BCSD Board of Education Round Table 11/13/25

001It is 5:33. We have six board members present. So therefore, if you stand alsible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Okay. So the first thing on the agenda tonight tonight is the presentation for architectural services. for the district and at this time I will turn it over to PCA. >> Hi, thank you. Can everybody hear me? Okay. Okay. Excellent. Thank you very much. Good evening everybody. Thank you for having us here and I give us a chance to introduce you to PCA and Mike and myself. Um, speaking of that introduction, my name is Matt Heiser. I'm a project manager and architect. I work out of Troy office and I've been at BCA probably about three years but have close to 15 years experience in the industry. I'm here with Mike Ali, one of our

002civil engineers and principles. Mike, I'll pass the mic to you. >> Mike with a mic. That's dangerous. Yeah, I'm Mike Aliri. I've been with BCA technically as an intern. I was there since 2006. I'm a civil engineer. I'm a principal as Matt indicated and I work uh on a lot of school uh type work in the site, civil site things. And so we'll be talking about that later. >> Thank you. >> [clears throat] >> Okay, so we have a pretty decent agenda to get through today, but I'll try and keep it as concise as possible. I know we have some time time restrictions. So, first we'll introduce you to some people besides myself and Mike that'll be part of your experience team, give you a little bit of history about PCA, a little bit of

003our philosophy and who we are. Uh, brief overview of our typical services and then just talk a little bit about two specific project types capital projects and building condition service. I know those are uh capital outlay specifically. I know the district is really interested in doing those and does those pretty frequently. and uh just kind of touch base on our process about the building condition survey and what makes us unique about that. So you already know Mike and I um but the two gentlemen that you that aren't here today but are on the screen uh to the left is Bulker is a principal and architect and our chief process and innovation officer. Um, if you couldn't tell, he is in fact German. Um, so process and innovation is is is what um, and he's always

004looking for new opportunities to bring technology into the industry of the entire business. Um, and then Jeff McKenna on the between Mike and I is our head of building, mechanical, electric, electrical, and engineering plumbing. Um, Jeff is has been with the company for about 10 years and is probably one of the best engineers that I know. He's got a vast amount of knowledge and I [clears throat] think one of Jeff's biggest strengths is his ability to talk about engineering in a way that doesn't feel like a a science lesson or a chemistry lesson. He puts it in very simple terms, keeps it simple, keeps it clear and and doesn't you know muddy the water like a lot of technical engineers. So good group of guys. So BCA uh we were founded in 1970. We have

005seven locations across the state. Um, our closest office is in Troy, which is where Vulker and I work out of. Um, but we have offices in Saratoga, Syracuse, Ithaca, Big Watertown, which is where Mike's from, and Rochester. So, uh, we have about 120 employees. I think we're a little bit bigger than that now. And, uh, our biggest our biggest strength is that we're a full service design firm. And what that means is we have everything under one group that it takes to complete a project. I'm an architect. Mike's a civil engineer. We have mechanical, electrical, plumbing engineers. We have asbestous designers. We have everything that it takes to get a project complete. And what makes us unique in that sense is we have a lot of opportunities to crosscoordinate, cross-pollinate. I've learned a lot more

006about engineering just simply by being close to the engineers in our office. So, it's a really it's a really great uh strength that BCA has. [snorts] We are driven by technology. So there's lots of technology here. I'm not going to walk you through each of them, but the primary message of this slide is that we are constantly looking for innovative ways to be more efficient and to communicate our intentions with our clients. So a lot of these are certainly products that help us enhance our drawings and our product, but some of them are also so we can communicate with you in a more efficient way and be clear with you. Drawings drawings can be a lot. So putting it in, you know, room data sheets or keeping it, you know, to a word document or

007a a scope narrative. These all these technologies help us with that. Uh so over brief overview of our services um architecture and interior design. So obviously it's a big chunk of what we do but I think the biggest thing that I'd like to emphasize about that part of our services is our philosophy and process. Our process starts not with talking despite us talking today, but listening and talking to you about what your problems are, what your issues are, what you want to address as part of your project. We don't come in with an agenda or walk in and say, "Oh, this is something that definitely needs to be fixed." We want to talk to you and get a sense of what is it that you want to accomplish? How can we best help get you

008there? And work together as a team. We're here to we're here to work for you, not to push a design mentality down to you. A little tiein to our technology slide. If you want, if you have your phone, you can scan one of those QR codes, and what it will do is it will take you to a 3D augmented reality rendering that we did for each of those spaces as part of the design process. I'll hold for a little bit, but we can always come back. >> Can you send us? >> Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, we can send you a copy. >> Is that the RFP? >> I don't know if we put the QR codes in the RFP, but we can send you a I have a PDF on the contract. I could do that

009with you today. >> Is it working? >> Okay, cool. All right, great. [laughter] It's always It's always a little bit of a risk. You never know how big or small it's going to be. So, I'm glad that it worked. So, so our our designs and our projects have been published in in a number of publications. Most recently was actually that Gren Central School District project um in the fall edition of Learning by Design. So, it was a really unique project. Uh certainly challenging. Uh we we had to ultimately what we ended up doing the biggest challenge with that project was turning the auditorium 90 degrees rotating it in place so we could have better stage access and put more seating in. So it was certainly a challenge. Um as you can see there's a lot

010of murals on the walls. We try and incorporate as much local um you know pictures from local landmarks. There's a bridge uh and one of them I think actually back there's one along the back wall. So we try and make it about the community, try and bring all that stuff into the building as best we can. So [clears throat] this is a really great project. We have a couple others on the inside. [snorts] These are just some examples of the type of products that we produce particularly during the design stage and pre-referendum stage. So we do a lot of renderings, try and get them in front of you, get your sense of what your taste for design is, try and you know massage those to fit the district's vision. Uh we also do a lot

011of finish and material boards which are down there on the left. So we like to get um all our finish selections. So carpet, tile, paint, get them in front of you, get the real samples and clings so you can touch and feel and see them um and lay out how look. So we really go we really try and get as much produced during those prerequisite design phases to give you a sense of what it's actually going to look like. So like we've discussed uh we are a full design service firm. So we have engineering in house. Um so all the disciplines there listed on the left are our primary disciplines that we have in house. We have engineers that are strictly focused in all of those um all of those disciplines which makes it like

012I said really easy for easy coordination, easy communication. There's no lag, there's no email. It's people that sit right next to you at the office. And from a philosophy standpoint, our engineering team is locked up with the architecture department in terms of how they approach a project. The first step of every project is to talk to the facilities team. There's no other first step. It's let's get in the building. Let's digest and soak up as much knowledge about these buildings as you have because we are you know your building so much better than so we have to do our best to just get in and soak up as much of that knowledge as possible. So that's our first step every step of the way. Obviously, prioritizing occupant comfort and energy and efficiency is is always

013a top priority, but I think one of the things that kind of sets us apart is our simplified approach and tailoring a system to work for you. We want rebuilding systems to work for the people who work in them, not just a specific engineering tactic or this is this is the buy the book way. We want it to work. So, that's our that's [clears throat] for the civil. >> Thank you, Matt. Yeah, being a civil engineer, uh, unfortunately, a lot of the infrastructure I have is buried. We have some examples here, but I thought I'd start with some core mission things, right? >> And let's start with your fuel tanks and and the petroleum bulb storage tanks. So, that's an integral service we provide. We design, scope, size those facilities for you. Whether they be

014fueling facilities for your bus garage and or if it's uh a fuel tank for your boiler plane, those are core mission things. You got to be able to heat your building. You got to be able to get your kids to the school. So those first two pictures are actually school installations. So once a buried fuel tank, [clears throat] at times we have to do those when we have more constricted site. Uh we do above ground fuel tanks as well where we have a little bit more room. Those are kind of regulatory preferred these days. I will say too our civil department has a very wide municipal branch and that uh photo at the bottom is an example of that where we have a fuel facility for a small town. So we have a broad range

015of civil experience that we're bringing to the table here from doing multiple facilities each year of this nature at uh communities and schools of your of your size. And there's a lot of interaction throughout that whole process with the mechanical department. water and waste water. Maybe not the prettiest uh week, but we can bring to bear everything from 20 million gallon per day activated sludge plants to what I did first started in BCA, design an on-site septic system for a school district just the size of Berlin, 700 to a,000 uh children at that school district. So, we can do it. Um there's permitting aspects to all of these things, water, waste water, and petroleum bulk storage. We do all of that interaction for you on that with DC, with DO and with the EPA in

016some cases if you have large amounts of fuel you're storing on site. We can really help you out and take care of all of that regulatory burden for you the entire way going on to maybe some of the more pretty things. Uh we do parks, we do marine facilities. We've done some very large marine facilities on the St. Lawrence River. K Vince and Clayton. Uh we've done parking lots. We'll do transportation types of designs. We look at some of the core issues in schools all the time. Bus pickup and drop off, student and parent interaction and all those traffic streams interacting. Those are huge issues in schools a lot of times and we've done those things quite frequently. Finally, some of the cool stuff, athletic facilities. Okay. We we do artificial turf fields, national grass

017fields, uh full state states ready facilities for athletics. If you're interested, we've done it. We've been there. It's things we can provide. We have landscape architects. Civil engineers tend to be kind of on the hard side, hard edges. So, we do need LA's to come in to help us with the plantings and and help bring a softer side of the design. So, we bring a full suite of professional services as far as that goes. Sure. Okay. So, managing construction, I think sometimes there's there's a thought that okay, the design's done and the architect and the design team kind of just walks off walks off the job and it's kind of like you're on your own. Good luck with the contractor. That is that's not the case with us. We are we are there from beginning

018to end and we are your advocate throughout the construction process. We're there. working with the construction management team should you choose to use one of those. If not, we're acting as that as that representative for you during the construction process. Constantly communicating, bringing bringing any issues to you, bringing any coordination issues, and of course dealing with allowances, change directives, RFID. So, we're there from beginning to end. We're your advocate throughout the entire process. Okay. So capital outlay projects this is one of the project uh groups that just wanted to touch on briefly. So I [clears throat] know the district is is doing consistent capital outlay projects. So our philosophy with these is we like to not just think of what the the most immediate capital outlay project is but what's the second what's the third

019one and start to plan ahead. Um our our thought process with these is not only let's do what you want to do and and do what works for the district but let's think about making it scalable so that way it's not just a one or done we the budget is tough to work with I'm sure as you know it's it's a limited amount of funding so we try and scale them to in a sense that it can be 50 doors right and then the budget comes in and hope we can only afford 45 so then we just keep moving along from the first project to second project to the third. So that's that's kind of our way of thinking about it and we're thinking just beyond the most immediate catalog. Um and we work with

020you to kind of set that up to meet your goals and your aspirations for things that you can fix around the district. Okay. Building condition survey. So I believe the district's building condition survey is due in 2028 if I'm not mistaken. So, we got a little bit of time, but I wanted to go through our building condition survey process and kind of how it makes us unique and leads into the bigger projects and how we and how we view those projects as well. So, we use a product called plan radar. It's a web- based reporting software. Um, and I like to the simplest way that I can say explain it is it's Google maps for buildings. Um, so what it is is, like I said, it's a web- based software that we can actually give

021you access to. And every one of these little red uh red dots or red pins is a deficiency that our team noticed during their fieldwork. Um, not your specific school, but this example. Um, [clears throat] so what we do is we we descend on your building all the in-house design services. We've got mechanical, electrical, plumbing engineers. We've got everybody there. Mike and his civil team will come and we go through, we check everything, floors to ceilings, and start dropping these pins. Now, these pins, each of them will live on a floor plan that you have access to in this web-based software, and they create a way. Um, they create a single sheet write up for each of these tickets. These ticket these ticket writeups won't include the original description of the issue, the [clears throat]

022design professional's recommendation for how to fix it, an estimated cost, an estimated useful amount of remaining life, and then out of that you can print either you can either print or electronically print individual reports that not only show all that information, but those red squares, it's a little blurry on the screen, but they will show you whereabout in the building and where exactly in the room that issue was going to be. Also, you can attach as many photos as you'd like. So, the days of saying getting a BCS that's an Excel spreadsheet that says door and hardware replacement 45. Where [snorts] are those numbers? You know, the only people who know are the people who came in here originally and sometimes those people aren't the same people that come back to tell you about it.

