001e e e good evening everyone good evening welcome to the laning School District Board of Education regular meeting and information study session at this time I'm going to call the meeting to order at 6: PM may we please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance ALG to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which stands one nation under God I with liy and justice for all thank you everyone at this time can I have a volunteer to read our district mission statement supp stud thank you trustee Williams May the clerk please call the role Mrs Boer here Dr kavana present Mr her Mr Lopez Mrs Moore present Dr Nar Martinez present Dr Rodriguez Mrs trod Miss Williams present cor Miss presentent thank you I am aware that trusty herd will
002be arriving shortly and trusty stro will be out this evening are there any public comments on agenda items at this time with no comments um on agenda items we will move into our approval of our minutes for our 313 regular board me excuse me our 313 March 13th excuse me regular board meeting and our March 15th special board meeting um may I have a motion Madame President I move that we accept the Mee minutes from the meeting of March 13th and March 15th respectively it was moved by truste Williams may I have a second second second by truste Kavanaugh all in favor please signify by saying I I I motion passes um right now I'm so excited we will be going into our presentations we have our visual learning boards um this evening and our
003amazing Jessica benitz will be joining us I think or or you'll be setting us up getting us ready to go all righty thank you so much we have Eastern Lions Mount Hope should I name all the schools all right now Eastern Lions Mount Hope North my daughter went to North Wexford and Willow I love all the schools in the laning district Lancing School District um we'll be um presenting today yes Miss V Benz good evening Board of Education members superintendent colleagues and guests uh tonight I have the privilege of welcoming six of our schools they were named by our wonderful board president but I will reiterate them for the public we have Eastern Lions m Hope North waxford and Willow as they present their visual learning boards these are a powerful tool that we use
004to highlight student achievement here in the laning school district and a Mastery of learning these bulletin boards play an essential role in our schools by recognizing celebrating our and our deserving students while also encouraging others to strive for high standards each of these boards will reflect a high our commitment to a high quality of student work ensuring that what is displayed is not just completed assignments but true examples of Mastery our goal is to create a culture of Excellence where students see their best work showcased and feel inspired to continue pushing their own learning forward these bulletin boards that you'll see here tonight are not just displays they are a reflection of our instructional priorties and a way to honor student effort as a tool to engage the whole school Community I would like to
005thank um all of our principles teachers students and their families for their dedication bringing these boards for us to life this evening so for the take sake of time and efficiency we will allot three minutes board members at each of the boards and to our guests I will signal kind of when your three minutes is up so you'll get a chance to move and see all of the boards we do have representatives from each of our schools to talk to you about what you're seeing on the boards tonight so at this time I would like to invo invite each of our board members and our audience to rotate through our visual learning boards so if you'll each find one board to stand in front of and then we will rotate through guests in the audience
006if you'll also find your spot at your boards and we will get started thank you e e e okay everyone if you'll rotate to your next board please rotate to your next board okay everyone we do need to rotate to your next board so you can see all six so please rotate to another board thank you e e e okay everyone if you'll take and move to your next board find another board that you haven't been to and rotate please thank you e e e it is now time to rotate to your next board to your next board if you haven't already e e e it is now time to move to your next board we have two more rotations so please head to your next visual learning board thank you e e e please
007make sure that you're making your way to your last visual learning board so if there's School you haven't seen please make sure that you make your way there thank you all e e e is that you want to do okay okay everyone that concludes our visual learning board tour so if you please head back to your seats thank you we want to take just a few minutes to thank all of our wonderful presenters especially on the eve of spring break for being here thank you for all of your hard work and of course for your students and all of their excellence and education thank you all I always love this part the VIS the visual boards thank you again so much for coming tonight that was a lot I love it I love it so
008much good stuff happening in the laning school District send your kids to the Lancing School District no let's move on to our budget and Grant presentation from Miss Kim Adams could you please join us thank you still didn't do it they wake up good evening Board of Education superintendent tonight we will present on our grant budgets um you also have a companion document that provides you with a lot more detail on the various grants we have and the spending and encumbrances if you wonder what they are those are PO on the system and or staff wage and benefits through the end of the year that haven't been paid yet the presentation we'll go through we'll talk about what grants are um Grant types and examples the district impact current Grant budgets and the District budget
009at a glance so first of all what are grants grants are generally purpose-driven application based non-reimbursable and there is accountability required what types of Grants do we have we have local and donations state and federal grants and competitive grants local grants and donations are funds provided by Community organizations businesses or individuals to support schools and educational initiatives these grants are more flexible and tailored to meet the specific needs of the local students teachers and schools some examples of local grants that we currently have are our MSU Alliance Grant with a budget of $851 15 the MSU Alliance Grant has MSU interns in our schools working in the classrooms with our teachers and we essentially receive a stien for each intern that the schools can then use that money to purchase additional supplies and materials for
010their classrooms we also have a grant called the digital arts film and television program Grant which is $1,000 to assist with broadcasting film making and digital content creation another example of a local Grant is the project Crescendo Grant $1,260 and this one is dedicated to enhancing music and arts education we also have a $53,000 grant from the capitol region Community Foundation a lot of our teachers primarily at Eastern applied for very specific funding um things like field trips or classroom initiatives supplies and materials we also have donations such as the Carol Klein art donation $3,955 is what that Grant has left in it for this year it was a roll forward Grant um they donated fund for gardeners fourth grade the Aquin Center for Learning donation if you recall a few months ago or maybe
011more than a few months ago we we received $105,000 donation and The Writing Center uses that to enhance um the experience for our students we also have as we said state and federal grants these are generally government funded Financial Awards provided to schools districts or educational programs to support specific initiatives student needs and school improvements these grants are typically larger in scale and come with strict guidelines and Reporting requirements so if you recall during the audit presentations there's always a section in the audit about all of our state and federal grants um and they also audit our grants to make sure we're in compliance um some examples of state and federal grants the biggest one is probably one you're familiar with Title One Part A this year it's $9.3 million that Grant is focused on
