001e e e good evening my name is Jennifer prebble and I'm the Sako School Board chair I'm calling this meeting to order at 700 p.m. on this Wednesday March 13th 24 please note we have all school board members in attendance please join me for the Pledge of Allegiance all right moving on to item number three approval of school board meeting minutes dated for February 28th 2024 um um do I have a motion chair pre uh Schoolboard member Truman I move we approve the school board meeting minutes dated February 28th 2024 second I have a motion by Schoolboard member Truman with a second by Schoolboard member Johnston any discussion regarding the meeting minutes seeing that no one is bringing anything to attend I will have a roll call vote School Board member Archie yes School Board
002member Richards yes I vote Yes Schoolboard member roach yes Schoolboard member Gail yes Schoolboard member Truman yes and Schoolboard member Johnston yes motion passes 70 for the February 28th 2024 meeting minutes all right moving on to item four adjustments to the agenda I have none noted so we can move on to correspondence which is item five which I also have um nothing is there anything else any board members need to bring attention to all right moving on we're going to move on to item six which is public session please feel free to come before the school board and state your name and address for the record you have three minutes to speak and we look forward to hearing from you okay seeing that there's nobody coming for for forward for recognition we will move on
003to item seven superintendent report superintendent Ray all right good evening everybody good to see everybody tonight um few items to talk about um number one majority of our time in Sako uh lately have been spent on two items budget and building project um I think uh this is the Meg is this the first week and probably the last six weeks that we don't have to drive to Augusta this week for a building meeting but we get to be back there next Friday and the Friday after that and the Wednesday after that um but we are wrapping up we were able to get a zoom meeting today um with the Department um and we are basically the piece just fine-tuning things we're trying to fine-tune what that state project budgets going to look like um on
004the local share and on the state share um there was a small change I saw this afternoon that the city needed a little adjustment for the traffic moving U movement permit but we are full steam ahead towards the 29th in the building committee so um a lot of work has been done we will be having straw pole on the 26 at 6 PM is that correct Meg at sakom Middle School um where we'll get to learn a little bit more about both of those budgets in the packet when we get to uh the construction piece I'll talk a little bit more um about the bond and also a couple of the items that um are up for consideration that we will want to discuss with the city council um on Monday night um one of
005the unique pieces about a winter knock on wood with no snow days is that this weird um kind of convergence of uh eighth grade promotion and ta graduation uh has kind of come to the same night because we traditionally we have our promotion at TA and um I believe I was able to talk with rainy manard today uh because we both agreed that promotion should be at uh ta but finding a time has been difficult because we're it's all on the same weekend because again you kind of anticipate a couple of snow days will push you back so I think Marie we were able to settle on a date today um it's probably going to have to be a Saturday and we've kind of started talking with parents on that piece um but that's the
006date that's going to work um and so we're starting to plan all of those activities uh and Marie had a meeting with parents last night at uh the Middle School to kind of get those uh pieces kicked off um Meg and Chris were successful in writing a joint Grant uh for outdoor education and Meg maybe you could come up for just a second and tell a little bit more about uh about that piece yeah there are a couple of different projects that are part of that Grant I don't think we though we know that we've received some grant funding we don't have confirmation of which projects were approved so there's a chance that we didn't get the full grant funding but I would say the the two people pieces of that project that are particularly
007exciting are the creation of a summer program that would include some of our middle school students potentially that would be focused on Outdoor Learning and include you know an an opportunity to experience all that Maine has to offer in the summer but do that with an educational lens and the other component of that Grant is full funding for our seventh grade students to attend and a Colley school with no cost to families where in the past there's been a co-pay by families so those are the two primary drivers and we're hopeful based on at least looking at our scoring which they provided that uh we will be able to fund both of those things fully and only need to make a couple of tweaks to those projects thanks Meg uh and then finally uh just
008a rem uh reminder that we have our joint meeting on Monday night with the city council um items that uh will be important for us to discuss um will be obviously the school budget that's the presentation of the school budget that night and we'll talk a little bit more about that um talking about the bond question that's an important item that we need to kind of rehash of whether it's going to be one question two questions that um going to talk a little bit more about what that tax impact would be with successful bonds and and we're hoping that we'll be at a point uh in the budget uh that we can kind of show what some of those the State numbers will look like uh I think today Meg we were at about a
