April 10, 2025 BOE meeting

001I have a motion to return to regular session at 6:16. Motion st and a second. Thank you. Discussion. All in favor? Motion passes. Looking for approval of minutes of the March 13th regular board meeting and the March 24th budget meeting as presented. Could I get a motion? I'll move. Thanks, Evan. And a second. Thank you. Sorry, Tom. Any discussion? All in favor? I opposed extensions. Motion passes. Moving along to our first public comment section. Our agenda offers two public comment sections. Opinions, ideas, and concerns that are offered by the public will be considered and taken under advisement. We have set aside a 15minute period giving the audience time to share their thoughts with us. Please raise your hand to be acknowledged by the board president. When called upon, please identify yourself and give your address,

002limiting your comments to three minutes. Would anybody like to speak? Yes, Mr. Hooper. Paul Hooper, Russia, New York. Uh, is there a speaker on because it's hard to hear you from back here? I will speak louder. Well, is do you have a speaker system? Is there microphones or anything? Thank you. Would anyone else like to speak? Yes. I'd like to thank the board for everything that you're going through in terms of the merger right after a pandemic and all the financial constraints that you guys are under. I wanted to address the March 27th salivas committee meeting and how the safety considerations are going to be addressed in the forward when it comes to um accepting or rejecting the plan that's going to be presented at night. Thank you. Sure. Yes. My name is Sicha Sanders.

003I have it at 2295 county routine and that's sure if I'm supposed to like give my full address, but I wanted to say first that um my son Nico is here in the elementary school and the environment has been awesome and I've been hearing a lot of talk about the negative sides of things, but I personally, my son has not experienced that. Um, we just had his 504 plan meeting. The amount of love and care that is being given to my child is exceptional. Um, and I just I' Yeah, I want that to be known that we appreciate our educators and it's not all bad, especially a lot of good. So, thank you. And it's uh there's a lot more than Thank you. Anyone else? Hi. Hi. My name is Jen Williams. I live on

004Champlne Avenue. And I also want to echo Sika's sentiment in that I have two elementary age children who are here at school. And from speech therapy to social emotional learning, they have had a tremendously positive experience. incredibly nurturing educators and I know that there have been contentious times and low morale. Um we're so grateful for all they do on the ground. Thank you. Yes. Hi, good evening. Jason Welch, 107 Homeport Way Westport. Um, I just wanted to share for the board that uh um the disappointment myself and my family felt when when we saw on the agenda the resignation of Miss Peli. Um just just wanted wanted to make make it known that um she's she's been someone that that's very much uh connected. Mr. Welch, I have to interrupt you. I'm sorry. We can't

005refer to people by name or identifying pieces um with public comments. So, keep your comments more general. That'd be appreciated. I'm sorry to interrupt you. We definitely want to hear what you have to say. That's okay. I can say that uh I'm disappointed to see the consent agenda. uh the letter that I think everyone can probably find on on there and that uh there was a staff member that connected very well with my my daughter Addison that that uh um is going to be a a tough loss in in our opinion especially considering the the the ability for for the the district to retain talent at this time. Thank you. Thank you Jason. Appreciate it. Um, anybody else like to speak? Yes. Kristen Peehold, Essex, New York. I worked at the district librarian of both

006Westport and Elizabeth Town prior to the merger and now work with the 6th through 12th grades at the Mountain View campus. I'm here tonight for my kids, not my biological kids. They graduated from BBC in 2022 and 2024. I'm here for my other kids, the dozens of students I have the good fortune to work with every day. In looking over the facilities committee recommendations, it's clear that the committee was mindful of the financial impact this project would have on this community, a thoughtful and responsible approach, which I sincerely appreciate. However, what I don't see is an assurance that the proposal will maintain our current academic programming. I'm grateful that the committee recognized the need for an addition, especially when we are still hearing the refrain of why can't we fit everyone into one building without

007an addition. I can't understand why this question is still circulating, and I'm not sure what more needs to be said to put it to rest. I'm happy to talk about factors beyond our control that have changed the face of education over the last generation, increasing mandates from the state, more students with special needs, etc. But also, as a community, we chose this merger to increase our program offerings. Just a few years ago, we were seeking more opportunities for our children. Now, we're already talking about less. I'd like to encourage the board to take a second look at the proposal laid out in January, the one that included a second gymnasium and cafeteria. It doesn't meet all of our needs, including on-site athletic facilities and a bus garage, but it's better than the bare bones proposal

008that is currently favored, and it's certainly better than a renovation without an addition. Let's be clear, whether we're considering no addition or the current version the committee is putting forth, either will cut into our current programming. For example, how does the committee envision sharing the gymnasium and auditorium when both are already in use during a large percentage of the day by our sixth through 12 students? How will we continue to offer electives in our shared spaces? Where will we put all of our prek through 12 students on days like today when we already have a shortage of space for students for state testing? Today during ELA state tests, I provided testing accommodations to a student in the district office because no other spaces were available. We had other students testing in the director of facilities

009and superintendent offices. I could continue to list the different programs I anticipate being impacted by Fairbend Bones renovation, but instead I'm going to put this back to the committee and ask them to clearly demonstrate how our current academic offerings wouldn't be compromised. Certainly we want our district to be fiscally responsible. But when we talk only about cost savings and where we can cut corners, we give the message that we don't value education, we don't value our children. Ask yourself, in a time of teacher shortages, how will we attract new families and educators, including teacher, teachers, counselors, and administrators to our district? Will some families already living in the district decide to send their children to other schools? It will be hard for educators and new families to invest in this district if we send the

010message that we are unwilling to invest in ourselves. Why would we want to give our kids the same education we had a generation ago? Education is about innovation, about opening doors, about looking to the future. As a librarian, I want to honor and respect our shared history and our traditions. But I don't want to go backwards. And I'm starting to fear that if we don't carefully consider how this building project will impact our programming, then my own children will have seen the best of what the merger promised. and they went through two years with CO. It breaks my heart to think that the students of today and tomorrow may not have the same opportunities they did. To those who are concerned about increased taxes, which is pretty much everyone here, and especially to those who

011are on a fixed income, I acknowledge that asking you to invest in our students and in our future asking you to make a sacrifice. But nothing worth anything comes without sacrifice. We're all in this room tonight because the people who came before us made sacrifices for us. Please consider supporting a facilities plan that balances the needs of both our taxpayers and our students. A plan that will lead us into the future and does not compromise our academic offerings. Anyone else like to speak? Yes, Jess. I hope I don't take up the less than 15 minutes. My name is Jessica Buer and my kids also have graduated. I'm the way Paul Beer and he is my beloved husband who has been a teacher here for his entire career. My kids graduated in 2022 and 2024 like

012Kristen. Um you know through the merger I wanted to let you know that my children are now successfully um working their way at Clarkson. I got texts from them both. They are thriving. One of them got a 100 grade on a physics midterm and another a 4.0 in a thermodynamics. So I applaud our district for everything that they have done. They are successful. Everything that we have done at a district is incredible. So I want to applaud everything that our district has done as educators. We have provided that education to our district. everything. I want to to applaud our district at that. Again, I have um stayed in touch with what our district um facilities committees have done. If I have not shown my face at the meetings, I have been keeping up electronically um

013by watching the the videotapes and things like that. And I do have something prepared that I wanted to read to you. I wanted to stress on three points. And the first is experience. The postmarger experience was intended to be an improvement for all. It was our bold step forward together with our sight set on a hopeful future. In many ways, we have been successful. But in this facilities and in campus regard, I'm afraid that we're not living up to that goal. If you yourself have been a parent or a coach or anyone involved, you know the disjointed physical layouts and logistical friction that occur in trying to manage multiple campuses, fields, and all over the district and buses coming from different places. You've answered the questions from friends and parents from other districts. Okay, so

014soccer fields are over here and your softball fields are here. Oh, wait. The baseball fields are here. Where are we going tonight to play? Where where is everything again? And this is this is embarrassing for us. And then logistically there is a tremendous amount of friction for everybody involved. If you have been anybody involved in that, you have felt the friction and all of the tension. If you have a parent in the elementary and somebody else in another district, you have felt all of the friction and the tension. And when my boys started in this school and my kids started in Westport, it was beautiful K to2 environment. And I love so much that we are trying to get that K12 environment together because that is a beautiful thing that our kids thrive on and

015have together. And if we're successful in getting that K to2 um school environment together, again, I believe that that would be another success for our district as bulkhead. The second point I want to bring up is what we're buying with any of the money. And what the district is talking about doing or what the facilities committee has proposed is that we're looking at a Mountain View renovation that um that is putting together a very thing. Now what that did was at the outcry of a vote down and I think it was very valuable exercise. It was at the outcry of the community voting down and for proposal. Um, I know that what it could now that we know what the project could accomplish and what it would cost. I think that is in all the

016slides. If anybody wants to look at what it will accomplish, that is available to you in all the slides. And I have read all of those slides over. What this proposed new buy gets us is a very basic renovation and a small addition. So about for half of the cost of the original project that was proposed at fall that resolved all of the issues. all of the experiential concerns that I just talked about. We're only covering the basics of the building and getting the students back under one roof with a small addition. No improvements in logistical and experiential friction due to this layout. Less outdoor education spaces on campus. No athletic fields, no bus garage, no improved parking. There still aren't plans that I have seen or any associated budget for anything beyond the building.

017And that is really concerning to me because if we don't have a plan now and we can't put that out to the to the community to consider and how we're going to pay for that, if we don't have a plan for that now, I don't know when we're going to have a plan for that. These aspects have to be included with any public vote because they have to get done and there still will be a cost that the community needs to understand what they're buying and for how much. And the third that I want us to think about is what is the return on our investment. We're running out of time to take advantage of these incentives that we have available to us from the merger. It's our opportunity to use that 90% aid from

018the merger that the state will give us and to take the offer of the land from the county to take all the money that we have and put it to the best long-term use possible now and into the future and to make the best use of that money now that will last us for the future. when I talk to my boys about what they want to do and I hope that they buy the property across the street from us so that they can, you know, continue to live here and I can continue to enjoy my life with them. I think about things like, are they going to want to raise their families here? Do they want to bring their kids back to this and and bring them to our districts? Um, and I and I

019ask myself those questions. I don't know right now that this would be where they want to to bring their kids back to. And I think we all need to ask ourselves that kind of a question. So, I'm asking the board, please review a side by side of the Mountain View rehab um proposal that the facilities committee has put in front of you against the new campus option. Um, put that against what the proposition was looking at. um see what those propositions are resolving, what those two things are really resolving side by side. What they're doing and what's also they're not doing and what you're buying and what you're not buying, what that investment is getting you in the short term and in the long term, and what that means for the future of our community

020and for our district. Thank you. Thank you. Anyone else like to speak? Yes. Hi, I'm Paul Stewart and I live in Westport and I believe that the students have deserve better schools. If you ask anyone who goes to Bogota Valley Central School how they feel when they go to a nicer school, their answer will be envy and jealousy. If you ask them what that makes them think that the community feels about them, they will say it makes them feel like the community doesn't care about them. that their community doesn't care enough for their education to give them this list of things. I know that because that's how I every day when I walk into school, I ask myself, why is our community so unwilling to provide us with the basics that every student deserves? Why

021is it that every other community is willing to provide these basics but not ours? I'm not asking for myself. nothing will affect me. But I'm asking for the future students so that they don't have to grow up thinking that this community doesn't care about them, that they're undeserving, and that they don't matter. Thank you all. Well, we'll have another opportunity to hear from more people if you decide you want to speak at our next uh public comment section. We'll move along to number eight, financials. Um We have A and B as presented. Could I get a motion? Thank you, Evan. And a second. Thank you, Sarah. Any discussion? All in favor? I oppose. Extensions. Motion passes. Number nine, action items, consent agenda A through D as presented. Can I get a motion? I'll move. Thank

022you, Sarah. Tom, thanks for the second. All in any discussion. All in favor? I posted extensions. Motion passes. Looking towards number 10, personnel consent consent agenda A through J. Can I get a motion? I'll move. Oh, sorry. Oh, I thought it was changed. It's only Okay. One thing before we move here. Um, personnel consent agenda A through J. We're changing J, sorry, G, the dates on G from March 31st. We're changing that to April 10th. Um, and then ending approximately, it was December 9th. We're changing that to December 19th. With those proposed changes, can I get a motion? Second. Thanks, Evan and Tom. Uh, discussion. All in favor? I opposed abstensions. Motion passes. For our policies, we Let's do uh a on policies. We're doing a revision of policy 1210. Can I get a motion?

