BOE Business Meeting 2025-10-6

001I would like to say for all of our Jewish neighbors, students, colleagues, and friends, and those celebrating Chag Samach, or happy holidays. In this meeting, we look forward to continuing our discussion of the proposed bond project as we focused on what projects are to be included and which are not. It is worth reminding ourselves the proposed bond work is the result of a steering committee composed of community members, parents, educators, board of education members and students, which undertook a process over several months and multiple meetings guided by our architectural firm, BBS Architects, of reviewing in a detailed way the capital needs of the district to address much needed repair and renovation work. involving all seven of our buildings as well as our playing fields. The resulting proposal is now before us and as we indicated

002during our last meeting, we believe it is of vital importance to put the proposal before the broader community and to encourage public review and comment on it. To that end, the district has scheduled two listening sessions in the coming weeks, one in this room on Thursday, October 16th at 7.30 p.m. and one via Zoom on Thursday, November 6, also at 7.30 p.m., where the community will have an opportunity to ask questions and offer their opinions. In addition, the district will be launching a detailed survey designed to capture the community's reaction to various components of the proposal, including its overall cost. We very much hope that everyone will participate in this process to the fullest extent possible. Your voice is important. I also want to share, and I'm pleased to share, that for this fall we

003have scheduled two board coffees, which are scheduled currently for Wednesday, November 19th, 2025 at 10 a.m., and Wednesday, December 3rd at 7 p.m. That latter for those who may work or otherwise find the evening time more convenient. Both coffees will be held in this room, 170-172. Please join us, and we look forward to meeting you. I'll turn it over to Drew thank you very much Jim I appreciate it good evening and allow me to add my welcome to all tuning in to tonight's Board of Education meeting as well School Board Recognition Week is next week October 13th through 17th across New York State the New York State School Boards Association an organization we are a member of sponsors this week as a way of recognizing school board members for their commitment to New York State

004public school children it serves as an opportunity to raise community awareness and understanding about the crucial role school board members play within their respective school communities tonight I'd like to take a few minutes to recognize the contributions of our Board of Education members including our student Board of Education members Our seven Scarsdale School Board members and two ex officio student board members start their service by taking an oath to uphold the Constitution of the United States and that of the state of New York. but as they each know this is only a small part of the work while the public board meetings and events are visible to all their service as volunteers who provide thoughtful responsive governance for the education of our youth encompasses far more than those public activities and indeed extends deep below

005the surface Board members engage in training, serve on committees, act as liaisons, read contracts, memos, and resumes, learn together in board retreats, engage with community members throughout the village and the schools, and much, much more. Their service to the public is demanding, and they're dedicated to improving the education we provide to our students. They serve as a vital connection between the community they represent the educators who work toward our vision of a resilient and adaptable learning community that fosters the potential of students and adults alike to live well-balanced lives full of meaning purpose impact and joy in recognition of your service we're pleased to present you each with the certificate of recognition from NISBA we've also included a small symbol of appreciation The pumpkin in your bag is a reminder of the bounty that comes

006as a result of the hard work of cultivation. In your case, the cultivation of teaching and learning in Scarsdale schools and the impact it has on the growth and development of all of our students. On behalf of a grateful school community, thank you for your service. Okay, and I'll close my opening comments with just some important dates to note. Today is the Mid-Autumn Festival. It's observed by millions of people across East Asia on the 15th day of the eighth month of the lunar calendar. Today, as Jim pointed out, also marks the beginning of Sukkot, known as the Feast of Tabernacles or Feast of Booths, which is a Torah-commanded Jewish holiday celebrated for seven days in autumn. Monday, October 13th, is Columbus Day and Indigenous Peoples Day, and our schools will be closed on that day

007for students. And October 20th is Diwali. Schools will be closed on that day for students as well. And I want to acknowledge all in our community who observe the Hindu Festival of Diwali, which celebrates the victory of good over evil, light over darkness, and knowledge over ignorance. And with that, I turn it back to you, Jim. Thank you. Thank you very much Drew and thank you for that very touching tribute and the gifts that you provided I'm sure everyone on the board is very appreciative of that and I hopefully speak for them when I say thank you so much for that It's nice to be recognized once in a while for the volunteer activities We are now into our board member reports. I believe So it's Susie. I think has a report Thank you, Jim.

008On September 30th, Amber, Laura, and I attended a Scarsdale Adult School class featuring guest speaker Scott Levy and his new book, Why School Boards Matter. A past Scarsdale School Board president, Pam Pura, was in attendance as well. Mr. Levy is adjunct lecturer at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and is currently serving his fourth term on the Byram Hills School Board, where he served a number of years as president. He is also an ex-officio board member for the Westchester Putnam School Board Association for which he has also served as president. I have heard him speak as a keynote speaker at NSPA's Officers Convention last year as well as at West Putt's annual business meeting in the spring. Thank you to the Scarsdale Adult School for hosting and to Mr. Levy for coming to Scarsdale to

009speak and share his experience and perspective with our community. Why do school boards matter? Mr. Levy's presentation provided some fascinating history and data regarding school boards in our country. And the role of school boards have both changed over time and continue to face similar challenges as in the past. For chronicling that push and pull of local versus state control, for example. Being a school board member, I very much appreciate Mr. Levy's affirmation that school boards actually do matter. As being at the local level, school boards can engage in person, affirming our common humanity in civil discourse and help bring communities together in the shared goal of benefiting our children. School board meetings serve as forums of democracy at work, supporting our public school system to our society's common good. I have the book with me

010if anybody would like to take a look while we're on break. Thank you. Thank you, Susie. Amber, I believe you have a report. I do. Thank you, Jim. One of the most rewarding parts of serving on the Board of Education is seeing the talented work of our students firsthand. I have the privilege of reporting tonight on two student activities, one in the arts and one in athletics. Two weeks ago, along with Leah, I had the opportunity to watch our Scarsdale Raiders varsity football team handily defeat Suffern 50-0. Yes, 5-0-0. the homecoming game. The weather was perfect, the crowd was loud, and we are all proud of our athletes. Congratulations to the team and coaches for their win. Last week, Susie and I visited the first exhibition of the Positive Space Gallery in room 277 at

011the high school. The photographs were curated and installed by members of the Creative Photography Club. The club meets Fridays at 2 15 in room 206 and always welcomes new members. parents will have an opportunity to see new student artwork during the parent-teacher conferences in the positive space gallery and I encourage everyone to take a moment to stop by the gallery in room 277 to see this talented students work thank you thank you very much amber and I will report on the sorry did you have something you want to say sorry go ahead Colleen Sorry, thank you Jim. Just really quickly. I just have a an announcement from the safe coalition on the upcoming unity day Founded in 2011 by Pacers National Bullying Prevention Center unity day is a national observance dedicated to raising awareness around

012bullying and promoting the core values of kindness acceptance and inclusion This year unity will take unity day will take place on Wednesday, October 22nd On this day, individuals across the country are encouraged to wear orange, a color chosen to symbolize visibly. visibility, safety, and unity. By wearing orange, we send a powerful message of support to those who have been affected by bullying and affirm our commitment to create inclusive and respectful environments. Unity Day serves as a reminder that we are stronger when we stand together. It is an opportunity to show solidarity with those impacted by bullying and to foster communities where everyone feels safe, supported, and valued. As a coalition committed to preventing school-based, community-based, and interpersonal violence, the SAFE Coalition respectfully asks for your support and participation on this year's Unity Day initiative. Thank

013you, Colleen. And now I'll get to my board report, which is about the Quaker Ridge ribbon-cutting ceremony for the Courtyard Garden at that school, which was a beautiful ceremony. It took place Wednesday, October 1st, 2025 at 11 p.m. I was joined by Colleen, Leah, and Susie. And it was just wonderful to see the children there, so excited at the opening of the garden. just really overcome with joy to see all of that. It was a beautiful ceremony, beautiful event, and really, really great to see it. So just wanted to make a mention of that. And I think with that, we come to our student board members. Thank you, Mr. Dugan. So last time we talked about how September 15th, our last meeting, all of the Scarceville schools, specifically the high school, implemented a policy that...

014Prior if you had your phone out it would just get a warning But now you would get it taken away And so since then we've seen that I guess the deterrent quality of this policy has worked Whether it be in the hallways and libraries during free periods the phone usage has definitely gone down And like we discussed last meeting, how for similar policies like the off and away for the day phone caddies, how it took some time to get used to the growing pains and to get acclimated before it became a successful system, I think we see that happening pretty clearly with this new phone policy. So I think that's a good sign, one, because kids are subconsciously doing it, finding it to be a better alternative, or second, that they're wary of getting their

015phone taken away as well. So I think it has been a successful policy thus far. So I'd like to add two weeks ago I had the privilege to represent Skarsgård High School as one of four student ambassadors at the Round Square International Conference in Dubai. Round Square, for those who might not know, is an organization focused on bringing together students from different countries and different backgrounds to foster cross-cultural connection and help students build leadership skills. Each year their international conference is in one of the 50 countries that their 280 plus member schools reside in. And interestingly, Scarsdale is actually the only public school in the entire conference, so go us. This conference was mainly focused on three of the six round square ideals. It was service, environmentalism, and adventure. I thought it was such a

016cool and meaningful experience. I got to meet so many different students from so many different countries and make great friends who hopefully I can keep in contact with in the future. Through this conference, I feel better suited to engage in meaningful discussion, focused on understanding, to combat global warming, and to find ways to relate to people whose lives are so drastically different from my own. And on a final note, as we start looking towards community engagement specifically for student perspective, we've been talking about how we're going to use the school's newspaper, Maroon, specifically their digital edition. And so we have that all settled. And so this meeting will be the first one featured in our, I guess you can call it ex-officio update. And so we'll summarize the meeting, tell our thoughts, say how that

017specifically impacts the students. I think it could be. relevant since we're talking about the bond now and once we get our report audited and looked at by the board as well as the cabinet and district offices would be good to go and that should be coming out in a couple of weeks that's all we have and I think there we move on to cabinet updates yeah we'll start with Edgar hi I'm happy to invite people to the October 27th educational report where we're going to be focused on assessments in which I'll review some important metrics, college acceptance, standardized measures, the ACT, the SAT, also third through eighth standardized measures in the New York State exams in English, math, and science. But then I'll focus on the May 2025 Tri-State Consortium visit. where we asked the

018visiting team the question, to what extent do our assessments align with our values as a community as defined through our strategic plan? The visiting team of peer experts looked through hundreds of assessments, kindergarten through 12th grade, across all disciplines, and presented commendations for our good work and recommendations for next steps. So at the educational report, I'll describe how our district is building on our strengths and acting on recommendations to continue to grow and how we design and engage assessments to measure what matters. Thank you, Edgar. Any questions for Edgar? Okay, and the second report will be from Andrew. So first I'd like to talk about our Food Service Committee update. On September 30th, the Food Service Committee met, and as a reminder, the Food Service Committee is made up of members from each of the

019building PTAs, the PTC, administrators from the elementary, middle, and high school, as well as representatives from Chartwell's K-12, our food service management company, Tara Cook and I from the district, and our consultant from HMB Consulting. During the meeting, we provided the committee with an overview of... brief overview of the history of our program here in Scarsdale as well as some updated information on the National School Lunch Program which will be a large part of their time this year as a committee trying to evaluate whether or not we would recommend participating in that program and thereby the universal free meals that are available in New York State. We reviewed a timeline of the work for the committee, and we focused on four key areas, menu and food offerings, operations and administration impacts of becoming part of

020the plan, financial analysis, and stakeholder communication. And we did spend quite a bit of time talking through all the nuance, and I believe we laid out a very good plan to be able to meet our targeted recommendation to the board in January or February of 2026. So we plan accordingly. It's very early in the work, but I think we have a plan to make a solid recommendation that's informed by all our stakeholders. Any questions about the Food Service Committee? Go ahead. Thank you for that update, Andrew. And actually, it's kind of crazy because I did serve on the Food Service Committee at one time, but could you remind me who's on the Food Service Committee? So it is the representative from each of the building PTAs. Their executive committee are also invited. Members of the

