001adearing to order, please. >> Browning here, >> Campbell >> here, >> Guerrero here, Hilbert >> here, >> Leaper here, Stall >> here, >> Wood here. >> Okay. And I need a motion to open the hearing on the 2526 school district budget. >> So move. >> Motion made by Jeff Stall. Was that a second by Mount Wood? >> Call roll, please. >> Campbell, >> yes. >> Guerrero, >> yes. >> Gilbert, >> yes. >> Leaper, yes. Stall, >> yes. >> Wood, >> yes. >> Brown, >> yes. >> Right, Dr. Field. >> Um, the budget has been on display since July. There's been a few uh changes to it since then. Basically, uh, those changes have been when we got our funding numbers in from the state. Um, as well as our estimated uh, corporate personal property replacement
002tax. Um you will see that uh predictions are hopefully not totally correct but we're looking at deficit spending in education operations and maintenance and transportation on the year. Um I still don't have the final transportation claim numbers. I have what my best estimate is. We haven't received our first claim yet. um which I I believe that we'll get more on the claim this year, but it's going to be prrated an additional um percentage. So, I think we're down to maybe 71 on regular vocational and 61 on special ed. Um O and M I'm hoping I was running in the black on that but by barely until I saw our newest utility bills um and we saw a pretty large increase. So, I adjusted the remainder of the year based on those numbers. Um, but I've
003been told by some contacts I have that Amron is frontloading those u increases for the first 3 months of our fiscal year. So, hopefully in October we'll see those numbers come back down a little bit more. Um, but I'm planning for the worst on that. So, that's why I went ahead and did what I did there. We do the amended budget later on this year. Uh, we can look back at those again and kind of see where we land at. Um, but that's pretty much it. Everything else is is more or less the same. Uh our ed fund deficit from what I showed you back in July and discussed in August is a little bit better. Um just because some of the funding was a little bit better than I planned on. We were planning
004for flat. We got a little bit of an increase on those if we get it. Um I know that the they're saying it's not um it's not raining and pouring yet, but the storm is brewing. So, um, no doom and gloom just yet, but still got to be pretty reticent and in and knowing of what could be coming down the road, um, with state funding as well as federal funding. So, hopefully that's okay. So, but that's the big uh the big points I had there. Okay. Does anybody have any questions or comments? So then I need a motion to close the hearing on the 2526 school district budget. So >> motion made by Josh Hilbert. Is there a second? >> Second. >> Leaper. Roll, please. >> Guerrero, >> yes. >> Hilbert, >> yes. >> Leafer,
005yes. Stall, >> yes. >> Wood, >> yes. >> Brownie, >> yes. >> Campbell, >> yes. >> And a motion to adjourn the hearing. >> So move. >> Matt Wood. Is there a second? >> Second. >> Hilbert. All in favor? I >> oppose. Motion passes 703. >> All right. And at this time, I'd like to call our regularly scheduled meeting to order. Can you call roll, please? Brownie >> here. >> Campbell >> here. >> Guerrero >> here. Gilbert >> here. >> Leaper here. Stall >> here. >> Wood here. >> And Miss Wilbomb, would you lead us in the pledge, please? I aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Okay. All right. We have some
006visitors with us this evening. Where would you like to start? Uh yeah, first visitor that we have here is Nathan McCarthy and he is with Solar on Earth that wanted to discuss uh some opportunities with you tonight. >> Okay. >> How's it going everybody? >> Good. Meccy out of Carol County if anybody knows where that is a little bit north of Sterling and Dixon. I reached out to Dr. Field about this uh community solar program that we're working on. We're working with a number of other uh cities and municipalities right now. Uh we're building uh pretty cool group of projects with Microsoft Computer Corporation right now. And uh they're pretty picky who uh we're working with on these projects. Uh who's going to be technically the offtaker for these projects? This is a program that's
007governed by our state. Uh there's a a group body called Illinois Shines. Illinois Shines is pretty much the consumer protection body of anything solar uh anything solar. So rooftop or homeowners, commercial or uh solar fields that we're building. Just to be clear, the projects that we're talking about are 50 acres and 100. They're not these huge thousand acre uh solar projects. And um I reached out to Dr. fuel and I think originally we thought uh the electric bill was a lot lower um you know cuz rates went up considerably uh since co the school district spending a lot more on electricity this I'll just talk about some of the other school districts we're working with specifically on this program uh Marian school district um Lasal Peru was elementary morango Aurora school district. Um Gailsburg United
008uh Norwood, um Central 235, uh we just got on Canton School District actually earlier this week. uh city of Canton, City of Peak, there's a bunch of BOA school district up by our office, Kelly Manderell, and then um Shannon Lannarch. Those are just a couple that we're working with. We actually just signed some preliminary paperwork with your um your sister school. Actually, Dr. Field referred me to go talk to them. We're going to most likely move them forward as well. That's um uh Tri City. That's another school district that you guys are connected with. And then um we just got Martinsville approved not too long ago. That's another uh smaller school district. And then Morrisonville is going to be approving the program tomorrow night. So, um, typically this program, the the, um, straightforward offer where
