001All right, I'd like to call the meeting to order. We will start with the pledge of allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands one indivisible and justice for all. Roll call, please. Kristen Campbenzi here. Jennifer Ray, Jason Zadunic here, Jennifer Cliff here, Cheryl Matto Smith here, Cassidy Thomas here. Eric Smith here. Okay. And I would entertain a motion to approve the agenda. I will make a motion to approve the agenda as presented. Second. Okay. Motion made by Mr. Zidnick, support by M. Mrs. flip. Um, all those in favor I uh moving on to the superintendent report. Thank you, President Camzy. We have a few items on the superintendent's report. All all messages information will be delivered by some guests, three guests. We are going
002to start with Linda Winslow, the president of the maps education foundation for her update. Thank you, Mrs. Winsow. Sorry, that's right. [Applause] It's hardly feeling. So, um, good evening. My name is Linda Winsel. I am currently the president of the MAPS Education Foundation and I asked to be on the agenda tonight because I think it's really important that as a board that you um have a picture of what we've been doing with the last in the last year. So our um report is always a little bit behind I guess you could call it but I am going to share the information from 2003 slash to 2004. So that would be that school year. Our um year kind of corresponds with that. So it makes it easier for us to do things. So the education foundation
003today has what I call four arms. So, four arms and those four arms include grants slashf funds, um scholarships, a program called first to finish and the pendle wall. So, I'm going to um just give a little information about each one of those programs and um please ask questions if you have any because um we are a really important part of our community and we actually provide lots of things to not only the students but the staff um the community and you know we're excited for that piece. So, the gen the grants and funds. So in the year that I was speaking of 2023/24 we had nine grant funds and we gave out 34 grants to our staff slash students slashteers. So 34 that's a huge number. Our small grant is up to $300 and
004it is pretty easy to apply. Okay. We wanted it to be that way because it makes it easier for people to get what they need to use that school year. We have large grants that are up to $2500 and that takes a little more oh I'll say a little more words to get what you want kind of thing, but not as difficult as a state grant or a federal grant. Okay, thank goodness. Um and so that's what our grant funds are for. They're for those projects. We also have 53 scholarship funds, which is kind of amazing for a small community. When we started out um years ago, we had many, many less than that. So, we're excited to have 53. They are not all given out every year because the donors who create those funds
005can choose to have it every 5 years, every two years, just when there's enough money, lots of different things. But we do have 53 scholarship funds. And you guys maybe know you have a scholarship fund. Do you all know that? Great. Because because it always needs to have some um donations, I'll call it to keep it to grow. So, thank you to those of you who do donate to that fund. It's important and the students are selected for that. Um the criteria is set forth by the school board. So, thank you. Um the scholarships will be awarded on May 20th this year. It's a Tuesday evening at 6:30 in the gym. So, mark your calendars. We'd love to have all of you come. Um, it's exciting. It's exciting for the students, but it's really, really
006exciting for the parents, okay? And everyone who's been a parent can attest to that, right? We're excited when our students are there. Um, but it's a wonderful recognition event and it is sponsored by the foundation, but there are many people that bring scholarships to that particular event. there um are clubs in our community that create a scholarship. Um the Rotary Club, the Lions Club, the Quantis Club, those kinds of um clubs are available to be part of our event. The community foundation has some um scholarships fund that they bring to us as well. And then um the donors that give to the foundation have fun set up and they do write all their own criteria. So we don't say, "Oh no, you have to do what we say." we say come on in you know
007we'll like work with you to get it to work for our students so most of our scholarships are given directly to the students now they do not go to a college okay and there's lots of reasons for that but I won't share that necessarily today you maybe already know those reasons the third arm is called first to finish and that particular um program was created I can hardly believe this it's our sixth graders are were our first first to finish program. So they have already gone through what five years. Oh my gosh. They are halfway through their school years here at MARA. Halfway. So to honor that, we will be meeting with all the sixth graders at Bothwell um in the middle of this month and sharing some information with them. But in the meantime,
