Finance Committee Meeting Livestream - May 19, 2025

001Okay, three minutes. I'm ready. Okay. Good afternoon. Good afternoon and welcome to the Finance and Capital Management Committee meeting. I'm Barbara Sykes, chair of the Finance and Capital Management Committee uh committee. Uh joining us today is our is the vice chair uh member Gregory Harrison and uh member of the committee also is Dr. Rene Renee Molinar. We also have with us member Summer Hall as well as member Diane Autry and our president uh member Carla Jackson. So we are pleased to welcome all of you here today. If there are some who have never attended, welcome. Some who have been here before, welcome back. We're pleased to have you. So first on our agenda we will uh uh read the um um we will read the previous minutes the the two board members will and then

002we will uh I will ask for a motion to approve the previous board me minutes please I was not I was not present at the last meeting I was at a conference so I will defer to the rest of the committee. I I move that we approve these minutes of the previous meeting. Second. So, all those in favor? I. Those opposed. Okay. So, I have it. I uh also for those of you who do not have an agenda, let me just go over the agenda just in case you're wondering how things are going to happen today. So, we will first have a presentation by uh one of the our assistant treasurer on the state audit access control. We will still next have a presentation on our five-year forecast. Uh then our personnel updates. We will

003then uh have a presentation and recommendations for on our Miller South uh FI for building project update a resolution for bond as well as transportation building improvements and then the transportation van drivers contract. Uh at the end we will uh also look at the board members event information unfinished business new business and then adjoinment. Uh so I know there may be individuals here to talk about uh to give comments on the Miller South uh Fifer project. And so for those individuals who would like to speak if you would like to wait until after you hear the presentation that would be fine. If there are individuals here who are here to just generally give a comment, uh we can do that now. So it's your choice. Would you like to wait to hear the presentation before

004you make a comment? Yes. Okay. You want to go now? Okay. So, uh member Molina, would you call Councilwoman up, please? Yes. And just as you're coming up, member Harrison will read our rules as they uh that we would ask you to abide by as a uh member of the public. Welcome, Councilwoman. Thank you. Um we ask that participants uh speak only to matters pertaining to um business of the board. We ask that you refrain from speaking on vis b v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v vendors, business matter matters, formal complaint, grievances, specific students or um student student records, personnel matters and

005or legal matters. Um please keep your comments to 3 minutes or less. The board will not respond, but will assign through the superintendent the appropriate person to follow up with you. Thank you. Thank you and welcome. Thank you. Thank you, board members, uh, Dr. Thompson, uh, Superintendent Outley, and other staff members. I appreciate the opportunity to speak. On March 13, 2023, the APS board vowed not to decrease the district's footprint in Kenmore, but I want to give a little history. In 1999, Kenmore had 10 schools, a high school, a middle school, Miller South School for the Visual and Performing Arts, and seven elementary schools. In 2000, APS removed Miller South from the Kenmore cluster. Why? To align it with a more desirable school, I don't know. But in 2003, despite its history of voting down

006levies, Kenmore voted 62% to increase taxes a quarter% to rebuild our schools. Since then, APS has closed four of our seven elementary schools, leaving one school for the northern twothirds of the cluster, Piper Elementary School. In all, from those tax dollars, Kenar got two new elementary schools and a partially renovated middle school. As we watched our beloved As we continue to watch our beloved high school being demolished in front of us, we read that plans to rebuild Pyer and Miller South on that site are in jeopardy. Our question is why? Of course, inflation is a real concern. But why were plans that were voted in on in July of 2023 stalled so long that tariffs are now also an issue? The LFI dollars approved by Akran voters deserve to be used as they were approved

007for the construction and maintenance of schools. There is over double the amount in the budget. Double I see the budget for this school either the planned um all of the plans note 8 to9 million in LFI dollars for this build. There are more than double that amount in the LFI fund as it stands right now. I I it's waiting for the joint board of review to to make a motion and to approve some use of those dollars. But I'm going to tell you as the council member in W 9 representing Kenmore, I will advocate strongly that all of those funds be used toward any shortfall on this project. This project was promised to this community. These children walk to school in our community. the loss of another school will basically send the students that are

008redistricted not only out of our community but out of our district. So, I just ask you to consider that as you think about your motions today. Thank you very much. Thank you, Councilwoman. Is there anyone else that would like to speak generally? Okay, we'll wait until after the presentation. So, first up is our assistant treasurer. [Music] Sorry, Madam Chair. There are some people signed up that might not be speaking on the Miller South, but on the van driver or van contract update. Do do we want to go through the signups or ask them if they want to wait for that update? If they want to wait until an update on the van driver. Yeah, it was understood. They understand. Yeah. Thank you. Good afternoon. I'm Wayne Bowers. I'm one of the assistant treasures in the

009finance department. And after the last uh audit exit conference, Steve asked me to go over the internal access control comments from the state auditors, which I've done with the IT staff. And I'm just going to read you because it's pretty technical. I'm going to read you what we did um so I don't get it a little bit off. But uh they recommended that the district should develop and implement three security administration controls. They said we should require onboarding tickets to identify the specific applications to which employees needs act need access as well as the menus roles and privilege privileges to be assigned within those applications. Uh ro roll role level access is like a um car package. So you have sport and Excel or whatever. So ro access um means in in payroll world that

010if you get super user access you have access to everything and there's varying degrees of that below that. Thank you. Um so we um we reviewed when we establish employees uh role access we review their job class in Munis which is our accounting system to see what they should have. Um the current help desk software we h we currently use does not have an independent field to record the name of the role assigned to an employee. Uh so to address that comment, it has now begun typing that role information into uh free text of the ticket so that it's there. It resides in there, but you can't search for it. Um but that's really all that we can do with this software we have right now. Um the second uh recommendation was that we enforce

011the principle of least privilege user access over all critical systems, which is inherently what we do. we only give out access uh that's needed. So as supervisors request it, they begrudgingly give it to them if it's needed. So we're already doing that. Um but we also um we're also now requiring a help desk ticket. So a help desk ticket is required to set that up. Okay. And now we're also requiring one to change that. So anytime there's an additional access or reduction in access, we we're not requiring that. Um number three was that we perform an annual confirmation of user accounts with management to help ensure financial imperial application level access is appropriate. So sometimes an employee will leave at a building and that information won't get up to us very timely. So, what we're

012going to do is send out an email at the end of each school year and if we don't get a response, start looking into that to see if, you know, is this employee retired? Are they coming back? Just make sure that access is required still. Uh, we also reviewed the payroll related access that's currently granted to all APS employees. So any payroll access that anybody has just to look at it to see if what we what the auditors were telling us is reasonable or not. So if we have 40 people that have access to something is that is that a good number. Um so we did that. So we and we decided to address two specific areas with this. the um the ability to change pay rates and then the ability to change direct deposit

013accounts which are very critical. We don't want people having access to that if they don't need it. So, um the auditors noted that there were 17 staff who technically were able to edit the pain master. They may have that access because they had that payroll super user access, but they didn't really know it because they never got in there. uh we decided that we would reduce that manually down to allow only the nine employees that really need that. That's one in human capital, the seven payroll team and then we don't need to hear all those Mr. Bower. Okay. Thank you. Just keep Okay. And then um the other comment was the auditors also noticed noted that we had 40 accounts with the ability to modify employee deductions which we've reduced down to nine. Great. Thank

014you. continue that we we feel that these modifications will adequately assess the comments from the audience. Thank you very much. Are there any questions from any members of the committee? Any board members? Thank you. No questions. We appreciate it. All righty. We will now have the presentation of our five-year forecast. Dr. Thompson. Hey, thank you, Madam Chair. Um, President Jackson, members of the board, uh, Superintendent Outley. So, the 5-year forecast, um, I'm going to walk us through the through the numbers. This is what I would plan to submit, barring changes between now and the Maya adoption on May 27th. Submit on the morning of May 28th. So, uh, this is what we projected that we started this the fiscal year with 106 million in cash reserves and we're down to 88 million in cash reserves.

