Putnam Valley Board of Education Meeting - February 27, 2025

001good evening and welcome to the business meeting of February 27th 2025 I'm convening this meeting please stand for the Pledge of [Music] Allegiance I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with li and justice for all spring is coming it's still February but I didn't have to wear my winter coat that's right good point we'll take it um snow days coming yeah I heard called out hope um I'd like to open it up to public comments on any of the listed agenda items is there anybody okay then we're going to move to um the treasures report for December which is available in the business office and then we're going to move to the consent agenda Mr alio resolve

002to approve the consent agenda items 2 through 10 is presented to the board at this meeting second questions or comments the consent agenda includes approval of minutes for the previous meeting csse CPS placements additions to the 2425 substitute listing approval for some unpaid work hours for various staff members approving budget transfers for the period of January through January 20 excuse me January 22nd through February 25th 2025 that are over $25,000 approving entering into contracts with for a school for a classified student Co-op pricing proposal for Turf graphic remark which is the voting software company approving Surplus assets for disposal auction or Don and these are the elementary school cafeteria tables which were purchased in the year 2000 and have gotten to the end of their useful life we're appointing Matthew Sero as the assistant purchasing

003agent we're also approving athletic coaches and game day coordinator for the spring 2025 season thank you any other questions or comments all in favor I I opposed extensions resolution passes um reports students we're so happy to see all of you here um the National Honor Society give red for Ed blood drive took place yesterday the total count is still to be announced uh congratulations to Julia demichel and Delina Gritz for making it to the girls State wrestling championship it's the first time the uh New York state has held a wrestling championship for girls and they've made the first one uh there's a new tardiness policy in place at the high school it started this week and so far it seems to be helping um congratulations I don't mean to interrupt what's your feeling on on

004the policy your own personal feelings how do you think it's going to go I I think that it definitely is helping some people who maybe like walk in the door at 8:00 just be there even just a few minutes earlier to make sure it gets the class but I mean no one's really seen any consequences yet cuz it just started so I feel like until that happens no one's really going to know what the extent good point it's going to be is it distracting to the students in the class when people walk in late or no they usually just slide in quietly I don't sorry I don't really think it's necessarily distracting for the students I think it's more distracting for the teachers and their own personal agenda for the day because you know when

005people are late or when people aren't showing up it's setting back the teachers to do their job and teach what they wanted to do because they have students that they need to catch up or vice versa so I don't think it's necessarily the other students I think it's between the student and the teacher who are okay having that issue thanks Aiden were you gonna I'd like to congratulate a few of our science research students whove made it to a competition in Albany they qualified for that and were competed over the past few days uh the midpoint of quarter 3 is on March 7th yep it's going quick and congrat congratulations to the new members of the triam M mun music Honor Society and that induction is on March 5th thank you March 5th did we

006get a notice no we didn't get a notice on that March 5th what's the location do you know uh in the high school bandroom the high school band room Wednesday yeah yeah the band room not not the stage the high school B Band Room that's March 5th and what time did that be 7:00 is it I believe yeah it's 7:00 yeah I'll confirm do that please yeah thank you yeah cuz we we never received a notice on that yet yeah please know all those events we like to we love to attend we love to attend yeah Marine is excellent at giving us States when she's told about it so thank you thank you thank you that's why you're here thank you anything else going on almost to the midpoint of the third marking period yikes

007yes that's amazing it really is going like fast flying by too fast well all good news thank you Dr l so I was going to talk a little bit about the blood drive but it I actually have more breaking news than you do because I was going to talk about Delina and Julia and congratulate them on their uh state tournament bids uh so I do have updated information from today so I know uh both won several matches to begin the day and I'm happy to announce that Delina Gritz actually finished fourth in her weight class in across the state so she wrestled in the third four 34 match and unfortunately lost but she won several matches throughout the day in order to make it to that Podium uh so it was a really impressive showing

008for her and uh think I know everyone in P Valley is very proud of her performance up there as well as with Julius um so on top of that we did hold a capital facilities meeting last evening it was actually very well attended I don't remember the last time we had a meeting meeting so well attended here in putner Valley there was nearly 100 community members came out for the meeting I thought it was extremely productive I know it was a wide range of opinions and really what our goal was sort of provide a foundation as to how we got where we are and then turn it over to the community members community members sat in small groups and they worked amongst themselves to develop their own set of priorities uh what do they think

009is the highest priority that the board should consider what do they think are some of the priorities maybe the board should consider taking off of the project any future project uh so we're going to hope to schedule one more meeting where we'll finalize the scope we'll talk a little bit about Communications we'll provide more information about financing and how that all works and ultimately it it's our hope that the board make a decision on any future Capital project during the March 13th board meeting so uh again extremely well attended very grateful for all the community members who came out uh we saw many new faces many people I've never seen before and I welcome all of them and I hope even more come next time but uh the sheer numbers uh were really impressive to

010see and um I couldn't be more grateful for everyone who came out we actually just recently uh myself and Mr spittle and Mr Melo left a meeting with some of our senior class parents as those who uh may or may not be aware our high school Turf is scheduled to be replaced this summer so the issue with that it's about a 14 we construction cycle so in order to have any hopes of having a fall Sports season that work has to begin sooner than when graduation is currently scheduled so I know it's a sort of two bad options we could either move graduation indoors or we can move the fall season to all away games and that's sort of right it's a one's good for seniors one's good for juniors and we're trying to balance

011between those two uh but I thought we just had a very productive meeting again it was a sort of brainstorming a problem solving meeting what are the options that exist what are some ways we can make this special and certainly no decisions were made but I think we left in a really good place with some really good ideas and I think everyone left there feeling good about how we can make uh this special for students we want to sort of replicate the experience of being able to walk down to the turf and do all that and we also want to do some special things uh inside and provide spaces access to students so um once that's all finalized I'm sure that information will be shared by Mr Melo and others but I did leave feeling

012very um uh grateful for the the partnership we have with our parents and very optimistic regarding what this year's graduation will look like and it one thing that is certainly uh given is it'll be a special moment for our seniors and one that they will uh remember for the rest of their lives were there any students uh not in this one but I know that Mr Melo has student groups that he meets with um and it's still early like we're not obligated to make that but this group of parents had reached out and requested a meeting so this was the first step and certainly I think the follow through will involve student voice as well as as we finalize what those plans will look like um so we did all that I know we spoke

013a little bit about the high school Aspire celebration but I did want to remind we got some people in the audience today so River DeMarco painted uh this year's Aspire artwork it's the the last uh display on the leftand side as you walk out it's super impressive so anybody's here on their way out please stop and take a look and check out some of our amazing uh work of our talented students and then there's a whole bunch of stuff coming up uh March 4th we have our science regeneron uh parent night at the high school March 5th we just established is the music AR Society March 6th is the elementary school science and maker Fair uh March 10th is a sealed by literacy in the high school library and March 13th which is the date

014of our next next board meeting we have the dress rehearsal for the Elementary School Musical Jungle Book and then soon thereafter will come our High School Musical coming up in April so we'll have time to talk about that again before it gets here and that's it thank you great okay so we have three presentations this evening we're going to start with our external auditor report yes so I invited uh Jeff shaver from OK Conor Davies here this evening there's been a lot of conversation online regarding some of the financial statements and I know this has already been presented at a public board meeting but it felt appropriate to invite Jeff back and uh really to provide the opportunity to uh to speak more to what some of these financial statements are what they mean answer

015any outstanding questions that may be out there uh and let them be answered by the expert uh who is Jeff and his team so um I don't know if anybody here has any specific questions if not I know that there's been some that have been shared with so I'd be happy to um to sort of reference what those are and then turn it over to Jeff to provide a much more um detailed explanation than I can when it relates to financial statements although I'm getting better Matt will tell you me and him have been spent a lot of time looking through financial statements um so assuming there's no questions in the audience all right d so I know on page 37 there was a conversation that took place regarding uh refunding bonds versus the next

016line item that speaks to various purposes the bonds that are $10 million could you just speak a little bit about what refunding bonds Means versus what the $10 million of various purpose bonds are on that page sure uh thank you happy to be here um the refunding bonds I would like to compare to um on a personal finance level like if you had a mortgage and you uh had the opportunity to get a lower rate on that mortgage and you go back to your bank and say hey let's refinance that loan to achieve a better interest rate a more favorable interest rate that's known as a refunding transaction so you're calling the bonds that are outstanding currently reissuing them in order to achieve a savings um Net Present Value savings over time um over that

017over that Bond so and those all those refunding transactions have to be approved by New York State and they won't approve them if there's not some demonstrated SA savings so it's debt that was already there it's just been uh refunded to give you uh to give the district a better interest rate great and that compared to the $10 million in various other bonds those are just uh existing bonds that remain to be paid off yet so yeah that that wasn't refunded that was just issued um several years ago in 2023 uh most bonds are not callable immediately so you might you may have to wait uh um years before you can that ball Bond could be callable and you could do a refunding transaction or if the interest rates aren't favorable it may be best

018just to to leave that outstanding that depends on you know the market and where the interest rates are falling right and just correct me if I'm wrong that $10 million the year that was taken out is 2023 that's the remainder of the uh F approved project that was completed in 200 21 um the way for the community the way we pay for those projects along the way are through called something called bands so those are Bond anticipation notes so it's sort of short-term lending so as we need to pay off a vendor we take a short-term loan we pay them off we take a short-term loan we pay them off and the way what that allows us to do is to only spend the money we need to so if we have a $4 million