009pretty much where the market is at for community solar is offering like a 10 to 11% discount in Amaran. And then if you kind of fall into like $120,000 or less per year, you can get 15%. We're pretty much offering double what the market uh value is to our customers who have an extremely good track record of paying their bills and typically have a bond rating means that there's no risk of doing business uh with your school district. So the the district actually has a double A uh bond rating. That means that there's no risk in so longer than Microsoft and Sun Central to do business with uh the district. And I think pretty much what we're doing behind the scenes is the way that we're actually able to offer double the discount is um
010we're probably doing some type of financing behind the scenes, not even just with Microsoft. and the bank is really concerned about well who's taking the power from these projects and we say you know the city of Beacon village of Wharton city was city of Marian whoever they all have a good track record they're paying their bills um because of that because these are really high credit customers I'm pretty sure we're saving money on interest payments and that's how we're able to offer the district a better offer for community solar because I'm pretty sure the money that we're saving in interest payments we're passing part of that back onto the school district and that's how we're able to offer 20% so the center alone. So I did want to just share that um these solar farms
011are being built. The state said uh we don't want just this power to go out to the grid and that's it. We want part of the money that's being uh going back out to the grid to be passed back out to the rateayers. And the way that that's being done is through this crediting system on uh electric bills. and I'll explain how that works. So, um, right now the the district actually a proposal for everybody, this is for you. Sorry about that. I got distracted. Matt, Martha, >> Dr. Field, I think you saw the proposal already. Stephanie, all Mr. Brown, Mr. Uh so just before I go into the numbers that this program was starting to get worked on at the 2017 future jobs act in Chicago the program uh didn't get launched until the
012best possible date which was uh pretty much the day that co started. So we couldn't get a hold of anybody in the state for pretty much about 8 months. So we were kind of flying dark a little bit in the beginning. Uh, one of the rules that would have kept someone uh, being able to get onto this program originally is you couldn't have a third party supplier. They changed that rule. Uh, the district right now uses Amaran directly uh, for both supply and delivery. But my point is is if the school ever wanted to do third party in the future, that wouldn't keep the district from doing that. So they they they actually rolled that rule out and it never got enforced. I had a grocery store as a friend of mine close to my
013house. He goes, "Hey, I just want to keep my third party." I said, "Well, they said that you you're not supposed to." So let's see what happens if you still got the credit. So some of these rules that they had originally never even never even got implemented and then they sent out an official document that said, "You know what? Just kidding." Um, so the the district right now, uh, just go through a couple of the bills. The high school obviously spends the most on electric. That's 80,782 a year for electric. Um, the primary school spends 44,000 bucks a year. 44,435. Uh, there's a a small meter on 398. I think that's part of the high school. That's 12.88 a year. There's a another meter that doesn't get really used. That's 79 bucks a year. Um,
014and then there's another meter that doesn't look like it gets used much either. 341 Matilda. That's 188 bucks a year. And then the middle school spending 60,238 a year on electric. So total 186,798 bucks a year on electricity. So, if the if the district had community solar today, um, and and we'll just keep it simple because you do have about six different bills, but we'll just pretend that you have one. Your electric bill would come in the same way it does from Ammer right now. All the charges would be the same except that there would be a new line item that was never there before. It would say community solar credit uh$14,476.87. Uh the average monthly bill is $15,56653 per month. So once we put that 14,47687 credit on the bill, that would get deducted
015off of the total due am owe us $1,8965. And then that $14,47687 that doesn't come for free. uh about 60 days later, we would bill the district uh 80% of that credit that we put on the bill. So, we would send a bill to the district for $11,58149. Uh, saving the district. Sorry, I got here a little bit late, but that would save the district on average% >> $2,895.38 per month. So, it' be pretty found a good amount of found money for the district with without really having to do much. So, the district would be looking at saving $34,744.56 a year off of the bill. One thing that Dr. Field was talking about is the rates. Uh, if rates go up, let's say right now the bill's 186,000 bucks a year. rates go up again,
016it goes up to 220,000 bucks a year, which is not unrealistic in 5 years, then the amount of credits that we're putting on your bill would also increase in the proportion of whatever the rates go up and then the district's still getting 20% off of those dollars applied. Same thing if uh rates go down. I don't think they're going to, but we got to pretend that they would. Uh it's not like a program where the district's like, "Well, now we're paying more for electric. We our our credits are directly tied to whatever Amron's supply transmission and capacity charges are. So if rates did go down, then the amount of dollars that we're putting on your bill would also go down and then the district would still get a 20% disc uh discount off of that.
