CHUFSD Board of Education Work Session 2/26/26

In 3, two, one, action. Good evening everyone. I'd like to call to order the February 26th, 2026 work session of the Crohn Free School District. Item 1.2 is approval of the agenda. Recommended action be it resolved. The board of education hereby approves the agenda as presented. So move second on the question. All in favor I I opposed abstaining. Motion carries. Item 1.3 board report which is a discussion. I'm actually just going to start with a president's report. So prior to the start of this meeting, trustee Oshiro and I held the first of two information sessions for prospective board of education trustee candidates. Three seats will be filled at the upcoming school board election and budget vote on May 19th. I would like to restate for purposes of transparency that these information sessions are an opportunity for interested community members to come forward and ask questions regarding the role and commitment of school board trustees. Most school boards throughout Wester Westchester County hold similar forums as does the Westchester school boards association. in turning to the three seats up for election, it has historically been the practice of this board to allow trustees the opportunity to inform the public regarding their intention to run for re-election. I will turn to my fellow trustees at this time should anyone wish to make a statement regarding their decision to seek re-election. I think we're ready. Thank you. I have been honored to serve the district for the last three years in my first term and and as speaking that I do plan to run for reelection for a second term. Thank you. Thanks. as Anaka mentioned, I've been honored to serve on this board for the past nine years and I will be seeking re-election for another time as well. Thank you. since we've been talking about length of tenure, in May, I will be completing my 28th year on the board. I am proud of my service over the years, pleased with what our district has accomplished and want to be part of our future work towards accomplishing even more of our goals and aspirations. So, I will be a candidate for election re-election in May. Thank you. Thank you all. Later this evening, we will be moving into executive session to provide Superintendent Walker with a midyear check-in regarding his goals in line with the board's established timeline leading up to the superintendent's annual evaluation. I will again remind the public that this is an annual process that starts with the development of the superintendent's goals which are presented in a public meeting in the fall and ends with the presentation of the superintendent's evaluation after the close of the academic year. We hope to offer thoughtful feedback. I want to thank our development committee and specifically the committee chair Anamica for instituting formal mechanisms to gather feedback from all trustees and to share with the superintendent. So as we take time to consider the superintendent's goals, I want to take a moment and remind my fellow trustees of some of the goals and commitments we made at the reorganization meeting at the start of this term in July. At that meeting, we each signed a school board member code of ethics exhibit which outlined our intentions for working together and respecting each other's opinions. We also agreed to specific governance norms as is this board's current practice. As new school board members, we each are informed of the governance principle of no surprises. a norm which is not unique to this board and actually is a foundation of good governance referenced in NISB's new member handbook specifically item 319 entitled how may I ask questions at board meetings and still adhere to the no surprises rule while I won't read the answer in its entirety guidance is to inform the board president and superintendent in advance of subsequent questions that will be asked for the purposes of discussion regarding best options to allow for the collection of data and information but most importantly to allow fellow trustees the courtesy of being prepared to conduct the work of the board for the public. So I will go back to Dr. VAS appointment to the role of assistant superintendent last meeting where board policy 9230 was referenced in relation to the recruitment process used by the district to fill the administrative position. Again for purposes I'm informing the public as I stated at the last meeting. There was a very thorough process developed by the district in consultation with board leadership and the full board. Dr. Dubac was recommended to the board by administration as a candidate for the position of assistant superintendent. This recommendation is made in accordance with the district's ongoing succession planning initiatives of which this board has been kept apprised at regular intervals. The district's intentions included ensuring overlap with assistant superintendent Griffiths, maintaining institutional knowledge, avoiding a costly search, and most importantly, keeping Dr. Dubac's talent and focus on the students in our district here in Harman schools. Each one of us trustees met with Dr. Dubac in person. Dr. Drew back presented a 13point plan during hours long meetings where trustees were able to ask thoughtful questions and received direct responses. My understanding was that each one of my fellow trustees agreed that Dr. Dubac was uniquely qualified for the position. I will again affirm that I am grateful she would continue to work within the system. Had I been aware that policy 9230 would be raised at the meeting, I would have taken the opportunity to prepare to discuss that policy and I would have asked my colleagues to do the same. Having now done so, it is my opinion that under policy 9230, the district is not required to conduct an external search, but rather the district is charged to implement and maintain a high quality recruiting and hiring program to attract, secure, and retain the best qualified staff. There is no specific requirement regarding interviewing multiple candidates or external candidates. After the meeting, it is my understanding the district took the initiative to ask legal counsel whether policy 9230 requires the district to solicit and interview multiple candidates or whether the district can identify and hire an internal candidate by promoting from within without conducting broader search. Excuse me. It's also my understanding that council provided the opinion that hiring an internal candidate without conducting a wire search does not violate policy 9230. This legal opinion could have been presented to the board and the public had this specific policy concern been raised in advance of Dr. Dubass. To reiterate, the district legal council offered the opinion that there is nothing in policy 9230 that precludes the district from promoting from within by identifying and offering the position to an internal candidate. This has certainly happened before in our district with the appointment of Carrie Bianke to principal from assistant principal CED. Michael Plain to the position of principal from assistant principal at PBC. Craig Campaniro took position of assistant principal from fourth grade teacher at CCT among others. At the same time, the district has searched externally to hire talented individuals such as our PPS assistant superintendent Rachel Depal, QVC assistant principal and now acting principal Nicole Kelly. Further, the district is currently recruiting externally for the position of principal at PBC. This clearly demonstrates that the district has long used a multiaceted approach to recruitment, retention, and succession planning and sees the value in offering opportunity for career growth to individuals committed to the work of the district for the betterment of our students. At our last meeting, instead of being able to engage in a thoughtful considered discussion of policy 9230, the public was left with confusion and what should have been a celebratory moment of appointing a devoted longtime building leader to a district level position was overshadowed. I want to apologize to Dr. Dubac who was here with her young family for not having advanced notice that would have prepared the board, the administrative team, and even Dr. Dr. Dubac herself for what could potentially have been discussed that evening. In closing, I'd like to share that this board worked closely with the district to develop a process that would offer more of an opportunity for trustee involvement in the hiring of such an important position. Something that had not been done up to this point in my tenure as trustee. In the past, trustees had been allowed a group meeting with new hires in advance of the board the board vote vote to appoint. These meetings were often informal and they often took place very late in the hiring process. In contrast, when trustees met with Dr. Dubac, she presented a 13point plan for her transition into the new role. She shared her philosophy and approach to education and the plans she had for the future, plans she hopes to share with the community in discussions this spring. So, I hope members of the community take away from all of this that there was an agreed upon process and that concerns raised regarding policy 9230 have now been reviewed by council and that the process did not violate that policy. And I also sincerely hope we will do better as colleagues to adhere to our established norms while building the community's trust that this board will always strive to do what is best for the students of this district. That concludes my president's report. So continuing into advocacy. Absolutely. So unfortunately advocacy was unable to meet on Monday during blizzard. and now that we're all finally dug out, we will be looking at rescheduling that meeting. I'm hopeful we can get that in next week. I know I sent around some dates, finalize that. but what will be on the agenda for that meeting will be a discussion of a proposed resolution regarding health and health insurance reserves, the establishment of health insurance reserves. and I want to thank Denise Harrington Cohen for working with us to help put together a a proposed a draft resolution there that we will be able to discuss an advocacy and then bring to the full board hopefully by our next meeting. I will share also that that was a it was also a topic of conversation at recent LAGC steering committee meeting as well in in terms of broadening that advocacy to from to a regional perspective and that was quite wellreceived and so I think lots of districts will be having similar conversations at their board tables as well. So that is what I have for advocacy.

• Thank you. Audit will be meeting on April 9th. April 9th. April 9th. Press calendar invite later. Development. board development provided a full update at our last meeting and has not met since. As you mentioned during your president's report, we will be conducting our midyear check-in with the superintendent on goals and other evaluation measures for the year. Communications communications has not met since our last meeting where we give a full update, but we will be meeting next week on so we'll have a report after that. And that's it. Policy policy met as I think we discussed on February 6th. We will be meeting tomorrow at 11:00 a.m. in the district office. we will be continuing discussion on commencing discussion on policy related to artificial intelligence. We will be going further in our discussions regarding other policies that will be in our queue for a period of time. I hope the March reading will have lots of new items for first reading. So that's basically a hint. Let's let's get a lot done tomorrow. I don't know if anyone has anything for liaison reports. The only thing for liaison reports and this really is not liaison but put in the worldies. Two things. One I got noticed today that at our March meeting the PNW student distinction from Croton will be honored. So I know that the district superintendent will be here. Nice. And the second thing is that the March 10th Bose's meeting will be at Bosey's new science 21 facility in Mount Kiscoco where a warehouse basically had been leased so that that that program could be moved off the Bose's campus and that space be repurposed for additional classroom space in the special ed area. So there will be more to report but we work 4:30.

• I just have some reports that were postponed from our last meeting due to the length of the meeting. So very briefly as the I don't remember if I spoke about this before so apologies if this is a repeat but as the board leans on to chef I had a great meeting with the chef leadership team and hope to be working with them and with my other colleagues who are serving as leaison to put together some sort of event that brings together all of our community PTAs service organizations and fundraising organizations so that we can think of ways to sort of brainstorm form as community organizations how we can work together better be a little bit more efficient with some of the things that we do that are the same and also work I think in greater coordination to support the schools. So more to come. Watch the space for another update. I'm not formally the leazison to the PBCPA but I did attend that meeting and they reported there that the PBC middle school dance second second annual was a big success. I think the students have really they've really made this their own and they had a really really fantastic time and it's great to see stu this was a student initiated project which I think you don't see happen quite so often at PBC so the fact that they were able to sort of organize galvanize support get parent volunteers get the get PBC actually to help support a lot of logistics was so great they had a really really wonderful time and they raised a tremendous amount of money for the PTA which is also really Right. the the last pieces that in my function as a board officer I attended a couple weeks back are one of our quarterly meetings with the village and just wanted to report because this is an issue of interest to the community and folks have come to us asking about it that we have began to engage in discussions with the village about looking into how we might consider returning to a composting program. and something that we had many many years ago. I think it sort of fell off during COVID. There's definitely been interest on both the part of the village community members and the district and students as well to bring back some of our sustainability efforts. So, there'll be some further news on that as well in the coming weeks. Not I want to be very clear, not news on anything happening yet, but on what it might require to put something like that together because everyone has interest, but logistics are always a challenge. So, that's all. I just had a quick update. again, I hadn't mentioned the last meeting just given the the length of the meeting. but I was able to attend the second meeting of the athletic advisory committee meeting. actually a really good robust discussion based on an article that I believe Neil shared with the committee chair about the students tending this trend of specializing in one sport that is leading to increased instances of injury. because there when you when you're focused on one sport, you're using generally the same muscles and and it can lead to an increased injury rate. So that is something that the committee is looking at that our our athletic director is looking at and we want to make sure that we're monitoring amongst our student athletes as well and thinking of ways that we can help combat that and and make sure that our student athletes are healthy and safe and and active. So thanks. Anyone else?

• So we will now move into our budget presentation from our transportation director and our director of facilities Joseph Bernardi and GR County in Cabland. Hey, good evening. So, tonight we'll outline our general budget, our transportation and facility budget priorities for the upcoming year. we have a full agenda. Oh, I got to do two things at once, too. So, Superintendent Walker will start us off by grounding us in our core mission and walking us through the vision map, which serves as our north star and our guide to all of our budget priorities and decision making. Next, Kelly Lind, our assistant business manager, will take the floor and review our essential organizational support numbers. I recall these kind of the guts of our organization. and she will cover our general support budget, benefits, debt service, and transfers. Following that, Joe Bernardi, our transportation supervisor, will provide an update on our transportation budget, detailing some of the costs that are associated with providing safe transportation for our students. then our director of facilities, Brad Kennedy, will review our facilities and grounds budget and give us kind of a retrospective look on what we've done thus far and some of our upcoming plans for the year ahead. And then we'll conclude the presentation by looking ahead at our upcoming budget meetings and opportunities for community and for support. So, with that, I am going to toss it over to our superintendent. I'm just going to preand that since I have you both here, I just want to thank you on behalf of the board and from all of our students. your teams have just handled this winter superbly. there aren't enough words to to say thank you. I mean, please thank all of the bus drivers who are handling these hairpin turns as the snow piles up and to to all of your teams who come and shovel and and salt and then shovel again and salt again. thank you. Honestly, our community really APPRECIATE really levelheaded people to talk to at 4:15. I I I was going to spare them the compliments. This is such an incredibly competent team. Yes.

