order this is the regularly scheduled February 10th 2025 meeting of the East Lancing Board of Education Miss hore can we get a roll call she's on here Dr Lions here Dr edel here missis Dr moved by trusty etel seconded by trusty Torres is there any discussion
on the minutes on the minutes before we move to a vote all in favor of the minutes as presented and I guess the motion as presented please say I I any opposition the motion carries unanimously uh the next item on the agenda is recognition I'm going to turn over to trusteed Chambers is there any recognition today I do not have any items of recognition I'm just taking over for trusty Ferris Highland while she's out but I don't have any items
today can can I jump in of course go ahead um I just want to say thank you to Rich Pew for being our financial director all these years I've been the treasure for a million and a half years and he's been the financial director for three and a half million years and uh tonight is his last board meeting and so I just wanted to say thank you and good luck in your next Endeavors thank you oh wait I whoop I do have recognition I missed an email okay that
came in hot off the press um okay congratulations to eighth graders links and Chambers and Connor Dr and seventh grade mark shellis on auditioning and being accepted in the 2025 Michigan All State Middle School band along with Grace J who was accepted into the All State Middle School orchestra these students were selected as some of the best Middle School musicians in the entire State and represented McDonald Middle School proudly this past weekend in Grand Rapids last weekend also congrat
congratulations to our eighth grade band on being selected to perform as part of a demonstration session for a professional development for other music teachers in our state special thank you to miss thoron Mr rosin and miss miss pi and Mr Dugan for ensuring our students were prepared for this opportunity that's from Miss Martin and there were also three high school kids selected for All State band um
SEMA Bez glova for All State Orchestra violin Matthew Wang for All State Orchestra cello and Lena canette for All State Orchestra percussion and that is all my recognition thank you Jessie Chambers yeah is there any other recognition would you like to continue what you were saying about Mr Pew or before Tara rudely in I thought you were done I'm so sorry I just you know
wanted to keep going and embarrass him some more oh my gosh I heard a pause and I just jumped right in yeah I took all the air so I would like to say just a word of thanks to Mr Pew as well because um folks like Mr Pew especially in that role in the financial role make our make our jobs a lot easier as board members um I think we'd all rather have good budget numbers to make decisions
on as opposed to bad ones and um you know we've heard stories and some of us have been personally involved in times in the history of our district where we've had to make tough tough choices and um Mr Pew was an advocate for very precise and conservative budgeting over a number of years that helped us get into a stronger financial position to where we are and then able to do more in the last few years
than we were in the previous several years because of that advanced planning so that's a credit to uh to his insight and his leadership so thank you Mr Pew I would have said all that if Tara hadn't cut me off I'm so sorry yeah we'll miss you um you've been a huge asset for the district can I also add I'm paranoid now to not cut anybody off
I'm having I've been having email issues all day and it just loaded and the recognition email popped up I got excited and I didn't pay attention to what was happening I thought she was done clearly not my bad Mr Pew um one of the hardest things about being on the school board for me is the fiduciary responsibility that we have um when you talk with other school board members not just here but other places one
of the things we talk about is how hard it is to tell people no we always want to tell people yes we always want to give people all of the money um and thanks to you know a lot of people but particularly your leadership around the financial pieces of the district we don't always get to say yes as often as I would like or to say yes as robustly as I would like but I have not had to be in the position to say the tough nose that I have been been most
fearful of having to say and I um deeply appreciate having not been in that position and we have you to thank for that and I I really do appreciate um your leadership in that area thank you so much I was going to say that so thanks appreciate it hope I cut you off my fault yes
all right so is there any other recognition all right Miss Allen you've got big shoes to fill you got this yeah um all right we'll move on to the next item on the agenda uh Miss Walsh is here uh for our student representative report sorry I didn't mean to confuse you
easy today hi everyone um I hope you're having a great day I know I did because it was Senior Skip day today so I got to sleep in and relax um I have some exciting updates and events to share with you today so this year is a time of year when the yearbook and portrait Publications and in their work to the mppa contest where it'll be judged up against journalism from high schools all over the state um we usually win quite a few awards every year and it's getting bigger and bigger the amount of awards that we win so
