##VIDEO ID:gZy-7Oc9Czo## for is e w for for for for e w for for for for for for for for finance and operations committee to order the committee would like to welcome the audience viewers may watch live board committee meetings online at tcaps.net boo recording meetings may be viewed on demand at the same address the committee has set aside this time for public comment Julie do we have any public comment all right so seeing none uh that is the end of public comment uh under procedural items uh we're at the approval of the draft committee meeting minutes from the prior meeting are there any changes to the prior meeting minutes no I just have one one small suggestion um I wasn't at the last meeting but I did watch it a couple times and uh when when we were discussing the next year's school budget this this line here um KN that the administration Board of Education will explore potential budget reductions due to decrease funding in specific categorical areas and redu in student enrollment I you know I think what we were discussing was the the scenarios in which we need to balance next year's school budget and some assumptions being made um one of those assumptions was that we wouldn't lose any kids um and that we the other assumption was that we were going to um get the the other half the million dollars from the safety um and mental health so I guess my recommendation was maybe to in just you know put uncertainties or challenges regarding um categorical areas and student enrollment it was meant to reflect the reductions we got this year but for but the to balance the the status for next school year yeah because if we if we maintain that red reduction then with our um increases for staff we would be over budget if we maintained status qu so we can change the verbage but it was meant to reflect we got a reduction this year if we don't get an increase next year which the Buton budget is unknown then we would be making reductions right so I I guess so just so I'm clear so when you know I love that we're scenario planning for the budget next year and we're making certain assumptions because there's lots of factors right lots of unknowns but during the meeting those assumptions were that we weren't going to lose kids and that we were going to get the million dollars from mental health right right so and this is saying that we are essentially predicting that there's going to be a reduction in student enrollment and a decrease in categoricals yeah I think from the categoricals it was the respective of the at risk that we've been told based on the new formula that we're going to get a decrease and the transportation categorical which is unknown it it's hard because it's so you could spell them all out I guess you know I heard that you know and I get that the the at risk with the new formula I think you know we I think the Assumption made during the meeting was that that that was going to stay flat you know ALS Al saying that it probably is going to decrease so I guess I mean as long as we're clear about the assumptions we're making and I love that we're scenario planning for when we're a million dollar short or $2 million short I guess you know are we assuming that there's going to be no decrease in enrollment or are we assuming that we're still going to get that million dollars from mental health we right now we've made no the those are things that we list that we have to make an assumption on we haven't put anything together yet for an original budget and we won't do that until after we hear from the governor which she's proposed to make a proposal around February 6th okay so after that we will um we're currently in um enrollment conversations now for what it looks like next year um really it looks like it's going to be flat however um all the research has said that we're going to be in declining enrollment we've been fortunate to kind of uh buck that Trend especially with the new Compass Learning Center so we're hopeful that we won't lose students but it we have lost students for several years in a row no I get that and I so I guess I would say instead of saying hey we're going to reduce student enrollment maybe just uncertainties okay around we can change that um so just a little bit more broad than specific to that conf yeah uncertainties okay yeah okay do that um so we'll go ahead and CH the minutes with that yep okay all right so we'll go ahead and amend those uh next is appointment of committee chair nominations are in order for the 2025 chair of the board finance and operations committee are there any nominations I'd like to nominate Andrew Raymond second okay um so with a a motion in a second uh it has been determin that trusty Raymond uh will serve as chair of the board finance and operations committee for 2025 even if you voted now you'd be out voted so um thank you for the opportunity to serve as the the acting chairperson the newly appointed chair will now preside I'll hand over a gble here and back to you so the next item on the agenda is the committee meeting schedule for 2025 it's in the packet um any any conversation about meeting dates I mean typically we go after uh curriculum before executive committee so I mean I think the day probably is works for us I don't know I didn't watch curriculum Tuesday just moved at 15 minutes from 8:30 to 8:15 gotcha so time for Thursday morning it's way more up to your schedule I'm more flexible too super flexible I mean this works for me so if it works for you guys works for me perfect works for staff all right we don't want to go back to 7:30 no no that doesn't work no thanks um all right so let's see next item on the agenda is the 2024 2025 uh General budget uh general fund budget amendment so I will defer to Christine Thomas Hill sure so I have a little bit of a brief synopsis here and it's always difficult to kind of give a presentation of the highlights because obviously um this isn't everything there's we have um I think between 15 and 20,000 account codes so this is just a highlight of major changes um when we adopted our original budget uh prior to July 1 we adopted a $2.9 million shortfall so that was a projected draw from fund balance we've had some changes um we lost four more students than we originally projected so that was about $38,000 loss of Revenue we had less 31 doublea the mental health and safety and Security money this year to the tune of about 209,000 we actually had less in an allocation but we were fortunate to have carryover um so we were able to sustain some of our staffing this year with carryover um we didn't get that per pupil increase um but we did get some offset funding for the office of Retirement Services as it relates to the mypers rate so that was a little increase in our uh revenue and then the sale of birth of O uh we sold for 550 but with closing costs and attorney fees that netted us 516 and then we did see um increases in some categoricals um that is made up of this year there was an increase in at risk they haven't um used the new formula just yet and then we had a small increase in isolated districts and enrollment stabilization so that's what that recognizes and then just always bringing to your attention that the amendment time is when we bring in carryover from last year that's never in the original budget so we had some carryover for sites uh curriculum and then we had a lot of items that we actually purchased prior to July 1 that we didn't receive so we can't book those until we actually receive them I know we I think we had a van um we had a couple other items so um so that money just gets uh rolled into the amendment uh so we can actually make the expenditures once we receive the items so um in all we're looking at an excess of expenses of 3.4 we have had for a very long time uh a a positive variance of about 1.5 we've actually been trending a little bit higher than that the last four or five years so we're anticipating a draw of uh 2 million or less um I would imagine between now and the time that we adopt the final budget it'll be less than that which is good news um we we do have very conservative budgeting practices and we have had um a lot of changes as relates to people spending all of their budgets so