017The reason why we leave a little bit of money on the am bill. So I mentioned the bill was 155 a year 155 a month and we'd be putting a 144 credit leaving about $1,000 left on the bills. We don't want to put more credits on the bill than the district uses per year. So that what we're doing is we would be doing uh covering about 93% of the electric bill. So if the bill's $186,798 a year, we would be putting $173,648 worth of credits on the AMR bill over the course of 12 months that we would be billing the district $34,730 less money. Long story short, we put money on your bill. That money gets deducted off your total due. 60 days later, we're billowing the district 80 cents on the dollar for the
018credits that we put on your bill. The agreement is, this agreement is like the golden goose deal. Uh it's a 10-year agreement with two 5year extensions. Anytime the district all of a sudden doesn't want to save 20%. The district would give us 180day notice. We would take the credits off your bill. There's no termination fee. I think our logic behind that is we know it's the best deal in the state. If someone really doesn't want to save 20%, we can find someone else to to take the power. That's why it's a pretty open-ended contract. Typically, these contracts are around a 15 to 20 year walk-in term, no way out. So, that's kind of what you're you're comparing like a 20% with a 180 day out to like a 10 or 11% discount with a 15
019to 20 year locked in term. That's kind of the market right now in Illinois. Is there a reason there's just not a straight 20% the 28.95 off of the $15,000 bill? Why is there such a work around? >> Sorry, do you mind repeating that? >> The you said if we're averaging 155 a month >> y >> and you're giving 20% off averaging around 28.9538. Why doesn't that just come directly off the bill instead? I mean, why is 1447 at six coming off? You're obviously very smart. They haven't rolled out consolidated billing for community solar yet in Illinois. They already did that in New York, but I'll explain why it's important to get it before that happens. I've been we we were the first company to start doing community solar almost 12 years ago. >> Wherever
020there's money, there's going to be greed, right? I'm that's I don't Anyways, that's how it works. the developers and finance guys go, "Oh, now the market went to consolidated and now we don't have to explain anything. Now we'll just do the discount at 5%." So, like in New York originally, we signed on like maybe 3,000 dairy farmers at 10% with dual bill and the market uh converted to consolidated. So their second bill went away and now they just get the credit directly on their bill and now all the new solar farms are offering 5% cuz the logic is now there's nothing to explain to anybody. So if that does end up happening you would still be grandfathered into your 20% and then you would just get the credit directly on your bill. So, we've seen
021how I just I just would never see how someone would want to save like let's say someone offered you 10%. Like, yeah, you just put the credit directly on your bill. You don't have to deal with a second bill. I'm assuming the majority of all these projects are going to end up going to consolidate different times. So there's no I just don't think it's complicated enough to say, you know, maybe for someone who spends 150 bucks a month at their house, they're like, I don't want to deal with the second bill, blah blah blah blah blah. But someone who spent $20,000 more a year to deal with the second bill to get double the amount of savings >> that just hasn't been rolled out totally with the consolidated billing yet. And the utility is trying
022to be involved in that. They're offering pretty much off. They haven't rolled it officially out in Illinois. The logic is instead of like a third party like us or one of our partners doing the billing, they're like like they're going to finance and say, "Hey, like we can do all the billing inside of your bill and we'll charge you 1%." And that's how the utilities stay. >> You know, they're they're making hands over fist profit. You know, they're they're doing pretty well. So, are you guys the ones working with the village of Iopoulos to build up there on Bordon's property? The village of Ilopoulos? >> I don't think so. >> No. Okay. >> But you guys have the site further west. Sorry, >> you have the site further west. >> We're working on about a
