Okay.
You're good, Maria.
Okay.
I'd like to call to order the January 11th, 2021.
General service, the first meeting of the year.
Welcome, everybody.
And shall we do a roll call or just call out our names?
I don't think we have official roll call.
Michelle, do you have a roll call for this?
Now? Okay.
So, Maria, Mimi, School, school board Director.
Harry Singer.
School Board member.
Michelle Agee.
Board Secretary.
Donna Cronin School Board Member.
Judi Have District School Board member.
Joe McFarland Superintendent.
Mike French Business Manager.
Lisa Stephen Miller,
Director of Safe and Supportive Schools.
Kaufman Citizen Advisor.
Jonathan Sabatini Citizen Advisor
that everybody.
I think so.
Maria.
Did everybody say.
Okay, Yeah.
Infrared camera warehouse.
If we have to state our name as well.
It would be good. Craig.
Okay. Craig Camera with Warehouse.
Mark Anderson, Director of Buildings and Grounds in Derry Township.
Don Weiler with Warehouse.
Okay.
I think we got everybody.
Thank you very much.
Approval of Summary Minutes.
Michelle and I were going back and forth today.
I don't think we have any recorded.
Is that correct?
From the last meeting?
We do.
From the last meeting,
but not the meeting prior to that, which was the end of the last school year.
Okay.
So we're just talking about the last meeting there attached, Correct?
Okay.
Can I have a motion to approve the
the summary meetings from the last meeting?
Terri Terri Singer.
So moved.
Second. Donna Cronan.
Thank you.
Minutes approved, moved on
onto the one item that we have under unfinished business
is the elementary safety and security project timeline.
Joe, did you want to elaborate on that item?
I'm actually Mike Will. Oh, okay. Great.
Thank you, Maria.
What we have today and Craig and some others from Warehouse
are with us to go over a proposed timeline for the
looking at the remaining pieces of the safe and secure project that we have,
which would be at the S.E.C., an elementary school.
As an administration,
we've discussed this at length.
We were we were hopefully planning originally to go over this
or start this project this summer.
That would be June of, you know, of 2021.
However, administratively, we've been meeting on a couple of items.
Obviously, this being one in,
we are recommending at this point to to hold off on this project going forward
this summer, mostly due or directly
due to the unknowns of COVID 19 and the effects on our our
on our
budget, on our planning, and just some of the things that
we know that from the process that we went through, that all
our all of our schools are safe and all of our schools are secure.
This project was just updating everything to the 21st century
in terms of things being able to talk to each other.
And as you can see that by what's attached here,
we are just under three and a half million dollars as budget for the project.
Just under 2 million of that was at the high school
and we did receive
low bids.
And one of the reasons that we went through and approved
this project, even though at the time we were in unknowns,
the high school project was originally bid
starting in the March or April 2020 timeframe.
So kind of right in the process of when we shut down the first time
for coronavirus, we were still going through the bidding process,
and I think that's why we ended up with such a great price
because of the unknowns.
We can't assume that's going to happen going into next year.
And so what Craig is going to review is a timeline
that reflects waiting
until the 2122 school year
to really take anything under way in the summer of 22 specifically.
But to do that properly, as Joe as Craig will start to see, will need to
we'll need to start our process probably in June or July in terms of
the planning to make sure we're there.
So I'll turn it over to Craig.
Dave, if you
can just open the the Phase two project, it's noted as 21.
22. Yep.
And Craig, you want to walk us through this?
Sure.
So based on that,
I kind of set this up, kind of with tasks
where there's basically three complete kinds of tasks.
First task one through 1.8
is kind of to get us to the point where we're ready to go to bid
and then to point out through 2.4 is that bidding process
and school board meetings and that kind of stuff.
And then 3.0 actually jumps us
into construction and shop drying procurement.
And so on.
So based on that, what we're currently looking at
was a notice to proceed date of seven seven at this point.
And that can slide a little bit if it needs to to.
The main point that we're trying to be able to do is the task 1.2,
which yeah, we want to do that
during the time that school is actually out.
So school is not in session to go in.
I know there's some new cameras that have been installed at
the elementary school and possibly the SCC,
So we need to kind of finalize where
where those were located with, you know,
Mike and Mark and Lisa
to coordinate that effort.
And then we want to go through and
check every single door that is in the facility
to understand exactly
what the hardware is existing wise.
Based on that, we're roughly assuming that that's a kind
of a four day process at this point.
Next would be is to take that information out and
not really start to update the drawings
until later in beginning of October
so that we have all those things prepared pulled together.
And then we will start to pull those and put the drawings together.
