Unapproved Minutes of FCL Joint Board Meeting 11/19/15

[Rev. Elizabeth]

Fairfax Community Library
Joint Board Meeting
November 19 2015

In attendance, Lauri Fisher, Scott Mitchell, Paula Dearborn, John Tague, Patti Reaves, Janel Gamm, Joy Mercer, Debbie Landauer, Kyle Metayer,  Liz Griffin, Pat Gallant.

The meeting was called to order by Pat Gallant at 6:30.  Pat introduced herself and restated who can and cannot vote: the voting members are Liz Griffin, Pat Gallant,representing the Library Trustees,  Lauri Fisher,  representing the Selectboard, and Scott Mitchell and Paula Dearborn, representing the School Board.

Pat presented a document of meeting procedures that she will follow so all Joint Board  members will work from a common understanding of how the meeting will proceed.  (Those procedures were adapted from a University of Arizona document dated 2014).

There was neither correspondence nor public input.

Paula mentioned that at the previous meeting the Joint Board nominated and elected Toni Jiwatram, the then Trustees chair, as chair of the Joint Board. It  was decided that the same procedure should be followed for Pat, who is the new Trustee chair. Scott nominated Pat as chair of the Joint Board and she was elected unanimously.

The minutes of the April 2015 Joint Board meeting were presented and Scott moved to approve them, and they were approved as read.

Librarians’ Reports

The quarterly reports of the school and community librarians were available to the Board, as was the program planner report.  Nicole Vance, the program planner came to speak to the success of the summer reading program. Numerous guests, including John Gailmor came to the library, many activities were offered, and over the course of the program the children read 3000+ books.

Debbie spoke to a new program at the library which is essentially community outreach/community service.  She invited residents living outside the village, whose children come to the village to trick or treat, to bring candy that the library would then distribute to families on Main St,  Hunt and School streets that often receive several hundred trick or treaters. 
The project was well received by both  givers and the recipients and will be held again next year.

Joy Mercer brought to the Board’s attention the fact that there has been an increase in the number of walk in students who come to study, read, visit, and use the computers.  Sometimes, she observed, there isn’t enough space for all the activities.

Debbie noted the same increase in  the after school hours. Youth come to the library for study, activities and computer use. 

FCL Policy Update continued discussion.

Debbie reviewed the history of work on the FCL Policy.  Over the last three years she and Joy have reviewed the policies and updated them to be in line with current best practices and procedures for libraries. 
In 2014 the Trustees developed and accepted an unattended child policy concerning children in the library during non-school hours.  In 2015 an updated computer use policy was  developed and passed by the trustees.
In January 2015 Jesse, Cronin, a previous School Board member, presented the idea of having a Public Library Patron Code of Conduct.  This was approved by the Joint Board.

In regard to the policy under discussion, Liz Griffin made a motion that the Joint Board accept the FCL Policy as amended. 

A discussion ensued on the language in the 2nd paragraph under the subject “Personnel.”
School board members want the public to follow all school policy.   
The Joint Board oversees and creates policy for the library so there was some discussion of the necessity of this change.  John Tague (BFA Fairfax high school principal) observed that he noted very little difference between the FCL Patron Code of Conduct and the BFA Fairfax school policy.   The school policies are available to the public through the FWSU website, and can be adapted through public input at School board Meetings.

Lauri said the community library patrons should  follow the school policy during school hours.
 It was mentioned that the school policy prohibits petitions in the school, whereas the library has no policy per se.
The Joint Board was reminded that the school and town share the same space and that during the day the library is both community and school library.

The Joint Board was reminded that the function of the Joint Board is to work collaboratively to oversee Library policy. 

Scott said that school policy should be followed by all staff during the school hours. 

Kyle suggested that the Joint Board adopt the policies as they are on the current FCL Policy as of Nov 19, 2015, and then bring up changes when needed and amend the policy.

Debbie, the community librarian is concerned that the school board seems to ignore the fact that we are a community as well as school library.
Scott said that he always considered the public library at board meetings. He mentioned that he was disappointed that the Trustees hadn’t read all the school policies prior to this Joint Board meeting.
John Tague noted again that the FCL Patron Code of Conduct and School policy are not that different, and that not all school policy would be relevant to the public patrons of the library. 

In regard to the sentence in question: “ Staff will follow school policy for students during school library hours.” Scott said that ‘for students’ should be eliminated.

Pat suggested that since there was a motion on the floor we should vote on it and then make a new motion to accept the change Scott presented

Scott made a motion that the sentence read, “Staff will follow school policy during school library hours” be in effect as of 11/19/15.

Debbie said she feels uncomfortable with this as she is a town employee, hired, supervised and paid by the trustees and the town.  As a town employee she thinks she should follow policy as set by the Trustees, not school policy as the school board is not her employer.

The vote for the motion to accept the FCL Policy, which includes school policy as it stands 11/19/15 was for: Paula, Scott, Lauri, against, Liz, Pat.
The vote  for the motion changing  the language in the second paragraph under personnel was taken: Paula,Scott, Lauri for, against, Liz and Pat.
Both passed 3-2.

New Business.

Paula and Scott presented a variety of architectural plans for remodelling and redesigning the entire school complex.  The place of the library in these plans was discussed as there were designs that seemed to ignore the joint nature of the library, specifically one in which the library was completely separate from the school building.  Scott stated that this plan would require 2 separate bonds. Another in which the library had a completely separate entrance was mentioned.  The school board has not decided on a course of action for a plan or a vote.
An important but not often mentioned benefit of the collaborative nature of the library as it is is that we have a collection of 40,000 books, which is large for such a small community, and which is of benefit to both the school and the community. If the library were separated into 2 parts, elementary in one space and middle, high and public in another, the budget for collections, furnishings, facilities and staff would need to be greatly increased.

Joy let the Joint Board know that contrary to some talk about the demise of libraries, she has seen an increase in circulation and that in the past month 663 youth have been in the library.

Other.

Debbie is exploring the costs and logistics of having an activities bus so that more youth can take advantage of the library and its activities after school. She observed that youth who have no transportation home other than the school bus cannot avail themselves of the library and its services.
Debbie has spoken to Andrew Brown who handles the school transportation and he thinks it is a workable idea.

A member of the community, David Dumas, is in the process of creating a Friends of the Library group.  There is now a board and they are applying to become a 501(c)3. Its goal would be to raise money for special projects for the library, one being the aforementioned activities bus.

The meeting was adjourned at 8 PM. 

The next Joint Board meeting will be held April 7, 2016 at 6:30 in the Fairfax Room

Respectfully submitted

Elizabeth Griffin, secretary.