001Jesus rose for the Pledge of Allegiance foreign [Music] foreign [Music] hahaha [Music] foreign [Music] [Applause] exits are located in the front of the boardroom and the sides of the boardroom in the event of a firewood here fire alarm that time please move in the common orderly fashion to the nearest exit thank you who now we're going to begin with the superintendent's report Dr Dallas thank you good evening and welcome everyone to our board meeting tonight as we start all of our board meetings uh by meeting meeting our mission and vision statement as a unified Community the East rampo Central School District is committed to educating the whole child by providing a healthy safe supportive engaging and challenging learning environment our vision is that we'll become proficient in all that we do our priority goals goal
002one is success in the early years early grade Foundation is the key to a child's success as they graduate high school in their years throughout goal two again a healthy safe supporting engaging challenging environment goal three we want to we want to really feed into and build importance to motivated confident empowered critical thinkers go for Mastery and all the academic subjects and the Arts evidenced by two of our former graduates and their their art excelling in the Arts and goal five that the ultimate goal is for high school graduation and for College and Career readiness our commitments for 2022 2023 school years are as follows academic instructional where we'll accelerate academic achievement social emotional learning and supports social martial learning and mental health supports operations where we'll prioritize health the safety of students staff and
003Families so at first right now I like to acknowledge a tenure completion of tenure so it's been great it's with great pride that um we can celebrate all teachers approved for this evening to be tenure these teachers receive three annual um appr composite ratings of effective or highly effective and at least three of the preceding four years they did not have any composite ratings of ineffective and we're truly fortunate to have such an incredibly gifted and dedicated teachers working in our midst and engaging the models of our the minds of our young people we have high expectations that you continue to be effective highly effective in your work in the Years moving forward and congratulations and so we have from Fleetwood Jennifer Birnbaum physical education Jennifer [Applause] and this is in no specific order it's
004just wherever I get to it a Grand View Jessica Vega topi [Applause] Hempstead Brittany baboris hope that hope I did your name some justice Brittany uh Spring Valley peterhead and for Marquette Daisy Rivera monstergar congratulations to all of those staff members achieving tenure it's a huge accomplishment much to be proud of we'll discuss the share some items on the newcomer Academy assistant superintendent Melissa Battle foreign you're in front of the public I mean good evening Board of Education members and now the community so I wanted to give a little um information about our newcomer program I gave information last year last week sorry last board meeting and we had a visit from the New York State education department as well as the Hudson Valley Regional bilingual education Resource Network and they provided us with feedback
005about our newcomer program and they shared with us um some recommendations that for integrating our students and helping them learn more about high school as we move forward with our program they commended us on putting this together so quickly and making sure the students had a safe place to learn and that they felt comfortable and welcome in this learning environment so additionally we had five six students join the marching band today so our students are making sure that what we wanted is that they would be with other high school students after school that's why we created the schedule for them to be from 742 until 1 56 which is the high school schedule even though they're in Pomona Middle School and we're really excited to keep moving forward more students are registering so we know
006that we will have even more students who will be happy and engaged in learning in the content areas and that's it thank you thank you [Applause] next slide officer student Support Services uh assistant superintendent Dr Tamar Walker hi everyone um before I talk about our annual holiday feast I just want to take this time to thank the board the superintendent and the community for allowing me to serve in the office of student support services for eight of my nine years in East Ramapo it's been an absolute honor and um so I just wanted to ensure that everyone knows that um I'm a proud East Ramapo um alumni right um so I just wanted to get the uh to ensure that our community is aware of our annual holiday feast that our frcs our family resource
007coordinators will be putting on on December 17th between 2 p.m and 5 p.m this is a feast where we get to serve our community the frcs will be serving dinner Distributing toys and one of the things so we are also looking for uh volunteers and individuals who would be able to just participate during that time as a part of their help in terms of purchasing groceries and toys they will also be looking to get support from our schools so sometimes they'll be looking to do dress down days and other means to get you know supplies to to be able to purchase the groceries and the toys and also finally on the Friday before on December 16th at Spring Valley High School they will also be hosting a grocery and toy wrapping party our frcs are
008an integral part of our community and we just really want to just thank them and even honor them for the fact that they're always keeping our community at the Forefront thanks thank you Dr Walker and and thank you for your years of service the East rival Central School District we will miss you and but you know our losses the other District's game but don't make yourself a stranger we'll be calling you whenever we need you so thanks again for all your hard work um Mr Smith come on up the famous Mike Smith our fine fine arts director so good evening everybody good evening actually the famous the two students we had here were both in the Macy's day Thanksgiving Day praying they're they're actually professional musicians now and they came back here to help us
009out so um that's Randy and Kerry both brothers and so we there's a lot of Legacy in East rampo um so the first thing I announced is going along with the uh the the the goal this year we just purchased 140 musical instruments we distributed to the whole school district for all our students so a lot of students get instruments in terms in terms of the holiday presentations this is the time of the year we have all our concerts so if you get a chance to come see last night we had spring Valley's concert it was wonderful actually uh Randy is in a house she was one of our MC's where where are you Randy Randy there we go you can stand up we had our ECC winter Extravaganza tonight tomorrow night we have rampos
010concert on the 17th the FRC is the marching band and the orchestra will perform at the at the Spring Valley High School usually they get anywhere between fifteen hundred three thousand people it's pretty pretty active and exciting thing for for our school district um sun park has Elementary School holiday concert El Dorado has their talent show Grandview has a holly sing along and last day before the holiday the marching man goes to all the schools and there's a Holiday Tour so that's everything's active and thank you very much thank you Mike Missy waha assistant superintendent for curriculum instruction good evening everyone we have a bit to share today not too long but we wanted to share some of the use of the funding so what you see up um on screen or from our physical
011education health and Athletics we have Ramapo football uniforms we have Spring Valley you know the wall padding cheerleading equipment training room taping stations I didn't know what that was but now I do know what that was on the training room taping stations so we wanted to share how we're using both our arpa funds as well as some of our general funds so as we see up here it just lists roughly the costs and what we have purchased to date so once again for health and safety roughly 20 000 and new athletic training room taping stations we have uniforms we use the cursive funding for that about 130 000 just so we know that the money is being used for the good of our Athletics health and physical education programs the wall padding roughly 5 54
012000 and we're working to acquire more from for our other schools and then coming soon we're going to be we have actually purchased but coming soon in process scoreboards for our um for our gyms gymnasiums indoor scoreboards shot clocks and divider curtains so that's that's just an update I see Smiles this is good we're moving we're moving forward um we wanted to also share from the instructional technology department this is so lovely I'm some of the students want they got a little nervous they want to come so we're going to just encourage them to come to share a little bit more because the having the kids come as I believe um trustee McGill mentioned is such a breath of fresh air um as uh we know we had our last presentation before but last week
013was uh computer science week and so computer science week is it's an annual call to action to inspire K-12 students to learn computer science advocate for equity and celebrate the contributions of students teachers and partners to the field at East Ramapo we saw as you see here students working hard to learn about computer science through the use of 3D printing Lego building circuit programming and coding app creation so on the very right you'll see again an app right you see that game that was made by a young student in one of our school buildings um so that's basketball app game created by James M fourth grade fourth grader in El Dorado how cool is that that's really cool so um and we want to give thanks to Mr Peltier who's the library media specialist supporting
014the young people there we want to also make note that on December next week December 21st 2022 we're going to have another family University this time featuring on the left in a cartoon version uh officer Robert Navarro arampo High School SRO the focus is going to be on ways to keep your child safe online so we really invite everyone to join and possibly just get some new learning I actually will be joining to figure out to find out more about this um finally yes finally we have our code of conduct um we have spoken about the revision to the code of conduct which is an annual process and we are having focus group sessions and we wanted to highlight these focus group sessions that are going to be happening when we come back from break
015so we wanted the community and the board to be very much aware that on January 18th and January 19th we're going to have in-person focus group sessions for elementary parents and caregivers High School parent and caregivers as well as Community Partners to share your thoughts about how we might improve the code of conduct okay that's it thank you particularly uh around the information I'll be sharing next week on Family University on online um challenges with online particularly online building because that's something you know coming up I didn't have to deal with but it's huge and I think our parents were edified them greatly looks like so yeah I just want to go over uh something on from our finance department this is just actually an update on our finance schedule and the development of our
016budget so this is just um sample information um coming in March 2023 our debt service and employee benefits budget to the board that will be up for review and comment again during the second meeting it'll be our instructional special education budget up for the board for review and comment um on the 20 from the 28th to March 3rd there'll be legal notice of the school budget hearing and the budget vote um but I must say that we've been um starting this this information about sharing the budget with the community for my first town hall I think it was November 30th and we'll be having three more for throughout the year I think it's only fair that we communicate with the uh the public on um the nuances of school finance and why it's super important
017for us to make wise decisions um and I think that's that's part and parcel of why I wanted to share this calendar again with you um Again by the end of March 23rd there'll be we're absentee ballots the deadline for submission of petitions for nominations from Board of Ed candidates will be 30 days before the election that's April 17th it'll also be a final draft of a budget presented to the Board of Education appointment of election expectors for the budget vote on the 18th we'll date for drawing while the district clerk for determination of order for the for the board candidates and on ballot and voting machines and then the property tax report card must be submitted to the local newspaper for General circulation looks like now these are some things that we wanted to
018also share um they're not they're not in order by date but they're in order we believe of importance by February 2020 28th 2023 the Board of Education shall discuss and adopt and the district leadership shall Implement a strategy to educate District voters on the district's ability to provide public education as required by law and it should be proposed for the 2023-2024 school year it should not be approved the the responsibility of the board of education is to provide what we call Faith f-a-p-e a free and appropriate public education for our public school students that's their ultimate obligation so that is why it's so critical that um we make wise decisions with the school budget in January of 31st of 2023 the Board of Education shall review and discuss the financial impacts of universal Transportation versus
019Transportation at the New York State mandated levels which is which is inclusive of mileage limits on the development of the 2023-2024 school year budget so at the bottom of this slide East Maple Board of Education work session to review all options to reduce the budget the budget Gap and make determination so the only question now is when and I propose that question I posed that question to the board we can discuss later but I wanted known to the community that this uh oil um all of our adjustments to our our budget operations um in terms of how we provide a free and appropriate public education based on part 100 which is public school education mandates part 200 which is special education mandates and part one for the 54 which is for English language Learners that's
020the term by the state but as the main charge for the Board of Education to provide a vote education along those lines next slide and happy holidays like this is my favorite time of year between Thanksgiving and and Christmas and New Year's and and for those who celebrate and whatever holidays you celebrate um uh Hanukkah whatever you celebrate please send Kwanzaa please enjoy um have a good time with your family that's one thing you definitely have in common or spend time with our family come back rejuvenated especially this is to my team come back rejuvenated you hear that right because this last half of the year is always a bit of a it's a long roll it's a marathon it's not a Sprint although although it goes by quickly we've got to have energy to
021take us through the year and I thank the community for all the support they've offered to us um for this 2022 beginning of this 2022-23 school year thank you thank you Dr Alice doctor that was going to make a comment I said this is the second board meeting doc that Ellis has presented the financial information and at the finalization about presentations he requested the Board of Education to become involved with less words were when the board could not continue to not participate in the budget development this is one of the duties of a Board of Education the financial information has been presented since the summer time we're now at a point in in January we have to stop making decisions and the board has to participate in these discussions this is party of Duties and
022representing the four corners of the community as Dr Ellis highlighted there are ramifications for the entire School District budget some of the reductions are pretty horrific but we need participation so sitting here and absorbing this information but we might have to get to the next step if maybe the board would like a special budget meeting where we could explain budget items that Dr Ellis and the team prepared or we could do it tonight and ask questions you know that when is very important we will not have enough time after the new year to start going into detail of what has happened for the last six seven months so I am just cautioning the board that this process needs to be interactive with the board and the superintendent and the team so if anyone has any
