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Board hears enrollment outreach ideas as HVAC emergency procurement progresses
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Summary
Trustees discussed enrollment outreach strategies and heard an update on a district HVAC emergency procurement and thermostat installation; staff reported 92 new enrollments (mostly TK/K) and said thermostat installations are nearly complete with remaining signal repeaters to be connected.
At the March 3 meeting, the Newark Unified Board of Education spent substantial time on enrollment and facilities updates, including an update on the district's emergency HVAC procurement and installation of building thermostats.
Teacher and community speakers urged the board to pursue proactive enrollment strategies. Branch Brewster, a Lincoln Elementary teacher, recommended targeted outreach to homeowners associations and realtors, suggested district staff contact every family that disenrolls to collect exit data, and asked the board to schedule a study session on enrollment trends. Brewster also asked the district to provide disaggregated enrollment trend data by grade so staff and trustees can identify where students are leaving and target resources accordingly.
Superintendent Vaccaro said staff have established a centralized registration center and reported 92 new enrollments so far, primarily in transitional kindergarten and kindergarten. Vaccaro and trustees discussed how 22in-queue20'registrations' are being tracked and that those numbers could raise net new enrollments once finalized.
On facilities, Travis de Freitas updated the board on the district's controller and thermostat installations tied to Resolution 20-24.2509 (emergency procurement). De Freitas reported all thermostats had been installed at school sites, testing had been completed and signal repeaters remained to allow district staff to monitor thermostats remotely. Trustees questioned the use of multiple vendors; Member Hill noted warrants appearing under CoolTech despite the prior emergency sole-source engagement of Verigee. Staff explained that CoolTech invoices relate to non-HVAC work (refrigeration) or prior work whose invoices arrived late; work for HVAC since the emergency resolution has been performed under Verigee.
Board members thanked staff for progress and suggested next steps: finishing signal repeater hookups, verifying outstanding invoices, and presenting a final close-out of the emergency resolution once remaining work under the Verigee contract and CalSHAPE/CalSHAVE grant items are resolved.
The board also approved a STAR attendance system for Newark Memorial High School's tutorial period and discussed community events and student activities that support enrollment outreach.
Trustees asked the administration to return with more detailed capture-rate analysis and prior-year comparisons to help set enrollment goals and measure progress.
