BOE Business Meeting 2025-11-17

001I know that there will be many opportunities in the coming months, including at board meetings and other forum, and always via email, to ask additional questions and provide feedback. Please note that the public comment during the budget forum is not subject to a time limit, but we would ask that any public comment be limited to budget issues during the budget forum. Thank you and I'll turn it over to Drew Thank you very much Jim good evening everyone we're pleased tonight to invite public input into the development of a budget proposal for the 2026-2027 school year before we jump into doing so we're going to share some brief background information I think huh there we go okay thank you And some of these slides will be familiar. We kind of go, kind of approach it the

002same way. But above all, our budget is a means to an end. We utilize the budgetary resources this community generously provides to support the educational and extracurricular programs at each of our seven buildings and to fund our strategic priorities, all in an effort to fulfill our student-focused vision and mission, which appear on this slide. The strategic plan goals are organized into three big ideas, learning, living, and leading. We think about a collaborative future-oriented academic culture, educational environments that promote well-being, belonging, and resilience, and a commitment to inquiry and interdependence and innovation. We often show this slide as a model that offers a way to think about the essential work and organizational structure of our school district. The three spheres communicate the critical functions of our work with students and student learning situated in the center

003of it all. Importantly, our budget is structured to support all three areas of the organization with teaching and learning held up by the operational and student support functions. Of course, the Board of Education and community provide input and guidance for all of the work through governance and budgetary support. As I've said in the past, this community has made remarkable commitments over time to establish an instructional program to meet the needs of our students. At each level, elementary, middle, and high, the design of the instructional program reflects long-held community values. These structures foster favorable student-teacher ratios, create smaller learning communities within a larger school setting, and allow students to express agency over their course of study. For the sake of time, I won't repeat that discussion in full, but I will reiterate that the resources directed

004toward this fundamental organization of our schools creates the strong foundation that allows us to focus on the whole child while pursuing innovation and thoughtful adaptations to meet the needs of our learners. I'll turn it over to Andrew. So those of you who followed our budget-making process this past spring will recognize this chart. Student programs drive the budget each year and are planning around them. It's important to also recognize that there are other expenses that contribute to the support structures around those programs. This chart shows the breakup of each of our spending categories in our $191.5 million voter supported budget for the current school year. And about 80% of that budget supports salary and wages around professionals that support those academic programs I mentioned earlier. On the next chart, you'll see this pie chart. A current

005budget of $191.5 million is funded primarily by property taxes at 92%. 4% is supported by state aid, 1% by county sales tax, and another 1% by interest earnings. All other revenue sources make up about 2% of the annual funding for our budget. This year's budget also included $2.5 million in reserves and fund balance to help support that budget. As we begin the 26-27... budget year, it's important to look at a couple of the key pieces that play an outsized influence on our budget making process. Obviously, there's the tax levy limit or the property tax cap as it's come to be known. Inflation continues to be above 2%, and we anticipate with updated data from the federal government that that will be, again, above 3% in the month of October. It's been above 2% since about

006March of 2021. Our mandatory contributions to employee pensions increase each year, and this year the employee's retirement system is projected to go up from 16.5% of those employees' wages to 17.5% in the coming year, and that covers our clerical staff, our custodians, and our bus drivers. The contributions for our certified staff, which would be our teachers, our administrators, is anticipated to decrease as a percentage of salaries from 9.59% to between 8.25% and 8.75%. Our recent experience shows that our self-funded health plan can be volatile, and over the last few years we've spoken at length about that, so I won't go into that in too much detail tonight. While we certainly have experienced recent volatility that has been a budgetary pressure on our budget, we have had years in the past where those opportunities for savings

007have occurred, and we've used those savings to offset our future expenses through reserves and fund balance. With that, about 80% or so of our budget goes to those wages and benefits, and it's all based on collective bargaining agreements for our staff and the staffing needs around our student programs I mentioned earlier. With that this is just a look you'll see this many times in the months ahead but this is a look at our budget discussion timeline we're here at November 17th and the number of steps between now and the annual budget vote in elections scheduled for Tuesday May 19th 2026 and with that I'll turn it back to you Hi, good evening. My name is Erica German. I'm addressing you as the Scarsdale Parent Teacher Council President. The Scarsdale Parent Teacher Council Executive Committee thanks

008the District Administration and the Board of Education for holding this evening's Budget Priorities Forum. The PTC appreciates your early and proactive engagement with parents and the broader Scarsdale community. As part of our budget study process for the 26-27 fiscal year, the PTCEC and PTCEC budget study chairs, Maida Kirkendall-Rodriguez and Rachna Singh, have been working closely with representatives from all seven Scarsdale schools to advocate for key initiatives, issues, and budget items that reflect the priorities of the broader school communities. Thank you to Maida and Rachna for their hard work and enthusiasm during the start of this process. We encourage all stakeholders to continue to follow the process, ask questions, and stay involved. Over the next few months, as the Board of Education and the district work through the budget priorities for the 26-27 school year, we

009are confident that you will continue to keep our students as the driving priority with a focus on teaching and learning. We thank the district for its transparent and thoughtful process to date in the development of a proposed bond for capital projects. We realize this has been a massive undertaking and we respect your commitment, energy, effort, and integrity. We recognize the broader fiscal considerations ahead, including rising health care costs, the projected operating deficit, and fund balance levels. We look forward to hearing more about how these issues will be addressed. We are also carefully following the proposed capital project bonds that are under consideration both within the school districts and in the village, as both will affect taxpayers. Thank you to our budget study chairs Maida and Rachna for elevating community voices throughout this process. We value

010the strong partnership with the board, administration, and parent leaders, and it remains a privilege to work together as one team in support of Scarsdale students and schools. We encourage the district and board of education to continue engaging the community this budget season in an effort to achieve shared goals. The PTCEC looks forward to collaborating in this work with all of you. Thank you. Hi everyone. I'm Dahlia Khan. I'm here on behalf of the League of Women Voters of Scarsdale. I am the school budget portfolio chair. So just a short statement. The League of Women Voters of Scarsdale is taking this opportunity to remind the district of the league's comments on the 2025-26 school budget, which was shared with the district this past March 2025. The league would like to highlight the following portions of that

011comment that are salient going into the 2026-27 budget process. The league supported or appreciated the district for budgeting to a student-centered program and not to the state-imposed tax and prioritizing those expenditures that have the greatest impact on students. The League commended the district on developing the long-range financial plan, stating that the League looked forward to seeing how the district uses it to plan for challenges and find solutions to a variety of issues facing the district. Identifying scheduling efficiencies and finding ways to make personnel reductions that do not adversely impact the student experience. Continuing to expand the continuum of special education services, its efforts to keep special education students in district. and its efforts to offset program costs by enrolling paying out-of-district students, continuing to focus on issues of belonging and inclusion in the curriculum, maintaining

012its practice of inviting all relevant stakeholders to be involved in the process of determining and developing the projects to be included in a future bond, and providing a budgeting process that prioritized open communication, clarity, and transparency. The League had questions or concerns about the continued unsustainable use of and reliance upon the fund balance to offset the following year's tax cuts, the accuracy of projected future health care costs, and whether the district had budgeted sufficiently to cover spikes in such expenses, and the district's trend of depleting its health care reserves. The League encouraged the district to explore the pros and cons, both budgetary and educational, of maintaining versus exceeding the elementary class size practice. Be more transparent about how the district makes decisions concerning whether to add or delete electives at the high school, including having

013a public discussion of student enrollment threshold, allocation of staffing, and financial responsibility for taking a class that is included in the high school course catalog. Review the high school curricula and programming of comparable districts to ensure that the district is following best practices in its own programs and opportunities. Engage in a public discussion about how equitably to update all the elementary school playgrounds. Keep aging facilities in mind as it budgets for the future. Continue discussions with the village about stormwater management and continue to be proactive and transparent to ensure community trust in the school board process. We hope that you will keep these comments in mind as you discuss and draft the 2026-27 school budget and the bond referendum. The League thanks the district in advance for responding to the League's questions, which we will

014submit at a later date after the district begins its budget hearings. The League also thanks the district and Board of Ed members in advance for their anticipated attendance at our school budget information session, which is open to the public on Monday, March 16th at 11 a.m. at the Scarsdale Public Library. The league appreciates the district and the Board of Education's willingness to discuss the proposed 2026-27 school budget and respond to league and community questions Good evening I'm Erica Rublin the Scarsdale High School PTA president and I'm speaking on behalf of the Scarsdale High School PTA executive committee and budget study chair The Scarsdale High School PTA Executive Committee and Budget Study Chair thanks the District Administration and Board of Education for holding this budget studies priorities budget priority session for the community. The Scarsdale High

015School PTA Executive Committee and Budget Study Chair firmly believes that early proactive frequent engagement with parents and the broader school community is an essential aspect of a thorough budget process. Over the next few months, as the Board of Education and the district work through the budget priorities for the 26-27 school year, we ask that you continue to keep students as a driving priority. We encourage a focus on teaching and learning, keeping in mind the district's portrait of a graduate. The Scarsville High School PTAEC and Budget Study Chair would like to emphasize our continued support for maintaining student choice for class selection and levels of learning. providing comprehensive student support and promoting teaching practices that nurture the development of the whole child and differentiated learning. We encourage initiatives that prioritize student mental health, well-being, and the

016creation of an inclusive environment where all students feel a sense of belonging. Furthermore, we endorse a continued commitment to the creation and implementation of innovative, best-in-class curriculum practices and encourage ongoing professional development to strengthen these critical elements of the student experience. The Scarsdale High School PTAEC and Budget Study Chair thanks the districts for its transparent and thoughtful process in the ongoing development of a proposed bond for capital projects. We recognize that this process is ongoing and as the scope of the bond project becomes finalized, infrastructure needs at the high school for budget priorities may develop. We appreciate the proposed capital projects of the high school and encourage continued investment in our classrooms and science labs so that Scarsdale High School can continue to offer the highest level of instruction. The Scarsville High School PTAEC and

017Budget Study Chair recognizes with great appreciation the district's thoughtful look at technology usage and the development of the student and internet enabled devices policy. We encourage continued ongoing attention to technology in the classroom and the impact of artificial intelligence on our students, our curriculum, and teaching and learning. The Scarsville High School PTAEC and Budget Study Chair appreciate and recognize the fiscal considerations with respect to budgeting. We encourage your continued focus on updating and refining expense and revenue projections and we encourage the administration to consider the long-term fiscal issues associated with the budget. We encourage you to continue to maintain transparency and to continue to provide clear explanations through the process. We encourage you to continue engaging the community this budget season so that the budget reflects our shared goals of our district as we move

018forward. We look forward to engaging in this work with you. Thank you. Good evening. My name is Cornelia Baye-Hentze, Lyons Road, Vice Chair Child, and I'm speaking on behalf of Scarce the Child, a long-standing organization representing families of students with disabilities and learning differences. I'm speaking tonight on behalf and with the support of our co-chairs, Rasmus Sink and Erin Rodansky. We have written this statement in collaboration with child school representatives. We have included feedback from families with students receiving special education services or related services. Our community is grateful for the district's commitment to serving all learners. But the experience of our families make one thing clear. We need greater transparency, stronger data, and more targeted planning to ensure every child in Scarsdale receives an equitable education. Tonight we are asking for steps the district can

019take this year to strengthen special education and support meaningful inclusion across all schools. We have identified key themes as we listened carefully to the child community and our representatives in all school buildings. We are asking for three items. Anonymous special education survey, ICT and placement data, transparency on out-of-district placement and non-resident enrollment. Anonymous special education survey. Centering the voices of parents and teachers. Families and teachers are essential partners in special education. Recently, the district conducted a state-mandated indicator aid parent involvement survey. We ask that those results be shared and discussed with the community. Furthermore, we are asking the district to administer an anonymous district-wide special education service for both parents and teachers. This service would provide critical information, including... the quality of communication and collaboration between home and school, strengths and weaknesses of IEP and

020CSE-CPSC processes, and the effectiveness of current programs and supports. Most importantly, these findings must inform the 2025-26 budget and planning process. Families deserve to see their lived experiences reflected in district decisions. Next, we believe it would be beneficial to know the ICT and placement data, understanding equity and access. To advocate for our students, we need a full and accurate picture of how placements are currently functioning. That required transparency on the data the district has. We are asking for the following district-wide information. The number of students with IEPs, how many attend schools other than the home school, how many are placed out of district, and how many families have declined ICT placements because those placements require a non-home school setting. This data is essential for understanding equity across our schools, especially in light of the recent

021redistricting debate. We are also urging the district to expand ICT classrooms to all elementary schools across all grade levels and to the Scarstead High School. Consistency matters. Students deserve a continuum of services that does not break down just as coursework becomes most challenging. To plan thoughtfully and to set everyone up for success, we kindly request a detailed cost-benefit analysis that includes special education, teaching FTEs needed, required aid, paraprofessional support, and potential cost savings from reducing out-of-district placement and strengthening inclusive practices in district. This is not only about budgeting. It is about galvanizing a system that meets the needs of learners where they are. Finally, we want to address out-of-district placements and non-resident enrollment. Transparency of responsible planning. We are calling for full transparency around out-of-district placements and non-district enrollment. These decisions profoundly affect students, families,

022and the district finances. We asked for clear data on how many Scar State students with IEPs attend out-of-district programs, broken down by elementary and secondary, the number of capacity of all interstate special class programs such as 812 and 1211, tuition revenue received for non-resident students with disabilities, and how many out-of-district students are enrolled in our programs. Given the figures in the 2025-26 non-resident tuition report, this transparency is essential for responsible budgeting and for building the inclusive continuum for our students to serve. And as redistricting concerns continue, particularly within the Fox Meadow community, we believe this data is critical. For years, many special education students have had to attend non-home schools or move between buildings to access services. Understanding this long-standing reality will help situate today's concerns with a broader conversation about equity for all families.

023In closing, our requests reflect the voices of families across Scarstale. Currently, one in four children in Scarstale receive some form of support services, and 14% of our students have an IEP. These numbers underscore the importance of building a system that is equitable, transparent, responsive, and reflects years of lived experience. Our request reflects a deep commitment to the belief that every child deserves a fair, inclusive, and high-quality education within their community. We are asking the District and Board to listen to parents and teachers through the district-wide survey, ground decisions in transparent, accessible data, and invest in inclusive practices including a full ICT continuum for elementary through high school. These are not abstract proposals. They are actionable, achievable, and aligned with the values Garstale holds dear. We believe these steps will strengthen outcomes for students with disabilities

024in learning differences and ultimately benefit all Garstale students. Together, we share the same goal to ensure every child has the opportunity to thrive and every resource is used thoughtfully and effectively. Thank you for your time and your partnership and for your continued commitment to every Scar State student. Hi, good evening. We're the Scarsdale Parent Teacher Council budget study co-chairs this academic year. So I'm Mayra Kirkendall Rodriguez and with me is Rachana Singh and we're going to alternate. We thank you very much of course for hosting this forum and taking the feedback of Scarsdale residents. Since September we have been communicating with the PTC and PTA and very much appreciate their engagement. Obviously a big shout out to Ms. German. who has navigated working with quite a number of different people and I again reiterate how

025much I think cognitive diversity is very important in having these kinds of discussions. So thank you, Erica. So in addition to communicating with the PTC and the PTA, we've also happily dedicated many hours to reaching out to individual parents and taxpayers. via emails, announcements in PTA newsletters, and speaking with them at community events. This year we also sent out a Google form to facilitate parents' feedback, and of course, no one on local Facebook sites could have missed the many missives encouraging Scarsdale residents to be part of the Scarsdale budget process. This is a key year for residents to recognize that the district faces a projected operating deficit. Additionally, proposed capital project bonds are under consideration both within the Scarsdale School District as well as in the village. And any kind of debt issuance affects servicing

026costs which are borne by taxpayers. Another significant challenge for the district is the reliance on the fund balance to prevent even greater tax increases. We divide our comments in four sections. I'll read the first and then Rachna will join in. So the first section are themes and observations for 2026-2027 budget year. Based on our due diligence, here are some observations and questions. So first... Pardon me first our most significant fiscal concerns include rising health care costs the projected operating deficit and the low level of fund balance These issues combined with a proposed capital bond underscore the importance of transparency in the budget process So that residents can understand what the tax impact will be in the short as well as in the longer term secondly For many Scarsdale residents, there is uncertainty, frankly, in determining

027budget priorities for 2026-2027 since they are awaiting clarity on the scale and scope of the proposed bond for capital projects. Additionally, knowing what is included in the proposed capital projects bond would help community stakeholders determine whether anything left out could be a budget priority presently or in the longer term. While many parents, taxpayers, and we realize that the scope of the bond project is not complete, it is important to understand how this project will affect the budget this coming year and the district's long-term financial plan. To ensure transparency and fiscal prudence, we recommend that as soon as it's feasible, the district please share with the community the following scenarios for the proposed bond. One, a tax neutral option, which is approximately $40 million, as indicated by the administration. Secondly, an infrastructure focused option that includes

028only priority one items from the BCS report along with air conditioning, which would be above $40 million and not tax neutral. And third, a scenario for the current $108 million bond proposal. The third theme that we've identified is that various members of the community have told us that they would like a detailed rationale for prioritizing investments in our schools. For example, parents and taxpayers have asked, and I quote, why is the district spending on cafeterias, fields, and libraries over investing in more math classes? science labs at the elementary schools in Scarsdale Middle School and or adding advanced placement courses at the high school. Theme number four, parents from several schools in the Scarsdale Child Committee have stated that an anonymous special education needs assessment survey of parents and teachers would be valuable to identify what

029staffing and spatial additions are needed. Another thing we want to talk about is the proposed capital bond and the budget planning impact. As the district considers the proposed capital bond, the community would appreciate understanding how this significant borrowing initiative is being integrated into long-range budgeting process. The taxpayers will benefit from clarity on how the bond's debt service schedule would align with other budgetary obligations and existing or anticipated capital commitments. Specifically, how does the district plan to model the annual tax impact of the bond, both the magnitude of increase and the timing of when these increases would appear on the tax bill? How has the district projected how this new debt service will affect the overall property tax levy in the first five years following the issuance? Given that the village and the district are proposing

030bonds that ultimately draw from the same taxpayer, how is the district managing overlapping liabilities to ensure the transparency and to avoid possible bond confusion or fatigue among residents? Understanding these details will help the community stakeholders assess not only the merits of the capital project, but also the sustainability of the overall tax implication in light of multiple major borrowing initiatives going around in this town, in this village. Questions and requests from previous years. was another one of our themes. Last year, the PTC asked the district to assess the rising health plan cost and identify what is driving these increases. Now the new long-term range financial plan projects health care costs rising about 8% each year over the next five years, which continues to put pressure on both the fund balance and the tax levy. We are

031asking for more details on what strategies the district is exploring to help manage these increases, whether through plan design, cost containment efforts, investment strategies within the self-insured models, or through future labor negotiations. The LRP notes, recent plan and labor contribution changes may improve trends, and we would appreciate clarity on what those changes are and whether they're showing early results. We also note that the health insurance reserve currently at 2.85 million is projected to decline to zero by 2829. Once it is depleted, all future health insurance costs will need to be absorbed directly by the operating budget. Given this, we ask the district plans how the district plans to manage rising health care volatility once the reserve is exhausted and whether alternate reserve strategies are being considered to help utilize long-term costs. And our last section

032is section four, fiscal questions and concerns. Because maintaining a high credit rating directly affects the district's borrowing costs, we have several observations and questions regarding the November 2025 long-range plan, particularly around fund balance, available cash, and leverage, that is, the district's level of debt. So on the long-term financial plan forecast... We're concerned about the district's operating deficit forecast. If a bond is issued within the next two to three years, the community needs clarity on the combined tax impact of both an operating deficit and the debt service. The district's current five-year expense forecast projects total expenses of $222 million by 2029-2030, which would be a 21% increase, with instructional expenses up 16% and employee benefits up 28%. Could the district please explain what steps are being taken to moderate these significant projected growth rates? The current

033district long-range plan, whoops, sorry, forecasts. significant operating deficit for 2029-2030. Please update the community on how the forecast operating deficit could affect the district's credit rating and borrowing costs, particularly since bond anticipation notes, bands, and bonds may be issued between 2027 and 2030. On interest earnings, with both long-term and short-term interest rates starting to come down, we would like to know how the district has adjusted its assumptions for interest income in the later years of the five-year plan. What reduction in yield is built into these projections, and how sensitive are our revenues if rates drop more quickly than had been expected? Questions about fund balance and reserves. With the health insurance reserve expected to be depleted by 2028-2029 and the unassigned fund balance already at the 4% legal limit, we ask, at what point does

034reliance on reserves become unsustainable? What is the district's long-term plan to rebuild reserves once the health insurance reserve is exhausted? How will flexibility be maintained to absorb unexpected costs when reserves decline? Has the board considered setting target levels or replenishment plans for each reserve fund? And could the district share an updated model showing how deficits change under varying assumptions for health care or wage growth? In terms of the credit rating implications, Scarsdale currently holds a Moody's AAA rating, which I note is impressive because not even the United States has a AAA rating anymore. It's very important that Scarsdale has, Scarsdale School District has this rating because what it means is that it lowers borrowing costs for taxpayers when the district issues any kind of debt. However, with decreases in the projected fund balance since 2020

035and increased indebtedness of the district, could Moody's lower Scarsdale's rating to a AA plus? If that were to happen, what can the district do to decrease borrowing costs? Higher debt service could influence the communities as well as the district's decisions about what might have to change in the budget, possibly impacting student experiences. I'd like to note that under the Moody's methodology, when you take the fund balance as a percent of operating revenues, which accounts for 20% of the rating methodology, Scarsdale is at about 13%, which is below the triple A median of 24%. That would equate to a single A rating in that part of the assessment. Secondly, net cash ratio. This is a very important metric to measure an issuer's liquidity. In plain English, it's how much money does the district have to cover

036any of its outstanding obligations. That is 10% of the weighting. Scarsdale, in that metric, is about 15%, which is also below. the triple A median for issuers at that level of 25%. Lastly, the leverage ratio. What is that? How indebted are we? That part is 20% of the methodology. While currently the debt is manageable, an additional potential $68 million in borrowing above the $40 million that's being retired would raise debt levels. And the question is, would it be enough for Moody's to lower the district's rating? We thank you very much for holding this session for residents, and we look forward to the months-long budget process and definitely encourage Scarsdale residents to participate in sessions and forums about the proposed budget as well as the capital projects bond throughout the coming months. Thank you very much.

