At the meeting, multiple topics were discussed including employee health insurance, reports on summer projects including the new construction site of the Terry Bradley Educational Center, as well as other elements affecting the public from other administrative standpoints.
The meeting started with a quick COVID-19 update, including mask requirements and the understanding from Cal OSHA and the California Department of Public Health.
Employees have been notified that mask choice will go into effect at midnight of March 12th and although this date does fall on a weekend, the committee maintains that this is important for weekend activities held on school grounds such as plays, sporting events and other miscellaneous happenings.
KN95 and N95 masks are still being made available to both employees and students and can be provided if “requested at school sites.” The committee recognizes that school buses too are now deemed a school site and will be treated as such. Mask choice will be allowed on school buses. At one point, there was deemed to be a federal threat against allowing mask choice on buses.
According to the committee, they will not have to update their COVID-19 plan as they believe it falls under the rules set forth by Cal OSHA and the CDPH. In the school district, the committee believes they will have a surplus of both masks and hand sanitizer and discussed the plan of handing these materials out to employees and families who may want or need them. They also believe they have a surplus of around 100,000 masks.
The subcommittee went on to display a comparison of health benefits in Clovis Unified as compared with Fresno, Central, and Sanger school districts.
On the report, it was judged that Fresno Unified employees pay about $1920 a year in premiums for health insurance. Central paid $2880 while Sanger paid $5400. This, of course, comes at the expense of Clovis Unified having its own health center. Which the committee cited as a reason their employees only pay $910 a year in premiums, including no premiums paid in the two summer months for 12-month employees.
They maintain that while they may struggle to keep up with salaries between districts, their benefits, mainly health benefits, are above other districts in the positive.
The subcommittee then went on to discuss the Terry Bradley Educational Center that is planned to be placed in between Leonard Avenue and Highland Avenue in Fresno County. The discussion was led by the obstacle of sewage, which the committee was deemed “the biggest issue.”
The road connected to the land falls under Fresno County, the city of Fresno and the city of Clovis which turns into a “triple-headed agency” that the committee has to work both with and through in order to get the planning for this center finished.
The topic was brought up to build the center’s own on-site sewage plant which would add an additional $50 million on top of their budget. There is a possibility that by building the sewage plant themselves, the district would be able to be reimbursed through grants eventually throughout a number of years.
According to the subcommittee, even at a fast pace, a project like this would be completed in about seven years, when they need it done by 2025. The time period they planned on to open the center.
The subcommittee lastly mentioned a new feature that is still in the works and will debut in the summer. According to the committee, they had finished it the same day of the meeting but was not made public on its website.
The feature will appear on the district’s online website in which construction sites at schools will be made public. Allowing Clovis residents to see future road closures, construction projects within the school districts and projected finish dates for construction.
The committee plans to present the new feature for their website at the next school board meeting taking place on March 16th.