The San Bruno Park School District board meeting was held on December 9, 2009 at 7:00pm at Crestmoor School in San Bruno. This meeting was well attended and televised though the city’s independent cable service, San Bruno Cable. There was a lot this meeting had to offer, but the most talked about agenda item being the go/no go decision on the Parkside renovation as part of the district reconfiguration. This meeting also featured a three inch thick packet of information made available to all attendees (that is not a typo). While the district is applauded for attempting to provide the necessary information for the public, it was next to impossible to follow along through the financial presentation and the calendar items with the packet that was provided. Without a warm body present to guide the audience to page 1200 of the packet for the district financial report, following along was just about as one would expect working with a packet of paperwork the size of a newborn baby.
The meeting started with a tribute to former board member Charles “Russ” Hanley for his sixteen years of service on the board. He was honored by the board and attendees, and presented a plaque of recognition by Senator Leland Yee. He was also presented a fine mosaic featuring over 900 pictures of former students. After the presentation, and warm addresses by the current board members, the former board member took the podium and delivered his words of thanks. It was a heartfelt and emotional speech including his final farewell. Thank you for your service to the city and schools of San Bruno, Mr. Hanley.
Parkside principal Addiego then took the podium and delivered the recognition of the Parkside student body council. These students have been working hard in their new roles since September and aside from being excellent young leaders manage to maintain a consistent 3.75 minimum GPA as well. Congratulations to these student leaders of the future for a job well done. They were all presented with badges and plaques signifying their achievements.
The Chief Business Officer presented the First Interim Report of the District’s financial solvency. This report required additional handouts to go along with the associated information provided in the packet. It appears the district has a deficit that needs to be covered with Fund 17 reserves.
Next up was the hot topic on the agenda, the go/no go decision for the reconfiguration of the SBPSD and the Parkside upgrades. As expected, Superintendent Dr. Hutt recommended that the board commit 20 million dollars of the fund 40 reserves to go to the upgrade and renovation of the Parkside elementary school.
The active participants of the audience came forward and presented aggressive questioning to the board. One attendee submitted that the written answers to the questions posed from the November 17th hearing were described as pesky and troublesome. There were accusations from another that the questions could have been answered at the hearing itself, and that this was just another example of the board throwing up a smokescreen and avoiding any real interaction with the public. There were discrepancies found in the documented conversations between stakeholders and architects during the process and the answers that the board provided in written form. Joan Skinner of the San Bruno Education Foundation, who took the opportunity to turn giant head sized packet of information a full day’s time previous to the meeting, had done the obviously meticulous job of putting the information in a binder, adding dividers with color coded tabs to organize the information and used a bevy of brightly colored post-it notes to organize the questions and thoughts needed to be presented to the board. There was questioning regarding of the determination of the twenty million dollar recommendation and a request for clarification as to how the number for the allotment was ascertained.
In rebuttal, board member Henderson delivered a long and somewhat angry speech, stepping forward to unleash his leather tongued answers to the issues brought forth by the attendees .The message was direct and to the point, a this-is-how-it-is type speech depicting the overall timeline of the board and it’s efforts, and highlighted the lack of understanding and misperceptions of both parties surrounding the entire project. He spoke in frustrated tone about the project plans not being definite, that other bids will be made, that the architect was already engaged and was set forth by the board in good faith. He also highlighted the need to understand that it wasn’t just about financing the Parkside rebuild, it was also about the reconfiguration of the district – an effort in which he has been lobbying for and working at since he took his seat back in 1981. He was angry, and laid down the law in a heavy handed way, letting the world know that it was not the group’s mandate to close schools (more specifically, he pointed out that he would not be closing any schools). He called out the work of the reconfiguration committee and described the blindsiding of the board with the requirement to address the Parkside issues as a part of the overall reconfiguration.
Then came the first speech from newcomer Dr. Henry C. Sanchez, pathologist. He highlighted the need to put the educators of the school as the most important asset, and not the halls, walls and classrooms. Though known as a technology in the classroom advocate, Dr. Sanchez made the distinction that technology is a tool, not a foundational cornerstone of the education process.
There were impassioned pleas from the Parkside staff to go forward with the rebuild, make the right choice for the kids, or to go with Parkside principal Addiego’s suggestion for a plan C to bring the technology curriculum in line with today and provide more individualized instruction to each student. There was head shaking and open mouthed gasping from the audience, most of whom seemed to not believe what was being said or transpiring right before there very eyes.
There was a somewhat confused board, stepping over each other to make and clarify sets of motions that included some really zany back and forth between board members. This interaction at the head table did nothing to stop the quizzical looks, head shaking and out loud wonderment from the audience.
There was a vilified architect, who in all likelihood does not deserve the amount of hissing and pitchfork type rhetoric being thrown his way.
There was an expression of remorse from board member Prescott, who wondered aloud about how the situation escalated to this level.
And there was more. Much, much more. By the end of the meeting, most attendees had begun sidebar discussions amongst themselves or just flat out left. In the end, there were motions approved to committ the money, then a modification to committ up to twenty million, then a modification to commit the money but only if the project could be done within the confines of the cash. And perhaps more, as it became difficult to follow after some time.
In the end, twenty million dollars were committed by the SBPSD for the rennovation and upgrade of the Parkside Intermediate School. While this is a good step in the right direction, there is still a lot that has to be done. There is still agreat deal of angst and mistrust between board and public. The formal process and protocol for these types of projects should be adhered to. Moving forward, these challenges will need to be addressed by board and public alike.
