October 19, 2010 Board Meeting Minutes

MINUTES
SPECIAL MEETING/TRUSTEE WORKSHOP AND REGULAR MEETING OF THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES OF
BLAINE COUNTY SCHOOL DISTRICT NO. 61
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 19, 2010 – 5:00 P.M.
DISTRICT OFFICE

SPECIAL MEETING OF THE BOARD - TRUSTEE WORKSHOP

I.        Special Meeting/Trustee Workshop

School District Attorney Adam King counseled the Board on the Idaho Open Meeting Law, the Idaho Public Records Law, and Idaho Ethics in Government.

Board Member Steve Guthrie made a motion to adjourn the Special meeting of the Board. The motion was seconded by Paul Bates and passed unanimously.

REGULAR OCTOBER BOARD MEETING

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

Present were Board Members Steve Guthrie, Paul Bates and Kathryn Graves. Also in attendance were Dr. Lonnie Barber, Superintendent of Schools, John Blackman, Assistant Superintendent/Chief Academic Officer, Mike Chatterton, School District Treasurer, and Laurie Kaufman, Board Clerk.

Chairman Dahlgren stated that a quorum was present.

Board Clerk Laurie Kaufman administered the Trustee Oath of Office to Kathryn Graves, Zone No. 3 Appointed Trustee.

Board Member Steve Guthrie made a motion to accept a wording change in Action Agenda item “c” to read:

A RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING ADVERTISEMENT FOR THE NEGOTIATED PRIVATE SALE OF TWO SERIES OF CERTIFICATES OF PARTICIPATION (TAXABLE QSCB-DIRECT PAY ISSUER SUBSIDY) OF SCHOOL DISTRICT NO. 61, BLAINE COUNTY, STATE OF IDAHO, AND AUTHORIZING RELATED ACTIONS AND MATTERS

The motion was seconded by Paul Bates and passed unanimously.

Dear Board of Trustees:

I am excited to write an accolade for one of our terrific teachers. Joni Cashman has been accomplishing great things with Blaine County students for the past 11 years, first as a special education teacher at Wood River Middle school, then as an art instructor at Bellevue, and now as the art instructor at Woodside Elementary. I visit her classroom whenever I am at Woodside because, as a former art teacher, I am always so impressed with the kind of projects and the type of learning that goes on in Joni’s class. Ms. Cashman is an out of the box thinker and teacher. The projects she selects for her students are always exciting and wonderful.

I am writing this accolade because about a year ago she called me and asked if I could come over and see the project her students were working on. A couple of days later I strolled into her room and again, she knocked my socks off with her innovative thinking. She had her students working on a project called “Create Your State.” Create your state was started by a group of 4th grade students at Gullett Elementary School in Austin Texas. The project began in the spring of 2009 when those students created an 8’ x 8’ mural of their state featuring aspects of Texan culture. Later that fall they sent a picture of their mural to hundreds of schools across the country asking that each school participate in their nation-wide collaborative project by sending back a photo of a state-shaped artwork created by their students. As a result of that project a book was published that highlights some of the submitted artwork from all 50 states, including the project that Ms. Cashman and her students submitted.

I have a copy of the book that Joni gave to me, here tonight. I have bookmarked two pages. The first bookmark is the project from our Woodside students and the second is a picture of the finished United States project, which is a compilation of projects from each state. By the way, this project is a great example of project-based learning.

I just wanted to take the time tonight to say thank you to Ms. Cashman and the Woodside art students. They have done our school district and our community proud!

Dr. Lonnie, Barber,
Superintendent Blaine County School District

Please click here to view the Create Your State United States Map and the Woodside Elementary Art Students’ Create Your State Map of Idaho.

Dear BCSD School Board,

I am writing this letter to present an accolade to Leslie Fairbrother, BCSD full-time guest teacher.

Leslie has been a guest teacher for my classes three different times while I was on family leave and many other times for day-to-day absences. Not knowing really where to start, I want to thank Leslie for her dedication and enthusiasm when she arrives at school. She puts forth her every effort to make sure that my students are taken care of, the lessons are clear, and she maintains excellent classroom management. She leaves very thorough notes and makes sure to write all absences and tardies in my attendance book. Leslie is also very good at improvising. Just recently she did not receive the lesson plans I had e-mailed to school and she knew to just look at my lesson planner to do the correct lesson. Because she has been a guest teacher before, she knew exactly what to do and where to find my files. On occasion, she has also taken the time to grade daily assignments and quizzes.

I’m just awestruck by her overall commitment to student learning. When Leslie is a guest teacher for me, I know that I will have no worries and that when I return, the class will be ready to move on and not be a day or so behind on their work.

Thank you Leslie!

Lisa A. Hoskins
WRHS Business Teacher

Dear Board:

It gives me true pleasure to recognize one of our great employees for a long overdue accolade. Mrs. Susie Reese does so many things for our district that it is hard to single out any one. Susie works on professional development, curriculum, textbook adoption, committee work and calendaring, as well as many other things that help ensure that our administrative work is carried out.

Tonight I want to recognize Susie for her incredible facilitation skills. As I mentioned, there is never a professional development, or a committee that comes together without Susie’s hard work. As you know, we recently held our yearly October professional development days for our teachers. This year’s professional development was on Project Based Learning. I am happy to report that we had the largest percentage of our teachers attend ever, at over 82%. We also provided professional development for our paraprofessionals and our classified employees and also had a huge turnout.

Susie Reese is the person who is responsible for putting these substantial events together. After the district decides on the professional development Susie goes to work making that happen. She communicates with the developers, in this case the Buck Institute, she arranges for the meeting spaces, she sends out multiple e-mails and notices to our employees, she creates brochures that document what will be provided, she makes sure that we have the necessary projectors, equipment and resources that the presenters need, she orders and delivers the accompanying books, arranges breakfasts, lunches and snacks and probably many other things that I am unaware of.

What I do know is that when we present professional development and inservices, everything is in order and ready to go, and that is because of Susie’s ingenuity and dedicated work ethic. She really is amazing and I am proud to work with someone of her commitment and enthusiasm. Thank you for everything you do Susie!

