March 9, 2010 Board Meeting Minutes

MINUTES
REGULAR MEETING OF THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES OF
BLAINE COUNTY SCHOOL DISTRICT NO. 61
TUESDAY, MARCH 9, 2010 - 6:30 P.M.
DISTRICT OFFICE  

I.        Call to Order and Welcome  

Board Chairman Julie Dahlgren called the Regular March meeting to order at 6:30 p.m. and welcomed everyone in attendance.  

Present were Board Members Mari Beth Matthews, Steve Guthrie and Paul Bates.  Also in attendance were Dr. Lonnie Barber, Superintendent of Schools, Mike Chatterton, School District Treasurer, and Laurie Kaufman, Board Clerk.  

Chairman Dahlgren stated that a quorum was present and noted that Board Member Dan Parke will not be able to physically attend the meeting due to his daughter’s important All Star basketball game in Declo.  During the Action Agenda items, however, he will be calling in to attend the meeting via telephone speaker-phone in order to participate in the dialogue and cast his votes.  

II.       Pledge of Allegiance  

The Carey Student Leadership group, Brad Peck, Student Body President, Blair Peck, Vice President, Shane Bingham, Secretary, Danni Hennefer, Treasurer, led the audience in the Pledge of Allegiance.  

III.      Accolades  

Dr. Barber stated that Principal Angie Martinez sent him a note regarding Bellevue Elementary School’s first Family Math night.  

Dear Dr. Barber and the BCSD Board of Trustees,  

Bellevue Elementary School celebrated Family Math Night this winter! The event hosted over 300 people from 112 different families. It was an amazing success! Family Math Night promotes mathematics and engages parents in learning more about the ways their children learn math at school. The math activities for this special family event came from the State in support of the Idaho Math Initiative. The kits include a variety of math games that showcase mathematical thinking.  

I’d like to thank the entire Bellevue Elementary School staff for their collective planning to offer this special night for our families, but most especially to Ronda Ward who chaired the event, and her team of Bill Cantrell, Gary Grose, Stephanie Gerringa, Jessica Kolkmann, Marilyn Rountree, Sarah Polk, and Desna Smith, for their leadership!  

Sincerely,
Angie Martinez
Bellevue Elementary School Principal  

Dr. Barber shared a letter sent to Dr. Jim Lewis from the Superintendent of Castleford School District, Andy Wiseman regarding Mileposts.  

To: Jim Lewis
From: Andy Wiseman  

I am writing to say thank you for ensuring the Castleford School District has the Milepost student data program. The Blaine County staff has been very helpful and diligent about our training, technical service, and follow-up.  

We have trained our entire staff; that now have access to our own information including student assessment history, classroom generated data, demographics, and teaching strategies that have been successful. Our on-staff lead teacher, Elly Loman, refers to Mileposts as "one stop shopping for student information."  

Again, thank you; and you should be recognized for providing this software tool, generated in Idaho for Idaho teachers and Idaho schools.  

Dr. Barber read a complimentary letter sent to the Board of Trustees from Kate Heinecke, Administrative Assistant at the District Office.  

Dear Board of Trustees:  

The Language Arts Curriculum was updated and approved in 2007.  With this update it was determined that the curriculum document would be a dynamic linked document.  Within each standard there are corresponding activities, our own activies, and activities through Houghton-Mifflin.  The desire was that within this document, at each standard, you would see each of the corresponding activities and be able to click on the activity right within the document.  While that concept seems simple in itself, the techinical difficulties that arrived in making this actually possible were numerous and lengthy.   

Without going into all the technical difficulties we encountered in this project, I just wanted to to share with you my appreciation for the excellent work and effort of Language Arts Teachers, Gloria Wieand of Bellevue Elementary, and Maggie Shaughnessy of Woodside Elementary.  I would not have been able to complete this project without them.  Together we were able to arrive at a solution to achieve the goal of creating a linked curriculum, however, the solution is incredibly time consuming and labor intensive, invovling many hours of hyperlinking, bookmarking, and converting.  I cannot tell you how many hours these two teachers gave up in the evening and on weekends to help complete this task.  Thanks to their efforts we now have a very interactive, useful, useable tool for our Language Arts teachers.  

