On April 28, the PRJUSD Board of Trustees held a regularly scheduled meeting that went over topics like special education impact awards, teacher salary increases, bond survey results, and many other things.
The meeting opened with a presentation by Virginia Peterson Elementary School that was a general report about the happenings at the school. Notable highlights include the numerous events for encouraging reading and student elections as well as a canned food drive that garnered almost one thousand non-perishable items that were donated and a field trip to Hearst Castle to learn history and architecture. Next was public comment for items within closed session in which Susan Delgado and Julie Scheiffele both expressed concern with a previous third-grade recess being taken away this year, citing the need for 8-year-olds to let out their energy and have a break. Closed session, in which the Board of Trustees discussed with labor negotiators and about employee disciplinary action, had no reportable action.
San Luis Obispo County recently nominated many employees across the county for the 2026 Special Education Impact Award. A total of 20 PRJUSD employees were nominated across different categories, with a special honor going to Megan Wortman at Virginia Peterson that won the award for Special Education Elementary Teacher. Next followed a report for Paso Robles High School (PRHS) that covered many things such as the new Hula Hut, recent pep rally, spirit week, and current spring sports, among others.
Afterward, public comment on issues not on the agenda, starting with Sharon Fredricks who is a volunteer for the Assistance League of San Luis Obispo County and simply wanted to show gratitude for the district’s aid in helping them provide for their students. Operation School Bell which was made in order to help students get the clothes they need, having helped a total of 492 Paso Robles students. Another comment was from the California School Educators Association who expressed worry about their members job security and teacher’s salaries, asking to approve a resolution later on that would address those issues. Paso Robles Public Educators after them discussing the same issues resolution.
Moving onto the only resolution of this meeting that is about observing April to be Autism Acceptance and Inclusion Month, which was passed unanimously. As did the consent items that were regular items such as payments as updating board policy. Following was a presentation about the new administrators that the district was receiving with Stormy Capalare as the Student Engagement Specialist for Glen Speck, Anna Williams for the same role at Kermit King, Paul Otto as the new Athletic Director at PRHS, Amie Macbeth as Deputy Principal at PRHS, and Jennifer Thomas as the Special Education Coordinator.
Next was a presentation about a survey conducted about a possible bond issue from the district. A bond issue is “when a state government, or a local unit of government (city, county, school district), places a question before the voters as a ballot measure, asking them to approve or deny additional proposed spending” (ballotpedia.org). The survey was conducted on 407 people with a somewhat even split on if they would vote yes or no, however it’s important to point out that the main takeaway from the survey is that people’s votes changed when they were thoroughly educated about the proposal, in which the board should seek to educate the public as much as possible about the potential bond issue.
Following were the actions items that were all passed. Notable action items include a total 4 percent salary increase for employees by next school year, approval of Diani Building Corp building both the new cosmetology room for PRHS and new buildings and playground at both Kermit King and Pat Butler, and an update in cost for the renovation of Georgia Brown Dual Immersion due to a change of scope with the project.
Afterward was the information items that each gave a future action item a brief presentation introducing the topic, which talked about Liberty High School and Independence High School’s possible new CTE pathway about public safety, options for PRHS’s new science curriculum, and upgrades for PRHS’s audio and video due to the disproportionate amount of issues compared to other school with 107 out of 163 district tickets about projectors since June 5 were from PRHS. This article was an overall review of the Board of Trustee’s meeting on April 28, for more info you can watch the recording of this board meeting as well as look at the meeting’s minutes.
