BOE Meeting - September 17 Grant Elementary School

[Jim O'Bryan]

The Board of Education Agenda for Regular Meeting – September 17, 2012
Grant Elementary School Gymnasium

Mrs. Betsy Shaughnessy - President

I. Call to Order – Pledge of Allegiance – Roll Call
II. Adoption of Agenda (ROLL CALL VOTE)
III. Approval of Minutes of the Regular Board of Education Meeting Held on August 6, 2012 and the Special Board of Education Meeting Held on August 15, 2012
IV. Superintendent’s Report

A. Building Principal’s Report – Grant Elementary

V. Communications

VI. Consent Agenda (ROLL CALL VOTE)

A. Finance Report: Ms. Petrie Barcelona, Mr. Favre
1. Investments Purchased and Matured – July 2012
2. Financial Information – July 2012

B. Buildings, Sites and Major

Purchases Report: Mr. Einhouse, Mrs. Beebe
1. Rental Agreement Between the Lakewood Board of Education and the

St. Edward High School
2. Rental Agreement Between the Lakewood Board of Education and the Lakewood Family YMCA
3. Rental Agreement Between the Lakewood Board of Education and the Lakewood Community Care Center
4. Rental Agreement Between the Lakewood Board of Education and the
Family Life Child Care Center (formerly Berea Children’s Home)
5. Rental Agreement Between the Lakewood Board of Education and the
St. Peter’s Child Care

C. Education Report: Mrs. Beebe, Ms. Petrie Barcelona
1. Approval of Summer School Graduates – 2012 Graduating Class
2. Agreement Between the Lakewood Board of Education and Sharon M. Wasco, PhD, Independent Evaluation Consultant
3. Agreement Between the Lakewood Board of Education and Education Alternatives for Transportation Services
4. Gifts to Lakewood Schools

VII. Human Resources and Community Services Report: Mr. Favre, Mr. Einhouse
A. Certified (ROLL CALL VOTE)
B. Classified (ROLL CALL VOTE)
C. Community Recreation and Education (ROLL CALL VOTE)

VIII. Other Board Business
A. Certified – Resignation – Request Approval on One Reading
B. Certified – Appointments – Request Approval on One Reading
C. Classified – Appointment – Request Approval on One Reading
D. Resolution to Approve the Superintendent’s Recommendation to Maintain
Operations of Seven Elementary Schools (Second Reading)
E. Other

IX. Recess for Executive Session (ROLL CALL VOTE)
A. For consideration of the employment of a public employee
X. Adjournment


.

[Peter Grossetti]

For the life of me, I cannot figure out why BOE and City Council meet on the same evening! By design? Ignorance?

[Kristine Pagsuyoin]

Peter,

Many parents and citizens who are active in the community have asked for there to be a change. It just makes sense to me that they be on different days so that everyone can fully participate in school and city issues.

Kristine

[Peter Grossetti]

Is this a childish case of, "yeah, but, we were here first?" This is utterly insane (or as I indicated before ... by design?) Prime example of the right hand not knowing (or not caring) what theft left hand is doing.


Do the parties involved not understand (nor care) that school issues ARE city issues?!?!?

[Jim O'Bryan]

By design?

Duuuuhhhhhhhhhhh!

This discussion has gone on for decades, while other communities make it easier to interact
with the city, these crews make it harder and harder. Unless you are one of the 23 tweeters
that dialed in the mayor.

I would think if the City and the Schools cannot work out this very simple detail, then it
must certainly reflect on how well they deal with tougher issues. This should be taken care
of in weeks, or the residents must surely start to think about groups that can work together.
Clean house, start fresh.


.

[Betsy Voinovich]

Hi all,

Well let's write some letters and bring it up officially. There is a process, if someone has followed it, I don't know about it, it doesn't seem like either elected body will take it up on their own just because it's a good thing to do.

They each seem to like meeting at the beginning of the week, they each meet every two weeks. A natural solution would be that they don't meet on the same week at the same time. Since it's every other week, they can alternate Mondays. That's one idea. The other thing they could do, if it's essential that they meet on the same week (and if it is, they can explain why) then they can flip some kind of a coin over Monday nights or Tuesday nights. Mondays aren't that desirable after all, coming back for a meeting on Monday means that you have to wreck a long weekend. I don't think we'll have to have committee meetings to "decide what we want" for this one.

We know that we have at least one responsive Councilperson, sometimes more. We also have a School Board and an Administration that have been doing a good job lately of acknowledging and adjusting to reality.

Which brings me back to the point of this thread I think. Tonight the School Board will vote on the Resolution to Approve the Superintendent’s Recommendation to Maintain Operations of Seven Elementary Schools.

I'd like to know what the exact wording of the resolution is. Is there an agreement that we need seven schools and that's the end of it? We get to have seven schools based on our population? Is this a delay in closing a school until next Fall, when the levy is safely past? Or not next Fall because there are School Board elections. Is it a delay in closing a school until Spring 2014? Keeping it open is based on enrollment. How does the OSFC (Ohio School Facilities Commission) play into it? Will they come back and re-evaluate our population and approve us for the rebuilding/renovating of the last THREE elementary schools? If we do still close one, which will it be? Will it still be based on closing the school whose closing will save the most money? Which school is that? Does its location matter? Does the performance of the staff/administration inside the building matter?

Will the resolution pass? Is everyone on the Board in agreement?

Tonight's meeting should be interesting. It's at Grant, halfway down Elmwood (the street where the chipmunk hangs out) right now, so if you're going, you better get going.

Betsy Voinovich

[Kristine Pagsuyoin]

Betsy,

As for the meeting day, I think Mondays are good because everybody is used to the city and school board meetings being on that night. I think it would be okay just to alternate Mondays.

I am glad that you have focused on the important piece of this thread which is the school board meeting tonight (and should have started). If you notice, this is a second reading of the resolution:

Resolution to Approve the Superintendent’s Recommendation to Maintain
Operations of Seven Elementary Schools (Second Reading)

We don't need to guess about what it says as it should have been entered into the minutes, or if you attended the last meeting, you might have been able to listen to the discussion (if there was any). For awhile I've had conflicts on Monday nights and so have not been able to attend meetings. Unfortunately, the last meeting posted to view at the Lakewood City Schools website is from August 6, 2012. I don't think this resolution was proposed at that time. And yes, the issue of posting meetings to the website in the month they occur has been brought to the attention of the district many times.

I am glad it was on the agenda tonight and not voted on to pass in only one reading. It offers the public an opportunity to hear discussion and then ask questions the second time around. Once the last meeting in August and the first meeting in September is posted I will check it out to see if there was any meaningful discussion around this resolution, but the opportunity to ask questions will be gone.

I hope you go and let us all know the outcome and details.