All right. Good to go. >> All right. Call the meeting to order. The operation committee meeting for today, February 13th. Oh, not yet. Oh, I thought I thought it was Good to go. >> I will wait for the I'll wait for the >> right. >> No, our waiting audiences. >> Come on. There's thousands thousands of people, >> right? >> Waiting on a Friday. >> 26. >> 26. One of them was probably Dr. Lucal showing us the budget link on the website. >> It's all you. We're ready. >> All right. >> Thanks, Joe. Sounds good. >> All right. Well, welcome everyone. We'll call the February 13th operations committee meeting to order. Do a uh little call of roll here. Tony Sidowski present. >> Charlie Martin. That's all three of us here. And we will move on to >> section three, approval of the agenda. We have resolved that the Centennial School District Operations Committee 3.1 approves the February 13, 2026 operations committee agenda as per the attached. Are there any corrections that need to be made by Pennsylvania law? Second, sir discussion on this otherwise all in favor? I don't think there will be any nos because we all said yes. So we can move on three. Approval of minutes 4.1 approves the minutes from the operations committee meeting held last month on January 16th, 2026. Can I have a second on that? Any discussion of the minutes? All in favor? >> I 30. And on to presentations. >> All right. So, we've talked last month and I think in the month our weekly updates, we've talked about this grant that's available and I just want to get a consensus on because it's 75% of a program and I know where we're at with financially and what we're what we're trying to accomplish honestly. So I think in the in the weekly update I recommended one of the highest priorities we have is the clinger roof over top of the auditorium and gym is and God knows what's going to happen when this ice melts and lifts things and things like that. If I was to recommend just one I would recommend if you if you consensus of the full board that we do the cleaner middle school roof which we would we would have to commit to 4 $12,000 in order to do that. So, I want to put that back in your ballpark because March, we need to know soon because March is the deadline in order to apply for that grant and they cover 75% of the cost if we get it on, you know. So, just wanted to put that back in what your thoughts are and see if we could get a consensus to apply for that grant or not. I would >> one question if I might. How do we come up with the estimated project cost? As many times we have an estimate such as that and then when reality comes it's 3.2 million. >> So I did a assessment with TMCO who has warranties on multiple of our roofs in the school. They did a full building assessment for me of every one of our schools. Did a priority list of what's high priority, what's got 15 years left because I'm trying to do the solar thing also. And a lot of that comes down to available for it. We don't have any right now that are available for it. Um, so this is their estimate of what it costs to replace that roof on that. So it's it was done through a company that's done work for us and knows our buildings and things like that. >> We do this with at the end of the day a not to exceed number >> as it's reasonable number. >> Yeah. I mean he says it will be. So he when I talked to him he said this is a worst case scenario. He expected it could be less but you never know till you start pulling back a rubber roof. So they talk about you know underllayments and things like that having to be replaced. So I I am pretty confident that they know what they're talking about after going through this whole process with them. It's taken a few months to do it. It's not hasn't happened over overnight. I've walked the roots with them. We've talked about it. talked about what our needs are and where we're trying to get the solar. So, he gave me a full breakdown of every district. I'm confident that that's going to be really close to what it costs or less. >> Two questions. Will you then go out to RFP or bids and is the 25% sitting in the reserve? >> Yes. So, we do have that. My end of that is we do have that 25% that we haven't used even from this year that could roll over that we wouldn't had to add another $412,000 out of next year's budget as long as we roll this year's budget into that. So, that is correct. Great question. >> Do you have that same money for the FCS rooms? >> Yes. Depending on where they come. So, where I want them to come, we'll have the money. I'm hoping they they don't over they're going to probably overdesign a little and we're going to have to draw back. So, I have a number I want to land and some of that stuff we may not have to do. This is a full wish list, right? Hey, it costs us this, we can't afford that. Where do we cut and what can we do in house? Right? This is them doing every bit of it. If we have to pull back on FCS, we do the electrical in house and it saves us $30,000 $40,000 and we do the electric in house. We're yet to get to that point. We haven't come up with the final cost, but my hope is to draw a lot of that stuff back and we do it in house. I just want to know a full amount before I know where I'm going and everything that great question. >> Satisfied with that? >> I'm assuming the FT FTS rooms you'd go out to bid too. >> Yes. And that's all part of what we the package we paid through Barry Isizette to do was everything from these drawings, conceptual drawings to blueprints to electrical layout to everything. So everything will come through. It'll get all the permits will be done. They put it out for bid know that the bid is exactly what they're asking for and they compare them and then we decide which one we want to go with it. if we're gonna go with so come back >> recommendation or what what do you need from us like a recommendation that we agree to >> um I think this ahead >> Tom with the commitment of the $412,000 would that have to be >> yeah would that have to be something written from the board or the