At its final meeting before the start of a new fiscal year, the IUSD Board of Education this week voted unanimously to adopt a spending plan for 2012-13.

At the direction of its Board of Education, the Irvine Unified School District has mailed out thousands of fliers encouraging local residents to weigh in on a proposal to add vehicle shade structures outfitted with energy-generating solar panels to a dozen Irvine campuses.

Capping a year’s worth of meticulous planning with input from hundreds of local stakeholders, IUSD has completed a long-term “facilities roadmap” that will help guide construction and modernization decisions over the next 10 to 20 years.

The IUSD Board of Education on Tuesday approved an expanded communications plan to solicit feedback on a proposal to harness solar power at up to 12 additional Irvine campuses.

BY SUPERINTENDENT TERRY L. WALKER Every May, for better or for worse, the budget picture becomes a little clearer for school districts, as the state begins to solidify its spending plan for the next fiscal year. Unfortunately, that doesn’t seem to be the case this time around.

Calling for a greater effort to notify neighboring communities, the IUSD Board of Education continued a proposal to add canopies topped with solar panels to the parking lots of 11 Irvine schools.

It's been more than a year since IUSD held an activation ceremony to mark the installation of solar panels at 13 schools and a pair of support facilities, and the data that's been gathered over the last 12 months is

Student donations and fees were back in the spotlight at last week’s Board of Education meeting, as the district’s director of secondary education discussed the steps IUSD has taken to ensure compliance of California’s right to a free public education and outlined the impacts of seeking donations to preserve programs and activities.

With IUSD projecting a shortfall of about $5.3 million for the next fiscal year, the Board of Education voted this week to certify the district’s latest financial report as “qualified,” meaning adjustments will be necessary to present a balanced budget in June.

Earlier this month, IUSD’s Board of Education approved a set of educational specifications for the district’s high schools, marking the latest step in the process to develop a longterm "facilities roadmap" for the dist