Sieu Officially Honored as ABC's Next Superintendent

At Tuesday night’s ABC School Board meeting, a round of applause was in order as Dr. Mary Sieu was officially congratulated by the board for her upcoming superintendencey, come July 1, 2012.

An ill Superintendent Gary Smuts sat out the meeting as deputy superintendent Sieu filled in -- giving attendees a “preview” of the role she will ultimately take once Smuts hands over the torch when he retires at the end of the current school year. Before the meeting started, the board took a short recess to enjoy refreshments on behalf of Sieu’s recent selection to replace Smuts. Sieu said she’ll currently be spending a lot of her time supporting Smuts during the remainder of his term.

“I know he (Smuts) has initiatives that are of great value,” Sieu said. “I know that the board would want me to carry on with some of those initiatives."

Fresh from a term of serving as the president of the , Sieu plans on creating a seamless continuity between Smuts and herself; she doesn’t want people worrying about what is coming next for the district. Sieu also has ideas on having the district better interface with the Cerritos Chamber.

“I still think there’s a strong need to connect our students with our local businesses and agencies, because people and our students need to know what and how do we apply the learning from our classroom to the real world,” Sieu said.

Trustee Area Election

The board approved to hire an outside demographic/consulting firm to provide an assessment of the district’s at-large election system to ensure compliance with the California Voting Rights Act.

The California Voting Right Act of 2002 protects racial, ethnic and language groups from voting policies that impair a group’s chance at achieving elective office. According to a document prepared by Smuts, a trustee-area election is where “the jurisdiction is divided into smaller voting districts and members of the governing board are elected by voters residing within the voting district where the board candidate resides."

ABC Federation of Teachers member Gavin Riley’s initial concern was the costs, which can potentially be up to $30,000.

“We’re cutting everywhere we can to save every nickel we can,” Riley said.

California School Employees Association

Also approved during the meeting was a tentative agreement between the California School Employees Association (CSEA) and Chapter #24 amending the Article XIII: Calendar and Article for the 2011-12 school year.

This agreement includes the current calendar with 18 holidays and salary schedules which reflect four less days of work, equivalent to four furlough days. Also included are overtime, extra hours and stipends being paid based on the 2008-09 salary schedules

Boardmember Celia Spitzer motioned to close the meeting in honor of Palms Elementary teacher, Grant Neill, who passed away Aug. 25 of an embolism.

The next school board meeting is scheduled for Sept. 20.