2026-10-20 - Board of Education Special Meeting

Okay, thank you. It is now 7/24 and we'll call to order the special board meeting. So it's a full board meeting, October 20th, like I said, 7/24. We have only one item on the agenda and it's the

recommended capital projects for fiscal year 27/28. The resolution 78 is be it resolved that on the recommendation of the superintendent of schools that the Board of Education accepts the recommended

capital projects for fiscal year 2027/28 for $24,970,000 for long term capital and $4,184,250 for short term capital per the attached list. With that, I'll also move. Do I have a second for the

resolution on the operations committee? Thank you, Prasad. No, sorry, Prasad, you're not on. This is for the operator. No, I'm sorry. I take that back. You're right. This is a full board meeting.

Sorry about that. Thank you for correcting me. Prasad has seconded it. Going into discussion, I think we usually get a presentation from Cindy, Kevin and company on this. So I will turn it over to Dr.

Talley and his administration. Thank you very much. Yes, we do have a presentation. It was part of the packet. And so we look forward to you being presented. I just want to provide something up front.

This is not a presentation on the design of the space. It is not looking at the floor plans. It is just approving, if you will, the dirt. And so now I'll turn it over to those who will be presenting.

Hi, everyone. So Dr. Talley, tonight is the capital budget. Yep, I'm sorry. We've been planning all week. Yes, we have. It's OK. We can have dirt, too. I guess for those of you who know Saturday Night

Live, if you're old enough to know, there is a character known, Rosanne Rosanne Adana. And she would say, never mind about what I just said. So I apologize. So Cindy, take this out. No worries. Save

that for next week. OK. I will. Stay tuned. That's right. That's right. Katherine and Kevin, I'm going to let you go. Sure. I guess I'll kick it off with the capital and then Kevin can join in for the

for the short term capital. I'm going to quickly share the slides that were sent to you in advance. It's a very short slide deck. This is the twenty twenty seven twenty twenty eight budget. It's

guided by our long term facilities report that was prepared in twenty twenty two. Interestingly enough, this was something I just looked up a little bit before this meeting in that time since twenty

twenty three to today. The city in partnership with the district has put out over 76 RFPs for work across our district. So we have really used that report to our advantage to work on projects that

involve life safety, accessibility, weatherproofing, sustainability. We look to the report for its prioritization and then we check back with the facilities team that's here with you tonight. Cindy

Graphene, Kevin McCarthy, Michael Smith. What is life safety? It includes fire alarm systems, switch gears, indoor air quality. A number of these projects, which we have ongoing accessibility, can

mean restroom compliance. It can be site work. It can mean ramps. It can mean curbs. It can be paving, some of which is in your budget that we're presenting and weatherproofing. It's not just roofs,

but we've done a lot of them. You can see some of the older roofs here in our district and over on the upper right hand side, Davenport Elementary, which has just been replaced over this past summer.

A huge partnership between the district and the city. This was an incredibly large roof, very logistically complicated. And we accomplished it effectively over the summer with a couple of what we call

punchless items lingering into the fall. But it was watertight and ready to receive students and staff. Sustainability on the upper right hand corner, again, one of our solar projects, which we fully

implemented. The solar projects actually pay for themselves within I believe it's about five years with a partnership not only with the state of Connecticut grant, but an NREZ incentive. So we work

kind of all different kinds of sources for funding. Other other projects that are on the boards, Rogers, Westover and Stanford High for additional solar. Last year, there was a capital adopted budget

of thirteen million seven hundred fifty thousand dollars. That was the largest kind of departmental. We received the most amount of capital dollars from all the departments. This year, our request is

approximately twenty four million nine hundred and seventy with an anticipated reimbursement on that of about ten million dollars. We thanks to legislation, the city of Stanford receives a 60 percent

reimbursement. West Hill High School, as you all likely know, actually receives an 80 percent reimbursement. But the majority of projects that we have today, they would be eligible for 60 percent. Not

