School Board to Consider Laying Off Teachers, Parcel Tax

The San Bruno Park School Board will  today at for its monthly board meeting. Here's what is on the agenda.

Highlights include:

• several votes to lay off 13 teachers and four pre-school positions at Belle Air Elementary next year. In March, the the equivalent of 17 positions next year—13 elementary school teachers, two Parkside Intermediate English teachers and one elementary school principal. According to the staff report for today's meeting, no elementary school principals will lose their jobs. But it is unclear which schools will lose teachers.
• a discussion about placing a parcel tax on the November ballot. At the last school board meeting in which the board voted against closing any schools, board members also agreed that the district should move forward with pursuing a tax measure. According to , a parcel tax could generate $1.2 million a year for the district.
• a discussion about forming an advisory committee to figure out how to prevent future school closures. After the last meeting, school board members also agreed to consider forming a committee whose task would be to figure out alternative solutions to shutting down schools. The committee would be aptly called the "Save Our Schools" committee. Trustee Jennifer Blanco proposed that the committee be comprised of officials, teachers and residents. But many residents have said they don't think any board members should be on the committee.
• a public hearing on how the district could use special state funds available for next year to help subsidize the cost of art, music, GATE and libraries.

Check back on the site later. We are going to attempt to live-stream the meeting on San Bruno Patch since the meeting won't be broadcast on San Bruno Cable.