March 16, 2023 Board of Education Business Meeting - Part 1/2

001I hereby call the meeting to order now what we have to do is say the Pledge of Allegiance Kathleen I don't know how you did this every time I always get nervous and and forget the words is there anyone here who can help me with the Pledge of Allegiance how great okay come on up please of the United States of America and to the Republic for Richard Stan under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all those are our children from the Old Greenwich School now are you guys is there something else you guys might know what to do for us right now oh cool let's go go ahead foreign good evening chairman Kelly Dr Jones Board of Education members and guests first I would like to thank each of you for your service to

002all Greenwich public school students second I'd like to thank you for inviting the Old Greenwich School cast of Seussical to your meeting this evening on behalf of our entire cast we'd like to invite you to our performance on May 3rd through 5th at Old grand school but what a treat thanks guys and girls that was great awesome uh now uh to our some of our board business let's go to the consent agenda uh I move that we accept the minutes uh from February 23rd special and business meetings do I have a second uh all in favor please raise your hand okay that passes that's seven zero Karen you'll be doing the counting of that thing perfect 6-0 okay thanks guys thanks for coming all right we'll see you good job excellent okay now we have

003the students and staff recognition uh first of all will be the Scholastic art Awards recipients Miss Nixon foreign teachers of Greenwich high school and Eastern Middle School are very proud to recognize our eight Connecticut State Scholastic Art Award recipients from the high school and three award recipients from Eastern Middle School at Eastern Middle School three students earned an honorable mention two silver key Awards and a gold key and the caea arnene best in mixed media award from the high school two received honorable mentions three received silver Awards one of which was also awarded a gold key and a Hartford art school scholarship and three received gold key Awards one of which also was awarded at Hartford a Hartford art school scholarship gold key works automatically advance to National judging in New York City renowned creative

004professionals review gold key works from across the country and jurors select work for National recognition based on three criteria originality skill and emergence of a personal Vision or voice national awards will be announced on March 22nd now in their 100th year the Scholastic art and writing Awards is the largest longest running and most prestigious recognition program for Creative young people in the United States the awards have an impressive Legacy dating back to 1923 and a noteworthy roster of past winners including Andy Warhol Ken Burns Phillip pearlstein red Grooms Truman Capote Richard Avedon Robert Redford and two many more to mention this year alone nearly 2 800 students entered original works from about 145 schools in Connecticut I would like to recognize the art teachers summer Merit from Eastern Middle School and from Greenwich High School

005Lisa skaragne Jamie Charles Cheryl iozo shakiba Bennett Ben kisnell and Liz Vasquez for their teaching and encouragement of all of our students and especially tonight our Scholastic winners I would also like to thank Michael antonuccio wherever you are in the stratosphere for helping with this presentation Jason Goldstein the principal of Eastern Middle School and Ralph Mayo the principal of Greenwich high school for their constant support for the Arts Laura Newell our Arts coordinator Tony Jones and the board of education for their ongoing dedication to providing the very best art education possible for our students in the Greenwich Public Schools as I call your name please come to the front to be congratulated by Dr Tony Jones our superintendent and Joe Kelly our board chair and remain here until everyone has been called up and please

006hold your applause until I have called everyone up Caitlin Quinn EMS honorable mention Isabel dang EMS silver key Lulu Wang EMS silver key gold key and caea armini best in mixed media stay up here Lulu foreign Smith the rest of Greenwich High School honorable mention digital art Nicholas O'Brien ghs honorable mentioned drawing and illustration Julian Lujan ghs silver key and scholarship and art portfolio Lucia Rosetto ghs silver key photography Matteo zatella silver key drawing and illustration lujen Julian also received a gold key in scholarship Casey Tierney gold key photography Amanda Wong gold key Ceramics and glass and Joshua day gold key and scholarship art portfolio okay now you can clap people yeah all right 43 degrees okay now the Scholastic writing award recipients Miss Barry I don't think you need it thank you very much

007and good evening all uh as Ms Nixon said the Scholastic writing Awards is the nation's longest running competitive uh um competitive event for Creative teens and from our region which is Hudson to Housatonic very competitive we have 15 winners in the writing category uh as Miss Nixon said the Scholastic Awards began in 1923 and just as you heard familiar names for art winners over the years many notable writers including Sylvia Plath John Updike Jose Carroll Oates Stephen King many other winners I think you'll be reading some of our writers in the future many of our writers are home writing even as we speak if you are here I haven't seen any of the writers but if you are back there um please stand so you can enjoy some of the Limelight and I will deliver

008I'll hand deliver all of the certificates tomorrow so um strap strap yourselves in because we have a lot of winners we have Miller fish Bank honorable mention for journalism Alexandra gazinski a silver key for flash fiction Chloe Henske honorable mention for critical essay Kristen Jacks a silver key for a short story Hannah klingbell honorable mention journalism Alexa Laura silver key poetry Ashley Malkin honorable mention for three poems and a gold key for flash fiction Ashley Malkin is a this is not her first time winning Bell Nichols silver key for a dramatic script Aubry niederhoffer gold key for a personal essay Shreya Prabhu silver key for journalism and a gold key for journalism treya also won a silver key for a personal essay Ainsley sarback silver key for a short story Natasha samont silver key for

009poetry as Elizabeth Wallace gold key for poetry critical essay honorable mention and Yan winner for the third year ready six honorable mentions for poetry 10 Silver Keys for poetry one so one silver key for where is it oh one I will mention for personal essay and four gold keys for poetry Plus Z One a gold key and the American voices nominee for poetry which means for our region she is one of five students for the region to be considered they will choose one hasn't yet to be named to be the um the poet for the region pretty nice thank you a lot to be proud of there Greenwich school systems are is awesome next is the regeneron science Talent search uh my friend Andy can come up here and talk a little of that hi

010everyone how are you Boyd Joe Dr Jones um I'm Andy bermonte I'm the science research teacher at Greenwich high school now I could say I'm the research teacher for the junior innovators for the middle schoolers and that has been an awesome awesome experience um those are a tough acts to follow yeah I mean I was looking at the little kids and I you know I get to know these I've gotten to know these two young ladies quite well and I was looking at the little kids and I remembered those pictures that you showed me of when you guys were that age I'm thinking wow look at what you've done in so little time um anyway to the regeneron business um so in late February uh regeneron announced their 40 high top students or finalists for

011the regeneron talent search from the 300 Scholars that were picked a week prior um amongst those 40 finalists were two of our ghs research students Angelina Fogerty or Angie as I know her and ambika Grover Angie was selected for her work entitled rapid visual detection of illicit substances in a variety of environments via competitive I mean responsive fluorophores and ambika was selected for work entitled design of a novel dual functioning tissue plasminogen activator and Factor 11 inhibiting anticoagulant therapeutic for Rapid ischemic stroke treatment I'm out of breath just on those right for a change these young ladies are going to tell you what they did which really takes the pressure off for me but before they do Angie nambika represent the 8th and the ninth High School School finalists in the last 15 years from

012the nearly 50 Scholars that we've had at the same time this place is ghs science research the program alongside the most prestigious Science High School specialized schools public schools you name it um being selected as a as a finalist in regeneron places these two young ladies into company with so many talented young scientists that have gone on to become leaders including 13 Nobel Prize winners 22 MacArthur Foundation fellows and more so with these Visionaries Angie and ambika share their love for scientific discovery for the most profound reason and that's their desire to apply their innate Gifts of technological imagination creativity and persistence to help others I'm so incredibly proud of these two young ladies so for their further troubles as finalists they won 27 thousand dollars something like that and I am proud to tell

