001Good evening. Welcome to the December 18th, 2025 May Pearl ISD Board of Trustees meeting. A quorum of the board is present. The meeting has been duly called and that notice has been posted in accordance with Texas Open Meetings Act, Texas Government Code 551. If you'll please ride with rise with me for the invocation. guide us as we continue to work together as a team to help guide and direct. >> All right, Mrs. Bone, I think you have some people that are going to help us with the pledge of allegiance today. Is that correct? I'm gonna call them up so that we we know their names. We have Daisy Martinez, Maddie Coleman. Y'all come on up while I call your name. Emory Storm, Braden Pimpmpa, Sydney Collier, Ella Hardcastle, and Brenley Russian. These are some of
002our fifth grade students that were excited to come up here uh to the board meeting and to recite the pledge. So, we're gonna stand in front of this. And I also have Miss Davis, their fifth grade social studies teacher. >> To the flag of the United States of America. to the rep for it stands. One nation indivisible andice for alliance to the Texas state. >> Hey, great job. Okay, >> thank you. >> Do we have any public comment? >> Okay, I think we have some recognition. One more tonight if everyone wants to stay. Hey class, why don't y'all come back up here? Come on. >> Don't leave yet. Okay. So, I might have snookered Miss Davis and um used this as an opportunity to get her up here. Um so, I wanted to recognize her
003for all of her hard work. Um it was a big undertaking to you know as you know take on fifth grade into to the middle school and she has stepped in and led the show and just taken charge and it works like a welloiled machine because of her. She has worked with her team. She inspires her team. Um the kids they just they all re react so well to her and she steps in and offers to help with anything and everything. I throw this at her and she just jumps on it. She also organizes um her fifth grade students do a rotation of putting the flags out every day and taking them down and they've learned how to fold the flags properly and how to handle the flags properly. So we love you. >> Thank
004you. Do y'all want to take a picture with Miss Davis again and give her a big hug? and hard. >> All right. Now, picture opportunity. Let's get a pose. >> Go right over here. >> Oh, you want to go? >> Good idea. All right. Okay. Any more recognition? That it? Okay. All right. Next item. Consent agenda. >> Motion by Mr. Smith, second by Mr. Norman. Any questions? All right. All those in favor? All approved. >> Okay, we're going to look at the enrollment report. Um, as of 129, our elementary campus has 494 students. Our middle school campus has 369 students. And our high school campus has 360 students um for a total of 1,223 students enrolled. Mr. Boon, would you like to present our um finance report? >> All right, I'm going to present the
005finance summary. Um, so you should be able to have it up on your board book as an attachment. And as you know, TEA is currently paying us on an ADA of 1140. Uh we budgeted this school year at an ADA of 1111 to be conservative and as of right now this is just through the second six weeks because the third six weeks ends tomorrow. So we don't have that number yet but just through the second six weeks our average is at 1138.26 on the revenue and expenditures as a month end of November. Uh you will recall we had to do the budget amendments to bring down the budget um to uh the levels without the Vader funding. And so with our revenue appropriation that brought the revenue down to 15 million 534,915 and to date
006as of November we've realized 5 million 628,784 which is 36%. on the budget. Uh for expenditures, uh we had to bring that down to 15,582,546. And to date, we've encumbered or expended 5,221,798 or 34%. And then if you scroll down to the next page, you can look at the comparisons from this time last year and where we are this time this year. And so as of right now, as of month end of November, we're up in revenue 390,723. And then we've also expended 361,678 more than this time last year. On the CN side of things for child nutrition, their budget um as of right now, this time last year is $12,950 less than it was last year uh in revenue. And then on the expenditure side, they've spent $12,121 less than this time last year.
007Some of that has to do with some payroll. Um we did uh through attrition cut down one part-time staff member of his. And on the next page, this is a bond construction report. Um, and if you look down at the bottom, you'll see the total expenditures for the project to date. We have uh 30,133,49. And then you can see at the top the total balance we have left and this is all as of November. So, um, we've done a, you know, a few payouts and different payments for some things in December that are not included in this amount. And then if you look at the bottom of that page too, I just want to call attention to the arbitrage update um that's been on there the past few reports, but just to keep it fresh,
008um we do have to hold back 722,287 for the purposes of paying back arbitrage for the interest earned on the bond funds. So, um, just to go further on the bond, uh, status and kind of where I'm looking at some different budget items. Uh, I know we've been talking with Gallagher a lot this week and just trying to get a more realistic kind of idea of where we are with the project. And so they're helping us with getting some uh numbers with some of the things that we've paid for directly and kind of looking at that where it falls in the budget scope of the project and line items that they have on their sheet. And so when they kind of are able to apply that to their uh line item and give us a
009more realistic picture, um I think we'll, you know, and I've also done some of my own estimating and just from where I'm seeing things, I have a rough estimate of 1.6 6 million that we have remaining in bond funds that's been earned through interest and um just from the project that we still have budgeted. And so uh if you do y'all have any questions kind of like on where the bond proceeds are? >> Are you saying that 1.6 is outside of the 2.2 that we have or is that within? You're saying it's 1.6 instead of 2.2. >> Yeah. Okay. So 2 interest that we've earned. Well, so on that last page of the >> and that's the net after the arbitrage, >> right? So if you take out the arbitrage, there's a lot of other
010kind of big ticketed items that we've paid for outside of Gallagher's uh provision of the bond project. >> Okay. And so like some of that would include like the $118,000 payment we had to pay Hillco to get out of the contract. Uh and then with furniture we budgeted 500,000 within the construction project but total spent is about 700,000 >> for furniture items. And then we've done some technology purchases and some painting at the high school and um repairs and awnings um and stuff like that that just wasn't really in the original construction project budget and so some of that has eaten into that 2 million already. >> Perfect. what are we looking at um total expenditures left? >> So, that's kind of what I've been trying to work with Gallagher on uh kind of getting
011more of a realistic idea of how much is left to bill for on their end. And I think with taking out a lot of um the things that we've paid for that they hadn't included like that they budgeted for but they hadn't seen where we've made those payments. So, they haven't taken it out of their budget, right? Um, so I think we're looking at a little bit over two million left on the Gallagher project. And again, they're working on it with me and we're going to talk to tomorrow some more about um kind of a more realistic picture of where we're at and how much is left to bill for on their end. So Josh, can I get one more point of clarification just to make sure? It's like on the 5 point almost 5.8
012million you show left on the balance I say of funds we have. Does that include that 3 million of interest in that or that's separate? That is okay. That's what it looked like. I just wanted to make sure that's the case. That's true. >> Okay. >> Y >> are they here to speak tonight on their update? >> They are. They're going to speak to the the next item, I believe, the bond construction update. or I guess it's the second one up after this. Any more questions on the finance report? Good. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Um just as a reminder um in regards to the board of trustees election um coming in the spring um the first day to file uh for a place on the general election ballot is May 2nd. Uh and >>
