We were in a mess. the previous superintendent uh you know we all know the struggles we had with the budget through the town meeting the special town meeting uh leaving um going off telling Megan you know she's going to retire uh couple weeks before school started I can't imagine the the work that Megan had to do to go out as the chair at the time and you know the the pressure the stress that that was on her she reached out to Tracy Tracy helped quite a bit uh but Megan really did the bulk of the work to bring Al into this district. I remember talking to her at the time, the first thing I said to her, she gave me the name and the first thing I said to her like, "Megan, this guy's got an ethics complaint right there. It's like Google. It's like the first thing that comes up." And she said, "No, trust me.
Right. And I and I have referenced uh to that group that I can't represent the school committee and that I can only bring back information to the school committee. I can you know represent the views of the school department but you know not not the the committee not the will of the committee. Um, so they they understand that and are um at the point where I think they're they we've been discussing expanding membership to include committee members um a school committee member to sit on that committee. Thank you. Um so um so August for a potential um forum on school projects would that be something that the committee would would you know would be comfortable with? Um I'll let them know that yeah we can you know probably work out a date in August for that. It'll be nice to express our needs and I'm I'm thankful for the work that everyone's done on that committee in sort of making sure that the the major interests of the taxpayers of the town are represented and I I think it's been a a very productive, you know, start to this whole thing.
That's hot air goes up in that s that ceiling. So you get I think it's a temporary thing is good for now but keeping them like that if you was to purchase all of them it would be very humid in the rooms because that air has got to go somewhere. These ceiling tiles are not sealed up tight airtight. So you have all that hot air going in between the ceilings or in between the suspended ceiling and the roof. So temporary I don't see any issue with it. They're supposed to be made to go outside. So you've I've seen you seen like little ones that have sixinch tubes on them and you just throw them outside of the of a window. That's what they're supposed to be designed to do. They're actually spot coolers what they are. So but it's a temporary to get you through the school year.
I've had a conversation with him. Just trust me. Just trust me. I'm begging you. Just please have a conversation with them and see what you think." So, I did. And I listened to her. I had a conversation with him and then we got two applicants for that job. Uh, and we chose L. And uh, I really I think we all need to give credit to Megan for for doing that for us. That was really good. Um, but yeah, I agree what Beth said, stability, right? You know, have someone in here for four months and then they're still trying to figure out what's going on before they have to transition to someone else. So, uh, yeah. Um, Jess, your comments about the the outline that she gave us Yeah. was great. No complaints. Um, I just uh, you know, I think for consistency sake and stability um, you know, I think I think is the best.
Um the other thing regarding capital improvements is uh at annual town meeting we've been informed that it looks like uh there's there's almost no free cash available. Um they used allocated almost all of that in October. Um, so what I believe will uh will happen is the fire alarm system for dlo and potter which I currently have out to bid um will that will the proposal is that funds will be transferred from the long range capital planning stabilization reserve account to fund that which is a solution and it's fine and then in October they could always take free cash and put it back into that reserve fund. Um so if that gets the project done because otherwise we will not get the project done. Um and I know the fire department fire chiefs have concerns about that and we've gone through all of this work creating bid documents putting it out to bid and uh hoping to get this project done over the summer.
I don't see any issue with it myself. Have you done any any schools with these split units? Yes, I've done Lucas um done 18 of them up there. Uh, Silven Grove has I think we did, don't quote me on this, but I think we did five or six for them. And they love them. I mean, we haven't been back on them. I think it's been three or four years ago. We haven't been back on them. So, my guys are trained. We have to get trained every two years in Nebraska. So, they they're trained on these units. So, is that price included electrical? Is Ryan doing the electrical? And can I speak for Ryan real quick? Y um Ryan had asked me I'd asked him if he wanted to come and sit in and he had some other plans tonight, but uh he did an amp draw on that panel.
I mean, he came in the team that he's built in central office like he mentioned as as well. again he came into a situation where like basically rebuilt from the ground up. There was nobody in there, bills weren't being paid, paychecks weren't going out. Um, not just simple things like, you know, I don't know if you work, but if you are expecting your pay to come in and you have your bills set up to go out and then you don't get your pay or you get the wrong pay, that's kind of a problem. And that's what he walked into. as an executive, he has to, you know, he has people that he's worked with in the past, so he brings them in and gets things functioning functioning again. That's what you do with that level. They were able to come in, no training. They knew what they were doing.
