001All [Music] right. Good evening everybody. This is uh the Eden Smart Schools bond hearing. So just a little review, Smart School Bond Act was established in 2014 and it was $2 billion for schools to use to improve educational technology or highlevel high-tech security. Um the categories were broken down a little further. You could do classroom technology, high-tech security, or high-speed broadband. We're already set with high-speed broadband. We've done high-tech security in the past, which Frankie will talk about. Um, so we're looking into some more classroom technology to supplement our budget over the next few cycles. The funding is reimbursement based on the actual expenditures. So any numbers you see are just estimates right now. We're trying to look two or three years out. We don't know what tariff pricing and stuff is going to do.
002So we're just doing budget estimates right now. I'll let Frankie talk numbers. two separate one break That's Next And then third. So the next steps according to the plan. We're going to be posting this on the website tomorrow. We have to let it sit for 30 days for public comment or review. There'll be an email address, my office number. If anybody has any questions, comments, concerns, they can call or write to us. Um once those 30 days pass and Frankie and I will work and submit the plan to SED and hopefully we can do an expedited review since this is just classroom technology consumables, there's no capital project or anything. So, it's pretty quick turnaround now. It used to be a lot longer like months to years. Now it's um the last few plans have
003gone through pretty quick questions. >> So when do we need to spend all this money by? Is there any since that date or no? And then what's what's the average middle school, high school Chromebook lasting? Is it lasting three years? >> It used to be five. It's lasting three years if we're delicate. Um the elementary because they don't take them home or carry them daytoday. We were able to push it out to four years, but that's even pushing it now. So, >> okay, >> three years, grades six to 12, four years if we have to in grades three to five. >> And this is a purchase, right? >> Yes. >> Okay. Happen to know a guy at Lenova. He recommended to me we might want to take a look at leasing >> as a possibility.
004>> He and I have had that discussion. >> Okay. I'm just >> yeah we we have um looked at either purchasing or doing um IPAs through Boseis which is essentially leasing and for the Chromebooks it actually better financially just to buy them outright than ours and that way if we run into a problem where we're short a year or something we need to push it off we don't have to turn the devices in we can actually keep them for that extra year or what >> okay that's all I got kind of along those same lines. Since this money was approved a decade ago, what are the chance that the state says we're not we're reversing the money. So we zero zero risk or as close to it as you can. Yeah. >> Okay. >> They
005always taught me that it was a bond that the voters approved so the state couldn't dip into it. I don't know the legalities of that but the money's there and it's still available. So >> Okay. Thank you everybody for the opportunity to present to you tonight. Uh the agenda we plan on going through is just a brief introduction of the Wendell team. Uh and then go over again the New York State zero mission vehicle mandate uh the scope of work uh what we've learned on the bus routes, the utility requirements and then the allimportant phasing and costs. Okay. So um just some brief introductions. Uh I'm John Heilla. I'm the principal in charge. I'm an owner at Wendle and I am the director of alternative fuels uh which is anything that deals with non-traditional fuels
006such as gasoline and diesel. So that includes propane, compressed natural gas, battery electric and hydrogen all fall under my area of responsibility and I'm responsible for the battery electric bus programs at Wendell. Katie >> and Katherine Eckham. Hello or Katie Ekham. Um, I was the project manager and main point of contact throughout this whole project. And we have Scott Kroder. >> Hi everybody. I am Scott Krider. I am the technical lead and energy engineer for this project. I assisted with the development of the final report as well as all of the analysis for the savings. Thank you. >> Okay, just real briefly about Wendell. Wendle is uh an 85year-old company. We're celebrating our 85th anniversary. The little shack in the middle on the bottom is Leon Wendell's garage. This is where that business started in
007Lockport, New York. We're now 300 plus employees, actually over 320 employees now with 16 offices across the US. Uh we go as far west as Phoenix. All the little Wendel logos on the map are our offices. We're headquartered in Williamsville, New York, uh outside of Buffalo. And uh we've been doing uh transportation work since the uh early 90s and we've been doing transit work longer than that. Uh we did our first battery electric bus project back in 2013 and we are a full-ervice architecture, engineering, energy efficiency and construction management firm. You can see from the blue out there that we've got uh quite a few offices across New York State all the way down into Long Island. So, a very strong New York presence. So, the zero mission bus mandate, as I'm sure most of
008you are familiar, by 2027, all new school bus purchases need to be zero emissions. And by 2035, all school buses on the road need to be zero emissions. Zero emissions means battery electric or hydrogen fuel cell. Those are the only two technologies currently that meet the zero emission mandate by New York State. And unfortunately, there are no hydrogen fuel cell buses currently commercially available for school districts. So that only leaves school districts with battery electric as an option. Uh the uh state just passed in their most recent budget an update to this. Uh there are now two waivers that you can obtain to the 2027 deadline. Uh the first waiver is a two-year waiver. Uh the second waiver is also a two-year waiver, but you need to have completed a zero emission transition plan, which
009this plan qualifies for. So uh you would be eligible for two two-year extensions on that 2027 date. Uh there is no extension yet on the 2035 date. That date is still um set the uh state also had the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority, NAERTA, uh provide technical assistance to school districts to help with the transition. This is the program that NAERTA ran that we participated in along with the school district to uh do this study scope of work. I'll pass that off back off to Katie. >> Thank you, John. Um and as John had said, this is a NAERTA flex tech study. So this is a program through NAERTA that was funded 75% up by NAERTA. Um and we were able to complete this zero mission transition plan with the help of
010some Eden School District employees. So I wanted to thank you know Mary Banco, Frankie May, Michael Sitzman. They've been extremely helpful attending meetings, getting us a lot of data, answering questions. So, thank you for for all the assistance with this. Um, so our scope of work for this transition plan consisted of all of these tasks that I'll be going over in more detail. We had a kickoff and multiple meetings throughout where we went over our findings, recommendations, data collection, which was extremely important regarding um the collection of Eden School District specific routes, start and end times, mileages, etc. um a route analysis and charging strategy where we looked at what would be needed in terms of the buses and the chargers to um complete the mandate requirements for transvert um for converting to battery electric
011and then a utility analysis. Is the utility load available? Can they actually provide this amount of load that is required? Concept plans and phasing plan as well as cost estimates. what are the electrical upgrades that are going to be needed and how much is it going to cost and then finally a final report which at this point has been submitted to the district and NAERTA. So we'll start off with the route analysis and charging strategy. As I said, we took the existing bus route data. of the start and end times, how far they traveled during those routes, what time do they come back to the bus garage, how long are they at the bus garage in between routes, and we were able to determine what the anticipated energy requirements are for each of the routes,
012both A.M., P.M., midday. Um, what battery size of the bus would be required to meet those energy requirements. if it's feasible to use an electric bus on the current routes. If so, what are the charging requirements? What charger size would be needed? And how long would they need to charge for each of the routes in between? And then what is the energy impact of charging all of those buses? So before we go into results, um an important piece of this is what are our assumptions? So we assumed basically worst case scenario to be conservative. So we looked at a bus full of students, extreme cold. So as you can see in the bottom left here, we have an image of how driving range is affected by temperature. So we have battery electric buses really seeing
