001Good. All right. Good evening, everyone. Uh, today is April 22nd, 2025. Welcome to tonight's Hyde Park Central School District Board Board of Education meeting. I'd like to call the meeting to order. And at this time, I'd like to get a motion to adjurnn to executive session for the purpose of discussing discipline, suspension, dismissal, or removal of a particular person or persons. Second. All those in favor? I opposed. Motion carried. We're now in executive session. Good evening everyone. At this time I would like to return to open session. If we can uh please rise for the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. No changes right tonight.
002So, can I get a motion uh to adopt tonight's agenda? Second. Tibbitz. All those in favor? I opposed. Motion carried. Upcoming events. Wednesday, April 30th, there's a jazz cabaret at the FDR Cafe in this room at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, May 1st is National Honor Society induction at the FDR Oval Office at 6:30 p.m. Saturday, May 3rd, SATs at FDR per schedule. Uh, Saturday, May 3rd, Community Schools Saturday Academy at uh, North Park Elementary at from 9 to 12 noon. Sunday, May 4th, District Arts Festival and Senior Arts Show, and that's the FDR cafeteria right here, 1 to 3 PM. Uh, Wednesday, May 7th, FDR spring concert number one, and that's at uh Havlin Middle School at 6:30 p.m. And then Thursday, May 8th, is the next regular board of education meeting at district office and
003open session begins at 7. any other events? Yep. Um I also believe that um our the the awards ceremon uh ceremony is May 29th after our next board meeting. That's why it's not. Okay. Yeah. Okay. Just so everyone knows here because most of them will be there. But yeah. Yeah. We'll repeat that again on the May 8th meeting. But May 29th is the awards night. All right. Moving on to Pride. Back to you. Hello. Good afternoon, everybody. Um, so a little short on Pride since we just got back from break, but at Violet Avenue, the third graders presented their personal cultural artifacts as a um kind of representation of their red trunk project for Wajaka, Mexico. So, this program allows students to experience the culture of Wajaka through hands-on and video experiences. Students also find
004ways that their culture is similar and different to the culture of students in Wajaka. Also, today there was an Earth Day STEA uh STEM night. Uh I went for a little bit. It wasn't a big success, but um a couple kids did come and it was really nice to see that. At Ralph R. Smith. There was a spear week before break. So, students and staff showed their um Ralph R. Smith pride with floral patterns wearing also their favorite hats, sunglasses, and there was also a grade level color war. There is also um the PTA organized a bike safety rodeo event for families for next Tuesday at 5:00 p.m. So, um April 20 um yeah, April 29th. And then at North Park, teaching assistants and the and their art teachers collaborated on an Earth Day 2025
005grant. So on behalf of the education committee of the Eastern New York chapter of the Air and Waste Management Association. Um, so this grant will allow for outdoor sensory garden path and enhanced outdoor garden to help the outdoor classroom come to life for all students and um collaborative with students additions that are made in the art class to promote uh sustainability art and repurposing items. So I think that's really cool that at North Park they have that grant. So it's really adding to um the kids educations. Uh, but that's all. Um, I believe that's enough. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. Good evening everyone. We're going to launch our pride moment tonight with the artist of the month. This is Lee Costa. She is a student in FDR 11th grade. She's allound outstanding art student. Brings
006great skill. is interested in very different subjects including comic art, taxiderermy, and the complicated history of the 19th century of New Orleans. Um, so we're excited to celebrate her this a this evening. No, let's give let's give [Applause] Next we have our musician of the month. This is Gianna Iorio from Havlin Middle School. Gianna is an eighth grade student who is very dedicated and passionate about uh her music endeavor. She is part of our select choir, women's choir, drama club, and is an invaluable presence in our music program. Giana says that she loves art became music because of the close friends and relationships she has built through that program. So, congratulations, Giana. [Applause] At this time, I would like to recognize two educators from Havlin Middle School. I had the privilege of presenting to them
007uh this afternoon along with uh my partner uh Linda Steinberg on the budget and we were able to recognize uh these two individuals. Uh we would like to recognize Devin Gano and Andrea Zelotus uh both of Havlin Middle School. They are receiving the promising new professional award rec which recognizes individuals who have made significant contributions to the field of education through their effectiveness as teachers and dedication to the profession of family and consumer sciences as a new professional for for five years or less. Uh so we let's give them a round of applause. Let's recognize their accomplishments. And we would also like to thank all the individuals that have participated and come out to support the Saturday uh academy uh through our community schools. Uh this doesn't go um without the support and and volunteers
008uh that come out to assist. So we would like to thank all those that continue to support us and also thank all the families that continue to uh increase the number of participants in our programs. So we went from about 20 uh 24 now we're up to almost 80 um individuals attending. So just again thank you to the community, thank you to all the volunteers that continue to support us. Uh, and thank you to Melissa Reer or excuse me, Melissa Lawson and um Melissa Rosario. Uh, there's a lot of Melissas around. Um, so just want to uh thank them for their uh leadership and support. And then at this time, I'd like to call up uh Mr. Ruella to meet me at the podium so that we can recognize a number of individuals. So before
009we get uh started with the names, first and foremost, we're really excited to be honoring a number of individuals that have earned a distinct honor of the top 20. But before we do that, I do want to publicly apologize to the students and the families that were impacted. Our goal was to uh uh celebrate our students at the last board meeting and unfortunately there was an oversight and I accept full responsibility for that and wanted to apologize to you all directly. I had a chance to send you all a letter. Um but wanted to also just publicly say uh we apologize for that oversight and we're really excited to be celebrating you this evening. Um, so first and foremost, um, I'm going to have Mr. Ruela, uh, call the names out and then going to
010ask you to please come on up. We're going to have you, uh, shake our hand, receive your certificate, and then have you line up so that we can have a group, uh, photo. Um, so I'll turn it over to Mr. Ruella. Thank you, Dr. Roman. So, I'd like to acknowledge and congratulate the class of 2025 top 20 ranked students. Starting us off at number 20, Maya Malcari. Number 19, Elijah Hakobian Leon. [Applause] Number 18, Jala Nves. Number 17, Alice [Applause] Chen. Number 16, Alexander [Applause] Jakars. Number 15, Tyler Nolan. [Applause] Number 14, Ashlin Wilk. Number 13, Ireland [Applause] Fitzgerald. Number 12, Amir Sahane. [Applause] Number 11, Jesse [Applause] Sos. Number 10, Jake [Applause] Floren. Number nine, Hannah Senle. Number eight, Chase Figureroa. Number seven, Tagan Riata. Number six, Colton Pomiteer. Number five, Tony Hoe. Number
011four, Isabella [Applause] Bream. Number three, Thomas Hurley. Number two, and the class of 2025 saludiatoran, Jason Yang. Number one in this year's validictorian, Julian [Applause] Pritchard. Congratulations, Jason. Folks, now's the opportunity to take pictures. tippy toe. At this time, we would like to take a quick intermission. Uh we have cupcakes in the back um and some water. And and again, just want to apologize to the PTA also. you brought some some items last week and we appreciate uh you recognizing our students as well. So students, if you could please help yourself. We have some cupcakes in the bag. Families, please help yourself. If not, um I'll have to stay on the treadmill for a long time. Well, we'll return from our intermission now. Can you hear me back there? All right. Um, we're going to
012move on to 7.1 superintendence report. I don't think we have one, right? No. Okay, we'll move on to 7.2, our guidance update with uh Miss Reader. All right. Thank you. Good evening. I'm Melissa Reer, the director of guidance, and I'm pleased to shine a light on our student support systems. I'll be sharing how our work aligns with the district's mission and vision through a multi-tered system of support framework, as well as highlight our social and emotional learning and engagement efforts. Sorry. Our vision here at Hyde Park is an innovative learning environment for all. And our mission is that we empower all learners to be successful members of our dynamic society. As a director of guidance, my areas of responsibility include school counselors and counseling programs, school nurses, the Bright intervention, which includes two social workers
013at the secondary level, shared supervision of four social workers who support Brightite at elementary, and all of the academic and behavior TAs that support Bright, the social and emotional learning tiered levels of support and interventions. K12 and the secondary prevention social workers who support our students with substance use prevention. This video explains our why from the school counseling perspective. It exemplifies our commitment to supporting the whole student. [Music] And I just wanted you to know that you exemplify what it means to app. [Music] our job. [Music] I wanted to know if we could stop that. You're going to take my picture, two So, I was asked to take a photo of like a kid who really means a lot to me. You want to come to school every day and that am I called you
014down because I have something to tell you. Students who inspire us to come to work and do our jobs. [Music] I appreciate that. We were asked to take a picture of someone who us Just want to let you know that you're the reason. I know. I know. Every student is our why. And I want to make sure I emphasize that every single student is our why and our purpose every day. And um I want to give a special shout out to Mike Davis from our tech department who is a magical genius when it comes to putting these visions together. So I just wanted to take a minute to recognize him. Okay, back to business. So, our school counselors are vital to student success, providing student support across three key domains, academic development, career readiness, and
015social emotional learning. Their work is integral to the multi-tered system of support or an MTSS framework, ensuring all students receive the necessary supports to flourish. At tier one, school counselors will be providing schoolwide social and emotional learning, career development, and academic support, achievement lessons, and prevention programs. At tier two, they might provide small group counseling for students who need extra support. And at tier three, intensive individualized interventions for students with significant needs. We are providing training through the American School Counseling Association or ASCA through a two-year training program. This program emphasizes active learning with on-site professional development and coaching, moving beyond theory to practical application and ongoing support. This training provides guidance. It is not a mandated curriculum with the goal of empowering counselors, not evaluating them. Our commitment to ask a training reflects its
016strong alignment with New York State's comprehensive school counseling program annual development process. The training includes three annual on-site sessions where counselors actively develop Ask a model components, submit work, receive feedback from our certified trainer, and ensure quality implementation. Effective ASCA implementation relies on analyzing counselor time to demonstrate impact, align with MTSS, and justify resources. ASCA recommends dedicating 80% of time to direct and indirect student services emphasizing tiered interventions. There are four key time areas. direct services which are student focused interactions where some examples might be like a push-in lesson or a one-on-one scheduling conference or indirect services which include um support that um we get through our work with others like staff and parent consultation or if necessary a CPS collaboration um program planning and school support includes um the time that we spend on
017data analysis, event planning and team participation and the non-counseling activities which are the tasks that's that we are sometimes asked to do that conflict with our role such as proctoring exams for example supervision or discipline. Our time analysis data reveals variations in service balance sparking discussions on role efficiency. Some counselors report non-counseling duties reducing student focused time suggesting the removal of tasks like lunch duty and clerical work. Systemic changes are needed to enhance indirect services ensuring optimal student support. With the addition of one elementary counselor during the 232 24 school year, we strengthened our multi-ter system of support at elementary. Mr. Santa Boyce made a profound impact delivering 100 classroom lessons on career exploration, empathy, and conflict resolution, 141 talking circles, fostering community and communication through restorative practices. and at tier 2 provided small groups