012targeted academic support school-based decision making professional development for educators it also has a component for parent and family engagement and resource allocation and Equity through the title one part A schools receive the necessary funding and flexibility to implement programs that close the achievement grants I'm sorry gaps enhance student learning EXP experience and promote academic success for all another example of our state and federal grants is title three the title 3 Grant is a limited English proficiency program that's Federal sorry federally funded designed to support schools serving students with limited English proficiency the primary goal is to help the students achieve English language Proficiency in successful AC academic another example is our 31a grant this year this grant is 17.8 million this grant is to improve attendance reading proficiency for third grade math proficiency for 8ighth
013grade career in college readiness mostly what we see are schools using the 31a funding for our additional literacy and Math teachers are interventionist student support specialist behavioral interventionist um instructional assistants that help in the classroom as well as many other things that support our students another Grant is the high impact tutoring Grant this is a pilot the um State gave us 500,000 this year and we're using the money for tutoring at Atwood and Dwight Rich we have compe comptitive grants as well competitive grants are funding opportunities where schools districts or Educators must apply and compete against other districts to receive funding awards are given based on the quality of The Proposal alignment with Grant priorities and potential impact some examples are the team's Grant which you heard about from Miss Cordelia the team's Grant has
014expanded Counseling Services essential supplies and resources staff training and professional development early intervention and prevention and community and family engagement another competitive Grant you're probably familiar with is the magnet Grant this year the allocation is $3 million it provides diverse and inclusive learning environments specialized curricula Innovative infrastructure strategies professional development and sustainable School Improvement another one of our competitive grants and this was a big one was 24.4 Million it's our 12C consolidation Grant and this grant impacts Atwood Willow North and Wexford they're creating a supportive environment where students have the Mental Health Resources they need to thrive academically and emotionally another Grant is the 12a Michigan health healthy schools Grant $10 million this one improves indoor air quality energy cost savings sustainable and green environment enhanced comfort and learning environment for our students and a
015healthier School infrastructure for both our students and our staff what is the district impact for the current school year amendment number one our District budget is 286,000 of that 45% or 128.3 million is Grants 55% of the budget or the equivalent of 158 million is the general fund budget our current Grant budgets can be viewed based on the local state fund in in federal sources you can see the darker blue is the budget the lighter blue is the current spending our District budget at a at a glance the general is 54% then we have state grants at 30% the federal grants at 16 and the local grants because the numbers for fate uh federal state in general are so large it looks like it's zero but it is over $100,000 thank you so much Miss
016Adams for your presentation this evening are there any questions from our board members um any questions from our board members yes truste Williams great great great presentation I did gave me a little bit more um perspective of what we're doing how we're doing it so I had a couple of questions um in your addendum it said discretionary budget what does that entail so where specifically are we speaking of your attachment your addendum yep where does it talk about it's on the front cover um in your uh paragraph box it says 55% of General funding non Grant These funds are used to cover the district's day-to-day Staffing utilities discretionary budgets Transportation cost and general option yep thank you so the discretion AR budget is pretty much everything except for staff cost usually our departments and our
017schools have a choice in how they spend those funds that's why we call them discretionary okay and I had one other question I see that we have competitive grants that we apply for and we get but just correct me if I'm wrong do we also make like the schools compete for these grants once we receive them um no we don't make the schools compete for the grants though they do find grant opportunities that they'd like to apply for um and they sometimes like the um crcf one they went out and solicited those funds but they did work with our compliance office so we could make sure that they follow all Grant guidelines and restrictions okay thank you for that clarification cuz I was like are we making them compete for Grants once we get the
018money we don't make them compete we compete though okay thank you uhuh thank you Miss Williams are there any other questions from our board members this evening no oh yeah trusty Boer hi Kim hello so I just want to make sure I'm reading some of the budget and grants presentation documentation that you sent and just so I can make sure I'm understanding correctly sure so on the budget you have uh do you need the page number yes please okay page so let's go with like page four of the PowerPoint or of the compion yeah the companion the companion document mm and so you have for instance on page four let's go with read 2.0 we we I see that it's a Federal grant so that tells me where the money is coming from correct y
019okay and then the budget for read 2.0 was 748 th000 and some change and then we spent 206 and then it says encumbered 10,000 and then our balance 431 can you just walk us through that so that everyone has understanding of all of those numbers mean yep so the budget is the total amount we have to spend that particular Grant runs from October 1st through September 30th so it spans two fiscal years the spent column is what we physically have paid out expenses are done and over with the encumbrance column are things that may be planned to spend so you might have a blanket PO for DBI for supplies of materials that we haven't yet ordered Andor paid for you might also have staff and their wages are encumbered from now through June 30th so
020the balance that is unspent is likely to cover costs from July 1st through September 30th for that Grant thank you I know sometimes people will look at that and then they'll go on a rant I don't know what that means and so I want to make sure that it's clear we're presenting it and so we're giving you opportunity to explain that and so I appreciate that I had one more question and if this is too much into the weeds you can let me know but there is a on on the same page on page four there's this it it mentioned that a description of the stop c/o was a stop School violence Grant mobile phone application yes is what app is that it's the stop Grant and then the co is for carryover yep and
021I believe you answered after school tutoring and then that was it thank you you're welcome thank you trusty Bo you're a superintendent did you have I just wanted to make sure that we answered your question if the question was and I could be wrong I apologize you asked what is the app that yeah so we have two really cool software systems that we got through this grant one is called the Rave uh app and so that allowed staff and folks to press the button heaven forbid there's something wrong we actually now have the capacity to just press a button on our phone and the police department then knows it's geolocated so they know exactly where it's coming from which is really helpful because sometimes you call 911 and they're like where are you and you're
022like Eastern and they're like that's a big building like where are you know where are you so this actually will allow them to pinpoint if heaven forbid they've got to go and then the other uh one that is the money goes to is Alice training which is the gold standard for um kind of Safety and Security for schools so I'm really glad you asked that because you know we don't have all the details but like it's really important for the board and the community to know is like we now have these two basically gold standard things that allow us to be safer and more secure so and if I'm not mistaken that was Miss Cordelia presented in January on that absolutely yeah okay making the connection thank you trusty Brer is any nope any more
