001Good evening. Um, welcome to the region 15 board of education meeting for Monday, May 12th. Can we please start by standing for the pledge of allegiance? Justice for all. The mission of region 15, a collaborative community committed to excellence, is to educate every student to be productive, ethical, and engaged in a global society through proven and innovative learning experiences supported by a strong community whose decision- making is based in the best interest of all students. We'll have start their student representatives, Miss Tess Gerkins and Mr. Bren. All right. Good evening everyone. As for all of the schools in the region, this past week our schools were filled with gratitude and celebration as we observe staff appreciation week. With the generous support of our PTO's, central a local organizations, the staff were truly honored and uplifted,
002thoughtful gifts and not and notes and appreciation was spread throughout the schools which highlighted how everyone in each school was valued. On behalf of all of our schools, we thank everyone who helped make this week so special. for Palm Rock High School. Wednesday 14th is the symphonic band, coral, and orchestra concert. NGFS testing will be taking place on the 19th. AP testing is currently taking place. And the 20th is the art honor society induction for Memorial Middle School. Thank you to the MMS PTO for the wonderful recognition of the staff during teacher appreciation week. As mentioned earlier, the eighth grade French students went on a field trip to Bethl to learn how to make French culinary plastic. And this week begins world language week at MMS as well. For Roshambo, the RMS student government organized
003a great spring pep rally on Friday, May 2nd. Two exemplary RMS staff members were recognized during a surprise school assembly on the 5th of May. And the eighth grade students enjoyed their three-day twoight trip to Washington DC last week. The RMS golf team also held an outing. No, sorry. The RMS golf outing was held this afternoon at the Gainfield Farms course. All right. Thank you, Tess. Moving on to all the elementary schools. State testing has been going very smoothly. Also, exciting news for fifth graders. The Edgewood field trips are approaching for each school and the fifth grade moving up ceremonies will be taking place soon. Um, at Pop Rock Elementary, kindergarten students enjoyed a wonderful field trip to the Ridgefield Playhouse on Thursday. The PTO also sponsored a fun-filled bingo night for students and families,
004which brought the community together for a great evening. Um, the PTO flower sale was also wonderful success. and PES wrapped up the week with spirit day where everyone showed their PES pride by dressing like tourists. At Middlebury Elementary School, the staff enjoyed a pizza truck, taco bar, coffee, and treats along with many heartfelt notes of appre appreciation from the community. And as spring continues, they were looking forward to upcoming activities including field day, pool float day, and many more fun events. And then moving on to the athletic department, um a bunch of senior nights are coming up in the next couple of days. So be great for everyone to show up to support our seniors. Uh the track senior night was today. Baseball and girls lacrosse is on Thursday. Boys tennis is Friday and boys
005lacrosse is on Saturday. Thank you very much. All right. Thank you very much. Yeah. Um, and I just wanted to let the board know that um, Sally Lammano is a vote and she is listening as we speak. So, just FYI. So, all our votes are going to be the follow. Please remind me. Um, next we have student recognition. Dr. Superintendent Smith. Right. Well, it's my pleasure to invite Miss Petro and Miss Ferman to the front pole. something taken pretty seriously here in region 15. It is a gauntlet that you have to run. Um, and I don't know if you want to say a few words about this year's football and the reason that you're here tonight, Miss We're so excited that PS, right, Miss Snatch? So, I'm just so proud of the team and Miss
006Snatch because Oh my gosh, she did so much work with them and they took it so seriously, right? So, let's call them up. Congratulate them. So, first we have Molly, our fellow back there. We're missing one team. Congratulations. [Music] What was your team called? I love your t-shirt. Awesome job. Great job. Congratulations. Great job. Congratulations. Congratulations. Yes. Congratulations. Um talk about C this year. Absolutely. Um, so, uh, CMBA is the Connecticut Music Educators Association. It was started in 1932, and it has a, uh, a goal or a mission of, um, hold on, I got to read it so I get it right. Providing programs, activities, um, for professional educators, students, and future music educators striving to enhance the quality of music education for all children in Connecticut. Um, they have a couple goals. One of
007them is to promote and recognize effective music teaching, to promote quality learning opportunities for all of Connecticut students, to provide a unified voice on behalf of the music educators of Connecticut, and to maintain a vital, effective, and efficient organization. Um, we in region 15, all of our music educators are members of the CMA and participate on all different levels and boards and help run festivals and those kinds of things for that organization. Um today we're lucky enough to have three of our music educators who are going to join me to present um the students who were recognized at the CMBA festival this year both at regionals and all state festivals. So I'm going to be joined as the group hiding in the back Dr. Jones but we have uh three of our educators from the
008middle school here with us today. Amber Edwards, I almost got that wrong. Recently married, and Emily Edley, who all work at our our middle schools, and they're going to introduce the students who are recognized this year by CME. So, uh, you're up. Hello. I will be announcing the high school CMEA qualifiers. Um, please hold your applause until I finish the entire list of high school students. Um, Catherine Southbury, grade nine, treble choir, alto. Katherine Bonuban, grade 12, orchestra, viola. Andrew Bongubon, grade 10, orchestra, violin. Nina Petranco, grade nine, jazz band, tener sass. Caitlyn Marstrom, grade 11, treble choir, alto file Kumarin, grade 12, band trumpet. That concludes the high school CMA qualifying. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Okay, I will be reading the names from Roshbo Middle School. We have Vatria orchestra, Gabriella Walsh, mix choir, working
