Board of Education 12/11/2025

001This is NHTV2 North Haven Government Television, a service of North Haven Community Television. The following program is brought to you through the support of the town of North Haven. Good evening everyone. I'm opening the organizational portion of the meeting this evening and turning it immediately over to our first selectman, Mr. Pri. >> Good evening everyone. I'm Mike Free, North Daven's first selection. And it's this time every two years when North Daven's first election has to go around all the boards and commissions, both the elected boards and the appointed boards to ask for nominations on a boardbyboard basis over the next seven weeks for the chairmanship, the vice chair, and the secretary of each and every one of our boards and commissions. This is obligated by our town charter. This is the second meeting that I've

002been at. Our first meeting was planning and zoning last week. So I'm on the go all night long for the next seven weeks hitting all these meetings in addition to our own meetings that we have with our own board. So tonight I have three orders of business. And the first order of business I'd like to get started right away and that is to ask for nominations for the chairperson of our North Haven Board of Education. Can I have a nomination? I'd like to nominate Ron Bathick. >> We have a nomination. Is there a second? >> I enthusiastically second Ron Baick. >> Randy Amanda, thank you. We have a nomination and we have a second. Are there any other nominations? Is there any other discussion? Hearing none, we'll call for that vote. All those in favor

003signify by saying I. >> I. >> Any opposed? Any extensions? Motion passes. Congratulations, Mr. Bath. Third party. Thank you. Our second order of business is to ask for a vice chairperson of our North Haven Board of Education. Is there a nomination for vice chair? >> I'd like to nominate Dr. Randy Peterson. >> Is there a second? >> I'd like to second Dr. Randy Peterson. >> Okay, Ron and Amanda. A second. Are there any other nominations? Is there any other discussion? Hearing none, we'll call for that vote. All those in favor signify by saying I. >> I. >> Any opposed. >> Any abstensions? Thank you, >> Dr. Peterson. >> Congratulations. >> Thank you. >> And my last order of business this evening is to ask for a secretary for this North Haven Board of Education. Is

004there a nomination for secretary? >> I'd like to nominate Michelle Guo for secretary. >> Okay, we have a nomination for Michelle. Is there a second? >> I would second that. Ruon Bath on the second. So, we have a nomination for Michelle as secretary. We have a motion, a nomination, and a second. Is there any other nominations? Is there any other discussion? Very good. Hearing none, we'll call for that vote. All those in favor signify by saying I. >> Any opposed? >> Thank you. Congratulations, Michelle. So ladies and gentlemen, that concludes my portion of tonight's meeting. I'm off to my next meeting. Thank you very much. Nice seeing you here. My very best wishes to each and every one of you for a very happy holiday season. I appreciate you very much. I appreciate this board

005of education very much. I appreciate this board of education administration, teachers, and faculty very much. and of course the people that work on the ground crews and the people like this gentleman here and all of the fine people who are employed and work for the North Haven Board of Education. Thank you very much. Have a good evening, ladies and gentlemen. >> Thanks. Thank you. >> Grab that apple and smash it for you. I'd like to call the December 11th, 2025 regular meeting of the North Haven Board of Education to order at 6:30 p.m. >> Very good. Thank you so much. >> Thank you so much. >> That's norally my favorite part of the meeting, too. >> So, I would like to recognize Tessa Halan, who was recently elected as the Connecticut's kid governor. Uh Tessa

006is a fifth grade student at Greenacres Elementary School and the floor is yours. >> Hi, my name is Tessa and I'm here as the 2026 Kid Governor to represent the Connecticut Democracy Center and the Kid Governor Program. Thank you for inviting me to speak today. In the Kid Governor program, students running must choose an issue they would like to change. For me, the issue that was closest to my heart was inclusion for students with disabilities. I would like to change how students who across Connecticut who have a disability are treated. Many are bullied, teased, or left out. This is an important thing we must change. The reason I chose this issue is because I have friends and family who have a disability. I feel that nobody should be teased for something they were born with.

007Nobody should feel like they are not good enough or too different from others. Everyone should be appreciated for who they are. As kid governor, I'm looking forward to working with my fellow cabinet members, Isa, Olivia, Dylan, Nana, Myra, and Samuel. Their all of their platforms are great, and they chose very important issues. They have every right to be proud of themselves. I also looking forward to meeting students with disabilities across Connecticut. I feel like every kid should get a chance to tell their story. They should feel like they belong. My platform includes three steps that we can take to start welcoming and including students with disabilities. First, I will create and post videos about including, accepting, and understanding kids with disabilities on my very own website called ACT, which stands for all children together. Each

008class can watch these videos and learn from them. Next, I will invite schools to start buddy systems. These buddy systems will pair fifth grade leaders with students with disabilities. together. Together, the students can do group projects, board games, or just talk together. Using these systems will help grow a bond and help kids connect. Finally, I will encourage schools to designate a buddy lunch table where students who have no one to sit with can sit there. In the cafeteria, kids who feel lonely or left out can join others sitting there. At the buddy lunch table, no one can be judged or bullied based on what they look like or sound like. They should be welcome based on who they are as a person. Thank you for letting me speak here today. I look forward to putting

009my plan in action. So, I think I think it's easy to see why she uh she won that award. She's so very well spoken and she has great points and she just gets them right out there. So, congratulations to you and North Haven's uh future is in really good hands. Thank you very much. feel like we're going to have to go forward with the meeting. Okay. Thank you so much. >> Uh may I have a motion to approve the November 13, 2025 board of education regular minute uh regular meeting minutes. >> Make a motion. >> Get a second. >> Second. >> Is there any discussion? >> Nice job. >> All in favor? >> I. >> So moved. Okay. Moving forward, I would like to do a couple of introductions and a couple of thank yous.

010Uh, first, I'd like to give a thank you to uh, Elenni Yaka Giorgio, who decided not to run for another term. She was here for six years, did a tremendous job. She was always a consistent voice, and uh, she she was very wise about her decision-making. She never rushed into anything and I always appreciated her input on um basically every issue we had. She was always there to to give an opinion. I always appreciated that. So, Lenny, thank you for that. Uh there's a couple of introductions I'd like to make. First, uh I'd like to welcome back uh Michelle Goumo, Gueneve Gabrier, and Marty Rdnik. They all ran and were reelected to the post. And congratulations to all all three of you. Uh happy to have you back. I know Marty's on Zoom today. Marty,

011nice job. Um so we're we're looking forward to get you uh involved again and and get going on some other committees. Uh we have one new member who took over for Elenni. His name is uh Tom Prefontaine. Tom, why don't you introduce yourself and give us a little uh >> Yes. Thank you, Ron. Um fellow board members. Thank you, Mr. Stirk. um in the North Haven community. Um I'm actually very honored to be here as a member of this wonderful team. Um I'm truly grateful to be joining the board of education in North Haven. Um I truly love this town. Um I'm a product of North Haven. I grew up in North Haven. Uh I went to Bridge Road School, the middle school, the high school. Um I currently live across the street from where

012I grew up. My mom still lives there. Um my daughter graduated from high school last year. She's in college and I still have two left. Um my family truly is North Haven. Um, so I'm really proud to be here. I'm honored to be here, um, and to serve the North Haven community. Um, I've seen a lot of great come out of North Haven schools, both from myself being a student and from my children. Um, and I just want to make sure I can be a part of this continued success of North Haven. Um, I do believe our schools are headed in the right direction and I love being a part of this new team or being a part of this team. Um, I hope to bring some experience to the table. Um, I've been a

013teacher for 23 years. Um, I currently work in Oxford as a fifth grade teacher. It's a great community. uh reminds me a lot of North Haven. Um so I'm hoping to bring some experience uh with some degrees, a master's degree, a six-year degree in leadership. Um I truly believe in education. I've always thought that kind of the community and schools are kind of dependent upon one another. The success of the community depends on the schools and I do believe the success success of the schools depends on the community. Um so I really am proud to be here. Um please feel free to reach out if I can help anyone. Um I'll do the best I can. I know um I'm just learning now. So, please bear with me if I don't have all the answers,

014but hopefully I can help you and listen to you and if anything guide you in the right direction. So, thank you everyone for having me and thank you board. Um I hope to uh be an asset to the team. Thank you everyone. >> Welcome. >> We're going to move forward with the uh student representative reports. Barwa, how are you? >> Good. >> Yeah, let's hear it. So uh we have some musical uh congratulations. So congratulations to the NHS students who will be representing North Haven at this year's Southern Region Musical Festival in January. They were selected from among hundreds of students through a challenging audition process. Acceptance into this festival is an honored uh earned honor which also allows these students to audition for the 2026 Connecticut Allstate Festival. And here are the list of

