Opening call to order.
All those in favor? David, do the invocation, please?
Let us pray. Heavenly Father, thank you so much for your many blessings, for allowing us to be here tonight, or be with our children. Go through this year. Thanks once again. That's this meeting.
And for the pleasure of allegiance.
We
have the approval of the agenda.
So moved, Mr. Chairman.
All those in favor?
Any opposed?
Prove of the minutes for October 27, 2014.
One point.
I think I may have misspoke last week when we talked about the land purchase with Grand
Shrine of Water and Sewer.
It should be seaside elementary instead of soccer.
Need to flag that in the minutes.
If we could go back to the approval of the agenda, as usual, it was just pointed out,
I made a mistake.
On the first executive session, we'll add a personnel discussion and add it to the
negotiates pertaining to the purchase of property and the executive session.
The second one for the evaluation of the superintendent will not be on the agenda.
Can we re-approved that agenda, please?
I move. Second. All those in favor. Any input? Thank you.
I have no public comments.
That correct. We did not miss anybody. And I do not believe we have any
recognitions tonight.
Honoring report, college and career readiness Edward Boyd.
Board members, I think you have this information in your packet. It's well documented.
these results were shared a couple months ago. I'll give you about a one minute highlight and
then answer any questions. The SAT scores as you saw, the class of 2013, followed the class of
2012 that had the historic gain, and they gained 30 points two years ago. We lost 31 this year,
so we're back to a more normal SAT pattern. The ACT also had a slight drop, but the interesting
feature on the ACT is that we had 16% more of our students who took that test this year,
and for the first time ever, this district had more students who took ACT than took SAT.
The AP results are the shining star of this monetary report because we had a record number
of students who took AP courses.
We also have a record number of students who passed the AP exam by scoring three or higher.
and Ori County was one of five districts in the state that was named an honor
role district for performance on AP. The graduation rate is also that's the
on-time four-year graduation rate which means the students who enter the
ninth grade and graduated exactly four years later is at the highest point it's
been four years that's 78.8%. That's the summary of the four components and I'll
that ask for any questions. Any questions, comments? Edward, is there any particular reason
why those test scores went down?
I don't have an answer for that. I think that the question
probably is why was there such a gain last year? It's just two different classes of students.
The class of 2012 was no better prepared than the class of 2013 when you look at the course
work that they took. I think last year we were surprised to have a 30-point gain and would
not have been surprised to see a regression back to more of the pattern that we had seen
over the last five years, but we didn't anticipate a 31-point drop. It's just when you got
two different classes of students and they only schooled accounts on your SATs is the last
time you took it. So I don't really have an explanation because every indicator that
that we tried to think that they would do better, it was possible, they just didn't do
as well on the SAT.
Mr. President.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
What is the distribution between those taking the SAT and those taking the ACT and our
high schools?
How are they directed for any particular test, or is it just...
that my valina Allen might answer the counseling that they get to take the test. I think the
percentages students who took the SAT was about 42 percent this year and the ACT was
about 45 percent if I don't have those numbers right off the top of my head but it was real
close but more students took the ACT. Now those could be duplicates because a lot of students
take both.
That was of the senior class. Right. Just to see just just measure
against the senior class. Right. So if you took it in the eleventh grade your
school would still count against this class that you graduate with even if you
didn't take it again your senior year.
That's correct.
Thank you Edward. By the way
if you join on your iPads I do have the list of speakers up here but if you raise
your hand, that's fine too.
New preventive report.
I want to share a couple of things before Miss Ambrose comes up and talks about differentiated
instruction that's going on in the district. I want to pass this around. This is a keeping
pace with K-12 digital learning. This is an 11th edition that's published. It's a national
publication. In Oory County Schools is listed in here. We're one of seven public school
districts that are listed and it gives a two-page district snapshot of what's going
on in our county.
So I think this is a source of pride for all of us that we're featured in a National
Magazine.
I'll pass that around.
Also in the last week we learned that a new book called Blended using disruptive innovation
to improve schools by Michael Horn and Heather Staker and with a forward by Clayton Christensen
and has just been published and in the introduction,
there is almost an entire page on Ori County Schools
and the work that we're doing in our district.
