Coraggio Consulting
Loudoun County School Board, Finance and Operations Committee Meeting, Tuesday, November 14, 2023

Date: Tuesday, November 14, 2023
Place: Loudoun County Public Schools / School Board meeting (see BoardDocs / LCPS-TV)
Length: 42m (video)
Official meeting video (Vimeo / LCPS-TV): https://player.vimeo.com/video/884577481?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 2026-10-21. Timestamps are [HH:MM:SS] into the meeting video.

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[00:00:00] Good evening. Welcome to the Tuesday, November 14th, 2023 Finance Operations Committee meeting. I'd like to start with remote participation. I have been notified that Ms. Corbo would like to remotely participate in tonight's Finance Operations Committee meeting. Ms. Corbo, please state your location, whether this is a medical or personal matter, and if you are alone.

[00:00:19] Thank you. I'm home. I'm alone, and I'm requesting remote participation due to a health condition and medical disability. I will therefore entertain a motion for her remote participation. Is there a motion. Okay, Ms. Corbett, there is no motion. Would you like to participate with one of your personal exemptions? Yeah, no, thank you. All right, so we'll move on to public comment. This evening we have one speaker, so we'll go ahead and allot her five minutes, if she cares. Ms. Sullivan.

[00:00:56] Thank you. Good afternoon. I'm Sandy Sullivan, an elementary school teacher who currently serves the members of the Loudon Education Association and this president. I came to this meeting to specifically speak against policy 6330 distribution of information and posting within schools on school grounds or during school-sponsored events this policy moves to silence employees in their work site employee morale is at an all-time low according to the minutes of the last committee meeting October 17th this anti working worker policy was set to be an action item at the November 7th committee meeting which was rescheduled to today where is this

[00:01:35] policy now your policy your employees must know the status of policy amendments and the creation of policies that deeply impact them it's also crucial that your employees are respected and heard policy and practice must support our school system our students and the individuals who make our school system run thank you all right we'll move on to a item three which is minutes is there a motion mr. Mahedovee yes chair I move that this committee approved the draft meeting minutes from october 17 2023 second further discussion seeing none all those in favor of the motion please say aye and raise your hand aye that motion will carry

[00:02:15] to zero with ms corvo absent for the vote on to action items we're at 4.01 support services contract award for rfp 23-522 cmar part one pre-construction services for banneker elementary school renovation in addition is there a motion mr meheny yes chair i move to the finance and operation committee recommended allowing county school board to approve the contract award for the cmr part one for banica elementary school renovation in addition to gilbane in the amount of one hundred thirteen thousand three hundred fall dollars and authorizes the chair of the school

[00:02:52] board to sign the final contract document upon presentation i will second that motion is there any discussion on it no seeing none all those in favor of the motion please say i raise your hand aye that motion will carry 2-0 witness corvo absolutely vote okay on to item 4.02 support services contract award for gmp 8 john champ freedom high school security vestibule renovations and i'll take this one i move that the finance and operations committee recommended the latin county school board approve contract award for gmp 8 for 17 million 321 147 dollars to gilbane

[00:03:31] building company and authorizes the chair to sign the final documents upon presentation second that discussion I do have one question yes so mr. Lewis I think we talked about last time the increasing the fund for these particular projects because it was it was less so I think you did share the numbers that because of inflation because of I guess because of inflation the the cost of budget increase so I don't know if you have like I mean looking at storm bridge what was the cost of storm bridge versus what we're proposing for John Cham you

[00:04:09] have the numbers of agents we do and i appreciate you asking that so the stone bridge and potomac falls numbers were 17 million 042 and the ones for these two at champ and freedom are 17 million 321 so it's about a 1.6 percent increase from the last set a lot of that's in electrical we're seeing those fees because it's an open book process so we're seeing those and so we're comfortable with the numbers um but it is a sign that we're still we're still seeing some increases but not drastic ones like we have before thank you can you can you remind us how many of the

[00:04:44] high schools still have the security vestibule work to be done yes sir so this is number eight and nine of that prototype high school that we're doing the flips for the media center and the main office so we're moving those offices out front to the to the front of the building but I believe we have six more left to do that and that'll finish this out those will be done by this fall correct six more so five or six left to do this summer okay so these are the last two high schools and five elementary schools so that's great okay