00992% State share 8% local share was about where that was coming in um and that could go up and down and then uh what we'll be talking about here tonight when we talk about construction is just um making some decisions around solar panels need to be part of the discussion all right do any school board members have questions for superintendent Ray or Park Hurst all right um in that case we can move on to item eight chair's report I don't have anything major to report this evening other than what was already said so moving on to staff reports we have also none of that this evening to report out on um so we can move on to item 10 board subcommittee meeting minutes item a policy and Personnel committee um met this evening at 5:30
010and their next meeting will be April 9th at 5:30 p.m. finance and infrastructure committee meeting our next meeting is March 27th of 24 at 4:30 pm. curriculum committee meeting minutes um our meeting on their next meeting will be March 25th at 4:30 p.m. any questions regarding that all right moving on to item 11 old business um I don't have anything on the agenda for that so we can move right on into item 12 which is new business item a new hires um there is a memo in your packet for review um do I have a motion chair Pebble School Board member Truman I move we approve the stien nomination of Nicole Walton CK burns after school gaming club and issue a stien contract for the 20232 for school year second I have a motion by
011School Board member Truman with a second by School Board member Richards did I hear that correctly okay perfect any discussion regarding the memo of new hires seeing that there's nobody seeking recognition we'll move on to roll call vote Schoolboard member Archie yes Schoolboard member Richards yes I vote Yes Schoolboard member roach yes Schoolboard member Gail yes Schoolboard member Truman yes and Schoolboard member Johnston yes all right motion passes 7 Z moving on to Item B um resignations there's also a memo in your packet this evening do I have a motion School Board member Truman I move we accept the resignation of Alyssa Graham Fairfield school teacher effective immediately okay do I have a second second second okay I heard Schoolboard Richards I think first so I will um go with that and any discussion of
012resonations I believe this is the teacher that was on leave right so I just wanted to say thanks to her maternity leave yes sorry I didn't want to uh so just thanks to her for her time at Fairfield and I hope her new Endeavor is super exciting all all right any other questions comments discussion all right um moving on to roll call vote Schoolboard member Archie yes School Board member Richards yes I vote Yes Schoolboard member roach yes School Board member Gail yes Schoolboard member Truman yes Schoolboard member Johnston yes motion passes 7 zero all right moving on to the fun item on the agenda this evening budget um discussion questions and recommendations if I can get that out school superintendent Ray if you could Enlighten us that'd be awesome all right so um last
013week finance committee uh came together um if you've seen the finance committee agenda from last week there are a lot of links on there for information and we certainly can add it to this so that it's just an easy one click away uh situation but you know the the kind of the gist of the entire piece is that when you look at your FY 25 budget summary you'll see just as we uh have talked about and was in the budget presentation is that the increased is is staff salaries and benefits it's it's not a situation where you know there are items such as fuel electricity those things that create a little bit of an increased cost um but this is a salary and benefits driven budget that uh currently has three reductions of positions in
014it two classroom teachers that were based off ratios at the middle school that was in your budget memo of you know what that piece would look like and then the reduction of a technology um staff uh coach at the elementary level in looking at this piece um even with those positions that are reduced you're still looking at an expenditure increase of 5.53% on the tax side of things um we were able that through the budget review process with Jason that you can click on the next link and see that there were some items that we were able to um take out of the budget um that were just errors duplicates um and it's a situation where uh Paid Family Medical Leave Act uh there there was a reduction in that uh one we had a
015little higher percentage in there uh than what we think we're going to need and the biggest piece is that um when the guidance from the Department of Labor came out if you're in a current collective bargaining agreement that was signed before October 23 of 2023 you do not start paying that tax until the CBA expires employees can't collect the benefits either but our teachers contract was hired last summer which would be the largest percentage of that that issue would be taken up during the negotiation of the next teacher contract uh so there was a good reduction there of payroll tax we had an athletic supply that needed to be removed that was an error and then we had uh a double posting um for a position so we were able to pull $178,000 out of
016that piece you can also see that within the next probably uh two weeks we will get the notification of what the high rate for health insurance is and Jason we have 8% in 10% in for health insurance um so from that piece for health insurance for every 1% uh is 445 so if we get good news and it says Hey the high will only be 6% um we'll be able to take 4% you know 60 some thousand dollar out of the budget or back and revisit what those items would look like um when you look at where we are we are still doing a little bit of fine-tuning uh with Savings in adult education that will change things just by a fraction of a percentage point that will come um at another meeting because we're
