Meeting transcript
BOE Meeting
February 12, 2025 · Watch on Zoom · All meetings
On here. I did on here. We're recording. We're we're recording. Okay. Excellent. It
is 07:03. I'd like to call to order the board meeting for the Ann Arbor Board of Education. Today is 02/12/2025. So we can do the Pledges of Allegiance first. I pledge allegiance to the flag of The United States Of America and the republic
for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
It looks like we have maybe, like, half the teaching staff of the elementary school here tonight, which is kinda awful. So first things first, we'll do comments from the public. If you guys have comments, please remember that they should be about board agenda items, and try to keep it to two minutes or less if possible. Amanda Beloine?
Hi. I was like, great. I'm first. I love it. I am Amanda Beloyne. I teach first grade here at Andover Elementary School, and I'm here tonight asking the board, to support the budget for the 2025, 2026, school year. I know that this budget is requesting the additional hire of new staffing, particularly staff for the upper grades, and I really hope that Hi. That the board takes that into consideration. Does she agree? It helps. So We agree. Oh, is that two quarters? Okay. Melissa
Hi. My name is Melissa Leteska. Leteska. I wanted to say thank you to the board of education for all your hard work this budget season. And I really appreciate the additional staffing that you guys have put into our budget, to accommodate our growing school, especially in our upper grades, like, in fourth and fifth grade. So thank you. We appreciate it. Christina Fraser.
Good evening, board of ed members. I just want us to express my hope that you will vote to accept the proposed budget tonight. As a teacher who's been here for twenty seven years, I know that the importance of this budget and the direct impact it has on our students. The increase in staff that Val is asking for will certainly be felt in a positive way for, all staff and students. Each member of our staff works hard to meet the needs of each individual child, but this task becomes difficult when there are more students and not enough interventionists. We wanna be able to challenge those who need it, enrichment, and support those who are struggling. We are a staff that understands what a gem it is to work here at Andover, and we work hard to put every tax dollar that we have to its best use. We know Val has worked hard on this budget, and we hope that the board of ed supports it. Thank you. Carrie Gilbert?
Hi. Just to reiterate what everyone is saying, thank you to Val for putting together this budget. And, you know, as a kindergarten teacher, I can speak to how important the class sizes are. And as a class size of 11 or 12 for the last several years, I feel that it is really beneficial, and I hope that it will support the upper grades too with smaller classes, and we can have some more success with them as well. Thank you. Thank you. Jenna Goldrick?
Thank you. I'm just, reiterating what everyone else has said as well, just speaking in support of the budget, and we thank Val for all the work that she's done to put this together. Jamie Weber.
Hi. I just wanted to say thanks so much for your work on the budget this season. I'm really appreciative that the addition of teachers for the upper grades is included. This year, I'm teaching fifth grade math and ELA, and I can say firsthand that even with a class full of amazing kids, it's been a challenge to meet the individual needs of 28 students. So thank you. Pamela Rose?
Dan? Good evening. I'd like to, again, as everyone else has, share my appreciation for Val and the Board of Education for the hard work going into developing this budget. And I want to add that I support the increase in classes for the upper grades as a special education teacher. I see the hard work that the teachers are putting into trying to differentiate for all of the students, and it becomes more difficult when there's such large class sizes as we have in the upper grades at the moment. President Karamoni?
Hi. I also wanna thank Val and the board for all the effort you're putting into the budget. As a reading specialist at the school, I have definitely seen an increase in lower reading assessment scores, particularly in our fourth, fifth, and sixth grade classes. A lot more students seem to be struggling to meet grade level benchmarks, and as a result, more and more of our older students require reading support. The number of students I provide intervention services to has greatly increased in the upper grades. We currently have about 17 students in grades four through six who require tier three support, academic support, and about a third of those require tier three support for both reading and math. And then you compare that to our kindergarten through third graders, and we only have about seven who receive tier three support. So we're definitely seeing a much greater increase of academic need with our older students. The classroom teachers work tirelessly. They try to help their struggling students the best they can, but it's hard for them to take the small groups they need to to meet the students' needs when they have just so many kids in the room.
So I definitely am in support of smaller class sizes to help the teachers meet those needs and help get our students' performance where I know it could be. Thank you. Thank you. Missus Hopkins?
Again, I just wanna thank Val and all of you for your hard work and your support. It means a lot to have the increased staffing on in the budget, especially when our numbers are going up, which is a good thing. Right? So thank you all. Jenny Morell?
Hi there. I also, like the others, would like to thank Val and the board for your support. As a staff member who's been at Andover for twenty plus years, I have always felt lucky to be a part of the Andover community, and the board has always been there to back us up when we have needs that change. And things change throughout the year, and I feel like we are changing with the time. The board knows what it's like for us. I have taught in many other school districts. I know what it's like to teach a class of 32 kindergartners. It's not easy. It's not easy as fifth grade level, sixth grade level. And we have been fortunate in Andover to have small class sizes, I don't think anyone will disagree the impact that we could have with classes when our class size is smaller. Andover has a name, and I think that's one of the reasons why our enrollment is going up. I think in order to still have Andover keep that name, we need to do the things that we know work, and one of those is class size. So I appreciate
the board considering the increase of teachers in the upper grades as well as all the other line items in the budget. So thank you for your support, and we're looking forward to hearing some good things. Did I miss anyone on Zoom? K. Do you have any public comments?
No. I mean, I guess I'll just say that, you know, I've been in the orbit of the board in Andover for years now because of my wife's role on staff, but I you guys just have my confidence that you're being responsible and have the the needs of the students in mind. And that's that's been steady and true, and it always shows. So thank you to all of you.
Everly, do you have anything you wanna say for public comment? There you go. I'm good. We're good?
So we'll move on to to communications. Does anyone have any communications that they wanna share that's not addressed in a different line item? I received a petition Okay.
That grew out of Monday with people. Is it okay if we sign this?
I don't know that it's appropriate to sign it then. By the part of the meeting. Yeah. It's a petition for the board, Jerry, or it's a petition for individuals? Individuals. Yeah. So are you asking if the board can sign it or if you as an individual can sign it? Individuals can sign this, being a board member.
Oh, you just Like, are you allowed to sign it? Absolutely. As an individual? Yeah. Absolutely. I don't think there's anything that being on the board binds you to do or not do as an individual. Because it doesn't ask you as a board member instead as an individual. Yep. As a resident. Okay. As a resident. Yes. Okay. Does
anyone else have other communications? Celeste, do you have anything or agree? I don't have anything. No. I don't have anything. Okay.
What I'm sorry. What what is this petition about? I don't understand what this is what Jerry's referencing.
I don't so I think it's not appropriate for us to discuss at a board meeting. It's a petition that he was given as an individual person in our town, and he wanted to make sure that he was allowed to sign it as an individual. Oh, okay. Okay. Alright. Thanks, Caitlin. Thank you. Yeah. So we'll move on to student celebrations.
We have one big one here. Well, a little big one. Everly, can you come stand next to, missus Greenhouse so that they can see you on the screen? Can see you on the screen. I see they're gonna see you there. Wave. Say hi. We got wave. Move over a little bit more. Closer.
Now they can see you. Okay. So I wanna introduce to everybody. This is Everly Leteska. Yes. She is, in fact, missus Leteska's daughter and mister Leteska in the audience. However, she happens to be the winner of the Andover Elementary School school wide, all the way up to grade six, and she is a fourth grader, spelling bee. She will be our representative at the state spelling bee. And then if she had success there against all those kids, then, you you know, she would would go further. She's regional first and then state. But, regionally, I want you to know that this is not just an accomplishment because we know she's wonderful and beautiful and smart. It's because little miss Everly here has sat on that stage as a finalist
How many years? What? Four years. Woah. She was the, first grade winner when she was in first grade when we would take first through sixth to the stage. And I will have you know, we no longer do first grade because there's a lot of tears when they don't make it against sixth graders because they don't understand that they're just starting out. But Everly did not let that get in the way. Everly was the second grade winner when she was in second grade and sat on that stage with third, fourth, fifth, and sixth grade. She was the third grade winner and sat on that stage with fourth, fifth, and sixth grade, and now she is the fourth grade winner and beat the fifth and sixth graders. So we are very, very proud of her. So if you have any questions for her any spelling questions? I do, miss Eberly. I have one question for you. What word did you win on? Jersey. Can you say that one more time?
And then I have the privilege of just doing the the the stage one, the winners, first through, well, second now, through sixth. So I have no idea what words they were given in the rooms, and I have a list, and we have a prescribed order that those words go in. So, sure, we go grades two through six and then keep going around two through six, but we start off with maybe words that are a little less challenging, but they don't know what word they're gonna get. So it could happen that a kid gets all brand new words that they didn't have when they did their grade level because of where we start and how we go.
So, Tercely was, you know, definitely one that she, probably didn't have before. So, Erily, do you remember last year what word you won on and what word you got out on?
I don't remember the one that won in to get me to the school guide, but I don't know the one I got out on. Inscrutable.
Say it again. Inscrutable. Inscrutable. Inscrutable. So, see, she'll never forget that. No. But she's an amazing speller, and we went this year through words that were grade two, three, four. And, missus Frazier, correct me if I'm wrong, didn't we go up to seven? We went up to seventh grade. So she did not just win on second and third and fourth grade words. She had to beat the fifth and sixth graders on words that went all the way up. And I'm pretty sure mom says that she was definitely a studier. So she earned every bit of this, and we're so proud of her. Congratulations. Congratulations, Everly. On
behalf of the board, there's a shirt in here that missus Ferdinand will show you.
And there's a little bit of learning there too. But we're hoping that if you don't have a shirt, you'll wear that one to spell it. And when is the spelling bee for state? She will go when is it? March 7? Yeah. So she will go in March. And, hopefully, by the equal meeting, that we'll be able to tell you who you know, how well she did. Great. That is Good gift card. So Well, thank you for representing us. We're
proud of her. Yeah. And all of the kids did amazing. I can tell you that next year, if you guys have a chance, we had a second grade speller there and and, Ava there. They all did a great job. But let me tell you the smile she brought to my face every time she hopped up to spell a word because I was nervous for them. You know? It's like that mom thing kickstanding her like, oh, we don't wanna break their heart. She would hop right up there, and she was so confident. And I did she made it through three rounds, that second grader? It three rounds, Melissa? How many rounds did that second grader make it through? Three or four? We had some second graders that made it pretty far. I I would say at least three or four rounds because It was just amazing to watch them. Yeah. It was. They they were y'all did a really great job. They did. They did a great job. And so, you know, we've got some strong spellers coming up with you know, in our lower grades, and so it's amazing. And, hopefully, we'll see Everly again next year for fifth grade and then sixth grade. So congratulations, honey. And she just took a break out of basketball, so we're gonna let her go back to basketball now. Oh, okay.
Thank you. Well, thank you. Have fun. Thank you. Thank you. Yes. Yeah. Thanks. Have a good night, guys. She's so cute. She's adorable.
Next is approval of our minute from the meeting of January 8. Does anyone have any corrections that they noticed? Yeah.
