001So, if we're good to go, uh, welcome everybody to the February 12th facilities and finance work session. Uh, first up is call order, which we've just done. Next is public comment. >> No one has signed up for public comment. Approval of minutes. >> I was not here at that meeting. from a group. >> Then let's table that until we have more than one. I think there should be more than one person >> uh on that which brings us to facilities and I think first up we have our capital project team. >> All right. Good evening. Am I first? You're first. Super. We're here to talk about the upcoming capital project and do a quick review of where we stand in terms of schedule, quick review of the scope and then we'll touch on a communication
002the communications around it. >> Oh, there we go. >> Yeah. >> All right. Here we are. So, um, we had a communications meeting this morning in which, um, we were targeting the March 10th board meeting to adopt the seeker and proposition resolutions. Those were I can't remember if those actually were adopted or those were scheduled to be adopted some months ago um, prior to when the vote date was rescheduled. So hopefully folks are familiar with what those means. I'm I'm happy to explain those more if you'd like. Um those come from your attorney and bond council respectively. Um so those are um the seeker one will likely be a type two action which is sort of the lowest level of requirement. There's not much site work happening for the um to trigger any state environmental
003quality review act um restrictions or anything. Um and the resolutions are written by your bond council with the input of numbers from the district in terms of where you know where money is coming from um and the description of the project which is pretty general. Um we're in the the phase where we're preparing communications to the voters there. Um we'll see in a minute uh a um a postcard that is being sent in the mail within days or maybe a week or so. Um that will be hitting folks mailboxes soon. That just gives um very very high Well, we'll look at it in a minute. Um, and that's leading up to the May 19th public vote. So, any questions about the schedule? >> No. Maybe just for clarification of the audience, I should say seeker.
004Is that is that an S seeker or Cseer? Is it city or state? >> It's state. >> So, seeker is confusing because it can be city environmental uh review. City environmental review. Sorry, city environmental quality review seeker. That's if we were in the city of Ethica. So I was playing board for many years. So we always did secrets and there was city >> environmental quality review here. We're not under the jurisdiction of city of etha because we are our own lead agency. So lead agency is the agency that supervises the environmental review. So we're conducting not a CER but an S-seker which is a state environmental quality review. And type two action as opposed to type one action means this is a low-level impact in terms of environmental review. So just thank you some acronyms
005there people listening that's what we mean we say seeker is that's an environmental check that nothing we're doing here is going to you know endanger any animals or contaminate water or so so we intend right >> that's correct >> and then the bond is >> uh so the the bond is basically how a school district goes about borrowing money on the municipal bond market generally um there's also Uh, Dazznney, which is the dormatory authority of the state of New York, offers bonds as well. So, you have some options there depending on what the interest rates are. Um, and the your bond council is a attorney that specializes in this work and advises you on um writing the language of the propositions that you will present to the voters. So, that language is um is drafted.
006you adopt that language at that March 10th board meeting, that will be the language that voters will see. >> Um, >> so this would be the language for the voters to approve us to go to the bond market. >> That's correct. And and it says basically it's sort of speaking to the voters, you know, as a proposition. Will you authorize Ithaca City School District to borrow this much money, use this much money from its capital reserve? It goes, you know, through the the different specific numbers of where how it's going to get paid for. It will give a brief description of the scope of work that um will be will be uh strategically generic so that if you have the opportunity to add some scope of work it's you know covered under some broad language.
007Um and that when the voters authorize that that's what allows you to borrow up to that amount and use amounts from accounts that you already have funded um to pay. For you know folks at home, this is author if if approved by the voters. This would authorize the district to go to the bond market. We issue basically a bond coupon. Investors buy those in anticipation of us paying promptly the interest that's due on those. Uh we borrow the money. We do we borrow the money rather than use general funds because we're going to finance those over a prolonged period of time for a variety of reasons to keep the costed of borrowing at 7% or less. that is cost to capital pay at 7% or less of our total budget and also to qualify us
008for the state rebate of approximately 58% on capital project expenditures that I mean I get it wrong >> the the aid on construction on eligible construction um is not predicated on borrowing money >> okay >> there are districts that have cash >> okay >> and they still get their aid so >> thank you nonetheless Unless we're going to borrow the money. >> Yeah. Okay. >> Yeah, that's pretty tight. >> Great. Thank you. >> Yeah. Thanks. Um, other questions >> or things you'd like to clarify. All right. Then we have seen the scope document. Um, it continues to include, you know, the items that we've talked about. Um, if there are any questions about that, happy to go through it again. Um just wanted to get it up here so folks remember um you know the
009nature of the scope of work which is generally fixing stuff that is aging out or is failing already. Um the you know these are the examples we've seen before the roofing and some of the imagery there of uh on the left thermal scan and on right the same uh the same area showing you know some leaks that are happening. uh the science rooms in in Dwit and Boon which um are original to the 1972 vintage of the building. >> And these are all of the science rooms. >> There were three science rooms on the lower level at Boon that were previously renovated. So this project does not include those since those are newer. But all the rest all Yeah. the three upstairs at at Boon and all six at doing um that includes some um
010safety shut offs for the gas, replacing the cabinetry, finish upgrades, um introducing accessibility to those teaching spaces, fire alarms, uh Ithaca on South Hill, um there, you know, been some um instructional interruptions due to the fire alarms. terms um going off. They're they're aging out. It's hard to find replacement parts. It's >> We've had at least two or three this year in the high school instructional uh one one uh because because it's an old system talking to a new system. We can't find out we can't find where the smoke head is quickly which eats up our instructional minutes and can take us um extra 30 minutes, 45 minutes. >> Yeah. >> Where students have to be out in the building. the the old system is analog basically. So you got a big loop. So it
011could be any number of of pieces of equipment on that loop and that's all you can tell and you got to go through sort of in a painstaking way. Modern systems are all digital so you know exactly immediately what device is being triggered and you can go and find that quickly, repair it if needed, reset it, investigate the immediate area, those sorts of things. So it's much more efficient that way as well as uh being more reliable. Um terms of wellness uh these are the uh nursing suites. Uh we see some some of the uh images of BJM which is also experiencing some some settlement in the slab causing some cracking. So we'd like to um change that layout um at that building for a couple reasons, a structural reason as well as an accessibility
012reason. You can see the uh the toilet room there and you can you know you have a sense of what an accessible toilet room has. You you have space beside the toilet and in front of it to maneuver and the grab bars and all those things. So um this this item goes through many not quite all the buildings in the district but many of them most of them um to make upgrades uh to allow them to be accessible. Um there is the geothermal system at Ithaca High School and Boon Middle School um that we've talked about as well at length. Um this is uh a proposal to provide the cooling capacity for these buildings um in lie of the lakes source cooling system that we were previously attempting to uh tie in to Ithaca ice.
