Good morning! I wanted to send out the notes from the school board meeting because it was kind of interesting.
First things first, the two board members not present were the two just re-elected, Vicki Hansen and Steve Yokom. I found that interesting. How is it that you commit to one meeting every month and cannot make it? Anyway, I digress…..
There were 8 of us in the audience. Five were there for a presentation and another to say at public comment that he is trying to bring back the Cub and Boy Scouts to the area. And the Bray’s were there. What was interesting was the first presentation that took at least an hour. There were representatives from a company called Kingscott and a company called Clark Construction. The gist of the presentation was that they will do a facilities assessment by an eight member team for developing the “school of the future”. They will also help with a capital bond. Our last one was in 1999. This company has done $400 million dollars worth of work with Clark Construction in K-12 schools redesigning them. They did a walk-through yesterday and gave their observations on furniture, classrooms, media center, locker rooms, restrooms, secured entries and said that even though our school is dated, the board has done a great job leveraging the sinking fund. Kingscott is doing a fire training center in Genesee and upgraded STEM labs in Chelsea. They are looking at how kids go from school to career if they are not meant for higher education. And I quote, “Furniture helps deliver curriculum more effectively”. They say they can take our wood shop to the next level. So they identify projects, get community involvement and take it to the voters. How is it paid for? Well, the bond, of course. They talked about a 1 mil which would bring about 10-20 million all the way up to 3 mil which would bring about 30-40 million. But they suggested between 1 and 2 mil for this community. They showed statistics on our demographics.
They said that Dan shared with them community groups that may be involved. What I found interesting was the sales pitch to the community. They talked about how to get the community to trust that they will prioritize the school projects so the community can be assured of its value. They talked about social media and flyers and media passed out at school to get everyone behind this. Another quote from the presenters was, “is your community conservative or forward-thinking?” And I thought, can’t you be both? They talked about finding the people who don’t want a bond so they can start selling the project. The presenters mentioned that Dan told them there is a “critical NO” group in this community. I wonder who those people are? 🙂 They said they would hit the farmers, the 4-H fairs and the foresters. They love to engage critical people. They said the school board is a great representation of the people. They want a target list of groups, like the seniors, to create a dialog. They said most important are the students who will tell them what they want (sounds like the ACCOA project). They said it was all about trust. The district needs community support. In 1999 the bond was for 1.7 mils which was $7.4 million . They believe the community is buying in because they voted for it in 1999. They had a statistic that 80% of households in Alcona County have no children so there will be a ‘major push’ to ‘sell the message’.
The presenters brought up absentee ballots and said that is how elections are won. That there are 45 days now to get a ballot and send it in before an election and that is how they won a vote in another county with one of their projects…with absentee ballots. So their strategy will support absentee ballots. They said they have exceptional marketing and social media skills. They have nothing to hide so everything needs to be transparent to develop trust with the community. They talked about strategy and marketing and selling the project.
What struck me is that this is almost the exact same playbook as the one running at the ACCOA. Ethos and the Sidock group in parallel with Kingscott and Clark Construction. They even used the same words…community engagement, the stakeholders, other sources of funding, I felt like it was deja vu. So what do we do about it? My thought is that we know this is going to be coming so we can be aware of what’s going on. And also, if, like the ACCOA, we give ideas that will actually benefit this community, maybe they will listen to our ideas. Especially if they truly want community input, unless they just want to go ahead with their project ideas.
The rest of the meeting proceeded as usual. They discussed a third charger for electric buses. Putting one in the parking lot for away buses and the other two at the bus garage for our buses. It will cost about $15,000 to install another charger. The budget amendments will be talked about in February. The school board association has a self-assessment tool. It was either Chad or Dan who said it was a good thing for the board to do, so they can see how they think as a board. Verizon approached the school to see about putting a tower on the property. Behind the bus garage was the recommended spot but it will be up to Verizon to decide if that’s where they want it or if another property would be better suited for a tower. The school gets a grant from Inspiration Alcona for tutoring and will be adding another tutor on Tuesdays and Thursdays. AMA ESD has money for the school to be adding a piece of ADA certified playground equipment. Dan said the strategic planning goals will also be his goals as opposed to having two sets of goals. Brian King resigned as a paraprofessional but will be staying on as a substitute. Tim Lee gave an update on the elementary – it’s the winter benchmarking time. He said there is a building-wide need for more writing and literacy skills that are being addressed. Mrs. Thomas gave a middle/high update – they are adding a drop-in music and video and board game time after school. There was a senior scholarship class to give seniors information on how to apply. Vape detectors have been added in the bathrooms and three students (6,7 and grade 8)have been caught and are receiving education on it. They had cookie decorating and trivia before the Christmas break. The board members got tee shirts for board appreciation month.
Lastly was public comment. Mr. Larry King talked about bringing back the Cub and Boy Scouts. He was cut off by Chad, probably not realizing he only got three minutes to speak. But he wanted to have a scout talk at the school. He’s from the area and moved back…and wants to give back. 🙂 Also, Rich Bray gave a comment about the presentation. I thought his idea deserved a lot of merit. He suggested that the school add a building trades program so that our kids can learn building, plumbing and electrical work. He suggested that this would be the answer to the presentation given earlier. He said that the school and the health center are our anchor industries and that if the school kids build a house, with a workforce housing grant, not only will it teach them trade skills, but it could provide housing for a new teacher or nurse or doctor moving back into the community.
Lastly, the board approved Kingscott to collaborate with Clark Construction. There was a question presented as to how much this was going to cost and the answer was evaded by the presenter. They approved the purchase of two EV buses (one with a flat front and one with a conventional front even though one was $20,000 more) at the request of the transportation director to see if the buses are different. The total is $825,000.00 which will be paid for by a grant (not sure if it’s 100%). They approved the resignation of Brian King. Board member Blohm requested bringing back the working session so the board can see some things going on. There may be one in March. Warren asked if it was okay for deputies to have a window meeting in the school parking lot. Everyone agreed it was okay.
I did ask Chad afterward why he was telling people he didn’t want me on the school board. He said he knew it would get back to me but he thinks you should have kids if you’re on the board. (Rich told me he doesn’t have kids or grandkids at the school.) I told him it was better I didn’t so they couldn’t be retaliated against if I said something that was not popular. But it’s possible having members who don’t show makes it easier for the board to pass motions. 🙂 I don’t know…..just speculating.
The next meeting is scheduled for February 13th.
Enjoy your day!
Lisa