At that point,
know we could move this up a little earlier,
but I want to make sure, you know, if there's anything that comes up that
because I know Mark does, you a good job
of modifying and changing things over the summer as well.
And that's one of the reasons why I think building survey could slide a little bit
so that we make sure we know that things if he's addressed any things on site
that affect this, will get taken care of and be picked up.
We'd be looking then to have a meeting with the client
and give the school district enough time to review the documents.
We would send the package to
the school district to review
and then we would have a meeting at the end of that to walk through page
by page to confirm everything and get kind of a final sign signoff.
We would then finalize that package.
We would then also put out a contractor, RFQ process,
which we kind of did for the Phase one project, which is enables us
to not put it out to bid, but it enables us to reach out to
the vendors that would work on this
and not release any documents at that time because it is kind of a secure thing
and we don't want the drawings out to everybody
for that.
We want to be able to collect,
you know, go through the process
to make sure that the individuals that would be bidding on it have ample
ability to do the
work and receive their information.
And then what we will do is have that information pulled together.
That would also be part of to go over with
the school board meeting to be able to provide that.
So we probably would move that up earlier than that.
1268 It probably could push up anywhere in this area
so that we would have that for the school board meeting to say
these are the preferred vendors for this work
and this is who we would like to then release the documents to once
approved by the school board that it could go out to those people.
Once that happens, then we would issue the package for bid
and that would be a 20 day kind of process.
So 152, two, one.
We would review the
bids, provide a bid recommendation,
confirm that they have the information within it.
We would then submit that package
to the school board for review
at the I'm saying the two 2122 date.
I don't know what that exactly is yet because your calendars aren't ready yet,
but in that somewhere in that timeframe
and again then the remaining of these is then this is the two week
follow up to that first meeting to actually execute the agreement.
Based on that, we would give notice to proceed
and finalize the contracts over a 20 day period.
Once that is completed,
what we want to be able to do, which I think will help this speed up,
is to be able to have the contractors provide shop drawings
and take care of doing their product procurement over a 30 day period.
So when we get to you
May and school is out in June, we would have things ready
that they would be able to be on site and start the actual work because
that's allowing
60 days and would run us to eight eight approximately
and then figure that there would be time for punching clothes out.
I'm saying possible after hours, depending on when your school starts
that we would be able to address that.
Some of this is questionable once we actually get your guys calendar
that we would kind of confirm some of those.
But this at least gives you kind of the the day and amount of days
that it will take to to do the process that happens
both the elementary school
and the SCC currently, Don.
But those buildings are
a little bit smaller than the other
four buildings that are currently underway right now.
Yes. So I think with with those 60 days of that school year
or that summer time should be ample enough time to address those
particular two
buildings and make the connection into the system
and be able to check that everything works fine.
And then we're given some dates here after that
to kind of punch out and close out the project.
So by the end of August, everything should be
would be completed in year 20, 22.
So that's kind of the tasks.
And, you know, just a rough idea of of calendar days
to make that happen.
Know I know the biggest hurdle with with all of these is always to make sure
that we hit those school board submissions and then the two weeks
after it is always the the juggle that we need to make sure happens.
So but I think this the 12
six gets us through your current calendar that you have available.
It's the second half that's questionable at this point,
but it should be pretty close to matching up.
Is there any questions,
comments with that?
I'll maybe raise your questions.
Dave Coffman maybe worked to the school board.
Was there any other construction activity
that was contemplated during the summer of 2022
that this activity may conflict with
or have to be coordinated with?
Dave At this point, we would not have have
necessarily looked that far ahead with the exception,
if you remember the last I believe it was the last meeting we
we updated on the elementary facility study that we were doing.
Right.
And if we were on the normal trajectory,
we may have started that project.
But because that's kind of been put on the shelf at this point,
that wouldn't be something that that we would look to do to 2022.
And if it would happen that way,
the elementary school is the school being renovated.
So this work could be also coordinated if there was a renovation
project or something larger scale happening at the elementary school.
This could just be incorporated into that work,
but not necessarily replace it if that makes it makes some sense.
You know, if this was if this was bid and there were multiple,
multiple buildings, would it be segmented
out the bidding so that if you needed to
either delay or remove one piece of it
because of a retrofit of the elementary,
that you could do so.
At this point, it is just
this elementary school or the elementary and the SCC that are left.
The work is currently being done
as as we speak right now at at our other buildings,
at the elementary or at the middle school, the high school and our district office.
So in the SCC, in the elementary
it's tough to
to have anything from the bidding process
stalled or put off from that standpoint
because we're asking contractors to provide prices as of this date.