Dr. Lonnie Barber

Dear Mr. Bailey:

It is my pleasure to inform you that your school, Hailey Elementary, has earned the Additional Yearly Growth Award for 2010. This award is given by the Board to schools who meet the following criteria: It is my pleasure to inform you that your school, Hailey Elementary, has earned the Additional Yearly Growth Award for 2010. This award is given by the Board to schools who meet the following criteria:

• Must make AYP two consecutive years

• Based on grade level test:

• Show an increase in at least one group or subgroup- Ethnicity or Special Programs (Special Ed, LEP, Free or Reduced Lunch)

• Groups/Subgroups must have at least 34 or greater student populations.

Your school is one of just nine (9) to earn this very selective honor in 2010. In addition, your school is just one of two (2) to earn multiple awards. Very impressive! You are being honored for your 18.06% improvement in reading with your Hispanic students and another award was earned for your 16.40% improvement in reading with your students who are on free/reduced lunch.

The State Board of Education would like to recognize you and your school at their regularly scheduled meeting, October 14, 2010 in Lewiston. The Board meeting will be held in the Williams Conference Center on the campus of Lewis Clark State College. The award presentation is tentatively set for 8:15am (PDT) on Thursday, October 14, 2010. You will need to arrive no later than 8:00am (PDT). P

lease advise us whether or not you will be able to attend the Board meeting in person to receive your award. Contact Mark Browning, Chief Communications & Legislative Officer at (208) 332.1591 or mark.browning@osbe.idaho.gov .

Sincerely,

Dr. Mike Rush
Executive Director
Idaho State Board of Education

Special &  Regular Sept. Board Meetings – September 14, 2010
Special Meeting of the Board – September 28, 2010

Please click here to view the September 2010 Financial Reports.

Claire Cummings, Woodside Elementary 2nd Grade DI Teacher

Amnesty International and Model United Nations –
Joel Zellers, Special Education Teacher, Wood River High School

Recommending for Hire

Timothy Krenz – Bus Driver, Regular Route – Transportation Department

Ellen Nasvik – Bilingual Paraprofessional – Woodside Elementary School

Board Member Kathryn Graves made a motion to approve items “a” through “g” of the Consent Agenda. The motion was seconded by Steve Guthrie and passed unanimously.

IX.    Public Comments

Board Chair Julie Dahlgren asked Ms. Barker to present her public comment at the podium for the purpose of the webcast.  She refused to do so and spoke from her seat in the audience.

My name is Diane Barker and I am a resident of Hailey. I would like to make a comment about the Resolution for the Certificates of Participation. As you all know, I have felt in the past and have expressed to this Board in the past that all these projects, whether they have started or not, should be rethought because they were based on incomplete and non-verifiable data and I’m hoping you will reconsider. That was what my main argument was going to be, but then I started looking at the Resolution just this evening and this is what I’m going to ask each individual on the Board. I’m asking you, do you fully understand the costs associated with these Certificates of Participation, such as legal fees, underwriting fees, administration fees and other fees, because I don’t understand what they are because they are not in any of the documents I downloaded tonight for the agenda. Secondly, do you understand specifically what “direct pay issuer subsidy” means? If you are going to approve this, you should be able to explain that, without a hitch. Can you determine from this Resolution, combined with the agenda for tonight, what amount of money \you are seeking to borrow, because I can’t. Page 2 says up to $6-million for series 2010B, and up to $6-million for 2010C. The agenda says up to $16-million; $6-million and $6-million is $12-million, so I don’t know what that’s about. The proposed notice of sale attached to this resolution is blank, and if we don’t know that number now, I think that’s kind of bizarre, because you’re going to publish this the 15th and then you’re going to start collecting the money and close the deal on November 30th? How can we not know that number? This is a very important question to me and I hope that you have the answer down to a quarter of a percent, at least. Do you understand the interest rate being paid by the district for these monies? I don’t care how it’s been cast to you by your advisors, or what they call it, but money is not free. There is an investment return that’s associated with this and it will come out of the coffers of the Blaine County taxpayers. I took the liberty of looking up other schools tonight and got recent data on 2010 COPs and I have a list that’s probably 30 COPs long and the average rate of return for investors is 6.5 to 7.5 percent. And yet you guys said in the Blaine County School District please vote circular, a plant facility levy allows the district to collect money annually, saving for anticipated future needs. When the needs become a reality the money is there with little or no interest being paid, thereby saving taxpayers a significant amount of money. In bold you state, an additional benefit to a plant facility levy is that if anticipated Minutes of October 19, 2010 Special and Regular October Board Meetings Page 8 of 26 needs are not realized, the money does not need to be collected. I’ve yet to see why these geothermal projects are a need, but, to finish the resolution part, if you approve this particular resolution this evening, I can only assume that you have an intimate understanding of these issues and that you are willing to be held accountable to Blaine County’s taxpayers. If you do not have a complete understanding of these issues in this Resolution you’re approving tonight, then I think you simply must not pass the Resolution this evening. Form a committee and find out more about it. Thank you.

My name is Tommy Richmond and I am a resident of Hailey. First of all I would like to congratulate Kathryn on winning the Board appointment seat; I also ran for that appointment.

I have three things tonight. I question as a taxpayer the timeliness of the Bellevue Expansion Project for two reasons. I question doing that extensive amount of work on a school while in session, and as a builder in Wood River Valley, I know with 20-plus years experience that in winter time construction, the projects are due to break ground any day now; construction costs in the winter are 20-30 percent more. I’m not sure it’s wise timing for those two reasons. I think the Board really needs to strongly think about that. As a builder in the Valley I know the stimulus would be great, but I don’t think we can justify a 20-30 percent increase in expense just to try and put a handful of construction workers back to work.

