Meeting Minutes 08/04/2005

SOUTH PORTLAND SCHOOL DEPARTMENT
SECONDARY SCHOOLS FACILITIES COMMITTEE

MEETING NOTES

These notes were prepared by Wendy Houlihan to the best of her understanding. If you find any inaccuracies, please contact the Superintendent of Schools Office at 871-0555 within one week after receiving the notes.

Present:
Greg Fuller, Maxine Beecher, Dennis Welch, Ralph Cabana, Ralph Baxter, Sr., Carrie Hall-Indorf, Mark Reuscher, Nancy Carroll, Steve Bailey, Dan Cecil, Mark Lee, Ralph Baxter, Jr., Dave Brochu, Wendy Houlihan, Angela Griffiths.

1. Welcome and review of agenda

2. Approval of minutes from July 7, 2005
- Approved

3. Review of "Revised Next Steps"
- Steve Puleo, City Planner, Dana Anderson, Director of Parks and Recreation, Nancy Carroll and Wendy Houlihan will meet on Tuesday at 1:00 to discuss whether there is any land available for constructing a new high school. All committee members are invited to attend
- Pursuit of State funding:
- Dan and Mark will identify the components for revolving renovation funds during the concept design so application for those funds can be made
- To apply for major state funding of the project, a plan would need to be submitted in August 2006 with a response from the state in 2007

4. Sharing of info/data by Harriman Associates
- Committee members received draft #1 of the final report from Harriman Associates
- Members were asked to read the report thinking about what people will want to know and how easy it will be to find that information in the report
- Feedback will be provided by all members on their copy of the report
- Reports will be dropped off with Maria, and will be picked up by Mark or Dan. Members may also email thoughts to Maria
- Final reports should be ready for the September 12 Board Meeting
- Dan will provide information about the changes in costs over the past five years specific to components of the project (i.e. steel)

5. Planning for Community Forums
- Dan shared information on preparing for a referendum, which is the second stage
- The first stage is information sharing and gathering to help the committee and Board make a decision
- Ideas for the community forums and information sharing:
- Create an interactive website- Wendy and Mark will work on this with school personnel after more planning is done for the forums
- Get on the agendas of Elementary PTA, Middle Schools, and High school parent groups, senior housing, full community groups, neighborhood associations, Chalkboard, etc. The City Clerk can be a resource for information about various groups
- Use email to make administrators and others aware of meeting dates
- Put a slide on Channel 3 about the forums
- Committee members will bring names to the next meeting of possible people to be specifically invited to a forum
- Develop a logo for the Secondary Schools Facilities Committee
- Post meeting notices at school open houses
- Have a phone line for people to call and leave questions or concerns
- A script about funding options and plans will be needed for the community
- Angela will gather the information about the groups used in the Elementary process and give it to Steve before the 25th for a discussion on that date
- Ideas for Talking Points:
- What bonds are being retired?
- What does a bond mean for a tax bill?
- What is the potential for revolving renovation funds?
- What did we actually bond for the elementary projects?
- Question: By how much would you be willing to increase your property taxes for this project?
- Plan for the questions people will ask about having one Middle school and prepare a FAQ sheet
- Think strategically when putting together the teams of committee members for each meeting
- Steve and Wendy will develop a draft protocol for the committee to discuss at the September 1, 2005 meeting

Next Meeting will be August 25, 2005
- Items to be discussed
- Lists of people to contact
- Tasks for individual people
- Master list of groups to engage