001I call the July 17th, 2025 regular meeting of the Board of Education to order. Kate, will you please call the roll? Mr. Goldberg? Here. Dr. Pinter? Here. Ms. Maloney? Here. Ms. Timm? Here. Mr. Aitken? Here. Mrs. Danniger? Here. Mrs. Warren? Here. Please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, justice for all. Good evening and thank you for joining us tonight. Before we begin tonight's meeting, I wanna take a moment to extend my deepest appreciation to our incredible staff and administrators. Your unwavering commitment and tireless efforts have set the stage for a strong and successful start to the school year. Whether it's been construction and facilities updates, technology upgrades, hiring, preparing for institute days, analyzing student
002data, or ensuring every bus route is safely mapped and every classroom is ready, you've been working hard behind the scenes in countless ways. Each of these efforts is a reflection of your care for our students and your belief in the importance of our mission. I also wanna recognize our dedicated summer semester team, both staff and students, who are approaching the culmination of a meaningful learning journey. Additionally, a huge thank you to our coaches and students for the incredible athletic camp experiences. On behalf of the entire board of education, thank you for your time, energy, and heart you've invested during these summer months. Board members, I want to draw your attention to the upcoming opportunities to tour the high school on July 31st and August 1st. Kelly and Kate will be reaching out with details. I
003encourage you to take advantage of this chance to see firsthand the progress made across the campus. These updates represent a significant investment in our future and seeing them come to life affirms just how important and impactful our decisions have been. I know our students and staff will be both excited and inspired when they return to see these improvements. Thank you again to everyone who plays a role in supporting our district. Your hard work does not go unnoticed and it is truly appreciated. Let's continue our important work this evening. Kate, is there anyone signed up for public speaking? No, there is not. Thank you. The next item on the agenda is the consent agenda. Dr. Gault. Thank you. This evening I have for you the approval of minutes for both open and closed board of education
004meetings held on June 26, 2025, the approval of payrolls of the parking and drive maintenance, the K-8 breakfast and lunch pricing for the 2025-26 school year, the personnel report, which includes employment of administrative staff, resignation of administrative staff. I do want to point out and just acknowledge Mr. Todd Gregory at the conclusion of this upcoming school year. He will have given 29 years to district 95 and just want to thank him for his service and his commitment to our students, our families, and our district. So thank you to Todd. Employment of certified staff, resignation of certified staff, resignation of non-certified staff, employment of non-certified staff, resignation of non-certified staff. And that is all I have for you on the consent agenda. May I have a motion to approve the consent agenda as prepared and presented
005by the administration? So moved. Second. Thank you, Doug, and thank you, Natasha. Kate, board colleagues, are there any questions? Kate, please call the roll. Mr. Etienne? Yes. Ms. Tim? Yes. Mrs. Danniger? Yes. Mr. Goldberg? Yes. Mrs. Warren? Yes. Ms. Maloney? Yes. Dr. Pinter? Yes. The next item on the agenda is the superintendent's report. Dr. Galtz. Thank you. This evening, I just have a very short report. The FOIA, as always, is included within your board agenda. Hopefully, you've had an opportunity to read over that. We've not really received any new communication to the board since the last time that we met. I do want to just make sure the board is aware we have reached the date for class lists as far as being created and looking at our numbers. However, as always, Mrs. Besich and
006I continue to monitor our numbers of students that are in each section, so we will continue to do that and continue to update you. We did not have any additional need to add sections at this time, but just wanted to make sure that you were aware that that date has been reached. And then I did have an opportunity today to visit at Lake Zurich High School and tour some of the things that have been going on and certainly some of the expenses that the Board of Education has committed to and approved over the last several months. So first, take a look at the furniture. I had an opportunity to see a few of the classrooms and some of what's gone in place or been put together. Additionally, I also, oh, if you can go back,
007I also had the opportunity to tour some of the areas where our staff are going to be housed for their office space areas. If you take a look, I'll call it just a sofa, but it has, in the left-hand corner, you'll notice that it has some walls around it. That's to add some privacy for phone calls as they're sitting in their office, their newly designed office space. So really excited it's coming along nicely. It's not completed yet, but it's coming along nicely. And then the furniture has been placed in many of our classrooms. We're still working on a few things, but looking very nice. I think the students and the staff are gonna be very pleased when they come back. And then also was able to tour some of the construction areas. Wanna point out
008that the field house is looking beautiful. So we have a new track you can see there that's been installed. We have some flooring that's going in right now and being completed. We have our stadium seating, so our bleachers that are coming to life. Really, really excited about how that space is going to look when we're all done. And then also toured the culinary space. It's hard to see within these pictures, but one of the pictures showcases a wooden type wall that looks amazing in person. It's like a tile wood type appeal to it. And then some white, beautiful, beautiful tile on that back wall in that third picture from the left. And then also saw the fashion design space, was able to tour and see some new windows being installed, doors being installed. There's just
009a lot going on at our high school right now. I also toured the new servery area. I cannot wait for our students to come back and see that space. They're gonna be very, very excited to see that area. And the new area that looks, I think it's gonna have more of a restaurant appeal on the side between the cafeteria and the culinary space. So very, very, very excited about this. And again, thank you, Mrs. Maloney, for helping our board members to know that we'll be sending out a communication. It'll help you to choose and select some dates that work, or dates and times that work for you. We'll be looking at July 31st and August 1st, and Kate will be sending that out first thing tomorrow morning so that you can select all dates that
010might work for you, and then we'll be able to tour you two by two. And then lastly, just wanted to remind you of some important dates that are coming up. Our staff comes back on August 8th. That time is nearing. I sent out, and I did send the board a forward on of the communication I sent to all staff members that went out late this afternoon. So that was our first communication, getting our staff geared up and ready to return to us. Institute day on August 11th, teacher in service and staff work day on August 12th, and then our first day of student attendance, Wednesday, August 13th. That concludes my report this evening. Thank you, Dr. Gault. Are there any comments or questions? Thank you. All right, next item is reports to the board. The
011first item is the succession plan update. Are there questions for Dr. Gault? Thank you. I'm moving on to the next item, the Empower 95 technology update. Are there any questions for Dr. Zar? I just want to say a big thank you to Mary and her team for answering a plethora of my questions I peppered you with this week, so thank you. I thank you, too. So did I. They were very thorough, thank you. Any other questions for Dr. Zar? All right, it is my understanding that we have a short presentation. Dr. Romano prepared related to fund balance and interest earning allocation. Can become strategic tools, not just numbers on a spreadsheet. Good afternoon, board members. Today, we'll take a fast-paced tour through how our fund balance and interest earnings can become strategic tools, not just
012numbers on a spreadsheet. Let's start with our goals. We'll review why fund balance matters, how our board policy guides us, and how interest earnings can support both operations and long-term strategy. The fund balance is the district's financial cushion, leftover dollars from past years that protect us from the unexpected. It keeps cash flowing when revenues are delayed and ensures stability when costs spike. Our board policy is clear. Maintain a fund balance between 50 and 75% of annual expenditures across the education, operations and maintenance, transportation, and working cash funds. Why? It's about staying credit-worthy, nimble, and responsible stewards of taxpayer dollars. Here's the breakdown. Zero to 50% is non-negotiable. This must be preserved to ensure financial stability. 50 to 75% is our sweet spot. Within this range, the board has the ability to direct funding towards strategic
013initiatives and weather unexpected financial threats, such as the loss of federal funding. And 75 to 100%, that's a red flag. It signals we might be over-collecting from taxpayers and actions must be taken to lower district reserves. Now, here's where it gets interesting, literally. We earn interest on idle dollars. More reserves and higher rates create more earnings potential, but that income is variable and can be reduced significantly year over year. And this requires that it be allocated with purpose and intentionality. Our biggest expense? People. Salaries and benefits fuel our mission. That's why stable, predictable funding is key, and why full interest earnings shouldn't allocate it in their entirety to ongoing expense due to the risk of notable reductions in a future year due to lost revenues caused by drops in interest rates. Here's the administration's plan.
