8.12.25 B.O.E. Work Session

001Good evening and welcome. It is 5:36 PM and the August 12th Germantown Board of Education work session is called to order. First item on the agenda this evening is revision of policies. First reading we have one policy superintendent manual. So we are looking at a very exciting policy of surplus property sales 2.4. 403. Uh know that the changes occur on page two, lines 7 through 12. Um there was a change in the amount uh that items can be considered surplus. So if you look at item number one, items of equipment with a current per unit fair market value of less than 5,000, that's going to change to 10,000 may be retained, sold, or otherwise disposed of with no further obligation of the awarding agency. The same thing is true for item number two. Once again,

002the value moves from 5,000 to 10,000. And you see the new language in lines 10 through 12 where it says, "If the equipment is sold, the federal awarding agency may permit GMSD to to deduct and retain from the federal share 10,000 the proceeds to cover expenses associated with selling and handling expenses." So, main change is it changes that value when we're looking at surplus property. Are there any questions on the surplus property sales policy? Okay. Very well. Now we're on to agenda item number two. And I'll kick us off first before renewal. Um before we moved into that, I do want to bring to the board's attention uh something that for us we're monitoring real time and we know that the board is going to have to make some difficult decisions uh moving forward in

003the future. So if you remember the at the last um I guess two months, two uh sessions that we had, we had to take money from reserve in order to shore up our health insurance account. Um and we had incredible years with our health insurance. We went I think 10 years without ming making substantial changes. We weren't changing rates for employees. But in the past uh two years there's been a dramatic change in the cost uh around health insurance. Um specifically when we look at uh prescription drugs um and there are specific ones that for some examples cost $70,000 a month for the individuals to take that drug. And if you think about the fact that we're self-insured and we're covering those amounts, that is a huge hit. Um, I think Miss Stratton, you spoke

004to this before in the past when we were looking at the breakdown of how much we were spending with the normal costs of be going to the doctor procedures that we have uh what did you say I think it was 6040 or maybe 7030 in the past 6040 in the past uh it is it is flipped uh and the biggest cost uh expenditure that we see in our health insurance plan is around drugs because of that uh we made some changes last year to our plan. Now, the struggle that we have right now is those don't start until September. So, we raised rates for our employees last year, but that's already calculated into our total amount. I think we have budgeted $6.2 million for uh health insurance costs uh for the year. And know that

005we've already calculated in the increased rates and the money that we're going to get from our employees to pay for that. Um but just in July, we saw a huge spike in cost. Excuse me, everybody. And so so much so that uh this is something that I believe that the board needs to monitor. And so I've asked Miss Stratton, our consultant that we have for this, we are going to give the board uh monthly reports on what was that month's costs. Uh and then this document that you have for you, it looks like the district update, but it's one just on health insurance. Um know that this document also gives you a little history about our plan and what we've done up to this point. Um, but I think it's going to be really important

006especially when you come to um some of the last items when you see like the the growth that over time of of cost. But we know we're going to have to look at all options when we talk about what we're doing with our plan. But obviously being um thinking about how to move soundly and conservatively. We we need to wait and see what our changes that we're we've proposed or how those are going to impact the plan. Um, but with that, that leads to the item that's on the agenda, and we're going to talk about stop-loss insurance. So, when we talk about stop-loss, and I know you may have a plan for the I know you usually have a good a great script. Um, remember this is insurance on our insurance. So, any one uh

007employee that goes over $125,000, um, that's our cap. That's our exposure as a district. We have to pay all their expenses and everything up to that um point. So, if someone has a heart transplant, for example, and it's going to cost $2 million, the district's exposure is going to be that 125,000 and the stop-loss carrier covers the remaining cost of that. Now, there's also an aggregate stop-loss that we have too. So, uh for the district, if if we say that we budgeted 6.2 million, and I'm not sure what our new aggregate is proposed is going to be, um know that that covers the full plan. What is the whole plan going to cost us for the year? Um, but knowing that, uh, it's time for our reappraisal. So, what they do is they look at

008our claims and we have these companies that bid on this and say, "Here's how much we are willing to offer you to to carry your stop-loss coverage." So, with that, I'll turn it over to Miss Stratton to talk about our stop-loss renewal. Great. That was a great summary of um, our stop-loss uh, process. Um, this year, Lucent Health, which is our third party administrator, reached out to five stop-loss providers. Three companies provided proposals and two companies declined to quote. The reason the two vendors were hesitant to offer a firm rate proposal was due to some of those unknown large claims. Uh, currently GMSD has nine contributing members that are over the $125,000 threshold. uh our current stop-loss provider which is Cirrus America Insurance or Peru uh they have obtained the best firm rate proposal. The

009renewal rate from Sirius America insurance submitted contains an increase in the annual specific premium of around $129,000 and a slight decrease about $4,700 in the annual aggregate premium cost compared to what GMSD was paying for the 2425 school year. In addition, they are not recommending any lasers for the specific claimants. And just as a reminder, explain a laser for us. A laser is a concept that's used in the stop-loss industry and basically it identifies some of our highest claimments and sets a spec a separate specific deductible amount on those individuals for GMSD to contribute to before any stop-loss insurance would take effect. So, for example, the proposal from Liberty Mutual, it quoted around a million dollars for the specific premium, but it added $715,000 in lasers to the quote. Um, the HCC Life's proposal, they

010also quoted a specific premium of around a million dollars, but added $675,000 in specific lasers to the quote. So the increase in these laser costs, it would add a greater potential liability risk to GMSD, which is why we are not recommending those stop-loss uh carriers. So GMSD is recommending to support the self-funded stop-loss insurance renewal rate with Sirius America insurance through Peru in the amount of 1,130,726 for the 2526 plan year. And at this time, uh, Chairman Griffith, I'm more than happy to answer any questions you or the board may have. Thank you very much, Murray. And I've got a couple questions. I guess the first one, does this cover our exposure on prescription drugs or is this only for medical procedures? It covers everything. Okay. All right. One of the things that you'll also

011see is we will it's it's in the document. See, we're also predicting there are still stop-loss payments coming in. Yes. Uh from claims that we've incurred from from last year's plan. So, all right. Then the second question I guess because I want to look at this holistically. So when we're looking I guess at our 6.2 million really for the cost of us to carry as of this moment for the health it's really the 6.2 plus the premium here because this is our insurance on that. So we're really looking at about a I just want to make sure it's a safe assumption and we're looking at around 7.3ish million right now all in for health because we're basically insuring ourselves on top of our cell phone. Okay. I think that's going to be important. Um that's

012going to be an important number to look at as we go forward because you you've got to look at the whole picture of what we're paying. And so I wanted to make sure that I was clear on that that looking at the big picture. All right. Thank you. Are there any other questions at this time? Thank you so much, Mrs. Stratton for your expertise and the way you explain it and help us understand it. Appreciate the superintendent segue. Um, if we come up with anything between now and then and the meeting, we will get back to you all. Okay, we ready for miscellaneous budget amendments? Yes, I would like Oh, and I I should have done this in the beginning of the meeting, but I would like to take this moment straight into the budget

013amendment to um welcome our student board member. This is his first official work session to be with us. It's not his first time to be with us um as a group. We've been in a joint meeting with the city already. He's also joined us for the district kickoff. He had to play the bongos. He sure did. He was up there on the stage. he saw a side of his educators that that now is going to change his whole perspective. Um, but it is wonderful to have him here at the works, what I affectionately refer to as the table, the kind of the place where it happens, where all the discussions occur. And we are so thankful to have you here. We will lean on you and and come to you with questions, but that doesn't

014mean that you can't give the old and green light it and go when it's when it strikes you and when there's something you feel like you need to contribute. That's why you're here. and we are so thankful for it. Welcome. Thank you. Uh I really appreciate the opportunity to be here. Um I'm really excited to serve my student body and represent them here and um yeah, I mean I can't wait this opportunity in this position. I think I've thought about it for a while and now that I'm finally here, uh I'm ready to get to it and um ready to to serve my student body again. So yeah, thank you'all. Appreciate it. Happy to have you. Okay. So, agenda item number three, we're going right into the fund. Uh, miscellaneous fiscal year 2526 budget amendment

015number 01. Mrs. Huffman, welcome. So, this represents the state uh special ed preschool grant. The money is pretty similar to what we received last year. So it will cover I think 1.3 teachers salaries to assistants and then miscellaneous supplies for the preschool any and we'll make the adjustment I think it's our second budget amendment for the year because I think our first was to recognize the teacher bonuses if I'm not mistaken. Yep. Yep. So this is actually going to be budget amendment number two. So we'll make correct that on the business agenda when we get ready for that. It'll be number two. Are we still looking about the same total cost for this program of around 800,000? Okay. I I expect, you know, I guess obviously it'll when we look at our legislative agenda, I

016expect that this will still be at the top of the list. Um but so we're we're short about 600,000 then. Right. Yes, sir. Right. Any questions for Miss Huffman? Thank you so much. Agenda item number four, Houston High School Master Plan Update. Mr. Manuel, we have a presentation. I'm going to make sure that Seems like we've been talking about this for a while. Um, but I think it's always important to keep everybody in the loop and answer questions or things that have developed and have come up. But I want to give a little history about where we are with the Houston High Master Plan and the conversations and and meetings that we have been having and also to answer some questions. So, let's go ahead and go move into the update. So, if you remember

017um five years ago, uh we started looking at uh what could Houston High School be and and how could we serve the programs um that have really developed and changed on our campus because when Houston High School was built back in 1989, it education was dramatically different. And so we embarked on this master planning process where we engaged everybody, parents, teachers, students, we had surveys, but on the committees themselves, we had 53 staff members, 30 parents and community and 13 students who were there to talk about what they saw as being the needs for Houston High School. So we and we had surveys, we had input from the community. We really tried to really dream big with what Houston High School could become. So like I said, uh we started in 2020 uh when we

018started looking at this master plan process and saying what could uh Houston High School um become and we had brainstorming sessions in 21 January of 21. We had proposals where the teams then shared out their proposals. We had design work with the architect firm to really do rough design about where those programs could fit on the campus in October of 21. Then in 22 uh we kicked it back to the subcommittees again so they could review the the plans. We had board input in 2022 talking about you know which options would we go with where would things be? Uh and we presented it to the city in 2023 in April of 23 and 24. And then in 23, December 23, we also had a joint retreat with the board of education and with the BMA

019to to really talk about what Houston High School could be. So, we were trying to um engage them and talk about how could we fund this this program. Now, if you remember, you've seen several versions of the Houston High master plan that we've discussed. Uh when we first put this out, we looked at we included everything that um except for that the swimming pool's not included in this one, but uh it it got cut, but that was something that we really discussed about should we have an auditorium on on our campus, but these were the the really big areas, 15 areas that we were talking about. You see all the ones and there was a cost at that time of 144 million, almost 145 million. Um because costs were going up, uh we put it

020back out and we actually had a construction uh company really talk about what is the projected cost for this and you know it got up to 170 million I think was the the top of this. Now we knew that the city was not going to be able to fund all of these things and so uh we went back and made adjustments uh to this plan. So we started a series and we actually uh had several board chairs. I think Mr. strain. Uh I don't know if you were even the first. I think we may have had board chairs meeting with them prior to you uh to talk about this, but I know you served with me and meeting with uh city administration and with the mayor uh Miss Griffith and you when you stepped into

021this role too, you you took on that function and were meeting with them and each time that we would meet with the city, they were giving us tasks to complete. They were asking us to go back, look at this plan and change something. So the first really was um on in our function reduce the overall cost. They said there's no way there's no way that they could fund uh $170 million and we we acknowledged that we went back and cut this plan. So when we went back and cut this plan uh there were a lot of things that were cut and these were all great things that that we looked at. So you you can see some of the things that were removed originally. It doesn't mean that we couldn't add these later but they