023questions from our board members at this time yes trust thank thank you very much for the presentation these grants is yearly basic or they are five years three years two years thank you for the question most of our competitive grants range from 3 to 5 years with an option for an extended time frame most of the state and federal grants are annual though some keep continuing year after year with us just having to put our narratives into a system like Nexus for um Title One For example some grants we do have to apply for over and over again year after year it depends the federal grants is yes what they interesting are they year by year three years there how many federal grants we have about four five or more oh no we have a
024lot more than that yeah um I don't have the exact number but I can get it for okay but maybe what bother me is the future then to know if if this Grand next year we supposed to receive the money again and the year after receive the money again and how we can work together to be sure that that is going to to happen because we are at different times yes then and the one who's going to Ser are going to be the students and the community then anything the this B can do to support these grants Federal all grants but the federal ones uh I think we should be alert from now on in that in that regard you can send to us or maybe um the Federal grant that we had for how
025many years and when renew the that we can fight for the kids certainly so I really appreciate um the comments about the federal grants are we going to get them are we worried at all um certainly in this new era it is something that we have to take into consideration uh I want to make sure the the board and really the folks at home the presentation that you saw today discusses both annual grants as well as multi-year grants the good news at least as of now is that anything that was an awarded multi-year Grant has continued to be reup every time we press the button for the money the money has come so that's good news what happens in the future we don't know and certainly I'll be the first one to let this board
026know if we need support and help to get that the big Federal like Title One title two title three those are annual budget we don't know what next year might come right people uh were reading or hearing that maybe there was going to be a government shutdown right so that then leads to some other things there's something called sequestration and so it's possible that certain budgets don't continue as of now the federal government is open as of now Title One monies are flowing and it is our assumption that next year we will continue to get Title One title two title three but I want everybody to know that it is something that we are very much focused on we're very much trying to protect ourselves with what ifs and just in case but please know
027and I really appreciate uh the question is that we will lean on the community and we will need the community if anything does go Ary but as of today uh March 20th first day of spring uh we are been good every time we've asked to draw down any Grant we've had the money has been sent andent timely thank you super thank you Dr Rodriguez for your question Dr Kavanagh well the superintendent stole my thunder a little bit but um I just wanted to to um assure the community that one thing I have been really impressed by our finance team about in my time as Treasurer is how Diversified our grant portfolio is and as we all know when there are uncertain Financial Times it's very important for your portfolio to be Diversified so certainly we
028like all school districts um can't predict the future we're not sure how we'll be impacted um or if we'll be impacted but the good news is that because we have such a strong team that is actively seeking out many different types of Grants um that hopefully we will be not quite as impacted as we would have been were we to rely solely on those federal grants so I want to commend Kim and her team for really being Forward Thinking in that way um and setting us up for hopefully a less harsh Landing should the landscape change thank you thank you Dr Kavanaugh are there any more questions yes trusty herd thank you for the presentation and it's not uh it's more about what we're talking about now do we already have a worst case scenario
029plan in a file somewhere and if so where can the Board of Education see what we plan to do if all goes wrong is that already in place we have three scenarios in place um they aren't fully developed yet but I can work with a superintendent to get you what we are aware of yes yeah and and I really appreciate that question because we are being very proactive um I'll go into some detail I don't want to freak anybody out um but I want the board to know what we are working on so so the assumption that we're making is that for next year the federal and the state grants are going to be okay we have every indication from the state that in fact 31a which is our largest Grant from them is actually
030going to be increased uh the governor's proposal was an increase of 4.1% which is lovely and we think that the the Senate and the house will be able to at least hold that we we will see but the every indication is that it's not going to go away and it's not going to reduce it Poss might go up the federal government funds are the ones that we are worried about and so what we are looking at is budget number one is basically everything is okay we're going to be fine budget number two is about a 50% haircut on the big ones Title One title two title three and then the Armageddon situation is all federal goes away except for the competitive grants because the money's kind of already been allocated so we do have a
031scenario for kind of losing Title One title two title three we haven't fleshed it out completely because it would severely impact this District but I'm certainly happy to share with the board the like the general understanding of what that would look like um to know down to the exact person we don't want to go there yet because the timing of if it were to happen would be in about a year from now so you know the number of students that we have next year we would then then be able to calculate that for this but thank you for asking that question uh I want the public to know that this board is really thoughtful about making sure that we're doing kind of all the things we can do and of course Kim and her team
032uh have been really thoughtful about that so again scenario a BNC a kind of fully funding B kind of half funding and C which is the federal funding going away uh and that would be significant it really would but um we have to prepare uh you know hope for the best prepare for the worst that's right thank you superintendent any more questions for um Miss Adams tonight this evening no okay thank you so much for your presentation we really appreciate it you're welcome wonderful wonderful moving on to our reports um our first report will be from our um secretary um Dr n um navares Martinez yes um so we did not have we had scheduled a meeting for the 19th um which we didn't have we canceled it and we have one scheduled for next
033month right now we're waiting on the um on the future readings for our policies that we presented okay we weren't at the policy yet we were at the secretary's report from the secretary I'm sorry I should have been clear that's okay you're you're on it you so we uh have no school on March 21st um our spring break is March 24th to the 28th which everyone is very excited about um March is National reading month um thank you so much for our amazing guest readers um we've had them at all of our schools um we have the free after school running program for ages 8 to 12 um and you can see uh the sign up for those online at runsignup.com uh mscu Science Festival April 1st through the 30th and then uh for our
034board meetings our next board meetings are April 10th we have a regular board meeting um if uh uh the board passes tonight's motion to do that because we that wasn't originally on our calendar um April 17th uh regular board meeting and ISS or informational study session and then May 1st a regular board meeting thank you Madam Secretary I appreciate that yes trust thank you I think the last time I mentioned that maybe we should have a condensed version of the secretary report that we can have the days in front of us or send it to us then then we we we can see what is going on yes during in the future then if he can have it maybe I don't need all of that but the contents that we know days what is going
