Haldane Board of Education - May 6, 2025 PART 1

001Um, hello to everybody. Um, welcome to Tuesday, May 6, 2025, our holiday board of education business meeting. I'm going to call the meeting to order. Please stand for the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all. President Clemens here. Vice President Valentine here. Trusty Copper here. Trusty McNau here. All right. I don't believe we have any changes to the agenda. So, can we have the recommended action for the approval of the agenda, please? It resolved that upon the recommendation of the interim superintendent of schools, the board of education hereby approves the agenda as written. We have a motion, please. So moved. Second. All those in favor? I. Any opposed? All

002right. So, Tuesday, May 20th is the district's annual budget vote and trustee election. The polls will be open from 7:00 a.m. until 900 p.m. That evening, the Haldane Central School District Board of Education will conduct a workshop meeting um starting at 8:00 instead of our usual starting time of 7. Um it will be here in the middle school high school library. Um and we will have our special presentation for that evening will be the annual update from um from Dr. ation about the special of pup people personnel services and special education. [Music] Um and the other thing people need to know is that the absentee ballot ballots and early voter ballot applications are available. So they're um available and can be obtained either through the district's website or by mailing our district clerk. Um, you

003can also request one of these ballots in person, but you need to do that at the district office between 9:00 am and 3 pm Monday through Friday. Um, any applications can also be received by mail. Um, but any applications either by mail or in person need to be received by 400 p.m. on May 13th if the ballot is to be mailed to the voter and by 400 pm on May 19th if the ballot is to be handed to the voter. Um, absentee and early voter ballots will be mailed via first class mail and they must be received by 5:00 pm on the day of the election which is May 20th. [Music] Um, I think that's and it's also available at the school any day before May 15th again between the hours of 8 a.m. Oh,

004that's actually different. Yeah. So, if you haven't voted, if you haven't registered to vote and you want to register to vote, you can do that in the district between um 8 am and 3 pm in the district office here on campus. Um just a couple other things that I want to say. Um it's certainly been um an eventful week here in Helane um as the district and the public continues to you know discuss really important issues around diversity, equity, inclusion. Um, the only thing I want to say at this point is there's um a local school board member named Scott Levy who I think has been on his own school board for a long time, has served on the whips school board for a long time, and he has a book coming out from MIT

005Press this fall that I found out about today called Why School Board Matters. And while the book isn't available, I was reading about it and one of the um pieces of one of the sentences in the um in the description of the book is that you know sort of alluding to the controversies that are occurring and and in school districts and at school boards across the country. But something I actually found kind of heartening is that even though the controversies are are uncomfortable and and difficult, um, it says they exemplify how passionate many Americans are about public education, which is definitely a very good thing. Um, and that's all I have to say to begin. Thanks. I just have a few uh brief updates for the board. Uh first there is uh or there was

006one hopefully final uh New York State budget extension which you probably are aware of. It takes us through Wednesday, May 7th. This is the 10th extension and hopefully the last. Um our representatives up in Albany uh are reporting that they do believe we are very close to a final budget. Uh that will be helpful. We are not overly concerned about our adopted budget because we we basically uh projected very conservatively with regards to state aid. So if anything, we think it could be potentially a bit higher, but we were uh careful about that. Additionally, what we expect to learn is um it looks like the belltobell smart smart ban will be in place. uh we don't know exactly if it will be what the governor has proposed or if uh they they soften it a

007bit and give some more local control and flexibility. However, we do know we need a policy in place by August 1st. So my recommendation certainly we need to listen to our school administrators. Miss Sniffen is here tonight but all three building administrators and and even our teacher leaders. I think we have to also think about implementation what's practical what can be managed but at the end of the day the board will have to uh develop a policy we have our policy committee and then adopt it by by August 1st. So ideally uh we could have that in place either at the reorg or of course at at a following meeting maybe later in July. Uh also we uh should get clear guidance on the maximum classroom temperature. right now you know we are approaching this

008as you know 88° we will not hold classes in our classrooms uh but at 82 degrees we will make some modifications potentially you know try to cool the room if not maybe relocate students and and staff but on a positive note uh you know we've done some good work um Adam McNeel is here our director of facilities and transportation uh let let our facilities team in installing a number of window units in portable units this year. He he did an analysis of classrooms last June that went above 82 or above 87. Um so I we think we're in a good place for this spring and then we have $30,000 allocated as you know in in the budget to continue that work because the the high school and the new wing will have central air. Uh

009but this main building um it pro you know it probably will be a long time before we are able to afford central air. It's an old building. It's very costly. So we do think the window units and the portable units are a good you know short-term solution. Lastly um we are um required to have an exeicio student board member in place. So here at Haldane, I I think you have a very good model with student representatives rotating uh monthly to report to the board and that's worked really well. However, um we think there there's a bit more guidelines and I think they're looking for more permanent student representatives to serve on the board. So there are some choices to make. Certainly we could get input from the admin team but at the end of the

010day really this is more you know the board's um responsibility to decide you know would you like two representatives one representative should they be juniors or seniors or any grade level um those types of things and part you know how will they participate what information would would the students get in advance would you like them to you do a a monthly report uh so there's a lot of little details so I've given the board just to get you started, give you a little homework to do here from school boards association. Just uh some general information about this. There's a video uh also that we will make sure we forward to the board. Uh and Megan, I think there's some workshops too on on some of these policies. Yes, Maggie's going to sit in on one

011tomorrow. Great. So, you know, with this um you know, hopefully maybe by June and and into July, we can work on these policies and and get them approved. But typically, Right. So, we start usually with policies coming from Erie 1. Have you reached out to them? Do you know what their plans are? I don't have an answer from them on their plans yet, but I would assume they would be sending Yeah. We anticipate they Yeah. Excellent. Okay. Any questions on any of those? Okay. What if any I mean, this sounds rather similar to the way we used to operate. single representative that usually had been recommended by Julia or the high school principal at any time. And I'm just curious about did we have a policy that that that kind of expressed that that already

012in place for that or we we actually that's interesting that there was there was there was a policy because at one point we had named them members but they're actually you because they're not voting members they need to do something else. I don't remember exactly how that rolled out. I do know it was really hard because our high school students are so busy. Um the first woman who was um our board member was amaz she was amazing. She even got a award from Westchester Putham County Westchester School Board Association because of her exemplary service as a school as a student school board member. Um but it's it's tricky because our students are so busy. So it may be something that actually I don't know I think really it needs to be a collaboration I think

013between the high school administrator and the new if we can wait I I do kind of think maybe if it's at all possible to wait for the new superintendent to really think about sort of what we want to put in place and how to how to come up with a plan that's both feasible enough for students um uh but then also provid provides the board with the kind of input that the polic that the the new requirement is intended to make. But it's definitely I mean you raised a good point. We actually started it it's been a long time because it started um before Dr. Benante was here. So it's been actually almost as long as I've been on the board. Our board has had some kind of student board member representation or presentation. Yeah.

