Guest sullinss Posted July 27, 2005 Report Share Posted July 27, 2005 Proceedings of the Business Committee School District No. 2, Yellowstone County High School District No. 2, Yellowstone County Billings, Montana June 13, 2005 The June 13, 2005 Business Committee meeting was called to order at 5:30 p.m. by Trustee Chair Katharin Kelker in a joint meeting with the Education and School/Community Committees. Business Committee members in attendance were Dale Getz, Katharin Kelker, Joel Guthals, Bob Whalen, Curt Prchal, Joan Sleeth, and Kari Altenburg. Also in attendance were Superintendent Rod Svee, Thomas Harper, Rich Whitney, Dave Williams, Barbara Bryan, and members of the Education and School/Community Committees and other interested persons. Absent were Business Committee members Shanna Henry, Peter Grass, and Jerry Hansen. Registered guests were Maureen Cicero, Noel Cicero, Cheryl Selle, Fred Petaf, and Courtney Hamblin. The purpose of the joint Committee meeting was to hear a report from the Twenty-Year Facilities Planning Committee and on Daylis Stadium. Twenty-Year Facilities Planning Committee Barbara Bryan would like to have a meeting on July 11 with the public and joint committees to share information from the Planning Committee. She wanted to know what would be needed from the committees in order for the Business Committee to review the report, and how many copies of their report were needed. The 20-Year Facilities Planning Committee was invited to come and address each committee and did not do so. Daylis Stadium Report Dave Williams reviewed what has been accomplished to date on refurbishing Daylis Stadium. He recommends the District move forward with a plan to refurbish Daylis Stadium at its present location over a period of several years in four phases: 1) build east bleachers; 2) rebuild bathrooms and concession stands on east side, fix gates and congested areas, east and west side; 3) replace grass with turf; and, 4) renovate west stands and locker rooms. Dave believes the community wants funding provided through public/private cooperation. Several options have been explored: use of Skyview High School’s bond refinance money, private donations, naming rights, inkind services, create bond for election, Intercap loan, a $1.00 ticket surcharge, and a mill levy. Booster Clubs and individuals expressed enthusiasm and support in assisting with funding raising. At 6:00 p.m. the meeting was adjourned to respective Committee meetings. At 6:07 p.m. the Business Committee meeting was called to order by Chair Malcolm Goodrich. Election of Business Committee Chair Curt Prchal moved to nominate Dale Getz as Chair of the Business Committee. Katharin Kelker seconded the motion. The motion carried unanimously. Chair Getz introduced Trustees Joel Guthals and Katharin Kelker as new Business Committee members. Kari Altenburg replaces Patty Lacy as BCEA representative on the Committee. Job Reclassifications Dan Martin spoke to the following proposed job reclassifications: Human Resources – from a BCEA, 12-month 8 hr/day, $12.01/hour Secretary II (Wage Level II) to a BCEA, 11-month, 8 hr/day, $14.39 HR Assistant (Wage Level IV) effective July 1, 2005. The Secretary II has combined her current duties with that of the HR Assistant who ran the automated sub finder and processed certified leave requests. The HR Assistant .75 position will be eliminated as of June 30, 2005. Dan negotiated this position with the BCEA. This job was not advertised. Human Resources – from Contract Support, 12-month, 8 hr/day, $20.40/hr Administrative Assistant (Wage Level III) to a Contract Support, 12-month, 8 hr/day, Human Resources Manager (Wage Level IV). Dan will add a few more supervisory duties to this position. Business Office – from a BCEA, 12-month, 8 hr/day, $15.02/hour Accountant III (Wage Level IV) to a BCEA, 12-month, 8 hr/day, $15.94/hour new Accountant IV (Wage Level IV) job classification effective July 1, 2005. This is due to additional duties she has been doing. Business Office – from a Contract Support, 12-month, 8 hr/day, $12.08/hour Payroll Clerk (Wage Level I) to a Contract Support, 12-month, 8 hr/day, $14.10/hour Payroll Accountant (Wage Level II) effective July 1, 2005. This is due to additional duties she has been doing. Business Analyst is a new position and will be posted internally – a BCEA, 12-month, 8 hr/day, $18.32 to $20.72/hour salary range. A BCEA, 10-month, 8 hr/day, $13.29/hour Secretary III position in Accounts Payable was eliminated, so these dollars plus savings from moving .5 FTE from an Accountant III position to indirect