009mix choir, Kevin Petranco, jazz, Cameron Abramo, jazz, Daria Eti, uh, sixth grade honors choir. Claire Peralt, sixth grade honors choir. Caitlyn Posler, sixth grade honors choir. and sixth grade. Congratulations. Wonderful. Congratulations. Congratulations. Great job. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Finally, I'm going to be reading the names for school. Daniel A orchestra. Anthony Bucks jazz mixed choir. Harper D. Dominico treble choir. Holly Manila mixed choir. Ben Millio jazz. Bridget Mafy choir. Jordan Nicholson mixed choir. Ella Birdie mixed choir. Savannah treble choir. Julio tribal choir. Christopher. Thank you. Congratulations. Congratul I've said it before, but if it wasn't from the support of the board of education and uh the tremendous work from our educators and our students um that that we have great success in our arts and music programs here at Legion 15. So, thank you
010to the teachers who put this together, the the board for their support and all the students for all the hard work you put in to make it work. So, thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you so much to you students and parents for making region 15. Thank you. All right. Next, we have a motion for approval of minutes. Um, may I have a motion to the April 28, 2025 regular meeting portion of education defense? Thank you, Heather. Do I have a second? Thank you, John. Any questions or comments on the motion? Hey, Jack. No. All right. So, we'll just go down the line for a roll call. Um, I'll start with Sally. Sally, can you hear what's your position on the minutes? I I I hear an I Sharon I Heather Dwire I Manzo
011I Heather Rogers. Thank you very much. It carries. Next um we have information and proposals board committee reports policy and curriculum committee. It's others tired. Uh policy and curriculum committee met this evening to continue our review of the 5,000 series policies. Um we are now on to uh policies related to uh student disciplinary procedure. Uh we were able to quite a few um and hoping to wrap wrap up that series um over the next couple. Um in your packet you will see the first read of a policy. It's actually one that um we did spend quite a bit of time on this year. It's a sensitive child there. Um and that is uh this policy for memorials for deceased, students and staff. Um the purpose of this policy um is to treat the subject of
012memorials um with compassion and um with consistency. Um and you know the uh this is a homegrown policy. This is not something that was in the uh cave model policy book which is you know how we um how we usually start our policym uh process. Um but you know in consultation with um student services counseling um and with feedback from our crisis uh intervention and crisis management teams um we felt it was important to um to have these guidelines in place. So just wanted to explain a little bit about where this policy is coming from. um and and why we we felt it was important to tackle. So this here for your first read um and I recommend giving it a good read. Um digesting it a little and you know happy to answer any
013questions you have. All right. Thank you. Any questions for All right. Um next we move to finance and facilities committee. Um and uh Mr. Martino said he had a report on that finance and facility met today at 12:00. Um we reviewed our our May or April balances where we we stand currently projected about an $856,000 balance going into the last couple of months in a year. Um we did pass increase for school lunch prices about 25 cents that would come to the board next meeting. We did approve the transfer of the um the educational $232,000 to the educational expense fund that was added as agenda during the meeting. We also did a transfer from the remaining dollars in the um debt service line to the capital projects line again put those dollars into the motion
014for projects and also an update on our summer project list. Great question. the 800,000 or is that where we are year the budget or that's year to date. make some projections for year end depending if we get more retirements in that kind of stuff or may move some lower but at least right now what's trending towards you know was an intent to put some dollars over to capital reserve that was that number post the transfer of the debt service line that is that kind of includes that transfer it's all in the when you boil the thing they say all the way to the bottom page 856 right inclusive transferred funds or is that are those in the budget? They're encumbered already. So, it's kind of like the transfer really just moves those dollars up the
015capital for cash. Thank you. Um, next we have GSPs feasibility study committee and Miss Why are you taking that tonight? So, um, if you've already heard an affirmation, I I apologize because, uh, this is a pretty big update from the feasibility study. Um, and Mr. Smith is actually pulling up some slides that I created. Um, so fancy. Well, I don't want to upstage Oh, please. I I don't want to upstage um the feasibility committee because there once there is a formal recommendation from the committee we'll hear much more um but I did feel it was necessary to um to give a pretty big update because we did we have covered a lot of ground um so I just wanted to uh recap um go to the next slide Oh, sorry. We can just take a
016moment to take a deep breath. Right. So I just I wanted to recap you know the works of the committee because it has been almost a year since this committee was formed by this board. Um so we have met 10 times since the inception of this committee. Um and four times so far just this year. Um 2025 what I mean is what I mean by this year. Um there have been six site visits where uh Techon or Newfield our construction manager has visited um campuses of our elementary schools. Um we have so far had four think tank section uh sessions. Two of those were with PES and GES staff and two were with officials from both towns. Um and thus far we have had two community conversations. I put a little star here because um
