GOSHEN COUNTY – The Goshen County School District Board of Trustees held a special board meeting on Monday, March 24. Chairwoman Lena Moeller called the meeting to order a little after 7 p.m. in the board room at the central administration office. 

A motion was quickly made to approve the evening’s agenda by trustee Tony Goulart and seconded by trustee Chris Alexander. 

“We will acknowledge who’s online. We’ve got (trustees) Kelly Strampe and Sarah Chaires and Dylan Hager are all on Zoom tonight,” Moeller announced. 

Moeller noted the trustees appearing via Zoom had the ability to unmute and participate if needed during the procession of the meeting. Trustee Kate Steinbock was absent. 

The motion carried by vote and the agenda was approved.

“Our first and only agenda item is to consider approval of the purchase of uninterruptible power supplies, UPS, for district technology power backup,” Moeller stated upon calling for a motion to approve the purchase.

A motion was made to accept the motion and a second followed thereafter. Moeller then opened the floor to discussion where she called on Mike Harberts, district IT director.

“In discussion, Mr. Harberts, do you mind discussing with us the numbers and what you’re requesting?” Moeller asked.

“The RFP that we received that we decided to elect as the winner came in at $129,987.04. So, the way ERATE works is you get a pot of money allocated towards the use for things that fall under the criteria of ERATE,” Harberts said. “Mainly for the connectivity of the support of internet connectivity for schools and libraries. Then those things work on a five-year cycle. So, you have that pot of money for five years. This is the last year of our five-year cycle. After this year, then what’s remaining goes away and we get allocated a new sum of money.”

According to Harberts, after everything the district has spent in the last two purchases for bus Wi-Fi and licenses the district has $119,049.28 left in the ERATE allocation and from that total ERATE pays a percentage base on the districts free and reduced lunches, making Goshen County’s split 70/30.

“The ERATE will cover 70% of the cost and we pay the other 30%. Since our RFP came over than, some we had left from allocation, we have to pay 100% of that coverage. That was that $10,937.76. Our 30% then from the $119,049.28 comes out to $46,652.54,” Harberts said. “Well, I’m sorry, that’s including the $10,000. Our 30% would have been, I don’t have the exact number, but it would be right around $35 and some change of that $119. So, including that extra $10,000 from coverage, then we’re at $46,000 mark that was presented.”

“I think we adjust the memo today to kind of show that 70/30 split and then the $10,000 is included in what we would pay,” Harberts explained. “Does that make sense?”

Moeller stated it was, “As clear as mud.”

“The consultants will be paid in the total amount of $129,987.04 with $83,334.50 being funded by ERATE and $46,662.54 funded by district general funds,” Moeller explained. “Does that sound right?” 

Harberts agreed the chairwoman was correct and Moeller called for further discussion. 

“When you say the end of the year, you mean the end of the school year for when that money has to be used by?” Goulart asked.

“Not really. We have to have our submission in by, well, it’s March 26. That’s why we have to have a special board meeting. After that, we no longer have those funds available,” Harberts explained. “We spend them this year and we only have that window to submit to USAC for what purchases we are requesting that discounted, that 70% rate for. So, after that window closes, then that money is no longer usable. But it is for this fiscal year for the purchase.”

Superintendent Ryan Kramer stated the fiscal year runs July to June. 

“Well, that makes my next comment a little more difficult, but I still believe this would be the correct course of action. Madam Chair, I’d like to make a motion that this item be tabled until this board completes its budget work because $46,000 coming out of the general fund at this point, where there’s a lot of uncertainly about what our future holds in the budget, this might not be the best time,” Goulart said. “This, unless, I am thoroughly mistaken, this seems like a would-like-to-have item instead of an absolute-need to have item. We’ve got a lot of items we might be looking at that are going to be need to haves.” 

Moeller explained she appreciated Goulart’s comment and further reminded him there was a pending motion on the floor which needed to be addressed first and she turned the floor over to district business manager Marcy Cates. 

“I think I can address a couple of things in that. First off, with the ERATE money, we don’t have the convinced or the luxury of time,” Cates said. “What Mike [Harberts] has right here, there’s a time frame that this has to be either awarded or denied by. I think he said March 26 and that’s why we’re meeting tonight on March 24. Secondly, Mike can elaborate on this a little bit further, but I really think that this isn’t a luxury item. I think that these are power supplies that are going to delay or slow down the servers if the power goes out and the system crashes,” Cates explained. “So, this slow our system down and ensures that loss of data is minimized. I think we have to think about that.”

Cates also noted she had until next Monday to finish up the budget for the district. 

“But I can assure you that $46,000 is small. Meaning that we talk about percentage of carryover – one percent is $250,000,” Cates said. “This is like less than a quarter of a percent carryover.”

“The other thing the district has, and we don’t talk about it because it sits more or less in our backyard, in that we have what’s call pre-97 money. That’s money that was allocated to the district in 1997 when the funding model totally changed. Goshen County School District had $750,000. With that $750,000, that’s an additional cushion that we have. If we spend it, we can’t replenish those funds,” Cates explained. “But we do have dollars available.”

Cates cautioned the board, when opportunities like ERATE occur, the district doesn’t like to send allocated money back. Cates further insured the $40,000 would not put the district in a negative situation. 

Kramer asked Cates to clarify which budget year the expenditure would come from, which appeared to be a question from Chaires via Zoom.

“This is an expenditure for the present budget year so this is for the budget year that will end June 30. We’ve talked about there being some different things that occurred this year when we received some insurance proceeds that were greater than what we had planned,” Cates said. “I’ll go through them all in detail, Monday.”

Cates noted there was additional money in the state funding model. 

Before Moeller could call for a vote, Alexander had a few questions and the discussion continued for some time before all members of the board voted in favor of purchasing the UPS technology backup power supply for the district. 

The meeting was then quickly adjourned. The district will be having another special board meeting on Monday, March 31 at 6 p.m. for the preliminary 25-26 budget work session.