every project that's required receives a 60 percent reimbursement or is eligible for a state grant. That doesn't mean that the project's not returning positive benefit. It can mean lower maintenance

costs or lower energy consumption. It can mean we're leveraging a space in a better way and utilizing it for improved performance. So while it may not be shown here as receiving a anticipated grant,

it also doesn't necessarily mean that it doesn't have a positive benefit for our district. This list was submitted to you as well. I just made it a little bigger on the screen for you all. We could do

it alphabetically or we could do it by priority. So I've decided to do it by priority. But if you'd like me to switch, I can always can always do that. We have an exterior and I'm going to run through

kind of the list very quickly and then and then pass it off to Kevin McCarthy. Again, this is about twenty four million dollars in capital projects. This is in line with the long term facilities plan

and similar to what we had submitted to the city on last year. The city asked that we do a prioritization. So Davenport, we have an exterior improvement, as you saw, we finished the roof and we are

looking to continue with some building envelope waterproofing. We have some estimates and we believe that we're going to be able to try and roll this into a current project that we have at Davenport

Elementary. We have Julia Stark, a front entrance. We started the design for this project with funding that was allocated in the twenty four twenty five year. We received some professional estimating.

And so we're now requesting seven hundred thousand dollars in local share and eight hundred thousand dollars in a grant. Repuam, we are we received an IQ grant at this school. And now we're looking to

upgrade school wide the building management system, taking it from pneumatic controls to direct digital control. Pneumatic controls are obsolete and outdated. So our facilities team has been working

very hard, leveraging in the past ARP and Essar funds to make our our systems more current, up to date and more efficient. This was the local share of one million and anticipated grant of one million.

This Strawberry Hill project, this is the existing historic building. We had a historic professional provide a ROM, which is called is a rough order of magnitude. So the rough order of magnitude is

far beyond the funds that we're asking of the city today. But we would like to start the design and then come back with more detailed estimating and make a request for the actual capital construction

work itself. So we have a little bit of local share and we're hoping to try and receive some grants as well. The Stillmetto Elementary School Project is a balancing of the system. This will be a

follow up to previous HVAC work, which we've done in the district. We don't believe it's going to be eligible for an anticipated grant. Stanford High, we have some RTUs to replace in the freshman wing

of the building. We've been doing a lot of work and I know you all are aware of because you approved ed specs for work in the 1971 building. We've done work in the 1927 section of the building. This

is the is a freshman building, I believe it's in 19. I want to say 1991, but it's a newer section of the building. The units themselves are just beyond their useful life. We have Anchor School. This

is a request that's come in a couple of years. We've made this request to the city. It had been cut before, so we're hoping to see it go through for heating line actuators and automation at Anchor.

The district wide paving account. Again, paving doesn't just mean parking spaces. It can mean accessibility and make sure that our sidewalks and curbing is compliant and make sure that we have

located, you know, we're having if we're able to actually access our schools around the site. So there's a paving request in here. Unfortunately, that's typically not an eligible item, district wide

abatement, which is ongoing. It's an ongoing account that we use occasionally for smaller projects for abatement. We have at Newfield, a central plant conversion. This is a start of a project, not the

complete project itself. AITE, we have a gym unit replacement, Northeast Flooring. This is a project that started. It has a grant, but it's some supplemental funding for flooring. There is more

flooring to be abated. West Hill High School, the AgriScience building, roof and boilers. This is not the main building at West Hill High School. This is the AgriScience building, which will remain

and continue on the campus. It's a newer building on the campus, but its roof is at 20 years old. And it is not just the age of the roof. It's showing its age. I've been up on that roof. I know

sometimes people ask through a hatch. It's delightful. And it's what they call alligatoring. So you can kind of see it. You can see that it's really showing its years. We have HEART. We have some RTU

replacements that we want to take care of at HEART. We have Springdale. We're looking for some design fees for windows in the kindergarten wing. And at Stanford High, there is the stage auditorium,