017there is a third one planned very soon on May 22nd. Go to the next slide. Um, this is a timeline that I pulled straight from Tecton slides. And if you've been to a think tank or a community conversation or to a feasibility study meeting, this slide may be familiar to you. It, uh, it is going over milestones and feasibility. So, um, because I took this from the last meeting which was on May 5th, a little bit of time has passed. So, that green line there, that is where we are today. Um we can see that what's upcoming is that third community conversation. Um and uh we have this uh upcoming meeting that we are hoping to reschedu actually before the last board meeting on June. That's still in the works. Um, unfortunately we did discover
018that there were issues with the audio recordings of all of those committee meetings except for that last one on 55. So the good news is that TechCon will be providing uh a narration of those presentations from those meetings. Um, but the bad news is is that the community will miss out on what has been uh lively and insightful discussions between committee members. Um, you know, I felt it was important to mention that that included many affirmations from our community leaders that they support making choices that are good for the long-term successful district. Um, that the committee has been working well together and while individually we're not all starting from the same place, we have been able to come to consensus quite often. Um, so that unfortunately that's what we're going to miss from prison. So,
019I just wanted to um say something about that. Um that last meeting that was May 5th, we narrowed down our field of options from 11 to three. So, that's what I want to talk about this evening. Um and then there's going to be other community conversation as I mentioned before to explain that choice and discuss those options more specifically. So that would be if you haven't been to one before or even if you have that's going to be a good one to attend because there's going to be lots to share. Um and any feedback that we get from the community there is going to be very important because that is going to inform the formal recommendation that the feasibility committee makes to the board of that. So it's a good one to participate on. Uh
020next slide. Um I know uh a lot of us are very concerned with uh the output of this committee um and how much ground is covered. So I did just want to reiterate what the goals of the feasibility study committee were from the beginning and um I wanted to do that because frankly that the scope of this committee was pretty limited and its days are no different. So um so that first goal was to basically evaluate existing conditions of comprom um the next goal was to provide feasibility studies. Um and we actually started with four options. Um that was still that spelled out at the beginning the feasibility study committee. So you may have been you may have heard me earlier say there were 11 that that was an increase you know as we were
021going through this process as these schools were being evaluated you know we we did end up at 11 different options um for how we might proceed with this project. Um third and this has not been done yet is providing a recommendation to the board of education. Once that's done, this likely this committee will dissolve. Um, it's job. Um, I did want to just take a minute and reassure participants of our think tanks and our community conversations that their work and all of their feedback is not going to be tossed into a folder and put in a box and chuck up their desk. Um that is all very valuable input that I am sure will inform discussions that this board has about the recommendation. Um as well as um a good uh you know a good
022uh source of information for potentially a future building. So, um, again, please, if you have not yet participated in the community conversation, May 22nd, uh, will be a good one. When we eventually go to a referendum, will the referendum be various choices or just yes or no for a recommendation? That will be a decision possibly made by this board. I you know I think the committee will have a recommendation the committee will not be writing it like a a reference that will come to the board and you know we will discuss it is a possibility and I this is not like you know no one's speaking for the committee and this is not insider information but it is just charge of committee it is possible the committee may recommend so it is you know decision
023making will happen within this board as Um, next slide. I wanted to talk. Yeah, I'm not going to talk about this. Just wouldn't be a Heather Dwire or Bixel to without a spreadsheet. Without a spreadsheet that you can't read. Yeah. Um this is something that came out of the that was given to each member at the benefit meeting as a way of consolidating those 11 options and kind of giving us a framework to to evaluate them. So, I'm not going to go through this now, but it is to kind show the board um you know, how all of this, you know, information from studies and conversations and whatnot was uh synthesized um and looked at by the committee. Um just one thing I want to explain really briefly here. You see these uh green and
024yellow colors here. If you're familiar with traffic light type of reporting, you know, where it's red, yellow, green, red typically means no, this is not a good option. Yellow might mean like proceed with caution and green might be, you know, this is, you know, everything here is good. Um, this is kind of that same spectrum. So, um, and this these are values assigned by Tecton to some of these options. I would say maybe they're a little um optimistic um assessments. Um but if you wonder, you know, I would say these yellow options were ones that, you know, on a spectrum of feasibility were less. Um so what we're looking at right here is um the four renovation options. If we go to the next slide, we'll see the seven new construction options. You'll see two
025of these options here were also assigned by yellow traffic light. Um I don't really want to go through all of these like to go to the next slide. These were the of those 11 options, these were the three that were picked by the committee. So I would speak about them a little bit more in detail. So, uh, all of these options, they were assigned a number and maybe a letter if they were kind of a version of another idea. So, the ones we picked were 3D. Um, this version would be building a new school on new property. It would be a combined school with expanded um, enrollment, and I'll explain what that means in a minute. Um, on a TVD site. So this would be um you know a a property we do not know.
