001meeting of the Board of Education USD 348 uh to order so we'll start with the pledge of alleg Allegiance I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all all right um a couple housekeeping before we get into approving the agenda number one you'll notice that we have a camera out to live stream um because we're talking about the bond and that we want to make sure that we're being as transparent as possible um we elected to go ahead and just live stream this special meeting um and it is a special meeting so no public comment you know public is certainly welcome to attend and to listen and to gather information that kind of
002stuff but this is a meeting where we prioritize the board uh working through issues um and then we'll be back for doing public comment at the next regular meeting so with that uh approval of the agenda is in order so move second okay so Susan uh moved and Chris seconded all those in favor raise your right hand say I right 70 um so announcements any announcements from administrators board members anybody anything crickets okay so we'll move on uh classified staff on snow days M Doge yes so what I'd like to do is is ask the board uh for the opportunity to do something um we had a a an untypical an atypical winter if you will where we had five and a half snow days leverag this year um based on the best interest of
003the safety for students and staff and in doing so one of the things that that I leverage in terms of trying to make that decision is is weighing what's best for students and staff in that sense the side effect to doing something like that is when I cancel school I'm also canceling the work day for classified staff and while while I do want their safety to be the priority I also understand the need for income that's there so we're putting classified staff in the situation where they either have to forego in this case a little over a week's pay or leverage their personal leave their their discretionary leave in doing so um for those that are on salary it it doesn't impact them in that same fashion and so what I'd like to do is
004uh with this un this atypical situation that occurred what I'd like to do is go ahead and and pay our classified staff for those days that they missed uh so we don't create a financial hardship for them in addition to that what I'd like to do is for our staff that we said we need you to come in even though the conditions aren't safe for everybody else to come in to give them time and a half during those those days where we had to do that um and in talking with Nate in terms of the financial impact that that would have looking at that given that the classified staff for the day's Miss we already budgeted for their daily salary what we'd be looking is the time and a half for those that we needed
005to come in it would be around $3,100 that's there and and talking to Nate that is not cost prohibitive that is something that we can do um and then in terms of moving forward this this would be something that I'd like to look at work agreements that we have for classified staff so we can have something in place that takes care of them um but also gives board discretion uh as needed so to that end what I would what I would like is is asked you to consider approving the ability to pay for classified SN staff for snow days used in January and then time and a half for those required to work any i f any questions I I just wanted to um see and I guess maybe it's a first question is this
006going to Encompass or is the special ed Co-op going to be able to also we already did that awesome yeah we did that last uh that last week yeah last week great and we just uh I think in that motion not that has to be the same but it was something to the extent of covering all snow days for employees for January of 2024 I think how we phrase it and go ahead I'm I'm very very comfortable with it we do the same thing in in my office if if there's a doc that is out is you know not it's not their fault that they can't do anything so we can pay them I move that we pay classified staff for snow days in addition the ones who were had to come in PID time
007and half how many is that by the way is it 15 Nate is that what we found yeah 13 13 I second all right so all those in favor right hand say I I I good all right thank you okay so moving on into Bond exploration uh the bond study findings in inclusions what I thought we'd do with this is kind of go through the retelling um of the first Bond the feedback that uh we received and then I've got a presentation uh that kind of culminates the the subcommittees work that has taken place and led us to uh the recommendation that's there before you tonight um to give consideration uh for the pro uh potential bond issue this may so as we we talked about in the spring of of 22 prior to Mr
008Dorothy resigning uh he reached out to me and asked me if there was any consideration of entertaining a bond issue that could uh leverage operates to take care of some deferred maintenance needs within the district um at the time there was about $15 million uh accessible without leveraging any Mills so in a mill neutral uh component and I said if this is what the district needs the board's been going through this process then you know I'm I'm all in so we came through we met uh several times times that we we wound up hiring DLR the Architecture Firm who took us through a process of touring every facility within the district to identify needs they took us through a visioning uh process with various stakeholder groups um community members teachers students staff members or administrative
