Coraggio Consulting
Loudoun County School Board, Finance and Operations Committee, Tuesday, February 7, 2023

Date: Tuesday, February 7, 2023
Place: Loudoun County Public Schools / School Board meeting (see BoardDocs / LCPS-TV)
Length: 38m (video)
Official meeting video (Vimeo / LCPS-TV): https://player.vimeo.com/video/797433166?rel=0
BoardDocs (School Board): https://go.boarddocs.com/vsba/loudoun/Board.nsf/Public

Machine transcript (speech-to-text) produced by Coraggio Consulting. Not an official county record. Names and numbers may be misspelled; check the video at the timestamp before quoting.
Speech-to-text: whisper.cpp, model large-v3-turbo. Produced 2026-10-22. Timestamps are [HH:MM:SS] into the meeting video.

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[00:00:11] Good evening, welcome to the Tuesday, February 7th, 2023 Finance and Operations Committee meeting. I'd like to start with a public comment. Is there anybody here from the public who wishes to speak? Seeing none, we'll move on to item three, which is the approval of the minutes.

[00:00:27] Is there a motion, Mr. Matt? Oh, I'm sorry. Let's back up and let's go to remote participation. I've been notified that Ms. Corbo would like to participate remotely in tonight's Finance and Operations Committee meeting. Ms. Corbo, please state your location, whether this is a medical or a personal matter.

[00:00:44] and if you are alone. - I am home, I'm alone. Under policy 2420, I'm asking for remote meeting participation due to an ongoing disability and medical condition is recommended by LCPS HRTD under federal ADA disability law.

[00:01:05] - Thank you. I will move to allow Ms. Korbo to participate under a medical exemption. Is there a second? Seeing as there is no second, Ms. Korbo, would you like to use a personal exemption? - No, not, yes. - Okay, thank you.

[00:01:22] - All right, with that, we'll go ahead and move on to the minutes. Is there a motion, Mr. Mejedevi? - I will that we approve the meeting minutes from January 31st, 2023. - I'll second that, any discussion?

[00:01:38] Yes, Mr. Mejedevi. - Thank you, Chair. So there was a lot of discussion in the last meeting we had related to the ceiling amount of $250,000, if you remember what they were saying.

[00:01:55] And I don't see anything in my reference to asking questions or clarifications the meeting minutes whatsoever so as it stands right now i cannot support the meeting minutes okay uh let's see i think what we'll need to do is we'll need to pull it from the action item agenda and we'll go ahead and place it back on information bring it back bring it forward can we go review the tape and ensure that the the uh minutes capture the discussion that we had on the 250k cap yes sir thank you so um we just wanted to just get some clarification usually we don't do

[00:02:33] that verbatim about the the different questions and the specific uh conversation we generally just reference the item and what was talked about and then what the outcome was so that's pretty common for our minute process we're happy to look at that in a different way but i just it is a i guess a departure from our normal process for minutes oh i was just going to mention we do address it in information items however we did not capture necessarily the discussion that perhaps you're looking for but mr lewis is correct we don't normally have a running dialogue or a narrative in here it is typically a very high level discussion except for when decisions are made

[00:03:13] and then those are captured go ahead mr madden thank you chair so thank you mr lewis and that's i guess i mean glad you asked that question so the essence was not to get into every verbatim sort of dialogue back and forth but my specific asking that in future when we present it you know again the where we talked about the minimum 250k or have descriptions as we agreed upon at least someone noted that in future we will do that so it's documented and and there is some you know again we have some documentation that was covered in that sense so just a line item would be helpful that we we talked about at least you know looking into that that's that was my whole hope

[00:03:52] for it versus going back to verbatim every you know every item we discuss in that okay thank you that's helpful I wasn't sure exactly what we were talking about it I didn't remember the conversation in particular so we'll we'll go back and look at the listen to that and then get that updated and I think it just capturing the essence of the direction that we provided for future meetings is really what we need to capture okay so we'll go ahead and move that to the next meeting and we'll move on to item 4 which is action items business financial services the central support budget transfer request I'm I'm sorry, for the action?

