Meeting Minutes 09/15/2005

SOUTH PORTLAND SCHOOL DEPARTMENT
SECONDARY SCHOOLS FACILITIES COMMITTEE

MEETING NOTES

These notes were prepared by Polly Ward 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: Wendy Houlihan, Dave Brochu, Kathy Germani, Ralph Baxter, Sr., Carrie Hall-Indorf, Mark Reuscher, Mark Lee, Megan Welter, Dan Cecil, Ruth Doughty, Polly Ward.

Guest: Kathy DiPhillipo.

1. Welcome and review of agenda
- Introductions
- Purpose of inviting members of the public to help develop the frequently asked questions

2. Approval of minutes of 8/25/05 meeting
- Approved

3. Presentation of preliminary report to "panel" with response from panelists
- Wendy distributed the first draft of the forum materials
- This material will be used for community forums and presentation to community groups
- Clarify that building a new high school would be linked to renovating the current high school to be used as the single Middle School
- Sports were listed as both a pro and con – may be better to put more information on the pros and cons rather than the "?"
- Add co-curricular on the two middle schools
- Question- how do we create smaller learning communities within a single larger middle school?
- Add a “pro” that a single, larger middle school permits more consistent, balanced class sizes
- Question- need to tell the public why this is needed- outline the deficiencies- materials don’t include the results of the study of the buildings
- Separate sheet for each
- Facility deficiencies
- Programming deficiencies
- Need to provide information on potential cost savings if we have one middle school
- Remove the question on the order of construction
- Explain that we have considered renovating the high school to be the single middle school and building a new high school, but have not found land for a brand new high school
- Need to explain what would be gained with each option
- Executive Summary
- Includes process but not findings
- Need to provide much more on findings
- Pros and cons
- Pros for one middle school and pros for two middle schools rather than pros and cons
- The Community input phase is still part of the information gathering process
- Important to get operating cost data
- Taxpayer cost of each option- total cost of the bonding impact on the tax rate vs elementary construction tax rate decline
- Question- impact of applying for State funding

5. Review and comments on report from Harriman Associates
- Ralph Baxter suggested that we may want to have higher numbers for the projected numbers for the schools, e.g.
- Two middle schools with 400 each
- One middle school with 800
- High school with 1200
- Carrie had a number of suggestions that were editorial, including consistent construction for educational needs
- Wendy handed out a tentative list of dates that would be used for community forums/meetings
- May get more response for night meetings if child care is provided

7. Next meeting is September 29, 2005 at 6:30 PM in the SPHS Library