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Mr secretary can we have roll call please Mr Albert here Mr gagos is he here Mr swales here miss zit stumbris here miss Wolk here Dr Hall here president Brown here let us stand for the Pledge of Allegiance led by board member Alex deos and followed by our mission statement read by board vice president Dr Hall I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible and justice for all and our mission is to engage and Empower our students to positively impact their community and future okay is it sounds like we do not we have one that was sent in Via electronically and that's from a Mr John bruta I think that's how you pronounce it and it reads how exactly is the football field project being paid for what is the cost what is the scope of this new project and what other parts are planned I see nothing on the School site that talks about this project I noticed something last year talking about acquiring up Tiff money isn't that this taxpayers money been used for a project that should have been brought before us taxpayers what other projects is the board discussing thank you John pluta do we have any board updates yes uh so I went to a art gallery uh named Union Street Gallery in Chicago Heights and um I was amazed uh because the the entire second story of the gallery had some really impressive stuff paintings drawings sculptures uh every every sort of medium you could think of and I didn't I wasn't really paying attention I'm not I'm not that artsy but I wasn't paying attention and I saw the name tags next to the pieces of Art and it said like grade 10 grade 11 and then I'm like holy cow all these pieces of art were made in art class by high schoolers and some of the high schoolers came uh to show off their pieces and take pictures with their stuff on display and it was a lot of uh students from uh um from Rich Township and and other schools that are close to here you know but not 2011 you um I spoke to the director and uh I asked him if he would be like opposed to having 2011 you students uh and he's like no like it's close enough we're right here um I would not turn away students or or a program uh that you had uh in creete so I think that um I don't know someone in our art Department would be um would uh like to display some of our because I know we have talented artists in this school you know um and I think it would be really cool to have them shown in an art gallery I think it would be really fun so I will pass information along the high school we'll do awesome uh I also want to speak up about uh the Early Learning Center I have a little one here um in Miss Rodriguez's class and there's an event pretty much every month where it's like after hours um so the parents can come and see what the kids are up to the kids can socialize and there's a really good sense of Community inside the ELC um and like I was amazed I didn't I had a middle schooler and then a high schooler and we didn't have events every month but with ELC uh it's you know it's every every week we're getting to notice that there's something else going on and I really appreciate the effort that um that ELC is putting towards early learning uh with the students and everything and I I just want that to continue uh for the next you know for foreseeable future because uh it is important to keep the kids and the parents engaged uh in early learning So yeah thank you Alex and you know that's de in my heart that early learning and it's amazing just going the threeyear old foury old and seeing those little kids and how attentive they are and with the art gallery thank you for sharing that with us and we definitely have some artists here and we saw that last year I think it was last year where the kids wrote books and had they had segments of their Arts within those books so but I know we have a whole slew of kids that can draw and um display their talent so yeah if we have an opportunity to engage our kids that'll be great any other updates well I also want to thank the board we get recognized as a high governance board by the our group what iasb three rivers okay so I'm so proud of you all you do a lot of what you do is not being noticed out there and some of it is but they saw us worthy to be recognized first time in the School District history that we have been recogn recognized and it would not be without all the work that you do so I'm so proud of each and every one of you keep it up and just keep this ball going and I also had a chance to attend the military ball I went from looking like a person working in a coal mine within an hour with a black tie suit and Tuxedo on so I didn't really clean my fingernails real good so but anyway that was a good event Dr Perkins show build up and as well as a few administrators so I knew my way and I knew exactly how I was going to leave soon as the dance music came on I was out of there I hid behind Dr Perkins and he he looked around where was I I was G so but it was a nice event great food and if you get the opportunity next year please attend that it's a really nice event I know you guys attended an event right I don't want to take your thunder away what about the event that you had over the weekend right wasn't it no I I I it was an overnight trip to Quincy for show they ended their season yeah so yeah we were in uh Quincy illino Quincy Illinois okay so I guess you can't be in two places at the same time no unfortunately that ball has been every last few years has been every single that weekend on the same time yeah oh we're going to have to talk about that okay all right okay all right no other public comments or board updat I'm sorry if not moving along on our agenda is Administrative updates superintendent yeah we've got a couple things that we want to bring to the board and the community's attention um some things to celebrate um and the first you know is something we've talked about already and that was um one of our faculty members over at the high school was um was recognized as a golden apple finalist and that is Sarah Val Valeria excuse me and so she and her family are here tonight and I've also got um um Lamont here and um Miss car there as well I don't know Lamont did you want to say a few words or give some explanation about how that all worked uh before he say a few words he was there at the ball too yes he can okay tone his tuxedo as well he did not uh he he told me he was going to be the first one out uh thank you Dr Cara and to the esteemed Board of Education I just want to a few remarks about Sarah and it's noteworthy to mention that Sarah joined me about a week ago in Champagne Illinois where we presented about our educator Rising program uh I would have you to know we're one of the only programs representing the entire state of Illinois forging forward to ensure that we do our job to stop the teacher shortage or to kind of minimize it so here's what I wrote Because I was the nominator for Sarah and this comes directly straight from my heart as sensitive as I read it uh Sarah Valerio exemplifies the qualities of an extraordinary educator she does not teach for accolades but because she deeply understands the impact that education can have on her student lives lives skills that will stay with them long after they leave the classroom she does not view teaching as a mere career but rather as a calling in essence it's her life's Mission the passion for her work is in everything she does through collaboration with her principal the cre Moni High School educator pathway was born with Sarah at the helm through this program student students are able to see teaching and education as a viable and meaningful career path we are very fortunate to have such a passionate instructor in our midst and celebrate Sarah as one of our finest just so that you understand the magnitude of this accomplishment she was selected out of 480 uh injuries as one of 30 and I'm almost guaranteeing that she will be a recipient because there's not that many that were chosen because they're touting education as a viable career path uh Sarah exemplifies this every day I have no regrets and the students just love her when I come into that classroom the passion greets me at the door she's an extraordinary educator and she's worthy of this recognition from my my understanding she will be the first individual at the high school to receive this prestigious honor I'm speaking it because I would be so outdone if we're in St Charles and she does not get it but she deserves this recognition on tonight so if we can give her an Applause for everything that she does for the students daily and Dr K is it okay to have her come up to say a few things yes and then we're going to ask that the boy will get some pictures because that will be on our social media that we appreciate all right Mrs Sarah Valerio and her extraordinary family thank you Mr hollyfield I started getting choked up wonderful things you said about me thank you so much um thank you to the board for having me here and thank you Mr hollyfield for nominating me um I've been at Creon for 21 years I taught majority of your kids and I'm sorry it is such an honor and I absolutely love working at this District I really do um I have so many students that want to go into education they just didn't have a pathway to do it they didn't know how to go about it and I hope myself and Mr hollyfield and everyone at the high school is opening that path up for them uh last year we had about 20 kids in Ed Rising now we're up to 48 I just had a student join today so our program is growing so much and I always look at the kids I'm like you want to be a teacher you want to be a teacher teach and some are like no I'm trying to draw them in so I I absolutely love the program and you know I just want to say I couldn't do it on my own um Mr hollyfield Miss Perkins thank you so much for your support and all the teachers at the high school have been so helpful um what I've done this semester is each kid in the class I've placed them with a cooperating teacher one day a week and they are teaching lessons to their fellow high school students and I mean I have 23 kids to place and I've so many teachers volunteering their time to help mold and help guide our kids into education so thank you so much and I want to thank my family my husband Tim my Tony my son Jake and Tony and because they support me at home and I can't do anything without them so thank you thank you we're g to do a picture amazing stuff take you [Music] yeah what a what a milestone to have one of our own one of our finest can you hear me everybody can hear me okay you don't mind us please do yes so thank you and I love I love that hair do I love that hair do and you know me as the blue hair the BL to get me into teaching I tell you you remind me of so many of my good teachers that's been a long time ago but you never forget teachers like you so thank you for all you do and I see AP principal car over there she attended the ball too as well sorry didn't recognize you over there but keep doing what you're doing I guarantee these kids will never forget you okay yes thank you for all you do yeah I can attest to uh how great of a teacher you are uh Miss Valerio um my kid Raves about you uh you are her the reason why she comes to school um she she enjoys your class thoroughly you know it's we we talk about how amazing our students are all the time but how amazing is our staff because the students have to be taught by our staff so thanks thank you very much I thank you um my son out of all his teachers I remember you your name him talking about you so I definitely remember that so I definitely thank you for all you do and if you're ever looking for a job we might have one in our no no no no I'm I'm AER good thank you so much thank you thank you excellent you're welcome to stay if not you might need to get home to get uh get some sleep tonight yeah our meeting is not going to end until 11 o'clock tonight thank you take care now thank you guys and thank you sir thank you very much you got a beautiful wife and family thank you wel all right got got a couple other goodies just to share um this is the video we've talked about the safety Symposium uh that was done just a few weeks ago uh we just had the video that was done um to help showcase some of the work that we have um this video we also used um I had the opportunity I was selected to present at the um aasa conference that's the association of school superintendents Nationwide so I was uh selected to present on um this particular topic the work that we are doing here and again I had a chance to talk with superintendant from across the country a lot of them out west and they were amazed at the things that we are doing here and so we were able to share for free a lot of our templates that we've developed all of our ideas and so forth so it was a good way of networking the things that we are doing here in the district so I just wanted to share that with you we got to get away from free and figure out a way to monetize this if I could figure that out yeah uh to bundle it off because we we just it keeps growing all the time um so anyway so we just it's a quick short video that we have here we'll share that with you and um and then we'll kind of move on but anyway this was our video that we are using with one of our video local videographers that we have coming in and showcasing our work the creek mon school district 201u is very proud to have our second annual safety Symposium here at the district here we are sharing our story of how we've developed a comprehensive Safety and Security protocol system in the last 3 to four years our local First Responders our police our fire our EMS officials all understand what our languages are and our response needs so our relationships we have with them are so important to helping keeping us safe and our staff feeling like they can do the job academically so we've been looking at possibly getting therapy dogs so having the the session on therapy dogs has been very beneficial looking into that and how to acquire them and the train they go through I think was very will be very beneficial for us this is what staff should do this is what students should do this is what admin should do and you can't go probably 5T in this building without seeing it posted on the wall so that's something that we're going to look into replacing what we currently use is something that's more visible and kind of user friendly [Music] we are looking forward to having our next Conference next year so anyway as I've said to you before my goal in in communication is starting to bridge past the the newsletters you know even some of the social media out there and video like I've shared with you before is the the next Revolution that we are going into um some other things that I'm working on with communication to to bridge that is I our podast Studio we have developed a studio over at the high school uh I would encourage you to come and take a look at it we have it all set up it's in the media center it is available for students to use now um we've ordered some equipment some lighting uh we're putting in the last finishing touches on it I am getting ready we've prepared our scripts the first podcasting is going to set with Miss Baki to talk about our agricultural program it'll have three students it's going to have a community farmer as well and it's geared to start educating our community on some of the uh the services that we offer on our pathway program uh soon after that um I just started talking with uh Jason as well today as we're getting ready for the board presentation on our budget I think it is really important to start talking about the transparency with our finances and in our budgeting process um as we move forward so we're looking at doing a podcast hopefully with uh talking about budgets how to read your tax bill um we are looking to invite some of our County Assessors to go with us to do a podcast on that so we're going to look at giving some financial literacy through some podcasting pieces as well so again we're exploring different ways to start getting people to look at some of the things that we are doing and educate them as well um you've I've talked about the intranet that we're working on we're hoping to host get that launched in June so people can look at it over the summer as they get used to that um I was just sharing with some of the board members today we've got a board election coming up and as we are getting more and more board members that are coming in we want to make sure that we are uh you know putting together good strong training program so I'm already started putting together an intranet just for board members that would have just policies and information and training videos on finance and things like that so because there's so much for you to learn and we're trying to find digestible ways for giving you information so anyway so I'm just starting to work on that um I said if I could have a couple of you just give me some input on what you think we should put on it um so we're working on that as well um my last little goodie here that I was really excited about is today we had our second um homecoming meeting um we have about uh 15 uh or so people that are attending that we have people from the community I've have people that are alumni um that are coming in as well as our own staff we've partnered with some of our park districts and we're beginning to plan out that big homecoming so I'm telling everyone to mark your calendars we've already selected the homecoming it is October 3rd it is a Friday so I'll tell you a little bit of what we're planning to do we want to get this socialized out there so that you can tell people and alumni um to reserve that that date and come back uh we are planning to have a ribbon cutting ceremony probably September 12 and I will give you more information and we will socialize that we are going to invite a lot of people within the community to come once we do that then we will have our first um I think we have our first home game there because we are going to have some games there but we're going to have our first homecoming game then in um October 3rd and then for that whole week we are planning activities we are looking at having a bonfire we have the police and fire working with us on getting that and I it's going be in the back here Jason where did they talk about that bonfire is it two two possible locations either um the high school in between the A and the B wing because it's kind of guarded from the wind or behind the high school yeah so we're thinking about having that done on Thursday we're going to have a whole week of activities and um so we're going to have our students going out into the communities and painting the windows and getting that all excited I'm going to be going out and sharing this information with all the village board meetings and I'm going to be going to the Chamber of Commerce and any local um other events to start sharing this information um we are working to put together a uh a video to kind of get people excited about it and getting that all socialized so if you know anybody or alum I please spread the word for that week get them home get those kids home from uh the various locations and have them here um so we're certainly excited about that so those are just some of the updates from from this last are any kids on this committee no but we will be adding them in a little bit later right now we're looking at some of the logistics uh Mr keki has been working with the curricul or the um the activity piece but we are going to be layering them in um with the student government and have having them help with the other student governments in each of the other schools so I just had one question on the safety Symposium and I don't know if you have the answer or not but out of all the schools that attended the districts that attended were a lot of them local or were they outskirts of Illinois meaning I seen Cole city which is to me it's out there a little bit but anybody local um or were they all pretty much far because if you if the way I look at it is I think we've made huge strides here in making sure um because when we hosted spectacular at the beginning of uh February we had Parents coming in and they were completely surprised um in a way that that we had uh the evolved system we had police presence and security and and I think it just goes to show how much work we've put into that to make sure that when you come into this facility we're doing everything we can to make you feel the kids and and the parents or the staff members that feel safe in our buildings so it's just I'm just wondering how everybody else takes that in when they come here for that Symposium but were they close like you know mean was there a Lockport here or you know something in our area or was it Cole City or was it a little bit West of Western Illinois or Southern or Central I'm just wondering we had some up from the northern suburbs as well and they're coming typically the northern suburbs you know we don't get them because they're bigger districts and they've kind of done a lot the small districts are looking for this kind of things but I've had districts from the northern suburbs and I wish I had my list in front of me that came um and they sent people and I did have people coming in from Lockport um some of those local districts as well you would be surprised at how many schools we may go to and they're just not I mean couple schools we've gone to for sh I've seen and I've looked as I'm driving the trailer around looking are the doors marked are the window you know are the entry points Mark like we worked on for two years getting everything up to speed and you'd be surprised at how many schools are not and how many may or may not be you know listen we we live in a different world right now and just being prepared for our kids and our staff members and and people that come here right so I think it's great I I think that's an amazing thing that you have put together they keep asking for it I wasn't sure if I was going to do that this year but people asked for us to do it I'm going to do one probably in October next time uh we're trying to get more principles to come a lot of it when we're doing it is tough evaluation season and it's hard for principles to come so we're going to flip it and do one in the fall instead um to try to uh have some of our principles come but you know the staff here all volunteered their time to do these presentations and you know I really appreciate the The Fabulous um colleagues that we have here great thank you MH and that concludes my report for this week do sb2 or this is Jason okay yeah this is just information all right thank you thank you Dr all right next up is Jason number six yep I saw okay the money man is up got the wearable mic on today because I be up here for a second um president Brown distinguish members of the Board of Education and Dr Kagan good evening um first agenda item I have for you is uh discussion for the bid results for special education and prek D's trying to take that off that's coming at 2B so just keep your attention here and we'll be good um but uh having a discussion on the special education um and prek transportation we went out to bid for our uh transportation services um bid opening was on February 27th we had four companies submit bids um first one was uh first student who came in with a low three-year bid of just over $10 million second bidder was um cook of Illinois who came in slightly over $12 million for the three-year contract third lowest bidder was yellow bus Group um came in just above $14 million and then North American Central came in right around $14.5 million so the purpose of going out to bid for these Services was to avoid uh to see what the market actually dictates in terms of rates um I'm proud to announce that when first student approached us about a one-year extension in December of 2024 they proposed a 22% increase for next year um uh I wanted to go out to bid and see what the market had and um they ended up coming back with a one-year in a year-over-year increase from a current year to next fiscal year fiscal year 26 of 10% so they lowered their extension rate by 12% um also uh each subsequent increase for FY 26 or FY 27 FY 28 was a 4% increase and on the extension they proposed 5% so we were able to save the district quite a bit of money um regarding by going out to bid for those Services um first student as you guys are aware has been our special education and prek provider for quite some time we were also able to include some routes in there that are currently being serviced by external companies um and able to capture those in the bid so I'm confident that this uh process will save the district money going forward um at least compared to what was proposed by the current uh provider in December of 2024 are there any questions regarding the big results for special education how's the qual on on this segment of Transportation not the regular how's the quality of been of their staff are they losing kids have we had you know kind of um it's been consistent with a with a transportation company I would say um I have done my best to uh hold them to the terms of the bid documents and the contracts uh by enforcing liquidating liquidated damages so we continue to do that monthly um we won't process any bills if there's any outstanding liquidated damages that we haven't seen reflected in the invoice so that is one way that we're definitely try to hold them to a good level service that our students and our family deserve now is this just for the speed portion of students or no this is special education in District in District out of district and prek okay because I know speed has their own uh their own thing where they go out and bid for uh Transportation because they have way more districts um to pick up from so but you're saying this this is uh like special education for in-house in District and OU of District excluding speed so you're right they do go out to bid for their own um Services of which you brought our attention earlier this year that there was a discrepancy yeah um but the speed Chicago high speed 802 is not included okay all right thank you and first student is our normal vendor for transp and so the special education and the prek transportation do we get it reimbursed on the same level as the regular Transportation yeah um then over the last couple weeks I I did an analysis I I pulled our transportation claims going back to about 2019 then I compared that to what we're getting reimbursed actually in Friz so it's trending um it's trending right around 62% reimbursement rate 62 MH as opposed to isn't it around 80 % like I said I I'd be glad to put my table of my analysis in the FYI for you I went back 2019 you know some years it fluctuated one year was down and for regular or just special for regular I just did overall trans does the state commit to a certain percentage of reimbursement that I'd always as long as I've been on the board I thought it was 80% I thought it was too so yeah I mean like I said I compared it I'll take a deeper analysis but um I last three years was around between 6 68 61% so what I guess maybe what I'm wondering is if there if the transportation budget or in the transportation totals is there a way to separate regular Transportation compared to this and see if there obviously it's being entered it may pull it out if if you run a report because I bet I would think that our regular transportation is probably reimburse at 80% but maybe this portion of it may not be 80% so I mean cuz I think kend was saying that for a long time that we did 80% back MH and I'm that's the only way to check right to see how the state is reimbursing maybe they're not reimbursing this portion special education at 80% yeah I'll take the look at the um spreadsheet that I prepared I'll break it out regular Ed special ed compared to the claim and then I'll Prov that thank you and to your knowledge for the most part I know the speci the regular Transit ation getting reimbursed for those services that we provide our students is always a delay it just seem like they lag behind the state paying us the money that we re get you know ought to get reimbursed for and so I'm just curious to see will it to your knowledge you don't have to answer this now is it the same way with the reimbursement for the special yeah they're generally vouchered the same date it the typical voucher months September December March and June I know last fiscal year you know they were late processing it by the comproller in fact our January one was vouchered like December 27th and didn't actually get processed by the com controller to early January so you know it's like they started the process du to the holidays maybe it carried over but um those are the the months that they historically voucher in and I always check frz to make sure you can see when it's vouchered and then you can see when it's actually dispersed it's usually about a two week la when it's voucher two week lag I think it was back during the rounder days Governor rer when we were like 6 months mon or more behind we big time coming out of the pandemic that was a big thing in my previous District regarding the timeliness of it but as long as I've been a role of either business manager or assistant superintendent it's it's been pretty consistent Prett consistent great okay all right thank you and that'll be on up for a vote yeah for next Tuesday now to the presentation I've got two separate presentations that Don's bringing up here um me as I walk around just a little bit here so the first presentation I have for you is a financial update and a uh three-year operating fund projection um going to give you guys some background information I'm going to uh kind of take it back to my teaching days you a little explanation on funds um so if there's anything that comes up you got a question of please just raise your hand or just interrupt me I have no problem sharing that with you okay next slide please Don my fault y made up to that L yeah all right there we go um so uh brought about this meeting uh I mean brought this presentation um as of January 31st uh the board report reflected a forecasted deficit of $4.6 million um what is not reflected in that report is an acral adjustment going back to FY 24 in the amount of $2.4 million leaving what uh I consider to be a net forecasted deficit of $2.2 million uh the reason for those adjustments the district reports to is and is audited by our Auditors on a cruel basis the financial report is uh projected on a cash basis so when you see the report for this fiscal year those expenses ACR actually charged back to FY uh 24 okay we'll make those adjustments before before we uh complete our audit and submit our annual financial report to isy uh crw accounting recognizes revenues expenses were their earned occurred on cash cash basis reports transactions when the cash is actually received or spent so um like I said the adjustment of moving the 24 $2.4 million back to FY 24 will result in a forecas deficit of 22.2 million per the report that was fished as of January 31st um to give you a breakdown of the funds and how we uh uh associate our costs and and our expenditures in the world of Public Finance you have a 10 fund which is your education fund you have a 20 fund common referred to onm operations and maintenance 30 is Debt Service 40 is transportation 50 is Municipal Retirement Social Security 60 fund is capital projects 70 fund working cash and two uh lesser known funds is your 80 fund which is tort and 90 fire prevention and safety now if you look at the column on the right hand side only certain funds are included in the financial profile score which is determined by our Auditors the part of our annual financial review so the funds that are applicable to the financial profile score are your 10 fund your 20 fund your 40 fund and your 70 so that's education onm transportation and working cash okay do have an aster down here um 50 fund imrf and Social Security and the tort fund the ad fund can factor into the financial profile score if those fund balances are negative I'm proud to announce that the Cur the district currently has positive fund balances in there so for the purpose of this presentation I would not be referencing them in terms of operating expenses because I intend to always have a positive fund balance in those accounts and thus them never affected the financial profile score Okay so what kind of led to this deficit that we're seeing right now uh the forecasted deficit uh I'm going to take a little bit of moment and speak to you guys regarding s funds Esser funds is uh were provided by the federal government and three rounds to basically address the impact of covid on the public education or on the education system okay um S2 allocation was uh slightly over $4 million that's a three application allocation was slightly above 9.6 almost 9.7 million um these funds were they originated through the pandemic and then they needed to be spent and expensed by September 30th 2024 proud to Ann uh acknowledge that the district spended all those funds and we didn't leave any money on the table from the federal government so those funds have been fully expensed now one thing that uh need to brought be brought to your attention is this was a reimbursable grant meaning you spent the money you filled out of expens report then you filed it with the state and then the state would pay you back uh the amount that you spent and that would come through the frizz inquiry the Friz system similar to the Transportation uh reimbursements okay um in S3 our last round of uh funding that pertained to FY 24 because going into fy2 we knew that it was ending September 30th um but previously in FY 24 there was $1.1 million in salary and pay obligations allocated into S3 I can't say whether or not these positions were specifically created for uh to deal with the pandemic or due to the guidelines of the grant there's some local positions that we already had were able to be included what I am saying is the district kept those people whole and we didn't eliminate any of those positions um this year and though we're no longer being reimbursed for those funds so that's $1.1 million that we had to assume through local funds I have I have a question um just to make sure I understand are you saying that positions that were created are still that are still here are part of that and that's that's part of the deficit that it's factoring into it because we're keeping the position so we're still having the expenses we're no longer gaining the reimb and I know you have more to say but I'll say when we were creating all these positions I remember him asking how are we going to be able to maintain these positions and we said yes through attrition through just this that and the other and we shouldn't have a problem and now we have a problem and and you weren't here for that and I'm not trying to put that I just want to kind of talk through it because under Dr I'm just bringing it up so for everybody to hear yeah and Dr car's done a great job starting an efficiency plan to help get ahead of that as so are those positions well well I I guess she'll tell us go ahead finish I'm and my understanding is that 1.1 million I mean there were positions that maybe weren't specifically created to help with education catchup and that kind of thing related to co But Ken was able to kind of put things in that were eligible under the program but you know would recover some of our costs which may have been a normal position so I don't think you can look at that and say well if we just cut those positions we're going to and that's why I said I'll just listen to him finish but I just remember that being said but I I have to listen to you to finish so the big thing is we're not being reimbursed with in previous years we oh I get that part um so here's a chart in cons in comparison to uh some other revenue streams that are kind of contributing to the forecast of deficit okay um the First Column here uh on the left hand side this is total interest income from Bond proceeds prior to me getting here the district um did a lot in terms of Capital Improvements a lot of Bonds were issued at the same time um inflation went up the rate of uh Investments went up in terms of your saving so the district was able to capitalize on that and have a significant amount of interest income that was booked to uh our financials uh you can see right here in FY 23 it peaked at $2 million but as we've gone ahead and we've spent that money down and completed the projects then that's less and less interest income this income is treated as Revenue in the 70 fund okay so it is factored into the financial profile score last year um these are audited numbers uh we brought in $1.4 million so you see year overy year we have a decrease of roughly about $550,000 in Revenue this year as we continue to spend down those funds we're projected to receive about $1.1 million in interest income so over twoe span the district has about $900,000 or $850,000 left Revenue Source okay then also what happened with Esser funds is we were able to um cover some capital projects that were expensed out of the capital project fund but when we were reimbursed that money was then put into the Ed fund so thus that was more reimbursable money that help Pro I don't want to say prop up but help the operating income of the district or the operating Revenue so in total here if you take a look from FY 23 we went from $3.5 million in revenue and now we're looking at getting about 1.3 you can see 175,000 was received from sr3 this year in capital projects that was due to the flooring at the middle school that was included okay so over two-ear span we're looking at about $2 million $2.2 million less in Revenue let just showing you the relation here of the financial profile score took this directly from the afrs going back to fiscal year 21 you can see how the Surplus in operating funds has been decreased in slowly over the years okay any questions regarding this slide so so my Takeaway on this is that like if you take fiscal year 23 there there was $3.5 million of Revenue that that year that kind of and and but we only had a surplus of 558,000 so there was almost like it it overstated our Revenue by 3.5 we really didn't that that Surplus didn't really exist so the information that we've been getting as a board hasn't we wouldn't have known that in the figures that we saw right yeah now I will I will just clarify that you know the 70 fund TP where keep these interest uh payments is part of that that equation but I do agree with you that maybe it should have been spelled out and communicated a little because in my opinion it's not sustainable and then using old real estate term it's like kind of Co you had funds that were set aside to work on capital projects but then was used in operating income and that's why we're starting to see the issue with the deficit that was this year fin right yeah and and we can I guess moving forward and as Dr Hall alluded to and Nelson just kind of reiterated that when we have expenditures expected expenditures and we want to have those positions in some permanent capacity we cannot use revenues that's not sustainable to sustain these positions that's going to inter a curve cost on a permanent basis I agree with you and you're going to see a littleit forhad we okay so uh so what's the solution going to be for this year okay so uh this fiscal year when the budget was adopted the resolution to dissolve the Tiff and Tiff five University Park was not passed so Mr Johnson in preparing the budget he did not budget for TI five coming off the books and US receiving any of that money um this spring I say May and June um this spring so it was not accounted for so in the adopted budget we budgeted $48 million just slightly over 40 m $48 million for our Ed fund our onm fund our transportation fund and our working cash f okay year to date we've Reed reive 23 just slightly over $23 million in property taxes okay that is the second installment of the 2023 Levy keep in mind we Levy for a calendar year but we received them in two separate fiscal years so this year uh we received 2023 and then in the spring SL summer we'll receive the first install of 2024 so that's just a little bit of background knowledge for you guys you got one that spans of calendar year and we got our own fiscal year that goes from July to June 30th okay so I'm anticipating and I have a a better idea of this number maybe not by the next board meeting but definitely by um April 1st I'm anticipating with the Tiff five uh in University Park rolling off and then if you guys remember we also were in violation of the Miller ratio in our 50 funds we had to pay back we had a settlement of roughly $225,000 we would being challenge because we allowed the fund balance to accumulate too high um what we've done is we're not losing out on that money but we're just not going to allocate about $1.5 million to the 50 fund because we want to avoid being in violation of the Miller ratio what we're able to do is we're able to Le take that Levy fund and apply it to our Ed fund so for a little while there we're getting a good help or some good assistance in the Ed fund we got to keep that 50 fund in our mind I'll get to that in a second so we add these two numbers together they're coming up right around $53 million it's much more than what we budgeted for for this year due to us having more money going into operating funds by what we experienc in the 50 fund and also the expiration of Tiff five in University Park so um based on these assumptions I'm confident that we'll have a operating expense Surplus uh to end fiscal year 20 any addition questions before I move on I I I know we're talking about the second installment 2024 of a separate Levy oh well that' be the first installment that right but the first one here is just from what we just levied correct right so if you budgeted 48 million for 2025 and the first and second installment was million and you said you didn't anticipate that Levy or the Tiff from University Park correct when we right so how much did you expect did you expect $25 million for I'm I'm expecting from to go from L but that's that includes the Tiff you expected that right I'm just saying here if you the property tax is budgeted you you include the first installment or the second installment of 23 million and I would what did you expect what did you expect the first Levy to be if you the first Levy of 20 2024 that we just did in December right corre and we're going to get those first installments in the spring well but you budgeted in 202 when is this when this $48 million where at what point did you come up with that number so what I think he's asking Mr Johnson put down 48.1 million right it early onative budget an a tenative budget so what Mr Brown is asking technically that right number should be 24.4 million but you guys are anticipating now that the Ten of budget's over to 29.