lighting, sound, and rigging. AITE, more air handling unit replacements at AITE. We did work there previously. We have a chiller replacement project. We have a project to replace a curtain wall in the

gymnasium and some doors and windows as well. We have at Stanford High additional flooring, ripple wall for air handling unit replacements. Northeast roofing and roof replacement. This is a

supplemental request because our roof request from last year was slightly reduced. So it's not the actual-- you can see kind of the numbers don't really reflect what a full roof replacement would cost

because we received some of that funding in the prior year. And Turnip River, we have a Swiss system replacement request. This is just for some limited work here. At Turnip River, we have Tokwam, the

exterior water proofing and building envelope. Again, to just maintain our water tightness. Maintenance is very difficult to receive a reimbursement for from the state. They don't typically fund

maintenance. But it's important that we do our due diligence. And this is some of the overhead we have with these older buildings. And then district-wide long-term capital, this is to assist with some

of-- this actually was in a prior year request. It was for exploring kitchen conversions because the city has a new policy on reusables. That has a 10-year timeline for the district to start to comply

with reusable trays but in cafeterias and whatnot. But we want to do some evaluation work now. And it's also to help us with any periodic work just to do any updates to the long-term facilities plan

as needed and to help us get more grants, which I know is something that we've been able to do to make our money go further here in Stanford. We've really been able to leverage state funding with our

local funding. So you can see our local share request will be local bonds, would be $14,675,000. And then we would add to that the anticipated grant, which needs to be authorized of $10,295,000. I

know that was a lot of me talking. I appreciate your time and work. We really have done quite a lot. And it's a lot of credit to the team this year tonight, Cindy, Mike Smith, and Kevin McCarthy.

Kevin, if you're there, I'll pass to you for the short-term capital. Thank you, Catherine. Good evening. Kevin McCarthy here, Board of Ad Facilities. Alec Iagman from Curriculum. I believe it's his

actual department is on with me as well. We have the short-term capital requests for facilities, security, kitchen, and technology. These are all equipment accounts. So I will take you through a quick

presentation and then hand it off to Alec for the technology part. Let me share my screen. All right, so first one up is facilities equipment. Our request is for $750,000 for these five line items.

Looking for custodian equipment. Basically, that's cleaning machines, like floor burnishers, auto scrubbers, anything inside the building to clean the floors. Landscape and equipment, again, we're a

curb and district. So everything from the curb inside, we own on the ground. So we landscape and equipment for lawn mowers, weed wackers, leaf blowers, items like that. The next one is for our rack

body truck. You can see the truck in the lower right-hand side, the white cab with the rack body on the back. It's a 2003 model year. We're looking to replace that one. And then Sheetrock van is in

the upper right-hand corner. That's vintage 2010. We're looking to replace that as well. And then the last request for $350,000 is to update some plow trucks and sanders. We use F-350 heavy duties

with a plow and a sander on the bed. They average about $85,000 to $90,000 a truck. So we're hoping to get three or four of those to replace some ones that are from mid 2000s, late 2000s. And then the

next one is kitchen equipment. This actually is going to be a new short-term equipment account. The request is for $500,000 for some reach-in refrigerators, reach-in freezers, replace some compressors

and evaporators on some walk-in freezers and fridges, and then miscellaneous equipment like skillets, stoves, slight deli slicers, warmers, and cold lines, hot lines we use for the serving lines.

There's a little bit of background on kitchen equipment, especially when it comes to the refrigeration and freezers. We have anywhere in the small schools, it's from two to three reach-in

refrigerators, freezers. So the high schools have half a dozen reach-in refrigerators and freezers plus walk-in coolers and freezers. EPA previously banned R22. They no longer make it. We could barely

get it. And if we get it, we're planning to paint a premium. And then they are phasing out 410A. We can still get it, but it's very expensive. So some of these units that are from 2000, 2005-ish, are