[00:04:30] Yes. Mr. Mejedevi. I move that the Finance and Operation Committee recommend that the Lowndes County School Board approve the Central Support Budget Transfer. I'll second that. Further discussion? I did want to thank staff for putting together the list of where the funds are coming from and where the funds are going to.

[00:04:49] And I noticed that the Professional Legal Services was a big chunk of that, and it was just transferred from one line item to the other. Is there any specific reason why that wouldn't have been captured in the superintendent's program because legal services I would ask what the explanation is of why we had to transfer that out of the budget line that it was in so we are adding or we're transferring into the professional legal services account in the superintendent's office

[00:05:27] in the superintendent program $158,000 and that's to cover expenses that has have occurred as well as the projection for the rest of the year in terms of lining up it we are pulling out of the safety and security program it looks like the same dollar amount so that's where we have find we have found capacity or projected savings of their contractual services and so i think is that what your question is about yes and uh that's fine because underneath the superintendent's

[00:06:03] umbrella typically the safety and security falls under under that department they're in the same department correct or they're just different budget lines within that department you are correct that in terms of the umbrella it is the same however i think just in terms of transparency and knowing that the dollar amount overall that we were moving that rather than give the appearance that we were perhaps you know staying under a certain threshold that we we um off the chair on the side of um thank you and i appreciate appreciate the detail i think that's very helpful okay uh we'll go ahead ahead and place it to motion all those in in favor do you have any comments you'd like mr.

[00:06:42] Thank you chair so I think my only question is so what does a lineup for safety and security and other contractuals I'm curious what is that we're I guess maybe we're efficient or we already did something I don't know if you can speak to that but that's yes I believe we had discussed during the last meeting this was related to our allied safety and securities contract and just projected savings that the amount that we thought we would be utilizing is not going to be the amount that we will actually incur. And my understanding is that the allied contract

[00:07:17] covers a representative or a presence at every school is that correct or is it just the elementary schools? It's not at every school and it's not my area of responsibility anymore but I think it's less than 20 schools that we have. Interesting okay because I visited three schools last week and they all three had that so I'm surprised that there are only 20 of them out there. Interesting.

[00:07:40] and that may have changed some since a year or so ago when that changed over to the superintendent i see heads nodding so that's probably what happened we've probably expanded a little bit okay very good uh all those in favor of the motion to approve please say aye and raise your hand all right that motion will carry two zero with uh miss corvo absent for the vote thank you on to item 4.02 gmp2 award under contract number 22509 remaining items for construction of es32 mr lewis thank you mr morris so tonight we are bringing to you the contract award for the gmp number two and committee members remember this is for elementary school 32 that we have worked very

[00:08:18] closely with the county of loudon on funding and building approvals to expedite the school to open a year early so this is a contract construction management contract at risk process and so we're bringing to you the second of those the first one was to get early order of some of the long lead items and some of those contracts early on and allow that contractor to get moving and open that school year early so this is the remainder of those contract items and just we're happy to take any questions you may have okay i'll go ahead and make the motion i move that the finance operations committee recommend to leon county school board to approve the award of gmp2

[00:08:54] under contract number 22-509 for 19 million seven hundred eighty five thousand two hundred forty four dollars and fourteen cents to hess construction company llc and authorizes the chair to sign the award documents upon presentation uh seconded by mr mehedovie further discussion yes thank you chair so um nothing detailed question but so since the award of the contract back in i guess looking at june and september of last year um when the inflation was really really high

[00:09:31] nothing has changed that could have brought down any any prices down since then in the last six seven months no sir we're still seeing pretty high levels of inflation and one of the things that we one of the reasons we did the gmp1 to get those early contracts is if we didn't get those things ordered in time they wouldn't be here on time so even if some of the costs have may have come down since that period of time which i don't really think has happened we still have the lead time to deal with at one point in time we had over a year delivery point uh time frames for certain uh hvac equipment so that was the the key to do that is to get those on on board as quickly as possible

