Feb. 25th Business Services Meeting

This week must have been the week for the marathon school board committee meetings as the Business Services meeting Wednesday did not end until about 9:00. However, we were able to accomplish quite a few things this month.

The primary accomplishment was that we forwarded to the board a recommendation to approve the contract with McKinstry that the committee has been working on with them for the past several months. The total of the contract has not been finalized as on the day of the meeting Mark Scullion was notified that an insulation contractor would be able to perform work on the Taylor Prairie roof to fix the leaking issues. Therefore the recommendation was as stated in the FIM’s, approximately $1.53M, and a not to exceed for Taylor Prairie of $450k.

The reason for the urgency of including Taylor Prairie was so that it could be included in the financing bidding that will begin upon board approval. If the Taylor Prairie work costs exceed the $450k amount or if they cannot result in additional energy efficiency then they will not be included in the final recommendation to the board.

From my personal perspective, my thoughts are that this is a very worthwhile project and contract. I did vote to approve it; however I am leery of paying for anything thru savings. In this scenario, I think the financing will work, but it still makes me nervous.

We were to review an initial budget reduction list, but do to the fact that there were some staff cuts and those individuals had not all been notified that item was tabled until the next meeting. This will also allow the administration team more time to review revenue estimates and the cut list.

Next we reviewed the transportation bids that the district received. After much discussion regarding the bids it was decided to stay with the current bus service configuration. Monona routes will be serviced for the next 5 years by Badger Bussing and the district will continue to operate the routes in Cottage Grove. This option offers the best service and cost benefit for the district at this time.

We reviewed the start and end times for the 2009-10 school year. The changes are that Grade 5 at Glacial Drumlin will have their start time moved back to match the rest of the building. As a result they will be dismissed at 3:00 and the bus riders will have supervision in the building until the rest of the building is dismissed.
The last item of discussion was to review the walk zone for the 5th grade students. The major part of this focused on the Glacial Drumlin impact. Due to the changes in start times if we change the walk zone for the 5th grade it will result in a more uniform policy for the Glacial Drumlin building. Additionally, there is a potential for some additional transportation savings.

The remaining items were tabled due to the late hour of the night. We will meet again on April 1st. Yes April Fools Day.