The School Committee met Saturday September 29, 2001 at Scattergood Friends School.
9:25 Opened with silence We began with an orientation session, reminding members to review School Committee rules and responsibilities, introduction of all members, and remarks by Ken Hinshaw.
The date for the next July meeting was changed to July 13, 2002
in order to avoid conflict with Iowa Yearly Meeting.
The school's mission statement was reviewed and approved with recognition that it's too long. The Long Range Planning (LRP) Committee will consider a rewording.
The school's nondisicrimination statement was reviewed and approved . There was some discussion of the need to consid>er stating a preference for Quakers in hiring. This question will be considered as part of the reviews conducted during the new ISACS cycle that is just beginning.
The annual Scattergood Friends School Foundation Trustees Report was received.
The September 2001 Proposed changes to the Scattergood Friends School Foundation Agreement were reviewed and approved. There was extensive discussions of the need to facilitate communication between the school and the foundation. This centered around recognition of the sometimes apparently conflicting interests of the school and the foundation concerning the proper use of assets; the school, of necessity, must focus on current operating expenses while the foundation must focus on the long term financial health of the school.
After brunch, school staff and school committee members were introduced, and Lucy Hansen spoke on the role of the school committee and its relationship to the school.
The Student Handbook draft was presented. Major revisions were formally approved last year, but additional editorial changes have been made. Approval was given to issue the draft as official.
The proposed budget for the school year was approved.
The audit report will be duplicated and mailed to members. The audit was basically clean, no major changes. The audit report will need to be approved at the December meeting. Consultation committee's attention is especially directed to the report.
The current financial statement shows the effect of cheaper gas prices on heating costs.
We approved a 5% increase in tuition, to $18,900 for full time boarding students, $16,800 for five-day boarding and $10,500 for day students, with a minimum tuition of $1900.
We approved a $15,000 3-year loan to pay for new laptops. Clerk will write a letter to the bank.
Director proposed that we purchase an automobile on a 3-4 year loan, with purchase price not to exceed $20,000. The proposal was approved. If the limit proves to be a problem, Consultation committee will approve any change.
Director proposed that we use $10,000 from the capital budget to make the minimum payment on the $200,000 loan and up to $20,000 to pay the difference between contributions and construction price for the sound wall. (Recall that we originally estimated the cost of the soundwall to be $50,000 and obtained contributions to cover that. When the project was bid, the lowest bid we found acceptable was $82,000.) The proposal was approved . Note that this exhausts the capital budget, and is a change from the May minutes.
We may need to reconsider our decision considering E-rate funding, as it seems our concern about the requirement for installing filters may have been premature. The committee is aware of a consultant who can provide assistance on this issue.
The Technology Plan Update was approved.
In the interest of time, the report was distrbuted but not discussed.
The report was read but not discussed.
Attention is drawn to the plan for the Fall retreat at the next School
Committee meeting:
Date: November 30
Facilitator: John Braman
Location: Radisson Suites in Iowa City.
More details will be available in a few weeks.
Jeff Kisling provided a brief discussion of the preliminary Survey results shown on the web. If additional information or statistics derivable from the data are desired, he's interested in suggestions, though not promising prompt delivery. We discussed the idea of IaYM workshops at Scattergood and the Survey results. It was agreed that such workshops are part ot the Outreach to the wider Quaker community, as envisioned by the LRP and discussion on the Quaker Family Network. It is the intention that planing such activities not create an additional burden on existing staff. Further discuussion lead to the recognition that the connection with the school is too strong to be handled by someone not closely connected to the school. Properly pursuing such a program will probably require hiring a staff member to handle the coordination and planing for the school. When we have finished analysing the survey results and have heard more from those interested, we will begin planning for these workshops.
Jeff is also working with the Development committee to enable allowing alumni to update their information in the database. At this time he has a working prototype, but has not dealt with security issues.
The Committee expressed thanks to Jeff and others who worked to make the survey the success it has been.
There was a brief discussion of the need for Executive sessions. It was decided that unless the Clerk is notified of the need in advance, there will be no executive session scheduled. This issue will be further discussed at the next meeting to better define the purpose and intent of the executive sessions.