014And the good news, just one last point, I I believe a policy is only recommended. It's not this is not required, although it needs to be in place for September. So, you do have time- w I would think you could have a representative in place and potentially develop the policy even in the fall. So, the member actually has to be in place by September 1st, but that doesn't really give us time to really find the right person once school starts. No, I Yeah, I agree. I think we should well let's see what Maggie learns tomorrow and we can I think we need to reconvene policy committee to talk about it. Yeah. Yeah. Maybe Mrs. could join. Good. Okay. Thank you. And um I just want to um recognize a few people who have served on

015on a HVAC advisory committee for I think at least two years. Uh Peter Henderson who's here this evening. Glad you could join us Peter. James Hartford, Damen McDonald, and Roberto Roberto Mueller, I know, have uh they started with with Dr. Bonante um in giving some advice to the district on energy efficiency and and looking at our, you know, heating system and and exploring things like geothermal. I think what what uh emerged from those early conversations and and those meetings and discussions was this idea of uh conducting a thorough um energy efficiency study using some NAERTA money, some local money that that was raised. And and so what we have this evening is is is a flex tech flex tech study um through NAERTA but conducted by OA engineers and architects. We're going to bring them

016up in in a few minutes. they're here to present. But again, I just really want to thank our community members. They they brought tremendous expertise and knowledge and you know we met remotely at times in person and then they were here on site you know when our engineers came to to you know and I think they even walked the building earlier. So thank you a lot of time and energy and I I think right now you know we we have something that really is is a is a roadmap for the future on on what we can do. I think we're doing some good things for energy efficiency, but certainly we always want to do better. So, you know, that information is uh going to be exciting to to hear in in a few moments. Uh

017lastly, I just want to um let the community know the board is aware, but uh we have our annual budget newsletter and uh I believe it went to the post office. Um was it today, Megan? H today. So, it's possible that community members will start receiving this. every household in in our district will receive this probably by Friday or Saturday. I want to thank Megan Shields for her work on this and of course the board had input and I think it's a very comprehensive look at the budget but also if you really want to do a deep dive on the website you could see every one of our presentations from the earlier stages of the budget development process and uh certainly you could always call me or or Katherine at any time if people have

018questions about the budget and that's all I have for now. Great. All right. So, I think we're gonna move into our special presentation right away, which is the presentation from OA um on there. Yes, please. Absolutely. So, we have uh Jim Dolan and Jonathan Katz from OA Consulting and Engineers. We should be able to use quicker. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you everyone. Uh yeah, so OA Consulting Engineers, uh we're located in in Westchester County. We have an office in New York City. Um we've been flex as, uh Carl said, providers um for about 20 years. We've done uh flexible technical, it's flex for short, um uh studies. And really NAERTA, New York State Energy Research and Development Authority. Apologize for all the acronyms. um they they want entities in New York to do better, right?

019You your utility bills actually fund uh this pot of dollars that's used to make uh efficiency improvements. And we we've done these studies for churches, schools, PepsiCo, Swisserie, a variety of uh entities. And as Carl said, part of the idea is to take a a look at your utility bills and start to develop a road map of where you might go and and using our experience in energy analysis and cost of systems. Our firm does energy work, but we also do MEP design and commissioning. And uh I head up our commissioning group and Jonathan's an associate in the in the energy group. And uh Jonathan was a PM, I was a PIC. So, I'm going to take us through an overview and we can get into some of the details and Jonathan can probably provide

020a few details to the details if needed. So, we also don't want to bore the heck out of you. Some of this is uh technical. Some of you have, as Peter and some of the other folks on the energy committee have really deep knowledge. Anybody who's worked at schools probably knows more about HBAC than they'd like. Um, you know, and it's interesting to hear the com comment about, you know, 88 degrees. I'm pretty sure most kids stop learning about 10 degrees earlier than that. You know, they might have been on the teetering edge about 80. So, um I know for most most adults, you get past 74 and they start to taper off. So, it's it's an important subject. Um and you have aged infrastructure, you have beautiful buildings here, but um they were designed

021in a different time and you have old infrastructure. And the question is, you know, how are you doing energy-wise? What are the things you can do that are practical and better? and how has a you know a progressive look at sustainability and in particular uh your carbon emissions. So we were tasked with looking at you know dollars but also at the energy side in particular carbon. So we'll try to touch on that a little bit. So this is really the agenda. I'm not going to read everything as we go here but I'll go through um a little bit of the items. Um as I mentioned we we really wanted to evaluate the actual energy performance. uh what are the EM energy efficiency measures that could be implemented uh identify carbon reduction opportunities and strategic plan

022as I mentioned before. So um you know the strategic plan is really has to marry up with your financial abilities. So this is really just an initial step. It's sort of a jumping off point as you start to work through your budgets and capital plans. This could be a report you go back to and pull things out and maybe piece it together in different ways. So, this isn't like uh anything that's locked in stone. And we did get feedback from from the committee, but again, it was sort of I'd say preliminary. Um, so you have you you probably know you have a big older main building which is a a compilation of a few different uh vintages and then you have the newer high school building and you're looking at doing expansion. So 92,000 to

02328,000 square feet. Your typical house is about 2 to 3,000 square feet just for reference. Um, this this kind of just outlines the aerial view of the main building, uh, high school building. Again, you can see the solar there. Um, see if this guy has a pointer, too. Um, oh, there it is. Yeah, it's up there, but it doesn't like pick up on the screen. Doesn't really matter. Um, just wanted to point out, excuse me, like right here, this is can be a little bit confusing. Um, Energy Star you've all heard of, but what is a median property? What is a school typically? What is a a score? Your score combining the two buildings is 73. Okay. And you're at 58 um KBTUs per square foot. KBTUs are your miles per gallon for buildings. So,

024actually, we're surprised that it was that low, right? So, um, when you're doing energy studies, sometimes you like to see a big number because that means there's a lot of projects you can do. But, um, you're actually at a pretty pretty low effect. We did a lot of work in New Haven schools and, uh, at one point, and this is probably going back 15 years ago, we were working to design to 55 kbts per square foot. Now, asterric on that, you don't have cooling in a lot of your buildings. So, that's a, you know, but that's only usually a 10 to 15% uptick in your energy. Your heating is usually the bigger part of your energy breakdown and then ventilation. So those are your bigger drivers and then source means it's accounting for what's happening

025in the utility utility plant. Um you guys can yell at me if I'm going too slow here. So the med that was one of the questions. Let me go back. We're not Yeah. So the medium property is another similar size. So yeah, median means like of buildings of this type for the the database that they have, you might expect the median to be about 76. Okay, to be honest with you, that seems a little bit on the low side to me on median, but you're driven by the most newest buildings, which now we're designing buildings that are more like 20 KBTUs per square foot brand new. that sort of passive house, super insulated, the the latest technology. Um, and that takes a quite a bit of an investment. So, you're doing you're doing pretty well.

026And median is, you know, you could you could argue that it could be around 100. A typical office building in this part of the world would be about 100 KBTUs. A hospital might be 300. A restaurant might be 400 KBTUs. So, that gives you an idea of like that miles per gallon. So you're not quite a Prius, but you're not a towel. So um so uh benchmarking results. So looking at the a little bit of the breakdown of where your energy goes. I think it's easier to see this in a pie chart. Um but I'm going to go through since the high school. So a little bit easier to see as I mentioned uh the fuel oil being you know a big part of the energy. So this is cost this is the energy and

027this is your CO2 emissions. So you can see that the heating plant is really the big driver your electricity 17% 28% of your cost right electricity is expensive. Um, so it might be a lower part higher although the cost of oil has continued to increase. So that's been a little more problematic than it used to be as far as your budget goes. And then you have your solar which we included here as a percentage of your overall uh energy breakdown. Um so the high school building kind of the same uh as far as percentages obviously um you know a little bit different. This is probably more you have some cooling there, right? So your electricity grows, right? So you see that difference probably mostly due to electricity. Um so what measures do we see that

028seem to make sense? Um lighting upgrades, pretty decent amount of opportunities. You wouldn't think the high school, it's not super old, but it's not really young either. Um but you know, every 10 years or so you could probably consider a lighting upgrade. um you get to LEDs, you might, you know, where where you're at LEDs, you should get much longer uh life out of it. Um there is in this main building, you have a lot of areas where the roof isn't fully insulated. So, there was a lot of conversations about building an envelope, and that's a measure that seems to make sense. Uh controls, you still have older pneumatic, which is air control. So, it's like using a flip phone phone instead of an iPhone, maybe even more like a rotary dial phone. So um