[00:05:21] so we're we're finally closing in on it so that's great news I know freedom and champ both have been waiting quite a while we've been working this for six years I think so this is it's good that we can finally bring this to a close yes further discussion the only comment I'll share that I think this is something we ask you to present the last school board meeting too because I think so it kind of works out in the committee and I think we continue to make investment and and strategic investments into securing our buildings but i think the message gets lost i mean the work the hard work of the staff and new department and the school's administration and

[00:05:57] including the board the that effort is gets lost in our commitment to securing the building and security for children too so i think uh anyway this is just one of the things that we have been continuing to make progress on making doing that so i just want to highlight that and i think the message gets lost that's all thank you okay thank you place the 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 mr corbo absent for the vote on to item 4.03 support services adoption of policy 6360 emergency and weather related operations is there a motion mr maddie i'll make the motion uh i move that this committee

[00:06:36] approve the revised policy 6360 emergency and weather related operations be forwarded to school board for consideration at the next regular scheduled meeting second any discussion on this no I think we realize if we spoke at the last information meeting on this or not I don't know mr. Lewis you don't mind yeah yeah I can provide some updates so this has been out receiving community feedback we've compiled the community feedback and we have no revised edits at

[00:07:15] this time based on that feedback I you did the committee did request that we add some additional information and you'll see in the body of the email or of the board item that we've added weather related tools and utilities that we would use to make our determinations or our recommendations for closures or delays and those would be included in a regulation an operational regulation and we have also attached our decision matrix which is what we utilize when we out either before the event or in the event to determine what closure would occur or delay and as you'll see if you look through that there's a multitude of

[00:07:53] options for us to utilize for delays or closures and and this is how we've been this is a tool that we use when we're out on the roads examining the roads to make our determinations besides up the other tools mentioned in the app further discussion I wanted to compliment the staff on the on the message matrix that you have going out I think this is this is a great help to parents and the community to understand exactly what what is going on with each of the

[00:08:29] closing closure situations so I talked to the chief of staff yesterday about this I think this is just a great template for communications and I think there are a lot of other communications ideas in LCPS that could benefit from this type of matrix.

[00:08:50] I think it's timely and I think it's got great content. So I did want to thank you for putting that together. Further discussion? Seeing none, we'll place the motion to vote. All those in favor of the motion, please say aye and raise your hand. Aye. That motion will carry 2-0, Ms. Corbo absent for the vote. So now we'll move on to information items. We'll start with 5.01, which is Business financial services are one nine two zero three auditorium bb dimmer system services renewal miss filial thank you this is a renewal for our auditorium and

[00:09:27] black box dimmer system services in our schools and the awarded vendor is artistic concept groups and they are offering to renew with no change in contract terms or pricing and this is actually the last renewal on this contract so it will come out for bid next year any questions or comments on this mr. maddie so thank you chair so can you help miss fellow like what is this black box dimmer and auditorium services I believe mr. trainer will come

[00:10:00] forward or mr. whoa head so sir these are the theater lighting systems that are in both the auditorium and in the black box we have a smaller system but a very similar theater lighting system in the black box which is a effectively a a classroom beside the auditorium where the students practice so this is for all schools all high schools it's all the high schools they also we have theater lighting systems in the middle schools and then some of the elementary schools have limited theater lighting per se typically where they have an auditorium

[00:10:38] or have a in the gym I have a stage stuff like that very limited lighting but if if any of the lighting for any of those systems is more complicated than what our electricians can handle, then we call in theater lighting, or ACG, to do the repairs. A lot of these lighting systems are computerized now.

[00:10:56] I mean, what the kids are training on and using in theaters is very similar systems to what they would see in industry. So they're pretty complicated systems and need specialists to work on them. Okay, so this is just a sort of fixed dollar amount in terms of if anything goes on, or this is like a contractual support services for what they've already implemented in our school system?

[00:11:21] So the contract includes standard preventive maintenance, but there's also an allowance in there for repairs. If we have nothing to repair, we don't pay it. I mean, it's just an estimate of what we've seen the repair cost to be as systems go bad, and they're very responsive coming out not necessarily the night of the production, but coming out the very next morning if there's a problem to help the schools get the systems back operational quickly.

