001all right all right welcome to the first CPS policy committee meeting uh polic Equity committee meeting of 2024 it's awesome to be here um sorry uh for the late start um as always we're going to uh do a quick round of introductions beginning with the man behind the curtain Rob Wilson technician Kendra Matt board member so happy to have kener Mike moraski board member Ben Lindy board member Dan horn general counsel Stephanie Scott assistant general counsel Chris KK Chief Operating Officer Emily B awesome thank you for everybody for being here and then um the the the young person next to me who's now on the floor is James and um he's uh he's going to be my sidekick today so we're going to dive right into the agenda and Target is a wonderful uh threat
002Tool uh tool I mean tool to use um so the the first thing we're going to do um I was going to delay this but since Mr Lindy is remote um and we can still delay it um of course um but um I was going to delay the election of the chair um since Mr Lindy I didn't think was going to be here till later but he is here um and I just wanted to know if he had any interest I have interest in remaining chair but I wanted to make sure if you had interest Mr Lindy um then we'll delay the election of a chair oh that's very thoughtful Mr moraski I think you make an excellent policy committee chair that means a lot very much thank you um Miss mat would you like
003to be chair I think that uh I agree with uh Mr well board member Lindy's uh recommendation for you to be the chair okay well then I I will entertain a motion uh for a new or a committee chair do anyone have a nominee Miss map I I would love to make this motion but I can't because I'm remote so I I will leave this to you I'm not allowed to vote on it either but it has my emotional support thank you so I move to nominate uh board member moraski to be the policy and Equity committee chair well thank you and I will second that motion all in favor I I all right thank you uh Miss map and Mr Lindy I am I am honored to serve once again as chair and uh
004uh for those watching it's a good a good lesson in the in the public political process that might have looked and seemed a little strange but that's what happens when you do when you do everything in public um so thank you all very much uh the next order of business is um the committee meeting schedule which excuse me um at our very first organizational meeting I remember I uh ran over to chat to the two uh two members happy to have Mr Lindy back on policy committee the second time we've worked together on this committee the first time uh if I may quick point a privilege U Mr Lindy led a pretty impressive process regarding um responsible bidder um and making sure that we were uh Contracting do in a state like Ohio that um
005um hates organized labor and people who work for a living uh because we're not allowed to have responsible bidder laws in a public school district and um so anyway when Mr Lindy we did a lot of cool things that year but one of the things I think was the the biggest was um that effort that he led to get us to a point to have policies that were legal and also made sure that we were taking care of uh worker yeah for the historical record my my understanding is Ohio prohibits prevailing wage uh with school districts prevailing wage responsible which is why we did it that way and it went really well thank you Ben um and Miss map it's good to have you on here um in your first uh year on the school
006board all right so back to the committee meeting schedule um we had just talked briefly the committee members Emy about keeping the same Cadence um and I'd said something to general counsel about this as well and that Cadence with a slight change the Cadence would be the third Friday of the month but instead of 9 to 10:30 9:30 to 11 so I'm going to ask U Mr Lindy first does that sound right to you can you just say it one more time Mr morosi third Friday of the month 9:30 to 11: I think that sounds fine um I'm trying to we just St finance and that's not that's not the same time as Finance Mike is it 10 o'clock on the third Friday um yeah okay uh um does that work for you does um
007I'm fine with a different like the second Friday the okay okay maybe this uh second Friday so that would be like February 9th March 8th okay how does does it still have to be 9:30 for for both of y'all for you okay thank you for the February 9th date I won't be available but that uh the second Friday of the month does work from that 9:30 to 11: uh time frame okay and I can already tell that one might not work here and we'll figure it out as we go along but let's is that all right if we set that for now then do second Friday 9:30 to 11 yes it work thank you very cool all right second Friday 9:30 11 and so then we'll get uh those calendar invites um from board staff
008thank Miss Davis and Miss buner for that um so be sure to accept those invites and then one of the first things we have to do as a committee and every committee has to do this um and we don't really have anything in front of us now um is to set our 2024 work plan um I don't have any intention of voting on anything today but just to sort of put pretty much right um and then we've gone through every year since I've been here and been chair uh and before that we've gone through uh all of our policies kind of by category the audits for lack of a better term to just clean them up there's a lot of duplicative things we I think we completed that for the most part but we probably
009have a new cycle every four years for supposed to look at them is that right yeah so the the um policies are divided by sort of chapters into the first chapter is the bylaws that relates to the board's sort of organization and conduct within itself uh really that that's really board work more than administrative work and then it goes from there to policies that impact employees Administration students the community Finance property and they're all kind of divided into chapters we have uh having having staffed the policy committee for some time there are some years where the policy committee I think very methodically goes through you know and does five to 10 policies a week where they're looking and reviewing and sometimes it's no update and sometimes it's substantial revision uh but kind of from from
010beginning to end there are other years like last year where almost the entire year was sort of dominated by the work the board did on the bylaws and we didn't go through so you know if we were going to go back to sort of looking through policies I I I think uh we are nearly finished reviewing the uh employment policies one of the things we did there is the policies used to be divided by um certificated staff and civil service and we are all but about five or six away from combining those all together which I think is was the policies committee's preference and then from there we could look at students again we could look at Administration so you know whatever the will of the committee is we we'll be responsive to that but
011uh those I think are the ones that have would be next up in terms of uh reviewing comments from um thank you for thank you for providing that um context I think it was really helpful um in terms of the things that can be considered are we um able to go in a little bit further and do a deeper dive of some of those outstanding areas within employment or um the student perspective around policy and administration just so we can get an idea of maybe where to focus first certainly yeah I I mean there are times when I think the policy committee has kind of its some areas that it wants to focus on there are times when the board assigns the policy committee to review policies so really whatever the will of the committee
