Rich School Board meeting

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.