09-29-2025 Board of Education Meeting

001Stand for the flag of the republic which stands nation indivisible liberty and justice for all. >> Welcome everyone. The mission of region 15, a collaborative community committed to excellence, is to educate every students to be productive, ethical, and engaged in a global society through proven and innovative learning experiences supported by a strong community whose decision-m is based in the best interest of all students. We'll start with our student representativesto um that row sorry, and Miss Liza Murphy. >> Um so over the past few weeks at we've had various events where the students have opportunities to meet and bring the school together. For example, we had the club fair which is where um all of the student clubs that have dogs um are br students and you can join any different clubs and then we also

002got the student website updated. It helps make the student information more accessible to students and it also makes people more involved. And then we also had last Friday the progress for the first quarter where student see the grades. Yes. So over the past couple weeks we've had our first PMP senate meeting which is a group of the student representatives at PMProg from various like organizations and clubs and they come together to promote the school initiatives which is for this year connect inspire and empower. So over our first meeting, we've all connected. We've all met each other from the different clubs and we've started this uh you know group last year because we had realized that a lot of the clubs and organizations were having trouble either promote their ideas and activities or even you know

003there was a lot of overlap between the two different clubs and all the clubs around Pal. So this is a good way for the clubs to kind of talk to each other and you know create events together and unify PAL. And then we also have had pack stands. So that's pre-mission and for students and teachers. And it kind of encourages school spirit around pop and kind of bring everyone to support the sports games. And we'll probably carry this through the winter and great. Thank you very much. Appreciate hearing about what your the government's doing. >> Any questions on their reports? Thank you very much. Thank you. Um, next on the agenda, we have um an update on the GBS PDS building project. Um so at our last meeting in June um we had a that's

004when the last time the GES uh PES feasibility study committee met and they came up with a recommendation to the board of edge about what to do about building broad elementary school and just to provide a very brief summary of of that um Dr. Dr. Romano will provide an expert summary when she did a presentation to the board of ed in June and I'm totally have it here looking at it. Um but um back when we did the repair bond um it excluded fields and pump government because they both needed significant money to be spent to do whatever repairs that needed to be done. For instance, PES roof alone was seven figures. Um and we thought that was beyond the scope of the repair bond. So we specifically put Gainfield and Pompro Elementary aside and

005the board created a feasibility study committee to provide a recommendation to the board on what to do about Gamefield and Pamper Elementary Schools. Um the board created different stakeholders to be on that committee. Um that was comprised of town officials, board of ed members, uh both schools and parents and each stakeholder got to choose who they wanted to be on the committee. Um it was a wonderful process. Um there were over 11 committee meetings um in the last year. Um there were three community conversations that were open to all the region 15 community. Um there are two meetings with stakeholders and local government officials. Um there were interactive meetings with teachers from both schools and there were tours of all four elementary schools in their region. Um we have with us tonight architects who helped

006the feasibility studies um committee um process what to do um about those schools. Ultimately, um after many many meetings, um the feasibility study committee recommended to the board of education to thank you to build one new school on a new property. Um if possible, it's going to be like two schools, one campus. That was the first recommendation of the feasibility study committee. Um if that didn't work out, then the feasibility study committee recommended um a new uh two new schools on each of the properties. Um and if that didn't work out, then there was another option of um a new PBS on a new site and a new PES on an existing site. Um we have with us tonight tecton architects who will kind of go over um basically what the feasibility study committee um

007uh wrestled with in a shorter version and a nutshell and with their recommendations and also tonight we have joining us um several feasibility study committee members. Um very much appreciate them being here. I thought that they could provide the board um with some of their reasoning um as to why they voted as they did. And with us tonight, I think we have Vince Cypriano from uh Mberry Board of Finance Ed St. John from the Mberry uh the Middleberry First Leman. We have Don Michaels, which is the chair of the board of finance in Southbury. Stephanie Ferman the PES principal, John Romeo, the um Gamefield principal. We also have our own board of ed members, Heather Rogers, Sally Romano, and Heather Dwire, who also served on the feasibility study committee. So hopefully we'll get to hear

008from everyone on why they voted how they did. So at this point, I'm going to turn it over to Penton Architects to lead the way. >> Well, good evening everybody. Uh my name is Jeff Wisinski. I'm a principal at Tecton Architects. >> I'm Antonia Savarella. I'm an architectural designer at Texon Architect. >> I'm along the field construction construction managers. >> So, uh, tonight we prepared a presentation where, uh, this is the agenda. Um, we're going to go over a foundation is basically the introduction, the process that we went through, um, the schedule, um, and some of the data that we looked at. Uh, item two is the community engagement. Antonio will go over that process and some of the activities that we had. Uh item three is the case figures and the concepts that we

009explored during um many of the community conversations but also during the process with the feasibility committee and then we're going to land on uh the preferred options and have a roundt discussion. So, what we're going to try to do as best we can is kind of summarize one, two, and three plus and uh spend most of our time on the preferred options. Um, our last meeting in June. Um, since that point, we had a few other meetings uh to update some of the programmatic requests born out of that that meeting in June and we have some revised uh and updated numbers based on that feedback. So, away we go. So the team, we just went through our introductions. Um, for many that have been following along have seen the slide numerous times. Uh, believe it

010or not, Techon, I believe it was October 1 to 26. >> Yeah. At the end of October last year, uh, where we interviewed with this group um, and were hired uh, to begin this process. Um, we then started, it was really three major steps. We collected some of the existing conditions, walked through the buildings, understood the physical um condition of the buildings as well as the programmatic leave in each of the facilities. Then we spent some time looking at uh benchmarking uh the program itself, program development, understanding how you use the building, what are the what are the challenges and opportunities that exist within that. And then the green portion of that schedule, we spend a majority of our time developing those options. And along the bottom you'll see the various different meetings that we

011had whether it was with the working group or with the um ESGs studies uh committee themselves. And then we had total of three community conversations and a couple of think tanks one at each school. Um so a lot of engagement really helped shape some of the um options and planning that was a bit along the way. Um this list here is if you were to decide to go to a next step the next logical step is to look start thinking about the grant application process support. So this list here is a simple a simplified list of 10 items um 10 major items that would really need to be completed as a part of your grant application process. With that comes a schedule. So um during our community conversations during our feasibility meetings um there was

012discussion about completing um our assessment basically by June early fall um with the absence of the break and summer and then look at what it would take to submit the grant application. Now just as a reminder the the priority grant applications are due June 30th of every year. Um so what we did is the first four on the top left side are um some of the the early due diligence that you would want to complete early on October, November, December kind of into early next year um in order to set you up in pretty good shape for if you wanted to submit a grant application uh this this coming June 2026. Um possible um referendum in May. Again, all of this tenative, but if you wanted to submit a grant application for 2026, this is

013likely the schedule that you'll want to follow um for this process. So, zooming out a little bit, um the macro schedule, if you will, um is uh if you were to submit a grant application, these projects, and you've seen this slide before, take anywhere from about four to five years to complete from grant application all the way through to construction completion. So, if you did follow the schedule, um you're looking at for the most part, no matter what option you land, whether it's one or two schools that you build this school simultaneously, um you're looking at basically a 2030 fall 2030 construction completion. So, you have about a year and a half design time. Um you have about quarter three to four months of bid negotiation kind of settling that out and then anywhere from