035on the in that way I can plan my agenda too wonderful so what I'm hearing is we're going to have just a a copy for all board members of the secretary's report just a condensed version thank you very much thank you for lifting that moving on to our thank you madam president yes kind of changed a little order but I'll report on our meeting uh the the uh facilities committee met on March 17th uh started our meeting at 12:07 and uh president were uh Dr Rodriguez and um our president Moore we um reviewed several items uh we had update on construction Mount Hope which is looking very good it's uh it's um going well I other than that you know uh we probably would need to be there to see it personally but uh everything
036seems to be coming um a schedule Willow the uh update was that the roofing electrical is is is uh being uhu worked on or will be worked on in the solar panels or or uh arriving or ordered one of the two um or getting ready for solar panels anyting with the roofing um in that you know the roof for Willow has to be um far more sturdy than than most other roofs and actually All Roofing that we're going to do for schools that will have uh solar panels it's a little stronger a little more cost but you know we're going to have those solar panels there um the me is going in and I asked what is me and it's mechanical electrical and plumbing so all those items are going in luden the update was
037that there will be a parent meeting been scheduled and then meeting with the staff to show Renditions of the um uh of the you know the the uh Renditions of images of the school of uh what has come up after all those meetings um update sale of bonds we have a resolution to sell the second half of our bond um so that that will that will uh bring in about $72 million there is a resolution that we're going to be acting upon so it's it's in our it's in our uh action items uh we discussed the EV bus project management that was reposted and we have again uh something to work on later in the meeting I think you all got the uh information on that if you need additional information we'll turn over to
038Christina who will give us enough detail um we uh looked at pre-ordering uh air condition equipment for Sexton and that's also part of our meeting today um and the reason we're pre-ordering that is because it takes time to get the materials and you know so we need to order with enough time and I think that I um escaped number D the uh Willow Elementary we are um we're being uh we have a recommendation as well to apply for Universal service funds for network and wireless Electronics Willow Elementary once the contract is is approved and whatever then the school district will will submit an application for Universal service funds which will F about 80% of uh the cost of of the uh Wireless electronics at elementary so we'll see on that we have a change order
039number 077 uh it is uh additional work at um where was this at the willow okay as well um and then we have purchase recommendations we have an RFP commissioning service for the new Mount Hope and new Willow schools and the commissioning is hiring someone to keep track of all the mechanical electrical and plumbing for our district make sure that the contractors did what they had to do that it's complies and and that it's uh it's not faulty I guess I'll use that word uh and then if anything is found that to be that needs to be um um corrected that's on the contractor so this this um uh M commissioning service will be our eyes and ears I guess and then they'll do several um um walkthroughs on the building uh to ensure that
040everything is is working fine all the electrical the plumbing and the uh mechanical then we have H purchase recommendations all those for the hill CTE Phase 2 and and we have a bunch of them and um we're going to go through it if you have any questions as we go through them one by one you can also ask um other items that we looked at uh just as a matter of information it is in your packet but it gives you the the three areas that the um EV uh bus buses or or funded by okay it's EPA EPA EV bus Lottery admission clean bus energy those are the three funding sources for the EV buses okay and we'll get into more questions as we come to those and I think we had other chitchat in
041the meeting but we adjourned the meeting at 1:45 p.m. we did oh well I'll ask but before I do that I'll ask president Moore or um truste Rodriguez if they have any comments on on what happened at the transpar facilities meeting was my first time attending facilities committee and and really it's um it's it's impressive the kind of work that have been done during the last few years because we have been dealing with projects all the time and still we had more to come um and I think that committee is is in has a lot of work and he has a lot of responsibility in knowing what they are doing but I was impressed by the dialogues and the different input from everybody and how we can do the best in that particular thank you
042for the invitation and and he said there something during the meeting there was no Rong playing the person who invited me you have any comments no no just that um it's I'm glad to see that we're on schedule for our um our our Renovations our buildings that's great to see our kids will be able to go into new facilities um the meeting was very productive but I think you covered everything okay uh just to say also that any other any member that wants to come to the meeting or has any questions before the meeting so that we can bring it to staff and and get more clarity on whatever that is um or you can come as long as we don't have five members uh then then would be okay because then we would have
043to call a meeting to order uh with five but four it's fine so if you wish to come just let us know and then we we'll know yes doctor one one thing that we should know is the great amount of re changes and things are going to happen in her Hill of the CTE program I think they should be aware that we are implementing the program and we have to do changes and the ways are there now is not the best way but I think all these Pro uh ideas that we have and how the CTE program has to be run is the money that we have we can spend there and um will be an entrance with a very good sign there City entrance is going to be there is going to be great
044for our students and for the community in general then there's a new you know for few years we didn't do too much about CTE and now it's a new Revival and I think we should support that and and let the committee know that no everybody is going to go in direction or go to the universities but they are going to go to other university called C thank you very much you're welcome thank you Dr Rob uh most of the purchase uh recommendations were for the Hill City program M so you see a list of them there in your in your agenda thanks uh vice president Lopez yes in your packet this evening are several um bids for us to approve um this evening um may I have a motion Madame President yes I move that
045the Board of Education approve items a through f as presented second it was moved by Dr Naes Martinez and second by Dr Kavanaugh um are this is there other any discussions yes uh trusty Boer so with item a the pre purchase of AC equipment and looking at the base bidding price that's something we would be approving but it says that the sales tax are not included and it also at the top talks about separate purchase or orders so are we to assume that this number is going to change and if so when would that number get to us so it shouldn't change um unless there's a last minute um P like change in pricing with the current uh climate that we have uh because a lot of metals and different things are imported um and
046so right now this Bas bid should be fine um where we have that um and for the different purchaser because it's just different equipment but it still it would still come to that total of the $9,250 and if Mary yes and one thing I want to highlight and I want to thank uh Christina as well as the team you notice it's a pre purchase one of the things that we have found is when we know we're going to do a a job we try to buy it early because sadly as you all know prices continue to seem to go up and we've actually saved quite a lot of money by pre- purchasing things then waiting for the snow to melt or the ice to go away and then we do our building um so that's
047actually been a really thoughtful thing so I don't want anybody to in the at home think oh you're pre- purchasing it because you want to you know hold it it's it's that we've actually been saving quite a lot of money by getting the equipment first and then when we can actually do the building we put it all in so and thank you for the question because I want to make sure that they people hear that thank you thank you can I something yes um vice president Lopez yeah you know that that uh really started after Co because I mean the the orders were so far behind so when we started uh building um it it became obvious that we had to pre-order as much as we could because of the leg in receiving the equipment
