Board Meeting 12/08/22

001all right welcome everybody to the eight December uh meeting of the All-Star News school board signed in who wanted to speak out to the community comment section or to the facilities peace all right let's roll the roll Barry Rios here okay here templing here Magnus here Turner here we have a quorum all right so um moving on the 1.3 is the approval of minutes yeah sometimes that we approve the minutes because they're not there that is my fault it's okay I just yeah um okay sorry about that all right 1.4 if you want to feel like everybody is coming thanks for the uh the huge crowd again two months in a row we're getting exciting meetings apparently and everybody online who was uh joining us now are will later on thanks for effect all right

002so section two Communications the communications honors and recognitions correct the best part of the meeting yeah filling in for Mr Hatter tonight so I want to is Addison here yet okay so I am going to um because Addison comes in the president maybe we can stop and she's a basketball player I believe and like they're they're away tonight so she was going to try to make it if not we'll get her next month so I would like to give each month we uh give Awards to students at each building a scholar athlete as well as a staff member so I have the honor tonight of giving me the trophy Sports Center student athlete of the month award this month's winner is a senior who has a 3.8 grade point average and this month's winner is

003Sean vanhoose a little bit at me so that we get you on camera so that people watching at home so Sean is a senior he is a first-time varsity basketball player and I believe it is his first time on the honor roll is that correct so Mr headart is with a child tonight but he called me and said please make sure you say this he said that Sean has really focused focused on his academics focused on his behavior and he's so proud of him he wanted to be here tonight to say that but I am going to say that on behalf of the district we are all proud of you because you exemplified what we like to see in all of our students so I need let me read this Sean is the first year

004of varsity basketball player he opened the season with a 14 point seven rebound performance against Twin Valley South this year he continues to lead through good decision making and has a strong commitment in the classroom and on the court so I know a lot of family is here and I know some as basketball coaches here as well as fellow player because everyone is proud so we're going to take a picture and then we can get other pictures congratulations I do want to add there as a gift card on the back family okay [Music] oh yeah we'll do that next okay thank you [Music] because it's a little bit all right so cheers laughs Megan Winston principal at Mills Lawn and I have the honor of presenting the award for our young Jerry Mills blonde school

005scholar of the month and that is Hazel Castle is she okay with the video um yeah yes all right Hazel was nominated by the fifth grade at teacher team she was nominated because she follows all the five skills for life at Mills line she knows she shows cooperation by working with other students on Project work and helping other students practice new school through tier tutor she shows responsibility with all assignments and completes all work in a timely manner she shows honesty by taking ownership of her actions she shows her personal best by pushing herself beyond the expectations that her classwork Hazel often goes above and beyond the classroom she participates in class often and helps further class discussions she shows respect by listening to teachers and her peers Hazel always responds to others in a

006kind and thoughtful way Hazel is a wonderful student and her teachers enjoy working with her and I will and I will add to that he's always has a smile on her face every time I see her in the hallways and up like she always has that beautiful smile so congratulations [Music] all right I also have the honor of bringing up our Employee of the Month Piper Orchard employee of the month so officially Mrs mabra was nominated by myself Nancy Bussey and Roberta semler but I can't think of anyone in novan that would not nominate Deb Mayra or employee of the month she is a second grade teacher at Mills blonde she has worked for Yellow Springs School since 1999. that was a year I graduated um Mrs favorite goes above and beyond to make sure

007students and colleagues feel appreciated and valued at Mills Lawn she always has a smile on her face that lights up the room and always offers words of encouragement to those in need she is a model veteran teacher for the new teachers and staff members that offering her knowledge with them and experiences Mrs babra is always flexible and willing to volunteer planning time and an effort to limit an inconveniences for others I will also say that when Mrs maber talks I always say that she makes me smile she could be upset she could be sad because every time she talks it makes me smile and I was sitting recently um at a game and I was sitting with judges Amy and Ron Lewis and their daughter Mary and Mary's one of my friends and Mary said

008how jealous are you going I said oh it's wonderful and she said knows that I love her so I know that there have been years and years of students who she is impacted and it's still impacting even in their adulthood thank you and family I know her husband here and her son and grandchildren heit foreign let me know all right so on the first name I have I said what's his first name was it Robbie Okay sandy King yeah come right up here the uh yeah to the wise out okay well I just I wanted to I wanted to come here tonight to speak about the facilities um ideas that are being passed around and I just want to encourage everyone to consider that all things old people elders old buildings we have value and

009uh often here six to four years and um I haven't lived outside of a 10 mile radius of this first one I visited a few places but this is it and one of the things that makes yellows pretty special is those little school and it's very high school it's the buildings people it's a place and it's the center I think in the case of nail polish it represents Who We Are we aren't just energy I'm not discounting it we're not just artists uh we're not just Bridge votes that have a higher education what yellow spring is about is about heart and the Heart of that town it's Center and the center of that is goes along the future that is those kids right there and what's important to get those into those students these Halls

010here they have our ancestor unit they speak to us in Halls are walked through the Halls as a kindergartner through a meals Long Haul my mom and dad took me through those Halls and I'll remember today and unlock my children through those Halls and our Scholars will speak to Egypt we don't speak to you in more ways to use that but I'm telling you I really I think Mr Pat Murphy that I just passed away this year the word that I really appreciated and that morning's curtailment curtailment it's about being frugal but not being cheap being wise with our money getting what we need not necessarily what we want and I think that there's something that in the new new kids coming up a lot of times there's this instant gratification idea that we need

011to have it all right now and and kids are getting houses when they're 30 years old I was 50. why that was from you know one smaller case and and it's an old place it's an old railroad shift and it's it's less than 800 square foot but it's mine and it's got heart and there's these these grounds they're sacred Hollow grounds to me and as it out in this community I encourage you to appreciate what you have to speak to the trees on its properties and dig down in your heart and let's figure out what we really use and work together to get it now let's not move anything is that great infrastructure here there's good things about these buildings and I don't know all the things but I know that we can do it

012in Little Steps nobody steps we don't have to do it all at once so this new these new places they're made out of particle board and these Park Board and off yes it makes our kids sick you know and there may be some some older things that aren't good about these games well let's improve those but let's not throw away for the general list um moving on 2.4 is schools in action no school's in action tonight I'd say you challenge the jackpot I went yeah and we allowing families yeah I'm sorry yeah the family members I mean the exciting part of the night is congratulations to make it thanks assistant foreign report for Mills Lawn the Mills Lawn um Hollow Halloween parade was back this year after a two-year break obviously due to covid the

013students had a lot of fun walking a shorter route this year but they did walk the routes or the route with their classroom buddies and that was just another opportunity to build those relationships um the kindergarten class classes were able to go into the board office and see everyone um in the office and I think maybe even sneak a little piece of candy in there right yes um and so we just want to thank everyone that came out and kind of lined the streets we have lots of family members staff members um and community members coming out to support the students so we really appreciate that and um we are planning on probably keeping that same route for next year um some in classroom fun the third grade student and Mrs Kinney and Mrs titus's

014class were awarded with a fort work day I've never seen this before but it's just an example of how our teachers think out of the box and really allow our children to have imaginations and to have a little fun while learning so the students in these classes were awarded with the fort work because they followed classroom expectations 20 times and students were invited to bring a blanket from home and create their own fort using chairs and desks in the classrooms and they were able to do their computer work their homework or read um in in their Forts and the students you should understand their smiles on the faces of the students when they came running into my classroom to come see their forts all right I guess I don't know um Veterans Day we did

015not have the luncheon but I want to make sure that everyone knows that student council is planning to bring back the annual luncheon um next year but they did spend an effort afternoon creating this flag that's hanging above the middle main entrance door and I think it really looked beautiful we did have to ask one of the Yellow Springs police officers to help us because I was just too short to get up on the ladder and hang it up there but it looks really nice and they also put together a presentation that they were able to show other students at lunch time and kind of explain the importance of that special day um on our December calendar the student council is hosting a school-wide drive for new hats gloves scarves and socks for children and

016um women and men these items that are donated will be um split between two non-profit organizations one that is the Family Promise of Greene County and the other is the house of the people who support refugees from Africa that is gonna that started this week and that will end um next Friday and then a lot of people were asking what happened to the food drive our sixth grade class that's actually going to be attached to their pbl so that's going to happen in January so um stay tuned on that we always do a really great job and we're able to donate a lot of food and then on December 20th students can wear their favorite holiday or seasonal outfit which is always fun to see the wonderful outfits that students come up with laughs foreign

017development-wise in November on our PB day we had all of our instructional assistants or classic aides participate in a training by The Crisis Prevention Institute and they became certified so they took it was basically an eight-hour class to get a funded it was part online modules and then person with Jody chick and myself and this uh training helps them to intervene if students are becoming upset or frustrated it helps them to assess kind of where they are in that process and then learn some skills to intervene and help calm students down so maybe they avoid having A disruption during their day behaviorally or even just emotionally and they can get back on track and feel supported so all of our AIDS will by the end of the year we had a few that we need

018to catch up on that training but that we'll get there a little later in the year but all of them will be trained and certified in Crisis Intervention I think we all probably have to speak up a little bit because we're fighting against the air Handover okay I will try to speak up then thank you um the rest of the staff just about every one of our teachers in both buildings is cancer is participating in a book study and the book study is based on differentiation for gifted learners but it does affect being able to tailor their destruction to meet most students needs differentiating is looking at where a student is and then picking planning accordingly so that every student gets what they need in the classroom so this book study is a collaboration with

019Montgomery County Educational Service Center the teachers will participate in online programming they'll read a book and they have some assignments um and they will be getting 15 hours of professional development um credit which they need in order to be serving students who have aren't qualified as gifted so that would mean that our pilot program forget that it's going to be expanding because we're getting the majority of our teachers trained and they need to have four maybe 15 hours for four consecutive years so most teachers will um be definitely in their first year and some of them won't be already in their second or third year because of this and then upcoming we had um all of the certified staff has been participating in sessions of trauma-informed care for the classroom and that is being extended

020um Trey Clemens who's a professor of the Department of Education at Sinclair and provides this training we're extending that to our classified staff and they will have training as well because we have kids that come from all kinds of different backgrounds we don't know what kind of trauma they may have experienced unfortunately some kids do and this will help us to be able to serve their needs and know what to do recognize that they need certain supports and that is all I have for today that sounds great I will take Jacks briefly yes yeah he he said it's just going to be late this evening so um for the high school the middle school high school um fall theater recap so hopefully um many of you who got to go to the production of five

021plays for an anti-racist tomorrow um I was there it was fabulous fabulous and that is our competition um show um let me read here sorry uh the next show uh Peter Pan which was held in our gym um by our underclassmen I was there as well and we used aerial silks and they were flying and it was pretty amazing and and I have to hand it to these young thespians that's a difficult production to do and they kept me engaged which is which is saved my life and then finally I want to give a shout out to Olive Cooper any diamond who were our seniors and were cast in the state show Moon Over Buffalo so kudos to them fall Sports recap uh I'm sure you remember at previous board meetings we were talking specifically