026This picture I I took this right out of the tecton slides. Um this is concept art. This is not a real plan. So please don't you know go chart this out or try to find this on a map in South doesn't exist. Um but it is concept art what such a school might look like. Um the next option that was chosen was 4B which was an expanded enrollment new construction of both schools on their existing property. So this one um assumes that no new property would be appeared by the board. Everything would be done on what we already own. And then 4 C is expanded enrollment, new construction of both schools. GES would be done on existing property but pees would be again on TVD site um would be property that we find somewhere although
027certainly that smaller lot than the first option is the one on main street is the one on main street is the one by the library um all right again all of this is concept art don't take it to the bank um but it was meant uh to show kind of how these projects might play out. Um, next slide. I want to talk about, you know, why we came to some of these decisions. Um, so you may have noticed that all of the options that we picked for new construction, we actually did not pick any renovation plan. Why did we do that? We did that because we believe that we can get a higher the higher reimbursement by proving that new construction is more cost effective than renovation. So typically you would get 38% reimbursementish for
028new constru for new construction or 48% for renovation. Um in statute though if you can prove that your new construction is more cost effective than renovation you would qualify for the 48% reimbursement. So we believe that we can do that. Um, also those new construction projects typically have shorter timelines. Um, and that's because you're not juggling students around as you are renovating a building. You don't have to create swing space, move students there, renovate a part, swing other students into the swing space, move other students somewhere else. um there's just a lot less uh fiddling around that you have to do to operate that school while students are in it. So typically these are going to have not typically all the time they have shorter timelines than the renovation projects. Um and also because they
029have a shorter timeline there's less escalation cost which is costs like inflation that accumulate over the time of the project. So if you have a two-year project versus a four-year project, you know, there there is more opportunity for process efficiency. Um the other thing about new construction is that a larger percent of the investment that you're making is actually going into the facility and it is not going into temporary structures that you have created to support a renovation uh that are basically going to get thrown out from the renovations. Um, the other words that I used on that prior slide were expanded enrollment. Um, and these were options that we looked at because we know um that over the next eight years when we look at projections at all four of our elementary schools that
030PES and GES are not the only buildings that are going to experience some growth. um LMES and MEES will as well. Um and so to provide a relief valve for that growth, we did discuss um possibly shifting a 100 students from LNES to MEES to the new school or schools. Um this would do a couple things for us um of which I'll talk about. The other thing that we did was create 80 new prek spots at the new school. So, this would be essentially doubling the size of our existing prek and making that prek more accessible to each community. Um, you know, Long Meadow is a pretty central location, but when you talk about the whole map of region 15, um, you know, you have some tricky bus routes because it's it's hard to get,
031you know, some kids to that preschool in a timely fashion. So, having, you know, a prek that serves, you know, each community, um, could be very good for us and also would enable us to serve more children. Um the reason for these additions um was because it may um give us more reimburseable square feet for the new building or buildings um and uh pending legislation it may actually give us more percent to reimburse um because of that inclusion of the prepaid. there is some pending legislation which may increase that reimbursement. Um so those are things we're keeping an eye on. Um and again would provide relief on expected growth at LMS and ME. The other thing um here was you might have noticed two of those three preferred option require the acquisition of land. Um
032so I think the committee did feel it was important to select an option that assumed that no new land was going to be available um because that may be the case. Um however um you know the committee has talked um a lot about the challenges of each of those lots. Um, and doing either a renovation or a build new project on those lots while there are children attending school there is just going to be that is going to be a stress on those properties. Um, there's not enough parking now. Those, you know, the uh sewer system is for the amount of students that are there now. Um, there's there's a lot of limitations there. Um so um that is you know why these preferences tend to favor new land access. All right. Um, oh, the
033other thing I wanted to mention is that shifting of 100 kids. That isn't something that happens overnight necessarily. You know, that's growth that happens over eight years, you know, um, that's not necessarily a big, you know, one time. So, I just wanted to All right, last. If you didn't hear me before, the next community conversation um about this project is Thursday, May 22nd from 6:00 to 7:00 p.m. at Long Meadow Elementary School. And it is about finaliz finalizing the plan. Um you know, where these three options will be presented in more detail to the community. You know, we will talk about how we came to some of these decisions. Tecton will be there. Um, and I just think this is a really important one for the community to attend and kind of understand what the
034thinking is. Um, and also bring up their reservations because we want to hear them. Um, you know, this committee will make a recommendation. That doesn't mean that the 10 other options, you know, are going to be gone and never shall they see the light of day. Um I think you know what we have learned as a committee not to summarize it prematurely um but you know we're kind of making decisions based on known known um and things are going to come up and you know um things may change um and we'll make adjustments as that happens. So hope see you there. Thank you. That's my update. Is there any question? Thank you. Any questions? Thank you, Heather. I appreciate that. I did have a question more because we had trouble or whatever. I know we
