001Um, if we could reconvene our meeting to open session. The board has been in executive session since 6:00 to discuss a contractual matter and a personnel matter. If we could please stand for the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Introductions. Dave Hurst, Lauren Graco, Robert Teen, Jody Monroe, Holly Don Boss, Mayor, John Walston, John Mel, um, and Katherine Nat, and you McNay are unable to be here this evening. Um, do we have any, um, Pig or SUPA students visiting us tonight, squeezing it in before the end of the year? Um, thank you, uh, guys, for coming. Um, you need to stay until the meeting is over or
002nine o'clock, whichever one of those comes first. And don't leave without coming up and signing out on one of the sign out sheets that's up here. You only need to sign out on one, but that's how you get credit for being here. Uh, first is our approval of minutes. Um, and first it is recommended by the superintendent that the board of education approve the minutes from the May 7th, 2025 regular board meeting. So moved. Second. Any discussion? All in favor? I. Any opposed? Any abstensions? That carries. And second, it is recommended that the board of education approve the minutes from the May 20th, 2025 annual budget vote and board of education election. [Music] Any discussion? All in favor? I. Any opposed? Any abstensions? That carries. Uh, next is our meeting reports. And first is our
003superintendent's report. Sure. Uh thank you. Uh first I just want to thank the community for the successful budget vote. We had a large turnout. I don't know if anyone noticed, but if you compare our voter turnout to many schools around the area, we have a really high percentage of people who come out still. Be great to see more, but it's nice to see everyone and a lot of our alumni. Um, so thank you to the community and congratulations Bob and John for three more years on the board of education. Um, so that's uh my first thing and then next we have some students here this evening um that we want to recognize. So I'm going to ask um Mr. Majeski to come on up. We have our stock market challenge winners and they're going to
004tell you a little bit about the stock market challenge and and what they did. If you didn't see their clip, they were on News Channel 10. Was it 10 a couple weeks ago? 10. Yes. So, go ahead. Uh, my name is Jace Majeski. I uh I teach uh economics here at the school and I also have the pleasure of uh meeting or working with some students after school um with our stock market club. We uh meet weekly and uh I mean we talk about a lot of different things. A lot of times it ends up being current event type stuff, but how that will ultimately connect to the financial markets, specifically the stock market. Um I'm more of a just a facilitator. Um but really it's the work of these individuals, these gentlemen here that
005uh really do all the work. Um and they do a great job. So besides just kind of running the meeting and uh sharing what they know and teaching more about the financial markets to many students in the building, um they also play the stock market game. Um we play a couple games throughout the year and uh we've had success in the past, but we've never had a one-two punch. Um where we've had two students, one and two, uh in the state. Um, so it's quite a an accomplishment and uh I it's really not about me. I I mean more about just setting it up for them to have uh this real life opportunity. Um but it's the work of these gentlemen. So I'm I'm going to let them introduce themselves and uh just say a
006few words because again it's it's their accomplishments that's important. So and share your strategy specifically. Yeah. So as Mr. Majeski already said um me and Ver participated in this year's spring Sigma Foundation stock market game. So it's a short-term sort of game taking place from around January to April 11th I believe. And um over the course of it me and Ver ended up becoming he was the first in the state and I was the second in the state out of around 4,500 participants. Um would you like to go into your strategy? Uh yeah, so before we get to that, uh I believe Mammud forgot to introduce himself. Um my name is V. Williams. I'm a senior at BCHS. This is Mammud Zamir, also a senior at BCHS. Um as he said, we placed number one
007and number two. I ended up with roughly 138,000 starting with 100,000. Mmood finished at roughly 128,000. Um as for our strategy, there was significant overlap as you might imagine. Um and the main uh goal from both of us was um to go against the markets and ultimately bet against a lot of the speculative investing that has been going on recently particularly in the tech sector. Um and as we saw recently especially uncertainty with uh tariff policies considering the fiscal policy that's going on currently um ultimately proved to be proved to be profitable to short sell a lot of companies. Um we both shorted a lot of companies in the quantum computing uh industry. Um that was especially um speculative at this time just because they're not quite up and running yet and the tariffs um
008are definitely impactful in industries that have yet to produce a product. So it's something to consider that when there's a shaky market like what we're experiencing currently uh to consider the value of the company that you're investing in whether or not they have a proven brand. And the companies that we decided to short sell which was betting against um ultimately had had no products to provide and they were the first to be hit by the the poor conditions in the current markets. Anything to add mood? Sure. So as V said I'm sure you guys have seen the volatility recently within maybe your own portfolios but the time that the market that the game took place the market was definitely very interesting and very volatile. So, we tried our best to stay updated with all the
009news and stuff and really tried to figure out what was going on. A lot of times in the short term, you want to focus on how the market is doing overall in the day by day, which has a lot to do with consumer sentiment and speculation and just things in the news or rumors that may happen like a lot of the tariff stuff that has been going on recently. So, a lot of it was staying up to date with that and then trying to make the best decisions based on how we thought the market would perform based off of um different government policies or just consumer sentiment around that time. And uh just to cap it off, I think one last message I would say is that many people are wondering what they should do
010and that given the current market conditions and I think the answer is nothing. Uh leave your money in the market. uh you're probably better off not trading the way that Mimmude and I did which was very risky and uh there is a little bit of luck involved there certainly. So, uh, if you come up to me and ask for advice, my answer will always be leave your money in the market, put it in a lowcost index fund, and wait until you're old and you have many years to to get to retirement. And over time, compound interest will take over. And this will just be a small uh little dip on a chart that you won't even notice when you're when you're looking to retire. That's awesome. You want to make sure your own that is
