Meeting Minutes-December 4th March School Meeting

On December 4, 2007 F.A. March Principal Steinberg and Acting Superintendent Kish presented information to about 50 parents on the renovation plans for F.A. March. Below are my notes of the meeting. The notes are not complete and any errors are from trying to listen and write at the same time! These are NOT official minutes of any kind-I share them as a way to keep information flowing if you could not be at the meeting.

Mrs. Steinberg opened the meeting with an explanation of how she is managing the renovation process. She takes information to her staff for discussion, gathers input and then will be presenting information to families. Questions from the parent meeting at College Hill Presbyterian Church in October were put on 3x5 note cards and filed by topic. She encourages all of us to put questions on note cards for her. As answers develop they will be shared in more meetings to come.

Mrs. Joseph spoke about her attendance with Mrs. Rauhut to meetings with the architects and engineers. It is a committee that is in full swing and working with Paxinosa too. Mrs. Joseph and Mrs. Rauhut are the volunteer teacher representatives on the committee.
Mrs. Steinberg assured us all that in the next two year process "we" (all current March School Families) will move together to EAMS and move back to F.A. March. This is a very important piece for her. Our number of 360 students should stay consistent. Expect normal attrition and growth but we will move as a group. The renovation will ensure that all the children and staff fit into the building comfortably. The curriculum and programs (FAME) will stay in place-just be delivered in a new location for one year.

Mr. Kish provided his background and areas of expertise over many years in the EASD. Buildings and grounds, transportation and security are a few areas he has had a lot of experience with. His concern is keeping the historic building that is F.A. March up to code. There is NO plan to close March school. The renovation is being completed to ensure the viability of the school. All of this ties into the long range plan that was done. The plan has been in the works for years-he wanted parents to know this didn’t just happen overnight. He discussed the PlanCon process of going out to bid and using value engineering to get the best cost for taxpayers. The plans for March are to ensure a better fit for our children, their safety/security and learning.

He was advised by the Board not to attend the October meeting held at College Hill Presbyterian Church because at that time he did not have drawings done yet. (As an aside: all plans of school that are shown are not shared on web-sites and no room numbers are given to ensure the safety of our children).

Mr. Kish introduced the engineering firm-Henry from D’Huy Engineering and Lee from Architecture Furst. Their list of schools and experience in the eastern portion of PA is very extensive and impressive. The slides from other schools they worked on were shown and all projects have run on time. Their credentials are very extensive and seem qualified.
Henry spoke about working with EASD since 2003. Their firm is based in Bethlehem and the majority of their projects are schools-they even have a former Superintendant who works for them.

Timeline:
2001-Facilities Utilization report was completed
2003-Facility study done by Architectural Studio for $1
2003-D’Huy hired to do the Easton Area HS addition and selected summer projects.
2006-Draft of capital improvement plan was completed
What this means: The facility utilization study provides facility conditions and recommendations. The state says that 25 students per class is acceptable. The goal of EASD is to keep class sizes below that. They like 20 students in elementary schools, 22 in middle schools and 25 for high schools.
In 2001, there was a redistricting to balance capacity. The plan to build the middle school at Shawnee began. There was mention of another report that D’Huy wrote in 2006 that has not been reviewed yet by the Board. A parent asked a question about this (there was concern as to why the Board hadn’t reviewed this yet). Other stuff was discussed that I couldn’t write fast enough to get!
In 2003 D’Huy provided detailed reports on each school and an enrollment vs. capacity study. This updated the 2001 recommendations.
Suggestions were: At the elementary level add additions to meet enrollments, build a new school and/or renovate EAMS into an elementary school. At the high school level, build a new HS, make HS for 10-12 and have a separate freshman campus at EAMS…other suggestions.
2006 D’Huy made a capital improvement plan with costs and prioritization lists for each school. They made summary rankings so that the EASD could decide how to proceed.
*D’Huy provided a 10 year district wide option plan to help move Easton forward. This is where we are today (in this plan)-per Henry.
-Building a freshmen center at the HS/Build new HS/split district (I don’t know what, if any discussion has happened in the administration or the board about this portion of the plan)
-No changes at MS b/c the Shawnee Center is done
-Elem: build new school, add early learning centers, renovate all elem. schools
Things that have been done so far: connected buildings at Palmer, added 20 classrooms at HS, renovated/new Admin building, new MS campus, new alternate ed facility, summer improvement projects that have included parking, roofing, stairs and sidewalks.
Planned Projects: EAMS will be a permanent elementary school, Pax & March will be renovated.
Project Constraints:
Must serve curriculum and projects
Budget in place
Timelines that work w/ school schedule
Code/Land requirements
PlanCon for reimbursements
Historic issues and regulations
PlanCon: enacted in 1973 and goes from steps A-J. This was done to ensure lavish buildings weren’t being put up. Each building in a district is eligible for renovation money every 20 years from the state. The renovations being done to prepare EAMS for our transition year are not being sent through PlanCon because it is not a very big renovation and it would impact the eligibility of the Board to get money to renovate EAMS if needed down the road.