board president saying hey yes the board wants to move forward because we're going to have to supply a letter basically from the school district saying hey we're applying for We commit to paying this if we get the amount. would installation of solar and continuation of that projecting all three of those groups or would be able to start it. >> We can we can phase it in. >> We can actually phase it in right now with very minor repair at the bus garage. So that's a very small very low grab of amount of electricity but It is a start as a phase. Sure. So yes, we can phase it. >> Do have one other question. I know that they collapse. They collapsed. >> Yeah. Not the not the roof. This the internal ceiling collapsed. >> Yeah. >> So, is this part of the project to fix that drop ceiling as well or not? >> No, this is just the external roof itself. Keeping that thing watertight because it is not at the moment. It has come up as a discussion with this group and previous iterations of us before. We wanted to invest in as as said it's the ongoing expense not just the let's get them up and running facilities as they need to be again. It costs money on an ongoing basis. So is there an actual plan for it going forward that >> certific There's a lot $2 million. That's me by >> or would it just be that we we commit to you know a no more than 1200 to the grant. I'm not sure how we'd have to phrase it but whatever would work for the >> if we if we just put a hey not to exceed $500,000 >> you have a little wiggle room in there. >> Yes. I think that would be a >> big go to 2 million which is a good play. >> Then the biders would know that there was some limit they can't commit and bid the sky to put you know 150year roof on the building. >> Okay, great. Thank you. >> Tom, do you have anything to add for capital updates? I know you we've been talking about it for weeks now. Yeah. So, in front of you is drawings for conceptual drawings for the FCS rooms. I just put them out there just so you could look at them. I think they've done a fabulous job in layout. Um the changes in that are there's a full there's three normal like kitchen areas and then a fourth one now is going to be an 88 compatible where you can roll up to the sink, you can roll up to the uh the stove top. They have wall ovens. And then another change is they never had separate was a teacher station where they can have the class in front of them like have an island area where they can cook and it's actually either projected so the kids can see what's going on or there's a mirror so the kids can see what's going on. So it's an actual interactive they can see what's going on in the pan or pot. So that's how that was the idea of bringing this around is make sure we're compatible and the teacher actually has a location that I saw. >> Our decision is to go full electric. We have it available in the building and our thought is to go induction. So if there's not a pot on a hot plate, you know that you can't put your hand on that that electric range and burn your hand. So nobody can leave it on and it can just sit there and be hot. Somebody can lay something on there or put their hand on it and burn them. So I mean and they're not really much more expensive than than a regular electric range is anymore. They're >> both rooms identical. >> They're really close. They all have the same not quite layout but they all have the same number of stations because they're a little bit different in size and you know but they all have the same number of stations and everything available. Yes. >> Again city. >> Yes. >> This is not a there's no grant for this you know currently nothing for this currently. Most of it's for cap capital projects that are grants are for like HAC units or bigger things like that like groups and things like that. This doesn't fall under that. >> This is a Have you ever This is a project. No, not must I can't say it must be done. I'm not gonna I'm not going to say that. It is a project that pushed off I know for many years. Probably you know that better than I because you've been around but I know it's been going on. They've been trying to make it happen for year after year after year. The one at Clinger is in a space about slightly bigger than that room now. Has four stations in it. And the sinks actually go into a pump and get pumped up through the ceiling out of a pipe and into a into a drain. So it's not If you saw it, you'd be like, "Why are we doing what? This is awful." >> Terrific. >> Yeah, it really is. And log isn't that bad. It's just outdated and starting to fall apart and, you know, it's either we repair a bunch of things or we redo it. I think it's, in my opinion, it's time to do that. >> They wanted it for a number of years, didn't get it. do to the best of their ability with half working equipment yet. Well, one of the things too that's changed is they they from what I understand and I don't know how many years ago they pushed that wasn't a big concern that FCS or home went kind of went away and then when they brought it back they've cobbled things together to make it happen but they don't have enough space currently for the number of students that are in the FCS class classes also. So the work the the load or the demand for the course is actually growing. >> I don't know that >> and I don't know if it's mandatory. I'm not I'm not an educator. I don't know if it's one of the electives >> and I I would have to check. I think all students at least do FCS one and there's a second so that he can take as an elected. I do know there's a bigger bigger larger amount of students that are taking their classes now than were I don't know how many years ago five eight years ago. So um all of this is nothing has changed on these capital project wise budget wise the same. We've been talking about budget for weeks now. We know all that's going um so one thing to be for myself to be presented to the board. We went out for bid for our emergency generator and our fire pump maintenance contract and we did a two-year because the last