It would have to wait a whole another summer. Can't do it during school time. So the good news is that it looks like hopefully that will happen. Um, and then the only other thing that that I believe is going to be considered for funding is $50,000 of the $250,000 that we asked for for technology hardware replacement. Everything else we have on the list, and we had a lot on the list, is uh not up for consideration at this point because of the funding. So, you know, we had $13 million worth of worth of items, including the high school roof, which obviously is in process and and that's, you know, but the other items on the list that that you know is the rest of the technology, hardware replacement, security upgrades, which I'll talk about in a second, high school track reconstruction, um flooring, uh removal of asbestos flooring, which I really feel is pretty important, too.
It was only pulling 12 amps on a 400 amp circuit. So, he got plenty of room. Yeah. So, and he was going to add another panel for the south side of the of the second bid that we did um to accommodate those. So, there's plenty of power. So, so do you, Bobby, need a motion to approve? So, two different motions. one to approve the split units and then one to approve purchasing the the other units to get us through the rest of the school year. No, because the other units coming out, I mean, if we go buy five of them, you're looking at a couple thousand dollars. Um but on this side of it with that cost, I would I would recommend us um moving forward with the the heating component um split units in the rooms that are in this diagram for now with electrical and Ruby's doing the Mitsubishi units.
Absolute professionals walked in and within a few months, yeah, we got a lot of problems, but they started solving them one by one by one, prioritizing, getting things solved. And all I've heard from around the district was yes, they've been doing great. I got paid. Fantastic. I can I can get my bills paid. Uh I know we had some issues last week. We got a lot of emails as a committee. Uh well, we got I should say we got one email multiple times. It seemed like a lot of copy and paste going on uh pointing out some flaws, but then we also got emails in favor. Um, I spoke to a lot of people in Berlin who they're a little more hesitant maybe to to write into us, put things in writing, but speaking to them, um, had nothing but good things to say about the change that has been going on.
Um, HVAC repairs and replacement, playground improvements, school bus replacement and and addressing the the stadium issue. Um, so, you know, those were the items on the list and and I know they had a limited pool of funds. So, I do appreciate them thinking outside of the box to potentially fund the fire alarm at least, but that's where we are with capital improvements. Great. So, um I'm just going to mention that under HR, as you know, we're still hiring for several of our leadership. We're still interviewing for several of our leadership pos um positions, including the assistant principles at the Potter Middle School. This is in process, as well as an associate principal at the high school. I am pleased to share that we have I just reviewed um some of the the candidate qualifications and I believe that we have several highly qualified candidates. Uh I truly appreciate the time that and effort of Katie Paveo, Ross T-Bolt alongside Peter Rossy, Ryan Sheay, Audrey Thomas, Melissa Mckenry, and the many school-based folks who have been part of this because it is time and it is effort and there has to be a thoughtfulness about this process because hiring for these positions is really critical to the overall success of our schools and our school district.
So moved. Is that is that I'm sorry. Is that this 14,3? Nope. Nope. This is This one's 123 914 right here. Oh, so that's not on here. Uh, no, that's on your other sheet that you got off the diagram when it looks like this. Oh, okay. I'll move to proceed with installing the sheet splits for 23. That's the one with the heating rate. Yes. $923,914 from it and Harrison Electric. Okay, I'll second. Motion by Kayla and a second by Josh. Any further questions, comments, discussion?
So, um, yeah, I I think I agree with everything you guys have said, um, if anybody has any last thoughts to to say and then we'll vote on this current motion. I I would like to say one thing. I um I was able to attend that meeting on Monday night through Google Meet and I know one of the criticisms of Al which was interesting because I have a really opposite stance on that was that he brought in his own people. To me that's a credit to Al. When you have really competent good people who can come in and straighten out a situation and they're willing to come and work with him that says that they have respect for his ethics, the way that he runs things. And so I think um we've been we've been lucky to have him and to have the people that he's brought in because it's it's a it's a it's a machine that's working out there and they're like the staff has said how grateful they are for the central office staff um like the teachers and that's a wonderful thing to hear because normally you don't hear that but they've been so appreciative because so many things have been out here now in such a short period of time.
