Board approves Catalyst assessments and SEL contracts for three high schools

At a special meeting July 21, the 24 Board of Education approved multiple Catalyst contracts to support schoolwide climate assessments and social-emotional learning programming at Bassett, Casa and Dassen high schools.
Mark Hughes, who presented the items, said “there are 2 contracts for work that was performed in the 2425 school year” and described the first as a $35,000 comprehensive schoolwide assessment “to develop recommendations for school wide interventions to improve the school climate.” He said the second contract, for $58,000, covered Catalyst’s coordination and delivery of SEL programming at Casa High School from March 1 to June 30.
The board moved and approved the agreements by voice vote; the transcript does not record a roll-call tally for these specific motions. One subsequent item on the agenda authorized Catalyst SEL programming at Dassen High School; the motion carried, and no contract amount for Dassen was stated on the record.
The contracts were presented as work already completed during the 2024–25 school year and described by Hughes as items that “should have been brought up to the board when the other Catalyst contracts came up, but they were not.” No board member asked for additional conditions or changes before approval.
The contracts are intended to provide recommendations and direct SEL programming at the named schools. The board did not discuss funding sources or the contracts’ line-item effects on the district budget during the public portion of the meeting.
Less urgent details: the presentations and votes occurred during the meeting’s regular business; no public speakers were registered on these agenda items.