009team um to develop a list of priorities that uh centered around education in terms of CTE Safety and Security and then Outdoor Learning um from there through the conversation is there were two options there uh there you there was option opportunities to take care of CTE Safety and Security and then uh some Outdoor Learning experiences or to leverage an additional 2 and a half Mills uh going 2.9 mil excuse me and going after about eight different projects uh for the district at A T of about 25 million um through the course of the election that took place uh the bond did not pass and uh after the bond it didn't pass some time was spent reflecting visiting with staff visiting with with community members um and trying to gather feedback the subgroup continued to meet
010uh throughout the course from uh the the summer through um October November and then in December again um and then we had that work session in January where we continue the process of what what is it we could do how do we want to proceed moving forward do we entertain a bond issue and look at providing some some of these much needed affer maintenance uh components to our district or do we allow things to continue with the addition that previous Bond previous Mills get paid off than what we need to to release those those Mills um and through the course of the conversation the the bond subcommittee has identified um that there are still needs that that that we'd like to see considered um and to that end what we we'd like to do is
011is put together this opportunity tonight to go through AE show you a presentation there that takes into consideration what could be uh available there one thing that is maintained true throughout this whole reboot if you will is the need to stay M neutral the idea that we we provide that opportunity so individuals taxpayers know what to expect uh moving forward with this so with that in mind what I'd like to do is share my screen to the TVs over there go through a presentation for you so and those on the on the subcommittee as as I'm going through Lacy and Mindy if to interject here if there's something and even knows from previous uh from the previous uh board is as things continue to to come up go ahead and interject as necessary so the
012the focus of the conversation centers around the idea of uh the feedback that came through was we realize education is needs to continue to be a focus it needs to be the the driving force of of what it is we're doing as well as Safety and Security that also needs to continue to be a focus through the course of the conversations that we've had I'll go through and talk about about the Career and Technical education facility the update and expansion and how that intertwines as well as the Safety and Security Focus that's necessary and some things that came up over the course of last year being with my my first year in the district and talking with administrators so the moving forward here we've got those two priorities the CTE uh expansion and update that's
013there the feed feedback that we received from the last uh election was the CTE Edition in the previous Bond was too small and did not allow for program expansion the location of it that was there did not provide enough space was the the kind of the shared belief there um that more space was necessary more space was needed with the conversation being if if we're removing Athletics from the conversation really focusing on the educational needs as well as Safety and Security what could we do to to dream big with the CTE expansion there so the idea is to to take see an increase uh increasing from what was 9,000 square ft to 23,500 Ft and to do that you'd be seeing 14,500 additional square feet new square feet that is represented in the yellow space
014uh spaced areas there on the diagram the pink shade ated area would be renovated Square fet so we would take what's currently our existing Woods Metals drafting location take it down to the the bones of it and then renovate uh the space that's there through the The Leverage of prefabrication and then renovation costs um we actually are able to more than double the square footage that we were trying to achieve last time while also um providing opportunities for program expansion this is where the last Bond we had one classroom space that was dedicated with three lab spaces so you had one classroom that was shared was also was to double as a drafting space but it was also the classroom for culinary classroom uh mag science classroom as well as the the metals Woods uh
015that were there so we were going from one classroom and three labs to what will now be four classrooms with four Labs so each program program that's there would have its own dedicated classroom dedicated lab space so what this allows us to do is that opportunity for three programs Metals woods and drafting all fall within the same program agriculture science is a new program that we started right now it's in a classroom at the Junior High that has about a one small closet and then four walls and this would give it an actual a science classroom that's there as well as lab space necessary culinary arts um would we' see some renovation that's that's to that end that would allow culinary art space and then the expansion is within the Health Sciences piece if we
016think back to what took place in December when Brandon Kelly talked about what we'd like to see happen with the future of Health Sciences and within the pathway it's offering out that Sports Medicine track which is something that would be unique to Baldwin that other districts aren't offering if that makes sense so it allows that program expansion we've got the student interest there to align with that um and so you see that that cost there is 11,845 644 estimated cost for that project I think it's it's good to point out too that one of the problems you know with where we had it before it was accessible without having to go outside but this is I think a really nice elegant you'll see as we go through this a very elegant way uh that we
