Special Board Meeting Tuesday, 11/8/05

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Proceedings of the Board of Trustees

District No. 2, Yellowstone County

High School District No. 2, Yellowstone County

Billings, Montana

 

November 8, 2005

 

Call to Order

 

The Special Meeting of the Board of Trustees of School District No. 2, Yellowstone County, Montana, and the High School District, Yellowstone County, Montana was duly held at The Lincoln Center, 415 North 30th Street, Billings, Montana, November 8, 2005 at 12:35 p.m.

 

Chair Katharin Kelker presided.

 

Roll Call

 

Those attending were: Trustees Katharin Kelker, Dale Getz, Dawn Achten, Joel Guthals, Karen Moses, Superintendent Rod Svee, Clerk Leo Hudetz, and Rick Jones, teacher from Crossroads. Other registered guests attending included: David Simmons, Crossroads; Blaine Bord, Crossroads; Anna Casillas, Skyview; M’ily Reiter, Senior; Anna Kunkel, Senior; Tina Scariano, Senior; Jon Brown, Senior; Ashley Adams, Skyview; Kelli Hanson, Skyview; Ashley Larkin, West; Sidney Niven, West; Dave Jones, West.

 

The Chair opened the meeting by introducing herself and asked all those present to introduce themselves. She explained to the students that funding issues for public schools are being discussed in Helena at the present time. We are hopeful for a different method of funding schools. At present there is not enough money to fund programs and maintain facilities. Joel Guthals asked that she explain mill levies. Mrs. Kelker explained that the local voters are at times asked to provide more money by having a mill levy election which is held in May. She explained that the recent mill levy elections as well as the bond elections have failed.

 

Representatives from West High School arrived at 12:40

 

Trustee Moses explained that the funding issue has been a longstanding problem, starting with a court case when her son was in kindergarten, and still being discussed when he is a senior in high school.

 

Kathy Kelker presented a handout and explained that the areas highlighted on the map on the board were new locations of housing development in Billings. Areas growing are on the edges of Billings, on the west end and in the Heights, as well as south of the city in the Briarwood area. Major developments do not necessarily have students now.

 

The problem of high schools needing renovations and overcrowding has spanned several years. Many committees have looked at the problem. Several years ago the estimate was $90 million to renovate Senior and West High Schools. Another committee suggested moving the 9th graders off campus, which is currently being done by having the academies. This was originally planned as a short-term solution. This necessitates having to pay transportation costs of $200,000 per year. The bond issues failed for renovations and new high school on the west end.

 

Chair Kelker explained that the four high schools scenarios on the handout were generated by the administration and passed on to the Board. She clarified that the four scenarios are not mutually exclusive. She stated that the Twenty Year Facilities Planning Committee recommended making Lincoln Center a satellite campus for the Career Center (juniors and seniors only, about 300 students). She stated that anything on this list will be relatively expensive.

 

The cost a few years ago to build a new high school was estimated at $38 million. The approximate cost to build a new middle school is $12 to $15 million. Equipment and furnishings are included in these costs. A smaller high school near the Career Center would cost less but would depend upon the number of classrooms.

 

Rick Jones asked about existing facilities in the district which are currently vacant. Mrs. Kelker stated that the only building not in use at this time by the district is Beartooth Elementary which will probably be needed as an elementary school in the future. The only other space available is Lincoln. We have to assign students to a particular schools; they cannot choose where they wish to go. Rick stated that smaller is better as far as education. He taught at the Academy at Lincoln and felt it was beneficial for students and for education.

 

The students broke up into three groups and met with individual trustees in those groups.

 

As a result of those discussions, the following suggestions were made: 1) have more satellite schools like Crossroads; 2) build two smaller high schools, on west side and on the south side, which would create more community involvement, which hopefully would result in more support, smaller learning communities, lower dropout rates, more recognition for students because of smaller populations. 3) It was mentioned that ECA opportunities are valued very highly, so the students would not want the schools to go to “B” sized schools. In order to remain AA, the student population has to be 900. 4) Kids could get involved to help get a bond issue passed. It was also mentioned that the students do not necessarily believe the demographic data presented, that Billings population is not going to go up. They would like to see the buildings ready now rather than pass the problems on to the future generations. We should build for future needs. The physical condition of West High is deficient at the present time, and Senior and West are overcrowded and it is affecting the educational product available there.

 

Kathy Kelker explained the history about the middle school concept and the particular division of grades within the Billings system. Our facilities have actually been driving the educational decisions made.

 

The Chair thanked the students for their time and stated that the Board is very interested in their ideas. The meeting was adjourned at 1:50 p.m.

 

 

 

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Katharin Kelker, Chair

 

 

 

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Nancy Coe, Recorder