023So having it there and permanently on record for you and your and your team to use, we give you access to this. You can add tickets, you can take them away. Um, we found it to be really useful and helpful in making these more specific than defined. So out of these reports, we actually do even more reports, believe it or not. Um, but we create cost reports and cost estimates. The one that's at an angle is actually a little spreadsheet that we do for your five-year plan. So, we actually expand as we create that list of deficiencies. We'll sit with you and we'll say, "Okay, what of these is a priority one? What do you want to take care of right away? And what's something that you want to take care of five years from

024now?" And it will split that out and give us cost estimates right there live as we're doing it. Um, we feel that this is this is a really useful tool for everybody involved because not only does it give you a detailed and thorough BCS, but it helps you with that five-year plan, but as we're looking into a bigger project that it really helps to define the scope more appropriately. There's no guesswork. It's this is what it is. We know this. This is what we want to address. And it also helps with that budget management coming out of that and having costs associated with each of these tickets really helps it when we hand this to an estimator. They're really confident in what they're looking at. We use this on probably half a dozen projects recently

025and every the estimator's eyes like light up because they're like I never did this. I'm I'm throwing large square foot numbers and stuff and just guessing at what we're doing. So it's really it's really been a useful tool. Um so this this image is just kind of to emphasize our philosophy and importance of defining that stuff up front. So the project so this is kind of a typical project workflow where you begin from left to right. The beginning phase is kind of where the district is headed right now with with some of the scope that you that you would like to address. You're in you're heading towards that prere phase. This is when you'll see a lot of those larger square foot cost numbers. It's a little bit broader in terms of what the scope

026is. Our our philosophy is a little different in that sense. We like to be as defined as we possibly can during that the time that we have because as you'll notice that big black arrow that represents cost and difficulty of making changes is pretty low at the beginning. But as you move towards and into construction, the cost of difficulty of making changes obviously gets higher. So our mentality is if I'm gonna ask if I know I have to ask you a question six months from now, I'm going to ask it today because I'd rather figure it out now than wait and run the risk of being on that upward trend. So we really pride ourselves on in in that aspect of be as defined as possible as early as possible. Ask the questions that maybe

027most people might not ask for five months. So okay that's our presentation. Appreciate you having us and open up to questions. I'll be the first one to ask a question. How in you presentation, you talked about communication, but how specifically do you communicate with the district administration and the board of education throughout the projects? >> So, we we will do it as much or as little as as you would like us to. Um, there are some districts that prefer to keep [laughter] the communication tight and closed where it's just kind of we're only going to speak to the board. We're only going to talk to superintendent and maybe the facility staff. And there are other districts who prefer, okay, we're doing classroom work. We're going to talk to every teacher and we're going to present

028each room to each teacher and that sounds that's how we want to communicate this project. So, however, however you would like to execute it, we're more than willing to have as many or as few meetings and keep the communication line as [clears throat] tight or open as as you would like to stay. So, we've done it all. It's a wide spectrum. So, we've done it in many ways. Yeah. >> And you come to coordinates. >> Yeah. Absolutely. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Project. >> Oh, yeah. Absolutely. >> Yes. Absolutely. Yeah. Yep. Yeah. especially during prere days. Um if during that public information session period, that 45day window, we can come to every single one. We can we can sit in the crowd and you can present it and call on us for questions. However you would like

029that communication plan to be and we'll we'll help you. We'll advise you on that too. Say this is generally more successful. Um, I think generally speaking, it's usually good for staff and and the administration to present a project to the public and then kind of call us and bring us in for more technical questions. Um, but if you would prefer for us, I'm giving a presentation next week for another project. So, it's whatever you guys would like. Yeah. >> Question is pretty specific to the RP that was sent out. You look at the RP on the three projects that we're doing. >> Yes. Yeah. >> Did you sketch out a timeline in your head of what would you need from the project from start to finish projects? >> I would say, yeah, I I would

030say generally speaking, probably about an eight month design phase usually is what we're looking at. Um, and then construction. I would probably say the work that you're looking to do would probably be a one summer construction, but I think we would have to have a further discussion about if you want a construction manager involved. That's something that, you know, districts may feel one way or the other about. We certainly recommend it. Um, it's a good service to have CM team involved and they could look a little further into your timeline. You've got eight months for design and what would be the next step in that? So eight months for design and then it would go to SED. SED review times are hanging around I would say probably a month to two months. That's what we're

031holding right now. I mean it's a little bit better right now but then but everybody knows that. So it's like you get surges. Um where where would the district have to go for a referendum for this after the design point? >> No no you would so the referendum point would be so you would set a vote date. So generally we see districts either want to vote around their budget vote in May. So that was probably that would probably be the best if you wanted to start in the new year have five months of preref get the design get the project kind of put together and then have a vote on your budget vote time because that's usually when most people are in the building you can you can get them not only voting on the

032budget but on the project then as if that passed that would be in that would start the eightmonth design time you may need it then the eight months is kind of a general number it could flex it could be six it could be but There's a lot of design happening to vote before that too. >> There there is we're being as we're being as detailed as we can, but the design period does start after the vote passes. Our work during prere is to get us as far ahead as possible. But in the event that that doesn't pass, we do have to go back and start to have discussions about how we going to scale this back. What's the what's the new vote project look like? But there is a little bit of design work during

033that pre-ref period. But we do really get into the weeds and even further and doing the drawings and developing them after the process. So I would assume a perfect. >> Yes. >> So after after the eight months design approve the design then you've got a bid process. >> Yeah. So after the design period, you would have a two-month review period more than likely from from SED. And then after SED approval, we would put it out to bid. Bid period we usually hold about a month. Um and then so once the bid's open, after that month is up, you probably have another month or so before contracts get signed, contractors kind of get mobilized. But so just the math in my head, you're probably looking at if you do a Maybo then you do eight months

034that gets you to January of 2026 or 2027, excuse me, then you would bid in probably February 2027, which could get you started in construction in 20 summer 2027. >> Yeah. No, that's good question. the PEC would have a review opportunity or or timeline while we're out to SCD with the design where they're review that usually tracks for that CD. Sometimes they meet SCD um for fuel tanks primarily looking at that relation to your petroleum bul for that specific aspect of the project. There's an environmental remediation aspect that could be involved if you have contaminated soils and anything of that nature. So those aspects do have some additional review and concurrent with SED. The other uh way we have seen fuel tank projects get done too because that was a large part of your your

035scope is to do them through those 100 uh K capital outlay projects kind of as a chunk at a time. those are a little more critical from a timeline perspective and that can be a good way to get those projects done so that you're not leaving a building without heat when you need to have it from that statuto start to point in September. >> So just a littleation >> um getting very specific when I looking at your fee schedule. >> Yep. >> Um I really don't understand it. >> Okay. Uh so it's a sliding fee schedule. So is are you talking about percentages that you have in this percentage? >> So okay. Okay. Yes. There's a further breakdown. So overall overall our total fee >> is based on construction cost, right? So our construction cost,

036let's say, is you know $5 million we'll charge you. I I don't know the exact percentage but we'll charge you. >> That's what I was hoping to find. Is that >> Oh, what the exact percentage is, you know. It might be a sliding scale like if it's over five million and itch goes down or >> Sure, we can I can send that to you if you'd like. Yeah, I would rather send it to you so you can see the full breakdown. Um but yes, so that that determines our overall theme and then we bill you per phase at a certain percentage. So that's why you're seeing excuse me [clears throat] that's why you would see like 20% schematic design. So 20% of our total fee, let's say our total fee is $5 million just as

037a figure. 20% of that would be charged to you during that first schematic design phase. >> But if you don't have the cost until you put out bid eight months after you've done the design, does that mean you don't get any money until um you get some >> the the cost will be the cost will be based off the estimated cost that generates the total vote pre-referendum. >> Okay. >> Yeah. So we if we if we >> you're going to do some kind of pre-esignated cost before >> Yes. Absolutely. Yes. So as part of our prerequisite with you and and we have thought of that in the RFP already. So we develop that scope further. We would get an estimate from a you know from an estimator to determine what that construction cost would be

038and then we'll we'll start to add in what are called incidentals incidental costs which is like testing design fees and and other pieces. Usually SED likes to hold around 20 20% 20 to 25% for incidentals and that you know those incidentals plus your construction costs as your pre-reender >> and that and we base our fee off of the the estimated construction cost >> that doesn't change even after we get the >> correct. Yeah. Yes. that that states we stick to that estimated construction cost whether it's >> higher or lower when the bids >> so the 25,000 to 45,000 um pref fee um is that something that's going to get more solidified that number based on like the size of our project that's kind of like a just a general >> that's a that's a general

039that's a general range that usually get it it all depends on the scale of the project you If it's if it's $150 million project that it's probably more towards the top end. I don't expect that we would be at that top end and we would be probably closer to the 25. So I have a question I don't right now. So your your your [snorts] pre reference uh fees are a little higher than some other companies and that may come down for us discussing in terms of cost. So if you ask you to sharpen your pencil, would it be a way to have a tight timeline in terms of turnaround? >> Absolutely. >> Would the person be to contact us in terms of further discussion on just making sure we have solid numbers from you, clear

040numbers? >> You can send that right to me. >> Yeah, you can send that right to me. Yep. Yeah, I would be I would be your day-to-day contact. So you can send that directly to me and I can give you I can give you something a lot. No, >> that's fine. >> Yeah. And if you could get to us too that percentage of what the >> I can give you the whole fee scale. I can certainly do that. Yeah, it's a whole table and it and it starts from like zero to >> a billion. I can reach out to discuss. I just want to make sure that yeah clear exactly where you can >> Yeah. You know, we can we can certainly look at it. We can kind of get a ballpark of where we

041know the scope that you're looking to do. So we can kind of get a ballpark of where that would be. Like I said, I I really don't expect that it would be any anywhere. But that's I don't I'll also have a just follow question too. We have architectural plans part of the project from prior company that was that were done in complete with them. Since we own those plans, is that something the company would consider being able to utilize to cut costs or would you have to do your own plans for that part of the project? We we would probably since we would ultimately be stamping them, we we would we would have to look at them and probably at a minimum at least recreate them. But I I don't think that that would I

042don't think that would raise or lower our I think having that there it'll give us a step ahead. Um but we legally would have to replicate them in some more timeline or say with five maybe fast the timeline but it would >> it could it could speed it could certainly speed things up if we if we look at it and we're like these are pretty much what we would do in that case. Yeah, we we might be able to eight months is eight months is a general time frame. That's it's our typical design period. Um, we can certainly sharpen that up too if if we want to get if you really want to get bids out by like let's say the the first of the year in 2027, that would be something that we can

