All good afternoon, everyone. Um, I'd like to call to order this May 13th meeting of the Finance and Operations Committee. My name is Armin Stree. I'm the chair of this committee. I'm joined by Chair Mansfield and Mrs. Griffiths, uh, we'll go ahead and get started. Um, uh, 2 0 1 is public comment. Um, I believe there is no public comment for this afternoon, so we'll move on to, um, item three minutes. Um, the approval of the meeting minutes. Um, hopefully everyone's had a chance to review the meeting minutes. Um, I'll now make a motion to approve the minutes
of the April 29th, 2025 Finance and Operations Committee meeting. Um, do I have a second? Second. Seconded by Mrs. Griffiths. Is there any discussion? Seeing none will go on to vote. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Um, and that motion will pass unanimously. Um, the meeting minutes have been approved and we'll move on to our consent agenda. Um, I move that we approve, um, the, i I move that. Apologies, move that Defiance and Operations Committee, um, approve the consent agenda.
Second. Seconded by Chair Mansfield. Uh, any discussion? Seeing none, we'll move on to a vote. All those in favor, please say Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. And that motion will pass unanimously. Um, the consent agenda has been approved. We will move on to, um, item five. Action items. Starting off with 5.01 business and financial services, certificate of refunding of local school bond. I move that the Finance and Operations Committee place this item on the school board meeting consent agenda and recommends the Loudoun County School Board approve the certificate of refunding of local school bond Appendix A.
Do I have a second? Second. Seconded by Chair Mansfield. Um, is there any discussion or, um, anything else to add? Staff? Okay. Any questions or discussion? Seeing none, um, we'll move on to vote. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Aye. And that motion will pass unanimously. Moving on to 5.02 Support services grant of sanitary sewer and treatment facility easements to Loudoun County Sanitation Authority, Loudoun Water at Luckett Elementary School.
Um, I'll begin with the motion and then perhaps staff can kind of speak to the, to the item. Um, I move that the Finance and Operations Committee place this item on the school board meeting consent agenda, and recommend that the Loudoun County School Board approved the grant of the sanitary sewer and treatment facility, deed of conveyance and easement to the Loudoun County Sanitation Authority, Loudoun Water at Luckett Elementary School property. Further that the chair of the school board is authorized to sign the deed of conveyance and easement upon presentation. Do I have a second?
Second. Seconded by Mrs. Griffiths. And I will, um, uh, pass this on to Mr. Uh, Paselli, I believe. Thank you. Mrr. So we have a wastewater treatment facility at Luckett Elementary School. And, uh, so back in 2022, uh, we rebuilt that facility to meet current standards. Um, and at that time, the county engaged in a process to start with loud and water to take, um, ownership of that in terms of maintaining and operating it. So we're here today to seek approval for the easement that would allow loud white water to, uh, maintain
and operate this, um, facility. Thank you. Board members. Any questions? Discussion? Yes, chairman. So I see that, um, and this is what I was talking to Mr. Lewis as we were coming in. Um, I see that there was, that the, that there's some we need to give money and some of our money is coming from contingency, CIP, like $3.6 million, and that the Board of Supervisors is also providing some funds. Um, so could you gimme a little history
of this a little bit more? 'cause I kind of feel that I don't understand it. Sure. And I'll possibly defer to Mr. Trainor to help me with this as we go through the process. But essentially, um, the supervisors in the school system went together to look at transferring the ownership of this because, um, the ownership of the plant and the operations, because we are not allowed as a school system to provide sewer service to other, other customers, for lack of a better term.
And so there's a fire station on that's attached to that and serving that. So board supervisors came forward with a process to take ownership of that. In that process. Um, loud water to take over. Ownership required the capital contribution for that in the process. Uh, I will point out that that item that you're seeing that in is July of 2023. So that process has already been done. That money's been transferred, that's been done for a couple years. So that was all part of the agreement for loud and water to take over the responsibility and the operations of the plan.