013I'm sorry, January 14th for the May 2nd election. Um and so um that will run through January 14th through February 13th. And then at this time, y'all have any questions about that? Right. No, ma'am. Um and then at this time, um Gallagher, Mr. Blazic with Gallagher is here, um to give us an update and he will be coming to do that monthly um just to kind of tell us where where things are and and like give you guys the opportunity to ask questions. I believe you also have in your packet um a punch list. Yes. Yes. um that if you want to look through um that kind of gives an updated update of where where we are with that as well. >> Good afternoon. >> Good evening. >> So, it's been a while since I've
014been to this. There's a few new faces. So, um anyway, I'm Greg Blick. I'm the regional vice president for Gallagher over this area. So, and this is Chris Wilson. He's my project manager that's hands-on involved in the project. Been working with Miss Vall and everybody. Um, kind of big picture, the culinary area, which is the last area of construction that we're working on now. Uh, we're looking toward the end of January to hopefully be pushing to finish that. U, for those of you not familiar, we ran into some issues with the plumbing when we tore it out where the old kitchen was and had to get some resolutions to get that done. Some of the classrooms are painted in that area, but right now they're we got the concrete poured back. They're framing it and
015getting all the rough end done right now in the actual culinary kitchen. So, it's it's moving along good now. Right now, once we got past some of the problems that we had or that we found that we encountered, we had actually had to tear part of the dock out and stuff that wasn't anticipated to repair some lines that were broken. So, uh she mentioned the punch list. Chris getting I'm going to let Chris talk to that because he's the hands-on taking care of it. >> So, for most of the punch list, I think we had 151 items. We're down to 19. Uh with most remaining is masonry and then tile and that's kind of in the next couple weeks when we're during the Christmas break. >> Just walking around, I think we see a lot
016of of like faucet, you know, fascia stuff that where the doors are cut out that I think have been brought to our attention. Where were we at on >> some of the masonry items? >> Yeah, that'd be some of So, when you're saying the face we're at, exactly. Like in the middle school when you're leaving the main campus into the new part of that building, you know, if you look at the old one, it's like where they cut the door. >> Yes. >> You know, the metal trim there is gone. Is that what you're talking about? Masonry there? >> No. So, that was uh just for um we we cut in where an old window was for that. >> Uh but we did install our panel that looks exactly the same and that's been patched
017back. So, that looks like it's u existing. >> And if there's something that's not on the punches we need to address, we just need to know about it. I mean it was all you know walked in with the architect and the design team in the school. >> Sure. >> That's not to say that they didn't miss something. So if there is we'll just take need of it. >> Any um critical or important challenges you see over between now and the end of January? >> No, I I don't see any. So our main issue that we ran into was the plumbing for the culinary. So what we found is we it called for us to tie into the existing lines and uh the elevation of those lines were uh too high to utilize the plumbing void
018system that we utilized in the new area. Uh so we actually saw cuted back to try and lower those lines and that's where we found that uh the existing uh grease intercept line had been broken off at a 90. >> Wow. >> Yeah. >> So we repaired that uh made repairs to the uh grease interceptor itself and the lift station, replace the pump. Um so th those were our main issues and those have all been resolved now. U so I don't foresee any uh critical issues. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Adam, >> I think I'm on again. Yeah. I think my biggest thing is just for us to get clarity on where we are in the project as >> Mr. Boon was saying of just you know what are those cost overruns? What have we
019eaten up of potential extra that we do have? >> Just so we can make a good decision too. >> No understood. And like I said, we just started working with Mr. Boon here. He just sent me the list of items today that he's paid outside that was not part of our accounting system. And again, some of it we were talking prior, you know, for those that weren't here, there was a couple of simple examples. There was a canopy over the middle school that y'all hired somebody to do that was an alternate under our original budget was not accepted. So, some of that money has been paid. That's wasn't part of our scope. We're going to go through that, figure out what is and you know some of the stuff like they paid the permits direct.
020We're going to he's going to get it to us. We're going to run it through our accounting system so it can be tracked to know 100%. Prior to that list, we were still looking that we were around a half a million dollars still to the good in our budget of what was originally approved through contingencies and through other miscellaneous items. Now obviously like if we and we can charge the hill code cost to it. We obviously didn't have 100,000 in that lineup because no one expected that, but we can put it in there and see where it's at to give a, you know, big overall budget picture. And at the end of the day, you'll get a full, you know, reconciliation to show 100% of what's not spent. >> What are y'all looking at timeline
021for that kind of that picture? >> I mean, we're going to get meet with him and then we'll get it to our county. this next we we can if we get that done with him tomorrow we'll give it to our accounting our department and our next payup is coming up when the fourth >> on the 4th >> we can do it through that pay app so when he gets that pay app that'll give him the full picture >> okay >> yeah she did yeah perfect yeah we we just have to give our account our Danielle the information so she can put it and run it through the account system and then it's anything y'all pay that didn't go through us is just like for accounting purposes but it'll be charged to those budget line items
022to show the show that it's a current cost the current cost. >> Okay. >> Thank y'all for the update. >> Yeah, we're still as far as what we see we're still good you know within the original otherwise we would have brought that to y'all's attention already because you know we technically can't go over so so we've been watching it. >> Okay. >> Thank you. >> All right. Quick question. Mr. Ben, do you feel that the punch list is thorough? That we did a good job on that? Good. Thank you. >> Thank you, gentlemen. >> Thank you. >> Have a merry Christmas. >> You, too. Thank you. >> Mr. Boon, do you want to talk about the budget calendar? So, y'all should have in your folders a printed copy of the budget calendar for 2627. >>
023It's also attached on board book if you want to look at it there. Uh, this is something we bring to y'all uh each December and it's kind of just a kind of a guideline of how we're going to create the next year's budget. And this is an opportunity for y'all to kind of look over it and, you know, if y'all have anything y'all want to tweak or see differently, um, we're available to make those changes and then we can bring back a final copy in the January board meeting. And so, this is just anformational item at this point and um, something for y'all to kind of take a look at and if you want anything tweaked, just let us know. I think we have some feedback in that budget process from just the new board
024members is really having getting better details um instead of a broad picture is like you know each division what do they what do they look like you know >> um instruction or you know materials in each line item for that department you know safety and security what does it what does it look like um I think that was a lot of questions from last year is really what what it looks like for the whole district and not just a broad picture. >> So that would be more like down towards the end like in the do you want that brought to you early on in the discussions or more like in the um I guess the presentation of like the proposed budget that sort of those budget workshops that we do with y'all in the summer.
