DTSD Webinars: Good afternoon. Welcome to the November twentieth, 2023. General Services meeting our committee meeting. This meeting is being live broadcast and streamed for
DTSD Webinars: Individuals in the audience
DTSD Webinars: as we go before we start the meeting, I'd like to do a roll call. I will introduce myself in my position, and then I will go to my right.
DTSD Webinars: So my name is Mike Rizzo, and I'm board Mendor
DTSD Webinars: Stacy Winslow, Superintendent
Terry, Singer board member next to Citizen Advisor Bob Bennett, Board, Member
DTSD Webinars: Cheryl Purcell, business manager, Michelle, A. G. Board secretary. Is there anyone online? That would like to identify themselves. I apologize. I do not have the live stream up.
DTSD Webinars: No. One. Okay, thank you very much.
DTSD Webinars: Item number 3. Approval of summary minutes. Could I get a motion to approve the minutes from the last meeting
DTSD Webinars: so moved Bob Bennett. second Terry Singer. Any discussion
DTSD Webinars: this is a standard voice. Yes, standard voice, vote all in favor. Say, aye, aye, aye.
DTSD Webinars: all and opposed say, no.
DTSD Webinars: Ayes have it. Motion carries
DTSD Webinars: item number 4. Unfinished business. Item 4. A Crabtree Roarball, architect in the elementary project. Ms. Persia, do you have an update? Or
Dr. Whistler? I have an Update.
DTSD Webinars: So we met with Crabtree on Thursday again
DTSD Webinars: at our last, since my last update that I gave to the Board, and since we last discussed at general services, we did have a visit to Northern Lebanon Elementary School. That school just opened in August.
and
DTSD Webinars: similar in design to what we'd be looking for at this point, because they consolidated schools into one K. 6. I think they're K. 6.
DTSD Webinars: We, of course, are K, 5,
DTSD Webinars: Elementary school. It is the first school that we visited that I could actually see working for us. It was. It's a very nice building. There are some
DTSD Webinars: some pieces like we have a very robust music program, so like their music spaces wouldn't work for us. But
DTSD Webinars: you know we're not looking for a school we can move into. We're looking for one that gives us ideas of things. We like phenomenal art and stem rooms, phenomenal large group collaboration rooms that you could immediately see
DTSD Webinars: multiple uses. And how teachers would use it
DTSD Webinars: really nice? like?
oh.
DTSD Webinars: sorry! I'm losing the words for it, but you know security as you come in. So there's like lobby security and then office security. So there's like 3 different spaces before you can get into the space with the kids.
DTSD Webinars: Which is really great. Nice conference room spaces, which is something we do not have right now. So when we're meeting with parents, it's either, you know, tromping through the building or in a principal's office.
DTSD Webinars: So just just a lot of really great stuff
DTSD Webinars: that we walked away with. And lots of us had
DTSD Webinars: ideas of. We can see this. We can see this great use of natural lighting and really a space where the multiple story building you could see the ease of movement
DTSD Webinars: which is hard to kind of envision when you're just thinking about it with small kids. But watching the kids move through. The building was
DTSD Webinars: I was really glad we were there when kids were moving through the building, cause you could really see ease of movement, and then they used color both on the walls and the floors for wayfinding. So if students were like going to the office like, or public spaces were like blue. So if you're going to a large group space like the cafeteria or the library. You follow the blue line. If you're going to like first grade, you follow the green line. So the wayfinding was really
DTSD Webinars: really interesting. I really, I really like the way that was done. And like, I said, this was the first building that we walked away with a lot of things that we liked, the other buildings that we've seen. We were able to identify a lot of things we didn't like, which is also very important. Because when you see it in person it's very different than just hearing about it. So that was a great visit.
DTSD Webinars: So our meeting that we had with Crime Tree last week. We debriefed on that, shared what our takeaways were as a group and we also continued working on the educational programming
DTSD Webinars: layout outline, which is literally a spreadsheet with
DTSD Webinars: every space and room that we would anticipate meeting in
a future building.
DTSD Webinars: So our next step as an internal group is to take that spreadsheet that we started reviewing
on Thursday and continue reviewing it in early December to really identify
DTSD Webinars: what we see versus what they've kind of heard us say.
DTSD Webinars: and then the next step for the board. There will not be a full board presentation in December. We only have our December eleventh meeting as a full board meeting. But Crabtree will come on the eighteenth to do a board workshop with us.
DTSD Webinars: This is primarily to help the new Board members get up to speed with where we're at, but the full board is invited, and I'll send out an invitation for that.
DTSD Webinars: so that everybody knows and has it on your calendar if they're able to be there.
And I
DTSD Webinars: think, am I missing anything, Mrs. Purcell?
DTSD Webinars: This is Terry, sir, you might have mentioned this doctor when saw where they didn't hear. But the building that you visited was designed by Crabtree Robot. So that's even
DTSD Webinars: more encouraging, I guess. Yes, and this is Mike Rizzo and I. And if I understand that that building is also similar in size, yes, and function of what we're looking to. Yeah. Build correct? Yes, yes, I believe.
DTSD Webinars: Think they said they house 1,300 kids. I think it's similar. Maybe just a little similar, maybe just a little bit smaller, but not a lot smaller than
than us.
DTSD Webinars: Very good. Thank you. Yeah. Gorgeous library space, too. It was really, really beautiful, very functional.
DTSD Webinars: There it was.
DTSD Webinars: Yeah, it was one where you're like, oh, yes, this is. This would be a great building to be in.
