This meeting was so quick, if you blinked you missed something (and even then there wasn't much "something"). Hensley, Maher and Marino were absent. For those who want to follow along, the agenda can be found here.
Mr. Scott Hartner asked about item VII.D which authorized the admin to spend $25K for the creation of a video and other expenses related to a fund-raising campaign for NASD. Dr. Lesky stated that this was for possible advertising at the stadium and other areas. It was joked that "highest bidder gets naming rights to the stadium" to which the reply by Dr. Lesky was "it seems to be going that way". This particular item comes on the heels of a question I asked the board a couple months back (when they were considering the new turf field). I simply stated that "it sure would be nice to get a sweetheart deal like the one BASD got with their new turf field". To which I was told to some extent that NASD is "working on that".
One item of note was that Mr. Heller's CIT refurbishment project is still "on time" and they still have contingency money left over. Now, they are deciding what to do with that. A couple of items that have needs are a new roof on the busing building where records (hard, paper copies) are also stored. Apparently, the roof leaks and some records have been already lost. Also discussed was repaving a parking lot that is also used by a CDL licensing facility (?) They contemplated going out for bid for these items, but it was stated that that would make it an additional project (non-reimburseable) and they would lose D'Huy supervision. Ultimately, it was decided to make change orders.
Dr. Lesky's report showed current Fall 07 enrollment and he noted that there are 121 new students to the district. However, he added that KG enrollment is down (less than the outgoing senior class) so perhaps the overall increase will not be that much. Current district enrollment is 4667. For comparison, May 07 enrollment was 4731 and Sept 06 enrollment was 4700.
The redistricting has had the desired effect of reducing enrollment at LNES. 24 kids moved from LNES to SES. Currently, SES has 657 and LNES has 661.
Mr. Butz made a motion to cancel next weeks board meeting. Motion passed. NO MEETING NEXT MONDAY. Next board meeting is August 20th in the board room at 7:30PM.
No further comments from the community. Meeting adjourned at 8:10 PM
4 comments:
Thanks again Brad!
A quick note and a few comments.
The Philadelphia Inquirer had a short piece on Nazareth's archaeological dig (pretty much what was reported by JD Malone yesterday). Read it here.
In regard to the $25,000 for a fund-raising campaign:
"It was joked that "highest bidder gets naming rights to the stadium" to which the reply by Dr. Lesky was "it seems to be going that way"."
I think more than a few people will be disappointed if the stadium is no longer called Andrew S. Leh Stadium.
I also find it hard to believe that we need to spend $25,000 to produce a video to showcase the new facility to companies that are going to spend money to have their name on it.
On the face of things, it seems to be a big waste of money at a time when we are told we can't meet our budgets without significant tax hikes.
Since I'm not in the know, maybe before we engage this fundraising video, we ought to consider past fundraising success. The Blue Eagle Foundation was established to do fundraising in the community to support staff training and development. And a Blue Eagle Alumni Association was being formed with the help of the Foundation and NASD to recieve a wider range of funding (personal memberships).
For the Foundation we have a hired executive director, provided office space, utilities, office equipment, etc.
What are our revenues from this activity after expenses and in-kind donations from NASD?
Before we further commit money in a fundraising effort, maybe we should take a look at the return on our past fundraising investments.
I wrote about the Foundation and formation of the new Alumni Association here.
You can visit the Foundation web site here.
Ross-
It was NOT specifically stated that the stadium would be renamed.... However, I know that there are at least seven advertising "spots" around the stadium that could be claimed. Given the climate and the "way things are going" (at least with respect to professional sports venues), I wouldn't be surprised to see someday the stadium renamed. (Andretti Field? Hercules Field?) Who knows?
In addition to soliciting support from area business, it was also the intention of the fundraising video to target individuals in the formation of trusts, etc.
Of course I didn't remember your previous post about past fund-raising efforts until now. I would have asked about it and how this new effort compares with previous endeavors.
If the stadium is ever named Andretti field, i will put my house for sale the next day. Name one thing they have ever done for this community, that didnt have something in it for them? At least Martin Guitar, Essroc and others give back to the community in some way.
We put new turf down, why do we need to change the name?
Ryan, you've made some good points throughout the site recently, but there is no reason to bash Andretti. Brad's only use of the name was as an example that it could be the naming of the field not renaming of the stadium, ie the xyz field at Andrew S. Leh Stadium.
The bigger problem I see with this venture of spending $25,000 to sell advertising space is at the end of the day a business is not going to sponsor to help a school, they are going to sponsor to get a return on their investment.
How do you get a return on your investment? The facility needs to have high attendance, many events, and television time.
Unfortunately for us in this regard, we are much smaller in population than Easton, Bethlehem (which hosts three high school football teams), Allentown, and Parkland, couple that with a team that has not been winning and you get much lower attendance.
We might get one, maybe two televised games per year for football and there is no guarantee one or the other will be at home.
We have no playoff games here.
We do have the McDonalds game, if we get it back, as we have been told we will.
I don't know if these facts are going to add up to enough revenue to make this investment worthwhile.
At the same time, I don't think that is going to stop this Board and Admin from spending the money.
On a separate but somewhat related note, I heard the new field has a sinkhole at the 40 yard line - has anyone else heard this?
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