018including on topics including intro to middle school to support our fifth to sixth grade transition addressing key student needs. Her dedication has fostered positive behavior, essential life skills, and a more supportive learning environment. Thank you, Miss Boyce, for your incredible work. And I'm happy she came. Yay. Okay. We now have expanded our school counseling team to include three additional elementary school counselors, one for every elementary school building. In the first year, we prioritize enhancing tier one and tier 2 supports through proactive and preventative strategies. At tier one, counselors are pushing in um providing lessons that are aligned with the NYIETCAL benchmark seeds or the career development occupation standards and ASCA standards. They're supporting academic, social, emotional, and career development. Some of their key initiatives included bullying prevention and career exploration. At tier 2, um they're
019providing targeted counseling for non-mandate students, offering short-term groups, and at tier three, crisis management and intensive support as needed with the additional focus of assisting with building level attendance goals to support student success. As a tier one support, our elementary counselors launched a schoolwide anti-bullying initiative in October for grades K through 5, reaching over,200 students across four buildings through explicit instruction, literacy, and project-based learning. It taught them about bullying, empowering, empowering themselves to be upstanders and built critical thinking for safer, more supportive environment. At grades six through eight um at the middle school, we reinforced bullying prevention with a tier one assembly featuring box out bullying, an interactive program using storytelling and role playinging. Um this also uh set the stage for two weeks of bullying prevention lessons through the SecondStep curriculum empowering students with
020practical strategies to recognize, prevent, and respond to bullying. And here are some highlights from the school counseling office here at Hyde Park um here at FDR. my apologies. Um, we had 4,381 individual student visits between September and March. There were 57 sessions on career exploration and care college planning grades 9 through 12. There were 1,460 college applications processed, up from 1,189 in the 2324 school year. There were 47 college representative visits, up from 42 in the 2324 school year. Our college information night um boasted 78 attendees. Our financial aid night had 41 attendees. Our FASA completion night had 54 attendees. Our annual college fair where there are representations from trade schools and military and colleges all came here to hide um FDR for all students to um participate. There were multiple instant admissions days and
021the Duchess County College fall instant admissions, we had 93 students applied and received on the spot acceptance in October. Oops. As part of our continuous improvement, we've implemented the DESA, which is the DRO student strength assessment, a standardized strength-based screening tool from Aperture Education. We are using the DESA to assess K through2 social emotional strengths for tiered support. teachers rate using the Desa 2 mini for K5 and students self-report in six through nine helping us identify areas for growth. The DESA measures keyCCL competencies optimistic thinking, self-management, relationship skills, social awareness, self-awareness, and responsible decision-making. These competencies promote mental well-being, reduce referrals, improve attendance, foster a positive school climate, and support academic growth, resilience, and future readiness. This report represents the distribution of student assessment scores across the district. We define student strengths as consistently applied
022skills. Students in the typical range demonstrate these skills but not consistently. For those in the need for instruction range, skills aren't yet re fully developed or consistently applied, requiring targeted support. Looking at the 18% needing instruction districtwide, we see a clear need for focused tier 2 and tier three interventions with explicit explicit teaching practice and um giving our students the opportunity to reinforce skills for their success. Um, and also when we think about 18%, we think about what's happening at tier one and how do we sharpen our skills at tier one so that we can avoid our students having to need a more intensive support. Desa 2 I mean sorry this DESA pinpoints actionable competencies. Our data shows emerging strengths in social and awareness which um focuses on empathy, understanding, diverse backgrounds, and relationship skills
023where there's a focus on healthy connections and teamwork. Our areas of focus are strengthening responsible decision-making, which includes ethical choices and understanding consequences, and optimistic thinking, which includes positive outlook and resilience. This district-wide data displays ratings by grade level and we've identified that there is a higher need at transitional grades K 3 to five um three 56 and 8 to9. Recognizing the critical impact of the 8th to 9th grade transition, we introduced a more welcoming articulation experience. In January, school counselors hosted a scheduling night for students and families who received key information about course offerings, graduation requirements, and extracurricular opportunities. We also revamped student scheduling process. Eighth graders visited the high school after scheduling night to meet their counselors, explore elective courses, and connected with future teachers during a guided building tour before finalizing their
024schedules. I want to shine a spotlight on Linda Boutton, who is this year's eighth grade school counselor. Sadiki Kiten, Rebecca Moore, Monnique Jenkinson, Elise Morelli, Katie Denme, school counselors at FDR, the HMS and FDR building leadership, and all the chaperones that made the event a success. I also want to give a special shout out to the student ambassadors who supported during either the evening events or um during the the field trip. Uh these students are Isabella Breen, Angelene Carlos, Riley Hall, Adam Birwood, Sophia Conway, Devon Lales, Tony Hoe, Amir Sawan, Matthew Hurley, Thomas Hurley, Eduardo Santos, Perez, Samuel Safone, Lizette Anel, Oh, hey girl. Um, London Tobias, Olivia Justino, Morgan Leonard, Olivia Borick, Lydia Espinosa, Sorrianiano, and Isaac Ike Rothman. To ensure social and emotional learning support at all tiers, we are strengthening tier 1
025explicit instruction by introducing the SecondStep high school edition at FDR beginning the 2526 school year. The DESA data will be used to strengthen our MTSS framework. Our SEAL and mental health student support pillar committee is pioneering the development of an SEAL intervention support plan that mirrors the structure of our academic intervention support plans. While we utilize multiple measures to inform student supports, this innovative plan represents a significant advancement in how we deliver targeted SEAL support and interventions. This has not been done anywhere. So I just want to say like when I say innovative this is like innovative like definition of our school nurses play an integral role in the MTSS framework. They provide at tier one health education and prevention screenings. Um they are are instrumental in creating healthy school environment and with early identification
026and health concern of health concerns. They provide targeted intervention at tier 2 through medication management and monitoring targeted health intervention and with regular family communication. And at tier three they provide more intensive complex case management collaboration with external providers crisis intervention and individualized health support plans. This data highlights the vital role of our school nurses managing high daily visits and chronic critical chronic care across our schools. At Ralphar alone, they see an average of 32 students daily. Beyond immediate care, our nurses ensure that students with chronic conditions receive daily treatment, allowing them to attend school and consistently. For many of our most vulnerable students, those requiring insulin monitoring, G ttube feedings, or seizure interventions, a school nurse is the difference between being able to come to school and not. Thank you to our amazing nurses.
027I'll just give them a quick shout out. Heather Duncan, Stephanie Luso, Laura Weatherwax, Carara Green, Christy Latimer, Mary Sya, Patricia Montros, Sue Cerui, and Maggie Wells. And a special thanks to Samantha Baker, and Elna Sanford, who have since moved on to um out of district nursing positions. the bright or bridge for resilient youth and transition or STAR which stands for student transition academic resources which is the U moniker that they chose to use at Havlin Middle School is a program that supports students returning to school after experiencing mental health challenges, medical issues or crisis and behavior regulation at elementary. As a tier three intervention, the Bright or Star program supports students with the highest needs, offering intensive, personalized support to help them successfully reintegrate into school. Currently, we have 37 students enrolled in Bright Districtwide.
02817 have since graduated or exited from the program. We had 54 that we serviced. This represents a number of students who have may who may have avoided hospitalization, rehospization, andor out of district placement. The bright or star program support is up from 51 students last year and we anticipate that more students will enter the program before the end of the school year. Our data shows that the Bright program participation varies with 11 weeks being the most common duration. Longer stays indicate ongoing needs, emphasizing the necessity for continuous flexibility and individualized reintegration support. Bright fosters positive relationships and a sense of belonging continue contributing to improved attendance for many. To address chronic absenteeism, we're tracking the proportion of chronic chronically absent students entering Brightite. While twothirds of Bright students maintain regular attendance, highlighting the program's positive
029impact, we're analyzing data to understand long-term attendance after Bright exit. Bright provides wraparound sorts with significant needs, including therapy and intensive interventions. While some students faced external challenges, others needed no extra services showing bright stabilizing impacts on academics and mental health. I am honored to welcome Miss Jacobs, a parent whose child our Bright intervention has supported. Respecting the sensitive nature of Bright and upholding strict confidentiality, I deeply appreciate Miss Jacob's willingness, courage, and transparency in sharing her family's experience. Her story will undoubtedly highlight Bright's significant impact here at Hide Park. Of course. Good evening. Um, thank you, Miss Reader. My name is Carrie Jacobs, and some of you know me as the Spectre on the sports field, um, in Booster Club, president for football, track and field, and this year's men's volleyball. I also have
030a son who is ASD and bipolar unspecified comorbid. We've experienced several hospitalizations, partial hospitalizations, and we have been going around on this Mario goround since my son was 11 and a half years old. Because of the Bright program, my son is now scheduled to graduate on time with his twin brother in the 2025 school year. So, thank you to Das Lieberman, Julie Fierro, and Annayia Williams for all those trips to the track. I see you. The support that Bright has given my son, I directly contribute to keeping him from revisiting impatient services, revisiting partial hospitalization. It's also a benefit to the community. These children are in school getting an education, getting job training, and they will in turn then go into the job market and be contributing members of society. The Bright program has also
031allowed me as the parent to go back into the workforce, now paying it forward and working with families like mine, navigate systems like these for children like mine. None of this would be possible if it wasn't for the Bright program. and I work with a lot of school districts and every district could benefit from a bright program. Thank you so much for your time. Thank you to the district and the board here for recognizing the diverse needs of your student body and implementing such a program as bright in your district. I cannot tell you as a parent how much that has meant to my family and our community. Thank you. Yes. Okay. So, I just want to say thank you. That's the end of my presentation and I'd like to, you know, ask if there
032are any questions that I might be able to answer, but thank you for your time. [Music] Not not a question, but just a couple of comments. Okay. Um, last meeting I was a little discouraged. We're talking about our graduation rate going in a direction we don't like. And what I'm hearing tonight is really exciting. Um, you know, when you say innovative, I was really excited as a former teacher to hear that there's MTSS for social emotional learning because that is unheard of and that's I think that's the piece that we need to address. And so I'm I was just really glad that the data is backing this up. Um, one thing I thought I was really interested in that slide where you talked about uh the different areas, the strengths and the areas to be
033worked on. Um, sorry 18. Oh, I was trying to go back and that's okay. You don't have to go to but it was you you picked like there's like four areas. There were two really strong areas. um social awareness and relationship skills and then the focus was responsible decision-making, optimistic thinking. I just look at those focus areas and think that's like life skills. That's the stuff that that might be a reason that kids are not finishing high school, right? Deci, responsible decision making and optimistic thinking. So that the specific skills are being targeted and that there we have staff working on that with our our vulnerable population is for me is really exciting. Um I was curious what were some of the other categories that so if it wasn't a need or a strength that