029so DDC controls will help with energy but also probably more importantly uh comfort. You know at the end of the day right the the dollars on utilities are probably not as big a deal as the students performance and and uh your teachers as well that they're able to do their job. So um having the right control is important. um you know was mentioned earlier that sometimes your events if the subcool the gym the gymnasium auditorium for events people come in they're cold then by um you know it sort of takes a little bit out of the experience um there is an opportunity for rooftop units on that gym uh there's in the high school we looked at an air source heat pump heating plant so uh there is some overlap with your expansion that might

030pick that up and then uh hybrid electric hot. This is basically uh hot water heating for your domestic. So, uh engineers, we like numbers. Um so, savings 19 kts per square foot if you did those projects. Now, I just want to point out there's some we're gonna kind of touch on this, but there's bigger capital projects that don't have payback. This building has steam systems that are aging. you know, been around since the beginning of the building. So, there's a larger capital projects that don't have payback that should be considered. We did do the math on what those would cost. Uh, but if we just look at the projects that I mentioned, uh, we could save 19k BTUs per square foot, which is right, as I said, a really high performance brand new school you

031could almost remove from your your portfolio. 190 CO2s, tons of CO2 per year. Most people don't have that metric in their head. We're still kind of getting comfortable with that, but that's a lot. Okay, that's a a new building might be a hundred, you know, uh metric tons per year. Um a new high performance building. So 190 is is significant. Again, that's driven by the oil. Um annual cost savings $86,000. Uh estimated cost to implement those measures, 3.1 billion. Now, it's a long payback, but you're really looking at uh these projects for all the other ancillary benefits. They're things that sort of need to be done and will help the students, help the teachers, and help you get things done. As I mentioned, if you were like at 150 KBTUs per square foot, we might

032have had some five and 10 year paybacks. Did you have a question? Yeah, I did. And I just want to make sure I the way when I look through these slide the way I understood it is this is for the energy efficiency measures that you mentioned on the previous slide. Yes. So you're going to see that big jumbled spreadsheet in a little bit that has a lot more measures that we looked at right that we didn't pull forward. And again you could look at those other measures and and repackage that differently in the future. So this this was our first stab at like what would be the priority. We would say, you know, we didn't put years on this because we're not sure of the timeline, but you know, hit the lighting um first. The

033envelope upgrades good for comfort seems to have a good payback. That would be a good early one. BMS following that EM4 right after that. Uh the high school domestic high water hybrid airsource heat pump again a good carbon emissions benefit. um that we had recommended a potential we're calling it a bridge measure for the burner replacement to use propane instead of fossil fuel. Again, probably more of a carbon emissions reduction over 30ome, which you know, that's pretty significant out of that 190. Replace the gym with air air source heat pumps. Um that's probably more just uh everyone's comfort than a real payback. Uh replace the ERV serving the 1979 edition. Um and then down the road, the main building, this building's heating plant, hot water boilers, um you know, replacing that system and going with

034maybe air source heat pumps. Um both both at the main building and the uh and the high school building. Um this you can't read. Um, so Jonathan has a a copy in his hands, but um, you know, I can just kind of read down them a little bit here, but um, the ones that are boxed out in red are the are the ones that we talked about. Um, but you know, there's a variety of measures, different air source, PACs, dual temperature coils. um you know it's sort of varieties of the same types of packages both in the main building and the high school building. So, um, at the end of the day, some of these, like we we did look at geothermal and that had like a 200-year payback, and you know, if you did

035a new building, you could do a ground source geo and have a 20-year payback, but when you start to replace all the infrastructure and do a wellfield, it's a much longer payback. So um that's without incentives and some other things that might be available but it's hard for us at this early stage to say to you you could get these incentives as we talked as you heard earlier it's hard to count in any finances right now from but even even in the best of years if you're starting a project today it might be three or four years later whatever incentives are today it's almost short of change. So you really, we try to build the projects and hope for the incentives, go after all you can when you get there. That'll, you know, ease the

036pain when you get to that point, but you should have the dollars to do that project and a two year 200-y year payback doesn't make sense. So there's measures like that that we removed. Um, that's really the summary of the study that we did. I don't know how much time we have for questions or if you want to tackle that now. Yeah. Um, so I actually spent some I think we've asked you all are going to send us new copies of those tables, right? Because I spend time trying to read them. But we also have like a 300page report. I have the not 300page report. I have the I looked at the I looked at the 70 page report. I have appendices that are making long. So that's okay. I don't need the appendices. But

037I did I thought that that would be a good a good estimate. Um, could you go back to the slide with the priorities listed, please? Thank you. I have a question about I don't know how deep an assessment you did of the hot water boilers and the steam heat. You know, at what point does it become sort of catastrophic replacement? I hate to use a big word like that, but you know, I'm just curious to know. It's difficult to determine what the lifespan continued lifespan might be of anything like that. But as we think about the priorities, is there a way for us to sort of make sure that we're protected against failure if that So um the boilers that are in there I understand they were put in 2010. Correct. Right. So they're usually

038boilers people would say 20 to 30 years. You know the old style boilers that you might have even ripped out to put those last sometimes 50 75 years. Um but if you take care of them they can go longer. So the boilers at minimum you have six to 10 years I'd say on those but with increasing maintenance right the big question and it's been a a source of discussion Peter mentioned uh to us like the concern about the steam system right and um you know we were walking around Adam talking about the the steam and you don't have like a lot of older buildings you know you'll hear steam knocking right and that's an indicator that you're getting water in there and these slugs of water will hit the elbows and potentially break them and

039give you a catastrophic failure potentially. Um, you don't know exactly how thick that pipe is in all locations. It's not super high pressure, right? But, but at the end of the day, sometimes steam systems last a hundred years, right? So, um, you won't know until it really starts to fail. You start to see these like isolated failures if you've really gotten there. There may have been some pipe testing done. So, we're looking for those reports to see to help predict. But I'd be I'd be misleading you if I said, "Oh, I know you could do five years or I know I you know, you're not going to do 50 years with it." Yeah. But is it it's something to start planning today to replace it? Yeah. You know, my thinking is you should be looking

040to have the capital to start replacing that as you phase different upgrades to the building andor a wholesale replacement in the next 5 to 10 years. Great. Thank you. Michelle, did you have a question before I go? So, I have a question. And so, the so priority 3 EM2E is the main building burner plant. I just want to make sure I understand that's keeping the current sort of heating system with the steam but changing how it's how it's fuel. Yeah. So the the boiler would still make steam but you would instead of using oil you could actually make it a dual fuel and use propane or you could just do propane and propane the advantage is when you buy it in that volume it can be a bit cheaper than oil but it also is

041a lot cleaner. Right. Right. So but it's still a fossil fuel. So some people are just fossil fuel. no fossil fuel. But this that's why we would say it's like a it's a sustainability bridge measure towards a more so the the grid is greening right the idea is that by 2030 it's close to 75% renewable and by 2040 it's carbon-f free so the state has been encouraging everyone to try to get off to get on more electric so that you're basically powering up your system with all renewable energy. So, one of the things to aside, right? So, you said that the current boilers have think at least six to 10 years, but what you said after that it sounds like it could potentially even be longer. That it could be. Yeah. Keep taking care of