011getting right by you. You're old. Like 30. I know. I was going to say define old. That was the next question. Age is just relative. Exactly. So, uh, our next group, Mr. Patel, do you want to come up? And, uh, we have some debate students who are heading to Chicago for their competition, uh, this coming weekend. So I'll lead it to Mr. Patel. Hello everybody. My name is Mary Patel. I'm also a teacher here at the high school. I'm the speech and debate adviser and with me are Molly, Kieran, and Sam. Um and so in speech and debate they compete usually on Saturdays, usually Saturday morning um and so they get up extra early um and they compete in various competitions. Um all three of these students uh specialize in Lincoln Douglas debate and so
012throughout the year they participated at local and regional tournaments. Um they also competed at states um at Bronx Science and now they're two of them are off to Chicago. Sam is eligible but he's going on the Montreal trip. Um and so I'll let them introduce themselves and tell you a little bit about how speech and debate works. Hi. Um okay, I can use this microphone. Awesome. I'm Molly. I am the vice president of speech and debate and I also run LD um which is Lincoln Douglas debate. It's sort of based in a combination of philosophy and statistics, which means that these two have consumed probably a good thousand pages each of like academic works this year on literally everything from like Kian deontology to the RSI indifference principle to like the impact of hyperspecific fishing
013policies off the coast of Africa. They're laughing cuz they know that they read far too much this year. Um, that being said, it paid off. I can't think of a single tournament we didn't win this year and I think that's solely due to their dedication. Um I'm a senior. I'm graduating. I had my fun. Um and they have a crazy year left. Like like get ready. Um but beyond that, I think that like they just worked so hard and I'm so grateful to the school for all of the support that they give this activity. I think it's really really valuable. I'd also like to speak a little bit. Um, I think Molly sort of short h shorts sold herself a little bit there. So, Molly actually won states last year. Um, and running LD is
014a pretty big thing for us, right? LD is by far the most competitively successful event here with the greatest tournament participation out of any event. And I think I actually no, I don't think I know that debate in general and especially LD would not exist without Molly. She makes the vast majority of our block files, which is a debate term. Uh, and she really coaches us all. I my first case ever I spent around an hour and a half on the phone with Molly around 10 p.m. writing it the week before and night before night before. Sorry. And talking about fishing with someone who doesn't know anything about an activity is is pretty pretty dedicated. So I'd like to thank Molly a huge thank you because we wouldn't be here without her. Sorry. Special prizes.
015Thank you. I do think so. Yes. Good luck you guys. So, thanks so much to our teachers who came and our students and good luck in Chicago. Uh we'll be waiting to hear how everyone does. So, um and that's my report. So, thank you. Um, anybody have questions on those things for Joey? Um, next up is our board report. Um, and first I would also like to thank the community um, for the support with the budget and congratulate John and Bob. Um, and we're happy to have you guys hanging around. I wish I could offer you a pay raise for the next three years, but um and I also wanted to recognize uh all the seniors that had art in the art show um that was that is out um still in the uh in
016the lobby and going all the way down towards the cafeteria. If you guys haven't had a chance to check it out, I highly recommend it. Um and I also wanted to um commend um all the students that participated in the jazz concert last night. Um, I'm always amazed by the musical talents uh that are in the building. Um, and just a couple of events that are coming up um before our next board meeting on Friday, May 30th. That is when they're doing the um AAPI food festival um in the cafeteria. Um and then if you want to make it dinner in a show afterwards um is the uh opening of the of 12th night um here um in D122 and they're performing on Friday, Saturday and then a Sunday matinea. Um anybody have anything else
017that they want to share? I just wanted to thank um Susan Barber for also running um a um a campaign for um for the board. I think the more participation we have from the more people um is always great and I just wanted to um send my appreciation out for that because I think it's um important for us to have a lot of involvement. Yeah, I'll I'll second that. Um I want to thank first the the community for coming out um to to support the budget. Obviously the the more community involvement the better and the more informed people are and the more people are discussing these issues I think just the better for the uh for the district and for the students. Um you know and personally I'm grateful for the opportunity to serve another
018term and and you know bring what I can to the board. U but again thanks to the community just for coming out and supporting the school in general. Um, and also thanks to Susie Barber for I agree. I think it's just good to have folks involved. Um, it gets people talking. It it gets the issues raised and you know, I just think it's a healthy thing for for a democratic system and um, I appreciate her efforts. Thank you so much. Um, next are student reports. Do we have anyone here from the high school student senate? Come on down. Hi, I'm Niara Bara from Senate. And I'm Melissa Lenick from Senate. And not much to report. Things have been pretty slow since our last dance, but we're preparing for the upcoming student elections for next year's
019government. And also planning a field trip. No, sorry, a field day for next year to kick off things for the beginning of the year. Yeah, for the beginning. Yeah, it would be like the second or third day of school. So, yeah, that's it. Thank you. All right. Thank you. Uh, next is our presentation this evening. Um, we're having a presentation on um our building conditions update and future project plans. Uh, good evening. Tonight's presentation is to provide the board of education with information uh to consider for the next facilities uh capital improvement project. We call it the 2025 capital bond project. Uh this will be the first of many presentations that we will prog uh as we progress towards a final project. That's better. Okay. So, um, this slide here is just a quick, uh,
020recap of our capital projects that we've we've done over the last 30 years. It's about $29 million worth, uh, of capital improvements, uh, districtwide. Um, there's just a asterk there that in uh, 2021, you may recall that we had uh, two separate uh, capital projects. uh we went back out to bid for the middle school auditorium and uh but it it totaled about $45.5 million. Um I just wanted to recap uh the the uh project path when we start the process of a capital project and as we progress I'll go through this quickly. Um there's there's two aspects. It's pre-referendum or pre-public vote and then there's post-referendum where we design and go to construction. So, um you know, first we start with our needs assessment. We engage our stakeholders, find out what the district needs.