The second item is, at the last Regular Board meeting, the Board approved the McKinstry Corporation to seek a half-million dollar solar grant to add solar power to the Carey School. It was quote “free” to the School District, meaning it wouldn’t cost anything. Board Member Bates questioned whether or not if it’s truly free; I’ve questioned this all along. I believe McKinstry is trying to establish a relationship with Blaine County School District, not necessarily for the up-front projects. There’s a lot of money in the up-front projects, but I think that they look for what I call the gravy train; I think they look for 10-year plus maintenance contracts on these. Mr. Bates questioned that but didn’t ask how much these maintenance contracts are, what are they going to cost? Because it costs to maintain any system. I think that prior to putting these systems up, we need to know more, we need to understand really what these costs are.

Finally, back to Bellevue Elementary, they completed the geo-thermal upgrade, which I think is a misuse of terms. Geo-thermal implies that there is a hot water ground source; it’s more or less a ground source heating system that was installed at Bellevue. They have plans to install Minutes of October 19, 2010 Special and Regular October Board Meetings Page 9 of 26 these systems at numerous other campuses, I believe commencing with Carey and then Hailey Elementary soon. I really think that there were some pretty big savings promised to the District with all these energy audits and energy studies. I really think we should go through at least one complete heating season and see if we are going to get return on investment and a reduction in energy expenses that we were promised. If we’re not, there’s no sense in putting all these systems into the schools and not achieving what we were promised. Those are the three items I am concerned with this time, and I hope the Board makes wise decisions. Thank you.

I have two issues tonight and the first is just what was brought up here before. I think that the Board has not asked the primary question about any expenditure which is how does this materially benefit the kids of the District in a class effective fashion. That has never been answered by the Board; that has never been answered with a full public hearing. Before any expense this large can take place, I think each Board Member has to do that due diligence, which has not been done up until this point. It is a fundamental beginning to any kind of spending.

The other thing I wanted to talk about which is quite different is, I see on the Agenda that the Silver Creek Alternative School, sorry, the Silver Creek High School, which used to be the Silver Creek Alternative School, is going to be accredited tonight. I just wanted to say, it has been an interesting thing to watch the Alternative School morph into the High School. I read the online agenda tonight; the mission for the Silver Creek High School seems exactly like the regular High School. I just put some thoughts here. The Alternative School had as its mission to provide a supportive, caring environment that will help at-risk kids be able to reach their full potential. Most of them ended up graduating from High School; they have become productive citizens and taxpayers. This was never a given without Silver Creek Alternative School; most of them would have ended up as dropouts or even in some cases, incarcerated. Over the years well over 100 at-risk teens graduated from Silver Creek Alternative School. One of the most inspiring things I ever saw was the Senior Projects at the Alternative School. I remember attending St. Luke’s Community Health Day a couple years ago and on e of the speakers was a Silver Creek graduate who said, “If it weren’t for Silver Creek Alternative School I would be dead.” She literally said that and she was so wellspoken. She was that close because of substance abuse issues and she said the caring staff and teachers of Silver Creek Alternative School had saved her life by giving her hope because of the education and support she received there she dared to believe in herself again. She believed that she could succeed in school and even graduate. And she did graduate, and she got her life back on track. There are many other stories like hers, kids who are at risk for so many things that the conventional schools could not help that Silver Creek Alternative School was able to reach. As I said before, I read the mission of the Silver Creek High School, and it seems like a great school. But I have to ask based on this mission, why is it different from Wood River High School? Why was the Silver Creek Alternative School dismantled? Why was it done under the radar with almost no public input? The only people that came to the meeting were so confused that this had been done. So, I would ask you in considering the accreditation for this new conventional high school, that if you do accredit it, you also create a committee of the interested public to review the decisions that led up to the closing of silver Creek Alternative School. I ask you to review how this decision has hurt the most vulnerable kids in the District, in a district that is the richest in the state and one of the richest in the country. And I ask you to include this with your accreditation deliberations. I appreciate it, thank you.

Wood River High School has never had SAT preparation; students have had to go to private sources and spend a lot of money to prepare for the SAT. Dr. Barber is working with the High School Principal, the College Counselor and the other Counselors at the High School to create a SAT preparation class for our students. A module has been purchased that goes with the Naviance system that we already own, which is the SAT/ACT Prep. We are also working to put a second trimester SAT Preparation class together for our students with an experienced SAT Preparation instructor. The class certainly fits the Strategic Plan very well and is probably long overdue.

The “The Leader In Me” pilot program also fits our Strategic Plan in the developing of the “whole child” and helping kids to become responsible. 94 of the District’s teachers gave up four days of their summer to train for this program. The trainer has been back to look at Carey and Hailey Elementary and was very impressed with what’s happening already because the teachers went off and running and so did the students. The Regional Director for Steven Covey for Franklin Covey Corporation has also been out to tour the schools. He has put me in contact with the person that authored the series, Sean Covey; Sean is very interested in coming out to view the programs and to talk with the individual teachers and students involved in the programs. Our other Principals are very interested in “The Leader In Me”, but as you know, all programs are piloted first in order to ensure success. I just wanted you to know that “The Leader In Me” programs are up and running and already showing signs of success. I would invite you to go into the schools and see “The Leader In Me” for yourselves.

Please click here to view Kelly Choma’s presentation regarding the Parent Information Center, a resource available to all Blaine County School District families and staff.

Please click here to view Duane Sorensen’s presentation of the 2009-2010 Food Service Program Summary.

Please click here to view Hilarie Neely’s information regarding the Wood River Arts Alliance and their partnership with Blaine County School District for the past 20 years.

Please click here to view the Mission and Goals of Silver Creek High School.