042them, inspecting them, checking them out. Yeah. Right. And so I guess one of the things and I'll leave this to the I mean not necessarily leave it to others but I mean one of the things it feels like to me like a lot of this stuff seems like just really like pretty easy to identify as ways to move forward. The LED lighting, the envelope upgrades. I don't the DCC control improvements. Right. Possibly the the DHW. That's a hot water hybrid with the heat pumps. Right. That's right. And then but then the trickier thing to me is then what like with priority three the burner replacement propate takes and sort of how to time that in a way that could or does it make sense with a main building heating plant hot water boiler. That's to

043me, yeah, that's a I think part of why that's a bit of confusion and Peter brought up a question on that is we sort of saw the looming costs of a full system as being like something that most school districts can't do overnight, right? So, um, so we wanted to find something that would give you some carbon emission savings in the meantime. Doesn't mean we're saying you absolutely should do that. It's just if we have conversations say look we know we can't do this for eight new years or something what can we do in the meantime that's an option to consider but there is a little bit of sunk cost in that in the sense that you're buying something that if you're really planning to do something else then you're you may be not fully

044utilizing the life of that equipment. The only thing is we we know is sometimes doing nothing is a bad idea and that five years becomes 10 in a heartbeat. So, but I mean it's a district that is and remains really committed to figuring this out, right? You could imagine that you would skip 2. That's right. And really began to think about 2A and really a combination of sort of longer term, you know, capital reserve financial planning as well as um as as well as keeping a pulse on That's right. how well they use. And it's it's funny because you know and by the way we don't usually present a lot. Usually you see architects and things like this is not our thing usually behind the scenes. Um but we've been involved enough where sometimes people

045are afraid to do an interim step because then people say well we just invested in that and it could be five or eight years before but for all of us who have aged a little bit you realize how quickly that goes. So, you know, um I've watched where, you know, people trying to make sure, say it's a library and they're afraid to do some basic upgrades because they don't want to kill the bigger upgrade that's needed needed. They kick the can down the road and next thing you know, the big upgrade gets voted down and it takes forever. So, it's good to have those like onremps should you say this is going to take a while to really get support for a bigger project. Do we have any space to expand our solar or are

046we built out on that? Go ahead, John. It looked to me like the solar looks pretty well covered. Pretty good sciences. And we can't go brown and ground on the roof. And since we have our own solar panels, that means we can't join a community sustainability project. I don't know if that's is that not okay. I don't know. Don't fall behind us for sure, but I believe school districts may not be eligible because of um system charges. Yeah, that's you kind of depends on like your your utility account structure if you're eligible to join a community, right? Okay. Yeah, I was talking to um a sustainability for um where I work, we're yeah, tapping into their system and so I know they they were going to reach out to schools. So it just made me

047wonder if we were generally it's better to either own it or rather than be a part of somebody else's. The fact of the matter is you're using the power you're generating. So doesn't seem like there's a better approach there at this point. Yeah. Okay. I guess my last question, this probably isn't necessarily a question for y'all, but it is for CSR. as we're as we are moving forward with our capital improvements. I'm just curious to know if any of these priorities align with what we're already doing and there might be cost savings built in towards in one way or another moving forward that way as well. Do any of them sort of seem like a natural thing to do sooner rather than later given the fact that we're going to already be inside the net?

048Great great question. the the engineer at CS Arch um I think is very aligned with with what Jim and Jonathan have done. However, to be certain, we are scheduling a joint meeting right between between OA and and CSR probably within a week or so to make sure. Okay. Thank you. They obviously have this report. Yes. Yes. Thank you. Yeah. Thank you so much. um to make you give a a presentation if you he didn't want to do it. Go back. Yeah. You did very well. You did very well. I think I got numbers here based on both of your presentation. That's it. Thank you so much. Thanks so much. It's okay. We'll duck out. Thank you. Yeah. And I actually want to give just a little bit of historic perspective on sort of how we

049got to this point. So, first of all, Peter Henderson is in the audience. And so, Peter was on the board when I joined the board. So, I think you must have joined in the early 2010. Is that right? Yeah. And and at that point, the district began to consider really carefully um energy and energy efficiency. And Peter was part of the board that that actually moved forward with getting the solar p solar panels installed. And then when the board presented to the community the first big sort of open form of the capital master plan I know trying remember this the capital master plan. So, which would have been I want to say in the spring, if this is 2025, the spring or fall of 2024. Um, uh, Peter was one of a a variety of

050people in the community who really raised real concerns about how the capital master plan, uh, wasn't taking into had hadn't yet taken into cons or wasn't yet taking into consideration enough, uh, issues like the district's carbon footprint and some of these energy efficiency measures. And at that point, uh, and Carl's already mentioned, but you know, Peter, James, uh, Roberto, Joe, I'm getting Damian and Damian. Yeah, obviously Damian really met really quite a lot with with with with Phil and with some others and and really, you know, uh, I'm repeating it, but it is so important. their input um really pushed the district to um uh to to to you know to do this study and this study actually I think provided really useful information that um I think is really going to help the decisions

051that the district makes moving forward and so it's really I mean thank you so much it's the report it's a the report is a little hard to to but to read the first time through but it actually with this presentation It actually really makes it really much more accessible and enormously appreciated. Peggy, if I could just add one one other thought. Um I think the board is taking you know a very good step in increasing the capital reserves to $3 million and you know some of the smaller projects potentially could be uh addressed that way. Uh, additionally, I think, you know, in in Katherine, correct me if I'm wrong, in 2030 or 2031, we have some debt dropping off the the high school. Uh, I believe it was a 25-year uh bond. Uh, so so

052when that drops off, sometimes there is an opportunity then to look at a larger project and and try to make it debt neutral. But the planning of of of a project, you know, to start in 2030, 2031 would would have to occur much earlier, probably like 2028. So just just some things to think about. But I think again, you're making some strategic financial decisions that I think could help the district address some of these needs in the near future and then more long term. actually. And one more thing, I mean, not to put a huge spotlight on Peter, but Peter actually, you know, wrote up a really like very thoughtful summary with some really good questions that I think we want to, you know, make sure we get the answers to. I don't know if

053you all saw this. It's an exact content. It's not in for the public that just really shows like the incredible expertise and contributions um that people in the community have made and how beneficial it is to the poor. Yeah. Hey, I wonder if it might be possible to bring forward opportunity. Um, well, it's about to come. Oh. Huh. Um, I don't actually have a problem with that if they're going to leave. Although, I wonder is this to ask some of your questions? No. No. I've already had an opportunity directly to them. One person, I actually think Um I don't know. Do you mind staying? Not at all. Not at all. We can stick around. Thank you. Do you want us to wait for a little while or you want to do those? So, how long

054is the presentation for the public hearing? What? 10 minutes. Yeah. You want to let him ask? Yeah. I mean, but then we're going to get to all of the public come back to it. I think I think actually if you don't mind staying for 10 minutes, I'd like to do this public hearing and then let's just keep the agenda the way that it is. That's [Laughter] how this sounds. Okay. All right. So, now we're actually moving into first a presentation of the budget and then we'll have um a public hearing where folks can ask about the budget if there are any questions about the budget and then we'll move into G. Um so, our budget this year, Proposition One, is to um ask the voters to allow us to spend $30,154,390. That's the amount that

055our budget uh will be next year if it passes. Um property tax cap is always what we talk about. It is a um it was established in 2011. It limits how much we can raise taxes by. Although our revenue drives the budget, voters approve the budget, not the actual tax levy, but we do a lot of work in setting the tax levy as the year goes on. Um, this year our allowable property tax cap was 3.38%. Um, with after lots of conversation and discussion, the board of education along with u Mr. Albano and I did set our tax levy lower than the allowable at 2.8%. In our budget priority funding this year, we have gone over this many times, so I won't read it line for line, but it's everything from curriculum funding, some software

