Lend any of my experience and knowledge to the board in any capacity that I can.
Can we ask what you graduated?
So I graduated from Hershey in 2005.
Okay, So there's another John Miller.
There's there's quite a few I've learned. Yeah.
So popular is the popular name.
And Kelly, you've been on the board right?
So do you want to just.
I haven't been here a while.
Haven't been able to meet the,
like,
thrown out there.
I am a pediatrician locally.
I'm also a medical director at the Office of Medical Assistance.
I've been in it in Hershey for a dozen years now.
And I have three girls.
Two of them are in the school district, fifth grade, third grade.
And then we have a preschooler who's just not in school yet.
You know,
Madam Chairwoman, I you know, occasionally things happen
to make you feel much older and to realize that I graduated 30 years before John.
Is one of those moments. So welcome.
Thank you.
I didn't want to say I was so nice
to have young people on board who are willing to get involved.
Like we do need a diverse demographic and it is hard to engage
younger constituents.
So we really appreciate everybody.
And I'm glad that you're getting involved because we need to hear
things from your perspective as well.
And we also like to welcome older people to know
that.
I was working on attaching the minutes
so we can we just skip over that and go to
an elementary facility, updates.
Sure. Thank you, Maria.
Is our business manager for High.
Just for everybody is a little background.
Earlier this year
we approved we use a architect firm by the name of warehouse
as our district architect of record
and earlier this year we approved about,
I think it was about $400,000
a facility study for the elementary and not only facility study,
but but planning for renovations.
The elementary school is is our oldest
educational building outside of the building that we're in.
And over the years has been renovated by what we call piecemeal approach,
addressing problems as they exist when they exist.
However, when you do that and replicate that too many times in a building,
you get a building with a bunch of pieces instead of a cohesive unit,
which is what we're used to from a school district perspective.
So the board approved
for warehouse to start the planning process, looking into what
it would require for a complete school renovation for the elementary building.
And so we had our initial meeting with what we call the core group,
which includes myself,
Mr. Macfarlane,
Dr. Winslow, who is our assistant superintendent
for curriculum and instruction and then the building principals
that are responsible for the elementary buildings
and started to talk about how we're going to take this process
from the point we're at now
to eventually what warehouse is required to do is develop
specifications for those renovations that then we can put out to bid
and have contractors go through.
The planning process that we've just started
is about an eight month, eight month process.
So we're hoping
towards the end of the school year that we'll be able to provide
the deliverables of where we think we're going to be going and some
some visuals from warehouse of what that might look like,
as well as how much it might cost.
They have broken subsequent meetings down
to make sure that we're meeting with all departments
and kind of everyone involved in the elementary education process.
So they have 11 meetings that will be going through
in addition to the one that we we just had
to draw into that detail of what
what we want our new school to look like and some of that.
We're we're starting from very big picture and that process will work its way
down, hopefully to something we can deliver
in in April or May
I should note that because this is an entire renovation,
they did note that this could be anywhere
from 35 to $40 million in terms of the entire renovation.
Fortunately, we are
in a very strong financial school district,
one that has planned its future so well that
in the next six years we will be completely debt free.
So the ability to add 30 or $40 million a year or two in the future
does not concern me at all from a financial
standpoint in terms of how we going to be able to afford
this new money or this money
to to put in place at the elementary level what we what
we need?
Any questions?
Some question in your mind,
how do you determine your projected enrollment?
Historically, we've just
we are
we are basically consistent with our enrollment.
We have not changed enrollment going back at least 20 years.
We have, though, looked at and are aware of
housing developments,
specifically Hershey, West,
that will be
it's on par for for for new buildings and new homes.
Fortunately, our township requires them as part of that process
to go through an enrollment study, essentially.
So that process noted that there were
we should anticipate about 190 additional students
through that building requirement
or through that new housing development.
190 students additional to what we have now
would not take us above our highest capacity seen in prior years.
So theoretically, we are already set up to
benefit or be able to house those students.
One of the things we're looking at at this resident renovation
project is to to expand that a little bit more.
The state of Pennsylvania provides enrollment studies and projections
going forward.
And so we're looking at kind of culling all that information together to see where
and if it tells us we need to expand a little bit more
than we are right now absent.