a little bit I think more thoughtful purchases planned out Christine that anticipated variance just for my own clarification is that just overages or on various yeah it's people not spending budgets a lot of it's due to staff shortages um it's changes in um Insurance con um consensus um so if people switch from family to single there's a savings there it just happens because like I said we have 15 to 20,000 accounts and so we have a lot of different budget managers and not knowing how they're going to spend their funds it's hard for us to estimate what that is we've been averaging uh for the past 5 years I think closer to 1.6 so um that's good news at some point we'll probably get tighter with our budgets and so might not be higher than the 1.5 but we've been pretty consistent with 1.5 for 15 20 years yeah so we always just put it right in the budget just so that you guys are aware and especially for Tai uh the board is actually approving a draw from fund balance of 3.4 we're you know we have have to get approval from you to actually spend that we know we've had the variance but if it doesn't happen you have to be comfortable with the 3.4 we've got the the uh history of knowing that we've had that variance so we just show it so that you guys are aware what we truly anticipate birth birth those are the net proceeds right birth of us we did close a couple weeks ago uh yeah it was that was the the actual check right there that was wired in was that amount remind me Bo was last year right yeah yep we booked it the last day of the year okay that's so we do have in the memo some um some information as it relates to some of the things that happened um and then we have very detailed information and all the spreadsheets so that you can look at the original budget the amendment and our variance obviously the original original budget is very early and we don't always know um the amendment shows what we know now which usually there's a big change between the original and the amendment on our grant allocations we're usually just finding out about Grant allocations in November so that's when we catch it um it doesn't mean that won't change we're constantly changing on some of our allocations they change all year long they even change after we've booked the year so we anticipate changes all the way through August for this school year um this is the general fund at top at the top we do give a kind of a summary of the f Foundation allowance analysis so that you can see how we're funded so we get 10% of the February count in October uh 90% And so we kind of break that down for you um and we show you the difference of our total FTE um and that's uh student uh full-time equivalency not staff and then we show you at the bottom which is very interesting to pay attention to the state and local portions of the foundation um this has drastically changed over the years we're much more supported by local non-homestead than state we're nowhere near being out of formula but you can see that trend is Shifting it used to be about 50% and we're closer to 60% locally and and it give you an idea of that shift for our neighbors we now have two districts that um in the past years have not El rids and S Bay are now out of formula in other words their property tax revenue exceeds the foundation and so they essentially keep that so now all of the L out Peninsula is out of formula and then Elk Rapids surrounding us so you know there's a big difference there in the realities of the financial the amount of money they have versus what we have it is starting to be an inequity that really wasn't there as much in 1994 when proposal they passed but you know people have said to me well how close are you you know we're still not really close in that aspect but you can see some of those districts are now with their property taxes are collecting 14 $15,000 a student um versus the foundation grant that we get so that does propose a challenge so it looks like our our count from last spring to this fall went down about 65 Bish is that about right 8 we were at 8839 last spring down to 8,773 this fall yep is that kind of what you're are you thinking that's going to be about the projection for I think we're we're actually it depends on how we actually had on Count Day in February for The Compass Learning Center because that's where we saw a jump of a lot of students so um we're still accepting students after that count Aid and we're um John's been looking into opportunities with um the uh state aid and how we can count those students but we do we're projecting uh an influx next year it's just it's a wondering of how many and the compass learning those are those are full Foundation students and I mean how we have over over 100 yeah I knew we added 70 um correct Sandy in the second semester wow another 70 in addition to no that's included that's included here that's why we only saw a decrease of four students because the projection was quite a bit higher than that wow but we think you know we know that if you look at Ty and I have had this conversation if you look at the um out of school district choice that are going so much of what we've seen of that is virtual not only to a couple neighbors that have since closed but also just one-offs that are all over the state that people see on TV or computer ad or whatever so we're excited about that we have the wraparound Services here in our town for many of those kids that need it and so I we really think that we're building a superior product that families will want to choose and so we're um you know we're continuing to work all those Kinks out and we had a great presentation at curriculum if you didn't get a chance to see that you can go back and and see Jen's presentation on where we're at with all that but um definitely looking up and trying to make sure that all of the things like for our kids that are maybe um high school kids that want career and Tech Career and Technical education you know Center that they have that opportunity with the virtual so um continuing to look at how we can grow that that's great I I was over there during the holidays and just to see the that's that's great on the next couple Pages you can see on the right hand uh column we try to put notes as it relates to why there's a variance a lot of it between the original and the first amendment is simply just knowing what our allocations are but we make notes on the next page as to each of those items and why it was impacted uh same as you look forward to the as you look at the restricted local funds restricted State funds those ones changed quite a bit um as it relates to uh our state funds one of the big ones is at risk that changes uh throughout the year and then um it gets into federal funds and I'm just trying to give an overview so if you have any questions um then we have our food service fund um this one we're a little bit worried about food service um we're struggling um well there's been quite a few snow days so there's always lot of Revenue there uh but we have a lot of staff to prepare um our meals and even though it's free and reduced we still have limitations on on what we can purchase and those costs are drastically going up for our food um so it's something that we're trying to trying to manage with our labor hours as best we can um then we have our student School activity fund um this one you'll always see as balance between uh revenue and expenses for the most part um this is most of the uh Student Activity funds so PTO funds and things like that that sit in our accounts um community service fund so this is our um Child Care our tuition based child care it's also leap uh so those two are kind of wrapped together and then they're separated on the next couple of sheets so you can see where they stand um we've had a nice fund balance in child care I don't know if you recall but we got several grants for the last three or four years not not this year but we've got some grants to help offset cost so we didn't have to increase cost and we're in the SC scenario now where we have to increase cost to make our expenses so we are trying trying to slowly increase costs over the next couple of years instead of one big shot to parents