056funding, field trip funding, um, transportation analysis, and again, we've we've talked about it many times, but these are the fundings that we have included in our budget for next year. some improvements. We are looking at a tax levy this year or 2526 of just of 23 and a half million dollars state aid of about 4.3 million. Again, that number is not yet known while we await the final budget, but we are hopeful that um it will be at least this if not a little bit more. Uh we are anticipating an increase in other revenue this year. It's primarily driven by our tuition. um from other school districts who send their children here or parentally placed students as well as we did an increase to our interest income line which we have been budgeting too conservatively

057for the past few years. and then our standard 645,000 of appropriated fund balance and the possibility of using $250,000 of rever reserve balance if needed which brings us our revenue to equal our expenditures of this. Our key figures our budgettobudget increase is $945,360 which is a budgettobudget increase of 3.24% 24% and again our tax levy increase is 637,000 which is the 2.8% that I mentioned previously. Um as you know whenever we do the budget at this time of year we have to present it in a three-part component. So this is our administrative component of the budget. It shows our actual expenditures over the last four years are projected for this year and our proposed for next year. And you'll see it stays on on the second line from the bottom. It stays pretty consistently somewhere

058in the 11 to 12% of the budget is our administrative component. The next component we have to um list is our capital component. Again, it's just broken down into the different years and we stay somewhere, this one can bounce around a tiny bit more, but somewhere in the 12 to 16% of our budget. And the largest component of our budget each year is our programmatic component. And u you know that includes all of the teaching, the special services, uh transportation, any pupil services, athletics, co-curricular. So it is the largest component of our budget and for 2526 it's looking it is uh budgeted to be just under 75% of our budget. our tax impact with a tax levy increase of 2.8% for next year with a home's market value. Uh it starts with, you know, we

059did some calculations for different home market values. So some common ones, you know, $400,57 increase for the year up to if you have a market value of a million dollars, an estimated annual tax increase of $393. Our second proposition is for our vehicle per p purchase. Um again this is a taxeneutral proposition because the way we purchase vehicles at housing is through um bind bond anticipation notes and as we pay off one we issue a new one for the um the new vehicle. So it's a tax neutral proposition to buy one uh diesel school bus at an estimated maximum cost of $25,000. Proposition three again is a c is a tax neutral proposition. This is asking for authorization from the voters for us to increase the amount that we can save in our capital reserve

060fund. Uh we had a capital reserve fund set at a million dollars that we set back in 2018. We have used the million dollars in that fund for the uh campus master plan. So, we cannot um continue to save into the reserve fund unless we set a new um term and a new amount. So, we're asking for over the next 10 years to hope to to save up to $3 million for future capital projects. Um this is just allowing us to save for future needs. Um you cannot use these funds unless they are voted on and approved by the voters. So, it would go up on vote in another uh election year. And just examples of tax control reserve fund use that we've done in the past is last summer's replacement of our turf field

061and the $1 million that we're using for the upcoming capital project. Proposition four is for our butter is for the local library, the Butterfield Library. This is not a component of our budget, but public schools are required by law to add a proposition to the ballot when requested by their local library. Uh these funds would be levied by the district but would go directly to Butterfield Library in September and they are asking for a $25,000 increase to their budget um to $98,150 this year. And then just you know in if in the event that the voters reject the budget um in two weeks the the district has a couple choices. One is to just go back out do some more public, you know, public u meetings and explanations of the budget and we could call

062for a revote of the same budget. We could go out with a modified budget and make some changes to the priorities that we had listed previously in the slides. Um if a budget is defeated twice, it is required that we enact a contingency budget which means you can have you can only your levy cannot increase. So, we would have to have a 0% tax levy, which would mean we would have to reduce next year's budget by 637,683. Um, and unfortunately, this it hurts when you have to do that. So, it's just so people know that what that contingency budget number would be. And we are voting on Tuesday, May 20th. The propositions are all listed there. Again, we also have two open trustee seats. Um, and that is I think all we have for the

063presentation tonight, right? So, by law the district, so the the board Thank you so much. You're welcome. So, then I'm going to open the public hearing and we can any questions. Um, so by law, there's a lot of people and familiar uh new faces here. So, by law, um, the school board, we adopted the budget that's going up before the public, uh, on May 20th, but by law, we now hold a public hearing, um, on the budget. And so, that's what we're about to do. It's an opportunity for people to ask questions or make comments about the budget. Um, and so, um, I don't need to make a a motion or a vote. So, at this point, I'm just opening, um, the the public hearing on budget. Can I ask the promoter about So, this

064is not the public comment period. It's going to be soon. It'll be after this. Yeah, this is a public hearing for the budget. Um, all right. I have comments about the budget. I just want to say there's some things on here that I think represent extremely exciting developments. Um, I think the idea that we have we're going to have our prek class next year is phenomenal. Um, it was actually overs subscribed. It's a full class with 18 students. Um it's something that um Christine Jamman uh and Dr. Bonante and then also the support of Mr. Abana this year but that Christine Jamman worked diligently on for years and years figuring out how to do this. It's a great success for us to have. And then um earlier this year, Miss Jam Oh, it's like Miss

065Jam's uh highlight. Um she did a a fabulous presentation about the work when she did the elementary um uh the elementary school report did a fabulous presentation about the work that she and her teachers in the primary grades in particular have been doing uh to um uh adjust early literacy instruction to reflect the science of reading. And those teachers have worked really hard. Um, and so the fact that we're budgeting for a new core reading program for the primary grades is also just a tremendous success. I thank everybody for that work. All right. Any other budget? All right. Do you have a question? A comment about the budget? Yes. Sure. Yeah. Please come up. Uh, thank you. My name is Paul Cumins. So, we heard a presentation just a bit ago about energy efficiency in

066the building and yet we're buying a diesel school bus. Um, it's going to replace the school bus. Does that school bus have to go off service this year? Yeah. So, if you follow board meetings, do you want to answer that? Yeah, I I don't I don't mind. Um, yes, we we have a bus that that is at end of life, but additionally what what we've talked about in previous budget uh presentations, we have submitted a grant to the EPA as well as working with with a consultant to um pursue NAERTA money. If we can get combined grant money, we could potentially purchase for we applied for four electric buses. Now, the implementation could not occur. Even if everything works out beautifully and we're approved, we could not have a bus on the road for September.

067So, we had even if that goes well, we still need to purchase one more diesel. But the hope is if if the funding comes through that the next purchases will be electric buses, which are to be when if the grant money, EPA money, and NAERTA money is approved. there's a there's potential that you could have buses on the road for September 2026. However, some of that depends on supply chains and we are hearing some recent um reports from districts that the the wait for buses um is longer than expected. Would that take the diesel bus off the road or would that stay on the road for the 10 years allowable under the state law? It would replace an older diesel bus, but this one would still stay on the road for 10 years. We would

068purchase a new bus and yeah, typically we we keep them about 10 years, sometimes less. Have you guys considered alternatives like leasing for a couple of years? Yeah. Um this is a a great conversation, something that we've talked about at lots of board meetings over the years, but yeah, we've actually considered a lot of different alternatives if this is something that you know um it's it's in in previous board meeting is something we've talked about a lot. One of the things Mr. Alban has done that we're really actually really happy about is actually investigated how to bring the necessary electrical infrastructure that we would also need um for these um buses. So, I think what I um I can uh uh I guess I'm just trying to understand the reasons for making a purchase of