R22. When the compressor goes bad, we have no other option but to change out the whole refrigeration in the box. This capital request really is stemming from the comparison to replace to repair. Like

if an example of a two-door fridge is approximately $7,000 for a new piece of equipment. That's new cabinet and compressor. If we just think about switching out the compressor and evaporator, it's

about $4,500 to $5,000. But we still have the old box, old door, old hinges, and the old gasket and shelving. And then replacing the reach-in freezers and refrigerators to help us to standardize

equipment. Currently have multiple manufacturers. Arctic Air being the bottom of the barrel. One True being mid-level, which we're trying to acquire. And then Victory being the high-end, most

expensive model, which we don't really want to carry. So the same logic goes with the walk-in coolers, except a walk-in cooler, a walk-in freezer. However, we're not looking to replace those boxes. I

mean, they're large and very expensive. We're really just looking to update the compressor or condenser system on a handful of these. They range $20,000 to $30,000 to change out the refrigeration

system in them. So we're hoping to get two to three of them. Again, it's the same concept. Really old equipment from mid-2000s that has passed its useful life. And then in the lower right-hand side,

you could just see some examples of miscellaneous equipment that we would be looking to replace as well. Security account, typically handled by General Kennedy out of the HR department. However,

facilities on my level, I help them procure some of this equipment as well as do the installs and some of the stuff that is needed. But the request is for $450,000. And it's typical, again, we usually

ask for this every year, portable radios, cameras, environmental sensors. Security kiosks, we are working through that. It has been a multi-year project with the rest of this funding. We'll be able to

finish out the district. And every front entrance or main entrance will have a security detail and a desk. And then with that, I'll hand it over to Alec. Thank you. Thank you, Kevin. Good evening,

everybody. I'm Alec Iachman. And I'm presenting two short-term capital requests. The first is for equipment. And the second is for infrastructure. So this is the equipment slide. And all of the items

are ones that are our repeats and our primary cost drivers in equipment. The top line is our Chromebooks at the K through A level. We approximately estimate that we'll be acquiring around 1,500 of

those. For the high schools, we give new sets of Chromebooks at the ninth grade level when students enter. And that is part of our replacement cycle. And so that's 450. And then the desktops for staff

and the interactive panels are also in the 150 quantity estimates. So the rest of this slide, it's important to point out that it's broken up in two sections, priority one and priority two. So when we

go in front of the planning board, what I like to signal is priority one funds is if we go below that, we begin-- we get into the trouble areas of not being able to function relatively quickly. The

phase two funds is the request that will allow us to move forward in our replacement cycle. The goal is not to wait for technology to fail and create an academic disruption. The goal is to create

stable replacement cycles where Chromebooks, interactive panels, and desktops are replaced when they're usefulness is at an end. But prior to the point of failure, so that there is no instructional

time lost or any kind of interference in the classrooms. The only kind of difference between priority one, priority two is in priority two. On the bottom, you'll see device charging carts and bins.

This is just equipment where we store and charge our Chromebooks and laptops. And the entirety of the request is $1.669 million. Kevin, if you could progress to the next slide, please. This is the

infrastructure request. And it's important to note that we will be reimbursed for the request. There's two columns here. The leftmost column, which the grand total, as you can see, is $815,000. So

that is the total amount of value we expect to receive. However, the actual request to the planning board is only $163,000. We will be taking advantage of SBI, which is service provider invoicing,

where we do not pay out the full amount and then seek reimbursement. We simply pay 20% of the entirety of the cost. And the federal government, the e-rate program, picks up the rest when the vendor

invoices us and them at the same time. This allows us to lower the overall request to the planning board and hopefully give the rest of the team some breathing room. And that is one of the reasons we

have moved to the structure. So once again, even though the amount looks on the smaller side, $163,000, is actually $815,000 worth of value. In terms of what we're looking to do, the first line item

is just replacement of switches and routers, typical equipment that we need to continue to run the district and push the broadband and wireless access points is the actual aspect that goes in each

room and provides the wireless. CN firewall is a protective service that we get reimbursed for. UPSs are uninterruptible power sources. They allow the equipment to switch over to generators during a