we're very excited for this year um the multiculture assembly was this weekend and it featured a variety of performances by students at East Lancing if you missed it a recording will be will be posted on YouTube so go check it out um the East Lancing floor hockey tournament will begin this month uh students form their own teams and compete for the championship not exactly sure when the date of that first game is but I know that it is this month um the boys basketball game had a very exciting
win against wer there on Friday I don't know if anyone went but it was a really it was really good um and gymnastics has their CAC Final in fville this Saturday and wrestling has individual regionals this weekend that's all I have thank you can I just ask a quick question is the floor hockey on Saturday Sunday or both I can't remember it's I'm pretty sure it's both days both days okay yeah they haven't really released any like dates or anything of the games this year yet all I could find was last year but
I know that they're kind of like the team building stage at this moment okay yeah thank you thank you Miss Walsh of course yes thank you for joining us on your skip day responsible know com all right um sleeping so that's what matters was was Health mental health day the day after the Super
Bowl that's really kind of smart um yeah this these young people are think are using their heads the next item on the agenda is the superintendent report I'll turn on Miss Leo sure I have no formal report tonight I just want to mention that we have no school for students this Friday due to professional learning and then for Monday for President's Day so students have a 4-day right now 4-day weekend getting lots of questions today about Thursday but it's too early so right now count on
a 4-day weekend and Thursday will be determined later do you need any assistance on Thursday there is never a shortage of people offering to drive roads and make that call for me um yes there's never a shortage of that well until I tell them it's at 4:00 a.m. then some people back Student Assistance to come into the building to support whatever you need supporting ah oh I see I
see butin board type things sweep hallways I don't know shovel shovel snow clean steal her phone so she all right um that was a joke obviously um the next item on the agenda is public comment I have one blue slip if anybody else wants to make public comment please follow the blue slip there in the back while we are going through that I'll go through the statement that we've written for public
comment it says this is the opportunity to address the board speakers are to confine their remarks to 5 minutes if a speaker requires more than 5 minutes after all other persons who've requested to speak during this part of the meeting have spoken that speaker will be allowed additional time the superintendent or District staff may comment to clear up or avoid significant misunderstandings and Mr Gorman's here from Ela uh Mr Gorman right hello
everybody Bud um more formally hello superintendent Leo and the school board and East Lancing family um my name is Ross Gorman I am the President of ela the teachers union along with some of our other staff um and I I just got to say that Senior Skip day was today and I had about half of my black history courses gone but it was a great opportunity to talk about the halftime show so we actually had a really good lesson in Li of that so uh
that all said I am here today uh just to talk about Public Act 120 of 2024 to update the board on uh this law and just kind of where the ELA is hoping uh things might go and then I'm going to scur out of here so uh if you are not familiar PA 120 of 2024 addresses a 3% tax that was levied on uh more senior teachers to help address a budgeting shortfall is my understanding um for retirement costs uh and in the last year
a law was passed that would repeal well not quite repeal that 3% but offer a reimbursement uh through the districts wherein districts would receive payment from the state uh with intent to be given back to those members where it was originally taken from um my understanding is that that money is not yet gotten to the ELA from or not to the ELA sorry kept skipping some steps to East Lancing from the state uh but one of the ela's concerns with this law is that there are no mechanisms or prescrib
timetables for payment so I am just here to formally request that we get to be part of this conversation uh prior to today I hadn't sent any communication to any of the board's agents I did email today and I'll say since we're keeping Praise on to Rich I think he responded to me inside of five minutes on that one so uh we look forward to hopefully being part of these conversations and that's all I have for today and our upcoming negotiations as well so thank you I'll yield
the rest of my time thank you Mr Gorman is there any other public comment before we conclude this part of the meeting all right I will conclude public comment uh we'll move on to a presentation which is the next item on the agenda we have a special guest uh Mr notton from pfm financial advisor so come on up all right uh thank you for having me it's a pleasure to be here uh superintendent Leno members of the board and
um may I say I really enjoyed working with Mr Pew for many years and look forward to working with Miss alen um and part of that was working on this project for the bonds this was voted in 2024 last year the first series was issued and this year the second series is issued and it's expected to be combined with a bond refinancing and I'm going to get to that um I'm I may be a little brief but I'll elaborate if you have any questions okay