023suggestions any ideas now's the time to talk about it before we move on to the agenda and we lose sight of the topic is it um thank you Bruce is it possible well yeah is it possible that we can set something up where we can also is it something that we can set up so we could talk because this actually came up it actually came up I want to say like a couple of months ago when we first when we first were talking about the deficit and then I did ask the question in regards to what do we do moving forward and there wasn't necessarily that follow-up so I would like for it to just be consistent on and kind of off because hearing you talk about it now as pressing as it is I
024want that same like I I want that same in we're not on here too actually you did you you wanted a few board members who came we spoke about it and we said for this year we're going to have you know we're attempting to have a positive fund balance but the presentation of last board meeting in this board meeting is 23-24 when we will be in a horrific deficit situation we cannot go on and and assume that the deficit will magically disappear without input from the board of education so okay um what possibly let's uh come up with a suggestion so what do you say what do you suggest I mean the board meet more often to review Dr Ellis's suggestions okay so for that go now to the president and the vice president like
025how do we do that because I was under the impression that stuff goes to board leadership so how do we do that so from a just to outline from a governance perspective and sometimes life and conversations need to be iterative because sometimes what people say isn't what people hear the first time through so at that time Ashley you were 100 right I recommended something that I had done and Bruce had done in other districts having a board work session where the board just goes through the weekly reports that the superintendent and his team have put together so you can look at it and ask a ton of questions you can absolutely do that at a board meeting just to be prepared for that if you want to so it has to be you need to
026create a structure for that conversation and time is pressing at the moment good point Ashley so Dr Ells has been presenting the budget information for the last four or five meetings actually goes back even last year every presentation which Linda made said that this is coming the deficit is coming so now we need feedback from the board that's acceptable seeing any I could be wrong um we I don't remember seeing presented by any budget meetings um proposal how to decrease the budget we just said this is what we're looking at so last board meeting Dr Ellis had suggestions that were presented and the very last slide said the next step is board discussion and we immediately went on to the board agenda just like tonight it says when now's a good opportunity so not that
027everyone remembers all the suggestions that were very lengthy Simon had instructional impacts co-curricular impacts athletic impacts we need to have that dialogue so Dr Ellis has Direction on how we're going to develop next year's budget it has to be balanced we cannot present a budget to the community that's not balanced so even with all the cuts that Dr Ells has presented it's not 30 million dollars so we're still going to be in a deficit position that's why we have to put our heads together so how are we going to get out of this even better yeah this has to be public we need your help Ashley I don't know but everybody has this has to give their own I feel like we also need the States out but that we've discussed that um if I'm
028correct I understood that even with a raising the taxes was all near about 5 million a year that makes you without adding anything will take you over six years to cover so again as the president said I don't see anywhere without outside help that this could be accomplished you're 100 correct that you need to inform the entire Community the value of a tax levy increase what are they getting out of it because that has been a struggle for the past seven or eight years some of the awards approve the budget 80 90 percent some of the awards it's five or ten percent we cannot survive on relying on the state relying on the federal government they're not going to bail us out if we don't help ourselves agree with the as Mr Gruber said even
029with the tax level increase that's five let's say five mil five million after deficit was still 25 million in the deficit correct it's a start so we we say we can't remember the eggs are getting the bread we all want the budget to pass right but we have many bigger problems than just passing the budget so 25 million dollars right here I'm saying correct I look we cannot present an unbalanced budget to the community to vote on so at best even if the community says yes it's 5 million less of expenditure reductions but um that's the temperament that the board has to bring to us like from what you know is the is your community willing to support a one percent tax increase a two percent um that we don't know you live with your
030neighbors you have to bring to us because that changes the whole equation if you if we can you know rely on the board members and you were very succinct last week Mr Grouper for you yes can you convince your neighbors who knows um but all of us together we have a better shot of it and we have to talk about it so Dr Ellis ended this presentation now's a good time if their ideas or we have a special board meeting a public meeting to discuss this in detail but we need to we need to have this happen and although thank you um and thank you for I agree with you uh the other pieces even though a passing of a budget may not take care of the whole deficit what it does it shows the
031it shows the legislators uh in the assembly and in the Senate and in Congress that we're trying to at least to take care of our own no matter how no matter how small a start it is absolutely because they that's one of the reasons they've offered um as you know to why there's that hesitancy from the elected that's one of the things they've said at many many meetings to us so but in the other hand the lecturers think that they are being very shortchanged by the fact as the way as Albany counts what's a rich district and whatnot and this is where we are at it's not that as we said um by all the meetings the district has 40 000 kids not ten thousand and it's only ten thousand kids that are being funded
032the other 30 are not so this is where it strains it all it's made parties on us by not approving the budget but a huge part is an openness problem because they way they calculate us they of they over stretch the number enormously well that might be just for a technical perspective right so you've got a timeline which was outlined and a budget has to be put together and the board by law cannot present a balanced budget so those might be adaptive or long-term questions that you all have but you have a technical issue in front of you that you have to address so let's talk about Solutions okay so is there any solution that we have right now the problem is going to be so the state has a budget if we were to
033get more Foundation Aid specifically what you're talking about some other portion of the state or the state budget would have to give East ramapanua the very first question again is they bring up what do they do to help themselves this is seven eight years they've been defeated budget so you want my taxpayers whatever wherever they live whether they live Upstate or whether they live in Long Island well my taxpayers to raise my taxes and I'm going to take those State portion and give it to East Ramapo but East Ramapo is not willing to raise their own taxes that they are actually doing it because they paid their own tuition something that if they would have thrown how the foundation and I just want what we all have opinions about certain things and thoughts right now
034the current law the way it's set up is that Foundation Aid is meant to decide how much the state of New York should give to pay for public school education I don't know a single Public School in New York state that doesn't have private and parochial kids in it everyone does what you're asking for is the systemic change in the law that will impact almost every single Public School District so that's a conversation I'm going to respect the opinion you think the formula was flawed from the get-go and I'm going to redirect you to the people who write it to help fix it but it's not going to be done in your time frame by the May budget vote so that's another conversation that people can talk about and and debate but you have to
035take a look at the months of work that Dr Ellis and the administrative team have looked at in terms of the things they can control and the things they have looked at and you have to have a conversation with all of them about things that you think can fit in the budget or can't wasn't there a large chunk of money that we haven't been getting based on the ten thousand and how much is that YouTube sibrous health over at least 16 million but that's not going to help our budget as Mr Gruber just mentioned right that you have to take up with the legislators we are not going to have that resolved this conversation is going on for 12 13 years we're not going to resolve this by May that that's a fact n is
036even less confidence that people sitting order me right now will be supportive of each round of folk changing the foundation Aid just so we get more state aid and just to highlight for just for numbers because it's a data point in uh 2018-19 uh the state share Foundation Aid was 74 Million last year it was 94.6 and it will go up so the state has been increasing there's been a 20 million dollar increase in the past four or five years and you're going to see more next year if the gov if the legislature if they promise if all the you know the stars align and all the legislators approve that so there will be a projection of an increase next year based upon fully funding Foundation Aid so the state is upping it but the
037local Levy has stayed flat so systemically it's something that needs to be addressed because nothing happens without money and there has to be a balanced budget put forth to the community the other side of that as Miss get you uh put up and the construction people I'm going to speak about in a few minutes we were blessed with 210 million one of the highest in the state of federal funding so we can't say we were shortchanged for the last few years because of one category you got to take the whole picture we are redoing the entire School District based on this federal aid unfortunately it's ending and we didn't we didn't have the right to reserve it and put it away for future years you had to spend it according to the direction of the
038federal and the state government but they have treated East Ramapo fairly to 210 million with very few school districts City school districts received that kind of allocation I think it's very important to differentiate between the tax levy and the taxes that the homeowner pays that with all the development that's taking place in the schools District you can have a tax levy increase without impacting the taxes that the homeowner pays and I think that might be that middle point where you can get some percentage of an increase the taxpayers wouldn't rebel against it if you will and at the same time the tax levy can increase I think there is that middle ground where you need to phrase the conversation in a way that the school district gets additional funding and at the same time the
039people who are paying the taxes especially in inflationary times like we have right now aren't so averse to it that's number one number two I think that it is incumbent on the school district to re-assess the veterans tax exemption as well as I understand that the governor just signed off on first responder exemptions as well and to look into perhaps approving that for the veterans and the First Responders as well so Harry to your first point there was a slide oops when the budget Was Defeated at one percent everyone had because of the increased assessment had a tax decrease based on what you had just said e ID attacks decrease the budget was defeated and I'm going to tell you that narrative was not conveyed the way it was Heavy you talked to a ward
040more than I do that was on this slide and said if you vote yes the one percent because of the assessments I don't know how much more the district can convey that but in certain woods they heard it it was 80 90 approval in other words they didn't hear it well most people are hearing is the tax levy is increasing and the way they interpret that incorrectly in the case that you're describing was that their taxes are going up when in fact they were not at which point that that's what creates terrific it's a great point I agree right right we hear we're saying the same thing how do we get that message out from early board members so you could go back to your Awards whatever you talk to whoever the community leaders are
041and say look the the taxes are going up but the assessment's going up at a higher rate um and it's not as drastic but we cannot live on continually defeated budgets that's why the more the board is informed that's in this budget what are they voting on that the greater help it's going to be for the school district it we built it up and we don't want to destroy it in three or four months what I'm saying is that the headline has to be your taxes are going down and then the body line would be the tax leave is going to be X okay it's not the way that we Market it the way we Market it is based on the tax levy which gives the impression that the taxes are going up I'm saying
042we're not marketing it well we don't have the authority to go that far because what we're talking about is what the Town and County do our budget is state aid and taxes whatever the mathematical equation is and let's say it's one percent that's where our conversation ends but through marketing we could say not not in the budget vote itself that do you know that all this new construction going on is raising your assessments it can't be of the same dialogue because that would be falsely identifying what the budget increases you know what we're what we need if we're unified on a budget increase that's a big step in the community hearing it pretty much marketing with marketing marketing has to be targeted and you have to convey a message that the consumer wants to hear
043so I'm not disagreeing with anything you've said Bruce I think you know that I'm completely we're saying the same thing okay I'm saying the way that it has to be communicated and marketed is in a very specific way but I I I wish we could get everyone's help because it wasn't uniform how could certain words 90 of the people hear it and certain other Awards only two percent of the people here there's a discourse no disconnect how much money do we have do we have money in the in the budget at all for marketing because the problem is that it's being marketed in a way that whatever percent in that word don't even get it they're not here over here and a huge part of them doesn't have any um internet or home or places
044where they would see where we advertise do we have money to send around some flyers or we don't so that would be the only way to convey the message is if we give the message the message wasn't sent it's not that 89 heard that the other people didn't hate it because they had no way of hearing it so that's a great Point that's what starts the conversation can we have it if the board wants to put in 10 20 000 in advertising but then you have to lay off another person to do it that's the problem we don't have the money to pay for the staff that we have that's why we need board conversation we can't magically find twenty thousand dollars it means somebody sitting here with the marching band is going to disappear
045an athletic team is going to disappear which is more important let's give money to where the kids are not sending out a brochure yes and I understand they don't have the internet but they have you they have you to get the word out just like we did for the last 10 years [Music] there's a few things that need to be explained to the people number one what do they lose when they vote down the budget and what do they win when they when they vote for the budget to be honest in a portion of the community they don't lose anything because transportation is mandated by law on the other half of the community they lose a tremendous amount tremendous I understand that part but how would we got to find a way to convey a