037Thank you very much. Is there anyone else in the audience who wishes to make a public comment on the budget priorities? Okay, I think we will then go to Zoom, and I believe there are some people on. We have two hands raised on Zoom. Just a reminder for those on Zoom, if you could please have your camera turned on when it is your turn to speak. Hi. Hi. Can you hear me? Yes, if you could please turn your camera on, that would be wonderful. We're looking for it. Sorry, I can't find the camera. Hi. oh yes hello hi my name is aaron radensky i am a co-chair of child with rachna and connie i live at 8 archer lane i'm sorry i could not attend tonight's meeting in person i'm calling in to let you

038know i fully support the statement made on behalf of child both as a co-chair and in my personal views i believe that an anonymous survey of parents and teachers should be conducted too i concur that ICT and placement data needs to be shared. And three, that transparency on out of district placement and non-resident enrollment should be shared as well. Thank you for your time, consideration, and continued partnership. Thank you. Can you please turn on your camera and unmute your device? Hello, can you hear me? We can hear you. If you could turn on your camera, please. Yes, I'm going to try to do that. I've been trying to do that, but I can't. Let me take a look. Sorry, I don't think it's working right now. Let me see. Looks like it's on. Okay, thank

039you. Yeah. I'm sorry. My name is Maria Psementset, and I live at 26 River Road. I have two daughters, one in middle school, and the other one is in high school, ninth grade. I am the Scarce Dale Middle School Budget Study Liaison, but tonight I will be speaking in a personal capacity. First, I really want to thank all the members of the board for your hard work and also for hosting this forum. And I also want to thank the PTA budget study chairs for actively communicating and encouraging the community to participate in these meetings and provide their feedback. I think they've done a wonderful job there. Last week I had a chance to casually speak to some of our parents and we were discussing some of the projects for the SMS. And it came up

040the lab, science lab. And a few of the parents were surprised to know that the Scarlet Stone Middle School does not have science lab. The student science work is currently done on tablets. While useful, tablet-based experiments focus mainly on ideas and concepts rather than real practice and hints on interaction with tools and real situations. I think that to keep a scarce among the top school districts in the country and give the students hints on learning in a more collaborative environment. We must invest in a strong STEM program supported by well-equipped labs like some of the neighbors district. I heard Irvington, Chappaqua, they do have a very well-equipped and nice updated science lab. I understand that there are projects with higher priority, but I think if a carefully thought out proposal is developed, it will be

041supported by the community. Would it be possible to consider discussing the option of building a lab at SMS? The other point that I have is regarding cafeteria and also the library. Well, it's nice to, it will be nice and useful to understand the scope of work for both. I know there will be work done in renovations, I believe, to the cafeteria and the library, but is the Is it really a full renovation or is it just refurbishing rooms, just walls and floors? It would be nice to know the scope. Is it possible for you to provide information on details of the work to be included to the community? We'll appreciate that. Lastly, I also see the SMS budget allocates around $4 million to renovate Butler Field with turf. Well, I think, yes, the school is

042the main beneficiary of this field. I also understand that it's used by the wider community, including the Scarsdale Rec. They do some sports there as well. Is it possible for the village to share some of the cost? This will allow to reallocate more of the budget to other needs at the Scarcell Middle School. Thank you. Thank you. Anyone else on Zoom? Okay, we'll give it seconds. Okay. So thank you. I think that closes the public comment for this budget priorities forum. I did want to note for anyone who did not speak but has comments, comments may also be sent to the board via email at boardofed at scarsdaleschools.org. And with that, I think we move on to review of the information and questions. Thank you. Adding thanks for everybody who shared budget priorities. I think

043there are just a couple of clarifications to the last speaker we definitely do science labs in the middle school we have rooms that can accommodate that the science program goes beyond tablets to do experiments and other types of hands-on science work in grades six seven and eight and just a clarification the We will talk about this tonight later, but the field project at the middle school, it's not Butler Field. That's a field here at the high school. There is a proposal that is on the table in terms of this total scope of work to add a, in the existing space, to add a synthetic turf field to the middle school. In terms of sharing cost, that's a long conversation, but we did do a joint field study, and there are costs that will over time

044be borne by both the school district and the village taxpayer willing to do various projects, and we each have our own suite of responsibilities there, I guess is how I would answer that. I'll use the child statement to promote in our December meeting. We will again hear the special education update. like we did last December if you can go right on now to the December 2024 agenda to see much of the data that you've requested is in that presentation of course it is a year old it will be updated in a couple of weeks but that information is we've been sharing readily over time including percentage of students out of district number of students out of district over time and there's all sorts of graphs and charts and lots of data that Eric and his

045team have presented and put together so I do encourage people to go to that. And of course the PTC budget study chairs, thank you. Just use your comments to remind everyone, Andrew will be presenting the long range financial plan update tonight. That's an information item following the education report and the bond projects discussion. So please, if you can, stay tuned to that. A number of the topics that were brought up will be. discussed as part of that presentation so just a commercial for that for later tonight other anyone else i mean there's there's tons there which obviously we have to digest over time but i just wanted to point those particular things out anything anyone else would add good okay thank you okay thank you drew and uh with that i think we'll entertain a

046motion to adjourn into a business meeting uh thank you leah is there a second Thank You Susie any discussion okay all those in favor please say aye aye anyone opposed that motion carries and we are adjourned into the business meeting and thanks everybody just wanted to recognize the board is here everyone is here from the board as well as superintendent drew Patrick and his cabinet Earlier this evening, the board convened a special meeting with Scarsdale High School students and representatives in the Scarsdale High School Learning Commons. Our discussion covered a range of topics, including cell phone ban, artificial intelligence, and community lunch. These special meetings with groups provide the board with the opportunity to engage in important conversations with our partners, and the board especially values hearing feedback from its students. the board appreciates the

047time the students as well as the high school faculty advisors and administrators have spent with us and with district leadership today immediately before this business meeting we kicked off the 2026-27 budget season with the public budget form hearing from the community on its goals and priorities is a key part of our budget process and the board appreciates their input If you missed this forum, please do not worry. There will be ample opportunities to provide your feedback at future board meetings and forums, and always via email at ScarsdaleBoardOfEdScarsdaleSchools.com. In this meeting, we also look forward to continuing our discussion of the proposed bond project, and we will review a revised proposed scope prepared by the district based on community feedback, including a completed district-wide survey and two listening sessions that have been held. one on October

04816th, which was live in the high school, and on November 6th via Zoom. I'm also pleased to share that, I think, again, that for this fall we have two coffees scheduled. One is on Wednesday, November 19th, 2025 at 10 a.m. here in this room, and the other has been moved to a new date, Wednesday, December 4th at 7 p.m. in this room, for those who may work or otherwise find an evening more convenient. Both coffees will be held here as I said and please join us if you are able to we look forward to meeting with you Turn it over to Drew. Okay. Good evening again. Thank you. Welcome to everyone in the audience or online I'd like to reiterate mr. Dugan's words of thanks for meeting with the high school students It's always a

049pleasure to meet with our students and they speak their mind and give us good great insight We're fortunate to have two high school students at our board table this year I also like to report on the successful superintendent's conference day we had on Tuesday November 4th the entire K through 12 faculty gathered this year at Scarsdale High School for a special day dedicated to teacher-led workshops in celebration of our collective expertise that fuels learning living and leading in our schools and in our classrooms we were really fortunate to begin the day with a sneak preview of the new documentary film from the first schoolhouse a Scarsdale story The film's writer, director, and editor, Leslie Topping, was present, along with Scarsdale Historical Society President Randy Guggenheimer, Vice President and Village Historian Jordan Copeland, as well as

050Lori Rothman and Leslie Chang. And it was really inspiring to learn how hard-won this incredible public school system is and how important it has been for the life of Scarsdale. After the screening, there were three time blocks during which a total of 75 faculty-led sessions were held on a wide range of teaching and learning topics. The final session of the day clustered educators from all levels into small groups, K-12, to reflect on their day of learning and on our strategic plan. Overall, it was a really powerful day of learning. I will say the public has an opportunity to view that documentary film on December 3rd at 7 p.m. here in the high school it's being put on by the Scarsdale Public Library and of course the Historical Society so it's exciting to just see our

051past I will also point out that in New York tomorrow is a day where our education support professionals are recognized around the state. So we want to extend our gratitude to our secretaries, administrative assistants that work in our schools and offices, our buildings and grounds teams, our teacher aides and teaching assistants who partner in the classroom, our transportation and food service professionals, and those who make our business office run and our technology work. We really are grateful to everyone. and then in closing just some dates to note it's hard to believe but next week is the Thanksgiving recess so we will have an early dismissal on Wednesday the 26th and our schools are closed on Thursday and Friday the 27th and 28th and then just around the corner will be our fall parent teacher conferences

052for the elementary level grades K through 5 Fridays the 5th of December and 12th of December are half-day early release for conferences, and Tuesday the 9th, conferences will be after school. So we look forward to that. Thank you. Okay, thank you, Drew. And now we're going to hear reports from board members. I think we have a few. Leah? Thank you, Jim. I have four reports tonight. On Thursday, October 30th, Colleen, Laura, and I went on a tour of Scarsdale Middle School. Principal Chris Coughlin met with us and led the tour. We spoke about the preliminary proposed bond, including air conditioning prioritization and other issues such as mental health supports, technology and AI, and the expansion of ICT into the middle school. Mr. Coughlin indicated that there are positive vibes at SMS. People feel gratitude for

053being part of the community, and there is a new crop of incredibly talented teachers. One of the hallmarks of the age group is that it is a social-emotional roller coaster. Mr. Coghlan believes there is sufficient mental health and emotional health support for students and that having a house counselor as a point person with families is very helpful. He noted as well that the faculty of SMS discusses the balance with screen time and they are very cognizant of finding that balance. The faculty just completed a survey on AI in order to understand the use and benefits and how teachers are using it in class. There are skills that students need in the workforce that trickle into the educational sphere. We looked at the lunchrooms of the four houses, which are included in the current preliminary bond

054scope as a renovation. We noted that Fountain and Popham have much nicer spaces simply because of the windows and light, whereas Cooper and especially Butler have little light by virtue of their location in the building. All dining rooms definitely need to be renovated. Another issue with Butler is that the food is wheeled through the library to get to the lunchroom, which is not ideal logistically. Mr. Coughlin shared one idea to improve the Butler dining, which would be to add windows on the hallway side to create an open feel. He hopes that the library renovation will really bring the library into the future of learning and collaborative student experience. He views it as the hub of the school. As far as air conditioning goes, Mr. Coughlin mentioned that the library and band room are priorities for

055air conditioning. The auditorium and gyms are also included in the preliminary scope. However, utilization rate is lower for the auditorium. And the classrooms are almost all air conditioned through window units. The eight to one to two moved to SMS last year. As per Mr. Coughlin, it's very successful. The faculty and staff are well loved and the classroom is in Cooper House. It was an excellent tour and conversation and we thank the middle school for their hospitality. Okay, my second report. On Monday, November 3rd, Colleen, Susie, and I visited Scarsdale High School. Principal Ken Bonamo and Assistant Principal Anio Gorman led the tour. We looked at the rooms and spaces that are included in the preliminary bond scope. such as Room 215, the 3D Art Studio, the Little Theater, the Library, and the Learning Resource Center.

056The 3D Art Studio has not been touched since the 60s. It has a very old and haphazard look. The glassmaking workshop area is currently not usable as there is no flame for the glass. They have two ceramic kilns in the back that are functioning and a pottery wheel as well. It is a multifunctional space and Mr. Bonamo emphasized how important it is to have a home for students who find joy and an outlet in the arts. We then saw the Little Theater, a large space currently with fixed seating. With bond work, the fixed seating would be removed, creating a flexible multi-use space which will increase its usage. Ultimately, with its renovation, it may also be used for a community lunch as a flex space. We then visited the library, which is in the bond, as

057far as an addition of enclosed classrooms on the upper level. Right now, there is an open atrium in the center of the space. It is noisy on the lower level where students congregate and work in groups. Mr. Bonamo likes that the lower level is a space to congregate. However, students on the upper level don't have quiet space to do their work. So these new enclosed spaces will create that for them. The Learning Resource Center is also in the current bond scope. It was designed around 30 years ago. As we know, the classified student population has grown, and there are now 175 students who use the space. There are also conference rooms and smaller offices across the hall from the LRC. Mr. Bonamo believes that the bond scope may allow the high school to reimagine this

058area of the building in a more holistic way. What is not included in the current bond scope are high school classrooms. Many high school classrooms need updating as they haven't been touched in a very long time. We saw an old classroom that is used as a math class. It has immovable furniture, a collection of boards layered over the years on the walls, blinds that can no longer be repaired because they are so old and we cannot get the parts, and very old casework that takes up space in the room. We then saw a newer room with flexible furniture including different levels of tables, new whiteboards and technology, lighting, and removed casework. this is an interesting point of reference for us we thank the high school for their hospitality and we really enjoyed the tour okay

059so now my two shorter ones on friday november 7th i attended the annual thanksgiving potluck lunch hosted by the scarsville high school and scarsville middle school multicultural committees This is a special yearly event where parents and school staff come together to connect, share, and celebrate the diversity of our community. It was a low-key, enjoyable event and a great time to meet and catch up with fellow parents. Thank you to all those who brought the delicious food. Thank you to the administrators and faculty who attended and to all parents who organized and shared in this Thanksgiving experience. On Wednesday, November 12th, I attended the PTC program for parents entitled Children as Digital Targets, Tips for Protection. A panel including Laura Forbes, Bureau Chief and Internet Safety Coordinator in the Westchester County DA's office, Detective Chris Molesky

060of the Scarsdale Police Department. and Liza Fahey, licensed social worker and Scarsville Middle School youth outreach worker, discussed how students in our community are impacted by online sexual offenses including sexual extortion, harassment, and forgery. Scarsdale PTC programming chairs Erica Papier and Rachel Fingerroot moderated the discussion, including taking audience questions. Very important safety tips were shared, which I then shared with my own children. This was an extremely informative and important program as we navigate parenting in these complicated and ever-changing times. Thank you. Thank you, Leah. Let's see. Amber, did you have a report? Yes. Thank you, Jim. On Friday, November 7th, Leah and I toured Quaker Ridge Elementary School. Leah, you've been busy. You've been all over. We appreciate the time Dr. Felix Gill spent showing us around the school. As we first walked into the

061main office, we were witness to a group of third graders learning in the newly relocated garden. I valued the immediate reminder of learning in the beautiful garden setting, and I thank the Quaker Ridge PTA for their support in facilitating this move. Leah and I even had the opportunity to eat an edible flower as we kicked off our tour of the Quaker Ridge grounds. Along our tour, we visited the large spaces in the building. Quaker Ridge is fortunate to have a bright, large cafeteria with a fully functional and operational kitchen. Dr. Gill noted that while the fans were helpful, when the room fills with sunshine, it can get quite warm. We also visited the auditorium where the new projector now allows for better use of the stage. The gym is the only part of the original

062Quaker Ridge School and also has a few fans and a few highly placed windows and is a priority for adding air conditioning. The library was in full use when we visited with appropriate shelves and lighting and is the one large space in the building that is cooled. We also had the opportunity to visit classrooms. Most classrooms have window AC units, but Dr. Gill noted that many AC units were near their end of life. There is some duct work on the roof that could be used in the event of a transition to central AC. Only one classroom in the building has flexible furniture. In one of the many classrooms we visited, we had the opportunity to watch first graders developing STEM skills as they built pathways for their gizmos to travel. We also visited the specials

063classrooms conveniently located near each other in the basement. We heard students and music playing instruments and had the chance to meet with the art teacher who herself was a student at Quaker Ridge and has fond memories of the beautiful original wood art tables that remain there today. Leah and I explored dedicated spaces to services with ample room and light. One point of note, there is at least one space that is shared between speech and E&L with dividers used in this room. This space was similar to what I saw at Edgewood earlier in that morning. Many of the classrooms from the 1950s have small bathrooms attached to the classroom. Most are dated but well-maintained. There are two adult bathrooms near the auditorium that are awkwardly shaped and in need of remodeling. We also toured the expansive

064Quaker Ridge grounds. The playgrounds appeared to be in good shape. We spoke with Dr. Gill about the pressing safety need to reconfigure the back parking lot. The building and grounds at Quaker Ridge are well cared for and Dr. Gill and the Quaker Ridge staff create an inviting atmosphere for students. We appreciate the time that Dr. Gill spent providing us with a tour of the building and grounds. I have one more report. Last Wednesday, I had the opportunity to attend the signing day ceremony hosted by Maroon and White and facilitated by athletic director Cindy Peretz. The event celebrated the commitment of 10 Scarsdale High School athletes to continue their athletic careers at the collegiate level. It was a joy to witness these young athletes realize their dreams of playing their sport in college. Congratulations to these

065dedicated students and their families, and thank you to Maroon and White for hosting such a meaningful celebration. Thank you. Thank you, Amber. Laura, I think you have a report? Yes, I just have one report, which is the Fox Medal tour. On Tuesday, October 28th, Leah, Bob, and I visited Fox Medal School, and we were hosted by Principal Melissa Feinberg. The main part of the building will turn 100 years old in 2028, and the new wing was built in the 1998 bond. We also looked at the site proposed for the new addition. Their school theme this year is curiosity, which is tied to the love of learning and critical inquiry. We saw classes students engaged in individual work, group work, and music. Because it was just before Halloween, their Spanish teacher and art teacher partnered up

066and designed a special escape room activity for the Day of the Dead. and the students were extremely excited and engaged. So here are the main takeaways from our facilities tour. There are many old classrooms which are well proportioned, but they face challenges including exposed radiators that need to be blocked by shelves or carts so students won't touch them. and also they have lots of open cubbies for storage that create distractions to the students. Many of the rooms, the walls are a patchwork of old cabinetry, bulletin boards, and other items accumulated over the years. The library is also old with handed down furniture. This library renovation is included in the current Boundscope. I mean they're gonna get a new library in the new addition and this current library will be converted into classrooms. It's evident that

067they also have a lot of need with their art room, the computer room, because Fox Meadow is a large school, typically having 24 to 25 class sections now. They have a second specialist teacher. in the areas of art, music, Spanish, because it's just too many for one teacher to cover. That creates a lot of scheduling and logistical challenges, especially because some of those rooms are also shared between two teachers. I just want to quickly mention that the Higher Grade Learning Resource Center also houses their computer servers behind a petition, leaving the room in an odd shape with limited space. And the teachers also lack small meeting spaces to make phone calls or have Zoom meetings with parents. One note is that in the old multipurpose room, they have implemented round lunch tables. And the students

068love them because no one sort of sits at the end and everyone feels more included. With the site plan for the new addition as currently proposed Melissa is actively communicating the school's needs in terms of traffic flow visibility With the facilities department and the district architects. So Okay, thank you Laura and I think we're now moving on to the student board member reports Thank you. So Lucy and I had the pleasure to attend the Scarsdale High School Government House meeting last Thursday on November 13th. I, on behalf of my role on school government, and Lucy on behalf of the board. We were able to view a wide variety of discussions ranging from the community lunch, phone ban, to the bond project. And building on from that discussion, we're looking at ways to improve student education

069and knowledge about the Bond Project as a way to best garner meaningful and educated student responses for the usage of the board and community on discussions about this subject, like we had mentioned, as we had planned to do at the last meeting. This initiative will likely rely on future collaborations with student government and the Scarsdale High School's newspaper, Club Maroon. We're also proud to announce that the Scarsdale Community Dinner, hosted by the high school student government, was a major success. Over $6,000 was raised for the organization My Sister's Place, and it was a great event to bring the community together. Additionally, since the last board meeting, we've been working on our second edition of the Ex Officio Student Scoop for Maroon, containing more information about the Vaughn Project and further urging student education and awareness

070on the subject. Thanks. Thank you Anish and Lucy I think we're now up to the cabinet updates Drew And we're gonna start with Cindy Parrott with our fall sports update thank you for being here Cindy Thanks for having me I'm gonna do this in alphabetical order I don't want any team to be perceived as anything other than how we're going to do this. So I'm going to start with cheerleading. Our cheerleaders competed at the game day cheer sectionals recently and are working towards their bid to nationals. This is a rebuilding team with a bright future. In cross country, Adriana Petinelli became the two-time section one champion. Rachel Rockhauer came in sixth, so both advanced to the state championships this past weekend in Queensberry. Adriana finished ninth in the state with a time of 17 minutes,

07145.6 seconds, while Rachel finished 45th with a time of 19 minutes, 12.8 seconds, which are both PRs for the girls. Interesting note, Adriana Pettinelli, two-time state champion. She's only a sophomore, so she really has a bright future. Charles Rich placed eighth for boys at the sectionals and missed the state cut by two-tenths of a second. Field hockey saw a remarkable improvement after a one-win season in 2024. They finished with a 9-6 record and won their first round sectional matchup, defeating Roy C. Ketchum 3-0. They suffered a tough 1-0 loss in the semifinals to a very strong White Plains team. There was much to be proud of for this field hockey group. Football finished with a 4-3 regular season record. They defeated Clarkstown South to advance to the sectional semifinals where they fell to John J.

072East Fishkill in a downpour. A highlight of the season was the 50-0 victory over Suffern in front of a huge homecoming crowd. After an amazing three-year run that saw two state championships and a state semifinal finish, our boys' soccer team saw a bit of a rebuild this season. This young team finished third in the section, and their season came to an end in the sectional semifinals. Girls soccer finished the season with an 8-5-2 record. They defeated Mount Vernon in the first round of the playoffs but fell to White Plains in the quarterfinals. I would like to mention how impressive it was to see senior Gia Assen complete tenaciously all season after a serious health scare this past spring. The girls swimming and diving team saw a great deal of success. Ava Turner is the Section

0731 girls diving champion. That's an incredible accomplishment considering she too is also only a sophomore. Iris Wang, who won the section last year, she came in second place. So Scarsdale was the number one and number two swimmers at the sections. The girls' swim team came in third in the section with Sophie Rice, Sunny Kang, Ying Fang, and Alex Horny taking home the section title in the 400-meter freestyle relay. All six of those athletes will represent Scarsdale at the state tournament this weekend at the Webster Aquatic Center. Our girls tennis team was the runner-up in the Section 1 tournament, and Isabelle Lynn was second in the individuals tournament. Coach Jen Roan was named NFHS Coach of the Year, an award she previously won for the boys tennis as well. This is an incredible honor, which likely

074represents her overall body of work rather than just the season's performance. The girls volleyball team finished their season with an impressive 9-5 record. They defeated Ossining in the first round of the playoffs, but fell in the next round to a tough Mamaronek team. It's always difficult to lose to Mamaronek in the playoffs. The boys volleyball team played in the section finals this past Thursday at County Center. Exciting matchup, but they did play second after losing to a very strong Clarkstown South team. Since Section 1 has two spots in the state tournament, not just the champion, but we have an at-large bid as well, both teams, us and Clarkstown, will advance to the state championship tournament this weekend at Roberts Wesleyan University. We wish them well. Today was the first day of winter, so just about

075500 players were running all over today. It was exciting to see the bustle start all over again on our new season. So I'll have a report in a few months. Before you go, any questions for Cindy? Okay. Thank you so much. No problem. Appreciate it. Next will be Andrew with an update on the internal focus audit. So we mentioned at last meeting we'd be presenting the internal audit on our health plan tonight. That became evident to us last week in a conversation with our auditors that they needed some more answers from UMR on some of the claims that they reviewed. To put it in context, they reviewed almost 53,000 claims and over 168,000 individual transactions related to those claims. And there was a good number of questions that UMR needed to provide additional information for

076before they could come to conclusions on what their findings were. So that report is hopefully pending in the next, I want to say two weeks, because I think the time that UMR may take to answer those questions could take a little while. But the auditors did suggest that we... go down a path of some of the internal procedural work that we might be able to accomplish through internal district steps we'll separate that out from some of the claims review details that are really private conversations so in the next week or two we'll have another conversation with the auditors and UMR to give you more information Questions? Yeah, just for the benefit of those who may not be watching every week, who is the entity that you mentioned that the auditors are waiting on? Sorry, so

077our auditors are Narwaki Smith. They are internal auditors, and the UMR is the third-party administrator for the district's self-insured health plan, so all the health claims go through UMR, which is a UnitedHealthcare company. Thank you. And finally, Eric, on two items that are quite different. I actually have three, but they're all happy and quick. So first I'd like to shout out to our middle school 8 to 1 2 program has started the SMS brew crew, which is brewing coffee and fresh snacks for the staff as a pre-vocational learning experience. And it has gotten off to a hugely successful start. And everybody is well caffeinated and sugared at the middle school. Secondly, last week we had the second transition recreation fair for students with OPWDD eligibility and we partnered with White Plains, Pelham. Edgemont and there's

078one other, Tuckahoe, to throw this fair where we brought in service providers for recreational services and transitional services. We had about 60 families come to take advantage of that fair and that was really helpful for both the agencies looking for clients and the families themselves looking for either recreational or transition. services and then finally on the SSEM and our door sent the door jar sensor work has begun on five schools and that will be completed over the next month or so and the final two schools will be incorporated into the work with the bond the capital project sorry capital project and that'll be just a little bit slower but that's all planned and and so okay um so with that we're going to move on into our public comment section uh the first public comment

079and i will read the public comment preamble members of the public are cordially invited to speak on district related items or other non-personnel related matters during two separate public comment periods when is your turn to speak please state your name address and if you are speaking on behalf of an organization For those commenting remotely, please mute the live stream voice, turn on your camera, and then unmute yourself. Speakers will be asked to conclude their remarks after four minutes and will be given a cue at the three-minute mark. If at this point a speaker has additional comments, they may send them in writing to the board via email at boardofed at scarsdellschools.org. The public comment period is reserved for comments only. The board will not engage in dialogue. the board reserves the right to respond to

080comments and questions at its discretion either during response to public comment or at a later time and place response to public comment will take place after the first and second public comment periods and with that is there anyone in the live audience who wishes to make a public comment at this time I'm Rachna Singh, Griffin Avenue. I just wanted to follow up on one of the things that Dr. Patrick said about the special education report in December. While we appreciate the special education report in December last year, and it was very detailed and had some data, in this child comment we asked for specific data that was not in that report. So it's important to just note that the specificity of data is important to child, but I'm making this statement in my personal capacity.

