At the most recent Los Ba&#241;os Unified School District meeting on July 9, trustees voted to approve a joint-use agreement between the district and the city of Los Ba&#241;os.</p><p>In this adoption, the city will be allowed to use the gyms, theater, swimming pool, stadium and fields that are currently under construction at the Pacheco High School site.</p><p>In part of the agreement, the district and city are involved in a pending sale of Pacheco Park on Pacheco Boulevard.</p><p>"(The district) bought the property for Pacheco High School from the city and they essentially used that money to purchase the park from us," Tietjen said last month. "We purchased the site for $6.8 million."</p><p>Tietjen said the park, 6.1 acres, may close escrow at the end of July for about $1.65 million.</p><p>"The rest of the money that we spent on the property is going to be returned through the joint-use agreements to allow for multiple use of the buildings and facilities," he said, which will be accessible to both the city and community members.</p><p>Trustees voted in the joint-use agreement and approved it in a 6-0 vote; School board member Colleen Menefee was not present for the vote.</p><p>"One thing board members would like to see in their adoption is a single point of contact for the public to use a facility," Tietjen said. "Currently, district practice is that if a community member wants to use a multi-use building, at Henry Miller (Elementary School) for example, they have to contact Henry Miller.</p><p>"It would be better to have a single point of contact at the district level," he said. </p><p>Tietjen said staff and board members are hoping to host a calendar on the district Web site for community members to access to view facilities and their availability for rental use.</p><p><b>District saves jobs</b></p><p>Also at the last board meeting, trustees approved in a 6-0 vote to use state stimulus funds for district staffing.</p><p>"We've saved 33 jobs for the 2009-2010 school year by using stimulus money for retention of employees and maintaining class size reduction," Tietjen said. </p><p>The district received $2.2 million in stimulus funds earlier in 2009 for general allocations that can be used for anything, Tietjen said. Additionally, $1.5 million was given for special education use.</p><p>"And that special education funding can also be used to pay costs that encroach in the general fund," he said. "For example, there's $600,000 in costs every year to transport special education students that no one helps us with. We just pay that out of the general fund. </p><p>"What that $1.5 million will allow us to do this year, it allows us to pay special education transportation costs thereby saving $600,000 of general fund money that will be used to fill the budget gap," Tietjen said.</p><p><i>Enterprise reporter Samantha Salas can be reached by phone at (209)388-6562 or by e-mail at ssalas@losbanosenteprise.com</i>