015students. So in the band we have Derek Samsel for the alto saxs, Derek Tang for the alto saxs. Uh Khali Juan for the flute. And in the orchestra we have Henry Zubc for the violin. For the mix choir we have Alex Cardinz for the uh on the soprano. Lily Manure on the alto, Natalie Paws on the alt and then for the treble choir we have Cara Starky for uh for the soprano. Rachel Son for the Soprano. And then we have um the fashion merchandi merchandising apparel comp uh campaign. Hibernation North Haven is running with a promotion through December 31st. Check out the online school store for items curated by students and use the pro code ship free 100 for free shipping on orders of $100 or more. Items may have color or logo options and

016ship directly to you. This is a great way to support the fashion merchandising students and elevate your North Haven gear for the holidays at the North Haven High School. >> Thank you very much. Does anybody on the board have any questions? >> Okay, moving on. Ava Baron, >> how are you? >> Good. How are you? >> Very well. >> Tuesday, December 9th is the midpoint of marking period 2 and teachers are updating grades now. Each December, our senior class serves a holiday breakfast to senior citizens. Seniors are encouraged to invite and host their grandparents and senior citizen relatives. This year's breakfast is on Tuesday, December 16th from 8 to 9:00 a.m. in the high school cafeteria. Congratulations to our school newspaper director, Diana Bllythe, and our full staff of student writers, editors, and photographers for

017another excellent edition of The Phoenix. Please read this great publication which informs and celebrates Are you kidding us? Thank you very much. Does anybody have any questions for Eva? There you go. Okay. Thank you. You know, if you'd like to leave, you can stay or leave either way. Uh may I have a approval of the make have a motion to approve the November 13, 2025 board of education regular meeting minutes. >> So move. >> I get a second. >> Second. Any discussion? All in favor? >> I. >> Thank you. Any opposed? >> All right. So moved. >> I'm telling the second time we did it. >> Guys, you're killing me. >> Uh I think now we're going to do a presentation by the M&P planning group about the elementary schools. I'd like to introduce Mike

018Zuba and Chuck Wearington. um you're going to give a description of what's going on. Now, just um as an introductory to it, I asked um there's so much information collected and there's so much more yet to go that this presentation isn't a presentation about the beginning and the actual end and everything in there is solid. is still very fluid. Um, and they're doing a great job putting it together bit by bit, which is how you really need to go. So, you know, there may be some open-ended stuff in here, just so you know, going in. Uh, we'll take some questions afterwards, but why don't you let me slow you down any more than I have. Thank you for the intro. Um, so as we mentioned, this is kind of out of advancing on film, so

019I'm gonna kind of babysit it a little bit as we work our way through it. Um, but we've been at this process for a little over a year. Um, I just figured Oh, there we go. >> Yeah, right. on the second. Um, so we've been at this process for a little over a year. Um, we've had feet on the ground through all of the buildings. Um, teams of engineers, um, architects, looking at all the space planners. We've, uh, had eyes on every one of your elementary buildings. Um, that was really part of the one, developed capacity, utilization, develop 10ear enrollment projections, then got into some different planning scenarios. Um, typically when you go through planning scenarios, you start to really look at the building itself. How best are we going to address the needs that

020we're seeing? How best are we going to address the space needs? Um, do we require modernization? We look at the sites themselves and we start really kind of building that baseline information. Um, we're over in that salmon colored box now where we're identified a preferred scenario, but we still have some more work to do. So, this is initial. Um there's a lot of information here, but know that as this process moves forward, um we're going to do additional due diligence and things are going to become a little bit more concrete, a little bit more, um specified as we work our way through that process. So I think some of the initial considerations when we really kind of got into it um with the facility condition assessment really looked at all of the major capital items,

021we noted that the buildings are wellmaintained, but they do require um some significant investment in the systems themselves. um especially within the mechanical systems, the building envelopes, so roofs, siding, um inside architecture, um all requiring significant investment. Um we had about $137 million over the next decade identified of capital renewal items. Um so typically with capital renewal and capital improvement, those are significant repair items. Um I'll touch on kind of the difference between that and new construction a little later on. Um but when we looked at the summary of the FCAs for each school, um Clintonville came in at just under 40 million, Green Acres about 33, um Bridge Road about 32, and in Monise at about 27 million. Um we have two approaches. We typically look at the repair approach looks at taking each

022of those items and be able to address those um in a manner over a number of years. So, as you're looking at doing roofs across the board, doing u mechanical systems across the board, um that's really the repair approach. Um what it doesn't do in that repair approach is look at modernization of the educational environment. You have buildings of different vintage. Most of your elementary schools are older, especially when you compare them to your middle school and high school and the work that's been done there recently. Um, so that replacement approach really looks at modernizing educational spaces, takes in 21st century learning, looks at a way to be able to address facility needs through new construction. Um, timing is an important factor. It needs to be able to align up with the town bonding. Um,

023we recognized early on in our process that your schools are very well located. You have an elementary school kind of in each quadrant of town, established residential neighborhoods around it. um really well laid out from a community standpoint of having those four schools. Um that neighborhood school was really key to us in our planning and saying that we want to be able to maintain those neighborhood schools. But we also noticed when we went through all the buildings and looking across the board of spaces within town that there is a significant lack of swing space. And when we talk about swing space in school construction, that's when you're looking at being able to move the students out of a building to facilitate u major work within that building themselves or major construction work on that site.

024Um always a preferred method um for approaching that is to have unoccupied where possible or have clear separation from students and construction activities that are going on. It allows for a better educational environment. Um, and it also allows for a much faster um, construction timeline. Um, Chuck, do you want to add a little bit on that renovation new go to the previous slide real quick? I just want to point out quickly is it's $137 million value. Um, what's important to understand about that is you're going to see some numbers later of what the we call a district share >> uh, to the county agent for the preferred scenario. So, want to keep that number in mind as we get later in into the slides. All what's also important is that 137 million, that's over the

025next 10 years. Most districts in Connecticut um rarely would be able to fund almost $14 million per year on average. The board of ed is going through their CIP. We haven't seen many districts uh they be able to fund that, let alone execute the work. I work with Bill. By the way, I'm chucking with the Tigers project leaders. Um we're the owners rep for the the middle school. So for anybody that's around for that, that's obviously a big project um over a couple years. Um but to fund 14 million a year um is very difficult to find the dollars and many of those dollars will not be reimbursed by the state of Connecticut. That's another very important factor. Just kind of keep in mind as we move forward. Ready for the next one? >> Yes,

026sir. Right. So, new versus renovation. Um, one Mike's been talking about enrollment projections and what's important to understand is the state of Connecticut when we submit a grant application uh to them uh to for hopefully for them to help the district and reimburse. Um, it the enrollment can really play into it and in the size of the building that they're statutoily will reimburse you for. So, there's a formula. It's called a space standard. And what we do is we look at the the 10 year eight the eight-year high projected enrollment. And we do this calculation. I'm not going to get into the details, but we do compare that against your existing schools and go, if we were to renovate, will the state reimburse you 100% of your rate. If it's bigger than what your your

027that calculation is, they'll reduce your reimbursement rate in the in prorated. So, that's not a real idea. We want to maximize your your dollar. So that's something that we look at. In this table here, you can see Clintonville. Uh this might be small for you, so I apologize, but the space standard uh is projected for the future enrollment about 48,000 square ft. That building is currently 73,000 square ft. So there's about 25,000 ft. It's almost 50% larger than it should be. So essentially, you'd be cutting your reimbursement rate, I think I think it was like a 6 factor down. So that's a sign when you're talking about renovation that's tens of millions of dollars probably to the to the taxpayer. So um without legislation special legislation be difficult to do. The other ones are are

028oversized as well not to that magnitude uh 4,000 and about 10,000 for monoise and green acres. So there would still be per the statute a hit to your reimbursement rate uh for doing renovation. And then in addition to everything Mike talked about occupied renovations difficult especially in the in elementary school we did an addition to the middle school move the kids over from the academic wing and then um the gyms cafeteria we renovated those but there's a disruption there to the to the class and and I don't think any parent wants to have uh their young child in a um occupied renovation even though we've done that before. >> Next. >> Yeah. So, one of the things we did as part of our initial due diligence was really to dig in, look at the sites

029themselves, um, identifying if there's any opportunities on each of the school sites um, to be able to have construction next to the existing building. That was really our goal. I mentioned earlier, each school is really well located um, within quadrants of your community. Um, it's well served by students and residential neighborhoods. Were there any opportunities on existing sites? And we did. Um both Monise and Ridge Road um both have fairly gracious sites. Obviously any part of a site is out of use on Ridge Road. We know that um the part that we've highlighted in red um it's pretty significant area that's used for soccer fields. Um that is definitely a consideration especially when we think about youth programming but it also affords an opportunity to be able to have construction next to the existing building.

