But with only 144 respondents, it's really Yeah, that's less than half. Yeah. So, it could be really changed if we had 90% of the students. I just thought it was interesting that this looks almost like the third the five very close to the third to five. Yeah. So all the schools at least this group of kids are all thinking about the same. Yeah. This would be different kids.
In July, we do what we call the resolution of intent on the funding bonds, which which initiates the process on the funding bonds and the notice in the paper. And then we hold a public hearing in August. In September, we will actually sell the funding bonds and you'll approve the final sale of those. And then in October, in October, the final funding. So in October, we're done. And you don't have to put up with me. Um the plan of finance looks like this when you're all done um on page four. So you will have um just the bonds associated with these projects. Your old bonds are gone. Now the 14s, the 17s, and the 2020 bonds, all of those were paid off last year. So now you're just to these new bonds that we have sold for these projects. So you'll have 23 bonds, 24 bonds, and 25 bonds.
And she never realized she never had enough faith in herself at first to believe that she could be the awesome rock star that she has gotten to be, which is fantastic. And so she is going to uh rock your socks off in a minute. All right. Her horoscope, for those of you keeping score, is an Aries. Good. And she wears a size N shoe. Okay. Good. There's one other thing. Um she prefers Metallica to Mega Death and really actually feels that load and reload. Um, the albums aren't as bad as people say, except for maybe that Mama said song, which is should have been country. Anyway, Metallica, pretty good band. If you saw on the news, Metallica was on the news cuz they played in some stadium and they set off the earthquake, right? All right. So, rock and roll forever, my friend. Yeah, I can hear it.
Solen is well aware of and and beyond that the board unanimously agreed that we also need to make the public aware. So his contract will be available not only by charter on the town site but also on the board of education website.
Most importantly, my mom, my biggest supporter and my best friend. Thank you for never giving up on me. Your strength and love made all the difference. My family has never failed to lift me up, make me better, and give me the motivation to push through even when things got hard. Aspen Valley provided the same support with its belief in second chances. And I know that because of that, many of us got to rewrite our stories and achieve things we never thought we could. After 12 years of education, I've finally become the student I always looked up to. I also want to give a special shout out to Miss Trout. I was never a fan of English class until she walked into our school. She didn't just teach the subject. She made it easier, more approachable, and even fun. She helped many of us find our voice.
Well, the walls out of this that wasn't a bearing wall then. Okay. No, that was a that was a new wall anyways. There wasn't a bearing wall. Okay. Was it wasn't the full height? Okay. No, the the beam that the supporting beam is right above that. It does help to see the pictures. Um that was a big help to be able to have we can send in the packet and looking at the alternate solutions there. Um and also having the you know the proposed plan uh an existing plan. It looks like you're doing quite a bit of work to that bathroom on the first floor too to make the stairway wider. Oh yeah. Right. Basically, if you if you um if we tried to do the required plan, it would re it would not leave any room at all left for the bathroom. So, that would there would no longer be able to be a bathroom up there.
Am I any questions? Mhm. Is there anything in all of the surveys because I know you had the the students, the parents, the staff. Is there any thing in that on all the surveys that were like, "Yay, can you know a celebratory type thing that I found some of that in the staff surveys?" Yeah, the staff survey had the staff surveys were very interesting. Is there anything that's like oo we really need to work on or focus on? Well, I mean, one of my first thoughts always is safety. So, I tend to look at the safety things. Uh because as I tell people all the time, my first job is keeping students safe. My second job is keeping employees safe. And and so that's why I said just now about that perspective. I would be more I would be interested in knowing from the perspective of the students particularly in from what lens are they not feeling as safe.
And they're all targeting this 80 cent maximum tax rate that's shown over on the far right. And you can see the last year is a partial year. That'll that's sort of our plug year. Um all of this obviously being a little dependent on final interest rates and on your actual EAV um your equalized assess valuation what the tax rate it the bond payments themselves that column uh second from the right that's labeled total debt service when we're done that column will be fixed those payments will not change those dollar amounts will be filed with the county clerk and those will be set what will vary is what the tax rate will be associated with making those payments because it'll just depend on what the EAV does every year. So, as EAV grows, what I'm showing is 79 and 80 cents over on the right hand side will actually go down.
