Reader
Browse passages, annotate evidence, and export with full provenance for citation.
She's a junior. Ruby Casadei had a ton of power. She's had a good season at the plate. She's hitting well over 300. She's only a junior. This this team is is ripe for the future. So, no matter what happens in this tournament, I'm excited to see what happens. Yeah, it seems like it's they're just breaking the surface of some of the potential with these players. And like you said, it's the first year for coach Sasso, and already, you know, a huge huge I guess you could say surprise considering the way they've played the last, you know, what, 13 years, 14 years. So, it's it's huge to go 15 and 5. And even if you do, you know, not make it out of the postseason or make it in the postseason very far, I still think that this season is certainly a win going 15 and 5 and and making the state tournament.
⚗ AI-reconstructed · cite from original above
How does something like the storage buildings progress to the point where that might end up being a capital improvement that we need to do. I mean, that's $250,000 that uh may or may not be approved. Did we know that going in? And I think that was labeled as code compliance, so is is it related to I mean, is that you just had to bucket it somehow or >> There's three town categories: code compliance, roofing, and renovations. And so, sometimes it's a little easier. >> [laughter] >> I I get that. Um yeah, just do you know the history of of the school? >> basically it wasn't part of the initial submission for the state, and so the Next Gen School Building Committee has to evaluate whether or not they would pay for that uh out of the funds allocated for each building. Um there is certainly more than enough money to be able to do so.
⚗ AI-reconstructed · cite from original above
That's a win in itself. >> Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely, yes. So, and it has been a pleasure to watch them play. And it has been a pleasure to do this with you. I'm so glad that we were able to do it one more time. Who knows, maybe if they're hosting a playoff game, we'll get to do a third game. Jacob, it really has been great. I've enjoyed this opportunity. I think it's time to to close this thing out. Yeah, well, it was a pleasure to do it with you a couple days in a row. Some great great softball, a lot of offense, a lot of home runs. It's been a pleasure to be with you. And the Clockers will take the final game of the season 16 to 8 from the Grafton Gators here from Ashland High School. They finished the regular season 15 and 5, and they'll await their power rankings in that bracket coming out next week.
⚗ AI-reconstructed · cite from original above
I don't believe these are reimbursable, but I would have to check that. I don't know if you I don't think that they are. >> think they are. But um nevertheless, the money is available in the money that's already been allocated to be able to cover them. It's just a matter of whether or not the next chance school building committee elects to um spend it here. Um and so Ben and I intend on trying to the conversation's already come up once. Um and I I think, you know, knowing that we have to pay for it either way and we have money already allocated, I think it'd be great to do so, but you know, it's not my decision at the end of the day. I'm one of the members on that committee. Okay. Yeah, I in my personal view, yeah, it is I think you alluded to I would advocate for that.
⚗ AI-reconstructed · cite from original above
So, we'll say so long from Ashland High School. Ashland Clockers get a big win. A big win, indeed. Thank you for joining us today. Have a good night.
⚗ AI-reconstructed · cite from original above
I would hate for the first thing we do with those new buildings to say, "Okay, here's another $250,000 of capital that Right. >> we're going to put into these new buildings, especially, you know, we're not necessarily asking them to cut any other things things that were in the plan. If this is coming in under budget, let's put these things into that budget. Um Can you talk a little bit more about the alternative option, the sports [snorts] complex renovation, and the $10 million Like I mean >> [laughter] >> Yes. First of all, I think I think that's great news um on the turf. So, am I am I understanding that correctly that that's not going to go to referendum if the board decides to approve this year one, it's something that we're going to do with the capital expense? >> as it's approved through town council, yes.
⚗ AI-reconstructed · cite from original above
Um and Well, we know they wanted it last year. Yes. And so and that you know, in this the ask is less, right? Cuz it was it was earmarked for 800,000. Um but to answer your question about the $10.1 million alternative. Um so in in your folder is the proposal by SLR. That is the design work that you approved Is it March or February of this year? Um to move forward with SLR. They did the original turf and as we know the turf is old, but it has really stood the test of time. It's one of the oldest turf fields in New England at this point. Um and SLR did we worked with them then. Um and so what I will say is this is a initial design um and this is all the components that would fit within that $1.9 million budget. This is like we could make changes to this.
⚗ AI-reconstructed · cite from original above
This is not like this is what it's going to be. Um but some of the things that we talked about with the planning committee and also the athletic director, John Parasino, um is obviously the turf replacement, the track replacement and um also expansion. So currently um we're kind of legacy in with our track because your fencing is supposed to be a meter from your last lane eight. And so we're not. It's very very close to the fence. Um so it would put us in compliance so that we we met the meter mark. It would replace the chain link and it would also um put in some uh safety netting behind the goal post and uh I think it's Is it shot put? There's something >> Yeah, new shot put pit. >> Yes, there you go. Um so that's what the $1.9 million covers. It does not cover bleachers or other um upgrades.