The one thing nice about being in the utility business is all of those
developments have to come in to get water services.
So absent the Hershey West
development, would you see the projected enrollment
declining, holding steady or continuing to increase?
I can. Only go. Ahead.
I can. We
we saw a decline over the last four or five years.
We are starting to see an uptick again.
Our highest enrollment was a little over 3600.
We're currently in the low 3500s.
We were down in the low 3400s.
So we sort of fluctuated in that realm.
But we are seeing an uptick now, not a decline.
Thank you
to the question.
So, Mike, just
just this is kind of reminding to
just to remind myself, because I forget to some extent
this contract you said is for how much
was warehouse.
But just around 400,000
that we approved for the
the study that they're doing.
And then you know, that the initial planning and phases of that.
And that's also to include
sort of speaking out everything that we have and where it is.
And that was a.
Separate contract that we we paid them
about $150,000 to do that portion.
This is more sitting in with the meetings
that we were helping us plan at the end of this.
They'll have a very rough estimate of what bids will be.
We will have to approve another contract,
though, for the actual bid specs and final deliverables.
What we've approved kind of gets them through the planning
and provides it back to the school board.
And one of the reasons we did
this is the administration feels we need to move this forward.
The school boards, not the school
board, has to come to that same decision that the administration has.
If for whatever reason we go through this, we've done it in a way that we haven't
contracted warehouse for anything additional than we we may not need.
So if we get to the end of this and the board says,
I think, well, we have is fine and we don't need a renovation,
we haven't wasted any dollars to get there
because we haven't taken the next step
for the renovation.
Giving that kind of pause for the decision making,
recognizing the board's going to have a lot of information to go through.
I think we'll all be on the same page but want to be respectful to the process. And
I guess they can't tell.
But we think it's going to wind up in the same footprint or we.
Just don't know.
That's what we're trying to figure out right now.
Yeah, kind of everything is.
We're starting from that wish list place
and I mean, that'll come down into realization.
But I like the way they're
taking us through this to make sure we don't miss anything.
Sometimes we pigeonhole ourselves and we say, It'll go this way
and we miss things along the way.
Okay, Thank you.
If we do all goes well and we approve it, when is the projected?
When would we be doing this?
I know you said at the beginning I was.
Like, Josepha.
Probably.
Look, if all goes as planned, probably the 2122 school year, the start.
Wow. To start the construction start finished.
Now, would there be any displacement of.
Yes, I would.
How would we?
Most likely, depending on what they come back with.
But yes, I mean,
there's certainly not something new over the summer and they're going to stage it.
And yes.
I mean,
part of this process is finding out and working those answers.
We don't we don't have what they are yet.
And that'll really depend on what they come back with
and what what finally gets approved.
How many years has Warehouse been your architect record?
This is just year two.
What has been your
evaluation of their performance today?
They're extremely strong in the planning process,
much more so than any other architect that I've worked with.
We've worked with.
We are currently in the process of one roofing project
with them now, and so we'll kind of evaluate
how they are in the construction phase as we go through here.
But they really understand
that they're working with tax dollars and there has to be a lot of
upfront planning before you put any shovels in the dirt
to make sure that everybody is on the same page and we're being
as efficient as possible where they located
your work.
I believe your county.
Dave We went through
a long process of finding an architect and fully vetted them.
And so we fortunately, when you just jump on the board
like this, like that, that was a long time.
I mean, they did a really great job.
They had. Yeah, So we've been happy with them.
But yeah, it was a it was a long decision.
It was a little bit painful. But
we're here now.
Well, the recently asked, have they managed
a large construction project for you?
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Okay.
Yeah, yeah.
We worked on it for months of.
Yeah, we actually.
And also
made the wrong decision and but we made up for that.
We didn't start off with Warehouse.
We actually finalized on another
outfit Crabtree Road Ball.
We did go through and kind of weird
their whole, What they specialize in is with schools.
We went through two projects with them
and it was not a good working relationship whatsoever.
So we're thankful that we brought that back to the board
and they were willing to.
It was so close with with them and the other firm.
But thankfully the board decided to give the other one a chance.
And it's been a good working relationship.
The next item
is the 20 2021 capital plan.
