001Thank you. Good evening everyone. It is 6:42 and I'd like to call the special meeting to order. Um before we get to the two resolutions that we need to call tonight, um I wanted to talk real briefly about what got us here and and why are we here voting on this tonight? Because tonight we'll be voting on authorizing the bond and then sending that bond to referendum as well as calling for a special town meeting. Um, and instead of having me expound upon it briefly, I I'm gonna ask Charles Britain to give a quick two or three minute over what bars he's been involved in this thing over the years. And I think >> minutes for people Yeah, we're starting to talk. Bobby is starting to time. >> You've never seen >> I will I
002will I do my very >> So quick overview you wanted, right? >> Yes. Quick. >> All right, >> let's really quick overview then. Um, February 2020, the Portland Board of Education did two things. They appointed me as a superintendent. Thank you, Portland Board of Education. And they hired a committee called Gordian to come in and do a full facility analysis. That was February 2020. We all know March 2020, the pandemic starts right now. The pandemic was all around awful. I swear I will quit if I ever have to lead a school district through anything like that ever again. But what it did do is empty out the schools, which provided the building inspectors from Gordian to come in and look at all of them. They produced a report that we looked at that we know
003identified many, many, many millions of dollars worth of work in the schools. That report was shared with the Portland Board of Selecmen in the fall of 2020. It was probably done online. We could go back and find that report because we were all shut down or likely wearing masks. you all looked at that report and said, "Wait a minute, but we we can't start asking for this amount of money without a whole lot of more questions being answered." Specifically to Bobby's point, do we need as many schools open as we have? Right at that time, you all formed a committee, right, called the facility study committee. Bobby was on that committee. L Pere was on that committee. Two representatives from the board of education was on were on that committee. I was on that committee.
004We met for two years. I promise you, we left no stone unturned. We explored every possible grade level configuration and explored, you know, incredible redesigns of the district. We we thought about what would it take to decommission Valley View, decommission Brownstone, turn Gildersleeve into a prek five school. I mean, we spent hours exploring different options for the school district. In addition to that, we reached out to the state and said, "What do you recommend that we do? How how do we how do we start to put together proposals the type of which attorney Ritter and others can use to put together bonding questions? The the advice we got from the state was hire an architect. We don't want to hear from the educators. We want to hear from the architects." Right? At that time, we
005were getting an awful lot of money from the federal government as part of COVID relief fundings. There were some strings attached to those about how you could use that money, but one of the stated purposes of that funding was if you can use that money to improve your indoor air quality, right? Well, we reached out to the our the people managing those grants and said, "Is putting together a plan that will improve the indoor air quality in all of our schools good enough?" And they said yes. So, we spent an enormous amount of our COVID relief money on an architect. Architects aren't cheap. They don't work for free. But we hired Frier Architecture. They began working with that committee and helped us put I mean I I think I've gotten a graduate school level education
006from Frier Architecture in how you how the state reimbures projects and how you go about getting yourselves to the point where we're at right now. Out of the strategic planning committee came a recommendation that Gildersleeve be the school that was decommissioned, Valley View be turned into a preK3 school. Bobby remembers this. and Brownstone be turned into a grades 46 school. That report and those recommendations were not unanimously approved by the facility study committee. As a matter of fact, it was it just narrowly squeaked by. If you remember, those recommendations were shared with both the board of education and the board of selectman. The board of selectman heard those recommendations, right? And it there was a lot of wait a minute, we're not sure that that's the best thing for the community. It wasn't endorsed unanimously.
007We're not entirely sure if this is the direction we want to go. If you remember, the board of selectmen at that time hired Great Blue Architecture, a Great Blue Survey Company. They came in and they did a communitywide survey and asked everybody in town, what do you think of these different options? The survey came back and the survey results were that based on that it wasn't overwhelming majority but you know more people than not in town said they preferred the idea of a single prek5 school and moving the sixth grade to the middle school. That was the plan that we then firmed up with the architects. That was the plan that attorney Ritter put together your last bonding measure for and that was the one that went out in front of the voters in November.