043look at and say, "Yeah, we could probably do six months." But yeah, eight months is kind of a good middle ground. Um the construction manager bit, is that something that your firm offers or is that something you're looking for with the contractor that you're like you're you're providing that? >> We so we typically we can speak. So you know in this day and age when I was starting we were primarily doing the construction management but over time the industry has evolved where it's a little bit more of a hybrid where you're seeing we do provide in-house construction management services but if a district or client prefers we can look and and help you find uh other firms that provide focused construction management services for your project. So we can work with you either way. We

044have very experienced in-house CMS and we work closely with quite frankly they help us with the designs they tell us they can't go ahead you can't build it that way right um but you know there are other firms that provide that service so just want to be completely clear and open that that that's all out there so >> your your fee structure includes offering that though right >> uh so our no that's a good that's a good question too so our feed does not include a CM service. It what is a little bit of it's a little semantics but it includes a construction administration service which is us present on site not every day but at regular meetings. >> Yeah. Answering questions not necessarily a an on-site everyday supervisory position. >> You're more of the

045integrity of your design. >> Right. Right. Yeah. So there's a couple I can I can kind of piggy back on what Mike was saying too. There's a couple ways that districts prefer to handle the construction side of the project. So there are kind of two there's two paths. There's a construction manager path which is like Mike mentioned, you know, we have a wing of that or there are other companies that also provide that service. Some districts prefer to have it be two separate parties. So that way it's not, you know, that way when there's an actual issue that if it's also the design team service, they're not really typically siding with the design team. Not that our team does that, but that's a that's a thought process that usually help. >> Yeah. Anything they usually

046they're usually pretty rough on us. >> Um or there's what's called the clerk of the work. So usually in local municipalities there's there's at least one or two people who can serve in that capacity as almost like a construction supervisor to be on site kind of hold contractors accountable that keep us in the loop. So we work with plenty of clerk but it's called clerk of the works across a number of districts. I'm not familiar enough with this area to do that. the words you're doing. >> Have you on previous projects? Have you had any any representative? Do you usually get the architect to acknowledge that we had construction managers? >> You have had construction manager. >> Okay. Yeah, that's I mean that if I was to could say anything that's that's pretty much the

047the norm nowadays is there are plenty of construction management firms out there that that we would we usually recommend bringing on during a preref phase because they're going to help us with estimates. They're going to talk us through the construction schedule and phasing and all that stuff. So that's usually, you know, and we would help you with the RFP for that. We could sit in on interviews. We could do we could serve in any capacity with that. What constitutes a change order and what fees are associated with the change order >> from us? No fees or change order from us. Um a change order cut. It's a good question. What constitutes a change order? Go ahead. >> So in our in our contracts, this is for construction. We have two primary means of paying for

048unexpected items that come up or things of that nature. So field orders or field allowances will pay for small things. You know, okay, you should have a a stop bar there or something of that nature. A change order is change in contract time or contract price on the on the baseline. So a field order is already built into the base contract price. You have kind of allowance in there to draw from for small items. A change order will change that contract price on the ceiling based on a circumstance. Say they they dig the foundations and they find a huge boulder that was not anticipated. Okay. So that would be a change where you would negotiate a price with the contractor, remove that boulder so you can continue construct the the foundation for that building. We

049have global pandemic and we can't find steel. We have to change the contract schedule and that that would be also done by a change order. So those it it takes care of those two large items that can affect your contract with your with your contractor. >> I can't answer it. Well, it's confusing because change orders whether it has to be a design change or I'm trying to see where the pitfalls the previous projects I probably want to call it danger excuses that we've had in the past. >> Yeah, they're often times mistakes. You know, no human is perfect, right? So, the drawings that go out any any construction company, there's going to be flaws. just going to be unknowns that we discover those boulders, you know, in the ground that we can't see. So, change

050orders are for those for those times. Every single construction project will have change orders. And typically, the industry is running around 10%. You know, that's that's kind of the acceptable. Some projects, maybe large transportation projects, you've seen 50%. It's a little more egregious. Um, I think in BCA we're in that five to 10 percent. >> Oh, excellent. Matt Matt's generation's a little sharp, but that's that's kind of the idea. You're going to need to be flexible during construction. Things are going to happen. You know, we're going to find unexpected things. On one project, I found an inter literally in the burial ground in the pipe. That's a big change order to accommodate that, right? So, you have to be flexible with your time and your money. That's why, and Matt had it on his slides

051there, you have contingencies and other things to pay for those items that come up that are unexpected. >> If I can elaborate on that too, just a little further, like Mike said, contingencies and allowances are are mechanisms that we build into the budget to allow for some of the those unknowns to be, right? Allowances are are basically a sum of money that we include in the contract for the contractor and as things occur and we like to keep them more specific so that way they're actionable. Um say for example it's a specialist you know has bad management we can say we know that it's in this area we don't know how much we're going to get to. We're going to put $50,000 in the contract. So when we kind of suspect that the contractor is

052going to encounter it, we're drawing from that allowance. And the nice thing about allowances in concharge products, they're part of the contract sum. So you're not getting dinged for overhead and profit from the contractor. It's it's just a straight labor and material composition. So it's a mechanism that we use. Like Mike said, there's always going to be unknowns. It's just how do we manage dealing with those and how much do we put in to to make it actionable? >> Does that help? >> It does. >> Okay. Sorry. Are we over time? >> Yeah, I think we're over. >> Okay. Apologies. Apologies. Thank you for having us. Appreciate it. Um, if you have any questions, I'll get the fee structure. We did sharpening our pencil on the paragraph number, but yeah, any questions you have, please

053feel free to email me directly. copy vulker, send it to Mike, send the whole team get anything at all. >> Yeah, we really appreciate that. >> Yeah, thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. >> Thank you. Thank you. >> Thank you. like neutral. We're going to give each now that 40 minutes, we'll make sure each time I was supposed >> [clears throat] >> Yeah, Hello. Hello. Hi. How are you? Oh, perfect. >> [laughter] >> So, hi everybody. How are you today? I'm Teresa. Um, I am the client relations manager with Synthesis Architects. So, my role is not a technical role. My role is to make sure that as the projects um move forward that I'm reaching out or you can reach out to me at any given time. If there's any issues whatsoever that

054you just don't feel like you want to get a hold of somebody very quickly, very fast, you want you want to respond sort of. Sure. So I and um today's team is um Jim Graham who is one of the principles of synthesis architects. Unfortunately due to a family emergency um and the engineering bath builder couldn't make it at the last minute. She was supposed to be here with us to answer some questions but Jim was very well versed at answering for her. We have worked actually with Emmy engineering um for over 20 years um many dozens of successful projects and we feel very confident in any engineering to work with us on these projects. Um I don't know if any of you know anything about architects you were in this district some of you were

055new some of you were not. Um but we did work here in the district um from 17 to 22 major capital >> and uh since sorry's architects has been in business for over 35 actually over 36 years and we have 25 years of K through 12 experience. Uh we do over $400 million worth of business. We've done over $400 million worth of business in K through2 education construction and over a hundred um K through2 projects that we have had on time. So >> just want to jump in here. So >> yes, >> so [snorts] folks in Berlin would probably say over a hundred projects on budget. Um, I think Sarah will be quick to point out there's one project that isn't in that project, the first project we worked on back in 2018 when was

056very unique escalation and construction costs. And so at that point in time, we really had strategized with the board. You probably remember a lot of time dedicated to making sure we had a successful project from that point forward. So we had two projects up at that time. Those two projects are not part of that. There's another 100 projects that were on budget that we're very proud of. Then two projects in 2018, we really had a um pull up our sleeve, roll up our sleeves and work hard working on another board, make sure we had successful profit. So my point in saying that is um you know, we were a little bit caught by surprise. We have new strategies in place where we track escalation and monitor escalation. and have discussions with the board part of

057it and um and then we were here through that we stuck with it. We worked with you to make sure that that project was successful. >> So without further ado, I'm going to let Jim speak um about our presentation. I know that you all have our um our proposal in front of you. >> Yes. Okay. Great. And so I'm going to let Jim carry on with um what our program is for you guys. Thank you. [laughter] So our team these are all these are folks we work with regularly that know K very familiar with Net requirements they're very high ranking team it's all senior staff they are firms that we demand the best people our school projects school projects very demanding and we're demanding that um so we have a long history with these folks

058and we partner with them because they very specific to the team again is one of those folks and I'm sorry she shouldn't be here this evening but in addition to engineering we have engineer from and environmental for as part of both part of our team we have landscape work the last project and optimist consulting door hardware and security so those scopes as well as this is is can you guys hear about this? Is this one working? just maybe a little bit closer to you. >> Okay, so those folks down here um those folks that were not here in the last projects um just to familiarize yourself with the work that we did with you. There was quite a bit of work done in those two projects between 17 and 22. So that um you see

059some of the images here between the fields in the hospital facility and of course the labs at the middle high school this building as well as the kind of a change in appearance in the elementary school as well as the traffic safety project. >> Anybody recognize >> as far as our proposal goes? the proposal. We have kind of a unique project approach and the project approach um is based upon how we address K12 schedules. What we look to do is try to get cash in your hand sooner than later. So we look to uh identify scope items that we possibly segregate from a larger project and identify those expedited and if possible get aid flowing sooner rather than later. So it isn't always possible and it isn't always beneficial. We have to work with Colleen

060and your fiscal advisor which is fiscal and um and confirm that basically what we look to do is explain on the approval. Okay. So basically looking on approval dates that we're familiar with we know that we can expect and get those done. Okay. If people aren't familiar, um in 2022 we worked ahead of the referendum to put together the propane conversion project and are largely done with that project. So we identify them both. Um that would enable us to not only quickly complete that project but also offer. Okay. So part of our proposal includes $45,000 impression in our feed for the first reason. So >> does that make sense to everybody and understand why? Okay. >> Similar question on that. >> I do but I can wait for questions at the end. >> So similarly

061uh single scope items like we can quickly explain as well in coordination on those. other parties being involved in other agencies and authorities that they work too. in our proposal state follow7. So that would also roll the sidewalks and then mix entirely damages that was more So the quick recap of our short presentation next approach has a financial benefit to the district better proposal has a significant financial benefit to the district and the CC team is very familiar set you up for a very successful project we can work with the board committee to identify our two-phase approach to try to Typically when we're looking at um 15 years of payment, we're worried about next year about 15 years from now. So your fin that's our thoughts there talking through that with you. >> There have

062to be two separate referendums then break it down into these two separate years. value in this board and that's quite common with large districts and city school districts when they're doing 100 million. So what is the time frame for the clock tower and the fuel conversion? >> So we work with you to develop a stakeholder. The most critical thing would be the resolution to project from there would be immediately review times very low right now and that is not still go away now was up last year. So really aggressively. >> So the project we should be an explanated project for approval and then we can look possible during the conversion this summer which 26 or 27. So I'm suggesting we have all the I'm suggesting that we get the tank out of the ground the

063better [clears throat] and the other phase two piece we want to be able to start planning and designing the phase two piece we're talking about water systems department of health department. So there's other agencies that all workflow too make sure we have [clears throat] >> and Jen as part of that exped. >> Yeah. So everybody know that the excavated timeline is because we already completed this work for Berlin 8% of this work back in 2022. So we were working on this project and it got voted down and and so it just didn't move forward with your district but we're will the work is done. So that's one of the reasons we can answer that. Can I ask a question to that since I wasn't here and obviously it's a complicated process in terms of getting

064voter approval to it but what what lessons did you learn you think from that process and terms of help the district unfortunately not having it pass is there anything that you would do differently and maybe in terms of guidance or working with the district or whatnot to get have having chance if we do it again coming off of co of course it's 2022 it's not the easiest sometimes >> sure so my my short answer is um one of my great regrets in my professional career there were some very people who really didn't give board and I was the one person in the room myself and our consultant there wasn't partner really had nothing to lose to just say let people speak let people get an opportunity to explain it was a strange um public meeting

065um the other the other thing that um I I think it's kind of a miss for for everybody involved which was important was the timing of the vote. The timing was essentially kind of the holiday weekend which complicated things both acceptance of the project and turn. So I think that was the weakness but um also there was just um maybe a lack of therapist for for the public meeting just awareness that simple energy and educational project I have you got a lot of experience in district so we're looking at supply power and stop the water from the building. Looking at propane to save energy in the water system to make it better here in compliance. But on the propane conversion for the energy saving in the district, [clears throat] my pet peeve is to reduce

066the operating cost annual budget and for that to go um and got out too late. I thought about too late for the RT but is we have a Johnson control system and you had experiences we get poor service from Johnson Control to do the maintenance and the update and even a response without replacing the system for the district. Can that system be retro or upgraded or someone else deal with it? So that if we're going to say propane, we're going to go to energy can get a total savings for the district that's more beneficial without a lot of dollars. Pardon? >> Um the answer, Frank, is yes. There are other vendors that work on Johnson system. Um I know the district's had a lot of trouble for probably going some back now 10 years now.

