OFFICIAL MINUTES FROM THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES MEETING OF THE
The Board of Trustees for the Arkansas School for the Blind and the Arkansas School for the Deaf met for their monthly meeting on January 20, 2009.
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Present: Pam Hyneman, Chairperson; Beth Gray, Vice-Chairperson (arrived late); Andrew Tolbert, Secretary; Dr. Doug Watson, Board Member; Henrietta Williams, Board Member; Johnny McGehee, A.S.B. Parent Representative; Jim Hill, A.S.B. Superintendent; Dr. Marcella Dalla Rosa, A.S.D. Superintendent; Katie Becker, Zania Musteen, Interpreters; Members of the Deaf Community; Members of the Blind Community; Laura Gilson, Office of Legislative Audit
Absent: Janice Vaughn
Call to Order
Mrs. Hyneman called the meeting to order at 4:00 p.m. and asked each board member to state their name to signify they were present. The next board meeting will be February 17, 2009.
09-J-001 Motion to Approve Consent Items
Mrs. Hyneman asked for a motion to approve the Consent
Items. Mr. Tolbert made the motion and Ms. Williams seconded the motion. The
motion passed unanimously.
Action Items
None
Discussion Items
Johnny McGehee – A.S.D. Parent Representative
Mr. McGehee: I have a couple of questions. Maybe, from reading the minutes from the last meeting, maybe this was brought up. But Mrs. Janice had talked to me sometime about she didn’t think that maybe we understood exactly what we’re supposed to do as far as she thinks we are allowed to vote. My question is, and maybe this has already happened, can anybody get with, I believe it’s Ms. Mandy, and see exactly what the law says that we’re supposed to do and not to do, so everybody will be clear. There won’t be a question, controversy. So, I don’t; maybe you’ve already done that. I don’t know. Maybe that’s something that’s going to happen.
Board of Trustees Meeting
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Arkansas School for the Deaf
January 20, 2009
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Mr. Mrs. Hyneman: I’m not sure about that answer. We’ll find out. There’s some things I’m going to talk about later on that would help that issue. We’ll bring it up in a minute.
McGehee: Okay, and maybe because my term comes up too and maybe you’re going to answer, that’s my other question. I thought we had left it where we were just going to keep on going on until somebody is appointed, but I read in the minutes where she was saying maybe something different. So..
Mrs. Hyneman: I was under the impression that you are not allowed to vote, but we’ll address that issue.
Mr. McGehee: Well, that’s the way I have always been.
Mrs. Hyneman: Okay.
Mr. Hill: That was my impression.
Mr. McGehee: But she brought up the issue other schools, their parent reps vote and this is a state agency, so I don’t know. That way it will be clear and there will no issues about it.
Mrs. Hyneman: There is something else I want to discuss in a minute and will cover that.
Ms. Williams: I want to say it’s a state statute that you do not vote because we are different from a regular public school.
Mr. McGehee: Well that way if it’s brought up in the minutes, there will be no more controversy about it.
Mrs. Hyneman: Okay.
Attorney General’s Ruling – Adequate Facilities and Supporting Data for
Requested Funds
Mrs. Hyneman: I will turn this over to the two superintendents. Do you have anything you want to add?
Mr. Hill: Well, not really. Each of you should have gotten material related to what has happened. Basically what happened when the Attorney General’s Office was asked for a ruling as to whether or not the School for the Blind, the School for the Deaf qualified under the adequate school facilities law as related to the current law suit that’s spurred adequate facilities and the attorney general’s office ruled that we did and that, as such, we, the state has an obligation to provide the School for the Blind, the School for the Deaf with adequate facilities, the same as they do the public schools, and that spurred another round of activities that basically got the governor’s office involved and some other people involved to start writing a bill that would put us at the top of the list for state facilities funds. It’s my understand that they were of the opinion that because we did qualify for that, as adequate facilities under the Lake View, that it would put us at the front of the list and that we would more than likely get money. Joyce Elliott is the senator that is representing and I don’t think we could find a better person than Joyce to do it.