008That was not a perfect plan. It was not definitely not unanimously supported by everybody on the board of education nor on the board of selectmen. And it was pretty resoundingly defeated by the voters at the November presidential election. After that, a second committee got working. The first thing we did is we said, what was it that the community did not like about that plan? There were lots of different reasons, but the big one was people don't like a big school. I think that people were saying this is a small school. We like our smaller schools. The strategic planning committee that followed up from that, again, we met, holy cow, for months and months. You can view all of those meetings. We spent hours in the library at the high school. Again, you remember, right, with
009Carl Johnson leading that committee. I'm seeing nodding heads. It was many many hours in the in the library going line by line through the sightelines report through fire's recommendations and coming up with a a second plan. Out of that committee came the plan that's come to you now to decommission Brownstone, return Valley View to a preK2 school as it once was, and return uh Gildersleeve to a grades three through five school. We had some pleasant surprises along the way, including enhanced reimbursement rates for prek. The reimbursement rate from the state actually increased a little bit between the mega school and this one. Um, and we did a lot of work to put together the plan that's before you today. Now, here's the most exciting thing about this. This plan, and I just want to say
010this clearly, is unanimously supported by the Portland Board of Education. I believe we'll find out tonight, unanimously supported by the board of selectman. It has been it that the our Republican Town Committee has taken a position of support on it. The Democratic Town Committee has taken a position of support on it. I promise you, the entire faculty and staff in this district supports it, especially as the weather is getting warmer and we're breathing very hot and uncomfortable air in our buildings. I support it. The leadership team supports it. Your former facilities director, Carl Johnson, supports it. Your current facilities director, Robert Sheay, supports it. This plan is embraced by everybody. We are in a very different place today than I think we were with the mega school and I'm hoping that we've impressed upon the
011community that we have done our work. All of the planets have aligned on this. The reimbursement rates are where they need to be. This is good for students. You're getting some nice overhead savings by consolidating schools and you have the bandwidth because you have very little debt on the town aside from Route 17 Port Park and your town is growing and bringing in some new revenue that's going to help offset this in a manner that isn't going to be an enormous burden on the property taxpayers. It's not there's there is going to be an impact, but I believe that impact is going to be manageable. We're going to have two tough years ahead, 2030 and 2031. I'm already thinking about where Mike and I have got to work really hard on our contracts and with
012our folks as we plan for those two years. But once you're past 30 2030 and 2031, you see a nice dip at the amortization table as the Route 17 park comes off and you start realizing um the the the growth in the town. That's reflects the the the tax abatement that comes off on the um Brainer Place and the increased revenue from the Nordic spa. So everything's lining up nicely for this. I I think this is a great plan for your community and it will will in position us to provide two beautiful schools for your kids. >> Was that two minutes? That's fine. >> That was a fantastic three. >> Longer than two, but >> I had to go. >> Less than five, >> Jo. That was great. Thank you very much. >> Thanks, Sean.
013>> I thought it was worthwhile um walking through that one more time. There may be people out there that are watching this tonight and getting a final feel for this before we vote, but I thought that was important and that was that was a great job and and it show and I think it shows you the amount of time and effort that's been put into this by the community and how we finally I like the way you said it. everything's kind of aligned like the moment right right now um is I think a perfect moment for the town for all those I won't repeat all that but I think it it is well worth and I think I hope that we can earn the yes of those folks out there that undecided and if not
014I encourage them to look at all the resources that are out there I mean every every presentation is out there the website um if you're not finding the information look hard you're not looking hard enough it's out there um and uh and the whole bit >> I just have one there's one correction the arc does not come locked until 2042. >> That that is >> we have 15 more years of >> you. That's correct. But I think that's one actually to to add something to that. I don't think most people realize is that with this bond question with with the uh tax increases that we projected and what the mill rate is, we included the $7 million of money that's going on Route 17 Park. It's part of the town debt that we have for
015that, but we wanted to put that in together. We didn't want to separate. We could have separated that out um and made it seem less, but it's part of the of what the town owes. So that $7 million, $7.2 million is in there. It's in the money. It's in what we calculate what the tax impact will be. And um I think that's only fair. And lastly, um every number that we've looked at, I think we've been very conservative about whether it's the bond percentage, um whether it's the estimated construction cost, whether it's contingency. I think we tried to build in as much cushion in there as we could because we wanted we wanted to get pleasant surprises surprises where we we didn't spend all the money that we needed to and got the job done.
