Scattergood Friends School Committee

Approved Minutes - July 13, 1996

The School Committee met on Saturday, July 13,1996, at 8:30 a.m. at the Friends Meeting House in Des Moines.

The meeting opened with a period of silence, followed by a review of the agenda. Members present: George Welch, Burt Kisling, Ron Knight, Dan Treadway, Barb Garlinghouse, Dana Harr, Clarence Perisho, Jim Cottingham, Kay Meyer, Bruce Rohwer. Staff members present: Ken Hinshaw, Karla Hanson, Will Hardy, Nancy Ryan

Karla Hanson read the minutes from the May meeting. Changes were noted and have been made to the attached approved May minutes. Karla was asked to and agreed to being recording clerk for the upcoming year.

Director’s Report: Ken Hinshaw presented the director’s report. By the end of the 1995-96 school year, each of the seniors were accepted into a college or university, thus fulfilling the State of Iowa accreditation requirements. The end of the year included a flurry of activities including; Arts Fest and commencement preparations, juniors and seniors finishing their research papers, a slide show, slip “academy awards” ceremony, packing and saying good-bye, to name only a few.

At the farm soybeans have been planted and some feeder pigs sold. Belle, with the help of a few students working this summer, is busy harvesting produce from the garden. Again, New Pioneer Coop in Iowa City is purchasing our fruits and vegetables. The new irrigation system has been installed, making caring for the garden a little easier.

The boys dorm expansion is underway. Early payment of pledges to the Foundation 2000 campaign has made the financing of the dorm possible without borrowing funds. Ken believes that the project can still be completed within the $100,000 authorized by the school committee.

The committee approved spending $6,000.00 on the dining room floor improvement, and the ceiling tile and stair tread replacement in the Main. A discussion followed about securing bids on good and services at Scattergood. Ken expressed the need for a written purchasing procedure to be in place to assure good purchasing decisions. Ken, Will Hardy and Jan Luchini will present a draft of such a procedure at the next school committee meeting. Ken also asked for a comprehensive assessment of needed improvements around campus. This will be helpful not only to Will in terms of maintenance and to Jan in terms of budgeting, but also to Nancy for specifically targeting appropriate donors.

The budget continued to track well as the end of year approached. The budget ended at a near “break even” point. Capital spending also ended near the projected level. Preliminary budget information was distributed and reviewed by the committee. Jan Luchini, business manager, has been busy preparing for the yearly audit by the school’s accountants. The reports discussed were done “pre-audit” and will likely change somewhat by the time it is presented to Iowa Yearly Meeting in August. For example, non-cash depreciation expenses will be added back to the budget. A final budget will be proposed at the September meeting. It was noted that because of an early pledge payment, the school was able to pay off its debt to the West Branch State Bank earlier than had been anticipated. The operating line of credit will, therefore, not need to be raised by $25,000.

Staffing is nearly complete for the 1996-97 school year and Ken presented a list of staff hired for the following year. The only uncertainty at present is whether or not the proper immigration documentation for a Quaker family from New Zealand can be obtained by August. The family has five children, three of whom would be students this year. The other two children would be enrolled in West Branch. An intern from Mexico may also be coming to help with the Spanish program and with maintenance. An academic calendar for the upcoming school year was distributed, followed by a review of the proposed school committee meeting dates. One change was made for the January meeting. No dates were set for the retreat, but school committee members should plan on spending one day going to classes and crews with students and staff. The Scattergood staff should plan on meeting the school committee at the September meeting.

In the area of development, we were disappointed to learn recently that we would not be receiving a grant from the Maytag foundation. There are several other grant requests pending.

The admissions office has been busy interviewing and processing new student information. Presently we have 51 students accepted for the 1996-97 school year; about a quarter from Quaker backgrounds. Several more students are scheduled to visit campus and we continue to get inquiries almost daily. A tuition breakdown of actual monies paid by parents and scholarship funds will be available at the next meeting. The ability to track Iowa Yearly Meeting children and children of former students was also addressed. Karla Hanson, Maryellen Ryan and Nancy Ryan will be attending a class to increase their knowledge of our current database program, Microsoft Access.

Consultation Committee: Jim Cottingham reported that there were no formal meetings, however, he did participate in the conference call regarding spending procedures at the school.

Instruction Committee: No formal meetings were held since the last committee meeting. Ken noted that Scattergood is now a provisional member of ISACS. The full-blown accreditation process will begin soon and will require school committee members input. Maryellen will be in contact with the sub-committee as soon as more information arrives.

Facilities Committee: Ron Knight presented the facilities report. On July 12, Ron, Kay Meyer, Will Hardy, Ken Hinshaw, Burt Kisling and Don Laughlin met to discuss the boys dorm expansion. Excavation and footers are complete. Three bids for framing were received and one was approved. This will be addressed more in the purchasing procedure to be completed by Ken, Will and Jan. There was much discussion about finishing this project within the $100,000 budgeted.

Farm Committee: No formal report.

Development Committee: George Welch reported that he and Nancy Ryan had met to discuss development issues. He also noted that the Foundation and some committee members met on June 6 to discuss the distribution of yearly pledges to the Foundation 2000 campaign.

Spiritual Life Committee: No formal report.

Nominating Committee: Kay Meyer reported that terms have expired for George Welch, Clarence Perisho, and Barb Garlinghouse. Throughout the course of the 1995-96 school year Carol Spaulding, Jim Laughlin, and Scott Hinckley have either asked to be relieved of their duties or have been inactive. Kay suggested some possible committee members and it was noted that the Iowa Yearly Meeting officially designates new members. With so few active committee members, it is difficult to have effective sub-committees. The Long Range Planning subcommittee was inactive this year. The committee agreed that this is an important committee. Ken and Nancy will meet to determine next steps and present a report in September. Barb suggested sending invitations to other Yearly Meetings inviting them to become part of the committee.

Ken read the preliminary Report to the Yearly Meeting. Suggestions were made to add some information. Changes will be made and distributed to School Committee members for final perusal prior to Yearly Meeting.

At approximately 2:00 p.m. the committee went into executive session to discuss the evaluation of the director. After approximately an hour, Ken was called back to the meeting and given a copy of the evaluation. Discussion followed.

Karla Hanson

Recording Clerk