[00:10:08] i will say we also the gmp or the cm at risk process allows us to take and be a part of reviewing subcontractor major subcontractor bids and we've had really good participation from the the subcontractor field which is mechanical electrical plumbing those types of things and in almost every case we've had at least three bidders to do that and to choose from so we've had some pressures on those bids which is always good to have competition there and so we do believe we have the the best value on these contracts at this point and uh i you know it never ceases to amaze

[00:10:46] me all the peace parts that go into the construction of the school the one there were a couple things i noticed one of them is that it was bid for montgomery county so if if we do end up going with the vendor that selects montgomery county let's please change it to loudon county so that they follow the rules and regulations of the county. Also, I was surprised that one of the vendors came in with a flooring estimate twice that of all the others, and so it was hand-adjusted on the contract. How common is it for all the subcontractors to go through and line item out

[00:11:19] items in the subcontract? So one of the advantages of the CM at-risk process is you're allowed to negotiate with these contractors as they come in where we we have one contract with the with this construction manager they have multiple subcontracts and they're able to go out and negotiate not only the price but the scope of work and divide things up whereas in a low bid you get the numbers all come running in at the same time and you're guessing whether everything is covered so that change may have been because that particular supplier had an issue with getting things and it may have been just a change in their scope of their contract so don't know exactly but it is one of those things that

[00:11:57] Mr. Pasquarelli and Mr. Trainer, they go through all of these bids with them as well as other staff members to make sure that we're asking all those questions and make sure there's no double counting, so to speak. Thank you. I appreciate it. It was a very enlightening reading. Okay. Further discussion? Okay. We'll place a motion to vote. All those in favor of the motion, please say aye and raise your hand. Aye. That motion will carry 2-0 with Ms. Corvo absent for the vote. Thank you. We're on to item 4.03, which is the request to name Levittsville elementary school baseball field the coach Larry Wenner senior memorial field I'll make the motion

[00:12:35] I move that the finance operations committee approve and recommend that the school board approve to name the Lovettsville elementary school baseball field after Mr. Wenner therefore name the coach Larry Wenner senior memorial field for a period of 10 years motion has been seconded further discussion no and I do appreciate the community reaching out to us and the principal's support, so I will certainly support this. All those in favor of the motion, please say I and raise your hand. Aye. That motion will carry to 2-0 as well, with Ms. Corvo absent for the vote.

[00:13:09] Thank you. When we bring that for the board, can we ensure that the family is invited for the action item when we do take the vote? Absolutely. That's part of our process to notify them for that.

[00:13:26] Great. Thank you. Okay, so we are moving on now to our information items, and we'll start with item 5.01, which is our student DECA playground project. And I'd like to invite Ms. DeLuigi, is that pronounced correct, to present her findings to us. Ms. DeLuigi.

[00:13:55] Good evening. Before we begin this presentation, I thought it'd be fun to bring you back in time. Imagine you're nine again. You're in school, and you're waiting, and waiting, and waiting. Finally, the bell rings, and you run outside for recess. My question for you, which piece of equipment do you run to first? Those were always a lot of fun.

[00:14:22] I still remember how important my elementary school's playground was to me. That playground connected me with my best friend. To be fair, we live right next to each other, but we were very different kids. That playground connected us, and 12 years later, we're still best friends. Playgrounds are a crucial part for the elementary school life. This is where students build social skills, connect with others, and take a much-needed break from school. However, not all playgrounds give these opportunities to students. Not all

[00:15:00] playgrounds are created equal. My name is Maddie DiLuigi. I'm a senior at Independence High School. I'm a volunteer for Unified Athletics and for those who may not know we compete in Special Olympics events. I'm also an attendant for a student at my school with Down syndrome and I'm an annual donor to Paws with a Cause, a charity that provides service dogs to people with disabilities. I began Mission Accessible to correct the imbalance in accessible playground equipment through new playgrounds and policy adaptations. During this presentation we will

[00:15:37] go over the background of inclusive playgrounds in Loudon, what I'm hoping to accomplish, the rationale behind this project, and the community support that I have gained. In the last decade, the number of children diagnosed with disabilities has increased as our medical knowledge and awareness grows. The National Center for Education Statistics found that 15% of students receive special education services. In Loudon County, there are 61 elementary schools, nine of which include inclusive playgrounds. These projects have been funded by the PTOs and PTAs, along

[00:16:12] with CAPP and CIP. As shown by the map, these playgrounds are scattered across Loudoun. There are many areas with few to no inclusive playgrounds, and the boxes on the screen represent another problem. These boxes around Leesburg and Sterling are areas with wheelchair accessible playgrounds.