013you I mean the cat's kind of the bag because it was in the paper today but ambika was only was that two days ago right two days ago was selected as sixth place in that competition and her her winnings total 82 000 she promised me lunch so I'm I'm waiting for that anyway so ladies come on up and uh I think they maybe they queued up your little poster and you could talk about what you've done so uh Angie you want to go first all right I hope you like white oh my gosh what an introduction I feel so special so I'll try to keep this short and as easy to understand as possible um I essentially created a color changing sensor that's responsive to amines which is a class of macromolecules and my vision

014with with this research was to apply it as a sensor for the detection of diphenylhydramine which we commonly know as Benadryl this can be used for users who are at a party or a bar to allow them to rapidly test their drink to test if it's been spiked with any drugs that could help in a Salter to engage in drug facilitated sexual assault so in short I use two fluorescent dyes a green fluorescent dye and a red fluorescent dye this green fluorescent dye is specifically reactive to the amine compounds in those drugs and that leads to the quieting of the dye whereas the red fluorescent dye is unaffected by this and that allows it to continue to fluoresce even in the presence of those drugs and that creates the visual red to green color shift

015I also had to test this with a variety of different additives because um if you were to test this impractical usage with a variety of different cocktails it had to be pH and color stable so I've added mechanisms to ensure that it's able to continue to fluoresce properly in a variety of different environments and lastly to extend This research because it's not specific to just diphenylhydramine applicable to a variety of other admins I've tested it with pyrol this is an amine found in the breath of marijuana smokers but absent from that of cigarette smokers and this allows it to be put into practice for use as a marijuana breathalyzer similar to current alcohol breathalyzer tests for those driving under the influence of illicit substances that is my very short summary because I have a week's

016worth of makeup work to do laughs thank you thank you foreign hello everyone my name is envica so I want to start by before I get into the exactly what I did in terms of my research I just want to start with a really quick introduction of what Strokes are and specifically what an ischemic stroke is so many of you may have heard heard of the term Strokes you may know someone who's been affected by a stroke and an ischemic stroke is a type of stroke in which an artery becomes partially or completely blocked due to the presence of a blood clot or a thrombus and this basically restricts the movement of oxygen glucose and other valuable nutrients we need from reaching our brain and so as a result within a few minutes a patient

017can have life endangering lack of oxygen reaching their brain this can lead to disability and is oftentimes in nearly half the case is fatal to the patient so our existing medicine to treat this disease was approved by the FDA in 1996 and it's known as tissue plasminogen activator or TPA but there's a few shortcomings that I found when I started my research Journey which is that it doesn't localize to the site of the blood clot which means when a patient gets this intravenously it freely circulates throughout the bloodstream and I also realize that we don't stop something known as the coagulation Cascade which is the mechanism by which a clot is actively rebuilt in in real time so in essence there are two problems in treating Strokes the first is that our Therapeutics don't localize

018to the clot site but we also don't stop the mechanism by which that Claw is rebuilt and those are the challenges I wanted to resolve in my research so to do this I engineered this nanoparticle microbubble-like structure which basically has peptides that are able to localize to the site of a blood clot break it down using TPA and then use a factor in 11 inhibiting anticoagulant which basically means we're stopping this Cascade by which the clots are actively rebuilt and so to verify that this micro bubble structure I engineered had worked I created in vitro vertical Channel gel systems which mimic what a clot would look like in the lab and I also Drew my own blood to generate blood clots and to simulate that in real human blood conditions so in essence This research

019holds promise for breaking up blood clots in the case of ischemic strokes but can also be applied to other diseases like heart attacks deep Venous Thrombosis and any conditions in which blood clots are quite prominent thank you so much thank you very much appreciate it I don't know about you guys but the hairs were standing up on the back of my neck about being proud of the little bit of contribution we do up here on the board to the school systems and the products we put out so I just uh wow Andy that's great I got a really good feeling about what just happened so thank you very much for that okay is Lil here and it's now time for the Gea to to speak sorry that's right you guys Student Government we have a

020student body vice president Mitch Goldstein Mitch it's your turn to speak oh it's it's jaw-dropping work that they're doing there it's really impressive actually so good evening everyone board members and meeting attendees like uh chairman Kelly said my name is Mitch Goldstein I'm the student body vice president this year I want to start by addressing several of the items on the action agenda for tonight firstly as I've repeatedly said I cannot express students excitement about adding a linear algebra course the official class will allow students to advance their knowledge and Niche areas of mathematics and help prepare them for more advanced courses that students will take in college all while keeping them in the classroom setting rather than having them take the course online secondly I want to thank I want excuse me secondly I

021want to say that the ghs student government supports the approval of the new entrance May plans although these plans are less extravagant than the original ones it's imperative that something is done to the entrance way to ensure student safety at ghs next on behalf of all the seniors I want to thank Dr Jones for recommending June 15 as a graduation date I know many seniors and especially senior parents are eager to learn the official date for graduation however regardless of the date I know that this day will be extraordinary back at ghs the student government has been working closely with the food services staff and I want to applaud Mr nanarello as Chef Nico and food production coordinator Jessica capozza for their dedication to serving the students I truly cannot express how fantastic working with

022them has been they are incredibly receptive to student feedback and I've done an incredible job of improving food quality in the Cardinal Cafe some highlights of the cafeteria include adding cultural foods which have helped diversify the menu additionally they plan on replacing one of the school's sandwich bars with a salad bar which I expect to be widely popular with the ghs student body on a different note with Black History Month coming to a close at the end of February I want to shed light on a specific on a significant student concern the ghs Diversity Awareness club and its advisor typically organized an energetic week in the middle of February to celebrate the diversity of our community daily announcements are made and optional assemblies are held each day for students however due to Staffing challenges this

023year only a handful of events occurred and announcements were rarely made speaking of Staffing challenges it's interesting to think that the district has not considered hiring a diversity equity and inclusion officer to handle matters like these in future years I hope that Diversity Awareness Week during Black History Month will be as significant as it once was on behalf of the student body thank you all for your time I look forward to continuing to work with the board throughout our final four months of the school year I now pass the microphone over to student body president Isabella gega thank you Isabella straight from rugby practice I hope it didn't weigh you out today I actually got hit in the face today so a little so um good evening chairman Kelly Dr Jones members of the board

024and meeting attendees I am Isabella Geiger the student body president at Greenwich High School in the long month of March students have found themselves pondering on the following school year considering this ghs student government has set out the election packet for the 2023-2024 school year we have decided to move forth with our newly organized structure given its efficiency and we look forward to new leadership in addition to elected positions this spring we have students applying for an opportunity to become class reps in the fall Beyond this seniors have applied for their senior options on School links are Beyond excited for the May 15th internship and projects are an excellent way for students get real world experience and pursue their interests Beyond School those signups were low before the March 15 deadline students turned a corner

025and submitted them on time since the end of the school year is coming fast the senior class has begun prom planning reaching out to commencement speakers to prepare for graduation furthermore the senior class officers have planned activities to excite students for the remaining dates together we appreciate the collaborative efforts between XCOM and ghs administration to ensure that there are feminine products in the girls bathroom we begin with bathroom baskets of products glued to chairs but we have started transitioning to permanent dispensers that we are very excited about providing access to feminine hygiene products is essential for promoting menstrual hygiene management and supporting the needs of girls and women therefore we thank you moreover the ghs therapy dog has been a topic of Interest recently our student gov our student resource officers and the PTA have

