001good evening everyone okay i like to call the regular meeting of the pagoda board of education for june 14th 2022 to order everybody please stand for the flag salute [Music] to the flag of the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands one nation under god indivisible with liberty and justice for all [Music] okay [Music] the new jersey public open public meetings law was enacted to ensure the right of the public to have advanced notice of and to attend the meetings of the public bodies at which any business affecting their interest is discussed or acted upon in accordance with the provisions of this act the pagoda board of education has caused notice of this meeting to be published by having the date time and place thereof posted in the pagoda borough
002hall communicated by letter to the record filed with the clerk of the of the borough of pagoda and posted on the pagoda board of education website mr irfan may you call the role please mr sullivan present mr oliver president mr chavez president mrs cruz president mrs coles here mr soleil president mr ortega president mr president mr miranda present thank you board also present our superintendent damian kennedy board attorney william sukis welcome school business administrator board secretary irfan epsil and assistant board secretary elizabeth ruiz i'd like to open the floor to hearing of citizens on agenda items only do i have a motion motion calls thank you calls second have a second chavez any board discussion all in favor aye aye is there any member of the public who would like to address agenda items only
003speakers please state your name and address you have five minutes on agenda items only no one it looks like we have no one so i'll take a motion to close citizen uh remarks hearings on citizen remarks on agenda items only do i have a motion do i have a second any discussion all in favor aye thank you very much moving on to uh section 3.1 on our right on that yep on our agenda superintendents reports mr kennedy thank you yes so we have a uh a bunch of distinguished guests to uh recognize tonight um but first just a quick recap last two weeks have been great we've had a lot of programs and award ceremonies it's kind of been crammed in uh to the end of the year because we waited as long as possible
004we were able to get everything in this year we will continue tomorrow night with bixby graduation thursday steen and we are the weather is agreeable at this time for friday night at the field so for the for the high school so we're looking forward to that first tonight i would like to recognize the work of a group of individuals who have spent a total of 74 years of service working for the pagoda school community their dedication and love for working with students will be missed tonight we say a final goodbye and present them a small token of our gratitude the plaques read presented in grateful appreciation for your dedication and service to the children in the community of the pagoda school district when i call your name please come forward and receive your plaque from
005the board president mr frank miranda first up our music teacher and marching band director who has been with us since 1999 mr barry mccann next up our english teacher miss denise giamma who's been with us since 2004 [Applause] and finally our esl teacher miss lisa torino who's been with us since 1989. [Applause] just so next it's my pleasure to honor five high school seniors who have accomplished a tremendous academic fee a few a few years ago highly motivated students were identified for a new program at bergen community college the five students worked hard not only in their high school curriculum but also enrolled in courses at bcc their hard work has paid off because earlier this month the students graduated with their associate's degree from bergen community [Applause] the college students are honored tonight with
006a plaque that reads in recognition of your graduation from pagoda junior senior high school with an associate's degree from bergen community college when i call your name please come forward to receive your plaque and take a pres a picture with board president mr miranda franklin linares congratulations very much olivia burnett [Applause] aziz [Applause] kaelin torres [Applause] congratulations and finally ashley batista [Applause] congratulations to the students and their families and thank you to the students who make us all very proud of their accomplishment okay next up so each year in bergen county they recognize the teachers of the of the year in each building uh they usually have a big breakfast banquet uh it's a really big deal we have not had it in over three years uh because of covid it was canceled again this
007year uh but we decided to go ahead and form our committees and have names submitted to the committees and select our teachers of the year this year regardless if the county was canceled so we would like to recognize those teachers tonight with a plaque and thank them for their dedication first up from bixby school mr frank pasaretti [Applause] from steen kim nielsen [Applause] from the pagoda middle school alexandria del rosso [Applause] you and finally from pagoda junior senior high school mr patrick rockford so next up i like to call interim athletic director patrick clark to do the next two presentations good evening everyone many of you may have attended our marathon of awards ceremonies last week so i'm sure you may have heard of all the student-athletes individual and team accomplishments however tonight we are
008here to not only honor our team's championship seasons but also thank the administration and the board of education for their generosity every member of a championship team was awarded a jacket to congratulate them on an outstanding season on behalf of each team thank you all from the bottom of our hearts when i call your team up please come to the front for a picture first up with a league record of 9-0 njic patriot league champions girls cross country yeah you're right squeeze in squeeze in next up with a league record of 9-0 njic patriot league champions boys cross country [Applause] next up with a league record of 18-0 njic patriot league champions state sectional champions and group 1 state champions girls volleyball [Applause] and last but certainly not least with a league record of 18-0
009and their first league championship in 21 years njic patriot league champions the bowling team thank you yes [Applause] i would just like to point out that those four teams combined for a 54 54-0 record in the league give those teams a round of applause one more time i'm also lucky to be a part of another uh important event this evening so before we get started i just want to thank a few people who helped make tonight possible a special thanks to mr o'boyle our art teacher whose commitment to his students and to the arts would have made mr brown proud i also i would like to thank freshman artist lauren warwoo whose artwork was used to create tonight's plaques and would have for sure been one of mr brown's prize students at this time i
010would like to call up mrs brown and her family please come on up mrs brown we would like to present you and your family with this plaque containing the original artwork used to create the plaque which is now hung outside of the art room the plaque reads the less lb brown art room mr brown's legacy of commitment to the artistic creativity and success of pagoda students within this room and beyond is an enduring inspiration for all dedicated june 14 2022 we invite you guys after this is all done take a look at the plaque hung outside the art room now known as the les brown art room thank you i'd like to make a motion to recess for 10 minutes so to allow folks to get refreshments and take photographs and reconvene after them thank
011you mrs rocket may have a second second all in favor hi thank you 10 minute recess uh what is it seven seven hole five enjoy some cookies refreshments and we'll get back we're going to open the meetings um [Music] motion to reopen public meeting promotion i have a second album was that olivia thank you um and it is all in favor all right thank you very much uh moving on to resolution 4.3 approval of agenda items 4.1 and 4.2 minutes of the open session of may 10 2022 work action meeting open session and may 17th regular meeting open session is there a motion to approve 4.3 motion kohl's about to take chavez as a second is there is there any discussion mr irfan mr sullivan yes mr alvarez yes mr choice yes mrs cruz yes