DTSD Webinars: And you probably said this baby, it just opened this fall. Right? Yeah, literally, just open in August. So it's fresh example. Yeah, exactly. Anybody else have any comments or questions.
DTSD Webinars: Okay, thank you, doctor. And so thank you. Excuse me.
DTSD Webinars: So next on the agenda is, item 4 B project updates and the first project update we have is 4 BA concession. Second. okay, I'll take that this.
DTSD Webinars: It's going. It's underway. The now that fall sports has ended. They did, I think, last Thursday. Remove the the concession stance, so that gives them some more. Some more work. On Friday I stopped out Friday morning.
DTSD Webinars: They're running into, we might expect to see a change order. They're still working out what that's going to look like. But basically because of the elevation, they need to take it down in the Ada requirements. They need to go down 8 inches
DTSD Webinars: to to level it out, to still be able to keep the 36 inch compliant window, so that dig out is is happening. They were starting that dig on Friday. I talked to Mr. Bdock this morning. He was going to stop by and just check into things way, he explained to what he said, though
DTSD Webinars: W. What they're trying to work out is there should be a credit because they would have had to bring dirt in. Now they'll have to take dirt out. So they're just trying to figure out what that change order costs would be should not be substantial. Like, I said. Instead of bringing in, they're just removing the other change order that we might see, though based on, and that was one of the things that Ted was going to look at this morning. Is that because they have to go down another 8 inches they might need another layer of
DTSD Webinars: block. But, as you recall, we already had a significant credit coming. Don't have that number yet, either. From that overage of a block that was in the bid.
DTSD Webinars: So they're working on that. So we might have those 2 change orders to come in front of the board as they go forward. Other than that, things are moving along well, and
DTSD Webinars: everything seems to be going okay.
DTSD Webinars: Okay. any questions.
DTSD Webinars: So excuse me, the Mike Rizzo, when we look at the completion of the concession stand. What is the timing now? Has it delayed? Been delayed at all? It had been delayed up until the end of January, and I guess at that point I wasn't pinning them down to a date, because the the drop dead date is the beginning of March, so we're ready to go for for spring sports. So there's there's some wiggle room in there, and everybody feels pretty comfortable that it's it's moving along, so I have not heard anything. That
DTSD Webinars: spring sports is in jeopardy so still on board for beginning of March. Now, with the with the concession stand being built is a field still available for use. Or is that okay? We haven't finished. They had. They had this site. According to offer. Yeah, it's
DTSD Webinars: they've got some, and all their equipment and materials are
DTSD Webinars: sheltered, or whatever they do with them, to keep it safe so that nobody can get in and hurt themselves
1 s.
DTSD Webinars: I haven't introduced John yet. This is Mr. John, Freddy. We'll get there later. But do you? You've been on site. Do you have anything to add. Okay.
okay.
DTSD Webinars: we will introduce Mr. Frady.
DTSD Webinars: Few items down. Alright. Thank you.
DTSD Webinars: Any other questions. No.
DTSD Webinars: So we'll move to item 4 BB memorial field, softball field drainage and parking lot improvements.
DTSD Webinars: So as we shared last meeting, the kind of what we were running into with the conservation district is all of the work that we need to do with the parking, you know, for at the parking lot the fields is on hold until the conservation district is satisfied with our open permits that have been out there for years. That they are closed.
DTSD Webinars: did have a follow up with 2 with Melissa Kelly from Pharma Two's office last week, and again this week. She's still working with the conservation district to identify. They were able to locate the plans. Now it's just a matter of
DTSD Webinars: they're in a place that they're able to work with the district to do the final sign-offs to get those old
DTSD Webinars: files closed. So there she was, still waiting on some information back from the conservation district on that. So it's it's moving on. They're getting what they need. We just don't have any update. As to a timeline. Again, we can't really
DTSD Webinars: look to any kind of work on the parking lots until
DTSD Webinars: this conservation conservation district is happy that we closed all their old files.
DTSD Webinars: Which is, as we shared, unbeknownst to us until we needed to file a new
DTSD Webinars: permit.
Okay.
DTSD Webinars: this is Microsoft. So, but the understanding is they're still. They're looking pretty good as far as providing all of the information for the permits. That was one of the questions we had
DTSD Webinars: for the board. The last time that we were, we were a bit unsure as to whether we'd be able to get all the information
DTSD Webinars: I heard that they, as of last week, they they were
DTSD Webinars: able to locate all of the plans. They have all the digital files, so they have the plans. Now, the next step is to figure out again if if the Conservation district will allow them to inspect and sign off. So that's that's the next piece with the conservation district.
DTSD Webinars: Do we have to go back? I'm assuming, to an old engineer, or if they're going to be able to work through this with the conservation districting.
DTSD Webinars: Get this but it there is some some risk to them. I can see that when they're not sure again, if it's above ground or below ground. That's still part of it. You know how to identify what's below ground. And was it done to code? So feels still? Think there are some questions I did ask about. We will be getting much to get a little further. Probably the engagement.
for this
DTSD Webinars: getting through some of this work is 2,800 to 3,400, but
DTSD Webinars: I would expect we'll see a proposal once they're a little further along and know exactly what we're doing.
DTSD Webinars: So about 3,528 to 3,400. That's estimated right now. But I think once they find out
DTSD Webinars: like I said, all, all that has to be done. I wouldn't.
DTSD Webinars: That could change. I would expect. Obviously, if we need additional work. Okay.
