001We have three members of the finance and facilities committees but it seems I'm the only one uh here. So I think I said at the moment I committee >> you are it. >> Uh so others involve with the agenda. So first we're up with public comment. I understand we have one person signed up. >> Is there anyone else? >> That's it. All right. So second I thought I was going to be [clears throat] >> Yeah. I almost told you this, but I >> Well, um I'm glad you're here because I'm Nancy Braun and I'm a kindergarten teacher at Caroline and I just came tonight to give some thank yous and shout outs to some folks at facilities. Um so I glad to have more than one board member hear it. Um, so I want to
002thank our new custodian, Mr. Gerard, Mr. G, for just stepping in uh at Caroline. He's been fantastic, so professional, so kind, so fun and wonderful to work with, so helpful and supportive, and our classrooms are super clean and um functional. Um, and I also want to give a shout out to Mr. Ron who has um been our custodian for a couple of years now and we are um we are at I think two and a half years where we're down one of our three custodians and so um Ron has been shouldering a lot of that for for uh for that time and thank you to him. Um and so we've got a a great new team. We're not at 100% yet, but we're just um it's just it's been wonderful. Uh it's been a great
003start to the year. Um and today I was at over at Hancock and I got to see Emily with facilities and she has been amazing this year. um she has set me up with the whole u digital platform and I feel like our our facilities department is making me it feels like it's coming into the 21st century where I can actually check on work orders and see the progress of things. That's been fantastic and she's been super helpful with that. um and Shawn at facilities. Um I met him in August when I had a really complex set of needs uh moving into a classroom that hadn't been used in over a year and needed new blinds, needed a complicated air conditioner setup, needed electrical, plumbing, all this stuff. And I think I have had more
004work orders processed and taken care of in the last couple months than in my previous 10 years at ICSD. So, it's just it's been so phenomenal and I can't say enough good things. And um lastly, I just want to say thank you Ryman for also helping with my classroom setup um of getting the new shelves that we were missing and they are now up and assembled and functioning and kids are enjoying their toys. So, thank you for being all things facilities as well as all things. >> Thank you for your service. >> Is there another Okay. Uh committee response. >> I just appreciate you. Appreciate that. Appreciate that. Thank you for acknowledging that. >> Yeah. Thank you for coming and sharing that with us. Um it's it's it's rare but appreciated when we have positive
005feedback and uh at the note in the calendar here today when there was zero >> positive feedback. So uh and I I guess so it's it's great to hear about the support uh you're getting and the the hard work [clears throat] of staff members you pointed out. Uh just two comments. One is that we have I think across board at the district tried to move to systems where requests are made ticketed timestamped and then status updates and then we can look back and and examine metrics and say how fast we get back to people things like that. So I think you know from HR and facilities across the board processes as opposed to phone calls and emails that get forgotten or dropped I think is the way to go. So that's great to hear. Uh,
006and I'm looking at you could maybe we just maybe just at some point maybe sort of send some of the feedback back to appropriate buildings that so that the folks who've worked hard and have been recognized can uh maybe maybe their leadership can hear that their work is appreciated. >> Yeah, I'd be happy to do that. Thank you, N. That was great. So, [laughter] >> thank you. >> Uh, moving on. Uh, minutes. Uh, I'm sure that I missed my email, but I I didn't see that they so I'm going to just said who just moved next month. >> I I didn't read it if it was there. >> Maybe it came in that got a lot of emails, but let's just move it to next month. Okay. So, then we go into uh consideration of
007accounts. So, all the four dot items. So, um looking around the room, I'm I'm guessing that there are a few faces here who have not attended a facilities and finance committee meeting. Welcome to Boston. >> Well, you picked a good Is this is this a government class? Yeah. Okay. Well, you picked a good me. Is it short? Yeah, that's >> um that that's first criteria. >> Um >> Oh, you won't be here for that long. I think you may have to come back then. >> Uh we'll sign your papers anyway. [clears throat] If it's a two-hour meeting, I'm gonna go through every line of the buzz. Love this. [laughter] >> So, I'm gonna introduce uh I'm gonna ask our finance team to introduce themselves and it in since this [clears throat] is a board of
008education, we have students here who want to know about how school districts are run. Could maybe you go through the four dot items, but maybe just say a word at the beginning like what is all this stuff and why do we do it and why do you come to the board and present these reports just so someone new might know what we're talking about? Yeah. >> Well, great. We'll start with the treasures report. >> That's right. >> Yes. >> Are you going to introduce yourself, Dominic? >> I'll wait till the end. That I'll be at the end. [laughter] >> I'll introduce myself. I'm Lori Mudge and I'm the treasurer here at the district. And I'm going to um the first one is the treasures report that we um basically combine all of our um accounts
009that we have within the district and all the revenues that come in and the dispersements that go out and that gives us our ending balance for that month. And the one um we have today is for our October of 2025. And um with this it shows that um tax um tax season started on October 1st. We started collecting all the taxes for the um and within this helps us um with the budget for the school. So we try to if we have that money try to invest it so that we have more um to offer at the you know throughout the school. So with this um we did um create um four more new CDs um with this um tax money that came in um although we tried to go reach out and get the
010best rate that we can that they are dropping um unfortunately. So I think we we did pretty good at the time that this all came in. >> Any questions or Thank you. >> So, just to add to what Lori was saying, the treasures report is something that we have to report on every month. So, we've run a little bit behind on that. Um, and it is one of there's many things that we do at the finance committee meeting that um our monthly things. So, you'll see it repeated throughout the year. And obviously the treasures report is probably hitting close to a high in our cash flow right now because of the tax season coming in and some of our aid starting to turn around. So you'll see this going down because as we get through
