001Um, regular board of education meeting at 6:31. Uh, please stand for the pledge to the flag of the United States of America standy for all. Before we do roll call, I would like um to ask for a moment of silence. We had a um staff member, Christian Tart Tar Targansski, sorry for butchering your name, um who lost her husband this uh past weekend. And so we'd like to have a moment of silence for the family. Um and uh Kristen Thank you. Vinnie Kadella [Music] Cast Stephanie Miller Nicole Livian McCrais Tarowski. Thank you. Um are there any amendments to the agenda? Hearing none, we can move on to um if you'd like to address the board if you don't mind going up to the podium and I think the micro the minutes. Oh, very sorry. Thank
002you. Thank you. Motion to approve the March 14th Board of Education minutes. Second. Any discussion of changes? All those in favor? Opposed? Abstain. Motion carries. Now, thank you, Mike. Now, we can move on to audience of citizens. If you would please um just state your name and if you would go up to the podium so that we can hear you. Um we'd appreciate it. [Music] Hi, I'm Christy Zawasttowski. Um a couple quick questions. I know you can't answer me, but I'll just talk. First off, we had our forum. We felt like it was pretty informative. Thank you so much, guys. We're just wondering when the follow-up forum will be done and when the parents will get answers to the questions that they had. Um, another question andor concern that I have, um, got an email
003today. My son's an extremely picky eater. Um, I got an email today that lunch was changed at the middle school. Um, last week or the week prior there was no water at Quaker. I'm wondering if it's the same issue and it's or if it's connected and what we're doing to rectify that. Um, my last thing that Oh, I have another question. It has to do with um our forum. One of the questions was the I Ready and kind of putting a freeze on homework for not just the middle school but for all the schools. My daughter is in fifth grade. One of my children are in fifth grade and she's panicking kind of in the same boat as some of those middle schoolers that she's got homework on top of homework on top of homework.
004So just kind of looking what we can do to fix that problem. I know you guys have I Ready coming in to give you some type of training. So maybe we could put a phrase to that and wait until you guys get your training so we could see how we could properly do it. I know some teachers are doing it great and I know some teachers don't really use it properly. Um my last thing it's a little sensitive is the whole central office to go. I just am really asking you in light of what happened yesterday. I just feel like opening those doors to the public and letting public people, accidents happen. Nobody expected that side door to be open at that Nashville school yesterday and allowing the public inside our school where our babies
005are. I just feel like it's irresponsible and would be reckless. And you never know what can happen. And the kids are outside at recess there. It's not a high school. It's not even a middle school. We have babies there. And yesterday really hit home for me. And that was the first thing that came to my mind was, "Holy cow, next year central office could be in the school that our kids are at and anybody can get in there." I know you guys are saying it's blocked off, but accidents happen and welcoming the public just makes that room a little bit tighter. So that's all I have for tonight. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Anyone else wish to address the board? [Music] Patty. Um, just wanted to say it's been a long time. I've done
006Zoom meetings. I've been in this town for half my life. My children have come through the district, seen a lot. And I just want to say first as a resident, I appreciate the board and the super. I know there's a lot going on and I've seen a lot through the years, but I have faith in you and I appreciate you. So, thank you. Thanks. Thank you. Anyone else? Um, before I start, is it okay if so if if a letter that another parent wrote that couldn't attend tonight is read by myself? I think it's a I don't know. Oh. Oh, you have permission to read it? Yes, I do from her. Is it Is that something I'm allowed to do, though? I don't know the protocol for that. She's not able to attend the meeting,
007but she wanted this to be read. She's a resident. She's a resident of She's a resident and she has two of her children in the school system already. Is this even on? And um she has another one upcoming into the system as well. And And so you're just reading the letter or you read her letter. Is that okay? Yeah, I'm What's her name? Stephanie Oor. And your name? Tammy Bogart. Sure. Okay. Uh, members of the Oxford Public School Board of Education, please take careful time and consideration to hear my concerns. It is very troubling that many things are not being taken into consideration. As stated in a newsletter that came out last week, a board of education corner stating multiple facts about the central office being moved. Um, it's stated that the board of ed
008spends a lot of time at central office. How often does a or any board of ed member visit Great Oak Elementary School or any other schools for that matter? Does any member of the board know the day-to-day operations of any school? How do they function in the rooms they utilize for services, testing, behavioral situations, fulfilling IEP expectations, or 504 plans for our students? The fact is at Great Oak Elementary School, three fifth grade classes might need to be moved, two special education rooms, and three more re resource rooms, including possibly the library being dismantled in our district's behavioral and an analyst with the library possibly being made smaller and reading labs will be paired with math labs. So, the space will be cut as well. This now makes the total staff affected 13 and the
009approximate number of students are third 17 third graders with referrals being tested, 13 fourth graders and more referrals being tested and possibly 12 to 15 incoming second grade students with eight or more students in other resource rooms. There are students who are also utilizing the rooms for enrichment that will be displaced and/or forced into smaller spaces for their learning. In addition, has anyone considered the amount of children and mixed ages of those children that will use one bathroom for each gender? Also, it is stated that the square footage of the building has been recognized as a certain number. Was that including hallway space? Where will all the fifth grade lockers be put and how much space is being accounted for that square footage? Why are we not considering the use of a portable building on
