001June 4, 2025. It's the building grounds and transportation committee meeting. Uh tonight present for the the meeting is Mr. T, our facilities director, Dr. Layman, assistant superintendent, Miss Porter, Miss Fabiana, uh Miss Chararma, and myself, Peter. Uh we're going to start tonight's meeting with our first item on the agenda, which will be the Apple broad grant project update from Mr. T. Yes, good evening. So, the Apple projects, as you know, we are contracted for everything and really right now kind of waiting for school to get out. So, as soon as school lets out, we'll be moving in full force. Um, the room contractor has been contracted. We've ready to go. The electric contractor, as you know, has been ongoing for some time. And the HVAC contractor has mobilized. If you've been by the school, you
002see a lot of storage containers out there. That's the HBAC equip I'm ready to start installation. We've been doing some exploratory work in anticipation of it's really just wait till they get out the door and then we'll have a full steam ahead. The electric as you know is the piece that we're waiting on. We have a commitment on June 16th from P JCPNL the transformer we're waiting on and we're still with the late date for the delivery of the other components which we are exploring other avenues to see if we can get some assistance a way to expedite that. Uh I spoke yesterday with Bill Castello from Epic for the construction management company in the state. Uh obviously a resident of the town and you heard about it. He offered to lend some assistance but
003he did say on some of their larger projects the same challenge. They said they have a project with a 14month uh completion schedule and the delivery for their transformer is seven months. So they said it's kind of an industry standard now that they're seeing but that they will do everything they can to assist us. So see where we go again. continue to monitor it and work on our plan B should be necessary. You want me to give an update on plan B? Sure. So, uh, in working on a plan B, we've been exploring two situations. Uh, one of them being the Monro Township Middle School with the trailers and utilizing the building inside as well as an off-site location. Um, we have a strong well-bedded plan to utilize the middle school at this point. Um,
004it would involve minimal impact on the middle school. Uh it's natural as we've discussed the contraction of the middle school with the with the potential removal of the trailers. Um delaying that removal of the trailers allows us um to house a large portion of those Applegard students. Um and we've worked uh the building administrators have teamed together and developed a very very thoughtful and thorough uh integration of the Avagar students there. So um that is one option if we need to head in that direction. And then like I said, another one's an off-site location. It's a former school. And uh we are we've provided them with our expectations and our regulations and inspections that they would have would need to meet. Um we we are in contact with them and uh we're vetting both options.
005We our communication plan for our parents is going to be um certainly by the end of the school year, hopefully sooner, communicate out um the framework of what our plan B would be if we have to go down this road. Again, we're doing everything everything we can to not have to uh impact our students at Alpagarth. But if we do, we will have uh a framework of this communicated and we will have regular updates through the summer um with you know any changes in terms of shipping dates and things. Um but just for the sense of comfort and uh asurances, we have a well- vetted plan right now that involves a middle school uh using the trailers in the main building which minimally impacts middle school students that are going to be there naturally. Um
006as well as we are continuing to vet out a secondary outside location question. I just had one comment. So um and just supportive comment that um I know that when we first came across the situation middle school Dr. Chandley had mentioned middle school and I personally also had a huge hold back against that because I did not want any impact on our middle schoolers but I just as Dr. just said we were going to let go of the trailers that we are not going to let go of for the next two months uh next 3 months and the attrition the the enrollment has come down significantly and given that we have even space in the main building it's just a it um everything is the start of aligning in our favor so this this is
007looking very hopeful right now that was comment thank you Next up on the agenda is the ESUP project update. I provided the committee members with a overview report. It shows you our progress to date. We don't get a chance to look at it, but we've primarily completed lighting in Oak. You can kind of see the before and after. We're about 95% done there. Apple Garden next. Uh we've also been doing the building envelope improvements. Uh Barkley Brook will be wrapping up from tomorrow. It's going to be going really well. Like David soon from facilities is overseeing supervising at night. Um, you know, as soon as we got started, first thing we did is first couple days is go into the teacher classrooms and ask them, hey, how was the life? Because it's a little different,
008right? And they were all very positive about it. So, very nice. Um, so the clock is ticking on the money that we're saving now because as the old tree is running, it's costing us a lot less, a lot less money. So, things are moving along well uh with the lighting and building envelope. I mentioned in my weekly report last week that I attended the planning board meeting because there was a submission on our behalf for the canopies that are scheduled to go out here at the high school. Those submissions are courtesy only in that the planning board cannot rule yay or but they ask very probing informative questions. Um they want to make sure that our security staff coordinates with the police department in terms of the canonies in place. Will lines of sight be
009affected? uh will our security cameras still get the full range of motion. So all that has been taken into account. They were supportive of the project. Um you'll see in this week's report, you may have seen if you can drive into account. We've got drill rigs out of here. Drilling geotechnical sampling for where the canopies are supposed to go to make sure the earth is stable. Design is moving. So there's a lot progressing with that as well. So everything's moving. That drilling was for the solar canopies. What canopies are? Yes, the solar can the canopies go here in the parking lots. Okay, that's great. Okay. Uh, next up we have lead and water testing. Um, can I just comment on the project? So, I had a question but before that the light I call it