023100 different projects. So, I I kind of got on the development side like >> I don't want to say it's boring, but I've been doing this for a while. So, I stopped kind of paying attention. It's a huge state, too. >> Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, if it's on the map, then that's awesome. I didn't know that they were including that. Is that the one that you're referring to? >> Yeah, it's just right. And it it goes part of our school district cuz they only off. So, >> yeah, the if there's a map on here, those are just a tiny portion of the projects that we're working on. And you might not be you might not end up going on to that particular project. It has to do with if it's already assigned to someone or
024not. So, like I just got the village of Princeville on and I said, "Hey, you know where your project is?" And they're like, "Where?" And I said, "Mounds." And they're like, "Oh, we know where that is." I'm like, "You know where Mount? It's 5 hours away from Princeville." So, they're they're going onto a project in Mounds and you know, all the power going into the grid. It kind of doesn't exactly matter. Uh but these projects are all built being built and in pretty much from profits town down to mounds that's all Amaran and then over to Stan and then north of there that's all comment. So those are separate projects. >> Okay. >> So during construction who's responsible for upkeep and maintenance after construction? >> You guys have no responsibility at all for >> everything
025down to the grass. Sorry, it was I understand the solar panels and stuff depending on where we choose to place everything. >> No, it's >> we don't put any solar panels anywhere. >> We just take the energy from where they put it. >> This is a solar farm somewhere else >> and we're just that's the community solar aspect of it is is it's a it's an offsite. is going into the grid and then the credits could or could not come to us depending on how we decide to act upon it without actually installing or maintaining any of the infrastructure for it. >> And you said it's a 10-year contract, 180day notice to cancel and no termination. And then you have two five-year extensions and that is to be decided upon at the end of the
02610 years if we're still doing it. >> It automatically renews. >> It does. >> Yeah. So you it could be a 100redyear contract with 180 day out. >> Okay. >> I don't know why they did it like that. It kind of doesn't make sense, but that's just >> But the two 5 years would come on at the same 20%. >> Yeah. Yeah. >> Yeah. So there's there's like nothing I said uh Dr. Field has the agreement. There's not like some weird language in there that we have the right to change the discount because we felt like at year 11 or anything. >> Mhm. >> Haven't really heard of that but not with solar. I've heard of it with other things. So I thought I' there's no situation where we just have a bad hair day
027and all of a sudden we're just going to hey we're going to change it to 10%. You know so >> yeah I was kind of wondering about that. You kept talking about a 20% credit and the examples in here are all 10% credits. So, is there a guarantee? I don't know if I saw it in the >> Yeah, that might just be a marketing thing. Like a couple people are on vacation right now. So, they would have typically just put a 20% on here, but that must just be a typo. It's a 20% discount. >> It is in the contract. 20%. Okay. And I we have solar at our house and I know it's completely different than this because we have to buy the equipment and everything. Um but do you feel confident in that
028in the state refunding system? Like is the money going to be there? >> Yeah. So, um, >> cuz I thought I heard a report in the last couple weeks that >> Yeah. >> you know, that was kind of coming to a close or not as viable as it had been before. >> So, it's um it's kind of good and bad for everybody. We're actually not worried about it at all. You're not going to be happy what the reason is. Uh, but we have to hit certain milestones. It was actually federal driven, not state driven. >> Okay. by the end of the year we have to be at certain milestones and then we have another milestone that we have have to hit by next July 4th. Um that's for tax. So the this project I'm talking
029to you about already has an award from the state. So there's not you know we have a group I'm like filling like 10 different projects. I don't know which one particular you we're like playing solar Tetris like where you guys would kill us based off of which project and stuff like that. Um, the reason why we're not super concerned about the tax credits going away is we feel that electric rates are going to go so high that that pretty much replaces the loss of the tax credit with a higher electric rate. So some somehow in here like your all-in rate for electric is 166. Somehow inside of that we figured out how to save you 20%. If rates go up to 26 cents a kilowatt hour in 5 years, I think that's actually pretty realistic.
