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Board approves several facility contracts, warrants and routine purchases; public raises concerns about legal fees
Summary
The board approved routine facilities and operations items including warrants, court repainting, a tennis/pickleball repaint, a van purchase and a fence contract; public commenters questioned large legal invoices and the reallocation of Baylard sale proceeds.
The Carpinteria Unified School District board on Aug. 12 approved multiple business and facilities items on the consent and business agendas, including payment warrants, facility maintenance contracts and vehicle purchases.
Board members approved warrants for the period July 3–Aug. 7 as presented and authorized contracts including repainting and repairs of the middle school tennis and pickleball courts by First Serve, repainting of a special education room at Main School by Mesa Painting ($6,100), and the purchase of a used district van to maintain transportation capacity. The board also approved a Measure U fence contract for Catalina and other routine maintenance purchases; funding sources for these items were cited as routine restricted maintenance funds or the transportation budget as appropriate.
During public comment speakers repeatedly questioned district legal spending and singled out a roughly $60,000 invoice listed in warrants to attorney Andrea Marcus for special education-related matters. Commenters asked whether that payment covered a settlement or attorney fees and urged the board to be transparent about the purpose of those expenditures. Another commenter noted that the recent decision to request $4.2 million in sale proceeds to cover settlements would reduce funds that had been described previously as committed to facilities and development projects.
Board members moved, seconded and approved each consent and contract item at the meeting; contracts were awarded to the lowest responsive bidders where noted in the agenda. Trustees discussed that the district’s maintenance obligations under existing agreements require upkeep of some facilities—and in response to a question confirmed the district does not charge the city for use of certain courts under that arrangement.
The board’s approvals are consistent with staff recommendations; where projects are funded from restricted maintenance or transportation budgets, that funding source was noted on the record. Public commenters asked for more transparency on legal invoices and the relationship between litigation costs and the district’s ability to fund capital upkeep.