012is is is what we'll look at yeah I think I think uh you know starting with a basic where we need to go back the students admin wherever it makes sense to go back and start looking at them again we can do that and that's kind of the the easier part and then the more difficult part and more interesting part at times is like to Mr hing's Point sometimes something will come up and we'll invent policies like with the anti-racism policy that was not on the agenda and covid was going on and George Floyd and the country was on fire and you know we decided it was important to respond today we see House Bill 68 um we have Mr Heckman here with the climate resolution that was assigned to us for example um but
013Mr Lindy do you have um any response to what Mr hoing said or any um any preference uh for work plan aside from diving back into just the standard sort of rotation with students and what was it students and admin those are probably the ones that would be next up okay I'll Mr Lindy comments um one thing that uh I I would love to see us take on this year is um looking at our conflict of interests policy as a board um I think that um you know a lot a lot I'm thinking about our work with the council and one of the things that that um when we do those self assessments um I can't remember which which category it's in but the the the the good version of the answer is the board
014has a conflict of interests policy that everybody has to sign every year um and there's I think another provision in the rubric about how we like um there's something about voting I have to look it up but I think I think looking at how we do our conflict of interests policy and and what we require board members to sign and vote on every year um would would be something I'd Beed okay so we can add that um conflict of interests uh students and admin excuse me and then the only other thing I wanted to add and I'm glad I remembered this um was I know that and this was uh inspired by uh Mr Lindy speaking actually because it reminded me when he was here um he also asked uh for us to do like
015an audit of a few policies and so we picked three sweeping policies that seemingly touched every part of the district like the equity policy and this was very difficult and we asked our internal auditor and her team to audit these policies and it went okay and that's not a that's not a commentary on the internal auditor team or us or anything it was just it was really hard and so one thing that um not to speak for him but Mr Lindy talked about a lot when he was on this committee and it stuck in my crawl was that we have these great policies some of them have procedures on the administrative level some don't some of those procedures make it to the school building some don't what exactly is going on with our policies and
016the way I understand it from the superintendent um and again not to speak on her behalf but since she isn't here they've done this and they have gone through and said these policies have procedures these don't I would love that massive gnarly list to be on our work plan and I I said something to the superintendent about this like that would be a wonderful use I think of our time in this committee right to work with Administration and say you've all done this I certainly don't know I know what these things say um does that make sense Miss map and Mr Lindy would that be something it makes absolute sense and I appreciate that you have brought that up because we do know that at times there can be dissonance between what our policy says
017and what is actually happening in practice and so thank you for um providing that reminder to all of us and even in speaking in that and going a little bit further I will be interested in how um we're focusing on the holistic right approach and the Mental Health and Social and emotional Wellness um how that is um embedded within our policies and procedures as well Mr Lindy sound like a good use of time to [Music] you yes okay um all right so students admin um the audit for lack of a better term the superintendent her team did on policies and procedures where they match or don't and then this conflict of interest piece as well um and so uh we we can put that on paper um and then vote on it at our next
018meeting if that works for everybody and so Miss Davis um so for the next meeting already we have committee 2024 work plan that can go on the agenda um I'd like to pull out the uh um conflict of interest if we may simply because it seems super relevant right now at the beginning of the year and we've already been talking about it so if Mr hoing can give us like a background on what that has been in the past Etc be good for the next meeting and then um yeah vote on the work plan and then I'll turn it over as always uh to General council's office to bring us the first little batch of you know from the students or admin category you know that you think we could get through few of them
019great great cool excellent everybody and so number four very very interesting um uh it's always nice when the public does show up and Mr Heckman of course you notice has a badge so he's he's he's public plus uh not that now that different plus doesn't mean better but he is public plus but Mr Heckman and some uh students at Walnut Hills have brought us uh this renewable energy and climate change resolution and commitment to electrification um those who have been on the board uh for a while which is getting weird to say because it's only one other person now and I feel old um but um this has come up a few times and uh something like this and you know to be frank which I tend to be hasn't really gone anywhere and so
020uh it was great when the the group of students brought this to us and um folks may recall and I know Miss map knows this but for everyone's edification um when when the students came and when we looked at this resolution um it was asked that we put this into policy commit comme that general council's office come back with some notes which Miss Scott has already provided thank you Miss Scott um and so I'm going to turn it over to you all to just kind of walk through the ask of general counsel to remind people or for folks for the first time hearing it was can we do the things that are in here is this is there ways we could improve it um I think there was consensus on the board though that it's
021something we wanted to try to commit to at the very least so yeah and I'll uh turn over to um Chris burkart the Chief Operating Officer thank you Mr burkart yes thank you um so so uh there's a lot in the resolution um we've kind of and I just handed out a a kind of a a first draft of response of where we're at in relation to um a lot of the asks within the resolution um overall I thinks um fully support um the the resolution um with with with some minor caveats so I can go through those uh I'll just give you kind of an overview right now and then you know open up for questions um we we've been doing a lot of this work for for quite some time um as we
022look at our electric rates and making sure that we're getting the most comprehensive lowest electric electric rates as possible while also making sure that's renewable energy from controls and commissioning of our HVAC equipment looking at Green Space and outside classrooms as well as LED lighting these have been initiatives that the district has taken on in the past that we continue to strive forward in making these initiatives reality in all of the uh four corners of our district um we also are have been and continue to be um in discussion with the city because this doesn't happen in a vacuum so even um outside of our our school communities um how we partner with the city is very important uh to be honest they have about a 10-month head start on a formal um process their
023their 2023 a green initiative plan was released last year and so we are looking at that comprehensively as well as how that affects our district and what kind of overlap and what kind of Partnerships we have together and we actually had a meeting yesterday in relation to solar and the RFP that the city is putting out in relation to solar and how CPS can be part of I'll go through the audit and I I'll I'll put it into kind of five or six buckets of um what we looked at versus the resolution um one is is the the audit of um looking at uh districtwide energy audit and so we've done some audits um in silos throughout the district but we haven't had a comprehensive audit the reason being is that would cost us anywhere