015What that is obviously telling us is that we are in deficit spending, but we are not running an overall deficit, but we're spending um roughly $18 million more this fiscal year we have than we actually have received. So where is that money going? The general fund is $365 million. Uh we project those expenditures to be 384 million and that was a net loss of $18,476,000. Where does that come from? 56% from state funding, 39% from local taxes, and then 4% from all other revenue. The projected local taxes we projected at 144. Real estate property 127, public utilities at a little over 16 million, uh projected state funding 205 million, the fair school funding plan 159, and restricted state funding 33 million and state share of local taxes at 13 million. It's for overall uh and

016projected all other revenue at 163. So where do we spend those money? We've talked about this a lot. We know that we spend the majority of our budget on people and that is the very difficult part um is recognizing that we we are a service industry. Uh that's not news to anyone but the large chunk of our finances goes into salaries, workers compensation, health care, retirement etc. our our other um areas where we have spend as purchase services and all other expenditures. And so it makes it very very difficult when you're looking at budget reductions. Uh it becomes all too clear where unfortunately some of these reductions have to live. So personnel cost 310 million. Um, salaries make up 220 million of that, almost 90 million. Okay, they're going to take me out to double

017street, which I appreciate. Um, I'll wait just you can continue. We have our coffees. You can continue. So, so what you're looking at there, Miss Jackson, that goes with the five-year forecast submission. It doesn't necessarily match these slides. That's what I will submit to the state is that packet. Good question. So, um benefits are 80 almost $90 million. Can I hit the next advance? Uh purchase services are about $40 million. Um all their expenditures 35 345 and this is breaks it out. Most of that is in supplies. um capital improvements, debt like for example our cops payment, the payment on this building all is in encompassed in that 34 million transfers in and out 575,000. So from a forecast perspective, what you're looking at right now side by side are is revenue versus expenditures. And

018you can see that that gap gets larger and larger as we go across time. And this is showing us what our projected cash balance is from 2004 all the way to 2029, which the first year that we show a deficit is 2029. We have a we have a policy that says we need to keep at least 60 days, two months in cash uh reserves on hand at all times. And you can see in 2027 we show a deficit or we show 49 days in cash reserves. Um and then of course it proceeds to get worse and worse from that point moving forward. Student enrollment is also a challenge because we're partially most our state funding is based on student enrollment and you can see our student enrollment continues to decline. We had a slight uptick

019in 2024 to 25. That was primarily because a few school districts that surround us uh no longer accepting open enrolled students. This is gives you an idea of what we spend per student and it continues to rise. And that's a simple calculation. Number of students divided by our total general fund and there is your um expense per student. And that breaks down into $111 per day per student. And again, where does where does that support come from? Um, state, federal, business taxes, and then property taxes. So, what you're seeing right now is our November forecast compared to the five-year forecast, which you'll see larger in just a minute. But I would like us to focus right here first. So, how accurate was our November forecast as it relates to what we're forecasting now or where

020we actually ended up? So, we projected revenue at $364 million and it came in at $3659. uh we projected a deficit and expenditures at at $384 million and it came in at $384 million. So our current total revenue is over a forecast by a million dollars or.3% and our expenditures are again a million dollars or.3%. That's pretty darn That's pretty darn good. Uh I wanted to remind the board and the community again of what what does state receiverhip mean? So fiscal caution is triggered when there are early signs of financial issues. That's a little vague. I agree. Uh fiscal watch is not. It's declared when deficits exceed 8% of the general fund revenue. So you just do exactly that. take your take your deficit and multiply it out and see where you stand in terms

021of your total general fund. Once you hit 8% or more, you're in watch. And then 15% or more puts you in fiscal emergency. And uh and these require submission of financial recovery plan. And also what's really important to note on under fiscal emergency that financial planning and supervision commission is established. It replaces the the authority of the board significantly minimizes the authority of the superintendent and treasurer and they will cut us to uh state basic standards in terms of staffing programming etc. and then they'll tell us to go pass a levy. Um I I I I I think that's kind of analogous to, you know, what we're trying to do is do this very surgically, making these reductions as a surgeon would uh versus um making these reductions as if we're a meat cutter, which

022is what it's like from the commission perspective. So our May forecast some of the assumptions first um what we are still looking at is the most recent budget proposal uh from the house bill 96. So it is still subject to change. I will update the forecast in July based on those exact changes. So this is just what we know now. That's what's forecasted. um you'll see a 1.75 wage increase. That is just and I really want to emphasize this. That is just a placeholder and it could be moved up or down, but I need to re be to have a a 5-year forecast that we can use to help guide us. It needs to be as close to realistic as possible. 11%'s our insurance increase for fiscal year 26. That's significantly higher than what we've

023experienced. We have some s serious um catastrophic claims. Um again, and I don't mean to make anyone who might be out there who who in that situation to feel bad about it because we would all uh use our health insurance for our family or ourselves if in need. And unfortunately, we have some folks that are in that particular position right now. And that's um significantly increasing our insurance costs. I go back down to fiscal to 8% in fiscal year 27 through 29. Our advisors believe that this is an anomaly and not something that will continue. There are additional uh which we're going to talk about today. Uh there's an additional $10 million uh over budget for the um Kenmore project. And I think it's also important to note that North is probably not far behind.

024Um and we need to get that project moving as quickly as we can. Uh there are reductions in 10 million and permanent expenditures in fiscal year 26 and the forecast reflects 10 million more cuts in fiscal year 27. Um I do incorporate inflationary growth for our major categories, utilities, all those same things you experience at home. And then 10% growth on property values that could fluctuate. We were at 20% last year. uh we're not anticipating it stay at that level. So, you know, it it is best guess of what will happen in terms of property growth valuations. So, here's your 5-year forecast. If you focus on the bottom number, let's take a look at that ending balance across the bottom. 88 million 80 million. We have the the influx of our full collection in fiscal

025year 26 on our levy that passed. And then you see uh we go 54 million 20 million and we're in deficit in fiscal year 29. Obviously we are levy eminent and the board will have to address when that is uh at the board's when at the board's discretion. above in the red is telling you how much we're spending above revenue collections and obviously ex it exacerbates itself over the course of time. So right here is when I believe that we would hit fiscal watch or excuse me fiscal watch then and that that that um is or excuse me caution that is 7% that 25 million almost 26 million is 7% of our general fund. Then we go into um fiscal watch and then we go into fiscal emergency if all things stay the way they

026are. Clearly we won't let that happen. Um but that is the challenge and I don't want to under emphasize it but I also want the board and community to understand comparatively speaking compared to the other major districts in the state of Ohio we're in better shape than most. Um, this is a problem that is impacting school districts, suburban, urban, across the state of Ohio because in this forecast under House Bill 96, we're minus $44 million in state funding that we had predicted previous to that. That was part of the Fair School Funding Act, which is uh not not being honored at this point. So you put $44 million back in this forecast and it looks very different. So some recommendations moving forward. Um we're recommending that we conduct a staffing audit conducted by the Ohio

027Department of Education and work force. uh that is free. And what it does, it will line up every job category in the district and compare those numbers to like school districts all the way from how many administrators you have to how many um custodians you have to tutors AC across the board. And that'll give us a really independent um objective view of where we stand from a staffing perspective. uh requests a fiscal audit by the auditor of the state. And that's different than a regular audit that Wayne addressed uh just a few minutes ago. And thank you for doing that by the way, by the way, Wayne, and taking care of that and leading that charge. But this is not an audit of are we spending our money out of the right box and into

028the right category or GAP funding or GAP uh audit procedures or any of those things. That's not what it is. This is getting into how effectively we're spending our money. So, it gives us a much better view of uh and potentially and hopefully ways to reduce spending that we're not seeing. Um so, it's an outside party to help us do that. There is a cost associated with that. Roughly about $35,000 to have that audit conducted. We know that we need to reduce staffing positions across all job codes. Uh reduce overtime expenditures and we're working very hard to do that. Uh but of course as you reduce staff, the work doesn't get reduced. So that that's that's a challenge when you're in a reduction to make sure that uh we don't just shift it from a

029full-time person into overtime for everyone else. utilize our position our position control process to monitor all positions. We need to every position that comes open we have to take a hard look at it and really make a informed choice about whether that position needs to be filled or not filled. Travel is another issue that's been out there. A lot of the travel is uh is grant funded but not all of the travel is grant funded. And we're going to uh put that through a control process to make sure that we are conducting the professional development that we need in order to be an effective school district, but at the same time reducing everywhere we can. Um conduct an audit of all educational programs across the district to find out are we are we getting a

030return on that? Is this program that we spend x amount of money is it is it effective? Is it is it the most effective? Is it uh something that we believe we want to continue moving forward? Conduct a software audit and we we have or we may have redundant packages. If we do, let's eliminate those packages. And then the a very difficult one is to study our footprint. We have 44 buildings now. 35 are are CLC's and that becomes a challenge. Um, House Bill 110 says that if we have two schools under 60% capacity, they could be taken over by a charter. Now, in House Bill 96, they address what they would have to pay, which is significantly less than what it was previously. And House Bill um 96 also is addressing uh what constitutes