So I'll pass that around too,
but just two sources of evidence
that people are watching what's going on here
and that they think that we have got
something that's worth watching and worth writing about
and that should be a source of pride for you.
I also asked Belinda Allen to share about an award that one of our administrators has received.
As Allen, do you recall, evidently that email didn't go through.
Well, you can tell about that, but also one of our learning specialists that was recognized for,
I have to pull out my email, why don't you tell us about the student and I'll see if
I can find that,
that was it, thank you for sharing and now I'm going to ask Ms. Ambrose
to come and talk about some things that we're doing to ensure that we address students
that are high performing and struggling and those in the middle.
I may have to ask Luke, oh I see it now, Lucas loaded this for me.
Having trouble, I can help you.
Back in the spring, Ms. McElrath had some conversations with myself and Edward Boyd about
differentiation of instruction, and she went back to this visual.
I've loaded it up on your screen.
We use this visual to talk about access to the curriculum because we know based on the
research that's coming out of the University of Oregon and we've signed the
authors here that students 80 to 90 percent can access that core grade level
curriculum and they'll be successful with some supports. We know that we have
to differentiate and so we have strategic interventions in the yellow and then
the red stands for intensive interventions. The right hand side of that
diamond and this is the Worry County take on that model. The right hand side stands
for students working above grade level, and the left hand side stands for students working
below grade level. And the reason we turned this into a diamond, it was originally a triangle,
is that we felt like we needed to look at more than just students who were struggling. We felt
like we needed to look at all students. So this visual has been around a long time. It predates me.
It got its start over a decade ago, but we've repeatedly gone back to this visual to remind folks,
good solid grade level instruction and differentiation that's key and we believe
that's what's gotten us or we know that's what's gotten us to the 78th National
percentile in 2012 for the fifth grade math our elementary math in this
district has historically been very strong and if you get it at root causes about
why it looks the way it does it's because you've got good solid grade level
instruction we use the everyday math program and elementary and then you
differentiate, they actually have an additional period in the day where students are regrouped
and the teachers were doing that by hand and they've been doing that for a long time.
With the advent of digital content, some of those strategies have become less labor-intensive
and I'll talk about that in a moment.
But Ms. McArouse concerns and their good concerns.
She worried that folks would look at this diamond and think, oh, the book of our kids are going
to be just fine and sitting in a grade level,
and getting grade level instruction.
And that's not the case.
We know we've got to differentiate.
We've got to try to personalize for students.
And the days when I taught the best thing you could do
was to pull a small group aside.
And those days, I had a lot of students in my classroom.
And I would ask them to come in early before school,
keep a macro school, work with them in a small group,
try to work with them one on one.
But you're responsible for making sure
that you've got the other students actively engaged.
and that was always a challenge.
This visual is a visual that Heather,
she and based on the conversations we had
with Miss Macarath helped us put together
this past summer, and what she did is she actually
went into a middle school.
She pulled the uprising sixth grade,
the sixth graders coming in,
and she plotted where the students are
and their percentiles.
And then she went in for us through lots of conversations
back and forth about what we wanted to see
and how we thought this visual would have helped us.
She plotted past exemplary, and that's that black dotted line.
We just made an estimate, and if you see the Twitter icon, that's because we actually
used this in conversations with the administrative team when they came together in August.
They each brought five member teams to Kingston Elementary School for two days, and we used
this visual.
So sometimes when we have these meetings, we'll tweet out or try to take questions and try
to collect all the thoughts of the group.
but that red line stands where we estimate based on new assessments, and we don't know 100% yet what that assessment will be.
We think we know what it's going to be, but the announcement's not being released yet officially.
But we know that it'll be a next generation assessment, meaning it'll be more rigorous than anything we've given before.
So working with Edward Boyd and working with Heather and working with the instructional team, we went in there and handed through that red line.
and then we looked at how many students coming into sixth grade fell below that red line and if this works,
if it works, let me back up the way it's supposed to. Well, we had a J sliding in there which stood for a J curve.