Mike, is that you again.
Isn't I apologize to the committee that
this was not this information was not put up
before about 5 minutes ago.
So many of you will be
seeing this for the first time.
Just provide background
for for the new people.
We have our general operating budget
and then we also have a capital projects budget.
The district made a commitment in 2015
to always take $1,000,000 out of the general operating budget
and put it into the capital budget to fund that for capital projects.
When I initially joined the district, we developed a five year
capital plan to and that was the board's requirements.
If they were going to set money aside,
they wanted to know what that money was being used for.
And so we pulled together a five year capital plan
with approximately $1,000,000 budget each year
of projects to be addressed.
We found out within a year or two of that capital plan
that maybe five years going out, five years for a school district
may not be the best idea because as we were getting into years four
and five, we were seeing budget numbers that weren't really good or even projects
that by the time we got to a year, four or five decided, well, we don't,
we don't do that anymore.
So we don't even need to do that.
So we look at a rolling three year cycle for that moving forward.
And so one of the items that we reviewed
at our last meeting,
I went to each of the departments and requested
a couple of that period, a second requested
any of their wants and needs for their capital planning.
We do this
for two reasons
so that we can have a long range capital plan
and we can have the departments knowing what they'll be getting.
This helps them plan in that every year is
not just come ask for something and it's a yes or a no.
This is more of a plan that they can determine
what their needs are over a certain period of time.
And then we can meet those needs over a certain period of time,
ask those departments to provide me their
their wants and needs for the 2021 school year.
And the the list that we went over during our last General Services
Committee meeting at about $1.5 million in projects identified.
Obviously, if we're only having $1,000,000,
we needed to get that back down and that's what I wanted to bring forward
here.
I don't use a mac normally,
so I'm I'm a fish out of water when it comes to trying to
figure out how to.
But how do you make it bigger down here?
Thank you.
Thank you
so it's one
you know, one.
Sorry for that
update on the screen.
So the $1.5 million in change was the initial list
that came from each department and every school building.
The the high school, middle school
and elementary school aren't necessarily represented here, but any of their needs,
they go through the buildings and ground staff.
So in our five year capital plan, the high schools and the middle schools
and the elementary schools aren't listed per se.
That's because those projects go through buildings and grounds
are essentially asking answering
questions is something we can we can do or we can handle
because we're not going to budget for it if we can't.
So that's why they they show up in here.
I went back to
each of those departments and asked them if there was anything
that nothing that they have recommended is anything they can do without.
However, the things I've noted in yellow are things that don't need
to be done in 2021 from a capital plan
standpoint.
So just going through
from our maintenance department, the John Deere vehicle replacement,
the current John Deere that is in place, they don't foresee an issue
if that was required to be in operation another year.
The HVAC system at the elementary,
that was more of a request as we just talked about.
We're looking at doing a renovation project to the elementary.
So we're not really gung ho on addressing some of the things
that might need to be addressed there
because they'll be addressed in a more in a renovation project.
Not to say that we're not going to fix or do anything.
We definitely will make sure it's operational,
but we don't want to make large investments
unless we can guarantee that that investment
will also stay in the renovated building.
And this is something that the cooling tower
is not something that we can we could guarantee from that standpoint,
going down to the
food service area,
there is a double fryer and a dishwasher in both of those instances, Mr.
Hummel noted that those would be purchases that could go to the 2122 year.
Skipping
down to the phones, computer hardware
from the elementary school
or from the tech department,
the phones are an item that they've noted can wait one more year.
And the technology at the elementary
is another thing that really needs to
see how that elementary renovation
process goes and what some of the new needs and wants.
Technology is aware of some of the new needs,
but we have constraints that they can't put them in place.
If we're looking at a renovation, there might be opportunities
to put some of those things in place going in the future.
So they want to hold off on a couple of those projects until that becomes clear.
And finally is an item
that we've had
on our radar for for a quite a long time.
We have aa3 22 field,
which is one of our turf fields, has a facility house
that is in sort of upgrades and updating.
However, when we look at administrative layout that
and look at all the other things that were on the list,
this took a back seat to all the other needs that were
were noted by other departments.
So administratively we were making the request or noting that
we would not see that upgrade to that 322 building
as being a greater need than any of the other things listed there.