030Um same for Monoise um area just to the north. um a large flat area there that would afford an opportunity to be able to have school construction on that site. Did the same exercise for Clintonville and Green Acres um based on the topography, presence of um some wet soils, um Green Acres, presence of on-site sectic. Um really a lot of site limitations there to be able to provide construction right next to the school while it's occupied. Um, so that really kind of weighed in on our planning options of, you know, where were those key opportunities to be able to have that construction, be able to have that key separation. Um, we went through a process of updating and developing enrollment projections. As Chuck mentioned, um, you're allowed 8 years of enrollment. It's fed into the

031state school construction process for that grant application. Um, you're able to build then around that peak 8year projected enrollment. Um out in 2033 34 we're projecting total elementary enrollment of about 1,590 students. Um we've identified a peak enrollment across the board for each of the individual elementary schools with prek included at Green Acres. Um so about 367 students at Clintonville, about 427 at Green Acres, 340 at Monoise, and 448 at Ridge Road. So that 8-year fee projected enrollment really drives the state formula for the size of the buildings themselves. Um this is a key component that will then go in with the overall grant application. Chuck, do you want to touch on reimbursement rates? >> Sure. So the state of Connecticut um they publish reimbursement rates every year. It's an angelic formula um really based

032upon uh the relative wealth of the each town compared to each other. So, for example, Greenwich is is the gets the lowest reimbursement rate and I believe Hartford might be the highest. Uh, New Haven for new construction for fiscal year 26, uh, that's when they establish it. Uh, for new construction, uh, the state reimbursement would be 31.25%. So, your rates, the rest of that would be almost 70%. That's pretty significant amount. You know, we're talking about that re that reduction. you reduce that by, you know, roughly 60%. You're taking a significant hit in dollars uh in in reimbursement. The renovation rate a little about almost 7%. Uh just up through the up to last year, this used to be exactly 10% difference. They changed the formula. We're not sure uh the exact makeup of it.

033They wouldn't share that with us. Uh but uh renovation would be 38.21% uh with um the local share being 62. So there's about 7% difference there. So, that's a big factor when we're looking at renovation versus new. Um, and and then I think we have a later slide. If if we're able to show that building new is less than in renovating, and we're not we haven't vetted that fully yet, you can apply for the higher rate. We did that in the town of Madison. Um, they were able to get another 10% that was about probably about $5.8 million to the taxpayers, but that isn't sent on too too often uh for that. We explored three different scenarios as part of this process. The first is really the status quo. Chuck mentioned it's very challenging about

034$14 million a year to be able to fund through a capital improvement plan and execute all of those projects within the 10ear time frame, especially as those building systems are continuing to age. You want to be able to address the most needy elements. We looked at two different scenarios for construction and ultimately settled on scenario three. I mentioned earlier um that Ridge Road and Monise have two of the larger sites. Um as part of scenario three, it really kind of focuses on using those larger sites to be able to get those as the early phase of construction and use those for swing space as part of the overall project. So the way we see this scenario three, um it would be building four new elementary schools, but it would be done in two phases. Um

035there would be a single referendum um in November of next year of 2026. A grant application would go in June. Um the freeze one of that grant application would be for both the Monise and the Ridge Road schools. I mentioned the areas that we saw as um you know key areas there for school construction. Obviously some additional engineering and feasibility work would need to be done on that um as this process moves forward. But those would be the first two steps. Um followed by that would be a phase two grant application. Um that would be in June of 2029. That would be for Green Acres. Um and that would be for Clintonville. Um both of those projects, Green Acres would swing over to um Ridge Road and Clintville will swing over to the old model.

036So both of those two sites would have two schools that would be operational. um one as a swim school, the other as the school itself in name. While school construction then would happen on those unoccupied sites. Um allowing for unoccupied as well as a more streamlined construction process. You're not trying to phase up with students on site, parents dropping off school buses coming in and out. Um and with that concurrent construction on the unoccupied sites, it kind of shrinks our timeline down which Chuck will talk about on a later slide. >> Yeah. And it also what it allows you to do is put the building in the right location. Um those sites are smaller. So you want you want it you know for a 50-year solution you want it in the right location. So um

037not every site supports that. So this is just a highle >> very simple linear timeline um for this. Um we've done plenty we've done quite a few especially new elementary schools. We do high schools, middle schools. So we're very familiar with the timelines. Um so quickly we we're we're assuming a grant application uh this June. Uh we have to pull together a lot of documentation in order to submit that educational specifications, additional studies that Mike alluded to. Um and then um established budgets uh and then um the board of select would have to uh vote to hold a referendum assumed to be in November and we'd have to report those results by November 15th statutoily to get what they call the priority list. that's the state list to say yes, we're going to give you

038a grant commitment to help you with your project. Um once the funding is passed, that's when el's eligible for reimbursement. We can start the design process. That design process uh and approvals are roughly uh 16 to 18 months uh for projects of these size, go out to bid for a couple months, and then you see construction would start late 28, early 29 with an occupancy that school year of 2030. So those first two projects um would um be occupied at that point and then in 29 um as we're finishing those submit the next two grant applications and the reason we hold for that because there's a there's a statute that says um when they give you a grant commitment you have to break ground within two years. So we don't want to submit it at

039the same time because then we're going to be violating the state statute. We don't want to do that uh for that. And then a kind of a similar timeline where now we're going to the schools will move over into the old um Mono eastern ridge. We have to look at that further too because now you're going to have two schools on one site. But the major difference as Mike said um the sites are smaller. You can rightsize those buildings, put them in the right location, and that construction duration is shorter. Uh construction management fees are roughly 70 $80,000 per month to do that. So you go from a 24 to 30 month down to roughly 18, you're significant. You're saving a lot of cost there as well. And we found building new as well is

040very attractive to biders. We've seen great bidder turnout. We're out to bid on a new elementary school now. So it's going to be interesting to see what you know that price comes in at, but uh they're definitely attractive. >> Thank you, Chuck. And you know phase one will be wrapped up with occupancy of 2030 um for the students in those new school buildings and then 2033 for phase 2. >> So all the school construction will be wrapped up by 2033. >> Now the fun part. >> Yeah, everybody wants to know how much. So uh so this is just a highle summary. These are very early numbers. That's why we're providing a range of costs. Um uh behind all this we develop total project budgets for for projects that not only includes you know how much

041to build it but also all the miss all the fees and expenses architectural fees the furniture that goes into there. Uh we have to we haven't included um bonding costs from the town um owner's contingency and a lot of other uh we have about 50 line items that actually are being compressed into here uh for and most importantly escalation. And I think a lot of us have seen that during COVID and and that really became real uh uh to us for that. So um based upon the projected enrollment uh we've done the low at the space standard we talked about and then we did a high where we added 15% because we've seen historically elementary schools of this side typically exceed the space standard. We'd want to apply for a waiver with the state to

042to again um reserve your reimbursement rate uh for that. Monoise these all these buildings are roughly between 50 to 70,000 square feet that general size um and uh that we have to do the educational specifications that would be one of the next steps you're going to see to really dial in and give us the exact square footage of what that's going to be based upon uh the new programming. Um so for phase one uh and and if these are small I apologize that that both of those projects will be roughly from about 93 million to about 125. We're going to dial this in but we wanted to give you a range. We're pretty confident uh on these numbers. We have a lot of data to back it up and the district share for for those

043would be roughly 66 million to about 93 million. And again, that's again from high to low and and assuming and and these numbers here do assume there's a a reduction for the high because we're overbuilding. So we're being conservative here. If we if we get a reduction that will go down if we get a space wave before that phase two for those um again uh between 50 to 60,000 square ft. Um these numbers we've escalated these these are going to be a bit higher. They're farther out. We're escalating about 7 years out for those to the midpoint of construction. Um the total for those range for 112 to about 146,000 square ft. Uh and then the district shares about 81 million to about 105 million. Again, this 105 uh incorporates a space standard reduction, a

044reduction in your reimbursement rate. So this is being conservative. If we get the space standard, that will reduce and you're you'll have some savings there. So in total for all four uh again we have to do some more due diligence as Mike mentioned uh anywhere from 26 about 271 million all in um with a uh district share about roughly 147 million to almost $200 million in total. So, kind of going back to that $137 million, that's why I wanted to kind of highlight that of the district chair when you're spending $137 million over projected next 10 to 15 years. That's to keep it warm, dry, safe, comfortable without programmatic improvement. Um, after you get done with that, you're going to have to do it again um to the building. Um whereas you spend here and

045you're still going to have maintenance in new buildings. Everybody thinks they're maintenance. They're not. But for you know somewhere in this range above that projected 137 you're getting uh potentially four new facilities that got a better better educationally better HVAC systems better indoor air quality you know that's a really important one with co all the new buildings and renovated ones that were done before CO we had the districts had no problem adjusting to those bringing in that fresh air Phil's counterparts just went on her phone or their computer brought in a lot of fresh air they didn't have to be in the building So they performed very well during the pandemic. >> Yeah, I think in a good way. I know a lot of times people struggle with like the low and the high necessarily

046part of the budgeting. A gym like this is a great example. >> Sure. >> Um if you think about a space standard, they give you kind of the bare minimum for a gym, so to speak. What about 44? >> We see about 4,500 ft, which is roughly the size of this gym. This would be the minimum size for an old school. And should you decide, I want a gym where you could have more seating, it could be, you know, more useful for youth youth sports to be able to use those facilities, you would then look for a gym to say about 6,000 square feet or so, you could have leers, you could have multiple things going on at the same time. Um, but unfortunately, the way the space standards would be, they allow for the