Dr. Barber, first of all, wanted to make something clear to the Board. The name change from Silver Creek Alternative High School to Silver Creek High School did not change the purpose of the school. I’m not asking the Board to accredit the school tonight because the Board doesn’t accredit the school; the State of Idaho accredits the school. The school will be accredited as an alternative school. We did move the location of the school to a better one a couple of years ago. The reality is this, the students that were attending the Alternative School at that time moved with the school, stayed in the school, they graduated last year if they were juniors in the year that we moved it, the teachers moved with the school with the exception of the director; and we have a new principal there. We used to have about 16 students in the school and 850 students at the high school. I certainly don’t think that was a representation of the population of alternative learners in the high school. We have about 45 students in Silver Creek High School now. Yes, it’s a little different. One of the reasons we moved it to the new location was to expand possibilities for those students, and they deserve to have expanded possibilities. They have a new computer lab, they are online in a number of different ways, they are taking IDLA classes, something they never did at their former school, and students are enrolled in credit recovery. The students that are there are still being served in smaller classes than the high school; that’s one of the keynotes of alternative learning. The school is somewhat more rigorous for some students; two classes are offering college credits to students. A number of Mrs. Bailey’s senior students applied to the College of Southern Idaho for credit and I believe all but one was accepted into that program. That’s a good thing for alternative learners, not a bad thing for alternative learners. Additionally, we have some more room to expand at Silver Creek High School, but I don’t think we are going to get much bigger than our current number of students. I do think we can expand the students’ possibilities. Three quarters of those students are self dual enrolled, which means that they have the opportunity to go to Wood River High School for electives if they want to. Most of the students have signed up to take part in electives. The schedules look a lot different than the other alternative school, but I just want to be clear, Silver Creek High School is serving alternative learners. It is not serving kids that get in trouble. The kids that are there now need a different environment for learning and they have that. Silver Creek High School will be accredited as an alternative school with the State of Idaho.

Assistant Superintendent John Blackman added that when the alternative school first started, one of the things the kids didn’t have was access to the arts. Now some of our most creative kids have access to the arts at Wood River High School. They can also access the academies; business-finance, construction, med-tech, architectural, and performing arts.

Dr. Barber stated that Silver Creek High School is satisfying a larger group of alternative learners. What is being asked of the Board tonight is whether or not they support moving forward with the accreditation process for Silver Creek High School. When we accredit, the school will stand on its own; it will generate a little money per student so we can offer a few more things to the students. The accreditation process doesn’t go through the Board, it goes through the State of Idaho; we want your approval to move forward with the process.

Mr. Blackman stated that graduation, as it stands now for Silver Creek High School, comes under the jurisdiction/accreditation of Wood River High School. When Silver Creek High School students graduate, they get a Wood River High School diploma; they don’t get a Silver Creek High School diploma. By establishing its accreditation, Silver Creek would become its own entity with its own identity.

Dr. Barber stated that the name change from Silver Creek Alternative School to Silver Creek High School was driven by the school staff and the students. I didn’t make that name change. I don’t think it’s the wrong thing to do; it’s the right thing to do. It may be a school for alternative learners but it is also a high school. The kids have a right to have Silver Creek High School on their diplomas if that’s what they want.

Board Member Paul Bates made a motion to grant permission to support the Silver Creek High School accreditation process. The motion was seconded by Steve Guthrie and passed unanimously.

Please click here to view the Budget and Schedule for Bellevue Elementary School.

Board Member Steve Guthrie made a motion to approve moving forward with the Bellevue Elementary School Construction. The motion was seconded by Paul Bates.

Hearing a second to the motion, Board Chair Julie Dahlgren asked if there was more discussion.

Board Member Kathryn Graves stated, “I think I intend to abstain from this vote and the reason why is because I feel that a lot of the process that we went through to get to this point; I’m aware of a lot of the minutes, I was at a lot of meetings, but I don’t agree with how we got to this. I’m not saying that it’s not an important project; but I’m not disagreeing with the project. So, that’s it.”

There was no further discussion; votes were cast as follows:

Paul Bates: Aye
Steve Guthrie: Aye
Julie Dahlgren: Aye
Kathryn Graves: Abstain

The motion to approve moving forward with the Bellevue Elementary School Construction was approved by majority vote.

A Trustee Workshop was held on the Communications Audit; the Board decided to schedule a Town Hall meeting by sub-committee, Board Member Paul Bates, and at that time, presumptive Board Member Kathryn Graves.

Board Member Kathryn Graves stated that the Town Hall meeting’s topic would be the Communications Audit. The Board would like to hear the community’s input on the recommendations and strategies listed in the Audit. There will also be an open forum for comments and questions.

Board Chair Julie Dahlgren stated that she is not in favor of an open forum. If the Town Hall meeting is going to be specific on that topic, that’s fine, but to say that and then have a session that’s just open comment on anything you want to comment on, I’m really not in favor of that. I also understand that this is a work in progress. I personally would love to hear a topic on 21st Century Skills, Project Based Learning, something more academic. That, however, has nothing to do with the approval of the Town Hall meeting on November 8, 2010.

Board Member Kathryn Graves made a motion to approve November 8, 2010 as the date for the Town Hall meeting. The motion was seconded by Paul Bates and passed unanimously.

Please click here to view the Annual Financial Summary.

Board Member Steve Guthrie made a motion to grant permission to publish the Annual Financial Summary. The motion was seconded by Kathryn Graves and passed unanimously.

Mike Chatterton: This is regarding the sale of up to $16-million that we are asking to borrow through the Federal Government's Qualified School Construction Bond Program (QSCB), built after the Build America Bonds that were sold years and years ago. This will allow the School District to borrow up to $16-million at zero percent interest to the District. The program is actually an interest paying program where the Federal Government pays the interest on behalf of the School District. We are asking the State Department of Education to award the balance of the State's allocation for the calendar year 2010 and a partial award of the 2011 calendar year. As we talked about in June, the balance of the calendar year's 2010 allocation has not been requested by any other School District as of yet. The State Department of Education has to allocate this $12 million dollars by the end of the calendar year or have to send the funds back to the Federal Government to get reauthorized. This is the same process as we went through in June of 2010 with the first $5-million allocation which was sold in July of 2010. We are currently using these proceeds to fund the upgrades to the existing schools.

Please click here to view the Resolution.

Board Member Kathryn Graves asked Mike, “What are the contracts right now that we are obligated to?”

Mike Chatterton: We are currently obligated to the McKinstry contract, the Bellevue Elementary School addition and the Maintenance Facility. 

Kathryn Graves: I did see in the minutes when the McKinstry contract was approved in March; I didn’t see when the Board made that decision on the Maintenance Facility and the Bellevue addition.

Mike Chatterton: The Board approved both of those when they made the decision to hire the architects and the design builders at the July Board meeting.

Board Member Paul Bates: But by approving those did we approve a contract? Because there was no number; shouldn’t we look at a number first?