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Arkansas School for the Deaf
January 20, 2009
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She is so articulate and so into politics that she knows what she’s doing and it’s not done until it’s done, but it really seems to be on track. The School for the Blind has about nearly six million, nearly five million dollars worth of facilities needs and we have been told if we do get funds, we won’t get the whole six million, but we will get a certain
amount of it. If the law does pass, we will get a certain amount each year. We have with
us Laura Gilson. Laura, will you wave at us and do you have anything you would like to add.
Laura Gilson: Well, first of all..
Mr. Hill: Let me say before she starts, Laura is the legislative research, isn’t that right? Legislative council or legislative research?
Ms. Gilson: Legislative attorney.
Mr. Hill: Legislative attorney and she has been assigned to this project by Senator Faris and others, I’m sure, and so she’s the one that’s doing the footwork on drawing up the law and making sure we’re dotting all the i’s and crossing all the t’s and maybe some other things that I don’t even know about.
Ms. Gilson: That’s true and I just want to start off by saying, I mean no disrespect whatsoever coming in late like this. At this time of year, I have no control over my schedule. I was in with another member working on something, trying to get out as quickly as possible. So, I’m sorry I’m a little bit late. Um, all I want to express is that Senator Faris has worked diligently on this. He is interested in helping these schools and providing a cost and source of funding that we believe is in the law already. It should be, it should be understood, but obviously we’re getting some legislation drafted that would spell that out clearly and to that end, both the superintendents, Marcella Dalla Rosa and Jim Hill, have been helping by providing information so the legislature understands what we’re talking about in terms of needs (inaudible). So that’s it and, you know, I’d be happy to answer any questions, but I don’t, I’m sure Mr. Hill has briefed you already. And again I apologize for walking in late and missing the first part.
Mrs. Hyneman: Thank you for coming.
Mr. Tolbert: I do have a question. Would this be part of the partnership for school facilities as the regular schools have to have? In other words, we have a wealth index that determines how much the school pays and how much the state pays. How do you calculate for if you’re coming out of facilities funds, how do you calculate, how are they going to calculate how much money you actually receive?
Ms. Gilson: Well, this is not coming out of the school funding.
Mr. Tolbert: It’s not? Okay.
Ms. Gilson: It is a separate funding because constitutionally you are a separate…
Mr. Tolbert: You answered my question, since it’s not coming out of the facilities fund. Because I was going to tell you you’ve got a lot of hoops to jump through.
Ms. Gilson: Well, I think that is one of the points that should be emphasized that has not been already, is that you’re not following the same pattern that the school districts are following. Your facilities funding, if you even want to call it that, is going to be based on the needs of these schools.
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January 20, 2009
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Mr. Hill: And the state agencies have a facilities fund as well and that’s where the money will come from as I understand it.
Mr. Tolbert: Okay. Great.
Mrs. Hyneman: Great.
Mr. Hill: And I want to thank Laura for all of the hard work she has put into it. She has spent a lot of time with all of the other responsibilities she has with the legislature. She spent a lot of time making sure that all of the i’s were dotted and the t’s crossed and also Senator Faris wanted us to express to you, as a Board, that this is a big thing for the two schools and he was working very hard for the schools to see that we got to the watering hole and got our fair share of money to take care of our facilities needs.
Mrs. Hyneman: That’s great. Much appreciated.
Ms. Gilson: Also, when you’re through with this particular, if I can leave! Again I don’t mean any disrespect by that whatsoever. I’d love to stay for the whole meeting.
(The board members expressed their thanks to Ms. Gilson for her input and attendance at the meeting.)
Mr. Hill: And, as far as, well, depending on what the Board wishes, as far as I’m concerned, she is free to go.
The Board again thanked Ms. Gilson and said she could leave.