And the theory behind a J curve is get everyone to a particular point to try to close that gap.
We're always going to have students that are working at different levels.
And the goal really is to get them to where they need to be on the grade level.
Not necessarily.
We don't want to put a ceiling on the students who are achieving at very high levels, but
we want to make sure the students that are struggling or who on grade level, we want
to make sure we get them to a specific point in time where they should be for grade level
so they're not behind.
So that's the tweaking that we did to that visual.
And in conversations with Ms. McAuff, we described the screeners we have in place, and this
This is actually just one page out of an entire iBook.
We put together multiple, multiple sources of information that schools can use in their
data teams.
And what we ask them to do and what we do here at the district level is we look at those
This map results every time maps administered.
And at the school level, they're taking every single student through this protocol. So we have a protocol for elementary. We have a protocol for middle. We have a protocol for high school. We have protocols for math. We have protocols for reading. So we're constantly taking each individual student, looking at them through that lens and deciding who needs an intervention. The reason that the protocols are important is that you wouldn't want a student getting an intervention based on just what the allocation of resources happen.
to be at that particular school. We know you as a board want some consistency and some
continuity and you care deeply about the performance of all the schools and all the children
in all the schools in the county. So we try to put some standardized protocols in place.
So it's not just happenstance or what's developed at a particular school so that we have some
continuity across the system. So that's just one example. They take
math. We look and see who can be successful in that core, who's going to be successful
with some strategic interventions who needs, who needs really intensive interventions so we're
constantly adjusting data. As you walk through our schools you'll see things like data notebooks.
This is actually a page out of Mr. Washburn's data notebook. He put that in place this year at
Murdle Beach High. He's looking at long-term instructional plans. He's looking at map, HFAP and of
course. He's looking at benchmark analysis. He's having conversations with teachers. So instead of
putting their date on a wall, that particular high school decided to put it in a notebook
and each teacher keeps it and brings it with him or her when they come into the principal
for a conference or when the principal or the administrative team visits that classroom
the teacher often has that book available to that admin team and they use it in their collaborative
planning.
This is a shot from Gracie Floyd's Elementary.
We have some common aspects of our wall.
one of the things we're trying to work on this year is what what should a wall
look like? Instead of leaving it up to each individual site, what are some
suggested guidelines? That doesn't mean we would require every school to do their
data wall the same way, but we would have some suggested guidelines that they could
turn to for support. So this is a shot from Green Sea Floyd's Elementary. This is
our first grade, Dibble's Next. This is a science benchmark this wall. When I saw
All this while, it took my breath away, and again, it's from green sea floids.
They had all the standards listed there and the indicators, and this is not a close-up
shot and you can't see it.
But when they list all the science curriculum for the grade level, they can plot those students
in terms of what they've mastered.
So they know when they come into that room for common planning with the coach, where they've
got to make adjustments in the instruction to try to make sure that all students master it.
This is a big step, isn't it, Mr. Poston?
We've come a long way in regards to really trying to dig inside that science and social
studies data.
We know that you set that as a goal for us and we've paid attention.
So basically those are the slides that I had that I wanted to share and I wanted to leave
the bulk of the time open for questions or conversation because I know Ms. McGrath's
about this and I know she wanted the board to have some conversation about this at
retreat and I was unavailable at the retreat due to illness well
yeah I wasn't sure if you wanted
to break in or not because
yes
I'm not sure
No, that's a really good point, Mr. Poston.
They also, in addition to those data walls, have data, most of the teachers at the elementary
have some type of data notebook, and the other thing is those data walls, not for science
and not for social studies, but for L.A. and math, to make sure that it's not just a minimum
standard, they pay attention to percentiles, and that's a fairly new twist on those data
walls for the system to really, because if a student grows, if you come in in your
high achievement student at the 95th percentile in the fall, you could grow that
number, that RIT score, but if you are less than the 95th percentile you lost
ground. So that's there. You can't see that on those particular walls because those
sites and social studies probably, we don't get percentiles back from that state
assessment, but on the ELA and math, you'll get percentiles and their pain
attention, did they move that percentile?
We're trying.