019Bond and we're able to complete the work for $13 million we only ever borrow the 13 $ million we don't have an extra million just hanging around that we didn't use um so those short-term loans allow us to only borrow what we need and then once the Project's complete then you pay then you take all those short-term loans and you lump them into one Bond obviously you pay interest along the way which is why that number is now $10 million that was part of that initial Bond versus what was a $14 million projects to begin with that was well said I do that was well said I wouldn't don't I don't have anything to add to that Matthew's been working hard on me all right so on the next page page 38 is a summary

020of our outstanding bonds as well as our EPC payments I know one of the questions that came up in the community was the ratio of our principal balance versus the interest rate that's owed on those numbers um can you just speak to how that compares to other districts is that something that looks in line with the industry is that something that we should take another look at is that something that seems um favorable to us or not what what are your thoughts regarding the balance or principal balance versus the anticipated interest paid over the next 12 years or so so one thing I'll say the first thing I'll say is these numbers on the page don't tell the entire picture and the entire picture is when you issued that bond which we mentioned back on

021page 7 10,525 there was something associated with that called a bond premium the bond premium is an additional source to the school district and that is meant to uh lower your interest costs over time so on page 38 where you see uh a total of 4,244 th000 of interest payments to be made the bond premium that's given to the district upfront lowers that effective cost over time now this will be your cash outlays that premium is received up front um in the bond financing World they talk about net interest cost which is like kind of like the true interest cost that the district has to pay factoring in the coupon which is what you see here less the premiums that get reduced that effectively over time the net interest cost in this case was about

0223.2% so that compares to to a coupon a five so first thing is the numbers here on the page don't tell a complete story the actual net interest cost is actually a little bit lower um three I mean it's almost a better question for a fiscal adviser to come in and say was this a favorable interest rate was it not Al I can say is it's pretty typical to what I see at other school districts um and I also it depends on your bond rating and how the Market's you know looking at your specific situation what interest rates you might get um and also timing of the market you know if you went and did that Bond today I don't think you'd be getting that 3.2 you probably looking at you know a little bit

023higher of a rate just because of the market they' but it but it you know it is in line I would say with um other other nearby school districts that issued that have issued debt around that time period thank you please if anyone has questions feel free to jump in all right so the next question goes to page 48 of the financial statement it states that the district currently has 7 m607 153 in our capital reserve fund uh I know that the previous project that the district proposed to the public used was anticipating using $2.5 million of that so I think it's about 36% of that entire amount and um there was certainly some debate and concerns last evening regarding whether or not we should deplete that $7 million and then only borrow what's left

024or is it more fiscally prudent to keep some of that money back uh for future projects and what the implications of state aid are whether we pay out of pocket versus getting the aid back on it so can you just speak to I guess maybe twofold one what are your thoughts of that number being a district our size and knowing our history having out of us for several years and two um what would your recommendation B regarding uh whether or not we should deplete that Reserve versus use a portion of it to offset the cost of the project and so some of these are financial advisor questions too they they could be financial advisor questions um the first thing I'll say is from an Auditor's point of view the most important thing that we look

025at when it comes to these Capital reserves it's essentially a savings account for future capital projects the voters are required to approve setting up of these reserves so it went to a public vote the vote voters allowed the district to accumulate monies for capital projects then the total amount of that um I believe was1 million you did spend some along the way um bringing this total to $7 million so from an Auditor's point of view did you go out to the to the public vote you C you clearly did and are you within the confines of what the voters allowed for and yes you are so the capital reserve is from from my point of view allowable under under the guidelines so I think that's that's first um it's certainly prudent to accumulate uh Capital

026reserves whenever feasible um and the question of you know how much of it do you use versus how much of it do you save it's really I I'll go back to personal finance like if you're going to do a renovation on your house do you want to raage your savings account um and and deplete it to zero to reduce the amount of debt you have outstanding or would you rather kind of balance that out so in my in my view it's always nice to keep a little bit in the in the pocket there you know for for future unanticipated costs so I as a conservative um accountant that I am um it' always be my personal opinion to keep you know keep a little bit keep a little bit behind that's again that's just my

027personal opinion um ultim timately decisions like that are board level decisions and that of course needs to be approved by the voters so it's it becomes a board level decision and a community decision on how those are handled but certainly what I I and I tell all districts this um it's a prud it's a prudent Reserve to have but it's also very restrictive in that the voters approved it before just to just to set it up they also have to approve it again before you take it down so you you have like a dual a dual mandate there where you uh voters have to approve going in and voters have to approve it going out so you're you you are restricted in that way but you know like you you talk about keeping a little

028bit back but in a school district a little bit doesn't necessarily cover if there was a major problem or major issue in the district right I mean so I mean if you keep 10% back or 20% back and spend the rest it seems to me that that's doesn't leave enough for an emergency but again it's a person it's it's it's a it's a philos it's philosophical almost you know and I could sit here and talk about it for for hours and we could discuss it for hours and people ultimately will have different opinions on how much of that to use um I I will say that you know in terms of Capital Improvements and the cost of Capital Improvements $7 million is not a huge sum of money because a school district can spend that

029very very very very quickly it doesn't take much to to spend that just the costs I've seen uh turf fields you mentioned the turf fields okay um roofs are very expensive so any kind of building alterations you know are very expensive so $7 million you know um may feel like it's it's a big sum of money but I don't I don't really it doesn't seem like a big sum of money from from the chair I sit in okay thank you as much as we wish $7 million went that much further the reality is when you see the bids come in it doesn't go very far unfortunately all right so I think my last question that I had gotten from the community is on page 65 and 66 I don't know if there was a specific

030question per se as much as maybe just confusion regarding how this chart reads out um part of the complicating factor is it reads across two pages I think some community members were focusing maybe on one side of the page without looking at the other could you just Pro provide us sort of a a quick overview as to what it is that this page tracks and um how how it's intended to be read absolutely um so it it is a two-page presentation so looking at one or the other is kind of just kind of confused the situation um this is a schedule from inception to date of all capital projects that the district is undertaking or or trying to complete um as of the fiscal year end in this case we're talking about June 30th 2024

031so we start with the First Column is the project budget which generally would be supported by some kind of voter authorization if you go back to the um the bond that we were just discussing the voter authorization in that case was 14.81% Dave will keep telling me that he came in under budget yes he came in under he came in under budget in that case so that's one of the things as Auditors we look for and I uh if I was a member of the public you want to look for um that would be an issue if you see a district overe expending capital projects um you you generally can't go over the authorization so that's that's an important thing that you would see on this schedule it shows you everything that's been spent in

032Prior years that's a cumulative number from the day the project started it shows you what was spent in the current year and it gives you the total of all the spending on each project and then it gives you what we call the unexpended balance or amount left to spend if the number's positive you have an under spending so that means you've come in under budget and then to the right of that the right side of that page is where we detail the different financing sources of those specific projects could be a number of different things in here bonds are the are the biggest numbers typically um and you'll see in that project you know all the bonds would be would be considered you know proceeds of obligations so that's bonds and other debt falls under

033that category Revenue source for that specific project interfund transfers are in the case of a school district in New York state almost always transfers from your general fund budget so those are also voter approved transfers to specific projects uh almost every District I go to um authorizes or or the budgets authorize some current funding from an operating budget to for generally smaller capital projects and that's what you've done here with um you for instance the high school roof replacement is one of them and um a modular remodel which is smaller dollars and and and so on and so forth so those interfund transfers represent amounts used earmarked from your operating budget transferred over to fund those specific projects again voter approved through the operating budget um and then we have total revenues and fund balance

034or deficit so fund balance and deficit um would be how much money how much fund balance um is left on each specific project which is related to the amount that's unexpended generally assuming you've received all your Revenue sources it would be the same number uh by anticipation notes outstanding is there to show that um projects that are in an accounting deficit that might show a negative amount in the fund balance is really not in a true sense in a deficit because you have a short-term debt outstanding to fund that so it offsets the negative in reality in my mind as an auditor the two added together should be a positive number so you know for instance you have some small amount of bond anticipation notes for school buses um the N the amount of that

035debt outstanding is greater than the the project deficit so you're not in a negative situation in reality that is kind of how the schedule works it tells there's a lot you can see about uh project authorizations on this page it's all here um the project older projects when they're complete and fully funded and have no money left left they'll be taken off so you know really really old projects wouldn't be on here but anything that still has funding or still has money left to spend we we'll stay on the schedule until it's 100% complete so it's it's it's it's a very nice snapshot of um all the capital projects all the funding sources and the current status as of June 30th okay so one last question regarding this page from an auditing perspective is there

036anything that raises any concern uh to you or any of your partners no again the concerns would be um balances without adequate project budgets like if you were spending started spending on a project without any authorization um in sign in a significant way that would be a concern we don't we don't see that here I probably wouldn't be employed very long if that happened it would be very that would be bad you really just can't do that um you know we also look for funding sources maybe a project is authorized but the funding sources isn't there yet um what is that funding source and why isn't it here yet why don't why don't you have that money yet um and I've been trained over the years to look for those things that might be lurking

037in a capital projects fund where well okay you're authorized but where's the revenue it often happens with grants but um sometimes it they take years to come in why is that Grant not here yet um and I but I'm not seeing you know any of those types of issues here where you have um you know funding sources that haven't arrived because you really only have two things in your case you have the transfers from the general fund and as soon as uh the budget's adopted and the fiscal year starts the district can make that transfer so the money moves from the general fund to the capital projects it's there it's available and um either you have a bond anticipation note used as a funding source so that that is your funding source or or a

038bond in in the case we were talking about and that represents your funding source so you don't have any of those issues those would be the issues I'm most concerned about when I review this this P these two pages thank you so I think one thing I just want to point out on this page I know this question comes up a lot the district received voter permission to borrow up to a million dollar to fund school buses on a 2024 uh proposition to date the district has spent $145,500 according to this chart of that money what that doesn't mean is we don't have 800,000 sitting around in an account if we go all the way to the right hand side of the page we show a deficit of $145,500 but a ban was taken out

