Expressing concerns about voter approval of $3.9 million in pending school bonds, Haines Borough school board members Tuesday took steps toward a public education campaign.
The board also:
· heard a report on efforts to track and assist recent high school graduates;
· set a Sept. 9 workshop to prioritize minor facility upgrades and begin to review policy; and,
·saw an employee organizational chart that includes two proposed positions.
“Time is getting short to get the word out so people understand what they’re voting for (on school bonds),” said board chair Anne Marie Palmieri.
“We are the leaders of the school. People are looking for our opinion. It’s our job to explain (the bonds) to people if we want it to pass,” said member Sara Chapell.
Palmieri noted that a sustained “capital campaign” was organized to secure voter approval of bonds to rebuild the school in 2004.
She said the bond issue is getting mixed into a discussion of the senior citizen property tax exemption. Member Lisa Schwartz said the fact that the bonds will be reimbursed 70 percent by the State of Alaska is getting lost on voters. “People don’t understand that and they need to.”
Member Brian Clay said voters who approved the bond to rebuild the school in 2004 will be wondering why the district is bonding again. He recommended scheduling question and answer public forums.
The bond issue goes to voters in the borough election Oct. 7 and includes high school roof replacement ($1.8 million), vocational education building mechanical upgrades ($1.7 million) and high school air handling unit replacement ($412,000).
Superintendent Ginger Jewell told the board she would draw up a synopsis of the projects, including price and justification.
In a letter this week, resident John Norton asked why the borough wasn’t pursuing repair of the roof instead of replacement, citing an earlier engineer’s report suggesting repair could be done for $44,000. Haines Borough public facilities director Carlos Jimenez said although the municipality received $60,000 from the state for repair, the roof is at the end of its life and needs replacing. Also, previous repair attempts have failed, leaving leaks that have drained into high school offices and the school’s open area for decades.
Also at the meeting, superintendent Jewell said she’d like to track graduates for three years and that such an effort was feasible in part by the small size of graduating classes. Tracking would give the district valuable information about what recent graduates need and might be better provided by the district, said Palmieri. Another goal of tracking would be to provide counseling information or other support to graduates who were struggling or don’t have direction.
Jewell said she was enlisting school counselor Lindsey Moore and Community Education director John Hagen in the effort that she suggested would follow students for three years after graduation. “My thinking is that we graduate so few students that we should be able to follow up on them even if we have to go through their parents.” Jewell said she spoke to 2014 graduates who expressed interest in maintaining such a connection with the district.
Jewell said she recently investigated a service called Lifetrack that might help the district keep up with graduates. The project is in its planning stages, she said.
“Getting the right data is the most important thing, and making accurate correlations” between graduates’ experiences and Haines School offerings, she said. A perceived problem is difficulty local students have adjusting to distant or large colleges or universities. “It can be hard for a kid who’s a big fish in a small pond to go to a big school and become a minnow. That’s huge.”
Next week’s workshop will focus on prioritizing school improvements that don’t rise to capital projects, such as issues with exterior doors that don’t hang correctly and replacing chip material on playgrounds. Board members also will schedule a review of board policies, including changes required by federal or state law.
Veteran teacher Patty Brown testified that a review of policy was overdue, particularly regarding use of the school and school property. “When perception develops that leads some in the community to believe school staff members think this building and its operation belong more to the people who work in it than it does to the children we educate, it is a hard thing to shake,” Brown said.
Jewell said she developed the staff organizational chart because the district didn’t have one. The chart includes adding a “facilities coordinator” to whom custodial and maintenance workers would report. (Currently, those employees report to the superintendent.) Jewell said she also saw the need for a “teaching, learning and technology coordinator.”
Also at Tuesday’s meeting, board members heard that 266 students were enrolled in the district. That’s up from 250 students who showed up for the first day of classes. The school had budgeted for 241 students, a decrease of 30 students from last year.
An enrollment count in October will determine the level of state funding for the district.