081Thank you. Okay, anyone else wish to make a public comment in the live audience? Okay, with that, we will turn to Zoom. Is there anyone with their hand raised? No hands raised at this time. Okay, let's give it a few seconds more. Anyone with their hand raised now? Okay, so with that, we will close public comment and move on to written communications. Colleen? Oh, sorry, I skipped something. Response to public comment. I don't know if we have any, okay. Now we're moving on to written communications. Okay. Please note that the Board of Education email is also viewed by the superintendent and district clerk. Open meetings law requires all board deliberations that may lead to action or policy changes to occur in public. Therefore, your written communications and emails will be reported at an upcoming public

082board meeting. A board member will respond at their earliest convenience. A formal response requires that you include your full name, address, and if you are writing on behalf of an organization in the communication. More detailed information regarding written communications received by the Board of Education may be found in today's meeting agenda located in Board Docs on the Garfield Schools District website. And then since our last meeting, we have had 99 emails on district matters. So close to breaking 100. So close. Yeah, maybe. It's okay. You guys don't have to try. And six emails on board matters, meetings, board highlights, and invitations. Okay, thank you, Colleen. And with that, we are moving on to the consent agenda, and I will read the preamble to that. The board may conduct some of its business using a consent

083agenda in an effort to achieve greater efficiency at board meetings. A consent agenda condenses some of the routine business of the Board of Education to a single motion. The consent agenda is prepared by the superintendent of schools in consultation with the president and or the vice president of the board. Items are selected for the consent agenda when the officers of the board, superintendent, believe there is no controversy regarding them. The items on the Consent Agenda will have the same background material as ordinary items on the Board Agenda. If any member of the Board feels that any item on the Consent Agenda requires discussion prior to action, that Board member may remove the item from the Consent Agenda merely by requesting the same at the meeting. The exempted item then moves to the regular agenda. However,

084all non-exempted items would be moved, seconded, and voted upon without discussion in order to provide greater efficiency to conducting the routine items of business of the school district. And with that, we will move on to the consent agenda, and I'm looking to see who that is. It's Bob. It is Bob. Okay, Bob, there you go. There are 12 items on the consent agenda tonight. Item 9.01, minutes, education report business meeting, October 27, 2025. Item 9.02, minutes, board retreat, special meeting, November 3, 2025. Item 9.03, personnel certified. Item 9.04, personnel non-certified. Item 9.05, final agreement. Scarsdale Association of Educational Secretaries, SAES, July 1st, 2025 through June 30th, 2026. Item 9.06, stipulation of agreement. Scarsdale Teachers Association, STA. Item 9.07, claims audit report, October 2025, payments. Item 9.08, quarterly report student activities fund. Item 9.09, high school

085auditorium project change orders. Item 9.10, stipulations of settlement. Item 9.11, contract over $20,000, special education. Item 9.12, I recommend that the board accept the consent agenda as presented. Okay, thank you. I was there a second. Okay, Amber. Any discussion? Okay, all those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Anyone opposed? Okay, the motion carries. Consent agenda is adopted. And now we're moving into the information items. We have a number of important ones, and so before we begin, I'd like to ask if there's a feeling that we should have a... Rest break at this time or should we wait until after maybe the education report? Yes Okay, we'll wait till after the education report. So with that I think the first information item is the treasurer's report The treasurer's report presented tonight is for the month of

086September Town of a Marinac remitted the first two tax payments for the fiscal year totaling approximately 1.8 million State and federal aid includes $400,000 in EPA funds for two of the EV buses that were ordered. In addition, there's also a September lottery aid portion in that number. Health insurance contributions include $675,000 in stop-loss recoveries. Interest rates did drop slightly in September, bringing our highest-earning accounts to 4.06. We continue to monitor that, and we will update our projections if needed. September is also the return for disbursements, excuse me, the return of all of our 10-month staff and the wages that correspond to that. So the 9-15 payroll includes all 12-month and salaried 10-month employees. The 9-30 payroll is slightly higher because that includes those members in addition to all the hourly paid staff who are paid

087on a lag due to being paid on actual time worked. Any questions? No, thank you. Okay and I think that's now the education report. Yes it is. You'll remember just to remind folks this was scheduled for our last board meeting but due to the late hour and the importance of the topic we tabled it. Thank you. And it's in three parts tonight standardized testing, tri-state benchmarking from our May visit and performance-based practices. Yes thank you and thank you for postponing it. I feel fresh and ready. So tonight's presentation is indeed in three parts. I'll focus on three of them, all of them related to assessment. Primary standardized testing, tri-state, benchmarking, and performance-based practices. First, as is traditional in the first educational report, I'll include a review of standardized measures of student success and some college

088data that have been of interest to our community. What will be evident is that Scarsdale continues to maintain and demonstrate high levels of achievement through several standardized means consistent with previous years. I'll next discuss an assessment that we have done of our own assessments through the tri-state review and specifically how our assessments line up with our goals as they're described in our strategic plan. And because you'll see that our reviews recommend it, we lean into performance-based tasks and assessments. I'll end with some clips of teachers and students discussing performance tasks as a means of showing some of the good work that is ongoing. Before I begin, I want to point out that all these slides and additional supporting detailed information are attached and available online. So if my pace goes too fast, know that those

089looking on can review the information shared and the more granular details at their own pace. We'll begin with the high school and college data. Scarsdale students are continuously college bound. As in the past years, nearly 100% of our students go on to four-year colleges. For many years, We used Barron's list of the most competitive colleges in the U.S. This list is no longer updated by Barron's and has remained static for years. The past two years, we have instead used the two U.S. News top 50 lists, top 50 liberal arts colleges and top 50 universities. These U.S. News and World Report lists reflect the range of schools that are of interest to many of our students and families and include highly regarded schools with special areas of expertise. While our effort is to compare apples to

090apples using the same resources and their accompanying metrics, the apples are resorted from year to year. There is a link in the supporting documentation to the U.S. News and World Report website, which includes the names of the schools and the metrics they use to rank the schools. Staying with the high school, we'll review SAT, ACT, and Regents scores. Here is a review of our students' performance on SATs, which reflects a continuation of high mean scores. This table, along with others, is available in the supporting documentation for later review. This bar chart demonstrates how our students did on the ACT exam. This slide benefits from some context to read. The ACT report college readiness benchmark scores. The minimum score needed on an ACT subject area test to indicate a 50% chance of attaining a B or

091higher or about a 75 chance of obtaining a C or higher in the corresponding credit-bearing college courses. Here we see the percentage of Scarsdale students whose ACT scores meet college readiness benchmarks indicating that these students are ready for college level coursework. As has been our practice, here is comparison data with local high performing districts in the SAT and the ACT in 2025. Scarsdale students continue to score well in both exams. Here is a table that shows the history of our student participation and performance on the AP exams. The number of exams taken by students broken down by those exams that received a three or above, four or above, and finally a five or above. We have observed a recent trend that is reflected in this chart. Over the past two years, the total number of

092students taking AP exams, including younger students, has increased. The counseling department, Oren and his team, attributes this to a belief among some community members that taking these exams provides an advantage in college placement decisions. However, this belief is not supported by college admissions officers. We continue to advise that for the vast majority of our students, time is better spent focusing on core schoolwork and life pursuits rather than additional AP exam preparation. Our high school counselors recently held a webinar to provide parents with insight into the overall relevance of AP exams. I put a link in the supporting documentation to this presentation. Unless a student is specifically applying to an international university or one of the limited schools that awards credit, there is no evidence of a benefit. For students demonstrating interest in those international universities

093or the others, they may sit for the exams, and as data shows, our students perform well even without the associated AP course title. We also provide outside-of-class prep sessions leading up to these exams for interested students. The next slide puts this AP exam data into a chart and provides a visual for the performance of our students over time. This table shows the percentage of our students who have successfully passed the required Regents exams in Algebra, English, Biology, Global History, and U.S. History and Government. At the elementary and middle school level, we appreciate that standardized assessments have their place and provide broad measures of topic coverage and concept understanding and provide assurances that our students can perform on standard assessments. They are, we know, inconsistent in reliability and accuracy in measuring individual students' abilities. When a

094student does not meet proficiency, however, on a state exam, it sets in motion a team review. In looking at comparison data, the state groups proficiency, the state groups proficiency, threes and fours together, and our slides reflect this. As we've done in the past, we've provided the percentage of threes and fours in the supporting documentation for those who are interested. I've used this iceberg metaphor before, and I think it's still appropriate. State assessments constitute only a small portion of the methods we employ to evaluate student learning. For a comprehensive overview, please refer to the first section of the supporting documentation, which details the diverse array of assessments, monitoring practices, and evaluative tools we use, including common benchmark assessments, formative assessments, progress monitoring instruments, and as we'll discuss, performance-based assessments. These approaches yield more nuanced and actionable

095data than the limited perspective provided by state assessments alone. The next two slides show our fifth and eighth grade student performances on the New York State Science Assessment. These exams are aligned with the next generation standards in science. Our students performed at the top of our companion districts in this area. And here is how our middle school scientists fared. Just a moment to address a comment made at the public comment at the beginning. To be clear, our middle schoolers do engage in hands-on labs at all levels. There are, however, certain technologies that are used for recording and modeling purposes, but that do not replace the essential tactile and active engagement we know that is so important for student learning. You will note in this slide that three of our cohort schools are not listed. They

096chose not to administer it because they're using the Regents exam for their accountability purposes with the state. The subsequent two slides present a comparative chart of New York State's assessment performance across our five elementary schools. This data demonstrates that all of our schools consistently perform above both the state and local Hudson region averages. Though annual variations in performance between schools do occur, these fluctuations are primarily attributable to the specific learning needs of each cohort, the size of the student groups assessed, and other contextual factors. It is important to note that the small variation should not be interpreted as indicators of curricular or instructional disparities at any individual school, regardless of the current order. On this slide, you'll see that our students continue to perform within the historically high percentages of the ELA state exam. This

097slide highlights six years of the exam in which the format of the exam was the same. As described, there are no score reports for 2020 and results from a very unique 2021 cannot be used for comparison. Those who are following New York test scoring news, and I may be the only one who does that here, may have heard that students as a whole across the state performed higher this year in ELA. That bump is also reflected in our scores. As in past years, we have provided comparisons to an average of high performing cohorts in the district, the lower Hudson region and statewide percentages. Here is a chart demonstrating our elementary building ELA state test performance in comparison to lower Hudson and New York state proficiency percentages. And you can see the bump up there. Here

098is a table of our elementary math state assessment performance. Our students continue to perform within the historically high percentages here as well. Like ELA, here is a proficiency comparison chart for math. And again, all of this is available in the supporting documentation. And here is our graph for 3.5 proficiency rate in math. Note again the undulation from year to year across the elementary schools, which is natural. So now I'd like to shift to another level of assessments, an assessment of our assessments through a tri-state report of strategic plan and assessment alignment. Before we begin, just a short description of our professional assessment community that provided the report. The tri-state consortium is a partnership of public school districts dedicated to using systems thinking and collaborative inquiry to drive ongoing improvement. Members work as colleagues and critical

099friends, using the consortium's standards to measure each district's growth in teaching and learning. Their process is to answer the district's essential question through gathering indicators of high-quality practices and conditions through assessment review, classroom observations, interviews of students, teachers, administrators, families, and members of the Board of Education. Our question to them was... To what extent do our assessments align with our values as a community as defined through our strategic plan? Because of the nature of this question, the team focused on two indicators of quality. To what extent is there a shared vision and environment for positive change? And to what extent has the district embraced holistic measures of student growth through performance-based assessments? Here's a glimpse of the digital tool we created for teachers to upload over 300 assessments complete with hundreds of links and supporting

100rubrics. After a thorough review, the consortium team offered commendations for areas where we are making strong progress as well as recommendations for areas that could use further attention. Using this tool but also the interviews and also the classroom visits that they did. In the areas of accommodations, they saw strong evidence of a shared vision, specifically that stakeholders all articulated a shared sense of purpose and commitment to growth, and the district demonstrated a sustained commitment to meaningful staff and student learning. There was widespread support for the big ideas of learning, leading, and living, and agreement that they reflected the values of Scarsdale. And importantly, that the strategic plan is the focus of orientation and the support teachers receive from mentors, teacher leaders, and administrators. The cohesion of skillful teacher training was highlighted as a unifying message

101about the values of learning and meaningful assessment. The digital submission of over 300 examples of assessments demonstrated to them a high level of engagement and pride by the teachers in their work and willingness to learn more about refining, designing, and implementing performance-based assessments. There was also strong examples of programs and assessments that demonstrate a commitment to student performance for a larger audience and community. As examples, they noted during their classroom visits, highly engaged students often in performance tasks and students in focus groups shared their enthusiasm for active learning, making real world connections, and felt pride in their relationships with teachers and the support that they received. They also commended the range and quality of course offerings and student opportunities and experience in their classroom and beyond. They noted that course offerings and students' experience value

102the dispositions defined by the strategic plan, including risk-taking, resiliency, high-level thinking, and an inquiry approach to learning. Among the examples they cited were the high school STEAM classes, the middle school choice program, and a fourth-grade science performance unit. They were impressed with examples of student-centered learning. They discovered examples of students being able to select their own topics of interest and develop their own methods for demonstrating their learning. There was ample evidence of students presenting their work to their peers and evidence of active learning at the elementary activities where students actively participated in their learning through hands-on experiences, discussions, and problem solving, and a process over a product mindset. And some, notably, were not recognized as assessments, but by the younger students as just fun projects. They didn't even know that they were being assessed. We

103talk about this around this table, I think, often about the importance of research, collaboration, patience, and support. Support is key to any positive change, and there was strong evidence here. The strategic plan calls for a wide range of performance tasks and assessments that occur within and beyond the classroom. The Scarsdale Teacher Institute was highlighted as an impressive resource for continuous improvement and adult learning, and many teachers actively participate. The 2025-26 budget identifies the development of the performance assessment as a budget priority. There's widespread community interest. The alignment approach of responsive classroom in all five elementary schools now, as this approach aligns so closely with the values of the strategic plan. In the areas of recommendations, the recommendations they provided were valuable. You'll hear some new recommendations, but others that are familiar and reflect that work

104that is ongoing. They recommend that we develop a deeper understanding of common and common definitions of performance assessments among all staff and the community. This is already underway through assessment committee discussions and active participation in a tri-state study group by administrators and teachers. And interestingly enough, their first exercise as a county-wide cohort was to review three different definitions of performance assessments. And we use the performance task and the performance assessment often together, which can create confusion. So just to be clear around this table, performance tasks are the actual activities students do in which they are required to apply their knowledge, skills, strategies, and dispositions. And performance-based assessments is the overall process of measuring and evaluating how well students do on that task. There was a recommendation that we continue to work and sharpen our focus

105on the development of assessments through Scarsdale Teacher Institute. professional learning opportunities, and program improvement. In the area of living, they recommended working with the school community to reduce student pressure related to grades and assessments. And the community is all of us, Scarsdale families, administrators, teachers, and the students themselves who feel the pressure. Review current assessment and grading practices to identify alignment with the values of the strategic plan. They also recommended leveraging new flexibilities in our state education review, or the STEPS plan, formerly APPR, to embed assessment expectations aligned with the strategic plan. So moving about from encouragement to a real deep expectation that then is part of the evaluation. Communicating the why for performance assessments to the larger community was identified as very important. Presentations like this help us to be clear that performance tasks

106and assessments are valuable and exist in a landscape of purposeful assessments. We don't see the end of certain traditional measures, but it's important to communicate the value of performance tasks and assessments and look for opportunities to expand them in our classrooms. Considering the district's history of success on traditional assessments and the perception that current practices are working, sharing the why on performance-based assessments is essential. So I am now going to pass the presentation to my expert colleagues and some enthusiastic students. This has all been prerecorded past many of their bedtimes. To explain the why in their own words for performance tasks and assessments. You'll see that we chose to highlight math assessments, and that's largely because the subject's reputation for valuing traditional assessments most, meaning quizzes and exams with single strategies and solutions. A special

107thanks to educators, third grade teacher Dylan Caldazo, sixth grade math teacher Kyle Davidson, and high school math teacher Mike Kumaranson, and their students for their starring roles. But also a thank you to our wonderful educators district wide who contributed to our warehouse of assessments for review by the committee. We could have spent the whole evening highlighting the exemplars. Importantly, these 300 plus assessments will be used digitally as digital artifacts as we move the- work forward. And also a big shout out to Mike Leon, the man behind the curtain, or on the other side of the wall maybe, or has been back there, for his flexibility and filmmaking abilities. Imagine you're taking a math assessment and at the end of the assessment you feel more confident as a mathematician, more powerful with your strategies, and you

108understand the math better. That's basically the kind of assessments that we're trying to create. We're trying to give kids an opportunity to show what they know in meaningful and authentic situations. So for the kids, they get to feel like math comes to life for them. They get to see how what they're doing connects to real concepts and apply math to real world strategies. I have two brothers-in-law that are both engineers. One's a structural engineer and one's a water resources engineer and they always talk about how what their jobs basically are is take math that they learned in math class and make it work to put the math to work to build real things and solve real problems and that's what we're trying to have kids do on these assessments and to do that they have

109to have really deep thinking they can't just solve equations or plug things into an algorithm they have to really think about it and think through problems and problem solve to get to get it And another great thing is there is an access point for all learners in these assessments. So if you're someone who you work the whole unit and you have mastered one strategy, you get to show how you can apply that strategy to a problem and solve it. And if you're a learner who knows lots of different strategies at your disposal, then you get to show off how you can pick the most elegant and the most efficient strategy and make that work in the problem. And doing that builds confidence for everyone in the class. And for the teacher, it provides us a

110real clear understanding of where kids are in math. You can see students thinking at a deep level, not just if they're following a procedure. You can see... how they can translate what they're doing into solving real problems. And it's also differentiated because all students can access it in a different way. And another really fun thing is we get to tie different areas of the curriculum into our math assessments. So for example, one thing that we did was in PE, they had this thing called the MLB run, where they work in partnerships to run laps. And then running the laps in PE, they earn miles so that they travel from different baseball stadiums across the country. Let's say I wanted to like do something where I could like train and run like two miles for like

111eight weeks. I could write that down on paper and see if I could do it. And every time I get a mile I could like create an equation to see how many more miles I need or if I'm done. If then there was a division equation, I cannot do division. So division is basically the opposite of multiplication. If 3 times 8 is 24, right? The division equation would be 24 divided by 8 equals 3. Oh! So when I was doing a paper on the third class I was doing, I was... trying to get a multiplication equation to running certain miles for eight weeks. I think it was three miles. So I counted by threes eight times and then I got the answer. So basically that would be three times eight. That's how I figured it

112out. So in our math assessment, we had different training scenarios and they had to use multiplication and division to figure out what training scenario they want to do. So they were presented with the different scenarios and at the end they had to decide which one was best for them. And not only that, but they had to reflect on their whole process of learning and doing the assessment and the whole unit. They had to think about, were they trying their best the whole unit? Were they learning from their mistakes? And are they able to celebrate their progress and see how much they've grown and appreciate how much they've grown over the whole time? One last thing is these assessments are just, they're just more fun. I'm a teacher who has always believed that the number one

113most important thing is love of learning. And what we're trying to do with these math assessments is create a love of learning in the field of math. When designing math performance tasks for students, we are looking to write problems that are open-ended, accessible for all of our students, offer multiple entry points, allow for natural extensions built into the problem. encourage critique and reflection at the end. It's an opportunity to look at each other's work for what I call the dose of inspiration. I always say that these problems are questions that are best answered with a group. Of course you can always attempt to work on a problem on your own but you will get better results if you work on it with the team. So when we're working through performance tasks we hope to evaluate

114how students think, reason, and communicate their understanding not just whether they can recall formulas or steps. In my class, students are prepared for performance tasks because we engage in this kind of thinking and similar tasks every day, though usually on a smaller scale. It isn't completely new because we are developing these thinking skills and collaboration skills every single day. A fill period task is really just an extension of this routine. It's another opportunity for students to apply their learning and reasoning, but they have more time to answer a more layered question. Performance tasks and thinking questions bring the next-gen mathematical practices to life. So instead of checking whether students know these skills, we can see whether they actually use them and how they use them, how they think, how they choose strategies, model situations, and

115communicate their reasoning throughout the process. I think it's important that they give it to us because instead of just a regular test where you're just answering all the questions and it's very stressful, you get a chance to like... see the process and how everything is working instead of just answering the questions and it gives you a chance to see other people's different perspectives and how they would solve it. I think it like flexes your brain to think outside of like multiplication, division, that kind of stuff. You have to really like count and do stuff but you also get to see different perspectives when you work in a small group. I think it's important that we're working in groups because you, like again, get to see other people's perspectives and when it's just yourself, you're kind

116of just like focusing on like everything that you do and like if you make a mistake and like if you're with other people and maybe we're doing a thinking task and there's like multiple ways you can do something, you might think one way and then realize it doesn't work and another person could show another way and then you could maybe that would work better so you get like a chance to do another problem. Yeah, like Peyton, you get, like if you get a problem wrong, they're like your safety net. Like they could check if the answer is correct. And if it is, then that's good. But if it's not, it's good that they're there. So here's one of the projects for our digital logic class, which is an elective in the math department. So what

117I tried to do with this assessment is have the students work on something kind of open-ended. where there is a right answer, but it could be approached in multiple ways. And hopefully it's teaching them something about a real world problem that can be used. you know, out in the industry. So I'm going to turn it over to Ada and Tanya to tell us a bit about the project. Yeah, we started out just trying to figure out what is the desired output for each amount of money that we put in and like how much change do we want? Do we get a pencil or not? And then from there we were able to use truth tables and Karnaugh maps to really map it out. And then we were able to make a circuit diagram which we

118then can literally put on the circuit board to create it. With this, it's a lot more collaborative. You get to work with your peers, try to figure out the most optimal way to simplify your circuits so you get to use the least amount of gates as possible and there's less of the chance of not doing well. And in addition, there's lots of room to make mistakes and learn from your mistakes. And overall, it's a really nice project. I think I like that a lot more than a traditional math test because you have the result right in front of you whether it's working or not you can just see it from the LED and you can see if it matches up with what you decided to predict would happen. It kind of feels really rewarding when

119you finally are able to get it and then it all works out in front of you. If there's ever any problems, for example, if we made our wiring too messy or we accidentally plugged an input to an output for a gate, we can always just try to debug together and plug in with a voltmeter and try to figure out what's going on together. So definitely we need to know how to make a truth table, how to make Carnot maps. Definitely also collaboration because I remember in this lab and in other labs, there's like a lot of times where one person would have an idea for a solution, but then another person would have an idea on how to simplify it more so that we would use at least a map gates and there's less of

120a chance of it failing. So overall, it's really, really good. Yeah, I'd also say that you need to be kind of okay with making mistakes. I think it might be impossible to get it first try on these types of projects. You need to like, you do it and then it doesn't work and then you have to go through the entire process again and it happens a bunch of times. There's no perfection first try, but it does really make it rewarding when you finally get it. Always best to end with the students. But I'm very happy to answer any questions about any of the three sections of the education report. Thank you for that report, Edgar. I always enjoy the education reports. And actually ending on the students with the circuit board was kind of a

121nice throwback to me. My electrical engineering background, yes. But I first wanted to comment and just say, you know, earlier tonight we heard comments from the public and our partners about. focusing on teaching and learning and keeping our students centered and I think that Tri-States report really shows that we are doing that and so I very much appreciate the time that everyone spent putting together, you know, working with the Tri-States and getting that report together. So thank you. But I do have a couple of questions. So I think it was slide 16. It was discussion of the eighth grade. science regents or actually that was the question i had so you mentioned that some of our peer districts don't yeah that was the one some of our peer districts don't use they use they don't

122take this science exam and they use the Regents exam instead so I was curious as to why they use it or why we don't use the Regents exam in eighth grade it's an internal decision that we made I mean I it predates it predates me here but in in past districts if If there is a purpose that we see to having the kids sit down, do the test. demonstrate their understanding of it and it's something that we find valuable, then we make the determination that we're going to comply with the first wave of this is what we expect you to do. In other ways, we are creatively compliant in that the state will say you need to do this and we'll find ways of saying, well, we can account for it in these other ways.