010a school property to house the central office and attaching it to the existing building for power etc. And this way the cost will still be under four buildings or considering an addition to one of the schools. If we take space away, we cannot go back. And there are many more challenges and changes to be had over the next few years with an influx of students coming along, especially with the developmental and academic delays still lingering from the loss of services and classroom time from COVID. There are currently seven first grade classes. Where will seven third grade, fourth grade, and fifth grade classes be housed when that class moves up each grade level? Is central office going to relocate for a fourth time in another two-year window? In conclusion, the relocation of the central office to
011any school is not the right choice. All of the schools need to be able to handle the accommodations of our everchanging student population and the various needs each student has each year. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Anyone else like to address the board? Okay, hearing none. Thank you so much. So, uh, board correspondents and anything, Mike? Okay. Um, update on central office relocation plans. Robert, [Music] so good evening. One of the questions that um we were trying to explore was what would the savings be if we were located office because one of the the main rationale is that the expenses to the district is quite high for us being in this building from an utility perspective electricity oil as well as water and then you factor in all the repairs. This is the oldest
012building in the district. So, we took took a deep dive into the finances and I added into the agenda what the expenses were over the previous school year. Um, and between heat, um, oil was 51,000, electricity was another 31,500. Um, factored in pest control 2,300. Um, the AED renewal licenses for this building another,000. Um we had um snow removal for 15,000 trash removal another 6,000 custodial services 10,500 the alarms of this building 6500 various different inspections for lights and um and air in this building 3,000 water 7,000 custodial services 3500. When you added in the 16,000 um for repairs to this building last year alone, we're looking at over $150,000 that we spent to be in this building um last year. And as far as I um I my main concern is to make sure
013that we have the right resources for kids. And if we are using those resources to pay for us to be in this building, if we can reallocate those funds for student and teacher resources, that's what we're here for. And that's what we need to allocate and reallocate our funds to to support the students and the teachers in the schools so that they have the res right resources that they need. So I I've shared with you the expenses. I al also shared with you the expenses for us to move into um for the repairs for this year. Um this year alone um we've faced $14,900 for repairs in this building. So that's between two years we've spent $28,000 in repairs. We're not even done with this fiscal year yet. So I just wanted to share with
014you the a recap of that. Um we have an opportunity to show the um find the facility committee um and any board member that wanted to see um at a facility committee meeting at 5:30 this evening the space that we are proposing to take over. Um as a reminder so that the general public's aware um it would be a separate parking area, a separate entry into the building. Um the gate would be moved further um back into the building to prevent access like it is now. So you wouldn't have general public or anybody driving back where students are. There would be locked vestibule that would prevent anyone coming in and even into cent office before they're cleared by a secretary. And there would potentially be an additional two locked proxy ID doors separating central office
015to the main part of the building. So there's several opportunities to prevent any unwanted person from gaining access to the main part of the school and that's more security than right now the school has entering the building through the main lobby. So there it would be additional layers of protection the school have. In terms of space-wise, um we'd be looking to move three regular education classrooms and one special education classroom and one classroom that's used by um interventionists um as often space um and some instructional area that they work with students. um we feel that we can offset and move the library into the one of the two intervention rooms and where the library currently is was three classrooms and it was the middle school. So we can make those three classrooms what is the
016currently the library and that replicates what the building had prior to it. If there is an increase in enrollment down the road, there are still additional spaces that could be used for a classroom space without eating into other areas of the building. Um, if there is a a bubble, we can accommodate that. Um, the enrollment shows that there is a peak in third grade. Um, but we don't anticipate that peak staying in third grade. So, we anticipate that third grade becoming a fourth grade, becoming a fifth grade potentially. and we don't even know if that third grade is going to even stay in the budget based upon any budget cuts that we see um this April. So where we stand right now with the central office relocation plans is we have met with a core
017group of teachers in par at um great oak metro school to um explore the ideas. Um it was through them that we arrived at using the library as that space. Um what needs to be decided is who would go into those um classrooms. um and if we did add a third grade classroom, which classroom space we'd use for that. So, we are planning to meet with them one more time. We are actively getting quotes um for any repair work that needs to be done. Um we anticipate our move um replicating to some degree what we did here, which is basically putting up some walls. We anticipate tearing down a small portion of a wall to make a window for a reception to to see out to the lobby. But we're not talking about heavy construction.
