Present: C. Morrison, W. Morrison, S. Heinrich, M. Morrison
Excused: J. Heinrich, T. Koenig
S. Heinrich called the meeting to order at 7:40 P.M.
S. Heinrich told the committee that the School Board and the administration are working on putting together the broad base committee.
C. Morrison told the committee she felt that implementing kindergarten should be severed from a proposal to build a middle school. She felt that if the School Board feels kindergarten is important, they should make it part of the School District curriculum. She also noted that the Capital Improvement Plan currently suggests a new elementary school and that the middle school solution could sink because of kindergarten.
S. Heinrich told her that the School Board has requested that kindergarten be included.
C. Morrison asked about buying or leasing currently existing space. She noted that she prefers the two school two grade solution. Further she asked if an auditorium will be included in a new middle school.
S. Heinrich asked whether the committee wanted to include space for a Superintendent's office and the School District Maintenance Department in the proposal. He indicated his concern that the district not hang the middle school proposal on kindergarten. He suggested separate warrant articles for kindergarten and for Superintendent offices and Maintenance space.
M. Morrison suggested that there might be a need to justify a middle school versus an junior high.
S. Heinrich noted that MMS currently is a good solid school which would need some renovation to turn it into a 5 - 6 school. As Technology Ed and Family & Consumer Science are not required in these grades, the current spaces could be reclaimed for large classroom spaces. He also felt that storage spaces could be found and many of the small spaces could be combined into larger classroom spaces. He noted that an approximate building cost is $100 per square foot and that kindergarten space is reimbursed at 75% and regular building aid is 30%.
M. Morrison wants the committee to define how many rooms are needed to meet the current need. Further he wants any space proposed to have addition potential.
W. Morrison asked what the committee wanted to put into their final report. He reviewed the PBC preliminary report to note that the report indicated the committee was going to do the following:
W. Morrison wants to meet with the architect to look at building issues and with the administration get a better handle on how the kindergarten numbers were determined. Further, he feels that building a 5 - 8 school on Buker and using MMS as a second grade 5 - 8 school will result in a political nightmare when it came to determining who goes to what school. He reminded the committee that the proposed tour of Buker still had not taken place due to inclement weather.
It was decided by consensus to tour Buker on May 21 at 1 PM and schedule a meeting with the architect on June 27. Further on May 23, the committee could finalize what additional information would be needed before the final report was written.
W. Morrison asked what needs to be in the final report. S. Heinrich suggested the preliminary report be used as a starting point.
M. Morrison suggested that the committee define the solution in a number of classrooms as was done for the high school addition. He feels a simple explanation may be best. Further, he indicated that the school board might consider making a program to be run on the local access channel to help explain and sell the proposal.
W. Morrison suggested that the committee should make a list of issues to be addressed that are beyond the scope of the committee to answer. M. Morrison concurred that the PBC does space and not curriculum, operational costs, bussing or other related issues but he reminded the committee that the kindergarten aid bill covers some operational costs per kindergarten that the district will re-coup when kindergarten is implemented.
S. Heinrich reported that the Parks and Recreation Committee/Mike Housman want to meet with the PBC to discuss development of athletic fields. He indicated that he had told M. Housman that the committee was busy with a school space issue. However, he suggested that the committee give them one hour on June 13th.
On a motion from M. Morrison, seconded by W. Morrison, the committee voted unanimously to adjourn at 9 PM.
Last Updated: July 22, 2000 by Wayne Morrison