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School board meeting 7/28/08  APPROVED

Attending:  Lauren Poster – chair, Andy Reichsman – vice chair, Gussie Bartlett – Sec’y, Francie Marbury – Principal, Wendy Houlihan, WCSU Superintendent;
members of the public:  Donna Hawes, Maddie Hawes, Richard Hawes, Laura Hunter, Linda Peters, Bradley Poster, Craig Hammond, Liz Vick, Catharine Hamilton, Barry Nelson, Rose Watson, Donald Sherefkin, Celia Segar, Tim Burns.

Meeting called to order at 5:30pm.

Lauren provided a brief history of the decision-making regarding the color choices for the building.  She pointed out that it is not the school board’s responsibility to make such a choice but that the way the choices were made was a mistake.  Speaking for the board, she apologized for that.  She made a suggestion that by darkening the Junior High portion of the building to a gray along the lines of a color you would find on a Vermont barn (which would cost about $1200.00), the tri-color scheme would work much better.

Donald Sherefkin gave a slide presentation showing a few ideas for modifications to the paint job and explanations for the ideas presented.

The floor was opened to the public.

Donna stated her opinion that this should have gone through a committee process.  She expressed concern that beyond the current issues, we may have trouble down the road – when we next paint – with the dark color.  She felt we need a neutral color to satisfy a cross-section of the diverse Marlboro population.  She pointed out that the school is the largest town asset; it is on Route 9 and so on display to passersby, so it represents the town.

Donald talked about the yellow color as a welcoming color, being at the entrance of the school and referred to yellow as a traditional Vermont house color.

Rose felt that there is a deeper issue here.  There was a process, with public input and that we stopped the project midstream.  What message does that send?  We have installed people with power that we felt were capable and they proceeded; are we going to now stop them in their tracks? What does that say about future projects?

Lauren responded saying that the process wasn’t played out to the end, that because of unavailable colors and other reasons, the process really didn’t happen as it should have.

Barry Nelson said that there is no way to go back.  What do you do to fix a mistake?  You can rectify it or live with it.  With paint, there are things we can do.  He agreed with Lauren’s concept of darkening the Junior High portion of the building.

Liz Vick felt spending around $1200.00 was appropriate to address the problem, but not much over that.

Gussie suggested we paint the administration portion of the building white with plum trim.  Donald retouched a photo to represent that scheme.

Mattie felt the building should be all one color.  She says some kids are embarrassed about the colors of the building.

Bradley Poster felt that the paint job should stay just as it is.

Catharine Hamilton asked how much had been spent to date.  Lauren stated that of the approximately $25,000.00 called for in the contract, about half had been paid to date and that we own 10 gallons of the yellow paint.

Celia asked Francie if there was something better she could imagine using the $1200.00 for, along the lines of educating children.  She felt there was too much focus on what the building looked like.  She wished the people who weighed in on this issue would join Parents and Friends of MES or participate in school life in other ways.

Laura Hunter felt that these were unreasonable colors, too flamboyant.  Not everyone in Marlboro cares for flamboyance.  She felt that townspeople should expect such a process to be done in a reasonable way and it wasn’t.  So a reasonable solution seems appropriate.

Linda Peters pointed out that the folks in the Town Office have received a lot of comments from people stopping by the office to complain about the colors.

Dan MacArthur wrote a letter and asked that it be read at the meeting:

To whom it may concern, relative to the new school paint job:

My comments relate to the school, the colors, what people may think as they drive by the school and the conclusions they may draw.

As I travel around the state, the country and the world I try to be aware of small schools and how they present themselves. Some may remember a small school on the other side of Keene, on Route 9 by a lake, which is now by-passed by a new highway. Sometime in the seventies or eighties they built a school that looks like a choo-choo train and painted it wonderful bright colors. I always loved this school because I felt that the community wanted the kids and the public to think that education would be fun, that it would be interesting, that it would be creative and that it would be vibrant. I draw these same conclusions about schools everywhere I go- the brightly colored schools look like interesting places to learn.

The Marlboro School was painted it’s previous colors while I was  on the School Board but I never liked them. The institutional green is a drab and boring color and connotes, to me, drab and boring . Who amongst us would want our kids to be in a school whose public presentation is drab and boring?

With it’s new set of clothes the school looks vibrant  and creative- exactly the way I would like to think that the inside is functioning.  My 2 cents,… Dan MacArthur.

Nora Wilson asked that her feelings be stated in the meeting.  She said that we vote to impeach Bush, to protest the war and such things are done on the basis of ethical and moral considerations, and that they do not represent everyone in town.  The painting of the school has no moral or ethical dimension, so why not placate that population of the town that regularly loses out in the political battle – let them win for a change.

Lauren stated that she felt it wasn’t that simple, that many so called liberals weren’t particularly happy with the colors and that many of the conservatives in town would probably want the solution that cost the least amount of money, which would mean leaving the colors as they are.

A straw poll indicated that 4 people wanted the building to be a single color, 4 people wanted the building to stay as it currently is painted and 1 person wanted the violet changed to gray, as brought up by Lauren.  (it seemed that school board members chose not to participate in the straw poll, which would have changed the results to a degree).

Rose expressed the opinion that taking action based on comments from people walking into the Town Office to complain was ill advised.

Craig expressed his belief that we should proceed without spending too much money – $1200.00 was OK, but not too much more.  Catharine agreed with that sentiment.

At that point, Lauren ended the public portion of the meeting and invited people to stay to observe the School Board making their determination.  Everyone headed outdoors to look at the colors in reality and further discussion ensued in small groups; during these conversations, some other thoughts arose.

Andy moved that we paint over the violet sections of the building to the plum color that was used on the tall, pointy section of the building and that we paint the administration portion of the building (currently yellow) to match the current color of the front of the outback (sage color).  If that sage color were to be found unsatisfactory, we would paint the administration section plum as well.  Gussie seconded the motion.  The motion passed.

Upon completing the vote, Richard Hawes volunteered to obtain a gallon of the sage paint and use it to paint a portion of the administration section of the building to see how it looks.

The meeting was adjourned at 7:42pm

Respectfully submitted,

Andy Reichsman

Pay Orders:       7/18/08        $28,674.89

Future Meetings:  Monday, September 15th at 7:00pm.