001enrichment programs and field trips and fall sports um are wrapping up and girls and boys basketball triyouts are coming up at Oshimbo and this year's musical is Frozen and auditions for cast in crew is coming up. Um at Poparov we just ended quarter 1 and grades have been finalized and numerous athletes around the school have received all state all CBC or all colonial awards. So, congrats to all of them. And we received a question about the uh student government at PMPROG last week. So, I'll just like touch on that. Um, so at PMPROG, we have um our student government structured with two um teacher adviserss to oversee each class and kind of help with all of our events that they plan. And as a class, we have a voting process um after each candidate gives
002their speeches um to pick our president, our vice president, secretary, treasurer, and our technology coordinator. And these students in the student government work together to plan events and fundraisers for our class. And coming up this Saturday, the junior class will be hosting breakdanc. >> Thank you. Any other questions on the report? >> Right. Thank you very much. >> Next. May I have a a motion for approval of the October 27th, 2025 regular meeting of the board of education minutes? So move. >> Thank you, Heather. Do I have a second? >> Second. >> Thank you, Sally. >> Any questions, comments, changes. All right, I guess um we'll do roll call. Um Shannon and Jeff, can you state what your position? >> Shannono, I >> thank you, Jeff. Jefferson I >> thank you >> I shar I
003>> wire I >> Tom Marks I >> Marian Manzo I >> Heather Rogers I >> Steve Si I >> All right set thank you next we have information and proposals we have our policy and curriculum quoted by Miss Heather Dwire. Oh man, I didn't know it was my turn so quickly. [clears throat] >> Policy. I actually have big news. I mean, policy and curriculum met tonight. You'll be surprised to know we were reviewing policy, but we finished the 5000 series. We finished this big full review of this policy book that we started years and years ago. Um, it's done. We never have to look at a policy again. No, we'll probably look at a polic in two weeks. But um the the the main work of this committee for the last few years has been
004to do a thorough review of our whole policy book. We completed that work. Um so the good news for you [clears throat] is that in addition to this first read policy that you see before you Connecticut school climate policy, you will have six more policies for first read um shortly. Um yeah, that's my big news. I feel I should have brought balloons prepared for cake. Maybe the next meeting. Um >> but uh yes, uh we will meet again. Sorry, I was I was really caught by surprise by this. We're gonna meet again December or November 24th. Thank you. >> All right. Any questions for Miss W? All right, next we have PTO advisory miss. So PTO advisory met on November 6 and apologies I was uh unable to attend due to over commitment but I
005understand that topics consisted of discussing some of the test technical aspects about the parent square app that I think are getting worked through there as well as ASO support um at our um events here at region 15. Our next meeting is scheduled for January 8th. >> Central office. I know January already. >> Great. Any questions for Okay, moving on. We have the superintendent report. Superintendent Smith. >> Before I bring up an update on the school building, just wanted to stop for a minute and congratulate. So, Mr. Terionic started our policy review with an audit from K a few years ago like I feel like four years ago um and the policy committee there's a lot of policies that you crawled through over the last few years to say I don't know for the first time
006in at least 20 years and we now have a policy book that's been updated reviewed I know that's not the like exciting work of the board of education >> I think it's the exciting >> I just wanted to like pause for a moment and um It's been a a lot of work by a lot of people and just appreciate the L that it was uh before we move on just so last time we met uh updated board as to where we were Um, and so we've had some uh I appreciate the press putting some quotes in the paper. I appreciate that people have been um engaged maybe in a new way. So I wanted to review some of the things um that will sound redundant to the board but I think it's important for us
007to share um and then a little bit of an update of some of the new information that we have. Uh so a few questions when came up about even the decision um versus uh building versus repair. So I just wanted to point out that if anybody has questions that the committee that started in uh the spring of 24 spent a lot of time analyzing that. Uh on our website there are two presentations May 5th and June 4th that go into a lot of detail that I'm not going to go into tonight. they'll just bring up um this is the link on our website. It has all of the uh meetings that have taken place uh and all of the presentations from those meetings. So if you expand these little drop downs here, you can see
008all of the presentations uh all the agendas, the videos that we have um and committee members that were there. Uh so there was a lot of um review and the committee looked at the kind of cost and return on investment and the idea excuse me value pairing schools that are approaching you know 80 or almost 100 years old. So uh that's in there if you want to dig deep into that. The other main piece that's been uh a little transformative is that there were two state laws that were passed last year that provide financial incentives um to this construction project. The early childhood uh first one there would mean that any building that we build that includes a uh early childhood center uh could qualify for 15% of the entire building. So when we say
009that the cost of the two buildings kind of net cost to um construction will be about 200 million but then you back out state reimbursement and the cost of the community is at 80 million or so two buildings that's net a 15 about a 15 million if you look at each building being about 80 to 100 million build and then you back out 15% you get somewhere in that 20 to 30 million in additional reimbursement that we would not qualify if this statute didn't pass. Uh we do not know how long the statute will exist. So there is some sense of urgency that that's a significant amount of dollars and savings to the local taxpayer. Um if we can capture that. The other piece is some incentives for specialized education programs that happen in our
010schools. This is a 15% additional reimbursement but only to the square foot of those programs. That being said, it's still an incentive for programs that we already run in our buildings um that would offset the total cost of the building. So, both of those are influencing kind of our timeline. Um a lot of talk about site analysis. So, some of this was shared at the retreat this summer. These slides have been put onto that web page with GES. Uh the first one was the IBM property. Uh so, you'll see there's some challenges to the IBM property. Um, and while this is a 228 parcel of land that's for sale currently, it's not divided up. Doesn't mean that it can't be or that they wouldn't be willing to, but the way it's listed right now, it's
011not. Um, and in order to provide access, so if you notice this bottom part here has about nine acres of accessible land. When we talk about building a school, uh if we wanted to build a combined school, we've somewhat completely eliminated, but the logistics and property available do not make that highly probable. Uh that would take more like 15 to 25 acres. One building is more like 9 to 12. This lower piece is a 9 acre piece of land that the um the architects have reviewed as the kind of buildable access uh accessible piece of land, but there's no direct access to it. Um and so you either have to share this access road that IBM built for that upper piece um or provide uh we need some help from private uh land owner. Doesn't
012mean it's out but it's more of a challenge. Uh the other challenge is that this property represents depending on how you look at the tax rules between a million and a half and $2 million annually in tax revenue to the town of Southbury. Uh any land that the school district puts a school off would not be tax all space. So just something to keep in mind. Again, all of this is part of conversation as to do our due diligence as to what is possible. Um, Pierce Hollow. This is the uh part that was uh connected to the training school. Uh, we looked at this piece of property. It's currently stateowned. It was reszoneed last legislative session for affordable housing. Any change would have to go through the legislature again and the town would have to
013ask for another change to that piece of property. Again, that couldn't do it. It's just another lift. Um, there's a concern that there may be some artifacts on that place. That is not confirmed at this time. Uh and some other challenges with that property is that really there are two separate pieces of property uh that potentially could be buildable. They do come with some challenges. Uh and I would say one of the big challenges is that it's in legislative directive that it's for affordable housing. Have to ask for that to change. Uh there's some wetlands and other pieces in there. Uh the next piece is uh this is what is referred to as the multi frozen property. Uh approximately 126 acres uh owned by the town. Um when you look at the property there's really
014only about 3.2 buildable acres on that property from a school standpoint. You know one of the challenges that u we need to work through is that the school of 95,000 square feet is a big footprint. Um And so what we're looking for property, it's not just square footage. It's just not just acreage, but we talk buildable space. Doesn't mean that anything that we look at needs site improvement, but the scope and extent of that site improvement is something that's considered. So while this is a very large piece of property, entering the property and what could be used without extreme um excavation or land adjustment uh is one of the concerns here. The other concern is this property is based in a new town. Um, and so when we look at the footprint of like school