Teachers like Gloria and Maggie go out of their way to give extra time and effort; and that makes our School District stand above the rest.  Thank you for allowing me to recognize their efforts.  

Regards,
Kate Heinecke
Administrative Assistant, District Office  

IV.      Guest Presentations  

Please click here to view the Carey School Student Leadership Presentation.  

A note from Scott Slonim:  

'The Substitute Teacher' is a fiction comedy video that was directed, edited, and shot by Hemingway fifth graders for Panasonic's Kid Witness News (KWN) video competition.  The video was shot during the student's own time, not class time.  This was going to be our fourth year entering the KWN contest, but they canceled the contest this year so they could reorganize.  Our school had made three videos, and the students at Hemingway, except for kindergarten, watched them and voted for their favorite.  Dr. Barber heard about the cancellation and invited us to show the winning video from our school election at tonight’s Board meeting.  

The video is about a class that has a substitute teacher that they treat very poorly.  The teacher puts a spell on the class and it's up to two students who were out of the room at the time of the spell to figure out the spell and reverse it.  

Hemingway Elementary School students involved in the making of ‘The Substitute Teacher’:  

Tess Burchmore, Travis Wilkinson, Gabriella Whittaker, Danielle Doerflein, Elena Salas, Hadley Cabitto, Oskar Wilander, Jackson Dies, Beck Vontver, Sierra Beck, Pierce Lundt, Nik Dorazio, Alex Leon, Jackelyn De la Cruz, Mariana Espinoza, Stuart McKean  

Assisting Adults:  Scott Slonim, Pat Barto, Brad Stansberry  

V.        Consent Agenda

Special Meeting of February 8, 2010 – Trustee Workshop
Regular Meeting of February 9, 2010
Special Meeting of February 16, 2010
SSpecial Meeting of February 23, 2010  

Please click here to view the February 2010 Financial Reports.  

Classified Staff – Exiting  

Daniel VandenHeuvel – Special Ed Paraprofessional, Wood River Middle School  

Classified Staff – Recommending for Hire
None.  

Certified Staff – Exiting  

Patricia St. George – Elementary Teacher, Hailey Elementary School
Laura Crist – Elementary Dual Immersion Teacher, Hemingway Elementary School
Sandra Schroeder – Speech Language Pathologist, Hailey Elementary School  

Certified Staff – Recommending for Hire
None.  

Board Member Mari Beth Matthews made a notion to approve items “a” through “d” of the Consent Agenda.  The motion was seconded by Paul Bates and passed unanimously.  

VI.      Public Comments

a.       Diane Barker  

I urge you not to approve the McKinstry Contract at this time for the following reasons.  The data upon which you will base your decision is incomplete.  You are being sold a $15-million dollar contract without an independent report by a third party of the economic and technical feasibility of the project.  If you have such a report, I would rather that you share it.  You will be approving a project without side by side costs analysis of the alternative solutions.  No one challenges this.  Smart people compare products prior to purchase.  You are being asked to make a decision on a project with far-reaching effects while having only the merest understanding of the financial, environmental, and technical components.  You need independent professionals to guide you through this proposal.  You are stewards for our children’s education and of the taxpayers’ money.  You simply cannot make a decision to go forward in good conscience, based on your own personal knowledge base of this project at this time.  It will be your responsibility to do so.  If you approve this project then you will have retroactively misled our community.  The information materials you used to sell the levy to our community included these statements.  You said, what will be the levy fund?  One item was high efficiency heating, air-conditioning and ventilation systems at the older buildings.  The Wood River campus, the Wood River High School is not an older building.  Secondly you said energy conservation sustainability measures will be district-wide.  Then you go on to say, although these sustainability measures are important, they only represent about 2.3% of the total levy.  That amounts to about $1, 380,000 and I think if you look at the McKinstry contract, there is a lot more than $1,300,000 in sustainability items, because the Wood River High School itself, costs more than that and that is simply a sustainability conservation measure.  We don’t need that project and that school is not old.  If you approve this contract you are going too far too fast.  You should slow this project down; take the time to understand the economic, environmental, and technical aspects of each component of each conservation measure.  Then choose one or two components to complete and then test results.  I recommend that you reissue RFPs for a project that is much smaller than this project.  If we lose some of the federal grant money, then so be it.  We’ll come out ahead in the long run.  Thank you for your time.  

