Student/Parent Advisory Board
Meeting Minutes
Friday, March 15, 2013, 12 pm
Conference room, Kerr basement
Board members present: Megan Pratt, Trent Lesire, LeeAnn Baker, Verity Bishop (and Aurora),
Stephanie Smith, Terese Jones, Arielle Goranson, Michelle Marie (chair).
Board members absent: Jen Maguire, Jehan Jabareen, Leslee Mayers.
Staff present: Amy Luhn, Erika Woosley
Guests present: Chris Riggan (Director, Beaver Beginnings)
Notes taken by: Erika Woosley
Minutes compiled by: Michelle Marie
I.
Welcome and introductions
II. Board member updates
a. Michelle and Kristi: Student Parent Support Symposium presentation accepted:
“Removing Barriers to Student Parent Access and Success.” The Symposium is in
Columbus, Ohio, at the end of May. Amy secured funding through Larry Roper for
travel expenses.
III. Approve February 22 meeting minutes: Corrections will be made and revised minutes will be
presented for approval at our next meeting.
IV. Future meetings
a. Doodle each month or regular set day? It’s usually easier to have a set date/time
every month.
b. April meeting with Brad Alvarez and Jennifer Creighton (postponement of decision
around funding child care subsidy increase with working capital in FY14): Amy gave
them two April dates, so we’ll wait to hear from them about their availability before
setting the date for our next meeting.
c. Chair succession: We’ll want to discuss this at our April meeting since Michelle’s
term of service expires in three months.
V. Coordinator report questions: What is the latest with reaching exempt status at the OLV
sites? The shift to exempt status at OLV|Dixon is moving forward to allow parents to leave
their children and move about campus. Dixon will be a pilot site for exempt status in the fall.
Various risk management and logistical issues are being addressed: Patrick Hughes, Chief
Risk Officer, likes that there are a lot of other people around (Dixon staff members) who are
CPR certified. To avoid ‘bathrooming’ behind closed doors, a rubber stopper can be used to
prop the restroom door open when an OLV staff person is taking a child to the bathroom.
When parents check their children in, they will sign a contract that indicates their locations
and commits them to stay in contact with OLV staff if/when they move about. Parents
would have to have a cell phone in this scenario, but it would be easy enough to have a
prepaid cell phone on hand to loan to anyone who doesn’t have one. Amy will check in with
Tom about the Dixon Leadership Team’s decision around OLV use of women’s bathroom as
a mixed gender bathroom for toileting and with Patrick Hughes regarding an update from
Risk Management. Amy and Kristi will begin drafting a contract for parents who wish to
leave Dixon while their children are in care.
VI. Beaver Beginnings building assessment funding: The Child Care Center/Beaver Beginnings
building will be added to the student building inventory (the same category that Dixon and
the MU are in) as of July 1, 2013. Funding for deferred maintenance issues (of which there
are many) and future maintenance (which all buildings need) was not included in our FY14
budget because things were so up in the air at that point. We will have to go to the SIFC to
request the establishment of a building reserve line item. An assessment of the building will
cost around $20k and will tell us what needs to be done immediately, predict what will need
to be done in the future, estimate how much we need to hold in reserve for future major
expenses, and determine the amount of a line item for ongoing maintenance. We need to
decide if we are going to pay for the building assessment from our working capital/fund
balance or if we are going to ask for contingency funding from the SIFC. We briefly reviewed
our fund balance spend-down plan; none of those things are written in stone and everything
is subject to change as our needs change. The feasibility study to explore SR3 co-locating
with Dixon in their next phase of expansion will cost much less (est. of $15K) than the
anticipated feasibility study for a stand-alone SR3 building. Should co-location with Dixon
prove feasible we potentially would not need the full amount of money initially set aside for
a study. Now that the child care center building is recognized as a student fee funded
building, we can maintain it to the higher standards of other student buildings like the MU
and Dixon. Building use fees of $12,500 are paid annually by CCLC – Children’s Creative
Learning Centers – who we contract with for care at Beaver Beginnings . One hesitation in
paying for the assessment is that the SIFC may come back and say that building reserve and
maintenance should be paid out of the OLV fund balance. The building assessment can’t
wait. If we request contingency funds for assessment money, we may be less likely to
receive contingency funds to establish a building reserve (which will be most likely be a
much larger amount). Also, assessment is a one-time expense whereas building reserve is
ongoing, so we may be more likely to receive contingency funds for that purpose. SIFC is
most likely expecting a contingency request for building reserve/maintenance. Michelle
would like to make a contingency fund request for assessment on the logic that the worst
they can do is say no. Our initial request for a building reserve will be for a baseline amount
for future needs (the minimum amount that is appropriate to hold in reserve, which the
assessment will indicate) and to also take care of things that must be done now. Timing will
be crucial (a new SIFC takes office on July 2, 2013, and there is no way to predict their
position on this issue), so if we pay for the assessment now we might be able to postpone
asking for building reserve until a new SIFC committee takes over, and ask for a contingency
at that time. As a budget issue, the question was put to student vote. Four students voted
for and one against spending approximately $20,000 of our working capital on a building
assessment of the child care center to determine current maintenance needs and a future
maintenance schedule.
VII. CCAMPIS (Child Care Access Means Parents In School )Grant: Beaver Beginnings has
approximately half student families and half faculty/staff families. Do we want to increase
the number of slots that are reserved for student families? Nothing in our contract with
CCLC contract says we can’t have more than half of the child care slots filled by student
families, but CCLC relies upon the higher rates paid by faculty/staff families to be profitable.
The CCAMPIS grant may make it possible for more of Beaver Beginnings’ slots to be
available to student parents without increasing the cost of care to student parents or
altering the bottom line for CCLC. Since it is the most expensive care to provide, there is the
greatest need for more infant and toddler care in Corvallis. The grant can do anything we
ask it to do as long as we address the costs of child care and the number of child care slots
that are available to student parents. PSU has had $140,000 granted to them in each of the
past two grant cycles (4 year funding cycles). Overall, we are happy to have an increased
number of slots at Beaver Beginnings that are dedicated to student parent families if the
grant will make that possible at affordable rates. Amy will look for notes from the past
regarding other universities we have spoken to about CCAMPIS to find a template to
reference. We want to have a brainstorming session at beginning of April to help Amy.