017can still maintain that Bus Loop but also no you don't have to you don't have to leave the building since they're now connected it's a it's a continuous uh pathway so you can go from the junior high into um the Health Sciences lab and not have to leave the building because it is connected across there it will be connected absolutely any questions about the CTE expansion and update all right the next item there is the enclosed walkway um the feedback from the the last Bond was um this was one of those areas that the community felt strongly that the the walkway needed to be enclosed and that was one of the unfortunate sides that that was with the bond not passing was the opportunity to close that that in closed walkway so the feedback was
018there still needs to be an effort to connect the junior high and the high school due to the number of students that transition between buildings we have students taking anywhere from math eighth graders taking math um some of the electives that are there CTE offerings over there at the high school and some of the the we have high schoolers that are coming back to the junior high building itself for the ACT science class that's there as well as to take any of the classes that are offered in the Performing Arts Center um and so to be able to enclose that structure there from a Safety and Security um aspect the tag for that would be 477,000 is an estimated cost and so rather than this being connected to the actual CTE structure it would be
019its own separate project um the walkway would allow for secure transition between the buildings and the walkway will allow for Bus Loop access and that will come come up as when I get to the Bus Loop portion of the presentation all right for this piece question the actual walkway uh location didn't change the nope didn't change they're just going to enclose that structure so that it is a safe and secure um is transfer between buildings is there an easy explanation for why it's 880,000 more than it was um no one of the things that that we did is we the soft costs that are that were a part of it that also included within that I just didn't know if something changed from last meeting the world a little oh from the last week no
020just the last time we got the last kind of estimation it went up $80,000 for the walkway now I like you're talking about a year ago kind of stuff no from the last meeting January 3D well when DLR went through and and put together their Finance program or Finance Plan cost plan excuse me um they they were able to say show the uh inclusion of the soft costs into the projects themselves um and then with that they noticed there was a tabulating uh eror that's there and I'll get to that when we get to the their cost but if you if last time they presented the presentation was at uh just over 17 million and they were tasked to come back at 17 million and so they they did some uh rearranging of of the
021the costs that are associated there so you've got U for for example as we're looking at some of the finishings um we're using lower level finishings in some areas and so overall um the cost itself is for the overall bond is coming down about 600,000 but based on how they did that he he moved some of the the the funding the the amounts uh between the projects I hope that makes sense did I explain that right Phil I think that sounds right and this does include um restrooms with outdoor access correct not in the walkway CTE yeah the C no not in the walkway in the CT okay okay yeah oh thank you for pointing that out the CTE um structure will also include exterior access restrooms um for the public uh when we have
022the defense over on that side of the field the Junior High football and also tennis tennis yep no more porta potty yeah no more porta potty we can still leave it there for Old Time sake right all right so you'll notice that where the CTE structure is itself is sitting on uh what was the lane that the buses used to access what currently is the Bus Loop right now and in talking with Derek about kind of the the Safety and Security of his building last year one of the things we talked about was dismissal with regards to the Bus Loop his concern with with having the buses parked their on Quail trying to pick students up while students are crossing the street cars are leaving um that the the junior high to pick up their
023kids it's it's a stressful uh 15 minutes of the day and so what this plan allows us to do is to reroute the buses creating a new um a new road that would go between uh the the current bus facility between the CTE structure and the junior high allowing for two buses to pass so that we can utilize the bus loop as a fully functioning Bus Loop drop off pickup spot for the junior high and the high school and because we've got that excuse me enclosed walkway that's there um students would have a they'd be supervised a better an opportunity to supervise students as well as coverage from the elements should it rain or snow um the weather itself be be frigid if that makes sense and the feedback that was received is the traffic
024flow on Quil creates a significant supervision safety concern during arrival and dismissal um it would be best to create an off Street bus pickup and drop off location this particular uh opportunity that's there creates that that uh that solution um and to do so would be at a price tag of 547 34 any questions I just want to make a comment that I had heard from a current school bus driver that knew that we were talking about this that this um would be a big relief for him um because that drop off pickup has become um somewhat scary honestly so um I think this is a a good solution for that all right the next item there additional parking uh this is a safety uh concern as well feedback we received there parking continues to
