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e more weeks because I just need to at this time I'd like to call the meeting to order of the diart governing board let the record reflect that all members are present and we'll stand for the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for all thank you and um first item is B1 audience with individuals Miss Pritchard we have two individuals wishing to speak tonight I'll go ahead and read the statement this is the time for the public to comment members of the board may not discuss items that are not specifically identified on the agenda pursue it to ARS 38-43 1.01 action taken as a result of public comment will be limited to directing staff to study the matter responding to any criticism or scheduling the matter for future consideration at the decision at the later and decision at a later date in order to facilitate accomplishing the business of the district in a timely manner a time limit of three minutes will be imposed for each individual or group addressing the board when you approach the podium please state your name for the record and first we have have Victoria McBride hello good evening my name is Victoria McBride I have three children who go to Surprise Elementary School when we first arrived at surprise we were homeless lost confused and a little fearful of what was to come but Miss mallerie W Wadley our school social worker eased our fears she is so nice and kind she provided my kids with new backpacks new clothes and new shoes to start schooling at school she knows every child by name not only because it's her job but because she cares deeply about each and every one they say anyone can do what she does I strongly disagree she is a special person with a big heart who cares for those who would otherwise slip through the cracks my family and I have moved into a beautiful new home and because of Miss Wadley putting my kid's name on the El Mirage Police Department Christmas list we were able to celebrate a wonderful holiday there I am thankful for Miss Wadley and others like her who dedicate their lives and make it their mission to help the most vulnerable and troubled children work through their challenges and personal issues social workers are valuable asset to the daar community and family and many families would be lost without them thank you thank you next we have Scotty Gentry please hi my name is Scotty Gentry and I am a parent I have a child who's been on home balance Services since the fifth grade off and on trying to keep them in school keep them going I have had nothing but issues with dyser high school to get him situated with an IEP which I did go ahead and ask for the IEP nothing was sent back to me and that his education was violated I had to go to the board of uh downtown education Bo of Education we had to deal with superintendent and then again today I get a phone call from the ESS Department because director Montano who I've gone round round rounds with her decides that my son and through homebound Services you get four hours that's minimum that is not the maximum the last superintendent and I had eight hours hours we grade on because technically he would have six classes 30 hours a week I get a phone call today from Miss fry in the ESS telling me what they're doing I said no Mrs fry he's in charge to he's he's entitled to eight hours and that's what he's been then I finally get an email back that everything was taken care of I reached out to Don Den more thank you very much for your help I appreciate it that this would got resolved but I sure hope that this doesn't happen to any other homebound service parents who are going through multiple complications with children who are sick and Ill they should not have to worry about their education for their child being taken away in any manner shape or form that's the first thing thank you again Don second of all I'm on a applic I'm on an app on Facebook where parents there's one parent who was telling stating on there at Surprise Elementary that their child was being bullied at school nothing was getting done they were following the kid home afterwards we stretched to them that you know called the principal that there's a resource officer but if something can get put out there for all the kids that are being bullied because a lot of times kids don't say nothing and it does affect somebody in the long run it does affect children in the long run so those are my two uh things that I would like to discuss thank you again Don and hopefully we can get things resolved for children in our community no matter where they live so they feel safe at school thank you Madame President member Pritchard yes um we can do that I'll have a followup from ESS thank you uh next we have item C1 superintendent update Dr croo thank you Madame President good evening to everybody just a few updates uh today um this past week we had some state champions uh crowned in our district so we're happy to um to recognize them uh Shadow Ridge Spirit line are the AI AIA division one two co-ed cheer state champions also Willow Canyon Spirit line won the AIA Division 1 and two partner stunt Championship uh for the second year in a row so congratulations to those uh this is the district's thirdd year in a row winning a state championship as a whole um in in cheer and uh Shadow one in Shadow Ridge 1 and 22 Willow Canyon 1 and 23 and then Shadow Ridge again in 24 so congratulations to all those uh schools for that great accomplish ment um the State student council event convention is being held at Valley Vista as we speak so there's about 200 student councils from all over this state on that campus right next to us actually over there um it's a great chance to showcase our district and and this goes on all the way through Saturday so great big events for all those kids and we're glad we're hosting that so thank you to Valley Vista for that and last but not least um I had the privilege of speaking in front of the house education committee on Tuesday uh downtown in favor of our house bill 2246 which is our purple star legis legislation that we're trying to pass through that came and presented and getting the purple star legislation recognized by the state of which we have Luke is a candidate so um just proud to announce that that committee passed it through the education committee unanimously so it will continue through that process so that's all with my update next we have governing board update I'll start uh on January 17th and 18th I attended the Essa conference uh that was sponsored by ad um on January 17th I attended that evening Valley Vista senior night double duel wrestling event that was awesome to see all of our seniors being honored there on Saturday January 20th I took part in the bond tour which was um a very unique experience to go around on one of our school buses that was 20 years old we did not break down thank goodness due to our very well-maintained bus fleet um and we got to see um a lot of our lot of opportunities that exist within the district uh on January 23rd I celebrated school choice kickoff at the capital I met with lawmakers on the importance of keeping parental rights at the Forefront when considering new legislation especially regarding school safety and the efforts to convert public schools into healthc care clinics I also joined Dr Coto in the house chamber that day where we where he testified on behalf of um House Bill 2246 which impacts Luke Elementary uh families and I'm just so happy that this was passed unanimously out of the house education committee um and then on the 23rd in the evening uh we have the bond meeting as always grateful for their commitment for coming to the table with a diverse set of ideas on how we can um fix some of the gaps that we have in the district so thank you that's it Hills I attended the Sunset Hills Winter band concert and I've also attended several Middle School volleyball games um and the fun part was I attended a rating the schools that received A- rating celebrations so I went to Kingswood West Point simmeron Springs Sonoran Heights Freedom traditional and uh Rancho Gabriella and then I also attended a CIP visit at simmeron Springs thank you Joe um I also attended um the simmeron Springs A+ School visit that was a wonderful experience congratulations to sron Springs um I also attended the three-hour Bond Tour on the 20th um I didn't ride in the bus because I had to leave early for my son's uh basketball game but it was it was a very um great experience to meet with the committee to see the concerns um with our district on what needs to be addressed and I just want to thank um Todd blutter for attending our maintenance uh director and then also uh Danielle Mo our transportation um director I just want to say thank you for taking the time out of your day to come and answer any questions so it was nice to to see them um and then on the 25th today I went to Mountain viw for their uh School visit um they're also an A+ school so thank you for all your hard work and dedication thank you moving to item D1 motion to approve consent agenda items as presented second seconded by Christine Pritchard motion carries okay and then we'll move to item F1 Dr Coto thank you Madame President uh we have a bond override committee update and Mr mcy will introduce this item thank you Madame President members of the board Dr Coto and guests uh do want to uh uh provide some more information on the bond override committee that's been hard at work as you mentioned we did have a tour and a beating uh recently and so uh we have one of our spokes people who's who's here tonight he's been taking the taking the reings and we really appreciate it uh Mr Patrick Campbell and he's going to provide us an update on those last two uh very informative and uh and insightful uh pieces that we just finished Mr [Music] Campbell St okay all slouched Madame President board members Dr Gau cabinet and guest uh for the record my name is Patrick Campbell I'm one of the chairs for the uh Bond override committee um so as discussed uh so far earlier uh in the meeting we met uh 20 January um got there around 7:30 uh it officially started at 8:00 for the uh quote unquote three-hour tour um which was excellent uh we met at the daart Support Services uh the goal of this was to go around to see a diversified um areas of daart school district that need uh attention if you will for lack of better term so in detail for some of that um we met around 730 um I want to give a a big thank you to Food Services I'm assuming they provided the uh the the continental breakfast for us it's always nice because somebody had to get up and actually put that there I don't I didn't see who it was but whoever it was that was awesome um we were given instruction uh instructions by Dr CAU and uh and Mr musy with the uh how the tour was going to go uh we started in the school bus yard um and there was a comparison samples of different types of buses that were very neatly lined up in the yard which I thought was very thoughtful as opposed to making us on foot have to walk throughout the whole property which is large if you've never been there um so that was nice and it was everything from some of the oldest to some of the newest and then it was a Hands-On comparison seeing the differences between them um the uh there was Q&A uh very informative information given to us I do want to give a special um thank you to uh uh Transportation director Danielle uh they call her Danny uh Moyer uh the lead mechanic um and Marine I should point out uh Donald Felipe was there as well very informative and then uh I want to give a special shout out to our bus driver Jake uh Hoffmeister for Trans supporting us safely in that 20-year bus that you were talking about and uh he did it with a very uh with a very uh Lively crowd if you will so it was that was awesome uh we moved on from there um they took us to the diart auditorium and um I first thing I did was go check out what uh I was recommended doing which was to go see the restrooms and they just said go see them I walked in and it's been a while um so we got to see those um the age of the facility was um interesting um to see the need I mean we've talked about it at length for the last five months to see the need of the building itself was was um put a different perspective and a spin on it if you will and that goes for just about everything that we saw um over that day um the lighting the restroom issues I mean there was uh the ramp issues there there's a lot to be to be done there uh we moved on around 910 or so we went over to Countryside Elementary uh we got a tour of the chillers and the HVAC system in the back which again is unless you're an employee that would be back there you never see um to see it up close and personal even though we have seen pictures on big screens I hadn't seen the the the wear and tear if you will uh things that come do and that was uh fascinating to see it and get more of a better visual that made an impact um special uh thank you again it's been thanked but U maintenance director Todd uh blutter is it pronounced blutter blutter okay thank you for him again these are all people that came out on their time on uh on early on on a Saturday morning to uh to give us um information that we needed uh left there we went to Willow Canyon High School and the focus initially on there started out on the fields and I know out being a coach out at Shadow Ridge um there are some issues with distance between um and the irony of it was some of the people on the tour had to use the restroom right about that time and it was like it's over there and so they took off on that so it was nice to see some of that and put again you know things to a focus that you could see from there um we went and focused on security issues um I want to give a special thank you to security director Jason Jagger for uh being there for us again someone else who came in on their time um and in no particular order some of the gate issue we talked about key card issues um there was a discussion with the window coverings inside the buildings which I know has been something that was new this year to the the school year that happened key card access um ability to lock and secure buildings and um fast fting to me was some of the lettering and stuff on the outside of the buildings it kind of Blends and if you're an emergenc emergency responder what am I looking for you know it's easy if you work there to say building a but if you don't know where building a is and then you're looking up and you're trying to find where that is you could see where that would get lost in the shuffle especially when you know seconds count so again special thank you to uh for Jason for coming out there for us um we left there the rest of the tour was on bus um again our bus driver was uh took care of us um took us out towards Asante property we got to see the uh Asante Preparatory Academy area and I think the the the concept from Dr CAU was to show us okay here's the school that we have at Asante and then everything from there as we drove around was basically everything feeds that one school for right now and that was it was it was eye opening to see I hadn't been there in quite a while to the assanti area but it was fascinating to see how how much that's grown and continued to grow as we as we toured the area we were able to see some of the proper properties that diart currently owns and has deed to for lacka better term and then we got to see some of the wish lists I'll just call it a wish list for potential um High School land and things like that that were out there um very well done uh the timing even though it was uh three hours you know it it it it was very well put together and informative as far as the amount of time I was skeptical at how how much we can accomplish in three hours but um very well done and very well paced um so uh after that we we came back we debriefed over at the uh the district yard and um and then we left for the day um last Tuesday two days ago we met with our an our annual monthly meeting uh 23 January called to order um ironically this is the first time there's no public comment so thought that was kind of interesting um approval of minutes we debriefed the facility tour and one of the things we did with committee members again the diversity of the group was to talk individually at the tables about what impacted them most because it was the first time that we had gotten to talk together since we had all been on the tour and then left came back and then we got to talk and the very similar outcomes as far as the uh what I'm sharing with you now I'm sharing their opinions as well as what they thought um once that was done uh we did a deep dive into um some of the bond effects and potential implications um looking at 20 uh 20 and 15 years that was done by meridel that was excellent um presentation lot of numbers um but things that matter uh we got into some of the tax implications and bond override impact and the bond excuse me and override impacts uh future meeting uh February 6th just to note that next time I we talk um I'll be coming back with the um Paul from High Ground public affairs is going to bring back the survey briefing for you which is something that we're all excited about to see um and then just to wrap up I just want to give again a special thank you to Dr Kau in no particular order Craig musy Dr asai um and meridel for their tour with us and showing up and getting on the bus and riding around the town seeing things that we needed to see and with that I will stand for questions I have a question I don't know if you're allowed to comment or not so forgive me if this is like an inappropriate question but just based on your work with the group are you able to share just the overall feel like any concerns that the group has about a bond or any feelings like whether they we they're really um seeing the need or they're really thinking uh but this is my concern like has anything has anybody expressed any opinion yet or is that conversation kind of respectfully confidential at this point excellent question ma'am the um the not concern not yet concerns as far as the needs for the district yes um I mean if if something's not done soon the problems don't go away that's just a fact you can cut it any way you want um the February 6th once we get back the survey results I believe that's the final piece that will help put this together that's this person's opinion um and then at that point I think we're going to start looking towards possibly making a recommendation I believe that would be fair to say by anybody that's been involved okay thank you yes ma'am and thanks again too for all your work and all the time you've put into all these meetings I really appreciate it you every labor of love labor of love yes I will Echo Miss pretard and just say thank you to all of our volunteers who take the time to show up for the tours to meet and to discuss these options thank you thank you ma'am yeah I also want to Echo thank you guys for all your hard work I know it takes you away from your family and other activities but it's it's very important so thank you for all your time thank you ma'am I I actually I'm remiss because I forgot to thank Madame President denmore and and uh and and Miss Drake here for also joining us on the tour bus so it matters it it was it was it's appreciated that you showed up I did get some really good feedback from the committee on it I know I'm on broker and record but thank you thank you so much for showing up um and giving us the updates you know at every board meeting and um you and every other volunteer I we just really appreciate all of the time um that you're dedicating to this it's it's a it's a big thing so we appreciate it yes ma'am thank you thank you all right next we have item F2 Dr kredo thank you madam president uh tonight we move on in our monitoring of policy with chapter three so miss padel will lead this item thank you Dr CTO so um just in general as the board is reviewing policies U we are up on the schedule to review chapter three which are business operations and so some minor um edits have been made to policy so at this point if there's any questions I'd be happy to answer them my my just big concern has always been so just to um confirm as far as facility use students always come first before we open it up to the public or anybody rent choosing to rent I mean I know it's it's revenue for the district but just always remembering our Student Activities need to come first on the calendar right presid member pitard yes that is definitely something that gets the the high priority and then from there after meeting the school's calendar needs then it's discussed what's available for for facility use for the public thank you I do have one quick question about the facility use um but I don't know if it necessarily pertains to this particular policy so maybe I will send an email okay thank you Miss spal I just want to thank you for for painstakingly going through this and catching all of the the grammatical errors I appreciate that thank you very welcome okay think we're good all right moving on to item F3 Dr croo thank you madam president tonight we have our excuse me final two schools CP reports and Dr asai will introduce this item good evening Madame President members of the board it is my pleasure to introduce Miss Amy MOS who is the proud principal of West Point Elementary and she has her cheering section with her yes hello president denmore board members Dr Coto cabinet and guests and of course my cheering Squad my name is Amy michos proud principal of West Point Elementary School and I'm pleased to speak to you today about the progress on our CIP plan you are seeing the past three years of aasa and a science data as you say see the data is trending in the right direction we are very proud of the growth that our students are making and the hard work put in by our teachers support staff and of course our students this progress has led to us earning an A on last year's State a through F accountability rating and this is something that we are extremely proud of while the data represents students for from third through 8th grade we know that a strong Foundation is necessary and that's where our primary teachers come in and they are working hard to have strong readers and mathematicians well we are thrilled of our progress we know that we have a very long way to go to build Proficiency in our students and our goals um reflect this desire and our action plan is continuing to move learning forward next is our aella data and again we're very proud of the progress that we're making in this area um we've provided increased training for targeted and integrated instruction that we believe is helping move students toward proficiency so West Point's three CIP goal areas were selected from survey data and past um student data and we targeted these three areas the first one is to increase our Proficiency in math and Ela on aasa and in aadience and next week is our data our Benchmark data will be pulled um when it's available of course so that we'll be able to know how far we've progressed in this goal the second goal is to increase stakeholder involvement and by holding family engagement events that have a focus on academics as the Arts Academy we often have big crowds come for things like our dance concerts or our plays um academic focuses we get a little smaller crowd so we're focusing on getting more families there to support them in the academics of their children and we're having one tomorrow so we're partnering with our PTSA tomorrow they have a paint night so our art teacher is um leading painting with our families but before that we're having Ela and math centers that are Arts enriched so we're excited to incorporate and partner with them we did that earlier in the year during our curriculum night where typically we have a small population of parents that come for curriculum night but this year we partnered with PTSA and we had a family game night open in our gym afterwards and it brought in a bigger crowd and so we've seen the benefits in partnering um to increase that stakeholder involvement our third goal that is up there is to reduce our referrals um in the areas of defiance and disrespect and physical aggression we are currently on track to meet that goal for defiance and disrespect we're probably not going to meet it for physical aggression how however when I pulled data today from last year's January referrals to this year's we've had a significant reduction so we saw and we felt it when we came back from winter break that students were ready to learn um and it's been a good return back to campus I've highlighted just a few of our action steps um from our original plan um in goal one you'll notice that it's PLC roll out of course you know that's a dice art initiative we've had a lot of new teachers and teams this year and so we needed to start fresh and it was a perfect time to do that with the PLC rollout to build strong teams that have a focus on learning and results we've also created a math and reading committee that have focused on professional learning and growth but also on running and planning those family events that have that academic focus and under goal three you'll notice it says zap and Monday School zap is for zeros aren't permitted and so if a student has a missing assignment that would count as a zero they're invited by their teacher with parent permission to stay after school on Mondays to have that time to finish those assignments Monday school is also where teachers can assign students who may have had a behavior concern in the classroom and we're trying to be proactive in making some changes in that behavior so our theme for this year has been moving learning forward and this philosophy has driven our campus to focus on learning and growth in new ways as a staff we frequently share moving learning moments forward in our staff meetings and we are celebrating the winds this is my sixth year at West Point and is wonderful to see the progress that we are making daily our students are hardworking they're resilient and it is a pleasure to serve the West Point Community this concludes my portion of the presentation and I would now open it up to any questions that you might have for me thank you very much you mentioned um the PLC role out um and having that opportunity with new teachers do you find that it's that it's maybe a little bit easier with a new teacher versus more like a more tenur one that is resistant to change it can be cuz this is just how we do it they don't know any different right but um we really have had very little resistance honestly our teachers have jumped right in um they've embraced the idea that we're collaborating and that's just part of who we are and so it's been a good a good change great thank you very much thank you just um for comparison um just so I'm clear under on aella for State per proficient um for 2223 of 12.75 what is this what is the state profic proficiency rate I believe that 12.75 is the state rate and our proficiency rate is the one above that the 22.22% I see okay I was looking at it wrong all right thank you thank you and congratulations on your a thank you all right thank you and our next sip is presented by Mr Scott Kerr from Thompson Ranch his staff might be a little competitive to be the bigger chairing section okay good evening Madame President um board members cabinet uh my name is Scott km the principal at Thompson Ranch Elementary School uh let's see most important data that we'll look at is this screen uh State State Testing um bad news for us is we are under the state average U we're working on that um in various ways and some of those points I'll I'll touch on in our presentation the good news is uh we grew about a quarter point overall in achievement and about two and a half points in growth uh in from the previous year of 2122 so that was helpful and um the Highlight would be our and pretty much most of this comes from our eighth grade teacher uh science teacher but the Four Points growth in a science with azilla um this was I think our toughest uh Road this year we we lost points um in this area we lost four points um and that was a tough one uh um we're working our butt off on it this year um but due to lack of growth La last year and lack of students becoming proficient in getting getting out of elll we um we scored less points here and it lowered our overall score um last year just to give you an idea we had 76 eel students um that took took our our zelot test this year we're sitting at about 114 so I'm glad that we over the summer made some adjustments and made some plans to work with our um with our El population and getting those guys to grow our CIP and our goals here one of the things that we wanted to do was um establish a a vision and emission and values and and make that fresh and new uh we have we've done that but we still need to work on putting that throughout the school and so that's part of what we're doing here in the in the second semester um we want to increase our as our aasa scores 3% in math 3% reading and reduce our minimally proficient students by 5% across the board um in there I have one comment about three subgroups um ESS elll and African-American students um we were in in TSI which is a federal label not a good one um prior uh last year the good news is we're out of two of those this year we grew in in our ESS um we're still in TSI and ESS with our ESS students but we did grow just not enough so but to have two of those out of the way thank god um leadership um we've been working with our kids on leadership that was a huge issue um a big Mark that our community um came out in our in our surveys so we're addressing that um 75% of our students will um work um in leadership roles and given the opportunities of we' we've met that goal but it's something that is continual so we keep working on it and we get more kids involved also with our adults and uh we want them 75% participate in one or more volunteer activity during the school year and that's off- campus that's not on campus so so um we've done one of those already in the first semester we'll do another one second semester our culture and climate um in implementing our behavior management plan with Fidelity is a huge goal I don't know that we'll meet that one but we sure are working hard at it and it's paying dividends because when we look at our referrals dropping by 20% they've dropped more than that um we're sitting about 40% drop in our referrals um and I'll give you a stat on that here in a minut minute um and then 75% of our staff and parents responding that they would recommend Thompson Ranch to um to a family looking for a school it's another one of our goals we won't know that one until we give out our surveys those should should be heading out here in about a month and we should have that information um our action plan there's a lot of stuff here I'm going to highlight some things um number one we're working hard on uh professional devel development with with uh best practices for for our teachers and working with our PD we'll talk a little bit more about that in a minute uh working on our behavior management system which is a continual um and and working on developing our professional learning communities um what we're doing with that is is integrating more accountability practices like um walking doing our walkthroughs after we do PD to make sure we're seeing the professional development that we want to see in mented um things like giving feedback on lesson plans and giving feedback on plc's when we're in there and and just making sure that our staff understands hey you know what this is good this is where we can improve um one other piece that is really important to us and we've really excelled at this year is um doing more activities with our students um outside of school and inside of school recognition um in terms of academics um Athletics and arts and uh with in with our students and with our staff with our community our positives I'll I'll touch on a a couple of these a couple of them I already have attendance rates are better than last year we're we've increased our attendance about 2% that's great we're we're sitting about 91.1% average daily rate our sports activities ptso choir keep track of all this assemblies student awards and njhs um didn't exist except for sports um prior prior year they are this year so we we're integrating all these guys in sports I put those on there because I didn't field two boy sports teams last year we fielded both of those teams this year both those teams went to the playoffs too um instruction is improving and if you come on to our campus you'll see it we have a 2hour e block I don't I think we're the only School using that block I think Dr is that right I think we are um it's one of the choices you can do for your e kids and we take our lowest kids and we work two hours with our lowest kids from kinder to fifth grade and they get two hour blocks of um eel time which is basically Ela and um the results are showing that that's working referrals um as I said we're we've dropped about 40 uh% um last year I want to give you one stat that that reflects this um we had 198 out of school suspensions first semester this past semester to compare 111 last but not least we've had a a bright bright young lady uh work with Patriots pen and you'll see some some stuff on social media coming out we had two uh first place winners in different posts I'll have to tell that's another story I'll tell you some other time I'm on a time crunch here we had one second place also I know it sounds fishy but it's not um our post winner was also the district winner who was also the state winner and so now we have the state winner who is Malia Russell representing our state in the national competition the last piece of information I want to give you is this and it's and it's a positive one and I I like this one last year at the end of the year Benchmark 3 which was the comprehensive bench Benchmark over the whole year averaged over third grade through 8th grade uh Ela was 24% math was 15% not so good this year we took the same comp not the same comprehensive test sorry but very similar but it's a comprehensive test um our first Benchmark the average for our our um Ela was 39 the average for our math was 26 so both double digit gains um I'm looking forward to what our teachers are going to do and um thank you for your time that is the end of my presentation if you have any questions I'd love to answer them number one thank you for the shirts you're welc amazing thank you very much um congratulations on your 40% drop in referrals yeah that's amazing um and even that that increase in attendance I mean for sure with the referrals alone we know how much Behavior impacts learning so yes there's some work that needs to be done in scores but getting that behavior under control is a big piece of that so I applaud you for all that hard work um I also appreciate your transparency that you've always brought us you walked into a very challenging position and you knew that and you went in there anyway and you're you're doing your absolute best and we're seeing some gains but with how can how can we help you like what is it that you may still need or support that we can provide and get in place for you so you and your staff and your students can Excel and Thrive um great great question I honestly I I will say this and I've said it to my upper Administration I've never felt more supported by upper Administration in the past and I've been around for a while so um I appreciate all their help um they uh Dr asai Dr Coto and previous you know Administration pieces have been very very supportive um Mr mcy has been very supportive I mean down the line Dr polling um everyone um has been really good and some of the ideas that have come through from upper Administration um have been great uh Kinder interventionist I'm just telling you our Kinder numbers you ought to look at them I'm anticip I ating 80 to 90% of our kids being blue in Kinder now that's the highest score they can get in dibles it's a cadians now but for our school that's unbelievable unbelievable our scores right now are higher than our scores were at the end of the year last year in a cadan so it's amazing that's a I can't say enough about that um also the just the work we're doing with our e kids we're seeing a lot of growth out of our eel kids and um you know a lot of these guys back here they're responsible they do a great job so got a good team and that's what it takes gr do you have grass I can't believe I brought that word up I'm going to yes of course we do good yes thank you for all you're doing yeah and and two um as you go by our school you're going to notice some differences um maintenance has done a great job um Todd has been great I will say that um and he looks at things and things get done and I really appreciate that but he's really helping us with the quality of our curb appeal and helping us with the the Aesthetics of the school and it's looking a lot better so appreciate that we will anytime you want to come over you know you're welcome well I will also EO Miss Pritchard I I do appreciate your honesty with your presentation um I also appreciate that you celebrate your positives because the the 80 90% kindergarten is astronomically phenomenal it's wonderful if we could start our Kinders at 80 or 90% proficient on grade level and keep that going we can oh my goodness it's going to be amazing easier a lot easier yes because as a teacher when you have to go go back and R but so you're you're reteaching things from the previous grade but you're also supposed to be teaching grade level it's like a never-ending hamster wheel yeah so it's phenomenal to hear that that's that's incredible so great job to you and to your staff that's and focusing on that behavior I feel like that's been so important because we both know if kids are disrupting the class nobody can learn we can't teach nobody can teach nobody can learn so dealing with that behavior is absolutely top-notch so thank you great job great job anything else I just want to also thank you for your transpar in all of your presentations to us uh currently and in the past uh I know that it's not um an easy position to walk into um so I just so I'm very grateful that you're that you're focusing on the behaviors because as everyone has already said um you're you're creating Learners out of that um and I'm just curious uh if you can speak to H does having an officer on your campus have any positive impact on that absolutely okay all right thank you so much yep you're welcome I'm just going to Echo everything that they've said because you have taken this bowl by the horns and you are turning it around and and doing fabulous work you and your staff so I just want to say thank you for all your hard work it is a team effort it is yeah it's te effort and it's showing this is wonderful this is great thank you absolutely thank you appreciate it all right moving to item F4 Dr Coto thank you madam president um let's come to the point tonight where uh I need to give you a midyear report on the progress of the goals of the superintendent goals which are aligned to the board goals so um we will start in on that just like a school CIP so at the beginning of the year obviously your board goals um are set every year every student in all schools be prepared with the Knowledge and Skills to achieve College and Career Success uh the goal that you have uh set for me is to raise academic achievement across the district through the implementation of professional learning communities which we're working hard on and increase cability of student learning so so success measures we're going to grow by a 3% average on K um testing and and 0.25 on our act composite 100% of principles participate in a series of four data chats with cabinet um and then 100% of focus schools um and those were identified by having less than 40% uh proficient reading and less than 30% um in students proficient in math um or being a new administrative team we've taken that on and lastly the goal four there was 100% of schools that will implement the PLC process with Fidel so looking at goal a um in that uh goal ones we don't know until the final scores come out but all obviously the actions of two three and four are going to contribute to the success of goal one so goal one will be something that we figure out uh after this year is all over uh principal data chats with the cabinet have been held with 100% of principles um with the start of school year and and doing through the benchmarks we have another round coming up um and we have been doing that um as scheduled on time uh educational ed services has provided a variety of services to focus uh on the school campus we've been co-planning lessons with observations feedback of lessons content specific strategies modeling of lessons so that has happened for goal three uh goal four we had every school create a PLC rollout plan based on our uh Summer Conference and continue to provide PD to their staff uh through the implementation of the LC process so uh two side notes on that through the governor's Grant we've been able to uh have solution tree provide on um on-site support with 12 campuses to assist them in their implementation and on-site uh solution tree training for campus leadership occurred on January 18th so we had some people from uh solution tree here to to uh work with our administrators uh goal B moving on um that we will recruit train and retain highly qualified staff to cultivate a culture of Student Success uh the goal you had for me is enhance systems and and procedures relating to recruiting hiring and retaining qualified staff so the measures there is by the end of this school year we'll increase in communication Avenues uh consistency and CommunityWide Outreach for employment opportunities and benefits with the district and the second uh success measure for that one is by the end of this year we're going to have a comprehensive customer service plan that's going to be developed and implemented uh to uh increase satisfaction of all stakeholders so the progress on this um obviously uh is in goal one uh we've had enhanced marketing programs targeting our advertising to perspective candidates uh we've had marked increases in add Impressions so on the on the uh web uh website traffic has increased interviews and recommendations for hire at the December job fair have increased compared to uh the previous year goal two uh we did do customer service training so we created a customer service training using the dice art cares approach uh and that was provided to all administrators on campus uh their office staff district office staff all the way through so that continues to be something that we will focus on uh throughout this semester goal c um in safety um the daer Unified School District culture will consistently be reflective a safe and secure environment for all stakeholders uh that is our number one Focus uh we live in a society that has forced us to make this our number one focus and we take it very serious uh the goal you had for me was to continue provide an increased focus on Safety and Security at each daar facility through enhanced safety protocols uh the measures of success for that uh by the end of this year uh all campuses will have conducted regular safety checks and inspections in addition um if you remember we will have eight campuses that have a full safety audit which is a huge comprehensive safety audit um as part of the three threeyear implementation cycle for all campuses and Facilities uh our second measure of success was that we would talk about 100% of any items found in these um safety checks that are non-compliant um that and that require immediate attention that they be uh reinspect and resolved within 30 days and then the last measure is by the end of this year we have a training on safety operations and practices related to each position um will have been completed with all the SRO 13 sros uh all security guards for high school campuses and administrators throughout the district so our areas here are progress towards this so every District site has had a minimum of five visits this year so far basic site audits have been completed districtwide the full safety audits have been completed on four campuses um by the end of thisth month so in the next few days we'll have four completed um 16 immediate deficiencies were addressed um those were the deficiencies that were found and 16 of them were addressed immediately and were addressed within uh 30 days um multiple trainings have been completed with our SRO our high school security guards and administrators so that is in the progress on goal C and our last goal goal D um is the diart Unified School District will identify and maximize available res resources to support Student Success uh your goal for me on that is to continue to identify and maximize available resources both internally and externally uh to support our Student Success so the first success measure was to increase Capital reserves and to maintain or increase the applications to school facilities of vision for building funding uh and the second measure is to reduce the number of late arriving buses by 25% by the end of this year uh the progress on this goal um there have been over 99 million projects awarded so far this year um I need to tell you that uh the funding for school facilities boards uh this year they have um they have given the state 30 million do um total for the entire state every school in the state so even though they award some of these they don't necessarily fund them right away um we continue to have successful applications um Mr Mr blutter um has done a great job in putting those in and his staff that do that um so we continue to be awarded they're just not all funded yet and we are hoping that they are funded soon um and then last year um just march to May last spring is when we started counting the late buses there were 3,168 late buses for different reasons in our district that's why we made this a goal um and compared to all this semester we only had 1,4 so it is decreased drastically uh we will continue to do that we do have some challenges out in the Asante area for those of you that are on the bus the traffic and all that um so we we work with that daily and do the best we can we have some um we have some ideas on how to reduce some of that so we continue working on all that so with that that's a brief overview of the goals and our progress and where we're at and I'll stand for any questions you may have thank thank you Dr croto one of the things that stuck out to me when I was going over this with my board packet was the late bus count that's phenomenal yeah that's phenomenal because when a bus is late it just throws everybody off it throws the learning off it throws every everything so that's great job to you and our transportation for reducing those that is all of our transportation department and a great job to them so we owe them a lot a lot of gratitude for getting that done and they will continue to do what they can to do that them with some pretty severe challenges at times so thank you I know we're going to be going into executive session and talk further but I I wanted to at least um thank you for all that you've done you came in unexpectedly um and you know just took the ball and ran with it um your goals I mean are very specific uh very easily measured which I appreciate that very transparent the way you communicate with the board well speaking for myself I I mean I get the board updates like everyone does but I know um the way you communicate with me and I know is the same with everyone else as far as um every Monday always being available no matter what I mean there's times when I'll be on my couch reading through something and oblivious to what day or time it is and it'd be like I text you a question and it's like it's Saturday at 8 at night why did I just do that and right away I get a response you know you're just very very readily available I appreciate that um so again we'll talk more in executive session but I just really appreciate your non-nonsense approach to doing what's best for kids and all the progress you've made so far I'm just very impressed and pleased and it's a pleasure to work with you so thank you thank you didto on the communication piece I think um that Dr Coto and I speak at least two three times every day he's probably sick of me by now um but he's always very responsive um always very attentive always follows back up if he doesn't know the answer right away um offered me um quite a bit of help today so thank you um I just want to talk about I mean it's every every goal I think that you have hit um or exceeded um your your partnership your communication even um with the city with with ad um getting the grants to secure um Beyond those original 13 SRO that are in the these goals um I just appreciate everything that you do to uh see the visions of this board um through and um just your support not only for for the board but to hear your Administration say that they feel supported um it's one thing to have these expectations of your of your principles and other administrators but to actually offer them support and solutions and help them along the way that speaks volumes to your leadership so thank you thank you they're a wonderful team so we're only as good as all of us together so I appreciate everybody I also want to say thank you for for everything that you've done for the district and um working with the board it has been an honor um to work with you just going to the different School visits and um and talking to everybody and learning about all all of our schools and the staff and the students and the teachers it is it has been great A great experience and I'm I'm glad that even though that's not part of your goals we're still doing it you know I think it's wonderful um I'm glad that you um have worked very hard on working with the city um for our SRO and our ssos um I know that's a lot of work you're you're going down to the capital and speaking on behalf of our our purple star program that is wonderful so I just want to thank you for everything um I have learned a lot um being on the board and under your supervision and your staff is wonderful I love working with your admin so I just just want to say thank you thank you for everything thank you maybe we can just skip executive session now did anyone else have anything to add okay moving on to um item G1 Dr Coto thank you Madame President um we are going to move on to our action discussion items and Dr polling um this becomes the Dr polling show so Dr polling good evening G Madam president members of the board Dr Coto cabinet these are annual items um attached to the first item are all the contracts um for the various staff for the 24 25 school year there are no substantive changes and a recommendation is to move forward approving contracts okay I move to approve administrative certificated and licensed employee contract language and benefit packages for the 2024 2025 school year second seconded by Miss Pritchard motion carries moving to item G2 Dr CTO thank you madam president uh item two is uh simply to now approve the uh authorization to issue the employment contracts that you just approved and so with that Dr polling will stand for any questions I move to approve eligible certificated and licensed staff for re-employment and authorize the issuance of employment contracts for the 2024 2025 school year second Jo Grant motion carries moving to item G3 Dr CTO thank you madam president Dr polling will have this item Madam president members of the board Dr CTO cabinet this item is to um as you just have done with certified staff this item is for classified staff notice of employment language and a recommendation to approve that for the 2425 school year and um and again no major changes on these language I'll stand for any questions thank you okay I motion to approve the notice of employment language and the benefit packages for hourly and exempt classified staff for the 2024 2025 school year second I miss miss drink motion carries moving to item G4 Dr crto thank you madam president uh number four is uh the item and our last item in the action to issue the notice of employment uh that for the 2425 school year that you just approved and we'll stand for any questions on that are there any questions okay I move to approve the issuance of notices of employment to eligible classified staff and their current positions of the 2024 2025 salary level with Benefits Comm measure it with the position second second of by Miss Chaffin motion carries next we have item H1 re for future agenda items Dr CTO um would it be possible to have a presentation it doesn't need to be the next meeting but sometime in the next few meetings if we could just have a a presentation on um maybe something along the lines of what parents can do about bullying um what parents can do what students can do what the proper protocol calls are absolutely M and what we're doing to help that yes we can do that could we also include like the definition of bullying perfect yes thank you okay thank you we can get that done we will all the definitions anything else okay all right I move to establish executive session to be held immediately during a recess in the regular meeting second seconded by Mrs Chaffin motion carries did I miss okay at this time we'll reconvene the regular meeting and we have action discussion item J1 action regarding a written summary of the superintend midyear performance evaluation for the 2023 2024 school year I move to approve the written summary of the superintendent's midyear performance evaluation reflecting the superintendent is SA satisfactorily progressing toward achievement of the approved goals for the 2023 2024 school year second second [Laughter] second motion carries congratulations thank you right at this time I will motion to adjourn the meeting H seconded by Miss Chaffin I need your signature so I you I'm a yes I voted yes remember that one time it was very CL oh I know motion carries we areed thank you

we'll call the meeting to order and we'll start with the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge alance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all want to remind everyone that we are live streaming the um board meeting this evening so I want to welcome those who are joining us via the web also those who are in the room um we'll start with a motion to accept consent agenda items moot motion by hurl do I have a second second second by Pat any discussion all those in favor seven of next we'll ask if anyone is present who would like to speak to any item that is on the agenda or any other topic she's not going to talk my mom wants me to introduce myself so I will well stand up please hello introduce yourself um my name is Autumn I know most of you I'm the director of Main Street I just wanted to come say hi offer if you guys ever need anything from Main Street um one of our goals this year is to really include kids in anything that we're planning we have some fun things in the works like maybe a student board and all those things so I just wanted to say hi you can find me at the Main Street office if you ever need anything and my email is director at North Veron Main Street as well so thank you well thank you Autumn for coming and speaking up we appreciate it sometimes it takes a little bit of guts to stand up and speak up we um love Community participation within the school corporation so absolutely will be I think a great partnership we'll make sure to reach out and you as well reach out to us if there's something that we can help with definitely yeah we have the solar eclipse coming up as well so we'll have some glasses if anyone needs them um you have to sign a waiver so I don't really want to give them to schools necessarily but if there were any adults that would like some you're more than welcome to come get some from me so for those who don't know there might be an opportunity for us to do some education coming up um we are the solar eclipse is going to be happening on April the 8th um we are in the total EC pathway in Jennings um County so I think it's very important to understand safety meing Healthcare the glasses are a great thing um Autumn did share again that you can pick up glasses from your location at uh so we're at 50 Short Street at the Main Street office and then along with the solar clip so Main Street got a $10,000 grant for it so we're having like a community science fair we're bringing in scientists from IU and cooko um and then we have some people that are volunteering their time to come do um projects with the kids as well so that is on Saturday and Sunday so nothing is taking place on Monday because I don't want to be liable for any people's eyes so you guys can come see me at the Main Street office on that Saturday and Sunday so that's the sixth and seventh great and we'll be sharing information through our newsletters at school we're excellent we're name with him to do that perfect great very good well thank you again for coming hanging out with us this evening we appreciate that um any other anyone else who would like to speak with any to any item that's not on the um agenda hearing none then I think we have um some visitors do we do we have the jcms cooking club they're going to be our showcase for this evening and it looks very promising it [Music] does come on in we can make another row so everybody can get in there good evening what have you brought to share with us tonight um we have brownies with peanut butter icing we have cookies with Hershey kisses on top toffee bars and butterscotch cookies and chocolate I think and cookies okay pass it out oh my goodness thank you very thank you thank you not I might have to thank you have to open the okay that's good very good thank you very good oh my goodness while you all are here do you mind telling us a little bit about your Club um we meet once a month and um the time is um after school to 4:30 you meet on T Wednesdays and Thursdays um some of the foods that we made made during cooking club is spaghetti Pizza um we've made toffee bars that are inside your guys's containers and we've made brownies and we've also made a couple different options that um and they're all glutenfree that's not true hey that's okay I bet they're calorie free too thank you we have one student that is glutenfree so we have one kitchen set up for gluten frood awesome very interesting do you guys learn about food safety in this club too yes a little bit yeah every uh other time that we have practice which is every once a month uh B team is on Wednesday a team or a team's on Wednesday B team is on Thursday we most of us I'm pretty sure our B team or all of us are uh and every time that we have it it switches from dessert to M so we change it up every time that we have club and it's really nice because after we make the food we all get to try a little bit of it and if there's leftovers we get to take some home that is nice and we get to customize it kind of to the like way we have it like we had brownies we had like butterscotch pieces that we could put in it we had sprinkles we' put in it we had nuts that we could put in it white chocolate chips we could put any of you in culinary arts in High School yes well it's going to be nice and brand new over there before long Spar sparkly new kitchens right yeah these are delicious thank you for sharing with us thank you if you've not met Mrs I didn't want you to know this is their sponsor and she's fantastic thank you very much for sharing your talents with the kids with our kids so I can vouch for her she was a f fantastic little girl too I need to come to learn how to cook some of this thank you all thank you they have all the recipes we forgot to pass them out wonder I would need to join the [Laughter] club you all right we'll continue to work down our agenda um next under old business we have some Neal policies Nikki yes asking for um approval I'd like to take these as a group if that's okay I think everybody has had an opportunity to read them can do I have a motion to accept the new policies motion by Mary ly do I have a second second second by Pat any discussion all those in favor 70 next um some Neola policies under new business um just a next set of Neola policies for our first reading out if you have any questions you to help perfect next under programs we have the jchs E sports program request yes and we have a presentation um tonight so we have a request to start an Esports program um other high schools in the area and I believe I almost steal there thunder because there to share some info um have this type of program and they would like to share a proposal about starting one at our own high school so Mr rer if you'd like to introduce everybody and get started yeah uh so first of all our one of our English teachers that is also very interested in starting our Esports program Mr Keenan cter is here with me I apologize uh he didn't get my email to bring cookies uh this presentation is going to be a little less than the last one um but no and and I will I will give him some time as well but he came to me um earlier last semester and had this idea of these other schools have these Esports programs it has become major um business uh for professionals Esports athletes um for colleges that are offering Scholarships in eorts um and looking to find a way to give another opportunity extracurricularly to our students um we actually in November took a trip over to Mitchell High School um to look at their Esports program got some information about how they run it um and kind of put together a little bit for us to talk about tonight first of all uh the whole idea of what we're trying to do is to start out with a club here in the spring of 2024 if this is something that the board would approve um we would begin competing in exhibition matches you kind of have to start as a JV team if we look at it in athletics and start that way before you're put into full competition um with the idea of becoming a competitive Esports team in the fall of 20124 we would be a member of the Indiana High School Esports Network um it is a network of about a 100 Indiana schools competing in Esports some of the local ones around us Columbus East has a team South Dearborn uh Franklin County uh Scottsburg Salem Mitchell col Columbus East Greensburg north deor um along with some several others the really cool thing I do want to point out is in the pictures um the ihen the state championship is held at Ball State University every year um in their kind of Esports Arena so it is a competitive thing that leads up to that so what is Esports it is the idea of competitive video gaming um they can span various game types and if we want to talk about what games they are that's where I'll throw it to Keenan because I don't I don't have all of the knowledge with that as as well but um real-time strategy games firstperson eliminators multiplayer online battle arenas um and like I said it's amazing if you've not followed along um almost every professional franchise uh whether NBA NFL uh um Major League Baseball Nascar has an Esports division that they actually have athletes um even locally uh Sam Morris that is an alumni from Jenning County High School just a few years ago was a Esports driver for hendrik Motorsports in NASCAR um so this is something that even though it's not in my realm of what I understand really well it is something that the kids understand really well go ahead so the ihen um is organized a lot like other types of Athletics we would have competition days um these kids would get the opportunity to compete against other schools there would be a state tournament again that would lead up to that some of the games that you'll see there League of Legends OverWatch rocket League fortnite along with NBA 2K um Madden iRacing am I missing in Keenan I don't think soall okay um so again and and the really cool thing I want to say about this the high school aspect when we went over to Mitchell and talked to um Dr comr they really built this as a true team they follow their what this their Panther code their athletic code students have to have grades to can be um they even at Mitchell had their students do 30 minutes of physical activity prior to playe to keep them active and doing things um so there's a lot of ways to organize this and bring things in um that it's beyond just playing video games so if you go ahead uh you got teams and leagues there are coaches uh that also help like I said Kenan is looking to uh to be the coach um they're they will work through teamwork um in some of the multiplayer games they will work through strategies um problem solving critical thinking and a lot of those stem elements that we're talking about and again similar to traditional Sports there are playoffs and Championship events that we will get to uh educational personal development again stem learning critical thinking scholarships almost every college has established um their own Esports team and most are offering Scholarships in eorts um I I pulled this off this is the Indiana Esports logo but almost every major university here in Indiana now has an orts division that they're competing in these social benefits um I think this is probably the biggest one um a lot of times this group of kids that really are drawn to this aren't always the they don't experience a lot of social aspects they they game they play online this brings them into that teamwork another really cool thing thing that Dr comr shared with us at Mitchell um their first year they had 19 kids that came out for their Esports team uh 18 of those kids had never been involved in another extracurricular so they had never been in athletics had never been in a club so 18 of the 19 kids it was the first time they had been involved in something at school um it allows kids of all a ages ranges abilities to be able to uh compete together and it builds a false Fosters a sense of community among the players and those that are supporting it so what do we need um we have identified a space in the high school already a room uh that we would retrofit uh to be able to get the computers the the necessary infrastructure for the team um and again why it is a this is rising in popularity faster than um probably anything I have seen uh and the path Pathways for careers are opening up game development professional sports athletes event planning um running these leagues the really cool thing I should have said when I went back to the ihen um if you search for High School Esports leagues there are several of them out there most of them cost a hefty feed to join there's a hefty uh fee to get involved the ihen is completely ran by volunteers here in Indiana it is geared towards high school students and there is no upfront fee for us to be a part of that um so we we researched several of those and felt this was the best way to go and the conclusion is that this is a modern and inclusive approach to extracurricular activities I think it has always been a strong stance of us at Jennings County high school and the school board as well to find ways to offer as many opportunities for our kids as we can um and like I said this is not one I know very as well as others but it is one that I think is very popular among the kids and I I want to be sure to say that there's so much more that goes into it than simply playing video games um there's a lot of that teamwork development a lot of communication skills that our kids don't always have talking to one another and how they uh work together that comes out of this Esports k I said I was going to bring you in as a closer um in conversations I've had so far with students I don't have access to all of them but I do a lot um we have kids that are very interested we have kids that aren't really able to participate in physical Sports either by neurode divergency or physical disability um I also has a unified team so we can bring some of our less able students into to play with uh some of these teams we also have identified potentially an all female team to start roll out as soon as we can there's a group of senior girls that really want to get into it um I've reached out to some recruiters at the Collegiate level to see if we can get them moving with that and moving with some scholarships as well so we're very excited I would mention funding wise you know um we've going to started calling at the panther promise that as we're trying to work through the Strategic plan and increase opportunities we're offering to kids um that is one element that we could potentially use Sr dollars to help fund the equipment that they need to get started so we could potentially do that great can we hit this real heavy on the pr on newspaper radio and go in and sit down because I think it's fantastic yeah and that's one thing I know that when Keenan came to me um it was really important that uh when we build out the space for them that we make it a really unique and special space to Showcase what we're doing and um we've been in a lot of talks uh Kenan has seen the room um there's going to be some some work for us to go in and make sure that it it's up to part of what we want to be uh but it is going to be it has the ability to be a really really cool thing for us to Showcase other questions I know the other excitement if you don't know what iRacing is I do know iRacing better than a lot of the other games um I know that there's a lot of kids on our black cat racing team are excited about the opportunity of us having iRacing then they can train in the winter as well um without having to go outside and race go-karts any questions from you guys so I think this is listed as an inform but just reading the room I I don't know that there's a reason for us to wait to vote on this um so I'm gonna go out of the limb and ask for a motion to approve um the Esports program again this is a club request for spring 2024 um so do I have a motion a motion by Earl do I have a second second by Pat any additional discussion or questions yes and I'm hitting it the right time this time you thank you for following the rules I would rather wait because if we bring them back then I think Mr Roller is promising some food [Laughter] kin I need another think we could probably get the food without holding the vote I can delegate things right here and technically Marilyn there's already a motion on the table you asked for discussion all right any additional discussion hearing none all those in favor we have a s o vote congratulations thank you guys thank you for your passion to bring something new on behalf of our kids of course I was excited to come home and teach I didn't think it would come with this but I was excited we appreciate your your passionate energy thank you very much all right now that I've just messed everything up so sorry I'm not really but again under programs we have a second item these are the 2324 results driven accountability data cookies and club and a data presentation now on we go first and then the exciting stuff comes after uh so just updating you on our results driven accountabil accountability scores from our special Edge side um if you want to go to the next slide just to refresh your memory we are in the medium uh size school corporation which is 25001 to 10,000 students um and how our scores are divided is they take all 100 school or all 100% of our school corporations in that number and they break break it up into 20% each get 5 4 3 2 1 so as you see our scores then you can kind of see where we fall in that um in that criteria then when you look at our score calculation they're going to look at some different things um one of those graduation rate and then we look at the different parts these are the the breakdown of our scores so between the least restrictive environment their school age and all of the I learn and I read scores and then the participation in our I am alternative assessment all of that cre get all of our scores so when we start looking at this um a five is the highest possible score and you can see when it's the percent of students with disabilities that performing at approaching proficiency or higher um in math we scored a three um with 31% of our special needs students and then in English language arts the approaching proficiency are higher we scored a two at a 26.2 and then then if you look at um the I read we scored a three as 55.4% of our students with special needs um taking I read and passing and then the alternative assessment you get a one if you have anything over 1% 1% is the goal um so we had it 1.3% which takes into effect we have a large population of s severe moderate students who need to take that alternate assess so we we got a one because of the over 1% um when you look at some of the weighted stuff there the I learn the median student growth percentile so it's our growth on I learn math 49% showed growth and English language arts 43% so if we look at that it scored a three and a two again it's all in comparison to what other schools are same size scored and then the graduation percent of students disabilities that graduated with any diploma 71.8% graduated with some form of diploma and that scored us a two and then our LR code um which is 50 our 50 code means that they're spending 80% or more of their day in a gened classroom so they're getting the majority of their instruction with their General general education peers and so we had 83.8% of our students in the Gen classroom 80% or more of the day and that got us a four so then looking at last year's scores compared to this year so for math last year we were at 29.1% passing rate uh this year we were at 31% so we did go up in math we went from a two to a three uh last year in English language arts we were at 30.3% and a three and we did drop in English language arts to a 26.2% looking at growth from last year so in math we had 40% last year we jumped up to 49% uh but stayed in that three range and then in English language arts we had 41% with a four last year we actually went up to 43% but we dropped down to a two um and again it's it's a moving Target because everyone's scores are changing so um even though we went up we did get fewer points then with Irene kind of that same thing um in 2122 with percent of students proficient on I um we were 75% scored to two now if you look at this our score looks lower at 55.4% but we did score higher because in comparison to the rest of the state we were still higher than you know 40% of that and then the alternative assessment 1.3 last year 1.3 this year we stayed at the one we look at the diploma um designation in 2122 58.3% graduated with any type of diploma and we scored a one and in 22 23 71.8 so that was a nice little jump there um and we scored a two and then the LR code um 92.9% so we got a five last for 2122 and then for 22 23 we did drop a little bit just based on student needs and then needing to be out of the classroom Maybe more intense interventions um so we did drop to a four with 8 83.8 so this next uh spreadsheet just shows over the last three years um our change um so it gives you a little more um information than we we've gone over in the P or gone over in the previous slides so there are two other areas that we're graded on our our other area is compliance and and that is making sure that we have all of our reports turned in in time U making sure that we don't have any um oh that's data sorry so compliance is making sure that we don't have any disproportionality um so looking at um expulsion rates looking at suspension do we have any population are we are we suspending more special Edge students than our general Edge students and we were not found to be um out of compliance in either one of those areas and indicator 11 um that is um the children that we're meeting the 50-day timeline for um we are compliant and all of that number 12 is our part B so we're having our conferences before our first step students are turning three we were compliant in that and then for transition conferences we were not in rotation so we did not receive a score for that but we will receive the score next year and then when we look at our data this This Is Us turning in all of those reports on time and getting everything turned in the way the state wants it we had fives in every area everything was timely turned in and so we got full points for that one thanks to wonderful secretarial staff that turns everything in and then if we look at um the meeting the requirements of index scores here this is just our total um for compliance and data submission we're at 100% And then for the results index which is all those I learn scores and everything else then that's looking at we were a 52 so 152 would be what we are so we were at level two I don't know if this slide got into your packet but these are non-scored results so this is data that um they pull and look at but it doesn't go to our RDA score so the first one is um our math our I am math score our percentage of passing the alternative assessment and we had 69.2% of our students taking I am um were approaching Proficiency in math 73.1% of our I am students were approaching Proficiency in English language arts um with the SAT uh proficiency data we had 4.4% in math and these are just students with uh special needs and then in evidence-based reading and writing we were at 11.1% with um closing the Gap so closing that um achievement gap between our students with IEPs and without IEPs both of these scores last year were about 34% so we did close the gap in math we are down to 29% of a difference between our our students without IEPs compared to with IEPs and English language arts we did drop down a little bit we're at 33.5% and then the last two are our pre preschool codes um 11.3% of the students that we provide preschool support for are uh in a general Ed or Private Preschool and 79% are in our special needs preschool and then special edit R we've talked about this before that we are um going up this goes from 2018 to our current um while total enrollment has been dropping um special ed numbers have been increasing so for our 2023 December 1 we were at 1,091 which puts the corporation at 28.7% special ed how does that compar with the rest of the state the goal is more 20 we are not the highest but pretty close we have historically been high too we are working with the Indiana iepa Center to look at um our evaluation process is there anything that we need to adjust in that we're also looking at other areas that we can provide if it's with tier one interventions tier 2 interventions things like that but catching the kids before they get referred to special is the key of course I hear that we're bringing them from other counties CA you're good we do have a lot of mve we have had several movements but yeah explain U it seems kind of unfair the 1.3 who take those are the ones that are most s why is that even a legitimate federal guideline so even the St we're talking different different kids each year too I mean I don't how that we can't control which one's qualifying for that right so if we have over 1% of our population who meet that significant guideline yeah we have to and it's three through 10 that take it three through eight and then our sophomores take it so uh you went through this pretty fast on the data about 10 years ago no about 10 years ago we were threatened by the state because we were way behind this is a big deal thank you for I say it all any questions this is based on data they P from last school year so these are things that they have proactively already been working on throughout the school year to have an imp the are of grow they've been working on throughout the that item wasn't informed so we'll keep going down the agenda and we're down to finances Philip we have some donations yes asking the board to approve the following donations giving Grace $3,000 to the JS County School Corporation negative lunch balances M Mike wasam a GE washer and dryer com Val to $1,300 to Hayden Elementary nbic $150 Grant to Hayden and North Vernon for Tiffany thst's multilingual students for their Thanksgiving feast Eden Salon and Spa Carrie brigh and py erle $1,500 to the James County High School student help fund and James County High School donations to the Jennings County High School Panther Pantry six boxes of food item from the alert Methodist Church six boxes of food items from the new Bethal Methodist Church and two cases of eggs from roseacres and Jen's County High School donations for the junior class prom $250 from Etc systems $100 from pet at sales $100 from Greg hick State Farm Insurance $250 DAV May contractor $250 the old management uh Incorporated doing business as Wendy's and the sand Creek staff $166 to the Hope food program entertain a motion to accept those donations as red motion by Pat I have a second second by maryn any discussion all those in favor seven o and then it looks like we're down under other one other tonight January's um Public School Board appreciation month so just thank you for your service I especially appreciate this board's dedication to keeping Kids First in all your decisions and I feel like it is a piece of where we're able to make progress and move forward to through that leadership so thank you for your service and after we are finished we have some cookies to share in your honor more cookies y we didn't eat them all very good good any other discussion hearing none I'll entertain a motion to adjourn motion by trais do I have a second second second by Cheryl all those in favor 70 meeting and jour

like to call the finance meeting to order um we are live streaming I'd like to mention that to the audience I'll preside over the meeting until we have named a president of the um committee so I'd like to take nominations for the president and secretary I'd like to do it together one if that's okay with you um of the finance all second any discussion all those in favor I'll turn it over to you madam president okay so we'll continue the finance meeting philli all right yes you'll see there the listed of our design designated depositories are German American and Jackson County Bank that's two people we do our banking with third item of the agenda is the investment report last year because we got the proceeds of the bond we invested in a bond at German Amer interest rate about 5.46% and that will stay there for six months which will coincide when we'll have to do our first draw for the CT project the high school so we'll have it tied up for roughly six months and if we have to if we have bills before then we'll just take care of it of our normal float until we cash that CD in the second part worth noting on there is since we switched banks last about a year ago this time we have made a considerable uh considerable interest increase because with our with our let's say our excess money from that standpoint in the tune of about $250,000 so that was a good thing that we wouldn't basically wouldn't have got had we not switched next up is our investment policy which is policy 6144 and at this point in time I would not recommend any changes made to that policy next up is the cancellation of outstanding checks uh we have there's a there's a uh rule law that says you cannot have checks over two years old our oldest check is only about eight months old and it's one and it's not even a significant dollar amount so we are well within our guidelines of outstanding checks and the last part of it is the financial and qualifi qualitative indicators and when you look at that you'll see things we already know is in we've got we had a slight dip in ADM from year 21 to 22 because this is all a year in a rear because that the way they compile the data we have a reduction in operations funds which we sort of known we knew about you we've we've sort we had to plead some of that out with basically raises and different things like that and increased fuel cost and all those different things that go into the operation fund spending there's there's also no deficit between revenue and expense which the prior year there was a deficit because of the timing of the eser money so that rebounded in this particular year so there's no deficit there and the another indicator on page three is the reduction in Ops fund balance percent which falls directly in line with the balance itself and lastly there was a increase in stimulus Revenue which was again the make up our deficit before because I believe we in 2022 we received Sr 2 three and one two and three funds all so we've had that makeup in there so you'll see an increase on that page three of that is there any questions about the any of the elements of the finance meeting hearing not that's all I have to report perfect hearing no discussion entertain a motion to adjourn the finance meeting I have a motion by Maryland do I have a second second second by Cheryl all those in favor 7 meeting agend minutes

they don't sound on oh now they they all right good evening everyone and welcome to the Ashen planning board meeting Thursday January 25th 2024 I am calling the meeting to order at 7:19 p.m.