026shown unwavering support and recognize the therapy dogs can positively impact the overall well-being and academic performance of our school they can help creative supportive and nurturing environment that promotes learning growth and emotional well-being we hope the correct steps are taken to soon welcome to soon welcome home a new furry friend at ghs finally our school partnered with the Anti-Defamation League to facilitate namesday for our freshman class they engaged in insightful presentations participate in meaningful conversations and reevaluated our efforts to be an ally we as a school are doing our best to combat bullion and discrimination but we can always do better bless you as always thank you for this opportunity and for your time here tonight I look forward to speaking to you all again in a month's time before we lose some of our

027students uh do we have an update on the hockey game that's going on right now anyone know what's happening no okay maybe if you can find out that would be great we could bring everyone up to date the boys hockey team is in the semi-finals of the state championship this evening Joe it's Karen I do have an update they unfortunately uh we're not uh we're not successful in their their uh their game I think they're down they lost five now yeah five nil well okay well thank you for the news you're welcome okay now Lil how do you follow the announcement of the loss of the hockey team I'd like to see you do that and please uh the floor is yours will you can talk now okay I was waiting to get unmuted not

028something that I'm used to all right so chairman Kelly uh Board of Ed members Dr Jones um first of all uh I want to say people know me if I have something important to say I like to be in person unfortunately I could not be in three places um this evening um but my first place the rugby team from Texas that's playing Greenwich today was in the room next door to me and I went in the room and uh spoke with them so Joe do you have an update for me do I have an update for you you spoke to them and unfortunately the Greenwich high school rugby team lost yesterday they did not Prevail it was a uh the team from Texas was very uh confused that that white stuff falling from the sky

029they were unaware of what it was yeah the parents told me so thank you um I will continue now so uh back when I was hired in 1983. uh Ernie fleshman was our superintendent I often heard him say if it's good for students then it's good for Greenwich also when I first became president 2003 my mentor was Joanne salmon a distinguished teacher at Greenwich she also used to say to me that which we tolerate we accept and that what we accept becomes the practice I say this because I know there's lots of construction projects going on in in the town and I'm not going to be the dead horse here I'm just going to be brief on this but why is it that every budget that comes the way of the Town whether it's the

030Boe or School construction is always cut to Bare Bones we need to do better our students deserve the best in our community guys can we please end this madness please support all the budgets that come through next I was very excited um yesterday um uh I spent 12 hours up at the Capitol was there for the news conference where over 600 teachers provided written testimony to the legislatures urging them to pass the comprehensive Bill containing key recommendations there were 167 speakers who presented in person to the legislature um I was one of them among with the other teachers um the education committee is considering two um significant house bills six eight eight four and six eight eight one that would increase Educators salaries and dress other critical barriers to teacher recruitment intentions this Landmark legislation

031would reverse Decades of policy that have led to teacher attrition shrinking teacher pipeline or working conditions and listening to the speeches it's not just about teachers it it's about Paris it's about special education there are a lot of good things that will help not only teachers but Boards of Ed some of the examples are um the which I think this is a big one um the State Board of Education Department is uh one of the legislative laws is that they're gonna have to advisory members for the State Department of Ed 10 of those members totaled five will be distinguished teachers past distinguished teachers and five will be teachers appointed this is important to districts and teachers having teacher representation on the State Board of Education is so important because you will have people with real

032world implications who are in the classroom and have classroom practice with new initiatives that are that are um I'm sorry I just lost my page here so I um it's important because the people up at the State Department of Ed aren't current in the real world what's happening in in the schools the Hands-On practice with technology and having a teacher advisory when they consider new initiatives and having the discussion before they're implemented will save districts lots of money frustration on teachers part for example the CT said's onboarding was a disaster technical glitches and um initiating the pro and initiating certain programs like the the reading program or other programs uh put uh unburdened Financial uh distress on districts that don't need to have that program and it just us doesn't fit so I thought that

033was a big positive uh thing uh for that um there were laws to help with it's all through this the state of Connecticut and the country um plans to help with um financing and helping teachers stay in the program new teachers have all graduates have all these extra test costs um trying to find a way to help support districts to pay Powers more we have we have a sub shortage so a lot of good things are in that bill um and uh I I'm honored to try and uh work on a lot of those committees and give testimonies um because this is this is a collaboration that that the the state and the teachers union can help you know districts and teachers lastly I did notice uh for tonight on talking about um our budget

034on uh when Blaze does his uh presentation I'm going to say this again in the in the presentation I noticed there's 1.6 million of available Grant dollars that will expire on 6 30 23. now if you don't have a place to spend that money and I hope you don't give it back I am going to say again uh that it would be nice to give teachers and pairs that work during the covid because there is a legislation bill that will be moving forward um but it will not uh deal with the people that currently work during the covid uh over these last two years so think about it show teachers they are valued and they work as they do respected our pairs to thank you very much thank you will okay now it's uh Francis

035Uno Bay's turn for PTAC Francis is working together with us to try to uh organize people to march on the St Patrick's Day Parade on Sunday down Greenwich Avenue so far we have about 200 people uh from the school systems who have signed up so uh more the merrier Francis welcome hello this is Francisco nobe mom of three GPS kids and the 2022-2023 president of the Greenwich parent teacher advisory Council as the 15 ptas who make up the Greenwich PTA Council head into nominating season I want to share my PTA journey and why you should consider a PTA role at your school or at the district level my first roles were helping to promote summer reading and stapling International night passports I then moved up to handle handing out ice cream tickets to co-representing remote

036School families I absolutely love working hand in hand with my fellow parents for the benefit of our kids I'm delighted to share my time and talents to making our schools the best they can be I have met so many incredible super volunteers moms dads working commuting doing similar at your schools please join your local PTA today and thank you so much for volunteering turning to Hot Topics in tonight's consent agenda p-tech continues to stand with our Greenwich Public School families and advocate for full funding of our school buildings we will continue to press for full funding until the capital budget is passed we appreciate everything the board of education has done to do the absolute to advance the capital projects at Central Middle School Old Greenwich School Julian Curtis and we call on the board

037to remain unanimous in continuing to represent the best interests of our Public School families and the Greenwich Community it was all of you who had already spent months of thoughtful deliberation determine what's best for our kids there is no reason to reopen the debate on the specifications or the building project Scopes and put the state reimbursement deadline at risk more importantly it puts our kids at risk now as Joe said let's March proudly hand in hand at Sunday St Patrick's Day Parade I'll be there with my kids knowing that we each did our part together to support our kids in closing please join p-tag virtually on March 31 in honor of Earth Day to hear Julie deschamps share all the great progress the Green Schools team has made details and recordings of Prior meetings are

038posted on the PTAC website and see you on Sunday thank you Francis it's now time for Community comments I didn't skip anything did I Kathleen oh good all right uh Dina Orso is first is she online oh there you are Catalina Mora is next good evening Mr Kelly Dr Jones the members of the Board of Education my name is Dina urso and I'm one of the co-presidents of the CMS PTA in speaking on its behalf my co-president Jen bahet and I have been attending the building committee meetings virtually and have followed the conversations concerning the appropriate size of the new building regardless of how many square feet it ends up being the CMS PTA strongly advocates in favor of three things one that the quality of the educational programming must not be compromised two that