013for athletics. Um the Boon Gymnasium floor, although recently refinished, so it looks a lot better now, um still had experienced over the past um water intrusion through these doors, uh based on like the grading and and some other things. So, um, there would be some work outside to prevent that from happening in the future and some work inside to replace that gym floor because it has a lot of what they call dead spots where uh, you know, an athletic floor has certain rebound. And so if you if you go out there with a basketball or some other object, like you can you can feel the dead spots. So, it's a failing gym floor from a athletic, you know, and technical standpoint. um even though it looks a lot different than it used to look and
014um with the um the finish coming up there. There is some floor abatement. Uh in this project we have a budget for about 40,000 square feet of removing existing um asbestous containing material of which there is a lot of it across the state of New York in many many school buildings. um when we see um the material chipping exposing. Uh so asbestous could be in the tiles themselves or in what we call the mastic which is the black gluey looking stuff um the glue that holds it down. Um and it varies from building to building which of those two materials can stain contains asbestous. Um but when it starts to fail like that that raises the concern that that asbestous then um is is less encapsulated than it typically is. Um a lot of asbestous
015can be in a building and be perfectly safe for for folks if it is contained and um or encapsulated is the technical term. So, uh, there is some work at Ithaca High School that's been identified for that as well as Caroline Elementary School. That's the two buildings. And, and the map on the right is a lot of colors, but that goes through and tells us uh what all the materials are. Is there asbestous in the tile? Is there asbestous in the mastic? Is it asus in both? Or is there asus in neither? Or is it carpet? So, we've done some, you know, more detailed analysis um on that building. There is some paving at Kuga Heights that we see um is failing. If you've been out there, uh the district has done a lot of
016great work to keep it uh fun as functional as it is out there with the age and the condition of the asphalt. U but some repairs needed there. Uh playgrounds, there is a budget for um some playground replacement and enhancement. Um that's been discussed at at various schools. Uh BJM being one of those. Bathroom upgrades. There are many many bathrooms throughout the district um in need of bathroom upgrades. We have um we're showing BJM and some at the high school um as examples of the vintage of bathrooms that you see in various places around around the district. Um EV infrastructure. This is uh to support a project that has uh been designed and approved by the state uh to upgrade your electrical service and do some infrastructure work for future charging of electric buses and
017for charging of the existing I think nine buses electric buses that you have now and that's the scope. Any questions about that? To move on to Oh, we've got our abbreviations list in case you have questions. Um, then let's look at the postcard quickly. That shows us largely um dates. Thanks, Trisha. Of community conversations that have been scheduled for the public. Um, so this is what the first, you know, piece of information that voters will see. Hey, there are these opportunities to come and learn more. There is a QR code at the top right that links to the web the district website. Um, which is being populated already with some specific materials for this and we'll receive some more in the upcoming weeks. Uh, the date um it refers at the top of the top
018left where underneath the projector name. I don't know if that can be moved but you might be able to see it says tax neutral project. >> So what that means is >> you have capacity within what Garrick was saying the 7% of your budget that is allocated for you know basically paying for facility enhancements. um that with the analysis of your uh your financial advisor, we've backed into a number for this referendum that keeps that consistent and that that tax burden on the community remains consistent. That's what that that is communicated. Um and then the flip side of that is just the front of the postcard. So that's uh that's what's going out. So, there are dates that folks will be seeing. Um, many of them are in this very room. You can see we're
019going out to Dan B and Gak and Enfield. Um, and district kudos to district communication staff for working all this out and getting this this set up. Any questions about that? >> Yeah, I just add we had a good discussion this morning about uh how to populate the QR code. I'm just see as as of right now folks who want to think, well, where did this come from? There are no fewer than 14 meetings that we've already had on this capital campaign uh that are all posted. So, you know, anybody wants some background, you can go back and watch all 14 uh you know, binge weekend on facilities. >> Uh and so that we had a discussion about what other information will go there, including I think we're going to try to do uh a
020clip or two of Ben from fiscal advisors explaining sort of the the bond process and the tax neutrality uh and some of the state rebates and so on and so forth. So uh I also want to thank Jennifer um for scheduling all these events and I would just say that I will be at all of them and to my colleagues you're all welcome please come I think more board members we have about >> so the intent of those conversations is to inform the public about the nature and of the of the capital project what's what work is being proposed and you know what how how it's structured. >> Thanks. All right. A question about the QR code. So, it goes to a website city school district website where everything's there. But then is there a
021link back to the budget development website where um frequently asked questions are >> let me go through that. >> That's a that's a good topic to talk about for a moment. There's the budget process and there's the capital project process and they're going on in parallel and will be voted on the same date but the funding mechanisms for the two are different and separate. Um, so, um, I think I I'm not sure about I can't speak to the district website, but I would be, um, I guess I would recommend that you do not like link the two together because folks are easily, I think, confused about, you know, how they work financially. Um >> well with the new term tax neutral capital project although it's not a new term folks will be confused >> then
022um it there needs to be something to specify that >> I I don't I can't remember what um what it looked like um does it have the date of the vote so that okay it has the date of the vote so that and normally it says annual budget vote and schoolboard election so that people know this is happening on the same day, but yet okay, we're voting for the budget and we're this is going to be more than likely proposition two or >> maybe three or four because you have the budget. You'll probably have a capital reserve. You have >> two is usually the uh the buses. That's the bus. Yeah. >> Right. Yeah. >> Buses, passenger bands, you know. Yep. I I know like a postcard so it's easy for people to get in