014Estimated interest earnings from the zero to 50% fund balance base go straight to supporting annual operational costs such as staffing, benefits, and supplies. Any estimated earnings on the 50 to 75% portion of fund balance? That's our opportunity fund where the board can direct funding to support strategic priorities and long range facility plan projects. This graphic says it all. Orange for stability, recurring expenses, blue for growth, one-time innovation and capital projects. Each year, the board will adopt a conservative interest earnings assumption in the fall. This keeps projections realistic, keeps the budget tight, and builds trust in the district's financial practices. So to recap the administration's strategy, adopt a fixed interest earnings assumption in the fall. Allocate the base up to 50% for operations. Use the rest for bold one-time investments and then fold it all into
015our future budgets with clarity and purpose beginning with the 2025-2026 school year. Smart use of fund balance isn't just good accounting, it's great fiscal leadership. Let's continue building a future that's fiscally strong and student focused. Thank you for your time and attention. I now hand it back to you, Madam President. Thank you, Dr. Romano. Are there any questions for Dr. Romano? I have a question, just more understanding of what has been past practice. I know while I've been on the board, we've always used interest earnings as like a one-time expense. But before that, I know interests were so low. Do you know like what other districts are doing is what we're hoping to do going forward more than norm or is that more because interest rates have been so high? It's actually a little bit
016more because our fund balance is designed to make sure we maintain a high fiscal reserve, which is typically higher than some of the other districts that we compare against. One of the things here that's important is the fact that because we have had such a significant increase in interest earnings due to the fact that the combination of much higher rates and really strong reserves, that not a lot of districts have the flexibility in this interest earnings area that is as significant it is for us. And so the concern again that we presented in this is around the fact that if interest rates drop in half and we're living on all of the interest that's in the budget, all of a sudden that revenue source is gonna also be cut in half. And that's when we're
017gonna have to make much more significant impacts to all of our programming because it could be let's say $2 million is lost overnight just because interest rates change. What this is saying is that when we take a look at the fact that we have a fund balance policy that maintains 50% in reserves at all times, or we have to take action to fix that, if we were to make an assumption on our interest earnings as a group, much like we do with all of our assumptions, but this one would then be tied back to that 50% that we have in the bank and our assumption, we want those dollars to go to educational programs and staffing those ongoing expenses, the headcount associated with supporting our mission as much as we can. And that's the level
018where we know that board policy requires us to maintain that. And if we are strategic in how much interest we believe we're gonna be able to earn from that, we can direct those funds. Anything over that would be for us to be able to really start to have a conversation around what are some of the strategic initiatives, there's lots of different projects, lots of different things, there's many on the agenda this evening, for potential considerations and investments, but those would be one time components. I hope that that. No, I think that's really clear. I guess more, my question was, because I understood it, is this, do you think more the norm of what districts are doing? Because interest, for districts that are financially stable like we are, that carry fund balances like we do, and
019have had these high returns on their interest rates, what we're choosing to do now, is that more the norm, or I guess I'm wondering what the precedence is? I'll be honest, I have not had much conversations with others around the topic. Okay. Many of them. I think we're doing the responsible thing, because that's where we want our money to go into the educational funds and to opt to our, our interest returns have been so high, it makes sense that we would put some of that into our general funds, but I was just curious as to what other districts were doing. And I'm happy to dig into that a little bit further, especially if I can identify some of those districts with the higher fund balances and have that high log as well. And I think
020what Mrs. Danneger's asking you is how we would responsibly use those funds. And so, and she had shared with you that we typically would use them for one time only, not in areas where it would be compounding and reoccurring. That's the question. So, and she's wondering if other districts would do the same thing. So I think that's really the question. Are we doing the responsible thing, and then do we believe other districts? So you'd have to look up on other districts, but are we doing the responsible thing by ensuring we're not using those funds to support items that would be compounding and reoccurring? Oh, just a second. Peter? Sorry. Thanks. Thanks for doing this. I appreciate your thought on this. I have a couple questions. My first is, just so I understand how much money
021we're talking about, and you've shared that several times, like a typical, like, you know, 20, 25, 24, 25, or 23, 24. How much money are we talking about? From interest earnings? Yes. Right around the $4 million mark. Can you repeat that? $4 million mark. Okay, so. That's all the funds. That's all it is. All the funds, across the funds. So yeah, that's a good chunk of dough. My other question is, if I understand this, this is a sequence, right, what you're proposing, is, you know, allocating interest earnings based on up to 50% of fund balance to support ongoing operations. I'm trying to understand what that means. Does that mean that if our fund balance is below 50%, then all of it goes to fund balance to meet that 50%? Or you're saying, I'm a little
022unclear what that second bullet point is saying. Sure, so what we're looking at here is the fact that fund balance policy requires us to maintain 50% of operating costs. That's the amount of money that we know that we would maintain in the bank at all times. Since that is non-variable, if we applied a conservative interest rate to that, we know that we would be earning those dollars of interest on that amount of money. That amount of money could then be allocated for ongoing expenses because it's defined. We know that we're not gonna go lower unless we have an issue, and then we would have to move that back to that 50% mark. That's the reason for the 50% because it matches up with the fund balance. For dollars that are outside of, or interest earnings
023on the dollars outside of that 50%, those can be designed to build up fund balance. Those can be designed to do strategic initiatives, whatever that might be, because those are dollars over and above. And again, so we would be maintaining the use of interest earnings towards operational ongoing expenses to support classrooms and staffing from dollars that we could commit and know because of the fund balance policy were going to be available. Yeah, I think it's mixing two concepts. Can you give us the formula? Yeah, it's mixing two concepts in my mind. Can you just give us the formula you would use to figure out what the interest number is that you would allocate to operating? Sure, we would take the 50% fund balance level. That would be the dollars that we would be earning interest
024on. We would multiply that by whatever our assumption is on the interest earnings. I would lean towards two to two and a half percent because that's the federal government's desire for inflation. That amount of money in interest would go into the budget to pay for staffing. Everything else would be strategic. Got it. Thank you. Doug. Thank you. Dean, thank you for bringing this important conversation to the board, I appreciate it. I think we've been the beneficiary of obviously high interest rates, which have been great for us. And we actually have been using that money basically to make ends meet. If you look at our budget projections for next year, we're depending upon that interest income actually to close the numbers. So, and that's great. I will tell you that I think in terms of what
025we should be using for an estimate going forward, I think we should be looking at the Fed consensus on like three month T-bills because that's probably the safest estimate there is. In the long term, right now we're at 4.4. Long term through 2028, it's expected to be about 3.5%. So I think 2.5% is really conservative. And again, I've looked at what we're getting. And the other part of it is, we have an investment advisor now that's been doing fine work for us, no question about it. We do pay 35 basis points for their service. So we are giving up some, we're leaving some on the table for that, which again is okay. But I do think we have to realize to ourselves that we've been depending upon this money, the interest money to make ends
026meet, if you will. And next year in particular, again, if you look at Dean's last budget projections, we're depending upon over $2 million of revenue from interest to make the budget close, which is fine. I think the conversation is, if we're gonna do that, then we need to decide what's leftover, the excess, if you said, which let's say we estimate we're gonna get 3%, but we end up getting 4% across the board. We're gonna have more. And we should decide, do we wanna earmark that for something, or do we wanna leave it in the general fund? We can decide later. You know, I think William and I had the conversation earlier about should we be earmarking it for facilities, for maintenance? You know, we know we've been somewhat underfunding that every year, but I do
