Highlights from the 2/9 Monthly Meeting

Right off the bat, I need to admit something. The 2/9 meeting was the shortest meeting of any I've attended and I was very happy about it. If it weren't for the discussion of ongoing work related to the potential facilities bond, the meeting might have been done in an hour.

This, of course, doesn't mean that Board members aren't engaged in interesting work. Rather the most interesting work related to facilities expansion options is being conducted by the Facilities Expansion Committee. Kudos again to trustees Ritter and Wade for taking on the leadership role of this committee.

I'll say now what I've said before - if you really want to help drive this bus, stay tuned into the district website for announcements of upcoming committee meetings and go take part. Now, I could go on here and talk about the details of the several options being considered, but I'm not going to. I also haven't been to any of the committee meetings so far, which seems to confuse my wife and may confuse some of you out there. Let me explain why. It's because I'm bought in. I fully support going forward with the bond, and I really don't care too much which construction option is pursued.  I heard today that someone was overheard on campus  saying that if their preferred configuration of campuses was not the selected one, then they wouldn't support the bond. I can honestly say this is one of the most short-sighted statements I've heard in a long time. I am completely baffled by this point of view.

And, from what I have heard so far about what will potentially be in the ballot language, the unknown person whose comment I repeated above is going to be very frustrated. According to Dr. Pitts' comments at the Board meeting, the ballot language will not commit the district to a particular construction layout. It may only define the total scope and budget of the proposed work (e.g. modernize 28 classrooms, build 22 new classrooms, etc.). All of this, I'm sure, will become clearer within the next 1-2 months as the committee continues its work and brings recommendations to the Board for consideration.

Let us all stay tuned...

-Rob