001Please resume. Okay. Turning my phone off. Okay. Good evening everyone and welcome to tonight's board of ed meeting. The date is Tuesday, April 22nd, 2025. And I'd appreciate if you turn off your cell phones as this be meeting is being recorded. Ellen, can you please do the roll call? Sure. Good evening everyone. Just time. Miss Callen Carson present. Mr. Kerry here. Mrs. D Roberts here. Miss Hernandez Williams here. Mr. Riley here. Miss Walters present. Mr. Winer here. Vice Chair Mr. Lacavoli here. Chairperson Mrs. Granado present. Um Weathersfield High School student representative Ms. Angelina Dada here. and Weathersfield, excuse me, the Weathers Board of Education for Weathersfield, the school kid board chair for web school, Mr. Liam Garden here. All present. And Liam is going to lead us in the pledge of allegiance. I pledge algiance
002to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Nice job. Thank you. So, tonight next to me is Liam Garden. He is a sixth grader at Web School and he is our kid chair. He could also be a kid mayor because he's got solutions for the whole place. So, I want you to meet our new kid chair. He's going to be reading his brilliant essay that put him in this winning chair. And through creativity and practical solution, Liam has a visionary plan to enhance our schools and our community. Liam, you have the floor. To all citizens of Weathersfield, my name is Liam Garton and I want to be kid board of vet. I love the town
003of Weathersfield and I've live lived here since I was 9 months old. Our town has lots of families and it would be really cool if the adults in the town started asking the kids their ideas and opinions. Below I have a list of great ideas for this town. Let's start off with the better lunch options. A great place to start would be better lunch food in schools. It is a big problem because kids come to school all day and only offered one meal and unfortunately most times it isn't good. I have noticed that most kids don't even eat or finish their meal, which means they are hungry all day, and that leads to them not focusing. It's especially tough for grades that have early lunches. I would like to see better quality and fresh food.
004I think there should be more options each day instead of only one hot meal, PBJ, PB&J, and fun lunch. learning more about the town. I think it would be a fun idea for all grades that would take a trip to the mayor's office. Why? I think kids should be able to learn more about our town council and what they do for our town. On top of that, it would be cool for kids to also learn more about the town and our history of the town. The town puts a lot of fun events all year. Most of them interact with family and kids. It would be cool to get kids involved in the planning process. Kids love prizes, so it would be fun to end the trip with the trivia about what they learned and people
005can win prizes. Honoring our first responders, we should honor and from we should honor the people in our town that keeps us safe. We should get together, deliver care packages to all the of the stations, including art projects, cards, snacks, goodies, and more. This includes our police officers and the military, firefighters, and EMTs. I think I think we should have a first responders day at school. It would be really fun. First responders can visit the school and talk about what they do in their job and what they do for our town. I think it would be nice to having a writing contest about fire responders and the winner could shadow a responder for a day as their job safely, of course. Career Day. Each school and grade should offer a career week to learn more
006about what they can be when they can grow up. Kids each day can take turns bringing guests, friends, families, member, coaches, and more. And in with all different careers, sometimes kids don't know there are really possibilities outside of being a doctor, teacher, or police officer. That would be really easy and cool. Wacky Wednesday. I think once a month each school should do a wacky Wednesday. This could mean anything from swapping teachers for a day to swapping classrooms. It would be fun to see what every classroom does and give everyone a new experience, a hangout. Other than people's houses, which parents don't always like or aren't available to host, there are no fun and safe places for kids to hang out. When you're on fifth or sixth grader, most public places like trampoline parks don't allow
007kids under 18 to get dropped off to hang out. And sometimes parents can't always take you. Playgrounds aren't that fun for 10 or 11 year olds and above and aren't safe since most are closed. If it would it would be cool to have a place where you could go for free with friends to hang out, chat, play board games, basketball or any other sports. There could be three to two to three parents chaperoning or a police officer. I think parents would be able to I think parents would donate time to chaperon, bring snacks to have on hand to give their kids safe and a cool place to hang out. A reading contest each summer, the library, the Wfield Public Library does a reading contest for kids to earn prizes every time they read. I think
008coming up with something similar during a school year for kids would be a good idea. It would motivate them to read more. Prizes could be extra recess, lunch with the principal, or free homework pass. A snack exchange. It would be cool for the kids to bring extra um individual snacks to the share with our school. A lot of parents shop at places like Costco or Sam's Cup and get variety packs of things. Sometimes kids get sick of certain snacks or don't like some or don't like something in a variety pack. Instead of throwing it away, parents could send a bag of extra snacks once a month to share with the school. That way, if kids who parents can't afford snacks that week, the kids don't have to go hungry. At the end of each month,
009whatever snack is or unclean, the school can donate to the fruit pantry so nothing goes to waste. Thank you for listening and considering me to be the kid world of ed. I hope some of my ideas influenced you to make a better changes for kids in Weatherfield. Wonderful, honey. Oh, we have to get to work. We have a lot of work to do, Liam. Thank you very much. Okay, we'll continue on. Next on tonight's agenda is the approval of the minutes of our regular board of ed meeting on April 8th, 2025. May I have a motion to approve those minutes? Motion. Second. Second. Any discussion? Okay. All in favor? I I opposed. Any abstensions? Those minutes passed. Now, is there anyone wishing to make a public public comment? Come on up to the podium. And
010may I remind you, you have a fiveinut limit. And also another reminder, the board members do not make comments following your work up here. Thank you. [Music] Good evening. I'm Megan Glennovowski. I live at 24 Morrison Avenue. I'm here as the parent of a neurode divergent child. My child is what's known as twice exceptional or 2E, both autistic and gifted. That means he's a bright, creative, deep thinking kid who also struggles with emotional regulation, impulsivity, and sensory overwhelm. These aren't separate pieces. They're woven together. His brain works differently, and that difference is both a strength and a challenge. And yet in many educational settings, those challenges are misunderstood and often punished because the adults around him don't recognize what they're seeing. Educators and program staff can't support kids they don't understand. And too often they've
011been trained to view behavior through a deficit lens where good behavior equals compliance and anything else is treated as willful disobedience. Dr. Barry Preszant, an expert in autism, writes in his book, Uniquely Human, "Instead of seeing autistic behaviors as signs of pathology, we must recognize them as strategies for coping, for communication, for self-regulation. When we change our perspective, we change how we support the child." Twice exceptional kids often look typical at first glance. They might be chatty, articulate, academically advanced. But that doesn't mean they can control how they react when overwhelmed or navigate social rules without support. And when they stand out because they're louder or move differently or argue a point they believe in, they often become the target of disproportionate discipline. When they get overwhelmed and melt down, when they blurt out answers
012or correct the teacher, it's seen as defiance. They're written off as should know better. When in fact they need more support and more scaffolding, not less. As the National Education Association put in their guide, the twice exceptional dilemma dilemma. When giftedness and disability coexist, both are often obscured. The disability may mask the giftedness and the giftedness may mask the disability. So, how do we do better? It starts with staff training. Real, in-depth, neurodeiversity affirming professional development that empowers adults to see the full picture of these students. We need training that helps staff understand how autism and giftedness intersect. Recognize the difference between behavior that is willful and behavior that is communicative. Learn proactive supportive strategies. Move away from exclusionary discipline and towards inclusive strengths-based responses. If a child had a seizure and a staff member