and then you'll see the detail on leap and then we just get into the federal grants so that you guys know what grants we have um and what those allocations look like we try to put the names and descriptions as best we can but if you have ever have any questions with that we certainly can explain it a lot of the um all of these grants here federally are restricted which means they had a um they have a specific purpose and we can't really Veer from that and then we have restricted State funds um categoricals at risk is the biggest one um but a lot going on there there's a lot of changes uh with those grants throughout the year and then some local grants and a lot of those uh usually come forward um as donations or grants that we accept through the board finance committee and that's it any questions on the budget amendment I actually have a question on the slide that you've got up here I'm trying to follow it so our original budget for this is for general fund we we approved a draw of 2.9 correct million it looks like we've got increases in revenues of about 13 million and then increases in expenses of 450,000 well we had some decreases in Revenue so those two red numbers are decreases in Revenue the other three are positives right yeah and that's a total right toal it would be hard for me to put everything I try to highlight the substantial so it won't ever really truly add there are more expenses than just the 450,000 yeah I'm trying to figure out like how we're going we got increases in revenues of like 1.3 million and we're we're actually adding more draw to the general no it's less because you want to look at the bottom line so the 2.9 is the 2.9 include the 1.5 variant yes okay gotcha yeah so you're looking at 2.9 you're looking at 2.9 to 1.9 2.9 includes the 1.5 got it yeah we just tried to put that excess there so you know you're actually approving so we're actually approving a positive budget amendment of about a million dollars correct so long story short million bucks yes yeah bus better I was comparing the Top Line to Line and I was like this doesn't make sense okay got it but I appreciate the the three and a half right and then as we send the note to staff about so I think that that's helpful yeah yep and our staff's pretty used to seeing that variance we talk about it all the time it we've always found it's much better to tell them we expect that then to say oh the guy's falling we're going to draw 3.4 and then oh look we're not that never feels good so we try to be as close as possible but still conservative all right any other questions on budget amendment if not this I'm assuming is going to be a discussion item for yep so we will move that uh this item to the full board for discussion um we will move on now to bid services and purchases uh the first item is a school bus purchase and I'll go right back to Christine so um as a highlight we do have annual allocations for school buses we used to do a million a year um now we're at 500,000 a year we do believe with the new bus watchh that we're able to keep our buses longer um so that's something that we've kind of tackled Transportation with I asked Cindy Farah to be here she's our purchasing manager I wanted her to just give an understanding of how we use purchasing cooperatives I'm not really sure if you're familiar but I thought it'd be a good time um so Cindy if you could kind of go over how we use purchasing cooperatives and then throughout this memo how we use them for the bus and Tyson can answer questions about the buses itself absolutely good morning so purchasing cooperatives essentially are um are they they they do the standard bidding process for governmental agencies such as K through 12 school districts and so they allow they they vet the whole bidding process they find the most competitive price and then essentially they award a contract to um say vendor a and so then school districts such as tcaps are able to um take advantage of that Cooperative pricing with vendor Aid directly instead of going through the traditional bidding process and so it allows us to get the best price moving forward uh while also um following state of Michigan guidelines as well as board policies as well so essentially in in this specific purchase we were able to one take advantage of the msbo uh bus purchase program so that um that process of uh the purchasing process is vetted through msbo we are also able to not only uh purchase the buses through msbo but then add our own things that we need specifically to the bus such as uh the two-way radios um and some cameras um the 2-way radios we are able to use my deal which is another purchasing Cooperative through the state of Michigan directly um so it allows us to to get that best price moving forward and it also allows a negotiating platform um with the traditional bidding process you send it out for bid you put it in the record Eagle you wait two weeks you do the bid opening process and then you choose the best vendor um that has the best cost effective um option um using the purchasing cooperative allows us to have a one-on-one contact with that vendor and try to get the best price that we possibly can for our district so in essenti in essentially uh with the two-way radios we are able to go back and forth and get the best price for these two-way radios as well as other radios if we buy them in the future um so we did that for my deal uh and then there are also some um uh what do I want to say say proprietary things that we purchase as well and Tyler Technologies is one of those where we call that a single source and that means that that uh vendor that's the only vendor that we can purchase this specific item through um they have proprietary software that um we can't get anywhere else and so that fits in with the Tyler Technologies as well and those are also ways that we purchase things as well so yeah we we try to use purchasing cooperatives when we need to um obviously we if if we we can't latch on to a purchasing Cooperative we definitely go through the traditional bidding process um but it does create a negotiating platform for our district so we can save some money one thing I'll add msbo is Michigan school business officials Association the ACM oh yeah uh thank you um I have a couple questions I guess I'll start um so one my first question is the um T is the Tyler technology the the um scanning for when students get on and off the bus yes sir that's our routing software and then the scan on scanof for the students okay yes that's the tablet that will be on the bus so the safety precautions for students being on all um and then I was just going to ask if are we retiring any buses with this purchase and do we what how does that process work so the mechanics would pick the oldest buses and uh we currently have 10 that are all the same year so they will pick the five of those which are the regular conventional buses that we'll be replacing um through the mechanics process they go through them and we are our plan is to get rid of those buses prior to the uh bus inspection this year so we're not putting money into a something that's going to go away and those get so this price is this is just the purchase of new buses any retirement proceed or proceeds F get back okay yes and we sell all those on the website yes and then the transit we will not be retiring one of our transits currently so that's the one bus that's a little more expensive than the rest so those are trip buses or yes okay with the storage underneath yes any other questions from the committee um did we I guess I do have one more so you said five we allocate 500,000 um of bond funds so did we not do a purchase last year or is this just are we purchase we did a purchase last year and in fact we still haven't gotten all those buses just yet they currently for a regular conventional bus it's a year and a half okay and we're just getting the ones that we order ordered a year and a half ago we're they're starting to trickle in so so this will count for two years yeah so they get a $500,000 allocation but because we sell Bonds in two years so he has a million dollars over two years so it's better to use that million all at once especially