funds will pay for this position at no additional cost to the general fund. Katharin Kelker moved to recommend the Board accept Administration’s recommendation for job reclassifications as listed with the proviso that the first job described as HR Assistant be advertised internally before being filled. Joel Guthals seconded the motion. The motion carried unanimously. Daylis Stadium Report Dave Williams is asking for a commitment from the Board to keep Daylis Stadium in the same location, for direction on naming rights and funding sources. Joel Guthals moved to recommend the Board approve keeping Daylis Stadium at its present location for the foreseeable future. Curt Prchal seconded the motion. The motion carried unanimously. Several committee members disliked the idea of asking voters for a bond or mill levy to pay for the stadium. Joel Guthals does not wish to commit funding from the high school debt service. He believes those funds should be analyzed carefully before they’re spent. Joel Guthals moved to recommend the Board approve refurbishing Daylis Stadium in the Phases described in the memo from Dave Williams on page 3 of the agenda. Katharin Kelker seconded the motion. The motion carried unanimously. Joel Guthals moved to recommend the Board allow naming rights for the Daylis Stadium project to be associated with each Phase to cost the amount that is projected in the memo of Dave Williams for each Phase. Naming right proposals will be screened by the Naming Rights Committee and brought before the Board for action. Curt Prchal seconded the motion. The motion carried unanimously. Joel Guthals moved to recommend the Board specify that funding for the Daylis Stadium Improvement Project would be a combination of private and public money. All funding will be funneled through the Billings Public Education Foundation. Katharin Kelker seconded the motion. The motion carried unanimously. Joel Guthals moved to recommend to the Board that having a usable and viable athletic stadium serves an important educational purpose; and, accordingly, the School District should provide funding on a match basis for Phase 1 of the project at a ratio of $1.00 of School District funds for every $2.00 of private funds with no funds being expended until the total of $300,000 is reached for the project. Curt Prchal seconded the motion. Discussion clarified this motion to say the $200,000 must be raised before the District will match the funds. Also, the $200,000 may be in “in-kind” services if it results in creating bleachers. The question was called. The motion carried unanimously. Katharin Kelker moved to recommend the Board institute a user fee for any spectator attending athletic events at Daylis Stadium and that fee would be $1.00 to start next fall. Joel Guthals seconded the motion. The motion carried unanimously. Katharin Kelker moved to recommend to the Board that if it is not possible to have permanent bleachers ready for the fall that the Board assume the responsibility for renting temporary bleachers by fall. Bob Whalen seconded the motion. Joel Guthals moved to amend the motion to recommend the Board contribute from the building fund up to $25,000 for temporary bleachers for the up-coming season upon the condition that there’s private funding to pay for the remainder of the bleachers. Joan Sleeth seconded the motion. The question was called for on the amended motion. The motion carried unanimously. Crossroads Financial Options Teachers Fred Petaf and Courtney Hamblin addressed committee members and spoke against eliminating the position of Attendance Clerk at Crossroads Alternative Learning Center. Chair Getz stated since this was not on the agenda, no action would be taken tonight. Dave Williams reported the District has been offered $1.8 million for the elementary property that houses the Crossroads Alternative Center. He reviewed the following options for the facility: 1. Keep the property and leave Crossroads at this location. In this option improvements to the facility will be needed. A bond of $2.6M should be enough to make improvements. The elementary district may ask the high school district to buy or rent from them. 2. Sell the property and move the Crossroads program to a new location. Locations in the Lincoln Center have been investigated. None of the locations are ideal but would work for the number of students that are served in the program. 