012mrs coles um yes on the 10th and the 17th i was absent mrs oliva yes mr ortega miss rocket no on the 10th and yes on the 17th mr miranda yes motion carry thank you very much moving on to uh on the policy portion of agenda uh resolutions 5.1 abolishment of policy is there a motion on resolution 5.1 motion calls thank you calls is there a second thank you john chavez any board discussion i have a roll call mr iphone mr celebrities yes mr alvarez yes mr chavez yes mrs cruz yes mrs coles yeah mrs oliver yes mr ortega yes miss record yes mr miranda yes motion carry thank you resolution 5.2 approval of first reading of policies of regulation is there a motion to approve 5.2 it's called i put mr second for busy
013rocket yes thank you mrs rocket any discussion irfan mrs alvarez yes mr alvarez yes mr chavez yes mrs cruz yes mrs coles yes mrs oliver yes mr ortega yes mr record yes mr amanda yes motion carried thank you moving on to education portion of the agenda resolution 6.27 approval of consent agenda item 6.1 through 6.26 is there a motion to approve resolution 6.27 motion mr rocket second chavez any discussion mr irfan mrs alvarez yes mr alvarez yes mr chavez yes mrs cruz yes mrs coles yeah mrs oliver yes mr ortega yes mr rocket yes mr miranda yes motion carry thank you moving on to personnel portion of the agenda resolution 7.27 approval of consent agenda items 7.1 through 7.26 is there a motion to approve resolution 7.27 motion calls thank you miss coles is there
014a second thank you mrs olivo any discussion by the board i have a roll call mr fong yes mr alvarez uh yes everything but under 7.15 i have to abstain from kenneth brown mr chavez yes mr scrooge yes mr scholes yes mrs oliver yes mr ortega yes miss rocket yes mr miranda yes motion carry thank you moving on to the finance portion of the agenda resolution 8.49 approval of consent agenda items 8.1 through 8.48 is there a motion to approve resolutions i'm sorry resolution 8.49 motion calls thank you calls is there a second thomas chavez any discussion mr irfan mr sullivan yes mr alvarez yes mr chavez yes mrs cruz yes mrs coles yes mrs olivo yes mr ortega yes miss rocket yes mr amanda yes motion carry moving on to buildings and grounds portion
015of the agenda resolution 9.6 of the agenda items 9.1 through 9.5 is there a motion to approve resolution 9.6 of us alvarez roberts ortega yes for the second thank you very much any discussion all in fact i'm sorry mister no call mister sure mr celebrates yes mr roberts yes mr chavez yes mrs cruz yes mrs cole yes mrs oliver yes mr ortega yes mr rocket yes mr miranda yes thank you moving on to resolution 10.1 approval of physics teacher is there a motion to approve resolution 10.1 motion call i'm sorry rocket may have a second second calls any disc uh any discussion mr orphan mrs alvarez yes mr alvarez yes mr chavez yes mr scrooge yes mrs coles yes mr sullivan yes mr ortega yes mr rocket yes mr miranda yes moving on to resolution
01610.2 approval approval of interim supervisor of special services is there a motion to approve resolution 10.2 motion thank you mr rocket anyone else chavez any discussion mr irfan mr sobres yes mr alvarez yes mr chavez yes mrs cruz yes mrs cole yes mrs oliver yes mr ortega yes mr record yes mr miranda yes motion carried resolute moving on to resolution 10.3 approval of part-time custodians is there a motion to approve resolution 10.3 motion john john ortega a second alvarez alvarez robert any discussion mr irfan mr sulbrus yes mr alvarez yes mr chavez yes mr scooch yes mrs coles yes mrs olivo yes mr ortega yes mr rocket yes mr miranda yes moving on to resolution 10.4 approval of special education teacher to work in the summer is there a motion to approve resolution 10.4 motion
017thomas chavez is there a second second rocket any discussion roll call mr irfan mr sobres yes mr alvarez yes mr chavez yes mrs cruz yes mrs coles yes mrs oliver yes mr ortega yes miss rocket yes mr miranda yes motion carry thank you next on the agenda is item 11.1 committee reports are there any committee reports tonight yeah um policy committee has met a few times and there's been several quite a few mandated mostly revised mandated policies um one in particular i thought might be of interest is um policy 5541 anti-hazing this is a new mandated policy that requires the district's anti-hazing policy to be applied to conduct on excuse me on or off school grounds um it's it's um similar to the hiv policy harassment intimidation and bullying and just to clarify hazing is
018in a school setting includes but not limited to conduct by an individual who is a member or represent representative of a school-sponsored student organization club athletic team where such individual conducts conditions a student's acceptance as a member into such group or whether this or whether the student engages in activities that are humiliating demeaning intimidating and exhausting to the student sure would you like to touch on the uniforms really quick so the uniform committee met a few times and we've received some responses to our rfp um i believe we're going to be ready this summer to put out a revised guideline to our uniform it's just so you know nothing you know we're not taking away anything from our uniforms we're we're if anything we're just trying to simplify it allow more flexibility more affordability so
019hopefully we'll have a very clear concise guideline for you very soon so this fall will go into um you'll all know what the new guidelines are for for our uniforms um the diversity committee also met um the multicultural event was postponed due to covered numbers increasing in may so we're hopeful to put together a school and community event um something you know really big and positive this fall so hopefully we'll get some parents and family involvement get some volunteers people to help plan this event um also the new state standards are being added to the curriculum to include dei diversity equity and inclusion so um we already have a pretty tight curriculum but just a little shout out to sam chang who's putting together this um this summer and yeah so that's good and that's
020it thank you mrs cruz first and foremost i know most of you and all of you have put in a lot of work in meetings crunched up meetings to get this done for the for our residents um anyone else on committee reports okay i think that if i had one it would be what we're gonna see soon right so um moving on to uh 12.1 which is old business and the old business none and moving on to section of 13.1 which is new business and we open up our community forum correct yeah i think we should wait for 7 30. we we advertise for 7 30 we kind of moved through the agenda so i would like to get started at 7 30 because we have a presentation and although there are some people here
021um there might be some people online that will be logging on at 7 30 so um you know so i guess i apologize if everyone could stick around for an extra few minutes and enjoy some of the refreshments do i have to motion do i get a motion no new business well yes okay we'll take uh 10 minutes 10 minute break we'll be back soon okay board we're going to reconvene you i have a motion to open public meeting again motion have a second second italian all in favor aye aye thank you we're going to shift over mr kennedy or so at this point um what we're going to do is invite um alexis and frank from solutions architect to present what we've been working on for the last couple years and give everyone an
022idea of what we're looking to do in the district and what goes into that so you guys go over there if you want do you want to see it can we see this one you should see it yeah i mean i have it right here [Music] good evening everyone wow uh thank you guys for coming uh to learn a little bit about the district-wide planning of a potential referendum for the district uh education has always been the key to success here and the district feels very strongly about moving forward with a proposal so under a potential referendum the pagoda schools would request funding for a district-wide facilities renovation program that would include functional sustainable infrastructure and classroom renovation projects via a targeted referendum that could take place in december of 22 or march of 23
023depending upon timing and department of education reviews facilities are very crucial to supporting the programs that you got you the district wants to offer to the students so it's important that we time and try to plan for why now why are we choosing to do this now while the board of education has successfully completed a variety of projects within the operating budget they are imposed under a two percent cap and can only do so much under the regular operating budget we're dealing with aging schools and if you look at that the average age of these schools is 105 years old so at some point in spite of the fact that education always takes precedence over facilities there are things that start to fail there are things that go beyond their useful life and have to
