001We're ready, Krista. Can you hear us? All right, perfect. Just need a motion to open our policy review workshop meeting at 5.59. Ellen, a second? Eric, all in favor? All right, motion carries. We'll stand for the pledge of the flag. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible. All right, we're starting off today with budget updates and some look at one of our accounts here under buildings and grounds and how that affects our projects coming up in the future. So Mr. Richard and Mr. Hart will take over and walk you through the exciting world of budgets and projects. All right, tonight we will be talking about budget, but under the lens of facilities and an update of some
002of the projects we have going on, which obviously not only impacts this budget year, but budget years for many, many, many years to come. So you should have your pull out portfolio and then you got two new items. So capital assets, long-range planning, strategic planning, all of this is laid on the foundation of really our facilities and operations. So the focus on having efficient operations, having a safe environment for students, faculty is obviously very important. I think you can't really run a very efficient class if your technology isn't working, if you're in a cold room, if your room is too hot. All those things are very important and all those things really lay the foundation again for our financial plan, especially with things that deal with debt, reserves, and just planning in general. So long-range
003strategic planning, these are many things that we've been working on for a number of years and will continue to work on. So our fleet plan, although it's not buildings or grounds, it is part of our capital assets that impacts the levy, which we'll talk about next board meeting. The nice thing about this is... So our fleet, the nice thing about this particular plan aided via transportation. Also the risk this year though, so I'll talk about this again. This is one of the expense-driven categories that they're potentially looking to cap at what our spend is this year. It would be not unlike what they're doing currently with some portions of our special ed. It was frozen way back when in 06-07 when we get what's called a set-aside and it only increases by the CPI. And
004we kind of know education in general, special education was drastically different in 06-07, so the numbers were very small. When you get frozen at that funding level and you're only increasing by CPI every year, you just can't keep pace. So very important that we don't see, especially transportation and advocacy, that doesn't get capped. That can be very, very problematic. Energy project, currently ongoing. It's reducing our utility costs. There's a nice other little benefit I want to talk about tonight in terms of the rebates, which might help us balance the budget. This is also aided. The technology plan, smart schools, it's moving along finally. And this is going to be part of our tech backbone. And this also is aided. And infrastructure and safety, we're continually upgrading our systems within the safe schools paired with the
005smart schools. A smart school is going to have a door monitoring system. Safe schools are going to buy the doors. So with that money in the safe act, we're going to fund that with building improvements and getting better exterior doors. Primarily, I think that's the focus. So again, this all provides stability and structure that we can sustain over time. So that's why this is the bedrock of your long range planning, because it's kind of that stability and stabilizing force and everything else that's going on. So we'll start with energy performance. A number of slides going from here through to we talk about funding again are going to now be in Mr. Hart's wheelhouse. So I'll turn things over to him. I think James has been here a number of times before, but doing an outstanding
006job, I got to tell you. I'm a very happy person having Mr. Hart here in the district. He's fantastic. Well, I have it out there so we can talk about that a bit. So our ongoing energy performance project that we have going right now is a $5.3 million project. It's estimating right now at 176 annual energy savings. As we're doing the calculations right now, we're coming in. We're coming in right at that right now. So hopefully with everything. I'm hoping to exceed it, but it's looking great right now, and we're coming in right where they're estimating that will will be with that is an estimated we applied for about $170,000 in utility rebates. And those are from NYSERDA, National Grids. Those are going to steadily start coming in. And that's where I think we're hoping
007that that can be a good balanced budget. To balance the budget with those start rolling in, those start rolling in, probably in a, they're going to start in about three months, and then continuously come in through the project being completed. We're already seeing, like I said, operation. We're already seeing in operation this cost savings with our gas and electric bill. The electric bill at the high school has gone down about 15% since they start to install the LED lights through the whole building. So that's really good to see. And then at the bottom is the estimated savings there. The next project that we have going for next year is the capital outlays 100,000 K project that we'll be voting on this May. With this project we're kind of working in conjunction with the Athletics Hall
008of Fame that they're putting money in to buy a piece of artwork. I don't know if you've noticed too, they installed a new touch screen there and did some updates on the walls or the windows at the Fine Arts Hall of Fame and the Athletics Hall of Fame. So with that said, we wanted to go in there and just kind of upgrade the whole area with that 100 K and with that 100 K we're looking into upgrading the ceilings and taking out the DCT tile that is there and using polished concrete. And that is a picture of what it could look like. All concretes are different, but that's what we're hoping for. There's been a lot of schools in the area that have done this lately and have been very happy with the results. It
009saves on maintenance. It saves on long term costs for supplies and cleaning supplies. That's a silly question. Is it slippery? It just looks slippery to me. No, it's not slippery at all. You see it, they use kind of a similar technique in Walmart and a lot of commercial stores use it, but now they're starting to bring it in for the cost savings, the long term cost savings in schools. Do we have a full $100,000 cost in this project or is any of that offset by the Athletics Hall of Fame? Well, yes, the treatments that they're putting in, the decor, the donations that you'll see. Are you saying we're going to spend $100,000 on concrete? Oh, no, not necessarily. There's going to be other things in the area. We usually spread out to get some other
010things done in the building that needs to be making a list. Over the windows, remember the rusted metal? I'm sure that would be scraped off. There would be a number of things in there. What the Hall of Fame is doing is the legacy costs, which we might have to absorb too, of maintaining the online touchscreen and these types of the lumberjack with the light and the wood wall. He is fundraising and getting grants for that stuff. So if all that went away and we became the Warriors because we combined with Tonawanda someday, we would still have the cement floor, the ceiling, and the windows. But those types of things that were donated would not be something that we'd spend money on. And I think this is a good first staging area for this type of,
011you know, to have the spread throughout the building because we'll really be able to kind of take a look at how it turns out in terms of the concrete we have here and it was laid. We're going to be doing some control and equipment rooms near the pool for part of the smart school. So we're going to be in there working already. So we figured it's a good time to do an overhaul. And then we get a real gauge as to how much more we want to do because, honestly, taking care of that tile. Do you want to spend $25,000 on maintenance, or do you want to slowly start having this type of look throughout the district. And I've seen it firsthand over when I was over at Cleve Hill, and it turns out great.
