By Margaret Hopper

Aldo Leopold's Governing Council met Tuesday evening, May 24, to complete some policies and approve the budget and other funding applications on the agenda. All six counselors were present, at least at the beginning: Mary Gruszka, Shauna McCosh, David Peck, Jose Herrera, Dale Lane and Ken Stone, chair.

Harry Browne gave the business manager's report. The projected amount of 2016-2017 revenue was reported at $2,348,317, with an equal amount of projected expenditures for personnel services, supplies, materials and the like.

A number of budget adjustments (BARs) were listed, $2000 for supplies and materials, $1500 and $2000 for salaries' expense, $500 and $1000 for employee and other travel, $2500 for contract services, $500, other charges and $1261, instructional materials.

Applications for Title I and Title II were also presented. Adding up the SEG (state equalization guarantee), and other income sources, Browne said they should have about two and a quarter million dollars for next year's operational budget.

Some of the budgeting challenges included waiting for approvals on the new middle school; under present conditions, the down payment and lease funds could not be budgeted, pending state approval, said Browne. The new full time 6th grade math position was another consideration.

Committee reports included the SAC (school advisory council) activities. Its Teacher Appreciation event was a recent success. Student Health Advisory Council (SHAC) was considering activities for next year. ALCS director Eric Ahner said some events needed an upgrade; he was considering a letter to this end.

Curriculum Committee was attempting to address a continuum of skills and attributes expected for experiential education. This would be applied to academic subjects. It should help set goals, over time.

Facilities Committee was still working on the lease agreement for the new Middle School. Policy Committee had worked on the three policies that were to be approved in this meeting. Development was still working on possible future grants. Risk Management was looking for patterns of things that might need to be addressed in the future.

Feedback on the Director Search was extensive. Stone said five had applied; four had been interviewed; all had quality credentials. The group had been on campus for 6 hours; there was much meeting and communicating in that time.

Bruce Hegwar had been used as an outside consultant. The group of applicants had now been reduced to two. Their references were positive, licenses in place, background checks, etc.

One had charter school experience, decades of outdoor experience, said Stone. References, integrity, said to be great, many other pluses. The other, a teacher, seemed familiar with the building process, could handle people well. Good references, other assets, too.

Stone finished his summary, offering his insights, and remarking that Ahner was a most difficult person to replace, for his past performance at Aldo. Comments continued for several more minutes, with personal, approving anecdotes. In conclusion, they had two pretty good candidates. Now it was time to schedule discussions, and soon, actually make a choice.

The director, Ahner, began his report with enrollment figures and the comment that space would become gradually available at the new middle school. Seventy-nine spaces were already filled. The many unknowns were making this transition period difficult, but he and the teachers had spent time imagining the situation and he felt the anxieties were reducing. Many changes were coming.

There was nothing new in the lease purchase information, so the closed session was not used. Going on to action items, the strategic plan was adopted.

Peck read the resolution for the lease purchase agreement into the minutes. It stated a purchase price of $800,000 plus the costs of renovation, at an interest rate of 5 percent, with the approval of the New Mexico PED. Exhibit B of the resolution set the funding conditions. They added the phrase, not to exceed the appraised value, and passed the resolution.

The BARs were approved at this time, as was the IDEA B request for $25,300. The Title I application was for $22,272. The three revised policies approved were School Activities, Foreign Travel and Ski/Snowboarding. As these changes were aimed at staff responsibility, discussion pointed to tying that to contracted review of documents.

A councilor comment: these policy improvements could have covered some past issues: they force the staff to be very clear about activities. Ahner added that there is still a need for policy manuals, not separate, isolated policies that remain unbound. There should be both student-based policies and staff-based policies. Organizing these and highlighting the more critical ones still needs to happen.

Other action items included approving the 2016-2017 budget, extending the attorney's contract, and extending the current building lease with Investment West, with no changes from the past. All were approved after short discussion.

The next scheduled meeting is on June 9 at 5:30. This meeting adjourned at 7:47 p.m.