067There are other vendors that at least another Johnson system as well >> and if you had experience with them are they successful? >> Uh very successful. Um there's when you have a proprietary system very challenges to change. So being able to work on the Johnson system enhance your ability to function at a higher level. You want to function at a higher level system to replace function at a higher level. We've worked with other districts in the software to much higher level and actually works within this surface and is actually very satisfied with the ability to actually have response and then training that and everything. >> Yes, >> because that could be an alternate that we said [clears throat] if we don't lose all the money up we have to be specific when we go to

068the referendum so the key is available and we have a budget number we can incorporate it. With this expedated timeline, are we looking at a referendum before the voters go to pull out our budget? Like that's in May, right? Vote. So you want >> So you have an window of opportunity be ahead of your budget and prepare for that. So opportunity around March. We could formalize that that schedule. We didn't have your own limited opportunity to back now have that. >> Could you talk about um experiences working with districts on capital projects and building surveys to identify short-term long-term projects? So if you can't budget very challenging that are $100,000 and it's very challenging to do something,000 doesn't go very far. What we've seen is most beneficial is where districts several projects work. So they're

069only doing,000,000 this year. So the challenge is the cycle of the projects because they're one year. So um some districts um strive to close the books in June. So it's a challenge if they vote to design submission construction all those factors. So sometimes some districts allow that to fall here. So it's just a matter of working with to see how she handles it or not. What that means is to do it in the school year and make sure planification um as far as surveys surveys are a number of different things. wondering if they're amending and fill out and move on. The other piece is there's a lot of information there that is valuable to you managed and handled in a way that can make decisions from that information. We um we work with some districts

070where we literally need mandate and target and we move on to a small capital project other districts. Um we have taken dilation surveys and actually utilize them to the kind of foundation for capital project change environments and now building infrastructure in construction projects that are significant really starting is how do we get caught up on do >> you use any kind of special um technology or programs to do So BCS has had a bunch of cycles where people saw that there were no valuable for districts, people to make more marketing tools or facilities. The problem we saw with that in that cycle was folks and architects and ourselves included were designing things that were more than the end user damage in the long term. So what we what we make sure we do is sometimes

071it's basically a spreadsheet. We make sure that the information is in and we pull all that information out survey so that everybody can to actually manage the last either state for software information is the most important piece and we want to make sure that information is accessible. How is that information prioritized at level one, two, three or four? What significant? What's not significant? >> So the building survey works on age based on how isolated prioritization is really really working with the board and that's prioritization survey is really mapping out those things that are aging up and looking beyond survey take that information we'll bring into a fivey year plan or 20 year plan so you know where's going cycle project here 2022 a lot of great work that was so vision that information survey and

072start to plan ahead 10 to 15 years so district has a vision for you make sure your question all around as well. So frank I think an answer to your question is prioritization ultimately capital you don't always know priorities technology security but essentially when we prioritize how Sorry question. >> I'm just a little ignorant because I wasn't part of this, you know, in 2022, but um in your RFP, um it says bones school value for 2 million completed 2020 and then 7 million completed 2022. Was that like an additional project that came after that? >> Yes. So there were there were two capital projects left together. So part of that was in response to I mentioned before >> that was a 2018 but you committed it in 2020. Okay. So that was over tired at

073that point. I think part of the problem in the presentation everybody was looking at a payback. We're a school there's a payback that doesn't mean anything. will mean something is reducing the yearly operating cost of this facility and we didn't do it. We're spending a lot more money every year to run this facility. So that should be a change in the presentation is to reduce the annual operating budget. We're taking money to maintain these buildings away from teaching lay off a lot of teachers. So that's my estimation is to take reduce the cost of running the footprint of these buildings yearly and that's where we're locked into the state aid and what we can raise in taxes and all this stuff. So it's it's reducing the annual cost to run these facilities. I think that

074should be a stress point going forward. You're looking at payback. Payback's a lot. >> You're right, Frank. They back does contribute operation possible. >> That's what tying it together with an alternative to the Johnson patrol system maximize efficiency whatever we do here and make it easy enough for the maintenance staff to understand and use it make sure it's reliable and not playing games. >> We have the technology already. We just don't know how to use it properly or maybe not. They don't provide the service to make iter >> there are some physical technology. Can you speak to the size of your firm um just in terms of what you have in house and what you don't the reason why I asked this I did reference check another closure that was using you and there was

075there were some challenges and challenges with fortunately had some personal things happen in the company with some losses and and timeline that slowed down um just how do you manage in terms of the something else and who who you work with and how do you account for something happens unexpected to keep things on on track being a little on the smaller comparatively >> I'm not sure exactly you're referring to >> sure >> um so we are 15 people and typically about half of our work is board times 60 to 70% right now it's less than 50% we focus on rural districts we focus on repeat districts and fus concerning people that benefit from us. So we have a very narrow focus. So we have the same focus. Um I am because of our science and

076our focus. I personally so there last with me people there. So that's how we're going to be working because our narrow focus and desire to style we don't budget from the office. office. Thank you. for having >> and in addition my client relations position was relatively new in the last about 18 months and so part of what I do is reach out to you all who whoever wants you know to be kind of people that would want me to call them and connect or anyone can call me and I keep both any of your needs and priorities concerns right in the forefront and make sure those aren't being missed. And then on the synthesis side, I make sure that our employees are, you know, on time working diligently through the process and if there is

077a problem, I can internally, you know, work through the different the different people to make sure that anything has worked out very very quickly and can move forward. I believe it's opportunity to make sure that those things are going personally very quickly to mitigate any issues happen. So that's kind of new to us and it's something we put in place to make sure those things was going down and she was asking her not told you thought it was It's kind of an easy lift for us with a lot of value for our clients to bring a little just short communication. Sometimes I might be in a meeting and some details bigger issue. So, we want to make sure we open channels of communication, make sure you lead or is there somebody? So we have both

078people around. >> Yeah, I think we're very interested in just trying to conserve energy, you know, and any innovative ways to do that to try to save the district money would be important to you. >> That's fantastic. I always make a narrow view and so we want to make sure existing infrastructure is so just we want to make sure a lot of times it's just evidence it's the You're interested. [snorts] >> Thank you all. >> Thank you very much. >> Congratulations. >> [laughter] >> Thank you all. by asking. Good morning. Nice. >> Oh my god. [laughter] Welcome. Nice to >> meet you. >> Nice to meet you. >> [snorts] >> Oh yeah. >> She got like certain set up now with napkins. Let's test this out. There's a little brew home store in a shopping

079closet there. We can just >> [clears throat] >> um good evening folks. I know we're running a little behind. >> We're just in time for >> Yeah. >> [laughter] >> So, uh, I'm Garrett Hamlin from Tetrate Tech and we're really glad to be here. Um, I want to speak a little bit about Tet, our firm, but only a few comments because um, we know that you have a proposal and um, you may ask some questions. Well, um I'll make a few comments and then um we'll do introductions actually because we really think that the important part about tonight is um if I were in your shoes picking a firm that you're comfortable and so we'd like an opportunity to kind of tell you who you are. So um for Tet um we are a experienced

080school architect. We appreciate you sending the hire to us. We had the opportunity to work with Colleen and Auburn. Um we've been in business over 60 years. Um focus mainly on schools. I only do school projects. Um and um we're a fullervice architecture and engineering firm. So that gives all our um we are school design experts and really sort of one of the big hallmarks of what we believe is that school buildings truly impact education and it's really important to have facilities that are supporting. So um any questions on tech that you'd like me to elaborate on a little more? I'm happy to add to that office. Sorry. >> Yeah, same question. >> Yeah. >> So, we have four offices in New York. Um I have the office um Middletown and we do that because

081we work all over the state. When we specialize in schools, it means we need to work in multiple areas because schools are everywhere. So um what our offices our sort of remote offices allow us to be able to provide the best service. So I would enjoy and um this would be one of our closer clients. So, um, we're happy to travel with a lot of travel. Um, and that's quite all other questions. Good. Okay, great. Um, so I'm Garrett Hamlin and I want to just tell you a little bit about who I am. So, I started life as a mechanical engineer. I Um my yeah um uh my interest at that point was very technical and I was working in the field and I um sort of got interested in architecture and this was back

082in the late 80s and I really I fell in love with architecture and the power that architecture has in our daily lives. And so I went back to school. I went back to RPI, got another um master's degree and I practiced architecture overseas. Um I've been with Tetrate Tech for uh 24 years and uh solely focused on K12 school projects. I live in Troy. My wife and I own a brownstone. renovated it in 30 years and um we have a real strong commitment to development revitalization. So um with that I'll ask Jim Bart to a few words about yourself. >> Sure. Thank you. So my name is Jim Bur. Uh I'm a project manager with Tetrate Tech. I've been with Tetrate Tech for uh 26 and a half years actually. So right out of school

083it was my uh first job I within the Thomas Group or Thomas Associates. Um you know it's the old adage and you came for a job but you stayed for a year. So we actually do have a lot of long tenure folks at in the firm. So um I grew up in Vermont. I got an associates from Vermont Tech. I really started to um have a lot of interest in in architecture. I couldn't get uh a full architecture degree in Vermont at the time. They didn't offer one at any of the the colleges. So, I actually transferred to Syracuse University. Um that's where I got my bachelor's of architecture and um actually been my wife there too who also works at atte uh really just fell in love with the area of the state and

084I'd say 99.9% of my career has really been focused on K12 education. I really have just grown to to really enjoy it, to like it, and it's just a something that I I never thought I would really get into way back in the college days, but it's something that you just don't realize how many different things you need to know that a school possesses, like just how many different sort of building types and and challenges that that schools have, not just architectural bigger thing as I've grown in my career and and a project manager that um it's really about you know how do I work with school board stakeholders um different groups to try to build consensus and and sort of look at things from a different perspective. So it's not just about you know

085building something but those are the things that have you know meaningful impact daily on children's lives with that I'll give it to Mark [clears throat] >> thank you thank you for having us tonight my name is Marky I'm been with tech for 26 years now and uh well I've been involved olved in the construction industry for well over 40 years. I my first construction job was a laborer for our family-owned business. Um it's a little bit inexistent still. One of my cousins took it over, but uh I worked in the field as a labor and a carpenter and and a operator. So I've got a lot of experience in the construction industry. I knew that my body wouldn't hold out um for a lot of years. If if you've ever been in construction and doing

