September 11th, 2006 Minutes
Present: Marguerite Willis, John Taylor, Jennifer Williams, Chris Skelly, Donna Paley, Bill Yager, Ned Wolf, Gerri Johnson Absent: Robert Aeschback, David Greenburg
Alternate Chair Marguerite Willis called the meeting of the Building Use Subcommittee (BUS) to order at 6:30pm. The meeting was held in the Central Office meeting room, at the Mohawk Middle School Wing.
Initial discussion concerned options for re-use or partial rental of buildings to other ventures. Concerns that even at $10/ft2 for rental would not generate “enough” revenue to offset the District budget problems, and that market rate is less than that amount in west county. Reuse to Towns may not result in any income for the District.
Ms Willis reported surveys were sent out to all schools concerning each school’s capital needs, including unexpected repairs, unfunded requests, and future predictions for upcoming needs. One survey returned from Heath, and Mr Yager reported that the prior capital list he submitted last year for BSE is unchanged.
The BUS had discussion about the factors that should be used in determining school “capacity”. Three different methods of assessing capacity needs were discussed, including the Scortino report. A list of assumptions was developed including: Set an average class size of 20 set as a typical figure, and a maximum achievable/acceptable average class size of 25; using average class size results in actual sizes higher or lower than the exact number; consolidation results in smaller deviation in class size; due to scheduling space should be left for 1 full classroom for art and music if classrooms exceed 14, or one shared class for art/music if the classroom count was less than 11, and if classrooms numbered from 11-14 it was problematic in space efficiently; schools should be able to seat all students with no more than 3 lunch periods; rooms for food service, library, staff, administration, and gym must be available; classrooms for preschool and before-/after-school programs are important but are less important than regular education if a choice must be made; using building code figures such as the minimum square footage per student as a benchmark for proper class sizes is not educationally nor physically sound reasoning; the committee wishes to avoid additions or renovations to accommodate new students into an existing building rather trying to optimize the existing facilities; predicting class sizes and capacities is made more difficult by school choice (including intra-district choice); only rooms which are “half classrooms” or larger will be considered classrooms; consolidation would lead to fewer multi-grade classrooms; and adequate data is not available at this point to accurately allocate space for SPED and other specialist services (reading, etc).
There was discussion on consolidation options particularly with respect to “splitting” students within one Town or village area between two elementary schools, and which models “fit”.
The Superintendent and Budget Subcommittee inquired if the BUS has assessed the capital improvement needs of existing buildings and also the capital costs of addition and renovations for all the proposals. This subcommittee reported back that intention is not to add-on to existing facilities at this point, we are awaiting capital needs survey responses and more specific direction before doing in-depth study and validating projected future capital costs.
The BUS reviewed the SWOT analysis to identify key factors relating to building use/reuse for the planning committee meeting on 9/14/06. Draft list attached to minutes, and this list will be reviewed and presented by the chairs/vice-chair.
The next meeting is posted for 09/19/06 (a Tuesday) at the Middle School.
The meeting adjourned at 9:01 pm.
Respectfully submitted, John E. Taylor
