001[Music] [Applause] [Music] Good evening. Welcome everyone to the Tuesday, August 12th, 2025 regular board meeting of the West Sica Central School District. If we could stand for the pledge, please. And >> we'll have our student students ex official board members please lead us in the pledge. >> 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 liberty and justice for all. Thank you. Before we do a roll call, I'm going to have Lisa take over for a moment. >> Thank you, Mr. Beian. It is with profound sadness uh that I ask for your attention. Uh on Sunday evening, one of our students, Carson Shanahan, lost his courageous battle against cancer. And um Carson's legacy I think will be the
002way in which he fought courageously cancer uh with grace with dignity and the power that that it showed to all of us um in such a young sweet boy. And as a a school community, it has been absolutely a a pleasure to see how this community has come together to rally around um Carson and his family. And so at this very difficult time, we embrace them with our love and support and our prayers. And I would like to ask that you join me in a moment of silence to to memorialize Thank you. Our thoughts and prayers are with the Shannon Ham family and I want to thank the board for your support through these difficult days. Um just regarding that uh communication did go out uh to our school community today. We will be providing
003support for families that are affected by this loss. Um Carson's friends and family are are welcome to gather. We will have support for students at West Middle School tomorrow afternoon from 3:00 to 7:00 p.m. And we will be having a gathering for faculty and staff who may be impacted by this loss. Uh right next door here at West Elementary in the library. Um, the Shanahan family, I can't underscore enough how much their family uh touches our school community. Jessica is a bright light in every room that she walks into and has worked in a number of our elementary schools as a computer support aid and most recently has been um in our technology department. So, she is um someone who is known throughout our schools uh here in West Saka and our community. So this
004is going to deeply impact our community and uh we are providing support to our students and to our faculty and staff. Thank you. >> Um we'll move on to our roll call. Um just to let everyone know that uh Zach Armstrong is remote today is joining us on the little computer over there. So begin with uh Zack present. >> I am present sir. >> Excellent. Thank you. Jeremy >> present. >> Sarah >> present. >> Laura >> present. >> Lorine >> present. >> Mara >> present. >> Ed. Dr. Krueger's here >> present. >> And I'll uh Adam >> present. >> Cal >> present. >> Thank you. Everyone's accounted for. We'll hand over to the superintendent to do your report, please. >> Thank you. So, I'm happy to share a few things uh with you, some updates
005and some recaps in the superintendent's report. First, I just wanted to highlight some changes. We've had various forms of communication on this uh throughout the summer, but again, a reminder to families of some changes that are on the horizon when school resumes in September. First, uh we are in our final phase of providing secure vestibules in all of our schools. This has been a capital improvement project uh impacting all of our schools. And this summer, our last three schools, Alenale Ele, Winchester Potter, and Clinton Elementary are having their secure vestibules completed. This is in a design to enhance the safety and security in our schools. We have a single point of entrance and that single point of entrance is for all visitors coming into our schools during the day. And as I mentioned, our final
006three schools are uh having that work completed. So that will be done when school opens this fall. Now that we have our secure vestibules, an additional layer of safety enhancement will be the launch of the Raptor visitor management system. With this visitor management system, visitors who are entering our school during the school day will be within the secure vestibule and they will be asked to state the reason for their business and to present their governmentissued identification. That identification will be scanned through the raptor visitor management system and it checks the individual's uh identification against the national sex offender database and registry so that we are certain that during the day we are not allowing someone who is a sex offender into our school. Whether that's a parent that's entering our school for a meeting or
007more frequently we have uh contractors, vendor vendor replacement individuals, copy uh repair individuals who may be gaining entry into our schools during the day. And this is going to be an added layer of safety so that we have asurances as to who we are allowing to have access into our school during the school day. All visitors who enter the school school during the day will be printed a visitor ID badge and they will be wearing that badge um during the duration of their visit. This again is just for visitors who are actually entering our school building. a parent who is just entering in between those double doors to drop off a forgotten instrument, forgotten lunch, homework. Not that our kids ever forget their homework. Um, but that will be left with main office personnel in