023the mail and everything like that but to just make sure um we we're not going to see unfortunately we would we could have as many meetings but we're not going to see let's say of the voters we had probably about um close to 3,000 last year 2500. We're not going to see a thousand out at these meetings. We would hope, but if we're the thing is we need to give them some information to link to different areas as well as my next point is we're having three at the admin building, none at Caroline. >> I'm sure noon. >> We can change Yeah, we can I'm sure we can adjust this to go to a different location. That's good feedback for us. >> Well, I I there's a lot of backstory on this and Jennifer spent
024weeks trying to get this line and there were reasons why certain buildings didn't work. I don't I don't want to like speak for her, but Caroline was discussed and Caroline was one of the goals and I can't remember whatever reason it didn't work out, but but you know, we started with trying to have a couple that were in the city and a couple in outline areas and then I and try to have different times uh for people during the day and then the evening, etc. And so this is just kind of what she arrived at. Uh specifics I'd have to defer to her, but that was the goal, >> right? Okay. >> Okay. Precisely your point. And um we had a lot of discussion about what we'll go into FAQ and that that'll be coming.
025We'll be looking for all board members to to add that suggest to that. But the you know, this is kind of like my drum I keep hitting, but an FAQ, what's the difference between a budget and a bond measure, you know, and why they're two separate things. I think the natural question is well people are saying well I'm going to vote on a budget. Why does a budget not include fixing the buildings? So that that's you know for sure going to be front and center. Uh so I think we want to do both respond to your point about explain the difference between the two and why there's two votes at the same time not confuse voters that one is the other and it's going to be up to I think the comp team to try
026to thread that needle. But >> yeah. Yeah. And making sure folks know where to get all the information that they want. Um but also understand that there are different there's some differences between >> and can we flip back on the um address side >> and nowhere that says when this vote is going to occur >> not on that side correct >> but is it on the other side does it have the date >> where is May 19th so what's up there >> it says taxeneutral project. >> You can see it on Zoom. >> Yes. >> But it's Yeah. >> Can the you know I Yeah. I think the a lot of us we defer the comp team at the end of day we went to like various versions of this some with more and some
027with less information and ultimately the decision was let's just get people the dates like just this is just this is not trying to explain to them anything. This is just to provide the dates uh and the QR code would would be the more information. So, dates and a QR information, but uh Karen, your point is right. There's 105,000 voters and 3,000 3,000 to 4,000 of the 105,000 voters will show up to the polls. And of the 3 to 4,000 show up at the polls, you what 100 tops will will attend this. So, you know, we do what we can, but >> um but we hope is that the people who do come and tell their neighbors, you know, people from the PTA will come and there'll be discussions in parking lot when people are dropping
028kids off and you know, but >> there will also be a a newsletter that goes out that will be a separate newsletter from the budget newsletter which will also go out on its >> but that that newsletter always goes out let's say 7 to 12 days before the vote. the budget newsletter. >> Yeah, the budget newsletter. Unfortunately, and then that's when we've heard too many times from community members, why am I just getting this information now? Although we know we it wasn't just now, right? >> Yeah, we advance. We spoke this morning about targeting early April for a capital project newsletter to go out to hit voters mailboxes ahead of that budget letter so they have a little more time to become aware of what >> it sounds like it's a little moot for this
029conversation but I think that this like um takes me back to the board meeting on Tuesday and the conversation about how decisions are being made um in in these kind of things and the fact that um this is sounds like it's already finalized and possibly printed and going out early next week. Karen is on the finance and facilities committee. Todd was on the finance and facilities committee and it sounds like neither of you were in >> Oh, no. I was aware that the communication team I was aware >> were you included like it sounds like >> I I didn't need to be included in every step and I respect um what was already decided because the communication team I know I and I know I've spoken to um Garrett about Caroline and I was just
030voicing it here. Um the thing is there because I I don't agree that it should be at every board meeting at all because discussions need to happen among staff and >> and Tetrate Tech and everyone else involved with this and and we have our monthly OACM meetings which >> come up these discussion points come up. But I want to go back to like um us making sure that the 2026 annual budget vote. I know it's two separate where we're voting on the budget vote is operations funding and then we have the capital project but I think we need to alert people that May 19th is one in the same date for all of this to happen. >> Okay. >> So I I'm with us just saying um tax neutral project and all do they remember
031that that's going to be the budget vote. there's going to be multiple propositions and as well as that's going to be schoolboard election so that um when it comes to the point of like yeah we won't see all of these individuals out but we have the information but this postcard hopefully will linger in their homes for some time and then when they do get the newsletter a few months later they'll say aha I remember this date good also Yeah, and that's a good point. So, we'll we'll talk about that at communications to see what opportunities we have to let folks know, hey, this this date, which if I'm understanding your one of your points, this date is not only for the the capital project vote, but it is also for these other things, the budget
032vote and the election the board elections as well. >> So, just to raise people's awareness that it's all on the same date. So again, I just I want to make sure that I under like this sounds like it's one of the few things that's being mailed out ahead of all of the votes that are happening on May 19th. And you're Karen bringing up some like really important points about some things that could have been considered or phrased differently or information. So I'm just trying to understand like process-wise h how that how that feedback could have been perceived possibly earlier than after it was made their decisions. Emily, all I can say is that's why I emailed the entire board on January 15th and said we'd be meeting this morning to finalize these things >> and
033and there's been discussion around this and this is why we're bringing it to committee. It's not going out tomorrow. It's not going to be mailed. >> Well, I guess that's the question. Is there time to make adjustments or is it already finalized? Um, I would check with with Casey and Katie to see exactly where the printing stands because district folks handle that. >> I think they are sending it out. >> Sending it but hasn't sent it yet. >> We haven't. >> They have not. We have not sent it. >> No. >> Yeah. Um, >> communication staff, board representation, superintendent have reviewed this before it goes out. >> Sorry, I'm I'm sorry. >> District staff, communication staff, >> board representation, superintendent have reviewed this before it goes out. So, we >> board member, not board representation.
