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VOLUME 27 NUMBER 51
DMUSD board assigns new roles
Dec. 22, 2011
High spirits at Del Mar Highlands
New president, committee representatives appointed BY MATT LIEBOWITZ The Del Mar Union School District began its Dec. 14 meeting, the final one before winter break, by appointing new roles to current board members for the 2012 calendar year. Board member Scott Wooden was elected board president, and Comischell Rodriguez will serve as clerk. The board also appointed members to serve as committee representatives for 2012: Doug Rafner will serve as the voting member representative to the North Coastal Consortium for Special Education (NCCSE); his board colleague, Comischell Rodriguez, will serve as an alternate. Rafner will also be the acting representative to the North City West School Facilities Finance Authority (CFD No.1); Doug Perkins will serve as an alternate. Board member Kristin Gibson was named the ex-officio representative to the Del Mar Schools Education Foundation (DMSEF), and Perkins and Wooden will represent the DMUSD to the Legislative Action Network (LAN).
(Above) Sally Gervasini, Matthew Chess and Thomas Martin, and (left) Sienna Riggio, Jessica Milligan and AJ Riggio timed their Dec. 14 visit to Del Mar Highlands Town Center to coincide with Santa’s. See page B13. PHOTO: JON CLARK
More classrooms coming to Ocean Air BY MATT LIEBOWITZ At its Dec. 14 meeting, the Del Mar Union School District heard, and unanimously approved, preliminary plans for two additional modular classrooms on the campus of Ocean Air. Following an explanation from district superintendent James Peabody about the need for Ocean Air’s expansion, Chuck Forte, of San Diego-based Forte Architect, took the board through his presentation, which proposed two portable classroom buildings. The two buildings, he said, would be placed on the blacktop at the north end of the campus. Each self-contained modular classroom is 960 square feet, with room for 29 desks. The color of the classrooms, Forte said, would match the look of the existing campus buildings. Forte estimated the costs for the two modular
classrooms at $343,000, with an additional $34,460 in architect, inspection, electrical engineering design and Division of the State Architect (DSA) fees. The project schedule would mandate that the district start construction on the portable classrooms in early June, with two months — “probably more than enough time,” Forte said — to finish building. The DMUSD would need to purchase the classrooms, which come with DSA preapproval, in the beginning of March, Forte said. Ocean Air Principal Ryan Stanley was on hand to weigh in on the project. He said the location of the two new classrooms was “not ideal,” and suggested they be moved to the western-most corner of the campus near the basketball courts. Forte is scheduled to bring the final project report before the district again next month.
School district discusses emergency preparedness plan BY MATT LIEBOWITZ Del Mar Union School District Superintendent James Peabody took the school board and audience through the district’s emergency preparedness plan at its Dec. 14 meeting. As it currently stands, the plan centers on storage sheds;
each school in the district has one on campus, and inside each shed, Peabody explained, schools “put items that would be useful during a disaster.” The problem, Peabody contended, is that some schools’ emergency sheds were built when that school served a significantly smaller student
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population than it does now. Increased enrollment numbers mean schools need to take another look at what’s in each shed and make sure everything is useful, and, in the case of food items, haven’t passed their expiration dates. “We have the infrastructure in place, we just
need to make sure we keep [the contents of each shed] updated,” Peabody said. “We need to pay attention to this — the last time I checked we don’t get a second chance in an emergency.” Board member Scott Wooden suggested the DMUSD enact a real-time communication system in
the event of an emergency, such as a blackout or lockdown. Director of Technology, Mike Casey, said the district was planning to set up a Twitter feed to spread information in an emergency situation, but was unsure of who would administer the account.
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