047smaller chip. >> Yeah. Well, it all depends. It's a push and pull with your program. And that's what the board of ed this the board of ed will be responsible for preparing that edspec and and developing the priorities of where the space goes to. And it's a bit of it's a bit of a push and pull. Yeah. All your support spaces, special education, there's a lot more complex uh programming in schools than 50 years ago when these were built. >> Exactly. >> Yep. >> Um so I think we touched on a lot of the key parts in summary. I just leave it up there. So it would be two phases. um single referendum in November, first grant application goes in June, phase one's done, school year 2030. Um phase two and the whole project gets

048wrapped up by 2033 for the start of that school year. Um and then Chuck alluded to a little bit about kind of the next steps that there's a lot to do. This is really kind of really the initial phases of the planning. I'll put it that way. um as you kind of work your way towards that grant application, each task better defines what that project's going to look like and also better defines what those costs are going to look like. Um Chuck, do you want to just roughly walk us through the schedule? >> Yeah, so we anticipate in January um starting to prepare those ED specs. We estimate about two months to prepare those for the first two schools. Uh so the board of can hopefully prove it. We're we're projecting somewhere in March. At

049the same time, we're required to do some site investigations for the grant application. And all the items you see in red, and they're very small. I apologize. Those are all requirements for the grant application that we have to submit by June 30. This nice, the big green bar here represents June 30. That's a statutory deadline that we have to submit them by. Um, and then in March, once we have the EDS spec, now we can finalize those budgets and dial those into one proposed budget. Um, and then that's where board of ed, others in town, we're, you know, going to hopefully be back out here again and sharing more uh detailed information with you u hopefully to garner support for your for your projects. Um, and there's a couple other planning and zoning items that

050have to occur. Some local resolutions that the board of uh the uh board of selectman have to pass. Then ultimately that grant application uh in June uh and then I believe and we have to uh would there' be bond council for the for the for the town. Um typically they'll um have a town meeting set the referendum date with an assumed November and then this is what they call not an advocacy advocacy period. It's a statute that basically says um your your town staff superintendent, they can't use public funds to endorse or really speak about the project. They have to let the taxpayers contemplate it during that time. So >> that's when the project would start if it passes. >> Yeah. And that's what we have for you this evening. We happy to turn it

051over to the board if you have any questions for us. >> Yeah, I appreciate that. Before we get started, I just like everybody to know that this uh the elementary school facility plan will be posted to our website. So the PowerPoint you saw today, you'll be able to review uh review that at your leisure on the website. I'd like to open up questions uh from the board. Any questions? Let's start. Oh, go ahead, Amanda. Go ahead. Okay. So, um you mentioned that there are more detailed reports about the schools. I would like to respectfully request to see those more detailed reports, please. Thank you. >> Happy to do so. >> Thank you so much. Um the 137 million for renovating that is not renovating as new that is just renovating up to >> that's addressing

052the capital need. So on a project by project basis >> and that includes the state reimbursement. >> Yeah. So some of those projects will be like so roof replacement >> qualifies for they call it non-priority list. Uh as long as it hasn't been replacement in previous I think it's 10 or 20 years. They they advertise over 10 but they say 20. You can get reimbursement for select projects. So roof replacements, photoic projects, code violation projects qualify. Um, HVAC is a recent one. They've put in non-priority, but those projects are more, I call them surgical in nature. They're very focused. They may address certain needs in the building, but it's not a comprehensive. You may have heard the term a renovate like new. It's not a renovate like new. You're addressing. >> So, the would those

053be reimbured at 38% or a lower rate? >> That's the higher they call that the general rate, but the it's at the higher percent. >> The higher percentage. Okay. Can I ask something on top of that just about that? >> When you talked about that, I'm sorry. When you talked about that reimbursement rate, you said because our schools are larger than what the state is allowable right now, that 38% would then be reduced if we decide to do some sort of renovations. So that would come off of that like that would increase what we would pay. Correct. >> Almost a third of Clintonville is out of scope, >> right? >> Like a a third of Clintonville would be out of scope for state reimbursement if we renovated. Is that right? It's 25,000 out of 75,000

054roughly. >> Yeah. In the Clintonville. Yeah. You basically do a ratio and I think in the C I I didn't look I think it was like end up being like a6 ratio. So you take a 6 times that and it reduces it accordingly. >> That's concerning though because we are at capacity at a lot of our elementary schools. Not Quintonville. Uh but we're at capacity at Greenacres and Ridge Road for sure. And I think we're approaching capacity at Monoise. No, we're good. Okay, cool. Thank you. Excellent point. >> That's the challenge of old buildings. You have a lot of circulation. So, a lot of like hallways and Clintonville. You've all been in Clintonville. You know how that building's kind of organized on different. It's not a very efficient layout of the building. What the state

055sets their standards up around is kind of building a modern, compact, wellorganized building that has limit limited circulation. It has a smaller library media center like a library of the olden days is to house a ton of books, right? The library media center of the future is much smaller and more usable space. So that's really kind of where you look at some of the older buildings and they really get hampered by a renovation because they're just larger for the enrollment today. So, are you saying that most of the space savings that we would we would end up with four smaller buildings than we have today and most of the space savings would come from like library media centers and slightly smaller classrooms? >> It would be a slightly smaller classroom. It would be less circulation

056space and more purpose to build space. So, like right now in a typical building, I know I walked through your buildings last February, January, February. Um, you're using full-size classrooms that were once like a grade level like second grade classroom, right? You have those carved up for like paras and supports. Um, in a new building, you would have smaller rooms, more of them that are used for that small group instruction, for your support, your intervention, all of those services. So it would just be better organized and you wouldn't need to have wasted space in the building because it's going to be designed around what the modern education looks like. >> I'm very concerned with safety. I want to make sure that like in addition to maximizing our state reimbursement that we are building schools that

057are very safe for our kiddos. So are there safety features included in and you don't have to get into specifics. We don't usually talk specifics about safety features in public, but like I want to make sure that we are baking in some really top-notch safety features here >> and you can better define those in the Espec, but all new construction should follow the SSI >> SSIC standards. School safety infrastructure council that is a requirement as part of the grant application that superintendent has to certify that it it meets that and they are designed to. So when you go offer design services, every architect that designs schools designs with those in mind. Um those came out in 2016 and or up in south winds or was the first one we incorporated those voluntarily on that but

058and there's a lot of different standards and and and that's a deeper you say confidential discussion of exactly what you put in there. >> Typically what'll happen when you're developing the edex it's just not about like programs classrooms uh core subjects um jam specials you're also going to pull in security. So within the district you have an expert in security or you rely on somebody that kind of sets that stage for that thing before then say how do we envision this today then tomorrow we want to get that captured in what our building program looks like. So we're building to the program that you want to have for your security within that building. Um unfortunat you know getting back to the older schools it's just we didn't think about things of like where are we

059sighting the building relative to you know the entrance right to where people are coming in on the site itself. Do we have clear sight lines to parking? Do we have clear sight lines to all parts of our site? Um, in a new in a new build, you're able to take all of that into account. So, it's not only what's happening within the building, it's how you kind of design and situate the building itself as part of the school construction that is a huge part of safety. >> For the enrollment projections, are you accounting for the 200 new units on Clintonville Road and the additional units that are going to take place on Northern Washington Avenue? >> Great. Perfect. Um, another thing that I had was Oh, why is it 18 months for design? Why are

060we taking 18 months for I'm looking at your Gant charts and like that's a long time. That's like designing. Are we designing like a the Guggenheim here? What are we doing? >> No, that's a great question. Um, and a lot of um depends who you ask how long it takes, but to responsibly design it, there's three major phases phases in a design. schematic design, design development and construction documents. When we're doing when colleagues were doing a process and most of our colleagues, most of our in our in our industry at those major points basically thirds basically stop and we estimate we take the plans and that are developed in specifications at DD and we have professional estimators that estimate the set to make sure are we tracking to in to your control budget. We'll set

061a budget for the designers to get the designers from X million of dollars, but we don't want to go from zero to 100, design it, and find out it's overbuilt. So, we're doing those checks along the way to responsibly design it to sure that we're staying in with the budget. Also, there's a process of reviewing. You're going to review the site. You're going to be reviewing multiple different options early and the floor plans. There's going to be multiple development. And then, um, the next step takes about another 3 to four months to to take it about 60%. There's a lot of details you said. There's school safety security these days. There's mechanical systems, electrical systems and so on and so forth. Then we stop and we do that. Again, that takes about 6 to 8