[00:16:32] Of Loudoun's nine accessible playgrounds, only two have wheelchair accessible equipment. Before we get into my idea to solve this inequality, I would like to acknowledge our current playground policy. While conducting research for Mission Accessible, I was put in contact with Brian Stocks, the Director of Management and Coordination within the Department of Support Services. He shared this policy with me stating policy regulation 6320 establishes inclusive playgrounds in Loudoun. Section B.1 defines inclusive playgrounds as not only accessible but provide a common

[00:17:08] place for students of all abilities to play in the same location together. I've been in this public school system since kindergarten and I'm happy to say that I am proud to be a student of Loudoun. This is a county that not only preaches inclusivity, but takes action.

[00:17:25] My purpose is driven by this desire to take action. Today, I'll be working to gain your investment in a new wheelchair accessible playground for an elementary school in Ashburn. There are no such playgrounds in Ashburn and there's a lack of them across the county, which is why my second goal today is to introduce an adaptation to policy 6320 to include wheelchair accessible equipment as a requirement for inclusive playgrounds.

[00:17:51] My motto behind this project been every student deserves a place to play if mission accessible is implemented it will increase the inclusivity in lcps by bolstering an elementary school and cementing wheelchair accessibility for future playgrounds both parts of this project uphold the values of lcps and are supported by the community a new playground in ashburn is needed as ashburn grows in population funding and implementation of this playground follows policy 6320 an inclusive school defined by this policy is a common place for all students without wheelchair accessible equipment not every

[00:18:30] student can play the majority of elementary schools even the majority of inclusive playgrounds are not wheelchair accessible in order to adhere to the definition set by the policy a provision to either require or encourage inclusive playgrounds to include wheelchair accessible equipment should be adapted loudon county prides itself on our inclusivity diversity and equity in providing a quality education to all these values extend to the playground because it is here that Loudoun students have the opportunity to demonstrate these values. Playgrounds are where kids make friends, play games, and form a connection with each other. Ensuring every

[00:19:08] student has usable equipment gives those opportunities to more students. Ashburn is in need of a playground. My high school is one of the most populous in the county. Our middle school is so large that half the eighth graders are in the high school. We have several elementary schools and the population around Loudoun keeps growing. With one inclusive playground and no wheelchair accessible equipment ashburn elementary schools are in need of a change i along with volunteers distributed surveys through social media and advisory lesson and a football game we were able to collect 500 surveys from students parents and other community members 63.1 percent of

[00:19:46] students ranked the importance of equally accessible schools a 10 and 84.7 agree or strongly agree that elementary schools should have inclusive playgrounds 90.3 percent of community members Teachers and parents strongly agree. It is a school board responsibility to provide accessible playground facilities independence has also demonstrated community support by participating in and volunteering to run a hot chocolate station giveaway a sticker giveaway and Has approved a fundraiser to obtain and implement a wheelchair accessible piece of equipment at our school with three dollars a ticket and projections from other Fundraisers I estimate will be able to raise

[00:20:26] $2,100 support from this project has also come from our state delegate I had a phone call with him a few weeks ago where he stated his support for this project and for the importance of inclusive schools However, he also acknowledged the reality of our county's budget and encouraged me to find ways to make our school more inclusive I understand that the investment is a lot to ask for I've been told the budget estimate is hefty However, I believe that the community benefit the promotion of values and the new opportunities granted to students make this investment worthwhile You as members of our school board and our committees have worked tirelessly to promote the values of Loudoun County

[00:21:03] And I'm here because I believe in those values as well, because my teachers and administrators have pushed me to make change. Loudoun County has begun the movement towards inclusive education, and I created Mission Accessible to be part of that movement. I hope one day each populous Loudoun city will have a wheelchair accessible playground.