015bus routes and how far we have to transport students, that comes into factor as well. Uh, this is the one that was talked about last board meeting. This is that Roxberry Road property. Uh, currently Techtown's looking at it. It is town own which means that the district would have to require it town and whether or not they'd be willing to do that is a conversation that we would have with the town that has not happened yet because we don't know if this is even viable and something that we're doing. This is the uh slide from the retreat this summer when we talked about the fact that there are some opportunities but there are some some challenges uh and kind of a little bit of a review of the uh path that we've been on and
016uh I think it was May or early June we met with the land trust and town of Southbury to look at um all land that was greater than 10 acres in the town of We looked we narrow that down to a few potential options uh that I just reviewed with you. There are some other properties that while that size come with some additional challenges. Some of those we looked at like Stevenson property that is the property just south of the transfer station that is town owned. We looked at the Kentur property that borders both Southbury and Middlebury. That's the Royal depending on generation you're from. Um we look there are three privately owned properties that were also um reviewed and reached out to those owners. Uh there's also a piece of town or homeland on
017George's Hill that has some extreme rain issues. Uh at the bottom of the IBM property that's not on our map. There are two properties that are smaller owned by IBM that sit just north of kind of the uh hill road uh that we looked at. Both are currently for sale now. Um both come with extreme challenge as far as egress and access for school buses. So those >> about the Stevenson property like what what made it notable? >> So there's I would say there are two pieces. One is kind of the easy one to talk about and that the grade there is simply extremely steep. Um, and trying to carve out a flat space that would be big enough for a 95,000 square foot building would take some extreme excavation at a significant time. The
018one that is probably more in the eye of the holder is that it sits downream from a former transfer former town dump which is now a transfer station. concerns about environmental um water quality and other environmental issues have been voiced, but we did not do any soil samples or anything like that. Again, the easy one if it was a flat piece of property that I think would be something we want to do, but the fact that this slope rules it out the conversation about soil. Uh The one that we kind of have more ducks in a row on is the GES property because we not only have that school in region 15's possession. It's kind of a simpler construction piece. So, one of the things that uh we wanted to share tonight is that the
019pink in here is kind of new information for the board. That's the existing septic. One of the things that we have to keep in mind for almost all of our construction sites is you need a septic system that is robust enough to handle a school with 500 students and another 60 to 80 staff. So currently that pink is the septic location. Uh we have confirmed that we could tie into the heritage septic and that pink is what the line look like. Um guess Mr. Martino and I have had the conversation like regardless of whatever we do, if we decide to scrap all this water, like we should still tie into that septic um and get off or just tie into the sewer and get off what we do. Uh but this would be uh in
020our conversations with Techtop. Um there's a three-phase approach to new school construction on that property while we keep the existing school on the property and have students attend the uh one of the things I just if you're interested that when the committee looked at even the idea of renovating that swing space of where you put students while you renovate is an extreme cost uh that gets invested nowhere like when it's done that that temporary housing goes away. So something to keep in mind. But anyway, uh that's the first that's on city water. >> That's on city. >> This is uh so this uh would be phase two where you started. You can see in blue um again these are proof of concept kind kinds of uh drawings. The uh architects have done some some scale
021uh but we haven't gone full-fledged in presiding onto the But this is um that dotted line would be the temporary fencing where construction could happen. Uh or the other nice thing about this property is when it comes to staging equipment. Um we have what's in that fun zone there that we can stage depending on the time of year. Um, and we probably u well I anticipate that we would approach the town about storing some construction vehicles and some parking overall >> which is why the septic line has to go like in a sense day one because the current leeching and septic systems are right where the school possibly could go. So that would have to be we have to start the design phase of the shor line pretty fast >> with that they're going to
022be working on that bridge. >> They are. Yes. So would we do that in conjunction with that bridge work like the sewer line? >> Yeah, we I mean Gfield Yeah, Gainfield septic was added on to there's like four holding chambers in there. It's a it's a pretty interesting design. Um so again, I think regardless of the future, it's it it needs a time kind of >> and this would be your final. >> Would you need another pumping station to >> We would need a pump. Uh I think we're we're talking to tecton we can get possible pump station on our property somewhere maybe do a do a below below grade uh station or so and then this is kind of where your design would be upon completion with the fields um and the uh west
023here and longer path for those folks that are frustrated some of the traffic uh the combination of oldfield road being repaired the two-lane bridge and a longer um should alleviate uh should no problem say alleviate a great deal of traffic. Uh and the only other uh kind of update that's not in here is we are reviewing the uh roam septic system. Um, one of the challenges is if we do look or build the uh new PEES on that PES property, uh, building a school while the school's in use with a septic system and building a new septic system on required space, which we may or may not have on that PES property. One of the things we're exploring is looking at the Rochamp septic and whether or not we can tie a school behind PES
024into the Rochamp system and expand while doing that Roshambo systems like from the 60s. Uh so you could repair and upgrade the Roshambo septic and tie a PBS septic um into that which would then alleviate some of the concerns of kind of building new construction and having the school operational. So I hope that in the next two to four weeks we'll have that some more information that possible. >> Permits on Roshbo show very little work done since 59 actually. So, um, >> yeah, there's two septic fields. Um, one below the softball field and one kind of to the very left of the property kind of behind that. Um, >> the old portals. >> Yeah, where the old portables are. And I went down to the health department and pulled old permits and very minimal work
025done. So, um, it's definitely an area of concern about where the future goes there. So, tying into that would be interesting. Awesome. That's all I got. [laughter] >> I mean, so Gainfield pretty well. We can do that, but we should all know. >> Yeah, I think the challenge for there's a lot of conversation. Um, there were people here on the committee during the committee about whether or not the school stays on main street or there's a notification. originally that we started to try to build mine school and as that kind of became less of an option uh you know the choice will be do you want to try to there may be some additional cost of building on the PES property and so everything comes with trade-offs there's no flat piece of 20 acre property
026in the center of town with you know no uh land challenges so I mean all it's going to come with either build on that site or go to the site for no >> again I'd say we haven't closed the door uh the bottom section of the idea but again so do we have any update on building access road the ability to build the access road that would take um reshape the bus loop and even parent pickup and take it off of Main Street um Yes. >> Designing I think as we speak. >> Yeah. >> So they're looking at the possibility of that as well as the septic and tying both the septics in together >> and some kind of we won't cost but some kind of like >> you know >> better than back of
027the map. >> They're going to build a road so that road would run from um Pullet Hill. >> Uh we would have to right now we can't get trucks to the back. Yes. U the ramp the beast. No, not to not to get to the back there. That be that's not enough. >> Well, it was funny. I was at this morning. Barely can get my car back there to turn around. So, uh I was thinking if I had Mr. Martino's truck, I would have made it. But, uh so that access road would allow us to bring heavy equipment to the back of the um and so they would they would run a road down the side of Rochambo. They'd have to do a couple of switchbacks because you won't be able to go down. So,
