collection rate. Um ones that don't don't finish or don't Yeah. Then we we work with the department of education and them helping us to uh because a lot of them are are teaching in the field as well help us with the um what is that the collections if you will sending out the bills and helping us. So what's been your record on that? We have a few that uh we've had to have the attorney general help us to do a collection. And then what have we been successful? I think some folks have have paid back the funds that they received. Uh there's a few that I know of that have contested some of that. Uh because I know even with overp payments, we have a bad bad of being able to collect that money, right, once they leave or once they decide they're not going to do it.
their bid for alternate number three oehs reduced payment and track services was submitted as a deduction in the amount of thirty eight thousand fifty five dollars Schroeder Asphalt Services submitted a bid alternate number one OHS full depth track in the amount of 75 thousand dollars their bid alternate number two concrete ribbon curve was submitted in the amount of a hundred and twenty thousand dollars their bid alternate number three oehs reduced pavement and track services was submitted as a deduction in the amount of thirty nine thousand nine hundred and seventy dollars and fifty cents our recommendation is to award shoulder Asphalt Services in the amount of 797 thousand dollars for the acceptance of both ohe base bids and additional 35 000.0.92 50 excuse me guys we're at a little bit for the ohehs alternates one and three so quick question one of the options we've been presented for for this I believe last year when nobody bid for it and thankfully we had bids this time so yay um that's a really good thing um was and Mr Howard I'm not going to put you on the spot but you're here so was one of these alternates that would make it easier to go to AstroTurf of some sort that's a really big fun conversation for people who play sports on those fields um are we looking to recommend to do that extra option we are Lori and I'm glad that that has been really even knew Darren yeah we're we're asking you to accept all three alternates to go with it and that is the middle one and more so for that future use right we've done that at oh when we redid that track last time and we're set up to receive Turf okay so you had already done that at oh that's new information which is good the last time we did major work there that curb is in and it's set up oh I wasn't aware that we had that at one of our high schools 100 want to add that in we're at oehs in in preparation for that day when we do get Turf okay and yay that there were bids okay so am I yeah there were bits yes am I missing something so the hundred thousand dollar allowance with Abby is for what uh like a contingency so if they run into things that they don't okay no what what if what we didn't include in here I wanted to point out is when we made this initial recommendation it was for the base bids and only alternates one and three alternate two is adding that ribbon curve so if we get AstroTurf our question for Todd and he was able to verify um verify that we already did that at OHS so it's already done there and it would be significantly more if we do that later so if we were to convert the field it would be significantly more damaging and cost a lot more than a hundred and twenty thousand to do that at OE so we were going to present that to the board and let you know that that is an extra 120 000 so that would bring the base bit up to the 797 plus the 35 Plus the alternate 2 would be an additional 120 000.
Um and I'm not sure how extensive you folks are at making sure that those payments are made or given back because once you give somebody something, it's very difficult to get it back. That's true. That's correct. So, how many How many students do you folks have that is on this kind of scholarship for different programs? Oh, I would say we have at least anywhere from 75 to 100 that they have to pay back that they have some form of service obligation. So if they don't fulfill that then yes they have to do that portion. You found that during that period of time of first you have the period of while they're in school. That's correct. Correct. Y and if they don't complete or they don't have a good record or they drop out and it's very difficult if they're in school and they're not working to pay back.
so but what's significant uh they would have basically they would have to take out of all the lanes of the track they would have to cut the outside Lane all out dig it all up Plus in order to do the work for the AstroTurf they're going to be driving equipment over that area um and then they're going to have to put in that curb ribbing and then they're going to have to add that last track layer back on in addition to astro turf so um it would be a significant amount of work and it wouldn't be seamless it would it I I have a fear that it would look like it was added on to well okay okay so it looked like it was added onto is not my big concern um my bigger concern is from when we talked about this and it might have been right before you you came on Dominic was it if I remember correctly Eugene it wasn't triple but it was it was gonna be a few hundred thousand more than it would be to just add it in now while they're already tearing it all the way up the for me the bigger issue is parity between the two high schools and if we've done it in one we should do it in the other that being said this is not carte blanche to go get astro turf or whatever we call that now um well that yeah that's why I'm like well if you don't get the Turf ever then it's security is I mean that's that that's why Mr Howard how are you interested in this conversation I'm sure I was gonna ask if we're using Abby for what we were just talking about and if we used Abby for this can we get a discount is that legal is that I mean can we ask for a discount if we're using them for what now you can't do that no it's not a good idea no you can't do that oh see I just I just asked Eugene like can we do that no no but I think that's something that maybe should be talked about we are not private entities and so we have a bid process because we're a public entity and you can't shake down vendors like you can in the private sector that's not how we work and operate I'm sorry the people don't like that no no no no it's not about that it's about consistency and on the right side of that right and I'm just asking right no I get it but I'm just saying I'm saying it's not I get it but I'm saying we aren't we the public sector Works differently than the private sector and this is a good learning opportunity for people to understand too it it doesn't it doesn't work that way I don't know what to tell people it doesn't I don't like I don't make the rules can I ask a question a little bit bigger maybe this is for uh Mr Queen and and Mr pesky um the these were two projects that were part of the facility Improvement plan um for the sake of those that don't have students that participate in these kinds of activities going where are my tax dollars so big dollar amounts going to these you're also looking at improvements to other types of co-curricular activities that are also curricular in some Natures like we use the tennis courts for gym but we also have a tennis team we we use the track fields for sports all the sports and we also use them for PE so you're also you're not just focusing on Athletics you're looking at Fine Arts you're looking at the robotics programs the Project Lead the ways the auto shops the things like that that have some co-curricular aspects is that true yes and the reason we're concentrating on these is just that safety concern and liability Lord yeah but but you have the other things on there as well yeah those are those are and that's what I'm glad you're saying that this is this is part of the larger facility grounds plan these are some of our facilities they're some of our grounds and their work that are to the point where uh the they are not safe anymore and they need to be taken care of or they're just going to get worse so with that said too I'm glad you brought that up because that kind of segues into our next thing which I've got to give a huge Kudo to bill and his team uh he he's got some pictures here so you can kind of see what the track looks like but um what he's really got is a uh the kluber scheduled facility maintenance plan which was about a 10-year but it really was about a 20-year facility plan and cost bill has taken that in his time that he's been in the district and he has put that the projects linked what projects what school years and what cost and uh has a five-year plan that he'd like to present to the board here too so you can see the projects we're asking you to improve or to approve are actually on that facility maintenance plan along with a lot of other projects all right so I can't take all the credit for this my awesome assistant back there Paul helped me out a ton so when I had to think about this the things that safety and liability concerns and Mission critical combined I had to pay play the Forefront right those had to be my biggest topics when when I looked at this and for me safety's got to be key and that's that's anything we're going to cover so what you're looking at and there's several different projects you're going to see a lot of building automated systems you're going to see some door repair you're going to see some roofs all the way through this whole Five-Year Plan um BAS system Bill what is that right um well that's the building automated system that's what drives and and runs these buildings with with no BAS system we don't run chillers we don't run boilers we don't run any of that stuff doors hardware anything like that that's going to be your security related we're going to fall back into that heightened heightened security and safety safety that I was talking about there slips trips and Hazards you're going to see some concrete some parking lots so what we've been doing is for the past 10 15 20 years we've thrown tons and tons of salt at these buildings to get them open for school and salt and plow blades they just deteriorate your your infrastructure and and we're at that point now that some of these areas need to be addressed and they need to be addressed early in this plan along with the Bas and the roofs if if we can't keep them dry in the classrooms then then we're in trouble you know we got problems so as you dive in through there you're going to see a lot a lot of Bas systems well that was a time when we did a big boom and and and and construction and now we're at that time where things need to be updated or totally upgraded moving forward into the high schools you're going to see more soul of this polycarbonate Skylight panels oehs we have a super problem here with with these this great Skylight that we have in this cafeterium that's that's leaking that needs to be addressed as part of that uh critical tennis courts and tracks both in this plan and and when I put them in this plan I put them in there with with the exception that you would be accepting all of them and give you the choice to decide what alternates you wanted to take in and out but I wanted to at least fit them into the plan so they fit so these are our numbers if you can hit me with the