031or what is the measurement for capacity. Um I honestly think it's a disservice to specifically urban school districts because they have a one-sizefits-all. Uh but the urbans typically carry more uh students on um IEPs and more students with significant needs. And obviously just being larger causes that as well. Where we might have a series of classrooms that only have three or four or five kids in it, they don't account for that. So that really puts the sque It it isn't that we're not using our school building, it's just we're not using it um exactly the way uh the OFCC says or measures it and that Dr. Johnson. Are there any questions from members of the committee or members of the board? I have two questions. Member Harrison. Thank you Madam Chair. Um, I have two

032questions. Um, you recommended a staffing audit. Um, do we have any idea when the last staffing audit was done? I not aware that there's ever been a staffing audit done. I'm not sure. I I can't really answer that question. Deborah probably could. Okay. Um, reduce staffing across job codes. M um I I I don't see in here a hiring freeze if we're going to reduce um is that a recommendation? Is that not feasible? is that well the the uh in discussion with our team the decision was that language and that's because let's say for example and it was a very good point um a student moves into the district that requires um a specific type of teacher on an IEP for example or a student moves into a district and we have 16 to1 ratios

033with our special ed teachers and moves in puts us at 17. That's going to require the creation of a new position. Um, so that's I think that's in part and parcel. And did you want to add anything to that, Mary? Excuse me. Uh, Dr. Thompson. Yeah, my bad. Thank you, Madam Superintendent. Would you like to add anything to that? Uh, Dr. Thompson is accurate. our team was discussing we have to keep certain ratios especially with our uh students with disabilities. So to put a cap on it we would be breaking the law. So we didn't want to say a freeze but that we would analyze each position as it becomes available or the need for positions. We would run them through this position control process to ensure it is indeed needed. Madam Chair, can I

034follow up? Member Harrison, and I was specifically not speaking of student teacher ratios. I'm talking about support positions that that's, you know, is that included because I I understand legally we're obligated to to provide the things that we're legally obligated to provide, right? Um, but I'm talking about support positions. You know, when you're when you're spending $18 million more than you're bringing in, I think that answers the question. I think it's very difficult to do to create new positions. Um, now there could be some reasons. For example, um you could be at a building where we're spending more on overtime because they can't keep up because we cut it too deep, for example, where it it might be more cost effective to actually hire someone and bring someone in versus allowing uh or creating a

035situation where we can't reduce the overtime. So, that that would be an exception. For example, are there any additional questions? Member Moar. Thank you, Madam Chair. Um, following up on the staffing audit, I am going to ask about the fiscal audit. Do we know when the last fiscal audit was? I saw that that was about you or heard I wrote down in my notes, it's about $35,000. And then my question for each of those or both of those, are these what we would expect from the results of a stake state takeover? Are these the audits that would be run or have similar results or Thank you. Yeah. they that the only reason I know about them I mean they're very uncommon they do occur they do occur and some school districts bring them in but

036in a previous district where I worked we did fall into fiscal caution and fiscal watch and those things were required um and I found them to be pretty helpful in making decisions moving forward um so that's where I learned it but I doubt this district has ever done either because they're not required. Now, an an audit's done every single year, but it's not a fiscal audit. Thank you, Madam Superintendent. Thank you, Madam Chair. I just if I may go back to um member Harrison as well. Um I would like to wait to use the terminology freeze also until after we conduct our audit because it could help us with reorganizing our district to become more efficient and if we put a freeze then that would you know put a freeze and it would it could

037be counterproductive. Thank you. Any other questions from any members? President Jackson. Thank you. Thank you, Madam Chair. Um, just a few questions that I have. who should lead these charges concerning a audit on the systems and resources we're using, software, um, and the other areas that you mentioned because I recall, um, speaking this to you before about as far as some audits of the things that we use that we may not need to use and how can we do like a clearing house, a professional audit. And so since it was never done and now you're recommending it um at this point I'm just curious as to who where should the expectation because many of these things that you uh said may be required I know that I have asked that they be done and so

038I'm wondering in a meeting like this so who's the part where who should be facilitating that once it's said in this meeting and the board is in agreement if these these things need to be done so we can move um for the recommendations. I'm just is it the treasurer department? Where should we see this happening at? Who should be leading like the followup? Well, my recommendation is that it comes from the superintendent's office. Okay. But the superintendent delegates that to those directors. She would delegate to me that you know, Steve, can you lead the fiscal audit? Uh it Dr. Hodo, can you you know those re those people can lead it. It just needs to be the follow. Okay. Yeah. Thank you. You're welcome. And then just to back so the 44 million as a

039result of the uh fair school funding issue is why that we're not seeing alignment with the original forecast that stated that we should be by 2029 be somewhere about decreasing about 16 to about 16 million right now instead of in a deficit. Right? Because but that was also based off 24 million in cuts, right? Well, I had adjusted that back of course, but the the majority of those cuts would have certainly been impactful and helped us, but the major the major reason that it's flipped so much in 29 is because of the House Bill 96 before that that 44 million that's missing. Okay. And then the corrective action plan you're saying is these audits like to do some of these audits to kind of see is one of the ways we can go about Yeah.

040I I think it's a first step. You know, you get the audit back and then you've got to use the audit and take action based on what the audit says. It it it's just a tool to help make difficult decisions. Thank you. Okay. Any additional question? Thank you, Dr. Thompson. Of course, I just say that House Bill 96 is the state budget. Yes. That's the state budget. All right. Thank you. If there's no additional Oh, member Hall. Thank you, Madam Chair. Just a quick question. You said it would cost about $35,000. This is not something that we can do in-house. Well, I I mean, we we do do it in we do it in house in terms of a 5-year forecast for sure, but the advantage of a of an outside um state auditor's office

041is they have the a lot more resources than we do and it's independent. So, you know, what they come back and say is not the opinion of Steve or Wayne or anybody else in the finance department, but rather it is um subject matter experts who do this for a living. That's why I would recommend I I I I would almost guarantee you that the audit will more than pay for itself. Just a followup, Madam Chair. Yes. Thank you. But okay, so if we do the five-year forecast, which is huge, right? That's our overall budget. We're competent to do it in house. To do an audit of every single department in house would save us from spending 35,000, right? It could. It could. And we have done or could we h I'm sorry. No. Go ahead.

042[Music] Um I'm just looking at because we're we're talking about reducing costs, but then we're like, let's spend $35,000. So, I mean, if we were to do it in house and maybe utilize a system that's available to us, that may not cost as much. That that's a understood. Okay. Uh, Madam Superintendent, and we I can move on. Uh just briefly, we would request this independent audit to be done and we could use our uh educational service uh center subsidy to cover the fee. Um so that what we're trying to do is be proactive. You heard that once we get to um fiscal emergency, the state will come in and make the cuts for us. So, we're trying to be proactive in this independent study to look at what additional cuts we could make that we

043may have missed, but to see from an independent view what what additional reductions we can make. So, we can use some um funds that would not impact a general fund if it would be approved by the board. Thank you, Madam Superintendent. So what you're saying madam superintendent is that these recommendations even though they're coming from our treasurer that you have looked at the at the all of these recommendations and you have discussed these recommendations with the treasurer. Yes, that is correct and I support these and we thought about putting it under superintendent and treasurer recommendations. So they are from both of us. Okay. Thank you. It's good to know. Thank you. Alrighty. So, uh, in looking at our five-year forecast, we also have to look at our personnel and reductions. And so, uh, Mrs. Carter,

044would you make a presentation on that, [Music] please? So, I don't have any of that. Thank you, mayor. She's so loud. This is the item. I um shared this with you at the last finance meeting, the itemized list. There have been some um modifications as it relates to some of the positions that the superintendent is recommending for a reduction in force. And so you will see um two positions that were removed, one from technology and one from facilities as it relates to the reduction in force. also um as relates to the action um there's been some modifications as it relates to what's going to be happening. So for instance, if you look at the second line where it says content supervisor, um basically we are going to look at um reducing that position because of

045retirement and we're also going to look at transferring funds to part B for that first position. ition there when it comes to special ed um a coordinator position. Um and those are basically the only changes. Oh, no. Take that back. If you look down at the bottom, if you flip your page and on the back, you can see we added some additional positions. um we removed the uh hub position which is a STEM position that we're supposed to have if since we have STEM schools you have to have that hub position. So um Superintendent Outley removed that position and replaced it with some administrator positions down at the bottom if you turn your page on the second page on the back. Um, and one of the ways that uh we're going to be reducing the