008between that those double set of doors. This only applies to those going through the second set of doors where they would actually have entry into our building. We have communicated this uh in uh both a July communication and also a communication that will be going out again in August so that all families are aware of this change come the fall. Another change upon us this fall. Hopefully, this is um old news to most people. There's been local media and certainly we as a school community have been trying to spread the word to ensure that both our students and their families are aware of the distraction-free learning environment law that goes into effect uh for the onset of the school year. We have met the requirements of this law which uh required us as a school
009district to adopt a local policy and to include stakeholders in the development of that policy. We did that work throughout this spring and the board of education adopted that policy uh by the expected deadline that New York State articulated for us which was August 1st. Just to recap what this will look like in our schools, uh cell phones and other internetabled devices are to be off and away during the instructional day. That means from the start of the instructional day until the end. So there is no carveout for study hall, for lunch, for passing time. It is during the entire uh instructional day. At our middle school and high school, devices will be off and away and stored in students lockers, so they will be secured during the day. At the elementary level, our principles
010will be communicating any building nuances. As you can imagine, our buildings slightly vary from building to building. This elementary school, West Elementary, has lockers for all students, but that isn't necessarily the case in some of our schools where prek to two may not have access to a lockable locker. And so, building principles at the elementary level will be communicating any of those nuances out to families um for any building specific information. We also have developed consistent practices and protocols. if a student should have a violation of this uh of this rule that we have in school and I've outlined these here for you so that we are handling this in a consistent way and first offense students will be given a verbal warning from there we'll be employing what's called pro progressive discipline and so
011with each offense or violation there may be additional consequences um at the third offense it's not only a detention but also telephone call home where the family, parent or guardian would be required to come in to pick up the student's device. If we get to a fourth offense or a fifth offense, we are sensitive to that that we may have some students who are legitimately having withdraw symptoms and have uh potentially cell phone addictions. If we have a student who reaches that fourth or fifth offense, we will have sensitivity to that of potentially involving our PPS personnel. also school counselors or social workers to try to determine do we actually have a student who is addicted to their device and how can we support that student as opposed to simply giving consequences to a student.
012um when we get uh if we should I should say if we get to a fourth offense by a student at that point we believe that the student's demonstrating that they're having uh difficulty with self-discipline and self-control around their device and the use of that device during the school day. And at that fourth offense, the student would then be required to start and end their day with a visit to the main office to drop off their device at the main office or it would be kept in a sealed envelope and stored away for the day and the student can come back to the main office at the end of the day to retrieve that device. That would occur for 10 weeks in duration. If there is a a fifth offense, we would be keeping that
013procedure of maintaining the device in the main office for the remainder of the school year. So those uh I guess consequences and uh responses to us enacting this plan will be communicated out to families as well and all of our building administrators are aware of that. Additionally, I will be sharing this uh message on opening day so that our faculty and staff are aware and that as faculty and staff, we are consistently enforcing this uh new practice for the upcoming school year. So, some of our communications, our building principles uh will be communicating this in their back- to-school communications and any orientations that they're going to be hosting such as sixth grade orientations, freshman orientation, things of that nature. In addition, we um are sharing this at board meetings on our school district website, which
014is a requirement of the regulation and in email communications that have been shared with families. One has already gone out in July and an additional communication will be going out in August. We also have a status check scheduled on October 28th. the stakeholders that came together to develop that local policy on how do we go about enacting uh and enforcing this this requirement that's put upon us. They had a voice in the development of those procedures. We are going to come together on October 28th so that we can get feedback from our stakeholders. What's working well? Are there any challenges? Do we need to make tweaks or adjustments to uh that which we've outlined? So that is scheduled for October 28th so that adjustments can be recon can be considered at that time. Next, I'd
015just like to highlight a recent event. Our schools are somewhat quiet during the summer compared to the school year. Usually this is a really robust section of the superintendent report, but there is one item that I'd like to share with the board of education and that is uh the national night out that was recently hosted. The West Sakica Police Department is key in hosting this event and the West Sakica School District had a presence in that event. We had both our reading rover present where we gave out free books to children and our transportation department was involved in that event. So many thanks to the West Senica Police Department for hosting that event and to our faculty and staff that were involved in the event. And then lastly, I just would like to highlight some