022about soccer boys soccer they had a run into the state semifinals where unfortunately it ended but um congratulations to them for a hard-fought exciting season so they they did us proud our volleyball team won the Metro Buckeye Conference Championship get this for the fifth time and the last eight years they have also done us proud senior cross country Runners Cheyenne sundel Turner again as not only a season but a high school career to be proud of she posted the fastest race time of any Metro Buckeye Conference competitor this season and then girls soccer finished the season with its highest win total since 2008. um so it was just wow we had an amazing fall season and so we have great hopes for our winter season and then finally last Saturday was our school Forest uh

023Festival 74th Annual School Forest Festival um and that was a successful day so congrats to the students and and John Day who really do a tremendous job with that and next week December 15th it is returning the senior luncheon on campus so um local seniors are encouraged to RSVP to the high school office by tomorrow it's a very nice time so um we extend that offer to all seniors in the group is any questions on any other reports all right then 2.6 is the Greene County Career Center report Mr Stephen Queen hello everyone my name is Steve McQueen and I am vice president of the Greene County Career Center's board and January 11th is when I'll become the president of the Greene County Career Center board for president-elect yeah so one of the first things

024I wanted to mention because I wasn't able to do a short last month but there's an event called she digs not sure if you've heard of this uh basically they have uh young ladies who are in different uh Career Centers usually uh mechanics and or construction anything along those lines if they're interested in operating very large uh equipment they have something called she digs and the main purpose of it is because a lot of guys as soon as women want to handle the larger things they'll just sort of book them out of their instance okay I'll do it and so a lot of women never did forget the full training and so they wanted to have young ladies they have a whole day where they can go to completely different um you know giant uh

025cranes to um bulldozers to be very excited and how we had we six uh three young ladies uh who all came and shared with us what that experience was like and how much it meant for them and they're all very interested in remaining uh and going into that graduate uh the next big thing of course was the visit by the governor the governor uh came to the school and uh there were certain students who were chosen handpicks to sort of just found out that day so they had no way to really print this uh and so they had students lead them around they all talked about how short he was but uh but they also talked about um just how friendly he was even though it was a I'll follow up opportunity to treat it

026like that anyway it was actually interested in all these things um and then he was able to talk so I should continue about the importance of Career Centers and um and the fact that they're moving facilities uh regret to and for me we have two members that are leaving uh Mike eaker of Fairborn is retiring after nine years uh with the Greene County Career Center's board and uh Angela Reagan who came in with me uh her husband got a new job and she is following him down to Florida and so I'm going to miss her the most because she was only a year older than me and it was nice to have someone else who also couldn't recognize the 70s [Laughter] they both did a really great service it has not been announced who will

027be replacing them but I'm pretty sure it's going to be interesting and our Christmas dinner is the 14th of December uh that has been like uh in this situation but I should be really interesting we have our culinary students uh announced mentality students all like do the entire thing so from advertisers to desserts um all the students at the practice music for days to make it extremely nice I'll make sure to bring pictures uh report and uh that will conclude my report are there any questions uh about anything I just wrote thank you thank you very much all right so 2.7 we built in a five minute break so if anybody wants to escape it then uh we'll come back in three minutes or five minutes and we'll move on to section three which will

028be our facilities display thank you is foreign all right welcome back everybody the group and running again so if you were watching online we just took a five minute break and now we are back in um we're at section three for probably belong on the agenda and it is our facilities instructions foreign so um I have a slightly lengthy report I apologize for that um first thing I wanted to do though was to just review the charge again that the charge of the committee was to develop a permanent Improvement plan that was in the charge and that included maintenance renovation and new construction and we're now calling it a renovation plan but there's still all of those things in it but it seems like it's a little more um familiar word um in the charge

029we are to provide the Committees to provide a plan a renovation plan or a permanent Improvement plan at different price points that was part of the charge and to develop a prioritization of needs and the reason we've done this the school board can ask for this to be done was because the community had been asking for it and they wanted to be able to compare that to a new build and so I feel excited that we're in the process of providing it and I feel encouraged that we're finally getting to the meet um or if you're a vegetarian the vegetables of the work and I think you should feel encouraged as well we have the draft drawings of our architect Mark Richley who did a listening process with the principals and the superintendent and I

030know there were a few other staff involved regarding things they and the teachers would like to improve the buildings and then he put these requests in his bronze and with most engineering he put together a budget which is broken into two buckets the foundational or high needs part of the renovation and then the second bucket included additional requests to improve schools so the foundation of Market response to many needs teachers and administrators have been describing for many years it's in some way modeled on the Oakwood Junior High High School renovation which several of the committee members has visited and saw what they had done which was an 18 million dollar project that they did in their 1920s facility and a lot of it focused at mechanical systems and those kind of those kind of things

031um in that foundational renovation bucket we would replace all mechanical systems including replacing all hvacs and air exchanges and we would add air conditioning to the high school gym this will resolve and address air quality problems we will gut and update restrooms and make them ADA Compliant replace all ceilings and Lighting update the PA and Tech Systems update the electrical service with increased Outlets to meet classroom and work room needs these improvements in my mind will meet the needs of a 21st century School uh there's also the replacement of routes that need replacement and I think we all agree we need to plan for the future needs of those rules that currently are not needing replacement uh Windows single pane windows um of the older parts of the building would be replaced the renovation at

032Mills Lawn would create a secure vestibule there'd be upgrades and reconfiguring of offices at the front of the building and um there's a lot of doors in those lawn that goes into individual classrooms and in the front those would be removed um for safety the trailer which is our band room would be replaced with a new build built uh boundary and in the high school there would be new new construction of a secure vestibule with offices um both buildings concrete masonry and facade repairs would be part of the plan things that are thus far Not Included would be furniture and floor covering and we have been told that these are not high item costs I think these are two items that we should also find a way to make happen in this initial plan currently

033the cost of this renovation which includes both hard and sauce costs as well as projected inflation is 25 million it is higher than we had thought it would be from the initial numbers we were getting looking closely at the numbers could could the building professionals on the committee believe bring down that number significantly enough to make room for addressing some of the improvements in the second list in four years when we pay off the bond for the for the 2002 Edition we couldn't potentially tackle further improvements there is also more than I've always said there's always more than one solution to a problem building new is one solution to our facility needs and I believe renovation is another solution renovation to me provides some important positives that we should consider we will preserve meals on

034school which is beloved by the community it's a neighborhood School young children are able to walk and bike to it the children's benefit from going to school in the heart of the community and playing amongst the beautiful trees in nature which is being seen by many Educators as an important balance to the increased time young children are spending on computers uh if we choose a renovation plan we will join the many school districts who have declined a new building because of their love for their neighborhood schools secondly people in the community in this community care a lot about environmental sustainability and waste you know waste and they would prefer we did not uh we did something that was more sustainable for our school environmental Architects and environmentalists recognize that the United States used far more

035construction resource resources than is its fair share and that building new um worsens global warming as the American architectural Institute former president Carl elliphant coin the most Sustainable Building was the one that is already built third I believe that we will get more from a renovation than a new bill I believe that at this time I should say there'll be more space in the buildings which will ensure that the middle and high school teachers have their own classrooms it will ensure that our student Advocate will at uh will continue to have be have a room with which is a safe space for students currently we have approximately 41 classrooms between the two campuses and in the square footage analysis our architect um did an educated guest that we would be reducing classrooms to around 29.

036these numbers uh like I said came from an analysis based on the reduced square footage of a new K-12 bill that was on the ballot last fall and with the renovation we have more control of the process for the renovation will cause less Financial stress on community members especially those on fixed incomes modest income people and families and renters while we do get State monies on a new build and it's it's very tempting it does not really relieve the financial burden the community has has to come up with up front the um the fact that the school money that the state gives money back to the school district in about 10 years does not really help with that in my estimation and the issue the issue is complex it's uncertain but that you know we

037have to come with up with all the money up front as a community and then finally I do not think the 25 million dollars is the final dollar that we should be thinking about but I think a renovation plan in that vicinity uh will be supported by a vast majority of our communities I believe a bond Levy will be passed with enthusiasm for our renovation from from the many people that I talk to in town and so that our children our teachers and our community members all important parts of the district Community will benefit from such a plan when the school district created the facilities committee to explore renovation plan many in the community were excited very happy about it and I think the trust of the school district ticked up a bit the board

038gave the committee a charge which expected the committee to do its best in good faith to create a workable renovation plan I am concerned by some of the things I'm hearing in the community as they follow the work of the committee because many of them have become convinced that some members have not been committed to the charge that the committee was given but rather have been using the meetings as a venue for advocating for a new building yeah the larger problem with this is that if community members believe the effort has been undermined the trust that we are trying to build will be lost and the ability to pass a desperately needed bond for our facilities could be put in jeopardy um I think A Renewed commitment to the charge of the committee at this

039time by every member of the committee to create the best renovation plan possible for the district so that it can be compared to a new bill will be in will be essential to turn this perception around um a way to show commitment to this process is to support its completion I'm almost finished I know this is a little long something that has been recommended by our maintenance plan advisor is that we need to do five deeper Dives in regards to our Electric System course core sampling of the roots scoping our sewer and storm water pipes and taking a sample of pipes related to the heating system in order to know their condition so we know what we need to do relative to them and if we need to replace them then we find that out

040but if we don't need to replace them we can also find out the life expectancy that uh whether it be 10 20 30 or even 50 years so we need this so I really feel it's important that the school for support that we we do these evaluations the building professionals are reaching out to people they know to try to get an evaluation for less than the quotes that our maintenance plan advisor Dave and to get the to get the full use of the report we unfortunately need this additional work I recommending that we make uh five thousand dollars available for this I don't really know exactly what it's going to cost but I think that we could keep it within that cost level uh we need to the committee will be having Zoom calls with

041our Consultants again to go over the numbers to scrub the numbers um process and new information we'll be getting the more we can get you know in that first 25 million dollar range um the more money the more that we can get those numbers down the more we'll be able to start addressing the improvements being recommended by our administrative staff beyond that first those those initial needs um let's see thank you we are our debt limit is 28.5 million for a bond and to me this could be a prize we would want to aim for as one of our price points that would allow us to add some additional improvements we're also looking at financing Energy Efficiency which might possibly make take some of the improvements out of the bond and so that is still

042being um you know we're investigating so there's still a lot of work to be done like the goal of the committee is to complete um the work and time for the school board to make a decision for the for next November's ballot we did not plan I don't think there's anybody on the committee who wants it to drive out so that we can't do that everybody thinks we need to move this work along and we need to complete it uh one of the things I haven't discussed because it's really hard to think about before we have a picture of the project is this the question of Swing space and um Antioch University Midwest has been is being explored as one option um but I just wanted to put that out there we should have conversations

043I think with Oakwood with the Oakwood administrators who did their process using spaces in their building they never swung outside the building and they they did their work in the Summers and after the school day was over in the afternoons whether we could do that I don't know but I think it would be worth talking to them to learn from their experience that's really all I have to say thank you [Music] yeah yeah um at the facility committee when we looked at this budget it was my understanding that this was a single plan and a single project not two phases um so so I'm a little bit confused by the going back to a foundational and then addressing other stuff later um that's being brought up tonight um I think the numbers on on this