023A motion. Thank you, Deb. And a second. Second, Darlene. Thank you. Any discussion? I'll just if I can uh briefly um that that that is just the the policy that uh is um inviting a student representative to be on the board of education moving forward starting July 1st. It's happening all over New York State. We just need a a way to the policy outlines the ways that we are permitted to select that student and we've been working with student council on that and uh that should be all set for July 1st. So we welcome the student on July 1st. Any more discussion on that? All in favor? I opposed extensions. Motion passes. Um moving to B. Josh, I'll let you. Uh sure. So this is the first reading for uh policy 3311, the notification of

024disclosure of employee disciplinary records. So it's the first reading. So, I just encourage you to uh if you haven't had a chance already, just to take a look at that policy. That policy is um I'll just read you the overview and the scope quickly. It says, "In accordance with your state public officers log, this policy establishes a process to notify district employees when the district is responding to a request for their disciplinary records. and the scope of this policy applies to all current and former employees of the district whose disciplinary records may be subject to public disclosure under the freedom of of information law. So new policy um again I will allow you to go through it. So again just as a reminder we haven't had a new policy um in in a little while

025here. So new policy with the first reading uh next board meeting will have the second reading and potential to adopt that night or we could adopt at at a third meeting. So, uh, again, please take a look and bring questions to the next meeting or reach out to me in the meantime. Thank you. Okay, we'll move along. Mr. Kyler, principal's report. Hi, good evening. So, you have the uh the one pager is I like to call it. So, a couple of highlights off this. We had our book fair last month here in the auditorium and we sold just about twice as many books this year as we did last year. So, we did $7,400 in sales and of that our school gets to keep $2,600 and that's money that will be spent to buy kids

026books next year. Uh, we as a district don't keep it. We kind of pay it forward. We're going to have two book fairs next year. Our attendance rate continues to hover around 94% which I think is really great. Most districts would be really happy with that. Discipline is down year-over-year by 34.8%. You can see that on the left. And then chronic absenteeism. So that's defined by the state as students who miss 10% or more the school year. Uh nationwide that that number hovers around 25% and we at the Lake View campus are at 12.2%. And I think that's something to be really proud of. On the back I just want to highlight some uh grants that we've received in the past month. So we received a $1,200 grant from Assemblyman Matt Simpson's office to cover

027the expenses for a field trip to Point Ro State Park. It's a field trip that was going to happen anyway and they're going to cover all expenses associated with that field trip. And in the February meeting, I had shared that we applied for a grant from the Aderondac Foundation, uh the Educational Opportunity Grant, and we received a $10,000 grant last week, which is really, really exciting. I'm I'm super pumped about that. We're going to uh use that money to do family literacy nights and then community reading corners. So, this is literally putting books in places around the community. So when kids are at jams or the doctor's office or at TOPS, they can get a book with Bocat Valley gear all over it and uh encourage uh early literacy before uh students come to school.

028You just had on the consent agenda the University of Kansas CW PIT program. So we completed that. We have received $20,000 as a district this school year. And the teachers that participated also received a stipend and they could keep the the tablets that were part of the program and all the data that they collected during the program which is great. And we have a couple of outstanding grants that are in the works that you can see at the bottom. Uh at the last presentation I had in February, I I promised to share some information about Amplify. So there's a couple of things and I'll let you read it at your leisure. the first that talks um about a 10day lesson set and it has lots of ABCDEF. That's what a lesson plan looks like in

029a 10day cycle of intervention. The focus of this is a kindergarten group with a focus on decoding and nonsense word fluency. So that's what a lesson plan looks like. I thought it'd be valuable for you to see that. And the last page uh that looks like this from far away has hexagons on it. So it it shows teachers names. Those are actually students. I just put teachers names in there to protect confidentiality. That's what it looks like on our end. When we look at student progress and intervention, those hexagons that are filled in demonstrate that the student has mastered that skill. So, this kindergarten group is working on blending in regular words and we will track progress on that and work from left to right to fill in those hexagons. The middle graph is is

030like super exciting for principles. Uh this is a kindergarten uh progress monitoring for decoding their ability to read. And you could see that they started in September with that yellow dot at zero. That means they could not decode any words. And then in uh December when we did our middle of year benchmark, it was zero. They could not decode any words. And then suddenly in January, there's that spike. Suddenly they have six. They're at grade level. That is literally the light bulb going off for a kindergartener. That's them reading. That's really exciting. That's like fireworks. They're excited. They they are reading now. And that student is suddenly at and above grade level. So that's what it looks like on our end when kindergarters start to learn to read. And the bottom graph is a sample

031fifth grade student measuring reading fluency. And you can see that they started and are still below uh grade level, which is why they are in a tier three reading intervention program. And that's literally what the data looks like as a progress monitor every two weeks. Uh I would argue that there's a steady in uh increase in that data over time. We want to see more more dots above that line than below. Uh but that's what the data looks like. This is what we we look at when we have these meetings to talk about intervention for students. And I would like to invite Mrs. Fel who's going to give a a teacher's perspective on CKLA to close this opportunity. First, I want to thank all of you for agreeing to purchase this program and thank my

032co-workers because Mr. Kyler sent out a survey and I voted no. It looked like it was too much and I liked my old program and that was it. And then but enough people voted yes, thank goodness because what I've seen this year has been off the charts. Um impleation or implementation is not for the faint of heart. like it is a lot of work, but after getting through this year, I know next year is going to be that much easier. When you look at 20 pages of a manual, it's really it is a lot on the teacher, but it's really a 15minute section of a lesson in the classroom, hands-on collaboration plus a written response. And I so much group work, so much partner work, much more than Wonders or Open Core ever offered. I

033mean, we did that naturally in both districts, but this puts it right in there. You know, make sure you ask the children and partner. Make sure I mean, so things that that we um maybe were doing before, we are told to do with this program and we see the benefits. I definitely think that if you have a student coming in with different needs or different learning styles, whether it's on paper with a 504 or IEP or not, this program uh sets it up sets everyone up for success because you pre-teach vocabulary. You're acting out uh pieces of a story. I mean, literally I in this room acted out the Byzantine Muslim uh battle for 10 minutes. We made a shield. Can you show us a little bit of that? Right here. And and and we

034had to do a TW because they loved it so much. And they were learning about Muslims and Christianity and um and we started off the year learning about polio and vaccines. They we have spent so many years and money and research on getting the best books, you know, to to motivate kids to read of all levels. This program does it like every section. We just finished a geology unit and I was walking in uh the building and the psychologist was carrying rocks. I'm like, "Where are you taking those? We're doing geology." and and she said, "Oh, we're doing it in first grade. I'm helping out the first grades." So then we uh we took one of our lessons and we came down to both first grades and and and Mr. Kyler was able to see

035that and and it uh again the program builds on it builds from year to year and makes it that much easier to collaborate. I don't know if all of our topics align because I've been really busy learning about the fourth grade uh program piece, but it just made it so uh rewarding and to to hear the the vocabulary come out of the fourth graders and uh the teaching uh that they did with the first grade. I mean, I know they're that much more confident going on to fifth grade with this background. those um the I Ready I'm gonna leave you with this because this uh this was really neat. So every year in January since you know I look at the I Ready scores and there's a there's a little dip. It's just how it

036is. And I told the students this. I said don't don't be stressed. You know I would like you to go up 19 to 31 points by June but sometimes in January we go down a little bit. That's okay. This group went up 60 to 70 points from September to January and I was I think I told you Dr. prior. I mean, I was and even the kids were like, "Oh my gosh, I'm at 425, now I'm at 5." You know, they were excited and and I hate I don't want them to to worry or stress about it. But that's they do look at numbers and that's why I said don't worry if you go down. That's fine. We're still learning. We're moving forward. But this mot this program motivates them to read. They're the more

037they read, the better they get, the more they comprehend. And I again thank you for purchasing it and thank my co-workers for voting yes. Thank you. Um moving into 13. We're going to do the presentations first before we we move to the rest. Uh so we have two presentations. Uh the first is from uh Josh Edinger from Day Automation that's going to talk about an energy performance contract. The second is from Joe Droni the uh facilities committee facilitator that's going to talk about the work facilities committee has been doing. I wanted to have these both. So having these both in the same man, I want you to understand that these could work hand in hand. They also could work separately. So just keep that in mind as as you're as you're listening to both presentations.

038So Josh, you can uh grab the mic if you'd like. Give me just a minute to take your temperature. You probably need to press check. Check. Hello. I can just talk loudly too. That works. Hello. One more time. Check. Check. Okay. Can everyone hear me? All right. And I don't know if Josh presentation. So, um, real quick, we're uh, day automation. Uh, we're in about 300 school districts across New York State. We do security, energy controls, and, uh, energy performance contracts. And we've been doing this for about 50 years now almost. And we, like I said, we're in 300 districts across the state with eight um separate offices throughout there. We were started in Victor and we kind of have a significant amount of knowledge on funding and helping get projects done through uh New

039York State. We know it's difficult, but this particular avenue we believe is a good way to do facility improvement measures uh through an energy performance contract. So, please, if you have any questions, feel free to uh kind of throw them out there. But an energy performance contract is an alternative means of funding. It's similar to a capital project except it's funded fully by the energy savings and the building aid that you get by doing that project. So essentially, it's it's an it's no net cost to the districts because you're essentially taking the money that you would be spending for energy and reallocating that to uh facility improvement measures such as lighting, energy uh controls and boiler improvements or anything that uses energy. If we can reduce that, that's a means to help fund it. So,

040it's all um meeting state aid requirement and it's reviewed by the state and we would come in and do a full M analysis of your buildings to see what measures we want to do to help save energy and also to improve the environment and improve the um kind of learning space and so to make sure that it's not too hot, too cold. That's something that we are trying to avoid. So, and the energy savings are guaranteed. So if we say we're going to save you $50,000, $100,000 and we only save you$10,000, we got to write you a check for that. So we make sure to try to make sure that we do our calculations accurately. And there's no change orders, too. So if you do a capital project, sometimes you might see some change orders

041come what we when we say it's going to be a certain amount of uh dollar value. That's what we have to uh stick to. So um again, it's kind of an alternative means of doing capital work. And like Josh said, it can be done at the same time with a capital project to help alleviate some of those funds so you can do other things that you may need that don't necessarily save energy. So, uh, next slide, please. So, we were given your utility bills and essentially we use those bills to see where you're at currently from an energy use perspective and then we see where we can get you to based on our familiarity with uh, school buildings and making them more energy efficient. So based on our initial analysis, we saw that there's about

042a 2 and 1 half to$3.5 million project we could do utilizing your energy savings. And that range is there because there's a lot of different options you can do, but one of the options we saw potentially was doing some level of uh fuel switch to potentially a more uh efficient fuel source in your buildings for your boilers. So that's where that's there's a significant amount of savings to that. But again, we would coordinate with any uh existing uh capital project or kind of the needs needs and wants of a district to make sure that it makes the most sense. It's a it's a collaborative effort that we want to work with you to make sure that the project gets everything that you want it to to be, but also saves you some energy and get

043you some facility improvements. And so that's kind of how we came up with some of these numbers. And again, this is just based on preliminary assessment. Uh the next slide will kind of show you where you are in the process. Um so this we kind of call our candyland slide. It's a little busy. Um but you're in the upper part where it says uh process development and procurement. Essentially we've already looked and identified that there could be a project here. The next steps for that is for you to issue what's called a an RFP, request for proposals for ourselves and any other groups to look at your buildings and see what kind of project you could potentially do. And then ideally, you would select us or somebody else to do that work. And then it

044would kind of flow into similar to a capital project where we would work with your architects, your construction managers, get the project through SED and design it and then um ultimately do construction similar to a capital project. So it's very similar to that, but the major thing is that everything that we do has to save energy and that's kind of the main point of it too. Um so you can go to the next slide and the last one we kind of have a outline of what we see as a potential timeline for what we could do if there was a desire to do this project. Uh you would we already did our preliminary analysis. So you would issue a request for proposals seemingly this month and then you would select uh an energy performance contract

045uh company and then we would work with your architects and your engineers to do a detailed analysis of your uh facilities and then also submit it to the state for review. Hopefully I know right now it's saying four months but who knows where it's going to be in May or December of uh 2026. So then we would get it approved and then start the process of doing these um renovations in the summer of 2026. So that was pretty much it. I know I hit you with a lot pretty quick, but anybody has any questions, happy to field them. Can you just talk a little bit about like what um what types of projects we could do just based on or what you've done in other districts? Yeah, so uh that's it's a good question. So

046we typically the the major driver and what I should have talked about too is the way it's regulated is essentially it needs to pay for itself over an 18-year period. So lighting pays for itself from savings through maybe 5 10 years depending on what you do but a boiler might not pay for itself for 40 years or even longer. So as long as the net of that is 18 years you can you can do the project. So, we kind of try to take those measures that pay for themselves like controls, lighting, and maybe some building envelope improvements where we would tighten up the spaces where so you're not just dumping your heat out the windows or doors or wherever you have holes and marry them with measures that don't really pay for themselves, but you

047do need like a new air handling unit, a new boiler system. Uh, we've gone as far as to also look at solar if that was something that you wanted to look at. We've done a lot of things. It's not really It's It's tough because it's not something that a lot of districts see up close. It's not like you're getting a new field, but it's something that hopefully will allow you to control your building more comfortably and also allow that environment to just be better. So, it's not too hot. You don't have kids that have to wear their jackets in one room, but are wearing a t-shirt in another room to try to not get calls like that. So, we can hopefully fix those uh spaces for you and make it a better environment for everyone.