021PTC, administrators from each of the levels, elementary, secondary, and high school. Our food service management company sits on the committee as well. Tara Cook and I. And then our consultant from H&B Consulting. Great. Thank you. So we've got parent representation from every building on that committee. Wonderful. Thank you. You're welcome. So the food service, if for some reason we went with this kind of universal lunch. Would that be cooked on premises or do we just receive meals to, is storage more important than cooking? Will it shift our whole program or is that something you're talking about? So that's part of what we're going to investigate this year and try to articulate for ourselves and for the broader community what would it take for us to be able to do this successfully. So there is an

022avenue of investigation that we will take on what are the facility's impacts. in order to do this what are the meal preparation impacts what's the logistical challenges that we would have based on a perceived increase in participation or not and see how that impacts everything so we don't have an answer for you on that it's going to be part of our investigation throughout the first half of the school year okay thank you you're welcome the next update is um we dr patrick and i recently participated in a ratings call with moody's the rating agency that puts a credit rating on each of our bond issuances. Following that call, Moody's reaffirmed their AAA rating on our existing bond debt and also rated our auditorium bond as a AAA rating. And that bond was actually open for

023bidding and bids were received on the 30th, I believe that was, September 30th. We end up getting 13 bidders for... that bond which is really really high participation in my experience and I think it's reflective of the high credit rating of our pond and the interest rate total interest cost is 3.11 percent it's amortized over the 15 year period of that bond that's a very very good interest rate for four point seven five million dollars which is what we went out to borrow so we're really happy about that and that's a good a good result for our auditorium bond which is finally wrapping up feels like I've been talking about it every board meeting since I've been part of the district And then the last thing I just wanted to share with the board is

024a delay in our audit report. We were intending to talk about our audit this evening, but we did not do that. As part of the annual financial audit, we're required to obtain an actuarial report related to our health plan, and it gets incorporated into the government-wide financials under the area called Other Post-Employment Benefits, or OPEB. This year, we transitioned to a BOCES service for actuarial work there. It provided us both with cost savings. as well as state aid that we would get on it. So it was really just a no-brainer for us for that work. Unfortunately, due to that transition, there was a lot more questions than normal, and there was some delays in getting that actuarial report back to us and to our auditors. So that put our auditors behind schedule, and they were

025not able to develop the draft. additionally statewide the employees retirement system was late in issuing a report similar to the OPEB report and that affected all school districts so right around the Jewish holidays our auditors were being kind of really asked to do a lot of work and we had time to be able to review this with our board on 27th so we we expect a draft report later this week Lisa and I will review it, develop a management discussion analysis which has to go into those documents, and we will have it for the board on October 27th board meeting. Happy to answer any questions. Did Moody's look at our reserves as part of their analysis? Yep, yep. They were satisfied with the reserves we have on hand at the moment. They did note that

026if reserves continue to decline over time or if our debt burden goes significantly higher or if economic conditions impact. community right we have a high wealth high income community there's a noted decline in that aspect of the rating then there could be credit rating impacts they would not articulate exactly what that could be or what threshold would have to hit but they did not appear alarmed at the information we shared but they they did know that those are the types of things that would result in a credit adjustment And just one more question. How often do you speak with Moody's, like during a given year? Yeah, so not often. From time to time, they will reach out to do a credit reaffirmation. So if we have existing debt, which we do, they may sometimes reach

027out to us. But in this instance, because we were issuing new debt, we actually solicited them to perform a rating of this new bond debt. And in that process, they both... address the new bond as well as the existing debt outstanding. You're welcome. Thank you. Okay, thank you. Moving on to item three, hearing from those present, and I will go over the preamble for that. 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 it 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

028minutes and will be given a verbal cue at the three-minute mark. If at this point the speaker has additional comments, they may send them in writing to the board via email at boardofedscarsdaleschools.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 comments and questions at its discretion, either during the 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 audience who would like to make a public comment? Please step up to the podium. Hello members of the Board of Education. My name is Jackie Neimer. I live at 161 Webster Road and I'm speaking as a representative

029of Edgewood but as the current PTA co-president. What I wanted to discuss was we held our first PTA meeting a few weeks back and all 55 members that were in attendance unanimously were displeased with the current capital projects bond proposal. We'd like an answer on the intention of the special educations program and we truly believe that's an integral part of the education for all students at Edgewood as a collective for both the diversification as well as Mitigating the cart situation which has been proposed. Thank you. Okay. Thank you Is it any other members in the audience wish to speak? okay thank you I don't think anyone else does is there anyone attending via zoom there are no attendees on zoom let's give that another minute so with that I think we moving on to written

030communications item five yeah I would just say first of all for just the general reminder public comment is a not a dialogue so it sometimes can feel awkward that someone comes up and is seeking a response we do try to do it at this moment in time after all the public comment is over I think the important thing with respect to Edgewood and all of the feedback we've gotten so far that that is what we're seeking it's that kind of feedback we are in a learning and discussion phase of this process tonight we're gonna just do a little review and deeper dive in a couple of the areas before our public information sessions start in a couple of weeks or next week next week yeah and this is the point this is why we're doing

031this so we appreciate all the input it's going to help inform both the board's thinking I'm sure and the district administration's decision-making and recommendation-making around this this process but importantly nothing has been decided okay and I think with that we move on to item five written communications please know that the board of education email is also viewed by the superintendent and district clerk open meetings law requires all board deliberations which may lead to action or policy changes to occur in public therefore your written communication and emails will be reported at an upcoming public board 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 the written communications

032received by the Board of Education may be found in today's meeting agenda located in board docs on the Scarsdale schools district website okay and this between our last meeting and now we received 27 emails on district matters and five emails on board matters highlights and or invitations okay thank you Colleen and with that we're moving into the item six the consent agenda and I will read the preamble to that. The board may conduct some of its business using a consent agenda in an effort to achieve greater efficiency at board meetings. A consent agenda condenses some of the routine business of the Board of Education into 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

033the consent agenda when the officers of the board and the 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 same at the meeting. The exempted item then moves to the regular agenda. However, all 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, I believe we move on to the consent agenda, and that is Leah. Thank you, Jim. Tonight there are 10 items on the

034consent agenda. Item 7.01, minutes, business meeting, September 15, 2025. 7.02, personnel certified. 7.03, personnel non-certified. 7.04, claims audit report, September 2025 payments. 7.05, draft budget calendar. 2026-2027 7.06 board committees for district school visits 7.07 letter of intent girls varsity ice hockey 7.08 2025-26 state and federal grants 7.09 appropriation of irs clean vehicle tax credit and 7.10 accept consent agenda i move that the board accept the consent agenda as presented Thank you, Leah. Any second? Thank you, Susie. Any discussion? All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? The motion carries. Thank you. With that we move on to item 8 which is the the first item for our information and Discussion this evening is the capital projects bond update. So I'll turn that over to Drew. Okay Thank you very much. I appreciate that

035and we appreciate the opportunity to continue our discussion about the capital projects planning process So tonight's presentation will really be in five parts it sounds long, but it's Kind of smooth moves through that we'll discuss the public feedback process We've developed Jim started talking a little bit about that in his opening comments, but we'll give we'll reiterate those details Andrew is going to provide sort of a bond 101 overview how we determine what is funded by budgets and what is funded by bonds and Share some history of our capital work in the past We'll discuss some of the building conditions projects that are in the proposal, including information related to the building management system, or BMS. We'll share proposed work scope for Edgewood and the middle school that was not recommended for inclusion in this

036bond, based on our conversation last time, and then review next steps. So I won't... I meant to put those five things up there while I was talking and forgot but I'm not gonna linger on these next two slides but I just do want to remind the board and community that this work is in service of our vision and mission and strategic plan goals and an important board goal which is to support participate in the planning and development of a bond proposal that addresses the current and future needs of our school facilities and programs while accounting for the anticipated decline in debt service following the 2026-27 school year. So I just think it's important to keep those things out there. Okay, on to the feedback process. So as a reminder, one of the guiding principles centered

037on stakeholder engagement in the process outlined feedback loops. So as we continue down the road of scope definition, We're at the point of seeking public feedback, public input, after engaging a larger stakeholder committee that developed an understanding of our conditions and needs and made recommendations. So in order to support public engagement, one of the things we've done is established a bond website that will collect relevant documents, presentations, and reports and highlight key developments throughout the process. The site can be accessed through the facilities page under departments or through popular links which is highlighted in yellow here. It's now listed there. or if you can remember this by visiting www.scarsdaleschools.org forward slash bond 2026 so those are three ways to get there and then of course we've also scheduled public feedback sessions that Jim referred to

038earlier so as a reminder the first of those sessions is in this room on October 16th It's actually at 7 p.m. I think you said 7.30, Jim, but we're going to start at 7. And the session will begin with a brief overview of the process and recommendations to date. We won't replicate that 45-minute presentation of September 15th. I don't think that's a great use of time. That is available on the bond page. Thank you to Ben and Mike. They cut it out, separated that segment of video from the board meeting, and you can just watch that. to get that whole thing so that's a prominent link on that page but we will provide a brief overview and then provide opportunity for members of the public to visit stations for each school that has sort of

039the proposed scope of work from that school also things that maybe were considered but not recommended and district administrators and our consultants and potentially some of the members of the steering committee will be around to answer questions and listen and and board members to the extent you're able to be there can kind of hear that and we'll conclude that evening by sharing a survey which will also be sent out to the to the public and as Jim alluded to earlier that survey will be an opportunity for everyone to kind of take in what they've seen or heard or we will in that survey link provide a short video summary of what's going on in case people aren't able to come to the session or didn't watch the initial discussion and then give give their give

040their feedback we are planning to ask our community partners to help us disseminate that survey to maybe constituents that are a little harder for us to reach as the school district empty nesters or maybe families who don't yet have kids of school age so we'll try to get broad dissemination of that survey as you see on the slide there'll be a second public input session on November 6 also at 7 p.m. but that will be held via zoom to provide different level of accessibility to people. We'll modify the aforementioned format to the digital environment, but we'll lead with any new or updated information that we have by that time. And then we'll share more about how and when we will share and use the feedback from those sessions at the end of tonight's presentation when

041we discuss next steps. Okay, so as previously mentioned, the bond website includes several key documents. These include the building condition survey or facility study, the recommendations made last board meeting on September 15th, last year's joint field and court study. Thank you for that recommendation from one of our board members. I had forgotten to put that on there, but that appears now along with the appendix. and our previous planning updates to the Board of Ed. I want to take a second to walk through how to locate, this is a little how-to for people, how to locate the building conditions survey items that were recommended to be included in the bond on those summary slides that we showed, and I'm going to walk through this, and then the actual facility study. So what you see in this

042slide on the left is a screenshot of a page of the very long facility study. that lists out items in one of several categories. This happens to be architectural items, but there are architectural items, HVAC items, plumbing items, electrical items, and site slash building envelope items. And it's the first letter of each of those that is key. So for architecture, the first letter is A. And I just happened to pick this item. Item number two, highlighted in the red box, says install ADA grab bars at four toilet rooms in the new wing. This happens to be Fox Meadow. Install door operator at faculty room for ADA. Replace sink cabinet at faculty room for ADA. $55,000. What we showed in the slides is a condensed version of that. So to the right appears what... what we

043showed on the September 15th presentation and that's listed under the second column BCS as a dash to the a stands for architectural the two stands for item number two in the list you might see h4 H4 is the HVAC section of the report item number four in that section. So just so you can go back and forth as needed to try to understand what's in that more abbreviated list. Does that make sense? Let me pause there and see. It's just a little coding there to figure that out. Okay, I'm gonna turn, so that's our quick review of the feedback process. I'm gonna turn it over to Andrew. So, we've been talking so much about this project. There's so much detail. We really did feel it was important, though, to kind of take a step back