And I ask Mr. Trainer to add anything I may have overlooked. So we built it and then other thing, and then, and then more people came on it, is that what happened? So we had an existing plant there that was at the end of its life in terms of permitting. So it had to be replaced. As Mr. Paselli says, we bring, had to bring it up to new standards, but it Was just for Lucket Elementary. It Was originally done for just Luck, but the community center and the firehouse, there's a, a septic field there that had failed and they had connected in to us because we had capacity in our plant. And I'm gonna let Don take over at this point
before I get too far down the road. So, good, good evening. So the plant has been operating for decades with the school, the Luckett Community Center, which is county property, and the volunteer fire station, which was staffed with, um, active firefighters from the county. In those, in those, those three buildings, no concerns at all from the school system operating it, supporting both the schools and the county owned facilities. Um, back in 20 21, 22, 22 timeframe, the new fire station opened and the active firefighters moved from the volunteer
station to the news station. When that happened, we lost the legal justification to be able to support the volunteer fire station, which is private property. We notified them to disconnect from the plant. Um, there was a request, um, from the Board of supervisors to give them, we notified 'em a year in advance. Um, that time came and went. Um, board of supervisors asked for a additional extension to give the volunteer firehouse time to find another option. Um, and during that time, a board member initiative was started within the supervisors
asking county staff to figure out how to support the volunteer fire station and what could be done. Um, because their drain field had failed years before, which is why they were on our plant to start with. Um, the solution the county came up with, county staff came up with was to transfer the wastewater treatment plant to Loudoun Water, who is permitted and operated by the legally operated by this, you know, um, under Loudon Water is legally able to provide sanitary service to private property owners as well as government schools and stuff.
So, um, that decision was made and we have been working towards that for the past couple of years. Loudon Water, um, they are not allowed to charge their current customers for the capitalized replacement of the wastewater plant 30 years in the future. So part of the deal for them to take on ownership of this plant is we had to, uh, US and the county who own the facilities that are tying into it. And the volunteers had a share to pay. Um, had to pay for a new plant 30 years down the road. And that's where the $6 million came from.
Uh, it was divvied up based on the fair share usage of the plant. So the schools had the majority of that to pay. Um, the supervisors took that funding out of our contingency funds because it was what we had not budgeted for it. It was nowhere in our capital program. Um, and they control our CIP contingency fund and they took the money and gave it to loud and water. The good news is we're seeing an operational savings on that. It gets us out of the wastewater plant business. Um, it's not a core function of facilities to run wastewater treatment plants, as you can imagine. Um, it was the one wastewater treatment plant that we had.
Uh, we have a state permit to operate it. All of that will be transferring to loud and water. We still own the property. This is just an easement. Um, similar to the way we convey sanitary lines. Every school that we own, um, the sewer lines in the ground belong to loud and water. We're doing the same thing. The sewer lines on the property are being transferred to Loudon Water, the sewer treatment plant facility in this case, not the property it's on, but the facility is being transferred to Loudon Water. And, um, that was a mutual agreement between us and the county staff and Loudon Water as the best way to handle this.
Um, so we didn't get into more problems with zoning. Um, though they're going through site plan amendments and everything still, still in the works. And those, uh, for the county staff are being finished up over the next month. And so this is happening soon. Our operational cost to run the plant, we have been contracting for about the last seven, eight years with loud and water to run the plant for us. Um, we're paying anywhere from 150, 180,000 a year to operate the plant. The, um, under the new structure with Loudoun Water owning and operating the plant, they will,
our cost will be around 12,000 a year. And then the other, we have never charged the county for operating the, their, their fair share of their sewage treatment from their other facilities. 'cause we're not allowed to do that. We're not set up to do that. But Loudon Water will be charging them, um, some of the costs, but it's still, uh, because they can't charge enough to recapitalize the cost of the plant is why we had to pay for the plant upfront. 30 years in the future doesn't, doesn't make a lot of sense. And there's 170 page document in there. That's the, that's the county, uh, county's board item
that we posted that has more details. But I think I've provided the highlights. I hope So. If we grant an easement, are they able to do anything else with that easement? So they are the easement, uh, uh, was written by and coordinated through our legal staff. The easement allows them to own, operate and maintain that plant just as they do the sanitary lines that are already there buried in the ground. Um, in the future, the, the area we're giving them an easement on includes the location of the new plant, as well as a little bit more of the location of the old plant that has been demolished.