025>> Yeah, the ones in the summer are pretty I think that's what we're getting to are pretty broad. So yeah, if we're in April or May >> and we can bring out if y'all are working on those things, >> then when we get down to the summer, like July, if we're approving it in July, that there's not many questions or thoughts of where is this money coming from and are we are we are we creating gaps in other areas, if that makes sense. >> Yeah. So we'll typically have like when we've done it in the past, we've had like department budgets kind of set in that June time frame. So like I guess what I can mark down is in those June budget workshop meetings to come with some more uh detailed department-based budget line
026items. >> Is that that's fair. >> Okay, sounds good. any other feedback like immediately. And this is something y'all can if you want to take this and look over it and email me specifically some more suggestions or ideas. Like I said, we bring this back to y'all for approval in January so we have time to make tweaks. Thank you, Josh. Thanks. >> Thank you. >> Check payments list. Anybody have any questions on that? >> All right, we're going to move on to discussion action items. We have a presentation by Brandon Tunnel of Johnson Controls on some AC potential repairs. How's everybody doing tonight? It's been a while since I've been in a board meeting. I used to be one of these, uh, lovely people in the back, principal. I was in education for almost 20
027years. And so, uh, shout out to them because you guys got a tough job. So, we appreciate you and everything that you guys do. Um, as well as the board. Thank you all for having us here tonight. My name is Brandon Tunnel. I'm here with Johnson Controls. Uh we were approached back in February of 25 uh to start looking at the needs that um you all have when it comes to HVAC and controls and some other things uh in the buildings. And so we began that process. Uh I appreciate Mrs. Bo and uh Mr. Benton. Uh he's been awesome by the way last couple months uh working with him uh trying to get things figured out uh what the needs are at the campuses. And so, uh, I was asked to come and present what
028we had, um, developed, uh, for you all. And so, I'm going to kind of go through that. Please ask questions, uh, former teacher and coach. So, I mean, that's why I'm here is to educate you all on the project that we've um, began and so to answer any questions that you all have uh, for me. So, with that, the scope of work that we were uh, given was with the uh, controls upgrade. So, you've already started this process through the bond at the high school. You're already going over to reliable controls. Um, you've had a little bit curt uh Mr. Benton at the elementary school, but the rest of the district was in need of that. Benefits of that is once you get under one umbrella, you have better control. You're able to manage your
029equipment better. Uh, you're able to foresee issues that are coming up. uh it's just a better situation all the way around when you're looking at energy efficiency but also comfort in a school building because we all know the learning environment is the most important thing uh when you're talking about maintenance and operations. The next thing was HVAC upgrades. Uh so as you can see there uh it's really like for like um the only difference is that third bullet point which is the HVAC redesign. There were a lot of issues happening in the middle school cafeteria uh with humidity and some other um issues uh popping up there uh pretty consistent throughout the year that we were told. And so we went into that um that is a redesign. So we've already done uh 30% engineering
030drawings on that um and have taken care of what needs to be done in order to eliminate those issues that are being faced there in the cafeteria. And so that's really the the grand scheme of things that we were given to uh take a look at. So if you look at the next page that says scope of work uh controls upgrade. So up here on the screen you can see you know the parts of the buildings or the the schools that we went and looked at for the existing um controls that are still Honeywell that need to be switched over to reliable. uh in that chart you can see what those numbers are uh at each of the buildings. And so um there's been some kind of back and forth a little bit at the
031high school because originally in the bond I think there was supposed to be more controls put in and that wasn't happening currently. And so they asked us um to kind of look into that a little bit and so these numbers could change if you add back in that single story. But as you can see right now, it's just looking at the gym in the twotory part of the high school. So I kind of want to pause there because there didn't know if there would be a question with that or if everybody's good. >> So there's a I guess enough controls in the new or not. >> So I can't speak to the part of the bond that's being done. Um, but I do know that originally the thought was that all of the controls were
032going to be taken care of at the high school and ultimately it was found out that that was not going to be the case. And so that's why there's some controls that need to be replaced still because they're going to be on the older system at that. >> Okay. So the older part of the building, >> correct? >> Okay. Gotcha. >> But the total number of controls in the new wing project is sufficient. >> Yes. Everything that Environics is already doing on the control side of things through the bond is just fine. We were just told that there were some parts that they thought were going to be included in the in the bond work, but it didn't end up being included. Uh the next page, if you look at the uh scope of work,
033uh the HVAC replacements, as I spoke about, um there's quite a bit of units at the middle school. Uh I'm a former middle school principal. one of my stops along my journey in education and we all know um one of the biggest tickets that you get is my room's hot, my room's cold, uh that we're not comfortable. Uh so we really want to make sure that the learning environment is as uh conducive to learning as we can make it. And so we investigated that there are quite a few units that are end of life. Uh if you look at some of these images, um there are some things that need to be replaced uh quickly. I know Mr. Ben has already told me about some units that are currently down in the district. Um, and
034so, uh, there's a lot of things that we're going to be able to address, uh, if you guys decide to move forward with this project. A lot of them are, you know, past the useful life. Um, so, uh, for those of you that don't live and breathe HVAC, um, you all know at your own house, if you start getting to the end of life on that unit, you're spending more and more money to keep it going. You might fill it up with refrigerant. you might do those patch jobs to kind of keep it going. Uh and so once you get to that stage, you now have to start deciding, am I spending more money or is it more conducive and uh efficient with our with our expenditure from our M budget to go ahead and
035replace the unit. Quite a few of those there at the middle school. There's also a wing at the um at the elementary school, LSK. And so I know speaking with Mr. have been here in the last month or so. I think you've had one or two units that have been going down on them and we know that's not going to get any better when springtime and summer rolls around and so those would be addressed in these numbers. Um and so that's something that him and I have made sure uh will be addressed. So this would get the district caught completely up on the HVAC needs across the buildings. Okay. Again, that's like for like. So that's just coming in replacing those units uh with better, you know, energy efficient units. Uh sometimes possibly looking at
036if we can downsize um based off the need of that area of the building. The next one, that's that red um sorry, this these are the locations. Uh I do want to point out that middle picture. Uh the thing that's circled, that's ice. Uh, and so, um, sometimes when your units start getting damaged and your compressors and things start happening, that is not a good thing for your HVAC unit to be, uh, functioning. You can also see the damage to the one on the left, and Mr. Brittton has kind of pointed this out to me a couple times. This is right by where students walk by. Uh, former teacher and coach, like I said, we know kids sometimes will reach their hands out and kick or, you know, touch things. We can address that. um
037by putting uh there's a hell cage that you can put around it to protect it. There's other things that we can do so that when those units are replaced, you're not seeing that damage which is then causing the icing and you're having even more issues um just because sometimes not even the age but how equipment's being treated sometimes. Okay. So, if you see on the chart on the left, anything that is the solid orange would be the replacement. So there are quite a few units that are past end of life and have either gone down in the process of or in the next year or so, a couple years need to be replaced. And this would catch everything up there at the middle school. Any questions there? >> Um so are all those in the
038same year or do you have when they were installed? >> They're kind of all over the place. Um, so I think on one of them, uh, it didn't say how many. Um, I'm sure I can ask my engineers that were down here, uh, surveying it all, but a large majority of them are over the 15-year mark. >> What's the difference between the, uh, square orange and then the orange with the the line through it? >> So, some of those are like your split units, rooftop units, um, things like that. So, they're just different kind of units. The ones that we would be replacing um that need to be replaced are those solid orange and then the kind of teal greenish boxes uh would be part of the uh cafeteria redesign >> the circle with with
039the cross through. We're not needing to replace those. Those are good. >> Does that answer your question, sir? Okay. So, I I I noticed you noted the damage to that or the freezing up on there, but is that So, I've I've been since I coach basketball here for the youth and I'm here like after hours. I see a lot of AC units that are just stuck on. >> Is this a control issue that's causing that or >> usually it's a control issue if something's running that long that it's froze? >> So, sometimes it's going to be controls, sometimes it's going to be the mechanical, right? And so, it just depends on the unit. I mean, without me knowing what equipment you're talking about or my engineers taking a look at it, I can't speak to