next one I want to get to where John's there we go so my current operational on budget is about 750 000 per year physical 26 and 27 projections include increasing owing budget to 1.5 million and 3.5 million respectfully these this is these are monies that we're not using out of this d sub that I'm using all this for other project money for so we'll have this available to us too to take care of these other jobs and safety concerns that that come up come forth Debt Service extenders bonds will be repaid in 2027 and can be reissued for additional and Visions 308 scheduling maintenance projects so if you look on those first two point of order [Music] yeah this is part of the tennis court bids but this isn't about the tennis court beds at all yeah this was we were asked we were asked by board members if this are the tennis courts and tracks part of our plan and so what we what we gave here is just and Bill's going in a little bit more detail but what we wanted to show you is we do have a five-year plan and those are on the plan thank you but but what you're giving me is all due respect lovely presentation sorry to interrupt but at the same time this is not this is a completely different topic than tennis court bids track bids and a Stadium scoreboard um the board has what you have the information you need in regards to the tennis courts and the tracks that we've just talked about yeah and I don't see and yeah as an actual its own yeah that would be yeah I apologize no sorry to interrupt it I just want to make sure that we give our community the opportunity to be present for this topic which is a very big one and a very important one thank you thank you Lord we need time to digest this and uh understand um what it's about all right item 8.6 is in regards to uh Oswego East Indonesia Thank you new scoreboard in the stadium Mrs comedus and Mr arnson are here to present wait oh good evening uh we're here to present some information tonight regarding potential new scoreboard here for the stadium at Oswego East High School the current scoreboard we have out there right now is is approximately 18 years old it currently goes through repairs and kind of controlled exchanges to make sure the it's it's functioning in its normal capacity as you see on a Friday night or any other event you would see out there um what we've looked to do though is partner with a company that basically scoreboards are very expensive as you've heard tonight things are costly what we're looking to do though is is partner with a company called Power ad what they do is specialize in advertisements for scoreboards how this works is the company actually purchases the scoreboard for us what we do then is obviously after it's installed you'll see in the center there is electronic monitor for lack of a better word better term and then on either side of that scoreboard are advertisements that would be there what would happen with this is we have full control of what advertisements are displayed on that we don't pay a dollar into it the company pays for everything up front uh until those advertisement advertisement fees are paid off which is usually about five years for a scoreboard like this which is 75 000 Plus so the installation would be the only thing we had paid for the installation would be covered through an athletic activity fund which uh Tony Miller already has earmarked for some funds with that but essentially we get a brand new scoreboard for no cost at the district love it I know we've been talking about this for a long time my question is more to us as board members we have policy we've had policies that have been detrimental to utilizing this sort of benefit which I know we've wanted to use um one this is for us we go east OHS had their parent boosters paid for that we replace the board about seven years ago and did we pay for that at the district yeah the district paid for but the there's a scroller underneath it like it's not as nice as that one is and the boosters paid for that portion of the OHS board so that's fortunate yeah that's one um our policies on that and like what goes to one high school goes to the other which I feel is been pretty well represented so far tonight that it's both high schools I'm curious how that affects the policy if we need to make a change on that because I know we've needed to we've talked about needing to in the past um good timing right I was going to say that it was a policy piece I think we do yeah um we're gonna need something we do we do have a policy that does address it which I know we were talking about changing I just don't remember if we actually did change it so they're currently the way it sits at this moment without any changes does require the board approval which is why we're bringing this to you in this way we'll have the information and then come back again for approval for this project the proposed potential changes would be to kind of create a plan much like you're saying so we aren't so limited with that and improve the plan and who oversees it at the district level and then move forward with it in that responsibility and is it then worth having that same do I mean listen I'm gonna try to stay just very not get into the whole can of worms that is parent contributions for these things versus public contributions for these things um but do we then need to do the same thing for OHS so we have had discussions with Mr Howard about some additional needs at OHS they were looking at potentially um some digital signage inside and so we this would be project one and the reason we chose this as kind of a trial we've never engaged in anything with this particular company before so we kind of wanted to trial and see how this is going to go but there is potential for us to expand this across multiple indoor and outdoor facilities for our Sports needs and the reason this sign was chosen is because as Mr Armstrong kind of alluded to we actually have to kind of disassemble one sign somewhere else on the athletic fields in order to operate this one and then take the parts back out of this one and put them in the other one so it's not really functional and I I don't I just for the interest of moving the conversation along and not having it go for all because this is this is a topic um so I I now just heard you add we get a scoreboard OHS gets indoor digital signage with ads and now is that what no no we're just saying that's we're entertaining we're entertaining multiple but sitting down with the athletic directors um we met with them and kind of determined sort of their needs assessment similar to what big topic bill was sort of talking about as far as facility needs go this one Taps the list because of the the functionality and what is necessary it's going to be necessary to replace it no matter what we're just looking at as just a potential alternative for funding that and if so and that works well then there's other things already on the listed Athletics in both schools that we could potentially this has actually been a very um discussed Topic at our policy committee meeting because we are we are literally recreating this sign not this sign but what what it represents yeah when we're taking advertising who we're taking advertising from and who worked not and who is controlling that in the district well and so and here's the yeah to totally piggyback off of that for example I'm attending my child's required curricular band concert and yes my child plays that sport or fine arts program and they they're asking for thirty thousand dollars for sound shells that were removed because of a safety concern that was taken away from the program so parent boosters are now being asked to pay for those and when their curricular so we asked you know ask the administration and Dr Kincaid please feel free to to we ask because there there isn't a lot of parity across the board um and so we asked the administration to look at this and to come back to us with a recommendation so first and foremost I love this idea actually no other districts that have used this totally and it works really well the company yeah that is not I think what the discussion we we're grateful for this and this is such a great way to utilize resources what the bigger discussion that Mrs Doyle is talking about is what what holds up my vote on this and I know that the administration it amongst a million other things that we've asked them to look at as we've gone through the policy manual um how does this work and how do we set the tone moving forward my parents can I jump in here real quick so so the part I'm I get the kids in band and they bring home a thing right and hey donate but I like I I remember as a coach coming across a situation where a parent wanted to donate and this is my other District Parent wanted to donate uniforms and all of a sudden people are pissed off about it right and I'm like what do you want me to do tell the parent not to donate uniform so so my question I guess bringing this back is this going to cost us money so so so like I I don't like I get it like I understand hold on let me finish like so I understand being upset that we can't find something for band I'm upset too that we don't have something for band 2 because my my son's in band but but if we don't have let me finish but if we don't have something out there that's not free I don't like yes we should find things that are free um that would be great and I would love to find this also and work with this for OHS also but puzzled like why we wouldn't try this because if we can do this here I guarantee that the scoreboard at OHS is not going to last forever and I'm hoping we can duplicate this there and we probably have multiples score points as well let me let me finish though okay but you finish yeah well I I will I I don't do this to you so I will um but we just need a policy I think to make sure that we are making sure we have oversight because that's the piece I'm concerned is the policy and I'm sure we do that's literally what we're saying but well if we don't then that's definitely what we need right that's what we're saying great but I don't know why it would negate but I don't know why it would negate us from accepting something that's free no nobody's saying that Jared you must have misunderstood and I apologize for that right the conversation is about we had one high school have parent boosters pay for something lesser than this we have had a history in this District of not providing Equity or wanting to and we all know all of this it's not whether or not we take the free sign we really want to do that we need to make sure because it's our job to make sure that we have our policies in line and that we are paying attention to what is Equitable not only between the high schools but between different parent organizations and I'm not just talking about band I'm talking about wolf parents I'm talking about elementary ptas what what are we requiring our our parent organizations to provide for and what are we spending our man hours to the earlier Point there's man hours involved in getting the free sign which is not free what we need to know what the costs are so that we make good decisions for all of these areas not just the one can I pivot it back to the administration maybe to meet both conditions we present this as a pilot and we say we would like to Pilot this opportunity at Oswego East and if this turns out in a year to work