There's nothing above grade where the old plant was. The reason they needed the extra space where the old plant is, is they have to have a location to build the new plant in 30 years when this one in theory ages out. And so we are, uh, giving them an easement that would allow them to not only own and operate the current building where the wastewater plant is, but then build a future building, um, when this plant is obsolete. So we're giving them permission to build another building on our property In the future. Effectively it would be replacing the current plant. So not a se it wouldn't be a second building.
It would be a, it would be building a new building, but it's in place of the one that's there that would be torn down in the future. So can they connect other things to that? Like we have what four there right now there's Four structures tied to plant. Four tructure tied to the plant. And then they can, if they build something else, they can do it all. If there's More. So the current, the current agreements are set up so that it's only, this is a limited plant. It only supports those four properties. The county has a vision at some point in the future. We don't know when, 10 years down the road where they would potentially have a municipal plant in
that area to start taking on more of the wastewater treatment within Luckett. Um, that community has historically had a lot of problems with well water and with sand tray water, they get, uh, uh, bacteria into the drinking water wells. And that's what's happened to some of the county wells on the properties that they've, they've closed those in the past. We have the only, um, well, us and now the new fire station have the only two operable wells on the site. The community center gets water from our well, um, and, uh, the, the vol, I was trying to think. Let me, I know the community center does.
I don't think the volunteer station does. Um, the county now new fire station has their own well, um, but they have, we have an emergency connection between the two that we're allowed to open. If one of our wells, us or the fire department's well fails, we still have a backup, uh, for water until we can, and when I say failing, it's, they would fail because of bacteria in the water sample. It's very, the topography there in that area. Um, there's a lot of groundwater infiltration, which is why, um, we have a sewage plant to start with, um, on that site.
And because of the volume we were discharging, other sanitary fields have failed. And so the community center failed. Many, many years ago. They asked permission to connect to the school's plant. The volunteer station failed many years ago. They asked permission to connect. Um, and so when they built the new fire station, they, they asked permission before they built it to connect. And so they're part of our, of our plant, soon to be Loudoun Waters plant. Could they make it a community plant in the future? They would, they could, but it would go through an entirely new process for permitting. Um, and through a, at least through a zoning process
with the, with the county. Um, and I believe we'd have to check on this, but I believe they would also have to come back to the school board because the easement is not set up right now for it to be a municipal plant. But we, I I would need to confirm that with, uh, with our staff attorney. Is there staff, is there a reason that we're just, it's just gone straight to action as opposed to information and then action. I mean, I know we do that with RFPs, but this isn't necessarily an RFP. Right? Generally speaking, we have brought easements through there and this was, you know,
is just a simple easement, although it has a lot of history behind it, a complicated history behind it that would've been done prior to this board being on the board. And so, um, we didn't think about that through there, that this would be your all's first exposure to that. Um, I don't know if there's any restraints on the timeline. If we wanted to, uh, bring that back for action and at the next meeting, we can certainly do that. Alright. The, the, the restraint is at this point that we're trying to get it through the school board by the end of June. Um, and so we, this meeting, the next meeting would be the June 3rd for f and o
and could still go to the board for action after that. When is our last meeting? I thought we only had one meeting in June. No, we have two. Sorry. She's my, my can calendar handler person over there. Um, okay. And, and the reason the June's important is that, um, we are expecting all of the other legislative actions and everything else involved with this to be done, um, in the month of June to allow loud and water to actually start the, to take over an operation in the plant Legislative action. The county required the county staff to do, um, a, uh, special exception for the lease.