012At least they're there. Hopefully it looks like the DCT or it's a ceramic tile and ceramic tiles crack when they drop something on it. And so you're better off just having something that they can't destroy. And you don't have to strip it, you don't have to wax it. So in the summer they got a lot more time to do it. So it's really a great, I don't want to say maintenance-free, but an option that's better. So before it goes for the vote, they want to see what's all in $100,000. Yeah, I mean, we were sitting in that city school, we were planning $100,000 for a second SRO. I mean, I'd rather have a second SRO than some politics to that itself. It's different pots of money. Yeah, like you're saying, $100,000 buys different things. Well,
013and with the capital project of voter approval, it's a different aid and you can only use it for upkeep and maintenance, so you can't buy staff with it. Yeah, the capital outlays are very specific too. And it's based on our savings act and what we have to spend. You know what I mean? And what we can get by that is a difference from the budget, which is always our battle with the public. You know, always spending $100,000 on a floor, but yeah, you're raising my taxes and cutting classes, that doesn't go over. It's always our job to get the word out. And the thing is, if you pull this type of project out, then you get the aid the next year, which is not. So we get about $85,000. So it really costs about $15,000
014after the aid. And then when you pull it out for the next year. No more. Yeah, well, yeah, we put that in there every year. Net of aid. And then you try to put it back in that first year. It's a full $100,000 back in. So it's harder to get these back into the budget once you pull. The whole idea of stability is you do the building blocks and lay everything else on top of it. You did it for five years, right? Like the $100,000 you wanted for the next five years, didn't you? Well, we do it every year. We do it every year until they tell us we don't get it. Hopefully, we'll get $250,000 or $500,000 or more, because these ones just go through a vote. You don't have to, you know, necessarily
015do a separate proposition, because it's a line item. That's why we have to talk about it. So now we'll see how this pairs with the $500,000. So last year you got the district voted on a $500,000 project. With that $500,000 project, we were able to do the new secured vestibule at Spruce and a new driver parking lot at the transportation. And with some of that money, we're able to do the landscaping at Spruce Elementary School. And then you go towards the playground? The landscaping of the playground. Oh, okay. And that'll be the vestibule that'll, at some point, they're going to be breaking ground on that? They're breaking ground, hopefully, as soon as the weather turns. Which we're voting on? The construction. Yeah, that's the approval of the vets. So, and anyone who's not been to
016Spruce a lot is the teachers park in the back, which is a quarter mile from the office, which is fine if you're only both of the teachers, but parents wanted to come in. So when we put the bus loop in the front, we wanted all the parents to come picking up kids who are sick from the nerves or dropping off kids' weight to use the front. But the way that was lined up with the doors on the far left there, you came into two or three stairs because it was an entrance for the odd on the left. There was no way to get into the office from there because there's also basement stairs going down. So we put this new ramp in front going there and people can buzz in right to there and they
017can be held in there. So no one's walking into the building from not being seen and it'll be a lot safer for 2021. Okay, so the comprehensive tech plan, again, is adjusting the backbone security and district network. This again is in the works. Again, the theme is going to be the span many budgets. And we're just continuing on this particular work now the plan. It's probably and hopefully get into the next stages soon. And we actually did get feedback recently, so that's good. And the last time I put it in, we sat there for about eight months and nothing ever happened. And then I ended up getting kicked out. But this at this point is moving along. Don't know if we'd be ready for this summer. I kind of highly doubt it. But summer after
018maybe even prior to the learn from home zones, this is something I'm working on right now. This is actually phase one. This is to get Wi-Fi out into the community. So we don't have to necessarily worry about the hot spots. We're looking to fix this equipment on our buildings first. Jim I know they talked to a couple contractors. Do you have any updates? I think it was IPL. IPL and Catco cabling. They're looking for IPL was on the state. Yes, state fit list. And then Catco cabling was on the federal hopefully get those. And I know they're coming next week to look at the project and hopefully. And we'll use aided computer hardware money to get the equipment for this. The labor is just going to be the labor. It will be an expense. But
019if we don't have to keep putting out the hot spots, that'll be a savings. Again, having a dedicated single community will obviously be great. I know the states talk about reduced broadband costs. We're talking about free. So we'll start with our buildings and then we'll move out to city owned buildings. It looked like when I did the kind of drive around with our technology, the oddly enough, it seems like the best place to fix the other pieces of equipment in terms of the access points that are outside are the fire holes. So there's a lot of fire holes positioned throughout. And that seemed the volunteer fire all over there. They seem to be shared. Some of the officers are there. I know there's one down here by that blue water tower. There's one down over
020here by the goundry post office and there's one over here in Gilmore that kind of looks like an old brick building across the street. Right. There's a million of them here. So once we have those, then you put repeaters up. So the repeater to put on the pump stations, the pump stations at power, you put that bad boy on there and then amplify the signal. So hopefully we'll be able to in years or maybe have the entire network covered. So we'll see. Will these only be accessible by students or would technically anybody in the community would be able to. It'll be our signal so we can lock that down. Yeah, we can lock that down. So it'll just be our signal getting pushed out. So, I mean, that might be a selling point for the
021city. They can work on that themselves. We'll show them how to do it. Then they just got to do it themselves. I have a very novice level of understanding security cameras throughout the city that we have a different hotspots office. We also run on some of these, you know, Wi-Fi signal enhanced power. The only question I have, though, is and maybe it's not a big enough factor, but if you have a student who live in a home who is able to access this, unless we shut it off, they're able to access it year round. And a lot of times they're not in school. Like some of like others. And just because it doesn't mean that, you know, it's a student using it. Is it filtered? Yes. So we can see all the devices that are