013their worst efficiencies and meeting their worst ranges once you get below 20°. So between -20 and 20. And in Western New York, we see this a lot. So, we did use this temperature range to show what the bus would be using in terms of energy during these temperatures. Um, we also looked at HVAC usage. So, especially in the winter heater as well as 15 minutes of preheating the bus. So, the bus would be turned on 15 minutes before its route to heat the bus and using an electric heater to heat the bus. We've also assumed that the battery has seen some degradation um down to 90%. So, just like with your phone battery, when you first get your phone, your battery probably lasts you all day, but as time goes on, that battery does degrade
014and it no longer seems to hold that charge quite as long. Um, we are seeing the same thing with batteries in electric vehicles. So, we did assume a degradation of about 90%. We also assume the battery will not go below 10%. So there'll always be 10% of the battery in reserve and that the battery will not be charged over 90%. Which is a recommended best practice for these buses for the battery. And then we can see in the top left that really leaves us with a usable energy that we assume can be used on these routes of about 72% of the full battery. And then we also finally assume an additional 11% safety factor on efficiency based off of real world data that we've seen in the transit industry in terms of how electric vehicles
015are actually running on you know hills and topography and traffic um versus what the manufacturer states we they would see in efficiencies. So again, all of this is basically looking at that worstase day in the middle of January. So based off of those assumptions, these are our findings. Um, so we evaluated 25 different route buses and of those 25, it looked like 56% of those could be completed with an electric school bus of today's market and 11 of them could not be completed. Um, I'll be going over those 11 on the next slide in more detail. So, we'll talk about that a little bit more. But for the buses that could be converted, um, it looks like the district currently prefers Thomas as a manufacturer. So, when we were doing our table here of what
016the buses may look like, our first step was to try to make as many of them be done by Thomas buses as possible. So you can see we have the 113 Thomas type A, only one of them could be completed of the type A's. So for the two that needed a larger battery size. Unfortunately, the Thomas only makes a 113 at this time. So we do have the Bluebird 175, which is the largest type A on the market currently being proposed. In our recommendations, we do recommend that districts wait until hopefully Thomas comes out with a larger bus size. We are seeing all of the manufacturers coming out with larger and larger sizes that are having better efficiencies, larger batteries. So, we recommend kind of trying to push those to the end of the conversion
017to hopefully wait for a Thomas to come out so that you don't have multiple types of manufacturers. The same instance with the type C's. Thomas does have a 246 kilowatt hour type C which is the larger 78 passenger bus and four of your route buses could be done by this Thomas. However, seven of them did need a larger battery size. So that would require a 315 kWh IC. So that is a constraint if you did want to replace all of them that you would either need to have multiple manufacturers or that you would need to go with a manufacturer that you don't currently utilize and prefer. Um we also included spare buses for the total buses of 33 and total proposed of 32. one less because there is actually one bus that not only doesn't
018have a current replacement but is also not anticipated to exist within the mandate period of 2035. Again, I'll go into a little bit more detail these two line items here on the next slide. But we also look at charger size. Charger size is really dependent on how much time there is to charge specifically midday. So after your AM routes but before your PM routes. how much time do they have to charge up before they have to go back out? So, these are the charger sizes um that would be required for each bus. We do recommend that rather than having four different charger sizes in your facilities that districts do look at possibly just going up in size. One thing with the 60 kilowatt, the 120, and the 180 is there is an option to just
019have multiple dispensers on them. So, for example, the 60 kowatt could come in a dual port or two dispensers, in which case you could have two buses charging and each would be getting 30 kilowatts of charge. If one was plugged in, you could only you could be getting up to 60. Same with all the way up to the 180 kilowatt. it would have three dispensers in it and there could be um three different buses in there charging up to 60 kW or if only one was plugged in you could have one getting up to 180. So we recommend looking at going with the larger charger sizes. Obviously going up with larger charger sizes does have an increased cost but we'll kind of look at what kind of grants and incentives are available for those in
020a later slide as well. So going into those buses with transition issues. So those um 11 buses that can't currently be performed for each of those, we have the route distance that those have to go before they're even able to charge. So each of these buses would need to go over 50 miles before they are able to come back for a charge. Um, you can see that it's really right around 50 up until about 120 miles is when they're not able to be performed by electric buses today, but we do anticipate that they'll exist. So, the bus sizes for the type A, the largest currently is a 175 and the largest for a type C currently in terms of the battery is a 315. So, these bus sizes are pretty close to those. Again, we're
021seeing larger and larger bus sizes come out. Just over a year ago, the largest type A was approximately 120 and now it's about 175. And we are seeing buses in the transit industry all the way up to 600 kilwatt hours in battery sizes already. So the reason that we have these two different assignments, one of the doesn't currently exist and then the notant anticipated is for those buses that don't currently exist, the constraint and red flag is that they cannot currently be transitioned to electric and electric bus cannot do them. But since we believe that they will exist within the mandate period, we carry them through the rest of the project. So we still look at what the load impact would be to charge them. We still look at what charger size would be required
022and include the costs in our concept plans and our cost estimates. We still carry it through to be conservative in case it does come out. However, for the does not anticipate to exist, we do exclude that bus and kind of have a different type of red flag of we do not believe that it will even come out on the market by 2035. And I would like to say this is also not unique to your district. We are seeing this in almost every single district we have worked with. There are always buses that cannot be performed. And it's also very likely, especially in Western New York and more rural areas, for there to be one or two buses that are unlikely to be able to be replaced at all. So this is something that we are
023seeing in districts all over New York State. Okay. Um, next we plugged all of those buses and all of our proposed chargers into an hourby- hour model over the month of January using historic temperature data for your region in Western New York. Um, so using that historic data in January, we were able to see how the buses would be running hour by hour in temperatures going below 20 and what they would also look like coming back to the station and charging and using energy from the grid and pulling that energy. So what we're looking at here is basically a load profile of all of the buses charging and that is on a worst case day in January. So, we looked at all of the days in January and basically pick the day with the highest
024demand. So, you can see the overnight is when the buses are charging overnight. Drops down when they are out on their routes. And then specifically between about 12 and 6:00 p.m. is when they're out on their next is when they're back at the bus garage charging up before their next routes. We're seeing two different demand profiles here. Um, both of these are with charge management implic in installed, which we do recommend, which is basically making the chargers push out energy low and slowly. So rather than charging it up immediately, it sees how long the buses are going to be there and charges them throughout that amount of time at a lower pace. But also, we see here a without demand reduction and with demand reduction being the lower one. The blue line, the larger one,
025mimics basically the buses coming back to the chargers midday and the chargers are slowly charging them to that maximum 90%. The orange one, however, the lower is mimicking a strategy that you can implement, which would basically have the buses come back and only charge to what they would need to be to perform the next route. So rather than charging it up to that 90%, it may only charge them to about 60 or 70%. This may not be feasible for all buses as some buses may need to perform um field trips or sports trips after they're done, but it is an option that you may be able to implement, especially on those worst case days when you're trying to reduce energy as much as possible. So we took the results of this and we were able
