Minutes

April 14, 2004 Master Plan Committee Meeting

Taken by Charles Hill

 

Mr. Powell handed out Mr. Abramson's April 6 interim report and Dr. Jaeger's Framework for Master Plan Analysis

 

The district has been using a state-mandated 5-year facilities plan/building conditions survey. Nick Waer, the district architect described the context and history behind this kind of plan. This kind of analysis often leads the district to develop a proposal that goes to the voters. Some items may be placed within the ordinary contingent budget.

 

Mr. Powell handed out a chart and a table showing the district's debt service from the 2003-4 through the 2011-12 school years. Both he and Michele Moloney described the bonding process. The district and its bond counsel will consult about any possible building proposal with a goal of having the long-range costs spread across the years so that the debt service costs in any one year are not significantly out of line with others. He also discussed various strategies the state has used to spread out its building aid payments.

 

Dr. Jaeger described his framework as a tool for examining strengths and weaknesses of each of Mr. Abramson's scenarios. The committee will then split into subcommittees to go over various educational visions that have come up in past discussions.

 

Mr. Abramson went over each scenario briefly. These are described in more detail in the minutes from prior meetings.

 

Dr. Jaeger went over the "visions" feedback form in his handout. The visions concerned the following:

  1. Full or extended day kindergarten
  2. Middle and secondary school "magnets"
  3. Learning labs and media studios
  4. Teacher-and-teacher, student-and-student, and teacher-and-student collaboration centers
  5. Alternative middle school and high school
  6. Robust technologies
  7. Inclusion classes
  8. Career development - service learning
  9. Our schools as community centers
  10. Educational centers to serve students K-12

 

The scale for these visions ranged from 1 (do not include) to 3 (neutral) to 5 (essential)

 

Subcommittees spent time discussing each of the ten "visions".

 

April 28 meeting:

  1. First hour to be used by subcommittees to continue the ten visions. The last 15 minutes will be spent on subcommittees sharing their conclusions with everyone else. Subcommittees should be able to submit a document that contains their conclusions.
  2. Second hour will deal with financials.