008um on Friday, Linda Hopper, yay, um sent out um through Skyward um an email, I'll call it, to all the parents and guardians and families letting them know that it's literacy month. April is financial literacy month. And to celebrate that, the foundation has agreed that everyone who donates to their first to finish account, not an amount, just put some money in that the foundation will give them an additional $5. So, some of you may have gotten that email if you have children in the school. So, I hope everyone goes to either Range Bank or Incredible Bank. There are two partners. Put some money in those accounts. And if you're looking at me going, I don't have any children. Well, maybe you have a grandchild or look up and down your street. Who lives on your
009street? You just need the students name. You can put that money in. That's like pretty amazing. Now, you might want to think, can those students get that money out? Not until they graduate. Okay, so upon graduation, they will be able to access their savings account. So we want to increase the graduation rate in our community to 100%. I know it's a lofty goal. So that's what our first to finish is. We are one of only probably maybe 12 in the whole state of Michigan and maybe 50 in the whole country. So we are very fortunate to have a foundation that supports that particular program. The last thing that we um do, not the very smallest, none of these are in any order here, is the Pendle wall. And you've probably had the opportunity to walk
010past that wall, maybe as a student, um maybe as a parent, but it recognizes someone that graduated from our school here in Marquette who did an outstanding job at just lots of things. usually some philanthropy, donations, um just being a person of our community. Um and so those people in that wall all graduated from one of our schools. So it's amazing. Um last year there was not a person selected, but this coming year I'm told there will be two. So that's pretty exciting. I would encourage you, all of you who know someone in our community who graduated from our school to submit an application. It's a wonderful honor um that we can give back to our graduates and those students really do look at that wall and so do parents. So, so now I am
011ready to take questions. Can the audience ask questions? Audience? No. But the board can Okay. So board questions. I used to make my students they couldn't leave until they each asked me one question. You know I won't make you be students today though. So presumably you have a team. We have a wonderful team of people. Um and I can read who is on our team and I will hand these out and we'll leave the extras for the audience. Our team today consists of Mike Ander, Elsa Clement, Corey Fes, Jim Johnson, Barb Kelly, Carolyn McDonald, Jackie Mahennic, Karen Ogle, Zach comes to he's our support person often. Chuck Swanson, Zach Sturdy, myself, and Jim Johnson is not listed on here. Oh, he is listed on here. So, that's our team. You probably know one or two
012or three or four of those folks. Um, they give of their time and their expertise and we are I'm happy to have a great team. Any other questions? Okay. Thank you. Linda, just real quick as a reference, and I hate to put you on the spot, approximately how approximately how much money was donated through local scholarships last year? Well, we talked about that and I think out of the foundation it was about 117,000, but that doesn't include what comes from the school and or the um support clubs, I'll call them um and the community foundation. So, you know, we keep growing. We keep adding scholarships. Um and the market was kind to us. And when the market's kind to us, we have more money to give. The other thing about local scholarships, and Amanda can
013kind of talk to this as well after when I'm gone, um, all the students who applied by the deadline and are qualified. So, they are qualifications that the school sets forth to award scholarships and that the grant, the scholarship set forth. They've all been awarded a scholarship for the last five years. So this year we have 171 applicants. That's a lot. But I'm excited because that means those students are taking that time to fill out that form, ask questions, and get it submitted. So I think that committee will meet around April 16th and make their selections. The invitations will go out to the donors by paper electronically to the parents and students. Excellent. Thank you very much, Mrs. Bunzel. The Ed Foundation does amazing work and we really appreciate what you all do. Next year.