044are great budgetary numbers to help make decisions by um the additional test being recommended um well the electrical panel was not recommended by your professional um and actually upgrading to 480 is environmentally friendly because it creates half the energy use but um some of these other tests such as coring the roof and hammering the pipes and stuff that would certainly be something that would be done after a levy is passed for renovations and I just think doing these tests now is is not going to get us it's not going to significantly impact these numbers it certainly impacts the renovation project but if we're not going that direction then then you're you know that that's not money well spent so we want to make sure that we're doing the project before I would invest further into

045diving deeper into this as far as the cost goes um because it would certainly be something you do before that project and any of those conditions are not going to improve in the time that the you know if we do if we do a core sample now and the roof looks bad it's not going to get better in the time so it could get worse same with camera in the pipes and stuff so you want to do it as close to the project as possible I guess would be my advice so putting off those tests it doesn't really change our budgetary numbers it just helps us establish what is the condition when we do the renovation so there are some routes that uh could probably be what is it refurbished um and uh that you

046know those those were the roofs that have you know been renovated more recently so uh there's so and there's also what I'm talking about it wasn't a total replacement is that you want to understand is that there's concern with the age of the pipes but the feedback from uh the custodian staff is that there haven't been there haven't been links is that is that that was something that was said to facilities mean um and if that so I guess the question so the ideas is that there's age and there's concern to the age and there's concern with failure but you know this is basically kind of understanding how much time do we have do we have um to be able to take these to some of these lower costs um kind of steps at home

047thank you so I have some prepared comments that I hope are positive but but I I just feel compelled to um comment publicly um I'm gonna speak for me and and my team um I don't know who is in this group that is thwarting the purpose of the committee but I think we we've been at every meeting and and we've taken a lot of hits and and that's okay but we are advocating for our students and our families so um my intent here is to is to take what I heard Tuesday night and and I urge you if you weren't at the meeting um watch the video because I do have some questions about things that are said tonight that either I missed and there's always that possibility or just are not we're not accurate

048from Tuesday night I do share the same question of Treasurer McGrath and that I specifically asked Tuesday and I is this one project or two so but I I want to read my prepared remarks if that's okay um the facilities committee has been meeting since March of this year I want to personally thank board members Judith templin and Dorothy UK for their leadership of this process I also want to thank the teachers administrators and community members who are on the committee who have given their time and energy to this process members of the community have been weighing in on our facilities throughout this time however we need broader Community input and we need broader parent input Public Schools should be the foundation of any Village or City Yellow Springs is no exception as a resident

049a taxpayer and superintendent I believe it is incumbent upon all of us to engage in discussions about what we want our public schools to be the board is engaging in a strategic planning process beginning in January that will help us on this journey I say this to preface some specific remarks about facilities I feel as we near the end of this work of the facilities committee we have a a full report whose numbers were verbally said by both our Consultants on Tuesday that they are strong numbers they're not guesstimates um our school buildings have generally exceeded their life expectancy Mills Lawn was built in 1952 and is 70 years old McKinney middle Yellow Springs High School was built in 1963 and is 59 years old through the work of this facilities committee as well as

050the work of the 2019 facilities committee and prior committees the deficiencies and problems in the buildings have been well documented we have been talking about these same things for at least five years now time is not on our side children grow our building conditions will continue to deteriorate we have an imperative to address the condition of our school donors I've read all the comments provided by parents and community members in regard to our facilities I've heard them from folks who've attended in person and I've read all of the comments that are shared in this document I appreciate everyone taking the time to email comments to us or to come to meetings because time is precious and I I respect that and understand that one request I read was to learn from history so here is

051the history as I know it in my time here in 2018 the district put a bond and income tax issue on the ballot for renovations and new addition to the middle school high school at a cost of roughly 12.7 million dollars which did not pass anecdotally I was told this was because there was no plan for Mills Lawn School and that cost was a factor one charge I was given upon my higher in 2019 was to address the district's aging buildings and to be mindful that cost was a large factor for Community residents in 2021 the district put a bond and income tax issue on the ballot for a new K-12 at the mid at the middle school high school site with the 26 percent credit from the Ohio facilities construction commission for a cost

052of roughly 35.5 million which did not pass anecdotally I was told this was because the community wanted to maintain two campuses including the green space at Mills law at Tuesday's facilities committee meeting the board's architectural consultant Mike richly and the board's MPA Michael Murdock from moats engineering presented their final reports on renovations to both of the district's buildings that is what you see here the numbers are sobering but not surprising these numbers are not guesstimates both Mike richly and Mike Murdoch are confident of their budgetary numbers which include architectural and Engineering fees inflation allowances contingencies and the like for a November 2023 ballot issue they have however indicated that the numbers would most likely go up after that time should the district a decide not to put something on the ballot or B have something

053not pass to help us move this process forward it is critical for us to truly identify what the issue is it cost is it two campuses is it fear of a single K-12 is it something else in my historical look back I have absolutely no idea if the issue is cost and only cost the most appropriate path is a new K-12 with a now 27 percent ofcc credit from the state that would reduce the overall cost of the bond and allow the board in collaboration with the community to discuss what to do with the Mills Lawn property so that any Financial savings could be felt by the taxpayers if the issue is fear of a single K-12 building visits to new K-12 buildings in districts around us can be arranged sometimes you need a picture

054of what this actually looks like as board member halfling said at Tuesday's meeting we can learn a lot from a district who has already done work whether it's renovation or a new build we can learn from others if the issue is the desire to keep two campuses then as a community we need to have realistic conversations about that cost and what we can and cannot get for our money as well as what opportunities would be lost such as an ofcc 27 credit if the issue is not cost nor fear of the K-12 nor a desire to keep two campuses but something else then we must identify that and plan appropriately I want to reiterate time is not on our side we cannot keep moving our Target no matter what path we take I will continue

055to advocate for educational adequacy this means more than just square footage this means spaces for collaboration for both students and teachers this means embedded technology and up-to-date labs this means appropriate choir orchestra band and theater roads this means furniture that is designed for today's students and their educational needs there has been significant conversation at the facilities committee meetings about square footage current square footage in the district for both buildings is 121 553 square feet the 2021 ofcc square footage is a hundred and five thousand one hundred and twenty three square feet and the square footage of the plan that Mike richly proposed is 132 697 square feet the Educators and administrators have been characterized as having created a wish list for these Renovations that we would not have gotten in the 2021 ofcc plan that

056is not exactly an accurate characterization in 2021 we knew that we would need a locally funded initiative in the future to address other needs the district had some options discussed or an auditorium an auxiliary gymnasium solar to achieve Net Zero status and geothermal HVAC this was discussed at both core advisory team meetings as well as in larger Community meetings because the team the core advisory team was operating on the premise the cost was a large factor in the previous defeats a conscious decision was made to not include lfis at that time in the bond issue it's critically important to note that lfi cost could have been and can be in the future recouped through the 27 percent credit from the ofcc and the investiture of assets if that should happen in the end you can't

057accurately compare what you get simply by looking at square feet there are redundancies in a two campus situation that do not exist in a single new build when you go to a new build you have to do a whole program of requirements that says here's you know here's your square footage allowance but you can move that around based upon your needs I do not know what the end result will be and I want to State again like I stated Tuesday I am not advocating for one plan or the other I'm trying to figure out where the target is that the community has so that I can read it as of today I don't know where that is no matter what the path though I think everyone needs to know I will continue to advocate for

058educational adequacy for my students and my teachers because I think that is what they need it is not a wish list it is what they need and quite honestly it's what a quality Public School System should have particularly in a village like Yellow Springs thank you who do you want to go next I have something for good I think that Jay also has something to say yeah okay all right um so I'll try to keep it short and go to a point here um I want to address the concept of foundational plan it's clear that the foundational plan is incomplete without adding but vast majority of the second tier of the additional plan the plan only we plan only partially addresses our system unfortunately the words all of the groups that we need to address

059it does not address the educational needs of our schools and I think that Carson granted and just booked that it does not provide us with the assets but we need to catch up with neighboring school districts and it does not provide us with the tools that we need to do to do 21st Century Learning and there is a cost to not addressing that how many teachers and students are we going to lose do we assume that our open enrolled families will stay through the disruption of construction how many in-district families are going to enroll out this is going to happen this would have a great impact on our budget and our ability to keep our school system approach so I want to talk about that because that we have not yet acknowledged um and also

060I want I want to take a pause here to celebrate the big milestone that the facilities committees has achieved the facilities committees has entered the 2021 question of how much does it cost to renovate our current facilities and the answer is that it would cost 50 million dollars plus the cost of displacing students this is a big answer we've been waiting for this this is the answer that this committee has been asking people and to address our needs this is 50 million dollars the experts are confident with their numbers they've said so uh very clearly on Tuesday and both are the experts uh that were hired on the recommendations of the community members in the facilities committee that we're familiar but our most familiar with buildings so both Army experts that were prepared to survive

061the people that have the most uh familiarity in these buildings and they are feeling confident with their numbers the experts we've hired indicated that further assessments would not significantly change the overall cost my understanding is that we are within a five percent error Merchant margin on the system updates at least on the updates that would yield the longest added lifetime and I think that we agreed that the Vantage uh updates would be misguided here so uh and also we've ruled out uh the based in love is Sandy you talked about doing work over time we just rolled that out on Tuesday as a non-viable option for our district and I don't want anybody in the community to be misled by that we are talking about a one phase of renovation of one phase of uh

062work and not space over time it's not viable for us to do that so now the facilities committee is talking about additional assessments are the extra costs I think I've learned tonight that uh Judy hemping is asking for five thousand dollars my understanding is that these additional assessments would help fine-tune some cost and narrow down some scenarios for instance uh it would help us figure out do we replace our HVAC with light for like uh products or are we redesigning our HVAC so that we are more environmentally sustainable and to do that we will need to assess the two pipe system in the buildings but no matter what it doesn't change the overall cost it doesn't change the overall disruption to schooling we're still looking at the overall same picture um so I agree with

063uh the comment from our treasure that those additional assessments right now on this is not the right timing for those yet so should we move forward with this new sometimes repetitive assessments well clearly I'm not sold on them I can see the purpose of some I think that the timing is off but there are some but I do not see the purpose for instance one of a requests is to do yet another analysis available across system we've had so many events already saying the same thing uh we know what needs to be done and we know what would leave us vulnerable to significant risks uh with our system and to limit the choice with how we can replace it by new equipment so if we stay stuck on the 240 voltage we have less of

064a choices with the equipment that we can buy and we switched 480 and that's that's something we need to keep our options open but mostly a further issue that I've gained from our Tuesday medium here was brought up by the community input and I want to thank everyone that came on Tuesday and spoke because this is the kind of Engagement that helped us move the discussion forward we've had several members uh committee members talking about why the past level is failed and each one of them identified a different reason the editor of the wise news wrote that affordability was the top priority if so then the renovations are not significantly cheaper I know that we're still waiting for the cost of a new building but while we wait for those numbers we can operate on

065the Baseline that might gradually shared with us and he gave us a baseline of 450 a square foot weighs at 27 State funding uh supports and that would bring us below the cost of a renovation plan another Committee Member said that location was the most important priority if so I want everybody to be clear but it's not compatible with our current 27 State funding support unless we explore creative uh Creative Solutions and then someone else brought up that environmental concerns where the tough issue if so most people should understand that we are stuck with the fossil fuel based system in our Renovations and we still have to replace and dispose of significant amount of materials some of which is as early as so I would direct those individuals to read uh Dr Holden's comments on