027think we should be honest with ourselves and realize that we are depending upon that money, basically to make our budget. And I think in terms of how our fund balance compares to other like districts, at least the ones that I've looked at, we are not out of bed. In fact, IASB recommends a minimum of six months or 50%. Right? That's sort of the minimum they recommend that you have. And every year as our budget goes up, like we're at $120 million this year, that number goes up. Right? So, if you... Hello. You know, is that for me? I do think it's an important conversation to have. My personal opinion is that going forward, we probably should use more like three or three and a half percent, because that's what we're actually gonna get. We should
028be honest with ourselves going in and what we're gonna get. And secondly, I think we should probably have a deeper conversation maybe at a later date about how do we spend that money, right? The money that's excess of what we plan for in the normal budgeting process on an operational basis, what's left over, I'd be in favor of putting that towards facilities maintenance. I really think that's where it belongs, but that's my personal opinion. If I could just carry over a little bit on that. We, in this year's budget, with the one that we have completed and brought for the tentative, it does utilize one-time interest earnings to the tune of a half a million dollars that has been planned and is in the budget to be transferred to capital projects for the long-range facilities
029plan. So, what you just described is actually already in the proposed or upcoming budget for the year. Yeah, and I think that's a great practice, Dean, and I think we should continue that, because we've been investing very heavily in all these facilities, which is just wonderful for our community and our staff and our students, but I do think we don't wanna get to the same place we were at 15 years ago where we had neglected that, and the way we don't get there is by making sure we appropriate the correct amount of money to make sure we keep those facilities in the best possible condition. Don't wanna ever get back there again. Thank you, Doug. Thank you. Alicia? I was just wondering about this potential $3 million we may not have from the federal government
030coming up, and I just don't understand how that fits in with all of this big picture, if those are expenses that we'll be taking on from other parts of the budget, maybe for a future budget, or how we fill those gaps for the programming that we do depend on the federal government for. Absolutely. Well, one of the things that we, as far as the budget design goes, is that the reserves that we have in place are designed to protect us if something changes. The concern that I've always had in my mind is that if I were to react to every threat that has been presented in my career, we would have had so many millions of dollars not spent, and I know that my cabinet colleagues pushed me on this, because we don't wanna overreact
031to what's not known and factual. And we do have, because of the fund balances, a moment to breathe to make a plan if something significant happens. We've also had a strong track record of doing a little bit better on revenues and a little bit better on our overall expenditures, less than budget, so that there are dollars built into fund balance growth because, as Mr. Kovlick said, our fund balance policy says that we need to be putting more and more and more and more money into the reserves because our expenditures are going up every single year. So that's how we would react in the immediate, is that we would, obviously we would do what we could to adjust the budget when it's a known factor. We would utilize fund balance to cover a loss in a
032short amount of time, and it would give us the runway needed to be able to make some thoughtful decisions as opposed to reactionary decisions, which would be harmful for our kids. I appreciate that explanation, and obviously you have to roll with these changes all the time, depending on decisions made at a higher level. And I just think it's good for the community to know that, too, that we're in the ship and we're riding carefully in the water, so thank you. Yeah. Dr. Pinter? Yeah, the only question I had, I was just, when I listen to people, I come up with questions, so if you do not know this answer, it's totally fine. But I heard Doug say that we have an investment advisor that's really good, and I'm just curious, if you know, are we
033paying that person a percentage or a flat fee, because that starts to compound to high numbers if it's a percentage. 35 basis points. 35 basis points, .35%. It is a percentage. It is a percentage. Is there any way we could, I'm just curious, if anyone knows, do they do flat fees? Well, one of the things about the group that we work with is the fact that they represent multiple organizations such as the School Board Association, IASBO, as well as IASA. So that 35 basis points that Mr. Colvig referenced, a piece of that goes to each one of those organizations that support the good work of education across the state. So that's where a portion of that comes from. We have the opportunity to look at other providers where we could invest in a different way.
034That was something that we had brought to the board for our investment group. In other words, we've got other individuals that we're working with. Most recently, we did move our available funds in reserve for our debt service into another account with a different bank. And we've done that specifically because we want to start to have some opportunity to look at what those providers can offer us, as well as strategic reasonings for splitting it up and making accounts separate and whatnot. Yes, we can take a look at other investment opportunities. One of the things that we have already done is that whenever there's an opportunity presented or that I hear about with regards to another district being in financial disarray, in other words, they can't pay their bills, we're always one of the first to offer
035up the money that we have in the bank to help them through that. Now, the reason that we do that is we get a little bit better rate than we would, obviously, if we were to invest that directly. But at the same time, they get it a little bit less in expense because we're kind of moving the middle people that are making the profits out of that, so both districts benefit. So those are some of the things that we've put into place, but this is an area where, because of the interest level and where it's set right now, we want to keep an eye on that. Thank you very much. Lisa? So I just have some philosophical questions. I guess I always get wary when you say conservative, and I just heard how different your
036number was from, and I'd almost rather sort of set a calculation. The reality is we're not earning as great an interest rate for the funds that we have at different banks, but you now have the opportunity to invest in quite a few different investment opportunities where you get better return. So I think we need to come up with some sort of, I really hate the idea of going, okay, the seven board members are now going to argue over what this number should be every fall. I also sort of don't like the fact that we set it, and then it just stays there, especially with the way things are moving, but that's what makes me think I have to go beyond a three-month look at what a Fed rate would be. I would almost argue we
037need to look at a 12-month rate of what their thinking is happening. Conservative is a three-month. If you want to be conservative, I would use a three-month. If you go to a three-year, a five-year, a 10-year, if you want to. No, one year, because we're setting it for a year. Well, it is if you're assuming rates are going up. If you're assuming rates are going down, I would argue the three-month is less conservative. Right, and one of the things that I think it's important to just reiterate is the fact that when we take a look at setting the interest rate, that will be something that we would do as part of our annual conversation about assumptions. So it's not set at a specific rate every year. We will take a look and do an evaluation
038of what we project. I also, again, you all are familiar with the fact that I am very conservative, and I push myself to be a little bit less so. One of the things that if we're talking about philosophical, I fear having interest rates on this where we're gonna drive those dollars to operating costs be a little bit higher than what the long range number is, because if we lose a percent of interest. It changes what you can spend. It will take away from the classroom. I guess what I'm trying to do with this discussion is actually move more money from our interest earnings to support ongoing expenses and have that set at a rate because right now we haven't been doing as much of that, and I've been holding back for fear of if the
039rates drop. We've had multiple years of good interest earnings, and I know some of my colleagues are like, well, why are we not putting this into the classroom? That's why I'm trying to come up with a specific method for us to say, yes, this is what we're doing. This is why we're doing it, and it's defined. But that definition is a shared definition because on an annual basis we have to talk about what we think the interest rate's going to be, and that's a time for discourse, and just like we do with the assumptions every year. I bring something, we have a conversation. If it needs to be adjusted, we adjust it. Because it's the assumptions, as accurate as they are, that will have the outcomes that we're looking for, and we can move those