01418 to 24 months of construction. So that's that's a basic schedule that you would want to follow overall for each projects. So again the existing conditions um you've seen this slide before if you've been following along just the existing enrollment grade level configuration and the year it was originally constructed um and the location on the right side of this slide um where the two schools exist. So again, as I mentioned, we walk through um each of the buildings, assess the condition, analyze how the building was added to, modify over a period of years, and and what those additions, modifications entailed, how you're currently using the building. um some of the um programmatic and existing condition um challenges that exist whether it's site architectural exterior things like roofs, doors, windows um architectural interior things like ceilings,

015floors, finishes, but also code accessibility code like safety code and nuts as far as when it comes to physical assessment and then of course um mechanical systems as well, fire protection, plumbing, mechanical, electrical. So there's a whole lot of data that was collected in those first few months of our process and summarized overall here. Um and lastly, programmatic needs. Again, this slide is really just summarizing a laundry list of items that we heard relative to the programmatic needs of schools. We went through the same process for GES. um analyzed the site, looked at the vintage of the buildings, current use diagrams, again looking at the various different aspects of the building, site, architectural, exterior, interior, and then the building systems themselves. And then lastly, the programmatic. So I think it was right around um our

016community conversation number one where um we heard several comments consistent comments about um you know what about you know the entire district like what happens can this project um improve the educational atmosphere across the district. So what we did was we went back and took a step back and we walked through LMES and MEES to understand how they're currently being utilized um some of their needs and again we originally charged with GES and PS but if there's a way that we can come up with an option or options with GES and PES that would help alleviate some of the concerns or improve the educational environment at the M mees and MES we should do it So we'll we'll explain that later when we get into the options. Uh so we did um walk through the

017buildings. We did sit with the principles. We we did interview and understand how the building's currently being utilized understanding needs programmatically. Um again modulars are on this building as well. Um so capacity scheme at AA consistent theme across across the regional school district and again similar structure of physical conditions and then the programmatic needs all summarized again in multiple slides in a more detailed presentation and we did the same thing for me and understood um again the site site constraints um how they're using the building again um believe pretty All of your four buildings that we looked at all have uh in one shape or form modular attap program. So this slide has appeared in I think almost all of our presentations as well and it's created some good conversations relative to um age condition

018um grade level configuration current enrollment and there's there's a term called allowable area from the state and the allowable area is an important term to recognize because it basically is a formula taking your highest enrollment in eight years times a square foot per student. And what that's telling you is the state's going to reimburse you on a certain size building. Um, if we were to rebuild your buildings, Canfield and Pomp as is with the current enrollment, um, they would be a bit smaller than they are today, believe it or not. So, that creates a bit of a conundrum and a bit of a challenge as you move forward with the options. and um understanding that as you add to buildings over time, they become less efficient as well. So, this will show up um in

019the revised options because we had some more detailed conversation about what is truly needed um and in building planning. Um and we heard a lot about that at both the committee but also the community. Let's make sure we do this correctly. Let's spend the time. Let's speak with the teachers. Let's speak with the staff to understand the side of the building that's needed. So the next couple slides are um not our work but the demographer work thermographers's work MP planning and I believe um they're working on some updates um I saw density map um that that we'll look at a little bit later but long story short is the left side of this slide the black line is um past tense the right side is projected and um for our planning purposes we use the

020green line which is the kind of the midlevel projection and medium projection. So they'll they'll create Mike will create a low, medium, and high. Um we often kind of settle medium just tends to be the most accurate that we've seen over time. So what does that mean to to GES and PDS? Well, what it means is you're seeing a steady um a slow but steady increase in elementary enrollment, believe it or not. And from to 2032 or 33 um and the green line is paparok the student population is going to projected or predicted to go from 395 to 452. And similarly for GES it's going to go from 319 to 375. Now these numbers may be off slightly just because of today's numbers. Um actually they're due in another few weeks here in October. Um

021so that's probably when we'll get a refresh of all of the enrollments. But um what you can see um without a doubt is that there's still a slow and steady increase across the board. Our charge is and the state wants you to look at at least an 8year window um at the time of your grant application. So if it's 2026 that's 2034. So whatever numbers are the highest is what they really want you to do. The reason for that is because they don't want to see you again for more than one year basically. So the reason why um born out of the first community conversation, the the reason why we circled the the two that popped up there is can we consider the possibility of pulling 80 to 100 students out of LMES to give

022them some more capacity to to function the way that they would like to. Um and and pull that into both PSE and GES. Can um can we look at um prek overall? And the reason why we want to look at prek overall and both of these buildings possibly is because the state did in fact pass um the legislation last year. I think it was bill 7288 where um early learning centers or basically early childhood development prek if a school contains a prek program they're entitled to a 15% additional reimbursement from your base reimbursement. So that's big and it and what it means is they the way that they wrote it it's applied to the entire building not just the areas for the prek. So, and we saw this in actually good working order. Cher Chesher

023built the Barnum School got an additional 15% retroactively and saved the community about $14 million. So, so they they this was kind of somewhat rumor I think at the last in June when we had our meetings, but this is in fact not the case. >> Yep. The 15%. So, in other words, if you have the prek, you're going to have more teachers and more everything else. Does the 15% how does that merge because you're getting 15% more but you're also adding more teachers. >> Yeah. From oper So the 50% purely from the the capital construction side. I I don't want to speak for the operational side but I know there's other um funding mechanisms based on uh socioeconomic considerations for funding for operational cost. I don't >> they won't give you more per square foot.

024They just give you 50%. >> That's correct. That's correct. Yes. Yes. Yeah. And we'll get into that. Uh but but if you do, let me just finish that thought. Um if you add the prek to your building, you're getting you add you're getting 80 times the allowable area, right? Your building is getting bigger and they're giving. Yep. Good question. Um so lastly the bullet that just popped up or the the bubble there was um existing prek at LME anywhere from 64 to 90 um maybe consider adding prek anywhere around 80 prek to if it's one building to the building is two buildings to both I'm going to turn it over. >> Thank you. Um, so as Jeff mentioned early on in the schedule, we had a number of community engagement sessions with the community at

025large. Um, and as well with the teachers. So we'll just show you a little bit of what that process was. And we definitely want to say thank you to folks that joined us in person, folks that u maybe were listening in or um even if you just shared and posted had a conversation with your neighbor about it. We really appreciate that. Um, so community conversation number one was at GES. Um it was in March and graciously um they hosted a building tour as well. So folks that joined in person got to go on a tour of the school and actually see some of the things that we talked about in person. Um the major topic of conversation that I wanted to focus on here at community conversation number one was um that looking districtwide and

026this sense of really having a pride in your small town and in this this sense of culture and community that you guys have have really built the district. And then at community conversation number two, we moved to PEES and they also generously hosted us on a building tour. So again, folks could see these buildings in person um and experience them if they hadn't been in there before. Um we shared two case studies that we'll also share with this group tonight. Um we looked at Madison and and Lane and we shared those because one was new construction and one was renovate as new. So we wanted to give people a sense of what both options could look and feel like. And the major takeaway from community conversation number two um was was really about this sense

