Laguna Beach Unified's Stress Test
Today’s LBUSD Board meeting is where the community starts watching every vote, every cost, every contradiction, and every attempt to move major decisions through without public trust.
Today matters.
At 3:30 p.m., the board will hold a special session expected to address interim leadership. We should be watching closely to see whether the interim is internal or external, whether the decision brings stability or more disruption, and how much explanation the board believes the public deserves. Even if the board is legally permitted to make that appointment without public comment, legal authority and transparency are not the same.
Sheri Morgan and Howard Hills ran on transparency, and moving quickly into major leadership decisions immediately after Dr. Glass’s separation, with limited public visibility and very little public trust, does not feel like transparency. It feels like a process being used as a cover.
Then, at 6 p.m., the regular meeting begins at Thurston Middle School, with an agenda that is far too packed to treat casually: LCAP, budget, communications, technology restructuring, an election resolution, legal services, graduation and promotion services, and a VERY long consent calendar. I will be there for the full meeting, and I hope many parents, staff, and community members are too.
Tonight’s agenda is the first real stress test after this district upheaval — it is a test of whether this community is willing to keep watching what this board majority does when it thinks people are too tired, too busy, or too overwhelmed to follow the details.
Agenda Item 8A: LCAP 2026–2027
The LCAP is the district’s strategic plan for student goals, services, actions, and spending. It is about whether our kids are safe, supported, challenged, included, and prepared, and the agenda materials describe it as a three-year plan tied to student outcomes and support for specific student groups.
The big question, however, is whether the board’s actions reflect the values inside it.
It is hard to approve a plan built around student belonging while creating districtwide instability, and it is hard to talk about social-emotional support while staff and families are absorbing the impact of abrupt leadership decisions. The LCAP is supposed to be about students. The board majority’s recent actions have made it harder to believe students are actually the center of the work.
Agenda Item 8B: Budget 2026–2027
The budget is not presented as a fiscal crisis, as the proposed General Fund budget includes about $94.6 million in revenues, $90.15 million in expenditures, and a positive certification.
But that still does not answer the larger question: is the district now accounting for the cost of a superintendent search, transition support, legal review, separation costs, or the broader cost of losing a superintendent less than a year into his tenure? Howard Hills and Sheri Morgan have spoken often about fiscal responsibility, but creating the conditions for another superintendent search, more legal uncertainty, and more leadership churn is not the kind of fiscal responsibility the taxpayers were promised.
The budget also includes a $1 million legal expense line, and tonight’s consent calendar includes multiple legal services agreements. Districts need lawyers, but the public has every right to ask whether taxpayer dollars are being used to support students or to pay for the consequences of board-created instability.
Agenda Item 9A: Communications Plan
The problem is not the communications staff — we are lucky to have such a great and engaging Comms team.
The concern is that some board members seem to treat communications as another area where they can control process, tone, audience, and narrative, even when the work should belong to experienced staff. A communications plan is not a political tool, and it should not become a way for individual board members to manage optics or clean up governance problems.
The district does not need better spin. It needs less board interference from people who know what they are doing.
Agenda Item 11B: Director of Information Systems and Technology / Coordinator of Learning and Innovation
The district’s CTO retired in February, and staff is recommending two roles: a Director of Information Systems and Technology and a Coordinator of Learning and Innovation. That may be a reasonable structure, and it may even be smart, but losing a CTO and separating the work into two positions is still a significant change.
Parents should listen for practical answers about who owns cybersecurity, student data, software systems, classroom technology, staff support, and emergency response when systems fail. This should be a serious conversation, not board theater.
Agenda Item 12A: Election Resolution
The election resolution is procedural, but it is also a reminder.
We are six months away from change, if this community comes together. Joan Malczewski has already announced her reelection, and more will unfold between now and November. By fall, everyone will have slogans, mailers, endorsements, and polished versions of what happened.
That is why we need to watch now.
Watch who asks serious questions, who respects staff, who protects students, who escalates conflict, who hides behind process, and who understands the role of a board member instead of trying to act like district management. The record is being written now.
Consent Items T–W: Legal Services
The consent calendar includes four legal services agreements, covering general counsel, facilities, special education, AB 218 cases, Section 504, student services, and other legal matters. Again, districts need legal counsel. That is not the issue.
The issue is why so many legal services agreements are sitting on consent during a governance crisis.
What does each firm do? Who assigns the work? How are costs reviewed? Are services overlapping? What is routine, and what is being driven by the board majority’s decisions?
If this board wants to talk about fiscal responsibility, these items should be pulled and explained. They should not be buried in consent with the expectation that the public will not notice.
Consent Item X: Graduation and Promotion Services
The consent calendar includes the BCT Entertainment contract for graduation and promotion services at Irvine Bowl, not to exceed $66,137.98.
I am not interested in turning an event production contract into a fake scandal. Graduation and promotion cost money, and they should be done well.
However, this item still matters because graduation is part of where this board showed us who it was. Graduation location should have remained a site decision made by expert employees, and Dee Perry is on record saying she believed it should be a site decision before voting to change the location anyway.
That is why parents do not trust this board. Not because we are unreasonable, but because we are trusting our own eyes and ears on what happened.
The Real Agenda Item: We Are Watching
The staff work is detailed, the plans are specific, the budget is prepared, the LCAP is comprehensive, the communications item includes a staff presentation, the technology restructuring includes a rationale, the election resolution is procedural, the legal agreements are attached, and the graduation contract includes a scope.
The documents are doing what documents are supposed to do.
The problem is not the agenda — it’s the board majority.
At this point, I am not asking them to govern better, to respect staff expertise, to rebuild trust, or to understand the damage they have caused. They have had every opportunity to do that, and this is where we are.
What we can do is make sure they know we are watching every vote, every consent item, every legal cost, every interaction with staff, every use of process as cover, and every attempt to move major decisions through while hoping the community is too exhausted to follow along.
The board majority may have the votes, but they do not get to cast them in the dark. Not anymore.
So come to the meeting. Stay for the meeting. Listen closely. Take notes. Submit public comment. Talk to other parents. Share what you hear. Make sure the record reflects that this community is not confused, not distracted, and not looking away.
If you want to submit a public comment and are unsure how, I can help. If you cannot attend but have something you hope will be said, send it to someone who will be there.
I look forward to seeing familiar faces and new ones, and I still have hope, not because of this board majority, but because this community is paying attention.
LBUSD Board Meeting Details
Special Session: 3:30 p.m.
Regular Meeting Open Session: 6:00 p.m.
Thursday, May 14, 2026
Thurston Middle School Library
2100 Park Avenue, Laguna Beach, CA 92651.