048or the parts or suppli some materials but that has continued now because now we have other problems but uh yeah that that pre- purchasing really came in to being after Co or during Co either way okay and just clarification is it questions just a through F correct yes questions a through F so I had a just a few more questions if possible or do you want to give someone else that's fine okay um another question that I had I know we had this before the request for change where a uh a lot is it the same request for change where allotted money we didn't use it and so now we're using it somewhere is this an increase or decrease on this one sure so for the willow change order um great question thank you um
049when we go into our building projects we have a contingency that we build into our budget um and so for instance uh Mount Hope is costing us normally uh roughly around 24 and a half million to build the entire school but that has a contingency budget built within it in case we have change orders so this is still hitting that that contingency budget we have not expended our contingency budget um I also want to point out to the board that um while we bring items to you that are an increase of over 50,000 we don't always show you when we have decreases of money um and so we actually had a decrease in our um Roofing um for this same project so the net increase actually of this project is a little over $5,000 so
050while this this particular thing is over $50,000 we had a net decrease or a decrease of about $51,000 in our Roofing due to this same change so we changed our framing which also changed our Roofing the roofing was a deduct this is an increase um so while that number looks large I just want to let you know that that net change is much smaller thank you yeah I just want to make sure like as we're sharing numbers and sometimes people watch and they see request of change and you always get those behind door conversations and so I want it set in the open so that way they can't say oh why are they changing you know it's just like no she explained why there's a request for change um in regard to um I think
051I put a comment in there that I was just like this is really good I look up the companies that we're Contracting and I I am very impressed that we do our best to try to find companies that are local one of the companies it's like a fourth generation owned which takes some investigation and so I appreciate that Christina that you do that and that your team does that um on the recommendation for the universal service funds it's recommendation f it says notification of USF funding discounts will not be made until after July 1st 2027 it is expected that the discount rate for the district will be 85% and the anticipated expense to the district would be 14,700 am I reading this correctly so right now the proposed amount is 98,000 but we could possibly
052get a discounted rate of 85% which would bring it down am I read it correctly yes so I want to explain the universal service funds are funds that we have access to at the federal level which are currently not at risk of anything kind of some of those things that Ben was talking about this is one of those pots of money that is not currently on the table or at risk um we apply for Universal service funds for different types of projects throughout every year that are related to technology um so what has to happen for this is this has everything to do um with our Network and wireless electronics at Mount Hope in order for us to apply for the Universal service funds the board has to First approve the purchase of all of
053the equipment then we have our total dollar amount we apply for the universal service funds that will cover 85% of this total cost so the actual only dollar amount that will hit the bond fund is a little over $14,000 and the vast majority of it would be covered by Universal service funds we have yet to be declined for any universal service funds in any application that we have ever submitted so for us this access pretty much guaranteed money that we will get it again we cannot predict the future um but that's I mean that is what this process is and oh no no can I just add something so um not that anybody is well versed in education ease but um the universal service fund that you're hearing up sometimes it's commonly called e- rate
054so yeah so that's e rate so um school districts for years have been able to get this huge like basically rebate this 85% sometimes even 90% kind of off and so that's what you're seeing and as far as we know eate is still there uh and it's helped us tremendously with so many of the networking in our schools and computers so whoever invented eate thank you uh and we really appreciate uh continuing with that all right any other questions from our board members yes can I trusty Williams and then no no no go ahead go ahead Christine I just want to go back to the air conditioning for seon cuz I just want to make sure I'm clear cuz there are several things that said it's not included so that 119 plus we're going to
055have to buy all that stuff is there some way they can possibly Implement all of that to give us a final total and is that including installation so for the items that are not included it's because we don't need them we already have those items installed or that work is being done by other people so sometimes these companies do a lot more work um more full encompassing work um but for the actual pre-bid package we we are not needing that work done by this company okay thank you for that clarification you're welcome thank you trusty Williams vice president Lopez just um Christina just a quick question do we know how much under um the bids came under I was not able to get that number for you but I will share it with the board
056as soon as I have as soon as I have that so normally we have a comparison and and moving forward when I bring the bids for different packages uh together we have what we had a projected budget for what we were expecting the bids to come at and whether it was over or under and by how much so I will get that out for the hill CTE project we foresee this is going to be under budget right yes okay be nice to know how much yes yeah thank you Christina thank youcome vice president Lopez any other questions from our board members this evening no okay with that being said um at this time oh excuse me me can I have first of all gotten tongue tied at this time we'll be voting on approving items
057a through f as presented all in favor say I I I any oppose motion passes one two three four six eight eight uh 81 oh 8 Zer I'm sorry moving on got a little tired there alrighty moving on to G um in your package you have information about our EV bus project management RFP recommendation this was presented to us back in January if I'm not mistaken may I have a motion Madam president I move that the Board of Education accept the EV bus project management RFP recommendation as presented second all righty it was it was moved by truste Cav or Dr Kavanaugh and second by trusty Boer alrighty are there any discussions on the motion yes um truste Williams for clarification sake um didn't Green Leaf also apply for this grant for us yes they
058did okay so then I guess my question would be could we possibly see the terms and conditions so that there is no of the grant so there is no conflict of interest for them being our project manager as well as being the writer of the grant they assisted Us in applying for the grant but the grant is owned by the district and the district is the one that's awarded the money not green link education so there's not a conflict of interest because the money belongs to the district I understand that but could we just like see the terms and agreements because for I just know from writing competitive grants and how things can be some we don't want any loopholes so I mean is there some way you can just send it to me an
059email to just provide me some the actual Grant award no just the terms and agreements of how it should be because again I don't want any backlash I mean it could be simple as saying that okay they helped you guys this is a conflict even though we know the district owns the money because they are assisting and now they're becoming the project manager you see what I'm saying it could be an ethical issue it could be multiple issues if people are looking at it from different ways I just want to see what the terms were according to the grant so the I can send you the grant award letter that has the information of the the details of the grant y all right are there any thank you trusty Williams are there any more uh