Can you hear it? You have to get close to the mic. It's on. I promise. I'll check it in a minute. Let me introduce Ian and then then we can take everybody. Is it on? All right. That Ian just introduced himself. That is Ian. Um plans to go to UMass to study finance. Right. That's that's pretty impressive. Maybe he can loan me some money later. Um his his favorite band memory was uh a few minutes ago when Arigot the keys to her bass case and so uh she couldn't play her actual bass tonight. She's playing with one of the the uh you know the school owned bases which is kind of like the difference between using your own bathroom and using a public restroom analogy for you. All right, good. Um back to Ian. Um, he doesn't really know what his horoscope is, and that's fine.
So if you have any questions you can obviously refer to the board of education website for that as well too. Um but I I believe we Mr. White did you have a question? No. Yes. Go ahead sir. Thank you. Yeah, I don't think it got mentioned here at all. I just wanted people to understand why I made the motion to move this up in the agenda because people are waiting here. Uh not not all the members here are going to be here for the rest of the night and we all wanted to be here for this particular vote. We didn't just accelerate the agenda for no particular reason. So, thank you for clarifying for us. But, um other than if there aren't any other comments um we are going to move for a vote. Is there a public comment as well too? So, we're gonna just leave time for anybody to go to the mic if you have a comment.
And that's something I'll always carry with me. Today is more than just a graduation. It's a celebration of growth, of resilience, of transformation. It's a day where we, the class of 2025, step into the next chapter of our lives, stronger, smarter, and ready for whatever comes next. To our friends, families, and teachers, thank you for believing in us. And to my fellow graduates, this is our moment. Let's make it count. Congratulations, class of 2025. We made it. [Applause] Thank you, Ash. Our next student speaker is Carter [Applause] Haynes. Hello, AVHS family. I'm here today because of all of you. I would love to start and talk about my time at Aspen. I've been at Aspen since seventh grade. I first came to Aspen Valley for the small environment to improve my learning. I not only got what I wanted, but I was blessed with another family.
And that's like the main bathroom for the whole first floor. I mean, it does look like even widening the stair does quite a bit of that. You're moving the door for that bathroom, right? But it it there's enough room headroom wise to keep the toilet um stalled. The treads, the stairway treads to the first floor foyer have to be relocated. There's HVAC equipment that has to be relocated. Um as well as reconfiguring plumbing in that first floor bathroom, which is all a very large expense that the owners are willing to take on to try to get to this safer stairway system. Is there a beam at the top of the existing stairway that prevents that that top thread from moving closer to where the door location is? Yes. Is it right at the top riser? Is it back in line with the wall? The section it looks like a section opposed and required.
Is it equal both ways? you know that they don't feel safe from each other and they don't see feel safe in the school the physical school or is one more than the other because that would give us some direction on what we could do next to help them feel safer. So from my perspective that's the one I pay a lot of attention to with the students. Um uh Jen looks at other things too because these are pieces that go into the grants that she writes. Yeah. So, why don't can you pull up the staff survey? Or the teacher survey, excuse me. There you go. Yeah. And see these numbers are a lot more realistic. Um because we have whatund um Yeah. If you well teachers we have 150 okay 150 teachers so we have a pretty high response rate here now I'm not sure do our other certified not administrators do administrators get this too no so but our other certified specialists do like counselors and whatever so if you put those people in then we're talking about about 165 people so this is a pretty high response rate Cass, you want to make it a little bigger for the people in the audience, please?
We've just assumed very minimal 1% annual growth. So, I guarantee after year one that far right column will be wrong, but it's it's wrong in a conservative way. So, um, and that is all I have unless you have questions for me. We will literally be doing exactly what we did last year. Other than last year, we were able to sell the debt certificates to a bank. Um, this year's debt certificate is too big. Uh, most banks just they just can't handle 29 million. Um, so we will be selling that in the public market to a group of investors, but it still will only be outstanding for about 90 days and then we'll replace it with the funding box. But otherwise, it is identical to the process you went through last year. And the reason we're doing the final push of everything's because arbitrage is no longer available, right?
