BCSD Board of Education meeting 2/25/2026

001Catherine. Yes. >> Uh if we can reconvene our meeting to open session. The board has been in executive session since 6:00 to discuss a legal matter and a personnel matter. If we could please stand for the pledge of allegiance. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands one nation under God indivisible with all >> we could have introductions. Good evening. John Mc Phillips, Dave Hurst, John Walston, >> Holly Denbach, Jody Monroe, >> Catherine Nat, >> Bob Tent, >> Clarayu, >> Rose Pastori, and E and McNay and Lauren Graasso are unable to be here this evening. Um, do we have um any pig or super students joining us tonight? Welcome. Thanks for coming. Um, you guys need to stay until 9:00 or the meeting is

002over, whichever one comes first. And don't leave without signing out on one of these nifty signout sheets. Um that way you get credit for being here. Uh first up on the agenda is our approval of minutes. It is recommended by the superintendent that the board of education approve the minutes from the February 4th, 2026 regular board meeting. >> So moved. >> Second. >> Any discussion? All in favor? >> I. Any opposed? Any abstensions? That carries. Next uh item three, meeting reports and first is our um superintendence report. >> Sure. Thank you. I just wanted to provide a couple updates regarding the changes with the elementary zones and where we are with that. Uh so we are still we sent out letters to all parents of students who are um incoming grade five students um and

003also parents whose programs kids are in programs either with IEPs or ENL. Uh so we're still waiting on some confirmation. We basically need to know from them um if they wish to stay in their home school um or if they wish to go to their new zone. So um we gave them until I think it's March 1st. Most of them we've heard from most of the grade five families um are opting to stay in their home school. Uh but there are some that were moving. So that the data on that is getting updated. We'll have more information on our enrollments at next week's meetings when we present the instructional program. Uh we're also continuing uh to work with the principles on planning transition activities. Uh we are going to do a date for school visits

004for students who are moving to new schools and that we just met today and that date will be May 8th. So, the principles will be sending out information regarding that. And I spoke to um communicate with Ellen today and we'll be transporting students from their current school to their new school for a portion of the day similar to what we do where the grade five students visit the middle school. Um, and just to follow up, we had uh some concerns from um individuals who live in neighborhood planning unit 54 who are shifting from Eagle to Slingerlands about walking. And I did reach out to the town to share the concerns and let them know um how many uh families would be moving. I heard back from the chief of police um who indicated that they

005will took a look at it and follow up on it. Um and I did provide her with a number of students um so they have an idea of what the increase might look like. So um that's all the updates I have right now. Um and on that topic, I did also hear from the town that if there are um other parents with concerns, one of the best places for them to reach out is to the town's um bicycle and pedestrian committee. And information for that is on the town website. Um any questions for Jody? Um, just uh briefly, I just wanted to um make sure everybody saw I think everyone got an email um that if you want tickets to see Legally Blonde, which is coming up um at the end of March, um you

006should put in your request for tickets. Um I hear it's going to be a good show. Um and with the break, that's all I have right now, but I hope everybody had a good break. Does anyone have anything else they want to I think that's a hold over from the last meeting. Anything? Okay. Um in that case we will move on to our student reports. So, as Rose and I are near to closing our chapter in Bethlehem Central School District, we are getting closer to electing the next student body representatives, we will hold an information session Tuesday, March 17th, which is a couple weeks from now. We will be educating them how to apply, what to expect, and overall give a smooth transition into the role. This month is also Black History Month in Alana.

007They have done a great job organizing events. They held a panel with BCH alumni today, giving them a platform to share their experiences, also distributing shirts, which will later be worn tomorrow for group pictures to recognize and honor black history and achievements. And I just want to say a tremendous big thank you to this group and their adviser for putting so much effort into this. >> Adding on to Claire's news, I would like to continue briefing the board on the status of the conversation surrounding high school parking. Students have been gathering information via Google forms from the senior class and currently are planning to come speak to the board next meeting in the public comment section. Okay. >> Thank you. >> Anybody have questions for Claire or Rose? >> Uh next this evening is our

008presentation. Um we are starting our budget presentations uh this evening with our budget overview transportation technology and operations and maintenance. So first up is John McFillips. Good evening all and to our friends and family watching from home. Uh this is kickoff meeting for our 26 27 budget cycle. Uh we have some presentations from transportation technology and operations and maintenance. Before we get into that, I'm going to do a or provide a quick administrative overview of where we stand with regard to 2627 compared to 2526. Before I do that, just a quick thank you to my colleagues in the business office and human resources as well as building administrators, department heads, and division heads. There's a lot of work that goes on uh beginning in late fall to get us to this point. So without their

009effort, energy, feedback, and guidance, this would actually be a much shorter presentation, but I do appreciate their their work nonetheless. I always like to begin with revenue because without the dollars coming in, it's harder to have dollars going out. Uh the district's budget is broken up into three main sources of revenue. The largest being school taxes at roughly 63.6%. School taxes are governed by the tax cap law which um there's a it's an eight-step process to get to that calculation. That growth year is usually capped at 2% in terms of inflation. The actual inflation for uh 2627 is anticipated to be higher than 2% at 2.6%. Based on that tax cap formula, the district cannot exceed a year-to-year tax levy increase of 2.61% absent an override, which would yield uh no more than about a

010million uh $928,000 in terms of tax levy growth from last year to this year. State aid comes in at roughly 30%. That has been relatively flat for 2627 based on the governor's proposal. The foundation aid formula provides for a 1% minimum increase of roughly $211,000 for the district. The universal prek allocation remains the same at $1.3 million. I'll get into a little bit more information on prek in general. Other state aid streams are relatively flat. There's some that are higher, there's some that are lower, but overall state aid is roughly flat from year to year. In terms of our payment lie of taxes um funding and other miscellaneous sources that comes in at roughly 6.4%. The that portion of revenue reflects the new 12-year pilot uh energy pilot with GB2 at roughly $3.6 million, but

011there's limited future pilots on the horizon. The only one that is slated to come into the district uh in the near future is the Champlain Hudson Pipeline Expressway. That is anticipated to add uh approximately $260,000 in additional pilot revenue, but that won't come in until a year or two after the project is complete. And I do not have a firm deadline in terms of when that actual uh completion date will will occur. a visual representation of those four pots of money. As you can see, property taxes and state aid take most up the pie uh with miscellaneous and pilots being uh around 3% each. In terms of raw numbers, the comparison of 2526 to 2627, uh school taxes for purposes of this slide and presentation are held flat at $73.9 million. the pilot payments. You'll

012see a slight uptick of roughly $300,000 that reflect not only the uh the energy pilot renewal or the new energy pilot, but also uh some additional pilot increases. You'll see state aid reflecting not only the $211,000 increase in foundation aid, but those those other uh increases uh which are nominal on the state aid side. Um other revenue is actually down by uh a few hundred,000. What I want to highlight um for again for the board and the public at home is that 2526 uh operating budget was balanced using undesated fund balance to the tune of around $715,000. The tax levy increase in 2526 was roughly 1.1% which is what our maximum allowable tax levy was. We were a little short on the revenue side. Rather than increasing the levy above the that allowable limit, the

013board elected to use $715,000 worth of fund balance. In terms of this slide and the budget that I'm presenting you, I have not appropriated any fund balance as of yet. That may be an option the board chooses later on. Um, but I I I wanted to highlight that for 2627 because we use fund balance to address a structural deficit in the budget, we're starting 2627 a lap behind. So, all else being equal, not including uh the fund balance, uh you can see that that revenue is relatively static from one year to the next. It's um $300,000 lower, but only because the the fund balance figure is not reflected there. a comparison of our state aid estimate based on the governor's executive proposal. Uh again, you'll see that foundation aid up by roughly $211,000 or 1%.

014Given the cost pressures that we're facing at the district, $211,000 doesn't go significantly far in terms of balancing uh the budget for 2627. Uh we have other state aid items in terms of BOSEIS and special ed at 4.6 sixth, which is up, you know, up around $300,000. Transportation up as well, but building aid was was down a bit, which I'll get into in a little bit later. You can see those uh sideby-side comparisons of where state aid was for the most current state aid run compared to budget, as well as where we are in terms of the executive budget. mentioned earlier that the universal prek allocation remains the same at $1.3 million you because UPK is considered a grant program by the state. It's not actually reflected in the general fund which we talk a

015lot about here. It's actually reflected in the special special um the special aid fund which is known as the F fund. Um but the governor's budget um provides some is includes some proposed changes that I think the the board of education and the public should should be aware of. The $1.3 million that we we have been seeing over the past couple years provides for roughly 235 slots at a not to exceed per pupil allocation of $5,400 per uh per pupil. Under the governor's proposal, that per pupil allocation can increase up to $10,000 or the foundation aid per pupil. In Bethlehem's case, $10,000 is higher than the per pupil allocation. So, if the governor's proposal is adopted by the state legislature, that's what that maximum allowable per pupil amount would be. The one cautionary note here

016I want to highlight uh for the board is that by the 2829 school year universal prek for for district for school districts in the state there will no longer be a waiver process for lack of space providers you know opportunities to uh to provide those those learning facilities. That being said, there very well could be programmatic and financial impacts to the district and in the community if the governor's proposal um went into effect, meaning that the district may have to take on the provision of UPK services in house, especially if community based organizations are are are unable or there's just not uh capacity within the community to take that on. The district issued RFP uh a request for proposals uh earlier in January. Those proposals are due uh by March 6th. Um and the business

017office and district office will report on those findings soon thereafter. On the federal side, we talked a bit about this last year in terms of some some potential threats to federal aid. I haven't heard much more about that following last year's uh presentation where we do receive roughly a million and a half dollars in federal aid broken up between various title grants as well as some um funding associated with special education and those sources are listed out there. One of the uh items that have that has impacted our prior budgets and this budget moving forward is the amount of interest in earnings the district um brings in over the course of of the f over the course of the the year. You may see it with your own uh bank accounts and your mortgage rates