062weeks just those alone to do it responsibly to stay on budget. And that's how we've been successful with our projects to doing it. And then at the end of the project, the state requires that your code officials review the the specs before we have to go to the state to get permission to bid. Your building official has to review those. They get 30 days plus modifications. That's another six weeks on top. And then we have to go to the state and that's almost another month. So all these reviews and checks and balances, value engineering, you might have heard that. That's what it takes these long. You could have a designer design 12 months, but are we are we on budget? Are we tracking the budget responsibly? Do we incorporate all the requirements? That's why it

063takes that long. >> Two more quick questions and then I'm done. Uh, one, the high end and low end of building new are like about $50 million away from each other. Is a 25% variance typical for projects this size? >> Um, we don't have an exact percentage, but a couple of the major factors. One is the square footage of the building. The low is meeting that space standard as a minimum. Our experience with elementary schools of this size, the edge spec is going to try say that's going to be higher than that. So we added I think we added 10 or 15% to the high on square foot. So you have difference in square footage. We use a different cost per square foot for the building only. We use $450 a square foot for the

064low and 500 for the high just as a range. So that factor exacerbates it. We use a different percentage for your site costs. They range from 18 to 25% of the building costs. Um, so th those percentage factors and then there's a couple other like architects fees we assume 6 and a half%. So when you factor all these percentages up that's where you're getting that difference. It's not a straight 25%. >> And last question is just can I see the 50 line items? >> Yeah, >> I would love to uh to get those. Thank you. >> Yeah. And right now we're just having that range. Um when you submit a grant application you're going to pretty much own a number >> one number. >> Um that number will be better defined by kind of the

065next step. So Chuck mentioned the Espec as well as some site investigation getting out there um being a little bit more based upon the site putting some holes in the ground taking a look at you know is there a ledge what kind of materials are we working with here that will really help kind of narrow all those costs down. So over the next several months as we kind of work our way to that that big green bar, we'll have a cost um that that'll be the cost and that the town elements that'll be the cost that goes to referendum gets in the grant application and then you'll be working around that cost for all of those building projects for the design of the four schools. >> Thank you everybody else. >> Yeah. Um, so I

066have I have a bunch of questions, but I know that there's going to be a lot of information that will come out when you do the EDS specs, and we'll we'll get a lot of those answers. Um, but a couple things that stood out to me. Um, Clintonville's current size being 73,000 square ft. um and the 8-year peak projected enrollment going up from where it currently is, but their projected low and high square footage is significantly lower than what it would be now. It is Clintonville. Is that going to work? >> Yeah, in our experience, we've done an eight to 10 new elementary schools in the last 10 years, all with these formulas. As Mike was saying, it's the efficiency of the building that's not working. the arrangement of the building that's not efficient. So,

067um, understand the the concern there. Um, but the buildings nowadays are more efficient. Not only circulation, their classroom space, those support spaces as well is what why they're smaller. >> And I think Chuck mentioned too, it gives you an opportunity to put it on the right location of that site. That building right now is kind of in a low spot on the site. Um, not really the best for drainage and water. um you have an opportunity there to look at it both where do we need to fill how do we bring that elevation up and then it really is going to be organized very well um as part of that design process >> um I guess the other thing that stood out to me is that you know on the on the chart where you

068have the state allowable areas which are all lower obviously Clintonville is much lower than what it is right now but all of the rest are also lower but when you look at the low square footage and the high square footage even just looking at the low square footage it's higher than what the state allowable is. Um, so then I guess I wanted to know the estimated costs that you have here when you're talking about district share if those are accurate if our low square footage is listed above the allowable state area. >> I'll explain. That's a great question by the way. So the space standard that the state looks at for the reimbursement percentage is comparable what they call the building area. So if we just take this room as an example, they measure to

069the inside face of exterior wall. So this brick wall, this brick wall here. When we develop budgets, the thickness of the outside wall, we have to add for the budget. The state doesn't look at that thickness. And if we don't account, so that's why there's that difference about it'll be roughly 5%. If you if you did the ratio, so we have to do that for the budget. Um we had a project years ago, probably 12 years ago. um the architect that developed the budget used the space standard. They didn't um you they didn't account for the exterior walls at 5%. We were short by $1.2 million. We had to take out a program as a result of that. So that's that difference. It's five is exactly 5% between the space standard and that number. >>

070Okay. Does anyone else have any questions? >> Okay. At this point, I just want the uh give the public an opportunity to maybe ask a couple questions. >> Sure. >> Uh so we'll open it the floor up to some questions. Again, just keep in mind that everything is very fluid and these guys did a great job explaining um a lot of the variances that they have to use. Um and it was a lot of information. So um again, a reminder, this is available to you on the website. Um but if anybody has huh >> tomorrow morning >> by tomorrow morning and if anybody has any questions um please come on up. Yep. >> Mary White Summerlane. Uh can you hear me? >> Yeah. >> Okay. Um so let's see. Um, can someone confirm uh the

071old high school was a fallout bomb shelter? >> I I can >> I'm going somewhere with this. >> Okay. >> Nobody can confirm it. Okay. So, can someone confirm if the new high school is a fallout bomb shelter? >> The questions that we're opening up right now, >> okay, >> are for this project. >> Right. I'm getting there. >> Get there. >> Yeah. Okay. So, uh, can you confirm whether or not the four new proposed, uh, elementary schools will be out will be built to be fallout bomb shelters? >> That is not typical in the state of Connecticut. We have not done that in any any district as a bomb shelter. So, >> okay. So if the four elementary schools currently as they are existing are bomb shelters, fallout shelters, that will not be happening

072if we build for new elementary schools. >> I can't speak to the existing the new ones are not bomb they will not be bomb shelters. >> Okay. Because many of these old buildings were built as fallout shelters. I'm sure you're aware of that. >> No, I'm not. I >> You're not aware of that? Oh, okay. That's interesting. No, because the they weren't built to resist bombs. They're not built that way. >> Yeah. Well, fallout tends to be we go there as a gathering place if if there's a catastrophic event >> versus a a bomb being dropped on the elementary schools. >> Understood. Yeah. But we don't that term is not a the term that we use in the current standards. >> Okay. >> Some schools are designated as a warming shelter, >> you know, or

073maybe emergency. There's very specific terms standby. So if there a power outage, they can go and use the kitchens, >> use electricity. >> Exactly. They are using those purposes. >> Okay. >> And yet we have to be careful how those are defined because of the services, the generator, etc. And the makeup and the build of the building is very specific. So that that have to be vetted out though. Yeah. >> I think we discussed that enough. Do we have another question? >> Yes, I do have another question. Uh what was scenario two? And when you when the whole this is going to be put on the uh board of education's website, will there be more details on the other scenario one, scenario two? Because you kind of jumped to the scenario three pretty quickly, so

074I wasn't even able to write it down what it was. I know the first one was status quo and then >> it dis slide disappeared. >> It was just the order of school construction. Um and it had Clintonville as part of a phase one. Um, >> no. Before that, like >> that was a step before that. >> No, scenario two and I >> like how to deal with the schools like way in the beginning >> cuz I know I know scenario three was the the new one. >> Scenario two looked at four new schools also in two phases, but it had Monuis and Clintonville going first and then Ridge and Green Acres going second. The reason we shifted to scenario three was because it really shortened up the construction timeline by building swing space first

075on the larger ridge growth model lease um which provided a significant savings in time and dollars over that. >> Okay. So in my understanding that there there was not an analysis done for renovation and addition to to these schools. It was just the analysis was done for new construction. >> Yeah. Should this go forward if an analysis needs to be done to show that renovation versus construction cost for the state requires that. So that would be a detailed analys. >> Okay. But that has not been done as of yet. >> No, that has not been done. >> Okay. We could apply the square footage to that, but as Chuck mentioned, it's not going to come out as advantageous because the buildings are larger and it will overall lower the reimbursement percentage to the town for

076the event. >> But what you have done is you determined the 10-year plan >> at 132 to 137 million. >> Yes, it's the most cost effective approach to provide the new school versus the renovation approach. >> Okay. Um let's see. So I guess I my question my next question is are you aware the town's annual budget is 140 million. >> That's not a for them. >> Oh. Oh, you know >> it's a it's a town issue and they're just presenting what it would cost to do this and it's a town decision whether we do it or not. >> Oh, okay. Um Okay. Let's see. Yeah. So, so from uh member of the public's point of view, it it doesn't seem affordable if it ends up on the high uh budget of 271.1 million. And um

077so I one point that I want to make regarding public safety, which I'm always advocating for public safety, is that every year the fire chief asks for new firefighters. And I also ask for two new fire I asked for two new firefighters. This is not just to let you know. >> This is not a debate about the budget. >> I know, but I'm just But this taxpayers that the cost for two new firefighters is 250,000 per year. >> The budget. It's of the conversation. The >> board of finance won't do firefighters for 250,000 a year or other things in the budget which are concerns. I'm noting that concern. This is not the place for that conversation. >> Okay. Well, I I'm telling you right now, there's many uh town residents that are very concerned that