Not that it's not a great need, but
just putting things in a hierarchy order.
So all of those highlighted items
come out to just over $500,000.
So it puts us right in that million dollar
spot for
where we were trying to get back to
for for recommended projects.
So, Maria, this would be something now that
administratively we're comfortable where we're at.
And so what's the you know,
I guess the discussion here at the at the committee level,
what are the things here? The committee wants to see
more information on the things the things we don't.
Okay.
I just that's where the next part of the process would be, is
to kind of reactor or
the eventual goal is for this committee
to approve whatever
the project list is for 2021, 22, or 20 2021
as the ultimate goal to recommend this on to the full board.
Mike, can you just remind me the replace the secondary Mac box,
the last item there, number 27.
How old are the secondary Mac books now?
They will
be they're currently three years old,
so this would be four years old by the time they would be replaced.
And these are teacher
teach all teacher devices.
This is not for the students, this is strictly for the staff
and they're on a four year.
That's when they're on their cycle every four years to be to be replaced.
So this is 20, not the year we're in 28.
This is for next 2021.
I can't see that far to see which ones
are shaded in yellow.
The 322
Yes, that's shaded yellow.
Okay.
I mean my recollection of that is, is
there are some kind of safety related items.
I thought like
like, like
where you have
cooking and water going on.
I think there's need to have like three sinks or something.
There's definitely some need there.
That portion of the building that you're talking about
is only used by the booster clubs, so it's not used for any district use.
There is a need to get hot water in there so that that facility can be used.
The bathrooms can be used more year round,
not discussed.
You get all that, that there's a need there.
It's just,
you know, that's that's what we have to do in
these jobs is is determine what's of greater need.
And so I know we have $1,000,000 to spend and we had more than $1,000,000
in requests.
This is what we're coming back in.
One to to it.
What happens to the 322? We've been talking about this.
For all of those.
Items that have been highlighted would go on to the next year.
But this is this is we're in discussion phase, you know.
Because I could just see that just consistently
being an argument as to whether it's a priority or not.
So this is where, you know, I just that's sure.
And I'm just saying this as my own frustration.
It's just disappointing to see that we're just still here with that building. But
well, this is
this so this is the administration's recommendation
or prioritization reflects the prioritization at this point.
Correct. Which is open for discussion input.
Sure. Right.
And isn't that to I know we we really
the numbers haven't been firm because of the way that the project is.
But the two first is that it's really a high number based on.
No, no, I think it's 250.
I think it's probably going to be higher than 250 now.
But 250 is what has been on this as used on this list.
And I wasn't going to.
Just a reminder in for our new citizen advisors.
I think we had two or three different times.
We looked at that and got different bids and
estimates and they all came in right around that.
What would be the price per square foot?
A lot.
I'd have to look.
It's it's higher than a larger project,
but I don't know what that is off the top of my head.
It definitely is higher.
We're talking about a, you know, 800 square foot building that needs.
But through the school, we can't there isn't there's not wiggle room.
It has to go through a bid process. There's prevailing wage.
There's all kinds of things that are affecting
what we have to pay
when we get into any construction project whatsoever.
It really wasn't built to begin with to to meet our needs.
And so it's a shame because it's a good, solid building,
but we really need to go back in,
like, for example, the athletic director
has to take kids into the school to use the bathroom in early spring.
Like, not that that's the biggest deal,
but there's a bigger issue of this shed that somebody built,
very generous for the booster clubs and it's a safety hazard.
So we were trying to rectify the whole building to run hot water in it,
just be more functional in general and then add a space
when you go to the soccer field to buy things for the booster club.
That part of the building, we were going to put it all under one roof
and that's where
that's how this whole discussion started.
I have no idea what the building looks like,
but just let me ask the question.
It was built by the Booster Club.
Their original building was not.
But then there was a like a shed that's been built by the booster club.
The coach actually.
The brick building.
The stone building has male
and female bathrooms and it has a storage, small storage area in the center.
Sitting beside that is basically would be like a utility shed
that has been retrofitted with some electric
so that booster clubs can have different types of parts and things in there.
There's a refrigerator in there, but that's in what
you and I would call a shed like we'd have in our backyard.