026to determine what the utility requirements will be. So we determined that the peak demand um of all of the buses being converted would be about 823 and the peak demand of all of those buses as well as any type of vans or SUVs that transport students those charging as well would be about 855 KVA. Um on the district side, we were able to look at this load and determine what would be needed on the district side in terms of equipment. So we did determine that the district would need a new um 80 volt for which is required for fast charging three-phase electric service from a new utilityowned transformer which is being proposed at 1500 KVA. um during design, you could absolutely look at different sizing for that, but this is just a recommendation to look
027at available capacity right now. And then we're also recommending a new 30,000 amp main, which would feed eight other amp switch um other switchboards that would be connected to that main switchboard, which would charge the charging equipment. On the utility side, we did send that anticipated load to National Grid and asked if they would be able to provide an assessment of whether they think they'll be able to provide that capacity. And they did respond stating that both the feeder level and the substation level would be able to accommodate that proposed peak load. So, no upgrades on their side would be needed to their feeder or their substation. They did say a new transformer would be needed, but we always recommend that anyways. As you can see in the first one, we do recommend a 480
028volt transformer. Okay, so moving on to concept plans. Um, so these are in larger detail in the final report, but our phase one shows about 11 chargers, and this would run between the years 2028 and 2030. It would include the new service as well as fire protection. For that fire protection um so we have an outdoor storage of the areas in green above. For the outdoor storage we are proposing a additional hydrant to be located nearby. um actually two different hydrants located nearby. As well as for the maintenance area, a new sprinkler system that would be fed from a new fire pump building that would also have a generator associated with it. Um you would also need a new water service that would be a 6in service which is larger than the existing to be
029able to support those hydrants and the proposed amount of water that would go through those sprinkler systems in the maintenance area. For phase two, we recommend seven chargers. These would want run through the years 2031 to 2032 and support any new buses that would go in those years for a total of 18 chargers after phase 2. And phase 3 has an additional 12 chargers over the years 2033 through 2035 for a total amount of chargers of 30 after the 2035 date. Looking at those in a little bit more detail, we have the cost associated with each of those phases. Again, phase one did include that new utility service. So that is um any type that our new switchboards, the new transformer from the utility um power distribution equipment, power feeds and duct banks, so especially
030running power to from the transformer to the switchboards, the fire protection upgrades. We also did determine that the maintenance bay um would require an extension. So the length of electric buses has been seen to be longer in length. They are the same width and the same height, but they are longer in length than their diesel gas counterparts. So, we did determine that the maintenance bay would require an extension, and we were able to provide a rough dollar per square foot estimate of what that extension would cost. And then the charging equipment for those proposed 11 chargers for a total of 3.6 million for phase 1. For phase two, it's going to just be those chargers and then the power distribution equipment and power feeds needed for those chargers for a total of 1.5. And then
031phase three again will just be those chargers and the power distribution equipment. So the switchboards and then the power feeds required for those chargers themselves. And that is for a total of 2.2. Included in these costs is escalation starting in 2026 all the way throughout 2035. I believe it's about 6% per year. Um so that is a very large amount of the cost that you see here. Um we also have the cost of labor, the equipment itself, soft costs, um contingencies, construction, um fees, etc. So all of that is included and is in detail in the final report. Not included in these costs are basically two things. One is going to be any utility side costs. So that's going to be the cost of the transformer itself which the utility will own and need to
032install as well as um their need to run power from a utility pole underground and to the transformer. The utilities will not provide anybody a cost or a cost estimate until a school district submits a work request form which is basically an official process starter to get their full design started. Um they request that districts start that work request once they are ready to start phase one and they do say that design takes approximately 6 months and then that cost that they will provide you will expire. So, if you do get it now and then wait, you will need to redo the design later on. Um, I'm going to go over in a little bit more detail that costs and what grants and incentives are available. And then also not included is the additional cost
033for battery electric buses, which we have seen be more expensive than the diesel and gas counterparts. Um, we'll also go over that in the next slides there. Um, so this is going to be basically the cost of the customer side charging infrastructure and the chargers themselves. So that will be a total cost of 7.3 including fire protection and then total cost without fire protection is 5.9. >> Okay. >> So now looking at a >> quick question. >> Absolutely. >> I'm sorry. >> Just going back to your last slide. I'm just trying to understand there's a difference with and without fire protection. So are we to understand that there's an option to purchase these buses without fire protection? >> There is. So at this time fire protection is not required by any type of code or
034standard. However, we do believe that the codes and standards just haven't been updated yet. And we do anticipate as well as this NAERTA anticipates that there will be something coming out um in terms of requirements and we do believe that what we have planned and put a cost for is going to be very close to what they're going to be putting out there in terms of the codes and standards. John, I don't know if you wanted to add to that. >> Yeah, it's just the fact that the codes haven't kept up. So you're technically by code you are not required to do fire protection. We are strongly recommending that you do do fire protection, but it is not required by code and some school districts have elected not to put in the fire protection since
035it's not required. Uh, but it eventually will be required. >> Oh, sorry. Go ahead. >> Isn't there a spacing requirement as well too with the new buses? >> They're not supposed to be parked as tight as they normally are, >> even with fire protection. >> The the there there's different schools of thought on that. uh it to pre prevent a bus carryover from one bus to another. Uh to do it just by separation, you would need at least 15 ft between buses. Most school districts and transit agencies do not have that real estate to be able to do that. Uh that's why we rely mostly on fire protection, which is more volume. Uh and it's heavily relied upon on water. Now, what we're seeing is is that battery electric buses do not catch fire. In
036fact, with with any greater frequency than diesel, in fact, they're less frequent. There's also more warning on battery electric buses catching fire. But when they do catch fire, they are more difficult to put out. And hence, you know, the requirement to put fire protection in the buildings as well as more fire hydrants around the buses to allow first responders to respond more quickly with large volumes of water and the fire pump. >> Can I ask one more question along this vein? for those districts that you know of that opted out of the fire protection. I'm just asking not I'm not I'm just curious. I'm not saying that this is the way I want to go. Just to be perfectly clear. Um did their insurance companies respond in kind then? Like did they see an increase
037in their insurance costs because they opted out? >> No, they have not to my knowledge. But what we have been doing so far really are pilots where we're doing a couple of buses. We're not really doing a phase one. A lot of the school districts have decided, well, instead of jumping in and doing $3.6 million, let's see how many buses we can put in on our existing service without doing a major project. And that's where they're electing not to go forward with the fire protection in that early phase where they only have a couple of buses. uh in that particular case they're relying on the bus manufacturer for maintenance which is the area where a lot of the fires could occur. Uh so you know their feeling is the the risks are reduced. Uh the
038ultimate decision though to be to be blunt would be the authority having jurisdiction covering your area. So the the fire department and the authority having jurisdiction would actually dis determine whether or not you did or did not need fire protection. >> Thank you. >> Okay. So jumping back into costs. Um so to start we're going to look at the buses themselves. So New York State currently has their NYBI program um which offers school bus vouchers. You can see the voucher amount for type A is about 114,000. There's also a scrapage bonus available where if you do have a diesel or gas school bus and you're willing to scrap it down to its frame and destroy the engine, you would receive an additional bonus for each destroyed as well as your type C. We have that