011the year we're paying salaries and all the expenses to run the school district. So this cash balance h you might see it a little bit higher next month but slowly you'll start seeing that go down. And at the end of the year, we're pretty much all school districts are fairly cash poor at the end of the year. They make it through the summer until they start collecting taxes again and state aid starts coming in. So, it's like cyclical. Our budget ends and our money is gone for that year. And then we do some more investments and it adds to fund balance if we have anything extra. The next thing on the agenda is the um profit and loss for the food service department. That is something that is regularly done every month. And this just
012shows what the um food service has done for the month of October. And then it does a year a year-to- date comparison to last year's year-to- date comparison. So, we can see where we're at. The one thing I'd like to point out to the committee is there is a deficit in the October. However, we did secure a uh $631,000 grant um with the FDA. as anything is with the federal government, it is a lot of red tape to go through and and start having those payments come in. And we're still working on it. And I hope I have the last hurdle um done. So, we should be seeing that come in and that's going to replace some of these expenses. So, the the expenses are there, but the revenue has not come in on that,
013which is resulting in that uh $45,000 deficit in October. So, um you'll see a change of that hopefully well in the December report because we're already through November. Um then we have things that we do um budget transfers. The board has to approve any transfers within the budget that are over $10,000. So um most of these throughout the year end up being salary settlements. So usually when we budget um we have money put into a pot for the salaries. Then as the year goes on and we're paying the teachers and certain lines are falling into a deficit. we're moving money out of that that holding tank and and making those budget lines whole. So, um but and and we do a lot of that things like moving money from contractual codes into the supply codes
014and and just trying to make the lines being in a positive. Most of it throughout the year that exceeds the 10,000 is typically salary settlement type stuff. So, um but we have to review that with the board and we get the board's approval for anything over 10,000. So, we had four this year uh or this year this month uh for a total of $167,672 of transfers that we had to do that exceeded the 10,000. The other thing we do at these meetings is we approve um any kind of donations that come into the district and are being um used for a purpose. The donor will say that they want this money to go to um support these IPI grants. IPI and based donations. So, they're always sending us money and and it's important educational um
015things that you folks do. Um so, we have to approve and we thank the donors. We had a donation from the Cornell Cooperative Extension Tomkins County. We had a couple of II grants. Um and we did have a donation to the community closet and I'm going to circle back to that in a moment on the community closet. So those are four donations I believe except by combined. So a couple of them are extra. Um then we also I don't think I introduced myself. I'll do that at the end. Um we also uh appropriate funds. So um for grants. So we have two things happening with Head Start at this meeting. Uh we have a uh resolution to have us approve a 2627 head start that for the county and that money flows through the county
016that starts in o in December for them the whole application process and part of that application process is getting the district to commit to say that yes we're going to um uh be be part of the Head Start program for next year. So we have two things happening with Head Start in this meeting. One is we're appropriating the funds for this current year Head Start program. So that's when we get the money and we have to distribute it to the budget lines and all the teachers for the preK program that the Head Start supports. Um so we're doing that and then we're also asking for um approval for us to commit to the same program for next year. So there's always it's a little confusing because it's two separate years but two items that um
017are the Head Start items. I think that was it for me and I'm Emily Shite and I'm the assistant school business executive. I work directly in the business office and oversee a lot of the business work. I work alongside Lori and um I'm Dominic is my supervisor and we I also cover the payroll supervision as well to pay folks the district. So, then I'm going to go back to the community uh closet uh because we had some donations come in for the community closet and I and these are regular donations that we get. Um and we had some last month and there was a question on what the community closet was and we invited Rachel, right? >> She was right. >> Yes, Rachel. And Rachel surprised us with a little presentation which is lovely to
018really explain what the community closet is. We didn't expect her to. She went out. She went out of Hawaii. We got live today. >> We get to limit the slides for Rachel. >> Rachel, before you start, if you don't mind. Um, first of all, I want to thank you for coming. I'm Dominic, assistant superintendent for assistant funds. I work with with an absolutely amazing team that manages our funds, 160 $169 million budget. We what they do is they manage those funds to make sure that you have the resources you need to be successful. So, I of course I want to thank Lori and Emily for doing all the work that they do and the other team that uh folks that that helped them manage that that budget. Um, with that being said, at the last
019meeting, just to give you a little information beforehand, um, we had another donation that came in for the community closet and I'm going to claim new status. I've been here about a year and I did not know what community was. So I took it upon myself to go visit and I was absolutely amazed at the work that's being done there. And so Beth Le, I want to thank you for introducing that to me and and of course the visit was um inspirational. So I asked Rachel if she would come and and kind of give us an idea of the work you do. And I I think I'm the only person in that didn't know but I I do now. But uh if you wouldn't mind sharing some of the uh the work that's been >>
020I'm absolutely happy to do that. Should I plug into the board or is it um I'm >> going here? >> Okay, great. Uh so I'm Rachel McDonald. I have been a librarian at IHS. Thank you so much. And I this beautiful there. That sounds even better. Um I've been a librarian at IHS uh for nine years. And prior to that, I was a student at Caroline. I was a student at DITIT and I graduated IHS in 2001. Uh the entire time I have been involved in the Ithaca community. I felt like this was something that was needed and we have just about 40 feet away from where we sit, we have two resources for students I'm really happy about and a lot of exciting collaborations happening within the school community. No. >> [laughter] >> Thank