⚗ AI-reconstructed · cite from original above
When you look at the $10.1 million project and I can send that to you, um it's very comprehensive. It's adding turf at the soccer fields. It's it's redo it, making an entire complex. So, bleachers, everything. Does going with the 1.9 million dollar plan, the way that this design is laid out, preclude the future expansion of the rest of the 10 million? Are they mutually exclusive or No, they're not. >> potential Okay. What I will say though is you can also do turf and track separately. Um and they also their replacement timelines are a little bit different. Um but you know, by doing them at they're both well past the the point they should be. So, like replacing them at the same time makes the most sense. Um but like I said, I can't remember if it was like 8 years and 15 years. It would have been like 8 years for a turf, 15 years for a track um resurfacing.
⚗ AI-reconstructed · cite from original above
But like those two make sense to go together, but this doesn't preclude us for from doing further expansions. So, one of the additions that it isn't just the resurfacing of the track, they're actually going to take out the the asphalt underneath and that's because that's well past and then do the do the track on top of it. Yeah, I I think that's great news. Um I'm very happy about that update. Um my last question, uh the Doolittle stage renovations, I I agree with Mr. White on making sure Highland and and Doolittle Doolittle are taken care of in the next couple years of capital projects. This one in particular, do we have um can you provide any more context or information on that stage replacement? Uh right off of that stage is the PTA closet, so I've spent a lot of time on that stage. I've had a daughter do two drama clubs on there.
⚗ AI-reconstructed · cite from original above
I don't think I've ever particularly walked that stage, gone we need to spend a bunch of money in here, but that doesn't mean I'm seeing everything. Yeah, so I look at this cuz we have stage renovation showing up twice, right? For Dodd and Doolittle. Um I think that the Doolittle uh stage is is old, could use some new draperies, lights, re- um re-flooring, um but is not in the same condition as the Dodd stage. The Dodd stage is actually a safety issue where pieces are coming off the floor. It can't It just can't be refinished anymore. I What we haven't done with either of the stage renovations is gotten design work, right? So these are like very like kind of just rough order estimates. So do I think that the Doolittle stage needs as much as Dodd probably not, but we just kind of put in 250 for both.
⚗ AI-reconstructed · cite from original above
If we don't spend 250, then like we release the funds. It has to be used for this purpose only. But the idea here is that it would also be a plan one project, so we're not carrying, you know, we're not bonding the project for years. It just would be taken care of next year. What's the So the the 250,000, I'm curious, what are your contracting rules governing that? And by that I mean something like at what's the dollar threshold where you issue an RFP, either you are required to by law or you simply do? 50. Huh? $50,000. For That doesn't apply to design services, but $50,000. Anything above $50,000, we need to go We have to issue an RFP or an IFB. Okay, so it's basically what you're estimating would be $50,000 or more. You'd send out an RFP cuz people would come in and under 50.
⚗ AI-reconstructed · cite from original above
The one exception of that is if it's on a state contract. Sure. Okay. >> We don't have to do that if we we select someone who's on the state contract. Is any of it Is any of it I'm curious, the two stage renovations, would either of them be Would any piece of it or the entirety of it be on a state contract by chance? It It might be. I don't know that in its entirety if we're doing like sound system and drapes and we had to redo the floors, Um, we could look we could look into that. Yeah, no. I guess that the only thing that goes through my mind is just to what I what I heard you say before and these are not your words, but they're mine, but what I was hearing is well, we're having we have 250 there and as long as we come in under budget, then we don't spend the rest of it, but I just wonder does the money get spent because it is there?
⚗ AI-reconstructed · cite from original above
No. >> okay. Not no. Um, and there are actually things that we have tried to economize, so I'll name one of those that's not relevant to this approval. Um, but you know, we have significant salvage that we can do at Old Norton. Um, for they they have rooftop units that are less than 5 years old. We put them in. Um, it would be a shame to lose them. We found an old capital older capital project with rooftop replacements for Dodd. We went through bond council and we're actually going to salvage the parts at Norton and put them over at Dodd. Okay. >> So, that's actually going to save us money. We have way more allocated cuz you that would not usually be the structure is to salvage and install. You'd have to go to a supplier, you'd have to pay for the delivery, but we found a use because we didn't want the Nortons to just go to waste.
