July 22nd, 2025 - Board of Education Meeting

001Good evening and welcome to the July 22nd special uh meeting of the Antoura Board of Education. Uh we have a tobacco policy in place. There is no smoking within 100 ft of any school building. Please rise for the pledge. Board clerk, will you please call roll? >> Trusty Smith >> here. >> Trusty Jared >> here. >> Trusty Mitchell Moral here. >> Trusty Jerome >> here. Trusty Goodrich >> here. >> Trusty Kensson >> here. >> Trusty Bishop >> here. >> Thank you. All right. We um are trying something different tonight. We have never done a uh discussion conversation meeting before. So, for the majority of our meeting tonight, uh we really don't have any agenda items to discuss, but we have been um kind of filling up a Google doc with some information um and some

002questions uh for our architects and our construction managers. and uh you know we're we're really trying to take a deeper dive into our discussion about moving forward with um our capital project proposition. So, um can I invite our friends to the mic and um I invite our trustees to ask questions, make comments. Did we I know that there were some questions uh that were asked at the last meeting that um you were going to get back to us on. I don't know if we want to start there or if we want to just um you know dive into new questions like maybe do you do you feel comfortable going back over a few of those questions that we asked? Introduce yourselves too please. >> Okay. Uh good evening everyone. Thanks for having us. I'm Chris

003Leani with CPL. I'm one of the architects working on the project. Stephanie Wesneski with CPL. I'm one of the designers with CPL. >> Tim Moot, uh, VPU CPL and civil design team leader. >> CJ Goodwin with Schoolhouse Construction, your construction managers. >> Welcome and thanks so much for coming again. >> Thank you. I know we had had u a brief discussion this afternoon and we kind of looked at some of the questions that had been asked uh at the previous meeting. Uh I think one of the big ones had to do with um trying to see if there was a way to carve out safety specific items. Um, and I know CJ, you might have some thoughts to share that we had discussed. >> Yes. So, I did take a look at what I think

004we were tasked with, which was uh safety rel. >> Can you speak more loudly, CJ? >> Sorry, I'm scared if I yell into this it'll like blow you guys out. So, um, I apologize. Um, I I I guess first I'll say I have what was our working estimate in front of me. So I came prepared to sort of let's say pick and choose once we and if we get to that point. I just wanted to toss a little asterisk out here as doing this in real time maybe not the best thing to do. I'm worried if I miss a cell or misrepresent a cell it could be a problem. So, what I'll do is as I do that, you got to give me sort of a little bit of a a little courtesy to let

005me go back after this is done so I can just quadruple check and then I'll give you guys my real sort of version after that. I just wanted to put that out there because in the process of the back and forth sometimes things get lost in sort of the shuffle. Now, that said to your actual question, looking at the safety items, we I went through and I pulled out those items, which is really the how I interpreted what we would have to do to safely get kids here from Woodstock is how I sort of interpreted that. Is that the right Okay, I'm getting a lot of head shaking. Yes. So, um, in that I landed at doing the elementary edition, which is the 10 classrooms, um, and the secure entrance off to the side, the

006parking and the bus loop that's part of that, the gym edition, the cafeteria renovation with some of the reductions that we have sort of talked about. Um, and then working through the high school science and I just want to make sure I didn't forget one science and then really what is the infrastructure support of those things which is uh we talked about the bus loop but moving the fuel oil tank for the gymnasium piece and the cafeteria change the electrical service as part of that too. And then there's the retaining wall piece that runs behind Bennett. So, we kind of talked on our previous meetings, a lot of these things sort of are symbiotic of other things. We can't do one without sometimes doing the other. Um, and that's where a lot of this starts

007to sort of get a sort of rolling snowball effect. But when you look at just those items, and again, at the close of the meeting tomorrow, I'll send a specific list, but we land at about about 33 million 33.2 2 million um for those items. And then that would be what I guess I would assume you guys would consider a prop one. And then prop two was uh just under 10 million n 9.5 which is um over at the high school the main office renovations, the counseling area renovations, the nurses renovations, and a lot of the athletic items that we had talked about at the competition field, the track uh rework, the turf field, the lights. Um, I left out concession stand, student comments, those kinds of things. Um, so to kind of put us

008into that range. So between the two of those, you're totaling it now. Um, about 42.7 million. I just want to be sure I understand. So for sa so safety we've we've um prioritized um and so I understand the traffic flow. >> Sure. >> Right. Can you that makes sense to me. Um, can you tell me before we mentioned the or before you mentioned the traffic flow, you mentioned um the Bennett updates? >> What do those have to do with safety? >> I think it's just accommodating the kids coming from Woodstock to get physically into Bennett and forgive me if I say this wrong, Victoria, step in without having to move sixth grade. No. Okay. fifth grade, sorry, fifth grade, thank you, to the middle school. Um, so there was enough room. Um, I think, as

009I'm kind of understanding, again, stop me or correct me if you really had to, I think you could move everybody from Woodstock to these buildings tomorrow. I just think it would mean fifth grade has to go to the middle school and the and come to this building in a total. And I don't know if that is ultimately what everybody wants in the long run. Um so I mean we kind of looked at that as a safety piece. Yeah, I think that's the the part that I'm having a hard like how is that safety, you know, whereas the traffic flow that immediately makes sense to me. Whereas the other one is a little bit more I would like to know. Yeah. How and I would love to hear from other board members how that is it

010because we don't want fifth grade I mean I'm open to it but is it because we don't fifth graders in this school? That's a a safety thing for our fifth graders. Is that the idea? >> Well, okay. So, I was going to say something different. Go ahead. >> I think it's a combination. I don't know if it's necessarily that fifth graders couldn't be in with sixth, seventh, and eighth because, right, you guys are divided at this point in this building, although they share a larger building. It's 6,78 and then 9 through 12 for the high school. Um, I think the other piece is just the amount of traffic coming in and out is sort of dealing with the increased car traffic, assuming there'll be more parent pickup and drop off at Bennett and sort of

011knowing that without doing those spaces and forcing fifth grade to the middle school at that point. Just seems like there'd be a lot more traffic to have to deal with at that point. >> That makes more sense to me. And then I'd also add, other than just safety, we often think of health and safety. And so part of the infrastructure costs with this renovation and upgrade to Bennett would include infrastructure to support a more unilateral air conditioning throughout the building. Um, the air quality and conditioning was a huge public comment through our multiple community discussions. So that would be included in that that number in a consideration. >> Yeah. And that's a good point that Tim brought up is that the health and safety, right? So if you're just talking about safety specifically, um you

012might be limiting yourself a little bit or stretching the word safety, right? Um you know, a secure vestibule that you're putting in is, you know, probably under the security safety, you know, category. But something like windows, for example, is a little bit more of a nuanced scope of work because that really checks a lot of boxes. Not only is that a safety component because your windows and your facade and the, you know, the barrier of your building is more robust, um, there's energy implications there, um, less energy costs and there's also an acoustic kind of health thing there where it's not as loud in the classroom anymore. So I I think kind of saying health and safety is a good uh is a broader term that kind of align with each other >> and air

013quality. >> Air quality. >> I think that that's a big one. Right. Right. So yeah, thank you. I need to understand how we're how we're since we're lumping these things together like more clarity. Thank you. And and I think that relates back to our um one of the goals that we talked about last time was figuring out that that threshold of of prop one, prop two, whatever that may be. I know we're thinking primary, secondary kind of thing that might be too arbitrary. I think the health and safety route is is makes more sense. >> CJ, I have a question. I got a little lost um when you were talking about the um you know what the different upgrades were going to be and then assigning a cost and I got 33.2 2 million for

014all the work on Bennett, I believe, >> between Bennett and uh the science classrooms, >> right? >> Yep. >> And then um then you talked about um some of the other work here in the middle school, high school, and um adding the athletic fields, but you >> you uh took out, you know, like a concession or a a food truck hookup and the outdoor commons, right? Um and then you said 42.7 million. Was 42.7 million the total? >> Yes. Between the two >> for the entire Yeah. >> campus. >> So 3 sorry 33.2 would have been prop one which would have been Bennett addition gym change infrastructure for that parking lot. Um the drainage piece. Um I think I left out the cafeteria. And then prop two um would just be the main office upgrade,

015the muse or I'm sorry, not the main office, the nurse and the counseling area. And then the athletic pieces of that which is 9.5 million. The total of the two of those is the 40 whatever it was. Thank you. >> Thank you. Uh Trusty Kudson, then Trusty Goodrich. Okay. Trusty Goodrich and then uh Trusty Jerome. >> Thank you. So, I'm just trying to figure out uh what's not included here. Um I didn't hear the lights on the athletic field >> prop two. >> So, that's that's in there >> part of that 9 million. Yep. >> So, is is everything on our list included here or or what what's not included, I guess? [Music] Bus bus garage is one of the biggest things not included. Tearing down the bus garage and changing that end of the

016parking is not in either prop. >> So that's the only thing. So Monica said that um two of the things that are not included is the de the uh demolition of the bus garage and then the upgrading of the parking lot on this side of the campus. >> Correct. >> We figured out we figured out that >> by upgrading that side of the parking lot we would have enough parking that we did not have to affect this side of the parking lot. >> And I believe that student commons is also not included. CJ. >> Yep. No student commons. Um >> I didn't hear auditorium. >> Uh no auditorium. >> The windows at Bennett. >> Windows at Bennett were Let me double check. I don't think I had included windows at >> I I think you

