Thursday, March 15,
2007
Wayland High
School
Science Building
S-2
Attendees
HSBC members: Lea Anderson, Josh Bekenstein, Dianne Bladon, Steve
Breit, Brian Chase, Jim Howard, David Lash, Mary
Lentz, Jennifer Steel, Karen Talentino
Absent: Fred Knight, Joe Lewin, Cindy Lombardo, Eric Sheffels, Steve Tise
Ex Officio
members: Gary
Burton, Bob Gordon
Special guest: Representative Tom
Conroy
Call to order HSBC Chairman, Lea Anderson,
called the meeting to order at 7:45 p.m.
MSBA Update by Representative Tom
Conroy Rep.
Conroy introduced himself to the HSBC.
He became familiar with Wayland High School in 2003 when he served on the
Finance Subcommittee of the High School Study Committee. He lives across the street from WHS and
is very empathetic to the work of the HSBC.
Rep.
Conroy met with MSBA Executive Director, Katherine Craven, earlier in the
day. He attended a briefing for
legislators four weeks ago when Ms. Craven gave an overview of the agency and
the new program. In todays
meeting, Ms. Craven indicated that 80% of her time is spent on the $11 billion
backlog of old projects. MSBA is
trying to hire more people. Rep.
Conroy asked her if she has enough resources and offered his legislative support
should MSBA need more funds to administer the program.
Ms.
Craven was not able to give any details on the timeline for future
projects. She said that the
Facilities and Maintenance Assessments will take place this spring culminating
in a prioritized pipeline. The
Feasibility Study process will begin in the summer and fall. She is well aware of problems that
school systems such as Wayland are having.
She indicated that schools are being built in cities with declining
enrollments and fears that new schools will open with too few students. This is very different from the steady state enrollments in towns like
Wayland.
Rep.
Conroy and Ms. Craven discussed the statutory criteria and whether they might be
out of date. It is not clear which
criteria determine the neediest facility.
Ms. Craven said that every town is offering to be a guinea pig to be the
first in the door.
Rep.
Conroy said that Katherine Craven is a person of integrity and wants to work in
full collaboration with communities.
He recommended that Wayland send more information on NEASC, OSHA, and
condition of WHS to MSBA as updated information becomes
available.
In
response to questions, Rep. Conroy said that Ms Craven expects $500 million for
the new program in FY08, which she expects to first start using to fund small
projects, such as boilers. She does
not expect to be able to authorize spending the entire amount in the first
year. Many of the Statements of
Interest are for small projects.
Lea
Anderson added information about her meeting with TEC Executive Director John
Connolly and Katherine Craven in February.
She said that Ms. Craven is planning on available funds of no more than
$500 million per year for the next few years because of lower than expected
sales revenue. Ms. Craven also
indicated that three schools have been chosen for the first Facility and
Maintenance Assessment to be followed by a group of ten schools in the second
wave. Wayland High School is in
this second group of ten schools.
These assessments should be conducted this spring. Lea also reported that MSBA is
interested in knowing more about space needs for collaborative programs such as
TEC.
HSBC
members commented as follows:
- Is the focus on the amount of money available or on what schools
need?
- By changing the formula, more pressure is on the property
tax.
- There is much cynicism in towns
about state payment, especially for towns that have experienced the high
inflation of the last few years on old projects.
- Katherine Craven is very
competent and is determined to focus on a fair process. The old process was corrupt and poorly
managed. Schools were overbuilt and
poorly built.
- We should also work with
Senator Scott Brown.
Preparation for Town Meeting
Lea reviewed the
recent decisions of the Finance Committee and Board of Selectmen to combine many
small capital requests from many town departments in a
$1.8 million debt exclusion for a vote on Tuesday, April 24. The debt exclusion requires the approval
of a simple majority to pass at the polls.
Included in that amount is the $300,000 request for contract planning and
design services for WHS. There will
be a separate article (Article 6 in the Warrant) for this item at Town Meeting
on Sunday, April 29 beginning at 1 pm.
Article 6 requires a two-thirds vote to pass.
The
School Committee will hold a budget hearing on Monday, April 9 at 7 pm in the
Middle School Auditorium. The HSBC
will have time on the hearing agenda to present and answer questions on Article
6.
The
group reviewed the Report of the HSBC for the Warrant. Lea will make suggested
changes.
Communications Update
The group
reviewed the schedule events leading up to Annual Town
Meeting.
Meeting
HSBC Presenter and others
Council on Aging March 21, 10 am in Sen.
Cen. Lea,
Dianne, Sue Pope
Loker PTO March 26, 9:15 am
Dianne
WSC Budget Hearing April 9, 7 pm at WMS
Lea with HSBC
WMS PTO April 10, 7 pm at WMS
Lea, Dianne
WHS
tours will be held on the second Sat. and second Tues. of each month. Tours begin under the clock at the main
entrance. Tours are scheduled for
Tues. Apr. 10 at 4:00 pm and Sat. Apr. 14 at 9:00 am.
It was suggested that
HSBC members be available at the WPSF Spelling Bee on Sunday, March 25 to answer
questions about WHS and also to hand out a self-guided tour. Karen Talentino offered to compose the tour description and talk
to Charlie Ruopp about details. Josh Bekenstein offered to help at the table. Other HSBC members will be lined up to
help.
There is interest in
producing a video tour of WHS with the help of Chris from WayCam.
It was suggested that the old taped tour from 2003 be viewed to see how
to improve on it.
Motion A motion was made by Jennifer
Steel and seconded by Mary Lentz to approve the minutes of HSBC meeting #46 held
on Thursday, Feb. 1, 2007.
Vote The motion was approved
unanimously - 10 in favor, 0 opposed.
Comments and questions from observers: There were no comments.
Adjournment The HSBC adjourned at 9:0550 p.m.
Observers: Lisa Valone