They have. They've had to go through the, um, they've treated it as if it's, they're actually transferring property to them. The, the land. It's, it, it's, um, we were all surprised that that one part of the county staff, may the other part of the county staff go through this legislative process that is almost done. They, they literally, it's on the agenda over the next few weeks with both the planning commission and the board of supervisors to approve it. They're making the county put in a tree buffer between the plant and the school. Um, as well as, uh, we already have fencing there now
'cause we put a playground fence up. But they're, they're looking to try to enhance the security. Um, they're treating it as if they're a separate property owner, even though it's still our property. And then there's, there's other, there'll be an easement also. Um, right next to us. The whole parking lot, the gravel parking lot there beside the school is actually county property. It's part of the park beside us. Um, the county is going to be issuing an easement down the middle of that driveway, an access easement for loudoun water to get access to the plant that's at the back of our property. Um, because we couldn't give them access down our property line, our fenced, everything
goes right to the property line. And so we didn't want it to disturb the school. Um, and, and since the county is driving this, they agreed to give a a, a wide easement down that gravel parking lot, uh, for a driveway entrance to the plant. And we have an e an access, we have an access agreement for that. Not an easement, but we have an access agreement allowing us to use that gravel lot for our, um, uh, kissing ride foot for the school. Thank you. I, it's, it's fascinating actually. Um, and, and I just have this little about the potential
that they can do more to it later on. I would also share that when we built the plant, uh, several years ago when we, and the, uh, the problem we had the old plant was, was, um, was not able to treat the sewage to the level that it needs to be under new permitting. And so DEQ notified us years in advance that when we renewed the permit that we would have to treat to a higher standard and the old plant couldn't do it. And so that put, we put the new plant in the CIP process and started working forward, um, after having discussions with the county, trying
to convince them at the time to, to take it over for us and run their own plant, um, they wouldn't do it. It was too far in advance. They weren't ready with their comprehensive planning to take on a community system there. So it went through our CIP process, um, funded by the Board of Supervisors to build the new plant. And then I said it was a board member initiative that actually got this process started three years ago. Four years, no, uh, board of supervisors. Um, with the intent of trying to be able to support the volunteer fire station. Um, as I said, legally we couldn't,
we couldn't keep 'em on our plant once the active firefighters moved out. 'cause it's, it's considered private property. It's not, it's not public property. Mm-hmm. Thank you Chair Raffe. I find this so interesting. Um, wow. Um, if you could tell me again, just repeat for me, um, what are we paying now, uh, when loud and water takes over, what, what are we gonna pay? And then the cost was 6,000,030 years from now. Is that right? Did I hear that right? Um, what, what's the cost now? So The school system's cost that was already transferred,
I believe was 3.6 million transferred to, uh, loud and Water a couple of years ago. And that's What we're paying now. I'm sorry, that was the capitalized capital recapitalization cost of the wastewater plant 30 years in the future. Uh, okay. And so that was from LCPS. We transferred the 3.6. Each of the other users transferred, um, I wanna say it was 500,000, 600,000, something like that. It added up to be five and a half million, $6 million. I don't remember The numbers exactly. We're not the only one. Everybody else is Paying. Everybody had to pay a share of the recapitalization
of that future plant. Okay. We are the only ones paying right now for the operation of the current plant. And that is what, again, So it, it varies slightly, but the, historically it's been 150 to 180,000 a year, uh, to operate the wastewater plant. And, and we contract with Loudoun Water to operate it at their cost. Mm-hmm. So each month they submit an invoice to facilities, uh, that is directly listing their time and labor, uh, and any materials they would've used to operate that plant. Um, many years ago we had a licensed operator of the plant.
We had one, and our state permit requires seven day a week operation. And, um, so we, we had to find another solution. We couldn't have one person. Now, he had been doing it for a couple of decades at the time, but we, we don't do that anymore. Um, and so we, we changed to make sure that we were never, never outta compliance. Picked up loud and water doing it. And, um, and so they have operator that is on site, not all day, but stops by the site every single day as a, as our permit with the state requires. And our labor cost, direct cost with the loud
and water material stuff, it runs that 150 to 180,000 a year. And it, it, it varies a little bit. We, we budget, um, in that range for it each year, and it's been fairly consistent for several years under the new support agreement. What we are anticipating is our cost to be about 12,000 a year. That's What I thought I heard. Okay. So it's, it, it does come with a significant savings, operational, uh, savings for LCPS Because it's a flat 12,000 that's, Um, it's a, it's basically a thousand dollars a month. It, it's, it's based on the loud and water rate structure.