014Yeah, of course. Anytime. Okay, moving on in our agenda. Next up, second guest is Mr. Tony Beruchi. Mr. Bratuchi is the CFO for Marica, our local Resa, and he's here to talk a little bit about their budget. All right. Thank you, Mr. Cedric. So, in your packet, I believe you have really everything uh that I'll be going through tonight, but really wanted to take this opportunity to answer any questions that you may have on the Resa budget. Uh the board is asked annually to offer a supporting resolution for our general fund budget. Uh so I just thought I would really give you an overview, kind of talk about the details within our general fund, do some comparisons um to the to the overall of what makes up our general fund and then run through uh
015kind of the line by line detail with you. So please feel free at any time to uh ask any questions. So uh the the RESA operates very similarly to a local education agency such as MAPS but also very differently. So we have a general fund uh just like MAPS. We also have a capital projects fund like MAPS but then we um as an intermediate school district also have a special education fund. And as you're well aware as a board, there are there are certain things that are required to be spent out of certain funds. So our general fund is for general ISD operations, but then uh we run a lot of grants through the agency. So we have several grants that are for our local school districts that are run through the general fund. Some
016of those are the 31N mental health um supports that districts receive, nutrition, uh education, math and uh literacy coaches. Uh CTE are some of the the main ones that run through our general fund. Then we also as a RISA we uh are fiscal agent for uh the department of education actually we run uh several grants for the state for the entire state. So those uh types of grants are run uh through our general fund as well. And then a new a new um initiative I guess that is fiscal agent for is the talent together program. It's a statewide initiative really to bring more educators in the classroom from uh really the beginning or parapro roles uh those who are essentially it's a grow your own program. How do we how do we take care of
017the teacher shortage throughout the state so we uh at Mark and Eleresa are the fiscal agent for that program for the entire state. Then our special education fund that is uh predominantly staff for the local education agencies. That's your school psychologists, social workers, physical therapists, occupational therapists, etc. It also is where we uh pay for staff who oversee those programs at the RESA. So that could be um our directors, our supervisors, etc. But the majority of our special education funds flow back to our local school districts. So we have been fortunate enough with the passage of uh the additional millillage for special education, we flow back uh nearly 10 to 11 million a year to our local school districts from the local mill that have been uh collected. And then the special education fund is
018also that fund that has those special programs. So you may be familiar with the day treatment program that we began uh last year. It's also where our transition program the kind of the 19 to 26 year olds sent. Um so multi-functioning fund uh if you will and then lastly capital projects fund very similar uh to the locals uh used for capital uh outlay uh building projects etc because we're we're not able to uh utilize a syncing fund. So uh at the RHISA our our current building is roughly uh 20 plus years old. Um nothing was done to the facility for about 20 years. So we had a lot of deferred maintenance. So right now um we are uh undergoing kind of an annual uh capital outlay uh plan to replace those items that are kind
019of at the end of their uh operational life. So, that's the overview of the three funds that make up uh really the the Reese's financial picture. Thought uh since the board will be reviewing the general fund this evening, I'd kind of even break it down a little bit further. So, we have this roughly $64 million pot of general fund expenditures, but how are they either connected to MAPS or not connected to MAPS or any of our other locals? So, if you look at that pie chart, the biggest chunk there, the $28 million, that is um grants and other uh programs for um I'm sorry, I'm I'm looking at I'm going around this backwards. So, the 28 million there is the talent together program. $28 million is a lot out of our $64 million. So when
020you look at the budget detail, when we go through the budget detail there, you will see a lot of items marked talent together, those are essentially funds in and funds out. Prior to the talent together, um prior to the rea taking on talent together, our budget was much closer to the $30 million mark. That next biggest pie there, the 228, that is our state fiscal agent grants. Those are grants again that I mentioned. We do work for the Michigan Department of Education. We run programs for them and again that's essentially money in and money out of our general fund. We do those programs. We take on the talent together program. We take on these state fiscal agent grants to provide a additional revenue stream for the RISA. So we can do things for our LEAs
021for our agency that we wouldn't be able to do otherwise. A good example of that recently has been uh the math coaches. Literacy was a thing that the state was looking at before the state put any money behind um math coaches. We were able to do so at the reset. We were able to hire an individual to be able to provide those services to our locals prior to any state funding. and we're able to do that. What we try to do is say we we have enough funding for this position to benefit the locals for a minimum of five years. We don't want to start a program and then take it away. So that's our that's a good example of a recent commitment that we made with some of those dollars that we earned from