017not quite ready to make that final adj adjustment as we work with Old Orchard but when you look at your revenues you're at a situation um where you're at 4.16% to the tax taxpayer if you were to look around the area of what School departments are putting towards the taxpayer it is much much higher than that we are in a good situation this year and it comes down to the fact that our valuation stayed under the state average and so we got more subsidy um you know again we look at expenditure increases of 5 and a half% and if we didn't take some positions we would be much would be much higher than that um I think you still have some pause or just look at that piece because historically you haven't been that and
018I know that we have concerns about tax rate growth the economy you know elderly people who may have been in the situation where they were able to have their valuation Frozen because of the state law and then that changes so they could possibly face a double hit uh and then realizing where one half of uh the equation with the city being on the other side um I would be at a point right now where I feel like we should hang tight of where we're are right now um and let's see what develops over the next couple of weeks after we present to the city council receive some guidance about where they're coming in that uh we'll present next week and I believe the cities the week after um so in two weeks they'll have the
019city council will be able to understand both sides of that piece by that time we'll have some information about health insurance that may make us make some different decisions um but I feel uh pretty positive about where we are right now all right do we have any questions for superintendent Ray regarding the budget Schoolboard member Roach I didn't raise my hand I was looking oh just checking thought I saw it um well first for Jeremy um what is there a is there a Target amount still to get under this 4% left after everything was kind of changed or waiting for health insurance is there a number right now that the city or you are looking to possibly get to that 4% or under I think in the conversations I had with the City administrator my
020target was to try to get to the four level um because again I um not that that's any magic formula here but I do recognize the fact that we are asking citizens to vote on the bond right and I think that's a big piece and we'll talk about what that impact what we're estimating and again we've worked quickly on what the impact would be um and so I had said to John that I would try to do our best to put something in that neighborhood and I feel like we're pretty close to being there um I think the next piece is what health insurance looks like um also knowing that we have contracts that we still have to negotiate uh this spring is an important piece uh and then I did hear from uh mayor
021groman and bitterford that um some of the Mayors are really kind of lobbying for more for more funding uh especially in service knowing that there's a surplus and knowing that U service center communities seem to be taking a major hit especially in Southern Maine that there's definitely some lobbying efforts going on um and that's why you know I think my recommendation is that we're in a pretty good spot today and if we ended in that spot I think we'd be in a pretty decent shape but let the picture develop with both sides see what happens with health insurance see what adjustments we need to be made because you know essentially we still have over two months before you take your final action um and a lot will probably change in that time yeah I'm not
022necessarily looking to say cut more yet but if I propose some sort of cut in one particular area is is there room to you know even add stuff back or or explain but um you know I still want to I want to talk about that contingency amount um and um I didn't ask for it specifically for this meeting but do we know what drawdowns were applied to the contingency fund this past fiscal year so the only thing that that contingency had in it was negotiated raises so we didn't have we have zero in there for an an accident or or you know the thing just need it's just the placeholder of where we're putting um but we budget it it it gets put in there for the budget I'm just saying that okay and then
023it would transfer over to salaries and benefits okay so it does get we we budgeted whatever it was 6 700,000 last year and that got spent yep okay all right so you need another 600 or this year this coming year to be ready for that raises or that increase plus okay keep going uh first of all big thank you to uh Jason um who got me um kind of sorted here and I want to address um you know this is more not a change or anything but uh he got me the office supplies sorted you know was talk about we were cutting off office supplies office or from the private sector but supplies um so there's been kind of some Buzz about you know you know we're cutting supplies but and again if I missed
024it I apologize but it looks like last meeting I was talking about there was a cut significant cut to prek in that category but that's at every school it has to do with the software that was budgeted last year was not spent last year so the first question is how does that carry over we didn't spend about 130,000 in that support so what happens there is it just rest in the city cash balance or it's in it's in the school department carryover funds okay all right so and then what what is that store what's I apologize if I missed what what that was about but the carryover funds no the the hund like why it was budgeted last year not I think sometimes you just don't always order everything that you have in the budget
025but it was like specific amounts and then zero nothing was done for for so it wasn't that and again I think sometimes you have things that get put in the lines you have furniture that may get bought you may and again when you start thinking about what you're going to buy in October and then reality comes in I mean in the simplest of in the simplest of things Kevin you just can't predict how much construction paper gets left you know in the simplest of terms but the budget without that software support whatever that those accounts for each School the supply regular supplies did increase in this budget by like 10 12% so just want to make sure that the public you know knows that that you know we know we we we we feel the