044and make sure everyone's using the same terminology because it could become overwhelming, quite honestly. So, for those of you that are familiar with this, it's going to feel a bit remedial, and I apologize for that. But if you would, just please bear with me for a few moments. We wanted to talk about... Phrases or terms you're gonna hear repeatedly over the next several months and just make sure that when there's nuance you understand what that nuance is or when there's an underlining assumption that you've got this as background so First one's very simple debt service. We talked about it all the time here It is the principal and interest payments that the district would be obligated to pay in future years for a bond referendum State aid sometimes used interchangeably with Sorry building aid interchangeable

045with state aid. It is a subset of state aid It is tied directly to the voter approved projects that we get a CD approval on and it gets amortized over a useful life of the of the Project so it could be 15 years or 20 years depending on the type of project we go through We are using planning numbers for this work that we're doing to assume what the ultimate impact is on the district. We're assuming that our current state aid ratio of 19.5% remains valid. We are assuming that 95% of the work that we're asking the voters to approve will be aidable work. And there's another term you may hear later on in the process, which is the maximum cost allowance. That is another way to say something that beyond that, the state is

046going to say, you can do it, but you wouldn't get aid on it. So just want to make sure that we've talked about what some of these terms are. If you hear the term local share, it really is the debt minus the building aid we get, and that would be the tax levy impact, right? So it's all connected. We've spent a lot of time, and Dr. Patrick just had a slide up with dollars on it. Talking about project costs that is different than the resulting debt service cost, right? It's obvious when I say it that way, but but sometimes it gets lost in the in the conversation So we will spend a lot of time talking about project cost in terms of scope development and what we're asking the voters to approve The result of

047that bond is the debt service that we will be estimating But we will not know until the actual bonds get sold sometime in the future We've talked quite a bit about a tax-neutral version of a capital project that really is intending to mean the... tax levy impact that's offset by building aid that's already existing in our annual budget. And when that debt falls off in the future, we would be trying to replace that. So it would be tax neutral. We recognize that anything we do is not tax neutral. It does have a cost, right, to our community. But it is our way of planning through that. So when you hear the word tax neutral, that's what we're talking about. It is important to note sometimes even in the budget making process that the budget is

048different than the levy, right? The levy being the budget minus all the various revenue sources we have including state aid. And then the tax cap is certainly something that we spend much more time talking about during the budget process. But the tax cap has an exclusion in it that has to do with capital improvement work. The debt service payments that we would incur in future budget years is part of the exclusion in the tax cap. And I'll talk more about capital appropriations work in a moment. Those expenditures, project costs, would be an exemption in the tax cap. So they're two different items, both exclusions in the tax cap. And we do talk often that it is a property tax cap, which tells us what the threshold would be. for voter approval of the budget. If

049we're beyond the levy limit, then we need a super majority. If we're at or below, it's a simple majority vote to pass our annual school budgets. It has nothing to do with the bond vote. It's the school budgets. I should stop there, just make sure the board is comfortable with all those terms. Okay. Leah, go ahead. Just to clarify again, and I understood it, but for the community, I think it's helpful to understand. So the levy is what we're taxing the taxpayers, right? That's what we're raising from taxes. So we will choose an amount with the bond, right? Vote on it. Correct me if I'm wrong on any of this. And then you're levying. You're going to get some stuff in building aid, some funding in building aid, and that's not part of the levy,

050right? That's correct. You levy the rest. Yeah. Right. So I'll talk more about what the authorization does and how that all interplays. But you're right. The levy is the amount left over in an annual budget that we have to ask the taxpayers to fund. Okay. Thank you for the extra clarity. Yeah. No problem. So this is a chart you should all be familiar with. We've used it many, many times since the budget-making process. But this demonstrates, as you can see, that the decline in projected debt service that's part of our budget each year, that following the 26-27 school year, we will have a reduction in our debt service. Not shown here, there's a corresponding building aid reduction that follows in the same amortized fashion with the projects that these projects funded. And we talked about

051that decline as part of our planning exercises resulting in a tax neutral project cost of $40 million. So that orange section that I highlighted there and continuing out for the years beyond is what we're trying to articulate as a tax neutral option. We then provided additional information about what increments beyond that would mean to our community with a million dollars of construction cost resulting in about a $10 per year impact above the $40 million, $10 per year impact on the average assessed house in our community. Every $10 million above the $40 would be about $100 per year. And this is not new. I just wanted to make sure that we're covering it as a background. Then I want to take a few minutes to talk about, this is a side that we talked about last

052time on September 15th, and I won't spend too much time on it, but it really highlights the three primary funding sources for our capital improvement projects, the maintenance budget, the capital appropriation budget, both of which are part of the annual budget vote, and then the capital bond financing option that we have that we've been talking about this year. The maintenance and capital appropriation Appropriation budgets each year are annual commitments. They're one time. They do not bind us to future year expenditures in our budget-making process, whereas the bond financing would mandatory contributions in the budget every single year to pay off that debt. That's an obligation that we would have if the community votes to approve that bond. It's also important to note, so in the bond financing situation, the voters are approving. Two things, a

053scope of work and the associated construction cost that we estimate it to be, and to issue debt to pay for it. Okay, once the voters have approved that bond proposition, we are obligated to include that resulting debt, whatever it may be, in future budgets, right? And we can only do as much work as was approved by the voters up to the dollars that were given to us in project cost. So that's a really important nuance, and we just want to make sure that we talk through that a little bit. I'll spend a little more time on this. We thought it would be important to give some examples of what would go into each bucket, and I wanted to take a few minutes to discuss this. We've simplified this into bond versus annual budget, but note,

054as I said earlier, annual budget could mean the capital appropriations line of the budget or the maintenance department. Bond funding for large-scale projects where we amortize the cost and try to align those costs with the building aid that will flow in subsequent years is really what we try to package in a bond. Building additions are a key example of that, but so are the auditorium project that we did just a few years ago. Equally important are coordinated projects at multiple locations or affecting multiple building systems. That could be broken into smaller projects, but with incremental funding happening year over year, there could be challenges in completing that project in a coherent way. Another project that would benefit from a bond funding are things like the security vestibules that we did a few years ago to

055do that all at once at all of our buildings made a lot of sense we could have done that in smaller pockets over much longer period of time but there would be no guarantee that that work would get completed because of the annual need to get voter approval we talked quite a bit last time about the building management system so I'm going to dwell on this a little bit further here Included in our building condition survey, we identified portions of our building that still had pneumatic controls in our HVAC systems. That is the oldest of controls we have on our building HVAC systems. Other portions of the buildings have been converted to a more efficient digital control system. However, that system has become outdated. We can only repair it through refurbished parts as new parts

056are not currently being manufactured. And the software that it runs on is near end of life. So newer projects that we've done more recently are on yet a third version of that BMS system. The newer sections are what we're targeting to upgrade to, but as we develop this bond scope and if it becomes part of the project, we will certainly look to move that. as far along as we possibly can so we don't find ourselves in this position later on but we'd like to have this in the bond so that we have all the funding necessary to address all the buildings for cohesive consistent implementation across all the buildings the current patchwork system right now which controls all the centralized heating and cooling is it's effective it's working but it's not efficient. It also is

057not efficient for our maintenance department when they try to troubleshoot and address concerns in the buildings. We want to have that updated all at once if we could. On the other hand, smaller projects that don't benefit from economies of scale or are small enough to fit in the annual budget we believe should be included in the annual budget. Examples of projects in recent years are like the SHS auditorium pumps that were small enough that we could implement in the annual budget. The basic replacements that we funded in this year's capital appropriation line for the Fox Meadow playground, which is an example of one building at one time, we were able to fund that. Or even large projects, the scale of which the high school practice turf field. That was a large project, but was able

058to be funded through the annual budget process. Projects we plan to address in future annual budgets should be able to withstand deferral and I will note that as we noted in the BCS process Sometimes it gets to the point with that deferral Rises the issues priority in terms of safety or end of life of a system and could Cycle that project right back to where we are today with some of those things showing up as a priority For bond consideration in the future. So it's an important cycle of what might happen as we defer things So this next slide is just some examples. It's certainly not complete, but we think it is the most representative list of items that we could come up with for major spatial projects that were funded through bonds at each

059of the school buildings. I mentioned a moment ago the security vestibules in 2018's bond. We had a new library at Edgewood in 2014 and the new NPR and some classroom additions in 1998. Fox Meadow had the security vestibules in 2018, new MPR and the kindergarten wings was part of the 1998 bond. 2018, we had new construction and renovation of Green Acres, which we're very proud of. And in 1998, it was then the new MPR, it is now the old MPR at Green Acres was part of that bond. security vestibules at Heathcote in 2018 the new MPR there with small group space in 2014 and in 1998 we had a classroom addition there where the a pod got additional classroom spaces there in Quaker with security vestibules in 2018 and the two-story addition in 2005 that

060was a big addition to that building at the time At the high school, we had the orchestra room addition that happened as part of the 2018 bond. And going back to 2000, fountain houses were added at the top of the hill. So they got a major addition then. In 2023, we had the auditorium bond here at the high school. In 2014, the learning common eye lab, the design lab, the fitness center included some offsetting sources of revenue through private donations. then in 2000 we had the classroom addition the library and the gym addition as well and it's important to note that each of these projects each of these bond projects had other things happening with them that were included in the building condition survey or through other district priorities that needed to get addressed or

061at that time okay so we're on to the section now talking about the middle school and Edgewood spatial projects that were discussed as part of the work of the committee but were not recommended in our last board meeting presentation. So we had used this, the committee used this bucket model to think about must include, should include, on the fence, do not include or defer to the future, so forth. So we're talking about items that the committee's determination was these are valid and important projects but not to be included or to be deferred to the future based on the total needs of the district. So I'm gonna start with middle school. This is the same format that you saw last meeting where you see a line item, you see square footage or some other metric there,

062dollar amount per and then the total cost. What you're going to see here with the middle school, there were two major, two options of the same solution to a problem, basically, an option A and an option B. So this is, we would, even if one of these were recommended, both would never have been recommended because they're solving the same problem. But what it is is essentially building a new cafeteria, dining building or part of the building that would accommodate a full grade level. instead of a quarter of a grade level. So you see here at 36.7 million option A version of that, at 15.2 million in option B version of that. There's the cost of renovate after you build that new building You now have dining for dining rooms that don't need to be dining

063rooms anymore. So renovation associated with turning those into more functional instructional spaces and then the current location of the kitchen would then be able to be reclaimed for instructional or other types of space so that's what these Two versions of one thing and then the two other components are. Just to orient you, this is a view. schematic of the second floor of the middle school. The two of the four houses are in view, the lower ones, Butler and Cooper, and version A of the project proposes building that dining facility connected basically to this space where the library and above it the main office and then the great hall are. So it would be really integrated into the upper part. It's a much more complex construction job because of its location and its integration with existing

064building facilities. Version B would be built down in the courtyard closest to the gymnasium and auditorium. If you drop students off in the lower level by the breezeway, you would have a building there through the breezeway instead of grass. So here are, I mean, these were not fleshed out into serious drawings. This is sort of a vision of what it would look like. And in fact, this was a conversation during the 2018 bond process as well. So on the left, you see version A in two stories. Basically, you're seeing at the bottom, the library level footprint, and then above it, the... the upper level footprint of it. And then you can see version B on the right with version A still there for reference where version B would be. It would be essentially almost a

065freestanding building connected where the current breezeway is. That would be enclosed with a new entranceway and access to it either from the gymnasium side or the auditorium side of the building. So again, I'm just going to go back. Those were the $36.7 million and a $15.2 million. Big difference between those two for those reasons that we stated. Anything you would add to that? On to Edgewood. Similar format here. Proposal for Edgewood. Committee discussed the addition. a new more functional kitchen dining multi-purpose room in conjunction with four new kindergarten rooms And then repurpose the space you built this new space you'd repurpose the space as as it existed so you would repurpose the Current kindergarten space and the current multi multi-purpose room So here's here's let me orient you to this what you're seeing in the