• Between the closings and budget time, Kelly and I are on constantly. She is always there so incredibly confident and committed. Joe, Brad, I could not do what I do without them. They're just an incredible team. Thank you. Thank you all. Thank you all. Thank you. So, I just want to speak briefly as I do at the start of really every budget meeting. I realized today this is the fifth budget cycle I've had a chance to be a part of here. and I think as the board and community will see, this is by far the most challenging in terms of trying to navigate through the financial the fiscal realities that confront us and really all school districts at this point in time. And while all districts face similar challenges, I think we have a few things that have been foundationally built here that that are going for us that that make these processes a bit easier here. and one of them, of course, is outstanding leadership from our assistant superintendent for business, Denise. Another is a board of education that has been wonderful stewards of the budget and the the program here for years. and a third part of it is that we do have that driving document, that driving idea that helps us to make these kinds of really tough decisions. And one of the challenging parts of of any budget process in any year, but particularly in a year like this one is you have always so many competing, well-intended, wonderful ideas, and you can't say yes to all of them. And in fact, in years like this, you have to say not yet to almost all of them. but what you'll see I think not only tonight but throughout the course of the budget process is a a team that continues to come together grounded in the vision map and innovate so that we can we're able to genuinely say to the community we continue to add to the educational the instructional experience for kids even in a year like this one where we're not able to add to the people that that staff the buildings and staff our classrooms. So, I'm continue to be deeply gratified by the outstanding work and leadership of the entire team. I mean, the entire staff, the community, the board of education, and you'll hear from three of those outstanding leaders tonight. Looking forward to hearing these presentations. So, thank you.

• Kelly's going to kick us off with the general support, benefits, and debt service budget. Thank you, Steve. Thank you, Denise. This budget proposal for general support, benefits, and debt service represents the essential financial infrastructure that enables our daily educational mission by providing the necessary administrative oversight, sustaining a competitive and healthy workforce, and meeting our long-term facility obligations. We ensure a stable environment where students can thrive and the community's investment is protected.

• The first part of the budget covers board of education costs and the district clerk costs. These costs cover board meetings, policy implementation, and legal notices put out by the board. The district clerk's budget covers elections and public meetings, record keepings, foils, and conducting business on behalf of the board.

• The second part of the budget, chief school administrator, is our leadership, management, and supervision over the entire school system. Business and Administration is the district's financial resources and investment administration. Please note that these budget amounts from 2526 were pre-contract settlement from that year and the amounts for administration and other benefit agreements.

• Auditing is a necessary requirement. We have claims auditing that reviews our weekly payments. We have internal audit yearly which measures our annual efficiency and quality control. And we have annual financial audits that look at our financial status from external auditors. The treasurer position is to maintain the district's accounting records and investment funds. We have fiscal agents that help with bond anticipation notes and bonding and other debt instruments. We're looking at possibly an increase this year because the board could possibly bond the 26 27 depending on interest rates for our capital projects. Legal fees are for our attorneys for general counsel for any litigation that may arise, personnel issues, legal opinions, bond counsel and impartial hearings.

• The personnel department is the coordination of employee benefits, family medical leave, workers compensation, recruitment, cobra, lean advancements, and civil service compliance. Most of the increase in this budget category is from implementing our frontline central which is an electronic hiring software that external and internal candidates will be using when we hire. And we did have some reclassification of some items from other codes. Records management covers records retention and disposal in accordance with general municipal law. Public information services is our electronic communication system and website development. Central printing and mailing covers postage for written communications and public notices. It also includes all our printing and manage print services and our leases for all of the buildings. Postage did have a rate increase and we did add some new printers and copers with lease renewals this year. Central data processing covers the costs related to financial software, the internet, telecommunications, disaster recovery, backup systems, our unallocated insurance covers our property and casualty insurance, all of our vehicles, our student accident coverage. The increase on this line is mostly due to the estimated addition to all the coverage for our capital project updates from completion of that project. Kelly, if I can just jump in for a minute. So, sure. much of the work that was done over the past two years has been in a kind of it's called construction in progress mode. So we haven't it hasn't been incorporated into our buildings and grounds costs. So there have been tremendous increases in property and casualty insurance over the past 2 years. So now we're going to be bringing on approximately between 35 and $40 million of additional equipment and buildings and grounds enhancements. This is a projection. We are now in the process of trying to renew for next year a little bit earlier so that we can provide all that data to nicer. But this this amount could go up considerably, but we've we've provided you with an estimate at this point, but I will keep the board and everyone apprised of that number as we get closer. We have a meeting with next tomorrow.

• School association dues covers school memberships and regional, state and federal educational organizations. assessment judgments and claims is our annual sewer assessment and Bosey's administrative and capital charges Croton-Harmon's obligation for participating in Putin Westchester Boseies since a large portion of the district's budget is dedicated to personnel benefits are a critical tool for recruiting and retaining high quality educators and staff. Some of the items that relate directly to our staff are employees ERS retirement system and the teachers retirement system. ERS retirement contribution rate increased from 16.5% to 17.6% for the next school year. The TRS retirement rate did decrease from 9.65% down to 8.24. But the increase shown on that particular line is because we have an increase in salaries. Social Security and Medicare are also driven by salaries. Workers compensation, life insurance, unemployment, and disability are all New York State mandated. Hospital, medical, and dental insurance. The premiums have increased estimated at 5% for next school year. We are part of Hutton Westchester's self-insured cooperative and the cooperative is doing well compared to regular health insurance companies. So they're able to offer us a lower increase than most other insurance companies. Other benefits covers our CTA benefit trust fund which provides dental and vision for administrative and teaching staff. The other employee benefits covers buyouts for those who don't elect coverage with the district, mileage coverage, and also contractual reimbursement for vacation buyouts per the contracts for CSEA staff. Let's see. We went to debt service. Debt service is repayment of our bonds used for major construction or capital improvement projects. This debt is our fixed obligation of the value of the district's physical assets. We have a slight decrease because we have some debt from years past projects that are falling off. need to fund transfers from special need fund transfers from the general fund to support the cost of providing summer school for special education students in accordance with their IEPs. And the interfund transfer from school lunch fund is also a supplemental appropriation from the general fund to help support the child nutrition program.

• I think that is it for me. I will pass it on to Joe. Can we just We're going to stop and see if we have any questions, but we'll start with the questions. Just checking. Yeah. Question. Okay. I I have a couple. The first is I just want to point out with so everybody knows that the the Boseies amount that you that you talked about is just the contribution by our district to the administrative budget. Just to make clear in capital when we when our district uses proceed services for special ed or for CTE or for professional development those are charged not here and we will discuss that I'm assuming those in those parts of the budget presentations question about debt service which is the last thing mentioned said it's a slight decrease because some is rolling off. Our EPC is rolling off from our first ever EPC is rolling off. But what I'm wondering now is as the work that we have done and will be continuing to do at the last part of our most recent project moves from bond anticipation notes to actual debt bonds. How do you see that in the next few years affecting our debt service? How increase, decrease, right? And I know rates may change, but what do we think? So this includes both our bond anticipation notes and bans as well. So we can ban for another two years on our current capital project. If you recall in our previous project, we went to bond early because the rates were so favorable. I don't expect that that will occur now. We will probably do some short-term borrowing. but it's a possibility. It's a possibility. The the good news is is that we can structure our payments. we have some flexibility in structuring our payments so that we can try because remember we're always trying to keep a level capital exclusion under our tax cap. So we have the prior year capital exclusion and the current year. So we're always trying to keep that somewhat level so we can do that when we structure the ban and or the bond. I expect that it's probably going to remain somewhat stable for the next year or two and we have we're actually finalizing our long-term planning study which I hope to share with the board in the next few months and we'll have I'll have clearer numbers at that point as far as after the next two years.

• Thank you. And unrelated to that just don't understand in or what you're telling in your presentation you said with regard to bonding I think it's line item A1380.4 that the board may be bonding for capital improvements. So, we've proposed in the budget, we proposed in the budget $20,000 increase from fiscal agent. Oh, fiscal agent fees. Yes. Oh, so that's that's the fees. Those are the fees. The fees that we're talking about for to issue these council. so it's our fiscal advisor on council and they go. Yes. Okay. Thank you. And caveat to that is as our last EPC is rolling off, we will talk a little bit about tonight about the hopes of initiating a new EPC to cover the balance of what we had recommended about the second one. Thank you. I just have two questions. regarding the the legal fees, I'm wondering if some of those fees don't also that they also derive from having to have council overlook foil requests. Correct. Which we have we've had an increased number of. and then I guess my my last question is at a at a fall meeting with the village there was discussion by Brian Healey regarding formalization of some services that the district received from the village. Was there a formalization of that and did it result in any increased expenses? No, I think we had talked about possibly saying so we perform a lot of services for the village and vice versa. So I think the intent was to let's get everything on paper just so that we know for future leaders and so forth. But as it often does life and business takes over and those wishlist items such as that get kind of tabled. So we so we didn't proceed any further after that but we do have an upcoming village meeting which we can discuss that.

• Thank you. Those are like kind of like field maintenance and things like that. Yes. Yes. So trash removal maintenance of the fields. Field maintenance. they store our salt for the trucks for the snow. a lot of stuff we help each other out. I just wanted to know the discussion of formalization. I mean, from my perspective as a trustee, I was concerned that it would result in some increased expenses. So, yeah. No, we like with Spencer being offline during construction, we helped out the the village with the fields more so than usual, obviously, because we do the brunt of the damage on them. So we have the equipment that they don't. So anywhere we can help each other out. The banners, the athletic banners that are in the parking lot here, they have a bucket truck they stop by. So anything we can sort of do to help each other out, we try to. Very nice. Yes. And I really commend Brad for that because he has strong relationships and is very supportive of their needs and they are reciprocating as well. So John, go ahead. Thank you. Kelly. Thank you, Kelly. Thank you so much. Thank you. It's a dry but essential part. So, next I'll pass it to Joe. Well, let me begin by saying thank you, Denise, and thank you to all of you for the recognition. I know that our transportation staff would be very appreciative of that. Very appreciative. so let me begin by talking about the transportation proposed budget. as you can see we have a overall very modest increase 2.83% total. 80% of it going towards staffing contractual contractual being prom buses insurance techport training and conferences water supplies I'm sorry water sampling septic services drug testing county licensing and permitting etc etc etc. as far as fueling that's quite obvious and then software software bushive bushive is a program that we use in transportation to ensure that we're keeping track and testing everyone accordingly annually every two years. We have defensive driving classes that we give. We have behind the wheel testing. We have physical performance testing. goes on and on and on and Boss High helps us with that root finder which is our rooting program which helps us do our rooting and optimize what we can with that program and also license monitor. License monitor is another software program that we use which helps us to keep track of any issues with any licenses. We're actually notified by DMV through license monitor and that's not only for our transportation drivers but also drivers of vehicles in the buildings and grounds department. So we're able to keep track of that as well. and that pretty much is the overall one chart we have there. So, thank you, Jeff. So, I'll speak to this briefly and you jump in and talk a little bit about the vehicles.