026pain about you know you know parents having to bring stuff in and all that but but those type of accounts were not cut no yeah okay and one of the things that you look at is when you look at your budget you can see and Jason can run different ways like you see the actual spent out of a line for anything that's from one year ago to two years ago so when you see and go back and you see the trends that hey you've asked for 85 and you spend 65 consistently that would be an area where you said well history budget 65 starts to point you in that direction it was just good to hear that when it I I I think I took the prek by surprise by saying you know are you
027upset you lost this dollar amount but the reaction was good like didn't realize that because it was not spent like that was not a cut of something they spent so you just didn't budget you budget zero this year okay um the only other question is just a small one um on like in the maintenance category sorted there wasn't much big anything big but there's just a a maintenance service increase I think for the buses for like 10 grand is that something specific you're trying to get or just that's that's just the fact that the cost of parts yeah have gone up so much um and then also our work with the city um as they have costs for you know I suspect that their employment costs are continuing to grow just like ours so when
028there's any of those that work that's being done um but I know if you talk to John in those pieces or anyone here who's bought breaks or bought Parts uh the price is up so I re my point from last week including you superintendent to you know get on the bus you know let's get use use those buses if we're going to be spending spending this so right Jeff we you've gotten on the bus before sorry any other um questions for superintendent Ray regarding the budget oh School Board member Archie uh I just happen to notice that tuition paid for vocational was a difference of 20 $20,000 can you just go over that real quick um it's it's I believe it's down by 20,000 correct just more what's no it's not actually that more uh
029less student count is that as the number of students has grown at The Vocational Center um an example was uh I think a year ago we had 400 different programs by all all kids in all areas that are sending that number was at 495 per program what we do is we look at the number of Soo kids the number of Dayton kids the number of bitterford kids Massabesic kids and then you look at your state subsidy that you receive and then you look at your budget and there's usually a spread of a couple hundred, doll and then you divide out a per pupil cost and as we've added a couple of programs over there and the number of students had grown that's shrunk and so it's cheaper for everybody all right any other questions for
030superintendent Ray regarding the budget Schoolboard member Gail I guess just a a question just overall on on the Thorton tuition increase and kind of what what is driving what is driving that so the Thorton increase is um Maxim allowable tuition which is set by the state uh and then so every year in December this year is actually January uh they give us the number of what tuition will be and that is a figure that comes from us from the Department of Education it was about 5.6 I think it was this year was like six something 63 the other year um and so that's where our increase comes from is looking at the number of students that that we have have there multiplied by the state increase with our increase that I've kept uh I think
031we're at 5% again um just because the last two years have been um quite High um and that's where that increase would come from it's the state setting that they're they're setting maximum allow maximum allowable tuition rate which is really driving that increase um and I guess okay yep any other questions but is there a I'm sorry is there a number it's just a quick is there a number of students it's in here somewhere right how many 890 is that that's an increase right we've we've saved the same number for oh okay the last 890 or 870 that we put in the budget just 890 so since I've been here we haven't we have we've stayed with the same number um certainly the year uh that we saw some growth over the summer with uh
032the hotel that was we were lucky to have that piece um so School Board member Gail I was just gonna ask kind of in terms of this budget and previous history with the new maners and and the impact at Thorton with those um so it sounds like we we do have a buffer in there in case we have another influx or that there change in that yeah situation again do I think that you're going to see um major increases no but um enrollment tends to be higher in the fall and then things change throughout the year I think um our I think we were at like 861 was our fall or October 1 number are um we do have some kiddos what sometimes becomes a little bit challenging with um when you look at the
033eighth graders we'll call St James and see how many kids are at St James that maybe move you know who will go to Thorton Academy and then you I think there's like there's a number of kids that are already at Tams plus the kids that we have moved in and trying to just create enough space so that you don't have a situation where it's October 1 and now you're scrambling a little bit um on what that number will be and maybe there's a better way to talk about that in the future of how you do that but just want to make sure we're safe right now all right any other questions Schoolboard member Archie so I I understand the increase um for Thon Academy I think think what so this is my third budget cycle
