The school board elected a new president, vice president and clerk Tuesday, among many other committee and representative positions.
The Newport-Mesa Unified School District board of education unanimously voted David Brooks in as the new president. Brooks, Costa Mesa resident, has served on the board since 1998.
Dana Black was elected as vice president and Karen Yelsey as clerk. Both were unanimous.
The board also elected almost 20 other positions Tuesday, including secretary, legislative representative, and liaison with Newport-Mesa Schools Foundation.
Also during Tuesday’s meeting, the board approved a change order for $16,377 in additional costs in the Corona del Mar High School Utilities Preparation and Interim Housing Project.
The extra expenses will increase the total project cost to $901,377. The order is with Mel Smith Electric, Inc., who won the contract back in June.
“The purpose of the bid was to coordinate and install six portable classrooms, including but not limited to all service utilities. In addition, site utility work both temporary and permanent will be performed to safe off the future construction site,” according to the staff report.
The added costs will add an intercept electrical pull box for $2,075, additional asphalt paving at Eastbluff Drive for $15,291, relocate an existing signal cabling for $3,386, locate and terminate voice communication lines for $1,432, and pay for premium Saturday work on a power tie. The change order also eliminated a PB HV-4 due to existing utilities in the area for a credit of $365 and eliminated multiple fiber optic cabling runs that were unnecessary when a single IDF and fiber cable proved adequate for a credit of $7,181.
The school board also approved a $7,000 agreement with a company to provide Emergency Operations Center section-specific training on Jan. 17 and 30.
The expenses will be split up between with 25 percent of the cost coming from Elementary Education and Maintenance and Operations funds and 50 percent from Alliance of Schools for Cooperative Insurance Programs, Risk Control Assistance funds.
“In the event of a major emergency, all public employees are legally required to remain in service as disaster service workers at our respective sites and attend to the needs of our students and colleagues,” according to the staff report.
Staff should be familiar with procedures and any assigned responsibilities, the staff report read, in case they are needed to serve on a response team or to implement any response procedures during an emergency.
“As an organization responsible for the care and safety of 22,000 students and 2,700 employees, we seek to continually improve our emergency plans and update our skill sets to effectively respond in a major emergency,” the staff report read.
RMB Emergency Management and Security Solutions will provide the training.
Also on the agenda was the International Baccalaureate Virtual Community Agreement.
The board approved the agreement, which states that IB students at Newport Harbor High School will be able to “dialogue, discuss, and share experiences with other IB students throughout the world,” according to the staff report.
The International Baccalaureate Organization is a charitable and educational organization dedicated to developing and offering challenging programs to students and providing professional development for teachers.
The board also approved a notice of completion for the four new exterior gates with panic hardware at Newport Elementary School.
The gates cost a total of $54,741, taken from Measure F funds.
The notice was for Harris Steel Fence Company, which the district has worked with on several projects over the last few years. All projects have been price competitive and all work was completed on budget and on time, according to the staff report.
The work was completed Nov. 30.