ASB/ASD Property on which Easter Seals Building Sits
09-J-002 Motion to Not Consider Offer from Buyer to Purchase Land
Mr. Hill: Well, I was approached by Mrs. Eubanks. She was supposed to be here tonight, but she has a, let me go back to square one. Back several months ago, or maybe years, we were approached by someone to buy the existing 10 acres plus the two acres and I think as a group, the Board included, we decided that we didn’t want to sell the land behind the school. Since then, this person, I don’t remember what her first name was, but Mrs. Eubanks, who is a real estate broker, has a buyer that is interested in buying the property we own on which the Easter Seal building sits, and it would only be the two acres. The Board had expressed, as I understood it, a desire to help Easter Seals if they could without selling the 10 acres. So, you know that may not be the case. I may have misunderstood, but anyway I think if the Board is interested in moving in that direction, we do have a buyer who is wanting to put up a single family home and only wants the two acres on which the Easter Seals property is located and I think that’s a plan that would be accepted by the Hillcrest Association. The only glitch that I see is that Easter Seals is going to think their building is worth more than the land and that’s where we’ve been blocked (inaudible, coughing in background) because I can tell you in talking to people who are interested in it that it would be worth more to them if the building weren’t even there because they are just going to tear it down in order to make way for the facility they are going to put up. So I don’t know how little Easter Seals could take for that
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building but I do feel that we would be remiss if we didn’t insist that the schools get the most of the money, or a significant part of the money. It may be the wish of the Board not even to pursue it, and if that’s the case, we’ll drop it right here.
Mrs. Hyneman: Marcella, you have anything you want to add.
Dr. Dalla Rosa: No.
Ms. Williams: If I remember correctly also we were concerned about another business entity being put there, built there, and how can we be assured that, if we sell this property to whoever is interested, that has intentions of building a home, decides not to and then something else occurs?
Mr. Hill: Well, I don’t think you can. You can get a promise, but I don’t know…
Amy Ford: (inaudible) could be limited by the zoning restrictions and you would just need to determine what those are and it could only be built within those restrictions unless they got a waiver or change from the zoning restrictions, at which time if there was intent for something like that, then you would have an opportunity to present your objections to the appropriate city committee that handles those things.
Mr. Hill: And I think it is zoned for multiple family facilities, too. They can build an apartment condo.
Mrs. Hyneman: It’s also zoned for commercial, isn’t it, because it’s got the Easter Seals building on it?
Mr. Hill: I would assume that, yes.
Amy Ford: There are many different kinds of commercial zoning. It may be the difference between putting up a doctor’s office or something like and putting in a liquor store. There would be a difference in that.
Mr. Hill: And I bring this up because I’m not really hot on selling it, but I did sense an interest by the some of the Board anyway to try to help Easter Seals if at all possible without selling, without throwing the baby out with the dish...the bathwater. But it’s strictly up to you guys.
Mrs. Hyneman: What’s everyone’s feeling?
Dr. Watson: Well, what I’m wondering do we have any need to sell that property? It’s been there for what, 40 years now.
Mr. Hill: Well, the worst scenario would be if Easter Seals abandoned it, the worst thing that could happen, we’d have to tear it down and pay the expense for tearing it down, which, I guess, is six of one and have a dozen of the other is we have to deduct the value of the land, the value of the building, or the (inaudible) value of the cost of tearing down the building. That would be the worst thing that could happen by leaving it.
Dr. Watson: That’s my next question. The original contract, did it not call for them to clear that land out if they no longer want to use it?
Mr. Hill: Yes, if they vacate the building, it automatically, I don’t remember the exact the words, it reverts back to the schools.
Mrs. Hyneman: Also, don’t you think the property is more valuable all together?
Dr. Watson: I do.
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Arkansas School for the Deaf
January 20, 2009
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Mrs. Hyneman: Do you just want to sort of table this and say no? Do we need to make that into a motion?
Mr. Hill: It would help.
Mrs. Hyneman: Do I hear a motion that we decline the offer?
Ms. Williams: Well I don’t know if we have the offer yet.
Mr. Hill: Well, the offer is not really tied down. They’re just saying if the board were open to the idea of selling the land then I’d have to hire someone to get the value of the land. That’s going to cost money because the last person that assessed the value of it didn’t do a good job.
Mr. Tolbert: I would move that the board does not want to consider an offer from a buyer to purchase the land.
Dr. Watson: I’ll second.
Mrs. Hyneman: Okay. All in favor signify by saying Aye.
Mrs. Hyneman: The motion passed unanimously.