034>> Well, for the finance and facilities committee, Garrett is our chair, >> right? But that's not like representation of the board. >> Well, the board doesn't really have to approve. >> Okay. Yeah. No, I mean, maybe not. That's a little bit of but either way >> we shouldn't say that it was like >> because just like for instance the news the mailer that goes out in May >> it's after we've um accepted the budget that all of that information is on the mail. We the board don't approve. >> Yeah. No, I just want to So I just want to make sure the language is correct. If we don't like it's it doesn't sound like we would or do approve, but I want to make sure that the language is reflecting who did approve it which
035is it sounds like leadership like the district which is great which is fine but not the board. >> So let me just back up. I mean look we have nine members of the board and we delegate responsibility. So you know the facilities and finance committee sort of takes the lead on this. >> Within facilities and finance we break down we have an OAC meeting and all members of that committee are invited to the OACMs is the whole board. We discuss this at the OACM meeting. we get broad agreement on it. And then there's the kind of nuts and bolts of, you know, does the postcard have the QR code in the top right or the top left? That's mostly deferred to the communications team, but I do kind of sit in on those conversations. I
036sat on them last January 15th. I sent the whole board an update and said that the following meeting would be February 12th, which is today, and that's where we are. So the postcard has been printed that I was not I thought it was going to be printed a little later but last time we met they didn't know exactly what was the backup time I shouldn't say the the lead time to print so there was a goal you know to have it ready but then when you go to the print shop there's the things about how long it takes to get for it so forth the postcard has not been sent it does not need to be sent it can be reprinted um it's not a big expense >> right but it is ready to go
037you know if there's big objection. We can pull it. >> Yes. >> But I was going to be clear that there's kind of a chicken in the egg thing here, which is the board has not approved the bond measure. I mean, you know, if we want to give the public advanced notice, we have to work backwards and have these documents in place and start the communication process in parallel with the board approving, you know, so the board could decide what is it March whatever what not to do the bond measure at all which case we would have, you know, wasted the postcards and maybe had some wasted meetings, but we just can't do it all linearly. Some things have to be done in parallel tracks. >> Absolutely. Yeah. >> But, you know, I just would
038say that there's there's no You know, we we we delegate responsibilities and try to update and the facilities and finance committee is aware of this. Was that OCM? >> Karen, just let them sound entirely aware of speak. >> So Karen is okay with this. Karen made her comments as long as we can say whatever make any changes on the QR code. So now that I know that it's gone to print and we've had discussion because Karen can definitely speak for herself. So let Karen always speak for herself. >> Thank you very much. >> So I'm I'm quite okay with this. I've made my given my feedback. I know that I've given feedback to Garrett via email previously too. So um yeah this yeah I'm seeing the the um postcard but I've given my comments and
039I welcome the beauty about online is that we can make updates periodically to the QR code and online information >> and I say that that was the design. So like I said the original this is going back to the the update I sent to the board on January 15th. The original postcard had a lot more information and the decision was made to minimize the information on the postcard beyond the time and time and place of the meetings and put all the information on the QR code for the very reason we're discussing so that adjustments can be made. Uh but so the one thing we're locked into here should we you send this is those time and dates and locations. There are also other opportunities for individual PTA meetings and and things that happen sort of
040as a normal course um updates, you know, on a more granular level. And so some of the materials like the newsletter that's being developed >> um can is um being designed to be able to be used in a lot of different formats so that building leadership understands clearly what's happening. You could use that as a resource for, like I said, PTA or athletics meetings or specialty, you know, sort of groups um that the district can decide to uh to show up to in whatever location you'd like whenever. And you've got those resources available to you so you're speaking consistently uh about the message, you know, for the capital project. That's overarching uh goal and strategy that we're trying to trying to always keep in mind as we're developing the few pieces of information. >> Can
041I ask pivot slightly a slight pivot? Um just a just a I just want to make sure I understand one aspect that I maybe ask questions about I guess about the tax neutral. Um, okay. So, we borrow the money for the capital project from the bond market, but then we service the debt on the money that we borrow and that comes that's the 7% annual basically that we keep consistent that comes out of the budget. So, I mean I just so just as a I mean I understand like it it does make sense to call it tax neutral. I I don't disagree with that. If somebody is asking questions about it, we end up borrowing getting the voters to approve the budget which includes as part of the budget the 7% payback. So in a
042certain sense while it is separate, it's also connected because people are agreeing to pay that back. >> Yes. >> The the other Okay. And this is a little bit for me too just so that when people ask questions I'll be able to not mistakes. The other part that I had one question about is the state aid that we get the 50 it's like 58% I think on the dollar. Um when does that get applied? Like so when we borrow money from the bond market when are we reimbursed from do we borrow 58% less because the state pays us or when we pay it back 58% of the payback comes from the state. How does that >> Dom can speak to this more in a more detailed way um >> in a real form when projects
043are completed when or significantly we submit a form that says project has been significantly completed and once we submit that form to SED then we received the back. >> So when for renovations that occurs over a 15-year period and that's basically revenue for the district. >> Correct. Yeah. >> Okay. So when we're paying back the 7% with that debt service, that sort of has the 58% refund baked into the cake. It's not like we're paying it in and getting a check back. It just never gets paid. We just pay less in a certain sense. >> Is that >> um let me there's a meeting last year where Ben from Fiscal Advisors I mean it's it's it's a lot but if you go back last year he has one of these things where he presents this