024from $1.4 to $3.8 million I don't think that we're in the space yet to be able to do that until we kind of put our some of our infrastructure in place and look at what we want to do across the entire District again a lot of this work has been done in silos but we don't have one comprehensive plan for that I'll also take a step back and say currently we have a request for information out on the CPS website where we're asking the community um to help us uh tell us where those Partnerships are and I know Partnerships are very important in relation to this and when I say Partnerships Partnerships can be everything from a local Boy Scout Troop that wants to plant trees on our campuses to uh corporations that uh do
025Works uh especially around green energy and everyone in between so how can we have Partners help us in this work after we get U responses back from this RFI it's going to be open-ended so we're not going to have a closing date we're going to start evaluating those and see where we have Partners in specific areas that are experts in this this realm that can help us move the needle quicker than us taking that on all of ourselves um as we look at uh renewable energy and um obviously our electric providers um we actually went out for electric renewal this past year um and that was a four-year um fouryear renewal on electric um we did look at the ability to go to um 100% renewable sustainable energy within that contract but that would be
026an additional cost of somewhere just shy of $300,000 a year um per year of that four-year contract so this year we did not decide to go with that option um but that doesn't stop us from uh multiple years within this to change um we were looking at the the fiscal responsibility of um the district and where we were at in that time frame and we thought that that would be something that doesn't shut the door on future years but in the the pl in time when we were making the decision uh we opted to to go with u um the less uh expensive rates solar is another area of topic that that comes up we are fully support of solar and uh as I alluded to earlier the city is going to be putting out
027an RFP for solar currently we are doing a roof and grein assessment for solar so in the past we um with a five-year facility um plan we looked at roofs and conditions of roofs in that assessment we didn't look at the ability to put solar on roofs so we're going back through that um work that we've done previously and trying to decide which campuses which schools might lend itself to having a better U solar footprint than others um as everyone knows their other District uh we don't have a lot of completely flat roofs so we really have to look at you know the actual square footage space in each one of those areas to see if that is actually a a you know match a win-win on both sides where we can put solar it's
028angled in the right direction um with the way the school building is set up as well as the roof is going to allow us um to do that uh I will say at the beginning of this past school year we had 26 active roof leaks out of you know 66 of our buildings so we don't do know that a third of our buildings are not right for solar at this point in time we're hoping that over the next three to five years that we can get to a point where that can be sustainable across the board we certainly don't want to put solar panels on roofs that either have an active leak or are in need of roof replacement anywhere within the next decade um that's just money that would not be well spent through
029the process um from an appliance standpoint um going to all electric appliances is something that we're committed to and uh have started and will continue to operate in that direction whenever uh feasible in some cases um that is easier um now and may be challenging for some schools um that may be pushed off a couple of years and I'll give you some examples when the facility master plan was put in place um uh natural gas was cheap and so we put a lot of natural gas in some of our buildings and now we are having to convert and put in additional electric um whether that's uh electric infrastructure grids Transformers uh actually running lines through schools to be able to get to the point where we can transition those um and so in some of
030our schools where we um you know a decade or two decades ago were all in with natural gas we're having to feel those effects of transferring the to electric and so that's not an easy switch where we just say okay well you know install this Appliance and the Electric's going to be there in some cases we might have to bring in new service and in some cases we've worked with Duke to add that service um to those schools so across the board we're committed to changing the appliances combustion engines um um I think two things with combustion engines um I'm not sure that the technology is 100% there for a complete switch right now we are looking at for you know I'll talk in in terms of landscaping um when you're talking about electric mowers
031and and trimmers and leaf blowers and the like um we are almost there from a technology standpoint it is our uh Endeavor to get to a point where our mowing is done from autonomous electric mowers so think of think of a Roomba if you will and how that just goes out does its thing comes back red dos itself recharges itself and then goes back out when it's charged um that would be the the the ultimate end goal from a from a uh a landscape point of view um but the technology is not there yet we've been in talks with some other um colleges universities uh we don't know of any other school districts who have taken on this endeavor yet um so the technology is really too new for commercial application of this but I
032am 100% % sure that in the next couple of years or even sooner that we will get to a point where we can we can you know test and and get to a point where that becomes our standard operating practice um in relation to Vehicles obviously Passenger cars and those vehicles in the district that um are not heavy duty um could be um changed over there are um with the IRA there are incentives $7,500 per vehicle to move to um electric Fleet from a truck and van standpoint and then I'll talk about transportation in in another realm um right now the technology is not there for heavyduty trucks to heavy duty vans that a lot of our maintenance and trads uh folks use um the technology is just not there for for those vehicles um
033as it becomes available I think you know it will be there relatively soon uh we've seen great strides in um electric vehicles um lately and so we look at those areas and saying we're 100% confident that we're going in that direction but in in in a lot of these cases we don't want to be the earlier adopters because early adopters come at a significant price and a significant low technology and I I'll use the the analogies of some of us in the room are old enough to remember VCR and DVD players and flat screen TVs when they came out they were very very expensive and the technology wasn't very good um fast forward you know five years later everyone had one and they were they were common place to to um to almost every household
034so we're looking at not being that early adopter but we do want to get in on the early um the early years of getting this changed because we know it's the right thing to do um so we're kind of B Bing the cost and the effectiveness of the transition and and being good stewards of that money while also not being that earlyer adopter and not having those Growing Pains that should happen in the in the private sector um transportation good news we have 10 electric buses um uh that we just got a uh received a grant for in in uh combination with first student so from a from a transportation standpoint we've now dipped our toe into to the uh electrified uh uh bus uh realm as we look at our Fleet and our needs