016upcoming events. Uh tonight of course we have our our work session or rather I'm sorry next week Tuesday we have our work session at 6 pm. We have new teacher academy coming up later this month. We will be honoring Laura Slal Scott at the Erie County School Boards Association award dinner. Uh Laura was recognized and nominated for an award and will be receiving that award at the Erie County School Boards Association event dinner that evening. Congratulations Laura. much deserved. And on August 26th, we have our opening day for faculty, staff, and administrators. Board members are welcome to attend that if your schedule allows you to do so. We will be gathering at 8:00 a.m. in the auditorium of West Senior. And then we welcome back all of our students on Tuesday, September 2nd for the
017first day of school. >> Thank you. I can't get here quick enough for me. All right, we're actually going to do public comment next. And I do not have the signup sheet. I don't think I saw anything in there when I checked before the meeting, but I will let double check on it. Excellent. So, now I don't have to read the paragraph and we're good to go. We will move on to personnel. Uh, may I have a second on number three, please? Okay, I'm going home. Um, may may I have a motion on number three, please? >> I'll make the motion to approve it. >> Motion to approve number three. May I have a second? >> I'll second it. >> Have a second. Any discussion on anything in there? Good. All in favor? I. >>
018Anyone uh opposed? Anyone abstaining? We're good to go. So, it passes. If I get this right, because we talked about it passes 670 with Armstrong, it counts. Good to go. >> That's right. That's right. >> Zach, who is is remote, is still eligible to participate in the vote. It simply doesn't count in our quorum tonight. >> Yeah, I was going to talk about that at the end. I might as well throw it out there now. We need a quorum present in the room to hold our meetings, but anyone attending here or virtually has a vote. And um we did make sure we clarified that because it seems we're all doing a great job of jumping in when we have we're out of town. We seem to all be doing a good job of making the
019meetings and doing it. So um and thank you for everyone who goes through the trouble to to get us here. Okay. So passes 70. We'll move on to number four. If I can have a motion on number five through eight, please. I'll make the motion to approve. Jeremy, motion to approve 5 through eight. May I have a second? >> I'll second it. Second and there's no discussion on consent agenda. So all in favor >> I. >> Anyone opposed? Okay. Passes 70. [Applause] At this time we are going to start a new uh a new thing where we're going to throw in a little bit of a recess. So, typically throughout the year, um this would be a good time for us to get ready for the presentation. Uh number 10 is Rick Yansy and I
020think it's a 4 hour presentation. No, I'm kidding. So, we'll um we meetings are typically longer and we'll take a break at that at this point, but we also get a chance to meet anyone who we've hired or anyone that we've appointed for anything that's in the audience. So, we'll take a few minute recess. Um say hello to everybody, use the restrooms, and we're good to go. >> If I could ask Mr. Mr. Bedian, if you if you don't mind if we just um ask those individuals to please stand and be recognized so that we um can have an opportunity to welcome you to the district and for us to know who it is that that our board members may want to be meeting. First recognizing some retirees that the board of education just took
021action on tonight and we thank them for their service. And then of course at this time of year we are getting ready for the upcoming school year and we had a number of appointments that the board of education just approved and took action on. So I would like to ask that those individuals who just received uh their welcome to the district and their appointment for employment in the district if you could please stand to be recognized. [Applause] We welcome you to the West Senica Central School District family and hope that you have a very long and worthwhile and fulfilling career here in West Senica. Welcome to the team. >> Now we'll go on to number nine. A little brief recess. We'll say we go to five minutes this time. 10 minutes. >> We'll say five
022because it'll be 10. >> Wilson will say two for you. >> Two for me. Thanks everyone. >> I skipped a hole. So I uh certainly uh welcome questions along the way as they come up. Um so just quickly on the topics of discussion um we'll talk about just the goals that we kind of are thinking about what the concept of local share means with respect to capital projects. The term maximum cost allowance will become important as we talk about what districts would like to do. I mean obviously everybody would like to do everything but uh the state does set maximum limitations on what they'll provide building aid for. Um as well as uh potential new capital project timing um as well as um we'll talk about capital reserve leveraging. I know that the last couple