And it's within milliseconds and these kids can attest to that whether you make it or not. So with that like to bring up coach and he will introduce our five. Okay. Thank you Patrick. Appreciate that. Um so we're going to recognize the girls first and then uh we'll recognize Cam. Uh first before I get into the individuals, I'd like to uh brag about this team a little bit. Um, probably best team I ever coached. Yeah, because it's the last team I coached, too. So, it's 20. They went 22 and three. 22 teams they compete against. Yeah, they're uh and it should have been 22 and and uh two, but I made a mistake in regards to how I seated people in the meet and they lost by one point. So, uh that's on me. And then just as impressive in the sectional, uh they competed against 14 teams.

at ashin high school featuring over 100 colleges and career Representatives you won't want to miss it it the Steve Ulus culinary scholarship waca is matching donations up to $2,000 for a scholarship honoring Steve Ulus supporting culinary students at shaen Valley Tech donations will be accepted through March 14th the Metro YMCA summer camps registration is open for Metro YMCA summer camps running from June 23rd to August 22nd across hopkington naq and Framingham volunteer and job opportunities if you are looking to get more involved in the community there are several Town committees that have open seats and need volunteers the current openings include Community preservation committee the Conservation Commission Council on Aging design Review Committee open space and Recreation committee and storm water advisory committee if you're interested in making a difference visit the town website to learn how you can apply on the job front Ashlin is hiring for several positions including program manager and rubbish and recycling coordinator at the DPW water technician 1 and 3 heavy equipment operator Library intern for the children's department and administrative assistant in the recreation department if you looking for work now is a great time to apply so visit the town's website for more information some exciting upcoming community events ashin has a packed schedule events coming up and here are just a few highlights the Irish Cabaret will be held on Sunday March 16th at 2 p.m.

no 6:30 6:00 6:00 okay so they'll be serving uh sandwiches and there'll be a small buffet in the back that'll get you there right don't count on it if it is it's a cash Buffet only okay uh so if you can make it at 6:00 p.m.