And so pushing that off
probably would mean going back to the drawing board
in that it's just very difficult to put together a bid
that someone may stick to for, you know, extended period of time.
Okay,
Mike, I have a question.
I'm sure I know you've thought of this, so
you brought up the bigger issue
of the facility study that we're doing.
And we had a couple of different scenarios,
if any, if we go forward with this work,
does this work get translated then into any of the scenarios
that we're doing with that we could potentially be doing in the future?
Like if we ripped down the current elementary building and build a new one?
Can all of this equipment be moved over.
From a standpoint of of cameras?
Those would be something that are that could be move building to building.
Unfortunately, though, Maria, most don't want.
To make any bargaining.
So I don't know that was coming from most of the work
that we're paying for is rewiring and that would be in the building.
So to answer your question directly, if we were to choose the scenario
that was to tear down the current elementary school and rebid,
most of this money would would would essentially be lost
in that in a renovation.
No, you know, these things will stay there.
And anything that we're doing around that may affect it a little bit,
but for the most part, it would be useful and still helpful for that.
So it would really only be if we decided
to just tear the elementary school building down and start over,
that this would you know, that would be an issue.
So that that would be a concern.
And you can tell me if I'm not thinking about this, this right.
Doesn't it seem a little bit premature?
Because like you said, the safety and security of the school is there were
just like updating to 2021 technology, like the most current technology,
But we still haven't decided yet what we're doing with the buildings.
So it seems a little bit of like, again, just my word like this
just seems a little bit premature unless I'm not following the way that you are in.
In a way, you're thinking of this correctly.
I we I think administratively we look at those decisions as being made
both at the same time.
And that's one reason that we're not looking at doing this project this summer
is because we haven't made that other decision.
I don't see this necessarily being made in a
in a vacuum that we would say we're going forward with this without
knowing
at least what our plan is for the elementary facility
and starting that again and moving that forward.
So it may end up, Maria, that these end up very close together
in terms of what we what we make decisions from an elementary standpoint.
But as you noted, we really can't move forward
on this project until we've determined what what we need there,
the thought or the the
the reason for the presentation today was really just to bring it back
to to the committee's radar
and kind of report back on what we were noting,
which was essentially not to do this project this summer.
What Craig's pulled together is really just
a starting point, but mostly
the framework for the number of days that will need to happen,
you know, in between.
But when we start, the process is really up to us.
Using this July 7th, 2021 date
was just a starting point or something to talk from,
but that will be something that we'll have to to monitor and keep
keep an eye on, not keep an eye on, but talk about in conjunction
in terms of how what our purpose is or fix
is at the elementary school level.
And our thought was to have keep this on the June agenda,
the general services agenda, too, to wrap back around to it
before we would make any decisions
of proceeding in July.
I Dave, I'm confident.
Mark Anderson
one of the things I want to make real clear is that the elementary building,
the doors there are in much better shape than they are at high school.
We don't have a problem with students trying to prop doors open.
We do is a firm that comes in and is going to be making some adjustments
to make those doors better and closing tighter and those kind of things.
And I think, Maria, to your point is that the
existing elementary building,
the technology backbone, is such that adding
more cameras and door
swipes and whatnot, like it would be very, very difficult.
And whereas I think the I like the idea of taking the cameras to a new building.
That's what we did.
We did with the air, with the new chiller, and we could repurpose that.
And in another project because it would be very expensive,
you're going to do a lot of opening up to get cable run.
You have my question
really was more along the lines of what Maria was was heading that I.
Would see this activity, especially if you did this project.
It would basically push you down a path more renovation than than others.
And if you wanted to keep all your options open, you would probably want to defer
this until you had clarity on on that shortly design.
What you may want to do to is put together again
like you have here for those multiple studies
to see how they all kind of interact and timelines together to help guide that
that coordination. So
rather than just having a get chart here for one activity,
for one part of the process, you you may want to have a schedule for
for the entirety
as a suggestion.
I think
what a concern that I have, just an overall concern
and I'm not saying that anybody's doing this,
but I can't help but think about it like you send us out for, you know, bids.
You're kind of running people down wormholes on something that I don't
I mean, where it just it just seems
like we might be putting a lot of time and effort and energy into something
when we don't have worked out like the real the bigger picture.
But I know that you have a,
you know, a reason for presenting it today and bringing it back around.
But I just want to make sure
that we're not wasting I shouldn't that's not the right word.
But we can make sure.
Maria, I think this is more of a function of how we're presenting this and that We
we did the elementary in October, and we're just doing this now,
I think, to help everybody really get their head around.
