School Board to Consider Clean-Up of Bobcat Smoke; Hiring Tech Companies; Adopting Textbooks; Etc.

At its next meeting (agenda: https://is.gd/t705lY) the Monrovia Board of Education will consider ...

~ Adopting a resolution authorizing emergency repairs (due to smoke damage from the Bobcat fire) without going through the standard bidding procedure (https://is.gd/3lpzuF) and hiring Belfor Property Restoration to do the clean-up 13 school district sites: https://is.gd/aHvuCA

~ Hiring Forecast 5 Analytics, Inc. for $81,600 to provide the data analytic licenses for Educational Services and Human Resources, from Nov. 19 through June 30, 2023. "We help schools use data analytics to create annual budgets, model different scenarios and make strategic decisions to optimize student outcomes." https://is.gd/q6ozAO

~ Adopting textbooks ...

K-5:

Social Studies Alive, by TCI for History-Social Science, $231,931.51

Discovery Science, by Discovery Education for Science, $462,632.64

Grades 6-8:

Amplify Science, by Amplify for Science, $246,725.39

The Living Earth, by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt for Biology, $47,646.30

Chemistry in the Earth, by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt for Chemistry, $52,076.00

Physics in the Universe, by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt for Physics, $16,400.18

[Comment: It never ceases to astonish me how insanely expensive textbooks are, and - unless they've changed recently - how they can make the most interesting subjects brain-numbingly boring.]

~ Do a deal with the non-profit Amigos de los Rios "to implement the Monrovia Urban and Community Forestry Project funded by California Climate Investment Grant from California Department of Forest and Fire Protection at Plymouth Elementary School, Santa Fe Computer Magnet School and Monrovia High School." https://is.gd/ynKPjc

~  Hiring AMS.net for $32,200 to perform (I think; it's kinda vague) a security check and upgrades to the district's computer network. https://is.gd/BykgVe

- Brad Haugaard