DTSD Webinars: any other questions from the team.
Okay.
DTSD Webinars: thank you very much. Ms. Purcell. And now we move on to item 5 new business, and we will start out with 5, a director of building and grounds. John Frieddy.
DTSD Webinars: So this is John Frady. He comes to us. He started last Monday, and I'm so sorry to put you on the spot and ask if you've been the concession stand. It has been a whirlwind of a week for him. He's probably drinking from a fire hose right now, so there have been a lot of things and a lot of need. So we're all kind of.
DTSD Webinars: you know, support for for John but we're thrilled to have him here. Do you want to talk a little bit?
DTSD Webinars: Hello, everybody! I'm excited to be a member here at Derry Township school district
DTSD Webinars: lot going on right now, trying to obtain as much information as I possibly can retain all of it. So yeah, like, I said, I'm very excited for the opportunity here, dear township, and
everybody thus far has been great to work with, and like I said, I'm just excited to be a part of it.
DTSD Webinars: Well, welcome to dairy township. Thank you. Right and welcome to the you know the General find our yeah General Services Committee meeting. So thank you. Alright.
DTSD Webinars: Obtain and retain is is a big that's that's a lot of it just obtaining. And you know, do you have? Can you send? But then, he said, now I have to find time to read it. Also, there's there's a lot been trying to just make sure he's looped in on all the projects and on ongoing work. So as he gets up to speed. So you'll be seeing and hearing from him more and more agend services meetings for sure.
DTSD Webinars: But no thrill to have him here. Thank you.
DTSD Webinars: Alright. Thank you, Jeff.
DTSD Webinars: All right. Moving on to any questions for John.
before I move on.
DTSD Webinars: Nope, okay, moving on to item 5 B technology presentation
DTSD Webinars: do and secondary network upgrade project to this district office
DTSD Webinars: district office and secondary network upgrade project. Alright. I'm gonna turn this over to our technology department. They were going to talk about some needs we have at the high school. I'll I'll let them take it. But they have identified some
DTSD Webinars: internet and network issues that we really need to address going forward. So this is a proposal as 2 next steps and want to run it through here. So just so this committee knows we're bringing it here tonight. There are some time sensitive issues, really, just to kick off to be able to explore some bid options. But we'll do the same presentation for this meeting as well as the Finance Committee, so that should pretty much
DTSD Webinars: capture most of the remaining board members.
DTSD Webinars: As so as we go forward, everybody is kind of aware of what's happening. Okay, thank you
DTSD Webinars: for a minute. There. I thought we were going to watch Charlie Brown, Thanks Thanksgiving, and I was excited.
DTSD Webinars: All right. How is everyone? Great, awesome, alright. So hopefully. This won't be super dry, and it'll be fun to talk about stuff. So
My name is Phil Ayala. I'm the Director of Technology here at Dairy Township School district. Jared Nicholson is here with me. He is our systems analyst
DTSD Webinars: so there's
DTSD Webinars: like 30 slides here. We'll go through them. And then there's time for question and answer, and I'll hopefully be informational. But II
DTSD Webinars: if there's ever something you don't understand, please ask I try to include a nice section about terminology, because there's terms that I'm using, that II just wanna make sure I
DTSD Webinars: I hate when people talk over and and complicated abbreviations and terms that don't make any sense. So I'll try to be as clear and concise, and also kind of make some relatable comments. So the very first thing is fun terminology. We're going to go back to school and learn about terminology.
DTSD Webinars: So kind of a a central building in almost any organization is something called the network Operation center or Nock and this is where everything feeds to. It's actually on the other side of that wall.
DTSD Webinars: the other things. One of the other major components of most buildings, or something called a core, or a main distribution frame, or an MDF, those are the 3 main terms.
DTSD Webinars: There's also something called an intermediate
DTSD Webinars: distribution frame, which is an idf idea. So the way I relate to this is I relate to my hand. So if you're a device, and
my fingers are idfs.
DTSD Webinars: and my palm is a core.
DTSD Webinars: So all these things feed all your communication into the core.
DTSD Webinars: And then, on my whole body is the Internet. So that's, you know, device connects to a finger. Then it connects to the core. Then it connects to the Internet.
DTSD Webinars: make sense. Okay, so all of these things are in our buildings. Every device we have connects to either a switch or an idf.
DTSD Webinars: so those kind of terms are interchangeable there. So there's
DTSD Webinars: 3 terms on this page, a bottleneck. I'm sure you can all imagine a bottleneck when you're driving, and you're trying to merge. I mean, that's kind of a bottleneck. You're trying to squeeze 2 cars into one area. And so it's bottlenecking
DTSD Webinars: bandwidth. We all know how much emotional bandwidth we have during a day. But this is Internet bandwidth. So you can only go so fast. And there's so many limitations on that
DTSD Webinars: fiber optic is something you may not have heard before, but it is actually glass. And that is how we get our Internet through fiber optic communication. There's communication that runs in little strands of glass from building to building
access point.
DTSD Webinars: Where is it
actually right there?
DTSD Webinars: So there are things in the ceiling that provide Internet to our laptops. So ipads, phones.
DTSD Webinars: yeah.
DTSD Webinars: those are the fun terms. Now, there's just 2 more weird terms, something called megabyte and gigabyte.
DTSD Webinars: So back in the day MP. Threes were about anywhere between 2 and 7 MB.