And we're
probably doing it.
You always ask great questions, Mr. Post, and yes, we'll continue to emphasize that,
but we are trying to make sure that we grow that top end.
Looking both ways now, yes.
Go ahead, Karen. And we bring up the PowerPoint of the page with the
diamond in the tweet on it, please.
The diamond with the, please, right there.
Okay, so from that diamond, I'm seeing the bulk of our students
range from the 26 to 75 percentile.
And I'm wondering if there are students in that range
that are maybe just below grade level,
but still not qualifying for,
Let me describe the process and see if that answers the question.
At the school, when they sit down, after we'll have a map administration midpoint
the year, we have a map administration in the fall, they sit down and they use that protocol
as a guide.
However, teachers have the opportunity to provide input and we know that a data point is
one point in time and that doesn't necessarily, you really need to look at multiple points
of data.
In regards to the students in the 26th to 75th percentile, they have a lot of supports
that they provide at the building level.
They run the four school programs, they often open up their computer lab, they run after
school programs, they do some pre-teach, re-teach, pre-teach means if I have a student that's
a little wobbly and those skills aren't secure, I may give them a heads up on the lesson and
pull a small group.
So they try to get at a lot of this through small group instruction.
another way that we really think has a lot of potential and promise will be the
digital content because when you take a map assessment right now we've got
content that auto merges with that map assessment so if all of you were to be
administered the map assessment your scores and those stringent areas would roll
into a backpack that would have Karen, Harvey, Jimmy, K would have your name on it
and those skills are particular to you.
So you can be at the computer in the classroom,
side by side, and working on different skills,
or you can be working before school or at home,
but you can be working on skills that are pertinent just to you.
So there's content now that's even more adapted than that.
That particular provider is a provider of digital content.
We've had around a long time, and it only merges
when you do a map merge.
Unless the teacher goes in there and overrides that,
and the teachers do have the opportunity to do that.
And if they see that Susie needs work on a particular skill,
they can go in there and adjust those lessons.
But the newer content adapts on the fly as you take it,
just like the map assessment adapts
and will take you as far as you can go.
The new digital content can do that.
So as you move through, it'll adjust
and you can go and go and go until you've mastered.
And so you can be in a classroom doing the same,
everybody on a computer in a lab or five kids in the computer or everybody can have their
own device and they can be working at their own pace.
So in terms of differentiation, one of the strategies we think has the most prog promise
is that digital content and the blended learning.
You mentioned before and after school health but that's not going to help kids who are dependent
upon bus transportation.
That's right.
The buses before school, that's actually when they try to capture those bus riders because
the buses roll in fairly early because they often, you know, they make them run.
So your bus riders, when you're an elementary school principal, those are the ones that are
their first, typically.
So they'll put them in a lab or even in a classroom, utilize digital content.
But we're very thankful for the digital content.
we're very thankful for the PDL initiative because before we had these tools
teachers did the best they could do. It was hard to manage and juggle all those
groups. It's still hard work. Don't get me wrong but the digital content takes
some of the labor out of it. We're very grateful for that.
So with the PDL, are we
to understand that next year when we get the test scores like we just got the
federal test scores at the PDL that's been put in place this year is going to make those
scores better. We're going to have different test, Ms. Graham, and it's a test unlike we've
had before. The test we took last year was passed, that was tweaked, to be more common
core like, so it was a harder test. And the map test that we gave was the common core version
of the map test. South Carolina is getting new standards. Our teachers haven't seen those
standards for next year yet they're still teaching common course standards. We
haven't seen the assessment. Any time it's as long as I've been with the school
system and I've been here a while whether it's been a teacher or a sister
principal or principal or a district office administrator any time we take a test
for the first time I have always seen us not look so good that first
administration and then I've watched Ori County Schools climb back out of that so
So I do not anticipate us looking great with the new assessment.
I don't think the state of South Carolina will look great with the new assessment.
And that's typically what we've seen in Kentucky and New York and some of the states that
are farther along and ahead of us in the testing.
So we won't take that test that we took last spring.
It'll be a different test.
Do I believe that PDL has the promise to help us improve?
