Long Range Plan Minutee June 7, 2006

Long Range Plan Review Committee
Minutes
June 7, 2006

Members in Attendance:
Harry Amend* Mike DeLong Bryan Martin* Vern Newby* Lynn Vershum
Jean Bengfort Jim Ferguson John McLeod Dave Patzer Dianna Walde
Jeff Bengtson Scott Fischer* David Miller Joel Palmer
Steve Briggs* Tom Hobson Jane Morgan Ann Siebert
Susan Clayton Doug Jaworski Jill Neal John Swallow

*Ex-officio members

Welcome:
Jill Neal called the meeting to order at 4:37 p.m. The meeting was held at the Midtown Center meeting room.

Approval of April Minutes:
Motion by Dave Patzer, second by John McLeod to approve the April 5, 2006 minutes, approved unanimously.

Board of Trustees Report – Vern Newby:
Vern reported that at the last Board meeting the FY 2006 amended budget was approved. The FY 2007 budget hearing will be held on June 19th and Vern stated that it will be a challenging year for the District. He commended the Attendance Zone Committee for all their hard work and the new zones for elementary and middle schools have been approved. He further reported that the negotiations process has begun. The Board is looking forward to seeing the results of the Robinson Research survey.

GIS Software Demonstration – Tom Hobson:
Jill Neal introduced Tom Hobson. He explained how the Geographical Information Systems (GIS) software works. This is the software that the Attendance Zone Committee uses to help them change the zones. Tom receives and downloads the street network from the County. He explained how he geo-codes all the students in the district and they are displayed on the map according to their address. He displayed Grouse Meadows and proceeded to find out how many students per household that development contains. The results showed 32 middle school students, 59 elementary school students and 217 structures (.41 students per household). There is an additional program that can be purchased to go with the GIS software that does projections.

Budget 101 & Enrollment Numbers:
The committee was provided with a Budget 101 handout for their information. There was a public meeting held at Woodland about a month ago on this topic and presentations were also given at the schools. The committee was also provided with September 16, 2005 and June 2, 2006 enrollment numbers. Harry pointed out that the enrollment from the beginning to the end of the school year decreased by 52 students (mostly at the high school level). Joe Morris, CEO of Kootenai Medical Center, reported at a meeting last week that the live birth rate is declining for the first time in years.

Robinson Research Survey:
The committee was provided with the Robinson Research Focus Group Findings and Special Interim Report. The process included three focus groups that met for two hours at La Quinta. These people were recruited by telephone and paid to participate in these focus groups. They answered several questions and were video taped. The questions for the survey were developed from this process (Draft 3 Questionnaire provided to committee). The telephone survey is still in the process of being completed but the committee was provided the findings of the first 145 telephone surveys out of a total of 330 for the school district. Once completed, the Long Range Planning Committee will receive the final report. Harry proceeded to go over the survey questions and the preliminary findings with the committee. The Board is going to work on this over the summer and in September (after reviewing the final results) the committee will need to weigh in as to the timing of the levy, what projects should be on it and for how much. The following comments were made by the committee members:
• Concerned about assessments that went out in yesterday’s mail and that it may possibly skew the remainder of the telephone survey results
• Were not specific enough on what the money would be used for and asked for too much
• The Maintenance & Operations levy will be run next spring
• Learned something from Post Falls, they paired theirs down and got it under the current tax rate
• A bond needs to be discussed at the Board level
• Discussed the letter that was sent out to the registered voters prior to the S.P.F.L. vote and the impacts that it made on the vote
• Need to get the “yes” voters to the polls

Harry encouraged the committee to stay positive, listen to the study and a proposal will be made that will make sense to the voters. He reported that the District will be focusing on sharing with the community high test scores and the incredible improvement students have made and do a better job of getting that information out. In the next couple of weeks after graduation the District will come out with some data as well as give a report in the fall that will be published in the paper.

The total cost of the survey is $20,000, $12,000 will be paid by the County and $8,000 will be paid by the Levy Committee. The County is currently leading in fundraising for the entire $20,000. When the County is finished with their fundraising, they will let the District know how many dollars are left to be paid and who they contacted and received contributions from. Harry will be trying to raise funds in the $500 to $1,000 range from individuals and/or companies that would be willing to make a contribution to this effort. Harry thanked the committee for all their hard work.

Expiring Committee Terms:
The following committee terms expire in September: Jill Neal, Rex Fairfield, Jeffery Hill, John McLeod, Leslie Miller, Ann Siebert, Dave Yadon and Jane Morgan. Please let Jill know of anyone you know of that would like to serve on the committee. New terms begin in October and are for 4-years.

Next Meeting:
The next Long Range Planning meeting will be held on Monday, September 25th at 4:30 p.m. at the Midtown Center meeting room.

Adjournment:
The meeting was adjourned at 5:45 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,

Cheri Beard
Administrative Secretary

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