078we do not have enough firefighters, career firefighters on staff and we for 3 years we have not been able to get any new firefighters >> at another time >> in the budget. >> It's not for an issue right now. >> Yes. >> Well, is it's important to us. >> It's important for everybody. That doesn't make it an issue for this conversation, right? >> Thank you very much. Is there anyone else who would like to speak? One question um the the area that you I'm sorry my name >> um the ridge area that you um recommend the new facility to go to I know you mentioned that Clintonville has some water and drainage issues but that space that that lot right now it floods um so has there been you know have you looked into like

079are you raising it how >> we're very well aware issues That was one of those concerns. That's something that with the visual site investigation, we get a better understanding of it. Is it soil based >> groundwater? >> In the next couple months when um grounds Yeah. Um looking to be able to focus there, understand what those issues are, be able to build that into the budget. You have to bring some fill in, bring that level up. You have to address some drainage issues. You want to be able to budget that as part of the project. >> Could that potentially impact the residents that are right like the lots that are right above that property if you raise it? >> All storm water needs to be managed on site. >> Yeah. >> We can't go outside

080the property line. and it can't existing issues. Those will be addressed as part of a construction project versus older construction fields that now may have contributed to some drainage issues offsite. Um, anything new fire on >> Thank you. >> Good question. >> I have a question about the grant. How long does it take to get approved? Will we know before the November referendum? >> So, um, we won't know before, um, when we submit the, um, grant application in June, um, we have to report it by November 15th. And on December 15th, um, the Office of Grants Administration, who runs the program, they have to send what they call priority list to the governor. >> If you're on that list, we haven't seen any projects come off of it. and then eventually goes to the legislation

081for ultimately approval. But once we see that on the list, that's a good indicator of of you you'll get a grant. >> But we we have the referendum before we >> it's before you have to hold it before that. That's just statutory. >> And the state requires that you have a successful referendum before they will put you on. >> Yeah. Regardless, it's either before June 30th, if we had time, if we say we're in, you have to hold a referendum before regardless of getting a grant commitment. They want to know you have local commitment before the state makes commitment. >> Yeah. >> Okay. That's interesting. >> Yeah. You think the other way around? Yeah. >> Oh, yeah. All right. I'm sorry. This gentleman's already here. Go ahead. You can go next. >> I'll make sure

082you get your >> um obviously new renovation, new construction or any renovation, there's going to be a disruption to learn, right? Uh whether you're on those campuses or not. any consideration on a scenario for one campus for the all the elementary schools? We talked about it. Um we felt like the way you're geographically divided up and the size of the community trying to put all kids in one campus would make a very large elementary environment. Um even if you were to group by grade. Um, and for transportation times, the schools are in really good locations generally to have shorter bus routes, better connectivity to the schools versus having that one kind of school, but like one very large school that's broken up by say K2 35 K235 or some other two building configuration. Um, and

083then trying to find a site for something that big. We scream sites in town that doesn't exist. So, we're kind of working with what we got, but we think it actually works within the community. The way you're kind of set up geographically, it it does really work well. >> Okay. And then, um, renovate is new versus that new construction. You mentioned there's a possibility for some non-priority grant applications. >> Let's say things don't go as planned here. >> What would some of those non-priority grant applications or or projects look like? um in case you know there isn't full support for this scenario. >> Sure, good question. Uh I mentioned earlier, roof replacements are eligible on a nonprofit and that's a rolling application. It's not June 30. So by the 10th of each month, the district

084can submit um code violation. So if it's ADA, accessibility, bathrooms, those are possible. Photoics is one of them uh as well. I believe it was energy conservation projects too if I remember correctly. Um and then recently um HVAC HVAC improvement likes to be kind of code um as well fall under there and then um the HVAC improvements. So there there was a lot of funding anybody's paying attention a couple years ago after co they threw a bunch of money at it to upgrade those systems. So HVAC is now >> so those are basic infrastructure needs at all four of the elementary schools. >> Correct. >> So go ahead just I'll just add that I know I'll get to your next question. It's the associated projects that stem from doing a project like that. So if

085you're doing something where you're opening up walls, it then adds other project elements that become non-eligible. And then that's what drives cost up and overall lowers your reimbursement because in order to be able to retrofit an old building, you're now touching on architecture, flooring, walls, all items that now are not eligible. So it ultimately kind of goes >> window replacement I think as well, >> right? So those are all basic infrastructure needs at all four of the elementary schools. >> And that's you're at end of life in a lot of these critical infrastructure needs. So >> I I just think that it's important for everyone to know that the new construction is necessary at this point. >> The the scenarios to renovate or go through this. I have very young children. Um I mean the

086new construction any scenario here that and not taking into account any budgetary uh you know I granted it's going to come but these schools are falling apart and they need they they really need to be addressed. >> Can I just before you go just uh state your name? We need to get your name. >> Sure. Brendan Light. >> Thank you Brendan. Um and one other quick comment. Yeah come on up. One other uh quick comment um just for general information. When um myself, Patrick, Christian sat down with um Mark and Chuck, one of the things that we mentioned is that we wanted them to look at every possible scenario, whether it was a super school, which would be one, two schools, three schools, or keep it as the four school scenario that we have now.

087And it really worked out that the four schools was the best between the bus rides and what we thought was going to be the best opportunity for learning for the kids coming up. And and in the end that is really uh the basis is the learning. I can you know we can always discuss and debate length of bus ride and I know some of those bus rides are long but that can always be debate uh debated. what can't be debated is is the best environment for our children to uh learn in and that's why we are at the four. I'm sorry, just take your name, please. >> Yeah, I'm Jerry Fineberg, 34 Brocket Farm Road. Uh the last time these schools were were renovated, I was a member of this board. I'm also a former

088member of the board of finance. I mean, I support what what you just explained that it's the board's responsibility to present to the town what you folks think is the best solution to what really is a problem which which is the condition of the elementary schools. Now, I got a question for you. When we were going through this process about 25 years ago, it was a period of rising enrollment and the issue was what do we do about the additional capacity that was going to be required to meet the enrollment projections? The town owned and leased Milroad School to Aces. It's from what I can tell looking at land records, the town still owns Milro Road School. ACES also owns what used to be Orchard Hill uh Junior High School and they're in in the

089process of renovating Orchard Hill. Um has there been any consideration uh legal issues aside about the fe feasibility of recapturing Mil Road School? looks really nice to me when I drive by. Uh as as part of the solution for this, >> we have and one of the things with Milro School is because it is older construction. It's not it may look like it's the right size, it's too small because of the way the inside is constructed and the layout of the building itself. And that's one of the things we're talking about here. the reasons that we can lower the square footage of the building is because of the new design efforts that are made specifically to make everything more effective. Um, we looked at the road closely because that was really we thought may be

090an option for one of the four, >> right? >> And it and it ended up not being viable. >> Okay. And you addressed another question I was going to ask, which is the number of elementary schools that that are required. Um I there's information uh if you use the Google machine uh there's a letter from December of 2020 uh to the governor from the department of education concerning projects that were approved including the four elementary schools um in North Haven. And at that time the projected capacity for for the four of them was around 1,900 and now we're hearing around 1,500. We did add space at that time and that probably explains the over capacity that you've described >> and um you've indicated that going from four down to three was would not necessarily be

091feasible. Um so uh you addressed that. So >> yeah, we look we really took some time and we tried to look at all the options because we know that this is a difficult ask and we know that >> going in. Um but you know it's a question that needs to be asked because of what what the conditions of our schools. So we tried to look at every option and this is what we came up as the best alternative. >> Okay. Thanks. >> Thank you. Anybody else have any questions? So >> watch those wires. >> I know. Hi superoody road. Um, when you were talking about downsizing Clintonville and you mentioned something about the space with the Paris, are you looking to eliminate that? >> I mean, they're part of the system. >> Absolutely. Part of

092the system. >> Oh, okay. I just, you know, I wasn't sure if I was like hearing wrong over here. It was like we're going to have smaller areas. You said smaller areas. >> So, I'm saying that they're part of it. 20 years ago, we didn't have small group spaces designed specifically for those uses in the building. So, what we end up doing in all of our older buildings is we take a fulls size classroom, we carpet up and we just pack cars in it with some dividers. So, the way you get a more efficient building, as Ron mentioned, is you start to design spaces for all the modern uses of the building. So, they would have spaces that were more appropriate to the need small. >> Okay. I just wanted to make sure that that

093wasn't >> we're not suggesting removing any elements. >> Yeah, especially after the child the kid governor question. >> Yep. >> Anybody else have any other questions? Yeah. >> Tim Gabriel Rene Lane. Um so if we're looking at 2033 for the project completion that's you know another 7 8 years or so too. Um we're still using old buildings during that time um that ostensibly will probably need uh some of the same repairs that you would do if you were doing a renovation instead of a replace model as well too. uh any of those kind of capital improvements that we'd have to do on those old buildings, would those be incorporated into the cost of this project or would that just be the responsibility of the annual budget? >> The latter. >> Okay. >> But it's the