046budget from general funds is she's going to be using some ESC funds to help with support some part-time administrators um as it relates to transferring funds and to help with the budget um savings. And those were the only changes from the last time. Thank you, Mrs. Carter. Any questions from the committee and or members of the board? President Jackson. Thank you, Madam Chair. And I'll be brief just for the teaching and learn learning the content uh supervisor. Can you what was the terminology you used for that position? What is happening with that? Oh um the person is retiring. Yeah. Right. And um so that's just a saving in itself. But at first we we had there that uh we're going to be moving some of we're going to be covering some of that cost. We

047actually the number increased and the reason why it increased is because a portion of that is going to be covered by um a different account which is the ESC funds because um trying to explain this because I see if I'm just someone I want so I I think I'm understanding with the special education coordinator that you're transferring funds from part B so I'm clear on that to help yes to mitigate that. Yes. But this retirement, I thought you used the term that we're it's going to be a savings because the person was no longer going to be in that role. Correct. She's not she's not going to be in that role. And Okay. And so when it's a saving, then does that mean it gets removed from the budget? If we're already looking at a

048deficit, are we totally removed? Correct. It was 86. It was 86,000, but we were able to find additional funds to cover a project that's going to be happening when she comes back. And so 12,000 was added on to this to bump it up to 98,000 because we don't need to use general fund to cover this special project that's going to be happening. So that number actually went up from 86 to 98. Okay. So all right. So, it's still gonna be That's what I'm saying. When I It's still a savings. I was just saying it's a it's it's going to look different from the other, but it's still in our budget is what I'm asking. No, it's all right. That's what I It's not in our general fund budget, but it's going to be in a

049this amount of money right here. The retirement takes care of that. Like that. Yeah, she's retired. So, it's out of our budget. Correct. That's what I'm ask. So I'm saying like if it's a budget, I was paying this fee. I'm no longer going to pay this fee. So I'm saying I'm removing it completely out of the budget that it's not being accounted for, not save for another position later to be reallocated. It's moved. Correct. Okay. That's that. Thank you. That I wanted to know that. And I I want to go back to I know you heard me when I asked the treasurer because originally it said that um when we were doing our four five-year forecast that we had $24 million in planned reductions in plan reductions. So now when we come with these these

050bud these reductions, one of the things too at that time it was saying we had uh resource allocation that we were focusing on resource allocation in some type of capacity um and that we were prioritizing instructional services with that reallocation. So, I wanted to say that because with the special I see the transfer of funds with the special education coordinator and I'm just want to clarify that that's one position. Yes. Okay. And so for the other cuz I know we were talking about some other riffs and I I'm just trying to see where would that be reflected in this like which other when we were talking about the cut the special ed cuts like have we there are corrective action are you are you referring to the second section under college and careermies oh yeah

051that would be where it says special education yes so Um no I'm talking about the where it says divisionmies I mean academics and then department CCAA those two positions are intervention specialist positions are you referring to that I'm yeah under there where it says academic special education division department it has $572,000 and then build under it says building closure building closure you see it's like on the first page Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. And it has four teachers, four pair of professionals. Yes. I'm I'm asking because even though the this building closures, the students still go somewhere. I'm just trying to see how can I visualize where these bodies are going since I know we're short already pair professionals that special. That's my question. Like where are they being reassigned or

052they being cut? Nobody's being Nobody's being um Nobody's being cut. The building was closed and so they're being reassigned to other places. Okay. You see what I'm saying? Yeah. Yeah. And the reason why is because we have we had openings and we had some ELP classes that had substitute teachers. That's what I want to answer. Yes. because in our last meeting when we were talking about this and there were it was a a deficit and we were talking about cutting. So I think with the building closure it's important to see that they're going to have positioning and you answer my question. Thank you Miss Carter. Thank you member Hall. Actually did she answer? Did she answer it? Madam Chair. Yes. Yes. It was about the uh special education teachers. So Harris I'm I'm just curious

053because I I'm getting a little confused. So when we look at this, some of these positions that show a dollar amount, we're actually not realizing that dollar amount off the budget. It's being transferred to another fund. So the these are off the budget. Off the general fund budget. Yes. Off the general fund, but they're not going to any other budget, I guess, is what I'm asking. Some will be transferred. Hold on, Madam Superintendent. An example, and we may need Deborah Faulk to come up, but an example is um under the division business affairs, there's another department that uh has funds that are not out of the general fund. So, she's going to absorb that cost for us for one year to cover this position. So, if it doesn't So, that's what that transfer of fund

054means. is going to child nutrition that has their own funds. They are not part of our general fund. So, they're picking up the cost that 97,000 is leaving the general fund and it's going to the child nutrition line item. That's their own funding source. They're their own funding source. Does that make sense? The other ones, if you do not see a transfer, that means it's coming direct. It's a savings to the general fund. Thank you. Thank you, Madame Superintendent. Mrs. Carter, any additional questions? All right. Thank you very much. We're going to move on to now the middle south uh Piper. Oh, I'm sorry. One of our signups was on this topic. Do we have a sign up on that topic? Yes. Is this Kathleen Durkin? Yes. Yes. Thank you. Welcome. Good afternoon. Thank you

055for this opportunity to speak. My name is Kathleen Durkin and I serve as the district's lead consulting teacher. I want to discuss with you uh the district's contractual uh peer assistance and review program. It's a program built around mentoring developed by the state and adopted by Akan public schools 13 years ago. It might just save us some money. This program was designed as an essential addition for mentoring and supporting new teachers throughout their crucial first year in the district and has been overwhelmingly successful. As we know, teaching is not just a job. It is a calling. Yet, for many new teachers, the first year can be overwhelming. They often face challenges that can lead to burnout and ultimately choose to leave the profession. This is where the peer assistance and review program comes in. By

056providing the mentorship and support, we can ensure our new teachers have the tools, guidance, and confidence they need to thrive. While this program is an investment in the district, I urge you to consider the long-term implications of not investing in our new teachers. Almost every board meeting, you are seeing numerous educators resign or retire from the district. The financial losses are accumulating dramatically. On average, it costs the district between 20 and $30,000 for each teacher that departs. This figure represents not just the financial investment for every teacher who departs. This represents their training, but also the cost associated with recruiting and onboarding. every new hire. We currently have 120 vacancies across the district. We need to examine this issue closely. Imagine how our resources could be better utilized if we focused on supporting retention instead

057if we focused on supporting instead of replacing teachers. By honoring the peer assistance and review program, we can diminish turnover rates. Research shows that new teachers are more likely to stay in their positions with effective mentoring. A supportive environment fosters satisfaction and growth leading to stronger, more stable workforce. Just as important, we must consider our students. Each time a teacher leaves, especially in an urban district, the impact on students is profound. Studies indicate that when a replacement underqualified teacher leaves the classroom, you can finish your statement. You can finish your sentence, but but just no. Every time a uh a student is left, this is a profound invest impact on their education leading up to a loss of 32 to 72 days of instruction. Thank you. Appreciate your comments. So now we're going to ask

058Dr. Thompson and um madame superintendent if you would give us the presentation on Miller South and uh Fifer building project update please. Madam Chair, I would request Steve Keenan join me if that's okay. I'm not advancing. Is the presentation by the superintendent and and the treasurer? Well, we Okay. Okay. Well, I would like to say that I'm forwarding this. There we go. Okay. So, as we as we stated earlier, we know that the Miller South South Piper project is uh roughly $10 million over budget. You've heard different numbers. You've heard 13. You've heard different numbers. So, I want to make sure that um we clarify that. But we also wanted to present some options and we have three options or recommendations. That certainly doesn't mean you're obligated as a board to any one of the

059three. Uh and it doesn't mean there there aren't better ones out there, but this is what we have um put together. One is to simply construct the Miller South and Piper project as planned. That's an option for sure. um current funding for Miller South and Piper. I wanted to make sure we're all on the same page. So, in 2023, the budget was put together by our architects at $63 million that included $40 million of cops certificates of participation. That's a lowinterest loan that we're paying on right now. Uh and we have those $40 million on hand. $15 million in ESSER. We did move 30 million of ESSER into the general fund, earmarking 15 million for the project. The other 15 million is in the general fund, has been absorbed by the general fund. And then

060$8 million um in LFI money, locally funded initiative. This was dollars that the OFCC projects, all the CLC's, you can only when you're working with the state, you can only do so many things to a building. So, if you want a theater, for example, the state won't pay for that. So, that's why you have LFI money that helps offset some of those things that you want or that you may even need, but was not funded by the state. So currently at this at that point um as Miss Boyce uh uh uh referenced those dollars were at about $16 million and our early conversation with the previous mayor was those dollars would be split. The current estimated projected budget has changed and grown to 76 million. So there's your $13 million increase. So why am I

