Unapproved Minutes of the 11/13 Joint Board Meeting

[Rev. Elizabeth]

These are unapproved minutes!

The Joint Board of the Fairfax Community Library met November 13, 2014 in the library.  Present were; Toni Jiwatram, Mike Clark, Janel Gamm, Paula Dearborn, Liz Griffin, Pat McNall, Jesse Cronin, Amy Murphy.

The minutes of the previous meeting were read and approved with the removal of one line from the document that stated, apparently incorrectly, that the school has no policy regarding petitions.

Pat made the motion to accept the minutes and they were approved.

The intent of the meeting was to discuss and ultimately vote upon the updated Fairfax Community Library Policy, and then discuss petitions and the library.

The school board directors had many thoughts  about the document,  regarding both the rationale behind some changes that had been made to the 2005 document, and the need for simple clarification.  Some changes the school directors  presented were straightforward   and required no discussion.  Others were complex and necessitated discussion.

After lengthy discussion about the representation on the Joint Board it was decided that there would be two voting members from the Library Trustees, two voting members from the School Board, and one representative from the town Selectboard. These changes are found under the heading, “Organization.”
 A related concern was expressed that three  Library Trustees would constitute a quorum that would require a warning of the meeting; it was mentioned that indeed the meetings are announced on various social media and bulletin boards.

It was further decided that the Chair of the Joint Board would be voted on at the first Joint Board meeting after town meeting, and that there was no need for a treasurer.
To be more precise, it was noted that participants on the School Board are referred to as directors, not members, so the wording in the policy will be change to reflect that.

Another discussion ensued about handling participants who neglected to attend two consecutive meetings. It was decided to leave the wording as it stands in the new policy.

To clarify: under the heading “Personnel,”  a change was made to indicate that custodial services for the library are provided by the Fairfax Town School District.

At one point, as reflected in the 2005 Policy, the school library director was ‘in charge’ of the library.  This had been changed in the policy under study, and some participants on the Joint Board had questions about this.  Historically, the previous town library director did not have a degree in library science, hence the status of the school library director.  Since the current librarian has academic credentials, this ranking is no longer necessary.  The two librarians work collaboratively, and during school hours the school library director is responsible for the youth and classes that use the library.

In the revised Policy, it was decided to move the category “supervision’ and place it under
“personnel’

Under “Supervision” is a description of  the delegation of supervision of the library attendees  during the school day and after.  Following much discussion, Jesse suggested that it should state that ” during school hours  school policy  shall be enforced and that policy conflicts that arise would be resolved by the Joint Board.”  This discussion has not been resolved.

It was decided that the discussion should be continued at another meeting, as after
2 ½ hours  the group had only reached page 2 of the Policy document. The changes made were under the sections Organization and Personnel.  Toni will make those changes on the document.  However final review and vote is still pending.

The meeting was adjourned at 9 PM and will meet again on November 20 at 6:30 in the Fairfax Room

Respectfully submitted

Elizabeth Griffin