so moving on to the next slide uh this was the top part is the original plan was to issue the bonds in three series from the 2024 voter authorization first series was rather small and that covered just the up the funds that were needed expected to be needed within the year until the rest of the bonds were to be issued in 2025 and 2026 and the total bond amount 23.5 million and that is received in
principal and also in bond premium so when bonds have been issued lately uh the coupon on the bonds is greater than the going yield and and so that means that the bond purchaser is going to send to the district the principal amount plus a premium that brings down the overall yield to be less than the couponing rate it's just like when you're buying ponds in the current market um well what has happened is when
we sort of seen this coming is that the 2025 refunding bonds excuse me the 2015 refunding bonds are subject to be called in they have an optional Redemption date starting May 1 of 2025 and any date thereafter and it's very typical for bonds if they're they're at a higher rate of interest to be refinanced much like um an individual refinances their mortgage we're replacing bonds at a higher interest rate with new bonds at
a lower interest rate and the payment to cover that is from the bond proceeds from the new refunding bonds so these bonds have been re refunded already the 2015 refunding and now they're being refinanced again um in fact the original bond issue from the 2005 was I don't have that noted here but it was probably a building
and site bonds from early 2000s well because of the change in plan combining a refunding with this next series of bonds we're able to issue all the remaining new money bonds so instead of having three series of bonds totaling the remaining 18.8 million we're having this second series of bonds in 2025 to cover the new money portion remaining from that voter authorization and and so
doing the district is saving on bond issuance costs which makes more money available for the project that and also combining the issuance costs from the refunding portion and the new money portion so it's sort of like a win-win in that respect that the issuance costs attributed to the new money portion is much less than the issuance costs that were originally planned for Series 2 and three combined uh so that that's the plan uh we have an estimated
bond amount shown of1 18, 250,000 and 630,000 in bond premium that's all subject to change depending on interest rates when we sell the bonds so that covers the new money portion and now we're moving on to the next slide to go give an overview on what that refunding is is all about and this is the 2015 refunding Bond and and and here
it was is spelled out it refinanced the 2005 building and sight bonds um 2005 I think that's a building and sight and refunding bonds which refinance the 2000 building and sight bonds um the maturities being refinanced our maturities 2026 through 2030 and those have 5% coupon so we're
replacing bonds at a 5% coupons with an interest rate far less than 5% the bond holders for those maturities 2026 through 2020 2030 are aware of the risk that their bonds would have been could have been called in before the stated maturity date and those Bond holders during part of this process is the paying agent for those bonds is going to publish a notice of redemption at least 30 days in
front of of the Redemption date notifying those Bond holders that their bonds are going to be called in early and then those Bond holders are going to be entitled to the principal plus the acred interest from the last Bond payment date and the call date is estimated to be August 5th 2025 and so the bond holders will be due interest from May 1st 2025 to August 5th 2025 totaling about 62,000
in addition to the principal being refinanced 12,425 th000 which is the cash outflow required by the escrow account to cover calling in those bonds and and that totals 12,587 th000 that's the cash outflow requirement of the escro account the bond proceeds from this combined new money and refunding bond part of which is being used to by Treasury Securities
that go into an escrow account and they're going to earn interest and if we move on to the next slide this is this is the more math for you um this is the bond sizing of the of this bond issue and this is all an estimate because it all depends on how interest rates come in when we sell the bonds but we have the refunding portion and we have the new money portion and the biggest component of
the refunding portion is the estimated cost for funding that escrow and the difference between that 12,525 th000 and the other number on the prior page is about 62,000 which is the estimated interest earnings on the treasury Securities in the escrow uh then then we have the issuance costs and we look at it divided between the new money portion and the REM funding portion and the estimated premium for each
portion of bonds and we're backing into the principal amount attributed to this bond issue and that's $1,250,000 the district's going to receive an additional amount in premium that could be used toward projects of for this last phase last issuance of the new money portion so the total bond amount is estimated at 30, 630,000 and shown below is more detail on
