001Not voting on anything. You're using my Yes. Okay. You'll take care of that. Superend. She was out in the parking lot, so she was trying to get in. I want to update it. Um, I want to make a motion to add Okay. 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. Recommended motion to approve the May 13, 2025 special board of education meeting as presented. A second. Any discussion? [Music] Oh, I'm sorry. I'd like to make a motion to add superintendent update before the first student presentation. We get a second. Second. Any discussion? All in favor? Any opposed? Motion carries. Okay, with that, Dr. Spado, I think the uh the lead update and the ballot update.
002Thank you. Uh Mr. Schmaker, board, I have an uh update on our uh water lead testing. Uh about uh a few weeks ago, uh every few years we have to test the amount of lead in our water. Uh and those tests came back a little bit above the threshold in certain areas uh in the district. We have posted those locations on our website. uh we had 10 days to uh you know notify the community about the um above threshold results in some areas uh of the district. Uh we were aware of those above thresholds. We put in a corrective action plan. Uh and then uh last Thursday we retested those sites and I'm I'm proud to say that we're now below the threshold uh with our lead testing. And all that information uh is on
003our district website, the the the water testing and locations and the amount of where we were before and after uh the testing and that's located on our website on on the facilities uh page on on on our district website. Any questions about our um lead water testing? Any board questions? Dr. contin [Music] that's correct and again it's every three years uh we have to take these tests but uh now with the the with the turnover that we've had with our director facilities uh we're going to do a better job on our end with organizational management making sure like we're testing more you know frequently to make sure we are staying below those thresholds with with our lead levels. Thank you. Any other questions about our our water? Yeah, go ahead. Yes. Hello. It's Brian Fitzgerald,
004Dr. Spedo, and the board. I'm here along with uh Kyle and Corey, some of our operations leaders, and me and Kevin from our electrification team. So hopefully you can hear me, but thank you for letting us join virtually as we're scattered about the Northeast here a little bit this evening. Excellent. Thanks, Chris. And uh update with the uh the the mail the mail uh the the mail out for the uh the voting. Um, you know, it we we apologize for what happened with the mail-in voting. Um, we sent out an incorrect envelope uh for the mail for the mail-in voting to take place. Uh, we've corrected that action. Uh, we we were in the allowable time frame to send out the correct envelopes uh that has the oath on it where people who want to
005mail in their ballots have to sign, date, and complete that oath uh to turn that in. But there are options to turn your uh mail-in ballot if you feel like you're not gonna your ballot's not going to be in on time. Again, we we want all people to come in and vote in person uh on May 20th from 7 to 9:00 p.m. Uh if you're unable to do that, uh you can still mail in um mail in your ballot with the correct uh envelope, the oath in the oath office envelope uh where you have to sign and date that envelope and send it back to us. Um or Again, you can come and drop it off if you're not going to be here uh next Tuesday for the vote and you have your ballot ready
006and you have the correct um envelope in there with the signature on on the oath. Uh you can just turn that into the district office from now uh until um next Tuesday. Uh again, there was an oversight on our end and we apologize. Uh this is new in New York. This is the second year we've done this process with mail and voting and uh I know that we we've learned from this and we'll get better uh as we execute this for next year. Any questions from the board about um the mail-in voting? So I I just I think you said it but I just want to make sure um and I do understand people make mistakes. Thank you for acknowledging and owning that mistake. But it's my understanding the ballots went out and we met
007the deadline as a district. That is correct. The deadline was Monday. Uh we corrected our mistake on Monday when we found out we mailed out the wrong uh envelopes with the ballots in them. Uh we've corrected that. all of the correct uh envelopes with an oath on them that the voters need to sign uh to certify that they are a citizen and they live in our area. Uh they were mailed out uh on Monday and we're hoping that those um envelopes and the ballots get to our community hopefully by by this by the beginning of this week. Thank you. But it did hit we mailed them out by the deadline. We did just just on the deadline. Great. Thanks. Thank you. Any other board comments, questions? Okay. Thank you, Dr. Spado and your team for
