school board meeting

Hi -

~ I haven't been at school board meetings lately, so I apologize for the lack of updates.
From what I have read in the papers and heard, the building projects have been being discussed and tonight there was a presentation made by Crabtree Rohrbach that showed (alot but in a nutshell) this .....
RENOVATING ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS
Dalmatia alone is going to cost 4.3 - 6.6 million (I dont think the lower estimates include air-conditioning)
Leck Kill 1.8 - 2.6 million (architects cautioned against this due to the parking lot not actually belonging to school)
Trevorton 6.1 -10.8 million (not sure exactly how the water problem will be addressed ? details to be discussed later)
Adding addition to the high school
6.4 - 7.1 million (Note that the presentation was for grades 7 - 12 however going to an actual middle school concept was discussed 6 - 8 and 9 - 12 to avoid intermingling of students but I'm not sure that the plans shown - will actually do that for there will still be many combined areas as it is now ...)
so the entire project will end up costing roughly 20 million.
We actually pretty much knew this from their presentation back in the fall - its on line with all of that and you can see it in more detail at: http://www.linemountain.com/board/buildingproj/feasibilitystudy.html

~ There was much discussion amongst board members and input from the public was given.
~ Opinion was sought by one board member of our administrators -both our soon to be former Superintendent Sodrick and soon to be Superintendent Campbell ... stated in a nutshell that it will be very costly to proceed with the project. It is not just with the building project but costs moving forward.
Also - the architects in their professional opinion stated a combined elementary school for grades k4 - 6 and doing the high school for grade 7 - 12 makes the most fiscal sense. What they have seen in other schools across the state is an increase (not just in the up front building costs) but ongoing operating costs of administrators, guidance counselors, properly trained staff for middle school concept, how it is staffed makes a difference in the success, not that it wont necessarily be successful if we don't do it like that but ...

Having said that ...
a motion was made to ... NOT MOVE FORWARD WITH A MIDDLE SCHOOL ...
(again there was more discussion ... you can probably read about that in the paper the News Item I know was present ...)
Voted to pass the motion = Erdman, Kauffman, Blasius, Laudenslager
Voted to not pass the motion = Keim, Roach, Sample, Buddock
4-4 = Tie means motion fails ...
they are authorizing the architects to proceed with the expansion at the high school level!

Having done that ...
discussion was made on the benefits and cost analysis of a new elementary school - revisiting this concept the architects pointed out that it would cost around 17 million for new state of the art facility ( as opposed to the renovation of all three schools coming in at around the same, see above) - - - (no that does not include land but it did include some for site development) --- oh and there was also discussion as to why we were even talking about it since it was voted on at the December meeting ...

(& I must say, I am trying not to quote anyone else in this email - some people I very much agreed with and others I cannot understand, hard as I try , where they are coming from ... I mean I see where they are coming from but district wide I do not agree these decisions are in the best interest of everyone living here and especially the students of all grades in the district --- ) but I will say that I had to say this: I think it is OK to revisit an issue. It may have been voted on at the December meeting but after 6 months of research we are finding out more on the costs and implications of the decisions of that meeting - I said it is ok to not plow ahead into something that we may regret later if it doesn't make sence fiscally. If all of this money is being spent on building and additions and renovations - I don't know how there will be money left moving forward in the many years to come for teachers and text books ....I just have to stress this point because I truly feel our district is at a major crossroads here .... & board members have said how prior boards have made mystakes, we dont have to repeat those same mystakes here we have a chance to make the right decision for all involved ) ---- well ...

anyway A MOTION WAS MADE TO COMBINE THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS INTO ONE CENTRAL SCHOOL ...
Voted to pass motion = Kauffman, Erdman, Laudenslager
Voted to not pass motion = Keim, Roach, Sample, Blasius, Buddock
5 -3 = motion fails ...
they are authorizing architects to proceed with fixing up all three of the elementary schools !

so now - the architects will proceed with drawings for the high school and all three elementary schools and this is what the time frame is looking something like this, at this point:
Design phase June - August 2007
Design Development Phase August through Dec 2007
Construction Document Phase Sept - Dec 2007
Bidding Phase Jan & Feb 2008
Construction Phase 2008 - 2009
which means we start paying the architects within this next years budget for all of these decisions ... I think I heard the figure of a million dollars (?) there- but I am not sure if I heard that right (my mind was spinning because I kept thinking about all the people that came out to speak at the town meetings and while some were for a combined elementary and some were for rennovating the elementaries, I just didnt hear anyone come out about the middle school and yet ... here we are ...) ----

which brings me to the last interesting point of this email ...
the 2007-2008 general fund budget was set to be passed tonight but there was a blank of the # of mils and rate of money --- that led into major discussions too - largely in part of what I outlined above -
from what I understand this year the state is allowing an increase of 5.467 - and in trying to decide whether to increase to that - many did not want to agree until the decision was made about the projects. . .
After having attended this meeting, I do not have the energy to even get into reiterating THAT conversation but I will say this ... at the next board meeting - the budget will be passed at which point we will know the mil increase.
I don't want to see our taxes go up --- but they will regardless of the building project - so what I am very concerned about is how much they will now that the two motions above failed and what the money will be spent on.
I also want to point out there was much discussion about our fund balance- a certain amount necessary for operating expenses ... should it be there, shouldn't it be there, how much can we tap into it, should we tap into it - how long it has been there - balancing financial philosophies - for one time expenses for ongoing expenses- etc. etc. --- I also did point out to the board when it was time for public comment that I remember last year there being discussions about which programs we could cut (one suggested and implemented was K-4 gone - another suggested was the entire ag program - another option was to make kids pay to play sports, tickets for sporting events went up - etc. I emailed you guys in the past on that ) --- if the budget COULD have been tweaked any more for more income, then why wasnt it this past year ? - and how can we possibly next year? What is coming down the pike?

so anyway ...
I took the time to tpye this as I just felt as a taxpayer you might want to be aware of it.
Also if you are a parent, what is projected to be done to the buildings..... (and more importantly after that, what is left for teachers and textbooks and other things needed?) So there you have my analysis of the meeting. It is just the way I saw it - take it for what it is worth.
If you want to see for yourself ... The next meeting is:
Tuesday June 26th 2007 6:30 Jr/ Sr high school.

If you have something to say about any of this, it would be wise to attend.
Even if you just want to go to see how many mils taxes are going to go up - that should be decided then for the budget for 2007-2008 needs approved.


Sincerely,
Lauren Hackenburg
LHIR@comcast.net