e e e Joe will you let me I think all right there we go hello everyone good evening I will uh call my name is uh Gabriel harp I'm chair of the an arbor energy commission and it's chair I'm calling this meeting to order I'm participating from my home here in an arbor um welcome to the March 11th uh 20125 electronic meeting of the energy commission we'll conduct this meeting like iners meet like inperson meetings and Commissioners during the roll call please indicate your current address um also during the meeting please remain on camera and just as you would be visible during inperson meetings and please M mute your microphone when not speaking uh we uh public comment will be conducted by via telephone only and to speak during the public comment opportunities please call one of the following two toll-free numbers 877 85352 47 or 99 and enter the meeting ID number 956 8718 7876 on your phone this information will also be available on the published agenda in the Public Notices section on the city's website and on the broadcast of this meeting on CTN Channel 16 AT&T channel 99 and online at www.a2gov.org watch CN Joe would you please read the land acknowledgement statement yep um I acknowledge that the land the city of an arbor occupies is the ancestral traditional and contemporary lands of the anab including oawa oju and bodwad and W do peoples I further acknowledge that our city stands like almost all property in United States on lands obtained generally in unconscious ways from indigenous peoples The Taking of this land was formalized by the Treaty of Detroit in 1807 knowing where we live work study and recreate does not change the past but a thorough understanding of the ongoing concept quences of this past can Empower us in our work to create a future that supports human flourishing and justice for all individuals okay and we'll move on to the roll call Joe would you please take the roll call yep um commissioner burwitz president Nan Arbor council member Briggs Ken Manson Wisconsin commissioner colen Garcia I see you I see there we go sorry you see me and now you can hear me I am present and I am in an arbor good uh chair harp present here in an arbor Vice chair Hans not currently seeing um commissioner 11 here and I'm aror council member Malik here from Ann Arbor's second ward commissioner mki here in Ann Arbor and commissioner overc has a late running meeting and is hoping to join us here shortly um chair you have a quorum thank you okay we'll move on to the approval of the agenda is there a motion to approve the agenda as posted and a second so moov commissioner coven Garcia in a second Commission burkwitz uh Commissioners please raise your hand if you'd like to propose changes or discuss an issue seeing No Hands raised all those in favor of approving the agenda as posted U please raise your hand and say I I all those opposed please raise your hand and say no okay the motion the agenda passes the agenda is approved um we'll move on to the approval of the minutes there there a motion to approve the minutes as posted please raise your hand and say commissioner colen Garcia and seconded by commissioner mki um although uh any changes to the agend to the excuse me to the minutes um okay all those in favor of approving the minutes please raise your hand and say I I I all those opposed please raise your hand and say no okay the minutes are approved thank you so much um we will move on to the public input this is an opportunity for people to speak for up to three minutes if you are watching on CTN please call 888- 78899 or 877 85352 47 and enter meeting ID 956 8718 uh 7876 this information is also displayed on the meeting agenda and video feed City staff will select callers that have raised their hand one by one using the last three digits of your phone number to electronically raise your hand to indicate your desire to speak please press star9 on your phone you will hear an automated announcement in the host allowing allowing you to speak when speaking please move to a quiet area and mute any television or background sound so that we may hear you clearly and please state your name and address at the beginning of your comments do we have anyone on the line Joe um first up caller ending in 134 thank you Mr Lang and chair harp Ken Garber 28 h Hill Court thank you for bringing back the carbon pollution impact fee you discussed this at your September 2023 meeting the current version tries to address all your concerns requires little staff time since it only affects buildings of 20,000 square feet so reporting is done through the existing benchmarking ordinance two reporting paths both of them easy no energy modeling required real world example provided electrification cost specified emissions conversion factor explained I read Dr st's Friday email stating that this ordinance is quote almost certainly not legal in Michigan end quote and that the city cannot quote penalize someone for following building code end quote it's really too bad that staff already decided this state law does not directly address the question it's a gray area I've shared a legal argument that notes that there is nothing in the state construction code act that explicitly permits gas and the energy codes are written to be generalized standards usable by governments across the world giving local governments in theory considerable leeway especially in a strong home rulle state like Michigan so legality is an open not closed question a separate question is whether the fee is actually a tax according to the bald Fe Lancing president if deemed a tax fine it could be put before voters Burlington voters approve theirs with with a 2/3 majority but I'm a realist this ordinance is going nowhere still I hope you at least discuss the problem it tries to address fossil fuel infrastructure and new construction this somehow continues five years into a20 in violation of the plan um now on the question of combining the energy and environmental commissions please don't go along with this the energy commission's work has been vital you you developed the Dark Skies ordinance the EV Readiness ordinance and heard true combining commissions will make local government more efficient just like the new Administration is making the federal government more efficient by getting rid of advisory boards for economic data school safety and food safety I worry that the new sustainability commission will just be an OSI Echo chamber without initiatives of the zone why does this matter it's clear now that the a20 goals will not be met 30 seconds that's on all of us not just OSI what we need now is more expert and committed citizen involvement and input not less to address our Collective failure to decarbonize and we need an active and independent energy commission both to support OSI and to hold it accountable thank you um caller and ing in 945 caller ending in 945 if you're talking you're still muted hi my name is Larry junk I'm a resident of Van Arbor 2128 Wallingford Road Third Ward and I'm uh speaking to you tonight in the hopes that this resolution or measure similar similar could be passed this is the uh same resolution to which Ken Garber was speaking resolution 0519 ordinance to promote Energy Efficiency and decarbonization I'm not qualified to speak on the uh legal or political aspects of this my comments will adjust the larger picture our world is careening into a worsening climate crisis caused by the burning of fossil fuels with excess release of CO2 and methane an example in the news recently which you're all familiar with is the LA wildfires caused in large part by a year-long drought due to climate change these fires caused 29 early deaths and many deaths are yet to come due to delayed effects of the deadly air pollution and damages are estimated at over $250 billion another is Hurricane Helen in October 24 where the worst damage was in Ashland North Carolina this hurricane caused 221 early deaths thus far many more yet to come and estimated losses have surpassed 75 billion as a physician I'm particularly concerned about the more widespread effects of fossil fuels and of climate change on health it's now recognized that indoor gas appliances especially stove tops release methane which can contribute to respiratory irritation worsening asthma and deaths among infections caused by climate change lime disease and Deni are among those already worsening in this country and many other infections are expected to worsen deaths caused directly by excess heat now surpass 10,000 per year in this country and the highest risk is in agricultur workers elderly and disabled persons and persons of low income the proposed resolution would help an arbor to reduce its carbon emissions in accord with the provisions of the city's carbon neutrality pledge passed by the city council in November 2019 and a day20 plan approved by Council in June 2020 in the past year the majority of developers of large residential development have found a way to go fossil free and this attest to the workability of doing so supported by the recognition of a long-term economic benefit to the residents the desire of many of their potential home buyers and renters to have clean sustainable energy and to have the energy of the present and the future rather than the dirty energy of the past I hope that this uh commission if you cannot approve this resolution will'll find a way to incorporate its principles that of encour thank you devel free thank you thanks um no further callers okay thank you so much um okay well we will move on to the first item then on our agenda um and this is a resolution that was uh brought forward um to the commission um this is a resolution recommending an orance to prod promote Energy Efficiency and decarbonization and new construction and major Renovations through a carbon pollution impact fee and this was a revision uh revision of a uh this was revision of of one that was Prior introduced previously um before we get into that um Joe I want to pass it off to Joe um who I think wanted to just uh add a few notes about our discussion um potentially today today and then um and then I will come back and I believe I believe we need a motion to open discussion on this as well is that accurate yeah so move in a second commissioner M thank you yeah um just one quick note uh for those listening in case they hear any of this problem and just as a reminder Commissioners too um a privilege confidential memo was distributed to the commission members earlier today on some of the potential legal implications of this resolution uh but I do want to note the spe the specific contents of the memo are not able to be discussed due to that privileged nature so just as a reminder to folks here and then in case anyone is wondering on the call back to you thank you um and just just to set up the the conversation one one um or the discussion and I'll open it up in in in just a minute and if if we might um if Commissioners could um as your uh perhaps sharing questions or comments if you might uh try to bundle those together and and and if you raise your hand I'll I'll try to move move through folks as as we work through this um you know one one of the reasons that that as as I said before um this was brought previously to the commission there was some feedback given um uh draft was circulated um to a few uh different Commissioners and also I believe to members of the other members of the public um and I believe it was important to bring this resolution uh forward again to a discussion of the commission sort of broadly um around some of the incentives disincentives and measures that we might have um to reduce um carbon emissions and in particularly buildings in in an arbor and so um with that said um I will say you know some one of the things I hope we can also think about in the discussion of this resolution is also uh what other um measures might be appropriate um as well and to think about what kinds of things uh might be done to improve this resolution or um perhaps think about other ways that it might uh modifications that might be made um to the resolution as well um in ways that might uh achieve its goals um and and imagine that there's a variety of different ways to accomplish that um so with that said I'll open it up for discussion if everyone has any any comments or clarifications or or questions that they they would like to um address commissioner mki um I was hoping that I might be able to introduce the resolution um since uh I've worked on it um a significant amount first of all I want to acknowledge um the work done on this by Ken Garber this is largely um done at his initiative he was the one that um brought it to the Commission in uh 2023 and asked for that it be considered um he wrote the initial draft um with a little bit of input um from me but um this is largely his work he's continued to put a lot of work into it I also want to acknowledge that um in December when we discussed bringing this back to the commission um that we agreed that a small group a non Quorum um subset of the commission would look at it again um and um chair harp stepped up and um met with uh Ken and me I met once with um Ken alone we reviewed the entire text and I should say the entire video of the September 2023 uh discussion and we noted all of the various comments that were made at that time so uh first of all it I just really want to acknowledge the work that's been done by by various people there were also people from the community that reviewed this and provided input including some of the content that's in the footnotes um I want to also because I think it's important for our second topic tonight um review the context and um Ken Garber has done that already but I think all of us know the last 10 years have been the hottest on records in in the industrial EGS and since we've been keeping records um CO2 concentrations are now 425 parts per million what a lot of people don't know certainly any lay person listening to the meeting um won't know necessarily that the CO2 concentration in the atmosphere was between 170 and 300 parts per million over the last 800,000 years so as long as there have been humanik um species on the planet it's between 100 and 70 and 300 PPM we're now at 425 and what's really key is that the rate of change is far faster than that's ever occurred before that means it's very difficult for species to be able to adapt to this rapid change in our climate another point of context um an Arbor's current emissions are roughly very very actually very close to two million metric tons of CO2 per year that's um the city of an arbor including the University of Michigan we have been decarbonizing according to the greenhouse gas inventory the expanded inventory um that we reviewed in November of last year since 2015 at the rate of 0 038 metric million metric tons of CO2 per year that's a little less than 2% per year if we are to reach our stated goal of Net Zero by 2030 we have to decarbonize at a rate that's 7.5 times faster than that that's not 7.5% that's 750 per faster than what we're doing right now if if we wanted to if we were to move the date out to 2040 it would still be three times faster than what we're doing right now 300% I think most of us have worked in organizations before that have tried to make change and I think we all know that that rate of change in in a human organization is really really tough in indeed it's almost unprecedented in an organization like we have reflected here where we're not in a command control environment we are in an environment where we have essentially 120,000 independent actors so I think that context is really important as we think about what is it that we can do to accelerate our decarbonization activities and in that spirit this is one of the the reasons that we're looking at buildings as we know make up about a third of emissions um by the way at the University of Michigan buildings make up almost 98 % of its scope one and scope two emissions our our our inventory includes a little bit more than that I think as we know Transportation but um it's buildings are really really important um let's see I wasn't got my notes here sorry um so as the whereas Clauses State um there have been 32 developments that have been approved since the a20 plan was approved that have are natural gas connected and um the number of square feet are there but what's important is that the emissions from those buildings eat up about the equivalent just these new buildings eat up the equivalent of about 2third of a year of decarbonization activities so it's not insignificant especially if more and more buildings um are built um with natural gas applian um the trend is a positive trend but nevertheless they're still being built in ant Arbor and certainly in in the surrounding Community we know that there's two ways of addressing this one is with carrots and one is with at sticks and this has been also emphasized in this meeting and in memos that have been given to the commission um most recently the Planning Commission approved a new development um where a 30 % height bonus was given that's a significant benefit in my view to the developer um there's another option of course and that's what's reflected in this this um resolution which is that there can also be regulations that have sticks and I think we've all been in in in entities that have used a combination of carrots and sticks um I can look at my family and there was a combination of caran sticks when it had to do with my behavior and we know that the city uses carrots and sticks we know that the county the state the and the country uses carrots and sticks and so what we've seen so far is that um carrots um have worked in in some degree in some cases but also those come at a cost and some of the cost is is that we're seeing very very tall buildings throughout the city and a lot of people are are pushing back on that um as been mentioned in some of the comments sent to uh the uh the commission um there are cities albeit in other states that have taken action along these lines um Burlington Vermont did so we discussed that back in 2023 um since then Ashlin Oregon is charging a fee for all new natural gas um appliances um that are are purchased um Los Angeles has an all electric building code granted these are all uh in other states but these are not completely foreign to the environment that we're in in operating here these are not examples from Japan or um a European country or something like that so we known all along that the legality of this is an issue um we um have been provided with um now three different uh perspectives on this we have a memo from missy we have a memo that I sent out with some um input from Ken that came from a uh graduate of Michigan law school who's now practicing law in Minnesota hopefully Commissioners were able to read that and then we have this new memo that we received uh as confidential uh input this afternoon but clearly that's something that's hanging over all of this um I would just close by saying that um there is value in US discussing this um just by the mere fact that we are indicating to the community that this is important to us that we think it's really important that we accelerate our decarbonization activities um you can see the Trump Administration doing this where it's taking clearly illegal action but it's doing it with a purpose it's doing it with a purpose of communicating to the country this is the direction that we're taking the country in and I think um we should think about that and what we do not only in this commission but what we do in council chambers and with staff Etc is that we we stand really strong behind our principles and we do everything that we can to push the envelope on on what may potenti may we may feel is is uh is limited in terms of what we might be able to do so I I I appreciate the opportunity to talk for three or four minutes in that regard this some of this carries over to as I said to the next the next topic so um I'll just leave it at that and then have other Commissioners weigh in and we can talk about whether or not we read through the resolution or what we do as far as um next steps are concerned thanks thank you council member Briggs yeah um thank you for that background and that um reminder of where we're at John this is um uh the science behind this is is really clear right it's horrifying to see um a new presidential Administration come in um and not even um no longer support um climate work but not even discuss sort of allow those terms to be used right um it's um and we're seeing um it's scary times to be living in um in terms of of the work that we're trying to do and then also the levers that we have to use um in in the state that we live in and so um I do want to start by saying thank you thank you to you and to um Mr Garver and um Cher harp and others who've contributed on this I do you think it's important that we're talking about this um and talking about okay what are the tools that we have why is it that um we're not seeing certain types of um uh legislation move here forward here in an arbor because this is something I would absolutely support um if there was the opportunity to do so um I think we we are one of the things that we can do in terms of demonstrating that this is something we support there there are ways um we've done this in the past we've encouraged our um St State Legislative delegation to consider changes and it's I'm happy um to bring forward resolutions to council that talk about the changes that we would like to see in state law that help would allow us to um to make more progress in Michigan whether or not we think that those have the opportunity to move forward or not sometimes those are symbolic actions that we can take but um as um as um Joe mentioned earlier I think having a continued conversation around incentives um that's a place that we I think have the opportunity to continue to to press further on in in the city um and that it's something an area that we struggle with um but it's something that you know we really need to be identifying you know what is um what are we doing what what more could we be doing so I'll leave it at that thank you council member Malik hey thank you uh I would Echo council member Briggs uh in my also adding thanks to uh commissioner mki as well as Mr Garber and Sher harp and any anyone else who worked on uh this resolution I'm of course relatively new to both city council but also this commission so I sadly wasn't here for the discussion in 2023 um but I understand you know this is a a long time coming and a lot of effort went into this so I appreciate you know prompting this discussion uh the push to decarbonize requires bold ideas uh especially for the city to meet its otherwise ambitious climate goals uh overall on the consideration of the tools available to us uh the resolution that we're discussing is one that does seem to make the city susceptible to challenges you know and while I agree with the spirit of the resolution I do fear any potential legal challenges uh this would prompt could ultimately be a discr discr distraction for otherwise you know uh full steam ahead climate efforts um as has been mentioned you know there's other likely less legally fuzzy ways the energy commission could pursue Energy Efficiency uh rather than punishing the least efficient approach which you know it's ideal to you know punish the least efficient but I don't know if it's possible here um I was able to tune in earlier today to a u ofm presentation where they discussed um their various climate efforts including considerable geothermal activity solar and other unique ways of thinking about climate impact with many of their new construction projects if we could find ways of basically taking their model of new con approaches to new construction to many of the approaches to new construction that exist and finding ways to you know eliminate the least efficient uh energy approaches and incentivize further the best ones I think you know it's doable I don't myself know how to do that um but I know some of the expertise here and with City staff I know it probably does exist so again conversations like this kind of help bring ideas together so I think we're on the right path but I appreciate the the good discussion thanks thank you um I'll I'll jump in and just share share a few comments and sort of questions that that I've been thinking about as I've um been reading through the um the resolution itself um you know and and I think one has to do with sort of what we're bringing forward to uh council members and I think has always been mentioned that the most perhaps the most effective um policy is going to be a mix of incentives of disincentives and other measures and so I would really encourage the commission to try to um think and bring forward this this represents one um perhaps a disincentive um to uh uh fossil fuel combustion in retrofits um but I would consider I would encourage the commission to bring forward a variety of different options in addition to in addition to this one as well um both because I do think that um I hesitate to call it a menu but I do think that having a a number of options available can provide not only a more um uh a broader set of topics for discussion but also a way to get at um those topics in in in a sort of you know an an efficient way and one of the things that calls to mind is I believe city council may have um put a request I believe this was last spring um associated with some of the economic development and sustainability uh resolutions from city council perhaps uh requesting um City staff to investigate what some of the possible measures and incentives could be and so this calls into my mind um perhaps it's worth um uh trying to better understand what may have been done in that space and what might be brought forward and what we might be able to discuss as a result of that as well as whatever uh commission members um might might bring forward as well um because I think combined with the resolution on the table um things like and I think we've discussed this previously things like um uh helping to facilitate projects um that are uh uh working both with City staff with developers with with contractors um and that achieve these kinds of goals can itself be an incentive um because there as many of you know there's there can be um just lots of collaborative challenges associated with navigating different policies and and moving things through uh the the permitting approval processes and and and other Associated issues and so that was that was one example um and there might be others um I I think that that would be important to discuss um one of the things that this does make me wonder about from you know with this with the sort of question of how it's How how it's framed um is is there and and and this gets to the question of options for the city to undertake is is there anything prohibiting uh city council from for example um uh creating a zoning ordinance that in general would cover the whole city or or large large uh portions of the city that would be a would be uh intended to reduce the impacts of some of the the combustion or or the uh emissions from fossil fuels it in it of itself um and I don't know the answer to that but um it's it I think this resolution sort of invokes that um as a question um in my mind which would be something different from the way that it's currently framed um in terms of a focus on specifically new construction and specifically buildings um and and that may have diff different implications um as Ken Garber in in the comment public comments earlier noted um I believe there there was some qu this this is um framed as a fee um and I believe that he he raised the question of whether or not um it was a tax or or something associated with that as I sort of parse that issue I think about some of the kinds of um some of the kinds of things that the city does um that may need fees um to uh provide those kinds of um the responses and the kinds of um things that it does um so I I'm thinking about things associated with climate impacts like insurance rates I'm thinking about things like storm worm water and water treatment infrastructure associated with increased rainfall I'm thinking about things like River surges and Associated contamination events associated with that uh I'm thinking about things from increased wind velocities um associated with some of the climate impacts I'm thinking about emergency planning and responses and and all those kinds of things that the city experiences so um just in the sense of how we think about um fees versus taxes I think one of the key Provisions that I written into this resolution is that it outlines a fee in that has a a particular amount uh in this in the resolution it's $190 per metric ton of CO2 equivalent and my understanding of how that's calculated is it's basically a way of pricing or valuing the future impacts and and of pricing that into the current um sort of economic calculus that that's being made and So currently we're saying that that amount is zero um and we're not accounting for those impacts but as we perhaps um consider pricing that in that may be um well in this case it's $190 per CO2 ton equivalent in the future it may be much more than that um and so I think part of what we're considering is sort of how much are we valuing the future um relative to to the kinds of things that we're doing and so I think that's one of the key considerations in one of the the conversations I think that perhaps um this body might have have in terms of sort of where are we setting that that uh fee rate um do are we valuing at $10 are we valuing at $250 um how much does the future matter in terms of the impacts that we're that we're experiencing now but also potentially in the future um uh just a couple of other comments one is I believe this in the conversion factor that this resolution is taking into account both the emissions produced at the source um let's say from heating or or I believe it says um it's Focus primar looks like primarily focused on on um heating domestic hot water cooking appliance process heat and things like that I believe in the converion factor that that's taking into account both the emissions produced at the point of combustion in the building itself but it's also accounting for Upstream emissions as well so to my reading it's not focusing solely on what's happening within the building but it's also thinking broadly about the impact of of um uh fossil fuel emissions as related to new construction and these retrofits so that may be an important consideration in terms of how the city conceives of um whether or not this is focused on um sort of where the the scale of this is focused um I guess is the best way of put best way of putting it um and so those are just a few things that I wanted to to to put forward but um as we as we think about this but um I'll I'll pass it on if anybody else has any any comments or questions m mki i was a pregnant pause before I raised my hand so hopefully others if they if they have something to say they will raise their hand um I I appreciate um the discussion I appreciate all the uh ways of looking at this and potentially thinking out of the box that came from chair harp um I would like to pose two questions I guess to um the commission and to um City staff and our Council Liaisons um the first is I'll go back to the various memos that have been going around regarding the legality um I would appreciate some feedback as to whether or not the perspective in the email that I authored quoting input from Mr Garber and also um Mr Hall whether that was or not was shared and considered um by City staff and the legal department um maybe that can be answered tonight um the other thing that I wanted to offer is um a reminder to the commission that um the Ann Arbor environmental group called The Wolfpack um has a climate action team I'm a member of the Wolfpack and that team that group has devoted the greater part of the last two years to looking at building electrification and what we are now calling zero emissions buildings and how we might be able to really provide carrots and sticks um a combination mostly carrots um to actually drive that in the city um there have been a number of reports well first of all there were two two um sessions that we sponsored Ed with um a number of developers involved the last one actually was um just last fall in something like October uh it was attended by Missy um uh a previous one was held about a year before that the Lessons Learned if you will from that were summarized those have been shared with um the city I shared them I believe in email form with this commission but what I would like to offer is that that uh if without necessarily dropping this idea of a carbon fee with the open question honest legality even though there seems to be a preponderance of um opinions or views uh uh and and Technical arguments that it it may not be legal but leaving that on the table um I would offer that maybe we consider a working session with members of the Wolfpack in particular the chair of uh the climate action team to work with us to review all of the ideas that were generated with the input of developers so this is not just the Wolfpack members sitting we actually um involved a number of developers um mostly local developers um but a number that have developed in in an arbor but also some outside an arbor um and I think uh those should be Revisited uh I mean frankly I mean let's let's again put this in context the the a20 plan was available as a draft five years ago so we've had five years to deal with this it in the plan as it stated in the whereas Clause it very clearly states the assumption that all buildings from 2022 where is it it say says right here all new construction from 2022 through 2030 and Beyond is built to Net Zero standards which includes no natural gas consumption we've all known this for 5 years and we have yet to come up with something that's really really strongly in support of that whether it's a combination of or whether it's just um carrots or sticks are a combination of the two so I think we really deserve together with staff and legal support to devote a work session to this and and see what the best Minds can can come up with I mean there were some Provisions in the ira that uh that help that um you know when when the plan was drafted there was a trump Administration when it was approved there was a trump Administration we had no idea there was going to be a Biden Administration that there was going to be an IRA and now we're back to a second Trump Administration so it's not like we can say well this is just because of trump that we can't do this so um th those are so I guess I'm posing a question and I'm posing uh a path forward so that we look at this broadly and we look at um as we've been discussing here what could be effective and legal both carrots and sticks thank you thank you and and I'll just note I believe we we do still have a a standing working group um that was uh created specifically for that that purposed in in in some ways and so that that could be a a a mechanism as well um within the the coming coming weeks to to do exactly what you're saying commissioner mki Joe yeah um and just to an to one answer the question yes that information was shared and evaluated as part of that consideration um and the other is you know just in response to moving forward and stuff like that too I think you know however we kind of do that um you know whether it be in a working session working group what what have you I think it it would beneficial to make sure that we have various you know members of staff to the extent we can too just so we can be you know trying to catch these things and working on it in a way to make sure we're you know able to do stuff and do it in a way that you know we um you know don't come up with something that we can't do or you know just making sure we have that kind of consideration involved as we go um just to and also to make sure that you know folks are on board we're not just sitting and you know and this I'm saying Beyond OSI as well so we're not just sitting there and you know coming up in our in our own corner or anything like that but making sure we're getting all the different holders involved both in terms of you know folks out in the community as well as folks um on you know in City staff as well to help move all that forward so definitely in favor and would would be open to um you know making those connections and getting all that that going Mr burtz uh you know what everyone has said before thank you for everyone who put work into this um I very much support the carbon pollution impact fee or TA or whatever um mechanism would make sense um by pending you know legal component um a couple comments on on that um and then the broader topic for some of legality um I just want to flag there's like a coalition of nonprofit legal centers um that I'm connected with through my day job um that often does like so Bono analysis of stuff like this and trft building decarbonization policy and legality all across the country I would love to at some point maybe connect um OSI or any staff with this uh entity perhaps they could you know take a look they're you know obviously not as expert on the state of Michigan's laws but they um um you know they do webinars like every few months on the status of like every legal talent to it's a preemption around the country and um in tes and Tes on on gas sign are buildings and things like that too so um I think they might have some more like ideas best practices examples from other places to share and they might even be able to take a look at Michigan Statute and see how that compares to you know what has has or hasn't happened in other states um okay and then let's see the um our working group um came up um so I'm going to just kind of uh respon to that um forget exactly um timing but you know we we put together like a working group just to like take input and try to take a look around and do some research of like what options are out there take look at the menu um we did take a look at all the recommendations provided by the wolf pack and we try to like pull out um and consolidate some things um and potentially um there are some you know options there most of them are like incentives um I I think the carbon pollution impact fee or attacks on gas um and whatever shape it takes form would be the strongest possible mechanism and the strongest possible way to get at this and actually create gain of anything that we reviewed or considered um I think it was referenced earlier that you know sticks are a little more powerful than carrots often and um we've seen it both in practice and just in theoretical discussions but um so I think think you know I would be happy to go back to the drawing board or you know reconvene or jump into another process looking at this in more detail um but I'll just say like I think that you know um there was like a natural gas connection fee or a carbon pollution impact fee both came up during that process and they were I think the two strongest mechanisms um except for there was one other thing um we talked about this during the Ben marking meeting we had um a month or two ago um and it's a building performance standard or building submission standard um again I think there were questions around the legality of that in Michigan um but those were the three mechanisms that seemed like the absolute strongest that would you know actually get some momentum some traction on this um I think a lot of the stuff that the work group came up with otherwise were mostly incentive and you know may or may not be there comments or questions okay commissioner mki question uh how do we bring this to some type of closure do we table it do we um take a vote I I'm I'm I I don't know the answer to this question that's why I'm posing it um even if we take a vote knowing that potentially it isn't legal does that make a statement that we collectively agree that needs to be made um and then uh maybe it dies after the energy commission uh what are people's thoughts on how we bring this agenda point to closure so that we can move on to other things um while necess necessarily you know putting a spike in the heart of this thing um in terms of the general topic as well as the specific topic what do other people think I I don't I don't know I I see Joe's hand raised so I'm I'm gathering that he may have uh two process thing I mean one um since technically this came back with revisions and all that this would be a first reading so if we wanted to actually vote on it itself we would have to bring that at another meeting and vote at the the second reading um the other is depending on how folks feel do not let me influence whatever I say here is if we you know feel a certain way and we don't think it's going to go one way or the other and we don't want to have a vote on it we can postpone it indefinitely um so that's that's the other option if you don't want to have a direct vote on yes or no on the resolution so two two Pathways there depending on whatever uh folks want to do commissioner Coen Garcia did you have a comment I um I I think it's important that um we do somehow um present a statement for for moving forward with this um I also really support uh this um this effort this endeavor and um I would I would be give a statement of you know we should have a group work on it further polish it hone it see what we can do to have this be um something that's more palatable for our um city council but also that does align with our with our goals with our a20 goal as a path potential path for for moving moving this forward um perhaps a postponement with the intention to um perhaps make further changes um with feedback I as John suggested from say the working group that Encompass different actors uh as well perhaps broadening the provisions of this resolution um might be a way forward and and so if the commission were to for example postpone it um and and additional work were to happen from that working group uh we might be able to bring it back again for another first reading council member Briggs yeah I was going to suggest something um somewhat similar to that so um since you have to when you're postponing you often have to postpone to a date certain or an action you could we could postpone pending a um recommendation from the working um group and that would come back um to us with you know potentially something um or um and perhaps having an opportunity for us to have some of those other conversations that were were brought up within the context of this conversation tonight as well that that sounds excellent I would I would certainly support that path um just speaking for myself commissioner mki um as do I um and that includes the working group potentially interfacing with Mike and this group that he mentioned um they that's a possibly you know a win-win uh opportunity where they get a better appreciation for what the situation is in Michigan but we also here in ant Arbor in Michigan gain perhaps an appreciation for what kind of legislative tweaks might be um necessary to enable something like this so I I think um tbling this um um pending uh let's say action from the um the working group maybe we could uh to council member Briggs this point um put uh a date on there so we also have a sense of urgency so we say that um the intention is to bring it back by I'm going to make up a date um by May or June or something like that um I mean that'll be somewhat dependent on what happens in the next agenda Point uh but uh yeah I I would I would support um uh council member briggs' framing of this council member Ricks yeah just to clarify I wasn't suggesting adding a date um even though I understand your idea the it can be an action so we had a conversation around this Council relatively recently around postpone it because we weren't quite sure how to respond so the feedback is that we can you know we can postpone pending a recommendation from another committee and I think I believe that we I believe it is possible to say postpone pending a recommendation um from the working group would be then you know doesn't then it comes after us you know after some action although that's not a formal group so you know there's not a formal vote there so I don't know I'm I'm a little bit out of my scope of you know legality here but I Joe is got his hands braced not on that particular point so if there's anything you had to wrap up on that go go ahead okay um yeah the only other thing I just want to say is if you know going to the working group side of things if we and to be clear I'm not saying this in a way of like to influence or anything like that but just to um if we can just include staff in that just so again we can be there and we can be having conversations like this um just that way that we can help you know help guide the guide it in the direction of you know what we have capacity what we have legality to the extent we can um just to you know I fully understand in this situation there's definitely some FR frustration folk are feeling just because you know we've gone so far going through all this to get something up there and so just want to make sure we can try to catch things um early on as as we go forward so having staff in that capacity I think would be helpful so just want to note that if I can quickly say Amen to that that um I spoke with um another commissioner uh recently about this and uh we talked about some of the things that commission has worked on in the past some of the ordinances they were mentioned Also earlier um and in in all of those cases um carlen will remember that other people um perhaps who dialed in will remember that um in almost all of those cases not necessarily the lighning ordinance but certainly herd and certainly the EV charging ordinance we worked hand in hand that was always a staff person in those meetings and I think um that would be really helpful certainly as we go forward to make sure that we stay within boundaries or know that we're pushing boundaries that maybe have a little bit of flex as opposed to Jumping way outside boundaries that just are never going to be politically or legally palatable and I want to welcome commissioner overp um and also just brief the sort of discussion of the resolution seems to be uh migrating towards a proposal to postpone um the resolution um and um sort of uh pass it to the working group um to make prospective changes with uh um others others involved um as well from from across sort of different uh actors as well as City staff um and that the working group would then make modifications to the proposed resolution um to and and and bring it back to the commission do I have that correct um and so I suppose this is a good time to ask is is is is that the appropriate process um to ask if there's a motion for that proposal or a motion to vote on that particular proposal um uh to move forward on on this I see counc council member Briggs and commissioner Coen Garcia thank you okay all those in favor of postponing the resolution and referring it to the working group to work with City staff and other uh groups to uh improve and add other um uh incentives disincentives measures um as as appropriate or as they see and then um bring that back to the commission all in favor please say I all those opposed okay the motion is approved and thank you everyone thank you for the discussion and look forward to um uh seeing some uh some further uh modifications made on that and taking it Forward um okay thank you very much we will I believe next on the agenda agenda is commission business um and um I believe so this is a discussion on combining the energy and environmental commissions to create a new sustainability commission and um I will first maybe pass it to Joe to introduce um this briefly or council members um and maybe you can kick us off with the sort of General nature of of of what this is I I I know all of you received an email from me sort of basically outlining um the the Contours of this but I wanted to leave it to City staff and and to to council members to sort of um uh describe a little bit more what the sort of current current thinking and plan is um as they're as they're thinking about moving this forward council member Briggs yeah thanks um yeah so uh as this has been a sort of t IC in the background as um commissioner mki brought up at at our last meeting and um I do want to you know make sure that everybody around this screen recognizes that um any delays in this conversation I I personally take um great responsibility for um this is one of these conversations that I think under the best of circumstances would have occurred a lot more quickly so that um it uh didn't drag out over um having having conversations in the background to see if this is even an idea worth pursuing and bringing to the commission um and so my apologies that um uh it's kind of been delayed and we've seen that sort of reflection in terms of whether or not to to bring forward new sort of commission appointees that has zero to do with how much we respect um and admire the work that you guys are doing as volunteers here so thank you so much for doing that um and bearing with us as we just struggle with schedules and um and busy busy life um happening um outside of these commission meetings so that said um the idea of this is really been sort of a long time in incoming in the sense that over since the idea of an energy commission and environmental commission have been conceived of by the city or by Council in the by past councils um in advising Council the structure of the city as an organization has has shifted and so we now have an office of sustainability and Innovation um and that is where a lot of our work um obviously of of this nature happens and and yet our commission structure hasn't shifted to sort of reflect and respond to this new um new city structure and so you know we wanted to at least um you know bring forward this concept that we might be better off um realigning our our commissions a little bit so that it better supports um and reflects the the work of of the organization um I do want to kind of tackle head on uh respectfully some of the comments that were raised during public comment this is not an idea to become more efficient in this in the concept uh uh in the way that the Trump Administration or the musk uh um apparatus might be conceiving of it we are not thinking of a efficiency in terms of uh getting rid of people and uh you know crushing Concepts and ideas and good work that's happening that is that is not the goal of this at all um it's really sort of the idea of just um structuring it so we can actually hopefully accomplish more um it's also I do want to know note um that the concept of what the role of the commission is and sorry if I'm rambling right now um but the role of the commissions are um we want to make sure that they're good advisory bodies to council and obviously Council doesn't always know exactly what sort of advice um we need so we really respect that um but it is an intermediary between staff and and council is a body it's not to be an independent independent sort of check on our office of sustainability Council and our city our city administrator runs you know is is responsible for the staff council is responsible for policy um commissions don't serve as oversight bodies over staff that's not how they function in the city and I think it's kind of dangerous to think of them in that capacity so as much as I respect the work of of advocates in our community I see that as an really important citizen engagement role um I don't see that as a function uh a healthy function of commissions um and how we should conceive of them so I did want to bring that up because it came up in public comment but um anyway uh this is really a concept of just um restructuring our commissions combining energy and environmental um in ways that um we wouldn't lose any bodies here um but that we might be able to more effectively accomplish and um address the the challenging work line ahead of us Joe do you have your hand rais yeah I just want to um also just give a couple thoughts and we can get more in discussion on what everything is would potentially look like and all that but just some again higher level things uh just to throw out there is a real you know driver for this kind of like what council M Briggs was saying is using everyone's time in a more effective way including in you know largely using Commissioners time in a more effective way as well as we think about it um one of the things that you know it's kind of um and I I say when people have either left the commissioner or things like that and i' I've talked to folks to just kind of hear their kind of input on some of it that was kind of one of the things people have have felt in various ways is that we're not doing as much we're not my time doesn't feel um valuable and all that and that's where some of this comes from as well um but as we move forward want to make sure we're doing this in a way that we can use everyone's time in a way to drive this this work forward rather than kind of spreading out in a whole bunch of different directions um I'm to kind of just take our you know example we were just talking about here you know where we came forward you know have some sort of you know uh potential resolution goes through and then we come to the point where we've spent a whole bunch of time on this but then we get somewhere where we might not be able to move forward um want to do something where we can work together to get to a spot where we don't run into a potential situation like that rather where we're all working together collaboratively all throughout so that everyone is able to work towards something that we are able to do aligns with you know city council and to some extent staff priorities of what we're able to do um you know with the resources we have um and then get all the valuable input that folks have that you know we just would not be able to have either as staff as council members but the you know expertise experience you have um so I want to make sure that we're doing that in a way that you know again I keep saying the same thing but working together collaboratively to achieve those kind of goals in line with again what we are able to do um and that's kind of some of the the driving focus of this is just making sure that we can be more effective use everyone's time more effectively uh to work together to accomplish those goals and that's from staff perspective what we what we were thinking of um in these discussions commissioner colen Garcia can you give an example of how um it would look to be more effective to have the combin for example um like like but we're just topic we just finished something like that if that would come before a combined commission yeah I mean so oh sorry go ahead yeah just an example please yeah um so yeah just purely taking the you know the resolution we just went through so one as an example of broadly what we're thinking of for potentially looking at this would be um again the combin structure and again when I say that we're not asking anyone to step down anyone resign like nothing like that everyone who's currently on the commissions would still be on the commission um but basically kind of somewhat similar to the um where the environmental commission is right now and they have their work groups thinking about doing that in a similar capacity but each year um at the you know we can decide how that structure best Works whether that's on the calendar year on the fiscal year what have you um but working together um you know with uh with led by Council but with input from staff on creating a work plan that would then come to the commission the commission would work through it of seeing here's the things that are um you know specific focuses um that align with again what is happening uh both from again City staff city council things like that where the commission fits in um you know have those discussions make sure we're all in alignment with those kind of things and then from there um establishing work groups based on those various topics um Commission ERS would then you know be able to you know select into those work groups um and would be able to move forward from there being able to go you know diving deeper into that kind of work in that workg group structure those um those work groups would be supported by staff so that again we're able to go through all these various um you know topics that might come up from that perspective so um to you know and then you know going from those work groups those work groups would come back to the broader commission everyone would talk about it we'd go through what we learned what we've you know suggesting going forward with and then the broad commission can then you know have their discussions from that perspective vote as Mak sense going through the normal procedures from there um if we're just taking the topic that we kind of just went through just purely as an example you know say we were you know going through and during that um you know that that um uh that that plan for the year the work plan um going through and being this is a topic that has been identified say we'll just use building electrication broadly um that is our topic for the year that's what we're all working working on there would then be um you know voting to establish a workg group on building electrification saying during this year or setting up very specific time frame for both the work group and a deliverable for the work group of what they are going to do um so then over you know over that time frame the folks in the workg group would find um would beat with um within the workg group as well as with staff be able to go through and then you know have those kind of discussions periodically um coming back giving reporting out to the uh commission to get input things like that um and then you know at the conclusion there's that set deliverable that was said this work group is going to do in this time frame they're going to present this provide this provide whatever um or if anything comes up that can also be included in that um so that way we're able to go through we're able to dive deeper into those because I think that's also been kind of one of the struggles at times is you know we have these broader meetings and it can feel a little hard to um you know really dive into some of the subjects as deeply as we might like just due to that kind of structure this so this will allow more of that um but also throughout again because you're able to um you know we're working with staff we're able to bring in you know those staff resources to be able to go through and if we get to something it's like hey here's what we're able to do here's what we're not able to do here's what the resources you know just resources we have what are the resources you have um so we can go through that kind of collaboratively to come to something that you know is both something that's you know really Innovative and really you know driven by a lot of the expertise that's on the commission but also just making sure we're grounding it in some of the real realities that we might face um because a lot of that stuff is very you know hidden in the sense of we don't you know you don't we're we're not necessarily in it every single day and so being able to you know have those come up and make sure that we're not working on something that is just not possible not a possibility so that's kind of what we were thinking of so again say in that situation we went through where like we started off okay this might not be feasible what else could we do go through come up with different ideas suggestions bring those back to the commission and be able to move forward from there as as a commission so that was a little wordy and I probably jumped all over the place so happy to have others fill in council member Briggs yeah I was just going to add a little bit to that the other component of the working groups is that they while they would also be made up of staff and Commissioners that they'd also we could also have members who are community members on that those working groups as well um and that the working groups um they could be better aligned potentially with our um in addition to the work plan they could be aligned with our our climate work um so that we are really more strategically thinking about um how we're moving forward um but so that that would be the goal um I think we kind of heard in that last conversation you a desire to bring all of those entities in and we recognize that the the issues that we're dealing with right now are pretty complex um and uh so it allows us to to have more substantive work being done um and it might take a little bit more time but it's you know but I think what we're hearing is the community is ready to put in that type of work just highlighting off of that too um by having those work groups being able to bring in other people is another thing that we you know we've heard from some folks is they're like I would really like to participate in something like this but I can't dedicate a three-year term coming in every single month to something like that so um we know there's a lot more folks in the community too who have a lot of valuable feedback and want to participate and want to do more and they you know definitely can rais the point where it's it's hard for me to communicate by just doing a three minute public comment period at the beginning and end of each meeting I have more to contribute I want to contribute more and this this enables that um that ability for some more folks who might not be able to commit to say a full term on a commission or anything like that um so noting that as well council member Mal and I I you know council member Riggs and Joe said a lot of what I kind of had planned to say as well but um I also wanted to add that I saw it floated that you know combining these commissions was due to council member time uh as the only council member uh on both the energy and the environmental commissions this year uh I can happily say I do enjoy them both um and despite my workload uh do enjoy attending both in a given month uh but the advantages I think of combining them does you know outweigh uh my enjoyment of attending both uh but uh you know I think there is just a strong need to refocus and kind of align um the the aims of the commissions and I do think you know there is a lot of synergy to be gained between kind of the perspectives that both could bring um but I did want to push back on the idea that it's because of council member time which is just not the case thanks I was wondering if um either council members or or Joe might be able to speak to a little bit to the current um timing or timeline for for how this is being considered and sort of what what what that process might look like sure um unless anyone else wants to jump in before me all right um yeah I mean broadly like I said this is the first time we're talking to you all about it we want to make sure we can get any feedback to make sure you know we're not missing anything um as well as just make sure we get that full understanding um if you know if say everyone well one I just want to note we're we want to get all the feedback we can but we also as we've clearly demonstrated we want to be moving forward on this where we can because you know we pointed out we we've gotten smaller as a commission we haven't filled because of this thing um so we want to try to do that as quick as we can but with respect to making a well-informed decision um in a world where we are all you know all aligned Everything feels okay um we would be looking at hopefully by the end of May is when we would have a decision kind of made and then being able to move forward um starting and you know probably potentially take that following month off so if it was may take June off to go through all the logistics of getting everything all set um to have the new um group going forward by July again that's say we're all align but if there's significant differences things like that um we do not have to stick to that uh but that's just kind of the situation where if everything was in alignment that's about how long it would take to to go forward so apply that to whenever Everything feels good that timeline thank you commissioner mki uh before I speak carlen you had your hand up and I want to make sure that you have an opportunity to talk that matter any sorry y I just really quick wanted to um commissioner har perfectly took my questions but I also wanted to mention about your participation on the environmental commission and since you're talking this is perfect I have nothing to say does anybody else have any comment or should I go ahead and and share some thoughts on this so if anybody else has any other comments they can raise their hand yeah so um first of all I want to make it um clear to everyone by starting out with a statement that I think this is this discussion is absolutely necessary um the discussion outside the commission um preceding this um and what we're discussing here today um I talked before about the context that we're need to increase our rate of decarbonization by a factor of 7.5 or even 3.3 times to reach carbon neutrality by 2040 so something absolutely needs to change you know at multiple levels this is you know something as Ken Garber said this is not just the commission this is not just staff this is everybody in this whole city um and and well beyond that um let me if I may just mention a few things there is a whole field of study or science behind um Performance Management continuous Improvement um a a basis of it is um the shuart cycle or the Deming cycle it's plan do check at so we have an a20 plan we've been doing that plan um we do a greenhouse inventory every year that's a check and the ACT is also often referred to as adjust and I think what we're seeing here is that we need to adjust um we need to adjust at every level in in in in societ because we're not we've had plans we've had all kinds of good ideas but we're just not doing it so to reinforce what I said at the beginning this is absolutely necessary and I and I really welcome this and I'm glad we're finally discussing it in the commission and not just among council members and staff in one meeting with h the two chairs that took place last fall so a second comment um why we have a new department that we never had before I mean when I first joined the energy commission 2016 we had about a quarter head working on energy and climate literally a carlen knows this she joined a couple years after me a quarter to a half ahead Nate gisler some of you might remember him that's it so the situation has changed completely um but if in terms of the structure of the commission being changed I would like to recommend we're supposed to be making policy recommendations that people really think about the structure of the city behind this um when Missy was hired and uh the office of sustainability was created um I had a role that was called the executive policy advisor for sustainability I uh met every two weeks for an hour with a city administrator um I reviewed the job description for Missy's position I was on the interview committee um I fully endorsed uh Missy's selection she was great and she still is great um but what I want to point out is that job description initially and the title of the department um and actually as Howard Lazarus the the then City administrator introduced her to city council I was present she her scope of work was really going to be um a wide breadth of sustainability topics not just climate and energy but what's happened in the meantime is that really she's been focused and the the Department's been focused on on a20 plan related activities and solid waste is still in public services um water quality is in public services um natural features and biodiversity uh is in in public and in yeah I guess it's in public services and some other areas I may be even um and so we really don't have alignment between what is proposed as a sustainability commission and sustainability structure and uh hierarchy Within in the city so if we're really going back and doing pdca and looking at acting and adjusting I think we have to consider what else we need to do um I raised a concern um a couple of meetings ago and with a few other people and I'd like to repeat it here um because um you know actions um are really important and and not just words and I'll just summarize it with one with one statement and that is we've been we've been seeing this develop over several years this top first came up um with between Howard me and other people Howard Lazarus at the time in 2018 but what what frankly really bothered me is that the most consequential policy discussion that relates to climate and energy that I'm aware of that's come up in the last year is whether or not the city should spend $1.7 million on a phase two study for the feasibility of an meu the phase one study went through this commission we devoted the greater part of three meetings to that so if the commission really is a partner in policy issues why didn't that topic get discussed at all in the energy commission so again when we think about pdca and acting and adjusting if we are really going to be full partners then topics like that need to somehow I don't know in which way but they need to somehow go through the energy commission otherwise really um we're we're not really advising Council on policy issues and let's see I would only offer one more thing and that is a concern that if you look and having served on the environmental commission as the liaison and I appreciate the the opportunity to represent you on the in the environmental commission for something like six of the last seven years um these topics and and uh uh uh commissioner peek um Dean over peek certainly understands this as as the dean of of seas there these are this is a huge breath in an an environmental if we're looking at this sustainability you know water quality um biodiversity natural features uh energy energy systems climate uh air quality you know these are independent fields of study and if you really want to have good policymaking it's absolutely necessary that there is not only an sustainability uh commission but there are really strong well staffed with expertise people that are that are knowledgeable in these areas and if it's just a sustainability commission and people aren't willing to put the time in to the working group and that's frankly not always been the case on on both commissions at least from my perspective um then the breadth and scope of a sustainability commission without these really strong Wells supported well staffed uh staffed meaning also from the commissioner side we're we're going to run into problems and we're going to be looking back again and say okay we've now done another two years and we've gone through another pdca cycle and we haven't accelerated our decarbonization and we have to do something different again we don't have time time is running out so thank you for allow me to expound on on those thoughts thank you commissioner overc yeah again I'm sorry for being late uh my boss required me at a meeting and uh life is fun at U ofm the uh yeah I I have to agree I mean with everybody's what's you know the common denominator of everything everyone's saying is we're not going fast enough and that that requires adjusting I think the way John said was really makes sense um and I think what you got to at the end of your presentation John if I heard it right maybe I just wanted to hear it is that um you know we're an innovator we're a leader trying to be anyhow um part of being a leader in this space is being a systems oriented uh effort you know where you don't just go carbon neutral or you know clean up your Parks and Recreation and things you you do everything simultaneously to achieve a true uh sustainable City and a sustainably low carbon city um and I don't think I'm you know we're not going to get a huge staff uh we're not going to get a huge amount of resources we've got to figure out how to do this in a a differently um and that requires commitment from people so somehow I think what you're saying John and and again I don't know how to do it uh but I think we got to try and really put effort into it is to uh and and by collapsing this into a sustainability committee rather than the separate ones is to try and get more of our fellow citizens involved because we have in this we're blessed in this town with some amazing this city the some amazing expertise and um very passionate expertise too um and I'm not saying just the U ofm um obviously but uh U ofm brings a could bring a lot to the table so I just hope that you know I'm willing to try and help here the timing isn't optimal I me given that you know the university we really there's a lot of dealing with the existential threat that is you know the new Administration in Washington but you know um I I sense a lot of people want to step up you not fight you know step back and give in but to step up and do more um and I think in the University we have to do that or else higher education will you know be made obsolete in America um we really have to do more as University and hopefully we can focus some of that on partnering with the city um partnering with the state to really set an example for the kind of sustainable world we want to in our our future generations to inherit so I'm all in and I just need to figure out how to find the time to do my share of the work council member Briggs yeah thank you thanks for those comments um you can hear just in the last couple of minutes it's the the pros and cons of why you know why this seemed like a great idea at sometimes and maybe not you know a challenging idea at other times and so um there's been a little bit that's been part of the the EV and flow of you know how do we restructure if we were going to restructure how do we restructure in a way that um um sets us up for the for more success because I think that there has been um regardless of how many folks are on the commission at times just a bit feeling of spinning the wheels and are we are we aligned as much as we want to be um and are we using all of our talents and energies and you know uh in the best ways so um you know this proposal is an attempt to try to to get us closer to there um I think you know we can all acknowledge that there's some really big challenges outside of you know even as outside of the city right we've got the state constraints we've got the federal constraints um got International challenges when it comes to this topic right um there's no there is no easy path forward there is no one structure that is going to make us go wow gosh that's solved it for us um but um you know I think we're hopeful that um this is an opportunity to to have some of those tough conversations and and align us for um you know better align us essentially um so you know I'll just say I'll just say briefly from my perspective um as I've heard these conversations I think there's there's value I think I think there's oftentimes a tendency in in different kinds of organizations sometimes to add complexity when the challenges are complex um other times there's opportunities in simplifying um and and focusing and and and that I heard it in either commissioner msky or commissioner overc's statements too um as well as the overview from um council members finding ways to sort of Matrix how the city operates both in in staff and governance and different organizations whether it's the university whether it's different groups that are working on this different forms of expertise is is really critical and and there's something about the commission structure that makes that sometimes challenging in terms of doing action and and and putting together ideas and Concepts and and working them forward and I think if anything um if there's you know as as Council takes this forward thinking about that kind of structure that makes it sort of open participatory in ways that that can help enable ways of working that that bring together um expertise from across and make that even more workable I think that's that's a really positive thing um and in ways that help sort of as as others have alluded to um build build alignment so that we can have focus and and and get more inertia around some of the major major things that we're trying to solve commissioner mki you and and again I want to encourage everybody else to to speak up so not that you know I'm I'm talking over other people um uh commissioner PE thanks for teasing out some of my thoughts and and elaborating on them I agree entirely and what again as a suggestion to staff and councel is to to think of this more broadly as I mentioned before look at the city of the struct structure of the city and aligning it um look also at the climate and energy advocacy Comm uh Community I mean if we're going to do an adjustment here and we're going to act on on that um there's some people that are really interested in let's say the advocacy community that just really want to be Advocates but they're also in that Community people who really want to do something and maybe those people can be brought into um you know these new subcommittees or something like that I mean the Wolfpack is certainly an example that they we want to do things people in an climate partnership and then the other organizations Sierra Club CCL some of those people don't necessarily see them as polic themselves as policy experts and um and in a situation where they can advise Council and and potentially indirectly staff but think other people do I mean that's how you know look at Mike's background I mean he's a great addition to to this commission and so my my suggestion is that we take on this topic more broadly and not just look at the commission structure um and then I want to point out one other thing and I've talked about this I think probably with some of you um and the fact that I worked in business um is is completely different than working in in in in government but in business you know it's really outcomes and only outcomes that matter and that's not always the case in government but in this case I would make an argument that it is I mean we're dealing with physics and we're dealing with the laws of nature and so it's not plans it's not efforts it's not um what else did I write down um actions it's not accomplishments the only thing in the end that matters if we're going to reduce uh the impacts of climate change is outcomes and so we have to be totally focused on outcomes granted accomplishments and efforts and plans and all these other things hopefully eventually lead to outcomes but if we're not getting the outcomes then we have to re-evaluate our plans our efforts our actions and what we Pur receive as accomplishments if they don't lead to outcomes that's not true of everything that government does but in the case of fighting climate change it's outcomes and we need to think of that we will not change the physics or the chemical the chemistry aspects of this or the other laws of nature if you will we we have to be focused on outcomes thanks commissioner orac I'm going to get a PO focus on something besides an outcome but I think you're right um to get those outcomes we got to focus on um strategy and for a strategy one of the thing one of the ideas uh is like I'm I'm thinking I'm like I've made these promises let's I'll drag some U folks in from the University um Gabe can do that too I mean we have multiple uh University guys men and women on this committee through time and uh but I think one of the strategies I've used on working groups or committees like this commissions is to think strategically about um pairing individuals so that you don't have one person who's like having to really do the carry the water you have uh small teams in the critical areas where things have to be done and so um couple of us have sort of you know Joe and Gabe and I for example have been talking about how do we get the city and University to work together more effectively we haven't done anything my fault but um certainly I think all three of us have thought about it and I just think um to make it happen uh we need to be committed to working together to make it happen and um we got to make sure whoever is on these small teams has the time to do that uh and the the the sort of passion to do it um and so we need and so I'm only raising this because I think we need to think of those other areas the second thing about strategy is we got to come to grips with the 2030 uh goal uh and and how we how we deal with that you know I don't know what everyone else is thinking but I'm I'm thinking uh it ain't going to happen um and it's not like the end of the world but I think if we're we got to we've got to convince our colleagues in the city that it's a good thing for us to be realistic uh and still be highly aspirational in other words we're not going to do it by 2050 we're not going to do by 2040 but you know let's at least get a little more realistic in 2030 I I don't know where the answer is um and you know we're coping with the same problem U ofm where you know you literally have to move out people out of buildings for extended periods of time and you can't do that all at once and you got to drill all these bore holes I mean it's just like physically impossible to do it before 2040 probably um even though I think you know some of us thought 2035 so we we've got to really come to grips with that um and I think that will help us because there are people on this University who might be like I'm only going to do this if if their targets are realistic they can be very ambitious but they got to be realistic thanks can I speak to that real quickly yeah and I could be totally wrong you know I'm I'm just my own thought go ahead Eric yeah I was gonna I don't want to cut you off okay um yeah I completely you I think you raised some good points um you know around the concepts of strategy and and goals it's something I certainly struggle with there's on on Council we have a number of goals we're trying to reach um I tend to focus a lot on our as well on our transportation plan and our and our goals there um as well as our our climate action plan which they're they they they are they are connected of course um you know I think in the transportation world at to use another example there's what we see sometimes at the state level is that um for example in transportation deaths that they are projecting an increase the goal is actually an increase in deaths um because that's the trajectory but it's a more modest increase in deaths than we would like to see on our roadways and so and so you know that is a maybe a realistic goal um and yet it it doesn't Inspire or seem to set the tone that we want to have in any sort of way and so you know we are we are working with our you know our 2030 um carbon neutrality goal um at least for now I personally think it has some merits because what it suggests is that our resources and our time and our energy needs to be aligned to the greatest degree possible in achieving those goals and that that should be the focus of our budget adoption and our all of our how we're aligning our resources recognizing that um it is an aspirational goal at the same time um that we're not going to um we we can't achieve it by 2030 right and so I think the question of when that gets shifts shifted is is is a good question for all of us to have a good conversation it's one we have to have as a city um at some point um when it comes back to this conversation around the structure of the commission um for this I I so far in the conversation I'm not I'm hearing questions I'm hearing I'm not hearing significant I'm not hearing opposition to the concept what I'm hearing is that if we proceed with this we need to be very thoughtful about how we're structuring it so that we are um if we if we are moving into in a new form that we are thinking very strategically about how those working groups are set up and um thinking through the details so that we are hopefully lining ourselves up for um better alignment more success um in in achieving the outcomes that we want to see um and you know that's what we would need to kind do next um is to further refine some of that work and that thinking that we've already done um so if as this conversation proceeds if there are folks that are saying you know absolutely not this is just not a trajectory that direction we should be headed I think we do want to hear those opinions too if not you know further refining this so that we are um you know saying okay we got an interesting idea here how do we how do we capitalize on in a way that that um sets us up well I think I think in the interest of time we might move move on um from this discussion for the moment um and I think as a as an opportunity to um as this has been sort of the first introduction um maybe if there's other thoughts or comments that that Commissioners might have um uh you might be able to share th share those also with the council members and and staff as well um and I was just going to I just want to give us just a few minutes for a Qui a quick break before moving on to the rest of the agenda and sort of capping off off for the evening's meeting did you have a quick quick comment um John Comm I I if I may sorry again um I I think that the due date um of or the target date should be negotiable I've heard Missy say a number of times um everything is negotiable except for the date um I I think it needs to be negotiable um looking back at the the the how the date was set the two commissions energy environmental both passed resolutions in support of a climate emergency and set a Target date of 2040 when it was taken to by to council by council member chip Smith he wanted to be aggressive and suggested 2035 in the meeting when it was approved by Council council member Eaton raised his hand and said I think it should be that was in my view I mean I'll say it he may not appreciate it um but I think it was essentially virtual virtue signaling and I think given now the fact especi back then University of Michigan didn't have a plan University of Michigan has a carbon uh neutrality plan of its own or or targets that it set in scope one and scope two emissions will not be zero until 2040 so the university is one-third of emissions so in light of that um the city's not going to change that and because it's also a realistic Target I think we really need to talk about the Target and I think that will engender trust and I think what the transportation committee is doing engenders trust that's a smart thing we we we have to be able to have our citizens or in any organization the people in it understand what our goals are and that they make sense and then hopefully get behind that and then not just be totally frustrated at the end because the goals have been held up held up as this has to be met and everybody sees that it's unlikely to be met so and and the last thing is I came into this meeting being I would say somewhat opposed to the new structure um but if we really look at this holistically um I'm certainly open to it um and if hopefully we can come up with um better plans better structures better strategies that really start to accelerate our our activities thanks for allowing me to say that again commiss burkwitz yeah sorry to uh delay the the break but um I I don't have um thoughts one way or the other about the commit fure game for anything and always support you know more collaborative thoughtful um engagement so happy to go however wherever um regarding the 2030 date as the you know the a20 clan uh timeline and goal um I do feel like it's maybe preemptive to uh push that back at this point um uh and um I have a few reasons why um one you know right now it's the most aggressive um uh carbon neutrality commitment in the country um I think that makes the city of an arbor much more attractive to all sorts of different um funders foundations corporate philanthropists uh formerly the federal government um maybe no longer for three and a half more years um and so I think there's value um in having that I'll also say like I'm recalling a conversation we had I think last year where um I don't know if it was Missy or someone else was talking about how the city was starting to explore um entering into a virtual power purchase agreement to get our electricity to 100% Renewables um you know uh if you know there are um the other mechanisms like the sustainable energy utility don't um fill up all the electricity Renewables by then so you know essentially I think there's like one lever away from getting all of our electricity from complete renewable sources and I know that doesn't fix transportation and the building sector but it has major dividends power sector I think is the most really important of the three seers um in in the carbon neutrality plan so I'll just say that you know I I feel this everybody talking about like we have to move faster um and we're way behind a much to things we are but I also think we're closer in some aspects of it than we realizer that we're talking about tonight thank you okay um let's just take a a quick uh three minute break and if we could come back at uh 7:54 and and we'll just pick back up with the remainder of the agenda next would will be the staff report thank you everyone e e e thank you for the quick Break um next on the agenda is the uh staff report yes um yeah first thing I want to just note um there was an attachment in this area this was something that was um brought to council as well but basically it's just a report that's just kind of going over all the various things we have been doing um around the various Michigan public service commission proceedings over the past few years um I'm I'm not going to go through everything because we'll be here for much longer than any wants to be here um but I really encourage everyone to check that out wanted to make sure we shared it here um as well just because I think it's it's definitely one of those things that kind of is in the background and it's not you know the most fun thing to to go through and be like legal proceedings um but you know there's a lot of really good work being done there so I highly encourage if you haven't to check it out um additionally um just want to go through through a couple quick reports here of just saying um mentioned it before but we are um we're now in the when it's available but um designed to help lower the cost of transitioning from gas to electric lawn care equipment uh with the leaf blower ordinance um discounts for electric lawn care equipment are available as well as rebates for electric leaf blowers um through May 31st so for more information including rebate and discount amounts as well as the different eligibility requirements you can go to OSI a2gov.org Le blowers um for our next sustainability Forum uh moving away from an unsustainable linear system that focuses on take make and waste requires rethinking the social and physical infrastructure that drive material flow throughout our society uh so you can join us in the third session of the 2025 sustainability Forum series to learn more about our circular economy initiatives their role in uh the city of an arbor circular economy efforts and how you can get involved you can attend in person at the downtown Ann Arbor District Library or virtually on March 27th from 6:00 to 7:30 p.m.