b.       Steve Bynam

I am Steve Bynam and a 20-year resident of Woodside, a father of a junior attending Wood River High School, and the employer of about 15 Wood River High School students.  I am here to strongly urge the School Board not to approve the fuel storage and fueling facility on the Wood river High School campus.  There are many reasons, one of the reasons is that when the school was being constructed, there was a lot of contention at the time with all the neighbors about where the busses would be parked and stored.  I think that one of the reasons the neighbors finally consented for the busses to be stored on campus was that there was a promise made that there would never be fuel storage done there.  While recently the Planning & Zoning Commission returned the wishes of hundreds of people by saying that they didn’t see a reason why that should be enforced any longer, the neighbors have not forgotten this promise, not to store fuel on campus.  That’s been the current state of affairs for a long time, but in the last couple of years, the school decided that they would like to switch to a crop-based, non-fossil fuel, very admirable.  At the time it was proposed by the school that they would like to use B20, which at the time none of the fueling stations in town carried.  However, that’s, I think, when they began discussing building and storing B20 on campus for the use of the busses.  At the time, I attended a meeting where it was said if only Brico would carry it, we wouldn’t even have to discuss this.  Well, Brico has been carrying it now for well over a year, it’s been used in the busses seemingly without any problems, and there’s really no compelling reason, that I can see, to build a smelly fuel facility on campus.  Yet the plans go on; it’s on the agenda again tonight.  Once again, ‘approval’ of this thing, even though there’s still a great deal of contention going on.  So I’ve heard the arguments that fuel efficiency will increase if the busses won’t have to back-track to midtown Hailey to fuel up, and I don’t think it’s a compelling argument to offset the prospect of having a potentially dangerous fuel facility in an avalanche zone, adjacent to all the playing fields, a couple of hundred feet away from a number of houses, where all the students gather for the high school, the continuing education college, and the alternative high school, not to mention all the students.  Originally the pros and cons list for this fuel facility, compiled for you guys, the pros list, very short, and the cons list, very long, which mentioned how smelly it’s going to be, how the neighbors will be able to smell it.  The one thing I would like to say is that we took a few days and had a petition of people opposed to this; I’ve gathered over 200 names in just a few short days, I could get many, many more if I had more time.  I would just like to say that the EPA also has stated that they think it’s a bad idea for fuel storage to occur on high school campuses; no surprise there.  Also the future of B20 is questionable.  We’re probably in an interim position right now between fossil fuels and whatever the next stage of how busses will be run; I’m hoping hybrids or even beyond that.  Thank you.  

The following text is from the above-noted petition, which will be filed with the Regular March 9, 2010 School Board meeting records at the Blaine County School District office:  

We have gathered well over 200 signatures from Wood River High School's neighbors and other community members opposed to the installation of a fuel storage and dispensing facility at the bus garage on the WRHS campus. We could easily gather many more. The purpose of which is to show that there is a great deal of resistance to this misguided plan, which is in direct opposition to the original agreement struck with the neighbors (and the community at large) that "no fuel storage shall occur at said location." We hope that this (and the recent Mountain Express poll showing 2/3 of the 316 respondents were also opposed) will convince the board that this issue requires at the very least, much greater public scrutiny, or the discussion of viable alternatives, before its hasty passage.  

c.       Kathryn Graves

I actually don’t have much to add; I was also going to comment on the proposed fuel tank.  Mr. Bynam pretty much said everything that I was going to say about how in 2005, the Hailey Planning & Zoning made a document called ‘Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law and Decision’ and in this document the Commission approved the Bus Barn as long as the School District complies with several conditions.  The fourth condition was, as he mentioned, no fuel storage shall occur at the high school campus.  This is very clear.  I think a fuel tank at the schools is a bad idea.  It’s near the Aquatic Center, it’s near walking trails, playing fields at the high school, and it just doesn’t make sense to have a fuel storage tank next to the high school and these playing fields.  I am urging you to vote no on the storage tank.  

The following public comments were submitted in writing and read by Board Chairman Julie Dahlgren.  

d.       Les and Leslie Dilley

Dear Laurie and Blaine County School District Board Members,  

I am requesting that this letter be read at the next Board Meeting, during the first Public Comment period, this coming Tuesday, March 9, 2010.  I am also requesting that it be published in the Idaho Mountain Express.  