039same B base voucher of about 147,000 and another scrapage bonus. Um, each district will only be able to apply for six of these vouchers, but then since you have done this plan here, this fleet electrification plan, you'll be able to get four additional. So, you'll be able to apply for a total of 10 school buses at this time. So, looking at the cost of buses, um, we have an estimated cost per bus here from OS state contract pricing. Um, this is without any type of add-ons or warranties. So, these are very rough estimates, but we can see the three proposed bus makes that were proposed for your district um range from about $300,000 to about $440,000 per bus. So looking at the cost of two of those buses, the Thomas and the IC, and their
040estimated cost from the OS, and the vouchers, not including the scrapage bonus, um just the base voucher itself, the estimated cost of these school buses with that voucher will be about 233 and about 196. And if you did take advantage of the scrabbage bonus, it would be about another 50,000 off of those. And then looking at the chargers themselves, um through that same NISB program, the state also offers charging vouchers and they offer 25,000 per bus. And then again, since you have completed this plan, you'll actually get $55,000 per bus instead. Um, this is limited to $2 million, which is equivalent to about 36 vouchers, which would cover all of the charging vouchers or chargers required for your school district. So, looking at those, this is estimated cost of the chargers. We have three different
041charger sizes here, ranging from 18,000 to about 68,500. you would receive that full voucher amount um not dependent on the cost of the charger. The state just requires that you would use any additional funds that you have. So for example with the 24 you would have 37,000. You would just be required to use that on something with the charging infrastructure. So maybe the cost of installation or cost of conduit or you could even use it to supplement some of the cost of the bus as well. But this will basically be a check written out to the district to be able to use for that. And then finally, we have the charging infrastructure costs. Um, so through the joint utilities of New York and their make way program, there is an incentive for up to 90%
042of the utility side costs. These are those unknown costs that I was talking about in that previous slide, which is basically going to be running the power from the utility poles to the utility own transformer and then the cost of the utility transformer itself. So though these costs are unknown and will be unknown until the district submits a work request and kind of starts the design with National Grid, 90% of that will be covered by this program. So the district would only be responsible for that 10%. Okay. So next looking at schedule. Um so what you see here is an example schedule and we have the start of utility design which is really that submission of the work request to national grid starting at the same time as your phase one design as well as
043SED review. So those will start at the same time and then what you can see is that'll lead up to some long lead time items which is mostly going to be your switchboards and especially your switch gear delivery. So we have seen this be a very large constraint for any districts kind of looking to move forward with this. pretty much all districts are going to require some type of switch switch gear, switch boards and we are seeing these lead times nationwide um as a company for quite a bit now. We have seen it come down from 20 months to about 16 months recently and kind of holding steady there. However, with this mandate coming up and this equipment being required for most, if not all districts, it's unlikely that it's going to get any better
044than that 16-month time period. So, we probably are going to see these long lead time items for quite a while. So, this leads to a total length of about three and a half to four years from the start of phase one design until you are able to install your chargers. Um, this also kind of leads us to why a lot of districts are electing to go with the pilot route that John was talking about, which is really installing one or two chargers on the existing because that would get rid of all of these lead times because you'll be installing them on your existing service rather than waiting for the utility and waiting for your switch gear and switchboards. which kind of leads us to constraints. So what were kind of the findings of this study?
045What are the red flags? What are the constraints that were found? Um first is going to be the routes for those 11 buses that cannot be performed. Um we believe that of those 11 10 of them will become available but one of them is not even anticipated to become available. utility though they've stated that they don't see any major upgrades. Those costs for the transformer and power running is unknown which is always a constraint and unknown cost. Um though 90% of them will be covered through the make ready program is discussed. Um the lead time again we're seeing about 15 to 16 months for switch gear. It was up 20 um a couple of months ago and though it's not unique to you, it's being seen across the country, it is still a major constraint
046when you're looking at meeting those 2027 mandate year timelines. Electric buses again are longer than traditional fuel counterparts. So currently electric school buses will not fit in the maintenance garage, specifically that maintenance bay in the current layout. So the district would require a bus garage extension to allow the school buses to be able to fit in that area. And next is going to be clarifications on New York State mandate which may come out and change the recommendations of this study. Um you know we see ourselves as a trusted advisor for Eden and kind of a a leader in this industry on the transit side alternative fuels and working with NAERTA on this mandate. So we will let you know if there are any updates or changes in the mandate that come out. Um but again
047it is a constraint that there is a lot of unknown right now. So things may change in terms of process and recommendations and then specific timelines for vouchers and incentives. The program is quite complicated when it comes to those chargers charging vouchers and bus vouchers. For example, in order to apply for the 90% utility incentive, you do need to first have either a charging voucher or a school bus voucher approved. Um, before you can have a charging voucher, you need a school bus voucher approved. So, there's a very specific timeline and process that you want to follow with these. So you want to ensure that whoever you work with kind of on your next steps for implementation is aware of all of this and is knowledgeable in the transit and EV industry, not just the
048K through2 typical school bus industry. So that is a constraint to have to work with someone outside of your regular operations. >> Katie, can I factor in a couple other constraints we haven't thought about yet? >> Absolutely. I might have them in the report already, but go on. >> So, parking lots. >> Mhm. >> How much more do these buses weigh versus the currents bus? >> I think they're saying about 5,000 pounds more is the average additional weight. >> Okay. So, now we've just had a bunch of work done at the Eden Elementary. Mrs. Car, did we do the elementary parking lots bus loop? No. >> All right. So, we got to factor in that cost because we got to put higher strength ashfold in now to handle these buses. That's one constraint. Um, the
049grid's okay with this and and I'm asking I'm I'm asking this question. So, there's 700 districts that are basically going to electric buses. >> Mhm. >> There's a new mandate in regards to you're not allowed to put natural gas into your house starting in 2026. I don't know if that's still a go or what. So that's more demand on our um electrical grid. >> And then on top of it um the governor's asking for micro nuclear facilities to mandate the electricity that we need to basically pass all these mandates. So my question to the grid is okay, Eden's okay, but is all of New York State okay? And I'm I'm being a little fitious here, but >> no, that's an absolutely great question. And that is really why NAERTA is doing this because it's it's
050one thing for one district to say, okay, these are my needs, but it's another thing for all of the districts to have these studies done and have a number that can go to the grid. And NAERTA is working on collecting that kind of load from all of the districts and putting it together in a okay here's going to be the load for this region here's going to be the load for this region. >> Yeah. >> No, it's to be honest with you Don when we we're doing over 135 of these studies. We're coming up with a lot of districts where the utility is saying we can't supply the power >> or we can supply the power but it's going to require a major substation upgrade, distribution line upgrade and feeder to your to your school
051district upgrade. Uh so in in some rural areas we have school districts are saying we don't have reliable power now. We're getting brown outs, blackouts. Uh so it is it is an issue and one >> we've got we've got something similar to Eden on the east west side of Eden is has power issues. >> Yes, absolutely. And and we're seeing it across the state and you know I think that's one of the one of the things about these fleet electrification plans that I think is is helpful. these constraints, you know, we are compiling what these constraints are and putting them back to the state because you have one bus route right now that cannot be completed. We don't believe with it within the 2035 mandate. You're not alone in that area either. So, if it's