040it. But what I'll tell you is when you get controls that match the equipment, meaning you now have that umbrella that oversees all of your controls and Mr. Ben can sit at his computer and make sure the set points are where you want them, make sure the time, the schedules are all set. All of those things drastically can impact what you're spending in utilities and give you a better learning environment when it comes to comfort. Uh because you also have to look at peak load time. You know, if everybody's getting here at 7 am and all of a sudden everything comes on, you could have maybe saved money by staging that out, you know, 6, 6:30, 7, things like that. So, there's a lot of benefit to having those controls to help with that. Does
041that answer your question? >> somewhat. Yeah. I wish I could talk to you on the specific unit, but I just wouldn't know and still investigating it. So the redesign, this is kind of the biggest uh part of this project, right? So um if you kind of look at the top, that's the current situation. I do want to give Mr. Benton and his team a shout out. We had to come out uh and check some structural things because the new proposed unit is heavier because it's going to be able to do more things for that that uh location. And so we wanted to uh make sure and so there's some structural lo work that we need to look at to make sure it can support that unit. And so his team was awesome. We were, you
042know, getting up and doing everything we needed to in the in the roof and stuff like that, making measurements. But if you can see that top part, the existing conditions with the old unit, right? That's a 15 ton heat pump. You have your uh limited latent cooling, limited heating capacity uh just because of the type of unit it is and the age of it, right? So our proposal is going with this AON unit. It's a special um piece of equipment um that will take care of the heating and cooling um issues that are happening in there with the humidity. Um so typically you have um two or three um pipes, you know, in that system on the on the top, the older unit. The new one is like six. And so it just gives you
043a almost double uh capacity to address the heating and cooling needs. It also has the hot gas reheat, which I'm going to step outside my bounds if I keep talking about that. My engineers could definitely go through it and they they have kind of with Mr. Mitten a little bit, but that's going to address some of that having to kick on, kick off, reuse some of the energy instead of creating more energy and and costing yourself more. Okay. Um what I will say is uh with the 30% drawings um we've already done a good portion of that work. Um we do have to look at um that structural part. Um and so we have a structural engineer that I'm going to be honest with you all. We're waiting until you all decide if you want
044to move forward or not before we continue investing and having them come out and look into it. Um and so that is one piece um that we still need to solidify because of uh the changes in in the weight unit. Okay, looks like you have a question. So that would be yeah and probably going to go toward the end of it with the price of this too is getting clarity on that of what assumptions have you made in your price for structural electrical you know what what new things are in there that would be built into the cost you're going to >> so we're accommodating for it probably already. Um what I'll tell you is this would be the third time that we've repriced this project um over the last many months. And so um
045it's changing and and I'm going to tell you guys that right now. This unit, the AON unit for the middle school is a 27w week lead time. And so I don't my team, we do not want to impact the learning environment, right? We don't want to be in there when teachers and students are in there. And so we're already nearing the time of if we can get this done during the summer, we're going to have to act sooner rather than later in order to get that done to be ready for the next school year. Um so there's a little bit of sense of urgency just because of the the lead time on this type of unit. The rest of the stuff we can start getting in a whole lot sooner um and be working on
046that uh throughout the summer. >> I appreciate the you mentioned this is the third time you've read this is the first time this board's seen this. >> I understand. So, a couple things. Um, the humidity issue, you talk about it. What is causing the humidity? >> So, there's a couple things and this is where I would have my engineers be able to speak more to it, but what we were told is they are having a tough time keeping it hot or keeping it cold and then dealing with that humidity factor. That could be doors being left open. That could be the the unit itself trying to keep up with the load. How many students are coming in and out of it? because we all know body heat and other things like that. Um but I
047would be stepping outside of my bounds um speaking specifically to the humidity part. >> Sure. I mean we're just talking about a system been in place for a long time, right? And >> my experience in there is that >> with the door shut or it continuously running if I go visit my kid have lunch with her is it's pretty hot in there. Um so is it a control issue or is there an infrastructure problem with the intake out? I mean, how do we get from a unit that was performing okay to now it's failing? What's the root cause? Is it something wrong with the building or just the overall system and the controls not working inside of it? Can you get back with us and let us know? >> Yeah, I'm not sure. I know
048you guys have done some modification to the building. I'm not sure how much around the cafeteria has been changed or if it has been at all um since that building was put in. We all know as units get older, they become less efficient. So, they're not going to be able to produce what they might have produced in the first 10, 15 years of their life. Um, but again, >> well, in that area, they're producing quite a bit of heat when the heat's constantly running. And I don't know, I think I know Kurt, Mr. Benton's been out there quite a bit >> with, you know, checking to see if that's on or off or it's stuck on. That's that's why we have those questions because it seems when it's stuck cold, it's super cold in there,
049right? >> Yeah, it sounds like it's not regulating. And again, I would have to ask >> I'm not the engineer that that took a look at it. I'm more than happy to set him up and answer questions for you all. Um, but what I'll tell you is the size and what the capacity is for that unit that's currently in there to perform is drastically less than our proposed unit which is going to take care of those issues. Um, other than that, I'll have to get get in touch with my engineer because that wasn't my my forte when I was >> No, I appreciate it. If we could just get that back so we can get some context into this is a big >> big expenditure that >> Right. So, >> and so just so I
050can have clarity, you just want to find out how it addresses the humidity issue. >> Yeah. Is there something what particular in this system has failed? >> Okay. >> And is it are there any building flaws that may contribute to it? So, we don't want to put your system in say because this this has been performing pretty well over the last I don't know since I've been here. So, is it just the unit is failing itself or is there some other factors that we need to mitigate on our side? >> Yeah, and I'll get with Mr. Ben and and ask about, you know, controls and things like that in that area as well. >> Okay. Thank you. >> So, I'll double check. Absolutely. That's what I'm here for. >> Uh the next page, so scope
051of work, uh the redesign, um you know, obviously I kind of spoke to that already. Um and so we'll kind of move on from that. So, let's talk about the different scenarios. Uh, so I understand, you know, um, money is always an issue. I won't get started because I know this is being recorded, uh, and live broadcast, but I will say, um, I know we're not being funded by the state the way we should have. I can say that since I'm out of education now, and I'll shout it from the rooftops. Uh, but, um, you know, you all do need more funding so you can do what you need to do for kids. Um, however, uh, this is where we're looking at when you look at the, uh, project scenario A. This is everything that
052is needed, right? So, this is all the mechanical work, all the units, all the controls, getting everything switched over to be underneath one umbrella. Uh, and this does that cafeteria redesign. Okay? So, this is everything that was given to us, uh, that needs to be caught up. Um, and that is an approximate number because I'm telling you all, having already done this a couple times, and I hate to say it, but it's just reality right now. You wait two months, pricing is going up on units and and up on equipment. Um, it just it just is. And so, uh, this has already gone up, um, some since we did our first goound, probably in March. Um, and so we're about at the 2.4, four um range at that time um just under 2.5 and so
053it's already crawled up some in that time frame. Any questions on scenario A? So I just want to point out again that those are approximate numbers. We're not expecting it, you know, to balloon to, you know, 2.9, you know, or or go up a lot. The reason why we don't have an exact price is because we have not priced out every single thing yet until we understand what the board wants to do. >> Sure. >> Okay. Scenario B. So, what we do is we take out the controls. Um, and this just takes care of all the units. So, you're still going to be able to get those learning environments to where you want them to be. So, that comfort level is there for the staff and students. Uh, but this does take out the controls
054out of scenario B. And that drops it down to approximately the 2.1. Okay, so this still still does the cafeteria redesign. Um, let me I didn't go forward on the on the slide. Uh, it still addresses the cafeteria design and then it gets you those units and then the disconnect and reconnect um that need to happen um at the elementary school when those are when those new units are being done because some of those already have the new controls, right? So, they just have to be disconnected and reconnected to those new controls. So, something that I do want to make sure that the board is aware of. Um, you know, the original plan that we were told is you're going to be looking at using um, you know, bond funds or interest from the bond.
