Board members on Monday reviewed support-service budget priorities from transportation, technology, school nutrition and facilities leaders, who described staffing pressures, equipment life-cycle needs and a handful of near-term capital priorities.
Transportation: Aaron, the district transportation director, told the board the fleet includes 32 buses plus three minivans and that the department aims to maintain a roughly 10-year service life on vehicles. He reported persistent recruitment and retention challenges for full-time drivers and mechanics, said the department is using part-time and retired drivers to fill gaps, and described a pending grant application (submitted via Highland Electric) to lease electric buses rather than purchase and operate them directly. “We’re trying to maintain at least a service life of about 10 years,” Aaron said, adding that the district has applied for funding and remains in contact with the vendor but has not received a decision. Board members cautioned about EV downtime reported by neighboring districts and discussed regional solutions for CDL training (a BOCES-style or shared-training model).
Route management, ridership sampling and spare-vehicle strategy were raised as immediate operational items. Aaron described plans to sample boardings (using counting clickers) and to analyze route data to better match capacity to demand. He said the district currently operates with a constrained spare ratio and looks at targeted minivan purchases to meet demand for specialized transport (students with disabilities and small-group needs).
Technology: Director of Technology Jeff Wallace described three budget priorities: (1) reliable operational systems (phone, door access, emergency notifications), (2) student-learning environments (device replacement cycles, classroom infrastructure, software subscriptions), and (3) cybersecurity (firewall, endpoint detection, multi-factor authentication and phishing training). He described a newly deployed assessment/data platform intended to give teachers direct access to local and state assessment data, MTSS monitoring and behavior data — a tool administrators said should reduce manual data pulls and improve in-school instructional decision-making. Jeff said the district is using E‑Rate funding for network infrastructure and is running simulated phishing campaigns that have reduced click rates on test phishing emails from roughly 18% to about 2%.
Jeff also confirmed district discussion of AI uses and risks: district and school-level committees are reviewing AI’s instructional uses and detection tools; the high school has an AI committee and staff have run pilot work and sessions on AI in classrooms.
School nutrition: The district’s nutrition program has seen participation rise after an expansion of free/universal meals. Notes from school nutrition director Carol (who could not attend in person) stressed the benefit of increased “scratch-cooking,” better student response and rising participation. The nutrition team reported aging and in some cases nonfunctional kitchen equipment (older ovens and dishwashers; parts sometimes unavailable), and Nicole said staff are pursuing creative reallocations of equipment across sites, small state grants and phased replacements.
Facilities: Facilities staff outlined ongoing planned work and urgent maintenance needs: elevator repairs at the high school or elementary campus that limit accessibility when out of service; HVAC and air-quality projects; asbestos testing was reported as up-to-date with only limited abatement required (JES basement noted previously); and roof-repair prioritization. Facilities leaders emphasized a strategy of internal labor and phased projects to reduce contractor costs.
Board follow-up and budget timeline: The presentations were positioned as departmental inputs ahead of the December budget roll-up. Board members asked for follow-up data (sampled ridership counts, more detailed equipment cost estimates for kitchen and facility projects, and clarity about the timeline/contingency for electric-bus grant decisions) and discussed possible regional collaboration on driver training and purchasing.
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