Anne needs to have an e added in the ones that are present and in number two. And then on the second page, Dawn, breach is actually spelled Where are we at? Anne Creme. She's a n n e. Oh,
on the Anne. Was looking at the last name, and I was like, I it has the Really? No.
Anne in number two. Yeah. And then on the second page in eight c, the principal's report, breech is actually spelled b r e a c h. Not a breech baby. Okay? And there are two places that's found that I saw there. And then on page three in CIP, Dawn, would you just mind adding the s loud and reported that the fire department presented?
She told me she's not gonna have a a audio, so she's Oh, great. Super. She had texted earlier and said she may not have audio. So I'm writing. Okay.
That's all I have. So other than that, if anybody else doesn't have it, I'll make a motion. Does anybody else have corrections? So I do think because
I wouldn't notice the stat. You wouldn't be the. I
make a motion to approve the regular reading minutes of 01/08/2025 as amended. I second. I'll second. All in favor. Too. You need a Very demanding job. I don't know. I might need it. I'm
good with science. Next step is opportunity to add or delete agenda items. Is there anything on the agenda that anyone would like to add to or delete off of the agenda for this month?
I'm gonna move that we potentially add a action item on number or letter f for the solar project update. For nine f? For nine f. Okay. Yep. I'm gonna, along with that, move the table, the executive session to March as we have a full agenda. And then third, move up c to our first item to honor our distinguished teachers as they've discussed the budget and respect their time. Sorry. What do you wanna move up? C to the first item on the agenda. Move the budget up to We discussed before a.
Nine a? Yes. They're gonna want a as well. They're gonna You wanna just switch b and c? Sure. We can switch b and c. B and c? Okay. So we'll move the budget to b. We need to make a motion to do all those things. Yes. Yeah. I'm sorry. I moved. That's your motion. That was my motion. Would anyone like to second? I'll I'll second that. Okay. Do we need to repeat all of them, or you guys got it all? I got it. Okay. All in favor? Aye. Aye. Aye. Okay. Anyone opposed? Okay. So we've moved that stuff in terms of the agenda. Does anyone have anything else that they'd like to move or add agenda wise?
I do not. Thanks, Eric, for taking care of that. I do not. Okay. Yeah.
Where is that right now? It's f. Do we wanna move that above the teacher stuff, though? No. K. Can we move that to Yeah. So
so just because Ryan's here for solar, we're gonna move item f, which is the solar project to to d, which is the elevator estimate. In that way, he doesn't have to stay here forever. I'll make a motion that that occurs. Okay. Thank you. Very much. You can second. Okay. All in favor? Aye. Aye. Aye.
Okay. Anything else? K. Moving on. Do we have other celebrations at all? No. Okay. Chairperson's oral report. I don't have a whole lot aside from stuff that's on the budget and or that's on the agenda and other areas, so I think we'll just talk about it as we come to those things. Superintendent's report. We have specified grant updates, facilities updates, and five year capital plan update.
Yep. And there'll be a few things that, as Caitlin said, we're gonna be talking about down there. So I'll I'll hold and so we can get, some of this stuff. In front of you guys, I tried to give you all the paperwork you'll need. In front of you guys, first and foremost, is you'll see that there's a letter here. And Celeste and Brie, I have packets since you're online that I'll send home, tomorrow. Okay? This is just this is just a letter that I've shared with admin and office staff regarding the legislation that speaks to ICE and potential issues regarding immigration and customs enforcement. Not that we expect there to be any issues in the town of Andover, but I wanted to be very clear that we do have a procedure that would need to be followed should this affect our school in any way, shape, or form. Good. So this, as you can see on the top, was addressed to principal secretaries and other pertinent office staff. Just I wanted everybody to be rest assured that there is a procedure that is in place should we run across this. And I've made
sure that I have reviewed it with all of them. Okay? Yep. So And and this follows the governor's guidance?
Yes. It it's probably a little bit different in the sense of particular to the school. Is more particular to the school. It doesn't disregard anything that's in there. If anything, it is more enhanced. Like, further. Yes. Right. So yes.
Thank you for being on top of that. I think it's really important for us to have procedure in place for that. Yep. So we're good with that. Everybody understands that. There are no new grants right now to apply for.
As you can imagine, you know, it's it is a difficult time, to be a school with not knowing where the state will stand with where the federal government will stand. And so they've been a little stingy with putting out any grants at this point right now while they await and see what's going to happen with the federal level Department of Education. So five year plan, as we get down to the three things that are on the agenda then, the elevator estimate, the bathroom project, and the solar, I think we can put that there. Those are our three priorities, though, so that is part. The only thing that I'm also working on as I put that plan together is making sure that even though it's not in this year's budget, even though it's not something for this year, is we've been working, Scott and I, the and custodian, we've been working with our vendors, to make sure that part of that capital plan that's a little bit more comprehensive, it has to do with the boilers.
So we've been actively getting quotes as to, what would need to be done what would need to be done price wise if because we have two boilers. If one needs to be replaced versus two. So we are putting that together, and just know that that's not for this year plan. That's are they in life cycle? Like, are they getting towards the end of No. They're not getting toward the end. When we get all of the information in, I'll put it on the next agenda as something for us to discuss. But we've been, how do I say it quickly? We've been pretty lucky that, with the repairs and maintenance that have been occurring and the fact that this will sound weird, but it's an older boiler. Like, you know how they say these expression, they don't make them like they used to. Yep. That's true. So if they've been properly maintained
and repairs and maintenance were done on a regular basis like they were supposed to, the things that you're repairing seem a little bit more regular. It's like, how come we always seem to need this? Well, because that's gonna extend the light even further. Mhmm. So we're working on that. The lights outside Yeah. They are due Tuesday. They're coming on Tuesday. There was one other day that they were coming, and they couldn't, so they'll be done out there on Tuesday. And then and that's when they're actually repairing them. Right? Yeah. Because the appointment for them to come is Tuesday. Let's see. We'll do the bathroom and the store. Everything we've What about the the fans and the gym thing? So Jeff Murray Yeah. Is working with Taylor on scheduling that date, but I'm just trying to put those in. So yeah. And so all of these other things then that are related to the repair and maintenance are
under the five year plan are further on down here. So I think I'm gonna hold off on those. What else?
And then that's in that. Yeah. I think that's it for this line, and then we'll do the other when we get to the business. Any other questions for right now before we get to the business?
No. Not unless you have anything else that's not in those categories. I do not. Okay.
Principal's report. Taylor's not here tonight. She was she's sick. She was going to send one to us. Fortunately, she's not able to do that. But I will tell you that they do have a half day professional development Friday of this week. Two days last week, it's supposed to be bookworms, but due to snowstorm, because that one was paid for as a two day program for somebody who's flying in, we had an option, and we had to take that option 48 ahead of time, either cancel and reschedule it or lose one day, because you have to give them notice so they don't fly in. So she opted to to do that. She does have a team that's participating in a couple of other professional developments that she'll talk about. The newest one is, has to with social studies standards, and, actually, Melissa Litaska will be working with Taylor to put together a committee on that one. So she's doing well with it. We've got our teams, a lot of whom you see on on the screen here tonight, and we're pushing forth with that. When we get to the calendar, you'll see that not only is are we planning for now, but as we work on the new curriculum, as we enhance the existing book works curriculum that we put into effect last year, we are making sure that the professional development is planned through to the end of next year. Because as you guys know, especially those of you who were who are teachers here, it's really important that that follow through is scheduled. So that's good. The only other part of her report here is that enrollment report that's in your packet. Mhmm. As you can see, we've stayed very steady since August,
which is a good thing. You definitely don't wanna lose kids. And you shouldn't have a lot of new ones coming in all all all along the year anyways. I will tell you, though, that that February, if we looked at individual students, it does reflect movements out and movements in. Mhmm. So the good news is is that right now, we've been lucky this school year that anybody that has moved out and sold, we've got new ones that have come in to replace them. So sounds as though it's the same 241 students, but give or take about five that changed up during the course of these last five months. So we're very, very excited about that. And you'll see when you look at the numbers on the top, it's very reflective of what the teachers have just said,
And I'm glad that we had Jamie especially on here as somebody who has 28 kids and 27, 26 in those after classes there. So Lisa also experiences that on a daily basis. So and that's that for the information that I have for the principal. Okay. Okay. Terry. Hi. Hi. Financial report.
Okay. Hoping y'all got a chance to take a look at them. I'd say we're right on track being at 53 spent at the end of January. You you know that I'm letting lines run over. So if there's any questions about any of that, I can try to answer them, or I can get you, an answer tomorrow when I'm back in the office. But does anybody have any questions about the reports at the moment?
Substitute salaries? What is what is IA? Is it instructional assistant? That's that's the paras. Yes. Right.
We will run over with the sub lines in instructional assistants and, potentially teachers the whole school year. But what you're going to see and the reason for that, what you're going to see by the end of the school year then is there will be I don't wanna call it a surplus. There will be those dividends that are in the teacher salary line item because and in the the line item that has the paras. Okay. Because we've been utilizing Taylor has probably interviewed from the start of the school year till now, and I know, miss Fraser who's on here, and a couple of other teachers also are look at her face right now, are also on the committee. We have interviewed well, not I. Taylor has interviewed probably 30 people since July, for these positions, and we are very grateful for the parents that are in this building. But because we had had a change of circumstance with student needs, it meant that we did have to replace two.
We have not found the right candidates for those two
Wow. Needs. Okay. Okay? So the subs the subs in the paras are, like, a continual sub because you don't have the person. So they technically
on the books right now are a sub, but it's to replace an existing position that's here. So that line will have extra money in it at the end of the year, which then will roll Should have been the balance. Okay. Like Terry said, we all had decided. The board had decided and and, you know, and told us it was okay Yep. That so that you could see the true actuals. We didn't want to do the transfers. We wanna wait so that you can see at the end of the year and then transfer that over. But that's why you're gonna see those lines run over because those people are considered sub right subs right now. Same thing with the teachers because as we talked about, there will also be, between now and the end of the year, some, sub coverage when we have teachers out on leave. Thank you. Because we are expanding our our children of the Andover Elementary School. And so when that happens, again, you're gonna see it's via the subline, but then we're gonna have to transfer that over from there. But I think leaving it this way in terms of our money total, it makes it it makes us realize those things. I don't I like it this way too. I I've never liked having to transfer it over during the course of the year because it doesn't give you that true number. Yeah. So The other one I had a question on was, printing and binding. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Rising rising costs for the, equipment maintenance.
And, obviously, we're using we're using a lot of lot of paper, and a lot of the copier expenses are going to instructional learning. Yeah. And and it's been running over. That line's been running over since I've been here. So I I think I I think I put a little extra in the budget that you're gonna vote on tonight to to hopefully hopefully take care of that for next year.
And that's and that's really mostly movement of stuff from, like, physical books to, like, photocopying, like, open it up. Right? Yes.