123But we have held on to the eighth grade test as a way of just benchmarking our proficiency. So I guess when we get sort of the new guidance from the regents, perhaps we'll take a look at that. Oh, absolutely. Yeah. I mean, I think that. As the new guidance comes through, it can change, it will certainly change the bones of this educational report because this is all based on what has traditionally been the expectations around these regions assessments and everything else. So I expect that it will morph into something hopefully more meaningful. I look forward to hearing more about that. I guess reading more about that. I also had a couple questions about the AP exam numbers. So there were a couple things there and I apologize I didn't ask these questions in advance because

124I don't know if you know the answers but I think it was, I didn't write down the slide number. Yeah, there you go. Do we know, so the numbers obviously show incredible growth in students taking these exams. Do we know by any chance the number of students that did not take a corresponding class at Scarsdale High School? So, for example, you know, I've heard that some students might take biology in ninth grade and then take the AP bio exam. Do we know how many of these exams were students that did not take the class that we would have? I don't know what you would call follow through. Yeah. You know, I don't have that information. I could reach out to the counselors and see if they have it. I was just curious if that was

125part of the trend here because, I mean, I have to assume that it's not more students taking in those AP classes that are driving these numbers up because we haven't substantially changed our AT offerings. No, the ones that are corresponding ones to the AT, we haven't. The trend does seem to be driven, and this is anecdotally from the counselors having conversations with students and families, about a perception that there's value added to taking and scoring highly on the test. And so that was actually going to be part of another question I had because, you know, I think there is often I've heard from Oren this comment that families perceive that the APs give you an advantage in college admissions, and I understand that isn't necessarily the case. Where I think I might challenge what they

126think is that I think that there are, you know, and you mentioned it, a limited number of schools that are offering credit, but I wonder if that's the case, if we've done any analysis on. you know the graduating class of 2025 how many of those students did go to schools that would and i realize it varies from program to program so it's it's a little more nuanced but i do wonder if that number is changing um from where it was before because these growth numbers are significant and i think families do understand at least some families understand it's not driving admission but it is helping you once you are in college in terms of having flexibility in your schedule being able to take a lighter course load to register early I think those are things

127that are important to students when they get to that level so I don't think we should be so I think we should be clear that there are reasons why people are doing this even if it's not just admission. Yeah, I think that what they've been, two things. I think what they, if a student is expressing this interest, then the counselor would encourage them to, of course. If they're looking to go to an international school, to McGill or to Sorbonne, then they would recommend that they take it. I also think that the same would be true if they're thinking about other colleges that would, where there would be some benefit. Because it is not, it's not that it's not completely beneficial to a certain finite number of schools. What they have tracked is the overwhelming number

128of our kids are not going to. those particular schools that accept the credits. They're going to schools that do not. So that's the nuance there. Yeah, and I think just looking going forward, you know years ago when we saw this jump from 318 to 375 I remember making a comment like okay. This is something we've got to watch and I think we're at this point now where you know We've doubled the number practically of students in just a few years that are taking these exams I don't think this is a trend that we can say is going away So I hope that it's something that we can reflect upon and really, you know dig in a little bit more because there is something happening and we need to address it. That's fair. I would encourage

129people to take a look at the webinar because I think they do go through some of the nuances of it, the pros and cons and how they thought about it. But it is fair. It is something that we should definitely... keep track of especially if there are people who are shifting towards some of the advantages that might be gotten from taking it that was it thank you Thank you. Thank you, Edgar. I really liked the video at the end, too. It was excellent. Very moving. And just to follow up on Amber's question, it would be interesting to know, you know, there are a lot of financial conversations that they have with the parents of juniors, parents of seniors. And if the AP question comes up at all in that with, you know, just the expense

130of college now, you know, for everyone is prohibitive, basically. So it would be interesting to understand if our student is choosing to go to state schools. take the APs and place out of classes and have a slightly less expensive college career. So I would be curious about that. And then just one other question about the ELA. Was it the first year that it was offered digitally this year? Or has it been? I'm just thinking about the jump in the numbers. No, it isn't the first time that it's been offered digitally. The jump in the numbers, because there have been actually schools who have been giving... online for many years now and it's different across the state there was ultimately there was a drop dead when everybody had to do it this reflects something in the

131test in which the test was somehow changed and students did better thank you Thank you, Edgar. The report was definitely worth the wait. So thank you. And to repeat what Amber and Leah said, those videos at the end, those windows into how our kids think and learn, not only heartwarming, but really inspiring and insightful. I think performance-based assessments are fantastic. I think, you know, not to completely replace, you know, more traditional learning, but to supplement it. I think we can see how, you know, kids are really, you know, learning how to think critically and deeply. And as a board member, of course, I have to think of how can I support that, you know, further that. And one thing I saw, given our conversation with the bond and everything else, when they talk about small

132group learning and all these different performance assessments is how valuable that flexible furniture is. And I know I could save this for a later conversation about the bond, but I wanted to bring it up now to tie in how much that furniture really... you know, has an impact on the actual teaching and learning, you know, that it's, you know, integral to that. And I know, you know, that some of our schools are getting that, you know, which I'm really happy about. But I think, you know, in the future when we look at, you know, how I, you know, I know it's not in every school and it's, you know, but in the future I think, you know, to keep tabs on that and to try to bring as much of that into the schools as

133we can in future budgets or... by other ways, I think it really makes a difference in how our kids learn and I would love to see more of that. I appreciate it. I think that the spaces should always support the pedagogy because, you know, rows of desks work perfectly fine for standardized tests, but they're not so effective. And this is why we're doing a lot of the work we're doing in the bond is to support this kind of learning. So thank you. Appreciate it. Anyone else? Okay, I just would like to add thanks for that report. It was really informative and helpful and, you know, just as usual, very fulsome, so I appreciate that. I did want to, you know, add my voice to Amber's voice with respect to the, you know, AP tests and

134the prevalence of those and how much they've grown in the district in the last three years. You know, I personally don't think it's correct. that people are under a misimpression. Maybe some people are, but I just know from direct experience, people really put a lot of time into researching the colleges they're expecting to apply to and are applying to. I don't think people unknowingly take the AP without clarity into whether there's at least a possibility that they can get credit. for the AP classes that they're taking. I know very specifically in my household that was true. I also know that in my household there was credit that was available for at least one of the classes. She had to get a five. She got a five. That's good. But I mean, you know, not everyone

135can get a five, but there's... It's a goal. It's something people are, you know, I think specifically thinking about when they sign up for these classes. I don't think that they're like haphazardly without knowledge of whether there's even a possibility of getting the credit, signing up for the AP and then finding out later. I do think it's something people are very conscious of and thinking about. So I just think that we should give credence to that and maybe... Explore that a little bit with you know, why these numbers are growing so much. I just don't think it's a mass Misapprehension. I do think there's some Thinking that goes on, you know behind that among among the households in our in our community. Sorry. Thank you Thank You Edgar My favorite part of the job are

136these presentation so so apologies for I just was trying to find the slide so I think it's the slide on living I think it's on my document it's 34 the tri-state report So for me, this is I think one of the most important slides because I think what it focuses on is the assessments and the learning of students and the impact on those assessments on the student as a whole in terms of their life and stress. I know there's been a lot of work in terms of looking at getting assessments back in a timely manner, how students can use those assessments to learn and grow. I just wanted to kind of point that out to the community that that work has been done and it continues to be done and I think it's very important

137work for our students to get feedback and the movement towards more performance-based assessments allows that feedback to come more quickly and in real time and so I just wanted to I know you have spent a lot of time I know the assessment committee has spent a lot of time I know the high school administration has spent a lot of time on this and I just you know wanted to share my appreciation for that and i hope we can continue to have these conversations because for me this slide really is one of the most important parts of your presentation and the pressure that assessments can put on our students especially in the high school i think is real and i think should continue to be the center of our of our conversations so i just wanted

138to thank you for having that in there and for the work that's being done around around that I absolutely appreciate that. And, you know, when we talk about the school community and building awareness about how this is essential work, part of this is getting the word out that as assessments change, it's going to look different. And there needs to be real meaningful communication around the why because it isn't teachers alone or administrators. It's families, students, where there are times when we're going to ask for a mind shift around what's traditionally been done. Sometimes we know that can be hard, challenging. Mr. Dugan, I just had a quick comment to make. First of all, thank you, Dr. McIntosh. I actually had Mr. Cadalzo as my third grade teacher, so it was nice to see that. I'm

139sure he's very proud of you as he's watching this right now. Thank you, yeah, that I was one of those students at some point. But I would just like to touch upon Mr. Dugan's point, this idea that for students there is an intention behind these AP. tests and from a student perspective while I would hope that that would be the case I don't think it is and I think a good example of this would be the AP precalculus exam which I believe started last year or the year past so Scarsdale the max seniors will often take either honors calculus calculus AB or calculus BC And so, since our school is credited as the final math course being a calculus course, oftentimes for many schools, AP Precalculus will not be accepted for college credit, but instead

140will just be used as a placement exam. And so, when I look last year at the amount of students in my grade, when I was in 11th grade, but also students in 10th grade that hadn't even reached Precalculus but were taking Algebra II, I see that the correlation with the amount of students that are in that testing room. is not associated with their desire to get that credit in college. I do believe that there is a strong notion, like you mentioned, Dr. McIntosh, that these students believe that by having AP Pre-Calculus and getting a five on it will directly help their college chances, that it will be the same as them getting a high grade in the Pre-Calculus course that's offered at the high school. And so like Ms. Yusuf and other members of the

141board were also saying, I do think that while yes, there is... some students who aim for the credit and aim for going to international schools there is a fervor which of students who do just do it for college and do it somewhat blindly we have don't have any other comments so okay thank you yeah we talked about taking a rest break so I think we should we'll take a seven minute rest break we're back let us let us continue in our business meeting I think we now have an information item on the capital projects bond update. Thank you. Yes, thank you. And we have many of our partners here in the audience. I'll kind of talk through. who's going to take what component of tonight's presentation but just a few similar slides to what we've

142seen before connecting the work to our strategic plan and our goals and the board's goal to support the bond we continue to follow this collection of five guiding principles i'd say tonight is focused on informed decision-making in other words trying to deepen that knowledge and get a little bit more detailed and refined and some of the stuff that we've already presented I faded out the first three steps and really to emphasize we're still on step four here of scope definition refinement and adoption as Jim pointed out we've had a number of feedback sessions, the survey, had some faculty meetings, some parent meetings, some PTA leadership meetings that continue to help kind of get feedback and refine our thinking about things. We still have a timeline. tonight just a quick overview of the work done since

143our last board meeting just to orient us then we're going to hear from Kevin Walsh from BBS who's going to go over a proposed spatial scope for Edgewood based on that last meeting decision and then also just review the Fox Meadow addition as well with some visuals And then we're going to turn it over to our partners at ARIS, Paul Tazi and Jonathan Federico, to review the spatial project – to talk about cost estimation that they do, and then to review the spatial project's cost estimates and the air conditioning cost estimates. And then Ken Schupner from BBS will join in the conversation with respect to field projects. We've got some – revisions there that we'd like to discuss and Cindy's still in the audience who's had some thoughts about the field projects so she'd be

144available to answer questions as well so first just a quick overview The team, BBS, ARIS, facilities, meets weekly. They check in, they touch base, and continue the work going. That's a behind-the-scenes thing, but I just wanted the board and the public to know that that's a regular, ongoing thing. Andrew and I met on Halloween with the Fox Meadow PTA. They held a meeting and invited us to talk about the proposal and where things stand and how it works. process to date we had the November 6 public input zoom session roughly I think we peaked at a little over 80 people lots of questions there appreciate people coming out for that Andrew and I have been meeting with principals to review the scope, clarifications, prioritize the air conditioning projects, because we promised you we would come

145up with that, so that will be shared with you tonight. Of course, the new Edgewood spatial development has taken place since the last board meeting. You're going to see that tonight, and then the ongoing cost estimation. So there's been a lot underway in the time since the last board meeting. But we will start first with... kept inviting Kevin to the microphone and Reviewing the Edgewood and Fox Meadow Projects as they are currently proposed. Thank you Edgar can you hand the slide should be on and It is on let's try Kevin, thank you for being here this evening. Thank you. Good evening, everybody. So first I'd like to say, based on that last presentation, thank you, because everything we're trying to do with the physical built environment is to support the activity of learning and understanding

146that learning is a verb, and we'd like to make our buildings act like verbs as much as we can. So that's a big premise. So I'm going to go through and show plan diagrams, some very conceptual renderings, but I just want to keep in mind it's not. embedded within all those diagrams of all of these thoughts and vision and connection with your strategic plan and future thinking for learning spaces so we're in pre referendum and just again to say again we're in that place of intention and order of magnitude both in terms of cost and scope of work and we'll work through towards referendum and after that get into even more detail later on of the specific specifics of every design but as as of now we use a lens for design that's the reference

147to the why of what we're designing we're proposing and planning we're going to see a lot of planning diagrams tonight that talk about program components talk about classroom sections at both Fox Meadow and Edgewood we've gone through with the district just to reiterate we've had interviews with building administration district administration we've taken building tours we've assessed existing utilization as of last school years our basis and we went through the whole process with the capital project steering committee of course who has reviewed these types of diagrams but tonight will be the first time that we're going to show some renderings of potential 3d implications at both of these So thank you for that. So we'll start with Edgewood again on its site and it is a two story building as you can see the little small

148diagram there. As we went through we diagrammed the building as a series of program components you've heard you know about the classroom sections of kindergarten through fifth grade you know about dedicated special education at this school and also core Core and support spaces such as the library computer art music etc all of these are diagrammed in these Plans and we understand and kind of the manila color the required stairwells and hallways to connect everything So this is what we're starting with and this is how we understand utilization And then we have the two floors, so what we're calling the second floor, actually the red area there is the main entrance and all the spaces. And then below, at the courtyard level, we have all the other spaces. You can see off to the left, gym,

149auditorium, OMPR, et cetera. We start there. As we went through, this was a proposed plan diagram that started in May in the committee and was shown all the way through at the high school on boards in October. And it's just here for a reference because it really no longer exists. So there will be a new plan that I'm going to get into in a moment. So just to start, we had, you know, classroom sections per grade level in special education I've listed here and just kind of drew them in quickly on the plan where they exist. And you see they exist, they occupy many spaces, but there are a lot of other spaces. We'll get into the rest of the program components in a moment. Since that time you've had an updated demographic study that

150shows the need for four additional sections based on the projected enrollments and class size and those have been drawn in to This diagram that shows an addition. I'll get into more detail on that in a moment where we're actually going to build for those new four sections, but you see I actually wrote we're building six new classrooms, five new support spaces, storage for the OMPR, and we're upgrading the classrooms. And I'll explain how we got from four to six in a moment. As we look at the whole building as a system and as program components, we know that there are other issues besides just classroom section counts. We have different locations of support spaces and places that maybe are not ideal, discussion of faculty, conference, music space, et cetera. So as we look at adding

151new classroom sections, we also look at the whole building and take a look at making everything a little bit better. and using new space, leveraging versus existing space, and that kind of new versus renovated. So we end up with a program in the addition of six new classrooms worth of space. I'll go through floor by floor with a little more detail. Starting at the first floor, this is the current as of the end of last school year as our reference point to start. And you'll see this repeat. Here's our diagram that shows new construction in blue in the upper right. Basically at the end of the multi-purpose room at the end of the kindergarten wing It is within the courtyard, but does not obstruct the courtyard We've heard all along that the courtyard is very

152important and we recognize that the kind of magenta color or Existing classrooms to be renovated. So those are all shown there and in green it talks about Interior renovation or reconstruction of other spaces. I'm going to take a little side step here after this and talk about classroom renovations. I know there's been some questions and discussion, well, what does it mean to renovate a classroom? So of course, first, it's most important, what is the intention? Well, the intention is to align the space with all the things that we've been talking about and embed those types of dynamics of learning and exchange with students and teachers to facilitate exploration and the joy of learning. So that's what we're trying to accomplish. We do have some examples of that in the district from Green Acres School, which

153was renovated as part of the 2018 bond, renovated and expanded. And then when we get to work scope. These are the ways that we can affect that change by manipulating these physical things to create that better learning environment to help that activity of learning occur. So we look at things like additional electric outlets all the way to flooring, furniture, et cetera. And all of these items have been identified in the construction cost estimates that are current at the moment from ARIS. So just wanted to say that all these types of aspects are going to be considered at both buildings. Coming back to Edgewood, first floor, this is just another diagram that the committee saw. If an arrow is blue and it's pointing inward, that means that space moved there. It was somewhere else. There are

154components moving around the building so that when we build new space, We thought, well, kindergarten is a very specific type of space, so let's build new kindergartens to allow them to be the ideal kindergarten space. and make sure there are adequate restrooms, etc., adequate visibility and sense of space. So that's all part of the first floor here. And I can't go through all the little changes, but just know the whole building has been looked at in terms of program. Music room has been taken from the first floor next to the main office and located down here deliberately to be near art and other music programs. And I'll show that in a minute because the next level of this is to say. In red are core and special spaces. How are they arranged? Where are they?

155Everyone's accounted for you. So you have in this plan everything from multi-purpose rooms, art, music, Spanish in dedicated spaces, as well as the classroom sections in blue. And green are support spaces like OT, PT, speech, reading, et cetera. And then there's a purple that talks more about admin, which is main office, nurse, faculty. and such so this will be a repeating pattern at the two buildings on each floor as you go through the second floor existing then that sense of what's new construction in this case allowing grade five is back there so if we have new grade five classrooms and right there we can actually use that. One of the existing fifth grades could be used for ENL or any other full-size support space there. And again, we looked at all the program elements and

156you can see the faculty room and a conference near the main office. As we look at that again, on this floor... where are the program components coming and going from. So in the existing building, we know there are a lot of crunched support spaces and not ideal places. So they've either moved elsewhere in the building to better spaces or they've moved into new spaces. And again, we'll have continued conversation about how this goes, but this is tonight's currently proposed plan. And then we look again at program components, and we see where everyone is situated in terms of adjacencies and the type of spaces. Notice library and computer room are the only red spaces on this floor at Edgewood. It gives you an idea of how the buildings actually function. So this is a little 3D

157visual, so let's see if this works. It should get going. There it goes. So we'll start. Here's the existing building. You can see it's massing. You can see kindergarten wing to our right. And just to give a sense of that outdoor classroom now in the foreground. And I'm coming around. You can see the courtyard. And it's also important in these to look at the ground. You can see it's fairly level down here, and we deliberately left the horizontals to show first and second floor, so you can read that easily on the building, and you can see how that impacts the ground and grade at this building. There's the new library now in the foreground from the 2014 bond and main entrance. Now, as we go over, you'll see in a bit of a yellow what's

158proposed as new construction. which is a direct reference to the floor plans you just looked at. A little storage room off to the left there. And you can see how the new addition attaches itself to the multipurpose and current fifth grade classrooms and feeds back into the hallway on both sides of that. And although it's in the courtyard a little bit, it does not obstruct the courtyard. And again, I think it makes a... a nice addition and also respects the architecture and scale of the current building. Again, that little storage room in the foreground there is storage for the OMPR. To allow that to flex, kind of like the way Green Acres has that adjacent storage, and it allows it to breathe a little bit. So that's Edgewood. So after that, I have just a

159couple stills to show current. You can imagine all that kind of blacktop play area. you see the courtyard and then posed addition and how that would blend in and that's that that's our conclusion of edgewood so moving to fox meadow here we have fox meadow on its site and it is a three-story building as you know here are the existing plans this is right from the board shared in october in the lobby the proposed as well that was on a board which has remained unchanged again here the diagram of the building and where the main entrance is and where all the various program components are just as we did for Edgewood on each of the three floors and then again a count of the classroom sections as they were at the end of last school

160year as our reference point drawn in roughly where they how they occupied the building and then the updated projections of sections needing two additional sections and how those sections would be distributed within the building plus an addition and in this case the new classrooms would not be in the addition the new addition would be new Learning Commons library space so that where those program elements are now would be converted into classrooms And as we show this, you see there's actually a net of four new classrooms worth of space because again, we're also working with existing spaces and supports that may not be in as ideal situations as they could be to better that and look at the whole building again as a system and make the whole building function better. Floor by floor again of

161current. Proposed work scope so you can see in green what would currently be the OMPR right now and you can see that the hallway a new corridor to get to the addition is actually created from exist from existing space we're not building a corridor so we're able to create two classrooms on that level and connect to the first floor of an addition as well again in magenta the classroom And again, an accounting of program elements and as they move and are relocated for optimal adjacencies or things that make greater sense, zones of the building. Then you look at the detail of the programmatic components, their type and adjacencies. Here you have first grade classrooms amidst a bunch of music and art, so you start to see that pattern, who's where. Second floor, you start to

162see then work scope. Then movement of program then the program component diagram of how these are arranged and then finally the third floor work scope mostly renovation here except a small addition down on the smaller multi-purpose room that allows for storage because a quarter as you may know 25 of that room is full of stuff at any given moment so let's get that out of the way and also give a small restroom so when the kindergartners are there from downstairs they don't have to traverse the entire wing to get to a restroom program movement program diagram and then the 3d so Again notice all the horizontal layers of ground and building to get as anybody here knows Quite a bit of movement up and down And outstretched etc. So the building is really moving with

163the land here from one to three stories exposed and That again that hill going down to the fields and as we come around for OMPR and library up towards kindergartens, et cetera. You see that whole area where lots and lots of students walk, et cetera, and pick up siblings, et cetera, for the beginning and the end of the day. So that's something we're going to look at. So again, a sense of topography. And then here you can see how... proposed addition sits and is situated and yes there is some idea it may not be as deliberate as this but some expansion of the ground out onto the hill to create expanded play area because we'll be we'll be taking up some of the existing play area with addition and playground so that has been considered

164and we just made it all yellow so you could see what's changing you see the sense of scale and architecture and vocabulary Again, library on the second floor of the addition and Learning Commons on the first floor. Connects over and up. And again, a series of stills just to show existing, how it sits on the site, and then proposed again. And you won't see this from the front of the building, this addition. At all, you'll only see it from the back. And yes, we will have ramps and other things. Again, this is just kind of shorthand to say we know we have to extend that play surface. And we know we'll connect with the cul-de-sac and all that. Again, it's just giving an idea of massing. And you see how that grade is changing, how

165the building is navigating that. Kevin, I'm just realizing we're not seeing the small NPR addition there, right? That's not drawn in. Oh, sorry. No, that's okay. But it would be right there. Right there. Okay. My apologies. Yes, there is a small. That is definitely with the little restroom. That would be to the upper right. Thank you. So that again back to the beginning of this and I just wanted to say is as with all the planning and diagrams and future thinking about that it's all embedded with vision and your strategic plan and us trying to match by the time we get through referendum we come back to all of the various schools and we meet with people and we develop all the actual detail later on. Thank you. Yeah, thank you. That was very clear.