024be taken care of and while education is the priority we continue to kick the can down the road and therefore things get worse and worse right now we have to make an attempt to secure a fair interest rate as we all know rates are rising so this would the the referendum was intended to be issued a year ago but the pandemic stopped stopped that process and didn't allow that to happen so we want to make sure that we can get out and still take advantage of of good rates so again in spite of the cap the the district has tried to improve the schools over time and they've done their best to to make stay on top of ongoing maintenance but through a referendum there are benefits and by allowing this to be financed over
025time and uh it allows for many generations who come into the district people who move into the district to share the burden of the work that's going to be done so the other benefit is that debt service aid is available there is state aid available for school districts who go out for referendum for projects that are tied to education or rehabilitation the district can receive up to 34 in eligible savings on eligible projects not every project is eligible eligible but on those eligible projects you can get up to 34 need it's a big savings that aid will help pay down and minimize the tax impact to you the taxpayers of pagoda right now the current debt service aid calculations you're going to see in this presentation are estimated they haven't been approved by the department
026of education because we haven't submitted but they're estimated based on our expertise of what we've gotten in the past another benefit to you the taxpayer is that the district has debt service rolling off there are payments from previous referenda that are rolling off and this is going to uh offset any new debt the district might take on so if the 34 debt service projections hold up and are approved by doe the district could complete approximately 12.8 million dollars worth of work with zero percent tax impact for you the taxpayer it's a lot of work with that with very little tax impact no the other way yeah and the the other piece to mention here is that the interest rate that we're calculating for any of the debt service aid impacts is 4.25 it's a little
027higher right now interest rates are going up so we don't know so we want to be conservative in our calculations to make sure that you know we don't give you a number and then a year later it's it's higher at the time of sale so let's talk a little bit about planning and analysis so this process of the referendum has we've been looking at for quite a while we started back in 2019 we put together a facilities audit of all the properties um including fecal field that analysis was you know a lot of professionals going through the buildings and coming up with a very long list of all the potential updates that can be done um that list is all-encompassing doesn't mean that it's all going to be done but that's what we started with
028um that was we submitted that right before uh covet in march of 2020 a little delay after that but then we got right back at it and we were meeting with staff meeting with the administration looking at all different possibilities for redistricting different renovation projects and narrowing down that list based on staff input and conversations with the administration after that we started to look further into the possibility of upgrades at the fields as some of you may know the fields the fuel field has partial um it's partially in a flood zone um there's also partially wetlands areas so we did spend quite a bit of time looking at all different options and how we could upgrade that space in the most efficient manner and then most of you in should have received in january earlier
029this year around january of this year the community survey which hopefully you all responded to we did receive over 100 responses and the responses were great great input which we'll look at after this and then we took all of that information looked at the list that we had at that time and compiled it even further narrowed it down even further to result at a list that we were looking at today the list of potential projects so you should have all received that survey and we'll show you a little bit about some of what some of those results look like so i just as an example we're not looking at the specifics but the blue so this is asking a couple of questions about what's important to the public in different areas and that blue spike
030is you know a group of people saying yes that's very very important to us this information is critical for us because we can look at everything the community is interested in and incorporate that into the list of projects uh just uh one of the question that was asked was um if everybody would be in favor of grade realignment and you can see 86.4 percent of people agreed they're in favor when asked what are the three things about the pagoda school district you would change there was a lot of consistent responses and that's what you're looking at here there were over there were about 110 responses total but you can we listed some of the consistent ones for you to see classroom upgrade upgrades stem science computer art overall sports upgrades fields and playgrounds building improvements
031pickup drop-off classroom renovations and realignment of grades specifically seven or eight and you'll see some some repeated responses consistency here this question wait go down a bit was from a facility standpoint please list any items you feel should be included that you know are not already listed again the fields and playgrounds hvac music and art upgrades the locker rooms bathrooms so a lot of consistency in their responses and again you'll see the same and this one what project would you need would need to be included in to gain your support of a district-wide referendum track fields playground media center stem upgrade toilets relocate eighth grade classroom renovations so this information is is you know great to have it's consistent and we know exactly what the community is looking for so just another snapshot of where
032we are in this referendum process as i mentioned we started in 2019 uh in the green there that was all of the all of the facilities audit all of the meetings with the administration the staff during that period and then in the purple that's um all the time we've spent so far putting together all the drawings and paperwork that has to be submitted to the department of education which is our next step um and the blue is review by the board and then we're now at the next point where we'd be submitting this to the department of ed for approval and looking ahead depending on the review process for the doe we're looking at either a december 13th vote or march 14th so let's talk a little bit about some of the projects that came
033out of the extensive facilities audit the listing the community survey the discussions with the administration and the board we wanted to take care of the needs of the district in the variety of categories arts learning wellness those all are encompassing in enhanced learning environments safety student staff safety and security is another critical critical component operations operations and maintenance those are the things that you don't see every day that you know they're the infrastructure the electric the heating the hvac so the enhanced learning environments are in order to offer exciting and innovative curricular programs the facility needs to support that and classrooms that don't support those programs you're unable to go to that next level and achieve more and learn more so we want to make sure that we focus on the environments that directly impact
034our children student and staff safety always a priority so projects that we looked at would encompass making sure that we're creating safe and efficient schools making sure that we have access control making sure we're doing the things to create a safer environment and then finally keeping up to date with operations taking care of those things that not everybody sees but are really instrumental in running the school if some the boiler breaks down in the winter you can't have school if the air conditioning breaks down in the summer you can't have school these are things that are affecting the learning environment so we break down these projects into capital projects and educational projects capital projects are the projects that don't involve the classroom they don't involve education but they are these schools will receive electrical upgrades