knowing the delay in time and we jumped on it right away because pricing has been going up so we tried to get the same pricing we got a year and a half ago and it's pretty close and usually we sell to local or neighboring districts right quite yeah quite often that happens usually bu are the bus they know they're very well taken care of and a lot of school districts don't have a bond program to be able to purchase buses this is our first 2024 bond is this 2024 Bond money yes it is um it's not the first though okay we've had other little items okay and do we have 2018 Bond money left we do um we had uh 10, 95,000 left that we're selling um some of that has been set aside uh for the field project and then a small portion of it was used recently for stem equipment um Jesse brought $60,000 worth of stem equipment through for the Innovation and Manufacturing Cent um okay I mean I I it's a it's a high dollar but these are pretty routine purchases so I'm personally okay with bringing this to consent agenda but discussion I'm okay with consent okay yeah excellent so let's move on to the next item under bid services and purchases which is Blair and CED elementary school lockers and this one is going to go to Paul good morning um I'll start out with I've got several items on here today so I'll just start out with all of our bid uh projects are advertised uh in the record eagle with the state of Michigan Sigma purchasing website uh through the Builder exchanges in Michigan and we've reached out uh not just the local but we advertise in uh Grand Rapids and Lancing Builders exchanges as well and then there's other Statewide forums that pick up our our project bids and then also on my or our tcaps capital projects web page so this first project is uh student Locker it's a straight up one for one replacement of the existing lockers that are the original to the building and uh over the years have taken taken quite a beating and um we struggle to repair them as it is so um we received several bids for this five as a matter of fact and we're recommending that we award the contract to the ray Haven group for the total contract not to exceed $246,000 and that work would be completed over uh this summer and that does include a 10% include a 10 contingency it's amazing that the one of the bids is like 100,000 over the you'd think it'd be a pretty straightforward we received a lot of interest from around the country on this NE we got bids from Colorado we got calls from all over the place huh on this it was pretty amazing and when you remove the old lockers is there any way to sell them for repurposing um or do they come out and sort of uh not not in the condition these are in okay and you know I'll be honest I've seen auction that things you know Bank of them will go for like $1.50 you'll have more labor yourself pulling them out trying to sell them doing all that than them Tak and these are very rusted out on the bottom you know from you can imagine snowy boots everything in there that their past their life but the labor that we would have in all that to do all that is more than we would get truthfully invalu for okay I know sometimes we see them in uh you know nice updated residential houses they try to yeah reuse repurpose and kind of cool and we've been reusing several lockers from other locations where we can to replace these so that they have working ones but it's gotten to the point where it's just not feasible yeah got it okay excellent well I'm looking at the 2018 I just what other lockers did we replace um 2018 like Silver Lake I think East Middle School right didn't East Middle School have have a bunch of I don't remember not I Westwoods I did Westwoods when uh we did the addition was Edition was well before the addition was put on we did some other work and we included the corridor upgrades so we used to have carpeting in the corridors and we took all that out redid the flooring and then redid the lockers at the same time and obviously we didn't do Cate in 2018 that's right okay yeah there there's it's always a struggle when you have an original plan and then when projects actually come to fruition and costs are associated to them some projects end up falling off and or some things come up that you weren't aware of that become priority so what's in that original plan A lot of it might not have gotten done so this will do all the lockers at Blair but not all the lockers at Cate because there was an addition done at CID that has newer lockers that has newer lockers and then the same size and same size these are actually different a little bit there we have a new standard now um the the Ada lockers have an additional Shelf at the bottom and the principal love love those um it gives them the opportunity to put boots at the bottom and keep them separate from books but also it provides opportunity that any of our lockers are ADA Compliant so it's kind of our new standard and their age they're pretty age appropriate too because they were storing their boots in the hallways on the floor so that the younger kids the smaller kids could lay their books and papers on the bottom of the Locker so they weren't having to reach up to that top shelf so we get the lockers not would have that shelf in the bottom so you get the boots out of the hallway the bottom of the locker and they can still put their boots and paper I mean I fully support it I guess my only question is is why not $28 but um we can discuss that another time yeah and that's a difficult conversation because in the end there are rules as it relates to that money and when you spend it after you sell it and then there's cash flow issues so in the grand scheme of things how we've always operated it it becomes one when when you sell it in 2025 you're having one chunk of money and then West has to do the magic to balance it all out and close it out to make sure byed by the time frame the the projects always meet the requirements because our legal ballot language is always everything legally possible so that's never an issue um but it's a balancing act of closing it out with the exact number of dollars and so by keeping it kind of uh fluid for us to be able to close it out with whatever project we need um Wes is able to get to the dollar as best he can with bigger projects it's harder if you have smaller projects to close out a small chunk of 10 million um so you try to take bigger projects to close that out okay um okay uh if there are no other questions on this item um again I'm I'm supportive of this going to rec consent Cal objection me too okay um and it looks like Paul we're going to keep with stay with you and move on to um some Elementary building walls yep some classroom partitioning currently at uh Cherry Long Lake and Willow Hill we have a movable partition between the art rooms and the music rooms and uh it's not serving its purpose uh that it was originally designed for if they open them at all they can't get them closed and they're not very sound attenuating uh so the classes disrupt one another uh as they're going along during the day so we're proposing to take those walls out and replace them with a higher uh STC Rader which is a sound transmission coefficient wall we'll actually build a double wall uh to knock the noise down between the spaces and it'll be a fixed permanent wall it'll be a fixed permanent wall so the these are like the walls that are on like the track that you push all the way existing ones are y the existing ones aren't we'll take those down and if you remember when we talked about music programs there was a goal to make sure we had a dedicated Music Room in every Elementary so this helps uh with that also on the Silver Lake on that one's not a higher rated because we're what we're actually doing there is breaking up a full-fledged classroom for itinerate spaces so that if their enrollment increases they don't take a full-fledged music classroom to be able to accommodate so and we' looked at this I believe last year year we had started down this road and just ran out of time and and funds well a scramble I think to get done just to start school the renovation oh yeah so and on this we only received one bid um it was from Eckler Building