And, and because they didn't establish a rate structure and vision to support a, a plant with only four users, their rate structure is established in the, the highest tier is a thousand a month. And so, um, that's where we fall right now. Okay. Now could they change that down the road? Uh, loud Water could, yeah. I mean, 30 years from now Right. A lot of things could change. A lot, A lot could change In 30 years. And I'm wondering, I mean, we won't be here, right? Correct. I'm wondering, um, if that doesn't end up happening, does LCPS get all the, the money back?
Um, every paid, you know, because we're reserving 30 years ahead of time, So, um, we would not get, so the, the, what we're paying monthly, once loud and water takes over is the operating cost of the plant. In theory, it's to treat the sewage that we're sending through the plant. Um, so there wouldn't be a, a return or a refund on that. And the, um, several million we've already sent to loud water or the supervisors mm-hmm. Took our money and sent it to Loud water. Okay. That that's what, okay. Thank you. That money is basically sitting in a special account trust fund
And we back, we Don't, we don't get it back. If, if nothing ends up happening, you know, 30 years from now, we don't get that back. Correct. Now, maybe if, if something happened in the future and loud, I don't know what Loudoun Waters bylaws are, but it would basically be between the county and Loudoun Water to decide if they, at some point in the future, they decided they did not need to replace that plant. Mm-hmm. Um, then I can't speculate how, how they would arrange getting the money back to folks that contributed it, but effectively that money's put in a kind of a savings account
and held until 30 years from now when that plant needs to be replaced. Hope it collects interest. Thank you. You would hope so. Thank you Chair Streff. If I could add one thing, the, the supervisors created the construction con, uh, capital contingency account for things just like this. So it is thing, you know, so it didn't, in other words, we did not have to sacrifice one of our projects to do that. The contingency account was there to do things like that, which made it sense for them to pay for that out of there. And so, as you have seen a couple different times, we will ask for utilization of the contingency account.
This was one of those things where we agreed that was the best place to do that. So, um, just wanted to clarify that. That is the, the supervisors did pay for it with money they gave us. So, you know, it's, Thank you. Any other discussion? Well, I, I now know that support services can now run a waste has been running and can run a waste water treatment plant. Um, is there anything you guys can't do is the question. Um, yeah. Um, but in any case, um, thank you very much for all of that information.
Um, it is fascinating. With that, um, we'll move on. Uh, It's an action to Vote. We'll move on to vote And, and I can or not to talk. And, and if I wanna talk it further, we can take it off of consent That's right. For the school board. And we would still be in the time crunch, right? Yeah. I think if it goes to action full board tomorrow, if it goes to the full board on next week Yeah. It's, it's not scheduled to go to until for the next week. Third, right. June, June 10th, I'm sorry. June 10th. Okay. So even if we pass it today to go consent,
we still wait until June as opposed to, 'cause the agenda hasn't been planned yet For June 10th. Correct. But tomorrow night's agenda is already set, or I'm sorry, next Tuesday's night? No, the 20th, No, not set yet. Okay. Well if we can certainly add it to the agenda if that's, so you're, you're saying to add it to the agenda as an information item? Well, it's just Hawk. Yeah. Okay. Thinking And if, oh, you're thinking, uh, to take it, to keep it on consent or to proactively take it off? Well, I could proactively Take off.
Got it. We can go to consent, but we, we could, Okay. I could proactively take it off if we wanted to talk about it a Little bit more. Okay. And then if there was a question that, uh, you know, to legal around the scope of the easement, we could have that answered as well. Okay. So you think we could go straight to information? Um, I mean, I'm okay with, I mean, it's your discretion, but I'm, I'm fine with having it in consent. There's a lot of history with this. It's, and I just wonder about, um, well two things. One is, is it helpful for the full board
to get the full update or is it going to, I mean, Well, maybe not everybody is as interested as I am, but, um, but I can also talk to legal on a, on a second. So, so I'll, so we can put it on consent With that. Yeah, let's, let's keep it on consent for now and, um, we'll still have to vote. So, um, all those in favor please say aye. Aye. Aye. That motion will pass unanimously. And this item just let's do a quick thumbs up on consent.