017said prop one. >> I just want to make sure. I didn't. So if we were to include the windows at Bennett, it' be at 37 million. >> So they were not in the original. >> They were not in what I had just presented to you. >> Okay. So the music room renovation, the additional music room, and the outdoor space were not included then? >> None. Yep. So what was the other one that you were initially saying? >> Replacing the windows at Bennett. We're not in but is adding them in. So then that first prop would be how much would that be CJ? 36 >> 36 37 36.9 >> Okay. >> And there would be no renovation to the auditorium or it's impromptu? >> No renovation to the auditorium. >> And are we okay with that

018or we're still going to talk about that later? Okay. >> Do you want to know what it would be with the auditorium? That's the plus and the minus of doing this right here. >> Just give CJ a chance. He's looking for an amount to share with us. >> It go up to 10.1 million with the auditorium. So from 9.5. So your total between the two propositions would be 47.1. >> CJ, is this construction cost or construction plus 20% incidental? >> This is right now just construction cost. >> Okay. So then we need to add 20% to that. >> Yeah. >> To come up with what our actual proposition would be. >> Okay. Trusty Jerome was next and and then Trusty Jared. >> Yeah, my question was, you know, where is the auditorium? And then I

019was going to say like we can add and subtract numbers, but I'm very interested in how these propositions are chunked out um and what's included with each because I would I would disagree with the way that they're chunked out in some ways. And so I just want to I don't know how we have that conversation where we go back and forth without like adding subtracting because you know uh that might be hard for you to do. >> Yeah. I guess can I can I ask um and you don't have to answer anybody nobody has to answer today. Is it >> I'm sure it's a combination of these two things but is it the total cost or is it the things? Um, and by that I mean the line items of the things that are in

020the propositions. I asked because I can I'll do whatever you guys want on this spreadsheet right this second. Um, maybe the better way is everybody puts a list together and send it through the school, send it to me and I'll put dollar figures to them. And maybe that's a better way to kind of go about this and then or you guys can reconcile a list or however is easiest for you guys. Um, I'm totally happy to we can set up a separate meeting. I mean, however you want to do it. Um, just the pressure of standing here nailing what you guys are asking for is not impossible and I'm happy to do. It's just I always fear in a public setting that if I miss a sell and it's a big sell it could go

021from 52 million to 57 million and then and then it's well at 55 I was okay. But now that it's 50, you know, it just it gets a little bit tricky to navigate the ins and outs of that. >> CJ, can I just um ask you to clarify um generally? >> Yep. Um what what I thought I heard you say initially was that the prop pro prop the way you're describing it tonight was um the addition on Bennett the safety vestibule on Bennett the infrastructure like the outside work I can't remember what it's called. No >> no that was all prop one. >> Oh I I'm sorry I'm talking about prop one. Did I say prop two? I meant prop one. Right. So, it's um uh the additions on Bennett and all the landscape work

022that has to be done. Um the safety vestibule and changing the traffic pattern. >> Yes. >> To be a safer bus drop off and and parent drop off. >> Um the science classrooms at the middle school, high school. >> Yes. >> Yep. >> Uh >> right. Gymnasium, >> cafeteria, and infrastructure. And then prop two was the office the >> right counseling center office nurse >> and all of the athletic field work. >> Yes. >> Okay. So that's sort of generally um what CJ is presenting tonight. And you know, I just want to say um you know, just to be really clear um with our audience is that the discussions that we're having right now, we are just talking. We're like we're trying to kind of, you know, clarify and and you know, sort all of

023this out. Um, I don't want anybody listening to think that, you know, that 47.1 million plus 20% incidentals is going to be the price tag or or that what I just kind of reiterated you saying is the plan. We don't have a plan yet. We're that's why we're that's really why we're doing this. And you know, I just want to make sure that our community understands what we're doing. You know, that we're not we're not here tonight to like seal the deal. We are we have a ways to go before we do that. Okay. Thank you. Um Caroline did >> I didn't want to say anything except for I wanted to thank you and yeah, just reiterate this is an open discussion. and we're asking questions thoughtfully exploring all you know all the different avenues.

024>> Totally. Thanks. So I think Okay, real quick. And then Trusty Jared. >> So the music and art would be in prop one. >> No music or art are in prop one. >> And the the cafeteria would be in the gymnasium. >> Yes. Yeah. Cafeteria and gymnasium would be >> open air. Um, no outside courtyard. Is that what you're asking? No. The only thing that would be there is whatever the minimum requirement would be for code to exit out of that space. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Yep. >> I believe the art room was >> in was planned to be in the classroom edition. So, that art room would be there, but the music renovations and the additional music room were not in here. >> You are 100% correct. Thank you. >> Okay. Great. >>

025Okay. Thank you. Um, I'm wondering if tonight would be a moment that maybe we could chunk out a small amount of time to take one step up from the these three rooms, those four rooms, track, music rooms, and have a discussion together about the values of our district. Um because I feel like I did I asked a question um in the Google doc that u Miss Laughen provided a amazing three-page answer to about what are all the things we gain from bringing our children together onto one campus and just flipping through it um while I'm also taking in all these great numbers. There's a lot here that I I wonder if maybe we would take a step up. We would ask ourselves what are those first? We were talking about being future facing very much

026in our last meeting when Miss Laughen was sharing about all of the what's coming instructionally from New York State and talking about AI and I wonder if we can let that inform what are some of the spaces that we really must have versus what are some of the spaces that like Clark said, Trusty Goodrich said obviously none of us want to see any of it go. Uh and then also what is important to our community? Uh nature, appreciation of conservation of music, art, community. Does that look like sports? I'm just I'm wondering if we did a little dive like that together if it would help us feel more purposeful in the difficult job of trimming, shaping. Um, and I think something else in terms of our community's values that we heard is um, maybe we're

027not the we're not like needing the fanciest door handles or floor. Maybe like the like the fanciest is not a value of our community. Um, and higher taxes I think is something we've heard is is not something that the community at large. So those are all pieces that I feel like are floating around here in a two proposition scenario where one proposition would possibly raise taxes whereas in combination with another proposition it would be a savings but I'm new here so I'm not sure. I look to you president trustee Bishop. So, I've been doing a lot of thinking about this, too. And um I think the way I phrased it in the last meeting was we need to figure out what's essential that we need to do, essential to our community, essential for our kids.

028Um and I also think there's sort of threshold questions that we need to wrap our arms around sort of the moment we are in in the polity and the world and things that have changed even just since January of this year. Um so that that was sort of I I asked the safety question at the last meeting and my my impetus for asking that was just because uh I think the fiscal outlook has dimmed you know for our whole state. Um and um so we need to really figure out um what is essential what was what are the pieces of the first project that are really essential. um for us to serve our kids and make sure that we don't hit a fiscal iceberg. Um so and those are value questions to a certain extent

029to a certain extent they're not like you know is is a bus lane going to be safe um is a is a sort of empirical question and then we move up from there to to value questions about what's essential to our community as people. Um, but these are all things that I think this kind of meeting is great to hash out because we have time. Uh, we don't have to make any decisions and we should really get into those discussions. I'm wondering if um if we could take a few minutes and ask um Assistant Superintendent Laughen to go over this um great document that you you developed and you know just it should be it's in it's in the back pages. Yeah. And if our guests want to have a seat for a few minutes

030and we'll we'll bring you back up and put you on the hot seat again. Um, but I think it's really important for us to have these conversations about, you know, what are the benefits of a central campus and what, if any, are the benefits of not having a central central campus. And and I guess, you know, my focus for that conversation is on our educational program and and all we can offer our students. Good evening everyone. So just a few things um on the document. I um I just want to say I I didn't do a lot of new thinking or writing here. Um everything that is is in this question about what do we stand to gain from the central campus that you posed is really from the discussions the community discussions and board

031presentations that we've had just in a a cumulative way trying to gather everything together so it could really just be reviewed. But when it comes to that specific answer, there is nothing there is nothing completely new that that you haven't seen before. But I, you know, as we were thinking about this, the idea of student first and staff forward, I just wanted to capture that because we had this original quadrant, right, when we really started breaking into this of our why. And I I think it's important that we actually we go way way back to that. It feels like years, but it really is. You know, now that we add on like why we began this conversation, what was our why? And you know, things around what's best for students, what's an optimal environment for

032our staff, what does it mean to foster unity and equity and community when it comes to social emotional learning? And the details here, um, you know, just things like social skill development, more opportunities, increased emotional support, having all staff on one campus, allowing us to support all our students, um, a little bit of a deeper bench, you might say, and instead of spread around. um diverse peer interactions and social integration, emotional resilience, a stronger sense of belonging, lots of discussion around increased accesses to resources. We had a lot of discussion around all students, our students with IEPs. Um, how we can maximize setting for all of our students. Collaborative learning, consistent instructional quality, meaning your experience um academically regardless of where what school you attend in the district is very similar. Um, we talked about

033that improved school events, activities, being able to offer those afterchool activities in enrichment act activities with providing district transportation. Um, and then the last section here we talk about really um, I believe there was a question of well if once upon a time there were so many students in Bennett more than we have in Bennett and Woodstock now, why do we need to add on? and we spent a little time talking about how um instruction and the expectations really of our community and instruction is different than it was then why we need a larger cafeteria, larger gymnasium. So I mean without I don't want to read to everyone you guys have it in front of you and again it's not new information for the community. We could certainly present it in this way again, but

034um it really just goes it goes back to that why. And to add on at at the bottom of that document um Trusty Jared, there were to speak to your your question on values, there's a question that um I I pulled off as well and just about what what values what values do our community hold dear as an anchor for the process. I think it's important to look back at the community visioning process which was our beginning and really just those discussions of dreaming and ideiation because that fed our why. So I think um that is a a place where historically we can go back and look at some of that and I hot linked that in as well to this document in case anyone wants to go back. Um, and then when it came

035to the future facing thing, I think it's really important that we spend time looking at um, New York inspires where we're heading for our portrait of a graduate. Uh, they just finalized portrait of a graduate last Monday, I believe, and there were a couple shifts to that. Um, so really looking at our timeline on that, what we uh what New York State expects as a portrait of a graduate and then imagining as we're doing a lot of work not in our district will we are beginning that work, but also working throughout Olter County with um other school districts to think about reimagining that. So here's a portrait of a graduate. What is that going to look like in Antior? How does it come to life here? How does it come to life in Olter County?