039for $149,100 to pay that off so when that is paid off the our Surplus will be less than uh $3,000 correct and the remaining 8 $850,000 is available for us to borrow but is not in but hasn't in any way been accessed exactly and you can see that on this page so you see project budget in the First Column is $1 million for the buses the voters approved um in in one proposition the funding for the $1 million the district is now authorized to go out and get funding for that I believe the plan is to do those purchases over time as as you need the buses there generally a replacement plan for the buses this is just the first year of that replacement plan so you spent 145,000 and you issued a bond anticipation

040note slightly more than that because it was most likely estimated at the time you did the debt so you come out with a you know $3,000 difference or something small um like that you still have the $854,000 authorized um yet to spend you don't have the cash in hand youd have to go back out to the market to borrow it before you spend it I think that's the that's the confusion SS we're authorized to spend it but we haven't already borrowed it yes so it's not like we're paying interest on that money it's not like sitting around spend the Deb the debt has not been issued and and you can see that on this page kind of like a Nuance thing I think uh maybe a taxpayer looking at this for the first time wouldn't

041wouldn't kind of grab that right away but you see the project authorization a million you didn't you don't necessarily have million dollars in the bank if you see a revenue source of a million dollars that you issued the bond then you do but in this case that's not that's you can tell right from the page here based on what we're discussing that that that's not what happened in this case thank you so any the board members have any questions um I just want to note that if you go to pvcsd.org to the district info to The Current financial info link if you scroll down there um under external audit reports 232 before that's where that's where you find that document that Dr left is referencing so it is on our website again it's under the

042district info Current financial info scroll down you'll see that information for for a school district what what's the normal amount uh that would be allowed uh in the fund balance not the capital projects Reserve but the fund balance itself what what would you say would be a normal amount uh that's allowed in that so the discussion of fund balance is is one that we always get to when you know when I when we come for the the the Public Presentation when when this is complete um October you know usually when the time frame is the legal limit on fund balance is 4% of the next year's budget it is 4% okay however that that limit applies to um what we generally refer to as unassigned fund balance okay so if you're looking at page 48

043of the financial statements it schedules all the various components of fund balance that 4% limit applies to this unassigned for fund balance only the restricted funds are restricted in accordance with General Municipal law or some other um state law allowing you to set aside additional funds for the those specified purposes the capital projects Reserve that we talked about is one of those Reserves as the voters authorized the district to increase its savings if you will or increase its fund balance to fund future capital projects so the $7 million capital reserve is in addition to the 4% that you're allowed to keep and you have other reserves here um you know tax ciary Reserve you know that's a that's a cost that every District uh unfortunately faces employee benefit acrw liability Reserve so all these those

044other reserves separate and distinct from the 4% but they have to be used in accordance with the law got you okay so the unassigned is a 4% limit the unassigned the unassigned is the four is where you get to 4% that yeah thank you thank you very much Jeff I appreciate your time can I just add um I'm a partner with with um pkf o Conor Davies accounting firm I'm not an employee of the district so I'm kind of you know I'm required to be independent of of the district um as your auditor um I'm the engagement partner so I'm the person um you know who's basically authorizing the issuance of these audit reports and in the audit reports we say um you know there's no material misstatements found in the financial statement or essentially

045there you know that's what we call the clean audit opinion and of course we've you know that's the opinion we've rendered in this case I just wanted to state that for the public that we do maintain Independence um I don't have any relationships with those on the board or those of management that would be a violation of my professional Independence so just so everyone is aware thank Youk you thank you very much thank you for making the trip out tonight yeah thank you much thank you again I would recommend people go to the website watch this video put it all together so you can have a clear understanding if anybody in the audience would like to leave now that the audit report is done I would understand sorry I know the audit is always get

046picked on all right so at this time we will move forward to our next thank you guys very much move forward to our next presentation so our first presentation this evening will be our special education presentation and I'd like to invite up Dr dhy and Miss Melissa estrea small adjustment hello okay this is our 2526 budget so we'll be discussing um budgetary items within special education last year we discussed uh the Statewide deficit in services for students within uh special education in the area of preschool ages three up to five um to mitigate that concern within putam Valley Central School District we move forward with opening something called a 4410 and we are one of two in the region that has opened um such a service so what that does is that allows us to

047uh have our own providers within puam Valley Central School District to help support students that require special education services at the preschool level we are still continuing to work on expanding those Services um so what we have also done is um within our preschool area um it's important to note when you're looking at special education budget that preschool services are um funded through the county the student resides in so we service both putham County and some of Westchester so we work with both um agencies however each School District within New York state is required to um provide the organization and management of preschool Services which requires putam Valley Central School District to staff those needs currently we service about 30 605 to 70 students each year and we do that with the support of one

048CPS chairperson that's um the committee on preschool special education and we do this at about a point2 um service what has happened over the past four to 5 years is we've seen a significant increase in Reg regulatory requirements um management and coordination of services you can imagine with a Statewide deficit it really requires a lot of management and oversight for our preschool students um what we are seeing is that has required additional support and services from our staff so over the next year to two years we will continue to look at our staffing needs to see if there is a increase required at this time there is not yes please I do just want to jump in on this point um I think it's really important to note because I've been here for so many

049years and I'm retiring at the end of the year and that point2 cpsc position used to be for many many years was always a 04 um when we reorganized um we started to use um one of our school psychologists who does a point to so the management needs um that we see now um are CH are shifting we now have anywhere between 65 and 70 preschool students that's a large case load of we have to manage everything from special education services OT PT speech all of those Services um are coordinated through the district office it's a huge um undertaking and I do think over the next year or two looking um to to add support in that area uh will be important so just wanted to put that out there um within the special education

050department we also budget for students um that may require highly specialized programs that are outside of our school district we maintain as we do every year frequent communication with families and the school district to ensure that our students are receiving the best support services available so going into next year um we'll have one director which will be Melissa estrea um we'll have we are uh posting and going out for um one special education supervisor um so that is all Remains the Same the only change in our budget going into next year is the addition of one teacher um at the high school that we we will need the concern so we're going from 24.6 to 25.5 um the increase really comes from we have a full kindergarten cohort of students going into a highly specialized

051class this coming kindergarten um so we have eight students going directly into that class which then pushes those students up one grade you know to a different teacher so it it's sort of this domino effect where um each teacher that teaches the highly specialized programs um even though the need is at the high school it's being driven from K to 12 um so we we are increasing that um because it looks like uh from our numbers with the students we have graduate or finishing the following year we will only need somebody for one year so after talking with Dr LT and um with Mr Odell I think our decision is really to go out for a leave replacement so that we know it's a one-ear it's a one-year need um and that change should should

052be able to take place um and then I think that when you look at 5year projections um our numbers will will be pretty steady over the coming years I don't anticipate a a whole lot of changes um the teaching assistance um we did increase from 37 to 38 we have like I just discussed we have a a very large kindergarten cohort with um and we want to be able to meet their needs so we may not use the 38 we may only use the 37 but we anticipated the need for potentially one more teaching assistant and then teaching AIDS um during this school year we added two teaching AIDS the difference between a teaching assistant and a teaching Aid just for everybody's knowledge is really teaching assistants can do direct instruction under the under the

053supervision of a teacher aids are really there for um you know their physical needs caring for them making sure students are safe and guided um so there is there is certainly a significant difference between the the two and then uh the clinical staff Remains the Same occupational therapy and physical therapy the same same for speech uh this year we made the change uh with Miss Bole um Miss Bole we took out of the classroom last year and she is a certified Behavior an analyst and she is phenomenal and she's incredibly busy and even she is saying like we don't know how we we didn't have somebody full-time um we we used to use an agency that would come in and it was just so disjointed and what Miss Bole has really done is addressed a

054lot of The Help Us address a lot of the behavioral needs throughout the district um k12 and even even just those little um behavior management techniques that that she's working with teachers on um makes such a huge difference for everybody in the classroom who is a learner and and there to learn um and she really is starting to help us create a a districtwide behavior um intervention system so it's been phenomenal I'm really uh so glad and thrilled that we did it and grateful so we're going to continue with that next year last year I believe we also spoke about this New York State um continues discussions of encouraging schools to extend the school age from 21 to 22 um for students with special education needs that have not yet met the requirement for graduation

055um the state is still pending their response on reimbursement and it's probably probably unlikely that they will reimburse for after 21 um New York State also asked schools to look at um students with disabilities the the ratio to um general education and we are within guidelines our highly specialized programs continue to grow and we continue to support our highly specialized programs with additional training which also includes um mental health reading Services um behavior management and new explicit instruction New York State also um nysaa is the New York State alternate assessment New York state right now is exceeding the required um guidelines that the FED has has put forth so with that they're asking school districts to analyze their alternate assessment programs which we are doing we're increasing our training for both staff and also parents

056um and we're looking forward to Rolling that out with with local agencies next year so assist of technology training um we use in the in the district in our highly specialized classrooms um we use augmentative communication devices so you'll often see students with uh their own iPad and on there they have something called touch chat and it really helps our non-verbal students be able to communicate um recently we just had a mother tell us um that their child was able to say something to them through this device that they had never been able to hear from their child and it was it was actually really beautiful um and it certainly made us realize like how it doesn't just help us with our academics or help them to communicate but at home um parents are able

057to hear and and have a conversation with their child um where they never had before so we're going to continue that training Miss Bole uh Miss Roberts our speech therapist is heavily involved um in training uh all of our staff our Tas are truly becoming experts on these devices um and then it really helps our students have a voice and it's pretty amazing to watch so if you ever are in the school and you get to to observe it it's it's pretty incredible um Behavior interventions I just talked about that a little bit um we we are going to continue with Miss next year and it has been truly uh a great opportunity preschool uh committee on preschool uh special education services as Miss estrea just talked about we um we are required to do

