Steamboat Springs Education Fund Board
October 6, 2010; 5:30 pm Human Service Center Lower Board Room
Education Fund Board directors present included Kristi Brown, Mark Andersen, Dean Massey, Roger Good, Don Schwartz, Jill Boyd, Susan MacCarthy, Ann Henderson, Vance Fulton, Denise Connelly, Laura Anderson, Teresa Wright and Tim Corrigan (filling in for Gena Hange). Also present were Shalee Cunningham (SS Superintendent), Scott Mader (SR Superintendent), Dale Mellor (SS Dir. of Finance), Linda Johnson (EFB/CPA). Present from the Cap/Tech Commission were Mark Fitzgerald, Glen Airoldi and Paul Berry. Present from the Ed. Ex. Commission were Jules Palyo, Susie Amsden, Valerie McCarthy and Tammy Lake. Prospective Cap/Tech members present were CJ Berg, Chad James and Jody Patten. Prospective Ed Ex member present was Stuart Handloff. Prospective EFB director present was Scott Berry. Also present were Rick Denney, Rhonda Sweets Libby Foster (Partners), Melissa Calhoon (Yampatika) and Nicole Inglis (Pilot and Today). Denise Brazier, Ski Time Executive Service, recorded the meeting and prepared the minutes.
Call to Order: EFB President Kristi Brown called the meeting to order at 5:35 pm.
Public Comment:
Dale Mellor introduced Jennifer Ulrich from Bondi & Co. who will be performing the EFB audit this year.
Discussion and Adoption of the Minutes of September 1st, 2010: On page 3, under Commission Reports and Board Comments, change Ann’s comment from “Additions will include an undated timetable…” to “Additions will include an updated timetable…” Roger made a motion and Mark seconded to approve the September 1st, 2010 minutes as amended. Vote: ___ 9 Yes______0 No___ The motion passed unanimously.
EFB and Commission Applicant Interviews: Applications for Scott Berry (EFB/At Large), Stuart Handloff (Ed Ex), CJ Berg (Cap/Tech), Chad James (Cap/Tech) and Jody Patten (Cap/Tech) are attached to the minutes. Sue made a motion and Ann seconded to approve Scott Berry as an EFB/At-Large director. Vote: ___9 Yes______0 No___ The motion passed unanimously.
Educational Excellence recommends Stuart Handloff is approved as a member of the Educational Excellence commission. Don made a motion and Jill seconded to approve Stuart Handloff as a member of the Educational Excellence Commission. Vote: ___10 Yes______0 No___ The motion passed unanimously.
Capital/Technology recommends CJ Berg, Chad James and Jody Patton as members of the Capital/Technology commission. Roger made a motion and Mark seconded, to approve CJ Berg as a member of the Capital/Technology commission. Vote: ___10 Yes______0 No___ The motion passed unanimously.
Ann made a motion and Jill seconded to approve Chad James as a member of the Capital/Technology commission. Vote: ___10 Yes______0 No___ The motion passed unanimously.
As Jody Patton was not present, Roger asked EFB to approve Jody Patton as a member of the Capital/Technology commission without her attendance. The request was declined. Later in the meeting: Roger made a motion and Dean seconded to approve Jody Patton as a member of the Capital/Technology meeting. Vote: ___10 Yes______0 No___ The motion passed unanimously.
Workshop with School Districts – Mechanics of the Granting Process – Dean Massey: The workshop discussion outline is attached to the minutes. The board discussed the timetable for the upcoming 2010/2011 budget cycle. Dean will produce a schedule to present to the EFB board during the November meeting.
Shalee said the district will be coming forward with requests without knowing what the State is going to fund as that information in not provided until the spring. Dean suggested the EFB consider moving the budget cycle to fit with information provided by the state and is a topic for discussion at a later date.
EFB discussed collaboration among the districts for cost savings. Roger, encouraging collaboration, commented the 3 districts may have different priorities but the same issue may be on the radar screen. There may be a bucket called “collaboration” in the event of a common need by the 3 districts and what’s leftover could be allocated to the schools and EFB should create carrots to award collaboration to get the most for the money. Comments not encouraging collaboration were limits for allocations are not included in the bylaws, collaboration may interfere with prioritization, BOCES and other organizations promote communication among the districts and a district shouldn’t be punished because of nonparticipation in a collaborative project. Mark said the districts should know collaborative requests do receive higher priority. Collaboration will be brought back for further discussion at a later date.
(Mark Andersen leaves the meeting).
Under Laura’s suggestion, “cost to the school district to implement a program” will be added to the Request For Funding (RFF) form.
What is the process to get funding information to the EFB, what level of information is required, should the EFB trust the commissions have done their due diligence, should the level of information on the RFF match the amount of money requested and what information should be included on the RFF for evaluation are additional discussions on the table.
Dean will research the Colorado Common Grant application and the Colorado Common Grant report.
Mark Fitzgerald said part of the commission’s work is to filter the detail given by the requestors and the detail should be made available to whoever wants to review it. Chad James said free technological solutions software is available and the commission’s work shouldn’t be subject to the same scrutiny by the EFB. There are technology tools available for accountability standardization.