036How do we use our resources, our community, and make it very tangible and real and as limitless as possible for our students? So, I just I hot link that in as well. I just think that's a that's a document when we're thinking about, you know, who we're designing for and what that might look like. That's a really concrete document to keep in mind. >> Trusty Jerome, I saw your hand up. So I'm wondering I these are pulled from from me. They're old messages. I don't I'm wondering if they really landed when I look at I think the the conversation on portrait of graduate is super interesting. Right. Um, and I think that going to a higher level and looking at, if I were to break this down into I would translate student first, myself into

037plain language of we bring children together, lots of children in one place and offer them the experience of working in teams, face-toface, in classrooms, on athletic fields, in music rooms, and in a digital world, in a radic radically digital world like we want bodies in the same place like I want and and I want and then we look at staff forward which is an operational thing right again those old phrases just trigger me into like conversations that we had six months ago I want to move into like the future conversation like for me creativity is the X factor in this world that we live in has that in spades if we look at our values bringing children together through arts, academics and um and athletics, right? This is something we can really offer um leaders

038of tomorrow who have to get up and speak to public like things that a I always frame it as things that AI can't do. We can do things that AI can't do when we have a cohort of students together. So for me, those are much more inspiring and less divisive than um these statements which I've read before which are kind of easy to push back on if you hold a different perspective. Although I think the shared values in this community are all about like yeah, we want great programming for our kids. We're super proud of our programming that we're offering our music. We're re we're known for that. We want to keep being known for that. To me, I'd love to make decisions. You know, I would argue with the chunks because like the auditorium

039to me is all about where these we're talking about children equity, children from different backgrounds, different homes, different places, all coming together, speaking in a different language, music, right? Reading it, communicating through the lens of beauty to an audience, performing human communication. That to me would be a very good reason to have the auditorium stay in our thing and and again it speaks to our those higher values and I I'm passionate about this. I know but I would love us to start talking about like what we really value because we are offering our students and with uh trustee Jared's suggestion last meeting to you know really start looking at our academics and bringing that excellent up you know these three A's of academics, athletics and um arts. you know, we have all the potential in

040a very small um student body to really bring those to life. And they're everywhere in this community, all across this district. You know, the farthest one reaches, you're going to always have those makers, those creators. We see it in our teaching staff. We see it in, you know, all over the district. So, I'd love to like really own that piece. You all know that. that and I just want to bring it up again because sometimes I look at this old stuff and I'm like, "Yeah, it didn't but it didn't work. Let's try to maybe reframe it." That's I guess what I'm suggesting. >> Yeah. I just wanted to make one comment um about the the community sessions um as a I I think um the way the first propositions were structured was basically put into

041a proposition what the community the people who came to the community sessions asked for. Right? That's that that was sort of the guiding principle behind that design. I do think there's a reality that we all have to acknowledge which is that the actual cohort of people who came to those community vision sessions was much smaller than the the voting public that vote voted on the propositions. Um and uh and therefore I think it's going to fall to us trustees on the board here to sh to really um lead a little bit on the next steps forward because um what that small group came up with was great but uh it didn't it didn't get passed. And so um you know to the extent we involved the community that was great but we have to recognize

042that it it was not um a huge um part of sample from our community and there was a large chunk that just didn't participate. Um, a few things. Uh, one thing is I would love like if we were all looking at the voter breakdown because I just think that's so like informs the conversation um of like the I don't know. I just do you guys know where that is? I was looking for it but I couldn't find it. Of how people voted and where they live and their age. You know how we got that right after? I think that would just be helpful if we're all kind of have that somewhere around. >> I can't remember exactly where it is. >> It might have been in an email from >> Is it on the optimizing?

043>> It's on the front page of optimizing onora. It's the first button at the top. Proposition to exipole analysis. >> Open the summary here. Thank you. Um, I guess I just like sort of want to talk through some of my concerns. One is the same as last time, which is I think there's a kind of person that's very common, which is they're going to vote down whatever. So, I believe it was like 600 people that voted down the budget, right? So, then and then they also voted down the bond. So, I just don't want to like do too much for those people where we're like, "Okay, fine. 60 million or 40 million and cutting these things like an auditorium, which I think is so important to please these people that may be unpleasable. I know

044I kind of said that last time and maybe you don't see it that way, but I definitely do and I just think there's some people that are going to vote this down and I don't want to like pander to them by cutting things that we want and need. The other concern I have is that anything we put with the 10 classrooms is in peril because of Woodstock. So if people are going to vote down the 10 classrooms and that's with the science classrooms, then then the science classrooms are in peril. So that's just a concern I have that I just want to be aware of and maybe talk about. Jenny, >> I appreciate you bringing that up, Trustee Mitchell Murell, because I've I've also been batting that around in my mind. And I feel like

045the land, like if we were looking at the landscape, I think this is another reason why it would be great to shift the conversation away a little bit from like the buildings and facilities to education and um experience because like I just heard superintendent laugh and just say after school programming with district busing. I don't want to be like stop. We've been asking for that for a really long time. And I just want to let that land that um that the the reasons why parents with small children might want this and I am one of them would always be for me what my children experience was going to be. I think that's why there is resistance right now which I understand. My daughter went to Woodstock Elementary. It's a wonderful school. I completely understand. And

046then, you know, I had a unique experience of seeing what it could look like when all the children came together and could be supported by the district in a really special way. And I think one of the ways that we could only hope to gain support for this is by voicing why this is important. beyond tax neutral, tax saving, because I agree with you. There are some folks that are really feeling the pinch right now. I honor that. I understand that. But I feel like if the where we end up with this prop originates from the benefits to the children, then I feel that we arrive there with all together with our community as much as possible. And I completely respect and understand that there are folks on either side just like in our in

047in any landscape that are not going to budge. I I think we can all acknowledge that and feel that I might not feel the same way, but I fully respect how they feel. And I would never say they were wrong or confused. It's just that's where they're at. But I feel in terms of our parent community, if we can really start to elevate what we're talking about from an instructional experience point of view, I mean, I see on on this sheet, you know, more arts and I'm like highlighting things like circling things. More arts and music for elementary students. I'm seeing here full day co-taught for all students. I'm seeing kids not having to get pulled out of their classroom for their extra supports. I'm seeing mentor opportunities for our high school students who might

048want to be interested in becoming educators. And these are some of the things I'm seeing in our visioning board as I just scrolled through. So, I think that I agree that we are in this sticky spot that there are people that that that may just decide if this means we expand Bennett and we bring all the children here, I'm going to vote no. But I think that in our conversation of understanding and feeling good about why we would even drive in that direction, I would hope that it it might bring a lot of community members with us on that. I yes I totally agree with what you're saying and I guess what I'm also saying and maybe you're also saying is like I think parents and people very invested in education and people with kids

049in these schools or no people in these schools are much more malleable in terms of switching their vote to yes than the guy who's like votes down the budget. So, it's like I'd much rather pander to the education, parents, families, community members than the person who really is going to vote no matter what. So, I just want to be really aware of that when we're cutting things, why we're doing that and who we're doing that for and if that's even going to work because I think it won't work. >> I just want to say I totally hear what you're saying and I I just want to acknowledge that I went to a session at the rural schools conference. Oh, I can't remember what it was called, but it was something like, you know, getting a

050community referendum passed. And I was like, yes, I want to go. And really, every single thing, it was run by an architect firm. Every single thing that they told the group to do, we did, if they said you have to do this at least once, we did it at least 10 times. We did everything so many times, so much more. But one point that they made was you've got a group of people who are always going to vote the budget down. You you're never going to change those people. Don't make, you know, don't try to make those folks the focus of your of your hard work, you know, and and I, you know, I really believe that that's true. Um, I'd love to make the focus of my work, you know, just talking about all

051these educational benefits, all these, you know, like athletic benefits, all these community possibilities that we can that we can really see through by moving to a central campus, knowing that there will be a there will be people that are going to vote no because it means closing. Woodstock and we know we know how hard that is. We know how painful it was for Phoenicia and we also know that our students and our community will have a better school for doing it. Caroline, >> you know, so I went to the rural schools conference as well. we do these um educational trainings and it it's the same thing sometimes when you work with academics the words are just academic they're from the um this position of that subject matter expert and what I love Trusty Jared is