060questions or discussion trusty Boer all right so I know from January one of the one of the requests and looking at the Timeline with some of the dates that were just kind of out of order and it was something you said you would uh reach out to them about but what we received the dates are still out of order and so the year uh where yeah which part I'm sorry I'm so glad you asked um okay so let me get to if you go down to page 10 it starts with October 24th it goes to January 25th and if you go down a little bit it then goes to July 24th to September 24th and December 20 202 I'm saying the 24th it's not the 24th it's 2024 right um and so and just trying
061to make sure the complete the project completion is in order I just think that's pertinent to us knowing hey and then also on page uh would you like me to answer that one really quick oh sure okay so we've been doing that work as a district oh instead of them since we haven't hired them on so our compliance Department um along with uh myself and the operations team have actually been working on doing all of this work meeting with Dean um doing the electric School Bus purchases um and so basically mine and Kim's departments have been working together for that part okay so the timeline is still moving along to make sure that the money gets spent within the grant deadlines so we still needed to keep this um plan in place it's just they
062haven't been doing the work we have okay another question I had was on page 12 underneath the stakeholder coordination it says that our team will ensure that all stakeholders are aligned on the Project's vision and goals timelines and Technical requirements enabling timely collaborative and transparent decision-making how will they ensure this so I'm they can say they're going to do it but did they give you any like this is how we will do it so a lot of it is coordinated meetings yes so we have had these conversations so they're regularly scheduled meetings between um our department compliance Department uh green link education uh Dean Transportation Border Water and Light they're on a regular Cadence and then we call additional meetings as necessary um meet with the superintendent um so we have a lot of timelines
063built in with regular Cadence of meetings and check-ins um and then we have report outs and minutes that are taken in those meetings and shared out so that is how we're continually making sure that collab collaborating and then bringing in any other so as we move along in these projects too there there are other um people that are doing this work um other departments even the Department of Education has sometimes gets brought in and gets involved and so we bring in other partners as needed as we move through it awesome um I do want to say before my last question I really appreciate you going back through this and um even coming back with with these answers and so even with the request to hey can we take a little longer to send it back
064out to see if anyone else will bite I really appreciate you doing that the last question that I have is in looking up green link education I know in January we asked there was a question asked how we found green link and so in looking up green link I just looked it up myself just because I think that's due diligence on our part as a board and are we is it known or has it been made aware to all of us the connection of our current superintendent with one of the founder owners of the company are we all aware of that I just want to make sure we're all aw aware because I was not and so I just want to make sure that there is not a conflict of interest but also that everything
065is above board because the founder owner has a connection to our current superintendent and so if we're awarding this amount of money which according to this grant is upward of 248,000 I want to make sure that we are all a so we can make sure that as we're defending and people say oh well the superintendent KN I just don't you know do you understand what I'm saying I want to make sure that if there is a conflict of interest we've already put that out there publicly to say there is a connection between the founder owner and our superintendent we are aware and this is why we selected this company yeah no thank you very much so uh when they were first brought to the board we made it very clear um we were completely upfront
066uh saying that there was and that's why I removed my myself from all bidding all things um and then their record of being the deputy Chancellor of the largest school district in the country and then the other partner who was the COO of Washington DC which was a very big contract yeah I I was very very clear because I hate even the perception of conflict of interest the good news is that they've won us like $2 million and have been able to be really really good but you know certainly if anybody wants to uh see the board meetings from whenever it was that this all happened and again this was a a board decision I had nothing to do with it uh we were very clear about that so I'm happy to certainly explain it
067again but we were lucky that kind of the best people in the country were willing to come to Lancing and you know it's really been shown that you know they've been able to bring a incredible high level um but that's also why just to be very clear anytime we've ever brought a contract even when we didn't need to we've actually made it board votes that way to there'd be no perception of um any sort of impropriety because the way that the board has their contracts if they're within grants uh they actually don't have to be voted on we've actually gone above and beyond so that anybody uh who would even think that there was an impropriety would see that it's a board vote uh rather than any sort of decision being done by the district
068right I yeah and that I think we're very clear that board voting aside from the board vote I that was not information that was shared with the with the newest board members but also just making sure full transparency is continuing to be full transparency and so in knowing in knowing this I just thought it was just very pertinent to bring forward because we are voting on someone that there is a connection with especially since when the question was asked how we found the company the response was through a Google Search and so I I don't think that's true I would trusty Strode asked how we found the I would defer to Christina we can defer to for some of the other companies yes green link is a known quantity so for some of the other
069companies that were asked to to submit the response to the RFP yes we're done through a Google search not not green link there have been a known quantity in the district now for a couple of years yeah so I'm that's they've been around for a minute and I'm probably going to ask that we we checked that because I remember the response being how we found this company and the statement was it was found through that that's fine a Google search so I again if that was that was my recollection and I was looking things up today as in preparation for this meeting so that way with full knowledge we're making these decisions sure I yeah I just want to make sure that I'm clear here when this company was brought up to the board it
070was very clear that there was a relationship if the board is now asking that every time they're part of a a a a possible contract that that is brought up again I think that's totally reasonable I just want to make sure that we're doing the right by by them and by us so I think it's just difficult for the district when the board has hurt it has already accepted has already brought them in as part of the contracts that we're doing I just want to understand the for clarity if the board is now asking that any time uh that they're part of a contract we make that known I think that's fine I just don't want anybody to fault the facilities team for not necessarily saying that because they had already said it uh previously