M jinsky roll call please thank you please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance stes the podium to speak please do so just give let give a little wait time for Mike okay seeing no audience members proceeding to the podium I'm going to pass gabo over to Dr herrian chair of Finance for the public budget review and discussion regarding the superintendent's recommended budget thank you um do I get to do this again you can do whatever you like um at this time I will pass the gavel on to Mr [Music] Mariana thank you Miss harrian welcome back everyone glad you could make it um so we're gonna just Jump Right In this this is day two of the budg workshop I did want to just make a mention that the budget book and the budget presentations are posted on the chesa public schools website if anybody wants to take a look or review it after the fact um tonight um we're going to uh this is session two so the areas of the budget that we're going to be covering are instructional expense which includes certain special education services and I will be introducing miss Robin an Cary to talk about special education she has a presentation prepared for tonight uh we'll go through Support Services which include student transportation maintenance and operations a little bit on the capital budget and then we'll conclude this evening the next few slides are just uh kind of reminders from what we presented on Monday night everything that's in this budget is filtered through the district goals and the focal points that we have for student education the budget assumptions as we presented on Tuesday night we do have increased student enrollment special education also is increasing in line with increased enrollment we have positions in the budget and we went through salaries on Tuesday evening that are being brought in from uh arser funding that was previously covering those costs we talked on Tuesday night also about the needed funding for medical benefits accounts and then tonight we'll be going through some detail on why we're requesting some additional funding for operations and maintenance total budget request that the superintendent recommended as you see is 9,132 265 that's a $5.1 million increase over the current year budget 6.05% is the requested budget increase before we hit tonight's topic though I did want to go back and respond to the questions that we had on Tuesday evening uh and these were all based around the the chesher pension plan um one question was you know what are the other alternative Investments that the town of pension town of chure pension plan invests in and I know this is really hard to read um but the alternative Investments that you'll see here are generally fun mutual funds funds of funds investments in hedge funds that are based in mutual funds and you'll see up on the left side of the screen there in the comprehensive annual Financial uh plan that the town puts out which is available on the website that's the web address at the bottom of the page the the alternative Investments includes Commodities such as gold and real estate that are held within mutual funds even though you can't read this what's not there there's no Bitcoin there's no digital currency in alternative Investments I verified that with Jim Jos Scott the town finance manager you when I asked the question you know I could hear his jaw drop and hit the floor so you know they they as I said on Tuesday the the pension plan is managed by the Retirement Board it's very conservatively managed and so that's the answer to Alternative Investments the second question was the town pension plan you know what's the funding percentage compared to the obligation and what you'll see here on the screen in this Top Line is the the funding net position as a percent of total pension obligation and you'll see there's a little note about gby 67 and 68 those two gazb are what control how pension obligations are recorded there's a lot of detail in the comprehensive annual financial plan again available on the website it's not my area of expertise but those returns are what are uh shown in in the comprehensive annual financial plan so you'll see that in 2023 this is as of June 30th so it is the most upto-date number available about 68.4% of the obligation was funded in 2021 it was 66.4 and you'll notice in 2020 it was 77.5 as we talked about the other night part of the reason that it's lower has to do with the fact that our long-term res return assumption was changed from 7% down to 6.75 so now it takes more funding to make sure you meet that obligation that second line I I showed it for illustrative purposes it is in the cafer that the town puts out but that's the funding of the teachers State Pension Plan it's not an obligation of the town it's an obligation of the state but you'll see that the percent of of obligation that's funded we don't have the 2020 3 number but for 2022 it was 49.2% same in 2020 um excuse me same in 2021 and in 2020 was 52% so you'll see that the state's Pension Plan their obligation has quite a ways to go to be fully funded um there is a long period of time that's considered it's basically looking at can the pension plan meet all its future obligations until the participants are no longer in the plan meaning that they're no longer on this Earth so that's the way that that funding and those are the allocated percentages um and again I know this is really hard to read but um the third question we had on the pension plan is how many active employees versus retired employees so this is 2014 there were um 188 retirees and there were 200 66 active employees contributing and then as you look forward in 2022 we had um 129 active employees contributing and we had 266 so more retirees and less active employees contributing to the plan so those are the the answers that I owed is any questions on those okay so now we're going to move into the first topic for tonight which is instructional expense instructional expense you'll see here over on the right it includes special education tuition and what we mean by that is students that we cannot provide services for in the district we outplay and pay a tuition to a a third-party provider and Miss Carrie will talk about that in her presentation the second category that you see there is special education pupil Services those are generally consulting services or individuals that need to be hired to provide services you know for our students in District so the total of those two um make up about 66% of the total instructional expense uh lines that we have in our budget and then you'll see instructional Supply that accounts for about 9% um textbook software curriculum is about 9% and then the other categories are a smaller percentage of this total budget instructional expense for next year we're requesting um 5,181 927 so that's 5.7% of the requested budget and this year it's 5.3% of the budget if we look a little deeper and look at each of the lines I'll I'll give you a little bit of Insight so and every time I move away from the mic I feel like maybe you can't hear me so I'm gonna try and stay a little closer to the mic so staff training we're requesting an increase of $25,000 one of the reasons that's driving that is the expiration of ressor funding which we've been using to fund professional development you know we don't have any funding for our bestor after this year um so we we'd like to make sure that we can continue to provide you know training and professional development for our staff pupil services and tuition out placement you'll see that that is the biggest driver of this year's budget request for this category and the big one is the tuition outplacement number increasing by 500,000 you'll see in a in a couple of slides actually the next Slide the tuition outplacement costs have been very stable the last several years but miss Carrie is anticipating that next year we will see an increase based on students that either are in the system or she expects to come into the system that we cannot provide services for those students the rest of the line items instructional Supply we in the last couple of budget years we've really flatlined that that budget line um because of you know budget restrictions that we had so we we'd like to increase that and Miss Solano will be talking a little bit about instructional um expense after Miss Carrie speaks actually and the other line items are just being um adjusted in small increments based on expected needs so moving along what this chart shows is our special education costs from 1920 this this is the current year and this is what's being requested for next year now when we look at special education costs this includes all costs teacher salaries par professional salaries benefits for that staff um any items that are purchased the outplaced tuition line You'll see here at the 2.5 million um and as well as Transportation which is relatively large line item fa special education because we do provide essentially one-o-one transportation for those students in according with their individualized uh education plans along the bottom here you'll see some statistics of the growth of the number of special education students and you know not surprisingly in line with enrollment growth we're seeing growth in the special education student population um this is an important budget um in total because it represents about 25% of the total budget for the district so um I think without further Ado I'm gonna turn it over to Robin Anne and I'm just going to make sure we get you set up here forward back forward back is there a is there a point there middle the top one got [Music] it okay uh good evening everyone um I told myself I was going to be very concise but before I start I did have a few words um I just wanted to say that it was reflecting today and about our department and the things things that we've been able to do and I recall a memory of when I first interviewed for an administrative position I was asked why I was choosing to enter special ed Administration and I responded by telling them because it's challenging at this time I didn't realize that those words were going to come back to me on a daily basis um special education and education itself is challenging but every day I'm so impressed with the work of our students our staff our parents and our administr Traders and I'm excited to share with you our work in special education and I wanted to give a shout out to my two supervisors Marie Broadway and Christina Sherwood and for all their hard work their dedication and their teamwork so we'll start all right um in special education we continue to align the district goals of complex syncing and social emotional learning a professional development has been provided in the area of of executive function we've had a huge focus on that for the past couple years for all special education staff and including the par Educators our Focus has been on developing a clear understanding of executive function skill areas assessment of these skills writing goals and objectives in the area strategies using strategies identifying accommodations and how deficits in these areas impact our students in the classroom this year we had identified another area of focus that supports our district goals and that's specially designed instruction specially designed instruction requires special Educators to adapt the content the methodology and the delivery of instruction so we've kind of done a bit of a reset we've been so very very um involved in being inclusive that we want to kind of look back at what is so special about special education so when we talk about adapting the Conta one example of that would be to provide alternative text and looking at methodology that might be an intensive phonemic awareness instruction or a multimodality um strategy used in our instruction and the delivery struction might be adjusting the pace or maybe it's that intensive small group that you're pulling together this year we was we were up for our CCC um study and that's our curriculum Council um study so the special education committee got together it was due for its five-year review and the committee looked at our progress on previous goals on our delivery of services and determined our new goals through our research and Gathering of information the CCC special education committee determined the following as the statements that were most important and helping us to determine our goals and that was that the General Ed teachers are the holders of the curriculum they are the experts in that area special education students are first and foremost general education students benefits that come along with heterogeneous grouping where students can learn from each other and each student brings their strength and their areas of deficit and they work together Universal supports that we identify supports for special education students that help break down those bar barers of uh of uh accessing the curriculum are helpful for all students question we we asked ourselves is are we closing the gap or are we creating a bigger Gap and special education students get much of their instruction at this point in time from the least trained personnel as we dove into the book by Ann Benninghoff specially designed instruction this was a a uh one quote we pulled that really resonated with the committee you can't teach a child to swim by taking them out of the pool the committee felt that this quote by Ann Benninghoff really captures what we believe in the district a majority of our students with special needs are of average to above average cognitive abilities and if we look at the definition of idea which is the special education law the federal law it states that students should only be removed from general education environment when the nature and the severity of the disability is such that education in the regular classes with the use of supplementary AIDS and services cannot be achieved satisfactorily so the CCC Group then developed their goals based of off of many of those ideas and in looking at IEP development that was one of of the first areas that we we looked at um we really felt it was important that we need to look at increasing increase our students participation and access in general education and that it's important for us to identify those barriers so that we can put in those accommodations or those supplementary aids to help um reduce those barriers it's important for us to really look at our targeted specially designed instruction that's the piece that needs to take place that the student is not going to get in the general Edge setting so we want to really Target those deficits we want to increase our time with non-disabled peers we want to we want a very prescriptive individualized service hours in the least restrictive setting and we want to look at more non-personnel Reliant accommodations of course we're going to need professional development to support these areas and then we also talked a lot about our instructional strategies and develop goals for that we want to Target those barriers and those L lagging skills with a laser-like focus on specially designed instruction we want to increase our students Independence through direct instruction of those executive function skills and through technology we want to make sure we're applying and using that technology to support our students when appropriate the other piece the last piece was assessment and looking at assessment we want really want to make sure that when we're that we're diving deeper into assessment to really get to the heart of what is causing the student to have difficulty identify those lagging skills and then develop the plan on how we're going to Target them so it's really important to dive deeper and then to look and analyze at those evaluations when determining our plans or developing our plans okay so just to highlight a few things that are happening around in the district under special ed these are the many different things that our students are participating in and in many times they're do participating them with our um gendered students I try to capture some highlights of the good work that's happening in the district that not only involves our students with special needs but also Al our general education students um and I I want to you know if you take a look at the list we have things like our life skill businesses there was a new dog biscuit uh business that started off a personal shopping um lots of times you've heard about a coffee cart we have a book cart that's happening now too we just picked up our um some additional business Partnerships uh with elen Park um we've been working with rereads Goodwell and old Bishop Farms for a while now we have lots of unified um sports that's happening at all different levels and at the high school we have the unified academic courses that are happening uh we've been able to um provide our students at the secondary level a very inclusive field trip that involved our students in the in our life skills program as well as um their General Ed peers um this year was the first year that our community Life program was located at the humiston building and humiston also houses our Alternative High School and what what we've really see come out of that and it puts a smile on my face is our students that are in our humiston alternative education program have really taken to our community life students and they have engaged in uh a couple different fundraisers where they've work together to um collect um supplies and food and blankets for our um for the the um the Humane Society uh the dog pound um they've um also work together on celebrations they had a nice Valentine celebration together so it's been really nice to see how our students at the alternative education program have really um supported our community life students we had the start of our new Aspire program at the high school and um and for those of you that might not know um there is a special education parent PTA that has started this year and is um really working hard to get that up and running get parents involved and um and staff as well so with all this hard work that we're doing we are seeing some good outcomes so this um when the results came out for the the 2223 grade 3 to8 espa scores our state score our state testing uh our students ranked third highest in durby they ranked 11th highest in the state for the elll portion 15th highest in the state for the math portion this is for students with high needs and they ranked 14th overall in the state which is really very impressive and we're all very proud of okay I sometimes get questions about the grant so I wanted to include some information about that so our Ida Grant you can see here 90% of the grant goes towards staff salaries the remaining 10% over the course of the past couple years have has been put towards evaluations and consultation uh sometimes it's been transition Services tutoring sometimes tuition it's been a supplement to tuition equipment and instruction materials but really the point is that 90% of it does go towards um staff salaries the we did uh receive a mental health um mental health provider Grant from the state in that Grant we were able to hire one full-time school counselor for doitt with the growing numbers there it was really necessary to add that position um you can see how the grant is funded in year one year two and then there's a drop off in year three so that's something we want to keep in mind as we move forward and plan for that so that we can retain that person some of you may be wondering what happened with all the Esser funds and the AR funds that we received well the guidance that was provided from the state in our thinking was to use these funds towards things that would have long-term impact and so we uh put that money towards helping our staff with updating all of our um evaluation assessment kits those kits can run anywhere from like $700 to $1,200 for an assessment kit that our school psychologists and our special education teachers our OT our PT all use our speech and language Pathologists so that every school has the same assessments and um they all have their own battery of Assessments they don't need to borrow those kits from different schools we did put it the money towards professional development and training for our staff and our par Educators we purchased materials uh equipment specialized instructional kits such as those programs that are necessary when working with students with dyslexia and they need a more systematic reading approach such as Wilson or Spire uh we've used the money towards transition field trips sensory and calming um Corners short-term Staffing it's been very difficult to fill our positions and so sometimes we've had to reach out to agencies and we've had to uh contract for short-term Staffing um and many other things that you see listed there we did use some of the funding to conduct a par educator study we were finding that it was becoming very very difficult to fil fill our par educator positions that were open and sometimes we were filling them and then people were leaving so we really felt we need to kind of look at this and um see what we could do better so in the par educator study it was conducted by Sonia kungl um I met Sonia several many years ago actually uh she's worked for C she's worked for several districts um she's been a special administrator herself she's an author she provides professional development across the United States um I I consider her a a well informed and um expert in the area of inclusion um so we called Sonia in and she conducted our study by interviewing general education teachers special education teachers administrators and Paris she conducted observations and surveys she met with our administrative team she reviewed IEPs she took a look at our special education manual and our hiring procedures our par contract um and working with the committee of Educators after pulling all of those resources and all that information together we took a look at everything that we gathered and then we identified areas that we need to look deeper into and help to develop an action plan plan for those areas that we felt were important to begin looking at were our practices policies and procedures for appropriately determined par educator need um we find that we don't want the first our first line of thinking When developing special education plans and services for students to be that we're going to pull um a par educator in to provide those services we really want those Direct Services coming from the the certified staff person the special education teacher and we want to make very clear what the role those par Educators um provide and what supports they provide um so we wanted to take a look at that we also feel it's important that we look at the supervision of par Educators sometimes the feeling is is that a par educator belongs to the special education teacher when in fact this they can take direction from our general Ed just as much as our special ed um staff members we want to help them to support our students in building Independence and then fading that support couple years ago we were mandated to do 18 hours of um professional development for our par Educators so we really are have been working on developing a very comprehensive um professional development plan that targets areas like executive function like building Independence and um and how to support our students in the General Ed setting we provided them with professional development um we looked at professional development for our staff how we're going to evaluate our special educa uh our par Educators and then the retention of Staff because we are finding that we're not um we're we're filling positions as fast as we're losing positions you fill one and the next day you find out someone's gone so we really want to look at what is it we can do to to retain that staff so as Vinnie mentioned in his um presentation you can see the growth that we're seeing across time in our um in our population of students with IEPs and it is does really mirror the growth that we're seeing in the district as far as general students are going so at this point in time when I started putting in the presentation together we were at 645 students but that fluctuates as students exit and as students come in or identified um for special education and here's our outof district placements um you know we last in 2223 we are as low as 18 this year we're have gone up to 21 um and we have seen an increase this year you know while at the end of last year we had some students who aged out um and then the new law came in in July and we ended up uh we are now providing another year for one of our outer District um placed students that we weren't expecting and then we've had several students that required an outof District placement this fall so that's why you see that increase and that's where as our as we grow It's Not Unusual to see that our out of District placements are going to grow um when you compare our out of District numbers to other districts we remain as one of the lowest and I think that is attributed to all of our programs that we have in District to support our students with these intense needs um I included an outof District program the average cost of an out of District program for one student is $113,000 uh that's just for tuition and then you when you add Transportation which averages about $36,000 a year that's where we're coming up with that number you saw Vinnie present uh in terms of transportation we are utilizing a shared transportation service that's provided through Aces when at all possible that does help us to reduce those costs we pay very close attention uh to the prevalence over time our numbers so this this data is showing the prevalence of disabilities in our district not surprisingly students with learning disabilities make up our highest percentage that's the yellow at the top there are 13 categories most recently the classification of emotional disturbance was changed to emotional dis disabilities most students with disabilities are provided short periods of instruction in the resource room setting or general education setting case managers can have larger case loads then you would find for students who provide I'm sorry who teachers who provide instruction for students with more significant needs such as those in our intensive education programs and our life skill programs many of the students in these programs are identified under the classification of autism intellectual disabilities emotional disabilities and multiple disabilities so if you take a look you can see here this is the line that shows our growth in or our prevalent our prevalence in autism and we do see a a slight increase in that that includes students that are not only serviced in our self-contained intensive Ed programs but it would also include students that are high functioning autism that may be serviced through a resource room so in 2223 we had 88 students in the district identified under the classification of autism as of just a couple weeks ago when I pulled it up in our data we're at 109 so that's almost 20 more students that are identified in autism and we're seeing that in our self-contained programs we're seeing more students come in with that classification with intensive needs in 2023 are let's see where is it there we are right here are students are identified as intellectually disabled those are those students can also sometimes require a self-contained intensive education program last year we had 26 students in the district identified under this classification this year we're at 29 so it's a slight increase so in looking at that we have to be very careful about our self-contained programs because these students typically require intensive supports and more resources and services ideally we like to keep the size to no more than eight why is eight the magic number well eight is the magic number because once you add students Paris teachers work is equipment and there is very little physical room in the classroom and more importantly the case manager that is providing the appropriate program for those students has far more um it it's much more demanding um work in planning and programming for those students last year we added an intensive education classroom at Norton due to our growing numbers students who attend the Norton program are in K are in grades K through two and they mostly live in the ditt Norton neighborhoods so when we opened that classroom on that side of town we really wanted the students to be closer to their homeschool neighborhoods so there were some students who needed to transition from the Highland program over to the dittle program and then any incoming kindergarteners or incoming uh first graders because this program was housed at Darcy at one time was now um coming into Norton if we look at our projections you can see that we're looking next year at 12 students in grades K through three that would be slated to go to the Norton intensive Ed program and I don't know where we would put them if they were all in that classroom with their equipment and everything so giving that earlier Vinnie went over the individual line increases due to our growing population in special education in addition we're requesting an additional intensive education classroom at Norton school to include one teacher and one parah in time the two classrooms will provide services for students they'll split it up K to3 and then the other classroom will be four to six those two classrooms will will then move to the new Norton school and are already planned in the development of that um layout um that concludes my presentation are there any questions do we have a do we have a classroom at Norton right now that's available for that yes we do okay I've been talking Jody and I have been talking and and we're we feel that we'll be able to put that classroom in very close proximity right next door to the current classroom so that those two teachers will be able to collaborate and then when it comes time to transition once a student has reached the top age or the grade three and needs to transition to the next classroom it'll be able to do that very smoothly okay so just so you're talking about having two CL two classrooms two spaces next year starting I didn't think we were going to need that but we saw a lot of students come into the district this year that needed and required that program so in our classrooms are we typically pick up a couple students over the summer and what we've been seeing as a trend is we are also picking up students during the school year that require this type of programming how long has that Trend been ongoing because I'm thinking it's been two years that we've seen the midyear increase in students is it following that Trend or is it well Trend I don't remember the exact year what year were you hired Christina all right so in 2015 we added the third classroom at Highland because of the numbers last year we at we added a kindergarten program at uh Darcy we took that kindergarten program and moved to Norton this year because being housed at Darcy they could only provide services for students in kindergarten we were busting out of the seams at Highland by moving the program from Darcy to Norton we were now able to include first and second graders in there so that's why we had some students transition from Highland over to make room at Highland and um and then the students that were were transitioning from Darcy that would have gone to Highland that are in the Norton or ditt area went to Norton my questions are about the par Educators um because you're describing and I've heard uh lots of talk about this before you're describing a really precarious situation with being able to hire and retain the par Educators that we need for special ed maybe all around but special ed specifically um I'm wondering why that is do we need to pay more for our par Educators do we need to do something because if it's saving money doesn't happen when you're constantly hiring and having that much turnover so I'm just wondering yeah what what your ideas might be for why this is happening what are some things that we could do so okay so what I've seen over time is the people that are applying for our positions as par educators are um oftentimes people with very little experience in that area so I think what's in order for us to help retain them we have to really look at how we're training them and how we're supporting them in that role previous years we often got mothers who are you know want wanted a schedule that worked with their students school schedule their children's schedule and many times they had an associates degree or a bachelor's degree or they were teachers who maybe left the profession to raise their children and now wanted to be back in schools but didn't necessarily want want the um responsibilities of being a teacher um not seeing that so much now I mean we do occasionally get to hire someone who's maybe fresh out of college earned their bachelor's degree in education maybe seeking a master's degree in special ed or some other area um and so we are fortunate enough to get them on board um and then many times they earn their degree and then they go into the profession um but we value the short time we have with them because they bring so much to the table you know the skill level that they have um you know it's also a a bigger picture too that we're looking at because you know we feel it's really important to build the independence in our students and so we're looking at what is it that we want that par educator to support and how they're going to support because we don't want to take that Independence away from students we don't want to hinder their ability to be social with their peers so we also want to provide them with the correct um or with the appropriate training to understand what their role is and what they're going to do to support that many times we make the recommendation for a par educator for students uh is because there is a physical need maybe it's a child who is has a mobility issue um difficulties in a wheelchair a walker um they may need some help with the daily living skills the other reason why we recommend par Educators is for safety we may have students who become disregulated and they have uh and there is a usually a behavior plan and a whole Behavior strategies that are necessary to help support them and so our par educators are often needed to help support those plans and support those students um so I go back again to we're not getting people applying for these positions who come with that rich background in that area so out of our our study we recognize that we need to have kind of a whole onboarding piece that takes place um prior to putting them out there into the classroom because um as much as in some cases you want to get the PA in place as soon as possible you're really it's far better to put them in there with the tools that they're going to need than to put them in there and have them learn on the Fly we don't want that to happen so so I think it's not just one answer it's not just about the money I think it's about a lot of different things that going to it thank you Robin and thank you for this presentation um I'm going to be pushing this a little bit further but I think some of my questions are out of your realm and more to the bigger budget um discussion so I will be um talking about that more but it's my understanding that um area school districts around us our neighbors um uh perhaps hiring par Educators and offering a better salary and I'm I'm really wondering if it would help our solve our problems if we upped the um the salary the salaries of our par Educators so that's where my thinking is going and I hope to hear more about it as this budget process proceeds thank you but thank you very much and Rob I have one comment more than question I just want to thank you for your very thorough presentation this evening um particularly within the challenges that we all know special education special ed Educators um face but more so I was very impressed with your decision on the use of the eser uh funds really strategically planning um because you know it they're expiring and so what do you do with staff so thank you for that um and also your planning around um our students with disabilities to be located near or in their home school I think it's very important to our families um and siblings and the and to the child um and also very glad to hear your attention um on the retention your attention to the retention of Staff that's a a districtwide Statewide Nationwide um Challenge and also your emphasis on mental health so thank you for the work of your department thank you um yeah I just had a couple of questions on um in years past we've also had statistics on uh General mental health uh drug use student violence um you know that sort of thing suicidal ideation um do we have any updates on any of that is are are every is everything okay I mean there we had a few years ago where we were we needed more uh School psychologists and you know we supplied um you know that need and it doesn't seem like seems like you're well staffed in that area now or is is everything okay I mean you know how how are things going in the I I could P entire population I could pull that data for from for you um one of the things that I am tracking is I started to uh pull um you know when students um are brought up uh around suicide ideation threat assessment self injury we do go through we have a process in place to address that the staff is well trained and what they need to do to help support the student and the family and um and then we uh I do receive paperwork on that and I started to track more so of looking at the individual students because I wanted to see you know is there a p a um a history or is there a pattern is there something that is there a student that we need to kind of maybe pull into one of our student study teams and to look at more closely because they are struggling so that's one of the things um that I am tracking data for um my just off the top of my head my impression is is that we are not seeing the level of um reports coming through my office that I was seeing right after covid it seems my impression is that it has dropped um and I think that uh yeah I think our staff is doing a great job I think that they have identified lots of different resources we have the new um Clinic that just opened recently in Waterberry where we've been able ble to refer students um we've heard a lot of good um referrals are coming out when parents are going there and getting the help and the support as opposed to taking them down to an emergency room um are feeling much more supported through that clinic um so so I do think that we are looking at things are um are have gotten have um improved because of Staffing because of resources because of the different strategies that we've been applying um I think the where we're seeing that is you know we're also looking at Chronic absenteeism because oftentimes I find that students that are absent a lot may also it may be um attributed to mental illness or School phobia or something you know along those lines so we do often um when we have students that are not coming to school we um I have a a committee that we sit down and we talk and we strategize about you know whether uh what are some what are some things that we can do to help that student we just participated in another training for leap which is a uh program designed to address chronic absenteeism so so I think that we're doing a lot of good things there's a lot of good things that are happening and I think that um but I will pull that data and uh I but I think we'll see that it has dropped that be good see um if I may um as far as out placement goes um the chart that you supply us here um let's see where it was it there it is I put it up there oh thank you yeah so we had a peak in 1819 uh where our uh special education I don't I guess that's the right term special education population uh was low lower by at least 100 students um but we had peaked out at you know at least what it looks like 10 more outplacement cases at that point where then we sort of dropped off was there um did we improve our capabilities over that time or we able to handle more students or was it just a matter of I guess the type of student where we were um the like the type of student that was being outplaced in 1819 we no longer had those students for a while and now we're seeing an uptick in that kind of student where we need to out place or is it a matter of capability so I guess what I'm asking is are we facing a new exposure because we now have it uh at least looked like a 100 more students from 1819 to now and that's probably going to get higher so are we going to be facing an exposure there where the outplacement is going to get higher well I I think that you know anytime you see a growth in general education population you're going to see a growth in special education and you're going to see that growth in out of District placements I think it's just um it's just you know if you're growing in population you're getting more and more students the likelihood that you're going to get students that might need that out of District placement is higher so going back to your question about the 1819 it at least in my recollection is that you see that drop in the out of District placements because we added programs into the district and those students that were outplaced we now had programs in districts that could meet their needs so we had the addition of another life skills program at the high at the high school we had the introduction of the bridges program which servic our students with emotional disabilities at um dittle and then we added them at uh added it at uh DOD and then we also added um we did have new rise and new start which was also addressing the needs of of many of our students that have emotional and um behavioral needs and we we ended up changing those two programs into our new Aspire program which uh Services those students so I think the reason why you see that dropping out of District placements from 1819 to present day is because we have built more in District programs to Ser as our students keeping them closer to home keeping them closer to non-disabled peers and opportunities um to be with the General Ed peers when they're ready and they're demonstrating that they have the skills to be successful um in keeping them in the community we also added I'm sorry we also added the Community Life program and I don't remember what year qu came into place but the transition program at Q do you remember Jeff about 10 okay so then that the uh the increase from 18 to 21 you had mentioned is that is that because of the the carryover and the change in the new law that we have students that are um extending their stay with us or is it is there a new case mix in there you know because you said there was some unexpected yeah there were four students that that impacted so three of them are in our community Life program uh which is in District so those students instead of Aging out sometime mid year um they are with us through June uh we had one student in an out of District placement he would have aged out in July uh the law came in just in time and we got to keep he we kept our student and he remained in his out of District placement where he's been very successful okay thank you so yep maybe clarifying questions so we have 645 students with ipps but I can't seem to tell what the breakdown is because your prevalence chart really just shows the problems but not a kind of delineation of those various um sped or disabilities if you will so if there's something consent afterwards out of 45 how many fall within those disability categories I guess is my first question okay so want to break down in numbers like how many students are in the autism classification how many students okay and then regarding outplacement is this considered um full day or half or is it encompassing both full day or half day programs in out of District programs they're all full day they're all full day day they're off all day got it and in in one case uh we do have some students that require an extended day because of the intensity of their disability so we don't have any students leaving half day to go to a specialized program at all no and my other question was [Music] um if and you had it up there uh with regards to the Intensive education classroom for those watching can you just give us an idea of what that looks like um and is there any mainstreaming involved with students who are part of the Intensive program okay okay so if I was to describe an intensive education program a self-contained program so um the students require very intense instruction one to in many cases it's one to one they're impacted often times by multiple things um there might be deficits in language many of our students can be non-verbal in those programs um there's cognitive deficits sometimes there's physical disabilities um there's they also in some cases may be impacted by some visual concerns or some hearing concerns so um they really do require a very specialized program unique program to meet their needs and also to work in uh help them build their skills and daily living skills sometimes toileting is involved in their programming social skills OT PT um how else would I describe it um we do look as much as possible to be able to have them spend time in um with our general Ed peers oftentimes it the goal in that is more around behavior and social skills um for for them because you know at some point they're going to be they will be part of our community and will and will be um integrated into our community and so as much exposure as they can have to General Ed peers you sometimes get very nice surprises on what they pick up on and uh what they um what they learn I find that our students that are in our intent Ed programs tend to be some of the most popular students in the district everybody knows them they know them by name um but they they really do pro need a lot of services provided by a lot of different Specialists that all work very closely together and collaborate um to really make a comprehensive program that's going to help them to Pro to make progress more selfcontained and every so often they're mainstream for certain activities then it depends on where they're at okay and what the goal of that is for them so you like get in our selfcontained classrooms at the elementary level many times they will go into specials they'll go into a morning meeting they'll be part of if there's something planned they are part of The Home Room classroom and so if there's parties or there's something that's going on and it's appropriate for them to to participate um and they comfortable in doing that um it's not going to upset them it's not too noisy for them then they will go and participate in that and be part of that um because we're always looking at um increasing skills in those area and then as you move up in the grades um you see oftentimes our students in our life skills programs are continue to participate in some of our specials with jened Pierce um and also through the various um programs that we showed up here earlier um Unified sports the unified academics the best buddies program so those are all all opportunities for our students to be with non-disabled peers thank you I'm gonna follow up on uh something that Sam reminded me of um I really love this idea that you've focused on or you and your team have come to a conclusion focused on um that these special ed students are first and foremost General ed students and in so far as we can have them working with their um General Ed peers we should do more of that um every people should know that Robin uh presented to us in curriculum committee meeting and we had a lengthy discussion not only about how much they pick up and the really different ways that they pick up some learning from their general education peers but also what their general education peers receive from the special ed students having them in their classrooms having them in their lives seeing how they're how they learn getting the learning from from a perspective from um from another from another student who's experiencing learning in a very different way so I just wanted to bring that up and thank you for um including that in your presentation toight yeah yeah what an's talking about is I got to attend Marie Broadway and I attended the um DOD unified soccer term that they had uh it was one of the best days in my career and every time I talk about it I get goosebumps but watching our students with special needs being supported by three or I think it was three uh boys from DOD who who just did a phenomenal job of supporting those students on the field um you know making sure that the ball was passed to the students that they were able to you know you're coming up on the goal they're not taking a shot they're passing it to our student with um with special needs so he can hit the goal and there was a one student that really it really touched me the way he was pushing a student around in a wheelchair and as the ball trickled across the front of the goal he was running as fast and as hard as he could to push that wheelchair so the ball would Ricochet off the chair and go into the goal now it didn't happen but I'll tell you the look on the face of that student in the wheelchair he was over the moon uh with excitement because he almost scored a goal so it was was one of the best days is there reason why ditt doesn't have any programs at all D little does have our bridges program project um I didn't in I didn't include um uh the the reason why I didn't include the bridges program which is at dittle and there's also the bridges program um at the middle school and then we have a Spire at the high school that's our specialized programs for students who need more behavioral support um and the reason why I didn't focus on those was because in looking at the prevalence the growth that we were really seeing was around our students that would qualify for more of these intensive programs and that that's where we were being really impacted I mean historically I've always known Highland to have the majority yeah yep I I mean our goal is um you know when the new schools open Highland will still have the Intensive Ed program but we will now have a full intensive Ed program over at the new Norton right so students depending on what side of town you're from we want to keep you as close to your your home school as possible thank you welcome anything else okay you're [Applause] welcome thank you Robin and I'm gonna just switch back all right can I address um Miss aran's question about pay for a moment so I'd like to just add a little bit of of on that additional color the current agreement the bargaining unit agreement with the par Educators was um negotiated and and they're in the second year of a three-year contract and clearly one of the items in the in the negotiations we had with with them for the current contract was pay it was pointed out that some districts do have a higher starting pay and it's absolutely true but what we found in those districts is that even though their starting pay is there are services and they stay at that level we have a career path here in the chesher public schools and that is if you become an ABA DTI certified power professional and we do provide the training in housee for that the pay is substantially higher so we're looking at $17 an hour versus $24 per hour a lot of districts do not have that we also offer certain stiens to the par educators that other districts include in their base pay when we negotiated that was you know one piece of the puzzle that was important to them what was also important to them though was their medical benefits they were paying a much larger percentage than our other employees for their medical benefits and they were interested in reducing that which we agreed to and and obviously the board approved that when we presented the recommendation um the reason that medical benefits just as a general statement you know are higher they pay a higher co-share is because the employees that are in this group are working between 28 and 32 and a half hours they're not 35-hour employees so you know the the cost structure that's built in for the Paras and what was negotiated in the current contract was negotiated the first year we did bump up the wages by 7% some of that had to do with the fact that the minimum wage had grown over the time that the the expiring contract was in place um but there's no doubt we're competing you know at entry level dollars for pars with companies like Amazon that are paying $20 per hour completely different job requires you know perhaps nights weekends and holidays and I think the other thing you know going Beyond wages as as Miss Carrie touched on is that I think people that look at this job and enter the job don't necessarily understand the components of the job it's really not for everybody so we we are seeing High turnover and higher than we have pre pandemic it's actually gotten better this year you know we're down to about a dozen positions open the thing that's interesting is we've been able to fill positions but we're seeing this sort of Rapid turnover of individuals not all of it is for pay you know some of it is just job dissatisfaction didn't understand what the job was um we've seen people get hired and then not even start because they found a job with higher pay we are negotiating with them for a new contract starting um you know next next February because their contract is a expiring and I'm sure that we're going to go through you know a lot of discussions back and forth as I had mentioned on Tuesday evening I I do expect that the next contracts that we negotiate you know the the wage increases are going to be higher that's just what's happening in the marketplace so I just wanted to give you a little bit of color on the fact that we do have um a different pay structure because we pay much more for the ABA DTI certified ifed powers and we need them yeah then thank you for that explanation it makes a a lot of sense to me um one of the reasons I I've been grappling with all of this is because we have in our budget another PA of professional position but if we're not filling the positions that we have already then sort of what's the need for that added position I mean we keep working at it just don't understand budgets that well just remember districts that are paying higher than we're paying are also having difficulty fing position sheets you know we're not the only ones that have openings that position at Norton school will be an ABA DTI position it's one of the higher paid positions those I think we're doing fairly well we are not having trouble filling those yeah because it's a path for growth yeah for people that are par Educators in our system ex so we always fill those positions which is great and you know we we've contemplated it points if we continue to sustain open positions is there a point where it's uh better for our students and staff to consolidate any of those par educator positions and higher a uh fulltime or whatever General special educator you know Robin talked about our intensive intensive uh effort to shift from Intervention through uh par Educators to intervention from people who have deeper training in addition we're trying to train par Educators to gain that skill set and we're looking at that role is more of a career path um and that's why there are opportunities for promotion within that and there's a lot of professional development that's afforded to that team now yeah the 18 hours is a lot it's a lot of time yeah that they didn't have yeah thank you and it's it's it makes me feel good that you're all this is all in your focus because things like that worry me so thank you and I guess the last thing I'll add is that to the extent we have open par uh professional positions we do use Kelly to provide substitute services for Paris the fill rate isn't as high as we'd like to see there either uh and also using temp agencies or consulting services to make sure that the students are getting the attention that they need so it's not an easy problem to solve but we're you know doing everything we think we reasonably should be doing good you're welcome okay we're back on instructional expense and at this time I'd like to introduce marleene salano our assistant superintendent who's going to talk to you about some of the uh important things that are planned in this budget for next year on the instruction side good evening everyone I've been asked to speak on the instructional expense portion of the budget and this is a much smaller percentage than other areas you have heard about tonight and last week and so my comments will be commensurate with the request so the first thing that I'd like to um highlight is the portion uh that is being requested for instructional materials and resources and this money is put towards updates Replacements one of the things that you've heard me talk about are the Math consumable workbooks and materials that we need for Eureka Math that is our math program in K5 whenever possible we do all that we can to bundle those and cut costs in some years we've had those printed by Office Max through a an agreement with the company that was not as um Flawless as we had hoped so we've gone with using the company to do that um one of the other times we did a three-year bundle and were able to purchase things together so next year we it's time for us to renew again other things on the docket include an algebra 1 textbook and we're in the midst of excuse me putting together a committee to um to analyze some different texts and then we also will be having an AP macroeconomics textbook come before you before the spring um that's another purchase for next year now we get into professional development and over the past couple of years um we well I'm requesting an increase in this area because over the past couple of years we've used a lot of the Esser funds to help um pay for training pay for coaching services and pay for a lot of the PD that we've done through the use of some Consultants who've come in to help us and so one of the um one of the things we've done is to really train our people and grow our people so that we can be better and we've done that around um our multilingual Learners we've had such an increase in multilingual Learners that we've made sure that we have coaching through an Aces consultant some of that money comes from our title three Grant but it also comes out of out of this area as well you've heard us talk about Mike Anderson who's a national consultant um he has written a number of books and has worked with ASC for years he's been working with us to help our teachers embed social emotional learning into academics um you were part of the Board of Education showcase at the elementary level where you saw some new strategies that were implemented about making thinking visible and so we've gone to a lot of workshops and had a lot of training about ways in which we can carry that out in the classroom these are not things that happen in one training session and then people are trained and are ready to go this really takes a lot of time it takes a lot of digging in takes a lot of practice so you might see a couple of these things come up over years because it's a it's a multi-year process um towards the bottom of the slide you can see some information on play based learning you may recall that that was also something that was in the new legislation and so we did contract this year with econ to work with our kindergarten teachers to do some professional development about um about play based learning and also regarding uh coaching for them as well we've had two days of the of the um PD so far and a four days of coaching and we've got more to come this year something that we look to continue in a different capacity next year and then in the in the realm of um really deepening our understanding on making thinking visible we've been using that book that many of you have been aware of building thinking classroom so goes towards purchasing those books for our administrators our staff Etc the other is about our curriculum writing so I know you've all heard about our curriculum writing Institute in the summer in the past we've used a significant amount of Esser funds to help offset that cost and um we will be looking to continue the curriculum writing Institute because it was so well received by our teachers and because the product that we're getting out of that is really a really high quality product of revision of units that has been in all areas including science and social studies and Ela and across all of our grade levels K through 12 so that's working on our alignment to the standards our alignment to the vision of The Graduate and again the idea of complex thinking um we continue to look at our curriculum Council Focus next year that will be art Library math music and our multilingual learner program will be up for presentation this is their evaluation year year and then as a continuation our next Generation science standards the ngss we continue to work on that area that's been a bit of a more tedious process um especially because we're shifting from teaching just content alone to teaching skills and that requires a lot of support and a lot of practice lastly we have a um we have new science I'm sorry new social studies standards they were national standards which have now been adopted in Connecticut that are specific to Connecticut which are aligned with the national standards and so we need to do some more work in that area so those are some Focus areas that we'll be looking at and that's what I have for you so if you have any questions happy to answer those Adam um Marlene what's the difference between um science content and science skills Ah that's a really great question what grades are we talking about so in that area we're talking about kindergarten through grade 12 and we're talking about using the content of what would be taught in biology to teach kids how to solve problems on how to think deeply rather than being able to just talk to you about an algorithm we're talking about what goes into that algorithm how would you figure that out um we're talking about looking at data tables and rather than just taking that at face value looking at that data table compared to one from another um from another group or another provider or looking at multiple and synthesizing all of that information to come up with your conclusions we're really talking about um students doing the thinking rather than just spewing back the content of a course so there's so bit more application instead of just regurgitation is that kind of that's a good way to put it yeah thank you any other questions an I have a quick question uh because you mentioned Mike Anderson we've used him in the past for professional development is is that around the seal it is it is so um Mike Anderson was Consulting with DOD and they wereing at some collegial coaching really looking at how to motivate students particularly after the pandemic looking at how to provide choice for students and not just choices and what do I want to do but how can I make a choice in my learning that will push me into that zone of proximal development where I have to work a little harder so not working for a grade but working for the sake of learning and getting better at something and mastering it looking at how to um embed those executive function skills to break projects down into manageable chunks looking at um social emotional skills meaning working with others on diverse problems so that I have to listen to you you have to listen to me and how can we solve this together so the state came out with um social emotional learning habits social emotional and intellectual learning habits for students K through 12 they exist did K through three and last March they came out for 4 through 12 so we did a significant amount of work with those standards over the summer at our administrative Retreat and since then the principles have been unrolling that to their staff and so having someone like a consultant like Mike really bring that um really bring that practice into the classroom and to show people to demonstrate that and to show how you can teach those things within the classroom has been very helpful so we've worked with Mike Mike has come and worked with our administrators he's worked at DOD for a couple of years on embedding those skills he um has come in this year and he's done a couple of days at our elementary schools and the past two summers he has offered sessions that we've provided here for our teachers in which they were able to either come for a day or two of his one-on-one um work inperson workshops or they could through this process take an online course with him that's self-paced or they could read his books and we've had book clubs around the district to learn more thank you so we've used him for probably the past three four years I would say three years and then um we because you mentioned his name I'm just assuming that he's one of the one of the something in the budget for the professional development coming into the the next budget Year yes we want to continue to use the servic we do want to continue okay thank you he's not a forever thing we're going to take those skills and he's going to work himself out of us needing him well we've talked but the curriculum writing Institute yeah I've seen the presentation in the past I think it's fantastic that we've been able to offer it you mentioned that it was funded with yeser funds some in part so a couple of questions that's going away at some point is the idea to continue this on yes with regular board budget dollar yes and that's part of the reason why we're requesting an increase okay yeah um How does the the curriculum writing Institute I'm thinking about it in terms of basically well first of all what was the dollar figure for say last year just ballpark it's about $100,000 okay and I'm thinking of breaking that down into two pieces there's the cost for the service provider and then paying staff it falls outside the contract basically or it's part of the contract it's out of the normal regular Academic Year right right it is and they get approximately $40 per hour which is the going curric the um curriculum writing rate for contracted hourly rate outside this the contract so how does that how does that 100,000 breakdown between the service provider and staff getting so um we work with a woman her name is Linda Van wagenen she is uh really in my she was an assistant well she wasn't assistant was she assistant superintendent she held a curriculum role in planville she sits on the neas evaluation team she's really well well regarded and um she's been able to work with us to do that so some of it is our planning sessions with her this will be the last summer that we work with her Kevin and I have um collaborated with her sometimes messages are better received from someone out of town and um and sometimes um I think what she's able to provide in helping us to review all of that curriculum that gets written has also been helpful this summer we're we're releasing from some of that she will be present and she to some of that curriculum review with us and Kevin and I will be taking over more of that role so this will be her last this coming summer will be the last summer that she's on site with us thank you how does it how do you expect it to break down this year what was the number last year what do you expected to break down this year in those two categories so I think it's going to be about the same I think we pay Linda like $55,000 for her iners and her um her planning I think she might get around $5,000 for the back and forth feedback that she is sharing with Kevin and I and the teachers who have written it and then the other portion is really we've we have run about 80 teachers for the week um so whatever that breaks down to at ad teachers for the five days okay thank you sure just give you a sense of the value sorry need to startle you there to give you a sense I mean I pulled the data I didn't have the 23 uh survey responses from the curriculum writing Institute I'm sure they're very similar to 22 where we asked would you recommend curriculum writing Institute for a colleague 84 attendees uh 84 yes Zer no zero maybe would you want to attend again next year 78 yes 0 no 6 maybe I think that you know it's hard to get 84 people in any profession to agree on anything but you know 84 people to attest to the value is speaks volumes um to the investment that was made yeah no I I the presentation that I saw was at the high school yeah for no we did one at Highland in November uh did all three elementary middle and high school all three levels was the curriculum rating Institute I was just thinking building thinking classrooms from this year but yeah all three levels had a curriculum writing Institute presentation yeah I think I yeah I recall seeing more than one no I I think it's a I think it's a great idea but I'm I was just curious about the numbers too because yeah sure that's the question in front of us thank you yeah you know the question about how much it costs is obviously good question and I just wanted to try and put some Roi to that you know yeah appreciate that but but also as as I see it we're investing in our own staff we're investing in our own teachers our own professionals we've been that's been our strategy since Co to really try and utilize as much money as possible through the rser and you know obviously the budget increase that we're asking for $25,000 on this line it is not close to what our bestor provided but uh it is something and unfortunately this has been a line that's been flat funded for many years uh in part because we had the our bester money uh in part because prior to co we had some more difficult budget years where town Revenue wasn't growing and those resources weren't there so you know I think as I'll talk about a little later I think we're asking for reasonable investment here along that line one one other follow up on that so was 80 teachers participated last year yes was it 60 or something the year before I think we had it was 84 and 22 yeah I'm I always have to turn people away oh you do we can only fit 80 comfortably to do the work in that room okay that's what's manageable for us I was okay yeah got it thank you sure this is actually probably a superintendent question um I'm just wondering since you did make a request for the stem robot that engineering why it wasn't put into the fold of instruct because I'm sure it's going to impact PD as well as instructional supplies pretty much so the that request wasn't included in the budget the robotics piece and I'm going to talk a little bit about that uh in closing as well as you know before we start to to really kind of deliberate where things stand next week I'll talk a little bit about that in closing okay yes Adam um so I'm I'm just trying to reconcile the increase um for uh for staff training so the ARP Esser funds was that was that a 7525 Grant where we had the kick in 25% usually no no our F was um just 100% it was 1.8 million that we received from the government over the course of basically a three-year window that money is expiring at the conclusion of this year upfront obviously 20120 cleaning supplies uh you know uh some technology and a boatload of tents and things like that a lot of the money was spent in terms of you know limiting exposure and mitigating you know covid and then um as we shifted away from that some of the money was spent a lot of the money was spent on professional development over the course of those three years some of the items that Marlene just talked about and then some of the money was spent on secondary math interventionist coaches um which I've asked to be you know continued forward in this plan and an assistant principal split between two buildings at the elementary school also be carried forward given the you know explosion in our Elementary School enrollment um and then there's one teaching position which is at Highland uh where we've gone from about 700 students to about 900 students in the last couple of years and that's for reading and math interventionist math specialist and on the smaller end we were able to pay for coaching training we were able to pay for profession development by bringing some folks in last year's PD day on March 17th we were able to get really amazing offerings because we had money to pay people to come in and and do those trainings which was well received right so um so I I guess what what I'm what I'm asking is so you you were able to train or you you brought in um 84 teachers and administrators for the session last is it was only one session for the year um for the curriculum writing Institute we've done it three years three years this will be our four after school it was oh was one week oh I'm sorry I thought it was one day no okay now all right on week right so right full week 84 so is your intention to still do uh have 84 people or is it smaller I can fit 80 so we'll we'll take a look at that and it would be nice to do 80 again yeah so that's your intention so is um so the primary expense really is to have the teachers there the actual um collab collaborators or um well I want to say Proctor but not Consultants right so the the primary expense is not really the Consultants it's just to have it's the teachers there because obviously you know I'm sure they would love the volunteer a week with their time for this but they're compensated for that yes and the fact that there's a waiting list I mean the it's like running a marathon for a teacher and then saying all right great job we've enrolled you in this 5K