018as interest rates sort of eb and flow and your impact to your to your household budgets. But you can see that back in 2122 and 20 uh 2223 actual uh interest in earnings compared to budget were relatively uh on par with each other. Now from the business office side there's always a bit of a lag. You don't want to get too far ahead of what you're forecasting in terms of uh of interest earnings because some of that's outside of your control in terms of what the fed fund rate is at the federal level. So there you're always in a bit of a catch-up which is why you know if you look at 2324 the budget number was so low but actuals were were were so much higher. The business office really maximized opportunities for bringing

019interest earnings in 2324 uh almost to the tune of about $2.8 million. We really leveraged that um over the course of the fiscal year. We did have a little bit more funding in house because we had capital project bond proceeds in house. Well, we we had it a little bit before we were paying out our our various vendors which drove that number a little bit. In 2425, again, significant amount of interest in earnings, a little bit less than than the prior year. Uh in 2526, we're we're a little bit more balanced in terms of actual receipts compared to budget. What I can tell you though is that for in 2526 year to date there have already been two rate reductions in 2627 it's unknown the number of reductions there will be now the reading the

020tea leaf shows at least an additional two uh point reductions every um 25 basis point reduction results in a loss of roughly $125,000 in interest earnings for for the district the independence of the Federal Reserve is a little bit more a question than than uh previous there's a new chair person coming in on a May so there's a lot of unknowns in terms of where the future uh interest rates may be I put the uh number in at roughly 1.3 $1.4 4 million in terms of interest in earnings. I think that's maybe a little bit aggressive, but I also didn't want to necessarily go too conservative in given the fact that we're having some challenges uh with the budget in general. Interest in earnings, however, at the end of the year have been really been

021used to sort of beef up reserves at the end of the year, which is why we had those capital reserve dollars available. So, uh the the impact uh of the federal um interest rate on our interest and earnings is really going to impact uh operating budget and our endofear forecasts. I just wanted to highlight that tax levy um in relation to the tax cap. The tax cap is a law passed in 2012 that limits and governs the amount of tax levy dollars any municipal government uh c can raise. Uh it's eight-step process as I mentioned usually defined by no greater than 2% or the rate of inflation. The tax levy is the total amount of dollars that the board authorizes to be collected to balance the budget. And that tax levy is then distributed amongst

022the taxable assessed value in the town of Bethleam in New Scotland to uh determine the tax rate. So under the tax cap law, the allowable growth factor is usually around 2%. But I can tell you that over the past 5 years, the inflationary increase has been closer to 25% when you look over the course of those five years compared to 10% when you apply the tax cap formula for that same period of time. So that shaded area of y represents all of the inflationary growth over the course of the past 5 years the district had to absorb internally through strategic planning, reduction in FTEES, pulling back on expenses elsewhere. Over the past several years, um the district either held the line on the tax uh levy increase compared to the allowable tax limit or actually

023left money on the table um because it wasn't needed at the time. So in 2324 taxes could have been increased by 3%. The board authorized a tax levy increase of 2.3 resulting in $534,000 in savings to the community. Uh same process in 2425 just over 4% but uh the tax levy increase was three and a quarter leaving $635,000 in authorized but untaxed uh levy dollars. Together those two years, you're looking at roughly $1.1 million of tax levy dollars. Tax levy that was unlevied. um that were that was not charged to to residents in the community. 2526 was a different story because of the way the tax cap formula works. The tax cap could only be um the tax levy could only be increased by 1.12% which equated to $820,000. Because of the pressures of that

024budget, the board authorized that tax levy increase amount. So the allowable tax levy and the adopted tax levy uh represented the same amount. Um, so $0, which is but we needed that additional money to balance the budget, which is why we pulled $715,000 of the MD designated fund balance for 2627, the year we're going into. The allowable tax levy increase is 2.61% which equates to a roughly $1.9 million. Uh, which would translate to a tax levy of just under $75.9 million. what that adopted levy may be. We'll get uh to over the course of the next uh several budget presentations. I want you to have all the information in front of you before you make that determination. But a quick slide to show you what every 1% in the tax levy gets you in terms

025of additional dollars. So that's on the revenue side. On the expenditure side, uh a quick chart to show just where the dollars in the district's operating budget go based on salaries, fringe benefits, debt service, Bose services, your supplies and contractual and some mechanical components of the budget in terms of transfers and capital outlay. Overall, it's $120.4 4 million um as of today uh compared to $116.6 million um on the 2526 adopted budget. Again, going back to the revenue, that revenue was relatively stable at roughly $116.6 million yeartoyear. Even with all the ins and outs, the uh the cost pressures on the expenditure side of the budget uh show that $3.8 $8 million increase year-over-year. Similar to to the revenue side, um the pie chart reflects the district's investment in its u instructional and non-instructional staff

026in terms of salaries and benefits, which is the largest portion of the driving course uh cost for the budget and then the other components as well. the large drivers um in terms of um our 2627 budget. Want to highlight a little bit on the fringe benefit side on health insurance. You'll see a rough $3.1 million year-over-year increase or 17%. And that's really driven by the pressures the district is experiencing on health insurance in general. I can tell you that for between 25 26 and 2627 um our um CDPHP plan for our employees is growing at 10 and a half%. Our plan for uh Highmark plan is growing at 19.5% and then our self-insured prescription drug plan is growing by roughly 7 to 8%. Over the last six years, just to provide some context, in terms

027of the growth in health insurance in general, CDPHB has increased by 63% in terms of the cost of the district. High mark 69% and our pharmaceutical expense 103%. Those are just very hard numbers to try to absorb in any given year, particularly when your revenue inputs are relatively limited and the year-to-year growth is even that much more limited. Uh, also want to highlight on our ERS, that's the employee retirement system for our non-instructional staff. You'll see that um it's an increase of roughly 28 and uh 28.8% from our 2425 budget uh and represents um roughly 17.6% of payroll for for those employees. Slight down tick on our teacher retirement system. Um the estimated row um retirement rate for this slide is 8.75% for comparison. It was roughly 9.5% last year. Those figures come from the

028state controllers's office and are just applied against the appropriate salary base. So we did see some some positive movement for the district. Um in that regard that that has no negative impact in terms of retirement plans or pension u payments to teachers. It's just what the district has to pay. um for those pension benefits. The other components are are somewhat tied uh to salary in general, particularly uh your social security and Medicare. And then uh workers comp and miscellaneous fringe benefits are relatively stable from one year to the next. But overall, that one section of the budget is growing at roughly just over 11% or uh $3.5 million. Uh debt service. This is a a quick summary of where um our nine just under $9.1 million in debt service payments are tied to in terms

029of projects. I do want to highlight that um I mentioned this earlier that building aid was down slightly from $5.8 million to $5.6 million. And the reason uh that is down is that tends to eb and flow in any given year compared to the district's full valuation of taxable property compared to other school districts and student attendance. So for 2627 Bethlehem uh fared better in terms of full valuation compared to sister districts but it also had lower population compared to those and the way that works proportion it pulled back the rate from around 73 uh 71.8% reimbursement on debt service to around 69 a.5. It very well could flow the other way next year but that's uh that explains the difference from one year to the next. Um side by side on the major administrative

030um categories of expenses uh on the budget between you know the administration instructional programs uh student support services operations maintenance and transportation athletics technology fringe benefits and debt service. Uh but again that's that's the tail of tape um between 2526 and 2627. This is a uh a comparison from that first administrative slide broken down a little bit more detailed to the actual departments overall year-to-year. Um between 25 26 and 26 27 uh that is down $10,000. Just a little bit more information there. Um on the self-supporting program, we have two of those, continuing education and driver's education. I know uh at least on the community side there's always ask hey can the district bring back drivers education it's never been gone it's always budgeted for both the terms on the appropriation side and and the

031revenue side there's just a programmatic challenge of actually providing uh finding the resources willing to to do that so um I know um the district is always looking to provide that opportunity to students it is budgeted for and um hopefully 26 27 we can find outside resources to fill that need. Transfers to other funds. I want to highlight the food service transfer. You may remember uh in years past it was roughly around 15 to $20,000. Um but given the pressures in food service in terms of increased uh wages, infringeed benefits and inflationary costs on food products and um supplies, that uh transfer from the general fund to balance the food service fund was going to be $250,000. That was well before um universal free meals were coming into play. working with Clare Guardian, our food

032service specialist, I really there's going to be a swing in the actual direction not only for 2526 but for 2627 that I do not anticipate a significant need for the general fund to subsidize the food service fund and that's really associated with the universal free meals and the financing mechanisms behind that. But that was a significant swing from one year to the next. uh the ESY program running a little bit warmer uh that we saw in um last year um at roughly $34,000. Um 275 was a little lean looking at 2526. Uh we anticipate for 2627 that transfer is going to be 325,000 and then there's some mechanical mechanisms on the capital outlay and transfer at 559,000. But overall in this one section of the budget reflects a $189,000 decrease year-over-year. So where we stand

033at least on the administrative side today, we started with revenue of $116.3 million, expenditures at 120.4. The initial gap is $4,116,000. I'm not proposing any use of fund balance as of right now, which equates to a preliminary tax levy of 5.6%. From an earlier side, that maximum allowable tax increase is 2.6%. Um, which means, you know, there's a sizable gap to fill over the course of the next several budget cycles to be in line with um the tax gap. Reserve dollars exist. Fund balance is still available. Um I always caution the use of those only because it create it creates a structural deficit or perpetuates a structural deficit. Um there's a lot of the on the revenue side there's not a whole lot of flexibility given the sources of funding and how those uh that