I do.
Do I believe it's going to be a journey?
I do.
It changes the role of the teacher, the teacher has to be an analyzer of data, it changes
the role of the principal, it changes what we look for when we're inside classrooms,
it's a whole new way of teaching, and frequently when you have a new initiative you have what's
called an implementation de-up, I don't anticipate a de-up because we're already going to de-up
because it's a new tape, we're going to be low because it's a new tape, I don't think
we'll be the lowest in the state of South Carolina, but I do not anticipate South Carolina looking
very well and I don't anticipate many districts looking very well on the new
assessments. I know that's a convoluted answer and I'm sorry but it's a
different test.
I do want you to know Miss Graham we are working hard
indiligently on we we do data teams at the district level and I know that all of
you care passionately about the school system and the children in it. We have
data teams and we dig inside that data looking for for causes and looking for what
we can do to support schools as they try to improve student learning in the buildings.
So we realize we've got some spots that we've really got to be diligent about and provide
some extra support and attention.
Any other questions?
Thank you.
I would need a motion to go into executive session, 8.24, we'll go in at B to date 35, is that
good?
I'm sorry.
6.24.
or I should look through my glasses.
It might help.
First, I want to let you know that the advocacy group
with the votes, the same people are going,
but we have two extra votes
and we'll split them between the two most senior members.
And I believe it's Karen and Janice,
you're both going correct.
No, you're not going.
Janice, are you going?
Yes.
and who else, and I believe you to a B.A. But anyway, just to let you be aware of it.
And Janet, we have a motion to go into executive session, closing favor, and he imposes.
All those in favor, say aye. Any opposed? We're going to move item D up to the beginning so that we have some people who need to leave. Possibly even save the district money. I don't know. Do we have a motion on item D? Consider approval, purchase of property.
Okay, Pam. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I'd like to make a motion to authorize a purchase of five adjacent parcels of land,
and totaling 20.38 acres collectively referred to as the Wall Estate and located off of
Sockistee Boulevard for $1.84 million as the proposed site for replacement.
Motion to have a second.
Any discussion?
All those in favor say aye.
Aye.
Any opposed?
Consider capital finance plan, John Gardner.
Good evening.
What we have for you today is a capital financing plan that we spoke to at the last meeting,
and just a little bit of background information.
Back in September 30th, 2013, the Board actually approved a funding, well, actually approved
a facility plan of $314 million.
That plan was later revised on June 9th, 2014, an amount of $427.6 million, and then we
We also revised, again, on July 28, 2014, an amount of $451.6 million.
During all this time, the board asked us to work on a financing plan with these parameters,
they directed us to develop a financing plan that would not require an increase in milleach,
nor would it require a result in a bond referendum.
Well, working with our financial advisor, Mr. Nurk, who was here back in October, we ran
several financing scenarios. Looking at both the project scope, the project timing of the projects
and also the available cash flows. At the May 19th meeting, the financing plan was presented that
did not require an increase in mileage or require a bond referendum. Well, based on the most recent
capital plan of $451.6 million, the financial advisors developed a financing plan that were
result in 488.5 million of funding provided through educational capital sales tax and the
issuance of 8% general obligation bonds.
So it's the administration's recommendation to the board approve the capital financing
plan that includes the utilization of the educational capital sales tax and the issuances because
there could be two issuances of the 8% general obligation bonds and a amount not to exceed
the 156.89 million and before issued any debt the administration will bring back a resolution
to the board for approval.
We have a recommendation any questions comments or make a motion?
I'll be more than happy to make the motion.
This is the one regarding 156.89 million.
Yes sir.
I'd recommend that we approve the capital financing plan that includes the utilization of the
education capital sales tax issuance of 8% general obligation bonds in the
amount not to exceed 156.89 million.
That's good. Do we have a second? Any
discussion? All those in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? No opposed.
And I believe
of your still-upness, Mr. Cardinal,
consideration, refinance bonds.
And this is a resolution that is on your iPad.
Am I correct?
We would be making a motion to approve that resolution.
That is correct, sir.