Some of the curriculum requires teachers to do things a little bit differently. For example, yesterday, I walked around and had to give chart paper to each of the rooms. Now teachers didn't normally use a lot of chart paper, but some of the instruction that they do with our current reading program requires them to make these anchor charts. Yep. And they're using a lot more of that chart paper that the the kids utilize as they're instructing them in in these lessons. So, you know, that's another one of those things, that have changed and shifted. They do have certain things that they have to copy with the the current curriculum that they have. And so it's just a shift from one place in the,
budget to another, and then we're just gonna have to to to see in the end. And then the only other one that's high is, repair and maintenance. And we Yep. Yep. Any other questions? Any other questions? Oh, I
wanted to let you know that the auditors were in on Monday and Tuesday. There were no no significant findings that I know of, but they're coming back next Thursday to finalize everything. And I don't anticipate there being any issues. And I just wanna let you know that, hopefully, we'll have a solid number for you at the next meeting. Hopefully, I'm keeping my fingers crossed that we'll know how much money we have to, from last year to move over to, where wherever you wanna put it. So okay? Okay. I know that's a little vague, but I don't really know more how soon they're gonna wrap it up. So Yeah.
And then you guys also should have these there's two balance sheets Yep. The stuff that's highlighted on them. So the one that's at 174964.33 is our 2%. And then the other one that's at 212433.46 is the capital fund. If you look above that, they still haven't moved the money from the other places to actually put it in there, but it it's all accounted for. There's also a letter separately that the town treasurer sent to Terry and I that states that that is the amount of money that's in the capital fund. So Right. And they're gonna keep giving us this, I think, on a monthly basis was my understanding. Yes. That's fair. Yep. Had asked, which especially as we start the bathroom project and start having to pay for that, it'll be important to keep running. Yes. Okay. If there's nothing else does anyone have other questions for Terry?
I don't have any questions. Thank you, Terry. You're welcome. Marie, do you have anything? No. Nothing on the finance. Okay, everyone. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
Liaison reports and updates. And I think we need to just add CIP on here because we're gonna forget it. School readiness, Marie, do have any updates from school readiness? No. There's been no meetings since the last one.
Okay. Probably a little bit as an aside. We did get communications, but it's related to school readiness, from the Board of Finance asking for more specifics in regards to the budget for preschool specifically. Because it's not in the general fund. They wanted to see specific budgetary, like, ins and outs and accounts receivable and whatnot. So Val made a video for them that shows that stuff that's shared every month at the school readiness meetings and then also sent them some written information as well and also invited if one of them would like to be a member of school readiness that that we would love to have someone from the board of finance on that as well. So sort of related, but I was gonna forget it otherwise. So I don't know if anyone has questions on that, really, just so that you guys are all aware.
Just a quick one. That school readiness, that is that audited at all financially? So it's okay. Absolutely. But that's not is that particularly to the school, or is that a separate
Oh, no. It's part of the school audit. It's part of the school audit? Absolutely. Because, Smart Start and School Readiness are grants. Mhmm. So that's absolutely, part of our grant audit. And, they have access in real time as well, the auditors do. They can look at in any time during the course of the year because it's on the eGrant management system for the state website. Diane Kane, keeps the monthly records for, the money in, as it comes into the building for tuition. Mhmm. That's shared with Terry. Terry handles that just as though she handles all of our other finances. And then it goes through to school readiness council and the, school readiness council that Brie is always asked about because she's on there.
Then they have oversight of the school readiness council. So,
absolutely, there's So they have they have a little thing like this that's much smaller that's just for Just for the school readiness. Yep. Yep. And if you want the video that she made for board of finance, I'm sure Yeah. I'd send that. Yeah. We can send it to the entire board. So it's twenty one minutes long. It's really quite good if you listen to it on two x speed. Because I don't speak fast enough. How you do it? Follow.
She just sounds like this, and she's happy. Plus, do you have any PTA updates?
Nothing of of great significance. Just we had our meeting and just talking about doing some fundraisers and and some other things. So but, yep, that's all, really.
In terms of town meeting updates, so I just spoke about the stuff from board of finance, which is probably the major thing affecting us that came out of their board of finance meeting. And then the board of selectmen had a meeting after ours and then again this past Monday. I don't know as though there's anything from that that pertains to us directly aside from the fact that we need to discuss solar panels, which is on the agenda.
And that they said they'd talk to me about the vehicle. Oh, yeah. That so Monday night, they also mentioned it it is the vehicle that's used to I I don't know. They were talking about how they're going to have to kinda look at their their senior vehicles, and, the handicap equipped was what they were referring to. So I just asked them, and they were very open, you know, to having a conversation. I asked them if they could talk to me once they make a decision as to if they're leasing, renting, if they're gonna buy because we use one of their vehicles anyways for, we pay to use it, there may be some way for us to put that toward our, there are expenses related to special education since we do reimburse them for part of it, and there may be a way for us to see about getting excess excess cost.
So the the van that they were talking about, it's a 2014, and and it has rusted like, I think the bottom's rusted and the side panels won't attach because it's rusted. Yep. And they were quoted, like, $10,000 to repair it, which Mhmm. Right? They've already put in $5. Put money into it. So They throw a good money into that. Yeah. But it's, like, 65,000. Fifth 55 to 65,000 to get a new handicap equipped van. So which I know because my father-in-law just got one. My goodness.
So in terms of town meetings, I feel like that's probably about Mhmm. And
then for CIP, do you have any updates from there? The only thing is that the fire department came back and just further talked about their needs for the SCBA, which I believe has now gone to the Board of Selectmen for approval as far as they are approving the expenditure.
Yeah. And they did talk about that on Monday. On Monday. Right? Yeah. Okay. So then we'll move on to discussion items. So we have the 2526 AES calendar, which is in the packet, and then there's a copy of it at your spaces as well. I have one question on here. I don't know if anyone else does, and maybe I'm only noticing it because I'm Jewish. Do have we always had Good Friday off?
Yes. Yes. Okay. Apparently, I never noticed that. It's often included in the April school vacation, and it's just because Good Friday is so early this year that they're separating it out. Okay. That's why you need it. When are you gonna add yumky for, and there's a fauna in there for my family?
Well, I will tell you that on the holidays too, it also depends on contractually list. Yeah. Contractually, what's in there for paid holidays for certain employees. Mhmm. So for example, if you look at the non CERT contract, there are certain noncertified employees that get that as a paid day off. So we wouldn't ever not that we would, but we wouldn't ever, you know, say, well, know, let's go to school on that day because they get paid down off anyways by contract. So and that's with a lot of school districts. I would say 95% of school districts in the state, if not 98% of public school districts in the state have. There are separation of church and state there for you. Mhmm. The thing I noticed,
just real quick with you, is, release versus early dismissal, and I didn't think there was any Which one? Difference. So it's early dismissal on the top line, and then it goes to early release. Oh, it's, like, for the February and April on the bottom descriptions. Top of the calendar. February, April, and June. And I'm pretty sure there's no difference between early dismissal and early release. Yep. Gotcha. Because it's defined, it would be good just to have those three. I think it's only February, April, and June that I saw the the differentiation. Just so that it all says the same thing. Early dismissal. Yeah. Because it's defined. Yeah. So yep.
The only question I had is looking at this, and I'm coming from a perspective of parents who are working in class, low income. Do we ever reach out, do a survey of whether half days, full days are better for families? And I know that there's contractual obligations that we have to look at too and and other matters, but just wanna any type of parent feedback that we collect to see
and have any input on the calendar? Well, the state actually kinda mandates that for us because the state says you have to go a hundred and eighty days to school. Mhmm. If you go a half a day, it counts. Yep. If you have the whole day off, it does not count. So even if a parent said I'd rather have a whole day off, they they have to make that up. So they don't really get it off. So if you said, you know, like, this Friday, there's a half day for,
professional development. Mhmm. If you guys said, I'd rather actually just have that off, we'd have to make that whole day up. It would just get added to the So, like, like, November days where there's two half days for conferences, conferences, those two half days count as school days. But if they just did one day off and the other one was a full day We'd have to add another day. Another day. I do. Yep.
I just feel like it would be good to collect some parent feedback on the counter. I know I That's the best. And I can tell you that no matter what
the percentages are for when they like the half days, when they this, there's one thing that everybody always agrees upon, and that is get us out as early as you can in June. Right? Okay. So that's universal. You're gonna get a 100% of parents that are gonna say yes. I won't say that. I would prefer I wouldn't. You love your kids. So, you know, that's that's the thing is if even if parents then said, you know, take all those half days, make them full days off, and we had to make them up, we would have huge complaints from parents saying, why are we going to school until June 28? Right. Yeah. And so you're gonna have more parents that are gonna say, okay. Fine. Let's go back to the half days because
but I will say that's one of the reasons why, you know, we have school here, you know, so that there is an opportunity for families. And just this year, because of the parent feedback about the after school events that occurred, their numbers were up this year, in terms of, attendance, especially from the little ones. But I know that the cool program does accommodate, families that say at the beginning of the year, hey. Listen. I don't need my kid to come every day, but I do need to kinda sign up for when you have those half days. Yep. And they do have a a daily rate there that parents could sign up for. So that's always an option for parents. Also, like, pushing out too. Like, if it's snow days, if you're already pushing that out with the additional days and you have to count for snow days, then you run that risk of really getting deep into Well, and you know, Mike, any challenge. What if it's, like, if we run out of days in June, where do we get those days out? I don't even wanna say. Holy condition. Yep. Spring break.
It has happened in the past before. Yep. So
Katelyn, my question is, are teachers giving this ahead of time to be able to have input into it? Yes. By contract,
they do have to have some feedback that they give to, to the administration. And I will say Taylor's very good about that. You know, she does meet regularly, with teaching groups. The biggest thing we did this year with this one, and you'll notice on here, So it's inclusive of four half days, five full days. Some of that is contractual for the teachers. But what we really tried to do because the biggest feedback with parents, not even just here, my other district as well, where they've got children in an elementary, a middle, and a high school is, can you try to make those calendars line up? And so we really did that this time to help parents out. We really looked at Rams and Hebron's and Marlboro's. Also busing. Well, yes, because there's a cost to that, but they rely on their older kids, the siblings, to watch the younger ones Yes. And on half days. So
for the most part, all of our days are also professional development days at RAM, not necessarily the reverse. RAM does have some PD days that we do not, but I'm pretty sure 100% of these days that we have line up with them. Right? So, you know, that feedback was definitely heard. That. And if you look at just because of where the winter holidays fall, like, it's almost two weeks off. Yeah. Yes. So Yeah. It's great. It's not great.
I would say, thank you. Now I'll make it. K.
So I think the only thing that that we wanna change then is just the definition to change early release to say early dismissal. Yep. Yep. And then, otherwise, would someone like to make a motion to approve? I'll make a motion to approve the twenty twenty five, twenty twenty six AES calendar as amended. Second. All in favor? Aye. Aye.
Aye. The next thing that we have on here is budget.