048Any other questions? How would we put this together with the capital project? But we have to have approval on the capital project first. So it doesn't it can be separate or it can be combined with capital projects. I understand it. But but we would have to if we were going to go capital project we would have to have approval first vote approval. So you do not have to vote this job if you don't want to. That's that's Can you talk about that? That's a big aspect of it. You don't have to vote the job. And if you don't vote the job, obviously you wouldn't be able to bond it. So then it would be a different means of financing. You would get a bet a worse uh you know interest rate, but uh if you

049do vote the job, you get your aid rate. So right now that's the 90% aid rate that you're looking at. If you didn't vote the job, you would get 10% less. So typically when we work with um districts, we would encourage them to vote because usually the vote is not for the project. The project is happening. the vote would be to get the extra 10% from the state. So, that's kind of how that works. Again, because the whole point of the job is not to it can't cost the district any money. It's got to be budget neutral or positive in the cash flow after you take into account the energy savings and the building aid that comes back. So, it can like it's kind of a it's it can be yes or no, but uh

050it's all up to kind of if you want to vote it and get that extra 10%. Then what we would do is we would work with you folks too on putting out flyers and videos just to kind of show what the project's going to look like and how it will benefit the district. And so it's typically something that a lot of students want to do because they can get that extra 10% just by saying yes that this project is a good idea. So can I can I just provide you an example and tell me if this is a good example of how it could come together. So I know in the facilities committee recommendation one of the things discussed there were the boilers. Y right. So if you found that it made sense to do

051the boilers in this the energy performance contract project then that could be removed from the facilities committee project and then from there that could either reduce the cost of that project or use that money for something else. Exactly. And that's that's one of the benefits of doing it with the capital project. We've done it multiple ways where sometimes we'll have the districts vote both the capital project and the energy performance contract almost at the same time. So it's this kind of pull of of money where you can say, "Okay, the energy performance contract can fund $2 million or $3 million and take into account maybe that boiler that now is not going to be funded by the capital project and is you can now do other things like if you need a new bus loop

052or something like that, you can." So that's the nice thing about doing it can take the burden off of the capital project with things that you were going to do anyway like lighting and the boiler work and that type of thing too. If you were going to be in a building short term, is there any piece can you peace meal it and get money back on that group to keep that? Yeah. So that's if you that was going to be the situation a lot of times we've had districts where they would go in and say, you know, we're not 100% sure what we're going to do with this space. So we would recommend you can take savings from one building and apply it to the other. It doesn't have to be like the one building

053pays for itself and the other building pays for itself. It can be a district-wide thing. So, we've had situations where schools wanted to do a huge renovation on their elementary school, but had no real needs in their high school. So, we just were able to change the lighting out in that high school to help fund some significant boiler work in their elementary school. So, you can do that type of thing. So, you take it kind of the low hanging fruit we call it, and get those savings and leverage them in the building that you plan on, you know, doing some significant renovations in. That's the beauty of it where there's no real set in stone uh scope of work right now and we would collaborate with you and the architects to build kind of the

054best one that you want and that's the it's beneficial that way. So if you were going to be in building for four years, what would you recommend that we work on? Um the you can take the savings of the the lighting probably would be something that we would look at and potentially the controls uh because those things kind of pay for themselves or the building envelope uh too. Those are lowhanging fruit items that we would see that would pay for themselves over the course of and help fund more work in a building that you were potentially gonna stay in for a little bit for a little bit longer. What we'll do is too is we can show you the cash flow to because we show a cash flow. It's usually funded over 15 years, but

055the um actual energy savings go through 18 years. We guarantee them. So we can show you in that let's say five year stretch whereas p year five you're not going to factor in that building anymore because those savings will be gone. that can be shown in when you're calculating that. And are you capable when you're looking at it like in terms of you develop the lighting to look at the way that the lighting would be multiple use to make a building work more when we were done with it? Absolutely. Prove the value of it. Yep. Thank you. I'm sorry. we put in controls where we put thinning or something like that if they knew if the district knew that they were going to maybe change the I guess the use of that building or rent

056it out to somebody let's say um yeah we would we can work with you on that. Okay, thank you for those questions. We just had one question. I see that some of your the incentives are are federal incentives uh used in the project. Is there any concern about those going away and the kind of environment there? Um so we put the federal incentives because we look for them all the time. We we comb the everywhere to look for and they change almost monthly. I'll be honest, a lot of the state incentives have been solid. We just got a district a couple million dollars from NAERTA, the New York State uh research energy and development agency and they I said the same thing once things started getting real crazy. I made a call and said, "Hey,

057are we concerned about this at all?" And they said their programs are still strong and they they are confidence, but a lot of the money does come from the state. There's very little federal. A lot of it comes from your utility, too. So, uh, but like I said, we we kind of apply for all of it because there's a lot of free money out there that we like to hope that will buy down the cost of this job so that it can be more favorable and you can do more work doing that. If you have any other questions, I know we hit you with a lot. Feel free to email, call us, whatever you need. We're happy to answer them. Thank you very much. Thank you. All right. Facilities. Dr. Joe Poni. Thank you, Josh.

058turned off. I don't have my car. Yeah, if you don't mind. Good evening everyone. As uh Josh mentioned, my name is Joe Dragoni. I'm with Capital Region Boseies and I've been had the pleasure of facilitating the work with the facilities committee since last September. Um I know we have a lot of members here tonight. I really appreciate you coming out as we go through our recommendations and Darlene and Tom were religious in attending all the meetings as well. Um, so I'm looking forward to going through these pieces and I think Tom before we even start, I want to just piggyback on the question you rose. If you look to do EPCs or anything related to the project, it has to be concurrent in terms of anything like that. It has to planning and the scope

059has to be concurrent. So if you decide to do anything around energy performance contracts would recommend if you move on that they immediately get with Eric and Mike and scope is part of the entire planning. Okay. Because you can look at boundary now. So we're going to look at the boilers but we're doing addition right. So there's there's so much involved in that. I would really it needs it I would strongly recommend because just because you raised it I wanted to speak to it before we get into it. It it should be a concurrent planning process because there's so much going on. And you work with the contractor. Yes. Oh, yeah. They will work with Mike, the design team, the architects, Mike Harris and uh and Eric from Schoolhouse to do that. And then it

060goes back to conversations that we've had. Okay. If we can look at pulling things out or funding some things different, it goes back to all the number conversations. But as a reminder too, which we'll get to in a little bit, time is is of the essence to a large degree as well. But I think um if we remember, it was either December or January. I would have to look. Eric raised, you know, maybe we can look at doing EPC's as part of this too. So I think as a strategy, it's good, but the planning really should be concurrent with anything that the board decides to do and move forward. It's a financing strategy versus a design and development strategy. So they really need to be working together. We rely on the architect to say you're

061not replacing these boilers, we're replacing them. But demand is different because we're putting in an addition as well. So find out that full scope, find out what the max is on the draw, find out what's going to have to happen to scale that up, pull it out, and then you work with folks that do energy performance contracts, and they can cost out to see what the savings is might be enough. Pull it out of the project that pays for itself. So it's a financial strategy. Thank you. Not to get off like on the run completely before we even start, but you raised it. I just think it's important for perspective, especially for all the committee members here that have been so close to this for so long. So, just a quick reminder of the charge

062and and the board outlined this originally with the facilities committee with conversations about long-term planning, long-term strategy to deal with the uh district's facility needs um for the future. Um, part of that role was to review data, which we did endlessly, touring buildings, reviewing data, reviewing designs, um, was a, which we'll get to in a second, very broadly represented committee, um, and really going through all the work that's been done. And a large part of it was, especially back in September, we did a serious autopsy on the last vote and talked about those things. And that was very important to the committee for the decision-making. I really respect how reflective they were through the entire process of what went into that vote, why necessarily it might not have been successful and what it really meant

063to the community going forward. So the committee really did tremendous work into that regard to inform the decision-m. So again, we have 16 members from across the community and members of the district. We met monthly starting back in last September and we wrapped up last month at the end of March and again we reviewed all the program thing all the program components which was very important um financial information site evaluations we looked at parcels we looked at state aid estimates we re we updated I should say the building condition survey so we had the most most um current information when it came to assessing systems and what needed to be fixed or we needs to get done um across the district and what could be the most cost effective way to do that. So, a

064lot of work um over a long period of time. Um and just a reminder, everything throughout this process was posted on a web page posted by the district. All the presentations are up there, the meeting notes are up there. It's accessible to everyone. And also, I want to credit Josh and the committee. When we started this in September, the committee was adamant about making sure we try to communicate everything we can as much as possible all the time. So after every meeting, there was a summary sheet with what the committee looked at, when the dates are for the next meeting, encouraging people to attend and that um and that combined with the website that I mentioned earlier allowed access to all the information that everything the committee had was posted and everybody has access to.

065So um that was uh something new that went forward with the committee this time and it was important to them to do everything we can to make sure we can have many people involved as they want. So there's a series of five holistic recommendations and this is really important because this isn't a conversation about we'll call it the bathroom's going to be right. This is a long-term large conversation about how the district can manage its hard assets and the demands that are on them. Knowing the current state and knowing where things can go forward, always understanding the result of the last vote and what was proposed in the last vote. So all those moving parts are really important part of the picture. So the first recommendation is that the committee recommends that we do not

066consider the thrral dam site right now for school or any related facility. After the vote there were different conversations of the why. Was it site? Was it money? Was it scope? Was it location? And the answer was it was all of that. So to make a conclusion about one or the other was too much because there were so many parks, but it was felt sight was part of that. It makes the most sense not to go back out and say we're going to go right back where everyone said they didn't want to go. So the first recommendation is not to consider that site currently um and a and a scope of a project that was previously proposed. We went back through and looked at every parcel that we looked at before. We re-engaged with our

067realer. We found another four or five parcels. We did uh quick work on that to check suitability. Um and actually the district sent an email out to everyone said if anybody knows of any land that anybody's interested in that we could look at and consider. Um so we turned over every rock and turn of property and the reality is there's not another parcel that could be suitable for everything. Um that was an important part of the decision-making because that informs the next decision. Now again, this is where we currently stand to be able to move to get the educational facilities up to what we um need to do going forward. The second recommendation after looking at both campuses and understanding the scope of the work that has to happen and the scale of the work

068that has to happen knowing you can't go to a new place with a new building that addresses all the needs and everything else with that. The decision was made to renovate the Mountain View campus and to put an addition on to accommodate the elementary students. The current recommendation, again, this is pre-esigned, 17 classrooms will accommodate 14 grade level classrooms and three special education classrooms. And we had a long, long discussion in program review month after month about do you really need it? And the answer is yes. we can't bring the students over there now and everybody won't fit what the program needs. And we talked a lot in a long time about actually somebody raised it over earlier when they spoke. You know, there's a notion that it can work all together without addition and