044massive massive spreadsheet. I think I was >> it's like a wow kind of spreadsheet but boil it down what you're right. >> Okay. I just I'm only asking because because people might say like oh like how does you know it's like sometimes people do ask more complicated questions like on the street so they say how does this work exactly? Why are they saying that it's separate and I just want to be able to explain the relationship and that it is it is connected but it is also separate. >> Yeah. No, that's a good that's a good point. One other thing I think to say if someone is trying to understand it better is that although the voters are authorizing up to an amount to borrow, the district does not go out and borrow that on
045day one, >> right? >> You borrow it only when you need to. Like, okay, we're going to do this chunk. We only need 5 million, so we're only going to borrow that. So, we're not paying interest on the whole, you know? So you do it in um in phases and your again your your financial consultant helps you manage that. >> Okay, that makes sense. Thank you. >> Good question. >> All right. uh do a if if we're good, can we do a brief uh construction update and the other items? >> Yeah. >> Certainly. Uh construction update. Uh again, um my name is Travis Randle. I work for campus construction management uh group. Uh it's the uh uh Ithaca's uh construction manager representing uh the ongoing construction. So I just have uh uh some brief slides
046just kind of general photos to familiarize uh people with the updates to the project that have happened in the last month just kind of changes that we've seen. So, uh, going to start right out. These first photos are the high school, uh, STEM editions. You can see, uh, this is, uh, new addition, a brick facade that's ongoing. You can see part of it still wrapped in plastic. That's to retain heat while the, uh, mortars curing. Yeah. Couple similar photos. Uh you can see these exterior wall assemblies call them block and brick insulated wall assemblies are nearing completion. The exception of you can see uh up top the infill that's kind of just rough kind of wood and uh plastic framing just to kind of enclose it and keep the weather out. Uh is where windows
047will be. Uh the windows uh will be starting to be installed. uh very shortly. So, couple photos and then kind of the other side of the condition. Again, the end still wrapped in plastic. The brick is actually installed in these locations. It's just uh kind of has uh protective uh uh you know encapsulation around it to just to kind of hold in heat. So, a lot of good progress uh there. Now, this is kind of coming right in to those additions. You can see um there's some painting going on the interior walls. You can kind of get the feel from these uh areas that they're kind of uh this is I believe in the the auto shop area. So, it's a it's very kind of stem oriented uh space. Have one. The ceilings again open
048ceilings. Apologize. This photo was slightly disorienting looking up at the ceiling. So, just a solid white painted ceiling. All the mechanicals exposed. Uh this next photo is inside of one of the the actual classrooms in the STEM. This will be like a computer type classroom. This is actually this one particular one is room E17. uh see kind of concrete polished uh polished concrete floors uh for the flooring which is kind of in progress here. See they have some case work up on the on the walls. There's also going to be case work down the middle of the floor and lower attached to the walls. Um you can see the uh multitude of kind of openings in the walls for data and power outlets. So, uh, this is the STEM, uh, toilet room. I apologize for
049the the dark. The lights were not on at the time. Not complete. So, we're still working here. Uh, this is inside the the uh the toilet room, bathroom in the stem area. Uh, you can see we're very deliberate with epoxy floors that in this photo, they're still kind of curing. Uh we went with epoxy floors because the the grout in a lot of the other bathrooms becomes a maintenance challenge. So we went with epoxy here. Um if kind of a crimson Ithaca kind of red color. So and that's what I have for update photos. Are there any questions about the active construction that's going on? making a lot of good progress uh now that we have the buildings kind of the additions mainly enclosed to allow us to continue to work through this cold weather
050and winter. >> I'm an alarm. >> It is. Yes. >> Door safety. >> The highlight. >> Yeah. Sorry. >> Save the best for last. Here we go. >> Yeah. I'm gonna go really quick through this. Okay. >> Oh, no. No. Please like drill down. >> I'm going to be very quick. So, um so um I know some questions were brought up at the safety hearing. So, uh, where we started to do a deep dive in, uh, some of the questions that came up were, um, some of our doors are propped open and are left open and we have an alarm system throughout of our all of our buildings that notifies us when this happens. So, right now, what right now throughout all all our buildings, uh, we have exterior and interior doors, and after 90
051seconds of being propped open, we get an alarm, uh, triggers an alarm. The alarm goes the principal, assistant principal, uh, front office. Okay. And then each principal gets a a a daily summary. But in investigating this, we realized that so what we decided to do is attack this by looking at each building specifically. So, for example, we pulled BJM up and this you see uh the map is of the first floor and in the week that you see we had 85 alarms. But if you do a deeper dive into the data um you'll see that we're getting multiple alarms on doors that maybe we shouldn't be monitoring. So, for example, if you've been into BJM, you can see is there a pointer on this? Okay. All right. So this is the front door of BJM,
052but there's once you get in through this front door, there's a greeter station right here. Okay. So we're getting a lot of alarms on the secondary door, which actually, you know, you we have 14 alarms in one week. And this isn't really a safety issue for us because we already have a person here. Additionally, behind the greeter, uh, for some reason, we have, um, a half door. Um, and that's that's going off at 23 23 times during the week. So, when we we started to do a deeper dive into the buildings, we realized that some of the alarms we're getting um, aren't really um, safety concerns. We just have to do a deeper dive and work with the building principles and be really thoughtful and careful about which doors we're we're picking. So, um, so