035had some issues when we had the one at PES. Is there a reason we have to have to have it at RMS doing a LMS? Could we move it to the high school? And also I just want to also say there is policy in concert that night that so it's not hard even for some of us with that are on the committee to do both. Um, so I know you know that's that's an issue as well. But is there a reason we're doing it in LMS answers or just to kind of give them another spot? I think was to have something in Mberry like a spot in middle when was that game fields when was that Palm Elementary and then we wanted something in Mberry so that Mberry got it even though PHS is still
036middleberry but it's complicated for some of us more complicated. So, thank you so much everybody on the committee and lot of work and I appreciate the following. So, um I've shared this and I kind of want to talk a little bit about next steps because um first and foremost I want to piggy back off of your comment. Um if I heard correctly, there's going to be an executive session after the 522. Is that correct? No, there's going to be a feasibility study committee meeting sometime in the beginning of June before our June 9th board of ed meeting. So there's no So this 522 meeting is just a meeting that's confusing. I'm sorry. Okay. So going back to the slide on timeline on 610. So prior to that 610 meeting, there will be something that I'm
037concerned because I know I will not be at that meeting. So the 610 meeting is 610 meeting is going to be cancelled. Okay. And we're moving the 610 feasibility meeting to sometime in the beginning of June. Okay. Sometime before June 9th board event meeting. We are trying to work out. We had told the visibility committee there's been a couple absences that we need to make sure people are there. And then my only other comment is recognizing that Heather when you provided the update technically like checked off document the committee could kind of potentially dissolve. Um, and I know back in in the past there was kind of an overview of kind of like, okay, once we kind of hit this milestone, there's going to be a potential next step, right? Um, and so just a
038couple things. I think it's really important, and I've shared this with members of the committee. Um there's been so much other construction that's happened in other districts and if there's any possibility to have people on the committee or the next committee whatever that is to consider having conversations to obtain personal feedback um learn lessons learned from those experiences that we can draw upon. I think there's tremendous value in that. And the other um thing to consider if there's a potential for members of this commit to committee or the next one or whatever um to potentially go and visit those schools to really get an appreciation of even the feedback and the lessons learned postmortem over how we can be on those learnings. And to me those are important things when I'm having a conversation over
039potential options. Um, I don't know if that's a possibility. If it's not now, definitely in the future, but when we have conversations and potentially going to a vote on what options we want to move forward with, the feedback of people who've actually lived through this and are living through the new renovation school now is critically important and valuable for me. I I don't want to speak for anybody else, but um I've mentioned this now. I mentioned it going into last summer's retreat and it I was told that was too early. We're getting to a point of it being a vote. If it doesn't happen now, I really really do think we need to have some type of conversation of how we can learn from that. And maybe I'm I'm missing is there a vote or
040is it just a place? I I don't know if we're going to be voting on June 9th because I don't know when feasibility study is going to vote or what they're going to recommend or whether they'll do that. So, but even the recommendations to me are significantly influenced by by people who have it in the community. We've heard that extensively from people who are teachers who have gone through those renovations and new constructions in the community. Just something to consider. Yeah. And and we have heard feedback from teachers in other schools that have had building projects in some of these um community conversations. And you're right, it's extremely valuable to know. Um and yeah. Go ahead, Tom. Um, I was going to ask, uh, I know you've just kind of touched on it, but has
041there been discussion in the committee about how the recommendation, if you do arrive at one soon, will be presented to the board and like how that process will play out once it gets to the board level. I think the committee informs what we're committ. Well, right. So, so that's the question, right? So, I think what I want to avoid is being given something and then being asked to vote on it that night. So, I don't think that's going to end. I don't think we're going to have to have a vote on a new school or a renovation or whatever on June 9th. I think we're going to be seeking information from the board on what further information the board needs. But I think to that point, what I'm really missing is June 9th, August retreat
042to what's happening in between what's happening after because at some point there needs to be actions and decisions that are informed decisions based on the most comprehensive information available, including the feedback I just shared. Hopefully, fingers crossed. I'd like to better understand what that is going to look like going into the summer and and I'm sorry how the board would be updated with no additional meetings. So I would imagine that if we come out of that meeting on the 9th and say we need this this and this we don't have any more meetings on the calendar. I maybe can put one on but how will the board be kept up to date on the status of the progress of activities? Couple things I would say. So the charge of the feasibility committee was to look
043at options that are talk about feasibility of potential at the end of the meeting in June that committee will reach some type of consensus. Do you think what you saw tonight was where they felt at the last meeting were the most likely um but some as uh Miss said twothirds of those require rock. So once the recommendation comes to an order, there's going to be board level conversation. Are you going to direct the administration to go and seek out available property to begin looking at potential sites? That may determine which of those options. It may mean that all three of those options are off the table. So the phase one is just for the committee to conclude their chart and then it's going to come back to the board. Uh, and then there's a whole