027that we should be looking outside to Connecticut but also outside of Connecticut for some precedent examples of what other folks have done um what research is out there so that we can really learn from that and and apply it here here at home. Each community conversation had a ventter as well. So we got some live polling data from the group that was there. Um so this is just some of the research the homework that we got from community conversation number two. Um we we went back um gathered the data to answer questions and and brought that to the next conversation. So we just wanted to leave that here so so that folks could start to see what the nation is doing overall and what Connecticut is doing overall so you can get a sense of

028you know the vintage of your buildings for example was on par with what we see as an average age for for buildings nationwide. um and a lot of folks are pursuing this new construction option. So there are some parallels um with your thinking and this the broader thinking. Um we also just wanted to leave this as research resources lots of people said you know based on student experience based on academic achievement based on sustainability what's the research say. Um so we we talked through that in the session itself but we just wanted to leave this as um a resource for anyone who wanted to dive deeper and community conversation number three. We were at LME um and great way to wrap up. So, we shared all these things that we learned from community conversation one

029and two. And this is the conversation where it started to get real where folks started thinking about what's going to be the student experience during construction and how can we really futureroof these buildings based on um growing capacity and uh these conversations around demographics around sites in town and um you know prospective housing projects. So, um we really started to delve into some some real real talk of of how these get built. And again some questions here for you know broader plan for prek as we spoke about u general thinking big around enrollment capacity programmatically there was this is where I think that the seed of that conversation started that we should we should think about not only how we teach today but how we want to teach in the future and build our buildings

030accordingly. Um and maybe that means there is a delta between what the state says and what we want but so be it. uh teachers. We had two beautiful think tank sessions. Thank you to the teachers. We folks time out of their day, hours out of their their day to to sit with us and share their insight. Um so we appreciate that. We had a think tank with K2 staff. Um and the think tank is this opportunity really to think big with your educators. This is to hear directly from them what their visionary goals are in terms of education um in terms of programming and in terms of collaboration for them as a as a teacher team. Um so K2 had this experience, grades three to five had this experience. Um and we brought together for

031each of these sessions GES and PES staff um from you know general education to your specialists to your resource teachers to um interventionists and everyone in between. They they played three activities um with us and generously and creatively shared their feedback related to student experience. On the far left, we played a game called constellations where we asked them to describe to a student experience for that grade level and to think holistically. So you might have, you know, an art teacher contributing to this. You might have, you know, the fourth grade teacher proper. you might have a first grade teacher contributing to this and saying you know when I'm preparing my first grader um I'm hoping that they're going to grow with these skills. Uh so everyone contributed to the constellation and then we asked this

032is beautiful. We have these great goals for what that experience is. How can we implement it? So then we played how might we where we put our our major goals for fourth grade brainstormed how we can do that. We upvoted those goals and then took them into Goldilocks, which is where you started to craft um this this one page uh uh charter essentially of what that what that grade level experience should be like. It's your guiding principle for that level. Um we also had town and community think tank sessions afterwards. So we would meet with the educators for a couple of hours and then we would open the floor to inviting guests from the town and community and they provided their feedback as well. Um here we learned a lot about districtwide were stronger. So

033this idea grew of of looking beyond GDS and PPS to the broader picture of the district. And the second think tank um had its own town and community component. And number nine is probably the major takeaway from this communicate from this session. Um this was the thought that we've started some options planning and the thought that maybe there's an opportunity for one site to to have a school with a new construction or renovation component and maybe the other school has a different site somewhere else. So that was bringing a new option to the table. So, we really appreciate that that ingenuity that came out of that same thing. And we've been tracking the progress all along the way on the project website. So, you can scan the QR code so um position website see the

034materials that are posted there. Uh we have the project email. So, if there are questions after this point, it's it's been active throughout the process. So, um we welcome you to to access those resources, stay connected with us, and um we'll continue to populate that website as we move forward. >> Yeah. All right. I I promised we'd be brief, so I'm gonna fly through this one. Um the case studies were also shared. Um and we had a lot of conversation relative to if it were if if the community does look at one school, look at a school within the school, how how can that play out, what could the building look like, what would the programmatic needs need to be in order to make sure that that building operates successfully. um we spent some time

035thinking about and talking about uh the typical classroom arrangements and the support spaces immediately adjacent to it. So these are just some typical diagrams um with uh relative to a small learning community have the pod scheme but imagine this as a kind of grade level community if you will. So looking at that, looking at the building arrangements, having a conversation relative to the program, um citing some of the buildings, these go a few meetings back where we're looking at this is a larger building about 116 120,000 square foot building ground up new on the new site. Um this about again we were showing these for for scale, magnitude, and number of scale. So this is about 800 students pre um on about reporting so you can see how start divide up build small learning communities.

036This one is interesting in particular district Norton because it's a new building built behind uh or it's beside the existing schools and you'll see that in again about a 96,000 foot building 660 students but if you see I'll park it on this slide the the the white kind of outline on the left side of your screen that's the existing school. So, they're building this building behind the existing school while the existing school is in operation and then they're going to tear down the existing building and put parking fields in front of it. Um, so you can kind of see the size and scale of that compared to existing. Um, Madison was an example where this has septic system. So we went through a whole analysis during one of the meetings maybe maybe too in depth

037but uh about what site area you need um related to um things like this but this is an important consideration when you're looking at various sites because the site this site in particular was about 18% that goes quick when you need an on-site system. Um so we we talked about how to arrange the building. We talked about phase occupied renovations and the duration of a building like this versus the ground up new is almost twice as long um for construction. And then we we did um at one of our meetings go through series of different options for your piece types looking at either renovated as new addition renovations, new construction of various different sizes at both PPS and heats. So we explored a wide variety of the options. We had a a video of summarizing

038that 10-minute video and 30 minute video giving you bit more detail and then we landed on some preferred options. So this slide was basically our original charge. So that's why the numbering uh sequence was set up the way we did. We were charged to look at renovate as new addition and renovation and new construction. So on the left side renovate is new, right side new. We went through that process, but we also need to answer the folks in the community that say that asked, why can't you just fix what we have? And you can't. That is an option. And what you see on this slide is the various costs per square foot for each of those different components. So when you start to add up those components over time, those these projects would likely be

039nonpriority projects, which would mean you can apply for grant applications anytime you want. You're going to get a far less rate than the 60% that you get now. So you're not going to get the same reimbursement um on on these types of projects that you're maintaining. So on the left side, just looking at just the physical conditions and proving them and bringing them bringing them up to today's contemporary standards about 37 to 40 million. EDS is about 45 million. Now that's not addressing any programmatic needs whatsoever. That's just fixing what happens. Certainly this question will be asked. This is part of the answer. There's much more detail behind this. Um but but that's some of the reasons why when communities are in this position with buildings of this vintage and this condition you look at

040major renovations whether the renovate is new construction. So here's all my caveats that we went over at several different meetings. Um the state has um published rates for whatever reason in July but then they revised them and focus good for RSD. actually went up a few percentage points. So, as it stands today um in August, the current public published reimbursement rate, your base reimbursement rate um for renovators new is 49.29 and 4250 for new construction. So, if we remember way back when, it always used to be a 10% difference. Um it's no longer. Um, we still think you could prove that new construction is just as if not more cost effective. So you think you're going to your base rate going to start at 29%. >> Renovator is new just basically the whole building. >>

041Yeah. >> Okay. Right. Basically right down to building site infrastructure. So, we went through this process and I'm I'm will certainly go back and answer these questions, but I don't want to drag um discussions, but we did have an in-depth discussion and we had a chart showing kind of the pros and cons of of all of these options, the renovations, whether it was just as it exists today, um combining them, trying to combine them um at GES site, trying to combine them at the PES site, and then renovating tool for the increase at the moment. So, we did look at a whole host of options for renovating this new and and to be quite honest, a combined building at either site is is just not it's very difficult. I nothing's impossible. It's very very challenging.