022on the networks. We can grant the device access. OK. So to get other devices on the network. I'm not going to pull it myself. Well, you might know more about this than myself. The scenario is like the scenario is not the whole household on eight different devices, including, you know, college students, et cetera. Can you do that? Yeah. Yes. Yeah. And we have a lot of fear. Right. No. Tell somebody. But it is like, you know, when we see, oh, there's a weak signal all of a sudden. Oh, look at this. And we can shut it off in the summer. So it's not reliable. We could shut it off over a spring break. So if that's the family's streaming for Netflix, they're not going to want an interruption. Do they mean they're going to be
023upset? But if it goes through BOC and they're searching even certain stores, it won't come up. It means that it's got content in it or something. You know, you can't be able to hopefully look for ammo. Yeah. Yeah. And I think when we looked at whatever the company was that these are from, they have a really good management system. And I've dealt with them before when they were a different company. But they have a really good management platform and you can you can do almost anything. No, it would be us. But we should be able to manage the clients or computers that are on this. We can see the traffic so we can give them all specific IDs to kind of see if anything doesn't drive up to what we would expect to be on
024on the system. Plus, we do have a five gig portal, you know, coming into the district from BOCES. That's a quite a bit of a bit of a yeah, that's quite a bit of data flowing through that. So I don't think we'll have issue. But you can tell. You can look and see like, OK, Eric's iPad, it wouldn't be an IP address. But you can see, you know, this person's using like a hundred gigs a month. Well, Eric's just downloading every movie under the sun. You would be able to see, you know, if it's there's any help. And it's still ahead of the filter. It's so you can do that. So on the smart schools, again, this piggybacks off of what we're doing, the control rooms, switches, cabling, and then the door monitoring. I think
025Jim, could you speak a little more about the door monitoring? I mean, for the most part, it's a security feature to see if the perimeter has been breached. But do you have anything to add to that? No, just what I kind of want to bring up is what Tony had started before I got here. And what we're trying to continue to do is try to fund projects with different pots of 811 just to keep them. And there's a lot of force like that's trying to we're trying to go into to know like the smart schools bond that we're doing the door perimeter monitoring. But with the safe schools, we're going to be doing the actual door replacement so that we're not putting a monitoring system on the door that's half falling off. So, but again,
026we want to make the get the most bang for our buck with the money. So that's where we're trying to come up with a schedule so that we can keep going with all this. Well, pretty much the door monitoring is it'll send a signal to myself or principal or we I think we can even get it to our burglar system that if a door is forced open, it'll send it and it'll send a signal right to the police that they know exactly what door to go to instead of now. They kind of have to walk through the building and look to see, they'll know exactly where the entry point. That's a nice cable management. Yeah, that's what all of our control rooms look like. Usually don't. That's the goal. Don't look in the one. So
027this this again, this pairs right into the idea of the door hardening safe act so we're looking to get doors that are newer. Yeah, newer. You know a lot of our doors are original to the buildings that you know our weather and salt, don't salt is not nice the doors. So, we just need to update our doors and, you know, get them functioning properly so that, you know, they're safer. I like the feature though that you're going to know which door. Yeah. And that'll probably help with your enveloping to from the performance on it you're going to get better and will be in your doors to the doors. Yeah. Yeah. So, that kind of, is there anything in terms of questions the projects on Jim, if you want to add any other details. Obviously right
028now we're doing the EDC is underway. Okay, we'll be starting. We got a hundred K that's just finishing. Third, they did punch list today. So that should be finished. That was the spruce air conditioning unit and the new data closet that we made at spruce. So that when we do the smart schools. Look like that. We do smart schools, we already have infrastructure in there to get it done. The EDC project right now, I would say, is about 85% completed. All the major equipment is in the district and now we're working on the control part of it, which the high school right now is about 75% complete Ohio is 100% complete. This building is 95% complete. And then once the heating season. Then they can really start on spruce drink in the intermediate school in
029the middle school. Any other questions on that aspect. Thank you. So into the, the budget side of this, there's the debt service. A little bit in the projections that was all embedded in there these numbers are known so everything that was in the roller budget that was set, so we know where we stand in terms of the debt side of things. The uptick about 400,000. Eric I think you had asked about that was the difference. And then a little while ago, yeah, energy performance. So we had an energy performance from the co gen, that was all mothballed in dismantled that came off. We had zero last year. Now we have another energy performance back on the books here so 400,000 in that service that will start driving some aid in 18 months. So in the
030aid schedules that I've been developing my adjusted those from what the governor gave me. I adjusted these types of projects that I know when I'm going to put the final cost report and hopefully before December generates eight 18 months later, we'll get our first payment. So again the 400,000 is going to start to be offset by aid in terms of a local share that won't be one because we are reducing the costs we're getting rebates. So this was supposed to be, you know, energy savings, a cost savings to the district. And, you know, fully anticipated we're already 50%, you know, running to the good energy costs, which is outstanding. So any question on the schedule as it is right now add a little overlay to it, the second, which leads into the next thing that
031comes back on the stage. So, what I want to point out is that there are two bonded projects that will be coming off the books in a few years. So when this debt comes off the books again to maintain that foundation that stability, you want to replace that with new debt. So then we have that consistent budget line consistently working on our buildings in the state has a five year cycle, when it comes to building up, and they don't have every district doing it now. There's a staggered approach. So actually, the last project when we do the building condition survey cycle was about six years ago, and it all comes told. So they're doing fits of the state, so everybody doing it once they finally realized we don't have the cash flow to support all
