board of education

Despite assurances to the school community last week by Beverly Hills Unified School District Superintendent Michael Bregy that interested parties would be kept apprised of the process to reconfigure the century-old school district to include a dedicated middle school, it appears that proposed changes are happening too quickly to adequately keep the community informed.

On Tuesday, during the very same meeting where the Beverly Hills Unified School District Board of Education discussed its 2017/18 audit report by Moss, Levy & Hartzheim LLP, which showed a general fund balance of $18.2 million at the end of the previous school year, the board unanimously voted to approve laying off 26 full time employees.

It should come as no surprise that Beverly Hills Unified School District might take extra precautions when it comes to entering into large consulting contracts – after all, just last year BHUSD was absolved from having to pay in excess of $23 million to former consultant Karen Christiansen. That former consultant was fired after she entered into a sole source contract on behalf of the district with a company she founded and yet her attorney at one point managed to convince a jury that she was the victim.

Once back from winter break, Beverly Hills’ four public K-8 schools are poised to finish out their final semesters in the traditional education model that has been a hallmark of this community for generations.

In one of its first orders of business, on Thursday evening the newly seated Board of Education unanimously approved a $250,000 consultant proposal with the Leadership Advisory Group (LAG) to provide strategic management as the district moves forward with reconfiguration.

The Board of Education unanimously voted to approve a $1 million contract with Calabasas-based Nastec International, Inc. to provide armed security at  Beverly Hills Unified schools.

The Beverly Hills community is invited to the upcoming installation of new Board of Education members Rachelle Marcus and Tristen Walker-Shuman on Tuesday, Dec. 11, at 5 p.m. at the STC/Jon Cherney Lecture Hall at Beverly Hills High School. The meeting will also serve as the annual reorganizational meeting for the rotating body of elected officials.

Beverly Hills voters overwhelming selected Rachelle Marcus to serve on the Board of Education, giving her 46.61 percent of the vote in Tuesday’s election. Tristen Walker-Shuman nabbed the second open spot with 32.69 percent of the vote.

Come fall 2019, the Beverly Hills Unified School District is set to  include a dedicated middle school following Tuesday’s 3-0 vote to move ahead with a plan to reconfigure the district’s century-old education model.

Notwithstanding the upcoming Nov. 6 election, which will yield the selection of two new members to the Board of Education, the current board could vote as early as Tuesday about reconfiguring the Beverly Hills Unified School District to include a dedicated middle school.