034was just kind of in the typical right so students would have um they have skills but they're not demonstrating them consistently across all the areas. Okay. So, they might have all the skills, but they're not, you know, showing them in in the ways that would make sense for us to identify that they have them. Um, yeah. Okay. Thanks. It just And it was interesting. Your 18% is almost matching the the percentage that doesn't graduate. I don't know if there's a correlation, but it's kind of it's it was just interesting to me that 18% is high need here and the there's 19% like it's interesting and and to your point about the optimistic thinking piece like that's future readiness and resilience, right? So, we get our students to see themselves in the content in the work
035in the schools and they have good relationships and they're engaged in the work. They're going to be optimistic thinkers and want to do this, right? So all of that is encompassing and what that how that's defined. So um you know it's encouraging. Okay. Well, it's encou Yeah. Now we know and we can we can work on how we can improve. That's great. Thank you. Thank you. I I had a quick question on the um K through five bullying prevention. Yes. So you showed student participation numbers and and they're very very different. Can can you explain what those numbers represent and why do we see such a difference between the schools other than I know some schools are larger than others. Yes. So it depended on also the activity or the the age appropriateness of the
036activity that the council chose to use. So the counselors were um they were the they chose what activities that they would present. So there might so it wasn't across the board all K students received this lesson. So at at one school they might have been participating in a lesson um a literacy based lesson where they were reading together and you know responding to you know some critical thinking questions that the counselor would ask um but then there might be a different activity that was happening with a different grade with that grade level at another school. So that might show some of the the the range in number um if that makes sense sort of. Do we see any like the schools that have higher numbers do we see any positive trends or results as as
037well I think more participation? I think that one of the benefits of having done it this you know focused on it this way is that now we have clear definition and we have um our students who are able to make decisions about what it means to be an upstander because they have that language now. And so all grades um all students who were exposed to these um lessons got that information through um their however the counselor presented whether it be through the project-based learning where some students were making posters and pres you know presented them and posted them up across the school building or again through the literature that they were exposed to or an activity. There was a bully beans activity where students read literature and then created a visual representation of a bully
038bean to help them to remember like these are the things that we can do to not um to to check ourselves, right? And to be mindful of how we present, be kind and empathetic to others, but then also to um identify when something is happening and report it, you know, or to find somebody they can trust to speak about it. Okay. And then I had a question, I guess more of a comment question. Um on on your counseling highlights, you have college readiness events. Not everybody's college, right? So I mean maybe like I don't know if that's the official term, but maybe look at a different term. Future ready for future future life ready something, you know, cuz you list in here that there's the military and trade schools and and you know, you know,
039career preparation. So, and there'll be other activities, too, that will um support our students who haven't made a decision, but we'll have something to do beyond um be nice to have a term that's more inclusive of the whole student body. So, yeah, future ready is going to be the new term if if that's okay. Yeah, that's all I had, but thank you. Anybody else have anything? All right, thank you. Thank you. [Applause] We already saw we already saw the uh energy presentation. So, thank you Melissa for that. It's all good. I'm just I'm just kidding. Now, now we're up to 7.3, the Huntwell and Energy uh Energy Performance Program. I don't know. There's no name here, so I assume it's some conglomerate of you guys. Sorry. Oh, Terrence Squarey, we are part of the conglomerate.
040Yes, you guys could introduce yourselves since I don't have uh good evening everyone. Thank you for having us. Uh my name is Justin Benois. I am the director of project delivery for Eneria. Um good to see everyone again. Uh I'm joined by Terry Gyri from Honeywell to talk about the energy performance contract opportunity that we've been working on with and on behalf of the district for some time now. I'm really going to let Terry get into the bulk of the details as far as the project um and the proposed scope of work and everything like that. But just to maybe uh kind of do a call back here, um it's about a year ago now that Eneria, as the district's owner's representative and engineer for this project, issued a request for proposals document uh to
041solicit different energy services companies as they're known to help generate and and identify the energy performance contract opportunity for the district. And at that point it was about June or July uh we came and addressed the board and received approval for Honeywell to proceed with the comprehensive energy audit which essentially was uh a process where we were able to refine the scope of work uh come back with pricing and savings that represented a project that uh was most beneficial and in line with the goals of the school district. Um and really we're here tonight to kind of give an update on that process. Uh we will be and I'll maybe circle back on this towards the end of the slides as well. We will be seeking approval um at I believe the next board meeting
042on May 8th uh to proceed with execution of the contract and really moving forward with the design and implementation of the proposed project. Again, Terry will get into some of the details. The one thing I will note um little quick refresher on energy performance contracting. The project that we're talking about here is energy focused as you'll see. Um, but the key aspect here is that this project is self-funding. Um, so it's a little bit different from a traditional capital bond project in that these projects pay for themselves out of guaranteed energy savings that will that will be generated from the work that was performed. Um, so definitely wanted to make that note. Um, and with that, thanks again for having us. I'll turn it over to Terry and then uh he can get into some
043more more details here. Great. Thank you, Justin. Those were tough tough acts to follow there. That was a great uh video and very inspirational. Um and what a perfect day. I didn't realize that looking at the monitor behind you that today is I should know that being in the field that it's Earth Day. So, what a tremendous opportunity to talk about uh uh our energy project and our sustainability project on Earth Day. So, as Justin said, and I'll spend uh I'll keep it brief about 15 20 minutes, uh an overview on the the scope of the project, the economics of the project, and and what does the timeline look like moving forward. As Justin said, we were selected per the district's RFP last June, uh and have worked diligently over the last 10 months to
044um to put together the project that I'm going to present this evening. Ideally, we had anticipated that it would be a little bit shorter than that, but um the good news is we were able to engage Central Hudson, the utility company, specifically regarding the solar component of the project. Um which typically doesn't happen until after the design phase, you know, after you submit to the state ed department. But it was critical here, and I'll speak to it when I get to that point. They gave us insight into where the solar would work and where it wouldn't work. uh and it really helped um streamline the overall process which I'll speak to a little bit about my myself um I head up Honeywell's team here in New York um their energy services team and we focus
045predominantly on public K through2 so our team has tremendous experience with the state education department um along with energy I have a really good understanding of the state building codes um what they require in terms of energy savings calcs and payback. So it really helps streamline um the approval of these projects which you will see with the timeline that I'm going to present. So an an overview of the economics here uh is presented on this slide. We've got a a project that is just a tick below 13 million. Um and the way an energy performance contract works different than capital projects there are no change orders you know so that is a fixed price contract um meaning if we go through the S&D review process there's you know there's errors in design you know that
046that risk is on us um I wanted to highlight one very important point in the last 10 months we spent a lot of time going through all of your bond projects to make sure that there is absolutely no overlap, you know, with the capital bond program. Um, we're also not removing any of that great work. You know, a lot of that work is um it's a supplement to what we're doing here. You know, you've utilized the bond referendum to put in new equipment, energy efficient equipment, new lighting, um a district-wide building automation system. in many areas, we're just completing all that good work. So, I wanted to make sure I stress that um we've done all the due diligence there and there is zero overlap with what has already been done under the bond uh
047referendum. We're tapping into uh almost $3 million of what I want to call free money for this work. It's a combination of utility rebates through Central Hudson that go and these all go direct to the district. Uh we're tapping into NAERTA's got a uh a clean green schools initiative that pays for a lot of the audit and design work. Uh and the third piece is federal monies. Federal monies under the inflation reduction act for the solar component. So, a tremendous amount of of free money is available to the district that um is obviously, as I'm going to speak to, not only pays for this work, but generates a significant positive cash flow for the district. And what do I mean by that? Well, you look at the annual savings that we're that we're generating. 586,000
048a year in annual utility savings, significant building aid. Most of this project is aidable and this district gets for an EPC um a tick over 58% in in building aid 58 cents on the dollar is funded by the state of New York for probably 80% of this program. So, when you look at the utility savings we're driving, you look at the building aid the district receives, which is paid out over a 15-year period, and you compare that to what the uh the cost is to finance this work over a 15-year period, those savings and rebate dollars in building aid exceed the annual debt every year during the term of the deal. So when you look at the cumulative positive cash flow over that term, excuse me, it's over $5 million of positive cash flow. So
049as Justin said in the beginning, you know, the uh the goal of an energy performance contract is to find a self-funding path in your case where you do get a significantly high building aid ratio. And I would like to say it's the um kind of the perfect storm right now with the free you you know rebate programs that are available. we can drive a significant positive cash flow for the district. So, it's a great story um you know that we can uh that we can promote here and to the public. ECM stands for energy conservation measures. Our scope of work has 11 different measures. I'm going to touch on the next slide just on a few of the critical measures that really drive a lot of the savings and also hit um some of the
050critical um infrastructure needs for the district that are not being addressed or haven't been addressed under the bond referendum. But I'll pause if there's any questions uh at all on the economics that anybody wants to ask versus waiting to the end, you know, feel free to raise your hand or So for this 129 the the total cost did you say that doesn't come out of the district budget or did it? It did not. So the way that um the district would will first we submit to the state ed department and get approval like every ordinary capital project and once you get state ed department approval the district will work with your fiscal adviser and go out for financing and they will borrow what is traditionally called a taxexempt lease financing. They will borrow money to
051fund the 12.95 million and they will pay off. Typically, you've got to make your first payment 12 months after the borrowing. So, when I show you the timeline, I'm expecting the district to borrow in September of this year. You will make your first payment in September of 2026, and it'll be a debt payment for 15 years. But isn't isn't that a capital expenditure that needs voter approval? It it does not for an EPC. So the state there's state uh legislate um statute around energy performance contract where you don't need public approval to do an energy performance contract. You can actually go out to the public and and have them vote and get some additional aid, but it is not at all required. It's an entirely different process for a capital project to add. And you
052have Sure. I'll just say we've been meeting with our financial advisor too, Jason Schwarz from BPD. So, he's aware of the project. He's reviewed the cash flows and he's preparing to um help us finance the project if the board were to approve it. But I'm just kind of stuck on the It is a capital project, but not a capital project really by our definition of what we've been calling capital project. So, but it's still eligible for state aid. Yep. It's eligible for state aid and because it's an energy performance contract, the voter approval is not required. Okay. And it follows the same um uh the same code requirements, the same review process with the facilities planning group at the state ed department. Um so in their eyes, it's no different. You know, we've got to
