Minutes:
MINUTES OF THE APS TRUST MEETING HELD ON 2 JULY 2008
AT ASAKO PRIMARY SCHOOL
Present: Juma Ali Dido – JAD
Mike Harries – MH
Mark Cheriyot – MC
Lissa Campbell – LC
Mohamed Hassan – Head Teacher, Asako – MoH
Kulisa Shora Dirkicha - KD
Ismail F. Solola – IS
Apologies: Anthony Gross – AFG
Tony Fitzjohn – TF
Gill Marshall Andrews - GMA
1. The Minutes of the meeting on 23rd May were tabled and passed.
2. Matters Arising
* LC said TAS had agreed the funding for the caretaker and he will be paid 6000/- a month from July.
* MoH said that the books that were donated by TAS are now being used daily by the children.
3. Funding
* Teacher training. A proposal was put forward for the in-service training of teachers and the School Management Committee (SMC). This would be for 5 days starting 11 August and would be run by the Area Education Officer, Abas, and 2 other trainers. It would be for all the teachers, the local councillor, the Chief and 2 APST trustees. 31 people in total. MH stressed the importance of all the participants being present for the full 5 days – not just coming for lunch. The teachers would be trained sperately from the SMC.
* Doors, windows and roof. Kimanzi provided a quote but it was thought to be on the high side. MH to ask Thika contractos for quote.
* Pre – school. JAD to ask Kimanzi for a quote for 2 classrooms.
* Pre-school teachers. Currently being paid 5000/- from APST and 1500/- from community when possible. It was agreed to propose raising their salaries in line with the raise the APST teachers received, up to 6000/-. MoH said that in the future the government may pay for pre-school teachers.
* Extra-curriculum work. The government gives guidelines regarding this (Orange Book) . Once MoH has this he will put in a proposal. The government provides 22/-per child per year towards this.
* Book bags. A photo of 2 bags was shown to the meeting. A smaller one was proposed for 250 younger children costing 150/- each and 150 bigger bags for 300 older children. LC asked if it would be possible to have Asako Primary School written on the bags and JAD and LC to find out how much this would cost and if a discount was possible for a bulk order. Costs and details by next meeting
* Books. MoH had started looking into costs of more curriculum books and will have these for the next meeting.
4. Staff Housing
* The houses are progressing extremely well and everyone is very happy with them. By 22 June 53% of the work had been completed in 33% of the time and the quality of work was reported as very good.
* The KWS Clerk of Works will do another report once 75% of the work has been completed.
5. Fence
* This was almost completed and again was of good quality and everyone was happy with it. MC said it would be finished by the following afternoon. The community was putting thorns around the fence to keep out the goats. It is hoped that in time trees will be planted along the fence. There are 2 gates into the compound. Through the main one, small holes for trees have been dug on either side of the ‘drive’ and some trees have already been planted.
6. Ground Plan and vision for the School
* MoH said the school wanted to increase the size of the land by 1km on one side and 400m on the other and the community has agreed to this but still need to show the school where the boundaries would be.
* A surveyor has been approached to do the plan and has quoted provisionally 5000/-. JAD to find out full quote by next meeting.
* LC was asked if the Board of Governors could pay but it was thought too expensive for them.
7. Wind pump and water update
* MoH said he felt that the water was slightly less salty – but it still is very salty.
* MH said he would look into the possibility of increasing the depth of the well.
* JAD said that the area was receiving help from the Catholic Diocese of Garissa (funded by an American organisation, name unknown) for water and sanitation projects. He said 6 schools in the Bangla Division were receiving help and Asako had been promised guttering, three toilets and a septic tank.
* MC said the broken tank had been replaced and water was now being pumped from the borehole to the kitchen and to the building site. MC and JAD to organise burying the pipes.
8. Any other business
* LC asked if trustees were in favour of a library and MoH said he would look into the costs of books for this.
* MoH said that the date agreed for the next meeting often changed after the meeting. LC apologised for this and explained that when not all the trustees were at the meeting it was difficult to fix a definite date but we would try and improve on this.
* Electricity – JAD to ask Kimanzi’s electrician to look at the wiring when doing the staff housing.
* JAD said he is now charging the satphone every day and it is working well.
9. Actions
* MH to ask Thika contractos for quote for repairs and maintenance of classes and staffroom.
* JAD to ask Kimanzi to quote for 2 pre-school classrooms
* JAD and LC to research costs of book bags and logo
* MoH to obtain quotes for curriculum books and library books
* JAD to obtain full quote from surveyor for ground plan of school
* MH to investigate possibility and costs of increasing depth of well
* JAD to ask Kimanzi’s electrician to look at the wiring when doing the staff housing.
10. The meeting ended at 1 p.m. JAD said that for the next meeting he would like to invite the District Commissioner, the District Education Officer and the MP to meet GMA and inspect the houses. The next meeting was scheduled for Wednesday 17 September 2008 at Asako and Thursday 18 September at Madogo.