008expediting, you know, a solution to that. I think mistakes happen. We all recognize that. We teach our kids here in Rondout that mistakes do happen and and um as long as you own them and work to correct them, you know, you're on the right path. So, thank you you and your team for for correcting that. Absolutely. They did a great job hustling and stuffing envelopes and getting them out ASAP when we found out that um mistake was inadvertently made. Next on the agenda is the first student electric bus presentation. So, uh, as you know, uh, we contract out with First Student with our transportation and they're going to try to help get our electric buses, uh, in our in our community um, in the in the near future. And with again I think you you
009know who's with us today. Brian Fitzgerald uh works our first student um along with Corey Benton Court and his team are are coming in zooming in on online and any questions at the end of this presentation. Um they're they're here to to answer those questions from the board. But just to go over a our brief uh timeline, um in May of 22, uh Round Out Valley School District in partnership with First Student applied for uh electric school uh bus rebates through the US EPA's clean school bus program. On October 25th, 2022, uh we were awarded that grant of $9,875,000 for deploying 25 uh type-c electric school buses. uh first student um will remove the 25 diesels from their fleet to accommodate uh these new ESBs, the electric uh school buses. Uh from June to August
010of 23 uh per the EPA rebate requirements, first student issued the purchase orders of buses and charging stations which were submitted uh by the district uh to the EPA. The original concept uh was that you know we were going to um have the infrastructure on campus here on the school site and you you know we worked with other parties to find the suitable site on school district property but again all those things that we pursued we just couldn't pull off to have the EV and the charging stations on our on our own campus. Then in March of 24 uh the district asked for a student proceed with deployment uh as first student lease site in in Akard New York where the current uh bus garage is. Uh first student began the design build process by
011selecting a contractor through an RFP and started the process of coordination with Central Hudson in preparations for designs drawing. So we we met with Central Hudson and their architects and we felt like we could pull this off at the current bus lot in the town of Rochester. From November to December 24, the drawings were submitted for permits when two issues uh were identified um by the town. Um the Akard uh lease site was determined to be in violation of a 1990 approved site plan by housing more buses than permitted. Uh originally the plan was designed for 20 buses, but there's currently 49 buses on site. And then the Akard Fire District raised concerns that EVs could be a fire risk and raise issues about supporting the event uh of an EV fire. So addressing the
012the permit compliance what how we address these concerns with first student the site plan violation uh first student has proposed to uh decongest the site by moving all the diesels temporarily to our site. So the plan would be the EVs would be uh at the current bus site and accurate and then we would make room for the diesel buses to be placed here at Rondout. uh make the make the first student accurate site an EV only site with six feet of space in between the EVs. Um when we first uh drew up the plans for the EV charging stations, the bus weren't spaced out as much and and the town wanted the buses to be spaced out more in case a fire was to happen uh on the bus lot. First student is shifting the
013layout to accommodate the parking lot requirements for building and zoning. And then we submitted an amended site plan revision request based on the above recommendations used um through civil engineering firms who are familiar with permitting the process in the town of Rochester and also county. Basically using their civil engineering firms to design the layout uh of of the EV charging stations at the site. Uh for addressing the fire district's facility concerns, feedback from Aker Fire District was to modify the proposed plans for EV only sites with up to six feet of spacing between the EVs. That's in our current plans. First Student is making room for an area to pull a burning bus in the event of a fire. Uh, First Student is investing in a fire detection system while site monitoring and First Student
014already invests in in-depth EV training for its locations, its staff, drivers, dispatchers, maintenance technicians. Besides providing bus familiaration training to its first responders, and additional training is needed, first student is willing to invest in that additional training as well. Uh with the Acura Fire District off facility concerns, the fire district is concerned about EVs operating in areas of the district with limited cellular service and potential for delayed notification and response times in case of an emergency. And then First Student believes that similar risks exist with diesel bus operations. Uh but First Student is actively working um with us on potentially routing modifications where possible to limit the EV vehicles in areas with cellular connectivity loss. So, we basically use the EV buses for more of our local routes and then use our gas powered um