046message that they should be able they should be willing to give that for the other part of the community that's why we need your help because in seven years we have not been successful last year I went out to 40 meetings yeshiva's rabbis and I wasn't successful I thought I was I thought at one percent or two percent we we found a dialogue but um I didn't I wasn't successful Mr singer I just patient just so I am able to understand from all different perspectives you said that the same information went out the same information went out to all the wards but only you had said it before only some like you said the same information went out so it's a little bit confusing how some words understood and the other words didn't I don't
047think they understood I think they were more participative in the public school budget so as Mr Gruber said they read it they understood it um certain homes in the community don't have access to the internet so all this is wonderful information but you need to go on that website so you know our mailings is only that four-page newsletter and it talks about very specific it's Guided by law we can't put marketing information in there but board members could talk about it we have other um Community groups can that can talk about it but I think the budget is what Dr Ellis presented these are the expenditures and these are the revenues and and this is the remaining I mean I I think it would be I know you did a town hall last week but
048maybe if we can I know we discussed this about perhaps uh doing like a town hall catered to the non-public school Community great and to have the monitors and the superintendent I I'll be there maybe some of my fellow board members can join might as well do both you have expressed your hearts in the right place but the more information we give you the more informed you could be and the more informed you're saying yeah I mean because the community has difficult questions and they want to hear from the district and they you know and they I feel like if they put you know unfortunately some people they don't show up to meetings right and they don't you know they're not but if you know sometimes we maybe we'll bring the meeting to them you
049know it's uh if we organize it we will be there can you clarify something for me again is is there a problem knowing knowing that that we have all these high assessments coming that's been a question I had for a number of years they kept saying they're coming next year the money is coming next year obviously it's coming every year it's getting higher and higher right there's more and more tax money coming in right correct so the point I'm making is trying to make is that is that is what it seemed to me that you made this thing that you would say would be a problem for us when we're sending out the the information from here to say this is the budget we would like this is how much it should go up more
050than the budget we have this year but understand that based on the expected uh money coming in because of higher assessments you actually we're going to raise the we're going to raise the budget two percent and it's going to cost you and actually you're going to be paying less in taxes than last year mark that's a great Point Let's just explain that take me two seconds so four people go out for dinner it's a hundred dollar dinner the dinner remains at a hundred dollars that's 25 a person a fifth person now joins us now it goes down to twenty dollars a person as higher assessments do not bring more money into the district they're spreading the tax base over more people so we don't know that towns and the counties the tax assessor sets that
051we can't assume when those assessments when those pilot programs our responsibility ends at the budget this is an expenditure budget it has to equal the revenue budget now can we tell them this is the history of Assessments and and the tax assessor can can give us a good estimate a hundred percent but to put that in there that's well beyond the responsibility and the authority of the board of education but it's our benefit to do it it is it is but you can't you can't put that in because we have no foundation and we could say the tower assessors believes it's going to go up until they set the tax rates and the tax levies which is months after the school board sets the budget which is crazy exactly Mark exactly but I think what
052you just said that maybe taking a history and then getting the backing of the Town behind us saying this is that we want you to know that that you actually are all paying you know would be still paying less taxes than you did the day the year before I think that would make a tremendous impact right and the other thing just if I may say talking about you know how the budgets pass and don't pass again only five percent of the registered voters came out and the onus of of a budget going down can't be blamed on on 2 000 people when there were another 58 000 people that did not vote correct so that's something that that that that that I think of all people who are concerned would get out and get more
053votes there I don't think that you would have a budget that would be put would be put down so fast that's why we need to all put our heads together here what's in the budget what suggestions you have these are great suggestions great dialogue but we need more of it Dr Ells need specific information to bring back to you just like we spent the last two weeks on the evaluations that what you want in the budget what are you comfortable presenting to the community because some of those cuts were horrific and I can invite someone from the assessor's office to sit in with us and they might do it what they're going to tell us somebody could walk in tomorrow and they could build another million dollar home or a million dollar home is going
054to move out they don't have the same deadlines that we have that they could give us they could give us a history I think that makes a difference for people to see what the history was that the taxes are going that we could get all right I think that's easy enough but we cannot incorporate that into the tax levy that is no bearing on the taxes I'm not talking about I'm talking about having the levy that we feel we need right but letting people know that with this Levy history shows especially with these again these multi-million dollar purchases going on into up North for sure and now the South South part is the South part of the town is getting the houses are going way up also let everyone know yes your attack the the
055budget is going to go up we have many more children we have many needs our our these are just meeting our costs and meet and and you know throwing whatever programs we can but understand your taxes will not go up based on trends that we have and base our predictions the taxes will not go up to here that will be your opinion but there's no basis of fact we we cannot base our fact on some guess that is staying at us do what we have to do well that's something that's why I said set the tax life for what we have we think we have to have and then try to get backing I know from when I'll go down and check it out perfectly get backing from the assessor's office saying based on current
056trends based on the money we expect to get in a two percent increase and school tax will will not will not you will your taxes will still be going lower we have no basis to say that do you just said before that the taxes that the taxes went that was for fact for last year to actually assessor what's going to happen next year they only will know when they set the tax levy same way based on the last several years the base that that the taxes have been going down because we have such large assessments coming in nothing wrong with that but that's something I cannot understand right right that's your opinion there's no basis of fact we we have to build a budget that was a basis of effect last year it was last
057year it was a slide that um the first budget was defeated by deciding the second budget came around there was information from the assessor's office that the assessments were going up we have to decide a budget I mean the calendar was up there a few minutes ago um before that time uh we have to make decisions before we know what the final assessments are back back to a discussion that was brought up for a short brief a second you said before that like 89 of one world approved it and then the others don't but the 89 of approvals were a very small part of registered voters in that maybe it will be a lot easier to get people that are really affected by it to come out and vote Yes that will also help out
058because if we have 60 000 and they only participate between five and seven thousand people participate in the votes so the yes votes is four thousand the no votes are three thousand that means that basically nobody in the community cares it's not like as you said one word cares and one doesn't even the word that approved also doesn't care because maybe 10 percent of the work came out to vote at all true so we should really work on that part also to get the people that are really affected by it to also come out and vote and vote their conscience yes so you'll be able to uh you have a lot more yes votes than no votes what it seems now that nobody because I think it's Dynamic of the community population as we mentioned
059is 40 000 students 75 percent of them go to yeshivas so no matter what we need the entire Community to understand the value of an approved budget even if every single parent in a public school voted yes every single parent the majority 75 percent go to non-public but that's the community we met we we need to get to out of the 75 percent only let's say 10 percent of the involved the rest of them don't care they don't vote Deals they don't vote no the problem is that the pro the public school 25 also only 10 percent correct so these 10 percent these over troubled but if you'll get 25 30 of the public school voting you'll then they might they probably will win so we have to raise the people I don't think that
060we will have such a success in the 75 percent if we could get a lot more from the 25 to come out and vote you have a better chance of winning the budget that way so you don't think that of that 75 we wouldn't be successful what I'm trying to do I'm trying to be in reality when we sell something reality and having a very hard song so if we could get to the people that are going to get affected and we'll tell them you know that if you don't come out and vote Yes for your budget other people are going to come out and vote no and you're going to lose X Y and Z make sure that 75 of the public school parents come out then the budget goes through the problem is
061that over there also only 25 come out or for whatever the number is I'm not maybe come is 40 but that 40 for sure won't overthrow 10 from the other I mean Effie had a he had to stand up I just sorry excuse me so I I if you go off the whole amount if you go off the second vote that we did you need everybody to vote correct and especially the public school uh parents because if you look at the last vote we have over 60 000 people who could vote and you only had 2000 who voted no and one thousand have voted yes right so even if you had 25 20 of the public school people coming out you it would've been easy correct so now I came out to vote that was
062a challenge and even meeting with all the rabbis the the most positive response they'll encourage their parents to stay home that doesn't help anybody as if he just said that we need we don't need him to say home we need them to come out and support the public schools we're one community that that's what we need sitting home we're going to get back into the problem whether it's a thousand two thousand um the dominant population of East Ramapo attends non-public schools we need to help each other but but we have to what we have to get we have to find ways to get the public school parents to come out and vote Yes that's the very reason why we have stated we have scheduled four Town Halls we did one in the public school the
063next one will be in a neutral place we think about Finkelstein Library and then based on the suggestions from Mr Rose and Mr Gruber we will we will set up an additional Town Hall um for to predominantly um explain things or share data and information with the non-public school community and that will be based on a venue that they recommend I'm all for that the whole idea is that with the with the work we've done since August with with the cabinet and working with the bankers and the underwriters we've been looking at efficiencies making sure we spend properly which has nothing to do with cutting staff but making sure you're not paying for a full teacher if you only got nine kids in the class when it should be 25 kids in the class we're
064looking at appropriate Staffing we're looking at facility spending Material supplies and based on monies that we can save by Department student Support Services curriculum instruction enl bilingual Athletics Fine Arts we've been looking we haven't left a stone unturned but all we've done is put course calculations to everything we serve the decisions and I think what Mr singer is stressing is that the decisions will come based on the board the board decides what we cut or don't cut what we've done is put course calculations almost like when you go to a restaurant you have a price for a certain amount of food or different types of meal packages right so it'll be a menu of options that we can they can exercise to to meet our needs so maybe it may not satisfy the whole deficit
065if we approve if we get a budget approved but it'll be that many less people that may lose their job it'll be that many less uh uh supplies I have to you know prevent children from receiving that that's really what it's about as well but the thing is once we start passing if we can pass a budget the next budget is based on a higher Baseline that's why we said we've missed our even our minimal budget the last five years any one of those budgets would have been no more than five to three to six million dollars but combined we've left close to 24 million dollars on the table and it would have been negligible based on the information that Mr Grossman and Mr Berkowitz just supplied based on a new and improved in Construction
066Construction in the area but that's not what people are hearing when people hear you know tax increase they think wow my taxes are going up you know you want to get 6 million my taxes are going up 6 million the costs are defrayed amongst all of us and that's the message we can't equivocate when we speak to our words and I'm not saying you do but I'm saying that when we speak to the wards when someone comes up with a passionate argument we gotta let them know that may be passionate but that's not the issue the issue is do we help these children because when we went to Universal busting this community decided to help each other it wasn't you know your non-public I'm public the community said it is wise it is it is
067safe it is better for the entire Community to go to Universal busing so what we're saying I can't say it because I can't tell people how to vote you guys can recommend it what I'm saying is it's wiser it is better it is way more kind for for public school students in this regard that we that we do our best to get a budget pass it's just right now to me it's it's a it's a favor for children it's not I mean the numbers are great and I have analysts for the numbers but you know we got to analyze our hearts right now this is for children we know the children are suffering if we don't get money because we also we already know children don't make us money children cost us money it's not
068not I'm not not not getting chosen chosen to me are not an expense they're an investment so do we look at our children as an expense or do we look at our children as an investment and we need to that's something we need to reconcile in our own hearts first in January it's just on the budget and we go line by line what Dr Alice is recommending and there's a Public Presentation with the audience here and the board members can offer their uh Bruce we do understand exactly the importance it's not that we don't understand exactly an importance we are trying to be able to pass a budget and this is what I'm this is the way I'm looking at it I'm not talking about yes cutting or not cutting I understand we need every
069programmer we need every dollar we have I'm just trying to come up with a way to win the budget that they should vote Yes so I'm trying to get when you look at the elections before you sit down any candidate who goes that runs for the office sits down and seizes their strict disease whom what's the definite yes what's a definite no and what's a maybe they are definitely definitely yes and they're definitely definitely no we know that we are trying to get the maybes to vote so this is what I was discussing let's try to get as many of the maybes to come out and vote for the budget and the more laws you keep home you're better off and this is what I was trying to explain before it's not that I was