052that you said after school pro programs with busing um more arts programs not pulling your child out of um classrooms rooms. You know, those are such tangible plain SP. That's what I'm trying to like I think if we can start really naming those things in very simple ways. Um uh you know, and I don't know what all the possibilities are. Are there are athletic teams, you know, being able to play more game? Like how does lights on the field in a better field translate for our teams today? I don't have a child on an athletic team, but for somebody who does, it would be nice to know like how could that change if we if we made these updates for their student, you know, like so I would ask the board to work with me

053to just like keep naming very specific real things that we could offer if we had um if we had the the if we could pass these bonds and make these improvements to the campus. I mean, one one thing that comes to mind for me, um, my son was an athlete in school and he played for a school that, um, had lights on the field. And whether it was even soccer, soccer games were able to be played later in the day. So, if you're playing against a team that's farther away and they're coming to your home field, you know, you don't have to start the game at like three o'clock in the afternoon so that you're off the field by the time it's dark or any, you know, just those kinds of things. And and uh

054I mean, I've heard I've heard uh folks on the board and and the administration talking about lights on the field could mean that community members could walk the track after dark. >> Uh >> could more kids come out because the timing was different? Like are there people now who are can't get back to the school for that 3:00 slot? You know, would it >> more parents be able to come and see their kids play? Exactly. You know, I don't know. But like those stories are just so helpful to like think about this, >> right? Trusty Goodrich then Trusty Kudson. A lot of good conversations here from all the trustees. Um, Trusty Jared, you had a lot of good points there. I really appreciate that. Um, and assistant superintendent laughing. I mean, I you've converted me

055on why we need a central campus. If uh anybody has seen the YouTube video that's out there on meet the candidates when I was running for office, I was opposed to closing Woodstock uh flat out, right? And I've I believe that the central campus is what's best for the students. And I'm here for the students. I think we all are here for the students. And it's but when I talk to my neighbors, they don't hear what assistant superintendent laughing are saying. Okay. And what is um trustee Jerome said is right on. We we need specific things that resonate with my neighbors to get them to understand the benefits of having a central campus. And you know, even when we threw the uh the beautiful classrooms that the architects designed, right, I thought that would sell

056them and it didn't. You know, they they it was the you know, save Woodstock, right? And I I don't know how to fight that. We can we can probably win some of them over. Um maybe uh if we have a proposition that's just has the 10 classrooms and all the other things that we need for Bennett minus the windows um then maybe uh we can show that hey if you take the savings from closing Woodstock and Phoenicia that bond would be able to go out for less than maybe we can pay it off in 10 years right and in the long term it's going to save the taxpayers money. So maybe we can get more people to vote that way for that proposition. Uh it's just one idea I and there's probably others that maybe

057we we have to figure out a way to sell this so we can build the uh the 10 extra classrooms at Bennett so we can close Woodstock because that's really what it's all about. If we don't, um, the voters have a right to vote down any proposition for capital improvements. All capital improvements have to be approved by the voters. And they know that if they vote down the 10 classrooms, then Woodstock stays open. And I know we have a lot of people on this board that disagree with that statement, but the New York State law is very clear on that. If we need capital improvements to close Woodstock and the voters vote down the capital improvements, then Woodstock will have to stay open. And yes, if we find a way to squeeze them in to

058Bennett without any capital improvements by moving fifth grade to middle school, then yes, the board could build another proposition to to make that happen. But it would have to be without capital improvements. So yeah. Um yeah, I mean we just heard our architect say that that everybody can fit over here tomorrow if we need to. Um that's not what any of us wants. Um, but so I I just wanted to um I think what what we're all talking about here and I'm gonna sort of take another tack here that's going to be much less popular than the discussion we had with with all the trustees. So just forgive me. I'm going to be Mr. Doom and gloom for a minute. Um I was struck just by um some of the emails we got this past

059week from those sort of you know call them diehard you know Woodstock folks who you know are just basically saying it doesn't matter what you put up we're going to vote it down and what it made me think of was sort of like um I just feel like there's things are happening in the world that we need to acknowledge it's our job as a board to not only look what at what right what's right in front of us but what's coming down the road in the next few years um and and in the next 10 years um and um I just feel like a lot of the these folks who are articulating their reasons for their beliefs have this very shortterm very what's right in front of me perspective and if we allow ourselves to

060take that short of a perspective. We're not doing our jobs. Um, so you know, we had a change of administration in Washington. Congress just passed a bill that is going to in two years from now, by most um projections, create a 10 to13 billion per year hole in the New York state budget um mo mainly in healthcare. But the two biggest um items, line items in the New York State budget are education and health care. So, and and the other thing I just wanted people understand because we we've come into this story in in in different places and I've sort of been researching I I was sort of aware of this history to a certain extent, but I just want to recount how we get as much as we do from the state because we

061all know uh our administration has educated us many times that we are currently considered overfunded by $7 million a year. Um the reason foundation came aid came to be was because of a lawsuit by the campaign for fiscal equity in 1993. It took 13 years for that um lawsuit to kick around till they finally won in 2006. Governor Spitzer instituted into law what they were asking for full funding of a sound basic education in New York. And then for the next decade or next 15 years or so, um, various governors figured out how to claw back what they were supposed to be paying. That that promise from that Spitzer legislation was not fully funded until like last year or this year. And it really the the big bump up happened during COVID like 2022 when

062um uh the state was forced to come up with new revenues and then a whole bunch of federal money came rolling in because of COVID. So we are at an all-time high school funding um level in our state um that only really has been in place for like five years. Um, and our state's losing $13 billion a year in two years. Um, on top of that, I think that there are various long-term liabilities hanging over our district and all districts that we should really be talking about. One of the things the architects mentioned was heat relief. A new bill has been signed. Our district has to provide a plan for what we're going to do with our kids if our rooms get above what is it 80 88 degrees. Now, we had 100 degree days

063during regions this past just just a month ago. Um I attended a heat relief session in um in rural schools. Uh just here's some interesting statistics for you. Hot days in a classroom. Now, we should all note that neither of our elementary schools have anything beyond window units in them right now for cooling. Hot days reduce academic performance by 15%. on a if if it's 90 degrees on the day you take an exam, you have a 12.3% less chance of passing and a 2.5% ch less chance of graduating um than if it were 72. For every degree the temperature goes up, you lose 1% of what you've learned all year taking that exam. Um, the other thing we are quote unquote fortunate enough to have in our district is that our buildings were built in

064the 1950s, which means there's a if we're going to make any kind of cooling um adjustments to our current buildings, there's a lot of asbestous mitig uh remediation, which is hugely expensive. Okay. So, I took to heart very much the health and safety questions of, you know, because we are in a cycle of warming. It's not going to end. Uh our policies have not changed sufficiently to, you know, end this cycle of warming. You know, every year is the the hottest year on record. On top of that, I also attended an EV bus um we're we're under an EV bus mandate to right now, which may or may not change, but as things stand now, we have to replace our entire fleet of currently 26 buses with EVs by n by 2030 2035. Um, I

065attended I sent around a presentation that one of the districts who has tried to do this, they just put in two buses. Those buses when they bought them a couple years ago were $350,000 a piece. They're now $460,000 a piece. Um, so we're kind of sitting on a fiscal it's it's almost like climate change. like we know that these things are coming at us, they're coming in the next 5 to 10 years and if we ignore them, if we don't put them into our thinking, this district could really be in trouble. I'm really worried about it. Um, and so I think when I talked earlier about figuring out what's essential, um, it's it's essential not only to figure out our values, what we want positively for our kids, but also we want to avoid h,

066you know, we want to avoid fiscal disaster because uh, it could really put us in a bad position. Um, so I I I just want us to all take our responsibility to consider long-term liabilities and consequences of whatever decisions we make um into into um account um you know uh we have currently 26 buses. We'd have 19 if if we uh if we went to a central campus. So that you can do the math and and the the the per bus cost is just the beginning, right? Because you have to build um charging infrastructure which is also hundreds of thousands of dollars. So, um, at this point with the rejiggering of the foundation aid formula well underway, New York facing a huge fiscal crunch, um, I do think we do need, this is a long

067way of coming around to say that, um, we do need to consider cost, fiscal health, um, because I think the voters or some voters at least are worried about that. Sorry. >> No, it needs to be said and I appreciate that. you know, just on top of that with the, you know, you talked about air quality and Caroline talked about air quality and air conditioning and and the impacts of um you know, being in classrooms, you know, when it's 90 degrees in the room. Um the savings of of putting air conditioning and and improving air quality in one elementary school compared with two very underenrolled elementary schools makes so much sense. And I'm just talking from, you know, a fiscal uh perspective right now. Um because if we have to keep two elementary schools open,

068we certainly can't put air conditioning in one without putting air conditioning in the other. And our enrollment is is continues to decline, you know. So, it's just a fact that we really have to think about and consider. Caroline, >> thank you, Trusty Kitson. Um, and absolutely I, you know, I don't, we don't want to be grasshoppers, right? like we we need to to have a little bit of the ant happening. But you know, as we go back to like what our values are, being small is not bad at all. Being small has a lot of opportunity. Being small, like you know, again, we talked about it at our meeting, watching the graduation, watching our children and the way that they all know each other and they all love each other and they are all bonded

069through these um experiences that we give them. And we are a district that, you know, some things are nice perhaps. I don't know what kind of district we are. We're figuring that out, right? Because it's changed so much. But maybe we don't need that fancy finish. But maybe we do want to have a great communal space, right? Because again once we look at the reality of what's happening and try to make smart decisions around how it you can be very creative, you know, I mean you can be scrappy and small and and have beautiful things and have a beautiful environment. It doesn't have to be like patched together at all. It can be very thoughtful. Um and that could be a benefit of where we find ourselves right now. So I I have some questions

