001One nation under God, indivisible, liberty, justice for all. Okay, we're going to move some things around on our agenda so that we can um go back into our executive session for um some things that we're working on. And the first thing we will do, sorry. So, I'd like um a motion to move around our agenda and go to um item number five and item number six. No, sorry. Number three and number five in new business. Eleanor motion. Thank you. Can I have a second? >> Second. >> Thank you. Um by voice, all uh in favor? >> I. >> Any opposed? Okay. Thank you. So, number three, and correct me if I'm doing this if I need to. Um, there we go. Could I please? Sorry. Um, the consent agenda. Wait, >> could I have a
002motion to vote on numbers three and number five in our consent agenda specifically? I'm going to pull those two out. If I could have a motion to vote on three and five. >> Some of second. >> Thank you. All in favor of approving >> Christine. Yes. >> If I may, I just think you should ask for discussion. I don't know that we're going to have any, but >> thank you. >> Just to follow. >> Sorry, this is like, you know, baptism by fire here. Switching everything up right before uh Thank you. Any discussion on number three and five? >> Thank you. Okay. All in favor of approving number three and number five. >> Our personnel actions and a resolution to approve the interim ASI contract. >> I I >> Any opposed. Thank you. Those two
003pass. Congratulations. Sorry that wasn't as smooth as we had anticipated, but we got there in the end, right? Okay. So now we would like to um open up the floor for public comment. A recognition of visitors for any item on the agenda or for any other concern. The board of education welcomes comments from the public. Each person wishing to speak is asked to speak into the microphone, identify themselves, and respectfully limit their comments to three minutes. Two opportunity to speak are available. One early in the meeting, which will be limited to 30 minutes, and one at the end of the meeting. Each speaker may address the board only once at both times of the opening and closing positions of the agenda. Please remember there will be no cross dialogue between speakers and between the members
004of the board. All speakers are to conduct themselves in a civil manner. Obscene language, liable statements, threats of violence statements advocating racial, religious, or other forms of prejudice will not be tolerated. Persons wishing to discuss matters involving individual district personnel or students should present their concerns and/or concerns to the superintendent during regular business hours. Would anybody like to make public comment? Yeah. All righty. Could I please have a motion to go back into executive session to continue our discussion? And when we return, we will pick up with the presentation by the Palumbo Group. >> Elanora. Second by Carl. All in favor? I. >> Any opposed? Okay. Thank you. We'll be back as soon as we're uh done. We've we set ourselves a time limit of uh 15 minutes. So, uh we should be back shortly.
005But she's okay. She just wanted to check with mom, you know. >> Yes. But thanks for asking. All >> righty. Can I please have a motion to reopen our meeting? >> Second. >> Thank you. Thank you for uh your patience to the Palumbo Group. We're going to jump right into the presentation by the Palumbo Group who are here to join us to go over an update of our capital project and the work that's being done. I'm going to turn it over to John to give us um an intro and some background. Thank you. >> Great. Thank you um Christine. So with us this evening we have uh Bill Divine from the Palumbo Group. He's our project manager manager on our um capital project that has been taking place over the course of the past several
006years. Joining uh Bill is Mike Devogal who's in the back. He's here for support as well. And our other familiar face is uh Walter Moran, our director of facilities. So, Bill has a presentation for us uh today. You've seen a couple presentations from Palumbo Group before. Um and this is really just a status update of our capital projects. Uh I don't want to steal too much of Bill's thunder, but he'll take you through phase one, phase two, phase three of the capital projects as they're broken out. Um and and uh as you can see, our capital projects are very public. Um, you know, you pulled up to the high school today, you saw brand new tennis courts and parking lots and the new stadium and uh turf and and track. Uh, and if you've driven
007by the other schools, you're seeing a lot of other work. Uh, co is um looks like a uh a child missing teeth at a very early age with, you know, the the windows out and some in here and there. Um, and then Lee Road with paving and things like that. So, Bill's going to take take you through a little journey um for the next several minutes. So, welcome, Bill, and thanks for joining us. >> Well, thank you very much for everybody. Can you hear me? Is this on? Okay. So, I got great news tonight. Uh first one is is the phase one status update. Uh we'll get into phase two and then phase three. Um the phase one status update um is that we are complete. Um I think we talked about that last time
008I stood in front of everybody. Um, but we can officially say even closing out the job, uh, we've officially financially got to the end of our journey. Um, and we're we're done. So, I think that's great news. Uh, a couple things that we're going to talk about tonight um is the project scope review by phase. Um, again, the phase one, uh, district-wide renovations, bathroom, and the loading dock is complete. Uh, the monthly communication tools reports, owner architect, construction manager meetings that we have on a weekly basis. Uh phase two which consisted of the locker room, the lobby and the sports stadium. Uh again monthly communication uh that we have weekly. Uh phase three would be the middle school corridor uh the parking lots, the co windows and baths and lee road parking lot and baths
009as well. Um and changes to the future bids, contracts, construction activities. I think we're going to skip that one uh for now. But so phase one, um I got a little excited and jumped the gun there without the without the slide up there, but uh we are complete with that. Uh phase two, uh the big journey here was the beautiful sports field you guys have out there. Um we are officially turning that over on August 15th. Um as you guys hope you guys uh took a nice little look at that. It's it's beautiful out there. Uh we had a problem. Uh kind of funny story when we were putting down the track surface. Um it's a soft surface until it dries and uh the deer kept jumping the fence and thinking that the field was