[00:21:20] And today I begin this goal by working to catapult Ashburn Elementary Schools into a place for all. Thank you for listening. I'd be happy to answer any questions. Outstanding. What a great presentation. And I do appreciate the fact that the research that you've done both on what we are offering currently, the cost of a new one, and also going out to your peers and doing the surveys, I think that that states about your dedication to the project.

[00:21:48] So I do appreciate that. Mr. Mejedevi, did you have some comments? You know, as I saw the presentation, and in fact, the way you delivered the presentation as well, it's the two, three things that come to mind.

[00:22:07] First of all, you know, you're so eloquent in representing not only you, your school, but also Loudoun County. I am, you know, I think it's very heartwarming, the future of tomorrow, I should say.

[00:22:24] And I think what you are is a classic representation of what Loudoun County and the student and the entire thing has to offer. So I thank you for doing this, taking the initiative, as Mr. Morse mentioned, doing the research, and going and collecting thoughts and coming back and presenting to us in a way that we can take it forward versus just, you know, there's many ways to do it, but I think by far this is the best approach to bring initiative forward and bring about a change. So I thank you tremendously for taking this awesome approach and making this thing happen. So that's my first

[00:23:02] sort of comment, but again, this is great information, so thank you again. Thank you so much. And so now let's talk execution. How are we going to get there? I think the first thing we need to do is look at the policy. Mr. Lewis, do we know the last time the policy was updated? Mr. Stocks. Yes, sir. It's been probably within the last four or five years where we went through and added the phrase that we should strive to get inclusive playgrounds in as many of the areas of the county as possible.

[00:23:32] And Mr. Stocks and his team have been going through and doing replacement projects as often as possible and so one of the things we've done is we have non-inclusive playgrounds all of our playgrounds have handicap accessibility which allows people to get to the playground but not necessarily participate in all the things so that's the difference between an accessible one and an inclusive one and so we are striving to do that as we replace and our new schools have the inclusive ones in our whenever we replace them and one of the reasons we are maybe shorter in ashburn than we are in leesburg and sterling because those playgrounds were older they're aging out and we're replacing them before we replace the ones in the newer schools so that's

[00:24:12] something that we will be looking at as we go through our our cip and be having conversations but um you know we can certainly entertain some some new language in that policy that would would strengthen that uh knowing that it's still going to be subject to the the cap is where we're replacing these and so funding availability will still be one of our considerations every year so So if we were to look at the existing cap for playgrounds, what do the out years look like as far as the funding?

[00:24:39] Do we have plans for any inclusive playgrounds or just the accessible ones? Sure. Actually, all of the playgrounds we've been replacing the last two years, and we've done six in the last two years, we are replacing with inclusive playgrounds.

[00:24:55] So we have taken existing standard playgrounds and replaced them with inclusive, and that is our plan moving forward with the the goal depending on cost adjustments over the years of doing replacing three a year okay and when you say inclusive you mean wheelchair wheelchair accessible as well they are they are wheelchair accessible the board in place servicing and they have ground piece units not every playground and where we've worked with Maddie and and have realized we don't necessarily have pieces of equipment that are that you would not

[00:25:32] have to be removed from your wheelchair device to utilize their therefore they're called transition pieces and therefore children with disabilities that are on wheelchairs but not necessarily the wheelchair gets onto the device and and the or the piece of equipment we do have those in loudon county um they're just not at every inclusive playground right so i think that as we're looking into the future and we're looking at replacements i think that uh one of one of the ideas is to have them centrally located and that's what you know we don't have to have them at every school I think that would be prohibitive prohibitively expensive but I do think that when we have you know mass

[00:26:10] populations such as the Ashburn area or the Dulles South area that we should look at providing those services at least in it regionally if not if not available at every school so as we look at next year's capital asset preservation program and and that's the funding we're going to use I'd like to staff to consider providing estimates for two more of though of the full inclusive playgrounds which includes the ability to to bring the the wheelchair onto onto some of the some of the pieces of the