• Sure. So, every April we approve the ballot propositions for our vehicle replacement needs. So, it includes any ballot propositions plus vehicle including vehicle replacement needs. So, for 2627 we are proposing the following vehicles. 166 passenger diesel bus, 130 passenger bus and a one SUV. those are current rates that we've been quoted now which by the time we actually order vehicles and purchase them, it is, a ways away. So we have to account for approximately 400,000. We'll up those figures a little bit just to make sure we've covered ourselves. In previous years, because of delays, because of changes in state contracts, we have had to absorb some of the costs in the general fund budget because we didn't estimate change enough. so, as you see, there is not a a eay bus on there this year. So, we are approaching and or at capacity at the bus garage and we've just installed five through our capital project, five fast chargers in addition to the other two chargers. but because of our limited electrical capacity up there, they are not functioning. They can't function as fast chargers. they can only function as like a a level one level one single level one single charger. So the speed at which they can charge vehicles is much lower than a fast charger. So we had a a a review and study done by Polar which Kelly I was a little bit hesitant initially when she recommended it. I got another electrification study. We've been through two and it was really invaluable. So, thank you. And we got some some good funding from it as well. So, we had kind of like a recap after the study of about two weeks ago. And the bottom line is we are really struggling with the chargers and the charging management system because of the size of our transportation department. On paper it might look good, but when Joe has to move 66 passenger buses around to get them into the charger and this has to occur during the day because we can't have staff at night charging these vehicles with these singlephase slow chargers. So they have recommended that the best thing to do is look at your existing chargers, look at the management system that we have because when we purchased that charging system, it was a ways back and technology is progressing so rapidly that it's it's a problem being the first adopter because we were we are leading the state as far electrification. we just had another presentation and throat was all over that presentation from Naerta and ASPO. but now we've had some real life experience and we're going to just pause for a moment with regard to purchasing another electric vehicle because of our capacity requirements. We have also we've had some struggles with the chargers themselves and their functionality. the buses having them sidelined for we we we're keeping very very close tabs on that.

• Yeah. And Joe you can speak to this as well but we are going with the recommendation that let's look at where we are today. We've also because of the costs of the electric vehicles we have slowed down our inventory purchasing. So we are kind of far behind and the lead time for electric vehicles is what what are six to 6 to 12 6 to 18 months. It took us a year and a half for our last one to come in. We still haven't gotten and we still haven't got it. We we had it and then there was an issue with it. Right. That was the one that we currently have in the fleet. Then we have another one that we purchased last year that we're still waiting for and we haven't gotten yet. Right. So the lead times are very long. We are short on buses. So we're going to pause here. I have a recommendation. It's very preliminary for usage of the transportation reserve fund to fund some overview of our charging capacity and long-term efficiency, reliability, etc. I have some concerns that we might not be able to utilize those funds. I'm waiting to hear back from bond council because it's a capital reserve fund. it's very restrictive as far as we might actually need a fullfledged plan in place in order to allocate those funds. But for now, preliminarily, we are going to see what we can do to kind of allocate some of those reserve funds to fund future work with the with the charging infrastructure. And can I just ask quickly with respect to the charging infrastructure? It's the Con Edison issue that we keep bumping into, correct? They haven't pulled the line out to the transportation depot. So, we can't use the chargers that we, we purchase high level chargers, but we can't because of the So, we have we have about 180 kilowatts available. we have 240, but the transportation department itself drains or uses about 60 of those kilowatts. So, and I act like I know what I'm talking about. I really this is way above my pay grade and and Brad and Joe you can jump in but we basically have about 180 kilowatts which is exactly where we are as far as capacity. and so the the other promising thing is that now the state has realized that this timeline that we have in place is far from sufficient that we they are going to need to extend that. So right now there's a zero emission bus waiver. that waiver which we have like locked and loaded to submit will carry districts and every district in the state is applying for this waiver and we expect that all will be granted it. That waiver pushes the deadline for purchasing EVs out to 2930. So, it's it's a 2-year waiver that will be for the 26 27th school year and we'll push us out to 2930. So, we're going to we have that all completed and we're just going to wait for the final go ahead and submit that as well.

• And there's no word from KED regarding windmill. No, in the there was a bus EV bus commission presentation on Monday on snow day and they said that you're talking 36 months. And whether or not we would be prioritized, I would say we would probably not be prioritized considering how far along we are compared to other school districts. I also just want to say we heard that 36 months ago. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. So what I understand is although we see it on this slide the first of the two I guess we call them bullets but they have stars are that's really may not even be proposed and that's going to depend on whether what you want to what you identified as areas that that money would be used for. We're not even sure we can use the transportation capital reserve for that. Right. So that may not be related. I do have a question for Joe and mainly one of the things that I read and I forget where I saw it a recent I think it was a statement by certain school district upstate that said that what they had found was that the reliability on a cost per mile basis or rather the cost per mile for operating ating electric buses was much higher than for a diesel vehicle. And I know one of the things that we had heard of the things that kind of told us to go in this direction was not withstanding the feeling was okay the cost of the electric vehicle will be higher but the operating costs will be much lower. So in the end, you break even. From your experience, thinking both in terms of reliability, how much it's off the road, they're off the road and and an operating, you know, what you found as an operating cost. How do you see that? because that kind of will help, help us understand what, you know, how we f, you know, how we were going into this and whether so our our first Yeah. vehicle we received in 2021 in October, 2022, I'm sorry, in October. And from that point, that particular vehicle from then to now has been off the road for approximately 380 days out of four years. the other vehicles that we've received to date, in total, as we received each one each year, we're looking at close to 600 days that these vehicles have been off the road. as far as reliability, especially in this cold, cold winter that we've had not being able to use the full fast chargers, we're not able to charge the vehicles quickly enough in order to maintain the amount of mileage we need. In order to heat the vehicles, we have to keep these vehicles at a certain temperature for the students on the bus. And if we're using that much heat on these vehicles, we're not able to keep the temperature. The batteries are draining way too quickly. as far as the chargers, we're looking at a total number of hours since the beginning of December that the charges have been out. We're keeping very very close track on a day-to-day basis of the buses being used, not able to be used, and then the chargers as well. So, it's it's become very costly because what's happening is we're spending an exorbitant amount of money on older vehicles that are more reliable. we're talking about 11, 12, 13 year old vehicles that should have been replaced in the past, that we haven't replaced. And we're just putting more and more money into these vehicles. They don't forget, they have to be DOT approved. We have to make sure 100% safety on every single vehicle. So, yes, it it is overall costing us more to keep these to operate the materials. So the total cost of ownership. So you have to keep in mind the cost of the vehicle less the rebate cuz that's like your starting point. And then you look at the mileage that you're using. We're a small district. We knew that going in that we're not going to get the mileage and the payoff that we would because we're our roots are much smaller. So we we've been using them for longer trips when we can, but the the total cost of ownership for EV buses at this point is negative. It it it it cannot compare to a diesel or a gas bus because remember the chassis the the the the main bus itself is still the same bus as a as a diesel bus. they rot and deteriorate because of all the salt and snow etc. So that chassis is only going to have its lifespan. Then we also have batteries. Batteries we don't know the status of EV batteries yet for for school buses. It's still too new. They're saying seven 7 to 10 years. That's what they're projecting. batteries can cost $200,000. So if let's say our let's say seven years down the line our batteries go, we know we're only going to have maybe five years of the chassis left. Do we then want to put another $200,000 into the batteries? So, we're looking at all of that, kind of pausing, assessing, and in the meantime, other districts are moving forward. Technology is advancing. So, we'll we'll take it from there. But cost of ownership of EVs is is not where many have said that it is even with Denise. Quick question because I know last year or the year before, right, the state implemented some larger some more ownorous reporting measures on a lot of this information to start gathering that information. Is the these hour like the the hours of them being down and all of that is that part of the reporting that the state is seeing and is that an area if and if not is that an area where we should be also focusing some of our advocacy efforts and and as we have these discussions.

• So as far as I know there are no specific reports or reporting to to the state education department or anything to I don't recall any of that. Not down time. The only thing that they do require us, for instance, the first two vehicles that we received, 170 and 171, they're requiring us to use those for a certain number of miles per year in order to keep the NAERTA grant over the 5 years, first 5 years. And unfortunately, we haven't been able to we have reported that we haven't been able to keep up with that 8,000 miles for the year because obviously, as you saw, those vehicles are are, costing us a lot of downtime. So, they are receiving that information through NAERTA, but I don't know how far that's getting once it's received there. I just I think that's like it's an important additional aspect to to add in as we continue to have these discussions with the state in terms of this the deadlines and this timeline for further transition because if that is the case right that's that hampers a lot of districts and they do know that there have been some recent EV study reports and that was the that was one of the number one issues besides charging capacity infrastructure and facilities and downtime. Also, there's another grant is it's not the deer grant. It was it's an EPA school bus EV school bus grant that we had we have applied for every year and 2024 they decided not to award them. 2025 nothing is being awarded. Now they're pushing it to to 2026 kind of 27 school year and they have an open comment period now where you can communicate district needs and challenges. Part of that is they are redefining what is included in that grant. So it used to be just zero emission school buses. Now it's alternative fuels. So now they're label they've been very vague in in what they shared or general but they're saying now they're offering the option of alternative fuel vehicles. Alternative lower emission fuel vehicles like natural gas and hydrogen hydrogen propane.

• yeah. And you also have to think about if we were to go go in that direction, infrastructure is evolved there. Propane tanks and or whatever because we have our own tanks at at the bus garage tank. So that would require alternative fuels, alternative fuel availability at the transportation garage, which is so just to touch on that, the village DPW moved up next to the transportation department. And from my understanding, they intended to put their fueling facilities up there and being that they were next to the reservoir, they ended up having to put them down across from the Dodge dealership there and they weren't able to get those permits. Just as a point of reference, So I do just want to also just touch upon it in terms of the challenges. We've had challenges with mechanics also, have we not? Well, the it it's like a a completely different beast. But I will say and I I will commend Bird Bus. They they opened up their facility in Yorktown and thank goodness for that because it's right around the corner and they're very responsive. but again it is new technology that hasn't been perfected yet. They're actually finding things out from us for our usage of their electric vehicles. They're and they're making alterations to certain things due to the fact that we're reporting to them what these issues are and they're making changes because of the vehicles that we're using putting it through a statewide database, right? Yes, absolutely. I mean a nationwide database so that they can learn from our experience. One of the things also that they did notice was definitely not expected the wearing of the back tires. The dual wheels the tires are wearing out very very quickly. I'm not sure why they're not sure why. if it's a torque, if it's the way the u the automatic braking affects the the tire, but we're looking at having to replace tires more often.

• Well, so that's another expense that no one expected. And the additional expense of not having a reliable vehicle, right? Like that's the biggest issue there is that you're putting students on these buses. Yes. And and I have to say the safety of your drivers. Yes. I I was going to say the mechanics, they're under so much stress trying to get DOT. again, we're we're working on a close to 100% DOT rating. And in order to keep that rating, which they strive for, we have to have access to these vehicles and we have to be able to use them. and if we can't use them, there's they're missing DOT inspections, so they're being pulled off the roads, and it's it's very stressful. Very stressful for the for the mechanics and again for the drivers. The drivers get into the vehicles in the mornings, and because of the slow charging, they're freezing. They're freezing. I have emails from drivers. Instead of coming in to talk to me at night, they'll go home and they'll send, an email. So, I just wanted to let you know, when I got in the bus this morning, it was absolutely freezing. I had my co I had a hat I had and my clothes and so it's it's it's very very stressful stressful but we've made huge progress honestly I I don't want to put 100% negatives hey we learned a lot is learning a lot other companies are learning a lot from from it but that's how we learn and my phone doesn't stop ringing Well, I think at the district we were also just taking the governor's timeline seriously and we were trying to be proactive for sure. So, and honestly, I I I am proud that we did what we did because we we are definitely ahead of any other district. I talked to other transportation supervisor every Yeah. And the other transportation supervisor was telling me, "Oh my gosh, we have five five buses." Yeah. So they're they're shocked. So yeah, it's we've been good. It's been a good learning experience. And again, we received we were the first recipients of very large grants for each of these vehicles. So, just to reiterate the vehicles that were purchasing, Joe, could you just talk a little bit about the vehicles themselves and and Well, sure. The the 66 passenger diesel. Well, obviously that's that's basically what that is. The 30 passenger, we use the 30 passengers very often for getting into tight spots, maneuvering. we also found that in those areas these culde-sacs and the areas that we're turning around we're picking up more students. so instead of having maybe like a 20 passenger, we have to use the 30 passenger to get in there because we've got now 26 kids, not 18. So 30 passengers are definitely better and it's able it makes it able or we're able to reduce bus routes by adding more students onto those into those areas and onto those buses. So that's why we go with the 30 and then of course the SUV hybrids. we're going with those mainly because any out of district students that we're transporting, maybe we're taking one or two children to a specific school 20, 30, 40 miles away, whether it be special ed or, 10, 15 miles away to out of district schools, private parochial, one or two children in an SUV as opposed to 20 or 30 passenger vehicle that may be available at the time. So, that's why we picked. So both of these provisions whether we're talking about the vehicle purchases those will be allocated out of current year fund balance appropriations. So there is no tax impact and the if we are able to move forward with the transportation reserve that is a reserve so there is no tax impact in the 2627 school year and no borrowing implications as well. Okay. Would if if we're able to do that though, we would need to put that on as it would need to go on the ballot. It would be Yeah. Okay. where we go and what we do, our buses drive nearly 500,000 miles annually. we transport over,00 students transported daily to 20 different schools. We have 17 out of district schools and then of course our three schools. and then of course our daily and athletic and class trip events. we actually have a trip coming back tonight, right?