021Uh we we work on planning and scope development. Um work with the business office and our financial adviserss for uh developing the budget. And then we engage the board of education which um we're in the process or in the midst of uh numbers one through five as we speak. And then as as we move forward we communicate with the public uh we have legal and administrative uh cons consultations and then we go to public vote. So once we we do that prevote um we move on to the next step which is um the the real meat and potatoes of the project. Um there's five elements to a capital uh bond project. Um number one is the schematic design. That's where you know we work to establish an overall concept of the project. And when I
022say the project that encompasses the whole entire district, each one of our elements um these are just general uh early on design goals with basic layouts and uh we start estimating our budget so we can figure out where we're at in a particular place. Um next we move on to design development. That's where our architects uh they refine the design and begin selecting materials and systems so that we can put it to paper. Uh we incorporate our uh structural um engineers and our mechanical, electrical and plumbing engineers and uh um start to develop our our drawings or our documents um and we update our cost estimates as we uh proceed. Uh next are the construction drawings or construction documents. Um this is where the architect working with the district they create detailed drawings and specifications
023uh required for our contractors to perform the construction. Um at at the same time we submit these drawings and specifications to state ed for their review and approval. um the approval, excuse me. At this time, we we have our best or most accurate cost estimate. When we go to SEDD for approval, um that's followed by step four, which is our bidding and contract negotiations. We publicly advertise, it goes out to bid, and we select qualified contractors to perform the work. And then, uh step five is ongoing. Uh the construction administration starts immediately and ends when we close out the project after the project is built and and commissioned. All right. So that that runs all the way to project closeout. The next slide just shows our project team. Um you may hear me say OACM.
024That stands for owner, architect, and construction manager. Um we when the uh project gets rolling, we have weekly OACM meetings. Uh the owner obviously is Bethlehem. That includes the board of education, our administration and operations and maintenance. Um and then we have our architectural team which includes the design engineers uh for the mechanical, electrical and plumbing, uh our site engineers, our structural engineers, our hazardous materials consultants, and our kitchen uh equipment consultants. And again, we can add or subtract these if if we have no elements that require those. Um I just want to point out real quickly that um this year um we uh went out for RFP for architect and engineering services. Uh we had a committee. It was approved by the board that we would retain uh Ashley McGraw as our architectural firm.
025However, they did select a new engineering firm based on um some of the district's needs and and some of the things that occurred in the past. So um all the other consultants are the same as are the project manager at a Ashley McGra but we will have uh engineered solutions providing our mechanical, electrical and plumbing. Um and then finally we're real early in the stages. We have not brought a construction manager on board yet. Um we'll be asking to do that in the in the future once we get a few more of our questions answered. Uh, last year it was um, my goodness. Who was it last year? Turner. Turner Construction. My god. That's why I don't like using notes because I can't remember. All right. So, so our construction manager, yeah, I know was
026uh, Turner Construction last year. Previously, it was Pike Construction. U, my apologies for that. So, uh, I just want to touch on, uh, a couple of options for our capital project timeline. Um, we we've proposed two options here for the board of education to consider. Um, option number one is a December 2025 vote. Um, we would proceed. As you can see, the timeline shows that the architect engineers conducted surveys and we updated our building condition surveys and our five-year plan. We use that data to um de develop our scope list for what we want to build or propose that we want to build in this project. Um we'll have several uh board of education meetings and presentations to develop the scope. There's going to be some decisions that we're going to request of the board
027of education um for us to take action on. Um and then we would go to uh the the referendum or uh public vote in December of 2025. The next step would be uh the project design. Um those five elements that I discussed, the schematic design, design development, and construction documents. We would expect that in September of 26, those would go to state ed for review. Um, state ed takes about 4 months to review and approve our our documents. So that brings us to January of 27 and uh we could potentially go to construction in April of 2027. The second second option is a May of 2026 vote which aligns with our annual budget vote. Um, again, the timeline doesn't change much with the exception of the uh the public vote portion of it. Uh, we
028would work through the remainder of 2025 to have everything ready for a public vote in May of 2026. Um, that brings us to our construction documents submitted to SED in February of 2027 with an anticipated approval from state ed in June of 27, which is um to I'll I'll say if if we get approval in June of 27, we're a little late. Obviously, we couldn't do a summer project um that in the summer of 2027. we would most most likely go to construction in April of 2028. Um there are some project elements we've had discussions with administration. Uh this is the first time the board is hearing it that you know we if we were to uh be approved in June, we could coordinate and and most likely start some of our project elements in
029the fall and winter of 2027. However, we'd be limited. We couldn't go full boore uh unless we wanted to strategize and see how we could do it in occupied buildings. Um the other there there is a a caveat to this a note that um you know one of the drawbacks of an April uh the May 2026 vote is again going to construction in April of 28. That essentially puts us one year behind schedule. Um and what I mean by one year it's it's not a physical year but it's a construction year. Most of our construction takes place during the summers. Okay. and we are trying to um refine this bond project so that we can accomplish it in two summers. We've demonstrated that about a two-year project. We've been very successful with the past few
030projects having these smaller two-year projects. Again, we once we get a little further along in the process, we can make recommendations. Um the other uh issue with a uh I say issue other consideration for a May 26 vote is um this would result in an increase in our hard and soft costs. Um if you recall our soft costs are engineering fees, construction manager fees, uh furniture, fixtures and equipment. Um and and the actual hard costs because it it makes the project longer. Um and our escalation is typically 2% per year. um just overall escalation due to inflation um and and the cost of doing business. So, I just wanted to bring that to to light for the board to consider. Um again, the the limitations we could do a bunch of chunks, but it may