053meet the same building code requirements and all of that. Um, but yes, it is. Now, if you look at this, this uh piece of law has been in existence since I want to say 97. It's article nine of the New York State Energy Law specific to energy performance contracts that enables districts to take advantage of this vehicle without requiring a public vote. You can put it out for a public vote and you can get 10% more building aid. um you know, some districts do it, some don't, but it's not in your case. It really with the economics being so well and your aid ratio already being so high, um certainly not a necessity, you know, where you've got a a very positive cash flow project already the way it exists. So, yep. with the current
054environment, are you confident that the federal monies will be available for the next four years? So, the way the um don't have a crystal ball, but I can tell you today because we follow it very closely. We've got a lot of other clients that um uh are in the same situation where where we are proposing solar work. Uh it has not been touched at all, so it's intact 100%. Um, the key is making sure when you get SD approval and when you finance the deal that it's intact at that point because they don't, it's a one-time payment from the federal government when the solar systems are put into service. um districts actually the mechanism is you actually file a a tax return which you don't do today you know being a taxexempt um being a
055public sector entity but there's a form you file with the IRS and they treat it like it's a like it's a tax overp payment so they give you like a refund that's what they're that's their mechanism but it's a one-time payment that gets done after the solar systems are put into service so it's not something that gets paid out over the term So, the likelihood of them going retroactive, my point is as long as it's in in uh in place and and unaffected come September, which is when we anticipate to have state department approval and to have the financing in place so the work will commence, um you should be fine. and the likelihood of the government ever going retroactive to deals that were, you know, signed with this money intent. Um, I've never seen
056it. So, yep. I just wanted to show here that uh a number of the measures cut across all of the buildings. Um, some of the energy conservation measures are specific to just, you know, one or two buildings. Uh I'm going to speak to like I said four of the measures that I think really uh drive the majority of those economics. First is lighting. You know we are doing a district-wide conversion to LED. You know I want to acknowledge that you've got a lot of LED today through a lot of the bond work that I've um that I referenced before that um we're not touching. It's state-of-the-art. It's energy efficient. Um, we're trying to address those lights that have not been touched. So, at the end of the day, you'll have a u a full LED,
057you know, district within all the buildings. And you can see the quantity of fixtures that we're touching. The second measure is the building automation system I touched on. you have a very um uh high-erforming state-of-the-art building automation system with train that's been in put in place through a number of different bond projects. We are really just finishing that off. There's a number of locations for for pieces of equipment that are not on that system that you have still some old pneumatic controls. We're going to remove that, make it fully digital, add those pieces of equipment to the train system. Uh, and the entire administration building is not on that train system. So, at the end of our project, um, you know, Greg and his facilities team will have full ability to control every piece of
058mechanical equipment districtwide. And we will certainly implement energy efficient sequences of operation to make sure that um this is one of the drivers to um drive the energy efficiency that we're talking about. Make sure equipment is is off when it doesn't need to be running. Um set points at night are certainly um in the wintertime down or in the summertime up uh you know when you're only running areas that you need to run at night for say events like this. The next item is solar. Um there's two locations where we are proposing solar. One is here. You have a new roof on the high school. Perfect candidate you know for a roof mounted system. This was one again um we had we had uh spoken to central Hudson. Uh this you know proposed system is
059actually behind the meter because you have such a large building. The electricity generated from this roof mounted system will go directly into this building. There will be points of time, say during the summer, where you're producing a lot of electricity where you will have a little bit that is exported to the grid. Um, but the grid in this area can handle that small amount of export. That's okay. That's what we had to confirm with Central Hudson. What they what they couldn't handle is because originally when I was here last June and during the RFP we proposed a very large ground mount system here at the high school uh because you've got another a large parcel that's not being used. um that was initially proposed to go directly to the grid and central Hudson said and
060it was just an initial review because you've got to go through what is called a comprehensive uh system review a cesar review but they were able to give us a heads up that that will likely get rejected. So you can spend all that time and do all the detailed electrical drawings with Energia and wait three four months to go through that review. And they said um the grid in this area doesn't have the spare capacity to handle that amount of electricity. It could handle the small amount from the roof mounted system because 90% of that's going to be used in this building. It's got the load in this building to handle it and it can handle the small amount of export but the ground mount no. So we had asked them what was another good
061candidate. Um and we and we um you know we brought him to Netherwood knowing that you've got property behind Netherwood and uh they said perfect candidate. There's tremendous amount of spare capacity in that feeder circuit there. So um you know again they wouldn't give you formal approval until we submit the design drawings and go through the review but they said a very high probability that'll be just fine. So, we switched our focus. You know, that that was the delay I kind of spoke about before that I was hoping to be done in like six months, but the reality was we got some good feedback from them and we've got a a scope now that we know is just about rock solid with the utility company. So, you can see the size of the Netherwood ground
062mount system, uh, which is about 1.3 megawws. and we spent some time with uh with the principal here. Sorry, forget your name, but Josephine, thank you. Walk the site, make sure that there was no um uh interference with the nature trails is in a different area. There's also some wetlands back there that you've got to be careful. So, we designed it appropriately uh following DEEC code where you've got to be a certain amount of setback. So, it's really a good an ideal spot and ideal in the sense like I said that the utility uh and the the feeders in that area can handle it. And the way it works that large ground mount system, you export it to the grid and then you can um take the monetary credit they give you and apply it
063to any electric account across the entire district. So if you look at the contract in detail, which that was certainly um Energia has done that over the last three, four weeks, we're just about almost wiping out the district's entire electric spend. Not quite. Um again, we max we maximize the size of the system here and maximize the ground mount system at Netherwood. Again, staying within code and all the setback requirements. The good news is we're damn near close to wiping out your entire electric spend. And then there's uh a few capital upgrades that I wanted to highlight that that are part of our project. We've got um new boiler plants at Netherwood and the administration building and two boiler plants that were not touched. Um I think the only remaining borders that were not touched
064under previous bond projects or planned you know bond projects coming up and we've got old unit ventilators uh in classrooms that we are replacing a total of 32 in Netherwood and HPE the last bullet point there. So there is a a very large grant that we also won on behalf of the district. It's uh through NAERTA a $6 million grant we are and it's for the electrification of the Ralph Smith Elementary School which means the complete replacement of all of your heating and air conditioning equipment. It even goes so far as replacing the um the propane kitchen equipment again because the the whole purpose of that grant was to electrify a location and to eliminate um fossil fuel usage and that was all part of our application. A very competitive grant you know and and
065we were successful uh I think it was last summer that we got the you know the the notification. So, we've been working on the design of of the Ralph Smith piece. It is not costed out in full yet, but we're going to be done with that in about four to five weeks. And when I show you the timeline, we expect to be back in front of you with those economics. But that's going to be 100% fully funded. Like I said, I've got a $6 million grant that's been awarded uh specifically to Hyde Park, specifically for Ralph Smith. Um we just need to do the design work now and and make sure that we can do the work for for that amount of money and we'll have that done in about four or five weeks. Would
066include the boiler like it would run on oil or whatever it runs on now. Correct. So that particular building is a it's an oil fired building and you have propane for the kitchen. So oil and propane would be removed in their entirety. Um we're looking at the boiler would be gone. All of the unit ventilators would be gone. We're looking at what would likely be a predominantly a heat pump type system which is all electric. You know it's used for both heating and cooling. And that's the good news in areas where you know if you have window AC units they go. Um there are some areas quite frankly that aren't cooled today that you will have the ability for cooling just by nature of the equipment we're putting in. A heat pump system can do
067both heating and cooling. So yes that that boiler gets removed altogether. Is is is that one of the boilers we just replaced or when when is the last time this boiler Seems like we've been doing boiler projects for 37 years now. That one must have been touched. It it's the oldest one and and that's why when we submitted the application, it was a very competitive application process. We had already responded to the RFP and we were already selected. We knew Ralph Smith was the one building that got the least amount of capital work done over all these years. That boiler was very old. Okay? Like if we didn't get that grant, we would have recommended replacing that boiler plant like we have included Netherwood's boiler plant which is beyond its useful life. The admin building
068boiler plant which is close to the end of its useful life. Yeah. Ralph Smith is the one building that um you know after our audits was was the least of any of the capital work. But but the other you mentioned Netherwood that one is not an electrification project. It's not that NAERTA grant for 6 million was specific to Ralph Smith. The key being we Honeywell I had um two years ago and I sort of had the same competitive program and uh with Eneria we uh we tried for two districts on Long Island and um were not successful. When I say heavy competition I'm talking hundreds of applications for at that time they only had about 15 $15 million to give out. So it was very few awards but I was able to get a lot
069of uh time from NAERTA afterwards to understand what that committee was looking for. So I went into this application with a tremendous amount of insight of what it would take to win. And the key is being able to tackle a building in its totality. So rather than take a little bit of this building, a little bit of that building, a boiler plan here, no, they want to be able to go in and say that building now is net zero. Okay. So, we went in with a complete mindset of um and laying out the cost and a preliminary design for Ralph Smith. It worked out perfectly. I mean, we had already been selected. We audited the district. Um we knew what would be good for the EPC, which is what I'm presenting here tonight. And now
070we've got the ability. So, in all in this scope here, um you don't see any mechanical work for Ralph Smith. There's lighting in Ralph Smith. I mean things that you know um but anything related to fossil fuel heating is for Ralph Smith is not in this base contract because it'll all be taken care of through what would be our change order one which will be about five weeks from now that I'll be back with the final economics with Justin to present that. Well, so two things is that in addition to in addition to this, correct? To the 13 million. This is six on top of the 13. That's a grant. Correct. Okay. And but you say no change orders, but you call this change order one. Well, this is a completely new scope. I meant
071understood. Probably the wrong choice of words. No change orders to this scope. Um I got it. But the good news is again that is completely funded. um through the NAERTA grant. So you can see the environmental impact. I don't want to spend a lot of time here. Um it's got a huge if you look at the tons of CO2 emission that that is being reduced as a result of this scope of work. It's um over 920 tons of CO2 emissions reduction. Quite impactful. And that's just this um base contract. It does not take into account Ralph R. Smith, which will further this uh amount of CO2 reduction. I've got some metrics here to kind of correlate in layman terms what that means. My favorite one is when you look at the number of acres of