069something that's going to emit for 10 years as opposed to bridging something until we get to the point where we're required. Yeah. Right. And that kind of scale probably will also help drive down prices transport children safely to school. to replace buses that aren't that shouldn't be on the road anymore and to transport children safely to school. That doesn't answer my question. There there must be an alternative to buying a new bus, like leasing a bus for a couple of years, right? How did you arrive at the purchase of something that we're going to be committing to running for 10 years and emitting for 10 years as opposed to something else? Si simply because well, couple of things. First of all, we're I said earlier we are uh we've applied for four electric buses. So,

070our fleet is is m much larger. We have at least eight large buses, I believe, and four or five vans. And we do we've already purchased some hybrids. So, we're trying to move in a cleaner direction. There's no guarantee right now that the EPA money will come through, but I actually checked ours before this meeting and and it hasn't been cancelled, which is a good a good sign. So, we're hopeful. Yeah. And I don't know the exact numbers because I think Kepler know them better than I do. So one of the things the school board is also often really carefully considering is our fiscal responsibility to the public and leasing buses is actually really much more expensive than running our own bus fleet. One of the things and I think this started with our previous

071business manager going back I mean Ann was here for decades, right? is really developing a really responsible and safe way of buying new buses periodically as we need them. Both to make sure that we can staff our own drivers, have our buses um transport children safely to school and also be fiscally responsible to taxpayers. And Peggy, could I also add one more thing? We also have a transportation study that we budgeted for, right, which is going to answer some of these questions and get into some of the areas that we can sort of um you know change the way that we do trans transportation to sort of satisfy. Yeah. Yeah. So I I mean it is something that we've we've we've talked about a a lot both in public and behind the scenes. So it's

072something we've it sounds like you're not trusting that we've considered this very carefully. And I think what I'm trying to express to you is that we have. Right. You're telling me we thought about this. What I'm asking to have explained is the reasons behind this decision. Right? Explain to me your reasoning for making this decision. That's for me like the thing that I'm I'm not getting. Right? Why does this seem to be the right decision as opposed to the alternatives? All right. I've like I think the principal one I've heard is this is cheaper than the alternative. If if if that's like the reason, it's fine. Like tell me the reason. I would just like to know if that's the reason. Well, the reasons to Electric bus is close to 400,000. A diesel is about

073half the price. So there is a cost consideration. We also don't have the infrastructure for electric yet. So all of that takes time and and there are no guarantees. Although we pursued EPA money as well as NAERTA money, there are no guarantees right now. And I think you know most people understand the the the climate we're in. Um there's a possibility that additionally supply chains are really backlogged. So we need to put a bus on the road and transport children safely. Um I you know it it is leasing is is more costly. The other other thing is with these incentive programs they will take the bus even if it's only four or five years old. They will take that bus from you if you have the opportunity to replace it with electric. So, um, we've

074been, I I think very thoughtful about it. We're We would much prefer to to be putting an electric bus on the road. That's just not practical and it's not realistic. We have to do a diesel one at least one more year going back. This is not one more year. This is 10 more years, right? Like, let's be clear about that, right? It's going to be on the road for 10 years. It will be a phase out. Yes. Yes. I'm correct. I know there are people eager to ask the gentleman from ALS, but um thank you. Are there any other questions or comments about the budget? Yeah. Um I'm just trying to learn and I'm curious um how the board decides on the how far they want to push on the cap and just how that

075comes about. Yeah. So this year, I mean, it was a conversation that the board had over several meetings. I'd actually be really welcome to hear other board members weigh in on this. So, um, and actually, I think also Mr. Albano and and Katherine. So, at the beginning of a board budget season, the board in collaboration with the superintendent lays out a set of priorities that we have for the year. And one of the first slides that Katherine presented laid out the kind of priorities that we had and that was the reading curriculum, implementing prek, adding um uh working on the air conditioning, um those kinds of things. And then in collaboration over the course of multiple months, Katherine and the superintendent, this year the interim superintendent work collaboratively with our building leaders to really identify

076their priorities as well and actually sort of figure out, you know, what we need to do to meet the priorities that have been laid out. And this particular year, based on what our the board's priorities were, the business official and the interim superintendent recommended this budget of 2.8%. Um, but the board did actually have a number of conversations about whether or not it made sense to potentially go up to the full tax cap, right? Recognizing, you know, a variety of issues. And one of the things that I think Katherine and Mr. Albano were really helpful in helping us think through is that the board's responsibility is to develop a budget based on what we know in the moment when that budget is being developed. And so that's what and and that's what we did. We

077actually did even consider the possibility of adding some of the additional energy efficiency measures that were in the report. And at the time the consensus seemed to be that the district had a lot on its plate even with the 2.8 budget increase. Right? So, you have the 2.8 budget increase and all the different activities that were listed on that slide, as well as get, you know, um, welcoming and having our new superintendent become integrated in the community, but even most importantly, a 28.3 million capital project, um, which is going to be operating in in multiple buildings. And so, uh, collectively, after more, I think sort of conversation and debate than the board has typically had, that's where the board arrived. But I don't want to be the only one to speak for it. Well, we

078also took into sorry, we also took into cons consideration the um the referendum that we just passed and asking the public to um increase tax of that. So that was something that we were sort of weighing and we all had different opinions about it. But again, that was a pretty big talking point for some of us and we've talked sort of it's been a long conversation since talking about the capital referendum before we put that on the ballot, before we voted on it. You know, is this something what are we thinking ahead for the you know, when it comes to regular budget season? you know, that was something that that we were thinking about as well. So, you're trying to there's some like balance of like public fatigue over Exactly. Got it. And the number

079of projects we have going on at the school at any at any one time also. Yeah, that's you you said Maggie what I was going to refer to in terms of the other the other budgetary impacts and tax increases seen but and also you know in the I think this is the case for you too and every year that we've that I've served on the board we have gone up to the the tax cap and it was presented to us as a unique moment in which well maybe we don't in which case it's a little bit of relief knowing that next year and thereafter we may not have the same need to do All right. So, I'm gonna close the public hearing and now we're going to move Oh, you also had a budget. Just

080on that point about I've been voting on the school budget since 1998 and it's it's always a bit of pill to swallow, but I think Mr. Albano was saying, I think you do have the option of selling a bus or buses to recoup some of that initial outlay if that kind of helps soothe that that situation a little bit. Thanks. Right. Cosing the the public hearing since we do have we know we have some public comments and questions about the NAERTA hearing uh NAERTA hearing about the NAERTA report and because we have a very generous presenters agreeing to stay and a lot of people that I think want to have make comments this evening. It would be great if people we could start with the public comments and questions um now that we're in the

081communication from the public about that. But first I'm going to read the board's uh statement. So the housing board of education desires and values input from the entire school community. This first public comment session is reserved for comments or any special presentations of active agenda items. Um special presentations or active agenda items for those who wish to address the board. Um we want to make sure that you have a chance to sign in. We're going to ask you to state your name for the record. We will ask you to keep your remarks to three minutes or less and to refrain from making disparaging remarks um and or any discussion of district personnel. Um and uh the board's policy is during public meeting is that we'll listen to public comments but we don't engage in dialogue

082during public comments. Um but one of the reasons why we ask you to leave your contact information um is so that either myself or Mr. Albano can follow afterwards. So comments or questions about the nin sort of flex type stud? You mind coming up? Yes, Peter. Hi. Hi. Uh Peter Henderson. Thanks to our presenters for joining us this evening. Peter, if you wouldn't mind, just so you can see you. Thank you. Oh, yeah. Uh I had the opportunity to read the report last week and uh in person with Jim and Jonathan to ask them specific questions. Is it possible you could pull up this slide that has the summary of their recommendations? The first two recommendations were to upgrade the lighting and the uh the roof insulation in the main building. Those are just absolutely