Okay. So we have already obviously met. We had it posted. We've already presented it, at the at at our at our board meeting. So nothing's changed since then. We did schedule, for parents to be able to come. We had one, and we appreciated her coming. So but I think that there are a number of people that are watching it online. I don't think that there's just no interest in it. I think that, you know, parents have reviewed it online who were interested in reviewing it as well as watching the video online. So just be quick before you guys motion. The quick recap is, yes, we are a little bit higher this year than than than we have been in the past, But I do think that it should, you know, be noted that, I mean, we have had needs at on the town side too over the past few years, and some of their needs have have occurred that have have also paused six, eight, 16%. And so I think that people in the town do understand that, it's not just the percentages, the numbers. Let's look at the numbers. The overall increase ask here for, this budget is $381,000.09 $381,096. And when we reviewed the reasons for this, there were only a couple of categories. We need 3.1 FTE increase to what we currently have on staff now, and that included,
assisting with a new fourth grade and a new fifth grade so we can get those 27, 28 numbers down. You know? And, again, to I think it was Carrie's point who teaches kindergarten, you know, we've been waiting and holding off because we understand that not everybody in town loves the idea of classes who don't have kids here, that love the idea of classes being ten and twelve even though, you know, that's that's where they have been with some classes. We held off until now. We're talking about '22, '27, and twenty eight. And so, you know, I I would urge everybody to make sure that that is understood,
on the town side, and the voter side that, you know, we we did hold off as long as we possibly could. And now we do feel that it's also interfering with meeting the needs of the kids. It's not just an inconvenience of having that many kids in the classroom. We feel that it is actually gonna be detrimental if we don't do something about it. We will hold off on sixth grade, but as you can see, that that class is gonna be big next year, if we get fourth and fifth, and that will be on our agenda for the twenty sixth, twenty seventh full year. So those new positions are gonna be about 222,000 of the 381. Benefits, medical and other there, that is gonna bring us about $75,000. There just isn't anything that we can do about that. You know, we have contracts, and we have the consortium. So 75,000 would be the increase there. And the contractual increases, for teachers and noncertified. And, again, they came in understand this, that they came in at 3%. So, just over 3%. So we are talking about something that, should anybody ask board members, like, wow. Is is it because the teachers are making too much. Nope. That contract was less than a lot of the increases with cost of living adjustment
that you're gonna see everywhere, including the town's budget. So, you know, I think if we're being fair, we we do have to make sure that people know that that their increases were basically cost of living adjustment increases. Okay. And we're asking them, and they agreed. There was no contention whatsoever. Remember those of you who are on that committee. We settled that contract with the teachers in a couple of hours. Two sessions in a couple of hours. And that they themselves for next year are taking an increase of 2%, just over 2% for their own benefits.
Which that's that's actually less than what inflation was this year. They are so they are helping to burden themselves
with that cost, that increase of medical benefits. Otherwise, that 75,000 would be even more. So if they could shoulder some of it, I feel like we have to make sure that they're still not shouldering the rest of it. The 21,000 has to do with tech and licenses. We had talked about that. We, there are certain programs that we use that require a per student license. And with the change of curriculum, there are, other needs in this department. Again, I mentioned it before when we talked about the increase of things like copying. It's just a shift in where the money goes for curriculum now. It's instead of us saying, you know, years ago, it would have been, we need $25,000 for books. We don't see that anymore. But we do have needs, and this would be under it's under tech and licenses, but truly, it's curriculum based. Well, that's the same as as the increased printing fees. Correct. Right. That's what I just said. Yeah. I mean, it's it's it's absolutely
it's curriculum and instruction. And then all of the other mild increases add up to 7,000. So, you know, and I point this out because there there will be people in town who really wanna support us, but their question's gonna be, isn't there any place that you can cut from? And, you know, my argument would be we do that all year long so that when we put this budget together, we are not filling it with placeholders. We are not filling it with what ifs. Only $28,000
Yes. Of our entire increase is nonteacher related. Yes. So Nonstaff That, yep, speaks for itself. It's it's Non staff related. It's directly staff and benefit. That's all it is. All it is. Yep. Contract increases, new positions, and benefits. Yes. Absolutely. So to look at a budget and to see the needs and especially when you as our superintendent are saying that it would be detrimental to our students not to hire
It would. And I and I think that also, I mean, having a child in middle school now, the other thing, like, you need to keep a hold of is the fact that when our kids leave this school, they go to BAM. Mhmm. And you don't want to have the elementary school have a larger class size than what they're gonna have when they get to middle school and have them be at a disadvantage with two kid with kids from other towns. And we do right now have have class sizes that are larger, four, five, and six. But right now, some of those are larger than what their middle school classes will be. Yes. Like, significantly larger.
So And I've said for years, and I still hold true to this, it is it is difficult when we put this together. We need to remind people that they used to call it fluff. They used to say, you know, do you have fluff in there? And I say, I want them to remember that we don't have contingency money. We don't have funds. When a town, not just our town, every town, when a town side does budgeting, they have the advantage of because this is the way a town works. It's different from a school. They have the advantage of having funds. Mhmm. They have pots of money in there that they can dip into because they need to. Because when something happens, it usually happens to the tune of a 100,000. You know? So they have to have those. We don't have that. The only thing we have is that 2% should there be something like an outplacement or something that needs to happen. So we try to plan and get as close to the mark as possible. If we think it's gonna cost a 104,000, we try to plan for a 104,000. So, Terry sometimes holds her breath when she says to me, are you sure about and I say, Terry, we talk it through, and we go through trends, and we we don't say, well, just in case, let's throw in a there isn't any of that.
So I know that some people over the years have said to me, like, well, you know, if you needed to cut, where would you cut from? I always say, there isn't any place to cut. And they say, well, there has to be. There really isn't because I've never presented to you guys, and I know you guys never approved a budget that you felt there was that in. And this is another one of those budgets that we've been doing together for five years. There aren't any spots in here where we could say, well, that's there just in case.
It's not. It's there because we know we're gonna need it. Unless you're gonna take away a teacher that you need to increase.
And we can't because we've waited to put that teacher there. Remember a couple of years ago, we did a two three split for two years. Yep. And it was actually Christina Fraser that had to teach that class and then, Jen. So, you know, we have pushed those teachers. We've pushed them and said, sorry. We we're not gonna ask the general public for that. So, you know, I will remind the board, not that you guys are gonna disagree with me, but I will remind you that we have asked them to do things already so that we didn't have to ask the taxpayer, and we just can't do it anymore. We're at that point. If two more kids were to move into that class, we would have to open that anyways because by state law, not by Andover policy, by state law, we would be over the number. And so we would have to do it anyways. So I would just remind you that this is it it it's a it's a good budget, and I think that people will see that.
Yeah. What number is that state number? Is it 30? 30. 30. Yeah. And we're dangerously close. I
make a motion to approve the twenty twenty five, twenty twenty six budget as presented by the superintendent. Second.
All in favor? Discussion discussion discussion. Further discussion? Yeah. I I just wanted to say, I personally appreciate all the teachers Yeah. Especially showing up here to show your support for the budget, for what is necessary for us to continue to provide a high quality education for all of our students here in Andover. I personally just wanna say I am extremely proud to cast a vote for a budget like this as a board of education member, as a fellow teacher who's currently in the classroom, as a parent, and as an Andover community member. And I fully support it without hesitation, and I will do my part in fighting and making sure that this passes
through our town vote. So thank you all for all the hard work that you put forward for our kids every single day. I believe.
I'll echo some of Mike's comments. I think we see the results paying dividends in how our children succeed as they move to higher grades, as they move into the world. I think the Andover community is proud of that. They go into the world, and they they are successful. This is not Val's budget now. This is gonna be our budget. And I'm very excited to go out in the community and sell this to them. Just talking and putting out feelers, explaining kind of this is where the board is and our budget for next year. Once you explain the facts, what that gal just went through, they understand that. They understand that we can have class sizes of 26, 27. It makes sense to them. 8%. Yeah. It's hard to swallow, but once they understand that, it's a pretty easy sell. So it's about advocating. It's about getting out there. We have a hard job board members. We have to advocate for this budget. We can't let it be an 8% number. It has to be we have to tell a story of why we need this. The reason why. Yes. Yeah. Mhmm. And I think it's really important what Krista Caravoni just said as well. Right? That, like, a third of kids in grades four through six are having tier three support. That's that's a large percentage
of your kids in those grades. And and also remember that most of the kids in those grades are the kids that were probably the most highly affected by COVID. COVID affected kids. So Yeah.
I'd like to thank you, John, for the work you put into this. Yes. I too have to support this budget being a former retired teacher. And you've got a fantastic group of people you're working with, and I fully back you. I know what it's like to have a class size of twenty seven and twenty eight. It's not easy. It's not good. And you end up in the long run spending more money than you would if you would have remediated their problems at younger grades. Otherwise, they get passed on, and and a group of 27, 28, they've they easily you can't grab them all. And I know what that's like. So thank you, Valerie, for
Well, we budget. We thank them because, you know, we we can't do this. No. You know, if if we had teacher and union complaints about 2728 kids this year, if they were not able to say, we'll do it as long as there's a light at the end of the tunnel, we wouldn't have been able to. So it's not it's it's it's them. I like to thank them all for what they do every day for our kids.
So I wanted to say that I I 100% support the budget. It's necessary. I do wanna apologize to the teachers as a board for allowing a year to go by where we have a classroom size of 28 students. I we clearly failed by not doing this sooner, so I apologize for that.
Does anyone have anything else, or can we move on to vote on passing the budget? Let's move on to vote to pass the budget, Caitlin. Okay. All in favor? Aye. And one's opposed, so seven zero zero. Thank you. Thank you, teachers. Good night. Okay. Next up, we have the the Cave
audit for policy. Can I make a motion? Because I've looked at it, and it's fantastic. So I'll make a motion that we can have discussions. Yes. Yeah. Okay. I'll make a motion that we pay for the CABE audit of Board of Education policies, the high that we hire CABE to audit our Board of Education policies. I'll second. There's no price of protection.
That's what the discussion There is a price. So she has it on the table. Okay. Now that's on the table. So the audit, as we mentioned, is is hiring Cave to assist with going through our manual, figuring out what we have, what we don't have, what gaps we might have in the legislation that's passed in the last few years. And they have agreed that if we get in their queue, that they will that the fees are based on the size of the district, but they have agreed, not super technical, districts, that they will keep us at 1,800, which is the smallest district size policy, cost. So they are ready, willing, and able to put us in the queue. And I will tell you that when I was put in the line, there were two in front of me, and now they're almost done with mine in Scotland. So they they they do it really quickly. So I will give them that, Pam Brooks and, Jody over at Gabe. So,
I did tell them because they asked. They sent an email, and I did tell them that, as long as it's voted on tonight, that I would have Caitlin sign the letter of intent, and we would get that sent over to them, and then they would put us in immediately. So that is what you're voting on is, as Shannon made the motion to have the audit done, it's at a cost of 1,800. And then in the end, we'll have our list suggestions, a template for things, moving forward. So it will it will really make your goal your goal a whole lot easier of updating that policy book because I think in the past five years, what would happen is we would be able to get done a handful of them, maybe three or four, and this will be the whole kit. It's an invaluable service. It is invaluable. So for 1,800 It's absolutely worth it. I was very excited to hear that they would keep it at 1,800. So
Considering the time it takes. Oh. Oh, yeah. Please. Yeah. But we are a member of CABE, as well, so that helps. Well, 1,800 is still God's sake. Yeah. Is that on this year's accounts, or would that be in It would be on this year's. Yeah. This year. Yeah. Because the goal was to have the full audit done with suggestions and templates by the end of this school year Fantastic. Toward your immediate goal this year, one of the board goals. And then that would go, budgetary wise? It would go under, like, legal expense?
