Rachael Moore, Reporter
Rich Civic Times
RANDOLPH, Utah. December 18, 2019. Laney Markovich and John T. Crandall of George K. Baum &
company, an investment banker firm working with the Rich County School
District, provided an update on the new
school bond.
They reported that
because of the increase in property value the district is experiencing, the
projected amount advertised to voters will be reduced from $34.33 to $32.94. As
investors continue to pull money from municipal bond funds, the limited new
issue supply and late year Treasury rally is helping to keep rates lower.
Dates to be aware of as the bond moves forward: January 4, 2019, receive ratings from
Moody’s; January 22, due diligence Meeting (10am to review POS and documents), February
2 bond pricing, then on March the bond will close and proceeds to the school
district will be delivered. These dates
are subject to change based on the school board’s decisions moving
forward. As part of the resolution being
proposed, a designated officer must be selected. Dale Lamborn, superintendent,
proposed that Jenny Johnson, district business administrator, be made the
designated officer. After the bond discussion, a motion was made and accepted
to adopt a resolution for the issuance of general obligation bonds and also
installing Johnson as the designated officer.
Should the designated officer be unavailable to fulfill her duties the
responsibility will go to the Superintendent, and should he be unavailable, the
responsibility will be passed to the President of the school board.
Tom Farrens of Wember (based in Denver) from Evanston,
Wyoming was present to offer his company’s services. Tom provided an overview of what the services
he can provide includes. He represents
owners and becomes the middle man between the architect and the construction
company, managing the project which would alleviate the extraneous job duties
of the people involved on the district side. His cost is typically a half
percent of the total construction costs, but depends on the entirety of the
services he is contracted for. If used,
an RFQ proposal would need to be done.
Which architect to be used for addition proposed, was
discussed. The three competing companies
were Design West Architects, Jacoby Architects, and Naylor Wentworth Lund
Architects. There was a question of why
there was no bid price included with the proposals. By law, the architect selection process is
intended to be qualification based so that it does not become a matter of
bidding. Typically the cost of the
architectural firm will be around 5% of the total cost.
None of the firms were invited to present. Based on
familiarity and comfort of having worked with them in the past the board chose Naylor Wentworth Lund Architects to be
contingent on cost acceptance.
Motion to ratify the transportation policy as voted last
month was moved and passed.
As part of the Digital Teaching and Learning Grant, a better
presence in the community was desired to highlight the mindfulness project and
other happenings.
Michelle Hutch, a
kindergarten teacher at South Ridge Elementary was petitioned to help the
district with this goal.
Her efforts
have far exceeded the expectations of the superintendent who was very pleased
with the results.
Ms. Cornia was present
to demonstrate the changes that have been made.
The public can view these changes at
https://www.richschool.org
on the right side under the header “Enrich Your Life with Mindfulness”.
There are various public health subjects
regarding mindfulness she has done a great job writing and posting about, such
as growth mindset, screen time, suicide, vaping, cell phone addiction and many
more. Each has a link to another page filled with facts and information for the
public at large.
Troy Christensen the liaison from Bridgerland Technical
College had been approached by the superintendent a couple of months ago about
hosting some adult education classes.
There were some offerings in the past that were successful, but the
program has waned since. By
the February meeting, there will be some offerings that can be reported. Some ideas for interest were Spanish, welding,
IT, computer software like Word, Excel, etc.
It will be a distance learning/online format. The superintendent will move forward with
arranging this if the board is interested in supporting it. The board agreed this would be beneficial to
the adults in the community.
Kip Motta, principal of Rich Middle School, invited the
board members to the Rich Middle School National Junior Honor Society Induction
Ceremony. It will be Wednesday, January
9, at 7pm at the Rich Middle School Multi-purpose room. Refreshments will be served following the
ceremony.
January board meeting will be held on January 15 at 6pm.
Outgoing board members, Monty G Weston and Bryce Huefner,
were thanked and presented with a plaque and given a gift for years of service
and dedication serving the students and staff of Rich County.
Well today is a day of reflecting on 2018. It’s a day I just
look back on the year and count my lucky stars, which are blessings that I’m so
very grateful plus thankful for. On this day I go through my list of goals that
I set for myself on this same day last year.
Some of the goals were achieved. Some of them weren’t, which is OK.