022doing this additional work. Then if you kind of continue to go around the pie chart there, the 4.8 8 million. Those are grants uh for LEAs uh directly. So grants or flow through funds from the general fund. So that might be CTE equipment. That would be where our math and literacy coaches are. Those are things that directly benefit uh our LEAs. And then that 8.4 million that is the rest of the ISD operation. So that includes all of our operations and maintenance, the business office, the superintendent's office, all of those things that can't be attached really to any other program and aren't in any way directly connected to a local uh school district. Any questions on kind of the overview so far? Okay. So then the next page in your packet there, the third page,
023where the money goes and overview. So this really is our uh expenditure portion of the budget that you have before you, but broken out with additional detail. So what I tried to do here was show you how there might be some pretty big numbers in categories like other support. If you look at other support, uh there's a $17.1 million uh amount attached to that. Other support is a uh heading that the state of Michigan assigns those uh those items. We are following the same accounting manual that your school district does, but because of the types of expenditures that we run through the RESA, much falls into that other category. So when we go through this, you'll see that 17.1 million, that's for our state fiscal agent grants. that that function code, if you will, is
024where the personnel employed by those state fiscal agent grants, that's where we're required by the state to report them. So hopefully as we go through this, you'll see how a lot of those big numbers are attached to either a fiscal agent grant or talent together. So, beginning with instruction, uh, first of all, I guess I should say the the majority of the RESA's instructional support comes in our special education fund. So, that is not something that the that your board uh reviews. It's just the piece that's connected with the general fund. So, our general fund has $1.2 $2 million in added needs instruction uh support and that's for predominantly our CTE program. So that uh covers our CTE staff, the middle college expenditures, CTE program, uh equipment, uh those types of expenditures are what sits
025in our general fund. When we go into the pupil supporting services area, $1.7 million are those direct services uh to your students. So that's 31N mental support that grant the health resource advocate or the school nurse. Um McKini Vento, that's the federal uh homeless uh program. And also I feel I I should note we at market eljaresa are the um I guess fiscal agent if you will for the UPwide homeless effort. So we run a lot of McKini Vento uh programs and staff through the RISA but we cover the entire upper peninsula. going down in instructional support and instructional staff support. You'll see $3 million. That's for professional development like fall edcon uh that we did this year at Northern. It covers some uh technology consortiums, the REMC merit internet, a piece of our uh
026technology director, our REMC director again, CTE director, uh MTSS director, mental health coordinator, and here again we have those math consultant and literacy and and there's a little bit of state fiscal agent grant in that 3 million. We go to the next line, that 18.68 68 million that's all talent together staff. Um we so we've got with talent together we've got a large portion that's staff and we have a large portion that are the fees to the universities uh because we we pay for tuition for all of those uh several hundred candidates in talent together. So we have tuition, we have the talent together program costs, and then we also have the um reimbursement to local school districts for the apprenticeship program. So as a candidates moving through talent together, we actually as Talent Together
027pay for um pay for them when they're an apprentice teacher. So there's there's three large costs that are associated with talent together. Can I just stop really quick? Sure. So just to confirm the RIA is our RISA is running the entire talent together program for the state for the state of how did that happen? Why us? There's so many huge Well, I don't need to tell you. So we our RISA was the was one. So there were seven ISDs about two years ago who got together and said, "What are we going to do to mitigate the teacher shortage, right? We were part of that discussion." Okay. Um and so those seven ISDs banded together and said, "We're going to do something and gradually uh got every single ISD in the state on board." So we
028early on said we would be willing to be fiscal agent and support the program and um that's that's how that's a very large program and much larger ISDS in our state. So I just wondered how it came to fruition that little old Marquette Elger got something that big because we were in underground. Gotcha. And I think another thing that's related to that, um, we have been, uh, fiscal agent for several of those state grants, not talent together, but but things that essentially now MDE literally reaches out to the RISA and says, "We have this additional program we need help uh, running. Would you be willing to be fiscal agent for it?" So, we're kind of now known in that space as a as a responsible and very efficient fiscal agent for the state. So, we
029So, you serve in that role. Re the Mara serves in that role as fiscal agents for multiple state programs and we work that money through multiple correct. That is an unknown fact by me. All right. Now, I know. Thank you. Interesting. Any other questions? Okay, then I'll keep uh keep rolling through support services. So, next up there is a general administration just like a local school district. That's where we're required to report the superintendent's office, any board of education expenditures. Uh we also hold in there the carry contract. So as um MAPS is one of the first that received that MTSS support through through carry those those contracts are run through that uh function line and then we have some administrative some general administrative costs that are attached to talent together in the next line.