040assumptions around. But those assumptions, that first discussion occurs in the spring, correct? No. We had that discussion quite a while ago. We have that discussion, we do the budget, and then we come back with the assumptions because that's when we're starting to work on the following years. So you're saying that that interest rate discussion would start in January and continue until? October, November, and it would be used for the following year's budget development. Speak to it at the January retreat. I mean, that's... That's actually, at the January retreat, we've already taken the assumptions that we had worked through. That's what drives that first preliminary budget. So that's why we finish and approve the budget in September. We move into the assumptions in October, November. That gives us a few weeks to prepare the preliminary budget
041using those assumptions. So that's what goes in and drives all of that. Then we come back and refine that based on staffing assumptions, and then we bring the tentative budget and then the final. So can I ask, so we agree to this, and we agree, let's just, for round numbers, using a four million, that two million would be what we're budgeting to be in operations, and two million is what we're putting into which fund? O&M, the Special Projects Fund? Well, see, that's where it gets to be. That's when I talked about the sweet spot in the presentation, because that's when the board gets to have an opportunity to have a conversation. Quite frankly, I believe that a portion of those dollars, just like when we have a good year, a portion of those dollars need
042to go back to fund balance because I'm not budgeting a surplus, which is what's required to maintain our fund balance. So the only way for us to build fund balance is to have some level of conservativism, as well as some of these dollars that would be from interest, it's one source, fund that fund balance growth. But what it does allow us to do, much like what I built into the design of the budget for this year, was that we put an extra half a million dollars into interest that was moved over into capital projects for long-range facilities plan. Okay, but what I heard Doug saying, and if I'm incorrect, tell me, but we were talking about if there's excess, it should go into maintenance. We've spent a lot of money. We had the reference money,
043over 100 million that we've put into buildings and we need to keep maintaining them. But am I not correct that at the end of the year, let's say we put that into O&M, if we don't spend it at the end of the year, you take it out of O&M and transfer it over into special projects, correct? That goes into the capital projects for the long-range facilities plan. So that's where I get wary, I have to say, especially knowing that the plan is only to budget three and there's years in the future that we're projecting to need more than three. I know we didn't need it. So I'm almost sitting there going, if that's what we're in agreement on, that this interest bonus, which is really what it is, should be in O&M that I would
044argue it has to stay there potentially to ensure that it is being used. And it does take off the, if we needed four and we can only budget three, well, we have that extra interest bonus in there, which makes it work. Right, I'm fine with that. Because that's what I get scared of. If you keep putting everything over into special projects, I think this is what happened. Then you're thinking you have all this money to do all these one-time special things and the boring repave the driveway and fix the roof and re-carpet the building or whatever you have to do, redo the flooring, that gets lost and that's the stuff that gets pushed off because, well, we only have three. And that's what I get worried about sometimes since we're throwing all this extra money.
045Like, would we ever and could we even in the special projects fund use that to replace flooring at a school? When you're talking about the special projects fund. The other fund, the capital projects fund. Oh, for capital projects, absolutely. Those dollars are available. Well, there's two parts to the capital projects. One is our long-range facilities plan. We call it fund 61. Those are dollars. Whatever dollars are in that bucket of cash, if you will, are available to be spent on anything in the long-range facilities plan. There is also fund 60, which was the capital projects fund. That's where we moved when we were closing up our promise to the community and there were dollars still left to be able to be managed. Those are sitting in, again, a capital projects fund, but it's fund 60,
046that I and Lyle cannot spend any money on. It has to be board directed. So for example, you board directed for solar at May Whitney. When those dollars come back from rebates and incentives, that will go back into 60 where it can only be used if it is designated by the board. But you can designate it to change the flooring out at one of the buildings. You can use it on long-range facilities plan items as you choose because it's board directed. That's the beauty of that portion is that it is dedicated to oversight by the board. It's not something that's operational that any administrator could just simply say, well, we're gonna spend that too to do this if that helps to give a little bit of. Okay. I guess then the extra interest, which fund
047did we put that in? Is it 60 or 61? Well, see, that's the thing about interest is that wherever it's earned is where it lives. So if it's earned in the education fund. But we just approved transferring money in June. Correct. So where did that go? That half million dollars moved from the education fund into operations and maintenance because that's the only fund I can transfer then to capital projects. Which one? 60 or 61. 61 because it's meant to go towards our regular ongoing long-range facilities items that have been identified and discussed through that plan. And that's how I've been. And are you actually going through the calculation of figuring out what, like when you get all the interest, all the statements, you're actually going through and figuring out what is attributable to 50 million,
048zero to 50 million, and then what's attribute, or the 50% and then what's attributable to 50 to 75%. Are you gonna do that calculation every month? Well, and see, that's where the fund balance analysis, it already sets what our fund balance is and everything's in a year and a year, right? Because we'll be bringing that here in August. And it designates how much money we have in which fund and how that all calculates out to represent our percentage for the four funds that are associated with the policy. Right. And then we have a conversation about, do we have too much? Okay, but then after we know where we're closing the year, then we'll be able to go back and take a look at what projects are planned. Does that bring it back down underneath that
049percentage? Here are other dollars that can be associated with that. Oh, no, I'm sorry, I'm just saying, like when you get your bank statement and you know what your interest is that you earned for the month, which is many different sources. What that does is that just goes back to the fund and it just sits in the interest component inside that individual fund, whether it's the Ed fund or the O&M fund. Because we know how much is in each fund as a fund balance and so that's a percentage that we then apply to the interest earnings for the month and then we spread it across those funds. So we know what fund it's in. As far as, am I gonna look at adjusting how we worry about the 50% on whether or not? No, I'm
050not saying we should. Yeah, that would be too much. And that's why we would do it all at the beginning of the year. And if we're somewhat conservative, what that number is is something that would be a conversation with the board. Then we just set it, we move forward. And again, the design here is to try and make sure that we can put as much revenue in a safe manner towards ongoing operating expenses, which obviously is including staffing and supplies, purchase services and all the rest. And I get that and I appreciate it. I think that's prudent to do. I guess what I get concerned with is the excess and where is it really going to and where is it gonna be used? Because I just hate when we have these discussions and there's this
051huge fund balance thrown out and here's all these projects you can spend it on. I mean, that's really fun to do as a board, but is everything getting handled that's not as fun? And that's why we designed the fund balance analysis before we came with this type of a discussion because that is looking at what was last year, how much did we spend? How does the dollars that are left at the end of the year match up with our fund balance policy? And that is now we know based on just the fund balances that we're at versus any special project or additional money that would go towards a long range facilities plan. I mean, it couldn't be both of those things. Then when we're talking about this, we're really talking about how much money we're
052gonna be able to allocate from revenue in and revenue out for the fiscal year, which will have an impact on how much money is left at the end of the year towards building fund balance. Building up the fund balance, okay. And then you're monitoring the long range facilities plan on a regular basis and the board should expect some additional information in committee as we approach the fall. Next week. Okay, thank you. Thank you. All right, I'm fearing I'm the Lone Ranger here. Scott McConnell used to always say to me, I mean, money is fungible. And my concern in doing this, like I don't know why we don't just fully fund all of the operations and the ongoing expenses like salaries, benefits, et cetera, using money other than our interest revenue. I would have a much
