Cash for Major Study, Including School Boundaries, Approved by Trustees

The is going to get the full assessment that it has wanted for so long. The board of trustees voted unanimously Tuesday — with one trustee missing — to hire a consulting firm to produce a study on everything from enrollments, school boundaries, demographics, land use agreements, facility analysis and residential projections.

“I think it’s going to serve the district well,” said Tom Cooper, board president.

The board voted 6-0, with Maria Aguila absent, to spend no more than $88,450 on a deal with Sacramento-based Jack Schreder & Associates for the job. The study, expected to take up to six months to complete, would provide information and recommendations for the 2012-13 school year.

 “This will tie it all together,” trustee Derek Knell said. “ … I think we will benefit immensely knowing what the left hand and right hand are doing.”

Knell added that he wanted to make sure the Schreder group made sure the computer analysis will work in tandem with the Aeries system used by the school district. In its proposal, the company vowed to use the latest information systems to analyze data and draw up reports and maps about student population by grade level, ethnicity, socioeconomics and enrollment in special programs for school. The studies also would address the practices of inter-district and intra-district transfers.

The study is expected to address potential uses for property in Hamilton known as Parcel 1A, near the . The district is applying to take ownership of the land from the U.S. Department of Education, which obtained the land from the U.S. Navy in 2008 as part of the dismantling of the operational military base there from 1935 to 1974.

Trustee Cindi Clinton called the land acquistion a "moving target" and was pleased with progress reported later in Tuesday's meeting.

"This has been 15-16 years in making," she said. "This is closer than we’ve ever had been before."

Also at Tuesday’s meeting, facilities coordinator Judge Taylor discussed upgrades to sound systems at and football fields. The trustees, who didn’t need to vote on the item, said the upgrades were a long time coming and were pleased that the sound would be directed more toward the field and less into surrounding neighborhoods.