power down and are important in maintaining emergency equipment during a power outage while the system switches over to the generator. The biggest part, which is on the bottom, is the data closet to

room wiring. So we actually are beginning the first phase of this project this year. We will be rewiring three of the schools. That is Dolan, Hart, and Davenport. And that will allow more speed both

on the hard line and over the Wi-Fi to flow directly to the classroom. Next year, we're hoping to expand that to six to seven schools and the following year, again, six to seven schools. And that

should complete the rewiring project. For those board members who have been on the board for a while, this is a continuation of the first phase of this plan where we increase the speed between the

data closets to 10 gigabytes. Now we're going to be pushing that speed into the classroom via CAT6A wiring. So this is just part of future-proofing our buildings and making sure that we have

connectivity for years to come. And we do plan to replace all the old wiring in the older buildings. Buildings that were more recently put up, for example, Westover, are not going to be our priority

target because they already typically have this type of wiring. But the buildings that are older, we obviously need to replace this in order to guarantee connectivity as the digital demands of

curriculum increase. We want to keep up with that and future-proof ourselves. And that concludes my portion of the presentation. OK. All right, thanks. And look, I'm just going to make a quick comment

first. We've, in a sense, come light years, I think, since 10 years ago when people remember Al Barbarata and some of the other firms that used to do the capital projects and such. And I just want to

give a shout out and a thank you to Cindy, particularly, Catherine, Kevin, Mike, Alec for your participation. I mean, and there's others behind them that really make the presentation and the

custodianship of our facilities a whole lot better than it was a decade ago. Maybe it costs more, I don't know, but it sure is more reassuring than in the old days. So is there any discussion on the

capital requests, both long-term, short-term? Yeah, Chris. Yeah, I had asked some questions earlier. And thank you guys for answering those. I just have two quick questions and I meant to ask them

four. So just to clarify, the total project for the long term is 24.9, but we're expecting a 10 mil reimbursement. So it's a net of 14, correct? Yes, and I know that question was asked in advance.

When you say a net of 14, just to answer the question that was asked previously or submitted to us was that the grant amount is an estimated amount based on our experience with projects and

reimbursement. So we are very conservative with our grant amounts. We try and think very conservatively, hoping to do better, even better than what you see before you. So the authorization, though,

has to be for the total amount, so the 24 million, yeah, 0.9. Makes sense. I have just a second part to that as well. Just curious, what are the criteria for reimbursement? Because some of these

projects are the same thing, like the automation and HVAC work. So is there a certain age it has to be? Is there a threshold on stuff like that? What is some of the criteria for reimbursement for the

stuff? I'm always happy to talk about reimbursement. So I think it's probably pertinent to the presentation. Reimbursement is-- HVAC actually is a new category that's been recently included for

reimbursement. It was not eligible in the past-- actually, for all of my experience prior to the past two years. So we are still finding our feet, so to speak, with eligibility, what will and won't be

eligible in HVAC projects specifically? I think we have a lot of success with our roofing projects, which we find, for the most part, have very limited ineligible items. But when something is deemed--

it may be necessary to the project, but unfortunately, not something reimbursable. So with a roof, we often try and receive a 30-year warranty on a roof. The state will cover the first 20 years. Now,

they may change their policy on that or the regulation on that at some point, but for now, we find that a 30-year with the seams and the mill thickness is a preferable roof for longevity. We get more

bang for our buck, so to speak. It's not just the warranty itself, but the actual construction. So there might be an item like that that's ineligible. It's often a very small percentage of the actual

roof installation project. Because I'm very familiar with West Hill, we often bid it as an alternate, so we have the number pulled out. I believe that the roofer for that project-- not to speak too

far out of turn, but the roof itself was in the million and change. And the extended warranty was something like $5,000. That's not always how it comes out. Every bidder does their system differently.