055I know you guys are all going through that right now and finding how much money is available there. Um, I'll also want to make you aware and I'm sure he's well aware. Uh, Telp um, is another tax and lease purchase agreement is another way. A lot of school districts do HVAC work and other things like this. Um, you've done this here recently in 2022. You guys did it for several buses. Um, and so that is also an option. Gives you a great interest rate so that you can get yourself caught up now and then pay that out over the the lifetime of the term. Okay. So, those are or those are two options that a lot of school districts use uh for these types of projects when they're not doing, you know, a design build
056or a performance contract or something else. Um, this I just wanted to make sure you guys were aware of both of those. Okay. >> Can I ask a question just for clarity on the the two proposals? >> Yes, sir. >> So, really the other one being 2.7 is 600 grand to essentially go from the Honeywell to reliable controls and have a full like BAS that's going to run the entire >> correct and all the disconnects and reconnects and everything that goes along with that. So, it's not just the controls itself, but it's the work to put the new units to the Sure. >> to the new. >> So, that way Mr. Benton can actually see them all in one interface to control everything ultimately. Okay. And and I'm sure he would say this, but I'm
057g say it on his behalf. You know, being a former administrator, when you can control your building, it's a glorious thing. Um, you know, versus when I would go in and it's 105 in my office and I can't do it because I I'm not allowed to log in and control my own set points. Um, >> but it's even magnified when you're at the district level because there is a lot of inefficiency uh in buildings. And so when he can start understanding there's going to be event here. I can gauge that we're going to be having, you know, summer school in this wing of the building. We don't need to run the whole building at capacity. It gives you a lot of control and does a lot of good things for your >> your savings from
058that because I mean you have analytics that are run on every unit issues we're having and then the ability to schedule to get those peak demand charges down for us. Uh part of mine and kind of walking through this, it's difficult for me of a price tag this big of seeing how this itemizes down. You know, if you're 2.1 million, how much are we getting for equipment? You know, what are we charging for those things? What is labor? What's the, you know, what are all those aspects? So, we can kind of get a gauge of that that we're paying to an extent per ton. I assume all these new systems are brand new Ford design. What is it? The R454B or R32. We we went with the units that we were told and I would
059have to check with my engineer what they ultimately decided on um because there was some back and forth with uh previous administration on what was going to be put in um and the pricing on that and so I couldn't tell you what was ultimately decided but that's easy for me to find out for you. >> I just like clarity to make sure we're forward facing in that and then not caught with something that's >> well and something that you know I've told Mr. Benton like we don't want to come in and put in a new system that they're maybe his him and his team aren't certified on, right? Like that makes no sense at all. You want your your team that's going to be servicing those units and doing that um hopefully hopefully preventative maintenance,
060right? Um and addressing that to be familiar with it because the last thing you want to do is put in a a foreign piece of equipment that they have no idea how to how to maintain and work on. And that's the other thing. I know I said that the the dirty words of deferred maintenance maybe. Um this gets you caught up quite a bit on any deferred maintenance that you're dealing with in the district because those are typically things that get kicked down the road. Um because being on on campuses before, they're they're not pretty, you know, they're not the new gym floor or they're not, you know, something that's visual. it only you only care when your chiller goes down or your HVAC unit doesn't work and then everybody's sweating. That's that's when it
061kind of hurts you, right? And so this kind of gets um a lot of that um maintenance caught up if that makes sense. >> Are we able to get anything more detailed on how these numbers break down? Even seeing some of those assumptions that you may have built in there for electrical. I mean obviously making sure we're not going to get hit with a crane rental to put a rooftop unit on. Like all those things are built into it. So just gives us clarity as we're making a decision here. Yeah, I can reach out. Okay. >> And also with construction prices always fluctuating more going up than it is going down unfortunately. >> Yeah. In the last year I haven't seen it go down. So >> Right. Yeah. Exactly. So if if and when we
062decide to do something like this and prices go up, will we will it be locked in or >> will we have to take that balloon? >> No. So, if we go into an agreement, that's that's what it's going to be, right? Yeah. Unless there's some I mean, in that agreement, it'll spell out any like unforeseen circumstances or things like that. And I've sent the um terms and conditions over in a template um and so your legal can look at it and make sure that it's because this is what I like to say that our contract is only as good as I hold you to it and you hold me to it, right? And needs to benefit both parties and protect both of us. >> Yeah. Any other questions? >> Thank you for your time. >>
063I appreciate Absolutely. >> All right. Item B, computer lab purchases needed for the new CT wing. Mr. Anderson. All right. >> So, as part of our new CTE wing, which um is starting to look great, um we're just excited to be able to put the technology in there to serve the purpose that it is designed to do. So, um two of the rooms in that CTE wing are designed to be computer labs. So, we purchased computer lab tables. Um the Gallagher is putting in all of our Ethernet cables. Um and so we're prepared to be able to um have the technology in there. That was not a part of any discussions previous to me. So that's why we're bringing this to you now is so that we can actually plan for what's needing to go
064in those two labs. One of the things that my team and I tried to do is try to minimize costs as much as possible because we know that um computers and computer labs are incredibly expensive. And so we are trying to find a way to be as forward thinking as possible uh to not put ourselves in a position where we're buying old technology uh nor to be buying something that is going to be um outdated soon but something that will be able to grow with us um but also to be as costefficient as possible. Um, so the breakdown you'll see up here, what we're trying to do, um, is to actually start moving, uh, to a more Apple environment for two purposes. Uh, number one, they're becoming increasingly easier to manage than Windows machines um,
065in in for all reasons. Um, but also they're significantly safer in terms of cyber security controls. Um, so we're always trying to look at how can we make sure to get something in that will be as safe as possible for our students and our staff. Um, so what we were looking at is uh Mac minis um just the base model which will serve all of our purposes for um doing any kind of Adobe work in one of the labs to just you know some of the credit retrieval in the other labs. Um all the things that we would need to do. I I spoke with SHI about trying to find uh good monitors that would last us um but not be excessively expensive. Uh we were able to find some monitors for about $130 that