Dear BCSD Board Members,  

We would like to comment on the last Action Agenda Meeting item listed on tonight's Agenda titled: "Approval of Fuel Storage Tank System at the Bus Facility".  This is completely different wording and has a very different meaning than the wording that was used on the February 9, 2010 Action Agenda, where the wording was: "Permission to Bid for a Convault Fuel Tank System".  We would like an explanation as to why this change of wording happened and why the public was not given proper notice of the change.  The Blaine County School District and Trustees are well aware that this is an important issue to some members of our community and in all fairness the Trustees should be committed to giving the interested public more than 5 days notice when it changes the wording of an Action Agenda Item on a contentious issue.  Over 20 members of the public attended and followed all of the City of Hailey meetings this past summer involving the Fuel Tank issue. Over a year's time there have been articles in the Idaho Mountain Express where numerous citizens have spoken out against the Fuel Storage Tank placement.  Last month, the Mountain Express held an online poll that asked "Should the BCSD install a biodiesel storage tank in a residential area of east Hailey?" where a total of 316 people voted.  208 people voted "NO"- over two-thirds of the poll.  We want an explanation as to why there is no discussion going on among the School Board Trustees and the Public regarding the placement of this tank.  Why is there total disregard for previous promises made to the neighborhood directly affected and why is the school Board not following the recommendations set forth by the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) that suggests that School Boards do not put fuel tanks on or near school campuses.    

Thank you for listening,
Les and Leslie Dilley  

e.       Michael Breen

My personal opinion on the fuel tank issue is that from what I have heard from Mike Chatterton, Howie Royal, and Rex Squires, indicates that this will be a state of the art biodiesel storage tank.  That there will be no possibility of leakage and the utmost care will be taken to assure the safety of the tank and protect the existing neighborhood.  There will be less bus trips made to fill up the tanks in south Woodside with the diesel tank on site; this will help mitigate problems with the air quality and lead to less trips being made.  This will save the District money and help with safety.  Over time, the biodiesel blends will hopefully improve, leading to less pollution.  

I do feel that everyone, who is involved with the fueling of the buses, needs to know how important this is to the entire community, and that there always needs to be the greatest care to avoid spillage.  This is a great opportunity for our school district to be an environmental leader in our state.  

Thanks,
Michael Breen  

f.        George Kirk

Dear Members of the School Board:  

As I am unable to attend the Board Meeting this evening, I'm writing to encourage you to engage Sustainable Food Systems to help the BCSD achieve the goal of creating cutting edge, environmentally conscious, community based and nutritious dining programs in our schools.  As a recent member of the St Luke's Community Board, I have seen the success of this program at St Luke's WR Medical Center and had two occasions to meet with John Turenne and discuss the potential of this sort of program throughout the institutions of our Valley, including the BCSD.  

In addition to the benefits stated in the Proposal from Sustainable Food Systems for our students and schools, I'd also like to offer that the larger scale implementation of programs such as these could serve to provide an economic and environmental benefit to our local agricultural community, potentially enabling them to begin to raise, grow, and market locally grown product demanded by our institutions, which would potentially provide ranchers and farmers with an alternative to the tumultuous traditional commodities markets of beef, hay, and grain.  

The Administration is to be commended for placing this initiative in front of you for your consideration and I encourage your decision get it implemented.  

Sincerely,
George Kirk  

g.       C. Penfield Stroh

To Blaine County School Board Trustees Dahlgren, Matthews, Bates, Parke and Guthrie:  

I am concerned about the potential of biodiesel fuel storage at the Districts bus Maintenance Facility at the Community Campus. The District should not allow fuel storage and fueling activities at this location for the following reasons.  

Placing a fuel storage tank at this location represents a breach of trust between the School District and their neighbors as well as the community of Hailey as a whole. When the Bus Barn and Maintenance facility was originally constructed in this location, the conditional use permit for this site specifically precluded fuel storage at this location.  

This residential neighborhood is not a suitable location for an industrial use. The District presently has access to industrially zoned land that IS appropriate and should place their tank at that location.  

The neighbors should not have to endure fuel tanker trucks and their requisite activities near their homes. None of the residents of North Woodside or Fox Acres purchased homes in those locations with an expectation of this activity: normal school activities yes, fueling no.  