094hope that major stuff doesn't break during that. >> Well, we always hope that. >> Yeah, we always have that hope. >> Very good question. So that's kind of becomes a sense of urgency where we're trying to compress the schedule knowing that there are some systems that parts are hard. So >> anybody else? Yeah. >> I was wondering >> you just Flanigan 70. >> Thank you. Um, I believe that Miss Gabriel asked for she asked for the report that shares the condition of the buildings as they are now and I think a lot of people might be interested in that and might need to be aware of the condition of the buildings now. Is that available to people or is will that be another presentation to the town perhaps that so there can be some evidence

095of capital reports? I don't know how digestible it is. >> Of course. Yeah, >> it is. We do have one that's more summarized that focuses on the needs that summarizes them by the major building system where you're not getting into every door knob and every element themselves that we provided that can't be shared provided it doesn't plans taken out and so there's nothing in the concern to share the information >> right just I'm sure it would provide a very convincing argument for the state sake of new construction I also wanted to ask about the enrollment questions Um because Ridge Road and Green Acres house the uh ID programs, I wasn't sure how that factored into the projected enrollment in terms of those two buildings in particular or if the students from those programs go back

096to their home schools. Like how does that factor into the projected enrollments? So right now we projected it based on integrated data being there and how it's been. So how many enrollment is tracked? Those build those ID programs we build that around and I think it's going to be in the spect that program right what spacings are for that program building itself. Um so that becomes a task over the next two months where you're you're tackling that I is it in which buildings is it in is it here is it there? You know how do we envision those elementary programs within the buildings? Those will be put together by the educators in North Haven and then ultimately adopted by the board. Um, so that's kind of the we call it a net spec, but it

097really is almost like the vision statement for the use of the building with square footage attached to it. >> Very specific. Yeah. >> Yeah. Yeah, and that type of program is one that we can apply to the state to get relief if we exceed that space standard because that wasn't a program years ago when the when it was built, but it's those OTP, special educate, those are some of the programs that we can ask for relief and exceed that space standard in many cases. >> So, it does account for the possible shifts I guess. >> Yeah, between the between the tenants. Yes. And you know it comes down to that total like you're looking at we have the total enrollment and then we break it up by kind of building by building. Um and you

098know you pick the highest within those buildings but also it does it does provide some flexibility within that as well. Um but you would want to have that defined within the expected certific. >> Okay. Thank you question >> Mike and uh Chuck I appreciate your time. Thank you for being so open on answering the questions and so informative with the uh PowerPoint. And again, just a reminder, we'll have this on our website for review. Um, and I'm sure you'll have questions. Um, and we will be open to questions every month. We'll be open to questions. Uh, if you have questions in the meantime, you can always contact us and, uh, we'll do our best to get back to you. Uh, Mike, Chuck, thank you very much and appreciate your time. >> Good evening. >> Thank

099you so much. >> At this time, I'd like to open up for non-aggenda public comment. So, if you have any uh question you'd like to ask about a non-aggenda item, you can do so at this time. Okay. Seeing none, I'm going to move on to the consent agenda. Uh the resignation of Anna Pearson, grade four teacher at Monu East Elementary School and the resignation of Kathleen Krosafi, head cheerleading coach at North David Haven High School. May I have a motion to approve the consent agenda? >> I'll make a motion. >> Second. >> Any discussion? >> All in favor? I >> so moved. >> May I have a motion to approve the donation of 25,000 for the purchase and installation of a speaker system for the turf fields at the North Haven High Middle School campus.

100>> This is from the North Haven Education Foundation. >> Can I have a motion? >> I'll make a motion. >> Can I get a second? >> Second. Any discussion? >> Thank you. >> Yeah, thank you. Um I haven't seen Anna. I'm I thought you were your sister. Holy cow. >> Check that. >> Check these out. >> Uh thank thank the North Haven Education Foundation for their donation. It's incredibly generous. Um all in favor? >> Any opposed? >> So moved. We're going to do uh >> some reports from uh standing committees. Marty, can you hear me? >> Yes. >> You have anything for racisual. >> Okay. Does anybody have any questions for Marty? >> Thanks, Marty. Uh, anybody from uh curriculum instructional planning? >> Yeah. Um, the CNI committee met on Monday. Uh, we approved some

101new courses. These included a grade 12 English elective, the graphic novel as literature, advanced yearbook publication, intro to cyber security, and a halfyear environmental science course. Uh, lastly, the Italian textbook, uh, Vita Italia. Sorry if I said that wrong. Item 10 was approved to move forward when funds become available. >> Does anybody have any questions for J? Anybody? No. Uh finance and operations. >> Yep. We met tonight. Um I want to just draw attention to a couple quick things. Line 100A is our salary contingency. And you'll notice that that is now uh zeroed out. You'll also notice a number of transfers in your packet. Most of the transfers, the vast majority of them are transfers between uh salary contingency line items. Uh one thing I'm excited about is we had budgeted for 10 paras to

102become RBTs uh within our schools and six of our current paras have become RBTs. Um this is a real win-win because um you know having these folks be our employees and have skin in the game tends to get better results and there's also sizable cost savings and these folks are growing within their careers. So I want to just congratulate them on uh their promotional opportunities and thank them for their service here. Um the electric line item is you'll notice that it's negative. Um we have to make an accounting adjustment to uh account for the incumbrance there. So that is actually fine. It is perfectly in line with what is now often referred to as financial operations. It's not called bookkeeping anymore. Um Christian also recommended that we put $191,232 of our non-lapsing fund into our

103medical and dental um insurance fund and $100,000 into workers comp. I thank Christian for his recommendation uh on transferring right now taking into account what we do know and what we don't know about the states of some of our aging uh buildings and some emergencies that have come up recently like boilers, flanges, gym floors, etc. I'm recommending that we keep the money in our non-lapsing fund for flexibility. This is just a 30-day decision. We um I'm recommending that we continue to reassess this every month. And um I've also requested an update on the IBNR, which is encumbered but not um received before making this decision. We usually get an update on that twice a year. I'm asking for an offcycle update because I have a suspicion that that IBNR number is going to come down.

104We'll see if I'm right. Um our next meeting is in February because of budget discuss discussions. Um, those of you who know me know that that's my favorite time of the year. I can't forget to get my budget binder. Um, and I'm looking forward to that discussion. That's it for me. >> Okay. Does anybody have any questions? >> Okay. Uh, to North Haven Education Foundation. >> Thank you. Uh, the Foundation met yesterday morning. They approved a grant submitted by Mrs. Betty and Lennena around math intervention support and the foundation will host also host a trivia night, I believe, in April. Is that correct? >> Act in April. So, more info to come on. Thank you. >> Okay. Does anybody have any questions about that? >> Okay. Just a reminder, we have a second read on

105policy 5131.912, restorative practices and response policy. Um Tom, like I mentioned, this would be your your first month, but you're going to be asked if you're ready to vote on that next month. >> Yep. >> Okay. A couple quick questions. >> You sure can. >> I just have three quick questions. One, how is parent involvement handled? Two, how are we tracking incidents? And three, will outcomes be reported back to the board? >> Yes, they will be reported back to the board. Uh, school climate committees do have parentation. And that's two of the three. Was it missing? >> Uh, well, how will parent involvement be handled? >> Oh, that's in on and then the third is how will incidents be tracked and monitored? >> So, we're actually developing that now. Uh Lori Vancowski is our district

106facilitator for school climate and they she as well as each of our school leaders are attending trainings around the new school climate legislation and we're figuring out the best way to track it and return report back to the board uh as part of state statute as well. So maybe through a Google doc things like that something that's accessible through all our buildings and not too high. >> Sounds good. Thanks. superintendent report. >> Thank you. Um so recently uh a I developed put together with the help of Gen K a quarterly newsletter. Uh the first one is actually on the website. It was posted to the district Facebook page and school newsletters. It's just a brief update around some of the great things that are happening around the district uh with a slight focus on central

107office. And the idea for this newsletter actually came from a parent at Bridge Road. She's a parent of a kindergarten student and she called me one day and said that, you know, I only hear from you when you're sending out these letters around threats or negative things in in the school. Um it'd be great to hear from you in other ways. And I really took that to heart. Um, so I I thought this would be a at least a start to um, you know, sharing good things that are happening in the school, especially for me because I don't want to be the person who's sharing just threats and calling snow days. I'd like to be a another avenue of good information for the district. Uh, just wanted to hit the high school gym floor really

108quickly. Uh, I want to apologize and thank everyone for their patience and flexibility around uh, the closing of the high school gym. It has been refinished. We're waiting for it to dry. could get in there this weekend, but we're really going to wait till Monday. We want it to be dry completely for our students uh in PE class and athletics. So, it'll be open by uh Monday morning for everyone. And I want to talk a little bit about uh a data sharing agreement from the state uh state department of education. So, about a month ago, the uh state department of ed sent us a data sharing agreement. And each district who implements this specific literacy progress monitoring tool uh monitoring tool, it's called Dibbles. Uh they receive this agreement and we implement this progress monitoring