But just to give you a sense of eligible and ineligible, it really depends on the project and the items that are in the project. I hope that's helpful. But I think it's helpful for the public to

understand, too. OK. All right, Ms. Koch. Thanks, Mr. Chair. I had a question regarding the laptops and then the Wi-Fi, all that type of infrastructure. For that federal program, is that something

that we can consistently rely on, or is that new that came in for that? And I hadn't submitted this question before, so I totally understand if you need to get back to me on that. So I appreciate you

indulging me on that. Sure. The e-rate program is not new. We've been taking advantage of it since my arrival in this position. Even before, what we're hoping is that it will continue in the same

robust manner that it has. We rely on it pretty heavily. And it allows us, primarily through infrastructure spending to make sure that we have a functional digital organization. It is a really

important aspect of our continued functionality. And it allows us to operate at a very high level. So yeah, it's been around for many years. We hope it will continue. There are repeat challenges to it

every couple of years or so. And there is a pretty serious one now. So I'm crossing my fingers and keeping very close ear to the ground, because the elimination of that program would be a serious blow

to the entire state, not just us. Every school district very much relies on this. Thank you. If there's any way that us as a board can advocate and be supportive, we do engage with our state

delegation. And so if we can do a similar way with however other level of governance for this program, I'm happy to help advocate in that sense. And then my second question was regarding the 10

gigabyte project. You said after-- so in two years, it'll be complete. Is that for all of our school buildings or is that just for the middle schools? So every building right now other than the old--

well, the current West Hill has the 10 gigabyte coming in and through the data closets. And over the next-- this year and the next two, what we're going to do is we're going to flow that speed into

the actual classrooms. And that will be the rest of the buildings. The only ones we are not going to do are the ones that are going to be built brand new, because they're going to come with a brand

new wiring. And buildings that have been constructed more recently-- so this is your Strawberry Hill, Westover-- we'll look at-- we do believe that the wiring that they currently have is sufficient

for the next number of years, and maybe we will attack them in the next E-rate cycle when we're done with this one and expanded all of its money. And the idea is to make sure that speed is available

in all of our facilities. And just to clarify, the 10 gigabytes will only ever really flow on fiber wire. You're never going to get-- or at least some of this in the next year or two, you're not going

to get 10 gigabytes into the classroom. But what you are going to get is as much of that 10 gig share within the building via the CAT6A wire, which, depending on the distance, can carry as much as a

clean gigabyte to the classroom. Just to give you a little comparison, we now have, depending on the age of the wire and the distance, we could have as little as 100 gigabytes-- I'm sorry, 100

megabytes to 50 megabytes reaching a classroom. So getting a full gigabyte is going from like 50 to 1,000. So that'd be the biggest improvement. But in a lot of areas, we're already at like 300 range.

So it'll still be almost a doubling of broadband speeds. Thank you. Appreciate that. Thanks. Alec, I want you to come and wire my house. There's better words. I'm just a little bit curious. And I know

this is not with the budget. But I know for a fact there are some families that still don't have Wi-Fi or internet. I know during the pandemic, that was something that was offered to some families.

Are they still happening? Are we still offering that? I'm just curious. And I know this is not part of this budget. But that's one question. And then I have a second question after. Sure. I'm assuming

you're referring to the Wi-Fi hotspots that we're giving out. Right, OK. So yes, we do still offer Wi-Fi hotspots. We give a few to each building and then the Welcome Center. We also send some. I will

say that through monitoring, we often learn that the initial demand or the requests that start at the beginning of the year don't necessarily translate into usage throughout the full year. And it

typically drops off. And the amount of requests has really become relatively stable. Like during the pandemic, we were giving out obviously hundreds of these things because the daily operations of the

cluster now. We're-- I think we have less than 100 hotspots out, probably much more closer to 40 or 50, and probably only 30 really actively distributed. So it isn't a large expenditure. Typically,

some of the more transient population uses it during some transitional periods. And then they come back and they go to the next family. So we do have them available, but it isn't a large quantity. So

if a family needs it, they can still come and ask? Yep, either at the Welcome Center or in the building themselves. We haven't run out about that in the last couple of years. It's been slow requests.