Or where would that fall? So it could go under legal expense because it's looking at the policies. I would say for right now for Carrie to run over the board of that expense line first, since you can really see that. I was gonna say that. Yep. I was gonna look back. Sure that it was clear.
Yep. Yeah. Yeah. So but those will be the two lines that we've already gone over on legal, so I don't think we wanna put it there.
Well, you guys have to decide where you're transferring to and from at the end of the year, but those would be the only two spots to put it. K?
So the most What was was legal, and what was the other one? The board of education line item.
Brie or Celeste, do you guys have any other questions?
No. I don't have any questions. I'll I'll second the motion.
I think Mike did already, but you can you can the motion. Oh, it's both. It's called. Okay. Vote. I vote yes. All in favor? Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Good. That'll be awesome. It would.
Next up, I think we moved solar to be next. So Ryan is here from Green Skies. Hi.
Hello. Can you hear me? After all of our meetings. Another one.
I don't know if other people have questions. I did email you some questions, and I'm more than happy to read them here. I don't know if you got my email yesterday. Or
Yes. Yeah. I apologize. I was traveling, but I definitely can can assist with those those questions. Do you want to ask them here, and I could respond? And I'll also put it in writing too. Yep. Yep.
And and just so that you guys are aware, I have been working with Jeff Murray on the board of selectmen. So some of these questions were his questions after reading through the policy. For people that don't know background wise, he he is an engineer. Like, he so he has more experience with all of this than most of us do from a planning perspective. Okay. Sorry. I'm just trying to pull him up. So in terms of if there was a lightning or storm damage, do we need an additional rider on our insurance, to cover damage to the roof?
Yep. So so all of the solar equipment that GreenSky's will be installing and owning, that's going to be additionally insured through our policy. I built who is your insurance? Is it Kerma. Yeah. Kerma.
Yep. So we we've probably done, I'd say, like, 50% of our solar installations on schools here in Connecticut have that insurance policy. So, actually, Horace Porter right down the street from you guys in Columbia, we're on top of their roof, similar sized project, and they're also insured by, by Kerma. So it's, it's their insurance and our insurance are able to coexist on the same roof. So we've never had an issue with them. There are some other insurance providers, that are a little bit more difficult to work with. I won't name them, but so they but I I could definitely confidently say that they're they're much easier to work with, and we've done many projects on municipal buildings with that insurance. Okay. Yep.
Go ahead. Do you know if we would need an additional rider with our insurance to cover damage to the roof? Like, I understand you guys cover damage and repairs of the solar system, but what about the actual roof?
So your existing roof policy would remain in place. Our installation would not, jeopardize the roof warranty. We wanna build a project without the warranty remaining in place. So what what requires on on that side is the the manufacturer of that roof would come out preinstallation, review the current existing conditions of the roof. We would install the project, then they would come out after the fact and sign off on the warranty remaining in place. Okay. And that hasn't happened yet. Correct?
No. No. So that's actually a a question I have probably for the board about is we we're trying to gain access to the manufacturer or warranty information of that roof, only because that has a direct impact on the type of racking that we would use on on top of the roof. Sometimes certain manufacturers have have different requirements on how we install the project, and we have to do everything they say by the book to ensure that your warranty remains in place.
Okay. I know I know on my personal house, we had to get a new roof in order to put our solar panels on our barn. And then as soon as we put the panels on there, our warranty on the roof is gone. So that's
Yeah. That's we yeah. We we would not be in business if if warranties did not remain in place because there no school would ever, you know, move ahead with us without it. Yep.
Yeah. And then the second question, the inverters are only warrantied for ten years, but the panels are warrant and material are for twenty. Somewhere, it must specify that that you guys are responsible for replacing the inverters if that needs to happen. And then what if there was damage to the roof during that process? Would we be responsible for repairing the roof?
Yep. So section 4.1 of our power purchase agreement contract specifies that, Grayskites is responsible for all the equipment on that roof, including the inverters. So we make a business decision on the ten year warranty as opposed to the twenty year inverter warranty. It's it's significantly cheaper, and we are betting on those inverters lasting longer than the ten year warranty. And given just our our track record in being in business for as long as we have, that definitely that strategy has paid off. But regardless of whether the inverter goes out in year ten or year fifteen, that cost is our responsibility, and that's, specified in in section 4.1 of our of the power contract. And that goes for all equipment, solar panels. Anything related to the to the solar installation is owned by GreenSky's and our responsibility,
to maintain and fix when the time comes. When you're maintaining and fixing those components of the solar system, if there is damage to the underlying roof, we are responsible for repairing and paying for that. Correct?
So it depends on negligence, obviously. If GreenSky does something that that that, you know, pokes a hole in in the roof or jeopardizes it, then that's on GreenSky's, that's on us, our obligation to repair that roof. If it if, you know, a tree falls on the roof and it has, you know, no relation with the solar project, then as as normally would in any instance, if solar wasn't installed, the your insurance provider and roof warranty would probably get involved. So it would just be business as usual, if there were a situation that we weren't associated with.
Okay. So if some component of the solar system damages the roof, then you guys would repair that part. Right.
Okay. And we would have to ensure you you would want it to point one? What's that? Is that also in 4.1, same section?
No. I don't believe that that question is answered in 4.1. 4.1 is just regarding the cost of the actual solar equipment. I could I I'll I'll follow-up with you via email. It's likely somewhere in indemnity or negligence clause within the power contract. Okay.
Sorry. I think I have three more questions on here. Yep.
The HVAC equipment is in the center of the roof currently, I think. With with the solar put on, it looks like it blocks a lot of the access to that. Is that correct, or are there still ways to get to the HVAC equipment without walking near the edge of the roof?
Yeah. So per code, we have to hold a certain setback off of all HVAC HVAC or any any roof equipment. That's not just for the fire department, but also your anyone who's doing maintenance on the Yeah. That equipment. Yeah. So
the design has changed a lot. We're constantly tweaking it to make sure it is to code to get it ready for building an electrical permit. Okay. So by the time it gets to that, there will be full access with, multiple feet around as a radius around each HVAC unit to allow, people to access it and work on it, and they will need, proper, walking paths to get to each piece of equipment. And that that is a requirement just locally where we would we have to provide that access. We wouldn't be able to pull a building permit without it. So what I'll do for you as a follow-up is provide you our most updated design. In that way, you can just you can look at it, and you you can see all the equipment as well, it coexisting with the the solar. Right?
Okay. So that we wouldn't need to have, like, fall prevention put in place. The the equipment will be so that they can walk safely to those areas.
That's correct. Yep. And if there's any any tweaks that that or questions you have when I send this, just let me know because there we we have done, as everyone probably knows, a struck pretty significant structural analysis of this roof requiring, at one point, our one of our members to actually go into the school and look under on the decking of the roof. So there definitely is a lot of real estate up there to play with to adjust the design if needed. But but I'll we can kinda go through that, I guess, more of a fine finer point once you have the more detailed drawings. I think we'll probably have them by Friday.
Okay. And then one more question. If we had a leak on the roof or we needed to repair the roof, who is responsible for removing your equipment so that we can do that?
That would be great, guys. We wanna make sure that the because we built it, we wanna make sure that we're the ones who are removing it and that we're we have e one elect electricians on-site handling the the equipment. We would obviously, it's turn off the system when removing panels, so there's no live electrical wire on the roof. Then the school could come in and take care of whatever damage there there is, and then we would we would put it back. This this does happen.
What's up? Sorry. Would there be a cost to us to have you guys remove that for us to repair the roof?
Yeah. So it's a it it is on a case by case basis. If it's if it's, like, a a leak that's already identified and it's a few panels we have to take off for a day, that's that's a typical wear and tear that we have to deal with and bake into our our model. If it's a significant issue where this system is offline for weeks at a time to fix the the the roof, What we would look for is basically a a return on the lost revenue during that time. So, for example, if if we're offline for a week, it's it's like your typical electricity bill that that you would have been paying, we would look to recoup that. So it's probably a couple $100 if it's a week. If it's a month, it it could be more. And that's why when prior to us doing any installation, we wanna make sure this roof is in, you know, good condition before we install.
So what would if can just to have a ballpark price for, like, for a week of it being or for a month of it being gone, if you had to pick a number, would it be, like, a thousand dollars? Yeah.
So in the in the wintertime when the system is not really performing, for example, like, if it were right now when it's covered in snow How can we do? We yeah. We would, it would be pretty minimal because the what we would do is base it on the year prior's performance. So let's say if you were down in in in the middle of January, we would see how much energy was produced the the prior year And just based on the amount of kilowatt hours lost during that those days, we would just factor in, what the lost revenue was. For ballpark, if it's down for a week, it's probably a couple $100, of lost revenue if it's in January. If it's in July, when we're at peak performance, it would it would be more. It would probably be closer to $500 to a thousand dollars without knowing the exact numbers. So the summertime is definitely, obviously, our most optimal time for production, and then the winter is, what we do with some schools is we where there's issues, we you know, where we know the roof is in poor condition, there'll be, you know, times for them to fix the roof, but dedicated months to that. So it's usually in the months when the system is not performing the best. So January, February, and March. Obviously, if it's an emergency, then that's a a different situation where we just have to remove everything. And it doesn't if if it's more of a aesthetic thing that could be delayed, then we would recommend it taking place in the winter months.
Okay. And then how would that work in terms of would that be a bill that we would pay you, or does it go negatively against,
like, the credit? Or Yep. So there there's a bunch of different ways we can work it out, but what would likely happen is the following month, we would just bill, we would bill higher to catch up on that lost revenue. So it wouldn't be us invoicing you. It would be more of us increasing the invoice in the next month. And all of this would be documented, and you would see historical data on on the lost revenue to account for it. And I'll be honest. This is we we've never really had this happen before in any of our projects. So, you know, it but it is always a question beforehand, which is smart. You know, everyone wants to know what the what the worst case scenario could be. But the reality is it's it's a
relatively, quick process if there is a if there's an issue with the roof. And it's usually very hyperlocated into one area that just requires some panels to be removed, which doesn't require the entire system to be turned off.
Yeah. And then how do you guys monitor the system? Yep. We use
a software called deck monitoring, which is pretty neat because it's it's just a link that we have, and we could send it to to the board event. A lot of us a lot of classes, like the science depart the science classes will use it to show the students how much solar is being produced at any given day. And it's sort of like a a bell curve that goes up, you know, around noon. It shows how much production is happening, and then it starts going down at night. So it's a kind of a neat tool, and it shows how much carbon's being offset, by using power from the roof instead of drawing it from the grid. So that's something that we will we will, of course, provide to you so you could see what's, what's happening in real time and be able to educate students.
Sorry to capitalize on all of that. No. That's an excellent question. Thank you. Does anyone else have other questions for Ryan in regards to solar? And just to update everyone, we did get the interconnection agreement with Eversource, so I think that's the last documentation Great. That needs to be signed. And then you said that you have updated, like, site plans.