069the answer it can't and was a really deliberate work of the committee to understand what the needs were and to propose we have to have we're going to bring everybody to one campus. there has to be uh an addition to be able to accommodate that. We're talking about 14 grade level classrooms for starters. There's not 14 available classrooms as it sits right now and three special education classrooms. So the recommendation is to renovate um and to build the addition and the recommendation with the renovations are which I'm going to go through now just to give a general idea because I think it's important that people understand the condition of the building as it stands currently. Um and the recommendation was start ab absolutely necessary to shore up systems, shore up the structure, shore up the

070site so we can continue the lifespan of the building because a lot of the mechanical and mechanical and the infrastructure work is already at um end of life. So just some general ideas when we looked at initial things that should be done in terms of priority and working through those which have to be balanced with cost as well. But we know there's there's drainage and catf facing problems in the site, problems with the asphalt, there's problems with the concrete deterioration and curb deterioration and the playground needs to be completely replaced. Um that work in terms of site needs to happen first. The building envelope there's issues with the c the concrete foundations. There's horizontal cracking in the in the 1951 part of the building that generally says there's a water infiltration problem. It could be

071subgrade as well. So have to do some investigating the team will have to do some investigating on that. But ultimately the way the cracking exists, it suggests there's an inadequate reinforce there's a reinforcement problem. So we've got foundation issues in the 1951 part of the building that need to be addressed. Um there's issues with brick. It's um and and repointing. There's a lot of deterioration around the window sills. There's issues with marble panel. There's warping. There's there's joint degradation. So the whole envelope of that seal of the building needs to be looked at as well. And something to the earlier conversation when you talk about tightening up the envelope, you talk about energy savings. What would that mean if that's something that could be looked at through a different financial model too as well? Next

072are oh a few in minor interior things that rose to the top of the BCS. Um issues with carpeting was very very old. places where that it should just be replaced because of the life span of that. Um and there's issues where there's bio composite tile that should be replaced um with LBT as well where it's just in such poor condition it's either a safety issue or it's a sanitary issue or something like that. So there's some interior spots they need to get touched. The mechanical systems are the biggest issue that we're dealing at because essentially you're at end of lifespan from 1990. Um it's 35 years ago. equipment only lasts so long. Um it's important that it needs to get addressed. Um the original boilers are at the end of their lifespan and part

073of that too is um the burners, the Carlin burners, we can't source parts for these anymore and and Josh and the team will be the first one to tell you when it breaks you're robbing Peter to pay Paul to figure out how to keep things up and running. So it's a very very critical infrastructure problem. Um and I think as far as I'm concerned, it's on borrowed time. So, the boiler situation is right at the top of the agenda. All of the unit ventilators that were installed in 1991 um used uh the R22 refrigerant that's been phased out. They're really end of life. The wall hung ones and the ceiling hung ones. Those should be replaced. Um and a lot of the upper and lower floors don't have um means for the relief air area.

074So, you're talking about reworking all of the systems in there. Same thing with the uh the there's exhaust issues um in the art edition where the bathrooms are in the out art edition as well as intake issues again in the 1991 section of where the music area as well. The kitchen we spoke about a lot um it was another important concern and that's something that showed up a lot in the BCS survey as well. Uh let me scroll ahead to the next one. Um the hood don't think the hood's a type one um for griddle and stove operation. There's no makeup air available. So that has to get addressed. There's no exhaust and vapor capture um in the dishwashing area and the air handlers are all out of well beyond their electric oil. They use

075the old refrigerant. They're beyond their life expectancy as well. So, you want to be able to do all of the air handlers um in the kitchen as well. Plumbing, again, it's really back to the kitchen. We don't think there's a grease trap in the waste outlet. Um it's currently being skimmed or there's chemicals used. That needs to be addressed. The sanitary lines don't have floor sinks. They're connected right into the system. That's plumbing infrastructure you want to put in again to support everything that goes on in the kitchen area. Um and then something that is very important which rose to the top of the BCS2 is just it's but a very simple fix is replacing the um the the the valve and the floor drains in the chemistry lab for the eye washing station. That's

076a technical it's a more of a certification and a requirement but it's something that showed up in the VCS that needs that needs to get done from an electrical perspective. Um there's no um well throughout the building any circuits um or wiring that needs to be replaced should be replaced. There's no strobe lights in the student occupied area. So we want to make sure that gets dressed as especially as it gets run back to the panel. Um carbon monoxide detection system is not available. That's something that we want to have installed. Um we want to harden the visitor's entrance um with a adjacent controls install and uh especially from the electrical side and the software side a badging system and a signin system which will will address security and part of the recommendations and this

077was very important to the committee and parallel path in a parallel path to the infrastructure work. Um, Boseies has health safety management services and they can work with the district on a safety audit of uh an assessment of the current building, especially as you go to do an addition with that. What else can be addressed? But the the initial infrastructure issues of pardoning the entrances and installing um installing the security system. Um RAP is a very this the common one a lot of schools use but that access will will already be addressed and again work with the recommendation is to work with the Boseies to continue to look and see how any security or if there's any uh really critical natures of security issues that be addressed in terms of asset or infrastructure. And lastly,

078as part of the first three holistic recommendations is not to use the Lake View campus for the transportation facility or the fields. And the reality is it comes to cost. We ballparked around call between one and a half and $2 million, call it one and three/4er just for abatement. So, you're $2 million in plus or minus to abate the building and then it's removing the building and the contour of this campus is impossible. There's be so much cut and fill to be able to utilize it long term and athletic facility. We had a couple of drawings what fields would fit. Could we leave the big gym? You can't because it's right in the middle and nothing else will fit around it. What about if you do a bus garage there? If you did that there,

079you wouldn't have that space. You got to cut and fill in the back and it's incredibly cost prohibitive. Um, so based on reviewing all the plans and reviewing the site and what other options might be, the committee is recommending that we don't repurpose this site, the expense associated with it is is really really cost prohibitive. Um also the committee is part of that which we spoke about at length is you know nobody wants to walk away and abandon it either. So they really encourage the board um Josh if you move in this direction start conversation with municipalities how you can collaborate on on repurposing it um looking for buyers what the town might see for the you know just just there was a sense of want to work together to try to make sure that

080that it can be repurposed in the best interest of the community going forward and something that the municipality would want to be part of. So those are stop there. Yeah, let me stop there. How do I go back? I can't see you. Josh, am I on back? I can't. How many slides back? Back me up. Second one from the top. Second one from the top. Yep. Says previous. Wait, are you moving me now? I lost the thing. I got it. This one. I'm back. Good. I'm going to stop there because the last two are not related to this. So the big picture again just to review the big picture recommendations are not to go out with a giant project again. There's no suitable place to do it. The answer isn't to go back where we

081weren't already successful. The recommended in nutshell recommendation from the committee is we stay at Mountain View. We do an addition to accommodate bringing over the elementary and related classrooms from this campus. We start with the renovations there which I just touched on which what's absolutely necessary to preserve the building over time. We're at you're seriously you're at end of life systems in most of these cases. This work has to get done. Look at the expenses around that. see what that looks like and then continue to look further till there's a comfort level with the board with the community about what the financial impact of that would be. Questions on the renovations or the recommendation to stay at Mountain View and to do the addition there and do the renovation work and again the renovate that's

082just a taste of what really needs to get done. I'm used to speaking loud from the facilities committee meetings. Huh? Can you remind us of the total the the cost of just the bare bones just the the renovation piece? I don't have all of the number I don't have all the numbers in front of me. Everything's posted. Yeah, we were looking at the whole presentation and it and again and my last slide is is no one's allowed to quote me on says what something costs now because you're five years out y on all of that. But if it was a bare bones, look at it from an unaded perspective, like which what's costing you out of pocket. The original referendum was about $27 million out of pocket. If you just did a limited renovation model

083right now, it's between three and a half and four. So think that scope is how much the difference is. So if you did what you really needed to do, it's between three and a half and four. If you go beyond that and say, you know what, we want to do some more renovations or we want to do some more other things, it will build up from there. And I don't I don't want to get granular on cost, but that's a really important question, but just my knowledge in a district and the work I've done, your your levy is about $8.3 million, right? So 1% on the levy is $83,000. It takes 12 cents per thousand of assessed value to raise to raise 1% on the levy. So I mean, that's the simple that's the back

084of the math. Um, car financing, I always use that. You know, what's your least going to cost? What's your monthly payment? So, if you say the math goes through and it's 5% impact on the levy, it's going to be 60 cents, 5 time 12 per,000 of assessed value to raise that $83,000. And that's the way the committee talked about it a lot because the original project it was 25 or 20 somewhere in the neighbor of 25% on the levy. We're looking at in a limited scope six to seven is does it turn into 10 like those are all moving parts over here when it determines how much you want to continue to renovate. The scope between both is is really really different. really different. Any other thoughts on one to three? So, can I just

085want you to clarify if you don't mind where we are in this process? And I I I say that I want to clarify that for everyone because of where I feel like the community really got involved. The last time was when the board was approving after we already heard from state and we're not there right now. Can you just talk about where we are? Yeah, that that's a great point and as the committee's back to slide one about the charge was to make the recommendations for the long-term proposals. The committee did not get into and we worked very hard. This this is a 40,000 foot recommendations for the long-term use of the hard assets of the district. We did not get into well if this goes here or if this goes there or what about

086this or what about that. We heard that at the last meeting with folks coming out. people have spoke to that tonight as well. We're not that granular. We're at 40,000 feet and what we're saying is what we what we do know or the committee determined is you want to be at Mountain View and you want to do the addition and you have to you have to fix Mountain View um to be able to to have everything there. So, we didn't get granular onto that. We looked at different plans. We looked at different proposals. But the next step is which has to happen pretty quickly is to design work in the submissions to get up to SED. If the board moves forward with recommendations now, I would strongly encourage the design team needs to get working.

087All of that has to happen. There's it's going to be it's a six months for the sake of argument to review preliminary design. The addition has to go through preliminary design at SED. If that thing can get up in June or July by December and I gota have a full timeline at the end. So we this is holistic. It's not the big picture. Shar I know you're dying to say something. So go ahead. You're the best Shar. Thank you. So I wanted to and Shar and Tom I see Josh because other folks are out there work very hard as members of this committee and I just really want to acknowledge their work. Go ahead Shar. Could you also please just clarify where we are on that 10-year window? Yes. Yes, that's a good point to

088get, which the committee talked about as well, which kind of has a sense of urgency. Um, you're only eligible for the extra aid for the merger. And I think we're in year seven, Josh. We got three years left, remember correctly. So, if something moves now and is not successful, there's a very strong probability you won't get the extra aid. The window is going to close. It was a 10-year window. We had the failed vote. We're back again. So you're going to have to go our our suggestion is you get the referendum next year because it's going to take another year of planning and you're not going to be done with this until 2030 anyway. So time is a that's a great thank you shar that's a very important point because time is an important factor

089in all of this as well so you can maximize state aid. So there's two more related recommendations. Again, this is facility what has to happen top priority to be able to move forward. Um the committee recommends continuing to work with Dudley for the location of the act of the athletic fields. There's been a parcel hasn't been found yet. They're already playing there. And it's not like if you move forward to this you're you'll never be here again ever, right? You're five you're five years out. You're still going to be using the fields back here. There's still a runway in there to look at opportunity or something different as well. You have the relationship with Dudley. Dudley's interest is interested from what I understand and Josh been working very hard with them to formalize some things.