066the study that Judaism has been uh sharing in previous meetings here so this is what I'm going to turn with towards the whole board here and I'm going to ask for guidance here um and I'm going to propose you something uh I propose that we pause the pursuing of this additional test until we conduct a study of what is the most important factor um for our voters besides supporting an excellent public education is it affordability is it the location of nail salon is it phasing out of fossil based Heating and Cooling which one is the most important because we're getting to a point where both priorities are ritually exclusive and we need to keep in which directions thank you I also have prepared statements after watching the facilities committee meeting on Tuesday it would be

067unethical as a school board to move forward a plan that doesn't address all of the issues outlined in the complete renovation plan I'm speaking to the difference between the quote-unquote foundational plan versus the complete plan it is not only some of the roofing that the foundational plan doesn't address it is half of the abatement of asbestos it is the unhealthy conditions in the shoebox that would be maintained rather than demolished it is the lack of educational adequacies in our spaces for learning I'm thinking about the preservation of a high school band room and that inaccessible space I'm thinking about the fifth and sixth grade Wing in Mills Lawn that would not be renovated under the foundational plane it is emergency life-saving measures that would bring us up to code with regards to fire safety and

068storm shelters it is woefully short of being fully accessible not only for our students with Mobility challenges but for the tools and resources for our counselors and teaching aides that are serving all of the needs of our children I'm thinking of the counseling spaces that are in Mills Lawn and that are in the shoebox that is where our counselors work with our needs children I am thinking about what it also leaves out uh adequate spaces for eating in our cafeterias the kitchens are not addressed while some members of the facilities committee may think that these things we can do without I actually heard uh arguments that we could do without fire safety for example these are the minimum standards that are required to meet I quote to meet the educational welfare of all students attending

069the public schools which is in our district and for all School boards in the state of Ohio our number one priority in our code of ethics to meet the welfare of all students attending the public schools in our district that is our top code of ethics requirement so when um when I'm I'm reviewing and and watching the facilities committee meeting and listening um and hearing that we would maybe as I just heard tonight from the chair we would maybe also have to return to taxpayers in another four or five years and ask for more because of all of the things that are being left out of the quote unquote foundational plan I am very concerned without addressing all of the issues we will continue to lose families when they visit our schools and make a

070comparison visit to any one of the school districts in our area of Southwest Ohio including our immediate neighboring districts perhaps most important though and I want to take a moment on this point if we leave these issues unresolved we will likely lose even more of our talented teachers and staff who have felt demoralized and unheard over the previous failed levies who are clearly exhausted I could see it in their faces during the meeting and dishearten at having to repeat their needs over and over again to new constituencies it has been painful to witness teachers being placed in a position to have to plead with facilities Community Committee members about the conditions of their teaching spaces I applaud the teachers for speaking up but I am also very disappointed in this Village and in the facilities

071committee process that this has been necessary I want to publicly acknowledge the teachers as champions of our children and our schools in this district and going above and beyond every day to provide a true north for this process they continue to remind us what is most important and what is at stake the fact that numerous committee members called into question the calculations in the cost budget when we have hired School building Architects and Engineering professionals who work with districts across the state it's not only demeaning to those who we've hired but it erodes the entire process when those numbers are being called into question David Roche a Committee Member went so far as to call these quote unquote guesstimates that is not only uninsalting it is untrue it is untrue this is a budget that

072has been carefully prepared by experts that were hired by the committee so statements such as this should be immediately disputed by the chair of the committee during the meeting I would say and how in the world my question is will we get to a plan a plan that I would like to get you to be able to hear and be presented as a board member when members of the committee are undermining the expertise of our hired contractors and calling into question the very reality of the numbers of the budget that we are being presented by spreading language that these numbers are not accurate is a dangerous precedent that undermines everyone's efforts towards a good faith solution I do believe that we are all looking for a good faith solution but we must we must consider

073how that language is undermining our very process we need the public to understand that the full renovation plan to address all of the issues and inadequacies of our facilities is 50 million dollars the foundational plan does not address all of the issues and the plan costs 50 million dollars to say that it would address all of our needs is not true um I also heard facility Committee Member Scott Fife in November's committee meeting say that in his experience at Centerville I believe it was Centerville Public Schools uh taxpayers understood that to maintain multiple buildings which they did decide to do with a renovation plan for multiple campuses they knew it would be the more expensive option 50 million dollars is the good faith estimate cost to Yellow Springs taxpayers to maintain two fully functioning safe

074school buildings and campuses and there are no cost saving measures for sharing of square footage in one building there are no cost saving measures from the state of Ohio taxpayer dollars to invest in our schools through the ofcc we would not receive any state funding so I agree with what I'm hearing from a fellow board member bouquet about and from Dr Holden that I think we are at a moment in which we need to have a robust Community discussion about what has been presented to date and the findings of the facilities committee we need to explore this with surveys and other mechanisms to ask Yellow Springs taxpayers if they think that is worth it I think to do anything less would be unethical on the part of our work yeah well some of the numbers

075that were being questioned and it's kind of like part of the reason I wanted uh building professionals on the committee and yes I know the other members are Educators and professionals as well so there's this moment there's no need intentions to mean anybody on the committee but there's some numbers here that don't make a lot of sense like for example if you look at the thp report it says window and glass replaces gymnasium 292 thousand dollars so then the question was Jay was kind of trying to guess what that could mean because there are no windows in our gymnasium as far as I know uh but you know we need to have an actual answer to that is that referring to some other windows I don't know it may be but it's not clear what

076that is It also says door replacements for the gymnasium 269 thousand dollars and again um you know these are there's big question marks there what does that what is that about what does that mean I um think that honestly the Consultants expect us to go over these numbers and to um and to look at them in detail line by line and see what we can figure out in regards to yeah and make sure they're accurate that's the reason the building professionals are there because they have an expertise here they can have a give and take um just relying on One Professional because we paid him doesn't make sense to me and the other thing is as the um maintenance plan advisor Mr Murdock said two professionals had a different at this agreement and to me

077that means you look into it more deeply because that means as is the true in many cases there is more than one solution to a problem and if you talk to The Experts you can get to the better solution it's part of the recent Democratic decision making is a good thing to do because you get all the different points of view and you learn something somebody you didn't know um Mr Murdoch at one point when Jerry cravenia was suggesting using sleeves if need be for the sewer lines said he had no familiarity with that and yet our our town is doing that throughout this The Village as a repair to our sewer lines so people have different experience and you would learn from one another and that's what that's the purpose and it's not insulting

078I'm sorry you know if you've been my profession a nurse says to me you know I would do it this way I would think well does it make sense and if it does maybe I'll do it that way too but I'm not going to be insulted by it so I I just don't get that but anyway there's a whole lot more detail you could go through but I don't think that's what we should do tonight I just wanted to point out I mean maybe you know Louisa what who knows we're talking about in the gymnasium that would cost 292 thousand dollars to replace or the doors but those are the kind of questions they're real questions and our community is going to be looking at this stuff and they're going to say wait a minute

079that doesn't make sense to me and when they say that you know that issue of trust that I'm talking about is going to rear its ugly head so I agree and that our issues of trust inside are just needed and then you can go ahead I guess I haven't seen any indication I'm a little surprised that you know you're coming to ask for more funding around in the further investigation of further conditions of the building um I'm concerned actually that we're losing trust in the process by the questioning of that expertise um you seem to you know make light of that that it's that's common practice to ask about the numbers but what I'm seeing is that the facilities committee is not fully coming into acceptance that that foundational plan is not addressing the school

080district's needs um and so I don't know how we could further invest in more findings and more exploration when I feel that it is not clear that the committee isn't willing to acknowledge what has been found and the total costs of what we're looking at I also am concerned that we would be losing critical time which time has been mentioned a lot tonight um about pivoting I think we're at a time where we need to begin pivoting towards exploring the comparisons so that we can give the public all of the information that we have with enough time to get real true feedback I truly believe we all want a levy to be passed and a solution to be found I truly believe that and we have to have time to be able to fully disseminate

081the information and have comparisons and I'm concerned we're running out of that time yeah I just just briefly I I was involved on the 2019 facilities committee and I believe you were a TJ and maybe Mike right there I think you were as well sure I just want to point out this is one other issue and we deal with we have to choose between air and I'll speak up I'm I'm getting a little worried that this is feeling a lot like that became an exercising questioning professional assessments that we've not only requested but paid for and I think what I want everyone to understand this is a single page document and when you when you go into any project and and Rebecca had a great question the other night and I don't know with 30

082000 for boilers whatever the number was it seems high to you and I for our home boiler yes but I was sitting next to Mike Murdoch and he's like well it's not one boiler and so it there are a lot of things that live behind this single sheet so I just want to caution everybody I think questioning to say hey can you help me understand this is absolutely appropriate yes but I think questioning to say I don't think you know what you're doing I know better is overstepping because otherwise we should do all of this ourselves I don't think anybody said that it just feels a lot like what happened in 2019 and and so what what happens is the longer we question and the longer we push this out the longer it takes us

083to make a decision so it's just my only passion take it or not take it I'm just speaking from my experience on the 2019 committee I I would like to say one little thing just in regards to this question of you know talking to experts and you know questioning them when I part of the reason I thought this way of doing a committee was a good idea is because when I was on Village Council we had a consultant come and tell us we needed a several million dollar substation for our Electric System Of The Village and there was and I was I don't know anything about electricity and substations and all that but there was some question mark in my mind and I said why don't we bring some of the experts in Yellow Springs

084which ended up being people like Benji mariamo Reggie Stratton who used to oversee the facilities at Antioch and other people like that who knew about electricity and we had that committee it it meant about I don't remember three or four months it brought in different people they were probably seven or eight people from the village who knew about electrical systems and that they decided we didn't need a substation we saved several million dollars and the community The Village still hasn't had a substation built for its Electric System so that's why I think uh the give and take is useful so um I think it's a little bit in terms of what I also heard David roach said was that it could be a little high or a little low but when we're talking about the

085numbers I also heard Mr Murdoch say that he was very competent in these numbers I'm pretty certain that Mr Ridgely was as well so it's like any budget when we are all familiar with working with the budgets you have a Target things are a little high a little low but you come in more or less hopefully on your budget and I think we have plenty of information here for a very accurate budget of what this would look like yeah I guess I'm just gonna make a recommendation for the committee so if there's anybody you know on the committee that is not confident or has questions about the details then I I think we just set up a zoom call with uh we're planning to do that okay and and then once everybody has their questions

086answered because the facility committee meetings are only two hours and it seems like there's 20 hours of questions so um you know let's set that up and anybody that has questions about the details behind this should go through those questions and have those answered and then once those are all answered we can say this is the number that the committee has come to um maybe there's some slight tweaking there but um the example of a line of 292 thousand dollars I looked at it it's because you look looking at the wrong line it's about the corridor of the hallway this is why there are so many windows and doors this is not about the gymnasium here so but all that to say that we've paid thirty thousand dollars to our experts and this is not