Yep. Yes. We're we're updating our electrical drawings and based on this the structural analysis and your your it it definitely was a a unique situation in that your single phase power at that building, which, it is it is unique. But, fortunately, we passed interconnection. We had to get a little bit, creative with inverters and which, ended up working out, though, because it will be a very efficient system.
Ryan, I will give GreenSky's kudos because I have them, obviously, in my other building. And, one day, someone showed up and said they were there to fix something. And I said, didn't I didn't call you to fix anything. I I I have no idea what you're talking about. And it because of that monitoring system that you guys had that you guys knew something needed to be adjusted, and that's what they were there for. I didn't need to call them.
But It is, yeah. That's we we watch it we watch all of our solar assets very closely and have maintenance providers all throughout, especially in Eastern Connecticut because of, just the amount of projects that we have in the area. So I was highly impressed. Oh, thank you. Yeah. Is that in Scotland,
I assume? Yes. Yes. And they've always said they just showed up there. I didn't even know anything was amok.
Yeah. Was we'll be sure, you know, in this instance, in in all situations where school there's school and the students involved, we try to give a decent notice, prior to anyone, you know, going on property. And we'll, of course, you know, check-in, prior to trying to go on to the group to, to to manage the system. But it's good to hear that they're they're out there working, Valerie. So I'll pass that along.
So now that we've got the interconnection document and whatnot, what do we need to do to move forward with this and get it done finally? I think we're just waiting for their plans to move ahead in terms of the updated
Okay. Okay. Guys. The insurance document. They need insurance document. And and then they need the
the permits from the town. Correct? Yeah. So, I mean, he should be on his way to just moving forward on the schedule. Yep.
Thank you so much for your time tonight, unless other people have other questions. Celeste or Brie, do you guys have any questions for Ryan?
I don't have any questions for Ryan. Thanks for coming again, Ryan. Appreciate it. Of course. Anytime.
And then, Eric, you said that you wanted to bring up Yeah. I wanted to
introduce or move that the board of Ed send a letter to the board of selecting and asking for a special town meeting to approve the solar projects and then open up for discussion. If that gets a second. I'd second that.
What's the basis upon which or the authority on which we need to give up our authority to take it to a town meeting? So that's a great question.
And in this letter, I would recommend we state that the board of education has the full authority to go through with this project. And I firmly believe that I think many of us believe that too, if not all. So that I would like to be included in that letter. I also, though, think it's great to have community support for projects like this for a couple of reasons. One, it is very visible. Two, the complexity of the project as we just witnessed with the questions. And three, the long term nature of what is a capital project. It's different than an elevator. It's different than adding a bathroom. So given those three reasons, there's a lot of questions that the community would have, and I'm fearful that if we move forward with this, not that there would be backlash, but it'd be nice to have that full community support through that special vote, and through the board of we went to the charter. There's a list of seven reasons to call the special meeting. One of them would be a discretion of the board of selectmen.
I think it's number seven on that list. So I feel like this project would fall under that. Again, it'd be a good avenue for the board of education to publicize this too instead of just having community members drive by and see it to be able to invite them, have them ask their questions, have get have us give a presentation of what this project is. And I I fully expect the community to support this, hopefully rubber stamp it, and it's a huge win for us from a from a marketing publicity perspective. Carrie's favor with tone as well, and good for the overall school and the board of education here.
I I will say that also, like, since it's been at board of Slackman and board of ed meetings, like, I've had quite a few people from outside of our normal attendee of board of ed meetings ask questions about it. And some of those questions were Jeff Murray's, and some of them came from other people in the town that had concerns and questions. And I think I I would agree from a community standpoint. I think it would be good for everyone to be on the same page, not not a matter of who's allowed or not allowed to do what, but more from, like, a community support standpoint.
Well, I feel like two things. Number one, it sets a really bad precedent. This is absolutely under our purview, by law, by what we've been advised by our lawyers. So I don't share your your optimism that it's going to get the support from the community that you think it's going to be, I think you said rubber stamped. So I have a tremendous concern in that regard. The second thing is we've been talking about this since 2022. The town, the board of selectmen, everybody has had more than two years to attend a meeting, to ask questions. Granted, we're getting to the end of the project and maybe that brings about more interest in the project or more questions. I really appreciated the questions tonight. I don't wanna buck up against the situation like we did with the driveway where we don't get the permits from the town, but I don't think we need the town's permission to do this as I've made clear at many meetings.
And I'm very concerned about the timing of everything as a third concern because I believe there is a grant and whatnot that we're operating up against. And GreenSky needs to get started with the project. I mean, we're getting to the point if we put it off for a town meeting, to me, that's another one or two months that we're not moving forward with this. And they need to get started, as far as I know, this this summer
in order for us to qualify for all of the funding. Ask that Yeah. Know what the timeline is on that in terms of when you guys I mean, if we sign these documents, you still have to get permitting from the town. What's the what's the timeline on the actual project?
Yeah. Our our intention would be to start construction towards the end of the school year. So construction is not really messing with, you know, when kids are in school and and potentially testing. But the yeah. I I guess the the issue is the is the procurement process. So it it does take many months to buy the equipment and get it get it, you know, prepared and find out an area on-site to locate it and hold it, and that comes after permits take place. So permits usually take thirty to sixty days. Once that's in hand, then we know what type of material exactly to to purchase. That that will take another sixty days or so to have that arrive. So we yep.
Sorry. I didn't get the end of cut you off. I'm sorry. Go ahead.
Yeah. So that's, I think we're you know, although it's early in the year, we're already, I guess, pretty close to, you know, bumping into a a construction start date probably towards the very end of the school year and building all summer, which is a good time to build, obviously. But, yeah, with the intent to have the project online towards the end of the summer, prior to kids coming back.
So in terms of if if we were to ask for a town meeting and our and our, like, time frame was, like, within two two or three weeks of now, do you think that would affect the overall endgame? No. I don't I don't think so. Okay.
Thank you. Two to three weeks. Can I add something if I don't mind, too? Yeah. Yeah. Next discussion. Shannon, to your point, I I know that Eric posed the question about support. I don't know why the board would think we wouldn't have support, because we have been talking about this. I have the dates. We've been talking about this since 09/14/2022, and it has been on our agenda or presentations by Elaine or Ryan have occurred no less than 12 times. 12 times that this support has been here. Former board members, that initiated this, Steve Bus's first conversation was in September 2022. We applied for this grant three times and didn't get it till the third time. I I strongly believe that it is supported. I know that people on the town side, elected officials, have said, it's not that we don't support it. We do.
I do feel that there wasn't even a town meeting when they built the senior center. That the town didn't feel needed to go for approval to the taxpayer, and that involved money. This, as Ryan Lanieris has described, does not involve the appropriation of any money. So not only was it the right of the board, but it doesn't require it doesn't meet the standard for any of those town meeting requests. Right. Town vote requests. And if we know it's gonna be supported, which we do, because we've never, since 2022, had a vote in a meeting. You voted the first time to let us apply for that grant. We had nobody that went against that. Nobody in the community who's on and nobody on this board. We then had a vote the second time, and it went through. We had a vote the third time, and it went through. We had a vote for signatures of other things, and it's gone through this board without reservation every single time. I think the board has done its job. Yeah. And I have, in addition to Yuri and Skies, lots of hours into this since 2022, and I have never been approached by a parent or community member to say we're not in favor of solar. So I I do wonder why we would do that to, Shannon's point, set a precedent for something when we know the support is there. So I would ask the board, because I know you're voting,
to continue with the work that this board's been doing since 2022, and that is moving forward with this. As Ryan said, if it was a matter of two weeks or three weeks, sure. Maybe you're not, you know, potentially gonna lose this grant, but the leeway between now and the end of the school year is March, April, May, and June. Okay? So you're talking about sixteen weeks time period for him to get this done.
So he said it would take thirty to sixty days to get the permits. Yeah. And another sixty days for procurement, and we're at the end of June. Right, Brian? That's that's about correct. Yep.
So I I would ask the board if you do already know that you're gonna get the majority of support, and the board has already proved this since 2022 on multiple occasions, and we've done our due diligence to have them present on multiple occasions. They presented in December 2022 all the way through, until 2024. I and I I will tell you that 10/09/2024, one of the board members from the board of selectman, mister Murray, was on here to discuss AES gym fans, and he even said the fans will be more beneficial when the solar is installed. So I do know that, you know, that conversation has occurred. So as the superintendent, and I know that, you know, you guys are the boss. This this is your board. I I am requesting that we just continue to move forward with it.
I don't think it's how we're eating the way or vehicle for advertising or promoting. I believe town meetings are if you wanna spend money or vote on budgets. The town meetings I've been to, that's usually what it is. What will we do if they have a town meeting and everybody votes no? Put it down. Yeah. Then why? We've gone this far into this. It's not costing us any money, and I haven't heard any any pushback on this from anyone in the community. I have.
So I after after watching other towns around us that have put in solar projects that are now having issues. And granted, those were not with GreenSky's. They were not PPAs. They were, like, they did a full out solar project. But I I since Purchase. They did a purchase. A purchase, and that was when was their meeting about that? I think it was two weeks ago. And and maybe that's the reason why I've gotten so much contact from members of our town is because of that. But I it makes me a little nervous with us as a board. Yes. We have the right to make that decision and to move forward, but I I would personally like to have, like, the support of those in our community to back us up on it when it's a decision that's going to be there for twenty years regardless of the financial implication.
Yeah. To back Caitlin up, there's understand there's a right, but there's also the right thing to do, and that's to make sure that we're in lockstep with the community. And I think that in the past couple of years, there's been a strained relationship, and making this move will help heal that.
But, Brie, two things. Number one, while I agree, we would love the support of the community. If we don't have the support of the community, we've been voting for two and a half years to go forward with this project. So that's a major concern of all the wasted time and effort and not proceeding with something that the board has unanimously, time and time again, voted to say is something we wanna do. And getting back to my first point, I absolutely and I'm not just standing legal and right and authority here, do not wanna set a precedent that every project that the board of education who are elected members to do this approves of needs another snap of approval from the town. Granted, if it were something that were budget related or a major expense, I can understand that a little more. I wouldn't give on that, but I understand it. But I really appreciated what Jerry said, which is why do we need to have a town meeting to promote a project? That's really not the purpose of a town meeting. And it's our job, just as it is with the budget we just passed tonight, to go out and advocate for what we believe is best for the school. We've made votes consistently for two and a half years that this is what is best for the school, and it's our job to now go out and answer any questions that might come up as to why it wouldn't be good for the school. But it's not up to us to go to a town meeting to to allow I mean, if they have questions, ask the questions. Come to the meetings, to the board of ed. But I don't know that we need to go forward with a town meeting and have a town vote on something that has no
budgetary relationship to the town. It would be great to get their support. My concern is if we don't have their support. And how much time and effort has gone into this. We can do a board special meeting?