044lot of decisions that are going to start to come in after that. And I think some of that will be kind of the decision the board's going to have to make. Do you want to set up towards the summer to go visit some of those places? We heard from those projects that were near us. Um, but there are other, you know, like I'd hate to say that the entire scope of looked at one or two districts. Um, to look at some others. Um, and is that a subset of the board? Um eventually we're going to create a building committee but that building committee which will have board members and teachers or community members comes after we make a decision on what we're going to do after that. So do you think that step two will
045be for the board and this will potentially be the uh a little bit on the June I say 9th the 9th June 9th point of view but that is going to be non-binding in that retreat um there may be leg work that the administration in between June 19th to answer some of those questions or great opportunities to visit some of these places but we really have until Um, and this is what Mr. Sriani asked at the last or two board meetings ago that we're working on. So, kind of what does it look like for the board? So, if you start at referendum again, we're not locked in that our original timeline referendum a year from now. So, when we back that up, when is it that the board has to decide this is the best
046option for us? And we're going to design this school and that's going to be projected at a cost of this much. June 30th is the date that we have to submit to June 30th, but that's the deadline to submit a building project to the state. So, and we need to have a referendum by that. So, we would not go to plan, but there is some runway. We need to kind of dig in. This isn't going to be a committee meets um at June 3rd. There's a presentation that might look a lot like Miss Wire, but maybe with a little more input from the committee that's a recommendation for the board. Or it could just absorb that on June 10th and kind of do nothing except generate some questions then we would then there's no binding
047the real binding uh decision probably comes and I'll kind of reject now but late fall to winter when we start you know looking at what options so you'll have September October to kind of workshop some of this ask those difficult questions districts that found success some that found challenges uh and try to mitigate or address those. I also think so there might be multiple too for when we go request feedback because right now you know those those drawings I showed you are concept drawings. They're not actual real school. Um, so we have we have questions to ask about what sort of school we're going to build, but also like once we get really into that design phase, you know, we may and truly will have more questions to ask, you know, as we get through
048this process. John, is um, anyone started looking at any properties or not? So Josh Joe and I and John Michaels um on John Michael suggestion met with Joe Rogerro who's a head of the Sbury Land Trust and we discussed some properties but that has not been um discussed with the committee. That's going to be a board level um analysis in an executive session when when the time comes for that. Yeah. Yeah. Any other questions on the update? Oh, go ahead Tom. Sorry. That's good. So, a couple of just quick hitters. Uh and the first is backing off what Tren just said and what Steve has said earlier. I think what would be helpful for me um you know when we get the recommendation back is kind of double click on that section of the chart
049that's like okay so like now let's zoom in on what happens between here and here those are now there's actually there's a version of this that I didn't include in this which kind of goes further out into design phase and into next year so I did not include that but certainly well so I would think even before design phase right it's How do we get from getting a recommendation to the board saying yes this is what we want to pursue? Yeah, right. So I don't think it's going to happen on the night of like yeah all the answers we need. So what are the steps in between? And I almost I recall what our consultant provided at the outset of feasibility which is like meeting one you will do this meeting two you will do
050this. There were no dates. She's like, "Here's the goal for your first 10 meetings and I don't know if we kept with that schedule, but at least that was helpful to know like here are the tasks that need to be accomplished before we get to this stage." So, a discussion like that would be helpful. I don't know if that would be probably on the 9th. Okay. Like we'll have some kind of talk about that most likely executive session. We're going to be involved if if the decision involves to be determined property. Yeah. and possibly the board making a contract for that that will aid session probably. I'm sorry probably not on June, right? Yeah. Like that's Yeah. Right. No, I understand that. So don't ask if you do happen to put on a slide that
051lovely spreadsheet can you please provide that as a preere or a link prior to the meeting because it is not fair to have us see that on a slide. Thank you for considering that up to you. Okay. So the reason I was asking about how information will be presented to the board is because I do think when that recommendation comes um I think that marks in a new phase in this project where the public starts to spend a lot more attention. So um especially when you you know not just the narrowing of options but taking options off the table you know that is information I think that starts to be disseminated fairly or unfairly pretty quickly. So I guess my point is when that recommendation comes, this was a good start, but to have some
052kind of documentation of the process and and how we made this decision and and this was not meant to Oh, I know. But this is this was this was helpful to me today. Um, so something in this vein that shows kind of because you're right, there was 20 meetings, a lot of data to synthesize, there was a lot that went into these discussions. So to be able to kind of chart the process of here's how we arrived at this recommendation to the board that would be helpful to me as a board member and I think a helpful touch point for the community because that's something I would point them to if they had questions for them. Um the only other thing I will say is I did get a chance to attend part of that
053meeting and I got the spreadsheet. Um, and so something I'm a bit sensitive to and you know I want to ask the question, but on that spreadsheet, they do list some ballpark dollar amounts for the projects, which made me a little nervous. Um, you know, based on prior experience, like when we put a price for a project out there, if it ends up not being that price, like that's that's led to some criticism, and I think I'd like to show like some learning from that. So what kind of caveats can we capture those dollar amounts? So I deliberately did not want to go through cost by cost in this update. Yes, because I do think that there's a bigger story to tell about what goes into those numbers. And I me I didn't mention you