[00:11:47] So the dollar amount is a ceiling, what it is? It's a best-guess estimate based on historical. There's part of it that's kind of a fixed cost. That's the preventive maintenance servicing of it. Then the other part of that is a best-guess estimate of what we have historically seen in repairs on these systems.

[00:12:08] I noticed that two schools are being excluded, Blue Ridge Middle School and Loudoun County High School. Can you explain why we're no longer covering them? It's not that we're no longer covering them. It's that both those schools are getting new systems put in this year, and ACG has actually contracted to do the work to install the new systems.

[00:12:31] Any further questions? Is there a desire to place this on consent? So this will be on consent for the next Finance and Operations Committee meeting. Thank you. Item 5.02, Business Financial Services, R19205, Route Repair Services Renewal.

[00:12:47] Ms. Filia. Once again, this is a renewal with Simpson Unlimited for our roof repair services. This also is the last and final renewal option on the contract. Questions or comments on that?

[00:13:02] Interest in placing that on consent? Place that on consent for the next financing office? Thank you. 5.03, Business Financial Services, I-24318, Computer Supplies and Equipment. Ms. Filio. This is a contract that is solicited annually, as it says, for computer supplies and equipment.

[00:13:20] And in that we expect it to concede $250,000, we bring it before you this evening. And the average price increase we saw on the frequently purchased items was 6%. What is the length of the requested extent or new contract?

[00:13:38] One year. Just one year? One year. Are there option years attached to it as well? Yes, there's four optional renewals, annual renewals. But we typically do not renew this contract because prices fluctuate so much on computer supplies. So, therefore, we put out a new solicitation annually.

[00:13:55] Okay. Further discussion on that? No? Interest in placing that on consent? Okay. Place this on consent as well. 5.04 Business Financial Services, Small Women-Owned, Minority-Owned, and Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Businesses Update.

[00:14:11] Ms. Filial. As per Policy 4360, you'll see in your handouts, you've got the slides regarding our SWAM program, our Small Women-Owned, Minority-Owned, and Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Businesses. And there is an excerpt there from the policy itself.

[00:14:29] And just wanted to share with you what's been going on in the past year since we've adopted this policy. We are using the Virginia Small Business and Supplier Diversity Directory in order to determine if individuals are SWAM certified. This is a list that includes all firms which have been certified by the Commonwealth of Virginia.

[00:14:49] and it identifies their certification as SWAM as well as which category of SWAM do they fall into. We have one way that we collect data is we have our vendor registration system, which is used with our online bidding system. And currently we have in that system, we have 3,558 vendors.

[00:15:10] 51 of those vendors are SWAM. That does not mean we're necessarily doing business with those vendors. They've signed up to bid on solicitations. And one of the requirements of the policy was to present information to you annually regarding this program.

[00:15:27] And then on the next slide, you'll see, based on annual data, the total spend is $1 billion, and that includes all funding sources. We looked across the board. We looked at student activity funds, PCARD, operating CIP, CAP.

[00:15:43] We take all of that into consideration. And out of that, 3.6% of those funds was spent with SWAM vendors, which is 1.67% of our total number of vendors are SWAM. So that gives you that information.

[00:16:00] And then the next slide provides where we are to date in this fiscal year. Currently in fiscal year 24, we've paid 1,500 vendors, and the total number of SWAM vendors is 49, and it's 0.03% of our total vendors. Then the total amount spent so far has been $111 million, and the amount spent of that is $2 million with our SWAM vendors.

[00:16:25] There are variations that you'll find if you were to look at the list of SWAM vendors from last year that we paid and this year. A lot of that is due to contracts ending, seasonal purchases that we made, and changes in our overall need. So some of the things that we're doing is we're providing monthly supplier workshops to suppliers interested in doing business with LCPS.

[00:16:48] We've held nine workshops and had 100 vendors participate. The majority of those participants have, in fact, been small businesses. We acquired a list of businesses and invited them. We participated last year or the year before in a buyer workshop or a trade show in Fairfax County.

[00:17:07] And there we made connections with some individuals. But what are going to be the next steps? By January 3rd, we're going to increase our supplier workshop participation by advertising through the Chamber of Commerce, Economic Development, and Loudon Small Business Development Program.