028we asked them to give us estimated cost and then kind of long term could we repurpose that. My assumption is that it's a total assumption but my assumption is if we can you know get 18 wheelers down there steel probably get the bus but they'll work out kind of what those turn radiuses are grade and all that. uh the tolerance for buses may be slightly less than some of the heavy equipment, but that's something that they'll work out. Um and then get us some at least if we're to build it today, what would the cost >> and even if it wasn't a plus per se, but even if it's the parent like parent to look up the picture um where you have the bus loop up at the top of game field, but the parents
029would be in the back. Even if it's something we can do like that, I'd like to see that. The conversation originally was if you could build a school back there once you remove the current PES your bus and even if pickup was in the front you'd still be able to mitigate a lot of traffic off of Main Street. The challenge Main Street it's the left turn whether you're turning left into the parking lot or left out. That's part of even if we queue up all the cars it's the left turn. And I think in the meantime, I'd like to get creative with the parent aspect of pickup as well to alleviate sorry to alleviate the parent pickup issues in the meantime. Sorry. >> Go ahead. Sure. So, um, a question not to kind of keep
030kind of kick up business, but as far as exploring all potential land opportunities, do you feel that that is fully exhausted? And I'm thinking creatively out loud as I drive around town. Um, is there property in Mberry close to LME that could allow for GES to be repurposed, LMS to kind of have the old PM PDS and adding property there? I know I've emailed you. I think though like there's going into South Perry, there's that property for sale on the right. It's not mature. I don't think I don't know that property. Um but even like conversations with the town, we have parks in the town that actually have a really big footprint. Is there any tradeoffs that can be considered like not that I want to take a park away, but things like Settler's Park,
031you know, flat piece of property, perfect for a school, and can the park be placed somewhere else? had any creative conversations with the town in that regard just to ensure that it had crossed every single single I'm >> I know but I just think >> I'm not trying to like like I said I'm not trying to kick the bee's nest but I want to make sure that we are certain that we have had every conversation and evaluated every piece of land to make sure that whatever we decide to do because any decision is going to be met with a level of resistance And I just want to make sure as transparent as these um presentations are um I can tell you having not been in here last meeting the audio was not good. I think
032it's so critically important to make sure that we are just disclosing everything which I think you are but even ensuring that we're like we have visited everything and then some and revisited it just because I think it's such a critical decision. Again, I'm not advocating for one versus the other, but I think it's really important that we aren't just looking at what's for sale or what could be for sale, but like what could be like the ideal location that would check all of our boxes and what are the pros and cons relative to it. I know that's what the feasibility team did, but now we're kind of at the place where the rubber road and I just want to make sure that it's really transparent and clear what was done and and what has been
033considered. So we visit and revisit the list. So we started with a list of all the properties available. Um by available I don't necessarily mean like whoever own right and kind of went through uh viable and not viable based on and that viability list was based more on topography that challenge. So our first list was again some of the properties that we would love to own are in private hands. Those people have been contacted and not interested in selling, >> uh, they're listening and they want to change their mind, you know, give us a call. Uh, you know, most of the parks are in some type of land trust and and once they're in a land trust, like we cannot move them out there and and we wouldn't want to either, right? Uh, and so
034we did not look at any property already in a land trust. The Conur property is the large I think it's 116 acres that borders Southbury and Middlebury. Um, it is our third largest tax revenue piece in Mbury. Uh it's also a challenge is the buildings there are extremely >> but is there property in Mbury with no building that's for sale and was that evaluated close to the line? >> We didn't really So one of the >> involve redistricting and that type of thing but I mean >> there's property close to LMS that has no buildings. You drive down that road, it says for sale, for sale, for sale. >> I don't think there's properties there. I would go back and do the visit. I don't think there's any property. I feel like we looked for
035anything that was bigger than 9 or 10 acres and I don't think any of those properties were >> the biggest piece being where they the site's been under for a while. Distribution location was that's that's there. But beyond that, >> um, we haven't spoken to anyone about that. That property is >> there's a couple there's a long I have no idea. >> Yeah, I don't know anything. I just literally like driving around because you know these questions are going to come up, right? >> It's just a large redistricting event because then you're kind of going like past Long Meadow like you kind it would be a lot of it'd be a very complicated redistric for particularly Gamefield, >> but that would be with the understanding that gamefield would be potentially revamped. So people from the
036purchase would still be at Gamefield. there'd be some shuffling. I get it. But I just again I just think it's worth at least having the conversation, seeing the implications and making sure. >> Yeah, we we we rack our brain every every day about a lot because there's a lot the puzzle piece don't fit. They're not big enough. >> We look on the border like we haven't gone deep into Mberry and it would be almost we should retire. If you want us to do that, we can we can go around there, you know. that would push the size of gamefield you took. So right now we're looking to put about include the preschool about 500 students 500 at PES. You took that pushed it would mean that all of Southbury served by 500 elementary school and
037you push three elementary school I think again we'll monitor >> think about it because L would be for self. So yeah, it's a long ride, but like you said, I appreciate >> conversation >> and I think as a board member, it would make me I I know everybody has worked so hard and now of course we have changes in politics and all that stuff and and we have to make sure that everyone's along. But I really think from as a board member I personally would feel much more comfortable knowing that we've done extreme due diligence. >> This is along similar the lines of this is coming from the other town so I have less knowledge of some of the property but I know we had initially talked about like things in the purchases being too
038far. Is there is it worth looking at anything? How is there that way? Yes. So was that part of the list transfer? >> Yeah. And then and then so then that's my other question is are there I mean I know the training school is we looked at the one piece of it. Are there other pieces that will be sort of um potentially consolidated or potentially might be available. I mean I know that's sort of in a in a process of winding down um services there. Like is there is there anything we can anticipate or that someone might be able to help us anticipate in terms of availability beyond just the looked at that. >> So we looked at the other side kind of there's a couple of different challenges. There's a legislative one the challenge
039to some extent but we haven't pushed really hard on the legislative u appetite. I do know that the state has a lot of land there. Um I do know that a lot of those buildings have tremendous amount work which has been in the past. Uh so while we explored it uh there are some challenges building the school on that site and that time kind of validated some of the u environmental hazard concerns with certain pieces that doesn't mean that the whole property um kind of one challenge similar to and again you can push road similar to middle piece that's on the extreme far side of while that would be closer to the purchase that is the least dense populated part of our school district. So if you're talking about taking students more like the Bucks
040Hill side back there all this would like we could do some >> so when we talk about like sort of environmental concerns but is the concern the cost in terms of clean up and building or exposure for students in the future. Um or both >> and or both. >> Okay. Because the thing that did come across a lot of letters I just want to put out there myself is you know like there is this um >> this sort of decision between like sort of developing land that's not developed versus using things that are developed and repurposing them and and and again that's a that's a values question probably for the voters to decide too but I just it made me kind of rethink a little bit. the hall of the property say there's 12 houses
041there maybe it's 10 maybe it's 14 but um if that property became let's say it was 14 acres of land that was relatively appropriate not academically um you know beating those houses is something that in early stages of this work we looked at that might be cost effective right it cost us a couple million dollars to make became a longterm viable school that would be consider if you start talking about like top soil or other pieces now you're getting something a little more complicated >> let's do >> um so I just you were very clear but I just I just want repeat some things to make sure that it could be clear. Um, so what I heard the big theme seems to be that the rolling hills are both a blessing and a curse, right?