042So, that's why most of those options have came out quickly. >> Do these numbers include say reimbursement or not? >> Uh they do. Um but you'll see so so these numbers um can and will change depending on size scope and and schedule. So um this is cost to RSC 15 and I will I'll show you the reasons um why either things went up or down as this the cost to the regional school district and I I should say there's and I won't bore you with the spreadsheets but there's a it's a pretty complicated spreadsheet of costing where we're doing site specific costing building costing um sustainable systems. So there's that we are arriving at these numbers and sparing you details but um but this is basically the summary. So, the way that these these bubbles

043set up and I'll I'll take you through option number. This is the renovated new um tag. The student count is 452. The area of the building is 66,000. Um and then the actual cost, total project cost, turnkey construction and soft cost. So any everything it takes to get the building complete is 84 million in this particular option at that particular time. That's the cost to RSD 15 is 44. So that's how all of these slides are set up. So left side is total project cost, right side is the cost of the RSD. So when you start looking at them, you combine the two cost, you're at 83 million for for renovate as new. Um we looked at the combined sites. Again, those kind of came off. So, I'm not going to spend a lot of

044time on them. And then we looked at increasing that enrollment and renovate, adding and renovating to each of them. And then we went through that same process for a new combined school. At the time it was about 110,000 and those were the costs 127 versus 67. Then >> 127 million. Correct. Yes. Yes. Sorry, did I say thousand? >> 127 million. So, We're paying it right now. >> Yeah. Yeah. Today only. Um 3B and 3D same looking at new fil options on either site of the two sites. That simply wasn't possible. So we went through that process. And then when we started honing in, we were looking at um leaving the the kind of the catchment areas alone um building new buildings uh and then looking at increasing the enrollments of the 504 equalizing it to

045try to give um so that all of the elementary schools across the district um benefit. So, we did spend a little bit of time discussing new versus renovated new. And this analysis is is is an important one because every dollar that you put in, you want to make sure stays with the building. What happens when you renovate the value is a little bit distinct. So, left side is the renovation numbers that I showed you earlier. right sided heat construction. Heard it before. Let's do 80 million. It's cheaper. We're saving the six million. But when you start looking at things like unforeseen conditions, those are going to go up for existing complicated building renovations and that these are all based on kind of historical averages. So that's kind of unforeseen. your time is almost double because

046you have to go through because you unless you have a building that you can put these students in for a year and a half which I didn't hear. You have to you have to do sections of the building at a time at at a time. So that historically almost doubles time as new construction. Not always, but it's going to definitely be more. So you're spending more time there on on the general condition. You're spending more time on temporary facilities. And then obviously the state well the state's looking for you to estimate to the midpoint of construction. So you're paying more in escalation. So when you start thinking about the value of these things um you just you just need to look at the best value and and it's quite all right to do renovators new.

047I'm not I'm not trying to push in either direction. Our job is to show you what the best out of the equation. So, the committee had a variety of conversations um at at our June meeting about, you know, things like disruption, space, what they're left with, what's best for the students, um educational space, um quality of it, core facilities, long-term. So, we landed here back in June, which was 3D, which was a combined school at 108 students. that square footage went up to 134ish. So now we're talking 147 million cost to RSD 15 to 78 million for that combined school. That would require about 15 acres of usable land. So a pretty good site. 15 acres of usable land is probably more like a 20 or 25 acre site east. um in this town with

048the topography it's it's a bit more challenged. Um so then we looked at 4B which was can you can you build on PES? Can you build on GES a new school either to the side or to the back or and we think you can do it. Um the buildings would be at the time we were talking about 70,000 buildings. Each of those would have cost and the reason why they're a little different is because of different site costs, different building demolition costs because they're different. So they're they're slightly different, but one's 86 million, one's 80, the the cost to the district is 87 million. And then on 4 C on the far right, it's just kind of an alternative to 4B is as well. And we heard a little bit about um is PS more

049valuable for some other use um and if that's the desire of the community. Um you know, we've heard some comments about traffic and things like that. Um if that's the desired plan to find another home for that school and and rebuild kind of in the back or to the side of GDS, then that's what this could look like. It's a little less because you're basically leaving PDS as it exists and repurposing. So that's where we were in June and where we what what the ask was um at the end of that meeting was to let's go back and make sure have the conversation programmatically. Let's make sure that these these buildings function in the in the optimal way. Um so what we did is we went back and dug in to the details and again

050I don't want folks misunderstand this is again this is the next level of programming. This is not an educational specification but this is trying to get the building to a I'll call it a right size for your district to teach the way that you want to teach. So the building's a little bit more um the combined building. So, it's starting to put you up in that 160 range, 165 range. And then when you look at individual buildings, you're you're up in that and and I'm using ranges because I think there's some tightening up that could happen in either direction here. Um about a 90 90 or 95,000. So, we went we had those conversations. There still needs certainly needs to be more conversations, but this is kind of where we landed. Um just for those

051that are and I'm certainly that folks on this board are interested in class sizes and ratios. Um this slide here um summarizes the general academic the typical classrooms. each of those options for those have some should ask because oftent times folks will say well if you combine schools that means you're gonna have double that that's what these programs as far as ratio or class size calculate out to so when you go through all of that and now at the 15% reimbursement Um, but the hit for the square foot overage because you're you're over the size of the allowable area. So, what the state is saying is basically I'll give you I'll give you 61.79% for the area that we say the building can be should be built to. You pay everything else out of pocket.

052So in the two school scenario on the left side they'll pay for 70,000 square feet at 61 call it 62%. The district is paying out of pocket about 5,000. So the effective reimbursement rate is about so just it it either I think that's the most effective way to communicate you're going from 60s to a basic 47 48 school. >> Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. Exactly. I should and then on the right side same math and what is um on the bottom right you again you start at 49.29 29 you add the 15% um for prek. The next layer that we need to do is there's another um 15% for dedicated specialized education components to your buildings. Basically the state wants you to not outplace specialized ed. So um the the detail backdrop contemplates the the special ed

053components at that additional 13%. Um and that's reflected. So I know it gets a little confusing. The prek it's on the entire building. The special ed only for the special. So it gets a little complicated but long and short is um that's the calculations. And then if you go to go to the summary. Um again, left side is the combined school, right side is the two new. So left side is 108 students at about 150 165,000. Right side it's 504 students at about 90 to 95,000. And so the costs have been updated and the reimbursement updated for uh most current that we are aware of. So um so that is the calculations not one more layer and I promise I'll be done on this that is playing by the rules not asking for special uh

054legislation for space waiver. Some communities will go for space waiver and that's this next slide. So, so the only thing that changes are the numbers in the top that says space waiver. So, what it all that's doing is is making the entirety of your building reimburseable. Um, it's been done. Uh, again, I'll use a example. Chesher did it for both of their buildings. Um, in the old used to we used to be able to fill out a spade waiver and work with the state. Our recommendation is if you want to pursue pursue this, you would have to get contact with your representation and our recommendation go through special legislation is that the unfortunate thing is not unfortunate but one of the the items that you would need to communicate clearly to the community is if

