Regular Board Meeting November 11, 2008
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UINTA COUNTY SCHOOL DISTRICT NUMBER ONE
MINUTES
BOARD OF TRUSTEES
November 11, 2008
5:30 P.M.
The regular meeting of the Board of Trustees for Uinta County School District Number One, State of Wyoming, was held on the 11th day of November, 2008, at 5:30 p.m. in the Board Room of the Educational Service Center, 537 Tenth Street, Evanston, Wyoming.
1. Open Meeting – Chairman Davis noted a quorum present and called the meeting to order at 5:45 p.m. Board Members present were Bob Faddis, Phil Petersen, Bruce Hudson, Orrin Martin, Kerby Barker, Kim Bateman, Kendra West, Mike Davis and Linda Cummings.
Others present were Superintendent Wilson, administrative, certified and support staff members, community members. Approximate number in attendance was 60.
2. Adopt Agenda – Chairman Davis requested to remove action item 8b 2007-08 Financial Audit from the agenda, as it is not ready at this time. It will be brought back for the November work session. Mrs. Cummings moved to approve the amended agenda as presented; second by Mrs. West; motion carried. Chairman Davis requested the addition of an executive session for the superintendent evaluation as agenda item 11. Mrs. West moved to approve the amended agenda as presented; second by Mrs. Cummings; motion carried.
3. Approve Minutes – Mrs. Cummings moved to approve the October 14 and 21, 2008 minutes as presented; second by Mr. Faddis; motion carried.
4. Approve Payment of Bills – Mr. Barker moved to approve the payment of bills as presented; second by Mr. Petersen; motion carried.
5. Discussion/Action Item
a. Facilities – Plan to be presented to School Facilities Commission
A copy of the facilities plan was handed out to each board member. Chairman Davis informed board members that there was a wording change from the original plan, where the word “BOCES” or “City” will be replaced with “local partnerships”. The reason for the wording change is due to the fact that the City of Evanston and BOCES are not able to make a commitment at this point and we want to leave the option open for down the road. Superintendent Wilson stated this is a five year plan and it could all change depending on what the School Facilities Commission says. The board is planning to take action on this plan tonight in order to present it to the SFC on November 18th in Pinedale. He gave a brief history and the reasoning for this plan. The SFC says that before we can look at a new facility for Horizon, we have to address our excess square footage issue. He explained what the process has been over the past few months to address this, and the work done at the series of facilities meetings held in October where a proposal was developed to present to the SFC. Our district is funded for 500,000 sq. feet and we have a little over 800,000 sq. feet. Currently, 300,000 sq. feet is being maintained through the general fund budget.
UCSD#1 Long Term Facility Goals and Strategies
From the four planning sessions held in October, three general goals that are related to facilities were set.
1. Reduce square footage through community partnerships
Ø Strategy 1: Deed vocational and classroom space at EHS to local partnerships. Rationale: allows local partnerships to offer adult vocational classes necessary in our community and certification programs to high school students.
Ø Strategy 2: Deed DMS Auditorium and music rooms to local partnerships. Rationale: allows local partnerships to offer more fine arts programming in the community.
Ø Strategy 3: Sell current ESC Annex building and central kitchen to local partnership. Rationale: allows them to utilize a centrally located building for community purposes.
2. Reconfigure existing services through rebuilding
Ø Strategy 1: Demolish current Kirlin Complex buildings. Rationale: Reduces overall square footage and make way for a new 5-6 school.
Ø Strategy 2: Remove Horizon students from current leased location. Rationale: required due to fire rating non-compliance.
Ø Strategy 3: Build a new combination Horizon School and support services building on triangle space behind current EMS. Rationale: a need exists for a new alternative school space and the combining of all support services under one space.
Ø Strategy 4: Move special services to basement of current ESC and food services to new support complex. Rationale: reduces square footage and moves these service offices closer to similar work groups.
3. Remodel buildings and reconfigure boundaries and grades to reduce overcrowding
Ø Strategy 1: Fill in pool at EHS and make a two floor space, including a first floor multi use room and vocational space with a partial second floor classroom spaces. Rationale: allows the high school a multi use room, vocational space and bigger, safer art spaces that removes the cost of ongoing pool maintenance and repair.
Ø Strategy 2: Demolish all of the current EMS facility except for the gym and rebuild a smaller grade 5-6 middle school. This would involve moving all grade 5 students from the elementary levels to reduce overcrowding and the need for extra elementary schools. Rationale: allows building a smaller middle school and reducing the number of elementary students in each current elementary school.
Ø Strategy 3: Reconfigure current elementary boundaries to equalize total enrollments at current elementary schools.
Mr. Selleroli and Dr. Bailey reviewed an inventory list of existing facilities, including square footage, current and future use.
Description of anticipated new or replacement facilities funded over the next 10 years:
Ø New Horizon School and District Support Services – constructed on current EMS site, combining new HHS facility and District Support Services (including central kitchen). 54,320 SF
Ø New Grade 5-6 School addition – constructed on current EMS site, utilizing existing EMS gym attached to new construction. Balance of current EMS school to be demolished. 46,250 SF
Mr. Selleroli and Dr. Bailey reviewed the anticipated impact of facilities maintenance or renovation on UCSD#1 Long Term Goals and Strategies. They also went over the inventory of real property owned by UCSD#1, including an explanation of current and future use.
Local enhancements and community facilities capable of supporting UCSD#1 Long Term Goals and Strategies:
Space Owner SF
EHS vocational Local partnerships 45,605
and classrooms
DMS auditorium Local partnerships 30,500
and music rooms
Student Enrollment Projections were discussed; with current numbers at 2,983 and projected enrollment in the 2018 school year to be 3,363.