072trees that that correlates to preserving. Is that is that per year or over the course of the 15 year? Per year. Per year. Per year. Yep. And it gets to our last slide here. I wanted to present a uh give you an overview of the timeline. You know, going back to when we issued the RFP uh response in May of of last year, we were selected in June of last year. Fast forward to today to review the scope of work. As Justin said, we would ask for your support uh and approval to execute the contract at the next board meeting. The contract is being reviewed technically from Energia as we speak. Um it's in the hands of uh we've gotten insurance comments that we're incorporating into the contract from your from Nicer. It's in the
073hands of um your attorney and so we expect you know legal comments but we've worked with uh your lawyer before so I anticipate that that will not be you know um that will not be a problem. So again, we're asking for your support on May 8th to approve and sign the contract at that point and a lot of this work is already in progress. We then need to submit to the state ed department like every ordinary capital project which means we've got to take that signed contract and we've got to have design drawings and design specs and Eneria needs to submit as the engineer of record into the facilities planning group in Albany. The good news is that backlog right now is as low as I've ever seen it. You know, and I've been in
074this market for a long, long time. It's been a year at times. It's literally down to two to four weeks. Yeah. So, when you see that, the game plan is to be able to submit this base contract into SEDD the beginning of June. They will pick up the project towards the end of June, beginning of July. And based on the quality of of our work and uh Energia has already scrubbed our couchs and and caught a few things that we needed to modify, you know, once they pick it up, we're averaging two to three weeks of approval time frame and we're good to go. That means the end of July, you know, we would have approval and building permits and then Linda would work with um your fiscal advisor BP Donigan and issue a financing
075RFP to the banks. You know, there are really a set of uh banks that that um finance EPCs like that's their market, you know. So Bernie Donigan will release an RFP to those banks with this specific scope of work and they'll solicit interest rates, you know, from the different banks and ultimately get the lowest cost of money, you know, for the district. And as I said before, it will uh given your aid ratio, there's no need to go longer than it'll be a 15-year term for financing, which lines up perfectly because that's how the building aid gets paid to you over a 15-year term. And that's how I laid it out in my cash flow that's already been shared with your fiscal advisor. Um, they they they reviewed it. They they blessed it. They use
076that for the RFP. They give the banks a the banks want to know um what are the savings look like? What does the revenue stream look like? What do the rebates look like? You know, they get excited when they see that it's not just a self-funding deal, but it generates such a positive cash flow. It gets them excited. They want to borrow. They want to lend you the money and hopefully they want to lend it to you at, you know, a very attractive rate. So, the goal is to get that financing complete in September. And when they fund the deal, they take that 13 million and they put it into an escrow account and that gets controlled like every ordinary construction job. You know, we submit monthly payment applications and needs to be approved by
077Energia and the district that the work that we're invoicing for is complete. And when they approve it, they send it into the bank and the bank then um wires us the money. So the monies get controlled just like you would on a bond project. The same way we're anticipating with that scope of work that it's about a a 15-month construction period. The last item really being probably the solar components. Um you know we'll try to uh do the the better payback items as quick as we can. you know, the lighting. We can come in at night, work second shift. Um, you know, we'll try to even get in and do as much of the uh heating work. Might be an opportunity to do the boiler plants, cutting it close. Um, but we wouldn't demo a
078boiler and take that on unless we knew we had enough time to complete it before the heart of the winter. So, that's all dependent upon, you know, when we get SED approval and when we get financing. uh given this timeline it's it's it's close where we could even uh take on the border work you know before the next heating season but all that to be dependent again like I said and when the financing is complete. So I hope this gives you a good overview. Um if there's any other questions you know certainly Justin and I are here to answer but uh we're excited and ask for your support. Go ahead. I I have a lot of questions, but Huh? I have a quick one. Go ahead. So, is is Honeywell doing the work or are
079you subbing it out? So, we do both. Okay. Yeah. So, we're a uh we're a full-ervice automation and mechanical shop. We're not doing the automation here because, as I said, we're expanding on your train system. So, what we've done though is we laid out for train these are the sequences of operation that we want, you know. So, who better to tell a another control company what to do than than a control company. So, um but obviously we're not doing that work. They're doing that work. Um you know, we'll buy all that material directly and utilize our global strength across, you know, not only the US but but worldwide. Um and and and we may supplement our you know, electricians and mechanics with outside labor. So, it's a combination of uh self-performing and also subcontracting, you
080know, but it would be the partners we've used time and time again in this geography because that's um that's critical. They need to adhere to, you know, not only the contractual standards, but you know, our standards because it's a lot different than a capital project. I mean, we're on the hook now for the energy savings. So, the equipment needs to operate the way it's designed to operate or we're going to be, you know, on the hook on the back end for the shortfall. I got one quick. Go ahead. Um, I installed solar panels on a house eight years ago. What is the the expected lifespan and the warranty the solar panels? So, I didn't hear the first part. You just said about the life expectancy of the solar equipment. Yeah. Life expectancy, but also the
081the warranty. Sure. So, there's good question. There's significant and it's it's spelled out in the contract. Significant warranty on the um the solar panels themselves. And um we purchase what's called only u bankable quality solar equipment, which is really important when you go out for financing. The banks want to know, they'll ask the question. You think why? What kind of solar equipment are you installing? for that reason. Um, it comes with a 25-y year, you know, power generation, uh, guarantee. Now, there is a slight degradation year-over-year in the output. All of which we incorporate into the contract. You know, that's something that that Energy looks for as well. Are we taking account for uh the small degradation of which probably amounts to about a half a percent year-over-year of that electrical output? Um, so that's
082on the panels themselves. The inverters that are a big part of the solar system, converting the DC energy to AC energy. Um, I believe it's a 15-year warranty. It's at least 10, but I believe it's a 15-year warranty. Um, the rest is just a whole lot of conduit and wire. So, the warranty there is very, very significant. Correct. Correct. Yep. All right. So, um, first I think for me anyway, this is a very, um, complicated project, something we've never done before. I'm almost thinking I want to have since we have to do this by May 8th. I almost want to have a workshop to see how we're financing this. Um, this feels different in that, um, normally like, don't we need three bids? It seems like we're just getting something from Honeywell saying, "Hey, we're
083going to do this for you. Normally, we have a a property management company to kind of vet this. I mean, you're telling us this costs $13 million, but can I go to somebody else and get it for $6 million?" Right? So, a single source of a of a number makes me nervous, right? So, you don't have to answer that now, but these are the things that I'm thinking of that make me nervous that we may Can I answer it? Huh? Can I answer it? It's a great question. Sure. Sure. So that was um I I want to rewind and and not lose sight. We had an RFP. So that RFP was, you know, was not only just qualifications based, it was also cost and savings. So the district in that RFP gave the opportunity to
084multiple energy companies to audit the buildings and come back with a list of your energy efficiency improvements with a cost and savings number. And that was evaluated to see, okay, who's got the most coste effective solution? This wasn't done after the selection. So, we had a very competitive situation through that RFP process which ultimately drives our cost down because if I'm not putting together a very coste effective solution and also being as aggressive as possible on savings, I'm not going to get selected. Right. You look at that payback which is a combination of cost divided by savings. So, did did we have other I only remember Oh, yeah. you guys coming in. I don't remember talking or hearing about any anyone else. So So just while Justin is preparing, Justin is affiliated with Eneria. Energia
085serves as sort of like the um contractor um the lead contractor that helps to uh help us vet all the RFPs that came in. And so Honeywell was one of the organizations uh companies that applied and um after reviewing them um uh Eneria gave us the recommendation uh with uh Linda and I. So we didn't see them. Energia reviewed all the candidates for for this type of thing. It was a collaborative process. Uh Jordan at the time the the previous director of facilities was involved as was Linda. Um we received four proposals in response to that RFP. Uh again it was reviewed by the team collectively and we also held interviews with each of the four respondents and then again in June of last year was when Honeywell was recommended to the board as the
086winner of that RFP contest. Okay. Yeah, maybe I missed that there were more. So I think it's pretty typical that we don't see the RFPs anyway. We usually get something that says whoever whoever we're contracting with, this is the RFP we're we're recommending. They don't tell us all of them. So I think this is not unusual in that way. But not I thought like when if we put out an RFP for different auditing firms, we look and review them or we look at different architecture firms when we put out an RFP. We we see that data. I think when we when we had the RF the RFP for the auditing firm is different. the audit committee is involved in that and then um for the larger capital projects we've invited I believe we invited members
087of the board to be on the committee to to select um the the both the construction manager and the architect for that last for the project that's ongoing now. So, some RFPs we review, some we don't, I guess. Right. Typically, um it's a recommendation that we bring forward after going through the process. Okay. But, but I think what you said is sometimes board members are on the committee, but the entire board is not looking at the RFPs, right? When we get them, they're on the consent agenda saying we we're recommending this. Some some organization, some group is. Yeah. I can't remember a time when we had the whole board review an RFP. When when we did our last superintendent search, did didn't we uh Yeah. The whole board see uh that the firm that we
088picked. Um so other other things too like hopefully you've got well you're new but you've looked at this like I see here changing light bulbs. That's not something we can do internally type of oh it's the whole fixture. Oh okay. And removing the ballast behind it. So, from uh you know, Greg's standpoint, you got to get near the mic. They won't hear you on TV. Yeah, lighting lighting is a good question because even um that LED conversion, we're also removing all of the existing ballots that you have behind these fluorescent fixtures. Now, what does that mean? Those ballasts fail quite often, so it's a large maintenance item for the staff. Um and just the breadth of that work, I mean, we're 5,000 fixtures. um you're talking about um Alevel electricians when you get into removing
089ballasts, which I don't know that you've got, you know, that on on staff, but that work all gets done second shift. So, we will take on an area at night because these buildings are open until 10, 11, 12:00 at night, and you'll have staff come back in, the area will be done, cleaned up, and they'll be like, "Wow, I know something happened here." So, it's it's just also the size of the work. It's very difficult. I I thought it was just a light bulb. I didn't I didn't know it was the whole the whole thing. And so part of this you're looking at all the capital projects that we have going on today and you know we're on tight schedules and so you're not going to interfere with any of the deadlines we have especially