039the administrators and teachers must be prominent participants in the conversation this is the group of people who know more than anyone else went a middle school the 21st century needs for this town please continue to hear them as their input is integral especially during these formative stages and three the building committee the Boe and the bet must work together and proactively to keep this project on track June 30th is approaching at warp speed with each week that passes it is not assigned a weakness to be the first to open the lines of communication please do not let egos or red tape cause any unnecessary delay our children in our community need all groups involved to work together as quickly and as efficiently as possible in closing the PTA is very appreciative of all the volunteers

040involved in the process we are more than willing to help by educating and advocating in any way that may be helpful in seeing this process through to the end thank you for your time Katarina next is Courtney Murphy okay good evening chair Kelly Dr Jones members of the board and meeting attendees my name is Katarina Mora I'm an Old Greenwich resident and mother of two children at ogs one in preschool one in fourth grade which is probably the youngest person in the room right now so thank you to my son for handling this I'm here today to speak in support of a much needed much overdue project the ogs renovation project first and foremost I'd like to share my surprise and in fact how appalled I was as a newcomer last year to discover that

041ogs lacked ADA Compliant accessible entrances ramps or an elevator violating not only the law but also compromising the fundamental values of equity and inclusion in public education as a foreigner doing my PhD some time ago here in the US I remember vividly remembering how accessible things were Schools public buildings even national parks and that was amazing and really one of the marble aspect of the this country in my opinion to find out that our neighborhood School must turn away children with Mobility limitations for lack of appropriate access was mind-blowing to say the least secondly and something that troubles me very much is the lack of a recommended secure interest allowing direct visibility of visitors from the main office I confess this might not have ranked high in my radar while living abroad but it does

042rank very high here and it needs to be done now here and it's urgent next where should we go next are the basement where my daughter spends her school day can flood can be encroached by raw sewage and poor air quality during previous pandemic measures and still now when there's coveted positive basis cases classroom Windows must be open even when it's really freezing outside for lack of an appropriate HVAC system how in very hot days children and teachers must endure high temperatures and potential High ozone levels for lack of such a system how should kids and adults with asthma cope with this and how can all our children focus learn and Thrive under search circumstances what are we asking of them that we would not tolerate in our work environment or our homes how much

043must teachers and other staff still overcome to do their job properly lastly as a scientist familiar with climate research and projections I cannot avoid thinking what lies ahead sooner than later we will have more floods more frequent and more intense storms heat waves among among other events bringing this building up to standard farcode regulations protecting it against Storm surges and flooding installing a proper HVAC system that can maintain safe healthy and comfortable environment to our students and staff is not a luxury it's a basic requirement furthermore is also an investment in a local community not only in their school and in the value of their properties but as a safety aspect think for instance in the case of very likely blackouts or shelter shelter emergency needs during this potentially extreme events I mentioned for these

044and many other reasons I wholeheartedly support the ogs renovation as well as the socially and fiscally responsible decision decision to move ahead as swiftly as possible that means now with this and on behalf of my children as well I would like to thank the board of education for its previous unanimous support of this project and I would really encourage you all members to continue to do so it's really important I'd also like to thank our principal Jan bansivengo for the wonderful job at keeping this school running as efficiently and as smoothly as possible under these circumstances and to thank the ogs building committee for their tireless efforts and informative actions they are ready and I hope the bet is ready as well thank you all have a very good evening Courtney your turn Roger rosendal's

045next good evening chair Kelly Dr Jones members of the Boe I'm speaking tonight at the concerned parent asking the Board of Ed to can reconfirm its support for the updated funding of the Old Greenwich School renovation and to ask you to advocate for the BET to support this necessary project my son's in fifth grade at ogs and was part of the Seussical performance tonight I also have a daughter in second and another who will be in K at ODS next year when we were moving out of the City eight years ago we looked for a community that among other factors was walkable diverse and had good Public Schools we've been incredibly happy with the decision to date thanks to the heroic leadership of Jen Ben savingo and all the teachers who make the magic happen

046every day as well as the leadership of Tony Jones and the Boe during the challenging coveted years in particular thank you for all that you do I know I'm speaking to the choir and the many critical needs of ogs are well known at this point but I'd be remiss in not mentioning that in first grade the teacher for my daughter had to create a diaper in the door frame to avoid sewage from coming into the classroom and the lack of accessibility is not just about an elevator it prohibits students with disability or injury from attending it makes assemblies with grandparents or other guests impossible related to security with mass shootings at schools across the country our children are accustomed to lockdown drills we no longer allow our children to enter the door closer to their

047classroom instead having the central door open to avoid potential security breaches however with our school right off I-95 we still do not have a secure entrance with sight lines to the office and the new plans would remedy this and other critical issues including air quality so my requests are as follows the ogs building committee is ready to start construction in Spring 2024 if construction funding is provided by the bet if the BET does not provide construction funding please support the request for incremental pre-construction funding so they can keep moving forward I've heard that the BET and Boe are asking the building committee to explore the cost of new construction while they're creating the schematic design for the ogs renovation I'm a bit concerned that this ask from the bet is coming so late in the

048game over two years after a feasibility study was conducted and a year and a half after the Boe approved the ogs Ed specs construction costs have gone up significantly and we need to face reality it's unrealistic to think that a new construction school would cost the same as a renovation it's important that the Boe and bet move forward on this quickly keeping up with the building committee and support the ogs community our school has a strong consistent enrollment of 400 plus students and ogs residents are tired of this project getting kicked on the road I hope you'll support the ogs project tonight and the Boe will do whatever it can to advocate for the project and keep it on track it's time to make the facility of ogs match the quality of the education not

049only for our children but for generations to come thank you okay Roger I saw him earlier Steve Walker did you see Roger okay well we can always invite him to speak at another interval of the evening okay now we're off to the superintendence report that's you Tony oh yes fantastic um just a couple of items tonight I want to start out um and first of all say so I don't forget a very special thank you to the board of education and this is Board of Education Month and so where we honor and thank you for everything that you do and I mean you are paid just so well for all of your service zero um and the amount of time that you spend in meetings but I don't even think necessarily the public understands how

050much you do outside of these meetings just to get prepared for tonight um so thank you so much and this is on behalf of everybody in Greenwich public schools there is a chocolate bar to help you get through the evening and another little small token of our appreciation um I also want to say congratulations to all of our students who have their work in the district art show that's at 299 Greenwich Avenue it is still up and you can still stop by so if you're down there this weekend for the parade you know you might be able to stop in um also a special thank you to Mike antonaccio who was very Swift and had been working on updating our strategic plan a website and so I know there was a wonderful letter thank you

051to Dr McKenzie Anthony in the paper and the website is up for the community so people can see see the important work that we're doing um we all we did submit our waiver um to the Connecticut State Department of Education and when I was meeting with our state representatives at Western uh it was shared with me that they thought they were going to get 40 waivers from across the state they got well over a hundred so we don't know what the timeline will be because it's going to take a lot longer for them to actually review the waivers and we will be having that on our agenda for next month as requested so they're working on that presentation for you right now and last but not least I do just want to say we did

052have representative Fazio we had Kana our Zinio and then representative Curry who is chair of the education committee all were on site spent several hours at Western touring the school they were got to see classrooms and probably one of the best things was there was a panel of four of the Avid students and just listening to How Avid is impacting our students at that age was phenomenal there was one young lady and I'll just briefly share um she was talking about you know just she didn't know anything about going to college and these are middle schoolers and she didn't know that you had to pay to go to college she didn't know that you really should look at colleges she didn't know what was available and she was actually saying she came from a family