025be a safety issue when the events take place there's not enough parking spaces to accommodate those that are in attendance cars continue to park illegally and in the fire emergency Lane previous Bond called for too many parking spots uh that's the culmination of the feedback that was there I will tell you just as a an anecdotal piece to that this weekend at the wrestling tournament we had a student from another school that that got that was injured thankfully it was an injury where they could walk themselves to their vehicle but had that been an injury that would have required EMS to show up to the school there would have been a problem because of all the cars that were parked along um the fire lanane right out there um for the price tlets their new
026parking would be uh to accommodate 200 new parking spots the previous Bond itself called for 450 parking spots this would be a reduction um of 250 spots um the new parking spot as it's as it's layered there in that current design would require the relocation of the restrooms which in and of itself is is is also what leads to the cost that you see there so that would be 3, 19991 1225 um based on how that's configured if there was an opportunity to build around those those restrooms you could potentially see some savings there and the the this new configuration allows uh no interference with the existing like track and field events so we don't have to move anything so having it stretched out from The Practice Facility correct absolutely so more cost savings there
027so it goes further west than the previous yeah we went further west yeah Shunk it down which makes it a little bit too nicer you can maybe Park on that uh west side of that to get around for even like Junior High football games and stuff to access the backside from that way too yeah so all right any any questions where would the new restrooms be they figured that and I've got that on your cost breakdown which we'll discuss here in a few minutes um they figured that at around 900,000 okay I'm sorry like what's that like we're at on the the map we're on the map it would probably be uh pushing it closer uh to the soccer fielded some right now the the only restroom out there at the soccer field is a
028portapotty um for the athletes to use so there's the opportunity there for for the restroom itself to to serve a greater purpose Beyond just the the two the two toilets that are there right now and get three you might get three yep absolutely and and that does include your road what's that that does include that's we've got that broken out here next all right the last SA the item there is the East West roadway which uh which Mike stole my thunder on um the the feedback that we received was the traffic flow at the high school of Junior High continues to be a safety concern due to the number of vehicles attempting to access the junior high and high school Lots off of Eisenhower um the ability to create an entrance off of 6 Street
029uh would alleviate some traffic uh congestion that shows up there as well as pushing the entrance uh from 6th Street or excuse me on Eisenhower a little bit further back um and those access point these access points remained the same access points that were part of the previous Bond the the feedback that we that I received in talking to folks is uh this this year continues to be a need to be to be looked at all right so just tying this back up together the two main themes that are there are focusing on education and Safety and Security the education focus is the Career and Technical education facility update and expansion creating more space more locations um opportunities for classrooms and lab space being dedicated to uh the programs that our students have a great
030deal of interest in as well as Safety and Security Focus we've got four items that we are focusing on the Safety and Security for our students and staff and closing the walkway ensuring that our students remain uh with within our campus when they're transitioning between the buildings having a new Bus Loop that students are able to get on and off a bus off of the street and not uh with traffic flowing moving uh while they're trying to get on off the bus having the additional parking so that when we have event space that we have those safety measures in place that someone get hurt as well as having people giving our our our guests a proper place to park and then that East West roadway to alleviate congestion the price tag for this is the
031projected Bond total of 17 million this would not require any additional bonds or Mills excuse me to the bond and interest mevy all right with that do you have any questions I have a question the bathroom relocation would that continues to be like one stall bathrooms or would we be able to add any additional stalls those that's that would be a conversation that we would get into with the Architects there I think it would make most sense to make it a multi-use multi-user um opportunity with those bathrooms there any other thoughts input questions about anything all right so when you're looking at the pre-bond estimate document doent let's see let me get my computer to catch up all right that is the breakdown of cost uh that was provided by um Lloyd where they've got
032the I'm going to try to expand this here for us where they break down the cost of the different projects that are there um the cost per square foot because we are um looking at building in the soft costs that are there and that's where the square footage you'll see um is is included to that that's where square footage is SF so the subtotal for the CTE is listed there on the first uh line the second is the square footage for the uh enclosed walkway third with the Bus Loop that is mean and I told you what that stood for lump sum that was the lump sum MH that was lump sum um the additional parking again if for some reason we are able to do this without um needing to relocate the bathrooms we
033wanted you to see the the cost savings that would be that would be there as well as the East West roadway that's uh indicated there all right the financing analysis um Dustin Navy is here from Piper Sandler um I don't want to go too far and get over my skis to a point where um when I've got an expert in the room who can uh stay in front of the skis but uh what I wanted to do was was we talked about this at the last meeting the January meeting um and the slide that I wanted to to really focus the attention on is this the mil Levy history there to show kind of where we've been with our our bond and interest Mill Levy as well as our overall M Levy over the last