034funding is calculated. We together we need to look at the expenditure side and given the way um those cost centers are broken out in terms of salary and fringe um there'll be a focus on available full-time equivalent positions that we discuss over the course of the of the next several uh slides and presentations. >> Um anybody have questions for John at this point? Yep. Go ahead, Rose. Um, for drivers ed, what uh has the money been going to or where has the money gone if we haven't had driver's ed, but for the past couple of years, we'd have we've had it in the budget. >> So, because it's budgeted, it's allocated specifically for the driver's ed purpose. And um you you have the cost associated with providing the driver's ed. there's a revenue stream because

035there's a a user fee or or what have you to to sign up for that. >> So that program is balanced. If it's not provided it or for whatever reason it's, you know, there there's lack of interest by the student body or we can't get the resources to provide the class, that money just is not spent. So it stays there. Um and at the end of the year um be if it's not used it will flow back to the general fund for reallocation the next year. >> Okay. >> So what I what I can appreciate here is that you know we're not using the driver's ed money to fund something else over here. It's it's specifically out and that's not why it's not being offered. It's it's truly from availability of resources um and to

036have those individuals interested in coming in teaching that class. >> Okay. Yeah. >> Just a knock on to that one is is so you you're saying we don't have the resources and then what I just heard you say is we don't have people to teach the class and those are the resources you're talking you're not talking about dollars and cents. You're talking about the the the resources financially are allocated which is uh what's reflected in the slide. It's the actual people resources um to to provide the course. >> Got it. And do do we have a sense of why or what's uh there's no driver there's no people who are certified to teach. It's the issue. >> Okay. >> For a while we used I don't know if you remember we used Bell driving school.

037>> Okay. >> And then it they've just not been able to get instructors and we haven't been able to get instructors. >> Okay. Thank you. Thank you. >> Claire, did you have a question? I just had a question on what tax lev what he meant. Um I know you had like a definition for I couldn't like wrap my head around it. >> So the the simplest way is to look at as as a math equation. I'm not sure if you like math Claire, but um you have your expenditures on one side, you have your revenue on the other. Ideally, the two match. So if you have a million dollars worth of expenditures and a million dollars worth of revenue, you wouldn't need a tax levy. But because there's our expenditures are higher than the revenue

038that we bring in, there's a there's a gap. There's a deficit. And that deficit is um filled in with the tax levy. And that tax levy is then uh distributed amongst the uh residents and the commercial entities within the district. >> Okay, that makes sense. >> Got it. And to underline that, in this case, when we're talking about that tax levy, we're talking about the total dollar amount. >> That's correct. >> We need to fill the gap between the revenue and the expenditures. So the tax levy is that that bottom line dollar. This is how much we need to ask our community to fill. >> So last year's tax levy was $73.9 million. As we stand today, or at least on, you know, this part of the presentation, the tax levy is $4.1 million lower

039than it needs to be to balance the budget. One quick question. Are we still over 4% in our um the unrestricted fund? >> Yes. So in the end of our 2425 budget, the board authorized a undesated fund balance not to exceed 6%. The statutory limit is 4% under state education law. But we sort of felt these pressures building last year into this year. Um, I made the recommendation to the board. The board agreed to provide the district with some flexibility by increasing it to 6%. So that equates to roughly about $6.9 million in undesated fund balance. I will say that the board did appropriate $400,000 of that $6.9 million because of the emergency repairs to the gym roof a uh earlier in the year. So the undesigned fund balance today stands at roughly $6.5 million.

040>> Okay. So how much of that is over four over the 4%. >> Uh it's roughly about a million2 million three per percent. So >> okay. Um on the topic of UPK, you mentioned that beginning in 2829 school year coming a couple years down the road, the state won't be providing waiverss for lack of space for providers. here in Bethlehem. We've struggled with both sides of that over the years that that we've been able to >> to do this. And so I guess my question is >> when are we going to like at what point do we start making provisions or start thinking whether it's through the budget or through programmatic shifts how we address that in 2829. >> Well, keep in mind that this is just Yeah. Right. >> It's just a proposal. this

041year's proposal from the exe. It's not adopted yet. So what what I wanted to highlight here is that this is a big unknown for school districts in general. >> There is a need for for UPK service that is felt at both the district level and the community level. The issue is there's limited communitybased organizations. >> Yes. >> Able, willing, wanting to provide that resource. >> Right. So if the governor's budget as proposed is adopted, those requirements still remain regardless if the CBOs are able to to provide the services or not, which may by default become a district responsibility. >> Sorry, I did I misunderstood. I didn't realize you were saying part of the executive proposal. I thought that was coming at us and I was like, "Oh, I hadn't heard that." So thank you. My

042apologies. >> All right. So who is that? >> Transportation, I believe. Oh, no. I'm sorry. I have a couple things. You're not done with me yet. I'll be quick on these. Um, on the additions on administrative side, two recommended considerations. One are emergency evacuation chairs at uh several of the buildings at a total of $7,500 or roughly $1,500 each. I think we need um two at the high school, two at Eagle, and one at Ellir. This is for emergency purposes to get individuals with uh physical limitations or challenges down u those stair cases in the event of an emergency and $5,000 for nursing office upgrades and equipment um for the nurs's office in the high school for a total of 12,500 on the reduction side. Uh this was relatively new information in and um on

043the teachers retirement system. So, I put it in as a reduction rather than try to put it in the budget and have it cascade down all the slides of the the presentation. >> The um original percentage uh estimate we had was roughly 8.75% of of payroll uh for that calculated bill. We recently got as of like Wednesday or Thursday of last week. State controller said that the recommendation is closer to 8.24%. So that reduction of $25,000 uh is associated with that revised percentage estimate. So uh we can pull back roughly $25,000 on the teachers retirement uh appropriation number in the budget as it stands today. So overall on the administrative side, a net decrease of just under $193,000. >> Thanks, John. Hi, my name is Ellen Dorado and I'm the director of student transportation. Thank

044you for inviting me to talk about my budget for the 26 27th school year. This is our staffing update. We are budgeted for 65 drivers, 27 bus attendants, seven full-time mechanics, which we have five, so we're still looking for two. We finally have a full complement of leadership. We have myself, uh, the fleet supervisor, John Hazelton, and two assistant supervisors. We have one 19A trainer, head trainer, and a half-time clerical. We're budgeted for $121,000 for substitutes and budgeted for $492,000 for overtime and extra hours. Health insurance, um, more people are taking our health insurance, so that number decreases with an overall total of 5.6 million. Okay. Salaries go up to 5.6 million like the earlier slide said of due to contractual obligations. The equipment line um was at 40 and now it's down to 10.

045So I did some digging into this um just to see what kind of equipment came out of this line and they're pretty high ticketed items. But we've replaced some of these items and with the help of O andM we were looking for some kind of a snow removal thing that goes around um the charge the chargers and the electric buses and uh Nick from O andM uh let us borrow a covered heated uh snow plow and so we can get by with that. Um, a couple of the other items that we got was uh the the air the air jack um and um the brake the brake check. So, they're around $6 8,000. So, we're comfortable decreasing that line to $10,000. With the fuel, I did a 7-year look back on fuel. Um we are

046decreasing that to 285 $285,000. Um the 7-year look back we progressively got well we got more inexpensive so we're saving money there. At first I thought we were doing a comparison with the use of EV buses but we're not ready for that comparison yet. Bus parts and supplies go up because of tariffs. Things are on the rise. We did some reporting and took a couple of items. Some items went up 14% in a couple months time. Insurance is up to $108,000 and all other operating costs will go down in the absence of um the migration that we have done with our routing system. Um we won't have the training and the cost of that migration. And hopefully in the next school year, um, we'll keep it low and it's going, uh, projected to be $36,000.

047Everything else, electricity and radios go down to $191,000, an overall total of 6.7 and up to 79,000 from last year. So, with additions, I do have one addition for the board and the superintendent to um consider this year uh is the replacement of our tablet docking systems. When we got the tablets for all the buses, they came in a a cradle that over time the connections weakened from the bus rides. So, I started to replace them with something that was more sturdy. Um they're $410 a piece, but I have to replace a hundred of them. So my um object isn't to have uh a shelf full in the parts parts room, but to replace them as needed. So I've been replacing three at a time. This is going to be a project over a two-year

048span. Um, and in the meanwhile, uh, our routing system, the ones who provided us with the docking stations and the tablets to start, um, have decided to provide us with, uh, 40 of the ProClip 2 version of the original cage that it came in. So, I think that will be a good plan B for, you know, sub buses and buses that are getting ready to surplus or if we run out of the the newer ones. And then there's the removal of the sale of buses revenue that John's going to talk about. Do you want to talk about that? >> Sure. Um just just briefly, the district's operating budget has traditionally included $135,000 in revenue associated with the sale of buses. We've carried that revenue line uh for the past several years. We used to make

049that revenue figure based on the market in general. Um, but given the the district's investment and and change in fleet management a little bit, we haven't hit that target for the past three or so years. So, as a result, without hitting that revenue target, the revenue is artificially provide, you know, earmarked revenue, which if we're not going to hit it, it it creates another structural imbalance. Part of the reason we haven't hit that $135,000 target is those buses that we were surplus the last time we did surplus and sell some buses, but the dollar value we got for those were relatively nominal. I think like5 or $6,000 for three buses. uh far short of the $135,000 uh budgeted coupled with the fact that for the most uh recent EV purchases because we maximize grant funding

050associated with that part of that grant program required the surplus of um the scrappage of buses which means they weren't available to sell. So as we get later into the presentation we can certainly still s try to sell some buses. Um, I don't know what the marketplace may uh may provide in terms of that cost, but if the board chooses the EV route um as a proposition and elect to take the scrappage component, we're certainly not going to make that. So, I didn't want to perpetuate a a hole in the budget. This to me is more of a policy uh decision. Um, if you want us to continue to to try to sell buses or you do not want uh to move forward on the EV side, the $135,000 in revenue can stay in. We'll