087the first round of expertise we're getting and all those experts seems to be giving the same pictures and we need to address those issues and so can we just accept the expertise that we paid for so that we can move on to the next to the next uh part of a conversation which is really what is what is the priority of a community is it affordability is it the location is it not having the country as well what is it a package is the part that we need to address yes there's I still have questions though and I mean this is part of the puzzle because you know there's a whole one of the things that we were interested with a permanent Improvement plan is to understand the rent schedule yeah so we're no Amy

088we've moved pastry and trying to come up with numbers that are what the plan will be to do that this is the only thing that's really feasible at this point foreign because we don't have enough lifetime left in our buildings to phase things out we are ruled out for permanent Improvement but why what my understanding so for the foundational so you're saying that well that's the thing is that so you're saying that borrow everything at once at the same terms at the same rent schedule yeah because we cannot face work in we don't have enough lifetime we're looking at at school closures because we cannot delay that over 5 to 10 15 years and this is why we talked about the option three at the last board meeting and it's awesome to be on board

089here it's because a face of permanent or phased inlandio permanently it's not suitable with the conditions of our buildings and this is something that Judy spoke to on Tuesday too I I mean everybody on the committee recognizes that we're going to need to have a truck on money to do if we choose a renovation we're going to be going for a bond I think everybody recognizes that we're also need to keep in mind that um you know our maintenance budget appears to be inadequate so that because we don't want to fix things up and then let them not take care of it and then you hit yourself into the same situation so um and we agree on that right but the initial investment that we need to do cannot be faced well that's the full

090part of the question is what is you know the whole intent of getting life cycle costs is so that we understand what we have to go to the public and ask for exactly right and so there's more questions to be answered here on that well but but this is a spreadsheet of dollars it doesn't that's not it's not in here like this that's not what we can do but this is following the recommendations that there are either one or three years left in our all of the part underneath that you see a mechanical systems they have no life left in them that's a significant School closure that's why we that's why the recommendation is to have a complete replacement of every single system of your buildings well it we're definitely what we seem to be

091coming to different conclusions about the consequence of that so but that's that's fine it's just that I want to oh there's no your system's failing go out you're they have to be they have to be addressed right and that's I mean you've got to watch these meetings Amy you're gonna have to do the homework I have to see what's going on um I know in fact listen I don't appreciate the negative energy being thrown at the moment I have questions that I want to have answered and I would like to have discussions with you know I was I'm wondering if when we have this q a period if we can held that meeting so all board members can be present it would be in violation of sunshine laws as my understanding well this is what

092I'm saying is that we can we we have had multiple opportunities where we've asked anybody to submit questions I do believe so we have a couple options so I don't there are a lot of documents board member Magnus that there are so many I'm going to be honest it's probably easy to miss them but there was a whole the whole maintenance plan document identified life cycle for all of these systems so I would say there's that there's multiple documents that have answers to questions that members of the facilities committee have asked of both Mike Richley and Mike Murdock um so there is a lot of what we do not lack here is information because we have a lot of it yeah the the costs are also so daunting that doing a phased in approach you'd

093be asking for a permanent Improvement um like the the millage would be just as high as you would need to address it all at once so instead of this year talk to that yeah if we if we do it over the next 15 years we're going to be asking for just as much from the taxpayers as if we do it in one Fell Swoop and since all of our systems are in need of replacement it's better to do it in one Fell Swoop because then you can get into a position where you have an adequate permanent Improvement Levy to make sure that as systems age out that you have money Banks to replace your whole roof at once or to redo your whole parking lot at once and so that you're not you know right

094now all of our systems are in need of replacement um so you you can't you you can't piecemeal your way out of it you got to do it or at least there's no well and also because you want to do that we need to look also at the insulation and the windows is that I understand the gravity of the situation that we're in right now but we also need to understand the life cycle cost and prevent us and prevent future boards and future administrations from getting in you know the size of a whole entering in terms of doing a full systems replacement at the moment right and the hope that what has happened in the past yes it is a lot to invest in a school district and you can you know with this this

095this district has in the past moved out of a whole building and moved into a whole new building it's done it's made that um it's made that commitment in the past before and there's a cost associated with that and there's a cost Associated yeah it's not even infected into the market and we know that the cost that uh we know that the um let's see the the intention is is it I mean the reason why I was interested why and I still tell the truth remain interested in the face Improvement and because you ask if this is one place or two phases and maybe the answer is is that it has to be too big because you can spread yes it will cost more with the with the benefit is is that you can share

096the cost over more Generations I would like to be able to do everything at all all at once if it can but I don't know if we can get to yes with the numbers that we're looking at here maybe we don't do some of the things on here without a capital campaign to cover some of those additional costs so what I've heard from the especially the two members who are on the facilities committee and and Dr Holden our Administration there seems to be three things one is a request for a few extra assessments and I'm unclear right now exactly what that would give us and exactly what the cost would be to as a surveys to look at what the community thoughts are and and I'm also unclear about how we go back into that

097unless as I think we're talking about that with the with this strategic plan right and so if that could be correct that was my I we have that work coming up anyway okay and we have a survey built into that and we could make it facility heavy I think it's got to be part of our strategic plan right and then the third thing is there's still a few that's questioning the professionalism of the numbers but questioning some of trying to understand better what has been presented so far from the from the due diligence on the Consultants that we've hired so could we do this could we find out exactly what those extra assessments are going to get us I mean they're not going to be able to tell you exactly but is it is this

098a 20 swing in price or is this uh so I think somebody said to uh we're within a five percent margin of error or is it that we're looking at which I would then agree that maybe that's better kicked down when you're closer to a project but I think that probably could be one of the questions during the zoom calls maybe with them do the question do the clarifications on the work that's been done I can see on the PHP it it's easy to ask them maybe some questions and work where they're driving those numbers from so there's queries and then um we look into what what the survey thing is and how we get that out there and done as soon as possible I mean I think we do those three things that brings

099Clarity to it I don't even know that we get the answer to how much it costs on these these assessments we don't even may not even need to bring it back to the whole board at a general meeting so if we could get those answered then I would be comfortable again let's do the survey and I wanna we got one quote for the year the other rounds of elliptical analyzation that's 3 400 uh but but then when uh Mr Murdoch talked about it he said he said they're not going to give us any different response on what I'm getting here but just we come from a different person then that's that's the kind of thing I want to hear from all four of those assessments before we move out I mean I think I understand

100the perspective on both of those I understand that the survey um I think that that's a fantastic idea especially coming into a strategic planning that has to be done belly button on that one on the survey yes okay let me just remind people that we are a new board and we're trying to learn deeply about these systems and that includes the lifestyle costs because we have an opportunity here of reassessing our financial strategic position over the next 40 60 years we're taking that opportunity and we're getting smart so that we can make better decisions for the Long Haul I mean you could say we're only here for four years but these schools are here for a lot longer than that I agree that's where we that's what we have to work towards I agree with

101you Amy and that's why I appreciate the way you've just framed it rather than the words that you earlier used about it being a sizable hole what I would say is it's an investment for more than one generation that's the pivotal moment that we're in and so I would just appreciate that we use that kind of wording that this is an investment in multiple generations and I agree with exactly how you just put it rather than describing something as a sizable A Way Forward there on this discussions we've got a few action items to go do and bring back and then we'll go from there 3.2 uh we added this as a district facilities maintenance expenditures I I don't know if there's um I just want to show one thing and then this can be

102two minutes okay there's questions very last document correct so on this uh on board docs you have four uh assessments from Dayton environmental they are assessments I want everyone to understand when we have a teacher who says I believe there is mode in my room that uh switches that flip or flips that switch and and we call in Dayton environmental so I've shared those assessments with you we do do these assessments and then you have a spreadsheet which is not this you have a spreadsheet for every year from 2000 through where we are to date in 2023 of the general fund and permanent Improvement fund expenditures we have made every single line from 1999 through about 2012 it was not broken down between general fund and any permanent Improvement so you're just going to see

103a single number after that 2013 on you will see permanent Improvement and and general funds so I'm sharing with you two graphs these are also in there this is the um the breakdown of how much we spend out of the permanent Improvement budget and how much we spend out of the general fund Budget on maintenance which is a whole variety of things so if you go into the spreadsheet you're going to see the description you're going to see the vendor you're going to see the purchase order number you're going to see the dollar amount we have nothing to hide um as you can see you know if I put a trend line there it it it's gone up there are some dips and then you see um that we are spending Less in pi um

104and More in general fund remember we are using our leveraging our PI funds to address we had to address our outdoor facilities um and so we've done that and so those payments are made out of Pi can you go to the next one please and then this is just all dollars both general fund and permanent Improvement fund over time and I do have a trend line there and you can see exactly where it's going when you have buildings that are 70 years old and 52 years old respectively you can anticipate that even with the best attention buildings age systems age and that is what we found um in our assessment so I'm happy to answer any questions um that anyone might have about that um I was going to say I I thought this maybe

105came out of my question about we were hearing a lot about different concerns and problems that teachers were having it sounded like you know I the way I heard it didn't sound like they were being addressed and they sounded like they really didn't need to be addressed so I I'll let the superintendent I'd ask her some questions about it because I was concerned is that the school board if we're hearing about what sometimes um didn't you know sounded like maintenance issues that needed to be addressed and it doesn't sound like they weren't being addressed superintendent reassured me they have been addressed but I think it's important when these public comments are being made that that's made clear because people are hearing that and it sounds like things have been left to test her and I

106think it's important that we be clear that that's not the case so when I just want to make it clear teachers have said can I speak at board meetings and you need to know that my response has always been and Eli is here and he can verify or not verify my response has always been you're always free to speak at a board meeting and you speak your heart whatever that is and so when teachers come and say things like so I don't know what they're going to say when they come and speak but when they come and speak and say there's mold I'm like only because I know what I have to do now but when we've had several teachers come and say you know we've had to buy our own chairs and so the

107question is well why do they have to buy their own chairs they don't but the community should feel good that this is a testament to the dedication of your teachers you know I can't buy somebody a new chair if I don't know that they need it but they are so dedicated that they're like you know what we are fiscally conscious we are going to do this we'll just get our own chair so we've remedied all of that um but you know teachers come and they're going to speak from their heart and I think that's what you've heard the whole time and I appreciate the list documents on the building side that's that's up there a passion board docs anybody listening online or or folks here if you can go home and jump on your computer

108you can pull down all the repairs and all right so 3.3 so with this is the community comment section that I added to it um we've got a list of names and uh first up is Matt Kirk okay just say again I apologize for the last month I it's all right I appreciate you being patient yeah me in particular was my fault and uh I don't come to enough so I didn't necessarily know your process uh my name is Matthew Kirk I've been a village resident now I guess uh nine years so I've had the pleasure of living but I guess we moved here just in time to hash out this facilities thing and so a few things I've learned in yellow spring because you know we had we know how to say the right

109things here you know we're all about championing inclusivity putting the environment first claiming to support affordable housing however we often tend to say one thing but then turn around and do the opposite it's kind of become the Yellow Springs way and we should consider an alternative course of action because we are at the Apex of another such moment across the board everyone in this room would tell you that they care about the children of the community and yet we are deeply divided about what that means I had to look at myself you know I have not participated really in this process because we wanted to afford youth the opportunity to carry out the goals of the uh you know facility committee without any type of interruption and uh I've been looking at my I've been

