Pali High Board of Trustees Host First Meeting of 2021

By LILY TINOCO | Reporter

Attendees joined Palisades Charter High School’s Board of Trustees for its first meeting of the new year on Tuesday evening, January 12. The discussion covered pressing issues related to student grade appeals, learning mitigation loss and more.

The board presented a resolution to revise the school’s current grade appeals process, a process that allows students to appeal a teacher’s grade, sponsored by teacher and board member John Rauschuber.

Board Chair Brooke King clarified that there is currently a grade appeals process in place that was created by the school attorneys and follows strict regulations. King motioned to postpone the discussion to the board’s February meeting “to allow the administration to work behind the scenes to gather information for the board and … time to review this.”

“I spent three hours writing this resolution, I have 200 students, I’m senior advisor,” Rauschuber said during the discussion. “I have spent a tremendous amount of time at this school … I want to discuss [this] tonight.”

Rauschuber went on to explain that the resolution is an attempt to figure out a better process moving forward, requesting appeal information 24 hours in advance, administration to be a part of the process and more.

King said the board cannot have further discussion on the policy item without further research and input from administration.

Later board members voted in favor of reinstituting the IT team supervisor position and a counselor position, in hopes of garnering more support as school continues in a virtual fashion.

Pali High Human Resources Director Amy Nguyen reported positive results from a program committed to student academic success in eLearning following the fall semester and explained that it will be returning in the spring.

The program is slated to begin in February, with a total of 12 staff members, including teachers and tutor support, offering help in math, English and social sciences on Saturdays from 8:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.

“I just want to give a shout out to all the teachers who have helped so much with helping students succeed during this last semester,” Nguyen said. “It’s so important, I love our teachers … and how much they love our students.”

Multiple attendees and board members throughout the meeting, including Principal Dr. Pamela Magee, praised Pali High’s teachers for their work during this unprecedented pandemic.

“There is no roadmap for what everybody has been working through, but our teachers have been incredible,” Magee said. “Many are teaching new classes and working with new materials, new content, in addition to learning a completely new format for how they do things.

“I know they’re dealing with their own personal issues and lives and children, yet they bring 120% to our school and do those same things for our students—we can’t say how much we appreciate what they do.”

The board’s next meeting is scheduled to take place via Zoom on Tuesday, February 9, at 5 p.m.