At its Nov. 13 meeting, the Los Banos Unified School District Board of Education had its first look at renderings for the Los Banos High School modernization project. They also heard the community schools report, awarded a bid to construct restrooms at an elementary school, received CAASPP results, heard a report on Prop 28 progress and bought a bus for disabled students.
At the meeting, Board President Anthony Parreira led a quorum of Board Members Dayna Valadao, Lori Gattuso, Luis Castr, and Gene Lieb. Jessica Moran and Marlene Smith were absent. Parriera, when asked by The Express, did not know why they were absent.
During Facilities and Special Projects Manager Sherry Munday’s report, she presented the first architectural renderings of the Los Banos High School Modernization project. Her renderings show the new admin building at the front entrance of the school, with new back windows along the classroom wings.
A senior courtyard will be put in the place of the current portable administration buildings. Paths across the quad will be paved, with seating and new trees. A new outdoor stage will be made at the south of the quad, flanked by large metal shades for more seating.
A major goal is to create “lots of places to sit,” Munday said. “Right now the kids constantly just try to hide under the eaves on whatever pieces of shade they can find.”
Board members were pleased with the renderings. “It looks really good,” Parreira said. As part of action items, the board approved the purchase of the metal shade structures from Park Planet for $575,979.35. Parreira joked that it was a high cost, “It’s a roof, with no sides.”
After the facilities report, Community Schools Director Heather Wheeler reported that the Community Schools program had begun to give away food to families in need, reporting that 300 families were fed the week before. “Unfortunately we had to turn away about the same number, so the need is great,” Wheeler said. Another food giveaway will be hosted the week of Nov. 17, as well as one on the night of the board meeting, when 200 meals were distribute
The board awarded TBS Contractors Inc. with a $314,726.50 bid to construct the Miano Elementary School restrooms. Parreira lamented, “It’s just scary though, that restrooms cost $300,000.” Munday corrected him and reported the total cost of the project is near $700,000 with the cost of the building, and this bid is just, “the site work.”
Interim Superintendent Sean Richey gave the report on this year’s California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress (CAASPP) report. “Overall as a district we did pretty well,” Richey said. He cited a two percent raise in English Language Arts and a one percent increase in math. Richey said that raises by such small percentages are significant.
Valadao responded, “To me what’s important is that if you have a subgroup that it’s always going up. So it’s not that they’re going to get to be proficient because if they’re at a very low end, all I want to see is for kids to grow. That’s what you want to look at for your own child and know the child did grow from last year.”
Director of Elementary Education Eric Sowersby gave a report on Prop 28. Prop 28 was adopted by California voters in 2022 to provide more arts and music funding. Sowersby reported that with that funding, LBUSD has created 16 new jobs — nine new visual art assistants, four band or drama assistants, one art teacher, one elementary band teacher and one piano accompanist.
Also, using the funds, they updated stages throughout the district, upgraded and bought new kilns, and other art equipment. One set of kilns being replaced were installed “incorrectly” and “should have lasted a lot longer,” according to Sowersby. These were the Creekside Junior High kilns. They were installed outside without legs and water pooled around them, rusting them out.
Gattuso was very concerned with Los Banos Junior High not currently having a marching band teacher. Sowersby and Assistant Superintendent of Human Resources Tammie Calzadillas explained that they are looking for any qualified band teacher willing to do the job. They asked that anyone willing to do the job with the right qualifications apply.
Near the end of the meeting, the board bought a seventh bus for disabled students on the request by Transportation Supervisor David Taylor. The cost is $198,601 to A to Z Bus Sales. “Our special needs transportation [need] is growing. I have one spare right now. And we almost had a situation last year where we were out without a bus to transport our students,” Taylor said.
He says the bus can handle 36 passengers and two wheelchairs. With this new bus, a new route will be opened as with the current five routes “We have one student who almost reaches the two-hour mark of ride time,” Taylor said. “That’s a long time for any students, but when you’re talking special needs, that is an extremely long time”.