110watching these meetings I'm going man these meetings have become really dysfunctional I've had to ask myself why is that you know we're now in our third iteration the facilities committee we should be good at this but this committee is unique and it's design and purpose whereas previous commands were organized with the intention of considering the best mayor which should address the long-term facility needs of the yellow Supreme School District this to me has been organized to focus on a single course of action the stated goal of which is to fully understand whether a comprehensive permanent Improvement plan could match our facilities with the district's educational needs in an economically and environmentally sustainable way which I think we have answered that question that's another important question we've answered but I also have to ask why was

111the focus of this committee limited to just one course of action the answer is pretty simple our children the district have been co-opted for political purposes a matter of fact the fact of the matter is this only reason we are looking at a comprehensive permanent Improvement plan isn't because the community demanded it it's because two school board members put this idea forward actively campaigned on it and that's what got us here they said that this plan would be more affordable than the ofcc plan that was presented in 2021 and this is important because it underscores the Deep levels of cognitive bias playing out in the process with the organizers of this process driving it towards their desired political outcomes even in the face of the most recent numbers presented by our architect there's an unwillingness

112to accept the numbers which led to an incredibly contentious meeting this past Tuesday during which our architect and Engineering Consultants Integrity were attacked by the committee chair and anti-levy members of the committee and the fact that Judith doesn't realize this but it was obvious to so many other people watching is maybe also a bit of a problem I understand it's incredibly difficult for any person to admit their assessment of a situation was incorrect especially when that position resulted in the failure of an initiative it would secure the future of Yellow Springs schools for decades however that is the next logical step if the board of Community are going to reach a plan we can all live so I had to ask myself this current committee because at the last thing which I'm thinking hey we

113kind of reached the end of this but yet people want to move forward so I'm asking myself can this committee even perform the work that needs is needed to move us forward and I have to say no look at the process the process was kind of designed for dysfunction from the outset it's a large four-page proposal the committee itself is 15 members which was asked he kind of set up as like two opposing teams where we had our Educators on one side and then we had the buildings planners who which we referred to as the experts they're all smart gentlemen who have lots of experience in the world um but they're not building experts in school facilities and I have to ask myself where were the parents the parents had like zero constituency in this

114process and it became so obvious at some point our superintendent felt so compelled that they had to speak up so at least our kids could be some kind of talking point somewhere in the conversation even if only for a brief moment and you know we're at the point now where all the assessments have been delivered we have no real new information we still know that the buildings are built in the 50s and the 60s and our systems rolled what we had do know now is that you know we haven't found any new funding sources if we move forward with the renovation we in fact lose a major funding source and it's it's really thrown off a red flag to me that when Judith just mentioned on several occasions that she wants to move forward with

115this project as just a partial project so my background before I moved to Yellow Springs was a professional Public Finance and this is a major major donut you don't build a house without a roof you have to have all phases of your project financing lined up in order to move forward because a big part of your jobs as a school board is you have a fiduciary responsibility to protect the long-term Financial interests of your taxpayers so you can't identify a problem where there's 10 things that need fixed and go oh we'll just fix three problems solved no the problem's not solved you said this giant liability waiting to crush you at some point and lose your taxpayers money this is not really a viable approach and so it kind of made me think a little

116bit like are we even trying to succeed like with this plan it doesn't really feel like that and I came across an article actually um when Judith retired from the Village Council and there's a quote in there that really stood out because it said I realized that when you get enough people even if I can't make things happen I can make things not happen at least for a moment and that's kind of how it feels you know we have people who are here Amy and Judith who clearly have very strong feelings about what they want as an outcome and that's what they've LED with here you know they put forward numbers actually came across one of Amy's political advertisements while making a fire the other night us ripping up at Yellow Springs news and there's

117this little square there that was talking about the village Levy and how having to pay four percent interest on this Bond was going to be so terrible I was like wow that did not age well because four percent interest would be great right now currently we're probably looking at six percent interest which means you have to present a bond probably at seven or eight because you've got to be conservative in your estimates which in fact that four percent interest that was a conservative estimate it actually would have been probably two percent interest if you'd actually gone and sold the bond so what kind of difference is that actually tangibly 35 million dollars and two percent interest over the life of that Bond we pay back 45 million dollars six million six percent interest we have

118to pay back 75 million dollars that's 30 million bucks 30 million bucks but we're doing this because this was supposed to be the more affordable plan and so for me I've got to look at this and say I think that it's probably time for some new leadership you know uh the process again we can't have our Educators having to serve on the front lines every day with our kids in the classroom and then after work go and battle against our school board and a group of politically motivated people that they've you know brought together uh you know that is that is unbelieving of what our Educators and the professionals we hire uh come up with those results and so in my mind you know I think we have to find a way to move forward

119I think part of that's going to be that we need to close the current committee they've done their work we answered the question whether a uh cpip uh was possible the answer is no a permanent Improvement Levy is not possible does not work and Judith remind us many times about the focus of this committee it was only to discuss a cpip no new building discussion no other tangents or anything like that but now when it's become convenient she'd like to tangent it right on into a renovation project which that is not under the scope or purview of this committee um so another thing to I think take into account here and I think coming up with this survey thing is kind of a good idea but I think the bigger thing we have to focus

120on is that people are not rational you know we look at problems and we go yeah you said affordability I gave you the cheapest possible option people were like I didn't actually mean that you know we had to deal with this is something we're going to have to plan on in the future depending on what kind of process we come up with we have this group preserve Bill's lawn which is basically a 501c political action 501c3 political action committee that you know last time they were out campaigning before there was even like a levy dropped and they fought against the Levee the whole way while also claiming oh we're not really against the levy yet once it failed have disappeared from the process entirely and so I mean I think we have to know if

121we're going to have a K-12 win we're going to have it contingent of people that are going to spread misinformation you know that can be successful sometimes you know we've seen it many times I mean we saw a little from presidential election in this country was to think that some politically motivated local people can't get together and also have a misinformation campaign if you ever run from political office on it and win so I think that we've got to like I said bring this committee to a close and find a way to move forward with the school board honestly you guys are going to have to kind of lead this process I think at this point um like you do or like Darius said we are drowning in information there's not like a lack of

122information we need to organize it figure out a plan or two or three plans or whatever it is and who goes forward hash them out one of those could be a renovation plan we've got all the numbers it's not that hard to put at this point but give us some options so that we're not pigeonholed into one thing but again I think the biggest thing is just moving this out of the top of the top space in which in which Mr President members of the board uh thank you for letting me speak name is eligerowitz and I'm the president of the teachers union and represent the teachers of our school district normally I like to come to board meetings and talk about the wonderful things that our teachers are doing and telling me about they've

123been talking about facilities they've been watching the facilities meeting they've been looking at their room again so I would like to start by thanking the facilities committee and the members uh of both the community members that were involved in it the teachers involved with it the engineering and Architectural firms that helped us get at numbers that represent the needs in our schools a lot of work went into getting these numbers so thank you very much is difficult to watch other people deliberate about your future workplace and the place where our communities children are educated what is important what isn't important these are tough questions and it is up to you the school board figure that out while you deliberate I want to be deliberate about speaking for teachers and students while one campus or two

124is a question that you have to figure out what richly's architectural firm did providing different price points for you may have accidentally presented to the community the wrong idea that the foundational repairs that are now trending towards 30 million dollars would work functional Plumbing increased electrical capacity and actual environmental control are real issues that we face however they do not address the educational needs of our classes teachers throughout the district recognize that if a facilities Levy to cover this bare minimum is passed another facilities Levy would not address our educational environment for another 20 or 30 years education has changed in the past 30 years it is bound to change exponentially more in the next 30 Years the spaces we have may have been Forward Thinking 60-ish years ago but I don't think the school

125boards of the 1950s were thinking about how students would learn in 2030 or 2040. that is your role even though it seems like science fiction our country is preparing to send people to the Moon again and then on to Mars over this just this next next decade so thinking about forward-thinking schools our teachers replied earlier in the year to this round of facilities needed surveys many answered with what would help their classrooms support students with modern learning and the learning of tomorrow you as a board are deciding on the future of our community you want it to be attractive to new businesses like our chamber mentioned a chamber of commerce spoke about at the last meeting new families like community members have been speaking up and writing about over the last two Levy processes do

126you want it to be attractive and encourage new ideas and ways of thinking like your teachers have been speaking about our schools are the heart of our community they provide our children with access to the learning that will take them into this amazing future with some sense of educational equity and equal footing with other students in Greene County the Miami Valley Ohio and these United States now I've heard comparisons to Oakwood made in the facilities meetings in this meeting we are not Oakwood there is plenty of learning and access to resources in the moneyed homes of Oakwood that are not accessible to many if not most of our students here it is our schools that provide that educational Equity as long as you as the school board decide that this is the core value of

127our schools if you think it is important then this full renovation plan that Mike richly presented is the direction to go not the foundational plan now I know Mike richly and he said this in the facilities meaning did not mean for them to seem like two plans but that that's how it looks and we need more than just the basic systems for the next 20 to 30 years a full renovation make sure the community knows what's going to happen to Mills Lawn and provides A Renewed learning environment for our future generations of students now if you want to be Forward Thinking and thoughtful about how much money the community spends then a new K-12 would allow the state to fund some of the build as well but then I know that the community would need

128to know what is your plan for Mills Mall or I'm sure there's some other you guys are amazingly intellectual some other way some out of the box thinking that could allow our community to benefit from the state funding and still have some Forward Thinking project but please as the representative of the teachers the Forward Thinking the association has supported two levies that would have provided future-ready learning spaces and I am not sure that I will be able to convince my members to get behind a Systems Repair that will practically cost as much or more than either of the previous levies but leave us in the same rooms we are currently in these rooms do not support the future of learning and do not attract future Educators or Future Families or and as I have been

129told keep our current teachers thank you for your time President Ford thank you for taking your time I'm Daniel pallotta ysdc member I'm also a chamber member and also local business and a local resident um it's imperative from attending the meeting and watching the meetings of facilities that that we have to make a decision but you guys have to really make a decision quick for the celebrity to get to the board and to be put on for the November election for the Health and Welfare of the children of the teachers and the continued growth and the vibrancy of the community it must be best I'm at a point watching and I think you like it both Matthew it's not about who's right or wrong and we always get on that point it's not about who's

130right or wrong let's just do the right thing whatever the right thing is it's the personalities aside just do the right thing and that's getting a levy pass of some sort the way I see it just the things that I've watched there are four hard facts and questions that were made one of those is one campus or two that seems to be coming up um full renovations full Renovations are 50 million dollars plus and that's complete full Renovations not partial doing that 50 million dollars still going to have we don't have the full hard numbers yet we're getting close you guys are getting close but it didn't include what we've all talked about doesn't include displacing the children the timeline of that it's not going to tell us about the transportation fees the fuel the

131bus drivers and the rental of the building that we're going to have to use that's still not into in the numbers a new building we've all guesstimated going with the 450 a square foot you're going to be a roughly around the 50 billion dollar Mark again in that neighborhood with 105 000 square feet at a 27 kick in from the state that considerably lowers our our costs we all get that that's pretty Common Sense math there a partial Levy unresident Renovations can't be piecefield complete Renovations must take place or you're only going to be throwing good money on a continual bad problem and not fixing the problem uh not fixing the problem in its entirety or fixing it correctly I think as we all just mentioned from that meeting the architect said he was not