031end up costing us a little more because we'd have a remobilization unless we opted to, you know, move out of a wing or something along that nature. But we're a little early on in the project to discuss that right now. Um our capital project funding um you know touching base with our uh business official you know we obviously have New York State building aid. Um it's appro approximately 70% of our eligible cost which are our hard cost or the actual construction cost. Um it does not always apply to certain furniture uh fixtures and equipment. um we take that into consideration when when we bring this to the board. Um we also have capital reserves which would reduce the amount of bond bonded indebtedness. Um and again uh John and and his folks are working alongside
032our financial adviserss to uh provide that information as we progress. And then uh budget neutral our debt service costs and reserve um use could fully offset could be fully offset by our building aid. So, that's just a a real quick snapshot of how we would fund this project. Um, one thing I do want to point out at this moment, um, we do not have any additional funding sources like we did last bond, such as our, uh, American Rescue Plan Act and, uh, ESSER like, um, like we did to pay for a lot of, uh, some of that furniture fixtures and equipment and some of our outside pavilions. So, um, some things may pop up. Um but right now we're not counting on any outside or additional funding. So right now um the 2021 bond was
033about 200 project scope elements and currently we are at 307 um on this this goround. Um we we ended up with 307 scope elements. uh these were developed from past uh and current building condition surveys and our 5-year plan. So everything you know every 5 years we have our building condition surveys. Um I I I really struggled with uh the way I presented the the actual printout to the board of education and to our administration. Um I only went back as far as 2015 uh building condition survey. Um, and I wanted to demonstrate that this particular element's been hanging out that long. Um, they're still included in the 2025, but I wanted to show that look, we've had um, I'll just pick something simple. This ceiling needed replacement since the 2015. So, that may uh,
034prompt us to maybe move that up on our priority scale or not. Um so the way it it is presented is it goes back to 2015 then 2020 and 2025 BCS plus input from all of our stakeholders uh changes in code and um the things that were removed from the last capital project. Um they they either increased in priority or uh they remain the same but they're still on this scope elements list. So we knocked about a hundred of them off last bond and we gained 200 this time. I So um so currently um we did some rough estimating um and we're at about $86.1 million in our in in is proposed for this project. um you know, in in working with John and and our administration, we think we need to be between the
035$50 and $60 million um budget. Okay. So, obviously we have some uh trimming of that to do and some organization of these elements and prioritization. Um and we're working on that as we speak. uh as recently as today uh we had a a meeting with all the uh our administration, our architects, our stakeholders, and our own end teams um today to try to refine this. And and when I use the term pair it down, it doesn't mean necessarily that we're removing elements. They'll always be there, but we're trying to tailor it to meet our budget needs. So when I talk about prioritizing project or project elements um we we have uh uh this is typical um and this is the way that I recommend to uh the administration to the board. Um first we look
036at our life safety and code issues if we have any that we need to address followed by program and education and our envelope and infrastructure. Um, real quickly, the life, safety, and code, you know, we're talking about our fire alarms, ADA accessibility, uh, security and emergency, uh, response systems. Our program and education is, it goes without saying, but it's our classroom renovations, library and media centers, athletics, and PE. Obviously, with a focus on why we're all here, and that's to educate our children, our students. Um, and then the envelope and infrastructure. This is the part that um you know a lot of people don't see, but um you know we're paid to make sure that we can keep the lights on and the rain out. Um so we have some substantial items that uh we
037need to address in this bond. Um you know, roof replacement being the primary one that we're concerned with right now. Um we spent a lot of money in the last bond project making our interior spaces look really nice and um we have some roofs that are are beginning to fail. Um and then the HVAC plumbing and electrical infrastructure upgrades and uh again uh our site drainage and our outside parking lots and things like that. So we we prioritize those. Um and then we have a second prioritization which we we internally select as high, medium and low and that's how it's presented on on the documents that the board has received. So, the 307 elements, um, this is just a chart that shows you how they're they're broken out. Um, you know, as you can see,
038the high school and middle school being our two largest buildings, um, take up about 54% of all the project elements. Um, the, uh, elementary schools are comparable. They're anywhere from, you know, 7 and a half to 10% of the project. Um, we look at at that and we also weigh the equity across the district. Um, and we're trying to be um, SED would frown if I said we try to standardize, but we want to make sure that um, we're addressing the needs of each individual building yet giving everybody the same amount of uh, construction if at all possible. The next chart is showing uh how much right now our estimated cost of that $86 million is broken out between each one of the buildings and is again the the larger buildings obviously have the most
039elements which have the most costs. Um if you look at this chart again um the elementary schools are very comparable with the exception of Eagle. Um and Eagle is lower because it's our most our the newest building that has the least amount of uh project scope elements required or needed. Uh the biggest thing at Eagle is the roof. So this slide shows our projects elements by priority and as I mentioned these are our high, medium and low priorities that we developed internally here at the district. Uh the green indicates high priority elements, yellow indicates medium priority, and red indicates the low priority elements. Um if you look to the bottom right of that, you can see that um of the 86 million, 67 million of it is what we consider or we're recommending to be
040high priority scope elements. So that being said, um you know, we've exceeded our $60 million proposed budget. the 50 to 60 million for the public vote. So, um we are again meeting on this. We're refining this, revising it. We had very good discussion today on how we want to present this to the board with options that uh the board can make decisions on. Um so, we kind of we're focusing our attention on the high priority scope elements. Obviously, they're high priority for a reason. Um we think that that they need to be done. Um and we would like to address these or focus on just the high priority to present and move forward with the board of education. Um there's no way we're going to pair down um by you know $30 million by value
041engineering or uh scope reduction. So we're thinking that if we focus on our high priority elements and that's where we build this project from. One of the big parts that's twice, excuse me. Um, one of the big elements or high-cost elements is air conditioning. Um we've had uh a previous discussion about air conditioning the district uh based on some of the legislation that came out and um you know the total estimated cost on this slide uh differs from the educational cooling project that I provided to you with data in that um this $1 million that it would take to do the entire district. This is for using heat pump systems or direct expansion regular air conditioning like we have now versus the geothermal. Um and and I'm making that recommendation because of the cost alone.