and we can adjourn this meeting and thank you everyone for the thoughtful discussion um around the resolution this evening and around the um the the discussion around the commission the commissions U moving forward and um please stay tuned um I think since this resolution will be moving forward to the working group um please stay stay tuned for for some of those Communications as other email Communications over the next the next few weeks as well so much appreciated and please have a great week thanks everyone thanks good night thanks [Music] everyone for

e e testing one two three testing one two e e e I like to call this meeting to order this is creep mon Board of Education committee as a whole meeting for Tuesday March the 11 2025 6:30 p.m.

that's what you're asking exactly exactly exactly my fault cuz I didn't make a part no that's so you just now you considered that money that Tiff money coming in because you know right now but if you had to show us that before the Tiff you would have had 25 million there you go yeah 24.4 would have been to equate to the 48 million okay all right okay clear so um with that being said um I know it's been requested uh a multi-year forecast um given the current state of the economy um didn't go out five years I went out three years but I went ahead and put this together for you um so you can see fy2 as I said based on these assumptions I feel that we are going to um finish the year with a surplus FY 26 is currently showing a deficit but included in this I know we had previous discussions about what we're going to do because keep in mind next fiscal year we'll receive the second installment of the Tiff five from University Park we also receive the first installment from I believe it's Tiff 3 and Moni rolling off the books um this number here factors in our payment for the alternative revenue bonds which is $2.25 million since these are alternative revenue bonds we need to keep in mind that they're not necessarily treated like Debt Service so it will be those when we do the levy those funds will come into the Ed fund and you need to be conscious of not to count that for operating in income because or operating Revenue because it needs to be transferred directly it's designated for that so you can either make a transfer which will require board approval or what we could do is we can allocate a certain amount of evidence-based funding Revenue toward those alternative revenue bonds either way um you know it's something that we need to be conscious of when we're looking at operating revenue and uh a huge expense that's not necessarily included in there that needs to revenue needs to come out but because of the additional revenues that we're getting from Tiff from University Park and soon to be from Moni that evidence-based funding is going to go down right um projected Ste I Thunder a little bit like that but that's something we something we need to be conscious of all right so in addition to the the payment for the alternative revenue bonds at FY 26 we also need to be uh aware of that our accounted for $ 1.8 million in preventative bance previously we were talking about in totality about $6 million from the two tips coming off we're going to use a third for the alternative revenue bonds a third for preventative maintenance and then a third for operating income or operating um procedures I met with buildings and grounds to get an idea of where we stand on preventative main okay and these are all estimated numbers a lot of these will require some of these will require us to get out to go out to bid but we did the best with our estimated uh our estimation um for FY 26 we're thinking about $11 million in preventative maintenance and I got a spreadsheet of 258 line items I can share those with you via the FYI if you like the good news is of those items about 938 th000 be uh buildings and grounds or operation operating maintenance fund is already paying for so in reality if we're talking about PM I'm coming up with about $215,000 and quote unquote new money fore preventative maintenance are you doing preventative maintenance or are you doing corrective maintenance um I'm calling it preventative maintenance um but like I said they they do a lot I went through everything preventive and maintenance covering vehicle maintenance um equipment maintenance we went with lawn maintenance um air filters and HVAC systems Plumbing uh maintenance on the boilers things along those lines that they currently got started a little bit this year or they've been doing that they would like to take Denise Financial relief for are these your maintenance program is it Incorporated in some type of electronic is the sky work so your work orders and all that is that school D I'm sorry School dud is what they use school school D school school okay that's all electronic computerized right okay school and we have dedicated a specific code um believe it's a subject code in our general ledger it's a code of 10 um to track preventative maintenance so when we budget you'll be able to see how much we're necessarily putting for preventative maintenance and so in the spirit of transparency that Dr car kind of let off with um I'm going to make sure to spell out those funds in a separate building and grounds fund out that then U where you can differentiate by that 10 you know I'm all for a PM program money that in many years we never allocated for so it's finally we putting money aside to address PMs and things of that nature but I just want to make sure we are tight we are addressing a higher priority things now that we're just not going through the motion with some less things that we need to attend to we we can't do everything we got a limited partt of money so yeah 1.6 million you identify already but if it looks like we can even bring back a little money out of that pot to address some other issues in the future we may want to look at that so make sure we got a rigor a very rigor program PM program that prioritize things accordingly and address those things that need to be addressed first definitely heting air conditioning Electrical Plumbing things of that and I think when we originally talked about this you went third third third but the most important things is the 2.25 and I and to me it's a renom it's we just spent a lot of money in the buildings we want to make sure that not only those buildings but are existing don't get to that point right and we want let me look at our our last life safety evaluation night and day compared to what you were around when when the last Millions as opposed to 500,000 that's right I mean huge difference so maintaining that always keeps that life safety at a at a manageable number right as opposed to almost an unreachable number where we had to decide should we have a referendum should we build a new school what do we got to do I mean we really had to make some major decisions right and one thing and you see it so often I see it in my 9 or5 we have money allocated to do certain things and you get to the end of the year with you know what we didn't take care of this we didn't have to and start spending the money on anything so just make sure we're tight on our PM program that we spend the money that we need to spend it at the right time at the right moment for the best outcome okay I hear you loud and clear my my my personal financial philosophy is to be intentional with our okay so there be a Lev of intentionality that got the code going but I just want to add a little bit more to the competitive maintenance so um I did look at a couple requests um as you guys remember we had an experience at the high school this year with our Chiller where it went down in June um it was a huge significant cost let alone almost an interruption for us um there are recommending a uh BAS system for the HVAC um building Auto building automa automative system Bas that's what she said I was actually G to come to bill for that but you got that's what it is um but yeah they're recommending a new Bas for uh cmhs and then also um mon Elementary okay so I'm thinking to consider those as capital projects but as much as you said we need to be transparent and plan that out because capital projects um you know that 60 fund if we allocate money over there I want to be as precise as I can with it because once it's allocated to the 60 fund it can't be transferred to another funds now funds from the 20 fund the on andm fund can be transferred to the 60 fund so I will continue I was actually thinking about you know when we adopt the budget every year give you guys a presentation on the the uh preventing and maintenance and then also some things to highlight for you as we kind of dabble in between this world of what is an operating fund and what is a capital expenditure for a Debt Service okay okay so um J FY 27 um you can see that the deficit grows this is primarily based on a few assumptions um we going to be coming with the contract negotiations in my forecast I forecasted a 4% rate sorry do we need to talk about that my fault all right okay well um got that going on the big thing is a lack of Revenue here um for $100 million as you notice the revenue kind of stays flat this is the year we're going to have to um address the imrf fund the 50 fund and bring those funds out of the operating funds back into the 50 fund because we're going to spend it down fy2 FY 26 and then that will um deplete our operating Revenue so as fast as uh school districts go and turnover year to year it's very important that we it's very important that we keep that in mind because FY 27 will be here before we know it and there'll be $2 million less in operating funds than the previous year to address the 505 okay president Brown this is what you were alluding to here I'm planning on FY 28 there some things that we need to be um aware of but uh most importantly uh evidence B funding is predicated on your eav or the eav of the district with these two significant tips rolling off um with these two significant tips rolling off and coming out onto our books there is a strong likelihood that we go from tier one during for evidence-based funding and then be moved to tier two from my understanding that happened a few years ago um this past year we received an increase of slightly over $2 million in evf last time we went from tier one to tier two to we received between 300 and $400,000 so I'm anticipating a reduction in Revenue in FY 28 also so basically the issue we have here is that expenses are going up four to 5% a year and our revenue is only going up 1 to 2% a year yeah you hit the nail on the head you know much like you guys seen with Transportation you know they're looking for double digit increases year-over-year forecasting health insurance to go up a certain amount of percentages and then when we Levy we've Levy for 2.9% and it's still yet work we capped at the CPI correct yeah and if CPI goes way up you know we'll be C 5% but if CPI goes up our expenses are going to go up too because cost of everything is more I what I what I've seen is you know basically it's kind of like our expenditures and uh our private providers our transportation our insurance our um um purchase Services they kind of slow to adjust where they still use the percentages that that the market bears were limited by whatever CPI is yeah it's always been said that this district has I mean the truth we be told is that we do not have a Reven expenditure problem it's more of a revenue our expenditures is not been really the problem just the revenues the lack of we don't have the big guns we businesses and all of that just thank God our life our safety line this this year is the Tiff for the most part G us some Revenue a tip from University Park but remember what I think everybody forgets is that Revenue took 23 years to get here yeah you I mean for 23 years that that didn't generate the revenues that it should I mean people are like what are you going to do with the the with the money you're getting from that well it's been 23 years 23 years I mean it's been a long time we've been Tiff heavy so it was that's how long it takes to get here and then if it's extended it's another 12 or 13 after5 years so in some cases right so um that concludes my presentation on uh financi for this year and then also the multi-year projection appreciate your time thank you Jason we could bring up anybody have any other questions okay thank you U you got another one I'll part of oh you got another one okay you got the you got the beat I'm sorry I oh there go I thought I was seeing doubles here all right Jason since you since you want to stay up there I tried to get you out of here all right um so this is a plan that you guys seen before it's the uh Financial details for the um short-term facility plan Plan B my apologies between the electronic version and the copy of the handout I think I changed those but uh still working on that but important thing is all the numbers are correct so what you guys see here is a familiar slide see this the short-term facility Improvement plan uh from June 2024 to 2026 of August um one big change in here is that um we were planning on replacing exterior doors at our elementary schools with the exception of mon um worked with contractor through the co-op and we just could not get the the order placed to procure the doors to get them installed this summer um we had a quote to replace all the doors um the quote came in uh slightly higher than where we anticipated so by the time we had a chance to look through the doors and be selective we figured that uh well we figure uh we met missed the deadline to procure those doors and have them installed uh for school year so what you see here is those exterior doors are pushed back to Summer of 2022 so along with to go with um of exterior 2022 2026 I'm sorry something on there caught my mind summer of 2026 my apologies so um do have the uh roof replacement at creep mon Elementary in here still but this is Contin uh the same format that we saw previously in previous presentations I believe I presented it in November okay I have one question is there anything on there about the parking lot for the high school parking lot High School included in the M sport Stadium okay uh line and are we doing that like the roof at Creed Elementary are we doing that in phases like two phases or are we doing that all once three separate phases ought to be done this summer okay so it'll help with um traffic flow in the middle uh for summer school and kind of work around activities and then we will finish up the rest of it after summer school So the plan is to do it all in one season though yep okay y just three separate phases all right so um so going back I'm sorry going back to that chart so let me make sure that we are keeping this ball rolling on the middle school edition I'm trying yes sir Yeah we actually still in there along with the rooftop uh replacement of the rtu Roop yeah it's right here in the I said in the red but what's is that the 25 26 year or is that time I'm seen it y okay the anticipation is we'll be opening up those those additions in August of 2026 so we're looking to do some work start this summer um not this summer we're actually meeting with the contractor and architect tomorrow um we'll start that work in February of 2026 I'm look confused we're looking to start the middle school work in 2026 so that they open up in August the 26th okay so they're ready for that school so just that summer of 2026 and we have ample time to do all the work in a couple months and um that's what we're meeting to discuss um there may be some work done over spring break considering the scope of the project um and there may be some exterior work starting in March but I'll have a better idea of that after we meet with um those parties tomorrow but we are actually having a kickoff for that tomor do we are we locked in with any prices on this um no we're subject to price fluctuations through the co-op so we're not locked in especially things are really going up now and we can be caught with additional million dollars easy and we're probably not ready to absorb that we only sold x amount of dollars $35 million in revenue bonds for both projects the sports complex and the middle school so are we ready to absorb any additional funds to complete this project let's look at that for us okay and see if we can lock in anything we could because you know things is going crazy out there now with material and things of that nature and I don't think things are going to get better or they going to get worse before they get better okay um so going on to the next slide um when I presented this in November there wasn't necessarily a contingency for these projects so what I've done is I've built in a 7 and a half% contingency for each building u based on the projects at the elementary schools um aside from Creed Elementary who's having the roof um we have proposed exterior doors exterior windows so each one of those line items does have a 7 and a half% contingency um built into it for each building um at the high school I mean at the middle school I did the same um 7 half% contingency for the construction cost and the rooftop units I will continue to look at that project on President Brown and see where those final numbers come in at and make any necessary adjustments um I am proud to I'm sorry is our architect getting I know at one point we had the architect Feats and all of that involved with this is that no longer yeah I'm kind of burying it I'm putting that in the cost because the way it works with the co-op the co-op Construction Company actually procures them so I just keep it in the okay I don't keep it SE 10% okay great all right thank you you're welcome um but I am proud to announce that we we made some changes and I know that made some changes but as you spoke to president Brown there been some economic changes um and fluctuations in in uh the construction World um the the price that be brought for the constru uh concession stand is coming in just about right on what we were quoted has so pretty consistent so I'm feeling good about that excellent so um what you notice here and the big thing I want to bring to your attention with the with a project that size is the contingency of 7 a half% for the Sports plex um doing a project uh of this magnitude without necessarily working with the architect hand in hand um things came up and I didn't have a contingency built in here previously so I'm presenting the contingency now to you guys because some things have came up that our needs some things that came up that I want with the Sports plex and I just want to go ahead and share that with you and give it make myself open to any questions for the Sports plex okay um I'll get to that in a second but just to reiterate where the funds are coming from for the the two projects are actually the Middle School the sports flex and the proposed work at the the middle schools I mean the roof at crto elementary the exterior doors and windows okay we still have some money left over from our previous issuance of bonds uh certain portion of that is retained in fund balance to help out with our financial profile score um currently have 28,45 th000 uh remaining in alternative revenue bonds um president Brown the board approved the sale of 35 million and we sold 30 so we still got a little bit of room there and what we've been doing is is spining down some of that for our other Investments that were um our other proceeds that were locked into longer term investments so um net proceeds were around 29.2 of the sale but you see this number has come down a little bit um I will continue as long as I'm here to apply for the school maintenance project Grant uh we Ed a portion of that to pay for the Middle School flooring last year um I applied we received the money 50,000 of that is going to be used towards the uh roof replacement at Creet mon I mean not Creet mon Creed Elementary and then next year when it opens up again I'll continue to apply for that Grant and apply that $50,000 to whatever project that will probably going to finished in the summer of 2026 okay so we are going to continue to be active in seeking grants to help out with these just the same way that we applied for the cops Grant we applied for um agricultural grants we're doing all we can to to maximize and leverage Grant funds for the district so out that 35 million that we we only to you say we only borrow 30 million can we still go back and get that other five million if we can yeah um as long as within I believe a threee period three years okay have we exhausted all of our opportunities for working cash bonds your I believe so I believe de service R off in okay okay thank you sir and then also um kind of going back to where we were on the previous slide this plan uh accounts for $800,000 interest income I've asked Mr Johnson to set up a specific account for that so interest income that's earned off of these funds are then put that designated account FL doesn't get used as operating income going forward in the future and this is income I mean this interest is all predicated on the money we have over at o plank is that what we got here for the interest I believe a lot of those Investments are at PNA and their bank account yeah really I talk Bri you're not earning that kind of money at a local bank this is probably inv so we we allow treasury bonds or something okay so yeah we still have to be very conservative p p PMA have that huh P okay the market is very volatile so I hope they very conservative with their investing yeah we give them a draw schedule okay and and they they uh align the Investments you know what is safe conservative that doesn't cause us any cash flow problem okay Mr Johnson's great with that you know he won't get aggressive with another month if you think that's that's going to cause some cash flow issues that's okay great all right so um taking a look at this this is uh proposed project totals and contract balances some of these projects have been paid down for for instance um you know we've been we've been paying Burns and Jones we have some transactions to bear as you guys have seen in approv the uh agenda for the Sports plex so total outflow um for projects 36 million um we have the remaining proceeds of slightly over 7 million additional proceeds to pay for the short-term plan for 2024 that I just showed you it's coming in slightly over 29 million and it's G leaving us with a surplus of right around $1,000 as it currently stands wow with a seven with a 7 and a half% contingency yes with the 7 half right all 7% on every project but Mo Elementary which is the furniture but I mean 7 half% is a lot yeah that's a lot of and again every project is different some of them you may not use a nickel and some of them you're going to use something just because something's going to come up so I know previously I presented that in November bring it back to you guys once we what the proceeds you know second alternative Revenue s that's the purpose behind us as we said earlier that kind of flow in the presentation about this so this has been shared with us I know it took a little while for Burns and Jones to get this it's been shared on social media maybe you've seen it but this is a rendering of this words Plex um I will definitely um bring your attention to this is a conceptual rendering only not be used during construction they have actual Blueprints and things along those lines I just wanted to share with you guys um image of what it will look like for the multiport field softball field and the baseball field and it kind of gives you a little bit uh flow logistically and then we got the high school in the background so it does turn the stadi around as many people have question that's better than the two vendoring that we had so I included that in the presentation and that's just a varsity is that just a varsity baseball field softball softb softball down here varsity baseball and and I will tell you when that opens that's going to be a big thing because we have not had a girl softball field on our on our property were we doing something with the soccer field as well or no no because they can play in [Music] the oh they play football that's the okay great so what about the junior or sophomore fres for the baseball they used the original so you have a varsity field on the other side of the tree line and a freshman field so I think the freshman was going to be the JV softball and I think the varsity be JV soft or baseball so the Freshman sof is going to use the existing Varsity yeah okay like like he just said they turned around into the JB softball and the other one baseball one's got a grass and field the other one doesn't so it works out perfect what's the capacity of the stands in the football field home 1 how's that compared to what we have now do you know think slightly over the home stands yeah so that's a lot more than what we have now it is good did we ever did we ever get an answer on the ninth Lane that we just put the kabash on there the ninth straight we said no yeah did they ever look into it or no we did it was too much money okay cool um so here we have an updated rendering of the concession stand building okay um one adjustment that came from this was uh the inclusion of this Corridor hallway here going back so this would be the north side of the building this would be the south side of the building this is where the fans would line up for U concessions here and here uh entrances to the locker room in the front and the rear and then bathrooms for the public here on each side and then we kind of mirrors each other on each side okay so um in reviewing the original quote for the concession stand um much like many things even along with the sports Flex that came up um it was brought up the fact that we didn't have any capabilities to uh grill food inside now once you start doing that you're talking about bringing in a fire suppression system of it's called an Anil suppression system and it goes ahead and it kind of changes the uh uh definitely changes the cost and change the function of the building and the concession it's expensive yeah so and I get I I do have a quote from the architect uh or the design team from that so to mitigate that expense I thought it would be uh applicable instead of having people walk entirely around the building or anything like that when I was looking at the blueprint one day or the the layout I was wondering if we could just split this and have a direct line from the back of the building to the front and my thought was that was that we put a haunting back there maybe some brid for sides and then right back here we have a mechanical room so in the mechanical room we can easily have gas lines R for grills or anything like that and we can do that Outdoors as opposed to it being done indoors okay um taking a look at the add-ons I've been keeping a running list here of items that we're looking to get done with the Sports plex some of these um I can't necessarily consider a a want because it's it's a need um so first one being uh electrical upgrades to the site if we're going to bring enough power for uh the concession stand with the stadiums we don't currently have enough power out there so that's just an estimate we're still working with com get the final numbers there um Burns and Jones has got a firm quote to bring water to the facilities um $152,000 um estimate right now is to run fiber from the high school to the concession stand they're going to have bore from you can help me out know you didn't think about this we'll be speaking tonight but uh a100 right in the area the high school right by 8100 so that's on the furthest west side of the high school we have to boore down and then bring the cable all the way through properly okay can I ask you can I ask you a question so we're talking about this add on this $2 million this was never part of the projected cost of a 35 million that we could have borrowed but we borrowed 30 million and the price of the sports complex that we have estimated to be it did not include this um it did not include some of these things but but are these numbers included in the prior yeah yeah cost estimates that you gave us no they were not I would look to I had is I look for some of these add-ons to come to okay in my opinion they're they're considered contingencies when we had to some of these things and correct me if from wrong that's why the contingencies don't exist and that's why I'm including the presentation so we can go ahead and move forward on some of these items because we need to get to the point where we're making decisions a so I don't look at this as a contingency I look at these as add-ons okay with contingencies is based on you know what if something don't go right or whatever so what do what contingencies do we have if things doesn't go right with the money that we have now so what space if something doesn't go right with these prices the two almost 2 million and whatever the other price and things is more than those two accumulative numbers what leeway do we have to address those issues I wasn't necessarily looking to max out the contingency right now I was just kind of providing a list so so this this $2 million what's the percentage of their s again that's contingencies you said you had 7 half% contingencies from the beti what percentage of this $1.9 million eats up that 7 and a half percentage um you said you wasn't going to go Max right no I'm saying is this this not Max well obviously the add-ons are higher than the contingency so that's why I need okay and I'm I'm all for add-ons if it you know benefited that's not me for doing this this the first time I mean if if if it's if it's you know I can take away from the some other projects to it up and consider add-ons that have a less contingency I'd be willing to do that I just that's kind of why I'm here discussing it right now okay at the very beginning we said we knew we were getting a concession stand and we knew there were going to be locker rooms and all of these things in there why why is a water upgrade something that's coming up now were you planning on were we planning on having a dry locker room and dry concession stand because we knew all of this beforehand that these addins like that the um the electric upgrades like we knew we wanted lights in that stadium that we wanted everything lit these aren't contingencies or upgrades having running water that facilitated that entire building isn't an upgrade it was a necessity to begin with so what are we losing that is technically an upgrade because none of these things are add-ons right none well some of these things are like shadowing for letters we can discuss whether or not that's necessary but water and Plumbing and Electric we known we needed since day one so why is this coming up here and then what are we cutting that already exists from the sports complex because we're already struggling to find the money for the middle school and I know it's not coming from that um you know I'm now starting with your first question U that was due to my experience then for um not including these type of items in the original cost the plan was originally present but the money I guess her other question was the money's not coming from the Middle School is coming from the contingencies right right it's not coming from the Middle School we have we had a overall amount of funds that included the sports plx mid school edition right exterior doors place an exterior window in the roof okay right so if we do go up and overspend on this project then that would leave less money as we come back to the replacing of the exterior doors windows things along those lines i' have to take it from there we can work on a strategy to then now replace all windows or we can consider okay but that wasn't part of the original deal when we had voted on this and we had we had been very clear we had discussed making sure there was enough money to do both and so where we are doing both right right but no but we're talking about potentially having to redo some of it and the contingency for not having or maybe not getting all of the things so I'm confused where like the things that obviously we knew we were going to need so I think what he's saying is and correct me if I'm wrong that the M that we were originally supposed to do the bonds for like you could pull from certain area or you can do go to the money that we voted on and said that we were willing to sell Bonds on right so those are your two options and you're trying to tell us you can either get all the buy money or pull from existing projects and the reason we did the buy money was in case we needed to pull from the buy okay but we we pulling from different projects that are maintenance projects that we are all in favor of doing our PMs and addressing the things like that so again I'm offer upgrades and things of that nature but the original estimate that you got to build this complex you went and say this is how much money is going to cost to do the middle school to do the original estimate for the sports complex and we say okay we need $30 million to do that so we get the $30 million and of that $30 million you say pretty much factored in a 75% contingency probably on both projects right right I mean also the doors and windows the doors on the windows on yeah everything yeah sure on all the project yeah on all projects yeah so so so now you're saying that that $30 million to do those both projects we're talking about the sports complex that original quote you get from the vendor be bear construction I'm sorry a majority of the sport yeah okay okay whoever the vendors are we got x amount of dollars and you said we need to borrow x amount of dollars right so now this is an additional $2 million that takes us for the most part out of that $30 million range for the most part right that's a fair statement yes sir so it takes us to like 31 million 31 32 million2 million 32 million okay from 29 to 32 oh yeah 29 295 keep in mind when when this when this plan was originally put forth it was it was put forth in in early 2024 you know it was accounting for you know exterior doors with a dollar amount you know what drove what drove this list what drove this list well as you can see some of it is uh a firm quote that's been obtained by either either company and then the estimates um I I've spoken with them and I'm just waiting I mean did I mean who sat down with them and said this I'm sorry on yeah who came up and said we want this we want this we want this was that in-house um that was through my myself and my team Mr K Mr okay so so coach I think the one thing that we always said before the middle school was even bought in we always said we want to do it right instead of half doing it come back do it right the first time and that and so we don't have to say we wish we would have we should have did this we should have did that I don't know what the team said when you met with them but I know we said do it right the first time the middle school got thrown into this because of the fact that they need to 50 classrooms because they don't they don't think that somebody doesn't think that they shouldn't get it I agree they deserve it because we agreed to it but I think this is part of getting it right and if we I say if we have to do the 3 do more on the bonds then we do more on the bonds instead of but I don't think we should pull from the other projects no I don't think he's saying I don't think we're pulling from well he said those are the possibilities the only thing that I know that's for sure that we voted on is the middle school and this yes if he pulls from the doors and the windows is one thing but I'm going to tell you now he's not saying we're pulling from the middle school or the No No I know he's not I'm making that clear I I get so they're getting that money will be set there but there's other things right what we spend in Creed Elementary and tala and Balm moral and all and CSK and all them we spent a lot right and maybe in the theory thought process is maybe we should have done that with those projects we should have done the doors windows while we were under we didn't so I guess the only small room for margin you have there is maybe the exterior doors and windows but other than that the red on there is not going to be touched and we're going to allocate that money for that for sure and in the same sense is if we need to go back and get a million dollars extra Mr Brown is alluding to then that's what that five million 5 million doll buffer is but on the list that he just showed you look at the low stuff uhuh and you look at the medium stuff and there's stuff on there that we you know he's right Jason needs to go through with the team and and Jamie's right of bringing up the water right that's shouldn't even be on the list it should have been there you're putting a building up we know we need sanary original specs we need running water we need sewer sanitary we need electrical upgrades so unfortunately take those items out put them in put the Necessities to function that building then bring your list back to say these are the things that we would like in there and I'm going to tell you right now the the 625 for the lights of the softball and the baseball and and the 300 for the commercial kitchen you can take them out I let me let me ask the only reason I'm saying just do we play night games the baseball that we have now has no lights we functioned okay um it's always something and I know that we say we could do it in the future but I think the necessity things that we need the fiber okay we need the water we need the electric those are essential and whatever else is in the top 10 up there take them off that list and figure that in your budget number because those aren't things that technically bear construction whoever is building the building should have or the architect should have known how are we getting the water from here to there that should have already been figured in a transform even a big transformation Jam right for say that because that should have been in the in the in Spectrum but it should not be as an option right at all but I see like things like additional stand for baseball and softball I mean that's stuff that you can do fundraisers later you can you can you can figure out a way I don't think we have to do it or I'm just wondering about where Things Fall within the priority list because we're talking about locker room branding and I'm not saying that's not important but is it a high priority because we could use that potentially for things like you you know lighting around a sidewalk for the stadium for safety I'm just wondering like and that's only a medium safe a medium thing so I'm wondering how priorities were chosen on what's a high priority and like don't get me wrong I love a good locker room I've been to professional locker rooms they're gorgeous I'm not saying they don't deserve them I'm just wondering how they were decided that was basically the M discretion because if you look at the the current layout of the stadium and the way the tra traffic flows coming I mean we do have life in the parking lot students will beting directly into the parking lot how it's currently set up right now I know when I when I coach football kids walked across a dark field just parking lot so depending upon you know what the exact traffic flow was looking like I didn't know if we could get by without something like that because the the majority of the the fans are going to exit directly into the parking lot not could be like a long walk away around the parking lot like it was previously due to the accessibility of the field closer to what I would suggest is look at like the top like five or six items seem to be things that would be difficult to add later look at those things and then kind of everything else if if we don't spend our whole contingency and you we got money left over do them but if you you know that's what I was kind of just looking for some Direction so I appreciate the feedback andely things that the building needs to Sur you know function is basically is what you're looking at that in in agreeance I think all of us if I put something in my backyard I'm going to need uh may may not need water but I'm going to need electric I'm going to need there's certain things you're going to need out there maybe you have a bathroom maybe you're gonna need sanitary all that should be included and does the the fiber cable allow you to have Wi-Fi out there well I mean kind of speak to what you guys have said um to do this to do it right you know I I didn't want no I I I think you know for for multimedia for you know things you know people are essentially if we host graduations there for I want to make sure that we don't we didn't Overlook a major utility a major component for everything electronically that happens in the world the top three to me are not on this list should the gas upgrade up there too if we I mean I don't want to but like I would I don't know how these are ranked to be honest with you I sorted uh the uh priority column and any amount so there's no the the the Dome dedication plaque is just now like a low high it's just perfect okay thank you and you're right we have that buffer so was Mr Brown asked earlier get some numbers from who you know whoever in your team regarding the Middle School let's start preparing for what that extra is going to be because we all know everything's going up so I think a million is safe right so that the project won't be 7 million it'll probably be8 million in that $ 78 million range even though there's a $450 to $500,000 contingency in there I would still budget that part of it in the same sense there are things in here that you're right that we might want to do right again we have a little bit of buffer on the on the bond money between the two projects I think that's what we got to stay focused on the Middle School in this project I is what our focus on that money was for not anything else because that's what we're basically why we borrow that money Middle School sports FS right I mean do we agree with I mean that buffer is not for I'm sorry to say no windows and doors nothing else on here no roofs no nothing it's for those two projects and if it needs to be done right where there's extra cost to do the middle school and it wants up being 900,000 or this one's going to be maybe not 1.9 but maybe 1.3 million right we borrow that 2.2.2 2.3 million and we do both projects the correct way see I do I do am I yeah you're absolutely right and I just I guess moving forward when you have a big project of big projects like this I think your team need to sit down and talk before you come to the board and say this is the dollars we want because these are a lot of items that come to us after the fact and say this is some things I I can see a smaller list but these are some items that should have been talked about prior to you getting a bid it should have been included with the bid and and and I think the architect should be part of that conversation as well because the fact an architect put a building in with bathrooms and water wasn't talked about we're putting scoreboards and electrical in and we're not talking about a Transformer Transformer that's like as soon as we did all these building projects for a conditioning that was number one because it would took 14 months to get yes you know it was supply chain and then some of the some of the chillers and and Fa stuff was over a year so just reach out to the team and figure out maybe there's something else that they can look at as well because as far as I'm concerned the architect at least in this some of this couple of these items shouldn't even be on your list they should already figured you know what like I said I I'll own that the fact that we have two separate companies trying to like bring the two together at joint venture along those lines but it's a learning experience and I appreciate you and they know better allow me to do and I can tell you if we don't have any prices locked in buyers beware so I I'm glad that you admit that it comes along with it's a learning thing I won't say it's a mistake it's a learning thing on your part um You probably won't get to do this again in your life but because we could say next time it could happen but something is Big a new field and all that stuff so I just want to commend you for just owning up to and saying hey you know this is part of this I apprciate we not we not knocking I didn't think you were I'm justking you this is a big project this is Aug doing an excellent job run I honestly I I appreciate all that um I'm not here for that and and to to people that you know I don't want to minimize the sport flex but I've spent a lot of attention on the numbers of the Middle School make sure it's right so well my so my issue with that is I always felt like at some point we might need this but I guarantee you if you needed that that uh middle school is going to be okay it's going to be oh yeah no let's get it done that's how I feel yeah but see I think we have to take the approach for both projects and I think if we do that if we do that I'm fine like when you say the doors and the windows and all that that that money wasn't necessarily aark for that I totally agree we do both of them doing right then it's fair and at the end of the day if both projects are done correctly the way they should be then it's it's it's it's a good it's a good day it's kind of like what we did in the other five elementaries that was a good date all five of those elementaries got exactly what theyve deserved for a long time they've got recing for our staff and our students they got uh new water pipes with you know all the old water pipes out of there they got sprinkler systems to make them safe they they got you know a little bit of a makeover but they got what they deserve those buildings that have needed that for a long time so now these next two projects we need to focus the same attention on both if we get that I'm more than happy exactly I don't I agree with with the way you Middle School I'm sorry go ahead no I'm sorry you no I just say the middle school next project online you guys already came to us and said how much it's going to cost we had input from the community so on and so forth and then after that you start the project and you come to us with a list from the Middle School like this I always feel the same way what's this all about I can see some four five six seven items or whatever that you miss or whatever I can see that but coming to the board with a whole L list so long I would like to have this I would like to have this you know you got a Cadillac now you want a Mercedes I say that bad planning in my part I think a lot and I and again I don't I think a lot of that falls on the architect to know better that you cannot have a building with bathrooms and I ever I mean that's not that's not uhal superintendance you have that and you have the even though he was with Ken I Ken led a lot of it and I'm not blaming Ken in a negative way but sometimes when you have two people come like that to transition um no Jason Jason again I I commend you you you just really been keeping a bard of breast some of these projects you're doing a good job so all right did you finish Jason or did we finish for you that's the Finish way to end it so I mean got y'all this wouldn't be possible so thank you for all you do straight to the picture thank you Jason don't forget you got photos you got photos don't forget yeah that's wait to in your presentation you know you know how to do it right man all right thank you Jason again thank you good job good presentation and a lot of effort went into that presentation so all right so do we have any old business new business uh closed session we do have we we do we do have a reason to go in close session for the appointment employment compensation discipline performance or dismissal of specific employees specific individuals who serve as independent contractors in the park recreational or educational setting can I have a motion to do so we're going on to close session move by Nelson second by Bill roll call please Miss Wolk hi 45 Miss zeit sers I Mr swsh I Mr ggos says an i Mr Albert I Dr Hall I president Brown I we are in Clos session we will be in Clos session till about 9:00 and we will not take any action after so thank you public for joining us appreciate it be safe enjoy the rest of the evening