015diesel powered buses for routes up in the mountains. How we're addressing the the safety concerns. Uh first student has not experienced an electric battery bus fire with over 500 electric school buses in service. A review of the National Transportation Safety Board data found that 150 gasoline powered vehicles per 100,000 were involved in vehicle fires in 2022 compared to just 25 electric vehicles per 10,000 electric vehicles. Um that's from the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority uh NAERTA. First Student provides uh PPE, personal protective equipment and tools and training on on all equipment. New EV driver trainings focus on the following key areas. Eco driving, regenerative braking, pre and post trip inspections, charging safety, in inclement weather, EV operations, provide first uh responder training, and we'll also with safety provide training to the fire
016department as well to help put out an EV fire if that would happen. So, what are the benefits of electric school buses, ESBs? Again, there's environmental benefits. Uh, putting 25 electric buses into service would bring huge benefits. reducing as much pollution as taking 1600 cars off the road and potentially cutting operation costs by 37.5 million over a 12-year life cycle. Uh diesel and gasoline powered engines um have significant quantities of air pollutants like particulate matter, carbon monoxide, and nitrogen oxides, all of which are associated with chronic health conditions. Uh taking one fossil fuel bus off the road is equivalent to removing over 35 passenger cars. There's also health benefits as well for ESBs. Uh long documented studies on health impacts to children breathing diesel fumes. Transitioning to electric buses in New York will improve student
017health and reduce greenhouse gases resulting in significantly fewer asthma attacks annually according to the American Lung Association. And additionally, a 2024 Harvard Chan School of Public Health study found that replacing diesel school buses with electric ones can generate up to $247,600 in climate and health benefits per bus. And that's from the Harvard School of Public Health. Uh this is a mandate. This is a New York state mandate. It is a law. It's in it's in legislation. Uh New Yorkers passed the Environmental Bond Act in November of 2022, transitioning 100% zero emission um electric school buses uh by 2035. In April of 22, the New York State uh enacted legislation mandating the transition of school buses to zero emission vehicles. By 2027, all school new bus purchases must be zero emission. By 2035, all school buses
018in operation must be zero emission. Ronda Valley has been awarded $10 million from the EPA's clean bus school program to offset the upfront capital costs of this new technology. This will prevent any kind of burden on local taxpayers to approve a levy bond to pay for these improvements. Uh our recommendation, the administrator's recommendation is to take advantage of the federal funding to comply with the mandate versus imposing burden on local communities to foot the bill in the future. uh these federal mandates once surrendered uh will not be awarded. So um once if we give back the $10 million grant, we can't ex we there's no money to accept back. We won't get them the money back if if we have to give it back to the EPA. So what's our charge and our job as
019a school district is to foster innovation and prepare students uh for their futures. Uh that's what we're trying to do. This is the wave of the future and we want to prepare our students um for that. Uh we want to foster innovation and and creativity and we feel like you know getting this grant and purchasing these 25 electric school buses uh mirrors our our vision and mission of Rondow. Uh we recommend taking advantage of the EPA's uh clean school bus grant funding is already secure uh and future funding is frozen from the EPA. Uh New York is moving here. Uh the mandate uh may change uh but you know like there's there is a you know granting extensions h has just been released from the governor but the mandate is is still in effect and
020uh again it's going to cost taxpayers more money if we don't uh accept this grant. Uh we are on the town of Rochester planning board agenda with first student on June 9th. Although we realize there are still concerns, you know, we hope our proposal eases many of them and we get your support uh moving forward, uh we plan on offering exploration uh with students, parents, and community members uh once we hopefully receive our new uh electric school buses. And like I said, myself and first student is on. Uh and first student, if you want to start any comments and then we can open up questions uh to the board. Dr. I I I think you covered it perfectly. We are uh we're happy to answer any backup questions. Again, I we have Kevin Matthews is