030business support services. Um that 946,000 there, that's our business office, our finance office, also uh the receptionist uh at the the RISA includes all sorts of insuranceances, errors and omissions insurance, cyber insurance. Uh but then I also feel it's important to note that that's where uh tax fees. So the the local municipalities charge us to collect taxes on our behalf. So, um, we pay all of those townships and municipalities to collect taxes for us. And then it's also where any abated or written off taxes are required to be charged. So, if we don't receive if we get some abated taxes, that that loss of revenue actually goes on our books as an expense in the in the business office. Go figure. uh business support, there's an additional 80,000 there for the Talent Together program. Uh
031moving on to operations and maintenance. So that includes our maintenance staff, our building utilities, building insurance, things like that. Uh we've got an additional $65,000 in there for state fiscal agent grants. One of the programs that we have, we actually lease a lease a building in the Lancing area uh for that program. As I mentioned before, um the homeless program, that's that's the uh only area we have people transportation costs associated. We either buy gas card vouchers for families or uh bus passes or things like that. That's where that transportation piece comes from. When we move on to central support services, that 2.8 million there, that's our deputy superintendent. A lot of our uh instructional leadership is there. So, director of technology, school safety coordinator, many of our administrative assistants, um there's a roughly 800
032or I'm sorry, $700,000 Michigan Virtual High School Consortium contract that sits in there. um human resources, communications, legal, um the remainder of our technology department, and then uh people accounting and state compliance and state reporting also sits in that line. We've got uh 2.68 million of central support services for our fiscal agent grants sitting there, $1.6 $6 million for talent together and then again 17.1 million as I had mentioned earlier for our state fiscal agent grants that fall in other support services. Moving on to community services. You see there's $850,000 there. Uh most of that is for the tri share program. We are a fiscal agent for that program. So the money flows through there. the great start collaborative um literacy dollars, some additional homeless uh services sit there and then the the wellness task
033force. Then all the way at the bottom those outgoing transfers. So we've got $104,000 of LEA transfers, uh funds that we receive that we push back out to the ELEAS. The biggest one there is the Medicaid C4s dollars. um we as an ISD could hold those dollars. We push all of those back to our local school districts and have have really done so since that program began. We also have a little bit in reimbursement for uh summer school programs. We do by co-op. Um we offer funds to offer a summer school and then uh many of our um professional development opportunities at the Rhissa we reimburse your school districts for substitute teachers, substitute aids. Uh that's where those uh those funds are. What is the Medicaid C4S? They are Medicaid Medicaid dollars that we receive
034for essentially general education. So we receive the majority of our Medicaid dollars come from special education. These now it's a newerish program that we're able to get reimbursed some funds for staff that see general ed students. um $4.9 million of payments to other governmental units. Um a lot of that is state fiscal agent grant transfers, but then also recently the state has done some CTE equipment grants. So we have dollars that flow from us to you. Uh GSRP programs are those transfers are also part of this. Then uh there's also some uh great start collaborative dollars that run um in in direct payments to local uh local education agencies. Then we have uh $5.5 million of payments to other governmental units for talent together. Those are the tuition payments to or I'm sorry the the
035um uh apprenticeship dollars rather to the local school districts. So they it's a reimbursement uh process. So as they as they pay for those apprenticeships in the local school districts, we reimburse them um those costs. And then we have a $1.5 million transfer from our general fund to our capital projects fund anticipated for next year. So all of those expenditures add up to $64.2 million. You go to the the overall uh budget that's included in your packet. Um I know it's a little bit small to fit on a letter sheet of paper, but you'll see essentially that number tie out in the expenditure side. Typically that's where all the questions are are on the expenditure side but I can briefly just run through revenues in our general fund. We receive very little local revenue. Um
036our operating millage uh for the ISD general operations is only about 814,000 a year. So 814,000 out of 64 million. Uh and then you'll see in the state grants that's predominantly talent together makes up that $37 million federal that 22 million uh that's mostly the uh state one of the state fiscal agent grants. It goes from the state that goes from the federal government to the state to us to run the state. It's called the state performance plan uh grant. And then there are some minor uh fund modifications as revenue as well. So we end up with 65.3 million in revenue against 64.2 million in expenditure. I know I just gave you a lot there. Any additional questions? How much of the federal grants are at risk? Good question. Uh too soon to know right
