After roughly nine and half years of service in the Burbank Unified School District, Steve Ferguson, the first openly gay member of the board and a former president, turned in his formal resignation on Thursday.
The fairly lengthy letter was read by Dr. Emily Weisberg, the president, at city hall and took about three minutes.
Here is a portion of the heartfelt letter. “I want to thank the community for the opportunity of a lifetime, and I want to thank the students, all the students,” he wrote.
In 2015, Ferguson, a partner in a political and media strategy company, was an at-large member of the BUSD and initially elected in a nonpartisan primary election in February of that year.
Ferguson received enough votes to get elected to the board without advancing to the general election.
Two years earlier, Ferguson, who was born and raised in Burbank and attended Burbank High, ran for a seat on the board but was unsuccessful and in 2009 ran and lost in a Burbank City Council race.
Ferguson volunteered briefly for Hilary Clinton during her presidential run in 2008.
Two speakers spoke at the five-minute public forum section, and one was longtime Burbank resident Joel Schlossman, who mentioned that three members of the BUSD and the Burbank Teachers Union conspired to block all the other candidates from endorsement.
“They made a deal to exclude everyone else [other candidates],” he said. “They’re resistant to common sense and want to go into the taxpayers’ wallets.”
Schlossman then added: “You hit new lows all the time. You don’t listen to other people’s views,” he said. “You’re not right all the time. They [the BUSD] want to cancel me like I don’t exist.”
By a 4-0 vote, the BUSD approved an agreement with the family services agency of Burbank to provide school-based counseling services.
Peter Knapik, Assistant Superintendent, Educational Services, recommended the Board of Education approve the agreement between the BUSD and Family Service Agency of Burbank continue to provide individual and group counseling to elementary and secondary school pupils, effective August 2, 2024, through June 30, 2025, and not exceed $119,166.67 LCAP supplemental funds.
The early portion of the nearly two-hour opening meeting began on a bittersweet note as a bench at Bret Harte Elementary School to honor the memory of teacher Karyn Lombardo, who spent 30 of her 33 years as a kindergarten teacher, was approved.
“This would honor her memory and make a beautiful addition to the school,” Weisberg said of the 57-year-old instructor who fell and hit her head during an altercation with her adult son in May.
The idea for the bench came from Sam Benson, who is this year’s Bret Harte Fundraising Committee President.