Allegiance. First, everybody, please rise. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Very good. Now, we will go into our student recognition portion of the meeting. Uh, first I would like to call up Mr. Patrick Morrison. Thank you, Dr. Brown, and school board. We're here this evening to recognize five incredibly strong swimmers that uh competed at the state last week. I'm sure coach John Studio will go into it. But if there's one thing that I've learned over the last three years being in this position and had the opportunity to go to state three times in my job of being the athletic director is that swimming is a very very tough sport to make to a state and swim. You got to win or not, right?

They placed fourth, but they missed third by one point. And so, it was really close. They did everything they could. As Patrick said, it's really tough and swim. You go to a sectional, there's 20 sectionals. U you win or you go home. And uh but you win, you go move on to the state competition. And once you get the state competition, it's no easy path. Um I don't know if you know anybody by the name of Alexandria Shackle. But uh she was Olympic swimmer. She swam in the Olympics this year. She swam at state competition in high school. So pretty impressive competition. If they break a record and Indiana, state of Indiana is known as probably the top three in regards to competition and swimming. You break a record in the state of Indiana, it's usually a national record that you're breaking, not just a state in Indiana.

hello clockers welcome to another segment of waa news blog my name is H silver and today I will be giving you a brief summary of the ashin toown manager's newsletter the library lighting upgrade great news for Ashlin Library visitors new lighting is in place thanks to town officials and eversource the library now has brighter more efficient lighting making it a better space for reading and studying spring 2025 town meeting bylaws discussion Ashley and residents are invited to a planning board Forum on March 13th at 7:15 p.m. to discuss updates to town bylaws including flood plane regulations accessory dwelling units and site plan review procedures the affordable housing proposal a 40b housing project at 61 Waverly Street is under review The Proposal includes a five-story 226 unit apartment complex with 25% affordable housing a public hearing will be held on March 25th at 700 p.m. Grant and scholarships are available applications are open for the baa Grant up to $4,000 the community Grant up to $1,500 and the Ashland scholarship $2,000 deadline range from March 28th to May 1st the Metro West College and Career Fair High School students and families don't miss the Metro West College and Career Fair on March 15th from 1 to 3 p.m.

celebrate St Patrick's Day with an afternoon of Irish music music trivia and sing alongs at the Ashen Historical Society this event is free and open to all the magic show fundraiser on Friday March 21st at 5:00 p.m. support the ashin High School class of 2027 at this fun family event at the Marone Event Center tickets are just $10 with pizza available for purchase the Boy Scout Troop 232 pancake breakfast and food drive will be Sunday April 6th enjoy a delicious pancake breakfast at the ashon VFW while supporting the Ashen food pantry and boy out troops businesses can also contribute silent auction items or sponsor The Event Annual Town cleanup Saturday May 3rd join Greenup Ashen in keeping our town beautiful volunteers will clean up public areas parks and streets you can also sign up for the adopted Street program to keep a specific Street Litter free year round visit Greenup as.org for more details for the community shout out this week we recognize the friends of the ashin public library this dedicated group of volunteers Works yearr round to raise funds for library programs in including Museum passes author events summer reading programs and more their biggest fundraiser is their monthly book sale held on the first Saturday of every month donations of gently used books are always welcome for Community initiatives we have the March menstrual product Drive in honor of women's History Month the department of prevention and Human Services is collecting menstrual products to help individuals who struggle to afford them you can donate unopen pads Tamp and menstrual cups at Ashlin High School town hall or the community center throughout March for the Ashlin food pantry March needs the food pantry is always looking for donations of unopened unexpired food and drop off locations include the community center and Shaws on Pawn Street Library events this week the Ashlin public library has something for everyone this month including for adults and teens we have the women's wisdom Circle everyday spirituality March 13th at 6:30 p.m.

March 11 and I'd like to welcome everybody for being here this is ex thank you I meant to say that and what what board members do we have on okay so this is an exciting night because we have a lot of awards to give out uh mostly from the high school and then we have some uh great Awards to give out to some of our uh coaches and teachers that are here tonight also so thank you for joining us and if you all rise we're going to do the pledge of Le IED Al to the flag of the United States of America and to the republ for it stands one nation God indivisible withy and jusice for all okay thank you members you may notice there's a little bit of a difference in our agenda um we mixed it up a little bit uh that we have our our minutes to approve first that giv anybody in the public that's grabbing our or whatever they get a chance to look at the minutes and see what we've we've discussed and we've done before so um we can do these by consent uh we don't necessarily need motions on each of these so I'm just going to go through them if we have 100 if I see can if anybody is not consenting just let me know and we'll stop and we can uh we can change those hi Felicia thanks for joining okay so uh the minute of January 28 2025 as a any issues then we accept those minutes February 11th 2025 in a regular meeting February 11 any issues then those minutes are accepted minutes of February 27th 2025 which was a special Boe budget Workshop anybody just any issues they minutes are accepted March 4th 2025 special board of education budget Workshop any [Music] issues then those minutes are accepted and then March 6th 2025 special CHS walk through any changes or issues then those minutes are accepted okay thank you very much I just want to let the board know going forward with the minutes and I've had this conversation a little bit with the audio according to Freedom of Information the only thing that that minutes are really meant to be for votes who's attended uh and what the votes were for specific uh specific items the idea that we take uh you know that we even uh bring letters into the minutes are not necessary okay the minutes a letter to the board of education is basically informative for the Board of Education to know how people feel they're not necessarily for the minutes nor nor does the public um ask us to um change their statements or to make sure that their statement is read into the minutes that's not what the minutes are for so going forward the minutes will be a little bit more STK more towards the issues that we're voting on and and whoever speaks in uh public comment they'll be listed as such that they spoke there may be a line on on the topic they went to but we're not going to we're not going to uh um have a narrative on what they said if you will okay so that that is an foi that's a Connecticut foi statute so we're within the statute okay uh having said that now we go to public comment for anybody in the audience will'll start with anybody in the audience would like to speak in public comment the only thing we ask is that you give your name and your address and we like you to keep it within 354 minutes if you can do that for no I meant I me everybody was going to walk out the door three minutes 3 minutes is there anybody in the public tonight that has anything they' like to address the board of education on any any item you're free to do so okay hearing none in the audience I'll go to online is there already online that would like to address the Board of Education if you're joining us online and you'd like to make public comment you can go ahead and use the raise cam feature zoom and I'll call in you by your Zoom name one more time for the public and I close out public comment thank you okay let's move to the administrative reports the only thing uh from the uh Chairman's side is I'd like to remind the board of education on March 19th I'd like to remind the public that's here tonight March 19th is our time to present to the board of Finance the budget that we approved at our last meeting and I'd like to encourage all the board members to be there in support and even our student members if you'd like and even if you'd like to speak on the budget you can do that uh but I'd like to encourage everybody to be at that meeting I believe it's 7:00 p.m.

uh the board will U if you can be there for that uh comment having said that I'll now turn to the superintendent for any announcements or report super thank you Mr tles good evening everyone it's great to see everyone here I want to give a special welcome to Mr to pipo and Dr Kidwell tonight who will be presenting our Canton celebrates for our high school students and staff and also to provide the board a little bit of an update on what's going on with Ken High School I I do want to take the opportunity to acknowledge our student Board of EDS and our Board of education that the month of March is Board of Education Month celebration month and on behalf of the the students and the staff of the parents in the community we present you with a a gift um thanking you all for your service to the the town of of Canton so thank you so [Applause] much I want to Echo Mr Daniels I want to thank the board of education for approving the the budget last week at a uh 6.45% and for anyone in the community that would like to know more about this budget please go on our website the videos are on there when you see 6.45% this is a flat budget what drives this budget is 3% of insurance cost and 3% of um Staffing in cont contracts the the only new staff positions that we have within this budget are uh uh three campus monitors for one for Cher Brook one for Kon Intermediate School and one for the afternoon for the high school middle school and then a05 District social worker that we work with in our Thrive program but that's an offset that if we had to PID for that one way or another we'd be paying for that so as there's a lot of things families here I would encourage you to be involved in in this budget process but the the budget that was presented by the administrative team and voted by the board of education is a flat budget um compared to 2425 to 2526 so I would encourage uh people to uh attend the the board of Finance meeting uh on March 19th and I would encourage all board members to support Mr Daniels who will present your budget on March 19th it is not the administrative team budget it is your budget so I would encourage you to uh go to that meeting I'm not going to speak too much about activities because I know the the High School Board of head members will speak about it but it has been a busy past three or four weeks of going to games uh going to music performances at Cherrybrook going to the Middle School play going to the high school science s folks come on in our high school girls basketball team is joining us right now and then um upcoming we have an artist reception at the the library the musical which I know you'll speak about and then I do want to share a very important date of March 25th that's a very important Board of Education possible meeting depending upon any Board of uh Finance reductions to the the the budget that is that you all propos I'll take any questions out of the superintendent's office at this time any questions for the superintendent St [Music] reps feline no okay no questions for the superintendent thank you Dr grman Mr Bishop thank you chair Daniels I'd like to provide uh briefly uh an overview of an Outreach piece for us um I'm continuing my work with the Farmington Valley Health District in their Community Health Improvement program I'm co-chairing the mental health committee and we're uh doing work around uh metrics for the upcoming meeting and then being able to uh poost the the next round of improvement efforts for us so this is an opportunity for uh us to be able to engage in this conversation at a regionalized level in support of of the pon community and the broader Community as well uh a little bit more locally within operations here I'm preparing with Mr Moore Mr Ji and M meanie to be able to present at the cast conference uh that's the uh conference for Connecticut administrators to be able to present uh findings that we have gained during our work with uh student performance data relative to the commissioner Network Pro process so we're very excited to be able to share Lessons Learned with that looking forward to a Full House for our presentations and then uh a bit more locally to within our operations we've been uh having some great conversations with our instructional uh instructional leadership collaborative that includes our administrators our department chairs and our coaches giving us the opportunity to really be able to calibrate on the work that we do together singularizing our vision so that we can continue to be able to do really really strong work together within can so really pleased with the work that we have going on here any questions for me thank you Mr any questions for the assistant superintendent okay Kim just join us just for the record okay great um student uh student representative report Magie you want to go first and we'll go right down the line sure I'll be reporting on CIS so last Friday CIS was given a sneak peek of the CHS M theater production of this SpongBob musical CIS held it small Ensemble concert last week and the concert included 28 pieces and students didn't outstanding talk CIS is celebrating National reading month in March congratulations to the CIS band who did an outstanding job performing The National Anthem at the Wolfpack game they were told by the wolf pack that their band was the largest they've ever hosted through random acts of kindness week CIS collected 202 kindness cards each representing a different act of kindness shout out to miss H's class for earning the most kindness cards C thanked all of their van drivers and crossing guards as part of bus driver Appreciation Week guest student guest speaker Ed G met with students in assemblies and shared his messages of gratitude dreaming big setting goals and having a positive attitude and congratulations CIA students who defeated staff 80 to 60 in a student faculty basketball game than Ed 49 THS night very good thank you I will say that uh I went to the wolf back game and our students performed just fantastic it was great and then I was at the student faculty game and uh I saw a couple of teachers hanging on the rim I'd like Dr to speak to them so okay um J um I will be recording on Cherry Brook um so on February 25th Cherry hosted its annual kindergarten parent orientation uh this event provided families with an overview of a typical day in kindergarten um the presentation included details on daily routines learning activities curriculum and classroom expectations um a follow up to uh Cher's 100 day uh food drive challenge um which was basically an event on the 100th day where every classroom tried to collect 100 items um in total Cher collected 1,786 items which will be donated to the c um additionally on the music side the third grade cheer gr singers recently went on a field trip to Yukon stores and was able to have the opportunity to work with professors there and also with current students there at Ukon uh last week was also read Across America week at Cherry and part of this the National Honor Society from K High School took a visit to Cherrybrook and seniors were able to read to all the different grades so K through third we all took a classroom and we were able to share one of our favorite childhood books with them and then tomorrow March 12th uh from 5:30 to 7: will be I wonder night at Cher I wonder project is a it's a a stem based um event where the chair Book Students will work with high school students from y Theta and snhs and just be able to do some Hands-On uh stem activities additionally next week uh teacher parent conferences will be occurring and also the PTO that's great thank you do luas so as many of you guys already know the SpongeBob musical is uh this Thursday Friday and um tomorrow the uh NHS Anda are hosting the p k which is a 3.14 km run out on the track with many other Pi Pi Day Pi week activities um this Friday two lucky students uh who have bought raffle tickets will get the chance to pie a teacher that they select oh my God the board would like to be present for that um unfortunately both the boys and girls basketball Seasons came to an end this Friday with uh losses in the quarterfinals which is still very far for considering past years is great Improvement for both teams great um the boys ice hockey team also lost uh this past Monday to Hall there in for's close game we played very well and baseball will be starting up very soon uh this Saturday um the Middle School um students are forming Relay for Life teams to participate in the farman valley edition of that event uh CMS put on a performance at the roges gall of roges gallery sorry cting crew did a great job um the CMS school climate team hosted their monthly resiliency lesson uh which had students writing and Performing skits about managing challenging emotions um coming up soon we have have uh sixth grade families are invited to sth grade orientation uh on Thursday the 13th at 5:30 uh parent teacher conferences will be next week and for the middle and high school be C jazz festival with the guest artist be on March 26th starting at 7 p.m.