037now. Uh most of the most of the grants that education entities receive are forwardfunded, meaning they were already appropriated by Congress a year ago. The states get the funds and then we um you know we have them or the state has them in hand to distribute. I don't think we really know yet. Um many of the many of the federal programs that the department of educ the federal department of education uh distributes to school districts like title one or idea special education dollars. Those programs existed prior to the creation of the department of education. So we received those funds through other mechanisms before and that's what we believe would would transpire in the future. However, there is so much in play right now. Um it's really anybody's guess. I mean title one existed before the
038department of education, but we have also heard that there could be massive cuts to title one. So uh none of none of that really has been said in any form of stone yet. So is it your opinion that the districts like maps could spend that money and not be reimbursed? Not in this current fiscal year. Um so the the the title one title two allocations that districts have received um the state of Michigan already has those funds. The only funds that I've seen districts uh possibly get clawed back are if districts did not spend their um uh what are the funds the um like the co dollars 98. Yes. The the esser dollars if if districts had asked for an extension to the original time frame uh those funds may be clawed back. But as
039far as title, it is uh the belief of those of us in the the business world right now, those funds are safe. Those have already been sent to the states. Those have been allocated. Uh and we've not heard anything about possible clawback. Next year, you know, I I wouldn't I wouldn't plan on uh fully expending my title dollars if we have title, right? There's just there's so much up in the air right now. Questions? Yeah, thank you for the clarification on your um so I just wanted to say I I appreciate I think last year if memory serves we had this presented and it was um quite a bit uh less than what was presented here which which this was offered up a lot of um excellent information uh comparative. So it's much appreciated. Um
040even though I know our board is largely ceremonial but um just a couple of quick questions. Um well first a quick comment. I did have um just wanted to mention I did have some recent exposure to the middle college uh program. Um really was really impressed. So thought that was really really a cool program. Um payments to other government units. Uh trails. Mhm. Is that is that a program or is that a it's an acronym? I'm not sure off the top of my head what the trails program is. It's a social emotional. I was going to say it's a health program. Social emotional. Thank you. Thank you. Um in regards to and and this might have been mentioned and I apologize if I missed it, but the uh out of the millillage that was passed
041recently. Um do you do you know approximately what map share that is or has that been determined at this point? Good question. Um it's kind of a moving target. So I I I can't tell you off the top of my head right now what MAPS's share of the current mill is, but right now every single district is 100% fully funded for special education. So we are we are reimbursing you the maximum amount possible uh out of that fund. I can tell you before the millillage we had about a $2 million shortfall. We're now whole. We're about 40% of the millillage. So 40% of is 5 million I believe for the millillage and we're 2 million of that. Okay. So match is receiving approximately 2 million about two well that was at least from the millillage
042right about 2 million because we had the shortfall and essentially got had that wiped out. Okay. So, so that and and is that schedule I mean do you anticipate that being a fairly level amount or is that so what what our goal is to is to continue to try to fully reimburse our local school districts. We take all of the revenue that each individual school district receives for special education, subtract that from their overall special education expenditures and reimburse the rest. Okay. So, I mean, as long as the overall expenditures resawwide don't exceed the funding, we hypothetically could continue to reimburse fully. Last year, however, as an example, I I think our overall expenditures in special education resawwide increased by nearly $2 million. So you you know our our revenue the tax the uh taxable
043value doesn't increase by doesn't generate an increase of $2 million annually. So we anticipate for the next couple of years being able to fully fund and then it will just be a sheer uh percentage. So now we have enough funds to reimburse all districts 92% of special education. Does that make sense? Yep. Thank you. Mhm. Um and then also on the millillage too, the um 2030 for homestead and non-h homestead. Is that millillage the same for homestead and non-h homesteaded properties? The operating mill. Operating millages. Okay. All right. Thank you. No. And again, thank you for the clarification. You're welcome. Very thorough. Thank you very much, Mr. Pati. Really appreciate you coming. Do you need me for any I see later on in the agenda. I'll leave that up to the board. Do you need
044Mr. Kichi to stick around for any more questions? Looks like you're all set. Thank you very much for the opportunity. Thank you, Mr. Our third and final guest for the superintendent report is Mr. Vanderaf, our auxiliary services director, who's here to talk about our bus fleet. We had a a change in plans after a recent inspection. And thank you, Mr. Vander Scaff, we started the day today very early and you're here with me late, so thank you. Yep. No worries. Thank you. Thanks for the intro as well, Zach. Like I said, this is the transportation hat right now. So, with our recent uh state inspection, four buses were deemed uh non-serviceable to be to use in our bus fleet. That's on top of three from last year, year-over-year. So, we're down seven there. We did