053we're gonna meet with Miss Little and this is just, um, I'm gonna go fast through this. So, we have some ideas that we're going to try and pilot at BJM. Um, instead of the 90 second threshold, we're going to do a five minute threshold for the doors. Um, we think 90 seconds is probably too short. Uh, especially if people are holding doors. If you've been to any of our elementary schools like BJM, in the morning there's an adult who's holding the door for people. 90 seconds is probably too short, especially for um dismissal and for uh the beginning of school. We're also the way that principles get alarms. It's it's not really um fantastic. It's it's an email. It can be buried. So, we're going to look at uh text messaging building administrators so it'll
054be easy for them on the job to to get these alarms. We're going to also meet with them and make sure that we've alarmed the doors that they want as well as um there's some interesting issues. Uh we want to focus on exterior doors and not interior doors. Like a good example would be Itha High School. Um we have um a bank of doors to get into the courtyard which secures the court which secures the courtyard but um uh we have alarm the cafeteria door that everybody has to come in and that probably gives us a lot of false readings as well. And if we define that more as an interior door um and pri prioritize more on the exterior doors um I think we can focus on we can focus better on where our
055safety issues are basically. So that's it. That's about as fast as I can't get through doors. Any questions? >> So when we um had the safety plan public hearing earlier this year um we had someone at public comment that was specifically talking about the high school. >> Yeah. So, have we investigated all of the door openings at the high school? >> We we started to um looking at um a lot of those courtyard doors um being propped. Um we also are looking at uh times. So, and um uh you know, Parker helped out with this too. We need to look at the timing of the alarms and make sure we're not just capturing all the alarms on the weekends and um after school times, but we are going to do a deeper dive after we
056do after we try out some things at BGM about if the high school will be next for us. I think we just didn't want to take on uh a number of campuses. We wanted to be whims little uh learn from what we could do differently at BGM and then take it to a bigger campus. And the high school's our biggest campus. Yeah. >> Even the text message part. Are you that's only at BJM to start to see how it works or that's more >> uh I mean it's I think it's as fast as technology I think as fast as our technology can >> make it happen. Yeah. I mean I'm happy. >> Um we're answering your own question. I am answering the wrong question. I >> um for updating with the phones for uh principles,
057we're going to work one school at a time and meet with them and figure out who we should be setting up with those uh text alerts. >> Okay. >> And what are the right times that they're going to be getting those text alerts? >> But that's going to happen across the board in tandem with doing like testing at BJM or >> Yes. I'm just asking because that means that before you figure out like like looking at what was happening at BJM with a couple of those doors that means that in the other schools where you haven't like evaluated it yet they might suddenly be getting 23 text messages an hour instead of like trying that after you've kind of >> limited changed the to the five minutes. >> Yeah, the five minutes is going to
058be huge. We >> Yes, >> cuz at South Hill there has been some adjustments to the timing and we've seen uh a lot fewer alarms. Correct. >> Yeah. And more paying attention to the arms as well. >> Um but um I'm happy to meet with technology to see how fast we can speed up text notification. >> Well, I was suggesting I I'm not suggesting anything. I'm thinking about the opposite because I'm I'm thinking that once you lengthen the time and that therefore reduce the unneeded that would also reduce the unneeded text messages that people would be like would be getting. And so or if you do the text messages before and at a place like the high school where it might be like I don't know are they suddenly going to be getting like just
059blown up with text messages with this? So, you think it could be a lot better with the five minutes? >> We we I don't think >> But you're just doing the five minutes at BJM first. >> We're We're I think we want to I think we want to see um how we can roll this out to other schools first um before we start changing things. I mean, I I also don't think what you're suggesting would be that hard also. Um I I think we could scale this up pretty quickly. Um, >> a lot of it is just planning on meeting with technology with uh each building's administration >> and and and the way they get the alerts now is completely inefficient. >> Yeah. >> System. It's um I mean I guess an example might be
060high school administration Parker. How many emails would high school administration get right now to notify them about 90 seconds per door? Uh so we do have the data for every building. We just wanted a good presentable format. Um for this span of weeks it was 2,300 alerts. >> Right. So those would all become text messages and until you dealt with the five minute thing. >> I don't think we want to do the text me. I mean we could do it either way. We could do changing it to five minutes and seeing how text message how many text messages they get or we could we could just experiment by just turning it over to text messages right now. But I think be but honestly um just looking at the high school doors uh initially there's a
061lot of doors that we shouldn't we we don't need to be paying attention to in an in in a locked courtyard. we we don't need to pay attention to 20 or 30 ex, you know, interior doors. That makes sense. >> So, that's my other question. I guess when you're uh when you're talking about safety, there's like these doors don't need to be locked at all because they're >> just No, I think like in general, if you're thinking about doors in a building, there's some doors that never need to be locked. Like some interior doors that are never locked. There's some that it sounds like you're talking about setting at five and then some that would remain at 90. So my question is does that mean that there's like three levels of safety or or is
062the five minute thing really like should we have a should there be a time on there at all? Does that make sense? >> Um because that sounds like it it is >> I think we need some threshold. I'm thinking about there's a lot some of these doors um like when I was the principal of Bel Sherman if you know the back of Bel Sherman there's a kickball court and there's a back entryway and a lot of the community comes from the back of the building so they don't have to go all the way around the because it's inconvenient and your your child will be later to class. So um so we had uh we'd always have a person um like the example that I shared at BGM when there's a person by the door that