we'd like to come back to you and say Here's Where we've looked at the other schools in this case it's just one but we've looked at but bring it to the board as a pilot and say we'd like to take this opportunity and here's where we can take the learnings and then make sure it's Equitable across the district and so I think that meets we outweigh the funds then what we outlay the funds to install yeah there's no that's that's the only outlay that we have regardless of whether it's a pilot so we'd have to what we're missing is and what Lori and I are trying to explain is that there are parents who have been in this district for years who and I'm going to use the easiest lowest hanging fruit football gets all the attention gets the money gets the what have you and then there is show choir who has to literally raise all their money and doesn't have the same opportunity and so I likened this when we were talking about it in the policy committee to my alma mater which football is a big deal gets all the money but it also helps pay for the other sports so what we're trying to talk about are two very different things what they're bringing forth I don't have any problems with this this is this is a no-brainer this is easy but as the board we have to understand that this has ramifications Beyond just saying yes we have to address things that haven't been addressed before and we have asked the administration to look at this type of this this kind of stuff yeah I I'm I'm hard-pressed to ever turn down anything you know that's not going to really cost us much relative to what we get yeah so I don't know many parents that would regardless of the program so sorry so my question hold on a second hold on because we we made an assumption we made an assumption that there's going to be man hours cost can you give us what that is sure so the only man hours associated with it as you can see the Design's already been presented up here people sorry people hours um really the district's involvement after the contract is launched was really just to approve the ads and that's an option of course we're taking that option to see and approve each one that comes forth so that'd be signed off on and they try to go after multi-year agreements so there's very little change as far as the advertisers between advertisers but other other than that all of the solicitation contracts the negotiations collection of funds ordering of equipment all of that is done through this third party company which is kind of what was ideal because we don't have the man hours to go out and sell and and produce all of that on our own at this time so so help me out because the people our cost then to me isn't that offset if I read this correct it's offset by the revenue stream that you're going to get from the eventually from the so the contract's kind of two-part so for each ad that they sell over the course of the 10-year contract fits a 50 50 split between the organization the power ad group and our and us as a school district but our 50 allocation gets pushed towards the cost that the sign in full cost up until that is fully received which typically is around five to six years the remaining years on that contract for any advertising that that remains on the sign for the rest of that remainder of that 10-year contract is then a 50 50 split with Revenue coming into the district at that point at the conclusion of the tinier contract there's an option to buy into an additional renewal of the contract stating that they'll continue to sell advertising for our sign at a 50 50 split or we can choose to end at that point in time and maintain the advertising on our own so there is revenue potential um we just won't see it right away if initially it'll be allocated towards the cost of the sign and so it sounds like the sorry real quick so it sounds like the people our costs if I'm hearing you correct is pretty very minimal from the district side so the people at our cost I was referring to was in reference to Dr petsky and Mr Queen's saying that working with the source work would save the people hours utilized in building the bid just creating the presentation as people hours so there will be some cost associated with administering some aspects of this I don't think that that's a deciding factor for me um but but for clarity it's worth knowing what it was that I was referring to which is a little bit different than I think what you were getting out of it for that my only question would be the terms of the agreement I just would like to see it before we approve it absolutely so we're still kind of going forth with legal so we will absolutely provide that finalized contract for review prior to coming back to the board for approval got it does it does it State anything in regards to a service agreement or maintenance so yeah I was uh speaking with Tony about this today and there is some warranties on it but largely uh largely speaking the service on it would be on us just as it is right now and we work with dectronics as the company we work with right now that would provide the scoreboard which the company we're currently working with now to repair scoreboard so there was a kind of a limited warranty on that too I have specified months or years on that but uh mostly the repair costs would come back to us but with a new product like this you're not going to see a lot of repair costs or hope not to see a lot of repair cars so we don't own it we would own it yes yes okay okay so what are the and the land it's built on the policy committee what are they well I think for the policy committee there there should be Whoever has oversight for this needs to understand exactly what they're approving so that they are covered under a board policy Teresa do you right now handle our advertising for athletics Athletics is kind of kind of a mixed bag right now and that definitely is the piece that we brought up at the cabinet level that we the information was brought back you know via Dr Kincaid to the the policy committee the idea of creating more structure around that Athletics program um this would kind of be uh like you called it a pilot a great first step for us because one of the agreements you know if we move forward with this we can't also be selling a banner to be you know tied on the bottom of the sign on our own like it would it would become the streamlined process for advertising at that specific facility yes and that would kind of develop some pricing structure so it's an opportunity for us to really kind of get our feet wet um Darren and I have had conversations for many years about the desire to have some more um solid things in place they're kind of handled ad hack right now there is advertising that we did mention the digital signage potentially inside OHS and and maybe eventually OE that would give another chance to not have banners all over the place and be able to sell some advertising and kind of condense that but it's we are just scratching the surface on that and this this truly is kind of like the pilot because it is going to be the first one but given that we have a need we thought this was the perfect time to bring it forth and try this rather than taking all that money out of the district yeah I I love that yeah you don't have to solicit the advertising yes um you know and in 10 years who knows we might be in a different position where we can you know dedicate you know something we see the revenue potential um and this is again something that I know that's been talked about for years and years and years a way to increase our so basically we are getting ad Revenue we're increasing our ad Revenue in order to pay for this that's essentially what we're doing absolutely um and it's been talked about forever um so this is you know I'm just you know again appreciative kind of like before that guys that come with Solutions the things that you've heard about um and concerns of the community and thoughts so I just want to make sure that you know it's pretty clear what you're bringing to us it this is um something that has been asked for for a very long time yeah so thank you I want to go full circle with this back this back doesn't it I know I harp on a lot but the other part of this pilot to what Mrs Doyle said is we don't know what we don't know so write what we need to know is okay who's gonna own certain parts of it and on already full job descriptions what does that look like does it actually take give us man hours but I hate the term man hours does it actually give people hours does it actually give us working time back and is this something that is actually streamlining processes that we need to streamline and so what I get what I get concerned about when we talk about oh but this is so easy it doesn't I'm going to cost us anything nothing everything comes at a cost it's whether it's a soft cost or a hard cost so what I would hope that you would include in your learnings in your report back to the board is who is handling it how much time it did take and where it's relieving pressure points whether it be HR pressure points or um what have you but you know there is going to be you're going to have to have the uh maintenance team you know involved of this you are going to have to have you know so there are people hours that are part of this and I don't just want to gloss over that um and it may those things may shift so it may have been someone else's job before but now with this new you know um opportunity it shifts to somebody else these things are really important when we talk about um job descriptions and utilization rates whether we're putting something more on the maintenance team that they don't have the time to do so those are the things that we need to hear back in the in the pilot learnings you know and how that how that all works together the incremental well actually are we the first district to ever do this no no so know that do we know like do we know that how much what do other districts do well it sounds like there's no when they gonna be more information or is it are we going to be asked to vote on that I just don't know if we're ready if they're ready if you guys are ready if everybody's ready I'm so comfortable and but that's what I'm saying so is all of that going to happen before what our next meeting or when do we think this is coming back the only con it was planned to come to the next meeting and the only hold back for that would be obviously as you know it takes a long lead time to get things in motion and and so the longer we wait the longer we kind of play that game if you talk about man hours with our maintenance staff of disassembling one sign to make the other sign functional and and vice versa so this is one that really it's not a would be nice to but kind of but we really do need to have a solution to this facility But to answer Mr plover's question as far as not the only school we do have a number of calls out um actually I have another follow-up call Wednesday with dekalb's athletic director I'm going to kind of they use the exact same company they gave us a list of a number of companies um or an upper of schools that this particular company has worked with in the past so we are going to kind of talk through the timeline in the process and be able to have some more insight and we'll share that all with you as well as the finalized report or excuse me the finalized contract and a report to you hopefully