166Thank you. I had, I guess, two overall questions. One is for both Edgewood and Fox Meadow, do these concepts require any disruption from a construction point of view or an implementation point of view to the school to the point that either temporary classrooms or some sort of alternative scenario would need to be used to maintain during construction period the construction period in other words is the work significant enough that you would need to cordon off a portion of the building and make alternative plans, which sometimes construction can do for either. I couldn't quite, because so much has been, I guess, fixed, if you want to put it that way, internally, which is great, but obviously this is an occupied school. Yeah, so I think we'll work on that, but I don't think so right away

167that you would need temporary classrooms, but what you would certainly do is build the addition. just keep going as usual while that's being built I think the thing that the challenge that we may have is the connecting corridor through what is currently library and OMPR to get to that addition and I think that would be the thing that we would look at to see how do we make that happen and I think that would be part of our work going forward And at this point, obviously, we're trying to be very thoughtful about putting in sufficient funds to do these projects if we proceed. So I just want to make sure that if there's any construction impact, meaning if anything temporarily has to be done in terms of implementing the construction, that there's budget put into

168that. so that we don't find out that we're short. I'm just trying to be strategic here. Understanding. We look into that at the same time. When we look at where they're designing the additions, we have to figure out how to phase the project to actually build it while you're occupying the school and what temporary services are going to be required to build the addition. Like Kevin said, we would look at the additions as swing space. So we would build that first because we need to occupy that to take over other portions of the building to renovate that. So that's how we create the space in your building to complete the renovations. But all the general conditions, the temporary conditions, all those are factored into our numbers. I mean, as you can, again, it's a nice

169solution, but we are. We are, as you say, creating classrooms out of that. So if we need those two classrooms for the school to function, if we're going to, you know, I'm not expecting that it's all been worked out, but I'm more concerned to make sure that if we pass a bond for X amount of money that we've considered it. That's all. I realize. Dotting the i and crossing the t we're not there yet Nor should we be but there needs to we need to roll Sufficient funds into it to cover us whether it's on a contingency basis or whatnot so that we Build that in okay. We're used to working in occupied buildings in very tight spaces more of our problems are in How to arrange our staging areas on the site than how

170to build the building? because there's not a lot of site associated with your building so we have to get very creative about how we're going to build on a very tight location other questions thank you thank you for that kevin so just kind of to add on to bob's point in terms of classroom renovations and i know you had the list of all all that could be included that is going to be priced out But I know we talked about kind of different ranges of a room renovation, like the 350K versus the 175K and what would be included and what wouldn't. We're going to get into that in the next phase of the presentation. Okay. So I should say my question? If you can, if that's okay. That's fine. Because Paul and Jonathan will go

171through that. Okay, that's fine. I think it's more blended now, not this or that. Yeah, I was just going to ask about the process for that, but I can't wait. Okay. I didn't mean to cut you off. I just think it'll make sense when they... Thank you for your presentation. I have a few questions. I am not an architect, so maybe some of these would make sense to someone who is an architect. But in both of the designs, your Edgewood and Fox Meadows storage spaces, they don't seem to run the full length of the room or the building that they're outside. Is there a reason why you do that? In the case of Edgewood, there are a lot of competing things in the area. subgrade and right so it's leaving room there's an oil tank

172nearby there things going on other obstacles so it's it knows it can't quite go to the end and Fox Meadows more a storage room that's adequate plus a restroom that's the right size and that it fits kind of nicely architecturally in the middle and the roof can connect with the other roof so all right I just noticed they didn't seem to go when I didn't quite understand that so thank you and then In the rooms that are being renovated in Fox Meadow, I noticed the kindergarten rooms are not being renovated, but the first grade rooms are. And I think they're both in the wing that was built at the same time. So I was curious as to why you had not proposed why one floor was being renovated and one wasn't being proposed. We had

173the general general consensus of thought that the kindergartens were OK at the moment, that they were all right. And above them in that addition is is fifth grade and fourth grade. which we had renovated to allow more possibility for change up there whereas our feeling and the input that we received where the kindergarten's were in very good shape and maybe not in need of a big change so you can put them back but we that's the one small group of rooms that we did not have identified as renovated Okay. And in the Edgewood addition in the new classroom space, you have proposed putting ENL in one of the new spaces. And actually, this may be a question more for Eric, but when students get, I know there's a large population at Edgewood that's getting those

174services right now. Are there limits as to the number of students that are with a teacher at one time? Yes, it's not static though. So there can be individual related services and there can be small group related services that would run from a group of probably a maximum of about four. It's not that Edgewood has a larger population of related services, it's just their spaces are particularly creative. Okay, yeah, so I guess then what jumped out at me about on that was that the the enl proposed classroom at Edgewood Which I guess things can always change was 872 square feet whereas there were other classrooms within the building that were like 600 square feet already like existing classrooms so it seemed a little strange to me that you would put a service that might have

175a limited number of students in there in a large room like that that's an existing space that is an existing space and again it's not final we made sure everybody had okay so this was just ideas and that could actually become you know a suite of some kind perhaps that particular space is just strange that particular space and it also it's a function of how the addition came about and how it goes along the side of that existing fifth grade room and knocks out three windows out of the five So it's more conducive. There's still two windows and it still has windows but to use that more as a series of support spaces with Rather than the fifth grade and there are four fifth grade sections. We're building three new fifths So we left one

176fifth in the existing and then we have a support space in between in existing We thought that was a good way to balance what had become What happened after the addition so to speak? Okay, that base is appropriately to that makes sense some of those larger spaces also when you're having two different people do a single one-on-one service you can use a Space that size to have actually two services going on at the same time. So there's I figured there was something like that but I was curious as to why there was that was such a large space that was proposed there okay great and then just my last question is so I appreciated how you you added those classroom spaces sort of inside the courtyard but left space within the courtyard it's sort of

177related to the storage question so why didn't you go all the way down and just So when you look at that drawing, there's a little bit of a U shape in there in that courtyard now. And I don't know if I'm just... Me but like I'm envisioning a recess where kids could be kind of hidden out of view from a teacher Aid someone who's looking at them and so I was wondering if there was a reason why you built it like that as opposed to just having it run the full length there actually is We need to stay 30 feet away from that main part of the building with the cupola on it So we back away 30 feet. Anyway, that would still be left and in that single loaded hallway that gets you from

178kindergarten to the multi-purpose there's a change in grade so the floor is changes height so we aligned with the higher part with the part nearest the multi-purpose room interesting and then that also has to do with egress and other things internal to the building which dictated where the connection point was okay great thank you very much Hi, Kevin. Great to see you again. First of all, I love the 3D representation. I thought it made everything very succinct. My question is for Fox Meadow. If I heard you correctly, the library is above the Learning Commons space? Yes. So judging from my own experience here with the Learning Commons, I know it can get quite loud, and it's used as a recreational space. With that in mind, do you envision that, due to the fact that they're

179right next to each other elevation-wise, Would any academic work in the library, like silent work, be disturbed by what's going on in the Learning Commons? Probably similar to the way it is now. They're on top of each other now. And obviously within the building we can do sound mitigating measures, but of course windows and open windows and outside air, sound will travel a little bit. But I think it's a good point to say how could we mitigate that. Just to make sure everyone has a chance to talk. Totally. I would like to ask a question, and if not, Bob, you're up. Yeah, I'm not sure I was looking at it correctly because I didn't study it previously, so I apologize for that. But it seems to me that we're, in terms of, I'm thinking of

180Edgewood in particular, and also Fox Meadow, we're creating what I would call traditional classrooms, meaning self-contained classrooms. And I'm just wondering if there has been any thought from a future educational point of view of creating any kind of flexibility in terms of how The rooms are divided up because I know with it, I know they're not, I don't think there are a lot of ICT in Edgewood and maybe they never will be, but I think as the notion of breaking down students into smaller groups with team teaching, whether there's any value in having, if you're having three classrooms, whether there's any... value oh you have them well there are some ideas okay for sure as I was saying I meant to sincerely because even here you can see the two great fives with a dotted

181line okay great and wouldn't that be cool as one big space for a cool project or something correct I'm getting backing trying to back away from the hallway a little bit just to have some visual out to the you know so there's there's there are opportunities here to do some innovative things with the spaces that we're talking about. And even at Fox Meadow when we're creating, what this is talking about is you pair classroom spaces and if you take the wall away you get that greater space. And we have this at Green Acres that we did and it's been used. It helps with flexibility and different programming at different times and can be coordinated. Yeah. Yeah. So absolutely it's there. Yeah, thank you. And it's also at Fox Meadow in the... the pairs of rooms

182on each floor those can also have dividing walls that could either be glass opaque all that okay i love it thank you okay kevin thank you very much he's not going anywhere so we'll hear paul and jonathan uh we'll start with paul So this is Paul Tazi from ARIS and Jonathan Federico, and you're going to do an intro, and then we can refer to the PDFs as needed. So I'm Paul Tazi. You've seen me before. With me today is Jonathan Federico, who is the head of the estimating department in my company. So I wanted to go through the estimates on how we develop them. So we take a lot of the information or all of the information that's being provided by Kevin and Ken and his staff and start breaking it down to smaller segments

183so that we can cost it. So on there, if you could go to one of the estimates, I want to first go through. So let me flip over to the. Whichever you want. They're all on. Would you want spatial? No, I just want I know I want to go down I just want to explain what we put into it. So I'm looking at the next page Right about there. It's good. So what I want to explain before Jonathan gets into a lot more detail is the way we break down a project and an estimate on a project is we figure it on today's dollars. So as we're building in the industry, we have real, alive data of what it costs us to build today. So that's the basis for what we decide on in these

184projects. Then you start looking at... We have today's dollars, and then we have to start figuring in and factoring in the additional cost that everybody's talking about to make sure that when we build this, we're going to have enough money. This project is anticipated to be about two years from pre-referendum to the referendum and five years' worth of construction. So we have to factor in a seven-year project. So building this, we have to look at it as a seven-year escalation and where are we going to be, where are the numbers going to be as we get into these seven years. We don't escalate out to the full seven years. We escalate out to the midpoint of construction. So in here, we start out with today's dollars. We move into hazmat. We have to figure out

185in your buildings using your adherer reports. where is the asbestos or hazardous materials in your building currently so we could factor in a cost to remove them. Depending on what we're reading there, we'll factor anywhere from zero if we're doing something like a field or something on that end to generally around 5%. When we know we have areas such as floor tile, we will factor that into the cost of construction. The hazmat that we figure that we build in as a contingency is usually an unforeseen hazmat total. We then need escalation, and as I just said, this project can go as figured as a seven-year project. The five years construction, if you remember, this is in the ballpark of $100 million, will be about $20 million a year in construction. So at 3% a year

186is what we factor in for escalation. Seven years is 21%. Half of that, because that's what we would figure to bring us through the whole thing, is 10.5%. Now, an interesting point on that one, as this project develops and it gets further towards the referendum, you're going to see those numbers change. Because when we devise a sequencing plan and we figure out the whole phasing and the sequencing in this project, we will associate the escalation needed for that phase. Because if we just left it at a 10.5% across the board, what will happen is you'll feel great in the beginning of the project because all your projects are coming in well on the budget because you have all this extra money, and you're not going to appreciate the tail end of the project when you're

187short money. So we will associate the money based on the phasing plan that we have. From there, we need a project contingency. The drawings and the sketches that Kevin is showing you is a lot of what our numbers are based on. So we have to put a contingency for things that haven't been figured and that we need to basically build in. So we have that contingency in there. And then that brings us up to a total construction cost. as those are added together. They're not compounded. They are added back to the total, which is today's dollars. Then we add on the soft cost, the soft cost, the cost of the architect, engineers, CMs, environmental engineers, surveyors, the cost of bonding, the cost of your fiscal advisors or attorneys, everybody that is needed to put one

188of these projects together averages about 18%. From there, we have to add on the projects that we're doing, such as classrooms, fixtures, furniture, and equipment, so that we can come up with a total project budget. And that's how we establish those. And that's what you can see on the chart that's here. On this one. As we were moving along with the project from the beginning and as Kevin was presenting different plans in, he was looking at this project from, say, the 10,000-foot level. What we have to do is start bringing it down to earth and figuring out where it is. So as he's using broad stroke numbers, we have to break it down into smaller components so we understand where the costs are and we can put them together. So that's what Jonathan was doing.

189And if we can go back to the first page, that would be good. And that's great. So what we did here, and I'm just going to go through just the example, and this is. Really, the only time you're going to see this, we will move to really just one set of numbers. But I wanted to make the transition from the number that's always been presented at the 12,000,060 for the air conditioning that's been identified to what the number was. Here's what we need. We are estimating that number, the same. same rooms, not necessarily the same scope, is 14.8. A couple of things happened and why that number went from a 12 to a 14 million. And a lot of it had to do with just one. There was, you know, we got hit with tariffs

190that were predominantly geared towards Mexico and Canada, where most of our mechanical equipment and most of our electrical equipment is manufactured. So our new database has carried or new numbers are carrying what we anticipate to be terrorists. The other thing we needed to do was the original program as we were, those that were in the committee, remember that it was chosen to go with mainly VRF systems because that was like the mid-range of systems. And that's a great idea, but it doesn't work in all aspects. So we actually had meetings that go into each individual space. and identify whether it was a candidate for a VRF system or we really needed to move into a ducted rooftop system. So the larger spaces such as the auditoriums and the gymnasiums with the high ceilings reverted back

191to a ducted system to correctly treat that space and the spaces with lower ceilings were left as VRF. So that increased the cost a little bit. So we're basically looking at the same amount of units, and we put in an electrical component for Heathcote because the air conditioning added to Heathcote was going to do an electrical needs, requires an electrical upgrade. So that was factored in. After that was developed. additional spaces were identified as large spaces that weren't being treated that we needed to at least get identified so that you can make an informed decision on what to do with the air conditioning so let me turn it over to Jonathan to give a quick rendition of how he comes up with the air conditioning numbers So this is the first one up is Edgewood.

192It gets a little bit more detailed. Paul mentioned all the columns and kind of what makes up the full estimate there. What was in our meetings that we've had to come create this is kind of identify, like Paul mentioned, what systems we're going to put into these spaces. So in order to come up with that, I look at... previously bid projects and I'm looking at model estimates that we've done and for other similar projects like a ductless split system or a VRF system and coming up with a cost per square foot that we were going to carry for these projects. So in order to come up with a quantity cost per square foot I need to use a quantity takeoff. using the drawings that Kevin provided to come up with how large these spaces are

193and the cost for each space. So I did that for both the ductless split and the RTU systems, like Paul mentioned. Gyms and auditoriums, they're better served, my understanding. talking with the engineers is with a RTU system instead of the ductless split. So that's what we figured. And those are rooftop units and allowances for... you know ceilings ceiling uh work modifications not ceiling replacements and restructures and flashing of roofs stuff like that so all those are figured in the allowance that i use based on like i mentioned models estimates and also looking at bids bid tabulations and also contractor costs straight from schedules or values yeah one of the benefits that we have right now is we have a neighboring district that we're working with BBS on that we did a lot of air conditioning

194retrofits new new systems installed in different wings of the building So we had good data built into those systems that we kept on, that we were pricing and bidding and building. Because every engineering firm, like every architect, designs a little bit differently. So we have the data for the engineers that you're working with. So that was good. So in the air conditioning, what we've done. With everything all in, we've come up with a total anticipated cost of this, of the air conditioning, with the additional spaces, at $15,756,272. Now, later on in the presentation... That's way over what we were figuring, but later on in the presentation you'll see additional areas to help bring that down. Now we can go into each individual space, which we did a couple of times, and we did it with

195your building staff also. maintenance staff and facility staff we have scanned all of your buildings with the exception of Greenacres so that we are able to do virtual meetings on this to save everybody's time and go through and get a lot of information moving forward so we've done that we actually you know physically showed each individual room then discuss the benefits of each system so that's how we came to what the recommendation is on how we're getting to that system so without going into we can get into each individual school but I don't know if it's necessary Do you want to explain this like Fox Meadows a good example it has two unique things has the zeros because of the construct the new construction and it has you we can just walk through how you

196represented the spaces that weren't originally included. Yes, so there was a couple of areas in Fox Meadow that we identified as carrying the air conditioning in the spatial costs, which we're going to show later. But on this sheet for the air conditioning specifically, we chose to zero out the air conditioning and note that the costs for air conditioning the spaces like the old multi-purpose room and the library are being carried in the spatial budget not the air conditioning so they're built into the project but in the spatial so uh we didn't want we wanted to make sure and we were going through the project and since we're breaking it down the way we're breaking it down we want to kind of like make sure that we're not double covering items such as that So that's

197why it's noted that it's in the spatial. So if you don't build that addition, we have to move that cost if you want the air conditioning into the air conditioning, back into that. So right now, the air conditioning total carries zero for those areas, but it's built in. I just want to make sure that makes sense to the board, that you know how to read this. Yeah, I was a little confused. Like in Edgewood, obviously there's an addition. So what we're saying is... The air conditioning for the addition for Edgewood is in the Edgewood addition. That's correct. Like whatever X number of millions of dollars includes air conditioning. That would be correct. So that's why it's not showing up here. Correct. Okay. I just wanted to make sure it was correct. It'll be the same

198type of systems that we've identified. So the smaller, the classroom type additions will have VRF systems. That's what we're assuming. Any questions? Heathcote there's a library renovation that's proposed but it's got air conditioning called out separately here so is that a situation where you didn't include the air conditioning cost in that renovation? That's a great question there's a couple of areas that that happened in libraries I think it's Heathcote and the middle school has They're both being renovated, I believe, if I'm not mistaken. And I carried the air conditioning cost for those libraries here, and I did not include them in the renovation cost or the spatial cost budget. Okay. And there was one other, I believe it was the little theater at the high school. Okay. We just made a decision to remove it

199from where there's... really substantial new construction or really major renovation going on like that Fox Meadow it's gonna be totally different than it looks now that they're creating the hallway and all of that other stuff just a decision that and then with the projects that were more just interior renovation within the same footprint we carried it in the air conditioning just a choice we could do it differently I just wanted to make sure I understood because I thought the places that were being renovated just to clarify that too because in our messaging kind of to the community we pulled out air conditioning right from some of the when we were getting the big numbers So it's messy. So I just want to make sure that that ends up being clear somehow. I think the biggest

200point that we're trying to make is we wanted to make sure that we didn't either miss something or double count something. So trying to be very articulate, Jonathan helped us with these spatial reconfiguration or addition numbers and called them out specifically so that if someone asks us later, we either need to edit back because the scope changed or it's accounted for elsewhere. So where the existing space as is exists, it's in the air conditioning budget. Where we're building new walls, new construction, it's in the spatial. I think just for everyone, I think that would be the traditional way to do it, meaning as an architect you would, when you say what is the cost per square foot for new construction, you would be including the air conditioning. So to pull it out, honestly. at the

201end of the day would be very confusing to people that know anything about architecture or building. So I think this is the proper way to do it. Just to say it in a little different way, when we're talking about the library renovation or spatial work versus the air conditioning, you can, not that you were going to make this decision, but you can do one without the other. With the Fox Meadow, yeah, Fox Meadow. Those rooms are being completely changed with new walls. So no matter what you do, you're going to have to do some sort of mechanical work there. So that's why it's better suited to be with the spatial. Where you can't, the air conditioning number wouldn't be the same as the HVAC number that I'm using for the renovations. And then just the

202one other point here back on Fox Meadow. Jonathan represented spaces that weren't originally in that 12 million are labeled under this heading additional large spaces. So in this case, the library was not originally cost configured, but it's a zero anyway, so it's not the best example, but the learning lounge and band lesson space on the bottom floor. was not originally considered and we added that back so there's a handful of spaces across the schools that appear that way right and we tried to identify what type of system is being planned so when you look at the learning lounge at Fox Meadow it was figured as a ductless split so you have an idea of what type of system we just a quick question about the scope of the AC work for the high school I

203noticed that it's the two gyms in the wrestling gym I know that the cheerleading team practices in the rock climbing gym, which I believe is called Gym A. Was there any plan to air condition? Gym A is already air conditioned. Oh, okay, okay. Yeah, go ahead. So one point I just want to raise, for those that were on the Capital Project Steering Committee who remember, we had lots of conversations about what kind of air conditioning we should put in places, and we did in that setting basically. Get comfortable with using a less costly ductless split in some large spaces that maybe wasn't the most effective design decision. We've talked about it as a team and the maintenance needs for some of those spaces, for example, in gyms or auditoriums. You'll see we've made design decisions

204that don't impact the learning space if we have to do mechanical repairs, services, or if we would have to schedule those after hours, or even just because of the size of the space. we've taken some guidance from the team about what would be the appropriate air conditioning system for that space. It will seem different to some of those on the committee who said, okay, let's just do ductless splits everywhere because it's an easy install. So that's just a difference that people should know. Should we move to spatial? Sure. Is that okay? On the spatial, basically... Interestingly, our number and BBS's original number is very close. It's about 750,000 between the two of them. And again, remember, they're taking a... Square foot look at the space and breaking it down. We're trying to get a little

205closer to the earth and Break down the space into multiple parts and that's where we'll start discussing the parts, but we're at The budget that we've been looking at and the committee has been 59 848 The number we're saying we're at is 59,107,712, representing about a lower value of about 740,688. So as we go there, and I'll let Jonathan take this off, the way we build out these spaces is we really have to build a model of each. So we look at the spaces, and we did this again as a team, and your facilities team was actually very good about giving us direction in there. So we would look at the spaces as a team and figure out what really these rooms needed. And again, by actually having the ability to visually look at the

206space as everybody's talking about it, it aided the process for what the space really needed to be an impact. So let me let Jonathan go over the model that we built out so that you're aware of how we get there. I'll first start with the new construction for the classrooms. When I'm coming up with an estimate or budget for new classroom addition, similar to how I'm looking at the air conditioning and putting the air conditioning models together, I'm looking at projects that we've bid and completed in the past. for classroom addition specifically and then I'm also using my understanding of what the goals are what the buildings currently look like what the landscape of the properties are and trying to match the two together to come up with a cost per square foot for a

207new construction for classrooms again doing a quantity takeoff based on the drawings that were provided to us and creating a model specifically looking at for new construction I'm looking at how much do I think each prime contract being the general contractor mechanical contractor plumbing contractor and electrical contractor is going to be figuring or where I would expect their contracts to come in around for a building of that size or for that use So I'm coming up with a model for new construction for that, for classrooms, and also the storage building as well. On a smaller storage building, the cost per square foot is not going to be the same for a classroom addition. It is on the smaller side, so you don't. There's some estimating things to consider as economies of scale. But for this

208estimate, I am figuring both of the additions are coming, being built at the same time. I have added an additional site work allowance for where... My understanding of where the classroom addition is going to be built so all this stuff is being considered in the trade cost Column and then it grows from there as Paul mentioned earlier with adding the different percentages for contingencies and soft costs different from the air conditioning in this estimate for new construction I don't figure any hazmat allowance because I usually don't for site projects in new construction but FF&E is allowance is added which would account for all your classroom furnishings and tables and chairs and collaborative classroom furniture that you guys were mentioning earlier moving on from the new construction that brings me down to in the other spaces

209where I'm building models for estimates or budgets just for finishes. So I'm going to the gym and the NPR spaces, coming up with how much I'm going to figure for the floor, the painting and the ceiling, stuff like that for the finishing of the room. The classrooms, I jumped down a couple of lines, I believe. For the classrooms is one of the bigger item for the... interior renovations is i'm coming up with same thing a model classroom looking at the photo documents and the ver doing a virtual tour of your buildings and understanding the rooms and trying to understand what not just myself with the collaboration of the team of which what each is best for each classroom so i'm coming up with a cost that we're figuring for the demolition of the selective removals