• Yes, we do. We have the coming back from Spain this evening. So finally quite an excursion. Hopefully they're hopefully they're on the buses and on their way back. as far as mileage guidelines, nothing has changed as far as that. K through 4, 3/10en of a mile or more, they get bus transportation. grades 5 to 12, 9/10 of a mile or more, they also do. And then we transport, as I just mentioned a few minutes ago, non-public schools up to 15 miles. So that that like the Hardy school or the Hackley school, the private schools, within within a 15 mile range. And we measure from the base of the person's driving where it meets the road to the drop off location in the school. So we are fair and equitable to everyone. We use the same standards every time we measure. As the crow flies though, right? As the crow flies. It's not as the crow. It's not. It is the most direct vehicle route from point A to point B. Challenged. Well, no, we we did have an issue. We had an issue years ago when we used the front door of this school, high school, and used the front door of PBC. And then there were some students who could get transportation to one school but their sibling could not get to the other school. So that's why we changed it to be a common point somewhere in the back of the school. So we're counting everything from to be equitable. We've also had situations in the past when some people kids live more than 15 miles from a private school JFK high school and some kids live less than 15 miles. And there was a question as to whether we could transport the children who live more than 15 miles. And we basically came to the I guess solommonic decision that if we were transporting anyway because we had somebody within 15 miles we would take that course who that student who is outside of 15 miles. So it's a formula. It's very precise but it's also one that we try to work with families to make sure that we can accommodate them when we can.

• Do you do that? I mean I I will say it's not too much that I do that but the board actually had to deal with that and come up with those solommonic solutions long time and that that that's one of the reasons why we do from the basic drive where it meets the road to the drop location because there's no question that as far as the measurement. Next slide. I'm going to skip to our vehicles first. obviously we have 58 total vehicles as stated. 1766 passenger buses. Out of those 17, four of them are electric with the fifth one on the way. 26 mini buses and caravans and then four SUV hybrids. 11 trucks and trailers that we maintain for buildings and brands as well. And then of course the Toyota Prius hybrid which is our male facility truck. the reason why I wanted to go back to the full service the garage and different department as I was mentioning to Denise recently we say a full service garage and it sounds well it's great full service garage but the scope of a full service garage is so much more than just a full service garage. And I I think it's important that everybody understands just how much these mechanics actually do. so I just wanted to give, a couple of couple instances. So we've got a bimonthly 60-day preventive maintenance cycle. So we do a 60-day preventive maintenance cycle on every single one of our vehicles, whether it be a caravan, an SUV, big bus, 30, 20, whatever it may be. A 60-day preventive maintenance performed on all of them. we do engine and transmission fluids, gas, diesel, brake systems, hydraulics and air, steering, suspension, drive line inspections, lubrications, diesel fire heater, HVAC systems, diagnostic scanning and software, tire inspections, wear monitoring, undercarriage cleaning, corrosion control. we had our obviously our six-month DOT school bus inspections. every bus is inspected, every vehicle is inspected twice a year. we have of course our New York State emissions and safety standards that we need to follow the capacity and after treatment compliance inspections. boy oh boy, the list goes on. I could go on and annual vehicle lift inspection certification. We have air compressors that we use and maintenance on those. fire suppression systems, EV charging, the infrastructure we know, the fuel system, safety compliance, OSHA guidelines that we have to follow and of course the stocking of all of our mechanical opponents components, electrical components, lubricants, fluids, cleaning agents and again I don't want to bore you with that but I just wanted to make it known that again full service garage is more than just oh full service car that's only a portion a small portion of what these folks are are really doing and and I have to give them so much credit for what they do every day es and again of course with the staffing issues that we have we've had they are really really working hard to get these buses safe and on the roads every single day and then as I mentioned earlier exceptional dot rating last year we had a 95 I believe it was 95. prior to that it was 100. Right now, as we stand for this year, it's 100. As of today, every vehicle has passed inspection. From the beginning of July through now, our next rating will be in May. So, I'll keep you posted. I already discussed the twice monthly DT. Again, the six spare vehicles. We're running into some issues with that. But again, Denise mentioned that earlier. we are falling a little short on our inventory of vehicles due to the past few years with the EVs. So again we're we're working through it. We're getting through it. Get those things back and forth every day. So come on to the next quick.

• I'm going to go back to what quick question. the with the addition of the the three buses that we're proposing or the three vehicles that we're proposing for through current year appropriations, would we be retiring any or is that just are we just adding? we we're looking to add we would like to retire but we can't. Okay. and the reason because I know I know that cushion on the six gets so one of our vehicle 131 we are actually going to be scrapping for the 184 the new EV that's coming in. That one will be going 129 is in a little bit better condition than 131. So that's why we're scrapping 131. so one one how how do I want to say it? We want to keep 129. It's 12 years old. we usually retire them at 10. It's already two years over and above, so we may be spending a little extra in order to keep it on the road to keep it up to, DOT guidelines, but it's reliable. And that's that's I have to go with it's reliable right now. It's a diesel vehicle and it's working pretty well and and presumably it body is in such cases and the body will pass. It is in decent shape. It will certainly pass. Again, the corrosion control they use the the I'm not sure. Thank you. Thank you. The pressure washer underneath they actually clean the under the bus. I it it I stand out there sometimes and I'm watching what they're doing. I watched them drop a chassis out of a van this morning and I was like, "Oh my god, this is but yeah, they're they're Yes. Great. So, we'll we'll net increase of two then we'll scrap one and then we'll scrap one and then we'll keep that one if that's just one diesel." Okay. what Denise said earlier about me and Kelly and Brad and how she couldn't do her job without us. Well, I can't do mine without this group of people right here. So, we have a head bus driver. First time in 15 16 years head bus driver. And again, thank you guys so much for proving that because his name is Tre Fox. He does a phenomenal job. He he has learned every program that's required to do our invoices and vision, our budgeting. we work so closely together on that. He's our trainer. He does our 19A. He he really does a phenomenal job. Our drivers, our drivers, I can't say enough about our drivers. They like you have mentioned earlier making these hairpin turns in these roads that have been, condensed down to one lane. It's incredible. the monitors helping them out and, being there for the kids and for for the the drivers to support them. the dispatchers, they do a great job. They're also drivers. it it takes a real real special person to be able to get these children back and forth to school every single day. And that I just can't say enough great things about them. and I already boasted about our mechanics. So again, it's just a phenomenal team and I'm so appreciative to be here working with them. I really am.

• Well, we you were one of the few school districts that were not short on drivers. That is true. Has so much to do with the culture that it really does. And yeah I I I don't even want to jinx myself, but there are days where we have four or five additional people that can drive if needed. And I'm talking about our two dispatchers, our head bus driver. but we have all our mechanics, mechanics and mechanic drivers. So we have all of these people that are more than willing to jump in if needed. So luckily when everybody shows up they can do what they need to do and the drivers do what they need to do. So it's really it's really a great great group. I just want to add and I know I've said this before that one of the things that I am so pleased and proud of with our transportation department is the care that each and every member of the department has for the students of the district and the fact that they are really part of the the fabric of the social emotionality education ational services that we provide for our students. And I just, I I don't know if we can't say it enough how how thankful we are that we have a staff that em embraces that role. So they're really part of all of us. I I can't speak either, but thank you. I don't know if you can back on that because I noticed certainly with the the girls varsity basketball team lots of times we'll see other drivers sitting in their buses and our drivers always get out and cheer on our our student athletes. so I I do again think back on what Denise was saying I do think it's a testament to the department that you run and the culture that you foster there that we haven't had shortages as other districts have. Other districts have really struggled. and to to a financial impact because they've had to pay significantly more and the students ultimately suffer. So, thank you so much.

• Thank you. Yeah. And we didn't get into it too much in this budget presentation, but the degree of training and professional development that you provide them, I think, makes makes a huge difference. Hey Joe, just look at that picture and see some obviously wonderful familiar faces. But did the transportation center get an upgrade? yeah, your facilities probably.

• Okay. departmental efficiency. So transfinding pro-implementation. I know I've mentioned this before. I'm going to mention it again. the fact that we were able to access Infinite Campus and combine the two to speak to each other has made such a difference in transportation. We are able to communicate with families and emergency situations. even we're going to be running 10 minutes late the bus we had switch buses very simple to just go in there send an email out through Rootinder. if parents need or even that schools need to go into infinite campus, they can find every student with their bus morning and afternoon, what animal they may be on. private, parochial, special ed, anyone and everyone is able to access that information. And that's all due to us being able to have the two programs speak to each other. And again, I've said it before, it's really made a big difference in the department. and it has made things so streamlined and so much easier with communications. stop on cameras. Oh, we are thrilled. We are thrilled to have stoparm cameras. they're just about all installed. we have, it says six. They installed three over the past two days. So, we have three more that need to be installed. the the drivers are so happy. It's it's giving them such a sense of safety and validity knowing that we care that and they care. And that's what that's what the whole idea behind this is. I I was getting drivers coming into my office consistently day after day. Had another bus go through my lights. Had another sorry, another car go through my lights. Another vehicle went through my lights. and we always had to fill out physical forms and send them to the police department. Now everything is done automatically for us. It's on video for us. They also provided us with interior video which makes it safer for the kids, makes it safer for the driver monitor, makes it safer for everyone so we can keep an a watch on what's going on on those vehicles. So this was definitely a a positive thing that we did. At least that's how we feel in transportation. reciprocal reciprocal transportation agreements. we have a reciprocal right now with HUD. As you can see, each shared bus run saves over $40,000 for each district. There are some years that we will do transportation for a district. other gears that they will do for us. Go up, that's why it's called co-op transportation. we have our OS fuel contract. We have our automation of our 1980 reporting. that again has become another issue that is is phenomenal. Now that is all automated. It's so much easier to keep track of testing. it's so much easier for us to send this information to the state education department to the department of motor vehicles. automation is fantastic and again it's it's doing wonders for the department root optimization that's through route finder transfinder we have been able to save three or eliminate I should say three bus routes over the past two years just by being able to use that route optimization and again it makes it very convenient for us to go in pull up all the routes see where the students are notice that hey we can take a couple of students from here, put them on this route, take a couple of students from here, put them on that route, and eliminate this particular bus. So, we're able to do that. We do that annually. We we look at it and if it can be done, we do it. If we think that we're going to run into some issues, we hold off on it. But yeah, the optimization that that's very very helpful. And again, that's refiner. And here you'll see some of our team building events. that picture that you were talking about with the phenomenal bus garage that's in the background there that that actually is the Sy in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. That was our very first outing that we had. That was our first team building event. we had a phenomenal time. It was it was great. one of our bus drivers, most of Janice, she painted that mural at the busy yard. That's the show that we went to see Noah and we're that was again our first team building event and May 22nd of this year we're going on our second team building event. So I want to keep that going. It really builds camaraderie with the group. We get in a bus, we travel, we're all together and hey it's nice little family there.

