Scattergood Friends School Committee

Minutes

September 16, 1995

The School Committee met on Saturday, September 16, 1995, at 9:00 a.m. on the Scattergood Friends School Campus in West Branch, Iowa.

The meeting opened with a period of silence. Members present: Burt Kisling, Robert Berquist, Darlyne Neff, Larry Marsh, Lucy Hansen, Barb Garlinghouse, Kay Meyer, Nancy Peterson, Bruce Rohwer, Ron Knight, Dana Harr, Dan Treadway, Paul Buckley, Connie Clapton-Schumm, Jim Cottingham. Staff: Ken Hinshaw, Ardith Tjossem, James O’Gorman, Dena Miller, Will Hardy, Karla Hanson.

Minutes: Lucy Hansen read the minutes from the July meeting and the following amendments were made: 1.) $125,00 was changed to $125,000.00

2.) Under Development Committee the 3rd sentence was changed to read

“Approximately $1,500,000 has already been pledged.

A change was also made to the School Committee schedule. The July 13, 1996, meeting will be held in Des Moines, not at Scattergood.

Approval was given by the committee for Karla Hanson to act as recording clerk for the 1995-1996 School Committee meetings.

Burt Kisling read a letter from Robert and Esther Griswold thanking the Committee for the painting by Beth Wilson. Introductions were made by the staff and Committee members. This meeting included both new and retiring School Committee members. Ron Knight and Dan Treadway will be co-opted committee members this year.

Director’s Report: Kay Meyer read the director’s report. Ken Hinshaw handed out a copy of the report along with financial statements for the school, and elaborated on the written report:

Community Life: Ken reported that there is a very different feeling at Scattergood compared to last year and the problems with vandalism, graffiti, etc. The year began with a Ropes Course thanks to the work of Dean of Students, James O’Gorman. The course was designed to enhance teamwork and trust among the group. Students and many of the staff participated in this two-day event. The discipline system is stricter and more quickly enforced this year. Students are immediately informed of violations and are required to spend an “extra 45” minutes in the director’s office from 9:00 pm to 9:45 pm. This has increased the communication between staff and students. Improvements in punctuality and homework completion have been seen within a month of implementing this program.

James O’Gorman talked about the changes on campus. He credits some of it to the fact that several of the students were asked not to return. A team of Conflict Managers has been trained to assist in resolving problems between community members.

Admissions: Dena Miller, Director of Admissions, handed out enrollment information for the school year. Enrollment is presently at 45 students.

Dena has been working on expanded recruiting by going to Illinois Yearly Meeting and Inter Mountain Yearly Meeting She has also made a Scattergood display available for meetings outside our immediate area. Decorah Meeting will visit Scattergood this fall. Kay Meyer suggested having a special day for Iowa Yearly Meeting members to visit the school. Any information of prospective students should be passed on to Dena.

Farm Report: Belle Hinshaw continues to manage the school farm. Ken reported that $8,000.00 was borrowed from the school for the farm. Improvements are being made to the farrowing barn. Low corn yields are expected this year due to wet spring and very dry summer. Produce from the garden was also affected by the heat, nonetheless the school was able to sell organically grown produce to the New Pioneer Co-op in Iowa City.

Finances: Ken distributed several financial statements and stated that the operating budget still needs to be formally approved by the Committee, even though this budget has actually been in use since the fiscal year began on July 1. The payroll and tuition income is set for 1995-1996 and cannot be reliably changed at this point. The Committee officially accepted the budget for the 1995-1996 school year. It was requested that business manager, Jan Luchini, be present for the operating budget discussions. Dan Treadway and Paul Buckley agreed to meet with Ken after the meeting to discuss specific accounting questions.

Prompted by Nancy Peterson’s question about the financial health of Scattergood, Ken said that without the capital campaign, the school could not reach it’s potential. There is a definite need for more full-pay students to boost revenue. The physical improvements to the buildings and grounds should be a selling factor for prospective students. A more aggressive approach to marketing the school must begin immediately.

Facilities: Will Hardy, Maintenance Manager, discussed the need to either remove or fill three oil tanks on the school grounds. According to the Department of Natural Resources (DNR), the fuel tanks need to come out of the ground or be properly sealed. The first estimate is as follows: $3,200.00 to remove the 1,000 gallon oil tanks, $9,000.00 to remove oil and fill with concrete as is, and/or $11,000.00 to remove oil and take the tanks out. According to the gentleman who provided the quote, the DNR has approved leaving tanks in the ground. Will shall verify this. The Committee left this issue to the discretion of the Ken and Will, who are to report back to the facilities committee.

Burt suggested that Will look at past meeting minutes to find out the recommended improvements of the Facilities Committee. Larry Marsh noted that this committee has not met since early summer.

SUBCOMMITTEE REPORTS:

Facilities Report: Deslonde Alexander was convenor for the year. Topics included the solar collector, roofs, door replacements, girls dorm improvements, electrical upgrades, and boys dorm furnace. Many projects have been completed, yet others have not. A copy of the Capital Expense for Facilities (dated 3/25/95) was also distributed.

Nominating Committee: Lucy Hansen talked about the activity of this committee. In summary, the committee asked Burt to be clerk in the spring, looked for school committee members in the summer, and put together the subcommittees list in August and September. Lucy handed out an address list and a proposed subcommittee list. The school’s Nominating Committee has yet to announce the new members. Karla Hanson will let Lucy know when the staff and students are assigned to their committees.

Consultation Committee: The chairperson resigned from this committee over the summer. No report of activities was available.

Instruction Committee:

Larry Marsh acted as convenor and distributed the subcommittee report. Last spring Scattergood awarded 9 graduation certificates and 4 certificates of attendance. Larry expressed his concern about the committee falling behind at the end of the year. There is a lot of work to be done and committee members must remain focused and dedicated. Larry also distributed a copy of the school library policy.

Ken talked about the goal of making the library the academic center of the school. The registrar’s office is now located there. Maryellen Ryan’s accessibility and the new look of the library should be a selling point for prospectives.

Discussed the issue of valuable books being kept at Scattergood. It was questioned as to whether or not these books would be in better hands at a public library. Bob Berquist suggested that we keep the older books and journals on campus and not pass them along to other school or libraries. They will be more appreciated by Scattergood students and staff.

Development Report: Bert distributed the committee’s self-evaluation. Talked about campaign money and which account it should go to. The school can’t spend the money without Don Laughlin’s signature. There are now three accounts. The clearing account needs to be the responsibility of either the foundation or the school. The portion of the capital campaign for annual giving will be turned over to the school. Ken agreed to create a flowchart to visualize the routing responsibility of funds. The March minutes cleared the question about paying back funding for the campaign (10%) out of the contributions. It was agreed that the actual 10% will be reimbused.

The Development Director position was discussed. Presently Ardith Tjossem is the Director of Development and Robert Griswold is a Development Associate. Both of these are part-time positions.

Dana Harr requested that the staff, student and school committee handbooks be recorded for use by other blind persons. This project could be done by a student as a service project. There was also a request for copies of the year-end financial report to be sent to the foundation trustees.

The meeting closed with a few moments of silence at approximately 3:00 p.m.

The next meeting will be at the school on Saturday, November 18, 1995.

Karla Hanson

Recording Clerk