010a nice uh lush green oasis out there. So every morning the guys had to come in and fix all the all the deer prints in the wet material. But uh it looks great. Um no issues. Uh we just finished up the ball fields which is down here. Everything's been leveled and seated. Uh now let's just pray for a little more rain uh and hopefully get the seed to pop. Um, but we are officially uh we did our punch list about uh two weeks ago. Uh we've handed that back to the contractors and we're working on trying to get the punch list completed uh before we turn it over on August 15th. Um I don't think we'll be 100% there with the punch list completing it by that date. Uh but we we were able to
011at least get the field uh inspected, get a report out there to the contractor so that we can officially work on that punch list. Uh couple things for phase two that uh the tennis courts uh which we were able to complete over one of the breaks which was a huge help. Uh the new stadium lighting. Very excited to show you guys the stadium lighting. It actually goes with the sound. So as the the speakers are on the sounds are on, you know, like a real stadium and the lights will flicker. It's pretty cool. Uh the new bleachers and press box. Uh great spot up there. Spent a lot of time looking at the view of those mountains across the river. Uh the great scoreboard. We're going to we're working on that. Um to get that
012fired up now. We're just doing the uh fiber terminations and and hopefully have that up in about a week. Um the artificial turf, that's the big uh deer field out there. Uh the beautiful track. Love it. It looks great. Uh as you know, we did the 50-oot extension. Um it's going to be amazing. And uh the upper parking lots. Uh we just got done striping everything. If you happen to drive by today, um so with that being said, um couple couple ways that we went through the project here. um Cornwall Elementary School uh replacing the classroom ceiling lights. Another project that we were able to take advantage of uh over a break and get that get that work completed. Uh the vestibule here as you walked in the front door. Uh we got the unit
013set on the rooftop. Uh we're going to complete the duck work and the piping this week. Uh I would say having start up in about a week and a half. Uh we'll be able to have air conditioning in that space. And then the the middle school uh the locker rooms uh have been completed for quite some time. uh the new classroom as well. Uh the gym mechanical equipment was actually started up today. Uh we couldn't complete the abatement in that space until after the the kids had left for the summer. So all that's behind us. Uh the duck works completed. The the unit was fired up today and everything's working as it should. Um talked a little bit about this array. The fields are 100% complete. We're in the we're in the punch list phase.
014Um now the mechanical work here 90% complete. finishing up the duck work and the in the mechanical piping locker room 100% at the middle school gym mechanical um like I said we fired it up today 95% complete and the Lee Road ceiling and lighting project was completed uh last year. >> Hey Bill. >> Yes. >> Just by middle school mechanical you mean the new air handler air conditioning for the gym space in middle school? >> Yes sir. >> Great. Thank you. >> You got it. So here here's Lee Road uh phase work. some of the when we started doing the ceiling renovation here. You can see kind of the phase we were in on the demo. And then you can kind of see here where we put the room back together. Uh nice new white
015ceilings and light fixtures. Here's another uh look at the lobby here at the high school. This is all the high school here. This is kind of uh what you what you saw behind the curtain when we built up the temporary walls, protected the floors. We did all brand new steel in the ceiling. um that was completed over the break and uh that's where we're doing the new duck work now and the tennis courts uh which have been completed for some quite some time. Um I'm very here early very in the morning. Got the sun see the sunrise this morning when I put the slide together. Very beautiful. This is the track. Um get a nice picture here of the track of of what it looks like as we're applying the uh the striping. Uh not
016all of it's done here in the picture. And then a nice view of of the actual field looking at the uh at the bleachers. Uh this is actually of this morning. I I tried to update this as as uh as close to the progress of of the presentation as I could. So this is actually a finished project of this morning. Uh here's a picture of me standing on the on the stadium seating overlooking some of the construction that was happening about a few weeks ago. Uh over to the middle school. we talk about the mechanical system. So, the gym um is the mechanical system that we're completing now. You can see the brand new duck work, uh the dark area there, how we protected the floors. Um so, no no paint and everything gets on
017the floors. And then the middle school locker room, I know you guys have all seen that and the the beautiful tile work and the new showers over there as well. Uh phase three, um talking about the middle school parking lot is complete. The middle school storefront is about 75% complete. We have all the materials. Uh we're working on putting that that back together as we speak. Uh Lee Road parking lot is about 95% complete. The line stripers are actually going to show up this coming Monday. Um all of the asphalt has been complete. It's actually offging. Um has to off gas for 10 days before we start putting paint on there. The bathrooms at Lee Road are also about 95% complete. Unfortunately, I didn't have updated pictures of of this morning here, which you'll see
018in a second. And the window project, which we'll talk about, is about 50% complete. Uh here's the Lee Lee Road bathroom. Uh there's actually tile on these walls now. Uh when I took the picture, uh unfortunately was a couple days ago or a week ago. Uh here's Lee Road parking lot kind of you can see the subbase that sits below the asphalt and then a finished product as of this morning of the asphalt laid down. Uh the middle school asphalt project. We were able to get this one done fairly quickly. Um this has been completed for about three weeks now. Everything's line striped and been turned back over to the district. CO bathrooms. Um you can see kind of where it was under construction. Uh where we are today. Uh we're starting the tile work