034so I think what it's hard pill for me to swallow is the fact that we're giving them 8 to $900,000 extra every year and we don't know where it's going um for me a little bit of board communication would be nice um I don't know I I we've all talked about it at one point but I I I really think that we need more communication between the boards thank you oh that that definitely will be part of the discussions coming up here I me contract I just don't like the uh sorry I just don't like the uh it's not ta alone it's just this whole perad model I just it's just really Troublesome that we're treating we have to calculate kids per per head and without looking at the surrounding picture you know directly with
035K you know prek through 8 and neighboring towns it's just it's not a good but it is the system so I'm not it's not a blame on ta at all so but that's part of the problem is that yeah we don't know necess don't where the money going but we're also in that model per head so so just out of curiosity have you thought about a different model well that that's a kind of a Matt State model so I would you would have to I I this is the only model I know I was just curious I mean in in whatever comes out of the contract negotiations I mean I'm all for a buffer and and to be flexible but yeah always up for looking at everything and checking with State what their thoughts are
036so it sounds like more to come all right any other questions all right we are going to move on to item D School construction update uh superintendent Ray okay um as I said beforehand we are full steam ahead towards uh the next couple the next couple of weeks of getting to the 29th um with the state construction and then on the 10th uh the items that we are working on as I said budget just really honing in on the state project budget uh where it looks like we would be like I said about an 8 percenti you know probably go half a percent either way share uh this is kind of at the point where um the state uh in our conversations with the doe is really more line by line and you know even
037talking today what was our big one was removable walls which removable walls would they pay for which ones might they not pay for um so a lot of the a lot of the detail pieces one of the major items that got to put on your radar screen for you guys to think about uh and then we'll be talking about this at the city council meeting is that one of the things that I've learned is that when you do the state again I'm only talking about the state school right now that when you set the budget for the state school both state local contingency funding you can't just go back in and say oh well we want to add this after the fact that was something I didn't know like even if you had a say
038some big huge donation came in that you wanted to do something different once kind of you're out of the approval process then there would have to be a process to go through that piece and so what we've been working uh on is that that there are a couple of different programs out there and we started to look at the efficiencies on on heating systems and in this project this is a closed loop geothermal designed system which would heat and cool which is runoff you know electricity and there is a premium for that that would be paid from the local piece but there's a program through the inflation reduction act that would allow to get that local share back that would the money would come directly back to us to offset those costs so then we
039started thinking about because based off um the calculations that are being run of how close we could make this to being a kind of a carbon neutral type building of how can we put solar on the roof and what would our um kilowatt the production be versus what we estimate in cost and what we're looking at is that by putting solar panels on the roof we could be at about 2/3 of the electricity produced off solar panels that would be need needed to run the state sponsored school where 1.1 million kilowatts correct mag is what we're estimating and it's 770,000 that we would produce uh kilowatts through solar panels so we started looking at the numbers on that piece and that's where the discussion needs to come because there are it would cost us about
040$1.48 million to purchase the solar solar panels and be the owners of them with a rebate of 4 $55,000 that would be able to come through the IRA piece so essentially you're looking at a million dooll investment uh to cover 2third of your electrical cost for you they give a life cycle about 25 years on the solar panel piece and that's if you're an owner and then obviously the other option that you would have would be not to be the owner of solar panels and just have a purchasing agreement of a third party investor not get as much of the savings and we're at the point now where we would need to kind of begin to look at projected electrical costs what would be the long-term savings how do you um how do you go
041about that of whether that's something that you think about Reserve funds City defunds versus you know I hate to borrow a million dollars over 20 years for something that's going to save you money you know I think that's that's a harder sell because probably the interest rate now is taken on those savings so I just think that's a conversation that we got to start thinking about here and I know that come up very late in the process but you know as you start looking at the calculations and the kilowatt hours and those pieces um I guess that every storm we see around here reminds us that we need to do the best that we can to uh think about in my opinion again my opinion only need to be thinking about our carbon emissions uh
042and this would be an opportunity where essentially we'd be uh the new buildings would would be geother thermal heat pumps for cooling offsetting a lot of that Supply based off solar we just need to determine whether we want to be own or leasers and you know then there's some pieces about whether you're storing the power for yourself or or selling back to the grid piece um that's a big decision over the next couple of days that we need to have the council involved in and again I don't know everything about it um there's so many parts of it that I don't understand um but when I think that what the electricity bill that you'll have over there for the next 20 years will be running heat pumps and whatever will I'm sure be2 to $300,000