So we were looking to
like, if you go to the other field, there's a big concession stand where
the football field is with the track, which what do you call that field, the.
Multipurpose prepared field.
So that one has this big, beautiful building
where the booster clubs can operate out of and have running water.
And it's it's nice.
And then you kind of have this shed up at the turf field that we were trying to
make a safer for people to use.
We've been discussing this for years.
We've taken tours.
We've tried to think outside the box.
I mean, we just kind of keep dancing around it.
We keep coming up to this number.
So it's not been
an easy process.
I'm just I'm just mindful of the, you know, prevailing wage.
And, you know, that adds cost to it.
And I was just trying to think out of box
as far as whether there is another way that it could be potentially.
We've tried that we. Construct or constructed.
And we've. Done all.
Yeah.
So I just I guess the question
if we wanted to
let's say talk about this when we have our vendor fair
as an example of something that we might want to procure,
can we solicit bids
without going through warehousing
or warehouse?
I wouldn't solicit bids
without specifications.
But don't we have the specifications for them?
Not on this.
For this project.
We have not we have not engaged.
We used the different architect for this
because they thought it would be cheaper.
We have not engaged him
in the final bid document
portion of that.
So that has not been
has not been
that contract hasn't been approved.
We have not obtained the final bid documents from that gentleman.
Is a district precluded from doing a design build.
Are you familiar with what a design build is?
You know,
it's a procurement method where you did it,
a conventional one would be an architect designs it.
You go out for competitive bidding, you awarded a contract architect, a record
design build would be where you'd go with entities
that will actually be a one stop shop for both design and construction.
So yes, we are similar.
What Terry is asking about.
We obtained the price from from that we
we were able to obtain those going through pre bid contracts.
In our case,
the central Susquehanna IU has gone through a bid contract
where we can piggyback and we went to them.
A low bar is the contractor
that has that we got back to sure we can do it.
An estimate of it would be about $250,000.
Do you think it would be appropriate?
They would still they still have to go through the prevailing wage.
There isn't.
Other than you noted, if somebody else wants to pay for this and donate it to us,
there isn't a way for us to work around this.
Would it
just thinking out loud
if we put it into the elementary facility, not into that plan.
But while they're here bidding on that, could they do that at a lesser cost
because they're already here doing a major job?
It wouldn't.
It's a way it would end up being
a $250,000 item in a $30 Million project.
So it would, you know, be in there from that standpoint.
But because it has nothing to do with the project they're doing, there
really isn't
that I shouldn't I should take that back.
There could be economies of scale of them already being staged.
And some of the things here, it is just so minor.
And we knew that that's what we're getting back to, is there is
there is a
cost to, you know, we don't have the proper
service run for electricity.
So that would have to be upgraded and run
some of those things are just the bulk of
the cost is in doing the things we want to get done.
And as Mr.
McFarlane noted, I'm very confident we've looked at this a number
of different ways that we we've seen this as many times as we can.
We might not like what the answer is, but I'm pretty confident we have the answer.
Is there a way that we can save for it?
Like do we put 50, $75,000 aside?
So it's not just this enormous chunk of change,
You know, like then we have like a four and five year plan with it.
Or we have those dollars Now if, if well,
so if the board says this is
a priority and we're doing it, but that's where we haven't gotten to.
Marie.
I think as everybody gets to that point, it says
it's a hard decision.
It is very, very difficult
because you have the needs on one side which are real and they're there
and then you have the cost on the other side.
That is is real and it's there.
And I think that's what
why we find ourselves not having made a decision, but also not
scrapping it and moving forward is because it's a tough one.
Hit it.
It's kind of right in that area that what do you do?
So it's hard because when you look at certain things like,
okay, a passenger bus like nobody's ever going to say no,
but this concession stand just seems to be a hot topic even now.
It is a necessary job.
So right like now.
And you know, that's. An option.
We're coming forward with what we've historically done with $1,000,000.
If the board wants to approve that at next year
or in 2020, 20, 2021, that it's
1.5 or one, you know, then that's up to us to to figure out
how we how we take the resources we have and deal with that.
We're bringing forward what the administration is recommending
and having the discussion, what the board wishes to do with that.