045have two replacements that are back in the fleet from last year's purchases, but the two purchased or purchases that were approved in January are not in house yet. They're not won't be in house until after the school year. So, right now, that leaves us down, it's not there, five buses from where we were a year ago or a little over a year ago. So, that makes us a little tight. As uh Mr. Engles, athletic director, could attest, we had to he asked for two buses for a recent track event. We could give him one. and that was keeping one bus in reserve for any eventuality on our, you know, 14 afternoon bus runs. So, that is kind of why I'm here. That's the the long and the short of it. But the uh the recommendation
046in the packet is to purchase a bus that should have relatively immediate availability. That's a 2020 model year. Um it's a used bus with approximately 55,000 miles on it coming out of service in the lower lower Michigan area. So, it should meet all of our Michigan specific requirements. So that is also a a factor in the recommendation to say hey the real the the gap the squeeze is for the spring sports season essentially right now we that leaves us with effectively four spare buses one being a sort of designated trip bus which is a new bus 24B and then we have three older buses unfortunately one of those three older buses is also at the shop and probably won't be for another couple weeks so that's where we get to instances where we're turning back
047a trip because as you you're running 14 buses, stuff happens in that instance. A chipped windshield from a you know, a mining truck going the opposite direction, cracked out, and you have to you have to get that replaced before you can put it back in service. So, like I said, we uh we've had some some tightness on the busing side. That's why we're here to recommend another bus purchase. And uh if you look at the age of some of these older buses, I think we can kind of anticipate, you know, potential for another three being red tagged next year. So that's kind of another portion of the the thought process here. Three potentially four of those. Bus 10, that's probably the year it was in service. Bus uh 13 and 13A would all be somewhat
048likely a fair reasonable likelihood of of not passing inspection next year. Does anyone have any questions? Uh as we have the the quote for that uh 2020 model year bus and I do have the other competing quote. um it's from New Mexico and it had seat belts in it. It would be kind of a little bit longer turnaround and also some added cost on the delivery from Tulsa to here. Um so a little bit less immediate and also two model years older and it's usually kind of the age of the bus that's killing us less so than the the engines and the transmissions that are going on. They just kind of tend to rotate. Am I correct that you've got about 60% of the warranty on this bus that you're recommending to purchase? Uh, that
049would be on the powertrain warranty. That's correct. I don't think there's going to be any quote unquote bumper-to-bumper warranty on this one. 2020, it's a little it's past that. Do you encounter problems with the powertrain typically or? Not typically. I'd say the biggest thing would be your diesel particulate type of emissions equipment is probably what's going on. Uh, one of those older buses that got red tagged did have its transmiss transmission go out, but that was a from 20 uh 20 2007. So, that's an 18y old bus. And that but the other ones are still running fine with 200,000 miles on. So, we had planned on purchasing two. We're asking to purchase a third as a result of having two additional buses red tagged during the last inspection and forecasting that we may have to
050do the same thing next year. Instead of budgeting for two, budgeting for three to make up that difference, we can sell these used buses or once they fail state like what do you do here? What what do we do with these buses? We scrap them for what we can get which is a pretty nominal amount. I don't remember off the top of my head. like nothing. We we usually put them out to bid first and generally we don't receive any bids. Um right, as you can imagine. Uh so then yes, then we put them out to to scrap and I think generally we we we get, you know, depending on the scrap value at the time, you know, $1,000, $1,200. Um not a huge sum of money. So, if you're one of those people wants
051to retrofit a school bus and travel the country, you have an opportunity. Look at that. This is perfect. Great timing. How much do you typically save purchasing used over new? So, we've seen a significant increase in the cost of a a new school bus. Um, when I started with the district in 2001, school buses were going for about $90,000 at that time and now they're in excess of 130 to 140,000. So just in that short time, we've seen a significant cost increase to a new bus. Is there any thought that tariffs are going to impact the price of buses? Um the the tariffs are targeting foreign makers. I I don't know the uh composition of the buses that we're purchasing, whether they're all built internally in the US or if they're sourced with parts outside
052of the US. Um but I think generally uh most uh most manufacturers now are sourcing with international parts. So I would I would think that yes, tariffs would have an impact on future pricing. Would that change your recommendations on when to acquire the next round of buses? Um perhaps perhaps um if if uh if the board so so desired, we could look at um uh the feasibility of of purchasing additional uh buses at this time rather than delaying until next year. Um, as as far as purchasing a new bus goes, um, there is we we generally purchase new buses based off the competitive bid of the UP consortium. Uh, those bid prices are generally only good for a certain amount of time, but I want to say March is so we would be beyond that.