035for our Fleet moving forward obviously our our district redesign and a lot of the ad hoc um discussions will actually dictate to us whether or not is more uh economical and more to the district's operational standards to go more with Vans than buses or what size bus do we go with and what does look like so we're committed to going down that path but I think there's a few unknowns right now that we're still navigating through to make sure that we are again looking at what is right for the district um in the long term not just what is the right for the district today and we want to make sure that all of these Investments that we're putting in place are good for the next decade or two decades not necessarily just for today
036uh finally from a HVAC uh heating ventilation air conditioning stand Point we've been in process of converting those to um electric and sustainability um whenever possible there's a lot of new technology out from uh chillers and heaters um in relation to HVAC and that is something again as I talk about early adopters um there's a lot of companies coming out with new Solutions um we want to see those tried and tested first before we start to syn you know millions of dollars into that technology but very very hopeful that probably within the next couple years that we will start to see that technology in our buildings and um start to be more efficient with with that technology so I know I've said a lot i' I've monopolized a lot of the time here but happy
037to answer any questions or go deeper dive on any of the things I've talked through there Mr Burker I'll just say real quick this is the most comprehensive information I've ever seen regarding this so thank you and you and I feel like you delivered it in a pretty short period of time too so thank you I didn't think it took it's impressive thank you um kind of keep in with the theme I think this Administration all right well we'll go in a minute um you know on Saturday we got a lot of great information too and this just sort of keeps right in line with that so thank you so much um anyway as always U Miss map I always defer to my colleagues first before I say anything so I'll turn it to you
038and then Mr Lindy if that works perfect I do have a few questions thank you for um giving detail to this um comprehensive plan and what's supported and what may not be supported based on just where we are with as a district um you spoke about the 10 electric buses that we received um I'm curious to know um what Grant was that funded under and also um have we decided upon how we're going to begin to use those electric buses yes so so thank you and and we're really excited the electric buses aren't here yet it's going to be 18 to 24 months before we actually see them in the district um and that gives us time to set up the infrastructure to be able to charge the buses um and so it's a partnership
039with first student the grant actually came from the Transportation uh Administration uh did not come from the IRA in in this instance however there is uh monies from the IRA inflation reduction act to be able to purchase Vehicles so there's kind of a tandem there's there's multiple areas to be able to to bring that in um so we we don't know yet um how we're going to deploy those again this is I think uh a couple weeks old so we're still we're still wrangling through what what that might look like again we're we're 18 to 24 months away from it however I would say that um again with with the the electric bus technology it is still very new we are still one of the first districts in the country to to um begin to
040electrify electrify our Fleet um we do know there's some caveats so uh we had some some cold weather a couple of weeks ago and we do know that battery life on those electric vehicles could be diminished by up to 30 to 40% during those cold days so we have to start really looking at how we deploy deploy those buses you know in situations in which we can sustain them all year long not only when it's warm but when also when it's cold and what type of um um mileage and and how often they to be charged and whether they're a one tier a two tier or a three- tier bus meaning how many times it it goes out to pick up students and deliver them to campus so again this is really new for all
041of us um you know across the country especially school districts so we're really excited but we're a little cautiously optimistic on what that's going to look like hopefully that ansers your question absolutely I think it's really commendable that we are one of the first to have this level of Technology um and work towards efficiency and sustainability so um kudos to the district and you all for working on this um I also appreciate the intentionality around not being um ready to move in haste just because we do have this but being very um mindful about doing the research um understanding what would be best practices and what will be most advantageous um before deploying that so I thank you for sharing that feedback um the other thing that I wanted to ask was pertaining to the
042IRA have we already begun process of applying for Grants under the IRA um and also the second part of that have we um I guess connected with surrounding districts I know like in Kentucky or Indiana there's been a lot of um districts that have also um applied and have begun the process of implementing um things that will help with sustainability yeah so the answer the first part of the question we have not applied for any Ira grants yet um we are still navigating through that process again again that is very new as well so um Al although the IRA um infrastructure Grant came out a little while ago it was just opened up to nonprofits in in in school districts uh and and don't quote me H I think a couple of months ago so
043this is new for us that that I guess a new funding source for us uh again it's it's looking that like um if if we fund a project we could get 30 up to 40% of that Revenue back um in relation to solar we would then also receive that money back from the whatever we transfer back to electric grid and or the savings from our electricity so longterm 20 years out it could be cost neutral um but there is an upfront cost to that um the second part of your question in relation to um whether or not we're we're working with other entities uh we are working with the city and we we constantly have discussions with the city um there's a business manager group um that is that is the the Greater Cincinnati um
044a group of business managers and chief operating officers um most districts in that realm have not um gone into um solar and some of these Endeavors like we are now um they don't have a lot of the resources that we have um but that doesn't mean they're not doing it so some of them are doing it on a smaller scale than we would we would be looking at um but with in that we are also looking at co-ops um both local co-ops and co-ops across the country uh for example just from from a vehicle standpoint what co-ops have and what we can we can piggyback on and and the purchasing power of districts from all across the country and what vehicles they um have within those co-ops and what they have found to be sustainable
045for their operation um because what works maybe in the private sector from an electric vehicle or electric lawn mower or you know electric LED lighting might not work in a school district and and and we tend to be very hard on our equipment and and uh uh utilize it to the end of its life and so um we have to make sure that that investment is good but we are doing th those things that you ask thank you you good miss m Mr Lindy uh thanks Mr moraski don't think I have any questions from Mr burkart just want to say thank you for his analysis and hard work um yeah th this is a very in-depth analysis you took a couple of my questions particularly about the IRA um I liked the uh the uh