063is a very very safe situation. >> Okay. >> Um so I think um >> middle middle ground. >> Yeah. I think there's yes there's some middle ground and um um and I've talked to IPD about this when we do our safety drills. As long as there's an adult watching everybody come in, it's a very safe situation. That's why when we looked at the BJM greeter station here, I said, "Uh, I just passed it right here." Yeah. Like if you had So, so right here, there's a greeter here. They've already got they've already been buzzed in on the secure door. This isn't this this isn't needed. Now, this is a great example because almost all of our buildings have a secondary door. And I'm pretty sure that in in almost all the buildings, this the second
064the second door is being propped open. So, and in this case, it's so that families can get into class, but then there's a family meeting room right here. If you know BJM, um they're holding this door open so meetings can happen here with families. So, I I think um I think five five minutes though is a good kind of middle ground, if you will. Um and then we can change it too if it's not if if we feel like we we if we feel it's um not safe enough, we could we can lower the threshold. Does that make sense? >> Yeah. >> And just to note, um that door at BJM technically is not being propped open. there's an individual holding the door, right? Because the person at the entrance can buzz people in >>
065and it's usually a staff member that's around there holding the door. >> Good point. Actually, you can buzz people in on both doors, >> right? >> Yeah. So, this is this is probably the most secure. All of our elementary schools have double doors. Yeah. And schools. >> And the middle schools, of course. Yes. Sorry. Now, when when I think of propped open, I think of like um doors I've seen at the high school sometimes where someone's put in something, a chair or something to hold and an adult is not present, >> right? >> And they said, "Oh, come on to this meeting. The door will be open." So, >> that's a safety issue. >> That's what we're trying to prevent against. Yes. >> Chris, you want to jump in? >> Just Yeah. When when we
066designed the entrances for security with two doors, um Dan mentioned that both doors are equipped with buzzers, so you have control over those. >> Um but we did too knowing that sometimes a building will operate their building with these in these indoor doors open all the time because you know you have large groups of students coming in and out certain times of day. You can close them if you want. If you're having an event, yeah, you're going to probably prop those open on the on the hold openings, right? So, if you're then monitoring all those things and thinking that's a problem, that's that's kind of I think what Dan is is speaking to here. So, I'm going to maybe suggest that uh if we want to have sort of further details back about this, maybe
067we take that offline. Okay. Uh and and not not in the >> chat. just just not it's not here. Uh and u we then turn to the presentation. >> Oh, sure. >> Uh thanks all of you. >> Thank you. >> Yeah. Thank you. >> Yeah. Thanks. Appreciate it. You were good. Wait 90 seconds. Five minutes. >> Good evening. >> This should actually really be quite brief. Uh before I begin though, I was I was hoping uh Shike would be here because I I wanted to point out that today we um we were able to facilitate the payroll back pay for ITA and I wanted to just mention both HR and the business office team uh for facilitating such a smooth process. It went very well today uh and they deserve all the credit for for
068that process. So want to mention that >> that went back in September. >> Pardon? >> That was back to the beginning of the year. >> Yeah. >> July. Yeah, July >> and they coordinated the whole process. It really was impressive. They did a great job. So, y >> uh so some great news. I just wanted to mention that we've the preliminary figures from state aid are out. Uh and as you know, these can change a little bit and they tend to change in our favor when we get the final figures, but I thought I'd share these with you. Um I I great news is that our projections, we projected about a 3% increase in foundation. It came in at 3.81%. So it's a little bit better about a million dollar increase over what we anticipated.
069So that that's great news. The the expense based aid those are literally based on our expenses. So we anticipate some some changes there. The largest increase was like OC that increased by 22%. And that's predicated on the expenses from the previous year. So again something that we would anticipate overall. uh transportation aid, slight increase there in building aid. And we just had that whole conversation about uh how that works. So again, that's that's based on the uh previous expenses and and the project that we're currently in now. Uh slight decrease there. And again, we had a slight decrease yet last year, but again, that that could change as we uh submit for aid. Um our instructional materials aid and so on. Again, slight decrease. That's usually on a perutal basis that we see that those
070changes. So if there's a a decrease in our uh overall uh student count, we might see fluctuation there. Again, a minor decrease overall, but our total state increase is 5%. So again, uh much bit larger than what we anticipate. Great news overall. >> Now, this is going to go up where other discussion on today's >> Yeah, this board docs. So we're kind of it will not be in board docs for this meeting but we are going to present this at the larger board meeting. >> Just kind of giving you a heads up. So uh before we get there this is generally where we are >> and we have preliminary tax cap figures and again before I start this is just our calculation uh for what the tax cap is. It certainly isn't the levy. That's
071something for would have to have discussions over and of course the public would vote on down the road. I want to give folks an understanding of where we are. Uh the current tax levy for 2526 as you know was 3 3.7 the levy was 150 million. The cap that we went to last year was 3.76 and we did go to the cap last year. Uh this year's figure the calculation is looking at 119 million overall and the cap was calculated at 4.26%. That doesn't mean we'll go there, but that is the calculated cap that we could go to. So that's where we are at this point. >> Okay. So although these are preliminary >> preliminary >> slides, will the whole board get a copy before? >> They will that we're going to discuss. Okay. >>