070for the people that are here CPL guys schoolhouse. Um so I know we talked about geothermal and solar. I assumed that not Could you uh talk about the new classrooms and how that would get set up? I assume they would be set up to have uh be able to do both heat and air conditioning. And how would that work? And uh but I I also assume that not all the classrooms here in this these propositions would have a air conditioning. So if you could clarify that Okay, thanks uh Clark. Yeah, so to to answer your question, any new space would have sufficient air conditioning and heating. Um just bottom line, that's how we typically plan uh these days no matter what. So hopefully that that answers your question. And that on that piece as far

071as the solar and the geothermal uh we did get some I think you might have seen the comment from Greg Royer from our office where you know these PV the photovotayic systems do not directly heat the buildings but they or cool the buildings but they provide the electrical you know uh generate you know the electricity to do to do so. So um any of the systems can kind of come in line with that. Um because ultimately the you know the the solar panels and the you know geothermal are just creating energy to use with whatever equipment you you need in a sense. >> I have a question uh about air quality and cooling. Um we happen to be sitting at the rural schools conference with some of our neighboring districts uh Roxberry and um Margaretville,

072excuse me. And um I believe it was the super uh the um board president in Roxberry was telling us that um when when they you know now when they have to replace one of the the room units that are like the air filtration and circulation units, they're replacing those big units now with um a unit that is also an air conditioner. It's not just providing air circulation and heat, but it's also providing air conditioning. Um, what does something like that cost? And is that something that um that we would think about adding to our existing classrooms? And just one more question. Um, you said new construction. Does that also include uh renovated construction like the science labs? >> Yes. Yep. So, sorry about that. So any renovated space as well um would would in include

073include that. Um as far as I I believe what you're speaking of is a unit v ventilator. Um and those those units are what you see typically in classrooms against the window wall or the exterior wall. And those are historically for ventilation and heating. um new systems like that, like you can purchase a new unit ventilator that has cooling capacity to it. Um I I know that I'm I'm no mechanical engineer. We have them on staff, but I I know when let's say you have a classroom wing, right? And and each one of those classrooms currently has a unit ventilator, let's say. If you go to replace all those unit ventilators with ones that have the cooling capacity, um, that might not be the most efficient way to do it as opposed to if you're

074doing it in the classroom wing, either throwing a air handling unit on the roof and doing some duck work and things like that, have a better bang for your buck, let's say. Um, but you do have the capacity to, you know, if it's an isolated situation and you need the air air conditioning in a room that might be isolated from a from a classroom wing, then your unit ventilator, if you do have an exterior wall, is is a good solution for sure. I just want to jump in here because this was brought up in my breakout session at Earl Schools on on heat. Uh, and one of the things they brought up is that um, you know, people often have I have these in my house. Um, and they tend to be one to one

075room. You know, you have a a condenser outside that's for that room. Uh, here's here's a couple of interesting things. So doing it that way on a school does is introduces huge maintenance costs because you have end up having a ton of units as opposed to servicing one unit that services multiple rooms. The other thing is that the state just changed the regulations about what kind of coolant you can use in those units. Um and the the new one which is more environmentally friendly is also flammable under certain conditions. So that's going to >> and more expensive too. >> And more expensive. Now, the one the one system that I did hear about that really interested me was they talked about an ice a system where you run a you run a cooler from the

076roof down to like an ice tank in the basement or something and then on the hot days that ice melts and the the cool the colder the ice is released through the building. And apparently um this could be an RFI for the for our facilities, but apparently Red Hook right across the river has this system in place. So if we wanted to learn about it, it might be worth giving them a call. >> Sorry, I just wanted to add one thing. Um what you said about one to one is 100% accurate for Kyle and his group. If you have a 100 UVs and you put in 100 condensers, it will certainly be more. They do and I have done where you group them together and you can get a little bit of a larger condenser

077and you could do maybe five at a time. What typically I see and I you guys can step in as well. Um, a lot of times that happens based on which facade or the side of your building faces south versus west versus north. Um, we just did some in South Colony where half of one wing was on one condenser and the other half was on two because of its face and what it was catching more southern sun. Um, and then we've had them where at wine and school where we put air conditioners in all of the rooms, we went in and added a totally separate system for that which was again more for that maintenance staff. Um, but we were able to group those together. The downside of that is a lot of times all

078five rooms are at 68 or 72 or 75. You kind of lose the adjustability. Whereas if each room has its own condenser, they could all kind of be at their own temperature. I'm sure Kyle would hate that part too because then everybody kind of is all over the place. So it's a little bit harder to manage at that point. But I just wanted to add that there are a ton of options for air conditioning. Especially if you have spaces that maybe you just replaced your UV and you don't want to do it again. Maybe it makes sense to put something secondary in at that point. And I'll just add the icing on top. So for the Bennett renovations, we would upsize the electrical service for a full buildout at some point. Um and then adopting

079this new heat law. We looked at strategies for the district and like this would be a congregational space that has cooling in it already. So we looked at Bennett, right? We already had the gym the gym feature. So we're looking at cooling larger spaces like if it gets too hot, they have to go somewhere. They have a cool place to go. So there's some interim measures that we're implementing in this project before every room could be conditioned. Um again just for the benefit of um the people listening uh this year there were it was really hot and there was big concerns about um our students taking their regions and would we have enough places to put them. Again this is a real story in our district. Um I and and and luckily accommodations were able

080to be made. It wasn't um you know whatever we made it work. It was fine and they were cool. Um but student performance is again a value of ours really high up there on the list. Um I guess my question is I'm just curious how how with that I didn't ever understand like how what's the percentage of Antiora that currently has cooling? Do we know that? And what what could we potentially have with these updates? I don't know if you can offer that answer that here but that would just be interesting to kind of know um as we do get hotter and hotter and we talk about all these options and I was part privy to conversations also where there were solar you know whisperings of solar I'm very curious to explore that more um

081but in any case uh so we can make sure that our students are able to perform to the best of their ability. Um, that'd be interesting question to have answered. >> I can answer that a little bit just as you were saying, just for the benefit of uh, everybody that might be listening because I did go to scoop ice cream for the fifth grade picnic on one of the hottest days and I did just go to the kitchen and to get the ice cream and here and there. And I will say 89 degrees in the cafeteria that I I was shocked that we had any staff at all in there. It was so hot. And what I sort of found that they had done, which was great, was like all the lights go off in

082all the classrooms and all the doors are opened and there are students with IEPs that require them to have window units. So, you can't really count as a teacher on that particular uh way that the units are placed yeartoear because it's about children with IEPs who need an air unit. But they had all the doors open so that the classrooms with the AC was kind of flowing out into the hallway. But I am so happy we're having this conversation because I will tell you as a parent in the building that day I did really think to myself like wow we are not getting the most out of this school day you know uh and the kids were all like and the teachers were so I mean this seems like a really important conversation to have

083about um for all of our kids >> you know I hear that the and I I've heard that before IEPs you know there's again state requirements for them to have a certain temperature. And again, when I think about equity, I want all of our students to have that same um that same benefit, right? So, um just want to pull that piece out, too. So, right now, I guess Bennett has 22 classrooms. So, some of those are maybe have AC. So, I assume a large percentage of those classrooms would continue not having AC. Is that what I'm hearing? >> Yes. >> But on a positive note, the new classrooms might be for the younger students for, you know, the K through three. Is that correct? >> Yes, I believe so. That's correct. And the other point

084being if we had those these outlier days if we would have like an air conditioned gym that on a you know exigent basis we could get the kids cooled down and safe. Again, my questions is really around the percentages. Like I'm not quite understanding how many and we can explain it, but maybe it would just be better to like ask for an RFI like like what are the spaces that are air conditioned right now? How many students do they serve? How many could we potentially put in the you know give that relief to without moving them or with moving them? And I think that these are the things that will would really um inform how we would prioritize our our chunks our our propositions, right? Oh, and one other thing again rural schools conference has

085really had a lot of stuff going on, but there was also some conversation around solar and um you know, can you talk to speak to that Cindy? >> Yeah. Um well, I happen to have a conversation with um one of uh Chris and Tim and Stephanie's colleagues, Greg, who is their um energy uh guy, her their energy expert, and he was he was just letting me know that um you know, he's been I think take he I I'm not sure that he's taken the lead, but I think he's taken the lead on our um study of solar and geothermal um energy. for this capital project. And he was letting me know that um uh he's almost finished with the study and he's almost, you know, almost finished with the report and that we can expect

086to receive that sometime soon. And then he also um mentioned that some of the funding for those programs and there's significant funding for those programs um may be suns setting over the next several years. And so um you know it's sort of like now is the time to act on um including solar and geothermal in our plan. um that um I'm pretty sure he said that by the end of 2028 the you know we wouldn't we wouldn't be able to rec to expect any significant funding out of the sources that are available right now. Yeah, I was eavesdropping on that conversation and thinking that is incredible to me to be able to go by and have us, you know, again, one thing that we I think I can fairly say from listening to different um