3. Sell the property to the high school district, make improvements and move other programs to the building as needed. A bond would be required to make needed improvements to the building. Discussion followed that this is elementary property and the money would go to the elementary district and not the high school district. Various options for space at Lincoln were discussed. Any moves to Lincoln would take at least until Christmas break and would come with a high cost. Lincoln has no green space, P.E. area or cafeteria. Moving Administration out of Lincoln is not feasible due to the high cost associated with technology’s software and wiring. The Crossroads property will continue to be commercially valuable on Grand Avenue. There is a need to determine a long term educationally sound program for Crossroads Alternative. There’s no need for the high school district to buy the property from the elementary district. A central location is important. Joel Guthals moved to recommend to the Board that the $1.8M offer for the sale of the Crossroads Alternative property not be accepted at this time, but that we defer the decision to sell the property to a future date when we have: 1) a report from the Building Ownership Committee; and, 2) reached a Board policy decision on the future location of Crossroads High School. Katharin Kelker seconded the motion. Dave said that if Crossroads stays there the roof needs to be fixed for $300,000 and there is no money unless the Board gives him the Skyview bond excess money, and it will take a total of $2.6M to fix. The question was called. Voting in favor of the motion were Joel Guthals, Curt Prchal, Joan Sleeth, and Katharin Kelker. Voting against the motion was: Bob Whalen, Kari Altenburg, and Dale Getz. The motion carried. Castle Rock Temperature Controls Upgrade – 2005 As previously approved on the Elementary Building Reserve 2004-05 Project List, a bid was let for the Castle Rock Temperature Controls Upgrade project and opened on May 4, 2005. Bid results are as follows: Contractor Base Bid Alt#1 Alt#2 Alt#3 Alt#4 Total Control System Integrators $18,662 $17,470 $1,484 $1,100 $31,262 $68,878 Johnson Controls 27,975 3,851 0 2,998 40,180 72,006 Mechanical Technology 24,830 26,142 4,135 23,775 75,702 130,809 Alternate #3 was not awarded Base Bid (Boiler Room); Alt#1 (Building Air Handlers); Alt#2 (Building Communication Trunk); Alt#3 (Network controller, Night setback Thermostat, cabling, programming); Alt#4 (Room Digital Thermostat connected to the network-98 total) Facilities recommends the bid be awarded to Control System Integrators along with the Base Bid, Alt#1, Alt#2, and Alt#4 for a total of $68,878. Katharin Kelker moved to recommend Board approval to award the bid on the Castle Rock Temperature Controls Upgrade project to Control System Integrators for the Base Bid, Alt#1, Alt#2, and Alt#4 for a total of $68,878. Joel Guthals seconded the motion. The motion carried unanimously. Rich Whitney was requested to provide an updated Building Reserve Project list detailing dollar estimates and actuals. Rich reported we have very active energy conservation measures and constantly examine our cost per square foot, and because of that we have retrofitted every school in the District except for Arrowhead which is on a co-op and not Northwestern Energy. They put a water pump at Sandstone and Castle Rock and estimate a savings of $8-12,000 in water costs each summer. Installation of a heat exchanger at Skyview would pay for itself in one year if dollars were available. We realize savings with interruptible gas at Senior, Skyview, West, Riverside, Lewis & Clark, and Will James. Business Committee General Procedures Procedure 1130-P1 on Committee Procedures is in the process of being adopted by the Board for a second reading on June 20, 2005. The Business Committee has 10 members and wishes to add more community members. The monthly meeting date needs to be set. Consent Agenda The Consent Agenda contains items of routine nature, which normally do not require deliberation on the part of the Committee and will be approved in one action unless a Committee member wishes to have an item separated from the Consent Agenda and specifically discussed. Items for consent are: 1. Resolution of Intent to Dispose of District Personal Property 2. Addition of Big Sky Fit Kids-Trust Account 3. Addition of Trust Accounts for BPEF 2005 Classroom Grant Recipients 4. Business Committee Minutes of May 9, 2005 Curt Prchal introduced a motion to recommend Board approval of the Business Committee Consent Agenda items as listed. Joan Sleeth seconded the motion. The motion carried unanimously. First Student Contract Proposal First Student Transportation is requesting a five year contract renewal for years 2007-2012 without going out