055you were to do that that can only after this next spring session that may be after depending on what this community wants. It may be after your it could be retroactive just like a caveat. >> No, none of these cross ten >> correct. So I I I we tried to and I'm going to go back to the without land. Um so we didn't we didn't include land acquisition nor did we include the land disposal if you were to move out. So those are two items that you have um and if acquisition land acquisition is required and it's not owned property you can't get reimbursement for it. It just needs to be part of the grants. So, I I know that was an awful lot of information, but hopefully um we're here to answer any questions

056you may have and >> thank you. I think now we're going to look to the feasibility study committee people. Um we slide that has forc like basically the recommendation of committee. Yeah. Um and you know um would love would very much appreciate um hearing from committee members feasibility study committee members as to why you voted as you did. So the feasibility study committee voted unanimously um which was great. Um I thought to add explanation and color it would be great to have the feasibility committee members explain. And Mr. Romeo since you're kind of first in the last I thought I'd call on you first. you want to say something, you're welcome to. I don't you don't have to. >> But >> you're right that it was a unanimous decision and I don't know how many

057hours we spent together, but many many hours. I think it's challenging to kind of summarize that in just a few sentences. But I would say that the representation on that committee was very diverse. We have teachers, we have parents, we have community members, we have elected officials um just pouring through all this and really putting their heart and soul into trying to understand the issues and um it it just came out very clear that that combined building was was the way to go and be strongly supported. Yes. To clarify question. Are these ranked? >> So I saw a no from a committee member and I hear a yes from the chair. So >> 3D was the first option. That didn't work. Then 4B that didn't work. Then 4C. So So they recommended three options. >>

058Fold closure of three recommendations. I didn't realize they were rigged. I wasn't at the June meeting. I was traveling. So thank you for the clarification. you want to say? >> Yeah, I mean I agree with what M Romeo said that we all combine the larger school which is best get some scale scale really looked at the whole district so alleviate the pressure the other schools. thought it'd be great to get a preschool on the south side of equity. You know, we just think need to find that property is what we're worried about. >> I'll speak as a finance guy. Um for me the first thing to decide was the significant savings between uh renovate and uh build new to begin with. Are they worth the difference? And two things back envelope some work I've done

059shared with a few people but it needs a lot of scrubbing. uh for a few dollars a month for the average home bunch owner. It's a no-brainer that you should go for a new when you look at all the advantages of new all those green dots and then the big yellow dots. They're significant and they're important when it comes to education. This is more about education than money, but money needs to be sued. So that was the first thing for me. And second thing for me is when you look at that sheet, one big new school was the less expensive option. It's got its problems. You know, was easy. But even then, the differences between these various options, again, uh we talking less than $5 a month. the average home man you had a 30-year

060B a 20 thing think about that so that's how I came to my decision key thing was the money's no significant difference and the docs talked about education and operation >> thank you Mr. I'm gonna speak to a different reason than John's uh I was the thing that really cured my interest here in participating in this group and hoping that I could offer something is when looking at the age of both these schools uh be very honest with you we deal with this every day that those schools are very outdated uh game field is pathetic doesn't meet ADA requirements I think that's the first thing we got to sell is the That's number one. The other issue you have is that you have two sides uh both on steep and this was one of the

061things that I raised early on. You can't build a 40 50 60 70 million school on a on a site that may have marginal step facilities. Fortunately, the region schools in middle grade are all on sewer. So that alleviates that problem. But you don't have that option. I don't think about any of these sites. The sites are extremely small, very challenging to both the the architects and the engineers on this project to make the site work. So, we really pushed to find a new site uh for a school, whether you do it combined or do two separate ones a decision of the of the voters or however the however the board votes to put it on the referendum vote. uh it's going to take a lot of homework and a lot of selling and I

062don't think that's when people first of all if you can sell the need that's half the battle finding a home for this school these schools is going to be a bigger challenge because all of the land that's you think both of our towns are just loaded with all kinds of property most of the land that's that's 20 or 30 or 40 or 50 acres that doesn't have 40 acres of wet lamps on it. Uh is uh they're they're just not there anymore and most everything is spoken for. Uh many of the properties in Littleberry are all either in owned by the town or conservation easements or hope base or that. So you're you're very limited. I don't know that as far as Southary goes. But then again, if they're going to build another big facility

063without public utilities, that's challenging in itself and could get even more expensive. So, there's a lot of work to be done here to sell this. I think that the dollars are are are going to be someone will always question the dollars at $1,2 concerned about it. It's it's going to be an expensive undertaking. The longer you take, the more expensive it's going to become. And if you if you go down one road and then they don't like that, when you redesign, that's even additional more expense that you're going to run up. So, you need to sell this in one shot and get it over with or otherwise it's going to be a very very expensive project. Uh, one of one of the things that finding a home for facilities of this size, uh, my experience

064has been, uh, it's always not in my neighborhood. We don't want it. Too much traffic and the fire department makes too much noise. The police are too noisy. DPWs up all hours of the night, turn the lights off, turn the lights on. You all, those schools are no different. So, you will get your challenges, but they can sell the need. And I think the rest of the parts of the puzzle with some work on behalf of some work by all of the the people here and get out there and sell this I think it's doable. And I want to say one other thing that just before I close is I really appreciate the way the architects went around and had their their work sessions where parents and and administrators and all of the school people

065had their input to it. We had some great discussions where they suggested things. What I have experienced in my experience of building a lot of buildings by the time it goes from the committee to the shovel. So we put a shovel ready, it's usually a totally different project. So we need to remember that if we needed x number of square feet when we started, make sure that when we get ready to put the shovel in the ground, we didn't leave off half the building to satisfy something. So I just want to remind you that that's happened on every building ever done here by the way. Started out one way ended up totally different. So anyway, good luck. >> Well, they took all my answers. So >> yeah, there's really not much to say. Seriously, um

066it was having a diverse group to come up with, you know, their expertise or their past experience, talk about those things. I think helped in this process which was very very difficult to come to any type of conclusion. Um and uh you know some some look at the finances some look at you know need children need the bottom line is this is something that have to do and uh it's going to be a pain point for the residents when they vote but it's something that has to be done and uh I think we did enough diligence on this we have uh came to, you know, unanimous decision on what we felt was the right way to go and uh hopefully uh it gets approved. I mean, we can't look back. We just have to look

067ahead and it's the right thing to do for children and help the teachers and >> thank you. Um we also had a statement from Jason Andrews. Um he was a parent from PWA Elementary um who served on the feasibility study committee. He wanted to be here tonight but he couldn't. So, he um submitted a statement and I'm going to have Mrs. Rogers read that to the board. Greetings to the members of the board of education, Superintendent Smith, Joe Martino, and audience members. My name is not Jason Andrews, but I am reading resor. Um I am a resident of Southbury and parent of children at both elementary and middle schools and have been a member of the PBS GES feasibility committee over the past year. I hope to have been able to attend in person, but

068I'm traveling for work and will instead be watching remotely tonight. Thus, this statement for your consideration. As a member of this committee, I have had the honor of considering future opportunities to provide suitable learning facilities for the children of region 15 to learn and grow over the coming years as we evaluate the future of both Pomp and Gainfield elementary schools. There was a substantial amount of information and were a great number of meaningful factors that the committee considered over the course of these meetings to develop our recommendations to this board, including but not limited to student learning environments. impacts on those with various learning accommodations. Space impacts on schools over the course of renovation and or building projects. Impacts on learning while utilizing existing school sites during building or renovating. Logistical challenges of various existing