072Absolutely. >> Yes. >> I'm so sorry. Don't >> be sorry. was a long day for any questions regarding either state aid or the tax cap. >> Well, that's no fun. >> Other than that, this is where we are at this point. And so what we're going through now is we just finished up the uh meetings with various stakeholders regarding their particular budgets and buildings and uh district leaders and so on. So we we will have preliminary budget figures fairly soon. Probably I would anticipate by the next finance facilities and finance meeting we'll be able to uh share some of that information with you. >> That's really all we had. goes through the other stuff already. >> That depends on what you need by consideration of accounts. >> Didn't do consideration accounts. We had wait for
073your >> and I'm I'm flying live here because I left my phone in the other room and I can't get to my computer. So, >> can I just ask a question? So, is this 6.1 budget review or we're going into consideration? >> Correct. Yes. >> This was like a preliminary, correct? >> And now, so for the prior budget review, um you said that um we've gone to different um groups within the district and sometimes we've had in the past like groups come and do a share out. >> Are we going to have that? >> We're having those discuss. So that's a great topic of discussion. I something that we've done in the past and I'd like to get your feedback. Um, I think our what we anticipated doing this year was having them talk about
074their programs with the board, uh, and sharing some of their desires for changes, what they've done in the past, and that we would share the financial aspects of it. But, um, we're happy to do that any way that you see fit. >> Sorry, just what do you what does that mean? >> No. um like different heads of groups like um fine arts or athletic different teams um different department heads would come and share out >> yes >> what um changes in the budget how it would impact them if it was a negative change on their end >> right we did that last year >> right they've asked that we we share the financial aspects of it but they want to share what they're doing and so on so we're fine with that if you are
075>> you're trying to find something on my laptop. Good luck. >> I'm trying to find the agenda so I can see the treasures reporting. >> Oh, >> I mean I can I can globally I can't left my phone down in my office to my computer. Um but I can I can uh when you guys are ready I can review the consideration of accounts. >> Maybe what we could scribble just you know maybe could kind of flag or highlight the anything that we should pay special attention to. I know a lot of this is pro for and same every month. So know we don't need to go through everything for >> sure >> but anything that is out of the ordinary maybe. >> Okay. Um, so the treasurer's reports just real quick, you'll see a lot
076more investing going on because it was November and December that we captured. Um, most of the investments again are just the uh, NYAF um, some Cedar, some CDs. Um, and I'm not exactly sure of the interest rates, but I think they were like three and a half to 4%, maybe a little over 4%. We tried to lock in as high as we could. Um, so that's really taxes are done, so the money's invested going forward. Uh, the food service, we have the profit and loss statements. Those are pretty much self-explanatory and where we are today. Um, the there's a very small amount on the 10 10,000 uh for the transfers. You'll probably see a little bit larger one next month because um it'll encompass a little bit more time um because this was as of
077the last meeting that we um didn't do. uh the disposal surplus property, some instruments that we repurposed a lot of the parts uh from the I think it was a violin. No, it was just one violin and it was instrument stands that were rusty. Those are going to be disposed of. Um and then a really old CB, but it was on the assets so we had to have to dispose of it. Um okay. So then we have some uh appropriations of some we received um $1,850 in various donations for the community closet which was very nice for both high school and Boon. Um we received another uh oh the KDT discover the trail. So those are the big chunks of money that we get from donated from the IPI and the kids discover the trail.
078um I guess group or foundation or whatever and it supports a lot of the uh Boseies enrichment that we do across the school. So these are the two big donations that you see annually at this time of year and it's it's really quite nice that they um donate this money to us. Um we have Park Foundation. We have a new um grant that came in from the park foundation to support the equitable edible farm and that's a continuation I believe of the Enfield Farmtotable program and I believe the amount is not written on this but I believe it was 15,000 off the top of my head. Uh we have some appropriations of our title one grant that was finally um approved by the state title 2A grant and the title 4 grants and these are
079typical grants that we get annually every year. We'll have a few more grants coming forward next finance meeting um that are in the process of being approved and almost there. And then I believe the last thing and I'm not really be able to speak about this is the quotes for the capital outlay for the uh Kuga Heights Elementary School. So those were added on. Maybe you know you guys might know more about that than I do. >> It's a gym floor. >> And then and the second phase of that is the some work around the doors, >> right? Yeah. But the gym floor is is the first phase. Yeah. >> And that that includes the the b the pads around the gym as well. >> Any questions? >> I I want to take words out
080of your mouth. Usually at this point you think IPI Park Foundation. >> Uh yes. Karen has better manners than me. So usually she has to remind me to think these external routes. But I'm going to remind myself >> you did a good job. >> Well, and also the various people that donated to the community and they are listed. So that that was a very nice thing to see. >> But other than that, pretty much the basics. >> Okay. My last comment is >> my colleagues. Okay. My last comment as we're watching the bet rate for our investments, paying close attention to that. So be picking your brain soon to hop >> any more cuts. >> Exactly. >> Right. >> I never thought I would say this, but we shouldn't talk about politics. Maybe. >> Right.
081Right. Right. >> Right. I mean, >> when when did the Federal Reserve rate become politics? >> Yes. Oh, wow. >> It is now. Uh, all right. >> Or or the governor's budget. >> Yes. >> For sure. >> Sure. >> The impact. >> Well, it may have an impact on our prek and our grants in a >> I think in a positive way. >> So, yes, I believe so. >> That we will be affected impacted nicely. Right. >> Because it's never us. >> Right. Right. Right. So, >> so is there Adam here? >> Just the next meeting. >> The next meeting will be next month. Um >> 17th um very good. Well, thank you very much everyone. So, we will adjourn at 6:13. >> Very good. Thank you. >> Thank you. I'll make sure I go
082plan another doctor's appointment in Portland with the