022wouldn't be in that initial ask to the city. So, uh, indoor practice facility for all sports, 10 million. There were flood plane. In order to have that facility, you would have to change the lake in the back of Houston Park. Uh, so that was the flood plane improvements. Uh, we talked about a new uh, turf practice field that was in the lower uh, section. It's not the one that we're going to be discussing today. That was at 1.8 million. There's construction of a lecture hall, and I think that's the one actually pictured there on Wolf River. Um, that was removed. That was 22 million. There were additional renovations and program reductions about 15 million throughout the building. Uh and know that there are things that we have done to help reduce this. Um so they

023had football stadium renovations. They were going to move the whole field in order to line everything up. It was going to move like 50 ft. But know that we we were trying to cut cost. Uh and they were talking about a new stadium. We just completed that project. I think it was 3.2. Is that correct, Mr. Kathy? just over $3 million. So we completed that for less than what was projected in this plan. So we are biting off pieces of this and of course there was additional design that was eliminated from the project initially to bring it down to about hund00 million. So you can see the items in red were the things that were removed or cut in that initial swipe uh trying to move this project across the finish line. And so I

024just outlined those but you can see where they were on the map. So then after we reduced it to about a hundred million uh in those meetings and I think it was a combination between once again chairman Strain and chairman Griffith uh when you were serving that capacity they asked us to then put them into buckets. What would be a a way that we could fund this project or do it in big chunks or big buckets not necessarily priorities because we talked about the fact that these priorities could change. We weren't saying this this bucket one was necessarily more important than than another bucket, but we did we broke them into three about 30 million plus buckets in order uh to accomplish this project and and the city was going to go back and look

025at their debt capacity, their policies to see could they fund all of these projects. So these are the buckets that we were looking at. Um, so once again, even though we're calling them priorities, like I said, we we really were talking about we have a 1A, 1B priorities for these. We talked about this at a board meeting when we were talking about, hey, how would we uh rank or or put these items? So, in the first bucket, uh, and it was approximately 30 million. We were talking about the new construction of the performing arts center and auditorium that was came in at was projected 16.7 million. a fine arts wing because we've talked about the fact that we have um orchestra classrooms that are in the converted plant manager's office. We have an art teacher

026that's teaching out of the storage lab behind the science labs. Those are places that we said we need to have designated uh instructional spaces for those. There was a new parking uh and on the east drive because we were moving this uh fine arts wing out into the front of the school. It was going to change the front bus loop when we were looking at this first bucket. Uh there were Wolf River uh streetscape and frontage improvements and then of course there's design fees. When we look at that second bucket, I don't want to say first priority ne necessarily second priority but it was I would say 1 A1B. We were talking about renovations in the existing building. So one of the things that we've talked about is in our academic wing when we talk

027about our CTE programs when we talk about our science labs. Once again in 1989 when they built that there was an orchestra in the schools. There was no such thing as STEM programming in the schools. When I started teaching there, we didn't have computers um in the school. I remember it was exciting when every teacher got one computer in the classroom and it was the big colored Mac. Um and we all shared that one computer. So to think about what how the school was designed, we know that we need upgrades to in order to provide for 21st century learning. So that was the academic wing and it was projected at 35 million. The third bucket that we were looking at was as we were moving through the facility was really moving into the athletics. And

028so, um, if you've been in our gym, we can't fit all of the student body into our existing gym. And I think they cut some corners when they compress the gym. The stairs actually lead onto the court. Uh, if you're going to walk past the team during a basketball game, you actually have to walk in front of the bench uh during the game while they're coaching to go get popcorn or coke. It is uh not welldesigned. Uh if you think about the fact that we have two gym spaces in a school where we have so many competitive programs, it's hard to fit all of those uh spaces at once and come up with the the schedule for all the teams to practice. Um so the things that we talked about here, uh we talked about

029new construction of the gym. Uh we also talked about expanding two new tennis courts for our tennis team because they only have four courts plan in order for us to host matches. That's what we would need to add. uh we have talked about in the land behind the high school. Um this is something that we've been discussing um for an extended period of time. When we first started proposing building this facility, building Forest Hill Elementary School and also building the central office, the city expressed the fact that they had a need and they needed land for a water tower. And at first when they were projecting where they were going to put this water tower, it was a need for the city. We saw this when they had the water crisis in the city, how

030the wa second water tower would have been really helpful to have uh that water pressure in order to handle that. Um but one of the challenges was the place um where they were going to put it. I think Miss Curus actually pulled you on to the school board in part of these discussions. Um, we actually put in a larger pipe to carry that water uh capacity because I think it was going to be in the back of our property on on the land that we had here. Um, through discussions with the residents and the neighbors, that was not going to be the right spot. And so, um, a resolution came about that instead of and they were just going to they wanted that space on our our property to put that water tower. We also

031had a need as a school district and the fact that we have programs that develop. We have our lacrosse programs uh that are from elementary to middle to high school. Uh if you think about our running programs that we've added at our schools, those are incredible programs for kids. We don't have the space to provide for those services. So, we worked out uh the land swap. That was an agreement that the city worked with us uh to accomplish. We had to give up uh land here on this campus to the city uh so that we could get that land behind um Houston High School. The problem with that, um, the land that we gave up, the city has immediate use of, and there was a three-way swap between a developer. That's how the water tower

032got moved to there. The developer gets land behind, uh, the school here, and we got Houston High's Park area back there. Now, we already own the area where the baseball field was and the tennis courts were. We were just picking up the lake and the three softball fields, but we had limitations. uh and the limitations are they had softball programming going on on those facilities and so they asked for us to work on an agreement in order to to accomplish that and so we have a land usage agreement to accomplish that. Um but we have the need now um for those facilities and so we're working with the city uh to accomplish how we're going to use that this project here that we were talking about the new lighted artificial turf field. Um you'll see

033it in the the later diagram but if we could go back two slide three slides keep going back uh to the map. It's number three there that we're talking about on that property. What we're talking about having is another track surface so that you could have a combination of uh track students there, but you would also be artificial turf. So between the two fields and the two tracks, we would think that we would be able to accommodate multiple teams, multiple groups um on our campuses. So that that's one of our objectives and one of our goals that we want to accomplish. So sorry, go ahead. But that is that back property. Um stay there on that one. Um, also too, we talked about baseball field renovations. They have an older facility there. Uh, and we

034also talked about uh funds for furniture and fixtures uh in the plan. When we look at the other things, so we can go ahead and go to the next one. Other renovations that have been completed, these were included in the plan, but we have already as a district out of the our funds gone on ahead and paid for these things. So, I think I want to um just talk a little bit about how we receive our funding. As a school district, we receive 0 for capital improvements to fix roofs, floors, buildings, bathrooms. We get an allocated dollar amount per student that goes into instruction. So when we do projects like this, we're taking that money out of that same pot that when we're talking about teacher salaries, when we're talking about insurance, when we're talking

035about software, this it's all the same pot of money. All of our capital funding comes from our count or the majority of our capital funding comes from two sources. Um mainly that is our county commission. We don't have the right to go ask directly for uh allocations or um that's not the way it's appropriated. When Shelby County Schools ask for an appropriation, we get a share of their ask. So if and our share has ranged between 4.31% to 4.26%, but there's a a range of amount of money that we get from the county commission. Um, usually in se around September, we get a form like you see here that that talks about the amount of money that we receive from the county commission and you get to see the asks. So, this was the 24

036requests from Memphis Shelby County Schools. So, they were asking for and they were projecting projecting that at that time they were looking at a new east high school uh region. They were talking about the new high school. This is what they were asking for. Their total budget was $46 million that they were requesting from the county commission which was approved. So, how do we get our capital funding where we do these other projects? We get our percentage. So at that time when they look at our average daily attendance, our number of students and how they're coming to school, our percentage of all the schools and districts in Tennessee was 4.31%. Now the real I think it's in the statute. It's not when they ask for the money, it's when they actually spend it. So that

037that poses real problems for us as a district. So, we worked out with our county commissioners to go ahead and receive some of the money up front because the county schools were not spending all their requested dollars uh during those fiscal years. So, they agreed to give the municipal school districts 85% of the ask ahead of time and then when Shelby County Schools finally spends all their money, we would receive the rest of that money. So, in fiscal year uh 24 or I think that yeah, this is 25's um we got Yeah. So, there's Yeah, there's 25. uh we received 2.6 million and the remaining balance to be sent is 393,000. So you can see the two fiscal years there. There's the 25 request uh total was 39 million. That's that's our current fiscal year

038uh that they have for Memphis Shelby County and our percentage of that uh 4.28%. We're going to receive 2.27 million with a remaining balance of 334,000. If we could go back about four slides, what did we do with that in the past? Um, that funding, this is how we tackle the projects at our schools. So, when we look at the bathroom upgrades and renovations phase one that we just completed um at the high school, well, we did that one in 2021, the bathroom upgrades, uh, that was 1.25 million. We just completed the partial ceiling tile and grid replacement at Houston High School and all the upstairs, the auditorium lobby and the main lobby. That was at a cost of $2 million. We're biting off those projects as we're receiving u that funding. That's nowhere near

039100 million, 90 million, you know, that we need to to complete a new high school. We still have remaining projects left that um we want to accomplish. finish the ceiling tile and grid project, a bathroom upgrades and renovations, flooring replacements, and then there's additional money for design. But no, there there are other renovations in the high school building that we want to do as part of this big master plan process. But that explains I think I think when we were at the joint session, there was some confusion. They wanted us to show them a five-year plan. Uh we do have a five-year plan of the things that we want to accomplish, but it's not a funding plan because we don't once again we don't have a dedicated revenue stream. Um this is the plan. It's

040you can see it online. If you go to operations and go to master facility plan, you can see our projections for our next five years. Our board sees this in October. We have a committee that helps put this together as we want to accomplish uh these different projects. But there's no way that we could put together a funding formula with it because we don't know what Memphis Shelby County Schools is going to ask each year to the county commission. So they don't do a five-year request in advance. Um so I think that's one of the challenges that we face. Uh we do budget general fund dollars smaller amounts uh into capital improvements. It's less than a million dollars for that and and maintenance. Uh but know that that's one of our difficulties that we face.