018We are also not planning on renovating the bathrooms until the core parts of the bathroom would get done for the students and staff in that school. Um, speaking of bathrooms, we are currently actively getting quotes to figure out what we need to do to fix up the bathrooms of the building and I'll address that in the superintendent report as well. Um, but in terms of the overall cost, I don't have that yet. We're currently actively working on getting a quote that we can present to the board of education and what the expenses would be for that. I can answer any questions you might have. I have um based on let's say enrollment numbers do go up and they which is a good thing for the town. Um, how many classrooms do you think without serious
019renovation would we be able to add if needed? We have um in the main part of the wing um leading to the fourth grade wing, there's two large SRB rooms that theoretically could be made into four classroom spaces and then those interventions could go elsewhere in the building. There's enough space to um jigsaw move people around. So we theoretically could add four classrooms and the director of special education has informed me that the special education classrooms in the building were regular classrooms before are too large for special education. And those rooms themselves could be subdivided um into more instructional spaces that are more um the size that a special education classroom can and should have. So there's there's enough room to to accommodate um bubbles if we had that. and the music and music room
020is staying downstairs. There's no change to the downstairs, right? Um using this plan, once again, this is the plan that was um proposed by the fire marshall um to not use the downstairs space and it mirrors the projections and the option B that was in the facility study from 2016. So, the music and the art classrooms downstairs remain untouched. The classrooms that are currently in use downstairs are special education related services right now. Those remain untouched and there's actually an unused classroom downstairs that theoretically could be used for a regular education classroom or special education room down the road. Right now it's vacant. Thank you. Any other questions? Go ahead. So, if we had a a parent meeting or a situation where we thought um there was going to be a problem or even if
021we didn't think there was going to be a problem and we wanted to take PPT a parent meeting um an expulsion here off premises the the campus of Great Oak we could certainly go to the library. We could certainly go to another town building to to do that. Correct. Absolutely. And and not that we ever want to expel students. Um but if we did, typically those are done after school hours when there's no students in the building anyway. Um if there's any controversial meeting that's taking place that we think that would be something that we had a concern from a security standpoint, we can house at the town library. We can even come back to this facility. We there's other places that we can go. It doesn't necessarily have to be at the central office
022where a meeting is taking place. I think that's what similar other towns too. Some other towns have actually taken their hearings outside of their their school. Correct. Well, the majority of PPTs are done in the schools already, right? They're not most of them are not at central office. I don't think we've had more than a handful of PPTs here. And typically, and when we did have PPTs here, it was during COVID when we're having not having public in the [Music] schools. I might be asking a redundant question at some point, but what did your visitor log during the day? What is our vis we we don't get many visitors? Would you compare that there's more visitors across the street at the library than there are at central office? I I couldn't tell you how many
023people go to the library, but typically we don't have public coming in here. Typically, people coming in here are those that are being interviewed um for a central office role or somebody that has already been in the school for a schoolwide interview and is being recommended to the superintendent for the final interview. So they've already been vetted and in the school to begin with and then they once they are hired they go through the hiring process. So they've already been vetted by the school vetted by our central office and the admin and then they go and they work with the HR secretary and the um payroll secretary to get their paperwork done. So they would have been vetted through the school to begin with. Um if the other publiclix that come in here are those
024sometimes parents that have a desire to meet with either director of special education or myself to go over a various concern. Um and sometimes we meet with the bus driver or the bus manager who are with our kids anyway and they would come over and meet with us. We don't have a a lot of public that comes into the facility. And I'm just curious the the Malone McBroom study that was done in 2016 that made this recommendation. Now, they would consider all safety aspects. I mean, this isn't this isn't like Bob's, you know, facility study. This is a major firm in the state of Connecticut that does this line of work and they take that into consideration. And in fact, we were actually proposing to add on to their schematics additional layers of security to
