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Community speakers urge summer health fairs, welcome new board members and raise maintenance-staff concerns
Summary
Public commenters at the May 19 meeting requested district help publicizing summer health fairs, welcomed new board members, and a district maintenance employee raised concerns about labor practices and negotiations.
Several community members used the public-comment portion of the May 19 meeting to request district support for community events, welcome new board members and raise workplace concerns.
Veronica Garcia of Aunt Martha’s Health and Wellness asked the board to help publicize two summer health fairs (one in June and a second in August) that will offer physicals for kindergartners, sixth graders and student athletes and bring in community organizations for family resources. Garcia said the events align with the district’s school-health partnership and asked who she should contact to arrange communications. The superintendent asked Garcia to send the event exemplars to Lisa Morales for review; the district agreed to publicize the events if there were no outstanding questions.
Casilo “Casey” Cuevas, who introduced himself as deputy mayor of the city of Aurora and an East Aurora High School graduate, congratulated newly elected and newly assigned board leaders and expressed support for the district. Javier Solano, representing the bilingual parent advisory board (VPAC), thanked Superintendent Halverson for “greet-and-meet” events and congratulated board members taking new leadership roles.
District employee Merrill Heron, who identified himself as a district maintenance mechanic and union steward of nearly 13 years, raised concerns about working conditions and contract negotiations affecting buildings-and-grounds staff. Heron said supervisors and higher-level staff were creating and enforcing contract-language changes “on the eve of … negotiations” and described the situation as creating an “ominous cloud” over bargaining; he asked the board to change the approach and rescind a policy he said was applied to him previously. The transcript records those comments in the public-comment section; no formal board action on the matters was recorded in the provided public minutes.
Other speakers — including Jovita Marcela Calderon and Maria Perez — offered welcome remarks to the board and expressed support for working with the new board members.
The district agreed to follow up on Garcia’s request via its communications process and to review any submitted materials for public distribution.