019in those bathrooms this coming Wednesday. Uh all the plumbing plumbing roughing is complete besides one floor drain that we're doing started today. and all the electrical roughing is done as well. So once we start getting the tile on the walls, we get ceilings, we get the the urinals and toilets and then the uh dividers and we'll we'll be able to turn those over. Uh co window replacement. Uh this is the left hand side of the building. If you're looking at the straight at the the front of the building, um this school I kind of dread talking about this one. Uh, we found when we took the windows out, we found the old windows behind that. And what I mean by that is when they replace these windows, who knows, maybe 50 years ago, they wrapped
020the old wood jams with uh the new window cladding. We could not see behind the aluminum windows. We knew that the caul on the aluminum windows was uh ACM, which is a speesus containing material. We had planned to have it abated. It was in the contract. We bought it with the abingment contractor. We did all that work. When we started pulling the old windows out to replace them, we found an old wood system behind it. So when they replace these windows a long time ago, they never removed the old wood system. So literally when we took the the the old window out, behind it was the old old window from 100 years ago. Uh we had the material that the caul um tested at that time um just to be sure and be safe with
021with the contractors and it came back hot. And what I mean by that is it was ACM was it was containing asbestous. So that set back the project uh pretty well. Now you can now you can understand we now have to stop we now have to stop the job. We have uh a problem here. We have to address it which we did very fairly quickly. We had to bring in an abatement contractor. Now, the abatement contractor has to remove all of these windows as ACM, something we didn't plan for. Uh, this is a great example of an unforeseen condition. We talk about these all the time. We just don't see what's behind those walls. Unfortunately, this one, we found a very bad condition, and it set us back um pretty good on this. So, like
022John talked about earlier, if you go by the building, you see this front facade here, and you see this facade here on the right. So, if you're looking at the building, we're doing the windows on the front and the right hand side. In TPG's professional opinion, um we understand that giving back that school and making sure that education becomes first, we want to turn those classrooms back over for use. Our opinion is that we stop removing any additional windows. We finish what we have open, complete the interior and exterior of that building so we can turn it back over to the district with enough time to clean, turn back the spaces back over. There's a lot of equipment if you've been in those elementary schools. Um there's a lot of stuff in those in those
023rooms. uh for the kids. So, we don't want to run into a situation where we're scrambling to put these back together. So, with the amount of work that we have left, which is essentially 50% of the building, we're we're putting a plan together to come back and do the other half in the summer of 2026. And we think it's a very very good decision that we're making here uh because we want to turn those spaces back over. We don't want there to be a problem in the end kind of where everybody's scrambling to put it back together. So, with that being said, um we're going to see you back here in the summer of 2026 to finish the the other half of the building. >> Just going to jump in on that for you. >>
024Yeah. So, Bill just illustrated what we updated the board a couple weeks ago about um is we needed to sit down um and make a determination with the Palumbo group with Tetrate Tech, our architects and engineers, you know, district staff um and take that approach and and I think we took a conservative approach because we're looking at the education of students. We can't let the construction interrupt the the the school year um bathrooms, windows. So um and you see the work go taking place outside but there's still work that's needs to be done inside. So we are concerned about that and that's why we are we are where we are and the decision that we've we've had to make. So I thank Bill for highlighting that and talking a little bit more about that. But
025there's still univvents inside. There's still case work that has to be done. And then that's just on top of the cleaning that has to go back in place. This the desks, the floor waxing, the this that the nuts and bolts of turning a building back over. So any questions? >> I'll uh I have a question. >> Uh this is uh this is great. Uh thank you for the the walkthrough on the windows in particular. I I want to just dissect that um so I understand how it worked and and where we are. So when you discovered um uh asbestous in co did you say that you you removed all the windows at that point to do abatement or were were you only removing the windows one at a time and replacing them? What I'm getting
026at, once we made the decision collectively, the wise one to stop at 50% and say we're just going to uh get those uh replaced and then come back in a year, did we have to then put windows back into the 50% that we weren't? Did we have to put old windows back in? And if so, were there any complications because of the work that had already been done uh to identify the asbestous there? >> Very good question. So there were two layers of cork. We knew about the first layer which was the outer layer. Right? Until we abate that, we can't get behind that first layer. So unfortunately, we can't abate until after the school uh is out for session. So immediately we got the abatement guys in there. And what they do is they
027were just removing the caul because the window system itself, the the the cladding, the metal window system that you saw was not hot. So we were able to go in, we removed the caul around that window and then they left. They did the whole building, right? So now the building is there's no caul on the windows. So now we bring in the window guy. He starts removing the aluminum window. And what we found behind that was the old wood frame which had the second layer of caul. We would have never been able to find that until we removed the aluminum. So what we did is uh after a long discussion we brought the the abatement contractor back in and we only pulled out enough windows we felt comfortable we could put back right so we
