May 13th School Board Meeting

The School Board has quite the agenda this week for the 1st board meeting with the new members. The reorganization of the board is the first item up for business. This will be done by secret ballot nomination for each office. Then those receiving nominations will be given the chance to accept or decline the nomination. Another vote is then taken to elect the officer from those accepting the nomination. If there is no majority after this vote the top 2 candidates will "face-off" in one more vote.

The board will elect the President first, followed by the Vice-President, Treasurer and Clerk.

This election will be very interesting with such a young board. We only have one 1 member who is has ever been an officer or even chaired a committee for the district. This will require a quick learning curve for those who chair the committees and the president as that individual learns on the job about overseeing a district.

Following the election the board will get an update on Stimulus money and the budget from Mr. Gerlach. He will also provide more details about the upcoming public meeting on the Grade Configuration being held this coming Sunday.

The board will also be discussing possible approval of the 6th - 8th grade textbook purchase. We will also be reviewing the changes for the individual school handbooks. Lastly we will review the potential issuance of $1.46 million in bonds to fund the McKinstry Energy Savings Contract.

Peter Sobol has a very good summary of the reasons behind the bonds vs. lease purchase on his blog.

http://petersobol.blogspot.com/



As always I encourage the public to attend and make comments during the public appearances portion of the meeting. You can also contact the full board with comments and concerns thru the district website.

Public Hearing on Grade Configuration

On Sunday May 17th @ 6:00 pm, at Glacial Drumlin, the Ad-Hoc Committee on Grade Configuration will present the remaining options to the public. They will be looking for feedback and input on the various options. Following this meeting they will have one last meeting to review the comments from the public and then make a recommendation to the School Board.

I would encourage everyone to attend this meeting if able, so you can hear the presentation from Mr. Gerlach on behalf of the committee. It would also be beneficial for the committee to hear what the citizens of this district think about the various options remaining.

If you would prefer not to speak during the presentation please forward your comments regarding the options directly to Mr. Gerlach and he will forward them onto the Ad-Hoc Committee.

The link is directly to the Ad-Hoc Committee page on the district website.