um you know right after you finished it because that's really what it is they roll out of completing the the Academic Year and you know what to have 80 plus people step forward and say I want to engage in this professional development for a week right after school gets out um really speaks volumes about the commitment of our team is of teachers and and it also speaks to the quality of the the program itself um because you know when 84 people say oh yeah I'd love to this was valuable or I want to come back um you know that's that's a real testimony to to the quality of the program so I so I just wanted to te this tease this out a little more if I if I may um so the the line item um it says in 2223 that 286,000 was expended um but the budget that you're asking for this year is 211,000 um which is up from 20 let's see 23 24 of 186,000 so are you sacrificing something else to be able to only increase by 25,000 so like obviously you're you're compensating with our right with our funding but is there something else that is falling by the wayside to only increase by 25,000 so we're all I wouldn't say that anything's Falling by the wayside and I would I would say that everything we do is always a priorities priorities priorities right and we're and we're leveraging where we're going to get the most bang for our buck but I the salary part of this is not necessarily all coming from um this line item some of that comes through salaries some of that I offset by our um title four Grant so I kind of pull it from a lot of places in order to cover it if that makes sense yes okay yeah I had I figured that it was either something was cut or okay thank you thank you so much [Applause] okay I'm realized and I'm sure it's not lost on anybody that the fact that the teachers are participating in writing the curriculum that then then going to deliver as an inherent benefit they they've bought in because they wrote it so that is very very helpful last slide on instructional expense is what has happened over time with instructional expense and as you could see from the chart it's it's basically been flatlined as a percentage of the budget it's not that it has an increase it's as a percentage of the budget uh for next year it's going to be around 5.75% of the total budget that concludes instructional expense we're going to move right into support services and as of now we completed salaries benefits and instructional and really the next two sections are more about the things that we have to do on the back end to provide for our students and our staff so support services and then our building facilities uh and maintenance is in the last section so Support Services about 8.6% of next year's budget it's about eight and a half percent of this year's budget you'll see that the total increase request is 6.95% very quickly the categories and the largest category here 58% of this line item is just for transportation which includes not only the contract cost we pay Deco but also Fuel and insurance the next largest category which is about 12% of this line item is other Professional Services that includes quite a few items but the largest portion are technology you know one of the the Professional Service we pay for we do not have an in-house Chief technology officer that is a shared service that we purchase Apex technology has been doing it for about a decade they do a very good job we pay them and it's a shared service with the town so they serve as essentially the network engineer and also the the maintainer of the network that serves the town and the school district um we also pay out of this line item cost of things like power school and parent Square which are applications that are used you know to provide um for our students the next largest line item is legal costs which um we we know that we're doing some negotiations next year so we increased it a bit also the um cost of the annual audit that we pay uh to our audit team CLA is the is the auditor for this year and next as well and then the next largest section of this budget is the energy performance contract you know this is a a recurring payment that we have for 15 years for the infrastructure improvements that were made across the district about uh nine years ago now that included as an example uh upgrading Highlands electric heat to Natural Gas uh increasing or adding LED lighting in all our classrooms and all our hallways across the district so if I take this give you a little bit more insight into some of these line items you'll see that um the largest increase is right here you know of the $500,000 requested 323,000 is for Pupil Transportation sure the board remembers is that we just approved deo's new contract even though we were averaging 1.6% increases the last five years in the new contract we're going to be at about 4.2% overall and the first year increases 6% um so that explains why that most of that 8.68% the other reason this line item is increasing beyond the 6% is because we do anticipate that um we will have additional costs just to provide um special ed u and possibly general education School runs because of increasing enrollment so that's the largest um item and then related to that here Transportation Supply that is Diesel and gasoline you know for our large buses and smaller smaller Vehicles just work on um unlet gasoline um the U this line item for other services that that includes among other things our student accident Insurance um and we know that that's going to be increasing was UN under budgeted this year and and so we had to get that budget line item in order if I take a little bit of a deeper dive into Transportation just quickly to show you you know what what costs what within Transportation the General Ed public school routes most of them done with large buses is about 52% of the transportation line item special ed runs which are typically one to one for most of the students that um receive special education services that's 23% and then you can see the next largest category there is fuel equipment and repairs for the buses the Student Activity uh that's for extracurricular activities and including running buses for athletic events music events private school routs 113,000 we are required under state law to provide um transportation for the students that attend St Bridgets in town and you'll see there's another 194,000 for students that go to vag Willcox or other programs that we don't offer a district um this slide just summarizes the dco contract that we we just approved um that the board approved um 6% increase in year one then 34s and at 3% in that contract we have an option to extend for five more years provided Deco provides one or more electric buses and they're replacing 50% of the buses in the first year of the new contract we continue um to look at how do we reduce cost or become more efficient with Transportation it is a large line large line item um it's the largest line item after salaries if you look at it as just one large line item so we look to consolidate you know to the extent we can our bus runs reasonable bus stop distances more students that we could get to a bus stop means that the buses can get through quicker and get the the students to school and back home much more quickly but it also reduces Fuel and other costs with summer school which we do run we've reduced the number of facilities that have summer school and we've also staggered the start times and that becomes important because we can use the same vehicles um to do the the runs that we need as opposed to having more Vehicles which cost more money so staggering start times is something that's helped reduce the cost of summer school um as Miss Cary mentioned to the extent we can we use Aces where we can double up um special Edge students and we do work with other districts to uh even do some of the general education runs to boag and other schools and then we did this year complete an upgrade to the um software that's used to provide route planning you know we do our own route planning we don't Outsource that to dco we we think that gives us a lot more control um and so that that's helped improve our our routing you know moving right along here technology these are some of the items that I wanted to just mention quickly first of all um as the board knows we have been in the process of upgrading the old smart boards to Smart interactive flat panels you know as of today we have completed all the work that needs to be done at Darcy the elementary schools and at DOD um at at Darcy Norton and Chapman and we know those schools are going offline after um 2025 26 we are just replacing the boards that fail we're not aggressively rep replacing everything like we have at the other schools so we only have about 50 more smart boards to replace at the high school and we do anticipate completing that by the end of this budget year that we're talking about um we are not asking for additional funding for that we're able to use the same amount of funding that we had last year in our budget for technology upgrades um our PC Fleet is in good shape um the um Chromebooks 4100 Chromebooks that we provide to students also that Fleet is in pretty good shape we'll continue you know to service and we do repair those inhouse we um continue to work with Apex in the town you know to try and mitigate our risk of a cyber event and related to that that last next to last line Sentinel one you know was new software that was installed that provides you know endpoint security I'm not the technical person but it is AI driven software to protect us from any type of a cyber you know attack and then we're working with mutual link to um actually this is a school sec Improvement project that project just got underway you know Mr Woods who's here is is spearheading that for us and it'll enable us to um use all the communication tools that we have inhouse integrated with police and fire so in the event you know of of an emergency we're able to communicate better support services as a percentage of the budget you kind of see it's up and down but back in 056 it was about 8.2% of the budget and this budget request it'll be about 88.6% so it's trended up just a bit and that concludes support services so a pause for a breather before we go to the home stretch which is maintenance and operations thank you thank [Music] you thanks for this thanks for the presentation Ben [Music] I'm going back to [Music] your first or second slide not the header slide but or the cover slide um it's got the full $7 million in there it's a pie chart list on there this one hold on yeah right there so you've got other Professional Services $900,000 Tech legal Medical Board of audit um I mean I think I already kind of know the answer to this but I would like a recap and for other people to do do we put these out to bid in a routine fashion maybe not all of them most of them are there any that we don't put out to bid well and and does the town do it who owns that process so I'll I'll talk a little like the Apex technology contract that's um right now we're I believe in a three-year agreement that is we have not put that out to bid just because of the nature of the services that we receive there is a technology study group that includes members of the Town Council the board and some former members of the Town Council like Steve Carrol so they review that contract uh with Apex I I do not on the committee but I serve as a liaison to that committee so and that in it's total is about a $240,000 per year contract you know other components of this yes some of it we do put out to bid power school though as an example which the total cost of power school is probably around 880,000 per year and that's a ballpark you know that is our integrated student management system we bought it several years ago you know we replaced something that we had we renew that contract um and there are other smaller contracts that either we put out the bid or buy on state contract like technology Services a lot of the you know not necessarily just the hardware but the software if we don't put it out to bid we can buy it from a state contract which has already been pre-bid okay yeah I just want to make sure we're getting a good service and spending our money wisely that's all it's a mixed bag who did I'm who owns our who owns the legal uh relationship is that the board or the town or is it a mutual or it's more complicated our attor I mean I think Floyd comes up or is it Jeff to know for we contract we contract directly with them vir Moses for our employment and education stuff and that's the Lion Share of of the the work that you the support services uh for us yes I mean we we pretty much exclusively deal with Bertram and Moses for loss you know anything regarding employment like contracts and things like that and then special education as well but when we engage with school modernization that's a a town entity their attorney is Jeff arreo we don't pay for that is he bur Moses he is not okay so that is a different legal firm but that's Town controlled correct good got it okay um and the town did go out to bid to find New Town Council probably about four years ago now okay and just again to pick up on your point another service we split with the town is the audit service and that does go out to bid you know we're um I think we're in year three with CLA the T the town owns that process and then they just outs they just say go do the part with the board right yeah I get involved I you know again I help with that I do don't sit on the audit committee but a on on the board of ed side yeah no no I understand but that is definitely the town owns yeah the council makes that decision on who the auditor that's HED okay um thank you uh with with regard to well Transportation Supply so this is question yeah so I'm looking at the the budget number for I don't want to get this to be too complicated so if you have a concise answer but in short the budget number is going up this year relative to last year and that doesn't make sense on the surface because the price of gas has gone down so I'm just curious if there's a simple answer to it including it it's a gut call as to what's going to happen with fuel prices next year okay okay no that's fine that's all it is all right thank you um and with regard to Capital Equipment I don't know if you would mention it or not if I missed it does that include buses and and let me just recap for people at home yeah our bus fleet I'm thinking it's 50 buses including about 35 of the big yellow buses and another 15 or so of the smaller Vehicles type tools or Vans that's correct okay do any of those so we own the smaller ones we own yes deo's got its own Fleet of large small and vans okay large and small buses and vans we also have couple of type two buses which are the smaller buses as well as a fleet of vans that Capital Equipment is really two things one is the energy performance contract which is 669 th000 okay and the balance I think is 285,000 000 that is the that is the capital equipment is just the PC and Chromebook purchase account so not the buses so Vehicles go through the capital budget they're not in that line item when we buy they're somewhere else okay that when we buy a vehicle we just are buying it out of the transportation account we essentially baying cash for it we're not financing it got it what's the transportation account then I'm just curious well the transportation account is it under Support Services yes so I'm just going to click over so if you look and that this is in the back of the budget book but you know Pupil Transportation this account series 510 if you look that got it so that's not just the datco contract that includes some other stuff too okay okay if you look in the back of the budget book you see there's a whole series of accounts under 510 and you could see the detail regular special it special Student Activities Etc okay do you expect to be buying any any buses this year or any vans we haven't budgeted to buy new vehicles have not okay thank you you're welcome real quick uh there's I saw that the dco contract guarantees at least one electric bus do you know if they're planning on more than one the goal would be to get more than one the reason reason we have one in the contract is because state law was passed that says if you have one electric bus in operation the contract can go up to 10 years we don't want to write a 10-year contract from day one we have an option I'm sorry if we add an electric bus and I doubt we would do just one when we do it clarify the um Chromebook fee that the pay where does that go to so the the 20 the there's a a Chromebook protection fee that we ask parents to pay $25 and that provides protection if the Chromebook breaks and also the replacement of a charger that's collected um into the Student Activity funds at the high school and at the middle school and then those funds that are collect CED are used to make purchases of parts so that our you know we have five technology assistants in the district they repair the Chromebook so we have an inventory of screens and keyboards and other parts that are you know prone to breakage so we buy the parts from that Student Activity account and also if there's sufficient funds we'll actually purchase new Chromebooks from that account so the I know that's a long answer but it goes to Student Activity and it comes out of Student Activity actually the board passed a procedure probably about seven or eight years ago that outlines what that money is collected for and what it could be used for thank you no questions all right thank you can move on we are in the home stretch here so maintenance and operations quick overview I know the board members know know that you know our our buildings are aging um right now humiston is 112 years and the newest School currently Highlands at 53 years of age the most important point that I want to make is that not only are school buildings used as schools but they are also community centers we have a lot of Afterschool activities and you could see the number at cheser high school it's kind of an eye popping number at 2500 you know that includes some student programs certainly that occur during the school day and school week but it also includes a lot of night and weekend activities so our our buildings get used quite a bit you know the high school you know Highland also has and and do that that number always looks low to me but you get the point that these are not just maintained for schools but they're maintained for the community um this slide just shows you in in 2026 we'll have a new Norton and a new North End I know the board and everyone here knows that we're working in Earnest to get those new schools designed and then built and then we'll be taking three of the oldest buildings offline when those new schools come online so maintenance and operations is 5.4% of the budget uh is the request it's 5.1% of the budget currently it includes these categories so the 4.84 million requested um it's not just repairs of the buildings you'll see that 40% of that budget just goes to utilities and heating you know the primary utility cost is for electricity maintenance and repair is 1.5 million cleaning Serv Services is about $839,000 and then maintenance supply and equipment maintenance and repair is about a half a million dollars combined um I wanted to dig a little bit deeper and show you of the utility and heating which is 40% of the maintenance budget most of that is electricity um followed by heating which is either oil and and and two buildings remaining um we've decreased the number of buildings that use oil natural gas and propane at Darcy is about 579,000 and then you'll see the rest of these we're calling them utilities But it includes garbage and recycling as well as the uh gas and propane we use to cook at the schools that that have that so that's 40% of the maintenance budget the remaining 60% is cleaning services you see it's 29% of that 2.9 Million this is our building repair and Improvement budget it's about 89,000 we are requesting an increase in that line uh Grounds Maintenance 247,000 that includes snow clearing Services I that budget for next year is about 160,000 is the request then maintenance services are outside contractors that we hire and then equipment replace I'm sorry the snow p is here but we separated that apologize for that error um and then we pay for school um security monitoring Services um as part of this budget the line item increases you'll see we're looking um you know this is a lower increase than we had you know last year we're we're still anticipating that we may pay more for utilities overall you know I hope we don't get there uh Mr White but that is we did budget it up just a bit um we are looking for a large increase in maintenance and repair you know I do want to acknowledge that Mr clette our director of Facility Services I think the board members know Mr clette you know is here and um you know he and his staff do a terrific job you know with the upkeep of our buildings you know the request we have here will go to make additional improvements to the building that are needed and in a moment I'll I'll explain the capital budget but this is just for the repairs that we need um as well as some preventative maintenance to keep our buildings in good order um and then you know maintenance supply and heat and energy cost you could see round out the the request largest line item is maintenance and repair um as far as our buildings go just to recap we've got you know eight main school buildings we've got other facilities that we have to maintain our portable classrooms at Norton and Highland a maintenance garage we do maintain the bus depot as well some storage trailers and some other structures we have 300 learning spaces in the district 760,000 square feet of buildings lot of Roof Systems plenty of sidewalks and and parking lots and then Acres of outside grounds that we maintain through our staff um our operating budget level for maintenance they have increased but really in line with inflation and our Capital Appropriations from the capital budget which are for larger improvements um those have not kept up to the level that we think certainly gotten better the last few years and I'll talk is that we need to continue to alert so I need to plug in if you just speed okay capital budget there's there's nothing here that's new so I'm going to skip over this um the planning committee that's responsible to make determinations and then ultimately recommend to the Board of Education what the capital request should be did meet uh two weeks ago to begin the capital request project this does not have any dollars as you see on the slide I just showed some general categories where the capital requests uh were presented no decisions have been made but you'll see that there are all things that we need just to keep our buildings running HVAC window replacements sidewalks Roofing um some cafeteria improvements There's No Frills these are things that are needed to continue to to run out buildings over the next five years so this is broken down by category this is broken down by school building I do want to note that we are not requesting any funds in this capital budget as we discussed with the planning committee for Chapman Norton and Darcy which we know will be closed um if there are capital needs we certainly wouldn't be shy about asking but we think those buildings will be able to continue to run for the next two school years after this one uh before we close them and central office in humiston we don't have any Capital requests in for those uh for that building right now but you know the planning committee will be looking at what the long-term use of of central office and that humiston building will be very quickly this was the capital funding approval from two years ago you see it was $2.5 million and most of that was for fire alarm system replacement here at DOD some HVAC lighting and electrical improvements and then in the current year that we're in you'll see that it went from two million to $3.8 million that that's very important it just shows that the funds that we need to be allocated to continue to keep our buildings properly maintained on on a long-term basis are there so you'll see that we've got a million 50,000 in hbac improvements 600 of 600,000 of that is for the dod boilers that um just went out to bid um that Mr cette um opened up those bids and it looks like the bids came in in a way that we'll be able to meet that budget and get that work done window replacements um some Roofing and and sidewalk and Paving so the money that's been allocated this is all work that's presently underway being bid out so that we can get you know as much of it done over the school year and then a lot of that work as you know gets done over the summer recap of the money that's been requested over the last 10 years we've requested 24 million we've gotten 21 million approved by the Town Council you know and I do want to know the last couple of years requests have been fulfilled we think that you know we need to be investing between three and five million a year to keep the remaining buildings um and improving them to the extent they need to be improved so the earlier years on this slide were not strong enough we do have some catch-up work that that we need to continue to request funds for so that we can um keep the buildings running I always like to give the board a recap we do have a a safety net for maintenance if we have you know a complete failure and we don't have enough budget funds to do a building repair we have 233,000 in this building maintenance CNR fund it's also known as emergency fund we can go to the Town Council and request use um but we haven't had to use it since 2019 so we hope that that continues um so kind of at the recap here so you know maintenance needs are constant you know here in the district so I know that's kind of hard to figure out what that might be but what do you think that is Rich I know you know so it could you know it it is sort of is it it's a colonoscopy of one of the pipes at cheser high school so you could see this 1374 feet that's how far the plumber had a um what do you call that thing was that a snake oh that was a water jet sorry so you see this is the pipe that's the end of the pipe what do you think those things are that wound up in chesher high school's sewer line use your imagination beer cans beer cans okay that could be a good guess does that help you vape pens um a lot of them so we've been having some trouble and this is just an example of some of the maintenance things that uh that we need to deal with so we were having some backups at chesha high school and and this is what you know our maintenance staff and our contractor pull out this is a a recurring event I know that our high school administrators are always trying to deal with the problem but this is part of where our our building repair funds have to go um when we look at the cost of Maintenance versus Capital when we make investments in capital you have to look at it as an investment it's not just money that you're you're spending out of your operating budget you're really investing so this is chure high school last year you really can't this picture doesn't really do it justice because it looks better than it actually was it was still kind of daylight here but these are all the single pain windows that um have been there for many years they're not energy efficient the storefront um it's was well past its prime um and the lighting you could see that there's a lot of Shadows in this lighting um it was incandescent very poor lighting and so the Improvement that was made made it much better um you'll see that these are all new windows new storefront very secure the windows are all double pane low eass so we've improved that building envelope we'll keep the heat in longer and keep to the extent there's cooling keep the the building at that end this is the South ENT interest um you know much cooler LED lighting it's more energy efficient and you'll see that the lighting is very very even across the building so it's a much more inviting building to go to at night the average person may not notice it but these are significant improvements and these are the types of things that you know we need to continue to do and are doing across the district if we look at maintenance and operations over time you'll see that it's basically been the same percentage of the budget in 0506 it was 5.45% it's 5.4% in this budget request again we've we've spent more money but in line with inflation and because our buildings are aging more we need to continue to make those Investments and the next section are the conclusions so before I turn it over to Dr Solen are there any questions um Vin um and if this is if this analysis has been done through the Next Generation school committee then I'll if you maybe you could point it point to me point it to me um electricity use or electricity cost we're going to be bringing online two School two new schools that potentially are using hybrid electric climbing systems uh was has there any analysis been done if the cost of those new schools will be like a one to one you know with the improved efficiency and so forth um with their like you know the current natural gas or I guess oil use at Norton um and is Chapman also that might be natural gas because it's close to the Chapman is natural gas so I'll just say fossil fuel use um the cost of that versus the cost of Now using electricity which is like the what third highest in the nation is there uh with the including efficiencies is the cost going to like when we see that pie chart in a few years is it going to be roughly the same it's just going to be in electricity or how how do we have an Outlook there well I'll answer it this way the most important thing that we get out of the two new buildings is they're going to be very tight building envelopes no leaky Windows no leaky doors right so you'll have improvements in in efficiency of whatever you're doing heating or cooling because you've got a brand new tight properly insulated building um we're adding Cooling in those two new buildings that we don't currently have so I don't expect our electricity cost to go down because we've got cooling added no yeah I wouldn't expect that piece of the pie to remain the same I'm just want yeah but I mean the heating you know the heating versus you know mostly the heating part I guess it isn't all electric building so we won't have any natural gas or o oil cost they'll it'll all be focused on Heating and I see Mr White is going to help us with this but like I said in the interest of time uh if this analysis has been done elsewhere that's fine I was just wondering you know the exercise has been done elsewhere and teasing that out is in my expectation it's probably going to be difficult because one of the things that will happen with a new building my guess is people will gravitate toward it they're going to want to use and I'm not talking about the kids I'm talking about all the other act nighttime or outside school activities they will be using it and teasing that out makes it a little bit um difficult uh as well as the air conditioning which you could look at like a six-month basis instead of a 12 month but that's been the experience with new buildings in the past 10 or 20 years have gone down this path what I've seen looked at personally that's what happens and it's you can't it's I've never seen anybody tease it out the difference between matching up the usage from prior building to new building let alone the energy consumption related to it because the usage of the building will go up I will add one more point and I can't believe you didn't hit it yet and I'm sure you would get there but the buildings are being built uh and wired so that we can add solar and if we add solar obviously some of the the power for the building will be coming off the solar panels so you'll see the utility bill go down I mean there's a cost to install the solar depending on how we do it but that will be helpful and I think that's an important component of the building that's you know being constructed yeah one of the things that goes through my mind is last year the budget that we were given there were three price free cost drivers one of which was Global energy costs and I'm looking at it here Vin's got it going up 7% for electricity this year the planning committee has been having an ongoing discussion about basically you know 20e solar contracts same thing that we have at the dog park right now where you can lock in the rate with no escalator and we eliminate those price increases and Frankly Speaking I think that we probably could get a I think it's entirely possible we could get are rates lowered from what we're paying right now I'm not certain we haven't done any bidding or anything like that but I do think that's a a real possibility thank you don't go yet van okay I just want one clarification item yeah when we talk some planning for the potential of the [Music] um the two I just want to make sure that it's not incorporated into this with the main maintenance factor of um the Portables are you asking for an increase considering that the potential Portables will be purchased therefore the need for maintaining that has to increase here does that make sense yes okay I'm sorry for creating confusion but these are last year's slides I'm not looking for more portable money no but we potentially might be purchasing Portables which then impacts our maintenance um line or does it not well you just because we are adding square footage you'll have some more cleaning to do but it's it's they relatively new um so it's not going to be a substantive operational impact there'll be some cost but not substantive okay thank you that's it yep all right it's my pleasure to introduce Dr Solen school superintendent yes thank you sir as much as I harass him about um the depth of the presentation sometimes you know I I just want to acknowledge all of our people um and Vin sets that tone with respect to uh his depth of understanding uh the time commitment he puts into this and um all of our people have put into making sure that our budget uh reflects our our needs and fiscal priorities I'll talk a little bit about that but before I do I want to acknowledge all of our administrators and um staff who are here tonight it's uh it's hard to run frenetically in their shoes all all week and then roll here uh for Two Plus hours to hear a lot of information they've already heard um and I I credit them for that uh I also want to thank our volunteer members of the Board of Education who commit their time and energy to improve our community um you've spent five plus hours uh and that's just in meetings uh plus the other time I know you spend outside of meetings reviewing this information and um it at the end of the day it means a great deal for our community so just want acknowledge that the um basically you know at the end of the day here the treasure public schools and the treasure Community are growing and they're growing significantly uh just driving past the new North End development today and seeing some of the work that's being done there uh guys standing on the roof cranking away on new residences um and our budget is basically dedic dedicated to maintaining that level of service even with the growth and what we've provided over the last few years um and I think you know I bring up all the growth and development I've been superintendent I think this is my eth budget presentation or something eight or nine and uh in each of those previous presentations I think there was a pretty clear understanding of where the community was going and fiscally what was going on never in my experience can I remember where uh the community Finance question has been so far up in the air and the good news is that that question is about prosperity and about how much development has occurred um what Grand lless growth we're going to see and the impact of that and so you know that's that's an important context you know at the end of the day what what is it going to look like when when we go across the street and I want to provide further context within dur B um pulling the presentations that have already been provided within durby the average budget increase of the nine towns that have gone before us is 5.94% so we're right in that wheelhouse um with the lowest being uh 4.81 and the highest being 7.29 so we're we're in that wheelhouse contextually um and so you know my responsibility I talked about the commitment that our team makes and this is how I kind of started our budget presentation this year uh is to create what I consider to be a fiscally responsible budget that fulfills our statutory obligations and advances our goals sometimes there are things like our our increase million dollar increase in um the medical benefits costs or substantial shift in transportation again I believe we have a great deal before us I think you know that but it's still a significant increase on that line over years past because we've had such an a ridiculous deal over the last several years um and so these things have been flow but at the end of the day our team is still providing the best best we've ever done on on an objective basis when you look at our our district performance index across Connecticut to be number ninth in Connecticut and our per pupil expenditure is about 112 I think um I I I think that what we've done is really focus on how to make the most of the resources we've had we have and this budget goes to do that Does it include everything no it doesn't you know this is we talked about a robotics Elementary stem program Robotics and uh pre-eng engineering skills and environmental science areas that uh research says not that we just think research says will be ultra high demand by the time ours kids graduate I was talking to a parent yesterday who said you know the last child will be out 2034 you know it's like wow it's like forever away um but it's not it's really not and and these are the skills our kids will need but is Marlene said we we have to look at priorities and we've prioritized those things you know I still think this is a priority that I would love to to see included as we deliberate that doesn't mean that you know other things may not be reduced to accommodate some things but I think we've produced a very uh fiscally responsible budget uh and at the same time have a tremendous track record of of top-notch results and and so I guess that takes me to the board member responsibility piece um that you know your role is to provide adequate instructional books supplies materials equipment Staffing facilities and Technology Equitable allocation of resources among schools proper maintenance of facilities in a safe School setting um I mean that that's certainly the goal The Bare Bones um and it's not to provide it at the provide a a school uh program at the lowest possible or the highest possible we're trying to find that sweet spot and I think I want to commend the community uh over the last several years in particular I think we've done a tremendous job of of finding that sweet spot and um and I want to commend everybody who works in the Treasure public school system because I think they've taken those resources and made the absolute best of them and I hope you've seen that over the course of the last five and a half six hours whatever it's been so you know we're getting to the close of kind of one phase of this process uh the presentation of all the information and uh Tuesday we'll begin the next phase of this process where Del you know real deliberation will occur about what what will it look like what things do we have to include not include whatever and I know that my God you've had to process so much information over the last multiple weeks unfortunately due to weather and everything and I would encourage you if you have questions considerations please shoot them to me vin Marlene and we can try and process that and get you information um hopefully maybe in advance of Tuesday if if possible uh and really I'm looking forward to engaging in a a productive discussion on Tuesday about you know what the plans are and with that you know I'll certainly answer any questions you might have I know you guys have had the opportunity to ask at different sections along the way so all right thank you appreciate it uh I would EO Dr s's words that do appreciate the staff for coming out here um and the presentations Robin Marlene Vinnie as always and the the responsiveness to all of our questions prior to the meetings too so that we can digest as much of the information as possible and take a deeper dive so um definitely we'll send you some requests before Tuesday um I do want to see that worst case scenario um breakout that you typically give to us in the event um so if that could be provided for Tuesday as well too any other thoughts last minute comments Mr White and then Mr gripple yeah so I apologize for getting here late tonight um did we get any update on right to read is there any not to get into a big discussion about it but you were just asking about the budget overall I'm just curious any news I've been accused of turning into the Incredible Hulk when that yes comes up and uh so we are very much working on uh coming to some sort of solution for right to read with the State Department of Education I've said uh before that I fully believe the intent of the legislation and the intent of sde was to support all Learners particularly the the moral imperative that lies in front of us in Connecticut of closing the achievement cap um I just I I feel like uh there's different ways to go about it and I'd love feedback about where SD felt our curriculum was not reflecting the the science of reading and we have a meeting scheduled with them on February 5th and I hope that you know we can take steps to come closer together at that meeting one just when does the legislative session when does the legislative session open do you have it's around February 5th right some sometime right around that time okay I don't know the definitive date but it's it it's early February okay thank you I will add that today the um state had a forum to discuss this it is recorded in I believe um on file on CTN their Network so if you have a moment to I too have a very visceral response to some of this so I'm going to leave it to the superintendent but I will be present um at that meeting on February 5th as well too because I believe this is the first time that they're inviting at least a board member to the table with these discussions right yeah I think I think the initial intent of that as it was communicated to me directly through SD was to uh convey to board members like the idea that all right well you didn't um attain the waiver but it's not like the superintendent's fault is basically to to be able to tell the the board chair don't worry the superintendent's not terrible it's just you didn't get the waiver um and I don't think I'm not sure how that helped us but okay so um I think the participation of our elected officials in the process is is uh important and valuable and I'm glad that um you know that Sam will be able to attend Mr grible um as always I'll stay consistent I support open Rebellion um uh just a question of process um so uh next Tuesday is it the board's intention or the finance committee's intention to adopt a motion and then perhaps the board to approve it next Tuesday I'm going to leave that to the finance chair's decision to make the finance chair says I would love for that to happen but the reality is um we'll need to see how much progress we can make on next Tuesday night okay if if if we can get to the point where we are ready to vote then we will do sure okay I I would second that Adam I I believe I mean if we have enough information or um answers to the questions ahead of Tuesday and we can like Dr Solen said have a productive discussion to finalize all this I'd love to stick within the timelines sure any other thoughts comments questions no um I will entertain a motion to adjourn Mr White and Mr eki second all in favor of adjournment it is unanimous we are adjourned thank you everybody have a

now therefore be it resolved that the Board of Education will go into close session for the following reasons as outlined in njsa 10412 items 2.3 to 2.4 do we have a motion motion by Mrs null seconded by Miss Lee any questions before we head into executive session seeing none Mr Yates roll call please roll call Mr Bach yes Mr Brown yes Mr Demari yes Mrs null yes Miss Lee yes Mr Thompson yes Mr fisicaro yes Mr conon yes we're in executive session all right thank you we'll see you all at approximately 7:30 [Music] n [Music] he [Music] la [Music] pap [Music] oh [Music] yeah [Music] yeah [Music] a [Music] here [Music] oh [Music] yeah [Music] yeah [Music] nah [Music] would all those who are able please rise for the pledge I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America to the repu for which it stands Nation God indivisible liy and justice for all thank you for reading our mission statement tonight will be Mr Bach the mission of the eam Township School District is to promote excellence in an environment that engages students in meaningful learning experiences in partnership with students dedicated staff families and Community the district provides a strong Educational Foundation that will Empower our students to achieve their unique potential Embrace self-directed lifelong learning develop the skills necessary for appropriate risk-taking and responsible decision-making protecting themselves respecting themselves and others problems solve individually and collaboratively and become contributing members of a diverse Global Society thank you Mr Bach now hand the floor over to Dr Smith for our presentations tonight thanks Mr canthon I would like to uh acknowledge we're we have some presentations tonight for students and with us we have the all South Jersey Mart middle and deacy middle students who we're going to play a piece for us first and then we'll get into the uh certificates so uh Mr wer take it away [Music] [Applause] e [Music] m [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] that was amazing we're going to we're going to give certificates to the students now and uh Mr canthon our board president if you could join me on the stage for that um as I'm walking up I'll just say uh this is the biggest stage we have but it's certainly not the biggest stage they've played on uh because if I'm right you recently were playing at row right as part of all South Jersey so uh and it you found sounded absolutely fantastic uh just want to recognize also Mr westner Mrs Smith and Mr Li for their work with the kids um if we can give them a round of applause as well so uh what we'll do is we'll walk to you you can stay seated we'll we'll hand you the um certificate you can stand and be recognized at that point and then when we're done with all the certificates you can we would love it if you could all stand up together and we can give you one big round of applause and then parents can come down and take pictures and things like that okay so just you know it's adult celebrating you the uh all right we'll go with Victoria Lee perfect railan Lee thank [Applause] you Victoria Victoria Lee [Applause] Rohanna anath Stephen Chu that right that's your last name right Steven Chua Maria Ibrahim Dana [Applause] Kerber Robin [Applause] petski and Arnav [Applause] sethy and our nav correct me if I'm wrong but you you were first chair cello in this all chef jersey Orchestra right let's give him a round of applause for [Applause] that so now I'm going to step to the side parents if you want to come closer please feel free take a picture of all the kids together all right if we have one last round of applause for all the kids on our all South Jersey Orchestra members congratulations [Applause] students and stuff but um it's a little bit evening of the Arts it's great to have a such a great audience for that too uh so we have another winner and I'm gonna ask Casey gford from Cooper levenson to join Mr kanton and myself up front for this so uh and if Kate gly is here art MMS art teacher if she can come on down yeah yeah yeah yeah and then um our certificate winner as Miss G's coming down Charlotte dumbrowski is she here [Applause] Charlotte so so um there's so Charlotte do I want to Ste thank you um so my name is Casey gford I work at Cooper Levens and we have the pleasure of being the board solicitor um so I actually sit here at most of the board meetings uh so I'm really happy to be here tonight for a positive reason and get to share a little bit of background about our firm um each year since 2008 Cooper levenson has v invited area school children to designs for our firm's holiday cards um the holiday card contest is just one of the elements of our efforts to show support for commitment to community and children and the Arts and schools and to help us raise awareness for our chosen charity which was created by our founder Jim Cooper um whose daughter was a teacher and told him that many of her students went hungry throughout uh when times when they weren't in school so our charity is let us eat please and it was founded by Jim Cooper our founding partner um and it helps ensure that local children who depend on School meals get enough to eat during the summer when schools aren't in session um so this year we chose six card designs of the hundreds of entries and uh Charlotte here is a seventh grader at marleton middle and she won and in addition to the plaques um both Charlotte and Miss Gormley are going to get gift certificates so Charlotte will be getting a $50 gift certificate and Miss Gormley will be getting a $100 gift certificate um to buy art supplies and um we also just you know I know all of you I come like I said to all of your meetings and I just want to thank you uh in addition to traditional art classes your Orchestra and everything thank you for supporting the Arts um and just know that you know every year you guys have every year since I've started I think you guys have had winners because you you truly do always submit such great pieces so we really appreciate it and if you hold on one second I'll give this to you okay awesome thank you Miss gford let's give a round of applause for Charlotte Miss and and you got to get it yeah I was gonna say um you can't see it probably from too far away but it's um want you want to talk about it talk about your um I don't know like yeah I just thought about it thought was like a really cool idea for like Christmas and how like like I guess like feels like home so I don't know if you can hear that but it's a log cabin in the most beautiful wood setting and she thought it kind of symbolized like home at Christmas you know and and for me like just little details so there's smoke coming out of the chimney which to me means people are in there you know and I just like art tells a story and you def definitely tell an amazing story with this artwork so so I just can't wait to hear I feel like there's going to be other things ahead in your future you stay with it you know so awesome thanks Charlotte get a picture e [Applause] I'd be remiss to not just add parenthetically that uh this is the ninth year in a row that a student of Miss gormley's has won this contest which is like I don't think the Celtics even their streak was uh was quite as long as that um far you know so um it's an amazing accomplishment Miss Gormley um no that was a that's it so uh after presentations that's the part where I say any parents who were here or family who were here for the kids recognition part you're welcome to stay through the rest of the meeting but if you want to uh head home and and go on to other things uh we totally understand and you're absolutely welcome either way um most people choose to head off to other things but board meetings are fun too so you're welcome to stay all right thank you Dr Smith the meeting will now be open to the public referencing agenda items only however if your questions or comments pertain to litigation student or Personnel items or negotiations we would ask that you see the superintendent after the meeting since we do not discuss these matters in public please please limit your comments to 3 minutes per person and please state your name and address at the beginning of your public comment um so public comment now for agenda items only at the end of the meeting we also have another session of public comment for any item you should speak about so is there anyone who wants to talk about agenda items today going once can you hear me okay so I'm not sure where I found the agenda but I'm a resident of writings of Mayfair uh correct me if I'm wrong but they were talking about moving to Macy moving the school from tocy to another uh School correct me if I'm wrong before I go any further um so what I would say is first of all welcome and and we're glad for public comment there isn't any item on the agenda relative to that topic so if you don't mind waiting there is going to be a second public comment at the end um about any items at all but but there's but nothing relating to Dei on the agenda tonight yeah all right seeing none we will go hi good even Trish everheart 25 Derby Court I'm here to talk about TBA it's my understanding it's an agenda item correct so I was on the board when we started TBA 10 years and plus ago so I am saddened to hear that there was a letter that went out that said that TBA was going to be closing it had a storyed past I'm sure you know some of you sat on the board at the time uh we had been facing a lot of fiscal challenges and through some creative um brainstorming we came up with a plan to Institute this program at the purple Hall at MMS and we were able to overcome litigation and issues from the state we marched on Trenton not Washington to save TBA and the public got involved and rallied behind the board when we were facing these challenges so I'm a little dismayed I guess that we didn't reach out to the public or share that perhaps it wasn't making as much money as it was in the past so did you as a board um you know look into options to raise and increase Revenue ask people to pay a little bit more to go there did you work to find creative ways to keep TBA and service the families and the community in the way it had been for the last 10 years I was dismayed as a previous board member to see that a letter went out saying that it was going to be closing and I understand you wanted to let the parents know that but I was dismayed that we didn't have the opport opportunity to have the board vote on that or have public discourse in front of the public regarding such a just a beloved institution and program for the district so I want to express my disappointment over that to the superintendent and the board leadership I'm also wondering because I am hearing there are speculations on what might be happening with that Wing um wondering if maybe perhaps instead of closing it you would consider putting some of the preschoolers in that facility I understand it serves 6 weeks old to maybe four years old so maybe you could use those rooms for preschoolers and maybe not have to perhaps turn it into a wing for fifth graders and have to spend money that isn't going to [Applause] be Miss everheart I'm sorry I'm sorry you know I have to apply it evenly to everyone so was I supposed to you are approaching the three minutes okay so please consider the possibility of keeping that as a resource for preschoolers I would hope that surrounding districts actually the neighboring district is using an outside daycare Center to have some of their preschoolers and I would hope that we wouldn't have to choose to do that when we have something right here although I don't support using it as a fifth grade Wing I implore the board to consider keeping it open and just reconditioning it and repurposing it like we did with another school in the district for a way to keep things here and help the families that are using it thank you hi my name is Lisa Weber and I'm G to piggy back off of that because I'm one of the families that is dealing with this closure of TBA my name is Lisa Weber as I stated my daughter Charlotte is currently to and a part of TBA I was notified the first week of January right after the holidays when I was back to work after having to take off to take care of my child which fine it was the holidays but you let me know at 1:00 in the afternoon on a Wednesday when I had just gotten back to work just started a new promotion at work to let me know that my daycare was closing in June and good luck to you and on top of that I'm an accountant for the federal government and your cold and quite frankly disrespectful letter stated that it was because of money I know for a fact that I am paying 1575 a month for my daughter to attend TBA on a 5-day basis and I understand it's not totally your fault that the cost of child care is exorb in this country however I pay a lot of money and on top of that I provide everything for my for my daughter's well-being I provide diapers I provide wipes I provide food I provide all creams all sunblock everything so truthfully what I want to know is how in the world is TBA actually losing money when I'm paying that much money a month and supplying you with everything my daughter's room alone brings in 6,300 bucks a month and there are multiple other classrooms full of more students paying pretty much close to what I'm paying so I would really love an explanation as to how TVA is losing money because again I'm an accountant I understand the numbers so if you could you know expand on that tonight it would be really really great thank [Applause] you Justin O'Brien one Cranberry Court also here to talk about TBA um where is TBA actually accounted for in the budget because I looked it's public it's not really there so we're just taking your word that it's losing money essentially how much is it losing don't know you didn't say you said there's a $700,000 shortfall but in the budget presentation for this year's budget you said in it that you would cut either this school you would close um or you would sell two properties that you own did you sell the properties to try to make up the shortfall don't know you don't s on your website uh the projected enrollment of the tuition free preschool versus TBA enrollment what is that what's the difference TBA staff from my understanding still hasn't been offered a job yet anywhere else in the uh District um why wouldn't you increase tuition to make up the shortfall um that you knew about I I don't understand and the premise and it's behind closed doors there's no real transparency here other than this meeting where you haven't given us anything we're talking before you tell us the facts which is interesting um and my son has thrived underneath of that compared to other places where he has not it seems like there is an indifference on the board to what the actual citizens who you answer to want and uh yeah thanks anyone else like to make any comments about the agenda all right closing that section moving to approval of the minutes we need a motion to approve items 6.1 through 6.3 do we have a motion motion by Mrs nll seconded by Mr Thompson any questions on the approval of the minutes Mr Yates roll call please roll call on the approval of the minutes Mr Bach yes Mr Brown yes Mr demara yes Mrs null yes Miss Lee yes Mr Thompson yes Mr fisicaro yes Mr conon yes a motion carries thank you Mr Yates moving on to item number seven superintendent reports and administrative items we need a motion to approve item 7.1 through 7.9 do we have a motion motion by Mr Thompson seconded by Miss Lee before we head over to the vote I'll hand the floor over to Dr Smith thank you Mr canthon I want to say a few words first about uh what's going on this week in our schools so it's great kindness week which is a national campaign and kindness counts and matters every day in etsd every week each school is celebrating kindness this week in various ways from theme days to coin drives to to sharing ways to be kind over the announcements and how to promote cooperation as well which is another District theme this year at school and at home thank you to all our staff for their passion dedication and creativity when it comes to helping our kids learn and show kindness your words tone and example carry tremendous weight all of us together students staff families and community members have a common stake in spreading kindness the micro moments of countless daily interactions as opportunities to lift each other up to choose to be patient to be kind individually and collectively truly matter as this month is a school board recognition month in New Jersey on behalf of our district and personally I'd like to express deepest thanks to our board of education for their countless hours and tireless work all voluntary and dedication to the best path forward for our children whose education and growth is nothing less than the most important responsibility as human beings the very I'd like to also uh give a few words to a very important upcoming event on Friday February 2nd it's our Eve sham education foundation's annual Gala fundraiser double down for em education at the mansion in Vorhees it starts at 7 o' all proceeds benefit eam students tickets are available at eam education foundation.org hope to see everybody there um I'd like to say a few words as well about a few other things uh an agenda item this evening which was uh the recommendation for approval of the closure of teddy bear Academy on Friday June 28th of this year this closure was communicated at the beginning of the month in order to give families as much time as possible to make arrangements for the um time after June of 2024 are District gave this decision much consideration TBA loses money okay and I I heard some uh you know the public comments however much it loses and that amount may vary it really never made money it maybe broke even some years but without ECC to carry it along there is no hope it will make money and with our district facing the seventh straight year of state aid reduction our district which is responsible for educating not as a daycare center but as a k prek to grade8 District we cannot afford to run a program losing money for kids that as a district type we not responsible for to the detriment of the kids that we are responsible for and that will be plain that if that hasn't been plain as we G through six years of state aid reduction it will be as we Face the seventh this is understandably the most difficult year to identify reductions for and I can't stand up in front of our community and talk about reductions to the kids we have to serve to pay for a program that's losing money for kids we don't and you you're welcome to disagree with me but ethically I can't do that our our district thus can't operate TBA after June 28th our district does also plan to pursue State grant money to provide tuition free preschool as every District around us is either already doing or is in the process of implementing we're behind on that we got tuition free full day kindergarten done that was fantastic it's amazing so thankful and grateful to the community for that that was yesterday's accomplishment for every other District now we need to work on what other districts have already done which is tuition free preschool once we do that 50 of our 72 kids in TBA are preschool aged TBA would be moot through that as well the teddy bear Academy has been an important resource for our community an incredible Resource as spoken to in the public comment hard fought Blood Sweat and Tears to create it and the context at that point made a lot of sense context is always changing and we must change with it I'd like to thank teddy bear Academy director Leah puler and all the TBA staff for their invaluable work over that time continuing through this spring whove provided quality child care in our community for the past decade all current TBA staff will be offered other positions in our district to start after June 28th I'd also like to move on from that topic and speak to another which is some rumor circulating about the possibility of fifth graders moving to Middle School at some point in the future I'd like to make clear that information regarding the 2425 budget and future plans for next year or any year beyond that will be first publicly shared at our tenative budget meeting in March questions and concerns that come about through rumors are completely understandable that presentation will be live streamed and of course I'll share it in my update weekly as I have in the past patience is appreciated as we follow our standard budget timeline which always means public information shared in mid-march the final budget approval of the 2425 budget would be in late April or early May providing time for stakeholder input once that public information has been shared equally important before the first release of information publicly just as we did last year our district will be holding meetings just with staff in early March to talk about the budget around the kitchen table of our District staff and that's very important because as we move through all these years of ch reduction of course the first few years and every year we're just trying to cut non Staffing related items but that gets more and more difficult as you move along because 82% of our budget goes to salaries and benefits so at a certain point when you're climbing up higher in that tree to find savings you've moved past non- Staffing and you're into Staffing and it's only right and proper that we meet first with our staff to talk about those things patience and respect for our necessary timeline is greatly appreciated our work right now is to identify $2.5 million in savings AKA and cuts and that's due in part to the state aid reduction so 719,000 were projected to lose which may change right and it changed last year a few times and increasing costs in a host of other areas which you know as we know from just living these days and and following the news is happening across many many Industries um so as we climb higher in the tree searching for solutions that also means a much more difficult climb and a slower climb but I would say as with each prior Year we will continue to steer by our mission that is our North Star at all times which is to maximize our resources to support student growth and student achievement and we're attempting as in that process as much as possible to turn challenges into opportunities as difficult as that is and that concludes my superintendent's comments Mr canthon thank you thank you Dr Smith there any board members who would like uh to comment or have any questions on item number seven Mr n thank you Mr C then I wrote a few notes down so um I'm sorry I I wrote small but I'll be brief tonight's vote to officially close teddy bear Academy is not just about the deficit that has unfortunately appeared this year the decision to close teddy bear Academy is the first of a series of calculated steps to Forever change eim Township School District what do not fool yourself once TBA closes the contractors will come in the classrooms will be undone and the work by previous boards will be demoed please don't forget we were elected by the community and taxpayers we are supposed to be Financial stewards of taxpayer money are we going to spend money to undo something when we already have a preschool there we're looking toward applying for preschool funding so in my mind this makes zero sense so I have [Applause] cannot this makes zero sense to me and I cannot approve this we can have teddy bear Academy remain open and still go for preschool money they are not mutually exclusive so I say please slow down and I'm asking my fellow board members to slow down because once this is closed there are things to come that this community you will not be able to stop [Applause] thank thank you Miss is null would any other board member like to comment seeing none roll call please Mr Yates on administrative items Mr Bach yes Mr Brown just administrative items is it just administrative items yeah it's 7.1 through 7.9 not the closure do you have your agenda opened no no to all no to 7.4 yes to 7.12 3 and R so to clarify you are voting yes to all but 7.04 is Mr demarcy yes Mrs null yes to all but 7.4 yes to all no to 7.04 is noted Miss Lee yes Mr Thompson yes Mr fisicaro yes Mr conon yes the motion carries moving to items eight we need a motion to approve item 8 .1 through .4 do we have a motion motion by Miss Lee seconded by Mr ficaro uh would any board member like to comment on any items under curriculum and instruction seeing none roll call please Mr Yates on curriculum and instruction Mr Bach yes Mr Brown yes Mr demarcy yes Mrs null yes Miss Lee yes Mr Thompson yes Mr fisicaro yes Mr conon yes that motion carries thank you Mr Yates moving to item nine under finance and operations we need a motion to approve item 9.1 through 9.11 do we have a motion motion by Mr Thompson seconded by Mr fys Caro would any board member like to comment on any items pertaining to finance or operations seeing none roll call please on finance and observations Mr Bach yes Mr Brown yes Mr deari yes Mrs NL yes Miss Lee yes Mr Thompson yes Mr fisicaro yes Mr conon yes that motion carries thank you moving to item number 10 under Personnel we need a motion to approve item 10.1 through 10.10 do we have a motion motion by Mr demarcy seconded by Miss Lee would anyone like to comment on any items as it pertains to Personnel seeing none roll call please Mr Yates on Personnel Mr Bach yes Mr Brown yes Mr Demari yes Mrs NL yes Mr Miss Lee yes Mr Thompson yes Mr fisicaro yes Mr conon yes the motion carries thank you Mr Yates moving to item 11 policy I believe we have no policies moving to item 12 committee reports are there any board members who would like to share a committee report okay we'll close out that section moving to Old business business of which we have none moving to new business of which we have none we'll move into the second open public comment this meeting will now be open to the public referencing any items of Interest however if your comments or questions pertain to litigation student or Personnel items or negotiations we would ask that you please see the superintendent after the meeting since we do not discuss these matters in public please limit your comments to 3 minutes per person and please state your name and address at the beginning would anyone like to comment on any items of Interest hello my name is Cindy Rogers I spoke to you at the last board meeting regarding rumors of a plan to move our fifth graders out of their home INE home Elementary School I have two children in the eam Township School District my son is in third grade so any decision would impact him pretty quickly and my daughter is a sixth grader here at the middle school so any changes to the Middle School structure would also affect her last March during budget presentation we were shown a slideshow show on slide 25 there's a list of possible measures that would be taken if we did not pass full day kindergarten many of us were under the impression that to protect the structure of our schools our fifth graders in their elementary schools and the teams at middle school we would need to vote Yes so even though our children already left kindergarten even though I already paid $11,000 for my children to to go to full day kindergarten I voted yes that yes vote was not about kindergarten that yes vote was to protect the leg that is Eve sham Township School District the structure that is eam and the community that is eam we're barely coming out of covid the change the children that this change would affect are the ones hit hardest by the lockdown and the slow return to normal they lost a lot of their childhood don't take their home school away from them several years ago in my district Drama teacher I helped spearhead departmentalization in my school we proposed the idea to my principal we had to do research and a site visit next we represented to various groups and stakeholders in the district including the PTA and Pac and the curriculum committee of the board after all of those approvals we were tasked with making a mock schedule to ensure that this new idea worked that process took a year and a half and it only affected 70 students in three teachers this current plan or possible plan would affect all of our schools every child in fourth and third and second and so on would affect our middle schoolers our sixth graders our seventh graders so many teachers fifth grade teachers Middle School teachers let's not forget Administration counselors nurses Specialists many things need to be considered and explored before making a change as big as this I'm asking you to slow down board members you need to ask questions ask why and how much ask to see bus schedules and the added costs ask to see a mock school schedule and the added cost ask for a breakdown of how many students will be in each class each Hall each lunchroom will you hire counselors nurses specialists teachers's age how much will this cost because it doesn't make sense to me to change what's working and it doesn't make sense to me that it would actually save money if it's space you're looking for create an Early Childhood Center use the teddy bear Academy Wing or take back Evans but leave the relationships that have been built in the elementary schools intact connecting with their teachers and School staff having a school identity getting to know the school resource officer all of these are so kids feel connected and when they're connected they can learn and grow and Thrive the legacy of Eve sham is built on this structure it's time tested we have evidence that it works it's good for kids please don't change what's working thanks good