Budget Factoid:
The Board has been televising more of its committee and special board meetings. This has been possible because of the purchase of a new camera system and new tables for the McDaniels Auditorium in Doyle. The cost of the cameras was financed through the Community Service Fund (Fund 80); the new cameras reduce personnel costs. The old set up needed four staff; the new cameras require only two staff members.

The old tables were in danger of collapse (and were held together with duct tape); the new ones allow the Board to create settings that facilitate discussion between Board members and with the public during committee meetings.

February 27th Meetings:

5:00 p.m. Legislative Committee (Ruth Robarts, chair)
The committee discussed changes to the requirements for school district reports which would allow districts to mail the report only to those who requested and also post it on its website.

Current state law prohibits school districts from requiring developers to pay fees to support the building of new schools though other "impact" fees (for streets, sewers and parks) are allowed. The committee agreed that the district should work with the state school boards association to raise this issue.

The committee adopted a statement that opposes the newly proposed TABOR amendment.

5:45 p.m. Special Board Meeting:
The Board denied the Swan Creek petition to leave the district. The original agreement with the Oregon School District requires both districts to reject any such petition.

The East Area Task Force members talked with the Board, explaining their recommendations and answering questions. They indicated that they would like a chance to meet and talk with the members of the Memorial/West Task Force and that the Board should consider ways to take advantage of both Task Force members because they now have so much knowledge about the district.

The Board took the following actions on the East Task Force recommendations:

1. Agreed to change the middle school feeder pattern to have some of the Hawthorne students attend O'Keeffe Middle School; the administration will come back to the Board with a specific recommendation about which areas of Hawthorne should change.
2. Decided not to move the Affiliated Alternatives into an elementary or middle school, but leave them in the current rented space on Brearly Street.
3. Decided not to move MSCR out of Hoyt.

The Board did not take action on proposed boundary changes among the 4 north side schools but did ask the administration to come back with plans which showed options for combining all the children from the Packers Avenue townhouses in one school; currently the Packers children who need language services attend Linbergh and all the others attend Mendota.

The Board discussed an analysis of the future uses of the Doyle Building; the analysis indicated that the potential sale value of the building was a net of $1.4 million; the costs of relocating current staff from Doyle to other buildings in the district (schools with space) would be over $8 million. The Doyle building has been designated, by the city, as a historic building and the land it is on is zoned conservancy.

The Board asked the administration to investigate: a) the possibility of removing the landmark designation; b)how development of the Doyle site would fit into the neighborhood plan; and c)responsiveness of the city to changing the current zoning status of the site.

Lastly, the Board discussed the existing policy on renewing administrator contracts. This topic was referred to the Human Resources Committee for further discussion.