonder about what the District or the liability is if we open up the room presuming that people are vaccinated, and someone transmits COVID… I’m just thinking ahead of the box in how we proceed.”

One parent spoke in response to Yamagata, “As to Mr. Yamagata’s statement he just made, there will be no liability if somebody contracted any illness… because there is no way to tell if they got it at the school or elsewhere so there would be no way to litigate that… Frankly, us parents are getting tired of you guys erring on any side. There has been way too much “erring” at all by all of the authorities from the very top-down, and our kids are suffering.”

Jennifer Grainger from Mom’s for Liberty also responded, “We’re here talking today about whether or not we can open… and you’re speaking about — I’m sorry if I”m incorrect because I’m having a very hard time understanding what everyone is saying. It literally sounds like Charlie Brown’s teacher; I’m not kidding. With the masks on, and the technology, the ability for us to hear the discussion, I’m only getting about every fifth word. The need to open to the public is there because we’re not getting the information… it’s a violation of the Brown Act. If you’re talking about waiting until Jun. 15… that’s a full opening.” She continued to say the proposal for the three-foot distancing and mask-wearing is something that should be happening now, not on Jun. 15.

During the Superintendent Report, it was announced that the County Health Department “Award of Excellence” was given to the TUSD Food Service Department. All departments were given a 100 percent score in terms of their operation, which resulted in their Award of Excellence.

Moving on to the consent agenda, item 12.2 was pulled for discussion, and items 12.1 and 12.3-8 were approved unanimously. Item 12.2 was addressed, with Heather Contreras of TMS resigning and staff wanting to speak words of gratitude of her service before approving the item.

Item 13.0 was the approval of the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Templeton Performing Arts Center Foundation. The purpose of which is to formalize an agreement between the District and the Foundation for the use of the facility. There would be no significant cost as the Foundation agrees to maintain and improve many items of the facility. The MOU was passed unanimously.

Item 14.1 2021-2024 TUSD Local Control and Accountability Plan (LCAP) Committee and Survey Update was presented, with the most important aspect be to minimize “eduspeak” meaning terms and acronyms that the general public may not be familiar with. Going forward, the plan is being created for the next three years and looking for input. The goals are all created from a state-mandated list of priorities. All of the goals begin with “All students” as they are directed at students. The data for the LCAP was derived from a survey that was open for nine days. The plan will be put before the public on Jun. 17 and Jun. 29, the Board will take action, and the following day, the plan will be submitted to SLOCO. The plan will be approved or asked to amend, which will be done within 15 days. The final approval will come sometime in September.

Item 14.2, Approval of 2021/22 Templeton High School Athletics Handbook was updated with small administrative changes and, after a brief presentation, was approved unanimously.

Item 15.1, Food Service Department Annual Report, spoke to the meal programs that were made available to the kids, keeping the drive-through open every day even though the children are able to also obtain meals on campus. With the school now open, the meals are served cold with heating instructions. The Department is still serving approximately 125 meals a day through the drive-through.

Item 15.2, Approval of Expanded Learning Opportunity Grant Plan was approved unanimously.

Item 16.1 Proposed Revisions to Board Policy 6146.1 – High School Graduation Requirements/Standards of Proficiency, which states that those who were on track in 2019 but did not complete because of school closures can retroactively receive a diploma.

After the meeting, the Board went back into closed session.

The next meeting of the TUSD will be held on Jun. 17, and the link to the meeting can be found on the school website shortly before the meeting tusd-ca.schoolloop.com/