here within the next couple of weeks so you have some time to look over that and ask any questions and if there's no concerns at that point it would be nice to be able to bring just this one sign this one contract forward so that we could begin work on this particular one so your opinion is a sign and then the then sorry I didn't see you thank you I just want to clarify we currently what they're referring to is uh board policy 825 and there's some ambiguity in athletics so on the air of caution as Teresa mentioned in cabinet we wanted to bring this to the board in order to be fully compliant with your current board policy the discussion that we're having in the policy committee is actually some more flexibility to allow for additional opportunities okay so that's what we've been talking about they're presenting right now it is in compliance with the current board policy what we've also talked about then as board Venture board member Johnson has mentioned is the administrative procedure with kind of the um not to complement the policy but no right now they're referring to 825 and we wanted to make sure better safe than sorry that we brought it for board approval to be completely compliant with your current board policy before we went to full review thank you thank you Dr Kincaid um the easing of that policy is the thing that's been under discussion for quite some time um and that's the piece that I want to make sure we've got at least an awareness that we need to have a conversation about loosening that because this will have people our implications so that's that's the concern but but also to be prepared for that you get a scoreboard you get digital signs you get the you know are we making sure that it's Equitable between the high schools one last thing to consider you don't have to answer it now but are there any exclusivity agreements once we agree to these ads do they prevent us from having a fence sign from another or similar company well I don't think well so there are parameters in the contract on the specific facility that it's talking about and so yes like with the fence that's around this scoreboard there would be limitations as far as like selling space not necessarily informational um banners that are there but the nice thing is um the the center part the fully digital display board there is not just advertising it's also an information board for us to be able to use to put up players or a first down or you know different information about the game so hopefully it'll also lessen the clutter in general around the field but it doesn't apply to um like Athletics wide or school-wide as far as that exclusivity it's only at the facility in which they're placing the sign so that there's not competition between the district selling advertising space in the same space as the company that makes sense but that also could conclude with the policy so we have to make sure that we understand that the terms that's why this is the reason why I'm asking for that that's why I was saying yeah I think one of the reasons again we're not think we were the first school to do this so I think that's something as a board member I would want to hear is hey what what policies were affected what changes did they need to make on a policy level fine with saying okay yes to this in lieu of we need to make sure we streamline and Fast Track those changes so they can be talked about quickly at the policy level because what I'm what I'm a little leery of and what I'm a little apprehensive about is I guarantee that well I shouldn't say guarantee because that's an assumption but I would I would say it wouldn't surprise me at all that when they did this they did have to make some changes to policy and that is the piece that I want to know about that's the piece I need to hear about as a board member is I need to hear what changes and how quickly they were able to make those changes in order to approve this if it was like Hey it wasn't that hard we had a couple policy meetings and we we got it done quickly fine I'm on board if it was oh no this was a long process then that makes me a little bit more apprehensive about it literally week so every we've been meeting once sometimes twice a week for three hours at a time Dr Kincaid makes a list and then she takes it back to the cabinet and she works with the cabinet to determine um is this do we have to change a policy do we have to add it to the new um uh admin policy procedure guide or is this something that you know we need to um talk about something else happening so I just want to say that it is timely um we I think we can move quickly our goal is to have a policy manual drafty I can't look at her when I say this it was for the April 11th meeting we just we can't make it happen because of everything that's coming at us right now but we can definitely address this this policy alone or whatever policies outside of the draft being presented is that fair it sounds like just the loosening of it because it already is it's already it already abides by the policy I have so I have full I have full faith that if the Dekalb barbs can get something done quickly then I'm pretty sure that yes all right let's let's move on thank you you're welcome thank you appreciate it all right item 8.7 is regards to our food service contract Dr pesky thank you um so just wanted to present some information about food service decisions as we look at where we are the last food service contract that we had it start what date was July 19.
That's correct. Yes. And then you have the issue of after they they get their degree and they start teaching. That's correct. They go to work for one year and then they stop and they leave the state. Yes. Then um so that's where we we work closely with the department to help right together. Together to get us to in those cases the collection agency, right? I believe it's it's been a challenge to get some of this payment back. Yeah. So, do you have any suggestions on how we do that? If we're going to do a system like this on on a regular basis, I think for us at the university, I can only speak for the university, not the college, we need we need to do a much better job of our intake screening requirements. So even if we we need to make sure that we do a better job there from the preliminary intake and the monitoring and the support the students receive throughout their program because right now the university has a poor record of just collecting tuition on a regular basis of kids who come in and I've I've heard that they've had some challenges.
with annual price increases typically subject to CPI last year we entered into a one-year emergency contract with Aramark and if you recall that conversation it was to uh access additional reimbursements for supply chain funds about 340 thousand dollars and also utilize some additional reimbursement through the keep kids fed act and that actually allowed us to hold food prices to what they were pre-covered so that families you know they went from two years of everyone was on free lunch or was given lunches to now they were gonna have to pay pay for those lunches again so for 2023-24 the food service contract what I'm recommending is to enter into a second year uh one-year emergency contract we've been looking at putting together that RFP it again and what we are hearing is that it is an inflated Market and uh so what we can do is maintain our our costs um the district could avoid going to RFP and do a known inflationary market and where that comes from is uh CPI typically has been 0.8 1.4 2.3 percent um you guys know about it through the levy we are school districts uh uh don't Levy any more than five percent but the cpis have been seven percent six and a half percent and that's what we would expect to see in our in our food contract increases um if if we do do the uh second one-year emergency contract um it would allow us to maintain the food prices and the contracts that we have now from our 2019 RFP um and uh we would in the fall of 2023 uh so in October start writing that RFP for another food contract but that brings up another additional point for the board to consider and that's the keep kids fed Act is no longer an option so for next school year lunch prices could be increased to keep up with our reimbursement rate and I just wanted to show you real quick how that's determined so we use a tool called the paid lunch Equity tool and according to that tool the way it works is a student launch should be or a paid student should be paying the difference between what the reimbursement is between what we get for a free student lunch reimbursement and what we get for reimbursement for a free or for a student who pays will reimburse the way that works uh currently it's 4.33 that we get reimbursed for a free student and for every student that buys a lunch we get reimbursed 77 cents so when you subtract that 77 cents from the 4.33 reimbursement that's about 3.56 the reimbursement rates are adjusted annually so that number changes a little bit uh what I provided the school board here is uh 23-year look at one of our lunch rates been so you can see in the one column the super years you can see in the uh the second column what a high school lunches have been or Junior High and high school if we had any increases that year and what the elementary lunches have been and any increases there and you can see that it's been about you know every other year 15 cents there were a couple years where we skipped and we we made up that difference in another year and then we had uh if you see in 2014 15 16 17 we didn't really have any increases we did a 10 cent increase in 2018-19 and then we did a 30 Cent increase then in 2019-20 and we haven't had any increases since then so we did talk about this at cabinet a little bit it and when we looked at it we just thought looking at what our history has been and where we've been that perhaps we would want to look at raising our lunch rates to get to that 3.56 median and then every year just have a small increase for families to keep up with that model so that's the information that we wanted to present and I would be open to any questions or any direction that the board would like me to follow up on have they been keeping up uh my concern with Aramark over the last several years even pre-pandemic and certainly post is that they have not necessarily been able to provide adequate Staffing according to what they what our RFP was for and what our needs had been so they had been understaffed I know that they still are um how how far away from meeting the the bid parameters are they currently you know and that's uh we've been having that conversation they too have been impacted by the Staffing shortages and whatnot and uh there was a rework of the numbers before I got here so in order to save on the lunch costs it was taken out of the Staffing costs that they had in their contracts so there was some known decisions about Staffing levels and uh uh so what happened is where we normally had people in the lunchrooms who were serving they would then clean the tables clean the lunchroom a lot of those responsibilities were put at the building level so rather than there being extra staff members on airmarks team they were just really there to serve lunch and then the buildings and grounds were there to clean the lunchroom but also they were doing things pre-pandemic already even like not having Junior