Minutes

February 25, 2004 Master Plan Facilities Committee

Taken by Diane Morey

 

The meeting went from 7 to 10 PM

 

Dick Powell: Reminder to members that meetings will be held as often as necessary to get the job done. He has heard statements that information is not being made available to committee members, and members prefer getting information before presentations. In the future, information will be delivered electronically to members before scheduled meetings. All requests for information, that Dick is aware of, have been provided. Paul and Nick are consultants and their ideas are from interviews with WCSD staff and their experiences. If you have an idea that you want considered, then share it with Paul. Operating costs – will be included with any scenarios that are brought forth by the committee. Dick thanked committee members for their continued participation and efforts.

 

Paul Abramson: Tonight’s meeting is for reports from subcommittees. A survey is posted on the web site. He has a paper copy that is similar, and would like members to fill it out tonight, so he gets an idea what the priorities/feelings of the members are.

 

Donna Soto, Communications Subcommittee

• Goals: survey/poll community
• Came up with unbiased questionnaire, electronic delivery
• Asked ourselves what could/would we do with survey results from an uninformed audience? (i.e: What if 90% surveyed were against any construction and this became a newspaper headline?)

 

• New Goal:
• Educate (inform community by giving facts that help explain issues, needs. Deliver this using Internet, Senior Centers, Students, etc.)
• Possibly a survey after this.

 

Karen Long: Length of bus ride (10 minutes by car = 40 minutes by bus due to numerous stops)

 

Pete (Town of East Fishkill): WCSD can mail double sided paper with information as insert with town tax statements once each year at no cost to district.

 

• Manning & Miller can get mailings out that will cover entire District. (3^rd class)

 

• WCSD can air on Cable 6

 

Question: Could smaller scale survey be given to public to “test” public opinion?

 

Ann Fadgen: Cable 6 is ok, but satellite customers won’t get this. What about (free?) radio spots on local stations?

 

Pete: very little “local” radio programming anymore.

 

Keri Peterson, Master Plan Inter-Agency Cooperation Subcommittee Presentation

 

• Transportation:
• 1 bus/route for P&P students
• pick up for multiple Districts (1 vendor can)
• Routing: use Dutchess County GIS System to even out boundary lines separating Districts
• Shared Service: Bus Runs w/Senior Citizen pickup

 

• Outreach/Shared Services
• New District Building?
• Pool use w/YMCA?
• WCSD Summer camps are cancelled when rain
• Libraries & Computer Labs: security issues, OK with proper staffing
• Fingerprinting: Can town police do this for WCSD? (for a lower fee?)
• Recreational facilities: District use of town facilities w/shared maintenance costs
• Summer Programs: computer labs
• Student Internships: tape town meetings

 

• Communication/Support
• Planners make presentations at Board of Education meetings
• County is least involved (state/town), and needs to become more involved
• Liaison (BOE members) or COS go to town planning meetings to get information well in advance.
• Access to District Employees
• More support towns and WCSD (tax certiorari): tax collections

 

• Development/Facilities
• Land: town of East Fishkill (for instance) might have had land over the years – if asked.
• Shared bus garage/parking: with town agencies – shared costs
• Shared Fields
• Road Improvement: get 1 to 5 year plan from state, county, towns. WCSD gives towns information on problem areas.
• Portioning the Buildings: physical separation of building(s) for different uses including possible community use, especially in summer.

 

• Who is going to mesh the subcommittees’ proposals together for a final product?

 

• Meetings with town representatives have begun (in Fishkill)

 

• Police substations at High Schools?

 

• Shared Health Services?

 

Note: the handouts for the following two presentations are currently being formatted for the web. As soon as they are ready, the “see handout” links below will become active.

 

Marjorie Variano & Deborah Weisel, Full Day Kindergarten Research presentation (see handout)

 

Linda Baskey, Vision Committee Preliminary Report (see handout)