Sandwiched between an avalanche zone (you may actually be placing the tank in the avalanche zone) and playing fields, no fuel tank or fueling situation is 100% accident-proof. I have NEVER visited a fuel station that did not have spilled fuel on the ground.  

Give an inch, take a mile ethics are not the behavior that should be modeled by our model School District. Building trust in the community by keeping promises made should be paramount. You would not attempt this activity in a neighborhood with homes of higher value. I would not want this inappropriate activity in my backyard: it should not be in theirs either.  

Please use your available industrially zoned property for this industrial use or continue to fuel your buses on Main Street with a standard provider of biodiesel fuel. We treasure our quality of life in Hailey and should NOT sacrifice that and the safety of our children, ground water or property values for the Blaine County School District's convenience.  

Very truly yours,
C. Penfield Stroh  

h.       Julie Fox and John Valenzuela

To: Blaine County School Board
Re: Approval of fuel storage tank at bus facility  

Dear Ladies and Gentlemen,  

Please consider the following:  

1.      The placement of the bus facility in its current location was a very contentious issue six years ago.  It is an industrial facility located in an avalanche zone, on a soccer field, in a neighborhood.  After much discussion, an agreement was made that no fuel storage would take place on the site.  Reneging on that agreement is a breach of faith with the neighborhood and undermines the decisions made by former administrations and commissions.  

2.      Fuel is a hazardous material.  Hazardous material storage near two schools and the community campus, a heavily populated neighborhood, and heavy-use playing fields is highly questionable. While I do appreciate the substantial efforts of BCSD to minimize the impact of the facility by screening with berms and vegetation, the Fox family children grew up next to the former bus facility and fueling station, and we can assure you that being a neighbor to school buses and fuel storage is extremely unpleasant.  

3.      Biodiesel may be obsolete in a number of years. Fuels and transportation designs are changing, so we can assume that a biodiesel storage tank is not a long-term solution.  Please consider thinking past the next ten years.  

4.      Chevron has biodiesel available and is willing to work with BCSD. Most of the buses drive by Chevron at least once daily.  Most of the drivers are aware of the times of day that are easiest to access the pumps.  

Considering that this is a matter of health, safety, and sustainability, we believe that in order to maintain community goodwill and the faith of the neighborhood in BCSD, the district should at the very minimum do the following to determine that the $100,000 and the negative effect on the neighborhood is indeed justified:  

1.      Provide a detailed, hard financial analysis of the current costs associated with extra trips to the Hailey Chevron and the extra man-hours needed for such trips.  The public has only been provided with vague figures.  We believe that the drivers should easily be able to log hours and trips, and the associated costs calculated with little difficulty.  After a reasonable period of data-collection, a complete financial analysis can be made to determine the real cost savings.  

2.      Make an effort to inform the neighborhood, those that work and attend the schools and Community Campus facilities, and the general public of the issues and welcome a response.  

If BCSD believes that their current financial reasoning is sound and that people don't really care about this issue, it should not be particularly difficult to definitively prove that.  The Fox family has appreciated BCSD's consideration in our past negotiations regarding the extended high school campus, and we would like to see the same level of consideration extended to the neighborhood.  

Thank you for your time.
Julie Fox and John Valenzuela  

a.       Dual Immersion Program Update  

Please click here to view the Dual Immersion Update presentation.  

a.       Report on Progress of Strategic Plan  

►  Goal No. 2: Every Student receives a rigorous curriculum that prepares them for college and is supported by challenging, inspiring, and relevant instruction.  

Please click here to view the Strategic Plan Goal No. 2 updates.

Please click here to view Team 21’s monthly update.  

Please click here to view the Blaine County Program and Staffing Committee’s monthly update.  

IX.      Chairman’s Board Report – Julie Dahlgren, Board Chair  

a.       Deconstructing Idaho Code 33-515 – Political Update  

Please click here to view Chairman Dahlgren’s report.  

X.       Information Agenda

Please click here to view the Autism Spectrum Disorder Program presentation.  

Please click here to view Carey High School Dual Credits and Tech Prep Credits information.  