• Rachel wants to know if you need any shop. Absolutely. You're more than welcome. Have you been there? Hi. It's beautiful. then in the center there, you'll see this was our most recent holiday event, Christmas New Year event. again, had a great time. Many people, including administrators, were able to make it and we appreciate you coming and joining us. and then of course our recent Thanksgiving gathering. not to mention, not pictured here, our refresher programs that we have twice a year. One is coming up on Friday and then we have our CPR training going on on Monday, the following Monday on the 9th, superintendent conference day. And yeah, that that pretty much covers all of our fun throughout the course of the year. Thank you very much. Any questions? Thanks. Thank you so much. We interrupted you during our questions. Mr. Kennedy. Okay. Thank you for having me so I can tell you all about our great department. thank you to Denise and Kelly for helping navigate through the the whole budget process here. we're going to start off with our our pie chart. we have an overall increase of around 2.4%. salaries account for basically 40% of it. U we have contractual services which are up by roughly 10% driven by vendor rate increases, material inflation. we also through the future facilities project added the kitchen at the high school which has equipment service and maintenance, grease traps, hood fire inspections. We also added a freight elevator to the basement, an ADA lift to the stage which requires service and annual inspections. our equipment line is up slightly and that includes plan truck and equipment replacement cycles. Our fuel is down, which is diesel fuel for our backup generators for the buildings. they run weekly to test. we haven't had, knock on wood, any power outages. so we were able to bring the so so diesel costs have been down. the electric there's a $100,000 reduction which represents 17%. we had budgeted for the Spencer Field service upgrade as part of the future facilities. So we we didn't need to budget for that again this year. And then water. We are up slightly because we replaced a water meter that is very highly accurate. And I think the village is getting us for a couple extra dollars. then moving on here we have you're good.

• Yeah, I'm good. Everyone's good. our team here. So facilities office obviously director facilities office assistant we have part-time mail carrier there's the maintenance and ground staff we have two maintenance mechanics two custodians who are assigned to the grounds department and cover grounds and athletics each one of the schools has a head custodian day one day custodian two night custodians and one night cleaner and then we have our part-time and seasonal staff which would be subcustodians as well as our high school summer helpers, which is a great thing. We've actually had people who I I was a high school helper. I was a sub custodian then, but we we do have people who made it through all the ranks. So, so Brad, before you go on on that slide at the bottom, we see that you covered over some of the plans for the new elementary school in Pro Hudson. Yes, Neil. So, I like history. So, we had our template slides and some of them had white backgrounds and I figured being that it's the facilities department, I should find some some blueprints or something to add in as the background there. So, yes, those are actual original drawings from from and so you would think that's CCT, it's actually PVC. When PVC was built, it was an elementary school or I I believe it was actually K through eight at the time, but that is actually a PVC original drawing. Yes. Says our school historian December 14, 1938. Yes. So, so this past year we had a couple promotions. Ishmail took on the role of C head custodian and we had Mike Haney who took on the role of the high school head custodian when Greg left. We have new hires. We have Laura Anderson who came from being part-time up at transportation and she has come to the better place at the facility here.

• All right, I'm leaving. And then we have John Hero, high school night custodian. Peter Perez, PVC cleaner. Chris Callahan, PVC night custodian, and Gerald Blackwell, CT cleaner. the both John and Peter u were, I'm sorry, Peter was a a sub that worked his way into a role. and both John and Peter are Croin alumni. So obviously there's training we do throughout throughout the year. this past December we did some Boseisled training on lockout tagout confined space awareness SDS chemical inventory and spill response. it was an all day training session put on by Boseies under one of our coaster agreements. POSI is a a great partner and resource for safety and support stuff throughout the year. I don't know, I don't know if you deal with Franklair, but he's a great a great asset and I've talked to him a bunch. so now we have some snow stacks here. So, on the slide has sort of a breakdown of our sidewalk, staircases, and parking lots throughout the district. big picture overall, we have about 1.7 miles of sidewalk and stairs and 5.4 acres of parking lots and driveways. So when we get an inch of snow and it's like, do you have a 2-hour delay? Do you not have a 2-hour delay? There's 1.7 miles of stairs and sidewalk that have to get cleared and salted. And so I did some calculations based on just the two big snowstorms we had. And between all the buildings, we clear the guys cleared almost a million cubic feet of snow. So if you put that in into perspective, if you covered Spencer football field with all that snow evenly, it would be covering the entire field 20 ft tall. So that's how much snow these guys have moved in just those two snowtorms alone. That's the equivalent over,800 triacal dump truck loads worth of snow that that they've handled in those two storms. just beautifully, I might add. Not like cutting any corners like parking lots and everything. I mean, I walked through safe, the the storm, what was it yesterday? I don't know. It all blends together. You know, like we got maybe an inch and a half or so of snow and it's all like perspective. So, beginning of the year for a snowstorm, inch and a half of snow, everyone's like, "Oh my gosh, like how can you have this?" You know, after 22 in of snow or so, an inch and a half, we didn't even have to come in. We could have just, it's all perspective.

• The temperature for midday. Yeah, it'll melt. So, moving on. This is sort of an overview of our buildings. we operate nine buildings across three campuses, almost 400,000 square ft of interior building space and 50 acres of land that require year-round care. we have two additions as part of the future facilities project. We have the concession stand at Spencer Field with the bathrooms as well as the press box. and then we moving on. So our maintenance team, their work responsibilities, we cover everything. HVAC, plumbing, electric, electrical, carpentry, windows, security, cameras, whiteboards, tiles, floors. Basically, you name it, we are somehow involved with it. So that I mean, Brad, that image is Oh, so I'm sorry. Yes. So over there, that picture, I don't have the exact date. Neil, maybe you have some more info on this, but roughly obviously the high school is around 1924. I don't know the exact date. Looking at the picture, it appears that there's construction related materials on the site. So, I would imagine it's pretty close to the actual original construction. any no the con I mean the construction was done in 26 or 2 26 but I'd imagine it was done enough closer to 26 because there's not a lot of of work yes see being done in the trees and and actually for for reference the goko trees are in front of the building and pretty mature We need a podcast. This is the kind of content you get every Okay. And so the the school district facilities are constantly evolving to better serve our school community. over the past two decades, we've made s thoughtful and strategic investments through multiple capital projects, including the most recent future facilities capital project. These projects have dramatically increased the building footprint and assets and systems we maintain, resulting in improved environments for teaching and learning, athletics, extra curricular and community events and use. As a department, our core responsibility is to maintain these valuable assets responsibly, ensuring safe operation, reliability and longevity. So, some of the things and I'll touch more on air conditioning, but we added the last cap or I think it was last capital project, the PVC kitchen and CCT serving area. This project we added the high school cafeteria or kitchen as well as the cafe. down at Spencer we have the press box which has HVAC, ice machines, bathrooms. We have put in a tremendous amount of bottle filling stations and water fountains which all have water filtration on them. technology wise there are Prometheian boards, TVs, just technology everywhere. We have badge access with the elect electronic door locks. We have sports cameras all of which need maintenance break and we're involved with last minute we have a football game and the camera's not working or so we respond to all those types of events. we have contracted services. So, our facilities department handles a tremendous amount of day-to-day maintenance in house, but for specialized high expertise regulatory required work, we we rely on carefully selected contracted services. These contracts ensure compliance with safety codes, manufacturer warranties, health standards, and efficient operations while allowing our team to focus on more core responsibilities across our nine buildings. So, here's sort of an overview of some of the things we contract out for. HVAC, we have a building management system, which is very complicated. And luckily, we've used Clean Air. They've won our bid for the past, I think it might be the third time, including renewals. So, they've been here a long time, and the guys have really good relationships with Manny, who's the programmer. So they get him on the phone and he'll be, on some other site and he'll log in remotely and he he's helped us out a ton which is very very valuable. but tree services, cleaning the gutters of PVC, certain things we aren't equipped to do. And to the right there is a picture of PVC under construction with scaffolding there around 1939. picture taken from the corner as you pull in from Larkin I believe. Is that from my house?

• From your house. Yes. thank you for that. And then we have so obviously we have done a lot of capital work through the future facilities project but we also did work outside of that when we had a little time time on our hands. So, we did a little refresh to the high school gym, which was a paint job, school colors, we put a video board in, in coordination with, the technology department, shot clocks, scoreboards, a whole bunch. Thank you. Thank you. A whole bunch of stuff there. that was both contractors who did that as well as Nikki was involved. doing some in-house work so we didn't have to contract it out. We also put in the high school trainers room which is a long time coming. we relocate some case work inhouse. We painted put up some walls and doors and gave them a space that they could use trying to find spaces out of nowhere. So can I just ask about that in terms of your budget necessarily but I haven't seen it. What's the equipment that the trainer has? What kind of tables or other Neil? I believe we if we fast forward down here to the timeline the what is that March 12th Christine will be here and she can she go a little go a little deeper on that. I'm not sure. Okay. okay. So then going here, we did up at the bus garage, we did a little some upgrades both contracted in and inhouse. We did a or we we contracted an epoxy floor. we had a new bus lift installed. Mickey did new LED lighting. He did air compress new air compressor and air piping. And he also added additional electrical outlets and relocated some stuff with the mechanics reorganized. so we just completed that. But turned out absolutely amazing up there. Really impressed with that. And I I believe the guys are liking it up there, right Joe? They're loving it.

• Yeah. So then So moving on. So we I I sort of being that I like history, I tried to pull some pictures and I have to do a better job doing before pictures, but we sort of throughout the past two years, it was all progress photos of where we are at the moment. So I tried to pull the oldest pictures or original pictures I could find of the spaces to compare them where they are now. So here's the auditorium which was original to the building more than 100 years ago. Over the decades, it's seen various renovations to keep pace with changing needs. Most recently, we did a major modern modernization which included upgraded stage lighting, audio system, technical infrastructure as well as aesthetic refresh and obviously the architects took care to preserve the original features and historical character there. and then we go we have the cafeteria. So the existing cafeteria space that was renovated was part of the high school edition which happened around 2005. the new se or I shouldn't say new section where the kitchen part is and the additional cafeteria space was originally the main gym and it was converted to an auto mechanic shop in 1958 when they put the the currently main gym on they they got rid of that gym and it became the shops and in and when they did that they put a second floor cuz the gymnasium was tall. So, the ILC is actually the second floor of the original gymnasium. And we'll get to a picture there in a second. You can see the the wood and and then in 96 they turned the shops into classroom spaces. And it was origin I I don't know if it ended up being this, but the drawing show they had ceramics, technology, and drafting in those classrooms. all all taught by one teacher.

• Okay. And then it became probably around 12 or so is when video production studio or suite went in there with a grant from no Sandy was it Sandy Gay? Yeah. Yeah. And then Roy who was state senator Lel. So, little bit of history there, but you can see in the photos. So, the photos are actually pretty close perspectives as far as like point of views from the original and then to to current. and then so the the ILC like I was saying that the wooden ceiling on the left side there was the original gym ceiling that you would have seen and then there was a catwalk that existed around the outer perimeter and there's a picture I was trying to find but I couldn't. So that floor was added. and that's that was around 1958. And then they had six classrooms which obviously we knocked all the walls down. And now we have the ILC with the glass walls and all of that. then we have the music room which was built in around 1975. It was an addition and that was at the same time that they did the bump out on the stage. So currently the stage sticks out about 15 ft from where the curtain is. The original stage ended at the curtain. So when they did the music room edition, they bumped out the stage as well. So you can see what's going on there. Then we have PVC student support suite. So originally that was a kindergarten classroom when the the school was built. and then later it turned into a science classroom and is now student support. And then we have flex which was the original main office, principal office and teachers room. And then when the addition to the school was put on, it briefly was the facilities office and then it was turned into the guidance suite. You're shaking your head, Neil.

• Yeah. Wasn't that where where the flex program Sue Lewis and so on and then Sue they were upstairs in the locker room and they came down to to there. Then obviously we have the the PVC courtyard outdoor learning. so the addition is where the library and main office are. There used to be a road that went up to access the back of PBC and the high school field used to be able to have a full football field. They played football back there, but due to cutting off the access to the rear of PVC when the additions were put on, they had to put an access road, which is now the track, around that field, which is why we can't put a a fit a full football field back there any longer. And then we we redid the PVC field with the turf. When I was in school, it was mostly black top. And then they decided that grass was better. Unfortunately, when you have a couple hundred kids out on grass all the time, you never actually can keep the grass and it turned into a mud pit. But now, luckily, we have this very nice turf field that you can stay on all the time. There's not a time I passed by that there aren't kids playing on the Yeah. So, here we have the CT multi-purpose room. It was built as part of the 1996 edition as well as the music and art rooms that were added. prior to this students ate lunch in their classrooms after the original cafeteria was converted into the now library. Interesting. So here we have the CT library. We have some then and now pictures. And then on the bottom there's a picture of when the cafeteria was built originally in 1954 prior to it becoming a library. Now here's the CCT gym. This was added as part of the 61 edition which is when they also put on the third and fourth grade wing. And then here we have Spencer track and field. Spencer was originally built in 77. Prior to the field being built, there was a house that actually existed on the hill in between Spencer and the district office which burnt burnt down around 1965. And Oscar Brand who was a singer, songwriter, radio and TV host as well as author lived. And that's who and how do and how do we know that? And that's whose oil tank was found.