time I did a three year, the company I wasn't happy with. I found them doing things they weren't supposed to do. Guess let's just put it that way. I wasn't happy with their service and what they were doing. Um, so this is the results of that. I'm recommending the one for 1794358 for the 2-year period. And the reason there's a lesser one on there, if you could see that 13, but they came back with a bid for only the generators, not the fire pumps. So that's an incomplete bid at 13. That's why I didn't recommend that company. They didn't they didn't give us a proper bid, but I wanted to put it on there. So, I want to take that forward for approval from the board. Any questions on that? >> Same vendor provides both the equipment and the maintenance. Is it the same? Can't tell from the >> So, they come out, we have the equipment is us, right? So they come out and service our generator and it needs a filter that this is for the service of it and make making sure that it's supplying the amount of power that it's required to that it's tuned and everything because you don't want it to come on and supply the wrong amount of power or insufficient power and it just shuts off in an emergency. So they maintain that it's giving us correct power when it turns on it's going to turn on and power up what it needs to power. If there's just like the last time anything side of that. Say a filter is bad or they find something on the generator bad, we we have to pay them for that repair beyond that. And I I verify that. That's one of the things I did with the last company is they gave me a bill. I'm like, "Huh, that's something we can do." So, I go out and look at the generator. I open it up and the things they told me were bad on the generator were not bad on the generator. So I verified that they were and I called them on it and I don't know a result of what happened but I wasn't happy with the way they were. So I didn't trust them the rest of the time. They gave me quotes to repair things. I made one I had one of our maintenance guys go at least verify that that something was broke and make make them show us it was broke before we go out. >> Is the fire pump tied also to the sprinkler system? >> Yes. So that's exactly >> so that spooker goes off, fire pump kicks off if there's a >> and that's a mandatory inspection and maintenance on those obviously by the state >> I don't have one yet. >> Well FC FCS we're not approving. We're just I just wanted >> information. >> I just wanted you to see where we're at in the process. >> Probably five 250 each. >> All the wonderful things they're doing. They take a project and and do some of this stuff. Build a counter, do this, do that. They might be looking for a good project that would be helpful with all their expertise >> when it comes to electrical and stuff. I don't know insurance-wise whether that can be done. I would have to look into that, but I can I mean I can talk about it. >> That has come up before on this committee lots of times. >> Yeah. >> And those kids do it. Um and largely they're just not constantly looking for projects like they >> they know what they're working on. They have their stuff already. They're not sitting there waiting for us to say can build our FCS classrooms. So, >> it just doesn't really ever work out that >> they're looking for something of that scale that you would have to retrofit into a lesson plan. >> So, let me get to the point where they give us a number and then let me back let me back that down from there depending on what we can do in house. So, this is part of the conception. Of course, they want everything in the first But I want to know what everything costs before I back that down and say we can't do this, we can't do that. We can do that in house later. It doesn't need to be done today because it's functional. We're buying all the appliances and installing them. I'm not having them buy all the appliances yet all the costs. And they don't have room for anything else either. That's for sure. They're out growing their >> their uh space. So that's my recommendation. Next to go to the board is it. So I'm going to allow >> Are we working backwards up here? You did 7.3. So now I feel like I should do 7.2 or I'm not sure which order we should go in. I'm gonna cover my I'm gonna cover myself. >> I'll start with 7.2 then. So 7.2 is all about me. >> I know. U no that was good to do all of yours at once. I I do it. So 7.2 um Fran and Joey were here last time. You may have noticed that that didn't then move to the um full board which was the switches project which we talked about. Um some good news bad news for the district. You know, part of what we talked about with that was rate. Um, we used to have our rate is built off of our free reduced lunch population, our FRLP. Um, and so that uh has hovered around 51 52% for for for better part of 18 months. And that's kind of where we had gone with some of the bids and gone with -ate to talk about, okay, if you're in that bracket, they pay for 80% of the project. Here's the good news, bad news part. Our district is now at 48% free and reduced lunch, which knocks us down to the 60% bracket. So, it's so great that our district is doing better as a whole, less kids on FRLP, but it does have implications for the system. So, it implicates what our rate bracket is. So, we want to just take that one off the table, start fresh. The PEPA mini bid is a quick turnaround. It's a two-eek turnaround. we'll be able to bring back pretty much a very similar proposal to you with what our 60% share is next month. Move forward from there. Pausing for everyone. Makes sense. Makes sense. Makes sense. Okay. 7.1. Here we go. Okay. Now, this is this might be the Mia Kpo part of the meeting. And again, I'm I'm new to the role of the director here, so I'm still learning. So, so work with me here as I look at our budget and our projections for the next five years, the five-year capital plan. You know, we have our capital reserve budget each year. Our switches project looks like it's still going to