090like the auditorium here and things like that. Nothing will be interfered. No. No, not at all. So as I said before I we me and my team of engineers carefully reviewed every single CSR drawing. So there's no overlap number one. Number two, in the contract there is a installation schedule which shows the schedule by measure. Now it's preliminary because we say in the contract it's all dependent upon when we secure SD approval and the financing. When we do secure SD approval and financing, we give you a much more detailed schedule for you to review and bless. Uh literally you can say that's not going to work for this reason. um and we'll modify it and and as Energia knows um every week during the project, every Friday we send out an update of um on
091every measure of where we're at, but we give a twoe look ahead for the district to know this is where we want to be in the next two weeks. Tell us if it's okay. If it's not, we'll modify it. You know, hey, I've got an event at the high school. I got a board meeting. You can't you show lighting in that room. Can you Yeah, we'll modify it. So, it's very much a flexible schedule. Um, but I can tell you confidently there's no issue with any of the scheduled bond works. Okay. And then from from the financing, Linda, you I mean, you said you met with him and Yes. Uh Terry and I both met with Jason from Bernie Dunigan's office and they're working on uh they're actually working on a proposal too because they're
092funding uh fees will be funded through the program and they're also working on uh actual timeline and making sure everything meshes with the cash flows that we got from Honeywell. Say say that again. We had the uh cash flows from Honeywell. Yeah. And one of the things that uh Jason's office is doing is just reviewing all of that information. But you said something about option two or what did you say something about? Um no the the funding of the initial 13 million. So the funding the fees for our financial adviser will be part of the project too. It won't be for him to do the analysis. The cost of that will be part of Yep. Yep. Yep. And there'll be a uh the contract from BPD or Bernie Dunigan's office will also be on the
093May 8th agenda with their proposal. Okay. So, we're going to see the finances the same. We're going to see their proposal then. Okay. But yeah, we So, what happens if we don't vote on this on the ETH and we have to wait another board meeting if if we're not satisfied with the financing stuff? What does that do for any timelines? because to to to to learn about the financing in one night and then have to vote on your proposal that same night is might be a challenge. I don't know. Depends what the financing stuff looks like. No, understood. Um, so one thing to add to, you know, what Linda had said, the good news with Bernard Donigan, they looked at like I have a building aid estimate in the cash flow and I showed you
094an aid number tonight. Um, I'm confident it's right given our experience, but they reviewed that and that was one of their uh purposes is is is Honeywell giving an accurate aid estimate for this scope of work. They know what portions of the job are aidable and what portions are not and they certainly know what the district's aid ratio is. So, um, he blessed that. But get getting to your question of if it doesn't happen May 8th, um the key is really trying to get the the drawings and specs submitted in the beginning of of June. Um we tend not to do a lot of that work ideally until the contract's approved because certainly that's at risk. You know, I I said before we've already started a lot of that work. Um I know Eneria's team
095has been up here starting some of the boiler drawings. Um certainly it's it's still at risk. We get that because we don't want to um miss this timeline to try to get some of the work done before the heating season. That's that's the critical part number one. Number two, the other critical part is um the timing of the solar. You know, we talked about you asked the question about uh the risk of federal incentive. Well, you alleviate that risk by getting a contract executed as quick as you can. um capacity with the grid. There's so many of your peers that are rushing to get solar done. Um we see it downstate all the time where solar projects are getting denied because the grid can't handle anymore. So speed is important. Um but I fully respect
096obviously time and due diligence is necessary. But so there if we continue to move forward with the drawings, it probably wouldn't be a big deal if you waited to the next meeting. But, you know, I would tell you time is important and we've had legal reviews on all this as, you know, now we're going going to be, you know, maintaining a a solar farm. I'm sure our insurance rates will probably be impacted, right? Because they're going to have to our insurance company's going to have to insure the stuff against vandalism and things. So, well, well, right now the contract is under review by legal and also with Nicer. Nicer did have uh some comments and I believe they're uh dealing directly with uh someone at Honeywell about that. They have not told us they haven't
097provided us information about the interest or the insurance rates. When we when the project is completed, we would move it onto our our list and we provide that information every year. Like this time of year, we submit to Nicer all of the assets that we have and they come back with the proposal. Can we get an estimate of of I can ask for that just a ballpark to see you know is that going to change our premium by by maybe you guys have experience on what that does to an insurance premium we do and and quite honestly it's been the opposite effect think about all the older equipment that we're replacing as Linda said districts will give that asset list to and nicer nicer handles a large percentage of districts in New York so we
098deal with nicer all the time in our contract um yeah newer more reliable, efficient equipment helps to potentially lower premiums. So I And is the whole thing going to be fenced in from a liability standpoint so you know people can't wander in there and get hurt and cause liability issues? Correct. That's part of the code requirements. You know, there's there's fencing requirements around the Netherwood ground mount system. Um you would know the location behind the building into the woods. So it's not a it's not a uh a residential area. It's it's an area that people shouldn't be there anyway, but it will be fully protected and um you could add cameras. We've added that, but there'll be signage that will that will that'll probably scare the common folk from doing anything that hey, you beware
099that you're being watched. It's being videotaped and all that, but fencing for sure. And this is a roof mounted system. So, yeah. Um a little bit less of a uh concern. Okay. And it's a newer roof, too. But we will protect that warranty. That's often a question we get. Um, what about if you damage the roof? You know, you've got a 20-year no dollar limit warranty on this roof. It was just done under a recent bond project. We own that contractually. There's a proper procedure that that roof manufacturer has. They come and um uh well, they lay out exactly what we need to do for the solar install. Maybe you got to put down slip sheets ahead of time. They do a post inspection when we're done. and and ideally they reinstate the warranty to
100the district contractually. If we can't get that done, we own the warranty. Okay? So, it is protected 100% through our contract. And just you may have said this already, but um with the current projects that we have scheduled that have been voter approved already, none of this interferes with that, right? There's no over zero over 100% zero. Yep. Okay. So, it's not Well, great work. that would have been work that we would have proposed because a lot of it is certainly more energy efficient. Okay. Um yeah, we carefully went through that. Uh and it was good because a lot of that we didn't have those drawings at RFP time. So you if you went back and looked at our RFP proposal, it was larger than this and that was one of the reasons why we
101um we took out the scope that we had proposed now that we realized it was being done under the bond referendum. Okay. So Okay, good. Could I just um I'd like to be able to see that because you know we all have different lenses here. We have capital projects who are that are supposed to end and they're still going on. So I'd like to see and I don't know if it's here or facilities what projects are still happening when they're going to be because we've got you know if we have uh the capital outlay project passed next month. Um, we've got a new, you know, security systems people working on that. We've got security vestibules we're still working on. We've got, so I appreciate that you've looked into it, but we don't have that information.
102So, I would like to know where this fits in with everything because when projects are delayed and there's problems, it's interrupting instruction, which has happened within the last year where we have problems with instruction. And then we're the ones that have, you know, that we've got the public upset because the projects are interfering with things that we were told it wasn't going to. So, anything you can give us that maps out security vestibule, security camera, like how is this fitting together because we've got a lot going on and and I'm sure you did that due diligence, but we don't have that and and that would be helpful. Okay. So, that is in the contract. I mean, if the district wants to share the scope is in the contract and the schedule is in the contract
103and I will tell you to me that's one of the primary differences between an energy job and a capital project. You are at the mercy of a lot of low bidders, right? And you have issues and you have change orders. We have none of that. Um because we have the accountability again if the work is not complete and the utility savings are not being met. We're accountable for cutting the district shortfall check. It's that level of accountability that doesn't exist at all in the typical capital world. I'm not saying that there's not, right, but we still have those people finishing their work and you're trying to do your work. So, I I it it sounds like it's more of an internal question I have on how this is all going to piece together. Yeah. I
104I can only tell you confidently that there is no overlap whatsoever. Wherever you tell me I can't be because you're finishing a job, I won't be there. So, there absolutely is no interference. I'm not concerned about that one iota. I can just tell you confidently we don't have any of that scope and there's no overlap. So I know I it's internal I think I think it's uh because there will be there will be capital work from what I saw in the drawings going on during our installation period as well. I get it. So thank you. Very good. Um you know details information a lot of things to digest like some of my colleagues have said. Um, I remember the RFP process like, uh, Mike was saying and so forth. I remember, you know, that, you
105know, we've been talking about this for quite a while and so forth. You said that this does not require a community vote. Obviously, I understand that there's some things that don't require community vote. From your experience in other projects from other districts, what rough, you know, percentage or how many districts usually have a vote for this or, you know, you know, why would you, why would you not? It's a good question. I think if the percentages are are probably low um where so why would you not um depending upon the the timing of the um of the contract being approved, right? I mean um it costs money to bring the public in, right, to have a vote. So unless the timing works perfectly, you know, uh where we do see it where it kind of
106lines up perfectly with a with an operating budget vote in May, so you don't have to bring the public in for a second time, then some districts may do it because, you know, we're already bringing the public in to vote on the budget in May. If the contract was already vetted out 100% um in time to get that out to the public as a proposition, which would have been a number of weeks ago, tonight or or today. I mean, so um that's where you see a few districts that'll do it and it's usually the districts that have very low aid ratio. So, like I said, when you go out and you do get the public's vote, the state will give you a a 10% bump in aid. So for districts, and we do a lot
107that might be lower Westchester County or on Long Island that have zero aid or 10% building aid, in order to make it a self-funding proposition, they really need those extra aid dollars. You know, your aid ratio is for an EPC is 58.1%. Um, you can see how positive it is without it. and the timing of where we're at, I don't think was uh it lended itself well to get it out there in time as a proposition, you know, for the public. But yeah, I understand that. I appreciate that. I guess, you know, some of the discussion I think we've had a very good discussion here tonight. Some of the discussions for my colleagues are the thought is regardless it is still a big amount and then with all the uncertainty at the federal level, there's
108some concern about some of the funding. So, I guess that was just part of the conversations. So, thank you. Appreciate it. Um, and it'll still be self-unding without those federal monies. That's what I'm going to make make a point. That's gravy. So, you could if that were to if the new administration said, you know, tomorrow, starting today, you know, any projects that are um put in service or or or contracts that have solar are not going to be part of the inflation reduction act. you're still self-unding, but it certainly is part of that 5 point something million of cash positive, but without it, you're still you're still a cash positive deal given your high aid ratio, given the nice monies that are coming in, given the uh central Hudson utility rebate dollars coming in. So,