042The upfront cost is almost double for geothermal. Again, it's not my decision to make, but the recommendation is if we want to do any air conditioning at all, I think we would have to proceed using uh air source or heat pump systems. Um, this $11 million would literally air condition all of the spaces in every building. Um, for the uh I I want to point out also that included in this uh price for Ellir and Slingerlands um we would have to do an electrical upgrade if we had any significant electrical load which air conditioning would be. there's also a cost incorporated in that and we did uh consider that in these values. So, um based on conversations internally, um we're proposing that we would or we're recommending that we phase the installation of air conditioning
043um right now in certain buildings, our known hotspots, which would be our second floors at the high school, middle school, and Ellir. And then um recommending that we do our common areas or large gathering space uh for example gyms, cafeterias, and library media centers um and and forego doing all of the buildings as a cost-saving meas measure. If we did that, we could um use that savings to do more project elements that we wouldn't have to cut due to budget. This is a a slide that is showing our elementary buildings. If we were to move forward with doing that breakout, as we said, take the problem areas or known areas versus doing the entire building. I know it's it's tough. There's a lot of data there, but we're proposing that um at Eagle um we
044would do the cafeteria and the gymnasium because currently that building is aironditioned in its entirety. all the classrooms. So, as you can see, that's a a small portion of the $1.9 million that it would take to do the five elementary schools. Ellir, um again, we're proposing to do the second floor classrooms, the gymnasium, cafeteria, and library media center. And as you can see the purple there, that's our electrical upgrade that would be required to do so. Uh Glenmont, same thing. Um we would do the library and the cafeteria. Um, in the 2021 bond, we did replace the gym uh air handling equipment on the roof and it did include air conditioning. So, you know, we kind of could take that out of consideration. So, we do have a large space at Glenmont and the same
045goes for Hammerville. Um, the their gym is also air conditioned. So, we do have some cooling uh spots available. Um, and then Slingerlands, it's a it's multilevel. We have the lower level which is um they don't like to call it the basement but that's our lower level. We do have classrooms down there but the main focus uh with our our efforts has been on the ELC which was a known hot spot. So we've done what we can there. We've increased our ventilation. We installed window film and we're trying to mitigate some of that uh high heat during our shoulder months. Um so Slingerlands again would also need a electrical upgrade. Um, excuse me. I said um, so, uh, here is showing the same information for the middle school and high school. Um, again, this shows
046all of the gyms at the high school, all three of the gyms. And I'm proposing that we could probably pair this $2.9 million down combined for the middle school and high school by not air conditioning gym A and gym C and maybe only doing gym B in the cafeteria which is where we hold our exams and and that we've had to deal with, you know, temporary air conditioning during exam months in June, exam periods in June. Uh same for the middle school. Um, you know, I have both gyms, the upper gym and lower gym. I believe that, um, we could probably not air condition the lower gym based on the use of that that building and in consultation with Mr. Clugman. So, there there is some money that we can pair down even uh, more
047so than what we've already done. And if the board wants to proceed in this direction, um I just want to add that um earlier today we had a a meeting with our uh our project team and you know we had some discussion with the architect and he said some districts he they indicated that some districts are opting opting to only air condition um some of our common spaces in a building in lie of classrooms. Um they these would be our gyms, our LMC's and our cafeterias to be used as cooling station and secondary teaching spaces in the event of a se severe weather event. Um again I don't have data on that. This was a conversation that some folks certainly can't afford to you know air condition their entire building. So they're opting to give
048uh uh treated spaces within the building if we have those hot days. And again, this if we if we chose to only do uh the large spaces and not the second floors, we could use that that savings to do more of the project scope elements. So that is one thing that um we're requested we are requesting uh guidance from the board of education and I is to identify uh to us within our school buildings which areas you wish that we prioritize for air conditioning so that we can plan uh accordingly. So of course with any bond project or capital project we have our challenges. Um, I just want to bring these to light early on instead of uh when we get further down the road. You know, again, the challenge uh the referendum date, you
049know, there's pros and cons to it. Um, again, that's one of the things that once we get that that directive from the board, we will proceed in either direction. Um, you know, and right now the economy, um, I was hoping those gentlemen stayed so I could get some pointers, um, so we could figure out what what it's going to look like about a year and a half from now when we go out to bid. But, you know, the our we have our inflations, our tariffs, um, state aid. I think we're a little more certain now, a little more, but it's not, you know, definitive. Um, our calendar and our schedule. Um, you know, we we want to make sure that we go out and we bid and and we get competitive bids so that we
050get the skilled labor we need to build these projects. Um, as we saw in the last project, we did have trouble getting uh competitive bids just due to uh timing. Um so we had to go back out with the auditorium and then we did realize that yes it it was the right decision. So we did well on that. Um and you know and then as we start developing this project and we start getting into that design development we have what we call scope creep. Uh for example we were going to do something in this room. Well gez you know the room next door looks just like this. Why don't we do that one too? So that's a example of uh scope creep. And then we have our unforeseen issues. So we build this in, we
051have our contingencies uh built into design and our construction, but that right now it's an unfor unknown uh element. And then you know rep prioritization of the project elements over the course of our timeline. Um one of the my biggest concerns again is we don't want a project so large that we expand into the three four five year uh timeline. Um I did a eight-year once and it didn't go well. Um because by the time we got done building it, we were undoing it and rebuilding it. Um so it was not money well spent because you know the curriculum changed or program changed, something changed and we ended up um spending the money twice. So these two to two and a half threeyear projects are what I would consider, you know, the best best approach.