025more than they had originally projected in in the first place. Now, I participated in uh a few um security meetings uh over the summertime with various uh stakeholders that were involved. And to say that security is taken lightly in this district, I I would say that's a mis misstatement. Um, I think anybody that sits on this board, including myself, thinks that the child safety in a on a site is the most important thing. And I wouldn't sit here and say, "Well, let's, you know, half-hazardly do this, you know, by willy-nilly." Okay? I mean, um, and I and I I'll be honest with you, I got on this board to change the direction on and anybody that knows me from what went on prior administrations and stuff where there was no openness, there was no discussion,
026there was FOI violations that were filed all the time. And what's going on recently and I see disgust me because nobody wants to come here and put up with that. Everybody has their vested interest in what's best for the kids in this school, including you. I got quotes from 2016 from social media. Same people. I don't want to stand here and read them, but you know what it said? Oh, I wish they wouldn't roll their eyes. I wish they would pay attention. Everybody on this board, I think, is going above and beyond. Then I've made personal phone calls to somebody to meet with you. I'm sorry. I'm passionate about what I do and I got on this board to make sure that it was the best. I got kids in this district. They all went
027through this school. Excuse me. You're doing exactly what I just said. Can you please give me your undivided attention? I'm sorry. I'm a little passionate like you are. Thank you. Very sorry. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Listen, I want to do what's best for everybody, okay? I want to do what's best for the kids. Joe, could you take a moment just to remind the public on on how we arrived here today? Um, how did we begin looking at where sent officer would go? Discussion started. Um, we're talking about budgetary items and one of the things that obviously we evaluate is capital improvement and we did discuss with other people including the finance board what's possibly going on with the school. This school down here or former school uh apparently is going to become something for
028the community. I hope I hope it's going to be good for the kids. We don't want to have workers in this building. There's going to be a lot of work in the next few years from what I'm told out here. And you know, why do we want to have it disrupting a work environment for our people in the board ad when they should be concentrating on curriculum? They should be writing stuff like that. And not just that, but if I can turn $150,000 in resources to turn over to the kids without sacrificing safety, I think it's a home run. I I don't understand where this adversarialness is coming from. I I really don't. It's troubling to me. I moved to this town to better my life for my myself, my family, and my [Music] kids.
029I mean, it I'm sorry, but to get here where we were, this this building is going to be albatross to us. If the roof leaks, we're on the hook for it. We got paid for that. You know where that's coming from? Out of your kids. The stuff that we can reinvest in, get coaches and and other things. Sorry. It's just I expect better from people. I I have respect for people. I do. Yeah. I I It's not us and versus them. It's just should be we'll do what's right here. And then from the subcommittee, we took a walk through the school today. Yeah. And listen, I'll be perfectly honest with you. I'm straight shooter. My four balls are strikes. I know it's baseball season. It's a lot of space up there, people. It's a lot
030of space that's not being utilized properly. I'm sorry. It's what I see. I mean, maybe I'm wrong there. I'm seeing something. Convince me. Joe, ju just for a second, in case uh some of the folks in the audience don't know what you do for a living, maybe you should uh tell them where your security and safety technology. Again, I can't go into too much security stuff. I I specialize in Everybody knows me. I mean, everybody I think nobody knows what I do for a living, but I have a strong IT background. It sickens me what went on in Tennessee. I would never want to see that in this town or in this area. It affects everybody. The the the problem is it's always I don't want to say it's a moving target because I think
031it's a bad analogy, but it's always something that could be improved upon. And I can't go into great detail about all the discussions I've had about security in this town with certain officials in town that are responsible for that. They're willing. They want to always tighten up and harden harden a a a building. Our kids are the most important thing to protect. So where do you do it? That's what I was trying to get to. Where do you do it? I do work for the town of Senor. Everybody knows that. But my point is I don't I don't want to put my kids in the middle of a discussion to say, well, you know, they're they're the reason why we need to do this and because what happened in Tennessee, it's going to happen here.
