001I now call the Board of Education special meeting work session to order at 4:00 p.m. Is there a motion to approve the agenda for Monday, March 30th, 2026? So moved. Is there a second? Second. All those in favor say I. I. All those opposed say nay. Moving on, we have one public hearing for a district-wide solar project. Board Secretary Schelte, have we received any written correspondence related to the public hearing on tonight's agenda? We have not received any written correspondence. >> have anyone who has requested to address the board this evening regarding the public hearing tonight? We do. We have one speaker. Okay. With one speaker, you will be given up to 5 minutes for your remarks. Please respect the time limit allotted to each speaker or yourself. Um, Board Secretary Schelte will serve as
002your timer and indicate when your time has expired. Okay, our speaker is Rob Hogue. Hey, good evening, board. It's nice to see all of you. Uh, Rob Hogue, I live at 2750 Otis Road and uh, uh, my children are alums of the district and uh, I'm very excited to Uh, I saw on the agenda that you're addressing a district solar project and I just wanted to share a couple thoughts on that with you. Uh, number one, solar works. Um, I'll give you an example. Uh, at my church, I led the effort at Christ Episcopal Church on the northeast side, my I led the effort to install solar power uh, in 2024 and we uh, decided to design it for 100% of our electrical needs and in the last year um, we've saved over $7,500 on
003our utility bills and for the lifetime since it became operational in August of 2024, we've saved over $11,000 and it works. Um, so you take some capital money, you invest and it saves money and with the with the incentives and the um, uh, charitable contributions that we raised through the project, we expect to have it paid off in in 7 to 8 years and it's uh, it's so it really does work, it saves money and I would commend that to your consideration. Um, the other thing I just want to briefly touch on is uh, as you go through this process don't ignore the environmental benefits. Right? Don't ignore them. Um, less pollution is good. It's good for our health, good for the environment and it did occur to me uh, coming over here today that
004the youngest kids in our district today are going to be about 80 years old in the year 2100. Right? So, we some of you might, but I'm not going to live it to see that >> [laughter] >> see the year 2100, but our but our students will and uh, you know, our community and the including the school district have been hammered by multi-billion dollar disasters in the last 18 years and there's not really that much more important for our children's future than to provide them a safe, livable climate and that is something that clean energy like solar power can help do. So, I just encourage you to encourage you to go forward, uh, see what see what see what people bring forward and I hope it works out because it will actually be a big
005win-win-win for our economy and for the schools and taxpayers and our students. Thank you, Mr. Hogue. >> [clears throat] >> Moving on, we have a few administration items tonight. First is an approval of an engagement letter, Ahlers & Cooney PC school infrastructure sales service and use tax revenue bonds bond council. Are there any questions for Carla? Okay. Is there a motion [clears throat] to approve the approval engagement letter, Ahlers & Cooney PC school infrastructure sales service and use tax revenue bonds bond council? So moved to all of that. Is there a second? Second. All those in favor say I. I. I. All those opposed say nay. Next is a resolution establishing parameters for the sale of approximately 118 million 590,000 school infrastructure sales services and use tax revenue bond series 2026 delegation of authority to
006accept an award sale. Do we have any [snorts] questions for Carla? Go ahead. No, go ahead. >> [laughter] >> Well, I was just coming off of um, you know, the the public hearing. I think there's just maybe some clarity around property tax, the the save dollars and then this debt repayment that's sort of ties together. Um, so just kind of maybe an understanding of um, what that item is and how um, that is an example of us planning and preparing for the future. Yes, so this will be repaid by our save dollars. Um, save is the 1 cent sales tax that comes to us uh, appropriate appropriated um, from uh, so much per student and every year they see how much money they have coming in and they give it back to the school district.