We can have a board event special meeting and tell people we're discussing solar. And if we get the response we got to discussing our budget and we have one person show up, do we then go forward? Why not call the special meeting of the board of ed instead of a town meeting? It's a good idea. So
Celeste or Mike, do you guys have anything to I I I echo. I think the precedent the precedent thing is a major issue. I think the underlying thing about just, like, we are board of education members. This is a board of education. We have a certain role and responsibility. We need to uphold that. Mhmm. But, like, I think Jerry also raises a great point. What happens if you have this meeting and people say we don't want This has already unanimously been voted by the board of education as something we want, we think is a good we think is a good idea from the actions we've taken. Then you propose to have this meeting. We have it, and all of a sudden, the community says, nope. We don't want it. Do what happens? But isn't it Are you gonna backtrack on your vote of saying so you've already said I never voted on this matter. That's correct. He hasn't. I'm sorry. Yeah. K. I have already voted on this matter. Mhmm. K. I'm going to go and excuse me. We are, as a board, going to go and request a special meeting in which they could approve they could agree and support it, or they could say we don't support it. That's not the decision. We are still making a decision. So do I now have to continue to say I support it and think it's a good idea even though the community now is telling us this, oh, are we gonna backtrack on the whole thing if the community comes at us and says it's not a good idea?
And who in the community is gonna show up? Is it gonna be You would voters support it or the people who are against it? I think we have to represent what the individuals in the community want.
But I do feel strongly that there is gonna be great community support for this if we present, the case that we can on it.
And you feel comfortable using the town meeting as a marketing ploy?
I think marketing ploy is not a fair characterization. And I also would say, hey. We're asking a lot of the town with, you know, a more than 8% budget increase. Why wouldn't we also, you know, take this opportunity to use this as an arena to say, hey. We know that we're asking a lot from you, but we're doing things as a board to try to bring costs down, like add solar. I I mean, it's a good opportunity, in my opinion, for optics.
So what's the difference between if we have a special meeting of the board of education, can we not serve the same purpose with upholding the role of the board of education, still serving what you are looking for Mhmm. Right, without having a meeting. It fits the same exact requirements that you laid out.
There's no difference there. There is a difference, though, because, like, us asking the board of selectmen to have a town meeting and have solar at that meeting is not the same as us having a board of education meeting.
How is it not the same? How is it not the same? I mean, people can still show up. People can still voice their opinions. People can just so the community can because is this about the community support, or is it about the board of selecting support? I'm confused. It's about the town giving us support. Okay. So if we have a special meeting of the board of education Mhmm. The community can show up. The board of selecting people can show up there. The board of finance people can show up. Everybody has the right to show up at that meeting. So they still can show up and give their input. It serves the same exact purpose.
See, I think if you I think we have a motion on the floor, and I think we need to vote on it.
I wanna say one more thing, Celeste, and that is if we create this precedent where there is no budgetary Implication. Implication, we're creating another sense for a town meeting. And I absolutely agree with you, Brie. It would be wonderful to have the buy in from the town. I don't think we need to have a town meeting to do that. And if they want to address it as something that is in support of us getting almost 9% of an increase in our budget, we address that at a budget meeting. That's why a town meeting is called for the budget. This is totally unrelated to the budget and a project we've unanimously approved of as a board for more than two years. It needs to move forward. We cannot have the delay of waiting for a town meeting. We can call a special board meeting in the next two weeks and get it done. Now if we have the same response to a special board meeting that we had to our special budget meeting, I hope that we can take that as an indication that there aren't any questions or concerns. But I guess we promote this in as best a way as possible to say if you have any questions or concerns, either email them as we did with our budget so that we could address them or come to the meeting. Or have a Zoom component.
We'll have a Zoom component to the meeting. Yep. But yeah. Okay. So let's just we could call the question. Okay. Do you wanna say it again, Eric?
So the motion on the floor is to send a letter to the board of Selectmen recommending a special meeting on the solar project. Right. So we're ready to vote. All in favor?
Before you vote, can I ask question? Yeah. Are you asking for a separate town meeting for this? Because at their meeting on Monday night, they were looking to add this to a town meeting with a variety of other topics. So are you motioning for them to have because if you're asking for them to consider this and this is your issue At Monday, if you look at their agenda and you look at their minutes, the town wanted to have a town meeting and add us as an agenda item to a variety of other things that they were voting on. And so the focus of that meeting would not be to invite people for the purpose of seeing if they wanted solar or not. The purpose of that meeting would be fivefold. Right. Right. And so your audience then is fivefold. They are there for different things. And if this board really wants to gather whether or not those people in attendance are in favor of solar, are you asking, Aaron, are you motioning to send a letter to ask for a meeting to discuss solar at that one meeting?
I'm gonna stick to the original and keep it to a single item, single meeting, solar only for our recommendation.
Okay. So to ask the board of selectmen for to have a town meeting specifically about solar at AES by itself with no other things on the agenda. Correct? Yes. K.
Thank you for clarifying that. Yeah. Thank you for bringing it up. Yeah. I vote yes. All in favor. The last is yes. Brie? Yes. Mike? No. No. No. Yes.
K. I will vote yes as well. Order, please. Elevator? No. Faster. I think bathroom. Yes. Because we switched elevator. Elevator with with the solar. Okay. So we as you know, we have Boston O'Neil as our, oversight company, for the bathroom project. We have met with the Josh, who is the, site manager on multiple occasions. So mean, Caitlin has been on those meetings. She's taken over now. They began back when Celeste was was the chairperson, and we were discussing these things. We are in phase one, which is they've taken all of their pictures. They've come in, and they've done all their measuring. And we are at the design stage at the beginning where we are talking about what would we want them to put together design wise for the fixtures, what we would want them to put together for flooring and things like that, what makes sense, the use of the bathrooms, all sorts of things like that. So we've had two meetings with them, and we'll continue as they create the plans and move forward. In terms of finances, as you know, the board of finance, you know, had approved that 43,000. So the first check will be cut this week. So they did send the first? No. It will be cut this week. Okay. That 13,000, and, then we move forward, with the rest of phase one. The exact timeline will depend on when phase one is is completed because their time line was not dates. Their time line was phases. So I know that, you know, as we move forward, when we get to the next, step, the next phase, that's when we will, supply them with another theme. So that's where we are right now, and it's been
it's been good. I think that they've thought of a lot of things in helping us out. One of the things we addressed this week was, like, for example, the tiles on the floor and what alternatives we could use in the bathroom to, hygiene wise and cleanliness wise, not have so many grout lines. Normally, we look at larger tiles versus smaller tiles so you have less grout lines. We've also looked at, you know, epoxy like materials for the flooring that they utilize in in medical centers to make the cleaning easier. They're trying to assist us with the fact that one of our bathrooms now actually has the slop sink in it for the custodian because our other closet that's there is kind of not wide enough. And so you go into that custodian's closet, and it's got a sink that's raised. And so it's not ideal for them. It's like two feet wide. So they were instrumental in assisting us with planning for that. They're like, oh, well, you know, if if you'd have a wider door on there, then you'd be able to do that and put the slot sink in there. So they've been they do this for a living. Thank goodness.
So they've been instrumental in assisting us with that. We're looking at, for example, the toilets. You know, around the base of the toilet is where if our youngsters have less than good aim, we do wind up with some significant fluid on the floor of the bathroom, especially the boys' bathroom. So we were looking at toilets that would come out from the wall instead of floor mounting.
Well, that's something about the plumbing that they made more sense to have that type of the ones on the floor. Yep. So they are, they've been instrumental in assisting us.
You know, they, absolutely are helping us along the way here. So it's coming along. We'll keep you updated, every month on that.
And then just so we're all on the same page in terms of those checks, they're going to come from the capital funds. So, like, the town will will you'll tell them the amount, and then they'll issue the check, and then that will show the next month when we get this balance sheet. Like, that will get deducted from that. Then elevator is next. Yep. Does anyone have questions about the bathroom project thus far? I don't have any questions. Thanks, Caitlin. No. Nothing. Thanks. Yep.
Okay. The elevator. That was another one of the board's priority when we came up with the priority for our top three, capital things that needed to be done this year. I do now have the the the three quotes. TK is the company that we have right now for service. We've had TK, since 2021. I pulled the '21 to 24 maintenance numbers with the help of Terry, and we looked at, for example, basic maintenance before we even decided you know, looking at the three companies and the quotes. If the three of them were to be equal, how happy are we with TK? Because they were one of the ones that obviously was giving us a bid. So we looked back through. We are happy with the service, so that was a plus for us. When And we looked at the yearly maintenance from, 2021, through till now, it averaged roughly about $272,800 dollars a year. Okay? It's been consistent. So when they put in a bid, they gave us, two prices. They were one of the first ones we had. They gave us the $140,000 for full replacement, at the very beginning, before we were talking to the companies about doing that soft mod, that modernization. We do the panel. They came in at about 20,000 for the soft mod. So that's what we had to work on at the beginning. We went with our first mod to work on at the beginning. Next came in with Aligned, the company's ALIGN, like Aligned. They wanted our quarterly contract too, so they offered us two prices, actually three prices. And it looked very promising because they came in at $29.98 for the year as well. So when you looked at what their
fee would be for the yearly maintenance, they were very comparable to TK. So we were like, oh, tell us more. Tell us more. Because we thought, hey. We'll switch if we need to find a company that, you know, suits our needs. But the caveat on that one was when you read through the fine print on their quarterly contracts, it said anything that needed to be covered over and above their normal service agreement is at the rate of $355 an hour and $670 an hour for overtime. So if our elevator happens to break without going into a holiday and it needs to be fixed, that's at the rate of $670 an hour. So that made us a little less optimistic there, but we did pull the two quotes from them. The board replacement, which would be that's that's soft mod. The board replacement, they quoted us at 16,800, so it was, you know, about 1,700 less than TK. But they did say they didn't think we needed that now, so they would be purchasing it. Well, we would be purchasing it, but they would get it now. Because remember, all this began because we were told that you're going to have a problem getting these because they're it. Right. Because they're a discontinued model. Well, we all know when the models are discontinued, there are still some out there. And so they said, we would have you buy it and keep it on-site now
because, you don't need to replace it right now, but we understand since it is a discontinued model, you'd wanna get it now. However, their price doesn't include any installation. So we would be paying that money just to house and store it here, and then we would have to go with whatever the going rate is for them to install it later on. So if we were lucky enough to go, let's say, two more years, in two years, when they need to install it then, it's the same company that told us the $355 an hour and $670 in overtime. So So labor is a lot more. And yeah. And, again, we'd be paying that 16,000 right now, but, that would just be to store it here, like I said. And their their quote said that they felt that there was, other work that we would need to do in terms of maintenance of the elevator to the tune of 5,900 that they said were repairs that needed to be done now. We did then ask TK, are these repairs that need to be done now, you know, that we just haven't done? And they didn't think we did. So we were left a little Scott and I were a little up on that one.