071when they were brought here so so to to clarify since I'm the one that brought up the question I didn't say anybody was at fault no I know my but your statement was faulting the facilities and so I want to make sure I'm not faulting facilities my again I was just making clarification on in regard to the connection sure and so that's why I was asking because before I V want to make sure there's transparency before I vote absolutely um I'm also not saying while I was not saying that we need to do this every time it might be a good reminder um I'm not saying how and whether it doesn't come from you or not I understand that there's a board vote but again just with transparency I was making sure that this information
072was public again sure and we're always happy to do that thank you um can I ask that the board go into a five minute recess please yes thank you we are taking a five minute recess our return time is 7:35 ch every e e [Music] actually got thanks for being here how you doing sure I'm not sure e e at I move that the board education ass set EV bu project management RFP recommendation has presented I made a motion I need somebody to no motion okay then question whatever keep going running this meeting okay thank you at this time all in favor signify by saying I I all opposed motion passed 70 moving on to our policy committee um Dr na Martinez would you like to oh oh I'm sorry I'm sorry yeah you can
073talk about it because we're not yet yeah so last week we uh brought a set of policies to be read uh to call for the first reading and we're going to extend that we're not going to call for a second reading yet but they'll stay on our agenda until we do correct thank you so much um Dr Rodriguez you had a I thought you were gonna say something I apologize that was perfect that great alrighty um next we are on to our C our superintendent um uh report so used to you being at the top uh good afternoon everyone um it's going to be very hard for me to give my report today uh I want to be very clear here that uh we have always been upfront about my relationship to any contract uh
074I want to make sure that anybody on this board if they have any questions about my morals my ethics any standing I would have assumed and expected that they would have come to me personally beforehand uh rather than bringing it uh like this uh I feel incredibly hurt and I am not sure that I feel comfortable uh moving forward with my update for today and I look forward to speaking to the board President and Vice President as we move forward uh we have been very clear always about any relationship about anybody that I've known and I want to be really clear we went and got the best because of people that I know who gave us huge disc counts and who were able to do incredible work for the district and though I don't think
075it was meant uh in any negative way the way that it could be perceived or the way that it could be impune uh in terms of any question uh I really feel that this board and I need to have a conversation uh for me to be able to serve it going forward so with that uh I really cannot give my superintendent update other than what I will always do which is gas cards 2390 difference of 10 Kata 619 607 and then the dean routing is 3515 which means that 308 have not been routed uh with that I end my report thank you thank you super intendent um no questions at this time for our superintendent would did you have something trusty heard yeah I just want I'm I'm sorry I was coming back late from
076The Break um needed a computer charger um so the part that I missed did I miss anything we did had our vote we had our vote on this I'm so sorry no you're fine you're fine um can for me but we had our vote on the on the on the EV bus um and was it to the affirmative or or not yes thank you all righty moving on to our new business we have a bond um authorizing resolution for our Series 2 2022 bonds um may I have a mad president yes I move that the bond the Board of Education approved Bond authorization and delegation resolution as prepared and presented related to the issu of series two bonds approved by the district voters at the May 3rd 2022 election second moved by truste lope vice
077president Lopez and second by trustee na Martin Dr na Martinez um are there any discussions or M president whatever I I would like to know for the public can we explain to them what exactly that is going to is talking about yes I we're going to have Christina explained okay or Kim I'm sorry Kim Kim can I is it okay if I um answer if trusty Williams um speaks trusty Williams Dr kavan oh thank you for that but I gave it to her but that's okay you don't mind do you I know you don't alrighty Kim please explain our bond yes ma'am mhm in May of 2022 the public voted and approved $19.7 million Bond we sold series 1 in June of 2022 for 58 M1 192,000 $490 we are now selling series two which
078is what the resolution will allow us to do for the balance of the voter approved bond this series 2 Bond will be for 71,000 five I'm sorry 71 m575 and should be sold by June but we need the resolution signed and approved in order for us to proceed through the steps and then I can explain the first part of the bond uh covered the following projects it covered air conditioning at ail and lions um some work at sexon the demolition of Mount Hope and Willow schools the entire rebuild of the new Mount Hope school and part of the rebuild for Willow School the second part of the bond will complete the work for Willow Elementary for luten elementary and for additional air conditioning projects and work at sexon thank you uh in order to explain
079more to the public who can buy this Bond what is the price what what are the benefits of buying who can buy this Bond what is that mean that you s 50 millions and now we are selling 70 million something like that then what is the what is meaning what is the meaning of do you already Sol 50 million so whatever so when the um voters approved the bond they said that we can go out and sell the bonds so that we can build the projects we said we were going to so we have uh steel assisting in the sale of the bonds because we don't have the experience to do that at the district and steifel will actually advertise and put the bond information out to the general public to any investors that are
080out there they purchase the bonds and by doing so we then receive the money to build as Christina said to continue with the loot in the various air conditioning projects yep and we had do we have that in the web page on the web or how the public find out about this by watching this show I guess okay that is a that is a great answer I'm sorry that way you have more people here or we're a show but that's probably how and um actually doc uh Bob Cole talked to me earlier so we might might work on a press release just to update the public on what we're doing that is great thank you very much I know more than I knew before yes did you one yeah just to be clear that's not
081actually how bonds work um they will be given to the market they will be given by the bond Underwriters uh it's not about necessarily being done in public uh the way that's uh series bonds are done is that we have to hire what are called Bond Underwriters and then they will go to the market these are not Bonds that you at home are going to buy uh these are bonds that are given to usually institutional members uh that are able to buy Bonds in the era of millions and millions of dollars so if people have more questions about actually the bond machinations we can put you in touch with our bond Underwriters thank you trusty Williams I do okay so um all of this I just for my understanding Kim and Christina is for building
082uh projects only or is it for other things that we can utilize the funding for as well it's for all of the items that were detailed in the original Bond approval by the public so included air conditioning building of new schools and well what we so we like to call it love for Sexton um some some additional Renovations at Sexton High School so those are all the items that were approved in the vote back in 2022 so um I guess I'm going to ask another question cuz I thought we had everything allocated for Willow at this point so there needs to be more funding or is that part of this it that's part of this so part of Willow like the demolition of Willow and some of the purchase of equipment part of that was
083in the first sale of the bond the rest of it will be covered by the second part of this Bond thank you for that clarification you're welcome thank you trusty Williams I Dr um Rodriguez did you have something did Oh I thought you had something I thought somebody did okay wonderful then all righty at this time um all in favor of the Board of Education approving the bond author authoriz oh I can't even say it authoriz I can't even say it the delegation thank you authorizing it and the delegation resolution as prepared and presented related to the issuance of the series 2 Bond um all in favor please signify by saying I I all opposed motion passes 80 moving on to B um the resolution to change a our regular um scheduled meeting for the