032It could happen anywhere. It's sad. It happened in New Town and there's in my mind I know that there's other things that we could do and it's all been talked about. I can't go into detail about that because we don't want to disclose plans and we don't want to disclose those discussions, but it's important. It is one of the most paramount things that on me that I would look at first and foremost. I wouldn't want to sacrifice that or or lower that standard. That would never happen in my opinion. Never happened. That's why we have, you know, Officer Nichols is up there. He he he's one of the greatest guys. I've known him for 30 years. He do anything for your kids up at that school. He's the first line of defense. I could sit
033here for 20 minutes and look at deficiencies in every building. I can walk in this property in 20 minutes. I can tell you the deficiencies here. Nobody is sacrificing our kids. Never happened. Not on my watch. So I I'm sorry. Like I said, I'm a little passionate. I take things to heart sometimes too much. But to think that anybody on this board is not part of the community would think that. That's that's insane to me. I just can't logic. I I got nine people up here. They get along great with everyone. Democrats, Republicans, everybody's on here for the right reason. Tell you that. And in the sphere of full transparency, I just went down to another town. Their budget numbers aren't even listed for the public to look at. Dr. Miller's put and Mike Cusa
034has put every budgetary line item in cost center on. We never had that transparency here. [Music] No. But I digress. But thank you. I I listen, I'm open and available to anybody. Please come see me. I'll listen to you. Might not might not agree at some point, but I'll listen. Thanks, Jeff. Thank you, Steph. Can I add, please? So, uh, I I just want to start by saying thank you, Dr. Miller. You you make our lives easier. You are transparent. when we ask questions, the whole central office move, you've you are doing it because the board asked you to look into it and to specifically look at options that will save us money and allow us to stop putting money into this place and to put more money towards our kids. And it's not just
035money, it's also time and resources and attention. We don't want to keep our eyes off the prize prize or the kids and that's what we're putting our time towards. Um just talking about like we had the the meeting with the parents I think it was last week. Um we do plan on getting back to the parents probably in the next month. We want to make sure we have the information ready to answer their questions. It's a long list. The fact that we have those meetings, the fact that we want to come back and answer the questions should demonstrate to the community that we do care, that we do listen, and we do want to provide transparency when it's appropriate. Not every question will be able to be answered 100%. If there's a if there's a
036concern for security or, you know, privacy or personnel details, those things are kept private for a reason. Um, I I will say this. I love the communication. When people want to come to these meetings and they care about their kids and they come and they speak their mind, we want you to do that. When we have open sessions where we have discourse back and forth, we want that. You want to go on Facebook, say what you want. First amendment rights, it's a great thing. But I will say that there are some mean-spirited comments made that are mean-spirited. There are acts of, in my opinion, there's acts of bullying that we wouldn't tolerate towards our kids. We'd ask our parents to act as respectfully as we'd want our kids to be treated in schools. I don't
037think that's unfair or unreasonable. But I will say that we will still do our best. Whether you say nice things or you say unhappy things towards us, we still have a job to do. We take it very seriously. I have a daughter who's in first grade now. My boys, they're older. They're going to be out of the school system in a year. My daughter is in first grade. She's going to be going to go. I know exactly what she's walking into. I know what those bathrooms are like. We're working on it. I know the space. We just did a walk through. I see what we're walking into. I see where the building is currently used. We see what the direction of the central office move will do to the building. I'm still, you know, and
038we still don't have 100% of the facts, but based on the facts that I've received as an individual, I'm happy with the direction we're moving. I think we're going to use the space very well, and I think we're going to save a lot of money. And when my daughter in two years, actually not even a year and change, she'll be going two goes and I'm still happy with the direction we're moving and security. And I care very deeply about that. You know, it's one thing to say, you know, it if I have no kids in the school system to be to be able to come up here and say, I'm fine with the security because I have no skin in the game. Well, I'm on the board and I have kids at the beginning and
039end of this district and I care and I'm not going anywhere and I care about the safety and security of these kids. We will answer what we can when we come back to the parents and that meeting will be open to all parents, not just those who called for the meeting, but we're going to open it up so we can provide as much information as possible. So, I just again, Dr. Miller, you are doing the job we asked you to do. You did not initiate it, but you took it on and we appreciate the work you're putting into it. Thank you. Just one comment. Go ahead. And uh Stephanie will help me make it short. I I recognize many of the parents here. I'm um many of you know have known me for many years.
