Pushing $198 million bond issue tops agenda for Peninsula’s new school board president

Deborah Krishnadasan — newly chosen as Peninsula School Board president for 2018 — says passing a proposed $198 million bond issue was the board’s primary task.

The school board picked Krishnadasan, who will succeed Marcia Harris, on Dec. 13 at its final meeting of the year. David Olson was chosen to be board vice president, taking over for Lesli Harbaugh.

The board will have a lot on its plate in 2018, primarily the bond proposed by interim Superintendent Art Jarvis. The money would be primarily for building two elementary schools and remolding two existing ones to ease overcrowding.

“Getting this bond passed is the primary issue,” Krishnadasan said of the board’s agenda. “And if some reason if that didn’t happen then we need to take a serious look at how to deal with the overcrowding moving forward.”

To pass, the bond will need a “supermajority” — 60 percent — of the votes. The vote will be Feb. 12.

The board also will have to tackle the issue of pay for the district’s classified employees.

The clerical unit of the employees’ union and the board have not agreed on how much money the employees will receive from the McCleary court ruling, which among other things covers teachers’ salaries.

After the ruling, the Legislature approved billions in additional funding to school districts and earlier this year directed another $1 billion to help speed up the costs of fully covering teacher pay.

More than 250 union members came to the Nov. 8 school board meeting to advocate for higher pay. About 100 members of the unit attended the Dec. 13 meeting in support of a compromise with the board.

The union has said it believes there’s a 12.1 percent gap between what its members are being paid now and what they deserve.

The union’s members work in transportation and as clerical staff, mechanics, custodians and maintenance technicians.

“Negotiations are in progress, and I have upmost faith that our district reps and union reps will come together on a mutually agreeable agreement,” Krishnadasan said.

Teachers already have negotiated with the board and received pay increases, averaging about 16 percent, across all education and experience levels.

The next school board meeting will be 6 p.m. Jan. 10.