how the new money portion was calculated on the day of sale when this is actually sized up I will be sending an email to Miss Allen describing how the new money portion was calculated and how how this sizing was actually calculated on the day of sale so that that's the bond sizing report moving on to the next page is the savings schedule and this is
looking at just the the refunding portion on the left side is the estimated Bond payments for the refunding and we have principal due in May and then we have interest due in May and November and the total estimated payments on the refunding portion is 13,731 th000 that replaces the payment shown to the right and those payments represent the payments being replaced because the bonds
have been called in early and also the um the interest payment the accured interest payment due to the bond holders on the call date totaling 14 4,272 so that difference is an estimated 543,000 480 to that we add the estimated excess proceeds because bonds are issued in multiples of 5,000 to get estimated Savings of 15 million excuse me 546,000
15 million would have been I don't know where that number came from but 556 th000 on this size bond amount is is substantial savings the present value worth of that is estimated to be 477,000 and this is sized purposely to have more of the Savings in the last last year because that's that way we can have more new money principle in the earlier years
and and that's that's sort of what makes it possible to issue the remaining new money Bonds in this last series as a in this 2025 series as opposed to having another Series in 2026 um so being able to free up room in the early years the amortise more principle related to the new money bonds helps us issue the remaining new money bonds that present value savings as
a percentage of refunded principle is 3.84% which is a healthy amount of savings next we have on the next Slide the millage amortization and this is a just a projection of the Total Bond payments for the existing debt on the left the Total Bond payments for the new bonds which includes new money and refunding combined and then we have the some adjustments and we have total adjusted payments and then we have the tax base the taxable value and
tax bases nearly well will be surpassing 1.6 billion in with the 225 taxable value when we take the Total Bond payments divided by the taxable value and multiply by a th000 that's the estimated amount of millage and the district's at 6.3 Ms and projected to be at 6.3 Ms for a few years more and then the millage is projected to decrease a lot depends on the interest rate on
this new bond issue and also the future taxable value growth of the district so that's the millage projection and by the way we update that each year when we get the new taxable value and we will know the new taxable value around the same time that we're pricing this bond issue hopefully we'll be able to get it beforehand which will help us in deciding how much principal to amortise each year moving on to the next page is the millage is
the uh savings report comparing before and after which includes the millage estimate estimated savings from a millage standpoint we have new money only is on the B4 column combined with the existing debt and then to the right we have the new money only combined with the refunding combined with your existing debt and then we see the difference which which is the savings which is the
same savings you saw on the earlier page to the right is the millage difference and more of the millage savings is occurring in 2030 because that's where more of the savings comes in that's according to this current scheme the cor current um current method that we're using to size this bond issue so that I find this very exciting even though I've been doing it for 30 years um and I don't know if that
was too much information or not on moving on we could see the next slide which is the timeline and then I'll briefly describe the bond authorizing resolution which you have this presented to uh the board for approval this evening some of the next steps of course are the authorizing resolution to be presented this evening and then there there's some behind the scenes work we have to get the official statement prepared which is a marketing
document to find help find interested purchasers for the bonds much like a prospectus is for a for stocks um and apply for the credit rating from standard and poers and we'll we'll be going through that process with Miss Allen this will be a first time going through standard and poers call um and hopefully this District's ablea rating will be affirmed actually District's rating is doua minus very good rating hopefully that'll be affirmed uh we'll have that
rating before the official statement is published which is about a week before we have the bond pricing on bond pricing day is when the underwriter steel will find will will be selling the bonds maturity by maturity and they actually make available a website so we could see during the order period all the orders filling in for the bonds and how much demand there is for each each Bond and the bending and the demand for each maturity we make make adjustments to
the interest rates at the end of that order period which is about an hour and a half um there will be final adjustments to the interest rates for each maturity and that's when the bonds are finally sized these are fixed interest rates on the bonds and then about 3 weeks after we priced the bonds and set the interest rates we deliver the bonds and between the final official statement is published and there will be a closing memo describing where St was to send the funds some of the funds