um you can also reserve a time slot to pick up 1 to Four free tree seedlings to take home and plant yourself uh registration is required and the registration will open on March 15th uh you can go to OSI a2gov.org freet tree2 um all trees will be small be root seedlings that'll fit easily inside a vehicle you can even take it on your bike um additional information is available at a2gov.org 10K trees uh tree planting and Care information will be provided with every tree volunteers are also welcome and those who are interested in volunteering can learn more about the opportunity and sign up um at os. a2gov.org freetree volunteer um a little bit in advance but coming up very quickly um a20 week which is the week celebrating an Arbor's commitment and progress towards a just transition to carbon neutrality CommunityWide by 2030 uh will be June 1st through 7th U if you're familiar with this we always do a whole bunch of different different events all around sustainability and so if you have an idea for a sustainability event you want to host one or you want to uh or just have an idea that you think would be fun in general uh send us an email at sustainability a2gov.org um otherwise we look forward to seeing you there and last but certainly not least uh the job posting for the sustainable energy utility executive director is now live uh so if you have any one you can think of send it to them or send the names of any candidates to Missy uh or have them check out again City's website uh Additionally the seu ordinance will be going to council for first reading um on March 17th and for just more information and to sign you can also sign up for the seu weit list and um keep up to date on all the different announcements at a2gov.org a2u that is all from me thank you next up we have reports from other Commissioners commissions and Council and we start with a report from the environmental commission and then move to reports from Council uh very briefly environmental commission we had a presentation on uh the County's um rain Garden program um other than that there wasn't really anything substitute um that I think is relevant to this group what I would say though is that um let's see I have to double check my calendar here I think it's on the 20th yes um so on the 20th the environmental commission will be considering the same topic we did tonight and that is the combination of the two commissions so some of you may want to listen in on that or um listen to the recording afterwards because um I think it should be interesting to see how this topic is viewed from the perspective of both commissions that's it thank you and any updates from Council M BRS counc M Malik feel free to to jump in because I was not actually at the last city council meeting um but the big uh piece is that uh Council um opted to not move forward with uh the M uh phase two study of the M uh Municipal energy utility at this time yep yep and it was I don't know if any of you had the chance to watch the meeting from uh March 3rd where we debated uh the meu but there was a lot of really good discussion um there was also a lot of community engagement um in addition to just public comment during the meeting I tried to do a of all of the Outreach I received as just one individual council member on this topic and I think I received over 300 emails on it so uh for someone's comment earlier that there 's a lot of Engagement in our community around these energy issues I I I see it it is true um so you know ultimately the uh meu study did not Advance uh but you know we're still uh you know evaluating Alternatives you know the conversation doesn't stop here so uh encourage everyone to remain engaged uh you know as we move forward and I'll just add to this because this was a huge comment topic of community conversation um council member Malik and I um had different opinions on this so you I was I was not at the meeting but I was pretty um clear in my communications and my Council newsletter that I wouldn't have supported um the phase two study at this point in time um and council member mik did vote for it so just you know there's these are tough issues um and uh you know whether it was uh appropriate or not I think given how political this conversation was um we tried to insulate the commission a little bit from um and so you know sorry if we we're protecting you too much maybe that's you know that's on us if if you don't want to be protected us so much let us know okay let's move on we'll move on to our second public opportunity for public input um again this is an opportunity for people to speak for up to 3 minutes and if you're watching on CTN please call 888 78899 or 877 853 5247 and in our meeting ID 956 8718 7876 the information is also displayed on the meeting agenda and the video and video feed City staffs will select callers that have raised their hand one by one using the last three digits of your phone number uh to raise your hand Tok or deire to speak please press star N9 on your phone and you'll hear an automated announcement allowing you to speak uh please speak clearly and move and move to a quiet area um and please state your name at the and your address at the beginning of your comments Joe do we have any callers in for the second public comment g a slight pause see if anyone but no callers at this time okay thank you um barrowing any other further comments um we'll move on to items for the next agenda um one of the things that I'm hearing is that the uh given that the uh there's a notice um for an executive director for the seu and also a first reading associated with the suu coming to city council um it's an open question in my mind about um whether that might be a a good time in our April meeting to uh uh similarly uh perhaps look at um whatever is coming to council or or something related to that um as part of as part of uh a discussion around the seu um but I'll just I'll leave that there and see if anyone else has any other comments um associated with items for the next agenda commissioner mki uh thanks um one thing that I would hope we do when we look at agendas is and this by the way applies to the environmental commission as well is look at are we presenting something just for information and there's no decision or policy change or anything else that's necessarily tied to it um or is this something that is a presentation where we can really have a dialogue that does lead to what should be our mission and that is advising on on policy and I don't know that that necessarily relates directly to your suggestion of the seu I think it probably doesn't but I think just going forward we shouldn't be looking back at a year and say oh gee we devoted 50 70% of our meetings to information presentations I mean we can all read we can all go on YouTube we can all do these things we can go to the County's website or whatever and read this stuff um there is certainly value in us talking amongst each other and developing thoughts but I think sometimes we really need to ask upfront is this really just truly for information purposes and if it is then let's just send that out as as a presentation yeah and I'll say in my role as chair at 100% agree um I you you know I know in our in our agenda discussions um prior to the meetings we've tried to uh to the extent possible hone things in a way where we thought where we think substantial feedback and and and and Advising can happen both for City staff but and and council members around around these topics and and and hopefully if if if something Rel to seu um were brought forward it would be with the with um uh perhaps presented in a way that would or any other topic presented in a way that that there would be some discussion and an opportunity to really leverage leverage the um expertise and the experience of of this commission for sure other comments or items for the next agenda um or in the next next uh next few months um please as always feel free to um uh share any agenda items with myself and and and City staff and Joe um and and we can uh um take those up in the meetings and and and think about how we bring those forward sometimes it takes a little time for prep um but but oftentimes we've been trying to bring those forward as quickly as we can okay hearing nothing immediate um I will now say that it's uh 8:07 p.m.

Mr secretary can we have roll call please Mr Albert here Mr gagos is he here Mr swales here miss zit stumbris here miss Wolk here Dr Hall here president Brown here let us stand for the Pledge of Allegiance led by board member Alex deos and followed by our mission statement read by board vice president Dr Hall I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible and justice for all and our mission is to engage and Empower our students to positively impact their community and future okay is it sounds like we do not we have one that was sent in Via electronically and that's from a Mr John bruta I think that's how you pronounce it and it reads how exactly is the football field project being paid for what is the cost what is the scope of this new project and what other parts are planned I see nothing on the School site that talks about this project I noticed something last year talking about acquiring up Tiff money isn't that this taxpayers money been used for a project that should have been brought before us taxpayers what other projects is the board discussing thank you John pluta do we have any board updates yes uh so I went to a art gallery uh named Union Street Gallery in Chicago Heights and um I was amazed uh because the the entire second story of the gallery had some really impressive stuff paintings drawings sculptures uh every every sort of medium you could think of and I didn't I wasn't really paying attention I'm not I'm not that artsy but I wasn't paying attention and I saw the name tags next to the pieces of Art and it said like grade 10 grade 11 and then I'm like holy cow all these pieces of art were made in art class by high schoolers and some of the high schoolers came uh to show off their pieces and take pictures with their stuff on display and it was a lot of uh students from uh um from Rich Township and and other schools that are close to here you know but not 2011 you um I spoke to the director and uh I asked him if he would be like opposed to having 2011 you students uh and he's like no like it's close enough we're right here um I would not turn away students or or a program uh that you had uh in creete so I think that um I don't know someone in our art Department would be um would uh like to display some of our because I know we have talented artists in this school you know um and I think it would be really cool to have them shown in an art gallery I think it would be really fun so I will pass information along the high school we'll do awesome uh I also want to speak up about uh the Early Learning Center I have a little one here um in Miss Rodriguez's class and there's an event pretty much every month where it's like after hours um so the parents can come and see what the kids are up to the kids can socialize and there's a really good sense of Community inside the ELC um and like I was amazed I didn't I had a middle schooler and then a high schooler and we didn't have events every month but with ELC uh it's you know it's every every week we're getting to notice that there's something else going on and I really appreciate the effort that um that ELC is putting towards early learning uh with the students and everything and I I just want that to continue uh for the next you know for foreseeable future because uh it is important to keep the kids and the parents engaged uh in early learning So yeah thank you Alex and you know that's de in my heart that early learning and it's amazing just going the threeyear old foury old and seeing those little kids and how attentive they are and with the art gallery thank you for sharing that with us and we definitely have some artists here and we saw that last year I think it was last year where the kids wrote books and had they had segments of their Arts within those books so but I know we have a whole slew of kids that can draw and um display their talent so yeah if we have an opportunity to engage our kids that'll be great any other updates well I also want to thank the board we get recognized as a high governance board by the our group what iasb three rivers okay so I'm so proud of you all you do a lot of what you do is not being noticed out there and some of it is but they saw us worthy to be recognized first time in the School District history that we have been recogn recognized and it would not be without all the work that you do so I'm so proud of each and every one of you keep it up and just keep this ball going and I also had a chance to attend the military ball I went from looking like a person working in a coal mine within an hour with a black tie suit and Tuxedo on so I didn't really clean my fingernails real good so but anyway that was a good event Dr Perkins show build up and as well as a few administrators so I knew my way and I knew exactly how I was going to leave soon as the dance music came on I was out of there I hid behind Dr Perkins and he he looked around where was I I was G so but it was a nice event great food and if you get the opportunity next year please attend that it's a really nice event I know you guys attended an event right I don't want to take your thunder away what about the event that you had over the weekend right wasn't it no I I I it was an overnight trip to Quincy for show they ended their season yeah so yeah we were in uh Quincy illino Quincy Illinois okay so I guess you can't be in two places at the same time no unfortunately that ball has been every last few years has been every single that weekend on the same time yeah oh we're going to have to talk about that okay all right okay all right no other public comments or board updat I'm sorry if not moving along on our agenda is Administrative updates superintendent yeah we've got a couple things that we want to bring to the board and the community's attention um some things to celebrate um and the first you know is something we've talked about already and that was um one of our faculty members over at the high school was um was recognized as a golden apple finalist and that is Sarah Val Valeria excuse me and so she and her family are here tonight and I've also got um um Lamont here and um Miss car there as well I don't know Lamont did you want to say a few words or give some explanation about how that all worked uh before he say a few words he was there at the ball too yes he can okay tone his tuxedo as well he did not uh he he told me he was going to be the first one out uh thank you Dr Cara and to the esteemed Board of Education I just want to a few remarks about Sarah and it's noteworthy to mention that Sarah joined me about a week ago in Champagne Illinois where we presented about our educator Rising program uh I would have you to know we're one of the only programs representing the entire state of Illinois forging forward to ensure that we do our job to stop the teacher shortage or to kind of minimize it so here's what I wrote Because I was the nominator for Sarah and this comes directly straight from my heart as sensitive as I read it uh Sarah Valerio exemplifies the qualities of an extraordinary educator she does not teach for accolades but because she deeply understands the impact that education can have on her student lives lives skills that will stay with them long after they leave the classroom she does not view teaching as a mere career but rather as a calling in essence it's her life's Mission the passion for her work is in everything she does through collaboration with her principal the cre Moni High School educator pathway was born with Sarah at the helm through this program student students are able to see teaching and education as a viable and meaningful career path we are very fortunate to have such a passionate instructor in our midst and celebrate Sarah as one of our finest just so that you understand the magnitude of this accomplishment she was selected out of 480 uh injuries as one of 30 and I'm almost guaranteeing that she will be a recipient because there's not that many that were chosen because they're touting education as a viable career path uh Sarah exemplifies this every day I have no regrets and the students just love her when I come into that classroom the passion greets me at the door she's an extraordinary educator and she's worthy of this recognition from my my understanding she will be the first individual at the high school to receive this prestigious honor I'm speaking it because I would be so outdone if we're in St Charles and she does not get it but she deserves this recognition on tonight so if we can give her an Applause for everything that she does for the students daily and Dr K is it okay to have her come up to say a few things yes and then we're going to ask that the boy will get some pictures because that will be on our social media that we appreciate all right Mrs Sarah Valerio and her extraordinary family thank you Mr hollyfield I started getting choked up wonderful things you said about me thank you so much um thank you to the board for having me here and thank you Mr hollyfield for nominating me um I've been at Creon for 21 years I taught majority of your kids and I'm sorry it is such an honor and I absolutely love working at this District I really do um I have so many students that want to go into education they just didn't have a pathway to do it they didn't know how to go about it and I hope myself and Mr hollyfield and everyone at the high school is opening that path up for them uh last year we had about 20 kids in Ed Rising now we're up to 48 I just had a student join today so our program is growing so much and I always look at the kids I'm like you want to be a teacher you want to be a teacher teach and some are like no I'm trying to draw them in so I I absolutely love the program and you know I just want to say I couldn't do it on my own um Mr hollyfield Miss Perkins thank you so much for your support and all the teachers at the high school have been so helpful um what I've done this semester is each kid in the class I've placed them with a cooperating teacher one day a week and they are teaching lessons to their fellow high school students and I mean I have 23 kids to place and I've so many teachers volunteering their time to help mold and help guide our kids into education so thank you so much and I want to thank my family my husband Tim my Tony my son Jake and Tony and because they support me at home and I can't do anything without them so thank you thank you we're g to do a picture amazing stuff take you [Music] yeah what a what a milestone to have one of our own one of our finest can you hear me everybody can hear me okay you don't mind us please do yes so thank you and I love I love that hair do I love that hair do and you know me as the blue hair the BL to get me into teaching I tell you you remind me of so many of my good teachers that's been a long time ago but you never forget teachers like you so thank you for all you do and I see AP principal car over there she attended the ball too as well sorry didn't recognize you over there but keep doing what you're doing I guarantee these kids will never forget you okay yes thank you for all you do yeah I can attest to uh how great of a teacher you are uh Miss Valerio um my kid Raves about you uh you are her the reason why she comes to school um she she enjoys your class thoroughly you know it's we we talk about how amazing our students are all the time but how amazing is our staff because the students have to be taught by our staff so thanks thank you very much I thank you um my son out of all his teachers I remember you your name him talking about you so I definitely remember that so I definitely thank you for all you do and if you're ever looking for a job we might have one in our no no no no I'm I'm AER good thank you so much thank you thank you excellent you're welcome to stay if not you might need to get home to get uh get some sleep tonight yeah our meeting is not going to end until 11 o'clock tonight thank you take care now thank you guys and thank you sir thank you very much you got a beautiful wife and family thank you wel all right got got a couple other goodies just to share um this is the video we've talked about the safety Symposium uh that was done just a few weeks ago uh we just had the video that was done um to help showcase some of the work that we have um this video we also used um I had the opportunity I was selected to present at the um aasa conference that's the association of school superintendents Nationwide so I was uh selected to present on um this particular topic the work that we are doing here and again I had a chance to talk with superintendant from across the country a lot of them out west and they were amazed at the things that we are doing here and so we were able to share for free a lot of our templates that we've developed all of our ideas and so forth so it was a good way of networking the things that we are doing here in the district so I just wanted to share that with you we got to get away from free and figure out a way to monetize this if I could figure that out yeah uh to bundle it off because we we just it keeps growing all the time um so anyway so we just it's a quick short video that we have here we'll share that with you and um and then we'll kind of move on but anyway this was our video that we are using with one of our video local videographers that we have coming in and showcasing our work the creek mon school district 201u is very proud to have our second annual safety Symposium here at the district here we are sharing our story of how we've developed a comprehensive Safety and Security protocol system in the last 3 to four years our local First Responders our police our fire our EMS officials all understand what our languages are and our response needs so our relationships we have with them are so important to helping keeping us safe and our staff feeling like they can do the job academically so we've been looking at possibly getting therapy dogs so having the the session on therapy dogs has been very beneficial looking into that and how to acquire them and the train they go through I think was very will be very beneficial for us this is what staff should do this is what students should do this is what admin should do and you can't go probably 5T in this building without seeing it posted on the wall so that's something that we're going to look into replacing what we currently use is something that's more visible and kind of user friendly [Music] we are looking forward to having our next Conference next year so anyway as I've said to you before my goal in in communication is starting to bridge past the the newsletters you know even some of the social media out there and video like I've shared with you before is the the next Revolution that we are going into um some other things that I'm working on with communication to to bridge that is I our podast Studio we have developed a studio over at the high school uh I would encourage you to come and take a look at it we have it all set up it's in the media center it is available for students to use now um we've ordered some equipment some lighting uh we're putting in the last finishing touches on it I am getting ready we've prepared our scripts the first podcasting is going to set with Miss Baki to talk about our agricultural program it'll have three students it's going to have a community farmer as well and it's geared to start educating our community on some of the uh the services that we offer on our pathway program uh soon after that um I just started talking with uh Jason as well today as we're getting ready for the board presentation on our budget I think it is really important to start talking about the transparency with our finances and in our budgeting process um as we move forward so we're looking at doing a podcast hopefully with uh talking about budgets how to read your tax bill um we are looking to invite some of our County Assessors to go with us to do a podcast on that so we're going to look at giving some financial literacy through some podcasting pieces as well so again we're exploring different ways to start getting people to look at some of the things that we are doing and educate them as well um you've I've talked about the intranet that we're working on we're hoping to host get that launched in June so people can look at it over the summer as they get used to that um I was just sharing with some of the board members today we've got a board election coming up and as we are getting more and more board members that are coming in we want to make sure that we are uh you know putting together good strong training program so I'm already started putting together an intranet just for board members that would have just policies and information and training videos on finance and things like that so because there's so much for you to learn and we're trying to find digestible ways for giving you information so anyway so I'm just starting to work on that um I said if I could have a couple of you just give me some input on what you think we should put on it um so we're working on that as well um my last little goodie here that I was really excited about is today we had our second um homecoming meeting um we have about uh 15 uh or so people that are attending that we have people from the community I've have people that are alumni um that are coming in as well as our own staff we've partnered with some of our park districts and we're beginning to plan out that big homecoming so I'm telling everyone to mark your calendars we've already selected the homecoming it is October 3rd it is a Friday so I'll tell you a little bit of what we're planning to do we want to get this socialized out there so that you can tell people and alumni um to reserve that that date and come back uh we are planning to have a ribbon cutting ceremony probably September 12 and I will give you more information and we will socialize that we are going to invite a lot of people within the community to come once we do that then we will have our first um I think we have our first home game there because we are going to have some games there but we're going to have our first homecoming game then in um October 3rd and then for that whole week we are planning activities we are looking at having a bonfire we have the police and fire working with us on getting that and I it's going be in the back here Jason where did they talk about that bonfire is it two two possible locations either um the high school in between the A and the B wing because it's kind of guarded from the wind or behind the high school yeah so we're thinking about having that done on Thursday we're going to have a whole week of activities and um so we're going to have our students going out into the communities and painting the windows and getting that all excited I'm going to be going out and sharing this information with all the village board meetings and I'm going to be going to the Chamber of Commerce and any local um other events to start sharing this information um we are working to put together a uh a video to kind of get people excited about it and getting that all socialized so if you know anybody or alum I please spread the word for that week get them home get those kids home from uh the various locations and have them here um so we're certainly excited about that so those are just some of the updates from from this last are any kids on this committee no but we will be adding them in a little bit later right now we're looking at some of the logistics uh Mr keki has been working with the curricul or the um the activity piece but we are going to be layering them in um with the student government and have having them help with the other student governments in each of the other schools so I just had one question on the safety Symposium and I don't know if you have the answer or not but out of all the schools that attended the districts that attended were a lot of them local or were they outskirts of Illinois meaning I seen Cole city which is to me it's out there a little bit but anybody local um or were they all pretty much far because if you if the way I look at it is I think we've made huge strides here in making sure um because when we hosted spectacular at the beginning of uh February we had Parents coming in and they were completely surprised um in a way that that we had uh the evolved system we had police presence and security and and I think it just goes to show how much work we've put into that to make sure that when you come into this facility we're doing everything we can to make you feel the kids and and the parents or the staff members that feel safe in our buildings so it's just I'm just wondering how everybody else takes that in when they come here for that Symposium but were they close like you know mean was there a Lockport here or you know something in our area or was it Cole City or was it a little bit West of Western Illinois or Southern or Central I'm just wondering we had some up from the northern suburbs as well and they're coming typically the northern suburbs you know we don't get them because they're bigger districts and they've kind of done a lot the small districts are looking for this kind of things but I've had districts from the northern suburbs and I wish I had my list in front of me that came um and they sent people and I did have people coming in from Lockport um some of those local districts as well you would be surprised at how many schools we may go to and they're just not I mean couple schools we've gone to for sh I've seen and I've looked as I'm driving the trailer around looking are the doors marked are the window you know are the entry points Mark like we worked on for two years getting everything up to speed and you'd be surprised at how many schools are not and how many may or may not be you know listen we we live in a different world right now and just being prepared for our kids and our staff members and and people that come here right so I think it's great I I think that's an amazing thing that you have put together they keep asking for it I wasn't sure if I was going to do that this year but people asked for us to do it I'm going to do one probably in October next time uh we're trying to get more principles to come a lot of it when we're doing it is tough evaluation season and it's hard for principles to come so we're going to flip it and do one in the fall instead um to try to uh have some of our principles come but you know the staff here all volunteered their time to do these presentations and you know I really appreciate the The Fabulous um colleagues that we have here great thank you MH and that concludes my report for this week do sb2 or this is Jason okay yeah this is just information all right thank you thank you Dr all right next up is Jason number six yep I saw okay the money man is up got the wearable mic on today because I be up here for a second um president Brown distinguish members of the Board of Education and Dr Kagan good evening um first agenda item I have for you is uh discussion for the bid results for special education and prek D's trying to take that off that's coming at 2B so just keep your attention here and we'll be good um but uh having a discussion on the special education um and prek transportation we went out to bid for our uh transportation services um bid opening was on February 27th we had four companies submit bids um first one was uh first student who came in with a low three-year bid of just over $10 million second bidder was um cook of Illinois who came in slightly over $12 million for the three-year contract third lowest bidder was yellow bus Group um came in just above $14 million and then North American Central came in right around $14.5 million so the purpose of going out to bid for these Services was to avoid uh to see what the market actually dictates in terms of rates um I'm proud to announce that when first student approached us about a one-year extension in December of 2024 they proposed a 22% increase for next year um uh I wanted to go out to bid and see what the market had and um they ended up coming back with a one-year in a year-over-year increase from a current year to next fiscal year fiscal year 26 of 10% so they lowered their extension rate by 12% um also uh each subsequent increase for FY 26 or FY 27 FY 28 was a 4% increase and on the extension they proposed 5% so we were able to save the district quite a bit of money um regarding by going out to bid for those Services um first student as you guys are aware has been our special education and prek provider for quite some time we were also able to include some routes in there that are currently being serviced by external companies um and able to capture those in the bid so I'm confident that this uh process will save the district money going forward um at least compared to what was proposed by the current uh provider in December of 2024 are there any questions regarding the big results for special education how's the qual on on this segment of Transportation not the regular how's the quality of been of their staff are they losing kids have we had you know kind of um it's been consistent with a with a transportation company I would say um I have done my best to uh hold them to the terms of the bid documents and the contracts uh by enforcing liquidating liquidated damages so we continue to do that monthly um we won't process any bills if there's any outstanding liquidated damages that we haven't seen reflected in the invoice so that is one way that we're definitely try to hold them to a good level service that our students and our family deserve now is this just for the speed portion of students or no this is special education in District in District out of district and prek okay because I know speed has their own uh their own thing where they go out and bid for uh Transportation because they have way more districts um to pick up from so but you're saying this this is uh like special education for in-house in District and OU of District excluding speed so you're right they do go out to bid for their own um Services of which you brought our attention earlier this year that there was a discrepancy yeah um but the speed Chicago high speed 802 is not included okay all right thank you and first student is our normal vendor for transp and so the special education and the prek transportation do we get it reimbursed on the same level as the regular Transportation yeah um then over the last couple weeks I I did an analysis I I pulled our transportation claims going back to about 2019 then I compared that to what we're getting reimbursed actually in Friz so it's trending um it's trending right around 62% reimbursement rate 62 MH as opposed to isn't it around 80 % like I said I I'd be glad to put my table of my analysis in the FYI for you I went back 2019 you know some years it fluctuated one year was down and for regular or just special for regular I just did overall trans does the state commit to a certain percentage of reimbursement that I'd always as long as I've been on the board I thought it was 80% I thought it was too so yeah I mean like I said I compared it I'll take a deeper analysis but um I last three years was around between 6 68 61% so what I guess maybe what I'm wondering is if there if the transportation budget or in the transportation totals is there a way to separate regular Transportation compared to this and see if there obviously it's being entered it may pull it out if if you run a report because I bet I would think that our regular transportation is probably reimburse at 80% but maybe this portion of it may not be 80% so I mean cuz I think kend was saying that for a long time that we did 80% back MH and I'm that's the only way to check right to see how the state is reimbursing maybe they're not reimbursing this portion special education at 80% yeah I'll take the look at the um spreadsheet that I prepared I'll break it out regular Ed special ed compared to the claim and then I'll Prov that thank you and to your knowledge for the most part I know the speci the regular Transit ation getting reimbursed for those services that we provide our students is always a delay it just seem like they lag behind the state paying us the money that we re get you know ought to get reimbursed for and so I'm just curious to see will it to your knowledge you don't have to answer this now is it the same way with the reimbursement for the special yeah they're generally vouchered the same date it the typical voucher months September December March and June I know last fiscal year you know they were late processing it by the comproller in fact our January one was vouchered like December 27th and didn't actually get processed by the com controller to early January so you know it's like they started the process du to the holidays maybe it carried over but um those are the the months that they historically voucher in and I always check frz to make sure you can see when it's vouchered and then you can see when it's actually dispersed it's usually about a two week la when it's voucher two week lag I think it was back during the rounder days Governor rer when we were like 6 months mon or more behind we big time coming out of the pandemic that was a big thing in my previous District regarding the timeliness of it but as long as I've been a role of either business manager or assistant superintendent it's it's been pretty consistent Prett consistent great okay all right thank you and that'll be on up for a vote yeah for next Tuesday now to the presentation I've got two separate presentations that Don's bringing up here um me as I walk around just a little bit here so the first presentation I have for you is a financial update and a uh three-year operating fund projection um going to give you guys some background information I'm going to uh kind of take it back to my teaching days you a little explanation on funds um so if there's anything that comes up you got a question of please just raise your hand or just interrupt me I have no problem sharing that with you okay next slide please Don my fault y made up to that L yeah all right there we go um so uh brought about this meeting uh I mean brought this presentation um as of January 31st uh the board report reflected a forecasted deficit of $4.6 million um what is not reflected in that report is an acral adjustment going back to FY 24 in the amount of $2.4 million leaving what uh I consider to be a net forecasted deficit of $2.2 million uh the reason for those adjustments the district reports to is and is audited by our Auditors on a cruel basis the financial report is uh projected on a cash basis so when you see the report for this fiscal year those expenses ACR actually charged back to FY uh 24 okay we'll make those adjustments before before we uh complete our audit and submit our annual financial report to isy uh crw accounting recognizes revenues expenses were their earned occurred on cash cash basis reports transactions when the cash is actually received or spent so um like I said the adjustment of moving the 24 $2.4 million back to FY 24 will result in a forecas deficit of 22.2 million per the report that was fished as of January 31st um to give you a breakdown of the funds and how we uh uh associate our costs and and our expenditures in the world of Public Finance you have a 10 fund which is your education fund you have a 20 fund common referred to onm operations and maintenance 30 is Debt Service 40 is transportation 50 is Municipal Retirement Social Security 60 fund is capital projects 70 fund working cash and two uh lesser known funds is your 80 fund which is tort and 90 fire prevention and safety now if you look at the column on the right hand side only certain funds are included in the financial profile score which is determined by our Auditors the part of our annual financial review so the funds that are applicable to the financial profile score are your 10 fund your 20 fund your 40 fund and your 70 so that's education onm transportation and working cash okay do have an aster down here um 50 fund imrf and Social Security and the tort fund the ad fund can factor into the financial profile score if those fund balances are negative I'm proud to announce that the Cur the district currently has positive fund balances in there so for the purpose of this presentation I would not be referencing them in terms of operating expenses because I intend to always have a positive fund balance in those accounts and thus them never affected the financial profile score Okay so what kind of led to this deficit that we're seeing right now uh the forecasted deficit uh I'm going to take a little bit of moment and speak to you guys regarding s funds Esser funds is uh were provided by the federal government and three rounds to basically address the impact of covid on the public education or on the education system okay um S2 allocation was uh slightly over $4 million that's a three application allocation was slightly above 9.6 almost 9.7 million um these funds were they originated through the pandemic and then they needed to be spent and expensed by September 30th 2024 proud to Ann uh acknowledge that the district spended all those funds and we didn't leave any money on the table from the federal government so those funds have been fully expensed now one thing that uh need to brought be brought to your attention is this was a reimbursable grant meaning you spent the money you filled out of expens report then you filed it with the state and then the state would pay you back uh the amount that you spent and that would come through the frizz inquiry the Friz system similar to the Transportation uh reimbursements okay um in S3 our last round of uh funding that pertained to FY 24 because going into fy2 we knew that it was ending September 30th um but previously in FY 24 there was $1.1 million in salary and pay obligations allocated into S3 I can't say whether or not these positions were specifically created for uh to deal with the pandemic or due to the guidelines of the grant there's some local positions that we already had were able to be included what I am saying is the district kept those people whole and we didn't eliminate any of those positions um this year and though we're no longer being reimbursed for those funds so that's $1.1 million that we had to assume through local funds I have I have a question um just to make sure I understand are you saying that positions that were created are still that are still here are part of that and that's that's part of the deficit that it's factoring into it because we're keeping the position so we're still having the expenses we're no longer gaining the reimb and I know you have more to say but I'll say when we were creating all these positions I remember him asking how are we going to be able to maintain these positions and we said yes through attrition through just this that and the other and we shouldn't have a problem and now we have a problem and and you weren't here for that and I'm not trying to put that I just want to kind of talk through it because under Dr I'm just bringing it up so for everybody to hear yeah and Dr car's done a great job starting an efficiency plan to help get ahead of that as so are those positions well well I I guess she'll tell us go ahead finish I'm and my understanding is that 1.1 million I mean there were positions that maybe weren't specifically created to help with education catchup and that kind of thing related to co But Ken was able to kind of put things in that were eligible under the program but you know would recover some of our costs which may have been a normal position so I don't think you can look at that and say well if we just cut those positions we're going to and that's why I said I'll just listen to him finish but I just remember that being said but I I have to listen to you to finish so the big thing is we're not being reimbursed with in previous years we oh I get that part um so here's a chart in cons in comparison to uh some other revenue streams that are kind of contributing to the forecast of deficit okay um the First Column here uh on the left hand side this is total interest income from Bond proceeds prior to me getting here the district um did a lot in terms of Capital Improvements a lot of Bonds were issued at the same time um inflation went up the rate of uh Investments went up in terms of your saving so the district was able to capitalize on that and have a significant amount of interest income that was booked to uh our financials uh you can see right here in FY 23 it peaked at $2 million but as we've gone ahead and we've spent that money down and completed the projects then that's less and less interest income this income is treated as Revenue in the 70 fund okay so it is factored into the financial profile score last year um these are audited numbers uh we brought in $1.4 million so you see year overy year we have a decrease of roughly about $550,000 in Revenue this year as we continue to spend down those funds we're projected to receive about $1.1 million in interest income so over twoe span the district has about $900,000 or $850,000 left Revenue Source okay then also what happened with Esser funds is we were able to um cover some capital projects that were expensed out of the capital project fund but when we were reimbursed that money was then put into the Ed fund so thus that was more reimbursable money that help Pro I don't want to say prop up but help the operating income of the district or the operating Revenue so in total here if you take a look from FY 23 we went from $3.5 million in revenue and now we're looking at getting about 1.3 you can see 175,000 was received from sr3 this year in capital projects that was due to the flooring at the middle school that was included okay so over two-ear span we're looking at about $2 million $2.2 million less in Revenue let just showing you the relation here of the financial profile score took this directly from the afrs going back to fiscal year 21 you can see how the Surplus in operating funds has been decreased in slowly over the years okay any questions regarding this slide so so my Takeaway on this is that like if you take fiscal year 23 there there was $3.5 million of Revenue that that year that kind of and and but we only had a surplus of 558,000 so there was almost like it it overstated our Revenue by 3.5 we really didn't that that Surplus didn't really exist so the information that we've been getting as a board hasn't we wouldn't have known that in the figures that we saw right yeah now I will I will just clarify that you know the 70 fund TP where keep these interest uh payments is part of that that equation but I do agree with you that maybe it should have been spelled out and communicated a little because in my opinion it's not sustainable and then using old real estate term it's like kind of Co you had funds that were set aside to work on capital projects but then was used in operating income and that's why we're starting to see the issue with the deficit that was this year fin right yeah and and we can I guess moving forward and as Dr Hall alluded to and Nelson just kind of reiterated that when we have expenditures expected expenditures and we want to have those positions in some permanent capacity we cannot use revenues that's not sustainable to sustain these positions that's going to inter a curve cost on a permanent basis I agree with you and you're going to see a littleit forhad we okay so uh so what's the solution going to be for this year okay so uh this fiscal year when the budget was adopted the resolution to dissolve the Tiff and Tiff five University Park was not passed so Mr Johnson in preparing the budget he did not budget for TI five coming off the books and US receiving any of that money um this spring I say May and June um this spring so it was not accounted for so in the adopted budget we budgeted $48 million just slightly over 40 m $48 million for our Ed fund our onm fund our transportation fund and our working cash f okay year to date we've Reed reive 23 just slightly over $23 million in property taxes okay that is the second installment of the 2023 Levy keep in mind we Levy for a calendar year but we received them in two separate fiscal years so this year uh we received 2023 and then in the spring SL summer we'll receive the first install of 2024 so that's just a little bit of background knowledge for you guys you got one that spans of calendar year and we got our own fiscal year that goes from July to June 30th okay so I'm anticipating and I have a a better idea of this number maybe not by the next board meeting but definitely by um April 1st I'm anticipating with the Tiff five uh in University Park rolling off and then if you guys remember we also were in violation of the Miller ratio in our 50 funds we had to pay back we had a settlement of roughly $225,000 we would being challenge because we allowed the fund balance to accumulate too high um what we've done is we're not losing out on that money but we're just not going to allocate about $1.5 million to the 50 fund because we want to avoid being in violation of the Miller ratio what we're able to do is we're able to Le take that Levy fund and apply it to our Ed fund so for a little while there we're getting a good help or some good assistance in the Ed fund we got to keep that 50 fund in our mind I'll get to that in a second so we add these two numbers together they're coming up right around $53 million it's much more than what we budgeted for for this year due to us having more money going into operating funds by what we experienc in the 50 fund and also the expiration of Tiff five in University Park so um based on these assumptions I'm confident that we'll have a operating expense Surplus uh to end fiscal year 20 any addition questions before I move on I I I know we're talking about the second installment 2024 of a separate Levy oh well that' be the first installment that right but the first one here is just from what we just levied correct right so if you budgeted 48 million for 2025 and the first and second installment was million and you said you didn't anticipate that Levy or the Tiff from University Park correct when we right so how much did you expect did you expect $25 million for I'm I'm expecting from to go from L but that's that includes the Tiff you expected that right I'm just saying here if you the property tax is budgeted you you include the first installment or the second installment of 23 million and I would what did you expect what did you expect the first Levy to be if you the first Levy of 20 2024 that we just did in December right corre and we're going to get those first installments in the spring well but you budgeted in 202 when is this when this $48 million where at what point did you come up with that number so what I think he's asking Mr Johnson put down 48.1 million right it early onative budget an a tenative budget so what Mr Brown is asking technically that right number should be 24.4 million but you guys are anticipating now that the Ten of budget's over to 29.