evening uh my name is Colleen Ellis I live in Westbury Chase um to Echo the sentiments of the woman who very eloquent SP spoke before me um many of us voted to fund full day kindergarten based on the slide that was presented previously thinking that we were voting against some of the changes that are rumored to be being proposed now and that's concerning and the reason that it's concerning is not just because it's a displacement for our kids but also because there is a lack of transparency from this Administration and this board when it comes to communicating with the taxpayers who fund the school district I one of the parents whose child was excluded from the after Care Program when this board voted to go with a contractor who would not support students with certain disabilities and who required certain accommodations and that may be old news for many of you but it's not for me because I had to change my work hours and affect my career because of a decision that was made by the board and when I and other parents emailed constantly for months asking for answers to whether our children could be included and why they might be excluded the only person who answered we was Mrs null and thank you for [Applause] that these decisions that you're making have people on the other end of them and I understand that you have a hard decision to make and that we're losing funding but my child is not a number on a balance sheet he is a human being and it feels very much like he's not seen that way by many of you sitting up there I would ask that should these changes come to light where fifth grade may go to the Middle School please consider the special education programs I have a child in a multi-grade classroom he's in second grade or first grade now he'll go to second grade in the same classroom then he'll go to a 3 four five class what happens to that program if these changes go through our children with special needs often seem to be an afterthought to this Administration and this board and as a parent of a child with special needs and as a school-based speech and language pathologist who works with children with special needs that is hurtful and disgraceful further I would just like to say that I support the women who are about to speak behind me about taking a good look at literacy program in eim Township because it's failing my child is dyslexic and he was not learning to read with the program that we have in place it is not evidence-based it is not based in the science of reading and it's failing probably 40% of our kids even the ones that do not have learning disabilities my son is now receiving Orton Gillingham based instruction that I had to fight for and demand and he's thriving ma'am you're approaching 3 minutes so please r your comments I would be happy to so please have some transparency for the people that put you in office and the people whose children are being affected by these changes thank you good evening my name is Melissa Gil sorry I'm a Woodstream uh resident at 228 conastoga Drive um my name is Melissa Gail and I'm here tonight to speak about rumors and speculation that our fifth graders could possibly be moved out of their home elementary schools for the last 11 years I've considered myself a proud eham Township School District parent I've praised and complimented our schools our Administration and staff and our students I volunteered my time from day one and have truly believed in making our schools a better place for our children as PTO president at vanzan elementary school I have seen firsthand the importance of school Community for elementary schools this most definitely includes our fifth graders from the moment they walk the Halls as a kindergartener each year is built towards their final celebration year as a fifth grader and do we know how to celebrate our fifth graders our PTO Works tirelessly to raise funds to support our students and a big portion of that money goes to our fifth grade we celebrate didn't acknowledge them with celebrations and events and they anticipate these moments from when they start Elementary School it has been one of my greatest Pleasures watching these shy and timid kindergarteners progress into confident and proud fifth graders please take moving our fifth graders from their home elementary schools and dismantling the legacy of our school district off of the table countless resurch has shown that fifth graders are more appropriately served in an elementary school setting our 10 year-olds thrive in an environment where they are given responsibilities and roles that correspond to their maturity level they become leaders in their schools through student council and safety patrol and role model models for their younger children buddies to our kindergarteners and first graders emotionally and psychologically it is inappropriate to ask our 10-year-olds to process the issues that face middle schoolers research has shown that fifth graders have more in common with their fourth grade peers than they do with sixth graders and our elementary schools do an amazing job of boosting the self-confidence of our fifth graders by giving them these responsibilities in our schools why should this change if we're truly tuning in to the needs of our students we need to consider their learning environment and where they are most likely to not just survive but succeed thank [Applause] you hi my name is Andrea Tierney I live at 241 con took a drive um my name is Andrea Tierney and I'm a parent of three daughters in this District I've also been a teacher for over 20 years during that time I taught at the elementary middle school and high school levels I'm here to express my serious concerns about any potential plans for restructuring the current model of our elementary and middle schools we know that this is only speculation but with two decades in education I am aware that the planning phase for a March budget presentation is happening now our family moved here just over two years ago and the current model as it is is why we M were most attracted to Marlton even with the challenges in the current housing market we would not consider man Laurel or Mar uh moristown because the students's transitioning multiple times before reaching High School my colleagues who live in these towns have consistently share their frustration about this there are several concerns that should be discussed about bringing large populations of a single grade together in one building but with only three minutes to speak I want to focus on what I feel is the greatest loss when moving fifth graders out of their home schools our schools are pouring resources in the social emotional learning and rightfully so we know that learning cannot exist when the migl has hijacked feeling as if they are in a safe environment where they are known and understood as critical and this takes time researchers in the field of psychology have extended this conversation to the concept of mattering there is no year more than fifth grade where our students are given the opportunity to fill up leadership roles in their school Community our St our students at VanZant serve as members of the student council B Hall safety first grade buddies and overall School leaders I know the pride that this opportunity has brought to my oldest daughter and the thought of my other children losing this is disheartening she's felt as if she mattered not just to her family but to the community that she was a member of I know that the rebuttle for this loss is going to be that fourth graders could just fill these same roles but I can't think of any current elementary teacher that would tell you today's fourth graders are ready for this our current fourth graders have begun their educational experience with lockdowns and remote learning this has impacted their emotional growth in ways unlike ever before the instability and mental health of our students is no secret your voters came out and supported efforts to put more resource towards this why would we do something that's only going to negate this effort the worst thing our district could do is to put these children through more stress by moving them from the safety of an elementary school middle schools are volatile even for our older students many of our children who are flourishing in fourth grade have found this transition to Middle School to be challenging just this past Monday my husband and I met with Dr Smith to discuss an awful situation that my middle schooler experienced this is not an environment for younger students moving fifth graders from their sheltered Elementary School is the most counterproductive measure I can think of this population is too fragile after what they've experienced the community is aware that there are serious budgetary concerns but the option of moving fifth graders and restructuring middle schools is not worth saving on what is ultimately costing us why not work together with your community Excuse Me Miss can you sorry you're at 3 minutes so if you could wrap up I'm finishing okay why not work together with your community members to advocate for funding Cherry Hill did this and they received a significant amount of change in their funding I would encourage you to use us to work with you thank you thank you hi I'm Angela lamort I don't have anything planned but I just want to kind of speak from the heart here I am a teacher of over 20 years and to piggy back off of what the previous woman just said the emotional distress that these kids have today versus years prior is I see it every day and it breaks my heart the kids who are performing well or the kids were always outgoing they even those kids you don't think have any issues going on of so much I've seen it my own children from time to time and to take these these children again reiterating these covid babies that went through lockdown went through all these changes and now are coming out of the other side thriving just now thriving to throw them into another change and I know it may not seem like anything I don't know how many of you have little kids but it's a big deal or if this is to happen next year these fourth graders now my my oldest was in fifth grade last year she loved her last year of fifth grade it's a big year it means a lot they get the do all these special things those kids in fourth grade right now if this is to happen next year they're not having any of that now and they're going to find out the last minute all of these changes not to mention the kids who are in middle school that they're going to be restructured another change they just started Middle School the emotional distress that these kids face every day forget covid just in our regular world with everything it's too much it's too much and I know money is an issue but at what expense at what expense these kids need us they need you to make decisions for them and secondly the transparency issue when we were voting great we're getting free kindergarten finally but on the backand of that was that no this is all news now that oh because we're doing that now we have to restructure everything if there's no transparency there's no trust and right now my trust is plummeting be transparent there will be understanding thank [Applause] you hi uh good evening I want to to start thanking everyone I know you guys volunteer for this you're not getting paid so we do appreciate your efforts and thank you for taking the time to listen to our concerns because as so many of um the previous parents stated we're trusting you you guys really impact our children so thank you for listening uh my name is Christa anelli uh 152 Thornwood Drive um if anyone that I know there's a lot of groups tonight but if you support revamping the English uh language arts program for eim if you could just stand up so they can see that we do have support tonight um I stand before you once again to ask that you review the language arts curriculum being implemented within our school district the current curriculum and minor revisions that occurred over the past summer continue to be insufficient in supporting our children's reading writing spelling and grammar skills in fact many District employees who are also parents within the community have reached out to me in confidentiality ex expressing appreciation for our efforts and to confirm that they share our concerns but they feel silenced by District administrators I ask how does the district elicit input from all lower elementary teachers in the development of their curriculum we must work together to revise the Lang language arts curriculum in order to meet the needs of all students and ensure we are meeting the updated 2023 standards that Focus so heavily on foundational reading skills in fact one of the highlights from New Jersey governor Murphy's state of address was the importance of phonics Governor Murphy stated it is simple an emphasis on on Phonics and reading instruction is essential to the lifelong success of our children I couldn't agree more with this statement and sadly esam's curriculum has missed the mark for many years in implementing a proper research-based explicit and systematic phonics program Governor Murphy discussed a new plan to improve literacy rates focusing on Elementary School literacy and emphasizing bonics based reading strategies and other best practices because only 42% of third grade students in the state of New Jersey has met or exceeded expectations in English language arts according to State tests unfortunately only 39.3% of esm's thirdd graders are meeting or exceeding English language arts expectations and 60.7% of our third grade students are not meeting expectations based on the 2023 state test results so what is E's plan to address this alarming statistic it begins with a true phonics program and the proper professional development training for our wonderful teachers not just a manual thrown to them the day before school begins our children have already lost so much instructional time it is important we make the appropriate changes today you're three minutes hi Jaclyn rc5 kirkbridge Court um my name is Jaclyn Ry I have two children in the district currently and two more coming in um I have a first grader currently um and I've also been a teacher for 12 years I'm currently an instructional coach right now um first grade's a little bit new to me so um when I found out this year that my daughter was struggling a lot and really behind um my husband took and my husband and I both took a look at you know what we were doing and what you know we weren't doing at home and I started to dive a lot into the research and I found out talking to colleagues reaching out to specialist um you know talking to the reading specialist in Eve sham that you guys don't have a research-based curriculum and just to piggy back off of um Mrs ianelli I just want to reiterate how important that is um we do have a signed POS petition that I know that you are aware of um we have 200 signatures and I think it's very powerful and important for you guys to hear some of those comments that I would like to read tonight um one of those comments um I'm signing because my eighth grader who has been in the district since prek is not proficient in reading or spelling we've had a yearr round weekly tutor for her since second grade as well as our daily work on our own and she still fails to be anywhere near grade level the lack of phonics and spelling has been a concern of ours for years I am hoping that changing will fin changes will finally be made comment two I'm signing because I'm extremely disappointed my children cannot spell and are not strong readers or writers they desperately needed and did not receive explicit phonics instruction when they were in grades K to2 they had outstanding teachers but when I would bring up my concerns the teachers would always tell me they were not allowed to teach phonics and could not give spelling tests I'm a special ed kindergarten teacher and use foundations all my students leave kindergarten reading and I was devastated when my own children were not reading going into first grade my children benefited from Reading recovery but still did not have any core phonic skills the reading instruction is not enough to support our Learners and needs to be sorry needs to be updated by our district comment three as a parent of a second grader who struggles with reading this is one of my biggest fears he loves school and loves to learn however I see his frustration grow when reading is upsetting we have a amazing schools supportive admin and downright amazing teachers and they just need the right tools to support our students these are only a few comments as I know I only have three minutes to read tonight Eve sham School District the writing is on the wall you can step up to be the leaders and education you claim to be by incorporating research-based structured approach to Literacy for all of your students you can wait now or the state will eventually mandate it the choice is yours [Applause] hello Amanda gun F link sway good evening my name is Amanda gun parent of three children at Rice Elementary I'm an educator parent having the honor of working in public education for the past 15 years as a school psychologist I'm thankful to have the opportunity tonight to discuss my experiences and concerns I have in regards to eam Township School District's Ela curriculum my journey regarding this topic has been a long one conversations for my current fourth grader began with his teachers when he was in first grade and have continued with his teachers every year since it was not until third grade I reached out to the building principal and now in fourth grade having had conversations with District leaders I share this to demonstrate my efforts to follow the chain of command and place trust in the district however at this point three years later I have very little trust that the district is providing adequate instruction within their general education early literacy curriculum my conversations over the years have provided a window into the deep rooted philosophies the district is blindly adhering to in face of Decades of research disproving these methodologies namely queuing methods as a reading strategy and the overall de-emphasis devaluing of fonic instruction to support reading and spelling tonight I will highlight my concerns to the lens of my experience advocating for my fourth grade child's spelling needs to provide a broader context my son was identified as a struggling reader and entered the districts in intervention programs in both first and second grades however the intervention programs offered by the districts do not employ the recommended structured approach to phonic which would have helped develop his reading and spelling skills instead my Som was provided interventions that are considered insufficient by research and meeting the needs of struggling students in literacy when I address these concerns at the teacher level the responses I received include phonics is not a word used in eam spelling tests are old school research doesn't support them none of them can spell we need a new program I was also told if I took my concerns to the district leadership I would be told my son is approaching middle school and he can just use spell check these comments certainly cast doubt and a lack of confidence teachers have in the curriculum they are delivering however my lack of trust in the district extends Beyond these comments at a recent intervention and referral services committee meeting I was told my son's spelling errors weren't concerning because his meaning could be conveyed the messages I have received from eam are in stark contrast to the research so what does the research say in regards to spelling research demonstrates a strong relationship between spelling and reading snow at all summarize the real importance of spelling for reading as following spelling and reading build and rely on the same mental representation of a word knowing the spelling of a word makes the representation of it sturdy and accessible for fluent reading research demonstrates a strong relationship between spelling and writing the US Department of education's Institute of Education Sciences asserts writers who must think too hard about how to spell use up valuable cognitive resources needed for higher level aspects of composition ma'am you're at 3 minutes so please wrap up poor spellers May restrict the words they write and which inevitable loss of verbal Power Research demonstrates the utility and value of spelling assessments research demonstrates there's substantial evidence favoring explicit teaching of spelling research demonstrates spelling AIDS are not sufficient research demonstrates the value of spelling in the employment sector when fa Please wrap up I am when no I like thank you thank you Maya cerk and 25 cry Circle I'm a parent of two kids in eam Township School District I'm standing here to today to ask that you take a deep dive into the current language arts curriculum and research how insufficient it is in teaching our children basic reading spelling and grammar skills I started noticing reading and spelling concerns in first grade with both of my children I began reaching out to their teachers who consistently told me year after year that the curriculum does not focus on spelling I taught both of my children how to read prior to entering kindergarten using phonics however the lack of phonics instruction in our district has consistently held my children below benchmarks the only solution that was just approved for my fourth grader was additional guided reading instruction if the current instruction isn't working why would more of the same instruction work I thought seeking help for my children outside of the school was the answer however as you may imagine tutors are expensive and between school work after school activities finding the time became apparently difficult so I took it upon myself to research and provide instruction to my children they did not want to listen to their mom they said that is what my teacher's for and while I they are correct how can teachers teach our children if they're using outdated education at home I'm sorry if they're using outdated and non- research-based approaches it has been a struggle for over three years of additional education at home and I'm failing and I'm failing because phonics and spelling is not being followed up in the his their classroom and there is absolutely no emphasis on it I would never have thought that the school district would fail our children in the very basic literacy as it has I ask that any one of you step into our schools see the writing work hanging in the Halls take the time to read that the words on those pages it is a sad sight to see how much money and time will I now need to spend for additional instruction outside of school for my children to succeed in basic literacy it's shameful that the administration does not see what's happening in our schools or maybe you see it and for whatever reason choose not to act either way you're breaching your fiduciary duty in your positions in an email to me from Dr superintendent Smith on December 8th of 23 you stated our students outperformed all 2023 New Jersey test Ela and Mass state averages with the exception of grade three however in Governor Murphy's State of the State address he said that the state's current approach to literacy instruction has not led to the desired results if you look at those numbers the district slightly went above the averages Maybe by 2 or 3% I ask you Dr Smith and everybody else sitting here did you get your current positions as superintendent and all the other positions by being average when is it okay to strive to be average that is certainly not the standard anyone should be teaching our children especially our school district thank you for your [Applause] time Amanda Perry 19 Partridge Court good evening some of you may now be putting a face to a name that you've had come across your desk as most recent as tonight I'm here tonight for the very first time to make sure that this topic stays relevant on your minds you the E sham Township Board of Education has specific components that you must include in the district policies and procedures regarding Hib you also must conform to all applicable case law statutes and regulations luckily for me I'm beyond familiar with what case law and statutes are because part of my job every day consists of case law statutes with the New Jersey laws against discrimination now aside from all of that at the end of the day under New Jersey statute 18a 37-15 you the eam board eam Township Board of Education have the control over the contents of the Hib policy for the district you can't take things away and I understand that but what you can do is you are granted the ability to add any additional components case law Etc as you feel fit for this District yet it appears this District took the easy way out and did not put any additional thought or effort into the policy did each of you know that policy 5512 is a replica of the model policy and guidance for prohibiting harassment intimidation and bullying that the state of New Jersey Department of Education put out and revised in August of 2022 did you know that policy did you know that one of the most important policies that involves the safety of students in this in this district is nothing more than what the state provided as a template for districts to utilize part of this District's policy apparently it's not bullying when a child lifts another child up off the ground from behind unbeknownst to him and slams him to the concrete unprovoked per this District's policy it's not bullying when a child has continuously singled out another child over and over again taunts said child makes fun of said child laughs at said child kicks said I'm I'm just going to caution you and I will give you additional time but no no I just want to caution you I know you're not saying names um just obviously you're responsible if anyone in the room is aware of who you're speaking about that's fine oh sir you're addressing the board not the public so as long as the board can hear you that's all that matters please face the president and address the board thank you okay thank you [Applause] transparency sir again please face the board you're addressing the board not the public I'll address the board like this no sir if stand up address the bo if you had no idea that they were going to do the structuring before what two days ago if you knew sir please turn around and address the board if you let me just be clear if you didn't know stand up if you didn't know that they were going to do this restructuring and this is news transparency that's all we want I'm addressing the board I'm letting you see that we just don't know what you guys are doing here we knew that free Kinder education was coming and we voted for it that was informed to us we realized it and we voted but we are shocked and it's news to us that the restructuring is coming I don't know enough information about this but I will be get getting educated and I will address the board appropriately I know the Quorum is to address the board but it's important to be transparent I'll be back thank you sir uh your name please your name please Nicholas Bernal 23 ran thank [Applause] you hello hello my name is Christina San Fran RI I live on Arendale Drive in uh Marlon I thank you for your time um I know it's not easy to hear all of these important messages but I think the time is valuably well spent um I must be honest I am somewhat confused um it's my understanding that the community of IIM have voted the members of this board into these positions to represent our opinions and our voices uh and while you are silent and asking for patience in regards to the potential restructuring of fifth graders we are talking we are telling you what we want uh we are here tonight and we there is a petition that's been circulating for just over one week only one week and already 350 signatures have been received and it's [Applause] growing if you if you have not reviewed that petition yet I encourage you to do so it is www.change.org eam fifth grade additionally um earlier Dr Smith mentioned the importance of turning challenges into opportunities and I agree with that as personal life values um and this scenario in this room is a a very big challenge the budget is a challenge however there is an opportunity here to benefit from the wealth of knowledge of people here in this room from the creative problem solving skills of the professionals that live in this town yet it's not being taken advantage of the opportunity in fact is being shut down under the guise of asking for patience and therefore it's closing the door on potential open conversation and transparency as the person right before me eloquently mentioned mentioned if we wait until March to hear more about this plan that would only leave one and a half months to potentially have a scrambling conversation with a lot of chaos that's not enough time and with that I pose the following questions to the board that I hope you truly sit on and take some time to think about before you vote which I think will be in May but I'm asking can the topic of potentially moving fifth graders into a middle school setting be brought up within a poll for parents to complete how do parents feel about it can there be a poll that's sent out can the building that's used or was used for TBA be uh used for incoming preschoolers if not how will the retrofitting of that building be funded we just heard about the debt that are or the funding cuts that we're receiving how will that new retrofitting be funded how will the busing of all these new fifth graders going from you know who were once in Jagger now going all the way to decy how will that be funded and I did some very brief research about how other districts in New Jersey are using that preschool funding many of them are successfully using that funding to contract with other local preschools why is that option not being looked into further rather than trying to squeeze so many new preschoolers into the existing buildings the space doesn't seem adequate and so again I appreciate your attention to all of this and I know that we may disagree on the processes but I do respect each and every one of you as individuals and I hope that you can respect me as an individual and respect respect the parents here as individuals as well as your voters and as your constituents thank you hi everyone I'm Kelly wel I live at 28 Paddock Road and I'd like to encourage the district to fully revise its English language arts curriculum I've recently heard some members of our community say that phonics is just forent students with dyslexia or other reading problems and this just isn't true general education students will not be bored with phonics many children need explicit reading instruction to decode words and to read fluently as Christ ianelli said during the 2022 to 2023 school year only 39% of our District's thirdd graders were at or above grade level in English language arts 39% that's it this wasn't an anomaly those numbers have pretty much held steady for the last several years and my issue with that is it means that 61% of our students are not at or above grade level in English language arts as a district we can and we should do better so I urge you to make the current English language arts revisions that are going on right now a major revision thank you hello my name is Angela Stewart I'm at w kirkbridge Court I wanted to talk about my two daughters um one of which is in third grade at rice she is according to her teacher a top speller in her class however every time she goes to do a worksheet in math because we don't get spelling homework sent home when she does a math worksheet she cries because she can't spell words and it's hard for her and she's a top speller so I want to support the fact that we need phonics instruction and my first grader who has an IEP also is struggling in Reading she left kindergarten without knowing all of her letter sounds so she left behind she started first grade behind she continues to remain behind because she's not receiving the correct phonics instruction I work for a school that uses foundations in Wilson and we need to make Chang so that we can meet the needs not just for special education students but for all of our general education students we just voted for full day kindergarten are they going to leave not knowing their letter sounds because that's how my daughter left kindergarten and it was half day but she left not knowing her letter sounds and not being able to read going into first grade she's starting to learn how to read but still does not know those sounds so I now have her go to a tutor once a week and I want to do my part as a parent but it's not my job to teach her to read it's your teacher job it's your job as Administration to make sure that she has the right curriculum that's being followed and research based methods so that she's able to read I want to support it I want to support our teachers I want to give teachers tools so that they're able to support my child and I'm doing things outside of that but it's not my job it's your job to make sure that kids are able to read thank [Applause] you all right we would anyone else like to to comment on any items of Interest all right seeing none we'll close out that section I just want to thank everyone for for coming to comment speaking in the microphone is not easy um there were a ton of we've been receiving a lot of emails with a lot of good research um there were more people who came tonight with well researched written out documentation supporting um the views that were shared tonight if you guys are if you guys are struggling with things trust me the board is as well um I would implore all of you if you did prepare um words tonight to to speak to please do email them to us so we could read them again um especially if there's research as well we go through all of it it's very helpful hearing it all in this compressed time zone is tough um so if you guys are taking the time to prepare written out documentation please do send it to us as well um just so we can reate what you're saying Dr Smith just like to Echo Mr Canon uh thanks to the public who came out we have our meetings in this space because we do want to hear from people and uh that is the best process that we can follow in order to gather input you know for rumors that are out there um I guess a glass half full possible way to look at that a little bit is it does mean on our end the widening circle of stakeholders that are providing input on something also increases the chance that there will be talk about about whatever is being discussed you know and lots we we have had a discussion as far as budgetary concerns when you're in the long seven-year tunnel that we've been in goes on every month of the year there is essentially no end to the budget timeline um when it comes to f kindergarten and ballot questions just to kind of like reframe that for everybody a ballot question the reason we use ballot questions is because ballot questions can pay for things that aren't in the regular budget so when a ballot question passes it's fantastic it's extra money to pay for something that's extra Beyond what's already being paid for so it doesn't fix state aid reductions it doesn't fix Rising costs in other ways it adds something that wasn't already there but it can't pay for things that are so you know our our fiscal challenges um which are extending into the 2425 school year have been ongoing and would be regardless of of fully kindergarden or valid questions and we don't even know what's going to happen after this year right so um I'd love to say say that this would be the end of the tunnel but to be honest um I I I it doesn't it would be um almost uh too optimistic to say that uh we we have been expected as a Township to pay more and more of a local tax levy to cover our our our budget every year the state doesn't release its formula but we know the out come of it which is that they view our town as as being capable of paying more and the state pays us essentially gives less um and uh someone brought up the idea of um advocacy we've done advocacy in that regard I've spoken for every year straight um to the state legislature it fall as as well as the other one-third of districts in the state many of them doing the same thing there were sometimes in those hearings where we were the only School District uh and we're competing against every other state agency that's also seeing its funding slashed and there were so many that I had never heard of before every year you know can't even imagine all the different ways that that state aid flows across our our state it's fall on deaf ears every time um nothing's changed and that doesn't mean there isn't always a role for advocacy it does mean that it would take and someone mentioned Cherry Hill it took 20 years in Cherry Hill before they started to see a difference and a lot of organization Grassroots on the part of stakeholders um just to understand the frame of of what that means and we would love to support any we would applaud and love to support any um advocacy efforts together thank you thanks Dr Smith uh moving to board member announcements would any board member like to make an announcement Mr dearcy yeah just real quick um as it was said earlier in the meeting by the superintendent the EF is holding their uh annual Double Down event on the 2nd of February uh I believe that's at the Mansion on Main Street you could go to the website register for it um just to announce uh the board members were working individually uh on two baskets for that event and we're pulling the funds within ourselves to to support that so uh if you can support that it helps the district out a lot thank you thanks Mr Marcy would any other board member like to make any announcements Mr Brock I just want to thank all the parents for coming out and speaking um please make your voices heard um that is you know what we need we need to hear from you um so please keep that up please let us know you know what's on your mind and thank you for coming out thanks Mr Bach any other board member like to speak uh just to mention um it's just the carry off of what Mr Box said Community decisions need Community input so if there's comments concerns questions keep coming out the meetings I wish every meeting looked like this it's it's good to see the public getting involved thank you thanks Mr Marcy I agree anyone else can speak seeing none we need a motion to adjourn you guys want to stay here motion by Miss Lee seconded by Mr Thompson all in favor thank [Music] you [Music]

first on our agenda this evening as always we will have the clerk's report Kate yes Madam chair thank you we received since the last planning board meeting four emails uh two were sort of routine I think generated by hisor commission about um a site so I don't think they need any response one of them is a specific thing that will I think be responded by the town planner and one of them I think will probably be the chair to respond to the historic commission yeah I thought we would uh talk about that later tonight okay thank you all right next on the agenda is public comment um I'll do our typical policy of three minutes per speaker one time to the mic Peter you want to manage cover it thank you so much uh we have one uh citizen in the room that has gone up to the podium uh Mr Mark Don can you please unmute yourself at the mic and introduce yourself with your name and address yes it is all right we're good if I was home in Zoom it' be no problem okay good evening Mark Sony 49 haon Road mass and um I'm here I'm here for a couple reasons one reason is that I'm very happy the new way you start off your meetings with the clerk report get a lot more information out there and who and what what things are about that is informational for the regular citizens if they're home watching the other is um what's got to be on the agenda is the um the new new uh Clover Garden I'm is there going to be any citizens participation for that we will have citizens participation on that tonight and will there be citizens parations for the first ones yeah I think we have time for comment for that okay thank you that's it uh we have no other citizens participation with their uh in in in people in the room Andor folks on Zoom with their hand up so I think we're okay to move on all right then next on our agenda is um our public hearing section our first public hearing for tonight is 9 to 49 Homer Avenue which has been continued since J January 11th Peter can you give us an update on where we are sure so this project uh is kind of making its way through kind of tying up Loose Ends if everyone remembers at the last meeting we voted on the color uh and we went with a cool pallet um and so that was uh produced so after that vote the applicant um and I'll just introduce them on the call tonight we have Terry Morris who is the attorney represen in the application we have Mr Rick Salvo who is the civil engineer and we also have Ron Bor um Ron Bor is the architect uh with that said I just want to note that Ron has updated the full uh color brochure and renderings which you see in front of us tonight uh that were sent out and posted on the uh on our website uh and so those are the most upto-date color renderings uh of the building uh which we can review uh additionally we've been kind of looking to um answer some leftover questions and I have provided a memor random which was updated excuse me revised on January 19th with that said uh one of the questions that we were looking to answer uh was regarding a conversation regarding a sewer um grinder pump excuse me um excuse me uh so regarding that conversation regard uh the sewer grinder pump um Town Council did provide an opinion uh that was sent out uh and I believe it was posted on the website it did come through uh yesterday so if anybody hasn't had time to look at it just please note that and then today um we did receive and it it has not been sent out virtually but it is in everyone's uh binder tonight it's a memorandum from the uh applicants architect regarding the uh Ingress and egress in in the building code question regarding the three units that uh enter and exit onto the flat part of the roof uh that memorandum will be um under review by our Building Commissioner um and then I will obviously share responses uh however that is to to date um from new material submitted Andor collected I do want to say um I have additionally sent out a draft memo for site plan review and special permit I have them printed here in front of me they are not in your packets um I uh for I for I did not want to punch that many holes tonight uh leading up to the meeting uh and so it's right here I know I did uh send it out um digitally for everyone so I think that's where we stand tonight obviously we can go through a couple of the the you know any list that we want uh but also I would like to open up to the architect the engineer and the attorney for this applicant Peter if I could and uh Trisha just to clarify because I was not at the January 11th meeting or hearing um planning board hearing I wanted to make sure the applicant was aware that I did watch the entire video and I signed the affidavit that I am up to speed and I did observe the pallet Choice by the planning board this evening I'm very comfortable with what occurred and up to speed so that because it's a special permit we're all required to be present and can only miss a certain number of meetings I wanted the applicant to be aware that I did although I was not there I'm fully up to speed I just have to make a quick stop um I just got a text from the attorney that he cannot hear anything oh and so that is not intentional I I apologize do we know if anyone can hear out there um should be able to now okay I wouldn't mind if we exclude all the lawers me but uh Town planner can I please have a check on somebody on the zoom meeting if they can hear me that own yeah the sound just came back on I I I hav't only heard a couple of little Snippets okay thank you Helen I greatly appreciate it um uh anybody else out there okay they can hear us now okay all right uh okay so I will I guess just review that and as you could at least probably see that uh Kate gave her um Clerk's report we had a public comment by Mr donon and maybe I will open it up just briefly to uh public comments because no one asked no one heard me ask for public comment if anyone has a public comment that does not fit under one one of the agenda items tonight I will open it back up but only for items that do not fit under the agenda because we will be having public comment because you obviously didn't hear us ask for public comment oh no uh you you good Mark if anyone can go online and and uh um and listen to you on the on the tape um okay uh Town planner to Ellen Ellen do you have a public comment all right so those of you who definitely can hear us make sure you let Peter know somehow um if you can't turn your turn your cameras on and wave or something okay so um I will then ask the applicant um Mr Morris if there's anything um if there's any updates we need um this evening before we start our discussions is there anything you feel we need to see we have the packets in front of us but if there's something you want to make us especially aware of uh no Madam chair we understand you have uh received a complete package from our architect Ron bour in incorporating um the various uh things that had been discussed over the last few meetings uh we understand you've also received uh decision from the from Lisa me Town Council and we do know that our AR on book has been has delivered a letter to the commissioner dealing with the uh one of the other issues relative to access so at this point we do not have anything to add we look forward to participating in any way that you deem appropriate okay thank you so um at this point and I'm looking for planning board feedback but what we talked about the last time is that we would use this time to start going through some of the conditions the um the special permit conditions sorry the um the criteria special permit criteria site plan um review criteria um so that um we can see if there's anything that we get a little hung up on on these things that's not to say that our other checklist is complete that's not to say that we're not going to come back to it but to start making our way through these criteria so that we know where we might have issues does that sound agreeable um I have a question so I sent in a comment about the um like I'll call it's a memorandum but the open outstanding items list um can do I need to send that in again or like how how do we get that discussed I can Kate I can follow up on that so I did receive your comment yeah and I did uh reach out to gcg and I did use your email is and and I did include the verbiage that you were looking for to kind of to to pinpoint and get some answers on uh I did not include that email in the packet tonight but I'm happy to share that with you uh followup you know as followup to the meeting yeah and I I guess I at some point would love to see one list so if it can get added to the list this edited I mean I think that was the point right that's yeah exactly like that list Peter and I were starting to go through that list um I think some of it went out with specific um yeah specific areas I think point one is probably the most has the most uh sub points in it let's say that are still being reviewed by gcg but those things were sent to them I think I included the original design Review Committee comment list that created the comment that you were interested in so that went back to them as awes as well even though I know I know Mark Carter got it once he's got it a couple times I actually I emailed him I think I emailed him I followed up with a phone call and that memo was dated August 2nd uh and that has also been part of the record um and so it's all being analyzed and no I'm good with that I mean it's under item one it's just some things were added read and other things so that's why I just but if that's the process I'm fine it's it's there it's I have not made my back way back to that list yet so but um but it's next on the to-do list so um is this in is this in the bind this is this is so so um what Trisha is is is referring to is the special permit the site plan approval and the design review criteria that actually rests uh behind the agenda um no I'm sorry it it rests in section five of everyone's binder excuse me I'm sorry I hit it back back there just so it can remain there um am I correct section five no there's no se I have it right after the agenda is it right after I'm sorry it's right after the agenda to the bank correct yep I'm sorry yeah so what I did um because both in printed form that I have at home and online I find it's just a little hard you know to go through so what I had Peter do as you can see just a few days ago is to download it from from the website or the by loss and put in some minimal formatting because anytime someone does a bylaw it seems to be formatted slightly differently um so gave it some minimal formatting so I can find myself in it uh so really this was selfishly for me but I thought it might be helpful for everybody so um what I did the only thing I really underlined in these three categories uh 9.4 special permits 9 no sorry 9.3 special permit 9.4 site plan review and 9.6 which is design plan review is to call out um where the criteria are so um should we just start at the beginning and look at criteria for special permits and as you know these aren't the only things we can look at but these are things we have to look at so we we at least should get some of those going so criteria one under special permit is community needs served by the proposal and you remember that in our conditions why don't we pass these out too yep just because we all love they're all uh actually I'll take this one off the talk sorry or just one do I just take one uh yep just take one you want to do it no I'll do it it you should have two statements here you go this is for you okay you so as you know when we start to put our decision together um whether it's an approval or not an approval we need to list out these criteria and um have a a narrative a short narrative that describes that if unless it's non applicable which once in a while you get one of those starts on page nine it's just for everyone's reference okay so um so Peter in the in the draft approvals what he was doing is kind of go through and filling in all the uh factual information obviously all the all the different um meetings to continue es the artifacts anything that was submitted um uh I think there's are there some draft conditions or is it the basic conditions the conditions that I left in there it's just the basic conditions kind of the boil pre conditions there are two bullet points I just tossed in just and I highlight them in yellow just for a reminder point for myself uh but no these are just typical the boiler plate conditions that we what we normally have okay so under criteria uh number nine if we just start talking about those um uh criteria a is community needs served by their proposal so basically we're looking to give Peter information about how we think that needs to be filled out do you want to just kind of talk through some of those things yeah I think anyone who has something to that we would put under that category let's take I'll take some notes be a yeah I'm happy to take I'm take notes right now I'm not gonna I mean I think the most obvious is that there is a housing crisis in Massachusetts and so I think we always are interested in contributing to the solution for that um including you know obviously component of this is going to be affordable housing um and that makes a difference there is I think interest in this board on on downtown revitalization and giving our community a um a more walkable active energetic downtown that also preserves the Aesthetics of our unique Historic downtown so I would say there's some Community need served by this kind of project that is certainly there um to explore all right thank you anyone else want to add to that that cover everything I I will actually I was just going to add the the only thing that that Anna didn't mention but it it was in Fair there is um the um amplifying the the the the scope of commercial uh uses in downtown which is part of that revitalization right and and and an improvement to the tax Bay and to the services that people in ashin um can benefit from so so adding business and Commercial St mixed use I think is the term that we are seeking to add to downtown well I just um want to make a comment there is commercial there now that will be going away so so I don't necessarily agree with that as an assessment I understand there is miuse but it's fine but I but you would agree that it's it's it's U it's it's uh in terms of the the way serves the downtown the P The Pedestrian access to it will be an improved type of Commerce because Commerce Commerce that is a Street Mall Stop type which we have in the town it's it's it's is I would say it's it's is um let's favorable or less conducive to to what the downtown is as a district and I think that's a it's it's almost an an an infill of um of um leftover from years past that was not organized to to call us for pedestrian friendly Commerce it's more vehicular is being replaced with a different type of Commerce yeah no I just I'm just saying that personal that I don't see given that there's commercial there now that that's maybe a wash in I I would I personally wouldn't want to sell that as a um Community needs given that we're taking removing commercial as well it could be yeah understood and it could be as uh providing opportunity for for different types of businesses or but we can note that remember these are just draft conditions and we can re word them as we as we want so um Terry um well let me let me finish this conversation first anything else Anna I was just going to say it's an interesting idea like replacing one with the other on the other hand like there is a value if you will and I guess we as a board have to figure out what are we trying to do downtown right um so you know are we replacing it with light industrial are we replacing it with a hotel are we replacing it with residential and business what's important to us and so any kind of project is going to potentially respond on to a community need even if it's replacing something else so it's not so much I don't think the BW is asking us to like rate and compare o is this project better than the prior one it's more like what will this project do towards whatever value we have as a community that's sort of how I interpret the bylaw I don't think we have to measure it against what's already there as much as is it consistent with what we want now um but I respect and understand Kay's point that we are kind of maybe we're changing the dynamic of the kind of business maybe we are making almost a um a shift in the presentation if you will of Ashland like maybe more towards a fancy business versus a not so fancy but that is something that we haven't really discussed as a board as to what we're looking to do so I'm not sure how to how to frame that yet but I think I see it what I was mentioning is more of the difference between a quantitative exchange of one Commerce to the other to a qualitative uh approach because uh even when we went there yeah there's commercial equipment there there's there's Paving trucks that park in the back on the space uh uh and and paving company uses that that thing I I think for what the downtown is trying to do and we've invested a lot of money on on What's happen in the downtown is towards pedestrian use of the downtown better than Paving trucks I think it's it's it's yeah it's a business just like the other is a business too but the downtown is intended to to to to bring people in people pedestrians to to revitalize downtown and I think that's it it it is a is a is an improvement based on this criteria because the downtown is not any commercial space it's down I agree with Marcel on this that like if you think about some of the really successful community events that we've had in the downtown space in the past couple of years where people are out and they're walking whether it's the holiday stroll or it's the trick-or treat event or things like that it's sort of on that that one pedestrian you know area off of Main Street and then heading down Front Street I think I can Envision with the walkability of this project that's making the turn all the way down right and it's sort of brings in um that whole area and and uh opens up like a whole other side of downtown that right now I think doesn't feel super connected because of the walkability factor and so I do I do think that's a community ad and I think the project has you know whether it's we've had a lot of thought towards you know seating and um bike you know bike racks and things that are are going to have a way for the community to come into that space and use this project um aside from just sort of you know pulling in pulling your car in and making your errand and then driving off to wherever you have to go next so so can I suggest language that we might want to use for that um yeah yeah I mean I I think uh you know Peter's if you want something specific otherwise I think Peter's taking notes and we'll be doing a draft and a if you want I'll greatly appreciate email to me and I'm just listening and my thought was pedestrian gateway to the southern edge of the downtown is the community need the that's great meeting pedestrian Gateway that seems to be consistent with what I'm hearing I I will just add a comment that to Kate's point we are replacing and therefore it gets me thinking where would we want those businesses that we're kind of kicking out to go if they don't belong in downtown anymore because it's going to be a pedestrian Gateway how do we need to contemplate where those businesses can actually do well are there other parts of town light industrial that we need to think about but that's separate that may be a comprehensive plan question right but something for us uh since that's our um planning is our thing okay I see a hand raised um yeah Attorney Morris do you want to do you want I see you have your hand raised I do have a question a procedural question because obviously the only thing where you're considering the special permit criteria but the only special permit element of this project is a flat roof and yet it seems to be you're treating the whole use you you you're you're treating the use which is allowed by right in the in the overlay District as if it were uh the subject of the debate I I I just don't how you how the what approach the planning board is going to take to De to discuss for example you're talking about businesses now okay I understand we're going to answer the question Peter okay Terry I understand your question I think overall we're just talking about the project as a whole and how does it fit into the community you know and I think these are just overall findings of the board um and I think later on down you know in our finding area um these are just the criteria that we have under the 9.3.2 of our special permits um and these are kind of boilerplate and they're used you know across the board I think when we get down to 8.5.1 14 which is the mandatory findings to for a special permit in the Ashland downtown district that's when we'll jump into um the the components of the special permit regarding just the flat roof and how it um how it relates to to the decision okay so um yeah and I and I I could be wrong but I I don't think that our special permit bylaw I don't think specifies that we I think it we just um are supposed to look at that we're granting the special permit as a whole and these are the criteria at least that is my understanding and is our typical procedure so that we are going to continue on with that um the second criteria is traffic flow and safety including parking and loading um I think just just to jump in um I think we've talked about we still maybe looking for a few things maybe not um from gcg part of it's on the list of the the outstanding items list that we had been looking for um but it seems like all of that we have discussed have had it analyzed have asked the fire department have asked the police department and all of that I think is contained in our current process yeah I think the second page of the memorandum that lists off of in red I I don't know what it's called it's called outstanding items memorandum it does have Ashen Fire Department ashin police department on the emergency vehicle parking spaces being satisfied and I recall that the flow was changed to make it smoother so seems like we've addressed those issues the item three is still open waiting for gcg yeah absolutely in going in going through these in no way are we saying that that list is finished or compl that's right yeah does anyone else have comments under number two okay number three was adequacy of utilities and other public services I think this would be water sewer um would fall under this what what else might fall under that category Peter uh just to water sewer you know normally power energy obviously we have all that stuff um and uh we do obviously have we have we do have sewer capacity we have water this area is as highest water pressure we checked on that um from the sewer standpoint you know Greg Aldridge gave us that memo a couple you know months ago at this point and I'm happy to check in with him again but um you know this did come in and we do have enough so we have item 10 is still maybe weed information I haven't seen it still open on the sewer capacity isn't that one of the things you had uh I think that's one of the things I okay I know the water they said was adequate I do not recall sewer I'll double check yeah can we double check that because I thought number 11 was a possible condition not necessarily wrapped up am I misreading the memo or has because it says water flow test should be completed as a possible condition so is that water test doesn't Sue it that's that's for fire protection and that's and that was actually confirmed for water okay y I took that as water pressure that's that's the test to make sure that there's enough water capacity for firefighting and which it was tested gotcha okay as long as we've addressed it no I don't think that's a an issue from what I remember hearing yeah and like I said there are um as we keep noting there are outstanding items some of actually aren't aren't outstanding anymore but from that list but we're going through these first and then we'll continue to go back and forth between the two lists but it's good to note those things if if you have questions because then we'll make sure the questions are answered and it reflects back to this um item number four is neighborhood character and social structures I think that goes a little bit with what Anna was talking about in number one about the fatality of the community yeah and I want to say that um we had also discussed if I recall there were like little benches in front of the project where there's like the little enclaves of trees and benches for people to sit that in theory people could kind of congregate as they walk by and if I recall there's a little pocket park on the side and potential for bike racks and so all of that is part of the the neighborhood character if you will of inviting people to start utilizing that pedestrian Gateway if you will feel that we're trying to create on that side um that's not just for the residents in that Community but kind of creating this kind of third space where people can sort of hang out in theory and visit a friend or you know I don't know pick up the mail and hang out open it um that kind the mural too kind of blending exactly have a cup of coffee and sit by the side of this new project I think the other thing here for me is that and maybe it will be forgotten in the in the the many things we've been going through with this project um especially as we wait for gcg and um responses to gcg is that I think when we first received this project um I at least was um surprise isn't the right word but maybe grateful for that I think they had paid attention closely attention in a proper way to the things that we have in the downtown district as far as form based code and that it was obvious that that they looked at it they studied it they didn't just um put it on in some halfhazard way but actually in a way that looked proportionally correct now I know everyone doesn't have the same style of architecture but they looked at the they looked at the downtown um form based code and they applied it and I think applied it well so I would put that in there as well I have a comment on that because this is this is saying our our um decision is based on a written determination the adverse effects of it will not outweigh the benefits and I I appreciate like seeing all the great things CU I think there are but if you recall when this first started out I mean people those are historic buildings you might not like them right but those could be people do value history in our town they came and said so and like the social structures are there's businesses there that's a barber shop right then that is the barber shop is not part of this project the barber Shop's going to stay there um I don't think so I think so that's in the brick building right in the brick building um Chris's Barber sh St Pizza okay so some other business the strip mall on the back is the one that's so so I I guess what I want to be careful for me personally I think I don't think the board's saying this but I would like it somehow to be in there that we are respectful of the things that are we are that are dramatically being changed I think that's important at least for me so hopefully that will make it in that there there are some detriment to existing social structure of that neighborhood people have expressed that I disagree with that it does it doesn't mean they don't outweigh that's if you read the criteria yeah no no but but what you're saying is that that that to to make a statement that I think is unnecessary they're not historic structures that is a a a term of art that they are old structures and people some people value them yes I don't think they have de they have been deemed historic for for for in in any way I not I have not seen that they're under our bylaw though for I will to be clear they're under the they would be the under our bylaw for a demolition review that's true that's that's a different thing yeah no but that but so so I I I'm just saying I I get what you're saying but everybody on any new project some people will like some things and some people will not like things if we start introducing or or making determinations based on some opinions that are not really gerine to the criteria I think we're going into a slipper slope I I don't see the need I think the neighborhood character is Germain it says so as a criteria that's and is being improved that's what we're saying because he is conforming to the street in a pedestrian scale which is not now right now basically if you see it's almost like a in in my personal opinion it's like a broken smile of an urban space with buildings that were not accommodated to to face the street and to create an environment that we're trying to reverse now with the with the changes in downtown that's exactly the benefit of so I don't think if you say it's improving by acknowledging some important of what they I don't I don't think they negate each other is my point but I don't think there a detriment because they have to demolish some buildings to make the project that's that's just to kind of jump in I think there is a middle ground where I don't think the bylaw requires us with all due respect I don't think the bylaw requires us to compare and say you must put in something better and I don't think we would I personally would not want to put language that says what we're putting in is better than what was there I think that what all we need to do is we need to make sure that the project contributes to the neighborhood character and social structure and it can without us feeling like we have to kind of pick which one is better U I don't know if that makes sense this way you're both right I think Marcelo is right that the project has benefits I think Kate is saying hey we're still replacing something of value to our community that also has neighborhood value to the neighborhood both of those things can be true and we don't need to pick which one is best and I don't think we're doing I I agree I think we're both saying in in a in a round say I don't think need to be stated in which Kate is requesting that this decision says something about that part that of the replacement it's almost yeah we don't need to get into well I think I'm only requesting if we are saying it's better I guess that's the point so I think if it it's we're saying it complies and and and and we're agreeing that that that benefits the downtown are you okay with saying that it's better because I for one would feel more comfortable not starting to to compare it to what's there I don't think that's necessary as long as we've acknowledged the public that we respect the fact that every type of neighborhood has a aesthetic and cultural value and right now people enjoy that use of the neighborhood the future use may be used differently and also enjoyed I don't I personally don't feel comfortable saying hey I prefer something this way versus that way I think everyone has their own subjective preference but this new project will have neighborhood character and social structure I think trous point is that it fits so well with what is already happening downtown and and the aesthetic there I think the consideration of the train station is another example of paying homage that that neighborhood character very differential to that very significant building and how it would look contrast um consideration of like the future extension of the rail trail and how that'll play in with the use of that building so I think there are lots of elements that the Project's considered that we as a board have considered that that go to this without having to make a value judgment no I I I don't have a problem saying I think it's substantially better yeah I mean I think um I see with that you know I think the only way we can know if Ashland as a whole would prefer what's there now to what's being proposed is to take a vote right of everybody but it's our job to look at proposals and say yeah I think I think this has benefits for Ashland over what's there I think this is adding to the Vitality of the region I think this will support our local businesses I think you know this will improve our community right um there obviously there are six of us sitting here and we may have different degrees of yeah I barely think it's better or I really think it's better um but I think that's part of you know what we do is to try to make try try to at least make put an add in now it may not be an add in every you may say oh I wish it was just open space well yeah that would be great but that's that's not not our decision is what's being proposed better than what's there currently you know um and it and that may have many uh many different facets to it so um I I think in writing the conditions remember when we get to this it is coming to some kind of consensus on these um but not necessar not necessarily is everyone going to be in full agreement all the time it's that's basically impossible unless you're just writing very very gray decisions about everything which I'm not in favor of either I think sometimes you have to take a stand so um but anyway I think that I think the comment is duly noted and if if you have any if anyone has language for that they feel strongly for a language that they would like to propose Peter is happy to take someone's text either right off the page or as a starting point for the for us to for us to then talk about it again so okay right perfectly said thank you all right so um okay impacts on the natural environment is there anything thing on the site that we're just thrilled to save natural stuff do we have to check off do we have to check off all the boxes on this we have to say something about all the criteria now some of them might be not applicable I mean impacts on the natural environment obviously that's not just the trees that are there but it could be runoff it could be um hey we're adding a building so it's going to take more power though it could be more efficient than what's there um you know I don't it doesn't Define for us what that means I would just note this site has no water uh water treatment uh for runoff and so we are actually adding storm water onto the site we're making it obviously better for the environment um cuz right now there's hard pan and that's about it and it just flows and runs so now obviously we're going to have infiltration there's going to be um processes so obviously kind of make sure that water stays on site it's clean and it goes back back to the ographer and it's in obviously um it's in relationship to all mass storm water standards which are obviously getting stter and stricter by the day uh which is a good thing I'll add that isn't there also like a garden or something on the roof am I imagining that one of our first meetings there were um specific kinds of plants that would be up there that in theory could be attractive to birds and uh insects I'm a big fan of those since I'm hearing less and less of them in my neighborhood maybe they'll hang out over there a little bit on their way somewhere um I think that's important I think the site is definitely more becoming