023projects the district has used uh capital reserve dollars which is essentially a savings account that the district has uh maintained over the years to use as a down payment on some of these projects. So um just quickly we talk about when we think about plan of capital project it's not what the next year looks like. It's always looking out, you know, 15 20 years because obviously the districts have a building condition survey which covers um basically everything that you could get done in the district for a number of years. So it's important to look out long term on your projects because these projects take time uh to develop uh to get through voter authorization as well as the state education department. Um so we have a local share uh reduction. And the term local share
024essentially is debt service being paid out to service debt on prior projects um with state building aid coming in and the local shares essentially what the local taxpayers are responsible for. So it's that difference between debt service building aid coming in to cover a portion of it and then the remaining is covered by taxpayers uh payments. Um, so looking out longterm and we'll kind of talk through some of the some of the graphs that we have about what it looks like long term and we did an analysis on, you know, what your local share looks like currently um, and where the drop offs are. So the the the idea meaning that when districts look to plan capital projects, they want to make sure that the local share is maintained as flat as possible. Why why
025that's important is because that local share amount um for tax cap purposes is your capital exclusion. So what you don't want to do as a district is to have large peaks and valleys of a local share such that you have a drop off and then at some point your tax cap calculation needs to um get increased quite a bit to make up that difference as you put on new projects. So you want to kind of maintain that flat shape and we'll kind of show you what that might look like graphically. Um, state building aid. Um, every district in the state receives state building aid on capital projects. The lowest that you could get in New York is 10%. 10% of the eligible expenses would be aided as state building aid. The highest you could get
026is 98%. So, some of the um, you know, rural, you know, inner city type schools uh, will be 98%. the larger uh wealthier districts in Westchester, Suffach, Nassau, some of those will be 10%. So, it kind of gives you a good range. Uh 75% 75.8% is your district's ratio. Essentially, what that means is for every eligible dollar spent on a capital project, the state will pick up roughly 75 cents of every dollar. So, it's important to kind of use that leveraging uh to make sure the state's picking up a pretty good portion. And within Western New York, it's a pretty healthy amount. Um I think Lacawana, Buffalo are like the 98% range, but you're sort of in there with Orchard Park and Lancaster and you know, other peers within the area. So certainly a healthy
027um healthy amount. Um uh financial uh planning with phasing. So we have uh the what's called the maximum cost allowance we talked about, which is the upper echelon the district sets with respect to what they're going to aid on projects. And then our goal obviously is still yet to be developed, but the thought process tonight is what can the district do with no incremental impact to the taxpayers. So essentially what we're saying is the taxpayers are paying a certain amount now from prior projects. The thought is take advantage of that drop off in local share so that you're not increasing taxes along the way. You kind of take advantage of that drop off in local share as projects fall out from prior years. One quick one on the strong credit rate in the district. Uh
028the district should be commended, you know, for long long range planning over over the years. The finances of the district now hadn't always been as strong as they are now. So it's certainly um a double A3 by three rating by Moody's is uh certainly a credit positive for the district given their fin strong finances. Um just to kind of set the tone for you know those obviously are probably familiar with the the the most recent capital projects dating back since 2018. Um the big one 2018 project which is starting to wrap up 75.5 million. Uh 2023 23.5 and then the most recent one 8.5 million. So that's since 2018 107.5 million worth of work um at all your various buildings. So obviously kind of gives you order of magnitude of how much work needs to
029get done at these buildings you know every year as you move forward. So this is a graph of the we talked about this concept of existing local share. So you'll see through 26 through 28 we're pretty flat at about $2.7 million a year which is what the taxpayers would be responsible for for all prior project that have that have been done within the district. So you'll see in in 28 29 and in 2030 34 you start to see a drop off. And what what that really relates to is you older projects that are starting to roll off. Um you know things that have been done you know 15 10 15 years ago will start to roll off in those years and that's the the opportunity for the district to then replace that local share with
030new projects coming on. So the goal here is obviously to maintain that local share shape that you see between 26 and 28 and kind of maintain that shape. So just quickly what the term maximum cost allowance means. Um again that's the upper limit that the state's going to set for capital projects throughout all buildings. Uh each building has its own maximum cost allowance. So you can't take, you know, excess allowance from Allenale and put it to West Elementary. They sit at their own. So you got to make sure that when we're thinking about planning for projects that we keep in mind the cost allowances that we have for each building uh to make sure that um you know whatever's being designed is within the allowances so that anything above that allowance is 100% taxpayer impact.