058all of the Management Services um for preschool for our pre preschool students um it is funded through the county I expect that to change soon um and I think that it's going to be entirely responsible uh of the districts uh both financially and uh as it is right now uh running it and providing it the reason why I decided to move forward with opening up our own 4410 was for two reasons one is because our students weren't uh we were short on physical therapy occupational therapy speech um and our students were were not getting those Support Services um so some of our own providers uh were able to sign up through us through our own District as a 4 410 and they're able to see them after school um so it's sort of a win-win

059for everybody and then the second reason is because if we are responsible at some point in time and especially with universal pre um looking at being able to provide uh even special education support services to our students so it's a great opportunity um we are in the process of doing a Medicaid application that even I'm stumped uh I have to say it is quite cumbersome um but we are going to start to Bill Medicaid um our new business official uh is helping to guide me we are going to use a company called Kenny uh Kenny services so once that is up and running hopefully that'll be set and ready to go as of July 1 any any questions the um I know for years the county has advocated to get rid of the preschool when

060I was legislator that was always a big issue uh at the time from your perspective when do you see that happening because I know it's something that uh the counties want done because they don't want the responsibility and they believe it's School related and um should be handled by the school but what's your feel on that so I think I think the federal government is may may be shifting um it's really really right now it's through it's the feds funnel the money through the counties to the district basically is how it's how it's worked um I don't know when that's going to change I do suspect over the next few years there's going to be a shift in the funding sources from the federal government um it's been talked about for years yeah and I

061think that um the more I hear and the more I listen I do think that that is going to to shift and that is going to be a large sum of money for the district um for sure for all districts across the state I don't know when that will happen I don't have a crystal ball but I suspect it'll happen in the coming years I applaud you on the proactive step that that you're taking to formulate you know like the the what is it again the 4410 right yeah there's only us and Lakeland are the only two in Westchester Pam and Duchess were the only two that went ahead and did that and I thought it was really important mostly because of the services for our students and where able to provide them the support

062that they weren't able to get and two I think it's heading in that direction anyway that's excellent thank you I think one of the steps that we're taking to move continue to move in that direction right so we hope to have uh we're issuing our RFP for prek services yes and we're hoping to have someone interested in coming in and providing those services and now we're looking to actually host them right here on our campus and it matches well with uh some of those early intervention services that our students need in fact there's another partnership with the county that we're exploring where we may be able to create inclusive prek uh settings where the county would provide both the special education teacher and the aid and be able to place students in our program and

063it would be nice to have our faculty and staff approved to provide the services that those pre- students may need outstanding in our building in our classrooms uh so it would be it' be a good match between those two programs and I compliment both Natalie and Melissa for the foresight of getting us a positioned in a place to be able to provide those services to kids so we're not sending them off to Carmel or Brewster or other places where they can get the services they need good good thank you both um for the 4410 how are you um able to find the adequate support support resources because as we know in the world today it's very hard to find the resources how were you able to do that so I think our own providers um

064are signing up with us um like our occupational therapist just signed up with us um our speech speech and um psychologist uh have provided services like one student we could not find counseling services for a student one of our own uh psychologists signed up with us and we were able to register her with the county as a provider and then the county now will send us the money and then we pay her so that's just how we're doing it um it's Word of Mouth we we send out an email we asked all of our providers if they wanted to sign up and um now that they're doing it it's it's really nice because it's here in our district parents get to know the school um I always look at preschool as a time where we

065build relationships with our families it's where where they first meet us um with their with their babies and um it's how we build our relationships so now having some of our own providers do that work with them I just think is one more way um to build relationships and trust with our families um from a very young age because you know their their parents that are coming to to us with um obviously concerns about their children and some of them have significant uh disabilities and it's it's just working out really nicely so that's outstanding that is thank you really yeah great program thank you both thank you thank you both so our next presentation this evening will be our operations and Facilities presentation and I'd like to welcome up Mr David spittle good evening everybody

066um yeah I uh like was stated before was thrilled to see uh last night how many people were interested in what I do for a living it was awesome U usually I'm I'm talking to uh to Dan and about 23 people on TV uh about it and last night we had about 100 people there and it was very very exciting for me so uh thank you all for for showing interest in our facilities here uh so tonight I'm going to talk about facilities transportation and um and and how I view it as as building uh strength uh and stability in uh for the district um so I had this at at the end of my presentation but I moved it to to the beginning because um it kind of um this is what keeps me

067up at night and and and drives uh what what we do and how we view projects here um so these are uh what what drives uh cost increases uh for for my department here and obviously inflation I put it in red there um I think you've heard in the news that inflation's been difficult um uh issue for for everyone um here in in my department uh the cost of materials have skyrocketed during the last several years um also had uh contractional contractual cost uh increase um a new Transportation contract uh we just entered into at the end of of last year with the Royal Coach um this in in my transportation and uh um is a challenge because we knew that was going to be an increase in the cost per trip for us um

068electricity prices this has also been in the news um uh NYSEG uh um thank goodness we're not ConEd but there's been a huge increase in uh electricity uh costs uh and this district and I'll get into it a little bit uses a lot of electricity all districts do um so this this uh increase is is a challenge that I I'm always obsessing about future increases in electricity and energy costs and and here they are um uh oil and gas uh price increases um this has been steady recently but this is something I I always uh um am fearful that that we might uh have a spike in in these that will will will cost um have created some budget difficulties um uh there's been a significant increase in the use of facilities here um that

069I'm going to get into a little bit too uh since the p mic uh there's been just a steady increase and I have some theories as to why um a parks and recck Department in our town has done a wonderful job uh adding a lot of uh services for the community and we bring a lot of them in here so I'll show you that um and increase in uh labor costs and we bring um if we can't get a job done and it's not in a capital project we bring uh local contractors hopefully we try to find local folks but but um you know their prices are going up and and they charge us more too okay um so those are my challenges um so starting with Transportation uh this is the transportation team it's

070uh uh 22 people and it's 20.6 fds a few of them are part-time uh and I'm not going to this is going to be kind of a long presentation so I'm not going to list everybody but here they are so there's um the 22 people that are District employees uh mostly um between uh my and Ryan and Sarah um Ryan is the mechanic and and Sarah and Mike really oversee um The District transportation and they also do runs themselves um and and fill in as subs for the drivers you see um in the middle there those are uh uh District employee drivers and then uh the the monitors and um on top of that uh we also have um Royal Coach is our new uh provider and they have approximately 40 drivers and eight monitors

071so you know it's it's a it's a decent size staff that we oversee there um that's about 70 or 80 people Dave are you considered fully staffed right now on transportation for the moment uh transportation is always fluid uh we as of today what that I said as of today yeah as of today yes uh we are fully staffed uh but so you know when the district employ our district uh the way we divide it up uh really the um the Royal Coach the contract bus company does most of the to and from school runs with the large buses you see out there and in usually about uh five of the smaller buses and then the District employees do a lot of most of the outof district uh uh transportation for our students and that's

072how it's been so sometimes um you know we work with Melissa and and and Natalie if we have a student get a a new placement or something we to add a driver and a monitor and and and get a vehicle for them so that could happen that could happen today tomorrow we'll see um uh and we the plan right now is to maintain the staff there okay no no increases unless Melissa tells me I need to add something um so the this year um so last year we did a deep dive um we we saw the transportation contract um uh going out to bid and I was very fearful that the new costs were going to increase the hack out of our trans Total Transportation costs and really put a strain on the budget so

073uh we did a deep dive into the transportation um uh overall transportation for the district and looking at all the finances of it and and um uh we realized that um adding more of our own put of Valley drivers was going to um mitigate the the risk and and drive down our our overall costs and more uh utilize our uh our overhead better um and uh so we we we this year we're welcomed a lot of new drivers get them used to us uh they've been a wonderful addition um uh to a person they've been great they treat our our students really well and and take care of them Royal Coach has been um uh surprisingly uh uh good uh trans better than well I'm not going to I'm not going to trash the old

074one but um but yeah they've been they've been great and Shane their their dispatcher has been been a pleasure to work with um so this is what I was talking about before um where uh the overhead utilization uh we we had that and I showed you Mike and and Ryan and Sarah and then we have the bus garage and everything at one point we were down to about Five drivers and um a few monitors and we had to sub everything else out the contract um uh uh company and um the analysis showed that that we were underutilizing our overhead the the Personnel overhead the transportation building and our vehicles we had um all these uh we had 17 Vehicles last year now we have 18 um but we had 18 vehicles and Five drivers right

075so we were underutilizing our overhead which is one of the reasons why we were able to add drivers and save money so um um um Beacon Mobility what they besides um taking care of our our students really well um they also came with a lot of technology and just quickly we because we've been saying Royal Coach just make the connection between Roy Co Mobility is the is a parent company thank you for for Royal Coach is their local company that they had purchased and they still so still s Royal Coach on their buses but Beacon Mobility is like a multi billion dollar company that is is their parent company um one of the things they pitched to us when we hired them in a new contract was they came with a lot of Technology last

076uh presentation I talked about a um uh the camera system they had that that monitored how the bus drivers actually um operate and if they uh if their hands are off the wheel if they go through a stop sign we get they get dinged and it gets reported and all that has a bunch of cameras on the inside so we can investigate um student behavioral issues and make sure um they're all uh seated in in the bus and safe uh going to school but also um they brought uh this one we just implemented recently it's uh a uh an app I just took that screenshot from um a Viewpoint that I get of all the buses that are out there at a time and this is live I can see them moving around and and