DTSD Webinars: Dvds are 4.7 GB, so
gigabytes are a lot bigger than megabytes. Megabytes are small
DTSD Webinars: with all of that information. Now you can refer back to that later, if you need to, and I'll try to keep some terminology
DTSD Webinars: standard here. So our core switches. So the kind of the the
DTSD Webinars: main brains of our my palms, for example, the palms in our building were last updated.
and in the district office here.
DTSD Webinars: and actually in every building in December of 2012. So I mean quite a while ago.
DTSD Webinars: So all of the buildings
in the district. So this building to the elementary, to the high school and middle school, they're all connected with a 2 GB link.
DTSD Webinars: So there's a gigabyte link that goes directly to the elementary school, one that goes to the middle school, one that goes to the high school, one that goes to the Ecc. Does that make sense to everyone?
Yes.
DTSD Webinars: So through the five-year capital plan that we had back in 2,015 to 2020 there was a couple projects that occurred. So one of the projects was, we replaced the middle school, Wi-fi, that was from 2012 to 2013
we replace the district high school or district office and high school switches. They were both replaced in 2,016 and 2,017,
DTSD Webinars: and our middle school, Wi-fi was replaced in 2015 and to 2016.
DTSD Webinars: So, as you can tell, these are older older devices.
DTSD Webinars: so I also wanted to kind of frame what
DTSD Webinars: technology looked like back in 2,013 versus what it looked like now. So back in 2,013.
DTSD Webinars: Every teacher had a laptop and they might have had a phone
students.
DTSD Webinars: They used laptop carts in some classes, or they used computer labs and others.
DTSD Webinars: or they had their phone, so they didn't have a district device
DTSD Webinars: that was assigned to them.
DTSD Webinars: Now every lap. Every teacher has a laptop, every teacher. As long as they've requested. One has an ipad they may have their phone, they may have a watch.
DTSD Webinars: they may have a number of other random things, but those are the traditional things that every teacher might have.
DTSD Webinars: Students. We have still have a few laptop carts here and there. They're far fewer and farther between. But we still have computer labs.
DTSD Webinars: We still have an ipad for every student. Some kids have smart watches. I would say, I mean, this is a completely
DTSD Webinars: you know, theoretical, but I would say many students have have smart devices of some kind, I mean, whether it's an android watch or a smartwatch.
DTSD Webinars: Not all, but some do
lot of them have phones.
DTSD Webinars: Some bring their own personal computers in, and every student also has an ipad. So there wasn't that back in 2,013. So, as you can imagine.
DTSD Webinars: that's a tremendous amount of just physical technology, not to mention the advances that have been made in the instructional technology like in 2,013, one or 2 teachers may have watched a video or displayed a video. Now, maybe 20 teachers. So it's it's a lot more use of our network.
DTSD Webinars: So along with that, I found this amazing graph back from 2,007 to 2,008 to kind of explain. Now
DTSD Webinars: those are in megabytes. So back in 22,007 to 2,008, our district network bandwidth to the Iu was 100 MB,
DTSD Webinars: and we used 8 MB.
DTSD Webinars: now. and actually, we'll we'll fast forward to 2012 and 2013. We had 100 MB, which is attuned to 1 GB, and we were using 100 MB.
DTSD Webinars: Now we have a 5 GB connection to the iu.
and we are using
DTSD Webinars: 3 GB. So it's a pretty insane
DTSD Webinars: chart to show
how we've grown.
DTSD Webinars: I'd love to have more data in between that, but haven't really wanted to spend a lot of time in that.
DTSD Webinars: So Jared's gonna talk about kind of the problems that we're seeing in the high school and then kind of expanding on that what things might be occurring in the middle school, or have been a little bit so
well. So here's a
DTSD Webinars: so. Here we gathered a graph that that Phil pulled out of our system. The red line represents the actual bandwidth limit that we have coming from the high school to the district office. And as you can see, we are consistently going over that graph
DTSD Webinars: pretty much every day. So this graph shows. Basically our network traffic during a typical school day at the high school. You can see the dramatic increase of activity starting at like 71580'clock, when the kids start arriving, and you know, getting ready and and starting their class work, and then it slowly drops off around 2 30 as the kids and staff are leaving the building.
DTSD Webinars: The critical issue obviously is that during the peak hours our network throughput consistently is hitting its limit, which is kind of like redlining on a car. And the entire day.
DTSD Webinars: This causes packages to drop, and this equates to a significant and noticeable slowdown for our students, teachers and support staff while they're trying to utilize the network.
DTSD Webinars: To put this into perspective. Imagine trying to funnel 100,000 people into a football stadium. But you only have 2 doors open in our case. These 2 doors represent our 2 GB link to the district office. It's a slow and frustrating process process to get everyone through in such a limited entryway.
DTSD Webinars: Now picture the difference. If we had 10 doors open instead of just 2, the flow of people would be much smoother and faster, significantly easing the congestion. This is exactly what we aim to achieve with our network upgrade, expanding our capacity to alleviate these bottlenecks. And the teachers are complaining, and and kids are complaining, and our other staff are complaining about like things like network speeds with loading websites or videos, or getting just straight up disconnected from
DTSD Webinars: from things because we just don't have the bandwidth to feed the demand of what they're trying to accomplish.
DTSD Webinars: Here's another graph from the same system. This is our middle school. It's not hitting the the limit as much as the high school, but we're fastly approaching, you know, being both those buildings being pretty much peaked out all day long.
So
DTSD Webinars: thanks, chicken, yeah, absolutely.