[00:26:49] playground equipment so that we could discuss that at the full board as we look into the budget for next year the challenge right now is we just finished up our last year's budget in december so it'll be next it'll be the fall before we start that discussion again mr mehedovie thank you chair and and i'll wholeheartedly support that i think what you what you just mentioned and i just had to add again bring it back to i think i'll add to ashburn so i'd like to just add to that so consideration within the ashburn so thank you so we'd like to add that even though our cip is done we have a a single line item in the cap that has four playground replacements so

[00:27:29] it doesn't keep us from looking at new equipment and then i'll let mr stocks describe what we can do to look at those particular ones if you have more detail yeah as the three are identified and designed this upcoming fiscal 24 we can immediately begin to look at and implement those types of pieces of equipment those playground replacements have not even been selected yet and the equipment has not been designed yet so we don't have to wait until next year to have that discussion we can start considering adding those types of pieces of equipment into the fy24 design i i think that's

[00:28:05] great i think that if we can capture the design then we can put the funding into the budget line for next year to start that up because i don't think the current budget line is supportive of the level of equipment that we're going to need to provide i i assume that your your cap right now is covering much smaller scale of uh of yeah i'm not 100 sure that's accurate we would have to look at a design we work very closely with the playground designers to meet the criteria to be an inclusive playground and mix and matching and exchanging pieces of equipment oftentimes we have the school oftentimes we have the school administration and communities

[00:28:45] contribute to that design i'm not 100 sure that it would be a major fiscal impact to the existing design but we can get back to you if those pieces are are much more expensive than the pieces we're putting in now wonderful mr mehedovie thank you chair well i appreciate that i mean that's awesome i think and again i'll go back to maddie i mean look at this i mean we're not talking about two years out but the fact that bringing up the initiative and here's a again you know not to go in your defense but i think the staff is always willing to listen and make adjustments sometimes you know we we also need help and i think just coming out and and asking and help the staff is

[00:29:25] more than happy to help so i appreciate the staff sort of looking into it and making the consideration so thanks to all of you so as we move forward it does the process takes a while i mean what you're seeing tonight is just the very very beginning of the process so it would have to come back through design it'll come through the budget process so uh it would probably be 2026 uh fiscal year when we were able to finally cut the ribbon on the first one but i would ask that the community continue to support and that you continue to drive your community uh the interest there pass that on to

[00:30:00] those that are not graduating and certainly any contributions they can make gets them mentally and and financially invested in the process so certainly you know we appreciate that you you already raised two thousand dollars i think you said 2100 that is our projection for march our fundraiser is march 29th that um based on other events that we've done at the school we believe we can raise well i think that's a great start and uh just as important to the money are the participation of the students and the in the community so thank you again we appreciate the presentation Mr. Mahedemi thank you I'm just excited that something you know like this is coming to

[00:30:39] fruition so again I think looks like the staff is open and there could be a good again not to push put it on spot but looks like there's an opportunity so I'm optimistic so when it happens I would like us to be part of that whenever which is cool that you implement and hopefully invite Maddie also to that school as well when we do the completion inauguration as well next year so again no pressures but optimistic thank you and with your all's uh approval we'd like to use maddie as a consultant we could use that would love to or you could come back as a teacher i'm not picky but

[00:31:15] either way thank you again we certainly appreciate your presentation today thank you so much for listening and being so helpful very good all right uh we'll move on to our next information item which is item 5.02 business financial services the supplemental request for third round of supply chain assistance funding for the school nutrition services fund miss willoughby and actually mr jones is going to present this item thank you we are presenting to the committee a supplemental request to increase the school nutrition fund revenues by 585 900. the u.s department of

[00:31:51] agricultural food and nutrition services continues to provide supply chain assistance funding to address ongoing disruptions and inflation of unprocessed or minimally processed foods as a third tranche of funding videoe is providing five hundred eighty five thousand nine hundred dollars this is the third time they've given funds we request that this committee recommend the school board appropriate that amount of the newest sca funding to the school nutrition fund thank you for your consideration and i am glad to answer any questions thank you and uh certainly it sounds promising and i'm certain you have a plan and we'll hear that at some point i don't need that