061saying $10 million shortfall? There's $42 million in cops now from our investments. Now, what we have to watch is arbitrage. So, we we we we're going to need to begin to start spending that those cops dollars to prevent uh arbitrage, which is a basically a fine for to prevent a school district or a public entity from going out and taking out a lowinterest loan, investing it, and making money off of it. That's not what they want to occur. 15 million in ESSER. The LFI dollars are now at $18 million. Obviously, if we were to get the whole amount, uh that would change the the outlook of this budget, but as it stands right now, um I'm only budgeting for half that amount. So, that would mean $10 million would have to come from the general

062fund to construct the project as is. U so we wanted to give you some options as well. Uh construct the Miller South and redistrict Pyer students to existing CLC's which would be a closure of Pyer but not replacement of Pyer. So, the estimated project savings, and you got to kind of bear with me through this on this one, is about $15 million uh savings on the overall project. So, what we're looking at right now, Whoops. I don't know what just happened. Okay, I think I'm okay. Okay. So, currently there are 189 students enrolled in Pyer. You can see the capacity and the utilization rates of Sam Salem, Rhymer, and Mickey Brightite. So, right there is Pyer. You can see the red circle. Um Sam Salem, Rhyr, and and Mickey Brightite. So those students in this

063plan would be redistrict to those schools. Now what I what what I have requested and still have not yet received but we should have this week is a scattergram of where are these kids and where would they go and what would that do to capacity of Sam Salem, Rhymer and Mickey Brightite. Um, so, um, Miss Al Outley's and I have had conversations. We're aware that there could potentially be a need to move programming. That that's a possibility so that we could make sure we stay under capacity uh, for those buildings. What you're looking at right now, and I'll be very brief with this, but it is a rendering of what the Miller South building would look like on the Kenmore campus. the the view on the right is the first floor and the view on

064the left is the second floor with a lot of those academic pieces coming um on the second floor. Uh second option to consider, well, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Second option budget-wise, 63 million was the budget, $42 million in cops, $12 million in Esser. I highlight that because the original budget was 15 million, $9 million in LFI. So that's a general fund savings of $3 million. It's a $15 million savings on the project, but going back to the general fund would only be $3 million. A third option, Miller South relocated to Lichfield. This requires an addition to Lichfield. I know they walked Lichfield today um to get a cursory understanding of that. And I'll turn that over to Mary if you want to address that your walk through. Thank you. Uh I'm sorry. I am so

065sorry. I'm sorry. Have you finished your presentation? Yes. Okay. Yes, ma'am. Okay. So, um this requires an addition to Lichfield and uh would redistrict the PI for students and current funding for this project, the 23 budget, I'm going to get this right one of these soon, is 63 million. 40 million in cops, 15 million in ESSER, 8 million in LFI funds. the proposed Lichfield edition. And this could vary because we we need to find out what would need to be constructed. We know there's a there's a gap there of certainly could could capacity wise can take more students. We know that. But to the extent, I'm not 100% sure at this point. $45 million would be the budget for this build. That would be $42 million in cops, $3 million in ESSER money. And of

066that 45 million, 5 million of it is demo of other sites. So your build budget's 40 million. 5 million for um construct for uh demo. So what does that budget look like? 45 million would put 21 million back in general fund savings if we were to do this project. Thank you, Dr. Thompson. Madam superintendent, I believe this may also be the time we wanted to talk about the north. Yeah. Uh I believe that's why um Mr. Keenan was uh requested to come up, but I have some information I would like to share with the board in addition so we can finish out this piece and then I can give you an update also that will impact the five-year forecast based on a change in our north dynamics. There was not a slide prepared for that.

067Uh so not to confuse the issue, I would rather that we go through this go through I agree what's happening. Yes. With Miller South. Yes. Yeah. That's the conclusion. That's the conclusion. There are three options that we would like to present. One, the first option is asis. move forth with the building of both Miller South and Piper on the Kimmore campus or move forth with the building project with just a focus on Miller South on the Kimmore campus or moving the uh Kimmore the Miller South build to uh Lichfield. Those are the three options that we're presenting today for your consideration and then we can field any questions you have and then come back to the full board meeting to field any additional questions. Okay. Any questions from board members or members of the committee?

068Thank you madam chair. I I don't have a question. I just want to make a statement that not too long. Not too long. The three options are options that um we are seeing for the first time. So it's really hard to digest or ingest these um options. Okay. President Jackson. Yes. So in the third option was to move Miller South to Lichfield. What does that do for the Piper? What there would be no build for PER? Okay. Thank you. So two options involve no building for a piper. Option two and three. Thank you. Any additional questions? No additional questions. Thank you. So, we have a number of of individuals here in the audience that want to make statements that as it relates to this presentation. Um, member Mullen. Um, I believe is it Robert? I'll

069call all three names and I don't know if all three names are for this item or for other upcoming items, but the three names that we have are Brandy Vickers, Andrea Morton, and Robert Lions. Okay. You do not want to make any statements. Yours on the next one. Okay. Thank you. All right. Right. So, if there's no additional questions, I still I would also just kind of say to the audience as a whole that this is our first time as a board hearing uh the recommendation from the administration. So, we will continue to review get feedback from the community of course uh before I think we can make any statements one way or the other. All righty. we will move on to um the resolution for the bond. So this is a resolution for the

070bond. It's approval of $30 million in bond anticipation notes or ban. This is dollars for the north project. These are voted dollars, but um we need to sell those bonds and um and on July 7th and 8th would be a public offering for those bonds. Uh July 23rd, the pricing would be set on the sale of those bonds and then August 13, we would receive those funding. So obviously you understand the need to move these project and move them as quickly as we possibly can and this will give us the resources to begin uh doing just that. So there is a uh resolution that the board has to approve at the next board meeting in order to execute this. Okay. Any questions from the committee or members of the board? Member Hall. Thank you madam

071chair. When we talk about selling bonds, we have to buy those bonds back, right? Eventually, or we're just completely selling the bonds and getting the funding. We we make a it essentially works just like a bank, except instead of a bank loaning us the money, a whole large group of investors are investing their dollars and they're buying it at a certain interest rate. So, they might buy X number of bonds for three and a half%. So during the course of this um us paying this back over the course of 35 years they're making three and a half% on their investment. So those invest so we we will get a set dollar amount that we have to pay um like a mortgage payment every year until this is until this um debt is paid in full.

072Follow. Yes. So when we sell these bonds, are we getting enough money to just do North or are you getting enough money to help sustain our district and all? No, this is strictly for North High School. Nothing else. Can't be used for anything else. Thank you. You're welcome. Any additional questions, committee, members of the board? Thank you. So the recommendation you're making that we move this on to the regular agenda for Monday's board. Yes, ma'am. Okay. Thank you, Dr. Thompson. All right. Next up is transportation building improvements. Good evening, chairman, co-chairman, members of the board, superintendent. Um, I am here to present a proposition that is to improve the building improvements for the transportation complex. A quick history about this particular location. We obtained this property from Summit County in 1931. The current buildings on

073this property were built in 1965. So therefore, these particular buildings are 60 years old. And we have certainly tried to maintain them over those past several years. We've had effects of the Route 8 bridge project that came to notice in 2019 and we have had to adjust this property for the transportation complex between 2020 and 22 and now we need some additional support for 2025. Uh the first part of the phase one is we replace the fuel tank upgrades because we have below ground tanks. They could no longer be grounded underneath because they were not buster compliant with the EPA. The second part was done. We removed this old storage barn. Several of you may remember we had one uh horse barn there from 1931 and the dog pound which reverted to us after Summit

074County left the property in order to realign the bus parking. Phase three was the construction of the new storage barn which went from the 500 East North Street property which is transportation is now located behind the uh distribution complex at 550 and the agreement was with ODOT related to the bridge. This includes an actual uh piece of property that they now have purchased from us and we hold up one of the main stansions on the west side. So, it uh really did seek to uh alter the property. We are seeking to approve and we currently have the funding in the transportation complex to service the man doors, the overhead garage doors, the building windows, the masonry block repair, replacement of concrete and frost slabs. I have included just so that for some of you who

075have may may not be down there or have ever visited exactly where the bridge is located exactly to this property. As you can see, the first one is to show you the above ground tanks and the bridge behind it. The second picture to the right is the bus bays that keep the orthopedic buses housed. The rest um on the lower left are the bay doors for all the services and maintenance areas. We park currently 30 buses of our fleet inside the building. And then again, we gave you another location. If you will notice in the u hang on a minute, I just I love this thing. Let's go here. There we go. Um this is the condition of the man doors that are overhead doors. These rails are original to the building. They are now