086a lot of masonry work, you know. So, I decided to go back to school for construction management. Actually, my my uh my grandfather, he uh started the business back in 1932, our family business, and he was actually a superintendent on the Chrysler building in New York City back in 29 and 32. So, I've I've been involved in I love the business, but I knew I couldn't do it for a long time, at least retired in the construction industry of some sort. So, I decided to go back to school. I got my degree in construction management and started with the firm in 1996 it was. Uh, so I've been with the firm ever since. I love the business. I know a lot about the construction. That's I guess why I'm a construction administrator and I work

087out in the field and uh oversee the construction while we're in construction. So once a dedicated construction here on a regular basis throughout the project but predominantly during construction phase it's a critical part of project delivery and that's one of the reasons why we're the people that are going to work on your project. There are also um photos of some of the other team members who will be involved. We have um upwards of 100 people in New York State working on school projects. So uh there will be a lot of other um people that will have an opportunity to meet project. We're all experts. We're all school experts. Um and uh that's really important because schools are unique. important work raising um you know students educating students that are going to be leaders in the

088world building consensus genocide that's one of the things that I really love about this is the opportunity to build build consensus so um we have a couple of other slides that were going to be available during questions and answers um go to the next one um just for a minute or two about this. This is an overview of projects and then we're ready to to field questions. >> Yeah, thanks Karen. So, um this is actually a a slide we've developed many many moons ago and it's it's just evolved graphically over time. But um you know before I I just explain a little bit about this I would just say so as Garrett said we've been in business for over 60 years. I know when we were at 50 we had over 5,000 different projects at

089that point. I unfortunately don't know what the exact number is now at over 60 but it's even more. So, um I'm telling you that to tell you this, which is really we've um over the years developed different processes, procedures that um we feel have have paid dividends and really making uh projects successful. So, as you're seeing here with the the overall project, sure, I guess it's not. Um, but if you can see over to the left where there's that dashed uh line going vertically, that's approximately where you are in the in the project process right now. So, project planning, trying to define the project, sort of figuring out some of the the nuts and bolts of it, if you will. Um but as you move forward through uh ultimately a referendum uh design as well

090as you know bidding construction and and ultimately whatever the uh you know the scope brings as far as a breakin period you know you're you're taking ownership of of those capital pieces. Um we're here along the way. We we've got processes that that really help guide us help guide you the community. Um really to try to to bring success to to the project. Um it doesn't mean we're always the fastest at things. I'll be upfront with you about that. Um but for instance, if we tell you a schedule, we know that that's a a reasonable schedule. It's an achievable schedule. It's a schedule that will deliver you a quality set of documents for instance. Um so it's really again there's a lot going on on this slide. I'm not going to explain it all. I'm

091happy to to get into it in whatever degree you may want to but um really it's a process we can help. >> Could you just tell us um what the time frame is between yellow and orange >> uh during schematic design and design? >> So basically to where we're at the referendum. So the referendum actually would be uh that big asterisk to the to the left of schematic design. So that that purpley color is is really where I think you you are at the moment in the process. >> So when you get to that what's the time frame for that >> to get to? >> Yeah. >> So um I just want to make sure >> Yeah. So I I think based on the scope that I was seeing there um in that time frame,

092I think you're probably looking at maybe the the fall of of next year of that 26 years. >> We could certainly see that faster. >> You think you could get [laughter] Oh yeah. I I think with with the scope that that was in the art, we have yes, that is achievable. Just wasn't sure quite how finalized that was. >> Yeah. The number of districts that are planning on the same. >> So that allow you for construction in June of 2026. No, because the vote would happen in May of 26 and we'll need to go through the design process plans and start constructionally construction. And um you know we're going to want to involve your I understand you're going to use a resource manager for this project. involved in scheduling conversations but you want some construction

093some of the factors for your project start leaving things. I I know from racing experience considerable lead time. It's just a big hunk of precast time which is but they don't cast those things every day. So you can have have lead time. The other thing with septic work that I know was in the RFP that that's being considered is there's other factors with other agencies beyond just SEB that have to get involved. Department of Health for instance. So um they have to do a review as well and really need their sign off before you want to start construction. So there's other factors beyond just materials too. Department of Health is going to be really important in terms of the well work here. the water system. Mr. Mr. Grant to spend some time with us this

094week walking around building sharing knowledge and that component of approvals just for a second. Eric mentioned construction manager. When we get into a district, that's one of my primary goals is to develop and maintain that relationship with the construction manager because right off the bat, we're going to be working through design and then staging, logistics, and and everything that goes along with the construction process. So, I like to develop that relationship. Um, I've worked with a lot of CMS over my 26 years. Um, so I probably have an idea that I might um have a past relationship with them, but I like to right up front get going with them and and develop that relationship and and they're going to be part of the team just as well as the contractors and everybody else who

095on board. We work with a number of going back to the times. Um Are we are we affected by tiff changes and all these kinds of things too that I mean there's a lot of unknowns like kind of going into construction right now and um you know if I asked you right now what what time for propane tanks it might be a lot different now than it will be a year and a half by now electrical components right it now switch gear main gear or even some types of panels. Right now they're out a year or more emergency generator though. You could get one of those in. So it's like you said >> unknown propane tanks. Are they are they hard to get right now? >> To be honest, I don't know. So, um, we're

096doing a a conversion of a heating system right now in the open school district small district community. Um, they're converting their boilers and so new boilers. The plan is to get that next month and that work. So I know exactly the answer [laughter] >> water too. >> Yeah. So I think the one thing I'd say to broaden my answer to your question is this is a super vol. We've been doing this for over two decades all of us and we're seeing challenges difficult ones over a year or something a week and a half to two weeks for technical review. So that's on the plus side. But then with the tariffs and you know changes that are happening overall just contractor availability system. It's one thing that we want to keep and make sure that they're

097good at because it's a critical. Could you compare how it is now to how it was during the pandemic or is it not as volatile as it was? >> Three different I would say it's it's challenging but different. I think during the pandemic, one thing that I was noticing is even at some point some common things that you need in construction like not that you would see them, but like the carriers that go on the wall that hold plumbing fixtures um you could get the plumbing fixtures with no next to no lead time, but to get those carriers at times it was it was many months. all sequest work because I don't have a thing that has to go in the wall to close the wall plumbing fixture. >> Yeah. So [snorts] yeah, I I

098from what I've seen I think it's just that there's like during the pandemic it was kind of this ongoing rolling challenge that I could never nobody could ever predict. today. I don't know. I think things have more level off, but that's my See what the other two >> I would say that the the atmosphere out there today isn't half as bad as it was during the pandmic. Just the cost of building materials like roofing, for example. that I mean we're we're getting people asking for $250 $300,000 change orders during the pandemic on roofing petroleum based material and it was it depends on what it is really you don't know until you ask try to get it's just like it's tough to estimate estimate it's just really close. >> We were all scrambling when the pandmic

099first started because there was so many rules. It's a little more different than the pandmic. >> It's just different as well. >> That's a question. Um you guys have Tech Tech is across the state big corporation right so um I have a friend actually who uses you in a different district not in this area so knowing that you're in a lot of places you have a lot of clients have you lost clients recently and if so what are some reasons why you may have lost a client or that you know lessons learned and for a small district maybe comparatively especially smaller districts >> so um I have lost very few clients over the course my career. Um it does happen but um it's pretty there a couple reasons for that. I think the important thing

100is that you always have to give good service to our clients and um that that's really important and if you don't do that well you lose communication. So I think that that's the first thing. Um the other thing too is we live in a pretty risky um uh profession I guess is the best way to put it. A lot of things are out of my control. A bad contract for something happens, you know, that's out of our control. But usually what happens in some of those situations is that even though we plan for it or try to plan for it, we still um shoulder some of the responsibility of the blame even if it is our fault. So you know we we have to own and that's the reality to architect in today's world. >>

101So when he goes out to bid you you are putting it out to bid to specific contractors that work fast or >> so it's a it's a school projects in New York are publicly bid. So you have to advertise them um in your paper record. You can anybody who wants to contract what we'll do and the construction manager too will do is there are plenty of contractors like Jezer was the mechanical contractor for the 2020 project here in the building great contractor we reach out to them and tell them okay we have a HBAC project we're interested in so we encourage good contractors to to we Yeah. Throw away the one right in the middle >> and some of the challenges in today's world. I think that's true. academically but I think um you know

102we're seeing some instances project will have a huge turnout there's demand for work we can encourage them but we can't force other questions Actually, >> I do have a question. Um, how do you communicate with the district leadership? Um, specifically the board of education and administration. Um so we're super processor driven and so what we'll we'll recommend is um establishing mechanisms of communication. Usually um there are two or three teams. One is within the administration itself. Um then the secretary would be at the facilities committee. I don't know if there's something that you know there that's a really important um step because it's informing the board you know I work and then um you know regular board meetings those are all active parts of what we do um facility committee meetings I think in terms

103of board connection are probably the most critical piece because that's the dayto-day stuff that want to hear I know from Mr. Grant someone at home have those comments along the way. So address them answer those things. It's really important. There's something you learned from from your visit to our district that you did not know from the RFP that really change your take on things or So J. >> Yeah, I think uh first of all I frankly just wasn't familiar with your district. So it was great to get to know the district a little bit. Um very beautiful geographic area too I might add. Um I think some of the challenges are just like with the septic its location its adjacency to Route 22 for instance. um some of those things that that can present some

104challenges. The way some of the tanks um are sort of partially engaged maybe is the best way to put it with um the building it's kind of like it sits in part of the building but it's outside buried at the same time. Um, so I think just, you know, some logistical sums up. [laughter] >> We stood there doing it ourselves quite a bit. Talk about it. >> And I scratched my head that uh we were talking like how do you service this? How do you replace this? So there's a lot of logistical things I guess that came to mind from the visit for me. Yeah. >> Did the 20,000 gallon tank in front of the sidewalk? >> Yeah. you know hopefully logistical challenges you know is something that construction manager budget um so I have

105two answers to that question um first of all I see so much opportunity I was really excited because I was expecting to come into some buildings that were older really needed a lot I know you have a you know facilities evaluation building there's there's work to be done there but there was there's such a strong foundation like the marine biology class so excited about that that's you know happening here in a small district that's education um so you know the opportunities to give students here in Berlin uh you know chances to see those kind of experiences struck me big. The other thing I'll say is um I was I was really impressed by the knowledge and the intimate experience that Mr. grant ads with this facility with all these facilities and I understand there's a

106potential retirement coming and I think that's a real um sort of a challenge that we're going to need to face as your hopefully your engineering architect because um the descriptions of well this goes here and this does this and this doesn't work we're going to need to capture that somehow We've done this before. One of the things that one of our partners and Jim were talking on the other day was that maybe it's a video walk through with and just you know talking about this talking about this sort of capture and memorialize all the subtle video that aren't. So um those are my two things I think we can do. I think we together obviously should hire us but it's possible so additional questions was a comment. [laughter] Mary Kenny in social studies 1921 to

1071970 49 years she was a teacher. Um Dorothy government in math 1937 to 1983 46 years I graduated high school so I would have taken a math class. Um that longevity to me is super powerful because um are Mr. Zack 46 years on the board, right? That um I that to me speaks volumes about who school district is and we were for a long time. I think that just to piggy back into closing comments really quickly um you know I think that's the important thing is we're after establishing a longterm relationship it's not just trying to to do one project we thank very much and see later I mean every project there's always a variety of different challenges but it is that that fostering open communication that you know really we move forward and have

108many success projects. Hopefully we have that opportunity. Thank you. >> Thank you very much. >> Thank you. Have a good day. >> Thanks for the cookies. Oh yeah. Thank you very much. Thank you. Jim. Jim, your little uh Okay. [snorts] >> Okay. The next is the Garland Middle School data presentation. >> [cough] [laughter] >> We have our archial presentations. >> Do we need our >> mic? I can't draw two straight lines. >> Rebecca, if you want, you can just press it off. >> Ken did text me yesterday. So, how we match our pants don't match. I saw like you were the same color. >> I didn't know what colors were. shirts look like. Don't worry. [laughter] Hey, Richard. [laughter] Hello. >> [laughter] >> How's everybody doing today? >> All right. So, The goal tonight is

109to be thorough to be put text. I have created executive summary two page executive summary handout afterwards. So it kind of highlights what we do. Uh before I begin Frank, [laughter] I'll take the $20. >> Um [snorts] in all seriousness, before I begin, I I need to say this is a collaborative uh process. the pictures and organization. Of course, Rachel, I just throw all these things in there. She really cleaned it up with the picture. So, Rachel, thank you. Um, Ariel, probably one of the best hires we had and certainly many as well. So, for a team, uh, I think Kent has been avaluable partner in this whole thing. So, I want to thank them. This is not Dave Burnsley. This is a collaborative effort. There's something wrong with St. Bernie. Something's good. All right.

