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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMin - LB - 2017.05.31Burlingame Library Approved Board of Trustee Minutes May 31, 2017 I. Call to Order President Altmann called the meeting to order at 5:30 p.m. II. Roll Call Trustees Present: Kerbey Altmann, Mike Nagler, Andy Blanco, Randi Murray, Lisa Rosenthal Staff Present: Brad McCulley, City Librarian, Sidney Poland, Recorder, Kathy Von Mayerhauser, Manager of Children's Department and Kim Day, Teen Librarian Note: The Trustees agreed to move Item VIII —Banning of Two Teenagers From the Library to the beginning of the meeting. VIII. New Business - President Altmann officially turned the meeting over to Brad McCulley, City Librarian, to facilitate the Trustees discussion regarding disciplinary action of the two Teenagers from the Library. The Teenagers will be referred to as Teen One and Teen Two. A. Reason for Disciplinary Action • Brad advised the Trustees that two teen-age boys were suspended from the Library due to the following actions (1) being involved with lighting a small fire on the front lawn and (2) getting on the tile roof from the public patio. • Letters were sent to parents and/or guardian of both boys stating the reason for their suspension from the Library and surrounding areas. The suspension is to be in effect until further notice from the Library. • Parents of Teen "One" met with Brad McCulley, Kathy Von Mayrhauser and Kim Day to discuss the suspension. The father of Teen One noted that his son took the meeting very seriously. B. Review of Unacceptable Behavior — Kim Day • Kim gave a detailed account of the May 4th incident and noted that behavior issues began last fall and have become increasingly worse. Teen One and Teen Two have been suspended for a day due to their disruptive behavior and were suspended for a week before this recent issue. • Kim oversees the Teen Room as part of her work day schedule and interacts with the teens on a personal level. One of her concerns is that the disruptive behavior of Teen One and Teen Two has resulted in other teens not coming to our Library. • Kim noted that Teens use the Library as their "second home" and every effort is made to provide a safe, fun, comfortable place for them to be. They are not allowed to impede on other's use of the Library. • In an ideal situation, the teen room should be an enclosed area. This would alleviate problems and complaints regarding the noise factor. • The Progressive Discipline Policy for Teens approved by the Library Board of Trustees at the April meeting is now in effect. • Kim felt that in the future the Library might consider a partnership with the Recreation Department to establish a homework center, and other programming, which would offer teens a more structured environment after school. Currently Belmont and other libraries offer this service to their teens. C. Trustee Concerns, Suggestions and Possible Consequences for Unacceptable Behavior • Brad offered a possible solution given to him by Jane Light that would permit the teens to use library services during their 6 month ban. Initially the teen should be banned for 6 months but allowed to come to the Library with a parent or guardian to use its services for school work. If after 3 months of acceptable behavior, the teen can be put on probation and allowed to use library services freely. Any unacceptable behavior during the probationary period would reinstate the 6 month ban. • The Trustees were concerned that (1) some students go elsewhere to study due to disruptive behavior of some teens; (2) library should be a place to learn not to "hang out"; and (3) teens need to understand rules and consequences of unacceptable behavior. • Trustees suggested that perhaps peer tutoring could be initiated to help students who have difficulties with their homework. D. Trustee Action The Trustees unanimously passed the following motion setting the time frame and conditions that Teen One and Teen Two will have to follow: • Teen One and Teen Two will be banned from the Burlingame Library, including the outside area and parking garage, for a 6 month period but will be granted usage of Library services for homework purposes if accompanied by a parent or guardian. Parent or guardian must remain with the teen at all times. Staff will notify police that Teen One or Teen Two are trespassing if either of them is seen without his parent or guardian in the library or the surrounding areas. • After 3 months of acceptable behavior, either Teen One or Teen Two can be placed on probation and permitted to use the Library freely with the condition that a contract with the Library be signed stating that they understand the reasons for being banned. • If at any time either Teen One or Teen Two exhibit any unacceptable behavior, the 6 month ban will be reinstated. E: Parent Comments The parent of Teen One agreed with the disciplinary action of the Trustees and noted that he was sorry his son was such a concern to staff. III. Library Board of Trustees minutes The Trustees unanimously approved the minutes for the March 21, and April 18, 2017. M/S/C (Nagler/Rosenthal). IV. Correspondence and Information A. Library Statistics April 2017 The Trustees reviewed the statistics and agreed that further discussion was necessary to determine what information they want the graphs to provide. B. Financial Reports Trustee Murray requested that closer to the end of the year, a meeting be scheduled with Paul Velaski, Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer of the Silicon Valley Community Foundation to meet with the Trustees regarding the Library's investments with the Foundation. V. From the Floor (public comments) Irving Agard — Trustee Candidate Mr. Anderson — Parent of Suspended Teen VI. Reports A. City Librarian's Report 1. New Employees - Vanessa Quan, (Technical Services Dept.), Carmen Olmedo (Circulation Dept.) and Sarah Tinkham (Circulation Dept.) have joined the Library staff as Library Assistants. These employees are scheduled for not more than 18 hours per week. The Healthy Working Family Act of 2014, amended in 2016, permitted hourly employees to be given one hour of paid sick leave for every 30 hours worked. The City Council agreed to include vacation time in the hourly employees wage package based on number of hours worked effective January of 2016. 2. Passport Update — The Library is considering the possibility of adding 1 extra hour per month for City Employees. Library employees would still be ineligible for this service. Our service is currently booked 2 months out partially due to the fact that 10 year passports to Canada and Mexico are expiring. 3. PLS E-Book Subcommittee — Brad noted that the e-book subcommittee is still researching options for an e-book platform that all PLS patrons will be able to access. Hoopla and Kanopy are still under consideration for "streaming" possibilities. Hoopla provides e-books, music, and movies but might not be cost effective. Kanopy provides art house movies which are not as popular as those available through Hoopla. VII. Unfinished Business A. Program Strategy for Development of Trustee Speaker Series Trustee Murray noted that Christine Funk of the Library Foundation has joined the sub -committee of Brad McCulley, Tommy McMahon, Randi Murray and Mike Nagler. The purpose/mission of the Trustee speaker series is to find speakers in a variety of fields such as art, current affairs, science and technology that will be of interest to all ages of the community. Ideas of how to begin developing the series were discussed. • Speakers would be well known i.e, Jackie Speier • Events would be free to the public — 5 events a year (tentative) • Goal is to have attendees in a range of 80-300. • Have some kind of ticket implementation to ascertain attendees for specific event. • Put together a budget. At some point include Foundation as it funds Library programs. • Research how to provide proper lighting, sound and seating. • Some speakers/authors would be paid. Others might request a donation to their favorite charity. • Library staff would be asked to research possible speakers that live in the Bay Area and help with marketing, posters etc. • Create new way to get volunteers involved in Library activities. Trustee Murray set the date of June 20th at 4:OOpm to meet and discuss the particulars of this project. IX. Adjournment Meeting was adjourned at 7:00 p.m. M/S/C (Rosenthal/Murray). The next meeting of the Library Board of Trustees will be held June 20, 2017 in the Library Conference Room at 5:30 p.m. Respectfully Submitted, /s/ Bradley McCulley City Librarian Burlingame Public Library