Kristi said accountability reports are scheduled for December so commissions should be preparing. This first attempt will be trial and error. Roger said the Capital/Technology commission decided this year to look at projects that have measurements which can be applied due the challenge of coming up with a reasonable level of review for all the projects funded last year. Dean suggested what EFB requests for accountability is stated in the award letter.
Financial report – Linda Johnson: Linda reviewed the financial report dated Oct. 1, 2010 attached to the minutes. Unspent funds total $ 2,317.828, a total of $ 13,565 is available for rescission and the fund balance is $ 1,118,348. The projected amount for the reserves is $ 993,497 and does not include the rescissions.
Treasurer’s Report – Dean Massey: Dean said the issue with the PDPA (Public Deposit Protection Account) number and bank signatories continues and should be resolved by the November EFB meeting.
A new, easier to read financial report was distributed and is attached to the minutes. Roger said projected reserve is changed as the previous projection had 10 years of history factored in skewing the amount upward. Roger’s methodology is to simply use the City’s forecast. Linda suggested including on the new format the number spent vs. unspent. Dean suggested using the condensed report as a cover sheet to the detailed report.
Dean will address with the auditor the back-up required to be provided with checks and a policy on the payment process. Laura noted free training is available for topics such as payment procedures from the United Way.
Approval of Ed Ex Recommended Rescissions: Jill made a motion and Roger seconded to approve the rescissions of request 10-07-H for the Hayden Middle School Interventionist Professional in the amount of $ 530 and of request 10-09-SR for the South Routt Curriculum Consultant in the amount of $ 1,214. Vote: ___9 Yes______0 No___ The motion passed unanimously.
Commission Reports and Board Comments: This agenda item was not addressed due to previous discussion and time restraints.
Cap/Tech First Reading – Smart Board Enabling Technology $2700: The RFF for this agenda item is attached to the minutes. Roger said this request is out-of-cycle as there will be a rescission for Hayden’s software license and would ask the funds are used for this request resulting in Ø impact to the budget. Smart Boards were partially funded by the EFB and are stressing Hayden’s internet infrastructure. The solution would handle any additional Smart Boards. The vote to fund this request from the Cap/Tech commission was unanimous. The upcoming rescission is due to collaboration in purchasing software licensing. No additional information was requested for 2nd reading.
COML Workshop: An invitation for EFB directors and commission members to the Colorado Open Meeting Law Workshop schedule for October 27th at the Sheraton Hotel from 3:00 – 5:00 is attached to the minutes.
PR Tasks: A meeting to discuss the implementation of a survey is scheduled for Oct. 13th @ 5:30. Some directors believe it is not a good time for a survey and questions if the cost is worth the benefit. Ann said free online survey software is available.
Sue and Ann are working on website revisions including simplification, adding Hayden and South Routt information, adding EFB documents such as the bylaws and updated pictures.
Governance Tasks: EFB policies and procedures has never been completed or approved. Kristi will continue to work on policies and procedures.
Kristi is putting together information for new members such as EFB documents, board member responsibilities, the EFB mission and vision and open meeting law. Roger suggested providing the information in PDF format online and including the information on the EFB website.
Roger is working on accountability measurement tools and asked for 2 volunteers for assistance.
Future EFB philosophy discussion will include topics such as the EFB mission, vision, collaboration, how to drill down on who EFB is, what EFB does, with less tax dollars which requests rise above the rest and the reserve philosophy. Kristi will include the philosophical discussion on December’s agenda to decide a time for the discussion. Teresa suggested sending 3 questions to directors and commission members regarding vision as a basis for initial discussion.
Roger said a local attorney will be attending the November EFB meeting to give an overview on board member responsibility.
Scanning EFB Minutes and Other Documents: A proposal from Rocky Mountain Microfilm and Imaging Scanning is attached to the minutes. Included would be a password protected searchable link on the web and the work will be indexed. The ongoing cost is $ 32.00 a month for 1 gigabyte or 25,000 documents. Whether 17 years of documents needs to be scanned was questioned. Kristi will present a more firm proposal at a later date.
Other Business: Laura suggested additional discussion on the open meeting law.
Roger said as given the task of interviewing candidates for the accounting position, workload presented to Linda Johnson was based on what was going on but not what was needed. Linda has put in substantially more hours and asked the EFB to consider a one-time payment for unanticipated work. Dean asked that Linda’s rate is revisited in 90 days and after the audit is complete.
Approve Next Meeting Date 11/3 – Joint Meeting Commissions and EFB: November’s joint meeting agenda will include the budget process, new member orientation, accept TC rescissions, approve 990 to be filed and posted to the web, enrollment head count, workshop recap, advanced payment request from Partners for $ 25,000 and the 2nd reading from Hayden.
Adjourn: Don made a motion to adjourn the meeting. The EFB meeting adjourned at 8:22 pm.
Exhibits: Applications from Scott Berry, Stuart Handloff, CJ Berg, Chad James and Jody Patten Workshop Discussion Outline Financial Report dated October 1, 2010 New Financial Report Format RFF for Smart Board Enabling Technology Invitation to Colorado Open Meeting Law Workshop Rocky Mountain Microfilm and Imaging Scanning Proposal
Steamboat Springs Education Fund Board Meeting
October 6, 2010 Page 1