A meeting to order today is 826 and it's 510.
If we could do a quick roll call, starting with Dr.
Shah.
Kip Shah, board member.
Sorry, Cheating Board member.
Teri Singer Board member.
Jo McFarland Superintendent.
Maria Maumee School Board member.
And Darren Berry, Citizen Advisor.
Mike French Administration.
OC Thank you.
I would like to at this meeting
we need to approve the last two
general services meeting minutes.
So that would be for June 10th, 2019
approval of those minutes and also November 26th of 2018.
They were attached to the agenda.
So if the motion to approve both sets of minutes as submitted.
Thank you.
Seconds.
All those in favor?
Hi. Hi.
Okay.
Thank you very much.
Do we have any unfinished business?
No. Unfinished business and new business.
The two items I understand Mike is going to be going over
the to 20, 20, 2021 capital plan.
Thank you, Miss Berry.
What's attached here is
still in rough draft form.
The submissions that I received
for from all the departments and buildings for their requests
for our capital of capital plan for the 2021
school year, not 2018 2012.
As I said on the form that's there, that's wrong.
Basically a jury in 2015
we adopted a five year capital plan
or the District of the board
1920.
The current school year was the last year of that plan.
That was the first capital plan, our five year capital plan
that this district had done in a formal process like that.
And one of the things we found that was a drawback to
that was the outlying years, years three, four
and five of that five year capital plan really weren't that weren't that great.
We found ourselves making a lot of adjustments, switching things around.
Budget numbers weren't that great just because of how far it was in the future.
So we're looking at this point to to have
a capital plan that is just on the rolling basis.
So we're in the 1920 year now be looking at
the 2021 school year for for the next year's capital plan.
And these would be the capital items that were brought forward.
Now, you'll see as you look through here, there aren't many things that would come
from the Department of the schools they're working through.
So an example for some of the things in buildings and grounds, carpet replacement.
We have a carpet and painting replacement schedule that's been ongoing.
We're just formally adding that to this capital plan.
Those are, of course, things that the building has required requested.
All departments and buildings were given the opportunity
to provide their needs for the 2021 school year.
One of the issues
being is our yearly capital budget is only around $1,000,000.
Not only it is, it's around $1,000,000,000,
which has been very helpful in us to make sure that we're meeting the needs
of our infrastructure.
And it also helps us do it in a way that normally in or is not normally,
but in some of the school districts
you might see all of these in the regular operating budget.
And so you get peaks and valleys in that operating budget
based on how many projects you need to have occur,
because we deal with these in that
this capital plan and with the Capital Reserve Fund,
our general fund doesn't experience those peaks and valleys
that we can look a lot more of what
our operating expenses are while also dealing with our capital needs.
This the total
proposal will have to be reviewed for
because of the budget being $1,000,000.
That being said, there are a couple of things
like the replacement of the for
propane school busses.
We are busses are on a replacement cycle
that every year we replace 3 to 4 busses.
Essentially the useful life of the bus for us is about ten or 11 years
after that because of the salt and some of the other physical wear
and tear that happens, it becomes less dependable for us and we found it
useful to have the current process that we have of replacing them.
Every three are replacing every three,
replacing busses, every couple of years
so that we get to a full replacement over a ten year period.
We are also, during this process, over the last couple of years
have been transitioning our fleet from diesel busses to propane busses.
As we sit today, we're a little almost halfway
in replacement, so about half of our busses are now
propane powered rather than diesel powered.
And this process will continue to move us in that direction.
So I bring that up as one item that will definitely be approved.
We need to stay on that replacement cycle to make sure that our busses are in
the best condition possible for our students.
Some of the other things,
you know, Greg made a presentation on the food service.
There were quite a number of more requests
from Greg this year than in years past.
Not surprising because as always, I see that the equipment cycles
through on a regular basis or on a normal basis.
I should see.
And some of these things Greg has not had
replaced in a while and it's useful.
Life was probably coming towards the end.
I did also put on here as a placeholder, if nothing else,
and it doesn't is the the field upgrade at the three
322 field.
The number on there is still at a budget process
and that's something that we may look to do next year
or may not based on other priorities that are there.
What I would like to know
is after the committee reviews this
and before our next meeting, if there are any
any things on here in which you'd like to see a lot more detail.
What I what I plan on bringing back to our next meeting
is the proposed
capital plan that is pared down to fit in
to within the $1 million budget requirement.
And in that I would have a very small short paragraph,
a little more detail explaining what this process
or what its why
it's needed, a little bit of what goes into it
as well as a recommendation on how I would or we would expect
that we would purchase the item
some of these things because of their small dollar value.
We see it more advantageous to purchase off a state contract
where we don't have to go through the bidding process,
but state contract meets all the bidding requirements.
And another is for large projects.
You know, we may recommend to go out through the bidding process,
but on that document that I would give you
at our next meeting, it would have all of those things put pulled together.
