Pali High Focuses on Improvements for Future Classes

As another school year comes to an end at Palisades Charter High School, the Board of Trustees looked toward the future at its monthly meeting on May 21.

Board members each gave a report on their respective areas, including updates to facilities and an ongoing effort to hire new teachers in music, science, special education and more.

The school’s director of operations reported that applications for assistance in transportation, or  “demonstrated financial need,” costs neared $300,000 for the upcoming school year. The budget and finance committee is expected to award $240,000 of that need and will notify students in June.

“The Board needs to finalize the funding for 2019-20 PCHS School Bus Scholarships in order to let students and their families know what their net total cost per bus riding student will be so they can make their decisions on how to best get their students to and from [Pali High] every day,” the operations report said.

It was also reported that hiring a company to provide further safety training to teachers is being considered for the following school year.

School officials have not lost their focus on increasing security measures, constantly reminding the board that fencing is their number one priority.

However, while they are not actively pursuing these implementations, they would still like to install additional security cameras, emergency exit gates, a fence breach detection system, a contract with a local patrolling security company and an intrusion detection system.

As these added security measures would work to identify anyone trying to enter the school without permission, the school equally tracks who is not at school without permission as well.

At the April 30 meeting, the school reported that 713 families have been accepted for admission in the new school year with 50 families on hold. Thoroughly enough, an attendance report noted that 86% of students were accounted for during the Coachella music festival, with 77% in attendance on “Senior Ditch Day.”