046the the nice mic drop of the electric buses I didn't know when we were going to drop that information I I knew I knew about that and I was wondering when we were going to tell people about it all right good job Mr burgart um yes um surprise um anyway uh so um one thing and you know I always feel the need to say this and I'm not saying anybody's even hinting this whenever I hear about electrified uh robot things I always feel the need to say particularly as policy chair again thank you that we I don't want to replace a human being uh I definitely don't want to replace a human being Mo and Alan um uh and uh um but anyway that is really exciting though and nor do but and to that
047point we we still have a lot of trimming and a lot of other work that needs to be done um from from a landscape standpoint it's it's looking at how do we get our campuses to the next level and I think that helps us get there so I want to Echo your your segment as well thank you and we'll and we'll need someone to take care of those robots at least for the time being we'll see well with you bringing up that point I thank you and then since we do know that we have representation from um our Union president um have you all connected or are you considering connecting with uh our labor unions to make sure that there's that well balanced perspective on how to move forward yeah right now as as as
048you see in in these um these documents and in our discussion we're really right now in the phase of gathering information looking at Best Practices how do we implement this um long term obviously when we start to make decisions based on this we'll actually um um bring everyone into the fold on that right now we're really in the the um uh phase of can we implement the technology that's currently out there and as as we look at just for example and you brought up lawn Mars as we look at lawn Mars the technology is not just not there yet so so these conversations truly are probably Year too off and and we don't want to get ahead of it as well so again I don't want to you know say that that we're having the
049conversation but I also don't want to say we're not having the conversation for a specific reason we're still doing research I appreciate you being transparent about that and you know when the time comes in 510 who knows how many years you know items like that would I assume be part of some kind of CBA or negotiating anyway so I appreciate you being transparent about it um so the next thing I would say is um you know we we don't do like uh we have a little hearing at the public the end of these things but we do have uh have an expert here and I I would be remiss if I didn't at least invite the expert to say a thing or two and we clearly have an expert inhouse too for the first time
050and I don't feel bad saying that I really appreciate you being able to give real answers to these questions it's not something I'm used to um but I do um for a moment Mr H if you don't mind I don't mean to put you on the spot but you do know more about this than uh any of us sorry Miss math Mr Lindy do you do you have any any reaction would be helpful for me uh helpful in regard to just any any um like any any responses any reactions because the goal that what we would like to do and it probably won't happen today what we would like to do is get a resolution that is you know uh you know it's a reach and gives us something to aspire to it's also realistic
051to your point some of these things we just and I appreciate you being upfront about and again I don't think if any body watched even 10 seconds of our meeting on Saturday we're not in a position to drop an extra $1.4 million on much anything at least right now um but encouragingly enough some of these buildings some of this stuff's been done the roof Etc so just what we would like to do in this committee I think and what the board tasked us with doing all right we'll go do that one second is is getting this resolution to a place where we can accept it you know pass it on to the board so just any commentary okay how how long do I have normally it's 2 minutes but no this is uh not part
052of that let's say till like 9:50 and Miss map is the chair for now and I I don't want to dominate anything or uh you know I am very pleased with the comprehensive approach you know looking at all of the different things that uh are in the resolution it's it's a lot so I um I'll give a little bit about myself um I am a um father of two students um I have been active uh I I founded the local chapter of citizens climate Lobby um which is a national nonpartisan nonprofit and we've been uh focused for let's see this was uh 2012 when we started um and the group was started before that um we've been focused on trying to get a national um Revenue neutral carbon fee and dividend policy in place and
053uh Congress uh just has not been in position to take that step had they been in position this would all be um redundancy right uh your main focus is trying to be a steward of um dollars public dollars and uh we want the bad energy to be the most expensive and on its way out unfortunately we're not there yet uh and so so um I appreciate you know in things like the power purchase agreement um you have concerns about cost uh I'm so climate change has been my top political voting priority for the last 20 years I've been looking at it uh for a long time the the reports uh how my kids what kind of world they're going to live in um we are in a steep acceleration of of using fossil fuels uh
054despite the news that you may have heard um where you know we just had uh uh 195 countries come together uh for uh what's known as the conference of parties and I I share this because uh I was sharing it with the Walnut Hills um students uh all of the 20 articles that uh The Inquirer uh covered um regarding this and it was the first year out of 28 years where they could even use the words fossil fuels in in the agreement right name the problem and that's part of this that's that's why we're talking about electric right now all of the solutions produce electric energy and uh me personally um we've built an all electric house uh we renovated uh an 1870 building in Over the Rind um we have uh solar panels uh
055covering the back half of our house and uh despite being you know 36 solar panels it's half of the energy that our house uses your guys' roofs are much larger and so um you know if if there is a willingness to look into um you know what rooftops are available to uh to put and to have some examples of you know what potential Offset you could have with um uh uh solar panels either on roofs ground Mount solar um is is another possibility you guys own a lot of land um parking lots um I've looked at every property um that you have uh on Google Earth and there's a lot of potential in every well Lighthouse is kind of small um but um so uh and there are potential um Partnerships um that can like
056the city had um uh put a request for proposal uh with a group that UPF front did the money for this solar field that's out in Brown County and they are buying the electric energy um that's going to be produced from that uh and agreeing to do that for 25 or 30 years um is you know uh the payback for that company fronting the cost so there are Partnerships that are possible um the IRA uh money the incentives are only going to be available until 2032 um so uh politics what they are I I hope um I mean I so pardon James I I hope that the political will comes around to and I have so many emotions around this um for people to see what we see as costs today are literally life or
057death for our students our youngest students and one of the things that I would like for well one one of the things we're working with with the Walnut Hills students is they're putting together an online petition in support of this resolution and the one thing that's not on here is a timeline if I I I feel that a organization that is beholden or not beholden the right word those trying to do the right things for students and not undermining their future that is trying to get us get them on the brightest path forward uh should take up the lead on this issue and provide uh you know a clear uh demand for companies to innovate towards um and for students to grab a hold of and say yes thank God somebody is doing something um