Solutions but um we work with Eckler quite a bit on the district in that so every confidence in them we're recommending award to them for 161 590 and that also includes a 10% contingency questions all right um again no no objections on this one I would propose moving to the consent calendar moving on to Traverse Heights classroom and cafeteria Edition so we're adding uh we're proposing to add three classrooms uh to the northmost wing of uh Travers sites uh there there'll be U uh early Ed kindergarten size classrooms and that and along with that addition we're expanding the existing cafeteria which is quite small uh doing some renovations to the existing music room and um uh adding another uh toilet room between two existing classrooms uh which was alternate number one in the bid alternate number two two was to create some uh more itinerate office uh space and it was decided that we don't need that space so you're not recommending accepting that alternate on the project it was a nice to have but for $84,000 we the principal agreed that it wasn't that necessary we just did Renovations last year to provide some private spaces for itinerant yeah I guess my only question is just um looking ahead and kind of seeing the growth at that school just to um you know because we did just do those additions on the I believe the south side of the building right so now those are all yeah Northwest isd's classrooms yes so okay so just again just making sure that this addition is going to kind of handle years to come it will and that's another reason why we're proposing not doing alternate 2 because that would have broke up a full classroom into these permanent itinerate spaces so by leaving in a classroom they can still use it but it's flexible to be able to turn it into a classroom uh we believe they have enough we also have two programs in there two classrooms that we're renting out to Head Start so if if we ever got into that big of a crunch we have options okay or we could maybe provide different space for them okay so we did receive four bids for this project um and during our our post bid interview Comack realized that they had left a chunk of the project out of their bid so they uh asked to with draw their bit allow our contractors to do that we don't hold them to their feet to the fire like that but um was there I'm assuming there was conversation with them about if they included all of the items that were required in the bid that it would have been over yeah the the next they would they would not have been low in in anyway they left almost $400,000 worth of masonry work out of the out of their bid so so um Hallmark uh was our second well really the low lowest responsible bidder and uh we are recommending award Hallmark um am of 3 million 24680 does include the 10% contingency again um and Hallmark just is the as a matter of fact is the contract just completed that ISD Edition so they're very familiar with the schools and the systems there Paul I think you just did you what dollar amount did you just say because I see 2,958 yeah you're looking at the bid spec so yeah sorry and that doesn't include the contingency gotta okay 32 the the 29558 does not yeah right does not include the 10% contingency this is the actual on the the second page that's the amount that the contract will be written for but we're asking for the contingency for change the only thing left to bring on uh Travers sits is Furniture fixtures and equipment so we will need to outfit the classrooms we believe we have enough cafeteria tables um I don't know if you remember what we did Elementary cafeteria tables and we bought all the same so we have extras and they'll be able to match so um ran is doing an evaluation to see if we have enough but when we go to purchase uh the furniture for the classrooms if we need more we'll purchase on them that'll be brought forward a little bit later to you guys we'll do that through a Consortium we did the same thing when we added on to uh Westwoods Elementary uh we purchased that furniture through uh a couple of consortiums and we'll use the same setup and furniture that we did out there I'm I'm excited for this project yeah who knows to our wonderful neighborhood school for their growth yeah it has been a drastic change in enrollment I it what year was it that we actually had conversations about po closing because they were years ago they were like 179 students and I think with all the other programs in the building they're at 350 it's awesome wonderful C that's really great great culture yeah um I think me personally these next two or three items just from the dollar perspective I would propose we just add them to a discussion item then we can have a quick discussion to allow other members if they want to have any questions on them um so no objections I'll move this to a discussion item for the next full board and we'll move on to uh the next item which is the uh West Senior High driveway expansion can I ask a quick question when do you when just because I'm new to finance like what's kind of your limit of like adding it to discussion um I mean I just if I it's just preference I guess I personally like this is a multi-million dollar project and inclusivity for other members that aren't on this committee if they have potential questions there might be questions just because we did a project even though it was Northwest yep okay okay got it just curious thank you yeah okay West High West High School site circulation and pedestrian improvements this has been a topic of discussion for several years since it was built was built in fact the after it was built the circulation pattern was changed um after it was first built it had gone the direction we're proposing for it to go in now it was reversed and changed the other way and and that was because in when you're letting a student off a school bus they had to cross in front of the bus the other way that's why it is the way it is now so we can let students off actually at the sidewalk so we'll be going back to the normal way it's still going to be one way um but in Parts it'll have two lanes um and a lot better um clarity as it relates to where to go and room to be able to maneuver so the the goal of the project was to um eliminate some of the crossing of pedestrian and vehicular traffic and that by moving the parking areas up to the sidewalk and the curb adjacent to the building so we're not walking across that Loop Road and to separate bus bus in particular traffic it is a cluster so um that's that's where we're at with the plan um Miller Davis uh is our construction manager on the project they um they facilitated the bids and that they br it in the six bid categories as you can see um we had a signage package that's separate mechanical electrical earthw work Asphalt Paving and the site concrete um we conducted a week and a half's worth of post bit interviews um with the U with the groups there was uh a couple of um incomplete bids that we received on that we and we found that out through that post bid uh interview process uh we had uh three alternates on the project and we are recommending acceptance of all three alternates um one was for an additional Ada parking lot that was uh right at the main what's going to be the new main entrance for the office on the uh east side of the school so there'll be a a little cut in there for additional Ada parking and we'll extend and uh the snow M system out to uh that parking area from the uh building itself uh alternate two was to Mill and repave the parking area in front of the football field by the tennis courts up there we had put that in as an cost alternate just to make sure we had funds for the project before we did that and then there's an area uh for heavy duty Paving for like buses and heavier Vehicles than that that was a third alternate to extend that up into different areas of the parking lot uh the total of the bids was 4, 5360 uh with a 10% contingency we're asking for approval of 4,458 366 couple things to note we're also part of this project we've spelled out a little bit of an extension at Long Lake Elementary School for the exit so we are actually extending the right turn lane there's been congestion