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: Unapproved Minutes Joint Board Meeting 4/12/2018  ( 1758 )
Rev. Elizabeth
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« : April 17, 2018, 04:47:41 AM »

BFA Fairfax Conference Room
April 12, 2018
Joint Board Meeting.

The meeting was called to order at 6:30, by principal John Tague, substituting for Pat Gallant, who was ill.  In attendance were: Sandy Alexander and Kathy Muehl (voting members), representing the School Board, Liz Griffin (voting member), Ellen Holmes-Henry and Eric Foreman, representing the library trustees, and Joy Mercer, school librarian, and Debbie Landauer, FCL library director. 

There was no public input, nor was there any correspondence.

The agenda was reviewed.

Officers for the coming year were elected.  Kathy Muehl nominated Pat Gallant as chair; the motion was seconded by Sandy and the motion was passed
Kathy nominated Liz Griffin to be secretary; the second was by Sandy and the motion was passed.

The minutes of the October 2017 Joint Board meeting were read and approved. 

Quarterly Report Highlights: Joy Mercer, School Librarian.

Diversity was the theme that ran through the past year, as it is important for our children to be aware  of other countries and other cultures. Joy recounted a story where a preschool teacher reached out for books for an African American youth who  felt he had no one like him to play with.  Joy found appropriate books, gave them to the teacher, and the child was reassured and found comfort in them.. 
As part of the diversity theme, the middle school youth participated in the Reading without Walls program.

Quarterly Report Highlights: Debbie Landauer, Public Library Director.

Debbie noted that diversity as a theme in books for children is growing,and while there is less increase in diversity in adult fiction, there is an increase in non-fiction books, such as the books about the WWII code breakers, and the women who worked for NASA. There is an increase in adult fiction about immigrants.

Thanks to donations from two community members the library has been able to create STEM kits that are available for patrons to take out and use at home. (They must sign an agreement about their  financial responsibility for any damage done to the contents of the kits.)

The STEM kits include: a telescope and support from the Vermont Astronomical Society; a jewelry making kit that contains tools, but not consumables; a microscope with a smart phone attachment; a bloxel kit to make video games;  and Mother Goose kits  from the Vermont Center for Books that are early literacy kits for youth from pre-K kindergarten.

The library partnered with the Town Recreation Department’s Easter Egg Hunt and hosted the Easter Bunny for children after the Egg Hunt.  The library also served hot chocolate and cookies.  This was well attended.

The Titans Chess Club ended their season with a live chess game. This was an exciting and well received event that will hopefully be held again next year. The chess club remains a highly popular after school activity.

Unfinished business

John stated that there were no policy updates for the meeting, but that there probably would be at the October meeting.

The new facilities committee has met twice with about 14 participants, including school staff and administrators, school board members and members of the public.  At the second meeting the group took a tour of the building ( which did not include the entire facility as the group ran out of time) and discussed facility needs.  There are local architects and contractors on the committee. The next meeting will be at the beginning of May, date to be announced.

Debbie brought up her concern that the annual cleaning of the library, which takes a week, has of late occured in a conflict with the annual Summer Reading program.  Previously, the  cleaning had taken place toward the end of the summer, often in August.  Debbie sent a communication to Tod Granger requesting the library be cleaned after Aug. 9th this year.
John will speak to Tod Granger to see if it can be so scheduled that there is no interference with the summer reading program.

New Business.
School and Community Safety and the Library.

During the lockdown that occurred  on  February 20,  the fact that the public entrance to the library has always been and currently is  unlocked has become a cause of great concern. Various safety personnel, including the state police, the local sheriff, and safety experts from the state have all indicated that this creates an unsafe situation for the students in the school. It has been recommended that a buzzer system be installed that can be used by any of the library personnel, both librarians and their assistants, to buzz in members of the public. This will be done.

A question was posed: how can the buzzer system  make the environment safer when  a person being buzzed in could have  a weapon that would be unseen by whoever opened the door?  While this is perhaps true, the buzzer entrance makes accessibility more difficult.

There are video cameras at the entrance to the school, but because of privacy concerns 
( Vermont Patron Confidentiality Act ) there is no camera at the entrance to the library.

The thought is  that this buzzer might necessitate more public library staff  as the staff is already overworked. Eric suggested that before we take that step the library trustees need to determine how many public patrons use the library on a daily basis. Debbie believes 400-500 public patrons use the library per week.  She will take a count, and Ellen offered to help count community library  patron traffic. Joy Mercer requested that the School Board hire a third school library employee, as there used to be before one position was cut several years ago.  This person could be responsible for monitoring the door along with numerous other duties that Joy could use help with.

A   long term solution  suggested would be to build a separate community library building. 
Ellen mentioned that this was not a possible option at this point in time.

Another option, more constricting, would be to have the public library hours  limited to after school and Saturday. 

Debbie is concerned that the buzzer will be one more barrier to the public use of the library. Some potential patrons are already discouraged by the length of the walk to the library, and the lack of adequate parking. She feels the buzzer would add one more barrier.

Ellen said that we should all strive to figure out how to work together to  make this recommendation work as this is going to happen as soon as possible.  Presenting this change in the most positive light possible would facilitate the transition.  Ellen has provided some resources on how safety is handled at other libraries including other joint libraries.  These were not discussed.

Ellen brought up a concern about the windows.  They are large, extensive, and uncovered.  There are shades, but they are manually controlled.  Electronically controlled shades were suggested as was covering some of the windows at either end of the array of windows to reduce their number.

The small size of the safe room, the current Flexible Pathways room, was mentioned.  Debbie thinks that if there were classes and/or or a large number of public patrons in the library at the time of a lockdown the room could not accommodate them.  The Fairfax Room, while available, has windows and no second exit and therefore would not be a good option. 

Debbie observed that there seems to be a lack of training for school staff vis a vis student safety during a lockdown.  She wonders if  training  is available and could library staff, including library substitutes, be able to participate. Perhaps there could be a joint policy--library and school -- on managing a  safety crisis. FCL staff and substitutes need to be part of any safety training that might occur. 

John will find a way to sit down with the FCL staff so that everyone is aware of the protocols  for a crisis.He also mentioned that there will be an ALICE training this summer and library staff will be invited to participate.


Joy Mercer is making a box of items of items that could be used to keep small children amused if they had to go to the safe room during a lockdown.  The box would also include a flashlight, and a list of the library trustees and their contact information. It will be kept in a secure place.

It was also noted that there is no emergency light in the library.   

Next Joint Board Meetings

The October meeting will be held in the Fairfax Room at 6;30 on October 11, 2018.
The April meeting will be held in the Fairfax Room at 6:30 on April 11 2019.

Meeting Notices.

Sandy Alexander will give Liz Griffin a current list of individuals who need to be contacted about meeting dates.

Kathy made a motion to adjourn, and Sandy seconded the motion.

The meeting was adjourned at 7:51.


Respectfully submitted

Rev. Elizabeth Griffin, secretary.
« : April 17, 2018, 01:51:54 PM Rev. Elizabeth »
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