032these projects coming online at once. So it's actually a good move by the state in that respect. So that said, another project will be coming down pipe. We're going to be doing the building condition survey in this kind of budget, we're going to fund this so this is something that's in the budget also, I knew about it so we already added it. It was kind of my modified rollover, I know we have to pay for this. It is aided, and we can be the next year, but it is pretty substantial in cost. It's substantial scope too. So, the purpose is identified future project scope. And the building ratings and types I'll let you speak a little more to that Jim and then we're going to talk about the role of the board in this whole
033process. So, the building condition survey. I don't know if anyone was a part of it in 2015. Like anything, they have changed architects have changed the way they, they do it. They put in a lot more information now than they did in 2015, which in building a scope of a project is great. There's five ways that you rate it. For the most and health and safety and structural for the most part, what I have done in the past and what I've talked to Tony is, once we do the building condition survey. We make a building committee that then goes through the building condition survey and picks out what, and a rating of one to five, one being the worst needs to be addressed by being more cosmetic that, you know, would be great, but does
034not need to be in there. So building that system then with the committee, we then build the next project that the district would that committee, for the most part usually sits a wide variety of people throughout the district teachers, principals, the superintendent, myself, usually a board member. So it's a pretty big committee, but it really is the best way to build a project so that everyone knows in the word can get out on what is getting done. So that's something our building condition survey is up next year. One thing Tony and I have been talking about is bringing in three architects to present to the board. So, you guys can decide as a group, which firm would be the best firm to use for the building condition survey. Because like I said, three different firms.
035Yeah, they're already been out through a BOCES RFP. There's about, I think, 12 companies that are through the RFP that we can use. But like anything, you'll see the difference in quality and, you know, an educated decision on which one is the best one to use. Even though it might seem pricey in some respects, you know, the different options that you get, you're probably better off getting the best data about your building upfront, as opposed to walking into a project and then all of a sudden, oh, we didn't realize that was a problem. We didn't really investigate that so much. I remember the last project to go deep enough because I totally remember Sweet Home finding a car underneath their ground. Right. Adding hundreds of thousands of dollars to their project. So I think, you
036know, the building condition survey, because it's aided, it is a good opportunity to investigate as thoroughly as you possibly can and, you know, find the firm that does that the best, I think, is probably, you don't actually want to go low. I'm just putting it that way. You get what you pay for. So would we select them so that we deal with energy performance audit? Yep, yep, yep, absolutely. Yeah, I got all the RFPs. You know, we can put a recommendation out there as to the ones, because it's already going around the wheel here with all the different SBOs. Which architect have you used? Have you been happy? What's been the problems? Blah, blah, blah. So it's already going around and I know Jim's group has had numerous conversations already as to, you know, who
037are the people that fared well over the last five years and who are the people that need to kind of come back to the chalkboard a little bit better maybe than five years after that. So I think it'll be interesting. So if anyone's interested in that, I know Mr. Waitel will, I guess, start to rally the troops here for that. So funding and financing. One of the things we'll be looking at this year, again, is establishing a capital reserve. And I think the approach I want to take now that we, you know, got the fleet, someone out of the way, a mixed use capital reserve. One purpose to fund this. We funded about a six to one ratio so we don't have a local share. So the local share is what influences your tax cap,
038bringing it up or down. And also influences, you know, the share that the taxpayers are responsible for if you don't have building aid. So the way you offset that is with using reserves. So if you're 80 to 85%, you want to try to pay for that 15% with a reserve. We have the debt service, that's all that debt service that's coming off the books, those are the old products. So we do really need to kind of expend through that debt service reserve, fund it over to a capital reserve, we're kind of moving it from one reserve to the other, because the capital reserve is the one that the voters vote on to expend out of so there's no local share, or at least to reduce the local share. So the tax burden isn't so high.
039So that's something that we started last year, about 350 I got out of there just to get a sense of like where are we at. Now, I want to get a lot more out of there, so I can move it over to the capital reserve. The process, not unlike what we did for the buses, so we established capital reserve to fund project expenses, the vote 2021 so this vote. Proposition the voters to establish the reserve, then vote in May of 2024 so it's not going to be the buses, it's not going to be boom boom, where, you know, we voted for it and then we spent out of the next year there's going to be a little bit of a build up. So we need to start moving those funds out of that debt service
040to the capital reserve, that's the current project. Once you get voter approval spent reserve, you start your construction. So again, you have to coordinate this over a couple of years so it takes some time to get this revenue stream ready. Once you get to the project, you're ready to go. We funded about six to one. So to do approximately a 15 to $20 million project we want like a year mark through the reserve, even for 15 million. Okay, now this, I'm going to do over 10 years also so I have to keep doing this up here. So I'd rather just do it once we got 15 years, but for a project. Going forward, we're looking anywhere from 15 to 20 million. Because we fund six to one, and I would need 3 million in that
041reserve to take care of that local share on a 15 to $29 million. So then that way, again, there should be little, no tax impact. Long range of strategic planning, I guess one of the problems that you always have in school districts is that aid lags. Sometimes it's expense based, sometimes it's formula based. It's a big huge puzzle can be very confusing, and they tend to make it more confusing every year, especially when you got this adjustment and that adjustment you got to figure out what exactly they try to do here. And then they have different tiers that we talked about for the city schools that really well the one year. Unfortunately, everything happened to the pandemic and forgot to revisit, like would that happen again for us so it does get a little confusing.