042That we have so many and they're really nice to look at. But when we talk about the Vulpi Rosen property, when we talk about the Stevenson property, aka the transfer station area property, um, and even the IBM property, the topography is such that finding a flat enough space to build a school is difficult unless we are willing to sort of dynamite out, blast out, change the topography of the land. So that is that's what I'm what I'm hearing and I'm Um I guess assuming that that is either really expensive or um I don't know like there's reasons that we just don't we just don't want to do that the cost and and time to you know I mean I think that people who spend time with me we we have we have a robot that's
043been on Mars for a couple years to say that we can't engineer something like I don't really but you talk about taking out this. We're talking about building a school that we're going to ask the community to fund that $80 million. Some of that uh includes site improvement. We start spending 20 or 30 million on site improvement. That's not all going to be reimbursible and that's going to fall community at full price. So, while I'm sure that uh there's some argument and uh relationship we can ask the community to have like that's fine. I don't know what the tipping point is. Uh but when you look at building again the the uh WY Rosen property I think is a good example. Maybe you could put some housing developments in there. Uh we have housing developments
044built on pretty steep cliffs. When you start talking about a 90,000 square foot building plus mechanicals plus septic plus bus and parents and parking lots, you're talking about a pretty expensive piece of property. and how much you want to blast is going to become a piece of topic conversation. >> Well, I mean, and I would just say too, I mean, we hired Tech Time has built literally several dozen schools recently and they were so we hire the experts. The experts seem to really steer us away from doing any type of topographical extreme topographical changes. So, going to go with the recommendation, but also with M um in addition to you mentioning the fact that it's zoned uh certain way it but um there there are topographical issues and access road issues and even though there
045is an access road I do remember a tech saying that I've never been through IBM but that that road is very steep as well so even just driving a bus through the existing access road could be challenged that that was my Is that everyone's recollection? Um, and then also, so we can all drive around. We all have eyes. So do everyone in the community. I just want to reiterate, we are not blind. If we if people are driving around and they see a piece of land that looks really big, right, and maybe it doesn't show up on this list, you have stated that any site that was big enough that happens to be and flat enough that happens to be privately owned and is not on this list, owners have been contacted and if it's
046not on this list, it's an indication that the land is not for sale. That is that a fair statement? I would say that if there's anything that comes into our radar that has not that they're pursuing that. So I feel like we've gone through that list multiple times has looked at every piece one commercial property that I recently asked if they wanted to trade. They thought it was fun. The answer was no. Uh and so you know I think we continue to look we haven't gone deep in the middle. So that is something that I haven't necessarily pursued. Uh but we can you know we can start that process >> and that comes with different tradeoffs and I think but again I think it's a fair conversation to say there could be a property here.
047What would that mean to LMS? What would that mean to GES? What would that mean to bus routes and is it a nonviable option? it becomes a nonviol option, but if it's even a possible contender, I would advocate that that be evaluated as >> so continue that. Um, and I I agree. I think properties if for no other reason, the more we can put on a list and say we rule them out for all these various reasons, the stronger maybe the final argument is. Um, and I understand it's our job to put something to referendum that is appealing to most people that will hopefully pass and it may not even be like the cheapest option, but it might be the best option and we're willing to, as you said, you said, you know, let the
048people decide, right? If we're going to spend a little more for some sort of tradeoff, then maybe that goes to referendum versus like the cheapest, easiest option. Um, I did want to say no because I wanted to really be upfront about it because as we kind of go along and this is we're we're this is the inquiry stage. We're just testing the waters, different things, brainstorming. Um, when the and I know nothing is burned yet, uh, but when the road property came up and I I drive by that a lot and so I've known for months and I go by and I every time or most times I try to envision what that would look like if there was a school there and I try to think to myself what would this be like just
049not looking like if this was taken away. Um, and I can tell you in my heart right now, I could not vote school on that property. And I don't want to say like absolutely not. Like maybe if if it really was like the only option, like I might be able to hold my nose, but I and I really sincerely sincerely doubt it that I could vote to put to take that land away um uh from being the open that it is uh and to me that's the tradeoff with that's part of the rolling hills things too like you know it's it's this is why we move to this town and I feel like honestly I I and I this is even before we had the petition or this whatever is going around um like I
050have said to other board members like I just I really I just can't do that like I just can't um so uh I just want to be transparent because I don't if we go down this path and then we're talking about this in February and I go I'm not going to vote for that like I don't want that to be the first time that that you all heard it from me. Um, and then lastly, uh, I just want to say two because I am aware that there's a petition, but, uh, the to me those petitions, like if you look at the one that's circulating, first off, it's hard to see I think it's hard to see who has signed them. And I'm only interested in the people that live in the town and and pay
051taxes in the town. And 85% of the people that have signed that petition are from three zip codes, only one of which is Southary. Uh when you email the board, I find that to be when citizens email the board, I find that to be a much more meaningful piece of communication because they sign it and lots of times they give their address. It's easy to to verify that. But when I did look at that petition when I was God, I could have supported 27 different things by just click click click click click right on down or whatever. So I don't I just don't quite I respect people's opinions that that started that and are interested in advocating a certain way but uh really I would encourage people to write whatever the issue is. It could
052be putting a school somewhere else and you don't like that please write through the email. That would be my my case of practice. Um I mean I was gonna say that but I right on Steve I I do think um writing a board is very valuable uh and uh you learn a lot that way as well. Um what I did want to say is you know if if you've come for the first time to hear about this project welcome. Uh we have stones in the back. It's comfortable seating. Um thank you for being here. Um I I would want to say uh I hope I hope what you've heard of people listening have heard is that we are very much in a data gathering situation here. We don't know um every single possible piece of
053property. Uh we have not done study on every single possible piece of study. We may not we we may run into time constraints as well. Um but you know this is very much data gathering phase. I do think that we need to continue to gather that data even on property that may be unpopular and problematic and ultimately something we don't decide to pursue. Uh because you know what I would love to see at the end of this exercise is here's everything we've looked into and kind of you know tick tick tick too long bus routs too much excavation you know and kind of see what pros and cons are um and I'd rather not get bogged down and you know this one isn't popular you know everything there's never there's not going to be a
054slam dunk here so I do think that it is valuable to go through this exercise collecting data in a consistent way so that we can compare um whatever imperfect options we find and come to a decision. Um the the other thing I wanted to say is like point very well taken that we have some very strong incentives to do something this year and put something on referendum this year that may be contrary to well let's go out and expand that further and more property and do more studies. I would like to ask please that we start the work on the GES property. It sounds like you have and we've looked at the septic and starting to make those plans. Um but I think it's unfortunate that we've gotten the most community engagement with something the
055community doesn't want. Um and and I'll take any community engagement at any um on any subject, but you know, we are doing this project because we have two aging buildings that need a lot of work and we need to do something about that. Um and I just want to make sure that you know we don't burn it burn the community's energy right now on this topic. I think we we need to be able to get um you know community excitement about what we're going to get out of this project at the end of the day. Um, so to that end, we kind of know we're not going to find a huge property that we're going to build a reasonable. We kind of know that maybe if we're lucky, we might find a property different than
056what we already own. I I would like us to move ahead with drawing up plans for GPS and getting a blueprint like getting a blueprint, getting picture, getting design concepts, and getting something that more tangible that the community can see about why we're talking about all this. I think I I mean I love the slides. I love everything that Tecton has given us, but I think it's very hard to see I think it's very hard to, you know, see what that project looks like at the end of the day. So, you know, I would actually like to into the concept drawing and I think we have a pretty strong case that we're going to be doing something on that game field property and I would like to just with that um in PES it it's
057more complicated and and I am >> I am happy to to do more exploration. I think that's why we're here. I think that's why we're talking that you know more exploration may be needed. Um, but at the same time, I don't want to lose focus on that money may not those incentives may not be there forever and I'd love to take advantage. >> Um, can I just say something? Um, I I just haven't given you a chance to say anything. >> Yeah. Well, I you need to go first. >> No, I don't. [laughter] And there's also Yeah. Sh. >> Okay. Normally they let me know if they're going to chime in. So I'm guessing no. >> Well then I would just say um Oh Sh just Shannon I saw you go off mute. You're back.