052a mandate, how do you deal with that? Are you now going to say that you need to break that route up route up? And can you? In a lot of cases, you can't. And there's a bus driver shortage. So, how do you add more buses when you can't even get drivers to drive the routes that you have? So, you know, we're trying to lay out all of these constraints and put it back together in a report to the state so the state can now make a more educated decision on the timelines that they have. Uh, and you know, there are some districts the utility has the power. Uh, their garages are fine and they can do 100% of their routes with the electric buses that are on the road today. We've got quite a few
053that can do that. That's not the norm. We're finding a lot of issues across the state with different school districts. So, it's really, you know, what what we're trying to say to the state is, you know, some can do it, some can't. And you know, how are you going to look at this? And here's all the constraints. >> And uh one last tidbit to add to your cost is tariffs. >> Yes. So that's going to escalate the cost by another 30%. >> I would say though that the majority of all of the chargers that are in these studies are Americanmade because they they had by America with the transit agencies that have been doing this for over 10 over 10 years more than 10 years. And so these chargers that we're quoting you here are
054all built in the US now. built in the built in the US. But the new kicker now is the content of 1232, >> right? >> 50%. >> Yep. We're we're we're seeing that. We've been seeing it for a while on the transit side. >> Yeah. >> Thanks. >> Yep. >> Um I have a question regarding cost. Um you brought it up these buses as they are because I've heard they they actually are not heated. That's an extra cost. Is that true or because obviously it gets very cold and we need heaters on our buses. >> So you um that's part of the add-ons that you would have to add on. So that cost that we had I don't think even has heaters. I think you're accurate. But um you are able to select either a
055diesel heater or an electric heater with these buses. So, um, you don't have to go with an electric heater, and they do still qualify for the mandate with that diesel heater on them. >> Believe, believe it or not, a school electric school bus with a diesel diesel heater is a zero emission bus under New York state law. >> Has your group uh done any of these studies up in Watertown, Platsburg, North Country? and and my guess is their results are their their roots have to be longer, their weather is colder, they have more mountains to climb, so the numbers have to be um much worse than ours. >> I wouldn't say much worse, but yes. And in a lot of cases, what it is is some of the more rural routes in the smaller school
056districts are using the smaller buses, the type A buses, uh because they have fewer students and they're going longer distances. uh those buses typically have a smaller battery because they're a smaller vehicle and so those are the routes that are failing more. U but yes uh you know in this in the cities and the in the densely packed suburban areas we're seeing them pass with flying colors. >> You know it's it's more of the rural areas and even you know just outside of suburbia it's it starts to get tough. I just would like to ask your opinion or so the state goes through with all this. I mean I can't imagine every single district will be able to afford this. So what happens if a district or several districts can't afford to do this? What
057do you think would happen? >> That's a question that we keep asking NAERTA and NAERTA keeps asking the state and we haven't seen an answer. That makes sense. >> It's a good question. I mean, these aren't this isn't an a cheap proposition. >> Yeah. And the waivers that already um are online though there is not a lot of detail. They don't say how to apply. They don't say how to become eligible. They do say on there, I think there's a small tidbit where the factors that would allow you to start applying for those. I think one of them is cost. So they already kind of acknowledge that they can see it being an issue and are trying to come up with, you know, ways to mitigate it. Um, we're also seeing, you know, especially that
058infrastructure cost that I went over. There is not currently any type of incentives available for these costs. There's ones for the chargers themselves as we said, but the cost of the switchboards and duct pink and all of that um there aren't any. However, the utilities are trying to come out with a new program that would cover 50% of them. So, we're hearing lots of talk of more programs, more grants and incentives, more ways to help cover these costs. The other thing that we're seeing is is if you think about it, a battery electric school bus should be cheaper than a diesel counterpart. There's no transmission, there's no engine, there's motors in the wheels. Uh and they are much simpler with the exception that they now have a big battery in them. Uh so the battery
059costs are one piece of it. But as an engineer, when I look at these, they should be cheaper or as expensive as a diesel, not more expensive. And these are quite a bit more expensive. So, you know, the state is is working with the manufacturers to try to understand why the cost differences are so high because in in reality they shouldn't be. So, you know, there's a there's a big push to see how those costs can come down on the buses themselves, which is pretty significant. and some word around the street is that part of the reason that those costs are staying high and are high are due to preparation for the tariffs that are coming up to try to be in compliance with them already and but I mean they really shouldn't be doing
060that until it comes out and it's known. >> Thank you. >> Okay, so really quickly just some next steps. We already kind of talked about the pilot or we like to call it a phase 0.1 because they don't become obsolete once you install them, but really looking at the installation of between one and three chargers, even just one on your existing system. See if you have capacity on your existing system. Putting one charger and one bus on. Um there's no utility coordination required. You wouldn't need the transformer. You wouldn't need National Grid Design. you wouldn't need switch gear or switchboards. You would also make yourself eligible for those 90% utility incentives because you've already access the one bus and one charger voucher. Um so we are seeing a lot of districts elect to go forward
061with this. Um we can provide a proposal for the district just to kind of see what it would look like or if you would like to go straight into phase one design. Um the total time frame is about 32 months and it would start with a work request to national grid and a phase one design um beginning as well to start with the design and the SED. Um so that work request and national grids phase one design would be in parallel and would probably take about six to 18 months. >> So Katie um question for you. It's Jeff. Um, if the district were to go with the the pilot, and I'm sorry I didn't catch the the the other term that you use there, would that preclude it from uh qualifying for the two-year extension?
062>> So, that would be I called it phase 0.1. Um, we do not know how to become eligible for the waiver, what the requirements will be yet. That is coming out in December of this year. However, based off of conversations with NAERTA, it would likely be the opposite where if a district is able to show that they are putting in good faith effort to begin transitions, it may make them more eligible to be able to start to wave the process of the big phase one design, the big upgrades. Um, more to come. You know, as I had said, we're your trusted adviser now. So, as those upgrade dates come out, we will inform you and let you know, but like I said, it's highly, highly unlikely that it would cause you to not be able
063to get that waiver. >> Right. And as you said earlier, maybe John said it, just being part of this this study and going as deep as we have, we we are already on the path to be to qualifying for at least one of the two-year extensions. >> Yes. >> Yeah. Absolutely. >> Okay. and SED is the is the one coming out with the requirements for the uh for the waiverss and they they have a deadline issued by the state to be out before the end of the year. So or at the end of December and we'll communicate that out to everybody >> as will SED and NAERTA I'm sure. >> Any other questions from the board? >> You guys ready to jump in? Want to go right into phase three or We're going to be
064very pretty slow and methodical in our approach to this, but >> we're going to run a sentry court out your office, >> right? Yeah. >> But listen, thank you, you know, not only for the the information you shared, but the manner in which you shared it. Um, you know, it's it's it I appreciate that you're our partners in this and I I think you're you're going to guide us in a in a good slow direction and I appreciate that. >> Yeah, >> absolutely. Well, thank you for taking the time and if there are questions that come up, you know, even if it's months after this, feel free to reach out. You have all of our contact information. So, thank you for your time. >> Thank you. It's time to go back to horse and buggy.