066schematic is the first floor current first floor of Edgewood In blue, in light blue, would be the addition. You see a learning commons at the top, serving, kitchen, toilets, some small group instruction spaces, OTPT, speech, ENL, and then the four new kindergarten classrooms. To the immediate left of that, you see sort of the vertical space. You're recapturing what's currently the multipurpose room. and reorganizing the current kindergarten spaces that are purple there. And then the inset up at the top is like an overlay on a satellite view. So you can see it would be, you can barely make out the current garden in sort of the bottom right of that image, and that's, it would sort of, the footprint would be there. There was conversation, there was an alternative that encroached significantly on the current blacktop

067area and there was very strong feeling that that's a very important space in Edgewood for the kids and that that would not be a desirable location to go for setting up for building but there's only a certain number of places just to point out in the lower left both of the schematic and of the satellite image that is the new recently, fairly recently built library. That's the new library there. So we wanted to share that. Oh, the little image way over to the right is just like the roof line that would be above the Learning Commons and classrooms. So just as a reminder, we've, the committee discussed this addition with sort of the understanding that if the potential exists for enrollment growth at Edgewood that would substantially change the program at Edgewood, drive our music,

068Spanish, and art teachers out of their spaces because they need to be classrooms and onto carts, that that was not something we wanted. But we weren't convinced that the enrollment... is gonna drive that. So that's the conundrum we're in, that we find ourselves in. So I think what we would say is that I think I can speak for the committee when I say there was support for this, recommending this plan, if the substantial change to the existing program was going to be a reality. So I think, as you know, we have a demographic and enrollment study commissioned. My hope, of all hopes, is that it's done before the end of this month, but if not, it'll be certainly ready by our November meeting to kind of help inform us and validate those assumptions sort of

069one way or another. We also, as we heard in public comment tonight, we did make the choice as a community, as a school district, to situate our two eight-to-one classes and our 12-to-one class at Edgewood. That is a decision we could revisit in the future from a space consideration. I completely appreciate the comments about how integrated those classes have become to the Edgewood community. It's very important, very important to us. I think it's my responsibility and the responsibility of the board to consider all of the alternatives and be able to weigh those as... with as much information as possible before making a recommendation so we thought it was important to bring forward these two you you would ask quite a bit about the middle school and we heard a lot about Edgewood that these this

070is what was considered it's not to say this would be the final final final thing if it is included or isn't included there's still more work to be done on all of this but those were the considerations that our committee faced so let me pause there and see if there are any questions on those spatial items before we move on. Leah. Thank you, Drew. So for Edgewood, there's specials like Spanish and music and art. They all have their own classrooms? Currently. Currently. And Fox Meadow, they're on a cart, right? Those don't have their own classrooms? So they're moved around a lot. Right now, they all have their own space. There are spaces being utilized, instructional spaces being utilized that we wouldn't look at and say, that's a classroom. So they've taken space made it the

071best that they could in under the circumstances and so for Edgewood going back to Edgewood the professional the providers like the OT PT speech they have their own spaces They're not there is a space they share Is that right? Some have their own spaces the building level but the consultants do swaps or kind of use the same space and share yeah, okay, and if and if a grade level were to break Would that take space away from any of those providers that you know? Like next year if additional grade levels break with are those are those spaces in jeopardy at all? so Dependent there's a scenario where if we have three additional up to three additional sections yeah we're we're out of room so we're close we're close at Edgewood right now yeah thank you

072and when you look at like I don't know the math behind it but there's the concept of building utilization that the architects think about you know Fox Meadows at our highest utilization Edgewood is up there but by contrast middle school utilization is very very comfortable so the the kind of The project that we discussed at the middle school is solving a very different problem. It's solving the idea of designing a new opportunity for kids who are across four different spaces to come together in a different way, enhance belonging. and create a novel space in each house for new kinds of group instruction. Like there's not that cafeteria space right now is used for lunch. So there are different, there are solutions to different problems, if that makes sense. Yes, I just have a middle school

073question since you mentioned it. So the slide that had the cost amount for middle school, when it showed the $15 million for B. So if we did the $15 million for B, it would be plus the $3,000 approximate. We'd have to renovate those house dining anyway, right, to be new classrooms? So that would be a cost? We wouldn't have to. There's not a utilization demand there, right? And we wouldn't have to renovate the four dining rooms. Okay. But that cost is not on there necessarily at the moment. Yes. The regular cost of the renovate. Say that we did. They're there. Those two costs are right there. But that's like to renovate current house dining, right? So if you're renovating it into a classroom. Right, or into a large group instruction space. Okay, but it's an

074approximate amount. So say we did the $15 million, and then we had to, you know, thought about doing the $3 million. I'm just trying to understand what the actual cost would be if we did do the option A. If you do it all, you're, yeah, so option A is the $36.7 plus those other two amounts. Option B is $15.2 million plus those other two amounts. Okay, that's what I want to understand. If that's a priority, you know, to do that. Can I also tie it back to something I maybe didn't articulate well enough earlier is if we went down the option of the $15 million addition for the cafeteria and said we'll just defer the $3.5 million renovation work to the future, well, we have $1.7 million in our capital line this year. Total. Total.

075How would we choose to do that, and would that become a priority amongst all the other deferred items that we've listed? And then a subsequent board would maybe be asked the same question for the second year of funding. And is it still $3.5 million at that point, or is it more expensive? So it's a challenge. We really think if we were to do this addition, including the existing dining rooms and the renovation work, it just makes the most sense to do it all at once. And said another way, you could say, oh, we could do that in our budget one each year for four years. you can't really bind a future board to do that right other yeah could you go back to the Edgewood proposal so just so I'm clear the the pink or

076the purple lines are what's already there and the blue is the new yes with the exception that where you see the blue and the blue on top of the purple so I don't know if you can see That reflects reconfiguration from what's currently there because that's currently kindergarten and currently a multi-purpose room. Okay, that's great. That's helpful. And I know that Edgewood really does, that courtyard is lovely, but sort of like the middle school where there were two options, sounds like it wasn't even, is there any savings to doing an addition in a different location or was there just too much pushback? from like I'm wondering about using that courtyard so so if that same section of the building that exists now if you're looking at it there's a there's a exterior wall hallway there

077there was conversations amongst the committee that that would potentially make the most sense for a building addition um however there was clear feedback that that courtyard is so vital to the community feeling of the Edgewood community that encroaching in that courtyard would have been a bad idea So they wouldn't consider it. But I think your question was about cost savings. That was where I was going to go. So would there be any cost saving if it was to be considered? Just like there were different options for the middle school. Is there any cost? Because that does seem very separate. Potentially, yes. Potentially, yes. Potentially a saving. Okay. Yeah, no, I'm sure. I've been in that courtyard. It's lovely. But, you know, just thinking about costs right now. So what's key here? Okay, thank you. before

078moving on other questions on this segment yep Thank you both for doing this and it was a lot of work on top of everything else so I appreciate it for so I'm looking at right now in the proposed bond Edgewood is getting a revamp of all the classrooms in the building correct so with this option that is no longer being completed that I mean I'm just like what you know what you've proposed up here I mean in this in this they're separate they're completely separate so what was written the recommended work scope included those classrooms Showing you this does not change the committee's recommendation on that. Right. It is what it is. Right. But the costs on slide 21, those are just for this proposal that was not accepted, correct? Yes. Okay. Yes. I just

079wanted to make sure. Okay. Thank you. Okay, there'll be time, you know for discussion afterward So here I'm just putting up the duplicate slide of what was presented last meeting just to remind the board of the summary total or sum total of recommended work scope That it was in these four different categories What we just talked about with Edgewood in the middle school would be additional to the spatial category here or you'd be discussing You know changes to what is already included there just just to give you the the sense I think it's really important to understand Work is underway has been to under to verify and validate the assumptions and cost estimates that You know were developed for this work so for example We need to make sure we've accounted for all of the

080so-called large instructional spaces that we're proposing to air condition we know there was a few things missed in in that conversation just because it's so complex and we also promised you we would be generating a prioritized list of those large spaces that is under underway another example would be we are combing back through the BCS report in lining up the recommendations that that we shared by category to make sure we haven't omitted or included any projects of a like type across buildings so if we have something say yes we're going to include that in these three buildings did we exclude that in the other four we want to make sure we're coherent and consistent on that and that's just good practice to go back and it was a very Hands-on group and we had a

081lot of a lot of different things so that we are doing that work that work is underway So what you should expect is that later on these numbers will change to some extent as those processes take take place and We aren't going to change this slide until We come to you with a revised recommended scope of work based on input. Okay, so we're gonna live with this for a little while until And ideally, we'll be able to strike that revised scope at the November 17th meeting. That's our goal. So this won't change until that time. This was just another version of that that same slide broken out by school just to remind you and then we also looked at the the distribution in pie chart format so just just wanted to remind you of that

082So finally on to our next steps this slide shows not only the dates of the public feedback sessions that we've talked about quite a bit tonight but also the board meetings that are situated in between there where we'll continue to discuss this so our october twenty seventh meeting will provide a chance for us to share the feedback and discuss the feedback we've received from the first public feedback session in the survey i'm hopeful though not certain that we may have the demographic and enrollment report uh... by that meeting similarly we expect to use the feedback from November 6th to help inform an update at the November 17th board board meeting and indeed we hope to have a somewhat revised scope of work as I just mentioned and we'll provide updated cost estimates as we have

083them at that point in time at the November 17th meeting so that's that's what we have for tonight and we're excited to have discussion and answer more questions Thank you very much Drew. So I think in anticipation of this discussion we did formulate some questions that we are considering kind of using as a guide for discussion. there are like you know basically five questions that we've kind of laid out some of which may have been touched on briefly already and what has been discussed but I think it makes sense to go through them since there was a view that it would be a good idea to structure the conversation appropriately so I think one question I think we're going to start with and this is really directed you know to the board members generally you

084know are we comfortable that the items within the scope of proposed work appropriate for a bond as opposed to being part of an annual budget or some other fundraising effort we did here and you talk about you know, what kinds of things are better for bond work versus what kinds of expenses are better for budget work. I think the question we have as a board, you know, to consider as we look at the bond proposal is, you know, are the items in the bond proposal, you know, the kind of things that are appropriate for a bond, you know, where there'll be a long-term commitment, there'll be the need for a sustained expenditure over a period of time that an annual budget couldn't provide the certainty of. I don't know if there's discussion on this that

085anyone wants to, you know, sort of say that, gee, are there things they're wondering about in that regard? I'm happy to kick us off. Would you mind going back to that slide where Andrew had highlighted sort of the differences, budget versus bond? I think one thing that struck me, Andrew, when you were presenting this was that sometimes I think of putting items in a budget that are more immediate. And so that's where I might ask you, is there anything on this bond proposal list that we think should not be deferred? Because it can take a little time. For example, I think, you know, and this is just a big item, but it was something that struck me, the Edgewood Playground, which we did in the budget for Fox Meadow last year. would be potentially put

086in this bond. And so is that something, are there things like that that we should consider for the budget that are more immediate? So I'd say yes, and knowing this is not a budget presentation, we reserve the right to change things, but one of the things we ultimately think will be in this upcoming budget conversation is our special ed program here at the high school. We're going to need to do some work really quickly, and to tie that work up in a bond discussion. might be challenging. So we do think that that need that will happen here at the high school, we're gonna have that in our capital budget presentation this year. So you're already thinking about things that are not. We pulled that. Oh, you've pulled, okay. From the bond. It was intentionally pulled

087out of this discussion. I will also, as you peruse through the slides, you may see at some of our buildings where there's a BCS recommended item on the slide with a zero dollar amount. That, among many other things. were pulled out of the BCS by the facilities department saying, no, no, no, we're either planning to do that, we should be planning to do that, or we have the annual money to address that need. And there are many, many, many of them. There was one at Ed Jude I saw this afternoon when I was preparing for this. There's several at the high school as well. Yeah, that's a good example. It's just an example where you see a blank right over here on the right, fire hose cabinets, priority one. We've pulled that already as something

