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Wednesday's Internet Edition, March 17, 2010.
Galt High School Board returns money
Technical Ed grant for auto/diesel program turned down
By Dana Edlund
Staff Writer
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At a special board meeting on Oct. 23, the Galt Joint Union High School District (GJUHSD) voted to accept only part of the 1D vocational/technical education grant they had applied for and been awarded. Superintendent Tom Gemma said the economics of the state and nation had changed in the past year, and funds from developers were drastically lower than they had been in years. He expressed concern about the high school district’s ability to repay any loans the district would have to take out to pay for their portion of the work.
The 1D grant program was a ballot proposition approved by California voters in 2006. The funds are “for the purpose of improving and expanding Career Technical Education (CTE) programs,” according to the California Department of Education Web site.
The 1D grant program awarded GJUHSD $500,000 for the pre-engineering program, but the district must match those funds. The total, $1 million, will be used to upgrade the buildings and equipment used for pre-engineering.
Teacher Debra Crane said her enrollment numbers have grown the past few years. Pre-engineering had 75 students in 2001, and 161 students are enrolled this year. She said her students would like to do even larger projects, and the 1D funds are needed to accomplish that goal.
According to Gemma, the district is planning to use a portion of $800,000 of accumulated Mello Roos, or developer fees, to supply the district’s match for the engineering grant, and thereby avoid borrowing any money to make the proposed improvements for the engineering program.
Unfortunately, the district would need more than $1 million in matching funds to realize the auto/diesel program as envisioned – a feat not possible with existing funds. In lieu of the new program, however, Gemma said the district is looking at investing a considerable sum of the Mello Roos funds into a better, more modern auto shop program at GHS.
Mr. Wegat, the automotive teacher, addressed the board regarding the auto shop program. He said, in the three years he has been at Galt High, he has been working on building the program up. He stressed he is getting the kids ready for the entry-level jobs that are available. He said he believes starting a diesel engine program, with the specialty areas that go with it – air brakes and hydraulics, for example, would be beneficial since there are three nearby shipping ports, bus, light rail and big truck industry in the region, and that those fields are hiring. Wegat said, to make a diesel program work, they would need to upgrade the shop area and buy equipment.
“It’s a step we need to take,” said Wegat. “There is no diesel program currently running at the high school level. I have talked to ROP (Regional Occupation Program) centers about possibly getting funding for a diesel program, and they said it is doable.”
Gemma reminded the board that any modernization would trigger ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) upgrades, which need to be factored into costs.
Gemma also asked the board to consider a new program, the International Baccalaureate. He said it would help balance the needs of college-bound students with the needs of vocational tech students. Both teachers and board members said they needed more information on the program before they would be able to support it.
The board discussed four options and one alternative on how to use the 1D grant.
Option 1 was the non-funding of the auto/diesel program, with the rationale that borrowing is risky. In Option 1, the pre-engineering program would receive the $1 million funds, with the district’s share coming from money borrowed, then repaid from Mello-Roos funds as they become available.
In Option 1, the Galt Warrior Stadium would begin its modernization process with $800,000 from the current Mello-Roos account.
Option 2 used the $800,000 to give auto/diesel $100,000, use $500,000 as matching funds for pre-engineering (avoiding borrowing the match), and $100,000 to fund the International Baccalaureate program.
In Option 2, Warrior Stadium would receive funding from a variety of sources, including Mello Roos, JPA shared funds, and funds from the city of Galt in a cooperative effort to restore the stadium.
Option 3 funded pre-engineering the $500,000 matching funds, auto/diesel $300,000, and borrowed money for Warrior Stadium.
Option 4 funded the stadium, but borrowed for the auto/diesel and pre-engineering programs. The alternative was to move pre-engineering to Liberty Ranch; however, they would lose the 1D grant.
A handout showed the developers’ fees for the past seven years, with projections for the next seven years. It showed a significant drop in the projected fees from 2008 to 2009 and a further drop in 2010. Based on those projections, Gemma recommended the board adopt Option 2 because it had no borrowing.
Before voting, the board asked numerous questions of Wegat, how much money he needed to begin a diesel program, could he develop a diesel program in stages, exactly what would he need to buy first, etc. It was not made clear why those answers were not already available based on the grant proposal.
The high school board then unanimously voted to fund pre-engineering, taking the district’s matching funds share from the Mello-Roos/Joint Powers Authority money they already have. That was a slight modification of Option 1.
Next, they voted to “reject 1D funding for the auto/diesel grant.” Board member Sue Roberts was the only opposing vote.
“We are turning down matching funds,” said Roberts, “for a group of students we don’t do enough for. We need more choices for kids.”
Lastly, the board voted to accept the contract for architecture services so they could move forward with the building upgrades.
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