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North Valley Military Institute–Board of TrusteesSPECIAL Meeting

Monday, February 26, 20181:00 p.m. in room 68

12105 Allegheny Street, Sun Valley, California 91352

MINUTES - SPECIAL BOARD MEETING

  1. Call to Orderat 1:04 p.m. by Chair Lanny West. Members present Kay Deitch, John Martinez, John Pruitt, Steven Escobar, Lanny West, Emory Josephs, and Leslie Beavers. Absent members: Regina Nordahl and Jim Tolle. Also present various staff and parents.
  2. Adoption of the Agenda- unanimous
  3. Public Comment – Various members of the public spoke in opposition to the original proposal y the Superintendent to cut positions entirely. The general sentiment was that the 8.3% annual pay cuts to 12-month employee salaries was better than eliminating positions entirely.
  4. INFORMATION, DISCUSSION, AND ACTION – The board had an extensive discussion about the Superintendent’s recommendation to adopt the following motion relative to budget cuts to ensure we end June 30, 2018 in a positive ending fund balance:

BE IT RESOLVED THAT…

1) NVMI would do everything possible to NOT have any significant personnel layoffs between now and the end of the school year.

2) Almost all 12-month employees (with the exception of our admissions officer and main office manager) would be given the month of June off from work with no expectation they are here during that month. They would still get paychecks and full benefits from now through June 30, but the school would save slightly more than $135,000 in salaries by "amortizing" the month off into lower paychecks (25%) between the March 16 check and the July 1 check. This amounts to an 8.3% annual pay cut for almost all 12-month employees but allows us to not make any position cuts of academic teachers, military staff, secretarial staff, or campus safety team staff.

3) We will accept a generous "matching grant" from a donor in the amount of $125,000 which will be matched by parent donations, Parent Advisory Council activities, a $50,000 grant from the City of Los Angeles, and our annual campaign.

4) We will save some money (over $25,000) by deferring consultant work and billing and by eliminating one full-time classified SPED position and one part-time position.

5) The above will get us to about $350,000 of the $400,000 goal. PAC fundraising like the Family Game Night and the annual campaign will hopefully get us the remainder of the way. If by the March 22 board meeting we do not have evidence we can fill the remaining gap with PAC fundraising, the annual campaign, and other donations, we will enact an additional round of cuts at that time.

6) No other programmatic cuts would be enacted. The athletic program, school buses, student meals, etc would all be retained intact. A separate discussion will occur regarding Summer Camp at Camp Pendleton.

Members of the public spoke about the desire for the board to take more leadership in fund raising. Some members of the board spoke about the need to take more responsibility for fund raising. There was much discussion about possible amendments to the motion, including cuts to 10 month employees, cuts to the number of days in the school year, and other programmatic cuts. Eventually, the board moved the original motion. AYES: West, Josephs, Pruitt, Escobar, and Beavers. Member Martinez had to leave the meeting early and did not vote. Member Deitch abstained. Motion passed.

  1. ADJOURNMENT at 3:23 p.m.