043and to think about onethird of that being away you know if you were avoiding $200,000 over 20 years well that was a good investment um but that's the big piece that we have to the next hurdle for us to consider on top of the budget piece so certainly will answer questions if I can um or I can try to get more information uh School Board member Truman um just something I don't I just remember seeing very recently a scathing news report on uh solar farms and their Leasing and um some of their less than truthful ways of getting people to sign on and this was for residential so I don't know how that would look as as a wouldn't be residential obviously is a commercial or can you even consider it that larger larger scale
044building so um it's just something about you know making sure that whatever contracts are signed or looked at by whoever to make sure that we're not hit with astronomical bills that some of these homeowners have been hit with from these solar Farms we claiming savings and people are getting you know tens of thousands of dollar bills for something they thought was going to save them money so so that was when you said solar Farms I was like so I don't know if that falls under the same realm or if they were just Hawking on residents but yeah no this would be a situation where you would not be part of a solar farm you would own your panels on you would own your panels that would be um net metered right off right off yourself
045it' be your I just I just know you were talking about a purchasing agreement with like somewhere else or if you want you're specifically looking at doing it on the building yeah so this would be you again if you if you do it on the building you have two options um one to own or to enter into somebody else owning it on your building and and getting the piece and and so this would be a situation here where again new construction new own would think that you would want to have your solar panels go in at the time so that you're not um like if we were lining up an investor it' probably kick it down the road even further and so again probably wouldn't be the most ideal situation to have a brand new
046roof and then put more penetrations in after install um and the fact that you have a brand new roof that you're at this piece this seems like an opportunity where I would want to own versus being in one of the other arrangements because I've done some of the community solar farm things that have worked out very well I'm looking at a in another in bit ofer I'm looking at that lease agreement with someone using the roof there um but I think in this arrangement with the new I would recommend from what minor experience I have in it that this should be one that you would own because you're going to get the full one you're going to have a new roof that is going to be covered with solar panels that theoretically you're going to
047get 25 or 30 years out of that roof anyway that you won't have to touch which would probably coincide with about the life expectancy of the solar panels so it would all kind of be right there at the same time that you would you know down the road be dealing with that again and had the experience so it'd be interesting to yeah I just wanted to make sure I was clear on what you were so this makes makes more sense to me thank you because our our you know our hope and again rooftop just not big enough our our goal was to try to create a situation where that building was Zero we're trying to get back to that kilowatt hours of what we expected to use and try to produce and certainly we could
048reach that you know if we wanted to look at at panels on the local project which you may still want to do we're just kind of not at that point yet you're going to have a lot lot more this is only the big building um and so you know you'll have those discussions and we'll have much more flexibility on that piece um but we were really trying to get that building to a zero and you know again 2third is uh is pretty good school board member Archie so just to clarify here um you're saying that we're those numbers that you gave us were based on the state project correct so hypothetically speaking it we could get to zero if we had more solar panels on taxpayers building Tech maybe maybe I don't know how much
049roof space we haven't calculated that full load yet um are you so are you suggesting that I understand what you're saying with the the interest rate are you suggesting that we try and find a way to pay for them ourselves um instead of trying to put them I think this loan I think that's the piece that we've got to think about is do you want it as part of the project um I mean what were we guessing 4% interest rate 4% interest rate on so you said 1.8 uh $400,000 Kickback it will be 1.4 we get $400,000 back is what they estimate after the end of the project so essentially you're looking at a million dollars you know probably be a million half if we did 3K building if you do the prek building the
050problem 4% that's that's a good challenge the challenge with the prek building just and the the prek-k building is remember that we do not have a flat roof on that building and so you're going to not have the exposures as many rooftops to the exposure like a flat roof will have for the sun there so a lot more calculations need to be done on that project but you know again I think this is uh an important decision and you get to talk about it it and uh on Monday night a little bit more in depth and if I can get some more information between now and then um the big piece is that if you want to do it you have to put it into the state budget um even though it's a local cost
