At the Los Banos Unified School District’s school board meeting on April 10, the board awarded a roofing bid for Los Banos Junior High School, approved a new deferred maintenance plan, did the first reading of new courses, approved retention stipends and sought bids for two projects.
The board also heard numerous reports, from budgets to the influence of the Restorative Justice League.
Trustee Marlene Smith was absent, leaving Chair Anthony Parreira to lead a quorum of trustees, including Luis Castro, Lori Gattuso, Gene Lieb, Jessica Moran and Dayna Valadao.
The board awarded Advanced Roofing $614,880 to re-roof Los Banos Junior High buildings B and F.
According to Assistant Superintendent of Administrative Services Sypher Lee, the bid is the lowest of all seven bidders. The board voted unanimously to approve it.
The new deferred maintenance plan is a strategy to address “aging infrastructure, essential repairs, and facility improvements,” according to Lee’s report.
The plan is to spend $5 million yearly until 2030 working on these problems, with a five-year timeline of when each school site will receive maintenance. The board approved it unanimously.
The board also unanimously voted to seek bids for the replacement of Los Banos Junior High’s fire alarm system. They also voted to seek bids for the Los Banos High School Interim Housing Project.
According to Facilities and Special Projects Manager Sherry Munday’s report, the preliminary cost estimate of the fire alarm replacement is $1,519,764. The cost for the interim housing is expected to be $979,813.80.
A change order of $355,243.22 was made to the Early Education Center Project. According to Munday’s report, the sum will cover unforeseen conditions, missing scope of work and local requirements.
The biggest expense in the change order was $136,940.46 for the installation of shade structures. The total cost will now be $11,795,468.22. The vote was unanimous.
The new courses that had their first reading during the meeting were Beginning Band 7/8 and Virtual Enterprise.
According to Director of Secondary Education Daniel Sutton’s report, Beginning Band 7/8 will give students who didn’t have elementary band a chance to start in middle school.
Virtual Enterprise will replace Marketing 2A and help build business skills with a student-run club. The board voted unanimously to declare their intent to adopt both.
The board unanimously approved staff retention stipends of $2,500 and $5,000 for five- and eight-hour unrepresented preschool program staff. The total fund is $45,000.
During his report, Superintendent Mark Marshall pointed out the nearly $16 million the district receives in federal funding.
“The message has changed a bit. There was a concern that the money wouldn’t be assigned. Now, the latest is there are conditions we have to meet to get the money. So, this is a constantly changing situation,” Marshall said.
During the facilities report, the board provided an update on the Early Education or Transitional Kindergarten Center.
According to Munday, most utilities are complete, and all buildings should be in place by the end of the month. “We’re moving very fast at this point,” Munday said.
Additionally, the district-wide LED lighting upgrade has started, with the first site being Los Banos Junior High. Volta Modernization is starting soon, with phase one expected to be completed by Aug. 10.
The Los Banos High modernization project received the Division of the State Architect’s approval on March 26. Loftin Stadium, currently in phase three, is in the design phase.
At the start of the meeting, Grasslands Elementary School was recognized for being a California Distinguished School. According to Marshall, Grasslands Elementary was only one of two schools in Merced County to win the distinction.
Grasslands is the “second school in the district’s history to receive the distinction,” Marshall said. The last time was in 1995. The ceremony will be in Anaheim in May.
Grasslands Elementary Principal Margarita Ordunez and Assistant Principal Kevin Coleman received the award on behalf of the school. Students and parents from the school packed the meeting room, wall to wall.
Some students even sat on the floor. Ordunez said, “It’s an incredible honor.” “This recognition reflects the hard work, collaboration and unwavering commitment of our exceptional staff,” she stated.
During the Restorative Justice League report, students from Los Banos High, Los Banos Junior High, Creekside Junior High, and Pacheco High School came up to speak about their experiences.
Felipe Meras, director of student services, let Andre Griggs, CEO and founder of the Restorative Justice League, take the floor in the report.
“We are a social-emotional organization that supports students with their social-emotional connection amongst their peers and also builds equitable opportunities for those relationships to be built through community and restorative practices,” Griggs said.
Throughout the four schools, Griggs says there has been a drop in suspension rates due to the Restorative Justice League. They dropped from 16.4 percent in 2023 to 2.9 percent at Los Banos Junior High and from 19 percent in 2024 to 9.8 percent at Creekside Junior High.
At Los Banos High, the suspension rates decreased from 10.9 percent in 2023 to 4.3 percent, and they fell from 9.9 percent in 2023 to 5.3 percent at Pacheco High. “You can see the impact of just the students and the work that we’ve been doing,” Griggs said.
During the Community Schools update, Community Schools Director Heather Wheeler highlighted the newly hired liaisons. She emphasized their onboarding in her presentation and mentioned that school sites have yet to be assigned.