083no-brainers and they're at a they're at a cost level that I really hope we can uh find a way to do that within the operating budget within the next year or two. I really emphasize that we've done with the roof insulation first. Uh the more insulation you have, the smaller system you need to heat and coat a building. So do that first and then we'll have a much better idea about how to properly size any system. uh it will help with cooling as well, right? So, uh it's a relatively low cost way to get some major payback. Now, they already know that I have pushed back on their uh priority due two recommendation to uh to E the main building burner replacement. Uh that to me is not a viable option for the district to

084be pursuing. I've been involved in in some capacity with the district for 20 years. We've been talking about heating for 20 years. We've been talking about the fact that our steam distribution system is 90 90 years old now. We've been talking about the fact that it has a long history of leaks. We've been talking about the fact that it can't go on forever. We need a long-term solution for the main building. So, I'm I'm uh quite disappointed to see that having made it to the recommendation list. What I do think we should be doing is planning for five years from now when that high school debt is retired and when there's an opportunity for a for a significant capital project at no uh impact to the taxpayer because honestly I think uh I don't think

085the community has the appetite for another uh major capital project uh that would impact taxes any anytime soon. So it seems like we have a golden opportunity coming five years from now. We have boilers that are in good shape the next five years. We have a steam steam distribution system that we're just keeping our fingers crossed for and I think that's what we need to focus on five years from now. Uh now the OA consultants uh laid out a number of options for this building. Geothermal uh hydronic airsource heat pump uh hybrid uh traditional boiler and uh hydronic airsource heat pump. There are some very good options there. It looks to me like the hydronulic airsource heat pump is the way to go for this building. It would it would involve replacing the steam distribution

086system with a new hot water distribution system, but it would be uh not only a great way to heat this building in a very energyefficient way, but it provides the option to have cooling in this building and we all you were talking about the the hot days that we already have. We know that things are only going to get worse. We know that we can't live without cooling forever. Uh so that my uh request is that we plant seed now and think about uh five years from now. Yeah. Actually I'm so pleased with myself that I asked that question about propane because it sort of I mean yeah I just you know gratifying that you know someone you know you've thought about that so much and it it does it does really make sense what

087you're laying out. Yeah. And I want to give like I mean I Mr. Albano stated this and I want to make it like reiterate it right the recommendation I think it's one of the things that's going to be tricky for those of us who are advocating if we are right for the for the budget vote is really helping people understand what the increase in the capital reserve is right I mean it's it's it's Katherine's recommendation and Mr. Alban's recommendation to really not just extend that capital reserve but to increase it so that we are saving the money to do these kinds of things and then when the time comes and the debt rolls off like that's in place also to help support that the kind and really I mean thanks so much for yeah you're

088welcome. Yeah. No and then there's great information in their big report about the the options that we that we should be looking at and there's uh you know they they've done some preliminary cost estimates for the different solutions. So, we're at a good place to begin to begin planning. Yeah. Thanks so much for your work on this. Are there any other public comments related? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Actually, I didn't did I have Peter state his name? That was Peter Henderson. Uh I'm Andrew Hall. Thank you very much. And uh gentlemen, thanks for your patience, too. Um, so I just had two or three questions just to kind of get a sort of different understanding of some of the information you're presenting. You said like for those this study here, the costs were $3.1 million, right?

089And the payback period was 35 years. So it's roughly a little bit less than 100,000 a year that you're kind of creating savings of, right, in order to get to 3.1 million. Um, but you did say there was 15 years left on the boiler potentially. It was kind of speculative, but it could be 15. It could be 50, but if you say took 15 as a more like more like five or 10 five or 10, but you're saying a 30-year payback period. So, how do you manage that risk of that 10 to 20 years when you may not have the use of the boilers in the same way? Do you want to ask your other question? Yeah, sure. Um, and then just to kind of to some of the things Peter was saying, just to

090kind of get an idea of what the cost of the other alternatives are, maybe a geothermal system isn't appropriate, but it this will kind of go on to my third question, but just for the sake of argument, what kind of cost would that be? And then to the things that Peter was saying like in five years time um when debt rolls off and you have a new opportunity to invest, what kind of costs for maybe an he an air heat pump. I've got I've got a AHSP, right? Yes. And when you're looking at those kinds of in systems, what kind of investments might you be looking at? And in terms of an overall context, I remember I think it was 2010 when Dar did the concert, right, for the geothermal heating study and so forth.

091So 10 years ago and then another five years ago, you're kind of 15 years into a cycle. And if it's even if it's a hundred years, that's 15 years into a 100redyear cycle. So the idea of kind of taking precient decisions in order to um to um seek good solutions over what seems like a long period of time, but the longer as you said, the longer you didn't make delay a decision, the tougher it gets, right? Yeah. Okay. Thank you. Please do. So, pretty quickly response to Peter's comments, I agree. Actually, your your comments as well are well taken. The boiler, there was something the boilers that are there, the two boilers, yeah, they're 14 years old. Life in like published literature would say 20 to 25 years for those. So, it's 5 to 10

092years. Yeah. You know, um I know that there's, you know, there's some controls problems already and things like that on the on the burners that, you know, that'll be ongoing maintenance. But how does that affect your 35 that 35 year payment period continue to operate that was just kind of the yes well the so a big part of the potential degradation is that control so it actually should extend the life of those boilers by doing that piece of the project um you know lighting will have a shorter payback a couple other things have longer paybacks I forget Jonathan what was the number of years for the installation 18 years 18 years so that's kind of in the So, um, you know, there seem like projects that are worth doing. Um, and sort of coming back

093to Peter's comment, I think I think it's you're very fortunate to have somebody in the district that actually gets that like capital planning and can articulate it that way. I have to say he he sort of brought that to my attention a little bit. We weren't really discounting doing the steam plant, but I think the way we were presenting it was maybe acting like it didn't need to be done. And I think you know when you start going down this road of payback analysis and how quick you start to forget your actual mission is to make sure this this equipment lasts and serves the public well and that often time doesn't come with come with a payback or you know uh some grants or incentives and everything else but it's the thing you need to

094do. So um so I I think I think you know that as the context of your capital planning really will set you in the right right direction. So, um, did I answer your question? Um, well, one, just for the sake of comparison, like a geothermal Oh, yeah. system. How much would that cost? Or if you would along the lines of some of the options that Peter was talking about an airsource heat pump, if you were to go with a full scale system and and u replace the distribution kind of cost. you tipped off a good point is that these largecale air source heat pumps which you know we often talk about residential light commercial institutional systems this is institutional this is a build you know this is these are buildings that are meant to be

095here for a very long time um so when we talk about largecale air source heat pumps in the United States that was not a common way to do heating and cooling right we were boilers and chillers period and institutional maybe some lighter you know rooftop units and some more dispos disposable equipment I'll call for strip malls and things of that nature, right? So, um when you get to the point where you go to design that system, you know, we're saying that there's a really long payback for ground source heat pumps, right? However, you might do a hybrid system between air source and ground source. That might be the perfect thing at the time for whatever incentives or other, you know, there's been a lot of innovation in drilling. So, there's opportunities to relook at that

096math. um and find the best blend of what institutional level system you want to do. I think the thing I would caution is sort of comparing a light commercial system to an institutional system to save say a million dollars at that time. you want to put in the system. The beauty of ground source heat pumps is that well system will last, you know, 50 to 100 years, you know, so for a building that you want to have around for 50 to 100 years, that's a, you know, a long-term investment. And it's likely an early phase of that design would be another life cycle cost analysis, a full building energy model, and make sure you make good decisions at that time. So, I think to your point, when you get to that to that actual, hey,