058>> Yeah. I was just going to say you know I would kind of echo where Sharon is near LMS but I'm not sure. I think we're in a very difficult situation finding a piece of property that's going to fit this and fit all the needs. So, I think there will probably be difficult choices, but completely agree with Heather, like we need to get genius going because we need to build these new schools. We need to do something for these kids. >> Right. Thank you. >> So, yeah, I was just uh love what you just said and I I like a lot of what you said, too, Steve. I'm not ready I'm not ready to cross anything off the list yet but um something you know to kind of tie two threads together that you just
059brought up Steve you mentioned you know we hired a consultant hired the architects there the experts we're going on the recommendation and uh Heather you really you know hit on the process a little bit and I'm usually the first one to stand up and say hey you know we need to follow a process here otherwise this is just all purely subjective but um you know I've been happy with the way the process has has gone And you know we are working off some specs as we evaluate properties that are completely objective and we know it has to meet a certain amount of acorage and accessibility and access to utilities. Um there will be a time perhaps for subjective opinions you know how you feel about a certain thing but I don't think that time is
060necessarily now. I agree with you that we need to understand what's available in front of us so we can make an informed decision because as you were saying earlier, this is a this is a 50 to 80 year decision that we'll hear about today. Um the other thing I do want to you talked about the challenges of PDS. Um and GES is not without its challenges. So as you went through the properties, you listed the pros and cons of each. Um the properties we have in hand um have their own unique cons. the biggest being that you have an operating school on property while you're having an active construction zone. So, I think as part of that data gathering, the slides I saw tonight at GES were helpful. Um, but it was a reminder to
061me that we I think we need so much more information about how an active construction zone will disrupt operations on those properties. For example, in the uh footprint drawing that you pulled up of GES, um that school sits right on top of the playground, you know, and the and the part the field there, the outdoor classroom. And you saw what happened in this board when we tried to take a slide away for three months now trying to take a playground away for three years. Like what is the recess plan? and PES. Oh my goodness. If your building is full right behind PES, right where the playground sits, right where the fields, where the kids play, that's the recess plan for these kids. Or do we just replace it with Touch a Truck, which is very,
062[laughter] very popular. We could do that. Um, but that's just one example, right? Like all of the other disruption that will come from what will be a lengthy, you know, construction process. Uh, I don't want to lose sight of that. Uh, that would weigh heavily in my decision to develop either just understanding what the plan is, you know, to make sure we are taking care of the students that are in those buildings. Before I go, I know some of this was um uh directed towards some of the newer folks maybe who are just entering the process. Can you address Josh, I'm sorry to put you on the spot, um why the feasibility committee or maybe one of the members could why we pivoted away from the renovation of the buildings as is towards new construction.
063I think that's important here. >> I guess I'll defer to committee members or I'm happy to speak to it speak to it or go first and you can fill in afterwards. U so it's funny because I thought about putting some of that in here but um there's a lot which is why I pointed people to the the May 5th and the June report because I thought both the committee uh and Tecton did a nice job of explaining um all of those pieces and uh there's not one you know one of the I would say one of the challenges is that as somebody mentioned before these buildings are old and in need of repair when you talk about renovating buildings. One of the challenges I I'll pick on EES for a minute is that the ceilings
064um I'm not the tallest person in the room. Um if I can touch the ceiling in the building, that's a pretty low ceiling. When you talk about renovating, making walls wider, um is one thing. Making the the roof higher is a whole different type of construction. when you talk about adding in things like fire sprinkler systems and suppression systems when you talk about like that got really expensive in those slides there's a metric of a cost per square foot of each of those different items um and then you get into those soft costs like I talk they they have a whole section on value and when you spend a million or$2 million on temporary storage for students while you move them around um at the end of the project that money all goes away and
065it's not invested in anything Um I don't remember exactly. I want to say there's seven or eight million of those soft costs that you kind of expend in a renovation project um that is never going to be put into anything that you're going to have that return on investment. Took that 7 million and put it into a mechanical system or a building that you're going to have for 80 years. The community's return on investment is a lot stronger. So I would encourage if those are questions that people want like I can give you a couple minute explanation now but there's a lot of information there that walks you through all of those pieces and explains the cost per square foot, explains the permitting cycles, and explains some of the reimbursement that you don't get reimbured,
066for example, for that swing space, but you do get reimbured for your mechanical. So, if you're paying, you know, 40 cents or 50 cents on the dollar, uh that's a much different cost proposition to the community than if you have to kind of bear that on your own. So, uh, those were some of the big buckets I would say that really the committee looked at other than, you know, these kind of the summary that's here. >> Did you see asbestous? >> I did not say asbestous. Um, but >> you know, there's no lead paint in any of our buildings. Start there. But thing asbestous was it was a good insulator in 70s and in the 60s and then the 40s. And a lot of our buildings while it's encapsulated and not dangerous to any student
067when you're starting to renovate you have to mitigate all of that which is again time. Um but even the mitigation of aspesus I would say if that was the only hurdle that would make it a more kind of relevant conversation the swing space of trying to fill with students in the buildings is I would say the most logistical cost prohibited piece that is not reimbursed by the state. >> Million millions in portable classroom rentals do that. You have to set those up, stage them. Plus these you can't you can't abate 18 and under while they're in the building. So if you're abating to an attached structure code doesn't allow that. So a lot of that have to take place all in the summer months. It is it is a lot of jockeying kid movers. to
068me because all the furniture has moved in a pretty short amount of time. So, it's not just done with custodial lot tons of stuff you can move around logistically, kitchen space, all those types of things you have to move around while you're renovating it and stuff. Um, >> yeah, >> did you want to say something about the renovation? >> I I just wanted to add that the other big piece of it was that those renovation projects take twice as long as building new. And if we're talking about disruption to students, which I totally think we should talk about like how disruptive it would be to build a new building behind a back to school, I think we found as a feasibility study committee, we found that preferable than having children spending twice as much time
069inside an active construction site, construction site. That would be even more disruptive and possibly would lead to, you know, a several classes of children having spent the majority if not all of their elementary years in a construction site and that would be extremely disruptive as well. >> I think the other thing was just looking at the um game in particular, but just making that up to code for ADA for accessibility standards was I think it was basically impossible. So it's sort of the renovating what we have. Um and then for PES it was how it was and how long it takes to get to places. I mean there was just an for longterm in terms of like the buildings that we have really appropriate or you know if we have a chance to do something
070there's always that we have now versus >> and I think we also talked about um what we learned during the global pandemic about what we have for sizes and HBAC and everything else. you just don't have the same it's a different need now I think we saw that it made it a lot more complicated questions >> this is the infographic that I had to provide when people were asking the question so uh this one talks a little bit about that value proposition that here gets into kind of the uh cost per square foot that was used to do the analysis Tech spreadsheet they back up all this but that is what led >> yeah I did I I think um I want to ground this discussion I think we're so excited that there's people actually
071talking about what we're doing and that there are people here um that just want to make sure that we reiterate some of the grounding um that I didn't hear tonight. Um when we did the feasibility study committee, it was made up of parents, teachers, principles, town officials, administrators, school administrators, board of ed members. It was a really great group. Um we did not have any preconceived notion of what should be like done or like what an outcome should be. Um, and part of what you're seeing now is our transparent process that we did not have an outcome that we necessarily wanted, but we're trying to leave no stone unturned so that ultimately when the board comes to a vote, we feel good about it and we hope that it's going to pass referendum. Um, and