042The other thing I do want to just drive home again is the advocacy on the expense based with the service grant or block grant that the governor's calling it transportation of both. So if they cap those, then if we have increases in those expenses, we're not necessarily going to get all the revenue anymore so instead of getting like 80% effectively when we might get 60% 50% like because we're going to be capped at a certain amount, so that would be very detrimental. So just, again, if you have any pull out that the with the other boards. This is one I think everybody is making sure that it's not on the table. So, any questions. I know it's capital projects and it can be a little overwhelming because we're talking about multiple years and you got
043to, you know, try to line everything up. So there's a lot of planning that goes into it. So if I kind of do it on one of these off off for me. So the vote to establish a reserve that will eventually find the projects that will come from the building conditions. Yes. Yep. At that time we're not going to tell them exactly what the actual money's going to. Right. Right. So when we make this first initial kind of general capital reserve, I'm going to do it so it's all capital assets so it could include buses to because I'm just kind of not being lazy on this but I would do this once. So if we put it at a level that will last for 10 years, we might not even find it up to 15
044million up with 15 million is what you could legally put in there in terms of your savings over time. And you could do that for up to 10 years, we put like 2 million, you know, what do I think we're not going to have 2 million surplus that won't happen. But what happens sometimes is on some of these bonds, you will get the premium, so you have the premium to then pay down your debt, you can end up with a bit more surplus than you expected. So there's things like that that could happen but you know even if you put a million in every year, you're only going to get up to 10 million. 15 million is just if you get lucky, you know, maybe you could put that because then you got other reserves
045too. But you can't go more than 10 years, so you kind of can't do that. And then, once you have that too, that reserve after the 10 years you can't fund it anymore, but you can still draw from it. Unless the board at some point, you know, declares it overfunded or, you know, there's probably some other way to free that money up. But you're always going to have projects, so they can't necessarily go wrong with the capital reserve, especially when you go to the vote for the project and say, okay, it's a $10 million project, but we're not going to raise taxes because we're using the savings offset. Okay, state pays 85 cents, we're paying the other 15 cents in the dollar out of the savings. Thank you very much. Going to break down the
046500 K or we're going to talk about it. Um, well, the 500 K, I think we had talked about that earlier. Anything else you want to add to Jim, it's the best of you all for parking the playground. Yeah, doesn't go far. Yeah, so we're going to vote on that today at the end of the meeting, then it's already been bid out, we have it ready to roll and then, as for Tony was saying that this then because it's your vote that goes as soon as the weather gets nice, they'll start all that. Good. All right. Okay, our first policy, and this is for review. There's a couple of them I want to point out a few things that we're still trying to get on. So our gender gender neutral single occupancy bathroom. So Jim
047got the final review from all the buildings, but if it is a single use bathroom, it can't be labeled male or female only anymore. We have gender neutral. We were getting a number we basically have to put the signs on those bathrooms, moving forward. And then, if you were ever to build a new building or build something like a new gymnasium or something like that, there would be facts that you'd have to include for that. But your grandfather's in all the other spaces. Did you get all the counter we still waiting for a building, still waiting for one building. Give me that name tomorrow. So, this is basically saying that we will single occupancy bathroom in the bathroom intended for use by no more than one person, or the family, and then that you can
048get into the gender neutral bathroom signage that we're looking at was going to be this plain restroom or Single occupancy. Single occupancy. So that's that for a vote today. Student gender identity. Now this has changed and really the last five years it's changed quite a bit. So it's first when a boy says I was born a boy I want to be a girl, first of all I want to be a boy. There was, you had to legally change that you have parent permission you had to do all through these loops. And now they're saying as soon as they identified that way, the school can change it. So, I'm Greg and I want to be called Grace from now on. School should change my e-school and my records and everything along those lines. Where we have
049a little discrepancy that we're talking to the lawyers about is that in this policy, it even says state testing. And sometimes with state testing, there has to be a document provided that you're legally changing your name or a birth certificate or something on those lines. To be clear, this is saying they don't need the parent permission to be called a different name. So we just want to make sure we get that right with the lawyers because if someone were to walk into school tomorrow and say I want to be called this from now on, I'm identifying as this. And there's a state test in two days. There's no way the state is changing what they used to be. You know what I mean? And so we want to make sure we're in compliance with how
050fast that has to take place. And anything in Albany does not take place fast. So, you know, we wanted to be at least be able to have a sit down with the child who's doing this to say, listen, at school from now on, this is what we're going to change. This is how we'll do it. We'll go forward and take longer with the state. But it basically says they don't need the parent permission, which is a state change, not a district change. So you might want to read through it because there's always going to be a few people that will challenge that. You had one or two in the past couple of years that one ever did, so you've always been able to. We have great social work to work through it. It's difficult though
051when the child wants one thing and the parent doesn't. Is there no age restriction? There isn't an age restriction listed in this. I don't see, you know, how soon they would be coming in to say that, but I guess things get younger and younger every year. So if there's any questions on that. So I have some concerns. Yeah, I understand a lot of what we're talking about on the previous policy. I understand a lot of the terminology on the first page as well. But I have questions that we're kind of talking about. That seems to be significant. Can you say that again? Okay. But we don't have exclusive all-girl wrestling in New York State. It's been a long time that females could compete in wrestling. I mean, wrestling with a girl is more important than