021you. >> Okay, cool. We're gonna try this one more time. >> Oh, you can turn it on at the side, I guess. >> Okay. >> I'm supposed to be a tech expert. That's what librarians do. Now you're seeing the real name. All right. So, uh, the community closet is a free store. This is inspired by uh a resource I used a lot when I was in Massachusetts when I was younger. It's open to everyone. So ours in the high school is open to students. It's open for shopping during lunch. It provides clothes, shoes, and toiletries for students. And uh we average about 1,700 student visits per school year over the last three years. This project has inspired similar projects at Boon. Um I've been collaborating with them for the past two years on their community
022closet. and Enfield Elementary School also really wants what Stephen Anderson, the principal there, was at um IHS and so he knew that we could build something great at Enfield as well. Uh the community market we started in October 2023 that provides take-home food twice a week for students and once a week for staff. It's in partnership with the food bank of the southern tier. We serve an average of 700 people per month in uh this school year so far and we um get most of our food from the food bank. I think we're also supported through uh other community organizations and GreenStar just yesterday dropped off a bunch of bulb spices for us as well as $1,600 worth of food. We were one of their community partners at checkout. So Green Star members and shoppers
023donated about five uh shopping carts full of food to us which is really wonderful. So this is a way to tackle food insecurity in the community uh I think in a very impactful way that's also respectful empowering uh for the students. Okay. So the model that we have is like a free store model. I want it to look really nice. I want people to feel happy and engaged when they come in and shop. It's open to everyone. Uh students can come in as often as they need. Some students shop for their whole family. Some people come in once because they forgot deodorant or they want to find a dress for prom or they want clothing for team spirit, you know. Uh we also have a lot of clothing emergencies, probably less than you would have
024at your average elementary school, but those do happen. And we have clothes for that, too. I also really like to provide work clothes for students because if you're going to have your first job and your first paycheck goes to your work clothes, it's kind of a bummer. And we have winter gear for when it's really cold out like now. So last Friday I was at Catholic Charities getting coats so we have more coats for our students. The Fingerlakes Running Club donates uh their returns and exchanges for running shoes. So we have really nice running shoes for students to participate in gym and the dump and run also supports us which is fantastic. We get a lot of good stuff that way. Uh some of our toys and wins. The South Hill second grade team is
025going to come during Regents Week. It's their third year of doing a donation drive for us. They do an entire unit on wants versus needs. They collect toiletries. They all come down. They take a tour. I read them a story. It's really exciting to have a bunch of second grade energy in the space. It's amazing. Uh our student volunteers support the space. The top picture is students packing orders. The Buon location went live March 2025. We also started a collaboration with Caroline at that point in time where our students pack food. Caroline families order online. Our students pack food. It goes out to Caroline. Uh our BJM collaboration which is the same model went live in November 2025 and ICSB transportation is now providing support which is fantastic. So our community partners uh for here
026include GreenStar Ithaca Farmers Market was donating a bunch of local honey to us which was amazing and also Friendship Donation Network. Uh the bottom picture is when Josh Riley came to visit in May. That was really fun. It was exciting to have him here and hear what he was doing in Washington trying to help alleviate some food insecurity. So, here are some statistics because I figured the finance committee loves statistics. Uh, from November 2023 to June 2025, we distributed 62,000 pounds of food in partnership with Food Bank of the Southern Tier, we have fed 13,800 people in 3,600 duplicated households. So, there are repeats. Some people really rely on this. Uh, and this does not include this year's data. So, it also does not include BJM. So, those numbers will continue to to rise. Our
027top four product types, people love fresh produce, dairy, u meat, fish, poultry, and fruit. Our top four pro product types are things that are very hard to get from a traditional food bank, which is a bunch of cans in a in a basement. So, I'm very proud of this. I love the setup. I love that it looks like a store and I love the community support that we have gotten. The bottom picture are the bulk spices from Greenar. This is a really fun way to make inexpensive food taste really good. It's also a way to get culturally relevant food in our uh family households. So, this dstigmatizes use by being open to everyone. The food goes home with students after school. This helps working families. This helps people who lack access. Uh being from Caroline
028myself, I know that um lack of access in rural areas is really really difficult and we were really happy to also partner with BJM to solve some of those problems that happen um for those families as well. This replaces the backpack program and the families get to order and choose what they want. So this is a lot nicer for them and increasing choice and access. Uh nurturing growth. We are building community within ICSD. So besides BJM and Caroline that I already talked about, South Hill second grade is going to come visit. That's always lots of fun. Buon, we are going to collaborate with the FCS classroom and kind of develop locally focused recipes. LACS is I'm currently sending food boxes to them, but the and the students are working on a clothing closet and they
029want to set up their own community market. Enfield, we're sharing bulk spices and I'm sending them clothing and toiletries as they establish their community closet. And then Dwit Middle School is doing a food drive for us and we are also going to start sending food home to them January 2026. So I know I don't have a ton of time. I think that was everything I was here to say. >> First of all, I want to thank you so much for for doing this this evening. Um I I want to share with you that I shared this model with a couple of other districts that diverse with. Yeah. And they're very excited and you'll probably be hearing from them very soon. >> That's fantastic. I did hear from a district um north of us last year