Yes. And I just wanted to clarify our plan when we started the conversation. I'm not sure where we ended up was for the June, the June 10th meeting, not this Tuesday, not this. Why would It be next Tu why wouldn't it be next Tuesday if we haven't set the agenda yet? Um, we haven't prepared the item, so it's not in your all's packet at this point, because we're planning for that, so we could try to get it in there quickly. Um, you can do that. Is that what you're, okay. So Nancy's saying we can do That. It's fine if we wanna, if we wanna do it for consent, but it might, and if it's taken off consent on the
June 10th, um, it goes straight to action anyway. Okay. Well, we'll reach out to Dr. Spence too and just, we'll have it, we'll, we'll gear it up for the, for the, for Tuesday the 20th of May, and if we have to do something different, we'll let you know. That works. Thank you. Okay, we'll move on to our information items. Um, starting off with 6.01 business and financial services, IFBI 2 5 100 0 toner and ink cartridges presented by Ms.
Lia. That'll be the only time I introduce you, Ms. Lia. I think you have a bunch of them. Yes, you'll hear a lot from me between now and the end of June. Um, I have before you this evening, the new contract award for our toner and ink cartridges. The estimated value of this contract is a $550,000, therefore it is brought to you this evening and can be, and can be moved to your next finance committee meeting as an action item or a consent item. Thank you. Board members, any comments or discussion? Seeing none, are we open to this going to consent at the next FL meeting? Thumbs up? Yes. So that'll go to consent.
We'll move on to 6.02 Business and financial services, RFPR 2 4 2 5 0 Language interpretation and translation services renewal. This is a contract that was awarded last year, and this is the first of the second of four renewals, I'm sorry for this contract award. This is for interpretation and translation services, both oral as well as written document translation provided by the Family and Community Engagement Office in that it exceeds $300,000. It is bought before you this evening to be moved
to either action or consent at your June 3rd meeting. And no change in the pricing. There was no change in the pricing. They're still charging the same rates for their interpretation services and there's two different vendors on this contract. Okay, thank you. Um, any other discussion? Seeing none, um, board members, would we like to put this on consent for the next f and o? Uh, you wanna keep it on action? Okay, so this will, uh, be on action. Next item in 6.03. Business and financial services, RFPR 2 3 2 6 3 ice cream. This is the start of the renewals for our school nutrition contracts with the first one being everyone's favorite,
which is the ice cream. There was a 2.38% increase in our cost for next year for ice cream. Um, and the estimated value is $495,000. Once again, this is brought before you to be presented at your next meeting as either an action or consent item. Thank you. Any questions or discussion? Thank you, chair Stree. What is, um, the brand riches? I'd never heard of that before. Um, you, do you put it out to ice cream vendors or Riches? Does all these, I mean, I'm just trying to, this
This goes out, it's an open solicitation open to all vendors. And then, um, Rich's is the vendor who responded to the solicitation to provide ice cream for our schools. Um, how many vendors did you send it out to? Um, I would have to get that information for you. It's an open solicitation in that it is posted in our electronic bidding system as well as the state's website. So we get it about as out there as broad as we can to as many vendors as possible. Um, and would it, it it would always be just one vendor or would you use several if others
bid? I'm just curious. As We've, as we've discussed previously. Yeah. We're, we are, we are fortunate to get a vendor to respond to our school and nutrition solicitations because we want a vendor that will deliver to a hundred schools spread throughout the entire county. There is not many vendors that will do that or are able to do that. So generally we may have one, maybe two vendors respond to school nutrition. Okay. Thank you. And this is, um, the second of four renewals I see as well for this vendor?