088we're going to do. And there's a number of those throughout. Okay, so that whole analysis is already, darn it, we're not saving. We've done a lot of that. Okay. Well, I appreciate that. That's super helpful. Yeah, it's tough because if you've already done that, then this is really the items. I guess one other question then, going back to that building management system, as you put it as recommended for a bond. So what is the value in doing that? Because it is at each individual building that that cost would happen. So why is that better to do all at once versus one building at a time? So one of the key reasons is consistency throughout our buildings. As our custodial staff move around, as our vendors change, it is beneficial to us to have one system

089that's speaking the same language through the same software tool. that is touching all of these air conditioning units, boilers, chillers that we've got recommended in here, right? There's economies of scale in doing that now as opposed to doing it temporarily with good money and then following it later with more money because we have to retrofit a system. We felt that we're at a state now with this patchwork system of three generations of BMS system throughout our entire building and it's not all functioning well all the time. Let's address it once and for all district-wide. We'll still have to maintain it There'll still be adjustments to it in our annual budget for the foreseeable future But one big project to pull it all together I think is the most effective way to address the the challenges

090we have managing our building spaces today So to your question Jim, I think We're not touching fully on air conditioning tonight, but there were some questions I had about should some of these air conditioning Classrooms smaller items be in a budget rather than putting those in a bond So that's maybe something where I'm a little bit. Not sure if we've got That's where something I'd say maybe that's I'd like to consider that for a budget And then I I don't know that we've heard much about fundraising from any of our partners community partners in terms of you know I think we saw there was a three million dollar Efforts back in yet 2014 I don't think we've necessarily seen that enthusiasm so far so I don't see how we could defer something with the thought

091that there might be a partner, unless any of my fellow board members want to chime in on that one. That's where I land. Similar to your air conditioning point, I just wanted to clarify, too, in terms of large space AC, which I know was a consensus point for the committee. Last year we heard a lot about the high school gyms being super hot when the volleyball team was practicing. and if something like high school gym AC is put into this bond where I think it currently is, right, it would take time. That wouldn't be done obviously immediately because as Amber said, there's a process to it. Is that something that we should put in our budget because it's a more immediate urgency or is that something you're gonna discuss when you discuss the air conditioning

092urgency issues at a later meeting? I mean, I think one of the first things that we'll start to do when we have a more Clear scope work for the bond is to start to sketch out logistically. How are we going to move through all the buildings? How are we going to design and procure and install all this work? I mean We should be clear a project of this size that we're recommending could be seven years of work, right? So the funding is is voted upon now, but it'll happen over a period of time. So Do I think the gym AC at the high school is gonna be first on the list? I don't know. I think we'll have to work through some of that. It may make sense to do that, or it may make

093sense to stage that a little bit differently in the schedule. Is that answering your question? Yes, that helps. And then in terms of priority one items, like on the BCS, I just wonder if you could just further emphasize or clarify what does priority one mean, and why would things be designated as priority one? So health and safety items, or building systems that are clearly at the end of their useful life, those really get prioritized. There's an official definition that I think BBS may have included even in the document itself, but it really speaks to either it's really a safety issue that is so out of code that it warrants replacement or it's in such disrepair that it needs immediate replacement. Those are the types of things that would fall in that category. And compliance. And

094compliance, yeah. Thank you, and so kind of like amber says Jim I'm generally comfortable with what's in the bond as being you know appropriate for a bond yeah, just a question about the you know so the for example the big AC item in the high school I mean is that a possible area like what we do with the auditorium. There was a bridge loan It was put in place, you know because the work was done over the bond was not yet so Much like the auditorium project this project would be asking the voters for the scope of work and the dollar project cost and the Authorization to borrow so in order to get through that full borrowing we would likely do multiple bond anticipation notes Timed with when we think that construction project is going

095to unfold. So if for example if we have with all seven buildings being touched we have a phased approach either by district-wide building system or building scope and a third of the project is going to be funded in that first two years we would go out with a short-term note for the for a third of the authorization and then the second set of three years we'd probably do another ban for the two-thirds of the project and then the third time the full project as a ban and then the final bonding when the project is basically wrapping up and complete. Okay, so there'll be a rolling out of the different components of the work over time. Correct. as the process goes on. Right, and our fiscal advisor, when we get closer to a finite scope award,

096will start to lay out all those projections, interest rate, building aid assumptions, what are going to be short-term notes, what are going to be longer-term notes, and you'll see a full picture of that when we get to that point, much like they did for the auditorium project. Thank you. Are there other comments on the first question about what's appropriate for a bond versus the budget? So just to add on to Amber and your point, some of the items are like ADA related. Are any of those time sensitive? Anything that's urgent that we needed to address, we've been addressing with our internal maintenance budget for sure. The things that are listed in there as non-ADA compliant are things that are pre-existing and non-conforming. So we're not obligated to do that work, but certainly once we start

097to do work in certain spaces, if the space is non-conforming, the State Education Department would likely require us to do some of that work. Okay, thanks for that clarification. So the annual capital budget, is it a relatively stable number year over year, or does it fluctuate? It fluctuates. So the maintenance budget has been well supported by the community in recent years, but the capital appropriation line of the budget was down as low as, I believe it was $400,000 in the last five years. So that number is now 1.7. We've built it up because we had a more pressing need. But it can, in any given year, go up or down based on the economic circumstances of the community as part of our budget-making process. Yes, so to answer your question, I also agree that the

098items in the bound scope seem appropriate. I basically agree with everybody and I appreciate your approach of looking at, you know, kind of the timing of these projects. I think, you know, doing some of these things, whether it's fundraising or within budgets, would take time. And we, frankly, just don't have the time. A lot of these buildings, you know, really need some TLC sooner rather than later. So I appreciate the thought of doing it in a bond and it's more efficient, like you say, to doing things in a certain scale. A couple years ago when... before you were here we actually did consider the high school auditorium project doing it within budget or doing in a bond i think you know especially going through kind of your thinking of what would put it in which

099bucket, I think we did the right thing by going to bond it. I kind of remember, and it was a while ago now, so, and you weren't there, so forgive me for asking, but I kind of feel like there was potentially a difference in treatment of aid, too, whether we did something in budget or in a bond. And I don't know if, A, I remember that correctly, or B, if it was specific to this project or if it's something that... is kind of generally the case. The major difference that exists right now in law is if a project is less than $100,000, which when you add all of the professional costs, architects and engineers, is not really that much money, it could be aided as a capital appropriation. one-time aid payment so whereas most building

100projects are amortized over 15 years or 20 years you would be able to get through a capital appropriation project of less than a hundred thousand you would be able to get the aid the following year following the final cost report most projects in Westchester County that you're going to this amount of trouble with they exceed $100,000 so it really wouldn't wouldn't help us This may not be what you were touching on also, Susie, but the ability to submit and claim aid depends upon approval from New York State Education Department. Not every single project on this, if it were a standalone. Would we seek that go through the effort to seek that approval? You want to just so in order to get a building permit you need to follow the codes and specifications and get an

101engineer stamp or an architect stamp on plans there's a much larger hurdle of getting everything up to the state. If you're doing a simple maintenance project that our facility staff can do, we wouldn't go to that trouble. We would just fix it and move on to the next thing, right? But certainly maintenance and repair projects do not always need a building permit. But some of the BCS items stand alone, we wouldn't. seek aid on but when they're all bundled together now we're talking about nineteen and a half percent correct okay thank you okay I think we've heard from everyone on the first question so let's move on to the same question if that's okay What other information, if any, do we as a board feel we need to have before we can see consensus on

102the bond proposal? For example, we've already discussed the need for a demographic survey, which is in process, the need for additional community input, which is in process. Is there more that we need or want that we can articulate here? Also in process, but I think will be very helpful to our decision making work would be touring the buildings. And I know we do that every year anyway. I think this year we'll have a special eye to kind of what might be needed and what might be in this bond scope. Thank you to Honorary for scheduling us. So I'm looking forward to those building tours. I think Drew and Andrew mentioned it earlier but the AC prioritization you know I I would put classrooms separate from the large spaces I think that'll be an interesting discussion

103to have or see that report when that comes out I'm looking forward to that I think Mr. Klein mentioned this at the last meeting but When it comes to these projects for the entirety of this process, we've taken these numbers at face value So like the price for SMS cafeteria B. We've taken that 15 million I believe and just kept it there Is there any possibility that we could revisit these numbers and maybe make some modifications because I know miss Brown and mr. Klein were saying last meeting how like that that is quite an important project to a big population of the scarcel community right now and if there was any way that by Revisiting we could end up fitting that into the current bond Yeah, I'll talk about that a little bit. So last

104week I met with our construction manager from Aris Contracting, and they've already begun the process of... Digging deeper on the cost estimates for the air conditioning for example. I'm trying to coordinate with BBS what their design assumptions are So we're starting to see some of that work underway right now There will be in some areas cost increases and in other areas perhaps cost savings. I think as we get more Clear on things like the floor plans that dr Patrick was showing on the edge would lay out of it or the middle school as projects start to get to that level of detail or more there'll be a better opportunity for us to sharpen our pencil and come up with better cost estimates that'll inform the decision. Others want to weigh in on this? Yep, Colleen.

105Thank you. I think the only other thing that may be helpful for the community, we haven't spent a lot of time talking about the field portion of this bond, but I think the impact that, you know, the suggested scope of work on the fields would have on athletics and... the ability for community members to use those fields I think we haven't really spent that much time on it but it might be helpful to break it down a little bit and see the impact that that could have We'll plan that for an upcoming part of the information item, thank you I'm just wondering building level committees are there going to be building level committees convened at all in this process? I can't recall when will that take place and you know how would that how would

106that feedback come to the board to would it come to the board yeah so we would want to engage what so you use let me let me put it up like that that's not a design really right when we if if there were I'm just saying theoretically if there was a go-ahead for this or a go-ahead for this we would engage or Fox Meadow or whatever we'd engage a building level committee right at that point to help inform that design process what are we not thinking of what are we thinking of what problems are we trying to solve in the nitty-gritty how does it really work day to day what will staging look like of so Remember, we closed the auditorium for months and months because actually we could. You can't close 11 classrooms for

107months and months. So there's a whole staging that would need to go on around that. Those committees have to be involved with all of that. So there will be building level engagement. Once we're a little bit closer to understanding where where we might be we don't want to waste anyone's time But we want to have them give input. That's going to help improve design and Production for lack of a better term I don't want to discount either the the active involvement for the members of each of those school communities honor Committee yeah, they were vocal they were informative They really helped those that were not living in those spaces understand the dynamics of the building So we did get some of that. Yeah, there was one significant back and forth as you know other views

108on this question So I think we can move on to question three So how do we feel as board about equity between the schools with respect to the proposal? Are there any features or enhancements that we believe all schools must have? auditoriums for example kitchens air conditioning in large spaces air conditioning and classrooms what would this mean in practice I actually think the updating of the HVAC system is crucial at this point given the information that Andrew has shared with us. I know it's not a big shiny object, but I think making sure our classrooms are heated and cooled and fresh air is being pushed through them safely and efficiently is extremely important for our students and I appreciate the work going into finding a system that will allow us to do that. I know

109it's not. cheap but I also think one of the things we should keep in mind is when that those systems are running efficiently our maintenance staff has a lot more time to devote to other projects right now to have to manually come into a building to look at a fault on one of the heating units takes a lot of time and then trying to track down a part that no longer is even being produced takes a lot of time And then I don't I think our students deserve to be in classrooms that are heated and cooled efficiently and I think The value added to our maintenance staff in terms of time efficiency Will have a lasting impact so I'm happy that that is in the bond. I feel like all seven of the schools deserve