058you guys I I realize that um the efficiency efforts that have been underway are really commendable um but using a little bit of something that's terrible is still bad um and natural gas um the uh one one of the studies that came out last year um showed that even 0. 2% if 0 2% of natural gas is em emitted into the uh air uh via leaks it's as bad as burning coal um and that's you know the the science is catching up with this stuff so um I have lots of notes and I uh I can share them in an email and I'm sorry that uh I can't uh I don't want to continue to dominate um this um but um I will I will say this last thing um when we were preparing um
059our speeches um uh in the climate Club um one of the students um was told told me that her comments were trying to convey desperation um I asked her to try and translate that to ask you guys to be bold on their behalf and um I think that the the big danger is that we don't do enough um so I really appreciate your uh time and consideration thank you Mr Heckman um for what as one of the more compelling um uh asks and speeches we've had in this committee at least in the past uh five years and um as you know CU I've known know you for a long time well before I was on this board um I I go out of my way to uh find uh people who are experts in areas
060when I realize I'm not and I I may know a little bit about a couple things but I don't know much about this stuff one thing I do know is that I want the planet to stick around and um one thing I do know is that we are destroying it and one thing I also know is a former teacher and assistant principal is that when we invest in these things too academic achievement goes up um discipline and fractions go down uh schools with just LED like not just but it is significant but you know just that increases you know learning the other thing I know um is that our Administration is committed to being bold and I appreciate a couple things one your work with rallying students around this cause um and getting uh teenagers
061to push for something um and then two coming today to speak on their behalf since they can't be here because they in school unlike my son who I took out of school to come here um anyway um so thank you for that and I guess my only ask would be is if we could and I don't know what this looks like so I'm going to need help from the other experts that's why I love this job when at its best yeah from the beginning at at its best this this elected position you know enables you to bring experts and experts together to do things for them um I feel like this could be an opport so but I'm going to look for some help uh from y'all real quick and then get reactions from Mr
062Lindy miss m and then we are going to have to move on and that was impressive by the way that you did that in eight minutes um would the best thing be absolute question not a setup so tell me what the best is for general counsel and Mr burkhart's offices to get together and figure out what a resolution could potentially look like that we could then as policy committee recommend to the board for adoption is that is that seem like the best thing okay because if it's not please tell me I don't want to tell you out okay cool and I think bring it back to policy next month so that examp which will be in just a couple weeks so this will be a quickest turnaround told right yeah um we can do that
063and then um the one thing I had written on here was timeline too and time timelines are are so strange and big massive bureaucracies um and again I can't overstate it enough I appreciate the urgency the Young people and um Mr hman bring to us um so thank you for that reminder um but last I do want to give Mr Lindy a chance to respond if if he would like you don't certainly don't need to Ben um to anything Mr Heckman said or what I just suggested about the resolution and then Mr moraski I think that the direction that you're proposing sounds great um and I'm I'm grateful for the presentation um and I hope um you know to a fault I I'm a bit of an optimist by nature and the thing I'm hopeful
064for this morning is that we can find some sweet spot uh that is at the Nexus of what we can what we can genuinely do in our current landscape that would make a genuine difference um and uh I don't know exactly where that Point's going to be um but but I'm hoping we can find that point and then recommend it thank you Mr Lindy I I I share the same sentiments Miss map anything in closing yes so I do support the recommendation um for both you know parties to work together and bring this back to policy in February and I really just want to say to Mr Hegman thank you for your presentation and for your vulnerability um and what you communicated and I really it really resonates with me um particularly I have been
065experiencing some challenges um personally with my own child who has been exhibiting upper respiratory um issues pertaining to the poor air quality so I do um think that this is something that we need to try to look um toward some type of resolve um and we know that progress happens over time but I'm hopeful I believe we're all hopeful that we are able to begin to make strives on this great thank you all very much and I I don't want to be a dead horse I'm going to do it I don't care uh those who know me know I do it anyway um Mr burer thanks for bringing this this was gave us something to like look at uh which is great thank you um all right so next uh renaming Lighthouse for the 700th
066time and that's a dig on myself I brought this up and that it go somewhere and it so have we got anywhere with this or there's no update is there there there's not and and let me say what I think we need next is so the board policy that relates to renaming a school or naming a school was included in your packet and and the main thrust of that is it's the board's decision so the bo the board has the final say over naming school buildings I I think the question uh Mark Sherwood from Communications asked me to just say like the his Department can do some Community engagement they can hold back they can I think it depends on whether there's a name the board would like to see um attached to Lighthouse and
067then they would run with that or if this is really just the lighthouse Community coming back to the board with some names you know what I mean like what is it what is it you're asking for in terms of I don't know yeah what do you look it's like it's was the uh uh in a Nightmare Before Christmas the mayor says I'm just an elected official I can't make decisions on my own um I mean there was at least one board member who I think had proposed a name and and certainly the Communications Department could roll with that well or are we just yeah go ahead you're right no you're you're right I'm being somewhat silly we because we've asked we were going to do this and then we were GNA then we were going
068to Whole Community engagement out Bramble and then Bramble took priority and then this took a back seat and I'm going to look to Mr Lindy and Miss Matt for some help with this there have been two names that have got kicked back and forth and back and forth and they're the only two names which is Dr Odell Owens Harriet beer so um and those are the names and so I'm going to ask Mr Lind Miss map I I I am not married to anything I will not die on any of these Hills but I would I would suggest that this committee take those options back we chat about it with a board if they decide that they want Mr Sherwood to do some robust Community engagement that's great too but I but before we do