087community members is we all care very much about this beautiful, beautiful place where we're situated and having um these sustainable um uh uh energy uh meth methods, you know, like part of our campus. Driving by seeing that it's such a it's like a visual signifier like what do we value? We value here. We we're looking towards the future. We embrace the future. So, I was very, very excited to have that conversation and then tie it into what we're talking about tonight, which is why I want to know more because if we could offset costs through these um through, you know, assisted funding, you know, wow, yes, let's do that. You know, that's my feeling, >> I think, because I'm just thinking if we had solar panels here on on this campus, Yes. our our electricity

088bills are going to be higher because we're talking about adding more um air conditioning, but we'd be producing energy, you know, that we could we could offset the cost of of those higher bills. So, I mean, I think that we have to take all of that into consideration and, you know, some of it is just really exciting and um you know, some of it probably sounds mundane to some people, but I'm super excited about that. you know, um I I can't wait to hear uh about that report. What What other questions do we have for our friends? Okay, Clark, then Jenny, and then and I just want to say and also if you have any um suggestions for us, I know um I can't I think it was CJ who said maybe, you know, we

089should sit and make a list of what you know really what our priorities are and then have them sent to you so you can start, you know, trying to put that together. But if you have other suggestions for us, please, you know, don't hesitate. Uh we're we're all ears. >> And I I think we could help with this. Just to piggyback off of what Trustee Jerome was saying with the AC kind of, you know, status of where we're at, it'd be like the spaces that have air conditioning, but is it this the type of air conditioning that you want, right? isn't the those window rattlers, you know, the that's not exactly what you want, right? So, I don't think that's like, okay, check it off the box, we're moving on for there. It's that should

090be on the list of something that we need to rectify as well. But uh I just reiterate what Tim had said that you know there is a logic here of other districts we work with um and just statewide of of you know like we said before air conditioning those larger spaces so you have some options you know to fit more amount of people into them. So, >> I'm just wondering if the board wants to consider taking some of the items that, you know, we had we had talked about possible scope at the last meeting and we came up with um a budget of about 63 million. If if the board wants to look at that scope or even go back to the original scope and decide what maybe we don't want and maybe we want

091to get some idea from our professionals about what it would cost to add I don't know if we have the electrical infrastructure in our buildings in Bennett and in this building to add significant air conditioning but maybe we want to replace some things that are not as high on the list if there are such with additional air conditioning, but I don't know what the magnitude of that expense would be given what our infrastructure is. I know we're adding some electrical um infrastructure here, but I'm not sure how much we can support. >> Right. And that that's where the the team effort definitely comes into to play there. um you know where we have the expertise to kind of you know to tell you you know the the nitty-gritty detail how to do all that. Um

092so yeah, we're here as a as a thought partner to to help you know flesh out any idea that anybody has because I hear a lot of good conversations and thoughts and um it's refreshing to hear a lot of perspectives. Thanks uh Superintendent McLaren for bringing up the electrical thing because I was just going to ask that. Yeah. When I I'm on the maintenance uh committee and when I walk around with Kyle, you know, he's always pointing to the circuit breaker boxes and they're pretty old, right? And if anybody's had an old house that's built in the 50s and 60s that usually had make maybe 60 amp service and they had to upgrade it to 200 amp service. That's the kind of thing we're dealing with here in the school. It's similar, right? So obviously

093uh we we've got some electrical issues. Um I on the athletic field uh I was originally I was looking on a Red Hook proposition and they did athletic field with uh track field upgrades and lights and drainage and their proposition came to 7.67 million and I thought geez you know ours isn't near that but as I add these things up we're pretty close. So, originally I was thinking, well, why is Red Hook so much bigger than than ours? And it really isn't. So, uh, I just wanna, it was a good comparison, I think, and I think they did finally get that that passed. That was a separate proposition that they had for that. Uh, so I just want to bring that up. >> I I had something to add, too. Um, based on this the

094sheet with, you know, the questions that we were talking about, it was brought up earlier tonight about being future facing. I I think Trusty Jared brought that up as well. That relates to the electrical infrastructure we just talked about too, right? I I think being future facing and future ready is good infrastructure. Um, I have a story that we did a renovation at a neighboring district south of here and we did a conference room right adjacent to some offices and things like that. That conference room had air conditioning, windows, you know, brand new windows, heating, lighting, enough electricity, right? Just it was it was a good infrastructured space. It was a conference room. currently that space is now their cyber tech uh you know their their cyber threat program. They've created a whole new program

095in the hub of this school that now it's a now it's a a student space right so what I'm getting at is if you if you put good infrastructure into your buildings and you have the right lighting you have the right heating and cooling you have the light you know natural light and things like that those spaces are going to be future ready. they are because they're going to be nimble to be able to, you know, go to one program or the next. So that electrical infrastructure, even though it seems very technical and kind of, you know, that's really building your future there. It's getting ready and prepping your infrastructure for change. >> Thank you. Um, I'm wondering, it's a process question. Um, and I don't know if this is even a way that this

096could happen based on open meeting laws, but I'm wondering if maybe we could have a like a fresh slate if this would be even helpful, you know, with all the things going back to the original and then have an opportunity for us to filter through that um like like a Google doc kind of form um where we could add our thoughts about like to me to you know JJ this is a super important because it taps on our value of X you know and somebody else could say like you know so and so says I could see that but maybe we could do it renovate instead of new you know is there a way that we can kind of all filter through it all through a lens and then or is that the kind of

097conversation that has to happen live in person? >> Good question. Um I I mean we do use Google Docs for certain things. Um typically those things are discussed you know publicly in the like in the next meeting or whatever. Um you know anything that we do um as a as a group we do typically discuss you know with the ex with the exception of executive session we do um discuss it publicly. So and you know this that's we would absolutely be discussing it publicly. Um, I think that we would have to add a lot of extra meetings to be able to really get down to, you know, fine-tuning our our thoughts and our plans and then coming up with something that can work for all of us in meetings. We'll be meeting like every week

098for, you know, ever or or maybe every day. You know, >> that was kind of what I was wondering. Yeah. was I I think I hear I'm hearing a lot of like agreement and I'm hearing a lot of like common ground and I'm like having a lot of aha moments. I'm just wondering if we all could just go into our space with tonight's conversation in mind and look through and kind of like this question list and then come back together again with our fabulous associates having access to that if maybe that would be a way that we could Caroline oh I'm sorry Caroline then Emily >> the same so I'm we were like thinking similar things what I was picturing of course was a mural board with like so there's all these things that we've

099talked about and then somebody and then they get chunked together a different way and it's like what were what were all the things and we just talked about electricity a lot tonight. What I'm picturing are like postits with all the things and then we're allowed to have three dots and each board trustee can put their three dots on one of those things and we start to see like I don't know if it's three dots or it's five or if it's seven dots, whatever it is, but then we can sort of start to see like where things are standing out and we just talk about those things. So maybe not going into so much like my feelings are this. It's just like looking at a board with all the things and seeing where we see the

100most action and talking about those at a meeting. That might be another, you know, I don't know. It's something like what you're talking about, but a more simplified. >> And I think we could do that on a Google doc, too. real quick and then Emily's waiting. >> So they I in my prior life I I h I have used post um you know post-it notes electronically not not paper. >> Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's a big board and people post and then later and there's it's all positive. You put all positive comments to that and then later on you thin it out. But yeah, I don't know if Amanda can look into some something like that. >> Um, I was just going to suggest something similar like some almost like an in I don't know if

101this is legal, but like an internal survey of like the things we want and then you know because it's just hard to imagine like do we all want the auditorium? Like I just can't tell like where we're all at and then once we're like agreeing on let's say seven to 10 things and that's will definitely move us forward. I love the dot idea and I actually just had this memory I haven't thought about in a really long time. We just I was an intern at this urban planning firm in Boston and we did exactly that like what was most like people thought was the best ideas and it was very productive and I love that idea. >> Tim, >> there is an app called Miro Boardo and we use it a lot in our industry

102for collaboration. Um, I can look into it. I don't know if there's a cost for it, but it's it's literally what you're all explaining a a digital posted and you have themes and columns of ideas and everybody puts their >> like I think we kind of are on the same page. I just like would love to see it visually >> and I've done these exercises in mural and I like the dots because it's not a lot of it's just a visual like annotation rather than you know discourse around it you know so so a list with dots like that's you know we can we could maybe start there um that could be interesting I'm just wondering, you know, we have all of the costs and the list of everything that we've been talking about so

103far. Um if our professionals to could just chime in with what we would add in terms of options for electrical infrastructure andor adding AC to you know we have AC in some places but you know do we want to consider AC in all classrooms or in wings or I'm not sure what that would look like or what those costs would be but if we could have some AC options to add to our list and and I can't imagine that we would want to bring a bond that's bigger than what we had before, but maybe we could swap out some other things, but it would be great to have options. >> Sure. Yeah, we could definitely dig into that to that. >> So, I'll clarify because we did an exercise on this at one point, so

104we'll dust that exercise off. Um, but I will say what's baked into the Bennett cake is a full electrical service upgrade that looks forward to if if the entire building was going to be aced. So that piece is already in. >> So then maybe we can just have the component. >> It's really just doing the rooms from there, >> taking it to the room level. >> This building is a different story. I don't recall where we left off. >> I know, but maybe we could get some options for this building. something. >> I think power-wise here, I don't think we planned for any upgrades. I don't know what's been part of previous projects. Um, the other maybe suggestion I have in terms of air conditioning is I can come with either some square foot prices

