Minutes of the Joint Board meeting of October 9 2013

FYI. The joint board is a meeting of representatives of the FCL board of trustees, the school board, and the select board.

The meeting was called to order by FCL Board chair Toni Jitwatram.
Present were: Liz Griffin, Pat McNall, Debbie Landauer, Joy Mercer, Mike Clark, Paula Dearborn, Lea Wimette, Michelle Piche.
There was no correspondence.
There was no public input.
There was no discussion of the minutes of the April 2013 meeting.
Old Business.
New Entrance
A discussion ensued about the new entrance. It has been well received. Most comments were neutral or positive. Debbie said that there is still a list of small things that need to be done. Mike Clark will speak to Todd Granger.
Mike Clark thanked Joy Mercer and Debbie Landauer for being flexible and helping facilitate the change.
Strategic Planning Committee
The strategic planning committee has been busy. They created a survey and posted it on survey monkey and handed out paper copies as well. Only 12 paper copies were returned by the October 8 deadline. Response has been good on survey monkey.
The committee will also survey the library staff.
The committee will meet on the 17th to go over the survey results and determine if there is enough data to pick service responses. Then goals and objectives based on these responses will be written.
New Business
A/V Lab
Mike Clark envisions an AV Lab housed in the library where there currently there are 4 large tables, the smart board and two walls of books. He would see windows put into the wall between the library and the hall, and the lab would have 15-17 high end desktop computers.
He said that by ‘14-’15 all students will have ipads, the goal being that there will be a robust technology in grades K-12. The vision is to have this lab be a multi-media facility where ap making and video/music editing can take place. It would also be accessible to the public.

Joy uses this space to teach classes. it is also used by the community for meetings and other activities when there are multiple events happening at once in the library. The library has relinquished some shelf space when the entrance location was changed. Aside from eliminatingr valuable teaching space, this eventuality would displace the two walls of book shelves.

A related concern is the durabliity of the current desktop computers that the library has for the public. The IT person at the school believes they can last for another year.
Joy may consider grant funding if the school will not fund , high end computers for student and public use. Currently the public uses the desktops for traditional activities such as job searches and resume writing, but Joy thinks that given the opportunity the public would use the resources available on a high end computer.

The public might also have access to the computers in the virtual high school after school.
hours. This is a topic that will need to be discussed with the library staff.

Debbie suggested that however the computer lab evolves, perhaps it could be a Maker Space where a variety of computer related activities could take place.

No resolution was reached; discussion of this topic will be ongoing.

Shared Budget Items
This year the school and library shared the cost of a book rack and a new chair.
Joy and Debbie said that for the upcoming year the library will need two chairs for the back corner, which is a well used area, and new cushions for the children’s area. The current cushions are not only falling apart, but they limit access to the books behind them.
Pillows and cushions are one of the options.

Michelle Piche has stackable chairs with frames in her kindergarten class and will bring one to the library so that the librarians can see them and determine if they might be suitable replacements

Debbie would like to split the cost between the town and the school. Because The library budget proposal is due at the town on November 1st, Debbie would have to know almost immediately if the school would share the cost of the chairs. The school budget operates on a different schedule, Half the cost of the two chairs and the new chairs or cushions for the children’s area would be $1200. Mike asked Joy if she could find money in the current budget; she may or may not be able to.
The school needs to have their budget approved in order to pay half the cost of the library furniture needs.
Debbie will put the town’s half of the cost of replacement furniture in the library budget and see how that unfolds.

Future meetings

The next Joint Board meeting will be April 17 2014. Since the school board representatives cannot make decisions about concerns that might arise at Joint Board meetings, it was suggested that in the event that decisions need to be voted upon by the School Board, the Joint Board could call special meetings. First the representatives from the School Board would bring the concern to the board and a decision would be reached which they would then bring to the Joint Board at the special meeting.

Unattended youth

Lea asked if the unattended youth in the library were a problem. Debbie said they weren’t but that there is a draft of an unattended child policy in the upcoming FCL policy.
The meeting adjourned at 7:50.