The Point Arena Schools’ Board
of Trustees has responded to a recent grand jury report which alleged the
district’s mishandling of a high school drug testing policy, inappropriate
Board behavior, Brown Act meeting violations and an ‘exorbitant’ salary paid to
the district superintendent, among other topics.
Out of the 11 ‘findings’ by the
grand jury, the trustees only agreed with two. The first being that the
District Superintendent, Dr. Colleen Cross, failed to follow the established
drug testing policy in taking reasonable steps to assure the confidentially of
student drug testing results involving the girls’ volleyball team, which the
grand jury alleged caused embarrassment to an involved student, and exposed the
district to possible legal action.
In its response, the Board of
Trustees acknowledged mistakes were made during the implementation of the drug
testing policy in August 2014, which have since been further corrected as
acknowledged in the grand jury’s initial report.
In the second agreement of the
findings by the Board, the trustees acknowledged profanity that was allegedly
used by a board member at a past meeting was unacceptable.
The Board of Trustees disagreed
with the other nine findings, however, implemented all 12 of the grand jury’s
recommendations.
It disagreed with the suspected
Brown Act violations, which the grand jury said meeting minutes weren’t
properly documented and the board consistently didn’t report out of closed
session. The trustees disagreed stating the finding was vague and that the Board
in fact consistently reports out of closed session during meetings. Despite the
finding, the trustees agreed to the recommendation that all Board members and
district administrators should receive annual Brown Act training.
An additional finding by the grand
jury stated that Cross demanded a salary of $145,000 during a previous Board
meeting, and if she didn’t receive it, she would leave. The Point Arena Board
of Trustees disputed that request never took place.
The Board stated in its
response that “the district has never paid the superintendent a salary of
$145,000.” Also, based on a three-step salary pay grade, the Board stated that
Cross is scheduled to make $139,996 for the upcoming 2015-16 school year.
Requested responses to the
report from the Point Arena School District Superintendent, and the Mendocino
County Office of Education Superintendent are still pending.
June 6, 2015
Ukiah
Daily Journal
By
Adam Randall
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