Alpine CC Board Minutes
6:00 pm Wed., May 11th, 2016 at ACC

Present: Joyce Long, Dorothy Brinckerhoff, Dena Elliott, Roger Irvin, John Scott, Charlene Opheim, Mike Ripley
Absent: Rachelle Payne

1. Discuss & approve minutes of the previous meeting

Approved.

2. Review board email votes since last meeting

None.

3. Prioritize Agenda

4. Financial Report

The board accepted the financial reports for April.

5. Preschool Report

There have been two incidents this month when Char has found the preschool rooms childishly vandalized, with artwork torn down & ruined, food smeared around the kitchen, and materials missing.  Char and others have found the center doors unlocked on additional days. A local juvenile has been identified as the vandal (for one of the incidents), and reparation steps are under way. Char requests the board install keyed-both-sides deadbolts for the doors (to be used when locking up the empty building).

Char has respectfully requested that the board review her pay rate, and update the job description of preschool teacher/director.

Shirley Blake has resigned from her position as our bilingual aide. As we work toward the 2016-17 school year, Char is comfortable working with the students in both languages.  Stronger than the need for a bilingual teaching aide is our need for a bilingual liaison working with the Latino parents. Char has tasked Shirley with compiling a list of possible candidates for recruiting.

Char advised and the board concurred that we raise our tuition rate for next year by $10/month.

There are several children in this year’s littles class that need more help than we’re able to give them in the current structure. Char would like to find a way we could work with them for additional hours next year as they attend in the bigs class.  The board sympathizes.

Char’s current expectation is 14 bigs and 7 littles (with confirmed signups for about 3/4s of them) in next year’s classes. She will cap the littles enrollment at 12, to ensure plenty of attention to each.

Char is meeting with the licensing people (Cindy Bond & Linda Nelson) on 5/13, to start getting a rating in their system. Based on their feedback, she expects to need to work some hours this summer to prepare her curriculum and materials for the coming year. The board offered non-specific support for this prospect.

Char reported that all is ready for the Preschool Scamper event.  Signups are slightly lower than last year.

Char is trying to schedule Kindersports for this summer on Tuesdays and Thursdays for five weeks, coinciding with lunch program weeks. She hopes this schedule will avoid conflicts with families taking long weekends away from town.

6. Student Busing

Joyce has talked to the principal from Alsea Schools. They run a bus to the Monroe-Alpine area to transport students from here to Alsea.  If we have at least a couple kids and can work out reasonable stops, he is willing to transport kids to ACC, too. There would likely be other issues of timing with that which could make it difficult to work. It still seems more promising to pursue buying a van of our own and running our own transport.

Preschool transportation program guidelines. Tabled.

7. Funding Bi-Literacy Program and Scholarships

Joyce and Dorothy have continued some preliminary steps to prepare grant applications, and are planning to apply to both Ford Family Foundation and Meyer Memorial Trust for parts of a larger budget to fund the bi-literacy program for 2016-17. They have a target of 5/23/16 to file a letter of intent with Meyer Memorial Trust. They will meet to work on the applications.

8. Fire marshal inspection action items

Dorothy has received the photoluminescent Exit signs we agreed to purchase last month. They will be installed soon.
Charlene has made plans to evacuate the shelves near the ceiling over the summer.

We reviewed quotes from SAC and First Response for installation and monitoring of fire alarms.  There is considerable difference between the two quotes. Dorothy will engage the companies with follow-up questions.

9. Rental contract for the ACC

Char has seen poor cleanup from some groups that use the Center. We need to make clear the responsibility of groups and events that use the center that they must tidy up before leaving. Char suggests posting a sign similar to one she has seen at a facility in Philomath, that lists responsibilities at exit time.

10. Recycling Center abuse

Joyce has determined that we need to run network cable from the router to the wireless repeater, to enable easier access to the video monitor.  She and John will work on this.

11. 2012 Trust Mgmt Grant Implementation

The board reviewed the description of projects from the 2012 grant application to identify what may remain to be completed in order to close out the grant. The review was carried over to next month for comparison to the budget and the application for the 2014 grant.

12. Raising volunteers for 6/25 Fondo & 7/9 Cycle Oregon

Mike Ripley attended to discuss the Gran Fondo event. This year the Gran Fondo will be held earlier in the season and will start at Bellfountain Park.  Mike has plotted a long, demanding course.  We would need to supply 4 volunteers for 11:00am until around 6:30-7:00pm.  We can split the shift in any way we want.  Signups for volunteers will be through a web site (specifics later).

The board reaffirmed our intent to provide staffing for an aide station for Cycle Oregon, and to host a water station for Cycle Oregon.

13. Budget Committee for 2016-17

Dorothy and Char are willing to serve on the budget committee. John will prepare the first-draft seed budget.

14. Abandoned car in parking lot

Joyce reported that there has been no action yet on the abandoned car. Dorothy will visit the local family members.

15. Building Task Force

The tracks, cans, and bulbs for the Phase 2 Main Hall lighting improvements have been purchased and delivered.  Dorothy will put together the final report for the grant that funded this.

16. So. Benton Community Advisory Group (SBAG) for M. Hull bequest

No news.

17. New Business

Oregon Cascades-West Council of Governments has a Foster Grandparents program that teaches older adults to read with children (in English and Spanish). They would like to partner with us to have adults come read to kids during regular preschool hours.  They would provide funding for the readers’ expenses.  Char has met with them and wants to work with this, even though this will present space management side-issues. Roger moved that we enter into a memorandum of understanding for this program for the 2016-17 school year. John seconded. Approved.

18. Proposed agenda for June

Close-up responsibilities sign.
Preschool transportation commitments
Preschool teacher salary

19. Schedule

Preschool Scamper 5/14, ACC Board 6/8, Willamette Gran Fondo 6/25, Cycle Oregon 7/9