069school sites. Significant nonvalue added cost associated with renovation and building projects. Districtwide needs given in the district school population projections. future growth accommodation should additional large properties in town be developed residentially values the taxpayer. Considering all of this, my observation is that the best opt option in front of us is to build a new school complex consisting of two schools at a new site designed to accommodate district-wide needs with accommodation per school program. This would provide optimized learning environments for students in this district without encountering the limitations in the use and development of the existing properties. This option would also be fiscally responsible and enable us to design any future school complex to be adaptable to accommodate the future growth of this community should be needed in the future. While property selection is a challenge,

070I wholeheartedly believe that this direction is prudent and in the best interest of both students of the school district and the taxpayers of our respective towns. Thank you in regards Jason Andrew. >> Thank you. Um and I want to open it up to the board members concern on the committee. Um you guys want to say anything? I want Scott want to add anything else. >> Yeah. Um I did appreciate that you're in the discussion. Um, I appreciated the different perspectives. I was happy with the process. I felt like we really dug in and looked at everything. Um, happy with the guidance um, from you guys as well. I'm glad that we included all of the elementary schools in to assess for overall needs in the whole district and didn't just focus on the two FBI.

071I thought that kind of led us in some interesting um directions especially when it comes down to reinforcement as well. So thank you. >> I don't remember what to say that already said honestly. Um but um I just want to echo that I did appreciate the progress did appreciate all my feedback. I appreciated everybody who showed up to these community conversations and then said their piece about it as well because I think you did get some very positive feedback from those. Um I I would hate for anybody watching or anybody in the audience to think that this is this is book end and that we're just going to build a new building. Now, um you know, there's a lot of open questions here about uh you know, what what the possible property might might be

072um that we're looking at. And then on top of that, there's you know, we have some ideas of building design um that tech provided, but we don't have an actual building design. Um, so I would just um urge the community to stay involved and stay engaged um and and keep um keep on top of this process because I do think there are going to be lots of opportunities um to to guide this process going forward. >> Yeah, I mean agree with everything that's been said. I think that it's that one thing I would just want to add was what I really appreciated was that there's no proof of adoption. There are several different options and they're all dependent on different things. But what I what I took away from it was really just the strength

073of our teachers and our administrators to make it work when wherever we end up, Mr. Roman. I think it was you who had experience at a very large school and a much smaller school and and that I don't think we're going into it blind. you know, I think we kind of we're talking about other districts and the the um difficulties and successes they had and I think we have people with experience um in teaching in all various settings. So, I think that while there's still a lot of things to figure out, I feel very confident in the the um the staff and teachers we have kind of going into that and and the level of detail we have in the music and band. We, you know, I mean, I just felt like there were a

074lot of things that were brought up and a lot of things still bring up, but I but I just wanted to underscore my my confidence in that. >> And Josh and John, I know you guys are on the committee, you're not voting members, um but you were on the you want to add anything? >> Appreciate it. the community involvement. I appreciate that the elected officials showed up and that our conversations were all about educational moves first and about the long-term investment in the community and not so much um kind of backing into what we think is what will pass a referendum. I think there's a lot of uh buildings that have been influent based out of efficiencies or uh limitations that uh t areas down the road uh don't have mechanical don't have other structures

075in them because they were they were cut out of the building side. While we will face some of those decisions um and the one that Jeff did a nice job explaining tonight is that our schools are already bigger than kind of the state formula and that what we should start with is what we need structurally and educationally and not necessarily building just the formula. that was echoed by everybody on the committee. Um that will be our biggest uh challenge regardless of where and what we build and I just appreciate we're starting from kind of alongside base goals and echo Josh said that building up the margin of state is key and being other places that build to that square. Uh the cool part and the sustainable part gets past state where u I think you

076really build for structure enough space and need to have future that's getting into the state parameters I think is kind of easy part building it a little bigger that's really really needful >> right um so the board is not voting on any of these options tonight I just want to make that very clear we still have work that we have to do. Um later on tonight we are going to be entering into an executive session along with um TechCon Architects to um delve into actual real estate um discussions and that's going to be an executive session confidential um but for and I'm conscious of time um if any board members have clarification questions on the options we can go over that now um you So, but I would limit it at that. >> And there

077they really are clarification. There's two of them. So, slide for next steps where you talk about the option face waiver. Is there a scenario where you you might think you're getting the space waiver cost, but then you're like kind of into it and it's sort of promoted space waiver value cost. You find out, oh, we didn't get the space waiver. you kind of have to go back and say, "Oh, geez, we need another x number of million because we didn't get the state labor." That's my first question. My second question is, will you get the class sizes and the double slider that the slide here probably tell those I assume came from the district doing like an average of what we do now. these class sizes. So um the class size is based on the

078project highest projected enrollment divided by the number of class classrooms that we developed program. So that's that ratio is what what is being proposed current. um the space waiver um just because of the timing. Um our recommend there's there's many different ways that you can kind of um craft uh the the referendum to be clear. Um but there's no guarantee get that. And our recommendation again is to go through special legislation which is for a space waiver which is this spring session. So if If you I think you have to be clear with the community and it has it could be written in a way that uh should you get the reimbursement uh it applies. So we've been in that position uh before >> just to piggy back off the class size question um because

079I think Mr. St. John said we build it we've outgrown it. That's how we build it. Would those class sizes, classroom spaces have any wiggle room or if we did get a huge influx of more students based on the numbers that are here? Is that something I'm putting on the spot so you can come back to us with that? >> Yeah. Um I guess it depends on what that influence is like what you consider you know the number of huge feet. Um so it's size for for that highest enrollment. Um there's capacity in the building to um accommodate more um we can kind of do a an analysis to kind of give you a better handle on should should you see an enrollment of this that's what the ratio would be that's that's scenario that

080we provide to you um and I will say that um through the program development there's other states that um oftent times we will sign um a room connect a room that can be flexed between two grade levels so that if there is a a bubble over of some kind area which often there is the building has that flexibility to so you don't have to rearrange the entire building and building can be flexible um so I can point those out program what what those >> just maybe two specifics be clarifying so you coming out for but do you when I looked at that like nine classroom second graders like I started to get palpitations like oh my gosh what is that going to be like when the kids are in the hallway that's a lot of

081you know do you know do you are there ever school design where it's sort of like two you know almost like two schools in one but but where the grades are where you don't have all of like the entire grade together but rather it's sort of like an integrated group through five school in a school but you share the economies of whether it's a cafeteria or gym roll or Yeah, many many of the um contemporary elementary schools use smaller communities that are have just their grade level configuration. Um, so kind of almost like middle school design getting pulled into elementary school so that so you have the small learning communities that you don't have to travel through another grade level to get to the shared spaces, the cafeter so the idea of of time distance

082travel and elementary school were acutely aware of that and you'll see in many even some of the backgrounds that we um it's set up well so that you can most of the buildings that we're seeing for for this grade level configuration are two stories also that that also helps with my question is actually the opposite like is there a benefit to having a smaller community in which it's K through five and you have some of that in between class you know that sort of grades multiple grades interacting with one another but divided into two almost like that um >> you're saying okay so the grid itself >> yeah like almost like you had two gig schools and you were either you know in school A or school B but they were you still feared the

