District 201 Board Meeting - September 9, 2009

[Ted]

 This is a summary of the District 201 board meeting that occurred on September 9, 2009.  Board members Joe Keating and Jessica Jamarillo-Flores were absent.

 Usually the public part of the board meetings start at 7 PM.  However, the board decided to start the board meeting much earlier. I was told the meeting started sometime between 6:30 to 6:40.  I arrived at around 6:55.  

 Mustang54 told me that all the items on the agenda had been gone through and voted on before I had arrived.  No votes were taken after I arrived, so I assume the vote on the consent agenda occurred before 6:55. The meeting ended at around 8:45 PM.

There were 2 vendor presentation and 7 administrative reports  given after I arrived.

1. Chronos systems - Max Sokol from Chronos systems gave a presentation to the board on the Chronos time tracking system.  People check in and check out using hand prints. The vendor stated that this system was used by Oak Park/River Forest and the Chicago Public School systems. He also claimed it would be a better system to track overtime and would prevent people from punching in for each other. The vendor claimed that over 30,000,000 people have to check in to work using the Chronos system and that it reduces "time theft" by 1.2%.  It was stated that District 201 could eliminate 1 to 2 people if they purchased Chronos and that the ROI was 2 years.


2. Facility study - The district conducted its 10 year facility study. The last facility study was done in 1998. The study broke down proposed maintenance into 3 categories - Priority 1 (need to be fixed in the next year); Priority 2 (need to be fixed in 3 to 5 years); and Priority 3 (need to be fixed but not urgent).  The major areas of Priority 1 maintenance are the roofs at Morton East and Morton West; the swimming pools at Morton East and Morton West; the parking lots at Morton East and Morton West; the greenhouse at Morton East; the fire alarm system at Morton West.  There were no significant Priority 1 needs at either the Freshman Center or the Alternative School.  The roofs with the worst condition were the roof of the Annex at Morton East and the roof at the south end of the school at Morton West.

 The study stated that the building infrastructure was in good shape, given the age of the buildings.  The cost of the Priority 1 repairs at Morton East would be $5.4 million dollars ($2.4 million for the roofl; $48K for the pool; $100K for the greenhouse; $318K for the chimney; $2.4 million for repairs in the 1998 plan that had not been done).  There was an additional $5.4 million dollars for Priority 2 repairs at Morton East.

 For Morton West, the Priority 1 repairs totaled $4.3 million ($2.2 million for the roof; $300K for the pool; $600K to replace the fire alarm system;  $1.1 million for other things). There are $11.5 million dollars of proposed Priority 2 items. Thus, the total Priorty 1 items is $9.7 million and the total Priority 2 items is $16.9 million for a total of $26.6 million dollars in priority 1 and priority 2 repairs for the district.


3. New building studies - The architects also did studies on what it would take to build a new Freshman Center (building to hold 1200 students); build a new Morton East; and renovate Morton East For the new Freshman Center, the architects estimated $250 per square foot and estimated a total square footage of 200,000 to 250,000 square feet, for a total cost of $50 million dollars to $62.5 million dollars. The architects estimated an additional $5 million to $7.5 million dollars for land acquisition. It was stated that the new Freshman Center would also house the district's administrative offices.

 For building a new Morton East in the sports field immediately to the east of the current Morton East,  the architects estimated a total square footage of 400,000 to 500,000 square feet for a total cost of $106 million to $132 million dollars. There would also be a demolition of the existing buildings to create a new sports field. One problem is that the Morton East auditorium is on the National registry so the district may not be able to tear down. That was not clear.  To renovate Morton East, the architects estimated a cost of $42 million dollars to $48 million dollars.


4. Financial report - The district is just starting the school year. Revenues so far have been $1.4 million dollars and expenses have been $3.9 million dollars. Operating funds are at $30 million dollars and the total fund balance (which is operating funds plus bond fund) is $38 million.  Board President Jeff Pesek ask the administratve heads and the principals to come back to the October meeting with proposals for a 10% cut and a 20% cut in the budget. Gail also stated that the district had decided to not switch to Voice Over IP for the phone systems because there was no return on investment. During the budget discussion, Gail Kopf started naming the number of new positions that had been created. Board President interrupted her and told her that no new non administrative positions had been created.