KONE, k o n e, was that third company that we were waiting for. KONE came in on a price, that was a lot higher to do the whole thing. Remember, TK had said, hey. If you wanna replace the whole thing, we can do it for $1.40. Home does high end, very, very nice elevators, you know, high end skyscrapers. They would have been way more than $1.40 to do the whole thing because one of the things that these are known for, these nice elevators, is all of the, like, apparatus inside, like, the fancy everything inside with the buttons. And so we went back to them and said, well, we only have two floors, and, you know, it's not really out there, but the public uses it on a regular basis, so it doesn't have to be all that pretty. Even though yours are really pretty, and they are. I have pictures of them. Can you just give us a quote on the soft mod? And they said, well, you know, what what what would that include?
Because we explained to them we were just interested in, like, basically, the panel. And, again, they said, not the buttons and making the inside of the elevator prettier. Mhmm. We said, no. We're out of budget here. And they came back with an email that says, we can't beat TK's price because we sent them the not the price originally, but the information. This is what we are looking for you to price up. So would be apples to apples instead of apples to oranges. Mhmm. And they sent us a lovely letter that said, we declined to bid on the soft mod because there there's no way we're gonna be able to do what basically, the the small amount that you're asking for. It's either big or we can't do this. We don't want to do want to do And they actually said, we anticipate that you'd probably be getting that at a better price from them because we just, like, don't downgrade to do it at that. And we said, okay. Thank you.
So, so it would be, both mine and Scott's recommendation then that, we we stay with TK of the three of them, and that we continue our our maintenance service with them as well. So if if you guys wanna vote to stay with them now, that's fine. What's the cost on the panel with them? Just under 20,000. Okay. Does that include the labor?
Well, it does include that general labor. And remember, since we have a regular maintenance contract with them anyways, the the the cost per service hour would be the same. So if you guys say you don't have to vote for us to actually approve doing this project tonight. If you vote and say yes, we would like you to engage in getting a contract, not just that quote with them. I will have them drop off a contract that says this is everything. This is, like, based out of the quote, this is everything. And then I would bring that to next month's meeting, and you can vote on it then. Because that would be Eric where I'd say the quote is great, but now I want you to pretend you're gonna actually do the whole thing for us. Quote us the number of hours. Quote us this, something more detailed. Yeah. You know? And if we are continuing with you for our yearly service, what I don't wanna use the word discount because that's not, you know, the word they use, but, like, what consideration that would have in that quote. So if you guys would like me to, that is my recommendation and Scott's recommendation that we, start the process of moving forward with getting that paperwork for you to then approve and sign for next meeting with TK.
And just to be clear about it again, it's the the panel or the elevator that we have that
that they're, like, not gonna make them anymore or something. Right? Correct. That's what started the whole thing to us. Okay. So
And it's functionally working right now. Absolutely. K. You know?
And and it should anything else need to be repaired to this elevator, again, I mentioned this quote earlier. They don't make them like they used to. Like, this is a good elevator that we have. You know, the life on this, nobody's gonna guarantee us what the life is, but the life on this, especially with the soft mod upgrade, should still be very good for us. It's, only used on two floors, so there's less stress to the bully system. How old is it? You know, it's funny that you asked that. Seventies? No. No. It's it's it's it's been reconditioned. I'll use that word. Like, the original pulleys and everything are not from from from the seventies.
You know, with other things. Right. There are other things. I mean but come on. It's not that old. Right. There are other things that had been upgraded, you know, other little mechanisms, just not that whole soft mod. So but if you want me to, I'll get that together for next month, and I will get the stats on, you know, exactly what's been done to our elevator over the course of, the years so we can see that. And, again, keep in mind that it is only the two level. So we we you know, it does, preserve the length on our elevator more than in some other places. Do you need a motion to move forward with TK? I do. So that I can then say to them, yes. We're interested. And so send us, you know, what this would look like, not just that quote. I make a motion to move forward with TK to ask them to prepare a contract with quotes for our elevator repairs. Second. Does anyone wanna discuss further? No. I'm all set. Okay.
Celeste, would you like to vote now? I would love to vote, Caitlin, and I vote yes. Okay. All in favor? Aye. Okay. Seven?
Thank you guys for for doing all that work. And, you know, it's always important to to get multiple quotes Absolutely. To know where you are in the ballpark. So And I am happy to know that the service provider that we're currently using was embarrassed. Yeah. Yeah. That's always good to know too.
I think we need to do anything with this different account? I thought we did that last month. No. So the only the only update I have on that was from the board of finance, which is and Terry and I spoke with the with Eric as well as with the I can't remember her name now. The treasurer. Cheryl. Cheryl. Thank you. And there's conflicting information. So if you look on the STIP account website, it says towns can have multiple STIP accounts. If you talk to Cheryl or to Eric, they say, we're only allowed to have one. You guys will have to do it yourselves, is the reply that we got via email. So Joanne Hubert was looking into that further from the board of finance, and I think, hopefully, we'll be in contact at some point. The town's only had the account for a year, so I think everyone's still a little bit just unsure with where that stuff lies. But, hopefully, we'll get it to move forward.
Caitlin, I did check with our auditor on that when they were in, and they said, yes. They said the town could have multiple stiff accounts. And since they are controlling the money at the town already, it would make more sense for them to invest it.
Yes. Considering that you can't just take that money from them and invest it. That's that's where I would use on their reply. So Correct. K. Thank you. I'll try to do something about that again then. Okay. Thank you. Yep.
Do you guys have a couple of other things in front of you, like, before you get to comment? These handouts are just and I have some for for Brie and Celeste too. I'll send them home. I just wanted to provide you with any of the things that I've received, pertaining to you guys. This one here is the state's 2025 agenda. So if you go through here, this is, their goals and objectives, and this is put out by CABE for all board members so that you know what CABE's goals and objectives for the year are, and this is separated by content, everything related to special education, everything related to policies. The legislative priorities are summed up in this one that's filled with here. And on the back, there's information for you. March 12 is the day on the hill, so they will ask him any board members who would like to participate that's on there. So those are there for you. And then the two that I also gave you copies of for anybody who's interested, so those are the CAB ones. I've included the two CAPS ones, which are normally just given to the superintendents. However, I thought some of you, especially since, most of you participate in the CABS CAB convention, I thought maybe you'd be interested in seeing the CAPS mission and the CAPS legislative proposals, the things that they are interested in so that you can kinda compare that to CABE and see where the superintendents and the board members
at the state level agree. And this one right here takes these priorities and gives them to you more in-depth. And you'll notice on the front, there's just three key words there. It's elevate, fund, and improve. So as you go through here, you'll notice that everything that is the CAPS goal and objective is also the CABES goal and objective that you just noted.
So just some reading for you. I like that right in the center. It's improved preschool programs. Comments from the public on agenda items. Jenny Morales?
Hi there. Thank you all so much for all the hard work, the support that you did with the budget and everything else. When you were having discussion about the budget and there was conversation about COVID and realizing the needs that we're all faced with, it's been interesting with me in my new position to see the needs in a different way throughout the whole school. I think looking at this intervention position that I have this year that has that social emotional learning component, which we have not had in an intervention position, we all realize that there are some needs that need to be addressed. And I think because you have supported changes, like I said at the beginning public speak, you have supported changes to the needs that are facing our students and our community. So, you know, personally, from my position that I have as an intervention teacher this year, I thank you for, you know, including things like that and looking beyond just one classroom or just two classrooms
and looking at the need of all the children. So thank you all so much. Thank you. Jen McGoldrick?
I will just go ahead and echo what Jenny said. I really appreciate all of your support, for the teachers, but more importantly, for our students. So I appreciate you passing the budget tonight. Thank you. And Jamie Weber? Just wanna say thank you. Thanks for everything. Amanda Beloyne.
You're up, Amanda. Oh, man. I'm doing great tonight, guys. I just wanna say thank you again, and we appreciate all the support over the years.
Thank you. Does anyone have other action items that we need to talk about tonight? I don't have anything, Caitlin.
Okay. Brie, you're good? I'm good. K. So our next board meeting will be March 12. I will keep you guys posted in terms of town meeting for solar and what the date for that would be. And then in terms of items for the next meeting, we did move the executive session in terms of midterm review. So that would be on next month's agenda. So, Caitlin, in that regard, are we gonna get
written evaluations to be able to to prepare them, or how are we gonna do that? I guess I had questions in terms of what people prefer. We haven't ever done that before, but I don't think we've actually done formal midterm reviews before either.
So I don't know. I can speak to what Abe recommends. It's an informal discussion on board goals and the superintendent review. No formal scoring, anything like that. Okay. So I think if if I'm
comfortable with it being informal and kind of just going through what our board goals were, and then, like, goals that we had for the superintendent and have an informal discussion. Brian, are you guys okay with that?
Nope. That sounds good. Thanks for clarifying it, Eric. Appreciate it. But, yep, that sounds good. Yeah. I'm good with that.
Okay. Is there anything else that we need to make sure that we add on to next month agenda that people would like to We talked about the the boilers with regard to the capital five year. Yep.
And then the TK Elevator contract. Yep. And, hopefully, we'll have solar, I guess, on our agenda for next month.
And then I've hopefully, we'll have some kind of step update by that point. I would hope that the audit is done by then,
maybe? Nope. It probably won't be for the meeting because they put the full towns together, and I know that they are still
over. They're still over. Oh, I thought they were there first before. No. They're they're simultaneous.
Okay. So I doubt, I mean, that they'll have it 100% completed by. And then I think
our date for the board of finance is that the ninth ninth March 19, we think? It is. '19. It is. Okay.
When you're gonna present our budget to the board of finance? The nineteenth. On the nineteenth. Yeah. That's what I'm asking. Yeah. But they originally gave us the option that would be the twelfth, and I'm like, that's our meeting. Yeah. Because there is a 05:00 They're having budget meeting that night. Right. Every every Wednesday night. Thank you. Thank you.
Any items from you or Taylor next week, next month? No. K.
Can I ask one other question? Sorry. With the federal changes, do you see that affecting anything in terms of funding?
We don't know the answer to that. I know you don't know the answer. But I mean, we have lots of conversations about it, superintendents and districts. I mean, obviously, we don't want this to be a political conversation, but No. I would just simply, you know, say that at this point, anything on a federal level is still in in executive order statement. So that doesn't mean that it is. It means that it's hoped for. So, you know, I would say that between now and the rest of the year, the only thing that I can imagine us being affected by would be funding that's promised for next school year. And so, yeah, you know, the the money that's already, like, in the eGrant system right now, like, they can't yank that away from us. Right. So I would say that, you know, we would have to worry for July 1 on, But, we do watch for legislative,
actions here in the state of Connecticut, and, you know, should something come up and knowing. There's no But, absolutely. And anything that's gonna come up, Jason, you what you said as far as executive order, anything budgetary has to go through Congress. So we will see if that in fact occurs. Yeah. Yeah. So yeah. So we'll just have to sit and wait. Well, it's critical for our state to have the federal funding for education.
That's right. Yeah. The biggest thing for us right now, if I were to say somebody says, are you feeling it right now? The only thing I'm feeling is that we haven't had the opportunity to apply for grants as much as we normally would at this time of season. We would be applying for quite a bit of grants, and they're dry. Celeste? Celeste, you're up. Yes, I'd like to make a motion to adjourn. I. Seconded. It is 922.
Alright. Good night, everyone. Thank you. Thanks, Les. Good night. Great. Good night. Good night.