High snack lines which can impact behavior and I know that we have talked about that for for a number of years um which is why it it is interesting that it is one falling on our staff members increasing their responsibilities but to you know if if we're not able to fully open the facilities we have they're not even able to provide enough staff to actually serve the lunch or serve the ancillary portions like the stack lines and things and the lunch sizes don't necessarily fill up Junior High kids yeah and I so I would I would I would kind of quantify that more as like the services so you had mentioned and that's something I can look into the giant Junior High snack lines um to see if those are services that they're offering or why they and I don't I I don't want to limit it just to one thing that I happened to remember um but my I I would imagine that this would follow through at the Elementary and high school level also I'm just not aware of a specific example like that okay it's definitely at the element Al definitely at high school as well yeah I'm hearing things about no deli sandwiches uh one student had asked me about specifically but you know I invited them to come to a board meeting so but it but the point remains I'd like to know before I would look at any more contracts where things are standing with that just to have you know a clear view so what's uh so basically we want to kind of take a look at what's in that contract and make sure that they're filling all those obligations that they've been and if they've been renegotiated how that's changed from when the RFP went out in 2019 to what they're doing now no like are they fulfilling the Staffing requirements that we have because what I just heard was they've made some known changes where some of the cleaning responsibilities are now falling on our custodial staff and thank you for sharing that because I wasn't aware of that well and that was to maintain that was to maintain that the to not raise prices typically they go up by CPI so in every year we negotiate and bring to the board here's the here's the lunch contract and then here's what it's being increased to and with budget cuts we are asked to not raise those costs so we came up with some other Creative Solutions as my understanding but that doesn't speak to the fact that we don't have all of the food lines even open is is kind of the point I'm making well like I just mentioned right and it sounds like it looks I see Dr sparlin nodding that he's understanding what it is I'm talking about do you advertisement maybe on that new scoreboard do you know what I struggle with I struggle with um the fact that food is in into um feeding our children's brains and energy throughout the day and I don't know who has spent time in a cafeteria or not but the amount of least at the thorough way because the food isn't good because the way it's prepared the way it's presented is pretty incredible because I've been able to go to and I will say my experience is limited to Elementary over the last couple years but um it is pretty it's hard like I we have to be prudent with our finances there's no doubt about that but kids deserve that nutrition and that food to help them enable them to be the best in their learning environment and what I'm struggling with is that I've heard that it is not meeting those that requirement and so while I under the finances are important to understand is it actually helping our students and I just I don't know I've said this for years I don't feel that we're getting the best out of error marketing don't know where our Leverage is with that with with being able to say you know what can we do better you know we're Partners what can we do better versus just another contract renewal it's not just a contract renewal to me I think that kind of goes along with my one question I had with this which was are we strictly looking at money with with this vendor I mean is that why we're here is it is it and if not well then what what is it about because like I I've heard like you're not you're not alone like I've heard the same thing for years right and and so I I don't know I mean I'm willing to explore every option every perspective I mean is it just I don't know is it be careful what I say but like you know what what is it right at what point like is it is it us is it I don't know uh you know I don't know what it is right some of it I honestly because we have these conversations um on a monthly basis with our Aramark team and we talk about the menus and we talk about the types of food we have the restrictions that they have I mean they can't just serve anything it's got to be that it's true you know uh kind of that food that's offered a healthy balanced lunch and we get a lot of kids yeah have we surveyed parents or asked for student feedback or no I mean that's that's the reality of it so um I mean again we're in a situation we there's no we have what I don't know can we do that before we have to have um I'm sorry this is just for information yeah um you know it's a quick pulse survey right is the you're asking seven people who have various experience and discussions um with community members but we have to we have to utilize the people that we are serving too right like a quick pulse survey it can be three or five questions and if people fill it out they feel that um but leverage our our families and our students yeah I think that's something that we can do I don't know if we've done that we haven't done it in my time here um done a survey on the lunch program the offerings and things of that nature but that would also inform the RFP they want to inform the group that's serving the lunches so absolutely yeah it's long past due yeah yeah I think that's definitely something that we can we can put together so by all means yeah West Aurora does this quite frequently they put together a really quick pulse survey they put the link on their Facebook page and they keep it open for a very short time and it just is great feedback for um for these types of situations you know yeah and I think too it would help based on the information we get it might help clarify some of the uh misunderstood about the lunch program issues it's like there might be some education points in here that we can say that oh that's not exactly what we do and here's why or why not so yeah I think that we can make that happen all right any other questions for Dr petsky and the food service contract all right thank you Dr petsky most appreciated thank you thank you item 8.8 is in regards to our web content and mass communication tool and this is comedus is here to present I brought a long Scott Fidel is our district webmaster and talk the lingo more than I can kind of kick you off so um kind of joke around like why not have some more changes in the same year that we have a student information system we have it we'll have a new superintendent so why not a whole new website content communication tool um so the reason we're bringing this um forward to you is that we received information unfortunately just a matter of weeks after we resigned a five-year agreement with Blackboard that they were in fact being acquired by another company called final site and while there has been um confirmation that the contract terms would be honored with the new owner there's also been several concerns in this short time that we've already had as far as support channels and service and functions so um we kind of want to paint that picture for you and see sort of where we're at and let you know what we've explored as potential alternatives so final site is the new parent company that purchased out Blackboard they of course have the goal of integrating all of the existing Blackboard customers into their platform by trying to get everybody to kind of commit earlier especially in these longer contracts that are in place they've offered an incentive for what they're titling as free conversion nothing's free we discovered that earlier but there is a significant cost Savings in making the commitment to move to their new platform prior to June 30th of this year that deadline coming rather quickly is what kind of spurred our department to take a look at okay if we're going to be changing vendors because clearly Blackboard will no longer be an option for us um is final site really the best choice and what other options are out there what what do they look like as far as cost comparison and capacity mentioned already over the last six months we've had some less than desirable service from Blackboard in a lot of cases you know Scott's the one that brings forth the problem too Blackboard and kind of has to stay on them to get those answers and we've had some issues with some total outages and and some other things so um also another reason why we were looking and then when we did look at final site as far as what their costs would look like for us to do a conversion and then what the cost would look like to have them as our service provider they're either at or above a number of other providers so it's not like it's the best deal and so obviously when we're making an investment we wanted to look at a number of other things uh Scott kind of took the lead on this um this is a listing here of the ones the vendors that we looked at that we either he either engaged in a demo or we had a meeting or proposal submitted from um as far as looking on the surface this list would even be much longer but these are ones that we engaged with in some way to kind of gather more information when we're talking about both the website content management system as well as the mass communications both of those right now are satisfied by Blackboard there are companies that do only one or only the other are our desire would be to stay with one company for integration purposes and when we looked at these when Scott kind of did the initial pass through we built a little bit bigger team of some of our folks here that frequently utilize the website obviously Scott is the webmaster myself um Cindy and and Michelle early because she utilizes the programs or excuse me the website to advertise quite a bit of programs and maintain a number of resources so we had some good people around the table just to take a look at that and then Scott built a very intricate Matrix of the capacity of the capabilities that we were looking for in any of these service providers as well as what were their design options some have provide more user-friendly options some more customization some of it costs more depending on who you're looking at accessibility is still a huge thing for us for those of you that were around when we went through that whole original complaint in regards to accessibility we still want to maintain a very high level accessibility ease of use I don't know how many people realize this but we have a lot of users of our website across the district so there's teacher pages there's Pages for individual schools there's Pages for departments there's calendars that get posted so we have a lot of users and we had to make sure that this really is user friendly intuitive programming as well as a conversion timeline because clearly we don't want to be without either one of these tools so how quickly could we move something as big as our site over and then costs and customer satisfaction so Scott spent some time going through some references we brought forth our final two for