109tool called Dibbles. And it's actually tied to the uh science of reading legislation that we uh Melinda's been talking about for the last few years. And in signing this agreement, it actually allowed the state department of education to review, track, and track our students progress uh and results on this uh progress monitoring tool. Now, the CSD does not pay for this tool. We do uh and we believe that they do not have the right to access our students data and and results. So, upon receiving this agreement, we did not sign it. Melinda was actually sent it and we did not sign this agreement. We actually reached out immediately to our attorney at shipment and they also recommended that we do not sign this agreement and they're looking more deeply into this and uh will follow

110up with us soon. So just want to give the board an update around around that. >> Can I ask a quick question about that? Does that does the data sharing agreement include what's called PII personally identifiable information on students? >> The agreement itself I'm not sure that it does. I would I I fully support the decision to not sign this as a data professional. It is a bad idea. >> We thought so too. Well, Melinda did initially and we talked it through. So, it >> just it just didn't seem like it was the right thing. I've worked with a lot of other um assistant superintendents and curriculum people and they all felt very similar as well. So, we're in very good company in not signing off on that right now. We will have to submit

111some aggregate data which may be a little bit more cumbersome on our end but we'll do that and move to avoid um our data being shared like that. >> A much better idea. >> Yep. >> Does anybody else have any questions for Packer assistant supervisors report? >> Okay. Um this past week we held literacy walkthroughs in each of the four elementary schools. We were joined by our partners at TNTP which is the group that we have been working with that I shared with you earlier and also a consultant from the Connecticut State Department of Education. Our teachers and students are working so hard and our implementation of bookworms is going great. It was just a wonderful experience at all four schools. The dialogue we had, the sharing and the learning excellent. Um the district also

112received a Yukon challenge coin. um which is in Patrick's office. Um the district has received this um to celebrate our partnership with the early college experience. >> And that's all I have. >> That's pretty cool. >> Somebody have any questions for the director of student services report, Anthony? >> Thank you very much. Good evening everyone. Tonight I wanted to highlight the Greenacres preschool program because they have been working tirelessly to complete the NYAK accreditation. So this will allow us to continue to learn and grow and at that high tiered level and be accredited as a preschool program. So it's a very important process. This process is not only a robust data collection but also multiple visits by the NYAK committee will be coming to the preschool in the winter springtime. Some of the sitewalks and

113evaluations range from curriculum and standards down to handwashing and meaningful play. So there's a wide range of details of the of what they look at. This is just a very quick snapshot of the process. I'm very thankful for Tracy Considine, principal Christy Scandlin, our special programs coordinator, Michael Yates, who has been helping to support the preschool program as well. While the preschool para educators, support staff and teachers that have been going above and beyond to support provide all this documentation and go through particular trainings. Uh the team is very close to submitting the final application which is ahead of time and in the new year our unannounced visits will begin uh by the NYAK committee to review every aspect of the program. Um, I just can't thank everyone enough for the hard work and dedication

114to our students as we continue to learn and grow together and build this program. And that is all I have this evening. >> Awesome. Does anybody have any questions for Anthony? >> Can I just ask about the preschool program? Are we still looking at the potential for expanding at some point? >> I think it's in conversation and it would be a wonderful idea moving forward. We just have to look at it logistically and see what that could how we could house it and staff it >> staff it and manage it and make sure we can do that appropriately. >> Just know it's been so wonderful that everyone loves it and I hear such great things. So, >> it's inevitable. >> Mhm. It is. >> Yeah, it is. That's a good question. Thank you. >> And

115we I've been conversations with Tracy about it, too, and she said that she wants to get >> like the prek program in excellent shape now >> before expansion. We're we're making great strides. We're doing great things over there. So, fabulous. Yeah. Ron and Anthony said it is inevitable. >> Thank you, Chief Operating Officer. Appreciate >> uh good evening everyone. Um just a couple quick points. First of all, Amanda, thanks for taking care of so much in your report. Makes mine nice and easy. Um obviously you had the current operating reports within your packet materials. do want to highlight just um at the close of November in our medical uh medical and dental reserve account we had 1.5 million in cash reserve funds and the workers compensation currently has $247,112 cash reserve funds in those uh

116areas at the close of November. Speaking of um some folks favorite time of the year uh budget preparation has gone um along quite well. I'd like to thank all of the building principles and district coordinators to uh for all the hard work they did. We really moved up the timeline this year, which gives us uh next week at the central office level to kind of sand the edges a little bit in preparation for providing you with your budget materials uh for next month's budget workshops. We will be sending out a schedule of those budget workshops. Just a reminder that when you get those dates, uh they will be uh at 6 pm and held in the board of education conference room. Um, you do have your grants report in your packet. I would like to

117once again thank the North Haven Education Foundation, not only for the $25,000 we received tonight. That's phenomenal and something we've been really trying to address for a while now. What's that? >> Okay. Well, thank you. We appreciate that. There were three other grants that were awarded that we would would like to just uh recognize. $280 was provided to Trisha Harkkins for mindfulness training at North Haven High School. >> $9,11.80 for Anthony Giodarno for outdoor learning activities at North Haven High School. And $4,928.78 to Danielle Gardner over Green Acres for building thinking classrooms. And so we are grateful for these and I know the these teachers are incredibly grateful for these funds. So thank you. Within my packet of materials, you received your monthly report from from DACO. Uh they continue to be really great partners

118to work with. You see from their reports that they are very critical of themselves, which that's what we want them to be. They are providing data and statistics. Um as kind of a we discussed this in our our meeting tonight at finance committee. We do have a weekly meeting with them, standing meeting. Uh at the beginning of the year when we were beginning our relationship with them, those meetings would last an hour at a time, which is to be expected. It was a new company coming in. We still have things that we're improving with them, but those those meetings now are down to about 25 minutes to 30 minutes. So, we're getting back that time because they continue to be responsive and are growing in their performance on a weekly basis. So, we are appreciative

119of that. And finally, uh my my good friend Mr. Sal Rizzo and Chartwells, they continue to do a great job in regards to food services to our students in terms of sales. North November stayed consistent, but we would like to highlight that uh Chartwells also participated in our staff inservice day on November 4th but for by providing breakfast for the entire um teaching community. They also partnered with the Rotary Club at the middle school uh for their their annual race and pancake breakfast that they do and it was very wellreceived. In addition to that, uh Mr. Rizzo and I continue to work in preparation for our annual review that will be coming up the end of March. We're well on target for that. And we also had a meeting of our wellness and food advisory

120committee. Actually, we have multiple members that sit on that as well as our two board student reps that are also on that. And as part of that, this year, we are working on revamping the district's wellness policy that has not been updated since 2006. So, that will be forthcoming as well. And so, outside of that, any questions you may have, I do want to wish the board um happy holidays and thank you for your continued partnership. Do we have anything for Christian? >> Can I just ask for um anyone who might need to contact the bus company? Is is there um a direct phone number? Are they supposed to be going through the schools first? >> There is a direct phone number. I don't remember off the top of my head. We did provide it

121in an email, but we can get that back up. >> I didn't see it on the website. So, I was just curious if there was a different process or if there was actually a direct phone number for them. >> Yep. You can contact they they still get parent phone calls, so we can get that back out again. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Yep. What's that? >> Yes. >> May I have a motion to approve the monthly financial report including the recommended transfers along with those um recommended by the board of finance? Chair Gabriel. >> So moved. >> I get a second. >> Second. >> Any discussion? >> All in favor? >> Can I just ask for clarification because the transfers had one thing but then you said they had recommended something. Why I asked for

122her the approval of what she said to >> keep that out. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Mhm. >> They're separate. >> Separate. Okay. >> They're separate. >> Okay. Thank you. >> All set. No problem. >> No problem. >> Um all in favor? >> I opposed. >> So moved. We're going to now open it up for public comment. Uh this is um for agenda items only. If you have a question about an agenda item, please step to the mic. >> Yes, please. M Mary White Summer Lane. Um can you tell us why a new gym floor is needed uh to be installed in the high school when that is a new building versus you know a 50 60 80 year old building? >> Yeah. >> Um the high school's 20 years old now. >> And there's

123So we're not replacing the floor at this point. We're refinishing the floor. Um, and to be honest with you, a little slippery. It gets a lot of play from PE classes and you know, volleyball, basketball, >> right? >> so it's a 20-year-old floor and it has wear and tear on it. Is that what I'm understanding it to be? >> However, the floor itself does need to be replaced at some point. >> Okay. So, what's being proposed now is to repair but not replace. >> Correct. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Sure. Thank you. Anybody else? Okay. Seeing none, may I have a motion to adjourn the December 11th, 2025 regular meeting of the board of education? >> So move. >> Second. >> Any discussion? All in favor? >> I. >> So move. Our next uh meeting

124will be a um workshop, budget workshop January 8th. Thank you. >> The proceeding program is brought to you in part through a grant from the town of North Haven. Watch town meetings or other videos on demand at nhtv.com.