And so we're going to keep working at it until we find the right people um for the right positions for the right schools. So that's where we are um in terms of hiring. And really once we have that process done, we have to start the process of now that you know we'll hopefully moving forward with our budget that we have some positions that we're going to be looking to fill outside of those leadership positions in the district under family and community engagement. Tomorrow actually the um the bit department is hosting a career fair for the fair for the junior class starting at 1:00 which is really exciting. The career fair will extend into afterchool hours for students until about 2:30. There will be over 50 local businesses and institutions for the students to interact with to help with the internship selections for next year. and uh some of our students will be hired for some summer positions.
Hearing none, all those in favor say I. I. Any opposed? Same sign. Motion passes 70. Okay. So, moving down here, we do also need to look at, we talked about this earlier this year. We wanted to get to this point in the spring. Our lawn mower at Wilson has over 900 hours. Um, and it does have a bad pump that's going to need to be replaced on it. Um, Brian, thank you for coming tonight. I'm sorry I didn't mention that. Thank you for all your time. um it does need to be replaced at the rate that it's at, especially with the bath pump on there as well. It could cost up to half the price of a new mower to replace the pump. So, with the trade in, um the quote is on there as well. Um the trade trading in and going to a 61in grasshopper from Bob's service would be $14,58.
Anybody else? Any final comments? I think we we give him that mission too, like bring in a competent team to help solve this issue. And so, you know, I know with the ethics complaint that looks suspicious, but that's exactly what we charged him to do and he did it and he brought us out of a a bad situation. So, you know, I think interims have a lot of work to do and we still have miles to travel. And I also want to say that I just think it's so impressive what he and Al have done with the budget, you know, because it's probably like one of the worst budgets ever because it's like below level, but also um you know, there's cost increases and because of his like organization and experience and communication and hard work, you know, making sure that he listens and you know, communicates everything to all of the different communities in in the town that everybody respects him and respects um Aaron and like he he has generated so much respect despite it be you know coming from where we were last year and then also that this budget kind of stinks but um but people still really respect him and and he has healed a lot of the a lot of the issues because of his work and his approach.
So, that's really exciting for students to plan for their internship and local summer employment opportunities. I also want to mention that Dartmouth Natural Resource Trust continues to communicate with us and offer some opportunities for our families over over the vacation. And again, we think that this is really important for us to connect with our families to let them know what are the opportunities that are available right here in town for our students. Uh there are some things going on during vacation. They're going to be working on cleaning up the NLES Peyton Reserve and surrounding area. We're sending things home through the backpack um to let families know about this. And this doesn't sound fun, but uh there is also a snake scavenger hunt, but that's kicking off. Yeah. So I I Yeah. So I don't think they're real snakes, though. So there's that. Um, so but the important part of that is for us to continue to reach out to the local community resources and connect our students and our families to those resources under safe and supportive schools.
So, I'd recommend that we go ahead and replace that with the trade in of the old mower. Didn't we do one for the high school? We did last year. Y same mower. Same. Okay. Yeah. I think the one that's actually here, I'm not 100% sure, Josh, but I think it's got a bigger width. I think it might be a 72 in. Okay. What's it cost to fix the one that's there? Um, they estimated it between five and seven with the pump on there. if they could find if they could find, you know, all the parts and everything. The one concern was it was already over 900 hours. If they put that amount in there, there's no guarantee how long that's going to last either. Moment to approve the purchase of a 61in grasshopper mower from golf service at the cost of $14,5860. The motion by Caleb.
Thank you Beth. Do you have anything? I just want to say I was talking to Al at one point and I'm probably saying it wrong but I think he was talking he said that candandor is is kindness and being candid with people is being kind to them and I think sometimes people aren't used to that level of candandor and they it it rubs them in the wrong way and so I think there's a little bit of that and I think he also deserves people to be candid with him too. you he's learning he can't fix it if you don't address what your complaint is. And then and my feeling of the last week is that I hadn't heard anything negative until last week. So it was really hard for me to take that all in where it's like we want let's fix it along the way.
I know the high school is working and focused on recognizing student attendance and tardies and really trying to improve that. I appreciate that there's a team of folks up here who are actively working toward finding some solutions to what is a really uh I think a a challenge not only here in Dartmouth but again I will say throughout the state I hear it um everywhere I go from different superintendent and in just anything that you read but they have partnered with Duncan and if you're paying any attention high school kids definitely are at the Duncan counter and in the drive-thrus and it's definitely a favorite. And so one of the things they're doing for students who qualify is entering them into a lottery and they're getting um a gift card to Duncan. So we appreciate again there's you're I say safe and supportive schools here because it gets kids into school where they're safe and we know that they're they're the right support.