more green than it was I can't I don't remember anything specific about that upper area and what what any kind Garden I'm not sure I vely remember that I think the applicant had person that was very knowledgeable in specific type of plantings and it sounded like it was thought out and intentional to attracting some activity from creatures there is a roof garden and you are correct as a landscape architect on the project we brought in obviously native species uh made native specimens that will obviously be planted throughout the site um and hopefully they do attract Critters the good Critters not the bad Critters uh to this to this property I think this will be the category where you add better value or value to the project versus is probably the other ones where it's more kind of bringing enhancement to the neighborhood but from Value Point of View probably this is the category where we say one is better than the other um just to be respectful for the existing conditions for sure anyone have anything else under impact to the natural environment okay last one on special permit is potential fiscal impact including impact on Town Services tax base and employment so this this the grinder Topic in theory no um no okay yes that's utility I think this one is self-explanatory in terms of there will be businesses there will be more people living there there will be taxpayers so we we've been I've been on the board I think going on two years and we've been talking about that fiscal impact and I think we have to be really careful of how we talk about that if we don't have data right of um don't we have a calculator or something that we could use um we were the last I knew that was still in flux of of you know just to speak to this issue obviously we did talk about the fiscal Impact Tool we do uh we did reach out to Framingham City University we kind of had a call with them um you know we kind of have worked through this process a little bit have we have we updated our fiscal impact calculator that goes back to 2016 when the town hired rkg to to to create a a fiscal impact for the cus no we have not taken that fat we have not taken that step um and so have we also but have we also looked at uh we also kind of built out a very simplified calculator um and we can we can kind of plug these numbers in um but but I think to what Kate's speaking too which would be a larger fiscal impact uh calculator uh if you remember with 10 to 60 Main Street we had a gentleman Craig um come in and he talked to us about what it is he actually took that calculator and plugged in the the 10 to 60 Main Street project um was that finalized completed um and iron doubt no that you know that was kind of a project um that we were starting to work through a little bit with t 6 Main Street if you remember that gentleman Craig actually worked for the town as a consultant so then he was working for the private side um but just to Kate's point that that's been kind of a topic and a and kind of a general project that we've kind of spoken about uh as a whole so on on this point um I I guess I want to bring it up like Peter and way back with Emma did a sort of simplified and is the board I mean I guess I recommend we at least look at that would we be comfortable adding that it obviously be updated every things change so much but um I just want to be like I know we did that for one decision like it's stapled to it this is right or wrong we did our best to try to evaluate I I feel like we have to have some basis for evaluation is that you're the only one that knows this tool Peter is that is that possible yeah it's possible you know most of it it's just kind of the Town budget stuff divided divided into you know per person and then you can kind of estimate how many people would be living here and you know what that impact would be um you know I can try to produce something but U I was I was talking about to can we take a look at the simplified one it was pretty simple the one that you and Emma did and see if we correct if we think that's reasonable and if we have suggestions and maybe use that at least until we can say what what's the real book end that we want to go for yeah that that's what I that's what I was asking if that was if that was possible to that's a POS it's possible and and I think that's kind of a something that we can kind of take care of um you know I I don't see any issue with that okay so let's put in there and just see what it crunches out I guess at least as a starting point um it's a good idea I mean it's good to not like write a decision just for the sake of a sentence right like it's good to have data to say hey we reviewed a simplified calculator we're comfortable with it it does get me thinking about like special permits in general and maybe at a retreat sometime we can talk about that because what does this mean like does that mean that if a project comes in that's like really fiscally difficult we would what would we do it doesn't apply here but it gets me thinking bigger like what do we do with data calculator if it spits out something we don't necessarily are prepared to deal with so I'm all for using the calculator but I feel like we should also EXP explore the impact of that if suddenly it spits out something we aren't ready for yeah I mean um like what if it says that it's extreme right on a larger project then what I don't know the answer to that so I just kind of want to it's not related to this decision but it gets me thinking in a more serious way about what that actually means yeah I I know I Peter probably didn't do any more digging into it but when he was digging into it before he kind of found that well no one else had a calculator so so there's no there's no nothing to compare it to like as our calculator accurate is it good is it bad like yeah oh at least we have one but what does it say right what's it you know it's yeah so it was very tough to compare obviously and you know other towns and not to call out bu any towns that it reached out to but yes they did not have calculators like we did right so you know we we were able to build something that was simplistic uh is it the is it the complicated statistical measurements that that were done by a professional statistician you know for cus you know within concerning Economic Development you know looking at you know five-digit you know labor NYX codes no it's not you know and and I don't think we need to get into that right so it's just kind of a kind of a where we want to land on the the the uh the ruler of um complexity however at the end of the day does it comply it kind of complies to other all projects not just this one project any other comments about number six okay then um I was assuming that this public hearing would go to 8:15 830 so if people are up for it we can continue on to the um flight plan review crer should be in the other St packet or in my you want to just a note in site plan review I did say in the email um this the the conditions are not in this one nor are the documents of the record just because once they're completed in the special permit they'll be obviously copy and pasted and put into here so I'm only change them in one spot okay so um site plan review criteria oh sorry didn't have my mic on site plan R review criteria starts out um with minimize some of these are more are more obvious a minimize use of wetlands steep slopes flood planes and hilltops so I uh I don't think we have any of that remaining on the site um from whatever it was many years ago I I'm not not even sure that um noting storm water runoff is really applicable here it's not really what it's about MH trying to think if look if it's uh mentioned later not really any any comment on that or to me it's um to me it's just not applicable there's just no natural landscape here okay minimize obstruction of Scenic views I don't think we have anything to worry about I think we can say non applicable to that as well okay uh item C is are were you looking up some no I'm keep going I'm good item C preserve unique natural or historical features so natural again there's I don't think there's anything there um historical features Kate would you say your past comment applies there that you that you think there's some things that may be considered historical or to some people considered historical yeah we did have comments to the board I mean I I'm I I'm I mean full disclosure I'm a board member of Ash Historical Society I think that's not a secret of a value to me but um I I don't think we're preserving historic speakers so I think we have to say no right we just have to be well it's either it's either not applicable it would be not applicable or or or or this preserving or it's not preserving I mean you have to be more definitive if if you're going to get into that but we don't have to to have non-applicable or it's great on each one we could have a few that were yeah it's not really meeting this criteria and that's okay I think I think that's right like I don't think we want to but I think the question then is like for me and um and I think I'm more in Marcel's Camp here that just something it has to be both old and and recognized deemed historically significant like everything that isn't it's just like like not all ant old antiques are valuable they're only valuable sometimes that's your opinion Trish and I think you could find people to say otherwise and so that's why why why it is important right well has the historical commission considered this side historic meaningful historically in any shape I don't think it's come before them yet so hold on no but the words used are features yeah so it's not a historic building or a historic site or recognized historic by an official organization its features it's very features to me is a very loose term it could mean a variety of things it could be a building though it could be or it could be was saying Ian could be historic yeah I mean it's to me it's like what I like about the project is by size like I'm not a huge fan of like this kind of wall concept that there's like a block right but I do kind of like that there's some thought that we're putting in connecting it to the historic train station and the his toric um U post office in the sense that by scale there's some respect of kind of how Ashlin looks you know it's of a certain height a certain feel and we're thinking about colors and how it kind of that to me is a form of respecting some of her history kind of what what does Ashlin feel like when you drive through it and I think we're not like putting in an urban tall building that would be truly disrespectful of what ashlin's hisory history is to me so you know it depends how you interpret this like I'm almost neutral on it I think that but when the word preserve is very specific I think so yeah and we're not preserving pres a natural or historic feature It also says unique historical feates exactly it is very specific I would I I I I would hate for us to say we're not complying with this element if we don't have something specific in mind that we're that there's a unique historical feature that's very specific that we're saying we're not preserving you know I I hesitate to say like we're not meeting that I don't just because someone says it's historic doesn't mean it is true but but in that nature because the criteria is whether it preserves unique natural or historical features if if there's none there is a non applicable by default by default yes yeah so is that the would Trend I would is that the conclusion we're reaching that it's the it's the unique word in there that modif I I don't see a unique historical feature in that that we're that we're neglecting to preserve I i' say there's there to have to worry about it would be not applicable okay I'm just having an and or an or lawyer moment but I'll go but I'll go with you there's like law decisions written on that so you know but honestly I'm comfortable with the na the non-applicable we need to have like AR battles and lawyer battles on our our group right I'm all for na you know honestly honestly what it comes down to is the way I imagine it is let's say there was a church a theoretical church I used to live in Portland Maine and this actually happened where a developer comes in and converts it to a very fancy restaurant right that very much could be preserving unique natural historical feature right absolutely so I think the I think the bylaw is intending for that type of energy is there something in town that we're grabbing and then forcing keeping it in some way if if if P Rock was located there and they were doing something to to to right for and be able I would be okay with no I would probably be okay with a no but I'm but in light of Kate's concerns about the buildings there I think an NA is a lot more comfortable okay I think we it's good to discuss these things because we actually haven't we never had this yeah so okay um we should do it more often remember what we're doing item four minimize tree vegetation and soil removal and grade changes now granted soil is going to be removed on this project um for the underground parking but I don't think that that's what this is about I think it's it's about to me it reads that it's about changing of the landscape um but yeah or eliminating vegetation exists right is is that the intent of this phrase minimiz stream vegetation and soil removal I would say we're doing that like we're not making it worse or destroying some soil or CH I mean I think you agree with that but given that it is specifically removing a lot of soil on the parking rid we probably just have to have an edit to mention that that we think it complies with the minimization but it I besides it's a lot of yeah besides adding a lower level in the base you know yeah and that's true but it's also adding more vegetation that is there yeah so it's actually increasing yeah so this one so therefore is not minimizing right yeah but the soil yeah goes in the other direction I think it's minimizing on balance um well the finding isn't it is it isn't a yes no it's a it's a narrative right so so we could talk about that soil is being removed for the purposes of underground parking but I I really I think the the note is that you know on the surface it looks the same right um okay e uh maximize open space retention yeah with the definition of open space I mean we have to see yeah I me not just empty space I would say right now it depends how you define open space if you defined it as an asphalt parking lot then you can say okay there's a lot of open space if you define define it as Greenery you can say that there's none at all on this no or or public or publicly accessible like the pocket park and the little plazas don't exist now right yeah it ised yeah I don't yeah maybe we can look at it um but retention is that what you were looking at I did what was it we yep uh open space the lot area not covered by any structure other than a swimming pool and not used for uh drives parking or storage but includes balconies or any roof area developed for recreation not if not part of a structure or paved it shall be kept uh stabilized with vegetation cover pie needles barkk or other organic materials that is so 1960s anytime there's a b that mentions a pool okay that was drafted in like um that that that speaks to minimizing erosion right or like a yeah natural yeah I mean according can we on this one like just sort of put a description of what's there and what's see and and and it sort of because it's we C I think that's the way to do that one like we we're acknowledging existing has open space Paving we're replacing spaces in between buildings with intentional pocket park and enclaves in front of the building plus a rooftop Greenery to supplement what we've done so and some it's I think the intentionality of it is important like we we're choosing to do it this way even though the definition doesn't talk about public or or public it's we simply is it's very vague you know simply the definition itself it's it's a definition to calculate that percentage on a project redefining open space in the century so yeah so I think I mean some version without torturing Peter of acknowledging if we went literally by our definition it's almost na right but that we can be creative yeah no exactly that's what I'm saying so then then we can say some of the of the features that we think it's it is maximizing I think those should probably both I think we're going to get in trouble if we make it modern for what it is I I personally really like The Enclave thing in front the little thoughtful thing that we're doing in the front of the building where people can kind of hang out I count that as open space because the public could in theory ride by on a bike park the bike and sit down and have an ice cream cone so that counts to me and does have some value yeah I mean you it'd be a little dangerous to sit in the parking lot you know of the other you know and have your ice cream right exactly and and so so what is the what is the the comment to this that like um applicable or I is maximizing I'm I'm going to be creative and and draft something up and and everyone can take a take a turn reading it there is public space I mean open space yeah I'll use my imagination Marcel oh boy yeah all right all right uh item F screen objectionable features from neighboring properties and roadways there's not did we discuss like the the trash system it's internal it's an internal trash room okay then I think we're good I think this is yeah I don't think there not applicable because it's not screening anything there's not he's just the project there's not a lot objectionable he's just a neighborhood um G consideration shall be given to the impacts of the project on Town services and infrastructure this is kind of similar to the other one did anyone have any additional comments but I think it's that's one that's very similar to special permit Town services and infrastructure and that's what's been reviewed by gcg right correct so we talked about that yep item H is Electric telephone cable television gas water sewer drainage and other such utilities shall be underground except in the case of extreme physical and environmental constraints I think that's all under well the telephone the telephone polls are going to remain on Homer however uh coming into the building they will be all undergound yeah so okay um item I expose storage areas Machinery Service areas truck loading areas utility buildings and structures and other unsightly uses so be shall be set back or screened to protect the neighbors and those using public ways from objectionable features such areas shall not be such areas should not be impede the flow of traffic on public ways am I reading that strangely shall not be shall not impede on huh is that the way it is I guess yeah okay shall not impede the flow let's take a look at that fine just kind of this this one was just downloaded right no you're think it's just about they written but I think it's it's accurate like I think we have this handled yeah I I can find yeah find it I was just trying to see if that over the years if that got just manipulated versus this fresh copy we just got offline okay Jay when applicable yeah so the unsightly things I mean I guess um you know the all the units that are on top there's all the um heat pumps on top of the building right um on the flat roof area but I think they're all they're they're outside of U are they because doesn't the roof SL up this a Propet yeah yeah and the perspective you will never see it with the Propet because I think that's they demonstrated that in one of the meeting that we that we discussed see the rendering here or just not to get repeat it like put it in the conditions they said it was or for the dry cuz I like I most Martel like the less you're kind of repeating on stuff we just say we think it met it I don't think it hurts to say that it's something they they volunte I think they volunteered to do that to not make it visible yeah part of as far as we're concerned yeah it's right there this one's yeah yeah they're set they're kind of set down right into the roof yeah there's a wh there yeah but along with that I didn't I mean I actually we were kind of going higher level but little things like screening the Transformer and stuff and that usually I guess oh yeah cuz that's along the side of the property is that right um I don't remember so at some point we should probably look at that yeah it's uh actually it's in the back oh no that's that's no storage I I don't think this information would have that till they develop the construction documents that has to be coordinated with ever orce of whoever is providing the power some yeah okay that may be actually the utilities property not not project cor we make um but we you I mean every decision I've been part of there's been screening and whether it gets completed that way or not it's been screened and it's on the plans I I don't think we know where it is then then we can put that in that question to the applicant do we do we have a location um who's who's still on there I did the civil engineer Terry uh we just have a question we want to pose do we have a location for a Transformer or any other kind of uh those kind of services on the site something that might need to be screened aank can you hear me now yes yeah sorry about that uh my experience has been that the utility companies usually tell you where they're going to put the Transformer okay that's that's like information I have yep that's what kind of was our discussion here too so well usually I mean in some cases like I show in the rendering I don't know if it's the case but they are usually on on the polls sometimes um and they have the the conduits Going Underground unless it's one of those that are you know sitting in the landscape um I guess it could just be a I mean it definitely could be a condition that if something's located in the landscape you know that it can be it can be planted around or you know whatever yeah something the Transformer is shown on the plan side in mid it's for Salo yep can you guide us to where we're looking on the site layout plan uh kind of the bottom B left corner you have it there um move this around yeah it's at the bottom of the page it's a box with a T in it I'm just looking at the Peter if you want to give me permission to share I can point it out that helps Rick you're a co-host pal please feel free bottom right hand corner second I'm right is not there did you find it did you guys find it if you could point out that would be great he's going to point he's going to pull he's going to point it out right here oh oh on the back back on the oh here we have a tree there don't we or is it this other one there is a tree shown there in the plan tree might be in front of it or behind it but entr lab yeah we have uh we have a tree coming right down maybe in the the middle of that Transformer box Le pretty darn close to it there'll be room to sight the tree on on one side of the Transformer box to help screen it there's plenty of Island around it it's going to be in the island I guess so the question is whether they'll be condition I me it's in the back of the site right as we see it yeah in the back the building is screen from view from the street really I me to see it here you have to go all the way in there right but Street well this landscape here I'm going sure that Ian there's no f a fence then then then could be could be the screen could be natural or or with fence I mean I think they they're they're proposing landscape there so it could be screen with landscape yeah I mean I think I think I would prefer that it's just screen with some simple Landscaping instead of putting a fence around it that'll end up being bigger than the Transformer itself cuz then you will see Landscaping instead of yeah because they have neighbors on that side of so maybe the condition is that when when the final determination is made that the landscape architect can work out the planting plan to screen it simple screening you know matching the things that are already being proposed yeah okay all right item J when applicable the site plan shall show measures to reduce and Abate noise generated from the site that will impact surrounding properties I think it may get quieter given the equipment that's stored back there I think I remember one of our first meetings I asked folks what the vision was for like light noise light pollution and noise pollution on that roof I mean if I if I lived in the building like that I'd have a party up there um maybe it'd be loud New Year maybe I would throw some uh what's it called for New Year's Eve I might do a little bit of a you know something into the sky what do you call them the little flares or something so in theory you could have with any kind of exciting new change for Ashland like a rooftop on a building downtown we may want to think about that and just hear from the applicant that some assurance that this is not going to get Rowdy outside of the scope of the norm Behavior I think then you have to put I think it's the same ordinance go for those residents as the residents of the neighborhood right everybody should be treated the same if one person can't throw a party another person can't no no I'm not asking the applicant to have party hours I'm too libertarian for that what I'm saying is I'd love to hear from the applicant now how they Envision the use of that space is it open during the daytime is it open at night like just out of curiosity and that may completely address all of my well it's it's access to a couple of the units they need to just to get to their unit they need to access that space so it has to be and tough to tell because there's multiple uh people living there it's like asking you how how how would you use your backyard yeah Sunday I'll use it one way on a Friday I'll do I mean and I I think the is it private private department is it is it a private space that's not visible or or uh to the public like I I I personally do not get a good that's all I'm saying all I'm saying is I think it's worth exploring I'm not aware of other apartments yet in ashin that have that that we've had but but I think I think I I I get I get what you what you're saying but the the there's no condition there's no finding there any misbehavior would be dealt by the police department that that's not a planning board I yeah I don't think so I I don't think I mean noise is right in there noise is definitely our thing but the most affected would be the residents in the building before the neighbors are going to get affected so I don't know if that's even because all the windows of those units are around that open area so if at all anybody gets affected the first would be the residence in the building so I don't think it's yeah it I I I don't see that that's an issue I I just see this as more if it's a if it's an industrial site if it's it's trucks in the early morning dropping off Dunkin Donuts you know or whatever it is it's it's I don't I don't see it as Noise by residents because then you start to put a real to me judgment call on certain residents and not on other residents so the but in thinking about that site right we we there's commercial there we're we're replacing commercial we don't know what'll happen and and those businesses can deliveries for those business can have a dramatic in impact on neighbor houses I live near a plaza I know so we do have to address that and it and it may be just a condition about like delivery hours or things but I think I think residential or commercial use is absolutely within our jurisdiction to essentially address the noise issue because you could have a hotel move in and it's way louder you could have a B all business move in and it's going to be different noise than residential I don't think we're somehow punishing people we just have to acknowledge the fact that this is unique to downtown downtown at night kind of has a quieter feel we may have some activity I'm not concerned about it based on our discussion but frankly we haven't heard from the applicant how they're envisioning it and they might say it's not even going to be open at night so I I don't think it's a question in my place to ask I I don't I think that's a that's a a bu law question that would be that would cover residents across Ashland in any type of living situation and us propos are are are what are they chattering about now [Laughter] sometimes someone's mic is on what being proposed is is is um is legal by by by right so I think it's kind of a mood point the the the Commerce that exists now there is closer to the houses in the back than this one is going to yeah because it's Rees back into I'm I'm fine I just wanted to talk through it because it is different and we haven't had a rooftop access building in Downtown before so I just didn't want us to not think it through and be surprised as someone who's been to Rooftop apartments in Boston they are louder they tend to be more urban and this is different for a very Suburban environment all right all right well let's leave it at that for now if we're obviously like I said this our first pass through I think it's a great first pass so but if you know we're going to be going through it again and if anyone has comments they can bring them up at that time let's get through these two items then we'll wrap things up for the night um though I did say I'd allow public comment so I will um item K the site plan will shall comply with all zoning requirements for parking loading signage dimensions and environmental performance stand standards and all other provisions of this bylaw um I think some of those things obviously we have gone through parking loading um with uh with gcg signing signage was kind of a a little bit out there because we haven't uh I think the design Review Committee weighed in a little bit with that or maybe we were just looking at the standard dimensions um um that were on the drawings environmental performance we know it's going to be all electric that was already proposed um otherwise see me it's it's zoning and building code um does anyone else have anything else in there think it compx okay um item L the site plan shall be consistent with the objectives of the comprehensive plan oh and all other applicable specific plans adopted by the planning so when's that comp plan getting done well it could be it could be our current plan which is the prior one 2003 I don't think we need a new one for this but we do seem correct me if I'm wrong before I started in the planning board or as I started there was a rezoning if you will of component of downtown so I think we can say that we're we are developing downtown it's consistent with the planning board's plan to make the downtown vibrant because we seem to be doing that well it does as I maybe it ties into what I said earlier about it really looking carefully at this form based code and I think doing a a decent job at trying to apply that to the site so any c okay can add more later obviously if okay Trisha did you mean to also do the the mandatory findings for special permit tonight I don't know if you meant to go also go through those or just I was just I was just focusing on the criteria for for tonight um and given that the time that we're at I think it's a good ending time I will open up this for public comment on 9 to 49 Main Street 3 minutes a person and one time to the mon 9 49 Homer oh 9 to 49 Homer everything is on Main Street to me I do that all the time first up Mr marck Don Mr Mar Dr Sony at the microphone in the room can you please unmute yourself and state your name and address Dr Sony unmuted sounds like you're trying to upgrade and have in place it's historical and reasonable contents of what there is and what there is but it seems like it might be a little bit of a easier time they got to get him get um proceed with it to go on but it seems like it could be complicated in the very beginning but it also sounds like you're trying to compromise with whoever is going to be using these yes or no this is going to be a compromise for every developer that comes in maybe you can talk it out with him him her whatever was going to be put there and this one on uh Homer this is going to be a u this is what we're looking at can we work with you for this that's my question I don't think I have a yes no answer for you mark so sorry I'll take the comment but I I don't have an answer okay the comment is um I was looking at it a couple times too when I have one thank you mention in a form based code you are welcome uh the second person we have two up three hers in the uh on on the virtual Zoom meeting uh first and foremost uh Charlie zudo um please unmute yourself and state your name and address ISO Newton Mass I just want you to know I own a few buildings that do have the roof decks we do not allow people to light fireworks off on the roof deex and it's actually illegal and we we will put a time restriction on it so nobody can be up on the roof Tex partying or anything like that that's too bad for them but good good for us all right and it is also a residential development and we got to take in consideration thank you thank you thank you JY uh second person with their hand up is Carmelo Carmelo can you please unmute yourself and state your name and address good evening everybody thank you my name is Camilo Pia I live in three Treasure Way um I just simply want to talk in support of the development um I think that is something that the town desperately needs which is a walkable downtown with more businesses that um help spread the fisal load uh more residents and more businesses helping us with our uh tax obligations while um aligning ourselves with what has been discussed so far in enan Ashland which is having a downtown that's more pedestrian friendly that has active businesses um and that in itself it means basically beautifying our downtown uh taking what is now a very underused parcel uh full of parking uh into something that provid it's also a very much needed supply of housing um while providing businesses uh so I want to thank you for the time that you take as the planning board to discuss this and thank you for giving us the opportunity to talk about this so um thank you that's it thank you uh next uh Kevin moak Kevin can you please state your name and address hi uh this is Kevin Moet I'm on at 95 pin Hill Road um I just wanted to U well first of all I think this has been been a great discussion to listen into and um I just wanted to point something out to the planning board that I noticed that uh the Transformer was being discussed and that was something that we had hadn't reviewed in the design and review committee meetings and I know that the the building is going to be all electric as was mentioned during this meeting and I think the Transformer might be under sized and could potentially be much larger with an all electric building and that raises just concerns about screening and location and uh could impact the site plan so I just wanted to raise that as a something that should be thought about and considered thank you thank you Kevin and our last comment for the night uh Joan can you please unmute yourself and state your name and address Jon g fratty wsha Road and um full disclosure I on the historical commission and I've heard several comments that these that this area was not um historical and I just wanted to comment that it is I believe it is going to have to come before the historical commission for that um for that determination and um I also I also like the comments about um the noise of deliveries I mean I think I I I get that maybe it wasn't part didn't need to be a part of that but I think it is something that needs to be thought of because people are going to be living above it so putting some kind of restriction on deliveries is probably probably makes some sense um those are my comments thank you thank you Joan all right I think um if there's no other comments I think we are wrapping up our time on 9 to 49 Homer Avenue uh for this evening um so obviously we are continuing and um so because we have a lot more information to go through but this is a great start so where where are we going on this one uh I'm going to go to the next meeting um and that date is going to Fe be February 8th and I believe our date our final date on this project is March March 1st is it March 1st March 1st okay so we'll see where we are at Mark sha and cor then okay yeah we have two meetings in February uh and to to move all items along okay so we'll we'll deal with that when we get there all right so um we look you look like you're ready for something Kate just keep us moving please I make a motion that 9 to 49 Homer Avenue site plan and special permit application be continued till February 8th and a second I'll second that roll call vote depai an minitz i Marcel I Katherine Jers I and Trisha Kendall I that is continued until February 8th thank you to the applicants and to all the people who gave public comment all right next on our agenda is um our second public hearing this is the initial public hearing for 151 Main Street that is the um old uh fire station and um Peter did you need to read this into the the records uh yes just to to start off I do need to read this into the record so please bear with me the planning board will hear a petition of Ashlin Brewing LLC doing businesses Clover Road Brewing requesting site plan review and uh design review plans per chapter 48 section six of the Massachusetts zoning act chapter 28 282 of ashon zoning bylaws section 9.6 design plan review and 9.4 site plan review the applicant proposes a excuse me the applicant is proposing to create a 99 seat Tap Room with uh within the former Main Street Fire Station seasonal outdoor seating area or beer garden will be located in the parking lot uh protected by barriers the parking lot is excuse me a parking area on the right side of the building shall be designated for a food truck the overall project will develop 2,238 square feet foot excuse me Tap Room an Adaptive reuse of the existing building uh plans excuse me work will consist uh will the work will consist of exterior improvements pedestrian safety building upgrades and Landscaping improvements the property is located at 151 Main Street assessors map 14 Lot 84 and is within the the zoning uh excuse me it's within the base zoning District known as downtown Commerce and also is within the overlay add zoning District uh all material was uh submitted to the Plenty board and available online to get if I may please um obviously we're the applicant here tonight um and I do want to just note that uh ashen's economic development director also uh is is available to speak and to introduce the uh the project uh from a standpoint of the town in the process that the town went through uh in meeting Clover R Brewing um and um I would say kind of setting up this project to where it is today I I think that would be a good place to start to kind of understand the history it is a little bit of a different project than than we usually deal with great to unmute this please uh yeah so I would like to introduce uh Beth Reynolds uh ashon economic development director you do not have you don't unmute the screen you uh it's the it's the it's the um microphone in front of you oh hi thanks for having us here tonight um glad to be in front of you finally I feel like this has been a very long process um we went to town meeting in May and here we are um in January so um I just am here tonight to introduce the applicant as well as just sort of give you the history of how we got here um as this is a town-owned um parcel and building and it will remain that way um and I'll kind of go into detail about that so um I'm going to introduce you tonight to the owners of clover Road um John malun um is one of the owners and he and I spoke over the phone um I think right before last summer last season at The Corner Spot he was calling to inquire about using the corner spot as a popup GE Garden um those have been very popular in town for the past five six years um and so they were interested in that and at the same time it just happened to be that we were talking about the ReUse of the police and fire stations downtown as the public safety building was completing uh was almost at completion and we were trying to figure out what to do with those two with those two pieces um those two buildings it is one parel I think that's why I'm like dripping up my words because it's important for you to know that it is one parel with the two um so John when John heard of the RFI he thought well you know we were going to do these pop-ups permanent sounds lovely as well um and they were looking for expansion so the timing just happened to be um perfect for this um so to go back um as to the history of it is in the fall of 2022 um with the completion coming up we were looking at what to do with this so we wanted to make sure that we were very thorough and transparent um with the town and find out what the community wants so we put RFI as far as I know the town of Ash has never done a request for um interest is what that's called so the RFI was basically to find out what people wanted what do you want down where where are we going um and so that went out for um the two buildings on the one parcel the document had several requirements the exterior of the fire station was to be preserved for historic purposes it could not incl residential housing it was only to be used for commercial use the town wanted additional public parking in the area to support the increase of commercial use in downtown and the use was to encourage an active and vibrant space so the RFI went out for eight weeks three defa answered that RFI um with some potential ideas so then we took those three ideas we presented them at a public forum and we sent out a community survey and the community survey kind of described the three potential ideas and it came back resoundingly that it was a people wanted the The Tap Room they wanted a brewery Downtown um to give that vibrancy so it was also found out during that um Gathering of information that they did not want to sell the property they wanted to lease it so the town wasn't ready to get rid of that um ownership so from there we took that information that we had gathered from the town and we created an RFP a request for proposal and that was focused on the vibrancy of The Proposal what the prop what the vibrancy would bring for downtown um and the feasibility um and the consistency with our Downtown Vision so we put that RFP out for a few months and one proposal came in and that was Clover Road um so we had uh formed a committee of different residents in town um so the committee met and this was their purpose was to review the rfps that came in so that it wasn't you know it was a very diverse open um group and they looked at the proposal they reviewed the proposal they agreed that it would be a great fit for Ashland and it was recommended to the select board and then it was put on town meeting on May 3rd 2023 where the residents voted to support the project so since then the Clover Road team has signed a lease with the town uh for years with the option to extend no more than 30 um they're responsible for improvements it's so they're getting it as is um and they're they're responsible for any improvements inside and immediately outside but we are still responsible for the parking lot so the town gpw will still be doing snow removal for this property um and then I guess at this point I think that's sort of how we've gotten here um it's been a pleasure working um with these individuals they have really um they did do a couple popups um over the summer months they've met a lot of residents they've made a name for themselves here um they've made a lot of good connections people seem very resp respective um receptive and um excited for them to come here is what that's what I've heard of this so um I am going to introduce them now um and they will kind of take it from here and kind of tell you about the project any questions for me on the process do we have a sense of how long the lease is like how does that work y it's five years not and then if they can extend for five year increments not to exceed 30 do they have to come back to us for extension no so when it's time to extend they bring it to the select board with the town yeah it's just Town Town one one follow question you said that the parcel has the two buildings was a determination what to do with the police uh building is that not part of this project at all this project so that's going to remain for now that where it is right working on ideas for that currently um but this has been kind of focus just to get this one going and then and then we'll take the next step to do that one does the lease clarify that if there's like a change of use they would come back to us like is the lease going to be like in five years if the lease is renewed could could they change how they use the space okay it is only for this use it is described their use is described thanks Beth bu ideas for us it's a beautiful building so yeah in that all St so so um Jamie John and Allen um are all co-owners of um Clover Road brewing in Hudson they will continue to brew their beer only in Hudson and just serve it in the T room here so there will be no Brewing of beer in Ashland um it's the Serv of it and then they are looking at liquor licenses that um could hopefully provide wine and other Spirits so um so yeah so I'm going to inv Jamie I think up to kind of get you started and tell you them a littleit she can tell you a little thanks such a good job I want to keep her spokesperson here I'm Jamie M I'm one third Clover Road here so we purchased a brewery in summer of 2022 ground effect in hson and we renovated it and we opened in September um so we are new in um in Hudson so we currently have a brewery and chat room in Hudson and um what we realized pretty quickly we can't hear her in the audience just to let you know thank you don't I yeah oh oh I see a green light okay thanks I don't have an IT background so thanks for helping me with that Peter okay so what we learned pretty quickly in Hudson was that we can brew a lot of beer so in the brewery industry you have two models to scale you can do distribution or you can do a Tap Room Tap Room model and um once you get to know us um you learn pretty quickly we are community- based we have a very large outreach program um and we like to focus on customers and so distribution is not a part of our model it's not currently and it's not in the near future and so we really wanted to focus on The Tap Room model so we started to look at beer gardens Beth kind of went that into that a little bit and 151 Main Street kind of came to be so what we do in Hudson is pretty much I wouldn't want to say carbon copy but it's very close to what we want to do in Ashlin because it's near and dear to who we are and what we believe in it's a community space that yes we're a brewery but it's also a transitional space that people can come and enjoy the town enjoy the downtown and um have different things so we have a lot of community events we have a lot of um we bring in local vendors and we like to kind of mix and match and have things for families have things for couples have things for just men just female really kind of just run the gamut so we have yoga we have Dart leag we have flower classes we have run club we have open mic um there are a lot of things that we try and do to really just bring everyone together and I would say that our space is Transitional and it's very focused on where we are and and who we are um so what we plan to do is really light Renovations I don't know Peter if you can pull up um the get the renderings the renderings okay so what we plan on doing is keeping the historic characteristics of the building inside and out and we really do want to focus on the strong care characteristics this right now is the ex um is the side so do we maybe have the front maybe we should start with the front we really want to preserve the character um and there we go so um in the front we want to do a small patio oh good John can start talking about this too he's up here too um so we really want to do um a small patio in the front and on the side and as you can see um you know safety being on the the Main Street and the sidewalk those are those are going to be Jersey barriers um we actually currently have those in Hudson right now hold on so what you guys are looking at now that is going to be a retaining wall and we're going to back fill it with cement so it'll be nice flat there's that slope as you come out of there so that's not a great spot and it's actually not super conducive to seating because the main Street's so busy um that what we're likely going to do to that is some seats but more likely cornhole and things like that for gaming so that's why we have the boxes in front of the jersey barrier too uh so no kids as the summertime three Bay garage doors they're not just going to run out into the Main Street the the retaining wall will prevent that along with the flower back boxes from that on the front side um so as we envision it in the summertime those doors are open music's out people are outside playing cornhole having a good time relaxing and uh kids and families are Milling about probably going to get ice cream from Subzero is that it and on the right hand side which was the first which was the first one that is where the seating is going to be because it's off of the road and there's some natural uh well not natural but there's a barrier there's a sound barrier there now with the plantings uh to help kill some of the the downtown traffic noise so on that right hand side those planter boxes will have Jersey barriers underneath them um and what we did in Hudson and we'd like to do here is I wrapped them in Cedar with the aluminum so that way they're lightweight and we can lift and remove them in the winter time to allow people to park closer to the building and not truck across the the uh parking lot get as close as possible so winter time put them away summertime back out let's party uh the whole point of the project actually for us too is is the way the fire station looks I mean it's great and when we when we show people it like like oh this is what we're doing and this is they're like that's awesome that's amazing uh so we're really going to do our best to make sure that the station itself says the focal point of of the design that we don't really touch much of it frankly uh and even on the inside and the construction of that it's pretty I would describe it as um minimal renovation uh we have to add two bathrooms but when you think about I don't know how many beer drinkers are are here but a tap room is pretty open there's not a lot to it and part of the reason for that is the freedom of movement to go from one table to another or different activities to things like that so the interior of the tap room is we're going to do our best to incorporate some of the history of the building into the tap room but the the actual renovation and construction is is pretty straightforward and light we're going to put in a bar and tables and two bathrooms um hopefully soon okay anything else you guys want to add I don't know did I miss anything no not necessarily yeah not telling um I guess I'll open it up to any questions from the board very quick question is the production happening on site or in Hudson in Hudson so we we have um we have big tanks like Jamie was saying like we we can never produce enough beer to sell out of Hudson like it's just it's not feasable so we have all this excess capacity this what we chose to do and just out of curiosity are because you've run you've had this happen in Hudson already can can you give us a sense of employment opportunities to the local community uh what does that look like yeah that's a good question um so I think we employ about 12 people right now um you know it depends how busy we get the busier we are the more people we hire um and seasonally we add to it as well so in the summer we have had to add um seasonal employment and when we do beer gardens we've also had to include people and I think we've also had luck hiring locals um so right now most of our I would say 80% of our bartenders live within 10 minutes of our current Brewery now um which helps us out when either the weather's bad or we need extra help or something so but also get to know the customers get to know the community also help us the the other part aside from employment is the cross pollination of the businesses so um like Jamie mentioned we do yoga that's with the local studio in town right uh we do a candl making class that company is in the next town over but uh geez what we've done the floral company is in Hudson yeah um so this cross cross promotion we've had uh two restaurants that have physical locations bring their food trucks into the the the brewery um so I imagine it' be a lot of the same stuff here cross pollination of businesses it's one handwash and the other really also too but um we also work with the Hudson rotary club for volunteer so we have a lot of volunteer events um because that's obviously um Community Based and really important to people and important to us um and so getting involved with those um aspects too in Ashland and having those organizations come in that would be great too um I was just going to say as a followup you mentioned the focus on um the community space if you will how is it just out of curiosity is there like a dedicated community space inside or is it more within the open space of yeah it's more within the so the best bues in my opinion is are the ones that are that do a great job incorporating with the community but they don't have a designated community space but it might be that you're doing a fundraiser uh to support something in town uh or like we have the Hudson Rotary Club that's doing an event here um we've done charity fundra raisers for just people who want to host and we just shut the bre down for that um it's more along that line not this space in it's not a big building um to accommodate like ideal that'd be great but not not yeah and I think one of the reasons why we and I use the term community so strong is because we want people to walk into the tap room and have it feel like it's their an extension of their living room an extension of somewhere that they want to be and feel very comfortable um we're very strong with not being a restaurant you don't have to stay in your seat you you know we're we're not going to be strict about you know this is your four chairs and you can only stay here we want you to get up we want people to talk to each other we want people to feel like this is an extension of their own space so that's why we use the term community so strongly thank you other questions at at your Hudson location I know you mentioned um that you do food trucks and you've shown that that's the idea here I think that's there's probably like a bit of a seasonal component to that it's not super like it's year round food oh really oh that's amazing okay so one of the questions I was going to ask is and in Hudson are you guys open to I mean I've been to a lot of tap rooms where um you can order from anywhere nearby any local restaurants to to bring in food is that the kind of thing that you do in Hudson that would be great for our restaurants in town yep y same idea uh we don't discriminate we'll have a light food menu it'll be pretzels and and buffalo chicken dip but that's not a meal but if someone wanted to do carry out from one of the existing restaurants in town I mean we look at them and judge them but they got it it's a it's a cool feel and I think it's a great thing for like you said the cross pollination with businesses it's it's another opportunity okay yeah yeah no people tend to like that um you know you're just not I don't care where you get your food from bring it in and have a good time got it awesome thank you I have just to two two quick questions and there's just nothing not to like about this idea and and the approach and the approach to doing this in this building it seems perfect to me but of course it I always go towards the the architecture right so it it it it make I think what you're doing with with the entrance makes total sense and and you'll use it however the business works it seems to me I I I think that the front of the building to me is kind of a great place for for for the sitting area and the side maybe would be for the games but that's something for you to think about it because it's next to those big doors uh you're going to change the doors and it it seems like I don't know the environment in the beginning that was our initial intent was the front um and that's not to say that we won't revisit that um or the other thing that happened is we learned the budget to redo the front is we'd have to rip up all the um existing cement uh yeah it was just but you're going to back feel in front on top of the ramp right uh no you'd have to rip everything out first put in a new retaining wall it it turned into a to do it so our initial intent was to extend that that uh like flat flat but take it out like 15 20 ft so as it currently exist and and then back fill that and make it one large seating area which you may do but then after I spent spent a day there uh with the doors open and just kind of hanging out and seeing what the traffic patterns were like and things like that and I was like you know what let's revisit that and okay no that's fine I I I hope you reconsider if but but it takes me to to the next to the next part I I I I think that however you do that and you will need a retaining like you're showing here but if that Pao is done not just you say we're just going to f with cement ideally I hope it would be something a little nicer than that oh yeah if the patio is is a nicely done patio I think it would be conducive to that so but think about it because I I think it's it's it's a great spot and with planting and and and screening it could it happens in all all the urban urban spaces I do I think it's important to note though that there are there is like an easement there um the Culvert goes sort of like through towards the police station so we do have to be mindful of how far they come out that was another a reason to no I'm just talking generically it just the picture shows I see this picture it just I want to drink a beer right there too how so shady but but on the and and the other question is you're going to do some mile renovation very little work you looks like you're going to change the doors and put some bathrooms and and that so it's a pretty old building so are you going to be responsible for a batment of of hasmat uh when you do your work or is the town going to be responsible for that uh they believe that's our responsibility okay cuz likely you will find some something in a building of looking forward to it yeah okay other questions um I had sent a question for Peter that um to try to get a copy of the lease I think we should have that when we're looking at the whole um application once I uh once I get that I'll obviously I'll send that out to everybody awesome DEA good um I was just wondering what is happening what happens in front of that retaining wall uh now that it's it's not it's not placed right on the sidewalk it's back there's an easement you said that has to be but what what happens in there is it just a wider does it stay as is it is it just a wider sidewalk yeah okay so there is no sidewalk there so if you remember when we did the downtown project the sidewalk so that was still remained a driveway um so we haven't down the road Trisha honestly it would be great if maybe we do think about that and taking that a sidewalk but I might be just Wai and see what happens a little bit with the success of the brewery and okay uh I think yeah when you dream I I kind of have the same dream as Marcel where it's more of a patio area and we're pushing pushing it out a little bit and the if the further you go out with it the higher the retaining wall has to be maybe there's some benches in front of the retaining wall it's a nice seating area with people behind it I can see that Vision but not not day one Ju Just just to to to up to your dreams you know that there are very light systems on pedestals that you could put and you don't have to build anything and they're removable so when you leave you can take them out so that would be a way to make a flat surface on with pedestals that are adjustable there are assistance for that and you will get your patio without having to spend I looked at that it was it was I was shocked I was like oh my God is that what you used to do and she suggested that for the side patio uh cuz they do look nice and then I looked at it and I was like oh my God it was like uh like a 4x4 section was $25,000 or something it was absurd yeah if you got a guy or one that fell off the back of a truck I'm open okay just a few things Logistics the um so the main door is the one on the first on the left there is that is that right there's there's two entrances the one on the left and then on the other one we're going to have to put in you can't kind of see you kind see through there um the double door there so so that's actually the main door of the double door where you I mean the whatever is the most functional is going to be the main one but uh as I Envision it you know the parking lot's on that side so most people okay go that way so you can come in either way yep and the um the colors I know it said in your documentation that the colors that you that you're showing are your logo colors the colors um okay yeah and I mean I like the have you done that I haven't been to the store in Hudson did you do that type of um painting there as well or is that something new for this project the large that's new yeah you're talking about the the left hand side the clo going down the other side of the building as well yeah no that'll be new um we're going to have sign logic who's based out of Hudson hopefully help us with that and um yeah I mean I like it I think it's it's amazing how such a just signage can kind really dress up that exterior I noted in your documentation that it's you know lease doesn't work out you're out of here we hate Ashland we're gone that it it's possible to take the to take it off building and can I just ask a follow question to that um who would take it off hopefully you guys will never have to take it off but if you do let's say this list does not go on forever is that something that you would do or the town does I would imagine it would be the town just like it we treated the lease like a standard commercial lease um no different so if we left our our place in hson the town would take care of all right well we you know would you guys be open to adding like two things one is I love this project and how it preserves the the speaking of historic projects on site review that are truly that example that we were discussing earlier love that um my only kind of thought is it's still owned by the public and I don't necessarily see that right and so my only question is is there a way to have a plaque that sort of recognizes hey this is a what's the history of the fire station when was it in use that this building continues to be publicly owned that the public has welcom into the building sort of a connection to our history to recognize that hey this is still a public resource what are your thoughts on that just a small that recognizes that so that we don't forget if you will that it's still a publicly owned project sure and we can recognize our history and connection to it from that perspective not yeah hopefully if we're doing it right everybody knows that um so yes totally it it would seem that something like that might be placed on the town to work with the new business owner sorry who who was that excuse me uh Ellen when you do speak up you have to raise your hand and you'll be called on during public comment thank you um yeah so does anyone have any anyone have any follow-up comments so this for us is um this is obviously a site plan review we're very familiar with those criteria now um we won't be going through them this evening but it also the project then is also um uh eligible for design plan review um with the design Review Committee that is correct so just to give everyone uh from a logistical standpoint uh this the applicant is going to design review well usually we send them there correct the Plenty board sends them to design review uh and the next design review would happen to be February 1st a week from this Thursday um and uh and so that is just the the process okay so before we get there I um do want to open it up for public comment so if you well I will let Peter manage that so with that said um and if there's nobody in the room I will go to zoom um first uh but please uh the First with their hand up is Helen Nicole Helen can you please state your name and address hi yes Helen Nicole for Elliot Circle um I'm on the um histor commission and I I have to say I I I am pleased uh mostly with the way the building looks I'm I'm very very happy to hear that there is only live Renovations going to to be happening inside as well the question I have though I'm noticing on that right right side patio there's a door double door and uh that's that's a change to the outside of the building which you know we had written in some restrictions about not changing the outside of the building however I do remember we did discuss with Beth um the building becoming 88 compliant uh which I think they they had talked about needing a door but what my question is is why does it need to be that door why can't those front doors be used um to make an ada8 compliance so that they don't need to take out a section of that wall uh there's some functionality to that so in order to be ADA Compliant you have to be able to get direct access to the bar and to the B bathrooms um so that when we looked at it with the architect that was the spot that he determined would be the best for it I mean I wish we didn't have to put a door there save money but we do and so that's that's the spot the architect determined would be best for to meet all the Ada compliances okay I I'm still not sure though that I understand why so that door to me is around the corner from three large doors I and I and I have to tell you I do love this whole project I think it's it's a great addition to Ashland um I have no dispute there but I just I really want to understand in my mind why that door needs to be there why those three large doors don't work I don't know that was what the architect recommended and we just went with it that way and you said this is the best way to do it for for our goals and that's what other three large doors she's talking about taking the garage those aren't considered though no no but you could put a double door there so she's saying the other thing that would happen to actually I do know the answer to this so if we did that we would have to then reframe out right you'd have to frame out the garage door add a double door in there put back in the brick to make it look historical and like it like it is and you're just talking about different scopes of a project so one is the path of least resistance which is frankly what we did uh and the other one turns into a much bigger project and then you're going to also have to try to match in the brick with the pre-existing stuff and you might end up with with something that you just don't really like um that's a good question though took me a minute to think about that one yeah thank you sorry did you have more yeah no I just I just wanted to clarify that that I just was trying to understand why why that was so thank you no no sorry about that it took me a minute to jog there's been a lot of steps to the project and I was like I had to think about that one and I just question I just wanted to add in that it it it was a good question because you know I didn't even notice that that was a different door but um but I'm much more concerned for me that the front remains as pristine as possible with the three doors and versus something happening to the side to allow it to have another life so um I was say exactly that Trisha I think the characteristic look of three big you know fire station doors messing with one of those would really change the character of it from my perspective as absolutely in terms of accessibility the the this that you have there uh it's is not compliant with what M requires to be able to access to a door you would have to create was part of it too that would change the front of the building which is worse yeah yeah there's a couple that's that's right too um yeah okay go on to public comment thank you uh public comment number two Caro can you please introduce yourself with your name and address hello again uh C Pia from three Treasure Way I I just simply wanted to show um my support and excitement about this project I think the way you guys have uh preserved the building and um try to preserve uh the type of architecture and some of the details even with the sist that you are proposing I think it's exciting um the only question would be how soon so thank you so much hopefully soon yeah what what kind of beer is on special right that's the question that's the real question noticed your application said you know that it would be utilized for politicians to go during election time I'm like wow this was really written for us right you were like we're going to write this for for the planning board thank you for noticing oh of course yeah uh the last uh raised hand uh can you please unmute yourself and state your name and address hi there I'm Suzanna Magnuson I live at 28 voyagers Lane um I also would like to Second the prior comment that I'm really excited to see this business coming to Ashland and particularly excited about the busino business cooperation um that you plan on doing because I could see a lot of the smaller businesses about three or four came to mind as you were talking um that just seemed like they would fit you would fit right in with our you know Town's goals so I'm just very excited about that possibility um I also have uh a little personal question which is my husband is an avid musician a Bluegrass musician and we're wondering if you in the Hudson location ever do allow Jam space to happen where friends just come and bring their instruments and play music uh so actually tonight we have an open mic night uh at The Tap Room in Hudson um so we do that once a month the last Thursday of every month is open mic night yeah so I don't know if it'll quite be a full Jam space cuz uh it probably wouldn't be the spot for a full band to come in just the Acoustics of that building would be a little tough in the spacing but we do intend to have live music and we would be open to I think we'd probably end up doing an open mic night again it's really been a nice nice hit fantastic thank you yeah good question who are the businesses yeah right I don't see any other questions from board in the room public comment oh is there any public comment in the room sorry oh sorry I'm used to the hands raised now okay thank you sorry welcome again welcome the ashon I have probably couple questions and a concern with the uh can you put up the um building this way my question is going to be verified okay first it's going to be about the historical facade that's not going to be touched at all hopefully and the door down to the left that's a single Ada up um excuse me Ada handicap door that's going to stay yes or no y okay um inside ex inside interior the ground floor is going to be worked on going to be be as what it is bar seeden is anything going to happen to the second floor inside uh no so the town is going to use a portion of the second floor for storage uh and then we did lease a portion of the second floor but the primary function there is Storage and you know who knows one day but we have no short-term plans for the area there okay so it's ground floor only then yep and the uh the wall there going across and to the as facing left side the luners build the next door is a narrow area you got seedan on that side yes or no uh no no it's the right side so it's okay and that's going to be used with the spacing we'll see and then on the easement how many how many cards are you expecting maybe Park in the easement uh is the eement the main parking lot no there's no parking the eement is um it no that's just underground the Culvert goes underground like right on that corner there's 20 spots in the parking lot so it's a municipal lot oh so okay yeah but but they have 18 in their lease so in their lease they're guaranteed 18 for their business okay and in front of the wall itself whether the uh Mouse is what's that going to be hopefully used as nothing uh not in the short term it's uh what we touched on right now it's uh frankly it's dead space um maybe one day that'll change but in the short term that space will just look very similar to how it does now okay and last one is is is out is out of the range of the planet boys sorry about that but I got to ask it's alcohol serve are your servers going to be tip certified our servers are tip certified now okay thank you yeah question is there any other public comment from the room probably not not I don't see any other hands raised online so I guess I would raise the question to the planning board if we are then ready to send this to the design Review Committee for their review we typically narrow the the scope to to to specific things that are you know gerain to the project are we going to to to have something like that here or it would be more of a generic uh review by I think in this um I I can go briefly through them this is looking at the design criteria for um for the design Review Committee as listed in .6.