DTSD Webinars: So. Now that you kind of can see what the problem is and can and visualize it. But I mean, it's I mean, there are lines on a piece of paper. But visualize it. I'm sure you have all experienced when a website doesn't load, or how frustrating it can be when something is really slow. Well, that definitely affects the
DTSD Webinars: students and the staff. But even like
DTSD Webinars: Tanya has said over here, you know, it can affect us at the district office, too. So because
it all feeds back to here and then out to the Internet. So it affects the district as a whole. But
DTSD Webinars: starting over there, you can really see the noticeable issues, especially where it's hitting the limit every day.
DTSD Webinars: So the next area I wanted to talk about hopefully pretty quickly is something called errate. So errate is a wonderful
DTSD Webinars: 3.9 billion dollars federal program. But the nice thing is, it actually doesn't take from tax dollars. It's actually funded by telecommunication companies by fees that that they
impose on all of us. So we kind of all buy into
DTSD Webinars: this erate program. So what it does is it provides up to a 50 per up to a a 90%. Discount on eligible services and equipment.
DTSD Webinars: I'm not going to read every line here, but just know that
DTSD Webinars: and I'll give you an example we are at 50 rate. So what's nice about this is, if we have a project that say, costs $200,000. Our E-rate discount is 50, so erate would fund
DTSD Webinars: 100,000 of that, and then we would pay for the other 100,000 of that. If that makes sense, it's probably the
DTSD Webinars: nicest way I can put it.
DTSD Webinars: So what's nice about that is, they have a 5 year
DTSD Webinars: funding cap. So every 5 years it will refresh that dollar amount, and that dollar amount is calculated. The budget that they allocate for every school is kind of calculated out by free and reduced
DTSD Webinars: and that's kind of how they decide how much money a school district can get. We have not spent any of that in the last 4 years. 3 years. So we are currently
DTSD Webinars: $592,000 of erate money that's available to us.
DTSD Webinars: So again, if we had a
DTSD Webinars: the example of the $200,000 project, they would pay 100,000 of that would come from that pool of money, and then a hundred 1,000 would come from us if that makes sense.
So the other nice thing about this is in 2,016 that is going to refresh. That's kind of the term. I
DTSD Webinars: I'm sorry. 2620, 26. Sorry
DTSD Webinars: numbers. Yeah. Now. So in 2026 those numbers will refresh, and so as long as our free and reduce doesn't go up dramatically or down dramatically. We should have close to around $500,000 back in that budget.
DTSD Webinars: So I just wanted to point out. And I mentioned this earlier that we are our discount matrix based on the income percentage of the schools. And and where things qualify with the National School launch program, we're at 50.
DTSD Webinars: So that is our classification.
DTSD Webinars: Okay, this is Terry saying, we're just real quick, Phil, is, is that an application process you have to go through that could result
DTSD Webinars: in in a smaller offer? Or is it just sort of
DTSD Webinars: you go through the process? You're gonna get the money? Yeah. So every I think it, I watched a wonderful video on this. And every few years we every year we have to input our enrollment. And we that it's based off of the enrollment and so it's not necessarily an application process, like
DTSD Webinars: schools are in into that. Now, to use the money you have to apply. So like, for example, like, I have an account, and I can sign in. And then, you know, as the process goes on, you have to create a form, and you know.
DTSD Webinars: so there's not necessarily an application process. But it's it's a service. It's a federally
DTSD Webinars: Federal program that we have the fortunate.
DTSD Webinars: Yes.
DTSD Webinars: yeah, yeah. But you do have to do some work to use it as a as this. Yeah.
DTSD Webinars: yeah, there's never any free money. Okay, so this is where you'll you'll all get shocked. And it's totally fine cause this is. This is a fun new numbers that you get to see.
DTSD Webinars: So with the Ca, I, you probably should have said this before I flipped the thing. But so we worked with the cai, you to determine what we need. And so they they worked with us. They visited our campus. They saw what we have and they compiled a list of equipment.
So that's important, because
DTSD Webinars: I mean, I'm pretty good with knowing what we need, and and Jared's great, too, but we consulted with experts in the field so that they know what we need.
DTSD Webinars: And so they provided an equipment list with us, and so what they were were able to provide to us is how much
DTSD Webinars: the equipment would cost. And so here option a is the complete project, and this is replacing every piece of like networking equipment in that both the district office, the middle school, and the high school, and replacing the entire wireless infrastructure
DTSD Webinars: with with new equipment. That is one option.
DTSD Webinars: and that's one proposal that they provided to us the other one that I pretty much, took those numbers and phased it into a 2 year project prioritizing the issue. That's the issue of at hand. First, to try to solve the immediate problem
DTSD Webinars: so in this 2 year proposal we would be replacing the wired network here at the district office. And if you.
DTSD Webinars: if you understand, kind of how I explain things before it all funnels back to the district office, and then from the district office, it goes out so regardless of what you do. This area here has to be upgraded first, because
DTSD Webinars: you can't. You can't go through this 2 doors to get to another 2 doors. You have to make 1 one wider first, and then you can make both of them wire
DTSD Webinars: the district office. When you say that is not necessarily the offices itself, it's the. It's the equipment. Thank you for the clarification. Yeah. So in this 2 year phase project, we would be replacing the infrastructure here and then at the high School, and then replacing wireless infrastructure at the High School, so that 2 gig limit where we're hitting every single day, we would be able to go over that, and then it would come back here and then go out to the Internet. And so
DTSD Webinars: that was kind of that's just kind of our recommendation, so that we can solve the immediate problem and then take care of and make sure that the middle school doesn't run into the same fate of the high school did. But we do have those 2 years left in that budget that the errate
DTSD Webinars: that that E-rate has allocated to us. So we do have like we'll have if we were to do that project. So, for example, in this case.