083economies and sort of ended up building but you had the benefit of I'm thinking of things a lot of things to do with like the crossrade you know some of the benefits of also it not being so overwhelming to see kids in other grades and some of the benefits of the in between grade >> we have um I have to think of examples share most curious. >> Yeah, that's a good question. I'll do some homework on Y. >> I just want to say excellent presentation. Thank you. >> Um question about uh the proposal to move some students out of LMS. If it's 80 to 100 ground members, it's probably about 20% of the LMS population. My question is what is the current breakdown of um Middlebury and Southbury students currently at LMS? And was that

084recommendation based on trying to separate that school into only sending middle students or would there still be a mix of Southary? index but there pull south students with a lot more students like from the MES region and create some release of some of the space freshman shifted kind of small redistricting to shift some students in less shadow students and then I clarifying question chair. So, um what I think one of the the bigger issues um that I I think I'm understanding you don't want to talk about tonight is the size of the school. So, I think that's discussion the school board's going to have to have at some point. You know, a thousand student school would be two to three times the size of any current elementary school we have. So, when would be the

085appropriate time to ask questions and have that discussion as a board? So what we're going to be talking about in the executive so session tonight is over the summer the administration techcon have looked at possible properties right to see if that's even an option for us. We're going to delve into that. If the board feels that we're at a spot that we can go into that then we get more into those discussions. If it turns out that 3D that combined school on a new property is not going to be an option, then the board's going to have to decide, are we going to go with 4B? >> So like it's it's premature to talk about it right now until we know that we have property that it's going to work. >> Any other clarifying questions?

086>> Mr. Michael >> um on the uh space waiver there were there's a legislative and an administrative process two. Do either of those require um a change in the building design or or are we just dealing with money reimbursement? >> They would just be reimbured. >> Yeah, that's that's the case. timing becomes an issue when you got to do something in May. I suggest you consider building the building designing building for the referendum without stating the waiver because one, you don't know it. And two, commit commit that if you do get the waiver, you don't spend the money on additional stuff, the build which you have this before with the school project decades ago where there was esper money and rather than returning it to the taxpayers so to speak, other things were done with

087it and that is a store would offer you that suggest >> you one question I have here that I missed none of this includes if you go to another site and what utilities and other things would be included that number um so the site development cost that we modeled um assumes that going to have to build an onsite. So, we've encumbered >> It's in there. We've encounter existing site. >> Um, we modeled it for any of the new sites as well. Yeah. So, um I think that was the best way to capture the cost because it's on site. No capital cost as far as land purchased. No land acquisition has any improvements that might be required. I think the site none of that is sober. So anything within the site itself would be is captured

088in my in the cost if >> anything beyond that if you want to bring a water line you know half mile down the road. >> Thank you. Any other clarifying question as well? Right. And I just want to make another point that the board is very much interested in community input still. This is not voted on or done deal in any shape or form. We always have public comments at our public meetings and you're always welcome to email the board of ed at region 15.org. He changed it. You speak just and I'll explain. All right. Thank you very much everyone. Thank you very much for the feasibility study committee members attending tonight. Very much appreciate your insight. Thank you. >> Um, next we're going to move on to approval of minutes. May I have a

089motion to approve the June 23rd, 2025 special meeting of the board of education special meeting board of education. >> Thank you, Steve. Do I have a second? Second. Sharon, there's a second. Any questions, comments? All those in favor? Um, next I have a motion to approve the September 8th, 2025 regular meeting minutes of regular meeting board. >> Thank you, Steve. Have a second. Second. Second. Sally. Any questions or comments? All right. All those in favor? I. Next we have information and proposal policy and curriculum committee Miss Heather Dwire. >> The policy and curriculum committee met this evening with elementary school principles to discuss um updates that have happened over the past year plus I'll say of regarding elementary school progress reports. Very interesting presentation. Thank you for the time um that they spent with us

090this evening. Um we uh we took that little detour before we will be getting right back into our policy work um at our next October meetings. Speaking of policy work, you may have noticed that there is a stats for you. Today is the second read of um some policies that we had approved at the end of last week. purchase last week. Um hopefully you've been reading them fairly late over the last few weeks. Um now you have questions perhaps um following questions. Um otherwise uh you know we just uh follows on on some you know clarifying work we did with 1330 um and some 5,000 policy um any one question I'm sorry we had had a lengthy discussion about those students or families that have students that they're doing like pay to they're participating sports

091in like family paths is that has that where is that in all our discussions? We talked we talked about that a couple of meetings back >> I think we had talked about the concept of that we didn't put it in policy wasn't part of the policy >> but I do think it's communication families get signs >> but that's that was imprinted what we You heard the students talk about Pakistan where we uh different sports were giving kind of a deep holiday to kind of encourage uh that conversation again decided that we didn't around that choice. So that would be discussion for us to have um later on this year. >> Okay. >> You have multiple students. >> So there is currently a family tab. >> Yeah. Yeah. That I knew that. And then my other

092the other okay the other question I had is and again maybe it's not the policy but I just want to make sure we don't lose sight of it when we start thinking about the cost of things. There was a big differential between high the concept of high school versus middle school what people are paying for. So you know we could talk that another time not on this agenda to >> totally agree. I just want to make sure we don't lose sight of those two talking points because I think it was healthy discussion when we originally talked about the need to revise this policy. >> Oh, the use of school facilities. It never has actually spoken to it about those components since. So, we had a lot of time on this policy. We had I think

093what was it like sprint? We had all these conversations. I feel like it's gotten to a good place, but for me, there's two components that were very prominent in that conversation that we've not really revisited. So, it's not really a question about the policy. It's more of an ask that we don't lose sight of those two components. specific question um after practice dance holiday is that like senior night that >> so the idea would be that um it's not necessary to specific senior night there's just one night so the idea just again we didn't budget the fees those gate fees paid correct fees I want to say 40,000 but I don't remember don't pull me on it. Um so the conversation was built that in that contain school piece but it has not been forgotten.

094>> Okay thank you question to the finance meeting is not here tonight so Mr. Martino will be donating finance money to >> the finance ailation on September 10th we talked about our year end balances our year balance was $44,000 which the committee discussed the options on whether moving to the capital reserve fun educational expense account we're seeking clarification on status of some of those funds as far as where they can be placed by the board obviously with the $417,000 was transferred at expense into June meeting so the 44,000 is an additional surplus dollars for year end. Um we did um begin the conversation on the dam high school science lab study and the middle school science lab studies. Uh we also summer projects and we review the options on the long metal roof. Uh we

095did the the study by the architect was for three roofs. The scoring basically was once the first would be Long Meadow which as we begin hopefully this summer we got to start getting packages processes all that kind of good stuff. So that and we did look at a draft layer of parking lot at Long Meadow. Um again the idea I believe our next meeting is October 6th. >> Any questions for Joe? >> All right. Next we have Super website. Just basically an update on the log me parking lot that sorry not the long metal parking lot that was final playground. Uh we met uh last week uh with the administration at meadow uh went over multiple different cost estimates. the playground that we had speced recently of 63 students at a time. Um through some

