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City Council Minutes 2008 01-14-08 Joint Special Meeting Appendix C: MINUTES OF THE SPECIAL MEETING OF THE BOARD OF EDUCATION YORKVILLE COMMUNITY UNIT DISTRICT NO. #115 KENDALL AND KANE COUNTIES ILLINOIS, AND THE UNITED CITY OF YORKVILLE CITY COUNCIL ON THE 14TH OF JANUARY, 2008 AT 7:05 P.M. At Roll Call, the following members were present: For the School District, Dr. Burks, Mr. Dockstader, Mr. Fahey, Mr, Fisher, Dr. Sullivan, and Dr. Brenart. Mr. Gengler arrived at 7:10 p.m. For the City, Mayor Valerie Burd, Mr. Golinski, Ms. Spears, Mr. Besco, and Mr. Leslie. Also in attendance was Dr. Engler; Mr. McLaughlin, City Administrator; staff members of the United City of Yorkville; staff members of the United City of Yorkville Parks and Recreation Department; and recording Board Secretary, Mary Lou McKenzie. The Kendall County Record, Prairie Times Newspaper, and The Beacon News were also represented. The pledge of Allegiance was recited. Dr. Brenart began the meeting by welcoming everyone. Item #1: Mr. wyrot, the City Engineer reviewed the Game Farm Road Project. He says they are in the middle of phase two, and then construction will begin approximately March, 2010. There were some concerns regarding some complaints by senior citizens, eminent public domain, and much concern for the safety of students [both pedestrian and busses] using Game Farm Road during the construction phase of the project. Mr. DeBolt has been in communication with Mr. Wyrot throughout the progress and will continue to do that in regards to student safety and the District. Item #2 and #6: Dr. Brenart commented that there is great usage of the school's facility and thanked Mr. Dockstader and the Park and Recreation Department for working cooperatively together to come up with an agreement. They are meeting quarterly to solve various issues that arise. The group discussed the pros and cons of a future field house; particularly funding. 1 Appendix C Continued: Mayor Burd said there is a new foundation being set up and that could be a project. A suggestion was to examine all opportunities, not just a field house per se. This could be a topic for future meetings with the School Board and the City. They briefly discussed the relationship with the Park and Recreation Department. It seems to be working very well, with the addition of the new staff. Items #3 and #4: Mr. Miller, Community Developer, gave a brief review of the transition fees, saying they were last updated in 2002 and wouldn't be a bad idea to re- evaluate the demographics as to whether these fees still makes sense. Dr. Engler added that they have been doing that but the per pupil expenditure has decreased and the costs haven't changed a lot. The District thought this might not be a really good time to increase them with the slow down in real estate. Mr. Miller thought that land /cash would be a good thing to look at, as well, that hasn't been changed since 1998. The concern is, also, that a lot of what the District does is with local monies. Also, a concern was expressed that at what point will developers decide to go somewhere else. A concern was raised about the District's test scores and the long term goals. Dr. Engler commented that the K -6 scores are very positive and the District is very serious about making adjustments to the secondary math and reading curriculum. The Ell programs and special education programs have required a lot of additional teachers and impact the test scores, and the mobility rate affects the scores. There are many things in progress aimed at raising those test scores where they are low. The failed referendums have presented problems with class sizes that, in turn, impacts test scores. Councilman Leslie wondered if the City could be of any assistance to the school district as they deal with their business items. Mr. Fisher said he is concerned with the high density housing that puts a lot of pressure on the school district, dealing with a greater influx of students. He would like the City to give greater consideration to those kinds of developments. Mr. Leslie responded the Council had great concern in those areas as well. 2 Appendix C Continued.: In summing this issue up, Dr. Brenart said test scores are important but when you are "chasing dollars ", it is difficult to put all of the programs in place, but they are definitely working on the high school curriculum, where scores are low. Dr. Burks added that the high school staff will be coming to the Board with a report on a change in the philosophy of teaching high school students. With the recent referendum, they've just been able to get class sizes down, plus, she pointed out that the School Report Card data is at least a year old and in some cases longer than that, and at one point, the State was very late returning the data for any changes to even make an impact for that year. Mayor Burd wondered if the District could do more partnerships [businesses). Dr. Brenart said the District was certainly looking into that area. Dr. Sullivan felt the gifted program was working very well now, with the addition of the two full -time teachers working with gifted students. That program is expected to expand. Also, parental involvement has been shown to have an impact on student scores. Mr. Dockstader said another problem is that the State and Federal governments fail to fund their mandates. Item #5: in regards to the item of sidewalks or lack of sidewalks in the older part of town, Mr. McLaughlin, City Administrator, said there is nothing planned for next summer, but the year after that, they will start the next phase in two of the critical wards where studies have been done. He commented the City doesn't have a "Cash Sharing Program ", but they are looking into that. Dr. Engler added that, at times, the District have put in their own sidewalks just to have safe places for students to walk to and from school. He said especially in the older part of town, he is encouraging the City to repair those sidewalks as soon as possible. Item 7: Dr. Brenart said that work needs to be done on the communication and solving scheduling conflicts with the Park and Recreation Department. Dr. Engler commented that the addition of Tim Evans has been working out really well. one suggestion is that the Park Department give them their schedule as far ahead as possible in the summer; then sit down again during December to see what the needs will be 3 Appendix C Continued: for the rest of the year. Mr. Rollins, Park District, commented they had looked back at the records and out of 1600 hours of scheduling, there were only about 7 conflicts. They also don't want to see scheduling problems, as that impacts their services too. Dr. Engler would like to see most programs be 100% available for Yorkville students and not bring in so many outside traveling clubs, etc. One suggestion was to look at an automatic scheduling system that both entities could look at. Councilman Golinski commented that there isn't a school district representative at the park department's meetings right now. Dr. Engler pointed out that Mr. Schoonover, Athletic Director, had been on that Board, but there was so much of the business that didn't pertain to the District. Mr. Rollins added that it was too time consuming for the athletic director, but could someone else be appointed that would assist with the flow of information back and forth. Dr. Engler said much of the placements of parks work is done with other City officials at the time they meet with the developer and the school site is established. He said there is certainly an opportunity to collaborate a little more with future park development, but the school district is at the end of these referendum monies, so it could be a future consideration. There being no further business, Dr. Brenart thanked everyone for coming and adjourned the meeting at 9:05 p.m. APPRO February 25, 2008 D . Robe nart, President Dean Fisher, Secretary 4