And Mike,
could you just remind me I'm sorry,
I, I thought we had gotten
some bids specs on this or.
I think where we had left it was that the board was okay with incurring that.
And I have to be honest with you, Terry, I don't
I know we haven't approved the contract, but where it is,
other than that, I would have to go back and.
What do you mean we won't?
We have not approved contracts either, but I know it
hasn't accomplished why that hasn't happened.
I'd have to go back to see if there's something we missed.
Or do we make. And we did.
We did approve an additional 13,700 to obtain billable documents
after approving $8,400
to get schematics for this for this item.
So those those dollars were approved.
In fact, they were approved
almost a year ago.
But don't please don't hold me to that one.
But it's it's been several months.
So you're saying you didn't take that second step, that 13,000?
Well, that would have to be approved by the school board
just because of this committee approves it.
But that being noted, that has not been been done at this point.
Prove it at the school board level.
I could be wrong, but I thought we did approve.
That's what I was asking. I wasn't. She approved.
I remember we approved one level to try and get an accurate pricing.
Like you mentioned, Mike, we did a couple different routes
to see what the price would come out
and that, of course, costed money along the way to do that.
And I remember I saw some people approving of that process.
So that's I remember the
deliberation about that $13,000, I think it was at the school board level.
Now know I'll look it up.
Yeah.
If you could because if, if,
if it was.
I don't know that that's going to change this discussion.
The billable documents are not going to give me a price, but
they're going to be documents here.
You can take it to bid.
And if we want to take it out to bid,
that has to be with the understanding or we're not doing that to gather a price.
We're doing it because we believe that we want to go forward with the project so
we can definitely go forward.
And if I drop the ball, we're going to make sure we pick that up.
I just don't know that we'll have any effect on the decision.
This group trying to.
And we'll definitely look for that to see if it was.
But I do remember the discussion and I thought some of the discussion was around
since we weren't sure when this was going to happen.
Was it worth going that to that level at this point until we determined,
yes, we're ready to pull the trigger?
So think we can look to see if it was approved?
I do remember the discussion,
but I also remember a lot of back and forth about timing and was it worth
spending the funds if we weren't ready yet.
So if we got billable documents
with that 13,000, that's what we say that could get us right
then if we
wanted to solicit bids off of that.
Do we have to go through warehouse?
Okay.
Could we, could we just
put a little advertisement in the paper, follow
Department of Education
bidding specs and solicit bids from local contractors?
I thought we did something like that.
And that's how you still got that?
It was going to come out
to be this much money because we were there was a big discussion.
About we went through the co-op purchasing that work.
Well, we had billable documents.
We like I said, Terry, we've gone through this.
The expectation is we're going to go out to bid and it's going to be drastically
different than the 250,000.
That's an incorrect way of thinking.
We need to make the decision of how we're going to pay for this.
And then if it comes in, less than 250,000 will great.
But until we've made the decision,
I don't want to I don't want to put forward
any other resources to find out what the prices were.
I'm pretty sure we know what the prices.
So what I'm hearing is that we need a temperature gauge from the board
as to what their when we discuss all of this with them.
Will you be discussing this, the draft capital plan?
When will this come to the full board?
So that's what we look for this committee to make a recommendation of what
we're going to present to the full board.
And so, yeah, that's
how we've handled in the past as this committee determines.
And then when we're in the past, what we provided to the board
is really just their approval of what the committee's done.
We can continue to have that where we're saying,
you know, the committee's comfortable with everything except.
This was going to say to move this forward.
I'm not hearing that outside of the 322 turf
field house, that there's anything else highlighted
that there's concern over pushing to the next year.
I guess that makes sense.
Like we could we could say, yes, that what I'm hearing is
the committee is okay with all the other
yellow deferred items.
The one that we're still trying to discuss
is the 322 field building.
I can't be an accurate statement from the board members
delaying the replacement
of the 322 turf field itself.
Right.
That's already on the calendar, correct?
Correct. Okay. Yeah.
All right. Yeah, that's that's okay.
This is a silly question, but what happens to these items?
Like are any these still usable?
Can they be sold when they're replaced or what does the school district
do with them?
Do they have any value?