on site getting out and so we have the opportunity to extend the right turn lane so that people turning left aren't stuck behind a bunch of cars trying to turn left on a busy road um it actually helps with bu buses exiting too I think it makes that turn radius a little bit better as it relates to West Senior High um one of the big benefits um actually the road commission approached us a couple of years ago they really want to get rid of that second traffic light that we have for our existing exit right now it doesn't align with anything it creates some backup and they wanted us to have all traffic at herkner and this accomplishes that so all of our um entrance and exit traffic will be at the light which is right at the herner light so it all aligns so we won't have vehicles kind of stuck between two lights and some chaos going on right there and then we added a sidewalk so there's going to be a crosswalk at herner and then we have a push button crosswalk on our site when it actually crosses traffic that's all been coordinated with the county in fact the county got a grant to do that light work and that so great yeah so the Count's paying for the light at her and Long Lake yep the Reconstruction of the intersection and I mean Long Lake sorry yeah at the light at herner and Long Lake that's great and yeah and then we'll be dismantling the other one they're they're covering that cost with the crosswalk correct at herner yeah they're covering that that's great is this um phased or is are we trying to do this all up yeah it's phased we um you know the way construction projects have been going there there was no way we wanted to try to tackle it in one summer there's just no way I I don't believe um I think it would take a miracle for them to be do able to do all that work and then to think about how difficult it will be to manage the school day um there is going to be some crossover we anticipate they'll be doing construction um all summer through October until they can't really pave anymore so excuse me the goal is the first summer to get the entrance lined up the Bus Loop and the parent drop off which is when you're looking at the entrance to the left um and then the next summer we'll do the other side so we've met to discuss what that looks like how we'll get traffic in and out in the interim um it's not necessarily ideal but I think given the scenar of how huge the project is and the fact that they'll be they're going to be using the building the the whole time um we're also going to be doing other construction projects so we anticipate uh train will be there all summer uh doing 100 100 heat pumps we also have restroom Renovations going on there so um it's there's going to be a lot going on within the building and you know if they propose getting more done sooner we'll certainly have that conversation with them but I would rather plan for two summers and possibly do a little better than be in chaos of being late and this this budget is for the whole project right yes it is I just have a quick comment and you know and I support the you know making it more efficient for families to drive to Long Lake Elementary uh you know the idea have continued safe and efficient access to our buildings I I hope that we will also make it safe and efficient for for families and kids to to get themselves to school and I know we've done great work with st to school we are very close with Long Lake Township it's like there's a small easement connection to the neighborhoods north of Long Lake Elementary that would take a small little nudge to help those kids because we have a wonderful uh Trail North of the building that through the woods to those neighborhoods so I hope that um yes let's make Carolina efficient but let's also make um it easy safe convenient efficient for kids to walk to school to Long Lake Ty do you know is there anything that goes from there towards West High School I don't know there's a power line and there's always been discussion of easements on your power lines but I don't know I know we were in discussion while we're doing this working on this project with the safe routes coming up from West Middle up into the neighborhood across the way um out to herner and that to connect all that because I believe the township now has plans in a grant to connect the trail um the Garfield Township all the way to the new senior housing project right across the street so we'll connect all the way from essentially you know monu West Mill all the way to West High School that's why I asked the question of you know is there a way to get back you know that's that's what I've been wondering is there a way you know that makes sense to get down long Lake Road towards Long Lake Elementary that would continue that thing on so yeah that's a big I mean this lift is very small and we were very close you know we went to several Long Lake trustey meetings um and that's a small little Improvement that I think would make a big deal for those kids who just live North there's another easement right next to Westwoods that we almost got as well all too so anyways just something for us to think about in the future yeah good to know that's uh okay any other questions on um the driveway expansions if not um again I just unique project multi multi-million dollars I would just propose putting it on for discussion in case there's other questions yeah um okay moving on to West Senior High School restrooms yeah this is a a renovation and a reconstruction of U two groups of restrooms at West Senior High one is located right off the commons um cafeteria area and that there's a two restrooms there and then down around the corner off in between C and B Wings there's a a group restrooms there that we're looking at converting into single user uh restrooms that so it's it's restroom quite a bit with supervision and locking I mean that's we've heard from the kids and um parents and staff about locking the bathrooms because of security obviously or supervision but then the kids can't get into the bathroom so well part this will open them up um not so that you know supervision will be made a lot easier for what with the the access to the doors to the single stall so they'll be floor to ceiling door and they'll have their own sink well the one set won't have a sink but the set by The Commons will have their own sink within but the common area getting to the restroom is wide open for for supervision uh possibilities so like and the renovation is not going to hurt them either right yeah they're not they're original they are original so little renovation spruing up's not going to hurt and the ones in the ones are opposite of the auditorium is that on the other correct yes other side of the common cafeteria area that's great so we're not losing any fixtures maintaining the same fixture count single and we did receive three bids on this one um and comto after withdrawing their bid for Travers Heights was scrutinized very heavily before we decided to do this SC comto actually was uh involved in the construction of West Senior High when it was originally built and that and we're we haven't had a project with them since I've been here so it's nice to have another um contractor party out there involved so we are recommending award to them in the amount of 575 740 and that does include again a 10% contingency all right on so on this one um I know we've talked about the restrooms at West High School quite a bit on the board level as we've had conversations about our safety um discussions at the board level so I'm comfortable on this one for consent but again open forward discussion I'm good with the cons it's but we have talked about it quite a bit yep um okay so hearing no objections we'll move that item to the consent calendar and move on to our informational items uh the first item is our standing Capital project update get to keep talking so here we go i' I've flipped the order here usually I show you guys Central High first uh this is West Senior High obviously um things are looking really well on the outside other than they're covered with snow right now but concrete's in walkways and that is that your computer again that way yeah that way it looks great