031So we want to kind of avoid having um anything that's above those allowances. Um the cost allowance obviously takes into account cost of labor, cost of goods. So you know as costs have gone up since co the state's formula for allowances has also um gone up as well. So it takes into account the cost of labor, the cost of goods have increased over time um to increase those allowances as well. Just quickly um just to give you an example of the maximum cost allowances per building. So this the the first build column is obviously the um the buildings. The second one is the reset date. And why that's important is that under the state regulations when a district does a capital project at a specific building um that amount that is um done at that
032particular building uh becomes a hold against the allowance for a 5-year period. So the idea is you can't do you know projects every year at the same you know same building and continue to you know get generate state aid. So for example if East Middle School did a $28 million project for construction and 6.7 million for incidental. So incidental means everything outside the building, you know, turf fields, uh, parking lots, um, construction, you know, cost as far as like architect fees, construction manager, that's all within the incident allowance. So for example, if East did $28 million of construction and then 6.7 of incidental this year, that wouldn't reset for another five years. So you couldn't do another project at that building within the allowance for another five years. So the idea being is that the
033state wants you to kind of get on this fiveyear cycle for each of these buildings to um be within their allowance. So what they're saying then is with the full reset of all these buildings taking into account all the prior projects that have been done you know including the ones that we're working on now the reset date for East Middle for example would be in um you know May of 26. Um West Junior obviously is December of 26. So, these are the the the critical dates that we think about planning the next project that these are the dates we need to make sure that we're aware of so that we're planning on getting approval from the state that these dates are the ones that we um need to need to target to get the full
034allowance from the state. So what we kind of mapped out is given the drop offs and local share uh we ran the exercise of you know what could the district do in each of those years by way of sizing of a project assuming that's within the allowance. Um you know you think about the drop in local share in 2829 which is the first example. You typically want to vote on a project two to three years prior to the drop off. And the reason being is that it takes a good amount of time to develop a project, you know, internally at the district. And then obviously to get to the voters once it's voted on, it has to be designed by the architects. You know, that takes you quite a bit of time. And then it
035go has to go back to the state education department for approval. So you're looking at, you know, from the the moment you decide what you're going to do, it's a good two to three year process. So that's why I think long range planning and knowing where those drop offs are occurring is important to think about now, not the year that the drop off occurs. Um so in this example, we have a drop off in 2829. That would um look at a tax no impact to the taxpayers of $40 million vote in the 26th uh year. whether or not it's calendar 26 or fiscal 26, you could do a vote in, you know, the fall or December or the following year. And then the following the next drop off is the 22 23 fiscal year would
036be another $15 million vote. And the big drop off, which we saw um in the graph here, which is the 20 35 36 year is um 65 million. So I think you know the concept is do projects every few years uh to get to this you know 26 to 33 fiscal year of $120 million of work that could be done with no quote unquote incremental increase to the local share that you're currently taxpayers are paying now. So I think just kind of sets the framework for you know what we could think about doing in each of these years. you probably don't want to do $120 million, you know, in one year, but this kind of sets, you know, the the groundwork for um where we could go over over time. So then what what it
037would look like is we kind of looked at this graph here, which is what it looks like now. Um the thought is if you layer in those projects, we would have a local share as flat as possible for each year out to 42. And then beyond that, the 42 43 years, another drop up. So you kind of continue on this cycle of, you know, 120 $130 million projects every 78 years to kind of get to these um, you know, local share drop offs that um that we're seeing. So it certainly this kind of shows what it would look like if we sort of went on that plan going forward with no increase to the taxpayers going forward. Um another the last slide that that we put together is you know we talk about this you
038know no incremental tax increase to the taxpayers of 405 and 65 million the district has used and this assumes no capital reserve for any of these projects. So it's just straight you know bond financing. Um the district has in the past used capital reserve dollars to finance a portion of the project. So when we think about the needs of the district obviously are much more than 120 million and multiples of that. So the thought is if the district you know um increased its capital reserves over time it could use that as a source of funds to leverage an even larger project with still no incremental increase to the taxpayers. And what that looks like is given your aid ratio of 75.8% 8% the leveraging of that reserve, the leveraging meaning you're using cash to finance
039projects, but the state's aiding you as if you borrowed. Um, so you could kind of use that cash to, you know, leverage capital projects without an impact to the taxpayer. So in this example, uh, using like a 4:1 leverage is is typically what we would see in this eight ratio. a million dollar reserve would buy another $4.1 million of, you know, cap of capital money. So, in that first example, if you said, "All right, we're going to do $40 million bond financed, but we're going to do a million dollar reserve, that project could be $44 million." I guess that's sort of the thought process on thinking about building reserves going forward and adding to the amount that we already have built in as you know no impact to taxpayers with no reserves being used. So
040that's the last slide that I had. Uh certainly happy to I know it's a lot to digest. Um happy to answer any questions that anybody might have. Um and then continue the dialogue obviously with the facilities committee and other committees that were look to develop um your capital plan moving forward. Thank you. Anyone have any questions on anything? >> I mean, I thought it was really thorough. It was nice and succinct. I be able to follow along. I think the the one we did for the 75 million, if I remember back then, it did not have a higher tax impact than what we could that was when a lot of the debt was coming off. >> Correct. Yeah. So, it's the same same situation. And obviously you're kind of thinking about like that last scenario
041where we had like the $65 million project with the really large drop off. The $77 million was everything was kind of dropping off. Yeah. And that kind of rolled in and you had a small capital reserve that was used on that transaction. Uh but yeah, that was structured as the impact you know going forward as well. >> I think and this probably has something to do with the finances side of it. It's always funny to hear or weird that we have to have that we get a vote for people to approve it and then we design the projects like I think that's a hard time wrapping our heads around some of that stuff. Um the you know the financing needs to be approved the financing needs to be approved first before we can design it.