028were only giving so many at a time we didn't go and do the whole building. Uh if we did that it would have been we'd be in a much worse place right now. So we gave them enough we said hey get get these this side done we'll move on to the next side. So they did that and we said we'll leap frog, right? We'll do a side at a time to to assure that we can get all this work done because we knew the second round of asbesus kind of stopped the whole job. It really killed the schedule. So no, we did not remove um the windows. What we did remove are going to be replaced and 100% functional for a school year. >> Thank you. And just so just as a followup, so the
02950% of windows that remain, the only thing that is different from last year is that they'll just have new coaul. >> Correct. that we actually put temporary caul around there to keep keep the weather out. Got it. Otherwise, you're going to have the same window. Uh we did remove the interior shades um to kind because we have to protect the interior of the window when we do the abatement with plastic. Um so, we had to remove the shades. That is something we're working out now how to put back temporary shades. Um we can't put the permanent ones back because they actually go into a pocket that hasn't been built yet. Uh that's the only complication we have, but if that's the the worst case, we'll we could figure that out. I heard my favorite topic,
030the bathrooms come up. So, I thought you said Lee Road bathrooms. Are they at Lee Road or >> So, two bathrooms at Lee Road, two single bathrooms, but they're pretty large at Lee Road um are near completion. And then two gang bathrooms at CO. >> Okay. So, Lee Road is at 95%. >> So, that'll be done when school starts. >> What's the status on the CO bathrooms? >> We're starting tile on this Wednesday. I feel like we'll will be complete. Uh I think I'm going to knock on wood. >> So we had this conversation before you and I. >> Yes, we have. >> So you what? Okay. So you're you feel with certainty that we'll be good with those bathrooms at the start of school? >> I do. And and keep in mind uh we
031were able to start Lee Road during the school year, which really helped us with the timeline because bathrooms, as we're all aware, take a very long time, right? Um, so, uh, we were very fortunate to take the bathrooms over at Lee Road about a month and a half prior to school letting out, which allowed us to finish. Now, we tried to do that with CO. Uh, but because of the logistic and location of the bathrooms, we just couldn't take them offline. So, the bathrooms will go to the to the wire. As a matter of fact, we'll be waxing the floors while they're still working in those bathrooms. Uh, we worked it out with the district that we're working in a clean space. We have to be aware of that. We're going to keep the contractors,
032you know, kind of making sure they don't mess up the building, but we do feel comfortable that everything will be complete by the school year. >> Do we have a red flag date when if they're not done, we are going to go to plan B? And is that been agreed upon at this point? >> Um, no. I mean, we could certainly have that conversation. But right now, I feel pretty confident we're going to be okay. Okay. >> Um, I physically see the tile. >> Okay. >> Physically see people working. Um, if I didn't see all that stuff sitting there, I I might have a different different outlook on it, but I do feel comfortable we're going to make it. >> Yeah, I'll just answer that, Christine, as it's conversational based. It's in the back of
033our mind, but uh we're confident and comfortable that we'll we'll be there, but but conversations have had >> and just to follow on John's point, my understanding is that there are also additional bathrooms that are operational in addition to the ones you're working on in CO. So it is not like where we'll be having bathroom trailers outside the building like we I'm just saying like I my understanding is that CO is set up a little bit differently and so we do have operational bathrooms even if they're not done by >> opening day. >> That is correct. >> I'll I'll I'll put a caveat. Yes, we do. But we always want more bathrooms than than we probably need. It's always a good idea in a in a school building with little kids traveling. Agreed. >> Any
034other questions, comments? >> I have one followup. I just wanted to make sure everyone was done. I keep going back to the windows. I'm sorry. Um I just know when when we talked when we have talked about this window project since the beginning, it has been the one where incremental costs have been the highest mostly because of procurement, right? There was so many inflationary pressures because of the windows and when are we buying the windows? Do we have all of the windows that we will install already or do we still have to purchase windows or any other materials and could those prices go up because we're uh delaying the project? I'm not raising this to question the decision just to prepare for that possibility. So we we do have all the material and we have
035had the conversations as uh taking possession of that material uh god forbid something does happen with the contractor between now and next summer the district will have possession of that material in case we have to go a different route. >> Thank you. >> You're welcome. >> John, anything else? No, I just want to uh again I want to thank Bill um as our project manager, Mike for stepping in and um Dr. Walter Moran, I think I I keep forgetting to address him as Dr. Walter Moran as he completed his doctorate recently. Um he you know Walter and I talk way too much. I don't think people realize that and how much Walter really has a pulse on everything in this district. People may know that, but it's it's pretty intense. So, thanks for Walter uh
036for being here as well. Yes. Thank you for your patience and for sticking around for us. We appreciate it. >> That's okay. >> We got your good side. >> Yeah. >> All right. >> And I and I know Bill's presentation might be small here on the screen so I can share it later on with the boards. So everyone's >> Thank you very much. >> All righty. Moving right along. Um interim superintendent update. Megan, >> thank you. So, as you know from our updates to the board, we have been very busy in the CCSD getting ready for our 2526 school year. So, to keep the community updated, I did send an update in July. Um, and an updated version will, uh, be sent out later this week. included just for our families uh will be reminders