041So I think the next thing that we need to discuss in our joint work session and Mr. Strang we talked about this um we had uh some discussion I think one of the alderman uh suggested some funding some innovative funding strategies for how we would fund our schools. Um there's some challenges with just throwing out ideas and just proposing uh some funding uh streams. Um, I've been doing this, this is my 12th year as a superintendent. I've seen numerous projects that we have gone through. We have looked at lots of things. So, I'm going to be very careful not to be emotional about the fact that someone would just say, "Hey, why don't you have a bake sale to fund this new building or why not have you thought of uh why don't we have

042a show, put on a show and and we could accomplish things that way." So, I'm trying not to take it um in that spirit or that vein of just throwing out ideas of how to fund it instead of coming up with real solutions to fund things because we're spending a lot of time that we're going to go through these ideas and these items and talk about which ones could be possible and which ones couldn't. So, the first thing that was recommended and I think it was in the Daily Memphian article was a public building authority with a leaseback structure. The best example I can give you is a reverse mortgage. And I don't know who knows about reverse mortgages, but every banker that I talk to talks about the fact that a reverse mortgage is

043a really bad idea. Unless you're an individual who doesn't want to leave anything to their children or their grandchildren. What you're doing is giving away your property bite by bite by bite. This plan suggests that the school district leases our buildings to a developer. The developer then uses that lease agreement. So, we would give up our rights to our our properties to a developer. They would go out and get a loan in order to do the upgrades at Houston High School and then we would start paying them lease payments to use our schools. They would own our schools and they would be in charge of if a roof needs to be replaced or tiles need to be replaced, we wouldn't have say in what gets done in that leasing uh arrangement. And so we would

044make arrangements for them. Here's the problem. This is not a lease to own agreement. Well, there's lots of problems with this funding idea. We are not leasing to own the building at the end. Let's say it was a 10-year lease agreement that we signed with this developer. If we wanted our schools, we would have to pay the full price for our schools back at that time or continue for another 10 years, another 20 years being in a lease agreement for our buildings. That's a real challenge. Now, there are other challenges besides just the philosophy of do you give up your rights. I think there would be some other legal implications that we have to talk about. Our buildings are held in trust for our taxpayers. And so if Germantown schools went belly up and folded,

045the rights revert back to Shelby County Schools for these buildings in these facilities. I don't know if we legally necessarily have the right to enter into this type of arrangement. But there are other reasons why we cannot enter into a PBA or a public building authority. The first, once again, we'll talk I talked about this. We lose ownership of our property and uh we'll have to pay the cost of the project at the end of the lease. we would have to buy Houston High School back from this company. The second, according to Gatsby 87, and that's the governmental accounting standards, this lease counts as financial liability debt service, which means the reason that uh we're talking about these novel funding ideas is because the city talks about their limits with debt capacity. This counts as

046debt. So, if it's about counting as debt, it doesn't matter. this structure counts as debt also. Um so it's a financial liability. And the next is according to MTAS which is a municipal uh advisory service the lease paybacks for the PBA. It doesn't talk about school districts at all. When you look at the impass I MTAS documents for this uh type of borrowing agreement. It's tied to municipalities. So, cities can do this type of uh lease agreements, but it must be tied to a specific city resolution. The city would have to pass a resolution and the resolution itself has to be tied to a specific tax levy. So, you're still raising taxes and it has to be paired with it. Um, so the other thing, as we've talked about before, as a school district, we

047cannot levy taxes. We can't go out and go to bond and say, "Taxpayers of Germantown, vote for this tax. We want this tax to raise schools. That's a Tennessee law. So, it is not possible for us as a school district to do any of those things. We could not enter into a PBA lease back option. So, for this to be recommended as an option for us to fund the schools for me, I don't want to say reckless, but it it's not possible. So us for us to spend time researching looking at this we're spinning our wheels when we've been talking about this since uh 2020. So let's talk about the next recommendation that was proposed a public private partnership or a P3 partnership the design build finance maintain model. This is very similar to the

048lease back option or reverse mortgage for schools. Once again you partner with a private entity to finance build and maintain the facility. So, we would go out to a private company and say, "Build Houston High School for us." We would then enter into a long-term lease payment over 30 to 40 years to that group. And we would pay for them. Here's the problem once again. If if the reality is that the city can't take on debt, we're not allowed to take on debt as a school district. The problem with this plan is it counts as debt. Now, that was what was proposed. Um that was in the meeting that they said it wouldn't count as debt. It does. So, the P3 designs, once again, this was not designed um for public school projects. Since 2013,

049I think I I saw that there there have been 37 P3 agreements since 2013. Most states are starting to say these are not viable. These are not things that they would support or or promote. The most examples that you see of P3s are on roads. So, a city or a municipality in the United States, and I think this also in Canada, too, but they will go out and they'll sell their rights to a section of road to a company to update a highway or a road, and then that company who builds that road can turn it into a toll road and actually make money off the toll road to pay back um their expenditures. That doesn't fit for a a school systems model. Now, once again, gasp 87, this counts as long-term debt. So, if

050the rationale was to keep debt off the books, this isn't it. Once again, um you must follow Tennessee procurement rules. So, I don't know how that is going to fit. If we have this company that's going to build this, they would have to fit all of our um rules as far as when we go out to to purchase or construction. And it is not legal for a school district in Tennessee because we cannot take on debt. So, the P3 that was mentioned and discussed as a possibility of funding Houston High School, not a possibility. Um, the examples that they talked about that were so exciting was Prince George in Maryland. Now, Prince George in Maryland built eight new schools for 228 uh million dollars using P3 funding. Um, and what you have to understand with

051that project, 228 was the money that was the P3 model, they also went out and got 650 million in bonds. The difference between us and Prince George, they're in Maryland. Maryland school systems have taxing authority. They can go out to their taxpayers and charge a tax for this. They can have a referendum to do that. school systems in Maryland can take on debt because they do have that taxing authority. So when we look at this again when we talk about the P3 partnerships, this example that was shown not possible in Tennessee because we can't take on debt. So there were other things that were mentioned too and some of these um were possible public private partners. So we could leverage our Germantown Education Foundation that we already have to raise more money for our schools.

052That's a possibility. We could look at community foundation grants and corporate philanthropy to fund parts of our schools. We could talk to our hospitals and see if they'd be willing to fund a science lab or uh fund one of our like our health science classrooms. We could look at corporate funded labs and career wings in our schools. All those things were possible. Those were uh suggestions. But the challenge that I have with those recommendations, we've been doing those things and we've been doing them, but it's not easy. And I'm not saying that this isn't something that she would we would shouldn't work towards, but when we think about how we fund, and this is how we funded all the projects that we've completed in our schools. 43% of our funding, the majority of it has

053come from the city of Germantown. We are so thankful for what they have provided for us. When we look at uh Forestdale Elementary School or the partnership that they have with Riverdale, they have really provided funds for these buildings, they've provided the lion share of the funds that we see um for our buildings in our facilities. Uh from the county commission, we have used that money when we get those allocations to fund 14% of what we've done. The district once again out of our general fund, we have funded 32% of this. But then we've also used private donors. You can see that's 1.9%. We also use federal funds for the Houston Middle edition and we've been braiding these programs. But when we look at Houston Middle, for example, that was a $17 million project where

054the city gave $5 million. We use federal funding, we use private funding, we use district funding. When we look at the fieldhouse um at Houston High School, that was a partnership between several individuals. The challenge we have that I have with all of these things, could we raise some money? Yes. And should we? Yes. We should try to do these things. But it's also very difficult and we've seen this when we talk about how we have funded the fieldhouse and the turf field. People are really excited to make a donation and a pledge to fund a turf field or a fieldhouse when their kids are at a school or in a program. But six years after, seven years after, eight years after, we have challenges with people defaulting on their pledges and the foundations have

055gone out and gotten a loan to provide those facilities. If we're talking about a $90 million building, and at the end of the day, the district's on the hook for these. This is a challenge for the district. Um, it's a real challenge to think about funding $90 million worth of capital improvements with these types of partnerships. Can they be some? Can they be a part of it? They should. Um, but can they fund the lion share of this? I find that very unlikely because we've been doing this for 12 years. So the example that was given here um once again I feel like we didn't have a lot of research done on this prior to it being mentioned as an option was the Oracle. Oracle and Silicon Valley built a high school and we could

056do something similar here. There are really big differences with what happened at Oracle. Oracle had a huge campus. It's a software company. They got into the charter school business. They built a school for 500 students on their own property, their own facility to build this campus. They weren't building this school out in a city or municipality to do that. They were moving into the charter school business. And we have some examples like this when we look in Memphis when we see Soulville's Charter School, Memphis Grizzlies Prep, they're smaller. Um but this is not a feasible model for what um we could consider for Houston High School. the other mention uh so there was energy savings performance contracts since I've been in this role I think we've had four maybe five companies come in and analyze

057whether they can save us money uh on projects the simple explanation of this plan you get a company they come in they do upgrades to your facilities they change your lights from fluorescent to LED they upgrade your HVA systems they switch to an energy management system in your schools that controls when the airs or or heat is coming on and off. And through those savings that they have, you can use that money to then fund a capital improvement project. The problem with this is we've already done these projects in all of our schools. We've done the ceiling tile and grids. We have the LED lights. We have the new HVA systems. We have the performance management system. So this is not a possibility for us because we have already recognized the savings. We've already done

058the upgrades for the HVAC. But I think just last spring we had another we got another company to come in and say, "Hey, do is there anything that we're missing? Could you see where we could do this?" And they could not create substantial savings for the district uh in order to fund capital improvement projects. So once again, I'll say we've been doing this. We've been making these upgrades. And so for us for this to be proposed as a solution to our funding problem for the high school is not feasible. The next one was a real concern for me. It was mentioned that we should use school-based scholarship granting organizations, SGOs, to help fund Houston High School. Once again, I don't think there was a lot of research around this bullet. This education choice for children's

059act is a national voucher program. It is a tax credit for businesses who provide scholarships for people to take advantage of vouchers. This doesn't apply to our schools or our systems in any capacity. Once again, it is a a tax break for businesses who fund scholarships for people going to private schools. So, um, S and SGO school-based scholarship, that's not an option to fund Houston High School's programming. So, moving forward, what are we looking forward as we have these joint meetings as we're working with the city? One, we've been asking the city to look at their debt capacities and policies. Uh, I think Mr. Ellis, you're working with the subcommittee to talk about what could they borrow, how could they do this. We're looking at them or financial policies. We're looking them to talk about

060their debt capacities and we're also talking about um put it to the taxpayers. Uh let's talk about a referendum and talk about do our taxpayers want to pay for this for our schools. Let's let them vote and decide and if the residents of the city of Germantown decide that this is not a priority then that's something that we would have to move forward and and live with. Um but I believe that education is really important to the people living in Germantown. So that is the history of the master plan. Um, I'll open that up for discussion of where we are um at this time. Yeah, perfect timing questions or or that up. Um, I was going to ask if uh board member Ellis wanted to give any recap um of the subcommittee meeting. A couple

061of us were there. or um just kind of for the greater room and and those that may be listening that weren't privy to that gathering kind of what the purpose was and and kind of what the homework assignments were that came out of that. Thank you, Chair Griffin. I attended the FAC subcommittee meeting. It was a breakout session more with the city's bond analyst lobe to discuss what our capacity needed to be as a city going forward and how to align that with the current rating agencies. She went over a presentation that outlined the expenditures for similar communities which did show more of an expenditure from from the towards your schools as a percentage by Bartlett Arlington and all of our immediate I guess comparisons. She also went into detail that the ratings agencies have

062changed the way they look at it and that our policy needs to be refined, which will result in an increase in our city's bonding authority. So, that's a positive in regards to what we're trying to get to with a greater portion of that being funded. What that looks like going forward, we don't know. She will come back with her recommendations at the next meeting, which still hasn't been scheduled yet, but looking forward to that and seeing what that amount will look like, so we can target trying to get a little closer to filling one of those buckets on our first run. Thank you so much. I appreciate that. Okay. Well, board member. So I think just for because I think there's been some you see on social media and you hear things. So just I

063think it's a good opportunity to clarify. First off, I appreciate your walk through. I think that answers all the points that were raised. And um you know while I while I appreciate um the spirit in which the points were raised obviously um you know we have looked at it and I you know I just our funding I think we're pretty much looking at one one avenue basically and I think that's really what we're we're down to. Um so in the committee work we had representation from the city in the committee work. Correct. That's correct. Okay. So, so the city was aware at all times the what was being discussed in the plan uh what was being uh the ideation sessions. So there was there was no point at which people from the city in city

064administration were not in the completely in the loop. That's correct. Okay. Um I guess um yeah I think that's important to note. Then we started the because I I've seen on social media where you know we're just now going to the city to have discussions about funding but in fact after Fleming um made the presentation at when we were there I guess over at the fire station when Fleming made the presentation we immediately engaged in discussions on how to you know how to you know at least they were initial but we didn't wait until just recently to start the discussions. The funding discussions have been ongoing for quite some time. Correct. That's correct. We we've had discussions for several years about how we can fund this. Okay. Thank you. Vice Chair. Uh yeah, thank you

