The Santa Monica-Malibu school district will likely apply for grant funding to support its vocational and training programs, which are undergoing significant changes to meet new state standards for career technical education.
The money would come in through the federal Perkins program and would be used for classes that are recognized by the state as fitting into the new pathway.
The district has not applied for this particular federal grant in at least seven years, according to an SMMUSD report.
To receive the grant, the district had to submit a plan for career technical education to the state education department by June 30.
The plan must detail courses, outcomes and support services and must outline how the district will involve the local business community as well as "how students will be counseled about careers and workplace readiness," according to the report.
Staff plans to present the district's long-term vision for career technical education to the school board in the fall.
The matter was included on the Board of Education's meeting agenda June 24 but postponed to a future meeting, according to district spokeswoman Gail Pinsker.
New laptops
Santa Monica High School will receive nearly 800 laptops for its new Innovation Building as technological upgrades continue to roll out across the school district.
The school board last week approved the district's roughly $944,000 contract with San Diego-based Arey Jones Educational Solutions, which submitted the lowest of three bids.
The district solicited bids in April for the laptops, which will be funded through Measure BB.
The cost covers 752 student laptops, 39 teacher laptops and 11 computer carts.
Each classroom will get one teacher laptop and eight student laptops, according to a district report. Science classrooms are expected to host 16 laptops. Each computer cart will house 32 laptops.
Arey Jones has supplied computers and other tech devices to the Los Angeles Unified School District in recent years.
Money matters
The school board approved $1.54 million in facility upgrades and another $490,000 in new purchase orders.
Facility items include the $880,000 installation of lights at Malibu High School and a $276,000 contract with Bakersfield-based IVS Computer Technology for classroom upgrades.
The list of new purchase orders is dominated by one-time supplemental funds totaling more than $145,000 to a variety of contractors for child development center work.
The school board also approved about $23,000 to replace a maintenance vehicle, about $19,000 for facility maintenance at the John Adams Middle School auditorium, about $17,600 to resurface the tennis courts at Malibu High School and $8,600 for golf carts.
Preschool
The district is expected to renew its contract with the state education department to run local preschools.
SMMUSD will receive about $1.69 million from the state to operate full-day and part-day preschool programming at multiple sites for at least 246 days in the 12-month period beginning July 1.
The district preschools are charged with providing developmentally appropriate programming as well as social and health services, food, parent outreach and staff training.
Contact Jeff Goodman at 310-573-8351, jeff@www.smdp.com or on Twitter.