054know uh reimbursement rates and you know possibly you know square footage you know like there's a lot that goes into um this and the numbers that tech has provided like those are baseline I think we have to be very clear that you know those are baseline numbers and there's going to be lots of things depending on whether renovation or a new construction depending on what piece of land may or may not be used depending on you know there's all sorts of things that are going to um adjust those numbers and I think as far as feasibility is concerned you know we're kind of going off you know no um was the construction you know if the construction manager was on that or was that just slide that was Newfield. Oh, sorry. New field and tech
055spreadsheet. And again to the committee, but there is a spreadsheet behind all of those numbers that breaks down um all of the cost where they came from that the committee has not seen. The committee has not they're all like real construction numbers. It's not. So yes, but there is a slide that I've waffled about including or not including but I'm sure I'd rather that not be at the board level we have and I that's feedback I pass to my representatives to pass to the architects anytime we're using numbers the biggest asterisk and then if you can get to blank on the page but let's make sure any numbers at this stage are served like a big pile of caveats because people go back and they misread things and they find numbers and you know we've
056been asked recently why said it was going to be this and they don't not everyone has the ability to follow the process over the course of the year. So assuming I think the way to read those numbers is as relative relative to each other and that's helpful, right? But that needs to be I think communicated it's just living on the page somewhere. I've done that. Okay. So as I was listening conversation and and potential options that will come forward and piggybacking a little bit on kind of what that process would look like included in that and I don't know the answer so I'm sorry I'm just putting it out there. If like you said one of the options was to purchase a piece of land in that presentation would be if that is endorsed the
057board would not need to go to refer I don't know if we need we go to referendum to purchase that property that be first referendum and then if that were to fail what our second option is like is it going to get moved out in that way because there's different levels to some of those options before they can potentially become a reality not thinking about hey does the community endorse or vote to approve XYZ number. It's do they approve to purchase a property to sell the school or do whatever that wording would be. But that that would be part of that. Correct. So there's once we kind of get this is probably like fallish. I timeline case we had to kind of pencil it down but uh once you get to a referendum there's some
058discussion that we'll have to have. It may be one referendum question that includes the building of a school and the purchase of police property. If you bifrocate them, you get yourself into a position this way. And you can't really do them as two separate ones because they would there would be two different referendums. You'd have to do one referendum the property. You have to wait at least 30 days, do another referendum for a school based on what the first was. So, um there might be some other pieces there like the property is stateowned, pound owned that may. So, there's some um kind of decision matrix that we'll have to go through once we get there. Um but but those are things that are going to be mapped out clearly go no go steps that be
059included high level. So, at least we have to point that's kind of like that checklist of this this this got to get done done. Okay. And there'll probably be some in that process decision makers that the board will go through that you know if this is the case we're going to explore this. So it's really easy to say build a new school on a on a perfect piece of property. Chances of that happening are probably not great. So once you get into here are the properties that are available here are the kind of cost benefit of each of those then that turns you into the the choose your own venture. So, but all of that has to be worked out at some point where this is what we're going to get behind. Here are the
060challenges that we're going to accept in the tradeoffs. Um, because there's going to be boxes that we're going to have to come to consensus on. I want this. I can't get this and this. So, which one, you know, we're going to have to work through all. Um, and that's got to we put dates down. But certainly, if we're going to get to a place where we are going to have to conduct cost, we are going to have to put design together and we're going to have to go to referendum and ask the public for the authorization for that bond. Even if and this is going to we'll start to talk through this the impact to their mill rate might not happen to three or four years after the referendum. So you get into escalators and
061what does that cost? So we'll have um ton or another firm that comes in and helps walk us through those pieces. There's there's a lot of work that the board will do before we get to the referendum that will then trigger a open building committee that will then dig deeper into. So, not to get to my one question too, who will be ultimately appointed or is that even a conversation over who will be like the project plan manager? That will be that will be like so we would endorse the nomination and Any other questions on Heather's? All right, that seems pretty simple. Good job. All right, advisory committee, Miss Sharon. A follow. You don't have a presentation? No. Um, okay. So, P advisory met on May. Um uh we talked a little bit about the
062buffet budget referendum passing um about end of year activities as well as um utilization of lease at school events and we'll talk a little bit about opportunities to enhance the overarching school calendar. So, this some feedback came through that um similar to what we heard today as as we start to get into the spring, it starts to get really hard to um balance some of the calendars. Um and our next meeting will be on June 5th. Thank you. Any questions for advisory date? Okay. Next, we have superintendent report. First want to say that Mother's Day is everybody related. Um something that we all have so this way. Um last week as Tess said earlier tonight was teacher appreciation and educator appreciation week. Um I guess the the u the community really supports educators here. That