013didn't know what to do, we wouldn't blame the child. We recognize that the adult wasn't trained for the moment. But when a neurode divergent child has a meltdown, a neurological event, not a behavioral choice, we often blame the child, isolate them, or escalate the situation because it looks like misbehavior to someone who doesn't know what they're seeing. This misunderstanding is not only harmful, it's preventable. We need training that helps every adult, teachers, pair professionals, program staff, administrators recognize what neurode divergent behavior actually is. That a student who rocks or paces is regulating. That a student who talks ma back may be panicking. that a gifted student who seems argumentative might be trying to make sense of rules that feel unjust or inconsistent. We also need training that dismantles harmful myths. That gifted kids don't need
014support. That autistic kids don't care about others. That if a child can behave sometimes, they must be choosing not to behave all the time. These myths are not just wrong, they're dangerous. They lead to exclusion, to missed learning, to trauma. Staff training on this is not extra, it's essential. Training helps educators shift from asking, "What's wrong with this child?" to asking what's happening here and how can I help? Dr. Thomas Armstrong in neurodiversity in the classroom writes when teachers understand neurodiversity not as a problem to be fixed but as part of human variation they shift from asking how do I control this student to how do I create conditions in which this student can thrive. That shift changes everything. It is time we invest in that shift not just with our words but with our
015policies, our budgets and our training priorities. That shift changes how we teach. It changes how we discipline and it changes the future of kids like mine. My child is not broken. He is bright and complex and human. And he deserves adults who understand him with real informed compassion. And he's not the only one. There are many kids like him in our schools and programs right now, some diagnosed, some not, who are waiting for the adults around them to see them clearly and support them well. Thank you. Thank you. Anyone else? Okay, Mr. EMTT, you have some communication for us. Thank you. Uh good evening everyone. Uh a few items for communication this evening. Uh obviously we are deep into the uh budget process. Last night I had the opportunity to attend the annual townwide budget
016hearing. I did an a bridged uh presentation of the board approved budget for the 2526 school year. Uh town manager Fred Presley was also up presenting the budget. Uh we had uh approximately 15 people that got up and spoke last evening uh and all had their opportunity in this democratic environment um to speak their peace. Um at this point in time for us uh we'll be coming before council next week on May 1st uh to uh dig into the budget a little more deeply. uh and answer questions that council may have as well as any potential impacts with regard to cuts and reductions. Um again, this board and the administrative team have done yman's work since back in January, February to craft a budget that and as I said last night is responsible. It provides
017for the needs of our students and also recognizes that it is an a big impact this year with reevaluation. We recognize that as I stated last night, our 4.95% increase uh based upon the latest CASBO numbers, the average board approved budget coming out of boards of education across the state of Connecticut is 5.34%. So, we've tried to come in reasonably within that. Um again, obviously we know too we have a major challenge ahead with the upcoming referendum. Um and I will tell you that that is vitally vitally important. So, uh, this work will continue through the month of May up to about May 15th when the charter requires allocation. My understanding from Mayor Leser last night was that council would be scheduling a meeting on um May 14th to set the budget. Once that budget
018is set, depending upon any reductions, this board will need to come back together again to uh finalize that budget and finalize reductions. Just so everyone knows, we have two meetings in May. Our meeting on June 10th is cancelled because we have uh the joy of graduation class of 2025. So we'll be over at Cove Park celebrating our graduates. So there is a tight timeline. Speaking of timelines, this evening before you you will see a resolution with regard to um our building project. There has been a tremendous amount of work that has gone on over the past several months from the school district side. At this point in time, we are working diligently to make sure we're providing TSKP and Downs Construction with everything they need with regard to EDSP specs, with regard to space standards,
019and making sure that we are prepared to submit a grant application prior to June 30th of 2025 with the anticipated referendum happening uh in September. So, that uh resolution, this is the first of multiple items that will come before you in the next couple meetings. Um this resolution will be dealing with the grant application. So again, this is important work. Um you'll see on May 13th the approval of the EDSP specs. We're working on that now. Mr. Scott has been diligent in making me meet the space standards. We spent a day uh morning last week uh talking about making some adjustments. So 3,000 square feet, Mr. Scott, I think we were able to come through on that. So um there is a lot of work involved in this. And again, uh, many thanks to TSKP
020for their guidance as well as, uh, Tom with Downs Construction. So again, this is a process that needs to happen. Uh, speaking of processes that need to happen, uh, the transition process, as you know, Jeff Wibby will be joining you as your next superintendent of schools. The transition process for us has been ongoing. So, for example, last week when we met with Downs and TSKP, I had Jeff sit in so he could meet both uh Tom and Mike and get a feel for what's going on in our schools. Um Jeff and I along with Mike Barabal and Sally Katz toured all of the elementary schools last week so he could get a firstirhand look at what the schools are looking like, what our deficits are, and what we need. So, um that transition work is
021going to continue. Uh we will be meeting uh next week to visit uh high school the middle school and the transition academy as well. Uh obviously want to make sure that the transition is as smooth as possible. Also from a budgetary standpoint um we will have a series of resignations and retirements. Um we are looking at uh posting some positions now. They are posted as tenative positions. Again they're going to depend upon the budget allocation, but we feel it's important to make sure that we get this uh posting out now to develop the pool. Um I am looking at three math positions at Weathersfield High School. That is one area we have already started the process of hiring. Uh so I have one that will be meeting with me next week. In addition to that,
022we had a curriculum specialist who um left the district this year, current year to take on a role as an assistant principal in another district. I'm very happy that uh we were able to hire another curriculum specialist who will be coming aboard in miday. So it is very very busy at this point in time as we wrap up the school year. Again, right now so everybody knows the last day of school is Monday the 16th of June. It is a minimum day, Monday the 16th. And again, right now our schedule is we have 182 days. We I have had some question about hey can we finish up on Friday instead? We have an obligation to our kids and the reality of it is I want to make sure our kids get the la maximum amount
023of learning time. We had two days obviously one day was to honor our beloved firefighter Rob Sharkovich and then we had one snow day. So at this point in time, Monday the 16th of June will be the last day of school, a minimum day. It allows the high school the opportunity to finish up makeup exams as it is and I'm sure Angelica you can probably speak to it. Um we have with the seniors graduating on the 10th we're going to have like two concurrent finals schedules. So bit of a challenge. In addition to that uh step up ceremonies I think somebody here up on the das is going to be stepping up to the middle school coming up in June. Am I correct? Yes that's on my calendar as well. So step up ceremonies lots