While going through the Strategic Planning process and listening to concerns from the public about the District becoming more environmentally friendly and sustainable and being involved with the Sustain Blaine organization, Dr. Jim Lewis and Mike Chatterton looked for ways the District could get involved in this movement through the School Lunch program.  St. Luke’s hired Sustainable Food Systems to look for ways to improve the health benefits in food while supporting local businesses and has been developing this process over the last few years with great success.  Many positive public comments have come in regarding the School District getting involved, and Chartwells has agreed that they would also like to be involved in the process.  Mike has been talking with John Turenne of Sustainable Food Systems for the past several months regarding ways his company can help the Blaine County School District.  If the Board agrees that this is something they would like to implement, the District could roll out this concept with the new design of the Community Campus and fitness facility to make the Internet Café’s food selections healthier, and then incorporate this process at Hemingway Elementary School next school year to measure the success.  

John Turenne of Sustainable Food Systems presented an overview of the Sustainable Food Systems proposal to the Board.  

Please click here to view the Sustainable Food Systems Proposal of Consulting Services to Blaine County School District.  

Please click on the following link to view the Sustainable Food Systems website:

www.SustainableFoodSystems.com  

Please click here to view Jerry Hutchins’ Spring Break Network Outage information.  

The Bid Opening for the sale of the 1992 Ford Taurus was held at the District Office on March 3rd at 9:00 a.m.  Two bids were received and the car was sold for $150.00.  

XI.      Information/Action Agenda  

Please click here to view the Education Foundation’s annual report.  

Board Member Paul Bates made a motion to approve the Education Foundation’s new Board of Directors, Lyman Drake and Alex Sundali.  The motion was seconded by Steve Guthrie and passed unanimously.  

Please click here to view the Server Consolidation and Server Back-up Proposal.

Board Member Mari Beth Matthews made a motion to accept the Server Consolidation and Server Back-up Proposal. The motion was seconded by Paul Bates and passed unanimously.  

XII.     Action Agenda  

Chairman Dahlgren announced that Board Member Dan Parke is now attending the meeting via telephone speaker-phone and will vote when required for the duration of the Action Agenda.  All votes cast by Board Members will be taken by individual vote to eliminate any possible confusion.  

The High School Physical Education Recommendation Proposal was presented to the Board at the Regular February 9, 2010 Board meeting.  Board Member Steve Guthrie made a motion to approve the High School Physical Education Recommendation.  The motion was seconded by Paul Bates.  

Board Member Steve Guthrie thanked the committee for their time and compromising in decision making.  During the Regular February Board meeting, he suggested a one to one credit in regard to sports activities.  He suggested that this topic be re-visited a year from now to see how the program is working both for the students and staff.  He stated that he is still fairly adamant that at some point, depending on the outcome of the program, specifically with the half credit, that he would like to see the one to one credit brought back to the table.  

Votes were cast by Board Members as follows:  

Dan Parke: “Aye”
Mari Beth Matthews: “Aye”
Steve Guthrie: “Aye”
Paul Bates: “Aye”  

The High School Physical Education Recommendation as presented was approved by roll call vote.  

Details concerning the McKinstry Contract were covered at a Trustee Workshop held March 8, 2010.  Mike Chatterton also reiterated points regarding the McKinstry Contract starting when the process began with the Plant Facilities Levy, through the Judicial Confirmation, and the entire Strategic Plan.   

Mike took questions from Board Members.  

Please click here to view the McKinstry Contract.  

Board Member Steve Guthrie made a motion to approve the McKinstry Contract.  The motion was seconded by Mari Beth Matthews.  

Votes were cast by Board Members as follows:  

Paul Bates: “Nay”
Steve Guthrie: “Aye”
Mari Beth Matthews: “Aye”
Dan Parke: “Aye”  

The McKinstry Contract was approved by roll call vote.

Board Member Paul Bates made a motion to table this agenda item until the next Regular Board meeting.  The motion was seconded by Steve Guthrie.  

Chairman Dahlgren asked for discussion.  

Votes were cast by Board Members as follows:  

Mari Beth Matthews: “Nay”
Steve Guthrie: “Aye”
Paul Bates: “Aye”
Dan Parke: “Nay”  

Chairman Dahlgren cast her vote as “Nay” to break the tie.  

The motion to table the ‘Approval of Fuel Storage Tank System at the Bus Facility’ Action Agenda item is defeated.  