Mike Chatterton: The way a design-build contract works is that you go out and hire the builder and the architect prior and you sign the contracts with them. Then they come back with an addendum to the contract that specifically addresses the price that you’re going to pay, just like you did tonight with Sawtooth Construction. They will come back to you with a budget number and the Board can say yes or no.

Kathryn Graves: How much does it cost to do these COPs?

Mike Chatterton: For example, on the $4,985,000 issue we had in July, the cost of the issuance of those COPs was $90,000. That covered underwriting fees, the financial consultant fees, the attorney fees, the rating fees from Standard & Poor; it set up U.S. Bank fees for the payout on the bonds; so a little less than 2%. On the new issuance on the $10-million, we are looking at less than 2% because much of the legal work has already been done, much of the drafts have already been completed by now. There would be a cost of issuance from the financial people putting it all together; my guess would be that it would be closer to 1.5% or 1.4%.

Kathryn Graves: The $5-million that we received in grant money; that is going to the McKinstry contract? Mike Chatterton: Yes. The way this is all structured is, the McKinstry contract that we signed is about $15.1-million. On top of that we’re also doing the fire sprinkler systems, the lighting retrofits, the drop ceilings in all of the buildings to take advantage of having those buildings open once so we don’t have to put new ceilings in, go back in next summer to do all of the fire suppression sprinkler systems, re-run all of our data lines, do all of the lighting retrofits again. We wanted to take care of it all at once. When we’ve talked about this over the last two years, we would go in and borrow as much money as we could possibly do on this QSCB program and try to pay it front-load and take advantage of the building environment that we have right now. We’re able to get things done much cheaper now then we definitely could have two years ago, and definitely cheaper than if we had to wait for three years. There is only one disruption in those buildings instead of multiple disruptions.

Paul Bates: What were the legal costs from last October, when all the judicial confirmation process started up to now? 

Mike Chatterton: I don’t have those numbers right at my fingertips. If I were to guess I’d say somewhere between $150,000 to $200,000 for the legal fees.

Paul Bates: And the only underwriting fees have been from the sales of the COPs?

Mike Chatterton: Yes.

Paul Bates: Is this sort of security ever shopped around; because we keep going back to Seattle Northwest Securities and I’ve brought it up before, it strikes me that, I was told by someone who’s been involved in COPs that he would love to bid on those. Have we put these out to bid?

Mike Chatterton: Yes.

Paul Bates: McKinstry got a great deal because there doesn’t appear to be any bid against them for the $15-million. Now Seattle Northwest, can we bid this, can we find out if we can get a better deal? I mean, $90,000, $150,000 - $200,000 for legal fees; there’s a couple of teachers right there.

Mike Chatterton: Actually, when we started this negotiation a year ago with Hawley Troxell on this, we signed agreements with both the fiscal agent, which was Seattle Northwest, as well as Hawley Troxell to be our bond counsel and fiscal agents. There are a couple of bond counsels in the State of Idaho that have the ability to do this; everything else would be out of state. There are a couple of fiscal agents within the State of Idaho that could do this type of work as well; otherwise you would have to go out of state.

Paul Bates: So we have contractually obligated ourselves.

Mike Chatterton: Nick Miller from Hawley Troxell, as well as Eric Heringer from Seattle Northwest, have handled all of our financing needs even from the original series from 2001 that we put together. They are very familiar with the District; they know the needs, we have always felt very comfortable with them.

Paul Bates: It sounds like it is just a process to go through.

Mike Chatterton: To answer that, I would say it’s probably a pretty standard rate on underwriting fees and what they would actually charge to sell those.

Paul Bates: So at this point we’re obligated to approximately $17-millon between McKinstry and the Bellevue project which we agreed to go forward with. Is that it?

Mike Chatterton: If we approve this resolution for the COPs, this will obligate us to the auditorium remodel project, because part of the stipulation from the Federal government is that when you borrow this money on the QSCB program, you have three years to spend the money. That means that the auditorium would have to be remodeled within that three year timeframe. 

Paul Bates: Or something.

Mike Chatterton: No, the auditorium would be because Judge Elgee specifically ruled that the auditorium project was ordinary and necessary.

Paul Bates: So we have $17-million in contracts outstanding, we collected $5-million in July, we’re talking about collecting another, what, $11-million or $12-million. I was a little miffed that I had a revised, this resolution was emailed to me revised this morning and I didn’t have an opportunity to look at it because I had to work really hard today. So I’m trying to understand what’s different between the one I looked at all weekend and the one that showed up on my email today.

Mike Chatterton: Can I respond to that? We sent out the resolutions as we received them today. We received two draft copies of the resolution yesterday and one this morning, as well as what we received last week.

Paul Bates: Isn’t there something we can do in a little more timely manner? You’ve given these numbers and the numbers have changed a little bit but not anything of any consequence. Today was the first I’d ever heard that you actually earmarked what every single one of those dollars are going for. What you said earlier today about the money that you want to collect or execute these certificates on; I didn’t hear McKinstry mentioned and yet we’ve only paid off $5-million of $15-million that we owe McKinstry. So I’m wondering , well, if none of this money is going to McKinstry, and it sounds like the first receipt of funds from the levy come January, I didn’t hear McKinstry mentioned in that, where’s the $10-million that we’re going to finish paying off McKinstry? Did I miss something?

Mike Chatterton: Actually the majority of the money that’s coming from this QSCB sale will go to pay off McKinstry contracts.

Paul Bates: If we approve this, we would be done with McKinstry?

Mike Chatterton: We would have the money to pay them as they invoiced us for the next 12 months.

Paul Bates: It sounds like we still need more money.

Mike Chatterton: No, if we borrow this $15-million, then will have enough money to cover the McKinstry contracts as well as the Bellevue facility and the Maintenance facility. If we borrow the additional $6-million that the State is looking to authorize us in the near future, that would allow us to move forward on the Hemingway geothermal projects and the Hemingway safety and security things, as well as being ordinary and necessary, such as the fire suppression systems.