[00:17:26] We're also going to create some goals and best practices for the program. We want to review the opportunity to use SWAM vendors for our small purchases, those purchases that are less than 5,000. See if we can use some more SWAM vendors for those. And then by July 1, 2024, we're going to establish key performance indicators and benchmarks to monitor the program.

[00:17:49] Based on that, at that point, we'll have FY23 and FY24 data available to us. So that's just a high-level view of the SLAM program as it stands currently. I appreciate the update. I know that we have talked about setting goals, but certainly we don't restrict any of our procurement because we can't.

[00:18:12] So I would strongly encourage us to reach out. You talk about the Chamber of Commerce, the Loudon Chamber of Commerce in particular and our school business partnership to see how many of those members, and I'm certain all of them, with very few exceptions, are small business.

[00:18:32] And I'd like to see if any of them are currently on that list. And if not, we could certainly try to encourage them to sign up on that list as well. So that -- because I do believe that although you've only recorded .03 percent, I do believe the percentage is actually higher.

[00:18:49] It's just that those individual companies have not self-reported as a small business. So I hope the numbers are higher. I can't imagine they're that low. But if we could do what we can to encourage through the Chamber of Commerce, I think that would be very beneficial.

[00:19:05] Mr. Mejedevi. Thank you, Chair. I think I had my series of questions, Ms. Phil Law, in terms of procurement, but I guess this time I'll stick with her numbers on that. Thank you. You think those numbers are accurate?

[00:19:23] Well, I mean, one thing about Ms. Phil Law is she's very, if I could read, she's in black and white when it comes to numbers, so I'll just, I'll stick with that. I have no doubt that this is based on our data, but our data is incomplete, and that's not Ms. Phil Law. I mean, that's our need to reach out to the community to get people registered for the system so that we can track it better, because I do think it is higher than that.

[00:19:47] I'd love to see those numbers come up as well. Thank you for the update. Further? Mr. Mejedevi. Yeah, I was going to ask, like, I have my 10 questions from Ms. Willoughby. Can I ask them since she's here? Is she?

[00:20:04] She's checking her watch. We have lots of time, Ms. Willoughby. I'm just kidding. There's no questions from Ms. Willoughby. We don't have anything pending, so we're okay. We'll move on to the 5.05 support services LCPS electric bus pilot program. Good evening, gentlemen.

[00:20:22] So I wanted to provide an update. We had a question from Mr. Beatty a few weeks ago regarding the recharge rate of our electric vehicles and electric buses, and took that as an opportunity to provide an update on our overall electric bus pilot program.

[00:20:38] So the document that I provided is that update. We've been running our five electric buses that we've received from Dominion for the past two years with over 90% reliability. And the chargers have also been, they've been a little bit problematic, but overall fairly reliable.

[00:20:58] These were the vehicle-to-grid DC fast chargers that Dominion installed. Dominion owns those, as well as the batteries on the buses. That was part of the grant. And we recently received the next five electric buses that we were procured through the first round of the DEQ grant from the Virginia State Department of Environmental Quality.

[00:21:21] And those have been running for the last two months and with another 10 buses remaining to be delivered as part of that DEQ grant for the second round. And we're expecting those in the next month or two. Additionally, we expanded that in 2022 to include our white fleet, starting with the procurement of six Chevy Bolts that are going to be used for driver's ed vehicles.

[00:21:50] Two are already employed at Woodgrove High School, and the remaining four are just waiting for the charges to be installed at Heritage and Tuscarora, and they'll be employed there. So, one of the things that we looked at when we were looking at our overall carbon footprint, and again, in my first paragraph, I stated over a million gallons of diesel and 300,000 gallons of gasoline burned every year, emitting over 14,000 tons of CO2 in the atmosphere.

[00:22:19] So, we have a pretty significant carbon footprint within the transportation department, and so lots of opportunity to reduce that. Obviously, electric vehicles are one way. Propane is also a part of the EPA grant program's emission reduction prototype.

[00:22:41] And when we were down at inspecting our electric buses that were being finished up at the manufacturing plant in Georgia from Bluebird, we got to see the propane buses that they were manufacturing as well. And they gave us, as a trial period, they gave us one bus to try out.