070arguing that the budget is wrong I understand that part I understand every part of that but we have to look at a way how do I get my maybes out and how do I keep my nose home I think I think I keep on hearing something that we can discuss in I would say April or closer to May to educate the voters to come out and vote right now I would like to see a budget what's on the budget each line item where we have to spend and what we can cut so far I didn't see anything so well one one day I did share um Mr Carl I shared um we shared throughout the last several months our budget our our flows of income from federal sources from State sources from local sources and
071I did share with you um the course calculations that one of our executive sessions I will provide that I will send that to you and and remember when you when you get it I'll email it to you guys like I do with the weekly updates right uh remember those are just course calculations nothing's written in stone those are just the things we're going to have to make decisions based on so I will get that to you I promise I think that's a terrific idea and we should share that with the board so we can have this in-depth conversation as you've just suggested that's what is needed that's exactly what I'm suggesting the other thing I definitely hear is that and based on you know Mr gruber's Point as well we agree that it's not just
072this is just not a conversation focused on non-public school parents we must get everybody out and what he's just saying is doing a voter analysis and and just looking at you know um operating from a position of strength so I do agree with you and um we're gonna we'll strategize on a way uh with cabin on the best way to go about that when I have a a legitimate plan because I don't really like thinking out loud in public because I get quoted I want to have a little gym in a plan I will bring it to the board and I'll have one I'll have something in terms of how we're going to approach those voters you know by Ward uh within the next few days I think that was one of the Strategic plan
073recommendations that you highlighted tonight and just to give an idea there has been on the East Ramapo website I mean I saw it when I first got appointed an outline of all their programs and teachers that are funded federally and you see them by the caressa and Arbor funds even Missy waha tonight when she presented those things disappear and next year your social workers disappear next year there are many things in that budget that have been highlighted that have been funded by this money for which they're not here that's been the repeating message but I'm hearing uh that everyone understands that a budget is a listing of expenditures and revenues and you're thinking about both in a proactive way at this moment and I think the suggestion of having an outline where you can see
074the weekly work that your cabinet has been doing outlining every single area of this District so you can see it is the next step in this process and also an outline of what we can lose break it down for the people yes sure exactly sure that's what the economists is a great point because when when you get the course calculation um a document Miss McGill you will see that if it was just simply it was just simply let's just say 30 million dollars 30 million dollars if you just say a hundred a hundred thousand dollars per staff member that would our district that's what we had to look at different Avenues different approaches supplies materials savings that's another reason why we brought in the energy uh the energy conservation project as well they're getting ready
075to present shortly we wanted to look at ways to to you know stream streamline our course because of where we could be spending x amount of dollars on utilities a month and we think it's no big deal but you know we're Mindful and we get updated equipment we get uh updated lighting we get updated um oil and gas grills and and the like we could save we could save hundreds of thousands of dollars per year just in that alone and I'm talking about that can be ongoing not just for the short term but indefinitely so I will have those course calculations to you and everything that has a cost next to it is what we could lose we don't work together as a team I mean I keep on seeing the universal buzzing being brought
076up I mean as I remember who mentioned before Universal bossing was something that the community came together and voted for it now we could put it back up for a vote again and we discussed this Bruce but if people are going to see that their bossing is up for vote they're not going to be coming they're going to come out to vote yes for the universal Boston and they're going to come out and vote Noah on the boat that's going to defeat so I keep on seeing the universal busting the universal busing being brought up when I don't think anybody wants to remove Universal busing at the same time the only reason it was brought up Mr Rose just just to share information I'm not being combative in any way is that 750 close to
077750 other districts in New York State no other District sends more than five percent on their budget we spend 24 on our budget which is 60 million dollars and I'm not saying that anybody want you know anybody would say let's just get rid of universal busting but that's a course calculation just like when I send you the document all the other things that we may possibly have to streamline you should be aware of the course because many times people are not thinking about that just saying well my kid gets to school they get picked up you know pretty good fine but I'm letting you know that that is that last year we spent close to 61 million and that is more than some districts entire budget but like I said you you know it could
078be right what I'm saying is if you put it now correct me if I'm wrong in order for to Universal bossing to be eliminated it needs to be put up for a vote is that correct exactly now if it's being to be put up for a vote a lot of people can be very passionate about voting for the continuation of their busting that they've been I don't know when was it one for 20 years how long the ladies more yeah there you go and then suddenly they're gonna come out to support the Boston now so you're going to have the people coming out to vote but they're going to come out to vote for the bossing and even though it goes against the they're going to vote no on the budget right right that's going
079to be our challenge that and it's not gonna pay that people are not going to be willing to give up the bosses it's just I mean if you want I think if you're always important to identify the fact that you could be very and that's our job very close whether it's next year or the following year or the year after of coming very close to the failure of having enough money to meet the legal requirements under the part 100 part 154 part 200. yet you will be able to let me finish the thought you will have money in the budget to pay for transportation in above the state mandated levels I don't know how those two thoughts sit in the same universe that you could have transportation that's above what the state requires yet your
080educational program for kids will fall below that that's the point of people understanding and understanding what the language is around the conversation I hear fully what you're saying that's a logical statement that you just made but in reality what I just outlined is what is potentially what can happen here and what does the community do part 100 is the state legal the legal requirements that we must provide based on State education law for regular education students part 200 of the state legal requirements based on what we must provide for special education students part 154 is what the state legal requirements are what we must provide for English language learners so that when she says that those are the three um that's like the the trifecta that's it we Regular Ad special ed else that's that's
081what we serve in our district as well we had times in the past where where the superintendent wanted push for a budget and and and said that if this budget isn't passed we are going to cut out Sports we're going to cut out you know but we didn't do the bus and we wouldn't cut out Sports and things like that and I can tell you for one that that the entire community came out and we put up a a proposition saying saying that even if the budget Goes Down Sports will remain that was something and those there were games being played trying to force people to to vote Yes for a budget but made sure that what's what really would most impact the children would not be used as a as something you know as
082a threat to the whole community we have I want you know the Orthodox Community has approximately 22 000 of these 61 000 votes and if the Orthodox because I'm just getting a Vibe I'm going to be very blunt this everything's going that that the Orthodox Community has to come out orthos let me tell you something even if all those 2 000 votes that were no votes were Orthodox no votes that's this much that means that that 20 000 they might not have voted yes but they did not vote no they sat back some of the bigger communities here it was said right here there was some Maniac out there who was pushing people to vote no and without that without that one little group that's what made the difference but again we have to have
083the the the public school Community just push a few more that when when push came to shove years ago when we didn't have so many people we the Orthodox Community could come out with seven to eight thousand voters to really fight something that was really gonna it doesn't hurt our community it's been sitting back letting things go there are some people there that just don't want to pay more taxes no matter what happens no matter what the budget is and and we can't we can't take the blame for those those few those Maniacs that don't want to back a budget but on the other hand you can't just have the the vibe out there in public that is the orthox community that can solve the problem is causing the problem that's the only thing I
084resent if I want I will be out there I will go I will back everything I always backed it my children back because I can tell you plenty of those thousands that voted yes were family members I know his family and we got big families that you know that would that would voted yes and the other people that vote no could be senior citizens it could be people that are they have other reasons to vote no but understand don't put the onus have the vibe out there the the perception out there that it's the Orthodox community that makes the difference we could if they want to come down and say yes yes but to say that that was the reason went down the reason went down is there weren't enough yes votes from the people
085who really should be coming out I will go out into the other Wards and I will also try to uh to get people to to vote and I think that we should have to do something about that I was just thinking about a solution because we keep harping on yes who yes who is voting how many people you know and from this District this a certain percentage let's just we need everybody to go out and vote period for the budget so maybe a suggestion too because I heard senior citizens maybe I don't know if it's possible we can make sure that we provide transportation for those individuals that perhaps cannot um you know get to the polling sites or who doesn't receive an absentee ballot maybe we could try and do that provide some type
086of transportation for those individuals so that could be a solution right there besides your town hall meetings and then as a board I think what we should do we should all I know we're going to come again together um Mr singer but I think that everyone here sitting here we have to remember that it's all about the children all of them so what we need to do is sit down individually come up with Solutions let's forget about everything else let's come up with Solutions ways we can get individuals to help pass our budget let's do that I have a great solution totally forgot about I'm sorry no no this but you did you do have when people come to vote their votes there's a record of who vote and who didn't vote that's why you
087have poll watches who sometimes you want to say you didn't vote I think those records are public records we could get it in in World Awards we can look at have people volunteer to go through those records for the each Ward for each for each voting on for each yeah for each Ward and see who not what they did but who voted and who didn't vote and then you can go in in your neighborhood and say look I see my neighbor didn't vote I want to make sure my neighbor's going to vote on the next on the next election and I've seen that done too that's that's I think that's a quick quick save that means every all the PTA parents and everybody get out there in your own Ward asked to see the S
088to see the records of who voted and didn't vote that's all you have to do and then make a list and go out and say you didn't vote and that's the reason you know this how do you like that these are all great ideas I got another one how about a doctor keep going yeah as a superintendent you do robocalls oh yeah and you could do it in different languages that's a great idea I will say um no after listening and just like in like well I guess this conversation did need to happen because it does give you know it does allow us to give different perspectives so this is what I'm also thinking right because we just came back from a Dei training so we all took part in it and this is what
089I'm also thinking there's a couple things that I we have to realize and you know actually face we're on a board where there is a majority and there is a minority we can't escape that right so now when you do look at the numbers and then maybe this is just food for thought for all of us when we do look at the numbers of the people who actually voted you know you try to tend to see what's plaguing certain communities so Mark I do agree with you in regards to yes we do have to get more Public School more public school um the public school Community to come out and vote but you know let's not try to just as much as it's like you know let's not try to put the blame on either
090sides if we know that if you look at the um if you look at the population of people that we have on both public and private I guess it comes to how can we help them because we do know that we serve a majority of undocumented public school students right correct and we see different strains that are put in our communities that might stop us to be able to vote so it's not so much as why isn't the public school coming out to vote but what could the majority because you know majority like what could the majority do in order to help the oppressed you know because that's where we actually have to turn our way of thinking and whereas everybody made good points we also have to remember like Mrs McGill said Dr Ellis
091said that this is also about what we could all what we what our children's face to lose we all sat on the board because we wanted to do good for our community and for our children as well so let's kind of like you know people could people could kind of read the room when they're watching when they're watching the board meetings so a lot of it just sounds like taxes and money like the monitors are telling us this is what the kids failed to lose and a lot of us are saying but what about money so we don't necessarily set that good we don't set a good tone and we also it's it's not I don't want it to be a reflection on exactly what it is that we're on the board to do but
092yeah really take into consideration that we're dealing with um we're doing we're dealing with a majority of a population that doesn't have access to vote you know the same way yeah how could we help let's not let's not blame the parents for not coming out to vote but how could we how could we all help one another versus it's not just on us it's on you what did you say yeah no absolutely so let's so like let's focus on Solutions like what could we do what could we do within our reach because there's a lot of things that we might not be able to do like long term wise but what could we do short-term rise we're all on here we all have a part to play so let's think of the short term in