And it's within milliseconds and these kids can attest to that whether you make it or not. So with that like to bring up coach and he will introduce our five. Okay. Thank you Patrick. Appreciate that. Um so we're going to recognize the girls first and then uh we'll recognize Cam. Uh first before I get into the individuals, I'd like to uh brag about this team a little bit. Um, probably best team I ever coached. Yeah, because it's the last team I coached, too. So, it's 20. They went 22 and three. 22 teams they compete against. Yeah, they're uh and it should have been 22 and and uh two, but I made a mistake in regards to how I seated people in the meet and they lost by one point. So, uh that's on me. And then just as impressive in the sectional, uh they competed against 14 teams.

So, hats off to the ladies. Uh first up, Ty Johnson. She's a freshman. This is her first year to receive a varsity letter in swimming. Ty was part of the relay teams 25 2025 sectional champion state qualifier 200 medley relay which was a school record and a 400 freestyle relay which is a school record and that record was held a long long time ago 1986 and they broke that record. So very impressive. Nice [Applause] job Lily Canada. She's a junior so she'll return as well and she's a team captain. This is Lily's third year in earning the swimming varsity letter. She was the 2023 Madison Courier female swimmer of the year in her freshman year. This is uh her third trip to the state championship meet. She was 25 2025 sectional champion state qualifier in the 50 free, the 100 free which broke the school record and then of course she is 200 medley relay and the 400 medley relay and both all all those are school records.

at ashin high school featuring over 100 colleges and career Representatives you won't want to miss it it the Steve Ulus culinary scholarship waca is matching donations up to $2,000 for a scholarship honoring Steve Ulus supporting culinary students at shaen Valley Tech donations will be accepted through March 14th the Metro YMCA summer camps registration is open for Metro YMCA summer camps running from June 23rd to August 22nd across hopkington naq and Framingham volunteer and job opportunities if you are looking to get more involved in the community there are several Town committees that have open seats and need volunteers the current openings include Community preservation committee the Conservation Commission Council on Aging design Review Committee open space and Recreation committee and storm water advisory committee if you're interested in making a difference visit the town website to learn how you can apply on the job front Ashlin is hiring for several positions including program manager and rubbish and recycling coordinator at the DPW water technician 1 and 3 heavy equipment operator Library intern for the children's department and administrative assistant in the recreation department if you looking for work now is a great time to apply so visit the town's website for more information some exciting upcoming community events ashin has a packed schedule events coming up and here are just a few highlights the Irish Cabaret will be held on Sunday March 16th at 2 p.m.

and the horror mini Fest March 15th at 12:00 p.m. for kids we have Chinese Story Time March 11th at 6: p.m. graphic novel book club Junior March 12th at 4:15 p.m. and Dino Adventures March 14th at 1:00 p.m. there's always something happening at the library so be sure to check their website for a full list of programs a big thank you to our town manager Michael Herbert and the town staff for putting together this newsletter and thanks to you all for tuning in this is Hal silver with waa with wishing you a good night and go walkers [Music]

no 6:30 6:00 6:00 okay so they'll be serving uh sandwiches and there'll be a small buffet in the back that'll get you there right don't count on it if it is it's a cash Buffet only okay uh so if you can make it at 6:00 p.m.

that's great so this pie in the face thing can is an administrator is that or is it just Dr one students students reached out to a couple students from specifically Society reached out to a couple teachers in the school Y and um a few teachers volunteered to put their name in the Hat and so how it works is we're selling either one ticket for a dollar or five tickets for $6 to students at lunch and before school okay and they get to select one of those think eight teachers and then we'll draw two names two two tickets for the big pool whichever Student's name is on it whichever teacher they picked get to get to buy them I believe at maybe 2:00 okay very excited thank you for that report okay any questions for the student reps anything you heard I know we're very excited about the SpongeBob musical and uh I think I'm going Thursday night I don't know about anybody else but uh looking forward to while opening opening night that would be great good okay um I'm going to ask for the board to move oh I'm sorry I to do that to Anna you know why I don't know why Anna uh the business business manager financial report please excuse me thank you um tonight we'll um review the results of the February of financials um we are still unfavorable [Music] $334,500 is better than the previous month by $278,500 General isable continues to be forecast favorable um which is um 5572 which is slightly worse than the previous month however the big mean has was in special education although we're still unfavorable 9,349 we are better than last month by CH 98 479 um the the uh the good news comes from two um individual um incidents the first is the special education excess cost Grant which we are constantly talking about the um where the um the state promises 88% of this grant um we got the bad news in late December ear January that would only be 62% % um which was really um detrimental to our financial status and then through a lot of um a lot of activity from school superintendents directors of people services our legislature that number got moved to 75.8% which for Canton is 168 638 better than budget which is where we needed to be so that was exciting news um the other news is we budget $850,000 for um tuition paid to campon from other towns specifically for special education um we're a little over budget um this year at [Music] 13,752 over so that's where our good news is coming from um this month so let me let me just ch so everybody in the community can hear last month we were showing approximately 698,000 in the red with the excess cost that came in from the state and as M Robins said we were expecting 88% we budgeted actually 72% knowing that that's what we got last year then the state came back and said no you didn't get 72 you actually got 62% so that put the district already in a hole with that and then that was we were already in the hole for special education approximately the number that you see $334,000 so by getting that excess cost to 75.8 that helped us so for the board of that that was not at the the finance committee meeting that's really good news so 698 to 3 34522 will present that at the board of Finance meeting the the the next month the the remainder of their report is very similar to what you um saw last month previous month M Robins I don't know if you have anything more to add I know you're you're getting over a little so I want to save here we speaking Russ I don't know I know you'll speak about it a little bit when you get to the financial report we'll take any questions for um Mrs Rob any questions on the financials any online all right the new the new procedur is while we have it right right in front of us we're we're going to vote on the financials it's a money it's a money thing so it will a roll call vote because it is a money situation so I will take a motion to accept the financials as presented by the business manager can I have a first thank you Jordan second thank you Peggy any discussion any other questions all right all those in favor Erica hi Russell hi Joe hi Peggy hi Jordan Kim hi and Felicia hi okay and I by the chair so we have an 80 vote on the financials thank you very much I'm going to ask the board to move new business because we have uh we have some of our stars here from uh from SpongeBob and I know they want to get back uh I'm going to ask that we uh move out of order I'll take a motion to move new business forward so we can do our Canton celebrates uh and then we'll get to our miscellaneous board standing committee report so motion to move new business to our next budget Island Peggy first second any discussion all those in favor I okay so we will now go to C celebrates Dr BR super it's great to have Mr pippo and Dr Kidwell here and our high school students and our high school um staff I want to let families know that after all the awards are done we'll be making sure that you'll be able to catch pictures with your your child or parent in some of the situations that we have here tonight um with the Board of Education foll hi everybody thank you for the opportunity to speak on behalf of what's going on great at high school I'm always happy to talk about the high school around I'll try to keep as brief as I can um we have so much to celebrate high school and we're just two3 through the year barely and so uh what I choose to do during this time is focus some of the awards on the immediate um things that have been going on which are some formal awards given by um C uh which Mr Bishop already mentioned our our Connecticut Association schools as well as honor some of our students who have done a tremendous job as part of our our uh senior Camp project um so on the academic level we also have a few adults here who have done tremendous things in our community for our students that will also be recognized um in in the spring up starting the fall you we brought several students forward as leaders in various uh regions of the school the Ma I'm sorry the music department um the theater department and and athletic leaders and they kind of gave us a broad view of um what was going on in each of those areas tonight I want to honor four specific students um in both arts and Athletics um for their recognition on the state level um theid Association schools gives uh Awards to um basically the art program and the athletic programs of all schools and we recognize these students um at a banquet and they're also recognized tonight in front of board of education so to begin I don't see our art students here yet I think they're still downstairs so bring the athletic students forward um Juliana [Music] so the Connecticut High School Arts Awards annually honor two outstanding seniors from each of the cast School member schools who excel in instrumental performing or Visual Arts to be selected each students must also possess qualities of scholarship and Leadership Ken High School winners this year are James Parker and Shay Shaker and they will be forly honored as a mention along with their families at a banquet on o on April 1st at the operat so congratulations [Applause] so a little more about these students um music department selected Shay because of her consistent positive enthusiastic approach to the the Performing Arts here at the high school she truly is a triple threat she can be seen playing the clarinet the symphonic band singing soprano section of the concert choir and in the chamber singers and acting uh the fall play and the spring musical she also was a leader uh amongst her peers uh in the drama club and uh in prisms as well so um you can see uh she is ready to go um this Thursday night but really her Sunny disposition uh really brings herself to the uh Forefront she loves to perform and is really seen as the glue both um uh in her musical Endeavors and in the drama Productions so we're so happy um to have you on here tonight thank for all you do and J was selected by our drama advisor uh Michelle Taylor who also uh directs the plays for his Performing Arts over the last four years James has been in every play um since the drama club initiated 40 years ago both in the fall and in the spring musicals um you may remember him as cat the hat uh in suico you might remember him as Uncle Fester in The Adams Family you'll see him playing Plankton and patch and pirate I think he's ready to go as a Pat and pirate for Thursday night um but similar to Shay he's been so active um within this department uh growing as a leader in the drama club to the point where he runs all meetings and while he's come in front of the Board of Education to present we've had him present um you know in front of parents for some of these um Endeavors that he's involved and he's very boisterous and humorous and um you know certainly is um entertaining but really what I think James is best for he's a really quiet leader amongst his peers he's kind to everybody and he takes on all comers in the drama club and he's will to move that club along and that's what Mrs Taylor said she's going to remember both congratulations J right so now we can bring up Juliana and [Music] Nick similarly um Juliana and Nick were selected by the CIA as scholar athletes the criteria is academic Excellence good citizenship and high levels of integrity and self-discipline as well as having personal standards which serve as a model for others who are essential with being considered for this honor they will be honored at a banquet at the aqu turf on May 4th along with students from every other high school so congratulations both of you [Applause] the board Ed knows Juliana well as a student rep and she's eloquent and thoughtful and very concise in things that she has to present on in school she is an amazing student um as we all know and an amazing leader um but what you might not know on the board of education she's a tremendous athlete as well she's a member of our track all three of our track teams cross country indoor track um and outdoor track she's been the captain of all three Sports she's been an all conference in indoor track um and um she's getting excited for outdoor track for senior year so her leadership um as well as her uh academic prowess has helped her uh get this award tonight congratulations julana brought M forward as an athletic leader um here to you in the in the fall but now more specifically we can start to celebrate his accomplishments this year was Captain on a very successful uh soccer team this year um he just finished his wrestling season which he was considered an allc conference performer he's now part of our 100 win Club here at um at Kon High School which is an outstanding honor um he fought tremendously um to help us win our nlec um Conference Championship uh as a team this year um and also he will be golfing very soon as a leader on our golf team so he's a captain all three of those Sports again along in the classroom with leadership has helped us um select him for tonight [Applause] congratulations I will turnor over to Dr Kidwell for the next few Awards okay thank you um y so we're gonna have [Music] dou all right so we're excited to present these two Awards tonight um for students who participated in the Lions Club student voices competition so this year the Lions Club hosted the first annual student voices public speaking competition they're looking for students from around the state to participate in local and then Regional competition to highlight the concept of diversity within service to one's Community the students were asked to create and memorize a 46 minute speech on this topic within the theme so we had two students participate Nicholas Le and an Johson um and both of them competed in our local competition and I represented at the regional one with other students from around the state and both were truly impressive in their messaging and their communication skills uh public speaking as everybody knows in this room it's not necessarily an easy task and they jumped right to it um and we're very proud to celebrate them tonight so congratulations um I'm happy to present some certificates to our outstanding hon Mastery projects te years so as most of you know and some of you have lived through um all seniors in the fall semester um create and go through our camp project Camp Master project which is where they pursue a topic of their choice could be a passion a hobby a talent something new they want to learn career exploration there's a such a wide variety of topics that students research um practice engage get in the field you know do some real hands-on experience and it's always culminates into a wonderful Expo night in when all of the students present and it's just such an honor to see all of those presentations and projects come together and it's often difficult but there's four this year that really stood out as just outstanding distinguished projects so I'm going to have those students come up Juliana Kavanaugh Coran kendle Tyler and could not be with us [Applause] so MIA could not be here but I definitely wanted to acknowledge her project which created a sustainable fashion guide um where she learned to thrift clothing how to alter how to make clothes from scratch with her ultimate goal of reduce reuse recycle um really studying the effects of the fashion industry and excess waste and carbon emissions um she talked to me about how there's enough clothes in the world to clothe the next six generations of human beings on the planet um so she learned how to make her own clothes and just really became more appreciative of shopping second hand as well so congratulations to me um Tyler Ro created an epoxy River table which is a hybrid table with two wood planks with epoxy is a river in the middle I can look that up bit but if you had a chance to see it it was an absolutely stunning table that Tyler um created and when I asked him why you know what was your passion for the project he basically said to me if I could so he did and it was absolutely beautiful table um he's described it as the process as time consuming perhaps even tedious but definitely worth it and he's already working on a second table that we may or may not see for sale in the future congratulations is there an auction for this or he got a growing list buyers my goodness uh Corgan Pendle um spent her project working with students at CIS um to introduce them to Concepts in theater and to make theater activities accessible to all students so she worked with CIS students in grades four five and six um general education students special education students she coordinated with other seniors including Parker um to introduce acting skills and acting activities as well as the behind the scenes work which we know is one of corgan's Specialties um she loved taking on this leadership role and working with younger students and seeing them get excited for their their moment on the stage and she said that made it exciting for her as well congratulations [Applause] for and um since Juliana Kavanaugh doesn't do enough with her time generally speaking uh she's also a Cadet in the Emergency Medical Service program so she's MMS and she works with that about um 8 hours a week give or take in her spare time and her projects highlighted this experience and so she created a video to capture what that was like and what her training was like and the Practical experience of getting into that field um she talked about her skills learned on the job training of actually um attending and responding to 911 emergency calls and getting that experience in the ambulance um and as she is someone who is looking to enter the medical field later in life this has been a great opportunity and a very exciting project for seniors to experience [Applause] [Music] congratulations so again those were selected amongst several Camp projects and again um you know the camp experience while um you know it can be you know exhausting the entire sum at times for students a bit of a gauntlet um but the you know my experience has been um that as students work through you know their individual experience that the benefits they gain um you know are just U they just multiply in terms of the skills they'll need outside of school you can see the product or the process is being so important to their growth so it's something that that we hold a lot of pride in and I'm so happy that you know these students were able to share out uh the way they are proud of them as well so speaking of Pride we have several adults here tonight um that deserve some recognition um you know within our school um and within our district so um I'd like to speak about four individuals we'll call them up individually the first is Mr Brian Joon so uh thank you for coming tonight uh with your family um for the board who may not know Mr Jones is our Co teacher at both the Middle School and High School uh he's been with us in Kanas 2017 and tonight he's being recognized for his individual work um because it is quite amazing Brian is a finalist in the American prize series and um Brian wrote and produced a song that was again gain recognition on this um prestigious um level the American prize is a series of of nonprofit National competition designed to recognize and reward the very best in Performing Arts in the United States so people come from schools or churches or communities at large on any level and the American prize is basically awarded to annually to those people who submit and are recognized by judges based only on on the recorded performance so there isn't anything live but it it's it's recorded and again judged uh as is so there are two levels of competitions and series of competitions but Brian became a finalist for his work based on his Excellence so we're congratulating Brian tonight um I'm being selected as a national finalist for his comp in composition for a shorter Coral work in a professional division his piece was called it may be um we have plenty of copies in links if you'd like to send that out to the board um we've all received that at school and it's just simply beautiful fantastic congratul [Applause] Brian certainly is one of the reasons why we continue s name um you know uh on the national level with our Nam ay every year for the work he does at both middle and high school um we're proud of the work he does we're fortunate that he is with us and I know student greatly the next person like forward is who's here with her family as well so Margaret as you know has been our field hockey coach for the past 11 seasons and uh during her tenure year we've had amazing success um in very consistent and steady growth in all of our players um her teams over the last 11 years have won three NCA championships and um very recently we played in a State final which was exciting for our entire uh School community over the course of her tenure Margaret has been named twice as the class s coach of the year but this last fall she was named to a higher honor where she was named by the Connecticut coaches association as the Connecticut field hockey coach of the year so we had uh she was part of an all state banquet back in the fall but we wanted to make sure that she was honored amongst her community here tonight at the Board of Education congratulations next I bring up coach mados coach Brian [Music] [Applause] mados so uh for those of you that don't know coach pados is our coach of our girls basketball team um Brian was hired 12 years ago um and has taken the rain and and ever since um I do remember a conversation I had with Brian when I was trying to hire him I told him I thought it would be a good fit if he came to co-chair K High School I don't know if people believe me at the time but I think things have worked out well and we continue to be proud of Brian's work um during his tenure his team has had unprecedented success here making the state tournament all of his years um he has won four NC uh n Triple C titles uh they've won two state championships and they played Four State finals games had a tremendous season this season with a very young group and I know he's very much looking forward to continuing his growth with this group why he's being recognized tonight is he won his 200th game in the world of Athletics it's a very high number um so it's certainly um recognizable and so we're happy that uh he surpasses 200 win total and again in 12 years uh that's averaging about 17 wins a year so um it's quite a high performance congratulations Bri and test thanks [Applause] Bristol coach brist [Music] [Applause] coach that know uh coach briso is our wrestling coach uh he's been with us for the last 12 years he's also an alumni can high school um and during his time here as coach he has shown amazing passion for the sport growing the sport here the high school um wrestling you know is a sport where there's not necess fewer programs in town so our numbers change from year to year um but what he's done to kind of combat that he's created some programs he has helped in the Middle School to develop programs and has given a tremendous amount of his own personal time to cultivate growth in wrestling um so we're appreciative of that tonight he's being honored um for his C of Victory as a coach um I do want to mention here we went with uh Nick that better that Nick is won his 100 match during his tender as a wrestler in high school Josh also is on the banner for 100 Victories but now we're also adding the fact that he has 100 Victories as a coach in dual matches which is uh which is amazing and this year um we also won the n c so a lot of glorify Josh over the years and this year so congratulations and we appreciate [Applause] so before we do pictures I just want to tell our students that uh what makes Canton such a great place uh is the exceptional students that we have and you are leaders in your areas and we are so proud when we hear hear these things we do this eight times a year in the spring and in the fall for each of the schools and uh we're just so proud of our students and what youve accomplish and reason why you gotten to where you are is when we talk about our coaches Mr Jones and and the and the support that you get both mind body and soul if you will from our teachers and our coaching staff and what they develop with with our students and finally you know we tip our hats to our parents because none of this could be possible without the input and support of our parents we have such a great supportive group of parents um in our district and the fact of the matter is what we'll hear after this and I know most you won't stay but we'll hear more about the continuous Improvement plans that we have at the high school and in our schools from Cherrywood to uh CIS and then through the middle school the trajectory is like this for our schools and that's that's a tribute to of course our students and our staff and our Administration and all the work that they've done to get us where we are we have an exceptional School District so I want to thank everybody for coming tonight we'll do pictures over there if you'd like with the Board of Education with we just move right over there for anybody that like to be in there coaches and Mr Jones you're invited to be there too please [Music] Champion here [Music] all right look at me first and then everybody else all right thank you all right thank you guys [Music] [Applause] [Music] com it's almost over [Music] [Applause] [Music] I'm feeling good about this meeting I'm thinking we're going to get out of here pretty quick not a lot of pressure though l no we want to hear continuous Improvement is what this board's about so you take your time all right you have all 10 minutes so you just do you no I'm only kidding you know Mr the PIP up yeah so um I appreciate a little bit more time you know we spent a great deal of time with the board on uh just last week and we shared I think a lot of our growth data and sort of a big picture movement um and and had a nice tour so just to maybe put a few things in writing um for the good of the order tonight you know I do feel like K High School is moving in a really positive direction this year um our goals are very slow and steady um and we've seen a lot of success so i s started with the successes and going to back back into the CIP you know I think what you witnessed tonight is the essence of our school I think you said it very well the students you know at the high school level truly you know the things they produce how they how they respond how they grow um when you see it through um you know their interactions you see it through um their maturity you see it in the classroom you see it you know in their Endeavors but but when you see them you know carrying things forward you know that you're doing a good job so things I mention here again some of the programs of participation that we've had you know students ran our veterans day they you know do all these Camp presentations we heard about several opportunities for our students to go to other schools and be involved those things happen on a monthly basis you know other things that we're excited about is basically that students are just highly active and engaged in our school there high participation in music and Fine Arts um you know 60 to 65% um you know I share shared this data a few years ago but our Sports continue to grow um again we have about 2third of our students involved in individual sports unique students so that helps as well um you know I you you mentioned is um our play tomorrow night um you know it it was a choice to have an interactive with CMS support it was a choice to choose this type of um Musical that would involve so many characters and need so much on the back end of things our tech crew is over 30 for this production we have like 75 students involved daily and it's musical you know it gives students something very focused to do something we be proud about and something that then we all benefit from and this number goes up every year so again last year um I feel we had like 40 students involved in the play because that was the play that it was this open the door for more Mo up because we have that kind of Interest our clubs continue to grow you heard about the model the other night you know the honor socities you heard it today talking about some of the interactions that happen amongst the schools um we have an astronomy night coming soon you know I'm really excited that the board supported trips internationally again um you know it's always you know you know there there's Financial concerns there's safety concerns there security concerns but there's also this opportunity that's amazing for students so we're taking unroad we're going to Spain as you know in April um I know we're on the docket to go to Disney next year as well probably close to 100 students when it comes down to it so those things are just amazing opportunities for students to take um to be involved in so we're very excited that it's back up and running again our student council continues to be the undercurrent with great ideas um we have connections with the other schools we have a tremendous amount of community outreach as well so you know I think culturally in our climate um I shared with you some numbers um at the end of last year that we had really become I guess a better uh better way to say is a kind of scho you know students were just really in in a better spot and and I think a lot of these after school opportunities and co-curricular extra activities grounds it's in our school and we really are thriving in that way instructionally I I I mentioned a couple of these bullets because I think the board has had a significant impact at assuring that we have these tools we've hired you know academic um coaches uh leadership positions in terms of um you know two positions at at the high school one is one is at the high school solely one is shared in both math and Ela to support um both our staff therefore our students in growth and really um we also hired an English chair this year and um again that was an addition to the budget um or a tradeoff in the budget to ens sure we have that position and those positions have made uh have had a dramatic impact instructionally in our school the leadership in the sharing professional development that we have I think the best thing we do and I I I shared this with the staff as part of the CIP is this iterative process of learning about our students looking B at our curriculum balancing the two what are our standards what is our curriculum how are we looking at it what are our strategies where our students land and if we need to go backward to go forward we continue to do that so I think students are growing our data shows that um I shared again the data um with with Bo the other day that in most places on our standardized assessments we see tremendous growth um from year and year out PSAT and star we're seeing it at with a breath of students meaning 70 to 80% of our students are growing independently and we're seeing students make big gains um in proficiency levels um from year to year so all of that is happening while we continue to focus on our neas work which again um the the as for we had a visitation two and a half years ago um but at the same time we have outcomes that need be uh brought forward as well um and we're working hard with our curriculum this year um something new in structurally you were is that Dr F Russell who is um you know our library in Innovation specialist working with both the 7th 8th 9th 10th 11th 12th grades are really F refocusing at research methods and that's really helping our um teachers rely on her to uh help instructionally and then uh you know a small move that we made internally is um um to support students more um we redistributed our Beauty chart this year to increase the amount of study halls that we would have in our school uh second semester and what we did was because we allocated our staff um instead of having like nine study halls like 16 or 17 so they're super tight and so what that happens is um the the staff members have nine students in a study hall a couple of just based on the way the number shook out but that affords like another way for adults and checking students so I think on all levels like Global level we're looking at standardized scores instructionally you know we're sound and using the data um we're focusing on big goals which are Nas goals and we're really looking at students I I I I find that uh interesting that you um compressed the study balls was that a best practice somewhere else how you that's great sure I mean we the goal is to just try and and provide students with a space where they can re-engage and work on their you know um work through their homework and that kind of thing so we've had different versions of trying to create that structured support for all students and just through different sort of scheduling obstacles or challenges we we weren't necessarily reaching the whole population that we wanted to so we were able to just sort of um collapse one pathway that we had had previously to give a few more people some some areas and just sort of also talking with the teachers philosophically about what some of those study halls look like and how we're engaging um especially with the new role of the phone regulations how that impacts some of their structur stud I love the Innovation I think that's great that we try something like that see how it works I think that's wonderful Dr thought it out she it happens appr her there and she you know we did we spent some time talking about the cell phone regulation and with with the smaller group that was with us last week and you know in short you know I think it was clear that you know we're learning and it's own well and people are relaxed with with with the shift but part of the reason to get these study halls smaller is because we're trying to reaffirm what should be going on in these study halls I think when we grew up study meant something and I think based on the way work you know a lot of inst instruction works is when I'm you know students think well I did the work I'm done and what we're trying to reaffirm with that some of that time through verbalization is you need to go back in you have to look at that powerp one more time maybe you have to create some flash cards maybe you have to look at the vocabulary again and again not having their phones available to them in that study hall nth 10th per gives them that next opportunity to dive back in so I think it's all working in Cel so those are sort of our successes and then the CIP you know our goals you know they continue to be relevant I I added a couple bullet points in there of things that we're doing um but really I you know they've been shared with you in the past um you know you've seen this language before in terms of you know what we're doing uh you know for achievement you know uh you know I've spent a lot of time on already you know the you know what else we're doing we've impended you know two three new courses this year financial literacy ECE economics EC Mandarin and we're really looking uh to build discuss our financial literacy course is add for soon another business pathway course so that will be our next roll out for next year uh as we continue to talk but you know we continue to be engage with the community through our our newsletter and social media you know we're working with with you know Jordan you know in yourselves on the budget um you know we really feel like again between the the I guess a big success for us this year I'm looking at um learning environment belonging um the support teachers the evaluation goals related to classroom environment and high expectations you know we did I think a great deal of work in the summer uh going into the into the fall to prepare teachers for this new evaluation document it's more of a coaching model and I think we really had some successes with getting uh teachers to choose goals that would support students in different ways and and I I think teachers are more relaxed with what they're doing more flexible with what they're doing and they're izing some of the language in in the goal planning so I give um I know Mr Bishop has been certainly very helpful in helping all the administrators roll that out but that's been a huge success for us we've really seen the difference I think with with some of the teacher effective attitudes towards their goals um and I think that has helped students be more comfortable um and again we're standardizing many things we're doing with our instruction so you know I mentioned goals already you see uh where it says um you know embracing Equity you know basically these high expectations for all students um you know through instructional practice has really been the focus and again we see that our goals um we continue to work hard on students who struggle to get to school um and you know really talked about the grading practices and and do a lot of work with staff in terms of trying to make sure that they're consistent in Fair and really I you know again at the end it mentions for course development I just think it's a win with our coaches that we have in our school and our leadership on on the department level um that that student uh staff they grow they grow every year then stud benef from so you know again that's grief you know I can go on each of these full areas but I just feel like we are moving in the right direction well we attribute a lot of that to your both your leadership uh you have us in the right direction our school our high school is so quiet relative to other schools our kids and we've seen it as we walk through the classrooms are so polite so uh respectful kind I mean um working towards the the model of The Graduate I mean you guys are doing a great job with it so any questions for our [Music] principles I just say it was a it was a wonderful visit last week yes uh you when you scheduled for two hours and you stay 2 and A2 you know it must be going well um and all the things you talked about are just so evidence when you walk around the building and you talk to students and you watch students and teachers the relationship between them the the uh engagement on the level of students and as L just mentioned it and the sort of quiet engagement was very impressive two and a half hours so thank you thank you for coming appreciate and it was very interesting and informative when you had the students share about the U the two different areas uh the model you in and and the cell phon how that impacted them that was really interesting it's always great to hear from the students and so really brought those two things to life thank you for that Kim do you have anything you want to mention or I'll go to you first uh no it was a great visit you know really informative and we always enjoy visiting the classrooms they really are you know like it seems like everybody's engaged and you know I love how relaxed but yet on task the students seem and how focused you know their their objectives were but um I have to I just want to say one thing I had to laugh I left the meeting and there was the cookies left and I was like well I'll just bring him over to you know Jen Zen zenu right and I brought him over and she's like oh come on in come on in they were doing their culinary and cooking and it was fabulous we too bad that wasn't going on when we were there but the students were loving it they were so happy you had four boys who I just saw playing a basketball game like a couple nights before they were they were cooking cutting shaking cutting strawberries mixing measuring they had their aprons on they were they were so happy it was like it was such a delight to see that culinary class in action that you know they that dishwasher is well worth every penny because what those students get out what they get out of that class and and how AED and how hard they're working was amazing it was really fabulous to see it was kind of a bonus for me it was not on purpose but I was delighted so kudos to all your staff and your students thanks good thank you Felicia anything for you on your side I don't have anything I know I was unable to attend but I just want to thank you both for all that you do for the school and for the district and um appreciate everything and seeing the feedback and what you shared today was great to here thank you anything else board no thank you very much for the report excellent job and thanks for bringing me students and sure we'll see you in the fall and we'll catch up on where we are again so all right can't wait okay thank you all right thank you for having us okay let's move on to standing committee reports we'll start with Finance Russell anything uh you want to add or buildings grounds CIP anything no I think an did a great job but it was definitely good to see the excess cost money's come down and the additional U I don't think incomes right but money's coming in for the tuition for revenue for the for the special education buildings um we talked a little bit about what we're carrying for excess costs for next year what we did this year and then the buildings and grounds uh we we talked about the HBC in Auditorium that's moving forward um and a little bit about plans for the tennis courts but I don't think we didn't come to any conclusion on that waitting for some more information great thank you um any questions on finance I have a question about the tennis course is that going to prohibit the uh students from play yeah so our our boys tennis is a co-op program with East Grandy so it doesn't affect them at all because they play at East grity the girls tenis to will that um Mrs uh he our athletic director and Mr pippo met today Mrs he had a meeting with Tommy Richardson our director of Public Works and our director director of recreation Taran to discuss the the courts itself it looks like that they're going to be able to get two of the courts playable for our kids and um possibly another Court practices won't be an issue matches are going to be an issue so she's looking at outside sources that may have tennis courts for our kids to be able to play matches on that will be something that would be a budgetary uh impact for us so that is something that it's still being worked out okay um leave that alone curriculum oh policy I'm sorry I'm sorry that's okay that's policy sorry Mr sh jumping ahead we met tonight for the lengthy meeting tonight my thanks to Jordan Peggy and J and Lou uh we finished our review of the bylaws it was a lengthy review I can assure you that we went through the mall of the Fine's home uh we're moving mainly through shipments bylaws but certainly not entirely uh there'll be some cave ones merged in as well uh you will get from John a lengthy email with bylaws in them uh sometime the next week we'll send them out with okay I would ask you to find some time to take a look at them uh there are a couple that we have questions about that we bring to the whole group at the next meeting and if you have any questions or concerns please shoot me your job all of us an email we happy to address him at the meeting that that'll become your first read on that uh at the next meeting so if you get a chance to go over that and as Joe said there's quite a bit so um do the best you can if you will now okay Mr Bishop shared a presentation regarding the new model digital citizenship curriculum adopted by the state of Connecticut and outline current actions of the district in regard to dig digital citizenship and shared planned next steps for improvement relative to the model um we discussed scope and sequence across all grade levels in the C Public Schools um and then we also looked at two options uh for incorporating this into our Bo ofed goal priority um number four learning environment and belonging and the committee kind of zeroed in on one option and so we will be bringing that to the board at a future date perfect um and our next meeting should anybody enjoy attending will be March 26th at 9:00 a.m.