07660 years old. These are the doors that the buses go in and out of every day. These also include structural con uh content that is no longer actually stable. And we had these doors evaluated under a recent evaluation. They are not only not compatible. We have motors that are leaking oil. We have motors that do not operate correctly to take these up and down. We have several original building windows that have asbestous caulking that should be removed and we are asking to move this forward to uh help support this. I did want to advise the board that transportation support from ODU does come into the transportation department through the state foundation that you get regular student transport and special ed transport. I provided you the funding we received in 24 for regular ed and currently

077two 25 up to uh April 18th as well as special ed. So we do bring in money. It does not cover the whole operation, but the state does do some funding. And as this is a mandated requirement that we transport, we should consider keeping our assets safe, secure, and maintained in the proper manner. And I would like consideration to put this recommendation before from you towards the meeting on the 27th. Thank you. Thank you. Are there any questions from the committee members or members of the board? Member Moar. Thank you. Um, so you said the recommendation is coming on the meeting on the 27th. Sorry, I'm trying to scroll through the slides here. And by the way, I appreciate all of these publicly available slides. Um, is the cost? Uh, the cost was not. I

078apologize. Uh the cost is $452,000. So we already had put into the budget $200,000 for bridge improvement or building improvements. We were able to save an additional $260,000 on the bus radio um repairs that went in this year. So there is currently uh FY25 funding available to cover the cost of this project in the budget for the transportation department. Member Hall, I'm sorry. That's just confusing there. Okay. So, for this whole entire project is uh $452,000. Yes. You have 2,000 for the bridge improvement already secured somewhere. I have $200,000,000 in the building improvement funding line and transportation. So, and we I'm sorry, we saved $260,000 out of the bus replacement radio over that was planned. It came in much lower than anticipated for FY25. Okay. So, how much are you asking the board to approve?

079The recommendation included in the 20 uh August 20, I'm sorry, May 27th meeting is 452,000 coming out of already existing FY25 budget. Okay. To hopefully repair. The other part that I didn't uh I would like to update you on is also we have been advised by ODOT that the bridge replacement will go into its next phase in December. It will be the implosion of the bridge which will actually bring it down through an implosion process and they will be monitoring the the property for seismic activity all the way through. And since some of these particular items are now original to the building, we can't repair them. We can't get parts. So to do the repair, we would be able to have new parts and have them under warranty should something occur. Member Harrison. Um thank

080you, Madam Chair. Um, I guess this is more to um I'm not sure how we save money when we don't have money, but the um the issue of bringing a project to us and asking us to re to approve it at the next board meeting, I just don't think is feasible. So, there's a lot of questions on this. So, um I I do understand that. I was asked to look and I did do this review if it could be taken apart in sections and do only a certain part at a time. It will only come in more expensive doing it that way. And we wanted just to make sure that we could align it with the update to the implosion of the bridge going to into effect in December of 25. And we did not

081get that notification uh until recently that that's the plan date. So, it did take us time to look these over to get them scrutinized as to what would occur and this is the time in which we could gather the information to make the construction repairs that are needed to a building that is 60 years old. Thank you. Madam Superintendent, did you want to add something? I did. I I also had some questions for um Mrs. Faul and that's why I asked her to bring the presentation here. So the only other thing is um if we delay the project it will have to get done and sort of like the building project the longer we wait the more expensive the project will become. So, right now it's at 400 and $52,000. And so, we can and

082it's fine for the board to delay the project, but there are things that will break that have broken that will need to be replaced. And it's just a matter of when will we do it. And if we do it in parts and pieces, again, it'll cost a little bit more than what's being proposed right now. Just wanted to make sure you understood that. Thank you. Are there any additional questions, comments? President Jackson. Thank you, Madam Chair. So, I this is a clarif a clarifying question that I have. Um, I understand that you stated it will be $452,000 for repairs. You also stated that from a v from we had $200,000 um that's already from a building repair project that's identified for this. We have a building improvement funding line and transportation that was funded at

083$200,000 for FY25 that that can be applied towards this. Yes. Is what I thought I heard. That is correct. Okay. So, I'm thinking when you I hear you say that that then I can subtract $200,000 from your $452,000. Is that not correct? That is absolutely correct. And the two the resulting $252,000 was in a funding line in the transportation budget for bus radio replacement. It came in under cost and we currently have unencumbered funds 260,000 in that FY25 line which could be allocated to the building improvement line to allow this to move forward. Thank you, Miss Faulk. I just like to ask my questions in steps. I'm sorry. Thank you. And so I understand from the 452,000 we can subtract the 200,000. And then my next question is what you asked about what you just

084mentioned about a saving from another transportation project of about 260. Yes ma'am. 260,000. Then I'm unclear as to follow up on member Hall's question when she asks what then is your ask for the board's approval? Are we are you is it coming before the board to ask that money be moved from these other funds to be used for this project? That's where I'm unclear. Uh the request was to have a business affairs recommendation for the vendor that is the winning bidder to be engaged and approved to do this project with the purchase order to be taken out of the FY25 budget in transportation. Okay. For those two the two lines. Yes. Great. And then madam chair lastly um how many estimates did we receive for the work? We actually got three and which is your

085board's policy is a minimum of three and this is a buying group that we belong to and those three walked every part of the building and this is the least cost and most cost effective for the replacement that we're requesting. Thank you Miss Fog. Thank you madam chair. Okay. Thank you madam president. Uh, member Hall. Thank you, Madam Chair. Just one quick question. You showed pictures about the doors and things like that that are 60 years old because you park some of the buses inside the building. Yes. Um, if we could not vote on this, is it an issue or a problem parking the buses outside? We already have of your fleet, uh, 30 are parked inside. Um, and the rest are parked outside already. So, right. So, the additional fleet that's inside, could that

086come outside? Um, it is not necessary. You really want your orthopedic buses to be inside because of the types of apparatuses they have for wheelchair students getting in and out. And as many buses that we can park inside make it easier for them to be serviced and gone out and when they're parked overnight because we really don't have enough property to park every bus outside. That's why we've been making these re renovations as this bridge project moved forward. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. One final question here. I see under the uh um presentation that Mrs. Carter made that there are some recommendations for layoffs and under business affairs. Are you saying that none of these funds could be used to save a job? To save which job? Oh. Um, we saved a Oh, I

087see what you're saying. These funds were allocated. Otherwise, transportation doesn't have any offerings of jobs at this point because we need the number of people that we employ to transport our students. But are you do you have any recommended layoffs in your department? We had the warehouseman that was in the purchasing department and it's already been reallocated and will be the person that is working now in the child nutrition and it will come out of 06 and not O1 and those were the amount of people that we had already taken because we have rightsized all of these departments over a number of years um as it was taken down. As an example, the warehouse used to have 12 people in it. it now has five. Child nutrition's office is down to one account clerk and

088different uh things that happen depending on those departments. We do have another one coming out should the RFI go through and that is the supervisor for property management and that one will not be replaced. Okay. Any additional questions, comments? Okay. Thank you. So, we want to move on to transportation van drivers contract. Yes. Um, I have an update on this RFP that everybody knows has been on the street. Um, we issued the RFP as noticed to the board on the 25th of March. We had vendor responses due on April the 4th. We were very fortunate. We had 18 vendor responses. 16 were determined to be correct responses. We had two alternate proposals. The first round of review of all these responses occurred with the internal team on April 21st. The APS team then reviewed the

089additional information that was needed that we sought that vendors needed to provide on April 25th and that second review came on May 1st. We narrowed those down to an eight top listing and those third uh eight were reviewed again after their last question that came in and we uh had a 100 point scale that we developed with legal counsel. 60 points was price 15 points up up to or 15 points were the number of vehicles in use by each vendor. up to 15 points was the experience of fleets of at least 10 bands or drivers. The inclusion of driver compliance programs could earn up to five in conduct and performance on previous contracts was up to five. And we also check the references to see if the vendors had done school transport as noted in

090their response. We currently have these eight top rent vendors that we have done by ranking uh from one to eight as noted on the slide and we have Smart Ride Global Emanual Ventures, Divine Investment, Templeton Transportation, Buckeye Logistics and Transit LLC, UTC Transit LLC, FM Transportation LLC, and Collaborative Student Transportation. We wanted to remind everybody that we do approximately 1,400 students using a contracted student support transport. APS could need travel support for a number of vendors that will be consolidated to service these students by cluster and this consolidation transport into areas would be easily allowed to assist with time of travel of students. Cluster assignments should this go forward would be determined by the transportation services department and at re once they are reviewed by residential location because these are usually home pickups and home