052Um so uh in closing um the our team we respectfully request for the board approval to proceed with the proposed approach that we have identifying and advancing the high priority scope elements uh in support of this project. Um if if you could just let us know that you know if there's medium or low priority that uh you feel we should uh amplify then we'll move them up or down in any direction and we're going to work towards refining this and revising it and verifying to make sure that um we can give you the best data so that you can make the best decisions and that is what I have. Are there any questions? So with just doing the high priority scope items, that's puts us at the 67. Yes. Is 72. And if the board
053hasn't looked at any updates, the entire building condition survey is there. So you can see all of the scope elements with the high, medium, and low on there. Yeah. Um, and does that include that 67? What part of the air conditioning project? Like is that the 11 million air conditioning project or is it the 5 million? That is the 11 million. Okay. So, the 67 is all-encompassing. Includes 11 million for air conditioning. Correct. Okay. So, if we trimmed that back to less air conditioning, yes, that would that would be that would be one way to bring the cost down. So, and again, it's it's embarrassing for me to say, but at this stage of the project, these are total and and utter estimates. Sure. Um, and we don't know what's going to change as we
054progress. You know, is you know, the last bond, the roofs skyrocketed. We couldn't get roofing materials. Uh, then we had the steel issue. So that is a snapshot in time of right now. This is a very good estimate. Once we put pencil to paper, we're going to we're going to find out what the real cost is. So I'm going to be uh upfront and say that it it will probably go up before it comes back down. Even understanding that it is an estimate. Um you said that if we didn't do those um couple of gym spaces at the high school and middle school that that would bring the number down as well. Do you have an idea like how much are we talking about? Um I'm going to do this from memory. I couldn't remember
055Turner, but I do remember this. Um so to do the gymnasiums, it's about $125,000 per gymnasium. So it's not a million dollars, but um because each one has its own one unit that goes on the roof with the exception of gym B. That one's 350. It's a lot more because it's a larger space. So, for example, doing the uh lower not doing the lower gym would save nearly 200,000 because that one's in between. It's it's larger than the upper gym but smaller than our gym B. So, on average, it's about 125,000 per unit to air condition. Okay. Um, and I'm not sure if it's a question for you or John or both, but is the that December 2025 referendum date is that is that the the earliest possible? Like could we say if we wanted
056to, could we do it in November instead of December? Like is that an impossibility? I can go first. Real. So our architectural team um we are prepared to do a December. Um I would check with them about November. Um but we had settled tried to give as much time as possible and we we landed on December because that gives us enough time to get it out to SED get approval and then go to bidding and contracts prior to construction season which would be the summer of 26. Yeah. So I have some concerns about December is not a great time of year to be procedurally you have to remember we have the 45 public hearings any additional presentations in terms of what elements are being considered what are not um coupled right with the summer months
057where you know members of the community may be out on vacation and not necessarily be interested in the project but not may not necessarily be focused over the course of the summer. Um we can do anything from a calendar perspective for sure. Um but it's it's those other pieces that are really defining next steps. Okay. And I think there is some consideration financially that you we've spoken about. So just briefly uh we we'll get into this in in additional presentations. The timing sort of impacts the issuance of long-term debt to offset whatever the project costs are. what our capital reserve statuses may be April 26 versus April 27 to help financing costs. The district does have a significant amount of long-term debt that matures in June of 2030, which is roughly $43 million that um
058will will have paid off all all those long-term obligation notes. That's roughly $5.1 million of debt service on the operating budget. So, I'm trying to Nick and I have been sort of working our ways from his construction calendar, the district's debt service calendar, trying to find that sweet spot where we're not necessarily increasing debt service for like a one-year period until it rolls off. So, we're we're just trying to streamline uh that. So, um I can looking at this very quickly. Okay. If you want to run it past our financial advisors um and and bond counsel and see where they recommend, we can do some issuance of short-term debt as a bridge uh for three years until we absolutely have to go issue long-term term debt. The the one downfall is we would be paying
059interest almost like an intereston loan until such time that we issue your long-term obligation notes and you're paying principal and interest as part of your operating budget. Lauren. Um, John, have you or Nick um have how often in the past have we had to have a a a vote that was not at the same time as the regular May election budget vote going back like we did one in October for the 21 bond. I don't recall when we went middle school auditorium we did it was off cycle too. I think the bond before that was in the fall as well. We've had several that have been in the fall, usually October or early November. Not unusual. And they were successfully passed. Yeah, we haven't ever had it in December. We've tried to have it earlier
060in the fall. Right. Okay. And again, we can I can talk to our team and say, you know, before we go any further and the board says, "Yay or nay, can we do November?" Because I I do appreciate what the considerations are for December. That's a hard hard time. Yeah. Do you have any questions? Go ahead. Um, if we decide to do the the partial AC, the second floor and and the gymnasium, and then later on, 5 years from now, we want to air condition the first floor. Are we going to be redoubling our work or is there a way to um create the space for the air conditioning when we're doing it all at once? Yes. Uh um so I can answer that. So for example, uh we use Ellir. It's a small second
061floor or the high school. We have the the D-wing um east, west, and north and south. Um, if we're going to do the second floor at any of our buildings, we would incorporate the chases on the wall where we would bring our refrigerant lines down on the second floor and have them ready to go for the next phase. Um, fortunately, that's all it is. It's it's refrigeration lines and uh electrical lines. Um, these are duckless, so we wouldn't have duct work running through the buildings and things like that. That that would be extremely cost prohibitive. and a a real challenge to set up for a phase two. So the answer to your question is yes, we would consider that and when we build the chase to do the second floor that chase we we'd locate
062it so that we can bring it down and make it applicable to do the first floor. Okay. So we're not I'm sorry, we're not losing efficiency by doing it staged as opposed to all at once. No. And that and that's kind of like why I'm I'm kind of guiding us toward the uh heat pumps. They're not going away. It's a reliable uh air conditioning and heating uh system. There is uh funding available for it. Uh the geothermal could be problematic for the future because we would have dead-ended pipes unless we turned it into a loop and then we've had sediment problems and filtration problems. So, if we're going to not do the entire district, my recommendation would be to go with their source heat pumps versus any other. Um, and and I just want to
063put a caveat in there not to confuse folks, but uh e uh Eagle for example, their gymnasium has a air handler now that provides heat only. That is a little different. The only thing we have to do is put a coil in there and a condenser on the roof. We don't have to replace anything. We don't have to do anything with that. Now, the high school is we put the condenser on the roof and a whole bunch of evaporators, one in each room. So, it's a little different there. So, when I say direct expansion, some of these we can just pop a coil in and we're good to go. Um, the others are where we really and and you can see the cost. It it rises because we're going to have a variable refrigerant system
064that has refrigeration lines that has to go to each room in the building. And the heat pump system that you're you're speaking of, um, how is that rated environmentally, energy efficient wise? Um, well, I I will say that that's what is all over the place right now with NAERTA and that's why they're providing substantial funding for it. Uh, is it more efficient than geothermal? Um, the answer is no. However, the upfront cost and the serviceability of it is much better than geothermal. Um so it's it's very comparable comparable. Um the direct expansion or what we have currently is less efficient than the heat pump systems that are coming out. Um that's another thing that we have to take into consideration. They're changing the refrigerant again which is going to drive costs up and we talked
065about that in the educational cooling project. We don't know what they're going to select and what the impact is going to be on the new refrigeration. So, and and we're struggling with that now internally with our HVAC mechanics. We have systems that are I don't want to get in the weeds, but R22, which was 15 years ago, well, that's no more. Everything has to be R10, R410 or better. And I've got them I there's so many I get I get them all confused. But the bottom line is when we have a piece of equipment fail, it's not like I can just slap a new condenser on it. I have to replace the the the piping, the expansion tank, uh expansion valves, and the condensers because it won't support the new refrigerant. Questions? Just one quick.