030We've seen how that the rates go up in all these other in Illinois had cheap electric rates for a long time and everywhere else has been going up for a while and Illinois and the Midwest is kind. So, this has been going on elsewhere for a while. Uh- um we feel like we're still going to be able to maybe not offer 20% in the future, but to still do 10 and 15 because somehow we can save that money off of a higher electric rate without getting the investment tax growth. It wouldn't be as good as getting both, but it's in lie of you know so that's not a good indication I guess to people thinking that electric rates aren't going to go up. of so whole whole solar industry thinks that everyone's rates are going
031to go so high where it's not going to really >> it might matter for the resi guys who because they're building smaller systems you know they're they're at like a 380 per watt we're building we're at a scale you know we're we're we and that's the thing unfortunately because the federal government did put all these rules in there's kind of no such thing as a small player in the community solar business they have like requirements like you have plop down $50 million at a time to show that you have all these solar panels purchased to make. So it's like if you're a little guy like you don't have that type of and that kind of stinks, you know, that kind of takes up the competing power of the little guy could be a little guy
032developing a couple three solar farms. They're not going to own any of those anymore. They're going to sell them all of these big guys. And so I don't know if the federal government is like stimulating small business as far as on the renewable energy like the two trucks and the truck. Mhm. >> That's not like a real thing anymore with community solar. Um, and Illinois kind of didn't help with that either cuz when the community solar program came out, they did the whole system was based off of a lottery. Half of the solar companies that started doing business here left. So there was one company that had 20 sites that they submitted to the lottery. They got one picked and they're like, "We can't risk a million dollars of risk capital and just get one
033project pick. We're going back to Maine." You know, >> so that's so that was Illinois was the only state who did the lottery with that. So then there's like like the small guys, they might have submitted five projects, they got two approved, and then all the big guys, they just bought everybody else some projects. And that's why there's not a bunch of players. tremendous business in in the state of Illinois. >> And so regardless, we have no upfront cost and the ability to cancel after 180 days. So if something does change where you're not offering the same discount, we still have our out and no upfront cost. Correct. >> It's not going to change. >> Okay. >> Yeah. >> Okay. Last thing from me. >> I know you got something. >> Um I know equipment's
034not us. I get all that, but what happens? Like the solar farm at Maroa got decimated by wind. Okay, that takes your production down or offline completely. How does that affect us? >> You know, we we have uh that's like under force major, acts of God, union strikes, you won't be getting any credits during that time. I've never had that happen to any of our projects or but the only project we've had that happen to was a big project we did in Puerto Rico and it got whatever reason but nothing could I mean >> nothing's going to stop >> it just seems like Maro nobody's on it I don't know >> I think we have like 6 months to come back online to start generating that facility again the only thing I could see that
035would it like a like a major store if it was that and you got to remember these Solar fields are typically getting building permits to be 130 to 150 mph winds. So if it got destroyed, it was like a real I don't think like what was going to survive that? Probably not much. You still have all your poles on the ground. So I'm assuming the only thing that had to get replaced was the panels. >> So we typically have about 6 months to um get that project live again. So during that 180 day out like you're not like in a 15 20 year term. >> So during that time we're not potentially getting credits but could it be pulled from another facility? >> Probably not because that one most likely would be full. >> Okay.
036>> So you just don't get your credits right that time. Okay. >> Good question. Martha >> project wasn't finished either. That damage was increased because it wasn't finished. >> Okay. So they just abandoned it. >> I don't know. >> Yeah. They're probably waiting for replacement parts. >> It doesn't feel like it doesn't turn over minutes. I know >> the tie under hers. That's what >> if it's if it's the equipment on site that has a catastrophic failure. Is it the same situation? I'm not talking about nature act of God. Talking about the breaker, any of the equipment out there, battery system, whatever you guys use on those sites. If that is on your fault, on your side of the equipment, does it still affect us also? >> Yeah. You don't get cro on your goal.
037Is there >> we're not billing you for anything either? >> No, I I get that. But I guess my question I'm just as school district here if we're buying in on this do you guys have in in our contract how long you said 6 months a minute ago. Is there something actually written in stone that says you guys are viable for this amount of time if something's not done? Like there's there's stipulations to it. you you if if it really goes to the time like where it's not working that long, then you just would opt out of the project. Also, you know, we're just we're not going to make we're not going to say like, oh, there's $150,000 of damages. >> That's so that's way too hard to like make any type of guarantee or
038anything like that. >> The whole time I've been doing this 12 years, which is not a long time. If you're farming, you're new, but in community solar, you're a veteran. And I always joke about that, but um I've had one project go down for 2 months and that's cuz lightning hit the meter and it took 2 months for the utility to come back out and swap the meter. Typically is not these are these are pretty easy projects. Like there's not really a lot of problems that go on with them. They're they're not on a roof. They're not any they're in the middle of a field. You know, >> if the sun explodes, then it doesn't matter either, right? Cuz I was just watching a video like if the sun went off like today, like and