091stops. So we are requesting at the meeting of the 27th a resolution to authorize us to seek offering service contracts to excuse me the eight vendors listed uh as ranked uh as a response to this RFP. Thank you. Thank you. Any questions from members of the committee or members of the board? Member Harris. Um when we're looking at the vendor responses. Yes. Let me let me just say we do have a number of individuals that's here to speak on this particular item. So I think before the board members, let's let's ask ask the public. Thank you. Uh for their comments. So Brandy Vickers, thank you. Welcome Miss Vic Victor computer. I think I messed your presentation. Okay. Um I guess well my first question would be what I would like to know in the bidding

092process what is considered to be responsive because if her presentation says that we're transporting 1,400 students a vendor with 10 vans is not effective. Um and I am a vendor. My my my company is offering 118 vans. 118 vans. Each van driver servicing 12 students a day is servicing 1418 students. So I'm under the impression or I guess I'm confused as to why we would need eight vendors. um this administration when they spoke with you all last year it was about recommendations mandates um and that they wanted to cut one check that it was too much manpower and transportation and in the treasurer's office it was taking 80 hours. So, in my opinion, eight vendors is still kind of doing the same thing because they're still going to require to be checking student attendance, which

093is still going to be time consuming from eight vendors. And again, we are the van drivers. We were all told in front of all of you guys that we it was, you know, the ICOs, the van drivers were under APS's umbrella. It was a liability issue. We worked very hard over the last past year to become compliant through the state and give APS everything that they required from us. And we feel like if you do use the eight vendors, then that's this board's choice. But my request would be that Buckeye Logistics and Transit be primary because we are the van drivers. We have supported APS for over 50 years and we deserve to hold that contract. Um again it was a lot of things said about you know decreasing staffing hours, supply drivers, background checks,

094statemandated physicals, van certifications, input and maintenance of their drivers. We are prepared to do all of this. We have worked very hard and we just want the van drivers to maintain their position with APS. Thank you. Next speaker. Next speaker is Andrea Morton. Can you go first, please? Is that okay? Sure. Robert Lions. We aimed to please. In October, almost two years ago, we came down here to fight for our jobs. The board was enlightened by what our van drivers do. an RFP was put forth. We took care of all the requirements that the administration, the board asked us to do. We have a company. I I don't have the company. Brandy and her partners have the company, but I will work for them just as I have for 11 years back in public schools.

095We are qualified quantified on every level on everything that all you guys as a board and as an administration asked us to do. You told us you wanted to cut one check. You told us that it was 80 hours to do the payroll. This company's in position to almost eliminate the van driving transportation part of the transportation for a public schools. The kids don't even have to go through transportation now. They can go straight to Buckeye Logistics and they'll be accountable for the kids since it was such a problem over all the years to process our hey and to deal with us. And the only time we've ever came down here is to fight for our jobs. When you wanted a levy passed, we got behind you. And as a taxpayer, we pay it. We're

096going to probably get behind the next levy. And if I I don't know if Mr. Thompson remembers, but I told you double the levy because the m the the the math adds up. We're steady cutting. We're not improving. Buckeye Logistics improves van transportation and that's what you ask for. That's what we got. Thank you. Thank you, Andrea Martin. Hello. Please excuse my voice. I sound terrible. I didn't want to speak today. Um, so looking at what Miss F posted, um, first off, there is no need, there's never a need for eight vendors. I think that's absurd. I think that it's a direct attempt to shut down Buckeye Logistics and Transit because they know that we are the strongest bid. I would like to see the scoring. I don't know if that's something that we could

097do, but how do we know that the scoring is not biased? um when the same people that fought against us losing our jobs last year is in direct control of the the bidding process. Um smart I I'm not going to say any names. They're giving our work away and I I don't think that's fair. Um we we've served this community for way too long for them to go against exactly what they asked us to do, which was start a company. Um if the other um there's how many ahead of us? Five vendors are ahead of us in price. Well, it's because they released the bid to the public. They released the last vendor's bid last year that they fought for to the public. So, of course, everyone's going to come in lower, but in reality,

098we know you get what you pay for, right? We want to pay our drivers fair wages, which is going to make them stick around and do what they've been doing for 50 plus years. So, it's not it it doesn't make sense to go with this company because oh, you know, they're coming in at $150. I'm just using random numbers. I don't know. But I I I just I I I think that it's I'm just not I'm not understanding what the fight is like. Why go against the van drivers? What for what? We've been doing this. So, why would anyone ever How could they rank higher than us? So, I would like somebody to look into that if possible. Um, and Miss Folk said herself last year, it it has nothing to do with numbers. Just

099because you're the lowest does not make you the best. That's on record. Um, so I guess in in closing what I'm saying, God, I sound terrible. Um, I Buckeye Logistics and Transit is built from van drivers for van drivers. The same drivers that's been getting these kids. We can't rely on a company that we don't even know. I don't see some of these names on the street right now. And I'm all over the city. I'm in Ka Falls. I'm in Canton. I'm in Green. I don't see these names out here in the streets transporting these kids. What I do see is all of our van drivers transporting these kids. Why should it change? That's it. Thank you. We appreciate your participation. If there's no other speakers, uh we will now go to the board members

100event information. If there's no questions or comments on that. Oh, I'm sorry. You I'm sorry, Pas. Okay. Thank you, Madam Chair. Um I I have a question. Um, Miss M Miss Folk, when we look at the bids, we have eight vendors. If I'm if I'm rated number one. Mhm. And excuse me. Would you mind putting those vendors back up? Yep. Thank you. Okay. So, yes. Um, and I'll just use their their names, and I'm not sure if you know how many transport vehicles they had when the RFP went out and the person put the number of vehicles they had. Is that the number they're locked in at? We we asked them for the number of vehicles they had available for APS to uh work with. Um I will tell you that uh the three four

101uh companies uh either came equal to or less in price per route. Okay. I'm not I don't and so therefore you are correct. These are all different numbers. Okay. Hang on. So if if if number one has eight vans, are they locked in to eight vans or do they go okay I got eight vans today. I got the contract. I can get as many other vans as I want. They had to have a minimum of 10 in order to it submit an RFP. They notified us that they had uh in a response a higher number of vans than the minimum. Okay. So let me So those lock them into us. Let let me just try this again. Okay. If I have 10 vans and that's what I put on my paper, do I am I

102locked in at 10 vans to transport or can I go 40 vans? Now you could go to 40 vans. Now you're you told us you had at least 10 to bid. You could increase that if we're allowed to offer you a service contract. So did we look for we we rated eight vendors and so again least cost most responsive. That was the two-prong test. That was 60 points was the least cost. the the other responses if you give me a minute included the number you could get earn up to 15 points for the number of ants. Okay. Yeah, I see that. Okay. So, the least cost was 60 points out of the 100. The two-prong test is least cost. Yes. Most responsive. Most responsive. Yes. Okay. And so I guess what I'm I would ask

103is if I had the Buckeye Logistics say they have 118 vans. If and Emanuel Ventures had 30 vans, would would they be more responsible with less vans? If you're looking to travel about 1,400 students with a full van being seven and not every van can take seven. Excarries can only take six cuz you do not transport a student in the front seat. You need approximately 200 vans to do the service for 1,400 students. And that's what we're trying to build those numbers on. Approximately 200 vans. Okay. Thank you. He's just got member hall. Yes. Okay. So, are we thinking of taking You don't You're not taking all eight vendors, correct? We're just asking for authorization to enter into service agreements for those that we need the amount of bands for. Okay. So, you have it

104ranked. Yes. So, say the f the top three. Mhm. All together. And I think Miss Victor, she gave the amount, but how many vans do the top three have altogether? Because there's no the only company from what I'm hearing, number five has the most vans in one company. It h it had the largest response, but of the top four above them for uh equal to or lesser price, it was 120. So the top three three companies have no the top four the top four have are would be 120. The top four would be but one company has what was itund and we're looking for approximately 200. So we are also looking at price and the price ranges are important when you're trying to save cost. And how many people re I'm sorry, Madam Chair. How

105many people reviewed this ranking? Uh, it included uh Mrs. Carter. It included Miss Chapman, Dr. Chapman, I should say. It included myself, Mr. Leonard, our purchasing agent, our transportation coordinator, Justin Miller, and it also included legal counsel. Okay. No one from finance. Okay. Thank you. Yes. Member Mon. Sorry. Thank you, Madam Chair. Um I see in the rankings, I know we're going back and forth um on the slides. I see in the rankings that there was 60 points for price. Yes. And then 15 points for the van number of van vehicles in use. Um so can you help because this appears to be a lot of where the conversation is growing from. Can you help me to understand why the number of vehicles in use per company is so critical? It is critical because we