consideration in a real in-depth way final site and catapult K-12 are the two that floated to the top again final site is the company that purchased Blackboard that is currently who we are working with at this point in time but we are still on the Legacy Blackboard platform we have not converted to the final site platform both would be great options both have pros and cons so final site again a lot of flexibility with customization and shifting layouts they are a larger company they do have a lot of resources they interface well with our student information system they if we were to stay with final site we'd have the most flexibility as far as a conversion timeline goes because we'd be operating under the parameters with them both for our old site and our new site so as far as conversion rate you know converting over we'd be able to kind of run side by side and turn one on and turn one off however they do have limits on the users the sizes and files so everything was kind of priced out individually so if we need more than this many users it's this much per user if our files are this size or bigger it's this much if we have this many pages now as an add-on so the price even though it looks somewhat comparable in the beginning we're a little bit worried about how quickly that price could rise on the add-ons and then the accessibility concerns there's a certain tool that comes with the purchase that would not be adequate would not be something we would recommend utilizing for the accessibility component so we'd be looking at purchasing an outside portion to add into this piece from final site so catapult um great customer service very Hands-On company conversations with them they've been very responsive with us there are no limits on file sizes no limits on the number of users that we would have we we did speak with some people that are using them again ease of use is a big thing that that came across it's not a new company they've also been there for 20 plus years they have districts that are even much larger than we are and they kind of tout themselves on sort of a fast response time and really helping to solve support issues so very customer focused there are a few pecans that we wanted to say that the layout as far as the home page goes we kind of have a structure we'd establish and it wouldn't be like oh let's just totally flip everything on its side and redesign the entire website there'd be some ability but there would certainly be cost and time behind that and not as much fluidity there although I will tell you that the one time we have made major changes it was a lot of work and kind of retraining everybody on where to go so it's not something we often do um both of these you'll see we have included pricing on an app we got rid of our app that we had with Blackboard because it was kind of a landing page for links to other apps it wasn't really integrating with the things that we had in place and these apps with both of these companies would allow us to have some more integration so we believe an app would bring value to the district our final recommendation was catapult again based a lot around that customer orientation responsible they're very responsive you'll see when we show you the contract costs it's a very stable cost predictable cost there's not a lot of add-ons or things that we think would come in last minute they do have a number of other platforms we could add we'll throw a quick um one there's some capacity around something that may meet our needs as far as like emergency communications and some things that they're looking at in the student services world that catapult also brings to the table so there's options here to integrate even beyond what our Communications Department needs would be they do have a lot of experience with very large districts Nationwide positive references and so on so they do have customers sitting on our new student information system that we're integrating to so we were able to have some conversations and make sure that that's not going to be a concern it's hard to read I'm sorry but I just want to point out at the very bottom there yellow is our Blackboard contract as it stands today 69 550 is the fixed cost for all of the four remaining years on that contract um however if we were to migrate over to the final site and make that known prior to June 30th that first year costs would jump from the 69 to 121 270 and that is inclusive um of you know the full the full conversion cost over so you'll see that drop a little bit in year two at 99 000 but then it does climb over those years 101 103 and 105.
Yes. Yes. So everybody have that problem. So then who will monitor them after Well, because they would have to teach in the private p excuse me, public or charter school system and that's when we would work with the department to uh help facilitate some of that um service obligation. And should there be a cap on this cap being a cap on tuition cap? tuition. I mean on on how much money we actually have and how you know if we only have x amount of dollars and say you have a hundred students apply but we only have enough for 25 is there a cap and how do you how do you then screen who gets it? Well, I think it's like if you only have a certain amount, then I think it would be very competitive from the standpoint of the students trying to receive some of these funding.
the column right next to that however if we were to say that we are going to just stay with Blackboard and migrate over to the final site product um and not have that verbal commitment or not verbal I guess probably written commitments to them by June 30th of this year that design expense for year one and migrating over jumps to 274 900 dollars so it's big so that they're clearly incentivizing their customers to make their decisions now as to whether or not they plan to stay in the Legacy platform or move over um and then catapult is the final column at the very end there so year one would be 125 again that is inclusive of those conversion costs on year one which are a little higher and then we drop back down to the 83 783 dollars and that's consistent for the next four years on that one so again a little bit more consistency in the pricing which is what we were used to and not nearly as much money to make that initial conversion over so we're here to answer any questions that was really thorough um thank you for all the hard work that went into that um so the finalists you chose you'd mentioned the app we had pulled the app from the district website occasionally that comes up in questions why don't we have the app um you feel that even with the less robust app options it's still an improvement over what we had yeah so the the new app would have more integration part of the reason we actually got rid of the Blackboard app is the Blackboard app was no longer supporting even our standard news feeds so we push a simple picture of students getting an award and the picture would just come through distorted you wouldn't be able to read the message Etc so on the Catapult K-12 app the news is back to being integrated push notifications can come back to our devices so if we have an emergency if we have weather closings things like that that that all is functional again and it might stations with some of the other consumers of the Catapult product they are finding that it's very successful and works very well so they're competent in that product and then they say if things go wrong where we had issues with our previous vendor catapult is very responsive if something breaks in the rare case it breaks they say because it doesn't usually but they said they're very responsive and then if a break happens they'll typically get a fix within under a week under a day for common small issues even less their two-hour response time typical thank you and the only thing I saw that was a major difference difference in price it was uh roughly 17 000 was for the mass communication system so I think you just described one feature I was going to ask what what's what are the benefits that we're getting for that balance catapult K-12 product [Music] built-in newsletter functionality that comes at a premium so every school kind of has a couple of built-in templates as well that come with that product so that way um if you're familiar with how our parent messages come out right now we typically get them through a third party vendor our principals independently sign up for newsletters to get a nice little template same with our District Parent message that would actually end up built directly into the Catapult K-12 product there are add-ons that are available in other systems vinyl site does have a little bit more of that communication as well for their Mass comms piece it's just different on how they propose them the basic functionality of the mass communication systems for us was the integration to the the synthesis number one we have to make sure we can pull that data over regularly and then the ability to communicate a number of Fashions email text phone calls you know posting directly to social media sites or to our website or whatever that looks like so I mean it there is a difference there but again it's just where the difference lies in the proposals we broke this down really far for you um really the bottom dollar there is really what's important we would never never at this point in time we aren't comfortable separating the two systems from different providers we feel there's a lot of continuity when we have both the website and the the communications together so while they differ a little bit in some areas I think you'd see they dramatically make for up for it in others I have a few questions first of all I want to say that you've been doing a great job with the website that we do have you've made some very significant changes it's been a lot easier to navigate still you are I know kind of um handcuffed by the the actual structure of what it is with regard page three you spoke you were sharing um who looked into this and evaluated it did we talk to building admins to your point but you said that they all have their own sites and did we ask parents so no no because what we would ask for and we will but I feel like what they see so this is kind of the structure behind the scenes and then the ability as long as the structure allows for user interface to be friendly on the other side when we build that structure about where they'd want content and how and how frequently they'd want content to change and what menus and such look like that's when we really need the input of kind of the end user and the second to last user as far as the structure behind all the coding and building and integration and all of that that would be really very minimal as to who would understand what that means and what we were looking at between these providers so Scott was really our expert in that area but once we choose a provider for what that looks like then now that we would have sort of the Bare Bones then as we build the structure from that that's when the input from those that use it to edit it and those that use it as a resource would really be built table I am built a lot of websites in my time and I do think that user experience should always be loaded up front that's just my personal my personal opinion and what has worked for me but did we also ask the different schools for insight into this since they are the