Baseball, Earthquakes and Taxes on the Moraga School District Agenda

At Tuesday night’s meeting at Joaquin Moraga Intermediate School, the Moraga School District board will take action to address continuing deficit potential, honor retiring staff, get updates on and support California’s Week of Action.

The board will formally honor Gayle Lombardi, Carol Scott and Kim Gelman, all of whom are retiring from the Moraga School District this year. Carol Scott was recently named Teacher of the Year in Moraga after 37 years of teaching in the district. Gayle Lombardi is retiring as school psychologist after 11 years in the district and Kim Gelman is retiring as after-school club director after 19 years.

The board will attend to less celebratory business by officially terminating 1.63 full-time equivalent physical education positions and a one-third time behavioral specialist position.

In other business, May 9 through 13 is California’s Week of Action, and the  board's early position is that “the education coalition (join) forces with labor and community groups to declare a Public School State of Emergency to bring attention to the need for lawmakers to pass the revenue extensions proposed by Governor Jerry Brown.”

The Week of Action is meant to include a broad range of organizations, including ACSA and CTA, the State Superintendent of Public Instruction, parents, labor organizations, faith-based organizations and community groups.

The board’s resolution states that “the Moraga School District fully supports the May 9-13 Week of Action, so long as not to interrupt school operations or classroom activities, by educators, administrators, education support professionals, parents, students and other labor groups to protect California’s future and the future of students and working families across the state.”

Dr. Brad Senden from the Center for Community Opinion will present polling results pertaining to support for a parcel tax. The superintendent will request guidance from the board in time for a June or July board meeting, should the district pursue a parcel tax for the November ballot.

The board will hear about seismic upgrade costs to Camino Pablo’s large classroom building and Wings 1 and 2 at Rheem Elementary.

The board will also act on proposal that the Moraga Baseball Association to create two batting cages on an unused portion of the Joaquin Moraga field. This proposal, originally discussed in 2005, was not acted upon. However, the MBA has resurrected the proposal to build two batting cages on the far west portion of the field. Construction of the cages would start in June and finish in July. The batting cages would not interfere with current baseball diamonds.

The board will also restructure the childcare clubs at the elementary school sites to avoid having the clubs run at a deficit, as they did in 2007-08.