you drive by it looks like it's been there forever so things are moving along it's a nice like face of the building it is really looks great sure it PR it presents a nice facade out there it does inside uh finishes are going in um floor finishes ceiling finishes lighting um there carpet's down casew work's going in electrical fixtures are being finished up connections made all through the interior painting is pretty much done there's a couple of things left to be painted yet um that's the big space obviously the railing needs to be painted on the stairs and that the floor gets its uh seal coat so they've been moving everything out of the small spaces out into into the the big space and then getting rid of it or Distributing it and right now we're struggling with we're getting deliveries of equipment that we've ordered and trying to find a place to put it because I don't want to put it in in these spaces because then it's in the way of them finishing their work you know so but you can see the cord reels have been hung lightings up all the all the painting's been done up there that so moving right along and that's some of the equipment we're stuffing it into um their office space we gave them inside the building there and then this is the was the I don't want to say leftover space but these were the remains of the two classrooms that we cut into when we did the addition and this is going to be the uh Esports space at West Senor Esports Sports what what is that so this is the computer gaming uh Team okay that uh they they have a challenge and they go against other schools uh in that so it's a a new emerging lots of high schools huh um that are a part of that program a little bit of work left to do in there ceiling pads painting floorings down and then at uh Central Central is is about two weeks behind West now they've flip-flopped Central used to be ahead of West now they're behind with uh some of the things going on there but uh again the exterior is almost finished up the plywood we're waiting for the overhead door to come and that they're just when they show up they'll go in but uh we're waiting for that right now and as you can see there's a lot of people here working on the space and again the Interior Space um they're trying to move things out of the way so they can do their finishes that is the uh CAD lab area and this is I want to say it's the clean lab space and that see see case work's going in lighting um ceiling grid casework that's the meeting room space they're finished painting it so things are out of the way right now or they're covered so they can finish paint and then the rest of the finishes will go in it's mechanical space it's ready to roll systems are all up and running you know epoxy flooring's down that space is ready this was couple This was um two weeks ago I want to say they were prepping and painting uh at Central and and this is the space now it's been painted and again you can see where they're they're moving things out of the side rooms so they can finish the side rooms and I do have a few pieces of equipment that are sitting in there because I can't find a space over a central to put them yet but I might have to get a temporary container or something to get that stuff out of the way looks good looks really good yeah looks great goad yeah the the big hiccup we have right now is uh issues with a fire rated door so um there was a change by the fire marshall kind of mid we're pass we pass that it's taken care of the door frame is going to be there we're we're going to put a drywall in instead of the glass so that we can get past that uh and so now it's switched repeating for those overhead doors to get here yeah and my understanding on that one is it was it was pretty much the manufacturer stalling us as it relates to design yeah they didn't approve the original design and it took them forever to provide a new design and then they actually went back to our design but by the time the doors were ordered so we'll be waiting for that but you don't need the actual garage doors that we can actually plywood but the exit doors are required for egress so we needed to make sure that those were in before we can get any kind of temporary occupancy so our goal is to get temp occupancy around February 15th so they can go and practice with their robotics we're working really hard on that at West yeah we may have to you know the West folks have uh offered the central kids to come over you know their their goal is just to get a practice floor for the new game that they have so our hope is to get a practice floor in there I I talked with the robotic staff you know the mentors kids all that that's their hope to have that so that's what we're trying to make happen all right um let's move on to the next item which is a finance update for Christine yeah so as I mentioned uh earlier uh we're supposed to see something from the Govern Governor around February 6th um don't know what that means for House and Senate how quickly they respond they they seem to be kind of disorganized at this point um with some potential lawsuits going on and some other issues with uh bills not making it to the governor's desk um so I'm not really sure what will happen on there two but at least we'll get a good sense of the governor's priorities and and really the governor's priorities last year are what took us by surprise so I think he having a good sense of what she's looking at I know with universal preschool it didn't quite meet the mark uh this year for what they were looking at so I'd be surprised if they put any more money into it we also know there is money in state aid to give and so it'll be interesting to see what her priorities are and then we'll just kind of watch that process as we get information from the House and Senate when we get it and as you know we'll just have to do do our best estimate um to be able to approve the budget by July 1 but at least we'll have something to start reacting to in February I like I like the wording there Chris to reactive true so that's really all I had on finance we just keep that as a standing item uh okay we move on to the next item which is a filter first requirement yep so I just want to make you aware so this is something that um actually I think we've been talking about at least about a year year so new requirements with lead testing and what um for not just schools but in schools um some of these requirements are going to be very hard to adjust to uh the first deadline uh we did meet it was this uh January 25th of 25 we had to have a plan in place um they're very uh relaxed about what that plan looks like because they know it's a work in progress and they also know that they haven't provided timely guidance for schools I think a lot of schools haven't even done an audit so we were required first to do an audit of every um every spot really where water is coming out of some kind of spicet or faucet um even like our slap sinks in our custodian rooms the requirement will be if you want to use it as consumable so any kind of drinking water um we would have to put a filter on it um and we would have to lead test it every year that's a lot of work for us so we're going to be going through a process of eliminating those sources where water is consumable we're really going to be focusing on those bottle fillers and drinking fountains those actually have a new requirement too on what kind of uh filter we have to use so it has to have a filter status light on it um not all of ours do and we're required to have one per every 100 students in a building so we have a a count that we have to meet as it relates to our buildings with students in it um they don't necessarily have to be strategically placed but obviously we're trying to do the best we can we've added them through some of our construction projects throughout the year some of the ones that we already added will have to be replaced because they don't meet the requirements we did apply for a grant and get some money to be able to swap those out there is another round of uh grants coming available that we'll be able to apply for um but uh ran the director of facilities will be meeting with principles because this is going to