042The way you explained it now I completely completely understand that. >> Yeah I think generally speaking like with resolutions to the voters it's pretty broad. It's you know various renovations at district facilities. So most often you'll get real granular in the vote to say all right we're going to put blue paint on the walls or you know some other concept. Um so I think to your point is you want to make sure that whatever you're bringing to the voters is you know enough information that you would at least give them an idea of what conceptually it might look like. >> Yeah. I think that's where where it's nice to know that we're approving the concept with the funding and when we have the funding then we we go for it. >> Yeah. So I think
043it starts with the building condition survey which I think you're all you know familiar with the amount on that then then it becomes all right what could we do without impacting the taxpayers and what's needed right priority list 1 2 3 4 um and then you kind of decide do we need this now or could it wait you know two to three years I think that's the exercise that um should be coming forward in the next couple months is to kind of think about you what the next vote might look like and what that might include >> and I'm assum assuming buildings that are not um aidable like say transportation maybe it is but when we're working on projects that are not aidable that's a whole separate set of funding then it's a whole separate
044budget line that would be yeah that would be sort of the the example of anything above the cost allowance is 100% if it's a noned building which I think Ebenezer and Winchester are not aided >> Winchester should be because they're post but Ebenezer is not aided Correct. >> So any work at that building is 100% district taxpayers local, you know, local share. >> Okay. >> And the transportation is aided. There's no cost allowance specific to transportation buildings, but as a as long as it's building used to um you work on the buses and you know an actual maintenance transportation facility, then it's eligible for building aid. >> Oh, great. Okay. Good to know. So when we have when we do work that's outside of say a bond vote type thing, does that money go into
045those numbers where the state allows or doesn't allow you to spend dollar amounts per building? >> Well, yeah. Every every project that done has to be approved by the state. >> Yes. So say we did a hundred thou what's the capital outlay? >> Say we did 100,000 capital outlay. That number you were showing that they only allow you within a 5year period. Y is that the same that money goes into that number >> too? that would also be counted against that five-year limitation against your allowance. >> Okay, great. Thank you. >> Anything else? >> Good questions. Yeah, thank you so much. >> Appreciate it. Thank you very much. >> Thank you, Rick. So, this presentation was intended to lay some foundation for our work session next week. Um, I I had a planning session with
046Ed and Mara on our work sessions. And at next week's work session, I'm going to be seeking some feedback to recommendations that I have for the board to consider. So, for example, if we were to consider um as suggested here, a $40 million project in potentially 26, one of the things that I'll be working with will on is how much may we apply of reserves. So, let's just say hypothetically it's $2 million in reserves that we're able to put towards this project. As you learned tonight, that $2 million actually would yield us eight million additional. So, if we had two million in reserve, we could now be looking potentially at a $48 million project. And what I'd like us to do, there are going to be some things through the building condition survey that we
047won't need to have much debate or discussion on. um if it's recommended based on the life and where we are in the cycle of replacement that we need to replace HVAC in mechanics or a boiler. There's not much influence that we or our facilities committee may need to have on something like that. But some other things that were identified in our building condition survey, for example, we have four pools at the secondary level, one at each middle school, one at each high school. Those pools have renovation needs and repair needs that are in excess of $12 million. We will need to decide the future of our pools and are we going to continue to maintain four pools in our schools. So there's things like that where I have had some preliminary discussions and feedback from
048our leadership team. We have some thoughts around that. I have some recommendations for you. But I want early feedback from the board so that we can start to shape what this next project may be on those areas where we do have I think some voice and choice and really thinking long term of the vision for our instructional spaces, the vision for our athletic fields and the vision for spaces such as our our pools. Are we going to continue to maintain four pools for example? So that's the time that we want to have carved out with the board next week during our work session around those things where we will have I I think some rich discussion about the future vision of our schools and our instructional spaces. And this is a great foundation prior to
049having that next step. >> Have any other questions or comments? >> Thank you. >> We'll move on to number 11. New business. Some of my favorite things in here. May I have a motion on 11, please? >> I'll make a motion. >> May I have a motion on all of 11? Or if someone wants to do something different, I'm cool with that. >> I was going to make >> I'll do a motion on 11. >> Marine motion to approve all of 11. Yes. >> Thank you, Jeremy. Second. Okay. Any discussion on anything? >> I have just one question. Just want to point out the field trips, how awesome it is. We're getting the ball rolling on that. Anyone have any questions on anything we want to discuss? Just had a quick question on school lunches.