7 so most of these again are not applicable um landscape which in this in this definition of landscape is about minimizing tree and soil removal obviously that's not going to happen um uh building orientation height none of those things we can change roof slope we can't change scale we can't change so the only things really are um materials textures and color [Music] um open space which includes landscape um I think they have some information about landscape obviously and their written documentation Heritage which is about historic structures pedestrian access um I I think I think there those are the applicable so the one thing I thought would that would be helpful because we couldn't the delegate something to design review for additional perspective to me the only thing that we may want to do as an as an exercise in consistency is there is an outdoor space I remember when we handled other outdoor spaces in restaurants or this types of things we had some factors that we looked at at Matzi and um tjs so we may want to find those factors and ask design review to kind of confirm that all the factors have been addressed it might be a good efficient way to delegate a task so that they can come back and say yes check check check everything outdoor related as far as the the design if you will of the outdoor spaces is done and it might save us time you're talking about the things that we looked at for outdoor seating that started with covid but then maybe continued on after that time ex yeah just as a way to save us time because it's a it's a very check oriented thing that we've done twice we could they could review that list maybe from our prior notes and just cut some time for us to do other things yeah I think that's fair and I think it's similar to um similar to um Mazi when we we passed on that Chase Bank you know that they'll also look at this in terms of the sustainability issues related to these items um um that are that are on the list such as um I'm not not sure even if native plants make as much sense because they're replanted every season right they're not growing in the ground so I'm not sure uh those things even make as much of a difference but um but there may be other things on that that do I mean you brought up the the the um environmental stuff or you know I didn't think about that I don't know if we want to delegate that to them or or have the applicant walk through what Renovations of any are going to be done to the space to make it more closer to you know our Net Zero goals or anything like that we may want to explore that first as a board before we delegate but it might be worthwhile to I don't know if the lease already covers it maybe Beth has some information we we have to remember that the planning board purview does not extend to the inside of the building or the function of the inside of the outside of the building like or in general kind of what the I understand it's site site plan review but it is also um I guess what I'm trying to figure out is what it is a public space too I think it really doesn't apply and because that I mean it's not that they are adding a commercial kitchen that they're not even doing the Brewing here in house this is really a transitory exchange of goods and services I I don't think there's much to it that would be toward the n z or plan or the building's not even touched for the most part or even owned by them it yeah it's just the lease so um so essentially we're the landlord right like we the town are are are relasing it yeah I totally get it it belongs to us and so it's up to us to kind of maintain it in a certain yeah that would be the responsibility of the Town what they're going and so and so I can see that being kind of it I I would have to think harder as to whether that's our jurisdiction or the town's a negotiating lease but it feels like a great area where um I I am curious what obligations do we have when we own that building to try to move it towards w a more environmentally responsible direction as we lease it to someone for 5 years which 10 which could become 15 that's all I'm just thinking ahead because 15 years from now we may have a different expectation of that space as far as being environmentally consistent with our goals and we have to think about that now when we're approving the project I believe that at Springtown meeting there was some a bylaw passed about uh Energy Efficiency in town bu building but let's go we really need the lease right because a lot of times commercial leases they have to take care of everything I haven't seen it right so we we we do have to take care of yeah that's a very common we don't do anything right we probably pay the taxes you're right we pay we have to we have to look at that before we get too far and that that's only maybe a small glitch about design review because that does bring up lighting like I I apologize I didn't scrub the notes and the drawings no wores um um but if if there's any exterior lighting um and that might be if it's on the building we want to probably have the design review look at that kind of thing yeah I think I think they can yeah I think that's fair sorry wait so do you want so do you want a drawing of the building with the existing because the lighting isn't changing it's that's lit up like a Christmas tree out there um so there's lights on the building existing now that they're not changing and then there's lights on the um police St yeah police station that if something happens to that building we would then replace that to to replace those not yeah okay and I didn't like there I didn't get to read like all the notes in the drawing so like there's no new Lighting on the patio or anything that kind of stuff pretty pretty well lit now you don't need anything no but I mean we might be and just didn't you know like any project you don't think of everything so maybe we get there and we're like you know what we do lights so and and that's fine then we probably just put that a condition if it does it has to come back right if if there's exterior lighting on the patio or something yeah I think if there's if there's something if there's exterior lighting that may affect I'm not sure what in that area but then it may need it may need to come back but yeah we want to make sure I mean we still own the parking lot and then we still own the building right we want to make sure everybody is safe so we also have it's important for you to know too that the town is um maintaining insurance on that building and they also have their own insurance as well so I think there's so much Insurance there's so much Insurance there's so much all right so Peter has requested a copy of the lease that yeah once I get that obviously I'll send it I'll sa you know ASAP does but does any of that discussion inhibit prohibit us from letting designer rep look at it no it sounds like we're going to send it to design review for the consistency with Mozy and TJ's and maybe whatever lights outside that you know of did I understand that correctly no only if it's modified oh right now change got it never mind so it's just the out outdoor space design part of keeping the building as it is you know keeping the lighting so okay so um so I guess we will look for um a motion I will make a motion that the that 151 Main Street um is sent to the design Review Committee for for their review for um design plan review um I'll add that I'm kind of really modifying my thing here but that Marcel and I can put together if no objections we can put to another memo if anyone else wants to work on it I'm sure we're both okay with that but we could put together a simil memo just for consistency that includes what we talked about here and also includes the um outdoor seating which I know I have somewhere so I think that's all we're doing we're just delegating for the outdoor seating right the other criteria thater got it okay but it's pretty straightforward for the most part I'll make a motion to allow Marcelo and Trisha to do as planned as proposed and to send it to design review and to send it to design review we'll do it at the same time is there a second second and roll call vote I I Catherine Jers and Trish Kendall I so off you go to design review thank you right and thank you I appreciate your time thank you so much thank you just to continue the public hearing obviously desire review right however we got to think about when they're going to come back to us so our next meeting will be on February 8 that seems reasonable is that too quick of a turnaround for for design review when is there next meeting is there like February 1st that means you guys have a lot of they're going to be on February 1st and then the the month of February there's actually 29 days um and there's fourth there's five Thursdays and so we're actually going to meet the the excuse me we're going to meet the second Thursday which is the eth then we're going to me we're going to meet the 5ifth Thursday the 29th we're going to we moved our meeting which would normally fall on the 22nd however due to school vacation week we all agreed that it would be best to move it to the 29th when do we have 320 coming back 320 is going to be coming back it's a great question I believe it's February 8th so it's a little it's a little tight but none of them none of them it shouldn't be heavy lifts is what I'm it shouldn't be it shouldn't be and it's not exactly the same scale as Mazi yeah um and not even TJ right like there was a lot more construction for even for the TJ outdoor seating this is very very minimal um so this should not hopefully doesn't go around redesigning the whole project but well why don't we why don't we put them the three of them for February 8th but nothing else no no no visitors no no forums no nothing else on that date perfect okay and we'll be efficient about I mean if design review is not ready we could still move this project along meaning like right we could start thinking about the factors and sure yeah so it's not like if they're for some reason if they need more time I think we can still hold hold the next piece of it yeah so we'll at least have them on our you know often things get adust adjusted as we go along but at least we'll have them on there you know and can push it out if if if need be for other factors all right okay I make a motion that we continue the 151 Main Street project uh site plan review to February 8th I'll second and roll call vote Anki I Marcel Aron I Catherine Jersey I and Trisha Kendall I so that's continued to February 8th all right next on our agenda way back to the beginning all right we have um to renew or to um review the application of David spera Spa yes Spa thank you um for the design Review Committee um and there's a resume in here somewhere it should be right behind oh it is yep there's a talent Bank form uh David uh Talent Bank form and then there is his res all right so David it's nice to see you in person see you in person as well um this is the planning board um maybe we just introduce our I guess we have our name card so you know who everybody is um why don't you just um we have your resume in front of us but why don't you just give us a short synopsis of who you are your time in Ashland and why you're interested in the design Review Committee um thank you for having me here um My Name is Davis Spa I've lived in ashin almost all my life uh moved here when I was one went to school here graduate in 96 static on that um that's better and uh then moved around a bunch um actually ended up buying the house I grew up in uh in bought it from my parents six years ago um when I was working at GE Healthcare in marbor it was 15minute commute and now that um I work for sorama just across in southb I have a FIV minute commute um love the town love the small community um traveled extensively but always kind of compared other places to here um and what Ashland has and it kind of always moves forward but also with Co Road in the fire station it retains its past um my background I done a plethora of different things I ended up going to culinary school I went to for Johnson and Wales when I first got out of high school here um but I didn't stay I didn't want to work back a house in a kitchen it wasn't my passion as people say um ended up getting a Bachelor of Science and Industrial design from Wentworth in Boston did a bunch of internships ended up working for a former Professor doing Museum design so I designed like graphic panels to a and Space Museums um worked at another firm in Boston got laid off and WR both of those places and then went and got a master's degree in an exhibition and experience design from fit in New York I worked at this small little place called The Smithsonian when I was there you might have heard of them um I worked at the American Indian Museum in New York City that Branch where most of the collection was actually stored and then they opened the museum in the mall as well um did a exhibit about Jimmy Hendrick and 11 other Natives and popular music that uh was in DC and it was the size of this space but then it became in New York they have the old customs house and it became 10 times bigger so my job as the intern was how do we make this thing bigger and I really loved researching like that kind of artifact and that's what kind of like really I love about design and creating is listening to what the needs are of people and then interpreting that like actually going like reading between or listening between the lines of what they're saying and coming up with something so I would do like hand sketches um you know drinking out of Brewery at with the clients for the airand space museum I did and then that thing I did on a napkin now sits in a museum so for to me that process is very rewarding um I worked for a bunch of firms I got my master's degree did a couple different things in design um came back actually started teaching cooking classes at serab so I was there from open to close when the Clos during covid they've reopened um but I have my own company now I formed my own company doing food uh sauces spice rubs cooking classes um and then got back into doing design with sinorama um technically in sales excuse me but I kind of take that design element when someone says here's what I want to do from my sign I have no idea what it is um I look at all the parts and pieces and say this is what your message is this is what you who your audience is this is what you should really be doing um and kind of seeing that light bulb whether it was about dinosaurs or spaceships and now about branding and marketing for businesses is kind of what is most rewarding to me so all right any questions for David I will say I went to high school with you I graduated in 1995 you look extremely familiar and I think you you're what what you ended up doing is far more interesting than where I I am sitting right now so good for you um you got me thinking about signage and whether we should have sent that to design review on the last project but um good okay um I guess my only question is you know you've been on design review for some time um I sat in on a meeting okay so they kind of like saw them um I went I misunderstood okay I did the farmers market in October and they had a booth and I met Cathy and um got conversations and the is kind of just happened so now picking back up and so uh how do you have I'm assuming you've met with them and you've watched a meeting how do you see your skill set contributing to the dynamic of that group how would you contribute to that specific team I think it comes from because of my diverse experiences and background and doing different things and looking at it from the visitor point of view which is how I viewed my role as a designer whether I was doing trade show exhibits or talking about dinosaurs or whatever it was what's the visitor going to see know like what's the resident now going to see um and I think I have a very objective sense to that as to stepping outside the box you know and really looking in from their point of view I think is what has allowed me to be a successful designer um and now like I think I can bring that kind of same Viewpoint to the board what were your thoughts on the design that we just saw I love that they kept the the the facade facing the street the same um I think their logo on the brick um they mentioned the sign company in Hudson use them local that's fine um so I wasn't you know for into that are we curious if that's painted on or in terms of removing I'm just curious how that would be done but painting the trim the awning like the flags um I think that's I think it's very simple and clean and it pays homage to it so I think there are a ton of different ways and like I've seen a bunch of different ways and I totally agree that if you started to do something with one of the doors if you blocked it off it makes it look like it's uninviting in a way yeah so the fact that they kept it I agree thank you questions no I I I would just say that uh it's it's um your your background definitely you have uh uh diverse type of experiences and and and type of work that you've done and I I I think it would be a pretty um fresh View and things for the committee so I I I I find him find your experience very appropriate for it thanks questions um I I guess it's an internal did did we get a um recommendation from the design review or or have yes they um um they voted on it on January 4th they can correct me if I'm wrong on January 4th and they did I miss that I'm so I apologize if I did I try to read what we get so I didn't I I don't think it came it oh okay I don't think it came why I was asking no um and I don't maybe it wasn't an email somewhere I'm maybe to I'm not sure I I watched the meeting so that's all um so that's how I I knew that happened and I can't remember if I saw it somewhere as well didn't want to skip that step I mean I'm I'm thrilled that people that step up that have I mean being from town and having a perspective of leaving town and all your skills I think is amazing so yeah and Amanda once Amanda has some comments I can I can definitely open up to Kathy already has her hand up to Kathy and uh and Kevin who are on there so I don't have anything to do I was going to say exactly what Kate said the perspective and the commitment to town and the experience so um why don't I open it up to Kathy and um Kevin if you and um I assume that's I assume that's Hannah Stein as well if anyone wanted to uh to comment on this but Kathy you can um unmute yourself hi uh thank you for uh letting me talk we U met uh David the last full Farmers Market not the Thanksgiving Market but the last one where we could have a community table and um he seemed like he would be he expressed interest in the committee he seemed like could be a good candidate he came to the um meeting um and we actually didn't do an official vote at that meeting but we did one at the following meeting um and everybody thought he would be a good fit for our committee um for all the reasons he just spoke of at the podium thank you thanks Kathy thank you um any other other members of the design Review Committee hi this is Hana go ahead Hana I just wanted to say um yes everything to what Kathy said um talking with David was really enlivening when we met him and we were very excited about his interest and uh we're so looking forward to him joining us and and hopefully um working on some signage projects as well as other things that come before the committee so I'm very enthusiastic and and welcome him thank you um I just have one question um for you and and you and I talked about this I think just a little briefly on the phone um as as an example the planning board in the last couple years has has gotten ourselves once in a while into a little bit of hot water because we go over what we're allowed to do as a planning board and we get our finger slapped a little bit once in a while and so I assume in what you do and you're working inside spaces like the Smithsonian are there's there's kind of a balance between maybe what you want to do as an artist and the restrictions that are put upon you from the outside yeah how do you find that how do you find that balance or how do you how do you work within that balance I think it's finding the Deep Common Ground like what is the overing whether it's an educational message um or a marketing message depending on like if it's a trade show booth um or now marketing a cons signage of business like what is their ultimate goal so I think and I hate to repeat myself in a way but taking that step back and going what is what is the Baseline thing that we really need to work on like that move forward with this project um yeah I can come up with cool sketches and renderings and stuff like that but all these aren't feasible like they they fall because of budgets or committees or the the message isn't clear or whatever it would be um and it's I think it's just part of the process in listen and I think everything listening is really key to other people um and what their message is and what they're really saying and that's part of like yeah I'm able to discern what the client is saying like I can read between those lines but also what my cohorts and my comrades and colleagues are doing and what they're saying um has huge value and I think some people we'll just wait to talk instead of listen to the round table um and I would just say listening and taking looking finding common ground first and then nitpicking based on budgets and our things like that thank you anyone want to put forth a motion I'll make a motion to approve the application of David spatara to the design Review Committee I'll second an Anna teski I Marcel I Catherine Jersey and Trisha Kai so there you go welcome to the design Review Committee thank you very much appreciate your time thank you um Trisha I apologize and to the team I I have to leave because my daughter is 18 and I've been summoned because the teenagers have left my the premises and my daughter would like to have some birthday cake with me so she's 18 it's a big deal congratulations thank you so I'm going to leave early um I apologize no I I forgot this is the day where when my kid summons me I actually listen so now that she's an adult all right so have a good time wrapping up I'm I'm grateful that you could be with us this long I I longer than I expected so this candidate made me stay since I figured I have to vote for for him for fellow High School fellow all right have fun have a good rest so we we don't have meeting minutes tonight so it's really just a little kind of almost news items here um so uh Peter do you have anything on the reports of planning topics no I do not I love that let's just cross that one off um seven reports from board members and town planner uh Kate did you want to give something on comprehensive plan um yeah I do so we we had a meeting last week and I the kind of exciting thing is we're getting into the next phase of public so it's a it's a really important um Step we'll be rolling out in February um three things one will be a survey that will be um online I I we actually didn't talk people don't have computers so hopefully we'll get to that but a lot of people do but not everybody does there will be a mapping tool so that that will be looking at the map and saying I'd like the sidewalk here I I think this is a good place to plant trees um those kind of things um and the third thing is the meeting the box that we've we kind of I know we've talked about it a few times so they're all rolling out fast and furious um the survey is supposed to be live February 1st um and then we'll the I think the data map goes along with that and then the meeting in the box so um one thing I did want to bring up I think um the planning board I hope will will schedule um to do our own meeting in the Box as the board and then the process that the meeting we were sort of CH so there's seven seven topics of you know Economic Development open space that go along with the plan the exercise we did to practice was here's your little prompts we just broke into groups and had 15 minutes for each thing but the problem is 15 minutes time 7even we do have to if if we're going to do it and obviously I would highly recommend and suggest kol that the board participate in this um so that you get the time frame it's it's very like self-explanatory but like if you do it then the ask generally we're hoping that especially so that committee has representatives from other committee they go do it with their committee and then at least the people on the committee go at least that one layer as a as a kind of Baseline getting started and modeling for the whole town 18,83 to of us but that's not going to happen I know so um so that's the really exciting stuff I think maybe put on the agenda well well actually under here we don't have to put on the agenda if that's practical to have the board do meeting in the box and then um work on the next steps of that and then I do I do want to bring up just and I did bring this up at the meeting I do have concerns of the timing um I I'm on the committee I attend I read stuff I go to the meetings and I honestly did not know it limited to an 8-week window starting February 1st so I I did Express concerns at that meeting and I asked questions about could we could we add time and that's potentially a possibility Brandy had brought up the meeting saying well can we start and then if we need more time expand that pretty much got a hard no I can understand because you don't for their their planning so um I had talked to Yolanda about expressing concerns about I I mean this is public it's public process is $250,000 that's what weighs on me of involving the public um and she we had kind of batted some ideas also suggested could the start could we um start March 1 and use that month for planning and um because again we we didn't we don't we left the meeting without like your assignment your assignment your assignment how are we going to hit these groups what's it what our plan we we just have to do our best but we didn't leave the meeting of the plan nor do I think we prepared ourselves um I don't know yeah so I do still have that concern and I'm supposed to pass those things on to you so um so that and then the survey um this is interesting so we got a draft of the survey at the meeting on the 18th um we were we were able to offer comments which Anna and I did um prepare comments and sent back we kind of did them individually and then them and sent them in um and we didn't send it to the board because we weren't sure like open meeting because it wasn't published and who sees it and so at some point we can um where we stand though I don't know if the town if anyone from the town saw a draft of that before it got to the steering committee um so it's a little bit like where do we go from here like we we sent a bunch of comments we assumed there was going to be a meeting with the steering committee or something to review and which comments and where do we land and I don't think that's happening so it's a little kind of frustrating of how that's going to get ironed out um so I feel like we have to um somehow just be communicating out farther ahead right like to the steering committee to I communicate as much as I know to you guys but I don't know so like I would have loved to take that draft to my board and say Here's a draft you have comments um to get it turned around and I feel like maybe that couldn't have happened in timing but I wish we would have at least known that right um and I feel like if a draft survey is coming from the consultant we probably could have said can you give us this much time so we could go back to the board um particularly the planing board maybe some other boards don't have maybe as much so anyway that's what I know um it's supposed to be coming out February 1st survey data map meeting in the Vox um we I think we technically have the materials to get started right now but I if I recall there's going to be like a final here's the packet to get started so obviously as I just said our February 8th meeting is pretty it's well packed things could drop but it's packed so but we should be looking for a date as soon as possible so we don't get to the end and be like oops we never did this we never got to it right so that well and I would love to I mean I you can ask Janet or anyone with me everybody I meet if you're from Ashland I talk to you about the comprehensive plan so I would hope if we do it sooner then you have more motivation hopefully to go out and at least do it once with your family and your neighbors right that's that would be my job Kajol you into that so not yeah not wait till the end where you don't have feel confident to go do at least one more yourself is it something that we would as a board think about finding a like a a retreat day that we could just do it separately and just show up just to do that I mean obviously we'd have to post it as a meeting and stuff but I mean I don't know or is our what what's the duration of these well I mean we so I would we again counted 1 to seven go dividing groups go do it it was really just to get us a flavor of how to do it it wasn't that data was was n't used it was thrown in the trash it wasn't for the data it was piloting it and and we every group got through their subject they felt competently in that approximately 15 minute time frame MH but 15 time seven topics 15 minutes no maybe it's a full meeting it would be a full meeting for us yeah so so maybe some of them because maybe on some things we think more alike and they just we don't have as much discussion they go quicker we're we're not um the point of the exercise isn't that we have to agree on what we write down is collecting right so but you can see if if so we don't have to worry about consensus we love consensus we're good at it it just takes time um but no you you're just recording you're recording and and is there any rules to it can we do it in in in two sessions separate half of the topics and then the other half no absolutely I was giving the time frame I mean you don't have to do that at once and just you do not okay so we can actually keep this say say um February 8th approaches and someone continues right we could have meeting in a box ready and say hey we have an extra 45 minutes we're g to would be ready that way because that that would be we're going to do some we're going to do some sections it will and I'm going to rely on Anna Anna's typing so ideally we can handw write and I'm you won't be able but I'm pretty good at but ideally so again the format if you're talking to people about it is online because they already have it entered then they're not translating right um so it's it's prompts it's talk talk for 15 minutes collect ideas move on to the next one yeah it's pretty okay okay so it'll be good it's doable that way yeah that's true so I would say yeah I'm concerned that if we leave it for later to try to do it in one then we end up not do where not as good of a job because we end up with time and say oh let's go yeah so I would say for our February 8th meeting if it's out let's let's be prepared even if we have an extra 15 minutes hey let's try one of these does it have to be posted on the agenda as a potential thing under or be under comprehensive plan we can I think it's a good idea to put it though that we're that we're going to because we also I mean I would publicize like we're going to try we're going to do our best I hope to be cheerleaders right and that'll help I can put it in one of our I'm trying to get things in the newsletter more regularly I won't there won't be anything from me tomorrow because I didn't get there but you know I can mention there that as the planning board has opportunity we'll be doing our sections of compreh of uh of meeting in a box but I'm not going to put a yes we're going to be doing this section at this time it's like no I don't think that's necessary but I would love to see it because I just think it helps with the publicity right like could be a subsection of the comprehensive plan yeah that's what I thought we'll just put a a dash and then we'll say you know right there you know comprehensive plan meaning in a box you know like and if we don't do it we don't have to do it if we don't have time but it's there if we we have a space if it's and when it's done we take it out yeah yep until we get all when we get all the sections done is this sustainability committee coming back for three bylaws next in February that's when we get to sustainability committee Deepa no but is the Feb 8 going to be blocked I I don't no no one's going February 8th except those three okay no I was wondering like if we want to allocate like what we did for the tree bot the other day like start at 6:30 and attack this Focus comprehensive plan section oh like if we started a little bit early yeah I mean we're talking about almost 2 hours for Seven sections but I think what I would do I like the idea of trying we if it's a couple meetings we did nothing we have to regroup right yeah would but but I mean we've been in meetings where no it's true things drop without notice they do oh they continued this and usually we could we could do a 15 minute like if we just do one of the just brainstorm a little bit I agree with deep but we don't want to do them all at 10 or 11:00 at night because we won't give our best yeah but I think that's a great idea to try yeah I mean if if we have a open calendar on eight then yes 7:15 to 11:30 is fine but I think this topic at 10:00 is not going to not helpful yeah yeah we we'll assume we'll we'll assume we'll put it on our agenda from EV for every meeting starting now we'll put in a comprehensive plan and we will fill it in as we can and if we get to you know getting into March where we're not going to finish we we'll make sure we lay out some real time or we'll start doing that even in March if we you know we'll start we start doing maybe an early one like we said on that point to to finish it up to force ourselves yeah even coming at 7 you know what I mean we can take smaller chunks and attack it okay right um next uh design Review Committee I don't think there's anything else there so sustainability committee the Margie had asked um to have kind of a retreat after our last meeting um related to the uh the tree bylaw again she asked for um she asked for 90 minutes um just with the sustainability committee with the planning board it could be a smaller group but I I think the I think we haven't had a chance to discuss it we were just listening that I think it should be kind of everyone everyone who can make it it could be Zoom it doesn't have to be in one of our meetings I said I I said really though she she asked me to offer you know some like days and times I said really the only the only times that ever work for us is opposite at our Thursday meetings and comprehensive plan takes one of those right so exactly so I think I think February 1st next week is a potential to have a zoom meeting and for 90 minutes and if you can tune in or tune in in your pajamas you know at least were there participating is that is that a possibility with everybody yeah sure okay that would would be okay so we'll look at we'll look at that Zoom February 1st for tree bylaw and related to that before I forget wait I have it somewhere I believe I was cleaning out my sustainability folder here before the meeting and I passed these down I believe Peter must have put these on the table next to me and I just put them all in my folder because what it is is an email directed to Peter from um Peter is it w wesburger w WB yes yes yes um and he was just G he's giving his um take on the tree bylaw Peter I know him um I I did serve on the YMCA board for a year or two um I had to actually had to choose at the time between planning board and YMCA uh board so I chose planning board um to that yeah thanks um but he is the chief develop vment officer for the Metro West YMCA so he's obviously very involved in the development of the YMCA in Ashland and this is an email and I apologize like I said I must have sat next to Peter and I put the whole pile in my folder and and they didn't get distributed so um I wanted to make sure that other Viewpoint got to you that's all sorry I stole them I didn't mean to I'm just assuming if it's saying um response for planning board and sustainability that it got to them because if it's if it was dress to Peter but you're giving it to us did it go to the sustainability oh yeah did it you know what it's a great question I'll make sure I said we to I'll just make a note I'll make a note to do that I I assume I did but I saw it this morning when I was cleaning out this folder I'm like oh I have five copies of this okay so um CPC we're meeting next week Metro westle Regional collaborative anything on that okay no meetings um MBTA communities I'm just putting this under other because we don't have a slot for it we are having you'll see it in the town new newsletter tomorrow um we're going to organize a kind of a community discussion um regarding MBT zoning and we're going to give a presentation uh similar to the presentation that we kind of gave to the select board planning board but on Zoom to anybody that's interested um and we're going to kind of hopefully start spreading the word yeah so it's it's really about you don't have to be there it's not a board meeting it's really just about for to get it out to the public this is what the regulation says um these are the initial ideas we have about you know how we think we could meet this here are some alternates in there and trying to get some feedback from the public about you know we would would we like area a included or area D like which one seems best right so it's not a it's not on a pitchly on a warrant article it's just to get initial feedback and to kind of have it out there it will be Monday February 5th yeah on Zoom it'll be via Zoom uh and I'll and Al Alvaro myself and Trish and Joe manani the select board will kind of be there talking about uh kind of the the process what what we've done where where we what tracks we're on um and try to move things forward yep so since um since we met the last time since the select board and the planning board met the last time we've just been kind of going through really it's SP Peter and Alo going through the just the worksheets and the asking the questions and dotting the te's and you know dotting The te's Crossing you know and there's just a lot of information to try to get in there so um that's kind of where we are in the process we're kind of just in the meat of it trying to see if what we think we want to do is possible but also to get community feedback to see if you know they can give us some direction on that too yeah I just a note at this time OB we we do we did receive a grant from Mass Housing Partnership we do have uh two Consultants working with us uh Emily in from in Consulting who I who I've worked with in the past who I cannot say more good things about and then also rkg and and rkg is uh working with a lot of Metro West communities they're actually running the affordable housing numbers and affordable housing components to kind of backend um how much of a affordable housing component indoor percentage we can add to our overall bylaw and so that has to be done in relationship to the legislation um which is which is I think they so I'm sorry it's 10 o'clock at night it the the title of that report is kind of a fiscal and impact analysis rkg is doing that for us uh and then Emily is kind of helping with the overall uh drafting of the bylaws which obviously Lisa be's included in and and and so we're kind of pushing ahead with that process will you'll have public forums yes after that point yes yeah because this this first one isn't about a warrant article we would still have to have the ones about the actual but we don't have a bylaw yet we're just trying to get that initial information out there so we have time till the your end it's gonna be a tight window yeah for spring it's going to be a very tight window to Spring uh I learned today that niic is is pushing off and and looking into this into fall town meeting just to kind of um pull back a little bit I I've Alvaro found that out kind of through the grape vine uh uh through a couple other you know through a couple of communities and so um we're going to try to you know the the the the thought process is is we should try to do all we can to make sure we you know get on the spring and and uh and just continue on and um and that's what we're we're going to do there I mean there have been discussions in the Metro Regional collaborative there was an email today um from um but we had a couple meetings go and gone through and plans the process was and I think the vast majority of towns were targeting fall but um email today was sort of around like how much compliance they were even going to like look towards targeting more getting a meeting and maybe not being like entirely doubting allies across yeah it totally seems you know kind of across the board right now at this point you know I think I think we're in is still in a good location obviously uh we have a good team working on it uh but I agree with Amanda you know everyone is still kind of noodling trying to figure out what's going on um I can't say more enough about Alvaro and the work that he does on the compliance model and the gis you know I think without him we'd be kind of lost a little bit uh because his skill set with GIS and being able to get that GIS license was a game Cher for us uh and to kind of get that energy into to the to the process process um and I think we have a good game plan I think we've always had a good game plan going back even a year ago um working on the compliance model that we had to submit for the state last January and so I think it's just a matter of putting you know putting everything together and and hopefully yeah we can thread that needle and get it on the Springtown war and meet compliance and if we don't we'll we'll reassess and we'll we carry on you know uh the deadline for adoption is Janu excuse me is theoretically a year from today right it's December 31st 2024 that's when we have to comply um but I think right now we're going to push forward and uh and hopefully thread the needle 25 January 25 it's approxim when the ball drops no it's it's December 31st this year but I I'm going to I mean I know I think we sort of agreed like I really wanted the spring I I feel like if you don't given that we've known we've had this we've made a lot of success we hired Consultants you're giving the community not feeling like it's kind of holding this over you have to pass it right cuz there may I mean hopefully the forums ahead of time are going to flush out things that when we go that it's more understood and and accepted but I don't want to have like you have to pass this cuz now the deadlines I feel like that's not well that's exactly why we're pushing forward except there's a lot like I said there's we had that presentation we gave to everybody and really it hasn't really change that much except that there's all these questions they're like oh well we have to track down every one of these questions right and so it's just a lot more complicated than it's like oh just change these little things in the bylaw and you're done so we're hoping for that that's we talked about that that's what we're hoping for but like like I said it's tight with everything we have to do everything we have to track down and getting the consultant and do we want you know everything so um getting the consultant doing the best we can getting the affordability component study going obious ly um getting the verbage it's a lot it's a big lift for everybody right and not just not just for us in Ashland but I think regionally obviously if you go you know on the uh the Metro West Region collaboratives you know that's why I mean I was saying yeah some towns are kind of still trying to pull together right because it's a huge lift uh you know for for every city in town yeah but some have passed it already too so like doing our best gate no I just I'm I'm just repeating to speak up because I I just want I I think you are doing your best but like I If there's any other way right and if there's a certain thing that I can take as a board member like it's pretty hard for me to take with Comprehensive plan but like I would at least consider that if that helps get it to I do think the ones that have passed I could be wrong about this but if I'm if I'm thinking back to the meeting of the regional collaborative where everyone went through their status I think the ones who had passed were kind of like handed compliance like they were like already they met the requirements or like they they didn't have to like completely that's my recollection I could have that wrong it was I think end of November but I think it's every town is like is situated a little bit differently and I think the ones that are in our situation I think um hollon and sure Wen even have like uh like big issues with like water and sewer and septic and like things that we're not necessarily grappling with um but I think that compliance was there was an easier path to compliance for some communities than others yeah yeah yeah so anyway we're trying to trying to do things right so um and I I think it's I think it's coming together it's just that the complexity of the stuff even that alvare was working with to submit the plan it's like Way Beyond what we showed in that presentation like you know so anyway that that's where things are so um February 5th if anyone can make it but you certainly don't have to be there it's it's not a it's not a discussion for the planning board it's a discussion for the community so all right and the um the only other thing I have on my list was that um was it was it Helen Nicole that asked nicoal yeah asked um the planning board for meeting time at some point no no no particular date but to um talk about a bylaw that creates a historical district downtown so um obviously I'm happy to put it on our agenda at some point but there's a few we want to make sure we get comprehensive plan through there there's other things we we need to make sure we MBTA you know we have to make sure we stay on track so but maybe maybe March you know we'll have a we'll have an opening for that we'll keep an eye out for it I don't have a date for that yet so was there something was there one more thing you had something that you were going to bring up under no I just wanted to mention um the upper child's Trail they we're applying for a grant uh for the upper child's Trail and uh and I was collecting letters of recommendation uh from M ma mapc in the state and and uh and we're doing some work going to hopefully moving that project along is a priority project to the select board um and historically the planning board has kind of granted a letter of support um and so just be aware I I may be asked indor could be sending around just a draft letter of support that I would ask you know either to put on the next agenda Andor to kind of everyone kind of take a look at but other than that that's it all right like I said we have no meeting minutes tonight is there anything else from the board that you announcements I do have one thing at at some point can we put on the agenda sort of um I I'm kind of we didn't talk about that memo from Lisa me about the grinder thing but I think we probably need to talk about it related to the project I think I know my answer my my thing would be to um see if the planning board would basically ask the select board to kind of um they're the water and sewer Commissioners so like if if we sort of are the Crux of finding something I want to make sure it's passed on I don't think they sit around watching our meetings right I know people have friends and those things but like I would like it to be I would hope that we would professionally communicate something about that to them at some point yeah I mean uh truthfully I didn't even read that Meo yet so I saw it come in I but um so yeah we can discuss it first in context like you said with 9 to 49 and then wherever it needs to go you know after that so remind me when we discuss it in context here so that that we follow through with it if that's what needs to be done right um anything else I'm curious where the Whitmore state so Whitmore State we're still working with on them uh with them obviously I spoke to one of the homeowners yesterday kind of helped her out looking at some plans for her house um um our attorneys are still working on it a couple weeks ago I sent over a memo on work completed uh prior to the holidays they did do some work out there they rebuilt the entire sale running down the left side of the of the of the roadway which I inspected a couple times uh it was built to obviously standards they did rough in some of the sidewalk work um kind of around the cue saac but they kind of shut down and they actually tried to build up some temporary kind of of um curbing running down the right side of the roadway uh to help manage the will flow of water uh however with that said we've had a couple unprecedented rainfalls uh and so uh and the some the work is kind of held up a little bit you know obviously through the winter that was our goal just to kind of H hold up through the winter there's plenty of work that still has to be done legal council is still working on the case and they're kind of moving it forward uh with their own pay thank you yep anything else all right in that case I will make a motion to adjourn at 10:23 second roll call vote Marcel I Catherine Jers Amanda haes I and Trisha Kendall I all right thanks everybody see you in heavy man what's up with those lions

and we have to pledge pledge pleas I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America the rep for it stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and [Music] justice Mrs Leber Mrs amaras here Mr mcgiven here Mrs Allen Mr R okay now yes okay approve the agenda I to approve the agenda second Mrs Le Mrs amaras yes Mr MCG yes Mrs alen yes Mr yes and next is the agenda item right call call The public's next okay with that we'll move on to the next item consent agenda consent it's three items in consent all right and I believe those are all about money yes they are all right any motion I'll move to I'll make a motion to approve the can agenda second Laura right yes any discussion um just foror Greg you just give us the 30 second overview okay so um so what we have is we've got the new intercom system so what that's going to do is going to give us um the first piece of this is replacing like for like with the sfb so we're going be getting new speakers new new wiring a a new brain we're getting all new everything with the with the PA campus wide campus wide um should that include the phone system or no no it does not include the phone system okay it'll integrate with but it does integrate with the the phone system um so that was the first one the third one is an upgrade for that for that system so what it will do is we will no longer have ceiling mounted alarm or ceiling mounted micro or ceiling mounted speakers they would be wall mounted they have a digital PLU that also has the ability to display messages that a wireless thing they'll be going through the walls they're running with power down the walls so to get all that that's almost $440,000 and it also puts in um call stations behind each teacher's desk so that they have the ability to just flip a switch and call the office so they'll all have that that ability in case of any emergency in case they need to get in touch with somebody super quick and it'll it'll come straight through the main console which would be stationed up here at with Miss ev's desk so that is numbers 6.01 and 6.03 6.02 is the ongoing plumbing issue with the Middle School um speaking with the sfb we are at a point now at the middle school where instead of replacing 10 ft here 10 ft there we are at a point where we just need to take the cast iron that we have and coat it with this with this I an epoxy probably not the right word but it basically turns our cast iron sewage lines into a PVC sewage line so what they're going to have to break through the floor in a couple of spots in the hallways to add new cleanouts so that they can get into the pipes because the way the pipes are designed underneath the building is just kind of U for lack of a better term wonky they stand behind it 100% it's the warranty is actually included in the packet that okay that I submitted but it'll cover they'll do the entire building will be finished for this money right so not only will this take care of the underground plumbing they are also going to line well I guess it's all underground plumbing but they're also going to line from the floor at the toilets down to the main lines they're going to line from the urinals to the main line they're going to line from the sinks to the main line so it's not just the main lines that we're getting done it is everything big job it is a big big job how long how long did you say you do it so they submitted 52 days but they're guessing in that 32 to 42 range 52 days is on the schedule just in case you know they have hiccups on well that's off to you for getting the facilities for on De yeah we've got what half million dollars worth of project sitting right here that we need to approve and it's all stuff that we would have to do anyway it's just with the by going through the sfb it's not coming out of our budget to have to do it because if this had to come out of our budget I don't know how we'd be able to do it but we pretty much be bankrupt if we didn't have that correct we pretty worn down school all right any more discussion guys no sounds good thank you Greg you're very welcome Mrs Mrs Le yes Mrs amaras Mrs amaras sorry I was on mute yeah Mr mcgiven yes Mrs Allen yeah Mr Al yeah right okay with that I think we're thank you all have a good day thank you everybody thanks for attending on such a short notice

[Music] up [Music] a [Music] [Applause] [Music] m [Music] n [Music] what I don't know okay keep a one pony I mean Zary is good but is good is she better for this remember if I wouldn't say no stand very still but also I'm just saying you're not like you only play Sig that's what I trying to say well I don't but just like I don't see why I would okay I didn't see that I missed it that wasn't in when I switched him to spectator only once y overwat mind they I'm junk en mine's half onow crap low I'm low got one got one nice good pick run run run right right W off get this get this secur no nice no the head and then oh I tagi you completely healed oh huge fuse I died watch overtire nice I see you almost got outs the window yeah he's right here oh my gosh Chris you want to try window next time they all walk through yeah yeah yeah I got you oh are low I died to junk crap all good though you guys win that yes we do I love that done I love this nice let's go wait wheel thing is so good what ghosts that that hole was crazy yeah if we do this right they won't even know what happened Safety First taking down enemies first and a half I'm going I'll count down 3 2 1 3 2 go so low they're going this soldier's completely separated from the on me I need he good stuff don't yes okay fight is swap the okay please top down ly there's a health back right behind you wait we're goats wait we're goats I try and go in there and Boop them off and spawn me got you I beat I'm going to save be fora my at one Luc low nice got you speed on this Reaper I think Lucio's upset he not moving spawn let's walk back a little bit it's just a hog oh they going up top good round good round good job look at him he's like you just hit her through that plant the rocket box is kind of weird wasn't that punch crazy yeah was uh what is it now J to oh I didn't do that retack first H I don't know I think so I don't isn't it blue is isn't it just like the colors who's on what oh I couldn't tell you if so then yeah if so then red is attack first we would be defense that's what I meant to say I hate defense first in this map yeah I kind of sucks but we'll do fine it's like boring it's like it doesn't feel right you want to play Z here it would work sure just if you want some variety yeah I feel like I can kill those squishies too if I sorry okay let's go yeah I think we're on the fense first yeah it's definitely the the the colors I'm try to play break break here different what Chris do you want me to play anybody different uh not unless you want to I mean you play Anna all right honor our bath [Music] works the will not fa the hand will not flinch I figured out why my a aim was so bad earlier mag I accident hit the yeah I hit I accidentally hit the DPI button and it switched it it was crazy that couch jump up Tick right this down still running Jun Focus Mercy L Sig Sigma Sig Mercy anti oh I had to reload reload nice I have up here I need he my bad I knock s off he's right on you mag right behind you oh fre I'm going to die here yeah I sold it's all good we can t that we have and they're wasting their dragon I'm stay break I all oh that wait what oh I should just stay in spawn I can Al that point oh good Al but I'm dead I don't have it break Tre too l no way I'm swapping this character's bad I was not dead I'm going to have to swap I have my Al in seven I'm just going to stay and then I'll switch to Moira or something I play actually we need to hold a bad Rock get him get [Applause] him he's H one more one more oh he got all run back run back run back quick quick quick back get out got get out Mercy Mercy back wait wait for me to get my shield back and I'm going to run in thereading oh I'm dead I'm dead fre not make the same last time I almost did I come back with rally I'm going I'm going to Rally it I on my sleep you guys are alone I'm dead I sto that for as long as possible the over [Music] here bro oh dude I forgot golden guns weren't in this and I looked down at my Moira hands and I was so sad that oh they're yeah good good good good Hanzo Hanzo Hano no us us good sleep yeah I messed up the first I accident anti theep let's go we're in this bottom room or at least take is by ban flux I'll call for Nano Got Back N FL oh no got P you only have one support I just died where right hereo ATT my shots got [Music] stun now we have for this fight and we have coess soon yeah I'll even like Chuck the orb up there and get it faster they have an ash all I have huge that's huge no no behind he's jumping up top guys got him nice that was crazy Noah oh yeah A Taste of Poison yeah did they use one all they used entry yeah yeah they they're going left side or they were I don't know if they still are are they they're all left side return to me somewhere left bottom though were oh yeah gun die I'm dead just rest seconds my all reive my oh mercy [Music] hack they're all one that's low that's really low nice guys was huge the good good good good good good good good I'm over here like you know yeah Summer's fun to play yeah you want play Diva uh yeah I feel like they're just going to keep trying to [Music] counter wait let's try and push the thing out before the round starts you know what I'm talking about push it out the door yeah we got it does this thing go out yeah yeah yeah everything almost everything can like I think you can push these caners out too it's so goofy they just didn't render anything oh except it won't stop blowing air so it's impossible to P they have a torb j how do you say it the cans out you can't they have a um fashion in their turret set up bir's goney stand ma if you go up on the S I can stay with you they can die thei oh I'm missing every shot got [Music] bre that's so I don't think you need to switch off though I think he'll be fine yeah spamming this choke with tunai is just too easy I don't no and I don't think that the they're going to get high enough charge either it's AAR though we can stay up here have my you guys good bomb Oh behind top behind hey we got fire three four alss anyone want anyone want a nano I do um I'm on all right EMP big EMP 30 Health though oh no that's already scary guide you on on this I still missing where is this guy oh it it it ate that slept and hacked no no no good stuff yeah got I got the Nano what Nano did I not get Nano I don't know you got Nano okay yeah I was going to say that one good junk play I had oh it was a right before you swapped too so this was really good there wasn't even a Grenade on my screen he just died yeah me too scared had a heart attack I think we have one more don't we yeah so I'm switching Gavin in for Chris and Lily's back on support okay all right yep yeah I will r r break it is oh I should probably do that um it is new Queen Street uh uh Reaper Reaper is pretty good we could play Genji but I'd go with Reaper he who else do you play you should coron Ash is decent on how do you say it tjj you said torj yeah torj it's new street I was just about to say torn it's torbjorn yeah like that no it's torbjorn what are you talking about he's Swedish yeah torb Jord no you're just wrong when he loads in maybe he'll play his voice one like where he says his name [Music] yeah [Music] a [Music] [Applause] [Music] he [Music] a [Music] I'm play Sorry character with the arrows I did not know that did you no I'll use my arrow keys have for real yeah I have 60% whatever it is0 should I play Diva again yeah or do I go Zar you want me on yeah what do you want to do I don't care I feel like you're better with the windows is day UNL luo might be the play here cuz we're slow conrat y drunk gra junk low junk really low all right nice Freo got Lucio with the robot got you got let this party went sick I'm going to go with Noah nice noing for the win I could have got the cidy but I I whiffed I can't believe you Noah how could you sigo I did that's now they're all here he Rush on keeping behind them on you oh I got rock with a be take half ST Low gra oh oh they're all back your is definitely they the Rob behind time to try you all are back you can take that fight poet it's a 3v3 when everyone get back back winning though everybody's here almost yeah junk behind nice good bomb Rel low drunk is so low nice um what am I saying not K so a blazing Massacre near the imortality field in the I'm stuck oh I got there let me take this High Ground I'm with you I'm jumping this hog now got you so low they're all low CL um no has two of them on him low I'm dead I'm dead junk and you guys play for help pack should win it's just a drunk me and L are coming back wait no it's a goat no it's a goat I'm about to lose my Mech though wait wait no you're a go there I win and seven I don't know my me it's so awkward what let them you're car I'm dead I'm just going to wait for you guys yeah reset I almost have my bomb again M bomb you say mom said I almost have my bomb again oh I thought you said mine not what I dead need help Reaper reap re 12 a nice dr's back dead over there I'm going with Noah you guys can push someone on top it's Reaper he might all he might drop down all I'm going toest junk junk up here I have I have B car car let the you Reaper hereo really low nice what for hog have that oh your be [Music] TP they like dead dead here we have here I'm dead took him from us oh I didn't grab the health pack oh I'm dead we got to win more more fight reset I have window and two and one okay we have B Window I have bomb soon tooing you want me to TP up there it's the last oh he peing up I'm going to go behind them B we win robot Until the End GG vory that this when you kill like the whole team in that [Music] room by my I'm by myself too [Music] yeah [Music] nah

