It was a light night for school business Monday evening as the Oakdale Joint Unified School Board members gathered for their monthly school board meeting. The meeting was conducted at the OJUSD Technology and Staff Development Center as North Second Avenue construction is still underway.

The item of most interest brought before the board was request of approval of the application for the State and Federal Surplus Property Program.

“There’s quite an inventory that is available to us,” Assistant Superintendent Kristi Rapinchuk said, “that might be very valuable as our school farm opens up.”

Rapinchuk noted that Career Technician Education Coordinator, OHS Vice Principal Joni McGinnis, had been made aware of lumber and sheet metal to be donated to the school through this program. In order to be eligible to receive the donation the application must be approved and processed.

“We just have to pick it up and there’s no cost to our program if we get on the surplus list,” McGinnis said.

Rapinchuk noted that other items of interest may also be available for consideration at a future date. Items which may include tractors, forklifts, spray rigs etc., which may benefit the expanding CTE Program without a large cost to the district.

Vice Principal McGinnis and Dan Casey were identified as the district representatives for the program. Each of the two will have website access to search for items available for varying use.

Board member Mike House inquired as to how the website works in the way of finding specific items which may benefit the programs.

“The example they gave me,” McGinnis said, “was the forklift was an item, farm equipment, sprayers for farms. You can go in and search by item. Then we pay pennies on the dollar for those items, but right now there’s something out there that’s been specifically donated to Oakdale High School.”

The Board unanimously voted in favor of the application and receipt of the lumber and wood to be retrieved at no cost.

First and second readings of multiple reports were also reviewed by Rapinchuk, as well as Chief Business Officer Susan Dyke.

“This is a very tedious process,” Superintendent Marc Malone told those in attendance midway through the review. “These updates occur on a regular basis and the staff has to go through and compare to all previous board policy and the previous administrative regs to make sure we’re still in alignment with California Education Code and California School Board Association recommends for all policies. To keep us in compliance, it is tedious yet has to be done.”

The meeting concluded shortly after 7 p.m. The next OJUSD Board Meeting will be hosted on Monday, Dec. 12 at 6:30 p.m. Location will be determined closer to the date and pending road construction.