040I think this is my eighth year on the board. I'd have to double check that. But I've uh been with a lot of board members. Um not even all of these for a long time. And before that I watched as a parent from the audience for a long time. And I really genuinely have to tell you, as I often remind this board, I've not seen a better functioning board um that respects one another's expertise and listens and responds to the community and I hadn't seen that consistently in the past. So when Mike says and Joe says and Stephanie and everybody else, we do want you here. We do want to hear things whether or not we all agree or disagree. You I promise you will get the straight facts here and um I am happy
041to see you all here tonight. Thanks Shelly. That was nice and short. You did a good job. Well, you know at forwards. Okay. Any any further comment? All right. Thank you so much and thank you Dr. Miller. Um ad hoc committee this is back to you again Joe. That's where we are right ad hoc. Yeah we um we've been talking about this for a while and the subject of bathrooms makes my heart hurt but if anybody hasn't been following the facilities committee uh Dr. Miller and this start actually under Jason McKennon um we worked with Brian Mysteria and Mr. temple to get uh everybody knows everybody who's played sports in this district has gone to Oxford High School and has had to use those horrendous ports. So, um we're trying to get um we put
042a water line and a sewer line in last year from the street down to the lower building uh by Wolverine Field. Um Brian Mysteria, who's the town engineer, was very helpful in facilitating that. Dr. Illinois and Dr. McKinnon were very instrumental in making that happen up there. Um, but it's something that when that field went in up there, it kind of got stagnant for 10 years. And there was other phases that were supposed to be done like I laugh and joke that actually does a lot of stuff with phases, but um different. But uh what I want to do is that I talked to uh Stephanie and Dr. Miller. We want to uh put an ad hoc committee together us subcommittee off of the facilities and um I haven't talked to everybody on here but
043we would like to get at least seven people put on this to facilitate exported uh installing bathrooms for those water lines and sewer lines that we installed last year. Um it would be parents, members of the community along with a few members of the board. Um and um I think that it's something that would be good for the community to have. there a lot of people come in from out of town um and use the the facilities and and again it's it's a it's it's good for Oxford. It's good for an image of Oxford and it's good for the kids and the parents because you know it's ours when we go up there. So um I'd like to propose forming a committee and getting back next month and a voting on possibly members uh on
044that committee. And you know this committee is going to be also not only uh you know looking at it as a capital project but also be able to facilitate from the community from Hannes and so forth uh Oxford paint lumber anybody in the community that would want to give back uh to help us make this happen up there. So um I think it's a long time coming and I think it's a good uh uh thing to continue to build. Can you just read the top part so that we we know what the charge of the committee? In an effort to improve and grow our Oxford High School property facilities, I propose and charge the following names information of the committee. These names will be selected for their various expertise and provide directional resources after this
045proposed project. Um right now just obviously the names I had put up here for uh and again I not set in stone because I've talked to some I haven't talked to others be myself Mike Fusa uh Joe Stock uh Michael Pride Kevin Mullen Michael Dagustinino obviously uh I have not talked to Jeff Ler Brianak but I have talked to Jay Hner and other parents so um these guys are bringing wide variety of talents to make it this project successful. So, right. So, I think um we need a motion to authorize me to appoint the advisory committee. So, we do that. Right. So, do you want to do the motion? Sure. Uh I' like to make a motion that we uh form the uh Oxford location uh restaurant construction committee and authorize the chair to appoint
046to appoint people. second. Um, any further discussion? I just have one more question. Um, I know we're doing we're talking about the bathrooms outside and I I just want us to make sure we're keeping the eye on the ball that we're none of this is going to take away from getting our bathrooms in in Great Oak. No, I I mean I just want to make sure though it's clear that everybody understands that they're two opposite. The audience knows that our bathrooms in Great Oak will get done for us. The goal of this committee is first and foremost to determine what the cost would be to put bathrooms there. That's step one. And then we would determine if we if we do know the cost, where the funds would come from. Would that be a request
047to the town capital project? Would that come out of past revenue that came in from ticket sales and rental space, you know, which is supposed to be go back into that type of facility. But the the initial part of this committee is to find out what the cost would be to do the actual work itself before even entertaining where the funds would come from. And I would also say if there's any um board members that Joe didn't mention and you want to be on this um ad hoc committee, then just let Joe know and um and we'll make that happen. So is there any further discussion? All those in favor? I opposed or abstain. Motion carries. So, just to be clear, that motion is allowing me to authorize the ad hub, but we're not going
048to do that until the next meetings when we have all the yays and whatever. Okay. Thank you so much. Thank you. [Music] Yes, we have a par professional that just went through a personal um tragedy in her life. Um the sick bank in according to the par professional contract is designed for if you're individually going through an illness. Um, and I've asked the PAR professional association which they've agreed to and I'll come to the board for you to do symptoms which would cover 8 days. Um, this professional did not have coverage um to make a whole um um time and asked our attorney to drop the interview. So I have a copy of that. So I'm asking for the board to do a motion this evening to allow Stephanie to sign to sub this one
