TLNA Council MonthlyMeeting

Minutes

Tenney ParkApartments

December 15, 2005

Present: Mary Jo Schiavoni, Patrick McDonnell, Bob Shaw, JoeBrogan, Susan Bauman Duren, Ruth Rohlich, Carole Trone, David Waugh, SeanGutknecht, Cheryl Wittke (Chair).

Guests: KarenCrossley, John Johnson.

Call to order at 7:00.

I. Presentationfrom Karen Crossley about local school foundations.

A. Background: The Madison Schools Foundation is about fiveyears old and was started to provide supplemental support to teachers and staffat Madison’s 46 schools, and to provide private support for programs nototherwise available. TheFoundation awards discretionary dollars to schools through an applicationprocess, and allows each school to establish their own permanent endowment, fromwhich an annual 5% payout would be available. The goal is for each school to secure a $50,000endowment. East High School,Marquette/Lapham, and O’Keeffe are all at least halfway to that goal.

B. Request: Karen requested that TLNA consider making a $500donation for each neighborhood school fund, and consider making an ongoingbudget allocation for the funds.

C. Action: After discussion, Council members decided to tablethe further discussion and vote for the requests until the January meeting,after reviewing the TLNA budget with the treasurer.

D. Gorman would like this amount in TIF from the city

II. Updateon East Attendance Area Task Force meetings from John Johnson, Lapham/MarquettePTG Co-President.

A. Background: John explained the nature of the Task Force andits charge to address the east side enrollment issues with either programmaticor attendance changes, to be implemented by the fall 2006 school year.Specifically, several northside elementary schools are beyond capacity and withmajority free and reduced lunch populations. Schools closer to downtown, including Lapham and Marquette,have much lower percentages of low-income families and are not atcapacity. Possible proposalsinclude closing Lapham, moving MMSD administrative programs into one or more schools,or moving alternative programs into one or more near east side schools.

B. Request: The PTG sent out a survey to school parents onpreferred options and would retain the results for future discussions asappropriate. Based on discussionsat future Task Force meetings, the PTG may request attendance at School Boardmeetings or letter-writing campaigns. John noted that northside schools have already organized into analliance that meets monthly with School Board members.

C. Mary Jo Schiavoni moved and Susan Bauman-Duren seconded thatthe TLNA Council endorse the following resolution: “The TLNA strongly supportsand all proposals which maintain the operation and functioning existence ofMarquette and Lapham Schools as they currently exist.”  The Council unanimously endorsed theresolution.

III. Newsletter.Discussion of area rep distribution of newsletter. There is a problem with locked boxes in rental units.  Possible alternative delivery optionsdiscussed include bulk mailing at 10 cents apiece, as the MarquetteNeighborhood Association does. Another proposal was to solicit more ads to cover the postage costs,requiring less writing. OneCouncil member quipped that we should edit Gay down to one page to make roomfor the ads.

IV. JoeBrogan discussed the development seminar previously offered in the fall by theEINPC to train neighborhood reporters. He proposed that five slots could be paid for by the TLNA to attend afuture seminar on this topic. Susan Bauman-Duren moved and Joe Brogan seconded that TLNA pay $35 forup to five participants. RuthRohlich offered to attend.

V. NeighborhoodPlan Update. Cheryl Wittkereported that there was no feedback from the city. Mary Jo argued that the Council should move ahead on theplan’s priorities as stated. Therewere 17 (13-page) ballots returnedout of 40 distributed, a 42% response rate. All but 3 expressed resounding support.  After some discussion on next steps, itwas proposed that the various committees come up with up to 3 priorities intheir areas, such as zoning, housing, etc. These priorities will be discussedat the next meeting.

A. PatrickMcDonnell moved and Ruth Rohlich seconded that the 10/23 draft plan beapproved. The Council agreedunanimously.

Meeting adjourned at 9:00

Minutes submitted by CaroleTrone

Return tomonthly minutes

Return to home page