So I'm just looking to the committee members.
If there's anything specific on here you really want to
you're interested in learning more about
my guys.
Just wondering, when was the the last item on the list?
The computers to replace the secondary Mac Xbox One.
Were they replaced last?
I know you might not know off the top of your head.
I mean, I do know because it was in the last capital plan,
so I can give you the exact date but it was within the last
five years.
And is that kind of standard to replace those every five years?
Because I know that's a big ticket item in your. Yep.
And they don't really have a useful life more than that.
Um you know honestly it's computers or anywhere
at three years anymore instead of the five.
I was just looking at it because I know it's hard to cut.
I mean, you're looking at cutting $500,000 from this, so it's hard to,
you know, find what items you can
hold off on to another year.
I found replacing everyone
but the secondaries for this list.
Yeah,
that would have been it was on this list to be done
in the
actually in the 1718 year.
But I'm looking at the master list.
I mean, look, go to the other one to make sure that was actually done.
It's that a purchase or a lease the purchase
those are the staff MacBooks okay.
The students have iPads
and their leases.
So we purchased them in 1617
for $227,290.
So maybe possibly since that's three years.
I don't know if that's an item that can be looked
at that maybe has another year just because trying
to find the big ticket item and that can wait for your
you know when you're looking to cut a half a million. Sure.
What are your
what what are your thoughts on what you want to cut?
I think we have not sat down as an administrative team
to talk through these at this point.
So I hesitate to just give an answer because it just be my opinion
at this point. Um,
you know, the kind of the, the one would be
what we going to do with the 322 field
would honestly be my first question
and then some of the other things we would probably talk to them about
because I really don't,
nothing jumps off on me up here that would I would consider could be put off.
Well,
I think everything in here is warranted that it would need to be done.
Whether it could wait until the 2122 year,
that would be the conversation we would probably have with
with some of the departments about we know if we were looking
for food service, you know,
Greg would have to understand that that's he
he has quite a lot on there and I may go back to him with a dollar value and say,
you know, prioritize what you have, what you have to make it fit within
this amount of money.
Those would be some of the thought processes.
But once again,
there would be other input from the rest
of the administration on that as well.
So is this like the pie in the sky, The ham?
Yes, we'd love to have. Yep.
And then when I come back and. Yeah, yeah.
And wanted you to see everything that we were seeing so you can see
some of those decisions and that, that is the process with the capital plan.
The answer when you were given back to the departments is not.
No, it's not.
Now, is that the message they're given?
So if it's not now, then automatically tell them
to start putting that on their list for the for the next for the next year
to be able to do that even if, if needed.
I think something we need to talk about
and consider is just like the busses, the refresh of the computers.
We've got to look at what the cycle is because if you kick it down the road,
you've got another set, whether it's elementary or whatever, to refresh.
So a lot of discussion we need to have.
And we have also,
you know, a good point in here is, is the actual financing of these may change.
In the past, we had not leased computers.
We'd purchased them outright just because there was this
you know, nobody wants to pay interest.
But more and more often leases have no interest available.
It's just a way to get you outfitted in there.
And we always have the dollars,
but that may be a better way to for us to look at this, that we could deal
with this in our operating budget if it was in a lease perspective.
So that's that's part of the option that we would just,
you know, part of the discussion if we go back.
But as Mr. McFarland noted,
you know,
technology is a major part of what we do every day.
And so we have to make sure that we're keeping up with it. All right.
I mean, I understand that.
I just I know you said,
you know, sometimes five years they can go because a lot of these other
items on here, I don't know how you're going to cut them.
I mean, like, if you need a refrigerator, you need a refrigerator.
You know, there's some items here that I see that, you know, the field.
I agree with you.
Maybe that's something to evaluate.
So it's just looking at big ticket items that possibly could be,
you know, weighed on.
But like your h vac and some of the electricals, I mean,
those are things that have to get done that probably cannot wait.
So, you know, I'm looking at that.
It's it's hard to find items that possibly maybe can be
stretched another year to make up that half a million.
We may also get
things dealing with the elementary building
because we're doing a facility study now that may be in another place.
Due to that, we say, look,
anything or any large ticket item having to do with the elementary,
we don't have the appetite to deal with that right now because we know
in the next couple of years we're going to be dealing with it. So,
you know, affect if they could be put off, those are the types of discussions
will happen to everybody.
Like maybe I missed something in the beginning,
but you're you were saying that the you know, the budgets
are not just straight lines with capital
improvements going to be a, B, you know, a higher year or lower year.
But you are actually looking to cut a half a million out of this, you're saying?
Yes, I think rather than cut, maybe we should just use the term defer,
because that's you know, that's really where these are needs.
These are things that are going to have to get accomplished.
But some of them, you know, if we can look at it in a different way and
we also I hold that out from a budgetary standpoint as well,
Terry, we've been fortunate in that little more than $1,000,000 every year
goes into our capital reserve fund,
but we've been able to use that on, you know, that's how I can know
we'll be able to
take care of the Safe Schools initiative because we have those dollars.