053higher level of comfort if we weren't dependent on our interest revenue to support those responsibilities. Once again, going back to money's fungible, you can color it whatever color you want. We need to have the money to do that. If we're saying the zero to 50% is solid, I would say the zero to 50% is solid, but the interest is not. So that dollar amount will vary probably every year. And I just don't know why we're using that for costs that don't vary, that we will be responsible for those costs each and every year compounded. And so I don't like the fact that we're using interest to pay for those. The way you've done it is probably the way that makes the most sense if we're going to do that, but I still am not sold
054that we should be doing that. So I hear what you're saying. I know that I had brought a different scenario to the board previously, and I think that you were concerned about that scenario, which is what you just described. Exactly, and I know. I have a hard time spending interest revenue. To me, it's hard to count on. If I may, don't you have to do something with it? At the end of the day, you get it. You have to do- You're going for it. Yeah, you're going for it. That's true, but you have to decide what are you going to do with it. So in essence, he's saying that we're thinking ahead about what we may do with it. And the philosophy is based upon an assumption, conservative, using the word conservative here, conservative, that
055he said, this is what we're projecting, and we have to do something. Because to your point, if you're carrying a point through, take the $4 million example. At the end of the year, you still have to decide what you're going to do with it. Correct. However- Or if it's three, you have to decide what you're going to do with it. Right, but if we're banking on two million in interest in order to support teacher salaries and benefits and things in the classroom, then on a dime, 9-11 happens and we have no interest. We have 0.0001% interest. Then we've just counted on two million that's gone, that evaporates. And that's why, in my opinion, what should evaporate is more discretionary, not the funds that we absolutely, like our operating, that we have to have to operate.
056So, if I may. Sure. I'm gonna go back to a previous version of interest, because that's really, it's a variable, and we're trying to be safe. Right, I get it. One option is that, because we can direct the interest anywhere we would like, even across funds, we can move it to where it would end up. To revenue. One option would be for us to eliminate the $3 million transfer- No. Operating expenses. No. But replace it with all interest earned. No. Once again, the $3 million is non-negotiable. And, well, the budget should include the $3 million. But, you know, the problem is, we lived with way too many years of having negligible interest. And that's not reality. That's not the way the economy's supposed to work. We shouldn't be getting 0.0001 interest. Now, it's higher than
057I think anybody would anticipate it to be. It's gonna come back down. It's probably not gonna go back down to 0.0001. And that's, I mean, if you're saying we shouldn't count on interest, then why do we bother investing anything? Why do we, you know- No, I didn't say we shouldn't count on interest. I said we shouldn't count on interest to pay our operating funds. I do think- So then, should we not count on federal money to come in? Should we not count on state money to come in? Because that's iffy, too. And we never know what the percentage is gonna be. And that's something he's constantly shifting as well. But we continue to do the programs because that's the right thing to do for the kids. Absolutely. And I think it goes back to Dr.
058Romano's, actually his answer to Ms. Tim, which had to do with making sure that we are providing for our students in the best way possible. Right. Supporting our staff in the best way possible. Right. And so, to Mrs. Warren's point, if we continuously look at the threats as they're happening, then we have a lot of dollars that we would not be putting in our budget. And those are dollars that then would be withheld from students that we, and it's money we would be collecting. So then that goes back to Mr. Atian's point. We're going to, we need to decide how we're going to spend those funds because they are coming. If they don't come, that's why we have a fund balance. Yeah. I guess that's my point. Yeah. And it's not, I think this question
059about checking what other district does is a good idea. At the end of the day, people do live that way. The economy runs that way. You make certain projections on the finance that you've invested. And that projection, and because this district has a pretty relatively good reserve, that four million dollars, even if we do not get it, is not catastrophic. Correct. I guess my point is- And then we change, and we make assumptions every year. We make a budget every year. Absolutely, we have to. My point is that we have money that's, for all intents and purposes, just take any standard budget. You have your mortgage, you have your insurance. These are expenses that you have every month. They're non-negotiable. You know you're gonna pay them. And that's the way it is. And then there's
060the fun money that you get to do whatever with. And then you have the, you know, not quite as fun, but money that you can choose to spend or choose to delay. My point is, why are we taking interest income, which is variable, and putting it toward our mortgage, our insurance payment, our teacher's salary? Why do that? That to me seems to make less sense than taking our, I'm gonna say guaranteed, but clearly the federal and even the state money isn't guaranteed, but our tax revenue to pay those expenses. Going back to Scott McConnell, I can see him staring at me. Eileen, money's fungible. There's a truth to that, but the reality is it's a revenue source, right? And we have been depending upon that revenue source to close the budget, right? It's a revenue
061source. We look at that. The question is, we wanna make a conservative estimate on the magnitude of that revenue. So when we do the budgeting process, and we've been, like for example, we've been had some happy surprises in two areas. One, interest earnings have been more than we originally budgeted. Two, our expenses have been lower than we projected in some areas, and that has thankfully given us some. Thank you, conservative. Yeah. So that has provided us some surpluses. Correct. And so in my mind, the conversation, I'm a, by the way, 100% believer that we need to fully fund the long-range facility plan, because over the last five years, we've spent $135-ish million on facilities all in. That's $21,000-ish per student we put into facilities. And we have a responsibility now to maintain those. And so
062I think that, I think the conversation more is, let's say we wanted to, instead of $3 million, we believe that we needed to put $5 million in. And the question is, how do we fund that, right? Where does that money come from? That is a good use of our interest income, in my opinion. And I'm not denying it's not, but like I said, if we took the $4 million out of the budget, our budget doesn't close. So we are depending upon that money to make the budget close. So we can't just say, oh, well, we're not gonna have that money, because if we did that, oh, shoot, we're gonna be running, operationally running a deficit, which is a non-starter for me. Correct. So, you know, I just think, and I don't wanna say echoes of
063Scott, but it is, money is fungible. But it's, what are you taking away, too? So let's say we don't include interest in the operating budget, and it doesn't balance. What are we taking away? Because we say, oh, interest is too variable, we can't count on it. Yeah, I would like to add on that. I would actually argue the community would be quite upset with us. Yeah, and our teachers. Just a question of what we want that number to be. And our teachers, especially if we're viewing this interest earnings as fun money, and we continue to spend on fun projects, and we're not dedicating any part of this. My point is that we fully fund the operations outside of interest. But once again, but if we have consistent interest earnings, which we have, and we're depending
064on those, and that is what our budget is showing, I think some of that, in just, for example, if it is like our mortgage, if teachers, paying our teachers' salaries is like our mortgage, or expanding, being able to add more parapros, or add more teachers, we would put, if we were earning that interest on a regular basis, we would start paying down our mortgage more. We wouldn't use all of that money for fun money. We would use it responsibly, and we need to be fair in the budget to make sure that that money is being spread in a responsible way, which I think you are actually being extra responsible, but I think in order to be fair to our community, some of that money needs to go to operations, because we are expecting that money
065to come in as part of the budget. I think it still goes back to money is fungible, because I'm fully in my brain, I'm fully funding all of those things that you are saying, not taking away any of it. I just don't like the concept that we're funding that with a variable. We should fund that with a constant, but be that as it may, I get that I am the Lone Ranger. You're not the Lone Ranger, because as I'm listening to you, there's no way, like what we're talking about, what I do with my own household, I agree with you 100%, you're right, that it should be fully funded, and it is variable with the interest, so I agree. Yeah, but other educational institutions do that every day. I mean, if you check universities, they
066have endowments, and every year they make some assumptions of what's coming from that endowment to fund their operating expenses. So if you check any other district, they have certain predictions of what they will get, and then they make us, whether it's conservative or not, and they use that, to your point, to help the kids. I don't like to use that word too much, but I suppose that's all of what we are about. And so I think the way we use it is not that unusual. It's really not. I mean, it's just what you do with the money, that's a question, and whether your assumptions are risky. Those are the two things. Are your assumptions risky? And that's why I said earlier, why it's important that we know, while we're talking about four million dollars, which