063was very apparent last week. There's a lot of support for schools. kind of the most um visible of that in some ways with support to budget. I appreciate that both communities turned out and the approval was pretty substantially burst out. So I appreciate the mandate from the community. Um you haven't downloaded the transportation app yet, just a little reminder. Um we're going to send one out to the community this afternoon. Uh but uh so far it's working pretty well except for the folks that haven't downloaded it in which case the old one is no longer working. You need a new one. Uh and then Thursday night last week um there were a couple of board members that joined me for the induction of our swim coach Brad coach Fred to the CIA's coaching hall of
064fame. the second region 15 coach. Um his name was um indoctrinated the hall of fame. I apologize for watching. U but uh so I it was an honor to be recognized as a school district for a district of our size to have two coaches in the hall of fame and to hear all of the accolades. Uh, you know, one of the nicest things that, uh, Coach Pentino said in the video that they made is how inclusive uh, his approach was and how anybody that shows up and tries hard stays on the team and improve. And I just thought that was so related to our theories of active welcome at school that it just was just a nice representation to see it reflected in other places. So, thank you for your support, our music program, our
065program, and our students. that allows in the future. Thank you. Any questions for Okay. Next, we have board member comments. Well, I was happy to hear in the report that you uh forwarded on a recommendation for the $232,000. Yeah. So I guess that comes to the board next next time and we can talk about potentially funding that educational expense account which I think is going to be great because a part of our budget discussion was you know making sure we were able to you know fund special contingency and backs stop it with potentially a larger seed fund should we need it. Um when we do that uh let's not do it now but we have an update on when that check now because we might you know be able to put additional funds there as
066well if the legislative money that's supposedly been returned actually shows up on the doorstep. So love to have that conversation when we get to that 30 Um, next we have comments from citizens. The board will recognize citizens of Middleberry and Southberry and citizens are asked to state the name of their town or residents and one of their comments for three minutes. Don't see any No, no one else. All right. Um, next we have regular business requiring board action. May I have a motion for approval of the Connecticut State Healthy Foods Certification? Thank you, Heather. Second. Thank you, Sharon. Do we have to read the whole thing? Okay, you had to read the whole thing. Okay. Pursuant to CBGS section 10-20 215mm, the regional school district 15 board of education certifies that all food items offered
067for sale to students in the schools under its jurisdiction and not exempted from the Connecticut nutrition standards published by the Connecticut State Department of Education will comply with the Connecticut nutrition standards during the period of July 1st, 2025 through June 30th, 2026. The certification shall include all food offered for sale to students separately from reimburseable meals at all times and from all sources, including but not limited to school stores, vending machines, school cafeterias, culinary programs, and any fundraising activities on school premises sponsored by school or non-school organizations and groups. Make sure there's a second on that. Okay, great. Any discussion or questions? We do this every year. No questions. Okay. Um, so we'll do the roll call. Start with Sally. I. Thank you, Sally. Sally's an I. But I sharatic. I Heather Dwire. I Tom
068Marks. I Marian Manzo. I Heather Rogers. I Steve. Jeff Wilson. I Great. Great. It's unanimous. Um, next may I have a motion for approval of the Connecticut State Healthy Certification. All read out. So moved. I'm gonna read the whole second first. No, that's why I said the regional school district 15 board of education will allow the sale to students of food items that do not meet the Connecticut nutrition standards and beverages not listed in section 10-221Q of the Connecticut General Statutes, provided that the following conditions are met. One, the sale is in connection with an event occurring after the end of the regular school day or on the weekend. Two, the sale is at the location of the event. And three, the food and beverage items are not sold from a vending machine or school
069store. An event is an occurrence that involves more than just a regularly scheduled practice meeting or extracurricular activity. For example, soccer games, school plays, and inter intercolastic debates are events, but soccer practices, play rehearsals, and debate team meetings are not. The regular school day is the period from midnight before to 30 minutes after the end of the physical sorry of the official school day. Location means where the event is being held and must be the same place as the food and beverage. Thank you, Heather. Do I have a second? Second. Thank you, Heather. Second. Okay. Any questions or discussion? This says computer says we're allowing stuff that doesn't meet this standard. Yeah. Yeah. So, like football games, that kind of stuff. No, but no, that's my question. The food doesn't need the right pizza doesn't
070help the concession stand. Does that open it up to anything? Why not? Okay, I'm good. All right. Any other questions or comments? All right, we'll go down the line. Sally ready. What's your vote? Yeah, she's there. Okay, we'll come back to Sally. Go ahead. I I vote I. Sorry. Sally said I John. Sharon. I Heather I. John Marks. I Manel I. Heather Rogers. I Steve I. Great. It carries. Thank you everyone. Um next we have announcement of future meetings. I made a mistake here. It's Tuesday, May 27th. DNC is meeting at the high school media center at 6:30. Also on Tuesday, May 27th, um that's the day after late Memorial Day will be our um next regular meeting of the board of education right here at 7:30. May I have a motion to move into
071executive session? Move that the board of education for executive session for the purpose of reviewing the superintendent spending year reflection to invite superintendent. Thank you, Heather. Do I have a second? Second. Thank you, Heather Dwire. Um, any questions, discussion? All right, Sally. What say you on that motion? I Sally is an Iark. N I Rogers