105which are sort of non-specific or I can come with a UV for a classroom with an air conditioner is typically this much and we can sort of work maybe both sides of that. Um, I guess it really depends on how in depth we want to go at that time >> and maybe we need to speak with Mr. just as well. >> Probably a good idea. >> He'd probably have some opinions. >> And he can probably tell us where air conditioners are right now. >> And he can also tell us what rooms are our more prone to be very hot versus some remain temperate depending on where they face and what floor they're on. Um yeah, I uh one question while you're here that um I wanted to raise. So I was sort of raising sort

106of doomsday scenarios about you know funding cuts earlier and when you answered the safety question that I asked at the last meeting at the beginning that was um you know including building the new classrooms for Bennett and all that. Um I'm wondering if you could generate a um a sort of a rip cord, you know, scenario where if our funding does have a sudden precipitous cut and we're facing, you know, really choices that we don't want to make, um and we need to move everybody over, put the fifth grade in the in the in the middle school. Um I I think there would still be some of those like the to bring in the number of buses that we would we would have additional buses coming in, wouldn't we? And we would need to do

107something um to just to make that process of getting everybody here safe if even if we're fitting them into the existing classrooms because we have to. Um I'm wondering if we could generate that cost. Um because the way you answered the safety question before included stuff that you know was still keeping sixth grade in in the elementary school. >> Sorry, fifth grade. Fifth grade in the elementary school. So tonight we've had this really interesting conversation that I don't think we've had before about geothermal solar um outdated infrastructure um how if I'm understanding correctly right now it's just wrapped up into the Bennett number. I'm interested in equity across buildings, right? So, um I guess I would want to see that infrastructure number broken out and not wrapped in. So, like on that board, um is

108that possible? >> I don't have geothermal or solar baked into the numbers I gave you before. >> Okay. I do have a separate number for geothermal and I think for solar. I'd have to go run back to that computer and double check. >> Yeah. Yeah. >> But I don't remember if I think solar we did by building. >> I don't think we did geothermal by building because I think at the time the intent was only that Bennett was going to be geothermal. >> Right. So I'm doesn't matter what happened. And I guess my question is just like based on tonight's conversation, the idea that we want or not to assume, but I'm I'm hearing that there's an interest in looking at like making sure our infrastructure is ready for what's coming um that is there

109a way to break that out as a thing, you know, um and and so that as we look at these different things, if it's really important for me to have like infrastructure that can meet the future, then I I might use one of my dots on that um and not be torn be like not get mixed up like wait a minute am I you know what am I voting for you know anyways I think you understand Caroline can I just ask a clarifying question are you um you want it broken out by um like by the line item of what what would um like the electric upgrade cost and then what would potentially um adding air conditioning to x number of school of classrooms cost per Bennett and per the middle school high school. I

110would be looking for a campuswide um assessment and whether that's broken down into electrical infrastructure or providing air conditioning. I don't really know because those are a little bit different. Are they? I don't know. I would look to you guys to tell me like you should be putting those together because they're part and parcel or whatever. I mean, we are interested in having student performance equity. Um, in terms of our students, all of our students having um uh access to either heated or cooled classrooms that, you know, temperatures that they can perform well at. So I I don't know what that looks like, but just it would be campuswide like so that I could um rather than broken up. Does that answer your question? >> Yes. Thanks. >> But just to clarify and make sure

111I understand our current situation. So this building has cooled we're in one right now has cooled communal spaces. Bennett and Woodstock both of them have zero right now. They all they have is window units. So there is a different just to come to some kind of parody. You know the elementary is what needs to be addressed most urgently especially in terms of this law. Would you agree with that? >> Yeah. Yes. I I I don't disagree for sure. I think that the the fact that you know the AC and that that new legislation and there's already kind of you know you never know what to expect. So I think that the setting up for infrastructure is just makes all the sense in the world. Um, so I I'm pretty sure we did some HVAC upgrades

112at the Bennett gym. I can't quote me that it's AC, but I know we increased the ventilation there. Um, I know early on when we started looking at this, we worked with Kyle and we did look at a comprehensive upgrade to both buildings. So, it's not like we have to go back and start from scratch. I just with all the iterations, I can't I can't bring it here. But, we'll get it for you. So I understand what you're looking for. So >> and just to clarify one more time, I know that we're talking about electrical infrastructure and things like that, but there's, you know, there's there's drainage on the list and things, you know, that would also fall under infrastructure, right? Like storm water management, right? I mean, think about the flooding that just happened

113in Texas. I mean, there's there's a lot of things infrastructure- wise that we could highlight here. >> Yeah. I mean, to me, I'm interested in that. I don't know what you all are but to me that would be like if I could see like infrastructure and then like bulleted points this includes electrical drainage you know whatever that includes but to have a sound secure campus that's you know say from flooding or I don't know what all the different things you're you're you're forecasting for but yeah that would be super helpful. I'd love that. I don't know. >> Thank you, Trusty Jerome. This is an amazing idea. I think this is would be so nice to have the idea that we could we would be on all the kids together on a campus that could support

114whatever might come for the next 50 years or what have you. I just wanted to ask you to just elaborate. I know this is another going up high a little bit, but I have the benefit of being a new trustee and and remembering that although I have read your explanation on the Google form, like I want to make sure that the whole community can hear you explain because there are a lot of folks that have expressed kind of an desire to to stage the work and asked us why we wouldn't do half now that didn't include the Bennett expansion and then to um do the Bennett expansion, you know, in the future if we lost funding or if our enrollment went even lower. So, I asked and I see, you know, explanations about why that

115professionally is not the route that you would suggest, but I just it would be great if you could just elaborate on that for the community. Thank you. So yeah, just to and and I'm sure I'll have support for my team here too. But uh I think the crux of it is that the more time you wait, the more things cost, right? So that's just one piece of the puzzle. There's also a thing that's more industry related about, you know, the economy of scale. Um that only that also h that not only happens with the actual construction. So if you're replacing, you know, 20 windows, you know, uh at one time, that's going to be a lot cheaper or than than replacing, you know, five windows in four different intervals, right? So the economy of scale

116is really really the the the big piece of that. Um, not only does the construction aspect benefit from the economy of scale, when we do our design and our submissions to the state, anytime we do separate submissions, we have to do a full-blown SEDD paperwork, specification books, you know, it it's it's more work on our end. we're happy to do the work whatever whatever it may be but it it's a matter of we can consolidate some of these submissions and not do an extra you know state education department workbook uh three or four or five times. Um so really the economy of scale goes from the construction but also the design piece of it too. Does anybody you guys want to know? >> I think I would just add that um like Chris had said

117in working through SED and all those pieces, it's also unrealistic. You have two buildings here that probably total three or 400,000 square feet. You can't do everything at once. So, there's a piece where you have to stage things. There's stuff you've been doing over the last several years and several projects that you don't want to undo. Um, so I think looking at things collectively is a very good idea. I think we're going to find in that process that 20 classrooms that Bennett had UVs replaced five years ago. Do we really want to replace something that's five years old or do we want to try to retrofit it? And I think those are the things that as you work your way through this process, we're going to learn. I think that you guys have a lot

118of really good conversations. I think getting together, whether it be in person or virtual or whatever media we want to do, and you as a group finding your priorities is going to help this process a lot more in retrospect, then we could estimate those things. I'm not saying we can't we have to wait or anything like that. It's just it's hard to air conditioning in a room could be $5 a square foot because it's this thing. It could be $25 a square foot because it's this thing, but that could be better for 20 classrooms and this could be better for five. You know what I mean? There's just there could be a huge range of cost benefit there that we won't know until we get to that point. I think if we can come together

119and look through whatever amount of scope we want to do, find those priorities, put costs to those at that point. It may take two or three meetings to do that, but I think then you'll probably feel that you have covered all the ground you want to cover at that point. So that's just I know you were talking about suggestions. I think that might be a good thought process at that point. and whether that's virtual or in person is sort of at everybody's leisure. >> Thank you uh for that suggestion. And can you just um clarify for us why it's important to include the construction or the renovation of classrooms in these major capital projects in terms of the funding sources? >> You want to Yeah, it's it really comes down to like, you know, when

120you're talking about building aid, uh, basically, so the when the state looks at your project and and Stephanie knows a lot about building aid, I have to say, um, I should probably pass the mic to her, but basically the classrooms get you more building aid, right? As opposed to, let's say you're working on Kyle's facilities office, um, not going to be as much building aid there. So when when you have, you know, more work in the classroom level, you get more return, right, Stephanie? Is that pretty accurate? Yes, I'm getting a a yes there. So, >> thank you. Any other questions or Okay, Clark. >> Yeah. So, what I'm hearing from um Trusty Jared and and others is forwardlooking and I I know we have a five-year facility plan which is I guess coming due

121for another five-year plan next year. So, um it's almost like what we're talking about is maybe a 10-year plan, right? And uh or wish list or what we might want in the future. Is that what I'm hearing? Yeah. I I I actually have trouble saying it's a fiveyear plan. I mean, five years is a short time span to really, you know, have a well comprehensive plan. And, you know, I you get it. Five, you know, but it's the requirement. That's what they say. It's five years. I agree with you, uh, Trusty Goodridge. I believe with something when it when it's a big lift, when you're doing a big swing here, um it takes a little bit more time sometimes and and that could, you know, go go to seven, eight, potentially 10 years. It never

122hurts to plan, you know. So, >> and I think I would just add what you're really, I think, talking about as an overall master plan for consolidating your campus, I guess, is what I would call it. And that helps because a lot of the struggle in this process is when you look at line items and you go this one shouldn't be done now. The perception is it should maybe never be done. When you look at a master plan and you're talking about a five or a 10 or I've done 20-year master plans, you know, which again they change constantly as you work through that plan. But those line items don't disappear. They're just structured. And some people find comfort in air conditioning for this wing will be this part of the plan. That may change

123by the time you get there because priorities will change, programs will change, education will change over that time, but at least you're tracking those things. And that's a lot easier than trying to find all of those things every time you do a project in five or 10 years. So this is a perfect time to ask my question here is more for uh our superintendent. Um so you know let's say we have a proposition that's got five items on it and gets passed and uh each of the five items is um I don't know let's say five million right so we got total of 25 million but one of those items turns out that it costs a lot more than five million how do we handle that I mean do we start saying okay we're gonna

124all right we got to spend 7 million on this this part of that proposition and do we start taking away from the other ones or and who makes that decision? Does it is that a board decision or how does that work? >> Actually, I think CJ could actually answer that. But when you um put everything out to bid, when you get the bids back, you have to be able to do the work within the budget that the voters approved. If the bids come back above budget, you can't accept them all. So, either you reject them, you start again, sometimes things are redesigned. Um, you have to you have to figure out what to do before you accept the bids. You cannot accept bids that exceed your budget and the board has to accept the bids.