109it's heavily positive even without that. That just is icing on the cake. Yeah, I definitely like the idea. One final thought of the changing of the lighting in the building. You know, obviously it's a big project. And like you said, it's this is not giving Rich the credit card and saying go down to Home Depot. This is a much bigger deal. So there's a lot involved there. So thank you very much for your time. Thank you. Appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you. I took up all your time. All right. So, now we have the uh Duchess County budget followed by our budget update or what did I say? Say Duchess County budget. Duchess County Posies budget critical. Yeah. Uh good evening. Um the first part of the presentation is about the Duchess Bose's uh budget
110vote. Uh tonight all of the school districts in Duchess County are voting on the uh Duchess Bosey's administrative part of the bo budget. Um we do have some information here on the screen for you. Uh this is the same slide that we or the similar slide that we provide to you every year. Uh the portion of the budget that's being voted on by all of the school districts in the county is the administrative budget. The amount that's on the dark blue line. It's $6,858,000. So overall, that's a $298,000 increase from last year. Uh even though I do show the High Park portion at the bottom, um it's really important for the board to understand that you're not voting on the High Park portion. You're voting on the entire budget. So your approval or disapproval tonight
111would be on the $6.8 million. Um also listed under the administrative portion of the budget is the capital and rentals portion. um that's not voted but it is included in their budget. So they would have both would have uh these expenses whether uh we we there's no need for school districts to approve it. That's for their capital work and also for rentals of uh instructional space and usually in other schools. Um, and then it's also important to note that even though you are voting on the admin portion of the budget for the retirees bene retiree benefits, if the budget were to fail, um, the, uh, budget this year can't exceed last year's budget, but the retiree health insurance portion is actually a contingent item. Um, those costs increase and both is contractually required to pay
112for that insurance. So those amounts would uh remain in the budget as they're proposing. Um also tonight uh the board is voting on uh the Bosey's board member election. I don't have my glasses so I can't read that information and it's not in my slides here but I believe there are I believe there's five candidates and three open seats and so the board can vote for three uh three of those uh people for those seats. So, does anyone have any questions before we move on to our budget? None for me. Okay. So, this is our uh final uh budget presentation uh before the board um makes a determination in terms of adoption of the budget. Uh again, this this is um an opportunity for us to show uh again the community, the board that we
113have been very intentional about aligning our expenditure plan with our um with our uh with our strategic plan, excuse me, strategic plan and um being very intentional to ensure that we're continuing to support our students, preparing them for uh positions and job fields that have not even been yet created. And so continuing to focus on those five different areas and today uh is our final um budget presentation. Uh afterwards uh the budget uh the board will determine the adoption uh of the of the proposed budget. And then on May 20th uh district residents will go out to vote uh at Havlin Middle School from 6:00 a.m. until 8:00 PM. And we're strongly encouraging uh folks to exercise their their uh right to vote and come out. And um and we just want to uh highlight
114the fact that the the budget uh plan that we're proposing um really continues to preserve and and enhance the programs. uh as you saw um today, we're continuing to look at ways to be more efficient and effective uh to be able to divert those funds uh to student programs and and services. And then uh lastly, ensuring that we can sustain the programs that we have and again keeping in mind the impact on our taxpayers. That's why we in this budget are proposing a 2% uh tax levy increase. Although the tax cap is at 2.43, we are being mindful of the impact um on our tax um on our community. And so we're we're we're very confident that we can accomplish those key levers while at the same time uh going under the tax cap. And
115then just just to point out um the difference uh we're talking about uh $37,000 approximately. And in order to um kind of make up that difference uh we're just appropriating additional fund balance in the amount of 3.2 approximately $3.2 million instead of 2.9 million. And then uh this graph uh again just illustrates that the last time that the district um went below the tax cap was 2019 2020. Again uh we are confident that we are able to accomplish uh the goals that we're setting out um in our in our strategic plan as well as uh our programming and services for students with going under the tax cap. Thank you. So, uh the total budget amount hasn't changed over the last uh three board meetings. This is what's in the uh proposal to the board. Um
116you do have a resolution tonight to adopt the budget for this amount and there's also a resolution to adopt the property tax report card. Uh that's when the budget becomes official. Um our overall budget for 202526 is 125.9 million. That's a $4.9 million increase or 4.13%. Um, as you can see here, the most uh significant revenue item is the tax levy. Um, and we are proposing the 2% increase rather than the maximum of 2.43%. Um, the other uh revenues here listed, well, there's actually one category called other revenues. I've had a few questions about this, so I'll just answer. U most of that is an interest income. Uh we also receive a refund from Boseies every year for their unspent funds. Uh Boseies is not allowed to have a surplus or a fund balance. So
117when they have a surplus, they give it back to all of their component school districts based on the uh resident weighted average daily attendance. um we um are expecting to receive a little bit more in that next year, but the majority of the increase in that other revenues line is actually for the pilots for the two uh big pilots that started this year. So that's the Bellofield Hotel and also for the Saki Brewery. Um that's not included in the tax levy. We have to subtract it off because we receive it here. And then this slide here shows the um other or the expenditure budget. Again, it's obviously uh it has to be the same amount as the revenues, the $125.9 million, that $4.9 million increase and 4.13%. Uh when we provide the presentations to the
118board, we always show the uh expenditures in these categories. They're really broad. Um we have a much more detailed budget. It's line by line every account code that we have. Uh that'll be made available on our website into the public um this week. Uh we once the board adopts the budget, we release a lot of our um detailed information so that anyone that uh wishes to look through that will have it. The detailed uh line by line budget actually shows the 2526 budget for every account code compared to the budget for 2425. So just want to uh reiterate the capital outlay project. Uh this is a project that New York State allows us um each year to go up to $100,000. It is a multi-year project. It doesn't happen in one year. First year's exploration,
119second year studying, third year um so on and so forth. So it it will be a multi-year uh process. Uh the the benefit to the district is that with the $100 expenditure, uh we do get 66.4% 4% uh back in building a ratio. So that means that a project that would cost $100,000 would only uh net be a net cost to the district of $33,000 um $33,600. And so um we mentioned this before as requested by the board. Um it would be focusing on our security camera system, doing a comprehensive uh overview audit of that uh of our current system, identifying any areas that we can enhance and improve um and then coming up with an implementation plan to um continue to um elevate our security across all campuses in the district. Thank you. So,
120uh, we are required to show the budget in just these three components, program, admin, and capital. Um, I'll just mention that New York State determines what expense is c how each expense is categorized. So, we have a basically a walkthrough to match it up to our account codes. And depending on what New York State tells us is admin is what we put into admin. What they tell us is program, which always surprises me that transportation, except for bus purchases, is considered program and not capital. But that um is uh how New York State classifies it. Um and obviously this is the pie for the 100%. So each of these categories is really influenced by the other. So in years when we have more capital expenditures, we're going to see uh less uh program or ad
121admin portions and and vice versa. Um so new this year um is we have two propositions for bus purchases. So everything we just talked about was the general fund budget, the proposition one. Uh we also have Proposition two and Proposition three for bus purchases. Um this isn't uh a situation where we're asking for people to vote on one or the other. We're asking all of the voters to vote on both. Um if both propositions pass, we'll buy all of the buses listed here. If only one passes, we'll buy the buses for that proposition. And if neither passes, we won't buy any buses next year. Uh the first uh well, proposition two, excuse me, is for gasoline and diesel powered buses. There's a seven seven different buses listed here. These are buses that uh have come
122around for regular replacement based on the school uh the school bus replacement schedule and we are in need of uh replacing those buses with the buses listed here. Um so the total uh cost for those seven buses would be $975,75. Uh we would get state aid of 58.4% um and would uh after state aid would pay $45,631. Uh proposition three is for the purchase of nine EV buses 66 passenger. Um this proposition is actually to replace nine EV buses. Uh we do have nine NAERTA grants still available to us. Uh we had been planning to use those grants uh with the EPA grants uh for which we had the vote in November. Uh that vote failed. The EPA grants are no longer available to us, but the NAERTA grants are. Uh one thing that we
123learned recently is that New York State is now uh paying state aid based on the gross amount when state grants are used. That means um even though we would be uh paying upfront cost of $2.2 million for these buses uh because uh Leonard Bus Sales, our bus company would actually take the grant for us and take it off the the price of the invoice. Um we would be eligible to receive state aid on the $4.5 million uh gross cost. That aid would actually be more than we pay we end up paying. So we would only get the amount that would bring us to zero. So, um, after state aid and the grants, uh, these nine buses could be purchased for no cost to the district. Um, we have had some questions about this proposition recently,
124and I just want to, uh, maybe address a few things now. Um, some people are asking why we're putting out an EV uh, bus proposition because it did fail. The November uh, vote failed. Um, we're putting it out now because we do have the ability or the opportunity to utilize these grants and we think it it's the most fiscally responsible uh action to take. We don't know how much uh how many other opportunities we would have for these NAERTA grants. Um some people have told me that um they're frustrated because they also pay taxes that fund NAERTA. And even though that's true, we all pay income tax and other taxes, if we don't utilize those grants in our district, some other school district is going to take advantage and and receive these grants. I'd rather
125see that money come back to us in district. And then also, um, there is the state mandate that is still looming. Um, it hasn't changed. We're required, all school districts in New York State are required to purchase only, uh, zero emission buses after July 1st, 2027. And even though the state hasn't told us exactly what the consequences are, they are stating that there's state aid uh repercussions and uh many people at the state level are saying that we could lose our ability to generate any state aid on buses if they're not zero emission purchases after July 1st, 2027. And also we have done uh some comparisons of the fuel cost for the EV bus that we have now uh compared to what it would cost if it was diesel. Uh those compar comparisons will be
126ongoing. We'll generate more data as uh time goes on. But at the most recent analysis that we did, um if we had been using a diesel powered bus, um it would have cost us for fuel a 126 per mile, but the EV uh cost is 56 cents per mile. So that difference is 71 cents per mile. All right. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. So, the next two slides show the changes uh that were added to the budget. Um these are mostly all requests that we got from administrators. We listed everything here whether it was approved or not approved. Uh we just wanted everyone to see uh what the requests were that we receive. Um the first item is actually the savings from retiring teachers. Uh this obviously wasn't an administrator request, but we do typically use the
127savings from our retirements to help fund um new programs and and new staff as they're requested. So we do have 11 uh teachers retiring, the plan is to replace 10 teachers. Um, even though the teachers that retire will uh be eligible for health insurance and our health insurance costs will go up because now we'll have uh the retiree and the replacement on our plans, we're still saving money because of the cost difference in the salaries. Uh that difference or the cost savings is 530,000. Um everything that's listed here um is under under the request is what was requested. If it was approved, it would appear in one of the other three columns. Uh the 2526 budget means we've approved it uh and are recommending it as part of next year's budget. If it falls under