Chairman Dahlgren then turned the meeting over to the District’s Land Planner, John Gaeddert, and Mike Chatterton for further discussion.  John and Mike reviewed the history of the biodiesel tank issue.  

The following is taken from Mike Chatterton’s memo to the Board of Trustees concerning the biodiesel tank issue.  

The School District began the biodiesel tank process in February of 2009 when the School Board of Trustees gave permission to start the process of changing the Conditional Use Permit that was approved by the City of Hailey when the Bus Facility was built in 2003.  

Consistently throughout the process, very few neighbors actually opposed the concept of the biodiesel tank location at the Bus Facility parking enclosure.  We have been through the process of avalanche zones, fire hazards and proximity to the existing High School and Residential neighborhood.  In all of the public meetings only three or four direct neighborhood residences spoke against the proposal.  There were a few additional people who spoke against the proposal that lived in other areas of the City of Hailey. I have had contact with several other direct neighborhood residences and many more people who live within the City of Hailey that feel the proposal of the School District should move forward.  The School District has the support of the Hailey Environmental Practices Committee, the Blaine County School District Environmental Resources Committee and the Environmental Resource Center, to name a few.  

The attached spreadsheet shows the estimated cost from last year as well as the estimated savings from both labor and the number of bus trips in and out of the-bus-facility in order to refuel.  The number of fuel trips estimated that would be saved in and out of the facility is 1,455.  The additional trips to refuel the tank would be approximately four per year with the tanker truck.  The tank would be a 12,000-gallon tank and it would take about 6 to 7 years to pay for the tank in just the labor and fuel savings at today's dollars.  

If you look at the July 10, 2003 City of Hailey's Conditional Use Permit approval, the concept is very clear that no fuel storage for buses or other vehicles is proposed at the bus facility due to the fact the Brico fuel truck dispenses fuel to the buses three days a week at that time.  Prior to the new High School being built, the School District's bus fueling station sat next to the Aquatic Center since the old WRHS was built in 1976.  When construction began on the new High School the wet hose technique of fueling busses was used at the Rodeo Grounds, where the bus facility was temporarily placed while the construction was happening on the new bus facility.  In 2003 the need for a dispensing tank was not an issue due to the fact that Brico was allowed to refuel our busses on-site.  The determination by the City of Hailey after the Conditional Use Permit was approved forced the District into the situation of using a service station to fuel all of the vehicles.  

Looking through the comments in the September 21, 2009 minutes of the Planning and Zoning Department, many of those in attendance were there voicing opposition to alternative sites the Planning and Zoning Commission asked the School District to investigate. I have attached those alternative sites as well as the pros and cons of each of them. The discussion brought us back to the original site of within the confines of the parking facility.  

Votes were cast by Board Members as follows:  

Steve Guthrie: “Nay”
Mari Beth Matthews: “Aye”
Dan Parke: “Aye”
Paul Bates: “Nay”  

Chairman Dahlgren cast her vote as “Aye” to break the tie.  

The motion to approve the fuel storage tank system at the Bus Facility is carried.

Please click here to view Rex Squire’s Memo to the Board regarding the Wheelchair Lift Equipped School Bus.  

Board Member Steve Guthrie made a motion to grant permission to bid for a wheelchair lift equipped school bus.  The motion was seconded by Paul Bates.  

Votes were cast by Board Members as follows:  

Steve Guthrie: “Aye”
Mari Beth Matthews: “Aye”
Dan Parke: “Aye”
Paul Bates: “Aye”  

The motion to grant permission to bid for a wheelchair lift equipped school bus is carried.  

XIII.    Public Comments Concerning the March 9, 2010 Regular Agenda  

None.  

There being no further business to discuss, Board Member Mari Beth Matthews made a motion to adjourn the Regular meeting and convene to Closed Executive Session pursuant to Idaho Code §67-2345(c) for the discussion of property.  The motion was seconded by Paul Bates and passed unanimously.  

The Regular March meeting of the Board of Trustees of Blaine County School District No. 61 adjourned at 11:15 p.m.  

XIV.    Closed Executive Session  

The Board discussed property issues.  

There being no further business to discuss, Board Member Steve Guthrie made a motion to adjourn the meeting.  The motion was seconded by Paul Bates and passed unanimously.