[00:22:59] We've been running that bus since the beginning of school, and it has 100% reliability, and we'd like to expand our pilot program to include propane as well. Propane, the differential between the propane buses and a diesel bus is only about $10,000 versus a $250,000 premium for the electric version of a diesel bus, so very different cost structure.

[00:23:26] The cost of propane fuel is much, much lower. And if we embark upon this as part of our contract with the fuel provider, we can mandate that they provide the infrastructure to fuel our buses versus the electric buses where we bear that infrastructure cost.

[00:23:49] So it's another thing that we can try out. The downside with propane is that right right night right now only one manufacturer of the three major manufacturers are actually providing a Propane version so that there is risk associated with that one lack of competition, but Given the reliability factor and the lower cost We think it's worth giving it a try and several districts in the state have been moving in that direction newport news virginia beach city and others and then on the white fleet side as i indicated we

[00:24:26] have the six chevy bolts that we have been running for drivers ed vehicles there are other opportunities obviously as we look at replacing our fleet in the coming years there are there are areas where we can take future steps in the near term specifically transit vans we're going to be replacing some delivery vans for the warehouse over the next year or two and that provides an opportunity because there are vehicles out on the market right now that have that amazon's been using and other major uh freight movers and so that provides we know that those vehicles are

[00:25:02] well tested with millions of miles uh driven and so we can move in that direction plus those vehicles are pretty cost competitive compared to the gasoline versions of those same vehicles so we are recommending moving forward with that as well and then um also there's lots of suvs on the market as well with with more regular with it becoming more of a mainstream and as we look at our own vehicle usage within transportation facilities construction uh and other support services within uh within the admin building there's opportunity there for for electric

[00:25:38] vehicles as well and so we are recommending that we start to expand our electric vehicle fleet with the next year's purchase questions or comments mr. Madhavi thank you chair so thank you thank you for sharing the presentation you know I think this is also another thing that initiative that thing we collectively have been after to reduce a sort of a carbon footprint if I could use I mean from building to even for the for the vehicles I'm sure not only us I think the full board could

[00:26:15] benefit from from having a presentation I know probably not today but at the next export meeting. What I like to see is, I know sometimes we have, again, there's some numbers in reference up here. It's 1.1 million gallons of diesel being used, and then 300,000 gallons.

[00:26:37] So what does that projection look like, right? I mean, five buses are not going to put any dent into that consumption or reduction of consumptions. But if you were to project it out, let's say, If this is the trajectory or you're looking to expand whether we're going into propane or electric buses or vehicles, what does that projection look like?

[00:26:57] I don't know if you may have models or you may have some idea on what that could look like. But that could also, we could see, you know, I think all of us could see the benefit of where this is going and what that means also. Well, in terms of our fuel usage, that is a fairly stated constant throughout the year.

[00:27:17] I mean, obviously, with fluctuations in the number of field trips and things like that, it will fluctuate slightly, but not dramatically. So really, that curve would be primarily driven by the pace at which we replace our buses with alternative fuels. Right now, we're just dipping our toe in.

[00:27:34] Yeah, five buses or ten buses is not going to make any dent in that at all. I know you also have another information item coming up from EPA, I guess, for us too. sort of question has come up and I think where you know us to incentivize not only our buses but also our employees perhaps or students has there been discussion about setting up electric charging stations in the schools has that ever come up or have you guys look into that so yes we've had those conversations we have not had them with with the school board I think that's one of the

[00:28:12] things that we need to continue to look at as we we move forward with our sustainability plan there is always the question about how do we provide for those to be there and have not the school board supplementing other people's income and so we have to worry about did you do a swipe card a charge card type of thing for the public to use as mr. Davies mentioned we're putting them in at three high schools now for the driver's ed cars and so those could be utilized if they had a swipe card right now they'll be they'll have a swipe card just for our use but then could we open those to the public and I think that's something we need to have that conversation with the board as as the

[00:28:51] technology improves I think that's something we will be talking about more so I want to qualify I meant to say staff and I'm not public in general but I was meant to staff and students if you could give them swipe cards so I was contained with my who those audiences could be yeah I think that's still the same thing because you would still be using taxpayer dollars to supplement folks so we need we need to talk through that and what the ramifications of that are but it's not that it can't be done but I think it's just a conversation we have to have and I agree with you we should be having it as we move forward