And so we try to keep those budgets within that
so that when those unknowns happen, maybe some of these dollars
could be pulled from there.
But also, having been in school business for quite often, there's something
that's going to come down the pike that we're going
to be really happy that we see money for to be able to deal with.
So it's that balancing act of of really identifying what's best.
I just had one question and maybe you can answer this.
I don't know.
But as anyone brought up the issue of of
possibly putting additional stands and lights
onto our high school football field so it could be used
for football, you know, for football games.
Yes, I've heard that bantered around a little bit.
I wouldn't say it's on the
FROM or our athletic department talk about that quite a bit.
But I also know in those discussions
that that's pretty far down his list of things to be able to.
All right.
I just wondered so it's not never made it on to any list of.
No, no.
And that would be from, you know, athletics having.
Yeah.
Just more things that they'd like to get taken care of instead of that.
Okay. Thank you.
Do you have a
transportation update or was that a part of the.
No, I do have a transportation update.
Excuse me.
Report this item for a second.
So as we've shared with you before,
I think we've shared with this committee,
if not, I'm going to start back at square one.
We did.
That.
Of some of the challenges that we're having with our current
infrastructure for transportation.
And we are currently on the township's property
down on the Swatara Creek
and obviously have some issues with some flooding there.
But also the need we're getting to the point
I mentioned about our our pumping busses
right now.
We have a fairly what we would consider a small propane filling station down there
at Clearwater Road
that is going to need to be expanded
as our fleet goes to full propane.
Our concern is
putting the funds in or
expanding that current where it's at now in a floodplain.
It flooded
not last year or the year after that.
It was last year,
$1,000 every time it floods $12,000 to get all the electricity
and everything hooked back up the way that it needs to be down there.
And so we're bringing we started the conversation of saying
that we need to look at other places for that infrastructure
because we don't feel comfortable putting investing dollars into that area.
So to that,
Mr. Bell, and I've met to start the process
of looking at the physical space, the size he would need
to put a garage or some kind of facility
as well as how much space would be needed to park all of the busses
as well as provide for the fueling station.
So he is working on that
as part of the process.
When we were doing the plan for the business plan for this property,
we engaged our historical society and as part of that
was introduced to a realtor that we were going to ask
once we pull those items together to kind of show us
around or possible properties that are available.
One of them is still on our radar.
Is the the the
the private school that just recently closed.
However, looking at that, it looks like it's a little more than we need,
but we're going to investigate every single option that we can
within the Mr.
Bell and I probably beginning in October, we'll start to look at land
and those types of things, just wanting to obviously let the school year get moving
and have that be our biggest focus for the next couple of weeks
and then start to look at those different aspects.
We would also look to make a change in
currently the bus
mechanics, our township employees and we see some benefit to bringing them
back to being our own employees if that is possible.
Once we identify our own space to kind of bring our Transportation
Department back into that self operating process wherever we might be.
Mike I would just.
Just some information with that land that's for sale from the school
and someone has said it was priced at 11 million.
I've heard those are entertaining offers as low as 4 million.
Thank you.
At this point, I don't foresee that there's any resources
other than our time that would be using for this,
and I don't foresee that changing in the next six months.
We definitely come back to the committee if we find ourselves getting to the point
where something seems more interesting or seems like it could be something
viable enough to to bring to your attention.
Otherwise, we'll just keep going through our research.
Thank you.
And just a point of just clarification or confirmation.
This is a really big deal.
This is a really big deal. Okay.
Is this an item that's going to be included
in the strategic planning sessions that are starting in November?
Or you're talking about the effort?
This is this would be separate because the comprehensive plan is around
academics. Okay.
And we are under
some time pressure because of the of the nature of the contract.
Correct.
I mean, there is a.
Yes. Yeah.
Yes. Yes.
And the the
the significant flooding, it appears, happens on average of every three years.
If you if you take out what was in the presentation.
So I guess I'm just I'm
restating the obvious to whatever we can do to help
let us know because this is a big deal
and and and you know, needs to be
addressed.
Thank you for that.
I appreciate that.
Okay.
This is section for public comment, but there is no one in the public.
So unless anyone else has any questions, anything to add,
we will adjourn the meeting at 530.
Can I have a motion to adjourn?
Just one question
with with that school that we're talking about here,
is there a possibility to get use of space there?
We're not talking about possibly buying
the building and the whole thing, you know.
Researching all options. Okay. All right.
And I don't know what the answer might be. Right.
And and this is just a clarification
of point of order.
Would would real estate discussions
better be held in executive session?
Yes. When we get to the the
the after engaging the
the realtor, I would strongly recommend that all of these discussions
only happen in an executive session.
Okay, everybody, again,
can I have a motion to adjourn?
So moved.