come in well under the million dollars. Our projector project came in at about half of what we thought it would for this year. So, we're sitting in technology and saying, you know, to Mr. Wartman's point, do you roll over the capital reserve for next year or do you try to do something else this year with what you kind of were budgeting for, especially knowing where we're going with technology um and what the prices of that are starting to look like. So, the next big project we would have is the VX rail. That's our kind of internal cloud. So where the MIA Koopa is is this was not an approved budget capital project for school year. The funds were approved which is why I worded it that way. And so that's my fault. That's a learning a learning point for me. This would still bring us in under kind of that fund that we had thought of capital projects for this year. But we had initially waited we had initially intended to do this project next year. Switches the X-rail access points. So kind of dividing it up. Um because the money has been reserved. We're thinking, let's get it now. We know it's only going to get more expensive as we go through March and then into July. Um, and that way we can continue to move forward. It also means our capital reserve ask for next year is going to be very little thoughts. Is it possible you could have some, lack of a better term, emergency project that would then jump up to the top of your list that could supersede this and would be more important to spend the money on or not? >> No, I mean a lot of what we do with trying to do these projections is to avoid just that. I mean, you can see this is outdated technology at this point. Um, but we're in year eight of the five-year commitment we had or initially signed on to. So, we do try to be very cognizant of what shelf life is. Um, what shelf life is with the population we serve. Obviously, a shelf life of a Chromebook looks really different from someone who's paying their bills once a week to a middle school student who's excitedly using that device every single day and completely appropriately in the cafeteria as well. Um, so we do try to anticipate some of those emergency concerns. Friend, Joey, I don't know if you want to weigh in at all. I can't It's hard for me to think of what an emergency might look like that we haven't quite planned for. >> Yeah. >> Not from our department. I mean that we don't have to do roofs, right? We don't do roofs or things like that. I mean, >> yeah, >> we've got because we're we do backups because we do triangulation. Like if we went down something, we've got something else that could let us run for the interim. We don't ever want to keep teaching and learning from happening. >> The big major IT need going forward like this would moving this up this year like you said would >> it reduces whatever we would ask for next year. >> It reduced the risk of there being an emergency situation. We're uh we're eight years into the use of this and tech usage computer usage, how we manage data, all of that looked so different eight years ago. This would this modernize us in ways that we are not currently >> we're moving more and more to the cloud. That's what we're seeing. This is actually these numbers. I know it looks big. It's actually coming down. So please >> like I'm trying to understand the anticipated. >> So this we put all in and the idea is our refresh cycle. So that's what that's kind of referring to is I you know ideally we would refresh maybe after five years, eight years, 10. we look at the life cycle of something. So this is for that duration of that. >> We're paying all upfront. Yep. >> We do have products that we do year leases on. We would talk to that that way. We would present that as a year lease. Um student Chromebooks are like that. I mean, I I tend to be in favor of moving it forward to see what the board says up or down on it, especially if it's something we're going to have to do anyway. The equipment's outdated and it's ultimately going to be less expensive than it would be to do it a year or two from now. It's a big sum of money, something we're have to pay >> to be fair again, like it wouldn't be a year otherwise it's we're coming back to you right in July or in right away. So, I mean, >> but it will be more expensive by then, too. That's unfortunately just where technology is right now with pricing. It will be more expensive by July. >> A simple question rail hardware is I have no idea what >> um so I did try to go there. So like the internal cloud I get it the internet. What is the internet right? >> Internet. >> Okay. So think of that as kind of like it's the internal internet for the district. It's what we use for the internet for the district. Correct. So that's our little piece of the cloud. >> There you go. Y was already >> I will clean up my language for sure about the approved budget capital before it goes to the full board. I understand that we're asking for something that is a little out of the ordinary. >> You're not getting away from paying for this at some point. associated. This is just your purchase of >> correct >> that comes out of the general fund. >> 565. >> So if it's in this 565, >> how long It's also the kind of thing that as we talk about the capital budgeting five years from now we're building to address that will in these season. >> Oh, no. >> Yeah. No, I think that's uh it's good to get us in a into those kind of predictable patterns where we know when these big expenses are going to happen and we'll and again in five years that's going to be more expensive than that. It just will. So, we have to be able to plan ahead for that on this committee. Be ready. prepare the board and everybody else for that in budget season two that this is coming >> up to you now. I'm good unless you have more questions. >> I will make a meeting to adjurnn or make a movement to adjourn this meeting. >> A motion. I will motion that. >> All right. >> Love it. >> Here you go. 30 minutes. Mr. >> Here, I'll bang the thing. It's over. It's official.