007So, the 118 million is for five projects. It's the finishing up of the college and career pathways at Jefferson and Washington and then it's um, the first bonds that are being issued for Harrison, Van Buren and Hoover. So, those um, projects uh, in total are about $120 million. So, this is a case where our save dollars can be spent on school infrastructure and it doesn't have anything to do with our property taxes. It's it's not backed by property taxes. >> [clears throat] >> Um, it is truly uh, the money is um, comes to us from the state through save. Okay, thank you. The question I had uh, Carla was just around um, knowing that the legislature is looking at changing save and that sort of thing. Uh, I just you know, again, there may be
008more steps to this, you can answer that for me, too. Is this are we done with this then? Does this go out or do are there more steps before we approve that? I'd be interested in that, but then also just kind of understand what's our mitigation plan if if suddenly our um, bandwidth through save is is cut drastically by the legislature. Yeah, so we already have committed to these five projects. Right. So, um, this 118 million dollars will finish off uh, Jefferson and Washington and those projects are well underway and we have contracts um, with our contractors on those projects. The same with uh, Hoover, Van Buren and Harrison. Those projects are well underway and so um, if they uh, move forward with um, for lack of a better term, can I say scooping? Scooping
009our um, save dollars that are our truly supposed to go to school districts. That was what they were intended for when um, save was passed. Um, they're extending it to 20 70 and they're doing that because um, many school districts across the state will have to restructure their bonds so they have enough money to pay it back. If the legislature, which they originally had proposed scooping that funding and they weren't saying that they were going to extend any um, any of the the 1 cent sales tax, many school districts across the state would go into default and so that was a part of the negotiation back and forth is to extend it. Um, so we would have to restructure some of our bonds um, because these projects, we can't all at once stop any of
010these projects because we're we're way far into these projects like many other districts. Yeah. Was this the plan all along to use this funding? Save? Yes. Okay. Yeah. And about what percentage of our total save what we have currently, about what percentage? Is are we bonded against? I don't I can look that up and I can email it out. I'll email it to JoAnn. Okay. Yeah. Are there more steps in this process after this? Yes, so this is just um, a resolution establishing the parameters and so we will have the bond sale on April 7th and based on that um, there will be um, more um, documentation to come to the school board for final approval once we sell the bonds and we know a firm interest rate. We are using two underwriters for this
011um, sale. So, once we know firm numbers and how the bonds are going to be structured, what the par amount is and all that um, uh, the board will um, have um, final documentation through resolution. Yes. Yes. Okay. Is there a motion to approve the resolution establishing parameters for the sale of approximately 118 million 590,000 dollars in school infrastructure sales services and use tax authority to accept an award sale? So moved. Is there a second? Second. All those in favor say I. I. I. All those opposed say nay. Okay. Moving along, we another resolution authorizing redemption of school infrastructure sales tax services and use tax revenue on refunding bonds series 2019 B and directing notice be given. Any questions from directors? Is there a motion to approve the resolution authorizing redemption of school infrastructure sales
012services and use tax refunding bonds series 2019 B and directing notice be given. So moved. Is there a second? Second. All those in favor say I. I. All those opposed say nay. Next is the resolution authorizing and approving the preliminary from board members. Is there a motion to approve the resolution authorizing and approving the preliminary official statement? Say I. I. All those opposed All right. Next is an amended request school budget review committee special education administrative costs 2026 to 2027 school year. Are there any questions for Sarah or Riles? Is Riles here? It'll be Sarah [laughter] today. Just for Sarah. Any questions for Sarah? Well, I know we um referenced this a couple weeks ago, but I just want to make sure when you say amended, can you clarify what was amended? >> [clears throat]
013>> So, ultimately it was a a correction of the years, and so we had to make sure that our numbers were matching, and so uh in our original submission they did not, and so this is a correction of of the years to make sure that they do. Okay. Any additional questions? Okay. Um Is there a motion to approve the amended request school budget review committee special education administrative costs 2026 2027 school year? So moved. Is there a second? Second. All those in favor say I. I. All those opposed say nay. All right. The final item under administration is a preliminary approval district-wide solar project. Are there any questions for Chad? I just want to clarify, this is a preliminary approval. Will we have um time to ask questions or um dig deeper into this in
014public? So, today is the issuance of the approval to issue an issue the RFP. >> Okay. Not Yep, approving any solar project at this point in time. This is to issue the RFP um and then once those um submissions are um received, then we will have the ability to if there's a final recommendation, there'll be a lot of time. I believe that. Sounds good. Thank you. I just have a comment. I I'd like to thank Chad Schumacher and John Zukarikart Zukarikart, sorry. Always have trouble with your name, John. Uh we've been talking about this project for years, and it was because of John's willingness to help us and provide his expertise and provide access to other experts in the field that we were able to pull this together in a relatively short period of time,
015and I know that Chad has just a couple other things going on right now, so I really appreciate the fact that he took the time to pursue this, and you guys have looked at the RFP that's that we're um hopefully going to approve here. It's very detailed. There are a lot of technical aspects, and it took a great deal of work to get this pulled together to fit the timeline so that we can get some of those tax incentives for these projects. So, kudos to the team that has worked on this. Any other questions? I've got a couple quick questions. Again, I'll I'll um also say thank you for all the work. It's a pretty voluminous document, and there's there's a lot of things in there, and I also would appreciate I I appreciate my
