palmerk Posted January 13, 2005 Report Share Posted January 13, 2005 Proceedings of the 20-Year School Facilities Planning Committee District #2 Yellowstone County Billings, Montana November 16, 2004 The meeting was called to order at 6:30 p.m. by Co-Chair, Barbara Bryan in room 213 at Lincoln Center. Members Present: Barbara Bryan, John Eisen, Tim Cranston, Matt Brosovich, Ludlow Howe, Peggie Smith Members Absent: Mike Marnin, Ed Workman, Donell Small, Randy Hafer, Larry Brewster, Greg Krueger Minutes Approval: Approval of minutes from the November 9th meeting will be addressed at the next meeting. GUEST SPEAKER Rod Svee, School District #2 Superintendent, was invited to discuss near-term plans related to moving the 6th grades into the middle schools, repairing/moving Daylis Stadium, adding on to the west-end elementary schools, moving high school classes to the Career Center, and other current school planning issues. Sixth Graders in Middle Schools: The district is looking at the idea of moving the 6th graders into the middle schools as part of integrated grade 6-9 middle schools, but this is in the preliminary stages. Another idea being looked at is to move some 6th graders into Lewis & Clark if needed to ease west-end elementary school overcrowding, but these students would be separated from the older kids rather than integrated into the school population. West-End and Southside School Additions: The west-end elementary schools are at capacity. With funding from the elementary bond issue last spring, 4 classrooms will be added soon at Meadowlark. Four classrooms will also be added at Ponderosa, and work will begin soon on expanding Orchard School. For all projects, the district is close to going out to bid. West-end crowding can be further alleviated by adding two Special Ed classrooms at Boulder elementary, and adding four classrooms at Will James Middle School. Mr. Svee indicated that about $900,000 is available in the Elementary Building Fund for these projects (so a bond wouldn’t be necessary. Barb questioned the wisdom of spending money to add onto west-end elementaries when space is already available at Rimrock. The Rimrock school building currently houses Head Start and Early Childhood Intervention. Head Start is not affiliated with the district and can be asked to vacate their space in the school within 60 days or so. School District #2 is the grantee for the ECI program, but that does not have to be the case. If some other organization were the grantee for the ECI program (the grantee applies for and administers the grant to fund the program), then SD2 wouldn’t have to provide program space. In any case, ECI would have to relocate if Rimrock were to re-open as an elementary school. Full-Day Kindergarten. If the state decides to mandate full-day kindergarten, this will cause space problems in the elementary schools. Currently, SD2 offers half-day kindergarten. The change to full-day would double the number of kindergarten rooms required. In the Heights, to address both current elementary school crowding, and in response to possible all-day kindergarten, the district is looking at making Beartooth a kindergarten center for the Heights. All Heights kindergarteners would then attend Beartooth. Barb noted that we will be doing a lot of busing, at considerable cost, if we continue to bus former Beartooth kids in grades 1-6 to elementaries west of Main, then bus all of the kindergarteners west of Main over to Beartooth. Barb also noted that the district should look seriously at reopening Beartooth as a K-6 school for next year, due to the crowded conditions in all Heights elementaries. Daylis Stadium: There is a committee reviewing the needs for Daylis Stadium and will report their recommendations to the board in January. The district is considering the use of private funds, rather than public dollars, to fund any work that is recommended. Lincoln Center Occupancy: If Lincoln Center is converted into a high school, about 170 people will have to be placed somewhere else. Barb noted that we are still trying to pin down how many people actually work in Lincoln Center and how many of them are SD2 employees. All the people/groups housed in the building are people/groups that SD2 has chosen to have relationships with (for a variety of educational reasons), but the district is not obligated to provide office space for some of them. Also, it’s possible that some of the current occupants could be housed in other SD facilities. Career Center: It was clarified by Supt. Svee that, if the Career Center is converted into a standalone four-year high school with career-oriented focus, we would not have to offer every class that is offered at the other high schools, but we would have to offer every program. For example, even if Senior has Spanish, German, and French, for example, the Career Center could meet its foreign language requirement by offering only Spanish. Some concern was expressed as to the time it might take to make a conversion from our current setup to a four-year program. These concerns related to curriculum planning and gaining public and teacher acceptance. Joint College/HS Credits: The board of trustees is currently working on a joint agreement with local colleges to allow students to take college courses for joint high school and college credit. This could be in place as early as the second semester of this school year. This development could, over time, reduce the student load in the high schools (as some students will be off-campus for college classes). Use of the Career Center will also become more attractive as the joint credit option with the COT develops. Currently, the district is talking with the COT about allowing the COT to use SD2 land next to the Career Center, in exchange for free tuition for Career Center students who take classes at the COT. Following this informative discussion Superintendent Svee was thanked for meeting with this committee. SCENARIO EVALUATIONS The committee will continue work on the first-cut scenarios and will give updates/data relative to their work at the next meeting. ADJOURNMENT The meeting adjourned at 8:30 pm. The next meeting will be November 23, 2004 at 6:30 in room 213 at the Lincoln Center. _______________________ Barbara Bryan – Co-Chair ______________________________ John Eisen, Co- Chair Donna Obie, Recorder Revisions by Barbara Bryan Approved 12/13/04 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.