210of the rooms casework ceilings lighting painting all of those things and creating a model based on again same thing as before looking at previous project renovation projects that we've bid and constructed and model s to create a model estimate for the classroom so some of the items that were in the classrooms and going to your question from before we were looking at a lot of the classrooms we need to do flooring abatement some of the tile is put over top of the existing vat so that needs to be removed selective demolition case work with countertops sills trims the blocking new flooring wall finishes there were a lot of discussions on trying to maintain the existing chair rails and moldings in the classrooms and how they would be treated and how we would factor those in

211uh ceilings new ceilings looking at some of the classrooms the ceilings were in the ballpark of 11 feet, I believe it was, of which 11 plus feet. We were looking at lowering those ceilings, so we figured we're not designing, we're trying to make sure that whatever... BBS designs whatever Kevin gives us we have costed it correctly so lowering those ceilings down to about 10 feet helps the heating and cooling the room but also will cover part of the windows so we would build in axiom trims and those type of things so we would have all the cost now we do make some assumptions on what he's going to do the spaces and that's what we try to factor in We have display boards going in. So we, and again, based on the age of the

212classrooms, most of the boards that we're looking at, when we take those off, we're expecting to see a asbestos adhesive behind it. So removing that, that has to be factored in. New window shades going in there to all the buildings, new windows. Right now you have blinds in a lot of the classrooms, so changing those out. We've got a plumbing allowance on the rooms that already have sinks and that shows up in your BCS also so we wanted to make sure that the classrooms that were renovating if we're building in the plumbing changes the new sinks in the Classroom that we remove it from the BCS. We're not double covering it their electrical allowances in this one electrical that number is still in flux right now because there are technology questions coming up and issues

213that not issues but requests that are being made that are not 100 included we figured additional electrical we figured additional technology but that's always a continual discussion item of did we go far enough and furniture, new furniture in all the classrooms. So we put a cost against each one of those items for classroom renovation, figure out what that classroom needs, add the cost together for what it's going to get, and come up with an estimated value for each classroom that we're going to be renovating. So we do the same thing in the kitchens for the kitchen equipment, art rooms, the same type of theory. We go in and out of every room. The use of the systems we have are very helpful because we can get our people, some of the other staff that are

214taking the project off for us. to be able to get inside the classrooms. It's very valuable when you're looking at the classroom itself and then you're looking at a drawing and you're starting to take it off. And that's the technology that we're using now to basically perform a lot of these estimates. So it brings us into the room, gives us a real life understanding of the room. And also it helped in the meetings that we... had general meetings to decide some of the finishes that were being proposed. So that's my brief renovation of Spatial. Is there questions on the Spatial or any of the projects specifically that you want to talk about? Yep. So just looking, I understand that the hazmat costs on the interior renovations, I was just calculating some of the numbers and

215it seems like they're all pretty consistently 5%, although you have a 0 to 5% range listed there. How do you determine what percent you're going to use for your hazmat? Based on the age of the building, based on what we see in your adhere report, we can anticipate somewhere around but on past projects we're going to spend about five percent on asbestos that is not known such as four tile so it's actually the asbestos numbers or the abatement numbers we have in a project are over five percent because the four tile is already built in so that's for pipe insulation glue dots those type of things but it's really based on our experience with the age of your buildings when you drop down to zero percent you'll see that on fields we're using the same

216format for all the projects but if you get a field that doesn't have asbestos we're not assuming it does hope not so then i guess a couple questions on these interior renovations there were a couple things the the heathcote library the middle school library and this kitchen equipment in Edgewood so why are there hazmat costs on furnishings and equipment because it's it's a cost uh it's a five percent of the total cost of the room so it's not just fire we have to basically on the value of that room so it's where we put it so it's really a 5% add-on to the okay so it doesn't really I mean it's not necessarily no it's not because you bought furniture to it but it's 5% to do we average 5% on the overall project value

217so at this level with the information we have we factor the 5% on the overall value of the classroom as they what as Kevin was stating, as the process moves forward, there's more detail added and our estimates are now refined to identifying where the asbestos is and the cost of removing just that asbestos. But at this point, we have to make sure that we have fully covered it. So our experience tells us that a 5% on the overall will, in this age building, will cover us here. Okay, thank you. Yeah, so my questions are more on the new construction. In our current talk, we've got two major blocks of new construction. We have Edgewood and Fox Meadow. And I'm assuming that based on the estimate of construction, which are looking at previous examples that are

218very- appropriate and standard way of doing it. I'm just wondering if the district is at all interested in taking one or both of those and doing, I'm going to use the terminology in maybe old fashioned, like a LEED gold level building from a sustainability point of view. I don't know if you know what that means, but buildings are rated for their degree of sensitivity to energy consumption and I think in particular we can't forget that when we build new construction that's going to add to our cost to maintain our buildings. So Obviously, we're going to build to code, but the question is do we want to build to more than code? Like you could have an R21 and that may be fine, but should you do R30? And you could have double glazed windows, but

219you could have triple glazed windows. And yes, it's all more expensive, but we're going to be paying for these buildings for the next 50 years from an energy use point of view. So that's one thing that we need to think about, but I think there's also the messaging here. I would like to be able to say that we are getting with the program of climate and energy concern and sustainability. And we're going to build something that is at the highest level of building to meet zero footprint, minimal sustainability. And I don't mean to complicate this, and I'm not suggesting it's not more expensive, because it could be more expensive. But let's not forget again, we're going to have to pay for this energy. So we don't want to, not that we're going to be cheap

220anyway, but we're going to meet the code. But I think it would be really a powerful message to the community to address it and say, you know, we've built a state of the art. building that meets the highest level of design from all aspects. And I'm not saying it doesn't. I don't honestly know. I'll let the designers design and we cost it. But the present codes brings the building up to a pretty good level of... sustainability between the energy codes and the building codes you're you've gone a long way to get there from where buildings were built but as far as those type of avenues I leave it up to the designers to tell us what else they're gonna be putting into these buildings well I mean our approach even if it's not LEED we

221do approach it as if it is and we don't we don't need the plaque so we try to do everything we can in terms of Try to get materials that don't have to ship that far if we can. There's a lot to it beyond energy as well, right? LEED is using existing assets and making them better, all that. So everything we can do to approach that in terms of the selection of toilet fixtures, even in the use of water, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. Well, for example, are any of our roofs going to have solar built into them? I mean, now we're starting from scratch. We're not, I understand for an existing building, there is a lot of considerations in terms of orientation, in terms of structure, can it support it, having to put

222a new roof, all of that I get. But if you're building from scratch. You can do whatever you want the technology has gotten fairly sophisticated in terms of the look of it I'm not a big fan personally of solar panels when they're applied after the fact But when you're doing it from day one and you're building it into the design. There's an opportunity to make it part of the the design of the building, you know what I mean? It's not an add-on. Just I'm throwing out what my priorities would be in terms of sustainability. And we certainly are sensitive to that and incorporated that into our designs generally. I don't know if there's more to say than that, but it's part of the approach. I think one of the things that we're struggling with as

223well is the costs of all the things we'd like to do and what they are. But I think on the solar panel conversation, I think one of the challenges we have, one is our roof lines and the slate roofs that are beautiful in our community but are not maybe structured for solar panels. We also have a – I believe a study was done here before I was part of the district, but – We purchase most of our power from NYPA, which is the hydroelectric power that's generated, you know, in the northwest of our state. Unlike the coal-fired power plants or that sort of power plant, ConEd supplies most of the power for. So some of the cost-benefit analysis for solar panels is not quite there right now. Yes, it's a green source of energy. I

224agree to that, but there isn't the savings that we would like to use to help offset some of those additional expenses. And actually, we can study that further as we get further along, but that's not a scope item we've included in this. Any other questions on the cost estimation for the spatial project? Yes, thank you. Thank you very much for all your work and your presentation. So on my question from earlier, what I was trying to understand is what is the process? So now we have everything listed out that could be in these classrooms that are going to be upgraded and renovated, potentially, if the bond passes. And I know initially we talked about a range of spending in that area in order to understand what will... you know what are we asking the community

225for i know we've received the question from several community members trying to understand what exactly will these renovations look like so are we going like is the board going to choose some sort of scope range and then the building principals are going to like choose what they prefer to have in their classrooms or are we just going with the full package just trying to understand that so let me try to um share what we did already and just give you a little bit more context. So when we met with the team, particularly it was Fox Meadow, we sat and looked at the 3D camera imaging. We went so far as to say, what are we doing with that chair rail? Is it coming out? Is it getting put back in sheetrock? Or are we just

226going to paint it in place? Those are the types of decisions that we made, not as final decisions, but really to kind of ground what the cost estimates Paul's team would be doing. Are we putting in full-size walls of whiteboards, or are we just doing where the chalkboards are? Those types of conversations. And truthfully, I don't remember all the details of what we decided, but those are the conversations we're having right now to come up with their estimates. We're going to have to go back and sit and meet with the building principals and talk about them. Here's what we've currently assumed in your room. How does this align with your vision for the space? And that will be a conversation we'll have to have as we refine the scope in room 257 and room 63

227as we go through that process with the design team further. Right. The process was. what in looking at the rooms what could we do to this room to make the biggest impact and that's what we were basing our each room on really the biggest impacts are on furniture and casework But to support the furniture and casework, do you want the really high ceilings or should we bring those down? The lighting in there needs to be upgraded. The flooring needs to be upgraded. So we started looking at those individual parts, including the boards, the painting of the rails, what we were doing with the base in the rooms, how we were going to deal with that. So we started going into and out of every classroom in there that we were attending on renovating to say,

228okay, this is, they're very similar because they were all built at the same age, same time. So they're very similar in age, which meant that as the classrooms, we can build a model that wasn't what you were looking at before as just it's going to be ceilings, lighting, flooring. a paint job you know that that's it what we did is we went into the classrooms and looked at the classroom on what does it need and what would basically be what could we do to this classroom to renovate it because when you look at it as ceilings lighting flooring you really don't get the feeling you're going to have much of an impact in there so that's the focus that we had is that what is going to get the biggest impact in those classrooms and

229that's what we based our estimates on Thank you. That's very helpful. I had the benefit recently of having a conversation with Jean Crowley. She's my buddy, literally my buddy on the board. And I was trying to understand her perspective on this. And my background as an architect is in hospitals and health care. And probably the biggest limitation in the design and use of a space is the technology, not the floors, not the lighting. I think if anything is going to change in the future, it's going to be the demand for technology, for sophisticated equipment. And if you don't have the power in that room, you can have the best floor and the best light. If you don't have the power to plug that in and to wire it, there's no point. So I think of

230all the things that I want to hear is that these classrooms are wired for the future because that's where. That's where this is going. This is where education is going. It's not going to be low tech. It's going to be high tech. And I think, you know, I think it's wonderful. I'm an architect. I want these rooms to look beautiful. I really do, and to have the functionality. But if you don't have enough outlets, if you don't have enough power in that wing to do what you need to do, we're failing looking at the future. So I really hope we're budgeting. to not meet today's needs, but to meet today's needs times two. So Paul referenced it a little bit earlier. Some of the technology conversation is evolving just a little bit. Power, I don't

231think, is the issue for the most part in those classrooms. The issue is data drops. Our Wi-Fi signals, we believe in the conversations with technology, are in great shape. So it's not Wi-Fi, but it's really around when you want to plug in a display board, and it might be here today, over there tomorrow. Are those data jacks available? And then there's compounding costs of that. So do we have enough switch space in the IT closet to support that home run? Those are the things that we haven't gotten to that level of detail yet with the design team. We're working through that now. We recognize that that is a crucial part of a classroom. At the same time, I agree with you that technology is important. I also agree that visually you need the impact of

232the classrooms at the same time. So both of them have to be – it's a balance between the two, and both of them need to be incorporated. So can I just go back to Leah's question? I think, Leah, one of the things that we're hoping to do between now and the next board meeting is to present here's our revised proposal, and it includes this level of classroom renovation work. And then that will be an opportunity for us to decide, you know, do we do less in the same number of spaces or, you know, more but just in a handful of spaces? I think that will be some of the discussion that will be a future conversation. Any more spatial cost estimation questions? Our next phase would be the fields. Yep. I just have one question

233as I'm looking through all these numbers, because a lot of it is done by square footage. And, you know, as we were presenting the renovation for Edgewood, the need was for four classrooms, but this renovation, or this addition, is six classrooms, which is obviously more square feet, and more square feet means higher price tags. So I'm just curious, why was the design for six classrooms instead of looking at trying to just do the four? to lower the total cost but meet the Edgewood needs. I went back to the presentation from before where it was also to remedy some existing conditions so that we built new space to alleviate existing conditions of certain support in other spaces. So in order to get some people out of the basement back bar, they had to come up and

234they displaced others. And so we needed more space in the addition to correct some of those conditions. so that's why it wasn't just four classrooms looking at the whole building it was more conducive to add a little bit more footage and fix those situations you could just add four classrooms but it may not address those other issues that came up okay um I'm wondering if it makes set what yeah I think move to fields and we'll invite Ken Schupner up to get the visual on that and then there's cost estimation on the fields as well which just came late this afternoon and Andrew provided you all with with a copy of let me just get these up bear with me Ken for just a second middle school I want to start either way I don't

235want to do it that way bear with me for a second it is it is nobody would disagree with that there we go okay thank you So here we've met with the administration. We had a chance to meet with the athletic director and kind of talk about the needs of the district's athletic facilities, the athletic teams, and the use of the fields. There was a prior report that was done that had established a work scope. for this property that didn't fully meet the district's needs that actually conflicted with some of the district's needs so as a result of that there were some adjustments to this site plan and its work scope relative to athletic fields that would best meet the district's needs. So in this case here, it's represented by a natural turf field for

236three sports, which is the vertical field on the left. And then a new synthetic field, which is the horizontal field on the right, also a three-sport field. Those configurations maximize some of that existing property, which also determined how big those fields could be. Each of these is represented by 180-foot by 330-foot athletic fields, which is soccer. boys lacrosse and girls lacrosse those are slightly slightly smaller than the fields that you have at the high school and in addition here we're showing a full replacement of the two basketball courts just just above the existing tennis courts so With that, we talked about some protective fencing around the synthetic turf field, mow strips and concrete curves and things like that to help separate that from the natural grass fields. The courts were just asphalt paving, right? Correct.

237Millet, new pavement, and a painted sports striping and colors. It's not a surface. It's just a painted finish. the difference between this and what was presented in the other field was the omission of a baseball and softball field that overlapped the natural turf field which conflicted with the use of district activities couldn't use those fields concurrently yeah I think you said that these are smaller than the fields at the high school. They are. There's still regulation sizes. That was going to be my question. So you can play games on both of these fields? They're just not as big as the field. And by making either one of them bigger, you lose the other. Are there any... Spaces for spectators to watch games? There would be. In this case, there was discussion about people just bringing

238lawn chairs and things like that that they would set up next to the fields. Okay, so there won't be anything built or anything? No, because in that case, it might interfere with other uses if we put permanent concrete pads or something like that. And are both of those fields the same size? Because they look a little different in the picture, but I think the numbers say that they're the same. They are the same. It might just be a little deceiving because of the synthetic turf field. There's some runoff space or clearance space to nets or fencing or things like that. Okay. Where the natural field is just open to adjacent grass. Thank you. Engineering issue. You know, isn't there a stream that runs on the side of the middle school? Yeah, I think it's below

239the... Will there be a water issue with the turf, like an increased water issue? I'm not aware of existing problems on this field. I'm just curious if it will overflow that stream, but I don't know if that's even a thing. I don't think so, no. My point touches upon the stream as well. I know you mentioned that there's going to be some sort of fencing by the synthetic turf field, but for the natural turf field, if it bleeds onto the remaining grass for sports like soccer and lacrosse, where you're constantly shooting and it may go beyond the goal, is there worries that you may have game time being stopped because the equipment is going into that stream, or is that not an issue based on the orientation? I don't remember if there was property fencing

240along that location. to alleviate some of that there currently is yeah there currently is yeah and you figured uh some netting and fencing around the new turf field which would be the primary sport use let me add a couple of other things that we figured in the estimate on there on the end zone On the turf field, we figured it as an impervious surface. So all the water that hits that turf field will be captured, detained or retained, and brought into the stream at a controlled rate. That is what we required by DEC. We can't put another drop of water into the system without first retaining it and then controlling the outflow. So that was factored into the cost of this also. I have just another question about the turf field. So currently I know

241at the high school when it rains a lot, the turf field tends to flood and all of the little black. i don't know what those are officially called like kind of gets moved or flows off and then and then maintenance has to go and put it all back on or redo it um so do you number one do you anticipate that being an issue here number two does that mean those black rubber things are flowing either into the stream or onto the grass around it is there some sort of system in place to prevent that i'm just like envisioning those black things being all over the grass and then maintenance having to figure that out and mow the lawn and all of i don't know how that works but i know it's an issue at

242the high school so i i'm just curious if we've taken that into account and what the plan is for that here let me talk a little bit about flooding on a turf field generally if the turf field drainage underneath it is designed correctly and i think We figured this on a stone base similar to a project that we are just completed. So the stone base underneath is the area that we're looking for the field to drain into and hold the water. So as long as the calculations are correct, it'll hold up on pretty much every storm except for a 100-year storm that you're getting a deluge that we seem to be getting more often. But usually it'll take a couple of hours to just settle in and drain out. As far as the infill, it's

243an infill. The black specks that you're seeing is rubber. and it's mixed with rubber on the surface of the field and then a mixture of rubber and sand and then sand on the bottom which helps weight the field down. Is that something your maintenance department would be complaining about if it went too far because they would have to continue to add to it? I'm not hearing major complaints about that, which means that it's in the field and you're going to have to run a turf rake around it to just basically reposition it. So I don't think you have that problem. All fields are going to flood under, you know, over a 100-year storm for a little bit of time. But the field is designed so it takes on the water quickly and retains it underneath

244the field. Cindy might have something to share. We're doing a different system on the side practice field that doesn't use the rubber pellets that we use over here. And you won't see that kind of loss of the rubber pellets that we do see in a heavy downpour. And they just literally wash away. And I know exactly what you're talking about. For that reason, we're not using that same system on the side practice field. It has a different infill that's not rubber, and they actually just put it in at Ardsley, and one of the maintenance gentlemen and I are planning to go over there and walk it. They actually just finished their seasons on it. and they loved it and they had the they did it because of the drainage purposes as well so my vision

245is if we do have drainage issues or runoff issues i mean truthfully our turf should have been built with better drainage around the perimeter and it is it doesn't have it so we see the damage that we see when we have a heavy rain obviously we would go into this with that knowledge so i'd imagine we'll either deal with the drainage or deal with a different infill I just wanted to make sure the conversations were being had. If it flows into the grass area, then that's just more work for maintenance. Butler's not draining the way it's supposed to. Great. As long as this drains the way it's supposed to, that's great. The water situation is very different in the middle school field than what we have here. The way it lies and everything else. I

246worked there for years. It's very rarely a flood water issue. like we see here okay great thank you Lucy okay so and when I was at the middle school I was on the cross-country team and our typical like route I guess would be like all the way around the field but like if this new synthetic turf field has fencing will that fencing be like all the way up until the stream like will it cut off like the rest of the field like that whole area hasn't been that level of discussion but oh sorry but based upon that information and i'm sure it would have gotten you know it's just early in this process to have gotten to that micro level as paul likes to describe it but um if there is a need for that

247we can be sure to offset that field so that there is still a path that can be accommodated around it got it thank you We'll look at Greenacres, which was Fox Meadow, and talk about this one. So on this plan here, the top field is what would be the new girls varsity softball field. For this partial renovation, there would be added home and visitor dugouts these would be fully enclosed with a roof and a storage room very similar to the dugouts that are at the the high school boys baseball field we match that same configuration here there would be a new backstop installed here in this case we are including concrete pads and portable bleachers for spectators We're proposing a new scoreboard, and that would be near the asphalt play area, just kind of below

248that grass soccer field up there. Existing infield would remain here. It's been described as one of the best infields in all of Scarsdale, so we'll make sure that that remains that way. There is existing irrigation. this grass field so that may need some modifications or adjustments when we do some sand slit drainage in the outfield and then also we would include here a portable outfield fence so that it would kind of establish foul lines and home run territory So that would be the upper field. The lower field would be more of a practice field and used by the community. I believe it's also used by one of the local little leagues. So that would get a new infield, much more simplified dugouts. It would just be a concrete pad with team benches. We'll also have

249a new backstop, a little bit more of a simplified version. then we're also proposing along what's that Street Montrose a protective fence in front of the the perpendicular parking that happens there just for stray balls and catches and things like that I think I got everything Cindy can I put you on the spot just to talk a little bit about rationale from a athletics program standpoint yes so uh the what came out of the field study or not the field study but the bond study group was to put either a softball field at the middle school, which we just kind of talked about, or to move it over to Fox Meadow. Obviously, softball is a spring sport. We already house JV flag football at Fox Meadow in the spring. So if we move softball to

250Fox Meadow, we've now displaced another team that I have to find a home for, and that's a problem. The other thing is, is if we're going to fix, you know, I think... try to address softball and getting them onto school grounds. It only makes sense to me to do JV and varsity and try to bring them together. This accomplishes that. Fox Meadow would not have because that second field closer to the playground was only Little League size. It was not high school regulation size. So this accomplishes having, you know, varsity and JV never play home at the same time. So that top field is the game field, whether it's a varsity home game or a JV home game. That bottom field is the practice field. We're on school property, which is super important because Section

2511 in New York State, they've moved up the start of spring sports. This year it will be March 9th. We don't have access to the fields at supply until April 1st. When we use our property, we have access when weather permits. So, you know, I'm asking softball players to be in a gym and potentially be playing away games before they've ever been on a field. When the boys don't have to do that, I have a problem with that. So to get those girls on school grounds where we have the ability to use our fields is important, in my opinion. I also know that several years ago, some work was started at that field, which is, again, my opinion is it's the best dirt in all of Scarsdale. that is on that field right now. We

252don't have drainage issues over there at all. That infield dirt is a gold mine that's sitting there unutilized. I know I'm getting excited about infield dirt. That's a really bad sign that it's too late tonight, that we're all still here. You know, I think if we just completed that work and gave it the look of Dean Field as far as the dugouts and the seating and all of that and the netting and the fencing that needs to go along with that, it's a really great venue to watch softball. The other issue we have is, you know, we get a schedule. from section one and I have home games on a Saturday well we don't have access to supply field on Saturday so our varsity and JV girls cannot practice or play at home on a

253Saturday the only thing I could do is send them to an away game while every other varsity team is playing or practicing on a Saturday so that handcuffs us a little bit too so just to bring them and have both teams you know addressed on school property is is really a huge win in my opinion for girls softball Thanks, Cindy. So could you share why are the girls not able to play on the village field on Saturdays? It's used for rec. So they won't give priority to the high school? Not on Saturdays. So no Saturdays at all. And the village, are they not willing to open up the fields early? I mean, I know March 9th is much earlier than their April 1st date, but... Last year, I think they did flexibly, nicely move up

254to about... I believe it was March 28th. So it was a couple of days. So our students are at a real disadvantage with the current situation. In my opinion, the softball is, yes. Because, like I said, here, these guys are amazing. They'll let us play on our fields, weather permitting. You know, listen, March 9th might not be permitting, but March 20th might be. March 20, you know, as we get closer, kids will go out in the freezing cold if the weather allows to be outside and play on the field. It's a big difference than playing in a gym. Absolutely. I appreciate your thinking of that. Thank you. Just to follow up and make sure I understand I wanted to make sure that we were gonna get priority on the Green Acres fields on a Saturday