066would be 27 in um that also have an exposed Visa mount on the back so that we can actually mount the Mac minis onto the back of the monitor and not have them be a separate unit. Um and then obviously we'd need keyboard and mouse. We'd need um Cat 6 cables to to hook them up. We would need HDMI cables to connect the monitor to the um to the computer units. And then of course surge protectors. So I believe um the Mac minis with the warranty that we would get from Apple, which is um pretty incredible for education purposes, they would end up being below the $800. Um, but just like everybody's talked about tonight, and I'm sure I'm not going to be the last one to talk about with the rising costs, um, I
067just wanted to make sure that there would be a little extra in case at the at the new year, uh, when we would be purchasing those that, um, that would still be able to cover it. >> Any questions? >> Sure. >> So, and this is for two classes for computer. What specifically are we teaching there? So, one of the computer labs is going to be for our um Mrs. Day is going to know this better than I would. I believe it's the um business and is it >> technology classes really So, it depends on the period on that one, whether it's um dual credit or credit recovery. And then, yeah, we're we're trying to make sure that uh the computer that we put in there can easily handle everything from uh Adobe any part of
068the Adobe Creative Cloud um to business applications. All of that can be run through the Mac Mini. >> So, >> Yes, ma'am. >> So, do we not have graphic design? And >> we currently do in a small lab um down in the in the two floor, but this is a separate space. Again, I think a lot of it's going to be used for the business and information BIM business information management. >> Okay. different. >> I've been able to because I I used to teach that when I was when I was in education. I used to do all that stuff. So, I was able to actually outfit my entire classroom when I was teaching this. Uh, I know there's some I know there's some different I can get in contact with people that I know uh
069at the previous school that I was at, but I know you can get the Mac the IMAX uh for quite, you know, pretty cheap where you don't have to worry about buying the monitor, you don't have to worry about buying the the mouse or the keyboard. All that comes together. >> Yes. >> And all that. So, >> and I and I actually gathered a quote for that. That was going to be 78,000 for the two labs. Um, if we just did one, obviously that would add about 15, I think, to that. So, it would be right around the 63 or 64,000 to do one lab of IMAX and one with IMA um, Mac minis. >> Okay. >> And that was with the educational discounts that we would get by buying in in groups of five
070and just the educational discounts that they provide. But we buy everything with the warranty. Uh just because anytime we have students around, we want to make sure that there it's repairable. >> I'm gonna ask you a two-part question. Okay. So, I I see you have like a four-year warranty. Is that your expected life? >> I would actually say for the Mac minis that's probably going to be more like a five years. Um potentially stretching to six. Sure. >> Um, with the M series chips that Apple is using right now, we're seeing actually a lot of organizations that are getting to the end of the M1s and they're still actually um their warranties are out and they're still using them. >> Got the second part question or second part of that question is >> do you
071think or is would it be feasible to do a lease on these? So, Apple does have a lease program um and we could do something like that. Um that would be paying out during the the the period of the four years. >> Um the hard part is with only ordering the 50 computers with that amount. I don't know whether that would be costefficient to go with a lease option when it's a smaller number of computers as opposed to like outfitting a staff. um when you're buying 200 computers and they're laptops and they're significantly well a little bit more expensive about twice that would definitely be um behoove us to to explore that option. Okay. And then one last thing so in our dual credit for or um Mrs. Day are they going to be using
072that for like any neo stuff? Yes. And how does that interface with like the systems or the class work they're doing there? >> I I can speak to the work that the students are doing in terms of the dual credit. Um most of that is going to be cloud-based uh using their Canvas um learning management system um as well as office applications that can run natively on the Mac minis. Gotcha. >> Mrs. D, do you have anything to add on that or >> Okay. Do you have more questions? >> When are you looking that you need to make a decision on this buy? >> Um, time is of the essence just like everything you're probably going to hear tonight. Um, I I wish I would have um been aware of this earlier and I would
073have brought this to you a lot earlier. Um, but luckily the lead time on shipping Mac minis is really short. I made sure when I was talking with uh SHI that all of those the monitors and the keyboard are all in stock with plenty of stock. Um so we wouldn't have to worry about like by the time we come back from break and stuff. It what I would love to have is for them to be installed by the time that the wing gets open. Um if I love when that happens. Um, >> are we miss are we looking to start class in February in there? >> Okay. >> And Gallagher, is that feasible >> to have kids in classrooms doing this in February 1st >> In the classroom portion. Yes. Those were not part of
074the walls right now. Okay. >> The only thing that we will need to do as soon as we get um the go-ahad is to start installing network gear, which obviously that comes after all the cables are run and the and the racks are installed. So then we can get in there, my team, and install the network gear that we already have. So, we put up walls with no >> Oh, no, no, no. >> Is it >> What's that? >> The Ethernet cable circles are already >> Okay. >> Oh, do they? >> So, we have been in conversation with like Chris has been great and so I've been I I talked to him way too much. Um, so we've we've had lots of great conversations and and I believe that we've got a good plan for
075that. I I didn't know whether they had run the lines itself, but um, yeah, we will need to get in there obviously with the network here. >> So, is that right? Like, so without an option like this, these classrooms that we're looking at are pretty much not going to serve their purpose at the moment if we >> That's correct. Okay. Or they'll be doing it with their Chromebooks. >> That's I mean space. Yeah. >> Yes. I mean, obviously kids still have the Chromebooks, but it won't serve the purposes. If I'm correct, um, Mr. Anderson, the Chromebooks don't have the Adobe suite and all of the things that >> it definitely does not have Adobe Creative Cloud. >> Um, it can run limited, um, office suites because they're all web- based. Um, but it can do
076some of that. So, >> so what classes will be in there again that will need the Adobe then if it's graphic design's not in there? So graphic design, some of that will be using that space. Again, we're trying to buy for even next year. Um not just for this year, right? So we're trying to make sure that this can grow with the classes, not just that we have for this year, but how we want to structure them next year. And so we probably would only have um some classes using that this year, but I believe that that would grow in years to come. this would help us to grow the program, the CTE program. Um, so that just like the culinary, you know, it's helping us to expand our culinary options with the new addition.