093regards to getting this budget passed and what we like like Mr Grossman had said if it would if certain things were worded a different way for people to understand maybe that would have changed their way of thinking the re the reality is you know we can go into our Wards and word it the way so they could understand there might be something that one of the community members might not understand or kind of misconstrued our responsibility is to go and tell them no no you may have took this wrong way this is how it is and I'm not really I'm not really hearing a lot of solutions it kind of just seems like it kind of just seems like the monitors are telling us what the problem is and we're kind of being defiant and
094saying well eloquently put I think that was brilliant this is the start of the conversation to understand each other that this is the first of many meetings as Sherry said because when we get that list transportation is not going to be and I I agree Mr Rose it's a waste of time to talk about it so every single line item won't be affecting 75 percent of the population but we need that support their understanding just what you said and they look to you they look to the people at this table you're the educational leaders you have access to information that the average person does it so when they hear you we support each other and we will have to be on that same page because we'll never we'll never move forward if all of us
095unique here aren't I think your mark was 100 right and you were 100 right and this is the start of doing something different and getting approved so our children don't suffer just as Sherry said do you know what causes people to feel you know what causes people of color to feel oppressed when the majority white people continuously do think like continuously use their powers to keep people of color in certain places and positions I'm just going to leave that for thought I'm not like that's all I'm just going to say because I feel like sometimes people don't really understand the oppression and privilege we learned that from our Dei training I don't think a lot of people understand exactly what proved to be a privileged and to be oppressed means and it's like when you
096have the power oh White Privilege white fragility and when you have the power to you know when you have the inherited power or white privileges when you have the inherited power um not because like you know you want it but systematically that's how it is so you know people you have that power off of the backs of oppressed color of people so let's kind of like break if let's identify it and do things to move forward and use our positions for good and our privileges for good yeah you were wonderful thank you so much okay all right so a next meeting yeah so like I said I was saying uh understood the beginning I mean the passing the budget while it's a very important issue it's just we have to get down to the you
097know unfortunate about the you know that's why nobody nobody wants to talk about Cuts nobody wants to cut programs you know it's not something the board is like oh yes okay when can we start cutting some programs over here it's horrible right nobody wants to be put in the position nobody wants to cut music nobody wants to have to cut Sports hopefully we're not going to I don't want hopefully we have a solution that we don't you know what I'm saying like we don't that's why it's not something we're like okay yeah let's talk about Cuts you know I'm just saying from like you know I can't see myself you know like to vote for cutting programs for kids like it's just I I just don't want I don't want to do it so what
098I would say is that it just which you just uh offer that you know I know that's where your heart is because I work with you guys every day that's the same kind of sentiment we have to Echo when we go out with our Wars going back to the budget even if we do pass the budget that's a two percent let's say two let's say you know it's another that's five million dollars extra we're still short 25 million dollars so even if the budget passes we're still going to be facing a 25 million or whatever wait wait listen to what Ashley just said it changes the narrative if that Community hears every single person here every single male is going to say you need to vote Yes because we're going to help those public school
099students that will change the narrative in our community and we need to be together on that look we got to stop yeah we're on agreement but I'm just saying that you know this conversation about Cuts is just going to be very very difficult and I and knowing that we can't Touch Transportation because of the law that even makes it more difficult so let's note with that facilitator last week he told us it makes it even more for somebody who doesn't have the information you don't have all they see it is you're hurting my kid we're taking away sports you're taking away music you're hurting my kid take away busing it's not that simple so I think to Dr Ellis's Point what you just mentioned um was exactly what this team had every single week and
100still it continues to experience since August since we co-signed that letter every week for three four hours they have to go through this exercise and it is painful and It's upsetting and there's a lot of like uh like I can't even begin to give language you probably do a gazillion percent better job than I could Dr Ellis but at the end of the day it's a mathematical puzzle and it's an exercise that they have to go through because the law requires it you know as we get into this there are other partners there's unions there's employees we each know somebody so once we start putting our heads together we we could have a positive outcome one thing I like to say um first of all I appreciate the conversation you know I'm really really grateful
101for it but I also want to um I'll show you another reason on my gratitude we have several of my students out here that came that were invited and they came and this is this is what they need to hear we're educating them on on what they'll be what they'll be undertaking hopefully in the next few next few years but they need to hear you know the challenges and um you know the nuances of of moving a school district in in the same direction so I'm really grateful for that I'm glad they're here too raise all votes raise all boats that's right thank you for the start thank you thank you so I'm looking for I think me too be the next meeting we're gonna go and we're gonna discuss absolutely when is the January
1023rd and when we have suggestions like um Miss McGill had let's do the rubble let's not just talk about it let's mark it down and let's do it I did I wrote John Solutions Sherry I'm expecting a like a nice big list from you moving along thank you okay um there's no nobody wanted to speak this week uh no public speaking this week um moving on to consent and agenda items before we move on to consent and agenda items Kathy does have some updates for us Kathy I'm sorry oh they weren't on the agenda but uh they were not on the agenda if you can look at the agenda generally if there's something it'll be presented it would be great to have it on the agenda but today here let's hear so so I don't
103remember your names I'm sorry give me what's up energy I should give you guys a time limit so uh Sherry what do you think good evening everyone uh nice to see you again my name is Justin Benoit I'm a project engineer with energia I'm joined by Matt ferdina from ameresco as well and we're here tonight to share an update on the energy performance contract project that we've been working on with the district um so just to kind of give a little bit of a then not working where do I point we're helping the slides oh this is good Matt thanks yeah uh so just to give a little bit of a reintroduction as to who we are at energia we are the districts owners representative for this energy performance contract project essentially where we're specialists
104in Energy Engineering and project management Services really directly related to energy performance Contracting we have experience on over 125 successful projects and again we've been engaged with the district for some time really starting back from the initial development point to help build out the project with the district and and bring the maximum value to you uh so just a little bit of kind of a recap as well as to what an energy performance contract project is um the first thing that I like to note is that this is something that's authorized by really every uh State uh legislation but in New York though the legislation is New York State uh energy law article 9. so again energy has been you know serving it as uh owners Representatives on energy performance contracts for over 20 years
105but it's not a concept that we developed it's just something that we have a lot of experience with and have developed our expertise again over 125 successful projects um the next item that I want to note and this is maybe in line with the discussion that the board was just having but this is a budget neutral approach to allow the district to fund needed improvements in your facilities I have a Graphic on the next slide that kind of represents that a little bit better but in that sense it can offer some taxpayer relief again because you are able to fund some of the needed improvements in the districts and in your facilities through Energy savings as opposed to having to go out for a separate Bond another huge aspect of energy performance contract projects are
106that they have a guaranteed savings aspect so again I mentioned that the funding source for the the upgrades that the district will be receiving are the Energy savings that the upgrades can be generated um but those savings are also guaranteed so if there were any shortfall if the savings were not generated as anticipated by our energy calculations the district would be receiving a check to make you whole for that difference these projects are also fixed price with no change orders ameresco who will will be presenting some slides and some details on the scope they're responsible for all of the costs associated with implementing that scope of work even any unforeseen conditions that that might arise they're not authorized to include any change orders as you would see on a traditional Capital project um there's also
107no low bid requirements again it allows for more flexibility of the district in equipment selection and also subcontractor selection and then the last point that I would make is um in regards to the positive Community engagement we've been again involved in a lot of these projects and it is really a great opportunity for for the board to show your initiative and looking for alternative funding sources to you know accomplish some of the needed work in your facilities so again I I like to show this graphic it kind of summarizes what I was explaining about the Energy savings being funding source for the project so if you'll note on the left hand side this would be representative of the district's current energy budget this is what you are paying today and this is what you will
108continue paying for the foreseeable future unfortunately there have been utility rate increases that that will come with that as well but putting that aside for now this is what you are paying today and what you will continue to pay to your utility companies through an energy performance contract project you're able to reduce that that energy budget by implementing Energy savings upgrades um Matt again we'll we'll touch on some of them but LED lighting for example is a huge driver of electric savings that allow you to reduce the amount of money that you would have to pay to your electrical utility company so with that new energy budget that will carry on throughout the life of the equipment so this is not a short-term financing option this is something that will will carry on as the
109upgrades will remain in place with those savings that are generated from the difference between what your current energy budget is and what your future energy budget will be you're able to make the debt service payments to fund those upgrades on top of that factoring in state aid on top of the the Energy savings very often and and in this case it will be the case for the district as well you will see positive cash flow as well after the cost of The Debt Service financing have been paid off there will be excess savings all of which go back to the district none of which are are up for grabs for either energia or amaresco any of those benefits beyond the debt service costs come back to the district and essentially go into your general fund
110um so just to kind of recap some of the activity that we've taken to date uh back in February energy issued a request for proposals document as a result of receiving responses to that RFP and also a thorough evaluation process including interviews um ameresco was selected as the Energy Services Company to proceed with what's known as the comprehensive energy audit over the summer I believe it was August when we last came to the board and shared a presentation with you the board authorized amaresco to proceed with that next phase the comprehensive energy audit and since then we have been working through that process today we wanted to attend the board again to really share an update not only on the activity again that we've taken to date but to also allow us to share an
111update on the scope of work that we've been developing very closely with the arpa project as well um so before I pass it over to Matt are there any questions about you know anything that I I discussed so far I see you have a chart of what the calls are and that what it's going to reduce is that based on any numbers or that's a projection you have we could you put that in numbers also it's basically a projection that is going to be as what you expect it should cut cost absolutely so as part of the the state legislation that I mentioned it's required that the Energy savings entirely cover at minimum the cost of the upgrades but again as I mentioned with the state aid component there will be some access positive cash
112flow when we finalize the comprehensive energy audit phase which again we're we're really wrapping up on now and have the final financials we will be able to show an actual cash flow projection over the entire project term that'll show you the cost of the upgrades the Energy savings that you'll be receiving the state aid so you will absolutely have that information this chart is kind of just representative of the concept itself thanks for that Justin sure thank you and with that uh Matt from amaresco will well hey Matt share some more information all right thanks Justin welcome all right good evening everyone so again I'm Matthew frieden I'm the senior accounting executive here with mresco um our team has been hard at work over the last several months developing a scope of work uh working
113very closely with District Representatives C.S Archer architect Jacobs Construction the construction manager for the Opera project um right along with Harris Beach as well um and we're getting close to finalizing comprehensive energy audit uh so today I want to give you an update of where things stand now um these are I don't see preliminary uh statements are going to make because we after the audit is fully completed uh per contract we actually have to go through a review from The District's uh representative here with energia then we have to negotiate a uh Energy Services agreement which is actually uh in the works right now and then it has to go up to the state uh education department facilities planning board for a review so these the information can tell is preliminary we're not anticipating any
114major changes but um from The Proposal we initially estimated the project coming in right around 15 million dollars and again to uh Hannah what Justin said all of the the costs associated with the project will be paid for uh by Energy savings which amaresco must guarantee uh we currently have six ecms or energy conservation measures uh I'm going to include some details about that in some following slides and again there will be a surplus cash flow um annually over the 18 years which benefits the district um once the project comes out of SED ameresco and energia we regularly work with the district fiscal advisors to figure out how they just like to finance the construction component in the commitment for the project uh that's something which would typically come from either tell taxes a police
115purchase or a bond there's a number of different Avenues districts can take to finance energy performance contract but we can walk you through each of the individual options and again coordination is key we work with heavily with CSR Jacobs Harris Beach and District Personnel um I don't know actually Mr Grossman our last meeting you mentioned uh concern of when the project would start uh no work will start on a on amaraska's and performance contracts until the nose to proceed has been signed that's a document that's uh as a part of our overall contract that agrees that State education department has reviewed it you have proper uh building permits that financing has been secured it's held in escrow and then after that once ameresco starts completing work we invoice to energia energy it comes in reviews