110So, I want to be clear about that. Okay. So, first thing I want to do real quickly is go over the three goals. This is what uh Ken and I had agreed upon, but I like to believe that you ask any of the staff members in my in my three goals because I bring it up my newsletters uh my weekly uh bi-weekly uh uh newsletters to staff and at faculty meetings and other meetings [clears throat] because if we don't share this, it's not going to happen. So improve student attendance, narrow the achievement gap, and then straighten student parent engagement ownership. Everything that we're doing this year will be aligned to one or more of those goals. All right, the middle school. Once again, Rachel, thank you. So, the pattern I want you to see is

111let's just take the blue one all the way to the left. This goes down 46% 20 uh 49% 35% 53%. Okay. And it's ELA assessment overall. I want and I'm not saying this because of Ariel's here. Ariel is a sixth grade ELA teacher. The thing that we have to look at I think is certainly important that we get to say is growth and I'm going to show growth in a positive way and then ways that we have to improve 26% Ariel B up to 49% 24% 44%. Now of course we want higher than 44%. But 20% is tremendous growth. Okay. But then you look at 23 grade 6 47% grade 7 33%. So those are areas that we are working on right now. And the reason is that you have state proficiency for 2024 is

11225 hasn't come out yet. So we just use it as a baseline. All right. I don't like to compare us to other schools or or state necessarily. I understand why we do it. But we are our own entity. Even when it's real positive, I don't like to compare. And if it's negative, I don't like to compare. It's good to see it, but we have to take with a grain of salt and understand where we're thriving in the areas that we have to work on. Special education. So, I should say I included two subgroups. We have two subgroups, economically disadvantaged, and special ed. Please understand that one student can be all three boxes. First student can be counted towards all students special ed and academically disadvantaged and if the student gets a one or two that's

113going to hurt us in multiple ways. All right. So we are looking very uh closely to the subgroups as the whole group. So there are I have to say there are concerns with special ed that we are working on right now. I mean if you look at 24 to 25 from grade seven to grade 8 that's a concern. So one of the things that we are doing is we're looking at how the students are receiving instruction indirect direct instruction. We're looking at be very frank with you is um the uh co-e formula right now for the students. Should we go consultant model? We're having major discussions about that because the needs of our student may not be just for teacher. We may need to go beyond and also because the staff and consultant model will

114open up areas for us in terms of use the special ed teachers in multiple ways. economically disadvantaged. Now the 13% uh in 24 was it was a much higher number than in 23. So when you have a higher number, you know, you can mess around uh a lot. But then you know they go to 57% in grade seven. the math assessment, similar thing. I looked at this year, grade six to grade 7. Why do we go from 52% to 38%. So, we're doing a deep dive onto that. And again, if you look at state proficiency compared to us, again, it's 24, we're there, but I think, you know, grade 8 and not. And I should say, I apologize, the two teachers for ELA 8 and math 8 are no longer here. Part of my restructuring

115plan, our restructuring plan is I took two of the high school teachers, Mr. Connley and uh Miss Marvin for English. Very strong teachers. We moved them to eighth grade. I had to buy him coffee for a month. But you know, for math, I took Mr. Con. He still does some high school, but he's uh teaching the co-e and the two other math classes uh in eighth grade. And the reason I did that is the numbers in eighth grade are not where they should be. He knows what's expected in algebra 1. He knows what's expected in the math curriculum. Kim Bugby is his co- teacher. They're probably uh one of our well they are one of our best co-eing teams. She does the co-eing with them. That was part of the deal. This was a concerted

116effort to upgrade eighth grade. Miss Barbara the same thing. Grade 8. They I have to say they both said they love it which made me feel good because at first I like the high school. They are totally on board. They love it. They're making a big difference already. Um, it's funny like towards the end of September, Mr. Connley said to me, Dave, I had to change my approach because teaching eighth grade is much different than teaching the high school. So, I had to go back to like when I first started teaching and and to do some things, but he said it's kind of revived. He enjoys it. Miss Martin, right? >> She is just cloud n. So I think uh that we're going to see a big difference with the eighth grade scores in math

117and English based on those two. >> Sure. So 35%. That remember she was a non-certified teacher. We couldn't find anybody. Um I'm not and she's not scapego she did a fine job for us but she came in as the the year was uh starting to get taken off. Uh it was a tough situation. Uh Ariel had mentored her um >> no this is the last year take certified. So again you'll see part of one of the main things that we did this year is to build up the middle school. The middle school is the foundation for the high school. We felt that the students were not [clears throat] getting the the skills and foundational skills they needed to go into the high school. So our focus is very strong in the middle school this year

118with different program. So for example, sixth grade transitional program. The whole first quarter was about that transition. Each teacher was responsible. Um, seventh grade we we had uh the first quarter we had a program teach them how to study, teach them how to take notes. Just foundational skills, reading, reading comprehension. If you ask what our biggest issue here is, it's reading, reading comprehension, uh, writing. Because of that, all the state exams are based on reading, reading comprehension. Can you read? Can you extract what they're asking? Then can you extra extract the right information? Did you want me to say a little bit about um in terms of uh middle school in terms of what we're doing? >> I didn't again special look at grade eight. So I told you that I brought Miss Bugby down

119with Mr. Connley because they do uh algebra year one, algebra year two. They're preparing students from the regions. They're very good co- teach the best that we have with Michelle Baldwin and Bob P. I showed those numbers to Mr. Conley and and M. They said don't worry. So they're working very hard with those students. They they have told me that they're lacking the foundational skills. I know I keep saying that and I apologize, but math is sequential curriculum. If you miss this, you know, you're going to struggle the rest of the way. And so, they're working with the students, uh, do the foundational skills, recall, and teach them to be more thorough. That's some of the things they the information I got back from them. You will see the math special ed scores go up

120next year in 8th grade as well as the yellow Now disadvantage again grading 20%. Many of those students with special ed kids. So remember when I said that one student can impact you in different areas. We found that this special I will say 2024 Miss Hayes was not here a great deal uh between maternity leave and then family. um uh concerns. So the 35% was still obviously not where we want, but for her only teaching a couple of months, last year she was here full-time and jumping, you know, eight percentage points. The state proficiency level 24 is 34%. I kind of joke with Amanda, I want to see 50% at least. U so we're trying to get to that level. Now I'm gonna kind of ask Ariel, she loves speaking. >> Um so we these

121are our um and as you can see like obviously we need to there's a lot of areas that we need to work on. Um there is some correlation if you look at the state test scores and what the students are receiving on or above grade level. They're pretty close which um means you know there it is showing us what we need to see for data that there is some consistencies but that we also need to look and see where we can really um move with the students. So our MTSS coordinator has been working with the teachers to create groups for our atrisisk groups. Um there's the labs times that are happening in middle school. So if students aren't a able to get into MTSS, um they're able to use that time as like another tier

122one or tier 2, tier three time. We've also been doing a lot of data chats and how to read ISL, the groupings on how you group the students using a lot of that information. So this is the sixth grade used a lot last year with um the data and the elementary did use it as um a tool but not as a diagnostic tool like this. So they are also learning how to use it in the classroom. And then again um continuing on to 8th grade and then the high school we're just using ISL in grade nine and then the high school um resource groups. >> Can you go back to that question? >> So it's at risk. >> Yes. That means greater than that level was. So if you see a sixth grader at 43%

123that means they're at four or less. >> Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So let's take six just when we see reading from sixth grade at risk. 41% of students are fourth grade or less. We actually have kids at first and second grade though. I know. >> Um we're interested. January is the week or two. >> Yeah. And this is also for our the sixth graders this year. This was the first time they did the diagnostic on the so it's new for them. I know the elementary talked about that too. It was a new diagnostic. Um so if you see that like seventh grade is more closely for the reading um state scores but the other ones there is going to be some error when they're taking the test but it is a point of data to look

124at with what's happening in the classroom and like we said there's going to be another one in January and the kids that we're looking at are the ones that you know are moving are not making any growth. The nice thing about is that every two weeks they take a 10-minute assessment on it. So if you see kids instead of waiting, we will do a a full assessment in January, but you'll see kids if there's kids that aren't constantly improving, you can catch them up, you know, before that time in January, which is a nice tool that ISL has. >> I just want to say with the the January diagnostic test is the in my opinion, just my opinion, the most accurate. I'll tell you what, and that's the one that you really should. The fall

125is in September. research will show if students aren't doing work in the summer just reading whatever the retention level is not high the January one our teachers have been with them long enough to you know hopefully see the improvement that we want so when I show you January compared to the fall this year you should see that risk win rate low you should see that change >> so we're going to see February >> if you want. Absolutely. Absolutely. [snorts] Whatever you guys want. Um so you have to so when we say I excel does everybody I don't mean to be constant just like >> it's just like the whatever state exam >> it's like I already however it's shorter like we could do it in the the rooms. I already had shut down >> questions

126based on how they're answering them. >> Yes. And so think of it as that diagnostic test is like putting a computer on the car in terms of seeing what's going well and what's not and what you need to work on. This is get getting back to us and telling us student a strengths are here and they tell us the strengths. We need to know that. here's the areas that they need to work on. ISL will tell us the standard, the state standard, and I tell you that's something that we're pushing a lot this year, state standards, aligning their curriculum with it, and give us activities to work with them on. What What do you guys call that when they each day that they work on? >> Oh, the engine. >> Yeah. >> I don't know

127what they're talking about. They're like, "Yeah, we entered arena." That's what they call it. the practice of like >> can I also mention >> can I mention too just that every student takes itself well versus state testing data which you can have students that refusals aren't aren't taking it or take it seriously or whatnot every single student's universal screening is taking that exam too so it's a more reliable data point often times that state assessment is for three to eight and and what Ken is saying is ide idealistically This should be a predictor of what the students going to get on the state exam. Now, I will tell you in the past our staff did not do a fidelity the I'm ready activities and what they recommend. Right now, we have full body on on