077know where they are um we were able to give this technology um to the main offices at each of the schools and to the dispatcher Michael and and Sarah at the transportation building so if a question comes in a where a buses we don't have to radio them we can we can see them on the on the um on the screen uh live so it's really cool uh also they have Geo fencing technology which uh parents if they sign up for this app uh when this goes onto the website you'll be able to link to a flyer um you hit that QR code and it's it's a download of an app that you can get on your phone that will when when the bus gets within a quar mile of your house it'll give you

078notification so you're not like looking out the window to see when the bus is going to get there and you'll know so it's like okay the bus is a quarter mile away that takes 30 seconds go ahead and get out there it just makes it so the kids aren't at the bus stops or out out waiting too long and um and and helps parents know know when they're going to get picked up if anybody wants to know when ES1 leaves the elementary school campus I can text you so that was my my practice alert and it still pops up my phone every single morning I'm actually very impressed it's within the same minute yeah every sing I could use it as alarm clock but every morning my phone goes ding we rolled this out where

079Jeremy and I put it on our phones first to make sure it worked because we didn't want to roll it out to the public and then we did some teachers who live in town and they rolled it out like okay it had some Kinks and we had to fix some things but now we've rolled it out to the entire Community um except um District buses don't have it right so if we do have like New Horizons and and some special needs kids take one District buses and we don't have this technology on it I've been talking with Beacon Mobility about the possibility but they it's their technology they're not that interested in handing it to us I said it won't be free but whatever so we're working on that I I'd love to get it

080for for our buses too so to confirm this has been rolled out uh recently we sent connected out to each of the uh bus runs we have that technology to have them be able to download this app and it's gone amazingly well yeah what what's been the feedback you received from parents it's been wonderful it's been great people are really uh in fact there's a lot of no feedback which is which is positive as far as I see it but then we we did get uh some um some some thank yous you know this is Wonder this is good stuff and I assume there's some um security is in line where I can't monitor a bus I have on the bus it you have to have a cell phone number that has been given to

081the district as a main point of contact for the student and then you're able to to sign up to see that bus that your student is on they have that that worked out thank you okay um so this is our operations team uh these are the the clean cleaners custodial and grounds uh staff and and Val um are are my senior office assistant um you know 19 folks here we plan to keep it the same it was a little bit higher but um we had an extra half an office assistant or point4 before um and Val is very efficient so she was able to do it without with just one so now we're down to 19 um it seems like a good number of people but uh understand that there's three schools um so uh

082and there's 300,000 Square ft between the three schools and uh we have two shifts we have um usually uh two custodians for each School uh come in uh in the morning about 5:30 or so work till 2 and then after 2:00 we have uh uh three cleaners in each School approximately there's some crossover a little bit that that work from 2 to 10 so it's really not a lot per School um and uh so there's uh and then there's the three grounds uh uh people that will take care of the 74 Acres that that we have to take care of here and just I just I'm sorry David I just want to give him Kudos I mean look at this floor it's February and this floor looks like it did after the summer in the

083first day of school so yeah they obviously take a lot of pride in their work and um the maintenance uh of the buildings and and the equipment here a Fant we have a fantastic team everybody knows that they care and and you could see it in everywhere you look that that they they all care and there's there's a culture um that that's been developed over many years here where people and they they care about every penny that's spent too there's not they're not whimsically spending money out there um and going to Home Depot for nothing they they say they're going to shop around for for everything um so um yeah but you know one of the the next slide here the cleaning and maintenance during the school year is five or 10% of what they

084do um most of what they do during the school year is Operational Support for programs okay so whether it's and you know whe whether it's this board meeting um I'll show you here um actually uh okay I'm going to go ahead here so okay so this is some of the stuff that they didn't do in the summer uh we leveraged their skills uh to do work that's not in capital projects basically sometimes they do it in conjunction with local contractors we hire um but these are some of the the the uh work that that they do primarily in the summer or at 5:30 in the morning before everybody gets here because once school starts we can't be working in a classroom working on stuff so that's that's when projects are done and then the cleaning

085is primarily done um you know we clean up after lunch and stuff and during the day but after two between 2 and 10:00 we clean to 300,000 sare ft um of but Operational Support this is uh this is what we support here you know District programs you can look at all those some don't take a lot this uh the the the folks uh it took a good amount of time uh to to set this up you know and they're going to have to take it down and we're going to have to have lunch here or breakfast here tomorrow morning so that'll happen and it's not magic it's a lot of work and they're very efficient and really good at it but these are just a list of of the District programs that we support that

086we set up for and take down and clean up after okay um then um there's non-revenue generating Community Support these when I said before that that there's been a massive increase in the use of our facilities you don't realize when you're not here there's always something going on here there's always something going on um in all three of our schools and on campus when it's nice outside always a lot of things going on this is just a small list of of of the things that that we have to as an operations team uh set up for and and clean up after and then there are some uh Revenue uh generating Community Support as well U that uh whether it's renting out the pack uh we take care of of all that um taking up and

087down the pit in the in the pack um that team that I showed you does all of that um and enables us to derive some Revenue um from primarily the the Performing Art Center um the wellness center now derives a good amount of Revenue and the turf outside does as well um the there's been a significant increase in the demand for those uh uh the the pack is always full when we're not using it ourselves um and always being rented almost every weekend you see dance competitions and things like that um the turf has been more and more uh you know muljo uses it uh um uh Palumbo um they've had a very successful program they come and rent our tariff out um and so you know it we get we derive some revenue and

088and our our team supports all that um here's what the athletic calendar this is what the athletic calendar is so after school is out our team also uh supports um I know it's very small font I'm sorry Janette but um uh we also we support the athletic programs like a basketball game will be like okay we have to pull the bleachers out and we have to put the table out in the chairs and all that stuff that's a little bit of work but everything is some amount of work to get ready whether it's lining the baseball fields or uh putting goals out or setting up for sports activities this operational team does all of that okay um you have to think of it like a piece of art like it's meant to be viewed not

089to be read thank you thank you this I'm sorry actually this wasn't the slot I was talking about I okay good so this is another one with no font right the font is really small but um but this is the that was the athletic calendar this is um this is the facility use calendar for U besides Athletics so though that's February right there that was because I could actually fit it other other uh uh months like January or you know longer months are even bigger and um you could see 6 days a week full activities that we support here whether it's a a a you know Boy Scout uh meeting or or um uh you know the um parks and W and and Parks and Rec again I we have a wonderful relationship with parks

090and W um whether it's it's Rey and and Frank and and and uh and Craig Kone and and am Amanda they they've done a they've built that program in town park Parks and Recreation program over the last couple years to give our community a lot of options between ta kwondo and there's stuff that you guys don't even know I walk by I say a TA kwondo class I didn't even know that was going on in the elementary school gym um but we we offer them our facilities uh free of of charge okay and our team supports that okay all of these activities uh so uh that's that's what we do um so now after after last night's meeting um I came and I changed some of these things because I felt like um I really

091wanted to download um eight years of of my knowledge in in uh capital projects and and planning them and and running them and how we Finance them I I just felt like I wanted to download all of that to everybody and they you know to to give them an understanding and um and so this is a a a a chart that that I made of the process for uh how we plan a capital project there's a building conditions survey you can see on the left there this is a mandated uh by the state I work with the Architects they look at every every aspect of our buildings they assess it and they give it a rating of one through five one is an emergency um I never have seen a one I never want to

092see a one this means it's a a life and safety issue or we can't open school like a collapse roof or something um twos are something we put urgent uh attention to because we think they may fail in the next several years uh three are things that we need to watch four are are things that are are pretty good but we have to keep an eye on and fives are kind of like a wish list for extra things and that is a an extensive survey Architects we have to do it every five years and make a plan um that goes into our um uh that from that we develop a 5-year Improvement plan and um this is a li living document it changes every day as I walk around and and see different things that

093need to be done or could be done um I have continual input from the custodial staff um the tech team the admin team The Faculty uh hopefully some students not enough uh I don't get to talk to you guys enough um Architects and other experts um to keep changing that plan and adapting it to the needs uh that that the students have here and the and the changing and I consider changes in technology and programs and have to adapt the facilities to adjust to those changes right um and um and and that uh plan that um includes identified needs along with uh rough budget numbers so these rough budget numbers are kind of end up being a contentious issue but the the the um the AR ARS will look at a project or a need

094and they'll say okay this is um the nurses Suite it's X number of square feet and to redo that we're our we generally put $400 per square foot or whatever the number is on it so these are just rough numbers based on the architect's experience that's all they are okay um so then some a lot of these projects on this 5-year Improvement plan we continue we try to get done as we can with our inhouse uh uh with our our custodial staff particularly in the summer um and then um sometimes we contract out work um and uh to hopefully local contractors to do some of that that work and I had that list um back here of the the things that that we we do there right um and then uh thank that we we

095can't do or can't afford they're just too big like a parking lot renovation uh retaining walls we we can't do that inhouse or too expensive uh I I have to go out to bid on it um and uh those kind of projects we we have to um put them into a capital Improvement project okay we have to do that we can't afford to do it in-house um so those things make it to the next time we have a project and we don't have these projects every year we generally plan these Capital Improvement projects for when we have retiring debt so that we can use that uh debt so that we can do these projects without having impact on taxpayers we plan these out that next time after this next thing that we're playing this Capital

096project for there's another seven years out um there's more retiring debt that um I look at to say okay there's the opportunity to fit in things that I see 7 years from now might be need to be done like like an elementary school roof it's it it's uh 12 15 years old um it's not going to in it's going to be at 20 years by the time we get to the next retiring debt that Elementary School roof is going to need to be replaced it's going to be a big expense it's going to have to go into a capital project Middle School roof the same thing okay this one will be done by then because we did half of it two years ago and the other half we're going to hopefully do in in this