116that all that work we have the invoice has been completed sometimes that includes a couple conversations or on-site visits and once that's been approved then energy will notify the district that yes and marasco has completed the work up to that invoice uh you know proceed with payment to notify the bank to then pay Mr Esco um not sure what happened the first phase of the project but that is how successful energy projects with ameresco are structured and that's how we anticipate to hopefully move forward here with East Ramapo so uh Justin at the nail on the head LED lighting is one of the largest drivers of savings within engine performance contracts LEDs going back about 10 years ago they really didn't make much Financial sense but the technology and price point has come down or
117technology increased price point has come down so that it really is a Big Driver of savings so 10 of the 14 buildings within the district will receive LED upgrades or anything that's you know remaining with uh um old fluorescent old technologies will be removed with modern LEDs important item to know is that when we were auditing we noticed a number of classrooms did have a lower light level than what we're hoping for but with the installed troffers is actually um each room has the ability to raise and lower light so that if a teacher has a test day or if it's particularly cloudy that day or just need more light in general for what they're teaching the teachers have the opportunity to actually raise the light levels and decrease depending on that day so it's
118an excellent installation they look brand new it's something that the students the teachers and the community members will see is a great Improvement uh next the energy management system this is your building controls this is uh how the buildings operate um what we're going to be doing is upgrading district-wide What's called the tritium platform from a number of different existing controls platforms so what's important to note is that this is a completely open protocol system um I'm sure we all remember getting our car fixed a number of years ago you go to any mechanic they could fix that car nowadays if you buy a new modern car you may not be able to bring that car everywhere because certain codes are kind of locked in that's what is happening with the existing building controls once
119MREs is done with this overhaul the building control system any contractor with a tritium license will be able to work and help the building make any upgrades or repairs to those building Control Systems um and for what it's worth most controls contractors uh here in the Northeast have that license so that the district gets to choose who they actually uh works on the uh and the building controls moving forward uh next the largest capital expenditure item meeting you know someone like the uh well a lot of those savings are going to are unit ventilated Replacements this is something we've been working closely on uh with the district architect and uh construction managers uh we are finalizing scope for seven schools for unit ventilators um so the last items include how the couch issue work how
120is that going to uh look um once amarus was completed our work so we are hoping to have that decision made by the next Board of Education meeting uh what's important to know is that these units are really what provide the heating for in fresh air for classrooms so we've noticed a number of areas that existing dampers aren't providing enough fresh air some of the fan units that are in there aren't providing the heat that should be uh be included in some of the individual spaces so these new units will be quieter much more energy efficient and again bring good fresh air conditioned air into those spaces this is so of the seven schools we're including uh as as it stands today every unit ventilator in each classroom uh will be replaced there are some
121areas that have univentilators in an office space those are also currently included the way it's not I wasn't in the building so I can't tell is it a central fresh air or region individual unit has its own pressure each individual unit has a louvered to the outside so that it is going to be treated I guess better than the roads no absolutely over time it happens uh the actuations for the dampers sometimes I believe it or not bird can make a nest during the off season and those dampers won't open and close correctly so you reduce the amount of fresh air going into the room does it pay to change to a more centralized flow Shooters it will be cheaper to replace these units much cheaper I mean because you already have the exterior uh
122cut out and communities I'm sorry it's similar to a p-tech unit what is it uh no so really the district has centralized heating uh within each building and so there are Loops that include either steam or hot water depending on the building that flow through there in fin tubing what you simply see in a house the radiators in the ground so those fin tubing uh those individual fans pull heat from the heat from the boiler that's going around to the building correct and then that fan unit mixes fresh air and in-room air to provide heating uh for the space I believe he's referring to a Erv that's energy recovering ventilation but your abuse is separate you know this unit does both sounds like this unit does boat energy recovery ventilation is that it brings in
123go ahead it brings in pressure from the outside and it goes through um it doesn't it doesn't it doesn't it doesn't get combined with the air taking out but some kind some way it takes the Heat or cooling from the inside of the room and it Transit back to the fresh air comes which comes in order that's the Erv well the reason that this unit itself so it does also the Erv it has a way to recover the heating or cooling coming out from the roof sort of so you're not actually wasting the heat outside all you're doing is bringing fresh air into that space Additionally you are bringing in-room air across those coils as well so it is a mix of the two what we've seen in the past which was a great energy
124saving measure where districts were closing off those exterior unit ventilators exterior louvers so that of course that's great you don't need that more cheat exactly right but we all I mean we're some of us are in this room wearing masks we all went through a terrible thing over the last couple of years and what we also realize is that fresh air in classrooms not only increases over a linear environment it reduces the uh impact of uh individual person being sick it becomes very stuffy when you you you eat the same air the whole time absolutely and this is something we see this districts all across the state of New York unfortunately where that was a great Energy savings measure just close that right down and you're set you're going to of course you can save
125energy but these new units um again with the mix of the two are going to bring fresh air into each individual class when we're providing upgrades did we look into geothermal um there we are sorry yeah but with a high water table that we have here yes so um we did unfortunately the law requires that and total all the measures combined have savings under 18 years in time do we think geothermal will get there yes on a large large scale though uh the cost actually is exponentially higher than a standard residential installation so the cost would be so great that it would benefit the district yes you would reduce your need for fossil fuels in that in particular site could provide cooling however the cost would be absolutely enormous but for one I loved youth
126I have it in my house myself it's one of the first things I did when I moved in so this is something we do look for in certain areas but in this particular case with the cost of installations in New York it would make sense just so I understand this is more I mean I'll leave the some questions to my colleagues who are in the construction field obviously I am not but um 15 million dollars for this project I mean we're not I mean how is it I mean you mentioned that you're going to look through options but I'm saying like whoa how does the funding work can you speak a little more about that like are we going to take a bond through it sometimes that's actually the the cheaper way depending on because
127we're not going to lay out 50 million dollars from already 30 million dollars never every District that we've worked with has borrowed money for this project so a bond is one option uh the other option which is much a more popular option is uh telp or tax exempt at least purchased where in that Avenue I would work through fiscal advisor in your business department uh once the project is complete with um building permits from the state of New York you go out for financing competing Banks missing the biggest banks after the construction is finished no no once you have oh okay before construction um when we when we'll assist the dish with this once the fiscal advisor goes out for an RFP with this some of the biggest letters in the world will go out
128and review you know they look for rfps like this because this is debt that they're happy with because they have a large trusted Esco that is aware that these our projects work so you're going to get some of the best lenders that are out there I can guarantee right now Bank of America is going to be close Goldman Sachs is going to be close TD Bank is going to be close and JP Morgan because they are aware that ameresco's projects deliver on our savings guarantee right so now if you'll excuse me I'm going to ask our state if they're okay because I'd like to hear from the state if they're okay with something like this not in that uh ECG team uh the fellows in the back we have weekly meetings and we challenge them
129last week we um spirited dialogue but I'll leave it at that because I said to Matt I'm going to call the state because I didn't fully appreciate the conversation the state got back to me and said yes amaresco was correct so there was a chart that Justin had where was uh the bars um Matt as you heard we're having difficulty scraping two pennies together that one right there that middle one positive cash flow when will that occur so uh after the first installation once the first ECM is installed that's day one so the nice part of Texas police purchase is that it's not as you know the um the interest you know early they'll make payments on that but you actually defer your first large payment to the bank up to 18 months sometimes two
130years for construction to occur during that time period we're implementing the measures like the building controls in the lighting lighting is to be day one we replace Lighting in this gym right now you're having savings so those are savings that district will accrue during that time period so those are just you know those savings we've built up over time so that when you make that first payment you'll already have additional funds to the bank so technically day one of construction that positive cash flow starts then year after year the district will have positive cash flow from this project so can you quantify the the middle bar the green would it be a million dollars on next year's budget we next year's budget it's too it's hard to say because part of the reason why is
131getting materials is a bit tough right now lighting we're okay with uh getting some of the other building materials has been a challenge um so and we can guesstimate that anywhere between 18 months and 24 months you're going to have a substantial amount of cash how much we are getting very very close to finalizing that I can tell you that on the proposal side of things and this was getting pricing from eight months ago which unfortunately we've seen the market you know we've seen interest rates rise we've seen labor materials everything in its costing we all have in the grocery store everything is going up so unfortunately some of those charges have eaten into that initial proposal amount but an initial proposal predicted that in aggregate it was going to be 6.6 million dollars over
132the course of the 18 years um by our next meeting we anticipate be able to show the district just how much that cash flow will be on initial values and after year One initial being you know during the construction period then you just you know Matt just to um just kind of like help myself refocus on Mr Rose's question the question was um you know and did the monitors and did the state you know are they supportive and and one of the things I would tell you um Mr Rose we could not have even gone forward with this if I didn't get the blessing of the state because I knew the challenges that we Face financially anyway and that was something that was uh that was shared with us um by another superintendent that worked
133in Long Island that had a civil circumstance in her district and you know um she was able to you know with the with the excess positive cash flow Finance several other um student-based initiatives in our district um based on this work and maybe just to rest assured when I was working we had a 50 million dollar it wasn't amerisco it was Johnson Controls their competitor but this chart that Johnson I mean that Justin put up it's true it works that they guarantee it so let's say that green middle bar doesn't happen by contract they have to reimburse us the money so we we kind of have a belt and suspenders that we're going to have a positive cash flow so the 15 million I understood that I just want to make sure that I understood
134right the 50 million is also included in their prize guarantee it's not only the construction its construction was the cross the plus the cost of the handle and as they read everything everything is The Debt Service in the end of the day if we don't save money they pay us back then we shouldn't have won 100 correct absolutely I just have a quick just a quick question random do you guys offer any grants so in terms of Adam Roscoe no however you have groups in Washington DC dedicated to getting the area I see that Washington Department of Commerce uh not necessarily so actually yes there's most Apartments within Washington DC have certain grant opportunities um right now the most recent one was uh through the inflation reduction act which is going through the treasury Department
135we are looking at ways to leverage some of the programs that are included in that into this project however as we've seen the federal government before they are building the plane as they're flying it so there are some changes that are happening even though this program is going live in a couple of weeks we are hearing minor changes so we're hoping that there's going to be other funding sources available from that but we do work regularly on daily basis with state agencies like thiserta um that work with local utility companies and sometimes there are rebate programs from Orange and Rockland there might be a rebate program from nyserda and whatever Weaver programs we can find that's what we want to deliver and that's that's free work for for the district it's you know it helps
136everyone because I believe in the state and government they actually want to they want to use those funds because it's going right back out into infrastructure improvements of what Ashley said about grants I know like in the commercial space I'd say if a warehouse just converts all their lighting to LED lighting to State uh I don't know if it's state or utility grants to cover the construction so I mean is there anything I mean it's the same thing that Ashley just said but I'm saying like is is this something like that in the state like the transferring of the LED yeah they have if you they they like pay I don't know exactly but basically it comes at like no cost or something like that just to change the Energy Efficiency so the uh the
137inertial programs you're talking about they are programmed well let's talk about today there are programs available from Orange and Rockland it's more of a prescriptive program we have to submit to Orange and Rockland a full schedule of values of what is existing what is proposed and after it's installed because they want to make sure it's a quality product that's not going to you know fail and then you might just have something else in the Shelf that's going to get put in so they want to make sure you're using a quality product so we did engage orange Rock we do have some of those rebates available in the cash flow which is great because that allows us to have more Capital Improvements like additional unit ventilators because the lighting is such a low payback item you