067I say is a good chunk of dough, but at the end of the day, we're not running our budget like 50% expecting on that quote unquote interest or investment income. So that four million, as big as it is, if we don't get it, if we get zero, it is not catastrophic. So we have to do what is prudent and make some prudent decisions and decide what we do with it for the benefit of the district and the community every year. So I know you're, yeah, I mean, I understand your philosophy and your caution about it. But yeah, you probably, you and Ms. Pinter are probably not alone, but you're a little on a different side of the pendulum than you'd probably find most people. I guess the point then, and I accept the majority. Absolutely.
068I guess my point most importantly is that this is a yearly conversation. It has to be. Because our financial futures will vary yearly. So it has to be as well as going back to it, Mr. Etienne said we have to be conservative as we're looking at assumptions. So as we're planning, as we're having conversations, we need to continue to look at that on a regular basis. And this board, you do it more frequently than most others that I've seen. Coming together in January, having an opportunity to spend a day talking about the district finances and making sure that we have that financial workshop is critical to us continuing to move forward in a positive way. And I do want to credit the board and Dr. Romano for those efforts because it's important. Absolutely, vital. Anybody
069else have any further comments? I'm sorry, I'm lost. Oh, did we do the dance? No, we did not. No, I'm sorry. Once again. All right, discussion without action. Dr. Romano, please share an overview related to solar. Okay, thank you so very much. I know there was some information in the board packet. I know we've talked about this quite a bit and I thank everyone for their patience in talking a little bit more about solar. One of the things that we wanted to take a look at was net present value. This is actually something that's been prepared for our future meeting, but since it was done, I wanted to kind of jump ahead a little bit. And so we've worked with PSI, the partner that we use for solar at the May Whitney project. And they
070helped us to define the net present value for each and every one of these groupings. The first grouping is middle school North Spencer Loomis, then Lake Zurich High School, middle school South, as well as then Isaac Fox, Sarah Adams, and Seth Payne. The last three, one thing to note is that they're too small to be done individually. So those dollar values for total project cost and the net present value are defined based on them being coupled with any of the others. What we found is that the highest net present value is Lake Zurich High School. It's not listed at the top because what we've done is we put together a profitability index. And what that allows us to do is for the value of the project as compared to the dollars spent to have it,
071which one is the best financially? What that does for us is it does put middle school North and Spencer Loomis financially at the top, followed by Lake Zurich High School, middle school South, Isaac Fox, Sarah Adams, and Seth Payne, with Seth Payne having a notably lower profitability index than any of the other buildings. So what this allows us to do is to have a conversation next is if we are going to move forward with solar in any format, this could be a guide for us for that decision-making. And we are not bringing a recommendation today. We're not bringing a recommendation next week for our next board meeting. We have a lot of information. In particular, the fund balance analysis needs to be completed, broken out, so that we can take a look at how we
072close the year, as well as where we stand with regards to anticipated fund balance and other projects that are already committed within the long-range facilities plan. So although, and this is a caveat, although the profitability index for the middle school North and Spencer Loomis is the highest, we've had conversations about whether or not that's an ideal building for us to add anything to physically weight-wise and whatnot. So there is some hesitation with regards to that, and that would be part of a final recommendation if we wanted to go down that road. But I can tell you that right now, if we were only to be able to do one project, the one with the best numbers is the high school, followed up with a combination of South and Isaac Fox. Not too dissimilar than some
073of the conversations we've had previous, but those are where we would fall. I don't see us in moving forward assuming that Seth Payne would be an item that we would take a look at. The profitability index isn't quite there for what I think would be ideal. Plus, there's a limit to what we would consider for this. This is different than some other projects because this one is being considered in addition to the, it's the right thing to do for sustainability for our community, but it is predicated on financials. In other words, this is designed to create additional resources for use for ongoing operating expenses, because it's a one-time expenditure that will lower our ongoing operations cost because we won't be spending as much money on electric costs. So, and over time, the incentives and whatnot
074play quite a big, big ball. But this is what I wanted to be able to bring this evening. I also have the other data that is in the board packet. You'll hear a lot more about that at the next meeting when Baker-Tilley joins us. Baker-Tilley is our auditor this year, as well as the group that has supported us with turning in all of the information with regards to the May-Whitney to the IRS. And so they've been guiding us on that. And if anybody has any questions about the three scenarios with regards to timeline and a high level of assurance, I'd be happy to answer those. But I'm gonna hold that because I think that that would be well-served unless there's questions tonight for our next meeting next week. All right, Doug, any questions? Yes, thank
075you. Dean, by the way, thank you for switching to use NPV. That's my preferred way to look at this. What discount rate did you use? Four and a half percent. Perfect, okay. And I know, I guess, we don't have a PSI here to talk about some of the questions. A PSI is here this evening. Oh, there you are. Come on up. He was hidden amongst all the other people here. Yeah, you were. I saw a little piece of hair sticking up. Hi. Hey, Doug. How are you? I'm doing great, how are you? Good. A couple of questions on the scenarios that I have. What equipment is considered solar equipment? Well, the panels, obviously, the racking, the inverters, the wiring. I mean, the whole system. So how much of that can be procured outside of Chinese
076sources? So the problem is gonna be in the domestic content. It's always gonna come back to the panels. There's only one manufacturer in the US and they have no capacity and they have no inventory. So hitting that domestic content that I assume you're talking about is nearly impossible for that reason. Now, that domestic content adds an extra kicker, but it doesn't preclude you from doing solar and using readily available panels. A lot of the manufacturers, even though they're not technically fully American made, are still making them in America and they're just shipping in the component parts from other parts of the world. So if it's assembled in America, that doesn't count. It actually has to be. Sourced here completely? Yeah, and I fully admit I'm not the expert on the domestic content. But I will
077say that these discussions happen a lot and we've tried to look for, I don't wanna say loophole, but we're exhausting every option. I mean, our goal is to get as much money for our customers as possible in rebates and incentives. And so, we would try. There are potential opportunities, but we have not exhausted it and it has not come to fruition yet. So I don't wanna stand here and say, yeah, we can get you American made panels because we're not finding them yet. So for example, in scenario two, where we're supposed to get 40% content manufactured as sourced outside of China, if we got all the inverters domestically and we got all the other infrastructure, the panels obviously would be considered what percent of the total? It's a large percent, but the 40% you don't
078have, to get the 40% we're showing, you don't have to have the domestic content. This is separate. That's an added like 10% kicker on top of the 40%. That wasn't clear. Okay, so that means there's a, I'll use my words, there's a penalty, but it's not, we'd still get most of the rebate even if we source the panels from China. Absolutely, same situation we've been in for May Whitney and every other project. Okay, yeah, because if you just read this at face value, it's like, oh my gosh, if we don't do this right away, that's not a true statement. That is not a true statement, no. Okay, thank you, those are my questions. Yeah. Peter? First of all, thanks for doing this. It was really helpful. It's pretty clear to me that the option one
079makes the most sense, so I appreciate that. I do have a question on this net present value right here. You know, in your previous conversation in City High School makes a lot of sense. Does that number that you calculated there include like if we have to put a new roof in there? If we have to put a new roof on? Yeah. Is that what you said? No, the total project cost is based off of the assumption that we would be able to utilize the building as it's structured in it. Right, so in that sense, then in terms of our earlier conversations where we talked about which roof may be best for this and so on, and then if we go to someplace else, like the high school, where we have to put a roof on.