024and lots of field trips coming up. Um spring concerts spring sports are in full full steam ahead right now. So there is a lot going on with very little time left. Calendar is moving quickly. So with that, it's communications. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. Tonight we have three action items. Matt, would you read action item 6A for us? I will. I will. Thank you, Bobby. I move that the Weathersfield Board of Education approve the revised policy 1400, school security and safety. Second. Okay. A discussion. That was our second read on that. Okay, let's put a vote on it. All in favor? I opposed. Any abstensions? That motion is passed. Matt, would you do 6B? I move that the Weathersfield Board of Education approve the revised policy 1600 visitors and observations in schools. Second. Okay, any
025discussions on that one? All right, let's have a vote. All in favor? I I opposed. Any abstensions? That motion passes. All right. This evening, um Oh, we're going to keep going. We have John. Would you read motion 6C? Yes. Bear with me. This is a long one. I recommend that the Weathersfield Board of Education approve the town of Weathersfield resolution R2025-00004. This resolution authorizing the board of education to apply for a grant. Whereas the town of Weathersfield Board of Education desires to seek funding for the design and construction of the new Highest Elementary School and the master plan through a grant application with the Commission of Administrative Services. Whereas the board of education recognizes the importance of securing external funding to support the design and construction of the new Highest Elementary School and its positive
026impact on our students and community. Now therefore be it resolved that the town of Weathersfield Board of Education is hereby authorizing board of education to submit grant application to apply to the commissioner of administrative services and to accept or reject a grant for the design and construction of the new Highest Elementary School located on Highland Road in Weathersfield, Connecticut. Be it further resolved that the board of education designate Michael T. EMTT, superintendent of Weatherfield Public Schools, as the authorized representative to execute and submit the grant application and all related documents on behalf of the board of education. Be it further resolved that the board of education agrees to comply with all the terms and conditions of the grant agreement if awarded. Be it further resolved that the board of education will ensure that grant funds
027are used in accordance with the grant agreement and applicable laws, applicable laws and regulations passed and adopted this 22nd day, April 2025. Second. Okay. Discussions. Mike, you want to come up for us? Thank you. Thank you, John. I have to wake my machine back up. I'm Michael Scott with TSKP Studio in Hartford, Connecticut. Caps locks. Come on. Now it doesn't work. No, it's just my my poor typing skills. Yeah. Okay. Thank you. We can get on that. Uh good to see you all again tonight. I know that you've been following this process uh pretty carefully. Uh what I'm here to do tonight is um give you a quick overview of the work we've been doing across the town uh with the uh school building committee. Uh I'm going to present uh quickly the overall master
028plan. um then uh discuss what we feel um could become the first referendum uh that would support that master plan and then really um essentially hone in on that phase one which is the grant that you we will look to apply for on June 30th. We we do not apply for multiple school grants because those grants expire. you want to apply for them as you are taking on the building process so you don't um get behind on your homework. Okay. So, uh, hopefully my agenda will be, uh, relatively brief. And like I said, um, what I'm going to do is I'm going to move very quickly because you all look very familiar and I know you've been following this, uh, closely. Uh, I'm more than happy to answer questions. I work best if you interrupt
029me. I'm I'm happy to expand or to go back and clarify uh, as much as needed. But uh as I said, my goal here tonight is to first uh quickly review the comprehensive plan as um conceived by the building committee. Uh talk about how we will phase this rather than uh tackle it all at once. And then uh on behalf of Downs Construction, I'm going to present some budget numbers uh not only for um the first phase, which is the grant you're applying for, but potentially the first three phases, which will be what the first referendum is for, and then project out for an overall uh comprehensive cost of the plan. uh the comprehensive plan. Uh as you all no doubt know um there's several major tenants of the plan that has been developed uh
030since we started working with you uh at the end of last summer. Uh those are uh primarily to bring parody across all the elementary schools um in both enrollment and classroom sizes. So that's not just the physical size of the classroom, but essentially to create equals size classes across the district so that every elementary school has equal attention from their primary educator. Uh it's also become a high priority from the building committee to maintain a school at each of the five sites. uh that the uh thought of uh consolidating down and eliminating facilities uh while there that might yield um some small cost savings uh did not represent equal value to the town of Weathersfield. Um, next is to utilize a new building, a new construction as that first phase that would enable uh elementary
031school populations to swing into that school uh for the year that the academic year that they're building is being renovated. This will help uh minimize uh disruption in the education environment of um th that entire elementary school population uh during the construction process. and also um uh help minimize uh sunk cost in temporary provisions, temporary protections, swing shift work, second shift work that would be a result of trying to work in an occupied building. Um the next one is to convert Samuel Web uh back into an intermediate school, a um a school for grades five and six that uh then those students would trans um transfer up uh to Silistine Middle School and grades seven and eight. And then lastly to return to the remaining three elementary school sites uh and renovate each of those
032as new. Um with both uh web which would be renovate as new and the three remaining elementary school sites uh the renovate as new uh will yield an additional 10 cents on the dollar in reimbursement uh from the state construction program. So that is uh to great benefit and a great return to the town. Uh I'm going to focus on the structure of the first three phases of this um overall program. Um the reason I'm focusing on the first three phases is it will ultimately be the recommendation of the building committee to um rather than to go for one complete referendum to split the referendum into multiple stages and take the first three projects more or less as the as the first effort. As I previously mentioned, um it's the one of the tenants of
033the master plan is to build one new school uh at the standard reimbursement rate um that would allow a school's population to swing into while um their school is being uh renovated. So, uh the building committee after much deliberation uh chose the Kesha farm site. This is an early rendering of the Kesha farm site. You can see Highland down across the bottom of the page. Off to the left is Collier Road, which is about a full building story below uh Highland in this instance. So, you see a couple of cur curb cuts um more or less in alignment u between the seam between the soccer fields and the ball field at the north end of the highest site. um with a a car loop and a bus loop and then a building with a single
034point of entry um down at the bottom. Uh as we developed this uh project um in more detail um with central office and uh refined the edspec, it became clear that um this would be a good candidate to house uh the new home for the uh the preschool program. um with web going to a 56 academy uh having preschoolers as cohorts no longer really made sense in that regard. So we're able to both uh not only fold in the preschool program uh into this building but to grow it, expand it from three classrooms to five classrooms. Uh that's based on current and projected need by the time this uh building comes online. So the building got a little bigger uh rather than a single bar. You can see it took on an inverted T-shape. I'll
035point out that um you haven't yet hired an architect to design this building. Uh really what we're trying to do is uh space proof um the project to make sure whatever funds that you secure will be sufficient to support the mission that is set forth for that school. Uh, as um, Superintendent EMTT uh, um, well, you didn't hint at, you said it point blank, uh, we've held his feet to the fire in, uh, keeping the total square footage of the building to the maximum that will be reimbursed based on the anticipated student population. In other words, the state governs how much square footage you can build in a school. They're not in the business of subsidizing uh, extremely large schools. Um what we think we've done here is we've proven that the site is has