Projections of land acquisitions to meet UCSD#1 Long Term Goals and Strategies – there are none anticipated at this time. The 40 acres of undeveloped land by the transportation department facility on Yellow Creek Road would be an appropriate location should an additional elementary school be needed.
Mr. Selleroli and Dr. Bailey reviewed the breakdown of cost estimates for each of the proposed facility remedies.
Impact of purposed UCSD#1 Facility Plan to total square footage of district owned or leased structures:
Ø Total current space in district: 864,262 SF
Ø Total Facility Plan square footage additions: 106,270 SF
Ø Total Facility Plan square footage reductions: -208,861 SF
Ø Total space in district following implementation 761,671 SF
of Facility Plan:
This plan eliminates about 100,000 square feet over a five year period. Dr. Bailey said if the SFC says no to the plan, then we take all but the Horizon School part to them. Mr. Barker asked questions about the letter from the WY Department of Education regarding their concerns with the 17.5 credit requirement to graduate for Horizon students vs. 29 credits for EHS students. Doug Rigby, Horizon Principal, explained briefly how the content based courses work and what is expected of students in order to meet the graduation requirements. He stated that we have passed the test with the WDE and have been approved to move forward with the SFC. If the Attorney General comes back and says we have to add additional credits, we can do that. Mr. Rigby gave a brief update on the Horizon students’ partnership projects with the City of Evanston. The archway over the greenway and the motocross track are the two projects moving forward that Horizon students proposed.
Chairman Davis publicly thanked the board members and administrators who sat through the facility meetings. All other board members have been informed as to what took place at those meetings. Mrs. West, who participated in these meetings, said it was amazing how everyone reached out of the box and feels we benefited from it. She still has concerns with BOCES needing to be a part of this; it just isn’t affordable at this time.
Mrs. Cummings moved to approve the facility plan to be presented to the School Facilities Commission on November 18, 2008; second by Mr. Petersen; motion carried.
6. Communications
a. Katie Beppler (France Trip) – Ms. Beppler, Foreign Language Teacher at EHS, requested board approval for a trip to France in April 2009. She will need a substitute for five days, as they will leave on a Wednesday and return the following Wednesday. The airfare is $400 less by traveling on these days. There are six students committed as this time, with four more who are interested. Mrs. West moved to approve the trip to France as requested; second by Mrs. Bateman; motion carried.
b. Public Comments
Wendy Schuler – 200 Liberty, Evanston, Wyoming, spoke to the board on behalf of the EHS P.E. Department regarding the filling in of the high school pool. The P.E. staff still don’t feel that filling in the pool is a good idea, as it will limit the options students have for P.E. She explained why a multi-purpose room would not work and the difference between that and an auxiliary gym. Some students will not be able to take gym with the loss of the pool. It would also affect rotating classes and we will not be able to offer the same curriculum without the pool. She does not see how filling in the pool helps with the square footage issue and feels that portion of the facilities plan needs to be revised. Also, there are a lot of students at EHS that are upset about the possibility of losing the pool.
Cheryl Cranford – 164 Toponce, Evanston, Wyoming, spoke to the board representing the Insurance Committee and as an EEA representative regarding the retiree insurance issue. In light of the uncertainty surrounding the retiree insurance program, the insurance committee would like to ask the board to reconsider the policy that eliminates retired employee’s access to UCSD#1 insurance after 6/30/09. They would recommend either reverting back to the previous policy or instituting part one of the policy submitted at the October work session. The reasoning behind this recommendation was due to:
- Concerns with the WSBA policy/plan that was presented to the insurance committee. There was significant difference in the plans that were presented in September and October to the two groups. They seem unwilling to send the current PPO plan, which leads us to question the transparency of the plan.
- The liability of $750,000 is not being funded by other districts in the state. The law required identification of a potential liability and other districts in the state are choosing to identify, but not to fund the liability. Additional research in this area would be beneficial prior to making drastic changes to the insurance benefit.
- Other district in the state did not change their policy for retirees because of the GASB45. Let’s move forward cautiously.
The effect on future insurance premiums is uncertain, and there are larger pool vs. smaller pool issues. They don’t feel there is a rush to do this right now, as we are at a 15% cap on the health insurance.
7. Presentation
a. C.A.N. Program (Suzanne Seppala) – Amanda Lester, EHS Student, introduced students from Riverton who are members of the C.A.N. Program. The group gave a presentation on the C.A.N. (Changing Attitudes Now) Program, which is an anti drug and alcohol program for students. An area at their high school is designated as the C.A.N. Room, where students can come in over lunch, after school and weekends. They gave program details and highlights since its implementation in Riverton four years ago.
Ø Pledge and Confidentiality Statement, Expectations, Requirements
Ø Incentives, Peer leaderships, Activities
Ø Student board members, C.A.N. Room supervisor
Ø 56 students (1st year), 98 students (2nd year), 220 students (3rd year) and 276 students (currently)
Ø They have extended the program to 4th, 5th and 6th grade students
Ø Community support is vital to the success of the program
In closing, Amanda Lester said it would be a great thing to start at EHS, especially since we have our drug testing program already in place.
8. Action Items
a. Approve Student Discipline – Mr. Petersen moved to approve the student discipline as presented in an earlier executive session; second by Mrs. West; motion carried.
b. 2007-08 Financial Audit – This item was removed, as the audit was not available at this time. It will be added to the November work session agenda.