One of the other things our financial advisor does for us,
he looks at our outstanding debt and looks for opportunities
for the district and state money,
and typically how they would happen is interest rates would drop
and we'd be able to refinance some of that.
He shared with the board at the October meeting that there was two issues he was identified
to 2005 B and 2006 A issues and based on current market conditions the district could experience
over 15.6 million in net savings or 10.25 net present value savings as a result of the transaction.
What you have there is the McNair law firm whose our bond council has prepared to close resolution
for the issuance of bonds in a mountain not exceed $129.75 million for review and approval
by the Board of Education.
Defend upon financial markets the district would pursue any refunding opportunity in which
a net present value savings of 5% or greater would be realized.
And typically that's the trigger when you want to look at refunding any bonds as a 5% net
present value gain.
And did I miss it? That saves $15 million correct?
Yes, that's correct, based on current market conditions.
Do we have a motion to approve the resolution?
Mr. Chairman, I move to approve the staff's recommendation.
Second, any discussion? All those in favor say aye.
Aye.
Any opposed?
Thank you very much.
You.
Janice.
I'd like to go ahead and move to cancel the request for qualification number 14, 15
dash 12 in its entirety.
First part of the motion.
That's my first part of the motion.
We have a second.
Excuse me, could you repeat that?
I moved to cancel the request for qualification number 14, 15 dash 12 in its entirety.
That has to do with what Ms. Tim has talked about at the last meeting with all the schools
and where we are in the bidding process.
Thank you.
Neil.
The only thing I want to make sure we clarify
is the discussion last week centered around the building
of the new schools by rescinding this RFQ.
We're also rescinding the other facilities
which was the addition at the middle and elementary
and the addition at North Merle Beach Medal.
Right.
And we have a second.
Any discussion?
All those in favor say aye.
Hi, I'm Harvey Nearne, SKC
Kimi, Janice, Neal, Janice,
you are recusing yourself.
Joy, David, Jeffrey, could
you get that?
I'd like to go ahead and move to proceed with new procurements for Karolina Forest,
Mertle Beach, Sockistee Middle Schools, St. James Intermediate Slash Middle, and Sockistee
Elementary Schools as high performance, energy positive schools, and that the delivery
method be selected and a new solicitation be issued as soon as possible.
The delivery method analysis must include the objective of high energy performance standards
and life cycle cost optimization and retain to the extent practical the prototypical conceptual
and program already developed.
And the question.
Question?
Yes.
She did not mention North Middle Beach Middle.
I have, I pulled those out separately.
These were all new drawings for the new designs of the Middle
Schools, Intermediate and the Sucka Siam entry.
I have a separate motion for our renovations.
It's very similar to that.
But you have a, you're going to have a third motion.
Yes.
Thank you.
Any discussion?
It's my understanding that by redoing this, we will still not negatively impact the delivery
date of the school's final construction.
We will not.
We have, I know that we had a meeting, or you had a meeting with the facilities management
earlier and they are very comfortable with that need date of the fall of 2017 being a completed
in advance of that.
Mr. Dean, can you confirm that for me?
I believe the delivery date would be approximately in the spring of 2017 rather than the summer,
so the new delivery date by following this process would be approximately three months
earlier, possibly more, but correct?
Yes, we're looking for a 2017 open date.
Do you have anything else?
No other discussion?
I've got a request to do that.
Janice, could you provide clarification?
When you say high-performance energy positive, is that requiring these schools to generate
more energy than they consume?
Is that a requirement of the RFQ?
I'd like us to be looking into that, but I'd like us to be able to have the solar panels
and to be like what we've been looking at at that.
Sandy, Sandy Grove, who's that?
Yes.
Because as I read it, there are a few now requires those buildings to be high-performance energy-positive school
You may want to and if that's your intent that's fine this chairman if that's your intent that's fine
I want to make sure that's our intent because if we can't achieve that
energy-positive schools
Then we're going to have no qualifiers. I think it is it our ambition to be energy conscious, which I think is a good thing
or is it our requirement that we have to produce energy out of these schools that's just
trying to clarify the motion, Janice?
I was just wanting to, I'm sorry, go ahead.