080So that number would be, so that sense of profitability that you have there is just one of the factors you would consider because it would not have considered the other factors that you have to think about. Well, and in this situation, and I appreciate your context, we had had some concerns early on whether or not the high school was gonna be in a position to be able to accept solar without making some improvements on the roof. We did provide PSI with our, forgive me, Mr. Erstead, what was the discussion we got from the, from the, what's the word? Anyway, the roof is good in enough spaces that it would be able to handle this project based off of a preliminary review by their structural engineers. And. Yeah, it was, that's exactly what it was, a
081preliminary kind of go-no-go. It takes a look at structural drawings. They're not up there doing any actual testing, but they reviewed the structural drawings and where everything's at, and based on that, they, we aligned where we, the locations of the panels with the roof areas that would be ready for the panels to be accepted. Now that is. And we avoided areas that might be red-flagged in the future. And that is obviously preliminary. One of the things that if we were to move forward and we were to execute an agreement, structural engineering must take place. That's the first task to ensure that it is, should we find that there is structural issues in any of this that would change the profitability because the total project cost may be adjusted to address anything that was significantly outside
082of what we anticipated. Yeah. Okay, well, thanks for doing this. Thanks for sharing the options. I mean, at the end of the day, looking at the numbers, we just have to figure out in addition to the profitability in the end, we have to figure out how much money we have in the beginning to spend really at the end of the day, right? So that will be something that we factor in as well. I mean, you know, I mean, I could come with no surprise to anybody, I would like us to do something and I would like us to do as much as we can, but as much as we can considering all the other projects that we have on, you know, being under consideration. But at the end of the day, I really hope and
083really will push that we do something. So those are my thoughts. As soon as possible too, based upon your option one. That's why I like it a lot, thanks. Natasha. I just have one question. Is the scenario, is this table really only viable for scenario one considering the sourcing requirements for the following two scenarios? So one of the things that I would want us to do is, and again, as Mr. Etienne had indicated, we need to find out how much we have available and we're still working through those calculations and that'll be made available in August, the first meeting. So one of the things that we're gonna be needing to take a look at is which one matches up best because each one of these items has a positive outcome. So they are a positive
084investment, all of them. But which one is best? How much do we have? How do we wanna pick and choose? Because for me, I don't have any preference on which building because I'm looking at it ideally as what is the best investment of these funds to allow us to still. I guess my question is when you are making these calculations, is that under the assumptions that we are still able to source the majority of the project outside of the United States and also get the rebates with the full sourcing? So these calculations only work for scenario one? Correct. That was my question. Or if scenario two, if we're able to domestically. If we can source it domestically. And I would not, I'll just be honest, I will not be recommending anything in scenario three. There's
085far too many risks associated with that. So then this table only, because obviously I think scenario one is probably the best, but that is the one with the most prudent timeline as well. The ratios will stay the same. The numbers might change, the ratio should stay the same. That's true. Alicia? I guess my theme for the night is, are we gonna get the money? So. That's what I really need to know the answer to because I love sustainability, but. So all indications from conversations with Baker-Tilley and obviously PSI as well, are that if we are able to do scenario one, the law is written and it exists as it is today. And that, we would get that funding because it's a different funding mechanism than some of the ones that we have been talking about
086that are in more threat, because it's just, it's the federal government, it's just different. And so that is also why I have Baker-Tilley coming next week, specifically so that the board can aggressively ask that question. Because at the end of the day, they're the ones who will be presenting to the IRS our application and insurances that we're moving forward. I felt that that was the appropriate group to commit to being able to bring that assurance. And then the following meeting is when we would take a look at all of our fund balance, as well as a recommendation based off of taking all of the things that are being talked about into account. Great, thank you. Yeah, I'm sorry, Madam President. I mean, just to follow up on Miss Deem's question, the president just within the
087past 48 hours issued another memorandum. And in it, he said that he put in more requirements for actual solar projects and wind projects within the past 48 hours, from my understanding. Now, my understanding is that the, and it's intended to put more requirements and more hurdles to getting back the rebate. I mean, that's what people think it is, and it's clearly that's what it's intended to do. Personally, I think it was a negotiation that he had for the bill passage with people. So after it passed, then he put some barriers in place. My understanding about it is on that memorandum is that it principally applied to public lands, federal lands. So maybe when your consultant comes, you know, next week or the term in the future, perhaps you might, no one could predict what the
088president might do next week. But as of what we know and what we will know the time he speaks, perhaps he could, you know, comment on that as well. Thanks. Yes. Dr. Pinter. Yeah, I didn't really have much. I was just wondering how quickly things are changing. You sort of answered my question on that. Yeah, scenario one makes the most sense, I think, with rebates and incentives, and this was really laid out well. So I really don't have any questions because it was well done. Thank you. Lisa. My fear is this is a moving target right now. And, you know, I think every time we can ask, is scenario one still applicable? Is scenario two still applicable? Is scenario three still applicable or has it changed? And I think that's probably a Baker-Tilley question for
089next week. But I share the same concern as Peter on the high school roof repairs. I also know it's not prudent to put solar on a roof that's gonna have to be replaced in 10 years. So I don't know, I know we've looked at structurability, but I also, I know the replacement schedule for the roofs on these buildings is all over the place. This section's this year and that section. So I think that's another variable in there to really figure out what a viable array is to put on there. And I guess I'm assuming when you say it has to be completed in 2025, is that calendar year or is that the U.S. government fiscal year? Oh, no, thank you for that question. What it is is that we have a requirement in order to
090get all of the benefits associated with that scenario one, where we don't have the extra 40% of non-China supplies. In order to qualify for that, we must expend at least 5%, so maybe 5.3%, the total cost of the project. Typically that would be found in engineering costs and whatnot. Because that's the first step. That's the first step, because there's quite a bit, like I said, with structural engineers and all the rest. If we do that work and we expend those dollars, and again, like say 5.2% of that is covered, we qualify and we're grandfathered in to. But is it December 31st or is it October 30th? December 31st, we have to have completed the work. So it's calendar year, not fiscal year for the U.S. government. That's my concern. Because that's the way they're operating.
