Thursday, December 12, 2013

Board Meeting After Defeat of Proposal

Tuesday evening (Dec. 10) the Board of Education held a special meeting to discuss next steps following defeat of the capital proposal. While there was a relatively large turnout and a number of public comments both pro and con, it was mostly a reiteration of previous comments, although there was a lot of pressure to simply resubmit the proposal unchanged, with the expectation that parents will wake up and vote.

The Board appeared sincerely interested in understanding why the proposal did not pass. It is not clear what the next steps will be.

The Board’s architect mentioned that he believed the cost of the gym could be reduced by $500,000 by not increasing the height of the gym, which was necessary to have a full-size volleyball court.

The next regularly scheduled Board meeting is Jan. 7.

Thursday, December 5, 2013

Follow-up to defeat of capital proposal

Last night (Tuesday, Dec. 3) the Board of Education held a special meeting to discuss next steps following defeat of the proposal.
 
Undoing the consolidation (i.e., not closing the middle school) was discussed but eliminated as an alternative for the same reasons it was decided to consolidate in the first place.

The second alternative discussed was going ahead with the consolidation but with no capital project. This was considered to be a last resort.

A third alternative was to put the same project ($13.8 million) unchanged up for another vote. All board members present weighed in and most did not think this advisable. The general consensus was to see if there were parts of the proposal that could be reduced or eliminated, and possibly split the proposal into two parts – a basic piece and a second piece (most likely the gym) that would depend on the first piece being approved. If the first piece were not approved by the voters, the second piece would not be implemented, even if it were approved.

The approximate time for a vote on the (presumably) revised plan would most likely be in March.

There will be a public comment period at next week’s (Dec. 10) board meeting. I will report after the meeting.