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meeting of the Board of Education USD 348 uh to order so we'll start with the pledge of alleg Allegiance I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all all right um a couple housekeeping before we get into approving the agenda number one you'll notice that we have a camera out to live stream um because we're talking about the bond and that we want to make sure that we're being as transparent as possible um we elected to go ahead and just live stream this special meeting um and it is a special meeting so no public comment you know public is certainly welcome to attend and to listen and to gather information that kind of stuff but this is a meeting where we prioritize the board uh working through issues um and then we'll be back for doing public comment at the next regular meeting so with that uh approval of the agenda is in order so move second okay so Susan uh moved and Chris seconded all those in favor raise your right hand say I right 70 um so announcements any announcements from administrators board members anybody anything crickets okay so we'll move on uh classified staff on snow days M Doge yes so what I'd like to do is is ask the board uh for the opportunity to do something um we had a a an untypical an atypical winter if you will where we had five and a half snow days leverag this year um based on the best interest of the safety for students and staff and in doing so one of the things that that I leverage in terms of trying to make that decision is is weighing what's best for students and staff in that sense the side effect to doing something like that is when I cancel school I'm also canceling the work day for classified staff and while while I do want their safety to be the priority I also understand the need for income that's there so we're putting classified staff in the situation where they either have to forego in this case a little over a week's pay or leverage their personal leave their their discretionary leave in doing so um for those that are on salary it it doesn't impact them in that same fashion and so what I'd like to do is uh with this un this atypical situation that occurred what I'd like to do is go ahead and and pay our classified staff for those days that they missed uh so we don't create a financial hardship for them in addition to that what I'd like to do is for our staff that we said we need you to come in even though the conditions aren't safe for everybody else to come in to give them time and a half during those those days where we had to do that um and in talking with Nate in terms of the financial impact that that would have looking at that given that the classified staff for the day's Miss we already budgeted for their daily salary what we'd be looking is the time and a half for those that we needed to come in it would be around $3,100 that's there and and talking to Nate that is not cost prohibitive that is something that we can do um and then in terms of moving forward this this would be something that I'd like to look at work agreements that we have for classified staff so we can have something in place that takes care of them um but also gives board discretion uh as needed so to that end what I would what I would like is is asked you to consider approving the ability to pay for classified SN staff for snow days used in January and then time and a half for those required to work any i f any questions I I just wanted to um see and I guess maybe it's a first question is this going to Encompass or is the special ed Co-op going to be able to also we already did that awesome yeah we did that last uh that last week yeah last week great and we just uh I think in that motion not that has to be the same but it was something to the extent of covering all snow days for employees for January of 2024 I think how we phrase it and go ahead I'm I'm very very comfortable with it we do the same thing in in my office if if there's a doc that is out is you know not it's not their fault that they can't do anything so we can pay them I move that we pay classified staff for snow days in addition the ones who were had to come in PID time and half how many is that by the way is it 15 Nate is that what we found yeah 13 13 I second all right so all those in favor right hand say I I I good all right thank you okay so moving on into Bond exploration uh the bond study findings in inclusions what I thought we'd do with this is kind of go through the retelling um of the first Bond the feedback that uh we received and then I've got a presentation uh that kind of culminates the the subcommittees work that has taken place and led us to uh the recommendation that's there before you tonight um to give consideration uh for the pro uh potential bond issue this may so as we we talked about in the spring of of 22 prior to Mr Dorothy resigning uh he reached out to me and asked me if there was any consideration of entertaining a bond issue that could uh leverage operates to take care of some deferred maintenance needs within the district um at the time there was about $15 million uh accessible without leveraging any Mills so in a mill neutral uh component and I said if this is what the district needs the board's been going through this process then you know I'm I'm all in so we came through we met uh several times times that we we wound up hiring DLR the Architecture Firm who took us through a process of touring every facility within the district to identify needs they took us through a visioning uh process with various stakeholder groups um community members teachers students staff members or administrative team um to develop a list of priorities that uh centered around education in terms of CTE Safety and Security and then Outdoor Learning um from there through the conversation is there were two options there uh there you there was option opportunities to take care of CTE Safety and Security and then uh some Outdoor Learning experiences or to leverage an additional 2 and a half Mills uh going 2.9 mil excuse me and going after about eight different projects uh for the district at A T of about 25 million um through the course of the election that took place uh the bond did not pass and uh after the bond it didn't pass some time was spent reflecting visiting with staff visiting with with community members um and trying to gather feedback the subgroup continued to meet uh throughout the course from uh the the summer through um October November and then in December again um and then we had that work session in January where we continue the process of what what is it we could do how do we want to proceed moving forward do we entertain a bond issue and look at providing some some of these much needed affer maintenance uh components to our district or do we allow things to continue with the addition that previous Bond previous Mills get paid off than what we need to to release those those Mills um and through the course of the conversation the the bond subcommittee has identified um that there are still needs that that that we'd like to see considered um and to that end what we we'd like to do is is put together this opportunity tonight to go through AE show you a presentation there that takes into consideration what could be uh available there one thing that is maintained true throughout this whole reboot if you will is the need to stay M neutral the idea that we we provide that opportunity so individuals taxpayers know what to expect uh moving forward with this so with that in mind what I'd like to do is share my screen to the TVs over there go through a presentation for you so and those on the on the subcommittee as as I'm going through Lacy and Mindy if to interject here if there's something and even knows from previous uh from the previous uh board is as things continue to to come up go ahead and interject as necessary so the the focus of the conversation centers around the idea of uh the feedback that came through was we realize education is needs to continue to be a focus it needs to be the the driving force of of what it is we're doing as well as Safety and Security that also needs to continue to be a focus through the course of the conversations that we've had I'll go through and talk about about the Career and Technical education facility the update and expansion and how that intertwines as well as the Safety and Security Focus that's necessary and some things that came up over the course of last year being with my my first year in the district and talking with administrators so the moving forward here we've got those two priorities the CTE uh expansion and update that's there the feed feedback that we received from the last uh election was the CTE Edition in the previous Bond was too small and did not allow for program expansion the location of it that was there did not provide enough space was the the kind of the shared belief there um that more space was necessary more space was needed with the conversation being if if we're removing Athletics from the conversation really focusing on the educational needs as well as Safety and Security what could we do to to dream big with the CTE expansion there so the idea is to to take see an increase uh increasing from what was 9,000 square ft to 23,500 Ft and to do that you'd be seeing 14,500 additional square feet new square feet that is represented in the yellow space uh spaced areas there on the diagram the pink shade ated area would be renovated Square fet so we would take what's currently our existing Woods Metals drafting location take it down to the the bones of it and then renovate uh the space that's there through the The Leverage of prefabrication and then renovation costs um we actually are able to more than double the square footage that we were trying to achieve last time while also um providing opportunities for program expansion this is where the last Bond we had one classroom space that was dedicated with three lab spaces so you had one classroom that was shared was also was to double as a drafting space but it was also the classroom for culinary classroom uh mag science classroom as well as the the metals Woods uh that were there so we were going from one classroom and three labs to what will now be four classrooms with four Labs so each program program that's there would have its own dedicated classroom dedicated lab space so what this allows us to do is that opportunity for three programs Metals woods and drafting all fall within the same program agriculture science is a new program that we started right now it's in a classroom at the Junior High that has about a one small closet and then four walls and this would give it an actual a science classroom that's there as well as lab space necessary culinary arts um would we' see some renovation that's that's to that end that would allow culinary art space and then the expansion is within the Health Sciences piece if we think back to what took place in December when Brandon Kelly talked about what we'd like to see happen with the future of Health Sciences and within the pathway it's offering out that Sports Medicine track which is something that would be unique to Baldwin that other districts aren't offering if that makes sense so it allows that program expansion we've got the student interest there to align with that um and so you see that that cost there is 11,845 644 estimated cost for that project I think it's it's good to point out too that one of the problems you know with where we had it before it was accessible without having to go outside but this is I think a really nice elegant you'll see as we go through this a very elegant way uh that we can still maintain that Bus Loop but also no you don't have to you don't have to leave the building since they're now connected it's a it's a continuous uh pathway so you can go from the junior high into um the Health Sciences lab and not have to leave the building because it is connected across there it will be connected absolutely any questions about the CTE expansion and update all right the next item there is the enclosed walkway um the feedback from the the last Bond was um this was one of those areas that the community felt strongly that the the walkway needed to be enclosed and that was one of the unfortunate sides that that was with the bond not passing was the opportunity to close that that in closed walkway so the feedback was there still needs to be an effort to connect the junior high and the high school due to the number of students that transition between buildings we have students taking anywhere from math eighth graders taking math um some of the electives that are there CTE offerings over there at the high school and some of the the we have high schoolers that are coming back to the junior high building itself for the ACT science class that's there as well as to take any of the classes that are offered in the Performing Arts Center um and so to be able to enclose that structure there from a Safety and Security um aspect the tag for that would be 477,000 is an estimated cost and so rather than this being connected to the actual CTE structure it would be its own separate project um the walkway would allow for secure transition between the buildings and the walkway will allow for Bus Loop access and that will come come up as when I get to the Bus Loop portion of the presentation all right for this piece question the actual walkway uh location didn't change the nope didn't change they're just going to enclose that structure so that it is a safe and secure um is transfer between buildings is there an easy explanation for why it's 880,000 more than it was um no one of the things that that we did is we the soft costs that are that were a part of it that also included within that I just didn't know if something changed from last meeting the world a little oh from the last week no just the last time we got the last kind of estimation it went up $80,000 for the walkway now I like you're talking about a year ago kind of stuff no from the last meeting January 3D well when DLR went through and and put together their Finance program or Finance Plan cost plan excuse me um they they were able to say show the uh inclusion of the soft costs into the projects themselves um and then with that they noticed there was a tabulating uh eror that's there and I'll get to that when we get to the their cost but if you if last time they presented the presentation was at uh just over 17 million and they were tasked to come back at 17 million and so they they did some uh rearranging of of the the costs that are associated there so you've got U for for example as we're looking at some of the finishings um we're using lower level finishings in some areas and so overall um the cost itself is for the overall bond is coming down about 600,000 but based on how they did that he he moved some of the the the funding the the amounts uh between the projects I hope that makes sense did I explain that right Phil I think that sounds right and this does include um restrooms with outdoor access correct not in the walkway CTE yeah the C no not in the walkway in the CT okay okay yeah oh thank you for pointing that out the CTE um structure will also include exterior access restrooms um for the public uh when we have the defense over on that side of the field the Junior High football and also tennis tennis yep no more porta potty yeah no more porta potty we can still leave it there for Old Time sake right all right so you'll notice that where the CTE structure is itself is sitting on uh what was the lane that the buses used to access what currently is the Bus Loop right now and in talking with Derek about kind of the the Safety and Security of his building last year one of the things we talked about was dismissal with regards to the Bus Loop his concern with with having the buses parked their on Quail trying to pick students up while students are crossing the street cars are leaving um that the the junior high to pick up their kids it's it's a stressful uh 15 minutes of the day and so what this plan allows us to do is to reroute the buses creating a new um a new road that would go between uh the the current bus facility between the CTE structure and the junior high allowing for two buses to pass so that we can utilize the bus loop as a fully functioning Bus Loop drop off pickup spot for the junior high and the high school and because we've got that excuse me enclosed walkway that's there um students would have a they'd be supervised a better an opportunity to supervise students as well as coverage from the elements should it rain or snow um the weather itself be be frigid if that makes sense and the feedback that was received is the traffic flow on Quil creates a significant supervision safety concern during arrival and dismissal um it would be best to create an off Street bus pickup and drop off location this particular uh opportunity that's there creates that that uh that solution um and to do so would be at a price tag of 547 34 any questions I just want to make a comment that I had heard from a current school bus driver that knew that we were talking about this that this um would be a big relief for him um because that drop off pickup has become um somewhat scary honestly so um I think this is a a good solution for that all right the next item there additional parking uh this is a safety uh concern as well feedback we received there parking continues to be a safety issue when the events take place there's not enough parking spaces to accommodate those that are in attendance cars continue to park illegally and in the fire emergency Lane previous Bond called for too many parking spots uh that's the culmination of the feedback that was there I will tell you just as a an anecdotal piece to that this weekend at the wrestling tournament we had a student from another school that that got that was injured thankfully it was an injury where they could walk themselves to their vehicle but had that been an injury that would have required EMS to show up to the school there would have been a problem because of all the cars that were parked along um the fire lanane right out there um for the price tlets their new parking would be uh to accommodate 200 new parking spots the previous Bond itself called for 450 parking spots this would be a reduction um of 250 spots um the new parking spot as it's as it's layered there in that current design would require the relocation of the restrooms which in and of itself is is is also what leads to the cost that you see there so that would be 3, 19991 1225 um based on how that's configured if there was an opportunity to build around those those restrooms you could potentially see some savings there and the the this new configuration allows uh no interference with the existing like track and field events so we don't have to move anything so having it stretched out from The Practice Facility correct absolutely so more cost savings there so it goes further west than the previous yeah we went further west yeah Shunk it down which makes it a little bit too nicer you can maybe Park on that uh west side of that to get around for even like Junior High football games and stuff to access the backside from that way too yeah so all right any any questions where would the new restrooms be they figured that and I've got that on your cost breakdown which we'll discuss here in a few minutes um they figured that at around 900,000 okay I'm sorry like what's that like we're at on the the map we're on the map it would probably be uh pushing it closer uh to the soccer fielded some right now the the only restroom out there at the soccer field is a portapotty um for the athletes to use so there's the opportunity there for for the restroom itself to to serve a greater purpose Beyond just the the two the two toilets that are there right now and get three you might get three yep absolutely and and that does include your road what's that that does include that's we've got that broken out here next all right the last SA the item there is the East West roadway which uh which Mike stole my thunder on um the the feedback that we received was the traffic flow at the high school of Junior High continues to be a safety concern due to the number of vehicles attempting to access the junior high and high school Lots off of Eisenhower um the ability to create an entrance off of 6 Street uh would alleviate some traffic uh congestion that shows up there as well as pushing the entrance uh from 6th Street or excuse me on Eisenhower a little bit further back um and those access point these access points remained the same access points that were part of the previous Bond the the feedback that we that I received in talking to folks is uh this this year continues to be a need to be to be looked at all right so just tying this back up together the two main themes that are there are focusing on education and Safety and Security the education focus is the Career and Technical education facility update and expansion creating more space more locations um opportunities for classrooms and lab space being dedicated to uh the programs that our students have a great deal of interest in as well as Safety and Security Focus we've got four items that we are focusing on the Safety and Security for our students and staff and closing the walkway ensuring that our students remain uh with within our campus when they're transitioning between the buildings having a new Bus Loop that students are able to get on and off a bus off of the street and not uh with traffic flowing moving uh while they're trying to get on off the bus having the additional parking so that when we have event space that we have those safety measures in place that someone get hurt as well as having people giving our our our guests a proper place to park and then that East West roadway to alleviate congestion the price tag for this is the projected Bond total of 17 million this would not require any additional bonds or Mills excuse me to the bond and interest mevy all right with that do you have any questions I have a question the bathroom relocation would that continues to be like one stall bathrooms or would we be able to add any additional stalls those that's that would be a conversation that we would get into with the Architects there I think it would make most sense to make it a multi-use multi-user um opportunity with those bathrooms there any other thoughts input questions about anything all right so when you're looking at the pre-bond estimate document doent let's see let me get my computer to catch up all right that is the breakdown of cost uh that was provided by um Lloyd where they've got the I'm going to try to expand this here for us where they break down the cost of the different projects that are there um the cost per square foot because we are um looking at building in the soft costs that are there and that's where the square footage you'll see um is is included to that that's where square footage is SF so the subtotal for the CTE is listed there on the first uh line the second is the square footage for the uh enclosed walkway third with the Bus Loop that is mean and I told you what that stood for lump sum that was the lump sum MH that was lump sum um the additional parking again if for some reason we are able to do this without um needing to relocate the bathrooms we wanted you to see the the cost savings that would be that would be there as well as the East West roadway that's uh indicated there all right the financing analysis um Dustin Navy is here from Piper Sandler um I don't want to go too far and get over my skis to a point where um when I've got an expert in the room who can uh stay in front of the skis but uh what I wanted to do was was we talked about this at the last meeting the January meeting um and the slide that I wanted to to really focus the attention on is this the mil Levy history there to show kind of where we've been with our our bond and interest Mill Levy as well as our overall M Levy over the last several years um right now we're looking at 52 661 overall the bond and interest Mills at this point in time are 12.4 88 this particular Bond project would not increase that 12.48 that number would stay the same um the and I've got these two side side and I apologize for those in the audience uh Megan do we have extra copies of that this of this yeah so we've got two projections there's two financing options that are listed here I'm going to try it this way Megan here I'll do it this way bit easier to see it this way we've got two financing options that are that are there the first financing option keeps the mill Levy at 12.48 for2 years throughout the scope of it and it's a wraparound U model that basically takes in the consideration what we currently have as existing uh bonds that are out there once they're paid off the mid ly remains at 12.48 a the second option allows the district to give consideration in 2031 you'll notice that on the right hand side the mill Levy for Bond and interest drops to TI .6 what this does is give the board the opportunity to give consideration to next steps so once the previous debt Services there those previous bonds get paid off the associated Mills for those would decrease the bond and interest Mills at that point in time this gives the district an opportunity to either retire those Mills or reinvest those Mills in another Mill neutral opportunity to address additional project needs that that come up why this I think is important to give consideration to is the following we've got a 5-year enrollment study that showed that we've got a slight increase in enrollment over the next five uh five to 10 years we've got another opportunity in three years to go through that process again to see are we turning in that direction our uh city council just approved new zoning shortly after we received our enrollment study for new new plots new new homes construction there so we'll be able to see what what impact that has had and what additional needs occur we said that we've got some increased population over at the intermediate Center this gives us an opportunity to see do those projections play out currently we've got a a lower couple of grade levels coming through the primary Center does that projection play out this gives us an opportunity in the next seven years to go through a reanalysis of what we need to do uh whether that is to reinvest or retire P Mills does that make sense so of those two options the option that I would recommend would be the second option that would allow Mills to fall off or give the board an opportunity to um reinvest Dustin how did I do from the microphone that was that was fantastic actually I really no other comments I thought you explained it really really well I would say just mevy history I just think that's a really good as we talked about for you know last several years right The District in a really good financial position right and so you think about what's happened even since the high school Bonds were approved right I mean we were nearly at 70 Ms you know 13 14 years ago and now today this year we're at 52 Ms you think about what's happened to bond and interest over that same time period again it wasn't four years ago we were you know right around 15 Ms and today we're at 12 and 1/2 and we're still able to to do the the $17 million without increasing the bond and interest M ly and I think what's important as we've talked about R the bond and interest mevy can only be used for principal interest payments right we can't take those Mills and or can't take the revenues and ship them to any other fund nor can we take dollars from any other fund and shift them to bond and interest right so just a really I would say really good just financial management from the from the standpoint of of uh um the different uh funds the school district manages from a m perspective um again I mean from you know Mark as you alluded to on the midle of analysis I think you know that is we're being very cautious right from a from a valuation perspective right so I would say that if if those things happen whether the new developments happen that are being platted um I suspect that the valuation growth is going to happen a lot sooner than maybe what may be anticipated and again we're being very cautious with respect to a 1% valuation change or valuation growth you think about the last few years I think the I want say the 10 year average if we go to the slide before that Mark if you don't mind I think the 10e average in valuations scroll down this to hair yeah 10 years is over 6% okay so again I think just you know I think it's it's good I think we're being very cautious for a reason because we don't want we all remember 08 when happened financial crisis think you're being very cautious so again evaluations increase by more than what's in the finan plan it puts the district in a much better financial position to do the things that Mark talked about too so the only thing i' add Mark very good job and the idea this structure terms ofed all right so that this is where coming to the U bond election Advance you I think it's important to realize that we as a board are not like approving this we're just approving this to go before the community for election right um and as we've done previously it kind of boes us to recognize what the School District needs identify those needs come together in a plan that we can physically responsibly meet those needs and then say to the community here's here's what we think is going to be an answer to those needs out there so you know as we go through this and read through this um I mean it's important to kind of keep that in mind and this at the end of all at the end of everything that we do it's really up to the community and what they want what they want to do so um so ask I just you know I'll read I'll read the resolution um that we' be deciding on whether to pass or not pass the board um oh so B okay let's do the ballot question first I'm glad I thought of that okay so here here would be here would be the the potential ballot question um so ballot Bond uh Bond ballot question for $17 million it is hereby deemed necessary and advisable to acquire construct equip and install a Career and Technical education facility improvements and renovations to The District High School and Junior High School buildings B Safety and Security improvements to the high school including site work and relocated bathrooms C Renovations and improvements to The District High School and Junior High School buildings including enclosed walkway parking and Bus Loop improvements D Renovations and improvements to other District facilities including traffic flow roadway improvements off Eisenhower and 6th Street and E make all other necessary and related improvements I.E the project at an estimated cost of $17 million so to to clarify it's clear that item a is is the expansion and the updating of the CTE facility um Item B with the site work that would be the uh the work necessary and potential to to get grounds ready and and relocate the restrooms um it would also uh item C would be the renovations and improvements to the high school buildings which is also the uh enclosure uh the additional parking that's necessary as well as creating that new Bus Loop for the off Street uh Bus drop off and pickup uh the renovations improvements necessary at the other District facilities which also include the opportunity to create the road improvements between Eisenhower and Sixth Street so we have those entrances to our facilities item e is important because what this says is if uh all other related improvements what happens is through the course of the projects the benefit of having a construction management atrisk company like Lloyd is they have their their job is to make sure we are under budget and on time and through being that process of being under budget if there are opportunities to save and and create cost savings uh whether it's the the investment that process that takes place of the the issuance of the bonds or the the the you know real-time updating of of construction costs um this allows us opportunities to to address other facility needs that that might arise um to that end so any questions there so so e would cover us for things like um if we realized some cost savings somewhere we wanted to allocate some of that money towards getting a nicer uh table system or something in some of those classrooms we could you could up furniture with that um let's let's you know a local District nearby had saw a significant cost Savings in their bond project they're able to build a new elementary school if you're familiar with that um you know we if if we see a significant cost savings and we're able to add a couple of classrooms onto the intermediate Center as a result this that item e allows for that to take place it's not dedicated to just the scope this work it could no it could yeah absolutely it would be facilities related because it's facilities related yep gotta okay so questions about the bond or ballot question no okay so um yeah yeah go and we haven't discussed this C but timeline for the bond do we decide this I mean sequence of our events here yeah the sequence of what we're doing tonight would lead us to a May 14th election May 4 okay yeah so the resolution what we'll actually be voting on um is as follows uh special election resolution resolution number 20241 one a resolution authorizing and providing for the calling of a bond election in the Unified School District number 348 Douglas County Kansas Baldwin City for the purpose of submitting to the qualified electors of the district the question of issuing General obligation bonds of the district authorizing application to the State Board of Education for the authority to call the bond election and for Capital Improvement state aid and providing for the giving of notice of the bond election dated today so that requires us to I mean if we want to have discussion about it have a discussion about it you know certainly everybody feel you know feel 100% free to say your peace um and then somebody would have to make a motion and Megan if correct me if I'm wrong but if it's it's not a roll call vote in unless it's not unanimous or it's not a roll call vote at all I have it on here as a as a roll okay roll call vote okay so are you going to do the the old pull the first one out of the hat and then go alphabetical no I'm just going to go left or right okay fair enough fair enough but we don't have a motion yet so no voting yet so anybody have any comments discussion would like to make a motion I move that we uh adopt the resolution as presented so okay so Chris is a motioned um I'll second uh that motion would be to approve the resolution number 20241 for the purpose of calling a bond election and submitting an application to the Kansas State Board of Education so Chris Mo moved and I seconded all those in favor raise your right hand say I hi looks like 70 do you need a roll call though was cl oh okay I thought you said it was okay good all right so moving on do we need Executive session do not do not need the executive session so we don't have any executive session matters to continue or who was the new uh adjourning person oh that was me oh go ahead this your opportunity to shine I move to adjourn um this meeting second all right we got a motion in a second all those in favor raise your right hand say I 70 motion adjourned or meeting adjourned motion approved see you in a month good work president yeah thank

yes in midt of 2023 I convened a meeting with SI reps where I invited reps from several other community organizations the purpose of that meeting was so several other organizations could hear about us being approached and what the project was all about I opened that meeting by disclosing that a member of the SI team had worked for me over 10 years ago in cincin City reps made SI officials aware of aware of some non city-owned sites in the downtown area they expressed a preference for the Klein lot and discussions began in Earnest I would like to invite uh Sarah Miller the CEO of destination Ann Arbor up to make her presentation you have to turn the mic on y now now can you hear me thank you for all the adjustments wonderful staff I appreciate that all right let's get started some of us some of you may not know who we are for over four decades destination an arbor has been a guiding force and marketing Washington County establish establish establishing it as the premier destination for travelers meeting and sports planners our dedicated efforts have not only highlighted the Region's appeal but have also played a pivotal role in driving economic growth and Community Development through tourism and events on the slide you can see we are a private nonprofit Regional organization whose mission is to elevate economic vitality and connect our communities through the power of travel to deliver on our mission you can see the slide some of the ways we are working to actively promote washon County this evening we are focusing on a crucial aspect of our mission the importance of tracting large meetings large scale events and conferences to an arbor and the surrounding area these large scale events fuel economic growth Elevate our profile and Foster a Vibrant Community I would like to inform you on Independent research that reflects the need for large meaning space and a meeting planner's desire to be in a downtown core such as Ann Arbor as I move through tonight's presentation it's important to note that we are not endorsing or favoring any specific project rather supporting a need for large meeting space by sharing this knowledge we open the door to innovative ideas and potential Partnerships that can benefit our community from our our 2021 post pandemic economic impact study with Anderson economic group we saw that visitor spending is essential to Growing the local economy and Workforce in 2021 washon County saw 6.1 million visitors generating 634 million in visitor spending at local businesses including shopping dining entertainment lodging and more visitor spending supported over 6,800 full-time equivalent jobs in Washington County over the same time period and provided 90 million in in income for local workers across the county the visitor econ economy generated 30 33 million in state and local tax revenues that provide an array of essential public services for restaurants or residents excuse me including K through2 education law enforcement local libraries Parks Road services and more as we anticipate a 2023 economic impact study to be completed this year we anticipate these numbers will only grow due to the stabilization of the travel industry and continued recovery from the pandemic further showcasing the vital role of tourism in our Region's Prosperity destination an arbor partnered with Wasa County in 2019 for a feasibility study to officially determine the economic potential of a conference center while considering land use sustainability Community impact and funding strategies the last time a study like this was conducted was in the late 1980s due to the potential impacts of the pandemic we have gone through the process to update the study with finalized results expected in mid-February through the results shown today in today's presentation they are preliminary findings from this most recent draft convention Sports and Leisure which you'll note on many of the slides as CSL is the organization com missioned for the study it was founded in 1988 to provide focused and independent research to the event facility industry CSL Consulting Services have provided guidance on more than 2,000 convention conference multi-purpose and many other event facility projects throughout North America the CSL team has overseen an extensive number of event facility planning studies throughout Michigan and the greater M Midwest region including but not limited to Detroit mome County Jackson Lancing Grand Rapids Port hon mosan and South Haven CSL conducted over 50 stakeholder interviews with local area organizations and Community leaders in washon County along with 100 phone interviews of Meeting Planners representing more than 6 50 conferences this includes a larger area of study examining existing marketing market conditions and competitive set preliminary findings included a substantial Gap in the market for a well-located adequately sized convention facility this ideally would have a total sellable space of 75,000 square square feet broken out the way you see here on the slide as you can see there's a need for ancillary hotel rooms within walking distance to accommodate the large potential attendee numbers this does position downtown Ann Arbor with its Hotel Supply walkable downtown and amenities for visitors Cent which is a locally is a globally excuse me recognized leader in event management and venue sourcing technology utilizing their extensive database in industry-leading technology they were able to accurately assess the volume and value of requests for proposals in the market that couldn't be accommodated due to the existing space limitations this data is crucial in understanding the market potential and planning for the future in the first 9 months of 2023 there were 8,213 requests for proposals for Meeting Planners sent out across nine states in the midwest seeking venues from with 50 to 75,000 square fet of meeting space and accommodations for 250 hotel room nights due to the limited meeting space available in washingon County we were unable to respond to these rfps the $5 billion figure you see reflects the cumulative value of the missed opportunity in rfps due to the current space limitations it is not a projection of future Revenue but an indication of potential Market reach with expanded facilities meaning we would not be awarded all 8,000 conferences yet even a small percentage would have significant economic benefits looking at the broader picture this slide Compares washingon County to a potential competitive set in like markets identified by CSL the B recommendation reflects the suggested ideal facility that I've referenced earlier that currently does not exist without that type of facility you can see we are not competing with this competitive set while there is no exact replication of our destination the competitive set here may each have something similar to ours such as size being a college town close to large metropolitan areas or a large airport Hub when we consider Michigan's conference centers the to uh by the total sellable space they offer cities like Detroit Novi Grand Rapids Lancing and cazoo are home to some of the largest venues on top this list Ann Ann Arbor however is notably missing from this ranking according to csl's recommendations including a new venue is advised would position Wason County among these leading locations turning our attention to was County and their meeting venues let's examine the spaces available sorted by the total area available for events it's important to highlight that currently our Market lacks dedicated exhibit space entirely the consulting firm CSL recommends that to meet that demand we should aim to offer at least 40,000 square fet of exhibit space exhibit space is known to have more open floor plans and be able to accommodate large groups into one barrier-free space the an Arbor's area the an arbor area's strong appeal of world-class dining entertainment arts and culture vibrant academic institutions and proximity to Metro Detroit airport create an attractive destination for Meeting Planners to host their events here however we often find ourselves facing a challenge with our current space limitations these limitations are particularly evident in how we can only accomodate certain large groups based on availability of the venue and only at certain times of the year for instance many of you are aware of the three Union groups that come to town the iron workers electrical training Alliance and the UA instructor training program or plumbers and fight Fitters as most of you know them the latter two which fill all the hotel rooms in Washington County all use our University spaces in the summer yet outside this season our availab our ability to host such a sizable events and conferences is significantly limited due to the the active academic calendar and student presence on campus with our space limitations we try to get as creative as possible with our Community Partners and often host meetings across multiple venues planners tend to look for destinations where attendees can fit Under One Roof for reasons of logistics and cost we often he I'd love to bring our group to Ann Arbor we just need to have one space to hold our meeting in closing Ann aror an arbor offers many things that Meeting Planners want including a safe and walkable downtown filled with restaurants nightlife and entertainment complemented by convenient airport Access Detroit and multiple downtown hotels the insights from the convention center feasibility study bring to focus the vast potential that lies untapped due to our space current space constraints the economic impact of visitor spending in Washington County is significant supporting thousands of jobs and contributing millions in state and local tax revenues not to mention supporting the local restaurants retail and attractions we love from the findings today from the findings I've shared today it's clear there's a significant opportunity here for meeting space in the county and that other communities in the state are capitalizing on that my hope for sharing this information with you today is the key takeaway that we have an opportunity to create new economic opportunities for our community if we had a conference center to accommodate large scale meetings and events thank you for your time thank you Sarah next up i' invite Chris Schroeder from SI to do his presentation yeah yeah coach thank you hi I'm Chris Raider I'm the CEO of sports illustra resorts I'm also a citizen of ant Arbor for the last 31 years or so my kids have gone to school here my daughter graduated from University of Michigan sorry nope get it's okay um first of all I want to say thank you to all of you for coming here you know this shows your interest in what we're doing I appreciate that you know is interesting after listening to this presentation I'm going how do we fix this how do we take advantage of this um you know the reality is it was interesting we are doing projects all over the country literally all over the Western Hemisphere I woke up one day and called Otis I said why are we not doing this here this is our own backyard I actually drove around in Arbor looking for a conference center because I thought we had one and then after driving around I said we don't have a conference center we are world class destination we are world class University we just won the National Championship I heard you know so that's a big deal it's a big you know I'm excited because I have people from all over the country that have come here to support what we're doing so I want to tell you a little bit about sports illustr resorts a little bit about what we're doing to address the needs that destination an arbor showed I first looked at those numbers I thought we needed the conference center but when I looked at those numbers I said wow we're missing out literally on like you said if we just had a small piece of this hundreds of millions of dollars that would be coming into this community we going to our restaurants to our retail you know to other hotels because if we bring in big conferences all the hotels are going to benefit All Ships are going to rise with high tide so I think tonight our goal is to give you information so you know more about what we're doing why we're doing it and who we are um so Sports Illustrated Resorts let's see if this actually works there we go so trusted leader so Sports Illustrated has been around for 70 years you know we first started talking about sports illustrating taking this you know iconic Legacy brand and turning into an active lifestyle um kind of Hotel Hospitality entertainment brand everybody got it in fact when we first put out our first press release on our first university project which is in University Alabama Tuscaloosa that's when Otis and some of my partners said why are we not doing this in an arbor we had over six major universities contact us and their towns say we want you here we've got land for you we want you here so we kind of put the full court press on saying let's get something going in ant Arbor and you know so I'm going tell you a little bit about Sports Illustrated again 70 years worth of you know iconic IP thousands and thousands of covers covering everything from the Olympics to all of our favorite sports and Beyond um one of the things that's unique about Sports Illustrated and something that you know you were talking a lot about when we were talking about we need a world class facility here we want to compete against all those others we are an attraction we have literally been given you know dollars from States because they look at us and say you're not just a hotel you're an attraction that's going to stand out when I say attraction meaning that people are going to go okay I can go to this conference center I can go to an arbor which already has a fantastic brand we have great restaurants you know an Arbor's done a great job of creating the destination and now now we're taking that one step further and doing something very unique just to give you example there's really three major components to Sports Illustrated one we're a Powerhouse media Authority you know we're also a Big Brand we have multiple facets underneath the Sports Illustrated brand from our ticketing to our events to our conferences to our broadcast to you know we do camps we do all kinds of stuff through the brand the other thing is we have 70 years worth of iconic images we have the one of the largest data bases intellectual property there is I mean you can imagine all the covers at one time Sports illustrator was a weekly you know so being able to come into this particular property and bring this kind of iconic intellectual property we can literally you can walk into the history of you know the University of Michigan you can walk in the history of the Town history of you know the people that have come through you know this and you know Michael Phelps you know Tom Brady Etc all these different people that have come through and that we can high highlight and really showcase San Arbor and the University of Michigan tyan in a whole different way than ever before just give you a little quick background on sports illustr resorts right now we have projects you said we have about a billion and a half dollars worth of projects you know around the country in the Caribbean we have properties open that we've opened in the Caribbean U we have multiple University projects you know I I probably get in trouble for saying this but because I'm from Ann Arbor I I want this to be the first in the ground I want to beat out some other universities um and we plan to do that the other thing is where everything from our Sr Resorts and experiences to Eco lodges you know Eco and Adventure lodges to our University model just give you some of the components of um the Sports Illustrated you know hotel resorts brand for starters you know we do have a strong food and beverage component when you see some of the designs that we've created you know we do want to create community space you this is the other thing that I'm excited about with everybody being here this is your project a lot of developers come to town come to town from out outside and they say okay this is what we're going to do and the city eventually gets their plans and they try to say okay this is what we want to do we started by coming to the city saying we want your input first we want input from the community we want to talk to you about this being your community space I know one of the the concerns tonight was were we going to have a big enough space to house everybody we shouldn't have that issue we should have a place that we can go to to have big events and have big conferences um over right now we have over actually 70,000 square feet of conference space it's a really unique conference space when says 50,000 that's kind of one contiguous type of area and we have some other unique areas that we'll show you in a minute to the renderings um proprietary events and award ceremonies this is a really unique component through Sports Illustrated we have our own proprietary events one is the Sports Illustrated Sports person of the year award you probably that's one been one of the biggest awards that they have in professional sports but we're taking that out to high schools so 4-Hour radius of Ann Arbor for example be 200 high schools that we're doing Sports Illustrated Sports Pur of the year you know Awards including some scholarships well those will culminate at a night here in an arbor for those high schools that come here and everybody else to celebrate you know let's call it 10 of their greatest athletes for various reasons they only have to be the best what they do but there's a story behind them and we award them the Sports Illustrated Sports Person of the Year Award with some kind of scholarship that could be 150 different a year we have people coming from different towns to experience an arbor um we have our Teamworks programs some other things that we do that are proprietary to the brand um Fitness and Wellness we have a very strong dedication to health and wellness and fitness this property will have a very nice state-of-the-art health and wellness fitness facility that we would like to make available for people to have memberships there locally so they can partake in what we've put together um upscale food and beverage offer offerings you know and Arbor's a foodie town I mean I unfortunately probably eat out too much but you know I know all the great restaurants here and and then some but we want to bring in some great food and beverage you know some upscale to you'll see our SI Stadium which is just a great Gathering Place for families which we'll show you in a second um storytelling as I mentioned before we have just almost an unlimited database of fantastic intellectual property that we can put within the the facilities to really bring the story of you know Michigan Athletics of an arbor to life in a very unique space you know we were met with you know the coaches of all the major teams at University of Michigan they're ecstatic because they're having to bring in players and recruit players and they love to bring them into this facility where they're walking into the history of the University of Michigan you know that would be part of it not all of it this will give you a quick example and some of these images you know that we we really loved what the university had done and if you see the top left image that's what we call the Hall of Champions like I mentioned before we're taking and creating a space when you walk in where you see you know we're kind of represent all these famous people that have come through this town through this University and highlight them so you're walking into the history of you know I say University of Michigan and and on Arbor you know again this is a world-class destination let's celebrate that and that's what we want to do um just again just a little highlight some of the things we do this is our Teamworks program where again we can go out to a thousand different corporate you know companies and say we want to host a Teamworks building session you know EMT Smith is one of our partners you know Shaquille O'Neal Tom Brady you where we can actually host events where companies will come here and have motivational you know speaking plus we'll show you some of our facilities where they can actually do physical team building activities because of the brand we've received incredible response from both high schools for the you know for the university the Sports Illustrated uh Sports Illustrated Sports person of the year and the teamwork programs you know one of the things that I've been passionate about my entire life with my family my kids myself is you know Athletics and you know activities if you look at all the studies you know nine out of 10 parents whose kids have been in sports you know have benefited in many many different ways we want to highlight that we also want to provide you know programs or work with groups that are doing programs already in the community sports related programs and provide our facilities this is a community facility again just a little bit information about the Sports Illustrated Sports person of the year you know we are again we're very excited about this because it really does get the you know the word out to the entire surrounding you know 4-Hour radius 5H hour radius AR is a place to be especially when we hold our proprietary events um I just tell you a little bit about Cobblestone and our partner I mean part of what we're GNA do tonight too is just kind of talk about um who our partners are and why we are kind of best-in class of what we're doing um Otis sitting here in front is a good friend and you know they've been involved in P3 financing throughout the country you know done a lot of stuff in the city of Detroit that's been incredibly beneficial to the city um you know 2.4 billion and P3 financing bonds you know what we're talking about tonight is something that you know 90% of the Cities across this country do this structure in order to be able to facilitate building a project like this it has to Happ some kind of public you know private partnership Leno I'll let you introduce yourself but big crowd hi uh I'm Lena Chu I am an architect and principal at Lamar Johnson collaborative I'm also an Ann Arbor native I moved here in the second grade went through the entire an aror Public School System proud River Rat um and a graduate of the University of Michigan architecture school so needless to say it's a full circle moment for me I could not be more excited to come back here and be a part of this project team and really make sure this project has an impact to this community oh let me go back and tell you about Lamar Johnson collaborative um I'm here with my my partner Louis Vos um we represent a much larger team behind this project it's not just us it can't be done uh with individuals we have a large team at ljc um we have over offices across the country the two of us are based out of Chicago uh we have over 100 um 350 employees across those offices uh and are have the ability to deliver a diverse range of project types um especially unique to this project with so many different assets uh and and expertise we really are well suited for this we've won 160 Design Awards um and 95 of which are currently certified sustainable projects so you've heard a lot from Chris about the SI Vision the SI brand um and how that influences the hotel but part of our job also as Architects is really how do we bring that Vision home to the community and make sure um this project really embodies that so because we're only at the beginning this is a proposed project concept this is not a finalized design so all the renderings that you see are you know the potential of what it could be it's kind of our dream inside um but really what we what we wanted to do is take a step back and share the why behind the design drivers and use those as guiding principles so the following slides are our project's commitment our project team's commitment to the community into to Ann Arbor um so it's important to read this one I'm not going to read them all verbatim but first and foremost we want this project to be a people- driven neighborhood focused project that embodies Community collaboration and partnership so this project is more than just a building what happens beyond that building Beyond those walls which is a is a mantra of our company um and we really want to partner with the community so that we can make an impact um in the communities in which we operate so truly want the final design to embody that we have a commitment to sustainability um we we are committed to make this an environmental environmentally responsible project um we're going to use high performance building design we'll be responsible with our material selections we're aiming to go for lead gold this is a Brownfield site that we plan to remediate um we want to go all electric except for gas at the food and beverage restaurant um and ljc our firm has signed the American Institute of Architects 2030 um pledge which is a climate it's a it's a actionable climate strategy to reach net zero emissions in the built environment So In The Same Spirit as the A2 zero plan as well um we all know that an arbor is an Arts and Cultural destination we have amazing museums uh bookstores independent bookstores and um arts and so we want this project to acknowledge that and U one of the one of the things that we can do to Foster community and collaboration in the Arts is to have a fairy door competition this is one of the things that um is a big passion of mine as I've taken my daughters through through the disappearing doors throughout Ann Arbor um we we will demonstrate a commitment to public art we have some opportunities to can you hear me now sorry um so we'll we'll have a commitment to public art we have um have had conversations and are committed to really making sure we integrate art into this project and so it's representative of the culture and finally we want to take we want to reimagine the void that currently is in this parking lot um in create a a destination not only for visitors but for locals and and really create an experience that extends the core of that downtown so fancy slides the fancy slides so it's interesting when we start to look at locations when we first I mean literally the first day that we said hey we should be in N Arbor we started you know driving around looking and I go downtown to downtown a lot to go to restaurants and there are many times that you know I look at this space that this site that we're talking about and it really is just a giant void there is no connection with the community there's nothing that happens there there's no real pedestrian traffic it's just a 60 foot it's a parking lot exactly you know it's a parking lot and I don't know if anybody's a big fan of 65,000 foot of asphalt you know we're we're not we know we need parking but thank you yeah you want parking yeah oh we do too we actually want more parking we do not want I downtown no no we don't plan to have an iore it looks well you haven't seen the new design yet and that's why you're here tonight see a bigk well that's the parking lot so but we're going to show you some stuff you know what and again I appreciate it one of the great things about Community meetings like this is we all have opinions and we appreciate those opinions and we want to take those into consideration because we want to design something that's important but I think when you see this you're going to really like it so yeah that's an well I'm going to tell you what I think it is could we have some order and allow him to finish and then will come up and then we'll do Q&A so here's what I see when I walk by here at night it's a big parking lot all right if you maybe you're a big fan of parking lots it's a big parking lot and you look at this design I see a community I see a neighborhood we've actually brought this giant Park parking lot that has nothing there and we've created Community we've helped bring the city together it Brocks the what well right now we Face we have a parking lot facing an alley so what we want to do with that alley when we have our buildings we want to create a pedestrian area where we're going want would like to work with the arts district to create more murals along that alley and light it at night so you can have a pedestrian safe friendly area because right now you're you don't you're walking by a big parking lot at night it's not that you know not to say it's not safe but the fact is we can create something very nice here this is a community area that we can bring people into that families can come and you'll see that shortly um I think that's you want to go into yeah I mean we really think this can be an anchor the downtown design guidelines um call out corner corner sites which we have the opportunity right here at Williams and Ashley to uh create an architect tal Gateway in which uh we really believe this project can be that gateway to the downtown district especially as the site slopes down towards the railroad tracks um this is a great opportunity to accomplish that so uh quickly to go over the programming again very conceptual at this point it's a proposed project um starting from the tower half of the tower the upper half in blue is represented as residential um and then the other half are hotels that sits on a shared outdoor po um that will also be invited for you'll see some some renderings coming up next to have um some food of beverage and experien spaces outside followed by four floors of parking we are replacing the parking that is on site now and creating more um that is bookended by a basketball court which will follow with that as well below the parking you'll see that we positioned the conferencing um that is well suited and sized appropriately for this site um in in coordination of what we've understand the needs of the city are which we think is a great opportunity um then next to the ground floor we have that anchored at this corner site again with the Field of Dreams the SI stadium that we will show right here so in concept so one of the things that you know I don't know about anybody here that has kids or kids are grown but you I've had three kids and you know this time of year we're always looking for places to go you're looking for a place that we can go and have community space you know have food let the kids run around and do something with what we're creating you saw from that last slide that ground up is what we call the you know the um it's the Field of Dreams that's what we call it you can literally come in Giant Food Hall we want to celebrate local chefs give local chefs the ability to come in have their own micro restaurants we have can have events there you know we can have birthday parties there you know whether it's nice weather we can roll the doors up and you know have this great community space when it's cold weather like this the door shut and we have a big place for people to actually come and families to come and dine and have their kids run around and you know have an actual community space this will show you rendering and again like Lena said these are all conceptual and part of the reason they're conceptual at this point because we like the community's input but gives you just again this is just a quick rendering but it will show you it's a it's a food Hall you know Vince area birthday parties watch parties you know all kinds of things that you can do with this space and again when I start thinking about all the benefits all the benefits I mean hundreds of millions of dollars in this community from what we're doing and creating a community space here on a Brownfield site I know you understand what Brownfield site is that site needs to be remediated there could be some toxic things there that need to be removed because there was an old building there at one time we're going to take that and create a space for the community so um we're very excited about what we're doing with the spaces themselves this can also be used for conference space you know so I think what about 8,000 square ft roughly yeah it um this this image really is to emote kind of the potential of an indoor outdoor experience and how these how the exterior wall can open up and really engage the pedestrians on the sidewalk one of the things that would be great feedback that we love to hear from the community is how you think this space could be used are there better ideas that we're not thinking of that we're open to as we're early on in and how we position this as it is at the corner and a in a prime opportunity so looking at this from a massing standpoint um we wanted to focus here on the entry so the entry is mid block off of Ashley this is how you would arrive um and get dropped off as a guest for the hotel um and if you live in the residential units you would also access this way this is also how you get to the ramp to get to the parking garage um it an example of kind of our community part partnership Chris has had some conversations with the Ann arber Art Center which is where I had my very first art class when I was 7even years old um understand that drop offs for summer camps happen here in this existing parking lot so you know that's that's feedback we love to hear and we love to to kind of accommodate our project with so we would rework the the brick wall that you see here and allow for the art an Arbor Art Center to use a cover drop off for their students in the summer this is also opportunity to have artwork in the alley um and in addition to maybe some spaces up above so above the port coer you'll see the conference center which is this oh you can see my Mouse um which is the appropriately sized Conference Center that's flexible meeting spaces different sizes and types to meet the community's needs um in addition above that you'll see the parking with the roof deck and the tower above at the end right here we'll get into this next slide where we're really highlighting the um potential for you know changing The Pedestrian experience as it is existing now and creating a street Edge that invites The Pedestrian and activity inside so the ground floor um which the the downtown standards encourage to be highly transparent we think we're achieving with uh looking at all the activity that's coming through here from the conference center entry being separate from the hotel um access to the food and beverage retail and entertainment into the SI stadium so sharing a little bit of the inspiration let me go back one slide really quick I want to note here that the basketball court is above the SI Stadium at the corner go there you know one one of the things that you know unfortunately again this is why we're here tonight is to talk about you know the appropriate information one of the first renderings that came out made it look like a big building what we really did was try to create a I mean as you see a green space on top we've got what 30,000 square feet of green space on top of this building you know we try to create an upstair a park like atmosphere it's a lot prettier than you know buildings I've seen there going up there's a lot of them I've got but we've created so you're coming down here on Drive you're going to see a building with all the Green Space CU that's the kind of the eye level you're going to see it's going to be a very pretty building it's going to be a great addition to downtown again for those that seem to really love parking lots I think this really does tie in you know downtown so much better as a beautiful example of a worldclass city so look at this basketball court you would say why is that not at the ground but we have some reasonings um at a prior firm I I worked at we this is a project we did that's highly successful in the city of Chicago um it is a rentable bookable space that has connected to an outdoor um rooftop which we serve as a great precedent um these renderings represent you know the potential for our project this could be used as a community space to host summer camps to supplement any needs the park district has um with red having a high school tournament even having teams come through and do walkthroughs before games here um nice views of the big house Beyond and the tree canopies of Ann Arbor and then the same space I clicked too fast the same space being flexible can also be used at night to be booked for private events whether it's a wedding or a reception or um a lecture a simple change to adding down carpet tiles which is what what happens in Chicago really elevates and changes the the space and the opportunity above the basketball court we um have a destination fine dining restaurant um with indoor and outdoor dining that the public can get to yeah again I kind of covered this earlier but you know one our commitments is to you know health and wellness and fitness uh we are creating kind of a state-of-the-art health and wellness fitness facility again that will be open for you know the community to have memberships there um it's going to be a fantastic space again with indoor outdoor You Know Places uh trainers um the basketball court you know a number of different uh amenities asso with the the SI fit Center this is a view of that outdoor SI deck next to the SI fit place with the the restaurant Beyond and then we hopefully this can work it's hard to understand the context of the project through these renderings so we wanted to show a video looking North really emphasizing this corner of the SI Stadium a Field of Dreams on the ground floor moving up to the outdoor rooftech and you see the basketball court and above that the fine dining outdoor restaurant um adjacent to that that SI fit deck and outdoor Turf area and then as this moves we we were joking we should have played music to this um and then also being able to maybe you don't want to be part of the dining or an exercise and just really want to enjoy the outdoors you can come to the north side here and have this uh really take advantage of the rooftop on level eight again what you're seeing here is just proposed very early in concept um but an a way to get the idea across of uh of the great potential of this project so thank you Des the tower the tower um the the top half will be residential and the bottom half will be Hotel are you designing resal coming later so yes the condos will be um well we're designing all it this is this is the full building as you see so that will Encompass the the residential and hotel yeah there will be then goes above that that's the full building yes do you know how many rooms can can we can we hold on Q&A cuz we got one more presenter who hasn't come up yet so we're gonna just quickly Dev will have you introduce one of our partners hi everyone my name is Dev petik I'm the president of destination here we go can you hear me now my name is Dev petik I'm the president of destination development for Sports Illustrated hotels and resorts uh previous to this by way of background I founded a company called the sports facilities advisory sports facilities companies is currently the largest operator of community-based Youth and amateur tournament style and community recreation venues in the country we also operate a number of amphitheaters and other venues that serve as destinations that firm will serve 40 million visits this year and we are the only strategic partner to the international City Managers Association because we've done a great job of partnering in communities to create destinations that elevate and improve the economy while also improving quality of life for citizens I had not thought when I retired from my seat there and joined the board that I would ever work again but when Chris approached me this Visionary leader who's done so many great things I couldn't resist and so what we will do here unlike any hotel you have ever heard of in your life the SI brand allows us to co-create events with Partners similar to what we did in my previous firm so here in an Arbor we'll have a sports medicine conference series that can be an annual event the SI Sports Medicine conference our Arts festivals would be in partnership with the Arts Community here not created for it but created by it where it has the opportunity to co-own those those events the same with our Sports person of the year the stakeholders in that are everything and so the net result of all of this my teams that I'm putting in place will be responsible for delivering upon these promises and the net result of that at a relatively conservative forecast based upon the model you've seen and the occupancy rates that are that are indicated by by research and study for us and the use of this venue is $240 million in tax revenues to the city over the life of this project plus the ongoing lease payments for the land to be clear you're not giving up the land the land is yours it's being leased and so it produces more Revenue in our model than does today in just the lease it produces more parking than it does today in just the lease it provides an answer to some of your demand your needs around conference space it provides an answer to some of the Gathering space needs that you have and it creates opportunities for your organizations locally to collaborate in ways that are probably unbel believable for some of you I suspect when you're used to looking at that lot you think that's what it is I think we're offering an opportunity to think in a sort of visionary way and a very different way than another conference or hotel or other brand might do because there is no other brand in the marketplace that can own co-own create events in this way you don't find Marriott creating a sports person of the year award you don't find any of the other brands doing this and so I'll leave it to you to uh because all of this material is going to be available after we're here but if you were to research who our team is the team that Chris has assembled I think you'll find that we're all uh quite credible that we've actually done what we say we're going to do that we've been trustworthy partners that the promises we make we fulfill on my team's job under Chris is to do exactly that there's still a lot of listening ahead there's still a lot of work to done no decision has been made a proposal has been put for we hope in all sincerity that it's a proposal that most of you Embrace and some of you we hope have changed your mind tonight because there's been a lot of misconception out there and then others we absolutely recognize it's your neighborhood it's your place you may never have your mind changed we hope until you're in one of our events until we get to host you so I just want to thank you for for allowing the conversation we're going to move to Q&A I know there's a lot of emotion and energy around anything like this um I I would invite that we can all try to be civil in that process um even if there is a lot of emotion and so we'll look forward to now moving into the question and answer period with you thank you and I think we're going to formally move ourselves somewhere else not not yet we got thank you I want to bring up Brett Leonard from our local building department and he's got a presentation to to give I think you're already down there good evening my name is Brett Leonard I'm the planning manager for the city of Van Arbor uh the planning department is responsible for coordinating conducting and completing the development review process and I think uh I'm here because this is a unique uh experience that you have maybe not seen happen a lot in the city where uh the city is active partnering with one of a property that's been under public ownership so it's a public private partnership so I wanted to talk to you a little bit about what you can expect from the process um as a petition for development on this site moves forward um even despite any transactional relationship between the city and this this development it will still be subject to all the requirements ordinances processes that any development would require and so um that process is independent of any question that the city has to will will consider from a transactional perspective on the property itself um but I just wanted to walk through quickly what the development review process we would anticipate will look like for this process so you can ex uh understand and um be mindful of of what's coming so I'm going to break it into three phases to be simple uh the first phase of the development process is what I'm going to call pre-submission work uh based on this project location there's going to be a couple aspects of that uh one is that based on the project attributes that are being proposed in concept at this time a citizen participation meeting will be required so what that's going to mean is in addition to this meeting that is that uh the city administrator has initiated there will be another meeting hosted by the development team uh inviting property owners and residents within a th000 feet of this Pro uh property to provide uh another early look at this proposal that happens before anything is submitted to the City for consideration um because of its location also in the downtown district you heard reference from the architectural team that this um project is considering recommendations of the city's design downtown design guidelines um this project will go to our design review board this is a uh Consulting board appointed by the city um that applies those adopted design considerations to projects in our downtown um this is just a consultation it's not required but it's a required step to have that dialogue um with that board and carry the outcomes of that conversation forward with any review of The propos Proposal so the the the meat of the review process is the site plan review process um that's where a site plan uh with all of the details of this proposal are going to be submitted to the city um it's going to be submitted on our City's stream system which is publicly available everybody can see uh plans that are submitted in the city um and that's going to initiate the the work of City staff um measuring the merits of this project against the codes and requirements and laws of the city the city communicates what it expects out of private development by our codes um in in our case it's called the UniFi development code you might have heard it referenced as a zoning ordinance that's where we explicitly specify what we expect out of Development Across the city this will be no different that any plan that's submitted for the site will be measured against those uh stand standards and that's how we will make a determination that is done not only by the planning department it's done by a variety of our my colleagues across the organization including engineering Transportation the fire department uh natural features storm waterer solid waste and because of its location we'll also talk with the Downtown Development Authority given their important role in supporting infrastructure and advocacy in our downtown business district um after review process ultimately we will make a deter mination that the project uh eventually does or doesn't U meet all of those standards if it is determined that it meets all those standards we will schedule it for a Planning Commission meeting this is where determination on the actual development will occur uh what that means is we're going to schedule it for a public hearing uh this picture might look familiar it's going to be in a room that seems a lot like this one uh where we're going to uh we're going to schedule it and uh what will happen is we'll publish that public hearing we're also going to notify people within 300 ft of the property at that time uh both property owners and residents of the proposed public hearing and what will happen that evening is that will be featured on the Planning Commission agenda what's going to happen is uh the petitioner is going to have an opportunity first to present and introduce their project then uh my colleague a staff planner is going to uh summarize the technical review that cond was conducted on this proposal and then we're going to open it up to a public hearing this is an opportunity for anybody to speak on that proposed uh site plan and the the decision that's before the Planning Commission at this case I anticipate that that's going to be a PL uh site plan approval um and then the Planning Commission will deliberate and then the Planning Commission will make the determination if that site plan is approved or not uh because no legislative action is being proposed at this time that final decision of the site plan approval will happen at the Planning Commission and and again I want to reiterate that that is distinct from any decision that the city elects to take with a lease or a transaction regarding the property they really are separate independent processes that will be considered by the city overall um I'm asked a lot how long will this take Often by uh applicants and the short answer is I don't know um it really depends on the project it depends on what is presented but generally uh uh without a legislative action we're probably looking at about a six to nine month process um all things considered um I have to caveat that it a lot that depends again on how quickly we meet all the city standards uh review Cycles meeting schedules but I think you can expect generally about a 6 to n month process and just to just to reiterate the city's stream system is available online that's stream.