051try to meet it. But depending on the other conversations that go um take place based on those conversations, the board may want to remove that revenue um line item or lower it at least to to something lower that may be more achievable. So that brings us uh to an increase of $148,000. On the reduction side, we currently have 55 roots and happy to report we have 53 contractor drivers with two drivers waiting in the wings for a contract. We have 16 substitute drivers, eight of who work every single day, and 22 contracted attendants, six subattendants, and five of those work every single day. So, we're in pretty good shape. Um, we feel comfortable enough to um further reduce the number of vacancies uh for this upcoming year like we did last year, but we'll reduce

052the drivers by three and the bus attendants by two, giving us a net decrease of 363,000. So, the increase of 148,500 and the decrease of 363,700, we have a net decrease of $215,200. Now, on to the good part, the bus fleet. This process has been difficult and a little daunting, and I'm not sure if we have a chance to talk about all of it, but we have learned quite a bit this year. My goal is to help present you the reality of daily life with EV buses and diesel buses. It's a hot topic. It's politically charged, and we are subject to scrutiny and public perceptions. As a director and a leader of student transportation, we need to transport the students to and from school each day safely, and that's our mission. One of my esteemed

053colleagues suggests that directors get caught between two narratives. One that suggests EV buses are perfect and life is great with EV buses and the other that exclaims EV buses are a total losing proposition. My personal p opinion does not factor into any of these findings at all. We want we all want cleaner air and a healthier way to transport our students. Operationally, does it make sense? Are EVs the answer right now? Are we 100% ready? Because if we have learned nothing else, it's not just about the bus. It's about the chargers. It's about charging capability and charging software and training. It's about the area in which we live relative to terrain and and also weather. Frigid cold has taught us new lessons this year. That's for sure. We all need a plan B. Bethlehem has

054been the trailblazers for this initiative and there is value in that. Sharing our knowledge and sharing the truths about all of it will help the districts all over the state. So this is the traditional bus fleet and replacement plan. When I came there was a document that forecasted out the purchase and the sale of buses into 2032 I think it was. Um we so the ideal number to purchase and replace would be nine. So whatever combination small, large and now EV. So nine buses per year was the going rate. Couple of years um different things happened. So we got away from the replacement plan. We currently have 59 70 to 72 passenger buses. We have 10 EV buses. We have three midsize buses at 45 passengers. They're also wheelchair buses, so they can be configured.

055Uh we have 26 24 to 30 passenger buses. Some of those are wheelchairs, so they're not all 24 to 30 seats. They're not all 30 passengers. Um and then we have six 5 to eight passenger gasoline 4x4 Taho. Three of those actually are doing routes, you know, one to Saratoga. We just we go wide and far with those with a total of 104 vehicles. So with the traditional replacement plan, we would be replacing 16 large D2 buses. That's what we would have to replace to try and get back to the the regular plan. The revised approach we decided to take in buses that had higher mileage, body conditions, and uh the cost of maintenance and repairs. DOT carefully looks at the underneath of a bus. There can't be any body rots. There can't be any

056rust, structural damage or salt damage. So, while we were talking about this, we decided that we if whatever we all decide that we're going to purchase, there was a couple buses that don't fit the traditional uh specs and we would add those in with the higher mileage and one bus that's starting to get a little bit rotted underneath. I hope you remember, or maybe you do, maybe you don't, but I provided a chart last year that showed the uh amount of days that the electric buses were not operational. Um, this year we have 10 to feature and John keeps a document and he just adds to it daily. I mean, we do it for every bus, but we're featuring the EV buses. Um, so the last three that have asterisks are three buses that were

057only in operation 71 days. Like it says on the bottom as you can see that the percentage of time that these buses were out is pretty staggering. Um, some of these buses aren't left in January and have not returned yet. And if you look at the reasons, a lot of the reasons are the same reasons as last year. We're trying to move forward, but some things have improved and some things have stayed the same. One of our EV drivers was struck by the amount of charge she was losing in her bus during the first cold snap of this year. So, it was December, the week of December 8th was a Monday. And I won't read you the entire chart, but I will tell you about two of the days. So Monday, December 8th, it was

05821 degrees. The bus was 100% charged when she left the lot. She gets in about quarter to 6 and she leaves the lot around 6:00. At 107 when she pulled into the high school, the charge on her bus was at 38%. Well, she knew she couldn't finish the morning run. So she came back, she plugged in her bus. So 8:30 to 1:30 it charged and she took a diesel bus. In the afternoon when she came back back in she decided to take that bus because it had 74%. Um it was 22 degrees at that time and when it returned it was at 34. So it made a little better of showing in the afternoon and then later on in the week on Friday when it was 32° it was 100% when she left and after

059the morning run the whole morning run she came back at 52%. So I think that the takeaway here is that temperature plays a huge role with electric buses. She also did things like um fooled around with the heat. Did she heat the bus when she was staged? She just really uh turned it off as much as possible while still trying to maintain a cabin temperature of 55. This is what we call the turtle mode for EV buses. So, there's been probably at least 20 days this winter that I've had to bring in the snow team early around 4:00 or 4:30 in the morning to heat up all the buses, diesel and electric. Um, the everything's running and warming up and sometimes diesel buses have issues with jelling up fuel or uh the air won't build

060and it was just there was a lot of problems. But we got out of the gate most times. um these electric buses when they would get into electric buses and they'd start to run them um they this light would show up and they call it turtle mode. Turtle mode is when the bus won't go over 25%. Um so people tried to a couple times try to go down go down the bypass with them to see if it would maybe warm up and then get into a better speed. Sometimes they did and sometimes they did not. Um, so not very good and you don't know until you're out of the gate because you really need to run the bus to warm up the bus. So subzero temperatures result in turtle mode rendering the buses inoperable and

061battery preconditioning requirements exacerbate the impacts. Battery preconditioning can take two hours um between between charges. I talked about the fuel uh look back for seven years. Uh the 1920 and the 2021 we've switched fuel systems. So the cost was not available in the reporting but so the the total gallons uh we're up we were up this year. It's the biggest year yet. Uh the last year featured was just an estimate because when I did the report for this year it was exactly halfway and that's with the 10 EBS. Well, some of the things that we've learned is that when problems come up, we don't know if it's the bus, is it the charging station, is it the charge management? And we we were getting frustrated trying to figure it out. Uh the current EV battery

062design was was um a Proterra battery that we got from Matthew's bus. Um when everyone here picked the charging stations, they picked the Pro Terra charges figuring it would work together and I'm sure I'm sure it helped. Um but there have been hurdles to a successful implementation like the charge management last year that was our addition, the charge management software. We're still trying to work out those problems. Um it will say that the bus is charging or that the charger is on. The software management will tell you that it's charging a bus yet um really it the charging the charging is working but it's not reaching the bus. So, a couple of things when we were vetting this company was we wanted to know that if the power went out, would the charge management be

063able to pick this up with their 247 service and turn it back on? Well, the answer is yes, it can. It can turn the charger back on, but it's not turning the charge to the bus back on. I know there's a lot to learn, but the best thing that has come out of this year is Matthews, our bus vendor, uh has decided to immerse themselves in um a little bit more than just selling an electric bus or selling a bus. uh they have um listened to their customers who have had chargers, charging software and they started where they can't advertise what to buy and what not to buy. They've started a catalog for themselves to share information which has really been a big help because like I said you know to Nick when we had

064this meeting all together we brought everyone together like who do we turn to? Is it the bus? Is it you know is it the bus itself? Is it the charge management? And so now, uh, Matthews is starting to connect the dots for us. Um, starting to learn more about it all, but it has been a little challenging. Um, so now we're going to bring John back up and I'm going to sit down. So, as we get into more conversation in terms of what the replacement plan should look like for uh for the upcoming year, quick chart that shows the uh different cost designs of buses, whether they're traditional fuel types on both the large and small bus size. So, an EV large bus based on the quotes that we have today uh is roughly $485,000.

065There is some carryover state grant funding from the New York State Bus Improvement Plan uh program uh associated with that at $220,000. State aid for EV buses is actually reimbursed at the gross cost of that bus, not the net cost. So that yields another $264,000. So over the course of the 8-year payback period, uh the actual net cost to the district is $0. uh just but for some comparison you can see the cost differential between an EV large bus and a diesel bus of roughly $300,000 and the same um comparison between an EV small bus which are the minotaurs compared to its traditional fuel counterparts. Uh with regard to EV buses on the small side, uh New York State bus improvement program grant funding is available. I have not pursued it for a couple of

066reasons. A because that process is particularly timely uh between the district and the bus manufacturer, not necessarily guaranteed and presently uh the small bus inventory is sufficient. We're not necessarily recommending small bus replacement in general, but I did want to highlight that that funding is available should the board want the district to to move forward with an application in that regard. some care comparison in terms of quotes. I was curious is like okay um we are a Thomas fac shop uh within Bethlehem. Uh we have used Matthews buses uh incorporated over the past several um or the past several years and bus acquisitions. But where do their prices stack up compared to some of the competitors? Um and we're they're roughly right in line if not a little bit cheaper compared to those. I do

067want to highlight that Leonard bus does provide a large a bus with a larger battery battery capacity uh compared to some of the other ones. But I do want to highlight what the you know the what it gets you in terms of additional miles. So, while the KWH on the batteries certainly increased, the price is roughly $50,000 more and it gets you 20 m 20 additional miles compared to um the the buses that we're currently operating. Quick review and summary of the grant and financing uh opportunities available to the district. You may recall several maybe two cycles ago there was the Environmental Protection Agency clean school bus rebate program. We were a able to use that for one uh replacement bus cycle. We were hoping to use it last year but those funds were not