010the happy light. Honestly, I I'm never a fan of yellow light and I saw your pictures and I've heard from people around there's happy light in our classrooms and just to see it in two schools is amazing. I'm really so grateful to see quick results on these easy wins. What is a building in love? So, it's in simple terms, it's uh insulated, talking, insulation, sealing, filling in cracks, door sweeps, those kinds of things. And so, we covering we're kind of inspecting the whole building, finding out opportunities and taking care of those. So, that was done in the in the pre. So, we had engineering. So, we already know where to go. Yes. Already know where to go. That's been contracted for and that company has been coming in. If you leave here tonight and happen
011to go around the back of the building here, you'll see two storage containers that we have on the back lawn there and that insulation crew has started here. We have lighting coming in here. So, it's So, while I really like the report that we got from Honeywell that you shared, uh it doesn't say where we're going next. Like, it shows the progress, which is great. It showed what we worked on, but there's no like I there's no what do I what are we anticipating next? Which building are we looking at next? There is actually a schedule in the back. Oh, all the way in the back. Yes. last stage. Okay. A lot of it is real far the chillers, boilers, all that kind of stuff. That is really next year stuff. So in design, as
012we know, those are 12 14 month delivery for those kind of items. So that's where your big stuff's going to happen. But we're on target through the end of this summer, early September to have all the lighting done, all the building envelope stuff done and um start get ready for the HC. Yeah. There's only scheduled till June though, right? So it'll be a monthly report. It's a month. Overall, we go out to 2026 when we get the chillers and we'll know better once those orders have been finalized. So, it's a design process first. So, over the last couple weeks, I worked with them on the boilers for the middle school. You know, we had a previous design done on that. We looked at load capacities. Uh boilers today compared to the boilers in 1997 when
013those were put in much more efficient. So, we're able to scale down. um made some design revisions there. They're now in purchasing for that equipment. Once it's they've got their purchase orders issued and we get confirming delivery dates, then we'll we thank you. Uh next up is the lead and water testing. Uh this is a mandatory requirement. um provided the committee with the 155page report and in very simple terms the testing agency comes in draws water samples from every potable water source in the district every water fountain kitchen etc etc and any that come any over the 15 parts per billion threshold we then have to do action first step is to shut them off so we had a handful of locations uh where we came in just above so all those have been shut
014off we've arranged for retesting and that'll will be happening shortly. They also missed some in their first uh round through you'll see in the report saying could not find etc. You may recall that in this year's budget we had uh in for the replacement of a lot of water fountains with the bottle fill stations. So that work is ongoing that's being done by our staff. So they went to where water fountain used to be and there's a hole in the block wall right now because we're as those things that are shown as non-existing uh will be taken care of. We'll get a second round of reports in. I think we'll we'll be clear on this. None of them were, in my opinion, overly alarming. Um, think we'll be in good shape. The process is Dr.
015Raymond has a letter that goes out to the staff at those buildings providing all the data. The reports will be posted to the district uh website. All the information is there. Um, pretty straightforward. And the other process to this is this is one of the few things where when the state came out said you had to do this that they provide the funding for it. So, very nice. As we wrap up, you know, I have the first purchase order be issued for what we've done to date. Then I've got to get orders in for the retesting which is underway at the end. I submit it all in August and then we get reimbured from the state up to x amount of dollars. If I have a question on the middle lake auxiliary. So like you
016said, they turn off the taps where they have but of the five locations tested, three had an issue. So the the two are only so are there is it is there going to be a shortage of you know open locations this is is this the um the enrichment building what is lake auxilary is that the yes it's the childare so is there a shortage of outlets that they can use while we go through the second round? No so in those situations a lot of classrooms you have a sink in the classroom that'll have faucet but they also have the bubbler beside it. Okay. Um, and you'll see in the report some of them couldn't access or covered. Uh, what we found is that certain teachers in some of the rooms don't want the students accessing
017the budlers because special need students. So, they had them cut off. So, we'll show them the report as not being able to test was because the teacher doesn't want it there. So, we're just going to remove those. We might not understand that. So, everything that is in the master plan when we did this, this is our third time testing. So when you do the initial and this came in what eight years ago, seven years ago, uh we had to catalog the entire district. So we have a mastery summary of every probable outlet in the district and then we work through that. So as changes happen, for example, you'll see in here um they couldn't find outlets in a certain room. Well, that is what used to be the photo lab. Uh some board members might
018recall we turned renovated photo lab into classrooms. So those things are no longer there. That's why their show is missing. Okay. So, the master report. Where is the fieldhouse? Uh by the football stadium. What we use for concession? Is that all the field house? Okay. So, u So, there's two out of six there. So, those would be closed, but there is still water available there. Yes. To use. Okay. And what does a QAQC blank sample mean? Uh quality control. So for every x number of water samples they draw, they have to draw a blank, send in a blank. So it's their way of calibrating and validating what they do. And the blank is not from that water source. No. Okay. Okay. Thank you. Those are all the questions I have. And we would get a