065>> So, any any questions from the audience? You guys picked a good meeting to come to. Um, so I remember when I was a kid that I got stuck on a bus during a really damn snow and I was on that bus for probably four hours. What are they going to do in the case of electric? I mean, I know they said that they're going to be doing this diesel or gasoline heater, but you know, you got for the worst of the worst by something that we live in Western New York. We live in a >> and worst of the worst being 5,000 pounds more trying to navigate roads now. So, how many more are going off a road now? I hate to say it, but it's there's a lot of concerns. I think I
066may have been on the same bus with you. That's what I was trying to ask them to get and I don't I don't get an answer either. It's from what I know and I I deal with power quite often. We're not ready like as a as a state. And then with this mandate of no natural gas anymore, um it's just not feasible. And I was glad to hear about these two year twice extensions. So >> yeah. So in in my in my work and and when I have the opportunity to to advocate um we need to take a sensible balanced approach. And if the state came out and said, "You need to take a look at your bus runs that can be supported by by electric bus and move towards those." Okay, that sounds reasonable,
067right? Um, our partners there and Wendell are confident that 10 of our runs eventually will have a battery. Okay, but hope is not a plan, right, Mr. Cervone? You like that one? And we have one run that will never So, what do we do? And that's a run that's critically important for for some students. Um so that that's in terms of the superintendent advocacy. It's about let's be purposeful and measurable on this. If we have if we have shorter runs and and it's more efficient to use an electric bus, I'm fine with that. But to say to come in and take our entire fleet in our community that relies pretty heavily on diesel and and a good component of it is it's just a really hard thing for me me as your superintendent to to
068dig into and to believe wholeheartedly. And you can see by my my reactions during this presentation where I'm at with that. So we're going to be slow and we're going to be purposeful. Maybe what you know and what and what they didn't say is if you do it the pilot or whatever she called it. Um, okay, that's easy on our side, but then in May, we're going to go out and we're going to ask you if we can buy an electric bus. Maybe we can, maybe we can't. Now, there's a district in the southern tier that had a a grant, multi-million dollar grant, and the community voted it down. And essentially everything was free, but you still had to go through well, not not everything was free. They needed about $400,000 to be approved. The
069community said no. So, they lost about 1.6 or 2 million or whatever it was. want out did go out a second time and did get it. But do we really want to be in that situation in this community? We got other things we need to worry about. Slow and measured two two-year waiverss. >> Yes. >> That's up to me now. Yeah, it's a great question. So, if you didn't hear it, it's you not only do do buses take students to and from home, but they also have long sports runs to Alden or wherever we're going, Southwestern. And I I go back to um one of the schematics that they showed us. it was that graph that kind of had that peak in the middle or maybe it was the other way and and so in
070the middle of the day when the buses are back they're they're charging and what I thought to myself is that's the highest demand of the day and we're charging our buses which is going to make our utility costs even higher. Um so I do think they factor factored in some of our our sports runs in their analysis but it's a good question for us to follow up with them on. So thank you for bringing that to my attention. Another option would be to charge while you're at Alden then. >> Well, that's thank you to get you home. >> So, that that's a requirement, by the way, is that districts will will have to have charging stations available to any of those buses of visiting teams. >> I don't know. You have stumped me. No, that's
071a good question. You have a question? at midday. >> Yeah. So, all of our bus runs including transportation to uh to Boseis were included in their study. So, that's that's factored in. Okay. Yeah, there was one one part of their presentation where uh a wheelchair add-on was a cost for sure. >> Yes, sir. >> No. Uh I Yeah, I know. I agree. Um Wendle Wendell's job in this in this study was the feasibility of of uh zero emission buses and you know I I thought it was interesting as they talked about compressed hydrogen and I thought I think you brought that to for discussion a while back and it just doesn't exist yet. Um but I you know I think we're all seeing it in our own utility bills and what our electric uh prices
072are compared to our our natural gas prices and what diesel prices are. And to Mr. Sin's point, the demands on electricity are growing with with data centers and whatnot and it's just too fast uh for for what the what the benefits will be. >> So fun fact in regards to data centers. So by 2030 data centers will consume 40% of everybody's electricity right now. the agents, the bots that basically you ask the questions to that are out searching for stuff is going to consume 40% of all electricity produced. >> We're going to all leave here in such a great mood. Thanks, Don. It be um this is board of a presentation. >> I was going to say you're charged with bringing this crowd back up. And I have to some lady gift for tonight. Tonight's
073gift for you. Is that a middle school girl? My name is Hello, my name is Rea Doctor. >> Hello, my name is Rea Doctor. >> Hello, my name is David Mchaw. >> The Eden Middle School students would like to thank you for serving our school on the board of education. Your time and dedication to our school is greatly appreciated. Good evening. My name is Savannah Doctor. >> Hello. My name is Lacy Corda. The Eden High School Student Council would like to thank you for your leadership, your commitment to the students and our community, and for your support of our mission to continuously improve the education system of our students. Our district, without a doubt, is better because we have you on our team. >> Thank you. Are there any requests to remove any items from
074the consent agenda? >> Anybody? Anybody? That upon the recommendation of the superintendent, consensus items be approved. >> Second. >> Any discussion? All in favor? >> Any opposed? Any abstained? Motion carried. This is now the public comment spot at approximate position and time that the board has designated to receive statements and from individuals and groups. The board will review all statements then respond appropriately at a future meeting. All persons in attendance are required to sign the attendance sheet and designate their representation status. For example, a parent, teacher, bus driver, chamber of commerce, etc. There is a two-minute time limit. Okay. >> All right. >> Uh, new business or resignation. Uh, that upon the recommendation of the superintendent, the resignation of clerk typus contingent upon appointment as a provisional senior clerk typus Claire Baker be accepted effective
07529th September 29th, 2025. >> Second. >> Any discussion? All in favor? >> Any opposed? Any abstained? Motion carried >> that upon the recommendation of the superintendent, the resignation of teacher aid Joseph Kushner be accepted effective October 17th, 2025. The board and administration wish to thank Mr. Kushner for his three and a half years of service to the district. >> Second. >> Any discussion? All in favor? >> I. Any opposed? Any abstained? Motion carried. that upon the recommendation of the superintendent, the resignation of director of facilities Michael Stit Stitzman be accepted effective as of the end of the business October 21, 2025. The board and administration wish to thank Mr. Sitsman for his two years of service to the district. >> Second. >> Any discussion? All in favor? >> I. Any opposed? Any abstained? Motion carried.