072the outcome of the feasibility study committee I I like is very important. The first recommendation was to build one new big school on one new property. That was the ideal um outcome like the best recommendation the feasibility study could do to this board. Um if they but we knew the feasibility study committee knew that that was going to be a pie in the sky whether we're going to be a property like that. So that's why they did if that can't happen then the next possible recommendation would be to do two possible two new schools on the two existing properties. That was the next best option. The third option if that didn't work out recommended by the feasibility study committee was then to look at one new property for one school and rebuild an existing school
073on Gayfield. So while we are not bound by the feasibility study committee's recommendation, it is certainly um they spent a lot of time. It was excellent discussion. Um we put a lot of work in there. Um so you know while we are looking at other properties, there's still like to me a preferred option um before we're going to buy another property. Um that said um We are exploring what we have been doing in terms of if we could buy another property. Um Steve mentioned the petition um that's out there. There was definitely comments on social media that um got the uh because of the voices article um that got people's attention. And as nice as it is to see stuff on social media and I go on it every once in a while. I try
074not to go on it too much. Um but the I agree with Steve the best um It's either to come here to talk to us at public comment or to email the whole board of ed because not everyone is on social media. Um, and if you have a question, I would say ask a board member like just email us. Um, because I think we're very happy to talk about it. Um, and it's hard if you're asking questions on social media. Um, we're not we might not see that. Um, so just want to to to to put that out there as well. Um, And as far as a time to decide like when are we going to make a decision on this? Like are we still expecting Tecton to have something at the end of this
075month um beginning of December? Like are we still in other words when are we going to have like those hard numbers for Punk Rock Elementary School? What it's going to cost to build something there? >> I think we have cost estimates. the question that is currently left for them to answer that was not in their original cost proposals that were presented. uh was the access for conversation and the new kind of information about what would it mean the septic is one of the challenges building on the PES site if we had the same uh opportunity on the PES site that we do on the GES site I don't know that we would be doing due diligence on other properties we still might be but it would make the conversation easier u so the new potential
076opportunity to kind of tie the RMS and PDS septics into one system. We did not discuss that originally and so that is a new kind of direction. I think every day that goes we continue to look at the Rubik's cube and can we turn another side is there something that you know some uh I don't know I say out of the box but I don't know that we were really in the box to begin with you know I think how else could we look at solving this equation and u some of the variables are outside of the district's control. So, we haven't shut the door on any of those, but I'd like to control what we can, get as much information on the known variables, and then adjust to any of the other. >> Would
077you think that the tying the two septics together would be a pro? >> So, I am not a septic engineer. Uh, >> but we would be >> Yeah, but septics of 59ers. >> Yeah. >> No, I'm not saying like tie it to 59. No, no, but the so one of the challenges like we started a lot of this conversation started with a repair bomb that's an aging systems right and so if there are ways for us to find some type of economy of scale and do more with what we have or you know if we're going to go into a bond you know I do think there's a conversation of how do we fix as much as we can we don't want to go to the community and create all kinds of bonds if we
078don't have to uh so if this or some of it might be reimburseable if it's tied to a school project on our property. And so like these are questions I don't have all the answers to yet. Um I think that we'll get as many answers as we can. I do think that we're gonna have to at some point start building the plane while we fly it a little bit and that if we wait until April to decide we want to go to referendum, we're not going to have time to do the motions, you know, but we may get so if we decide in December this is what we want to do and we get new information in January or February like we can certainly adjust a little bit um but we have to kind of
079get this ship out and get moving if we want to get there a lot of analys It's the amount of if we do do the accessory shambo, you're going to move a ton of earth anyway. So doing piping and a pumping system up to an upper septic although complicated wouldn't be totally impossible because the amount of dirt you're going to move anyway to get >> Sally and then Steve. >> So these are more just like logistical questions for clarif people. So for the region or if the town of South is selling property when the region is buying it is that South Korea votes on whether they're going to sell it and both towns sort of whether or not they're going to buy it. How does that property transfer >> vote happen? Okay. And then that
080the second one is not totally attached to that but is you know as everyone has not like the GES project is much further along and is there a chance in which we like there's so much complication with PES we don't have that ready to go but we still move forward with GES. Um, is that a possibility and take advantage of the 15% of everything that we know is there right now. Um, I would just like to put that possibility out there. Not that that's ideal because we don't want to be doing it two years in a row, but we have landings. That's where Heather was kind of going was like, can we get that this going? Not, you know, um, or that they may not be advancing along the same timeline. Ideally, they would be,
081but they may not be. Is that is that insane to suggest? I guess is that like not possible or I would just my asterisk is I don't I am not an expert in the town of South Bridge charter and it may depend on the type of land or the type of sale. I don't know that I do know that for the region to buy property it has to be by a combined overall just like our budget the have to the names in any combination both towns get to vote on that 15 rep um I think that as far as school construction all options are available uh you know there's probably some pros and cons you know u scaffolding the projects over time. We have two schools that need at TLC. How we do that? You
082know, we work for you guys. Tell us what you want to mock up. Uh I have concerns over spreading them out too much. You know, I mean, going through the towns for multiple referendums in multiple years with, you know, I am anxious over the state reimbursement. I think 15% to visit gay number. Uh I appreciate our friends at Harford, but I'm not sure what cost modeling that they did when they created that legislation. Um 30 million to region 15 is a is is a lot of money to a relatively small community when you think about some of the school districts in the state that are trying to queue up projects. Um and the aggregate may get some cold feet quick. I don't want to risk that. But I can't. >> Um, so I just second
083the whole GES. I mean, I think it's great if we just we it seems like based on again what you've said, option number two as per the committee is to rebuild build new on both existing sites. Um, and even if with option three, it still seems like GES gets this gets a a new school. um why not at least take that further and make it more something that we can more easily look at and and start talking about and I I wouldn't want to have backtoback referendums that in 26 and 27 but the other thing too is that there's also that deadline of Jan June 1st where the other law could change and there might not be >> any any reimbursement so like at least let's get get one um uh in regards to the
084cost that you were putting up there. Um where you had the listing of everything like we like we talk about having to upgrade the schools, they talk about the fire, the water, there was like five or six different categories. And if you add all those up as an estimate that that the people we paid, you know, if you literally did all of that, it came out to correct number one, $560 a square foot because it had all those different sections. 560 a square foot times 100,000 square feet. So it's $56 million. So when someone says to me because because I think I did see that in Facebook it's like well if it needs a new roof just put a new roof on it. I'm like well it's a little more than the roof again. It's
085it's everything. Um go up up a little more. I think it was two more. Nope. The other way. Sorry. This is the >> No. No. Keep going. No, the other way. Going the other way. Keep going. Like brief slides. One, two, three. >> There you go. That if you add that up. If we did all of that. >> Yes. >> That's per square foot. >> This is what it means. >> No, that's different, isn't it? That's that I thought that was if you had temporary structures. >> That's if you renovated. So the left side 80 million is if you renovated both schools to new. The right side is if you build two new schools. Then go back up the two slides. >> And then if you go down here, this is where they factor in
086the deltas here value versus like some of these soft cost. >> Got it. Can I just see that other slide is that? So what are all those? Because that's just something like $40 a square foot, 80 for electrical. >> What is that? >> What do we do? We if we said let's do this. I want I want to rewire the whole building and >> actually you renovate renovate to new inside the current building. Those are the costs, >> right? So, if we did that, those are the those are the costs. That's way more than $12 million. >> Yes. So, when you take all of that, multiply it by square foot for each school and add them together. >> That's how you get at these costs here. >> PS9,000 square feet, that's two schools. >> Yeah.