128the big deal. Like I don't feel like we're wasting our money. I ready the biggest opponent of I Ready. It just didn't give us what we need. So for example, I read is cumbersome and long. I excelled one period for the most part in class. The kids don't feel like, you know, it's a state test, so they're more relaxed. >> No, you're going to see. >> So we just um we did it through the next for the ninth grade resource group just because we um were buying the licenses and trying to see what best fit what the students were doing. We hadn't done it in ninth grade last year. So, we just added that in resource room to see um if it's improving. And you know, again, the ninth grade teachers really wanted to have

129that baseline coming in to see where the kids are. >> So, look at our ninth grade. Remember I told you that our middle school has to strengthen for foundational skills. Look at our ninth grade. That's special ed and non-special ed. [snorts] 49% of our special ed students are at risk for reading. So that's something that we're looking at now. Ariel are spearheaded [snorts] not just looking at the data and we have an expression this year stopping the talk. Let's have action enough. So Ariel is taking action. She's actually sitting with each teacher, each department chairperson and going through the data with them and breaking it down. especially the teachers of what they need to work on with students. Remember, we're pushing differential instruction, not one size fits all. So, by doing that, Ariel now is

130targeting these areas with these teachers. We had a very nice department share meeting yesterday, team leader meeting. They are all moving in the same direction. You know, we have literacy against all through all curriculum. I knew I was in great shape with it this year when Vizette called me when Megan and I their PD and they're like, "Can we use physical uh uh literacy?" I said, "I don't know what that means, but yes, it has literacy in it. Let's do it, right?" And they were laughing. But we worked with them and they were really diligent. So, if you go into it, they have a whiteboard and they have all the key words, you know, the kids actually take a quiz, you know, uh at different times. So literacy is going in all the courses. Now

131we are really focused because our kids struggle with reading comprehension. Forget the test. All right. Life skills. This is what they need to learn high school. So if you look at our regions there are some regions exams like earth science where Mr. Tool did a great job and and it really went up from the year before and then we have areas that we have you know concerns. One of the things that we're doing, and Ken spearheaded this, the ELA, all 11th graders are taking the ELA exam in January. All right. I've done that in prior districts. Ken, I believe, has as well. Ken uh and I spoke about it and I'm thankful that Ken is uh allowing us to do it. What does that Yeah, go ahead. >> I just have a question about that.

132Will that grade count or is that just considered a practice? >> Oh, no. You take your regists. However, let's say worst case you fail. That's why we have two. We'll give you another opportunity. >> But if you pass, >> let's say I get a 74, I'm not happy. I could go back and take it again. And then if I say I get a 91, that replaces the 74. >> Now, I've been told that it's also going to count for at least AP kids, it's going to count for their midterm exam as well. So it's not something that they can just >> It's a very small percentage like 5%. All right. Um >> what do you mean like up kids? >> No no no in terms of the value. >> Yes. So one of the thing

133that Miss was worried about was her midterm was going to town. I'm sorry if I'm wrong my numbers like 10%. She was worried said it's all right. Let's reduce it. I don't want anxiety for you or the students. The whole point is here not to make anybody nervous. >> So she was on board with having that be your midterm as opposed to her own. >> Yes. Yeah. Yeah. As long as be honest we can reduce the impact of the final grade and we again this is not permanent but um I can add a couple things. One is it's local teacher discretion. One you don't have to have a mentor at all. Regent really is the focal point. It should be for the for the course. When a student fails and struggles on it you can

134identify the student right away. And the biggest piece of advantage is you get offered support now for the rest of the school year. When a student fails in June, they go off the summer and they get nothing. They come back in August and usually repeat the same cycle. So in theory work especially for next year's schedule, create more opportunities for kids to identify students in advance who are struggling coming in and creates flexibility in their schedule to get services. So again, when they struggle now and then and January, February, March, April, May, you have those >> when they're done. I'll answer your question when they're when they pass it that point. They have the option 65 they're done. They can be done with it. They can focus on their exams. They still take the courses

135and still complete it. But if they want to improve it, the score they can also go back and retake it in June. If you're taking in August, if you want to as well, but counts. And I I met the principal previously saw tremendous success in in this model, much more so than the one time you're done. It's really the only course you can do it if the fact the skills are spiral curriculum skills. >> Yeah, it's it's it's spirals. They can definitely do it. So we hope hopefully it's going to produce some some much better results for that. A lot of us also focus on our exams. We did a priority to be the honest to target uh kids and specialist because we were struggling with it and they made a world of difference. Ken

136is right. So Christie will take the regious exams students who fail or you know struggle and we will work with her to break it down where the kids are struggling and there will be targeted instruction from February. >> So can I just ask I want to make sure I heard you right Ken. So if you did well in your mid or in your regions in in the winter January, >> um you could opt out of the regions in the spring and June. >> You don't take it in June. You don't have to already have the credit for it. You're done. >> All right. That'll make my son happy. >> But if you [laughter] have that same day, >> we're also going to look at using that day as region state that also offer support to

137other students in the building as well. also give region state test and bring students in still working with some ideas what that may look like for our building provide other interventions for kids mid year. >> Yeah. So the teachers aren't the other teachers aren't sitting around they're going to be engaged either they're going to be proctoring or they're going to we're going to have students coming in and be targeting interventions for them that you know we look at the first quarters where they're struggling. What we're trying to do is create different areas because we are so uh the schedule is so tight and obviously money is is tight. We're trying to create different openings where we can give targeted interventions. Okay. So I'm going to go straight for two seconds. One of the things I'm

138trying to do is we're going to bring in a group um to speak to the student body and then like Megan and I will be in here, but I want the teachers to go off and do some PD in terms of the curriculum mapping and everything like that. So, we're working on getting that. That's like PD time that we don't have to pay for that's not in there, but I'm going to like buy two hours out of that and have them do it. So, I've done that in other districts. The teachers are really doing well. I'm highly impressed. Um, we have some momentum, so we want to keep it going. Anyway, this June 25, believe it or not, the New York State uh proficiency is not out yet. That's why we're using 24. If you

139see, if you look at this, we're pretty close uh in some places above, some below, but we're right, you know, except physics, right where the state needs, but physics is very low number. Like I think I have five students in there right now, and that's something that we're looking at for next year. Um ELA, we're working with Chris, you want to get those numbers up. coldest graduation group graduation rates. Look at this. Now, I saw 55% of students with disabilities. I said, "What was going on?" The numbers were different in terms of the cohort. All right. Um, then we have a couple students that special ed students sometimes need five or six years to graduate. Unfortunately, the state punishes schools for that. But if you know student needs five, six years to graduate, you're not

140going to push a kid. So your graduation rate is better. You got to do what's best for the child. I wish the state wouldn't punish you for that, but they do. But look, 94, 92, 93%. Graduation rate strong, but economically disadvantaged and students with disabilities, we're targeting uh this year. I want both of them over uh uh I want students with disabilities over 80% who want an economically disadvantage to show over 85%. Um that's just baseline also worth voting to um penetrate as a four-year average. So student drops out you're not going to not capture it in the picture until they would have graduated. So you drop out as a junior is not that year it's actually the next year. So you're kind of catching up on the death of previous years. >> Yeah. Do

141you have drop off rates? Do you have dropout numbers or >> We do. There were I think it was two last year people coming out. I can get back to you on that. Um I'm proud of this. We are putting a ton of effort and resources into attendance. If you look last year went up 31% 91% attendance rate. Right now, as of today, 93% attendance rate. We needed over 95 21% dropped 10 points so far from last year for chronically absent. >> Why couple you wanted to speak about a little bit about attendance checks and things like that? >> Yeah, we're just um keeping track. We're just really monitoring closely the students that are um ticking up with um the attendance days, absentees days increasing, trying to we're touching base with them or having one-on-one

142conversations, trying to see the group cause and then seeing what we can do to support them. And um we've also done um we also have um using our resources at runar county with the free pins uh program. So we've had meetings with students um last Friday. We have another one tomorrow. >> Can you just quickly explain the free pins? >> It's very interesting. So, prepens uh Rener County Probation comes in and we set up um meetings with the parents, the student, um the counselors and yeah, probation officer and we make an action plan for two weeks and then the um everyone has to agree on action plan and it gets put into place the next school day and we monitor it. If they do not complete the action plan successfully, then they will be put

143on the PIN program. >> The PIN program once they go to the PIN program, they actually have to put family. So this is the prep is prevented. Like what can we do? So you don't have to look for >> what what gets a kid to that point where they're doing a pre >> 10 or more absesses >> within a period of time. just right now 10 or more houses no matter what in terms of um that and also there disciplinary issues as well. Um we had three meetings last Friday so pre and one tomorrow it's four students that got around the building real quick. Um and Megan has spearheaded that. She's done a really good job. She set up those meetings. She filled out the paperwork. She was involved last week. Um, >> so the

144first was this the first. >> Yes. No, we both asked the same question. They didn't have so what happened was >> as we know I've done this for a long time. Uh, they had a really good program throughout the state. You and I have spoken about that. Then it just dropped. I don't know if it was financial resources. They didn't have enough people and it hurts. But now this lieutenant came back to us um and and they started this. So, we have a great relationship with the probation office, not just for this, but other things. Jackie Me is the director. I have her on the hotline. She's great because she knows resources that we don't, hey, I got this family that got kicked out of their house. This happened, that happened. They call this number.

145Boom, boom, boom. So, we are building really positive relationships with all these different resources. Um and Jackie came out. We actually we were having attendance meeting ironically enough um and she came out a couple of weeks ago and she say how much she appreciates the relationship we have. We have an attendance committee that we really didn't have before that involves a lot of different stakeholders. Um you know I'm happy that Ken is involved superintendent to do that. He's there. Um, the other thing that's helping us too, Darcy. Darcy is going to grid higher. She knows the ins and outs of the system and we were getting uh students counted against us that we shouldn't. So, [clears throat] she's cleaning up our processes. You know, we didn't know. So, she's cleaning them up and that's helped

146a lot. So, now it's it's really good because the guidance will call her or email, hey, how do I put this student in the system? I don't want it to work against us. So, we have everyone thinking like that. Even Candy, she goes, "Dave, I'm looking at this one. Aren't they homebound? It's not being recorded as homebound." And she's going in to do it. So, again, we have everybody thinking the same. Just echo. I totally agree with Dave saying twice. There's two-fold attack. It's definitely helping some part and hopefully the numbers we can keep that up both buildings and Jody as well but the collaboration with district office and Darcy in particular and our knowledge and looking at looking how we're reporting data what's being marked as absent homebound instruction when students suspended there's some

147things that were being marked correctly we need to clean up to make sure it's reported accurately which is helping our numbers on the other side absolutely and Jody as well definitely being vigilant in the processes we've got through those from those weekly meetings to even say now with Darcy and Darcy showing how to pull data reports and and showing the kids are absent and which ones are excused which is unexcused and prioritizing and some things you talked about with Megan. So those those two things together so far I'm pretty optimistic seeing those numbers improve and hopefully that will also in turn help some of the other things we're seeing with achievement because when kids are in school most importantly then they're able to be you know more successful and learn and not fall too low

148below in reading and whatnot. So we're trying to focus I even did a video recently about tenants just trying to support the goals of the building. We're all trying to work together on this. This has got to be our biggest goal, I think, for everyone districtwide. Um, and I just appreciate the board also supporting it in updates and whatnot because, you know, when kids aren't here, we're going to see those numbers, you know, be 55% of kids can't read the class. So, >> one of the first things >> I have for the preins program, parents are included. Yes. >> What happens if a parent does not want to be included? >> Can't force them. >> Okay. >> But so far, four for four. >> Okay. meaning that we've reached out you the criteria right >>