037about uh information release timelines for schedules, how to access information on our websites, uh information about transportation and food service, and just an overall update on our preparation to open schools. So, just be on the lookout for that and for uh communication directly from your building principles. Um new this year for our seniors, you may have noticed when you pulled into the parking lots, there's a couple of uh spots that look a little different, and we hope that there'll be many more to come. Um, so this has been in the works for a while now, but as a uh a senior privilege, uh students who completed their uh paperwork can head out to the parking uh lots this week and start decorating their spots. So, I know we're all looking forward to see what that
038looks like. If you've been to a high school that they've had that, it's pretty cool to kind of see the kids' vision on the on their parking spots. So, it's a great new start of a senior tradition. Um, speaking of seniors, you guys are really going to enjoy working with our two new board of education members, uh, Mave Fogerty and Jocelyn Dixon. I had a great opportunity to meet with the girls last week, um, to get their pulse on, uh, just different questions that they had. They're very impressive. Uh, they have a nice, uh, lens as current topics in education and they're very excited for their new position on the board. So, we look forward to welcoming them. I had shared some bios with each of you uh about the girls. Um so I encourage
039you to read a little bit on them before they start um because you will be very impressed. Um in preparation for our new school year, our administration and teaching staff have collaborated on 900 hours of summer curriculum work. That's a huge undertaking that takes place each summer. So uh the work has taken place on all levels, content and departments. Um, our HR department has been incredibly busy hiring and onboarding new faculty and staff and we look forward to uh welcoming all our new uh faculty and staff at uh staff orientation later this month. Um, as we just saw from our update from the Palumbo Group, our district has been all things construction this summer. Um, so that's kind of been the theme. We're excited with the progress, but even more excited to get back into
040our buildings and our classrooms. our uh faculty and staff are chomping at the bit to get in and we get our daily calls and emails. Can we can we come in today? Can we come in today? So, very soon we hope um so we can prepare everything for our kids to come back on September 4th. Um and with that, I just want to lastly extend a huge thank you to everybody who works incredibly hard over the summer. There is a tremendous workforce um on all levels in all nooks and crannies to get everything done in a very short timeline. We literally flip our buildings. We flip our curriculum. We get everything nice and shiny and ready for our kids. So, we're incredibly excited for the start of the new school year. And we just wish
041everybody, you know, an enjoyable last couple weeks of summer. And don't forget to get on your bus to get on time for school on the 4th. Thank you. >> Thank you, Megan. Um, president's update. I'm just thinking about those days of having to set that alarm clock and then chase the kids down. So, yeah, it's uh got to get into that routine now. the summer's going to go fast. So, a couple things from um my seat. Um I did send out a memo with all the committee assignments and we will talk about that a little bit later in the agenda as well as we appoint the ones for the county, state, and school committees. But what I'm hoping we can do as a board is uh publish our meeting dates for the first half of
042the year. So, from like now till December, if we could get those meetings on the calendar now so we can publish those on the website and so the public knows when those meetings will be taking place. and then we'll do it in the second half of the year. I know it's hard to schedule an entire year right now, not knowing what other commitments will be. So, um that will be posted on the website as well as everybody's committees. If anyone has any questions, please just follow up. Um, in an effort to make sure all board members have an opportunity to um, formally put things on the agenda prior to a meeting, I'm going to be sending around um, a form that you can fill out and, you know, before every meeting there's a deadline or
043a timeline included in that, just asking for your additional agenda items and the effort of being transparent and, you know, making sure everything is documented. It does not preclude you from bringing things up at a meeting, which is entirely your right, and that's all explained in my email, but please be on the lookout for that. Uh, as a reminder, or as a notification, and I'll send this as well, is that um at our next meeting on September 8th, our new legal team is going to be here with us at 6 PM to talk about um any current situations and just a general overview for the board in terms of legal um practices and advice. And um I'm very excited about our upcoming board retreat which is next week. You should have received an email from
044one of the facilitators asking for your feedback on a 321 form. They're requesting that to be returned by Friday. One of my favorite sayings at work is garbage in garbage out. So, you know, if you can really give it some thought and put in your your real thinking around that and turn that in, it will help us have a much more rich and productive meeting versus if you kind of just, you know, blow it off and don't fill it out. Um, it won't help us much. So, I'm asking for your time and attention on that. And then, Megan, thank you so much for sending us the form for the events that are happening throughout the year. I think it's really helpful for us as a board to see where the opportunities are where we can