• Well, yeah. So, when I I guess when the house burned down, they never dug up the oil. We got to dig it up this summer. Okay. So, I had heard and this is history that that house that burned down was up near the dam, but it was not. It was property. No, it was Yeah, it was. I mean, I can show you exactly where the oil tank was cuz we dug it up. and then so more exciting things EPC's we've done two EPCs in the past and can I ask just because people are listening we know what an EPC is but energy performance contract. Thank you. so we we've completed two EPCs in the past and we've ba basically tackled a bulk of the stuff that you can get real value out of as part of one of these contracts. But as part of the future facilities project, we did roof replacements on sections of the school roofs at all three buildings. so shown in the the pictures there on the slide, you can see highlighted in blue the areas of the roofs that were replaced that are areas for possible additional solar arrays. our existing solar capacity is is roughly 350 KWP split between the three buildings. C is the largest and then the high school and then PBC purely based upon square footage. The opportunity is there for about the same if not slightly more square footage to be evaluated for the solar. Obviously, they have to come in. They have to look at the the engineering behind the roofs to make sure they can handle the arrays, but potentially we have we can double the amount of arrays to slightly more than that on the roofs that we just replaced. Looking at some of the the stats on our existing solar, we got a couple charts up there. one is the our electrical use districtwide shown on the left. So in we used a little over 1.8 million kilowatt hours and that's between both our purchase through NIPA as well as our production through our solar arrays. on the right there is our solar production and the percent of production of our total use. So, I was sort of surprised when I I put all the numbers in at that April cuz April is still early on as far as amount of daylight that we get and it's sort of and same thing like October it's, gets dark early. But those are sort of the the times of year where we're preheat and out of air conditioning. So that's why the solar is higher because we're not using heat as much heat as air or air conditioning. can I just ask like a practical question with respect to all the snow we've gotten the solar panels up on the roofs. Does that prevent Yes. The snow covers all the solar panels and you don't you don't make But does it stop the the snow from melt? Well, it doesn't go under the panels at any point, does it? No, it goes on the panels and blocks them from producing electric and then but because they like the sun's beaming down, they typically will shed off the snow faster than just snow sitting.

• before we go on this, I know you you mentioned ETC and possible opportunities. I think it might be useful for us to have a refresher and perhaps for the public as to how an energy performance contract works in terms of who we contract with, what we, you know, what obligations we add or what benefits we have because it can be kind of confusing at least and I hope we all understood it. Sure. So, Hello. Thank you. So, our last EPC was with Honeyball. they we did an RFP through a company that has since changed its name. They what they did is they drafted the RFP. Honeywell bid on it. They were the architect of record the EC ECG and they moved to Nia. They were the architect of record who files the report with the state education department. What you have to show that the savings over time will cover the costs involved for financing and the project itself. As far as payment, so we contracted with ECG. We paid ECG nothing and they filed for us. Honeywell pays them. So that so their cost gets absorbed in Honeywell's cost. So that would be the case if we decided to move forward with with an energy performance contract, which we are. We have met with Honeywell. We have an existing contract with them now because they part of the requirement under an EPC is that you get measurement and verification after the project is done to to prove the what was projected as far as savings for the district. So Honeywell did all of this work initially, evaluated those roofs and determined that they were not adequate to have solar on them. So, we've met with them. there are huge incentives, huge federal incentives right now that would make this a viable project. So, as Brad mentioned, there are many components to an EPC, like big money makers, like LED lights, like building envelope work and stuff like that. We don't have any of that left which normally can cover the cost of the EPC. So because we don't have any of that left, we just have like the solar arrays. The viability of this project is almost solely contingent on those incentives, those federal incentives that are running out in the next year or so. so we would like to capitalize on that working now with, KG&D, who was kind of our architect of record for the district, knowing all of the work that they've done with the project at Honeywell. We would we would love to proceed, piggyback on that RFP with Honeywell and then move forward with the with the solar if we can within the timeline. But but just so we understand the financial part of the process, the honey with whom we have a contract pays the architect the architect to to file all of their file reports. Okay. And the work is done and there are less we're going to presume substantial savings in energy cost. That's why it's an energy performance contract. What do we get and what does Honeywell get?

• So, because Honeywell's not doing it for nothing. Yeah. Well, they they will get the incentives. They will cost out the project for us. they the incentives will roll to them and they their costs will be absorbed in their proposal. So they will say we are going to do this amount of work. We're going to give you solar arrays for these few buildings. there is also a potential for AC because we have old heating units in some of our classrooms that now have old heating units and AC. That a part of the proposal could involve it upgrading the heating elements and transitioning them to a heating cooling element. So that's another component, but everything is baked in to Honeywell's proposal. Their costs are baked into that. So there's no cost to the district, but there is the financing cost for the project and that's that's where our money is paid out to finance the cost of the project. that is factored into the savings that is projected to be generated from that project. Thank you. Okay. So, on this slide here we show the electric purchase avoidance by solar production districtwide by month. was $60,9642. one thing about the EPC in our initial conversations with Honeywell our current system is behind the meter. So essentially right now we get our we purchase our electric through NIPA at a very good rate compared to regional rates. So when we produce more electric than we're using, we spin the meter the opposite way, but we only benefit at the rate that the low rate that KNIP is at. Now since that the solar arrays have been installed there's now KED is able to do a direct solar to grid which we can be on the front on the front of the meter which we could KED cuz as a utility provider they have to come up with power so they're incentivized to purchase power from us at a higher rate than what NIPA is currently paying us when we produce more than what we're using at at that given time. So arbitrage almost interesting.

• So then moving on once again through the future facilities project we have completed removal of all of our underground oil tanks at our three schools. We removed PVCs two summers ago and this past summer we removed the tanks at C in the high school. All that were 10,000galon fuel tanks. and we've added heat pumps at all three buildings. due to removing the underground oil tanks, we have a savings of around $3,000 in underground oil tur. then and Brad you had us Brad weren't some of the numbers for the county permitting that you identified and then so yeah so because now we have as I touched on earlier we have the backup generators at the schools which have diesel tanks on them and it's I believe 1100 gallons per site that if you go over you have to be a petroleum bulk storage site which then you have to follow county guidance and you need to get meet all their requirements inspections and such. So now we have since reduced our capacity on all those sites at the schools so we no longer have to file and permit with the county and all those costs as well. then as part of the future facilities project we have added air conditioning C eight classrooms the music and art classrooms multi-purpose room PVC student support suite teachers hub high school cafeteria music room six classrooms and the fabrication room. Yes. Hi. So just going back to the previous slide where you talked about some of the benefits of shifting I guess the size of the generator and the amount of fuel that you would capacity that we have on hand. Is that No. So the the we were classified as petroleum bulk storage sites because we exceeded 1100 gallons on the sites. We removed our,000galon or 10,000galon oil tanks. Now we only have our backup generator diesel tanks which are below the 1100 gallons. So we're no longer petroleum bulk storage sites at our schools. And then because we removed our underground store our underground oil tanks we have a reduction in our insurance for underground tanks we our diesel tanks are above ground tanks.

• Okay. So I guess the question and maybe I might be like not understanding it fully but is so does this impact the number of days we can run the generator because no the two two separate systems. That's what I would just want to still can run at the same the oil tanks we removed were to run our heating systems and those have all been transition to natural gas. So, the CCT has been running on natural gas for probably 15 years consecutively without running. They were dual fuel, so you could run on either or. We switched to natural gas and the oil tank sort of sat there. So we we basically all the buildings now run the systems that we could run on either oil or natural gas are now running completely on natural gas. We but that natural gas doesn't cover all of our heating. We have heat pumps that cover areas. So I I'm just like have PSD from Hurricane Sandy when the like we were running out of things. So I just want to make sure that we're still safe which sounds like we are. Yeah. Our generator capacities have not reduced. This is more like just like environmental mitigation basically, isn't it? Yes. You know, we we basically have committed our fossil fuel burning HVAC equipment to solely run on natural gas now and we have removed the risk of an underground oil tank. Exactly. Yeah. And like 15 years ago, it was a require like dual fuel was being promoted like you in order to be safe, you needed to have two different capacities and now it's boot checked. Yep. Okay. So, so very excited about this final phase of our capital project tenative construction this summer. We have at PVC additional AC installation for the slide says roughly 10 classrooms. We have a breaking news update that one of them is a forced air system 2011 and it's tied into 101. So therefore by upgrading 201 we're actually going to be getting air conditioning is 2011 as well. So that's actually 11 potential classrooms that will be air conditioned. we have the CCT tennis court, sports lighting and then some new playground equipment additions at C.

• These classrooms at PBC, they're the ones that face west. They face south, south, west, southwest. It's it's well, I guess the front of the building. It's it's three on the front of the building for the fourth floor and then the one back floor. I I get into in upcoming slide about the air conditioning per floor per building and all that. but at PVC essentially the the hottest classrooms are the fourth floor classrooms. So moral moral of the story is upon completion of this final phase the complete fourth floor will be airond conditioned. and I guess if we go down next slide I think can we just also talk about the the completion of the lighting at Spencer. So, when we started the project, we were on the heels of COVID and there were a million things going on throughout the country and we decided that we would proceed very cautiously with our project was a $45 million project. It's a lot of money, a lot of lot of play. So, we kind of paused on this piece piece of the project. So the tennis court lighting it the great thing about that is that we have we have less courts than most school districts. We have three courts generally have four to five courts. But what this will do is this will elongate the schedule where in the past we would have to we had those three courts we would maybe go to PBC which had had a supervision issue and so forth. So now we have extended use of those courts for our tennis program. So that's wonderful news especially for the fall players. Y okay so AC looking for so here we have sort of a breakdown that I'm going to go through of the different schools and their AC capacity. So CCT at the end of the the last phase of the future facilities project is at 100% of classrooms having air conditioning. basically every space with the exception of the gym hallways and some bathrooms are air conditioned. if we want to move forward with any additional air conditioning if for the gym we would need to upgrade our utility service. It is at capacity. PVC we are at at upon completion of the final phase which we're hoping for completion of this summer. we will be at 71% of all classrooms having air conditioning. First floor two out of eight will have air conditioning. Second floor 12 out of 14 will have air conditioning. Third floor five out of eight will have air conditioning. And fourth floor all classrooms will have air conditioning. Fourth floor being the hottest area within the school. upon completion we will be close to maxing out the electrical capacity and we'll have to do some more evaluation there. on if we want to move forward with additional air conditioning in the future. high school, we're at roughly 50% of classrooms air conditioned. First floor 5 out of 11, second floor 13 out of 23, third floor 4 out of 10. And the electrical service here, like at CCT, requires upgrades before we can do any additional work. districtwide we're at about 70% of classrooms having air conditioning which I think is pretty good for our region and talking to other of colleagues of mine. so last year I spoke about master library which was a facility software they offer different clients and that we are going to looking to proceed with moving over them. we have implemented iPads. They've been deployed to our maintenance texts as well as each building has one on those iPads. we have electronic access to documents and blueprints. electronic forms. So, we do building checks when school's not in session to make sure, windows aren't broken, doors are locked, the heat's working, we don't have leaks, which talking to colleagues, and this very cold spell, it has been tough on some districts and buildings. so, those forms used to be paper forms, they're now electronic forms. they used to go into a three three- ring binder and if you wanted to look something up or calculate something you'd be going through paper. Now it's all electronic. It ducks into a spreadsheet so you can look at things analyze things which is nice. We implemented the work the master library work orders and drawings clients. on the right is a floor it's a screenshot from master library drawings of the high school first floor. I know it's kind of small, but you can see each one of those tiny dots is a documented asset. so the the assets that we have within the program include HVAC equipment, electrical panels, water fountains, gas valves, water valves, fire extinguishers, security cameras, AEDs, a very large amount of assets are documented which can be filtered. So if annually we have to get all of our fire extinguishers inspected. So we can when the company comes out we can filter to just fire extinguishers. We can print it out and give him a map and he will see where where each one of those fire extinguishers is throughout each one of the buildings. and so much more we can do with it. I'll go into a little bit more in the next slide. And then the other benefit of the iPads is and and Mickey who does our HVAC was a little skeptical about iPads and technology and when I told him that he could operate the BMS which is our building management system via the iPad he was very excited. It used to be if he came into a classroom and there was a unit vent and there was an issue, he would either have to go there, look at it, and see like, okay, maybe the outdoor air damper isn't opening, and then go to a computer somewhere, log on, actuate it, go back and check it, or he'd have to go and have somebody else do that while he sat there. He now can operate all the controls while at the unit itself, which is really streamlining. and he is very appreciative of. So so then sort of back to more on the master library, we have work orders which tracks our manh hours and categories. We put a lot of work into when we rolled this out categorizing what the guys do, preventative maintenance, grounds, technology, so that we can really document not only for budgeting and such, but also to to be able to see, the tech, Mickey does a lot for technology. Is he hanging boards? Is he running, wires for stuff? So, we really have a good grasp on what we're doing as a department. The drawings in the middle there is a screenshot. It's the high school hydro boiler which is in the mechanical room behind us and the assets page. If you go in and there's a work order for this unit, you can see there's a work order history. So you go in and let's say it's cutting out on low water alarm. You can go in, you can see all the past history, everything that's done. You can upload manuals. So you you click on it, you can have all the operator manuals there, warranty paperwork. You can see there's a PM tab and you can upload all the preventive maintenance schedules across the year, whether it's six month, one year work. So, there's just a a ton of data that is at the fingertips of all the staff. and it's been great. It's a lot a lot of work to get it set up because you have to really do it right the first time and have a culture of following through on updating as things happen. So, we've gotten basically the timeline was over the summer at the end of the summer because we had the construction going on. So, we didn't want the survey team to come in prior to that because we had all that stuff changing. So, end of the summer survey team came in, documented all of our assets. Since then, we then prior to construction had a list of our 450 HVAC pieces of equipment throughout the district. And then we had to go through and match up the master library ID number to our spreadsheet number and then go and upload serial numbers, model numbers, filter sizes, belt sizes, quantities into master library. So, it's a very long process. We've gotten through the high school and it's great. So, we're going to continue truck driving along and hopefully next year I can I can do a some reporting. One of the things on our work order system is is reports. so, you can generate based off who's doing the work, what kind of work, the amount of hours, cost and all that. So, look for that in in 12 months. This is very exciting to see because this has clearly been like your baby.