069that I want to see um we'll start with Miss map this time and then go to Mr Lindy um just reactions to that Miss map again the history with so sorry real quick so Lighthouse was a charter school lighthous um their their new CEO Paul Hafner when he was new 34 years ago got a hold of us said we don't want to be in the business operating a charter school we sponsored it do you want the building do you want the school and we said sure this is a really important place so we took it on and made it a full-on public school um for kids and Foster Care kids with a lot of severe behavioral issues and it's a really special special spot as you know um in that agreement it was just decided
070that we would rename it and not keep the name lighthouse just so it wasn't confusing for donors for Lighthouse Etc couple years ago Paul got hold he's like hey yall going to rename that it was no beef nobody cares no one's like Tech like why haven't you rename the school um but in the agreement it did say that we would rename it and we it's like three four years now and we haven't so that's why we're even talking about it sorry so then reactions to offering Stow or Owens or robust are you married to one or the other or let the board talk about it I think for me with being uh with just being introduced to it I would like to just maybe have further reflection for my per my own personal thoughts to
071to see what resonates the most um and also have more discussion around it um just because it's an introduction for me but yeah I which where I am thank you Miss Matt Mr Lindy any comments and Mr Lindy's taking a sick break that is okay look I've been there um feel free to interrupt at any point if you want Mr Lindy otherwise we're going to kick it back to the board to say here are your two options or your third option is Mr Sherway gets out in the community yeah cool okay I will yeah that's fine Mike okay thank you I will also say I apologize I have to jump here at the hour um but thank you very much and I look forward to seeing everybody next time yeah man get well I do
072think that whatever we do It's always important to have Community engagement as well so that they are able to give um their feedback also um but I I don't know what needs to take place first but um I think all of them are necessary if that's you know if that's valid yeah it absolutely is um and uh another point of privilege my second one today and then I'll be done uh I think the the the funnest fact I know is that uh Jenny Hayes the first African-American principal I think in the state African-American female principal in the state who my son school is named after was the principle of Harriet beer Stow school which no longer exists all right one more thing I promise he's like You' been telling me this whole meeting you're going
073to go to Target if you hold it together a little longer and then we'll go to Lego just a little bit longer but this one's important for your friends who do not identify as a a boy or girl James so house bills 68 um are unaware hey James for those who are unaware House Bill 68 does a number of hateful things uh namely Banning gender affirming care um but it also has a number of uh pretty uh hurtful other items in it such as kids who identify boys who identify as a girl can't play girl Sports affects a handful of students in the state and our state is run by adults who actually spend millions of taxpayer dollars to waste time so that they can prevent a handful of students kids from playing sports which
074is sick um and and twisted and I believe that they all um need to be committed or at least seek some some sort of help um that being said uh the governor vetoed house 68 which was a pretty cheap uh gesture on his part because he knew he could do it and the legislature would turn it back over so I refused to give any kudos to him on that matter because his people ended up getting their way by his people I mean the Republicans who run this state so the legislature did just that overturned it and passed this hateful legislation and it is I'm a guy and I can't break the law I know Mr hying is not something I can't well I can I guess but I don't want the district to break the
075law I I I can break the law but I'm an elected person and I I can't do that I don't want to hurt the district I know I shouldn't do that how aside from a resolution that says we don't like this which seems pretty lame to me uh to be perfectly honest um we'll do it and I don't I'm fine with doing uh just token gestures to say we think you all are are hateful people and we don't like this is is there any recourse for us I know the email I sent uh said something the effect of I have no intention of following this Law Public Records request there I did it for you uh you know I I only say what I mean Inquirer uh so no secrets here um is there I
076mean is there a way around this like what is this like do we we just ignore it is it too late now I don't know I I mean two parts to the law I would say in our our sort of initial look at it from from our side there's two parts one is relating to it broadly defines mental health professionals to include some of the folks that are employed by CPS like School psychologists social workers counselors and then it says may not provide quote diagnosis or treatment of uh gender related conditions uh without parental permission um I I I will say not I don't know what people think about what school psychologists and counselors and school social workers do but they don't do a tremendous amount of quote diagnosis and treatment um now I would
077say our mental health partners that are collocated in the school they're entirely in a different position with respect to some of this and they're going to have to think through how how they're going to be because the thing I worry about in terms of just not following it is is whether these professionals licenses might be at issue as well um so you know that's something they're going to have to think through I I don't think in schools we're doing a lot of diagnosis or treatment uh in terms of our professionals so that's on the first piece glad to answer questions about that on the sports piece kind of maybe even more interesting because at the same time that that H Bill 68 says there'll be a categorical essential ban of transgender uh female students participating
078in girl Sports Title Nine the the draft regs there which have not been issued yet but are expected would say that states cannot make a categorical ban on so then you have sort of a conflict of law issue between federal and state and lots of fun for the office of General Council to try to figure out but that that's sort of where we stand right now okay yeah that and that is that is a wonderful um update and is there any way you know I know Dayton does have they passed something they kind of copied akans or Toledos can we just copy theirs and present a resolution saying we think this is junk we take look yeah the the other thing I should have started with is just to be very clear the district's policy
079on anti-discrimination is that we do not discriminate on the basis of gender sex gender identity or expression and that's been true since 2018 that we added those protected classifications so w I just I should have started with that led with that that that board policy prohibits you know us from discriminating against those categories yeah we can absolutely look at what the other districts are doing and put together a resolution dating in Toledos is pretty good and again I'm not I'm not trying to make light of resolutions that say we think it's a bad idea but actions speak louder than words and um and our actions have always spoken the loudest in the state um in my opinion uh we we've been ahead of most things 2018 was my first year in policy committe When Miss
080Bates was the chair we were the first to add that stuff anti-racism Miss Scott thank you again for uh Etc but all right um Mr lind's gone so miss map any reactions um you pretty much have uh in inquired about the questions that I had for U Mr Hy and I think again at the basic level affirming what our policies already state in terms of equity as well as anti-racism and so um just making sure that we are modeling that we uh want all of our students and our staff and our families to feel safe to feel supported and to feel valued and secured um so I don't know whatever direction that needs to take right making sure that that does happen um and then I was interested in knowing about just the legalities right