065Mr. Emanuel for walking through a lot of those. I was I was definitely interested kind of to see uh what the district had looked at previously and thoughts on the ideas. I do appreciate uh alderman bringing uh ideas to the table and again we're open to discussing uh additional ideas too I think but um if we're looking at so so basically kind of the one big bucket of those ideas that you know make sense for us to look at or public private partners in working towards you know maybe trying to increase uh donations. I agree with you. think indivi individual donations are tough particularly when they're pledges and particularly when the district is on the hook uh for paying back the amount if the pledges default. Um, so I think probably where we would need

066to look is more at a co a corporate donor who would be willing to make a larger investment upfront in exchange for, you know, anything from naming rights or or uh or whatever I suppose we could offer. Um, I know we we are working well with the education foundation and uh we're proud and happy to have them as partners. I also wonder, I know we don't really have anyone whose sole job on district staff is to look at fundraising or things like that. I know that you and deputy superintendent and Miss Crowder and probably everybody else in the building has done a little bit of that as part of their unofficial job duties. Um, has there ever been any consideration or should we consider, you know, looking at a position that would, you know, if

067not full-time, at least be devoted towards looking at uh, you know, a a one person whose job essentially is to go out and and try to shake the corporate trees and those types of things. Yeah, I thought I thought that was a really good recommendation that we had at that joint session, too. I think um, Alderman Salvagio was talking about the potential for a position. I I thought that was a a good recommendation for something that could bear fruit. Um like I said, I think the only limitations are thinking about the amount of money that we need. Uh could that offset cost? Yes. Could could we get a millions or a million or two million? But are we talking about tens of millions or 90 million? That may be unlikely to find that for business

068partnerships, but I do think a position like that could bear fruit and could um have value for us. Now, would it make sense for that to be a GMSD position or to deepen that partnership with the education foundation who is looking at moving into more of a development type role, at least in my conversations with them, and utilize that as a partnership with us for them to be more of our fundraising arm. I think all those are possibilities. I think both both could be successful. I think the only thing that you would have to do is if you had um an organization like um the foundation they they typally they act as a school support organization. So ultimately the administration of the schools or the district has authority over what they are promising what they

069are raising. And so when we've done these big projects in the past, we have to be careful because people want to go out and promise all kinds of naming rights for things and you have duplicates or maybe one person agreed that they would get this level of naming for this amount of money and somebody else got this amount uh for the the money that they raised. So you just have to have very strict guidelines. If it if it wasn't a district employee, uh we would have supervision and authority over them, but we would have to be very clear about what what they can go out and sell. We wouldn't want what is it? Chico's bail bonds from uh Bad News Bayers. We we would not want the Chico bail bond uh criminal justice classroom. That

070would not be the the best example. I don't know how I could get with that. Um well, great point and mention and and I I did like that idea when it was mentioned and we've had conversations about it over the years. um more in the past. We've also hit on our ability potentially to expand seeking out grants. Again, a lot of times those aren't recurring. Those might be something like you say that that might just be a small chunk that could help with, you know, some furniture here. do you know but everything adds up and as I think it was stated by multiple folks at the table the spirit of trying to get creative is something we all knew was going to have to happen in this process and we're going down the list and

071I want to be clear from from my seat that we're taking all of these things into consideration because we know that it's not just a you know one one path or avenue to get here. Um, so I appreciate everyone going through the exercise. Um, but I think it's really important that we all understand the value in the superintendent kind of going through the chronology. We didn't just wake up the other day and say, "Oh, hey, by the way." So, um, this has really been a a long road to get to this point. Um, and I'm I'm really I've learned a lot in these recent meetings. um with the city administrator and the budgeting process with city leadership and and finance uh kind of more about how it works um how and and I really appreciated

072the recent FAC subcommittee meeting where they they did a overhaul you know like how we're talking about things that we oversee they have to talk about their um fiscal policies and it was very evident to me that our community needed to address and and update their fiscal policies. Perfect, perfect timing. It was really the message I got from the person who um they lean on to to make those recommendations. So, I feel like the timing is right and I'm glad that the conversations are being had and and I'm really excited, quite frankly, that some of these conversations that have been happening kind of in silos and one-on-one meetings and and with the city amongst themselves and their departments or with us here at the school board and district are now happening together in public. That's

073what um you know, we had a lot of us uh I commended Alderman Svagio and school board member Hendrickx for really pushing for, hey, you know what, the the he said, she said, everybody's pointing the other way across town. Let's all get in the same room. Let's start to pull in the same direction. Let's hash it out. Let's let's get it all out there. But for the main purpose that I support that, it's because I feel like the constituents in the community need to better understand where we are and what the process looks like. Transparency equals trust. Y'all hear me say it all the time. Um, and I want to make sure that everybody understands that this is not uh all of a sudden gotcha. Oh, by the way, I've heard a few folks recently

074say, oh, like I think who was it mentioned that you know all of a sudden the financial part of the plan? Well, no. My goodness, that's been that that's been in in uh lock step side by side going down the road the whole way. So, this is um I think I said it at the joint work session and I've said it previously at this table. The way we got to this point was quite possibly the most pristine budgeting process I've ever participated in or been around. And that was start with the vision, start with the plan, and then work your way down to make it in digestible, you know, um, bites from a funding standpoint. That's exactly what we did. And the superintendent illustrated that very well tonight with the timeline. Um, so here we

075are. What's next? Um, I just like to say as a student that you know is around the kids every day, this this type of topic, um, you know, renovations, this gets a lot of attention from students. And I think putting this out there on YouTube and letting everyone see it, um, and fully understand where we are in this process is really important. Um, just for student like optimism and understanding where we are in this process and that it's not just hopelessness and that there is real progress that can be made. Um, I think that's important for us to continue to address um in these meetings and um yeah, I mean this is real. I think some students really don't think that and um as we continue to move through this process uh I think we

076need to continue to uh keep students well informed on this um because they have people that are going to be affected by it most and um they're just really going to be excited about this and I think they need to hear it. very well received. Yeah. I was going to ask, I mean, you're living in real time, so what what difference have you observed? You know, I don't know if you I guess you have some classes upstairs and but like what have you observed with lighting? Like has it has it made any difference at all to you? Um I mean teachers are are really enjoying how they can like slide the lights up and down. And first day of school we had some really fun like hey like uh this side of the class is

077being bad. We're going to light shame you. But um I mean it's it's been good. They were definitely brown. Um so it's good that they got replaced. But yeah, those these are the type of projects I think some students are really excited for bathroom renovations and they may not have known that those were coming. Um and finding out that people have been mentioning to me I was like this is coming like we're going to have bathroom renovations. Um, so I think just little things like that are exciting, but also just like being, you know, being in the know on this and letting everyone know where we are is really important. Yeah. Have you been to the front office yet? I have not. You got pop your head in the front office. You'll see like it's

078completely transformed. Like it's amazing up there. You can go there. You don't have to be in trouble to go to the office. like there will I think um and I I value that uh because I think we lose sight of that all the time and for us pe for us here that are the decision makers and the folks that make the plans long term while we all sitting at this table have kids in this school or uh specific to Houston High School or those that are on the way you know the ones that are there right this right this second today the students and the staff theor morale and the adjustment and the shift and the culture and this this cadence and in progress. You're so right. Like that's part of this communication. That's part

079of of the dream that we established. But we I feel like we have managed expectations. I think that there's been a lot of discussion lately about us, you know, maybe getting people too excited. And I I think that's part of the process. Um there is nobody that claimed that there was funding attached to this plan at any given moment. We've we've maintained that every step of the way. There should be zero confusion. That doesn't mean there's not. Um but I think it's important that the peop the very people that are going to champion this need are the people that are in the building now, the people that are in kindergarten, prek, sixth grade that are on the way. You know, I mean, it's it's everybody that's that's not even here yet, too. Um, and I

080I really appreciate you reminding us that that communication to the demographic that's in in the thick of it is really really crucial. I've given this a lot of thought myself just on, you know, other options, funding, things like that. And I personally have really struggled other than, you know, private partnerships. Um, and I just didn't know if there are other uh ideas, superintendent, that you or any of the other board members have had that, you know, we should be looking further into or something like that. There aren't a lot of options out there and and I can tell you um chairman or representative White who's the chairman of our education committee actually asked the comprollers's office to do a study of all building projects in Tennessee. And so you can find that it's from Ora

081uh the the group that actually created that study. So it talks about how every addition building was was completed in Tennessee and the funding mechanism for that. And like I said, there aren't a lot of options out there. Um typically what we've seen, you know, public private partnerships like we have, but those aren't the the big part of the funding scheme for most most facilities. So I would say that's a a strong dias in 23 that they completed that document. And I know there was discussion uh during the voucher legislation last year of you know some level of capital funding from the state for certain school districts. I don't I don't see where we would ever fit the uh constraints they had on that as far as you know just amount needed and and uh

082and I don't know if I mean I certainly wouldn't want to tie it to uh an expansion of the voucher program but um again if if the state spending 144 million or more on vouchers it seems like there should be some money available for public school uh capital improvements from the state. And so I don't know if that's something we needed to continue to ask for. I I don't have a lot of hope that that would meet any sort of we we can attempt to do that. Um one of the things that we'll I was going to wait till further business, but we can already pull this band-aid. Um we're getting our BEP numbers in. What we say when we from all of our schools, they report to us the number of students that are

083attending our schools. you know, that's always fluid this first um couple weeks of school, but we are seeing lower numbers of students in the district that we're going to present to you. Um I know of anecdotal stories of lots of families in Germantown taking advantage of the vouchers program. And so we've already been researching as part of that. One of the other proposals that I remember we heard and you you probably remember was the hold harmless agreement. Um, and in our research of the hold harmless agreement, it doesn't take effect until next year if you see a reduction of students based on this year's enrollment. So the first year of expansion of vouchers, there is not a hold harmless is the short and sweet in the way that was written. Um, so I don't have

084faith in the capital improvement project either. So not surprising. Um so but uh we will do a full report of numbers and everything once we get the the firm numbers but know that uh we could see impacts of of vouchers here with with funding without the hold harmless or the capital improvement. Well and again I know we're kind of drifting away a little bit but I I was going to ask about that too. I mean, other than just anecdotally, there's not a real way for us to track who we've lost to vouchers, right? We have some numbers that we can see. Um, I I think it's harder hit when you're talking about students coming into kindergarten because remember that's we always use like a three-year projection and the demographers's birth rate report to project our

085number of kindergarten students. So, we have some, but I think we can tie to it. But it was supposed to be based on what your attendance was that. And once again, it it wasn't even going to be a hold harmless. It was going to only hold us harmless for the state portion of our funding, which is only 50% of our funding. So, if we saw a reduction of students, we're also going to lose our Shelby County funding, which is the other 50%. And we're going to lose capital funding because our percent will go down. So um multiple challenges associated with that. So such a pleasant topic. Well, um again, you know, all we can do is continue to to work hard and be creative like we stress. And that's what we've we've got to do.

