Minutes of the August 6, 2013 Special Meeting of the Washoe County School District Board of Trustees
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MINUTES OF THE AUGUST 6, 2013 SPECIAL MEETING OF THE WASHOE COUNTY SCHOOL DISTRICT BOARD OF TRUSTEES August 6, 2013 1. Opening Items 1.01 CALL TO ORDER The regular meeting of the Board of Trustees was called to order at 2:00 p.m. at the Washoe County School District’s Central Administration Building, 425 East Ninth Street, Reno, Nevada. 1.02 ROLL CALL Vice President David Aiazzi and Board Members John Mayer, Barbara McLaury, Howard Rosenberg, and Lisa Ruggerio were present. President Barbara Clark and Trustee Estella Gutierrez were delayed and not present at roll call. Superintendent Pedro Martinez, Deputy Superintendent Traci Davis and staff were also present. 1.03 PLEDGEOF ALLEGIANCE Superintendent Pedro Martinez led the meeting in the Pledge of Allegiance. 1.04 PUBLIC COMMENT There was no response to the call for public comment. 1.05 ACTION TO ADOPT THE AGENDA It was moved by Trustee McLaury and seconded by Trustee Rosenberg that the Board of Trustees approves the agenda as presented. The result of the vote was Unanimous: Pass (Yea: David Aiazzi, John Mayer, Barbara McLaury, Howard Rosenberg and Lisa Ruggerio.) Final Resolution: Motion Carries 2. Items for Presentation, Discussion, Information and/or Action 2.01 SCHOOL CAPITAL NEEDS INITIATIVE Lindsay Anderson, Director, Government Affairs Department, explained she was present to lay out the plan of action for the Capital School Needs Initiative, formerly known as Assembly Bill (AB) 46, to be presented to the Washoe County Commission who would vote on if the taxes should be implemented or not. She wanted to make sure everyone Minutes of the Special Meeting of the Board of Trustees August 6, 2013 Pg. 2 was on the same page when presenting the plan to the County Commission because there were numerous outside groups who wanted to be involved in the process. Many of the groups were present at the meeting to offer their suggestions and input. Trustee Gutierrez arrived at the meeting at 2:05 p.m. Ms. Anderson walked the Board members through the various attachments included in her presentation. She began with the draft Project Plan. The Project Plan was broken down into 3 sections that showed each group that the District would have to work with to get the Initiative approved. The first group was the Washoe County Commission and making sure that the Commissioners received all the information they requested. The second group was the general public and establishing a public awareness campaign with various outside groups to garner support. To implement the public awareness campaign, it was the desire of District staff to have the community groups mobilize the public to come out in support of the Initiative. The main group the District had been working with was Say Yes for Kids. Jill Tolles and Mike Kate were the chairs of the group and had worked with other major community partnerships the District had worked with in the past. The intent was to have the District play a supporting role in the public awareness campaign. President Clark arrived at the meeting at 2:09 p.m. Ms. Anderson presented the Board with a proposed calendar for meetings with the County Commission. The Commission was interested in holding 3 specific meetings for the Initiative to look at certain areas of concern in depth. For those meetings, the Initiative would be the only item on the agenda so the District would be able to present as much information as possible to the Commissioners. Additionally, the Initiative would be placed on all regular County Commission agendas until voted on. It was important that District staff and the Board of Trustees remained flexible enough to discuss whatever the Commissioners wanted to talk about at all meetings. She presented the proposed dates for the in-depth meetings: August 20, September 17 and October 15, 2013. The topics to be covered were Accountability and the Great Cities School Report, the 2002 Roll-over Bond, and How the District Determined their Capital Needs. The intent of the meetings was to make them like a workshop where the Commissioners questions could be answered and a dialogue take place. Trustee Aiazzi asked if County staff would be coming to the District to look over some preliminary information they had questions about. Superintendent Martinez stated that County staff had been invited but wanted to talk to the Commissioners first to make sure there would not be any legal issues with that. He added that it might be beneficial if the Trustees were to make the offer for staff to review items at the District during the August 20, 2013 workshop. Ms. Anderson explained that there was time before some Minutes of the Special Meeting of the Board of Trustees August 6, 2013 Pg. 3 of the workshops so the invitation could come at a later date. All meetings were tentatively scheduled for 4 p.m. on the suggested dates. Trustee Aiazzi questioned who would be the face of the District in presenting the information, the Board members or the Superintendent. He wondered who from the District would go talk to groups who wanted more information on the Initiative. Superintendent Martinez mentioned either himself or members of the Board should be able to talk to groups. He was involved in public meetings all the time and would make talking about the Initiative a priority at all of those events. If a special request were to come in from a different group, he would appreciate and welcome the Board members taking an active role in attending those meetings. There were a lot of different groups that were seeking information on the Initiative and he would need additional support in getting to all of those groups. Trustee Aiazzi indicated there had been some requests coming in so it was important to figure out who would be speaking at those events. Superintendent Martinez stated he was unaware of any specific requests at the time, but knew there would be some coming into the District soon. Trustee Gutierrez asked what the requests had been. Trustee Aiazzi mentioned that the Republican Men’s Club had made a request for someone from the District to come talk to them. Mr. Martinez stated there were various groups that he spoke to on a monthly and yearly basis, but would like to lay out a specific list of requests that came to the District on AB46 because he might not be scheduled to meet with some of those groups until after the deadline for a vote. Trustee Aiazzi added that President Clark had been invited to go on radio station KKOH, but had a scheduling conflict so it was important that someone else from the Board or the District went to those meetings and interviews instead of declining requests. President Clark mentioned that request had come through the District’s Communications Department. She felt that even if a request came in for the Superintendent to attend a meeting there should be no reason that a Board member should not also attend if schedules permitted, that would show a united front on the issue and provide multiple voices and perspectives. Trustee Gutierrez indicated her support for Trustee Aiazzi’s idea and mentioned it was important that the other Trustees knew about all meetings and interviews so they could add their support if necessary. She wanted to be able to support her fellow Trustees in their efforts. Trustee Aiazzi wanted to make sure that the Board was in agreement on who would be the spokesperson and what the message would be so there was no confusion. Minutes of the Special Meeting of the Board of Trustees August 6, 2013 Pg. 4 Trustee McLaury added that having a single message had always been a goal of the District and the Communications Department had generally handled that. She mentioned that there were some groups she would not be comfortable going in front of or some types of information she would not be able to speak proficiently about so it would be important that staff and the Trustees knew their strengths and weaknesses and where the best place for them would be. Mr. Martinez indicated that was one of the reasons he wanted the outside support groups represented at the present meeting because those groups were also asked questions about the Initiative and the District wanted to make sure the message was the same. Trustee Rosenberg stated he was not worried about the questions that could be answered, but about the questions that could not be answered. The Commissioners would want to know specific information and the District better be able to provide it or be able to say “I don’t know, but I will get that information for you” and then make sure that information gets there. Trustee McLaury stated the Board had participated in media training a few years ago and it would be a good idea to go through it again so that they would all be able to speak to the Initiative positively. Trustee Gutierrez added that it would also be important not to be negative because it would add fuel for the opposition. Irene Payne, Chief Communications and Community Engagement Officer, stated that media inquiries were dealt with on a case-by-case basis because the media generally had an idea of who they wanted to talk to. The Department regularly provided media training to District staff and any Trustee was welcome to attend. Ms. Anderson explained that the District was back-mapping from when a decision could be made on the Initiative and working on the timeline from there.