035replacing antiquated panel boards those are electrical panels that are older and inefficient they don't have enough space to meet new power requirements so those will all be replaced at all schools toilet room upgrades at the high school uh those need to be done replacement of fields and adding bleachers and lights to feigl field that's another big component so in the images and i know they're small but you have an image of what this looks like and the the need of what the conditions are there now and then we're going to show an image of what toilet rooms could look like reimagine new finishes new fixtures new spaces creating environments that are adequate field upgrades obviously existing conditions of the field what could be done if we had the opportunity to do turf you know creating
036fields that drain better fields that could be used at more times out of the day better scheduling for for the programs that you're offering other other ideas of what could be offered yeah so this is just an option of what we looked at so far for a concept it's it's not finalized in any way yet but we've looked at wanting to make sure we have a full-size field with an adequately sized track bleachers on both sides additional parking relocating possibly the locker rooms the building that's there now an expanded baseball field and including sports lighting for the evenings and we even tried to include a bit of a walking path around for access around the entire site so the other side of this is the educational components is looking at projects and these projects that
037we've got listed are related to grade realignment so we'd be looking at art room renovations at all schools we'd be looking at pre-k and kindergarten toilet room renovations at bixby school we'd be looking at science classroom renovations at steen and at the high school upgrading the science labs to meet a growing curriculum other educational projects that were considered renovating the cte building to create five vocational classrooms music room renovations locker room auditorium and media center renovations all at the high school so again the need versus what it could be science and stem labs the existing versus what they could look like for a high school environment middle school environment locker rooms existing this is a condition that's very common all over shower rooms big large shower rooms that they we used to use are no
038longer used so they're used to store uh materials this is what locker rooms could look like the auditorium again dated older it served its purpose it needs to be updated it needs updated finishes seating this is something that it could look like with new finishes and fixtures seating etc graphics media centers existing media center again it's serving its purpose it's served its purpose it's inflexible fixed furnishings uh you know old and dated finishes it could be so much more we could create more flexible space the opportunity to do more within the space by creating various areas art classrooms again it's well used it's it's it's used to its fullest right now but it could be so much more now the ability to have flexible furniture the one thing in the image that you'll see is
039that all the tables even though they're heavy in their art tables they're they're put on wheels they can be moved into different configurations for individual and group learning there's plenty of storage shelving drying racks ceramic areas so we can do things that will accommodate the curriculum for each of these rooms music classroom another example of an existing versus what it could look like bright colorful you know something that's inviting for the students and will offer areas for storage the biggest components that we see in music rooms is that there's instruments all over the place there's thing lack of storage lack of music storage so in order to provide places that make the room work better and allow that room to be used to its fullest potential so let's talk a little bit about potential costs
040construction costs as everybody knows have gone up lately there have been material shortages shipping delays uh material increases in price over the last two years normally these trends tend to last four to eight months they've lasted well into 16 months at this point so we need to be strategic about our budget estimates we may need to make sure that since we don't know when these projects will be completed that we have escalators and contingencies built into the budget to make sure that these projects work so based upon based upon this list we've broken down these projects into classroom renovations at the top locker room renovations auditorium renovations media center toilet room electrical upgrades and the cte building they've been broken down into costs for each one along with their debt service aid component how much
041we expect you would get from the department of ed in the state for each of those projects classroom renovations for for as everything that we talked about is about 5 million dollars 4.9 million locker room renovations about 900 000. uh auditorium renovations about 860 000. media center rate renovations 927 000 toilet room renovations throughout 679 000 electrical upgrades 353 000 and the cte building renovations would be about 4 million dollars that totals about twelve million seven hundred thirty thousand dollars the estimated debt service aid associated with all those projects is about four point three million dollars all totaled this would result in about 8 million 8.4 million dollars with 34 in debt service aid we broke out the field and stadium piece into a separate line item because it there is no debt service aid
042associated with that work fields are not uh do not receive debt service aid firm from the state so the projected cost of the image you saw that alexis explained with the track and the field and the walking path and the building and the bleachers on both sides the projected cost for that is about seven million dollars there's zero estimated debt service aid which would result in a seven million dollar project when we add up both of those projects the capital above and the field complex we get about 19.7 million dollars with 4.3 million into estimated debt service aid it means that you'll be able to do about 15.4 million dollars worth of work or i'm sorry 19.7 million dollars worth of work for 15 million dollars the difference with the fields is that if we
043go up one no the other way sorry down one so if we talk about the tax impact the tax impact is critical so all of those projects above that we talked about the capital and educational facilities projects the 12.7 million dollars which result in an 8.4 million dollars after we receive the debt service aid result in a zero percent tax increase for you the public the tax impacts again are based on 4.25 percent in interest so if the interest is lower at the sale of bonds that cost will go down conversely if they're higher at the sale of bonds that cost will go up um impacts have been calculated uh based on the debt service aid calculations that we figured we have a very good track record with getting what we proposed to the doe
044and getting that approved so we would expect that that's that number remains the same and that all all costs are based on that interest rate which could fluctuate prior to the vote the sports complex however would be seven million dollars that after with no debt service age you're getting none for from the district would cost 125 a year increase on the average assessed home in pagoda the average assessed home is 263 526 dollars so on that if if the cost is higher if your home assessed value is higher that cost will be higher if it's lower that cost will be lower so let's talk a little bit about some frequently asked questions that occur with any referendum and without any referendum process so a lot of the concerns that come up during you know doing
045all this work if the referendum was to move forward is you know what happens during during construction is do or about the children be affected will the schools be will the classrooms be affected um safety is always our biggest concern on any of our construction projects referendum or not um and we do we focus a lot on scheduling everything around the summers or the stuff that can be done after hours and attempt to have virtually no impact to the school day things have to be coordinated but it's about scheduling and and looking at the all the projects and carefully laying them out to make sure that they don't affect the students can more be spent than the amount approved in the question uh this is a common question the answer is no um whatever is
