District employee urges board to delay ending 'cash in lieu' payments, says 47 families affected

At the public comment portion of the meeting, janitorial custodian Kyle Robbins identified himself and urged the board to postpone action on proposed changes to the district's "cash in lieu" program, saying the program benefits roughly 47 employee families and helps with rising health‑care costs.

"My name is Kyle Robbins. I'm a janitorial custodian at the middle school and the high school here at DCE," he said, and later: "We are one of the 47 ... families that really are affected by the proposed elimination of the cash and lieu program." Robbins described how the extra payment helped with recent increases in medical costs and asked the board to delay making a decision until affected employees had sufficient information.

Earlier in the meeting the board voted to approve the agenda without item 9d and to postpone that item to the April meeting to allow time for staff to compile questions and background information, as requested by board members.

The chair reminded the public that comments reflect only the individual speaker's views and that concerns not on the agenda would not be addressed during the meeting unless added to a future agenda. The board took no immediate formal action on the public comment itself; the agenda amendment to postpone item 9d was approved at the start of the meeting.