090You stay there together or maybe invest there and use that site and put more fields there. But the the recommendation now is to continue to collaborate with Dudley. anything additional it'll be fields located anywhere else are all out of pocket. So this was really about prioritizing how do you manage the fiscal side of this which what needs to get done and what needs to get done is our one two and three the field problem still needs to be solved. The uh bus garage the transportation facility problem still needs to be resolved but number one two and three are your biggest problems. Right? We got to take care of kids. We got to get staff. We have to be able to do these things first. The fields work where they are. You strengthen that partnership. That's

091great. You really don't want to do the fields here. If you stay there for x amount of years, fine. Does something turn up down the road that might be something different? Fine. That's a conversation the district can have again. But the committee is recommending as we stand right now. Continue because it feels part of that original project. So to solve that part that was in the Thraw Dam project, continue working with Dudley. um either improve over there, work on the relationship there and see what kind of opportunity they can still grow out of that based on what we know now and based on prioritizing the work of all the recommendations. Does the non-ontiguous uh portion also affect the bus garage? Yes. No, in terms of aid. Yeah. No, I'm sorry. No, the the garage will

092still be there. Okay. Even if it's not on the same Yes. the GR the whole the key I don't want to just a quick rehash for people don't know the key to putting when the garage was there we can get more aid out of sight work so we had to build the garage to get the infrastructure and so we got aid to be able to get to the building and to get to the fields so it was a bonus round per se but the garage will be aided regardless but the fields just to be clear if they're not contiguous to the campus won't be aided 100% correct and the committee spoke at length about that a long time they fields get aided when they get treated as a gym station and it needs to be

093adjacent. So when you do the renovations at Mountain View, we'd like to do the addition so we can then you have some the fields and play space in the back. We would make that argument that's part of the PE program. I I would be surprised if we don't get any aid on that. That should be fine. But anything off campus or anything anywhere with fields is a it's a 100% out-of- pocket expense. Yes. And lastly, um, which kind of we just broaching a little bit now is the committee suggests to continue to look for opportunity for transportation facility. There's a couple parcels that are centrally located that could work in that measure. Um, if it moves, district could, you know, maybe do that become parking where the current facility is. Are there different there's a

094million different options that can go with that, but these are kind of tier two and tier three problems, right? So we parsed these things out to say we got to deal with fields. We're already a Dudley that works state of course. We have to deal with transportation as well. But the the moral of the story first and foremost is because that part is that's not resolved yet is we have to deal with numbers one, two, and three. And the last broader recommendation and this has come up in terms of financing as well. Again, it's going back to the project that wasn't successful. We had questions about was it cost, was it location, was it scope, right? And the the answer was we thought it was the committee thought it was all three. So, we want

095to make sure that we are cognizant of what'sable and what's notable. And I don't think that was clear based on what the committee said, how well that was described the first time the referendum went out, but you only get as much aid on the students you serve up to a certain level. And once you go above that level, you might get to here, you'll get 90% of what state ad says, we're going to we're going to aid you to here at 90%. But we want to go to here. Well, you can go to here, you can go to here, you can go to here, you can go to here, but we're not going to pay for it. That's all local share. That's why the Dudley that's why the thraw dam project was so expensive was

096over $25 million local share. So almost half that project was out not quite half was 63 million well close to it. 40% of that project was out of pocket which is why the impact was so. So the recommendation to the board is that you have to consider what's aided and how it's aided. So you can look at the holistic impact on the comm on the uh on the on on tax rate and on the community. But the committee also understands that we're going to be above the MCA. The MCAs are just too low, right? We know we already conceded you're going to be the addition will be. It's not going to be here, but the reality is is we're going to be of be above MCA, which is part of the recommendation. The community understands

097that it's going to cost more than what's anything that's tatable, but advises the board to use discretion when it comes to how big this gap comes, right? So, you spent a dollar and you got 90 cents back. Well, you wanted to spend $2 or you're not getting anything back on that second dollar. So, it's it's about the approach, which you really can't do until you get scope, you look at financing, you look at scheduling, you look at aid, and all of those pieces have to come together, and nothing can happen until until we get out of the gate here and start planning out what the entire scope of the project can look like. So, again, just a couple reminders. My disclaimer goes on every presentation. Um, nothing is final until state ed says it's final,

098until the estimates are done, until what the costs really are, until borrowing is determined on what the rates are, the price of poker is coming down a little bit. Um, we're already seeing a break for some projects in the rates right now. Um, but it wasn't what it was before. You know, I was telling Josh when we did our the big started a big project in 2019, we were borrowing for nothing. Two and change, nothing. Nothing. You know, it's different now. Will it move by the time you have to by the time you either go out for your first round of bond service or you do a construction ban up front first? Maybe. But again, these numbers are here and now. They're going to change. And I give the disclaimer because I don't want anybody

099to turn around and say, "Geez, Joe, in April, you said, "Yeah, I said that in April. Now it's February 2026." Like a lot of grass grows and a lot of things changed. The the price of products is moving all over the place, right? We don't know where anything is going to land. Construction's finally leveled out a little bit, but for the past two years, the materials prices went berserk. It went berserko during COVID. It stayed that way for a while. It's a little bit leveled off, but no one has a crystal ball. No one has a crystal ball on cost until we know exactly till you know exactly what you want to do. Um, we also know, as I mentioned earlier, the scope of the rental house will really be consuming most of the costs

100in terms of the renovation. There's just, you saw that list, it's not even complete. There's just a lot of work to do in terms of renovations. Um, and again, there's there's um additional revenue potential that can come down. There's the sale of this campus that can be, you know, the board will can come into revenue for that. There's the chippy project money that's coming online. You know, there's different things that this is a long runway, which I think is my next slide is the runway. It is the runway between what you do now and what happens and what the fiscal picture could look like down the road. So if you move forward now, which is essentially adopting the recommendations, which can get the design Josh into the design team out of the gate and say

101get to work like now so we can get a submission in so we can get some review by hopefully in 2025. They can get that done by against ballpark. You never know what happens to state black hole. Um if we can get up June or July in a perfect world um over the course of the rest of this year we'll do secret we'll do the rest of all the environmental testing we'll do geo we'll do all these things that are all necessary to get that work done in a perfect world we get the final MCA kelps based on this entire submission in December then you'll know what you're aided to and when you did thr down thanks to Josh's hard work twisted a lot of arms at state head and they threw a bunch of

102extra MCAs at that project. Probably won't happen this time, but once the project goes in, I do again encouraged if they'll let you back in there, Josh, after what you went through last time you were a disguise. Exactly. Go down there again and say, "Look, if this we come out of failed project, this is what we need to do to move forward. Can you help us? Can you give us a little something to get here?" Um, I think that's a conversation worth having too. All those in a perfect world, it's December, it's January. The preliminary submissions are approved. We got we get the BAUs as part of all of the building aid units. That's what gets aided. And the MCA is the maximum cost allowance. How high we can go. We get all that from

103state. You get all that from state. Um, January and February, we confirm our costs. We get Rick Pins back in here, who I I probably addressed the board before. Josh would be my guest, the finance guy. Yes. Get the runs out, do some modeling, get bond council involved, get ready to roll, and then depending on where that falls, if it's accelerated, you could vote it in March, maybe. If you don't make that, because there's a lot of planning in that with the announcements and the 45 days and the 30-day requirements, you could vote a referendum with your budget in May. So, I see that as a tenative schedule and that just starts things, right? So, if you do vote next May and it's successful, you got another year of approvals at least. And it depends

104on what state we're just talking about. A lot of people are starting to try new projects again now. Um the queue for mechanical last going was going into the end of last year was 6 months for mechanical was it was huge and architectural review the MEP mechanical review was six months they were all 24 to 30 weeks that's tightened up now I don't you guys see numbers like they're doing like three weeks four weeks they're down to a month yeah because it's slow right now right now it's slow and then fall everybody's voting and doing it again then they're going to get back up right so it's going to be a year to get to DDD You get the design documents for the project. Start construction. Two phases. Just quick thinking as you build the

105addition. You can use that space for swing space. Put kids in there while you're running a bit renovating the building. It's ugly renovating occupied space. Everybody's just going to understand that's that's how life is. Um you'll get through it. You're not the first people to do it. Um and it might be able to finish early depending on a million things, not the least of which is weather, frankly. um we all know how that goes and that can affect the project. So that is kind of the moral of the story. Um and got to turn it to you or madam president if there's any questions from anyone else. So I'm just wondering I I think I understand we're we're voting on the big broad view. we're not another board another time they'll be voting on what

106to put forward to the public as far as you know if we're going to renovate and have a real auditorium or if we're going to put through a bare bones project for the kids. We're just looking at site and just the basics of Yes, ma'am. The recommended the basically the big question answered is you're saying you're not going to this building won't be purchased as a school once once the renovations and the addition is complete. That's the ultimate part of the decision making. But to to your point, there isn't another year to be arguing about is it 10 square feet or is it 20 square feet here or is this go here or does that go here. It's a tight timeline. So if you do move forward, like I said, I encourage Josh to quickly

107re-engage that ar the design team, the architects and the project manager about those design specifications because there's only going to be 90 days plus or minus stuff. and the addition part to argue over those kinds of things. You see the way that timeline will be a year out. If you lose another year to the vote, you're that much closer to not getting anything. So, it's it's it's it's a tight timeline. But tonight, students are adopting the recommendation, the resolution to adopt these recommendations. Essentially says we're going to be in Mountain View. We're going to fix it. We're doing an addition there. Those are the first three. Get to work. Let's try to put let's get something together. And then the two again are tangential based on the already the priority committee still continues to recommend

108using athletic fields um over here and to continue to look for opportunities for transportation but to go out with all these projects again you it's just it's financially very challenging. Go ahead. Um, first of all, I want to thank um the facility committee and you Joe for all the hard work um the efforts toward putting forth a long-term plan that will address not only the need for health and safety for our students um but also takes into consideration the financial aspects that I think everybody with the overwhelming defeat of the last proposal this is addresses that um I fully understand the necessity of making some significant renovations at Mountain View and the rationale for taking advantage of the 91% incentive reimbursement on the aidable portions of our addition. We're never going to see that type

109of reimbursement rate again. Um, I do understand that some people in the community um are still co I'm cognizant of the fact that some people in the community, especially in the Elizabeth Town community, are questioning the need for a large addition while others I'm hearing tonight are questioning why our addition is so small and we need the need for more things. Um, it really affected me when I heard Olive speak about how children perceive this because I honestly personally do not believe that the people of our communities do not care about children and they do not care about the education of our children. Unfortunately, these are very troubling economic times right now. And I think perhaps that that is what drove the last vote. So I am happy that people are taking into consideration both

110aspects giving the students um a healthy and safety envi safe environment but also looking at the financial needs. I do have a question for you before we vote. Um if we send this to state ed and if our reimbursement rates come back at a mo much lower rate or if the cost of the project is much greater than anticipated or conversely if it's comes out to our favor do we have the opportunity to re-examine those um numbers and the project again and or are we stuck to that proposal to present to the voters as a referendum. Um, it's a great question, Darlene, and I think the process with state ed is is cumbersome and here's why. And this actually happens with I'll try not to be I'll be as diplomatic as I can, right? Technically,

111architects draw something based on what you say you want. That's where we kind of started with the original edition, right? cafeteria. I want a gym and we're gonna do this and we're gonna do that and we're gonna do that. The architect's all happy because that side of their life doesn't matter. Here's what you asked for. Then you go to state ed and they say, "Okay, we can approve this and then things start getting costed out and then all of a sudden things aren't adding up." So the short answer to your question is yes, you can set your referendum at whatever you want. That's the pleasure of the board. Um, you can do alts with the project as well. That's why if you decide to do with any energy performance contracts, how that would get financed.