This is when we come back in June.
We'll talk about both both projects in the update.
So not only the safe schools, but where we are in terms
of of the facility study for the elementary.
Our hope is that,
you know, as we get through,
as we get through the winter and spring and look to the summer,
the hope is that that financially and some of these other unknowns
that we've been working under for for almost 12 months
now becomes clear.
And that's really why we're we're we're, you know,
noting that we're we're not recommending doing any of these projects.
We're just updating where we're at.
But I think, like I said, when we come back in June,
not only will we review what we're thinking from the safe schools,
but the elementary project so that everybody can see that all at once.
I think we reviewed some of that in October and here we are in January.
And it's it's obviously disjointed for people.
I understand that.
So we'll make sure that that doesn't happen in June when we bring this back
around for the community. Okay.
Thank you.
Does anybody else have any I'm sorry, I don't know where we're at.
The are we?
I don't I mean, I don't have anything more on on this particular.
Right.
I'm unless there some other questions.
I guess the only question I would have
is what would
what would Maria be reporting out to the board tonight
about this
topic?
That's a really good question.
Sure.
I think the main the main takeaway is,
is that administratively, we're not recommending doing this.
This project this summer.
That's that's really the impetus of this this meeting
is to make sure we're all on the same page.
And like I said, that's the administrative recommendation.
And, you know, we're sharing that with with representative to the board,
and the committee is here for the first time.
So that's what we would like to see, is
everybody on the same page that we're updating, everyone
that we're not going to be doing this project this summer.
And the committee will receive
another update in in at their committee meeting in June.
I think, though, it is also very important to share during that update that
we're not doing the project this summer, but our schools are still safe schools.
This isn't putting anyone at risk
or we wouldn't be doing it
from that standpoint.
We feel that the buildings are safe and secure.
And Mark noted, as well as your elementary school
buildings, are are the most secure of of all of our buildings
in terms of the issues that that we saw in some of the others.
So I think those would be the three main things that
schools are still safe.
We're not doing it this summer and we'll plan to
to regroup once again in June.
Hopefully that with financial picture and some of the other things
being a lot clearer than they are today, and then we can start to plan those dates
and talk about actual implementation
at that time instead of hopefully we're not discussing, again,
putting it off a little longer because we're still uncertain
with with COVID 19.
So this very similar again.
So we have this in our our
capital plan or was this set aside definitely for the summer.
That we earmarked about three and a half million dollars in our capital plan
from the start of this project for for the entire project.
So there is $1,000,000
that is earmarked in our capital project plan for for this work.
But once again, as we talked about before, that earmark is
with some of the greater need or some of the other unknowns.
Once again, the the reasoning to go slowly
is if that money was needed for something else,
that that we needed to get back to school for.
We have it and have the ability to spend it and react.
And so once again, we're hopeful.
We don't need those dollars, but we are being very cautious
because of the unknowns.
This is Terry.
Say again, Is this going to be as I recall, we have to
spend money out of our our capital budget?
Was it within two years after it arrives there?
I'm not sure I remember that correctly, Mike,
but is this going to present any challenges in that arena?
It's three years
and it may it may.
Terry, as we get to that point, one of the solutions for us
in that timing is to spend those dollars on our debt service,
which then frees
up money from from the general fund and kind of makes this a little easier.
So I am keeping an eye on that clock to make sure that we are not
we're not doing anything outside of that.
If this would go longer than a year,
we would definitely be pushing that and start to have to talk about
what we needed to do with those dollars.
But once again,
because we have debt service payments and that money can be used for debt service,
we have a little bit of an easy out, if you will, in terms
of pulling money back out of the Capital Capital fund.
And that's a state
requirement, right?
So they might given cover, they might provide some leeway, right?
Possibly. That is. Correct.
Yeah. Okay. Thank you.
This is Dave Kaufman.
Could I ask a question that.
Has nothing to do with maybe this project, but the bigger picture of when you do
get into a large scale capital program, let's say 20 million or so,
the opportunity for financing as it exists today is quite favorable.
So what
how would the school board approach that with regard
to trying to secure the funding needed?
While the rates are very attractive?
So Dave, I'll just I'll just note that from a
once again, a legal perspective, we can't necessarily issue bonds for a project.
We haven't approved yet.
So while we obviously would want to borrow
the money at the lowest possible,
the lowest possible option, there is a repayment of that.
And, you know, we actually just the Finance Committee
on the board approved the refinancing of the district's
portion of the district's debt to free up about $1,000,000 a year.