128the Stronger Connections grant, um we've approved the purchase, but we're able to uh add it to the grant because it's something that fits into the scope of that grant. Um and then the last uh column, which there's info about that on the next page, uh there are some one-time expenditures that we approved for purchasing, but we have money left over this year and we're making those purchases now. Uh, two of the items that weren't approved were a request for a school secretary here at FDR and a student records assistant at Havland. And then this slide shows the other items that uh were requested um and how they're being funded. Uh the first two items at the top are the last of the salary items. Um, I do want to point out that anything that's a
129salary, um, includes the benefits, which it could be, uh, even if it's not a full-time position, if it's a stipen, there's still benefits associated with it. We do have to pay pension costs, and we also have payroll taxes and workers comp. And then for full-time, um, individuals, they're eligible for health insurance, too. Um, so, uh, those two items listed here at the top, the assistant wrestling coach and the unified bowling coaches were approved and are in the budget for next year. The items at the bottom are non salary items. Um, we approved to make purchases from this year's money for the request for wrestling mats, for a scoreboard here at FDR, and for 17 digital pianos. Um, the transportation department had submitted a request for a new routing software. When the calculation was first done,
130it looked like it would cost more than we were paying for our routing system now, but we realized that we had in our budget um tablets that were uh supposed to go along with the uh program that we have now, but we had never purchased those. So, we removed that item and also we're buying the uh transportation routing software through Boseies and we'll get aid back on that. So, that's why we're showing a cost savings there. And then the student supplies that had been previously purchased through the uh ARPA grants, the fiscal stimulus grants are now being moved into the uh general fund because those grants are no longer available. All right. So, tonight is the last presentation to the board before uh the budget adoption. There are some resolutions on tonight's agenda to adopt
131the budget, adopt the property tax report card, and the school budget notice. Um there's also the resolutions for the uh Bose's votes. Um on May 8th, uh we will have a uh budget hearing at district office at 6 PM. So that's before the uh board meeting. Um we are required to have the uh budget hearing after the board adopts the budget. Um we are also working this week to get all of the publications ready to send out. The newsletter will go out soon and the other items uh that I referred to earlier will be available this week. And then after that May 8th uh board or the May 8th budget hearing, we also send out a postcard reminder of the vote. Uh the reason we do that is we're legally required to send the school
132budget notice out after the budget hearing, but we send our newsletter out which has the school budget notice sooner than that. And then we send a reminder with the school budget notice in the form of a postcard. And of course, the school budget vote will be held on May 20th, 2025. It's at Havlin Middle School from 6:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. And uh that's our last slide, but we'd be happy to answer any questions. So I I believe the state still has not passed their budget. You've said it before. or I just just think it's worth saying again that this is based on the governor's proposal and any alterations to that will either add to or take away from fund balance. Is that correct? Yes. So our budget won't change the budget amount but if
133the state were to provide more state aid to us than it is in the governor's proposal, we're going to have more revenue than we anticipated and that'll increase our surplus at the end of uh the 2526 school year. It'll be reflected like at the bottom line which is what goes to fund balance. The alternative is also true. Yes. Yes. Other questions. All right. Thank you. All right. Thank you. All right. Where are we? Moving on to 8.1. Um, can I get a motion to enter public participation? So moved. Katie second. Tibbitz. All those in favor? I opposed. Motion carried. The re board reminds speakers that the public comments portion of the meeting is only one item in a lengthy agenda. This segment of public participation. We will be limited to an overall time of 21
134minutes. We ask that each speaker be concise and that remarks be limited to three minutes. We expect individuals participating in public comment to speak respectfully and courteously modeling proper civility and decorum for our students. Would anyone like to address the board? All right, seeing there's nobody, we'll close public participation. Moving on to 9.1, board subcommittee reports and professional development updates. Anyone have a committee, Margaret? Nothing. No. No commit. No committees. No. No. Oh, good. All right. Board discussion including consent agenda items. Um, so we have one. How come it's not? I just Well, there's one on there. It's not it's not showing up now, but part of that super eval tool that we had, if you saw Jay's note, there's the ability to designate Jay as an alternative like kind of like a backup. If
135one of us have problems, she can do it on our behalf if we designate her and say, and it's doesn't cost anything extra. It's just a feature um in there. So, um the one question I had like when we do his um evaluation, you can't see that, right? Okay. That would be the only It's only for only our board evaluation. Oh, so yeah, you could see anything there. So, do we want to go? Yeah, I think I think having a backup would probably be a good idea. That makes sense. Carl has a lot of computer problems here and there, if you know what I mean. Mike, I think what it says here is that Jay's allowed to upload basically our comments. I just want to make sure the public is clear that Jay wouldn't be
136evaluation. Jay would be communicating our wishes through that. Right. Correct. Just want just want to make sure that was clear to the public because it's right. If you're, you know, if we're on a deadline and there's no cell service or you can't get Wi-Fi, then you can call her and ask her to upload. So, so we can go ahead and do that. Thank you. All right. Any other discussion items? I had wanted to get an update on um security vestibules we talked about a couple of meetings ago if there was any updates on the status of that. Thank you. I'll start and then I'll I'll pass it over to Linda. Um so Violet has a unique setup in that it has uh two sets of doors. So there's actually not a structure that's being built
137similar to let's say like a Havlin Middle School who has to they actually have to build a structure. Um so currently we have um I forget the name of the or uh the company that's working uh but they're they're working on finalizing all the wiring that needs to happen. and they're going to uh put in a system where um they can actually identify who the individual is through a camera right in that sort of vestibule area that's created. Um there's going to be a camera system uh which is going to feed into the main office um or to the security uh monitor who's going to be able to vet the individual, get the uh information and then actually um it will scan sort of like an ID um so that it can go through the
138Raptor system um that way to make sure that whoever is allowed to come in is supposed to be uh in the building and there's no issues. Uh, Linda, is there anything else that you want to add to that? So, uh, today Gregory Cisero, our director of facilities, went to Vadav just to look to see what's been done and what needs to be done yet. And he is planning to speak with our tech department because facilities and tech are actually working on this part of the project together. Um, but he said at um, Violet A, the well, he mentioned what Dr. Roman just did that the front main entrance doors um well that will be used as the vestibule between the two. Um there is the video intercom already installed on the right side. The access
139control is installed on the exterior doors allowing the greeter or the monitor to buzz in people in the first set of doors. A raptor which is the system we use uh for vetting people that come into the building is also being set up now at the greeter station. And uh and the second set of uh doors um the second set of doors will allow visitors to be isolated from the rest of the building. But right now what's um not completed is the additional wiring needed which would allow access control for the greeter to speak to and buzz in people from that door. And we had known that because of the historical significance of the building that they said all along this was going to be different. Um, do they know when that building when they'll
140be done? There's We're still waiting to hear that. There's no We're We have a capital project meeting tomorrow and you said they've already added it as a topic to find out. So, just be good for us to keep up on that. Thank you. Y Thank you. Um, the project is not being handled by the same company that did the um the mechanical work there. So, it's a different company. All right. Any other discussion? All right. Um, moving on to 10.1. Can I get a motion to approve tonight's consent agenda? So moved, Margaret. Second, Carl. All those in favor? I opposed. Motion carried. Moving on to 11.1, personnel matters. Can I get a motion to adopt 11.1? So moved. Second Tibbitz. Any discussion? All those in favor? I opposed. No. And I'm going to abstain. Um
141I have a family member on the personnel agenda. So let's see any No, I did any discussion. So it's it passed, right? So we had enough yeses. We had one, two, three, four, five yeses. So it passed. All right. Uh 11.2 Duchess County Bosey's vote on 2526 administrative budget component. Can I get a motion? So moved, Katie. I think Margaret was a second. Second. Christine. Oh, she she already second. Any discussion? All those in favor? I opposed. Motion carried. Uh 11.3 Duchess County Board Member election. So we have five candidates and we have three seats available. So second. Yeah. Can I get a motion to vote for the vote for the candidates? Second. I don't think we do a motion, right? We just vote for the five. Yeah, we should do a roll call. Okay.
142All right. So, we'll do a roll call for each one. Um, we'll start with you, Mike. Ralph, uh, ChiTO from Spack and Kill. Um, was a no. Okay. Christine, no. Katie, no. I'll be a no. Yes. Yes. No. No. No. No. Okay. We have one yes and six nos. We have Mark Fleshower from Reinbeck. Yes. No. No. I'm a yes. Yes. No. No. I'm sorry. Yes. Yes. I was a yes. Two nos over there. I think it's Katie. Katie. Sorry, I missed you for the first person. Katie. Oh, Katie was a no for the first one and a no for the second one. Sorry. Okay, I got you. So, did that I got everybody. Did Well, did that count? Did that one pass? No. What was the total count for that one? Margaret Carl. We
143had four yeses and three nos, right? So that one I said yes. So yes, four. So that would be a yes. Okay. The next one is um Bryce Holland from Pikipsy. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. No. Yes. Yes. Okay, that one was easy. Uh, Judy Moran for Webuk. No, no. Yes. No. Yes. Yes. The no iss. So, that was a no. And then lastly, Gully Stanford from Hide Park. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Okay. All right. So, we have uh which ones? Ralph the no Mark. Mark Fleshower Reinbeck, Bryce Holland from Pikipsy, and Gully Stanford from High Park. Congratulations to you three. Do you want to do a motion? Do we now can I get a motion to approve those three candidates? So move Tibbitz seconded. Any discussion? All those in favor? I opposed.
144Motion carried. Moving on to 11.4 SEQ A Secura for districtwide security camera project. Second, Christine. Any discussion? Is this the capital outlay? Okay. Um, all those in favor? I opposed. Motion carried. Now on to 11.5. Linda, drum roll. Uh, our proposed uh 2526 budget, which is proposition one. So move. Tibbitz. Second, Katie. Any discussion? I would like to say thank you to Linda and Dr. Roman. I know this is not an easy uh task every year and you did an awesome job. Very easy process this year. So thank you. All those in favor? I opposed. Motion carried. The 11.62526 6 2526 property tax report card. Can I get a motion? Second, Christie. One of I think one of them down there did second. Um any discussion? All those in favor? I opposed. Motion carried. 11.7
1452526 school bus school district budget notice. Can I get a motion for that? Any discussion? All those in favor? I opposed. Motion carried. Uh 12.1. Can I get a motion to enter second public participation? Seconds. All those in favor? I opposed. Motion carried. Same rules as before, only we get 12 minutes. Would anyone like to address the board? No. All right. We'll close public participation. I don't think there's any other matters deemed necessary by the board. No need for a second executive sess session. Just want to mention a couple of tenure candidates that are here. Okay. So we do have other matters deemed necessary. Dr. Roman. So good evening. Uh this evening uh we're very excited to announce a number of individuals that have uh have received tenure from the board of education. Uh first
146we have an administrator who unfortunately could not be with us. Uh I want to congratulate Daniel Cowan uh from FDR. Uh he received tenure uh this evening as an assistant principal. Uh the following teachers have also received tenure. Uh Gabriella Espazito, speech and hearing. Um we also have Michelle Murray, science. And we also have uh last but not least, Cynthia Ramsey. Let's give him a round of applause for ESL. [Applause] Kudos to you all. Know how much uh work you put in to ensure that you provide students with the services uh and supports that they need. So congratulations to you all. Yes. Congratulations. All right. Any other matters? All right. Uh 15.1. Can I get a motion to adjourn tonight's meeting? All those in favor? I opposed. Motion carried. Thank you.