110to have that system. So for me, I think that is an important part that I would hope to see makes it to the end of this process. We spend so much time on this board talking about equity and looking at the gifts and making sure things are sort of equally distributed between the schools but I think we see that we have seven different buildings and they're not all going to have exactly the same features their communities are different their buildings are different so I think we're gonna have to get a little comfortable with not every school having an auditorium or not every school having a kitchen and But there are some things that I do think are important and it goes brought up now many times this evening But air conditioning in classroom spaces You

111know to me that's that's a big inequity. I think we'll have to look more at the large spaces, but I do think that that'll be interesting to see and have discussions there. And then I think also about just, you know, the experience that our students have. I know for years at Heathcote, some of the specials were on carts in classrooms, and then the enrollment changed, and now those... Teachers have their own classrooms. So I do understand that schools fluctuate and sometimes there may be carts and there may not be carts But I am interested to see what the demographers report says is up and coming for Fox Meadow and Edgewood and all of our schools and really having a conversation about you know if this section breaks i think we talked about whatever school this

112evening there's three space for three sections or three close to breaking well is that a one-year situation or is that a five-year situation um because i don't think we should be spending 10 million dollars to make sure that there isn't a cart for one year um so i i just think you know we have to be a little more flexible this time about how we look at things between all of our schools with the goal that you know we are trying to create positive experience for all of our students so anyway it's I think it's gonna be a little bit of a struggle for me because I do like for things to be equal between the schools but I see that there there may be different needs at each school as we go through this

113like Amber when considering this question I also thought about you know our gifting policy and our practice and those discussions around you know equity and what is equitable. And I agree with kind of our conversations back in the day that what is equitable isn't necessarily the same. And I think that that applies to this as well. I think a lot of what Amber said, I agree with as well. We want our children to have similar experiences, but they don't all have to have the same exact. school layout, every community is different. We heard that a lot from our PTAs back then when we were considering gifting. School communities have different priorities. I think given though that this is a bond that is coming once every 10 years or so, that we have to keep in

114mind that time horizon, which I think we are. But gifting can change year to year and over a certain period of time, maybe it all catches up, but this is... this is something thank you so yeah regarding equity I have similar views to amber and Susie I think it's important and you know I toured some of the buildings last year for my first time as a board member and you know I noted at Fox Meadow their specials were on a cart meaning like they didn't have a Spanish room for their Spanish teacher you know that Spanish teacher moved rooms or when it's pushed into classrooms basically in order to teach. I think so, I think specials not on a cart would be important for all of our elementaries. I think designated spaces for the therapy

115professionals, for speech OTPTs, there's like a thoughtful space for them that makes sense for the students they're serving. I think it's, I think it kind of an up-to-date library space is very important for all the schools. And I agree with Susie's comment that school communities have different priorities and we have to be respectful of that. I just want to also just go back one minute to Edgwood and clarify one more time something Colleen had brought up because I don't know if that was, it was kind of news to me in discussing it. If we did change and they got the new addition, then the current plan to renovate is not there, right? That's just to clarify for the Edgewood community. It could be if we add it. There's no bond. Right. Okay. There's a recommendation

116before you. Yes. That sits at $96 million. What we talked about tonight for Edgewood or the middle school, unless you take something out of that. would cause that to go up that's where we are I understand that so there's no there was no discussion or judgment that we shared about if we did the new construction edgewood then we wouldn't do the classroom renovation no I know but it just in that plan the plan is for the new construction the number was for the new construction sorry I misunderstood your point it's simply the new construction okay that's it I totally misunderstood your point I apologize thank you for clarifying that for me I appreciate it Yeah, I think even prior to my board service when I was involved in the PTAs, I think it's very clear

117that the mindset of equity across schools is an important value, and I think parents in the community appreciate that. But in terms of how that manifests in this bond, I think, echoing fellow board members, I think it's a complex process. Yeah, I would love to hear more of the ACL quality discussion. I feel I don't have sufficient understanding of that. Also, back to the classroom spaces, a lot seems to be riding on the demographic report. I think one topic that came up was the possibility of redistricting. I know it's not a popular suggestion, but as a new board member, I just came into this. I just don't want to let that go completely. I'd love to understand that more. Yeah, we're committed to that is part of the demographic and enrollment study is a redistricting

118study not at every single location but we're looking at the boundary between Fox Meadow and Green Acres because Fox Meadow has the highest enrollment pressure Green Acres has a lower enrollment pressure and their neighbors so there's a boundary there But in the study that they'll share with us, that the demographer will share, you'll see that possibility, and also that will help us understand other scenarios that we could contemplate. Because the procedure that they use, the process that they use, will be articulated. What assumptions they're making, things like that. Same timeline as the demographer's report. Okay. And, yeah, just with respect to the equity point, too, I mean, it's just important to understand what's going to come out of this process isn't the same, you know, experience or the same facility experience for each student, no

119matter what building they're in. What's going to come out of this process is, you know, the enhanced. facility experience that may be different among the different buildings almost certainly will be different among the different buildings and part of you know what we're you know given to deal with is buildings of different ages and built at different times and of much different footprints and of with much different possibilities in terms of how they can be built out. So that's just something that we are living with that we really have to work within. So that in part informs what can be possible, not just this ideal of everyone have the same, because that I think is not something that works in the. with the facilities we have. But we obviously can work to improve as best we

120can with what we have within reason. That's an important limitation that we're dealing with too. So a question for, are there concerns about taking on significant debt at this time? Or about our reserve levels given the recent rating by Moody's? Do we feel that there is a threshold for quote unquote significant debt that we should be working towards? Is maintaining a AAA rating, a Moody's AAA rating, important to our board? So throw that out there. You know, we touched on some of this, I think, a little bit earlier. But I will say it was interesting to me to read about the rating. And I think we have to keep in mind that there isn't an unlimited fund. Here to you know upgrade everything and do everything we want so there are going to be some

121hard decisions for us as a board in terms of what makes sense without without jeopardizing you know our for me, I think it's important that we continue to Keep that rating if possible I'm sure everybody would like that but I think it you know I would love to do all the projects that were identified by the committee But I think we're gonna have to be thoughtful about the scope of this bond and what we propose and put forward to the community I have my thoughts, but I actually want to ask Andrew what you think, you know keeping our credit rating How much of a priority should that be for our district? I mean it directly results in in budgetary implications when the when the debt is issued, right? So We were fortunate in this go-around

122to have 13 bidders on our bond and our AAA rating I think did a lot to support that. I do think that the proposed scope of work that Dr. Baxter and I put forward would not alter that in terms of debt burden, right? But there's other things that could happen in the district on an annual basis that we need to be mindful of and I think we feel comfortable that the level that we're proposing would not be an adverse impact to that. Thank you so much. That's reassuring. Like Amber, I do think maintaining our credit rating is very important. Not only if it were to be downgraded, we would be burdening future Scarsdale families with higher borrowing costs and less of an ability to access markets. But it would follow that house values would be

123affected and future budgets. So I appreciate your work in making sure that doesn't happen. Thank you. I think it's really important to maintain our AAA rating with Moody's. My concern is more around the reserves than the bond scope itself. It's something for us to watch and be mindful of more in our budgeting process. Yeah, I agree that it's really important that we maintain this is sort of like the Scarce Hill. So it's our strength and it's one of our values. So that's important to me too. Okay, thank you. Yeah, and I will just share as well. I think it's mission critical to maintain our bond rating to the best extent that we can because of all the reasons that have been articulated, as Susie and others have said, it's a real dollar impact on us

124to have a not as good a bond rating. It directly impacts our borrowing costs. It directly impacts... many things that would have an adverse effect on our spending, which would have an adverse effect on the things we spend on, which include program and everything that makes us good and great. So it's absolutely mission critical, I think, to be mindful of that. And with respect to the work that we're doing here, be mindful of how important it is, even though there might seem to be... critically important things that the that it's balanced with the need to maintain the fiscally responsible writing that we have that we've earned by being fiscally responsible which we need to continue to be so our eyes cannot get bigger than our stomach and I want to be trite but that really

125is the way I sort of look at it even though there might be many things we want to do that many of the community may want us to do we just have to be mindful of that so with that we're going to go on to The fifth question, which is really just sort of like a very simple, simply worded question, but it's actually a big question. Do we believe the size of the bond, which is before it's now currently, is justified by the scope of work that is proposed to be completed as it is now articulated? You're right, this was simply worded, but it's a tough question to ask. It's probably the hardest question. You know, Anish brought up what Bob had mentioned before about costs, and I think that's, it's, I look forward to

126getting a little more refinement there. We talked last time about that it would be exciting to have something transformative in this bond, but we're actually accomplishing a lot of work here. So I think overall, do I wish things cost less than this? Absolutely. I think we're going to have a hard discussion if we're trying to, where we might want to remove things from this bond. I think that's going to be a challenge. So it does seem like it's a large scope of work, and I think it's probably justified. I agree. I think, you know, at this table we've talked a lot about Edgewood and the middle school and how we would love to be able to do all of these things. And it's a challenge not to say, like, let's make it all work, because

127I think it's a large bond already. I think the scope of work seems justified for the amount, but it is hard to walk away from the other, possibly walk away when there's other things that we want to do, but we can't do it all. So it'll be interesting. I'm interested to hear the community's perspective on it and their perspective on the... on the price tag that the bond has right now. I guess I agree with Colleen and Amber that it would be great to have things not cost as much. I think one thing to keep in mind is that for public school work, it's not the same as doing... Work at your house or whatever right there are there are approvals that we must get there are lots of regulations That apply to public schools

128and things just do cost more, you know, so I think as a community we have to recognize that Thank you Jim. I agree with Susie that comment. Thank you for that and Amber and Colleen as well. We have a large, it's a large scope. I wish things cost less as well and I think you know I think it's really critical to do this BCS district infrastructure priorities. The AC I think is critical in the large spaces. The fields I know we have a field plan I would like to learn more about. What's included, you know specifically in this bond scope Spatial I you know, I think Fox Meadow has a real need I know Edgewood needs work in TLC too, and I think these library renovations, I think a lot of it's really needed. Even

129the high school asks, the 3D art has been an issue for many, many years. The LRC is an issue. The Little Theater has those fixed seats where you can't really do anything in terms of contemporary, current learning. So I think this is all very important work. I am interested, though, in the community's view on the scope. which hopefully will gather feedback with the survey and things like that to understand how people think of the number. Yeah, so I have confidence in the process. It's been a very thorough process, and I appreciate all the work, and also the architect, BCS, is their experience and expertise. So Dr. Patrick talked about sharpening the pencil on this, but I take that we're not seeing sort of material changes to the number. So yeah, so I agree the size

130is justified, but as other board members mentioned, I look forward to the community feedback. And also, I mean, I would... I'd love to dig a little deeper into this and see the inflation assumptions that was built in. I sort of look forward to in the following weeks and months to get deeper into this. Thank you. Thank you very much. And I'll just add, you know, in terms of when I think about this issue of the size of the scope of the work and the size of the bond and the amount, you know, which is a lot. I just sort of think of it as almost like a Christmas carol in the sense that the theme of the Christmas carol, of course, is what would happen if, you know, Doctor, if Scrooge, what could have gone

131differently? Or think of it another way. What, think forward 10 years, 15 years, 20 years into the future. What kind of world are we looking at if this work is not done? if the work is not completed, if it's not ever undertaken, what are we looking at in 10 years, in 20 years, in terms of the experience of our students, the experience of our district? Where are we if this work is not done? And I kind of sense it could be a dire situation if we didn't undertake these projects now, even though we might not immediately have a pressing sense of how urgent they are if we're not in the building. if we're not living the experience that our students and our teachers are living in those buildings, because we are at a bit of

132a remove. But I think what we should really be doing is the mental exercise of how necessary is this to have us continue to be a strong district, a strong, superior educational experience. And I think a lot of that is with that intent. And so that's what I'm gonna be thinking about going forward is what would happen if this was not done versus does it really need to get done exactly at this particular moment, because you could always say no to that question. But that I think is not the right question. So anyway, that's the way I look at it. And with that, I think we're moving on to the next. I actually have one question and yes I and a break would be great we have the listening sessions with the community just because