052a matter. There are other states that have had a lot of issues with this. And so here's a couple of things that I'm concerned about. I'm concerned about the testing aspect. So the way I understand it is if you have a biological determinant of genuinely because you have any situation, they could take the athletic testing, which is called, what again, at the early age? Tanner. Tanner testing. Or the category that's good for the sex that they most identify with. So if I'm a biological male in some degree, I could take the testing because I identify and be held to the Tanner standard of testing. But they're separate, right? I mean, you have categories and standards for sexes. Absolutely. Yeah. So I'm concerned not because of random concern, but because of documented concern throughout the country
053with people who have been in this water before us of where things have gone very bad. And just to go, because I completely understand what you're saying. It's the development of the body that if you're doing certain things before you should be as a male develops differently, obviously, in a female. Right. They've proven medically that you shouldn't be doing certain things until, one thing is, it's there until a girl gets her period. Right. And that's, and you know, I mean, it's part of that Tanner. I remember reading it. I don't know if it's changed now, but that was probably 10 years ago. My son took it. And I'm like, oh my God. But it's all about, it's about your body developing properly. And being ready. So like these are, and the reason there's a difference
054is because of safety protocols. Exactly what you described. But what we're saying is, in some instances, we're going to do a different category, not based on biology. Correct. And allow testing with different things. That makes me nervous from a safety standpoint. The second and last thing I'll bring up is, I wonder what this does to exclusive sports, right? Sports that are women's track, men's track, women's basketball, men's basketball. I worry about what it does when you take these separated sports by gender and you some, and so what happens? I know you can see very well known throughout the country. You've seen, you have seen males after all female sports, biological males, identified as a female. After all girls track, field, et cetera, and win everything. Right? And you have some, on the other side too,
055you have males that identify as female and females that identify as male. They have both sides. And it hasn't gone, it hasn't gone well in every situation. And I would argue that in some of these situations it's been very dangerous. So that's my thought. And then I really hope to hear what you guys think. And then I'd also like to say or ask, what is that actual ability to impact policy change at this level? Like, let's say we're all against it. Let's say we're all for it. In a lot of these cases it doesn't really matter. Well, this doesn't talk directly to sports. Well, does it? It talks about uniforms. Well, physical education is based on? Physical education, correct. Physical education requires those in sports upon notification to participate in the district's interscholastic athletic program
056consistent with his or her gender identity. The district will determine his or her eligibility in accordance with applicable law. You have to follow the law. Regulations and guidelines. The district will confirm the student's assertive gender identity with documentation to consider appropriate form from a parent or guardian. Counselor, doctor, psychologist. So there's a lot of steps that they have to go through to being compliant. The student's gender identity should be the same as the identity used for district registration and other school purposes. They're making that choice to identify as a female when they were born male. There's a lot of factors and things that have to go through. Totally agree. Unless I'm wrong. Sports in the way that I'm thinking or I'm thinking about it all. So, no, you're thinking about it right. But I'm saying
057there's a lot of things that you have to follow by law and a lot of documentation they have to provide up for their honesty. So last year. I don't think you would walk in. No. Tomorrow and say I'm deciding to identify as a girl and I want to be on the girls references earlier. And you basically say you can't do that. With the name. But the sport specifically says that there are forms. I get your point, right? So if I'm a 250 pound man who says, you know, I want to be identified as a female and then I'm on a female volleyball team, you know, I have a lot more grip on me. You know what I mean? I may be muscle toeing at the moment. And for a sophomore coming in, you know what
058I mean? Because some of them, I still, when I walk through the high school, I'm like, what's this little thing? You know what I mean? So they're amazing up there. Some get small. So. Well, I can tell you that a year. Injured all the time. It went through. I'm just saying, I don't think I'm going to say you didn't do your due diligence and you let this person out. It shouldn't be like for wrestling, right? You're not going to let me wrestle a 90 pound person if I'm too good. Can I understand, though? I'm not going to be out of class. That then we would be in trouble. You know what I mean? Teams are different, too. But there's no right answer. If I could wave a wand and just to make you feel a
059little better. In the past, for modified football, there was a hundred pound female that the position was not. Release her because of her. You know, she was younger and she was only a hundred pounds. So she did not get the medical release to play. But there are girls who would play on the football team. In some scenarios, I coached female wrestlers. So yes, not all sports are the same. I guess those are my concerns. And I mean, you know, playing for everybody else would be helpful to me, but also. Well, is the concern about them getting hurt or winning when you don't think they should? I would be more than medical because I agree with them. I mean, because you can't win on my son didn't win because you let this person. Well, you're not
060going to win any debate with any public when you're mad that my son didn't win the track meet because the female, no, the male that I didn't know the female that I identified male beat him and raised on the boys team. I'm not. I'm worried. But specifically from the testing and for the example, that's that's that's probably my biggest concern. And also what happens when mixed genders and activities that are specifically designated to only be under the parameters of one. For example, the ball is a different size and women's basketball, different parameters based off of this. And when we're missing it. Right. And I understand it's debatable. What's the tanner testing? So when you want to play up, so you want to not play modified. You think you're good enough to be on JV or
061varsity, but you're still in middle school. You have to take the tanner test at flexibility, durability. I'll just tell you football. No, just my son. He hadn't jumped a certain distance. He had to. Yeah. Yeah. But the athletic director gives it or well actually know the varsity coach gave my son his. It could be anyone. That a lot of times we'll do it. It's just like you said, Eric, it's the safety measure. You know, and the complaints we most frequently get is when a student is not deemed ready for it and the parents feel strongly that, yes, they are. That's usually what we end up hearing right now. Yes. And those parameters are different based on sex. Correct. Correct. And sport and sport. Yes. You're concerned that a male who identifies as female will take