Paul Bates: Who decided the priority for these things? For all these projects starting with the geothermal? Because since I’ve been on the Board, which has been since the levy was passed, the Board has never had a single discussion regarding how the public’s money will be spent. We are representatives of the public and there’s not been a single discussion by this Board. And I keep hearing we’re doing this next, we’re doing this next, who’s we?

Mike Chatterton: I think that the priority was set when we entered into the negotiations and the contract with McKinstry on the $15.1-million, which we received the $5-million grant from the Federal Government. That really set the priority of how that initial, at least the first two years, will be spent.

Paul Bates: But who decided that the geothermal was going to be the first thing to come down the pike?

Mike Chatterton: I think the Board did when they approved that initial contract.

Paul Bates: But that was March. I see a lot of money being asked for and I’m questioning where it’s going and what I don’t see or what I don’t understand is who is deciding all of these projects, what order they’re going in, and I don’t know, I thought it was the Board’s job to show leadership in this. At this point I have not seen Board leadership and I have trouble moving forward, looking at this amount of money being borrowed, even if it’s free money. I have trouble with it knowing that this doesn’t cap what we’re already involved in and the Board has not made any decisions as to where this is going or where it is ever going to end. I guess what I want is I want to hear what the plan is, and I want to hear it from our Board.

Mike Chatterton: I think that the plan was really set when the voters passed the Plant Facility Levy; when they authorized us to spend the $59.8-million over the course of the next 10 years, with the plan that we were going to borrow as much money as we possibly could up front to bring as much as we possibly could . . . .

Paul Bates: I was on the Board then and I didn’t hear very much . . .

Board Chair Julie Dahlgren: The Levy Committee prioritized with the public, the Board, the administrators, and the experts there. If you go back to the Levy minutes, you’ll see the priorities. There are also priorities in the Strategic Plan.

Paul Bates: They are not the leaders in this school district.

Julie Dahlgren: The Priorities are out there and the members of the Board, members of the community, and members of the staff were all involved at all those meetings.

Paul Bates: I was at them too and I respect the work they did. However, I have felt from day one that they were recommendations. For one thing, most of the line items that people put forth were formulated by well intentioned people, but not done highly accurately. Having spent time now with the committee that’s working on the Community Campus auditorium, the line item, -- what was it as of when the levy was passed? 

Mike Chatterton: $882,000.

Paul Bates: That’s, you know. There’s no way it’s going to happen for that; that’s my personal feeling.

Julie Dahlgren: Paul, I think your observation and your sentiment is well taken. I appreciate it and I think we can perhaps work on that, but right now I want to move ahead with this resolution and it is going to be approved or not. We still have more time for discussion. I appreciate your leadership comments, but at this time I would like to move this resolution forward:

A Resolution authorizing advertisement for the negotiated private sale of two series of Certificates of Participation (Taxable QSCB-Direct Pay Issuer Subsidy) of School District No. 61, Blaine County, State of Idaho, and authorizing related actions and matters.

Board Member Steve Guthrie made a motion to Approve Resolution authorizing advertisement for the negotiated private sale of the principal amount of up to $16,000,000 Certificates of Participation, Series 2010A (Taxable QSCB-Direct Pay Issuer Subsidy) of School District No. 61, Blaine County, State of Idaho, and authorizing related actions and matters. The motion was seconded by Julie Dahlgren.

Steve Guthrie: Mike, I understand that we’re looking at $15-million in addition to the $6-million that’s coming in January?

Mike Chatterton: It won’t quite be $6-million in January; it will be 60%.

Steve Guthrie: Are the projects slated for those dollars; it that all set in stone? Some of that money I know is under contract and some of the money is not obligated, correct?

Mike Chatterton: I will tell you what we’re going to have to do if this does not happen tonight. We implemented a plan that the community has asked us to do, to try to build as much of this as we can, take advantage of the situations out there with the Federal Government and best fit the needs of the taxpayers of Blaine County School District by saving building and interest costs. The way we’ve set everything up is, if we do not enact on this $10-million, then the money that we have slated to spend on technology and safety and security, those types of issues, are going to pushed back a couple of years. Because what we were thinking of doing by borrowing this money to take care of the things that we’ve got to do right now, with the geothermal work, the fire suppression sprinkler systems and all of the stuff that’s going on in the buildings now, what we’ll have to do is borrow money from the general fund to pay off those contracts for those projects that are going on right now.

Dr. Lonnie Barber: I know that Paul said that the Board was not involved with that, but the Board did approve us going out for the grant from McKinstry and did know about the timeline; that if we got that grant we would have to do the geothermal work within 18 months of receiving it and Board approved that. That did set the priority for those projects at that time; we did have a discussion about it.

Paul Bates: Oh yeah, I realize that. It’s just getting a little too scrambled at this point. I understand the McKinstry contract and I understand our obligation to that and what’s going to happen and what kind of timeframe. I personally feel that the Bellevue project is a worthy project. I appreciate your comments and I hope they were addressed to some degree, Tommy (Richmond). But the rest of it is turning into a scramble that I’m not understanding and my biggest issue is I’m not understanding why the priorities are the way they are. We have a priority because we approved the McKinstry contract; we have a priority with Bellevue School because we approved that contract. All these other priorities, I’m wondering, who’s in charge?

Dr. Barber: I thought you said that you did not know that geothermal was a priority.

Paul Bates: I knew it was a priority as of the signing of the contract. What I’m saying is from the moment that the levy was passed, there has been no important discussion on it saying, okay, the public has graced us with this extraordinary resource, how can we best reflect the public’s wishes?

Dr. Barber: It came out of the Strategic Plan and it came out of the facilities committee that you came to. They prioritized that and brought it back to the Board and it was one of the goals of the Strategic Plan.

Paul Bates: The Communications Audit goes and talks about wanting to listen to the silent majority. If you go back to the Strategic Plan and you go back to those comments, and you start totaling those comments up, you’re looking at the silent majority. And, you know what, construction was way down here.

Dr. Barber: When the community voted on the levy, construction was the issue. The community was actually the silent majority and they approved the levy 60% to 40%; I think that’s actually the silent majority. They did know what was on that because I know I did 22 or 23 community speeches and the Board approved that.