036ample resources to support the educational specification for you. In fact, it exceeds it in many interesting ways. There's lots of excellent opportunities to incorporate physical education fields, agricultural education fields, uh environmental education sites, uh um stitch it into the wetland, stitch it into the kisha barn resource or the um fields across the street at highest. So there's a tremendous opportunity here. Uh we are also trying to verify that the budget that uh DS is putting forward will in fact support a building of this site to be constructed in the future. That's why we've drawn it more or less as a plan. I will guarantee that the school will not look like this. Um uh even if I am the architect that gets hired. Um next I'd like to move on to web. It's important to
037understand um I'll just reiterate real quickly. I've said it uh before you all before, but um deep in the DNA of the web building, it is an intermediate school. Back when the town had, I think, two intermediate schools, uh it has educational resources built into it. U say the larger gym and the auditorium, which frankly would no longer be supported by an elementary school uh construction process. Um that's why for instance the new school that we're building at the what's called the new highris school does not have an auditorium. The state won't subsidize it anymore. Um if we renovated Web as an elementary school, we would have to uh put the student population back into it to help support that additional square footage to be reimbursible or apply for a waiver. Uh none of this
038is guaranteed. uh none of it is necessarily consistent with the idea of bringing par across all your elementary schools to have equal resources. So recognizing um the real estate asset for lack of a better word that is in web uh and the educational opportunity in this moment to create a um a 56 academy for every student in the town of Weathersfield. It's thought that we can expand uh web slightly uh so that it can take on a student population equal to silus dean and um make good use of the full resources. So you can see here again this is an idea where we are essentially space proofing the plan. This will be at this point in time the second phase of the comprehensive uh elementary school building process. But um we would take that glass
039bridge connector that faces the parking lot and bus drop off, demolish that, demolish some of the rooms to the north of the auditorium and rebuild new uh two-story wing across that space. That would do a couple of things. It would put administration uh down low at the parking lot level so that they are now in the position of monitoring every coming and going back to the school at an accessible entrance where the current administration is not at an accessible entrance. And then the upper floor of that would be expanded out for uh additional classrooms. Uh we would gut the two-story wing in its entirety and repartition it so that we could put in uh um classrooms of sufficient size to take and count to take on the population of every fifth and sixth grader in
040the district. Um the left half of this wing uh to anyone who spent any time in web um you should be reassured that it largely looks like the current web configuration. The auditorium remains where the auditorium is. The gymnasium remains where it currently is. The cafeteria gets expanded a little bit into the courtyard um because of additional seating capacity. Um that's good return to the town because we don't have to build those big large span spaces uh from scratch. But rest assured, as part of this renovation as new process, every single finish system component of that building will be removed and replaced with new construction. Uh so we're just using essentially the rib cage of those spaces and putting back um new flooring, new seating, new acoustics, uh new sports equipment, um uh new new
041ceilings, the whole bit. You said you wanted questions during it, right? To stop you. Yes, please. So, the you said you stated earlier that we haven't hired an architect. So, what you're giving us right now is a conceptual idea of what it could be in theory, right? Or could people take like this what you're saying is going to happen at web is going to happen, but earlier you said we haven't hired an architect. So, I'm just I just want to That's a good question. For the public, is it a conceptual idea? Cuz people fall in love with people what what is said. So like if you're singing down and it changes, right? So the question I guess is is it good conceptual idea at this point? These are all conceptual ideas. I mean, um, to
042be honest with you, um, unless you want to build unsubsidized square footage, we know how much building you're going to build on the website because there's a formula at the state and all I need to do is plug in the highest enrollment of fifth and sixth graders in the next eight years and put it into a formula and that spits out a size building and then downs will um price that what we needed to do was test can that building be renovated to accommodate that size. Can we put in the right uh number of classrooms um of the correct size to support that as well. So this is really almost just a test fit of packing a tube of toothpaste, showing it, showing it to Downs and saying see how much of the building can
043be maintained and renovated and how much you have to take away and build new. And so it's it's just a a case in point. Um okay, there's still a lot of work that would need to go into this. Um, this is a it it's it's hardlined. It's in the computer. We can spin it around and fly over it. We can do an animation of it, but it really is a sketch in the computer, but it's a sketch based on a math that I know the town of Weathersfield will ultimately be held to when they get to phase two. Okay. Thank you. All right. No problem. It's a good question. And in my mind, I like to design everything. So, I have to always keep that in check. No, I thought the concept was well done.
044I was just seeing where we were on it. Okay. Uh well, we'll talk at phase two then. Um so uh and then lastly for uh the la the last component of phase well I'll say um when we presented this to the building committee we felt that the last component of phase of of this first referendum would be phase three which is uh to go to Charles Wright and uh Charles Wright's an interesting building. It's been around for a long time and it's been through a lot of iterations some of which no longer exist on that site here. Uh what we are proposing to do is to um more or less keep Charles Wright the same size but to reposition um first its classrooms so that the classrooms are well allocated and have access to daylight.
045Uh the existing Charles Wright um has six classrooms, seven classrooms that are orphaned in the middle of the building. Um and to also fix an issue that is um a persistent problem in that the gym and cafeteria set prominently in the front of Charles Wright uh up against not street and that really gums up traffic because you can't put cars or buses where the gym and the cafeteria are so that everybody ends up having to queue out onto not street and twice a day it really blocks up the issues. So, what we do is we tear that front off. We flip it to the back of the building. Uh we go in with a melon baller and we scoop up some of the um uh less than sensitive additions that were made in the time
046to fill in the middle of the checkerboard of the original Charles Wright building and um clear out those classrooms. So here again um we're looking at a scheme um of a new K through 4 academy which will be the basis of all um the future um elementary schools as we work our way through. Uh so what this is um is a school that contains grades uh kindergarten through 4th grade with three classrooms each essentially built on a total student population between 305 and 330 students. Uh Charles Wright is a little tricky um to still qualify as the renovate as new and get that 10 cent on the dollar incentive. You have to keep at least half of the building. We're a little over here. We're taking more than half of the building away and building
047it new. So, we'll have to you the third architect will have to keep an eye on that. Uh, you solve the parent drop off issue and that's Did we solve it? Yeah, we addressed it. 13 years my kids spent there. I have three kids that went through there. Okay. I'm certainly aware of and lived through the nightmare they call parent drop off and pickup. I I agree. Every uh every school goes through that pain. I think we're creating um we're more than uh doubling the queuing space that you have there. More than doubling. Um will it be perfect? Probably not. Um because perfection is I don't think I've yet achieved on any school project I've done particularly postcoid when bus ridership has almost disappeared and every student gets driven to work uh driven to school.