034several years um right now we're looking at 52 661 overall the bond and interest Mills at this point in time are 12.4 88 this particular Bond project would not increase that 12.48 that number would stay the same um the and I've got these two side side and I apologize for those in the audience uh Megan do we have extra copies of that this of this yeah so we've got two projections there's two financing options that are listed here I'm going to try it this way Megan here I'll do it this way bit easier to see it this way we've got two financing options that are that are there the first financing option keeps the mill Levy at 12.48 for2 years throughout the scope of it and it's a wraparound U model that basically takes in
035the consideration what we currently have as existing uh bonds that are out there once they're paid off the mid ly remains at 12.48 a the second option allows the district to give consideration in 2031 you'll notice that on the right hand side the mill Levy for Bond and interest drops to TI .6 what this does is give the board the opportunity to give consideration to next steps so once the previous debt Services there those previous bonds get paid off the associated Mills for those would decrease the bond and interest Mills at that point in time this gives the district an opportunity to either retire those Mills or reinvest those Mills in another Mill neutral opportunity to address additional project needs that that come up why this I think is important to give consideration to is
036the following we've got a 5-year enrollment study that showed that we've got a slight increase in enrollment over the next five uh five to 10 years we've got another opportunity in three years to go through that process again to see are we turning in that direction our uh city council just approved new zoning shortly after we received our enrollment study for new new plots new new homes construction there so we'll be able to see what what impact that has had and what additional needs occur we said that we've got some increased population over at the intermediate Center this gives us an opportunity to see do those projections play out currently we've got a a lower couple of grade levels coming through the primary Center does that projection play out this gives us an opportunity in
037the next seven years to go through a reanalysis of what we need to do uh whether that is to reinvest or retire P Mills does that make sense so of those two options the option that I would recommend would be the second option that would allow Mills to fall off or give the board an opportunity to um reinvest Dustin how did I do from the microphone that was that was fantastic actually I really no other comments I thought you explained it really really well I would say just mevy history I just think that's a really good as we talked about for you know last several years right The District in a really good financial position right and so you think about what's happened even since the high school Bonds were approved right I mean we
038were nearly at 70 Ms you know 13 14 years ago and now today this year we're at 52 Ms you think about what's happened to bond and interest over that same time period again it wasn't four years ago we were you know right around 15 Ms and today we're at 12 and 1/2 and we're still able to to do the the $17 million without increasing the bond and interest M ly and I think what's important as we've talked about R the bond and interest mevy can only be used for principal interest payments right we can't take those Mills and or can't take the revenues and ship them to any other fund nor can we take dollars from any other fund and shift them to bond and interest right so just a really I would say
039really good just financial management from the from the standpoint of of uh um the different uh funds the school district manages from a m perspective um again I mean from you know Mark as you alluded to on the midle of analysis I think you know that is we're being very cautious right from a from a valuation perspective right so I would say that if if those things happen whether the new developments happen that are being platted um I suspect that the valuation growth is going to happen a lot sooner than maybe what may be anticipated and again we're being very cautious with respect to a 1% valuation change or valuation growth you think about the last few years I think the I want say the 10 year average if we go to the slide before
040that Mark if you don't mind I think the 10e average in valuations scroll down this to hair yeah 10 years is over 6% okay so again I think just you know I think it's it's good I think we're being very cautious for a reason because we don't want we all remember 08 when happened financial crisis think you're being very cautious so again evaluations increase by more than what's in the finan plan it puts the district in a much better financial position to do the things that Mark talked about too so the only thing i' add Mark very good job and the idea this structure terms ofed all right so that this is where coming to the U bond election Advance you I think it's important to realize that we as a board are not like
041approving this we're just approving this to go before the community for election right um and as we've done previously it kind of boes us to recognize what the School District needs identify those needs come together in a plan that we can physically responsibly meet those needs and then say to the community here's here's what we think is going to be an answer to those needs out there so you know as we go through this and read through this um I mean it's important to kind of keep that in mind and this at the end of all at the end of everything that we do it's really up to the community and what they want what they want to do so um so ask I just you know I'll read I'll read the resolution um that
