Principals, teachers submit retirement notices in Placentia-Yorba Linda Unified School District

 

So far in 2021, five principals and 29 teachers have submitted retirement or resignation notices in the Placentia-Yorba Linda Unified School District, including one principal who retired last month.

The four other principals and the teachers will be leaving their positions at the end of the school year. In addition, 20 teachers have been granted leaves of absence through June, mostly for medical reasons.

Dave Flynn, one of the district's longest-serving employees at 45 years, retired Jan. 4. Flynn is a former Esperanza High School principal who was named the founding principal of Yorba Linda High School 12 years ago.

Replacing Flynn as interim principal is former assistant principal Richard Dinh. The school's advanced placement human geography teacher, Joel Bradford, was named interim assistant principal for student services.

Three of the retiring principals currently head elementary schools: Diana McKibben at Ruby Drive, Cynthia Rex at Fairmont and Debra Silverman at Tynes. Also retiring is James Hardin at Parkview, the district's home school and independent study campus.

Also serving as interim principal is Chris Herzfeld at Valencia High School. He replaces Olivia Yaung, who was named the district's director of human resources. Herzfeld, a former Laguna Beach High School principal, served as the school's assistant principal since 2017. New interim assistant principal is Will Truong.

Application period for the Valencia and Yorba Linda principal positions ends today, Feb. 18. The salary range is listed as $133,429-$150,959 for 224 workdays.

A Feb. 10 California State Teachers Retirement Systems blog notes a 26% increase in statewide teacher retirements. A survey showed 62% retired earlier than planned (56% because of pandemic challenges, 35% due to remote teaching and 35% worried about COVID-19 exposure, with more than one answer allowed).

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The district's trustees at a Feb. 9 meeting authorized the purchase of additional HEPA air purifiers for use at district and school sites, adding to a previous purchase of purifiers and desk shields for classrooms approved last year.

The new purchase includes 425 purifiers “as an added precaution to bolster the safety measures already in place for smaller areas, such as lounges and single offices at school sites and district departments,” according to a report by Purchasing Director Don Rosales.

Also, an added 300 purifiers will be installed in larger areas at school sites and district departments, such as libraries and common spaces. Total cost for the new purchase is $355,000 from “learning loss mitigation” funds.

And trustees have appointed Valencia High School senior and student body president Jackson Hartman to fill the student trustee slot for the second semester through June.

He replaces Noah Campuzano, a senior and student body president at El Dorado High School, who held the position during the first semester.

Yorba Linda small businesses receive pandemic grants; city reduces employee pension liability

 

Each of some 250 small businesses in Yorba Linda that meet specific pandemic-related criteria will end up with close to $10,000 in grant money after a final round of checks are issued in the city's Small Business Relief Program, as approved by the City Council Jan. 19.

Most of the money comes from the federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act, popularly known as CARES, passed in March 2020, with amounts distributed to cities in Orange County by the Board of Supervisors.

Other funding comes from the Community Development Block Grant program administered by the federal Housing and Urban Development Department. The program was proposed in 1973 by native son Richard Nixon before his resignation as president.

The city received close to 300 applications when the relief program was initiated last year, with 251 qualifying for grants, according to a report to the council by Pam Stoker, the city's economic development manager.

Funding for a first round of grants ran out after 206 were awarded last year, but 24 more were awarded out of the remaining 45 qualified businesses during a second round. The third round awards this year took care of the remaining 21 businesses.

Criteria for grant awards included business location, employee count, licensing and the ability to demonstrate “undue hardship as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic,” Stoker's report stated.

“Undue hardship” was defined as a forced shutdown because of the state's stay-at-home order, revenue down 25% or more compared to non-Covid months or the layoff of at least one employee.

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During a five-year period that ends at the close of the current fiscal year on June 30, nearly $1.5 million in extra payments will have been made to California's Public Employees Retirement System to reduce Yorba Linda's unfunded pension liability.

That's in addition to the required payments of a bit more than $7.5 million for the same time period, for a total city contribution for employee pensions of $9 million. The city has 111 full-time employees, according to the most recent authorized positions listing.

The city started making the extra payments in 2016 in an effort to amortize the unfunded pension liability over a 20-year period instead of the standard 30 years. This year's extra payment is $186,511 plus $64,141 realized from savings for prepayment.

A city-hired actuary conducts an annual analysis to determine the city's required payment to cover employee pensions, which depends on the pension fund's gains and losses from investments and other changes to the fund's contribution rate.

“This ensures that the city is paying at least the minimum amount each year to mirror a 20-year amortization,” a city report stated.

Also since 2016, the city makes contributions to a pension fund trust to reduce the city's unfunded retiree medical liability. The contribution for the current fiscal year is $236,770.