August 29, 2014 at 4:00 PM - Superintendent's Weekly Update to the Board of Education

Description: 
Paul and I are meeting on Tuesday morning to discuss changes to the facilities plan.  One of the more significant changes is holding off on a learning center for now and reallocating the approximately 2,000 sq ft toward a new automotive/small engines shop.  

A second significant change is going down from 5 to 4 science classrooms and labs.  Agriculture would recapture the classroom currently used by Ms. Tschida.  When we need a 5th science room in a few years the new hire will use Mr. Skwira's current classroom and share a lab space with another science teacher.  This will also allow the new science classrooms to increase from an unrealistic 700 sq ft to the normal 900 sq ft.

A third change is moving the district office down with community education and a principal office.  Our new district office secretary Michelle will be the receptionist for the DO, community education, and grades Pre-k - K.  The will allow one secretary to help out three important offices, one shared conference room instead of multiple ones, an administrator to be there for grades Pre-k - K when the elementary principal is at the elementary school, etc.

The attachments included in this Friday letter illustrate these changes.  A clean copy will be ready after meeting with Paul on Tuesday.  I'll bring copies to the facilities planning meeting on Wednesday.   

Description: 
Please find attached the presentation I used during Wednesday's welcome back to all school district employees.  You can see my focus was on the facilities and soliciting active participation and support from all of our employees.  If nothing else it's very important our all of our employees know the needs and purpose of the project so they can communicate it to our school district residents. 

Description: 
Please see attached a grant I'm in the process of applying for the fitness center.  I'm seeking $50k for cardio and weightlifting equipment.  The document attached is just the preliminary paperwork they are seeking from interested parties.  We'll see what happens with our request.

Description: 
Please see attached a referendum planning booklet Mike Schoenecker and I went through on Tuesday.  I like the simplicity of it for our committees.

On Wednesday, September 3 is our next scheduled facilities planning meeting.  The week after that I want another meeting to begin assigning volunteers to the different committees.  We're okay on our timeline, but the committee work needs begin now in the first few weeks of September. 

Description: 
Mike Schenecker from Winkelman dropped off three signed AIA contracts the board approved last week.  The only potential concern is the umbrella coverage for professional liability.  

Mike said Winkelman has enough coverage for their role in the construction project and it's the contractors awarded the future bids that will carry their own coverage to make it complete.  We do have the option of increasing the professional liability for Winkelman at a cost of approximately $8,000.

This will have to be a decision of the board whether or not they are comfortable with the amount of coverage or not.  Mike said the amount of coverage they're carrying in our future project is no less or different than all of their other projects.  If you ask me, I'm satisfied with that response and feel reassured knowing the contractors will have their own professional liability insurance too.  

Description: 
Mary is going to take a few extra weeks entering the costing of the recently approved contracts.  This will give us better numbers for a preliminary audit report in October.  The final audit will be presented to the public at the November board meeting. 

Description: 
I forgot to take a picture of the finished girls' PE locker room before leaving work this afternoon.  The sentence to serve workers installed approximately 100 individual lockers.  Our custodial crew will wax the floor and have it ready for use next week.  This was made possible through a collaborative effort and support of Morrison County STS

Description: 
I received the attached letter about sentence to serve (STS) opportunities provided by Benton County.  Although their fees for labor are very reasonable, we will continue to work first with Morrison County.  We are not charged by Morrison County for the sentence to serve labor and Tim Brummer does an excellent job supervising and working alongside the workers.  

Description: 
Please find attached the weekly bills for your approval.