F.A. March School Renovation Schedule:
D’Huy was hired in Sept. 2007 (the district must rehire or go out to bid for each distinct project)
October 2007: Architecture Furst hired
11/07-12/07 Design Development Phase
1/08-4/08 Construction documents
5/08-6/08 Bidding and awarding
6/08-8/09 Construction
9/09 Move back into F.A. March!

Architecture Furst presented next-lovely slides of renovation. The playground that was celebrated this fall will remain in-tact and the renovation will be added onto the back of the building and existing macadam. New rooms, lunch prep area, updates to existing rooms, ADA compliance/elevator, windows/doors/floors and some new greenscape.
They work to get maximum funding from the state and there is a plan to put this out to put the plan out to bid. The plan will evolve-it is a living document. As soon as next week there will be masonary contractors doing exploration within the bricks to find any *surprises*. Doing the exploration also keeps delays to a minimum. They deliver their projects ON TIME. Their reputation depends on this. Contingencies will be discussed at some point soon but their hope is not to have any.
Moved on to site plan for EAMS during construction year.
March will have a private entrance on 12th street. Paxinosa will drop off on Northampton.
A small playground will be built to the right of our entrance-backing on Spring Garden. There will be grass around this and a fence around the area.
March students will be almost entirely on the second floor except for music, gym and lunch. The two schools will remain separate and run their programs independently except when appropriate (ie: share a speaker that would have gone to both schools on separate days).
Some bathroom renovations to have boy/girls in two locations
March school will remain March school-this is an opportunity for growth and learning per Furst.
There is discussion going on with Lehigh Valley Child Care to continue to provide morning and after care to families that need this.
As of this date they are working on design development process, getting approvals and having team meetings.

Many questions were fielded about safety/security. Mr. Kish feels a personal responsibility to keeping that area safe. He was a Principal at EAMS in the past. The shootings came up (refer to newspaper articles for those details-possible gang activity). I stopped taking notes during this, but felt very confident that Mr. Kish is really serious about ensuring our children’s safety. He already has meetings w/ EAPD in the works so that breakdowns in communication do not happen. He has a daughter and he approaches all of his decisions thinking about how he would feel as a parent in certain situations. He put to rest concerns at this point that the redistricted Tracy families would be redistricted again out of March. Some parents worried about 3 different schools for their children. Some talk of a Guardian Angel group and Kish’s plans to start the neighbors coming to lunch at school. He did this as Principal and feels the neighbors are the best watchdogs. 2 security guards will be in EAMS when we are there, not just one. One will be stationed at the front door and another at the top of the second floor stairs before entering onto the second floor. Police patrol will be intensified.

More conversation but it was almost 10pm and I stopped writing! More meetings to come-COME IF YOU CAN! Parent input is actively being sought by both the Principal and Superintendent. A good example was some conversation about ID badges for elementary school children. We discussed how to get communication out to families moving forward-nothing concrete came from that. Personally I recommend going to eye-on-the-easd.blogspot.com for more…