for bid in exchange for lowering next year’s rate increase to 1.5% (instead of 3.7%). The contract expires June 30, 2007. The estimated annual savings would be $70,000 or $490,000 over the next seven years. Transportation Director, Sondra Baker, recommends acceptance of First Student’s proposal considering the estimated savings and the fact that First Student’s current rate is still less than that of the next lowest bidder from bids received eight years ago. Thomas Harper reported that the current contract is based on the number of routes plus a charge for excess hours and mileage. Katharin Kelker moved to recommend the Board accept the First Student Transportation offer and extend the contract effective July 1, 2007 through June 30, 2012 without going out for bid in exchange for lowering next year’s rate increase to 1.5%. Joel Guthals seconded the motion. Joel Guthals asked if there was a requirement to put this out for bid. Thomas replied this is a service contract so the Board is not required to bid this out. The question was called. Voting in favor of the motion was Dale Getz, Katharin Kelker, Curt Prchal, Bob Whalen, Joan Sleeth, and Kari Altenburg. Voting against the motion was Joel Guthals. The motion carried. Reading Intervention Program 4-12 Grades The Business Committee is being asked to recommend Board approval for the purchase of all materials for “Read 180” by means of: 1) identified available funds from various present sources; and, 2) from a loan available from the Bank of America. The Bank of America is subsidizing low interest (of 3.8%) loans in support of the effort to raise reading scores across America. The estimated cost for both hardware and software is $1M. This is a one-time purchase – all updates are totally paid for. Life expectancy of the program is estimated at ten years. All students reading between the 27th and 40th percentile will have the opportunity to participate in this program. Carol Wicker stated two-thirds of the funding would come from Title I carryover, money from Title I schools, Part B special education dollars, a settlement from the Microsoft Antitrust Case, and Timber dollars. They are seeking a funding source for the remaining one-third of the program so they can start the program district-wide at one time and not have any discrepancy about which kids can be served. Joel Guthals moved to table and defer consideration of the recommendation on the Reading Intervention Program until the next meeting of this Committee during which time information can be developed and presented to this Committee to include: 1) the anticipated useful life; 2) the anticipated future costs the School District will bear that are not funded by the purchase of the hardware/software services from the provider; and, 3) a demonstration by the Business Office of the ability to fund the loan. Katharin Kelker seconded the motion. Voting in favor of the motion was Dale Getz, Katharin Kelker, Curt Prchal, Kari Altenburg, Joan Sleeth, and Joel Guthals. Voting against the motion was Bob Whalen. The motion carried. BPS and MSU-B Running Start Program Agreement A draft copy of the BPS and MSU-B Running Start Program Agreement was reviewed by Committee members. Katharin Kelker moved to recommend Board approval of the Running Start Program Agreement. Joel Guthals seconded the motion. The motion carried unanimously. Financial Reports – May, 2005 (Unaudited) Committee members have reviewed the May, 2005 (Unaudited) Financial Reports. Thomas stated Yellowstone County was two months behind in presenting their Treasurer’s Report due to their conversion to a new computer program. Because of the high number of retirees we have this year; Thomas will be able to better advise the Board on June 20th of our ability to pay severance. Salary items are right on track with the forecasts. Calendar/Agenda Items Agenda Items: Zero-based Budgeting Process, Legal Expense Report, Health Insurance Actuary Report, Year-end Financial Status, Close H.S. Debt Service Fund, and H.S. Budget Deficit 2005/06 will be rescheduled to other meetings. No action was taken on the 20-Year Facilities Committee options agenda item. Dale Getz, Katharin Kelker, and Curt Prchal were appointed to a sub-committee of the Business Committee to review the Comprehensive Insurance 2005-06 agenda item at a meeting scheduled on Tuesday, June 21, 2005. Adjournment There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 9:50 p.m. K. Dale Getz, Chair Sherrill Sullins, Recorder Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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