049par professional for these eight days. [Music] Motion motion to authorize the board chair to sign theou for the par profofessional six heads discussed. Second second by Mike. Any further question or discussion hearing? None. All those in favor I opposed or abstain. Motion carries. Thank you very much. Just let her know that we take care of our people. [Music] So, I recently um had a moment of silence earlier for um our staff member. Um as many of us are aware, there was a a Nashville um tragedy yesterday um in Nashville. There was a a shooting at a at a school. And I'd like us to take just a moment of silence um for the families and loved ones that lost that. Thank you. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So, I want to start with the the bathroom. That
050seems to be a major um item these days. And just as a as a historical point of reference, the town gave $1.4 $4 million to renovate the what had been the Oxford Middle School to become the new um center school which is now Great Oak Elementary School. Those funds according to the board of finance were supposed to go to fix the bathrooms in that building. The building committee um in uh alignment with the superintendent at the time Dr. McKinnon and the principal he thundershot um made a decision to use those funds to replace the cabinetry in the classrooms to repair some of the floors. Um many of the funds which have been allocated by the board of finance for the bathrooms were actually used for bathrooms. I've been advocating I'm the only one that's been
051sitting for the last two years asking this committee to reallocate the funds to those bathrooms. I've asked them in the meetings to not use specific funds for other purposes to reallocate for those bathrooms. I have finally joined the building committee to reconvene. They're waiting tomorrow night. The original building committee there's $15,000 that's remaining in that budget. I've been asking for the last 12 months for them to do so. They're finally meeting tomorrow night and they are voting um to reallocate the remaining funds to renovate bathrooms in that building. I don't know if that's going to fix all the bathrooms. That is going to be at least a detonate. We're currently working on an active quote. Um, Mr. Dun, our chief operations officer, is working with plumbers to get quotes on what we need to do
052to repair all the bathrooms in that building. Um, if the $15,000 does not do the all the work we need to do, it is on the capital request again this year for our second year in a row. as to store the general public that this was a request last year as well. In fact, the board of finance did not list it for the public to vote on that for despite this being a number one request for them to consider. What got funded was the pool of the high school playground farms, but this was the one request to fix the bathrooms at Crater Elementary School. And it is again requesting the families who requested that the Vines be item that they they fix. So this is heavy on radar. This is what we want to get
053accomplished. And we showed the um facility committee um this evening and any that were there what the bathrooms look like upgrade for both a physical and a client. Um there's also questions about the um the actual hot water in those bathrooms. The water is not malfunctioning. There there's um comments uh from people that the water is not working. The water is working as is designed to work. It was engineered so that it's the type of water tank that you press the button and the water comes out for a few seconds and it stops. Well, that's not enough time for the hot water to get from the hot water tank to the the faucet for it to come out. So, it's doing what it's designed to do. It just we don't like what what it's doing,
054which is a difference. So, benefits is our number one party. We would like to address that. On to um a couple happy. Um I was informed um earlier this morning that the um our athletic director Joel was um selected as the unified sports 2022 athletic director of the year. So, he did a wonderful job. We have a wonderful unified program in the high school and um Janna Kapper and the students that are involved a huge number of students that participate in and the middle school has a wonderful unified program as well. So I just wanted to shout out congratulations to Joe for being selected for that month. We had a wonderful uh performance at the high school with our high school um musical. The students did a wonderful job. Thursday and Friday um this week
055our great oak performers are doing their musical. There's two four performances running that we are doing for other students and then two performances in evening Thursday and Friday night. It's a performance that actually the whole thing is written by our music teacher at those um and the students help to do some of the co-writing with him. So I'm excited that that the fees run on his music. So that's pretty pretty neat. question is speaking about um earlier in the audience as citizens about the water situation at Quaker Farms and Bunch at Lumis School. So, let me address both of those. At Quaker Farms, the water comes into a building and it goes through basically a set of valves and if that valve malfunctions, the water is designed to come back out of the building as
056opposed to flooding the building. valve broke and the inflow of the water coming into the building itself. There's two Fridays ago around 2:30 1:30 2:00 in the afternoon. When that happened, the only way for is to shut off water to the whole building. So that's what we did. It was too late in the afternoon for us to send the students home. We actually use the middle school bathrooms to have the students go to the bathroom till class is over. The other time to use the bathrooms the facility there. Um emergency intervention. That's correct. Um so that was um the second time that it's happened at that. It happened um I believe during Christmas break. Um so that's twice this year and it's supposed to be um certified on an annual basis. So if it's done
057properly, uh we also then have a backup system in place so if it breaks down, we have something on the shelf to then fix it with. So we've now have another part in place if that was to happen again um in the future. But it's the type of thing that um can only be fixed if the entire water is turned off to the bathroom to the building. So that's what took place with that. That's completely disconnected from the middle school lunch situation today. Right. So, are you saying that because you said that's the second time that happened? So, now we fixed it because it was a part that needed to be replaced. We basically had to rebuild the the mechanism so that So, that's done. And then we also have a backup so that if