112Like I said, that work needs to go just like this because that will drive some of the other costs and change some of the other costs. So, if it comes back and it's incredibly heavy, yes, you can take away from it. If it comes back and it's incredibly light, you have time between then and say, you know what, let's renovate. Let's give me some costs on doing this floor. Give me some Right. You can you can do that as well. add on to the do that as well. Yeah. I mean, we took out Sher will remember what we take two million out I think of the auditorium. We took two million out of the new space if I remember correctly. If anybody wants to correct me or anybody has any thoughts I think that's don't

113quote me. I thought it was good because we looked at the addition and it was like three and a half million on 80. It's like how can we Okay, let's try to get that down, right? Because remember back to my original when you had on an $ 8.3 million assessment 1% of the levy I'm sorry levy 1%'s $83,000. So if your payment annual payments half a million dollars right you're going to be a little more than you know you're going to be six times 83 is about half a million half a million dollars. So you're going to that's 6%. And every percent's 12 cents, right? Again, that's I I encourage the committee that's back in the napkin math. Back in the napkin math where you can just say to yourself, every percent cost me 12

114cents, right? So, you know, the last project is 25% 25% times 12 cents. And that's where it was, you know, on a on a house assessing $200,000, it was $500 a year. You know, that's, you know, a lot of a lot of mine. A lot of mine. Yes. So, I have a a question. Like, say we send this out and we get bumped again and timeline is dwindling down. What is the percentage if we don't qualify for the 91 or 90 point? What was the pre? So, so it's to be clear. So that number has never been calculated, but a a a reasonable estimate would be sort of a combination. Yeah. They do a blend maybe. Yeah. Yeah. Something like that. So I I think that No, no, no. It it'd be like I think

115we said like like low 50s. It's that low, huh? Yeah. Yeah. I didn't know it was that low. I thought I thought my ignorance. I never looked at the pre working off the merger. But but again that that is an estimate that is not actually no one had never got something done to take advantage of a mergery. But on the other hand like the talked about the mer there's only been four mergers in the past 25 years. Mergers are so rare and just so much credit which we talked about at length to both committees and the board has had a ton to deal with too and the facilities committee we talked about that too. you're coming out of all these other dynamics to to get that done is so rare. We just said we were

116just chatting before, you know, Canada and Fort Lane just went down about a month ago and it gets past the straw vote. But no, nobody can get this work done and you got it done. So like all the credit in the world to this, but the next thing carrying that flag is we got to take advantage. They're going to give us 90 cents on a dollar. Now, now is the time. Now is the time. And candidly, I don't think you have an opportunity to fail. And you don't want to lose the money, but the condition of that building needs to be addressed. I'll be completely frank that the condition of that building needs to be addressed, especially on the mechanical side. And and and and the kitchen, too. I've spoken to enough people to know

117that, you know, we want them the kitchen to be a place where kids have their downtime um and not have it smell because of there's a plot issue, frankly. And again, not to be disrespectful or anything like that, but these things need to be fixed. The building needs to be fixed for these kids if you're going to stay in it. This is building. We tell the committee, these are generational things. These the facilities projects only happen from a generational perspective. The last one was 1991. You're at the next generation. Community has to say we're going to do this for the next generation now going forward. Darling, I'm sorry. Or I'm sorry, Madam President. If you I don't want to call on Oh, I Yes. I don't We don't have to do that. Okay. I was

118just going to say and the incentive money that we've already collected will be going toward this as well. I just want people to understand that. You know, and you run the risk of, you know, good money after bad, too. The longer you're staying, the cost to fix this bill, like it wasn't even in the cards to fix this this building up. The the cost was just exponential. Exponential. And to fix both, I mean, for I mean, it was a lot of a a lot a lot a lot of local money. And it's not you don't merge to continue to have operating inefficiencies. Doesn't make sense. or facilities inefficiencies or anything like that. And I know you I know this is this is a lot for boards to deal with in my experience both superintendent and

119leading this work in different districts. Um but again I I urge you to to think in terms of generational investments. I'll just say we're talking about investments. When we voted to merge, our big goal was to improve the life of our children. And for me, the only box this checks is the efficiency of getting us into one building. I don't see how this moves us forward for the children at all. it. They're limiting now their time and their access to the cafeteria, to the library, to the gym. Uh parking, where where is staff going to park? You know, our our kids already take over half of the Tops parking lot. And I it's not good enough in my opinion. I I think we're moving backwards. I don't think we're moving forwards. I I understand the

120improvement of the building, but we're not improving what we are offering to the children. Yeah. I guess just to make sure to to the point earlier about what the board is considering is if you feel that that we come back to that the recommendation is to do there and the recommendation was to be cognizant of the cost. What that final and we know right now the program fits as it is like those are the only things that are established. what hasn't been established and that's con conversation for the board when the architects come back with something you might turn it's certainly it's the it's delivery of the board to make any decision say no we also want this this this and this this so that that part of it I want to reemphasize that not

121considering that now it's just doing over there the committee recommendation is to be cognizant of where where that is because they want a project to be successful when they know that one of those prior components was financed too. Is there middle ground once it gets costed out and and other pieces? Yes. And I I am not argue this is what we looked at is bare bones. And there's nothing worse than than doing a massive probably 30 it'll be a 30 plus million dollar project and you're going to walk into Mountain View and think you've walked into the exact same place that you've been walking into for what 65 years, right? Because it's not that kind of project. But and those are the hardest ones. You know, we did a middle school. We did $12 million

122over a summer. Sophets, uh, air handlers, all you know, as abatement, all those things. Features come back. What'd you do? Like, you don't even know that we were in the walls doing that work because that wasn't a project and it's really expensive. So, the minimum recommendation is things we just I I talked about is to get the building back into working order and preserve it for the next 35 years till systems need to be done again and focus on and keeping them running as efficient as possible. from a program side after you get drawings and the AR, you know, if you tell them to go ahead, they come to you with something and you want additional scope, that's a conversation. That's always the pleasure of the board. Everything's closure of the board, right? I have

123some comments, but I'm happy to wait until after we move or we can do I can do it now. We can do it now. Great. Um, you know, first I want to thank the facilities committee. I know it was a really difficult task to try to thread the eye of a very thin needle in terms of what the the community might afford and and what the district needs, but I do have uh some some uh concerns with these recommendations that I wanted to share with the board. Uh first, I know there's a a sentiment in our communities that the first project was too expensive. Uh and clearly Joe outlined that, a burden to taxpayers that they weren't willing to take on. And I understand this, but I feel like we've overlearned this lesson and that

124this proposal moves too far in the direction of austerity and away from a meaningful investment in our district that will allow the school to aly serve its students for future generations. And we just talked about the generational nature of these investments. And of course, the scale of the proposed investment will ultimately be up to the board moving forward. But the the second point is that while the proposal does focus on cost savings, it still doesn't give us all the things that the district needs. some members of the community talked about the fact that we there's no playing fields and there's no bus garage. So even if the dis if voters in the district do see their way um to funding the upgrades here, we're still going to have an investment that we at least in

125a bus garage and playing fields down the road that we just talked about if they're not contiguous or notable. And it seems hard on that site to find contiguous playing field area. And these are essential investments for us. And some folks may uh see playing fields as ancillary amenities. In my opinion, they're essential and I know many agree that they're essential to the well-rounded development of our students as well as an important shared community gathering space. Camp Dudley has been incredibly generous and I speak from personal experience cherishes its relationship with the school. But having soccer fields located more than 20 minutes away from uh the campus where our our uh students will be, baseball fields located 15 minutes away creates serious logistical challenges that mean more time on the road for students, parents, and

126coaches. And you know, realistically, you need to budget 30 minutes. And so if you're going back and forth between that Mountain View uh and uh and Dudley, you're that's an hour of drive time. Um and if we build at Mountain View, then we need to figure out similar situation potentially for the softball teams. In addition, um, in addition, the fields of Dudley don't offer some basic amenities. Shelter for players, spectators, easy access to water and accessibility for the elderly, um, or those need in need of special accommodations. So, it strikes me that if we take the course on these recommendations that we're we're we're in some ways being pennywise and pound foolish because we'd still be lacking some really important upgrades uh, for this district. And the third thing I'll say is that um, I

127was a really strong proponent of the merger project. I went to school here at Westport Central and had a formative experience um here and I know well the importance it has played in the community. However, I still feel that the downside of losing the school in Westport was a risk worth taking that we'd be able to build a new and better district that combined these two wonderful communities. Some of that, not all, was built on the idea of a fresh start for both districts in a new location. This is why I advocated for the Thraw Dam site. It was not ideal for sure, but it was a fresh start for both districts that would also serve students um uh at BBCS for generations to come. Nothing is perfect. I fully recognize that and need to

128make compromise. But again, I felt that was a compromise worth making. Folks in the Westport community took a risk on this project and to my mind, if this is the direction this goes, then the risk may not have been worth taking and it will not be an equally shared sacrifice between these communities. And this is important because our district needs to serve all the communities that we've merged together. And we need to create a district that serves everyone equally to the best of our ability. Finally, the ultimate direction of the recommendation and to my mind creates a ceiling for what this district can be rather than building a foundation from where we can grow. These recommendations effectively put an end to the highest ideals of the merger path. Rather than create an environment from which

129we can grow, we will wed ourselves to a path that limits our future potential. Having said all that, I do believe that thoughtful folks can have honest disagreements on this topic. I this was not kind of an easy decision for me. So I fully understand why members of this board and folks in the community may come down on a different side of this and I fully respect your opinions. But I do believe that we need to understand our why when we make these types of decisions. In this case, why did we merge? because we knew that we could create a new direction for our students of these three towns. For me, this these recommendations don't quite meet that standard. Thank you. I think we're in an impossible situation being the only financial decision that taxpayers

130have a choice and schools suffer the brunt of that especially in an economy and in times that we're in right now and that makes it very very difficult. But I don't feel I won't be on the board to see this project going forward, but I can tell you that I don't feel a barebones project is fair to our students, our faculty, our future students, our staff, our district, or our communities. I'm really disappointed that the project didn't pass in the first place, but I fully understand that it didn't. I understand and I appreciate the facilities committee recommendation going forward with this, but I don't appreciate the bare bones piece of it, which I understand is a broad view, but I do not think we should be giving our kids a school that looks the same

131as it does now with just extra wings on it. Um, I really am having a problem and really struggling with this one. I agree. I think that I have paid taxes to New York State for a long time and I would like Westport to get and Elizabeth Town to get back some of the taxes that we have paid and we are not using our money correctly. We are need to use what we have available and we won't ever get this deal again. So, we will be throwing out our opportunity to have a great auditorium, a secondary gym, or all of the other kind of facilities that will make it there. What is it going to cost us to have transportation in the future to get that transportation to people? What is it going to cost

132us in salaries in the future? What is it going to cost us in fuel? Maybe the fuel will be electric, maybe it'll be whatever. But still, that is all going to be costs that we're going to have to burden be burdened with in future. If we don't develop something that is to the best that we can do at this moment, we'll never get it again. And that will be very sad for our community. This is May I speak? This is why I suggested for the first facilities meeting that we put a survey out to the public to see what the public wanted and would be willing to support because if we you know I I would love to see what what you're saying Sue and Evan I'm a former teacher. I would love for the

133students to have had a new building um with up to-date, you know, state-of-the-art equipment and everything new. But if the public, as you said, these are the people that are they have a right to and have a say in the vote for the future of our district. And if they're not willing to support that, then what are we going to do? If we put up something that they're not willing to support, are we going to kick the ball down the road and lose any aid that we have whatsoever? I don't know. It's not It's not an easy It's not an easy. Remember, darling, that's a really good point. You're not going to lose you're not going to lose your egg. No matter what project you do, you're not going to lose your egg because you're

134getting aided on how much you can get aided on regardless. So you're always going to get but I'm the up this is you're we're talking about the line here and what's above that line. Remember we had a middle we said we had the extension the extensive re you know we talked about would extensive renovations look like and that was like like new comparable in the whole building. you know, it was a $16 million question, right? And the committee talked about that. So, we got to find something that's more, you know, manageable in there, right? So, what we said, you know, we talk about you got to do these minimum renovations. This is what it is. But again, scope is the pleasure of the board. You know, this now is to to to move forward to

135get you something to reflect that. Could we put out a survey now with this is what it would look like with the minimal and this is what it would look like and what your tax base would be if we go the full what was the term that you use the full renovation and full um addition. Could we put that pleasure of the board is the pleasure of the board. I'm not going to lie on that, but I would recommend never distributing anything with a number on it because they hold it over your head for the rest of your life. I can get away with it by disclaimer, but you're elected because you put it out with numbers and next thing you know, all your material costs just tripled overnight because of, you know, bingo. Yeah.