021our head of electrification and Ami Periq who's been our project manager on as well as myself, Corey, and Kyle who are more locally part of the operation. But we uh the only thing I would add is, you know, our our our piece of this is is we we take pride in being able to be a partner um with with the district on this. And uh you know when when this started happening I will tell you we made a conscious decision there. There are options of waiting around or trying to get ahead of it. So our our company uh intentionally wanted to get ahead of this. So we we we built up some some experts and uh are are proud to be able to hopefully partner with the district as we move forward. Uh any board
022questions, comments? So I I my personal feeling I mean I I could it would not sit well with me to be abandoning 910 million dollars here, right? So I fully support this all. I I think we need to really make an effort here to save taxpayers money uh given this is indeed a state mandate to move to um electric buses. So, um I personally support this. I thank you and and the first student team. Um my hope is that the town of Rochester will hear uh your plan and and work with us as a district to save taxpayers uh additional potential um increases to the levy uh in the future. I agree. I agree. I I completely support this. I I do not want to see the taxpayers have to come up with this additional
023$10 million, which we're going to have to go this route anyway. So, let's um let's work together. Thank you for Thank you for student. Um and thank you, Dr. Spado. Just one question, Dr. Spedo. Is there anything that we need to ask of the community, right, to garner additional support here? anything that they can do to to help support this direction? Yeah, you just get out there and talk with uh you know the the local fire department, talk to your the local planning board who who's on it. Um just to say that you support this initiative. You you support uh this this unfunded mandate that's coming down the pipeline. Uh like I said, we're we're going to have to uh fund this one way or the other. Uh these aren't going away. And you know
024like by uh any bus that we have to purchase or go through for student with it has to be an EV and by 2035 the expectation is all of our buses um are electric school buses. Um so please get out there if you run into anybody that's on the planning board or you want to show up for support on June 9th. Uh we we greatly appreciate it. Uh, first student, we're going to let you go unless you have any other closing comments. No, we just really appreciate the partnership and the time this evening. We realize there's a lot that you're working on and and um, you know, this one obviously is a near and dear one to us and if you think of anything later, you know, funnel any questions you have through Dr. Sparero
025and his team and we will get you answers. So sorry before you jump off I am recalling we had a public comment last meeting um and if I recall correctly one of the questions was that written into some document contract something that he he had read there was a statement about um Rhonda owns the buses for 5 years and then thereafter we no longer own them. Was does anyone recall that question? Was it something like that? for years after that can do whatever they want with them. Is that is that true? Oh, go ahead. Yeah, I was going to say let me let me defer to Kevin on that for the details as he lives this every day. Yeah, thanks and we appreciate your time and support on this. I'm Kevin Matthews, head of electrification
026for for first student. So, under the and this is a rebate program, not a grant program. So, a little different uh uh rules there. So, the rebate program uh requires that we operate the school buses in Rondout Valley for a minimum of five years. Uh and we will retain ownership throughout that entire period. After the 5-year period, we are not obligated to continue to operate buses in Rhonda. However, we will commit that we will uh we are installing a charging infrastructure. Uh we just can't, you know, willy-nilly move these buses around. Uh so our full plan is to keep these in Rhonda Valley as long as we continue to have a relationship with Rhonda Valley on the school buses. If for some reason our contract ends prior to the five-year period, the buses will remain
027with Rondout for that fiveyear period. Great. Thank you for clarifying. Any other questions? Thank you, First Student. Thank you all. Next on the agenda is the personnel report. Recommend motion that the board of education approves the personnel report as presented. Make a motion. Second. Um, any discussion? All in favor? Any opposed? Motion carries. Um, and Dr. Spado, uh, we have a question that just came through um, regarding the time of that June 9th meeting at the town of Rochester. Do we do we know what time it is? I I believe it's I believe it's six o'clock, but don't don't quote me there. We'll post it on if we can maybe post it on our Facebook or social media and other outreach, that would be helpful. Thank you. Uh recommended motion to adjourn the May 13,
0282025 meeting as presented. Second. Any discussion? All in favor? Any opposed? Motion carries. Thank you. Now the celebration of our our uh awesome team.