No, I was asking Janice.
Okay, go ahead.
No, I was looking to make sure that, I mean, I'm not worried about selling back to CNT Cooper,
I listened to the last meeting, but I want to make sure we are producing energy for these
buildings, not necessarily that it's going to be sold anywhere, but that we are producing
so that we do have lower electric bills, so that we are saving money.
Would we consider other alternatives besides solar powered energy-producing schools?
Would we consider lead schools, green globe schools, any of the other parameters out there?
Wind schools, nuclear schools, why does this have to be an energy-producing school?
And I make a comment on that.
I was just asking Jen on her motion, but if she could answer.
I was just basically going off of what we did the last time.
We've been talking about this energy positive school.
I thought it was something that was supported by the board that we wanted to go forward with,
which is why it was a part of my motion.
Okay.
I'm just going to make sure you're clear on your motion because I think it is a bit limiting
if we require our schools to be energy producing schools.
Those are my questions, and I'll finish with one comment.
If we want to be an energy producer, we have a lot of opportunities in this district,
but solar powers on top of our district office, we can put solar panels on top of our existing
elementary schools.
If being an energy producer is the ambition of this district, I'm a little afraid that we're
limiting ourselves as a board, if we're only saying this is our only option.
This is what we want to be, and we're not looking at everything else that's out there.
I think that I think if we opened up and looked at the different options out there, not saying
that we may not come back to this one, I think we may be fairer and be more thorough
in our investigation of energy saving methods.
It's evident to me that it's important to this board to save energy.
Energy has begun a big part of our conversation, sometimes I wish education would be as big
part of our conversation.
energy has been over these last two weeks, but if it is a big part of our conversation,
if that is the ambition of this board, I would like, personally, one vote, to make
sure that we give ourselves the opportunity to look at other opportunities to be energy
savers besides energy-positive schools and that's the end of my comment.
My, anybody else, my thought on this, first of all, is we have three brand new schools
is opening up, that's going to cost us three to five million dollars. If we can reduce
our energy cost by approximately a million dollars a year, or even 800,000 or 1.2, that
is a million dollars worth of money we do not have to raise in order to operate those schools.
This is being done all over the country. I don't see it as anything radical or motion. I don't
believe said anything. I had to look at it when she handed it to me of what type of energy
I do believe from what we've heard solar is probably the way to go here, but if somebody
wanted to put a windmill up, I don't have any problem with that.
But I do want to save a million dollars a year.
We can control capital costs by building a school or not building a school.
Some reason will agree we cannot control that easily our expenses and our income on expenses
because it is constantly controlled by the state.
One year we think we're going to be $10 million short, we end up $10 million ahead in the next year with $3 million behind.
So I think with three brand new schools saving $1 million a year and its proximity is a good thing.
And I believe, and I don't know if he wants to expand on this, but it's been shown to me at a meeting afterwards after our last board meeting that it's even
and cost-effective to do this with existing schools.
But when we're building a brand new school,
I think it's extremely important to consider
these options.
Mr. Cox.
I thought that the last meeting we were talking about, energy neutral as well as energy positive. There's a names are kind of deceiving. Energy positive just means it will produce more energy than it uses. And whether you sell it back to the electricity company or not, that's a matter of law and policy and everything else. But an energy neutral school, I guess would be one that does not, maybe Neil can expand on this.
that doesn't use, it's just basically like a net zero, that would be a school that's
not connected to the outside world.
That's not what we're looking for. This is going
to be connected to the outside world. There may be times when we buy power and pay a power
bill, but the energy positive means that if you get a bill for $50,000, you receive a check
for 60. Do you actually make money off of the power more importantly? We have just been
having a major discussion on our utilities, $11 million a year, $8 million is electricity.
Green New Schools is going to, that's correct.
And if we can build these five schools and lower our costs, for me, that's what I would
like to do.
Who else?
Neil.
Mr. Chairman.
Obviously, this is something that involves something that's very near and dear to me.
So I spent a good bit of time over the last two weeks, I guess, for me rising myself.
for the components of energy and energy consumption
and truly trying to understand what the objective is.