077So that is the purpose of these these classrooms that he's talking about. >> Mr. Boon, is this going to be coming out of bond funds or general fund? >> Oh, sorry. >> Like I reported earlier, we have know roughly estimated in bond funds by allocate its fund. >> I am really sorry that you have to hear about a lot of dollar signs. No, I think we just want to make the best decision based on our financial situation and when that's why we're asking all these questions. Absolutely. You know, where's this >> where is this allocated from or where can we do that from? >> I guess Josh, were you planning on buying these from the bond money? Was that the plan initially? >> I didn't know. Yeah, part of it is when we have transitions
078that are happening in the middle of the bond, that makes it really difficult that the people that had the conversations about the spaces aren't necessarily the ones that are remaining. Um, so as some of us that are coming through that transition, we're just trying to to do the best we can of bringing you the the information as timely as possible. This one's not that timely. Um, but we still have time to make it happen. There's nothing else. I can entertain a motion or we can pass. >> I make a motion to approve the computer lab equipment as presented. >> First by Mr. Norman. Do I have a second? Second by Hold on. >> I say second. >> Norman, second by Mr. Ramirez. Any further discussion? All those in favor. You have to vote for it
079if you Yeah. I mean, that's Any opposed? Okay. All four. >> Thank you, Mr. Anderson. >> Thank you so much. >> Appreciate. >> Thank you. Appreciate that. out of >> I would have added bond funds at this time. Sorry. >> Okay, we're going to have a financial audit report. That's exciting. >> I tried to pump you up, but it's just I mean it is what it is. >> My favorite time of the year every year. >> Thank you. That's what I'm talking about. Uh my name is Caleb Marks. I'm with Anderson Marks and Bowl. I'm here to present y'all's uh fiscal year ended August 31st, 2025 uh financial audit report. All my pages are tabs, so if I get moving too quick, please let me know and I'll slow down for you. If you will
080flip over to page two, this is the opinion section of the independent auditor's report. Y'all received an unmodified opinion. Uh that's what you want to see. It's uh basically means it's a clean audit. Uh if you'll look at uh the second to last paragraph down there, you'll see an emphasis of matter. That's dealing with a new Gazsby regulation. Gatsby 101 deals with how uh you have to record compensated absences. Uh the compensated absences uh uh created a prior period adjustment that I'll get to in just a minute. Flip over to page 11. This is the first page of the uh financial statements. This is the governmentwide statement in that position. If you will look at the first two rows there, you'll see cash and cash equivalents and current investments. The total of those two is
081$13.5 million, which is a decrease of $26.4 million. Uh the vast majority of that's continued construction throughout the year. Uh I'll get I'll get to the uh to the splits on that when we get back to the notes. If you'll flip over one page to page 12. On page 12, if you'll look at the uh bottom section under general revenues, you'll see property taxes. Uh those the first two rows of that section uh is your total property tax for the year, which was $7.6 6 million which is up $650,000 from the prior year. If you look at the third row from the bottom, you will see where it says prior period adjustment. Uh the prior period adjustment deals with how you have to record those compensated absences and it reduced uh your uh net position
082by $600,000. Again, that's nothing that the districts happen. And that's something that uh Gazsby regulations just uh they came out with how you have to report those compensated absences. If you'll flip over to page 16 and 17, it's a front and back. If you look on page 16 in that first column called general fund, about twothirds of the way down, you'll see total expenditures. Total expenditures for the general fund uh for the year were $15.6 million. That's up about $1.3 million. Uh but $500,000 of that is related to capital outlay. That's not going to be capital outlay. That's from the bond proceeds. that's uh other items that y'all have uh purchased. Uh if you'll look uh at the section just below that says other financing sources, uh you'll see where you issued $1 million uh
083maintenance tax notes during the year. And um so the uh prior period adjustment on the governmental funds uh decreased by $86,000. A lot of that has to do with how uh how those compensated absences are accounted for. Yes, sir. >> I just couldn't remember when we did the uh >> sorry >> the maintenance tax note >> felt like a couple months ago and I apologize. No, it it happened uh the maintenance tax note happened before August 31st. Uh if you will look at the last two rows of that in the general fund, you will see where you have uh fund balances beginning as restated uh 4.8 uh ending fund balance was 4.6. Uh so uh you're down about $170,000 from the prior year. Next we're going to get into the notes. If you will flip
084over to page 33. This is note F to the financial statements dealing with long-term obligations. Uh the main piece I'm going to talk about is about the first half of uh that first table you're looking at. Uh again, you issued the $1 million of uh maintenance tech notes. Uh you paid down the first one, two, three, the first seven rows and that decreases. Uh you paid down $596,000 worth of debt. Uh your ending uh debt balance is $41.7 million with $1.1 million being due next year, which is uh now this current year. Flip over to page 60. The TEA requires you to have uh estimated two months of average cash dispersements in your uh fund balance in the general fund. Uh if you look at the optimal uh fund balance at on line 12 uh
085is 4.625 625 million. You have 4.647 U million which is uh excess of $21,000. One thing I would like to note about this is you do still have $2 million sitting in a signed fund balance that was assigned for capital projects. Uh, I believe that's been on the books for about as long as I've been working on your audit. Uh, that $2 million that's still been assigned. Uh, that uh the excess does not take into account that $2 million. So, if you were to uh make that become unrestricted, uh that would increase that uh excess number. If you will flip over to page 60, uh, I'm sorry, 69. Uh, I'm sorry. I think I missed a page. I'm going to go back real quick for you. If you'll go back to page 31. I'm sorry,
086I left off the fixed assets portion >> 31. My apologies. If you'll look at the second half of page 31, uh it'll be note D, capital assets. Uh we will look at the first portion of that where it says construction in progress. Uh you began the year with $5.9 million. Uh you increased uh $24.7 million uh which uh the construction progress ending balance is $30.6 million. as of August 30 uh 31st uh the majority of the projects were not completed yet. So they weren't move they weren't moved to start being depreciated. Uh if you'll look uh that next section down on capital assets being depreciated, amortized, uh you'll see where you had uh $373,000 in additions to uh buildings and improvements and $500,000 in equipment. I believe that $500,000 uh was the main piece that
087uh was in with that uh general fund expenditures. Uh total depreciation for the year was $1.5 million which will affect which affects your governmentwide statements which were the first two that we looked at. Uh now back to page 69. My apologies for skipping the Uh the big thing that everybody's on pins and needles to hear, if you look at the bottom of page 69 where it says financial statement findings, there were none. Uh that's all that's always a good thing. Uh all in all, I mean, you'll have a bunch of moving parts with uh handling the bond with everything else. Uh from a operations side of thing, the district looks like the like it's doing fine. Uh you have a bunch I've heard three or four people in front of me talk about a bunch
088of capital expenditure items from the operation side. Once y'all get u the capital outlay stuff squared away, I I don't see any issues moving forward. uh anytime you dealing with multi-million dollar uh capital projects, it always makes things a little little little hairy. But uh I want to thank Josh and his staff for everything they've done to provide to help us put this audit report together. Uh we would have been here last month, but the federal government was shut down and one of the regulations that we needed uh they never got passed until after it opened back up. Do you have any questions for me? >> You'll all take a nice nap. >> It was It was a good audit. >> Very good. >> Way to go. >> Thank you. >> All right. I make