And usually, after a couple of months, sometimes they're brought back because Wi-Fi and connection has been established. OK, thank you. My next question is to Kevin. Kevin, what is done with the

disposal of all materials? And also, when you presented about some of the trucks and things like that. And the reason I bring it up is because during the summer, and my running and walking time behind

Ripa One, remember seeing some old trucks with the city really out there. And I felt like, why are those trucks here in this, you know, Ripa One parking space? So just curious to know more about it.

Thank you. Yeah, no problem. So the city has a local ordinance that anything over a value of $1,000 needs to-- potential value needs to be auctioned before you can dispose of it. Ripa One is our

collection site. We are putting the majority of those items up on the auction, hopefully in the next couple of weeks. But that is where Board of Ed trucks rest and Chartwell's trucks as well are back

there. And there is a couple of pieces of equipment that we are going to auction off. Hopefully that answered your question. Yeah, it's ice source. That's the only thing, especially, you know. So we

shouldn't be there. But thank you. Yeah. Yeah, trying our best to move it along to get rid of them. We understand the perception. OK. OK, any other questions? Before we go to a vote on this, I just

want to ask a process question, mostly for Dr. Talley and Cindy. We vote on the budgets tonight. We go to the planning board, boom. The planning board does what they do. Then it goes through the

process, you know, the mayor. Again, the capital budget, the mayor does have an effect, finance board, Board of Reps. Do we as a board of Ed get a chance to just review one more time what the final

capital budget will be? In other words, in May, kind of like what we do with the operating budget, sort of a reallocation as necessary. So to a point, yes, you do. You'll see what they finally give. I

want to make sure that I'm understanding the last part of your question. Are you saying then that the board then readjusts how we're spending the money? I just want to understand that piece that

you're asking. Yeah, I guess that's what I'm getting. I just want the board to understand what their role is or what the expectation is so that, in other words, if we have 15 projects that are going

to be able to be addressed given the final appropriation from planning board and the process and the board of reps, ultimately, if the board of Ed wanted to prioritize-- I'm just going to make stuff

up here-- like a roof at one school over a field at another school, does the board of Ed get a say in that, I guess? Because in prior years, it has gotten, I think, a little messy in terms of trying

to understand what is the board of education's role in that. And I'm going to let Catherine answer as well. I believe-- I don't think it's required that the board of Ed vote on this again. And I don't

think we've come back if we've been cut. And Andy, I do want to just explain-- I think Catherine mentioned it-- and be clear that the list that Catherine presented is a priority list that was worked

on in-depth with Kevin, Mike, and Catherine. Those are also projects that are derived from the long-term facilities plan. And they are projects that are either next in line from the long-term

facilities plan or were projects from a prior year. We go year-- we start with last year's list that anything that was not either approved just because of budgeting or we just-- it wasn't high enough

on the list. So I just want to say that, yes, I think that the board of Ed, you can ask to see the project list again. But I just want to be clear that the determination of those priorities are really

based on the need in the district. So-- I don't-- that's perfect. Cindy, I'm trying to establish more or less an understanding on the board of what their role is so that there isn't this problem in

January. Oh, great. And Andy, I think what you may be-- and I hear what you're saying, because I know also, you and I have been around for a lot of years. And I do think that prior to the long-term

plan, that year over year, it wasn't a process. It was a new year, new projects. What should we put on that list versus the long-term plan really is driving our work now, which is actually the way it

should be. My comment before was, sometimes when there was leftover money, all of a sudden, it went to a new project that was never even on a list. That's right. So that was the thing. Just was making

that point. Thank you. More commentary, Ms. Koch and then Dr. Hammond. Thank you, Andy. Just something to-- I thought about them. This is a really great point you brought up. Other than the board

members individually following this process, like going to the planning board meeting, going to the board of reps meeting, or trying to directly communicate with the mayor's team, has there ever been,