030about starting a community closet, but their administrators were not supportive and I was I didn't really know what to say. I was like, "Oh, well, just ask your principal, find some space." And they're like, "Oh, we've done that. It doesn't work." So, I do have a lot of building support and also district level support. >> And I also want to let folks know that the donation that we received obviously going to be fair to use. So, thank you so much. >> Thank you. Appreciate that. Um, I have a one pager on it. >> It's good. >> So, we are um at the end of section four, but Dr. Le mentioned the budget presentation system. I don't see that anywhere. Are we going to do that today or we going to push that off to next
031month? Um, I think one of the things we kind of want to do is at least frequently share the calendar, the budget calendar if we'll take one minute to show the new [snorts] budget presentation model. We can do that. >> Yeah. No, it's just so I guess should have had another item I guess for >> No, we can't. We can't. We can't. just uh but I'm just going to so we're we're going to we finished consideration of accounts um as as interesting as it usually is today was especially inspiring and so I'm glad we had that you know the presentation uh so I I was aware of the community closet program but I was not aware of how extensive it was so it was eye opening for me and I don't know I I don't
032want to speak for you know I think it might be good maybe next semester we could maybe have that presentation in front of the whole board. >> Yeah, I was falling asleep during that. I I haven't fallen asleep since high school and I I was nodding off and I'm just being honest. I caught the end of it and I was like, "Oh, this is really great." So I Okay, I I would love to see it next year because I didn't. >> So anyway, so um she's she's like, "Thank you, Rachel, for coming." And uh so now we have um a word about uh budgeting schedule. >> Yeah, the budget the early budget calendar. We have >> we'll be presenting this to the board very soon just just to kind of give you a layout. A
033lot of this is driven by state mid dates and their calendar. But uh so we've already started essentially the process with our stakeholders and having those conversations. But um you can see the schedule's laid out much like it is in every year. And again, we'll be sharing this with the board. The key dates, obviously, the voting dates, the uh some of the TVD are focus areas. We don't have those scheduled yet, but uh be adding those shortly. Any questions? So, just so you know, on a yearly basis, we have a budget calendar. It's all the things that we have to do on a yearly basis. It's very cyclical. So every year it's essentially the same thing, but we put in the dates of when we have to achieve certain things in the budget. Uh so
034that New York State will tell us, well, you've got to let folks know what the taxes are going to be essentially what the tax rate is by this date. So we build our calendar based on those events and we share that with the public and the board approves that calendar. So we'll be doing that shortly. That's it. All right. Very good. The next part of this, if you wouldn't mind pulling that out. One of the things that um I wouldn't say I learned, but one of the things that I experienced last year going through the process was I was hoping to find a better way, not a better way, but another way to share the the budget and the district finances in a way that was linear, transparent, where folks could also dig in in
035in a way that provides not only the 30,000 foot view, but a way that they could also see it at a granular granular level. and where it tells a story. So, we hope to adopt an application this year. It's called budget book. Um, and it it lives on our website. And again, all of this information is already on our website. You kind of have to, you know, so if you want to see the budget, you can click here and so on and so forth. What this does is it brings it all together in in a story form in a way that folks can kind of go through and they can see the entire process from beginning to end and and kind of look at it from here's our story. These are the folks involved. Um,
036and I might have you go a couple of pages and pages you bottom the arrows. I'm using another school district right now just because they have theirs done. We're going to be building ours this year. So the executive summary just kind of is the general information about the district and the budget, how many students we have and so on and so forth. I go through this very where we are. It's just generic information. Uh who we are uh so the board of education the leadership team tells a little about us in general through the budget timeline. So that calendar I just showed you we're now part of this group. So again, the reason we're doing this is when folks ask us about our budget process, they go on the website, click one button, and see
037the whole story. Um, this is really kind of cool. It shows our budget revenues as a piraph and it will be somewhat interactive. So if you look over here, it says for them their state aid for this district, their state aid is that blue section. So it shows how much they're receiving in state aid for the school district by percentage as well. So this pigraph helps show that. This is one way to show it. It's a graphical representation. Then we'll move on and you can see where what the numbers are that that that's represented. So this is these are our expenditures. So not not ours, but these are their expenditure. shows that a graphical representation. So all of this can be found too in the in the table of contents that folks can jump to
038these specific areas just by clicking on them on the left. But we'll go ahead and forward the next page second. So that first graph that showed revenue, where it comes from, here's now the next layer of that. Breaks it down a little bit further. again, all in the same place. Um, and I won't go through this whole thing. It's it's wrong because this is their complete budget, but again, it will continue to break it down into into each level at a more granular level. Um, so we're looking forward to doing this. Um, we'll probably keep what we have now. That makes sense. We do this in parallel this year. And this is one of the ways that we'll be sharing the budget. Uh, we also were excited to find that the entire book can be
039downloaded as a PDF. Someone wants to read it. So again something questions I I think this is great >> right so uh I think we're going to wrap up the finance portion of the meeting just conclude with just two thoughts uh first is that this is a public organization our funding comes from public 75% taxpayers 25% from state and federal government. Uh so we are accountable for how that money is spent. Uh so a lot of discussion we've had here is about accountability, transparency. Every dollar in, every dollar out is in these reports and uh available to everybody. Um in that same line, Dr. Le's made some efforts to try to make our budgeting process more transparent. it's hard for a lot of people to go and look at all these tables and figures. And
