Much as in the case of the Citizens Bond Oversight Committee fiasco, where Superintendent Dolan stalled out the process of filling this board which was a requirement of getting a bond passage rate of 55% as opposed to 2/3 and fighting the supposed “independent” oversight committee’s adoption of their own bylaws, Dolan again got his way after vehemently complaining at the last school board meeting when Board members Julian Cuevas, Regina Espinosa, and John Gabby required Dolan to go out for applications for the position instead of simply approving his appointment of Bob Bugalski who was the assistant principal at Dixon High.

Dolan’s demeanor was quite calm, cool, and collected this time as he told the Board that only one application was filed after posting the opening on a national hiring platform, Ed Join.  The applicant was Bugalski.  Dolan went on to say that he would still have a committee review Bugalski’s application and interview him for “fit”.  Again, there were only two members of the public present and one pointed out that Dolan would be appointing the committee.  There was also the suggestion that the application period could be extended to gain more applicants.

The Board will be calling for a special meeting to either reject or appoint Mr. Bugalski.  Given that no suggested alternatives were pushed by the Board, this appears to be a done deal.

In other matters, the Board got an update on the Teen Center whose proponents want to use part of the old CA Jacobs middle school, now known as the home of Maine Prairie Continuation school, for their evening activities for the youth of Dixon.  The district is bogged down with legal considerations to protect itself from any activity on their sites which might result in a lawsuit against the entity.  The Teen Center will be run independently from the district or the city of Dixon, neither of whom are lending much support to this once revered after school alternative.

Jerry Castañon, one of the leaders attempting to find a location, stated their people were ready to go but the site of the old Maine Prairie school consisting of portables was in poor shape and not centrally located for those in the community.  With the addition of the Homestead development and the addition of homes in Brookfield and Valley Glen, his point drew agreement from the public.  Mr. Castañon did not go into detail as to budget or programs at the Center which was a large consideration in the past.

Currently, there are only 71 students using the entire campus which used to house 3 entire grade levels.  The Teen Center wants to only use the old music room on this campus according to Castañon.

A different update was given by Dolan on enrollment and staffing.  Although enrollment is steady, the absentee rate is about 10% which constitutes a large hit to average daily attendance (ADA) funding.  Dolan went on to discuss staffing, where he has 10 positions with no applicants and another 6 waiting on certificates of clearance by the State.  One teacher stated she was laughed at when promoting Dixon Unified for teaching because of the low salaries paid here as opposed to elsewhere.

A public initiated item was also discussed, that of “social emotional learning” which term was asked to be defined.  In this context, the program is designed to promote student social and emotional health.  Dolan, in his short description, identified that there is also a curriculum involved. When asked to provide the curriculum to the public, President David Bowen stated that he saw no problem in doing so as this wasn’t a copious amount of material requested.

The meeting was adjourned after a four-hour session.