045show up and really celebrate our student achievements. And so I would ask folks, even if it's just on a monthly basis, to go in and look and see what your calendar allows you to attend because really at the end of the day, we're here right for the for the students and um to celebrate their achievements and help them where we can. So, it's a it's a wonderful opportunity to make sure that while we can't make everything individually as a board, I'm hoping that we can holistically make all of the main events um and and show our support for the community and the school, the teachers, the students, etc. So, thank you for that. And just if everyone can make a point to get on that and um fill in when you can attend. So, with
046that, thank you very much. All righty. So, our consent agenda. So, all items except for three and five, which we've already voted on. Could I have a motion to approve our consent agenda? >> Thank you. Doesn't Does anyone want to pull anything? Was I supposed to ask that first? I'm sorry. Okay. Could I have a second? >> Second. >> Discussion. Okay. All in favor of the consent agenda except for items three and five. May I have a verbal? >> I. >> Any opposed? Okay. Thank you very much. >> Christine, can I interrupt you real quick? >> Please. >> I have a very special tax warrant that I'm going to send to my left here that the board members have to sign. So, there's a little uh piece here on the lower right hand side. I'll
047start with Richard to my left and send it on down. Everybody can just sign their name. I'd appreciate it. That's our official tax warrant document that all starts flying out the door tomorrow so people can get their tax bills in time. It's really exciting for them. Great. Thank you. Um, moving on to old business. Our first point is a resolution to approve Orange County Bus Patrol School bus stop arm enforcement. May I please have a motion to um open this? >> So moved. >> A second. >> Discussion. Christian. So, I raised this in the last month's meeting, but I'm just going to repeat, I think, why um I asked people to kind of maybe do some research on this, but I also think it's um it's really not a prudent step to take. And I
048think starting with it, I'm not sure that there's any really upside even in terms of safety for our district. As I said, there's no Nitsa study, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration study, or any other study indicating that the buff stop arm or the fines improve safety. In the years before this existed, there were by a narrow definition only four fatalities over 10 years and by a wider definition only 40 nationwide. Um, which would indicate that even if it was really effective, it ability to make a change is almost minuscule. So the other part to this is that this is effectively a huge tax levy upon the people in our what we do is approve allow them to do the buses within our district. And what that does and we just last week News12 reported in
049Westchester last year which had 14 districts pro approximately the same that are in Orange County that 15,000 civil penalties were issued. Now, districts are not the same size, but if you just kind of do that as a simple way, that works out to be almost $200,000 that would be levied. That will go 70% to bus patrol and 30% to the county initially, and we get a little bit of information. And so I think that since there's very little upside both in terms of what we're going to be receiving but also in terms of contribution to safety um and I mentioned some of the issues with how this is operated that New York State changed the burden of proof that you would now have to prove that you didn't if they assess the penalty to you
050and this is reviewed by an out ofstate company some of by computers and or artificial intelligence and so if we're going to levy 2000 $1,000 roughly upon the people of this community. I have other things I'd rather spend it on and so I would urge people to not support this resolution. >> Other comments. Thank you. >> Yeah, I just want to thank um Christian actually for flagging this. Um, and I won't belabor the point, but um, I'll just say, you know, there's there's lots of examples, not necessarily on the stop arm here, but um, you know, red light cameras, private prisons, when we turn over areas of law enforcement to private companies, that profit incentive can lead to some pretty poor outcomes. Um, and I just want to add the the antidote, and I'm not
051claiming that the the group that's doing this that um the company that that provides this service is doing this, but my sister actually is a civil engineer, traffic engineer for the state department of transportation. And uh she said when red light cameras first came out and got turned over private companies that they would time the lights specifically not in terms of having the yellow be the right time of yellow for safety but to catch the most people on the camera to generate revenue. Um and that's clearly not what we're looking for here. And I'm not claiming that this group is doing this. I'm just saying that that um these type of arrangements are right for that. And also you know Christian I I think you said they get 70% by my reading. Um I think
052they got 60 and then 65 and out. It doesn't really matter. >> It's 70% initially to cover their capital cost and then it reduces but it's still uh divide between the company and the county. >> The the bulk of the benefit is not coming to our district. It's going to well it's actually not even even the 30% or 40% is not coming to us. It's going to the county and we're getting just crumbs behind. So to me it doesn't seem like a prudent decision. Thank you. >> John, any insight? Um and not putting you on the spot. I'm just asking um based on your interactions with them. >> Uh my interactions have been limited. You know, it's up for the board's decision. Uh as I said last time, board discretion um on based on the
053information I provided with you with all the information that we've been provided with. Um as you said, Christian and Jim, number of districts have moved to these stop arm cameras. You know, certainly here in Orange County, um also in Westchester Puth County, more and more are coming on board. Again, there's different agreements, different arrangements. It's it's an opportunity, an option for the board. So, that's a board decision. >> Thank you. Any other comments from the board? >> Just confirming this is a one-year commitment. We would This would be something that we would uh reup each year. >> Sorry. Uh multi-year agreement. >> How many years is the initial? >> Uh I forget. I'd have to go looking through that again. But yeah, you're entering into a multi-year contract because they're installing these onto the buses.