097next project um so um the but besides big projects we also want to put other projects into uh Capital Improvement projects because um the bad news is we have to follow the S approval process which means we have to have Architects do drawings that submitted to the State education department that have to follow all of their uh their requirements the stringent requirements on whether it's fire safety and ventilation and all the things that they require um and they have have stamped engineering engineers and and Architects drawings and we have to to have them do all that work and pay all that money to them um but they submit those plans um to the state so that's the bad news the good news is we get 2third of that money back of anything we spend from

098the state um into into our cers so those projects if we spend if we we spend a million dollars we get uh 700,000 or $670,000 back from the state so the projects that were able to put into the capital projects um uh they uh they cost us about a third as much as if we did it without doing that process does that make sense yeah um so uh the funding on these capital projects like I I this is the most important thing is that state aid number we get 66% sent back um and then uh the other funding sources we we look at at um energy performance contracts this is where savings on on electricity or or oil or energy will pay for a bond over time to pay for the project we did one

099of these back in 2018 it was about a $7 million project we saved a bunch of money on burning oil I'll show you that in in a minute uh here um so that's an opportunity once in a while we basically expect most of most of those opportunities with the LED lights and stuff we put in here um then there's some unique grants some of the projects you've seen like this the courtyard here that we built with the wall out there that was a one-time covid money that we were able to spend on Outdoor Learning so we we took advantage of that opportunity and that state grant funding basically to do some nice wonderful projects for the students to have some outdoor opportunities right um and then the other is is is uh debt Bond uh

100issuing so if projects don't make it into the capital Improvement uh pro project like we're going to cut some things and we did cut some things um which we'll go over but they they will go back to the fiveyear Improvement plan some will never be done some are just ideas that I'd like to have to do or we'd like to do or community members would like to do students would like to do they'll never get done because we can't afford it or what they just don't make sense based on the economics um but they'll go back there and then you'll just recycle back through and and and and hopefully uh uh get done when we can afford it so the capital project planning that we did this year here are some of the highlights we

101we um we had an open invitation to the community uh to join the capital which is well advertised anybody could have joined we had a really nice uh turnout and again this is my perspective of it might not be the same I might have missed some steps here but I I took the the the committee on an extensive tour of each campus to show them what and what my opinions were on what things needed to be done and they came up and and showed them say look this is this is the condition this is what the retaining wall looks like this is you know here's here's the turf and the track and and we showed them everything so it's not just um my word for it you know it's it's uh we showed them we

102brought them down in the elementary school uh basement um which is a kind of a dungeon place um but we we showed them uh those old boilers that look like they're they're 100 years old but they're only about 20 um so uh so we tore the facilities to look firsthand at at what um the projects in that 5-year plan were then we we brought in a financial advisor to give a a detailed presentation to the committee on how much we could spend without raising taxes now we we the whole goal here is to never raise taxes with one of these things we we don't want to do that nor do we want to ever eat into programs for the students but in the capital project so they told us and there was they gave us

103three different uh um scenarios where we could borrow uh where we could do a project for 22 million1 19 million and $16 million and all three of those options none of the three of those would have uh an impact on taxpayers it would be a zero increase in in taxpayer uh in taxes if we did those projects we wanted to be more conservative than that and we picked projects that at the totaled according to really rough estimates by The Architects about $14 million so it was a conservative approach that the committee took to that we didn't spend as much as we could um so then the committee collaborated and to vet and come up with uh different project ideas they weren't all mine uh they weren't all Jeremy's they were the whole committee came together

104and we looked at uh a lot of different ideas um and uh then we said okay well here's a wish list and we went to kgd Architects and they came up with really again rough budget numbers for which each one of these things are going to cost um they're not exact they're they're just budget numbers they're not estimates they're not quotes their budget numbers um and then they came back and say okay these budget this these this cost um you know whatever 40 million the projects we came up with and we V we we vetted those talked about those weeded some things out um and we took a lot of things out uh we we had uh we were going to look at solar canopies in the parking lot here to produce electricity when we

105redid the parking lot U I looked at other solar canopies over over the um uh the the bus uh garage parking lot over there to produce U solar for us I was really into that obviously um uh covered walkways between uh between these schools we looked at that to uh a covered walkway here we looked at covered walkways at the elementary school to keep the kids out of the rain when we to get into that building out behind the elementary school um we took them out of the project we looked at the expenses like nah we got to keep it down to to stuff we really really want and need here especially need uh we had looked at uh turfing over this this this uh um flat area here between U the locker rooms and

106uh and the back of the bleachers there look at turfing the whole thing we had quotes on it had it all planned out you know looked at the turf uh we also looked at turfing the entire Back Back Field where the softball field is and soccer back there we took those out okay those were cut from the project okay so we that's the project that you saw here um that is been whittel down by the committee over this whole process to that 14 estimated $14 million deal um so that those are the components and this is what the board uh presented to the public as um what what the capital project should be um so um this is the slide I just put in you can see I put no fancy pictures with it but

107I just put it in this morning after seeing that uh that the the response last night and the questions really listening to people what their concerns and questions were um I said you know what let's I want people to understand the process from there it's not over it just it's just getting started so um when if the voters approve a project whether it's the one we put up or or an altered one and that's up to you guys um but the um then we meet with the Architects and we collaborate with um the committee members District staff other stakeholders to to design each one of the of the projects I've already met with the nurses at the elementary school several times I met with uh Megan Bo and and Margaret and and Carly over at

108the elementary school to talk about the that that um the playground over there and what they felt their needs were but we will reassemble those stakeholders and the architex to to to Really design more of the details of these each one of these projects that the board um puts out as um as as as the the scope of the capital project um and um we we want to to ensure each project meets the district standards uh for functionality durability and a and Aesthetics this is this is what I think about operational fun functionality for our students how to make things run smoother um how to have these projects last a long time where a school district has been around for 90 years I I would imagine we'll be around for 100 I we I want

109stuff not to fall apart I don't want I don't want to burden the taxpayers uh 10 years from now because we built something that that that didn't last for 20 it only lasted for 10 um and then Aesthetics um as you can tell I like things to look real nice so um anyway um then we have the Architects that draw the plans and then after they draw those plans they come back to us um with um what they think feel are more accurate uh numbers more towards an estimate um uh not not a quote on a project but these are like okay now that we've built this out we've drawn all the plans out these are what this is what we think based on it uh our experience what is going to cost to do

110this work um and they have to they have to build in some cushion for escalation inflation if there's tariffs or whatever happens or um they have to build some of that in um and uh and they give us uh those um more accurate budget numbers when we built the wellness center um we thought when they did this part of the of the uh process they came back and it blew our budget numbers out we it was a million dollars more than we had thought it was going to be so we had to do some what they called value engineering it it's it's 25t shorter than than we had planed it being it was going to have a lot more windows we we adjusted that based on uh the what the Architects felt it was really

111going to cost us okay so that's that part of the plan so and and other times it'll come in less and we're like pH that's good right um so we modify modifi plans um uh then the Architects redraw the plans if necessary um to to Value engineer them and get them within our budgets um then they um will submit the plans to S this is a monthlong process that s gives uh feedback uh to them and they have to submit uh explanations of why they're doing what they're doing and all that um and and uh they comment on the plans and then hopefully they approve the plans they come back to us um and we get those plans and then we put them out to bid right so we hopefully last time when we did

112that big Capital project I think there was like 30 contractors bidding on different things and we so they want so this is how the school gets the best price on each one of those uh projects is we go out to Bid And in the market place we have to take the lowest bid on these projects that's that's how it goes okay and then um the bit the the the projects are awarded to the lowest bidder and we don't have to take it then we cannot do it if the lowest bidder is higher than we thought we can just say okay we're not doing that project uh we we have that the board has that ability to to do that um and then if we do award the projects then we get to work and um

113as I keep telling Dr love every project that we've been involved with since I've been here on time under budget and comes out looking great okay so everyone we've done $30 million worth of projects in the last eight years um other projects in town this doesn't happen like this but here everyone right bridge is open the the bridge is open right they finally got open we did have one close call with a Labor Day fire inspection when kids were coming the next day that is still on time they were opening the next day he got it done he got it done it was very stressful for me that so um okay so I'm going to get into a little um Egghead stuff on energy projects because this is stuff I look at um that affects

114I'm not going to go over any one of the individual projects that we had into the capital uh project um but there's a couple projects that I just want to talk about briefly because they will is a budget presentation they will affect future budgets um this is the the history of putam Valley energy use very exciting history here but it's important to know um 1972 when that school was built next door Middle School it had electric baseboard heat it did not have air conditioning yeah what's that you remember that so do I I was there I was there in 1978 798 um anyway um and uh then in 1998 uh um this uh really Visionary guy Paul Lee um put in um uh did an energy performance contract back then because the electric heat was

115so expensive he was able to save money U to pay for for a geothermal system that was really Innovative back then nobody was doing it back then and they put in geothermal ground Source system at the middle school um for and it provided both heat and air conditioning to that school using the the the the temperature of the earth to do it that's our our source uh and so we stopped using electricity for heat and and started using uh geothermal um and then um in uh in in 2019 uh we added uh some rooftop solar panels on all the flat roofs at the middle school um we did some LED lighting upgrades to reduce our uh our juice and then um put in an a building management system like uh you know uh occupancy sensors