068secured in time. Uh actually our grant application was sort of pended uh despite the fact that we had used it to offset the costs. Eventually, the uh federal government opened up that funding, but then specifically for that bus acquisition, but then promptly closed down the program uh for 2024 grants. I did get information earlier this week that the EPA is considering and reviewing a new federal EPA grant opportunity. It's in the draft uh process now in terms of soliciting feedback and comment. It's sort of like a white paper uh process right now. I don't know if and when any federal funding may be available to offset future acquisitions. That being said, under the Environmental Bond Act, uh under the New York State bus improvement program, there is grant funding uh available um for bus acquisitions

069in the amount of $147,000 as a base voucher, an add-on of a $12,250 uh pot if the bus is vehicle to grid enabled, which our Thomas buses are. There's a $61,250 scrapage uh option. Uh getting back to our you know reduced revenue figure from earlier uh that would offset that um the cost of that bus. You add on your state aid over the course of eight years. Again the impact to the district is $0. Now I have worked with NAERTA and Matthews to get an extension associated with that grant opportunity. That extension is good until I think late May, early June should the board elect um EV acquisitions, but I have uh approval approval for only three. Um I don't know if the board is looking for additional ones, whether or not I can get

070a an application in place in time for uh our vote um in in a few months. Um but I do have at least security for three in that regard. Given some of the information that uh Ellen has proposed and that we have presented in in past budget cycles, uh while EVs are an option, certainly uh the district's recommendation is um an acquisition of nine large buses but of the diesel variety. Uh which gets you a proposition amount of roughly $1.6 million. The payback on state aid is roughly five years at just over a million dollars, meaning that the actual net cost of the district and taxpayers is just uh it's roughly $580,000. Again, to Ellen's point, because of the past couple of bus cycles, the traditional replacement plan called for roughly 16 um replacements. We're

071not recommending that now. Uh we do feel that nine are needed just based on wear, tear, condition of the body, and and mileage in general. as an alternative should the board option I I broke this out a little bit in terms of still the same nine that we're looking to replace uh reflecting and utilizing the nice grant funding uh for an EV and what that proposition would look like. The gross amount of the proposition is significantly higher because the cost of the EV buses are higher. Keep in mind that is what is actually presented to the public uh based on how proposition language is is drafted. We do our best to sort of spell out the various funding streams and to highlight what the net impact will be. um the you know the actual u

072impact to the of the proposition under this one is $386,000 but it doesn't really capture some of the operational challenges and lost time and resource cost that uh Ellen highlighted uh earlier. There are no district uh recommendations for a small bus replacement or the the Taho. We think we're sufficiently um stock for those at least for 26 27. We're certainly re-evaluating that uh over the course of you know every quarter what may need to be done. Um but I think we're good on the small buses as of right now and always a pitch from from transportation and the district at large. We're hiring anyone that has a CDL. We'll get you your CDL. We'll get you trained. Uh starting salary of $25.73 per hour that you're there for the first 10 months. We'll give you

073a retention bonus of $1,000. Come in. Bring a friend. Bring a family. We need we need your we need your help. Um so >> um before we move on to Aaron who I think is up next. Um questions on transportation. >> I just wanted to start with a note of thanks um both for John and especially for Ellen. I think when you started the conversation about the um EV buses, I think you you summed it up really well. It's far too often that folks in your position or or in any of our positions are put in the camp of of either for or against when we know that walking the path of a new transition or anything new like this is incredibly incredibly bumpy. And you're and your team have done a phenomenal job of

074managing those bumps and doing everything um while still getting our kids to and from school safely and keeping that as your north star. Um, and as this conversation unfolds and we sit with, you know, the presentation tonight and the implications, I'll I'll certainly have more questions for you both. And I just want to to say it's very apparent that you're you're digging in on the details here and what really matters as we try to figure out what's the best path forward for our kids. So, I I couldn't be more grateful for both of you. So, thank you for that. Has there been any I know that a couple years ago part of the EV um plan was to you know I would take it step by step because of the state mandate by I think

075it was 2030 um >> 2030 there's two dates there's a 2027 mandate meaning that there's no additional acquisitions of fossil fuel vehicles 2035 full fleet >> and so I guess my I I think the answer is no but has there been any further legislation on There's no I haven't seen legislation on it. The governor governor's office is reluctant to move the dates themselves. There is a waiver process now that gets you two additional years of waiverss, but it's unclear how the waiver process works absent that the actual dates themselves have been shifted. Um >> we had we had a legislative breakfast at Boseies and many of the local representatives were there. Um and they seem to regardless of where they in which party they all seem to agree that there need to be a change

076a shift because there some districts have no electric buses right now >> right I know that we were sort of a >> and there's also there districts who have you know gone out with one or two of them are waiting a year or more to even receive those. Um, so I think that they recognize there's there's going to be a need to shift that time frame, but um, they they didn't come up with what would that look like. You know, >> the only other question I have is that I know that and I I sort of echo the thanks for the the details and the amount of effort that went into the presentation. Um, with regard to the EV buses being down and maybe this was in here and it was just embedded and I

077did it. Do we have any kind of a cost sort of estimate for that for those down days? >> Not in terms of raw costs. Keep in mind some of the the issues with the EVs are covered under warranty, right? The easiest way to summarize this, Bob, is for every EV bus that's down, it cost me three buses, right? I have the EV bus that I that we purchase that is that is uh out of service for whatever reason, which means I need a diesel backup, right? >> But in order to get the EV in the case of the grant, I had to scrap three um or or at least one for a one for one. So that one EV bus is when it's out is actually cost me three bus in terms of inventory

078in the fleet. Um now some of them are you know in and out for for a maintenance deal but um a lot of the the work was being done up at Matthews up in Boston spa they are now have a mechanic on site to in the because what for for some additional context when they're when they're out of service it may not necessarily be that it's requiring you know x amount of days to be worked on but it's in like when you go to your car you know like hey you know drop it off I'll get it to you in six days. It's not taking them six days to work on it. It's just in the queue to get >> for that work. So, that's lost time on our side. Matthews has provided a mechanic

079in house now to sort of help with that to get those back on the road quicker. Uh so, that is hope to be a benefit uh moving forward. So there's there may still be downtime but maybe not as significant periods of time >> but thus far we've had the backup buses and that's corrected to to >> to and that plays into the the the sale of bus revenue as well. Right. So, we have these mandates that are coming and while we may have buses that were ripe or appropriate to be sold because they have higher mileage or, you know, they may have a little bit more wear and tear, is it in the district's best interest to hold on to those even though, you know, they may not be the brightest, shiniest buses, but they

080they run, they can be on a route. Um, we keep those in our inventory to accommodate um the the mandate dates moving forward. So that that's part of the the calculus in terms of removing that, you know, that $135,000 in sale revenue as well. >> Thank you. >> And you said 2027 is when >> 20 the the legislation calls for no additional >> purchases of fossil fuel buses in 20 by 2027. >> So does that mean that this year is the last year we can technically >> absolutely the waiver process which is relatively new that we're working through as well. So I I think you have some time on on that. But what's confusing for the for for the board to consider here is, you know, if buses have a useful life of 12 to

08115 years, even with the waiverss, if the full fleet has to be fully electrified by 2035, you're buying buses with a shelf life of only six years now because they were supposed to be fully electrified by 2035. >> Shelf life based on the legislation. based on based on the legislation, not on the operational component. >> Thank you. >> When we were talking about this last year, um we were in addition to talking about Matthews getting better service and support at Matthews, we were also talking about the potential, and it seemed far off then, but the potential for starting to get some training for our crew here as well. And I'm curious if that has gone anywhere or if there's if there's been any any movement on that front. >> I think that was the different

082level training. >> They never training. They they kind of promised us a year ago this month that they would roll out some more training, but that hasn't really progressed except for the awareness that's been raised about it. Uh it's more of a a guideline checklist what you need to do before you buy electric buses and it's all in there. Um I have a packet that I'd like to share with the board. I'll I'll email it to you. >> Yeah. >> Okay. That would be wonderful. Thank you. Um so I guess so the short answer is that no. We don't have is what I'm hearing. We don't have on-site additional on-site capabilities that we didn't have a year ago. >> That's right. Um, and sorry, I had one more question on these lines. Um, but I

083will have to wait for it to come back to me. Sorry about that. >> John, I feel like last year's budget there was a line in there for work on electric buses that need to be sent out because if it had was it an orange wire or a different colored wire, we couldn't touch it. >> Yep. >> And I thought we had a number associated with that last year. Is that embedded somewhere in here or >> it's probably in your your other contractual um figure and um off-site maintenance? Um so so that's in there. Now, all of the buses are still uh under warranty to in most of us there. We had one trouble bus last year that was outside of of the work that was outside of the warranty, but Matthews appreciated the position

084we were in and we had some, you know, negotiations in terms of lowering that cost. But, um, but to your point, we're not supposed to, we the district are not supposed to touch anything that's orange. Right now, you need specialized training for that. Ideally, that comes soon because the first trunch of buses that we got in are coming up on that 8-year warranty period. So, we only have maybe another two or so years before um if there is something outside of warranty, we're either going to pay Matthews to do it or we should be able to do that those services in house. >> Okay. Thank you. And then I I see that the you know I see the numbers of days out of service and some of these are alarmingly high and and some uh

085couple of them I I'm just curious would you mind pulling some similar comparisons of just a smattering of of age of diesel buses that we've got in our fleet. >> We had done that similar to last year. Um we we can certainly do that again. um okay just for comparison >> it's it's a fair one you know we'll pull that again uh together for for the March 4th so so you have a presentation we'll pull the most recent diesels that we we purchased or the even the gas small >> and some of the oldest ones right so we've got like the oldest and some of the newer ones to get >> diesels break down too right you know it's just when you compare the two based on my recollection of the slide last year you