132here to present it was not his recommendation to do a piecemeal it was his recommendation that we presented to us to the board was that these be all done at once so full renovation if you're going to go down that road Mr President may I have permission to make an analogy use combine a car simply buying car buy a brand new car we buy the new car you're paying your monthly payments you're doing your maintenance fees on it you're doing it it goes along the cost until your car is finally paid off you may have some incremental repairs in there as soon as the car is paid off create your monthly payments go away you still have maintenance and you still have repairs coming as the car gets older you have more repairs as the

133car gets older and older we have more and more and more and at some point time it's the law of diminishing returns where you say you know what I'm not getting the bag for my buck I'm just pouring good money on a bad problem and I'm not getting through the not getting through the situation and it's not cost effective anymore and what do we do we go get another car that's the analogy that I'm giving you with that whatever your direction is and that's purely your decision know that you have to go in all in on your project whatever it is you got to go all in on it anything less is going to be a disservice to the children the teachers and the community we have great opportunities coming with Honda and Intel batteries

134I'm sorry High the batteries and Intel opening businesses in the area people are coming they're going to be coming and they have and we as a village have had a strong and a robust school system it's imperative to attract these people to come to our village for the continued growth of our community that's what we look for and I trust you're not in a you're not in an unbeatable situation but please whatever it is it's not about who's forever wrong let's just go in on whatever that's going to be thank you for anything marks thank you I'm Bernadine Parks have you heard from me before after sitting here I decided I wasn't going to say what I thought I was going to say I was going to say I'm going to beg you all again

135to pay attention to how important listening is what I've noticed is that when people don't feel heard they do several things they start talking more they start giving you more information they start talking louder they become more passionate and I've heard that at this meeting tonight people that are in this room and a few in the community that are picking this up on YouTube aren't the majority of the voters here the majority of the voters need from you as a school board to communicate to them that you heard them and that you wind up giving them not these kind of pages but a fulsome report that says this is what it would cost us this is what we would have to do this is the advantages of this and the disadvantages of this and the

136cost of this I've sat in several of these meetings and it's clear to me and just listening who are The Advocates for the new build and want to convince everybody why we need to do that and who are The Advocates for renovation you know how many people are here 50 votes how many people vote in the elections two thousand part of your goal needs to be to make sure that the people in the community feel heard that you provided them with the information that they wanted with the pros and the cons what the other position is in the pros and the cons and then your job as public servants when that information is out there is to listen to them I am certain that you are not going to find one reason that people vote

137for or against this Levy I think that the three reasons that Dr there's plenty of people who that's the main thing for them to be able to change their position they need to feel heard rather than trying to talk into their position when you're able to do that you will bring the community together because this is a very educated smart community and if they have the information they can make the decision that may be in the best interest of the entire Community while being willing to make a sacrifice that may not be in their personal best interest so all I want to say is please start listening and realize that you need to get this information out to the members of the community that don't know your meeting tonight that have read in the paste

138skimmed over in the paper what's happening they need full some information because right now they're only talking to the people that agree with them that's what's happening so I just can't encourage you strongly enough to put two ears one mouth there's a reason thank you very much if you remember hello again I'd like to say a few words about a couple of the issues that come up repeatedly those on school and project-based learning when we talk about uh when we talk about the district when we talk about our values when we talk about our needs they're my words I'm saying I know they reflect other people's words too from conversations I've had with other people in the community I don't know how many parents or have gone to schools that are K-12 on campus schools

139or how many teachers that we have that have taught in K-12 on campus schools but in my experience 21 years working with Elementary and secondary students six systems 30 plus schools when the K-12 students are in one building all in one building the influence of the older students build the students activities the older students needs the older students social behaviors heavily influence the younger kids their environment administrators teachers parents unheard of things not just here have said it won't happen it won't happen it won't happen it invariably does it does if you want an elementary age use school for your children for your grandchildren that is an elementary experience you need to have a separate campus healing I know it's shared by other people I think we all know advantages of our Mills Lawn building

140some have been said tonight one thing we haven't said tonight is the proximity to downtown the proximity to the Glen we all know about the Green Space it's an incredible outdoor education area for students and teachers it's an incredible play yard and yes it's it's green space that the community can enjoy when students are not in class um I'm also here representing my husband who couldn't be here tonight Terry Smith he's a National Geographic Mentor he was a pbl global project teacher for 22 years 14 is an elementary teacher and then eight as a university professor and teacher education he taught his pbl in classrooms of schools that were built in 1910s the 1920s the 1950s in modular classrooms as well as always using the outdoor area that was available a few quotes from Terry

141PDL connects real world indoor and outdoor experiences with the curriculum we all know that but what do we need for that we need creative teachers who make a difference in participation we don't need special classroom spaces they're wonderful if you can have them if you don't need them indoor spaces need to be flexible we need tables not desks I think our pbl teachers know this and we need flexible blocks of time that's the only other requirement for implementing PDL flexible spaces building classrooms flexible blocks of time in conclusion I am one of many in the community thanking y'all on the board on the facilities committee all the other people in the facilities committee and asking our school board to focus on what our students and teachers need and provide us a levy proposal that our

142community will support accomplish ment and you think um resident 20 years both of my kids graduated from Maryland Springs High School I think a lot of people have said a lot of the stuff that I have been thinking through all of this I really appreciate the focus on trying to find a solution that will get us a levy that will pass I appreciate all of the hard work that has gone into getting us to these numbers tonight and I really I think said it best about you know the community needs to be heard really encouraged by what I've heard tonight about wanting to get more Community input I would encourage you that I think it's going to be really hard to get to an understanding with just a survey it's a very complex issues as

143we've all heard tonight I don't think that for I don't think it's easy for any of us to articulate whether you know we the primary or K-12 or renovation versus a new build I think those are all kind of tangled up together so I really would just want to encourage you all to have more discussion with Community listening sessions opportunities for us all as a community to talk through these things yeah hi everybody I'm Rebecca Potter you know I spoke at the facilities committee meeting and I brought up that issue of why perhaps people were saying uh no and just to follow on on Cindy it could be useful to have a conversation where we did pursue why they said no in addition to why they would say yes we know from politics you want

144to give your voters as few reasons to say no as possible and so that might I think that is something that might have been a problem in the last ready um I'm actually though at addressing uh an issue that was brought up by what has been characterized as two sides uh which are actually in many ways one side uh and that's uh efficiency and sustainability and and energy systems um so I've talked with friends and members of the community I hope this doesn't politicize me it's an environmental perspective uh as a someone committed to sustainability I I appreciated the quote from Judith that the Sustainable Building is a built building so I will out myself is coming from that perspective but there is tremendous amount of money out there now for renovation of existing systems

145right now the department of energy has grant money slotted for 2022 to 80 million dollars projects individual projects up to 15 million dollars for geothermal solar anything that gets your energy costs down and I believe our energy costs are pretty high for these buildings it would include groups it would include Windows the envelope so it could really be an opportunity to move money out of that First Column so you can move more stuff in from the second column now this is renovation what I'm proposing uh or asking you to kind of give a thumbs up to is a group of community members to pursue the possibility of this grant not committing anyone to renovation versus new build but simply review its possibility you'd have to put a letter of intent in by January 26th we

146qualify because we are a Fringe rural school is that right Terry 41. or number 41. um we also have a percentage of students uh in getting career reduced school lunches these are two categories that will get us considered um we'll do it for you we'll let you talk about it in January the final proposal goes in at the end of April so you know whatever you decide you can pull it but it is important that people who talk the talk like myself walk the walk uh so I'm offering this and just asking you to consider it and give a thumbs up if you think it is not the right time then let's yeah so you have any questions and I ask that you just send that information to me that's acceptable yeah please sure and

147if this yeah because we would need to know um that is still a tight deadline I know the board only meets once a month so if you all think it's a good idea then I will I'll send you the cfp and uh if I don't know how you'd want to resolve that but I think that that it does you know especially if you're talking to geothermal that would be something that we'll see what the information is appreciate it thank you results well this whole parent in Resident um so it's clear to me that a lot of hard work has gone into creating the plans that were presented on Tuesday um it is my opinion that we need to trust the hire professionals um began to move forward on what we want for the levy for

148uh November 2023. I think it is pertinent that we take the findings that we presented as one plan of 50 approximately 50 million dollars and not break them up into separate groups I do think as a community member just viewing it seeing a something legal as foundational was somewhat um deceptive maybe not intentionally but just in the fact that it gave me the plan that well this is what's going to cover all of the needs and it clearly does not once it was dug into so I think that's really important just to present to the community as one renovation plan and I think um that that again will gain confidence with the community understanding the full scope um as a resident and parent I'm also asking the school board to spend the coming months really

149digging in and talking with the Villagers like many people have mentioned which is really encouraging um on both sides and in Mass to establish what the community needs once and can't afford whether that's the full Renovations or a new build this is important because I do have concerns about the messaging which I think which I think a lot of people have addressed I think that um that's going to be pivotal and ensuring that a levy gets passed which everyone wants and I think that's going to take a lot of time and effort from the board to decide what kind of um information like all the information we're getting out there what the messaging looks like um so that the community uh again gains confidence in the board and the lobby that's being presented to them

150uh that's it a concern for me as well I I watched the council meeting last night I understand that there may be as stricter enforcement of laws in terms of what the board is able to say around um levies which again is really concerning because obviously you guys bring in a levy it's it's because you want it passed and so you're going to need Community Support in these buildings listening to you to be able to be the ones trying to get the community to pass the Levee so um again that's just reiterating the reason I think the messaging is really important um I will end just with the thought that I believe that there has been a lot of due diligence done I think there's more due diligence the board can do um to just

151be transparent with us on costs and that will gain confidence with the voters that whatever option is chosen by the board is the best for our village I would encourage the board to um align on the best and most clear way to messages the community and provide us with a levy that will pass so our teachers and students have an accessible Way Forward I wanted to emphasize the word accessible because I don't think it's been addressed enough I think that it's known that historically accessibility has been ignored throughout history and especially in Old buildings and accessibility benefits everybody it hurts no one so that's a really important thing that I think uh full renovation or new bill will address I'm a member of the facilities committee I just want to make a brief statement I'll

152be quick um as a member of the committee I believe it's important to complete the following task that Judas asks for for some of the final engineering work and just to clarify we thought some of those things would be performed by most but we found out you didn't for example we need core roof samples they did a visual inspection of the groups and made an assessment in the numbers uh pipe coupon samples have not been done that they made an assessment that you need to replace all the pipes we may not have to based on some knowledge we got from the prior maintenance company the electrical panel work they did a visual on the panels but what we need is a certified electrician to do an IR check to see if the panels are safe

153or not then we can agree on the panels need to be replaced or the panels are okay whether we go to 480 or they'll stay with two like whatever whatever the decision is uh gas line pressure was another requirement um water pressure readings for whatever we do with development on the schools most of these tasks can be done for little to no cost we actually found an electrical guy that will probably do it for free uh there might be a couple other things based on my conversation with David in addition to these tasks we could probably get most of this stuff done in a short time and I'm glad you're moving forward with that Michael Murdock from oats we had numerous conversations and we discussed his findings he was hoping we talk back and forth