087>> Uh and about 80 million construction cost. So, your your first cost here is it's cheaper to renovate. >> Sorry. So, we're talking about this Bottom line is >> sorry. So I think we're coming at a different angle. It >> it's it's millions and millions and millions and millions of dollars like easily well approaching the cost of new schools to actually renovate to do if you literally >> don't this one here. So this takes five years to do this one takes three years. >> I think a more powerful argument to someone in the community that is like I went to school there. My kids went to school there. The school was fine. So, the ceilings are low. Duck. I think a I think a I think a more powerful argument is eventually we're g I
088go like get rid of the slack. >> More powerful argument is that look like we're going to be doing this sooner or later. Like we we have experience. We know the boilers are breaking. We know electrical we we we throw a a switch and we have to we have to close school for a day because the switch won't go back the other way to electricity backlo like we know we're going to be doing this we know we are going to be spending this money right we're going to be spending over the next however many decades by my calculation at least I would have said 56 million if you're going to tell me 80 I'll go with that but millions of dollars to me that's the that's an a compelling argument for anything that is hip
089that that's that's was just my point and which leads into my other point is like I I tried to find this I and I don't know if you were necessarily speaking to me but I when I sent you that email with all these types of questions like I had gone through the presentations and like if we're directing people to the website like I don't expect average person to sit there and try to glean this information out of all these which are wonderful we have all this data but it needs to be summarized in some other way, shape or form. And then lastly, um, for public consumption. And then lastly, I think too, like I understand the educational value and like of of a newer school and we've talked about that. Um, you know, the air
090would be cleaner. Uh, you know, there's all those all the different cumulative things that would make the educational experience better. Um, one example which we don't have like I was looking for direct impact. I want to be able to look somewhere and say like this is important because we need to educate our children better and we can't kind of do it in our older schools. And the example I gave was if if we were overcrowded and we had like 40 kids in a room and we built a new school and we spread everybody out, you can immediately say directly, oh, the educational process should be better because we've alleviated overcrowding. Like so now it's you know we can focus more on smaller student teacher reaches that's not really our thing like we don't really have
091an overcrowding issue per se but so what are some of the other direct like a low ceiling at at PES doesn't impact I I guess the quality of the instruction the teachers teaching the students it's not impacting the quality of the instruction like how do we convince community members that new schools are necessary to maintain the quality of education. I think right off the top of my head prek >> the prek program >> we can expand that to more students and it seemed to that's been seen to make >> yeah I know off top of you asking a question that was >> I think these are the selling regardless of where this is going to be where the site is >> ADA compliant >> right right now there's >> uh you can't have any ADAs
092children they they Yeah. Like breathing school for a break fix issue. I mean, you know, there's a lot of I think if you look historically over time, just in the six years I've been on the board, how much money we've been spent spending to fix things, right? So, I think there's an opportunity. I think it's a fair point though, right? you know, what's the return on that investment? Not only from um community growth, education perspective, aesthetics for the town, all sorts of things. I mean, I think that you need good schools, right? >> Yeah. >> I I would have said just from looking at the tech presentations, all these other peer towns have are really redoing their schools. I'm getting a little >> Can I just piggyback on something you said? This is feedback that
093you shared or I shared and you you hit the nail on the head. There's been a lot of work done, but the ability to digest the information that's on our website, it it needs to be much more succinct. It needs to be much much more concise. It needs to outline the pros and cons relative to some of the conversations that have been had because it's very it's actually it's overwhelming and even from the recent dialogue of going up and going down the slides, you're a board member who's been part of this conversation and and so if that is something hard to to navigate, imagine someone learning about this in the community. And I think that you can have all that detail, but it needs to be brought up so it's very clear. It's very clear
094what the process was or the additional resources and additional information, but these are the properties. This is what was reviewed. This is the procon. This is where we are. This is the date we're working towards in a much more digestible format. Um, and preferably with audio where you can hear the presentations. I'm sorry. I'm going to lean in on that because some of the presentations as well as the board meetings are inaudible. Um, and this is such an important conversation, we need to make sure that it is very very clear and it's and it's um well understood. >> I also think that one of the things to Steve's question about selling points is that we have overcrowding. I mean I we went on school tours and there were kids, you know, there like little stations
095set up under stairwells and that sort of thing. I mean, so I think instructional practices have changed to the extent that, you know, one-on-one instruction or even some of the collaborative learning that it's, you know, that we emphasize so much so much here that that there does need to be space for that and there isn't and there are, you know, people working in closets with, you know, onetoone instructional stuff. So that they're not maybe it's not overcrowding, but it's not necessarily appropriate the instruction. >> I think it and it does alleviate overcrowding at like me and it kind of trickles the problem, right? So it eliminates I was going to say the exact same thing. That's one of the most upsetting things I've seen in my time on the sport is doing the school tours
096and seeing kids being pulled down for interventions. You know, a lot of times our some of our most vulnerable students and it's happening in the festival in the entry school. It's happening in a stairwell. You make a great point Z like the way we approach education has changed and where we have made investments as a district has changed. So we are putting money into these interventions and into these one-on-one, you know, situations. We don't have the space to maximize that investment. That's really upsetting to me. So thank bringing that up. >> Anyone else? One last thing. Um, and because Jeff Olsson is not here to say it, I just would like to use Jeff's term of let's make this a sprint, not a marathon in terms of data collection so that we have more time,
097Tom's kind of thing on the back end to make the decision. So, let's get all the information as quickly as we can, as thoroughly as we can, so that we have time to digest it and decide as a board what we should do next because I would like to see this taken care of as quickly as possible. I'm probably one of the most sentimental people. I attended PEES. I attended GES. My kids attended PES. My mother attended GES. So, as much as I would love to hold on to those buildings and those memories, it's getting ridiculous. Like, we are sinking money into these buildings. It's time. We have to do something. And I don't want to miss the opportunity um with everything that's happening to save some money in the process and kind of bundle
098this and just get it done because it's been far too long that we we not that we've led but it's gone on too too long. So last piece. Anyone else before we move on? Thank you everyone for your thoughtful comments. I appreciate it. Um, oh, next we have both topics. Um, that's me again. >> Um, so there's three things I wanted to talk to the board about, um, tonight. Um, one is that, um, we just found out that region 15 has received a K board recognition award. Um, and that's a board leadership award. Um, this program was created in 1998 to recognize excellence in the leadership activities of local boards of education. So, Cave tells us congratulations. Um, we will be recognized at the 2025 Cave CAPS Convention on Friday morning, November 21st. I know