016appreciation. I asked a lot of questions um on the first draft of it, and and I appreciate that. I I just had a couple quick follow-ups. Um I haven't gotten all the way through the updated version that we got today. Um so, you can tell me if if this has changed or or that sort of thing. Um to to Mr. Hoekstra um about the environmental piece of this, um I noticed in here it said that the uh the company putting up the wrecks or putting up the system and and invest doing that investment can sell those wrecks uh or they can be retired on behalf of the district. I I guess it my understanding of this, and it's it can be complex, is that if those wrecks are sold to someone else, they get the
017renewable benefits of that, and the district does not. And so, whatever the profile of their industrial customer using a coal plant, um and they buy a wreck, they now are 100% renewable, and we're basically using power that was produced from a coal plant. So, it is it can somebody describe why we have kind of that option to either sell those or retire them on behalf of the district? So, my um broad understanding of that is that um if they sell them, then the district gets 50% of whatever they get for and it's very common for these to be sold, and a lot of companies buy them to try to get to that net zero that you just talked about. So, if the school district preferred to keep those, [clears throat] we could change that in
018the contract. So, so when you say we get half of that, is that the attributes of the renewable product or the income from the sale? >> The income from the sale. >> Okay. All right. Um and then my other question, again, I I like the concept of of reducing costs, especially after the public hearing we just had, right? And and um I think that's a good thing. Um my biggest concern is just understanding you've got the how the set of file 583 from 2000 out there that's going to go back in 2027 if not sooner, and um and be evaluating net metering and what that looks like going forward. Um you know, we're we're at a period where a lot of states are seeing huge increases in in rates. We're not at the moment. Um
019and just just understanding how do we make sure that as we're signing a very long-term agreement here, that we don't end up upside down in the um in this deal and end up paying more if if our electric rates don't go up. I assume there's some sort of escalator that >> [clears throat] >> whatever company brings us that proposal we select would be getting. How do we make sure that escalator doesn't escalate more than what the actual rate would be to the point where we're spending more than we we could for future boards? Those are all very good questions. Um with [clears throat] the respect to the first part of your question, which has to do with net metering and the value of solar provision, that uh we put a clause in there that said
020we want to lock in place the 2026 net metering inflow-outflow tariff. So, and then the objective is, of course, to achieve just what you've said, so that we know we're going to get a certain level of credit back from MidAmerican Energy for every bit of solar that we send to the grid. And then uh the escalator is going to be determined by the bidders. We will use our national resources to evaluate whether it's an appropriate one or not for Iowa. Right now, we have three factors in place that are very strongly expected to increase electric prices drastically over the years to come. The first one is the AI data centers, and I'm sure you are already aware a 720 megawatt power plant is uh currently being proposed to be built here in uh just southeast
021of Cedar Rapids. The second one is the uh liquid natural gas um shipping capabilities are going to be coming online. So, a lot of the natural gas we produce in the United States is now going to be available globally. And then the third factor is that process of shipping out natural gas is going to create a global coupling of our natural gas prices. So, if there's a country out there that wants to pay a lot more than we're currently paying in the United States, there would be an incentive to ship that natural gas out. So, we'll be taking a look at all those factors. Those are excellent questions and things for us to consider. Okay. Yeah, no, I appreciate that um and the the input on that uh I thought I had a follow-up, but
022I I've lost it. So, no, I appreciate it. Thank you. You're welcome. I did have a just uh uh had me reme- remembering the call that we were on and just some questions. I didn't see this in the RFP, but is there any sort of um end of term we were talking about the option of buying buying that or the district would then own it at that time after like the 20-year threshold. Is that something we would need to state in this RFP, or is that a consideration we make later on down the road? So, you'll have several options at the end of the 20-year contract period, and one of the options is that you can buy out the solar, and then just own them and keep them as long as you want. If you
023buy them out, the way it's set up is you'll use the fair market value at that time, determined by a third party experienced in doing that very thing. So, you'll that's what you would pay if you decided to buy them. Okay. Wonderful. And then a follow-up to another thing we were talking about um there was the tax incentives and like the timelines around that. Is there if something is not secured, I guess who bears that risk? So the way it's set up right now the contractor and who whoever they get as investors bears the responsibility for making sure they hit those deadlines and receive the incentives. >> Okay. And we have asked in the RFP for them to give us some sense of how they're doing that. Mhm. So we can see what their schedule
024is and what exact activities they're going to be using to lock in those incentives. >> Okay. And then I didn't see that was similar it was kind of like a loose but it's it is the contractors, right? So then the other thing I had is the RFP should it include any sort of like a minimum annual savings based on our projections or is it is that not a is that not typical? So there will be an analysis done to see exactly what those annual savings will be and you'll see in there there's a guaranteed clause that says over the life of the agreement they won't go under 90% of what's expected in terms of solar production and that's where your savings come from. >> Okay. So that is in there. I saw that the performance
025guarantee I wasn't sure if it was tied to like a dollar amount but that that makes sense. And and we would have to calculate the dollar amount and we'll do that during analysis. They'll obviously be providing information here's how much you're going to pay for the solar that you get. This is how much we expect it to save you and they'll have those projections there and then the guarantee just shows us how low they could possibly go so we can decide well if that's still going to be okay. Okay. Perfect. Thank you so much. You're welcome. >> [snorts] >> Any other questions? Okay. Is there a motion to approve the preliminary approval district wide solar project? So moved. Is there a second? Second. All those in favor say I. I. Those opposed say nay. All
026right. We will now move into our work session on board governance. I would like to introduce Tammy Drobny from IASB who will be facilitating this session after we move down here and I will then turn the meeting over to her so we'll we'll move down to the floor seats.