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The Mountain View Los Altos High School District’s school board picked Esmeralda Ortiz as its president for the coming year, with Thida Cornes selected to be vice president and newly elected board member Alex Levich taking the position of clerk.
The board voted unanimously to approve the appointments at a Monday, Dec. 16, meeting. The president leads board meetings and works with the superintendent to create the meeting agendas.
At the start of the meeting, Superintendent Eric Volta administered the oath of office to Alex Levich and Vadim Katz, who both won seats on the board in last month’s election.
The high school district’s five board members vote to select their leaders each December, and typically opt to use a rotation system, with the clerk moving into the vice presidency, and the vice president ascending to the presidency.
The board stuck to that tradition this time around, elevating Ortiz, who has served as vice president for the past year, and Cornes, who has been the clerk.
Board member Catherine Vonnegut suggested having one of the newly elected members serve as clerk, so that they would both have the opportunity to rotate through to the presidency within their four year terms. Levich volunteered to be clerk.
The board oversees the school district, which serves roughly 4,400 students, primarily at Mountain View and Los Altos high schools.
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In an email to parents about this board meeting, a small section at the very end of the long email referred to “Items that occurred in Closed Session”
“President Esmeralda Ortiz reported that actions were taken in closed session.
The board voted 5-0 to approve a multi-year Compromise Agreement to resolve potential or threatened claims against the district by parents of a student in exchange for reimbursement for the student’s alternative placement in excess of $200,000.
The board also voted 5-0 to approve a Compromise Agreement to resolve potential or threatened claims against the district through October 2025 by parents of a student in exchange for the cost of $231,775 for the student’s private residential placement and $430 for transportation costs to the residential placement.”
So $430,000 of the school district’s money spent to make two students “go away??”
Surely we deserve more transparency about the events which led to the school
district spending this much money. And what efforts/changes are being made to ensure such situations don’t repeat!