So we were just we were just in the market and saw those very favorable low rates
on kind of the same conversation happen, you know, wish we could
borrow more money right now, but that has to be tempered
with we have to have the ability to pay that money back and that's really
where we're you know, we're we're proceeding cautiously.
So we'll obviously try to take advantage of the market the best we can.
But just low rates are not
don't give us the ability to necessarily get into the market.
Okay. Thank you.
Anything else from anybody?
Any other questions? Comments?
This is Terry Singer.
I, I still.
Yeah.
My off mood.
Yes. Oh, okay.
I think at the beginning of this conversation,
it was noted that the 1 million and change
bid was during a challenging economic
challenging business environment for companies.
So we couldn't expect anything probably near that.
And I know it's
it's all hypothetical at this point, but what
what are we thinking the gold price would be in a couple of years.
It's going to be 131415.
I'm just curious if we thought on that.
I'll answer a little bit, but hopefully Craig can also
there are there were multiyear
knowing that this the entire project if we look at it from a second
you know the inclusion of the secondary in the elementary level
from a district wide perspective,
we knew we were going to do this project over a couple of years.
So there has been there was an escalator of
so 4% per year
to a total of
I'm not going to easily get that total here.
But there were escalators, Terry, of 4% per year.
Put in to the numbers that you're seeing right now
and included in that was a 10% contingency.
So once again, I'll turn it over to Craig, because he was
the one that developed the budget from that standpoint.
But I don't know, Craig, how you would feel about that
or how we would expect these numbers to stay where they are or move.
You know, for example, if we just follow the timeline you went over.
Yeah, I mean, I don't have enough collective data to say
if it would increase at this point just from the fact
that things are right now hard to get.
So, you know, things are kind of at a premium premium at this point.
But knowing that we
were carrying at least a four for each year,
we may be okay, might be a little on the light side.
I know right now rate lumber is
is is high market right now
and I know we were having issues I think even with some of the cameras
with with timing but that was more of a timing issue
so I'm not really sure
if you know is the is the 4% per year
good?
It may be it might be a little light.
We'll know a little bit more, you know, over the next six months
as to kind of things start to drop back down to where they should be.
But we'll have to wait and see.
Yeah, thank you for that. I was
I thought
I heard I wasn't talking so much about cost of materials.
I thought I heard that maybe some of the bids
might have been a little better priced
because businesses were more hungry for business.
I was talking about that side of things.
Why? I can say that I have.
I have probably I have a project that's out to bid right now
and it's actually hard to get bidders at right now
only because I think a lot of the construction crews are
have backed off a lot of their employees because of COVID.
And, you know, it's it's hard to bring some of those folks back
just with the uncertainty of things.
So right now, I don't think it's not a great market to bid right now
from what I'm seeing with some of the other projects that we're doing
that are actually getting ready, I had
to rate around the holidays that we had put out
and there were quite a few that actually declined.
They didn't go into detail as to the reasons, but some could be that
they're they're backed up with with work load, but
they don't have the staff to actually do more, if you know what I mean.
They have the work to do right now and that's about all that they can do.
And Craig, to that point, I was going to say something
on our new business, but we're we had contractor meetings last week
for the chiller install at the elementary, but we had very good response
and apparently
contractors are very busy, at least the ones that were there, that meeting
with a number of different projects and different sized projects.
But we got eight very good bidders.
So I'm hopeful that that's going to help us with pricing of this project.
Yeah, good. Okay. Well, thank you, Greg.
Thank you, Greg
and Mark.
Anybody else?
Okay.
Not seeing anything.
Is there anything under new business, Joe
or Mike, that we have to discuss
now? Not that I'm.
Not that I. Had an.
Okay.
Is there any money for public comment?
I'm not hosting this, so I don't know where that is.
There's nobody other than the panelists in attendance.
Maria Okay, thank you.
Is anybody else have anything to add?
Yeah, this is Terry Signorile.
And if I'm
going into an area discussion, I shouldn't just somebody stop me.
But I thought we had discussed
whether we would
talk at some point in general services about the Granada
building and
possible future leasing, that type of thing.
I don't know, Maria, whether that was going to fit in here under new business.
At some point I just don't remember.
Not here. Terry. No. Okay, thank you.
I can let you know, but yeah, not here, not tonight.
Okay. Thank you.
Okay.
I'd like to adjourn the meeting.
Can I have a motion to adjourn?
So I move Donna Cronin.
Second to
Terry Singer Second.
Okay.
Thank you.
General Services meeting is adjourned.
It's 548. Thank you, everybody, for coming.
You have a good night. Thank you.