040so we're trying to make it easier for people to understand where the money comes from and where the money goes. So that is our annual budgeting process. And as we move to the second portion of the meeting, which is facilities, we're going to talk about something else, which is a capital U project. And the natural question someone might ask is what's the difference between a budget and an project? And um you know maybe I'll let you know I'll let our expert just explain the difference between a budget for annual recurring expenses things like salaries and a capital project which pays for major renovations and additions to our facility. So uh let's transition the item five which is the facilities uh discussion and uh item 5.1 is a construction budget update for capital projects. And Chris,
041I want to put you on the spot, but uh Chris Ch, you could just say what a what a capital project is as we go. >> Thanks, Eric. >> My name is Chris Glowitz. I'm an architect. I work with Tetrate Tech Architects and Engineers. We are uh architects. We're engineers. And we've been working with ICSD since about 2018. and we help the school district um along with some of their staff figure out what needs to be fixed. Um you you might walk around and see some things yourself, have your own lists, I don't know. Um, we also help the school district figure out, okay, you've got a a number of things to be fixed, some things that maybe don't look like they're wrong, but you want to improve for teaching and learning and figure out
042how to get that built along with uh other partners. Um, and I'll turn it over for a second to Travis. >> Yeah. Uh, thanks. So, I'm Travis Randall. I work for Campus Construction Management Group. Uh so like Chris uh was saying we work handinhand with uh the owner uh the client in this case it's the school district and also the architect and engineer which is which is Tetrate and yeah we oversee uh all the construction uh that's necessary uh Chris's team kind of designs then we kind of oversee um a multitude of contractors that that are kind of installing that that vision. >> So to do larger capital projects, um the voters need to approve that um through a public referendum and um so there's one that's being planned and you might if you come
043back if you have another government, you know, requirement to come. You might learn more about that um in coming months. Um but so need approval um from voters. the um the school district receives about 58 cents on the dollar in reimbursement from the state of New York um to make to to pay for that stuff. Um the district then also goes out to the community to um to uh levy taxes on the community to be able to cover the rest of it along with the rest of their budget. Um so that's kind of how that gets done. We um yeah, so we're going to talk about one specifically tonight. So whenever you want to go I don't question about that. >> Okay, jump right in. Thank you. >> So >> yeah, are we doing your
044update first or we doing >> uh the agenda? We we have uh uh financial update. So I I can I can uh I don't have slides for that in particular, but I can speak to it uh certainly. So, like Chris was alluding to, the uh current uh referendum that uh we're working off of was passed by voters in 2019. It was for $120 million for renovations around the entirety of the district. Uh I think we've been in I think every building >> every school building, >> every learning. Yeah. Including transportation centers, others as well too. Um so yeah um so to date uh we just recently uh in November awarded a project the combined total of all the projects awarded to date is right around 90,000 or I'm sorry 90 million uh part of that
045part of the budget also goes to incidental costs. These are all the costs that aren't directly construction. they there's financing fees, there's permitting fees, there's uh just all everything that's not kind of brick and mortar. Uh so we have uh bunch of incidental costs. We also have contingency uh contingencies for instruction, too. Um and so just a note on that, when when we're planning capital projects, what we don't want is for the district to run out of money. So, we round up and we say, you know, here's what we're budgeting or creating a budget and we hope to come in lower than that. Um, and we regularly do uh when we're bidding projects, we don't we have to bid them out on the open market in a public way. So, we don't necessarily know um
046what that market will deliver to us for costs. Um, campus does a great job though historically of of estimating that and anticipating that, but you never know like tariffs. you've heard about tariffs, you know, that impacts material prices. So things happen sometimes that we can't anticipate and these projects take a couple years to bring to fruition. So, you know, we're we're trying to be conservative and the capital project that we're going to talk about tonight um is able to be done because we were conservative and got good bids and things came in and we've got some money left or some capacity left over to be able to spend and do another capital project. >> Perfect segue. Just like we planned, Chris planned it all. So, uh, last month, uh, uh, one of the key figures
047that we've been focusing in on as we kind of are getting closer towards, uh, the capacity of the 2019 referendum is the unallocated referendum balance. Uh, and I I modified the name slightly to take fund out. uh as you pointed G is technically not a fund. So I updated that in the monthly report. I don't know if you caught that or not, but uh at any rate, the value that uh we're reporting uh this month is uh $3,48,857. Uh that's included in the monthly report that was distributed uh uh just last Friday. So that that's uh represents a about a $600,000 increase from the previous month, which is great news. Uh, I'd also like to uh report that we're campus is uh just today I was able to line up a meeting with uh fiscal
048advisors uh the district's fiscal planner uh for next Monday and we're going to look into uh revising our for our forward forecasts and also uh digging in and and seeing uh out of our current budget numbers that we're using any other additional funds. So, we're hoping to announce uh in the coming I don't want to promise it for January, but soon that we'll be able to get uh report even additional unallocated uh balance. Can >> I ask a question of the of the audience? Just quiz time. Uh, does anybody know what the Federal Reserve did two days ago? They lowered the prime interest rate. That trickles down to folks like school districts who go out and borrow money. So, trying to tie it into like national news you might have heard about. >> Yeah, actually.
