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What: Davis Board of Education

When: 6 p.m. Thursday

Where: Community Chambers, City Hall, 23 Russell Blvd.

Watch it: Live on Davis cable Channel 17 and as streaming video on www.djusd.tv

The Davis Board of Education will meet an hour earlier than usual Thursday — at 6 p.m. — in the Community Chambers at Davis City Hall, 23 Russell Blvd.

The meeting will include the board’s annual election of officers for the coming school year. If past custom is followed, current board president Richard Harris will hand the gavel to current board vice president Susan Lovenburg, who then will serve as president for 2012.

The board also will elect a new vice president for 2012, and Lovenburg will announce the committee assignments for the five trustees in the year to come.

There are several business items on the agenda, including:

* Approval of resolutions that potentially could result in the layoff of the equivalent of 8.6818 classified jobs held by secretaries, food prep workers, paraeducators, library technicians and the like, and another 78.007 certificated jobs, held by teachers, counselors and librarians.

The layoffs would take effect if local voters do not renew the parcel taxes approved in 2007 and 2008 that will expire in June. The new tax, to be known as Measure C, will be decided in a vote-by-mail election ending March 6.

* Certification of the district’s first interim financial report. The agenda summary notes, “The district is fiscally challenged due to the continued shortfalls from state funding reductions and the reliance on limited-time funding of local taxes and federal stimulus supports to maintain our educational programs.

“In the budget development process, the school board cannot project funding for future parcel tax revenues for the renewal of Measures Q & W until the passage by the voters. The district’s current ‘positive’ budget certification is based upon the official board-approved district budget that includes $6.5 million in reductions pending the election results.

“In order to maintain the ‘positive’ budget certification and maintain fiscal solvency, the district must develop a reduction plan” by Dec. 15. “This process needs to run parallel to the parcel tax renewal process.”

* Transitional kindergarten. Under a new state law, it is mandatory for school districts to offer a transitional kindergarten program, in addition to existing kindergarten programs. The new law also shifts kindergarten eligibility to children who will be 5 years old by Sept. 2, phasing in over the next three years.

Staff will present a summary of work to date on this new program, which is expected to begin locally next fall.

* Presentation of the collective bargaining “sunshine proposal” from the Davis Teachers Association for the 2011-12 school year. The Davis Teachers Association has identified peer assistance review, reassignment/transfer, contract language relating to the Davis Children’s Center, catastrophic leave bank and public charges as items to discuss in negotiations.

* Consideration of a new board policy regarding transcript notation for non-school district courses that are completed by high school students.

* Modification to existing board policies related to nondiscrimination in district programs and activities.

* Completion of the Community Facilities District No. 2 annexation, which was approved in a very small recent election affecting a limited number of local properties by a vote of 162-0.

Thursday’s meeting will be carried live on Davis cable Channel 17, and as streaming video on www.djusd.tv.

— Reach Jeff Hudson at [email protected] or (530) 747-8055. 

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