039then like the earth would freeze and then it takes 10 years to even heat the earth up again. I think we'd all be dead. So, >> and one thing one thing, Matt, I want to answer your question is the way I look at it is like anything that's man-made is never going to be perfect. All I can tell you is there's no incentive for us to not have the project online to generate credits. So that's kind that's where I would say the different part is if imagine someone sold the district a solar array and it stopped working and you already bought it. There's actually not a big incentive for them to get that thing running as soon as possible because you already paid them for the project. For us, if the project goes down, we
040can't sell you electric. there. Yeah. >> So, there's no there's zero incentive or something that would be like in our favor to delay anything. >> Sorry, Stephanie. I just wanted to like answer your questions. You know, >> old age struck. I can't remember what I was going to ask now. So, >> I'll call people and forget like >> Oh, I know what it was. If we decide to make this move, what is the turnaround time? probably next summer because we've already filled the majority of these projects up. >> Okay. >> Um we're probably getting Decator approved here pretty soon and Mcome and some other pretty big entities. Do foods is about to go through that's over in Brown County is a huge employer. So, it's kind of first come first serve. But one thing I
041will say, you guys aren't a huge district. We told Marian School District they won't get credits until next summer. they're already getting credits. That most likely won't happen, but it could happen. It just happens to be like, but we're also not trying to sign an agreement and give you like a turn on date and then change it later. >> I think we only did that with Marian Wasal because we played some Tetris and it made more sense to do it that way. >> Okay. We wouldn't have if we were to get into this kind of an agreement, this wouldn't um interact poorly with anything we do like say with like Constellation or anybody like that that's a provider NRG through Hammer or anything like that. It's not going to affect them. It's just in in
042not in place of that but in addition to it. Correct. >> Yep. Exactly. So like you guys can get a different supplier every year. The only thing you would want to make sure of, and I I hope a lot of districts do like the supply stuff on the side when navigating with that, is to make sure if you guys did switch your third party supplier, the supplier would be listed on the Hammer bill, not a separate bill. So, we figured every little do that out with Illinois and Hammer will even give you the wrong info. So, you have to like test things. It's weird. There was no straightforward information. If the district got a bill from Constellation and they consolidated it and Amron was listed on the Constellation bill, the credits would only go on
043the delivery part of the bill. If Constellation set a separate bill for supply and Amron set a separate bill for delivery, you would only get the credits on the delivery bill. If the bill stays how it is where Amron is is coming in under Amron letterhead and Constellation Direct Energy IGS, whoever is listed as a third party on the letterhead, you're going to get the credit off of the total bill. >> So there like 70% of the school districts we're working with, we have to consolidate their bill. We call Direct Energy, we get it. And even the supply companies are like, "You can't do that." I said, "We can. We've been doing it." And so, uh, they don't even know. So, we've we've had to help them kind of navigate cuz we have people in
044our office when we come up to like a roadblock and we like kind of don't know for sure what the answer is. I'll just say, Tanya, find out the answer to this question for 3 weeks, okay? Cuz that's what you got to do when you're dealing with the utilities and stuff and the third parties. And cuz they all said you couldn't get the credits um if you had a third party. Turns out though he could, but they're just letting the just making sure that everything stays on% >> cuz I'm sure the district would rather get 20% off of 93% of the bill instead of 20% off of 15% of the bill. That's the whole point of keeping stuff listed on the hammer and whatever. >> Okay. >> A question I had when you and I
045spoke before you had discussed a 15% not a 20%. And when I gave you the bond rating, you said you could get up to 20%. You also said a three-year contract, but now you're saying 10 years. >> Yeah. So, the three-year agreement is for the 15%. >> Okay. >> With a one-year notice to opt out or the 20% as a 10ear term for two 5year extensions with 180day notice. So, yeah, they get the um the district approved for 20%. >> Okay. >> So, now I have the actual disclosures to read. Is it a safety guarantee contract? >> Uh, for every dollar that we put on your bill, we bill you back 20%. Yes. There's no like situation where all of a sudden we put 10 grand on your bill and we're billowing you less for
046that. We're going to we're going to attempt to get as close to giving you $173,000 a year. You might even get a little bit more. Might be like 174,000 instead of 173648. It could end up being 1725. We'll be pretty close to, you know, we look at 30-year weather reports. Like we're trying as hard as we can to like, you know, the sun might shine like a little bit more this summer than it did last summer. So, it's not always like by the penny, but we're going to get as close as we can to 93% with the 20% discount. One other thing I do want to answer to you, Josh, is we would be generating uh disclosure documents with the state. So when we sign on the school district, the school district signs a contract
047with us, but then a disclosure document gets generated from the state at the same time and all the savings that we're offering you would actually be in those disclosure documents. So there's no game of they said they're going to give us this and you know the disclosures actually list all the discounts cuz all they're doing is they're just taking the kilowatt hours multiplying it by the rate and figuring out what 20% off of that is and they're just listing. So, it's just a duplicated document that gets filed with that both of the things. So, and that's that's what Illinois Science is is they're a consumer protections organization to make sure people are getting what they said. So, like in the disclosure, we'll say like what the terms are, discount 20%, term of the agreement 10
048years, um opt out 180 days that gets listed in the disclosure separate of our contract. >> Okay. which I think is great. You know, there's no baloney, there's no gray area, like you know what you guys are getting. >> What is the deadline for an agreement or approval by the board or something like that? >> Um, I'd say like pretty quick. If you guys don't want to move quick, we can still do 15%, but I'm pretty up upfront with what we're doing with uh these 20% projects. cuz I already have our whole bus together for this next trunch of 20 megawatts that we're dealing with. >> So by our next meeting, is that what you're anticipating? Like within 30 days? >> What's your next meeting? >> October >> 15th. >> 15 16th, whatever that third