DTSD Webinars: the first year for the equipment costs would be 527,000,
DTSD Webinars: so Erate would pay for half of that
DTSD Webinars: we would pay for the other half, so the total cost for the equipment would be 200 and
DTSD Webinars: 60,000 from us, 260,000 from them.
DTSD Webinars: Does that make sense? And this is planning? Now I just want to make sure this is planning. Now for 2,425 like this. Go. The process is for this school year, but it's to get started, then the summer for 2,425. Which is why we're talking about it now. So
DTSD Webinars: let's see here.
DTSD Webinars: Okay, so that is kind of what what we would like to propose to to do. So the next thing is, anybody have any questions on that that screen? Sure. Yeah. So
DTSD Webinars: with the appointment and license, is that gonna be a reoccurring annual fee? Yeah? Great question. So so yeah, licenses. I believe that package in there is a 3 year deal. The nice thing with your rate is, there are you can include licensing fees as well in that. So it is a reoccurring. That's a 3 year thing, and we pay that now for licenses that we currently have. So. But that is a great question. Thank you
DTSD Webinars: any other questions?
DTSD Webinars: Yeah, the with the Two-year plan here, you.
DTSD Webinars: it's basically just they add up to the the plan. A, do you lose an economy of scale kind of savings by dividing it? Or is there saw a better savings by kind of combining those licenses into
DTSD Webinars: purchasing them all at once?
DTSD Webinars: I don't know that there would be much of a savings. The only thing that, as we've all seen, the prices of everything has gone up, in fact. Pretty shockingly. So I there's a piece of equipment that's in that chunk. That was, I think.
DTSD Webinars: 2,000 last year. It was now 4,000 this year. So it's pretty incredible how things have increased in time. So I don't know necessarily like, if we were to get all of it done at once if we would make a lot of savings in as far as like
DTSD Webinars: I, you know, if you buy a hundred ipads, it's this, but if you buy 200 ipads you get, you know, a $2 off, you know, something like that. I don't know that there is any kind of discount savings for doing more at once. Does that answer your question? Okay.
DTSD Webinars: by buying it early? We might not. You might not have an increase in cost by the lighting. And I'm not. I can't predict the future of technology so it could go down. And like, I think, I forget.
DTSD Webinars: Recently I was shocked about something being cheaper than it used to be. And I was like, really like, Yeah, when is thing? When is anyone ever like? Oh, we'll take less money like that, like never happens, especially for companies. So I you know, it's very possible that it would stay flat or or it could go down. But most of the time technology doesn't get cheaper. Unfortunately.
DTSD Webinars: any other questions before I move on to the next one. Yeah, this is Mike Rizo. So this this includes all installation fees, right labor equipment. Yeah. I tried to say it a couple of times to to try. And II the reason being. And and so I asked a company to come in and and
DTSD Webinars: give us an estimate on how much that'd be, because that would be a reasonable thing to ask. So if I did that they would not be able to bid later and work on the project. So in in essence, we would have to pay someone to come here to do an estimate
DTSD Webinars: and spend money to know what the cost would be. So it's, it seems, a little silly, but because we're using the Federal dollars. And because we're we're using that ebreak program, there's a little bit more restrictions and limitations on what we can find out in in advance. So kind of the next
DTSD Webinars: slide. And if you're okay, I'll move on. And then hopefully, I'll answer, so the project mile project, timeline and milestones. And so this goes into something called the erate timeline. The next slide. After that so working with the cai, you what we did is we asked them for an equipment list. Now, we we attempted to do this last year. But unfortunately, by the time they provided that list we
DTSD Webinars: miss the deadline to do bids so I would have loved to have this conversation last year, but I can only work as fast as
DTSD Webinars: things happen around us. So so they were able to get me the updated equipment list actually, 2 weeks ago. So that's why you're hearing from me now, and not sooner.
DTSD Webinars: So they built the equipment list. Now, what they can help us do next is they can create an email to work with
DTSD Webinars: the pet company is called Pepum, like they're they're part of a purchasing cooperation called pepum and so
DTSD Webinars: they they basically will create a list of equipment that doesn't have prices, because the prices that were there were all based off of a kind of a.
DTSD Webinars: an awarded program. I guess, like they had. They, they had to their competitive pricing for that equipment list. But now it's how much does it cost for you to come in and do it. So that next process is they will create an email. They will send it out to a list of vendors that are certified to be in that program.
DTSD Webinars: And then we will get that information back from the Iu, and then we can say, Okay, we have 2 or 3 bids, and then we can see.
DTSD Webinars: And now these are called mini bids, which is why it's not a big, long, elaborate process. It's a smaller, more simplified process, so they will provide
DTSD Webinars: bids from us from the Iu will give it to us. We can decide what company we want to go on. We can create an evaluation and a rubric and kind of go through that
DTSD Webinars: and then our our hope and plan is to come back
DTSD Webinars: and present that winning bid and then explain how much labor would be. The one thing I really want to stress is just because we're asking the Iu to help us send out a bid, and it could get sent out there. We don't have to do anything with it if we don't, wanna there's no commitment or tie down to do anything. So if it comes back and everybody's like we don't wanna do that. That's fine. We don't
DTSD Webinars: we? We don't have to do it. There's no.