062the tanner test to get on to like a JV football team. Grove across. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. But he could be a boy on the Grove across. But has he? Because he hasn't had the male probably tanner test, but he's not going to say he has bacteria. And it could be a reverse prejudice because a female taking a male test could be very difficult. Right. Yeah. I mean, I'm just trying to talk about this is not a I know. No, I mean, you're right. I agree with you about the medical that if somebody identifies a female identifies as a male. And again, it sounds prejudiced to go that way. I do hear about when you're when you're in junior high and there is no age. So you are in sixth, seventh, well, seventh grade. And
063you're going to identify as a male. Which tanner tests are they going to give you for sports? And, you know, there's other ones like on uniform. Like, for example, uniform. Right. So, OK, so for some sports, you can be topless and male swimming. Right. And so how does that go? And I really don't know. I have no idea. Like, have we thought about that? Do the oncoming swim coaches get training? Do the oncoming track and field coaches get training and I'm worried about nothing? Or is that something that is so mandated by the state that I really shouldn't even bring it up because we're going to sign an animal egg. Because that does happen. It's very heavily influenced by the state in a lot of ways. Just like the vaccines. It's like the vaccines in
064other things. But whatever it is, so be it. I mean, you know, we all do. We all do. I think, though, to get too specific is going to get us in trouble. And to sort of say, you know, like, they'll have access to uniforms. I don't know that, you know, that's kind of an extreme case in swimming. And that would happen. There are fully developed female and they want to be on the boys swim team. And you're only going to say you can only wear a ski, though. I don't know that that person would feel comfortable doing that either. I think you'd allow them to wear whatever they're comfortable with. And there are boys who swim in, what do you call it, like a sling lid or something like that. You know, there are, you
065know, in the Olympics. What if they are comfortable with it? Yeah, well, that's a conversation. Yeah, that's a conversation. And for the lawyers at that point, because the district would probably have something to say about something along those lines. The other piece, though, with the whatever the district, the district will confirm the student's asserted gender identity with documentation it considers appropriate leaves the door open for us to say, well, we feel in this case. Directed in that same dress code. The district dress code applies. Yeah. Not going to allow loose conduct. Yeah. But there's a lot of questions. That's right. I think it's such uncharted territory. You may probably find six different sections of you that might contradict with something else. Not that as soon as I say this, it'll happen tomorrow. In the cases
066that we have, they wanted to dress like a girl and they're a boy or vice versa. They're a girl. I want to really be able to put the hair back and be called Tom or whatever. And it's become a problem where the school district, the parents are on us because when the boy who identified as a female came in dressed as a girl carrying a purse, students said something. So now we're going, you know what I mean? Because we're not, you know, we're not expelling all these kids who have these comments or vice versa if it was a girl and people are saying, you know, what are you doing? So that's been our case in the history. But I think in the very short future, it's going to affect us in sports because and this
067is gender, you know, identity. But we could have a Gabby who just says, I want to play boys football. And are we going to say they can't go out? We're going to say, no, what weight are you? What's your skill? Are you at the Tanner level? So I think we would apply the same rules as we go through, you know, that we want to make sure they're safe too. You know what I mean? Not just that we're not going to let you play because you're a girl, but you know, the size of the team or whatever, the qualifications. But Steve Tasker is not a big guy. So he got on the bill. Yeah. Don't you want to support her? Anyway, so, yeah, there's a lot of questions. We're not adopting it today. If you want
068me to get an opinion from the school attorney, I can do that as well. As far as these are our concerns specifically, security, safety. Am I the only one? My first question is age. That is definitely. I didn't really have any concerns until you mentioned like the swim uniform. I guess it is. I think uniforms like that. Basketball where they play like spins. They don't have a lot of students. But I mean, if someone's dealing with gender identity, they probably wouldn't want to go public anyway. But you know. You can find many examples of that throughout the country where that has happened. That's like very low. Am I concerned? You can find an example of that. That's dangerous. Females refusing to wear a cap. This woman, a boy specifically specifically say transgender uniform issues. Oh,
069yes. Yeah. Yeah. It is. Yeah. There's a lot of what is. So in that case, right, we're saying there's a female looking student who identifies male. Right. He's on. She is on the boys swim team. Right. The parents and the students in the community are going to have a fit if you allow it. That person is feeling comfortable and OK with that. I don't know. I think that's what the law and the world is trying to say is that if they're not harming anyone, you know, I mean, you have to sort of let them express themselves. I'm just giving you an opinion. I'm not saying if I agree or disagree. I'm saying that's where we're going to get into. You know, you're repressing, you're suppressing, you're not allowing certain things, you know, and that's an
070extreme case that I hope to retire before it happens. But so hold on. But let's hope that I'm much more concerned about safety. Yeah. We've spent a lot of time in that one. I like that you have in that clause district standard policies. I feel like that one is relatively easily. Well, there's there's a lot of boys pass the tanner to play now because of safety. So I don't know that, you know, there's a lot of girls that are going to be able to even if they pass the female tanner, which that would be interesting, right? Because if they know they're going out for contact sports, they have to look at the whole thing different. I don't know. I can ask the school position. What would they do? The school position have like medical safety
071parameters in place that addresses this. I'll ask the school position, like given a scenario, what would they have to do? So, you know, will they pass a girl's tanner test or a boy's tanner's test based on how they're identifying? And does the sport play into the sport? They're right, Patrick. There's both. There's different tanner tests for different sports, right? I haven't been involved with that. I believe it's different levels. Yeah, it's it's interesting. If you ever looked at what they. It's interesting. We're not going to do age and the school position. Quick question on that. So in school, does it list the student's gender? Correct. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, it does. All right. Does if this policy and we have a student and it switches, do we have anything that would notify staff to switch their