096uh vendor discounts year year end uh discounts the playground that we're going to purchase will hold 96 students. So about 30% more student be able to play. Uh the cost for that to the board will be about $84,000 under the $85,000 number that we agreed upon. Um the total cost u of that playground is um more that does not include a $12,000 contribution from uh the meadow PTO part of that contribution will upgrade the slide. The slide that came with it was a bit anemic. So this will upgrade that slide. Um and that believe it or not the install cost of that was about $23,000 uh by the PTO u raising volunteers come and build that on site. about 8,000 to have concrete full stat and has supervision. Um but that 23,000 in labor cost

097will be borne by the the PTA. Um so the total cost be about 97,000 about 84 which uh school district will contribute. The way the motion was was that we try to use operating cost and then PTO and then at this point we're in September. Uh we did have some cost efficiency with some of the painting that we did over the summer based on what we budget in our operating capital. So we're going to kind of monitor that. Um and then as the year goes on, we'll know how much uh we can take out of our operating capital, how much we have to pass forward to capital. >> Um you said 84,000 or 83,000. Does that include the 12? >> No. show our contribution. See, so I thought I thought we passed it. The total

098cost would only be 843 for the total contribution. >> No, total cost. >> No, no, the total we authorized them to do up to $85,000 from Apple reserves. >> The priority given from capital, >> right? But I thought it was $84,000 first day. You know, I forgot which one, but the total was 84,000 on one of those three things. No, it was it was the authorized >> fair >> to um withdraw from reserves. Um we just pass the budget. I'm trying to vote for it right now. >> Okay. So transfers authorized did a motion to transfer up to 85,000 out of the capital reserve for the replacement of the LMS playground with with priority funds coming from the operating budget. than the LMS PTO contribution and funding the balance in capital reserves. >> I mean

099I was on I thought the total cost couldn't exceed for including what the PTO did. [Music] >> Actually you motion the motion the total cost could be higher than B34 whatever it was to come from these three sources. >> It it didn't limit the cost of the playground. it when it wasn't >> that was my motion. So it didn't >> limit the I mean yeah the PT wanted to contribute more. >> So >> I point that I made my intent was couldn't spend more than 84,000 to come from these three sources. >> The board of ed has not spent more than 85,000. The PTO cited >> that was the amount that we expect period. No, we can't we can decide if the PTO is >> I think where the confusion was is that we had

100a basic quote and that's what we were going by and it's more than the basic quote because I think we're >> my motion again this wall was okay but my motion was total cost couldn't be spent couldn't be more than 84,000 it comes from the these three sources people shaking their heads as well and I remember also saying that PTO could contribute Z, >> right? >> But still could be 84 total whether they gave a dollar or $100,000. >> That's where we landed. Yeah, that's where we spent 90 something. >> I know we did. We spent 80. >> No, 90 something,000 was spent on the >> We just say what a joke. I mean >> I Well, that wasn't going to say that there's a huge difference between 60 something and 90 something on it

101and that flat of 105 sudden laid out now has space. We are not in a spot where it's like there's no >> you brought a construction that was 30% large and stand for 30 years no more contribution I'll just say given the confusion at the table I do think hopefully we never have to have that kind of discussion again but if we do in the future it's helpful to have the information advance and I know some of us are saying can we delay is so we can get the other quote back so we know what we're actually you know authorizing here. So um I would prefer to continue to work that way and you know it didn't save us through we ordered it last week. So say that's a matter of days not weeks but

102we didn't have the information and there's clearly some confusion. So in the future it' be great to just make sure we do our due diligence and have the info where everyone feels comfortable they know what they're voting on. So, if I would just like to say that we had the quote um with every project, whether it be a hundred million school project um or a $84,000 or $75,000 playground, we're going to start with base courts as you get into it. We didn't know, for example, we didn't look at this playground to begin with because the list value of this playground is about 125,000. We knew we weren't going to ask for that much. Once we had a number approved by the board, then we to work with the manufacturer who then found other discounts available

103to them. Um they couldn't estimate the actual labor costs when we didn't have an actual playground selected. So it's always going to be an iterative process until we get to the final pole. Um and so I do think that as a learning process as a board if you want us to spend 75,000 and that should be the discussion that we have. If you want to authorize up to an amount then I would just ask that the administration have the authority up to that amount and not Uh, and I'm happy to provide as much information we can in time, but for example, our painting estimates that we gave for the finance committee for summer projects came in months. Like it's always going to be an process and and we're always going to work to get most

104equipment or the biggest project done for the least amount of cost. Especially when we're looking at project that has a period year expectancy. uh we're going to try to maximize the amount of that we play on and modify as efficiently as possible. There's a way that we can uh create a process that provides that information and some uh some authority within some kind of flex and I'm happy to to work for that. took took us about a week to get even by adding the twisty slides. You actually had to go to director sales at first because the brokart slide set and basically the package we were getting was under one call promo and when you added the slide through it to the like nonpromo pricing even that took a lot of weeks to get a

105finalized out >> just to comment I think there's a lot of discussion about what the expectations are for what the board the region provides any kind of pricing um that PTO can contribute to. I just want to call out I think the PTO is pretty awesome that they are putting forward these funds and their and the parent volunteers that are going to make this happen. At the end of the day, we approved we approved $85,000 >> or we would go into the capital reserve and the fact that they're able to maximize what the students are getting >> and they're paying for it. I think that they are amazing. That requires a big thank you and should never ever ever expect that the PTO should be paying for a playground for our students and I think

106that that's really important. Um so thank you to the PTO >> and actually Middle Ray Elementary PTO is just wrapping up the musical piece that they put on there. That was about 8,000 the swings. >> All right. All right. So, um the next item on the agenda, board member comments. comments. Okay, next we have comments from citizens. The board of education will recognize citizens from Middleberry and South Berry and citizens are asked to state their name, their town of residents and to limit their comments to three minutes. Um, enforced with region 15 board of education bylaw 9325A, speakers are asked to express themselves in a civil manner with due respect to the dignity and privacy of others who may be affected by the board's by their comments. While it's not the board's intent to stifle

107public comments, 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. So, any public comment? No. Uh next we have regular business requiring board action. May I have a motion for approval of the policy posted on the agenda. Uh move that board of education upon recommendation of the policy and curriculum committee approved policies. Number 1330 use school facilities. Number 5125 student records confidentiality. Number 5125.11 health medical records. Number 5131.111 conduct video surveillance policy number 5145.2 private student speak to distribution equipment materials and 51452 search and seizure as prevented. Thank you Heather. Do I have a second? Sir, thank you Steve. Any discussion questions? All those in favor? Any nays? Any abstensions? Right. Missed. Next, we have

108announcement of future meetings. On Monday, October 6th was the next finance meeting at MI um and uh at 12:00. Uh Monday, October 27th, PNC meets the high school at 6:30. Also, Monday, October 27th, we have our next regular board of education meetings um at 7:30. Um, may I have a motion to move into executive session? That the board of education move to move that the board of education go into executive session for the purpose of discussing possible acquisition of real estate and to invite Superintendent Smith, Mr. Martino, Mr. Rosinski, and Miss Sarello. from tech into the meeting. >> Thank you, Heather. Do I have a second? >> Uh, second. Um, any questions, discussion? >> We have a five minutes. Let's go into executive session. A motion first and then we'll vote. All right. So, um,

109any discussion or questions? No. All those in favor? Any obstensions? All right. We'll speak in a second.