086We've got to work together as a community. Um, and I mean that's that's our best option. So, we ready to move to our next topic of discussion? I just want to reiterate what you highlighted this evening about some of the significant chunks of the plan that we have already what I kind of call like picked off the tree if you will. And I think that making sure that people understand we're actively doing our part just like we always have historically outside of this specific facility plan. how we've done with the five-year, you know, kind of sliding around with the facilities plan. And like you always said, these are the needs based off of basic operations of school districts, roofs, HVACs, the like things, painting, um, and and those things that are on schedules. Those are

087all plugged in for all of our brick-andmortar facilities on an ongoing basis. Y'all know that's one of my favorite things. I look at it all the time. This is no different to me in that when we have dollars that we need to spend, we're great stewards. We we we pull some things off that are within our means and make them happen. We don't just wait and kick it down the road where it may cost more. We we're actionable. We we're doing the things. And the examples that you showed, I thought were were very important, very critical, very impactful things that we've already done that really hit on the arts, athletics, and academics. and just the overall operations of that high school, our high school. And you know, we're already up to about $ 122.25 million

088in expenses that we have invested. And I think what's more important, too, is we've done that with that 12.25 um number, but the actual projection because we did a a more limited scope of what was projected in the big dream, you know, that's going to have a more significant value than what's taken off of the master plan. Um, so yes, that 12.5 million probably equated to 30 million in the big master plan. When you look at, for example, the fact that they thought the high school stadium was going to cost us 6 million to do that whole project and we come in at 3.1 3.2 million. Um, that's a that's a big difference when you talk about if we do that for every part of this project and design it well and design it with

089the best use of taxpayer dollars. And that was it. that that was being done with, you know, not not trying to be on a shoestring budget. We know that that was part of the problem because that's how that building was built in the first place. Anyone that was around Shelby County Schools during the time that that school, Houston High School, was designed, developed, built, it was on the low low back in the day. And we just wish we could see those figures now, right? Yeah. And I think I think it's important to note too like how we choose some of those may not be an exact order. Um when we talk about that whole big master plan I think it's important to note. So we talk about why did we do the stadium bleachers? Why

090did we do the track? Why did we do that project? The reality is we had a sevenlane track that had huge holes and pits in it. They were trip hazards. The surface had worn away and we got to the point where we had patched. We had patched. We had patched and we had to resurface the whole track. So we had to make the decision at that time, do we go ahead and resurface a sevenlane track or do the eight lane track where we can actually hold the state events. And so we said, of course, we're going to go ahead and add that extra lane in the track when we do this project because that's a long-term project. In doing so, um, it moved into the bleachers because if you think about the way those old

091bleachers, they were not ADA accessible. They had added some ramps on some of the parts of it. They weren't ADA accessible. So once we touched those and moved that track lane into it, we had to redo those bleachers. So on the home side, we redid that with the press box. And then on the visitor side, that's why you see the new ramps that that are going up the side. We had to make it ADA accessible master plan. We have example after example over over 10 years of how we move those things around based on the need shifts, the urgency shifts, the funding becomes available. This is no different. I think that's important, too. There's been a little confusion as to why, what, when, but that is absolutely a precedent that's been set through all of

092our projects over the years. We make good plans and sometimes those things get moved around on the list. It's no different than when you're at home. I might want a fence, but if there's a hole in the roof, sometimes the fence has to wait. Anyone else? Wonderful. We're ready to move on to the next item number five. term field discussion. Could I just go back one one more thing? I did pull up our fiveyear capital improvement plan. Are we still on track for what we have listed on the 2025 or what do we do we know where we are? I think that's what we're about getting ready to talk about. Yes. So once again, Mr. Strade, as you remember, that was a plan of what what we want to accomplish based on their need. It

093was not a funding formula for those items. So there is not money allocated for uh those items on the plan. So we think it's important to just have some discussions and we do need um to discuss how the board wants to decide. So I don't know whether this is a vote uh at our business meeting. Um how do you want us to move forward with certain projects? We're going to need your guidance to to determine that. Of course, we have recommendations of things minimally that we want to accomplish, but we need to have some of those discussions. So, let's get into the nitty-gritty. Go ahead and switch the slide over. Okay. So, we have planned. So, you're talking about how do we plan to accomplish the things that are in this year's uh plan? know

094that based on the allocations from the Shelby County Commission, we think we're going to receive about 2 million in this fiscal year and two million in the next next fiscal year from Shelby County Schools. So, um, our proposal based on the previous discussion we had is to get rid of the modular units at Farmington. Um, and we think that's going to be a $6 million project, uh, approximately when we go out to bid. um that it would require us to take two million from the county commission's 2526 allocation, 2 million from county commission, and then two million from general fund reserve. Now, this year, we've talked about reserve a bunch of times, but I'll bring it back to the the discussion. Um we don't get all of our money up front for a school for

095a school year. So, our money comes in how we get taxes. So a majority of our taxes come from property taxes and people pay property taxes in December through February. So what we see in our bank account is we're making payroll, we're paying for computers and software. Our bank account starts to go down down down down and then all of a sudden the property taxes hit and they build back up again. When we started the district, we had to have a loan from the city to get started uh in our bank account. It was a revenue anticipatory note of $8 million. Uh now because of the number of students we have and the number of staff that we have um we need approximately $10 million every year just for cash flow. So when I say

096that we finish the year with $23 million in our reserve, we have to be careful. We can't go, "Oh, we got 23 million to spend. That's great." Um that would be very poor because next year we couldn't pay the paychecks when we start the school year. So once again, take 10 million off the top um of that 23 million just for cash flow. The next thing I think we need to be worried about um I want to take at least $2 million based on last year's performance for our health insurance. I don't know how health insurance is going to perform. That's why we're going to give you that book. And I'm worried about claims and worried about what's going to happen. So, I think you take another two million out of that uh 23 million

097just to be safe around what's going to happen with our health insurance until we see what those changes in the plan actually create. So then what does that leave us with? That's why I say so what's our available reserve once we take those things off the table? We're looking at $1 million that we could spend for capital improvement projects. And I think that's what's important to for the board to consider when we're talking about. So, my recommendation would be to go ahead and take 2 million from uh the reserve and finish off that. Uh that will free up some funds because we are having to pay lease payments on the modulars behind uh Farmington and Dogwood. We do not own those. Those are rental um facilities. There's those are trailers. So, um and I'll just

098clear up. I've gotten this question a lot in the past few weeks on our Shelby County Commission dollars and how we receive them and spend them. right now that all of the funds that we have previously received, they're out the door. So, we don't have any reserve of Shelby County Commission dollars sitting in our coffers. Those were used to pay for various projects. One of them being the track and field renovation. As soon as we get those Shelby County Commission dollars, we do our best to get them right back out the door and spend them on CIP projects. But, I just want to make sure everyone is aware we're not sitting on some big hoorde of Shelby County Commission or other funds for capital projects. Um, and so what this would do is for the

099next two years, this fiscal year and the following fiscal year, this would take all of the dollars, every penny that we receive from the Shelby County Commission would go towards the Farmington edition, all of it. So for the next two years, that's where that money would be allocated towards plus what we would need this board to take action on to pull from reserve in order to accomplish just that project. I just want to make that clear that so that everyone understands that's when we receive it, we spend it, we spend it on capital projects and we get it out the door. We're not sitting on some big balance of Shelby County Commission dollars. Mr. We actually can't sit on a big balance of Shelby County dollars, right? Correct. When do we have I know we've

100talked about it and I think the architects are looking at it. When are we going to have a pretty good idea of what we're dealing with with Farmington? because if it comes back a lot more expensive than what we're thinking, then obviously that's going to change the calculus here. So, what what are we looking at time frame so we know what we're dealing with? We're hoping to be out to bid in the spring. Um and and that that would be the goal. And I mean, we're going to we always try to land our construction projects within budget. We do a lot of work to get it there, but on bid day, as you know, it can it can go any number of ways depending on a lot of variables that are out there. bid going

101and we and we have built it with add-ons and areas that we could cut out and out of this project too. So, um we have it where we can build to scale. So, depending on how the bids come back, we could cut sections of the project in order to come in at cost. Um but that's our first discussion point that we have that that's our first recommendation of project that's on our five-year list. It's it's one of our key items that we've been talking about for a long time, how to get rid of those modular units at our school. Then we get into other projects um that we have discussed um that I think this is where the board needs to consider um other items and and it has once again these are all approximate

102costs you don't know until you go out to bid. So um we started the ceiling talon grid project so to finish the downstairs areas and the rest of the school that has an approximate cost of $2 million. The HHS bathroom renovations to finish those bathroom bathrooms off uh is 1.2 25 million. Farmington roof replacement estimated cost a million. Um and then there's this is the one that I'm going to break down in the next slide and this is something that has risen as far as need. Um the Houston High School new field um behind in Houston Levy Park allin with everything with it is 4.5 million. Uh turfing the baseball field and and we've seen a presentation on the cost for turfs and projection uh is 1.25 million. the soccer field uh 810,000. Finishing off

103the the turf field at the softball field is 390,000. And then of course we have the projection um I don't know if it's an it's not an allocation because until the BMA actually approves next year's budget, they've said they're going to provide $10 million. I think that was the um vote for Houston High School's master plan. I think something too that we're going to have to remind the city of if if our funding is 10 million, we're going to go back to that drawing board and have to redraw and choose priorities and what we can accomplish with that $10 million for the new field. Uh does that include track as well or is that just let's go to the new slide? I keep coming. So what does the four.4 million include? Now once again this

104is not all in. you would not have to do all of these things at once. This can be a staggered plan. I think when we talk about our need and we talk about our students, um there are multiple solutions of what we need that could help us. Um we experienced it. Um you know, lacrosse is TWSA now it is expanded to our elementary schools having grass fields in the spring is a problem. We have that same problem because we have boys soccer that's happening in the spring. So they get rained out. So everybody's trying to use that turf field um at the high school. At the same time, you've got the high school track group, you got elementary track groups that are trying to get out there. Um so know that those are challenges. Um

105Mr. Powski and school staff are working to get the netting that goes around the field so that you could have lacrosse practices going on while other groups are practicing on the track. So they are going to move forward with purchasing netting solutions for them, but that's temporary. um those aren't long-term solutions for what we want to do, but we are trying to accomplish that. So, what could we do first? You could bite any pieces of these off depending on how you wanted to accomplish it. Uh once again, all these are dependent upon the city's um working with us and I think the mayor said last night that we're working through how we can um access these fields sooner and we're working with the administration to do that. there are um softball programs in the city

106that are going to be displaced. Um and so know that that's part of that land usage um agreement, but they are working with us and we're talking to the administration about how we can accomplish this ahead of time. I do want to temper expectations because um Mr. Kathy, I think we've talked about this numerous times. We're going to have to go through um potentially go through commissions, although I have to research some legal guidance. I heard that Chuck Hegel had some interesting legal guidance, but uh we're projecting three months of uh going through commissions, then you're talking about uh one two months to get documents ready to go out to bid and then you're talking about the bidding process. It would be very difficult um to think about this um happening before the this next

107season. So, we're probably talking about a little further down the road, but um we do have short-term solutions we're trying to accomplish. So, what could we do? Um if the board decided it was uh what they wanted to accomplish first, we could do a new track um in that facility for elementary school track. So that would remove that um challenge that they're facing right now of getting access onto the high school track or um you could provide a new turf field back there. Now ultimately the plan is to have the turf field with the track around it so I can have multiple uses of the same facility. But both things increase our availability for all the different groups that are trying to use the same facility. Uh once again, if you think about uh groups

108that are out there, if you we we have existing lights out that that light the softball poles. So you could have some lighting that is um currently in use, but in order for us to put new lights, know that that's an that's a cost, too. But you could do this in pieces over a period of time. Of course, there are smaller new bleacher systems. If you weren't going to put in a larger bleacher system like you have uh at the high school, that that's a more that's a smaller uh field that we're talking about back there. And then of course new scoreboard. So all those things are once again estimates, but I think the discussion for us is uh using that reserve money that we have um how how do we want to accomplish these

109needs because they're all valid and valuable needs that we have for the district. Now I think that's actually 3.4 up there. Is there is there additional it may have added I think we got the field lights on there twice. Is that Yeah. So it may have been it may have been transferred. I know that it's 4.4 once you look at everything. Okay. And that's fine. I just the the bottom line number is the 4.4. Yeah. The bottom line is it's 4.4. I think let me go back and look. That's I mean we can we can clarify. I think the new track is incorrect in the amount. Um, but we'll check. Okay. Other questions on Let me pull up the I do have a question on um fencing around this. Uh if this would be used