154about a number of issues uh on his findings but I think it's a responsibility of our team to ask and divulge and questions as to how he came up with those numbers we need clarification on all of those things um this effort I think will provide better accuracy in the estimates of data that we had and that's my tasking facilities group thank you all right I believe that concludes the facilities piece for the evening all right good depressed and then four did you put hands before okay I'm gonna make this quick um my my first update is the Ohio school boards Capital conference um which was uh mid-november and I attended along with uh Miss Winston and Mr Hatter and and TJ and Amy and Dorothy um Capital conference is a soup it is not

155a superintendent organization it is a school board organization and it's an event that um District level administrators attend what I've put in my update or are brief summaries of sessions that I attended and I have to say I tried to focus on sessions that dealt with facilities and fascinating so um I don't really want to take a lot of time um tonight given the hour but I'm always happy to talk about things that I've learned and I think there's a lot in here that really could inform our process [Music] because despite the fact that we love Yellow Springs and we and we feel like we're unique there are a lot of places just like us and going through the very things that that we are going through um we did present the three of us

156a session on anti-racism that was well attended um it was let me let me just say the political climate in Ohio is difficult and others leave it at that um but anyway that's what though that's what that first part of the summary is um but next more importantly strategic planning I'm getting ready to send out next week letters um to those folks that I've asked the board and administrators for names of folks that they might think would be good fits for our strategic planning process and that would be Folks at every um in every role from students to parents to community members to business members to members of uh other governmental political entities um if you are interested and and no one has talked to you or or you don't think your name would have

157come up please email Leslie she will get that to me um we have four meetings and we are really going to respect time and respect the process um and these meetings will take the place of our work sessions beginning in January and so those meetings are identified up here three-hour meetings you know we are operating without a strategic plan and and that can be dangerous because you lose your way and so we need we know one item that will be on our strategic plan and I and that would be facilities but there are lots of other things that we do I mean so I encourage those interested to please um email and then uh we'll send out final letters and and we'll go through that process and hopefully it may have a not hopefully I'm

158going to tell you in may we will complete a task and we will have a strategic plan to present to the board um for approval so um it's a good process to to help you know create our future and then just a reminder winter break begins on Wednesday December 21st and students return um Wednesday January 4th so it's a good time for everybody to take a breath building offices will be closed the district office will be open and that is my update all right thank you any questions about the presentations of the school did was amazing it was very informative I think it drew on a lot of humility too about how tough the process had been I learned a lot and I can tell that members uh but I needed to learn a lot

159from the experience of Yellow Springs I think that I was really proud of being part of Leo's friends there was a there are several good questions there there was a little bit of uh a little bit of pushback in the questions but for the most part they were people were very enthusiastic I mean the fight almost broke out no no no no no not quite that but um it was it was interesting to see uh you know several people on the crowd um you know there was also some fact you know back where I was sitting there were people having discussions about what what you were putting out there and it was a very rich conversation that got started and it was good to see it's good to see you know the the district putting

160itself out there and saying we made mistakes but we made interesting ones right and uh that's why that's why anti-racism is a verbs because we weren't the last point on your update um the corresponds right with HB 140 oh right sorry we're gonna do a training um oh that's not this oh but yeah this is 42. um just just so the board knows the public knows um there's there are some pretty interesting um interpretations I I was thinking there's a new law but um last night it's actually a another law that's kind of getting reinterpreted it's getting teeth I guess yeah or it's been it's being rolled out right I mean you could have lost in the books that prosecutors don't go after but they are in these cases associated with school boards and we're

161going to have attended by our legal team where we can ask a lot of questions and try to get really security but it does revolve around bond issues and levees and things around facilities so it will be a I think an informative one coming up and it's maybe some might feel kind of draconian things on yeah on that front yes and please um and then this is just um we submitted a letter to the State Board of Education about um Board of Education policy and legis legislation that is um around gender identity and um discriminating against uh trans students in sports it was a whole list so we did uh draft uh our opposition letter and sent it to oh I think it's 20 members on the board of education we did have a response

162from one who said thank you for your letter I will make sure I vote no so um I'm not sure where that's going but I we believe very strongly in this and we believe in a very strongly in affirming the rights of all of our students all of our students of color all of our lgbtq plus students um this should be a safe place for you I agree very much so but I'm a little confused we're addressing the Ohio School Board of Ed gar I thought it was a State Legislature we specifically went I mean we're focusing towards the board but we're not going to focus towards the state well that's your answer at this at this point we we sent this letter we can do both I'm just going to be honest this is

163a fine line for us to be walking um it is one we will walk but it's just you know it's what we said at the at our presentation it is dangerous to be in education in Ohio um because as we sit here and this meeting is live streamed we think that it's just folks in Yellow Springs who might be watching but there are very organized groups um outside of this community who do things like watch board meetings and and listen for terms and words and and you know in the end we recognize that as a risk but we are going to protect our children we are going to do what's right for them so I say that due to to say that sometimes you have to take a different approach with lawmakers and with the

164State Board of Education I was just going to say a group in the in the state honesty for Ohio schools that they might want to look into you can become a member and get involved with some good work around these issues it's called what it's called honesty in Ohio schools foreign okay two items here Board second reading of all of the policies uh that I introduced last month and um approval of our food service compliance report saying we serve lovely nutritional healthy foods to feed the federal guidelines we do this every year and that is it good questions all right okay yeah yeah him fling yes Magnus yes Turner yes Barry Rios yes motion pass Five to zero all right number six motion do I have motion to open up our consent calendar on the

165Personnel side one second foreign two items tonight four one is approval of a leave of absence and then the second are three personnel schedules um for substitute teachers um some supplemental um co-curricular positions and volunteers all right okay yes template yes Magnus yes Turner yes Barry Rios yes motion pass Five to zero all right seven is board Communications our last major item in the night um please if you um just keep your comments as relevant to the schools as possible please so why is he sees that first so the Development Corporation I apologize for not getting uh it's uh finals week at uh for me and so I and got like six five five finals for this week so we had just had the meeting do we just had the meeting on Tuesday and uh

166a big item was is that the board uh pass resolution to hire a part-time executive uh director so um and this person will be involved or host ways from there um so if anybody's interested in what so this person um will be working with the village and the cotton Corporation board and one of the projects is uh is is a business incubator and uh which way has got more information about that a few periods so uh it's a big step forward it'll give the uh the Development Corporation more Direction and um that we we expect that executive um to as part of their task is to consider possible um revisions to the structure of the board discussion about what you meant about the cost of living reports and I mentioned that you had provided a

167a commentary on it sure and the question that it asked is what was your plan School Board to bring that commentary of yours to Maki so that they can correct their methodology on how to calculate School enrollment in the future whether it is just but would be taken I mean I'm happy to provide you know the links that are in there so I'm happy to connect with them and um for you to initiate that email to Matthew you might have want to work through who said on that too just to make sure that he's got proper direction because it's a bedroom all right so would you ability of those friends we had a church meeting did you say Wednesday Wednesday was it Wednesday yeah Wednesday session yeah um well I don't think there's we heard

168from the township you know about the their finances they heard from the village about the fact that they are probably going to change their reciprocal tax so that people who work outside the village would be paying some tax in the village and they're also need to increase their utility rates and then we talked about facilities and events are and levees and bonds that was pretty much it and we're going to meet next time when there's something to meet about 3.3 and you talk about the uh acts of Transportation I included the notes in there I know that the title says draft but they've been approved um one test that I was given was to work with the active transportation to put a list of recognition from the school zones I've done that and I've passed

169it on to the principles uh both we mentioned that they were still a bit of budget uh that was available for striping around the meals when in high school and might be happening in the next couple of weeks thank you for all aligned here and then I'm gonna wait to hear back from Clinton president uh physical Zone regulations if they are good by you then we can turn them back to the village and they can help us move it forward towards Grant from ODOT and by everybody our MVR PCS okay legislative update yes I did not include HP 140 because I heard from you that we're going to have training on that I think I want to emphasize to the community about how water shedding game changing this is if you could have felt the

170energy in the room when the lawyers made the presentation prepare to move but we're going twice because they were skills forces it is incredibly impactful so I'm really looking forward to us having a training and understanding uh the risk that we may be taking in if we're careless about how we talk about levies just a quick follow-up do we have a date do we know when we're doing that so I've asked him to call danovski to come at the January meeting I talked to TJ you said how about January okay I have not heard back from her yet so in the regular board the regular reporting correct in my legislative update I answered your question uh Judith about the about why but what are the actions taken right now against um the lgbtq students and

171staff and you see but the first part is about what's happening at the State Board of Education that's this statement is in response to this one I've also listed uh SB 178 which is right now uh unfolding of the Senate and it's restructuring the State Board of Education and the Ohio Department of Education to be absorbed under the power and control of the river burner it would take away the power of the elected state board members so it's really uh changing how this system is working I've also listed a couple of other Senate bills that would be impacting how we can be uh educating our children there I encourage you to look at them and reach out to our Senator state Senator Bob Hackett have provided the contact page and the phone number here and

172I encourage any faculty members to look at those we actually already covered because that was the opposition or to the resolution and 27. I did have two questions about where we are on the timeline of that I've meant to send it out today about um every year so I'll get that out shortly okay the other item is that we've been contacted by the new radiation director in town for a meet and greet and which was not possible for us to do unless we were declaring an official public meeting um have you been able to uh reply to that person she said she sent all of us emails about a meet and greet with a new mediation director of a village I think I thought that happened I thought it was it already happened yeah I

173think I had a scheduling conflict but I I understood that we could not all go together because otherwise it would have been a uh so we're just going there to hear about it yeah I mean there are some things we can do together just foreign we are it's hard to believe it but we have come full circle to a whole year on this board together um and our next meeting in January will be the organizational meeting where we elect officers again um we need to have it doesn't get a chair for the gym you can do it at the meeting but Jay and I talked and we thought we'll put it on here um are you ready are you interested yeah and did we make a decision today so what happens is you designated so

174because the year ends you designate a chair Judith for that January for the organizational meeting and then at the organizational meeting right I'm happy to do it um and then we also make the assumption that we're going to keep the same day and time of board meeting Virginia correct so it's Thursday January 12th I believe yes it is so so here is my question if we are going to have the attorney in and I don't have confirmation and we have to have the organizational meeting before the regular meeting um oh yeah usually the organizational meeting starts before your regular meeting so that you can do the [Music] it's generally pretty quick so I'd say at least 30 minutes if if we're task oriented yeah yeah and focused but I could probably do 5 30 and

175suspect if you can remember last January's meeting if you suspect that there's going to be more conversation than I would say maybe 5 15. going on committees you do the meetings okay um I think we get through it everybody knows things now right um and we're going to start at 5 30. so I'm just I'm just saying that our meetings are running at minimum well if it's just going to be three hours and it's just long it's still a long time it will either 5 30. for the organizational meeting and then the regular meeting is immediately following right immediately following all right the item we've all been waiting for eight is adjournment do I have an emotion to adjourn I moved are we adjourn my second color all very real yes okay yes yes templing

176yes yes Magnus yes Turner yes motion pass Five to zero we are adjourned at 8 56. [Music] are you trying what are you doing