084Board of Education we cancelled our meeting on the on April 3rd and we are moving it to April 10th due to our amazing board members attending a wonderful conference to bring back lots of knowledge all right may I have a motion I'm have I make a motion that we uh adopt re oh shoot resolve that the board calendar previously adopted on January 9th be amended by striking April 3rd and answering April 10th even though you looked at me like I was the only one going to learn second it was moved by trusty Williams and it was seconded by trusty herd um is discussion about moving our meeting yes Dr uh Rodriguez um I'm going to vote Yes for this change even I don't like the change in the whole schedule of the ball I think
085that we should have here also the two days Retreat that we have at a year and maybe to add half days two half days during the year the the we are no meeting 10 or eight hours but we have a m have an adoped productive meetings the that we can have during the year I don't know you want to you want to give us the idea for the next meetings but I think we should study how we can sit down together and and be more productive as a board members thank you Dr Rodriguez we could I'm sure discuss this at our the second half of our Retreat thank you all if there are no other discussions with the board um all in favor signifi signify by saying I I I any oppos motion passes 8
086zero alrighty on to public comments comments on non um agenda items seeing none comments from our board yes trusty herd thank you madam president I want to um say a a very special congratulations to the second and third graders at Riddle at Willow Elementary School um I'm sorry to the public for my being late tonight but I was late because I was visiting our students um as they had a concert of Boom whackers if you don't know what that is they are pitched very fun percussion uh instruments um and Recorders and then also um violin um tonight and Mrs Norris um Dr Beard all of the faculty and staff at Willow while I'm not there liaison I get to see them all the time um and I love that um I'm able to go into
087the schools and see the wonderful things that are happening you all played brilliantly congratulations to you congratulations to your teachers um students don't play play instruments well um if they don't have support from home so I know our parents and families are helping them and encouraging them in the Arts and our teachers everyone involved with that amazing production it was about an hour and change long um it was absolutely inspiring to see students who have never played an instrument before already doing a showcase they just started the violin at the end of January and played two songs and a half for us today so congratulations Dr Beard and all thank you trusty her that's great to hear Dr Rodriguez thank you mad president I want and iure everybody wants to thanks to the representative of
088these six schools they were here today I was so pleased to hear them Easter High School are having more AP classes then um that is not only to have the IV program but also to have more AP classes than they had before are very impressive about work for and every one of them then thanks to all and I hope that this board send a note to the principals of this school to thank them for being here thank you thank you Dr Rodriguez yes trusty Williams I think Dr rrig has just said it for me um but also thanks Jessica for putting these up but also um each each one was different um I I I tour with uh truste Lopez and we were kind of you know the little student that was over here she
089was kind of shy but I was like why don't you read what you wrote To Us interacting with her and it was she was just kind of like but again some of them were at a concert so they were here they were tired but they put their best foot forward um Eastern actually apparently last night had a informational session to eighth graders inviting them into the buildings to see about the IB program as well as the AP program um they have 20 people get pre-registered for the testing um I think we should actually help as much as we can to elevate that program they're looking for 40 people to be a part of it so I think as a board as staff whatever we can do to help Elevate that program because as he was
090explaining what the concepts were I was really excited because most of us don't really know what the IB program is and it's just a 4-year track where they directed learning they pick a project they learn they self-study and it's it's it's really great the way they explained it to us in such the short amount of time so I'm looking forward to getting more information about the program and passing it on to you as the board as well as to our community so thank you all again for that tonight thank you trusty Williams yes trusty Boer um first the presentations all around were really great tonight I I had already wrote down at the beginning of the meeting talking about the possible panic over funding so I was really glad that Kim and the superintendent addressed
091that and just we're okay and that was that was really good because those are questions that I have gotten and I'm like we're talking about it tonight so please watch um and then also today I had the privilege of serving at Texas Roadhouse as a guest server for the Rotary Club of Holt in South lanon and as some people may or may not know this helps to fund some of the scholarships that our students do receive uh specifically this one was at Everett so there were ett students there that were serving alongside us and we got to serve take orders put on the apron and I I really had a blast and it was just really good to see different community members coming out to give towards the scholarships that we give out at senior
092award ceremonies at the end of the year so if you have not been aware of this um I got to meet the superintendent of HS District today Dr Hornick so that was really that was amazing so if you don't know about it I would say find out about it and possibly maybe sign up to be a guest celebrity server for next year it was really awesome had a great time wonderful lastly I um I just want to celebrate a staff member Miss Ella Colter by May at ston um she's been trying to come up with ways to get seniors what do you need to know before you go and she made this little checklist that she handed out to all of the seniors and it has things on here like applied to LCC completed FAFSA
093activated my applicant account for my college decided where I'll go to college accepted my laning promise scholarship ordered my cap and gown put down a deposit at the school of my choice submitted my senior picture and it was just a way for students to be able to keep track of all of the senior things and so I want to shout out to her because she created this like in 24 hours and handed it out to students at a senior meeting so it was really great very nice very nice I like that LCC I love my job um yes uh vice president Lopez thank you I want to uh uh trusty Boyer how many yahoos did you say I didn't say any yahoos but I did definitely say hello my name is Couture Boer I'll will
094be your for today how what drinks can I no birthdays then yeah no there was no birthdays either or else I would have been clapping what I really wanted to uh say is that uh I'm glad that that our extracurricular activities are are holding U are coming coming up more and more so we need to do that music obviously is very important we need to fill our orchestras and bands in the high schools and uh sports are also coming along well so I'm I'm I'm really glad to see that and the superintendent and the um the team have really worked hard on that so thank you very much and um again I want to invite everybody to the um uh Cesar Chavez program on March 31st at noon at city council chambers where our own
095Dr Martinez narez Martinez will be our keynote speaker and that's a noon program and uh stay for some lunch all right yeah City Hall at City Hall at the council chambers is the program and the um the food will be served in the lobby right after the the program what time is the program noon oh I was Wonder going to have any students performing or anything like that but no we'll see just step out you're close by I know I can walk down all righty are if there's no more questions um from the board member of board member from the board meeting from the board meeting uh for tonight our meeting is adjourned at at 7:58 or 56 756 and I have my glass