049So, there's good news and bad news on that. It means the borrowing costs can be lower for capital projects. At the same time, as you heard the treasurer um or not treasurer, Emily say, we get a lot of money coming in at the beginning of the year. Uh so folks, your parents probably pay taxes around the end of October. That money comes in and we spend it over the course of a year. So we have that float and couple years ago when interest rate interest rates were very low, there wasn't much you could do with it. Just put it in piggy bank. But now that interest rates have been higher and although starting to come down again, good news for us is our borrowing cost is lower for capital projects. The bad news is the
050the the cash that we're sitting on now that just [clears throat] came in with tax revenue. We we can't earn as much interest from that as we were able to last year. So I was it last was it like two million last [clears throat] year >> we got about $2 million of sort of extra revenue from uh investing the tax revenue in short-term investments until we needed to pay out things like staff. Anyway, sorry economist to me. >> Yeah, good. >> Yeah. >> Anything else on that? Um uh I think if unless there is any questions I think that's uh cover for financial updates. >> All right. Shall we roll into the discussion of the um capital project? >> So I say to get a recap uh in 2019 voters approved about $120 million line
051of credit. We are nearing the end of that line of credit. Uh, as uh Chris and Travis said, we budget conservatively and now we have a little bit of that line of credit remaining and uh it looks like it'll be enough to make some improvements that you might appreciate here at high school which you're about to introduce. >> Thanks. Um, getting the right one uh teed up. So, we're going to talk about we're going to talk about two things tonight. One is an update on the uh STEM suite that's on the north end of the building that you might have seen all the mud and the construction zone over there. Um the other is a proposed project that will do some work in the locker room shower areas. Yeah, you're nodding your heads because like
052you know that's like in there. >> Um so those are the two items and thanks. All right. Thank you, Trisha. Okay. So, we'll start with um the proposed capital project. Uh so, this is um proposed renovations to the the boys locker room shower areas on the left and the green and the gold. Uh the girls on the right. And up in the middle there's a what would be a non-gender specific and community oriented um area for [clears throat] showering and changing. This is um primarily to allow folks access um to the pool. There are code requirements for showers um to improve some uh accessibility to those spaces. Um, you might have heard the term ADA. The Americans with Disabilities Act was created in 1990 to allow folks with Disabilities to have access to showers and
053bathrooms and, you know, you see the ramps and all the things so folks can can use all the kind of the facilities. Um, as well there's really um aging infrastructure in there. So, um, multiple reasons why this has risen up as we have lots of discussions about, you know, what capital project, uh, work could could be within the district. So, this is zooming in on this is a little more detailed than what we saw on Tuesday evening. Uh, zooming in on the on the boys side, uh, in the gray, you see sort of those lockers. That's the big sort of locker area. Um, and then the pink area in the middle is that sort of they call it a drying area, but it's just sort of that open tiled area. Um, and then you can
054sort of go down that little hallway and there's that back open shower area. Um, so that pink area we're suggesting would be renovated to turn into storage. The blue area on the top left there is the basically the existing bathrooms. We were suggesting that that would be renovated to um change out the fixtures, redo the tile, things like that. Also make those facilities handicap accessible, so compliant with the current accessibility code. Then the green area near the bottom is where uh I think there are a couple couple stalls down there sort of on the right hand side of the floor plan um and an open shower area on the left. And then you sort of do that zigzag and then you go into the niatorum. the nuditorium being the room in which the pool sits.
