The Paso Robles Joint Unified School District (PRJUSD) Board of Trustees held a regularly scheduled meeting on Feb. 24. The meeting primarily covered the proposed budget cuts as well as discussion about Title IX and how it applies to transgender students.
First, the board held their closed session that talked about the labor negotiating and employee actions, where there were no reportable actions.
Next followed the presentations and reports, starting with a presentation about Marie Bauer Early Education (MBEE) by Heather Wahlberg. Wahlberg talks about how MBEE received a CalECSE Spotlight on Excellence Award, an award that is handed out to people or organizations that go above and beyond for youth with disabilities. She also mentions their expansion of the Raising a Reader program which is made to get children interested in reading. To finish it off, she thanked the district for their support that let them accomplish said achievements.

The other presentation was a report on the happenings going on at Paso Robles High School (PRHS),presented by junior Yahaira Vilchis Gonzalez. She gave shoutouts to various members of the band, jazz band, and choir for their representation in the county. Vilchis also talked about Seussical Kids and upcoming High School Musical performances performed by the Paso High Theater Company. She ends it off with highlights with the Winter sports and congratulating SkillsUSA contestants that made it to state.
Public Comment on items not on the agenda followed, starting with Tom McKay. McKay presented comments made by the board about the student-led walkout at the Feb. 10 board meeting. He mentions how the walkout did in fact follow the rules and demonstrated student’s understanding of their rights. Next was Trevor Horncross who criticized board member Kenny Enney for his stance on transgender students and mentions Enney’s posts online being filled with anti-trans posts. He says that while Enney says he wants to protect the children of the district, Horncross points out that this should reflect in Enney’s actions. Next Berk Baker who talks about how affordability has drastically decreased and puts the blame on government and public policy.

Next, is a comment from the Paso Robles Public Educators represented by Diane Harris. She talks about the concern for the overall decline in morale in the district as well as how financial decisions about teachers aren’t made with the input of teachers. She questions the board for expanding the programs the district offers while also restricting staff.
Next are the consent items that all pass with unanimous vote of six from the board: items consisting of purchasing orders and listings, field trips, and the official appointment of Michael Susank as the principal of PRHS.

Normally action items are what follows but the presentation about the budget cuts was moved to before the action items, due to its importance. This presentation was given by both Brad Pawlowski and Shauna Ames. Pawlowski introduces how the district is currently working under a 11.8 million dollar deficit with 3.9 million of that being structural deficit, meaning they are spending what’s out of their control. Ames talks about the current proposals to fix the deficit such as an overall reduction of staff across the district, which includes removing dedicated counselors for the elementary schools and one less counselor for the high school. For public comment on the budget many expressed concern for the removal of counselors, citing them as vital to the school’s ability to help its students. However it is important to note that these suggestions are only in the early stages and will go through a several month process and will only be voted on later.

Now for the action items, passed by a unanimous vote with the only items being accepting donations and an update on the Early College Program Design for PRHS and Independence High School that talks about student dual enrollment through Cuesta College.

The discussion for Title IX followed which was started with a presentation by Superintendent Jennifer Loftus that covered the issue before discussion. In her presentation, she lays out that by California law, schools must allow students to play sports, use locker rooms, and bathrooms associated with their gender identity. However this is currently being contested by the federal government, and this issue is being debated in a Supreme Court case currently. The public comment consisted of senior Dyzek Wilding and Horncross that are concerned about the rights of transgender students and their possible exclusion. Becky Lewis and freshmen Chloe Breese show concern for the privacy of biological girls in the locker room.

After public comment followed a discussion from the board with the district’s legal counsel for clarification. The counsel talked about how a lot of this issue is outside the hands of the district and that they’ll just have to wait for a federal ruling. The board overall concluded that they will continue to follow the state law.
Next was the review of the LCAP report by Loftus and Ames. The report talked about how there has been an increase in students at grade level as well as the 93.6% attendance rate district wide.

The board then voted to end the meeting at 10:22 p.m. which passed unanimously.