051you can always make the local decision later that you're not going to do it because you're not going to borrow as much money or you know maybe cost will shift over time um so a lot of food for thought schoolb member Gil yes so just following up on that so the really there is no downside well back up I guess it doesn't sound like there's a huge risk if we include it in the budget because there's always an opportunity to strike that line item in the future but if it's not included in the budget there's no opportunity to add it to that building in the future that is it in during the construction process during yeah right um so no there wouldn't be to that the only downside um that would be is that you
052would be looking at a greater local share and when I said 8% that included the $1.4 million today does not include what's what's hard is that that number of the 8% includes the solar panels at $1.4 million and Meg 1.2 on the geothermal .3 on the geothermal which you'll get the 1.3 back and you'll get 400 and something back that comes back towards the project to do as school committee city council whether that's you know it may it doesn't happen until after everything's been online so it's not like you can depending on cost say oh well I'm just not going to borrow this um because you will probably get it after you've moved into the building but but it doesn't mean that you couldn't use it for something else there or for pay down principle
053and so if we wanted to install solar after the building is constructed um I guess is that is that part of the calculation too in terms of it'll cost x amount more because we're going to be it's going to going take I mean to put it on install it when probably a different yeah I mean if you're looking at like anything you do when you plan for things and you have and you don't have people running conduit and wires and all of those pieces and it's done during the construction piece I suspect that's going to be cheaper than if you add on and then the other piece that you have to look at is how much work you want done immediately on a school that you just built um you know that because after the
054because you know the first year of after it's built you're going to be dealing with all of the challenges that exist with that piece you know how much are you going to take on yeah it seems like a great opportunity I mean 2third is better than nothing I think it's talked a lot too I remember last year about kind of when looking at solar and just trying to kind of prioritize and and put put the money where our our talk is and goal as a community and I think it it would be a great service to Sako to have this piece incorporated into the new construction that again highlights that we are serious about this school board member Truman just real quick is this something that you're just automatically going to build into it are
055you looking for something from us or no it's it's built in right now great um but it would be part of that cost Bond p want to make sure people are on the same page if we're heading in that direction and people have the information I think it's a great idea I've got a quick question so if we're at 2third is there any discussion too about maybe exploring like a standalone unit to make up the rest of it to get that building to zero or I think there's discussion about it like yes that's something we would like to try to do I don't think that we've had the energy to take that next step the other piece that like the other considerations you have to think is that you would have to be on that
056piece of property if you were to getting to zero you've got to now be off rooftops so now you you're looking at some of your acreage and one of the pieces though that we you know want to have is some Treeline buffer between industrial park and the other side we've talked about outdoor education walking trails and all of those pieces so I do think like there's some balance that has to go between all of it um I think our next piece that we would explore would see what we could put on the roof what could be on the roof of the second building and see where we get there um because again um eating up more ground space um may not exactly be you know there's two two good siiz buildings a lot of parking
057a lot of Roads some fields and playgrounds and I think we really wanted to have you know the connection to the Eastern Trail in that outdoor classroom setting too and we may not hit everything perfect awesome thank you for explaining that all right any oh Schoolboard member Gail sorry one more question the for the the local for the second building um would we be eligible for wasn't there like is there a a revolving facility Capital Loan Fund at like 0% that so with a new construction we won't be eligible for that for a while you're going to be building this to code those are mostly for asbest Ada upgrades Etc so you're not going to be in that uh ballpark for a long time okay okay thank you we would we would be eligible for
058um a rebate though of some kind right correct we will be able to be you know if we're looking at solar uh there are there are there are plans through the uh IR is what is called uh infrastructure act that we will be eligible for and like I said on the big our quote today on the big project that would be $455,000 rebate okay so there would be some some money that we could get back from if we did it on the local share building yeah and and and also probably on any of the heat pumps that we put into that building as well School Board member Archie so aside from rebates um will the state pay for any of the panels and what about the geothermal so they don't pay for the panels um
059through the construction project because they you know their feeling is that there's programs out there and Community decisions when you look at the geothermal what they do is they run an amount of what it would cost for their standard heating system being oil natural gas whatever and then they look at the cost of the geothermal and they pay their standard cost geothermal cost more but because of the grants and that's on us but because of the grants that are available we can recoup all of that difference uh and come back in and it will allow us to heat and cool both of those buildings now certainly certainly geothermal on the local side building that will be our cost but there will still be rebates that will be that we will be able to get some
