TLNA Council Monthly Meeting

Minutes

Tenney Park Apartments

December 15, 2005

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

Guests: Karen Crossley, John Johnson.

Call to order at 7:00.

I. Presentation from Karen Crossley about local school foundations.

A. Background: The Madison Schools Foundation is about five years old and was started to provide supplemental support to teachers and staff at Madison’s 46 schools, and to provide private support for programs not otherwise available. The Foundation awards discretionary dollars to schools through an application process, and allows each school to establish their own permanent endowment, from which an annual 5% payout would be available. The goal is for each school to secure a $50,000 endowment. 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 $500 donation for each neighborhood school fund, and consider making an ongoing budget allocation for the funds.

C. Action: After discussion, Council members decided to table the 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. Update on East Attendance Area Task Force meetings from John Johnson, Lapham/Marquette PTG Co-President.

A. Background: John explained the nature of the Task Force and its charge to address the east side enrollment issues with either programmatic or attendance changes, to be implemented by the fall 2006 school year. Specifically, several northside elementary schools are beyond capacity and with majority free and reduced lunch populations. Schools closer to downtown, including Lapham and Marquette, have much lower percentages of low-income families and are not at capacity. Possible proposals include 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 on preferred options and would retain the results for future discussions as appropriate. Based on discussions at future Task Force meetings, the PTG may request attendance at School Board meetings or letter-writing campaigns. John noted that northside schools have already organized into an alliance that meets monthly with School Board members.

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

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

IV. Joe Brogan discussed the development seminar previously offered in the fall by the EINPC to train neighborhood reporters. He proposed that five slots could be paid for by the TLNA to attend a future seminar on this topic. Susan Bauman-Duren moved and Joe Brogan seconded that TLNA pay $35 for up to five participants. Ruth Rohlich offered to attend.

V. Neighborhood Plan Update. Cheryl Wittke reported that there was no feedback from the city. Mary Jo argued that the Council should move ahead on the plan’s priorities as stated. There were 17 (13-page) ballots returned out of 40 distributed, a 42% response rate. All but 3 expressed resounding support. After some discussion on next steps, it was proposed that the various committees come up with up to 3 priorities in their areas, such as zoning, housing, etc. These priorities will be discussed at the next meeting.

A. Patrick McDonnell moved and Ruth Rohlich seconded that the 10/23 draft plan be approved. The Council agreed unanimously.

Meeting adjourned at 9:00

Minutes submitted by Carole Trone

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