086know you're looking at 10 to 12% of downtime we'll certainly at that that presentation for the March 4th one and do a quick sidebyside for we'll do 10 and 10 or since that's what you have. >> Thank you. >> Uh and we'll go from there for that comparison. >> Okay. >> All right. >> Thank you. >> Sorry, one last if I may. One last thing. Some of these things are can we when it is the u the crossing arm that's down or the transmission's leaking or >> you know the battery life bad example um but you know something else that is fairly standard on buses are we able to address those challenges on site or or those problems >> some of them are right um the the electrical components is complicated right because you have

087a you have a different propulsion system in terms of battery life in terms of how the EV batteries interplaying with your standard 12volt battery and John tell me if I'm speaking out of you know incorrectly here but there you know there there's a nexus there when you add all the electronics on whether it's the stop arm whether it's the radio whether it's the tablets whether it's the um whatever you know we we decorate these buses like Christmas trees sometimes with all the all these electric it pulls and sometimes conflicts with that so it could be a stop arm that just the stop arm isn't working but is it tied to the electrical harness or wiring in some way that we're not necessarily proficient with. Um, but there you you may see when we pull the

088the diesel comparison there was, you know, a stop arm there or, you know, a bad brake comp like these things, they're machines, right? They break down. Um, so that that may provide some additional insight for you. >> Thank you. I was just I was just curious like how much of the stuff is how much of the the problems we're seeing here are things that we can address on site versus like no every time something goes wrong it's got to go. >> Yeah. I I mean some of the ones are concerning like your your power trains um >> the you know the no starts um the coolant leaks. Um I don't know if it's necessarily a coolant leak in terms of of the radiator or the coolant leak in terms of the coolant that uh flows

089around the battery to keep it cool. um crossing arms, you know, uh breakage, like those are standard fair, right? And you're going to see those sort of similarly presented uh on the diesel comparison. >> Yeah. Thank you. I really appreciate that. >> Aaron, I think you're up next. >> Try to get the sweat off your >> Thank you. Good evening, everybody. Now, on to some technology. Um so this is my overall budget overview. Um projecting just over about half a percent increase. Um most of the increases are within the Boseies line. You will see uh showing a decrease in materials and supplies and that's actually mostly due to an ink supply that we had been keeping but we contract out all of our printing services now. Uh which also is a large part of the

090Boseies increase because we print a lot. we are not on screens as much as people think. We are uh our printing costs have skyrocketed. So um that is one of our larger Bose services that we do um utilize. Uh and that's really the largest increase there. And then the largest decrease is associated with that supply line that's mostly tied to ink and we also don't use inkjet printers anymore. We're mostly using toner now. Um salaries and position information. uh we have the same amount of staff that we have had the last couple years. We had some retirements and some people come and go um but we are maintaining that um 10 FTE in my department and that remains pretty static. For my Bosey's aid, we are um projected to go down just a tiny bit

091for our aid um that we will be receiving this year, but I project that that will go up for the next year. for my additions. Uh the one addition that I have is uh related to a change in title of one of my current management positions to an assistant director of educational technology. Uh and this uh culminates kind of the end of a completion of certain duties and tasks that this person has um done. So that is what that position is. It is not an additional position rather a change in positions within my department. The other addition I'm going to take some time to explain because it's an addition and a reduction for the same amount of money. Um, and that's the Smart Bond Initiative. So, the Smart Bond Initiative, um, this actually was a

092statewide initiative that was passed by New York in 2014. Uh, we were initially, um, slated to receive just over $2 million. and we spent most of that in 2019 and 2021, but we actually still have $316,000 left that we can use. Um, the main purpose of this allocation is for classroom technology. When we originally um presented the plans back in 2019, we used it mainly for the Vonic boards and replacing the teacher devices with teacher Chromebooks and um computers to go on the back of the Vonic boards as well and then the stands and the accessories that go along with those. So, we did most of that work across the district in 2019 and then we finished the elementarymentaries in 2021. So, with the remaining money that we have, we want to use it to

093replace all of the computers that are attached to the back of the VSIC boards. Vonic boards really have about a 10-year lifespan for the most part. Um, but replacing 350 um when they're, you know, $1,600 a piece is not ideal for a budget, especially when it was purchased off of a one-off bank of money. Um, so I've been we have I have already built in a replacement cycle for about 10 a year. Uh, and that's been working because some the average lifespan is 10 years, but we're definitely losing more and more as they age out. So I think having more in stock um the 20 will help and then replacing all of the computers because the computer average lifespan is about four to five years. So they're all up for that. So, that is the

094plan. And then we have some accessories that go along with those things that have wear and tear. The boards have elevators. That's what we call them. It's what makes them go up and down. Um surge protectors. Uh and then we also have an allocation for private schools within districts like St. Thomas that we would um tell them what their allocation is to give to them for that. So, that is my overall budget. Um for the smart schools, there are some requirements that goes along with it. Uh I've been going around and meeting with all of the buildings uh the tech coaches and the liaison uh and the and the BCTA tech committee. Um and so I'm presenting my prelim preliminary investment plan to you guys tonight. And then we need do need to have a

095public hearing on this. Um we're looking to do that at some point in March, maybe alongside the budget public hearing. Um and then if everything is approved, then we would submit this application to New York State and then pending their approval, we would be able to purchase those devices. hopefully over the summer and install them if we're lucky before the start of the school year, but I'm not that optimistic that things will go through state planning that quickly. So maybe by the winter break next school year, we would be able to get them all installed. So that is the um timeline. That's the overall budget that I have for this year. Um at just about a half a percent increase. Any questions for me? >> Questions for smartphone? >> No. Okay. You're awesome. Thank you.

096>> Thank you, >> Nick. You're up. Oh, he's got his head on. Oh, >> good evening. I've been uh told to keep it brief, so I will do so. Um, so this is the operations and maintenance budget overview. Um, as my uh colleagues have mentioned, salaries, we've got a a slight increase due to uh fringe benefits, uh, step increases, etc. Our equipment and vehicles, if you notice, slightly increased from last year uh because I need to purchase two vehicles. Last year, we opted to not purchase one vehicle and uh now it's a necessity. if approved. Uh it's our we call it the Pony Express, our pony van that does the uh inner office mail and package deliveries. Uh we need to replace that vehicle. It's in in dire need. And one of our mechanic service

097vans. Again, we had a uh a vacancy in that position and we discussed not purchasing that van last year. Uh and this year I'm requesting that we do. And additionally, the uh equipment and vehicles line carries $30,000 uh line item for potential portable air conditioners for testing in June if the weather is consistent with the previous years. Um our contracted services slight uh decreased slightly and our special projects increased slightly as well. Overall, we have a a net increase of uh the budget this year as opposed to last year. uh by about $150,000. One one thing I won't do is talk about doodle bugs and things like that. Um but what I did want to mention in our special projects line is the um one of the initiatives that that we're carrying a line item

098for is uh our safety and security of our buildings. And uh one of those items is to install reflective uh door numbering system throughout the district. They're exterior signs that um would be used in a tactical situation or any emergency, if you will, that the public andor uh emergency services can use that door. They, you know, enter door one, enter door five, etc. Um uh most school districts have those and uh I'd like to get those done this year uh to improve our safety and security. >> Great. No, >> no, that's it. >> Is this board? >> Okay. So, um as far as salary and position information, um my slide is um uh full-time employees have not changed. I'm fully staffed uh right now uh with 39 custodial personnel, 15 maintenance personnel, uh three administrators,

099and one administrative assistant. Um again the the uh overall line item increases slightly due to fringe benefits um step increases longevity etc. Um this year I'm going to get on my soap box regarding utilities um because I feel it's important um that we talk about this as we embark on our upcoming capital project and uh the volatility right now of our utilities markets uh especially in New York State. This slide that I want to show you here is our annual electrical use. Um and I think it's it's really interesting. Um we were up around 5 megawws uh or 500 or 5 million kilowatt hours back in uh 200uh9 and 2010. Um we cruised along up and down. Uh in 2016 Bethlehem uh undertook a a energy performance contract and you can see a a massive

100reduction. And when I say massive, I don't know the percentage, but we went from five megawatts down to about three and a half. Um, if you look at the blue shaded area, this is our most recent four years. You can see that we're peeking out almost at an all-time high of energy use within the district. All right. Um, the the cost has not followed the um the the chart line. In other words, the cost fluctuates depending on the market and our nice smack or our uh cooperative uh bidding. So it doesn't mean that if our energy increased our cost increase, but most of the time it does. So the point of this slide is to show that we are really close to our all-time high in energy use or electrical use in the district. Um

101on average for the last four years it cost us about $432,000 uh in in electricity alone um for utilities. The next slide is our annual gas usage. Um and it's up and down. Uh it depends on how harsh our winters are. I don't John and I, neither of us look forward to seeing this winter's uh cycle of bills due to the harsh uh January and and uh or late December, January, and February temperatures. Um on average, we're at about 190,000 per year in uh natural gas costs. Um one one positive associated with that is um notice it it's kind of dropping down. We have been replacing our not as efficient boilers uh in our buildings with high efficiency boilers and um in this coming capital bomb project we have two buildings uh Ellir and Slingerlands

102that we uh plan on doing the same thing. So hopefully we can reduce our usage because the costs are going up. Um I just want to talk about some of the factors affecting um our utility costs. Um we have physical ones. We have to light the spaces. We have to treat the air. Um we have to cook the food, teach our students. Um information technology um you know is all electronic. We have our technology labs. Our EV charging has caused our um electrical usage to go up. Um our energy management system that we have, our building automation system is not as optimized as it was. We plan on recommissioning that. And our envelope in some of our buildings is not great because our buildings are very old. Uh we have our behavioral issues. You know,