066I think I know the answer. But when we start talking about um the high priority, medium, and low, that the high priority that we're talking about here that made up the the your recommendation in terms of the the elements that high priority is the high priority from all three of the other categories, life, the safety. Yes. And Okay. Yes. And and it's in um in conjunction with the the stakeholders. The stakeholders being the administration and and the principles. For example, when we go through um you know, past projects, we've we've kind of just presented it to the board with no prioritization on it. And and we felt that that's that's a little rough for all of you to try to figure out, well, do we really need a roof? How do I know we need
067a roof? You know, unless we tell you. So this time we we kind of established a priority priority list based on what we know and our knowledge and then we presented it to the folks and and we've we've changed them. Some were high, some were low, some went from medium to to low, some went up and down. So we're asking our stakeholders and our administration to help us with the prioritization, but the majority of it um has already been established. Uh, an example would be our fax room at the high school has a asbestous containing material floor. It's in excellent condition. We just know it happens to be hazardous material. It's sealed. It's waxed. It's in excellent. It's been inspected. Our hero reports um coming very soon. Um, but we know it's there and yes,
068it would look a lot better if it looked like this. Is that a high priority? So, we we say not really because it's not a bad floor. You take the same floor material and it's it's chipped um every time you slide a desk across it, you chip the floor and and that becomes a hazard and that would be a high priority floor. Thank you. Um what do you need from us tonight? Okay. So tonight, what we're looking for is are we on the right path with our recommendation to let's focus our attention on um refining our high priority elements. Is that the direction that you want us to continue on? Um because as I said, we're we're never not never we're not going to achieve by including um the low and medium priorities right now.
069We're not going to achieve that $60 million. And and that's a second question. Is 60 million the one we're is that our spot, right? Is there a threshold like or do you want to say we definitely don't want to go above this or is there a range you're comfortable with because that does make a difference in even the high like the air conditioning the you know I think we said today we were talking about it doing it in stages makes sense since we could um add on to it later on to allow to get some of the other high priority items included but we do need to know kind of 50 to 60, 40 to 50 to finish refining those areas. Is it 60 to 70 like and I don't I don't need that tonight.
070What is your consideration? I mean I would say generally around like that I mean around that 60 when it starts to get higher too much higher than that I have concerns. I know in the past like there have been a couple there were a couple times where the district did very very large projects and they become unwieldy and they drag out and not and you spend a lot more money and I don't want to put us in that position and I feel like we've done better over the um the past bond projects doing slightly smaller kind of trying to chunk it but I get that with rising costs um you know the numbers maybe that we were working with last time that's not going to be feasible to do the same kind same amount of
071work just because things cost more. Um but I do I mean I would say prioritizing focusing on those high priority items. Um, and I would think that, you know, staging the air conditioning project because just I mean I know it was just an estimate but by doing just the those kind of key parts in the building that trims that down by about$6 million. Exactly. Um, and I would think that um I I would think that having some of those bigger spaces available in the buildings to provide, you know, cooling spots um and then getting those second floors, right? Those are the what Nick presented on a few other times about those are really the hot spots we know are unbearable. Yeah. And and Holly, if I may, real quickly, um the what was interesting is
072um you know, some of the principles, uh Hammerrell, Glenmont, their singlestory, and they they didn't really experience, of course, when it was 95° and 95% humidity. It was uncomfortable, but for the most part, they conceded that, you know, our buildings aren't really that bad. And we did have that, and I call it an anomaly. It just happened to coincide with our exam week. Yeah. Um and it's not normal. So, um, we we considered all that and that's how we we broke that down and then we really got into discussion about where do we really need to to make it tenable for our students to learn and and we chose or recommended the second floors which there's three buildings that have them and they've all been defined previously as our known hotspots and then the potential
073for our our large or common areas to make them cooling or secondary teaching spaces. you know, you just have that one spot that for whatever reason the sun is hitting on it. Hey, we can go to the gymnasium, shut the partition, and we'll teach in there today or we can go to the LMC or the cafeteria. So, you know, we we realize that there could be some substantial savings there. We also kicked around and I saw John kind of put his hand over, you know, we put all this air conditioning in, we also have to evaluate what our operating costs are going to be in the future for the electricity and and and maintenance of it. So, um, and right now, again, we don't know what the future holds, so we can we can estimate.
074Um, and then the second thing I would like to say is we're right on the cusp at 60 million. Um, that means about 50 million would be hard costs. And again, that's a just a rough rule of thumb. So, we just demonstrated in 2021 that we can do 46 million. Okay? And that puts us right on that cusp and in two years. And that puts us on the cusp of can we do this project in two years or is it two full years in one summer or now are we starting to expand into the three-year, the four-year and so on. And it's really what we want to do and that's also going to tell us what our we'll work to the budget associated with that. So it's it's two things our schedule and our budget.