076that upon the recommendation of the superintendent, Claire Baker be appointed as a provisional senior clerk typus effective September 29th, 2025. Salary is based upon CSEA contract level six, step three. >> Second. >> Any discussion? >> Yeah, just real quickly for the board, pretty unusual that we just appointed uh Claire to a clerk typist position and now she's being escalated to this to the senior position. Uh we did do a full search, we did do a full canvas. Um, and quite frankly, she was by far the best candidate. Um, she is moving on to um the provisional list, which means that eventually she will uh have to take the the test to to qualify for the senior clerk position. Uh, I'm not worried about it. As I told her when we met to discuss this, if
077you keep learning and growing, um, then then your um your escalation to this position is is is a pretty easy decision for us to recommend to the board. I know Mr. Cerone and Mr. Mcdana have have really raved about all that she's brought uh um to their office and her professionalism and her uh and her exuberance for the work. And so this is this is definitely the right right move for that office. >> Any other discussion? All in favor? >> I Any opposed? Any abstained? Motion carried. that upon the recommendation of the superintendent Karen Bower be appointed on probation as a teacher aid effective October 1st, 2025 and ending March 31st, 2025. Salary is based upon CSCA contract level four step one. >> Second. >> Any discussion? All in favor? >> I. Any opposed? Any
078abstained? Motion carried. that upon the recommendation that superintendent Maryanne Tyerski be appointed on probation as a bus attendant effective September 29th, 2025 and ending March 28th, 2025. Salary is based upon CSEA contract level four step three. >> Second. >> Any discussion? All in favor? >> I Any opposed? Any abstained? Motion carried. But upon the recommendation of the superintendent, Charles Angel be appointed on probation as a bus driver effective October 8 9th, 2025 and ending April 8th, 2026. Salary is based upon CSEA contract uh level 9 step four. >> Second. >> Any discussion? All in favor? >> I. Any opposed? Any abstained? Motion carried >> that the Eden Central School District Board of Education upon the recommendation of the superintendent hereby approves the capital project change orders as presented. Curb access panels $4,078. Additional replacement of
079wet insulation and roof $223,365. and replace metal coping and secure existing $2,492. >> Second. >> Any discussion? >> Yeah, just a point of explanation to the board. This is the first time you've seen change orders spelled out this way, and I'm going to ask you to get accustomed to it. Um, we're going to talk about the comprollers's uh correct uh our revised corrective action plan for the office of the state controller in in a minute here. Um, but this is all all of this work and all this change order work uh is for the Eden Elementary roof. Um, what I want to draw your attention to is the additional wet insulation of $223,000. You recall that we had um I believe a nuclear scan done originally that um provided information on how much wet insulation
080uh was on you know was on the roof and um the infrared scan thermal. >> We did the thermal scan, so the nuclear scan was more complete. So, the nuclear scan was more complete, but that that's a weather dependent scan that we weren't able to do when we were originally looking at uh at the roof. Um it it obviously needed to be removed and and fixed and we are still working with our insurance carrier to determine whether they'll cover those additional costs or not. But even if they don't, we do have those funds available uh through through the project that was approved by the voters. Right. So on top of all these changes, I get to see Amanda almost weekly to sign off on all these now. >> Uh any other discussion? All in favor?
081>> I Any opposed? Any abstained? Motion carried. >> That upon the recommendation of the superintendent, the following items be declared accessed and disposed of as the district deems appropriate. 54 6-foot folding cafeteria tables from Eden Middle School. items will be listed for sale with Auctions International with a board approval date of October 20th, and a mirror phone tuba number 9282. >> Second. >> Any discussion? Any better way we can get rid of these tables? I'm thinking >> Well, we're going to try and sell on Auctions International. >> I'm thinking of a fundraiser. >> I'm thinking we're going to send them out. We're going to put them on Auctions International or something. >> All right. Well, if they don't sell, I got another idea. Sports boosters uh or music booster thing. >> All right. Any other
082discussion? All in favor? >> I. Any opposed? Any abstained? Motion carried. >> Do you want me to read all those names? >> No. Come on. You don't like to hear my horse voice? That upon the recommendation of the superintendent, the safety committee members be approved as follows. Number one through how many are there? One through 20. All those people >> second. >> Any discussion? All in favor? >> I any opposed? Any abstained? Motion carried. that upon the recommendation of the superintendent, the data privacy agreements negotiated by the new student data privacy consortium be approved. >> Second. >> Any discussion? All in favor? I. Any opposed? Any abstained? Motion carried. >> That upon the recommendation of the superintendent, the corrective action plan required to be sent to the New York State Controllers's Office be approved. >>
083Second. >> Any discussion? Yes. Um you'll recall that um the office of state comproller um did an audit of our capital project and made a number of recommendations for uh how we can improve our practice. One of which you referenced earlier and that we'll be co-signing all change orders and again change orders will be presented as they were earlier. And there were some other actions as well that they recommended. We uh submitted our corrective action plan in December of 2024. in September of 2025. It was returned to us because they wanted specific dates of implementation for uh the different actions we we agreed to take. Uh Mrs. May and I went went through it thoroughly and and where applicable we included dates. Um but there are some other things that we um we did not
084include a date on because it simply is not available to us at this time. So that's this is our revised plan uh that if you approve it, we'll resubmit it to the controller's office tomorrow. Any other discussion? All in favor? I >> I. Any opposed? Any abstained? Motion carried. >> That upon the recommendation of the superintendent, the following transportation billing rates be approved for use throughout the 2526 school year. Bus driver rate $36.24 per hour. Bus attendant rate $308 per hour. and mileage rate $35 per mile. >> Second. >> Any discussion? >> All in fave? >> This um this actually came up districtwide and where these rates are coming from because they're not what our bus drivers are getting paid per hour. So these rates are what we bill other um other school districts or
085say extra classroom clubs to do a field trip. Um, so this includes the hourly rate for the bus driver, their pay through payroll, as well as FICA, um, ERS, contributions to the employee retirement system, health insurance, really all the benefit rates. So everything that accumulates to what it costs to run a route for a specific time. Um, so it's not actually what like is in payroll. >> Clarification. >> So all the in cost, >> correct? Yep. >> Gotcha. Any other discussion? All in favor? >> I. Any opposed? Any abstained? Motion carried. >> Next we have business report. Uh so just a quick one. Um as of today we have collected 97% of school taxes. Uh the tax bills were due October 15th. Um so at this point anyone who does pay late does have interest
086and penalties. um taxes will be turned over to the county in December and then at that point we are made whole um in January with any outstanding um tax bills at that point. >> Next we have the superintendent report. >> Thank you. First I want to thank uh Mrs. May and Mr. Watson for their presentation on on the uh smart schools bond act and and the utilization of those funds. Those were funds that were available to the district for a number of years and and sat and sat idle. So, thank you, Mrs. May, for uh guiding us in a in a proper direction with the use of with the use of those monies. And I'm sure our students will be here will be pretty appreciative and get some new technology in their hands. I was
087going to talk a little bit more about zero emission buses, but I don't think I need to. I think everything's been said. Mrs. Doctor's vehemently agreeing with me. Um, and basically what I was going to say is we we should really take advantage of the extensions that are out there, and we've already said that. I think we're in agreement there. Um earlier this month I attended uh an annual statewide superintendence conference. Um my biggest takeaway uh is that our district and all districts really need to pay attention to the changes that are happening at the federal level and as they may have an impact on on state level budgeting. Um there's a big concern that any of the any of the federal changes to Medicaid uh may have a real impact on at the state
