15 Mar

March 14, 2018

Dear Yuba River Families,

We apologize that it has taken so long to get this letter to you, our school community.

As we move into the light of spring and out of the dark days of winter, we would like to share the positive momentum that has been building in the school, as one voice.  One particular area that we would like to highlight is the mediation process that was undertaken by the board of directors and the school director.  The process itself was very positive, allowing space for both sides to voice their thoughts and concerns, and through that we were able to come to some agreements together in the spirit of moving forward.  One of those agreements is to communicate with all of you, our school community, by writing this letter collaboratively.

Mediation has helped all of us to see that we took some missteps and we will work together to put systems in place to prevent anything like this from happening in the future. Through the mediation process, Alana, Theresia, and Ron were able to gain some clarity around how this situation came to be, and it did bring up some points that we would like to address. The Board of Directors has found that the evaluation process used for last spring’s School Director Evaluation required more clarity. Procedures for follow through were not defined. The Director Evaluation Policy did not clearly outline that signatures were required on the evaluation documentation and although it was verbally shared, complete documentation was not placed in the employee file. To address this, the board has worked diligently to revise the School Director Evaluation Policy, creating a method of evaluation that provides clearly defined expectations on areas of improvement, and provides the documentation necessary for a healthy growth process. We are implementing the newly revised evaluation policy and are in the process of concluding the evaluation for the 2017/18 school year.

We have also come to know that while community support and involvement are greatly appreciated, the first step should have been to work together – board of directors and school director – to resolve the issues between us rather than bringing it to the school community.  It has been made clear that as the evaluation group was an ad hoc group, they were not bound by the Brown Act, and while out of the ordinary, it was within the scope of the board to involve Karin Meadows in the process.  It also became clear that the involvement of Susan Egan, acting in the role of Human Resource Manager during an employee evaluation is within the scope of best practices.  With the support of both the Board of Directors and the School Director, we will continue to move forward together in mutual understanding.  Excellence in communication is extremely important to all of us, and we will work diligently to make sure that appropriate processes are followed for communication with the community and that all steps are taken to appropriately resolve any issues.

The Board of Directors and the School Director are both committed to actively working together for the betterment of our school.  We are working toward putting structures in place to assure that our policies are followed.  We are working toward accountability of one another.  We all have much work to do as we are looking toward the future of our school at our beautiful new campus. Now is the time to come together as a strong unified school community, prepared for all of the wonderful opportunities that lie ahead.

Thank you for your continued support and dedication to this school and this education.

Sincerely,

Ron Charles, YRCS School Director                       Alana Lucia, YRCS Board Chair