053where she will be the first you know to ever go to college and so she just around the dinner table didn't have anybody to help her have those conversations and now not only with her but her family they're able to do that so I know the alliance has been an enormous partner for us but the work that we are doing our representatives were just so impressed and a special thanks to representative Curry who does not represent us that as chair of the education committee wanted to see the great work going on in Greenwich so we've had a wonderful couple of weeks showcasing just so many wonderful things that you saw tonight as well thank you thank you Tony any questions yes Michael Tony I don't know if you can clarify this or not there was

054a a comment made uh during by the DEA president about an enormous sum of unspent money and things like that is there any Clarity you could provide on that it could be two things I'll have to follow up but we don't have an enormous of unspent money and we're watching every every penny but there is a different grant that actually uh was flowing through for um but it wasn't for like ARP funding it was more for our new special education program so I don't know if that's showing up anywhere but it's not that sum of money so I think it's just the way the report looks right now probably what we can see is encumbered and what is maybe not spent yet but we're still waiting on items no we we're we're going to spend

055that money I was worried about that I was going to ask later on thank you Mike for bringing that up anyone else with a question to the superintendent going once going twice okay we'll move on to our individual reports uh our officers committees and Liaisons who now most of us or all of us who work on building committees will have a time to speak so we don't speak now any other uh uh things that anyone's working on they'd like to update us on Kathleen hi okay Greenwich Alliance uh Julie was good enough to send me some updates so let me just read it here reaching out Grant applications are due on March 24th applications must first be approved by Dr Carabella dare to care a longtime Alliance Grant was featured on the front page of

056the Greenwich time on Tuesday March 14th Dr Alina and Fabian sorry I'm not going to say that right wah hosted a parent-child retreat at North Street school calling glowing and growing to teach mindfulness yoga and craft making centered around making things to calm oneself down Patrick Briggs Avid Eastern director's book at PTAC public session it also LED two professional development sessions at ghs on Monday Avid is much more than executive functioning skills Patrick will be at Western middle school on March 28th and all board members are welcome to attend and learn trivia challenge thanks to everyone who played and our bid on auction items the event raised 30 000 for Greenwich Public Schools thank you that's great anybody else Michael so the Strategic plan committee met a few weeks ago as Dr Jones mentioned the

057um and the websites updated and um you'll please everybody saw um the message from the Board of Ed as a whole in the in the local paper the I know it was at least in one I don't know if it's been the others yet but we sent it to all the local media around just advertising the plan as was adopted last month by us um the other thing that the Strategic plan committee talked about was maybe called the board as a whole charged us with revising or taking a look at the board goals we're continuing to work on that we're hoping to bring that back next month after another strategic plan meeting to to for the board consideration we also talked a little bit about the opportunity I mentioned last month to host a research

058Ed conference at some point uh next year this would be an exciting professional development opportunity to host an international speakers a non-profit type setting really put Greenwich on the map I'll continue to have conversations Dr Jones and then is working on possibly an alliance Grant to help fund that the um and I have meetings I'm meeting with research Ed on Friday what we're going to get some more details we should have some more details to bring the board around those efforts next month and if we move forward then maybe form a Community Committee to to Champion the effort Michael you've been busy thank you excellent anybody else I will jump in with a quick Laura Justin just a short update from the distinguished teacher uh award committee we have to pick up our packets from

059Jonathan over there at have a Meyer uh so that's where we stand we'll be looking at some hopefully great um great nominations for our educators great um I will update myself now I've been working uh a little bit with the United Way and finding out the great work they do uh and uh the important work they do before they kind of reach our schools has been amazing me I didn't realize how much they actually do I know that Tony Works closely with them and uh Dave Raven had explained all the stuff they do and it's just very exciting and I'm learning more and more I went on a the radio radio program just recently with David talking about how we can work together and uh how uh uh how he can or help or I

060can help him help raise private funds to invest in our children so I think it's it's a great project and we'll certainly have to uh support them as best we can uh also we I'm working I'm I'm on a committee uh with uh Ralph Mayo uh with uh Fred Camillo and our athletic director uh for the parade of Champions which we are going to be having in June 11th on Greenwich Avenue Ralph Mayo is trying to decide what level of success of teams will be Marching In This parade certainly the state champions will have that opportunity it's up to Ralph to decide whether it's a it's going to be other awards that have been achieved but we have a lot of great teams in the the athletic program certainly everybody knows that I've uh I

061was very involved in the athletic program for years so I'm very happy to uh to support such a parade of our kids down Greenwich Avenue and honor them we uh uh we hope to make this on Ralph's suggestion we hope to make this an annual thing uh we're speaking to the old-timers Athletic Association to possibly work as our partner to help us run this every year so there's lots of good things to uh uh to bring people out and celebrate our good stuff at our schools uh also as Francis already mentioned that I'm very excited about the uh the massive number of people that would be marching with us uh under the Board of Ed Banner all these different schools will be marching in the St Patrick's Day Parade we will be meeting at 1

06230 on the side of havemeyer building on the upper parking lot at 1 30 and then we'll march across uh or across to the town hall where we begin the marching of the parade all children with parents teachers everybody uh uh Board of Ed members we certainly uh Laura had made up our Board of Ed sign last year our marching sign which we'll be carrying again proudly down Greenwich Avenue for the St Patrick's Day Parade anybody else oh Karen I just have a comment regarding the parade of Champions um I think it's a fabulous idea but I would I'd highly stress that it not be just athletic teams but as your point in talking with Ralph we have such great Champions around the on in all levels whether it's in the Arts and Music and

063um as we saw tonight with respect to all of our wonderful scientists Etc and I think it would be exclusionary just to have it directed at sports but rather have find a way to incorporate for all of the champions in all of the disciplines throughout the high school if that's what we're looking at it's a great suggestion our first committee meeting is on Tuesday I will bring it up in the committee meeting and if you're available we might take other members to the committee and maybe you can uh participate and maybe bring that as far as later on as it's received in the committee uh is that okay yeah happy to help fantastic thank you anybody else okay we will then move off to action items all right we're going to start with the JC

064uh building committee I believe I've got to make a motion to bring this to the floor for discussion is that correct okay good but I make a motion to approve the retention of Anton Nazi Associates as The Architects for the Julian Curtis school project uh may I ask first let me introduce uh Bill Kelly hold on I've got to get a second okay thank you for the second good thing she's here otherwise I'd mess everything up bill has been here a board of ed member for eight years he was a bet member for four years uh he has served on multiple building committees he has been the chair of many building committees uh he is uh he's kind of a good guy too I've been working with him so he's all right so Bill I'll

065turn it over to you thanks Dr Jones I can answer one of your questions for you uh the amount of time that a board of ed member dedicates uh to the school system was actually Quantified when I was on the board in about the year 2000 2001 and we calculated 600 hours a year is what a board of ed member does contributes to the community the chair does a bit more just so you know um it's my pleasure to be here my name is Bill Kelly I'm the chair of the Julian Curtis building committee and I've gotten to know Julian Curtis uh the school system uh the school and Trish McGuire the principal who is fabulous and um so we're seeing what we can do for Julian Curtis we um we had about five or

066six uh Architects coming for the walk around but they were scared off a little bit by the phasing of the project because it was kind of convoluted for them we ended up however with Anthony Associates who um chairman Kelly and myself and the entire committee is very fortunate to have uh they're they're very good they've got strong recommendations and we would like to meet with them tomorrow and get started um so we have a meeting at 7 45 a.m tomorrow and um I would seek the approval of the Board of Ed in order to enter into negotiations with them so that we can get a contract done and get rolling on Julian Curtis and as I said in my notes to you we would start off with uh one and 1A which is the elevator