DTSD Webinars: there's no obligation for us to do anything. So so wanna make that important
DTSD Webinars: fact that there's nothing we have to do
DTSD Webinars: so after that we would hope to have board approval, to hopefully fix some of our issues. And then we email them and say, Hey, come, what are some equipment, and
DTSD Webinars: there's some paperwork that needs to be filed in between there. But simplified, that's that's the process.
DTSD Webinars: and I can back up a little bit. Phil touched on it at 1 point. The because this is Federal money. It is very touchy as to how we go about. This pepperm is a great prod, you know it is. It's a great consortium within Pepum. Everything's already been bid, and they they do bid awards. You know Tony and I are able to go out and and pull, you know, bid documents to back up anything that we're doing. So everything's already done, which is really why
DTSD Webinars: going this route makes the most sense is just have the I you push it out to the vendors that are already bit, you know, bit awarded, and so then we know in the back end we are protected when we come in and get audited by either local or federal, as part, you know as part of the
DTSD Webinars: any kind of audit process. So that's an important piece. And I think, can I ask a question that I'm not clear about, so I know we had the 2 options, and you know we were proposing to to split it, if the numbers would.
DTSD Webinars: When they bid it, they would bid for the whole thing, and then we could all split it. Or how would you just ask for the bid for the option to? So if we were to do. If we were to ask for the full project we would probably we could then see how much it would cost, but then I would think we would probably need to rebid, because when, if we were to put out a different equipment list, that labor could be different, you know, if if you're saying, for example, access
DTSD Webinars: installing an access point, you basically have the box, you have to climb up a ladder, unplug it, plug a new one in. Climb out down on a ladder. So that's that's installing an access point. But then you have to configure it and set it up and update them. And so it's, it's not just
DTSD Webinars: there's there's physical labor of actually doing it. But then there's also the configuration and setup. So that could be vastly different between
DTSD Webinars: 100 or 200, you know, it's you're gonna spend twice as much time if you're if your numbers are different. So I would think that's the that's kind of why we were gonna do. That's why I would recommend to do the the phase project if we know what we envision, and if we can phase it in and try to do it
DTSD Webinars: planfully and fiscally, responsibly, and in a sectioned off thing. Then we can put the bid out, get the numbers back.
DTSD Webinars: provide good information to you to make an informed decision. When when we have that.
DTSD Webinars: does that make sense? Okay.
DTSD Webinars: the next really quick part, and then I'll get out of your hair is
DTSD Webinars: planning. So I know this is something that's important. Our technology department. I think we do a really great job of using things literally until they die. Unfortunately, like the laptops in front of you are from like, I don't know. 2014, 2015. They work
DTSD Webinars: barely, but they work. So we we, we, I think, in our department, really try to use things until they're they're done and not usable. So with the equipment that's removed, we will be able to repurpose them. You'll notice I didn't mention the elementary school at all. It's not because it's a bad word. It's just because I didn't wanna
confuse or say anything.
DTSD Webinars: Our hope is that by the time something occurs at the elementary school that that will will be able to replace that infrastructure there with that project. It it wouldn't make sense to plan for something.
put a lot of time and effort, and then rip it all out and then reinstall it like it's just
DTSD Webinars: so. But we would be able to take equipment that we would remove from this project from the High school, Middle school district office, and we could repurpose them in other areas.
DTSD Webinars: and the one thing that we use often, too, is like our wired switch is the things that we remove. When things fail. It's great to have a backup that works. You know. They work before we can install them temporarily until we can So
things won't just be thrown in the trash.
DTSD Webinars: So that's an important fact to make
DTSD Webinars: and with that
DTSD Webinars: time for questions.
DTSD Webinars: this is Terry Singer. Thank you very much for that presentation.
my other son is a computer science
DTSD Webinars: guy software engineer.
DTSD Webinars: and in the 8 years that I peppered him with questions I haven't learned as much from him as I just did for me. So thank you very much for that. But and you might have answered this. But I just have a quick question about option A and B
DTSD Webinars: is is this to make
DTSD Webinars: the project break it into sections for pacing and sequencing, or to make it more palatable from a cost point of view. What's what's the rationale for presenting the 2. Yeah, you know.
DTSD Webinars: I'd love to do it all at once. It'd be great to get it done, and but asking almost, and with once you add in labor
DTSD Webinars: like it could be getting close to a million dollars. And that's a lot to ask. I mean, granted we'd only pay 500,000 of that, which is, I mean, everybody loves to only pay half. But
DTSD Webinars: yeah, and so, if you phase it, over 2 years, well, we have the funding through E rates. So we're not worried about not like losing out on money there. So it is really to
DTSD Webinars: Try to do it planfully and and more fiscally responsible, and take less of a take less money from capital at one yeah time. But if you were to go with option a. You have the capacity
DTSD Webinars: to pursue it and undertake it in in a manner that
DTSD Webinars: in a speedy manner, Umhm, yeah, I mean, it would be, it would be a very fun intensive summer project. But yeah, yeah, so. And and the part of the labor is, and and as much as and I have done my fair share of climbing and the ceiling and replacing access points and running cable. But we would part of the part of the project is asking a company to come in and do that. So you know
DTSD Webinars: we can do. We can help out as much as we can. But yeah, I
DTSD Webinars: it would be up to the companies to say they could do it, but I would feel like they would be able to do it. Okay, thank you. Yep, thank you. I just want to clarify that. You said it would be a fun summer project.
