It's been a long year for Conejo Valley Unified School District, full of school closures, budget cuts and new faces on the school board.

In March, more than a year after the process had begun, the CVUSD board decided to close two elementary schools in the fall of 2009. A weakened state education budget and declining enrollment fueled the decision.

Board members voted 3-2 to shut down University and Meadows elementary schools despite months of protests and criticism from the public. Board members Mike Dunn and Tim Stephens voted against the closures.

After the vote, Meadows parents mobilized, first fighting for a magnet school and then a charter, Meadows Arts and Technology Elementary School (MATES), to open on the Meadows campus. MATES parents have said they have nearly 400 students whose families have signed intent-to-enroll forms, and the school is set to open in the 2009-10 school year.

In August, the CVUSD board denied the petition, prompting the parents to take it to the county, which eventually approved it with a 3-2 vote.

In the meantime, the board approved a magnet school to open at Manzanita Elementary.

The closures weren't enough to balance the budget, and the board spent a meeting studying their budget, deleting funds line by line.

The board cut $1.9 million from the CVUSD general fund to account for the governor's cuts in education funding and the developing issue of declining enrollment.

The district actually needs to cut about $4.5 million, but reductions in teacher staffing because of declining enrollment—totaling more than $2.5 million—as well as other various savings, had already been agreed upon.

Over the threehour study session, the board kept the cuts away from school sites as much as possible, although counselor access was reduced at Los Cerritos Middle School and T.O. High School. Some custodial positions at the elementary and high school levels were also eliminated, and the high school's dean of attendance position was cut in half. Other cuts were made in travel and conference budgets, organization memberships, child nutrition contributions, supply budgets, secretarial positions and a couple of other district office jobs.

The board reached the $1.9million goal with a $48,000 cushion.

In August, a settlement was reached in an unfair labor charge filed by the teachers union against Conejo Valley Unified School District.

The Unified Association of Conejo Teachers (UACT) filed the charge with the Public Employment Relations board in 2006, after school board member Michael Dunn polled and repeatedly contacted UACT members regarding the winter break schedule. The union is the "explicit representative" of its members, said UACT executive director Arleigh Kidd.

The settlement requires Dunn to complete three hours of training in responsibilities and prohibitions for board members in collective bargaining.

Two longtime CVUSD trustees, Dolores Didio and Dorothy Beaubien, who had served on the board for 20 and 25 years, respectively, decided not to seek reelection this year. Voters trusted the teachers union endorsements, and Betsy Connolly and Peggy Buckles were sworn in Dec. 15.