ones that are using this to update so we did in our last couple webmaster meetings that we have monthly with the independent building level webmasters that kind of each of the 25 sites schools and District we we did talk about this potential migration different vendors what's the difference between the ones most people were comfortable there weren't a lot of questions about what was presented at the time it was a limited presentation but the the concerns is the difference and again it gets into my new details in the back end that most the quantity of work that goes into how to complete a simple task you know when you're on the website you see something as simple as I want to read a story about the cheer team winning an award and I just want to read that right and honestly and I want to see the students names for the back end user they have to pick a photo they have to add some little text they have to write that that article and the differences between these systems are you know current one that has maybe 10 clicks we'll call it 10 little items that that webmaster needs to fill in and then on Final site it can go up to closer to 25 to 30 things that you need to do and then hold it's it's back to the more familiarity of around 10 it might even be a little less like eight so seeing those little differences you know if there were things where it's like how much work is this going to become if you go with the if you go with one vendor versus a different one it's different levels of work and that that does concern certain webmasters and how much time it would But ultimately at the end of the day for each of those buildings it's how much time will it take to complete the simple task put the news out there and make effective communication for their building and there are a couple of building admin that are a part of those meetings as well but they're on as a stipend role and I think if you you're you're seeing that their content management tool is definitely better than what we have it's a it's similar okay every content management system is going to be different and there are learning curves with everything you probably heard this when you heard about the CIS um there's always going to be different audience different clicks different things like that it's the same with content management system you're learning a a whole new little sandbox to play in things that will be the same and there are things that will be different and what we're seeing is in the Catapult K-12 product more familiarity than the final site product at this time because of yes you get more flexibility in the final site product yes at the end of the day you can do probably more if you're really Advanced however that advancement comes at a cost of 10 your access and also the Catapult K-12 product gives you any teacher can call their support any one of our faculty can call the the support line and get support through them not just through myself that's a key point right there yeah on page five you were saying um that they are very responsive are you saying that from your perspective they've been very responsive both the references said that when they were talking about and like Scott said they're they're two hours you know if they can get something figured out they put it at the top priority right away okay but they're not seeing anything really outside of a week as far as the larger problems go but also responsiveness in the way that we met with them talked with them you know they presented stuff to Scott then he's like hey I'd like somebody else to see it so we bring another person in and we do it a third time because we want these people to see it and every time it was met with just eagerness to really um you know partner with schools and so it it's dramatically different than the experience we have at this time with our current provider what and in all fairness it's the sales like the being in the sales funnel you expect them to kind of be like on their game right sure which is why we did that with the references knowing that you reached out to references really what um I wanted to hear so and then if you were to do this when would the transition take place so for all of our schools if they had to train on this is going to happen over the summer we're not doing it at like the beginning of the school year oh it would have to be at a time when we'd be able to to move content without there being a bunch of new content being added at the same time um I hate I hesitate to answer it for you until we finish our discussions with legal as far as like our our contracts and all of those kind of things go um we if we were if everything were to move forward and we it was a possibility for this coming school year it'd be something we'd start on right away the bulk majority of the work like probably 95 percent of it will fall um you know on on Scott in coordination with them the schools themselves will have to learn the new um CMS side but again there's some familiarity there and that's really more about like fonts and layouts and templates and those kind of things they wouldn't be responsible for the actual migration of content and usability of the the product itself so yes if if it is possible for us to have it going for this coming school year it was something we would start right now and all of that integration would be occurring over the summer well I'm more worry about um our administrators having to learn whoever that is whoever's taking it at each School having to learn something at the beginning of the school year when it's um there's just a lot going on and then what else is on their plate at that time that they have to as their new curriculum is there new this is there new that yeah so we um Scott does a great job with training we do have a webmaster at each location which is kind of their mini expert at the building that can handle and has capacity a mini expert at the building that can handle and has capacity as well as um training on how to do all of those things as far as learning like a new mass communication system and things I think that's why there would be benefit too if it does work to transition at the same time as we transition with the CIS there's going to be new communication mechanisms within that and so it's training we could kind of train side by side so if you're looking to send an email to a parent you know regarding something with student discipline or whatever I'm using an example here and you're working within the in the CIS this is how you would do this now if you're looking at trying to send your school's newsletter out school-wide here's how you would do this and so I'm really kind of training and knowing both because there is overlap and there always will be between those systems so it would be a great time to train it instead of training one thing with this system and then switching systems and training something with a new system again who's this is totally random question but who typically at a school handles the website or does it vary from school so we do have stipend webmaster positions at every school oh I didn't know that yeah yeah so those all report up to Scott um he trains them on a regular basis as far as accessibility and you know functions of within the CMS system and then a number of our building administrators also have access and some of the secretaries they'll post their events on their calendar or post a newsletter but as far as overall that's really the responsibility of the building webmaster at each school okay is I'm assuming it's kind of bare minimum at this point point of entry but all social media is integrated no it's not all so it does have we do have functionality within our Mass comms when we want stuff to go out to social media as another source to receive the information like you do with a text or an email so we can push things to post through the mass communications but actually creating and posting a number of our social media things is a separate task because the information isn't always going out through Mass coms to get to the website so it kind of depends on what the point of you know we have all these different places we can put things on the website and on social media platforms and newsletters and so on and so as we get information in within the department we kind of have a matrix to decide where it's going to land and so it's not full integration to social media but we do have the capacity of things that are going out through this system to hit social media does that make sense yeah okay thank you so much anyone else we're good all right so more to come thank you thank you Scott for staying all right action item 9.1 approval of bills for payment can I have a motion please I would love to give you one I make a motion to authorize the payment of bills in the amount of 28 million six hundred and thirty three thousand one hundred and forty dollars and 17 cents as presented second hi Mr Miss Doyle I miss simulton aye motion passes six zero action item 9.2 approval of settlement agreement with Jewel Labs can I have a motion please I make a motion to authorize the school board to enter into the settlement offer for government entity claims against Jewel Labs Inc and direct president simultane to sign and return the February 18th 2023 settlement offer for government entity claims against Jewel Labs Inc letter and the government entity release of all claims second Doyle aye Mr Cerrone aye Ms simultan aye Mr Gatewood aye Ms Johnson aye Mr pluger motion passes 6-0 action item 9.3 approval of resolution authorizing dismiss dismissal of probationary teachers can have a motion please I make a motion to approve this resolution authorizing dismissal and non-employment of probationary part-time teachers and teachers hired under a temporary contract second Miss simulton aye Mr cloger aye Ms Doyle aye Ms Johnson aye Mr Cerrone aye Mr Gatewood aye motion passes six zero action item 9.4 approval of resolution authorizing dismissal of first-year teachers can have a motion please I make a motion to approve this resolution authorizing dismissal and non-employment of first-year probationary teachers second [Music] action item 9.5 approval or resolution authorizing dismissal of third year teachers [Laughter] let's go I said well see that's not that's not oh I make a motion authorizing dismissal and non-reemployment of third year probationary teachers second Mr Gatewood aye Miss Johnson aye Mr Cerrone aye Ms Doyle aye Ms simulton aye most motion passes 6-0 okay 9.5 or 6.
So, again, that's where we would have to do a much better job of the intake, the monitoring uh and maybe even looking at the specific criteria, adding perhaps more criteria criteria to the normal admission process to make it very uh competitive. if it's uh funding so once you admit the students and you commit to this program it's a four year or however long it takes right that's correct program so you can't say oh after two years sorry you're not going to get a tuition waiver so the the legislature is actually hopefully committing if if we don't they turn out that there's not enough funding for the last two years then is the university gonna then take that on well I do know um that there are are some of our funding sources that we work closely with the department. We try to maintain some level of reserve for that particular purpose where uh funding just doesn't uh materialize but yet we're still on the hook.