110for lacrosse balls fly really fast, they can go through fences and it's not on there. I mean, is there a plan for that? Um yes. So that you would have to have fencing and stuff there. The typo is in the new track. The new track is 1.5 million. That's why it's 4.4 for the total. Look, we're gonna go a real time edit here. You don't have to do that. I'm just I just just making sure. But it is the total is 4.4 for this. Okay. Um, but yes, fence to answer your question, that's something that we'd have to add to this, too. You're going to have to have fencing around. Yeah, but you would have to you would have to have those. There's other things that we don't have all included here, like when we

111talk about different types of dirt work and stuff. That's their estimates we're gonna have to include, but that would be less. Do you think the not not as not big money like this? Do you think the current restroom facilities we have back there would be enough or Mr. Kathy is shaking? They're very old, outdated um restroom facilities, right? Can you go back to the previous slide? I think the big point that and I just so you know, we have started discussions with the city on with the proposed $10 million what could and could not count towards an uh the bond on what type of projects we could do. I think the big understanding point that we all need to come to is right now we have these projects that all are wonderful projects. We want

112to do these projects um but there's not any funding currently behind them to support them. So any of these projects that you see, the board would have to take an action to pull dollars from reserve unless we could use some of that 10 million from the from the uh city that's being proposed to cover some of these renovations like the ceiling tile and grid project, the bathroom, Farmington's roof, uh the new field. So I guess that's where Mr. Manual is wanting to kind of have an input discussion of we have these things. I think comfortably we have $9 million in reserve that could be used. Dr. Con from Typton County would say save a little bit for emergencies in case a tornado hits your schools and things of that nature. So the the 23 million

113doesn't go very far. Uh when you when you consider cash flow, you need 10 to 12 there. health insurance. Mr. Emanuel covered earlier that our numbers are down a little bit this year and fun there are funding implications that come with that and that's where I think we need to have these big picture discussion because these are all wonderful projects that are up here on this screen and we need to finish out ceiling the ceiling tile grid project we started we need to finish that's where I think Mr. manual wants some input in board discussion. So, all of these projects, it looks like about 11 millionish or so. Okay. Um, I guess I have a couple of questions looking at field use. Um, so let's look at like baseball field turfing. Um, if you turf

114that, does is lacrosse able to use that as a practice facility? Probably not. Um, could you have some smaller like elementary school kids out there throwing a ball? You probably could, but once again, it's not lined for that. It's not built for that. You don't have the the netting necessarily for that. But you could have like the middle school football teams like turfing that you could use outfields space for other programs. Probably lacrosse is not the a good example of that. Um um but you could have the middle school pract like middle school does practice out there on the field as it is now but uh you could have groups do that. Yeah. I think because the challenge there is it's all the same season. So lacrosse and baseball are in the same season. So

115they can't coexist. So that to me eliminates that just right out of the gate because baseball wants their field to practice, lacrosse wants field practice. So to me that's just not even an option because they're they just literally can't coexist on the same field. Well, and I'm just trying to see if there's places where we can, you know, double usage through some of these projects. I know that, you know, some of them might allow for I I suppose middle school football, they're currently practicing on the grass fields in the back, right? So it wouldn't really open up additional space if the middle school football team uses the outfield to practice. Right. Yeah. That that's why when I look at what creates the most space for us, um it is that having a turf field in

116the back of that property uh opens up the m most space. Um, I know that, um, it will have a good impact on our track programs, too, because having that as a turf field opens up space to the the track itself because you don't you wouldn't have lacrosse on that field. You wouldn't have soccer on that field. Other groups could be on the back field then for practices and opportunities. So, it would benefit multiple programs to have that turf field in the back of that that property. like you. My understanding is, you know, the city is working well with you all on looking at giving us primary use of those fields early. Do you have any kind of, you know, tangible status update that you can share with us? Um, I know that in speaking

117to Mr. Heisman, he's talking to the GBL and and talking to to their leagues because they're talking about where can they schedule their practices and games. So, it's take taking some coordination. and they're having to look at their day-to-day schedules of what they're doing um to do that. But I know that they're working towards that um to accomplish that for us. And the reason I bring that up is because if we don't think we will have access to those fields this fiscal year or something like that, that might be something to push off to another. But if we do think we're going to have access by then, then maybe you look at doing something like that now ahead of some of the others. I I just I didn't know if you had a tighter timeline.

118I think as it pertains to the um land usage agreement, it is important to remember that it was crafted in a way that allowed for this. It wasn't like 10 years and oh, y'all are early. it it allowed for a provision in the event you identify a time that is sooner than the allotted time, you know, um will let us know. And that's that's what we've done. Um so, you know, when this all got started right in this room, March of 2020, you know, we we didn't we didn't know we didn't know the world was going to shut down and the cross country and track and field were going to take off like it has. And frankly, that was one of the brightest spots of the shutdown in the world was the little runners and

119all the kids in track and field and cross country in Germantown, Tennessee. I I maintain that as a bright spot of that time. If if I'm mathing this right, um I've had a question. I think I've posed it as we had this conversation about turf facilities a few months ago with the softball and the baseball specifically. I would like to point out I've never once been asked directly by anybody representing the soccer program um middle school or high school level up to today at least. I might have just opened a can of worms. Um that of a big interest from th that group. I have however heard it repeatedly and consistently from the the softball and baseball programs. My question again is the difference between outfield infield. You know what that looks like? If we

120were to do if there was an ask if we could only do partial turf, what would be the wish the ask and how would that impact you know the spend? So you could um break those projects into pieces. So you could um turf the infield or turf just the outfield, but I think they would prefer infield first. Um but those are options too that you could split that amount up. Okay. Um, I appreciate I I was going to bring up because of kind of my historical knowledge of the planning for the softball complex, one of the things that we did not do at that time and and vice chairman brought it up about the restrooms. You know, we talked about uh the concession stand, the restrooms there at in what I kind of call in

121and the triangle for those three softball fields historically and that those were absolutely not just just the greatest, but you know, we knew that they would get us through. I think that's going to be something that as I'm not saying tomorrow or next week, but I think that that's certainly going to continue to come up and and be part of that, you know, development as we look and investing in those additional uh spaces and and potentially getting into that land sooner than later. Um, okay. I was going to ask you about and then back to the new field. So taking that 45ish uh 4.5 rather like you said on the next slide if if a handful of those things because I keep this kind of 9 million figure in my mind. Yeah. So so here

122would be my recommendation. Um and I know it's not what everybody wants to hear or what they're doing. I I think what is the challenge as far as usage that we have right now and what it was creating the angst uh and struggles that we had between our teams. We have lacrosse, we have high school track, we have middle school and elementary school track programs. We have middle school lacrosse programs. We have elementary lacrosse programs that were all trying to use that one turf field that that is in the city. the one turfield. Um that was the challenge that we had for in the district that we had. Um so we need to do something to relieve that facility usage um in the spring. Um, so I think you're either looking at because it all

123accomplishes similar things, either talking about um the new turf field, which I think would accommodate the most uh different groups because then you can have lacrosse using that facility. Um, and that's across all the levels when they have um rain outs or when we have issues with Turfield. That doesn't mean that we want to give up the Johnson Road Park places. We still we just want to have all those tools in our belt so that we can have um places to practice. Um that also deals with soccer when they have rain outs or other groups could then fit in into those facilities which would create opportunities for our track programs to then um have more time on the track because those groups aren't then using that turf field. Or you could choose to put in

124the track first um with those. or you could do both at the the the same same time, but you get all of a sudden you're starting to dip into your reserve a little deeper. Um, in that case, you're probably talking about $3 million all in for the track and out of this. I mean, I do think our biggest pressure points are the track and fuel use. I mean, I would cut bleachers, scoreboard, if we can use the current lights, if they will actually illuminate the space. I mean, we'll need to use it at night for practice, but I mean, I would think of this as more of a practice facility for the current time being to start and then transition to a game cuz we still want those groups to play. You know, think I

125know that look, Cross likes to see the jumbotron and see when they had their families out there. That's something special to be in that big stadium with with that experience. So I don't think you want to eliminate that. So I think you're right that pime primarily this is a multi- practice space for groups where we're not necessarily doing all those things at first. If you wanted to be more conservative in how we're doing this. Do we know if the netting will be available at the football field for this spring or Yes, that is the objective for those. It's not diff the challenge with that netting systems that we're looking at. It's it's just cumbersome to put up and take down. It's something that once we have it up, we want to leave it up for

126an extended period of time. So the the challenge is um you know how are you doing different groups using that facility and to be careful too because anytime you're getting into netting those the you've got to make sure that it's safely basemounted because anything that's netting can become a flying projectile with the right wind and the right weather conditions. So the the ideal way to do any netting system, whether it's a soccer netting system behind a goal or a lacrosse netting system, is you put it in place and it's permanently there with structure that goes into the ground. Now, in this case right here, what we're trying to come up with is something that's going to meet requirements, but something that's going to be safe for for the for the students and kids that are

127out there, but that's also portable, but that's not something that's going to be mounted in the ground, be a permanent fixture. And so we're working through that to make sure yes it's safe uh but it's something that's also portable. But that like I said that that's our plan for the short term just trying to get some relief um from this until we have a more permanent solution so we could have multiple groups out there at once. Do you know if that netting system would still give track access to high jump and long jump those sorts? Yeah you can design where it goes around it wouldn't have to be around those other areas. So board member Curry. Yeah, I look at, you know, so I guess kind of give a little history, uh, just to walk

128down memory lane here. Um, early on, um, because I think I was dealing with it personally, Ryan's family was or, you know, his kids were dealing with personally, we knew right away there was a major issue with track. Track was severely disrupted. Uh, they couldn't even get on the track to even practice until March. It was it was a huge ordeal. Um and so I was giving the superintendent plenty of feedback saying hey this is the situation. Hence he brought this forward in our April work session. We discussed the the needs. At that point the board gave Mr. Kathy direction. So on April 30th he sent an email to the city requesting modification of the agreement. And that's where we sit today at our joint work session. Uh the mayor asked of the city administrator

129and um the parks and rec director, Miss Ruffen, to have a report to them and he gave a 60-day deadline. Now, I'm not aware of any remarks last I haven't had a chance to watch, but that's that's that's what I understand to be the case today. So, we're waiting on I think we're waiting on the city to come back and give us this. So, where we are uh we heard uh and I'm glad we heard from it. We heard from a lot of lacrosse parents uh back in the fall be or in the spring because they were experiencing the same thing we were from the track perspective. So I knew right then and there that yes we we have allies in the fight because they were experiencing the same issues that we were. Uh the

130sport you didn't mention that was also in the mix is the boys soccer program because boys soccer and when we have the rain and they can't play on their field there's only one field that they can play on and they come over to Landers Ford Stadium. So that's the other team that is all fighting for the same one turf field that we have. Um so I guess to kind of frame the discussion, uh we've along the way we've heard from baseball parents. Um we've heard from a lot of interested parties. Again, I understand why everyone and I appreciate the passion. I understand why they feel the way they do. Again, I'm feeling that way as a track parent. For me though, I look at what's going to impact the most students. And I've been very

131open with the baseball parents that again, track, you know, track and lacrosse cannot coexist without this netting system. We've got almost 400 track athletes. Now, and I will give the caveat and even still, if you do have a netting system, they're out there. We're not talking about a game. You can't have it. You can't have a track practice going on while there is a game going on out there. Um, so we're only talking about like for practice spaces and utilization scheduling. You know, when I look at our track program, it's by far our largest participated sport in the district. There's more all the way down the elementary level. There's there's hundreds of kids all the way up to the high school doing track in the spring. It's huge. And I appreciate all of our parents

132that volunteer and help out with that. Again, it's a it's a labor of love if you've ever seen them out there practicing. Uh, but this last year, we had kids running around neighborhoods because they couldn't get on. um that that's just not no one can look at that and say this is acceptable. All right. So to me the field just just the field alone I think long term I think everyone you know would love the the second track but the field just the field will alleviate a ton of pressure. That's an immediate release of the pressure because then that gives lacrosse a turf field to utilize. So that now gives them three fields that they can use at any given time while the the track is being used. Um so I that's definitely my priority.