• Yeah. You know, it allows you to make data data based decisions. It's it's pretty cool. So, and then lastly also we spoke about this or I spoke about this last year, Viking Pure Solutions. after the budget work session, we ended up doing a trial at the high school and it proved highly successful in terms of cleaning effectiveness, ease of use and staff satisfaction. We then entered into contract with them for the high school and we then moved the high school the current cleaning chemicals we were using to the other buildings and sort of did a phased approach and you as we used up the chemical at CCT we then rolled CCT out and then lastly rolled PVC out and they provide us with hospital grade disinfectant as well as a multi-surface cleaner which is completely safe. it's it's stronger than bleach and you can drink it. So not not that we not that we recommend that but for specifically for like the cafeterias and stuff they're eating lunch and then they're getting tables wiped down and they have kids put food down and we used to have some some chemicals that we would use and now this is a green product. It's super safe. It's healthy and it's generated on site so we don't have to store. We used to buy like pallets of cleaning chemicals and you run the risk of, you're pushing a cart in or something and it punctures a a container and it spills on the floor and all these things where where now we don't have it's not a, it's not a chemical and it's generated on site. We don't have to store it. Frees up space. So really a win-win on all sides. So that is my last slide. Any questions? I know it's late. I'm sure everyone wants to get home 10:00. I was actually going to say I think this for me this is one of my favorite budget presentations every year.

• I know I speak for all of us that I just say that we enjoyed the history element that you brought this time for sure. but I think it's it actually just like for the whole group. I'm sorry I don't have specific questions for you Brad because you answer everything as we're going through but just like for the whole group I think it really demonstrates like just I mean like the scope of this enterprise right it's like how like the number of people who are involved in keeping everything running the amount of sort of like forethought and consideration that goes into like literally every piece of what we're doing whether it's actually I know Kelly you sometimes feel it's like your stuff may not be quite as compelling but it's like the backbone of a lot of what we're doing here and then Joe and Brad also just in terms of keeping the buildings running, keeping the kids safe, keeping the staff safe. This is like this is like this is the infrastructure. So, it's it's great to see how thoughtful you all are and like what great teams. I mean, I know everyone has said it, but it's like you're you're what keep the schools running in so many ways along with our teachers and our administrators as well. And I think it's it's just what what a great presentation what like you know how thoughtful you guys are and how well you sort of know your areas. It's just it's like it's it's it just it's a it's so impressive. So, thank you. I would just add one other thing. I agree with everything said, but I think the other thing to note is that if we look at when each of our buildings were first built at the core of buildings, 1954 CDT, 1939 PBC, 1926, this building was open. And you think about the fact that it's not like we have, like other districts have. We're building a new building. We've been able as a district through thoughtful renovation and expansion of buildings, integration of systems within the old and new parts, and the work that we've done to put everything in such great shape and keep it in such great shape that every building feels old and new at the same time. And I think that's a testament to your department to to you to to financial and business office and to the entire the entire system. And I think as a community, we should be proud of that. I mean, I'll just add that this is fundamentally about asset management, right? Like these buildings and these vehicles, they're assets to this community. the teams that you work with and the guidance that they have benefited from by having both of you in leadership positions. I mean there's no price that you can put on that. so thank you both for your hard work. Thank you Kelly so much for the guts is what I believe describe it as of this budget presentation.

• Thank you. and it's important to understand and to do this work publicly and to go over line items and the detail of it all. and I know it's tedious work. so thank you for your attention to detail. Thank you.

• You guys can go and get home first thing in the morning. But come in early. You're not staying for policy. No, I'm just I was going to put it on when I got the truck. Brad, please praise Maisie on her artistic. Yes. I I got some text messages and Kais asking where you are. What are you going on? Thank you all. Joe Spain is back. Five more minutes, he'll be back. Okay. Wonderful. Thank you. Hopefully. so this is your road map for our next presentation. So March 12th, get ready for vision app technology and athletics. followed by the school district bud the school building budgets curriculum and PPS and our superintendent's budget will be on April 9th followed by the adoption of the property tax report card and budget and the Bosey's administrative vote little oversight there and then May 7th our public budget hearing. Mark your calendars for May 19th. from 6:00 am to 900 pm in the aux gym at the high school. We will have our budget vote. three seats are up for trustee elections and our propositions and preceding that we will have our tenure celebration preceding our board meeting. Stay connected budget.quests chopsy.org org if you have any questions. I will say I have a few questions that were put out there last week right before we hit the snow and so forth. I promise I will follow up on those questions. Thank you. Thank you. Any questions? Okay, if you don't mind, I'm going to rely on Sarah and Neil to help me with this. I'd like to bump item 6.1 policies for second reading up right now in front of item three instructional personnel just to allow our student exeicio trustee to be here and present for that policy discussion and to allow her to go home.

• Sure. so I will move an amendment or revision to the agenda to move item 6.1 policies for second reading to be placed above or prior to instructional personnel in the agenda. Second. on the question. All in favor? Opposed? Abstain. Motion carries. Thank you, Neil. So, moving into our policies for second meeting. I will proceed to the chair of the policy committee, Neil Her. Thank you. We could do that that policy first just so we've Sure. So why don't I move the adoption of second reading the adoption of policy exeicio student trustees so I will move its adoption but we're doing the resolution is for all policies no I I think I'm sorry it should be separated I think it it should be separated so we should amend we should amend again I think we You can probably do it, thumbs up to say we will vote on each one separately. Okay. And then we will first I moved adoption of policy 2125 xicure student trustee. You have a second. I have a question. So on policy I just want to say at the first reading on the 12th the question was raised by member of the board who it was that the whether the exceptions of those who could serve serve as trustee student student trustee should those who would not be permitted should include all of the individuals that are listed on page two which was in the first reading an officer of the student faculty congress or an officer of any class and we were asked to give feedback back from the school administration as to what they felt that the scope of that exception should be. And on the 13th, the day before the winter break, I had the opportunity to communicate with high school principal, both high school assistant principles and the advisor student back to Congress and their consensus unanimously was that those exceptions should be an officer of student faculty congress. President, vice president, secretary, treasurer and the president of any class which would be a junior class or senior class. The thought being that they will have a lot more responsibility and time commitment being president of the class than some of the other officers. So we the policy for second reading has been revised to change the word an officer of any class to the president of any class. so raising that and saying that we did not have an opportunity to circle back to student faculty congress because they had not met between February 12th and today that's the proposal that's here and I guess you know if anyone has any thoughts certainly you should hear them. I can at least give my personal input and the senior classes where I think we all agree that it was a good change for it to say the president rather than any officer because certain like positions for example like the treasurer of the like of a given grade like you we don't like they don't actually like get to partake that much in like meetings face to face. So I think it wouldn't interfere realistically at all. other than that, I think other than that, we've very we've already a couple times. I wasn't there for the last meeting, but I was filled in about everything. And so, I think overall it's a very good proposal. Like I'm I'm very glad to have the position I do, but like even when I went to apply for it, like I was very surprised that there weren't like there wasn't more of a process honestly and that it was like there wasn't any interview. Like I was ready. I was like all right. Like I was kind of looking at I was like, "Oh, this is confusing." But I think it was good. And I think also pretty I think everyone is wanted there to be a junior and senior and I think that just makes more sense because it like lets the junior actually know like what the position is going to be like and it's just a very very good stagger. So overall, I'm really excited about this and I think I can speak for everyone because we we were all very excited. I'd like to see proposal.

• I think I just had one thing for students to realize is that as the policy is written, we would both the associate and the nonassociate student trustee would have the opportunity to attend board meetings, sit at the table. It's not doesn't have to be one or the other. If both are available, both would like to be with us and contribute, the policy is written to. Yes, I think that's I mean that I think that's our intention, right? Is to is I mean that's what you you all were thinking, right? Is that's what I was assuming. I was assuming it was the junior and senior sitting together. But I think I mean from from our perspective as a board like we we've sort of been talking about this for some time time now and I think it's it I think it's actually like the service of you this year and then your predecessors in the in the the recent years that have made it very clear to us that we have so much to learn from all of you guys and also there are long and late nights and sometimes it's like you want to have that flexibility where someone can't actually cover for you and so I think I'm very pleased I'm really really thank you Neil for all of your work leazing with S and thank you bill also for just like surfacing a lot of this stuff as this policy was developed because I think this like from my perspective having been on the policy committee now for it's my second year it's like this is what we're actually looking for when we're talking about developing responsive policies is to be able to actually get that student input directly in the language that we're seeing here and and build something that reflects you know what what you all want what we all want as a board to so I think this was a this was a really good example of like really successful and thoughtful policy devel- Velment. I'm also appreciative that everyone helped us out at this table by fasttracking this puppy because I know like a lot of we worked really hard to get this to you and everybody read it and brought it back. I know Neil was probably going to say all that. Sorry for the I still but this is one that we're very excited about this committee.

• I am very excited about it. I'd also just like to point out the timeline of of how these next two exficiary student trustees will be selected. So I would just charge you with taking this back to SFC urgently and developing that timeline so that we can make sure that the process is followed. There's a new process. If you have any questions, you can certainly come back to us or to Dr. Dubai or Missy. yeah, that's bad. Thank you. All All in favor? I opposed abstain. Motion carries. Thank you. Thank you. The other policy we have the other policy the second reading is staff participation in political activities. this is one of the policies that the oralist review because the policy has originally written reference I'm sorry we this is one of policies that we had as part of our review. and what I'm looking for here is the only change that you will see in that policy is that printed out so many seconds is that we removed the words as citizens because we were viewing this based on the communication received from a member of community that the participation in various aspects of our district is not limited to citizen. So we've been reviewing every policy on the word citizen appears and the other addition is that the prescription on staff participating in political activities to solicit support for a particular candidate or cause will also include while the staff member is performing services for the district outside of the working hours, the the regular work hours as it says, such as if the staff member is a coach going with students to a an athletic event or is here in the evening or somewhere are not on in district property but doing something with students as part of their job. And so those are the only changes in the policy. after review we've discussed some other issues or questions about the entire subject but it was felt after the board's after the committee's discussion that we were best off leaving the rest of the policy as is and not making any other changes. So with that I will move policy 1310 for adoption.