I think the objective is to get to the point
that we have a net positive building
that can encompass many different design features
as well as other energy producing products
such as solar panels.
One of the things that we looked at,
or I looked at with some folks that I work with,
is, can we be net positive by retrofitting existing buildings?
Take this facility, could we install perhaps solar panels and get to a point that it is
net positive?
The answer is yes, but there were some assumptions made.
One was that we didn't factor in the cost of capital.
We just looked at a payback period.
We produce X amount, we sell X amount, we consume X amount, and we know what
that we were avoiding. For some examples that we ran, just brief cost benefit analysis
using the numbers from the Sandy Grove Project. And we had our folks, the folks that I work
with, they confirmed the numbers were valid. We found out that it's about 11.3 year payback
period for your investment. So if you were to install at that particular location, I think
was 589 megawatts of solar power. Over 11.3 years it would pay for itself and then from
that point forward it would be a revenue-enriching situation. There's also something that you
can do internal to the building where you reduce your demand. There's actually two components
of an electrical bill. One is the actual energy consumed. The second is the demand charge
that you're having to pay.
By utilizing some of the new high efficiency designs,
you will in effect reduce your demand
and also reduce your consumption.
But the demand is the thing that you really want to reduce
and that by incorporating some of these high performance
design features, you can reduce that demand
as well as the consumption.
Will you ever get to a net zero building?
I don't know, but I believe you can get
to a net positive building.
Anybody else?
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
I guess as I'm listening to the conversation, you know, I appreciate the Board's concern.
I know, I feel like, as I listen to you, the big concern of the Board is operational cost
going down the road right there with you.
It's something we have to look for, it's the sustainability of what we do in the future
to continue to build traditionally and continue to use operational costs I think would not be
being good stewards of what we're doing.
I go back to my fear being we're looking at a single thing.
We're talking to one person at the podium.
I won't hurt one consultant.
Maybe we had others not wanting here that night.
Nobody's talked about recycling rainwater to flush
commodes.
We do it all the time in greater buildings right now.
But nobody's talking about that.
For a water usage standpoint or cutting down
on water usage costs, nobody's looking at alternative
septic systems.
Septic does a cost.
Nobody's looking at alternative stormwater
measured, being promoted by the EPA, being promoted by the Clean Water Act right now.
Not just maybe a call savings to the job, but also an environmentally friendly design,
something we can teach our students.
I know I'm going to lose this conversation I can see it on your faces, I just hope we
don't limit ourselves with this motion going down a single road for a single product without
giving ourselves the opportunity to look at a lot of different things, a lot of different
designs, a lot of different opportunities.
can serve the citizens of Oregon County in our schools in the future. Thank you. Thank you.
Anybody else? Karen. So, Mr. Post, it's environmentally not
being
incorporated.
They can, but we're not requiring it.
Anybody else?
We'll vote on the issue, Harvey.
Oh, I'm sorry. You're asking for a vote? Yes, I'm sorry. I asked for any more comments. So,
we're
But would you say, David,
you have one more part of the motion?
I do, thank you.
I move to proceed with new procurements for additions, renovation of north fertile
each middle and midland elementary and that the delivery method be selected and new solicitations
be issued as soon as possible.
The delivery method analysis must include the objective of high energy performance standards
and life cycle cost optimization and retain to the extent practical.
any conceptual design and programming already developed.
We have a second.
Any discussion?
Could she repeat the motion, please?
Same thing except for the renovations.
I move to proceed with new procurements for additions and renovation of North Martle Beach Middle and Midland Elementary
and that the delivery method be selected and new solicitations be issued as soon as possible.
The delivery method analysis must include the objective of high energy performance standards
and life cycle cost optimization and retain to the extent practicable any conceptual
design and programming already developed.
Thank you.
Any comments?
Would Harvey?
Yes.
Aaron?
Amy?
Yes?
Hughes?
No.
I believe that's an under-business we have a consent agenda.
Second?
All those in favor say aye.
Aye.
Motion passes.
Do we have a motion to adjourn?
Second.
All those in favor.
Aye.
Any opposed?
Thank you.