136So now you can't take that survey, you can't do anything with it because it's actually useless. Joe, one of your facilities members had his hand up. Thomas you just kind of brought it back in. What I was going to say a little bit about this uh this idea that we the numbers that we really had to get down to here was that the 24.5% tax levy increase for the broad dam project. We felt when that when that get the the renovation and the addition up to like new standards or a really fresh face and a really lot it was like 19.3 which we thought was very very much too close to that 24.5 24.4 tax levy increase. So so we went the other direction yes to get down to that that that sixish tax percent

137tax levy increase. Now, we also had a lot of discussion hours and hours and months and months about how there probably is a happy medium in between a 19% tax levy increase and a 6% tax levy increase that we felt like the language in your your final recommendation, Joe, our final recommendation kind of covered that ability for you to the architects certainly have a lot of visions of how to find something in between that got us more than bare bones and didn't get almost the same amount of money spent for this this Renault in this edition that didn't include the fields or the bus garage which is which is the real Guccer here because ultimately they have to fit into this as well at some point. So I I feel very strongly that the language

138chosen in that final recommendation gives you the latitude whether you vote yes or no tonight to find that middle ground that you think that voters will tolerate moving forward and get us what we need and what we'd like to see for generations to come. Thank you. Well well said. you know this the recommendation is to be cognizant of it you know and where that lands remains to be seen once you have something to reflect on you know when we looked at trying to find I think you really hit the nail on the head like where can we dial this back and see what it looks kind of see some scenarios what it looks like and and you know and between the minimum renovations and like you know there's we it says right in the recommendation

139we know it's going to be above Where that falls remains to be seen. As a do you have something? I'm sorry. No, I just wanted to uh just say that uh having been on the committee uh I walked into that with a fair amount of apprehension not knowing the majority of the fellow committee members. But during that whole time it was a lot of lot of discussion, a lot of sometimes a little contentious times you could see a blend going on. And at the end of the program, and thanks to you in part, Joe, um I think in light of the historic what I'm told, vote on the last last proposition, uh what we're looking at here is each of us, I'm sure, have reservations as what we'd like to get that would not get.

140I know I have that concern myself. However, we have to move forward on a timeline. And I guess the best way I can say it is at this point in time I see it much better taking a piece of the pie than not getting any pie at all. There are there any other facilities members? We'll have public comment for those of you that are on the facilities committee. Um if they are I don't know. I just want to say that I agree with what Tom said a moment ago and that is that and what you have talked about is that trying to find the right balance between what we need and what we'd like and what these recommendations are this is this is the minimum is what we need but the board has every opportunity

141we talked a lot about is there room to find as Joe said a happy medium can we add to this basis this what we've presented and what we have recommended is the basics of what we need to to serve this district and to have functional buildings into the future but it is up to you as a board to decide what you want to add to that to present to the community nobody is saying that this is all this is it. This is the bottom. This is all we're offering. It's up to you to decide what additional aspects do you want to add to that to present to the community. You know where it's funny at the end. It's not really funny but it's interesting. I think it know right was almost almost 20% to do

142full like right similar new renovations and now it was like gez we're 25 or 26 we go back say if you wanted the whole package you have good to throw down in place renovations are more expensive when we have nowhere else to put a school so it's it's you know was big package before it is what it is and I think these recommend recommendations again it's the the pleasure of the board to go where you want with the project this recommend these recommendations for the academic part of it are to get to work and and I think that's going to be that's the important part right now you need something to reflect on and have this conversation when you're looking at something so you can ask where's what's going on with the auditorium or what's

143going on with this I'll just again I I fully I understand where the uh Tom and Sher make great points Um the challenge that I guess I'm running into is that the we're all talking about this going into the Mountain View campus and again we're still going to have we're still going to have the same logistical challenges uh that we have now and so I I fully understand that the scope of what we do at Mountain View is kind of bare bones to full in. I understand that. I guess the challenge that I still run into is that whether you go bare bones or allin, you're still without some key components. And so I I'm just pushing back on the idea, I agree. You have all this latitude to support. I I just don't think

144that's true. I don't think there's a lot of latitude within the recommendations in terms of like really unifying the district. Yeah. that there's no question that this doesn't it doesn't solve all the problems, you know, and we had to peel it apart in the interest of solving the important one first. It does it certainly does I couldn't agree with you more and the committee would agree with that too. does not and we looked to do that from the onset and we canvased everything else and to land where we were was the recommendation to make sure that part of it gets solved because it's the most pressing part there. There's no question I could I agree with you 10 trillion%. Share any other point? Evan, I just want to say I agree with you 100%. The

145best solution to get everything we wanted for the least amount of money was to build a new building. But the community did not support that. And it seemed not the wise choice to p to try to pursue that and push that which is why we landed where we did. But there is no question that the most efficient use of our money as a district to get the most for our children for the longest period of time is to build a new building. But we are not there. That was not approved by the community and that's why we are where we couldn't find the land on top of it for for for a second option. Yeah. We couldn't find a good piece of land. You know, it's it's almost and that that's a really good point,

146Shar, because we did so much work on getting to that point to drive the first part of the decision- making is okay, that option's got to be it's off the table. We have nowhere to go and where we wanted to go was rejected. So, where does that leave us with this option? You know, and I think when we got to the end too, we talked a lot, you know, you can't unfortunately you make what's you know what's what's necessary the enemy of what's perfect too and and scaffolding these problems was the best recommendation the committee to come with to address that because the needs of the current facility are just too great. We couldn't find the land and the house was falling apart. Agreed. Anything else on mine president? Thank you so much. Thank you.

147I just wanted to thank the board and again thank the committee. I've really enjoyed working the committee is fab. We've really over time really enjoyed working with each other and and it's been great working with the district. Thank you and thank you very much. 13 and B. Okay. So, we are going to vote on um 13 C 2. Um could I get a motion? A motion. Thank you, Deb. A second. Second. Thank you, darling. Um, discussion. I dare say we've had all our discussion at this point. If anyone has anything else to say, um, Frederick, can we get a roll call vote, please? Sure. Deb, yes. Darlene, yes. Sue, yes. Sarah, no. Evan, no. Tom, yes. Heather, yes. Reluctantly. That's um five yeses to two nos. Okay. And correct me if I'm wrong. Motion pass.

148Yes. Okay. All right. Well, we'll go back to 13 A and B. Uh yeah. Uh okay. Um so, superintendent report, let me pull that up. Um Okay. And while I'm doing that, uh so again, uh I want to thank facilities committee and Joe for all their work on that. Uh also I do want to say as far as the energy performance contract is concerned. So the board does need to approve the RFP for that. You'll need to approve the results of the RFP when the proposals come in. We'll then um take it from there. So my plan uh just to follow up on that is to put that out tomorrow and um again uh we'll hopefully get some interest some folks in here over the next um few weeks. Uh we are certainly expecting a

149proposal from the animation um and uh some some others that that that we'll send it through as well get the proposals in and then get that process moving forward uh based on those proposals and you will see those at the main meeting. So that that's my followup on that piece. Um okay. Uh, grants. Uh, Mr. Kyler, anything you want to say about the grants? I know you talked about grants a little bit. No, what I talked about earlier. No. Okay. I'm going to make an assumption that people want me to go as quickly as I can. Talk about energy performance contract. Uh, our district goals. So, in April, I talk about the progress towards the district goals. We have four major district goals. Uh, in June, you'll get a much more detailed report. Long story

150short, all these are on track um to uh to be completed by by June. There is a district-wide feedback piece. Um we've done the employees done uh the students um and there's a community survey that's out uh I believe through Paris Square on the website. And there's also an opportunity to Oh, I know. I had uh also have an opportunity to set up in-person meetings. One is during the day on on Monday the 14th, one is in the evening on the 14th. You can do that by calling or emailing uh Bridget Feld and she will get you on the list for that. Um and like I said, the survey is online if you can't make that same questions whether you're in person or uh or you do the survey online. Uh okay. So um we

151are going to talk about the uh the budget. All of this you've seen all of this before. Um none of this is new information. Uh you will um you congratulate state once again having an on-time budget on April 1st. Joke because again we have not hit the mark April 1st. So uh however um we we are very comfortable with the governor's proposal for increase of foundation of 2%. The legislative uh increase was more than that. we have worked the 2% number in to our budget and um if we do get a little bit more from the legislature, we have uh just a way to address that basically by using a little bit less of our reserves if that happens. But really, who knows at this point uh when when and uh if that's going to

152pass. Uh so tax gap um again 3.079% that is the tax cap. So, we're going out at the tax cap an it's an increase of $255,000. Uh, and that gives the the tax levy for this current school year is a little over $8.5 million. That's roughly a little more than half of our uh half of our budget. Um, and you can see the uh some comparisons here year-over-year. uh our incentive if you remember starting last year in year six uh we uh started to see um slightly less incentivate each year is $65,784 less. We'll see that less each year up until the final year. Year 14 um is the last year that we get that money and then zero dollars um of increased incentive aid in uh in year 15. Um tax level increase again

153slightly larger than than it was last year. Um but again we are going at the cap. Uh ERS and ERS numbers again you've seen those before but uh pretty similar to the year before a little bit less in both cases. uh revenue updates. There's no changes to this sheet. Uh you've seen it uh before. The next one I'll break down a little bit. This is the revenues, expenditures, and then the budget. I'm going to show you those sections in the next three slides. One, two, and three. Um again, no new information here. You've seen this all before. The total revenues coming in. Um if you go um uh to the bottom of the middle column, that uh 16.4 4 million. Um that would be the total revenues coming in for the uh 24 excuse me

1542526 school year an increase of a little over $815,000. And I want to point out here particularly this number right here coming from the transportation and equipment reserve the $513,000 coming out of that reserve. Uh we're using that for two buses and um some uh two buses, a truck, a van, a plow truck, and a tractor. Two buses, plow truck, van, and a tractor. I want to remind you that we are still operating under the assumption that in 2027 that that we are no longer able to buy uh gas or diesel buses. We can only buy electric buses. As such, we're trying to um stock up, if you will, right? We we are in we do not have the capacity right now to operate electric buses. We I I um you've seen the bus go

155right. We we are not there. Uh so I am expecting a couple buses this year, same uh next year and then that should uh kind of ride us through until we have a bus garage plan. So again, so $815,000 is a is a big increase to the budget, but $500,000 of that is buses coming out of the reserves. That is not an increase to taxpayers. It's already in the reserve. We're just pulling it out of the reserve. Uh the expenditures, um same thing. You'll notice that that that uh that the number um at the bottom 16.4 million that matches the number you saw in the revenues. Those numbers have to match. the difference $815,000 those numbers also have to match and you will see again that $513,000 that that's the big chunk of that uh

156so that's where that's coming from right so expenditures revenues match there uh the resulting tax levy um we're looking at a little over eight and a half million and so if you remove those bus purchases and look year-over-year, the increase to the budget is 1.8%. Okay. So, absolutely, we are absolutely using the money from the reserve. Uh, however, um, however, if you don't if you don't look at the bus purchases, it's 1.1, excuse me, 1.8% uh, year-over-year. Uh, the four propositions we're looking at, um, proposition one, the budget, which again is at the tax cap. two would be the board member elections. Uh three um is the bus purchase from the from the reserve and four would be the truck van and the tractor purchase from the reserve. So those are the pro full propositions.

157I know I went very quickly through that but again none of that was new information. You've seen I believe three meetings you've seen the exact same information um that you saw there. That being said, any questions? No. Okay. That is the fastest I have ever. Okay. So, now we're going to A and B. Yeah, you can do it once. Oh, no. There's two separate. Okay. So, I'm looking uh for motion for 13 A and B. Right. Well, you don't need to act on. Oh, sorry. B. Yes. B1. B1. Sarah, you'll be as well. Okay. Thank you. In a second. Have a second. Thank you, Deb. Discussion. All in favor? I posted extensions. Motion passes. Um, and now B2. Thank you, Sarah. And a second. A second. Thanks, Evan. Discussion. Um, where was I? Sorry. All

158in favor? I I opposed extensions. Motion passes and we'll move into our last public comment section. Um this is our second. We will consider any opinions, ideas, and concerns that are offered by the public and take them under advisement. 15 minutes for the audience to share their thoughts. Um please raise your hand to be acknowledged by me. Anyone you're called upon, identify yourself and your address, limiting your comments to three minutes. Would anyone like to speak? Yes. Hi, I'm Kings. Um, I live and work in the district. My two kids go to school here. Um, I just wanted to start by saying my kids have had a phenomenal experience in this district. I know that there have been that usually the outspoken people in the community can be negative like a Yelp review, but I

159my family and I have had a wonderful experience so far with our children. Um we've had great opening lines of communication with our teachers as well as um with principal Kyler. So we have absolutely um great reviews about the district. As a teacher, I feel similarly supported. I have like an incredible cohort of staff members. We're all in it for the right reasons. We work hard every day for the kids. We want the best for them. Um and I just want to emphasize that we are able to do our job really effectively. um because we have this incredible advantage of having a very low studenttoteer ratio. So I am really uh relieved that the board has accepted this plan by the facilities that at least includes an addition because I know that is still out

160there in the community that we some people believe that we do not need an addition in order to still maintain programming and that's just not true. Education has really evolved in the last 50 years and for the better. So we want to maintain that as much as possible. I do not like the bare focus approach of the renovation nor the new addition. I wish we could have a cafeteria and a gym for the younger students so that we're not all trying to share the spaces that we currently use all day as well as I know the little kids in elementary that utilize the auditorium and the gym constantly throughout the day especially in the winter for indoor recess. So I feel that that is a problem on this current facilities plan. um athletic facilities just

161totally aside just what it looks like for their day-to-day programming. I believe that we don't have enough in this plan. But I do take into consideration the budgetary constraints and I will vote yes on the plan now as stands is bare bones because I'm terrified of losing out on this merger aid. However, I would like the board to consider going above that bare bones approach really finding somewhere in the middle. And I say this again, this is my one example I'll give. We have three floors and a girl's bathroom in each one. There is not a single bathroom in our building that has three functioning toilets and three functioning sinks. The best we get is two functioning toilets and one or two functioning sinks. So, I know this is the minutiae that Joe was saying.