067in the Ada and then hopefully if the security and the front entrance was approved for 800 000 in may we would then supplement and the contract and get that rolling and we also have enough funds in our architectural design funds to start to look at the cafeteria and then we could come back to you with uh real plans real ideas um and then our job is to you know work with the BET and the Board of Ed and the community and see what we can do so that's it thanks Bill uh any questions for Bill thank you Karen of this one almost you almost got away no no no that's fine that was a great idea by the way I wanted to tell you oh braided creative Champions when you see the two oh me

068Jesus ischemic strokes and I'm like I'm sitting here going oh my God but it was always it was always whenever I was on the board event it was the same thing these kids would get up and they'd just blow you away that was probably the best part of being on the board it was really the communication with them and the fun absolutely I appreciate that no no it's fine um my microphone and I just go trust me Joe has the same problem it's a it's a Kelly thing you know we were working on so my my question to you is um was this the only firm that didn't shy away from the fact that the phasing or did we have other options now this was the only firm who put in a bid and so

069we were gonna we were thinking about coming back and rebidding but they were so good and they were so knowledgeable um we decided to go with them we think they're we we strongly recommend them to you have they done any other working for Greenwich Public Schools yeah they have oh they have yeah they have okay so they know they know the system which is if you don't know the system of the town of Greenwich and how to get things passed and stamped you're you're done for and they do okay no those were that was my my two questions I noticed the other references here for the other districts that they'd worked on yeah Dan Watson has worked with them and he likes them okay all right he put his stamp of approval really if he

070had said no or he had wavered in any way you know Dan and Dan Joe and I are tight we working together so now I'm worried it should be it was sort of like I'm an area right there right so like that I think it was right right right St Patrick's Day tomorrow guys not yet okay anybody else for a question about the JC project okay let's take it to a vote thanks though [Music] no oh Karen oh yeah yes so I just had a one quick question because in the document that you provided to us uh the phase uh phase one through four uh you said was a total of um 250 000 and then uh the bid was 416 800 can you just explain to us what the difference between the you know

071what else was included after the 411 no we're just we're just dealing with the number 411 that's all we're going to deal with and they know that okay I don't I don't have any more I don't have any more money for them so I go okay so right so they submitted a bid for 416 but we're going to be looking towards the contract before 11. yeah we're not going to do a contract for 411. we're going to do a contract for the phase one and one a which is only going to be about 99 000 and then we'll supplement it with phase two which will be about another sixty thousand so we'll go with that we'll go incrementally until we have buy-in from the bet when border that as to what we can do and

072we will certainly come with you with to you with a plan so okay thank you for that clarification in favor that's right that's right okay let's call the question all in favor uh raise your hand and Cody and uh Karen how do you know in favor Karen yes I vote in favor thank you and Bill thank you all very much I appreciate it thanks okay see you tomorrow morning Bill thank you okay next for efficiency's sake I have been try I tried it out once on on Michael and it worked very well I am going to transfer my superpowers as a board chair uh to Christina to run the uh uh the entryway discussion so so transferred thank you Joe um I'm gonna put we have two motions on the table um slightly revised ordering

073on one of them so and Mike antonacio I'll send it to you um the first motion is that we approved the Greenwich High School secure entryway project final plans and specifications dated February 27 2023 as corrected for scribner's errors and the addition of an ad alternate for glass at the security desk and professional cost estimate dated March 15 2023 to be submitted to the office of school Construction Grants and review for approval to advertise to bid may I have a second Mr Kelly I'll give it to him and I'm going to make the other motion just because they're all kind of linked together um the second motion is that we approve the educational specifications for the Greenwich High School entryway project originally dated March 27 2020 approved by the board April 24 2020 as revised

074March 15 2022 approved by the board on March 14th 22 2022 and is further revised March 16 2023. may I have a second um I know these are very wordy and lengthy but as we've learned through through the high school entryway process you have to be very technical when you're dealing with the state in terms of the things that are said um so I'm going to turn over the microphone um so to speak to our building chair Mr Steve Walco just since we're recognizing our building chairs this evening I just want to Steve's an amazing building chair he should share all building committees I could say that he would not agree um he served on the air on the RTM for many years he said a long service at the town on the RTM he

075chaired the boc he served on the bet for a decade including was a chair he's been our state representative and this is not his first not his second but his third building committee um he served on him and Fulton him out were you the chair of that no okay but he did share a New Lebanon and he's the chair of the high school entryway so and he runs a great meeting so so if anybody's really excited on a Wednesday morning they can listen in um so Stevo fill in on the project thank you good evening everyone uh we are here to hopefully finalize uh the process before we head to the state and then hit the ground running uh to go out to bid for a GC and an owner's rep uh there was some

076commentary tonight about you know sort of town of Greenwich and lack of funding this is not the case for this project we certainly thank the Board of Ed the bet the RTM for their support of this project both initially and also when we came back for additional funding uh some months ago as you all know this is a smaller project but still one that is going to meet the uh the desire and the Ed specs it is a security vestibule we have given you renderings as we have right now as to what it will look like both outside and inside certainly if you look at those renderings there is a pop and there is a pride in the front office now if you've been there recently you can I think you can agree with me

077that there is no Pride or pop at our front main office at Greenwich High School um I call your attention though to the very last rendering and that is uh the security desk there is a little bit difference of an opinion uh not only with the committee but with the Board of Ed professional staff um in the base bid that we're going out with we are not including uh security glass for the security desk that is within the vestibule um there's a difference of opinion whether or not it's too institutional versus the safety factor which is obvious we have uh included it as an ad alternate and so if there is money uh and if you all tell us that that's a good idea and give us some direction uh we would certainly include it

078I think it's it doesn't need to be decided today it's certainly down the road uh but something that that you all should consider and if you have an opinion let us know if you don't have an opinion we'll make the decision as the time comes uh the other AD alternates uh is to glaze the front side of the glass quarter if you're facing this new vestibule to the right and the other at alternate the third one is additional benches and additional Hardscape to the Landscaping so it is not for landscaping is for hardscaping that would make the the front Circle a little bit nicer we already have 30 000 from the PTA so we'd like to thank them for that but but there's still some work to be done we're fairly confident that we're going

079to be able to hit this budget because we used the budget of the estimates that were provided in terms of round numbers uh the total construction estimate that we have just from our architect not from an estimator is about 2.5 engineering and Architectural costs about 275 owners rep to to reimburse for the state of 40 owners rep for the project 137 we have included a contingency of about 10 percent and so you're looking at a budget of rough numbers of about 3.28 and our total allocation is 3.5 so notwithstanding the fact that we have a 10 contingency we still feel like we're we're in a good place we would go out we would we were supposed to meet with the state on the 22nd of March if we do that and we are approved within

080let's say two weeks of that crossing our fingers uh then we would be able to go out to bid in the beginning of April get back bids award a contract by mid-may and then have shovel in the ground as soon as the students leave the building in June and do most of the heavy construction as much as we can through the summer months uh with that uh uh I'll entertain any questions if that's okay yes are there any questions from Mr Walco Mr Kelly thank you thank you Steve that was very nice I just want to make something very clear because I didn't participate in any of the meetings and had Noah uh major discussions but we reduced the scope of this project correct okay have we changed the level of security that this project

081will provide to the school by going from one presentation to now this reduced scope is the security uh the same the security has not been compromised by this as I said uh previously though this is the main security issue at Greenwich High School it does not solve all of the security issues at Greenwich high school but this project adheres to the ad specs and addresses the security concern as as equally to what was in the prior project thank you again if I might add to that Joe it really it's not a reduced scope it's a reduced size scope is the same so the only item in the Ed specs that changes um from the last version to this is purely going from 2200 to 1100 square feet because the state's going to want that to