053We'd have to we'd have to go out uh for for bid. um uh uh on our own outside of the consortium which you know generally up we have a little bit better bargaining uh power when we go through the consortium. So that'd be one consideration. Any other questions for Mr. Vanderf? Thank you very much for joining us. I really appreciate your support. And with that concludes the superintendent report. If you have no other questions, turn it back over to you, Mrs. Camzy. Thank you. Uh moving on to approving the consent agenda, which would include the minutes of the regular meeting of March 17, 2025, and the minutes of the board retreat of March 18, 2025. Make a motion to approve the consent agenda as presented. Second. Okay. Motion made by Mr. Zudnick, support by Mrs.
054Clip. Um, all those in favor? I. Any opposed? Motion passes. Uh, comments from the public. I don't believe we have any. You guys want to make any comments? Good. All right. Uh, moving on to new business. Shoot. Uh, consider adoption of the resolution for local district consideration of Maresa's 2025 2026 budget. I'll make a motion that we consider the adoption of the resolution for local district consideration of Maurice's 2025 2026 budget as presented. Support. Okay. Motion made by Mrs. Clip, support by Mrs. Maddox Smith. Uh, do we have any further comments or questions about Maurice's budget? Okay. Hearing none. Um, all those in favor? I. Any opposed? Motion passes. Um, consider purchase of school bus from Midwest Transit Equipment pursuant to recommendation Make a motion to approve the purchase of the school bus from Midwest
055Transit Equipment based on the recommendation provided. Support. Okay. Motion made by Mr. Zadnik, support by Mr. Smith. Uh, any further comments or questions regarding the bus purchase? Okay. Hearing none. All those in favor? I. Any opposed? Motion passes. Um, let's see. Approve board member attendance and online board member certification CBA classes through MASB. Um, is that something that I need to recuse myself from since I'm on the board? This is more of a generic motion to cover the new policy if I understand correctly. Mrs. Kristen's question is since she's on her board, I don't think it would hurt to recuse yourself. Point. Yes. Okay. That's what I That's what I thought. Okay. Uh so I would entertain a motion to approve the board member attendance for online classes. I'll make a motion to approve board
056member attendance and online board certification classes through MASB. Support. [Music] All right. Uh motion made by Mrs. Clip. Um support by Ms. Thomas. Um all those in favor? I not me. Not me. Uh any opposed? No. Uh one recusal. That would be me. So the motion passes. um consider reimbursement of expenses not already covered by MASB of board president Kambenzi for attendance at the MASB spring institute. So uh the spring institute is at Men Island this year. Um so MASB would cover since I am on their board um a good chunk of my classes and such. So this would be for lodging and and other expenses. I make a motion we um consider reimbursement for expenses not already covered by FASB for our board president Cambzi for attendance at the spring institute. Second. Okay. Motion
057made by Mrs. Maddock Smith, support by Ms. Clip. Um any comments or questions? All those in favor? I any opposed and then probably should recuse myself in that one too. So then we'll do that. Okay. Uh moving on to board member comments. Start with Mr. Smith. Well, I appreciate the uh information from Resa. Um, I'll have to confess that the acronyms are still foreign to me and I'm just beginning to learn what some of those are all about, but I think I was able to get about 80% of it. So, I appreciate that. Um, I guess I am concerned a little bit about the impact at the federal level on uh some of our expenses coming up and I'm sure that uh Mr. Sedwick is also concerned about that as well as Mr. Lampman. Um,
058so maybe that's something we'll be able to get some additional insights on as we begin to move forward in the air. But, uh, the potential for increasing our expenses is real and probably something that we want to begin to take a look at. Miss Thomas, thank you to our speakers this evening. And no other com Mrs. Maddox Smith. Uh, pretty much echoing everybody else. Um, I agree with Mr. Smith. Looking into expenditures coming up is um something I think we should be looking at and thanks to our speakers. So much information. Thanks for breaking it down to to us. Mrs. No further comment, Mr. There's a good name. No additional comment. Thank you. Uh board president comments. Just echoing everyone else. Uh thank you very much to our speakers. Um announcements and other meetings. April
05918th, 2025, Good Friday Holiday, no school. April 21st, 2025 board meeting, 5:30 p.m. at the alternative high school in the family room. And I would entertain a motion to adjurnn. Take a motion to adjurnn. Second. Okay. Motion made by Mr. Zudin, support by Miss Thomas. All those in favor? I. Any opposed? Motion passes.