Update on May 26 School Board Meeting

The School Board held a meeting on Tuesday, May 26, 2015 at Windham High School.  The meeting was scheduled as a continuation of the previous week's meeting.  Agenda items included Goal Setting and an update on Golden Brook School Facilities.

After calling the meeting to order, the School Board opened the meeting to public comment.  The first person to speak was Windham Middle School Principal, Dan Moulis, who read a letter to the School Board on behalf of Principal Kathy Bates, Principal Rory O’Connor, and himself. They advocated that the District hire an Interim Superintendent. The letter endorsed and recommended the District's Business Administrator, Adam Steel, for the Interim Superintendent position. Current Superintendent, Winfried Feneberg, resigned in April, leaving the position vacant as of July 1, 2015.  

Public comment continued for an hour or more, with the majority of residents encouraging the Board to take swift action and appoint an interim Superintendent.  The School Board plans to conduct a search for an interim Superintendent and told the public that internal and external candidates can apply for the position.  (Windham LINK previously stated that the Board voted not to assign the position to an internal candidate.  The correct information is the Board has not decided to appoint an internal candidate.)   

The first agenda item was Goal Setting.  The Board distributed a spreadsheet that listed categories, projects, due dates and responsibility assignments.  After extensive public input, the Board indicated they would form a sub-committee to further define their goals.  

The second agenda item was an update on Golden Brook School Facilities.  At a previous meeting, the Board authorized Adam Steel to consult with architects, site/civil, structural and MEP (Mechanical, Electrical, and Plumbing) engineers, the Fire Department, Administrators, School Board members, and Facilities Committee representatives.  The group met on May 11, 2015 with Adam Steel and is scheduled to present its findings to the Board on June 2, 2015.  

School Board member Tom Murray expressed an interest in gathering more input regarding options and pros & cons of different solutions. Murray indicated that he reached out to additional groups to ask if we might be able to have them offer a second and third opinion on the facilities project.  The Board decided to ask the Superintendent to have Adam Steel conduct exploratory vetting of the second and third groups Murray recommended. The vetting is to determine if the groups are qualified as vendors for our District in order to proceed in reviewing the feasibility of the Option 2+ project.

To view the Board Meeting, click here or go to the following website wctv.pegcentral.com.

The next SB Meeting is Tuesday, June 2, 2015 at 7 PM at the Community Development Department.