060of that down all right any other questions Schoolboard member Arie uh this your new construction memo bond is that just on the state portion to go to that piece and again we've been working on this and please please take this as a draft um but what we were hoping to do is we looked at um you know kind of the two options is that there's a that between both buildings state and local what would 40 $40 million and $45 million look like in debt service and based off the information that we got back um those are the rates on a 400 K home that the increase would be now it was explained to me by Bond Council that there are some things that it used to be that you know bonds would start at one
061level and you'd pay down over time and it had to be lower there is a way that you could I guess you can now structure on them so it's even payment over time that only decreases a little bit um but those will be decisions that city council Bond Council will make some decisions on but these are the early estimates of what it would be uh cost to taxpayers all right any other questions for superintendent Ray okay moving on to item e as an elephant second reading of policies um do I have a motion or would School Board member Johnston thank you um I move we excuse me I move we accept the second reading of policies jeaa student attendance administrative regulation jfab admission of homeless students jfab d-r education of homeless students administrative procedure jhv
062truancy JH v-r treny administrative procedures ji student rights and responsibilities jicc student conduct on school buses jic drug and alcohol use by students jcj student use of cell phones and other electronic devices jic bullying jic k-r bullying administrative procedure jic K-1 bullying report form jic - E2 bullying investigation form J i- E3 documentation of disciplinary and remedial actions taken jj- student fundraising guidelines jji philosophy of Athletics jjif management of concussions and other head injuries JJ f-r academic expectations during post concussion excuse me during post concussion recovery J ke- expulsion guidelines jlcc communicable communicable SL infectious disease jlc d-r medication administration on school field trips jlc first aid and emergency medical care jld dbg reintegration of students from juvenile correction facilities jld DB g-r reintegration of students from juvenile correctional facilities administrative procedures JRA student educational
063records and information and jr- annual notice of student education records and information rights second I have a motion by Schoolboard member Johnson with a second by School Board member Truman is there any discussion regarding the policies School Board member Johnston um I I just wanted to note for everyone this is the second reading of course and um but I did want to note for everyone that the JJ e-r student fundraising guidelines just this evening at our meeting before this meeting was changed ever so slightly just verbage doesn't really affect what the policy says um at all but it just to note it so everyone realizes that um and I guess I just also wanted to say that I think it's important to repeat all of this lengthiness because I think to remind us all um
064and the public as well that these are some of the policies and the situations that we're trying to deal with when we make these policies out it's just good information to keep in mind and sometimes people may not know that we have a policy on any particular item so thank you School Board member Truman the minor uh additions that were not even additions just the editing was just separating the paragraphs into their own little sentences for uh emphasis I guess is really what happened so okay any other discussion or questions regarding policy all right seeing there's no one seeking recognition we're going to do a Rog call vote vot School Board member Archie yes School Board member Richards yes I vote Yes School Board member roach yes Schoolboard member Gail yes Schoolboard member Truman yes
065Schoolboard member Johnston yes motion passes for all policy 70 all right moving on to item 13 other information I didn't see any other information come in this evening oh School Board member Gail just I guess I forgot to ask stren School construction but could you um talk just a little bit about on the straw pole vote how that will happen in terms of the difference between the one a couple months ago and then this one yeah so one of the pieces that we're going to try to do uh at straw po poll vote is have um boards and information up for first 30 minutes from 6 to 6:30 6:30 start the presentation be able to answer questions before would people are there um but then call the vote at 7:00 um that was kind of
066the feedback that we got from parents last time and that's that's the plan right it was seven that the plan was is that our feedback was that for young families and that want to be there they just need to know what time that vote is is going to happen uh and so that's what we were thinking about doing this time and then if other people still had questions we can stay around and handle that Pete but uh vote Time s thank you any other questions all right moving on to item 14 executive session there was no executive SK session schedule for this evening um so I will entertain a motion moving on to item 15 for adjournment do I have go ahead AR Schoolboard member ARG all right I got a um first by school
067member Archie do I have a second second second by School Board member Truman if I heard correctly all right I'm going to speed this along roll call votes School Board member Archie yes School Board member Richards yes School Board I vote Yes excuse me School Board member roach on the bus since 87 yes rock on School Board member Gail yes uh School Board member Truman yes School Board member Johnston yes motion P passes 70 to adjourn have a lovely evening and thank you so much take care