Board Meeting Agenda for Wednesday

It seems like a shorter agenda than usual for the upcoming School Board meeting on Wednesday, the 19th at 6:00 p.m.

They will be having an Executive Session before the meeting on Collective Bargaining and Professional Negotiations. This is likely to be in advance of upcoming negotiations for both the teachers' contract and principals' contract. These negotiations will be interesting this year as the district has no money to offer and so it becomes all about what the school work day will look like for teachers and principals. I have to wonder how Dr. Goodloe-Johnson's lack of experience with unions may play into these negotiations. I know the district has already hired a professional negotiator.

As for the agenda itself, there are these items:

• action on the renaming of Brighton Elementary to Martin Luther King, Jr. Elementary

• action on acceleration of BTA III for the new SAP - This one is a bit weird to me because it is highlighted as "amended motion". So does that mean it was amended after they voted it in as an Introduction item? Isn't it a different motion now? The original motion was only for $8.5M Basically they need capital money to reopen the schools needed for the new SAP and they want to borrow $12M from our capital eligible fund over two years AND borrow federal bonds via OSPI up to $17M. I knew this would come as they didn't have the ready cash to get these projects done otherwise. However, it does appear, from the motion, that we will then have some modest delinquencies/late payments on BTA III because of it. The money would, of course, be paid back to the CEF went BTA III levy money comes in starting in the fall of 2011.

• Under Introduction Items there is a wonderful proposal for the CTE Skills Center from Michael Tolley, High School Director and Shep Siegel, who runs CTE for the district. You can tell just from the typeface that this is not your regular motion. Detailed, clear, wow. Their attachments make great reading; nearly every high school would eventually have a satellite program with a different focus from green energy to health sciences to marketing. (My only nitpick is just that STEM at Cleveland would get a program right away so more money to that school - it's an embarrassment of riches with a new building, new program and a new CTE program).
  

• Also under Introduction Items is another great one from Security for a Public Access Automated Defibrillator (AED) program that wouldn't cost us (training, maintenance and equipment comes from grants). Good deal especially for those times when a student needs the help (could save a staff or parent life as well).