138want to use that to pay for a longer payback item but the original programs which you speak of where you change entire Warehouse those went by the wayside because those are actually funded by manufacturers believe it or not they said okay let's put our stuff in and it wasn't always top quality so a lot there were a lot of complaints to those programs later on because you go in you might see a gas station LED lights flashing that happens when a lot of them fail so some of those programs went to the Wayside additionally they went to the waveside because LEDs have been the cost points just come down so far they don't really need to fund those programs because the savings themselves are substantial Matt do you have we call it a CTE program
139if a student wants to become an electrician electrical engineer an internship program where some of our students can work alongside your engineers to get a feeling what it's what it what they do during the day absolutely we actually encourage that I mean the reason being I became an engineer was I grew up further Upstate we had a retired RPI Professor who just did side work and then he decided he wanted to teach a shot class he's a professional engineer and a PhD and I had that opportunity just to say well I was decent at math and that relationship just having to speak to someone with industry experiences why I went down the path become an engineer so we always encourage every school district you have a stem program if you have interested students who have
140a and established a vocational or votech program or BOCES program let us interact with students we can more than happily explain to them how the the project Works um if they are of working age I'm sure any one of the contractors we work with are more than happy to have a student who said hey I would like to learn this business there no one's going to say no because we're all aware that the trades are good they're hurting they need young talented hungry people that can help and we work with some of the best we have absolutely young talented people absolutely we're we're more than interested great thank you okay thank you yeah let's go ahead absolutely no go ahead no no I would just I just wanna we have another presentation after so let's
141let's so the last three museums that we're doing time vfds and hot water pumps variable frequency drives um vending misers they're pretty simple stack machines around all day it's a loaded unit that gets plugged in they cycle down when they don't sense anyone's nearby but they keep the drinks and food cold they turn off the lights occupant sensor turns on everything lights back up so there's no loss in quality and then lastly the other measure that everyone's uh in the community is going to notice infiltration reductions uh roof wall interfaces um areas where it might be uh window ceiling is necessary door sweeps making the building more comfortable keeping the heat that you are paying for in the building within the building so in terms of a timeline um for the ca development we're we're
142about to wrap this up the next two to four weeks we are currently negotiating the Energy service agreement or the contract with uh um Douglas Gerhard of uh um with your legal Representatives uh for design engineering we have our own house design team we've done a lot of work with energia we anticipate that happening uh being completed before January 31st we've done quite a bit of work in the background we understand what the state's looking for for their the comments because every project will have sums we want to get ahead of those implementations mentioned before it one year 18 months if you have a very heavy Capital component sometimes it does go to two years if there's delays in uh materials but typically it's 12 to 18 months then performance period we included three years
143of measurement verification where Engineers are on site they provide additional measures that may not be included in the EPC but small projects that District could undertake to further improved energy efficiencies but again the project term is 18 years that we provide a savings guarantee solar didn't make it everyone solar didn't make it oh I'm sorry I thought I thought Mr Rose said did our the last project to make guarantees so solar last we we would love to do solar we have our own team Brownfield Greenfield rooftops we always look to include that with projects here at East rampa there were some issues on the conditions some of the roofs you typically you want to install solar on a roof that's relatively new if it's not new a lot of studies are done to say that
144okay this roof is in fantastic shape to make extend the warranty in this case we decided to not include solar um however we we would like to include it but in this particular project it did not work and put it on the ground not on the roof wasn't an option so now when you uh we look for ground Mount systems you typically want to see a larger array we didn't find anywhere with a probably amount of space to include that so sometimes you have school districts middle of nowhere that's happen to have Fields even then putting Grandma can sometimes be a testy item but in this case it was really only rooftop or that set so that's we investigated and decided not to include and even the buildings that have noodles it wasn't an option
145so we did look at that but then there was economy of scale so in order to become a viable measure financial performance contract as a stand-alone measure it had to pay back for 18 years or less unfortunately here in Orange Rockland territory you had to have an array so big so you probably had to cover about almost nine buildings to make that price point come down and we we just couldn't get over some of the newer ones and going back I saw you said something about door sweeps is changing doors and windows also included in something like this uh we have had projects where that is a major Focus but uh exterior architectural doors and windows get incredibly expensive so the paybacks unfortunately are not that great for new materials whereas you get a much
146better bang for your buck taking a exterior door checking the door sweep installation checking the uh rather than changing it I guess correct but we have had projects where that was a focus we took all those low back we probably lose a lot of energy in the windows also because these buildings are old correct however when you replace a window in a school district just given the size the cost is much much higher so we like as we would love to be able to include it all but there's only such a finite amount of savings we can generate from our project basically what you know that you're going to save and it should be able to would incorporate within the cause correct otherwise the course will be too much and you won't be able to
147give us the guarantee correct and then we would have to pay a check so again in my time with Mrs we have not had to pay a single New York State School District in our 20 years attack so again our projects work we do a very good job we have some of the best engineers in the industry but uh yeah just to hit again um we are working very very closely with the ongoing projects the excellent arpa program you guys are uh um in development Now with uh CSR Jacobs um uh working close to the energy at District Personnel this has been uh excellent team to work with so far um we understand the Harper program has a lot of uh a lot of work involved and I'm very excited to see how that turns
148out for the district and with the EPC we want to make sure that the hammer swings once you know only holes are cut once so there's been a lot of close coordination um with uh with the team um and again what we're hoping to have is uh at the next board meeting on January 3rd approval of the contract and the final scope of work um I'm more than happy to provide any information uh to Dr Ellis Mr singer just to make sure that the district is fully aware and you know be ready for any questions should the next meeting be necessary which which is fine um it would be on January 17th to hopefully approve that and get this up to the state for the 31st of January so that is the end of my
149presentation but by all means I know you have more presentations to come but any questions by all means ask thank you very much Matthew I think that was a very thorough presentation and I think we got a lot of clarity I decided so I appreciate it thank you John uh Justin right Mr Rose I'm sorry no I don't have a question for you thank you actually just a question for uh Dr Alice okay go ahead I just want to make sure I know that this project is not going to have uh impact on the learning environment nothing has to be shut down we don't have to go virtual okay as they said with their previous projects they will work will be completed after school hours on weekends that's one of that's one of the reasons
150that you know it takes while it takes a while however um the savings that will will achieve are are serious so much so that ameresco will you know Bax them basically underwrites the fact that the savings will be forthcoming so you are confirming that correct of otherwise I wouldn't have ever introduced it because I you know I've had um some experience like I said with colleagues in other districts that have used them and um you know really really are excited about their the outcome okay I think Sherry I just went ahead they're not under the same time constraints as the other gentleman in the back of the room so if a heating part doesn't come in like Matt was showing they wouldn't take out the existing one if there was a delay in shipment so
151they know they're scheduling when uh in this case it's trained manufacturer if they delay getting to us they won't remove so this so it is always heat in the building or lighting their months ahead of schedule all right thank you hmm okay thank you very much thanks Matt thanks Justin thank you Tom show you how long is the time limit on this one good evening uh Board of Education uh Dr Ellis um and others my name is Tom Lawson um with Jacobs senior project manager I'm happy to be in front of you again to give you an update on the kitchen Hood project most specifically [Music] um I'd like to start off with uh recalling about 30 days ago when we anticipated uh occupancy of the kitchens all six of them on December 5th I
152think if you go back and look at the notes uh the good news is the day after that our architectural and Engineering teams went out and inspected each one of the kitchens for their entire afternoon probably four to six hours doing that and they generated a list of about 74 punch list items which is about 12 per school that needed to be completed um in addition to that I'm actually going to show you uh I'm going to fast forward on a slide here and I'll be pretty quick there were some unforeseen project um issues as you know this is a public bid project when when I say we had some unforeseen issues it's our contractors we oversee the contractors we are diligent in as many ways as we can with them question them ask them
153how lead time items are on particular products and things like that but we did have a a couple remaining lead time items on materials and Equipment this is a common theme as you can see unfortunately specifically for this project in this case regardless we are back on track um I can highlight a couple of these items some additional time was spent for the temporary accommodations for electrical and gas that we had to get go out and actually find gas whips for each one of these temporary stoves and kitchen equipment we had the setup actually dual electric one it's that's the permanent condition one that's a temporary condition we had to go back to each panel uh make sure there was a ability to accommodate we had a Workforce issue we had a force go down
154for a week to illness and they happen to be the insulators so that put us behind a little bit we had to look for some alternative lighting fixtures in another particular building margettes this is item number five on the screen they had to be thin profile because the ceiling the existing ceiling that we were replacing was in within about an inch and a half of the existing structure of above previously all the lights were hung from below excuse me so they were surface mounted so this and this issue was was not anticipated by the designer um there was some also some cleaning that you'll see in the some of the photos that occurred throughout uh really appreciate all the efforts of the District staff and and Al overseeing that effort that took a little time
155um but all the all of the uh all those kitchens were cleaned to a point where we believe health department will not have any issue and Rocklin will not have any issues as well so you can see a number of quite a number of items including balancing reports that were being finalized right now for the Fume hoods and exhaust fans and of those 74 items there's there's approximately 90 percent of that work is complete I have 80 percent listed on here and if I go back a slide basically you'll see our work that we're trying to do get completed this week uh MEP mechanical electrical plumbing and Architectural punch list work uh the remaining 10 percent uh we've got finalization startup testing and balancing reports uh that are completed but they need to be submitted
156to our system to allow us to provide that to the architect and Engineers so they can extend that information to nyscd in the fire fire approval if you will up there and then we will be able to uh they will contact Rockland BOCES and Rocklin will walk the spaces uh hopefully the following week and then ultimately with a realistic goal of being into the kitchens serving hot food uh targeted at Tuesday January 3rd that's where we sorry so we have very good question and I've and I um so at three of the school three of the six schools we have one remaining outstanding uh equipment item and the this is uh in the new Duck work that's installed above the hoods these are duck access doors and they're on order right now but and that
157that only affects three of the schools so our goal right now is to say okay that's okay we'll get three others up and running and approved and then we'll follow with those when when we can get those um uh order's been out for two weeks I've asked that information I have a series of texts actually as recently as probably 10 minutes ago that culminated and they're reaching out to them basically on a daily basis the vendor to get to get confirmation of when they will be shipped is that a special order or a so you know it's hard for me to believe sometimes when somebody either has it or they don't have it and they can ship it or they can't ship it it's sometimes very hard to um be able to stand up here
158and tell you I don't know uh where what the status of it is and neither does our mechanical contractor unfortunately there's somewhat at the mercy of the vendor at this point I don't think that's an acceptable answer but that's the answer we have to go with right now and and that affects three of the six kitchens so our goal would be to proceed forward with the other three without any any issue and then incorporate those as soon as we possibly get those access doors so if you only outstand the item that you don't have is the axis you have everything else that's right yes sir yep and you could you finish any everything besides that or that keeps you up from finishing all the stuff that affects three of the six schools I understand everything
159else but you could finish every all the outstanding punch list items besides that though you just can't put into service without the door correct because it's it's actually uh an access door to clean the grease out of periodically clean grease and normal District Maintenance out of each one of those hoods currently they have to do it to maintain their temporary certificates of occupancy for each one of those kitchens every three months is there a way of closing it temporarily without a door that should be I understand the door is to make it easy accessible could you you put any other panel on it to keep it closed for the meantime fortunately it's a code item right now and they will cut them in uh as soon as they are received that's where that's where things
160stand right now but it's a code item relative to the fire suppression system and cleaning of the system there's really no leeway since it's a code item question please on the on the uh on the BOCES inspection what does it mean upon availability um we were on a few phone calls with Rock and Rocklin BOCES and uh they made us aware that they um upon uh receipt from the state that they need to inspect the spaces that they would work that into their schedule we're not in control of their schedule um but we hope that they would prioritize getting into our so who makes that is the state decision coming down to the local BOCES correct and then we would fit into their schedule as they can accommodate us so you don't get a priorities