125That's a formal process. >> Agreed. We would before the bid do everything to make sure we had a range of where we wanted to be. We do that with either alternates that add scope. So it would take out again an example replacing all the windows at Bennett might be one alternate so that it's a standalone thing. If bids come in a little higher than we expected, we could still cover that work. If it came in lower than we expected, then we could add those windows in because we already have a price for it. So that's a lot of how that process works. Nobody standing here and ultimately on that stage wants to rebid a project because it takes time and energy and money to do that. So we typically try to do that at the

126beginning of that bid to have if we're that concerned that maybe it's a tariff problem, a presidential change problem, a governor change, you know, name any one of the reasons why economical things happen in our country. We would plan to have alternates to do that. The downside of that is that means that some of those alternates may not get selected that we've been talking about for at that point nine months that would get replaced. But falling back on the master plan, those would start to work their way back into the plan and back into another vote. >> So I I guess I'm still a little confused. So let's say proposition gets passed for 25 million >> for five items and we can't do all five items for 25 million. What happens there? Do we go

127back to the voters and get more or less or what do we do there? We just say, "Well, we're not going to do five. We're going to just do four out of the five." Hypothetically, yes, that would be the thought process, but it wouldn't be done in a vacuum. So those things are be things that we would make suggestions to your group and the board and the administration to say this four fifth out of fifth thing is something we could separate from your bid to make sure that we're on budget. If bids come in favorably and we can take it, we can do all five things. If they come in higher because of whatever reason, then we know we can at least accomplish four things without having to redesign and rebid. >> And if I

128can just add, we have done that. We have had projects that we've had to go back out to the voters to get more money to complete the project. Um the last one was actually the um you know where our track is. What's that thing called again? We had to go back out. We needed because there was an issue with the drainage over there. So we did it during the budget vote. We did it as a transfer to capital. We asked the voters to give us more money so that we could finish that project. So we have done that. Uh again, you run the risk that the voters will vote no, but um we have done that. Okay, very quick question. Um, am I correct in understanding that if this work was to be broken into

129two propositions? one proposition that held the all the work at Bennett that would bring all the elementary students to Bennett and the other proposition that would hold let's just call it the track and field work and the first proposition around expanding Bennett did not pass but the second proposition did pass that there's no that are we we are looking at an a tax burden for the community at that point. I'm just trying to get clear on that because I I think it's important to also like um Trusty Mitchell Morurell was saying to be aware of the different you know interest groups and I would be concerned that if that were to happen and then the perception was we've already now we've given money and our taxes have gone up and then we come back around

130again now we really need to do this expansion at Bennett that it might be difficult to then ask for more in short order. It depends on um how much you're looking to package whatever we have. We plan to have 15 million in reserves and cash. So up to the first 15 million we have the money for and then there will be aid on some of it. Depending on what's included will impact the level of aid. But beyond that 15 million then we take on debt. And if we're not closing and seeing the savings from closing, then that will be taxpayer burden. Just clarifying for my this is not my strong suit math, but it's not however something that we would want to do to use that capital funding directly to projects. We want that capital

131money, that capital savings wants to be rolled into the bigger bond, not used separately. Or could we take could we choose to do $15 million of the essential work at this point? If we had a rip cord situation, could we say we have 15 million in capital funds? Can we ask for the community to say you we here's what we can do for 15 million that would get our kids here into the building altogether in the best way. >> The board can choose to to utilize that cash in whatever way the board wants to. Right Monica I don't want to >> but my understanding is that it would we would still need to pass we would still need to put that into a proposition. >> Absolutely. Yes. >> So the voters would have to say

132yes, go spend that. And it's currently 10, >> right? It's not it will be 15 in a few years, but >> so we will be funding the capital reserve to the full 10 million the end of this year. >> Okay. >> So we will have additional after that in cash to >> support this project. And the other comment I wanted to make was I believe we could also structure the propositions to say proposition two only goes if proposition one passes. So we can we can >> especi and especially if you're going to have proposition two that is something that is more like athletic you have to understand that if you if you do it such that proposition one and two are separate you can either one can pass you're not going to get aid on

133proposition because you're not doing anything instructionally. So you know you're you're ideally you want one to pass. You want two one to pass in order for two to pass as well. >> And just getting into the weeds here a little bit, am I correct, Monica, that if both propositions pass on the same day in the same vote that they are then considered as one? >> No, that was a >> So that was Yes, that was a clarifying question that we did actually go back to. So if there's two propositions and both propositions pass, the funding has to still remain separate. And the reason being as a voter, I may have voted yes for proposition one, but not for Proposition two, even though they both passed. You can't use my Proposition one money to put in

134Proposition 2 because I did not vote for Proposition Two. >> Thank you. So, I have gone back and and looked at some of the other schools in the district. I've seen as many as five propositions being voted on. And uh so it's not unusual to have separate propositions. Uh and so, you know, that that part's not a big deal. Um so, just want to mention them. Any final questions for our architects or engineers and construction manager? >> So, I just want to thank the CPL and schoolhouse. Thank you very much for all your support. Uh, one last question with the propositions. So if we had $15 million in capital reserves, could we write one of the propositions to use all of that capital reserve and write the other proposition to not use any of it?

135Is that correct? Everybody's shaking their head. Yes. So thank you all. so much. >> We'll be in touch. We really appreciate you. We should. All right, we are going to move on to our consent agenda. Um, may I have a motion to accept the consent agenda? Trusty Mitchell Morurell second. Trusty Jared, any questions or comments. >> Okay, we shall vote. Trusty Smith. >> I. >> Trusty Jared >> I. >> Trusty Michel Morell. >> Hi. >> Trusty Jerome >> I. >> Trusty Goodrich >> I. >> Trusty Kudson >> I. >> All right. Great. That's unanimous. Thank you. We'll go on to item four, contracts and independent contract retainers. Uh the board of ed approves all contracts and independent contract retainers. The board Oh, uh hereby approves items 4.02 through 4.05. May I have a first? Trusty

136Jerome. I'm Trusty Jared. I did that last time. Second, Trusty Jerome. Any questions or comments? All right, we'll vote. Trusty Smith, >> I. >> Trusty Jared, >> I. >> Trusty Mitchell Morurell >> I. >> Trusty Jerome >> I. >> Trusty Goodrich >> I. >> Trusty Kudson >> I. >> Okay, great. Thanks everybody. That's unanimous. On to our policies. Item five. Item 5.01 is the second reading and adoption of policy 37. Oops. 30 7370 students and personal electronic devices. The board of ed hereby adop approves policy 7370 as written. May I have a first trusty Mitchell Morell second. Trusty Smith. Any questions or comments? Trusty Goodrich. So I one of the comments that was made uh previously was um some of the students have said it's somewhat easy to get around this and I was wondering

137if we wanted to discuss that. Do we do we need to consider the yonder packs as part of this proposal? I guess that's a question for the superintendent, you know. Um we can certainly have our administrators share uh when they do their welcome how things are going. We are out we are utilizing uh the funding that we've been allocated. Uh it is an entire 5,900 some odd dollars. Um but our secondary principles did opt to buy um small it looks almost like an apothecary um dresser like locker bins that will not um suffice for the whole building in any way, shape or form but are there as an option an additional option for where students can put their phones or their devices. >> Thank you. I don't think we have to modify the policy, but

138I think that like Superintendent McLaren said, when we get a report from the administrators, we can certainly, you know, have a conversation with them about, you know, how's it going? What do you need? Yeah. Are you okay with that? >> Yes. Thank you. >> Okay, great. Thank you. So, shall we vote? Does anybody else have any uh any questions or comments? All right. Trusty Smith, >> I. >> Trusty Jared >> I. >> Trusty Metro Moral >> I. >> Trusty Jerome >> I. >> Trusty Goodrich >> I. >> Trusty Kudson >> I. >> That's great. Unanimous. Thank you all. May I have a motion to adjurnn? Trusty Jared. Second, Trusty Jerome. All right. Uh, our next meeting is August 19th and we'll be here at the middle school high school auditorium and um we'll see you

139all then and we'll just vote on uh jouring. All in favor? That's unanimous. Thanks. Good night.