072pronouns? I don't think we would. It wouldn't be a computer. We would do that. There's a lesson on how that works. I mean, there's there's a guidance log in there that, you know, when there's situations that need to be communicated and people don't take different scenarios relevant to the student and their academic career. But I think that's right. You know, that would be an individual situation where the administrator of that building would inform the teachers and communicate with them. You know, this is an adjustment that we need to make. In addition to changing it and putting the memo in there because, you know, the stuff came in or something like that. I mean, you don't know how that would work in the few cases we would have a year that educate the staff. Well, I
073know pronouns are just something we need to get better at overall, because even in that conversation discussion we just had. I mean, if there is a transitioning student, she who is a male, you know, we need to refer to that in the correct and proper manner. Going forward, it's easier to talk when it's an individual than when you're trying to bounce between scenarios. But that's it's why I just want to voice that. I want to make sure that we do handle pronouns correctly. And then it's listed in here too. We talked about that one. So the school email one, you can actually have a blue one, right? And you'll see the changes in red. And that one is minimal to where we are at. So people information services can only be loaded, stored and transferred
074on different devices which have encrypted or password protection. We got rid of or one drive. So we're talking about where those files will be. Here enough for that. And then it says, there's a main. Yeah, on the last page, email, maybe maintain an archive. According to the retention and you can resave email and our one drive is supposed to be better at it. But it seems like whenever there's a case or you want to go back toward an extra cost to get back to it to find it. So we've been working on that with Jane for a number of years trying to back it up for at least a year or more. But when you go into unlimited and we have so many employees that cost skyrocket. So so that's why we put May said,
075well, because we're probably going to have it for five, 10 years. And then we would do it through both even though it's eight. So that would be at the next one for approval. And maybe on there with an update at the March 3rd meeting when I talked to the position. Is there like before another policy you sent us like what the state was requiring us to have in the policy? Yeah. So when when it's an update from the state, it's a different format. When for the gender one, I can pull out just what's in the state one and what both he's added to it. I can do that. Yeah, there's the state would have put out like probably four or five paragraphs and then both he's added. So you can see the difference won't be
076a ton, but I'll go for it. So the next one is a vote on the spruce project, which is the playground, the bus parking lot. And, you know, definitely. So we're at five point one is recommendable. Education approves a bid awarded for the five hundred K capital improvement project. The twenty one twenty two school year to Walter S. Johnson and building company as the lowest respondent bidder in the amount of four hundred fifteen thousand four hundred ninety eight dollars. The base bid price as presented in a motion. I just have a question on that. Is there a contingency in that budget at all for change order? I mean, roughly how much that says it into the attachment? Yeah. I think I was on it said earlier. Okay. In one of the pages, is there a
077second? Yeah, I think it's a part from. I didn't see it. I think you're going to go. Yeah. Well, I think it's seven thousand seven thousand four hundred fifty thousand. Yes, we did increase that to thirty six thousand. There was the high school stairs for the odd in there and it was taking us too close to five thousand with no contingency. So we pulled it out in-house capital. A hundred thousand dollars. No, it's just in-house. It's just work. Right. So thirty six. Yes, roughly about thirty six dollars. Is there a motion then? No. Collin, a second? Eric? All in favor? Aye. Krista Gooder is motion carried. Yep. All right. Any questions from Krista? No. Anything else before we adjourn? So we had the city school meeting last night. Oh, yes. Friday Avenue came up and
078the aspect is that they said we sell it if they want to buy it. I said we'll sell it. Remember, it doesn't sell. For the amount approved by the voters. Yeah. So, yeah, well, we'll see. But they went down in price, so that's a good thing. We talked about the second SRO and then I emailed this evening Captain Krantz because he did not attend. But they wanted some feedback from him on that and to make sure it's replaced or not replaced. They went through that when we did it the first time. We got a letter from a citizen about trees that they thought was school or city property and we found out it's not. So I'm going to let the citizen know that. And we talked about, oh, prom, hooray, graduation. And if they start
079getting calls to tell people or wait until April to see what the regulations change. So that we know because it was on the news today where he said you can have your 150 person wedding. But the venues don't know if that means they have to be quick tested the night of the event or you have to go four days in advance and prove that you're negative before you walk in or that kind of stuff. So we're going to get some guidance. It's going to be interesting to see how many people have immunizations because now they're saying if you're exposed to a positive and you're fully immunized, you don't have to go into quarantine. I read that and I want you to look into it. I have homework for you. So no, I have a sheet
080I'll send you that says you're fully immunized and you're past the 10 days or 14 days of your shot. You know, then you're at your 95 percent so you should be good. And you don't have to quarantine for the next 90 days. I did read that too. So after three months, I got a quarantine again if I come in contact. I'm telling you, it's just going to continue to change. Well, not only that, I'm curious about traveling. So I'm curious about their quarantine that they say if you go to Florida and you come back, so now you have to quarantine because who cares if I got exposed by Matthew or if I got exposed by somebody on a plane? What difference does it matter? You're exposed. I read the state travel guidance again today because
081I'm traveling in a few weeks. It still has nothing about vaccinations. Right? Because the vaccination was just Wednesday. Or excuse me. Yeah, it was last Wednesday. It was a week ago. Yeah, so who knows? I don't. Yeah, exactly. I got so excited because I thought I could travel. I don't know what I don't know. Yeah, because you're going to have that with teachers now. Oh, believe me. Mrs. Lynch and I are pulling out every last thing in our heads because they're coming up with all their ways to get around it. What if this? What if that? Right. And actually, the tracer is going to be the one that's going to tell you because when I was traced that tracers, the one that gave me the guidance because you know how they say 10 days. Yeah.
082Well, they started day zero. So why don't you say 11 days? That's what I said to her. Why don't you start at 11? Why don't you say 11 days quarantine? Why do you start at day zero? And in different counties are doing different things. Niagara County is totally different than Erie County. Yeah. In Kenaraugus County, they go in your driveway, and you have to go to the window and say hi to them. We need a motion to adjourn at 720. Is that occurring second? Second. Eric, all in favor? Aye. Aye. Oh, good. What is your date?