CCSD 46 Board Notes 05/01/2006

Below are my notes from the school board meeting tonight. If there are corrections or additions please let me know. My comments will be [italicized].

BOARD OF EDUCATION
COMMUNITY CONSOLIDATED SCHOOL DISTRICT 46
MONDAY, MAY 1, 2006
MIDDLE SCHOOL
7:30 p.m.

A. Call to Order
B. Roll Call

• Kieth and Jill absent

C. Establishment of Quorum
D. Pledge of Allegiance
E. Approval of Agenda

• Approved 5-0

F. Public Comment

• Traci Crowley
  • Thank you for all the committee reports
  • Tech question – are the towers doing what they are supposed to do?
• Lennie
  • Should not approve joinging Fed Ed. You will be using taxpayer money to lobby for more taxpayer money. Not a wise use of taxpayer money.

G. Consent Agenda

1. Approval of Minutes
2. Approval of Accounts Payable
• Approved 5-0
3. Approval of Personnel Report
• Approved 4-0 (Mark abstained)

H. Superintendent/Board Report

• Cheryl
  • Meadowview performance, really nice
• Sue
  • Went to luncheon with Fed Ed and got a better briefing on NCLB and IDEA
• Kristen
  • Nothing at this time
• Karen
  • Ellen will have rest, but teams did well at State
• Mark
  • Art projects shown throughout building
  • Music performance (2, 1-2, 3-4)
  • Thanks to all
• Ellen
  • Science Olympiad, Frederick 5th
  • Some will be at next meeting
  • Thanks to Ursula and Mary Allen
  • 2006 Recognition award from Illinois Principal Association (Read names)
  • Avon interviews will take place May 9th, interviewing 5 people
  • Dan now in charge of the Tech Committee
  • Ellen in charge of Gifted
  • Tony Beverly in charge of Wellness
  • Several FOIA requests

I. New Business:

1. Discussion Items

A. Life/Safety Update – Fred Schuster – Ruck Pate Architects

• Fred Schuster
  • Required by the State every 10 years
  • Last survey in 1996
  • Did not need to survey Frederick or Prairieview because of young age
  • Analyze use of space, calculate safe number of occupants, make safety drawings form this
  • Review equipment and property
  • Make a list of all things that need to be fixed/replaced/updgraded
  • Total estimated cost of fixes would be $1.3 Million in these items, including leeway and contingency fees
  • Forms in packet as required by the State
  • State allows levying on a restricted basis for Life Safety expenses
  • Comes out of same tax cap so it doesn’t really increase levies, may be able to use bonds for some of these, but that needs to be checked to see if they apply
  • Found several urgent items have time restrictions to be fixed
  • Most schools implement these fixes over time and practicality
• Tim (Rick Pate)
  • Team of architects walked through buildings
  • A items are urgent, That is state definition and not that urgent
  • Removed some items from Life Safety report if already in maintenance plan
  • Meadowview – addition of an alarm device (at single door), plumbing code fixes, toilet partitions
  • Avon – Steel column rusty needs replacing, hardware on doors for fire separation, mechanical equipment
  • Woodview – One fire alarm device, plumbing, move doors for fire safety corridor
  • GM – Water heater, cover for floor electrical outlets
• Sue
  • Does $ figure include urgent items? yes
• Ellen
  • Proud to know our maintenance has kept our buildings in such great shape
• Dan
  • Thanks to John for the good news

B. Band/Chorus

• Lynn Barkley
  • Past, present and future history
  • Reminder of January presentation on different staffing options
  • Quinlan & Fabish handling band this year
  • 3 options
    1. 1 full time chorus and 1 full time band
    2. outsource chorus and 1 full time band
    3. outsource both chorus and band
  • Information from high school music program and how it is affecting them in the packets
• Nancy – Choir
  • 180 active in chorus
  • pay 10/month
  • See ms at twice per week
  • split Frederick into 2 groups because of size
  • May 22nd final concert in conjunction with High School Choir at High School
  • Can read sixteenth and 2 eight note rhythms
  • done songs in several languages
  • Musical notation everyday by writing on the board
  • Focus on music education not performance
  • Music can be a life long learning experience
• Rich – Band
  • 65 kids at middle school
  • 85-90 at Frederick
  • Some attrition and it is normal
  • Will be growth in future years because of returning students and new recruiting
  • Problems with late start this year
  • Need better plan in advance, spring recruitment
  • Asked to practice 6 days a week and 1 day of band, kids did well
• Cheryl
  • Do you have recruitment ideas? Last page, band should be done early; More detailed than choir; if Middle School classes will be back during the day, it needs to be decided soon for scheduling
  • Nancy – Choral can start later than band
  • Rich – High volume of students and limited size of band room at Frederick
• Sue
  • Were you blending the possibility if the recruitment was for full time staff or outsourcing? Either is possible at this point
  • Fees the same for next year? Don’t know yet. Interested in getting as many students as possible whatever the decision on outsourcing
  • Concerned about switching now with Madrona opening in another year. Would like to see the district take it over, but concerned this is not the right time for that.
• Cheryl
  • Need more information and cost factors for the different scenarios
• Sue
  • Modify agenda to remove the voting on band tonight and place it on the next board meeting
• Lynn
  • What should the teachers do with recruiting now? Board – yes, continue
  • Choir could start earlier
  • Karen – without board action it should not affect recruiting

