Board declines 2-3 to remove Bylaw 9310 revision from agenda; Hills places §35010 framework on the record
Vote 2-3
At the August 14, 2025 regular board meeting, item 7E placed Board Bylaw 9310 (the board's policy on creating board policy) on the agenda for revision discussion. Trustee Joan Malczewski moved to remove item 7E, arguing on the floor that the proposed revision was proceeding without the existing bylaw's specified revision steps (data gathering, staff and public input, related-policy review). The motion to remove failed 2-3; discussion proceeded. Trustee Howard Hills placed his recurring Education Code §35010 framework on the record: "the maxim of all legislative law at the federal, state, and local level is that one legislative body cannot bind another legislative body, a later legislative body. Any act of a legislative body can be undone, reversed, changed, modified, repealed by a subsequent legislative body." Hills additionally objected on the floor to the existing bylaw's provision permitting majority-vote suspension of board policy or bylaw, characterizing it as "unconstitutional… overly broad and vague and violates due process." The August 14, 2025 procedural fight is the upstream template for the February 12, 2026 Bylaw 9322 (agenda development authority) revision on second reading, where the same procedural-objection structure recurred.
People referenced
Citations (2)
- Laguna Beach Unified School District
Official LBUSD recording of the August 14, 2025 meeting. Hills's Ed Code §35010 framework speech and Malczewski's procedural-steps objection are on the open-session record.
- Laguna Beach Unified School District · 2025-08-14
Closed-session counterpart to the August 14, 2025 open session (17m05s). Same recording captures Malczewski's failed 2-3 motion to remove item 7E and Hills's Education Code §35010 'no board can bind a future board' framework; the Doe Jane v. LBUSD anticipated-litigation reference from the same closed session is captured as a separate event.