[00:32:28] tonight but a plan on what to do with the funding i did notice somewhere in the documentation it mentioned a deadline of february 28th by which it needs to be submitted uh is that uh that needs that means it needs board approval by february 28th is that correct i believe that's us agreeing to the terms and that we would accept the funds which would be a separate action from the actual appropriation because in addition to the school board we would also need to send this over to the the board of supervisors for the appropriation so we're not prohibited by

[00:33:02] that deadline and in terms of the usage of the funds it is very limited on on the types of purchases like as mr. Jones said it's for the purchase of unprocessed or minimally processed foods really this is as the definition is about the supply chain this is them providing funds to school divisions to help offset the increasing costs that we're experiencing as well as the fact that we are having supply chain disruptions and we're having to do substitutions and sometimes those substitutions

[00:33:36] cost more. So these funds will be added with the other two rounds of funding to help offset our food costs. Okay. And so when we look at where it's targeted, this is one of the few examples that I can think of where we are allowed to limit the area in which we are targeting fresh produce, correct? We don't have to go necessarily to a full and open competition. We can actually target it to more local agricultural organizations. Am I correct in that?

[00:34:13] We have our existing contracts regarding... I'm going to kill time until Andrew gets up here. I know we have our existing contracts, and we do have one vendor that we do use related to local procurement and alternative.

[00:34:32] These funds would be used with the contracts we currently have in place for our food and supplies. If we are able to use it with our current vendor that we have, that the aggregator that is providing our local produce, we could do so. But it doesn't specifically relate to farm-to-school local produce.

[00:34:51] Okay. Okay. So as we look at the procurement, do you see this impacting us more in the ability to get better produce or to get different produce? Is the challenge right now the cost of the produce that we're getting, or is it the fact that with supply chain, we're unable to get our supplies?

[00:35:12] The answer is yes. Yes and yes. There are huge supply chain issues at this time, as well as an increase in cost. We're seeing items increase in cost anywhere from a couple percentage to 48%. Also, based on student requests, we're finding that we can't always get the items because they're not available.

[00:35:33] So this particular commodity has a lot of supply chain issues and cost increases. Mr. Mahanavi, did you have any? No, thank you. I mean, just look at the prices of eggs today. It's ridiculous. And then again, I'll be, you know, if you guys don't know me in my committee meeting, always be the same dead horse and look at the you know oil companies making record profits so somewhere the money is going so but thank you so I guess question for chair I mean is if it's timely do we put as a consent or do we need to make it action or no I the reason why I was asking about the

[00:36:11] February 28th deadline was I was gonna suspend or try to suspend the rules and move it forward that's if staff needs that we can certainly but it's not so I would probably place this on consent okay but before we go the this year's budget had a a addition in the school nutrition budget line I believe now it's a separate fund but I seem to recall that there was an adjustment that was requested how much was that adjustment and is this going to overlap at all with

[00:36:49] that adjustment I'm looking for budget flexibility as we for this year yes this coming year for FY 24 correct so for FY 24 we had additional positions for the staffing standard and we had a position change reclassification change and then we had additional funds allocated for related to the spin down plan because we were we added yet again we had a net profit from FY 22 okay so those were the

[00:37:26] the changes that are coming to mind and in in addition to the inflationary costs um to the school nutrition fund so those are mutually exclusive uh when we talk about personnel versus this uh the grant so they cannot be commingled they're they're definitely different different sources i just wondered if any of those any uh i don't recall the presentation i may have missed that one that may have been the first night but i was curious as to whether any we talk about inflation which is uh some of what we're talking about here so there is a little bit of possible overlap there um i'm not going to worry about that now but if we need to go into reconciliation

[00:38:04] and there's discussion we might want to revisit that okay any other comments or questions so we'll go ahead and place this on consent agenda for the next meeting terrific thank you all right committee members is there any

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