116and things to reduce uh energy there high school um uh Paulie liked that gen that uh uh geothermal so much and how it performed at the middle school decided when we built this High School he'd put the geothermal in here um and and and the board agreed and they did that here and uh since then um this high school has not used one drop of oil we didn't use oil that we didn't decide to put burners in we put geothermal in and uh and it provides Heating and Cooling to this school since 2000 um again without using any oil um the uh in 2019 is that part of that energy performance contract um we put uh rooftop solar panels on all the flat roofs here there's a lot of curved roofs here so it's not

117the whole rooftop um we also did LED lighting upgrades and a building management system for this school too the elementary school has uh obviously a longer history 1935 they had a a Coal Fired uh a steam boiler in there um they they switched to an oil burner um and they had to replace that oil burner at a great upset to the operations and and the school it was in 2004 or 5 or somewhere around there before my time uh here um and um uh and there there's there was no air conditioning there they had some uh air conditioning uh window units there um in 2019 as part of that energy performance contract we were able to put uh a geothermal uh system in that school to provide uh Heating and Cooling uh to about a

118third of that elementary school um and when we did that uh and and I oversaw that project we we we had planned to do the whole school eventually we couldn't afford to as part of that contract but we did put Futures in um we we did run piping out and we did adequately size um the the the uh the return and the pipes that go from the fields to the school and back um to accommodate more Wells to be able to expand the system so we were thinking ahead there uh to to eventually doing the whole school in in geothermal right um so right now it's a third geothermal and 2/3 are are heated with the oil burner and the um air conditioning um that you see those window units in in like the the

119the Kwing at the elementary school um are not very efficient um but window air conditioning units to keep those oil heated uh areas cool in the summer um so oh again the font sorry um so this is some math that we did um and I did some calculations uh um looking at the square footage in at the elementary school and what oil we burn there and if we had chosen to move the middle school over to uh an oil burner system and uh when we took out the electric baseboard heat and if we had um built this school with an oil o oil burners um we would have uh burned uh 4 million gallons of oil since 1999 4 million like a tanker full it's a lot of lot of oil um at $3 and

120something per gallon which has been the average um it would have been about a $13 million we would have spent on oil on uh uh that we saved by doing geothermal over that that period of time um now if we um convert the rest of that Elementary School uh to geothermal and get rid of the oil Al together um it's about 30,000 gallons a year depending on how cold it is um but about that um that we burn now that will just be completely eliminated and again it's about $100,000 based on you know 33 $3.33 a gallon uh or so um then um the uh um the kilowatts U the um this is um I'm sorry see you can't see it Dave is it a kilowatts from the since the 2019 that that's since um

121right um since 2019 we've saved about 1 Point uh 25 million kilow in electrical use um saving um about $150,000 a year um if we add solar um to the wellness center roof the wellness center is a 14,000 ft building um uh we we had some solar companies look at it only one half of it um is really positioned properly for solar so it would' be about a 7,000 square ft uh solar array U when we built the wellness center some students uh asked me make sure that we can put solar on there I said okay we'll plan it to put solar on there um when and and and now we plan to do that here and that will produce some more uh electricity for us obviously about uh uh 200 this is these are

122rough estimates based on the square footage these aren't a quote but that 20,000 isn't good either now it's up to about 30,000 because of the price of electricity would be the savings annually by doing that um so yeah here's what I talked about the elementary school 30,000 uh gallons a year that we'll save if we put geothermal in there and um the Green in the middle is uh um you know I talked to a geothermal guy from nerta this morning and I asked him I said are there any other schools in New York who are completely off oil and use geothermal for heating and cooling and he said I don't think there's any other school districts that do this completely I don't think there's any other in the country so I think we will be

123the first district in the country to provide all of our heat and air conditioning with geothermal if we get this done pry exciting stuff right um this bottom one is very important um uh I I keep mentioned the geothermal provides Heating and and cooling the cooling um most other schools you guys don't know it but you're spoiled a little bit here it's always about 70 to 72 right um other schools the temperature they don't have air conditioning in in all the the uh classrooms and um a new state mandate went in say if the if the temperature in a classroom goes up to 85 Degrees you need to do some mitigating uh work fans and stuff and open Windows um if it gets to 88 degrees you can't operate the school you need to close

124it down instructional time will get killed so these school districts that aren't putam Valley that don't have geothermal that don't have air conditioning are scrambling right now they're looking at Capital project to spend millions and millions of dollars on how to cool their classrooms um big chilling units or or whatever they're doing um it's it's very difficult to convert convert uh um an oil burner is good for heat um but you can't convert it to cooling right so you have to do a whole new system to cool um schools are are bugging out about that right now um but not us um okay that's Wellness on roof I talked about because this is the David what sure for the roof there's a concern out in the community that putting solar panels on the roof jeopardize

125and compromize the roof Itself by puncturing it can can you address that of course yeah so I've learned a lot here uh obviously in my time uh uh running these projects the the solar panels that we installed back here and as part of that EPC um they use a ballast system there's no penetrations in the roof so there's like these aluminum uh um ballast that they put these cement blocks in Believe It or Not looks pretty simple but someone made a lot of money inventing these things because you put those on it holds them down uh is good with winds up to 150 mph or something placing weight on just weight hold them down drilling into the so there's no there's zero penetrations into the roof and actually the the thing that diminishes the the

126life of a roof mainly is is uh is the Sun and so um have having these solar panels on top of roofs with this ballast system actually extends the life of a roof it doesn't make it it more susceptible to leaks it it does the opposite that's that's right boy that's thank you because uh that's been a real concern and some of the conversations I've had in the community that you know putting the solar panels on with destroying the roof Y and um I thank you for explaining that okay and Dave real quick um I know you've talked about where the solar panels are located I was asked that question also last night I said i' would be lying if I told them an answer yeah it was it was when we did this um

127this energy performance contract um it was a wonderful project I was so excited about but no one saw any of it the geothermal was underground and the solar panels are on the roof it's like nothing yeah what' you do Dave well and the LED lights were just new light bulbs um so um what do we do for $7 million all of the flat roofs at the middle school all the flat roofs here have solar panels on them if you if you if you see Google Earth you can see that fly a drone we have some pictures of it um and the um transportation building as well has some solar panels on it it's a small installation there um again of course I'm thinking for the future Elementary School roof when we replace that I think

128it's a it's there's a big flat a lot of big flat areas there with no equipment on the roof we can add a really nice solar array there to produce a bunch more electricity for us so this is what we've done so far um we used to use uh 3.2 almost million kilowatt a year in electricity um I don't know what we used back in the day when we had electric base Heat at the middle school I I couldn't go back that far but that's what we used on average uh a year was about 3.2 million kilowatts the E the energy performance contract reduced that down to about uh 2.3 uh million and um with this uh solar uh array on the wellness center roof we can we can whack that down to to just

129over 2 million kilow okay it's a lot of electricity there's 300,000 Square ft in this District that need to be lighted and and and we do use some juice to uh run the fans and and uh and pumps for the geothermal as well um so um this is uh this is a nerdy thing but I love it because this shows actually the energy uh used in in BTUs and how efficient our school district is and how we use what fuel sources we use um for all energy here and in 2017 you could see um The High School uh used uh electricity uh and the middle school that blue bars are electricity uh the elementary school used that much in um in in uh electricity but then had the that additional amount in oil that we

130Ed which is very inefficient um the Nationwide average for educational institutions is about 83 uh and a half on this list so we're all the other schools are are half of that we're we're twice as efficient as the average uh nationally the 201 18 uh EPC energy performance contract reduced um that electric use you can see there those blue bars went down a bit um and then uh the elementary school the the third the geothermal brought that red bar down uh to to where the elementary school is finally closer um to uh the national average and and the other two schools are way below we're way more efficient um in how we heat and cool and then these last three bars are what it would look like if we do Those portions of that uh

131that Capital project that we're talking about if we do the solar and geothermal um we will we will get rid of the red which is the oil and and that's what our uh energy use profile will look like as a district and I'll put it up against anybody's and Ne next I'm just going to talk about costs a little bit and why I'm so obsessed about this and how it we can protect our school district long term against um uh spikes in in cost that will um uh eat into the budget right um this is what the actual numbers are this is how much we spent on on oil and electricity um since 2015 each year okay um you can see the energy performance contract whacked it down this is kind of you see this

132uneven graph 2019 2021 2021 yeah those are weird years obviously because of covid windows open no school sometime whatever it was a lot going on there um but the price of energy was also cheap U so this this fluctuates around because um of different temperature years and of different fluctuations in in cost but the total in 20145 was was $500,000 in energy expense and um and you can see these last several years we're we're down at around 400,000 right um so um even though the price of energy went up we were able to save about $100,000 uh a year um overall um so that's what I just talked about there a little bit um and um the um so the reason why we're so crazy about this is is that if the if the price

133goes up um in electricity or oil it can really affect um uh budgets right um I was reading well I heard um a a a district that's in ConEd just had a surprise increase to the budget next year of $800,000 because of the increase in electricity down in ConEd I don't want that to happen at P Valley all right so the more we do to you to create our own electricity our own energy here with our own resources the Sun that comes in here the ground underneath the more we can save long term right so that's why I want to do more more of this uh uh sustainable energy right um something else I want to mention here um is that um just real quick it is a law that this inflation reduction act um

134will um uh give us between 30 and 40% of a direct payment to the school district on both the geothermal project and the solar project on top of the state aid we won't get more than 100% but if we get 66% back in state aid and we get 30% um Ira funding which is a law um these projects this geothermal and this solar will essentially cost a District zero and it will produce this uh this electricity um and uh heat and and air conditioning for us um for a long long time right so um one other thing just a um uh Jackie has helped me with this um we um we were recently nominated uh by New York State as the only School District in New York state to be nominated to the to the