048So it's an increasingly challenging uh process. We've we spent a lot of time looking at Charles Wright. Uh it's a tremendous asset to the neighborhood. Uh the site is challenging, but it does have a lot of good resources and I think you can leverage that and make it a perfectly viable 330 student school moving forward. This conceptual map, it appears it eliminates all the activity space that they have. They have lacrosse fields there for lacrosse playing. It looks like the building went back and then we're adding spaces in the back of the building. So kind of eliminating the town use fields. Well, we're still keeping uh I think what am I showing there? U10 or maybe U12 field. I can't really read uh the text here on on my piece. So, the current lacrosse field
049is quite large. Uh we would in this drawing in this sketch, we're replacing it with uh we're moving the play areas behind the new gym and then that eats up a little bit of the goal, the lacrosse goal there. So, we would push it back further. But I'd also say at the Kesha farm site, you're going to pick up more fields in that phase one uh for the town. All right. No, I was misreading your map. I appreci behind the building. I was envisioning all the way at the back, but that's really the black top that's behind the building is where those car spaces are going that it shows right there. And then there's more field. I got it. Right. So, there is a field, but yes, I'm not sure it'll be regulation middle school
050lacrosse like you have now. Thank you. Okay. All right. So, what we're really all here to talk about is the budget. I'm presenting this on behalf of Downs. Um, we've been together uh on this project uh since its inception. So, I'm pretty comfortable speaking on their behalf. I do just want to introduce you to an idea of what we what we did collectively with them to develop this budget. First, they used the drawings and sketches that we had uh to do takeoffs of uh areas of site rework um uh areas of uh building demolition, areas of building renovation, areas of new construction. Uh and from there assembled um from their database a cost model of the entire school um and its square footages. um and they developed essentially what would be the hard cost for
051the project. The hard cost um when you eventually hire a CM or G uh general contractor to build the building, that's the number that they'll give you for the total price of the building. That includes all of the um site work and hazardous material work, all of the trade costs from the subcontractors, um anything temporary that they need to put in place, including their construction trailer while they uh do the work. And it can and it contains a contingency because even when bid documents are done u years from now, uh you still haven't captured everything in a construction endeavor. there are particularly working on existing sites in existing buildings unforeseen conditions. So that formulates a hard cost and then in addition to that on top of that is what's called soft cost. Um the state
052likes to say that's anything that you can't touch like uh legal and professional design fees as well as anything that would fall out of the building if you could pick it up and shake it vigorously. So that's all the computers, all the cameras, uh all the desk chairs, um um uh kickballs, etc. This is also everything that's involved in the cost of making the project exist. So that's bonding cost, insurance cost, and ultimately uh mover cost to get uh kids back into the building with the educators. that creates a total budget uh for the project and that's the numbers that we're going to discuss in the next slide. Michael, um when you get to the next slides, I'm curious to see if there's any caps or thresholds that would be applied to any of the
053soft costs or contingencies so that there's more transparency into what exactly goes into that and would there be a process for approving any fees that would go beyond if we did set a cap? Okay, those are good questions. Um, I'm going to put you through one more boring slide before we get to that. Um, so here what we're con considering and what we showed the building committee um when we met with them earlier this month was um a three-phase referendum one. It's important to clarify uh we haven't had a chance to return to the building committee with this uh but referendum one now will have to include the demolition of the Highress building, the old Highress building. um that originally was conceived of as the last phase of the comprehensive plan because you're going to
054be using that for um the um to host the visiting kids as they come in and their home school is renovated. But the state also won't let towns excessively build school classrooms, right? that ultimately has to be tied to a districtwide student population count. So, uh they're going to make that first grant application actually involve two things. The construction of new Highrest and then 8 to 10 late years later, the demolition of old Highrest. That will return you back to sort of a net no net gain necessarily of classrooms across the district. It's a little problematic. Um, we've had a lot of conversations with grants uh at uh in Hartford about this. Uh we understand their logic. Uh it just means we're going to have to carry that number earlier and make sure that it's
055sufficient that um by the end of the overall process when you return to that referendum one money um that you bonded that there's enough money in that pot uh for the demolition of Highest. um little complicated but these are the things that you do uh on these big projects like this. All right. So the three uh phases um and I'll show you high crest at the end of this which will ultimately swing onto this slide um are first the swing school then the web renovation and then Charles Wright. Um, in all sum total, these three projects uh are estimated to cost just under $224 million. That's a big number. Uh, but you're also biting off in this first referendum uh your biggest undertakings. One, um, you're building a brand new school from scratch. and two
056uh you're renovating web and expanding its size so that its student population grows to the size of Silistine Middle School. So those are your two heaviest lifts uh in this comprehensive plan. You can get it up and out of the way um when there are less unknowns with the construction market, right? We all understand that uh everything costs more the longer time moves forward. that a dollar today uh won't buy you as much in five years. So, let's get your biggest purchases up and out of the way when you can get the greatest return on that dollar that you bond through the referendum this year. Uh rather than trying to hold on till the bitter end and swallow those biggest pills um in detail. Yes. Okay. in detail. Uh looking at that top bar, you
057can see that the new High Crest is a little bit larger than your typical uh K through four elementary school because it has the five uh preschool classrooms added to it. It's going to be around 53,000 uh gross square feet and it'll come in just under $61.5 million. Uh because it's new construction, uh you will not qualify for the renovate as new bonus, but the approximate cost to the town will be just under $34 million for that school. You're getting pretty good reimbursement on that. Uh Weathersfield has a pretty good reimbursement rate. I'll just say that. Uh because we work in a lot of towns across the state and you're uh right in a in a in a good middle Uh the next phase is web and like I said uh web is quite large.
058It's um just under 90,000 square ft uh by the time it's all completed. Uh vast majority of that square footage is renovation uh with some new um construction. Uh you do qualify for the additional uh incentive as renovate as new. Uh so while it is larger and it also involves uh demolition and hazardous material abatement for all of the um hazardous material that is in that building but currently covered over so that the students are safe. In this instance you would dig deeply back into the building, uncover that material and remove it completely. Um, so even with those additions, uh, because of the extra reimbursement, the cost to the town is just under 48 million for that. Um, and again, that's $48 million, which is a big number. Um, but keep in mind that is
059now a new 56 academy. It's a school completely brand new for anyone that shows up there uh, in all appearances in operation. Um, and it's the size of Silus Dean, so it's it's quite an asset to the town. Uh, Michael, regarding the demolition, is there an additional fee that the town should expect to dispose of? You know, we take it down, we demolish it. Are there additional fees that we'll have to look at to get rid of the material that we don't need? Yes. Are those included in there? Those are all included. Not only um not only so we had a consultant uh walk through each of the five elementary schools and do a visual inventory not exhaustive uh and certainly not uh the last effort that would be done on say the website. Uh
060but from that they created an inventory and a takeoff of anticipated hazardous materials. Okay. And then ran a cost estimate for that. I can't remember what webs was exactly, but in each of the schools, the number varied between a million and a million and a half just to uh abate and dispose of the really bad stuff. And then on top of that, there's a demolition cost uh for the stuff that isn't contaminated, but nevertheless, you're going to haul away. Thank you. And um we also added uh you want to talk about contingencies and and we'll get there. [Music] Um, but I'll talk to you about how we address that as well. Thank you. Okay. And then let's see. Oh, I do want to just briefly talk about Charles Wright. Uh, Charles Wright uh is a