DTSD Webinars: We have so many summer projects. People people often don't realize when when everyone goes home for the summer, it's like our busiest time of year to get get ready for the next school year. So like, we yeah, it is fun. But you know, it's it's a nice break from some other tasks. So you know, and we're learning. So II like to learn something new every day. Okay, any additional questions
DTSD Webinars: I just have this mic was one last question, yeah,
DTSD Webinars: if nothing is done, what is our, what is the impact to business
DTSD Webinars: issues? So one of the things I
DTSD Webinars: and I'm I'm a little hesitant to mention, basically for safety and security reasons.
All the equipment that I kind of talked about is at the end of its usable life.
DTSD Webinars: so there could be a time.
DTSD Webinars: I hope it doesn't happen. I knock on wood like every day like we could come in one day, and that high school core could have died right. I mean when you run for 12 or 13 years, or if when you run for 10 or 11 years, nonstop 24, 7 all day, every day.
DTSD Webinars: there's always a chance. Something could die. When that dies. I have to call people. I have to come up here and say, Hey, can I please have
DTSD Webinars: $60,000, and like, it's not something I can just be like. No, I like need it now, cause like they can't do anything. Yeah, nothing like they won't. And it's not something I can just like. Throw in my car and plug in over there. It's
DTSD Webinars: it's a big piece of equipment that also phone swipes.
DTSD Webinars: cameras, everything goes through that core. Yep, so it's it's pretty. It's an important part of our infrastructure. So they are at the end of their usable life. Now we did talk. We wanna make sure we we are supported. We've got software support in place. That's our thing is still supported. Didn't want to come out of here tonight, or this presentation, saying that we've but it is, I think, the thing to me that is most concerning, even though it's a knock on wood every day.
DTSD Webinars: this window is very limited, and I think that's the piece of it. So to get that E rate 50 funding, it's a very limited window. I wouldn't want to put this on hold for another year and come back a year from now, and so just be starting
DTSD Webinars: this conversation. So I think that's that would be. The thing that that gives me the most concern is is that your timeline? If we miss this.
DTSD Webinars: we're done for a year, and I would hate to not be able to take advantage of that 50% E rate. And there are. There are, and there have been components of that that have failed, and we do pay a service. I mean, you always have to pay your service agreements, because that's and your support agreement. So when that parts fail, we pull out modules. We send it back. They send us one, you know and make sure, and that some of that support.
DTSD Webinars: That you pay for in that is a 40 is the for the course. It's a 4 h time
DTSD Webinars: different. So say that. Say we install the new stuff and it went down. I call someone 4 h later. Someone is in that room working with us to replace equipment. So like it's that it's. It's important to know that right now we're we're covered and supported. But at the same time, you know, if we do nothing.
DTSD Webinars: the chances of things failing, go up as time goes by, and the other thing to note is our wireless infrastructure.
DTSD Webinars: Again, they're past their usable life.
DTSD Webinars: So while we have support when they die. I can't go buy another one that's like it.
DTSD Webinars: I can only buy newer ones, and I don't want to feed into a system that you know we're potentially changing. So
DTSD Webinars: alright, thank you for the presentation. Thank you. I appreciate you guys.
DTSD Webinars: Okay, so we'll move to topic 5 C. Owners rep Rfp. Discussion real quick on. What we just heard is the committee comfortable, though we are going to go on that path at least bring the bids back so everybody can
DTSD Webinars: evaluate and then board. Approve in that February timeframe. Is that a good plan for us to move forward.
DTSD Webinars: This is Microsoft. I believe that at least getting the bids would make sense.
DTSD Webinars: and I think option 2 makes the most sense from a financial perspective.
Thank you.
DTSD Webinars: No, I think it is important. We look at it. Owners. Rep I. That the document was shared. It is ready. We've worked with legal, still finalizing some things with Anthony on the timeline, as you know, that was that was highlighted in there just to kind of just to give a better timeline. Obviously, that's
DTSD Webinars: it can can be in flux for right now. But just to give the owners rep anyone that wants to
DTSD Webinars: submit a proposal, a better idea of what we're thinking
DTSD Webinars: plan is still, we will plan for a
DTSD Webinars: walk through kind of like we had done with the architects, just to give them the opportunity to see the building, so they kind of know what the the scope of the project is that's going to be next Thursday, the thirtieth. I believe that's the date.
DTSD Webinars: But again, it's not live or attached to the agenda only because it's it will go live on the twenty-seventh. Just wanted to have any conversation, or ask, answer any questions, if there are any prior to us pushing it out.
I do not have any questions. Anyone else have any concerns or questions.
DTSD Webinars: Mike, I just have a question with respect to Cheryl's question about guidance. Did did did you want something in the form of a motion. Okay.
DTSD Webinars: fine. Thank you. I think we're good.
Okay.
DTSD Webinars: anything additional is for. So that is all I had for tonight's meeting. Okay.
DTSD Webinars: so we'll go to? Item 6, public comment, is there anyone from the public? I don't believe there's anybody on online?
DTSD Webinars: So we will skip public comment. So item, 7 adjournment can I get a motion for adjournment?
DTSD Webinars: Perry Singer moved to adjourn
DTSD Webinars: second Bob Bennett.
DTSD Webinars: all in favor, say, aye, aye, opposed.
DTSD Webinars: Ayes, have it. Meeting is edited at 4, 53 PM.