103the folks tend to leave the lights on when they shouldn't. Um we may have appliances in the classrooms, things like that. Um programmatic, you know, some things have changed. We've got extended hours with our sports, community events, community use, um our extended meal programs for food preparation, and then of course our seasons. We've got extreme hot and extreme cold. No real in between, it appears. So, we have some anticipated utility cost increases. Um, National Grid's been authorized by the Public Service Commission to raise utility rates over the next three years. Uh, natural gas by 40%. And electricity by 31%. Um the the factors that affected those uh authorized rate increases are accelerating demand, clean energy mandates and capacity charges, uh geopolitical and market factors and utility rate increases themselves from the suppliers. There's some good

104news um associated with that. Um we use the New York school municipal energy consortium that I had mentioned earlier. Um, we we BCSD has uh secured a three-year energy agreement with NISME that becomes effective May 1 through April 30 of 2029 and it ensures our budget stability and mitigates the impact or potential impact of those cost increases that the public safety commission authorized. So our electric um is increased to uh uh 00979 kilowatt hour cents per kilowatt hour um which is a fixed increase for the next three years of only 22.84%. Our natural gas side it's it's uh 39 cents a therm and it's a fixed at 19.54 for the next three years. So that's a great thing. we we know that we're not going to suddenly get hit with a 15% here and another

10510% there. So, it gives us some stability um against the the utility hikes. Um some people may or may not know that um we have a 2.1 megawatt solar array um that we have a 20-year lease that we entered into in 2019. It became active. Um, it's known as the Lraange Farm. It's up uh at 1082 Delaware Avenue. Um, it averages over the last or since installed since 2019 about 2.5 megawws per year. Um, and the average solar credits, why is that doing that? Is that me? The average solar credits uh that we receive is $392,000 a year. Um, and we use that to offset our electric bills. But what I want to caution is that we also pay a vendor $360,000 per year for the maintenance and operation of the solar farm. Okay? So,

106we net about $32,000 per year um by having this solar farm in addition to reducing our carbon footprint and um fossil fuel usage. All right. Another good uh some good news is um National Grid has rolled out so or they haven't rolled them out yet. They just initiated what's called an EV phasein rate. I've been working with National Grid and their personnel. It's a new commercial electric rate available to help offset demand charges um for our electric bills. demand is uh very painful because uh depending on when you use your electricity um is is when you get hit hardest with your demand rates. Our demand rate is currently $16.99 per kilowatt hour um over any 15minute interval. All right, it's it's our highest peak uh most of the time. We experienced that during a a

107June day when it's 95 degrees out. We're charging buses, everything's running, people are got extra fans going at and we exceed our our demand limit. Okay? So, any kilowatt hour over that, we get charged $16.99. So, they're they're crushing th those costs are very expensive. Um, so our I just pointed out some uh what National Grid publishes as their uh peak periods during the summer which is now it used to be June to uh August. It's now September uh because the Earth's rotating differently or something. Uh but it's June to September. It's between 8 and 3 and 7 and 10. So they don't give you much that is not peak. All right. So when you're you using excess energy during those time periods we pay extra. Uh in the winter hours it's October through May,

1088 to 10 on weekdays. Um we don't really see high demand charges in our winter periods here in Bethlehem. Then you got super peak June through September which is 3 to 7 when everybody gets home from work and uh air conditioning comes on, dinners are being cooked, etc. So umformational uh Bethlehem is considered a small general service customer and um service customer too. Uh and we do experience demand. We in other words we're uh susceptible to those demand charges. Um and we're also in zone F in New York State. There's different rates for different zones throughout the state. Um, I have applied already uh for our Protera chargers or our large um cabinet chargers that are that we just installed, our Proteras as they're known. Um, I've applied for these rates for those and our

109seven wall-mounted chargers or our Delta chargers that we have. Uh originally we didn't think we we would be applicable for our Delta chargers and National Grid is working with us because we use both of these chargers depending on uh the day. Um these are tier based rates um and we don't know which tier will be in yet until National Grid approves that. But um a standard uh demand rate is $16.99 $16.99 per kilowatt. Uh, tier one, there is no um, uh, rebate, if you will. Tier two, um, we would pay $4.25 per kilowatt versus $16.99. Tier three, it would be $850. And, um, tier four, we'd be $12.74 uh, cents per kW. So, if you did the math, um, it's somewhere between 15% and 45% savings on our demand charges. So this is uh hopefully

110we get approved and we can realize those and that that will help offset um that is just only applicable to our EV charging um systems. So still talking about energy um we discussed this in previous presentations and we're recommending an energy audit to aid in the design of our approved air conditioning um and to reduce our existing utility costs. um associated with the the 2025 capital bomb project. So, we went out for uh requests for proposals on January 16th of 26. Uh we solicited um we went out for a level two energy audit. I'll get to that in a second. Uh we went to five different vendors and we received only one submission from NV5 Global, which is a firm out of New York City. uh that our architect has worked with. Uh no other

111bids were received. So NV5 was the sole bidder. I'd like to talk a little bit about the energy audit itself, what the the components of that is. Um it's a comprehensive evaluation of our building energy use and our performance. So that's our current and we're going to talk about our uh future as as we put all this new electric equipment in as part of the bond project. So they do an initial walkthrough with facility and staff operators etc. and they gather uh a lot of data on how we operate and what our utilities do cost us currently. Um they enter identify energy conservation measures which are ECMS. An example of that would be if we had um T8 light fixtures, they would identify that, hey, we there's a savings there if you were to switch

112to LED and they present how much it would cost to switch to LED and what the return on investment would be for that. Um they would calculate the energy cost, the greenhouse gas savings and etc using industry models, industry standard models and benchmarks. Um then once they're done with that they deliver a detailed energy audit report summary summarizing the findings recommending the um energy conservation measures the financial and environmental impacts and what implementations that we should consider. Um the utility bills are analyzed to understand our billing structures, our costs and usage patterns and um um and the variance in use by our space type. And then uh the measures are prioritiz based on savings potential and cost effectiveness. Just because you have a non-LEDD light doesn't mean it makes sense to change said light because

113it may cost more and your return on investment may take 25 years to pay off. So um they'll they'll provide us with recommendations. The second part of this energy audit is analysis of our cooling solutions or what I should say are our proposed cooling solutions. as we uh talked about a lot was air conditioning the buildings um and spaces and we have options and quite frankly we wanted another set of eyes to look at these options. There's many and we want to make sure that our architects, engineers and this firm um really focus on that and and pick the best equipment for us to install in this bond project. Okay. Um, we have options such as chilled water. We have central station chilled water. We have unitary chilled water. What works best for us? Rooftop

114units that are gas fired. Um, variable refrigerant systems, geothermal, etc. Um, one of the challenges is they change the refrigerant as I've mentioned before. So, that that may not be cost-effective for us. Um so this firm will recommend up to two cost-effective solutions per site using life cycle cost analysis that includes the upfront capital cost, how much energy it's projected to use, um the operation and maintenance of it and incentives to be incorporated into the design of the proposed project. So, we will work together with the architect engineers to uh determine what's best for Bethlehem in all of our facilities that will be doing the air conditioning. All right. Uh the benefits of this, it's a detailed investment grade analysis of our current and our future uh energy use. We just talked about our utilities.

115Um, if we add this equipment, no matter what equipment, it's going to increase our usage, which is in turn going to increase our utility costs. Somehow we become more energy efficient, but our utility bills don't go down. Um, so they're going to provide us with actionable high return on investment and lowcost or no cost energy conservation measures. They're going to evaluate and compare life cycle costs, recommending the optimal cooling solutions uh that we want to incorporate into this capital bomb project and potential future. As you recall, we're only doing um common spaces at several of the buildings. We're doing all second floor spaces that have uh buildings that have second floors. and they're going to provide guidance and assistance with the submission of, you know, whether it be National Grid, NAERTA, or other available grants

116to help offset the implementation of the uh energy conservation measures. Um, we're recommending that we perform this energy audit in the 2526 fiscal year, uh, so that it coincides with the u design of the capital bomb project. So we we don't do this after it's already designed and then we realize we want to redesign it. So that that saves us money. Um so it'll help guide the architects and engineers during design phase one which is happening now uh spring of 26. Um and then it will also guide them during phase two of our mechanical electrical and plumbing systems in the fall of 26. Um, doing it now will also, um, allow the district to implement sooner, um, resulting in immediate cost savings instead of waiting for three years to, uh, help offset the increased costs.

117And it'll allow us to apply earlier for National Grid, NAERTA, and other available grants that allows a stronger fiscal management. And also, if others are out there, they only have so many funds available. So, we want to get in there as soon as we can before the uh funds are exhausted. So, the cost and funding for this energy audit um again, NV5 Global, Inc. was the only or the sole bidder at 149,200. They're the lowest responsible firm meeting all the RFP specifications. um working with the business office, John and his staff, um we've had ongoing discussions evaluating the status of operations and maintenance budget accounts for potential available funds as well as other budget lines and funding sources to ensure sufficient funds are available for this initiative in the 2526 um year fiscal year. Moving

118on to our capital outlay. Um we talked about these before. Uh this year's recommended capital outlay is again the door monitoring uh system for our Slingins Elementary School. Um the middle school has been completed, the high school has been completed and Hammock Girl will be finished in May of this year. Uh for just to recap, it it monitors our doors during occupied hours so that we don't have doors that are propped open. And again, that supports our safety and security initiative. And as as we progress in future years, we're we're going school by school and getting getting these done on an annual basis. So, um, the additions for operations and maintenance is, uh, a security camera replacement plan. Um, we we discussed this internally carrying a line item of $20,000. Um, we have 488 cameras

119districtwide. That doesn't include our intercoms. And as we go along, um Aaron kind of mentioned it. Things um wear out, they break, um and we need to come up with a plan to replace these so that it's not an emergency. It's part of our safety security and uh it it aids us with our um liability when it comes to certain um or potential litigation. How's that? Uh the other uh line item is a radio replacement allocation as well for $7,500. Um again, that's wear and tear on these radios. We did a full audit audit of our radio systems. We've kind of got our arms around that and we feel that uh $7,500 in this uh budget cycle is enough to keep the the radios that we have in good working order uh with some replacements