050Um, and maybe this is something that could be if we have a presentation ever on how everything's going in that department, but I think I got a notice at home kids. Uh, the the free lunch program, do we sell things still in the cafeterias like snacks and we do >> that sort of thing? Yes, because the school lunch program, it's free breakfast, free lunch for our students and that allows a child to have one free meal. We do have some some high schoolers in particular that may choose to get a second meal and that second meal that they purchase um a student would need to pay for. In addition, we still have allocart items. So, if a student brings a lunch from home and simply wants to buy a snack or something to that effect,
051those are still for purchase items. But what is covered is one free breakfast, one free lunch for all students. >> Awesome. Yeah, I saw and maybe I again I didn't understand the reading of it. It said that students may not charge additional lunches, but like we we have the we don't use cash anymore. It's still the system where they have a pre like a prepaid amount, >> meaning I owe you debt. Yeah. >> Okay, cool. That's it for me. Anything else? Anyone? Okay. All in favor? >> I. Anyone opposed? Passes 70. [Applause] Number 13, board of education discussion. We do not have anything listed. Did no um if anyone has anything they want to bring out, talk about, discuss, ask questions on anything. >> I just had one thing. Um, in regards to the cell
052phone policy, um, there have been some questions as far as like what detention is going to look like. Is that going to look different across the levels of school between the two sides of the district? Is there lunch detention, after school detention, before and you may not know those answers. I don't know because um, >> so I I can share what I know and if I need to get clarity on some other things, I can certainly update the board. uh at the elementary school in particular at the elementary level we don't have afterchool detention so that certainly would look different at the elementary level it may be a lunch detention but outside of that at the secondary level I can check with the principles to ensure that that that is consistent and will be handled
053consistently >> perfect okay the only thing I'm going to I'll bring up is um appreciate everyone who has signed up to go to the convention. Um, it seems cool. I think we've got three of us going, Zack and of course gonna go. So, it seems it's a really great event. Um, we'll hopefully learn some good stuff and bring it back. Uh, good good sessions on stuff and there's good vendors there that show different things for the district. So, um, again, appreciate people taking the time out to do that and appreciate the board members so far that have taken the time out to do their to go to their meetings that we're having and to get prepared in the spring for all our meetings and, uh, the things they've signed up for. Like, you were in
054Albany. >> Yes. >> Last week or this week? >> Two weeks ago. Time's flying by. Thank you for doing that. It went well. >> It was wonderful. And yeah, so lots of things to come out of it. For me, the best was learning about the portrait of a graduate. And you know that was just rushed. I don't want to say rushed. They put it through, but the vote, they did not expect to have the vote that soon because it was so widely appreciated and liked that they went out and had to put a a thing together to vote on it that night. So, it's only been out for at this point five weeks maybe, but the portrait of graduate looks really nice. Um, really giving some more opportunities to students uh other than just a
055test. >> Excellent. I think again, thank you. I think uh um Albany was that Albany. >> That was Albany. Okay. And then this convention is going to be New York City. So um again, thank you everybody for that. I got nothing else for board discussion. >> Everyone else good. Okay. Close that. And if I can have a motion to go into executive session to discuss contractual negotiations, please. >> I'll make the motion. >> Mara, motion to go into executive. May I have a second? >> I'll second it. Loren, any discussion on it? All in favor? I. >> Anyone opposed? Passes 70. Okay, we're um pretty much concluded business for the evening. We're going to go into exacting when we come out. I don't anticipate us doing any public voting or any public discussion. So, I
056want everyone to go out, enjoy your evening. It's still sunny out and warm. So, have a great night. Thank you everyone for being here.