054Um, and that they're not going to just take them off after. >> My understanding was that they were already on because of the the shared bus services that we have that the infrastructure was already there. We were just opting in to participate in the program. >> Uh, that's not my understanding. Although they do swap buses sometimes. So, for example, we can use a bus that's being utilized in Newberg. We just wouldn't be utilizing the camera. And that might be just simply because they're working on a bus that is Cornwall utilized. But yeah, you know, either they're using one and not using the camera and or it's not installed. >> So I'll just there's not all the buses, but like at DSY, which has some of the um West Point tours, you can see the cameras
055are on the mini buses that are they're doing the pickups there. Uh, I think what this resolution does is authorizes them to actually use the cameras to assess penalties when they're on routes for this district. So, we have the authorization for them while they're on our routes. And I think it is and obviously they're there because West Point Tours does more than just um Cornwall as you said. >> Correct. But they still had buses that they need to install them on. I know that for a fact. Um, they haven't done full implementation at West Point Tours. Are there questions or comments? Okay. By show of hands, can I see who approves the resolution? Show of hands. The resolution to approve Orange County Bus Patrol School bus stop arm enforcement. Um, all in favor? >> I
056opposed. Seven opposed. Thank you for discussion. The community engagement table sorry table discussion. This came up at our last meeting. We spoke about um Christian brought up to give the president the authority to um sign up for get a a table at the community day events. Um, we sent out a a form for folks to put their ideas down to give um some suggestions in terms of what would our purpose and the and the value of us being there besides, you know, just sitting there. What else could we be offering? I did look um last week and there wasn't much. I don't if any did you happen to check it? I didn't ask you to, but did you check it before the meeting? >> I didn't see much. >> Okay. So, we haven't gotten much
057more um input or insight from the board and so I'm reading that as it's not something we're really necessarily interested in doing wholeheartedly this year. Um but I'd like to open it up for discussion. >> Please, >> can I just stop? >> It see it seems Can you guys hear me? It seems to me like this might be something for the community uh what is that called? Like the the communications group to to handle. Um, so maybe after our first meeting we can come back with something on that since this doesn't seem like the place that people want to discuss or make decisions about it. >> Yeah. Okay. Um, so we don't need to necessarily vote on this. This is just the discussion around uh where we were going to go with that. Um, >>
058so on the discussion are do you want to continue the discussion or we are we more or less >> No, I just I was going to move it on to the the communications committee. So I mean my my vision of this and the reason why you know I proposed the authorization is that this is not really about us distributing information to the community. This is about us being um gathering information and listening and putting ourselves in a sense in their loop and in their stream in a way that's accessible. As you can see um the community really turns out for our board meetings. Um, for those who can't see because the cameras are on us, uh, we are here by ourselves. And I think that that says something because uh, just in the last two
059weeks sitting in the in the um, Senator Scuf Scufus on the street, two people came up and brought up issues just because they they were bringing them up to Scufus and I was able to listen to there and I will pass on the information uh, you know, to the rest of you when I summarize it. And I think it's important to get into those situ into those situations because you hear people otherwise you kind of listen to the people that you mostly associate with. And I will say that like um our special education PTA is going to be present at both the fall festival and also New Windsor community day. And I think you know they're doing it not just to give out information but also to let's say listen and how do you bring
060that information into it? And I would just add, this is something that I didn't know back in July, but a lot of districts, particularly in southern Westchester, are adopting what they call a buddy system where it's not like, you know, you have you you're responsible for anyone, but you are in a sense every schoolboard member is buddied with a constituency in the community and therefore you become the source or the conduit of information to the board as a whole. and it might be kind of a model that the communications committee might want to investigate because I think that is the function we're serving whether it's at fall festival community day or some other venue. >> That's great. Yeah, thank you Jim. >> Yeah, just to add to the discussion. So, um I think Christian you
061raised a good point that communication is two ways. It's giving out information also taking in information. So, it's important to be mindful of both ways. Um I'll just echo Jaime's point. And if we didn't get a lot of interest from the board and when we when we emailed this out, I don't think we're ready to go to the New Windsor Community Day and the false festival um this year, perhaps next year we may be, but I think it's at this point with the the lack of interest. um it's best to give it to the communi communications committee and let them further bat around ideas if we want to do events like that or if we want to hold our own events um you know similar to um the mayor and the village and the supervisor
062and the town have held uh once or twice a year for the past several years sort of you know listening uh events at the library so there you know I think there's a lot of support on the board to engage the community but I think the issue um still for discussion is how we best do that. So that's my two cents. Thank you. >> And just to piggyback on that too, I don't feel like there's a lack of interest. I just think that it's it hasn't been like the the proper place to plan and figure out exactly what we want to do. And I think when we do show up at these events, we want to show up like we know what we're doing and talking about. So I think doing this in a smaller
