Acton Agua Dulce Unified School District

Acton Agua Dulce Unified School District Facilities Committee

Minutes –Meeting at ACTON SCHOOL TEACHER’S LOUNGE

Tuesday, May 24, 2005 –7:00 p.m.

1.0 OPENING OF MEETING

Members Present

Ron Bird yes

Charles Brink yes

Shauna Comber yes

Cindy Gerlich no

Larry Layton yes

Sheryl Puett yes

Max Duran yes School Board liaison

2.0 COMMITTEE OPERATIONS

Mission: To best serve our student population, we will act as representatives of the community to recommend to the Board solutions for the improvement of district facilities. We will first focus on current problems and possible corrections and then on long-term challenges.

2.1 Approve Agenda

Approved agenda 5-0-1

2.2 Approve Minutes

Minutes for 4-27-2005 and 5-07-2005 approved 5-0-1

2.3 Open forum

The LACOE 2nd Interim Report Response letter has been published. There are several issues identified in this report that are of concern.

A committee to raise funds for the new high school is being formed. One idea is that the district should seek corporate sponsorships.

2.4 Budget Committee request to the Facilities Committee that they look at the impact and feasibility of the following options:

1) Moving the modular buildings as originally discussed with K-5 at Meadowlark, 6-8 at High

Desert, 9-12 At Vasquez and the District office at the Acton Site.

2) Moving the District office to Meadowlark, moving K-5 to Acton campus, having 6-8 at

High Desert and 9-12 at Vasquez. .'

3) Holding K-2 at Meadowlark, 3-6 at the Acton campus with the District remaining at the

Acton campus, 7-8 at High Desert, 9-12 at Vasquez.

4) Converting Vasquez to grades 10-12; High Desert grades 7-9; Acton grades 4-6; Meadowlark grades K-3.

A draft of the Pro and Con arguments of these options is attached.

Option 2, switching the roles of Acton and Meadowlark Schools, was discussed extensively. Because only the District Office and the Success Academy will be housed at Meadowlark, no additional portables will be needed on that campus. There are expenses involved with this option including content moving expenses and replacing age appropriate playground equipment and some kitchen equipment at Acton. It was noted that both the playground and kitchen upgrades could be funded from our deferred maintenance account, thus minimizing the impact on the general fund.

The main attraction option 2 provides over option 1 is flexibility. The Acton campus has 31 rooms, which have been used as classrooms, plus the District Office building. Meadowlark currently has 16 classrooms and with the four additional portables in option 1, will only have 20 classrooms total. The large size of the Acton School will provide the flexibility to return some or all of the Acton elementary students being housed at Agua Dulce, restore CSR in the lower grades, provide enrollment expansion capability and/or provide space to house grade 6 at the district’s discretion. Currently, Agua Dulce is utilizing all of its classrooms, so this option can be used to provide some relief to Agua Dulce by shifting some students back to Acton.

Option 4, making Vasquez grades 10-12 and High Desert grades 7-9, was also discussed. It was noted that if grade 9 students are housed at High Desert they could still participate in Vasquez athletic programs. The downside to option 4 is that it uses both Acton and Meadowlark for elementary students. With our budget situation, operating five schools rather than four schools would be difficult.

The positive aspect of option 4 is that in moving grade 9 off the Vasquez site, the need for additional temporary facilities at that site are greatly reduced. Potential savings could be in the 500 to 600k range. It was noted that option 2 and 4 are not mutually exclusive in this respect. Many felt that operating Acton and Agua Dulce as K-6 schools, High Desert as a 7-9 school and Vasquez as a 10-12 school is the combination of these two options that should be considered. A multi-year approach could be used to implement this. The educational aspects of converting Vasquez to a grade 10-12 school need to be further investigated.

Motion: The Facilities Committee recommends that option 2 and option 4 (or a combination thereof) be further pursued. Based upon the figures presented by the Budget Committee, option 1 does not appear to be a viable option. Approved 4-0-2.

2.5 Potential facility improvement projects.

Tabled

3.0 ADJOURNMENT

Adjourned at 9:20 p.m. Next meeting: June 1, 2005 at 7:00 PM at the Acton Teacher’s Lounge.

Facilities Committee
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