075If you say it's 60 million, we will do everything in our power and to make sure that we can fit that in. We wouldn't just say, "Okay, we're doing 60 million and can't fit it." So, um, we may have to opt to say we'll have to do that in a future project. For example, if we were going to do a whole wing of classrooms, there's just no way um for the lack of swing space and the time it takes to do an entire wing. Mhm. So that will help us um I I think help you and the rest of the board to to offer these deci decisions. Do other people have thoughts? I I appreciate all the work you put into this. I think it makes sense to focus on the high priorities. Um, I
076don't, you know, obviously love the idea of a December vote because it's inconvenient for people, but you laid out the the reasoning why that seems like it's the best time to do it in terms of so that we can start in the summer and not lose an entire year. Um, so I would support that if if a November work November vote would work timing wise that would be better, but I I understand we don't have time for that. Yeah, I agree. I think the 60 million range high priority would be the best place to start for now. I have confidence in the facilities folks and the the committee. So, you know, I think it makes sense um to focus on the high priority that just seems logical to me. Uh I share some concerns about
077the December vote, but I think that's something that, you know, we can address, you know, in terms of outreach and and you know, and sort of public publicizing it, make sure that the you know, the the concern is that folks are not going to, you know, be paying attention to it. And I think at least there's some kind of steps we can take to try to at least minimize that that impact. But in terms of the the focus of the the the facilities uh committee and and the and the goals here, I think it makes sense. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. I agree. Um I very thorough presentation as always and I think you're on the right track. Okay. All right. Very good. Any other questions? No. Okay. Thank you. Uh next we have um
078public comment on an agenda item. If we have any visitors who would like to address the board on an agenda item only, now is the time to come up to the microphone. Yep. You can come up. And if you could please um state your name. My name is Frank Cuick. And off topic, I'm glad I don't have his job. Um I'm here to talk about the ballot that was used in yesterday's voting. There was an error on that ballot and I think that because of that error, voting on the capital reserve proposition should be enulled and a new vote in that proposition take place. Here's why I say that. Before the election, I found out what would be on the ballot and knew that four propositions were on the ballot covering specifically the district and
079library budgets, school bus purchases, and a reserve fund for future large costs. Thus, I knew what to expect when I looked at that ballot. On the ballot I got from the school and library budget items were clearly presented. Budget and school. Let me get this right. The budget on the ballot I got the school and library budget items were clearly presented as was the school bus purchase. But when I got to the last item, which should have been about capital reserves, it said instead school bus and some other words. and I couldn't quite figure that out. And I checked to be certain that I was seeing two things that said school bus because I'd already voted on the school bus item. Um, I double checked that I wasn't going crazy. School bus was on both
080items. I was reasonably certain that school buses were not on that reserve proposition. I'd never seen the word there. So, the question was where it came from. I said, I don't know. I voted no. Came back home. I looked up the um ballot on the website, the sample ballot, and that sample ballot said that the proposition was the 2025 capital reserve fund. It did not say school bus. So, I sent an email, I guess, to Mr. um I forget your name, Mr. to McFillips who very um nicely replied and said he had moved it on to the legal department to see what they said because I suggested that that made that item on the on the uh ballot. You couldn't do it. You did it wrong. Uh I was very surprised this morning when I
081saw all the budget items passed without any reference to the fact that there was a uh flawed ballot because the heading to this ballot did not correctly or even closely come to describing what the proposition was for. I think the voting on the proposition should be enulled and a new vote taken next year. I guess whenever um many people thought it was about school buses and it was nothing about school buses in there. So I thank you for your time. Thank you. Um item six, action items. A um is our resolution to certify the 2025 2026 uh school district budget vote results. Um if I could have a motion to do so. So second. Any discussion? All in favor? I. Any opposed? Any abstensions? That passes. Um B, finance action items. It is recommended by
082the superintendent that the board of education approve the following finance action items one through nine. So moved. Second. Any discussion? All in favor? I. Any opposed? Any abstensions? That passes. C. Professional personnel action items. It is recommended by the superintendent that the board of education approve the following professional personnel action items one through 19. So moved. Second. Any discussion? All in favor? I. Any opposed? Any abstensions? That carries. Uh D. 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. Any discussion? All in favor? I. Any opposed? Any abstensions? That carries and e other action items? It is recommended by the superintendent of the board of education approve the following action items one through three. So move.
083Second. Any discussion? All in favor? I I. Any opposed? Any abstensions? That carries. Um item seven, recognition of public comment on a non-aggenda item. If we have any visitors who would like to address the board on a non-aggenda item, now would be the time to come up to the microphone. Item eight, future meetings and events. Um our next regularly scheduled board meeting is on Wednesday, June 4th. Um anticipating executive session at 6. Um and then we have our tenure teacher um reception for 2025 at 6:30 and then um reconvening to open session at 7. Um on Monday, June 9th, um here at the high school at 5:00 we have an audit committee meeting and then at six o'clock we have a policy committee meeting. And then on Wednesday, June 18th, um we have a regularly
084scheduled board meeting anticipating executive session at 6 um and reconvening to open session at 7. And then on Thursday, June 26th um at 2:00, that is the class of 2025 graduation at the MVP Arena. Um and the morning of um Thursday, June 26th, uh Jody, correct me if I'm wrong, that is the um 8th grade moving up ceremony. Um which will be here at the high school, correct? Um and that that is usually at 8:30, 9:00. Yes, I think it usually starts around 8:45, but that time um so that would be a busy day of moving on graduations. Um, we do need to go back into um, executive session to discuss um, a contractual issue and um, a student matter. Um, if I could have a motion to do so. Second. All in favor? I
085don't know if you um, who got this. So you guys take stupid friends. You do not need to wait around. You are free to go. can come up. And um just make sure you sign out before you go.