019second report within how many months? Uh probably by July. So, I've got them scheduled to come back out within the next week or so. We got a purchase order going through. They have to get a purchase order before they can come back out. So, we have them rescheduled to come back and test that fail. And and your results so far are comparable to previous years, Mr. P. It's gone down significant. Oh, great. Yeah. Thank you. Yeah. The very first year, uh, for example, Dr. Lane knows I'm talking about other women's school. We had one that went off the charts. It was like 1,200 or something. Oh, wow. It was a sink in a closet that hadn't been turned on in probably 40 years. It literally was just a storage closet and we put it there
020from 40 years ago. And first big turn, of course. So yeah, the first couple years obviously trimmed down and we also I put filters on the vast majority of outlets. For example, when we moved into out of our school, you know, was closed for a year. We moved in. We put in uh filters which have a red filter on it also on every single room. So you don't see anything pop up on Apple. And these water filling stations, they go through the similar testing. Yes. Everyone. Yeah. So if there's a water filling station, a bottle fill, and also a bubbler both get tested. You'll see independent. That's why you'll see some locations listed twice. Um fountains where you have a lower and higher will say 12, we're found 12, which means the lower and the
021higher. Uh we test the ice from the ice machines. If you have to draw sample, the bag of ice, let that melt, test that. because that could be consumed as well. So pretty. Sounds good. Thank you. Next item on the agenda is the NJSID safety grant which is the insurance school of insurance group um working with Miss Allen. We applied for a safety grant and received noticed that we were being awarded grant in the amount of $28,143. Uh so you'll see a resolution. I provided the sample jack resolution that will be offered back board meeting to accept the grant and start the process. Uh I submitted for two projects. One is here at the high school. We have an issue with duct work that came to the woodworking shop in the back that is deteriorating,
022needs to be replaced. So, it's a safety issue. And then we have fire doors over at Appleart school in 1936 building that the fire inspector identified problematic and we're going to replace those doors. So, this money over there. Do we wait for the French money to come before we start these projects? Not typically not. So, it'll be a July 1. So, I had contracted crisis for all this. So once July 1 fiscal year steps in, we'll issue purchase orders. And some of this, you know, takes a while to get. So the brand takes a while. No, ordering doors, custom doors, custom.org, etc. It'll take a few months to get the check. We usually receive September, October, and present you with your giant check. Nice. But do we our success rate is great with these grants,
023right? There usually no issues. It's been amazing. The grants even over the years. There's been a few paychecks. Yes. So, we don't have to worry about these projects. They will be taken care of if they are needed. And once you pass the resolution, I have to upload a certified copy to MB SIG. Once that they authorize, okay, you're good to go. And then it's just an administrative process of issuing porchers, contracts, those kind of things. And there fine check coming in. That concludes the agenda. Anybody have any questions? No. Anybody know orders? So, she she sent me message that she was best case scenario going to run be running late, but there's a chance she wasn't going to be able to make it. So, um she has any updates for us. She's continuing to uh
024put out if we need to fill up uh bids, um which would be greatly reduced. Um hopefully we don't need many at all. Um we'll be doing that on our own instead of going through ESCJ which we had done in the past which saved us uh money. But she's been hiring uh drivers and uh preparing for ESY. So she's routing and scheduling and uh getting bus drop offs and pickups set up for ESY which starts pretty soon after school gets out. So she's closing out this year preparing for next school year as well as managing the summer program. So, okay. And she'll we would just like to have an idea of maybe the July meeting where we stand with buses and how many employees like just we have an idea if we're going to have
025to contract any buses, how many and what's needed, how many routes. Yep. Definitely. Yeah. And I I know we typically go through even still ESC andJ for some of her bands and things. Um but the traditional runs um her focus is to bring that down significantly and she's already heading in that direction. Um, but she's preparing as we get to the end of the year to to execute that if we need to, right? So, and part of that execution might mean new routes and so better communed by that. So, more proactive communication to reduce the beginning of the year confusion. There's going to be confusion no matter what, but if we are going to be consolidating, I I hope not consolidating. If you're hiring enough drivers, you know, there's no I think it's just a
026matter of Yeah. enough driver to cover what we have. Yeah. Yeah. And and the the bus app uh I I didn't get an update from her from the bus app yet. So, that's something we can follow up with the pilot. Sorry. Update on the bus. The right spot pilot. Yeah. Uh it it should be at Mil Lake, but I again I know Mr. Moralda was working uh with smarter on that. So, could you ask her to email the committee? So, at least we have an update on Yeah. If there's been any work on the to see how that's working out since it's been like a month since they've been probably doing it and I'd like to know, you know, if we're making any progress, do they like it? How's it working? Or if they hit
027roadblocks that prevented them from it. Yeah. So, either which way, it would be good to know what's going on with that product. Yeah. I'm not sure what was it they it would did they say when they would start the pilot? They were looking execution of that was supposed spring break. Yeah. Great. So it be should be going on. Yeah. Any update would be we get an update on anybody else have anything any comments questions? Thank you. All right. Dave everybody. Thank you. 7:05 this breath.