255and not like rec for example so that would be correct school property gets put through a system that we approve I'm one of the approvers so yes Saturday we would have to keep that so girls can play Would the Green Acres development have lighting exterior lighting I don't see any you know it this field yes no lighting is planned no lighting okay now we don't have lights on supply we don't have lights on Dean so now it wouldn't be an expectation Thank you. So I see on there it says portable outfield fence. So does that mean you guys have to go out and put it up and take it down? It would stay up for the season. Okay. So I guess really why it's portable is I understand there is some community use or has

256been in the past for soccer in the fall. So it can come down. You can paint the soccer lines wherever you need to paint. And then we'll have it up for spring. But the field isn't used for anything currently in the spring. Okay. I know there's been some discussion about maybe using it for soccer in the spring so I just wanted to make sure that's not gonna be an issue for you In the fall it would be usable for soccer for community use but it hasn't been used in the spring Any other questions any is there anything Paula you want to share or Jonathan on the cost estimates on these One of the benefits of this is that the program in both of the areas got reduced so that you can realize that in the

257budgets that have been established um i misrepresented the bbs budget that it really isn't bbs it wasn't their design it was uh from your chas design so um but we won't hold that against bbs um but what um what we established we took off both fields It is less work than what was proposed before. So very quickly, it just represents between the two fields of $913,000 savings, which is a good thing, especially if it's better addresses your needs. I don't think she was mic'd. So maybe I'll just quickly go through the remaining slides and then. See where we are does that sound okay? So with everything you heard tonight we have a the scope of spatial has grown to include the Edgewood even as cost estimating brought some of the cost down the addition of

258Edgewood brings the spatial total up I just realized I didn't redo those percentages, so ignore the percentages for now. We've not presented revised cost estimating for BCS and infrastructure work yet. That will take place in a presentation at the next Board of Ed meeting on the 15th of December. This is the revised air conditioning cost estimate, which had most of the previously included items, some duplicative cost moving over to the spatial for new space there and then we added several large spaces that hadn't been initially included and then here's the revised cost for the new scope on the two field projects that we talked about. So this was the original slide we'd been working toward. Here's a new version of the slide. what's changed seven large spaces that were not initially included are now included

259in the cost estimate the best solution as the gentleman described for each project was that was configured it was determined that a service upgrade was needed at Heathcote to accommodate the classroom AC so that's that cost is included and then the next slide shows the priorities so this is not for this is just for illustrative purposes across the top are the five elementary schools with up to six projects in any one school that are included this lists the priorities of the building of the as indicated by the building leadership if if there could only be one what would the first project be if there could be two if there could be three this is the order and the blue shaded spaces represent the new the new projects that weren't originally included There's a subtotal and

260a total for all, you know, the total being the 15.7 million. I just, as an example, just took out the lowest priority of each school just to show, except for Green Acres, kept that one, they have one project, kept that project in just to show what that would do as an example, not as a decision, but as an example. so you have access to that for future discussion and thinking the spatial projects this was our original the new includes the sixth classroom and five small group instructional spaces at Edgewood it maintains the other components of that school's projects that were originally included and then the revised cost estimation did have some lower costs in the other projects masked by the large addition large cost there fields this was the original proposal again CHA BBS didn't

261didn't do that work but this was from the joint field study and here are the revised proposals and we just went through that so I won't say too much more about that and then of course BCS TBD this just reminds you that what it was and and that's to be determined So, ARIS's work on the BCS and infrastructure items is ongoing. We expect to present that scope on December 15th. Also on that date, we will do a total review of the presented scope. We'll make an administrative recommendation for a revised scope of work. try to lay out some processes for thinking about alternatives how to weigh alternatives and then board discussion and deliberation and then I think as we've talked before we would envision a second community survey that would be open from after that

262last board meeting of the calendar year to sometime shortly before the first board meeting of the January with two different pushes for completion knowing what time of year it is it's people are preparing some to go away celebrate some holidays we do a hard push right after that board meeting and then another push when we get back to school in early January so Jim it's over to you on how you want to proceed well yeah I mean I think that we had discussed, and it seems like from the way this is shaping up, that the time to discuss what the appropriate scope is is perhaps December 15th, and not today. I mean, missing the infrastructure piece of it is, it's a big piece to be missing, and to be thinking about, you know, what the

263puts and takes of the project as a whole, you know. i think they're my my reaction is um you know it's it's obviously the work the work has been um impressive and and obviously the time spent um and consideration and thoughtfulness is impressive and uh very much appreciate uh that work on behalf of the district and to all of our advisors uh architectural and cost estimate and otherwise uh so that is you know appreciate all that uh but i think we need to um My view is anyway, I think we need to hold off on, as a board, deliberating about the full scope until we see the full picture. With that? Yeah. Okay. Any lingering questions? I don't know if I have any lingering questions, but maybe I guess for you, Drew, and Andrew, because

264it sounds like you're going to come back to us next meeting with a potential proposed scope for us to discuss. And so do you feel comfortable with the level of guidance you received from the board to come back with a proposal next time? That's probably the question I would have for you. Yeah, I think I'll take I'll try to say what I think we we understand I think through well, I guess the question would be We left last meeting thinking knowing that we were going forward with a revised addition for Edgewood we had that sort of Clear signal from the board and that we were doing this cost estimation, which frankly we didn't know exactly how that would look At that time, I think the signal we got was there's general support for something in

265the ballpark of this scope, but probably at or under $100 million, which we're not right now. But I think that's sort of what our general understanding from that last meeting was. So I guess the question is, has that changed? i don't perceive that it has i think that you know we we um we saw from the community survey um and the other input that we've received that there's general support for a project in that in that range um and when i say that range i mean 100 million or less i think 96 million is uh we got support from the community that that was an appropriate amount i think that we as a board you know is that sort of directionally where I think we are? So I don't think there's a feeling amongst the

266board as a whole that it would be appropriate to go much higher than that. I think it would be helpful kind of what you did with the air conditioning with the lowest priority and then you cut it out and you showed us the cost of that versus the total big picture. So personally I think it would be helpful to see what is the really big picture at the next meeting and then where do you think we could get closer to 100 just so we can see what that would look like or not and then we can figure out if we can live with that. Okay. I think we have marching orders. Thank you. Thank you. Many thanks to all of you who helped present and all the work you did. Thank you so much. Don't

267want to make you stay. You can certainly stay for Andrew's long-range financial plan, but you have places to travel home to. So thank you very much. We really appreciate you. Good night. Safe travels. I'll get started in the essence of time. So good evening, everybody, again. I know that we've had quite a bit on the agenda tonight, so I'm going to try to move as quickly as possible, but I'm going to try to make sure I focus on what I believe to be the most important points for you all to walk away from. As a reminder, there's both a strategic plan goal and a board goal that kind of support the work that I'm going to share tonight. In the strategic plan, there's the long-range planning and fund balance guidance. and then in the board

268goal for budgeting, we also want to take a multi-year planning view of that. So this presentation this evening supports both of those. And a reminder from a slide I shared a year ago, a long-range financial plan really is a tool or a reference point for us to make some strategic decisions from. It is not... roadmap of exactly what we need to do next but it helps us it's more of a compass than a map it's kind of the analogy in my head so our long-range financial planning It doesn't replace the annual budgeting process or even supersede the annual budgeting process that we take each year to establish what our following year's spending plan will be, but it helps us make sense of what those decisions look like in the grand scheme of things. The annual

269budget is really heavily focused on just that one year, whereas the long-range financial plan really does look to the future and say, how does this decision today kind of impact us in the future? Much like the New York State budget, when you get further out and if you have deficit spending, which we do in our plan, you should expect that the deficits will grow unless there's some substantial changes in that spending or in those revenue sources. So I'm going to, spoiler alert, right, we're going to continue to show out your deficits, but I think some of the short-term changes in these numbers are helpful in context, but also in practical decisions that we're going to make in the coming years. coming year. So I'm going to highlight some of those opportunities and some of those

270challenges we have in the future. So as our assumptions become more certain, we'll know how good our forecast was. Certainly the short term, we expect to be closer to reality than the long term. But I'll go to the next slide. One of the key pieces that I started last year is I shared with the board to go in conjunction with the Long Range Financial Plan, a fund balance and reserve plan, really trying to help make sense of what those reserves are. And if you recall, kind of fund balance and reserves really are the savings of the district. What money do we have at our disposal beyond the annual revenue sources to weather difficult times or make one-time expenditures that we need to plan for? So in the plan document that's also part of this agenda

271item, you know, I laid out the document lays out the various reserves that are legal reserves that the Board of Education here has adopted to have, and they include the reserve for retirement contributions, which ended last fiscal year at about $4.8 million, and that's really to help offset the cost of employees' retirement system contributions. That's our non-certified staff. We also in the district created a teacher's retirement system sub fund. Sub fund was the legal language we needed to use based on the permissive law that allowed us to create it. We've never funded that sub fund, but it exists should we have resources available and we would want to put that money in there. We were also one of the first districts in the entire, the first district I believe in the entire state to have

272a self-insured health insurance reserve fund, which we've used and we've talked quite a bit about that in the last few years. That fund ended the fiscal year with $2.8 million in the coffers. I will put a footnote next to that saying a million dollars of that was planned to balance this coming, this current year's budget, right? So if all goes as planned in the budget. That will end the current fiscal year at about $1.8 million. The reserve for tax certioraries, which is used to pay property tax refunds, that is at $4.3 million. And then we have a reserve for debt service for some old debt projects that were completed and there was money left over at the end of the year at $308,000. So all of those and their purposes and origin are listed in

273the fund balance reserve plan. I welcome the board's review and feedback on that. If you have done that already and you would like to do it, to make suggestions for revisions or updates i will certainly take that into consideration i think um skipping to the next slide drew i think one of the most important things that i want to highlight about the plan for this new version of the plan is some feedback that we got from former board member ron schollhoff but also from our conversations with moody's about looking kind of longitudinally at the percentage of fund balance as it relates to our subsequent year's budget. Now this chart doesn't necessarily match what either Ron was suggesting or what Moody's looks at, right, but it gives you a sense of the long-term view of our

274fund balance, and I don't believe that this would be kind of visible on the screen, but what I've done is I've shown the reserve funds and each of the subtotals below that. for each of the calendar years from 2016-17 up until the most recent full fiscal year of 24-25. The bottom is the unassigned fund balance, and that's our 4% number, as people like to refer to it. That's the most flexible of our savings accounts that the Board of Education has at its disposal. It can be used for anything the Board really wishes to advance forward, whether it be for budget balancing or to deal with unexpected school year expenses. I've taken those numbers and I've somewhat color coded this for you for reference, right? So if we look at the restricted reserves, which are the

275yellow line at the top, and we look at that as a percentage of the subsequent year's budget, you can see that those percentages range from 6.6% at their low in 17-18 to 10.11% after the COVID pandemic in 19-20 fiscal year. if you look at the blue line the unassigned line that four percent you can see we at the very bottom we've we've been right at four percent or just below it um with the exception of that 1920 school year when many school districts were over the four percent because of the covid shutdowns um the line in between yellow and blue makes green i've i've um added the two numbers together to give you a another view of how our kind of functional fund balance that really is accessible to the board to cover expenditures relates

276as a percentage of the subsequent year's budget and that that range is quite a bit um but it but it's it's still within that 11 to say 12 and a half percent range if you exclude the the 1920 school year why is this important this really tells you that we have been using our reserves as you know we've been depleting them and adding to them over time but we've I would argue that we've been fairly stable as a percentage of our annual budgets, right? So I do that at the beginning of this conversation because I don't want to cause alarm when I start talking about reductions in fund balance. This is not unusual for us. It's something that we need to plan for and be mindful of, but we've been fairly stable historically here. I

277will say that this type of information, though not this exact math as far as I know, is used by Moody's and relates to the credit rating that was mentioned earlier in public comment. But equally as important in that conversation that Dr. Patrick and I had with Moody's this current year during our credit rating call is the support of our schools from our local community. We don't rely heavily on the state to balance our budget, and we have great community support of our schools. So those are two factors that they also take into consideration when they rated us with a AAA rating. So we're aware of and we're looking at all those items throughout the process. So that's the update to our fund balance and reserve plan. I can certainly take questions at the end about

278that if you wish. So I'd like to now dive into the financial highlights of last year. I know we talked about it in the October 27th, October board meeting, excuse me, but I think it's important for the lead into this conversation to focus on this a little bit. So I've included here a chart which ties back to some of the numbers you'll find if you refer back to the general fund numbers in our audited financial statements. I do that purposely. I want people who just tune in today to go if they want to look at a document, financial statements are all kind of evident in these numbers. I've shown for this slide the actual 23-24 and the budgeted 24-25 numbers for your reference, but I'll focus on the actual results for 24-25. We had a

279revenue number of $182,484,700. Sorry, I'm in the wrong column myself. $185,811,521 in revenue last year. That's an $8.2 million increase from the prior year and $3.3 million versus budget. Included in that budget increase I'll talk about later. Sorry, that outcome I'll talk about later. In expenditures, $183,695,285. if my eyes are doing well here. That was a $5.7 million better than budget, sorry, higher than the prior year, and $866,000 higher than budget. Our other financing line is where we account for our transfer to capital and our transfer to special aid fund for our special education program in the summer. And we also account in that line the debt service fund. We show it as revenue in our budget documents, but it's included in here for reference. And I'll talk more about both of those in a

280second. The key thing to walk away with here is the $8,169 number that you see in the middle there. That is a positive year-to-year variance on our fund balance. We grew fund balance. It's a little number in a big budget, but it is 1. almost 1.7 million dollars better than the prior year's outcome and it was 2.4 million dollars better than we budgeted right so we had a positive savings kind of impact on our district finances in the fiscal year and Scott Oling our audit partners talked about that a little bit last time we met with him so I'm now expanding the revenue lines and I'm focusing just on the column for 2425 you can see here by revenue categories we had a various number of variances up and down in our budget performance I'll

281highlight that that we had nine hundred forty nine thousand dollars additional interest earnings this year last year I should say which was very helpful as the decline in interest rates happened slower and we had good cash flow management so we're able to increase our interest earnings In state aid, if you remember, that budget included a reduction in state aid that didn't happen, so we outperformed in state aid. And we also had an EPA grant of $200,000 towards the EV bus, right? So that's all factored in the revenue lines. In the miscellaneous category, we did have several one-time transactions that did impact us positively. So one was a reimbursement for a staff member who was on leave, who was doing professional work. leadership opportunity for an organization and they reimbursed us for his salary and benefits

282and then we also had some one-time accounting transactions we were able to recognize revenue for some some items on our books related to our flex benefit plan that are not going to be recurring so I don't want to think that that's a new revenue stream but that but that's the revenue impact on the 424 25 budget outcomes use me and now I'll switch to the expenditure side We had some expense savings in the general support, primarily in the facilities and technology departments. We had some substantial savings or really costs that we either chose to defer or just not incur in those areas in the 24-25 fiscal year. In the instructional area, supplies, contracted services, and BOCES was a big savings last year. Much of it came from my colleague Edgar's budget, where we chose to

283really cut back quite a bit in the curriculum and instruction area just to kind of... put spending controls in place last year when we knew we had a tough budget cycle in transportation this one's a bit misleading you see that we are under budget by about four hundred twenty six thousand dollars that's simply because we had a purchase order outstanding for an EV bus that didn't come right so that's actually going to show up in another slide in a moment but that's not real savings that's really expenses that we will see the books in the 25-26 fiscal year And I can't miss benefits, right? We know we had a very tough year in our health plan last year, a very, very tough plan. So some of the benefits we got from additional revenue and from

284cost savings and other areas really went towards offsetting that rough budget year in the health expense line. A really quick overview on this slide, I'll just highlight one number. We were over budget by about $71,000 in our transfer out to the special aid fund. That was because some of the services for our special needs children over the summer, we had budgeted for that in the general special education budget. It really belonged in the special aid fund, so we increased that transfer amount. It's really a wash in the overall outcome, but because of the way we, on our financial statements, account for that. it shows as a variance in this other financing sources line. And again, all of these tie back to that $8,169 better performance versus the end of the fiscal year. So, where did

285the money go? We had lots of reserve uses, right? So, of that $8,169, there was a decline in reserves established by the board by about $731,000. But we were able to increase, well, we didn't do it by choice, but we had an increase in our assigned for purchase orders outstanding at the end of the year. primarily for that bus purchase I mentioned earlier, and then we also increased slightly our subsequent year's budget, and we increased the unassigned fund balance. That 4% we maximized going into the end of the fiscal year, so that number's at the legal maximum. Okay, I'll transition now. What does this all mean? And I know I'm going quickly, so if you have a question, please let me know and I'll stop, but it's late. Last year, this is the long-range financial

286plan that we presented. And I'm highlighting two important numbers for you to note, right? I just talked about the 24-25 performance, but we were assuming a $2.381 million loss in that budget year. We had a positive outcome of $1,000. That influences how the numbers then carry forward in the long-range financial plan, as do some of the underlying realities of that. And some of them we talked into. consideration for our 25-26 budget cycle which is the next column next to it the the other number i'm highlighting is the the 740 000 negative number in the 27 28 year and that showed where we actually ended up in a position where we did not have any more savings that's what that was was meant to tell you as i tried to articulate last year the sky was

287not falling We had some really difficult assumptions in those numbers, and some of those assumptions have worked their way out, both through the actual results, but also in decisions we've been making in the last fiscal year. So on the next slide, this is my new and revised updated five-year plan. And I'm highlighting in particular, there's the $8,000 number I shared earlier. That was a negative in the prior slide. And you can see the 2728 has now grown to almost $10.5 million. fund balance right that's versus the negative number on the previous slide and and all of the information I'm going to take into Take you through in the next few slides will help tie back to this But I do want to point out that we're still not out of the woods if you Understand

288that some of this is compounding and we're running a deficit budget even this fiscal year We show a negative fund balance by the 2029 2030 school year So we've made improvements. They're short-term. They're definitely short-term in some of the assumptions we're making as well, but the out years still show a challenging budget ahead of us. So we just need to be mindful of that and use that as our compass. So let me talk about the assumptions that I'm taking to get us through this process. So at a high level, we're starting with this year's budgeted staffing. And then I've projected. something we didn't do last time which was the information that we included in the enrollment study presentation from a few weeks ago it projected some elementary class size changes that we needed to count

289so I factored those in their ballpark numbers but class size changes sorry class section changes counts yeah sorry sorry about that Thank you, Slade. The section growth that the demographic report suggested we would need to do. So we factored those in, tiered over the years that they are represented in the demographic study. I've also taken into consideration the presentation that Eric Rauschenbach did last December about the growth of the ICT in the special class programs. And there were some ranges in there, so I've made some assumptions to account for them with FTE increases as they were timed in that presentation. I could be wrong, and we could be high or could be low, but I wanted to make some assumption that things we've talked about are being factored into this tool to help us again.

290look down the road and see where are we headed. Obviously, we've included the contracts that have been negotiated in the last year and a half. We have not factored in new negotiations that we're about to start with four units this year. So we've made some assumptions on all those. But in general, our wage assumptions are between 2% and 4%, depending on the bargaining and depending on the area of the budget. And some of this is grounded in. individual projections for individual employees in our new financial system but some of it is also understanding that we've got staff turnover and collective bargaining underway at the moment. I have increased the assumption on the health plan just to be conservative so I had I believe a 7% number last year It's safer to make it 8% this

291year, right? I'm really hoping we end up with a good year this year, but I've said it before, you can't budget on hope, right? We're trying to make some good decisions here, so we've included 8%. I do believe over the long run we'll get back to our 6% or 6.5% norm, but it hasn't been in the recent data. And I apply that to both the claims cost and the administrative costs that we have in the health budget, as well as the employee contributions, just as a percentage increase on both figures that's reflected in here. Our retirement system projections, I've used the current year's assumed numbers for 25-26, but in 26-27, there's already projections out for ERS and TRS. I've factored those in as well. The range for ERS was between 8.25% and 8.75%. I used

2928.75% to be conservative, and I've left them flat in the out years, just assuming that that's going to continue. In transportation, we've kept our driver count and route counts the same in the projection, but what we've really looked at is updating our EV transition plan, and I'll talk more about that in a second. From a debt service schedule perspective, I've factored into it the auditorium debt, which now we know what that schedule is. But I've also, without yet having... landed on where our bond is going to be, I wanted to show something that would be at least reasonable to eliminate that variance. So I've included the debt service projection that was provided to us by our fiscal advisor way back in the start of the bond discussions as a placeholder. It's the tax neutral data

293that he shared with me, and I'll talk more about that in a second as well. And then capital projects, we've continued to maintain our investment there, and I'll have a slide on that. Other things, just supplies and materials, I assume 2%. Software seems to be 5%, still holding in terms of some of the increases in our special software uses. And then our leased equipment, which really is mostly technology devices. We've kept that flat in the out years of the budget. This is the new five-year projection including 2030 2031 which gets us to five years of new data And you can see that I've highlighted one cell in particular I mean you could look at any one of them, but transportation takes a significant step higher that has to do with the assumptions I've now revised

294through the EV bus implementation plan and I'll talk about that in a second, but all of these expenses if I haven't called out a specific fixed adjustment that I'm making they're really percentage increases right so once once you get the feeling of that if we're already spending more than we have revenue coming in the gap is going to continue to widen and that's why we end up where we do in the projection So let me talk about the EV fleet transition. This was the slide that I presented a year ago. It was based on the fleet electrification study that was provided to us by Highland Electric Fleets in their work trying to help us understand where do we even go because we hadn't even really started this process at all. It factored into it an

295assumed fleet refreshment on the right-hand side of this chart that was really... kind of based on our need, but really based on a motivation of like, how am I going to get to all these buses being electrified? And we're taking a different look at that in my new projection. We've also included in this slide last year some really large capital infrastructure improvements to get the chargers in place, and we know that we've had ongoing conversations with Highland Fleet, and we've actually entered into a contract with them. So that has changed what I need to use for the assumptions around that. We also know that we had a lot of federal and state incentives that were kind of, at least in the early parts of this plan, factored in in last year's Long Range Financial Plan.