are going to be sent to the escrow account to cover the refinancing and the issuance costs and the other funds are going to be sent to the capital projects account for the remaining project uh for the voted on referendum um and that closing is expected to happen June 18th uh part of that resolution again is a prerequisite they have the district sell the bonds to continue with the
next steps and there is there are minimum requirements for the refunding part minimum level of savings and um I believe the minimum level of savings is 1 and a half% of um present value savings as a percentage of refunded principle right now we have more than double that um it it's worthwhile to do a refunding even if the savings are smaller
if you're doing a new money bond issue anyways uh because that way they can share the issuance costs um and there's other parameters and this Bond term by the way is only eight years in term any questions so on the um projected millage comparison before and after um the estimated millage that only covers the bond refunding and the 2025 that's not
total millage that is a total millage actually that includes the the elementary school bond and yes any syncing funds not the sinking fund okay oh okay I have question so I assume the the um the additional funds that will be available because of these savings still would have to be we're still Bound by the um overall rules of the bond right like we still have to use it for this purpose um of the project
right we can't use it for whatever that that that is correct the the bond was described in two parts one is the uh the ballot language which was a rather broader description and then there's the more detailed description that was part of the preliminary qualification application that was sent to Department of Treasury there there's still some room and this is really a bond Council matter with Christopher IM Marino but uh but but from past experience sometimes there there
is some room to deviate from the original plan um where you spending more money in one building and less money in the other but it still fits the overall scope of the project that was described in the prelimary qualification and the balent language then that you do have some flexibility and um Chris of R Marino's really the one to talk to about those questions if yeah I don't have any plans to want to do anything beyond the scope I'm just
clarifying that we still have to stay within the project parameters yes um there is expected to be more funds available for the project uh partly because the issuance cost is lower than originally expected and also because the interest earnings on proceeds is more than originally projected yeah that's great are there any other questions excuse me all right
well was very informative thank you for being here you're welcome it's my pleasure okay the next item on the agenda is um a motion to move into close session regarding some collective bargaining issues can I get a motion I move that the Board of Education enter into close session in accordance with Section 81 C of the open meetings act related to collective bargaining it's moved by
truste taaki seconded by trusty Torres is there any discussion before we move to a vote all right this will be a roll call vote so miss can we get a roll call vote Mr Martin yes Dr Lions yes Dr edel yes Dr Chambers yes Dr Torres yes Miss taaki yes all right so uh we will move
into close session um if you're in the audience you're certainly welcome to stay but we have to have you exit the room while we're in closed session you can remain in the hallway uh we don't know how long this will be we'll try to move through as quickly as possible we'll reopen the doors once we the Clos session's over I'm happy to stay and take notes
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I wrecked one of your cars you wreck the other one yeah I know my husband's like why are you going to fix I'm like when are you going to leave at home can get your car or his car car my car is gone I didn't know you got what what happened told got hit by a student here it total it coming out of fern no just coming
out of Fern and they were driving up they drove on your side or the other and you walked away you're totally I think we are back live so let's come out of close session and we'll move on to the remainder of our agenda for this evening the next the next item is board discussion um is there any do any board members wish to offer any topics for discussion I've not heard from anyone in the last couple weeks about this but obviously like
to keep the keep the the opportunities open all right so we'll move on to the action items um so now it's time for Action items the first action item is the 2025 Bond resolution series two and refunding bonds can I get a motion I move that the Board of Education approved the resolution authorizing the issuance and delegating the sale of the 2025 School building and site bonds Series 2 and refunding bonds as presented
second move by trusty edel seconded by trusty Chambers we had a lengthy presentation about this a few moments ago is there any further discussion or questions about this item are we prepared to move to a vote all in favor of the motion as present please say I I any opposition m carries unanimously the next uh item is the purchase of network Hardware
I move to approve the purchase of network Hardware from moss in the amount of $556,500 it was moved by trusty taaki she's at