• Second and on the question all in favor I opposed abstain. Motion carries. Thank you. Thank you and thank I thank the policy committee also for your hard work. We will now I will turn on my microphone. We will now return to item three instructional personnel. Starting with item 3.1 recommended action be resolved. Board of education hereby approves the instructional personnel amendment as presented. So moved. Second. On the question. All in favor? I oppose abstain. Motion carries. Item 3.2. Recommended action be a result that the board of education hereby accepts the resignation of Raymond Ferrara Croman Harmon high school science teacher effective February 24th, 2026. So second on the question. I just wanted to say that I've known Mr. Foner. He's my my son took AP on environmental science with him. He is a very valued educator in the science department. I'm sorry he won't be returning, but I certainly understand why, yes. All in favor? I opposed. Obstain. Motion carries. Moving into the new business. Item 4.1 KG and D service order and agreement. Task order number seven. Recommended action be resolved. on the board of education hereby approves the task order number seven service agreement between Croen Harmon Free School District and KG and D for the completion of the futures facilities capital project 2022 as presented so moved second on the question all in favor opposed abstain motion carried I I just thought it should be clear this is to basically implement what Brad talked about, right, to the additional work for the PBCD air conditioning and the C equipment and the lighting that we think is really great. And I just think we should commend everybody, our business office, our facilities department, our architects, our construction manager with being able to complete the project up to this point on time and with below budget such that we were able to finish up. But I think that's an important point, right? Because this is this these are the savings on the project that now we're able to add these these three sort of crucial things which again they were presented is that like this is part of our what our plan is but it is actually because of like how efficiently the work was carried out that we have the the funds to be able to do some of these things. and and the funds would have to go towards something that was covered by the original referendum. So it's important to note that as well. It's not like we could spend this money on anything other than specifically stuff that was covered by the scope of the of the of the bond request that was put to the voters.

• Correct. Yes. All in favor? I oppose abstain. Motion carries. Item 4.2 to universal pre kindergarten approving selection of children's space north and a rising star children's center inc for the 2026 2027 school year to move second I I didn't read the recommended sorry recommended action resolve that the board of education hereby approves the resolution approving selection of children's space north and a rising star children's center inc to administer Universal pre kindergarten program. Okay. Before actually you move it. sorry. Do we need to amend the resolution because it's saying child space north? It says children's space. It says in the recommended action. Is it is I can't get on to mine. Is the attachment there? The executive content is just the check the the attachments are the proposed it was no it was the attachment that we had was the resolution attachment prior to the change. Yeah. So I I guess what you're saying is amend it to say children's space. Yeah. That in in the well the resolution itself the resolution says children's space north. Yeah. In the public content down here. Yeah. Right here. Does that need a resol? Yeah. So in the public content y where it says in the title and later on the second whereas and the now therefore that all should say trans space north but if you're going to amend that can you amend the recommended action to also say to administer the university I think this is all moving very fast right So why why don't you with those changes? Yes. With those changes so and so seconded. Other questions. Do we want to hear a little bit about how we've landed here just so we can update the community on where things are? Maybe. Thank you.

• I think we're here. This week's update program for 2026. so at the RFP bid closing, we had a total of three submissions, one of which only proposed housing it in our school, which is no longer an option. So, we were left with two other bids, which are our reliable community-based organizations. So what we have done over the past few weeks is to review the proposal to review the proposals to ensure that they met all of the criteria set forth in our specs and what we deemed as necessary to accept the bid the bid. And then lastly, over the course of the last week, the business department, the business office and my department met to use the evaluation matrix to ensure that each of the proposals were met the criteria and they were determined a rating was determined for each component which I shared in my board report on that matrix. So both Children's Space North and Arising Star they after the evaluation they both actually had the same score which I shared with you in my board report. So we felt confident that they could meet the requirements and the needs that we have here for our program for the 2026 27 school year. Now we will just be waiting for the governor's budget to be approved so that we have a final per pupil expenditure that we could then speak to both providers ensure that they can would like to continue with us and enter into a contract with the district in order to for them to be the two locations that will be housing our BK program. And then based on the date of that determination of the final allocation, we will work together with both partners to establish the timeline for the lottery open house and final seating for said programs.

• Any other questions? Thank you. I think people want to get a sense of how many seats might be available. Sure. So based on the total allocation that was deemed to be I guess given to us as a district, it was 64 seats. So we are looking to house and seat all 64 of those seats. And can I share? Okay. So, based on the review of the proposals and looking at the feasibility and logistics at both locations, Children's Space North at this time, and these these are anticipated numbers. So we're looking at about 54 seats for children's space north which would be three full classrooms of 18 which is the maximum requirement of numbers of seats for a classroom that is housed by a apartment that is facilitated by both a certified teacher and an aid in the classroom it's 18 to one to one and then the remaining 10 seats estimated will be going to a rising star. Thank you. All in favor? I oppose abstain. Motion carries. I just want to thank both of you for your the hours you spent managing all of this and running these numbers. And I mean unfortunately it's important work. We we know it is. and until the governor's budget passes, we won't know the ultimate outcome in terms of all of this. But thank you so much. Item 4.3, establishment of a new scholarship, the Laura Martinez Legacy Scholarship. Recommended action be resolved. The board of education hereby approves the establishment of the Laura Martinez Legacy Scholarship at the Croen Harmon High School for a member of senior class who is a first or second generation college student who has shown leadership and academic achievement. So move second question.

• I have a question just the wording of these scholarship things and I'm sorry I didn't see this before because I obviously missed it. So I I I apologize for not asking it sooner. but is it does this need to be qualified to indicate that the O scholarship is intended for a member of the senior class who intends to enroll in college as a first or second generation college student. They can't be a first or second generation college student if they're still a current high school senior. So, it's just like again, I think we're trying to we're trying to get a little bit better about sort of like how we're documenting this criteria so that the the scholarships can also be awarded according to the intentions of the donors. and I'm seeing a little bit of a confusion in the wording and and I I I feel like we've actually seen this type of confusion in the wording multiple times. We're often catching it when they're on the agenda and I apologize for not catching it before this point in the meeting. I think everyone knows I've had travel delays and sleep issues this week because of the travel delays. So I apologize for that. So thoughts. So I guess my question is if we can ask the donor to amend this to say it's a member of a senior class who has committed to and plans to attend. I mean is that is that like sufficient to say it's like we're planning to attend college? Well, we can't don't we can't grant a scholarship to somebody who's no longer a member of senior class, right? So, we can't have them technically be enrolled in college, right? So, that's intention. That's what I'm asking is intention.

• So, it's committed to if we look at other scholarships, they also say right to a member of Santa Class who is intending to attend attend college and major in education. Exactly. So, you know, that's, you know, that's really the scholar and it's awarded obviously at senior awards night at which point the college acceptance will be known and you know that's what and so so I think probably we should table this and then just have that change made and can we do that please? Yes. Thank you. Okay. So we will table so I think we have to move the table. Can you clarify the word that you would? I I'll So I I just at this point I'd like to move to table item 4.3 for the purpose of obtaining clarification as we have discussed but my motion is to table. I second your motion. On the question, I believe the wording is for a member of the senior class who has committed to attend Yeah. college as a first or second generation college student and who has shown Yeah, exactly. All in favor? I that's a motion to table. Yeah. Correct. opposed. Abstain. Motion to table. Carries. Did the other one we tabled already come back? It did. Yes. Last meeting. Item 4.4. Establishment of new scholarship. The Mr. Casey Memorial Scholarship. Recommended action be a result of the board of education hereby approves the establishment of the Mr. Casey Memorial Scholarship at the Croton Herman High School to honor his legacy by supporting a graduating student who reflects the same values he embodied. Curiosity, perseverance, compassion, and a dedication to making a positive difference through learning. So moved. Second. Other question. Do we run into the same issue with this one? No, I haven't put the sentence on the application.

• Yeah. To be awarded to a graduating member. Is that okay? Yeah. It doesn't matter that has to be committed to a college like the previous one. That's not it's just to a graduating student. Okay. So, it doesn't have to be used specifically for college. Okay. I don't think any of this I mean I think that The majority of the scholarships don't require like they don't the language of them I mean just like for the ones that we've reviewed so far they don't require that. I think with that specific one the confusion was because the person couldn't simultaneously be a senior and also be like a college student technically at the same time. So I think it was like a semant it's just a semantic issue. I think we've been trying to clean those up a little bit as they come through just again for clarity. And in this case, it looks like it's for this this award is also specifically like a one-year one-time award as it's written. Is that correct? Right. Just for a graduate of this year's senior class, this year's senior class. Thanks for clarifying. And I just think we ought to know for those who may not know me Casey a Rick Casey a I would say and this word sometimes gets overused a beloved member of the PP PC faculty social studies teacher who retired few years ago passed away earlier this or last year at some point and he really embodied as it says as those kinds of values that are mentioned in the resolution and imbued that in the students who were privileged to be in his class including both my children and I think this is wonderful I'm very generous all in favor opposed abstain motion carries moving into our donation ations. Item 5.1 recommended action be resolved. The board of education gratefully accepts a donation of $54 from Antonia J. Martinez LLC as a contribution to the William Billy Sha Athletic Scholarship at Crowen Harmony High School. So move second on the question. All in favor?

• Opposed? Motion carries. Item 5.2, recommended action. Be it resolved the board of education gratefully accepts in a donation of $5,000 from the David Edward Cohen Scholarship Foundation, Inc. as a contribution to the David Edward Cohen Scholarship at Coen Harman High School. So moved. Second. on a question. Just want to say that Dave Cohen, a graduate of the class, I think 200 seven seven, was the son of a longtime employee of our district, Judy Cohen. He died unfortunately of bladder cancer at the age of 34 or 35. Very sad. and he and Jose was a valued member of our community and I think the expression by the foundation and the awarding of the scholarship in his memory is very I I'm just filled up very emotionally very emotional about And I'm just pleased that this is something that his family and others are are doing in his memory. Judy Cohen served as the nurse at C for many years before her retirement. And David's sister and nieces are still very active in this community. So this is this is while incredibly sad, certainly a beautiful tribute to him. so thank you very much for that. All in favor? Opposed? Abstain. Motion carries. Item 5.3. Recommended action. Be it a resolve. The board of education gratefully accepts a donation of $300 from Patric Patricia Salon, the Casey family as a contribution to the Mr. Casey memorial scholarship at Croman Harmon High School. So move. second on the question just because I think these these things are confusing me. the we just established a scholarship earlier and so this is just the funding for the scholarship as two separate Yeah. the donation itself. That's all that was question. All in favor? I I opposed abstain. Motion carries. We will now jump to item 7.1 because we have already resolved item 6.1 the previous agenda amendment. Item 7.1 is the approval of the consent agenda. Recommended action be resolved. The board of education hereby approves the consent agenda as presented.

• Second on the question.

• I guess the only question I would have I'm sure I know the answer but I just want to make sure under our policy 6900 all of the equipment the iPads and the MacBooks and Chromebooks etc. I just want to make sure that they have all been wiped or everything that's on them has been removed before they are exposed on. Agreed. Yes. All in favor? I I opposed abstain. Motion carries. Moving into our closing of the meeting 8.1. the next time we meet we will continue with our budget process. athletics technology and vision vision that thank you. and that will be on March 12th, 2026. that 7:30 p.m. this is the close of our regular meeting. Item 8.2 is we are going to enter executive session to discuss the employment of a particular person or persons after which we will leave executive session and move directly into the close of the meeting, the agenda of the meeting. We will not do that on for the live feed. Obviously, we won't make everyone wait until we leave executive session. So I will say good night. Thank you. But first we will move the recommended action be resolved the board of education hereby enters into executive session to discuss the particular personal person. So move second on the question. All in favor I opposed I say motion car.