⚗ AI-reconstructed · cite from original above
Um, and in that event, okay, so like then we we are coming under budget. We're not going to spend that on something else. It's also so specific that it would be hard to do that. Um, so we we just haven't done that historically. Um, what we find though is that we end up with old projects and we don't have enough money, right? Cuz they could be a couple years old. Yeah, no. Thank you for that. I appreciate that. I did it myself at my house. I had 5-year-old air conditioners. Central air air conditioners. I got heat pumps, so I sold the air conditioners. They were salvageable, basically. Um, and it is unfortunate if that doesn't happen because there is like there's an embedded energy in anything that we have. So from an environmental perspective, it makes sense to salvage stuff. Not just an economic perspective, but an environmental perspective.
⚗ AI-reconstructed · cite from original above
So Anyway, I appreciate hearing you say all that. So thank you very much. Just a question on um the turf. I'm so tired, sorry. The turf >> [laughter] >> field and the track. Um if it moves forward, like what is the timing on that look like? >> Yeah, so you need about 4 months from like pressing the go button to like the like start of install, right? So you know the projects would be approved. I think the town council at the very latest has to be October. They don't shoot for that. They're looking for like an August. So once we get approved, you know, we have a pretty long window. Um we have talked to SLR about is it feasible if we get approved 9 months in advance to do this in summer 2027, and they're like, "Yes, absolutely." Um and then we would very likely contract with them for writing the RFP, walking through all of planning and zoning, and helping us administer the process.
⚗ AI-reconstructed · cite from original above
Okay. That was my question. And then um I don't know if this counts as capital or able to be used purchased through capital, but I know we talked about um Dodd cafeteria tables um being just kind of broken and hazardous at this point. And so, you know could we purchase those? No, that's like a no. >> we did try to put those through the operating budget this year. It was about $40,000. It it got cut. Capital projects are generally like uh a value of $110,000, and it's not meant to be like individual like types of it's like an asset for $110,000. >> Just two points on that that have kind of one um Matt is we're working with uh friend he has a uh vendor who does basically specialty fabrication to see if we can um get replacement parts. I just need to make sure from an insurance perspective that that still works.
⚗ AI-reconstructed · cite from original above
But then, um the other thing is when I think about bonding, you know, I had this conversation with Shawn and it kind of pops a little bit that we're buying something on a bond, usually it's like a 20-year loan uh basically to cover the cost of it. So, for a $100,000 item, you know, do you want to bond that for 20 years and pay the interest on that or not? So, it's I know that they weigh that uh across the street um and just made me think of things a little bit differently. Mhm. Yeah, it's just one of those things that I know you know, they need to be fixed or replaced, so hopefully that works out. >> Absolutely, yeah. I got to say [laughter] it's a mess. >> know that. Yep. Yeah, it's a a hot mess. Thank you. Motion? All right, if we have no more discussion, uh make a motion that the Chess Board of Education recommends to the Town Council the approval of the five-year capital expenditure plan and budget for improvements to current buildings in the total amount of $31,817,921 with $5,879,682 funded in year one with annual allocations as follows: 2026-2027, $5,879,682, 2027-2028, $5,895,000, 2028-2029, $7,185,000, 2029-2030, $7,283,239, and 2030-2031, $5,575,000.
⚗ AI-reconstructed · cite from original above
Seconded. Seconded. Second. Any further discussion? >> [clears throat] >> I'm sorry. Madam Chair. Go on. No other discussion? All those in favor of the motion that's on the floor. Unanimous. Thank you. And I believe that concludes planning committee reports. That [clears throat] concludes all of my reports. >> Thank you. And I really dig this infographic. Simple. >> Yeah. Yeah. Very good. Very nice. >> Yeah. Take note for future. They're graphic design specialist over there. >> I can't reveal my secrets, but Canva. >> [clears throat] >> Um next item would be any other standing committees of any board members have to report out. Cave ace. Nada. Actually, did anybody go to Darcy's send-off today? Wasn't that today? Like yesterday. That was my superintendent's report. >> Oh, I apologize. I don't want to steal that from you. >> Okay. Guys are on the edge of their seat waiting for me to Yeah.
⚗ AI-reconstructed · cite from original above
yammer for Next item then would be um minutes approval of minutes. Please take a quick look um if there are any potential revision. I looked them over. Can I make the motion? >> Please do. Move that the Cheshire Board of Education approve the minutes from the business meeting held on April 16th, 2026. Is there a second? Second. Is Colleen in? Are there additions, corrections? Seeing none, all those in favor of the motion that is on the floor. Unanimous. Thank you. Uh Madam Chair, can I just I'm going to abstain from that vote cuz I wasn't in attendance. >> for one abstention. Thank you. Um Mr. Secretary, any correspondence that you're aware of which I'm aware right now. I I believe we received an earlier email, but I received it and kind of forwarded my response to you all. So, if you have not taken a chance to read that, you might >> What was that about?
⚗ AI-reconstructed · cite from original above