Paul Bates: I’m not questioning that; I think that’s all that needs to be said. However, I don’t think that there has been Board leadership determining how to best manage this extraordinary gift that the public has given us. It worries me because I don’t’ see where this is ending; this is liked scrambled eggs being thrown in my face.

Dr. Barber: It will end like the Strategic Plan when it is completed.

Paul Bates: Well, that’s what I want to see.

Steve Guthrie: I think what it comes down to right now is that we are obligated under contract for much of the money that is part of the resolution and that is interest free money. The alternative is to pay these obligations out of our general fund which would cost us money. At this point in time, I’d hate to have to pay out of our general fund. Those dollars would cost us real money, where we now have the opportunity to borrow the money at zero percent and pay for those obligations. As we move into the future, I think we will need to take a real look at how the process works.

Mike Chatterton: It was our direction from the prior Board to try and get as much money into the local economy as we possibly could to get these projects going; to take advantage of the building environment that we had at that point in time. We were making decisions on which projects can we fund and which projects could we get going and get into the local economy; that we knew we could get done and borrow the money that we had in front of us. We were making decisions on which projects we knew we could do in the local economy and which projects we would have to push out a little bit later because we may not have that option to hire local people, we may have the option of hiring a general contractor out of Boise. Those were the decisions that we were making as the facilities committee with the Strategic Plan that was passed by the Board. This is a program that we had set in place a year and a half ago before the Plant Facility Levy was even voted on. We talked about this in our Goal 9 Committee about borrowing the money and taking advantage of these programs and trying to get as much money out into the local economy as we could as quick as we could.

Dr. Barber: We understand the concerns of the Board. If we need to get more information to the Board, we’ll bring more information to the Board. I don’t think that’s an issue. I don’t think we can point the finger at Mike and start saying he made all these decisions, because they really were driven by the Facilities Committee.

Kathryn Graves: I have similar concerns to Paul. I’ve been thinking about this issue for the last three or four days constantly; it’s very hard, it’s very complicated. I don’t think I can support this because I don’t agree with the process that got us to this point. I’m not opposed to spending levy funds; I think that there are many good projects that are out there. I’ve gone over all the minutes from the last year and a half; I’ve gone over all of the levy committee minutes. There was a presentation by Lynn Askew last September with the levy committee recommendations; he said that they were charged to come up with a dollar amount and these are the projects that they recommend be funded. I did not see the Board discussions about these different projects. I don’t feel that the Board was adequately involved in doing some prioritizing, some reviewing, some looking at the cost effectiveness themselves. Until that happens, I need to be careful and I can’t support these projects until we have a Board workshop going forward.

Assistant Superintendent John Blackman: So are you willing to pay 4½ to 5 percent interest on that money and borrow it from the general fund?

Kathryn Graves: Well let me ask Mike. There was money borrowed from the general fund for something; can it be repaid by the levy monies to the general fund? Right now I’ve come up with about $18.1-million in contracts that we’ve got out. We’ve got the 15.1, 1.6 for the Bellevue project, 1.4 for the Maintenance facility, which comes to about 18.1. So we’ve got the $5-million grant that goes towards that, we’ve got the $5-million, that’s up to 10. Then we’ve got money coming in next January, February and March, another 5.8, which brings us up to 15.8. So if we borrowed a couple of million dollars from the general fund, would that be paid back the following year from money that came in from the levy?

Mike Chatterton: If we did that, we would have to put on hold the lighting retrofits at the Community Campus, …

Kathryn Graves: Okay.

Mike Chatterton: … the DSS building, Hailey Elementary, Carey and Carey High School, and Carey gymnasium. We would also have to put the fire suppression sprinkler systems on hold for all those projects as well.

Kathryn Graves: So Hailey Elementary would be on hold; isn’t that in the McKinstry contract?

Mike Chatterton: The geothermal is; but none of the fire suppression sprinkler systems and none of the lighting retrofits, and all of those other energy conservation measures that we had approved, none of those are in that geothermal contract. If we did that, we would have to put all of those on hold, and then we have to go back in and address them in two years, which would mean that we would have to take the ceilings back down again and do all of the work, the water lines, data cabling, lighting retrofits.

John Blackman: What would that mean to contracts that we already have in place?

Mike Chatterton: Like I said earlier, the only thing it would do, it would put everything else on hold, it would put much of the technology purchases on hold, it would definitely put the safety and security on hold for at least a couple of years until the cash flow caught up with itself again.

Dr. Barber: I want to get it clarified. The technology that would be put on hold for a year or two is not our on-going technology, we have some money that we have been using for promethean boards; we’re trying to phase that out. It would be either laptop or I-Pad initiatives that we’re just starting to talk about right now to push into the classroom. We’re trying to do a lot of research on I-Pads because they communicate with the Promethean Boards and those big initiatives that would bring fresh technology into the schools. What I hope is that we can bring those initiatives to the Board soon because I think those are the kinds of things we want to bring into the schools, we want to get them into the schools soon. What we’re looking at is trying to infuse $1.5-million in new technology, not existing technology, not paying for fiber, we already have that. Whatever we’re going to do; laptops in the high school or iPads. We’re doing an I-Pad pilot right now in Carey. That’s the kind of new technology that Mike is talking about and we really don’t want to wait on this, we want to start moving on it. 

Mike Chatterton: It would also put the Hailey Elementary kitchen remodel on hold as well because the idea was to do that kitchen remodel at the same time we’re doing all the geothermal work and everything else inside ceilings. It would put that on hold for a couple of years until we accumulate enough money to do that as well. What it’s really going to do is force us to open up the buildings twice for the same work.

Kathryn Graves: I guess what’s hard for me is looking back to the levy minutes and knowing that the Hailey Elementary kitchen is functioning now. It’s working now; that there’s the need to remodel Hailey. I feel like I haven’t seen from what I’ve read, that these are priorities, like the ovens are breaking down. Whatever it is, there are compelling arguments that all these things are priorities and they have to be done now. I was reading through the minutes and somebody asked the question at a levy meeting, “What is the priority right now; what has to be done?” And I can’t remember if it was you Mike, or Howie that said that right now the heating system in Hailey Elementary needs to be done and I think it was something else at Bellevue.