055Um so that's a little more specifics about the areas and what we think they would turn into. Um the goal is to provide four private showers. So like a shower with at least a curtain on it um on on both the boys and girls sides. So we'll look at the girl side in a moment. Um, and then also seek um, as we as we really figure out the nitty-gritty of that layout in the design process, seek to incorporate some open shower nozzles, kind of like the ones that are there, um, as we can for like the swim team that, you know, probably wants to get a dozen or 20 people kind of showered off quickly and into the pool for practice. Um, so that's the the idea there. One of the other things as we
056do this is to fix a plumbing problem that um was discovered that uh basically the plumbing is sort of interconnected in a way that's that's not so good. That's combining the sanitary sewer with storm water. So stuff that comes down the the roof drains that's a storm water system should be a different pipe than the sanitary sewer which is sinks and toilets different pipe. We want them different. they're sort of crossing over and that's not good. So, we'll be fixing that as we do this work as well. Okay. Um, going over to the girl side, it's a different layout, but the same kind of thing. Um, the pink area. I'll start with that. Um there's that open shower room that we'll see some pictures in a second here that is already essentially being used for
057storage, but um we would renovate that space to um remove I don't think any of the showers are actually leaking in that specific space, but they're you know some are leaking in other spaces. Um, but so to kind of deal with the plumbing in a way that it's not a liability, uh, turn that into storage space that it'll probably be for athletics. Um, and you'll see that there are uniforms, all kinds of other stuff being stored in there right now. Um, the green area would be renovated similarly to be showers. So, in the lower kind of part of that green area, uh, there are four existing shower stalls. None of them is ADA compliant. Uh so we would renovate those as needed and we haven't you know figured out exactly the layout yet. Maybe we
058would keep some the size that they are and maybe just uh fixed finishes. We may demolish one or two to create a larger handicap accessible stall. Um as well as using the upper green the upper area in the green um which is sort of that next showering room that you use to enter the pool. Um then the blue area. So there are four toilets uh toilets and sinks sort of down there below. We understand that you know there's sometimes a backup for those and you know the the need for teams coming in and lots of folks at once needing to to use the bathroom suggests increasing the number of toilet fixtures. So we would use some space in that other blue rectangle to the right uh to add some more spaces that would be handicap
059accessible. So, it's a little more detailed about how we think we would use the space. Once we enter into the design process, we would, you know, get into the nitty-gritty of like exactly what is the layout, you know, what what can we salvage, what do we need to rip out, uh that sort of thing. There is a third non- genderneutral showering uh spot up in the that sort of center of the top of the plan. This can be used for community use. Um, it can be used when you have uh for like family use, when you have the swim clinics that you've done in the past. Um, and obviously uh genderneutral uh facilities that you've provided in other areas of the building for students that feel more comfortable in that setting. Uh we're suggesting that
060there could be two private stalls created in this existing open shower area and renovating the the blue area which is the current bathroom. it would probably turn into just one toilet. So, it's ADA accessible um for that for that location. Couple pictures. So, this is inside. You all probably know it. We've probably everyone has seen these pictures already. Um we see the storage in the middle. We see on the the bottom in the middle there the individual shower stalls. That's on the girls side. Um the building is settling over years. This historically this area was was a swamp. So uh the the soils are not um the best. So in the uh the last 65 years since this was built, the building has settled a bit. Um so improving at least the finishes in that
061space. Um is something that we'd recommend. That's not a structural concern to us at the moment because it this building is has a steel frame. So the concrete block wall is not not holding up the roof. Um on the right we see then the boy's room um just an example of the um the just the wear and tear uh creating you know tile falling off. Uh there are other examples that sharp edges and things where people are walking around to bare feet. Um yeah so that that's a little bit of existing conditions there. These are some of the bathrooms. Similar kind of story in terms of upgrading finishes. uh providing toilet fixtures and the and clearance and uh space to move around that is in compliance with the uh with the ADA requirements any okay
062so this is a scope document that outlines this work um the first six line items of that are what I just discussed seventh line item is replacing the bleachers and bliss gym basically in kind meaning in the generally the same locations and the same quantities um to uh to create a capital project that we're seeking, you know, approval from the district to move forward with. So, are there any questions about that? Um or or feedback any questions about it? So, >> okay. So, I think um let me just recap the process. So, 2019 voters approved the capital project. We are nearing the end of that. We're approaching the end of our line of credits. We have uh a little bit of money left. And so based on our building assessments and the needs of our
063programs, especially feedback coming from the athletic director, uh we've identified this need. Uh we have a plan to address the need. Uh if it's approved by the full board next week, >> then uh next we will go to the bond market and borrow the money. But that's why the interest rate thing is is so important. We'll borrow that money and then with the cash in hand uh we will put it out for bid invite contractor to come in and bid the project and I think by then the end of summer 2027 >> when you walk into the natorium that's a word I didn't know. Thank you. >> Uh like SAT word there I didn't know. Um it'll look more impressive if you're still here. >> So that that's the process. >> Thanks for there. >>
064Yeah. So in in between those we um with the approval of the board we would start the design process then we submit to the state um yeah with the 2027 yeah >> uh yeah to schedule it wouldn't is locked in I it's uh probably best case scenario summer 2027 okay >> it's schools are really constrained into some the nature of education and then the school year. So, we really are kind of shoehorned into like these summer sprints. So, we we uh it's it could you know it could be a summer 2028. It could be >> we we'll aspire summer 2027. >> Yes. >> C. Thank you for that process. >> Thanks. >> Is it okay if we get you a contract to get under underway with this? Okay. >> Yeah. I'd like to put this
065uh if you breed I think the committee would like to put this before the full board uh next Tuesday uh to vote and get moving. >> Okay. Thanks. >> Um and then I think next thing is the step. >> Yeah, we're going to give a little bit of an update uh from our >> the same. >> It's the same one. Keep going. All right. Thank you. Uh, so the the STEM the STEM suite on the north end of of Ithaca High School over over there um includes about 10,000 square ft of renovation and a couple small additions. Um the top right includes an addition for um the auto body shop as well as a space um designed for a couple different uses. General project layout area but also for code red robotics to be able