046whatever what is put forth as for the referendum amount is the amount that can be spent you can't add money to it and you must complete the entire project list when would the work begin and when would it be completed so typically a referendum this size takes could be anywhere from three to four years to complete um hopefully if there's an improvement on material delays it would it would stay at three to four years could be a little longer if things were like it continued the way they are um but you know if we project it out to say maybe the march referendum just assuming the later date some work might be able to start in the year of 2023 it would be a little bit difficult to get some work out for that following
047summer uh we would probably do some things that can be done after hours or done you know start later that year but you figure the summers of 2024 through 2027 every year every summer would be full of projects plus you know after hours projects and other items and one of the big things to point out about the schedule and getting the work done is that the the more limitations that we place on contractors the higher the prices that we we get the closer that we bid projects to the summer the higher prices we get so if we can be flexible in the time that we're bidding these projects we can opt to get the best pricing and that's kind of why this is a three to four year process instead of a two to three
048year process this presentation will be available on the district's website you'll be able to look at it check it out there will be other information upcoming as the the board decides to be able to show you tax impact show you information on what's available but um that's uh enough for us uh we appreciate you coming out to learn more about this potential referendum should we take any questions sure if anyone has any questions we'd be happy to say it again well i think we well we have to open up to the public anyway for questions um as per our our board meeting right um so i think maybe the best thing to do is open it up to the public which we normally do and then questions can be sure um okay right we only
049have one microphone yes um oh so they want to use one of my wow maybe we can make emotions i need a motion to open up um hearing of the public john all in favor aye aye thank you uh maybe we can use mr alvarez for now okay perfect i thought it was the other way around all right please state your name and address and uh questions don't be shy no hi uh victor hernandez 74 chestnut um my question is the 4.5 percent that's not locked right the 4.5 that it's not it's not locked no no no no and so when was that uh how long ago so right now the four point two five percent four and a quarter percent is a conservative number right now the the interest rate won't be locked until
050after the passage of the referendum and the district sells the bonds to get the capital for the projects right so it won't be locked for potentially another year another year or so right okay which could bode well if interest rates fall again i mean right now they're on the rise and listen cross our fingers i wish i had that crystal ball okay thank you sandra ospina to west grove street um i was wondering are we going to be looking into grants to help with the cost of us do we have a grant writer somebody to help with these kind of costs because there definitely is money out there uh yes we're constantly looking for grants we do have uh mr chang has successfully gotten us about you know probably five million dollars with our preschool
051program our security grants our water grants so we're constantly looking um we're going to be looking for funding from donors whatever we can do to help make projects uh less of a burden to taxpayers that's what we're going to do but we did apply last year for a light grant already to help pay we didn't get that one but now that we have more of a set plan forward that we might have a better chance of getting some of this but we i uh i apply and i get a monthly grant alert for any possible grants that we can apply to and we go through it we look at it myself irfan and mr chang the administrators look at it and we apply for grants all the time okay can i answer that thing so
052the district also prior to the referendum worked on an energy savings improvement plan and solar as part of a way to reduce the overall cost of a referendum so that work was done through the savings of the energy for those two plans that we've already done so that's actually been already enacted so there is a possibility if you know there's some extra effort put into grant research and stuff like that that the costs can go down i'm not saying that the whole thing but if we do really work with a grant writer somebody who's you know that's their job and their skill um there's definitely you know money out there and i only say just because i work in non-profit and i know that um there's a lot of money out there you just gotta
053have a grant person who who dedicates their their time and that's their job too to do that my second question was that this building is very old we all know that um is there any possibility of there being asbestos here um when there this work is happening and the kids being in school is that taken into consideration given the age of the building there's always the possibility of asbestos uh you know around the district has an ahira plan they have the building uh evaluated every three years when we start getting into construction there's always the possibility of finding something embedded in the walls you know at that point protocols are in place work is stopped the building is uh secured and the district would have an asbestos or an hazardous materials monitor on board to
054to direct the the change in what happens it does occur during construction but it's always controlled thank you i see someone online that has their hand raised susan harper please state your address yes hi can you hear me okay yeah thanks uh susan harper 344 river road okay so um i did not i didn't just be up front i didn't hear this whole entire presentation since i was driving um however um you know this as you are aware there's another there's another proposal or just where the the town is trying to move forward on a recreation center um in the park and i've heard numerous presentations about it and just about you know the potential debt and um you know debt levels in our town and um i don't know if we have you know
055i'm sure you've talked to you know a bond counsel about this what's appropriate debt level um when you add this in as well and i'm also i guess concerned i just have some concerns because the markets as we're seeing are very erratic and i anticipate them you know to possibly continue to be erratic just because of all different economic factors i think it would be important for people to see that you know if the interest rates do change and do increase how does that impact you know the project as well as how does it impact the taxpayers thanks so i guess there's there's a couple of uh obviously none of us have a crystal ball in terms of what the market will do uh we try to use our best um experiences to determine where
056we are we've got bond council and finance people who looked at those rates they put the 4.2 percent rate together us you know to to give us some cushion in hopes that uh you know that will be enough to handle what we're doing obviously the the alternative effect would be to go higher with an interest rate and then that really you know could could support the entire process in terms of what the district is looking at you know a big portion of this work could be done with zero percent or zero tax increase uh to the taxpayers based on previous debt rolling off in terms of construction costs increasing over time and uh you know as the years go on should the construction costs increase to a point beyond the contingencies and the allowances included
057in our budget estimates we would have to scale back projects we would have to still do the work that was discussed in the referendum but we might not be able to do all of it based on budget uh typically what happens throughout the construction process is as we bid projects we are able to use funds across the board it's one part of money so if one classroom or one one building project comes in high and the other one comes in low we can offset each of those projects if they all come in high well we've got to sit down and have a real discussion so we try to do our best to plan ahead i think bond council has given us some good advice uh and um you know we're gonna adapt as as we
058need to to to see this project through and just also that we the board of education and the town council are two separate entities uh we do have to work together we do have to talk um and we will be looking to do that just to discuss our plans along with their plans and see what is best for pagoda hi guys antoinette ramirez 98 queen air road one of my questions with the fields i know there would be restrictions but worst case scenario if something didn't pass has green acres been considered i know there'd be some restrictions but is that something you guys would consider trying to look for you know green acres grants funding whatever it is i know ritual park fields have it not saying it's ideal i know wouldn't be perfect but