133we haven't had one this year could you confirm that we're not going to be expected to engage in conversation about the board we're really I mean about the bond we're just listening to the community at that point or are we engaging I just wasn't sure what the format was going to be. Well, my understanding is that, correct me if I'm wrong, that the architects will be there. There might be questions people have that they might feel they could answer. But I don't know that this is really But it's not for Not for the board Not for the board Right Okay I just wanted to be sure and maybe clarify that for the public as well that it's not really an opportunity to ask the board how do you feel about XYZ space it's really we're

134there to listen to the community and we're not there to give our opinions Yes that's right Okay great thank you for confirming and yes if we could take a break that would be great too We'll take a five minute break thank you everybody Let us move on to our next item which is item 802 the NISPA 2025 proposed bylaw amendments and resolutions okay yeah and Susie do you want to start do you want me to start so this is annually NISPA in their annual meeting convenes to among other things consider bylaw amendments and resolutions that take Maybe the way to say is lay out their priorities as an organization for the coming year. So several weeks back, they released the list of proposed resolutions. There are 23 resolutions for consideration that the resolutions committee supported,

135the NISBA resolution committee supported. And then there is an additional... proposals that were not recommended by the committee but they'll still be available to be voted on as we've done in past years we've discussed these in cabinet and just tried to give viewpoint it's not a direction to the board it's just our input yes we'd support this no we wouldn't or for it doesn't really impact us but for non-cibi reasons we would support it for others so you have that data in a spreadsheet we're happy to answer any questions about it but I guess your task is to really give Susie guidance about how she will vote on behalf of Scarsdale school board at the annual meeting Thank you Dr. Patrick thank you to you and your cabinet for sharing your thoughts on these proposals

136we also have as you know data the West putt recommendations I was part of that advocacy meeting guess it was like a couple weeks ago to come up with a regional consensus on these so we have a lot of recommendations to to consider so I would suggest like in past years that we start with the district's recommendations for these proposals and they generally follow you know our long-held advocacy themes of favoring local control and seeking to alleviate the burden of unfunded mandates and I'd like to ask if anybody would like to start off the discussion, you know, if there are questions on any of these recommendations. Thank you. So I just have a question about proposed Resolution 7 about the testing. And I know that the district cabinet said no, and you talked about graduation

137measures, revised graduation measures. Could you just clarify for the board and for the community what that means and why this was a no from the cabinet? Yeah, it is this is a hard one it's hard to understand what this resolution would seek to to achieve The broad themes of this are around better testing And I think our interpretation of this is better standardized testing. So I Just want to be clear. I think we're coming to our understanding of the proposal through that lens. And I don't think we feel shifting the responsibility for that task from one outside agency to SUNY is like the, it's admiring the wrong problem. I think we think. The connection of graduation measures is one of the aspirations of, one of the suggestions of the Blue Ribbon Panel and then the

138aspirations of state ed. is to create more routes of flexibility to demonstrate proficiency, means other than standardized testing. Not to eliminate standardized testing, but to offer new pathways and new routes. I'd rather see effort kind of headed in that direction, and I don't think this proposal is broad enough in the, I think we don't think it's broad enough in the thinking. It's not bad to want some of these things but I don't know I think we think it misses the forest for the trees a little bit I don't know if you would add anything We want to move towards assessments that go beyond the standardized measures and we worry about things like this kind of getting back to things that are bubbled in for lack of a better word for those of us who remember

139bubbling in Thank you that definitely helps now I understand and just one more question just to clarify too number nine there's one about regional high schools being created and we would and your recommendation was a non-city yes yeah it's not a regional yeah for sure it's so there is a phenomenon in rural rural parts of New York State where declining enrollment is really substantially decreasing opportunities for kids and for some places a consolidated regionalized high school the option to set that up could be a solution at a local level to some of those so we see this as not an issue we're gonna face in fact enrollment in the lower Hudson Valley is there are changes from school district between but broadly is not really declining the way it is in some of the rural

140rural areas and we'd want to give them flexibility just like we would want it in other areas I actually have a question about the AI resolution number 11. And I understood your logic in terms of not supporting it in terms of curriculum. I was curious more about the part of it that says support the state to safely incorporate AI into the curriculum and district operations. So does that mean AI is prohibited from use in district operations right now? No. Oh, so it's strange that it's added in there. It is the resolution. Like, that is the whole resolution. The next cell is sort of the explanation for it. But to support the state to safely incorporate AI into curriculum and district operations, I... I don't know really what that, safely we definitely agree with, there isn't

141a prohibition. There's no prohibition right now on it, so there's no reason for the state to support it. No, I mean, we're, I think, appropriately guided by Ed Law 2D and FERPA, and we're fortunate to have. two excellent leaders in technology and the teams around them who think really well about this, and Jeannie and William and our computer teachers, and they're constantly pointing out to us the things we need to be careful about. And we do have a signed data privacy agreement with Google for Gemini, but not with ChatGPT, for example. Otherwise, they could be talking about things that involve... Back office operations, you know the way I might be included into applicate, you know Business applications that we use and stuff. It's unclear It's just hard to really understand what this resolution means and

142if it means more Specific mandated regulation and reporting that's an unfunded mandate Okay, that's helpful. I was just mostly curious. That might be pessimistic. Well, you know, I mean, we hear so much about AI and how it's, you know, taking over jobs, and so that's when I was curious about how this was, how district operations kind of played into AI usage and if there were prohibitions, but it sounds like there's not really prohibitions on use if you think it's appropriate. Yeah, I mean, I... I don't think we're seeing prohibitions on it right now. I mean, I think the line in the rationale that is most, like, connects to us, I think, is the fear or concern that it can be used to replace learning, right? Like that is, or replace teachers, or I think we

143hold, I hold the view that this is a human endeavor and is enriched by the human connections and so forth. The last line of that the state should take steps to address these questions and support districts as they incorporate this technology into the education landscape Without knowing what that is. I think I don't know I feel like time and time again What might have been started as the idea of support turns into an unfunded mandate with lengthy reporting requirements It's just been the experience we've had Thank you Two things. Resolution 14 about allowing recess 30 minutes to be counted towards instructional hours. Does that mean that that could possibility to decrease the instructional day by 30 minutes in the future? I just want to see with that impact that the students day from start to

144finish if that is now counted toward instructional hours. This is very specifically about a spreadsheet that districts fill out for the state aid calculation where you have to document your start and end time and then you subtract out lunch and recess time. And there's a 990-hour minimum per year, right, that whole thing. So you have to have 180 days of session and 990 hours of instruction. which is calculated on that spreadsheet. My presumption is that what they're asking for is to, basically I would say it is not have to write that 30 minutes in in the column that says recess. I think that's what they're proposing. What that does for, we meet our requirement well over already. It's 900 minutes or 990 depending on the grade level. hours depending on the grade level so that

145is like that would not materially impact us one way or another but if it's allowing something for another school district I think we would support it I guess that's yeah no I just follow up before you move on or did you have another no I just wanted to make I just wanted to see if that would impact our students daily instructional time How does that work for us like our elementary students they have sort of a they have a specific period for lunch so that lunch time would still not be counted but the recess time would be counted Theoretically I guess yeah Just as a note we did have a pretty long conversation about this at our Westpac advocacy meeting and Our consensus was actually to oppose this one, thinking along the lines that apparently,

146and I don't know anything about this, this is just reporting back what was said at this meeting, that there is currently a New York State survey being done, that there is work being done around this, gathering data about how many school districts don't have recess or an adequate amount of recess. the consensus is everybody feels like recess is valuable, you know, very important for children to play and to socialize and rest. But that before supporting something like this, that, you know, kind of we need more data and that it's premature. Yeah, I mean, I agree. I think recess is very important. I think the kids should be out multiple times during the day. You know, you and I worked on that at Quaker Ridge, but I just wanted to make sure it wasn't. therefore going

147to then cut 30 minutes off of the elementary school students actual like in classroom instruction at the end right yeah right if you've got a district that has no let's say no recess and that's because their school day is short and that's the only way they're meeting their mandated minutes for state aid or hours for state aid this could give them flexibility that they would enact by reducing instructional time so with all this discussion how do we feel I want to take recess away from kids who need it I guess I and it doesn't I'm hearing from the district that you don't think it's gonna impact our elementary school instruction day so if if you feel like it should be supported then I'm okay with that I just wanted to clarify that before I approve

148think we understand that I understand that point too that it's premature yeah I mean I'm happy to defer to the group but you know that conversation that I had at the Westwood meeting kind of resonated with me we can come back to this next year when we have more data so I personally would be in favor of opposing but obviously what whatever the group wants to do I think if you're saying there's they're doing a survey to find out how really important this is you know or what how much of it a real issue there is I think that makes sense to wait for that information before supporting because this is I agree recess is important but I also would hate for the consequence to be suddenly school days are now you know if there's

149a school without 30 minutes of recess I'd rather see it mandated that every school have 30 minutes of recess then just oh now we're gonna count it as instructional time I'm not sure I think this is worded in the best way so I'd be comfortable opposing this I can't remember because I did it last year. I should know. Is there an opportunity for discussion when you're doing these votes? I can't recall exactly. I think they changed the format because one year, I think it was Colleen's year, it was like 10 hours long, this vote, that they're doing a question and answer session before. So if we do have clarifying questions, we can ask them. I'm not sure if the deadline for that has passed though. There was like some Google form about that. And there's

150also like a training for the NISPA delegates. Well, I mean, I'm a little, I feel like I could go either way on this one, but I think I would actually just defer to you, Susie, since you had that discussion at West Putt that seemed pretty intensive. And since you're our delegate, I'm comfortable with you voting no, but it's not like perfect. I'm not like perfectly in that category. Well a lot of these it's hard to know because you know the resolution itself is you know a couple sentences and so you know on all of these so you don't really know in practice how it can play out. You can imagine good scenarios and bad scenarios for almost all of these so without knowing you know the originators full intent you know without knowing potentially what's

151in the like legislative landscape already you know it is kind of hard. I mean, I think if there were an opportunity for you to say, you know, to have some sort of comment about, you know, the West, about the gathering of data still, or being slightly premature kind of a thing, but we don't oppose it, you know what I mean? I think that would be fine with me too. I don't know if there's that opportunity. I've never done this before, so I don't know. That's okay. It's a long meeting. Oh, okay. It should be fine. Anybody else? I just want to bring up number 22, financial literacy. I'm comfortable with deferring or opposing it this year. But just because this is a topic I remember that came up back in the spring that some students

152seem to be interested in. I mean, I agree we don't have to legislate it, but just want to see if there's been any developments. financial yeah I mean it's in the blue ribbon panels recommendations and the signals from state that are they're gonna make it a requirement for graduation so it's not written into the register and the code in the regulations yet but I think it's coming so supporting this would be consistent with where the State Education Department is so you're good supporting I had a couple questions on top number two I agree, it sounds wonderful to share resources and I know that we do it. I guess I'm just questioning why we need legislation to say to do it. And that the resolution itself doesn't specify that it would be at the district's discretion.