058it happens again, we don't have to wait because I know there was a concern about getting the P. It's a type of part that um is quite expensive. So, plumbers typically don't have it on their shelf. So, the plumber that we were working with actually had to call all the plumbers in the state looking for something that had it. And I was able to find someone that actually had one available. They had just gotten in the front of their job and was able to convince them to give it to us to get the job done. But are you also saying we have a backup? We now have a a part that can be used as a backup. Yes. Is this is this something that is wear and tear because of the the um life expectancy
059or is this something It is. It's supposed to also be expected on an annual basis and I'm not too sure how effective that have been. um done the pet food. Yes. Right. Um the situation at lunch at the middle school, there was a um odor coming in from the this the sewage um line um in the kitchen itself. Um and out of an abundance of caution to make sure that there wasn't any bacteria going into any of the food, we felt the best thing for all students and staff in that building was not to be serving any food that was made in the kitchen stay. So, we made the call around 9:30 this morning to shut the kitchen down with the um food provider with that actually made them in another school and brought them
060up to the middle school to serve the students. And because it was a emergency situation, they couldn't have a range of options that students typically would have had. They had to basically do what we used to do in CO, which is here's a diet lunch and it's one option, that's it. raises an emergency type of situation just to get food to the students. And so whatever that problem was has been remedied. The problem the the the problem has now been um fixed and that's some has that happened before? To the best of my knowledge that's ever happened in my kitchen before. I think that was a good solution. Yes. I mean I think I'd want to eat lunch with that order. Right. Um okay. Thank you. Anything else? Um there was a question about ready
061um in fifth grade and and I will look into that with the princip find out exactly what the status is with that. Okay. And have we gotten uh notice of when the u is coming to district? I think I have to confirm it was supposed to be for the board of education meeting scheduled for next Tuesday night the 4th I believe it is but I will verify that. Um thank you. I have um nothing to report so I can go to subcommittees. I don't know Joe if you have anything additional to add and I will I will also note that it is called the facility safe school and transportation building committee. So it's right in the title. Um any other questions for Joe from the board and regard to facilities? Thank you. Um, deb curriculum
062we meet on April 3rd and hopefully we'll have some progress looking away. Um, Nicole, policy equality, we have not met since the last meeting, so there's nothing um nothing new to discuss at this time. Okay, great. And Mike, finance, so we met uh on the 21st. Um, good meeting. We have about 91% of the budget encumbered expended for the year. Um I was one one of the you know highlights is some of the prior classes had leftover funds and we were able to working with uh Mr. Hibbert we were able to spend down a lot of those funds for for purchases for the schools whether it was new banners or metal picnic tables for the seniors to sit on. um we were able to kind of reallocate those funds because the goal is not for
063them to just sit there but to be used for the classes um and reinvest into the school from those prior seniors. Um right now we're kind of in limbo. We're waiting for the board of finance to weigh in on on our our budget. We presented a budget. We're waiting to hear back and uh go down that path. So I think in the next couple weeks we should hear something. That's usually in April, right? And then the referendum is in May. Yes. According to their schedule, it's April 18th. Okay. So, April 18th is when we will find out what we get approved of. That's the town. So, will we find out before that? No, it'll be after that. Okay. Right. And we get everybody to come talk. If we get cut, it'll be after then we
064have to go back to the drawing board and and adjust the budget as needed. However, right? And then we we'll have just about a week and a half or two weeks for us to figure out exactly where those cuts are, right? And then just a reminder the public there's not a lot of opportunity to gain input at that point. It's a matter of figuring things out really quickly. Yeah. And we've already gone before the board of finance and you know they were very pleased with with our budget but they have to deal with we're also the largest budget in the town so they have to you know make sure that everyone gets taken care of. Um are there any liaison reports? Um you went to PTO I think right? I did go to the PTO
065meeting last Thursday. Um they are planning um their spring um book fair um and they're also planning the book fair for the fall. Um the book fair this spring is with the typical provider the one in the fall they're actually changing to a local um um bookshop that's at Monroe which they're hoping is going to provide more opportunities. The person since they're local will be able to see the um popular books and go back and bring more of that stuff back the next day. and it'll be nice for us to support and make a connection to a local um store um right next door to us, which would be nice. Um they're also planning for the teacher appreciation week, the same pizza truck that they did last year for um the two elementary schools and
066the middle school. Um last year, the truck was right in the middle of the the three campuses, right? Um middle school parking, and the teachers walked over, had um custom made um pizzas, and they walked back um and it was very popular. They're they're planning that again um for teacher appreciation weekend in May. Oh, the other thing is there's a spring dance. I think the spring dance at the middle school is actually this Friday night and I am in ter um in contact with um Oasis to see if we can get them to come into the middle school for a hidden in plain sight, you know, presentation or if there's a different presentation that's more appropriate to middle school students. Um so that will be something that will happen in the spring as well. Um,
067okay. Hearing no other reports, then I have a motion to adjourn the meeting at 7:25. Second. I think I have all in favor. All right. Have a good meeting. Thank you. Thank you everyone for coming. Thank you all.