049Wednesday is. >> I can say 100%. We can get you 15% but not 100% 20%. cuz we're we're we're actually under like a like we're actually in a position now with the government that like every week counts more than like every month or quarter counts cuz we have to meet these these deadlines. And I'm like as being as respectful as possible without circumventing the school's process of making decisions, but also trying to get you guys the best possible deal. So, if you if you think it's worth it to wait a little bit longer, I don't know if you guys can have a special meeting to approve it or how you guys want to do that. Um, you know, I'm I'm kind of under the hammer with my finance team. Good thing I'm here to represent
050cuz they're like, "Oh, if they don't want to do the deal, we can always get 10%." Like, you can't talk to these guys. like >> you have to be polite, too, but still get what you need to do done at the same time, you know? >> Yeah. >> What uh I got one more question. You don't want What type of federal funding do you guys get? >> Uh we don't get any. >> So, you guys are building these out of your own pocket. You have no federal grant money coming to you whatsoever. >> We get a tax credit off of these projects. We don't get any like initial checks or anything like that. >> What's your guys' tax credit? It's 30% off of the value of the project and then you're depreciating 85% of the
051equipment. So if you're a farmer and you have a bunch of tractors, you're going to do like bonus depreciation 6 years. Same thing with solar equipment. The school do depreciation like bonus depreciation on equipment and stuff like that or no depreciation. >> It's the same thing with like the solar equipment and that's the one that's going away at the end of the year. cuz I the reason why I ask is because everything else your your windmills there's a lot of federal funding going into all that stuff but you as a corporation as a company I'm just curious what type of federal funding you guys have doing this and all the the existing grid that you see that we have was all subsidized too I just signed on an ethanol plant and they told me everyone
052hated the ethanol plants cuz they all got federal funding before so they were the solar 10 years ago everything got tax credits So that's your guys's tax credits is what you guys get back. >> Everyone got tax credits. Natural gas plants, nuclear plants, coal. It's just when you see the new guys on the So imagine they've been generating electricity the way they've been doing for 80 years. To you, it's just regular business. They've been getting tax credits the whole time. So the new guy on the block is like, "Oh, he's the new guy on the block. They must be making all this money. We make peanuts compared to what the utilities do." And the utilities are actually secretly investing in solar in other states. So, a lot of these utilities even own their own solar
053companies. They're investing in solar. Um 50% of the projects I think we're going to do this year. Take a guess where the money comes from. Oil and gas. So, don't let that fool you and give you misinformation. I'm not here just wearing my solar hat saying, "Hey, everyone has to do solar." I just look at the facts and you know people are confused about oh solar is getting all these tax credits everybody else got tax credits the ethanol plants got tax credits and they they told they're like ah you know people hated us when we first came out the ethanol plants now the new target is on you guys like so you're going through the same thing that we already do and then 10 years go by and everyone forgot about it so >> well
054I think we need um to have at least a discussion on But I think it would be something we can decide on within the next week. So, >> um, if we can do that and Dr. Phil can get back to you. >> Yep. >> And go from there. Um, >> does that sound >> okay to you? >> Yep. >> I assume you have all the contact info. Is that enough? Is that within your time limit? >> Yeah, that works, too. >> Okay. I'm also trying to get you onto a project that turns on sooner than this whole other group I'm signing on like in the next like 20 days if that makes sense you know. So >> um Matt there's a good website called e e energy informationadministrative.gov of it actually explains how all attack
055and you'll be like wow solar gets nothing compared like what this they don't want to educate people and I'm sure the utility companies probably laugh I I get around pretty good I bet we've done solar community solar in Hawaii main like I get to see different companies like oh that company has the same leaves as that company oh it's the same company they like these different companies and they don't want I'm sure these CEOs are up in the 1780s floor in San Francisco kind of thrive off of the fact that it's so hard for people to get the actual real information on this type of stuff. So yeah, that's my opinion at least, you know, and I just it's just like um National Grid's one of the biggest utilities in the country. They just bought
056Toronto solar for $130 million. And a lot of these companies under Shell companies are building solar projects under different names in other states like Amron and Kameed and a lot of these utilities are not allowed to build solar in their own generating facility in their own grid because then they become the monopoly. So what they're doing is they're investing in other people like National Grid who's over in New England is building projects in California and PG. Meanwhile, the people in NAS are like, "What does National Grid think of solar?" And National Grid National Grid's building $180 million worth of solar projects on the other side of the country. Well, all these people are wondering what National Grid thinks of solar cuz National Grid's not coming out and putting it in their newsletter. We support solar
057or whatever, you know, cuz it's a little bit political. And the way I just kind of tie it all back, I don't think politics have anything to do with pretty much converting some money into electricity. That's what we're doing. I don't know how politics have anything to do with solar. Somehow it's been wrapped into politics. >> Well, that's the money. But every everyone else got tax credits before though too. So it's like if you want to, you know, so why would solar be treated differently if that industry is getting propped up by the same thing everything else got before? Just people forgot because it was 50 years ago, you know, >> but that's my two cents. So thank you for good. Thank you. >> I'm here to try to give as much information as possible.