133I've been very open with baseball parents that look I'm looking at what's going to impact the most students. And for me personally um I think the um you know that turf field back there I think that's got to be top of mind. I I had to go back and look. I don't remember spending that much on lighting because we were able to use the co-op, right? So like for the soccer field, I can't remember. I I just don't remember us spending that much. We didn't. But the existing electrical infrastructure, transformers and everything was already in place and and the addition so all we had to do was poles and lights. So yeah, this is a much more involved project. Okay. Gotcha. Okay. So um you know, obviously we'll look at that, but I think to

134me it's the field. I think from a cost I'd like to see and I know it was mentioned we haven't seen it yet and it might still be in pro in progress like I know we were supposed to get like a menu of you know here's how much the infield is going to cost here's how much the outfield is going to cost you know I I'd like for us to be able to inform our decision- making I'd like for us to be able to have some numbers and you know and I don't know if you go ahead and go out to bid to find out like what it would look like back there in the back just you know to do whatever dirt perk. Obviously, there's going to have to be some demolition. What would

135that look like? Because I think for us, we've got to know kind of down to the penny because it might be 2.5 million or it might be one. We don't know. Uh so I think that's that's something we've got to have. And then and then looking at the other menu. Um you know, when we look at, you know, baseball and softball, you know, always go back what's the life expectancy of that field. All right. So, you know, are we looking at about a 10-year life expectancy like we have for football? Um, you know, and if that's the case, then I start looking at our cash flow and, you know, are there other things that we can do there? Um, you know, to to assist, but maybe, you know, not put out 1.2 million or whatever

136that number is going to be. Um, because I do think we've got to keep a close eye on our finances. I've said very publicly, I'm gravely concerned about our health insurance cost. Um, and we're already seeing it firsthand. um that that's not getting any better. So, I I think we need to be judicious with how we do this. I think we need to be um you know, obviously try to impact the most and if we have if if we've got some money to where we can do some extra things, hey, great. Um but I don't I don't know where how we get started, you know, as a board. So just I I'm not going to speak for everyone, but for myself, it would be helpful to know, okay, here here's here's the amounts and then

137that way we can decide, okay, directionally here's where we want to go because I think we're doing good talking I will say there pretty informed numbers, but until we know what we're dealing with, it's going to be hard for us to proceed and I don't want to get where we're kind of spinning our wheels, you know, so I don't know what we need to do to at least get something to kind of tangible to work with and then that way we can know, okay, here's here's what we're looking at and then then as a board then we can hopefully uh you know move with some agility and get some of these things done. Question again, I think I kind of hit on it a moment ago. I just want to make sure I'm understanding that

138real dollars that we think could go towards some of these expenses is roughly $9 million. Can we go back to the very first? No, not that one. Yeah. Reserve less. So, so here's what we're here's what we're looking at. Um, once again, saving $10 million for cash flow, saving $2 million for health insurance. Um, that is a real concern. That's a challenge. Not talking about the revenue yet, which may be another concern. So, if we were going to spend everything really tight, which I would not recommend, but the board could make the decision with the remaining $11 million to complete projects. Um, my recommendation first and foremost because we've already talked about this and gone down this road and you'll say this is where we want to do is the modular units at Farmington removing

139those and that's two million out of that 11. That takes us to nine like you asked Miss Griffith to do that. When we go to the next slide, um, once again, what then would be priorities for us? I think Mr. Kathy talked about that. I think the next would be the ceiling talent grid project phase two, finishing off that project. Once again, that gets you down to 7 million. Then you get into some really umh I don't know if there's a clear path. Then you need to decide and students need to talk about is it hey bathroom renovations or are we talking about turf fields or are we talking about but there's not money to do all of these um things. And we will keep talking to the city and solutions because of a potential

140solution for this board if it is an approved use of those funds could be to put some of this 10 million that we've been promised in next fiscal year in the master plan towards some of these things that you see here. We just don't have a current funding mechanism other than reserve to fund anything that you see on the screen here. But could we possibly use some of the 10 million that the city has put in their plan to fund some of this? Yeah, I think that's a possibility. Uh we need to get those questions answered for sure on what what we could use that funding for. Yeah, I I'd prefer personally for that money to go to brick and mortar. Uh because I think because we don't have the capability to do much. I

141mean what we're going to look at at Farmington, that's about the extent of our ability to do brick and mortar. So the the major needs at the high school, particularly with adding fine arts space and all that, that's going to require brick and mortar. So my my preference would be that that 10 million goes straight to brick and mortar and that we pick off what we can. But I don't Yeah, I I I guess to follow um the chairman's logic here, I don't see where we're going to be able to do all this. I think we're going to have to pick off of pick off. And I remembered now remember back to our discussion about the ceiling tile and grid and that was going to be a carryover. So we funded the first part of

142it. So really and truly we already we've already committed as a board really to already doing that. So really that that reserve number isn't that we really takes you down to seven. Yeah. 2 million off the top because we've already committed to doing the rest of the sinking tile grid. Yeah. So then for us then um you're looking at like I said I I don't think you hit all of that levy park at at one point. And I think you you bite off a small piece of that um that'll benefit the most most groups. Um we've already talked to the city or to the city to the school administration about what are priorities for them because once again all of our buckets and our phases have to go out the window when we talk about

143this. So in talking to the school since we can't do the auditorium where we could have assemblies and students the next thing is the cafeteria space because uh so of that 10 million you talk about the brickandmortar things that we want to accomplish taking that cafeteria limits our academic schedule during the day. So we have to have four lunches and they're really short so that we can fit everybody together and we have a flex time. If you have a larger cafeteria that can accommodate more students and has glass, you can change your whole instructional day um based around that. Then the other spaces that they highlighted, we talk again and again about the orchestra room that is in the plant manager's office, a visual arts room that is currently in the storage labs in the

144back of the science labs. Um and then potentially a choir room. So I think brick and mortars are important, but we don't know where those projects will shake out or the extent. So if there was additional funding from those, you could consider something else. But I I understand the the need to accomplish something and the school does too. Those are their recommendations for what to accomplish. The Farmington roof replacement, what is the useful life? I see it's in our 2027 plan. Currently, it is currently in the 2027 plan and uh I think talking to Mr. Pausski and looking at our work order system, the recommendation is to move it up a year based on the number of sheer work orders and leaks that we've had at Farmington have come through in this past year and

145and in this year we've anytime we've had a heavy rain, the work orders come in in five, six, seven classrooms where there's water coming in. So, yes, true. Yeah. So, we're already seeing the leaks and it probably makes sense to do it with the portable edition anyways. That's correct. Yeah, the the leaks are there. Um, and that's that's why the recommendation is there to move it up the year. Now, again, that's funding dependent, but that it is a need. Well, and I mean I may get lots of emails after saying this, I don't know, but my memory from April when Coach Wolf was here is he said the soccer field turfing would not be his biggest priority because they still play a lot of matches on grass and so they want to have a grass

146field facility as well as also having they have the option of at least practicing on a turf field, right? The only reason that was listed as a possibility for us was we were discussing the fact that if that was turfed, that would relieve a little bit of the pressure. That was if we didn't have the land behind Houston Park, it would relieve some of the pressure on to the high school field. But you're correct in the fact that um that was not he was not one of the ones and his group was not one of the ones pushing. And I think that if we're able to bring down the new field, new track cost a good bit, um that hopefully shaves a couple of million off of this 11 here. Um, it's a hard discussion

147because we're talking about great all of these are great things to have um with limited limited funds. Now again and hear me I'm not trying to apply pressure here but it is important for us to know you know when we could have access to those other fields and and one of the things that um Chairman Griffith I think you were talking about this we don't necessarily have to have approval because the currentou says that we can repurpose um those facilities. So, we could put a turf field in that back property as long as we're still providing for softball. So, if you had um portable mounds, you know, they have the turf mounds there and the outfields become that turf field and you have portable fencing, you could do a uh both. Um, so you could

148The challenge with that then is we would have still have some serious limitations with our scheduling because you have youth softball that would be happening there in the spring. We're trying to fit that in with the lacrosse group. So it it becomes a challenge. But could we do that even within our current structure? We c we could. It's it's not Well, and I was going to ask about that. I mean, how feasible is that really to still provide? You could, you could, but once again, it it it severely limits what we're trying to accomplish. We're trying to have more opportunities for our groups to practice uh on these because we're out of space for all these programs. But yes, you could. I mean, it's feasible, but it's not going to help us as much as

149it would. I just personally ran the math on what I think we could knock out, and we still have $110,000 left over. Um, y'all have to decide what y'all think I put on my list, but um I will say but um you used Did you use all the reserve to accomplish that? Um I left some for later. And by later, I mean I left some of the things on the list for later. Um, I will say I had a conversation uh with the mayor today and I'm optimistic that when we get together in a few weeks, two weeks from tomorrow, I think um we're we're going to be a little further down the road with the um analyzation from the parks position if if you will. I I do I will say I believe that

150they're working in some pretty quick time. Um that certainly would make a difference I feel like for us. And um I'm not putting anybody, you know, holding anybody to it, but it has been expressed that that there's been some pretty significant urgency applied. Um I'm going to just go ahead and throw it out there. The ceiling talon grid to me and the bathrooms are non-negotiable. I appreciate asking about the bumping up of the timeline on the um roof and and based on how we like to conduct business with expenses. Um, if we start to weigh work orders towards putting something off, um, I see that as as just kicking the can down the road and potentially, you know, it's kind of like that lease lease or buy kind of situation. Um, if we are in

151a position to to prioritize it, I think that that's a a long range investment that if we could do it sooner and I value the input of Mr. Posski and Mr. Kathy. So much so that I I could see a good case for it, which gets us back down into what's going to happen in the uh southern part of the campus. And I think understanding partial turfing is is is certainly a factor to help with the with the expenses. Um, but even if you looked at doing, let's just say baseball and softball both, I'm going to remind everybody that we did not turf softball when we had the chance because it was not in the budget at the time. Does it probably cost more today? I'm going to go out on a limb and say

152yes. But that was part of that original plan where similar to this we had the opportunity to look at multiple options and quite frankly we went with pretty much the base model. I go back to the bathroom and the concession stand that we didn't end up doing yet. Um so looking at that I think that's a digestible piece. I'd like to understand the impacts on the ability again this might be more of the well when someone's practicing or out of town tournaments then that facility becomes available like we had talked about in the past for some of the local community teams. Um same thing with the baseball. um you know when they're out of town for four or five days at a time. We need to make sure that our teams are getting the priority

153to relieve that pressure and pain point of the multi-team scheduling overlap. But also, um, I'm I made it pretty clear, I think, since we last met with the city that that the the get together of comparing our facilities and and their facility needs was not so that we could all share a calendar and go, "Well, on Tuesday night at 6, it's open. Y'all have it." Because we have to continue to keep our teams in in an ability to adjust on a, you know, shower, rainstorm, cold weather, this or that. somebody's so and so got cancelled so they're gonna switch over to that was supposed to play um away and now that's not gonna happen so they're going to practice at home. These are for our teams and our programs we like to share and we