081um we know that legislation has passed how do we make we honor bless you um what we have stated and in alignment with what the law is saying great thank you m m very very well said um and so uh just as a review at our next meeting we'll talk about the uh climate resolution again um we'll we'll we'll uh put um this resolution on the agenda because well February 5th is our next meeting we can have it for you if you want get on the 5ifth I won't be here with which is fine I don't need to be there I don't need to be there but if I'd like to be there maybe we could we could do yeah what what's your preference bringing it back to here in February policy or moving it
082forward as quickly as possible up to I'd say move that one forward I don't think there's gonna I don't need to be there miss map can represent uh co-chair map uh look at that you got promoted already your first meeting wow great cool told volen told yeah that one I think that one let's just move it forward and then at the policy meeting uh the next agenda will'll have uh the renewable energy commitment to Electric um and then the other things we talked about the work plan we'll vote on uh with the items we discussed uh we'll bring back whatever general council's office thinks we should look at with admin or students and then I'll turn it over I don't have any other business my other business was running through all that um Miss map
083do you have anything you'd like to add before we dismiss oh I think I'm good all right and also um just let you know if you do um uh last year Miss Weinberg took us up on this a lot and it resulted with a quite a few new either amendments to policies or policies I think so if there is something that you would like to bring that you don't get on the agenda um uh feel free to bring it up in other business and also please know and anyone who's been on this committee with me which I think is now everybody except Mr Craig maybe I don't know but uh the way I like to do these agendas is whatever y'all want okay so if there's some something coming up that you think is policy
084related just you know email me we'll put it on the agenda we will always be an hour and a half or less that is my commitment to you those two things um yeah no problem and then does anybody if anybody wants to talk to us raise your hand now is anyone out there want to talk to us they do cool you have two minutes how many people we got just one great Andy you have two minutes you've been in uh can you accept the invite and we will then get you started in speaking we're going to listen to uh chair hey Mr holtzer welcome I wonder what you want to talk about uh good morning I you've made my day and I'm not just saying that it's not major of I share chair morosi's sentiment
085of joy of hearing as much of a comprehensive update on sustainability efforts as as I've ever heard in my I don't know many years of caring and following uh what I can with respect to what CPS is is doing and then to my neighbor and friend Chris who wakes up every day thinking about this and taking real action to get students and other parents and others who care involved you know it's it's uh I don't know I can't see the room Chris I don't know if anyone else is in that room but you know today alone to the credit of the staff and and the board members I feel like progress is being made on this very real resolution this is important stuff uh and and I'm here as I'm year five I think of
086an 18-year stint as a CPS parent I have three kids that go to SCPA living Over the Rind a few blocks from the school uh this is deeply important to me and I do have the fortune of working professionally uh on uh in the clean energy space working with working in buildings every day to increase their Energy Efficiency and renewable energy there there are a couple of things I just wanted to highlight as a follow on uh number one I you know I come at the world from an accounting and finance perspective I'm a CPA uh by training so the are I the cost uh uh calculations they got to be there and I'm sensitive to any kind of budgetary constraint that is out there at the same time we never make progress meaningfully and
087transparently without first establishing that goal that ambition like we're talking about now and then developing that energy Baseline uh it was alluded to that it might cost a couple million dollars for energy audits across buildings professionally I would challenge that I I we see it done a lot of different ways there's a lot of different ways to slice and dice that but it's a good place to start a conversation and recognize that there's if there's a if there's a will there's a way the the zoo put up there multi-million dollar solar system with basically no money because if you ask Mark Fischer he just never took no for an answer and I think if we have the same passions and Ambitions and there are no question countless parents and others who care and want to
088make a difference then we can make it happen councilman Jeff wrote a really compelling oped that you all may have seen a few weeks ago challenging the city and CPS buildings to lead by example the state of Ohio uh in October applied for 450 million $450 million of uh funds from the uspa's greenhouse gas reduction fund for solar predominantly along with Energy Efficiency uh they won't get every nickel but they're going to get a really big chunk of that and so that's just a very specific example of something we'll find out as a state in a couple months uh of new resources for us to say now is the time to take action set goals EST Lish baselines uh do efficiency first uh anywhere you can before putting on solar uh but uh to to
089take advantage of uh the many federal funds that are out there uh Mr Burkhart alluded to I think probably the the federal tax incentive of starting at 30% maybe more that can now be monetized by nonprofits and government agencies that's a GameChanger as well but that is additive to a a a brand new Public School Energy Efficiency uh grant program out of the Department of energy for example that RFP is passed it was several months ago I hope that our school system can be ready for the next year's round of it coming up soon uh and and so th those are just a few examples but you know these uh federal funds that are coming down through the state 400 million that was applied for uh it's what's referred to sometimes as a green bank
090it's really important uh though given the amount of emissions that come from the schools buildings much less the transportation uh infrastructure uh to to lead by example and so um I I'm I'm excited at what we've heard today I'm highly committed as a parent to do everything I can at SCPA and Beyond to see World progress and I'm very appreciative of everyone in this room and on this meeting that I've had this dialogue and and I'm going to be telling the world about this today it's exciting to hear that things are happening and that um and and that there's a resolution hopefully coming down the pipe hey thanks so much Mr Holzer we appreciate you and I ended up taking a third point of privilege um and letting uh another expert talk longer than two
091minutes uh we're happy to have again both y'all here as parents and as activists and uh can't be overstated enough um that the work uh the administration put into bringing transparent real information to us um today uh because without real information we can't ask the right questions your job is to push us our job is to ask the right questions and we can't do that if we don't get the information so one last Kudo to y'all thank you Mr burkart Miss Wright Administration Mr counsel Mr counsel Mr councel and Mrs counsel let's hear from Mr Mrs councel and the real leader Miss krael who's in charge of everything um but seriously thank you all so much uh Miss Davis appreciate you all have a great day meeting is adjourned