May 3, 2005 Minutes

[obied]

Proceedings of the 20-Year Facilities Planning Committee

District No. 2 Yellowstone County

Billings, MT

 

May 3, 2005

 

 

The meeting was called to order by Barb Bryan, Co-Chair on Tuesday, May 3, 2005 at 6:30 in Room 219 at Lincoln Center.

 

Members Present: Randy Hafer, John Eisen, Matt Brosovich, Tim Cranston, Barb Bryan, Peggie Smith. Donell Small arrived later during the meeting.

 

Members Absent: Ludlow Howe, Ed Workman, Mike Marnin, Larry Brewster

 

Guests Present: Guests from Lockwood included, Shana Sprinkle, Holly & Tim Sather and Courtney. The guests presented a document drafted by a group of people from Lockwood titled “The Lockwood Proclamation”. They expressed concern that since this committee has not had a representative from Lockwood for some time that the views of the Lockwood people may not have been communicated. The document outlines their objections to the scenarios and that group’s solutions. The group feels that the school boundaries are not enforced so Lockwood students should not be required to attend a high school just for them at Lincoln Center. Recently an informal poll of students indicated that 70% would choose to go to Senior, 20% Skyview, and 5% would like a new school. The “Lockwood Proclamation” document will be included in the minutes book. The group also hopes to do a presentation to the Board of Trustees.

 

Capital Costs Report

Randy estimated that the cost for each of the three scenarios would be about $55 million. Randy and Barb will work on getting the information into the final report document.

 

Current and Projected Population Enrollments

Tim and Matt will get together to review the capacity data gathered thus far and ready the material for the report. Tim reported that according to information from City Planning that in the past year 21,000 people moved out of Billings and 21,300 have moved in.

 

District RFP for Review of Bond Options

The district had indicated interest in hiring a consultant to review the high school bond options. Mr. Cunningham stated that he felt it would be counterproductive to give the report and then hire a consultant.

 

It was suggested that we follow up with Superintendent, Rod Svee regarding the RFP and request that Matt, Randy and John from this committee serve on the RFP committee.

 

 

Status of Report Sections

John is working on the “Existing Conditions of Buildings” section for the report.

 

Matt will do the “Voice over IP” report. Matt attended a conference on VOIP and was excited about its potential and the possibilities for our schools. The estimate for wiring our buildings with VOIP is $4.5 million and could be done over several years.

 

Tim reported that he has entered the data from 321 comment sheets onto a spreadsheet and has over 100 more to enter. We have made presentations on the high school scenarios to some forty community groups during the past six weeks. As a result of these presentations, we received over 400 completed Public Comment Forms. Everyone was encouraged to read the draft comment summary before the May 9th School/Community meeting where the comment summary will be discussed.

 

Final Recommendation Discussion

Some of the members present explained that after doing the presentations and listening to the questions and comments, they had a different view of the scenarios than in the beginning of this process. Some final recommendation ideas were shared but everyone should send their written document to Barb by the next meeting.

 

Next Meeting Date

We will meet next Tuesday at 6:45 at Lincoln Center in Room 219. Everyone should read the survey results and be prepared to talk about how to proceed with the final report.

 

With no further business the meeting adjourned.

 

 

_______________________

Barbarba Bryan, Co-Chair

 

Donna Obie

Recorder