097we're going to do this project There's another study to be had. What are the technologies that have been upgraded, you know, and improved? We're really at the I think the early phases. If you if you have no other choice today, you buy a large scale chiller heater and they're very good. They're equivalent to a lot of other products on the market. But I do think five or 10 years from now because so many people are switching that part of our product line will be much better that we get to choose from as designers. Great. Super helpful. One of the things I really love about that report is it's like what the oh gosh the use the the the how much fuel like the type the percentage of the different types of fuel the cost of

098those fuel and the carbon outputs right because I do really appreciate the idea of the payback over time how much it's going to cost for us to recoup that money but this community has really made clear that that's not the only criteria that that we want to be investigating and so to have those together I think was really valuable so really appreciate appreciate all of it and appreciate the questions. All right. Okay. Anything else about the text? Give our presenters an opportunity to leave. Anybody else who wants to take a break and then we're going to move into our other comments of which I'm sure there are many. Thank you. Thank you so much. Really appreciate. Thank you, John. Thank you, Andrew. sign. Do you want me to call you back? Yeah, you can sign

099if you want. That'd be great to know. All right. Thank you. Okay. So, let's move into each other comments. Um I I don't have the sheet. Is there any I don't care the order. Do we want to go down the order? Actually, Megan and then anybody who didn't sign in, we can sign in. Um after you give Mike, you want to start? you wouldn't mind. Yeah, obviously I'm going to be addressing agenda item 11. My name is Mike. I've lived in Cold Spring since 2009. I've seen my grandson go from kindergarten through the high school looking forward to my granddaughter graduating. This cap is a souvenir from Little League Marlins. I was manager of my granddaughter's baseball team. I volunteered as a song leader in elementary school, an assistant coach coaching softball and baseball. This

100is not a hyperbole. I love this school district. I think that when co I was just talking before about the admin when co hit the administrative staff and parents created a perfect balance between protecting the health of our students and staff and maintaining educational quality. And unfortunately, very few school districts in the country were able to achieve that delicate balance. Now, originally, my comment was going to urge the board to reinstate DEA DEI based on the recent decision. I've decided to highlight and employ the pedant uh what we educators call a teachable moment. And so point number one, it is essential in my opinion to understand that the assault on DEI policies is nothing to do with two items. It has nothing to do with the caricature of critical race theory that a man named

101Christopher Rufo has forced it on too many people. CRT is an abst law schools, not high school, probably in very few college undergraduate courses. I have a PhD in economic history and taught for over 40 years at the college level. CRT to me is like nuclear physics. Um, second, DEI is not about making white people feel guilty about slavery and Jim Crow. I taught American economic history for close to 40 years, which included the entire scope of the experience of black Americans, as well as the scope of experience like immigrants like my grandparents. the entire sweep of the history of the country. My job as a college teacher and I assure assume every teacher in the Haldane school district is to learn not to self flagagillate. So why the assault on DEI? In my opinion,

102it is part of a long-standing effort spelled out in Project 2025 to turn the clock back to the 1950s. I lived through the 1950s. I don't know how many people realize more people were fired from the federal government during those years on suspicion of being gay than on suspicion of being communists. When I started teaching at the college level in 1970, there was one woman teaching in all the engineering, science, or math disciplines of my college. Over the years, more and more women entered STEM fields in part because of the requirements of the Civil Rights Act. in part because people made affirmative decisions to make that happen. That allowed for the change in attitude towards gay people, towards the tremendous opportunities for women as well as ethnic minorities. The idea, and I don't want to

103cast disparaging remarks on any attorney, the idea that DEI programs run a foul of the Civil Rights Act of 1965 is ridiculous. And I would use a barnyard epithet if this wasn't weren't a mixed company. I don't care that some bureaucrat bully in Washington is asserting the opposite. So I want to praise the board for rescending the original decision. We are all taught in middle school that the way to deal with bullies is not to give away your lunch money, but to stand up and yet fight if you have to. Give away your lunch money once, you end up starving all week. The board made the right decision. Getting rid of DEA would have sent a terrible message to the students at how whose education consists not just in reading, writing, and arithmetic, but in

104how to be good citizens of a robust democracy. Thank you very much, Paul. Do you have more to say about that? Do you want to speak about this as well? Uh so I want to thank the gentleman who just spoke for his comments. I fully endorse them. Um so yesterday evening I came to the library to hear uh Dr. Clemens and uh Ezra Clemenson who's not here tonight, you know, to talk about the decision. Um for me um I'm glad that we have the opportunity to reinstate this. As I said last night, I thought it was the wrong decision at the time. Um, we shouldn't be reinstating it, right? I think it was a mistake on the board's part. I tried to understand the decision-making process by which the board arrived at the decision, and

105I still have no clarity on that. How they made the decision, the circumstances under which they made the decision have been communicated. 100% agreed. It's a tough choice, but nobody has communicated to the community what were the reasons they had, what was the decision-making process they engaged in, what was the deliberation behind that. All I know is that they deliberated. The community deserves more transparency about that. The board should be able to be transparent about the reasoning behind the decisions they arrive at. They need to communicate that to us. I don't think the board is doing a good job of making those decision-making processes transparent to our community. I don't think the board is aware of what that decision-making process involves if they can't communicate that to us. So, part of what I heard last

106night was that at the upcoming retreat, the board is going to spend some time thinking about their processes, their work. I think they should find consultants to help them think about decision-making procedures, how to engage in reasoning about these things, how to identify the important stakeholders, how to identify the consequences of the decisions, what are the moral values at stake in making those decisions. There are experts in making hard decisions and taking all of the important factors into consideration. And I'm not sure that the board has a good process. So, I'm not going to say any more about right that decision, but I really encourage the board to think about reassessing its decision-making procedures and making sure that they have procedures and processes and reasoning systems in place that help them make the best decisions

107because I think the decision that they arrived at the other night suggests that they don't have the best decision-m procedures in place. I understand it's a very tough job. You sign up for a tough job and do almost always a very good job. But we can be better. The children of this community deserve better. Thank you. Thank you very much. Hi, I'm Matt Booty. Um, I'm parent of two students in the Heling School District and a member of this community. Um, I want to thank the board for reinstating the DEI policy. I think that is the correct decision. Um, and I also want to applaud the board and members of the board who have engaged in dialogue with the community over the last two weeks. to many even various fora and I really do appreciate

108the time and and the effort to hear us and to understand the community's position uh on suspended policy. Um I I do want to reiterate uh something that Paul said is I think it was the wrong decision to suspend the policy. I also think that you got bad legal counsel. I said that last night and I'll say it again for the entire board to hear. you did not receive the correct advice from your uh legal adviserss and you didn't receive it at the correct time. There is absolutely no that you should have been hearing on April 21st for the first time that there was something in the DEI policy that flagged a concern that they should that you that would make you have to suspend the policy. So, I I would really encourage you uh

109in thinking about the decisions that have been made and how to make better decisions going forward to really talk with your legal counsel and ask them why you did not hear about this earlier. Trump ran on getting rid of DEI. He made an executive order in January saying we're going to get DEI out of schools. The federal board of education said in February DEI policies are violative of the civil rights amendment and this students v Harvard decision. Now those are all factually incorrect. It it it's garbage. But the legal council has a responsibility to look at that and to look at the DEI policy and to advise you so you can make the correct decisions in a correct and timely manner. Even given that, I do still think it was the wrong decision at the

110time. And I'm disappointed that not a single member of the board voted against that at that time. The last thing I want to say is is I really hope that you all are reflecting on the decisions that were made, the processes becoming those decisions, how those were communicated to the public, and we'll be able to communicate to the public going forward how that's going to be different. You know, people like to say we're in unprecedented times.