161at this point it's an emergency situation we we've made that known to Rocklin BOCES uh the best we can uh that as soon as that comes down from the state that we would like them in there as soon as possible Mr President I've asked that we can ask Sabrina as our representative to put the screws on them yeah Mr singer's been in those conversations along with our architect and and everybody um on this on our team and we were we're definitely uh working with them to see if they can expedite their reviews so just quickly okay go ahead it's me if I may ask uh if I remember well we were last time we were told that the kitchens will be operational I think December 4th if I remember well oh December 5th I'm sorry
162December 5th so we are delayed approximately four weeks unless we can get it turned over sooner and in the meantime there's no hot food served for the kids correct through the kitchens only through whatever correct but we've implemented all the accommodations for uh gas and and electric uh utilizing existing equipment to expedite this as much as possible have you already secured all the equipment for the the following Summer's project yeah very good point um the plan right now is to not take any other kitchens offline the remaining five that is there's 11 total and we have had conversations uh um with Rockland that where they've indicated that as long as the district maintains a ductwork grease cleaning program every three months that they will renew temporary certificates of occupancy for each one of those kitchens
163until June when we take them offline to do this work in the remaining five kitchens with the goal of having the kitchens up and running we don't see any reason why not for um day one school so stay until now we haven't been keeping that sorry this potential would provide No Interruption uh I'm a cleaning service Beyond this period of time uh evidently um every three months there's already a cleaning service employed to maintain those temporary certificates of occupancy and I'm sure Al is aware who that is in the facilities and they will continue that program until until June how good late June so we did get that confirmation really beyond that that's the presentation uh each one of these categories you can see all the hundreds on it all the way down to the
164punch list and then really our end plan for every one of these schools this particular school I think you can start to see what the new kitchens are looking like if you will it's really new hoods duct work some lighting in some cases and really a lot of cleaning and I think you can see a transformation in a lot of these kitchens which is very exciting financially this isn't much different than the previous report hasn't changed but I want to make sure you you can see this it's roughly a three million dollar total contract between all the trades it's a multi um multi-prime project with a GC electrical mechanical and plumbing contractor all working together to complete the project that's all I had great thank you very much stop thank you uh if I may
165ask okay it's not uh related to you about the foods being served for the kids were there any Improvement complaints well I always say that communities I mean they vote with their feet with these complaints and the last several school board meetings there has not been complaints in that regard I do know that when you you know serve food to ten thousand children there'll be likes and dislikes there'll be ups and downs and nothing sparkly when there's human whatever these humans is human human ever that can take place but for the most part based on our several meetings with whitsons I met with them in my cabinet they they did they kept their word on you know um delivering hot meals to those schools adjusting some of the um menus like according to Children's likes
166and dislikes and then as something I had assured them that I would do at our last principles conference I spoke to the principals about developing School Wellness committees where they have students on on those committees that will meet with the principals periodically you know um maybe once or twice a month to discuss their their you know thoughts on the on the menu and and how it can be improved so yes you're welcome maybe I could just introduce the other two people there Patricia Turner Tom helveth outstanding Architects from CSR it's been a pleasure to work on the lessons and these folks this is Patricia's first board meeting um welcome nice to meet you thank you for the work you're doing thanks and the only other comment about this we're now coordinating meetings with whitsons so
167to bring in their pots and pans and as Tom said January they're just bring the food and the cooks will be cooking sounds great okay moving on to consent and agenda items Kathy that update we were talking about earlier okay all right um there's one change to the agenda to item three three section seven of item three is being removed tonight so when you uh vote on the consent agenda items it will include that change the removal of section 7 from certified Personnel recommendations which is item three under consent agenda and uh just uh for information that item will come back to a January agenda but as an action item not a Personnel item it's a for a contracted okay resources are we talking about here okay I'm gonna make a motion for sent an
168agenda items one through ten second by Mr Grossman any discussion of the matter and I'm sorry go ahead Mr cup yeah I noticed on number four I think it's section five an hourly rate I think it's below the state recommended hourly rate I think so which one which issue do you have what which one I'm trying to find it in a second Let It Be number B are we still at number three I'm asking he's saying how to follow one so number four number four Civil Service personnel section I'm sorry because we can't use names here on this right section 5B section teaches 8 13.54 six I'm sorry correct the other teacher's aides are getting 15 16 hours an hour she's getting 13.54 assistant superintendent Terry can you assist us in this regard thank you
169correct I think it's below the state rate I think so I'm sorry good afternoon I didn't hear the question Civil Service section for um Adam B etty oh four section six I thought he said six oh six or six I'm sorry I was never good with no Roman numerals sorry about that five elected sick morning routine that's one of the salaries is for 1354 cents an hour and I think Mr cloth had a question in that regard uh in terms of mental alley rates correct so yes so the hourly the hourly staff they have we increasing the minimum wage but this is actually a contractual salary and those remain the same so no I wasn't able to I'm sorry can you repeat that I'm sorry he didn't hear you this is a teacher's aide which
170is a contractual salary and this is the hourly portion of it but for hourly staff that minimum wage is going to be increasing so this one because the contract price or contract amount it Remains the Same so this is the hourly rate based on the contract is it is it allowed to be below the state rate so I believe we had made some changes but this this one is right now say again this agreement I think it makes a difference if you paid personality or per hour salary if you work 40 hours a week even if you're divided less than 15 it's not I don't think that's an issue I'm not sure what that's uh the way I understood I'm okay okay I'm okay if it's okay okay we have a motion and the second
171all those in favor say aye aye and I'm gonna pause it abstained motion carries moving on to action items do I hear a motion for Action items one through seven Mrs motion moved by Mrs McGill seconded by Mr rice mango any discussion I'll open up a discussion Mr cast please speak into the mic and to know your mic people can't hear you I'm sorry item number four I see it is a Grant application to uh to Department of Health is the district and see a lot of this going to private schools it's a huge list I believe the entire the other school districts only have like one and one to three or something like that private schools is any any of this amount being who's administrating this fees or this fund America please come up
172I believe this had to do with the uh I believe it had to do with Kobe Grant correct yes but I only thing you get lost in detail so she'll provide this for that so this this grant is um covet specific is very detailed as to the expenditures that will qualify for reimbursement the Department of Health dictated that location among the private schools and the public portion so that's the list that's attached here um we're applying for it it has to get approved by the state through the oh and we're really going to try to claim as much as we can but I think it's slim pickings being that we also claimed FEMA so the expenditure categories overlap my main question my main question who's going to administrate the fund to make sure um the
173school's got it not only that if the if the school district is administrating the fund is any portion of this being being held to the school district in for administrating the fund no so we would submit we would administer if we would submit our claim our expenditure claims to the Department of Health and they would forward the the reimbursement their pass through from the state is the school is the school district charging anything to administrating this fund no no you mean like a like a fiscal conduit fee or something like that no no no no no this is really for expenditures that were incurred during covet so the other thing right now we're working closely um if I baby Mrs we're working closely with some of our neighboring districts because many of them um you
174know we many of us applied for FEMA many of us so we want to make sure the the amounts that we're trying to get reimbursed for are overlapping or duplicative so that's why it's kind of painstaking but the end result is trying to get the district more funding for expenses that were directly related to our experience with Colvin I understand I want to make sure that the district won't lose anything by administrating this file since the some somebody from the district is going to be working on this no they won't be there we won't lose anything and nor will there be any uh money taken out as a fiscal conduit fee finance and funded operations same as we claim for any other Grant okay we have a motion and a second do I have any
175more discussion on items run through seven all those in favor say aye hi anyone opposed abstain motion carries before we move on to board reports I believe Kathy would like to talk about our self-evaluation go ahead Kathy board had a retreat and they worked on the board self-evaluation prior to the retreat each board member did an individual board self-evaluation the board reached agreement on the first three standards however the Board needs to continue on those standards and once the standards are agreed upon agree upon goals for the year following that they need to work with the superintendent on the superintendent evaluation and goals with the superintendent for the year as we've discussed in previous meetings both of those items have to be completed before the end of January it was suggested following Tuesday's Retreat that
176the board might want to continue tonight after exec session I I know we're looking at the clock is a little daunting um so the choices are and uh Ms foxalter correct me if I'm wrong either you continue on it tonight or a strong commitment to do it an exact session of the January 3rd meeting if we leave it to the second meeting in January I have some concerns would we get it all done then additional choices if the board chose to pick another night for an a retreat and just work at it as a dedicated Knight it it really is the board's choice but be aware that's a um that's already an extended deadline the January 31st I believe it's quite inflexible at this point and it's one of the items we are reporting to
177the state on so if I would support that if I could see that maybe that meeting be a No-Frills meeting without any extra things going on we have like you know a 45 minute presentation of you know whatever it would it would be keep in mind that in in January there's another workshop for the second Workshop of the Dei um you could choose to combine those two items in one or the Dei is two and a half hours so it would be a very long night yeah but the next di session is going to be the zoom right the the Dei Workshop can be Zoom um but it is scheduled two and a half hours so if you add in working on evaluation so I'd like to hear the input from everybody on the board
178to see okay I think January 3rd that's two the next executive session okay anybody I think we okay so I I agree but I know the next meeting has the potential of being the same time but if just make presentations okay if I could let's let's hey he I did ask for but what I'm saying is no Dr Ella said thank you for that I I do I'm okay with that but I just think the next meeting since we know that we have to sit and work on these evalu the evaluation and come to some consensus I think that we should have no presentations during that January okay so I guess we're gonna do uh January 3rd okay um now if Sherry you have any you always have some good updates for information reports from
179the board so 10 minutes how much time is um say some um very important things um I would have done this earlier but just keep in mind I spoke with an employee at um employer at um the employee at removal High School um the day that it snowed the parking lot the sidewalk was very dangerous for the children and staff so please make sure when it snows you know the parking lot sidewalks are clear you know for the safety of our children all right so just if you could take make note of that just for the future okay now information from the board let me say this to everyone sitting here these are some of the reasons why we need to come up with Solutions to encourage individuals to support the budget these are some
180of the reasons why just Landry clergy was named Spring Valley fall female athlete of the season for 2022 and that's volleyball Noah Chambers was named Spring Valley for male athlete of the season 2012 for football and you know keep in mind students being able to participate in their Sports extracurricular activities such as like art shows winter extravaganzas concerts and even attending BOCES these are things that we have to just think about and I want to mention during the Rocklin BOCES Services dinner one of our very own students a Stephanie Soto Martinez was a guest speaker who not only is in the Hudson Valley p-tech program there but she has already and I was so impressed and she's an East ramble student she has already earned I think was about 20 age college credits already you
181know our yeah hour yeah 28 our East Rand for students were well represented that night and I just want to say thank you you know to Rocklin BOCES whom we partner with for not only providing a great educational experience but a safe nurturing and caring environment you know as far as our Early Childhood Center um which Ashley and I had the opportunity to attend I tell you their winter Extravaganza this evening our little ones sing their hearts out if you go to some of these events I'm telling you you will just sit there and be like oh that's why we got to do this and you know their future being able to they've shared their family traditions they had they were giving out books coats food bags free digital family portraits you know which some
182people may not be able to afford and Raffles that all took place this evening and I do want to say thank you to miss Barrow and staff for this awesome Extravaganza it was really nice to see so with all that being said let's support our students our children need us they really do they need us to help them they really do I believe one day you know what we will be where we need to be so let's come up with those solutions that we were sitting here kind of like talking about to encourage our communities to exercise their rights to vote and make it happen for our children thank you okay um moving on to future meeting dates the next meeting as we spoke as the seventh is I'm sorry January 3rd 7 30 p.m
183right here in the plcc room um I would now make a motion to enter executive session Kathy to receive advice from Council on real estate matters litigation and the employment of a potential person or persons a certified administrators do not expect action after carries thank you good night everybody huh yeah we have to adjourn but I have a feeling nobody's going to be here foreign thank you I'll be like 30 minutes uh that's the way you want to do it again hello Harold how are you um thank you oh yeah energy when it bounced back because I was like oh yeah that was very quiet [Music] all right [Music] I'll let him know the emotion over the place I'm saying good night that's it