EVERETT PUBLIC SCHOOLS
EVERETT, WASHINGTON Regular Meeting | ||
| The Board of Directors of Everett Public Schools, Snohomish County, Washington, held a regular Board meeting on Tuesday, November 28, 2006, beginning at 4:30 p.m., in the Board Room of the Educational Service Center, 4730 Colby Avenue, Everett, Washington. Those in attendance were Sue Cooper, Kristie Dutton, Karen Madsen, Ed Petersen and Roy Yates.
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| ADOPTION OF AGENDA
President Yates said that, due to the inclement weather and dangerous road conditions which made it challenging for staff members to attend the Board meeting, tonight’s agenda would be shortened by postponing the presentation about challenging options. In addition, Dr. Whitehead reported that there would be a revised Personnel Report. With that, Kristie Dutton moved to adopt the revised agenda. Sue Cooper seconded the motion and the motion carried unanimously. | ADOPTION OF AGENDA | |
| APPROVAL OF MINUTES
Ed Petersen moved for adoption of the minutes of the November 14, 2006, Board meeting. Sue Cooper seconded the motion and the motion carried unanimously. At the November 14 Board meeting, a quorum was not on hand who were also present at the October 24 Board meeting. Therefore, adoption of the minutes from the October 24 Board meeting were held over to tonight’s meeting. With that, Ed Petersen moved for adoption of the minutes from the October 24, 2006, Board meeting. Kristie Dutton seconded the motion and the motion carried. | APPROVAL OF MINUTES | |
| SUPERINTENDENT’S COMMENTS
Dr. Whitehead reported that, due to a snowstorm and the accompanying icy roads, school was not held today or yesterday. Whether classes will be in session tomorrow is also in question. One possibility is to start school later in the day to allow time for walking and driving conditions to improve. Dr. Whitehead said that District security staff patrol the sites and roads every night and report any issues. When weather becomes a concern, a team of three District staff—Terrie DeBolt and Sue Cheffer (of the Transportation Department) and Gary Jefferis (Maintenance Department) is mobilized to travel the roads to assess conditions and report to the superintendent. Contact is also made with the associate superintendents and the Communications Department and a phone tree is activated to notify several other administrators and support staff. By 5 or 5:15 a.m., the District reports its decision (via television and radio) about holding school. Early notification is important to help ensure that students do not report to school needlessly. The District’s Communications Office uses a remotely-operated electronic notification system through Northwest ESD 189. Dr. Whitehead noted that some of the other districts in the area have been affected worse than Everett by this storm—many are without electricity and are experiencing extremely icy road conditions. On December 13, from noon to 1:30 p.m., the District will be among those sponsoring a legislative luncheon at the Future of Flight Museum. Other sponsors and/or those involved in helping organize the event include Community Transit; the Cities of Mill Creek, Mountlake Terrace and Lynnwood; Snohomish County; Paine Field and other organizations. Dr. Whitehead invited the Board to attend. | SUPT’S COMMENTS
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| PUBLIC COMMENT
None. RECOGNITION OF RETIREES None. | PUBLIC COMMENT
RECOGNITION OF RETIREES | |
| ITEMS FOR INFORMATION
As noted earlier, the presentation concerning challenging options was postponed to a future Board meeting. |
POSTPONED | |
| The attached proposed revised Policy 7260—Gifts, was provided for first reading, with adoption to be recommended at a future Board meeting (E:58/07). The revisions pertain to inclusion of a reference to monetary donations. Also included is a reference to verbal/written thanks/commendations. Director of Finance Jeff Moore commented briefly. | PROPOSED REVISED POLICY 7260—GIFTS (regarding monetary donations and verbal/written thanks/commendations)—first reading
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| Financial reports were provided for the Board of Directors’ review (E:59/07). The reports include year-to-date information on revenues and expenditures, General Fund projections, a cash report and an investment summary. Jeff Moore provided a brief overview, noting that October’s report is similar to September’s. The District has a projected $11.1 million ending fund balance. He also pointed out that there is an estimated tax rate of $4.39 per $1,000 of assessed valuation which is well below the cap of $4.99 that was committed to the voters last year.
| FINANCIAL REPORTS AS OF OCTOBER 31, 2006
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| ACTION ITEMS
Sue Cooper moved for approval of the Consent Agenda items. Karen Madsen seconded the motion. 1) Personnel Report (revised) (E:60/07); 2) Voucher Lists (E:61/07); 3) Contract Between Everett Public Schools and Refugee & Immigrant Services Northwest (E:62/07); and 4) Monetary Gift from Mill Creek Elementary School PTA to Mill Creek Elementary School in the Amount of $14,500 for Classroom Technology Upgrades (E:63/07). The motion carried unanimously. |
CONSENT AGENDA | |
| The Administration recommended the Board of Directors award the bid for the new bus facility to Anda Construction, Inc., for the base bid of $4,220,000, plus Washington state sales tax (Bid 02:06/07). Six bids were received for the project, ranging from $4,220,000 to $4,819,000. A summary of these prices and a letter from Klappenbach Architects recommending the award of the bid are attached. On August 22, 2006, the Board authorized a call for bids with an estimated construction cost of $5,100,000.