They placed fourth, but they missed third by one point. And so, it was really close. They did everything they could. As Patrick said, it's really tough and swim. You go to a sectional, there's 20 sectionals. U you win or you go home. And uh but you win, you go move on to the state competition. And once you get the state competition, it's no easy path. Um I don't know if you know anybody by the name of Alexandria Shackle. But uh she was Olympic swimmer. She swam in the Olympics this year. She swam at state competition in high school. So pretty impressive competition. If they break a record and Indiana, state of Indiana is known as probably the top three in regards to competition and swimming. You break a record in the state of Indiana, it's usually a national record that you're breaking, not just a state in Indiana.

So congratulations. [Applause] Avery Johnson, senior team captain. It's hard because I've had her since she was like five. It's her fourth year earning her swimming varsity letter. She's 2025 sectional champion state qualifier and both relays the 200 medley relay school record 400 relay but more importantly she's worked so hard to break the backstroke record and actually win the sectional champion and she did that this year and so I'm very proud of [Applause] her and Riley Coupler she's a senior she's also a team captain This is Riley's fourth year earning her swimming varsity letter. She was the 2024 Madison Courier swimmer of the year. She is actually a candidate for academic all state which is the Indiana swimming and coach coaches association. We'll find out here at the end of the month. This is her second trip to the state championship meet. She was there last year.

celebrate St Patrick's Day with an afternoon of Irish music music trivia and sing alongs at the Ashen Historical Society this event is free and open to all the magic show fundraiser on Friday March 21st at 5:00 p.m. support the ashin High School class of 2027 at this fun family event at the Marone Event Center tickets are just $10 with pizza available for purchase the Boy Scout Troop 232 pancake breakfast and food drive will be Sunday April 6th enjoy a delicious pancake breakfast at the ashon VFW while supporting the Ashen food pantry and boy out troops businesses can also contribute silent auction items or sponsor The Event Annual Town cleanup Saturday May 3rd join Greenup Ashen in keeping our town beautiful volunteers will clean up public areas parks and streets you can also sign up for the adopted Street program to keep a specific Street Litter free year round visit Greenup as.org for more details for the community shout out this week we recognize the friends of the ashin public library this dedicated group of volunteers Works yearr round to raise funds for library programs in including Museum passes author events summer reading programs and more their biggest fundraiser is their monthly book sale held on the first Saturday of every month donations of gently used books are always welcome for Community initiatives we have the March menstrual product Drive in honor of women's History Month the department of prevention and Human Services is collecting menstrual products to help individuals who struggle to afford them you can donate unopen pads Tamp and menstrual cups at Ashlin High School town hall or the community center throughout March for the Ashlin food pantry March needs the food pantry is always looking for donations of unopened unexpired food and drop off locations include the community center and Shaws on Pawn Street Library events this week the Ashlin public library has something for everyone this month including for adults and teens we have the women's wisdom Circle everyday spirituality March 13th at 6:30 p.m.

uh the board will U if you can be there for that uh comment having said that I'll now turn to the superintendent for any announcements or report super thank you Mr tles good evening everyone it's great to see everyone here I want to give a special welcome to Mr to pipo and Dr Kidwell tonight who will be presenting our Canton celebrates for our high school students and staff and also to provide the board a little bit of an update on what's going on with Ken High School I I do want to take the opportunity to acknowledge our student Board of EDS and our Board of education that the month of March is Board of Education Month celebration month and on behalf of the the students and the staff of the parents in the community we present you with a a gift um thanking you all for your service to the the town of of Canton so thank you so [Applause] much I want to Echo Mr Daniels I want to thank the board of education for approving the the budget last week at a uh 6.45% and for anyone in the community that would like to know more about this budget please go on our website the videos are on there when you see 6.45% this is a flat budget what drives this budget is 3% of insurance cost and 3% of um Staffing in cont contracts the the only new staff positions that we have within this budget are uh uh three campus monitors for one for Cher Brook one for Kon Intermediate School and one for the afternoon for the high school middle school and then a05 District social worker that we work with in our Thrive program but that's an offset that if we had to PID for that one way or another we'd be paying for that so as there's a lot of things families here I would encourage you to be involved in in this budget process but the the budget that was presented by the administrative team and voted by the board of education is a flat budget um compared to 2425 to 2526 so I would encourage uh people to uh attend the the board of Finance meeting uh on March 19th and I would encourage all board members to support Mr Daniels who will present your budget on March 19th it is not the administrative team budget it is your budget so I would encourage you to uh go to that meeting I'm not going to speak too much about activities because I know the the High School Board of head members will speak about it but it has been a busy past three or four weeks of going to games uh going to music performances at Cherrybrook going to the Middle School play going to the high school science s folks come on in our high school girls basketball team is joining us right now and then um upcoming we have an artist reception at the the library the musical which I know you'll speak about and then I do want to share a very important date of March 25th that's a very important Board of Education possible meeting depending upon any Board of uh Finance reductions to the the the budget that is that you all propos I'll take any questions out of the superintendent's office at this time any questions for the superintendent St [Music] reps feline no okay no questions for the superintendent thank you Dr grman Mr Bishop thank you chair Daniels I'd like to provide uh briefly uh an overview of an Outreach piece for us um I'm continuing my work with the Farmington Valley Health District in their Community Health Improvement program I'm co-chairing the mental health committee and we're uh doing work around uh metrics for the upcoming meeting and then being able to uh poost the the next round of improvement efforts for us so this is an opportunity for uh us to be able to engage in this conversation at a regionalized level in support of of the pon community and the broader Community as well uh a little bit more locally within operations here I'm preparing with Mr Moore Mr Ji and M meanie to be able to present at the cast conference uh that's the uh conference for Connecticut administrators to be able to present uh findings that we have gained during our work with uh student performance data relative to the commissioner Network Pro process so we're very excited to be able to share Lessons Learned with that looking forward to a Full House for our presentations and then uh a bit more locally to within our operations we've been uh having some great conversations with our instructional uh instructional leadership collaborative that includes our administrators our department chairs and our coaches giving us the opportunity to really be able to calibrate on the work that we do together singularizing our vision so that we can continue to be able to do really really strong work together within can so really pleased with the work that we have going on here any questions for me thank you Mr any questions for the assistant superintendent okay Kim just join us just for the record okay great um student uh student representative report Magie you want to go first and we'll go right down the line sure I'll be reporting on CIS so last Friday CIS was given a sneak peek of the CHS M theater production of this SpongBob musical CIS held it small Ensemble concert last week and the concert included 28 pieces and students didn't outstanding talk CIS is celebrating National reading month in March congratulations to the CIS band who did an outstanding job performing The National Anthem at the Wolfpack game they were told by the wolf pack that their band was the largest they've ever hosted through random acts of kindness week CIS collected 202 kindness cards each representing a different act of kindness shout out to miss H's class for earning the most kindness cards C thanked all of their van drivers and crossing guards as part of bus driver Appreciation Week guest student guest speaker Ed G met with students in assemblies and shared his messages of gratitude dreaming big setting goals and having a positive attitude and congratulations CIA students who defeated staff 80 to 60 in a student faculty basketball game than Ed 49 THS night very good thank you I will say that uh I went to the wolf back game and our students performed just fantastic it was great and then I was at the student faculty game and uh I saw a couple of teachers hanging on the rim I'd like Dr to speak to them so okay um J um I will be recording on Cherry Brook um so on February 25th Cherry hosted its annual kindergarten parent orientation uh this event provided families with an overview of a typical day in kindergarten um the presentation included details on daily routines learning activities curriculum and classroom expectations um a follow up to uh Cher's 100 day uh food drive challenge um which was basically an event on the 100th day where every classroom tried to collect 100 items um in total Cher collected 1,786 items which will be donated to the c um additionally on the music side the third grade cheer gr singers recently went on a field trip to Yukon stores and was able to have the opportunity to work with professors there and also with current students there at Ukon uh last week was also read Across America week at Cherry and part of this the National Honor Society from K High School took a visit to Cherrybrook and seniors were able to read to all the different grades so K through third we all took a classroom and we were able to share one of our favorite childhood books with them and then tomorrow March 12th uh from 5:30 to 7: will be I wonder night at Cher I wonder project is a it's a a stem based um event where the chair Book Students will work with high school students from y Theta and snhs and just be able to do some Hands-On uh stem activities additionally next week uh teacher parent conferences will be occurring and also the PTO that's great thank you do luas so as many of you guys already know the SpongeBob musical is uh this Thursday Friday and um tomorrow the uh NHS Anda are hosting the p k which is a 3.14 km run out on the track with many other Pi Pi Day Pi week activities um this Friday two lucky students uh who have bought raffle tickets will get the chance to pie a teacher that they select oh my God the board would like to be present for that um unfortunately both the boys and girls basketball Seasons came to an end this Friday with uh losses in the quarterfinals which is still very far for considering past years is great Improvement for both teams great um the boys ice hockey team also lost uh this past Monday to Hall there in for's close game we played very well and baseball will be starting up very soon uh this Saturday um the Middle School um students are forming Relay for Life teams to participate in the farman valley edition of that event uh CMS put on a performance at the roges gall of roges gallery sorry cting crew did a great job um the CMS school climate team hosted their monthly resiliency lesson uh which had students writing and Performing skits about managing challenging emotions um coming up soon we have have uh sixth grade families are invited to sth grade orientation uh on Thursday the 13th at 5:30 uh parent teacher conferences will be next week and for the middle and high school be C jazz festival with the guest artist be on March 26th starting at 7 p.m.

at the high school okay thank you very much any questions on curriculum and our minutes are always posted to the website if anybody's interested in reading about them in further detail you always get them on the website we're going to include minutes from from each of the Committees in the uh in the packets going forward so we'll just make sure so as you read your pack you'll have a chance to see what's going on in each of the Committees Communications Felicia anything I know we're going electronic I was talking to K on the way in we're getting ready to make a yeah we we finalized um the newsletter that's coming out um I everything's finalized it just it's ready to go out um we did that between the last meeting and the last week or so and our next meeting is uh March 26 or 24th I'm sorry at one o'clock but that's we don't really have any other updates besides that we're just trying to make sure we have all the information in that newslet letter to send out to the public so they're aware of all the happenings okay and I I have a question so as we get um I know we can't promote we can't use uh Town resources for the budget once it's um once it's adopted by the the board of Finance I guess um but is there what's going to be our communicate I know the board of finance will send out a communication like they always do I guess it's um it's it's the three boards we we'll send you have any so I had Mr Bishop meet with or he's going to meet with Mr Penny to discuss last year cure helped out with sending out the the town does the the finance letter we assisted their them last year with it and it was basically from the board of that and the board of Select and the board of Finance so John's going to be meeting with you haven't met with him he's going to be meeting with Mr penck to discuss how we want to do it in the future I would recommend to um Felicia and Mr Bishop and and that team to maybe look at a a way of how to communicate budget without violating any laws that you can do as a board member and if you would like uh Mr Daniels I can have um next month if you'd like um a possibility of myself from Mr Bishop talking to our school board attorney to share with the board what you can do and what you can't do or maybe it's conversation that you have with attorney no you you can you can bring the board but I you know I I I agree with the electronic version but I still think and it's inexpensive for we can print it here black and white we don't need pictures but I still think that we need to have something at the library at the Town Hall maybe at the the the the front desk of uh of each of the schools like we used to have just just for those people that like print and want to take it out you certainly can make copies for each of the schools and uh town hall and the library it's 400 it's nothing okay good that's great anything more on Communications okay no that's all okay uh Youth Services Bureau is Cindy she's not here tonight CRA is now um Kim was nice enough to say that she would she would uh take over uh the correct relationship uh and be part of that Council I don't know Kim if you have anything we report on correct I I'm going to keep it in there but not sure if you have I'm just going to look for my notes Here I did attend the the meeting um I'm going to be meeting with the director just to acquaint myself on their you know goals objectives and Mission but I listened to a presentation on from student staff from one of the correct schools on restorative practice um so that was I open interesting and it was a very honest and open discussion you know there was some school that have not seen success and then others that explain how it is successful but it's more of a culture and a climate it's not an end all to discipline or you know um Behavior but it does seem like they will present different topics that you know I can maybe follow up with Mr Bishop on just to see that's great you're don't like Greg Florio he's really nice and I think that's great that you're going to meet with him uh and get part of that group so thank you for doing that yep no problem okay um that that covers all the reports uh calendar of events do we have calendar of events there isn't a calendar of events in the package just because we've spoken about all of the things that are happening so good we've mentioned meeting we mentioned to play early release um that's that's good so April you so so once once the board of Finance has our budget and depending on where we end up I'd like this all to be com ambassadors of that budget while we Dr Gman will find out what we can and can't do but I had suggested that you know even if it's a concert that we have a board of education table with with maybe those handouts in case somebody has a question they can come us I think it's more about visibility we get a question but it's visibility reminding people the vote is May 7th uh here's the information if you like it if you have a question so I may ask board members periodically at the uh as we get into the spring events prior to the vote to maybe uh man the table I'll be there uh many times but there might be some time where I can't do it so I just ask you all um really become ambassadors and champions to that budget I think we need to do that any any further questions to me I had a quick question regards to the meeting next Wednesday um are you asking us to just be physically in attendance orur do you want to say anything no no you don't have to say anything you be physically physically there or even online I just want to see that the board is behind I plan to be there I just but listen you public comment please when is this meeting Lou next Wednesday that's when we present to the board of Finance Kim at 6: p.m. at the uh Community Center I will be at conferences oh that's the same night as conferences yep High School Conference night conference know that kind of stuff needs to be coordinated better I think but no but what they starts six you're about the 19th right yeah 19th yeah that's 19 I know there always something I know there is always something like tomorrow night Thursday we have an art show at the the library at the same time as the Middle School orientation so it's just always going to have overlap I think but but the the interesting thing about all these events is like the hard show may start at 5:30 6:00 and then something starts at 7:00 so sometimes there's some overlap to be able to do both events like a lot of times I'm able to go to a double header so I think we have the play also is there so the art shows actually early no F Well same time as the middle school but it'll be recorded yeah so okay um that's great all right um anything else to come before the Board of Education anybody object to us adjourning then we are we are adjourned at uh at um 7:45 88 your right