149you still can't call against child >> we can and and we want to come off as collaborative we don't want to come off as regretting so we we try to say listen this is to help and I have to tell you all the time parents are struggling with the students at home so they're looking for the support >> yeah so we're four for four where the parents aren't giving a big uh issue in back to the I'm not trying to be corny by saying that they really like we could use any help we get. Can't get my child out of bed. They don't want to come. You know what I mean? So, [clears throat] uh very very quickly, one of the students was given a hard time in the meeting. Colleen, the probation officer read

150the with the parents there. She came out, she's like, "I like Colleen." [laughter] Because she really gave it to the child that you will come. If you don't, we'll be in court in two weeks. And like she really So we could sit back, you know, we said, "Hey, we turned up, you know, and she was the bad guy." So it was good. Uh, again, I have to give enough credit to county because having that resource is huge for us. So they they have this two week probation period basically and if they come to school every day, they're off probation and then just Yeah. And but because we've already filed three pins, let's say they come for two weeks and then they fall off or they even they're good for four weeks but then they fall

151off. We can now file pins on them because they've already done the twoe rotation. The pins basically apply a launch to see that schools done certain things. For example, you want to see that you've worked on like letters going home, tennis letters going home saying your child's miss 5 days or 10 days, phone calls home to the families, home visits. They won't accept pins unless they seem cool other things along the way. And it preins the virgin meeting is one of those steps that you can take. Also checks that box as well. uh because they're trying to prioritize which cases have the empty assation officer coming to a house and being of course is the last thing they want as well. So those are one of the interventions along the way that that the village

152will follow. And I'll say that we have been very digital with communication with the families, email, phone calls, [clears throat] home business. Um they so when it gets to the briefings, they're not surprised. And now that it's out there, I've heard students say, "I don't know that have that." So that's good. I mean, you know, I'm not going to say it's the end all be all, but >> consequences. >> Good question. >> Yes, ma'am. >> What happens when they go to court or if it goes that far? Like, what does that look like? >> It's a very good question. So, >> goes to court now, is that in the parents hand, instead of the students hand, meaning a judge will say, you have to meet once a week maybe with uh uh uh your probation

153officer. You must have this attendance. you must have these grades, you must go to these different programs. They may set them up with a therapist. They may, you know, depends on the the issue that we deal with. And we try to tell them it's out of your hands. It's out of our hands. Once it goes to a judge in family court, you have to follow. If not, they go back to family court. Now, it goes up another level. All right? So probation with the kids is you have like what I call the entry step in terms of they have to meet expectations. They meet with them once a week. If you have to go therapist, you have to do that. So on and so forth. You don't succeed in that. Now it gets much more

154intense, much more intrusive. >> They were talking about even having a tracker on one of the students that they were working on >> with like one of their cases. >> Yes. So that's why I said it kind of has a couple different levels. >> What's to stop this kid from just dropping out of school at this point? Like if they're at that point where they're going to court, they could just say, "Well, I've done that. I'm just quitting." >> So one of the students that the student I was speaking about that the probation officer is getting on, he says, "I rather work." First of all, he's not of age. And second of all, if we could get him into, you know, the system, court system, he he won't be left. Then we put a monitor

155on. I'm not going to say that, you know, it's going to capture, but we're trying to give every obstacle we can for them to drop out. It's not just like, all right, you know what? You want to leave. No, we're going to try to turn them around within the building and outside the building. It helps when the parents are involved. You know, the parents are involved. We're going to make sure that they're at the probation officer. We're going to make sure they can hit jobs, getting up in the morning, making sure they're getting on the bus, things like that. That helps. Do we run into difficult situations with that? That was supposed to be Ken. >> It's AI. Can't tell the >> I'm going to tell you it's AI. [laughter] That was you. You took

156that picture. Uh, >> I like it. >> Yeah. Athletics. The reason you'll see athletics, arts, well, because we want our students to be wellrounded and we want to support what they want. Oh, wait. Did I go too fast? >> Can I ask a question about hardiness? >> Yes, please. >> Um, what when does a accounted for. I know my son's off a few minutes late, but he only got one so far. I mean, >> teachers need somebody like your son who's ready to work. It's not always um but if it's persistent, if it's consistent, then Megan and myself get all right. >> That's something that we talk about in the future. We want to get much dependence is like your first thing. >> Yes. >> Now you're speaking of a person that was raised by

157a man that if I was on time I was 10 minutes. So target is something that drives me nuts. But right now I'm dealing with other stuff and then we're working. Okay. So I'm not going to go through all this. I'm going to share this with you guys. But that's not I mean we probably left stuff out to the superintendents. I already spoke to you guys about it. This is where I think we're making great strides and Ariel is the person that deserves the most credit for it. She has everyone swimming in the same direction, speaking the same language. Um, when I meet people for observations, they give me data without me even asking and they're going through things. Um the strengthen the middle school structure that is huge. That I'm just telling you our

158students were going into the high school not with all going to say tools in the tool set but not with all the the foundational skills they need. That is a focus. Sixth, seventh and eighth grade we're built. My point is sixth grade then we should be enhancing in seventh grade enhance it even more in eighth grade. So when they get into the high school it's you know of course we're going to work on high school but they need that those foundational skills from reading reading comprehension math writing study skills how to take notes doing homework. I know you see struggle I speak to my colleagues students today struggling with homework note takingaking um extracting information so those are things that we're zero in as we say in sports you know when I play it's the

159little things that add up to the big things and that's what we're trying to do Rachel has tremendous. Richard Tretzki has been tremendous with this. Um, live stream socials, community chats. She has like Rachel had a great idea that we're going to do this year for schedule. Um, we're going to have a night event. Parents aren't involved enough in their child's schedule. And this is more high school than middle school. And what we want is at night we're going to bring everybody in, parents and students, staff get up there, speak about their courses. >> Open house open house. >> Open house, but it's more of come in here. art teachers come up, Shannon and Sam, you know, um the different departments come in and talk about the courses because as parents, how do you know?

160But the thing is we're going to make a video before scheduling, send it all the things about how the schedule process goes. The family should be more involved than not involved. And Rachel came up with a great idea for the night uh night events. So I think we were talking about that and and I think that's going to be going really well. The survey you brought up open house >> and I spoke about it. I know that was a question and I think it's a very good question. Um do you prefer open house to parent teacher? You prefer both will attend both? you know th those were uh when I came in my first year we really didn't get many people to see the open house. >> There was no house. >> It was my

161first year but honest to goodness right we barely got anybody and teachers contract believe they only have two night events they have to go to. So it was open house and then we had a night event for parent teacher in the spring. I personally did not think it was fair for people that work during the day who cannot come and that we don't have a night parent teacher conference. I think everybody should have that option. So that's why we we have to decide which one do we want for night. I have to say this year was the greatest number since I've been here for 10 days. In fact, we couldn't fit everybody in. We had to do team meetings during the day because we had so many people come for this parent teacher conference. >>

162Parent teacher conferences are invite. >> No. And that's communicated. >> Yes. >> Exactly. And that upset me a lot because >> I know I know I personally I I usually don't say this but I got to know. >> Yes. And uh I'm going to be honest, that should never be that's inappropriate. Any parent should be able to come at any time to see their child. I don't care if the child is doing well or at risk. All right? You have a right to hear and speak to the teacher. Students, you know, your child's doing well. Of course, you want to hear that, right? You want to hear what the expectations are. If they're at risk, same thing. So, that will never be that will be fixed. um that made that uh that made me very

163upset and that's not from the principal's perspective that's the father and father perspective that really uh upset me and I said absolutely not I had a very stern talk my faculty so that is all being done all right the other thing is based on the survey I'll come back and I'll have a report for everyone here if it comes back uh that we should have open house again we'll definitely >> feedback so got at least one. >> No, [laughter] >> I got 19 in the first. No, I got 19. I got 19 in the first time. >> Dave, ask the question if you don't mind. just um is there a way I think I answer this but is there a way where if the feedback suggests that there should be some open house you can

164look at it creatively where maybe perhaps the middle school has one high school does not and or vice versa or whatever and then you also have still have parent teacher conferences with that structure. So if you basically can bring back an open house of any sort, whether it be for both levels or more of the two, can you still find a way to make sure parents have parent have parents have opportunity to have especially for kids who are at risk and are struggling. Not to say that you again can't have because parents can schedule correctly wrong here. Parents can schedule a parent teacher conference at any point upon request. If an eighth grade child is failing, let's say Derek's child's failing, Derek calling time and he could have he could have guaranteed conference because his

165child's failing or if his child's doing great, he wants just to have a conference to speak. You still can schedule it >> 100%. And you have >> every time I've reached out to ask teachers if I can meet with them about my child, people get back to me right away. I'm always surprised at how many people are willing to go to meet with me. So I I think it's if it feels good that happens. >> Yes. Um that is the focus in terms of reaching out communication work with families. Um you just want to have that connection and I I also tell my teachers and staff your child's doing well also reach out. I don't want when I call a parent oh what did he or she do now like my mother had to do

166when I was right. I want more of hey nice to hear from you and then you know David was really had a great week this week. You know how much like how happy that makes >> Mr. just does that. >> Yes, >> I guess it's cool like calls and or sends emails updates for all. >> It's a great practice that other people need to hear. >> But you're right about the the parent teacher conference. One of the reasons for the survey is u it will be a focal point when I move forward for the spring conferences for next year. But things uh uh are definitely changing uh with that. All right. The reason by the way one of the questions is just real quick when I was in work right now is a much bigger

167place. We were using an antid system to schedule parents. So, I brought in a system where 12:00 or whatever day at night it opened and it has where the parents go in and fill in. So, that takes care of if you need to be invited or not. >> That's what they do at the end. And >> and that will take that out of the teacher's hands, the school counselor's hands, and leave it in the parenting. I tell you, one parents will stay up to 12 because they want certain days and times, and it was like if you didn't get there, you lost it. Um, so I hope to get that to that place here. Um, the one thing I will say, you asked what surprised me. I'm not a fan of high school level team

168meetings. I like the individual meetings with the the high school teachers. I'm getting back to people like so far about >> so high school level I taught US history. You come see me George just about social studies now is like 11th grade teacher somewhere. I think that creates intimate you know, environment where you can maybe speak a little more openly importantly and vice versa. But so far the the feedback I'm getting the survey is parents like the the the the group setting. >> It's kind of like a time thing too and it's hard to meet with all right, you know, when they're all there kind of get >> but there so there goes you know there's an example though. Let's say I'm not worried about uh my child necessarily in in US history, but they're

169not doing well at ELA. So, the parent could decide if they want to go and not go, right? I'm not saying they shouldn't, but the group, you know, if that's what the community wants, I'm going to get that. So there's you asked me what surprised me so far last and there's 10 again. [laughter] >> You mean 20 years old? >> Uh and just a two page executive summary of what I presented. [snorts] >> Oh, I lost direction. [laughter] You >> any questions? >> You ever have any questions? And I know it just and I work great together and it's kind of nice having here high school principal. So I think you and I kind of jive in a lot of way in terms of having and that's been really uh it's been very positive for

170me as a kid here. So any questions please? >> Thank you. Okay, moving on. We have a motion to enter executive session for contract negotiations. I get a motion to move at 8:29 p.m. >> Motion by Frank. Second, >> second by Derek. >> I We do not anticipate taking any action after executive session.