[00:29:24] so there's a downside to having this available to students and to the general public and that is the spots at which you receive the the power if a student comes in they're gonna park there they're gonna go into school and they're to be there the whole day so now you've got only one individual a day who's going to be able to recharge i do support the idea of trying to get the staff vehicles because they're parked there overnight and it's logical that they could rotate through uh each school so just another consideration

[00:30:01] of of exactly you know what's the cost benefit to the division uh to have something where the students could go and use that and run the risk of of a student parking there and not having any economies of scale there so that's my only concern is there a break-even point on the propane buses you said that they're significant there they're only slightly more costly than the diesel buses but propane is much cheaper from a fuel perspective any idea on how long it would the cost-benefit would would kick

[00:30:38] in yes I think I put it in here so over the life of the bus it would we would save twenty six thousand dollars just in fuel alone to operate the comparable diesel bus so and if there's a it's a nine thousand dollar premium on the propane version so roughly half the life of that bus you would cross that point so you consider the life of a bus about 12 years 12 years okay so that's pretty

[00:31:16] reasonable that's about four or five years break even but I do share your concern with a single provider of propane and the other discussion that we always have two more items one is the discussion of uh configuration management having so many different electrical modes to charge different vehicles so in other words we have a set down at cardinal ridge and a set at emmerich and they're not the same charging station they are the same charging they are okay are all of our current electric uh recharging stations the same configuration no uh the first five that we installed that are owned by dominion are the dc

[00:31:54] fast chargers uh the one the ones that we have at cardinal ridge and emmerich are level two ac chargers so much slower charge rate but they are sufficient and substantially lower cost so the uh the dc fast chargers which are much more complicated um because the power flows both ways are about fifty to sixty thousand dollars per unit the uh level two chargers are about five thousand dollars each okay and lower the lower um what we found was based in the first two months that we've been operating the bluebirds down in uh cardinal ridge is that the buses use about half

[00:32:30] their uh charge on a run but can recharge recover that charge during the midday break uh so they start their am and their pm with pretty much a full charge excellent okay that's good news uh so is that is it our consideration moving forward that we're going to stay with that kind of recharging station that would be my recommendation simple slow and much more cost effective i like that i think that uh as opposed to having three or four different uh recharging configurations i think we have a real issue trying to maintain them right you have no economies of scale when you've

[00:33:06] got when you're doing four different recharging configurations the last item is the issues with your less than 90% uptime buses and battery light 28 days from check battery light and 25 days on bus 2189 25 days check battery light so those yeah those were that those were the downtime days for for various issues that we've had with these uh with the those five electric buses and this is new technology obviously and that has been um well at 90% that's not too bad it's most of our diesel

[00:33:43] buses are in the up well upper 90s but one thing we've found with this new technology is that the the support staff are not quite there yet so our dealers we're still learning but we're having to train ourselves a lot of the time because the dealers uh that's that are supposed to provide the support they're they don't have the staff that are fully trained yet so um it's getting the the education to catch up with the product so that you have the support folks that are out in the field to to manage that and that's been one of our bigger challenges that's another good reason to maintain one set of vehicles and one set of charging stations as opposed to multiple

[00:34:22] because the the certifications and qualifications of the maintenance people they're going to be widespread if they're having to figure out four different configurations but it is interesting that it's a check battery light and a check battery light and a headlights on are some of the failures powertrain light Not that the buses are breaking down, but that there's light.

[00:34:45] Isn't there a piece of tape that you can put over the something? I just think that's an awful lot of time, and hopefully we can get our maintenance crew up to speed so that we can reduce that. Mr. Mejedevi. Mr. Davies, you know who to contact if you have next time battery light.