School Board Manual – Pam Hyneman
Mrs. Hyneman: Before we go to the Deaf School, I have something that I would like to bring to the Board. I read the Arkansas handbook for board members and it suggests that each individual board have their own particular manual, and I talked to Jim about this last December and also spoke with Marcella also. Ours is about in 2002 and I think what I would like to go forward with is come up with a committee, let’s revise that one and come up with a handbook. The state offers one but it is really for a public school and we are an entity that is just a little bit different and if we could get the input from the superintendents and I thought maybe ask Beth to be on the committee because she’ll be the chair next year. We’ve already gone forward with it just a little to tell you the truth, and we can e-mail you all what we have in mind, let y’all look at it, come up with a few different ideas and the suggestion is that the manual be updated every year, and I think with different issues that we have come across, this would be a black and white print for each one of the board members to go to and the fact that we are different than a public school, I think it’s necessary. So, if that’s okay with y’all I would like to have the committee of the two superintendents, which is what is suggested and then Beth, and we’ll e-mail y’all our draft and then we get together as a committee, we’ll e-mail that back to y’all before we come with something that’s concrete. My question is Marcella said something about having the superintendents together at the same time.
Dr. Dalla Rosa: No, two board members. You said you were going to help as well.
Mrs. Hyneman: I mean two board members. Right. So do I just need to go with one board member, me, and the two superintendents, or?
Amy Ford: If you have two board members meeting on business of the board, such as, that would constitute a meeting subject to allowing notification to the public. So it would probably work more easier for one board member to be on it so that you wouldn’t have to call a meeting or say you are having a meeting every time.
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Mrs. Hyneman: But I would like to have everyone’s input on this. I don’t want this to be a solo issue.
Mr. Tolbert: So this is a manual for the board?
Mrs. Hyneman: Our particular board. They have a state one.
Mr. Tolbert: I understand. Are we members of the Arkansas School Boards Association?
Dr. Dalla Rosa: Yes.
Mr. Hill: Yes.
Mr. Tolbert: Okay. Let’s not reinvent the wheel. They could help you with that because they do that all of the time.
Dr. Dalla Rosa: We’re not going to.
Mrs. Hyneman: We have an exact copy of it, and there are just a few modifications, the fact that we are this particular school, and also we can put in there, Mr. Hill had our original charter for our first board, and that would be information about you’re elected. This issue about our… Just small things like that.
Mr. Tolbert: Right, right.
Mrs. Hyneman: So, we’ll draft it together and e-mail it to y’all, then y’all can make your corrections. It will be a very minor thing but it will be exactly what the president does, etc. that needs to be clarified.
Mr. Tolbert: And we’ll all get a copy?
Mrs. Hyneman: Everybody will get a copy. We all look at it. We don’t do anything until everyone agrees. And also get everyone’s input of what we’ve done so far.
Dr. Watson: But we can talk about it here when we do have the board meetings in a group? Okay.
Mrs. Hyneman: Yes. So, we’re going to come up with a draft, e-mail y’all, then we’ll talk about it, take our time and do it correctly. Make sure we get everything done. All of the dots, everything legal, etc. I think it would be a good idea that every year we can pass it down, change it, etc. Keep it current. Because I was confused as to what I was supposed to do. So this would help, I think, everyone.
Ms. Williams: So now, is Beth going to be on that committee?
Mrs. Hyneman: No. It will be just me.
Ms. Williams: Okay. So it’s just you and the superintendents.
Ms. Gray: What if on like one of the meetings I wanted to come in and sit in, since I’m going to be the chair?
Mr. Tolbert: No.
Mrs. Hyneman: Legally we can’t. That’s one of the issues.
Amy Ford: (Inaudible).
Ms. Gray: Okay.
Mrs. Hyneman: But you can meet with them
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Dr. Dalla Rosa: Yes. We can meet with you, Beth.
Mrs. Hyneman: separately. So we can take turns because we want everyone’s input. That would be good.
There being no further business of a Joint nature, the meeting moved to the Agenda for the Arkansas School for the Deaf.
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Pam Hyneman, Chairperson
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Andrew
Tolbert, Secretary
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Arkansas School for the Deaf
January 20, 2009
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