088level. It was presented that really the two largest buckets of of money at the state are school budgets, money towards school budgets and money towards Medicaid. So, it makes sense that if uh there's fewer federal dollars, the state may want to want to backfill into that Medicaid bucket with with uh with school budget funds, but we just don't know that. Just something that we're going to have to pay attention to. And we're going to learn a lot about that the ne in the next couple of months really. End of end of November is kind of a big one, right? Um earlier this month I had the pleasure of being at two different meetings with Commissioner Rosa. She's the commissioner of the New York State Education Department. Uh I attended a dinner meeting and then we
089had a an airy tomb meeting in which the commissioner talked about the state's transition to the portrait of a graduate. Uh and that's that that's their big initiative. In a nutshell, the portrait initiative will move the state from a test to demonstrate ability to a multimodal modal approach for our students. And that means students rather than being uh faced with with a number of regent exams to show that they they've attained the skills and the abilities to be considered a high school graduate will have a number of different options in front of them which they can demonstrate those same skills. Um pretty exciting and a lot of work to be done. Um, as I've said to our our um our administrative team and actually at the high school and middle school shared decision-making team, our
090students do really well on regent exams. So there may there may not be a huge transition for us. Um, students may still say, you know what, I'd rather take that test than do whatever this project is, but we have students that that that have the ability and have the skills, but maybe they struggle with a test. So this would be a great great option for them. Uh the commissioner also um was really adamant that we we are moving to a single diploma. You will have a New York State diploma. Um and that means we'll be moving away from a local diploma, a regent diploma, a region diploma with honors, advanced designation, on and on. We can go on for an hour. Um but really emphasize that schools should be taking a hard look at the
091different seals that are available to demonstrate uh student skills. For in for instance, there's a a seal of biit biiteracy for students who excel uh learning a foreign language and there's a seal of civic readiness as well that I know um that we're really starting to take a hard look at uh at our at our secondary level and I'm excited for that work. Okay. A lot more to a lot more to come as we learn more about the requirements for the portrait of the graduate. um building principles have have started to unpack this information with uh um with their staffs really just uh the beginning of this school year. Okay. Um last was it last week I attended the shared decision-making team for the middle high school and thank you to the secondary administrators for
092allowing me to attend. Um it was it was it was pretty uh pretty well attended. We had a number of students there. We had a few parents, quite a few teachers. really good discussions on topics such as portrait of graduate. Uh I talked about safety drills and how we can make them authentic but still be cognizant of of the the parameters that we have around safety drills. I think the big ask was can we ever use the um use the lockdown alarm because we're not really sure what what that sounds like. And so that's something that they're going to look at uh going forward. Heard a lot about locker usage and that we may need some WD40 around the building for some for some of the locks. But we we can get those fixed pretty
093readily. Uh Mr. Mcdana talked about passing time and electric uh and and electric devices and of course we had a pretty lengthy discussion about about back about backpacks as well. Um what I really enjoyed really twofold was when we talked about portrait of a graduate and what we want our school to look like and what are those things that that we should be seeing more of particularly at the secondary level. I heard two things that resonated with me. Um, one was an awareness of civil service opportunities and that came from Claire Baker actually and I had never thought of that is that there's this whole world of of civil service work out there but what do we do to make sure students are aware of that and what those opportunities are. Um, and then the
094the second piece was we're we're pretty heavy on on the AP side of things. But if but should we transition to more to to greater articulation agreements with colleges because that's trans transcripted credit which it's on the transcript. It's yours and maybe the institution you're going to will will accept that they won't. But with an AP exam, you're you're banking on scoring high enough on on that on that really important exam. So it was pretty interesting. um that part of the conversation for sure. Um the other thing we talked about is is hearing from the students and and those in attendance about what improvements do you want to see in your building as we look to planning our next capital project and we we need to hear your voice. And you know, I know this
095this hallway right right outside the library was really received very warmly because it it changed the it changed the whole look and the feel but we weren't able to carry it into other uh parts of the building. So, we talked a little bit about that and one of the suggestions was bigger lockers. It's a great suggestion that would have to come through a capital project. Um, it's a pretty they're they're pretty expensive uh pretty expensive endeavor. Um, and that was really it at at my my recall from that meeting. Um, I do want to point out that, you know, there was some some clarification about bags and what was allowed and what wasn't and Mr. Mcdana I think put it as um you know purses or or bags that are size of an agenda are
096are are appropriate. Am I saying that right Mr. Cone? Okay. Um I appreciate the the administrator sought input um from their students on on how things were going and and how how they can improve things because that student voice is is so important. Um, and speaking of capital project, capital projects, the board should expect a presentation from Young and Wright in cap campus construction at our November meeting. Um, the topic of discussion will be the the building condition survey. We have to do that every five years. So, they'll unwrap that for us and and and tell us uh what that survey uh demonstrated that we really need to focus on and then we'll start planning for the next project. Two final things. A special thank you to the Meyers family who not only donated uh
097all those wonderful decorations you see in front of Eden Elementary, but they also handled the decorating as well. Uh booking the building looks so festive. It really really looks amazing. I had no idea it was happening. I happened to turn right down uh um down the street and looked over and wondered who who did that to the building and and thank you. And it was the Myers family. So really appreciate the comm community's involvement with the beautifification of the grounds. And finally to the board, it's recognition week and I know you know you're appreciated, but it doesn't hurt to hear it one more time quickly because we've had a longer meeting. Thank you for volunteering to to lead this district. Um, and you know, it does not go unnoticed that um, each of you is
098dedicates your time for for for whatever reason that got you into this and and you really look at the district as a whole and and help us uh, be better every day. And I appreciate your benevolent leadership and the guidance you've offered me as well. Any questions for me? >> Next, we have student report Savannah Doctor and Lacy Corda. Press that button. >> Okay. >> Um, so October 2025. On October 6th to 10th was pink week for breast cancer awareness. Students and teachers wore pink and collected donations for the American Cancer Society. On October 16th, it was the homecoming pep rally on the turf at 1:00 p.m. The four high school teams competed to win the relay races, hallway decorating, and tugof-war. October 17th was the homecoming dance from 7:00 to 9:00 p.m. On October
09924th, middle school Halloween dance from 6:30 to 8:00 p.m. There will be dancing, food, and drinks and a costume contest for prizes. On Halloween, the Eden High School will have a costume contest for prizes. And Just Say Hello will have a meeting in October to make a bulletin board together with snacks and drinks. That's it. Thank you. >> Um, board report roundt. >> Um, I guess the only thing I can update you on is the elementary roof will not be done this year. It's going to push into, am I correct on that? Into the spring. So, getting as much done as they can. I think they're starting to break down right now. So, um, so more construction again next year. And, uh, that's about it. Thank you for all the, uh, recognition. All right. The
100next regular board of education meeting is November 17th, 2025 at 6 p.m. in the middle school high school library. That upon the recommendation of the superintendent, the board of education enter executive session to discuss the employment history of a particular person or persons. Second. >> All in favor? >> I. >> Thanks for coming. If you need