School Board Wrap-Up

The following is from the June 23 meeting of the Board of Education.

Board moves to halt pot dispensaries

The board voted unanimously to recommend that the city not approve any marijuana dispensaries. The resolution was presented at the Planning Commission meeting the next day.

Several marijuana dispensaries have been closed down in Laguna Beach over the past several years. The City Council has imposed a moratorium on issuing permits for new dispensaries while permit issues are ironed out, but school board members oppose any future permits for marijuana facilities.

Board member Betsy Jenkins said the board needed to act in order to give city officials some clout in opposing the dispensaries.

“There is a lot of pressure on the council and Planning Commission,” she said. “This is a last-ditch effort, a way for them to oppose it [marijuana] as being bad for kids.”

“This is an easy vote,” said board member Theresa O’Hare. “We know kids were getting marijuana at [Laguna Beach] dispensaries.”

Board Clerk Ketta Brown said she was very disturbed by the proposed permit for the dispensaries.

“It would allow marijuana to be consumed in baked goods or Popsicles,” she said. “That is most distressing.”

District may need to tap ‘rainy day’ fund

The district stands to lose $1.8 million in state funding for the next fiscal year under a proposed budget measure the California legislature is poised to approve, Supt. Robert Fraisse told the board.

However, the district has enough money to weather the loss.

The state is adjusting downward the amount of money given to districts that are fully supported by the state, and requiring Basic Aid districts such as Laguna Beach to bear a “fair share” of the cuts, explained Norma Shelton, assistant superintendent of business services. Laguna Beach uses local property taxes to pay for education, while most other districts obtain funds directly from the state for basic operating costs based on the number of pupils.

If the “fair share” budget measure is approved, the district will lose $2.5 million in “categorical” funds for certain programs, but the district’s reserve of $6.5 million will offset the loss, officials said.

“Years of good stewardship have allowed ample reserves,” Fraisse told the board. “We’re feeling good about this [fiscal] year, there will be no cuts at all. Next year we will need to plan.”

Fraisse added the $1.8 million that could be taken away by the state to balance its budget may be more than offset by federal “stimulus” dollars that have not yet materialized.

The board has been setting aside “rainy day” money since the early 1990s, when property taxes plummeted and the district was faced with severe financial difficulties.

Petition protests Artists name change

The board accepted petitions with 110 signatures from Laguna Beach High School students challenging the procedure by which the student mascot was changed from the Artists to the Breakers.

The name change occurred in 2002, under the tenure of a previous high school principal and school superintendent.

Board President Jan Vickers suggested the school have an assembly on the issue, and Fraisse said the issue could be placed on the agenda for a future board meeting, but because it was not on the current agenda, the board could not comment on it.

During public comment, Howard Hills, president of the school’s alumni association, said that the name change has been a festering issue for the alumni group, but the association board has decided not to pursue it in favor of seeking “to reach closure and reconciliation.”

“We have Artists and we have Breakers in the alumni association,” Hills said.

“We want to move forward. We can’t fix what was done and any solution would be worse than the problem. We should work toward forgiveness.”