So the
so the the utility, the one thing on that see on their utility vehicle,
we do see what a treat in value of that would be our school busses.
So we're replacing 477 passenger busses as part of this.
The four busses that will be coming off.
We use an online auction site
to get the highest price possible for those.
And does that money go back into the capital fund or.
No, it just goes back into the general fund.
Yeah.
And at the end of the year, any
so this fiscal year we expect to
we've gotten all our revenue in all of our expenses.
We expect to have about $300,000 left over.
That money will automatically be transferred into the capital
project fund as well.
So it's kind of any leftover money.
What we've had years prior is that transfers
that have been anywhere from 3 to $4 million
as we're getting our budgets more in line with what they actually are.
You know, we're looking at those transfers being smaller and smaller.
Could I ask a quick question on your busses?
I noticed propane or do you have a propane fleet
or is this the entry into the propane market?
We're about halfway a little.
This will put us
we replace anywhere from 3 to 4 busses a year,
and we've replaced about half of our fleet is propane now.
And so we're kind of on the downward side of that
that I think within the next five years it would be
all of them being propane.
We'd be looking at alternate fuels because I know that the company I worked
with, we, we converted others to natural gas and hydrogen is going to be out there.
We so so our our transportation director looked at those alternatives
before making the decision to go to propane
and determined that mechanically and all those other things,
propane was the most constant thing that we could depend on.
Some of the others in terms of what they burn is only relevant
when the cost of those natural gas is low.
But there's no
that tends to fluctuate
during the year, whereas propane is a little more constant.
One last thing There are grant programs available through the state.
That we receive grant funding.
So do we
need to make a decision tonight to take this?
Because what timing?
We need that to go to the full board.
Ah, no, no, no, I don't I don't think
I don't think this decision needs to be made tonight.
Okay.
To recommend on to them whether the next committee meeting is
set in January.
I believe so, yes.
And I think we would look to to make that final.
But would it help moving forward if there was consensus, an agreement
to remove the items that are highlighted except for the three to fill field
building for the next meeting to bring it back with a revised number
would that be helpful in moving this process forward?
I mean, yes.
Yes and no.
But if we're still going to have to cut something and then it's
I still think it's kind of helpful to see what was on there and what you
are considering.
Committee.
I don't know what you know, what what is a better way for you to view
to say we've already made these decisions and these are off the list.
Maybe that is better.
Mr. McFarland from for the whole school board to see some of the decisions
that this group would make.
So I can update
I can update there and even include it maybe at the bottom of the list
so that it's still these were removed. Yeah.
Why don't you do that?
That would at least have it somewhere. On this show.
So we're not rehashing this again in general that what we see.
Now and come back the next time.
As you know, it'll be 1.2 to 5 and and with the goal of of of reducing
that or coming up with a plan of how we're going to move forward as well.
Yeah, but I think it's still like you said,
it would be helpful to have it somewhere on there.
Definitely do them.
And make it, but I haven't heard the board member say Yay or nay to that.
Definitely though.
So we do need action or at least a verbal on that.
On what? On
removing all the items that are highlighted
except for the 320 field building and notating them at the bottom.
Yeah, I know
it seems fine.
I think everyone's fine with that and.
I think it would be helpful maybe to if you guys had time before
the January meeting to even just go look to see what we're talking about.
As far as what's at 322,
it's hard to describe it unless you see it even at least the outside of it.
The boys soccer game over there tonight. You go watch it.
I mean, just to go up and look at it, because you might look at it and say,
oh, well, what about this idea or whatever?
I mean, you're bringing a new, fresh perspective to it.
So I think that would
definitely be helpful if you had the time just to go up and see
it's right next to the bathroom so you can't miss it when you go in.
It's what they sell the food out of currently.
Sure, sure.
I'm familiar with where with what you're talking about.
I keep going back to
so there was a shed or something that was added on,
but that was through there was funded through donations or it was donated.
It's not even added on.
It sits right beside is there any what's the opportunity
for donations or funding of the labor side of things for you?
I'm not sure how the prevailing that's for the Labor side of things,
but what
what would that number look like if the school district funded the materials
and then the labor was funded through donations or or funded some other
way? I'm
not sure what that number would look like then.