approval of resolution authorizing dismissal and non-reemployment of fourth year probationary teachers I make a motion to approve this resolution authorizing dismissal and non-reemployment of fourth year probationary teachers second Miss Johnson aye Ms Doyle aye Mr pluger aye Mr Cerrone aye Miss simulton aye Mr Gatewood aye motion passes 609.7 approval of resolution authorizing non-renewal and administrative contracts and non-reemployment of Administrators I make a motion to approve this resolution authorizing non-renewal of administrative contracts and non-reemployment of Administrators second Miss Johnson aye Mr Tyrone aye Ms simultan aye Mr Gatewood aye Ms Doyle aye Mr ploger aye motion passes 6-0 action item 9.8 approval of building administrator contracts I make a motion to approve the building administrator contract as presented second aye Ms simultan aye Mr Sir Miss Johnson a resounding I Mr plugin action item 9.9 approval of personnel report can I have a motion please I make a motion to approve the Personnel report as presented second simulton aye Mr pluger aye Mr Gatewood Miss Doyle aye motion passes six zero 10.1 can I have a motion to adjourn I make a motion to adjourn we are now adjourned
We're committed to these students. So we would we the university college would have to find a way to get them done. That is our commitment to the students that we bring in. Hence the reason why I think the intake of who we bring in is critical. In your experience, is it the cost of college tuition that is keeping not having enough people go into teaching or is it other things such as the role of a teacher has expanded so far that we have nurses and psychologists and caretakers and so forth. uh and so their role in the classroom has expanded to degree that I don't know that some teachers feel that they signed up for that or is it the the tuition barrier you know I I'm not I don't think it's the tuition barrier I think uh I think the a lot of intake that we do have with candidates very excited about the profession u and uh by the time I think there's multiple reasons perhaps they decide to realize at the end that this may not be for them um we do have those Uh but yeah, for the most part, I think there's multiple uh I don't know if you can really just pinpoint one thing that prohibits a person to continuing on.
That's my sense because you're hearing it people think that oh just if we're going to give tuition waiverss that we're going to be flooded with a lot of people going into that profession, but that's not necessarily true. Correct. Okay. Members, any other questions? Thank you Dean Mora for being here. Oh yeah. So we have a similar program a grow our own program that's right at your college that's right uh education and um do you have an idea of how many students have gone through the program from the start oh my gosh at least over 150 plus students and that has a very we we do have a few that couple that I know of that have not gone through but finished but 99 98% have completed and are doing extreme extremely well. Extremely well. And what is the amount or percentage of funding that um we're giving them for the tuition?
They average about 16,000 for three semesters. And what's is that the total cost or for an individual? Yeah, but that's the that covers the full cost. That's the full cost. Thank you. So, what would be the difference between that program? Well, um that this would this I don't know if there would be any major difference. I think where I think the difference would be the current situation or the level of the candidate if they're already have received a college degree. I think that'll differ than those that are coming in as without a college degree and trying to complete one. So that would be your first difference. the ones that already have the degree like our grow our own already have some level of of of content knowledge um and therefore their program will be a little bit different from the undergraduates because the ones that this bill is referring to would have to take enroll in all these content area courses and all so the part that with the grow which is the beauty of it is because we're just focusing in on the teaching and and or the pedagogy piece with the understanding that they already possess the content knowledge So um when sorry when and if the student doesn't finish and they need to be collected and if the monies are collected back then who gets the money the university or the legislature who gave the money to to the university or in this case for specifically for the grown the money would go back to the department of education.
Okay. for this program? Yes. Oh, for this program? Um, oh, that's a good question. I would think that um the university would have to be the one that monitoring. Yeah, but we provide the funds. So, if they don't fulfill and they don't get it, then should the funds go back to the it should it should go back to the legislature. That is correct. That's not what the bill says. Okay. Thank you. Question for So do you are you folks able to monitor these students I mean these students who become teachers for be it seven years six years eight years whatever that is um and keep track of them and then if they don't complete or teach or fulfill the obligation then you're able to find them and and go after them for the payment there would have to be a system center to that have to be built that's the only way I think we can track So you don't have a system down not anything automated because you guys can't even collect the back the pay overpayments right I mean millions of dollars and over payments that are uncollected from you you know the the other way that maybe as as you were talking and I'm listening that the structure of of this kind of tuition reimbursement could be that like a scholarship but it's a declining balance so that the student who takes on this scholarship has 100% and every year of credit, every month of credit, however you want to credit them, for every year that they work, you credit them down.
And so at the end of that term, the balance is zero. Just the opposite. It's it's more of an accounting thing, but that will give maybe the student that incentive to keep working because they can see a declining balance on the amount of the scholarship. At the end, it's the same thing. We got to collect. Uh but psychologically, we may want to consider a different mechanism. But you have to automate this. So a simple program could be written to do that. So should this be only limited to residents or to instate instate or because right now the bill is also silent on that our own. I would hope that we would yeah focus on local local students. Okay. Members, any other questions for not? Thank you. Okay, take a This is going back to order the joint committee on higher education and education. We are on House Bill 04, House draft one of the CARES have conferred and you know we we recognize that we have a shortage of teachers.
So I'm not sure that just a tuition waiver alone is going to solve that. However, we do want to uh do as many things as possible to support that endeavor. The recommendation, however, members, is that we amend this to address some of the issues that was raised. One, that we limit this to Hawaii residents. Uh that the amount be capped uh and that would be up to the finance and ways and means committee to make that determination. So, it'll be blank. That the seven years also be a cap. That it would be no more than seven years. Um and that we also get hear from DOE as to their recommendations on how they're going to be able to monitor this. So I need to put in a program that you're not able to to monitor or to be able to collect and also any other recommendations that we are able if the requirements or the obligation is not met because there's so much evidence on overpayments of all state employees that go uncollected millions and millions of dollars and somebody's funding that.
There's issues of tuition already at the University of Hawaii that they cannot collect years and years. The only way they can try to collect if a student comes back in and try to register again. Um but that hardly happens. So we just don't want to keep putting us in that kind of a situation. So hopefully um we'll get more info. So this matter also will have a defective date and we'll send it on to ways and means for more discussion and hopefully we'll hold back from DOE. So members any other discussion any other amendments? No sheet for this one. You don't have to. Okay. So chair's recommendation higher ed is to vote is to pass amendments. Chair Kim I. Vice Chair Kanani. Hi. Senator Pukanag is excused. I vote I senator. Recommendation adopted. Thank you. For education. Recommendation of the chair is saying as with amendments.
Chair votes I. Vice chair votes I. Senator I Senator for education education Richard I senator I okay five members present all voting is affirmative to pass amendments Okay, that is the joint committee on higher education and education. Mark and welcome to the joint hearing of the committee on agriculture environment committee on education and committee on higher education. We have one measure on the agenda and that is HB247HD1. Increases the percentages of local a products that certain departments are required to purchase by certain deadlines. Expands annual reporting requirements to include the total spending by certain market channels. Requires uh system to include a corrective action plan in its respective report to the legislature should it not meet its benchmark. repeals the separate benchmark for the Department of Education that requires 30% of food served in public schools to consist of locally sourced products by 2030 and appropriates funds for the establishment of farm state leaison within the office of the governor.
First up to testify is department of education. Good afternoon, Chair Gabard, vice chair, members of the committee. Colonel Turo, deputy superintendent uh testifying on behalf of Superintendent Hayashi for the Department uh stands on its written testimony in opposition to this uh measure. Uh we are absolutely in favor of buying local. Um there's no question about that. We're absolutely in favor of buying local from our farmers. As we've testified in the past, our concern is simply adding four other departments to the goal uh with the limited capacity that we believe is happening right now with certified farmers uh will be problematic. Uh the the percentage increases look pretty with 25 30 matching the years and that's that's fine. Our only concern here is that if the farming community would and we'd have to work with the Hawaii Farm Bureau and others uh to make sure that these farmers can not only produce what we need, but they commit what we need.
And that's been the the challenge with some of the smaller farmers. Uh we realize that we want to localize and regionalize some of the purchases which which occurs today. Uh but when we're talking about um compliance with on the federal level, uh there is some concern with this bill and the way it's written in in terms of requiring that kind of uh percentage mandatory especially when you start adding for other state departments. So happy to ask you any further questions if committee members have. Thank you. [Music] Morris done yet. Yes. Uh Morris, would you like to come share your comments, please? Share your comments. Oh. audience here. Okay, sorry about that. Okay, more with the department. So, the department is uh supportive of the state's goals of increasing local food self-sufficiency, but uh we would defer to the state departments and the University of Hawaii whose food purchases are directly affected by this measure.