063group and having the communications committee take hold of it is going to be great. And like Jim's idea, if we're not ready to do that at FallFest, yeah, let's do something at the library or whatever. Um, but yeah, I think working this out in a smaller group is probably best way forward. >> Anyone else? Great. Thank you. Yeah, I don't I didn't mean to insinuate it wasn't of interest, just how we go about doing it. I think it's great to have communications committee tackle that and come back to us. Thank you. So, speaking of committees, new business um non-consent agenda. Our first item is discussion on board of ed committees. I did send around an email um on Friday that had all the committee um assignments. I believe everybody was able to get their first
064pick. Um most people got their second pick. I spoke to you if that wasn't the case and explained the rationale, but um I think we're set with all our committees. If anyone does have any questions or concerns, please feel free to reach out to me privately and we can uh figure that out. The ones that we need to discuss as a board are our um assignments or our our appointments to Oxba NISBA and our legislative liaison. And um as I shared um All right, I'm just going to do a a a point check here. Forgive me, I'm still new to this. Can I just do them all at once and we approve all of them at the same time or do I have to do each one individually? >> I think you can say as
065per document if their names are already on the agenda. >> Great. Thank you very much. Okay. Okay. So, as per the document that I um sent out on Friday, our appointments for OXPA legislative leaison and NISBA, can I get um a verbal uh no a motion to approve the list as distributed? >> So, >> a second. >> I would say Christine, >> if we're taking a vote that we vote also on the committees, which are all on the same document. >> Sure. Thank you. and then >> that you just after we take the vote that you email it to Linda. She can attach it to the agenda so it's visible to the public. >> Thanks. >> This is a great example of people having each other's backs. So thank you. Okay. So um let me
066start over. Um can I have a motion to approve the committee assignments for both Oxbow legislative leaison NISSBA and then our school committees which is DEI health and safety and professional development as distributed on Friday. Um, by a show of hands, all approved. Abstain. I mean, excuse me, not approved. Thank you, Linda. I'll I'll share this with you before we leave. All right. Thanks, everybody. Um, our next one is our adoption of the 2526 CCSD code of conduct. Uh, may I have a motion to approve this? >> A move. >> Second. >> Righty. by show of hands. Those that um >> Well, you should open a discussion. >> Okay. >> I'm just saying >> Well, I'm just we we kind of had that option already, but Okay. Discussion. >> No, you have to just offer.
067>> Okay. Yeah. >> Any discussion, >> comments? >> Jim Jim interjected with some great uh ex-president >> procedural advice, so I just had to play the >> It was an internal dialogue. Should I or shouldn't I? And I went with shouldn't I, but it's okay. All righty. Any discussion, comments about code of conduct. Okay. Um, all of those um in favor of approving the code of conduct. >> I >> opposed abstain. All right. Thank you. And then recognition of vi visitors, which we have none. And then closing comments by the board. Nine o'clock. Not so bad. Okay. Um Jim, can we start with you? >> Uh enjoy the rest of your summer, everybody. Thank you. >> Eleanor, we'll just go down the line. >> Ditto. Enjoy the rest of your summer. >> Yeah, bet. >>
068Ditto. But um I've been instructed I uh I have great tidings of wait good tidings of great joy uh to share with the community. Uh there's a performance this coming weekend of Beetlejuice. Um so part of um I guess part of the larger drama community um the Cornwall drama community uh an organization which my wife is a part of uh Cornwall theater and arts they've been putting on programs um sponsored by the the PTO's the PTO trust and so it's all u you know Cornwall kids having more opportunities to get on stage and and also help uh backstage and it's really just a great extension of all of the the great stuff that's already going on uh during the school year. So anyway, they're putting on performance of Beetlejuice Friday night at 6:00 p.m. I'm
069sorry, at 7 p.m. at uh Storm King School. It would be here, but obviously uh this building is being worked on. And then uh on Saturday at 3 and 6 also at Storm King School. I think the name of the the website is the booktick site is Cornwall TA.booktix or but that might also be wrong. So, uh you should you should look that up. And uh the sign is in front of town hall if you want to stop traffic and uh take a picture of it. But uh great shows, great kids. Uh worth a night or day out if you've got time. >> I'm good tonight. Well, thank you for not making me go first and surprising me, but I have nothing. Have a good rest of your summer. >> Go see Beetlejuice. >> So,
070I have the long one about what is a dangerous book to read, but I'm not going to do that tonight. So, I'm just going to make um a report on some observations that I did some research on what board committees exist in the Hudson Valley from different school boards. Um not surprisingly, you know, audit committee everyone has because it's mandated and policy committee. So, there are 26 districts that have a curriculum committee out of the 97 and really 10 more if you include like technology uh curriculum. There are 11 special education committees, four code of conduct committees, and we are the only district that has a communications committee outside of Westchester County. And I think committees are something that um are not necessary because they're part of what the each board does it differently. Some
071boards have an AI committee. Several boards have an AI committee. Several boards have negotiation committees and things of that sort. Um but um as people know I've advocated for special education curriculum and code of conduct and I think that um you know it kind of puts in the light not necessarily what is advisable but what is least common place. Thank you. >> Thank you. Thanks everyone for your patience. I promise this will get smoother but I appreciate your support and having my back and um yeah enjoy the rest of the summer and I look forward to seeing everybody next week for our retreat. Thank you. Thank you. Can I see it? Never ends. Can I have a motion to adjurnn? >> Second. Second. >> All in favor? I. >> Thank you.