That is correct. Is it common that if it's a renewal, um, that you'll have much less response from out from other vendors? Is that When you do a renewal, you only renew with the current vendor. Okay. When you put the solicitation out as we did in the past, you open it up to all vendors. Yeah, That makes sense. So was there a solicitation or you just, it's just Yes. The RFP number, R 20, uh, 23 2 63 was the RFP that was put out for the solicitation. Okay. All right. Thank you. But
that was a solicitation in 2023. This is The renewal, Right? So this is just a renewal of that. Yeah, it was done. I'm sorry, this, this was, this was done in 2023, so, and we, we agreed to that. And so this is just the renewal of that same thing. We didn't go out and do it again. I, I think that that's being lost. That's Correct. Yes. We did not go, this is a renewal with the current vendor that was awarded. And I apologize, I previously said it was 2024, but in 2023 is when we would've opened it
up for competition. Okay, thank you very much. Um, board members, would we like this to go on consent for the next, uh, finance and operations committee meeting? Thumbs up? Okay. Yes. So that would go on consent, move on to 6.04. Business and financial services RFPR 2 3 2 6 1 Fresh produce. So now we're going to the other side. We're going to fresh produce from ice cream at this time. Um, fresh produce, we are currently getting that with PJK food service. This, they were previously known as Keeny Produce, who have been doing business with us for a number of years.
This is brought before you as the contract does exceed the $250,000 limit. Once again, this is the second of four renewals with the effective date, August 1st, 2025. And if you choose to do so, either bring it forward to your next meeting as action or consent item. Thank you. Any questions or discussion? Seeing none. Um, would we like this to go on consent for our next f and o meeting? Yes. Okay. So that item will go on consent. Uh, last information item is 6.05 business and financial services IFBI 2 1, 3 3 1.
Milk and related items renewal. This is our contract with Dairy Mae Dairy to provide our milk products for our schools. This is the fourth of four renewal options for this contract. And right now there was the average price decrease increases 1.5% from the original price, but that is because the vendor is giving us plastic bottles at the paper carton pricing. So we're seeing a cost savings in the packaging. Um, but this is an escalating deescalating contract and the price fluctuates contingent upon the market.
Um, we are bringing it before you as the value of this contract is $2.1 million. And once again, this is the fourth of four renewals and can be brought to your next meeting as either action or consent Questions. Yes, chairman. So, um, talking about sustainability and all of that, and we have plastic packaging. I mean, I see that we have it in, we probably can't get away from it in this one. Um, in the vegetables. We probably can't get away from it, but I know it's a cost savings. But is it really in the grand scheme of things? It is something we are going
to look into when we do our new solicitation. When we switched over to this vendor, what happened is the vendor we were doing business with without a business, another vendor that we got dairy, made dairy, they had lots of issues with the packaging of their cardboard containers. Our option in order to keep milk coming to the schools was to go to the plastic bottling in order to ensure we could have milk for the school. So when we do the solicitation again, we're going to see if we can get back to the paper cartons, but unfortunately, they were not able
to provide paper cartons that actually remained sealed. And um, this is one of the solicitations that is very challenging to get a vendor to provide services to Loudoun County Public Schools with the area of the county and the number of schools we service and the frequency which they deliver. The milk I was raising my hand, forgot I was chair. Um, we've talked, I mean, I mean we've touched on the topic of, um, how we, uh, coordinate with maybe other counties or other school divisions.
Uh, do we do that in some procurements like this where the situation is a little bit more challenging? We tried. Prince William was having the same problem. Fairfax was having the same problem. The state has since moved forward with some additional initiatives to hopefully get some additional vendors for us in the future. But we did look into that at the time we experienced the issues. And all you're doing at that point then is taking one vendor and expanding the area by the size of Fairfax and Prince William. Okay. Got it. Any other questions? Seeing none.
Um, well, do we wanna put this on consent as well himself? Chairman? Yes. So that item will also go on to consent. Um, and that is it for our information items. Thank you, Ms. Vio. Um, any new business, seeing no new business will now adjourn this May 13th meeting at the Finance and Operations Committee. Thank you very much everyone.