059if this didn't pass just is it something that could be considered so that's one thing and then the other thing is with all of these upgrades that have been discussed is air conditioning in all of the schools part of that when we looked at air conditioning the amount of money to to do each classroom there wouldn't be much money to do anything else um you know with electrical upgrades we might be able to place more more units in classrooms uh once we have better electrical um but again you know we're talking you know 10 days a year that it's really hot in there so i i don't know if the best thing for us with you know you know 10 million dollars is that you know that's all we would be able to do um
060and we have a lot of other needs so the electrical upgrades will allow us to uh place maybe some window units in certain classrooms and things like that but when we look at the cost it was how much per classroom it's almost like yeah around 50 to 60 000 per classroom and the amount was around 8 to 10 million i believe for everything and that was just classrooms and that's that's one of the reasons we focused on putting the electrical into that first section because that at least gives you the infrastructure to grow from there at least that component would be done i would think the green acres funds would be a district you know a district decision i think the board would have to evaluate evaluate it as you did say you know the
061usage of green acres funds comes with restrictions comes with you know the town having more control over your fields and and it it's a it's a discussion that the board's going to have to entertain and figure out i just wanted to bring it up just in case some you know something didn't go through something to consider you know help with the cost so i just wanted to bring that up thank you jackie charming setting 110 palisade um i was here at the beginning but i didn't hear if you introduced yourselves and who exactly you guys are could you let me know and how you were chosen to do this work to do the project sure so um my name is frank macinio i'm the principal and owner of solutions architecture with me is alexis goldman
062she's also principal at the firm we have been the architect of record and district for probably 10 years so we have we have a complete knowledge of the buildings we have a knowledge of the schools we've done a variety of projects here uh over the course of those years and um you know we were asked to do the facilities audit which grew into what else can we do and how can we get a lot of this work done uh our referendum experience you know over the last nine years is significant and we've been very very successful with passing and putting forth feasible referenda not crazy number referenda but number num referenda that really address needs uh more than everybody's want that follow that leads into my next question then which is based on your experience
063when you bring this before the department of ed what are the chances that it would pass is it a high likelihood that this project in particular would pass we haven't had one project rejected by the department of ed or modified for that matter okay and then based on that if it's gone to a vote and you've done this in other communities generally do you have a sense of do the vote does it normally pass the vote at that point is do you have is that any so in the last in the last i'm going to go even sooner the last five years we've passed six referenda uh in the last five years we've only lost one referendum in that time there was such a significant thought that the referendum would pass that people actually didn't
064come out to vote so you know when we're talking about a referendum that affects many many uh people in town the idea is that it would be great to see you know 50 100 people at a meeting uh so the the idea once and if the doe approves the project and we know the debt service aid we're going to receive we would want to put out informational packets get the word out make sure that we do more of these meetings make sure that everybody's aware that there's a consistent message and that all of the right information is out there so that people can make that decision based on the right information a lot of what happens today social media is great for for getting the word out but it's also great for getting the wrong
065information out people come out with the wrong information some people listen to that so there's a whole other part of this process that happens after doe approval right now we're just at the point where we're submitting a series of potential projects to the department of ed for review approval and a number on debt service aid once we have that we can make other decisions that will formulate the basis for the referendum campaign thank you lastly would you just say that you you guys based the majority of your information on what our teachers their input that's the majority of what you got besides the survey which was from the town so it's the teachers who are telling you what they really feel they need yes i mean we we spent extensive amount of time with the
066administration and the staff supervisors we talked about individual rooms and the spaces that we were looking at we received 110 survey results and while that's a cross-section of the community that's you know it gives us some some data to go off of so we try to rely on if we can do both and get all of that information called together then we can put together a plan that meets everybody's needs thank you i just wanted to clear it and give kudos to those who did show up come and come out there's about 70 or so in attendance between online and in person so i don't want to discredit those who are here today hi carmel bernie 162 east fort lee road um the numbers i didn't get to see total but as you were reading
067them out some of them looked well to me felt a bit low i'm in facilities management i do construction so are they those numbers based on this year's or have you projected out in a couple years with the increase in cost of construction do the numbers include everything legal fees permits inspections architect fees um and a contingency those are great questions and yes they do they include everything uh they are numbers based on you know what we're seeing happening out there as well as you know hedging a little bit for the future they do include architect all soft costs for architects fees engineers fees legal fees bonding fees doe fees because the department of ed is going to charge to review them uh the department of ed won't allow us to put any project down
068with less than five percent contingency that being said our projects for renovations typically carry anywhere from 10 to 15 percent contingency depending upon the work um there could be allowances in the budget for asbestos abatement or hazardous materials removal we try to think of everything when we're putting the budget together so that um you know we can come up with the the right budget that's going to carry us for a couple of years is there a time limit limit on the debt aid like you have the project over about six seven years the the board can spend those funds as long as the board is actively spending those funds there's no real time limit if they're sitting on the funds uh i believe and and perhaps bond council can answer the question better on we
069can get you that answer i believe the the number is eight years and if we do start running into overflow and extra costs is there a priority list that you've made out what has to be done first and because it looks like if everything's done the fields are going to fall out on this because they're not going to have the daddy to you use the money so it looks like the fields are not going to get done is there a high to low list that we've made that you know health and safety first or are we working down that list no that's okay i think that we're i think that you know obviously we've got to do this in steps and you know that's certainly a great thing to think about you know right now
070we're getting through the department of ed and while this project is being reviewed by department of ed you know we can certainly look at what those items are what the priority would be um you know we're we're trying to plan that we don't have that issue uh obviously if we do have the issue the contingencies are there and you know the idea would be that we can do you know the same amount of work the same work but perhaps a little less of it and that's what we'll try to look at and with the fields you're talking about taking down the locker rooms down there and building something else i'm assuming yeah we're talking about um relocation of what's there and adding on to that are we building sustainably are we just going to build