Dr. Barber: If I could answer, and I would like to try and answer because our vision is to be a world class school district. That contains a lot of different things, it means we have world class teachers, it means we have a world class curriculum that we’re working on right now, we hired a new IB Coordinator, Dr. Walther. It also means we stay current; we don’t let our facilities go into disarray, so we don’t let the kitchen break down. I think that the facility levy committee, a group of citizens, tried to look forward for the next 10 years and say what are our needs? What are we going to do to maintain our facilities and bring them up to where they should be?

Julie Dahlgren: I am going to cut off the debate; I think it’s been robust. I think I’ve traveled back a couple years. I feel like I’ve voted on many of these things that we’re talking about before and they were fully vetted, particularly the facilities committee that worked really hard to prioritize and narrow the money down. I would really like to take a vote on the motion that is on the floor and has been seconded and has been discussed.

The motion on the floor is as follows:

A Resolution authorizing advertisement for the negotiated private sale of two series of Certificates of Participation (Taxable QSCB-Direct Pay Issuer Subsidy) of School District No. 61, Blaine County, State of Idaho, and authorizing related actions and matters.

Paul Bates: Can there only be one motion on the table at a time?

Julie Dahlgren: Yes, it has not been amended and this is the motion on the floor.

The votes were cast as follows:

Steve Guthrie: Aye
Julie Dahlgren: Aye
Paul Bates: Nay
Kathryn Graves: Nay

Julie Dahlgren stated, “It’s a tie and it’s off the table. Hopefully we can bring it back next month.”

Mike Chatterton will present the School District Audit Report for Morgan Hatt of Jones, Yost, Hatt & Erikson, P.A.

Please click here to view the Comprehensive Annual Financial Report For The Fiscal Year Ended June 30, 2010.

Excerpt from Morgan Hatt’s letter to Blaine County School District:

Here is the five- year info that I review with the Board: The last few years have been tough financially for Schools in Idaho. Note that this is the second year in row that District #61 revenues are down; both district-wide and in the General Fund. And yet the District continues to make steady progress by continuing to invest in equipment and facilities and at the same time pay down Long Term Debt.

Without the Federal Stimulus dollars, some Idaho School Districts would be bankrupt right now. When the Federal dollars runs out at the end of Fiscal year 2011, things are going to get ugly at some school Districts. In contrast, District #61 is still financially solid. Because the District had the foresight to create a long term plan, which included building a solid General Fund reserve, #61 is not at the mercy of the State's failing economy right now, to the extent that other Idaho Districts are.

It reminds me of the Biblical story of Joseph and the seven years of plenty followed by the seven years of famine. Like Joseph, District #61 has positioned itself well to weather the current State financial famine and you should be commended for it.

The District's accounting records are in good order. I found no instances of noncompliance with any of the Federal programs. I was originally concerned when Blake retired but I am impressed with Ms. Gutknecht. The District's Federal programs appear to be in Good hands.

Board Member Steve Guthrie made a motion to accept the School District Audit Report as written. The motion was seconded by Kathryn Graves and passed unanimously.

My name is Theresa Castellano-Wood. Mr. Bates, you talked about grace. Well, I think today you delivered dishonor to the people of this valley. 60 percent of us voted in favor of this levy. 20 to 30 of us worked on this levy for over a year, just like the Strategic Planning group met for all those months, and every consideration that you put down on that piece of paper was honored. You needed to give this more consideration. You have had a closed mind about this levy from the very beginning. I sat in those meetings when you came and you had a closed mind. I’ve been in so many of these Trustee meetings and we’ve talked about this; these good people have described this over and over and over to you, explained it, you knew what McKinstry was doing. I’m not privy to the information that you have, but based on the discussion that the Trustees have had, we all understood what was going on. We know that we’re on this for $15 million dollars. The geothermal was something that was discussed over and over and over again. People came here to do the public comment when Judge Elgee was there; you heard from contractors. Paul, you worked today? There are people out in our community that are not working and by not voting tonight, you are putting people out of work. Why procrastinate on this when you have already done the work? Steve knows, he’s been sitting here listening. I don’t think you gave this a consideration because I don’t think you gave it the mind share and think tonight you have dishonored a great group of us and I am ashamed! Thank you.

Board Chair Julie Dahlgren again asked Ms. Barker to present her public comment at the podium for the purpose of the webcast. Again Ms. Barker refused to go to the podium to deliver her comment and stated that she is in the Witness Protection Program. An audience member asked her why she wouldn’t go to the podium because everyone else does. Ms. Barker ignored these requests and delivered her comment from her seat in the audience.

Listen, there is something that needs to be considered here, and that’s that this whole geothermal project is the thing that’s the thorn in everybody’s side because it is not a need. Whoever came up with that idea in the beginning, I’d love to meet them. Why you’re spending the public’s money on millions of dollars of geothermal projects that are unnecessary is beyond me. You talk about losing the budget; that the state has less and less money to give and that our budget can be compromised? Break the McKinstry contract. It’s $15-million; they’re not making $15-million; they are making some portion as a profit. Buy the contract out and get rid of that white elephant. There’s no need for that in the school district. Whoever thought this all up; it wasn’t in the public’s discussion to spend millions and millions to heat schools when high efficiency gas furnaces would do the job for hundreds of thousands of dollars. It’s something we don’t even need to replace. Why don’t you just cancel the McKinstry contract, buy them out, and be done with this white elephant. That’s my recommendation. And I think all of this fear based stuff the administration is giving regarding all the safety and security stuff we’re going to have to give up so we can do geothermal? Why are we digging holes in the ground that are unproven, untested, and instead we’re going to give up fire sprinklers for that? That’s just a bunch of fear based baloney and I’m ashamed, I’m ashamed. I’m ashamed of our administration for putting our community through this. That’s how I feel about it.

Assistant Superintendent John Blackman: It’s not the administration. Those are Board decisions.

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.

The Regular November meeting of the Blaine County School District Board of Trustees adjourned at 10:15 p.m.