Bolton School Needs Assessment Committee
Date: Wednesday, November 28, 2005
MINUTES
[X] Addy Buffum
[X] Richard Fly
[X] Ted Kirchner
[X] Tom Pokorney
[ ] Leigh Shanny
[X] Karen Cavaioli
[ ] Joel Bates
[X] Ken Tucker
[X] Bob Tower
[ ] Margaret Campbell
[X] Panny Gerken
[X] Chris Slade
Meeting Location: Florence Sawyer Conference Room Begin: 6:35 PM End: 07:15 PM
1. Minutes from the November 16th meeting were approved.
2. MSBA information is now available from Panny. Copies will be distributed.
· Projections and needs are being assessed right now. There will be no new grant information until July 2007. It is being phased. Project manager has to be assigned before even starting. They are now encouraging renovations instead of new structure.
· Energy conservation and preservation is a big push right now. Ken stated that an energy audit was recently done and none of the buildings in the district did very well.
· Shares are between 40 and 80. Base rate is 31%.
· Overall, everything will be much different than last time. July of 2006 will be the start of information being available.
3. The three sub-committees reported on their status:
a. Population Forecast Committee met and they are currently compiling information covering 25 years if possible: town population, historical school enrollment, birth rates, building permits/occupancy permits, census info and unemployment data.
b. Space Needs Committee met last week and modeled the type of space, the periods by kids and subject. Now they are looking at how to model the current capacity which includes other infrastructures like the cafeteria.
c. Regulatory Guidelines Committee asked for a little more guidance outside of what was discussed last time. Playground is an issue especially since it was built by the town before being used by the school. The Emerson Cafeteria is also an issue; opening a second cafeteria is very expensive. The nurse’s office is also undersized. The Space Committee will look into the needs; the Regulatory will look into the rules. The Population Forecast committee questioned whether or not we will be increasing the number of preschool classrooms to accommodate some of the special needs of pre-school age children.
4. More information is now available for the K-8 model for school systems. This data will also be useful when putting together our final report. One question is how big a K-8 school can get to continue to be the optimal atmosphere.
5. The agenda for next meeting is to share the progress of the three committees to help towards the goal of final presentations on March 3rd. More time is available if this is not reasonable.
NEXT MEETING: December 12th at 6:30, Florence Sawyer Conference Room
Bolton School Needs Assessment Committee minutes taken by: Addy Buffum
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