099that myself and Heather Dwire, Mr. Smith are going to be there. Anyone wants to go, you're still welcome to sign up. Um, where we will be getting our second plate for our flack um that we received last year. Um I want to extend thanks to Miss Meglo um and Mr. Smith who helped us put together um our application um you know which has like different criteria um you have to go through it and we do do a lot of good work. I know we are not perfect but it is very nice to be recognized by our professional organization for the work that we have done. Um next year you know we now are going to be eligible to get a board of distinction award. We'll talk about that more in a future. >> I know
100well I'm on a roll and we hit a number of the uh board of distinction awards already. Um the criteria for it. So that will be I think board has to vote on that. Um so that'll be sometime in the spring that we'll get to it. But just very grateful for every board member. Um the civility that we show each other um that we model for students um how we follow policy. Um that means a lot that our uh professional organization has uh recognized that. So thank you for everyone. all your effort. Um the second thing I wanted to talk about is obviously we just had um elections and in both of our member towns and we have two new first selectman candidates which I think is the first um I have reached out um
101to both Jennifer Maher and Tim O'Neal um to congratulate them um in their win and to invite them to meet with uh Josh and myself to have um discussions about any concerns they have. Um our member towns are very important. We our relationships with them are very important. Um and we want to start off on the right foot. Um selectman uh Jennifer Maher has we're working on dates and I expect that we'll get some dates with um Mr. O'Neal as well soon. The third thing I want to say is um we have in the audience um Joe Rogerro um guy in the red shirt over there. Yeah, I'm totally putting you on the spot. I would like to say a public thank you to Mr. Rogerro. He is the president of the South Berry Land
102Trust. Um and he has met with us um Josh and and Joe um a couple times now, including today. Um, and he has been just a wonderful resource of information on what properties we could look at and what like he can figure out the South Berry GIS website like no other. I'm just very appreciative of the time um that he has contributed to helping us um look at what properties we might possibly consider. So, while you're here, I'm going to publicly thank you, Mr. Roger. So, thank you. Got your regret it coming, huh? Yeah. >> All right. Next, we have board member comments. Any comments from board members? >> Just uh Josh, you sent out a thing about the bus negotiations with the bus thing. How are we involved? They so the bus company the
103drivers do almost direct the region they're contract so they're a vendor that we use to provide pretty important service to our schools to our community but they're seemed like they were looking for more money from us or something and didn't we sign it when uh when we got that contract we we didn't go out to bid because you know they gave us you So, I just want to say this is board member comments. If you have a comment, that's appropriate, but if you have a question, it might be better to ask Mr. Smith. >> Um, or we can make this a topic of discussion if possible at another agenda. >> Yes. Does she have a comment to make or No. Okay. Any other board member comments? Nope. Okay. Um, next we have comments um from
104citizens. I'm going to set my timer here. Um, the board of education will recognize citizens from Mbury and Southbury. And citizens are asked to state their name, their town of residence, and to limit their comments to three minutes. In accordance with region 15 board of education bylaw 9325A, speakers are asked to express themselves in a civil manner with due respect for the dignity and privacy of others who may be affected by their comments. While it is not the board's intent to stifle public comment, speakers should be aware that if their statements violate the rights of others under the law of defamation or invasion of privacy, the speaker may be held legally responsible. I have um my timer here, which I'll just set up. Um so, when you get up to the podium, make sure you
105write your name down so that we could have your name accurately written for the minutes. Um and I'll start the timer and then when it goes off, then public comment is done for you. So, >> and we can't respond to public comment um because of foil laws, but we are certainly very welcomecoming um and we are listening attentively um to what you guys have to say. So, here's your chance. Everyone, my name is Leslie Pratt. I'm um I live across the street Roxbury Road and my family's lived there for seven years. So, um, when I saw that come out in the news article and it became a discussion, I was like, "Oh my god." Um, the thought of living across the street, you know, very selfishly, I admittedly, very selfishly, it caught my eye. I
106wasn't paying attention before. Um, I've got a kindergartener at Gainfield and a fifth grader at Gainfield. um super excited and about the new schools that our kids so desperately need and for educators as well of course. Um but gosh, I just don't want it to cross the street from my house. Um the traffic on Roxberry Road is insane. It people fly through there. People are commuting. There are two blind S-curves. We hear car accidents, you know, on an annual basis. Um it's dangerous to pull out onto Roxberry Road. you can't see past the curve. Um I'm also really concerned about um Heritage Village being sandwiched by I think that's not great for that community. Um I love um Gainfield. I'm so grateful that my kids get to go there. I grew up in New Town
107that we moved to Southbury to raise our children. Um and I'm excited for the school that one day will come into that space. Obviously, I think that Perog should stay where it is, and I know that it's complicated with the land and the access road and all that. Um, but obviously, as a citizen, I believe that putting a school at Roxberry Road would be incredibly detrimental to the beautiful natural space that you spoke of. Um, there's a lot of feeling around that land that actually I didn't know so many people cared so deeply about it. There's the story I of somebody's grandfather passed it on to the town with, you know, a handshake deal that um the land would be respected and preserved. Um and you know, somebody else also said to me, "Well, would
108you like a school across the street or would you like a high-rise like commercial building or something like that?" And I was like, "Okay, good point." Um but my thought is that I hope that Roxberry Road can be uh taken out of the equation. Obviously, all the due diligence that needs to be done. So appreciate all of the work and time that the committee and that the board has put into all of these proposals for our children, for our community. Um, but just felt responsible to speak for my family and my neighborhood. Um, where we believe that putting a school there would be incredibly detrimental to the layout of Southbury um, as well as the neighborhood itself. So, thank you. >> Thank you. There's no other public comments. So, we will move on to announcement
109of uh future meeting dates. Um the finance meeting that's scheduled for number November 12th will be rescheduled to a date to be determined. Monday, November 24th, PNC meets um at the media center at 6:30. Also, we have our regular board of ed meeting on Monday the 24th at 7:30 where we will be discussing our capital plan, >> right? >> Yep. >> Fiveear capital. >> Five year capital plan. Okay. Um Monday, December 8th, finance meets at MIJ at 12 o'clock. And also December 8th, PNC is going to be meeting at 6:30 at the high school. Um followed by our regular board of education meeting at 7:30. At that meeting, we'll be we'll we will be having um our board of ed um position elections and we will be having a presentation on student data. May I
110have a motion to adjurnn? >> Motion to adjourn. >> Thank you, Heather. >> Second by Steve. All those in favor? >> I I Oh, Shannon >> and I >> I All right. Thanks, guys. We're journed. All right. Thank you.