A welcome reception for new CUSD Superintendent Jim Elsasser will precede the next meeting of the Claremont Unified School District Board of Education. Set for Thursday, September 13 from 5 to 6:30 p.m., the meet-and-greet is open to the public and will be held in the third-floor Board Room at the Richard S. Kirkendall Education Center (170 W. San Jose Ave.). 

The reception will be followed by the school board meeting, which begins at 6:30 p.m. and will feature another welcoming ceremony when Mr. Elsasser swears in new student board member Maggie Elizalde, a senior at San Antonio High School.

Among other agenda items, Bonnie Bell, CUSD assistant superintendent of educational services, will deliver the district’s annual Report on Assessment and Accountability, presenting the aggregated 2011-2012 results of the California Standards Tests.

Next, the spotlight will be on Lisa Shoemaker, assistant superintendent of business services, as she delivers the Unaudited Actuals Financial Report for the Fiscal Year that ended June 20, 2012. Information on the report—which details nearly $68 million in expenditures from 2011-2012, $58 million of which came from the General Fund—are available on the CUSD website under the Sept. 13 board meeting agenda. Document XI. B. 1 notes the General Fund grew in the past year because mid-year cuts budgeted for vy the district turned out to be far less than anticipated.

Mr. Elsasser will then deliver a first reading and informational presentation on the revised CUSD communication policy with the public. That will be followed by a presentation by Kevin Ward, assistant superintendent of human services, continuing his updates of job descriptions in the district. Mr. Ward will request approval for the positions of Occupational Therapist and Transition Specialist.

Those who wish to get more involved with school governance issues may be interested to hear that the California School Boards Association is requesting nominations for the organizations Directors-at-Large, Asian/Pacific Islander and Hispanic, with all nominations due to the CSBA by Friday, September 28. In addition, the Los Angeles County Office of Education is requesting nominations for membership on the Los Angeles County Committee of School District Organizations. For more information, consult item XI. E. 2 on the Sept. 13 CUSD board meeting agenda.

A number of other human resource items, as well as the request for the routine approval of field trips for various CUSD students, will dominate the rest of the agenda.

The CUSD agenda also includes an updated calendar of events, which includes some dates worth remembering. Along with the superintendent’s reception and the school board meeting, September 13, at 6:30 p.m., is Back to School Night at El Roble Intermediate School. Back to School night will be held the following week on Wednesday, September 19 at Sycamore Elementary School (3 to 6:30 p.m. for kindergarten through 3rd grade and 6 to 7:15 p.m. for grades 4th through 6th).

Thursday, September 20 is Claremont Day at the LA County Fair. And Thursday, September 27 is Back to School night at Claremont High School, with a new parents welcome at 6:30 p.m. and classroom visits starting at 7 p.m.

—Sarah Torribio

storribio@claremont-courier.com