061little bit smaller than the new Highest because it doesn't have the the bump u from the uh five prek classrooms. Uh that comes in just under 42,000 square feet and a total cost of $57 million. And um you might say to yourself, well, gee, it's smaller, but it's costing almost as much as the new highest. Why is that? There is that hazardous abatement component. There is the demolition component. And you're also going to both bid and build this two years later. So we've built in escalation at 6% per year as a model. So that's why that cost is moving forward from you and exactly why we're trying to do these larger projects in the first phases uh so that you get a better yield from today's dollars that you're putting on the referendum. The cost
062of the town on Charles Wright That number doesn't quite look correct to me. Is uh put in there at 19,800, but 19,800,000, but I don't think those two numbers add up to 50. 25. Yeah. On your slideshow it says 25 million. Oh, that's that's that adds up up there. All right. You were right that it was off. I don't understand why the printer wouldn't have caught that, but I will I will stick. Yeah, maybe I should maybe I shouldn't take U last meeting's handouts to me with me to these meetings. So, yeah, regardless, I'll try to read the numbers. Um, so again, um, just under 27 million. Okay. Um, so let's talk about contingencies and soft costs and escalations. So, um, the first thing to recognize, I'm just going to run back here, uh, to
063referendum one. Um, we're trying to get you in the ground as quickly as possible. This is a tremendous endeavor uh that you're considering to undertake and the the building committee weighed this heavily as to whether uh you should just do um deferred maintenance on all these schools and do it incrementally uh or to take this essentially as a once in a generation opportunity to do a hard reset on each of these facilities. And that's what they're opting for. this is your hard reset and this is going to be a 10-year endeavor. Uh we're trying to get you in the ground sooner rather than later because as I said uh right now we're modeling about 6% inflation uh each year uh as you move forward. Um that's a pretty aggressive number in in my life as
064an architect over almost 30 years. It's a pretty high number, but anyone who's been in the construct construction industry can certainly point out in the last five years how hard it's been uh to track escalation. So, um 6% is conservative in a good way and I think certainly over the 10 years uh will bear itself out pretty well. I will say that after CO um construction inflation prices once they jumped so dramatically postco have returned more to like 2 and 12 to 3% in most commodities. So that's number one. Uh we're trying to get you in the ground sooner rather than later. So we're starting design on phase one. We're proposing that you have your referendum and if the referendum is successful, you immediately go into an RFP process to select an architect uh for
065that project, select a construction manager, perhaps an owner's rep, really assemble the team during the fall, and then as soon as you get the grant commitment letter from the state that says, "We're going to put you on their priority list and we're going to vote on it the summer of 2026," we're saying, "Go ahead and start the design." And the reason you do that is because the if you don't start design then it's going to be a full academic year before you can get into that school. You're going to move that project out a full year. The reason I say that is it's very hard for uh students particularly elementary students to move in the middle of an academic year. That's a tremendous undertaking. You might be able to move from one wing to another,
066but in this instance, you'd be taking out the entire high crest population, picking them up, and moving them across the street. That's a heavy lift uh and pretty disruptive. And the cost of delaying the project for a year and in escalation is going to be more than the design fees that you spend before the legislature officially approves your grant. And I'll also say that in the almost 30 years I've been doing this, once a project's been put on the priority list, it's never not been approved. It's never not been approved. How's that, superintendent? It's they've all been approved. Doesn't mean that's going to hold true, but in trying to manage risk across this entire endeavor, we urge you to do that. The soft cost on all of these projects are capped at 20%. 20% of
067what? 20% of the hard cost have become the soft cost. Doesn't mean you're going to spend 20%, but that's all the state will reimburse you for. Sure. There are currently conflict. The math on the collective memorandums out of the school construction office do not quite agree with each with one another. At the height of COVID, they urged towns to carry 10% owners contingency to cover the escalation that we were seeing at bid. It's really not possible to do that and maintain a 20% cap on your overall soft costs. Um, so given special dispensation during that time. Okay. We believe that now it will revert back to the old 20%. Okay. Okay. And the hard cost like where we snap the line is when we go to the referendum or what hard cost do we go
068into? Oh, I'm sorry. Hard hard cost is a term of art that I was using about a construction endeavor. So, let's take uh phase one, which is um an easier one to hone in on because it's new construction and it's closest to us in timeline. Hard cost is what you would pay a construction manager or general contractor to build the building. That's the hard cost period for that. Okay. Uh and then you've got to pay an architect like myself. You got to pay lawyers. Um you've got to buy furniture, you got to buy computers, uh you got to bond the money which costs uh you got to buy insurance. Blah blah blah. That becomes part of the 20% soft costs. Mhm. So that's those two things. So in each of these little bar charts that
069you see for each of these phases, Downs did a serious takeoff of the square footage of the buildings and what type of square footage it was. They did a serious takeoff of the square footage of the site and what type of site it was and built a full cost model, all trades. Um, so I can tell you that High Crest mechanical systems are estimated at $92 a square foot, okay, right now. And then we escalated it out to the midpoint of construction in that bar chart. So that teal bar, we counted the months to the midpoint of that teal bar for the new highest school, divided it by 12, multiplied it by 6% and that's the total escalation we put on it, both hard and soft costs. Okay, quick question. The soft cost, would that
070include the bond for the demolition of the high crest school too? Because you said that cost money, but I didn't want to like because you know Yeah. So, whoever's responsible for that bonding of that money for the demolition is still phase one, I believe. I'm going to show you High Crest in a little bit. Last time we met with the building committee, we were saying we're going to make that part of the second referendum. And then uh late last week we got the official word uh from the state that says no, you're going to have to move that up and make that part of your first grant application. But I'll show you where it is in the time because um because it's 8 to 10 years out, it's it's more money than it would cost
071to do it um with 2028 construction dollars. Okay. So, Michael, the questions that I'm asking, what I'm trying to get to is when we go to the town and say, you know, will you spend X amount? I'm trying to understand what things could happen or what kind of controls would be in place so that we stay as close to that number as possible. And I don't I don't think this is the meeting, you know, to tease that out. But that is a question. And I just don't understand enough to know, you know, when we run over, our high school project ran over and, you know, that was with one school, albeit, you know, a very large one, but we have five schools that we're embarking on. True. So I would just at some point like
072to understand a little bit more about how you know what costs we can go in think you know depend upon and then what is the control process or authority or you know approvals for any devian to the original cost. That's just something I'm looking for. No, it's true. I I will say that mathematically we pegged the soft cost at 20%. But then we ran back into the hard cost and put in a construction contingency, a design contingency. Uh we've escalated that over time as well. So, there are other numbers outside of that spreadsheet that help um um calibrate the overall cost to create the pot of money that you're ultimately going to need when you're out in the future buying these pieces of building and assembling them and dealing with um more hazardous material than
073you thought of. Um a change in soil conditions. Sure. um a tariff on a particular building commodity. Right. Right. Okay. So, uh there's there's nothing but unknowns. Um and unfortunately, even if we were just talking about building one building tomorrow, I would still tell you that there's as as much intelligence as I continually try try to bring to these endeavors, there are unknowns in construction. And all we can do is help you calibrate that risk and protect the money. And I think Weathersville would, you know, be interested in knowing, you know, what the approval workflow processes for anything that runs as an overage at some point when you are aware of it. Well, that I mean once once we're in construction um well once you hire an architect, the architect will tell you their fees
074upfront. And u unless you change your mind or change the assignment, those are the fees. So it's fixed bid. It's not like time and materials. No. Okay. No, unfortunately from architects everywhere. No. Um, and then once you once the that collective design team working with the building committee and you and the Weathersfield uh professional staff generates bid documents which are far more deline delineated sets of documents and you hand that over to a constructor, be that um construction manager or general contractor. They put it out to bid and then they give you what's called a guaranteed maximum price and that's your number. So unless you change your mind along the way, which I've never met an owner who hasn't, um that's okay. Uh or um something unforeseen happens, uh that's the price of the building.