042we' be deciding on whether to pass or not pass the board um oh so B okay let's do the ballot question first I'm glad I thought of that okay so here here would be here would be the the potential ballot question um so ballot Bond uh Bond ballot question for $17 million it is hereby deemed necessary and advisable to acquire construct equip and install a Career and Technical education facility improvements and renovations to The District High School and Junior High School buildings B Safety and Security improvements to the high school including site work and relocated bathrooms C Renovations and improvements to The District High School and Junior High School buildings including enclosed walkway parking and Bus Loop improvements D Renovations and improvements to other District facilities including traffic flow roadway improvements off Eisenhower and 6th
043Street and E make all other necessary and related improvements I.E the project at an estimated cost of $17 million so to to clarify it's clear that item a is is the expansion and the updating of the CTE facility um Item B with the site work that would be the uh the work necessary and potential to to get grounds ready and and relocate the restrooms um it would also uh item C would be the renovations and improvements to the high school buildings which is also the uh enclosure uh the additional parking that's necessary as well as creating that new Bus Loop for the off Street uh Bus drop off and pickup uh the renovations improvements necessary at the other District facilities which also include the opportunity to create the road improvements between Eisenhower and Sixth Street
044so we have those entrances to our facilities item e is important because what this says is if uh all other related improvements what happens is through the course of the projects the benefit of having a construction management atrisk company like Lloyd is they have their their job is to make sure we are under budget and on time and through being that process of being under budget if there are opportunities to save and and create cost savings uh whether it's the the investment that process that takes place of the the issuance of the bonds or the the the you know real-time updating of of construction costs um this allows us opportunities to to address other facility needs that that might arise um to that end so any questions there so so e would cover us for
045things like um if we realized some cost savings somewhere we wanted to allocate some of that money towards getting a nicer uh table system or something in some of those classrooms we could you could up furniture with that um let's let's you know a local District nearby had saw a significant cost Savings in their bond project they're able to build a new elementary school if you're familiar with that um you know we if if we see a significant cost savings and we're able to add a couple of classrooms onto the intermediate Center as a result this that item e allows for that to take place it's not dedicated to just the scope this work it could no it could yeah absolutely it would be facilities related because it's facilities related yep gotta okay so questions
046about the bond or ballot question no okay so um yeah yeah go and we haven't discussed this C but timeline for the bond do we decide this I mean sequence of our events here yeah the sequence of what we're doing tonight would lead us to a May 14th election May 4 okay yeah so the resolution what we'll actually be voting on um is as follows uh special election resolution resolution number 20241 one a resolution authorizing and providing for the calling of a bond election in the Unified School District number 348 Douglas County Kansas Baldwin City for the purpose of submitting to the qualified electors of the district the question of issuing General obligation bonds of the district authorizing application to the State Board of Education for the authority to call the bond election and for
047Capital Improvement state aid and providing for the giving of notice of the bond election dated today so that requires us to I mean if we want to have discussion about it have a discussion about it you know certainly everybody feel you know feel 100% free to say your peace um and then somebody would have to make a motion and Megan if correct me if I'm wrong but if it's it's not a roll call vote in unless it's not unanimous or it's not a roll call vote at all I have it on here as a as a roll okay roll call vote okay so are you going to do the the old pull the first one out of the hat and then go alphabetical no I'm just going to go left or right okay fair enough
048fair enough but we don't have a motion yet so no voting yet so anybody have any comments discussion would like to make a motion I move that we uh adopt the resolution as presented so okay so Chris is a motioned um I'll second uh that motion would be to approve the resolution number 20241 for the purpose of calling a bond election and submitting an application to the Kansas State Board of Education so Chris Mo moved and I seconded all those in favor raise your right hand say I hi looks like 70 do you need a roll call though was cl oh okay I thought you said it was okay good all right so moving on do we need Executive session do not do not need the executive session so we don't have any executive session
049matters to continue or who was the new uh adjourning person oh that was me oh go ahead this your opportunity to shine I move to adjourn um this meeting second all right we got a motion in a second all those in favor raise your right hand say I 70 motion adjourned or meeting adjourned motion approved see you in a month good work president yeah thank