District officials award contracts for Saugus and Castaic High projects
The William S. Hart Union High School governing board opened negotiations with the Hart District Teachers Association for the 2022-23 school year on Wednesday night and also approved contracts for projects at two of its school sites.
“We have in California approximately 5.9 million students, 82,000 teachers and 1,000 school districts. In comparison, our district is just one of those 1,000 districts with just over 1,100 teachers and more than 21,000 students,” said John Minkus, president of HDTA.
“We’ve had 60 retirements and over 150 resignations in the last three years. Attracting and retaining staff who are or become a part of this community needs to be addressed yesterday,” Minkus added. “The time is upon us. The school board must not just hear but listen… take specific affirmative actions to support continued excellence.”
Members of the governing board held a public hearing and approved the initial proposal for negotiations from HDTA. According to the proposal, teachers highlighted four different parts of their contract to change or update.
HDTA proposed modifications to the process in which teachers are evaluated, special education caseloads, updates to existing language pertaining to special education, changes to the process and formula used in site-based decision making, and adjustments to salaries.
In the district’s proposal, district staff proposed changes to teaching hours, modifying language related to the use and amount of personal necessity leave, salaries, unit member benefits and possible updates to language pertaining to long-term substitutes.
Governing board members also awarded contracts for Castaic High School and Valencia High School projects. District staff awarded the contracts to the “lowest responsive/responsible bidder.”
According to the agenda item, the district will be working on a studio build project at Castaic High School. The district awarded the contract to Viper Cabling for approximately $548,799 from a special reserve fund.
The Valencia High School project is related to replacing its scoreboard. The governing board awarded the contract to Daktronics and Sports Facilities Group. Daktronics will provide the scoreboard for approximately $27,491 and Sports Facilities Group will install the new equipment for $13,250.