[00:35:01] I think after January 1st, Mr. Morris and I would be available to put some tape on it. But thank you for the update. We do appreciate that. know we're taking steps they're they're slow but as we as we start to replace more and more buses i think that we'll continue to to gain ground on that 1.1 million you know that's 14 000 tons of uh of co2 is is quite a bit and so we we we can do better and uh of course we have competing priorities but certainly that's that's up among them so thank you uh next is 5.06 support services

[00:35:38] u.s environmental protection agency clean school bus grant program round three mr davies you taking this one too yes sir but so in keeping with the theme of the previous update we would like to pursue round three of the EPA grant program we've submitted applications for round one and round two round one we did not win that was focused more on a higher needs school districts round two we're still waiting for the results of that however the deadline for round three is end of

[00:36:14] January so we need to get through the process here and so we are all in keeping with the theme of the update we are recommending round one round two we had requested 25 electric buses we've amended we've changed our our approach for round three to be ten electric buses and 15 propane and the ten electric buses would if we were to succeed with this grant application we would have an even number of all three manufacturers we would have 10 thomas buses 10 ic buses and 11 bluebirds

[00:36:48] so roughly the same across each manufacturer to give them all kind of equal footing uh for the for our pilots and then the 15 propane is there a cost share on this is that uh there is what's the what's the ratio i'm sorry i didn't catch it in here uh so on the first back there um so oh i I see LCPS share, EPA share.

[00:37:12] Okay, got it. So it's about 50-50. Correct. Oh, except when we get to Blueberry. The propane, it's a $20,000, I'm sorry, $25,000 per bus for each of the 15 buses, and then $200,000 for each of the electric buses.

[00:37:35] And those 10 electric buses would take advantage of the infrastructure that's already been laid at Cardinal Ridge and Emmerich, so there wouldn't be the huge number that we had previously faced with the trenching and switch gear and all that stuff thank you mr manager thank you chair so the state hasn't done anything in terms of providing support for the schools when it comes to either electric or reducing I mean because right now we're talking about this is something for EPS this is so the state the state's support what were the two rounds of DEQ grants that we already

[00:38:12] received okay so there's 16 buses did come from the same state got it okay so that state. But as you continue to purchase electric buses, you know, again, forgive my naiveness, but I think like federal government provides some credit for general public when they buy electric cars. Is there some program from state as you buy more electric buses that provide you some more support? Not currently, no. But that should be a legislative action, something to support funded mandate? Yes. And especially given, obviously, we're we're there's broader impacts than just our fuel budget that this would benefit um broader

[00:38:51] impacts for the public and that should be recognized because there is a cost uh premium that that that school system does bear when we do this sure and so what's what's a clean diesel buses our existing so all the new new uh diesel buses that we buy um have diesel emission fluid as part of this of the exhaust system and essentially the exhaust that comes out of the the diesel bus is substantially cleaner than our older diesel buses and I could show you you know the exhaust pipe of one of our new diesel buses and it's completely clean when you rub your finger inside of it as opposed to if you

[00:39:26] do the same thing with an older diesel bus it's all sooty and stuff so there's a urea fluid that gets sprayed into the into the exhaust and that cleans the exhaust I remember having to put in the urea fluid in my car a few years back I have a diesel car and it's the same exact technology my last question is so since you're mentioning about this due on January 31st is there some board action that needs to be done for this particular third round do we need to the school board needs to approve yes sir time frame for that before the 31st we

[00:40:02] would need to have so nothing something we got to do with this this in December this can be done by January also yesterday we plan to bring it back as action here at the next finance and operations committee and we take it to board for action as well and so we our plan is to have it done before the end of the calendar year so we can make that um that date so chair do you have any uh thoughts about suspending and approving this today i'll make i'll make a motion suspend the rules to convert this into an action item tonight second okay i think we'll be voting specifically on the on the uh on the rules so all

[00:40:42] those in favor of the motion please say aye aye okay so the rules are suspended for purposes of making this an action item is there a motion mr. Mahevi I move that the committee recommend and send this information 506 to the full board or as an information item second for the discussion no see none all of those in favor of the motion please say aye aye that motion will carry 2-0 we'll send this straight to the or to the info agenda for the next board meeting excellent thank you mr. Mahevi I will point out to then your legislative agenda you are

[00:41:16] supporting electric bus technology and so that's that's in place okay new business policy 6330 can you talk to us about where that is and when we can expect to see that back yes sir so I don't have that right in front of me but we did get a significant number of comments from the LEA as miss Sullivan pointed out and so we're taking those comments and going through with cabinet and also with the vision council to make sure that we've addressed all those and and so that just wasn't ready for today's meeting okay so i would like to have that back here at our

[00:41:50] next at our next meeting that's our plan yes all right any further new business seeing none we are adjourned thank you

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