071are we going to do lead certifications or anything like that with that so everything we do is with lead principles in mind the cost of obtaining leed certification is significantly more and for existing facilities it's almost impossible so anything that we do we're always looking to do energy efficient high high seer and and the equipment that we use is always energy efficient the insulation properties we meet the we meet the codes and exceed the codes in some certain places we specify you know american-made products we specify local products so these are things that we're not trucking across the country we try to do things with lead principles but it's not a mandate okay thank you hi good evening sherry salama of 350 larchab i think a lot of these different improvements are really exciting i
072for one think that they're long overdue and i appreciate everyone taking so much time in preparation for it i know it's not an easy task i guess i i know that there was a few pictures of improvement improvements which i found really um you know inspiring and beautiful i didn't see any uh photos of the playgrounds though are we taking those into consideration and maybe possibly any handicap or special needs uh facilities along with that might not be on the top of the priority list but is it on the list at all in that i mentioned that we did that very uh lengthy facilities audit with a long list of projects it was there on that list but when when narrowing down what needs to be you know included could be included in this referendum
073it's not on this that list doesn't mean that there isn't capital funds and towards the future that that would take care of those things it's just not included in this batch here got it got it and sorry one last small um item um how is the middle school be i know that there was a middle school alignment does that mean that we're considering um bringing maybe some of the students from the high school over i know steen now that the fifth grade i'm sorry the sixth grade isn't there there's possibly some more classroom space what type of alignment are we looking at and how is the middle school going to be impacted if if at all so what we're looking to do is in bixby put pre-k through second grade um in steam third through
074six and then keep the middle school uh we would have to try and get a long-term release which they're open to or even look to at least purchase where we put seventh and eighth grade that's really exciting thank you everyone so much i'm really excited about this good evening um mike connors 111 grace street i i just want to uh congratulate the ward superintendent on having the courage to put this piece forward because it is an exciting new endeavor and it is going to be a challenge to get this over over the finish line i i i know that for sure um one quick question actually two a question on the comment um the fields if the field get does get updated uh i'm not sure if it was presented but i if maybe i
075missed it um would the field uh with the fields the new field to turf field would that be on the existing property or are we talking about taking down the fence that would be on the existing property the baseball field would go to the other side that's what we're talking about all right uh and the second just the last comment um i do want to congratulate uh this board the superintendent on a totally separate topic um and some previous boards and councils that and mayors that have been there in the last number of years i know that all of us are aware of what happened in the different school shootings that have been going on the last couple of weeks and months and i do want to thank the board members that are here that
076did vote for that and continue to support the slios in our schools i know that when my grandkids go to school every day i'm happy to think that there is someone there to protect them and i know everyone that's in town appreciates uh superintendent kennedy and all of the board members here for being proactive on that years ago i don't know how many years it is now but it's at least two or three years that we've had sleo's in our schools protecting our kids so i do big thank you to everybody that's on the the board here and uh mr kennedy and everybody that was involved in those decisions okay i just wanted to make sure that somebody didn't forget their phone adriana called a 171 large i am i have one question how long
077does the process take for the department of education to approve this because i i know that's that's a really great question uh so originally the legislation held that the department of ed had a complete reviews within 90 days uh the department of ed uh suffered a series of retirements and people leaving and we're down to two people uh that 90 days went to 180 days that um they were so strapped that they wound up bringing two people back out of retirement to assist with the workload uh there's still only four people down there and the process is it's that it's a first-come first-served basis so if they're already reviewing projects that are down there right now then we will get in line and they will review it as they can get to it and it
078could we've we've kept and held 180 days in our schedule so we've got plenty of time we believe the one benefit that's going to come out of it is we've seen correspondence that the department of ed will no longer be reviewing capital projects they will associate it with a referendum but normal capital projects that districts would normally put down like roofs windows they're not going to review them they're going to go to the county so that'll save the reviewers down there from having to review those extraneous projects and be able to focus more on referendum work how soon can this happen like can the referendum happen because i i do think it's great i think it's the board this whole presentation i mean it's great for our town it's great for your kids but even
079as a homeowner every time schools get better property values go up so it's it's a no-brainer for me i just want to know how soon can it get done the proposed the proposed referendums dates that we're looking at would be december 23 or march of 24. december 22 or march of 23. sorry thank you very much and again thank you for the board i think you guys are doing a great job thanks i do i do have a couple questions online i see rivera maria rivera hello can you hear me yes hi how are you 244 walnut avenue so this year we received great help as parents with the funding for before and after care will the board of education still offer this funding for the upcoming year and is the board of education working
080on hiring a better aftercare company thank you we will continue with aftercare our buildings will be open at 7 30 again next year for breakfast with our staff for before care um we did rehire alphabets as the company again um any i guess any complaints or any uh anything that you have to about alphabets please reach out to me and let me know i haven't received too many anything we like to address with them um but they are still uh the best bang for our buck uh with helping parents this year so they will be back next year one more and then susan harper yeah hi um hi again i was just having a follow-up question from carmel bernie's um request um just asking about the fields um i first i don't know if you
081showed any renderings i'm assuming you did or renderings will be available um online for us to take a look at um two um does this work you mentioned you mentioned that you're going to be upgrading the football field um the baseball fields which is across from the um the swing set area does this work also are there any upgrades are going to be made to the um to the to the pathway to the walking pathway where the two baseball fields are yes so what we're looking to do right now is to have a turf field with lights with a track a full track that would also serve for football and soccer and possible lacrosse one day if we ever go down that road um the baseball field on the other side and yes one of
082the things that we it it we want to make it a community uh place for people to go so there's some you know it's down by the water we were talking about exercise path where you have little machine you know the outdoor machines for people that want to work out by lighted paths so benches and things like that so we want to really make it a place not only for our students but also for the community to to come down and enjoy so just i i'm not clear on your response there so are you saying where the walking path is right now you want to put an astroturf field and lights and and benches i mean and bleachers no they're the football field where it is now do you know where that is yeah sure