I don't really know. Yeah, I know what mine is. I'm lying. Um, and the thing he he wants you guys all to know, want this the audience to know that he definitely got a five on the AP. He is also a RZ master, if you know what that is. and he he likes to rinse himself up some free dessert out at Chili's restaurants. All right, those are our seniors. They um as always, it's going to be sad to see them go, especially when you have them for so many years. Um you know, you get you get uh accustomed to each other that my job I won't go on for long in front. My job is unique in that I get the kids in sixth grade and then I get to see them from sixth grade all the way up to 12th grade. So, we really get to know each other and these are a great bunch of kids.
Nope, doesn't look like it. So, we will call for a vote to approve if Miss Cullinin, can you please read the motion one more time? I can read it. the motion um to approve the superintendence contract presented and discussed in executive session today on May 15th subject to minor edits. It was seconded already. So all those in favor of the motion that is on the floor, it is unanimous. Thank you. Madam Chair, if Yes, sir. Please do. Thank you. I just want to thank the board for uh their support, not only through the contract process, which is an annual thing as a superintendent, but um throughout the year to allow us to do the incredible things we do for our kids. Um also our administrative team. But uh first and foremost, I want to thank my wife who is constantly supportive of the many nights out that I do and the uh hours and um sometimes really supportive, sometimes not Facebook posts that are out there.
My hardworking peers and teachers have pushed me to achieve more than one could ever think of doing. Aspen is not my school. It's a family that has raised me through high school. Each teacher has helped me in ways most would cry to hear about. To start off with, Mr. Simons, you have helped me from the very beginning back in middle school, and words fall too short to thank you for all you have done for me. Your knowledge and adventures still replay in my head. I could always count on you for laughter and assistance. Only honestly, there are many others, teachers, and that you know who you are. You have helped me with the daytoday and the little things, the check-ins, the truth, the challenges. You guys have helped me in the deepest of trenches day in and day out. I know you guys are what makes the foundation of Aspen Valley.
It looks like it's almost in line with that door that where you show the drop there. It doesn't call it a beam there. It shows a drop there. Um I don't know where you're talking about. So if you look at um the proposed variance plan section K, you'll see the top riser dimension and then the basement ceiling you'll see a drop drop piece. Is that the structural beam or is the structural beam closer to the face of the riser? Uh can I can I come over to see what you're Yeah, sure. So, let's see. Okay. Is this the structural beam or is there a structural beam here? Oh, um no. There's that. That is the main one that I was talking about that can't be moved. That's the main one that can't be moved. So, you can't move any of this that way any further.
There we go. Thank you. That's too I usually say for my vintage eyes, but you know, in this case, I know they're all struggling to see it out there. And these are generally very positive. Yeah. You know, if we look at the top two, you know, completely understand, understand or extremely connected, quite connected. Um, uh, these are pretty positive. Question five is really good. That's half of the people Well, I also like three. Half of the people half of the respondents at least got up on the right side of the bed. Um I I really appreciate number three. Um uh you know that we're talking about colleiality and and respect of each other. Um I think that one's I think that one's really positive. Yeah, it is. My favorite one is the parent one talking about their students and they we'll get to that. Oh, is this the parent one?
We've been splitting things into these pieces so that you could maximize your investment income on the bond funds, but uh given where interest rates are currently there there is no arbitrage play, we can't make that extra interest income. So there's no point in exposing you to the additional interest rate risk of and and the additional costs of selling bonds again next year. So we're just going to get it over with this year, then you're good to go. Now, would we need the full 26 million for the bridge loan or 29 million for the bridge loan or can we do a smaller amount? The only way we can fund the funding bonds at the full amount is to take it out with the bridge loan. We we need the debt certificates equal to the amount you need and then the funding bonds basically just replace it.