135the Federal government as a a national green ribbon school um uh every time in the past they've been nominated we they would get it so I think we're going to get it if if that Department of Education still does things like that so um we we we um really proud of the work we did to to to get uh that green ribbon um nomination um any questions that's very thorough David thank you yeah I know it's a long deal sorry it's a lot it's important especially the the capital projects material the reasoning behind why the projects were on the list to begin with right and I'm happy to answer any questions about the process you know and that's what I felt coming out of last night that's like you know I really just wanted to

136like give all that information I just gave to everybody in that room and I know I'd bore the crap out of everybody but but I wanted to give that in public so it's here um uh and that you people understand how we approach it it's a very thoughtful a very um very thoughtful process and and we really try to save the taxpayers as much money as we can and never impact um the education services for the students that's our goal all right thank you Dave you definely tell your passion and Facilities yeah I just going to say I wish you could bring a little passion with you sorry it's just how I talk sorry any other questions I just want to point out I think two of the items that are most impressive to me

137is the list that you showed in the beginning the amount of work that is accomplished uh between the partnership between our own in-house staff and local contractors and the projects that we're able to accomplish this way save taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars and I've worked in several school districts and with few exceptions having the skilled labor inhouse that we do and the Partnerships we have with local contractor that allow this to get done is unheard of in many districts so a million doll project to build a middle school support sweep was accomplished with $100,000 of In-House talent and local labor to be able to produce the same output and it's just uh an amazing uh recognition for uh both Dave and his staff that are able to accomplish so much and I think the

138chart that that captures the savings of the sustainable energy sources that um the district has really again save taxpayers money in the long run and an investment in the foresight that went into investing in geothermal uh 1998 when those projects started I think is just hugely impressive and I know many of my colleagues are like wait how do you have air conditioning people are freaking out about this state legislation where they have to find new spaces for any classroom that's above 88° because I have colleagues who say every one of my classrooms is above 88° at the end of June or the beginning of September and they have no idea what they're going to do with their kids if they can't occupy those spaces and I get all kinds of looks when I'm like we

139have central air so we don't have to worry about it uh and it's it's unheard of again in public education to have the both air conditioning and heat the way we do here so thank you okay wow uh so we're going to move to new business um very good and resolution number one Mr O resolved on the recommendation of the superintendent of schools to amend the previously approved Reet retirement date January 9th 2025 work session business meeting for computer specialist Laura shwood to be effective at the close of business on June 30th 2025 as per document 13525 attached to the agenda and official minutes of this meeting second questions or comments all in favor I I opposed extensions the resolution passes number two please resolved on the recommendation of the superintendent of schools to accept

140the resignation of teaching assistant Stephanie Chen from the district effective Monday February 24th 2025 as for document number 138-a and official minutes of this meeting second questions or comments all in favor I opposed I extensions resolution passes number three please be it resolved that the Board of Education of the putam Valley Central School District hereby nominates the following individual uh as candidates uh or individuals as candidate or candidates for election to be held on April 22nd 2025 to serve as trustee for the putham Northern Westchester Board of cooperative educ ational services for a term beginning July 1st 2025 through June 30th 2028 and uh our recommendation is Tina McKay at reside 17 Tyler Road here in putam Valley a resident of the putam Valley Central School District second questions or comments Tina was here she

141was um but Tina served on the putam valley Board of Education yes um and has served for many years on as a putam resident on the Bo on the Bose's board and we appreciate her service and so we're nominating her to run again absolutely uh all in favor I I opposed extensions the resolution passes okay I'd like to open it up to the public to comment on any topic Qui no no okay okay um topics for upcoming meetings so our next board meeting is scheduled for Thursday March 13th and that'll be our first full budget presentation and the following meeting uh if there's any revisions or just a repeat March 27th will also be our full budget presentation I I have a quick question uh I went to the archives for the videos and I

142noticed that the first meeting of the month is not included in the archives it's just the business meeting this second meeting is is archived I I was looking for you know the the meetings that we usually hold the very first time the work session meeting uh I couldn't find them on the archive how how would you locate those for this year yeah yeah for this year Dan will help you look yeah all meetings are on there we don't distinguish one to the other so maybe we could double check to make sure we didn't miss one somewhere but yeah uh we can we could certainly look and because we when the meeting's over I could we do a lot of work at that that first meeting it's a work session but we also do a lot

143of business so um at the meeting on the 13th the facilities committee is going to remet before that date yes and and give us some recom commendations yes sorry um Sam was there which meeting were you talking about what's that was there a date of the meeting you were talking about well I I was looking for the the first meeting of um January January 9th yeah yeah it's on here it's the second one down is it is it there yeah it's under Board of Education and then if you go to meeting videos the first one's February 13th under the Board of Education Board of Education you know what I was doing I was doing it off the web page oh maybe that's why yeah that there it's they just list Board of Education board meetings

144you'll scoll on you'll see a snapshot I always have a silly look on my face every time D can we do anything about that just randomly captures it I'm laugh I'm laughing in this one um thank you okay sorry there was another question oh so yes uh we are planning uh facilities planning committee a followup from last evening's uh committee meeting for I have to look it up next week um March no not next week the week after we're looking at not May March 11 or 12 12th Wednesday right that's just the day before we work fast um yeah so we're going to do a lot of work in between now and then we're going to consolidate all of the table responses we received last night and then we are going to meet with the

145committee we're going to go through those responses come up with a new scope and sequence to share with the board and then we really want to focus on some of those other questions that had emerged last night specifically around Communications and finances so we're working on a presentation now to have ready for the 12th and I anticipate coming here on the 13th with a recommendation for the board to consider okay all right y we're going if we're trying to hit that March 13th date we we have to get it done so that's the the time we have to get it to sometimes deadlines are helpful I have no doubt we'll get it done okay um board member comments any other comments I just the other night I I was wowed by the amount of people

146that were there and their input um that's probably the biggest group we've had for any type of project discussion as long as I've been involved with the district I had well over 100 people all contributing all bringing their ideas forward and uh I thought that was excellent that the community showed you know so much interest in this yeah there's a lot of misunderstanding about taxes full value assessment like how that affects ta I mean you know and a lot of well I just hate paying taxes well join join the club I don't know anybody that enjoys it um but um I I wish there were ways to get information out to people about the process you know and I don't know give them an understanding of how this works I've had people say what but

147I voted last year like well you have to V every year um you know it's it's they just sometimes don't understand and and I wish there was a way of getting it clarified for people but this is one way so I did make a mention that if I knew 100 people were showing up I would have started with some kind of performance so maybe we could work on like a teaser for the show for next meeting if you guys are up for it um it's intimidating we had 100 people in the room and I had to walk up on the stage with no microphone and talk loud enough for them all to hear me but if we had like a show stoper a start that would have quieted everyone down right away so rainbow we

148could talk about it if you guys are available on the night of the 12th we throw something together I I have a question for our student reps uh Mr Melo sent out a notice about cell phone usage you you all receive what's your opinion about that what are your feelings about the cell phone policy reconfiguration I think I mean I feel like the email he sent out was kind of I don't think there was really any new information on it like it was a lot of the same policies we've been following since the of the year and I think it's just it really goes class to class like some teachers care more about having that phone in the cubby the second you walk in and other teachers as long as it's away and it's in

149your backpack like it's okay so I think I don't know I think everyone has their established rules that they establish in September and I don't so you kind of been prying for it already then what you're saying by what the teachers do in the classroom yeah it was more of a reminder than something new yeah I think they started the with a a lot of conversation around cell phone use and keeping in airplane mode and and being attentive to what's going on and I'm sure I people forget things over time so it was like a a mid year reminder I thought it was good it's still did on a person well and I'm concerned with this state push for a ban on cell phones Bell to Bell I know nowhere in the build building and

150no allowances for programs that we have that might be working really well and where it's not causing a problem and my comment always when it comes up is I don't want to ban them I want to teach students and staff to use them appropriately and a ban doesn't necessarily do that it just shuts the door completely so um we're still advocating for you know some flexibility for districts to make their own policies as long as the policies include some plan for it not disrupting the learning the the age appropriate ESS of it I I think has to take Center Stage I could see Banning it at the middle school I really could you know you you don't use that you know your parents need to contact it contact that the main office in the high

151school you're dealing with you much more mature age group yeah but the policies they're putting in effect or K to 12 I know and that's that's my upset with it and just for the record cell phones at the middle school and at the elementary school are in fact de facto ban students aren't allowed to have them which is a good thing okay um thank you guys anything else yeah I just want to call out a couple things or people um Jackie and Genie I think did a great job organizing last night we had a lot of people there and a lot of um activity going on so thank you guys for your work there um more Marine has been sending us a lot of um some great things that are going on the rest of

152the year Marine has been filling up our calendar so thank you Marine for that research and getting that on work and um Matt thank you for coming tonight we know Grace wasn't able to be here tonight so thank you for I'm representing the finance department so um one of the invitations that um Morin sent us was was uh to and Cass presentation Cass mm at the same time it was one day from like 8 8:30 to noon March 26 cast and Tok presentations I know that we were looking to make it more of an event as opposed to uh people coming kind of drips and drabs during their lunch period so um this one looks like it starts at 8:30 in the morning so maybe it's a more defined time we're going to make it

153more of an event where students come and present and we could have more students present there as opposed to be DPS and yeah one student at a time I know I think in the long run we're actually looking to see if we can turn that into an evening event and treat it almost like we do the banquet and invite parents in and make it idea make it really something that's uh special meaningful for the kids and for the families to see some of the very hard work that's been accomplished well it is amazing when you listen to the presentations and there's only what three or five live people there um Janette on her computer um but I love those those I love watching those yeah they're anyway okay that's good to know uh I'd like

154a motion to adjourn so move second all in favor have a good evening good night y good night all thank you for coming