082match up thank you anybody else with any questions Karen or Cody no questions for me I I don't have a I don't necessarily have a question but to your point um I do think that it would make sense um at a later Board of Ed meeting to put the question of of security glass as an agenda item because they um I think it's I think it's a valuable discussion to have it's not cheap I'll tell you that um all right um so I'm gonna call the question I'm gonna I think I'm gonna do it as two motions since I made it as two motions so on the first motion which is the drawings and specifications and cost estimates Motion One can I all in favor raise your hand Cody and Karen all right you can

083put me down as abstaining Cody's I'm saying Karen this is Karen worship yes yes so that's 701 thank you and on the second motion which is just the revised Ed specs where the one changes the square footage all in favor raise your hand um Cody and Karen same for me I'm sorry what oh this uh abstain again abstain again and Karen uh I'm voting yes okay so seven zero one thank you everyone thank you Steve thank you thank you Steve and you could when we giving those superpowers you could pass them past me and off to Michael our next agenda item is the Old Greenwich update which will go to Mr mercanti and Dr mercanti Anthony thank you thank you thank you counselor um so I want to make a motion and again this is

084uh much like uh Christina's is slightly amended from in the agenda um there's an extra sentence here so the the first motion um to get this on the table the board reaffirms its commitment to move forward on the Old Greenwich School renovation project understanding the updated estimate project costs that the building committee provided last week of or last month excuse me of 39.35.9 million if in fiscal year 24 and 38 million if in fiscal year 25 and recognizing that the building committee will provide updated cost estimates based on a schematic design for renovation as well as the cost for possible new construction the new addition not on the previous agenda should funding be postponed the bog requests 1.08 million in fiscal year 24 to complete the pre-construction work of the Old Greenwich building committee like

085just a point where everyone just like be postponed or I think you want to be specific about what year when you say postponed in fiscal year 24. thank you um then the second motion a motion to direct and authorize the OLG building committee to start the municipal improvement process okay so those two motions and I see Mr Kelly seconding both motions okay thank you Mr Kelly okay the motion is seconded um so with that um let me introduce uh bring invite back um the Old Greenwich building committee chair James Waters no stranger to the board of ed he was just here last month's the um but um you recall last month we had a conversation about the different funding structures and obviously it was been some conversations since then since then about old goodness we

086wanted to bring him back to answer any questions before entertaining this motion James all right good evening everybody uh it's nice to see you I think this is actually the third meeting in a row um and hopefully I can give you a break uh for a couple months we'll see if we can get you a candy bar except you uh but I was just gonna say but don't hold your breath because we're moving forward diligently but quickly um I'll be brief the purpose of the Motions before you tonight are straightforward first we're asking you to confirm that we updated the project estimates for you last month you'll recall this update is solely related to incorporating realistic cost escalations from 2020 to present and a more standard 20 contingency for renovation second we're asking for your

087support removing the ogs project forward as quickly as possible even if the BET will only provide incremental a e funding in the coming budget the building committee has concluded that we need an incremental 1.1 million 1.085 million you've seen the number before an a e funding to complete the pre-construction process third we're asking for your support for moving the ogs renovation into the municipal improvement process we're starting the schematic design process aiming to complete it by June at that point we'll have professional cost estimates on our chosen design and we'll share the design in those estimates with you I'm hopeful we'll find savings from the estimates discussed last month in parallel the ogs building committee will be putting together a rough estimate on a new construction ogs I've talked with our architect and owners are

088up about it and we'll get our engineers and construction manager involved this will be additional work that I guess will come out of our current a e funds but we'll give you a picture at the relative cost of new construction versus the cost of renovation as as per schematic design when we provide these numbers to you this summer I hope we can make a good and expedited decision on which path to take it's clear to me sitting in my seat that the Old Greenwich community and the building committee do not want us to slow down I could talk more but I'll reserve it for questions thanks for listening uh and thanks for having me uh so a couple questions so I saw the flow of emails this week and maybe even last regarding this cost

089of a new school versus Renovations so what do we have an estimate of what it would cost for the current crew to put together what the cost of a new school would be and what are they going to base it on simply a rebuild of the news of the current school and its formation because it'd be a little hard I guess to say what something would cost when you don't have Ed specs for the entire school so I'm just curious as to how they're going to be out to create that yeah um so this is going to be a moving Target for us um I think the big one of the big things from my perspective that we need to um have a look at is um uh you know just a rough ballpark of

090school size right I think that's going to be an important driver of this um uh you know we have some comparative examples that we can use we certainly know how many students and classrooms are at the current ogs and I think it's kind of why I call it a rough estimate we're not going to have Ed specs but our Architects have done this kind of project before um where you know it's sort of uh conceptual in nature so it's a great question um the other the other thing that's on my mind is if we were to head in that direction how does um uh how do we how do we do that in a flood zone because we're going to have to raise uh it's going to be significant amount of site work uh we

091are in a FEMA AE flood zone um so yeah that's going to be I I think we shouldn't underestimate what that is and the the other thing we have we have we do have I think you probably did see in that flow of traffic we we do have like I mean we have the cost of new construction in the state of Connecticut uh on a dollar per square foot basis you know it's something like over the last few years it's something like 734 dollars a square foot so I know that's being discussed in other projects um we did we did the homework we did the research we did the math we know those are the numbers um so you know we'll we'll see we'll get it we'll get uh um construction manager involved to talk

092about look at constructability um we will get people to sort of Leverage their professional hats to give us real numbers so that that's kind of how I'm thinking about it I don't have it exactly all mapped out because obviously you know my top priority here is what you guys have authorized us to do which is the Ed specs and to get our schematic design done we will get that done thanks um I think it's much of what I said at the last meeting right and I was a little bit surprised to see this back here because I feel like we all sort of showed our support at the last meeting um and my only concern with this motion is that I don't like the option of the one million um I think that this has

093been I mean I know I have now been on the board the longest we've been talking about this for a very long time the OG Community uh deserves this building as fast as possible and to me it's just flat out wrong to delay it another year um I'm not sure I have any other options in front of me but I just wanted to express that um that's my issue with this motion I think it should be 30 you know 5.9 million now in fiscal year 24. thanks thank you foreign Kathleen that I think you know we talked we talked about it a lot the last meeting that this project is ready it's ripe um it's moving on a very quick path because um its scope is very defined and we've got a great building committee

094and it's it's very clear this is what the community wants um I think I don't know if infeasibility a new building was ever discussed I don't think there's an appetite for it in the community not even getting into the a dollar if dollars were Awash the community doesn't necessarily want it so um but I think to satisfy the bet I understand their concern so I think um James I applaud your willingness to work with them um but I'm with Kathleen I I'm okay I'm okay I you know no okay I think this project should move forward in fiscal year 24. I don't I can't say it any clearer than that however I can make that request but I don't control the purse strings and I don't want this project to be left without the architecture

095and engineering money that is necessary and if the motion is the way to get the BET to focus on both the project and its preparation and its Readiness and with the understanding that we've communicated very clearly to them that we want this project to move forward with all due speed um and but we understand that if you're if the BET makes a choice not to go ahead to fund the project next year we do need money to keep it moving in 1.1 million can I just chime in one thing um so you know uh We've we've had some discussion about this about this um um I I look I I share a sentiment I just wanna I wanna move it move this forward as quickly as we can we are ready um one thing that