089a motion to adopt the 2425 financial audit report as presented. >> Second. Any discussion, questions? All right. All those in favor. All right. Mr. Benton is going to come talk to us about some seat belts, I think. >> Do you have a book? I mean, these are pretty nice from what we got here. >> I've trimmed my PowerPoint from 150 to about five or six. >> Well done, sir. Well done. >> It's best I can do tonight. There is a copy of that in your folder and also in board book. >> Brought the wrong charger from my other laptop. >> My laptop crash. >> I have a new one. >> Yeah. >> That's our job. >> Yeah. >> I mean, you took my air conditioning money away from me. >> Yeah. I think you'd be
090amazed with that. >> There we go. You can't have a computer no more. >> This is equipment I got to deal with. It gives me. So this evening I come to you before the uh SB546. If anybody knows this state senate bill that was passed for the mandation of all school buses have a three-point harness in it. Uh passed during the 89th Texas legislation uh school board determined. So reason I'm here tonight is TA is asking for us to report to them what we're going to do. Can we afford to upgrade our buses? It's not due until the end of the May, but I'm trying to get it to them now, so that way if they need any more reporting from us, we can come back to them. So, our current fleet that we have
091now, standby buses, which are the buses you see parked against the fence, they're ready to go. If another bus goes down, we have a large troop going anywhere. So, our current standby buses with no seat belts have seven in them. Uh they're year 2011 through 2016. Uh we have one route bus that has uh no seat belts in it. It's a year 2016. So route buses with three points that are already we ordered with them. We currently have eight. Those are the ones that are on the road every day that you'll see. And then there is 2019 through 22. And then of course our average life expectancy of a bus is a 15 to 20 years. So, we've got buses that are starting to get into their expected life expect their life expectancy. So, with
092this in mind, if we've got a bus that's going to need a full seat replacement, this is the kind of money we're looking at. We're looking at 27,300 uh plus labor at 5,50500 per bus with a total estimated cost of 32,854. approximately one week for per bus. This is not including if they have to replace the whole floor in the bus. Some floors in the buses came out real thin from the factory and so they will have to determine that'll be another 10 to 12,000 on top of that cost. The downside of this, and this is from Rush, this PE Rush I've been talking to, that's who does our maintenance and repair on our buses. Rush and Premier Truck Group and the other large truck group, their legal teams have come out and said they're
093not going to do this this upfit because there's too many legal issues involved. And of course, Bluebird has yet to provide any kind of how they're going to do it, what's what steps they can take to help us. >> Did you say Rush is not going to do it? >> No, sir. Rush and Premier both uh have both their legal teams have both come out and said that they're not going to touch this that it's just it creates too many legal issues. When you start replacing floors and you start re-anchoring seats and then you get in an incident, they don't they don't want to be liable for that. I've been told there's currently one company out there that does it. Now, mind you, we have to have full compliance by 2029. So, if one company's
094doing this and every school district in the state of Texas needs to be in compliance. See where I'm going with this? This this will take a while. This is the quote from Rush of what it would take for them to do it. I couldn't make it any bigger, but it basically tells us for roughly $30,000 they per bus is what it would take to do uh redo the seats and ours. And that's what I have. Couple things I want to bring to you about this is Y'all can think about this, vote on it. Um, a brand new bus is $140,000. There are grants out there to apply for next year for to replace some of our old diesel buses to go to gasoline because we don't put enough miles and hours on our diesel buses
095and they just they end up causing us more maintenance in the long run. >> Maintenance, fuel cost, sorry. >> Yes, sir. >> Um, and so I have to put this on record. Y'all vote next meeting whenever whatever y'all decide. So, we're looking at about 30,000 per bus at seven buses. Eight buses. Yes. Seven buses. $210,000. I need to know, y'all need to decide. Can the district afford to upfit a bus? You know, two buses a year and be in compliance by 2029. And so, I can report back to the TEA. That's all that I have for y'all. have any questions? >> No. Thank you for the presentation. I think so. We're looking at You want seven buses or the one route bus with no seat belt? So, eight buses. >> If if we're going to
096keep all of the buses we currently have, we have to bring them up to standards if we can find if the company's willing to if the one company's willing to do that and being stand and being in standard by 29. So, y'all have to decide, can the district afford to do that? If not, then I need to report back to the TEA. >> Yeah. So, I would and we'll we'll open this up for discussion obviously, but I would say that this unfunded mandate sir in the state is not something that we can afford. Um, >> and then secondly, if you're saying that this is the estimate from Rush, but they're not willing to make structural repairs to a bus because they're legal. They don't want to be legally responsible, which I understand they're not the
097manufacturer, right? Bluebird or whoever makes the buses. So, I would say that we don't even have an option at this point >> to make these repairs. >> No, sir, we don't. >> Anybody else want to weigh in? >> And Mr. Kirk, just for clarity, you report back to TEA like now, right after this meeting or once they make a decision? >> I can report back to them in January. Um, I just wanted to come to y'all for this meeting. >> So, it's on our plate. We can make a decision. We have until the end of May, I think May 28th to report back to them, but like I said, trying to get this in front of us now so we can have a decision made and if TA comes back and says, "Hey, you've already
098reported. Here's extra money or you know, just that's basically just trying to get it in front of us now instead of waiting till the last minute." >> We appreciate that. Thank you. >> Yeah. Thank you. So, if we're looking at the ex the expected life being 15 to 20 years, by 2029, pretty much all of our buses are going to be about that point. So, we're looking at spending 30 grand per bus, then turn around and have to buy another bus. And here's one of the other things that uh in one of the discussions I had with one of the Rush representatives was let's say we upfitted our our route bus that we currently have right now. Put 40,000 in it. We get somebody to do it. We go and do it, drive it home,
099and we drop a motor in it or we drop a transmission in it. Now we've got 40,000 in a bus that, you know, it's going to be another 20 or 30,000 that we put a new motor in or god forbid we wreck it. Now the bus really now we've lost all that money. So it's another it's another way to look at it. >> So what what kind of grants were you talking about? >> Um TCEQ currently has a grant out there. I want to say they were offering a percentage money that they would pay for to swap a diesel to a gas and then we'd have to come up with the other portion of it. I could go back and find I'd have to go back and look the numbers. Uh it was a conversation
100I had with uh Bluebird salesman when he got me the price of what a new bus would cost just so y'all would have an idea what a new one cost. >> Do we think I know we we know Rush Truck Center is at at this point is not going to make those repairs or installs. So the company the one company that is doing it do we know I mean just off by talking to anybody else is it close to this estimate or is it >> I haven't reached out to them yet. Um, I can I can get that information bring back to you. >> Thank you. >> You bet. Action. No. Okay. All right. What's our next thing? Close. >> Thank you, sir. Great presentation. >> All right. It is 7:58 and we are going
101to go into closed session. All right, it is 9:52 p.m. and we are out of close session. Um, one second. I know I'm down to two phones, so that's good. All right, so motions outside of or from close session make a motion to add a $3,000 a month stipen for Mrs. Vot's additional duties as acting superintendent to be retroactive from November 1st, 2025 and continue up and until her duties are relieved by a replacement superintendent. >> Second. >> Good job. >> My microphone. >> Any discussion? All those in favor? Okay. All right. Uh make motion to adjurnn. >> Or did we just adjurnn or we made >> we just adjourn? That's what we do.