We've had discussions about this at the other general services meeting,
and I kind of pushed back a little bit because
of the boosters always was brought up like maybe the Boosters Club.
And I just was saying, well, they're selling walking tacos
for like $2.50, and that money goes to help kids who can't afford.
So we've had those discussions.
I mean, they're all great ideas.
We just keep coming back.
Sure.
We just keep hitting the wall with this number
and. I would be open.
We took the last General Services Committee.
We took them we actually through the old Granada building, the middle section,
and then also we did a tour of this concession stand.
I don't know if Mike and Joe
would be open to doing a survey to see if everybody would be available.
Just to go quick look at it.
So I think you need to see it and see it,
like to really think this this something needs to be done here.
And also to understand, as Mike said, there's
certain things that maybe don't meet the eye with the like,
you know, certain services need be run out there just understanding the whole
the whole nature of the job. I guess
Can you do that?
All right.
Yeah.
I really think at this point to where we're past the stage of
is it needed?
Not needed where I think the question is when and how is it going to get paid for.
I think that's really where we're at at this point.
So I'm concerned a little bit about going backwards and sort of
redoing the same thing we did for the last three years.
We're beyond that at this point.
It's more, okay, we've decided that this needs to be done. Now.
The question is how to pay for it and when does it happen?
Right.
I was just looking for a new perspective, the ideas
they might have of how we could do it cheaper.
Oh, I don't know. Just. Yeah, because they're in that field.
They've seen they, they might think of something we haven't.
Yeah.
I mean so it's not to go back, it's to move it forward.
But just as a fresh perspective of what you see in it that we might be missing
like of how we don't.
Know to what our company engineers routes.
Because we're out of ideas.
Like you said, Mike, we've tried to see to see if there is a cheaper way to do it.
I think Joe's point is this is where we're at.
We keep coming back to it.
So is there precedent within the district for actively soliciting,
naming opportunities or donations?
Because when I have visited going to other fields, especially lower
dolphin, you see on there the whole thing, the Falcon Foundation.
I'm not suggesting that we put this on the shoulders
of the Trojan Foundation, but then you see the fields are named for somebody.
So naming opportunities, what was the precedent within the district
for actively soliciting, naming opportunity donations?
So we did a study.
I'm going to say, two or three years ago about naming rights and everything.
And township ordinances
have very tight regulations on signage.
Nothing can be readable from a major roadway.
So because we're bordered by three major roadways, we can't.
322 Koko and and
Homestead, nothing is able to be readable
from those roadways.
You can't have signage.
We could do naming rights.
We looked at that on internal structures.
But then the company that we used also looked at how marketable those are.
Obviously people that are wanting naming rights want it to be visible.
So I have that study, if you want to see it.
The back of the building that faces the parking lot, you could put,
I don't know, the Joy of Sports Foundation on there.
But not not not so much the township restrictions.
But but in terms of any project
within the district, not religious or civically to a sports field or something,
but but active solicitation of donations
for naming opportunities in general.
I mean, the other I don't know, maybe we could work
with a prospective donator and donor that it wouldn't be a showstopper here.
So just, just the, the precedent for it.
Yeah.
If you could share that.
I think the the study, the studies.
Sure. Hmm.
Okay. We have.
Can I just ask one minute? Got one quick question.
The student information system, that's not a capital item
and that's going to be part of instructional cost or.
Right? Yeah. Okay. Okay.
And I apologize.
The meetings were not at the meeting.
Minutes were not attached at the beginning.
If Mike if you could pull them up, they're really brief.
Do you have that they pop in for you.
We just need to
approve them.
You may need to refresh Mike.
There.
There were just two things that I wrote.
It's hard to see.
I'm I'm going to read them for John and Kelly since they don't have it.
Oh, there they are.
Okay. Down
there was a little bit of an update on the Transportation Department.
I guess we don't know the financial ramifications of that yet. Know
I'd make a motion
that they be accepted the second.
All those in favor say I I'm so moved
and I would like is there any other discussion questions?
This was a good discussion tonight.
I really appreciate the citizen advisors
taking time out of your busy schedules and away from your family,
but it's very important and we appreciate it very much.
So thank you.
I'd like to adjourn the meeting at 601.
All those in favor say yes.