120um and and the components that need to be replaced on them. And finally, we have uh facilities equipment inspections, which is our gym stage and rigging. Um you know op uh I forgot to mention we have 259 radios districtwide uh amongst the schools and operations and maintenance and those are used during any emergency. They're used daily for standard operations for our new needs etc. Okay, moving on to our equipment inspections. Um operations and maintenance. We routinely maintain and repair our equipment. Um, New York State Ed does not require annual third party. However, we haven't had third parties done in in quite a while here and and and it's a recommendation to have them come in and check the equipment. Um, there are ASM and ANIE guidelines that strongly recommend it annual documented inspections by qualified

121U technicians and and we would be comfortable as most of our systems were new. um we don't need to do that as we progress. Now, for example, the middle school uh stage rigging is basically a year old, two years old. So, we want to get that inspected as it gets used more often. Um the elementary schools that have not been upgraded don't have uh the the latest technology with electronic hoist and things like that. So, we inspect them, but we need qualified techs to come in and do that. Additionally, um our gymnasium equipment, um the majority of our equipment now is all electronically actuated and retractable. Um backboards or basketball goals, things like that, our bleachers, we need to have those inspected by qualified technicians as well. So overall, uh, the additions would be $33,500

122to O andM's budget and I have no subtractions at all. So that is what I have this evening. Is there any questions that I can help you with? >> Questions for >> um just a thanks for moving forward on the energy audit. I think that's a tremendous asset to the um the district. So, thank you John. >> Have a quick question on that solar farm. >> Yes. >> So, I mean pretty pretty big outlay for maintenance and operation. Are we always in a positive situation on that or is ever get where we have a time where we don't get as much sun but there's more maintenance? >> I assume we're only leasing the land. We got to maintain all of the the panels and the infrastructure. >> That's correct. So, um I do have that

123data. I didn't present it here, but I can tell you year by year exactly. Um we John and I worked on a spreadsheet and got it all together. Um and there is fluctuation. There's projected, there's actual, and then we have all that data by year, and we we could provide that to you. >> I just just wondering just because it's it's pretty. >> Are we ever in the red? >> Yeah, >> there's there there's been a few years where we're we're we're not as as black as as we would like, right? Uh in terms of in the black uh compared to red. So, um let us get you something in terms of a sidebyside for the years. I mean, keep in mind it's only been in for for 1920. There is a clause in the

124agreement that within a any two-year period, I think if if it doesn't reach a certain capacity, there's some reconfiguring of the payment versus the solar credit. So, uh we we can get that for for a quick uh slide next presentation. I'm happy. our 20-year lease is up like close to 20 39 24. Okay. >> You know, part of part of the concern is that over the course of time, those solar panels produce less because of just the age of the panels themselves >> and they're dirty. So, >> yeah. Yeah. >> So, we are under contract with it's Nautilus Solar. They maintain the farm. They do all the >> um intermediate between us and National Grid. That's how we get our remote net meter credits >> that we use. uh to offset our national grade bills.

125>> Gotcha. Okay. >> All right. Thank you. >> John, you said it was a 20-year lease. Is that a lease on the land? Is that a lease on the solar farm? Is that a lease on the What? How? Help me out there. >> It's It's both. >> It is both. >> It's the whole bank. >> It's the actual array on the plot of land. >> That's right. >> Got it. Thank you. >> Thank you, Nick. >> That's it. Awesome. Thank you. have good evening. >> Are you doing a wrap-up? >> I can to let the kids out. >> But yeah, I was going to Meredith reminded me that it is nine o'clock. So, let's take two seconds so that the um all of our pagan super students can sign out >> and go home. You

126can sit. You can stay. You're welcome to stay. >> Oh, yeah. >> We have before the finale, >> but if you decide to leave, don't forget to sign up. What was the finish line? Okay. Um, quick budget overview again to ending where we started from. Uh, the expenditures as of the presentation beginning today was roughly $124.4 million. You can see the revenue at 116.3 left us with an initial gap of $4.1 million. uh we had some additions and deletions over the course of the evening. Uh again in summary, the uh change on the administrative uh side was really tied to the TRS change in rate uh for our teachers and instructional leadership. Uh there were some additions uh both in terms of the nursing um renovations and the evacue chairs for the for the buildings.

127on transportation. Um on the expenditure side, we were removing five vacancies, three drivers, two bus attendants. We are also for board consideration in large part in terms of the vehicle replacement plan, a reduction of revenue and $135,000 associated with the sale of buses. On technology, we have an in andout of roughly $317,000 uh for the smart bond initiative with some ancillary changes on the operating side. and Nick just talked about $33,500 in terms of various replacement um opportunities for equipment. So, without that all being said, you have revised expenditures and revenue totals, which reduces the gap, but we still have a lot of headway to go. It's roughly $3.8 million, uh which translates today to a tax levy increase of 5.1%. Going back to the beginning, the maximum amount under the tax levy uh cap

128is 2.61% which yields a million982 uh which is about half that number. So um and that's if the board chooses to to maximize that 2.61% tax levy increase rate. That means over the course of the next few weeks, we have to find uh at least an additional $1.8 $8 million in either additional expenditure reductions or um increased revenue. I can tell you that the the revenue estimates as they stand now are pretty aggressive, meaning that I don't think there's a whole lot of room to really move those needles in uh in any meaningful fashion to decrease that rate, which means the work that we have in front of us is really on the expenditure side. And given those cost pressures between what we talked about in terms of some thematic conceptual ideas, our utility uh

129components, the fringe benefit components, um we will really need to to take a look at available um positions in terms of vacancies moving forward. Um so that's the the tail of tape on the expenditure side. do want to highlight that uh as part of our May 19th float, there will be three uh board of education seats um for three-year terms expiring June 30th, 2029. Uh petitions became available February 20th from the district clerk, Britney Barrett, and are due back to the district clerk no later than close uh 5:00 p.m. on April 21st. Here is the calendar as it currently stands. We have a couple of additional discussions uh both on March 4th and March 18th uh to finalize the operating budget in terms of presentations and discussions. There is an additional meeting between that provides

130some some cushion for the board to consider options as of April 1st if it's needed. I do want to highlight that the public notice associated with the vote has to be released no later than April 4th. So, we don't have a lot of leeway um by, you know, after April 1st. So, Britney and I will need to sort of shore up as much as we can in advance of April 1 so we can get the the notices to the um the periodicals record and get that all ready to go should an April 1 date be needed. May 6 will be the public hearing on the budget and as Aaron had mentioned, we may want to parallel that with the smart bond initiative to have a public hearing on both the budget and the initiative at

131that point in time. May 13th is a uh board of education meet the candidates night and then May 19th is our vote from 7:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. in Jim A in the high school. So, uh that's a summary. I know we're already looking forward to May because hopefully it'll be nice and sunny and you know the birds will be chirping at that point in time. So, I'm happy to answer any additional questions. The one thing I want to make sure leaving here tonight because March 4th is >> next week. >> Any additional information or you know presentation materials you want based on the information today. I know Katherine asked for some information on diesel buses. John asked for a side by side on the the solar farm. We're happy to get those. We'll include

132those in the presentation. Anything else uh that would make your understanding your um a little bit easier for your contemplations and deliberations moving forward? >> I don't think so. Not at this point. >> Okay. >> Thank you. Thanks. >> Thank you. >> Uh next on the agenda is our recognition of public comment on an agenda item. If we have any visitors who would like to address the board on an agenda item, now would be the time to come up to the microphone. Item six, action items. Uh, a, finance action items. It is recommended by the superintendent that the board of education approve the following finance action items one through three. >> So moved. >> Second. >> Any discussion? >> All in favor? I >> I. Any opposed? Any abstensions? That carries. B. Professional personnel action

133items. It is recommended by the superintendent that the board of education approve the following professional personnel action items one through nine. >> So moved. >> Second. >> Um any discussion? All in favor? >> I. Any opposed? Any abstensions? That carries. Um, and I wanted to um recognize uh Drew who is here who we was just on that list um for the director of athletics and wellness position. Drew, I don't know if you want to come up and just introduce yourself to everybody and feel free to say whatever you want. >> Good evening everyone. I've already learned so much tonight. So, I appreciate everyone. Uh first off, I want to thank the interview committee and Jod for bringing me forward. Um, and thank you to the board for appointing me the next director of athletics and

134wellness here at Bethlehem. I'm incredibly grateful and excited to start uh in such a wonderful district and wonderful community. So again, thank you very much. I look forward to starting and I'll be around this spring, so I hope to see everyone then. >> Thank you. >> Congratulations. >> Thank you. >> Uh C, support personnel action items. It is recommended by the superintendent that the board of education approve the following support staff action items. one through four. So moved. >> Second. >> Uh any discussion? All in favor? I >> I. Any opposed? Any abstensions? That carries. D. Other action items. It is recommended by the superintendent that the board of education approve the following action items one through four. >> So move. Second. >> Any discussion? >> All in favor? >> I. Any opposed? Any abstensions?

135That carries. Um item seven, recognition of public comment on a non-aggenda item. Um if we have any visitors who would like to address the board on a non-aggenda item, this would be the time to come to the microphone. Item eight, future meetings and events. Um our next uh board meeting is next week. Um which feels sort of off cycle because of the um of the break. Um but it is next week. next Wednesday. Um that's here at the high school. Um anticipating executive session at 6:00 and reconvening to open session at 7. On Monday, March 9th, we have a policy committee meeting um here in the district office at 6:00. Um and then our second March meeting is on Wednesday, March 18th, uh here at the high school. Again, anticipating executive session at 6:00 and

136reconvening to open session at 7. Um, seeing no need to go back into executive session, could I have a motion to adjourn the meeting? >> Second. >> Uh, all in favor? >> I meeting adjourned.