be a change in kind of how they do business so the first thing we want to do is find out if in classroom spaces there's any requirement by anything to be able to have drinking water available we know with our Head Start programs that we rent space to they are required to have drinking water in the classroom so we might have to look at those a little bit differently than the rest of them um we're also required to do signage so everything that has uh water basically coming out of it we're going to have to be able to say whether it's consumable or not consumable so um filter first and Eagle is working on um some recommended signage um not for consumption hand washing only those things um the signage will probably be a little bit later we're actually actually required to meet all these uh by June of 26 so we've got time Ryan's been working on the audit that we had um we actually had some bus drivers over the summer do the audit of every building and we're working on the plan as to what we're going to do with each of those items um we're going to be a little bit in a world of a of hurt here soon our plumber um is actually retiring U we've got him for another two weeks so um that's going to be a little bit of a challenge but we do have time so if we need to contract that workout we will and some of that contracted work can be covered by the grant unfortunately the grant is really not anywhere near what we'll need to do this work and I know a lot of school districts are really struggling with that um but we're right on right on point with what we're supposed to be doing um we have General plans on how we're going to handle classrooms uh we're likely going to um uh cap off all bubblers any any kind of drinking water from classrooms and make it handwashing only um there's now uh we had been asking for quite some time if there was a way to do any uh filters that weren't inline they were requiring inline filters so we're looking at filters that were add-ons to faucets and they didn't allow that now they're thinking they might allow that so again guidance is coming guidance is coming so we we'll just kind of keep up with that anytime there's any kind of webinar R's attending it to make sure that we're staying up to date but we do have a plan it is available if anybody were to ask us to look at it it is a working document um in Eagle said as long as you have something and you started it we're we're pretty far in the process so I feel pretty good about where we are um there's some minor things that we have to make sure we're meeting with principles to see if there's something we're missing as it relates to capping something up they might absolutely need um and then just kind of educating as to why we're trying to cut down if we have to lead test every source that is consumable every year we just don't have the manpower to do that so we're going to have to make some different decisions so that's what that is is it's been difficult not great guidance um a lot of unhappy School District Personnel but we'll get there but important it is important okay uh let's move on to uh the next item which is uh student and student attendance yes so um we did have on U Martin Luther King day um we did have not meet our 75% requirement for student attendance so you have to meet 75% throughout the whole entire District so you can have one school be lower but as long as the rest of them bring us up to that average I think we were closer to 69% it's been a learning experience for us to figure out what that means potentially um it hasn't happened since I've been here uh that I know of um it it's interesting and actually kind of sad um on how they calculate the potential impact if it's Financial they actually take they don't just take your foundation allowance of 9608 and a formula related to that they take everything on your state aid so even the 3% money we're getting to reimburse teachers we we have to take a HTE on that Revenue as well it's your bottom line of your state aid that will get in August so we won't even know the potential impact until August um if we have a financial impact there is an opportunity to use an emergency closure day if you if it's one of your first six it can't be beyond that so if we take six emergency closure days we will have to take the financial impact and we won't know that number until August it's likely around $25,000 that was kind of off I mean that it was just kind of a crazy day between a half day between the weather I know my kids were all gone ski meets um you know Cent to yeah yeah and we had a lot of parents and you it is a struggle on a half day at the middle schools I think the students are picked up at 10:30 so we had parents that I think were just concerned about weather and thought you know not going to risk it for that short of amount of instructional day so it's too bad cuz I yeah I think the good work was done on that day and like trying to look at it different to provide that education and um you know I hope it doesn't backfire because of all those other things I think it was The Perfect Storm um I do think um the tcea and calendar negotiations wants to have a conversation about what that might mean in the future so um Connie will start conversations with them and um we've had a ation at cabinet about certain things we'd like to see in changes in the calendar um but those conversations will be ongoing we like to try to get a negotiated calendar before spring break so parents know what spring break is next year before they leave the spring break so um she started early this year so hopefully we'll have something soon but that is one that's going to be under discussion we're going to have to you know the have discussions on um you know the I know the board's got input on the amount of half you know half days or early release days you know there was there was some people that really liked what we did with Dr Martin Luther King Jr day it should still be a full day off you know to celebrate the national holiday so we're definitely as a board you know as we get into this calar negotiation we're going to need to have some conversations about what that looks like but it doesn't mean we still can't do some of that work regardless um in you know in our days that are not right on that day but maybe close so it'll it'll be interesting in all of your input as we get there when does that input happen John um we've started that conversation as a group uh Connie will start that conversation um with Christine with uh the tcea over the next few weeks um and then once we have something that we think that everybody's kind of in touch with I'll bring that and share that with the board for and we've you how many how many weather days have used we've used five yes this is a actual we have for some reason I thought we were at four if we used if we you know right now we would be good right now but but at the same point you know I just want to stress not going to keep that in my decision from a safety standpoint you know so but if by chance winter gets mild all of a sudden we would be buying it right now all week off yeah yeah I think they L County was off a lot andas it was rough up there so that could come into play if there was legislation that has happened in the past you know so we'll see but okay okay uh let's see um uh yeah I think this last one's just a standing item for upcoming District purchases yep so um there is a lot on here I always just like to make sure you're aware of what's coming so if you have questions before we get too far along in a project um everything above the blue line um is coming in the next month a lot of it we just reviewed so that'll come off um but we try to do the ne the first three months on the top line and then anything after that on the bottom line and you'll see obviously some tbds because we don't have enough information for some of the stuff that's more a little bit later in the year um but just so you know what we're aware of and what we'll be bringing uh to the board uh so if there's any questions early on any questions on that no all right any uh other items for the committee this morning if not uh our next scheduled meeting is Thursday February 27 at 8:15 thanks