The FJUHSD Trustees celebrated Career Technical Education (CTE) Month at the February 6 board meeting, honoring La Habra High School’s Emergency Response Pathway Instructor, Jeff Breier, and three La Habra High School Emergency Response CTE students for their achievements in Fire Technology: Noah Valdez, Lucas Trevino, and Cruz Castillo.

Buena Park High School (BPHS) celebrated Mechatronics Instructor Maroun Nehme, who leads the Advanced Robotics and Mechatronics (ARM) pathway at BPHS. BPHS ARM students Michael Barba, Erin Gaerlan, and Edwin Rodriguez shared how the CTE pathway and their Skills USA Club, mentored by Mr. Nehme, support their efforts to successfully follow manufacturing and modern robotics career pathways.

Administration honored District Technical Director Weston Baughn and the video production team that films board meetings and district communications. The student team: Melusine Tenkoff, Isabella Loarca, Owen Villagracia, Nathan Na, Elena Vidaurri, and Mason Barney are assisted by Sunny Hills High School instructor Danny Flores, and his brother, La Vista/La Sierra High School Film Production instructor, Joey Flores.

New Fullerton Secondary Teachers’ Organization (FSTO) Programs

Fullerton Secondary Teachers’ Organization President Angie Cencak reported on 2 FSTO programs. First, the New Educator Mentoring Program matches up new educators with experienced FJUHSD instructors at their school sites to provide a more productive probation period.

Program Coordinator Christy Kenny Kitchen, a Buena Park High School (BPHS) English Language Arts teacher, has partnered with coaches and new teachers at BPHS, Troy High School (TRHS), Sonora High School (SOHS), and Sunny Hills High School (SHHS). New educators receive mentoring and four completed and reviewed practice observations before the formal administrative observation to align new instructors with campus culture and FJUHSD expectations.

FSTO teachers created the program to foster greater teacher retention throughout FJUHSD. FSTO Instructional Leadership Core is also focused on creating a collaborative teaching model. It pairs special education instructors with general education teachers to facilitate expanded mainstream accessibility for students with special needs. Planning and training are currently financed by National Education Association grants, allowing FJUHSD teachers to explore this education option, which is considered by the California Teachers Association to provide students with special needs with another beneficial “least restrictive” educational environment.

Master Facilities Plan Update

Assistant Superintendent of Business Services Rubin Hernandez and DLR Architect Kevin Fleming started their update by showing samples of the interactive website-based Master Facilities Plan. They reviewed stakeholder input, which mainly consisted of administration and staff constituting 560 itemized but possibly duplicated contributions. The over $200,000 plan allows the public to access a current assessment of the age, condition, and needs of all district facility sites. It provides FJUHSD’s educational conceptual goals and technical specifications coupled with a list of projects, including conjectured maintenance and building future costs.

Each site’s projects echoed popular safety themes, additional athletic synthetic tracks and fields, and updated infrastructure. The Trustees asked no questions, not even about the proposed FUHS multistoried parking structure on the old Gymnasium site, including 6 CIF-sized tennis courts on the roof. (How high would the netting need to be?) Every school site listed infrastructure as a priority, but no trustee asked what type of infrastructure needed to be updated. Every school site’s administrative office is planned to be rebuilt, redesigned, or relocated. BPHS plans to absorb the front covered walkways to create a new administrative office and lobby. Lighting is a big topic now that school starts at 8:30 am and practice fields are being used later in the evening.

The next steps are to solicit community input on prioritizing the projects and call a school site principal to get a link to participate. (http://www.fjuhsd.org under Our Schools tab)

Arts and Instructional Materials Block Grant

FJUHSD receives over $8 million from the California-authorized $3.6 billion Arts and Instructional Materials Block Grant. The grant allows individual educational agencies (like FJUHSD) to utilize the one-time funds in numerous ways if accompanied by a plan presented at a regularly scheduled public meeting and used by the 2025/26 school year. FJUHSD Board President Dr. Chester Jeng requested that Mr. Hernandez explain the plan posted in the consent calendar. Mr. Hernandez said the plan allocates $155,000 to each comprehensive school site this year for itemized visual and performing arts equipment.

In the following 3 years, the remaining $7 million dollars will go to offset state-mandated classified (CPRS) and certificated (CSTRS) staff pension increases. Trustee Lauren Klatzker commented that the Governor approved using the grant money in this way, which Mr. Hernandez confirmed.

The next regular scheduled board meeting is March 12