March 13, 2006

 

To:            Elementary Facilities Task Force Committee

 

From:   Jane Wellehan

 

Re:       Notes for EFTF meeting of March 7, 2006

 

The EFTF met on March 7, 2006.  In attendance were committee members Jason Toothaker (chair) MaryJo O’Connor, Anita LaChance, Doug Sherwood, Michelle Hedrich, Kevin Mallory, Marysue Morrison, David Turner, Ed Suslovic, Liz Holton, Michelle Butterfield, and Jane Wellehan. Steven Scharf, Ed King from the West End News, Chris Busby, Linda Maule from The Forecaster, Mary Gross(Nathan Clifford parent) and Kristen McCabe(Hall parent).

 

Jason started the meeting with concerns about whether the potential cost savings of consolidating made consolidating worthwhile.  He wanted us to review K-8 consolidation data, as well.

 

To properly assess the potential financial savings, Ed Suslovic asked for a comparison of what it did cost to run Jack & Adams (adjusted for inflation) vs. what the projected cost of the new East End school will be.  Kevin Mallory added that for him to complete his projected savings report, he would need the building operational costs from Doug on both West School and Baxter (currently serving as ESL office and Multi lingual intake center.

 

Jane Wellehan asked MaryJo O’Connor if she agreed with the building consolidation plan that Kevin had presented in his report.  She said that is was not her decision what happened with buildings, but that her recommendation would be to close West and move them to Presumpscot (once a new Clif/Presump is built) and that the current Baxter building remain the multi-lingual intake center and ESL office. 

 

Jane Wellehan also pointed out to Kevin that the bus routes to Clifford next year would likely be reduced by one, which would mean a new school at Baxter would add one bus route.

 

Kevin had a summary report from the K-8 Task Force that he presented and that we briefly reviewed. In short, it showed that many buildings could be re-configured into K-8’s if the city wanted that to happen. Jason asked if the new school were built as a K-8, would it jeopardize state funding. That question would have to be posed to the state.

 

Ed Suslovic asked us to revisit the Pro/con chart for each scenario that we developed in January.  Jason said that we would do it at the next meeting.  

 

Liz Holton presented data that showed enrollment at Presumpscot over the years, and how it has bounced around.  She believes that we can plan capacity too tight, only to be surprised the next year by increased enrollment.  Kevin pointed out that if a new school is built at Baxter, it remains very close to Longfellow, which could handle some excess students.

 

Doug Sherwood presented his 3rd draft of EFTF Closure savings.  He compared the operating costs of both Clifford and Presumpscot with the projected expenses of the new East End and showed a $45,414 annual savings.  This was operational only, and did not include any personnel savings, which is projected to be up to $225,414 annually.  The category that showed the most potential savings was one that he called “deferred maintenance”.   Discussion ensued about whether these expenses were renovation estimates or just maintenance expenses.  In the end, the approximate $9.7 million in expenses were clarified as including renovation to both schools.  The projected final cost to build the new East End school is $11.2 million.

 

Jason asked us to go around the room and state our opinion of what the EFTF’s recommendation should look like. 

 

·        Liz Holton thought there should be 3 recommendations, 1 that included not consolidating  

·        Marysue Morrison added that Councilor Donna Carr said that the 3x3 needed to look at all scenarios that we have looked at

·        Michelle Butterfield agreed that the next group, which will engage the public, need to look at all the scenarios that we developed

·        Ed Suslovic asked about the scenarios that we dropped at the January meeting, whether these would be included or not

·        Michelle Butterfield added that before any of this actually goes to the public, site viability should be considered and verified

 

Ed Suslovic also added that any report we present needs to explain, very clearly, why there is deviation from the 2002 plan, given that elementary school enrollment has stabilized over the last 5 years.

 

Jason said that next week, we will revisit the 2002 plan, and vote on it.   Michelle Hedrich asked Kevin to bring “bundle 2” and bundle 3” actual bundles w/ next years projected enrollments to the next meeting.

 

We agreed to meet again on Wednesday, March 15th, at 4 pm, at room 350 at PATHS.

 

Respectfully submitted,

 

 

Jane Wellehan