5. Administrative and principal reports - Dr. Kusniewski reported on the creation  of 10 new administrative positions and 63 certified staff (i.e. teaching) positions. The District has received $1.7 million dollars in Title 1 funds for physically and mentally challenged students; $800K in Title II funds (teacher quality), most of which was to lower class size. AP funds have been cut from $180K to $58K.

  Dr. Parkinson gave a 5 minute presentation on what teachers learned this summer, accompanied by Michael Jackson music. She also talked about MAP tests (which are adaptive tests) and Lexile scores. She also stated she hoped stimulus money could be used to some of the costs.  

 There was a discussion about the moving of the REACH program to Morton East and the Alternative School from Morton West and it was stated that things went well. 75 students have been moved out of Morton West. There was also a discussion about meeting with the elementary school districts on September 24 to meet and coordinate curricula across the districts.

 Morton West principal Joe Gunty talked about the open house that was to occur on September 10 and how parents would simulate the class day of their kids. It was stated that the parents had been contacted about the event via phone calls.

6. Open Forum - During the open forum a parent complained about the traffic situation at the Freshman Center.

There was no new news on the superintendent search. The next board meeting will be on October 14 at the Alternative School.

[OakParkSpartan]

How would they raise money for this new construction?  Bonds?

Given the state of finances in the district as well as the economy, I hope they delay.

[erudito]

Ted,

Why is there no mention of 2009 test scores? After all, the district hired an army of content specialists and 2 assistant superintendents. 

[Ted]

Ted,

Why is there no mention of 2009 test scores? After all, the district hired an army of content specialists and 2 assistant superintendents.  

Erudito,

 The board started the meeting 20 to 30 minutes earlier than usual so I missed the first part of the meeting. They may have talked about test scores during that part of the meeting.

 There was no discussion about test scores during the presentations by either Kusniewski or Parkinson.  Parkinson did talk about new types of tests that the district was considering administering.

Have the results from the tests last spring been aggregated yet?  Are they available for public consumption?

 Ted

[Berwyn Patsy]

This probably means nothing, considering the whole big
picture, but isn't it unusual to start a public meeting earlier
than the scheduled time and  for what reason?
Does not seem professional, even if the audience members number
only a few.

[erudito]

Ted,

Thanks for all of your hard work. The scores were sent to schools in mid-July. HMMMM

[Ted]

This probably means nothing, considering the whole big picture, but isn't it unusual to start a public meeting earlier than the scheduled time and  for what reason? Does not seem professional, even if the audience members number only a few.

Pat, there were a lot of long presentations Wednesday night. The meeting did not end until almost 9 PM because of those presentations.  That's my guess as to why the board started at 6:30 rather than 7 PM.

  I do hope that's a one time occurence. If people expect a meeting to start at 7 PM, I think it should start at 7 PM, not 6:30.

Ted

[buzz]

Ted,
Thanks for all of your hard work. The scores were sent to schools in mid-July. HMMMM

Ditto that "Thank You".
 
If those results were anything to be proud of they'd have found their way to publication by now.

[mustang54]

This probably means nothing, considering the whole big
picture, but isn't it unusual to start a public meeting earlier
than the scheduled time and  for what reason?
Does not seem professional, even if the audience members number
only a few.

As you know Pat from being at meetings they start at 5 in public session and then go into executive session right away. They usually come back to the public session at 7 or as in many instances as you know even later. I got there about 6:40 and the public session already started. Don't think I missed much. The reason they probably had such a fast executive session was it was the first meeting of a new school year. There were no expulsions yet to go over. As Ted said the public session did last over 2 hours. The presentations were long and there was a lot of information given.

[MRS. NORTHSIDER]

Ted,
Thanks for all of your hard work. The scores were sent to schools in mid-July. HMMMM

Ditto that "Thank You".
 
If those results were anything to be proud of they'd have found their way to publication by now.

+1  If the scores had improved you'd think they would be shouting it from the highest rooftop.  Anyways, they're usually released to the public and in the newspapers sometime aroung the beginning the November - we'll find out then if not sooner.

[Berwyn Patsy]

I probably should have remembered the district 201 meetings,
that I attended were before the new board was brought in.

My understanding in the past was 5:00 public to immediate closed session, then a supper break, with a resumed 7:00 to open public .
The many nights the back to the public part of the meeting started after
7:00, I always assumed supper was running late.