162you're not getting into the weeds with this facilities overview, but I would really really encourage you to um look at plumbing as a top priority when you're looking at your mechanics because I would love fresh air. I would also love for our students to have uh toilets that work. Um, and I think that if even though those are still to me bare bones, we really if we don't push for them now, we are not getting them in the future and that that will crush our morale even more. Thank you. Thank you. Yes, Mr. Mayor. Hi. Uh, first of all, I do commend the facilities committee on your hard work and the board for supporting that. Uh couple two areas I want to comment on. First of all, the building project. If there's room to go

163above the bare bones, you need to do that. My opinion, you need to do that. Number one on any list you make, number one on any list you make has to be the education of students. Health and wellness, absolutely. But that's a given having a safe billing. That's a given. You shouldn't even have to discuss that. You need to have that. But number one should be the education and the proper education and the opportunity for educational advancement. So, whatever you do, particularly when you decide to go to the community, and I hope you'll go to the community and try to promote whatever you come up with, please talk about education first because yeah, there are a lot of people that don't want to pay a lot of money, but there are a lot of people

164that want to make sure their kids get properly educated, and that needs to be priority. Okay, all I can say about that. Secondly, I saw a list recently of all the people that need to be replaced. Okay, that's a long list. There been people that have moved around the last few years now. Yeah, I understand people move. There are reasons to take and some of these were lateral moves. There are reasons for taking lateral moves like location and things like that. But there are other reasons for deciding to leave. Okay? And I would like the board to take into consideration and look at why do we have such turnaround. Why do we have a list like we're printing today? You're going to say, well, there's retirements. Well, there are retirements because you choose to be

165at the point where you want to end your educational career and there are other reasons for retiring. Okay? So, please look into those things because I think you'll be surprised at some of the things you find. Thank you, Phil. Thank you. Anybody else? Thank you. Yes, please. Hi, I'm Kelly. I live in court. I have two daughters in the campus. And I have so many things to say. I'm just going to say one thing though, which is that um I maybe this has already been said, but I want to publicly personally really thank the teachers who go to work in a building every day that frankly And I am so amazed that they do that and that they show up for their kids, it's just astounding to me. So, I want to really appreciate that

166and whatever the board can do to provide not just like the basic health and safety, which is what you said should be a given, but also things that support the kids and the education and our teachers and make them want to be there. That seems so important to me. Thank you. Anybody else? once. All right, let's hear it. Um, already spoken. CJ Sanders, uh, um, there is I I would love the board to address this question which seems to be running around parallel community right now, which is if this fails, what happens? What do we do? We have derelct buildings that [Music] are falling apart. Um, I mean, people have been talking about Willsboro and Mariah being our next that we revise the community and send our kids off in other directions. And I think

167that that should be acknowledged as a real fear that that our kids are going to be go riding the buses for hours a day which is already my child already when he rides the bus rides for almost an hour sometimes an hour and a half. Um so yeah that's that's on the community parents mind for sure. Um, so anything that can be done to pro to promote this budget and I think as as much as I'm not going to here that this isn't really what we want um giving us that there minimum of what we need um if that but I think like spelling it out like what what will happen if this fails like making it very clear on the vote like do we I I don't know if it's legal but like can

168we not give an option or not can we give a tiered approach like best you know grade A like new buildings grade B like do what we can grade C our kids living smaller like you know I I don't know if that's legal but I think that that should be considered Thank you for the recommendations. Appreciate it. Yes, Jess. Heather, I know I we talk so much. You guys are like, why didn't we join the facilities community? I really want to bring up the the community communications piece and I talked about it a little bit earlier, but part of um what came about was the information and that I did think that the facilities committee looking into what it took to bring the Mountain View campus up in doing the work that we're talking about

169as a part of this project was a valuable exercise. Um, it is a valuable exercise to know how much it cost. That's something that the community cried for in the vote down. And sharing that information back out to the community may influence their opinion about what they think about the new bill. And and um what I hear from the young parents renews my energy. Um, I I too believe that the children of the future deserve so much better and that education is valuable and for all of any of the other young kids, I agree. When other districts are talking about purchasing, you know, um, what do I want to say? turf fields and lights. Um that they have um auditoriums with legit stages and things like that. And we're talking about just trying to get

170um basic health, you know, lead lead pipes removed and things like that. It's like um it's it's really really hard for me to bear. It it really hurts. Um, so I'm sorry I'm getting emotional about it, but really I think the community communications piece to say this is what it would cost to get that building back up. And Joe, you talked about it in terms of what perhaps was an overbuild of the thraw project. If that was perhaps an overbuild, then that could be something that it would be something that could be looked at again. Um and again if all of that information was looked at by the board to say this is what uh the county is offering in terms of the the community and this is what is being offered as the project

171cost or the local shares of these two projects side by side what you get and what you don't get then that might be something that could be a little bit more palatable by the community at this point in time. I just throw that out there for your consideration again. Thank you, Jess. Kristen, um I just want to add I I'm not actively on social media. Um I do teach kids about how to use it ethically and um I it's my opinion, this is an opinion that the dam was voted down in part because of misinformation and disinformation that was on social media. Um, I think that we have to figure out a way to talk about this um as a community and to be have honest conversations and and make sure that people are not

172saying no just because they're afraid of change. I don't know what that looks like. I don't know how to combat social media online. We were told as educators to avoid interacting with the public last time um not by anyone here but um outside union um adviserss. So, I just think that's something that we as a community actively need to be addressing is what's happening on social media. I'm not I'm choosing not to engage because I need to keep myself um preserved to go in and be positive with my students, but I don't want the negative stuff to to take over this. Thank you, Kristen. Yes, Tom. So, articulating what that scenario looks like and to your point of and what it costs. What will it cost in 10 years when the boiler, the roof, the

173windows, and the septic fail and we're paying 50% of that or more versus this uh number one. and and and if that that doesn't work because that's too cost prohibitive at that point to do those if this next one that we're proposing here in the next couple years goes down then what does it look like to keep a variable prek through six intact or through eight and then and then how much the cost tition out kids to other districts or if that's the case we don't have a building that has a boiler and has a roof then it would be K through 12 and so these are real things that I believe you're on the right track for for flushing out because there will be a real cost per person to this district whether we

174like it or not. And if we don't articulate that more clearly, people can say no all they want and miss every opportunity there is. And we still can't afford to continue education in our district. And we're ultimately going to put the burden on other communities that have been able to build consensus, gather a little common sense, and support each other. So, it is a really interesting and pivotal time, but I would just tag on to that and what it will cost for that scenario of of when if we don't get through this this project and things don't work out, whether we're all in that building or we're still in two different buildings, there still is a scenario to which the reserve runs out and and new boilers at 50% are are much different than new

175boilers at 90%. Thank you, Tom. Thank you. Anybody else? Yes. I saw front go up first and then you'll be second in the back. Go ahead. Yes. I'm Mary McGall and I'm with Elizabeth Town and um what we're facing in Elizabeth Town, not only the school and the and the tax issue with that is uh the subject system. We're looking at putting in a septic system in the town and that will that will burden the taxpayer there. Again, the other thing we're looking at is the assessed value of everybody's property is only at about 68%. It's supposed to be at 100%. So, they're doing a rebound now, which means in a year or so. We're looking at building a school. We're looking at septic system in the town, and we're looking at assessed values, property

176taxes going up. So, that's what I think people are thinking of. And that's something that um you know, just a big mess all at one time. Thank you. in the in the back. Yeah. Okay. So, my name is Megani. I have two children in the district. I'm 27 in Mos in Louis, New York. Um to speak to the point of thank you for bringing up the fact that um yeah, what's going to happen if we don't pass this? That terrifies me as a parent. Um to speak to the stakeholders that are worried financially. I hear you. I get it. I also hear the people who I'm I'm local. I I understand I hear you that in the 90s there were 400 kids in that school district. Governing bodies don't allow things like that. Things have

177evolved. I want to talk about the office of uh children and family services that mostly fund our prek allowing two parents in a household to work. I paid 1,300 a month in childhood for one kid at that point when I was living elsewhere where we didn't have this beautiful opportunity. Um, they have requirements in order to pay for those things. They have to have per three kids in a three-year-old room, they have to have one one teacher. They have to have a certain square footage. So shoving people into into one campus that's not expanded is just not going to work. Um and I want everyone to go look at facilities committee minutes and their agenda. Um excuse me their um I don't know. Um I want everyone to go look at their slide. And right

178now I understand that it's an estimate but I think people are getting sticker shocked by $30 million. Okay. that it what it has been broken down to. And again, I get it's an estimate. It's not final, but we're talking about $68 per $100,000 assessment. $68. So, when we get a sticker shock by 30,000, $30 million, I want you to think about that in our children and their lack of working toilets and things like that. Um, again, you know, I want to thank the facilities committee. I want to thank everybody here. I'm here all about this being responsible. I get it. Um, but it it does it's going to take a toll if we don't take advantage of this 90% discount, I guess I want to call it. Um, because as it was mentioned, this might

179be then when when things break, we're homeowners. We, you know, those of us who are homeowners, things break, it's inevitable, right? It's unplanned. So what happens when we don't fix all those things in this little timeline and things start breaking and then we don't get to basically vote on how big our taxes go up because what happens. So yeah I to focus on on what's at hand and actually get back in credible sources. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. Is that everybody good? All right. Thanks so much. Um, I guess we'll first talk about our next meeting. Uh, I just want to confirm our next meeting. RCB budget board member. It's a special meeting that'll take place on Tuesday, April 29th at the Mountain View campus. And you'll let us know the time because it might

180be we might decide it's a morning. Usually it's a very quick meeting. Yeah. So, um, this meeting it's to vote on the CVS budget. That's all we do. it literally takes longer to take roll call than to vote uh and then and then route. So, historically what we try to do, we'll send some emails around and find a time that at least four of you have in common. We've done that at all times of day over the years. Uh the public, it is a public meeting. You are of course welcome. Um it is a very fast meeting though, so be there on time if you want to say anything. Um, so we'll we'll send that email out. Uh, and ba based on, you know, what time you're available, um, we'll we'll do the meeting then.

181Okay. And our public budget hearing and regular meeting is Tuesday, May 13th at 6 PM at the Mountain View campus. And then we'll have our budget vote schoolboard election Tuesday, May 20th, um, noon to 8:00 p.m. And that'll be at the Lake View campus this year. And can I just add one thing? I did I I raced through my slides. So, our June 12th board meeting conflicts with the Essex County Senior Awards. Uh, so, um, we don't need to decide now. Again, we can do it via email, but I just want to let you know that I will be sending this email out. It'll be move it to June 10th at we'll do it via email. We'll make sure we put it out to the public, but um, and it if we can't change it,

182not a huge deal, but um, I you know, I I'd like to attend that if I can. Okay. So we are going to move into an executive session. Um it'll be specifically to to discuss the medical financial credit or employment history of the particular person or persons. Um we will not have any action coming out of that in public session afterwards. And could I get a motion? So thank you Sue. Thank you Tom. Um, all in favor I five.