March 27, 2006

Wellesley Public Schools
School Committee Meeting - Monday, March 27, 2006
Wellesley High School Principal's Conference Room

The meeting was called to order by the Chairman at 6:50 pm. Ms. Jablonski, Ms. Allen, Ms. Littlefield, Ms. Newman, and Mr. Young were present. Also present were Dr. King and Ms.Berdell.

ACTION ITEMS
Debt Exclusion
At the request of the executive director, the committee discussed elements of the debt exclusion which will be brought forward for approval at Annual Town Meeting.

Upon motion made by Ms. Littlefield, seconded by Ms. Allen, it was unanimously

VOTED: To approve the principal tenets of the debt exclusion proposal as follows:
• The projects incorporated in the debt exclusion proposal represent each Board’s highest priority projects proposed for the 3 year period July 1, 2006 - June 30, 2009 and requiring debt capital financing.  Other debt capital projects previously proposed for those years have been deferred to FY10 or later
• To the extent the proposed debt exclusion is approved by Town Meeting and the voters, each Board agrees not to request additional debt capital during the remainder of the 3 year period, with the exception of any High School capital needs, emergency or public safety needs, or street acceptance work.
• This agreement does not impact the Town's normal cash capital funding.

The motion CARRIED (5-0)

High School Project
Mr. Young informed the committee that based on recent information from a variety of sources close to the project planning, it is estimated that programming phase costs will be in a range of $150,000 - $200,000.

Upon motion made by Mr. Young, seconded by Ms. Littlefield, it was unanimously

VOTED: To request the March 2006 annual town meeting within Article 24 to authorize the sum of $175,000 for the school committee to hire both an educational planner to
assist with the educational program design for a renovated Wellesley High
School and an architect to conduct periodic reviews of the program findings
ro analyze and advise on the building implications.

The motion CARRIED (5-0)

The committee subsequently agreed by consensus and for purposes of clarity that the requested amount of $175,000 for programming will reduce the schematic design placeholder amount of $1,582,950 cited in the inside-the-levy FY07 capital budget request. The revised schematic design funding request will be $1,407,950.

CITIZEN SPEAK
Jane Andrews, Precinct B: Ms. Andrews is concerned that the average town meeting member might not be able to distinguish the current high school programming request from prior high school study requests. She urged school committee to be clear as it defines the differences.

ADJOURNMENT
The meeting was adjourned at 7:12 pm.

Executive Secretary