296We've had to dial that back, right? We're not certain about how much of that is going to maintain, whether the state's going to be able to continue to support their push towards zero emissions buses. So some of those are being reviewed and refined in this next plan. So with that, I'll turn to kind of where we are right now. And I kind of want to highlight the slow sign, right? Like, we need to be thoughtful about this because there's a lot changing around us. We now have the Highland Electric Fleet. contract in place where they're actively working to install the four electric charges and all the related infrastructure that requires at the bus compound. That's not even near breaking ground right now, but we do hope to have it done by June or July at

297the earliest. But we're going to need to see what that looks like, see how effective it is, see if we're actually able to operate our fleet with that service model. We've also had a turnover in our transportation supervisor's office and in the head mechanic at the village, both of which have been really thoughtfully looking at our fleet and really trying to understand. what makes the operation function and what vehicles are at risk of jeopardizing that function. And they've prioritized some of that fleet work based on the age, based on the mechanics known conditions, and really what are the repair costs for some of the things that we're addressing. So we've factored into it a new vehicle prioritized refresh that I'll show you in just a moment. I'm nervous about the reduction in external funding. The

298federal government is certainly not going to be supportive of EVs. Gas vehicles continue to be more cost effective from a purchase perspective. So we have to think about that and realize that yes, there is still a mandate in place and we still want to progress towards that sustainability goal that I think we feel is appropriate and good. But we also have to be mindful of the operations and really how do we get to where we need to be and get kids to school. transportation pun was right there somewhere and i didn't get it so um so so i've really revised the 26 27 and 27 28 vehicle purchases to really be grounded in gasoline vehicles i don't enjoy saying it but i think it's it's the right decision based on the fleet condition the cost

299of replacement and a lot of the unknowns that are in place right now um in 28 and 29 though that's that yellow box i highlighted earlier right like We say the mandate's still there. Everything from that point forward is an EV bus, and we've made some assumptions on what the costs of those buses will be at that point in time, and that's driving some of the out-year cost implications. So this really gives us some time, though. It gives us some time to actually physically get the four buses that we've already bought, install the four chargers, and give us time to see. Are we buying the right brand of bus? Does the Highland Fleet model work well? And what are the next steps in that regard? So we think that this is an intelligent, kind of

300thoughtful view of how to continue with the EV fleet process. The next one is that fleet replacement schedule that I talked about earlier. While we have lots of big buses taking our kids to and from school here in the district, really the mini buses are the lifeblood of our transportation operation. All of the non-public schools we go to, many of the special ed runs in our own district. I think the mini buses and perhaps even the sedans and the SUVs that we have in our fleet are really what keeps us moving every single day and gets kids to school. So we've prioritized some of those that are in their worst condition. We've added some large buses because we simply have to. Those buses are aging as well, and those take our athletes to where they're

301going to go. They take our students on debate trips, and they take our industry kids to and from school every day as well. I have not noted on here, but I've factored into the plan in my negotiations with Highland Fleet. We know that for every electric charger we add in that contract, it will be less than the $28,000 that we've contracted them for, probably closer to $18,000. So I've assumed... As far as this kind of fleet replacement schedule would be, any EV bus would come in the following year at about $18,000 per charger, just as an assumption there. So that's really the EV fleet and the transportation projections that I'm factoring into this plan. So the next chart is the debt service chart I was talking about earlier. This is the familiar chart you've seen,

302but now it's the actual auditorium debt. And the next chart is that slide that has been updated with the debt service for approximately a $40 million tax-neutral bond. As we continue this discussion we just had earlier this evening, we'll certainly be reflecting that in future conversations going forward. Also, as part of the bond conversations, on the upper left-hand side, the inset there, you've seen this slide multiple times in our presentations. There's three funding sources, the annual budget being one key place where the maintenance department budget and the transfer capital really helps us maintain our buildings over the long term. We've assumed that commitment will continue. In fact, I've increased it just a little bit to $1.8 million in the five years of the long-range financial plan. The thought being in year one, certainly we've got

303a life skills program that has to have some kind of instructional spaces modified here at the high school to accept that program. We're going to include that in the 26-27 budget. We've also talked about the co-design plan and co-fundraising plan for the elementary playgrounds. That will have a home in there. But there's been lots of things we've talked about as part of the Capital Project Steering Committee, as well as even at the board table most recently about things that will have to be addressed in a five-year capital plan that will come to fruition once we understand the final scope of the bond. So the facility team is already working on it. They're keeping track of the things we're saying. Nope, can't include in the bond. And we're going to try to reprioritize those things. We'll

304reprioritize them every year, but there will be a five-year look of what we think the work needs to be going on. So the way we pay for all this is the revenue forecast, right? So the assumption I'm making on the revenue side, I've assumed general aid increases of 2%. I know that it could be deemed risky, but it could be also a solid assumption depending on how the New York State political and financial process plays out. Building aid we've taken our existing aid that we know about right now and then we've added to that an increase in the out years for some of those capital projects that we've I showed were funded I've added no increase in aid related to the the EV fleet proposal I showed here part of me is because I'm nervous

305about what the timing of that will be and also I would say it's partially in that general aid 2% number. I need to dive into that a little bit deeper to get more finite projections on those. But right now I've made no new aid assumption related to those items, though there will be aid on them. The tax levy, I've continued to maintain that we're going to have to maximize the tax cap to avoid significant deficits going forward. So everything that contributes to a tax cap exemption in my cost assumptions or my expense assumptions, I've tried to factor into the tax cap. And so in my projections, the revenue assumes that the tax cap is maximized. Talking back to the debt service and the bond conversation goes above the tax neutral, that debt becomes a tax

306cap exemption. Therefore, in my long-range financial plan, I would, again, assuming we're maximizing the tax cap, I would have a revenue offset for that. So it really has no impact on the deficit per se. We've assumed a 2% cap in the out years. We've used a three-year average for our... property tax base growth factor and we've kind of run that through and I've mentioned the capital exclusions all other revenue we just assume a 2% growth so there are things that are opportunities there and perhaps there could be argued risks as well we've I've removed all federal funding and federal tax credits you know related to the Again, I'm noting I have not factored anything specific in for the EV fleet for transportation or building aid. If there were to be some opportunities there, that's an

307opportunity for future improvement. And we've confirmed that I've included the Highland charger model as an assumption in how we're going to charge any new buses we buy. So this is the run out then of the five-year revenue forecast. If you include that transfer to debt service, which would see an increase as we've now finalized the 2018 bond costs, there will be some debt service fund dollars that we need to use to offset the debt. So that will be an increase of $300,000 in the $26-$27 budget based on today's estimate. you'll see that that's how the revenue plays out from what was a 2526 revenue budget of 189 million dollars up to a 222 million dollar budget 3031 This next slide is just that summary of the tax clap assumptions. Certainly if we change some of

308the expense assumptions that would impact the exemptions, it would have to be updated on this slide as well, but this is how you can see. We range from a levy growth factor of current budget was 3.4% to 3.65% based on my assumptions. It dips to 2.85% just because of some of the expenditure assumptions I've made. 2728 and then back up to 3.62 in 2829. Ideally I would look to flatten those out in the out years but I just let the model run for what we had at the time of creating the plan this go-round. And this is, again, now just pulling the whole thing back together. And, again, including the 30-31 school year, you see those changes in fund balance unfortunately still remain negative, which means we're spending more than the new revenue that we're

309able to generate at the tax cap. So that causes then a concerning compounding issue. And I did show the 29-30 negative fund balance in the – second to last column here, but then by adding the following year, you see it does grow substantially right to 19.3. I don't think that's a realistic outcome. I want to be very clear. We would never let that happen. It's all the decisions we make now and next year and the year after that that will alter that course. But if we do nothing and my assumptions are what they are, this is where we're headed. Again, a compass, not a map. In terms of what my assumptions on the fund balance uses are, I mean, I would love to say, in particular regarding the health reserve, that we start to wean

310ourselves off that to help balance the budget first. That is an area where we know the volatility is there and we know that the need for a reserve to help backstop the budget is important. The reality is right now we can't afford to do that. So if we were to back off this reserve usage, we would probably just need to increase our undesignated fund balance usage. At the end of the day, the total fund balance still declines and we have really no material change in that. This is just, again, that breakdown of where the reserves are. The next slide, sorry, Drew. Yep, and then you can see, again, the unassigned fund balance at the end of the day is really the story. It gets to a negative number in 28, 29, and then 29, 30,

311and 30, 31 continues that negative trend. So I've spoken a lot very quickly, and it's late, but I want to be optimistic. There are opportunities for improvement, right? We've worked hard to kind of... manage our cash flow and earn interest earnings. If interest rates don't continue to fall and maybe they get held, that'll be an improvement perhaps in the out years. The EV bus plan, as things in the out years become more clear, I can look into more revenue opportunities for that that would help offset our costs, including state aid related to those purchases. I have confidence that the state support of EV transition is there, and I'm confident NYSERDA will play a role. I just don't know what kind of funding NYSERDA will have in the out years as the mandate still exists and

312more districts finally get on board and start moving in that direction. The pool of available funds can become smaller and smaller. We really need to look at our budget, right, and how close are we on our expense budget in particular, but also on the revenue budget. Do we have opportunities for revenue increases? We have had some tuition-positive decisions that have happened lately that will help us outperform in those lines, but I'm sure there will be things that we missed on the opposite side. So we're just trying to make sure that we stay conservative in our budgeting processes so that we can try to generate fund balance when possible. We're definitely going to look at the wage assumptions again as our collective bargaining conversations continue. There are certainly some of our units are, you know. Going

313to look for as they should for salary increases Where do they fall in the ranges that I'm that I'm assuming for the plan would be important to consider Do the staff projections that I've made whether they be for additional sections or for the special ed program or anything else? That's in the existing budget Do they continue to follow through or do we make other decisions in the upcoming budget cycle that that will impact it? And I did say it earlier, I'll say it again, I really hope for a good health year, right? I really do, and I hope for it, not just financially, I mean, it is our colleagues and our retired former colleagues, right? We want the health plan not to be spending a lot of money, right, because it's usually a sign that

314people are having some really tough times. But if those good times do come, it will benefit us in that we'll have some additional budget space in the health lines that we then can put back into that health reserve over time. We talked about the EV transition and we talked about the debt service. So those are the areas where I think we can continue to poke and prod and really try to make some big decisions that have long-term and recurring opportunities in the future. So again, Please don't get lost in the out years. Really, it's about the short-term decision-making process and where we are in 26, 27, 27, 28, and 28, 29 that's most important, I think, for us to focus on. Opportunities do exist. But we do need to really be thoughtful about what we're

315adding to the budget or what we're saying yes to in collective bargaining and ways to think differently about the way we support our students and our community. it's a tool it's really not exactly the answer of where we're going so the next steps are pretty self-evident on the screen there I've tried to really go quickly and I know numbers are not always the prettiest thing to show on slides but hopefully I've tried to touch on the high points I welcome any questions from the board thank you Yeah, it's late and I'm a little tired, so bear with me. I guess I'm just sitting here thinking, you know, one of the things that I feel very strongly about is that people should live within their means, you know, personally and globally. You know, you don't spend

316money you don't have. So I'm sitting here thinking, you know, there is sort of a general... Assumption in Scarsdale that we can afford things, you know, we're Scarsdale and we're here to do this and that and You know, we're we're sitting here I guess debating what that bond should be and how much it should be and I'm just like thinking are we Do we need a wake-up call that? Yes, where, excuse me for saying, the wealthiest community in America, whatever the BS is that you read online. But, I mean, do we really need to be thinking harder about just a whole new mindset about this? I'm just thinking about someone reading this, and I take your point that it probably isn't going to be as bad as it looks, but it could be, right? And

317I think... Are we making bad, bad meaning are we being naive about what we can afford to do? I mean, some of the things we're proposing are necessary and some are nice to have. I want it all, don't get me wrong. There's nothing that we're talking about that I feel is inappropriate. But I am, I must say I'm sitting here thinking, are we just a victim of thinking we can afford things that we can't afford? Are we? for the future you know it's not gonna be this year or next year but I mean those those years are not that far out you know I mean I would have looked like this 18 years ago what the five-year forecast would have looked this dire 18 years ago okay like it the because it's built around assumptions

318and that long ago we were also using fund balance, it would have, to offset the subsequent year budget, it would have looked the same to a board maybe 15 years ago, I'll say, post-tax cap or at the tax cap time. So I guess we need to understand. I think it's important to understand that. I don't mean to panic here, but I just look at some of those numbers and I think, are we being irresponsible in terms of... so there's a history as Drew points out that we need to be aware of that and you keep saying it and I and I believe you but there's a part of me that is wondering you know what are we doing here you know are we I don't know it just it feels I mean I think I

319want to respond Bob to what you're saying first I'm going to start by thanking you Andrew for this Long-range plan because it really does help to get us to think about important issues You know, I think we're being thoughtful about what we're doing Bob like I'm concerned, too I don't think any one of us could sit here and and look at that plan and not say wow What what do we need to think about? but I also think to where we were a year ago and the plan that we saw and Yay, we had a great year. I think it was in revenues and the state aid and so we're in a better position now than we thought we were going to be but i think we need to keep that in mind as we

320make decisions because i agree you know we we are running a budget that is has a structural deficit like we are spending more than we're taking in and we need to be thoughtful about everything that we put in that bond and that budget and make sure it's really what our students need and that our community supports it. And so I think it's okay to be a little nervous about what we just saw because I think it'll make us more. more rigorous in our analysis as we go through, you know, what's proposed. I think we were not going to be cavalier about, hey, there's a $14 million addition to Edgewood, no problem. You know, I think we're going to be really thoughtful about what do we include in this bond? Is it really necessary? Because we've

321seen what can happen with choices that aren't thoughtful. And that's just my take. Yeah, I mean, oh, sure, go ahead. Sorry, because I kind of feel like we're conflating two different things. I mean, we're looking here at a projection with a lot of estimates built in that's not accounting for any of the changes that are going to be made that we know are going to be made, which we now end. 2029 whenever this projected you know cliff is going to happen it would be wrong it would be irresponsibly foolish to think that everything is going to remain the same from this point in time now until 2029 such that that cliff is going to hit the way it's projected to it in this, that's not why this has been created. It's not created as a

322predictor of the future or a budget. This is not our budget for the next five years, right? This is an estimate of things making assumptions that they will stay the same. It's the opposite of a budget. So I think we're going to have budgets as we go forward in time. They're going to be based on trying to avoid the cliff and other things that are going to be happening. So I don't, I think it would be misguided to sit here tonight. and think, gee, this is really telling us what's gonna happen. It's not telling us what's gonna happen. It's telling us what could happen if nothing changed, not a single thing, between now and when the cliff is projected to happen, number one. Number two, I do think we should keep the bond discussion conceptually

323distinct in our mind from this. This is not really intended to be an estimate of how the bond work is going to impact. the financial health of the district that's not what this is Andrew, if you tell me if I'm wrong, that's not what this is. So I think of the bond as something we are doing for the long-term fiscal health of the district and the learning environment of our students. I think of this as something that is really intended to be a guide and help us make decisions that we know we have to make as we progress forward in time and make budgets year to year. I just think there are two different things and I think it would be a mistake to look at this and say, oh, we can't do the bond

324workers because look what happens if, I think that would be a mistake. Thank you, Andrew. And thank you for your explanation. It was very clear and very helpful. Is there any sense that the mandate, the EV timing will change? Any sense from Albany that anything's gonna? I think there's definitely political wins that say it'll at least change. I think they've already legislated some waiver exemptions for districts that can't complete the initial transition work. And I think I would anticipate that even on the back end in 2035, that there'll be districts that can't meet the full electrification. Yes, I do think that that's something that will continue. I think there is an exception now, which is partially why I'm recommending so many gas vehicles in these two years. This way we can at least kind of,

325if we need to delay some of those projects, we can get some of those gas vehicles in our fleet now and get them in here before they have to go off the road in 2035 because that's the other piece. Even if there was an exception. four years from now, I don't want to put a six-year-old vehicle off the road in 2035 because we have a mandate that we have to follow. There's a short-term known exception. Let's use it if we have to use it and also maintain our momentum that's on the mandate that we expect to continue. you know kind of as PTC budget study asked do we have target levels you know for some of these reserves of being like tax cert is there is there a place we want to be or do

326we just keep adding so let me I'm just gonna reference the slide so the tax cert reserve is based on Typical exposure, right? And the auditors look at every year based on some of the tax cert activity. It's been low lately, but they do look at it kind of to see are we over-reserved or not there? And they'll make a comment on that. They have not determined that we're over-reserved. So I would say we haven't put money in there. It was because we think we're okay right now. ERS, the plan talks about that. I think we had a target of... I think it's one year's of URS expenditures in our fund balance plan as a target. The self-funded health reserve is really targeted about our annual liability, make sure it's covering that at least, but

327I think that that's even a low estimate. And then our debt service. reserve is tied to funds we have on hand from an old bond. So that's really, we can't grow that anyway. So those are what some of those targets are. It's not as a percentage of the budget. It's really about the context for what they're for. And then just one more question. I don't know if you know this now, maybe something for future for budget discussions. You know, when we were using the fund balance for kind of recurring expenses, that was kind of a... flag for me and I know for a lot of us at the last budget cycle what do other districts do with their fund balance when they budget or do you feel like they're pulling a lot are they pulling

328like we were are they pulling more than we were I'm just curious about best practices with fund balance there's a host of answers that like that weighs district districts manage them some districts are incredibly tight in their budgeting and they Don't use fund balance right other districts are a little more loose But every year they put a whole bunch of money back in fund balance because they know they're gonna have savings So it really is kind of a circumstance of what is the the budgeting? philosophy of the district but also about the financial circumstances of the district that you have to take into consideration so I don't really have a general rule either my own personal experience in different districts or kind of in my colleagues conversations thank you I should correct myself, the funding

329level question on the retirement contribution reserve, we've got, we should not exceed three years worth of the anticipated expenses for the retirement system contributions. That's our funding level target. Leah, that data is something Westpac collects annually. I'll reshare like the last year's one where you see each of the districts and how much of their appropriated fund balance they're assigning to the subsequent year's budget. and caution with that data you might not know by looking at the summary level is what are they using it for right so so an example is our own district where we increased that fund balance used by ninety thousand dollars to cover the professionals that you saw here tonight um that's a one-time expenditure that we we budgeted some districts may have those in their numbers but then when that expense

330goes away the fund balance goes away are we ready to move on to the next uh agenda item this one's andrew okay it's a policy purchasing regulation 6700 our second reading all right this is the increase in the the threshold related to the three quotes that we talked about last board meeting sorry I'm close my agenda the discussion points no different than last meeting So we looked at several of our neighboring school districts and tried to gauge what other districts are doing in terms of the The three verbal quotes, three written quotes, and we made a recommendation here that for commodities and services that are under $5,000, no alternative quote is required unless requested by the purchasing agent. So it does give the purchasing agent some ability to push back and ask for more information.

331$5,000 to $19,999 would require three written quotes. And for public works, again, under $5,000, there'd be no. alternative quotes between 5 and 10,000 in public works, which is really facilities projects around the district. There would be three verbal quotes, which would be maintained by the folks that are purchasing. And then 10,001 to 3499, three written quotes would be required, and then anything over either the $20,000 threshold for commodities or services or the $35,000 for public works would require a formal bid. Any questions? If not it will be an action item later tonight We have three gift proposals the next three items are all to Fox Meadow they're here because they're in excess of $1,000 the first is kindergarten harmonized kids program it's a sort of social-emotional learning enrichment activity for that grade level I'll just

332do all three and then we can take any questions. The second one is for a second grade field trip to Westchester Children's Museum. And the third one is for indoor recess games and toys for third grade students. All generously offered by the PTA. Any questions on those gifts? I think so. Okay. On to proposed new textbook action item. Yeah, is that Leah? Yeah. Thank you. I move that the board adopt the following resolution resolved that the board approves the new SHS English textbooks as presented Thank You Leah is there a second Thank You amber any discussion all those in favor please say aye no one's opposed the motion carries I think next is Laura I move that the board accepts the following resolution resolved that the Board of Education adopts the attached to regulation 6700R

333purchasing with revisions as presented Thank You Laura is there a second Suzy thank you any discussion all those in favor please say aye aye no one is opposed and the motion carries So now we're moving on to gifts and I think Susie is the first one. Thank you, Jim. I move that the board accept the following proposed resolution resolved that the board accept with thanks the gift of $4,694 for grade level grants as described in the linked and attached letters. Thank you, Susie. Is there a second? Okay, Leah. Thank you. Any discussion? All those in favor, please say aye. no one is opposed the motion carries with thanks I believe the next one is Amber yes Thank You Jim I move that the board adopt the following resolved that the board accept with thanks the

334gifts of one thousand seven hundred seventy five dollars for the 2025-26 school year to support the purchase of a third grade trip for five classes toward Pound Ridge to participate in their Native American program as presented in the attached letters Thank You Amber is there a second hey Bob thank you any discussion All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. No one is opposed, and the motion carries with thanks. Bob is the next one. I move that the board accept the following resolution. Resolve that the board accept with thanks the gift of $354 for buses for second graders to take a field trip to the Scarsdale Police Department as described in the attached letters. Thank you, Bob. Is there a second? Laura, thank you. Any discussion? All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. And

335that motion carries with thanks. And we are now to our second public comment of the evening. I do not believe there is anybody in the audience to give a live public comment. Well, I mean, I think the people who are in the audience are not here to give public comment. That's what I really meant to say. Well, they did, and now that's over. And so how about Zoom? Is there anybody on Zoom? Okay, let's bring them up. Just a reminder to turn on your camera, mute the live stream, and then unmute it. Hi, good evening. Hopefully you all can hear me. I first really, really wanted to... I really, really wanted to thank Mr. Lennon. Anybody who knows me in Scarsdale. Oh, by the way, this is Maida Kirkendall Rodriguez, Fox Meadow Road. Anybody who

336knows me in town knows that I have been advocating for a long-term financial plan, both in the Scarsdale School District, so Mr. Lennon, I can't thank you enough, and also in the village. This is incredibly important what you're doing, Mr. Lennon and your team, because we really need to put a mirror up in front of our face and really, you know, think about all of these issues in terms of what everybody in this village would like in terms of. the you know all the budget priorities not just for this year but the coming years as well as the the bond um and and really the the purpose of a long-term financial plan is to ensure financial stability and in this case for the for the financial for the school district and that's a very laudable

337and a very important goal um a long-term financial plan is a living and breathing tool. It's going to be changing all of the time because the macro environment changes, the needs of the community in terms of the school change, all of those factors that you all have discussed tonight, you know, the different health care costs, all of these issues are changing all the time. So as much as I love numbers and as much as I love financial models, this is art. And so, yes, all of the assumptions are going to be changing. But The budget and the bond and the long-term financial plan are not living in separate planets. They're all incredibly interconnected. So I get very concerned when I hear anyone say that, well, you know, this isn't going to be what's going to

338happen. Yeah, you're right. We don't know what's going to happen. We need to be looking at all of the assumptions that Mr. Lennon and his team are putting together. And we should be thinking about how this influences the budget. and the bond and there's a tremendous amount of uncertainty in the assumptions that are in that plan in terms of tax levy, state aid, all the kinds of expense assumptions. For example, I saw a number there of 2% for supplies and materials. I certainly would love to know more the rationale where that 2% is coming. I saw CPAI at 1%. I don't know how it can be that low. So if anybody says that we shouldn't be thinking of of this long-term financial plan as a sort of gloom and doom the reality is that i

339personally unfortunately think that things are far far worse because what you all are looking at right now in these numbers is what we call a base case scenario this isn't even stress tested so The next step, given all the effort that Mr. Lenin and team have put in, is to now do the stress test. That's usually the next step for a long-term financial plan is to do serious economic stress tests. And, you know, the gentleman in the blue blazer, and I can't think of, I don't know what his name was, but he talked about Canada and Mexico, meaning the U.S.'s two largest trade partners, you know, the ones that are serious Trump tariff. targets yes we need to stress test what happens if prices continue to go up with all of the geopolitical risk and

340what can happen with all the trade supply disruptions it's going to impact the budget it's going to impact any of the bands and the bonds so again thank you for doing this work and the next step definitely is is stress testing because unfortunately i think that the many of the issues here are far worse than what we're seeing here And I'd love to be wrong, and if I am, you know where to find me. You can just send me an LOL. But right now, I think this needs to be stress-tested. I think that the numbers are far worse. Thank you for your help. Have a good night, everybody. Is there anyone else on Zoom? All right. So we're going to close public comment. And unless we have some address anything that was said. If not,

341we will just go to that. Just one point of clarification. The 1% number I think that was referred to is the tax-based growth factor that I presumed in the tax cap, not CPI. It's on the revenue slide of the long-range financial plan. We talked about CPI and the growth factor, 2%, which is the maximum, and 1.0098%, which is that three-year average of the tax-based growth factor, both of which are components of the tax cap calculation. So meeting dates. Okay, the meeting dates for the upcoming month on Wednesday, November 19th We have our board coffee at 10 a.m. In this room on Thursday December 4th as our second board coffee at 7 p.m In this room on Monday, December 8th There's a special meeting executive session at 6 p.m. In this room and on Monday, December

34215th We have a special meeting with the Scarsdale principals association at 5 p.m. In the Learning Commons then a special meeting executive session if needed at 6 p.m. in the high school in this room and then the education report business meeting at 6 30 in this room isn't there a meeting with the village next week I don't think yeah maybe you want to announce that just because I'm meeting with the village next Tuesday Tuesday the 25th at 5 30 5 30 which will be a village hall village hall okay with that entertaining motion to adjourn for the evening Oh amber thank you a second Susie thank you any discussion all those in favor please say aye no one is opposed we are adjourned