School Beat; Board meets in Special meeting to approve purchase of lot and sale of completed home in Westfield Meadows for Construction Course

On Monday, June,25,2007 the Evansville School District will meet in special session, open to the public, to approve the purchase of a lot and the sale of a subsequent compeleted home built by the students of the construction course. Other school districts such as Monroe and Janesville have such programs, although the structure of those programs is different.

This course has been dreamed of for a long time. Thus it is important that the details work for its success.

In the case of Evansville,as I understand it, the lot purchase price is being deferred for a year till the house is sold. It is unclear what happens if that takes longer than a year.

The motions listed in the agenda do not review the problems that have occured in the Monroe school district, where two homes were built over two years, and the money tied up of fund balance money was $400,000 roughly. At the time this occured, as you will recall, Monroe was struggling with a referendum to keep essential programs alive, and it was the last time they needed to be $400,000 short.

As I understand it, the Evansville School District will finance the construction of the house with private mortgage money and NOT taxpayer money. As an additional clause in the motion, I would like to see it stipulated that a second home would not be authorized by the board to be constructed by this course till the first had been sold. We know what happened in Monroe. We can be prudent enough to avoid it. We can see all around our area that homes have not been selling. A prudent person, and indeed a prudent board can also be able to see the adverse impact on the fund balance of the school if by chance the school was forced to use fund balance money to bail out contruction loans.

Plan on coming to the meeting. The full agenda follows:


EVANSVILLE COMMUNITY SCHOOL DISTRICT
Special Meeting of the Electors of the Evansville Community School District Agenda
Monday, June 25, 2007
Evansville High School LMC
640 South Fifth Street
5:30 p.m.
Note, public notice of this meeting given by posting at the District Office, Levi Leonard Elementary School
Office, Theodore Robinson Intermediate School Office, J.C. McKenna Middle School Office, High School
Office, Evansville School District Web Site: Evansville.k12.wi.us, and by forwarding the agenda to the
Evansville Review, M&I Bank, Union Bank & Trust and Eager Free Public Library.
I. Michael Pierick, President.
A. Call to Order.
B. Election of a Chairperson.


II. To Consider the Purchase of Property of Lot 5, Westfield Meadows Addition, in the City of
Evansville, for the Evansville High School Tech Ed Class to Build a Spec Home.

III. Motion: Mr. Chairperson: I Move That This Meeting Authorizes the Purchase of Property
of Lot 5, Westfield Meadows Addition, in the City of Evansville, for the Evansville High
School Tech Ed Class to Build a Spec Home.

IV. To Consider the Subsequent Sale of Lot 5, Westfield Meadows Addition, in the City of
Evansville, Which Shall Include All Improvements Made to the Property, by the Evansville
High School Tech Ed Class.

V. Motion: Mr. Chairperson: I Move That This Meeting Authorizes the Sale of Property of
Lot 5, Westfield Meadows Addition, in the City of Evansville, Which Shall Include All
Improvements Made to the Property, by the Evansville High School Tech Ed Class.

VI. Adjourn.
More specific information about agenda items may be obtained by calling 882-5224, ext. 3386.
Posted: 6/14/07