066to rehearse uh in build season uh for uh for the contests that they engage in. Uh the rest of the area is renovated to take those. There are I think four of discrete rooms that are currently um being used for like there's like a metal shop, a wood shop, print shop. Um and the computers are, you know, were in the space with all the other dirty stuff happening. So, this separates in those sort of four more rectangular boxes in the bottom, sort of cleaner spaces for computers, and then a larger sort of messier space up top with the wood shop to the right where it's really dirty um in terms of dust. Um, on the to the left of this plan, there's also an addition that links area E over to the back of area
067C, so you can get from the cafeteria through a hallway, stay indoors, and get into locker rooms and other stuff. So, it really connects two different parts of the building that were never connected before. Um, in terms of the vision, so we've got a rendering up top and these pictures were taken yesterday. Um, so this is the the sort of the taller volume that includes that code red robotics space where it's tall so the robot can you know throw things and it's designed a little bit about that around that standard um contest space. Um it's it's an largely open space so you can roll tables and stuff in there and do other project work. So that's coming along. So the gray stuff that you see there is concrete block. What will be going up in
068front of that is insulation and brick. I think they're starting on brick a little bit in some areas. Um the brick veneer that goes in front of that um >> y >> to so that it will look ultimately uh more like the rendering up above. Uh this sort of box in front of it that's gray on that top uh that top piece is where the dust collector would sit. And we've got a screen for that so that when you're driving down Lake Street it's not like oh here's Ithaca. there's this like piece of equipment like spewing spewing sawdust, right? So, um try to incorporate the mechanical stuff that needs to happen and um and shield it so that uh it looks nice as well. This driveway, which is uh shifted over a little bit from
069where the existing driveway is on that part of the building, also incorporates a turnaround. Uh we heard that students coming out of um athletic events and after school often come out that little door that's it's kind of you can see that light tan colored door and get picked up by their parents there. And it happened in a sort of a clunky way. So we said well this is happening already and now we're encouraging uh this STEM programs uh especially during build season students are there you know well into the evening at like this time of year when it's like been dark for a couple hours uh to allow you know caregivers to come and pick students up there in a more organized way. Um there's a little lobby there that that um students can wait
070in and see their, you know, be warm and see their parents so you're not hanging out in front of IHS and kind of freezing out there. Um so this is another picture, you know, with the scaffolding that the Masons have erected to be able to work up that that facade and um and install the brick. Um the areas that have that plastic over them will be glass as you can see in the the image above. So, this is a north facing. So, we're we're hopeful that we'll get uh a good good quality light um in there so that you can do some natural daylighting um in that big space. Also, there was a lot of attention paid to security as well. So, you'll see that there aren't very many windows down low. That was something
071that that was important as well. Um, so trying to get light in, make it feel as open as we can, but keep it secure. This is a rendering on top of that larger larger space. And this construction obviously below. You see the two ducks sort of coming out. That's a a and the opening to the right, which is partially covered with plastic right now, will be a a rolling door there. um that would be released in the event of a fire for fire safety. Or if the teachers wanted to use those spaces separately, you could also bring that down and have something happening in this larger space while essentially another lesson is happening in the other space. So trying to design in some flexibility there. Um and these are uh on the top this is
072the main space. So on the left and full disclosure, we just sort of flipped this rendering so it would match the picture that we took, but um it looks pretty similar from either direction. Uh their classrooms on the left, there's a lot of glass there. We heard from teachers from uh Mr. Bgal was really involved in this. Um Mr. Kry as well, some of the other uh folks that teach this curriculum and wanting to be able to be in some of the, you know, in one of these computer rooms. you can kind of see some of the computer screens through the glass on the left there on the top image. Um, and maybe be working with students there, but also be able to visually see out into this other space. So, they um they could
073have a safe environment and be able to oversee, you know, potentially a couple different groups of students at the same time. So, construction below. We've got some some of these walls coming up. Uh, obviously the glass is not in yet. um rendering of the one of these more sort of classroom like spaces um and construction below. So, we're getting there. We got walls up. We got uh some paint going on walls. Uh this is the corridor that was recently opened. This is the one that uh you walk down the cafeteria is sort of to the left. You come in and then you take a right and get you can get to those couple science rooms if you you know walk all the way around. Um the corridor if you continued straight would be the one
074that would connect you to the back of sea. So tile walls and ceiling going up. So it's it's really exciting to see some shiny finishes going on. It means that we're we're getting closer to uh being done with construction here. And I think that is quick update on the status there. >> Uh there was one video that we wanted to play also. >> Yeah. Um so to back up a little bit during the design process uh we met with I mentioned some of the teachers that we met with we also met with students. Uh we had a number of folks from code red and um folks that were involved in um a lot of the classes that you know would be you know centered in this space. Um, one of the tools that we as
075professionals use is uh virtual reality and we model buildings in three dimensions. So, we can take those models and I'm just going to let this play. We can even turn the sound off. [music] Heat. [music] Heat. [music] Heat. Heat. [music] This is ready. Pretty cool to see it. I'm sorry. I really appreciate you going back and and sharing that process. It's great. >> Look forward to seeing come to fruition. We're looking the summer. >> Yeah. Yeah. Looking to get so then next next September students the plan is that students would be in those spaces starting to use them. >> Okay. All right. So, um, well, that's fantastic. Thank you. Really looking forward to that opening. And that brings us to 5.4. Other discussion items. Section six, action items. Seven, agenda setting. Not hearing anything. No.
076>> All right. Then then um if there's not objection, we'll move on to item uh eight is a dermit. I I want to make sure I wasn't saying it was boring and I was not off. I was actually falling asleep. So I've been working too much. I've been sleeping. So I want to make that distinction in case anyone had any doubt. The pres was wonderful what I did see of it. But >> we appreciate your contin >> 30 years ago or however long. >> So 69 minutes. It's like two hours. You have to come back or >> do you really? >> Unless you want to find out. >> Listen, you came to the right place. Ice stone. I am the