154want to continue to encourage uh young um recreation and athletes in the community. But I think that looking at the way it's broken out now, again, we can't do everything and it's continued to get hammered home that some of the immediate options with the additional field turf in the back and uh potentially the track. That would really free up a lot of other moving parts. So you're wanting direction from us. Are you wanting, you know, direction now or two weeks from now or what's your kind of thought on that? I think that the challenge for us, so like I said, we we have our recommendation. I know in talking to um Mr. Kathy and and talking to our schools, we're really talking about the the top four things we we view as um priorities. one

155the addition at uh Farmington Elementary School completing that project completing the seal and talon grid project bathroom renovations and roof replacement farm those those are real um keep if it's me I would say go ahead and move forward with getting real real numbers and working on those I think some of these other issues we'd need a little bit more information on but but I think even with doing those um things um there is availability within the reserve that we can look at doing additional turfing projects that could relieve this. So, I I do believe that even still, like if you took the field out back in Houston Levy Park and added a a turf facility, that would have a huge impact on ours. Um, but that's what I that's what we need the direction on

156is do you want us to proceed with getting an architect engineer because or or civil engineer because they're going to have to look at the leveling of those two properties. I don't know if you know there there are elevation differences there and getting some real cost estimates for that. Um that's what we're needing the board to decide or are we going to go ahead and u move forward with baseball or softball or any of these combinations of the two. Um I think for me like I said once again our recommendation is take care of the the house business first as far as roof, bathrooms, ceiling ting grid and then there is a small cushion. I I I don't know if we can do all the turf and athletic projects that we have, but I do

157think um looking at that back property is is important. Yeah. So, I guess it sounds like everyone at least here, you know, obviously I don't know if we need to take a vote. I mean, I think everyone's pretty clear on the need for the the at least get going on the turf field in the back. So, is that something y'all are able to start with just just the field back there? I know there's and I mean just the planning so we know because obviously it's gonna because what I what I don't want to do because I don't because again I don't know I don't know when the city's whenever that takes place but I want us to try to be able to hit the ground running as quickly as possible. Um I would have love

158for this I would have loved for us to have this discussion in June. Unfortunately we didn't but that would have been great because I think we would have been set up for this next spring and but I think we had some challenges. We we need to know where we're ending the fiscal year with our reserve and everything. Correct. Yeah. So, but but I'd like to know like so I'm not not trying to hold you to a deadline here or anything, Mr. Kathy, but realistically where what would be a realistic time frame for you to come back with something tangible for us for that park knowing kind of what we're working with and and to be able to act in the area for the two softball fields where we're transitioning that to a field. Correct. Um,

159I'm gonna answer that question the best way I can, which is I can't give you a a definitive timeline, but what I can say is we will start working on there's a lot that goes into it and we'll we'll have to go through city approvals, I think, uh, for um, for for this. And so, as you know, that takes time. We'll have to do design, grading, drainage. Um, if we're just looking at starting with field and then expanding out from there, that'll limit the scope. So, that'll that'll be able to move us up some. Uh, well, you know, our department moves and and makes miracles happen as quickly as we can. Um, but I do want to temper people's expectations. Yes, we we do our best to move things as quickly as we can, but

160I I do want to temper expectations. Generally, these things take nine months easily to get through design approvals, bids, city approvals, fire marshall approvals, code approvals, board approvals, uh before we can before bulldozers start showing up and and dirt starts turning. Now, I think Mr. K, are you asking more about just dollars like a a Yeah, I'd like to know like do like for us to be able to have an actionable item to vote on, right? What we can get you is an opinion of probable cost, but it won't be an exact amount because we don't we don't move forward with bids until we get the input of all these bodies because they can drastically change what we're designing. The fire marshall can come in and say you can't put the field there because you

161don't have a turnaround here. Code can come in and say no, you have to put bathroom fixtures within a certain number of feet of this facility uh if you're going to have people out there practicing and playing. And so we don't we don't go through full design until we get these folks involved because if we do go through through full design, build something and then they say you messed up, you built it here and you can't build it there, we're we're in a pickle. So we try to go through our approvals before we go through design and full bid. Then I would I would do that process for the field and the track at the same time. then and I would also at least look if there's a way to determine whether the current lighting

162system we have out there would work for and not having to do new lighting. And also too also because once again we're talking about limiting costs. You have poles, you have electrical that's run there, there may be some savings because we have utilities already out to that area. So, even if you're having to adjust bowls and now since since those fields are already in use by the public, I'll just use your example of the bathroom. Like why would that why would that all of the sudden be an issue? Like I'm just wondering this one. Sometimes what we find just like we did with like the football stadium for example is you're grandfathered in under previous codes and and requirements and so the second you touch something and upgrade it. So that's probably up to 1989

163codes for how many bathrooms you have to have in relation to those facilities worry me honestly. The answer is it may not be an issue but I I go back to the Farmington example of the stage which was built to my knowledge before we were even a district and then the fire marshall came in there saw it and said yeah tear it out you can't have it there. Um those things happen. So we we do our very best to make sure everyone's at the table before we go build something that can't be built or can't be built where it is. I'd echo vice chairman's request if everybody is agreeable to that to to get the understanding kind of financially on the turf field and track. And then it was just a few months ago we

164had the the handout that was provided on kind of the the estimates on the other turf options. What I think I heard y'all say is you want even more of a breakdown on that what what it would just take to do outfield versus infield and and further breakdown which we can we can certainly provide. I think that would help us. Please are there any other asks specifically? Was that helpful actually? I mean, does that does that get you what you need? That is exactly the direction that we need. Sorry, chairman. So, let me ask you this because when my phone starts ringing in just a few minutes, um timelinewise, we've asked specifically um to understand total cost on one project, but These didn't come out of thin air. You've done some good leg work, some

165good, you know, ground approximates, at least some quotes on some things. I know because we've had the turf stuff presented to us like I just said a few months ago. Um, so I feel pretty good about that math. Any reason we shouldn't? Nope. that just because we're asking for this additional this is the new part that we didn't really go down there and that down that road so much before that does not mean that you know we're not still considering these other things soon to to be approved or not approved or voted on or added to the list to be bumped up or whatever or added on at all for for that matter. Um but kind of the unknown was what we've asked to get a little more clarity on. Is that fair? Yeah, I

166think the as much you can be down to the exact penny, but you know, like to at least hopefully be within, you know, a few thousand dollars or, you know, at least, you know, 10. Yeah. Yeah. Like, you know, like again, I I y'all normally y'all normally do an excellent job of um of really I mean, really, it's amazing job y'all do with the numbers. are usually really close. But again, like this, I can tell this is going to be really tight as we go forward. And so to have as much as we can, I think that's going to be we will do our absolute best to get you guys very tight numbers. Uh as you always do, and as uh as I I tell everybody, we we don't have control over international or national

167labor markets, tariffs, uh material costs, and other things of that nature. These things are moving very fluid for everyone right now. So, yes, we will do our best to get it as tight as possible to you, but until you get to bid day and get a bid number, there's no guarantees. Mr. Manuel, opinion question for you. Okay. Oh, boy. What What do you feel like is a comfortable number for us to have left? And that that assumes the current environment where we do anticipate funding going down with the reduction in students. I would not recommend using all of that. $9 million. Understand? It makes me very concerned um to to get it that tight. Once again, half of that is kind of I I would feel comfortable I would feel more comfortable um if if

168we had in of that let's say that $9 million that was left after that if you considered using six of that um and had an additional three. So you're talking about leaving 10 million for cash flow, 2 million for potential health insurance, another 3 million that could deal with revenue or anything else that we have coming. That's where I feel a little more comfortable. This this weighs on me heavily because um we want to provide these things for all of our programs, but um we're in a challenging time. So So you would say you'd feel more comfortable spending six of the nine? That's correct. Okay. Well, Andy Ellis, uh, board member Ellis, I wish you'd asked that question about 30 minutes ago. Um, and got it within 100,000. I know. That's why I kept saying

169off nine, right? Off of nine. We could and and we could. It's just um, and it may be that that you had thought about all that going into this. But that may be where we go ahead and and say, "Hey, we want to accomplish all these things and get it within that amount of money, but we we don't do them all at the exact same time. We're waiting to see what happens with enrollment and vouchers. We're waiting to see what help happens with health insurance. We don't have to. And we got our first two bucket items there do tie in with our $10 million funding if we look at it that way depending on how that brick and mortar society allocate that portion. So some of that may overlap as well. That's right. If if

170we had financial struggles because of either revenue or the expenditures we have with health insurance and other things. Well, and I think if we have design plans, if we have, you know, firm cost estimates on some of these athletic fields, those are a prime space for us to try to go find some of those private partners. I think most would be more willing or, you know, to donate towards an athletic facility than Tile and Grid. That's right. You know, there's that. Other comments? I just want to express urgency and I think that we're all there. I think that this has been a long time coming and a lot has gone into this, but um it's time it's time we we make some decisions and we get some things in play. It pun intended. Um, so

171when we get together in a couple weeks and then this will give us better public, I guess, um, conversations to to be had with our constituents and community and those stakeholders that are impacted by all these things, whether it be restrooms or turf or whatever that looks like. Um, I want to be able to speak to a bit of a timeline that we're kind of holding ourselves to if that's if everybody's agreeable to that. I I don't mean like the specifics, but I mean like us in a standpoint of of how we plan to work towards. Yeah. So I think the answer for us will be that we're moving forward with the design for these plans so that we can get through the commissions, get to through the approvals and assuming that the funding hits

172that we can then move forward with those um projects and to help set expectations for the public. Um, I see tile and grid, bathroom renovations. Those are things that I assume we could go to bid quicker than 9 months for. Those don't require any level of approval other other than some input on fire marshall and code, but not near the level of approval that that area in the back will have to go through. And so area in the back, think in best case scenario, we're not even going out to bid for nine months. So that's yesor. It's going to be Yeah. It's not going to be this school year when there's improvements that are made out there. Even in best case scenario, even if we didn't have the land usage agreement, even if the money

173was sitting in the bank for us right now, it would take that long to get that process up and running. So that's why I'm saying we that's why we are taking doing the netting solution to try to relieve something so that we can the netting netting will be up for this yes spring and we'll see if that's able to provide some relief at least some relief. Thank you for that. I think that's really important that that messaging is clear. Um working diligently on it, but it's not going to be tomorrow night. And then as I know you were already doing your math within the 110,000 and then as we move forward and see what's going to happen with our health insurance costs, what's going to happen with enrollment, what's going to happen with vouchers that

174once we look at how we end this fiscal year, then we make other decisions about what's happening with the other surfaces and playing fields. Well, I just want to say thanks. I think it was a a really good productive conversation. So appreciate all the work you all put into it. Anything else on agenda item number five at this time? And I'll say too, I mean, I know we've we've heard a lot from community members later lat lately. Continue to reach out to us and let us know your thoughts on these. Again, we're having these conversations publicly with our funding body um specific to the HHS plan. And I remind a lot of people via the correspondence that a lot of the things that we're talking about tonight are things that are coming out of our

175budget separate. I try to remind people this is this $10 million conversation over here for today is this this plan and what's happening over here is coming out of dollars that that we have on the way or that we have in the bank that we're trying to use as soon as possible with um being mindful of you know not going overboard but helping you know reduce some of these pain points and and pressure points of nothing more than our students being successful. Um, that's a good problem to have, but understanding that these are two separate conversations because I could see and I have seen in some of the correspondents we've received that it's gotten a little cloudy and there's been some overlap. So, this is a conversation uh the HHS master plan and then some

176of these things over here um you know are again items that we've talked about for years and um are still on the list and some are new newly added needs that we've identified ways to make a pretty significant impact in short order. If no other um feedback, conversation, comment, questions on agenda item number five, that takes us to agenda item number six, further business. Is there anyone that wishes to bring forth any further business this evening? None for me. With uh with that, we will now adjourn the GMSD board work session on August 12th, Brad Griffith's 49th birthday, at 7:52 p.m. and