C. Website Capabilities – Melinda Bush

• Melinda Bush
  • Developed in mid 90′s
  • Claris homepage software
  • Dreamweaver in 2000/2001
  • 2003/2004 – moved to content managed site
  • 2004/2005 – Loss of webmaster, loss of building web editor positions
  • mid 2//4/05 – new stream lined designed – volunteer created time
  • update timely, information limited
  • pages updated with administrative directives only
  • Students section that can be used from home
  • School Info – minimal info since each school no longer has its own webpage
  • Download link for parents
  • Annual Staffing – $0, software – $300
  • Staff Hours – < 3 hours per week
  • How do we improve our web presence minimal changes in funding levels?
  • look for free resources, Trumba calendars, PHPlists, mySQL
  • Current staff
  • Oursourcing
  • Webpage survey for parents, staff to determine audience
  • Begin redesign after survey
  • Goals – Spring 05/06 – review survey and begin redesign
  • Summer – complete redesign
  • Middle school maintained site
  • Questions from the board – yes to all
• Sue
  • Has there been any consideration to whether new staffing is needed? people within staff have some skills that can help. Rearrange schedules to make time. Have ideas about staffing.
  • Could outsource and spend a lot less money than new staffing

  Can we tell if community members are coming to the website? no, just how many visits

• Karen
  • When will the survey be up? Hope to have the survey out in a couple of weeks
• Cheryl
  • May be better to have parents sign up for email instead of having to come to our website
• Melinda
  • Nothing proposed tonight that cannot be done with current staffing
  • May have some small setup costs

D. Budget – Surplus, Technology Costs, Negative Balances

• Dan
  • Need to pay attention to the cash flow ups and downs
  • Mary Lou – talk about cash forecasting

  Keith Arrived

  • Mary Lou
    • Received cash flow report from PMA
    • Aug 06 – top of line shorter than in Oct 07 because of surplus
    • [Without the charts this is pretty much useless information]
    • Try to keep liquid funds at $1 million
    • Does not include site and construction
    • 65% from local (real estate taxes)
    • 32% from state
    • 13% from feds
    • Salaries – biggest expense 71%, benefits 13%
  • Gave board an envelope with a CD with the assumptions
  • Financial Projection Plan (FPP)
  • 5 year projections, ongoing resource allocation process
  • aggressive application for grants and outside revenue
  • Improved education fund balance from 0.63% (2003) to 27.64% (projected 2006)
  • Projections given do include the opening of the school in Madrona Village
  • Does not include additional interest that could possibly be transferred into the education fund
  • Projected to end 2007 with a $7.7 fund balance, new staffing plan included in this
  • After Madrona, 2008 there will be a $1.5 million dollar deficit in spending vs revenues, but Fund balance will still be positive through 2011. This is without any creative changes and interest transfers
  • O&M healthy
  • Transportation healthy
  • No state aid transfers included in the other funds, are going to hit the point where local funds exceed amount and state aid will start being reduced
  • revenue + growth pressures a steady state
• Keith
  • If referendum, does it affect state aid? Not 1-1 relationship, but there is an affect. Will together a sheet to show the relationship
• Kristen
  • What about the PMA report? You’ll see the actual report, but these are the numbers from the PMA report. dan will get out the full 87 page document
• [To me, these fund balances suggest Madrona will open without a referendum and that a referendum is not needed for at least 4-5 more years]

E. 2006-07 Board Meeting Calendar

• Karen
  • Could we move meetings to 7 instead of 7:30
  • Kristen may have a problem
  • Cheryl – 7 is good
  • Keith – 7:30 is fine
• Ellen
  • Made a couple changes because of religious or federal holidays
• Sue
  • April change – Need to meet 14 days after election votes
  • Ellen will check and move it if needed

F. Monthly Enrollment Report

• Ellen
  • Up 4
  • 94 since fall

G. Agenda Items for May 15, 2006

• Ellen
  • Science Olympiad
  • Band & chorus
  • Bonds
  • Gifted
  • Tech
  • Financial
  • Board Calender
• Sue
  • Put band items on band and chorus
  • If available, can it be delivered earlier

H. Future Agenda Items

• Ellen
  • Bring back Melinda at sometime
2. Action Items:

A. Location & Time Change of June 12, 2006 Board Meeting

• Dedication plaque for Dennis Ash and officialy rename library
• 6:30 with board meeting following
• Approved 6-0

B. Band/Chorus

• tabled

C. FED ED Consortium

• Cheryl
  • $295 per year
  • Cheryl & Sue went to luncheon last Friday
• Sue
  • Other issue that was clear – feel that by lobbying that we are making them accountable for their promises they made
  • Thought IDEA fundigng may go to 0. At 17% now down from 18.7%
  • Approved 5-0, Kristen abstained

D. Educational Benefit Cooperative Resolution

• Dan
  • grouping of 57 schools to pool together for health and life insurance
  • Good representation from the whole district
  • 24.6% increase with Humana next year
  • EBCR – rates decrease beginning July 1 2006, board cost in packets
• Keith – Are all the participants willing to stay in for the three years? Is it stable? IS the cost because of the power in numbers? Yes, they have been together for 15 years and are stable
• Approved 6-0

J. Public Comment

• John Bruder
  • 2 students in d46 (7th and 4th)
  • Read statement from NSBA handbook
  • Claimed board failing since no gifted testing and no gifted programs
  • Tried to skip oldest to 1st instead of K, told no
  • after testing, skipped 4th grade
  • worked with teachers each year
  • taking algebra at Sylvan
  • spend between 5-6k per year for the last 3 years to keep him going
  • tried to work with high school to take classes, they refused
  • may be taking classes at CLC
  • looking into skipping 8th grade and going to high school
  • concerned that puts him into college at 16

K. Closed Session – Open Meetings Act 83-378 – To consider information regarding appointment,
employment, compensation, discipline, performance or dismissal of specific employees of the public body
& the probability of discussing action in front of an administrative body.
L. Adjournment