By Elizabeth Murtaugh/Staff Writer
Fairfield-Suisun trustees voted 5-2 Thursday night to junk plans for switching the district's two high schools to year-round calendars, winning an exuberant standing ovation from a hall full of critics.
The surprise vote came after several members of the standing-room-only audience promised to pound the pavement campaigning for a bond to build a third high school - an effort that has failed twice in the last two years.
Newly appointed board President Ophelia Harvey and Trustee Kathleen LaPlante dissented from the majority.
Harvey argued that the year-round issue should appear as a companion ballot measure to a school bond.
LaPlante opposed the lack of a clear outline continuing planning for year-round education or an alternative in case the district doesn't win funding from a local school bond, special local school facilities fees or a piece of the statewide $9.2 billion bond for school construction and renovation.
Yet in the end, trustees yielded to the community's relentless outcry.
"I cannot support continuing to put staff and students on this year-round schedule when I don't believe we have the support or ability to make it work," said Trustee Kathy Sawyer Shishido.
The Fairfield-Suisun Unified School District has already spent $100,000 on the planning process to implement year-round education next year - billed as the least expensive and most workable solution to overcrowding at Fairfield and Armijo high schools.
To make Thursday's vote possible, Trustee Mike Helms called on the board to amend the agenda, which listed the matter as an information item - one that can only be discussed. Trustees then gave unanimous consent to change procedure, giving them authority to vote on the controversial item.
More than 200 Fairfield-Suisun teachers crowded the meeting, carrying neon-colored signs protesting a bitter contract stalemate with the 21,000-student district.
Many put the signs down to stand, clap and cheer with parents, students and others who have voiced vehement opposition to the year-round plan since trustees adopted it six months ago.
Kathy Mitchell, head of Citizens for Traditional High Schools, urged trustees to settle contracts with teachers, calling the support of staff essential to a bond victory.
"No teachers. No contract. No bond," Mitchell said in an interview. "It's that simple."
Citizens for Traditional High Schools met today's deadline for collecting enough signatures of registered voters in the district to sponsor a ballot measure unraveling the year-round plan.
But instead of handing the 13,200 names to the Solano County Office of Education, Mitchell lugged a stack of petitions 2 feet high to City Council Chamber.
"We are trying to show we are willing to work with them in good faith," she said. We know we have the community behind us. Now let's turn our energy toward a bond and get a bond passed."
If trustees had stuck to complicated plans for running Fairfield and Armijo year-round, Mitchell said the community would have backed a petition to recall the board.
The Fairfield-Suisun Unified School District must now map out a course for winning enough money to pay for a third high school, which would cost about $50 million.
Among several options, a recent poll showed strongest support for a bond for a new high school and money to repair Fairfield and Armijo - the same package voters rejected last April and the June before that.