Director of Facilities and Planning Mike Gunn said the District was pleasantly surprised by the results of the bids received. The bids came in under estimate and a reputable contractor (Anda Construction of Sedro Woolley) is being recommended. Anda’s bid is $4,220,000 and is $880,000 under the estimated construction cost of $5,100,000. Architects Dale Klappenbach and Kevin Oremus have worked with Anda and say very good things about them—their quality of work is excellent; they finish on time; they do not aggressively seek change orders; they are calm, honest and levelheaded. Kent School District had similar positive things to say about them. Anda Construction has done public works projects at a number of places. They have been in business for 13 years. Their largest project has been just under $7 million, so Everett is a good size project for them. Mike said that some of the reasons the bid was under the estimated construction price is that winter is typically a slow time for contractors and projects usually go out to bid in the spring. Everett’s project offers a lot of work indoors in the winter, to be followed by site work in the spring. This is a good local project for contractors who prefer to keep their best crews busy locally and indoors during the winter. In addition to the six general contractors who submitted bids, there were eight or nine each of electrical/mechanical sub-contractors, which is considered to be very good coverage. The market has also stabilized from about six months ago when the District went out for bid for the elementary #17 project. Commodities, such as asphalt prices, have stabilized. At the District’s urging, the architects “bumped up” the contingencies in their cost estimates from six months ago to relate to what was happening in the marketplace. Consequently, the District benefited in that it received lower bids than were expected. Board member Madsen asked for a definition of “unsuitable materials.” Mike said in this case it is dirt that is unsuitable for compaction. The price reflected in the bid document is for hauling away, replacing with suitable soil and compacting so that it is suitable for paving over. With no further comments, Karen Madsen moved to ward the aforementioned bid for the new bus facility to Anda Construction. Sue Cooper seconded the motion and the motion carried unanimously. | AWARD OF BID FOR NEW BUS FACILITY
AWARD OF BID FOR NEW BUS FACILITY (cont’d.) | |
| BOARD COMMENTS
Board member Madsen reported that she recently graduated from the Leadership WSSDA class. She thanked her Board colleagues for authorizing the District to pay for half of the tuition. It was a very interesting and rewarding class. Board member Madsen reported that she attended a recent meeting where Snohomish and Cascade High School students had the opportunity to talk to local legislators. Among the points made by Cascade students was a concern about diminished ASB revenues, crowded school lunches, weighting of GPAs and teacher salaries. Dr. Whitehead noted that the ASBs from Cascade and Jackson High Schools have requested to open their campuses at lunchtime for certain students. Their requests are being considered by the superintendent’s Cabinet. Board member Petersen said he felt the WSSDA Conference was very interesting, with many excellent presentations and workshops. He was particularly intrigued by the session (presented by Kennewick School District) concerning early childhood education. He suggested that further discussion and dialogue in this area is warranted. Associate Superintendent for Instruction Karst Brandsma indicated that Kennewick’s ideas are something Everett has been exploring for a long time. Dr. Whitehead said the Washington Learns document contains a large component concerning early learning. When asked about the possibility of extending the math component of the WASL to 2010, Dr. Whitehead said that at a recent WASA meeting of school administrators (held at the WSSDA Fall Conference), the white paper prepared by the Snohomish County superintendents was the focus of discussion. Superintendents across the state agreed with the white paper which was also sent to legislators, the Governor and Superintendent of Public Instruction Terry Bergeson. At an Advisory Committee meeting with Dr. Bergeson, the white paper was the topic of discussion. The proposal as outlined in a recent newspaper article was, for the most part, the same as the proposal the Snohomish County superintendents brought forward. Contained in the white paper is the expectation that, for the next three years, students could continue to take a high level mathematics class that would meet a certain standard and enable them to get their diploma. This would allow for catching the system up to the student timeline. Dr. Whitehead emphasized that the standards would not be lowered. There simply has not been enough time or money to get everything in place; thus, the need to modify the timeline. She went on to say that teaching mathematics takes additional training. Good work has been done to prepare teachers, but there is more to be done. Board member Dutton commented about the speaker at WSSDA who spoke of digital immigrants (those who came to the digital age from the “outside in”) vs. digital natives (students born after the beginning of the digital age) and the approach to teaching. | BOARD COMMENTS
BOARD COMMENTS (cont’d.) | |
| BOARD ACTION AND/OR BOARD DISCUSSION
The Board discussed the process for its self-evaluation. | BOARD SELF-EVALUATION
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| President Yates adjourned the regular meeting at 5:10 p.m.
_____________________________ ________________________________ Carol Whitehead, Secretary Roy Yates, President |