home with her foot up seconded by I'm sure she's I'm sure she's watching though so hi hi tally he's watching and laughing yeah so mve by trusty taaki seconded by trusty Chambers is there any discussion or questions on this topic all right all in favor of the motion as presented please say I any opposition the emotion carries unanimously the next item is fiber infrastructure maintenance I move to approve the contract for fiber Network maintenance with fiberlink for an
amount not to exceed $34,200 than all right let's move by trusty chamber seconded by trusty Torres all in favor of the motion as presented please say I I any opposition the motion carries unanimously next item is the purchase of UPS devices I move to approve the purchase of and installation of UPS devices from moss in the amount of 101,000 $ 2254 second o move by trustee chamber
seconded by trustee edel say uh is there any discussion on this item all right all in favor of the motion as president please say I I any opposition the motion carries unanimously uh our next item is the masb region 7 board of directors election believe we have we can cast our vote today or at our next meeting is that right let Leo so if the board's not ready to make a decision today um we can
certainly punt on this till next meeting but um I know that there was we sent some emails about it so maybe there there was some opportunities for folks to think about what they wanted to do here so uh I'll see if anyone wants to make a motion on this and then we'll I move the Board of Education cast a vote for candidate guo Lopez for masb region 7 board of directors all right by trusty edel seconded by trusty Torres
is there any discussion on this topic all right um and just so that I know that I sent an email out to everybody but Mr Lopez is the incumbent he's the person who we voted for the last time through unanimously as a board and um by all accounts emailed us yes he's the one who emailed us his ma accounts he's done a great job for us so um so all in favor of the motion as present please say I I any opposition motion carries unanimously we do not have
to discuss that again at our next meeting we'll move on to committee reports first committee is academic and Technology trustee Lions we will have our first meeting of the year on Wednesday the 12th this week um at 1:30 in the hub very good facilities committee um I know truste FIS Highland is out M uh trustee uh Lions do you want to say anything about facilities um yeah we had to
cancel um we we were supposed to meet last Friday but uh we had to cancel and so we have not rescheduled yet so stay tuned waiting on our chair leadership to yeah finance committee trusty etel uh our first meeting will be February 19th at 10: a.m. all right intergovernmental trusty taus our first meeting will be at on February 27th at 10 a.m. Personnel no updates
at this time we uh stay tuned on that policy trusty uh we met this morning um two items um so Title 9 has now been sent back to the old Title 9 so all of those policies we approved uh a couple of months ago we now have to go back to all the old policies oh gosh um so uh the plan was for Miss hore to get those new policies out to everyone sometime this week so that we can
actually vote them at the next meeting even though they didn't make it to items of information the second big one is um our policy 520 512 5 102 5201 that talks about law enforcement that had as an attachment under item H our old resolution on keeping students safe we're going to uh change that link to the new resolution
and so uh again I don't know that anybody needs to get that in items of information but we're going to get it on the the next agenda so that it's not just a resolution but we've now put it into policy I believe when we voted on it wasn't that the intention was to incorporate it into the policy we I talked a little bit about that at the time so I just wanted to vote on it and then the next step is to get it into policy awesome sounds good uh isoa py taaki well after getting the submission of a nominee of MVP of the
board last yes last meeting um I I lost it by not making it to this week's isoa meeting I apologize the next meeting is going to be on March 5th and I will make sure I am at that one okay we believe do they have your contact information yeah they do I happen to be there because I was a superintendent rep that meeting so yeah I gave a little yeah update on some uh just some things our superintendent's uh Round Table meeting from last month
but we had a uh representative from masb who presented took a lot most of the time presenting just uh Federal Executive Order updates and what they may or may not mean daily yeah so just kind of to keep folks in the loop and uh yeah so um and then I had to sign off before they did round the group I was on remotely um as we were heading to Michigan negotiators Academy and so I had to sign off
before they went around the room and gave their District updates but I was on for most of it all right uh announcements the next regularly scheduled meeting of the board is February 24th excuse me uh right here are there new announcements all right thanks thanks again Mr pew and um thank you all for being here Al call adjourned at I think
we should all go around and say really six more really nice things about Mr well I was going to say something else let me interrupt you oh wait wait wait I know he's already read 846 846 we'll say it's 846 I will give