and is there a way for us to almost get a briefing as every step goes through? Is there typically-- are there board minutes that come out that kind of summarize what some discussion was when it got to

the next board and the next board? Other than us going to the meetings and taking our time to do that, is that something that you think the board could do? Or as a team, administrative team, we can

try to create that process? I'm just curious, because I think it's very relevant too. I think our interests as our board and wanting to make sure that a lot of these projects do see through, because

we recognize how crucial it is to the education of the students that we're overseeing and the staff and everyone. So I'm just trying to figure out if there's an efficient way to do that, to have that

process go through with the board just being knowledgeable. And if it's a simple answer of, will you guys just got to go to every meeting and see, I think that's fine. I'm just curious about some

thoughts around that. And we can get back to it too. We can always follow up a different time. If the operations committee meeting, the board we present there, each month we determine whether or not--

one, if there's a meeting and what the content of those committee meetings should be, as Kathryn is going, who presents capital budget to the boards, and Kevin for short term, and Alec certainly at

the next operations committee meeting, or the one after, depending upon the timing of those other board meetings, we certainly can come back and give an update as to where we are and what the outcome

of those meetings have been. Or obviously any other questions that you as a board want to send through Dr. Talley's office, we can certainly answer. Yeah, I think that'd be great. That's something

that we can do. Definitely talk to operations committee folks on that. Dr. Hammond. Thank you. Teaching and learning are our priority. We have a brand new superintendent, and we'll be going over board

goals. I understand that we worked through our operation committee with this branch here, but I think it's vital that, Andy, we do have another special meeting to bring this attention to our

community, our parents, our taxpayers. Because I do not like last minute changes either. And we have seen how this budget and planning board operate. I suggest we are proactive as a board and step

forward and plan a special meeting if we need to. It is vital. The amount of money going into capital projects is huge. Taxpayers are concerned. They have every right to know every detail. And so I

think if we're going to be transparent, we call a special meeting. It is important we do this for our community. Thank you. I think ultimately, again, what we do tonight is we approve what's been

presented. And then, again, the machinery through the municipal administration goes through. And we can have a special meeting in January, or it can be part of a regular meeting in January, to go back

over this. But ultimately, whatever the city approves is the appropriation. In other words, there's nothing we can do to change the appropriation. And to Cindy's point, as we approve this, we're more

or less approving the priorities that they've established. Not that things don't change or something. And I mean, we can sort of indicate perhaps a change. Ultimately, though, it does beg the question

of the Board of Ed's authority over changing the priority of certain projects may be limited. Yeah, but we do have a new superintendent who has a different look at details. But I really believe that

we need to be as transparent as possible. It is just key. And the amount of tax dollars coming out of our pockets is humongous. But kids are our priority. And I think if we need to call a special

meeting and say, hey, we need to relook at priorities, we should be able to do that. We can advise, not that we would dictate. But I just think it's important. We have one of the biggest capital

budgets right now. That's all mine. I understand. Yeah, Dr. Townley. I don't want to delay the call of the vote. I just want to say one quick thing. I was involved in these decisions that were made

with regards to the priorities. We, Cindy, Kevin, Katherine, and I have been looking at this all very carefully. So I don't want people to think that we were not involved. And so that's all I want to

say before you call the vote. Perfect, thank you. Any other commentary? OK, if I go back to the resolution, the resolution is actually approving both the long term and short term capital. So as that

stands, all those in favor of approving both the long term and short term capital. And this is a full board vote. So this will be binding then going forward. So full board, all those in favor, please

indicate by raising your hand. I see Prasad, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and Julie is not here. So I see 8 in favor, which would imply there's no opposition, no extension. Then the motion carries 8-0-0 to

approve both capital long term and short term budgets. OK, great. Thank you. That is the only item on this special meeting, so I will move to adjourn. Do I have a second? A second from Dr. Worley. Any

discussion? I assume not. All those in favor of adjourning? I think I see everybody, so I'm going to assume it's 8-0-0. And thank you all, and we'll see you next week.