091When they say 2025, that would be good to confirm. Potentially October 31st. Everything has been, well. Is it calendar year? I was gonna say, Baker-Tilley will confirm it. The 5%, it just needs a check cut. It doesn't even mean that it needs to be positive. That work has started. It's you sign the contract and you've paid 5% of the total cost of the project. You've executed the work and paid the bill in December of 2025. They are, because of the government's fiscal year, they did move the requirements to, basically you have until, let's just call it end of June, next year of 2026. So that is their calendar year. The problem that we're at least letting people know is, now everybody knows that they have, the timeline started. We're under a year at this point.
092If you wanna do solar, you need to go. The longer you wait, the more people that waited are going. So what happens to that? What happens to that? The project costs are gonna be shifting as well because the industry is gonna be scrambling because they have, now at this point, it's 11 months from now. So the sooner that the decision would be made to move forward, whether it's move forward or not, but the sooner you are locked into everything being safer. I think that's the easiest way to say it. Because to your point, yes, things are changing every day. Something new, when we were here, I mean, this is the third time in a month and a half, it's changed multiple times. What got locked in is been signed by both the House and the
093Senate, and it has become a lot. If you wanna do solar, the timeline has started. You could still do solar after, without the IRA tax credit, by the way. But to take advantage of a huge windfall for especially a public entity, you have to move in the next 10 and a half, 11 months. Yeah, wonderful, thank you. Thank you. May I ask one more question? I'm sorry if you brought something up. So I don't understand how all this works with the roofs and the panels. So when Lisa was saying that if we have to replace a roof at some point, or a part of the roof, are these different panels salvageable in all the different parts of it? Could it be used, could it be re-put on a better, like a new roof, or is
094it just garbage? That's a great question. So we typically tell everyone at least three to five years is kind of our sweet spot. After that, if you're inside of three years, it doesn't really make sense. Replace the roof and then do it. You will extend the life, we've talked about that, you will extend the life of the roof because now there's no longer direct sunlight attacking that roof, the panels will be blocking it. Eventually you will have to replace that roof and fix it. Panels can be shifted, they can be moved. We are starting this process now, which was some of our early solar projects where the roofs need to be replaced. We knew they only had, at the time, about four or five years. The district still wanted to do it. We got an
095extra three, four years out of that life expectancy, so the district's happy. But there's a plan in place, and so yes, we'd have to come back, the electrician has to dismantle, but we try to either shift it all or crane it. But that will be something that is part of the plan in the future. Okay, thank you very much. If I can add to that just for just a moment, the projects that we're looking at would be for the roofs that have the longest longevity. For example, at Middle School South in Isaac Fox, which is already highly, it's a good profitability component. How many years do we have left, Lyle? About 25 years left on that roof with its warranty. So there's benefit. We would be bringing in, with a final recommendation based on funds
096and about longevity of roof, a final look at what we're looking at here. And that would include, if we're looking at the high school which has the greatest profitability index, which roofs have the longest longevity. And so inside of what we had sent to PSI, there is a longevity component to that, because as much as, no offense, as much as we would be able to move it and put it back, as soon as you move something and put it back, something breaks. And so our desire is to put it on something that can stay and get the full life, or as much of the life as possible. Yeah, the initial designs already had the information from Lyle kind of pegged in there, minus what structural engineering would officially say, but we have a good sense.
097Good question. All right. As far as I'm concerned, solar is another competing priority and so it's juxtaposed to our many other ones. And that's how I feel and I will evaluate at the time. Having said that, Dr. Zahr, please share an overview related to the purchase of data center servers. Hi, I will be giving that. Currently, our three servers that run our virtual network, we have about 76 virtual servers that control everything from cameras, our Skyward system, and everything else have met their life expectancy. We can expand that life expectancy, but it would be at a greater cost. So we are looking to purchase three new servers to support the district's virtual network, our virtual server systems. I apologize. All right, does anyone have any questions? Okay, with your permission, can we move this to
098the consent agenda for the next meeting? I am fine with that. All right. Thank you. Next is discussion with action, the district waste and recycling bid approval. Mr. Erstad, please provide the board with the summary of the waste and recycling bid. Thank you, Madam President. Just wanted to bring to your attention, after what I thought was a successful bidding process was pointed out after legal counsel review that the lowest bid was non-conforming, meaning they had submitted a list of exceptions. So at that point in time, and I gave you the list of exceptions there, it's not all inclusive, but it's the four biggies, but the legal counsel then advised that we had three options, one to reject all bids and go back out for bid, and then or to move to the next highest, lowest
099bidder which would have added close to $5,000 to the annual expense or to sign the existing contract and run the risk of a legal action. The legal action, even if we had, even taking into consideration all of the fact that the lowest bidder did rescind their exception letters, et cetera, on their letterhead, there was still that possibility of legal action. So basically what I'm recommending, the administration is recommending for you tonight is to reject all bids and direct us to go back out for bid. Madam President, back to you. Thank you. May I have a motion and second to reject all bids received for waste recycling and composting services and to direct the administration to issue a new bid solicitation for the same services as presented. May I have it? Second. Thank you, Doug. Thank
100you, Dr. Pinter. So are there any questions for, okay. Kate, can you please call the roll? Mrs. Warren? Yes. Mr. Aitken? Yes. Mrs. Danniger? Yes. Mr. Goldberg? Yes. Ms. Maloney? Yes. Dr. Pinter? Yes. Ms. Tim? Yes. Thank you. The next item on the agenda is closed session. We are going into closed session for the following reasons. The appointment, employment, compensation, discipline, performance, or dismissal of specific employees, specific individuals who serve as independent contractors, specific volunteers or legal counsel for the district, 5ILCS122C1, the purchase or lease of real property for the use of the public body, including meetings held for the purpose of discussing whether a particular parcel should be acquired, 5ILCS122C5, collective negotiating matters between the public body and its employees or their representatives or deliberations concerning salary schedules for one or more classes of
101employees, 5ILCS122C2, student disciplinary cases 5ILCS122C9. May I have this motion? So moved. Second. Thank you, Natasha. Thank you, Doug. Kate, please call the roll. Ms. Tim? Yes. Mrs. Warren? Yes. Mrs. Danniger? Yes. Mr. Goldberg? Yes. Dr. Pinter? Yes. Ms. Maloney? Yes. Mr. Aitken? Yes. We will not be taking any action after closed session this evening.