075But as unforeseen happen or owners change their mind, then those changes go um through a ratification process and ultimately go to the building committee and say, "Yes, we approved uh this $60,000 to go to additional computers." Okay? uh or we approve this uh $12,000 to get this extra asbestous out of the way that we didn't know we had until we cracked open the building. Thank you. Uh it it's it's both complicated and not um Yeah. All we can do is draw a big circle around all the risk that we see. Mhm. and try to put an order of magnitude on it and review that with the building committee and then ultimately uh it's going to be your town council that really um ar arbitrates that, right? Whether this is the number or we need more
076or we need to do the same thing with less money. Okay. Um it's it's up to them. But we we have the cost models. Like I said, we we know the math that the state uses. Uh DS has a ton of live construction market information coming to and through them on a daily basis. They're building stuff as we speak. They're building elementary schools as we speak. They know what it costs today. They can they understand the trends. They can project out. Okay. Thank you. I appreciate the detail. I'm um I'm just going to run to the remainder of this program u comprehensive plan which I think the building committee will recommend to the town council will be done completed by a second referendum. Um the way the reason you do that is because at this
077point in time we're talking about construction in the year 2030 and concluding in 2033. And as good as Downs is, there is not a constructor out there that can tell you exactly what something's going to cost in 2033. Uh, however, if we split it into two referendums and we all get together and meet again in 2028, we'll have much better insight on what 2033 may look like, and you'll get a better return on whatever dollars you're putting before the public. Um the other thing that I'll say in both South Windsor a project that TSKP was not involved in um but in Manchester uh town in which we were involved in a comprehensive plan. Halfway through the town had um more robust set of priorities um building on the success of the first phase of the
078comprehensive plan. uh they saw more opportunities and more returns on their investment and they wanted to recalibrate so they weren't just throwing a dart at the fourth and fifth phase. They were able to pivot um make a different value judgment about the remainder of those schools and uh continue the listening process to the community. So success breeds success. Uh it's good to get off to a strong start, build confidence with the public, show them what this board of ed and what the building committee can return for the referendum dollars, and then from there decide how they want to proceed with the remainder of the elementary school projects. So what we're looking at here is a is a range of cost. uh downs knowing how hard it is to predict uh was looking at a total
079referendum in phase two uh between 138 million and 160 million with a approximate cost to the town of Weathersfield between uh 60.5 and $69 million. Uh those numbers, like I said, aren't going to hold well because that light pink bar at the bottom uh involving the high crest demolition will now have to move into referendum one. But I'm just going to zoom in real quick. Um we did a series of uh planning exercises to Emerson William like we did um to Charles Wright to understand how that school could actually be shrunk um to a K4 academy. And then um we looked at Hamner and uh in this instance uh to be an exactly uh to be a school that was in parody with the remaining K through fourmmies, Hamden would have to shrink. Uh but
080based on what we started to sus out with the historic district commission uh we carried all of the square footage of Hamner uh in this number uh which would um because at this point in time we're not anticipating we're not counting on being able to demolish portions of Hamner to rightsize it. So you'll have to carry full freight that square footage um for the time being. Again, that's just as a way to mitigate risk. It doesn't mean that by the time you hire an architect to actually do this, that will be the result. It also doesn't mean that perhaps the superintendent at that time would say, you know what, I've got a new program for the town of Weathersfield that would fit perfectly in that excess square footage and we'd like to bring it to
081the town as a value proposition and if you like it, we'll write it into the EDSPEC and it'll become part of the grant and you're off to the races. And then lastly that that last bar that uh I want to look at which is the high crest demolition which is between 8 and 9 million um that will be to abate the existing highest school. All of the hazardous material that's currently contained and covered up will have to be removed and then that entire building would have to be demolished and down to the foundations and u essentially grass planted over the top of it. uh by the time that you leave. So that that is the value that will have to move into that first referendum and become part of the first grant application. And while
082it wouldn't cost you $9 million to do that today, you're going to have to hold something like $9 million in your back pocket to make sure you don't leave half of high crust where it once stood. I said I was going to go through it fast. I'm not sure if I really did that. Uh, I appreciate your patience. Um, if you have any questions, I'll be happy to discuss it more. Anyone with any questions? Jim, the uh the hazardous waste, I know you mentioned the demolition on the back end. I think originally we were told that none of the hazardous waste like costs like removal of asbestous were included in in in the costs but I see you had a line item there I thought on one of the slides. Can you tell me if
083there's any costs for that type of thing if they occur in the other schools? Yes. All of your existing schools contain I'll call it hazardous materials, not hazardous waste. That hazardous waste makes it sound like the superintendent was doing something he shouldn't have done. Uh but it's hazardous material. It doesn't and it doesn't mean that the students that are currently attending school there uh are in any danger. It's just underneath um underneath carpet. There may be asbests as tile in the mastics behind the wall or the glues that were used. There may be other pieces. There's undoubtedly PVCs in the caul. Um so as long as you don't your students aren't actively going up there and digging it out and eating it, you're in good shape. But when you go to demolish it, uh you
084have to remove it in a safe way and dispose of it in a safe way. And if you want to qualify for the renovate as new additional funding, you have to get rid of all of it. You have to take it down to the bones and rebuild back with safe material. And that's the number that's in each of these estimates. Okay. Thank you. So, it's included in and it's it's between a million and a million and a half for each of the five sites. I I don't remember exactly the cost of each of them. And the other thing I'll say is that's in today's dollars and so we immediately had to escalate it out uh starting with uh Charles Wright starting with web excuse me. Okay. And it's understood that unless these materials are disturbed
085they're not a problem now. So I I get that. Thank you. Okay. Anyone else with a question? Any other? Okay. Well, 6 C is our action item and we'll take a vote on it. Okay. All in favor? I opposed. Any abstensions? Motion 6C passes. Thank you. Okay. Um this evening we have an advisory building committee discussion. I think we're all done. I think we have heard everything we need to hear. Can I just make can I just make a few comments in that section? Um but thank you Michael Scott. Thank you. Unless Michael wants to present again. Come on. No. Okay. Um so I just first this will be a rotating agenda item. Um I know Mr. Kerry and I talked about it last meeting. So I'm glad to see it on the agenda. So
086quickly um I won't go through the detail that Michael just gave, but I want to point out a couple of key things for us as a board of ed to understand. So, um, on May 5th, the town council will get that same presentation so they'll understand exactly where the master plan sits with those preliminary costs. And I want to mention again the approximate preliminary numbers, a lot more to happen. May 13th is a big date for us as a board of ed. It's a longer meeting. I think we have a lot on that agenda, but that's also when we will approve educational specifications as a board. So, that is a very important meeting for us. And then of course it all culminates to June 16th which is when the town council will ultimately you know
087draft the referendum question vote on that question. So that that is the end of school and the biggest vote for the referendum to date. So uh we look forward to that. I also want to make this public um as building committee chair because we haven't had a chance to do this and I've received some communication and want to make sure we do this. The referendum date originally was proposed to September 23rd that is a Jewish holiday rashana. So we are decided to move it up a week, recommend it gets moved up a week to September 16th to accommodate that. So that was something that uh the public spoke out on as well and opened our eyes to that and we are glad to accommodate that. And with that, I'll open up to board questions for
088me if there are any. Thank you, John. Anyone? I wonder if they asked all of them to Michael already. Have you slept lately? Um, yes. I went on vacation last week. Thank you. Good. Okay, we're all set. All right, so we'll move on. We have board of ed meetings held and Matt, you're on with our finance and operations committee meeting. Thank you, Bobby. So, prior to tonight's board of ed meeting, the finance and operations committee did meet. Everybody was in attendance, which was nice to see. We talked about a couple different things pertaining to costs and budgets both in uh under this current year's budget and next year's board adopted budget. Uh concerning this year's current budget, we talked about the usual where we are at whether we are under or over budget. We are
089currently under budget. However, uh just like last month, however, excess costs are still a moving target and we don't know exactly what our extra um uh our extra top off will be from the state for this current year. So, we're still waiting on that. Um we discussed uh outplacement projections for next year, which it sounds like are going on in district. I see our director of special services are here. I'm sure he's been involved in that alongside Michael and Sally. Um so, that's appreciated. That's always a moving number. and it's something that we like to project and estimate very very closely. So, thank you for your work on that. Um, we talked about last night's town budget hearing. Uh, how Michael presented our budget. The town manager, Fred, presented the town side of the budget.
