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Board reports closed‑session appointments, approves expulsions, suspensions and other formal actions
Summary
The board announced multiple closed‑session appointments and other personnel actions, approved expulsions, suspended expulsions and reinstatements, and approved a settlement in an OAH case. Several consent‑calendar items, including one pulled contract item, were also voted on.
The Visalia Unified School District Board of Trustees announced a series of personnel appointments from closed session, approved disciplinary actions and passed several routine motions by recorded vote.
In the closed‑session readout, the board reported unanimous appointments to district and school leadership positions: Courtney Hill, Administrator of Student Services; Kyla Johnson, Administrator of Business Functions; Tina Shirley, Director of Part C; Niels Burgess, principal of El Diamante High School; Janna Rasner, principal of Ivanhoe Elementary School; Jessica Lucero, principal of Goshen Elementary School; Sonia Joyner, principal of Manuel F. Hernandez Elementary School; and Carrie Stevens, principal of Conyer Elementary School. The readout credited multiple motions and seconds by trustees and stated the appointments were unanimous. The board also reported the termination of a permanent classified employee for cause, effective immediately following the employee's waiver of a hearing, and the board approved a settlement in OAH case number 2024120011 by a 7–0 vote.
The board took formal public votes on disciplinary and personnel matters later in the meeting. On the record, trustees approved recommended expulsions on a motion recorded as passed 7–0 (student trustee abstained); the board also voted 7–0 to approve recommended suspended expulsions (student trustee abstained) and 7–0 to approve recommended reinstatements (student trustee abstained). The meeting minutes show the motions were moved, seconded and carried at the times recorded in the public minutes.
The consent agenda was adopted earlier in the meeting on a 7–0 vote (mover: Board Member Belt; seconder: Board Member Gamoyan). Trustee Villegas recused himself from consent item 8.66 because a family member is employed by a listed firm; that specific consent item was then brought back for a separate vote and passed 6–yes, 1‑abstention. The warrant list for 03/01/2025–03/28/2025 was approved by recorded vote (motion passed 6–yea, 1 abstention; student trustee voted yes).
The board also approved the district’s notice of intent to employ candidates and provisional internship permit requests for credentialing purposes; that item passed 7–0.
Staff said appointment announcements in closed session were made after motions and seconds recorded during closed session, and trustees congratulated the appointees. The board directed staff to implement personnel actions consistent with district administrative procedures.
