The letter about the bond referendum, the regionalization study and the superintendent search is welcome but frankly the community needs more information on the bond referendum, including:
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The H2M presentation and original bond referendum was entirely focused on air handler replacements, air quality system and their maintenance. Everything discussed at the last presentation was removed from the actual referendum. What changed? Was it the need for urgency? If it remains labeled as high importance on the 5 year LRP, what the board’s plan for maintaining or replacing this equipment? The answer is most certainly another bond request.
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If the HVAC is deferred then what contingency plans will be laid out to minimize the impact of HVAC system issues to students and staff? How much funds have been placed aside to fix and maintain existing units through this school year? The letter refers to a Q&A session in the fall. We need to have a date set for that as soon as possible because parents need reassurance there are noon going air quality issue and mail-in voting will begin in just over a month.
It is very possible that the Board will have addressed some of these issues but at the time of writing no minutes are available for the August meeting. We hope the Board will set the date for the Q&A session as soon as possible and have the HVAC and facility plans available to the community in advance of the Q&A.
Consideration for the Community
With hindsight the agenda of Monday’s seems very strange and exceedingly inconsiderate to the community. There were two sections open to the public separated by an Executive Session estimated to last 90 minutes to discuss the Regionalization Study. There was no reason all the agenda items (Personnel, Superintendent Search, Bond Referendum and World Language) couldn’t have been moved to the first public section, allowing the community members who came to the meeting to hear those topics and ask questions.
There were over ten community members who waited for over an hour outside the school building, but eventually we all had to go home to our families.
Whether the agenda was cynical, pool planning or just plain inconsiderate, the board can and will do better by parents and the community in the future.