058Um, does anybody have any questions or I try to overexlain this a little bit because a lot of people have never heard of it before. So, we're >> good. No, I had never heard of it, but I think I have a good understanding at this point. So, I appreciate your time. >> No problem. And I I did put um I gave uh Dr. Field some references to other school districts that have already signed on, including Decar did part of their energy already and 10% that's Dr. Curry. I know Dr. fuel and we're going to hopefully be doing the rest of the caterers power 20%. So there's already school districts that have done this at 10. They just like, oh, you just showed up to the party 28 and we didn't get the 20%. You know,
059I will leave this with you. Um, I can email this to Dr. Field. I think I might have already did, but if you guys want to pass this around, that the proposal that we made was based off of the data that we collected off the utility bills. These are all the addresses, and this is the spend per building. Okay. >> So, it's not just out of thin air. >> Thank you. >> All right. >> Thank you very much. >> Thanks. >> And I see Mrs. Moore here. Do we going to do that or after close session? >> Uh, that would be during new business. Did you want to address the board at all, Mrs. Moore, or >> um just >> Is that okay? >> Yeah, you can. So, so we are excited to be going
060on another trip. Um, this one to Germany, Italy, and Switzerland. Thank you. Another uh educational tour through the same company. This one would include a tour of a um it's not abandoned, they turned it into a museum, but a concentration camp there in Germany. Um so I think that would be very powerful for the kids to see that firsthand. Um in Italy there would include a gondola ride and also going over to um an island off of Italy and then Lousern which would be Switzerland would be in the mountains. So um I guess I am here to get the same permissions as before which would be uh use of the building for meetings. Um I believe we did what was it? Approval at no cost. So >> um so just looking for the same approvals
061as last time. This trip would be in 2027 uh summer of 2027 around the same time that we went this past time. So end of June, beginning of July. Um it would be open to current 8th graders through 10th graders. and very limited for current 11th graders because they would be graduated when we event um and so I just want to be careful in that area just because I don't have so much coverage over graduating. So um it's around the same cost. >> And what was the total you ended up with again this year? I'm sorry. We took a total of 38 people and 28 of them were students. >> You guys all made fun of me when I asked how many chaperons there would be. You remember that? We didn't think we'd have that
062many cuz I mean the cost is fairly exorbitant compared to what they used to do for, >> you know, Germany trips or whatever where they stayed with people. So, >> what is the estimated cost? >> It's around 5,000. and the kids um they fundraised for that. A lot of them go out and get jobs. And so I've had some of the students who went on this last trip talked to kids who are interested in this new trip and they've all just pretty much said, um, you know, you're probably going to have to, if you really want to do this, you're going to have to get a summer job. I try not to push it off all the parents. That's a big expense for them. And so I feel that if the kids really want to
063do this, then you know they need to be out there doing the work as opposed to the parents doing it all. >> Absolutely. >> Great. >> Cool. >> All right. Thank you. Sounds like a fun trip. >> All right. Let me clear my shelf here. Um I guess at this time we need a motion to enter close session for the reasons stated on the agenda. Motion made by Jeff Stall. Is there a second? >> Jessica Browning. Call roll, please. Campbell, >> yes. >> Guerrero, >> yes. >> Hilbert, >> yes. >> Leaper, yes. Stall, >> yes. >> Wood, yes. >> Brownie, >> yes. 650.