090Ours is about 4.95%. It sounds like the towns is about 3.85% for around a 4.4% total. We discussed um upcoming dates that are important. May 14th is when the town council will set the budget and May 15th we will get our allocation. So between May 15th and May 27th I believe that us as a board will have to and we should meet to discuss what we're going to do with the final number that the council gives to us. We're hoping that it is close to 4.95%. Um also discussed uh we're always looking to save money any way possible. I hope everybody knows that and appreciates that. We discussed maybe going out for RFPs for legal services and or other purchase services for next year. Um, shop around, if you will. And we discussed school lunches.
091Um, there may come a point in time where we end up having to try to pay for that or charge our students. We hope it never gets to that. We hope federal money keeps coming in and maybe the state helps. Um, for the time being, we do have money in our cafeteria fund that we can allocate to school lunches. Um, but at some point that's going to run out and we will have to have a plan for that. And that was all we discussed. Bobby, that was excellent. Thank you. Okay. Um, meeting scheduled. We do have a human resources and personnel which will be on May 13th. That's going to be a busy day. 5:00. Thank you. and student program and services on May 20th at 6:00. Okay. Um, is there anyone wishing to make
092a public comment? Come on up to the podium. And may I remind you that you have a fiveinut limit? Okay. Are there any board comments? Go ahead. Janice is going to go first. Oh, down here. Janice. Um just a reminder that Keen for Kids um will have a series of plays at each of the elementary schools coming up, musicals, and starting with this coming weekend at Charles Wright. They'll be doing Frozen Friday night, Saturday afternoon, and Saturday evening. So check your calendars for all the other schools. They're going to come up in pretty quick succession. Great. Anyone else? Christina? Yeah. Before this board meeting, um I attended the SDMS pack meeting and they're looking for parents to get involved with the parent advisory committee. They're looking for a vice president for sure, secretary treasurer. Um
093tonight was their incoming seventh grade night and it's just a wonderful opportunity to still help out and a lot of parents help out in the elementary level, but secondary education students need, I think, more support, not only as a secondary teacher, but kids need that. They need activities. the teachers need that support to have, you know, uh, student council and kindness club and maybe after school activities. So, I hope that some people out there can consider that. I I did it and it was really rewarding. So, thank you. Great. Great. Thank you. Yeah. I just want to follow up on the joke that I made earlier about John Winer. Um, in all seriousness, I just want to thank John for his work on the building committee thus far. He's basically doing double duty. Um he
094initially started off as just a board member that was supposed to be the liaison to the building committee but he is now the chair of the building committee and he's been providing timely and concise updates and I hope he knows that his work does not go unnoticed. Thank you John. Yes. Thank you John. Go ahead. I guess I have to go next now. Um it's never about me. Um this this project is the reason why I got into this in the first place. Um, it's one of the most important things we're ever going to do as a board. Um, so thank you, Matt. But it's it's about everybody. You know, the committee is a great group of volunteers. Um, TSKP, I was going to say, I mean, I've I I've had the pleasure of working
095with a lot of consultants in my professional career. I know Liz, you probably as well. Um, Michael is a great presenter and I think he's done a great job. Um, and you know, this process has been has been very transparent. We've received a lot of confidence, compliments on its transparency. I think it's it's working great. But it is not just about me, Matt. And I do appreciate that though. Um fun some fun things. A couple weeks ago, I was took I took part in viewing festival choir and festival band. Um it was a both great events. That's why I missed the last building committee meeting. So Michael, now you know. Um I my daughter Claire also took part in both of those events. So it was really great to see. We have a lot of
096talented musicians and singers in this district. Sally, great job. Um it was a really great couple day events uh at the high school. Um and then I was also going to plug the Keen for Kids plays because there is one at Hamner in a couple weeks. Willy Wonka and my daughter is in that. So she said please plug it. Um so Willy Wonka will be at Hamner next next weekend and uh go see it. Go buy some tickets. Thanks. Great. Great. Go ahead, Liz. Thank you. So, you know, I I look back to the different presentations that we've received um since I've been on the board, and we've received quite a few on um the merits, benefits um and the program um around restorative practice. You know, I think we've even been recognized by Yale
097um for our progress in that. But what I would like to hear more about is what we're doing to train our staff around neuro diversity. Um I had reached out to both Superintendent EMTT and Assistant Superintendent Dulli back on April 8th um after our last board of ed meeting and my question was what is the staff um being given in the way of professional development around this type of training. Um Sally did get back to me on April 9th um noting that Michael you would get back to me um you know with a with an answer to that and just having returned from spring break. I just wanted to say I'm looking forward to hearing back from you. Absolutely. Thank you. Great. Thank you, Liz. Anyone else? Jim, I the career advisory board had its
098career fair on April 10th and uh it was well attended. Uh 5560 businesses. Um Liz was there representing the Harford and Mike was there. Uh and I saw many board members pass on through. So that's great. It was a great event. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Well, I just have a a save the date. We'd like people to join us here in the chambers on May 13th at 6:00 as we welcome our new superintendent of schools. It's a warm welcome to Jeffrey Whipby. And on a note of change that we're heading to in so many areas here, a quote. We should strive to welcome change and challenges because that are those are what make us grow. Thank you. All right. And Angelica Data, she's going to fill in fill us in on life at
099the high school. Um, so the first piece of information that I would like to share, a few weeks ago, me and another senior, Melinda Doss, we earned recognitions from the Connecticut Student Writers Project. Melinda earned a gold award for her art piece and I earned a silver award for my poem. Um, thank you always. Um, over spring break we had two trips. One was to Costa Rica and one was to Italy and I've only ever heard from my peers that they had positive experiences. Um, as someone who certainly believes that learning happens in the classroom, of course, it's true measure. It's is how you're able to apply to the real world and these are the perfect opportunities for students. Um and then currently us DEGA students are really excited. We're leaving for Florida to compete
100in at ICDC um this Friday. And then the class of 2026 has their induction ceremony coming up, but they're doing like a rehearsal tomorrow for the National Honor Society. And then lastly, we have the last blood drive of the school year, which is really bittersweet. I've loved um helping out coordinate those. So, those are just some updates I'd like to share. Thank you very much. Okay. Anyone else? I think we're all set. All right. Is there any unfinished business tonight? Oh, great. Okay. Let's have a motion to adjourn this meeting. So, moved. Second. Second. All in favor? I. Nobody's opposed or abstaining. Good night.