School board to send response back to grand jury today
At the beginning of the meeting, the board received a live virtual report from Principal Kelly Ward of Kermit King Elementary School with recorded presentations by staff, students and parents.
–The Paso Robles Joint Unified School District (PRJUSD) Board of Trustees met for over five hours Tuesday evening after an hour-long meeting in closed session. At the beginning of the meeting, the board received a live virtual report from Principal Kelly Ward of Kermit King Elementary School with recorded presentations by staff, students and parents.
The board heard several public comments phoned into the board and written letters which were read aloud by district staff. Several addressed the reopening of the school classrooms, saying they hoped it should occur as soon as possible. Resident Peter Byrne said the damage done to students by the shutdown is disturbing.
The board spent the bulk of the meeting discussing its response to the San Luis Obispo County Grand Jury Report criticizing the previous school board during the administration of Superintendent Chris Williams in the years 2014-2018.
The board discussed elements of a draft report written by PRJUSD Board President Chris Arend. Several board members cited errors in the draft. They corrected some, but heated discussions arose over other elements. During a discussion of the $250,000 settlement paid to Williams when he resigned, trustees began discussing the approval of the settlement by County Schools Superintendent James Brescia and his office. Some blamed the SLOCE for approving the settlement. Then Brescia walked into the board room and addressed the trustees. He said he did not want to give Williams a dime, but wanted to remove him from office. Brescia left before the board finished their discussion of the settlement. In their report, the grand jury said there was nothing in Williams’ employment contract that justified his receiving $250,000 when he resigned as superintendent. The grand jury criticized the board and the county office of education for awarding Williams the $250,000 payout when he resigned. Later, the board “clawed back” about half of the settlement.
That issue and others sparked questions about the accuracy of the draft. Trustee Tim Gearhart said he was not on the board at the time the report listed him as a board member.
The draft, originally written by Board President Chris Arend was discussed at length and edited by the full board over several hours of special meetings. A close-to-final draft was approved by the board at a special meeting last Tuesday. An editing committee consisting of Arend, Trustee Dorian Baker, and Trustee Nathan Williams prepared the final draft for approval.
Arend wanted to hand-deliver the response to the grand jury report on Wed., Feb. 10 to the judge who is overseeing the investigation into the school district. Some trustees argued that it was not due until Feb. 17, and the board should correct typos and errors in their response before it was mailed, as the grand jury requested. Ultimately, the board voted 5-2 to allow Arend to hand-deliver the response on Wednesday. Chris Bausch and Dorian Baker voted against the early hand delivery.
Chris Bausch said he felt “the rest of the board had been pressured to sweep the grand jury report under the rug. The grand jury’s cautionary tale seems to have fallen once again on deaf ears.”
The trustees previously voted to also send the report to the San Luis Obispo County District Attorney’s Office for review.
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