Last night's school board meeting for those that were unable to attend

PARENTS SPEAK OUT AT SCHOOL BOARD MEETING

            Board also considers numerous building/infrastructure projects

            A group of very passionate parents spoke out publically in support of 7-12 vocal teacher Lisa Coder at a special school board meeting held in Burnside April 27.   Mary Jo Grandfield spoke first, saying she “respectfully challenged” the board to look outside the box in order to retain this valuable school commodity.

            “Mrs. Coder is a dynamic instructor, who has made music fun again.  In one year, our choir has doubled in sized (from thirty to sixty) and musical this year was fantastic.  Her entire family is involved in the community and we would not only lose Mrs. Coder, but them as well.    They have two children attending school in the district.  If they are forced to move that is a $12,000 loss right there,” she said

            Mrs. Grandfield also pointed out that the mission statement of the district is the “develop the full potential” of students and that Mrs. Coder has certainly been successful at.

            Emily Clausen said, “I am disappointed in how it was handled—all in one night.  Couldn’t you have waited a week?  You just tabled a decision on doors until the next month’s meeting because you couldn’t make a decision, but you were able to remove a teacher in only one meeting.”

            Clausen was referring to the main topic discussed at the meeting:  how to spend local option sales tax monies. Representatives of the Baker Group spoke for over a half hour about options for updating the heating/cooling system in Burnside.  They offered four options:  a geothermal “green” option for 3.2 million; a California heating/cooling system for 2.7 million; a variable system for 2 million, and a system similar to the one the school is using now for 1.6 million.

            “Right now, you use a large hot water boiler that runs on propane. Propane prices are set to rise drastically.    When your boiler was installed, it was 68% efficient.  Now it is only 22% efficient,” said Tom Borrer.  “Bandaids won’t work anymore.”

            According to Board Secretary Karla Flickinger, it costs an average of $85,000/year to power the Burnside building.     The representative from the Baker Group said that even the cheapest alternative of just replacing the school’s aging equipment with newer models would be 20-30% more efficient than now.  He also praised the other systems of being even more cost effective.

            The board did not act on this, but told the Baker Group to return with names of “satisfied customers” so they could continue their research.  The board is looking at starting this project in the summer of 2012.

            The board then discussed how to spend the Local Option Sales Tax monies.  These funds are reserved to update infrastructures in schools.    Items considered were new doors in Burnside ($30,000), a wireless hub ($20,000), windows ($7,700), soundproofing the Dayton lunchroom ($5,000 or less), ceiling in Dayton gym ($18,000 for ‘bare bones’—more if made aesthetically pleasing), and security cameras in Burnside and Boxholm ($14,000).

            Discussion then turned to expanding the Dayton building. It was noted by Superintendent Launi Dane that this building is “landlocked”—meaning they can’t expand in any direction without purchasing land.  The board expressed interest in obtaining the land next to the school that is owned by the City of Dayton to use for possible future expansion.  Danny Hanson said that the gym in Dayton is in bad shape and the kids have to walk across the street to get there.  He proposed looking into building a gym that is attached to the north side of the building.

            “We also don’t know how long the Boxholm building will last.  The basement floods every year; four feet of water in the basement every year.  We may need to look at building somewhere,” said Danny Hansen.

               The parcel of land the school board is considering is where the park board is looking at building a city picnic shelter with bathrooms.  There has already been fundraising and several grants given for this project.  According to park board member John Gallentine, the board still needs almost $40,00 in funding to make the project a reality, although almost $20,000 has already been raised.

            “Perhaps the city and the school could work together to make an even better project that the whole community could enjoy,” said Hansen.  It was decided for members of the board to attend the next Dayton City Council meeting about the proposal.