096I I do want to say and just make sure I think you guys are all tracking on it but it's probably appropriate to say it in in a sort of this forum is you know if there is there's some some decision to be made in June or in the summer time frame and and we decide to shift course um um the building committee would certainly urge the Board of Ed to proceed with haste and and to proactively manage the potential for controversy about this um and be prepared for it and and with historic building Advocates uh it's a 121 year old building um so um my view would be if we do get to a point where we shift focus and um had already been anticipating construction funds in next year's budget I would encourage

097this board um to move forward with haste in next year's budget as well uh there's no no you know no reason that we need to wait on Ed specs um you know we can we can move forward we can help you with that um and and I think we will have this a year from now we will have this knock on wood ready to go so so I I did want to address a couple of points one being on the the feasibility study because I was part of that committee um with respect to the feasibility no we did not find determine or want to look at what a new school would cost because the overwhelming support from the community was to keep that school that school is Iconic it has a lot of stories it

098has and it serves the purpose for that Community but it needs some Renovations it needs some additions it needs some issues to be addressed and I think that you would have all of the Old Greenwich community and probably the likes of many other communities who walk down that sound Beach Avenue and look at that school and say are you kidding why would you ever get rid of something that is just so darn beautiful and something that is such a piece of our community and defines what Old Greenwich is about so the short answer to the question is we didn't entertain it anything beyond um well do we need a new school and the answer was no we just need to fix the one that's here because that's what they want and so while the BET

099has requested this information and I think it comes along the lines of other schools New Lebanon was built for something a little bit more I get it but I just think it's the wrong choice I personally think it's a waste of time and money uh and I would I strongly support the Ed specks that we had approved but a year and a half ago now and we worked really hard to get them um I like them I I hope to formulate them so I think that they they are they are what we need on the second point I strongly encourage and think that Old Greenwich is ready to go and I would be sad to see it fall in the next year but I do think that we are at a point for this board

100to really consider what not only what are our priorities are but what message that we want to send in October or was it sorry maybe it was December we voted on this is it December you're right October so sorry October you know we we knew at that time and had conversations we put both schools in our Capital plan and what I'm referring to is Old Greenwich and CMS because we didn't have enough information at the time to understand where we would be and we didn't want to put one in versus another because we didn't want to lose the opportunity for one of those schools to go forward particularly if the one we chose wasn't ready and we knew that two schools wasn't going to get done and we took us on to the meeting that

101night realizing that we needed to reevaluate and make a decision as a board as to what our priorities were with respect to what our priorities were going to be with respect to schools once we had more information now do we have perfect information at the point at this point in time no we don't but we do have more information and I think we're coming to a point where we as a board need to make a decision and do our job we know both schools aren't going to get built and I don't feel that we as a an elected board are doing our job by simply saying well we want both so we'll pass it to somebody else we know it's not going to happen we need to make a decision and I think we're at

102a point in time where we need to do this make that decision do our job and send a clear message CMS whether it's gets done this year or the following year we'll have to decide right now if I look at all the facts before us and I know Ms costen's going to speak soon about where we're at but we've heard what's going on and we know what's going on um in my opinion Old Greenwich is probably in a much better position to move forward and get done than CMS is at this point in time we're going to talk about CMS coming forward but I do think that CMS is a huge project and we need to do it right and I'm really afraid that pushing forward on CMS because we have so many issues to

103deal with there is going to be rushed and it's not going to be done right and the problem we'll run into is the fact that it may not it most likely won't be ready maybe it will maybe it won't because we'll say it will be and I know that I hear you Laura I'm very concerned it won't but I don't have that much of a concern as it relates to Old Greenwich and it's not because of the failings of one board versus the other those building committees have worked very hard and I respect them they are volunteers they get paid 0-2 and I they meet more now than these this board does I get that but I do think we have you know a Day of Reckoning is coming and we need to make a

104decision I fully support Old Greenwich going forward and I see that as the more viable option at this point in time I see Karen online and then we'll go to um hi thanks I just wanted to say you know I think we we have had a discussion in the past and saying how much we fully support uh the needs of the Old Greenwich school and Community um and uh you know I I fully support this going ahead as it is um I recognize uh what Karen is saying in in some regards but we are doing what we are being what we have been tasked to do as a board uh we've been tasked to support our schools our students who provide them with appropriate learning spaces um that's what we're doing we're putting those forward

105we've been putting them forward for quite some time um we're at the point where we really are are ready ready to go with this school um and it's not really it's it's unclear to me why we're being put in a position yet again and being asked to place one school's needs ahead of another uh we made it clear they're both in need um it's and it is for us to be able to put those things forward um you know to to you know to be funded and to be supported by uh you know members of our community and so I think that's what we need to do um it's not it's not about one school versus another it's about both schools uh that need to to get this work done and we need to start

106moving forward we can't keep pushing this off any longer yeah just just to clarify I don't think there's anything I certainly am reading anything in the in the wording of the current motion that is putting uh one school in in front of the other so I just want to clarify no I I was just simply referring to you know um Ms Kowalski's comments about you know a one project versus another that's why I didn't say the same I didn't say that well you were just I know I'm just saying in in reference to I you know I don't have the exact words but I just wanted to say I just don't want to be putting this comparing one versus the other that's all I think it's important we support both Laura so uh I just

107want to say that our vote for our Capital request was our voice it was my vote of support then it is still my vote unchanged in support now I think we have the means in this town to do both and you know with approximately 93 million at last glance in our rainy day fund let the BET look the Old Greenwich community in the eye and try to justify a vote against funding for this school I think I am all in on CMS JC and Old Greenwich so that's my vote of support go ahead Christine no no I just I think we many I think we all feel the same way I think um to Karen Hirsch's Point our role um is to advocate for what we believe our students need and we all I think

108we all agree that our students need both facilities um I don't think it's our job to tell the BET um which should go first because I think we do want both um and it's incumbent upon them to find a way to pay for it I think they've created a construct of a capital ceiling I know this is the biggest capital budget in the history of the town but these are exceptional circumstances and I think there's years of deferred projects not not a single one of our Master facilities plan projects has been done so that's six years um that we've been waiting and so maybe when after you wait six years you have to kind of ante up so my view would be I think it's fully appropriate for us to ask for both um and

109that's what I I believe we should do and I think the one thing that's good about this motion is it confirms to the bet that we accept the new figures on Old Greenwich now that more vetting has been done by the committee and a more realistic number has been put out there so that should it come back down the road we can say that we acknowledge that that's the cost of a renovation um based on our building committee so I think that's helpful Kelly thank you I said this last minute I'll say it again I love all our building committee children all the same uh I would like to call the question fair enough the um I have some comments um on CMS but I don't want to but that's the next agenda item so

110I'm going to hold my my comments there because I do think there are some some questions there but as far as this motion let me just reiterate what I think I'm hearing everybody saying and I certainly agree with like the wording of this motion is designed just that to try to move this project forward as quickly as possible and I think there is I'm hearing pretty much getting anonymity on the board that we all are believers in this project um so the question has been called so all in favor foreign excuse me all in favor of Motion One excuse me one two three four five Cody yep Karen yes okay so I think that is seven oh a post so seven zero one and then all in favor of motion two or on the initiating

111the municipal improvement process in favor thank you Cody is a yes it looks like in Karen yes okay that passes 8-0 thank you James thank you James Michael could you pass those magical superpowers I yield to the uh the The Honorable gentlewoman from uh Michael building perspective