153The rationale has one word in there. I just want to make sure that we are agreeing to this. I'm happy to support it, but that. think it's important that it be at our discretion I think we totally agree with that I think that local control primacy is really important to us I I struggled to think of a specific example but I I remember from my past district that there I can't remember it but there were a couple of examples where the the red tape to share services with the village with one of the villages we were in was like nobody could believe it So I think there are examples. So I read this as there are examples of that where the obvious cost savings to taxpayers is blocked by an obscure regulation that because a

154school district is governed by one entity and the town government, village government is a different, that there were barriers to those types of cost sharing. Thank you. It would be easier if I could think of an actual concrete example. There was, I don't know if this is directly related to that regionalization initiative that we considered earlier this year. We did not participate in that, but I was wondering if we heard through the grapevine how it's going out there or what work they might be doing on it. So I don't have any details to share but it is a topic of one of our upcoming Southern Westchester BOCES meetings and I'd be happy to share out that quote-unquote regionalization did not involve municipalities it was only school district to school district okay so this would be

155any and all of those sounds that way And my last question, oh, it's not a question, it's just a comment. I very much agreed with number 15, supporting that wholeheartedly. Westpac was opposed, but I. I agree with supporting this and appreciate your support of it. I think the Rockefeller Institute's recommendation to take special education out of foundation aid and make it a separate item, as was done in the past, serves best our special education students, providing support for true and current costs. Thank you. Anybody else? Appreciate Susie's work and others before her attending this meeting. Item 803, which is proposed new textbooks. Is that back to you? That will be Edgar. Thank you. I think he has it in front of him. It's an exciting interdisciplinary collaboration between 8th grade English and science across two

156houses, Popham and Cooper. And I've said this before about books, but this is kind of a Swiss Army knife of a book. It allows close analysis of character, offers purpose in literary devices. And it's a really good core text. But also by using this realistic science fiction, meaning science fiction based in real scientific properties, they can connect it to science lessons that parallel the plot points. They're very specific. For example, at one point, in order to survive, the character must figure out a gravitational equation. This will be timed with a lesson in science class where they will be applying the gravitational equation to a more earthbound and relatable problem. The teachers also saw this book as a great way to launch conversations about empathy, courage, and self-regulation strategies related to stress. Apparently the astronaut in

157the book engages in a lot of self-talk. Beyond that, it gets really high marks from critics and fellow authors for being fast-paced, exciting, and a can't-put-down kind of book. And we love it when we can find core text for fiction where kids can really get lost into it with broad appeal. It's another book to heartily recommend and add, you know, probably to my personal nightstand. And also knowing some of the board members, it might end up on yours as well. We can talk about it later. so that'll come back as an action item at the next meeting. Okay, any discussion, any questions about that? No, okay. Now we move on to item 804, which is a gift proposal to the high school athletic department. I guess that is back to you. Yep, thank you. So

158this is one of two gifts, over $1,000 tonight, so it's for information and then would come back in the future for action. This is, if you can picture the start of many football games, maybe college football games, you see the athletes run out of a tunnel, like of an inflatable tunnel. Maroon and White is wishing to donate an inflatable tunnel for athletes of a variety of sports to run out of in moments, big games, stuff like that. $2,325. Talk to Cindy. They're in support of that. Just to share a quick little anecdote, when she was exploring the feasibility and what it would take, she... Kind of talked with our acting head custodian James whose comment was oh, that's really cool The kids will really love that which I just thought it was cool that he

159you know made that point questions on that yep Sounds great. I don't know how big this item is but I Know another board member had a question about where which sports use it and it was mentioned Butler field can can other Teams that don't use Butler Field, like a hockey team or a basketball team, they could also use it? Indoor, I don't know. Okay, so it's only for outdoor use then? I'm not 100% sure about that. I don't think there's a prohibition against inflating it indoors. It would be the spate. Like, is it suitable to that particular space and that gym? Okay. You know, a hockey rink, I'm doubtful that that would be, you know. I don't know. Maybe. There's obviously wrestling. There's a lot of other sports that might if there was more than

160just an outdoor use. Okay. All right. Thank you. If there's a way, I'm sure they'll figure it out. Yes. That would be great. Yeah. Any questions? Thank you. This sounds wonderful. I'm sure I agree. I think the kids would love it I guess my question is more of logistical in terms of the labor involved in inflating and deflating this I know football games. We have a lot of staff available But I don't know if that's the case with any other Athletic events. I'm thinking lacrosse field hockey, soccer. Do we anticipate this gift at all producing additional costs for the district in terms of having to add staff to inflate and deflate? It's a lot of work to inflate and deflate these things. So I just wanted to make sure that that was discussed and if

161there is going to be a financial impact with this gift. So we don't anticipate significant, like, needing to hire extra what we call supervisors. Right. The custodial team seems open to being able to do this on both ends, take it out of storage, set it up, deflate it, store it again without, kind of within their, you know. If they're doing that and they were not doing that before, obviously it comes at some. But I don't think it's. a significant enough cost to worry about it. I think if it reached the point where it was, we might just have to say no. I guess that's my question. It sounds wonderful, but logistically, is it attainable to inflate and deflate this thing? And then if you're only using it for one sport? equitable to the other sports

162that would like to use it so i just want to make sure i think this is the reason we have this poly this kind of procedure around gifts because we need to make sure that those conversations are happening so i just wanted to make sure that the maintenance staff understands what they're going to have to do and feels comfortable that they can do that in addition to meeting all the other Things we asked them to do at these events. I appreciate that and they appreciate that I know as well I think with this one the feedback has been they feel that they can that they can do that And I shared that anecdote both to praise James button. Yeah No, I mean, but also great with the kids reflect that they were involved in the

163in the feedback Okay process There's maybe not a direct analog, but we have that incredible new video board in gyms three and four. Our staff is the one running it, you know, and that does take some time, and there's prep, and there's post work to be done, but on balance, it's an evolution that we wouldn't have been able to do without the donation. Right. and I think generally the staff is happy to have that new task even though it is a new task so this is similar to that in a way maybe yeah a little bit I think It's like an entrance, but I just wanted to make sure that those conversations were being had. Yeah, no, I appreciate that. I think I'll just add, for special events like senior games, there's always a special

164setup things that we're doing. So this could likely come at the expense of something else that we're not doing anymore. So I think as we go through the process, we'll have to just keep track of it. That's a good point. Okay, so let's move on to item 805, give proposal to Green Acres School. Edgar, would you mind talking about this? You talked to Trish about the, yeah. Thanks. It's kind of an expansion of the one book, one school that a lot of the schools have been doing for a while now, in which a group of teachers got together and inspired through an STI course to actually expand it to what if we read one book per month. actually had conversations around some of the dispositions that they're looking to develop in in the school around

165citizenship and and have a theme that goes all the way through the year so this is something that goes beyond what they had done before and they want to try it out and see how it works across classrooms. They've also looked to design some activities that go along with the book to be done with buddy classes, so with younger students and older students working together on these projects together to develop some of those relationships. And a small part of this is to continue to support the Gator News program, which is fun. Yeah, that's great. Thank you. Any questions on that? Just a comment. I really appreciate both of those initiatives the building community and the I love when the elementary is due news. I think it's great. It's an excellent thing to do. Okay. So

166now we're moving on to section nine of the agenda which is gifts and I believe it's Susie. Thank you Jim I move to accept the following resolution resolved that the Board of Education accepts with thanks the donation of $3,500 for the 2025-26 school year to support the purchase of a trip to BOCES as presented Okay thank you Susie any second okay thank you Amber any discussion if those in favor please say aye aye Anyone opposed the motion carries with thanks This brings us now to section 10 of our agenda, which is the second public comment portion of the agenda I'm not going to reread the Preamble, but I will open it up to anyone in the audience or a live audience first who would wish to make a public comment Please come forward Good evening.

167This is my first time, so I'm supposed to introduce where I live, my address? Yes, you state your name, your address, whether you're here on behalf of an organization. Okay. My name is Amar Vandal, and I reside at 6 Drake Road. So thank you for the opportunity to speak, and thank you all for your hard work here tonight. I'm speaking on behalf of the parents of the Edgewood community regarding the proposed bond and capital projects plan. Just as additional background, I'm an ex-PTA president at Edgewood. and very familiar with the school's needs. I'm also an architect with 15 years of experience working on multimillion dollar projects. I was on the CPSC committee, but missed the last few meetings. I have a sixth grader at SMS and a third grader at Edgewood, and neither of my

168children will be at their current schools when these projects are realized. The Edgewood PTA has formed a committee to focus on advocacy for the capital planning bond in response to our community's expressed desire for advocacy at our last PTA meeting. Our PTA leadership has also been in close coordination with the Edgewood administration regarding the reflection of Edgewood's needs and our advocacy. I also want to note that none of the Edgewood parents who served on the district CPSC committee support the current proposal. The $6.2 million now allocated for Edgewood is a steep reduction from the $20 million scope discussed earlier this summer and does not meet our school's basic spatial needs. One grade already has four sections, and several others are close behind. Without new classrooms, we are facing overcrowding well before the next bond cycle.

169We do not want to be in Fox Meadows' position in a matter of a few years. Relocating special education classrooms would undermine the culture of inclusion that defines Edgewood and moving specials like music and Spanish onto carts would diminish program quality for students and teachers alike. Scarcey will be a BLE and district has continuously emphasized the importance of maintaining the same learning experience across the elementary schools in response to questions of equity as you did tonight The proposed program modifications and lack of action at Edgewood would undermine the future learning experience at Edgewood We urge you not to ignore advocacy and use this as an opportunity to demonstrate the commitment to equity To clarify a few more items that came up earlier Under the current proposal, Edgewood would be getting new furniture for the classrooms,

170which is not a revamp, and was not a priority for the Edgewood committee members. And the cost differential between the courtyard option and the option you saw was minor and should be clarified as it was raised. We asked the board to revisit Edgewood's plan to fund additional classrooms, dining, and flex space, and to keep our district's special education programs in place. Space utilization is at its maximum at Edgewood and to clarify some of our services are indeed in closet spaces Please use updated enrollment program updated data that includes the special ed program and learn from Fox Meadows experience to act proactively to address similar space challenges at Edgewood Edgewood families fully support a district-wide bond, but we need a plan that meets Edgewood's baseline needs and prepares us for the future. Thank you. Okay, thank

171you. Anyone else in the audience who wishes to speak? Okay, going once, going twice. All right, so now we're going to turn to the online session. There's one attendee online, but their hand is not raised at this moment. Let's give them a minute. Still nothing? Still no hand raise. Okay Going once going twice. I think we can move on to response to public comment if there is one Again appreciate the input and this is this is the process so grateful to the all the input we get Okay, very quickly. Sorry about the public comment. Just for clarification and the 175 thousand dollars for the classroom updates Beyond furniture wasn't there some form of renovation for the classroom? Yeah, I believe that the scope that we included in the classroom renovations were ceilings floors walls and

172Furniture, I think those are the kind of general parameters that were included in that estimate lighting as well. Okay So I think with that we can move into wrap-up items. Do we have any wrap-up items? think yeah just to remind people of the public engagement opportunities and that we have the items the board identified as outstanding information we've taken note of and we'll we'll bring those forward in the future meeting okay sounds good and with that we'll turn to Colleen meeting dates for the coming month Thank you, Jim. So on Thursday, October 16th, we have our capital projects bond public feedback session in this room from 7 to 830. We encourage everyone to attend. On Monday, October 27th, we have a special meeting, our executive session at 530, an audit committee meeting, educational report, and

173business meeting at 6 p.m. in this room. On Monday, November 3rd, is our board retreat. Right now it is scheduled for 6 p.m. and I'm waiting to hear from Bob and it could be changed from 5 to 7 if he works for him. On Thursday, November 6 is our virtual capital projects bond public feedback session via Zoom from 7 to 8.30. Please attend if you are able. on monday november 17th we have a special meeting with our high school student group at 5 p.m in the learning commons a public forum for the 2026 budget priorities meeting at 6 p.m in this room and in a business meeting at six i think 6 30 probably or at the high school in this room On Wednesday, November 19th, we have our first board community coffee at 10

174a.m. in this room. Please attend if you are available. And on Wednesday, December 3rd, we have another board coffee at 7 p.m. in this room. Okay, thank you, Colleen. I suspect the business meeting will happen after the public forum on the 17th. And with that, I believe we're into adjournment. And the meeting is adjourned. Oh, wait, we have to move to adjourn, don't we? Okay, who wants to make a motion to adjourn? Amber yes second Susie all that well any discussion I don't think so all those in favor please say yes all that anyone opposed no and we are adjourned