083yeah yeah yeah that's where the new football field would go right so on the slide you can see the path on the outside that's that would go around the fields so when we when we put the presentation online you'll be able to see a walking path okay great thank you so much i appreciate that thank you i also got a question online can you talk uh from uh lieva carlotto can you talk about investments targeted kindergartens or whether there are any enhancements to the curriculum and the planning so the idea with realigning is putting all our pre-k and kindergarten students together that alone would improve our curriculum because our teachers be working a lot closer together also bathrooms in every classroom so that would be the big part of that upgrade for kindergarten and then
084there was an anonymous attendee and i'll i'll read it into the record what about a doggy park section i don't know if that falls under our jurisdiction but i mean i guess it's something you know i i know they ha is there one i thought there was a doggy park already in town no no well i guess that's something that we would have to look at but i can't i don't have an answer on that right now that would be something for the future so please email me and let me know who you are thank you anyone else here today any board members have any questions for the architects i i kind of want to say this and i don't know how to because i assume and sometimes assumptions are not a good thing but
085we have to totally understand that we are very separate from borough hall it's a constant i hear it because this is a hard thing to do um our attorney has advised that i can't show excitement i'm very public for those who know me about what i think of this referendum or if i'm against it or not so i'm going to play line here but we're very separate from what borough does what their increases are has nothing to do with us and i just want to put that loud and clear so that everyone understands that because we tend somehow i'm amazed to hear some people go put it all together and it shocks me because that's something that we need to put out we need to learn and and that's really not a not a thing
086uh but kennedy i would love i think we have to elaborate a bit um on the debt service drop off if you can just explain that a little more only because and before you do so only because the reason and i believe the reason the administration put this together was so that we can hear you um you can kind of work with the administration on your wants i think right similar to just what you're what what you think and how you think we should proceed um so i haven't heard that today i've heard more of the questions but i really want to hear it and and we're here to hear that so if you can just elaborate a little bit there to educate and what it means what you know what how does it help
087the district overall so uh i guess they went out for a referendum how many years ago 20 25 years ago and it's coming off the books so with that being said um for us to go out for a referendum now there is you know close to 12 million dollars that is available that there would be zero tax increase to the community uh we've been doing a pretty good job of upgrading our facilities using um using our capital reserve obviously sitting in this gym the parking lot lentils at bixby um you know we've done a lot of work that has been zero tax increase to the public as well because of our capital reserve um but we got to continue to improve we want to continue to keep our best students here we lose five to
088ten students every other academies right if we are upgrading our facilities program our stem if we're upgrading our our music where we have a lot of students doing great things if we have career technical buildings we have new fields we're looking to continue to keep some of these students because now we're going to be able to offer them more uh programs uh from what we haven't you know we're doing what the best with what we have but you know when you walk into some of these uh newer schools and you see some of these facilities it's really it blows you away so the idea is that you know even adding fields you know we're talking close to 20 million dollars would cost the average homeowner about 125 a year that's two you know trips to
089starbucks a month that's you know and i know because my daughter likes to go there it's a little you know it's ridiculous but you know we can do a lot of things and as you can see with the preschool program you know we had a blue ribbon school you know houses are doing well so at the end of the day you know good school system equals better property so we want to give you know ourselves the best opportunity to do some projects keep good students but at a minimal cost to the taxpayer and we have that opportunity coming up in this next year so for me personally has been in here i've been here since 2009 we've been talking about this for three or four years already coveted hit and we had to slow down
090you know we did our best to keep taxes down this year with a zero tax increase knowing that we want to go out and try to improve our facilities for the least amount of money possible to the public so that's where we are right now and you know i i think uh i want to thank frank and alexis they did a tremendous job with the presentation uh we've been working with them uh you know once a week now for the last two years meeting with them and going over these things so um thank you kennedy so because i want to get into the math of it i think that's where everyone if you gave everything for free everyone would applaud but it's the math let's make sense of the math um only because i too
091struggled a bit in asking a lot of these questions so the 12 million um let's just take the fields out for a second right because i think we were two things were proposed tonight correct it's basically all the improvements electrical uh everything else and then and then some right so let's let's stay in the in the bracket of zero percent tax increase or whatever that may mean uh in the future so the 12 million it's really 8 million and a half right because we're going to get state support that brings us up to 12.5 all right the debt drop off is whatever x amount of millions 24 years ago brings us back 550 000 is that what the current is in budget to pay that so i want everyone to think for a second and
092we know this is not going to happen or realistically but if we took these 550 000 and gave it to the and split it up around 8 000 homeowners it's 75 8 000 residents right in pagoda that's i think the number it's 70 to 75 000 so so if someone gave it back to you which never happens that's what we're giving back versus what what where the future lies and i'm not saying anything here i'm just looking i want to make as much sense of the math so for 12 million dollars or we keep six hundred thousand dollars alive and what happens then right is that how you explained it a bit somewhat yeah so i just wanted to make that clear any other questions anything else all right um i want to close public
093hearing of the public i have a motion have a second section all in favor okay um we're moving on to executive session uh now therefore be a result by the board of education that whereas c.231 pl 1975 also known as the sunshine law authorizes a public body to meet an executive or private session under certain limited circumstances and whereas said law requires the board to adopt a resolution at a public meeting before it can meet in such an executive or private session now therefore be a resolved by the pagoda board of education that it does hereby determine that it is necessary to meet an executive session on june 14 2022 at 8 35 pm to discuss matters involving negotiations litigation and personnel that the matter discussed will be made public when confidentiality is no longer
094required and action pursuant to said discussion shall take place only at a public meeting that's good right do i have a motion motion calls do i have a second one all in favor aye and i want to thank those who turned out thank you very much for hearing the presentation we will we will be an executive a long time we also are doing my evaluation so um it could be over an hour so just so no action will be taken right we come out executive we're literally coming out and closing the meeting we're going to go upstairs graduation practice right talk about practice oh motion to open public meeting second mr chavez yes sir motion to adjourn emotional evo emotional evil ortega have a good night everyone