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uh good evening everyone and welcome to a special meeting the ashon select board the agenda there's this just a my name is Robert Sher and we have a quorum of the select board here tonight out in the audience I think uh four or the five members are here so I will call this meeting to order this is a special meeting of uh the select board as I think everyone knows this uh the single item on the agenda for tonight is a public for on the use of the Valentine property so so welcome everyone and uh without further Ado I'm going to turn this over this form over to our town manager Michael Herbert thank you thank you Mr chair um as mentioned my name is Michael Herbert I'm the town manager here and I want to welcome you all tonight to talk about the future of a property that has been in the town's possession for a few years now and we're really excited to um you know come up with a future reuse for it and that's the Valentine property uh before I start getting too much into the presentation start talking about this I want to recognize again the select board members that are here Rob Sher Claudia Bennett Brandy Kinsman and Joe Joe I knew you were somewhere Joe Joe miani so I I wasn't wearing my glasses Joe so and then also up here we have Doug Scott who's our Building Commissioner um and uh Jen ball our assistant Town manager Beth Reynolds economic development director and Doug small or DPW director each of them have had some role and played played some role in uh the evolution of this property and that's something that we're again really excited to talk about tonight so what's the agenda well tonight we want to review the recent history of the property um and then move and start talking about the restoration of the barn many of you saw over the course of a year uh that Barn being restored to its former glory and so we'll get a little bit more into the details of that um next we'll segue into going over the existing conditions and the limitations of the future reuse of the property um because that's going to help shape and guide what we're able to do with that in the future um then we're going to review a proposed use um that has been put together and it's based upon the feedback that we had previous previously received uh through a number of different methods and uh I'll get into that a little bit further as we get to that section um and then next steps we'll discuss next steps uh and then also uh at that point we're going to open this up for Community feedback and discussion um really looking forward to getting your input on this proposal getting your thoughts um whether you agree with things disagree with things have some different ideas anyway this uh this will be an opportunity for you to share those with us so moving along um so let's talk about the history of the property uh we're not going to go all the way back to the 16 and 1700s don't worry I don't have a whole slideshow presentation on that although Beth is like why not um we're going to start with something a little bit more recent um we're going to talk about the year 2017 and 2017 was the year that uh Capital group properties um received a comprehensive permit from the zoning board of appeals to build 120 units um in two new buildings now they were going to do a number of things with the property one of the things is they were going to take the house and turn it into a clubhouse um but they really didn't have a proposed use for the barn um and so there were a number of discussions on what we could do with that but really nothing was ever finalized but they got a permit to build 120 units but the developer actually wanted to um appeal to what's known as the housing appeals committee to build 140 units so 120 units was not enough for them go figure uh so they wanted to do 140 units but at the same time um the select board in a meeting agreed to try and negotiate a purchase of the property with the developer so the developer is on one track uh looking at appealing their decision to get to build more units and simultaneously or concurrently if you will um the select board authorized uh myself and then the select board member Carl hackinson to go and speak with Bill de Petri of capital group properties to see if we could negotiate some type of purchase um after a series of discussions uh we reached agreement with the developer to purchase the property for 3.5 million and that was in March I think it took us what a couple months Carl to get that yeah at least a couple of months yes and it was it's it was a very high figure when we started out you know you might think 3.5 million is high well compared to eight it seems uh relatively reasonable but uh we did come up with uh with that agreement back in 2018 and uh to effectuate that purchase what we needed to do is get two votes uh one was at town meeting in May of 2018 which uh we overwhelmingly were able to secure uh we needed a two-thirds majority I don't think it was unanimous but it was close to unanimous and then we also had a debt exclusion ballot vote in May of 2018 and uh this project along with the Mendes school they were on the same ballot the Mendes school fees visibility study passed with 80 it was either 80 or 85% of the vote uh pretty overwhelming majority um so also I should mention as part of this whole uh negotiated purchase and and process we worked with the in and Hicks family who's here in attendance Robin and Cynthia to actually put a deed restriction on their property if we were successfully able to buy the property and so they very generously uh and I want to underline the word very uh very generously put a deed restriction limiting development on their property and so that was part of it as well so moving forward um we ended up you know now we've inherited like a barn that's Fallen apart in a house that's not in the greatest shape uh property that's a little bit overgrown so you know where do you start uh well we hired a property manager David Foster many of you know David uh to help secure the house and the barn and start cleaning it out um which he did so and then we had a public forum in 2019 and coming out of that Forum the select board uh agreed to form what's known as the Valentine property committee um and we'll get a little bit more into what the Valentine property committee did but uh they worked for a couple of years came up with a recommendation that ultimately decided we decided not to move forward with and so again we're still left with the property that needed to be taken care of mainly the barn so after um after purchasing it in 2018 after years of stops and starts we finally came uh to an agreement on a process on how to uh restore this barn and uh the select board agreed to use uh $750,000 in arpa funds to help restore and preserve the shell of the barn and then CPC funds were also used for that CPC meaning Community preservation act funds or CPA funds I should say so I mentioned a little bit before about the Valentine property committee uh so that group was initially charged with assisting the town and identifying both proper and feasible reuses of the Valentine property by soliciting and review reviewing proposals from interested properties and so that group did it was about nine members did a ton of work uh putting together basically doing a lot of research first of all and I was part of that committee and and we looked at different properties in different towns that were similar so for example we went to NAIC and looked at the na Community Organic Farms I don't know if you're familiar with that uh property we also looked at the Holliston Historical Society um our neighbors next door um we looked at the Josiah Smith Tavern and uh in the town of Weston um which was purchased by that town maybe 20 25 years ago and they were still having having a hard time figuring out what to do with it and then finally we looked at the Medway theer Homestead so some of you in the audience here maybe some of you watching at home um have been to the theer homestead and and know what kind of unique property that is so after reviewing all those properties we came up with a basically preferred uses through an RFP process and we put that out to bid RFP meeting request for proposals um and we received one proposal from a developer to purchase the property for the sale of the property um and ultimately the committee made a recommendation to the selectboard not to move forward with that proposal first of all we found out that we weren't necessarily able to sell it or actually enter into a long-term lease um with it and then it was just overall it was deemed overall not just in the best interest of the town to move forward with it and again like I mentioned before the focus at that point in time became not uh not necessarily on the uh future reuse of the property but how do we restore This Barn in order to maintain it so we can um so we can maintain it for future use that makes sense so we'll get into a little bit on the on the renovation of the barn and I'm sure Doug will be here to help me out to uh talk a little bit about it so as you can see here here's a um a couple really bad pictures of the barn the way it was before it was really really dark in there um the picture on the left you can see that's the foundation you can see stable is not a word that you would use to describe it um it's kind of balancing Teeter tottering on rocks um you can see the general condition of the barn in the middle in the rightmost picture um please excuse my daughter in the middle of the middle one she's giving it a thumbs up saying that yes we need to uh restore this thing um but it was in pretty pretty bad shape uh over the years we had uh holes had developed in the roof uh there was a lot of rot that had developed especially in one side so it wasn't going to be um an easy proposition to go ahead and restore this property but uh we're fortunate to have a Building Commissioner who is very experienced in Timber Frame properties and and that's really kind of one of the things that makes this property this Barn so unique is that it is a timber frame uh building and it's got this unique joinery and unique structure that's really designed to keep it holding up even if like one corner is gone which actually that was the case with this property one corner was basically not structurally sound and the thing was still standing up but um we uh we embarked upon that renovation or restoration I should say and uh Doug I don't know if you want to come up and talk a little bit about uh just some of the restoration process and well I guess you don't you don't have to get up you can just sit right there and you can push a button we're we are in the 20th century um and just talk about maybe some of the methods and the methodology and and some of the joinery and stuff that were used so what uh what ended up happening um is that I was asked for my thoughts on the barn and what we what we could do with it my first thought was just light a match and let's walk away but no I'm kidding I'm kidding we uh so after walking through it we came up with a game plan we went back and forth um one of the options was to take it down completely piece by piece label everything build all new uh there's probably about 70% of it that would be new and um and then put a new foundation in and then um put it back back together and uh but uh that that didn't seem to be something that uh we could get everybody behind so uh we put it out to bid to do renovations to it I wrote up a a Specs uh we were very lucky to get a comp a contractor um company out of Rhode Island that uh had a foreman supervis superintendent that was familiar with timber frame work so we were able to or I was able to have uh many conversations with them about the type of joinery that I wanted them to use to put it back together how we were going to scarf the rotted pieces from uh the Rotom sections on some of the Timbers whole Timbers that needed to be replaced and really didn't to be honest we really didn't have a full idea how much was going to have to be done until we finished cleaning it out um taking out the horse stalls and taking out a lot of what was uh superus to the actual frame of the building and as that uh we were as that happened and we were unveiling the structure um we found areas that we needed to do whol sale replacement in some areas where we could scarf some joints scarfing a joint is where you're cutting a Timber you're cutting it a certain way to be able to add new pieces to it and um Doug I'm just going to highlight like the place where you did that right here yes that is one of them so all everything that's replaced is with was replaced with Oak pegs that was one of my that was one of my uh demands that we weren't using any mechanical uh Fasteners to to put this back together it was originally and it still is and it was a an oak I I'm not sure if it was all Oak more than likely it was the pegs um and and it was put together that way so when we put it back we put it back the same exact way um the uh you know we we we had as part of this about when we had it all opened up and we realized that we had a substantial amount of replacement work that we needed to do um we were able to I was able to work a change order there was close to $400,000 and it ended up spending that it ended up in the long run costing the town a little over $30,000 cuz I did some horse trading um areas that we didn't need to do that we didn't have to go crazy on trading those in for credits for um work that we did need to do so and the other thing was is that the all the wood in there except for the flooring is uh hem fur uh typically the what I used to build I used to build timber frame homes and they were all out of Oak but nowadays Oak is crazy stupid and you have to be able to cut it within within three days of when it's cut as a tree um so we used hemper which gave some latitude and some time to be able to properly fit things we had to take corn the back left cornner we had to take that that's a 30 foot tall 8 by8 piece piece of hemper um supporting the in under the basement which you don't see we have a a whole series of we got a 30 foot long and a 28 foot long 10x10 Oak uh hemper beam which we all chisel these are all hand chiseled um there's no Machinery used in it um and the goal was to make it safe and sound um we didn't beautify it um there's no electricity to the building uh but it is now standing solid and it should last another 150 years awesome thank you Doug and just kind of expound a little bit on what doug was saying some cases so the sheathing um of the barn when um when that was too R it Beyond repair Doug actually went up to a U or m city under Doug's Direction actually went up to a barn in Maine an Old Barn in Maine and reclaimed some of that Lumber and used that as sheathing um for the roof uh that was originally 1 by 12s um they were they were all pretty much rotted I think that's a fair fair thing to say I don't think that's going to surprise anybody who saw the tar blowing in the wind um but um anyway that was all replaced with 1x12 sheathing um and then architectural great shingles and um again as as Doug mentioned all the joineries is hand done uh it really is just you know I I grew up on a farm so um barns have some kind of sentimental value to me and some sentimental interest um but really if you're just a student of architecture um you could probably really have an appreciation for such a barn it's just just really really unique you can get a little sense of the of the of the framework here at the top I know this picture isn't the greatest but um some of these things are actually just cable to keep it um well it disappeared everybody so well until okay we we're back now all right there um you can just see some of the complex joinery there that's utilized to keep it keep it upright and keep it going so that was really the story of the renovation behind the barn and so I'll move forward and here's some pictures of the barn that's 95% done um the first thing that I noticed as I walked in there is that you can get a lot more light compared to those uh pictures from before the renovation um that's because we um uncovered the fact that there were boarded up Windows there um and so we were able to replace those with wood windows um some of the other windows that were broken we were able to replace uh so there's a lot of natural light that gets in there um especially compared to the way it was previously um it's a pretty wide open floor plan right now um the the outside of the barn is Ceder shingles that's been painted and trying to think of any other relevant uh relevant things other than what Doug and I have mentioned um can't really think of of anything else like like Doug said our our goal was to was to restore this property and to keep it as historical as possible and we were very very fortunate I will say because there was some question about how historical the restoration was and we were very fortunate to be on a historical commission meeting with um a historical consultant named Stacy spies uh who is working with the historical Commission on a local historic district that's for another Forum but um she was able to give us her opinion on what she thought about the U the renovation or the restoration I should say and she was very very pleased with it from a historical perspective thought that we were going above and beyond really what we needed to do as part of that so so those are pictures of the bar afterwards the what if I could one the one thing I didn't uh tell you was the interior of the basement so we rebuilt a good section of the foundation that Foundation was a mix of rock [Music] stone concrete brick you know it was a so we left the exterior what we did was we poured a on average a 12in thick one-sided wall around the entire interior and there's a concrete floor uh in that uh now so um so there would be no no movement uh for any of that that was that was quite the undertaking yeah it really was a massive project um so let's move forward to existing conditions so I showed you what the barn looks like now maybe a few tweaks since we took those pictures but moving forward now let's talk about the rest of the property and the existing conditions mainly the land so we're very fortunate that we have Carl and Robin Hicks Carl hackinson and Robin Hicks here along with uh several other volunteers actually many volunteers worked very very hard to clear this property of all the brush and most of the invasive species that were on the remaining uh acreage of the property which the total acreage of the property I realized I didn't say that in the the beginning is uh 7.7 Acres so you know it's not um it's not a plantation by any means but uh it's certainly a good siiz property and they spent a lot of work u in a lot of hot days uh working with some mechanical equipment Greg WS Greg I can't believe I didn't mention you by name specifically here uh Greg did a lot of work as well um in clearing that property and making sure that basically it's a blank pallet I guess you could say for uh for the future use uh there was a Wilderness corter that was untouched um for wildlife to utilize uh basically there's been a path that's been cut to um to uh utilize and enjoy the property and then when we're talking about existing conditions I should uh should also mention the house of course uh the house is the other other building on the property the house is a really really unique uh mish mash we're going to use that term again since it's a technical term of different styles in different um different centuries and different Generations I guess you could say um as you can see here through some of these pictures and I I want to point out that these pictures are a few years old so the house is not in as good a condition as you see right now but in the back there is a very very large kitchen area in the front as you walk into the old house which is a two Center chimney Colonial home that was built around the 17 uh in the late 17 excuse me the 1800s the original house was in the 1700s um as you walk into the front you see these nice great rooms with these uh big fireplaces and a couple of picture windows that were added over the course I think around the 1920s um they were added and so it's really just kind of a grand entrance as you as you walk in makes a big difference um when you when you can come in and you have all of this this space that you can utilize and think of um different uses for um but I will have to say for the most part this house is chopped up pretty good uh when I say chopped up a lot of rooms have been made um I think it was a rooming house at one point um there's been all kinds of activities that have been found at the Valentine property I think there was uh some gaming that was done maybe back in the day um I see a couple smiles out in the audience people know what I'm talking about um but uh in any case that's the existing conditions of the house just a brief existing condition of the house now before we start talking about the proposal and the proposed reuse of the property let's talk about some of the current limitations that we had in and help shape this proposal all right so first of all this land is considered chapter 97 land so chapter 97 is part of the Massachusetts Constitution it is designed to protect open space and Parkland um an environmentally sensitive property uh throughout Massachusetts um it's got a number of restrictions associated with it but a primary one that affects this property is that it prohibits the sale and the long-term lease of the property um because it's chapter 97 land it's also can't be used for commercial for profit use so that's a limitation as well as part of the property um since we utilize CPA funds and since Robin and Cindy's deed restriction on their property was contingent upon having a CPA restriction on the Valentine property we have CPA restrictions Community preservation act restrictions um on the property as well which requires that the property be used in accordance with the CPA guidelines and I'll go in a little bit deeper into the the conservation restriction later but that conservation restriction also limits the ability to add buildings to the property now there's certain uh certain instances where uh for ancillary purposes or maybe educational purposes you could build some type of structure but it can't be deletar to the property or or take away from it in its historical and ecological value there's significant Wetlands on the property um and for those of you that are unfamiliar with Wetlands uh their environment sensitive areas that require permitting and um you know they they provide some necessary complications uh with putting together a use for the property you have to work around it to a certain extent we also have limited parking availability so everybody you know if you ask anybody you know what's what's a main concern of downtown or any place people will say parking or a lot of lot of people will say parking well the same thing you can say that for the Valentine property as well there's limited space for parking it also must have a tourism aspect to it so when the American um rescue plan act came out and funds were distributed there were a set of guidelines that communities had to follow in order to be able to utilize those properties and uh one of them was that you could use the property for tourist tourism and economic development and so that is what we the rationale way utilize to tap into AR arpa funds to redo the barn so now it has that attachment to it so we have to have some kind of Tourism aspect to it doesn't have to be the main thing but there has to be some some level of Tourism associated with it and that's a very broad definition as well and then finally operations at this point in time in Ashland's development it must be self- sustaining so we we can't have a property that bleeds uh money and does not have expenses that exceed our Revenue um I should have pointed out here it doesn't mean that Revenue has to exceed the operating cost but at least has to meet it so we have to have something that's Revenue neutral unless the the town decides to move in a different direction and uh start putting uh more money into the general fund budget so those are the current limitations on the property see how I'm doing for time here I mentioned the conservation restriction and the conservation restriction really has a number of elements associated with it in a number of um purposes first it's supposed to provide a framework for the house and the barn and the grounds and what you can use it for and how you maintain it especially the historical properties the house and the barn it provides an opportunity for us to both host public and private events at the uh at the property um it provides protection for wildlife habitat I mentioned that Wildlife Corridor being a key component of that it provides protection for Park land in open space you saw all of that land a good majority of that or practically uh all of that space that I showed in the pictures needs to stay as open space um it also provides an opportunity to continue its um its agricultural Heritage uh this property has uh like as you can imagine a um a distinguished history as an agricultural property throughout the years uh being utilized in a number of different formats um an orchard it was actually at one point believe Cliff you might want to help me out here I believe it was a place where it almost like a self- sustaining Farm where people you know they basically grew the food that they ate there uh wasn't necessarily for commercial purposes Cliff's nodding his head so I'm going to go if that's okay kind of kind of okay we we'll stick with kind of and then finally and I think the most important part it gives us an opportunity for to learn about and then also celebrate um Ashland's history not just the history of the Valentine property but the history of Ashland itself and so with all of that in mind that is what helped shape the proposed use that we're talking about tonight um I should also point out that this use has been shaped not only through the restrictions and the limitations that I went through before but also through multiple public forums U I mentioned the Valentine property committee's work we also had a survey that we utilized to help create figure out what kind of uses people wanted to see the property oh are we good Paul and Macky okay all right that was a plan dramatic entrance for the proposal here everybody so um again just uh just to close up we've we've gathered a lot of public feedback on the use of this property and that has what shaped this proposal um I before I forget Kate Valentine and her husband also provided input on this property and what you know what it could be used for and provided a vision for that and so this incorporates aspects of that as well so first I'll just go over this little green area here which was that open space area which I which I um which I showed pictures of earlier that Carl and Robin and Greg and others had worked on so that will under this proposal that would remain as open space um and you would have walking paths along the property and then you would also maintain that undisturbed Wildlife quarter um there's also the possibility that we could use this for Agri cultural use again there's some significant wetlands and they mainly occur uh going following that little Green Dot and it expands over here but there's potential for agricultural use um through that property the blue area that you see here is the historic house and then also the barn um both areas would have multiple functions and purposes that's something that we'll get into into the future slides and then finally um although small this red area is dedicated for parking and there's a couple of different uh algorithms or or calculations that you can utilize they're very basic very generic that you can utilize to determine how many parking spots that you can get out of certain space so we think we can get you know a little over 50 parking spaces on U on this piece of property this little section right here sorry about that um so let's start with the barn so the barn has still that rustic look as you can say and as you can see and really it most lends itself to being reused as something like the Holliston Historical Society um which is used for private engagements uh weddings I don't know if you've driven by when there's a wedding there but it's it's it's really cool to to look at especially on a nice summer night um when you see all the lights outside and uh you see the doors are all open you can see inside um a little bit different than the Holliston Historical Society in the sense that the Holliston his Historical Society right now has a concrete floor and then it also has um a kitchen that's built in the back um again it would be available for rent so for weddings birthday parties other private events but it could also be used as the town would own it it would also be used for different town meetings and different functions and different events so we would have the possibility to maybe utilize this as a um an arm of the farmers market if you will or uh have a town meeting or a town Forum there or something to that effect um I would be partial to a Bluegrass concert myself but not everybody shares my love of music that way um it could also serve as a location for one of Ashland's hidden gyms which I I think is a hidden gym which is the Ashland Community Theater um they put on performances and they generally have those at the VFW but uh this could also serve as as a location for Ashlin Community Theater with uh significant retrofits and then also it could also serve as a place to learn more about traditional arts and crafts uh such as woodworking metal smithing Fiber Arts this is something that can make uh Ashland really unique in the region you have Hopkinson Center for the Arts which does a lot of theatrical uh musical work as well as a bunch of visible mediums as well um you have amazing things Art Center in Framingham that is dedicated towards music and theater and then tan and NAIC which is dedicated towards music we really don't have something here that's dedicated to like oldtime Agricultural and trade trade work uh some of those things that are being lost throughout the generations things like stone wall building uh you know stackings what they call it um other things like that the house also would serve multiple purposes so the room on the first the rooms on the first floor that I talked about those those bigger rooms those more open rooms they would be used as a a conference and meeting room facility that back kitchen that I mentioned um we in the back of the building so that could be retrofitted and used as a kitchen to support functions in the house and then also the barn and thanks to Beth we already have equipment uh commercial kitchen equipment for that property so we wouldn't have to go through the expense of that the rest of the first floor would be used as a place to support Barn functions as well one of the things I also I forgot to put here is that we could use it as maybe a museum for the Valentine family or even Ashland history you know there's a lot of different ways we can utilize these spaces they don't just have to be for one particular thing you know you could have a changing room maybe for a wedding party but at the same time you could have that filled with Ashley and history um and history dedicated to the Valentine family and then finally the second floor would be utilized for municipal offices and specifically I'm talking about the creation of a new Parks and Recreation Department that would be uh headquartered I guess you could say on the second floor and the duties of that would be include managing the rentals for the Valentine Barn maintaining and renting out the athletic fields in town and as well as using future recreational programs um and that's in addition to the site of the community center I don't want people to think that this is a replacement for the programs in the location um at the community center right now the existing programs in location and then that's generally the the the proposal over on on a nutshell Doug do you want to uh do you want to speak to the parks and wreck department in the need so as Doug walks up here we're in a very unique situation here in Ashland in that we don't have a parks and wck Department our DPW actually maintains the fields and all the athletic fields including the rentals and things like that and so what's become very very apparent over the years is that we need I told you you should have got up here in the first place uh is that we need a more enhanced Department that's really dedicated towards uh this type of work hi Doug all you uh okay uh we good yeah I mean it's like uh where Where Do We Begin and I don't want to bore everybody with the history a lot of the people in the room were were right there uh 15 years ago when we when we first put that the artificial turfield we replaced Walker field with the artificial turfield at the old middle school at the old high school I should say and then a year later we had the the new Fe High School Field Complex um built which was a second artificial turf field along with a bunch of other uh Fields baseball softball and so on and so forth um and what's what what worries me is every time I talk about this everybody's going to get used to just Doug complaining Doug Scott um so it's back to the foundation but anyway so um but yeah and I and I hate sounding that way and all this stuff but if if anybody in this room has ever been involved with renting Fields managing Fields the operation of fields anything like that you know exactly what I'm talking about um as everybody knows the DPW we take care of essential um essential services for the town of Ashlin and Fields uh recreational Field Sports and it's not it doesn't fit with the DPW um and uh one of the one of the bigest issues is uh you know games are played at night or on the weekends and we're we're not geared that way you know the the the actual budget itself is not funded uh appropriately in order to cover nights and weekends and things like that and then throw on top of that the school department who has first right to the fields so anyways like I said I I've been we've been talking about this for years and I don't want to come out as a as complaining but all the other cities and towns around us have a parks and wreck department as far as I know we obviously we we have a wreck department already with Kelly rund uh but it's I really think that um ever since the artificial turf fields came along uh that we should have been really looking at putting a parks and wreck department in and and for everybody that was involved over the years it was just a massive undertaking there were many many people involved in this whole thing this whole program and they did a wonderful job with the high school fields and all that and and we just we fell short unfortunately as far as putting in a a program to actually rent the fields and book the fields so on and so forth um but if it was easy it would have been done already but there have been some some terrific people involved and many groups and all this stuff and and it's never we've never been able to complete it and uh anyway so is there anything else you want me to add no Doug that's great so Doug Doug always loves it when I Call On Him especially un announced he does a good job doesn't he folks he does good so um all right so that's the that's the Parks and Recreation Department and then finally you got A Sneak PE peak of this but uh we got one final curveball here with the uh Valentine property so has anybody ever heard of the invasive spotted Lantern fly if you have please raise your hand oh my gosh not as rare as I thought maybe um so this invasive insect has the ability to just really DeForest and de vegitate uh practically anything it gets it gets on um and so the Massachusetts Department of Agriculture agricultural resources um f familiar I'm just not even going to try also known as mdar um they actually have the property under quarantine after they found that the spotted Lantern fly was on the property and so we're working with them right now on treatment options but um right now we it's hard for us to do any kind of activity on it um until we get mdar permission so that's something that is constantly evolving and we're getting more information about that uh We've authorized treatment um on the property so hopefully that won't set us back too far and won't do too much damage and um yeah that's about it so next steps yeah Robin I'm sorry join I can sure um so what are the next steps now um once we get rid of the lantern fly um so we're having a public for tonight right and so what we're going to do is we're going to take the feedback that we get tonight and we're going to incorporate that into a revised plan that we will present to the select board at a future date at that point once we have a use determined and a direction determined we can hire an architect and an engineer who can provide more information on the feasibility of the of the plan they can do things like um evaluate for ADA compliance do samples for parking Etc and then that group could also work on a high level estimate on the cost um cost of renovations and so once we get the cost we can look at that we can look at what our next steps are going to be do we move forward with it do we move forward in a phased approach do we try to take care of it all at once um and if we do how are we going to fund it um that's a big question with any Town project is what are we going to use to fund these projects there's a there's a variety of sources that we could utilize um each with their own little um idiosyncrasies but it's uh it's certainly possible I don't want people to walk away from this thinking that it's impossible we've we've done a lot of awesome things before um and uh this has the possibility to be uh basically a gem I think of of Metro West not just Ashland but the region uh considering all the the proposed uses that we were talking about which I know it's varied but I don't think it's so much that it dilutes any one particular use's influence or or um or power if you will that's not the right word but it's the best one I can come up with right now so um anyway I thank you for your time I thank you for listening and appreciate you coming and uh we'll open it up for questions um what we'll do is or or comments Macky do we still have the mic back there the handheld mic okay um hello hello yeah all right awesome so Yolanda you're going to go first no I'm walking are you going to walk the mic around oh thank you thank you so much so Robin Robin hick Robin this on hello Robin Hicks 11 Franklin Road uh for the next meeting if I'm sure there's going to be multiple meetings but um it was I feel that this wasn't advertised properly uh maybe a a A-Frame sign in front of the Valentine estate saying meeting uh I put up some bulletin boards around town don't tell anyone but in the post office it's probably legal but I put it up anyways uh and stuff some mailboxes so I don't know if anyone got those but I think a few people did and we should have there should be a 100 people at this meeting instead of I maybe there's 409 good great yeah and I believe this is also being broadcast over uh Facebook um so there could be many many Watchers um on Facebook as well but thanks for your comments and thanks for doing what you did to advertise the the program of course Barbie he Barbie can you hear me hello um this is Barb I live on brighten Road I think we all show our street should be notified of what's going on with the insects so that we can also do something about it because they're just going to come and see us when um the other thing is is I agree that a lot of people did not know about it I don't know if we can put it on bulletin boards at the supermarkets they probably don't like advertising but everybody goes to the supermarket um and I guess that's all I thought this meeting might incorporate more than it it is today but this is good okay any comments on like the proposal or I I I hear everybody in terms of like the adver m in the attendance um okay hey Carl Michael do you want to say on uh do you want to say a few words about um the holder of the conservation restriction and how that works um I can I would rather you say something about it because you have a much you know a lot more that you can say than I can here for another 45 minutes so maybe you should do it online so's not reallying a mes near okay is it possible to turn that up Mackie it's okay yeah why don't you come to the podium and uh talk 44 maybe I'll anyway Michael mentioned that it's uh subject to a conservation restriction and uh a lot of times people don't know what that means and for a number of reasons the CPA requirement um mainly and the um the article 97 aspect that Michael talked about uh that really emanated from the language of the Town Hall warrant or article uh required a conservation restriction and so how that works is um you have to find someone certified by the state to hold the restriction and the Restriction is a document that pretty much lays out everything that can in a nutshell everything that can and cannot happen at the property and um so the property is owned by the town but it's supervised from that aspect uh by the holder in holder in this case is the Hopkinton area land trust um we worked out an agreement with uh with them earlier in the year um the uh select board and and Michael have the uh the draft of the conservation restriction it's now being reviewed by the state but um a lot of times people say why can't we do this or why can't we do that and the answer almost always emanates from what does it say in the conservation restriction and this conservation restriction um it has a lot of leeway it's a it was a um um a little bit of a different restriction because it has has a historical aspect to it as well um and so finding a holder was a little bit challenging because most conservation groups don't want to be involved in things outside of of raw land and obviously this is more than raw land so uh a lot of things that that uh that will go that will happen going forward with the town just have to be coordinated with the hopkington area land trust and and they've been very accommodating to this point um does that kind of clarify thanks thanks thanks thank you um I have some slides that I put together yes yes of course um I would love for the slides to be up it would really help me you could but the people online won't be able to see them uh well let's see how it goes um hi good evening everyone uh my name is Luba zorova um I've been a resident of Ashland for about five years so about the time since you guys have been having these discussions about the property um and this is the first time that I'm um participating in it and and have something I I do need one cup oh sorry no that's okay yes thank you um yes so I live near Warren Center uh off of Chestnut Street I have three kids uh four six and 11 years old year old boys and um my four-year-old um has been attending adventures in learning program in Ashland which been uh h BR has been open since uh 2019 or 2020 and it has been absolutely the highlight of his week um I've never seen my boy that happy um unfortunately he can only attend uh once a day I'm sorry once a week for three and a half hours um but I came here to speak for nature-based education and for an idea of using having that use on a property to be the anchor use uh that provides the revenue stream and other uses being the supportive and complimentary to that um and the reason for that is that I feel that um nature-based and Outdoor Learning um is a very big need in the town um and I'm very confident it will provide um the revenue stream that is needed to balance out uh the budgetary concerns that the town has um and basically my slides are making a case for it and I just want to go really quickly through it um I guess um my goal tonight is to voice the vision for the property because I think the unified vision is missing a bit people are talking about different things but there's no no one thing that is really clicking with everyone and so that's my chance at speaking for it I also feel like I'm speaking for the parents who are in the thick of raising children uh holding down a job and not being able to participate in these type of community meetings um I'm paying a babysitter right now to for my children for someone to take care of my children so I can be here but I do think it's a a need and I've spoken to many parents who are in support of it and I'm very confident if we go out there with this idea there will be a lot of support for it so the VIS vision for this for the anchor uh use of this property not the only one obviously but is for Ashlin to become the regional center for local outdoor nature-based and Environmental Education for preschool through high school children meeting the challenges of our society and the needs of the Working Families nature-based education promotes enthusiasm for learning movement physical activity Advanced problem solving skills creativity problem solving conflict resolution relationship building raising environmental stewards of tomorrow um and also allows for more uh customized approach to each kid I think it's um intuitively it makes sense to most people that kids learn the best uh with a h in a Hands-On environment Outdoors um and their pictures uh on a presentation to show that so um kids explore they take risks it improves their fine motor skills we all know that um unfortunately children are over stimulated with screens there's a lot less outdoor plane kids don't go to each other's houses anymore they don't ride bikes um this is these are the societal issues that I'm uh describing um and um I think the model for what can be at this place is this little program this little German Ashland Adventures in learning that I recently learned is closing and it's closing because um Courtney who runs this program she was um she may be known by many in the community um she doesn't have an indoor space uh she doesn't have a licensed building for kids and so they cannot really spend more than three and a half hours Outdoors there are three four five six year olds um and and co uh also was uh impacted her program and financially it only makes sense if she can offer something full-time and um the only limitation is the imagination really for uh what she has to offer I'm not specifically um saying uh um trying to put Courtney in charge of this program I'm just saying it's an amazing model we already have it in Ashlin we can work off of it so that that's really uh the idea um and so why should we consider children as the primary affectors of the Valentine property I feel like we haven't really talked about them um as much as I wish I guess as a parent um access to child care is difficult um women get in line for child care the moment they find out they're pregnant that is ridiculous frankly waiting for for a daycare slot to open for nine months uh at a time um access to Affordable and quality Child Care is difficult cost of child care in m assachusetts is the second most expensive one in the country after California it's more expensive than mortgage so we don't have enough of it and it's always not always high quality and you have to wait a long time for it so sometimes uh it makes families make very difficult decisions that they otherwise wouldn't want to do um so I did mention that I feel like parents are not represented in this General discussion because they are they just can't find the time and so I'm speaking for some of them so um as an example of the need ashan's Current public preschool has an enrollment of 81 children and the weight list is 48 and it's very common so you have the need far exceeding what the town can provide ashin is expected to continue to grow by about 10% uh per uh census 25% of people living in Ashland are children under the age 18 we're talking about a quarter of population who can benefit from this um I think this particular use uh would be a great fit for the property as I mentioned it would serve public and Community need for child care and after school care for all different ages it would be more affordable uh or at least as affordable as other options except that it would provide an outdoor learning comp component which a lot of parents really love and it fits uh the needs of of many children um it would um it I I believe this use would be compatible with the conservation restriction and historical restriction on a property so the whole issue of you know leasing you cannot lease or rent to commercial properties that that's a nonissue um it would align with sustainability committee goals of contributing into Environmental Education in the town um it's within walking distance to middle school kids could just walk after school and learn how to garden or to raise animals or um do farming and then sell their produce at the Ashland farmers market for example there are just so many connections to the curriculum science environmental math um and the income stream um uh as I mentioned our parents are pay for child care obviously and uh that would just kind of come full circle and support the operations of the building itself so uh uh for that to work uh the town would need to either lease um to a nonprofit entity to run a program like that that's one option um except that I'm not really sure what shortterm uh rental I'm sorry lease versus long-term rental are would taking months or couple of years uh long-term lease is usually considered five years or more okay so you know uh it has to be something that makes sense from the nonprofit Pro um nonprofit organization to invest in at least a five year like they need a little bit of certainty um so uh the location is across the street from Ashland State Park in terms of programming that you again nature based outdoor type of programming could be uh done in the summer it could be in partnership with um Ashland Recreation offerings already um and um yep I you know if people uh like the idea I think a phased approach would make most sense you know you would start with phase one where you kind of use the adventures and learning model of openin a preschool program first that's where the need is the greatest um I would uh but it would be a full day um I'm sure if they started they would easily enroll 20 kids and that's a good Revenue stream for kids um I mean for to run the property from Financial perspective um and another benefit is that um this anchor use would not interfere with other potential uses on site such as um offices renting out the barn to for functions you mentioned birthday parties I just took my four-year-old for his birthday party at another f in Sherburn that's $500 for 11 kids that's a standard rate so like you could literally leverage the program and the animals to rent it for kids birthday parties I'm sure that would be a hit um the one thing I didn't mention not animals um so adventures and learning they have a couple of goats some chickens um kids come and they brush the goats they chop up you know kale and feed it to them they gather eggs these are just introduct learning on how to take responsibility for taking care of animals and um and dig dirt and and and play and learn how to count rocks and so many other great things um so these are just my initial ideas I do have a little table here on slide 14 uh of different types of programming for preschoolers so three through six for after school activities for let's say kindergarten through middle school and then after school programs for middle and high school could include um even programs like 4 AG I I don't know if you guys know that um you know that's kind of more advanced uh but the property is seems to be a perfect fit for all of it nature learning uh Wildlife Corridor Wetlands you can learn like the curriculum opportunities to plug in the uh public school kids would be amazing um I think in um in 2019 during the Forum um you U mentioned looking into native Community farm and how it's such an institution in town people care so much about it right they made millions of dollars to just rebuild the barn um what they mention is that every single student in natic public schools come comes to the farm at some point they are invested in it it's part of their Town that's what I would imagine this place to be as well um and I'm I'm coming to that I know it's taking a little while um there's a slide about different types of models out there um it would be something that would be ours but there are a lot of ideas um on this type of Outdoor Learning um communities and farms and schools and um I know people were talking about that not too many people show up um uh to these forums um I know the ashin mom's group on Facebook is very active and has hundreds of um members and um I'm sure if an idea was pitched to them like you could do some kind of voting on Facebook I don't know if it complies with open meeting law uh and we can discuss this um uh I wanted to uh speak about this idea at the sustainability committee as well to get their endorsement um be because um we have to teach our kids how to be more responsible stewards of Earth and this is the way to do it and we have a place to do it and I feel like it's a perfect opportunity for it and I'm not just speaking for my kids it's all the future kids um and yeah comprehensive planning committee I plan to talk about it too as well as a vision long-term vision for the town so this is really an appeal to make the Valentine prop property serve our children and to invest in our future thank you very much I can email you the slides abely yes what would it build oh uh yes I uh the house not the barn yeah the barn has no insulation no water no sewer so you need B for the license place does have sewer but it will okay it will okay it should it must I mean didn't you say that the house needs to support the activities for the barn so for the kitchen to work and uh it it needs Water and Sewer I mean I know it will take time and money but you can do anything with time with money time and L yeah I know you just need a vision first and then everything will align put together Crea yeah no I think I'm just building on what has been done to date um I I think a lot of great work was done um I'm just emerging at this particular period of time because of my personal situation and and yeah that's um my yeah I think it's a great idea okay I really do and I don't think it's it's like mutually exclusive of some of the things that we're talking about but it's complimentary real question can you tell me like just in general not necessarily how much you pay but in general how much is child care a week at used when Nora was going to school it was like a weekly thing yes yeah um it varies um anywhere up to 450 a week uh 300 is is hard to come by it depends on the hours but 300 is a great deal I would say 350 to 450 sometimes 500 if they're uh it's a really good daycare and they they just renovated their space um that's the range okay yeah generate some significant Revenue thank you thank you for putting that all together I know that was a lot of work any other questions thoughts cliff where' the mic go oh you have to use this one okay did you zoom C cliff and zoom mutually exclusive uh just ask a few people in the room uh at any rate no the the only question I really had uh was one that was just touched upon about the house and my question is is about the barn about uh three Essentials that it doesn't currently have um and that is electricity water and I hadn't even considered the the sewage uh but if if one were to have restrooms out there that would be an item too and the other one is heating so I just wondered what the plans were on that sure no no those are good questions um so what you could do is utilize the bathrooms and in the house actually in the kitchen in the house and one of the things that we've kind of kicked around as an idea is you could maybe build a Breezeway between the house and the barn um there's a door basically it matches up and yeah I think yeah and like a greenhouse and everything facility was that that's something different yeah it's gone through a lot hasn't it so was a breeze a Breezeway so yeah and basically have a connection point to both the kitchen and the bathroom facilities um in terms of the insallation and stuff it would it would be limited in terms of when you could use it in season just like the Holliston Historical Society does and I don't have it right in front of me but I think they use it from April November they're saying you're using it at at basically at your own risk um but they do have I think some kind of supplemental Heating that they utilize there it's just not insulated but that's something that we could look at too the key is you get all of these ideas together and and you like it's like an amalgamation of ideas and then you go out and get an expert who can talk to you about the feasibility of it and and basically draw it out and say okay well this is what something like that could look like um and then you figure out okay exactly what you need what kind of estimate you're talking about so there's a ways to go but I think as as Luba correctly pointed out you put together like a a vision and kind of like an idea of everything that you want to do there that's your starting point um okay yeah does anybody online have some questions or comments um hi this is Kate McDonald I live right behind the Valentine estate and um I was listening tonight and my biggest concern is where you said I'm I'm really worried about who's going to maintain this land you my I the Boy Scout Troops down there cutting the trees but from what I've been Gathering about other meetings that have been going on is that the DPW doesn't even want to right now maintain the land the grass of the schools and Seed the grass and who's going to maintain this land and making sure that it's the property properly cut and maintained and like the the um all the woods is maintained back so it doesn't overgrow again yeah because that's a big big issue I think yeah Kate I think that's a good question um and first of all I I don't think the DPW said they don't want to um I think they just with their current Staffing levels they have a hard time maintaining everything that they're being asked to maintain and the parks and recck Department in collaboration with DPW would be the ones that would have to maintain this property right so it would be under Kelly's Kelly's at the rec center then so would this all the management of this then fall under Kelly's like she would be the one running her programs then or everything would be rental through her so she would be the one that's manag this whole the whole Barn that that would be yet to be determined I mean Kelly's part of the Kelly would be part of the equation here for any kind of Parks and Recreation Department for sure um but you know we haven't seen like what the organizational structure would look like or anything like that we don't even know if we would have a space for them other than this space that we're talking about right because all the programs that the lady said before like Kelly runs an amazing after like a you know preschool programs which could' be you know expanded upon which are always highly in need which you know programs like that so that's something that like again going piggybacking off the lady before um yeah my biggest concern is because I've said we've been dealing with that for Boy Scouts helping out in other fields in town of making sure that someone someone is put in charge of maintaining the land perfect thank you yeah Helen Helen you have your hand up right yes I do hi uh Helen Nicole um you know I'm I just I wanted to comment that you know and I love schools nothing in schools I but I would be very concerned myself uh supporting a school because I think that's going to severely limit other community um involvement here it's going to severely limit other community uses I I I would think especially during the week because people come coming onto a school property have to be for there's a lot of things that go along with a school um that would preclude other people from using that area um so I I just want to really express my concern for that because we we've spent a lot of money on this we're going to be spending a lot of money on this and I really felt like this property was something that the people in the town wanted uh for the community uh to benefit from for everyone not just one specific um you know School each people I mean all people and so I am a little concerned about that and I just wanted to express that no I I appreciate that Helen and and I think you know one of the things so this property is going to need a multitude of uses to make it feasible right it can't just lean on one particular thing and so you can look at timing of different different aspects and different activities I mean fortunately not a lot of parties are going on during school school days right or you know manyi weddings or anything like that but you do bring up a good point you limit your scheduling time for some of those we'll just call call them Revenue generating events like a wedding if you're doing something like a school have you know on you know weekly activities or you know things that require a certain schedule so your point your point is well taken miles hey miles miles is one of the original Valentine property committee members thank you Michael um just a quick point on the the items brought up I I think that the one issue with a daycare type of thing is it would take an incredible amount of investment to bring that up to someplace that to a level that could H support some sort of full-time Child Care situation I think it would be much better suited to work in the direction of being able to support school time programs uh for children to come in to do specifics there um but I think that's comes to a lot later in the that this would support this property would support a child care type situation as it's uh direction that it's it's going in in Redevelopment um one other thing the thing I want to raise my hand for is to uh just suggest that uh a part of the process for having an Avenue for uh support is to develop a nonprofit 501c3 type uh friends of Valentine property type of I'm not trying to give it an official name but just the concept uh to that could handle a lot of fundraising types of things project support volunteer uh uh creation for everything from semiannual uh types of uh brush clearing and stuff like that so it would take a lot of the load off of the uh uh parks and wck type of hiring of uh you know people to do some of these things that don't need to be done on a constant basis but definitely need to keep the property up uh so I just wanted to suggest uh that that's something be kept in mind uh that might help even fairly early in the process here to develop and I and I I guess have to look at how that dovetails with the uh uh the town ownership and everything like that but I I believe one good uh example of this is the friends of minute National Historical Park uh they do a lot of the the fund related types of things in support of uh of the park and volunteerism awesome thank you miles Julie I see your hands up hi Julie nardone 86 elth Street um an idea that I had a piggybacking on the nonprofit was that it would it would be like this new model where they it would be like a caretaker nonprofit uh events planner and they would actually it could be a family it could be couples it could be whatever and they live on the second floor of the Valentine estate because housing is so expensive that would uh take a lot of um pressure off whoever runs profit to have to make you know tons and tons of money so as part of this package they would live upstairs they could take care of the land and they could do the events management I don't know how this would work but it fleu into my head so I wanted to share it um thank you thanks Julie right any um any other questions comments uh from the audience or in Zoom land Kate oh no I already had my comment I'm all set thank you um Kate Jers 11 Rodman Road um so I have um a couple things this speaks to me and it's really I I kind of echo I guess of making sure we get people out but the ideas floating around are really exciting and I think we definitely need to either reconstitute the Valentine committee or a new version of that to kind of keep keep interest keep um ideas flowing and make sure that it's out in the community and it's not um I think when you have more people kind of the word gets spread out more and it it has a way to uh communicate with people I also think um you know if it I I agree with the self- sustaining so I think that's great I think I think if it ends up being a you know a town Department that should probably be factored in the cost because that would be going somewhere else we we would be paying for that somehow it it looks to me that um the hire it said hire an architect and engineer and I I would say we're not yet at that process right because we'd be spending money to design what um we probably do need some help on when there's a tighter list of ideas um to maybe investigate how they're feasible I would support the 501c3 nonprofit and then I do have a question um is that new barn door like a historic reference um because I've Heard lots of people that don't like it I don't like it if you tell me it's historic I'll be like great I'll celebrate it but I hope that we can get something historic there yeah yeah right now the only thing historic about that barn door is the window which is the original window that that um the uh X if you will will be painted black or stained black like the rest of the property or rest of the door not the rest of the property oh my gosh right any um any other questions or comments yeah Barbie they addressed the traffic issue have they addressed the traffic issue in that area uh should Beed no there there hasn't so they haven't addressed the traffic issue but I think actually you raise a good point because one of the things that the select board and I are going to do um after the marathon with uh with Doug and his team's help is BU finally Build That Sidewalk on 135 from Marathon mobile over to uh Franklin so so that should help at least with The Pedestrian access so that is a whole other multi-million dollar question so okay well folks I I know Doug you guys talk crossw to connect State par to connect Community set a cross yeah there there's been Doug do you want to speak to the crosswalk yeah right now uh step one is to put a crosswalk over by Edgewood uh we've had a professional engineer design it two of them actually so um we're in that process now the uh the signed posts have been planted as far as the concrete and all that but so that's phase one phase two is going to be the sidewalk after the marathon and then a second crosswalk down by Indian Spring sorry Mike I don't think we're going to allow horse Crossing though so no horse Crossing folks no's catch us all right everybody I really appreciate your time and and oh Yanda uh Yolanda Greaves 127 Prospect uh we as a selectboard haven't had a lot of discussion but Michael knows I've been W of the people saying I'm glad we're restoring the bar but what the heck are we going to do with this property I think one of the meetings we had many years ago I said the same thing so to all of you sitting here thank you for coming out for all of you watching and following us on Zoom however you're doing it my request as a select board member but again this was not discussed is that if you have thoughts or ideas on what was presented on what was not presented please reach out to the select board reach out to Michael give us your thoughts cuz we've only heard heard from a handful of people as to what you think about these ideas we had one idea presented that was great use it Park and wreck the only way as Kate has told us all is that to to to really get community involvement we need to hear from the community this was one Forum I I would suspect that as we get more information and we start making you know some ideas based on what we've heard there'll be another Forum we need your input we need we need you to push back on ideas we need you to say oh this I liked this I didn't like this works this doesn't work a discussion about traffic a discussion about sidewalks a discussion about all the things that are going to be impacted you know the idea that we can we do something with our community theater can we do something with our Arts can we do something with our inhome business people so I would ask that if you've been to this a forum give us your ideas talk to people get it back to the select board and to Michael because that's how we can make a decision and I don't think any of us want to wait another year before we do something we have the barn finished what can we be doing with it and with the property thank you email com yeah this will be my last iise anyone of having a meeting at the bottom and so people can actually see it and feel it and touch it G so Robin's question for those uh that couldn't hear is have we thought about having a meeting at the barn um we've thought about it but with the parking situation and some of the the other the other limitations of it you're going to open up your field okay well then we might have saw the are you sure about that [Laughter] Robin okay I'm going to let you and Cynthia talk about that and then we'll reconvene how's that say was $20 to yeah 20 bucks it'll go it'll go fundraising it'll be part of fundraising okay Diane Montross y hi um so um I guess it would be helpful to if you could recap next steps I know um I know the the request is made to um provide feedback to the select select board um it'd be helpful to understand like who do we reach out to is there an email address um what are what's the timeline around next steps is there another meeting do you have that information so Diane we haven't scheduled another meeting but if you want to provide feedback the best way to do it would be to provide it over email and that is Select board at Ashland mass.com and so all the select board members would get that as well as myself and Jen ball and Susan and Diane in our office so that would be the best way to provide feedback and we don't have a meeting scheduled yet okay all right thank you everyone uh this has been a good discussion I appreciate all the ideas and um we will see you at the next meeting Rob you're going to close the yeah again well thank you Michael and thank you thank you Doug one and Doug two uh for all your for all your help tonight what's that which is W yeah Cliff you had to say that right yeah so anyway uh this has been a great uh um okay quiet down you crowd uh so thank you all for coming and thanks for the people online and just to followup I think what Yolanda started uh did talk about uh getting information to us I'm pretty sure we're going to put this on on the agenda for the next meeting unless I hear some objections but I don't think so so we'll do some followup and and talk about next steps and uh so meanwhile feel free to uh continue get getting us that information so um without further Ado I'll is there a motion to adjourn here hereby I I I didn't actually see did oh did she is there a second okay all those in favor of a journey say I I thank you all good night thank you

good evening everyone I'd like to call to order this school committee meeting of uh Monday January 29th 2024 um roll call Kate Kathleen Amal here Chris Oliver here best Coughlin here Shannon Jenkins here John noones yeah thank you um I ask that um folks who are able to please rise for the Pledge of [Music] Allegiance I pledge allegiance alance flag United States America and to the it one nation under God indivisible with liberty and thank you everyone thank you for the beautiful Graphics um so let me get to my uh so this meeting uh is here where we're remote via Zoom um and this meeting will be recorded on uh to be rebroadcast on DCTV channels 9 on Wednesdays and Thursdays at 5: Fridays at 6:00 a.m. Saturday at 8:00 a.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m.

to order 602 with me in Beaver Brook car Teresa myself as committee members remotely is Kate caneta and Wanita Harris is that correct Wanita sorry I was muted I am here okay all right so we got four and that's the so consider that the roll call Kate also in attendance with me here is Mr John Spang Cara casamero and Michael Weaver the purpose of tonight's meeting there was a lot of documentation that was sent to you but essentially the purpose of tonight's meeting is to try to explain solve a mystery that I've been trying to figure out uh between the initial budget of 150 million then it went to 154 then it went back to 150 I'd like the clarity on the transactions that bring it back down to 150 because that's the starting point for our difference between what we're doing currently once we go through that and have that understanding John has presented a spreadsheet it's the long spreadsheet where essentially he has classified the $1 million of the S money into account classifications and for clarity purposes our operating budget this year in round numbers would be the $160 million as we refer to as the lights on budget plus the $10 million of the Essa money that's made up of our operational budget this year totaling some $170 million other8 million referred to that as is your operational budget the other $8 million is essentially new asks that that we put on there um so with that I'm going to turn it over to to John a lot of the materials that he sent is for information purposes you could read it at your leisure not sure how much of that is relevant to answering the questions tonight thank you Don it's all yours thank you Rich Ken is gonna help me Ken Wallace with uh presenting some of the documents and Ken I'm going to throw you a little curve ball to start with we're going to open up with the second slide we talked about the one that says 2324 Opera yep that's it right there so I think you all everybody has this in their package U so it's what what you have there are we call them the major objects these six or seven categories of expense that's what they're called and in front of you you can see uh three years there you can see the 2122 actual the 2223 budget and the 2324 budget those three columns and uh you also see this presentation of major objects each month when we do our monthly budget report you know the first page you see is the condensed line items and that's it's the same thing here so the salaries and benefits and so on and so forth so as you look out at the 2324 column the far right the typical kind of things you see as you go down um one of things that was um a little different last year and we're doing it again next year is when you go down to program Improvement you can see the line in this year's budget shot way up went from a million3 the year before to million and what that was we had like we did this this year we isolated the budget drivers so that we could talk about them if we needed to zero in on them it wouldn't be Blended in with everything else and the big drivers uh in the current year budget in that 5.5 million was the S2 that was expiring if you recall there were over 30 positions but a number of um High School teaching positions s two was ending he said here's a driver we want to add that into the school budget we need to keep those teachers in the classrooms and that's where we put it it has a slightly different name when you um look at what we're doing next year but that that those are the accounts that it's in and uh dues and fees and stuff but that undesignated line you can see that's a minus figure it's a minus figure so when you add the column down and including the minus figure you can see it comes out to 150 million the difference between all of the Plus numbers and 150 million is 4.7 it was not at the time really based on anything more than the fact that our Target was 150 million last January um and before we get into what happened to that um if you look at the middle column and for those of you uh recalling the 2223 budget uh we did something similar um in that we I isolated some savings down on that line and in the 2223 year there really were two uh things that we thought we would achieve and we did one was about half a million dollars of positions that we didn't need to carry forward at the time we saw our enrollment at the elementary school level going down we were coming coming back from Brookfield and we didn't think we'd need as many Elementary positions as we had all the while keeping class size about the same so that was 500,000 of that um and then we also felt and and we had a very different Outlook of the labor market than I think it was more of a traditional we were coming back from Co but we definitely did not see the tightness that we're seeing now or a competition uh for the few fewer teachers who are applicants and candidates that we eventually saw but we thought we would have what's uh some people called breakage or salary savings the difference between people who were retiring and we knew we had an a a higher number than normal of retirees just because of covid number of people said were saying I'm not going back that's it you you heard all that so we we knew we'd be hiring Replacements and we thought as we always did we no problem bringing people in at the lower steps compared to the steps that people were leaving at and we figured we'd get $900,000 just from that turnover so what of course what surprised us was the labor market Market that year and I won't go into that but those two things were savings that we built in the budget after the city council had lowered our ask and we had to come up with a operating plan for the year but you see but in the in the year the current year it wasn't based on anything other than trying to Target 150 as a goal but we also knew there were a number of vacancies going on at the time we actually put this budget together in November of uh 22 and at the time we had 86 vacant positions I think almost 40 of them were teachers but most of them were Paris we by them were're struggling with hiring them and we figured there would be some savings uh when we closed our books seven or eight months later but what happened uh Ken if you want to go to the next page I here I I listed a few things that during those six months happened that it chewed away took away the savings we thought we'd have in November uh you know we we tried to fill the vacancies and we were moderately successful as the pandemic Eed uh but we also had to cover the classes the whether they were Court classes or electives and you've heard us talk about teacher overloads that's a the teacher has uh contractually six periods to teach and they're willing to teach a seven we would pay for that extra work and we had quite a bit of it I think it probably was over $600,000 when all was said and done but we had to cover that work work we also what what's called period coverage if you have a vacancy or a absent absence you might just go up to a teacher who has a lunch period or a free period or something like that and say can you cover this class just for one day just at this time and our our teachers are always willing to help um but you have to pay a little for that and so that was going on um during that period and we also began to be successful hiring remember we in our minds these were positions and they still are that would last long past June so we that's why I call them their permanent hires um you know we continue to do that so that that took up some of the the savings we had budgeted but it was really the Self Insurance uh claims that hurt us they they jumped up beginning in February and according to Gallagher who's our consultant and advises us they said there's really a couple things going on uh one is they said you have a much higher number of high cost claimants than you normally had you ever had before uh they show you know we don't of course we don't want to know who they are but they would describe some of the situations they were in and the cost of their care and how the number of people in those situations um was much more than we we typically have so that surprised us and they also said that what was happening not just here but AC what signis says across their book of business that's what they describe it was that people were beginning to go back uh to the doctors and hospitals that they hadn't been able to go to or wanted to go to uh while covid was peing including some of the elective surgeries that they put off um but also some of the care that they would have gotten some of that I wouldn't quite call it preventive care but early care you would get they were now returning to their doctors um a little further along than um was expected and and so here's where being self-insured you you take that risk things are going to be normal or typical and when they're not U this is what happens our our claims went way up compared to what we thought they' be as it turned out the end of the year put pretty close to budget but we had had so even with so many vacancies um it it really shouldn't have in a normal year and I I think that it took us a while to catch up with that I think that's one of the reasons we weren't reporting on this happening with a little more clarity didn't couldn't quite figure it out so why are we um why are we so good versus budget but we're hearing all these things going going on and so that the savings that we thought we'd get from the 86 vacancies included Health insures claims but that's not what happened and that uh really hurt us the other things I I put on there uh the right to read legislation that really didn't impact the budget but what we did when that legislation uh required school districts to put in a new Elementary reading curriculum we used our S2 grant that was about to expire we had some money there and the reason I mentioned it was had we not used the Grant I think there would have been money there that we could have used we could have moved other expenses in there to create the savings that we were budgeted but we needed to go forward with the reading program that was a couple million dollars um so it was a Factor last spring and then finally we like average homeowners too we were seeing much higher energy costs uh we used some heating oil to heat some of our buildings uh we have natural gas too that was up uh fuel even our electric bills had um gone up like anyone else so several of those were above budget so all those things happening uh cut into the the savings we thought we' get can you want to go to the next oh sure you're the chairman yeah just let me follow the thinking on this because to me it's important I understand the sequence of events so you're making a budget of $150 million and when you're presenting and coming up with the the numbers you have anticipated categories or line numbers that you feel are going to be not utilized or you're going to have savings on and therefore you adjust down your however your premises your starting point to a net a net number ultimately you get down to the 150 short time later you realize that the anticipated savings you had was not going to be recognized or materialized and therefore there were costs that were incurring that were offset against those savings that were now in in the red so to say we didn't have any offset savings for that necessitated you to go back and say that we needed 154 and change 1547 instead of the 150 is that basically the way it works yeah exactly and that that's the Year we're in now so that that's still what we're faced with a a good example I think is the school bus contract so after we had this plan in place we called in the bus company and we said to them we is there a chance we can negotiate prepaying our bus contract we would pay you in June instead of in September and October because they're on a a calendar year what we would have done was use the savings pay the bus company and then lower the line in the budget for transportation this year because we had already paid it they said they would be willing to accept uh now remember the bus contract is close to $14 million they said they would accept a prepayment of $2 million and in exchange they would lower our liability by $20,000 so almost like a a prepayment discount so to speak of 1% we weren't just going to pay them early unless we got something for it and we would have gotten $20,000 savings by doing that um but as it turned out when we got to June we didn't have the two million to give them so the deal never happened we had some other ideas we were going to do something with some of the special education settlements that were signed and sealed we would have had to pay those in September uh accounting wise we could because they were obligations already signed from earlier years we could have paid those in June would have been okay with the Auditors and then lowered the budget in the fall for the fall but we were never able to do that either so we had some strategies but we we couldn't enact it I appreciate that yeah and not withstanding uh the strategies we're now left with a budget at a point in time that's $4.7 million higher correct and you and I had previous conversations where I wanted some sort of an accounting of how you came away with um I'm trying to come up with a word yeah came away with a balance of $3 million because I remember at the time there was a lot of H Baloo in the papers and that's when the the 1.6 or the 1.7 here was was uh indicated as to part of the part of the the the cut that left me with two questions one was the balance of $3 million what happened to that and then secondly the $919,000 that we have on the other schedule I think can't see but it's School operating budget where it shows the 150 154 the 1.6 uh the 999,000 where it says allocating Staffing to Grants okay that 999,000 if I'm correct was then taken out of the operation budget and applied against some grants the grant grant funding my question is is without getting into specific the the type or what funding it was Etc are those monies that this was applied against there for the current year or is this something that is temporary and we're gonna have to make this up um Ken let's go to the next page and I can answer those the one that says school no the school operating budget page no you have one that says School operating budget no keep going I think you missed it it should be back right next to the first the unanticipated expenditures it's right back you have another one there um what comes after that and then what what's after that there it is right there just out of sequence can you make that a little bigger okay um so the first uh so this is what happened um in when we realized we hadn't made the savings that we thought and when June was coming to a close uh we went in front of the Board of Education said um we the plan didn't work and so what we'd like to do to balance our books so to speak y stay on this page for a second is we did two things uh first we cut our spending plan as much as we could and there were three areas primar that we cut and you see those in the third column of number there you you see that there's 1.6 million can can you make it any bigger at all K even if we lose the size yeah and go one step either more okay let's try it okay so you can see there those are the the line items we've caught and they came from three areas the first was our the cost centers I'll call them our principles program leaders anyone really anyone who had a budget and we cut back those spending budgets by 30% we we we Exempted a few people of programs we Exempted uh technology that you know such a growing feel we just didn't think we could cut there realistically we Exempted facilities that budget has been under a lot of pressure and look at our buildings we didn't want to do any less than we were doing and we Exempted the high school base allocation uh just because of the growing enrollment it it didn't make sense but we did include in the 30% cuts the High School athletic department for example and then all of our other schools and programs we we cut the cuts came to about $800,000 um little less in that as part of that million six that you see there the second thing we recommended to cut should back up we had also gone over and talked with the City Finance director gang barck uh with a rep from the the mayor's office and we said we want you to know the plan didn't work um we're going to um try and cut our budget but we can't cut 4.7 million we'll cut what we can but we're gonna have we're g going to come back and ask for something and in that meeting they suggested that we look at our utilities and uh they said you know prices have come down since you set your budget in January February take a look at those and we' also locked in some purchasing with the town purchasing department at prices that were lower than we had budgeted back in the the winter so the second set of cuts were to some of our utilities and I think it was heating oil energy maybe Vaseline I'm not sure I could F those up but that gave us a little more than a 100,000 of Cs and then the final the third leg is What U Mr janelli mentioned and you see it on the chart there the 900 thou 919 th000 if you read over to the left it would say allocated Staffing to Grants that's the one that got misunderstood that's that's the one uh believe the teachers union thought there were layoffs um it got to we didn't do a good job messaging that but what we uh what we had going on is by July we also had a Governor's new two-year budget and in the two-year budget the alliance grant our our $20 million Alliance Grant was going up to 22 million part of a step up it's going to continue to go up so I think the Mr janell's question was that a one-time Source or do we have to make it up we took uh nine positions and put took those out of the budget and put them in the alliance Grant because of the $2 million increase we needed 1 million just to keep the contractual commitments in the grant Zone uh meaning you've heard we have 40 some odd kindergarten teachers in there they all get steps and adjustments things like that uh they they have health insurance and the regular benefits any uh teacher would get here so we needed one of the two million to uh get those U increases but we had another 1 million that we felt could receive um additional staff so the 999,000 you see here represents that decision to put people into the alliance Grant now what I I could have showed it as a reduction on the salary line but I thought it was better to isolate it and show it right where it is as allocated Staffing to Grant so we could talk about it like we are so i y That's good in terms of I'm satisfied that is at least an a grant that has is scheduled to to increase in the next couple of years uh so it's not a a grant that's going to be depleted we would have to then take this back into the current year right so that's fine so that accounts for the 1.6 um now the mystery is the other $3 million um I say it's a mystery because I get confused in that um we went before the council we you went before the council and just recently said that we're going to I forget yeah condition it and allow us to to draw down on that and it was my understanding that you had mention we expect a a favorable year for I'm not put your words in your mouth but as construed to be almost the break even and if not we'll draw down on on the three million and then Kevin had said we were looking to best case scenario we come up with a break even and again I'm paraphrasing and we were next year we're going to ask instead of for the threee for the full $5 million that correct uh there's an important step that went into that um if you look first before we leave this slide you can see it going from 150 for the second column then there's a million six in cuts that brought it down to 153 K if you look at could you pull up the slide I think it's right before it says budget balancing there it is and make it a little smaller that's just a summary of the the two uh strategies you can see it adds the 4.7 million it was a combination of those budget cuts I said of 1.