106need to be able to assign the students in when we get them from sped or McKini Vento departments. We need to try and get them transported and assigned as quickly as possible. So therefore, if you have a a good number of fleet from a number of vendors, in this case, we can go ahead and put those students in say the north cluster to the vendors assigned to the north cluster knowing that they will have enough capacity to do that. I will advise you in this process uh we also reached out to several of our other urban districts. As an example, uh Cleveland Met uses 57 different companies. So, we were ranking them according to what we needed. That doesn't mean that all companies even offered a service contract will engage us. We just wanted to

107narrow our 18 down to the eight most appropriate. Yes, member. I have one possibly two follow-ups if uh time permits, but so for number of Anfield vehicles and use I see it's 0 to 15 points. So, am I to assume that the more vehicles you have, the more points you get? That is correct. If the the more vehicles you had, you you got the 15 points. Okay. And then can I also help to understand because this is the first time I've ever seen this slide or had this conversation. Um, if these are the two most important things, it for me it feels like one is 60 points, one is 15 points. Can you kind of help me to understand price is according to the revised code the most important thing when you're looking at the

108cost of trying to make a decision. Some people do say it's the lowest cost. It's really the lowest most responsive a responsible cost and we had a range our current cost this year ranges from within the same range we're getting next year. So, we had some vendors that truly would not be within the range we were willing to pay that are not on this list of eight that we're thinking to at least ask for authorization to offer a contract to member Harrison. Member Harrison, are you going to conduct? I know I was looking u um miss folks this this this doesn't feel right right now and and that's why we asked to have this to us so that we can work off all all of this before we got into a meeting and discussed this

109again. Um would you like to have an this is just my suggestion? No, I'm just saying we're here where we are now. Okay. So just please let me just entertain me here. Okay. When we ask for information from a board, we're we're we're asked to make to make decisions and we don't have the information to make the decisions when we need the information to make the decision because some of this stuff just does not make sense. And and and I would just ask that whenever we're back where we were, the kids, we need to have the contracts. We're back where we were two years ago. Um, please just and and just please provide us with adequate information in time so that we can work these things out because this doesn't make sense to me. The

110additional information that may be appropriately given is attached to the authorization resolution that is part of the meeting of the 27th of uh a of May. So we do have some additional which you want us that's the meeting you want us to vote. I want you to consider if that's what you're um would like to move forward with. Thank you. Me, thank you. Um Madam Chair, just a couple quick questions. So, are these the top five vendors? Are they Akran based companies? Um I can tell you that four of them are, one is not. So, your top three are they are all of those Akran companies? Actually, I can't I'm going to tell you I know the number one is not, but I I don't remember it off the top of my head. I'd have

111to go back and look at the addresses, but actually you have other ones below number five that are also Akran. Okay. So, I'm just confused why we would make one company that's not even Akran based the number one. Um, and then back to me, uh, member Molinar, 60 60 points is the best cost or the lowest cost. But if we, if we want accurate accurate drivers, adequate drivers, making sure that our kids are safe, why would price be way up high and everything else is so low? It's just the way that is scored in response to the RFP because we also have a budget constraint that we're trying to work with, right? And I understand RFPs because we create them, right? We say what we want. I've written a lot of them. So, but we

112didn't have to put 60 points so high up. We chose to. Correct. That was recommendation from our legal counsel. That is correct. Okay. Thank you. President oh member archery before Thank you madam chair and I'm sure you probably said this in your presentation but I just need you to make it very simple for lay people like myself why are we now having eight vendors we were looking to make sure that if we offered a contract of service agreement that we would have at least enough to come up with 200 bands and not everybody had a response that could meet that need. So, in this current school year, we're working with how many? Right now, you have currently 108 independent contracted van drivers and Templeton is doing 54 different routes. So, that is close to exactly

113what they have. So, we have Templeton right now currently. Yes. That was the support the board approved in the ICOs. So, essentially two Mhm. And now we're going to eight. Well, this was just a response to the RFP. We were trying to make sure that we met the RFP response for cost within the budget as long and and to look exactly what we could do to rank them according to the cost and the responses to the areas in which we were evaluating them. That's a lot of words, but it just Yeah, it I understand it doesn't Okay, I'm trying I understand wrap my head around that. Thank you. We were trying to meet the needs of the proposed amount of students that we could transport which is 1,400 approximately. Right. I understand that. It just

114seemed like we would have been significantly short this school year. You are significantly delayed in getting some students transported to all the items that they need. That's why we were going back to try and do the 1400 in a seven passenger van with the understanding that elementaryaries cannot do anything higher than a six. Thank you. Thank you. Uh member Autry, President Jackson, did you have something you want to add? Thank you. Um Madam Chair, yes. So to member Hall's question, um cuz I was looking up when I saw the names just to see the location cuz I was curious to cuz I think where Akan is good for us to support local businesses and so smart and I'm just looking for who their agent or their person of contact is. So we have Columbus, Ohio,

115Parma Heights, Ohio, Gates Mill, Ohio, Uklid, Ohio, and that's I'm starting from the top down. And these that's their offices. Yeah, that's their right. Exactly. And then so their authorized agent, they're contacting their offices. None are showing locally present. That doesn't mean that they're that they can't operate from here, but I'm showing where they're showing their locations are at just because as I was looking at them, I was just researching so I knew I could answer what you were asking. Um and so I think that's to I agree with uh the what all other board members said as far as the information from all um departments when we have committee meetings be made available in enough time for board members to digest it whatever the meeting is when it comes here that enough time is

116spent with whatever is going to be asked on the agenda. Um so that we can kind of wrestle with the information go through it process it with fidelity before we come here. So I'm in agreement with what member Harrison said and like I said before with the other contracts whether it's snow plowing whether it's leaf blowing I think if we have local people that will pay into our local economy in the city of Akran and surrounding areas in from a taxpaying base. I would like to support local industry within our city state also but definitely within our city. Thank you, President Jackson, for giving us that extra information that we do not have because it appears that as of today, we still don't know actually what uh the recommendation will be and I can get

117forward that to you immediately tonight. As I said, it's part of something that we already submitted to the agenda. I can get that to you tonight. The only problem with that is that we just don't have accessibility to understand. So, uh, thank you very much. If there's no additional questions, comments from the members of the committee or board members. Thank you. So, as I was saying, and I'm I'm getting really nervous because I'm seeing member uh Alexander sitting back there and I know we got another committee meeting. So, we want to hurry and get through this. And I'm sorry I'm sorry for for the delay. Uh, uh, so board members, event information, I think we've all taken a look at that. If there are any questions or comments on that. No questions or comments. Any

118unfinished business? No unfinished business. Any new business? May I have a motion for adjournment? Did you have new business? Yes, madame chair. I just wanted to follow up on the information that I sent Thursday regarding some positions. Um, the first one is I'm sorry, Mrs. Carter, you want to say a little bit more? Give us a little more idea of what you're talking about. Okay. Yes. So, I sent some information on actually on Friday in the via email uh on some notes and it was under staffing and one of the positions is the WAPS membership and community engagement coordinator which they do their they fund their own positions at the summit. And so I was just letting you know that this position at some point in time is going to come um is going to

119come in front of you and it's going to say new because he's kind of reworked the position for the needs of the radio station. Um and then also um we have a secretary 3 position once it's once it the recommendation is on the board agenda. Oh. Oh. Any questions about the WAPS? Thank you, Miss Carter. Board members, members of the board, are there any questions of Mrs. Carter? No, just about that one. Okay. And then the next position that was sent was the confidential secretary 3 position. We have a Secretary 3 that is retiring and we're replacing it with a Secretary 3 confidential because of the work that will be required of this particular position. They'll be dealing with confidential information as relates to background checks and things like that. So, it's just a it's

120going to say new, but it's a wash. It's a secretary 3 to a secretary 3. Thank you, Mrs. Carter. The next one was general counsel. I know there's been talk about general counsel. So, once that position is posted and filled and it comes to the board, that too would say new. Um and then we will not be filling the labor relations director position for that position. And then the last position um once it comes to the board would be the administrative assistant confidential position. And this is the one I know that um Superintendent um Outley um said, "Let's bring this to this committee so that we can hear um how the board feels about this position." And right now in that department we are acrewing um a lot of overtime which is almost half the

121salary of a full-time position within that uh department because of the workload in that department. And so we do have some savings across the board as it relates to the budget and then also movement of funds to help with supporting this particular position once that comes. Any questions regarding any of those? Thank you, Mrs. Carter. Uh if there's nothing else to come before the board then we will I will we not answer ask answer ask answer answer ask answer ask answer ask answer ask answer ask answer ask answer ask answer any question no questions uh nothing else to come before the board can I have a motion for so moved second all those in favor All right. [Music]