016So with that um I think we'll go on to the next one. So for the next I am looking for someone that is willing to read the resolution recommending the appropriation of this. Oh, would you like to do that? >> Very nice. Okay. >> Count of Portland Board of Suckman April 15, 2026. resolution recommending an appropriation and bond authorization for the renovation and expansion of Valley View Elementary School into a prek to grade 2 school, the renovation of Gildersleeve Elementary School into a grades 3 to five school and various capital improvements at the Portland Middle School and Portland High School. resolved that the board of selectman recommends that the town of Portland, the town appropriate $109 million for one, the renovation and expansion of Valley View Elementary School into a prek to grade 2 school,
017the Valley View School Project. Two, the renovation of Gildersleeve Elementary School into a grades 3 to five school, the Gildersleeve School Project. Three, various capital improvements at Portland Middle School, the middle school project. And four, various capital improvements at Portland High School, the high school project. and collectively with the Valley View School project, the Gildersleeve School project and the middle middle school project. the projects. The appropriation may be expended for site improvements, design, construction, renovation and installation costs, HVAC upgrades, en engineering and professional fees, inspection evaluation and surveying costs, materials, equipment, furniture, purchase costs, legal fees, financing costs, interest expense on temporary borrowings, and other costs related to the projects. The appropriation shall include any federal, state, or other grants and aid received for the projects. The town is projecting reimbursement from the state of
018Connecticut in the amount of 66,52,080 for the projects. The board of selectmen or a building committee if established is authorized to determine the particulars of the projects. The board of selectmen may reduce or modify the scope of the projects and the entire appropriation may be expended on the projects as so reduced or modified. The board of selectman may by resolution transfer funds among the projects so long as the total appropriation and bond authorization is not increased. Further resolved that the board of selectman recommends that the town finance the appropriation by issuing the town bonds or notes in an amount not to exceed $58 million with the balance to be funded by grants received for the projects. Further resolved that the board of selectmen hereby refers the projects to the planning and zoning commission for approval
019in accordance with the Connecticut general statute section 824. >> Seconded. Seconded by Jim. Any discussion? All those in favor? >> I. >> All those opposed? Abstension. Motion passes. Fantastic. All right. Now, we need to set a special town meeting and set the referendum vote. There is the second. >> Would you like me to read the res? >> Good. It's a lot of reading. >> Yeah, I know. Uh, town of Portland, Connecticut board of selectmen, April 15, 2026. Resolution to call a special town meeting and referendum vote. Whereas following a public hearing held on April 15, 2026, the board of selectment has recommended that the town of Portland, the town appropriate $19 million for one, the renovation and expansion of Valley View Elementary School into preK to grade two school, the Valley View School Project. Two,
020the renovation of Gildersleeve Elementary School into a grade three through five school, the Gildersleeve School project. Three, various capital improvements at Portland Middle School, the middle school project. and four various capital improvements at Portland High School, a high school project, and collectively with Valley View School Project, the Gildersview School Project, and the middle school project called the projects, and finance the appropriation by issuing the town's bonds or notes in amount not to exceed $58 million with the balance to be funded by grants received from the projects. Be it resolved that the attached detail appropriation and bonding resolution for the projects. The resolution is hereby approved and shall be submitted to a special town meeting to be held on Monday, April 27, 2026 in accordance with the attached warning of special town meeting, which is also
021hereby approved. A copy of the full text of the resolution shall be available for public inspection at the town clerk's office. Further resolve that pursu pursuant to section 7-7 of the Connecticut General Statutes and section 1204 of the town charter, the board of selectment hereby submits the resolution to a referendum vote on the voting tabulators or the paper ballot for approval or disapproval by the voters of the town to be held on Monday, May 11th, 2026 between the hours of 6:00 a.m. and 8:00 p.m. further resolved that the resolution shall be placed upon the voting tabulators or the paper ballot under the following heading. Shall the town of Portland appropriate $19 million for the renovation and expansion of Valley View Elementary School into a prek to grade 2 school, the renovation of Gildersleeve Elementary School
022into a grades three through five school, and various capital improvements at Portland Middle School and High School. and authorize the issuance of the town's bonds or notes in amount not to exceed $58 million to finance the appropriation with the balance to be funded by grants received for the projects yes or no. Votes approving said resolution will vote yes and those opposing said resolution will vote no. Portland Middle School, 93 High Street, Portland, Connecticut, shall be utilized by town electors for purposes of the referendum vote on the voting tabulators or paper ballots. Absentee ballots will be available from the town clerk's office. Voters qualified to vote who are not electors shall vote at the Portland Middle School, 93 High Street, Portland, Connecticut, in accordance with the procedures contained in section 9-369D of the Connecticut General Statutes.
023with procedures the town hereby chooses to apply. Further resolve that the town clerk is authorized to prepare a concise explanatory text of the resolution which has been submitted to a referendum vote on the voting tabulators of the town. Subject to the approval of the town attorney. The board of selectmen authorizes the first selectman to prepare and print explanatory materials regarding this resolution. such explanatory text and explanatory materials to be prepared in accordance with Connecticut General Statutes Section 9-369B. >> I'll second that as well. >> J second that. Further discussion. All right. Call for the vote. All those in favor? >> All those opposed? Abstension? Motion passes. Fantastic. Now, it'll be up to the voters to decide. I think that's wonderful. Um, just two more things before we go to public comment while I have uh
024Attorney Ritter on the phone or on the on the call. Um, a quiet period starts as soon as this meeting is over. Um, and I know some of the selectmen wanted to get clarification on what could be said, what couldn't be said, um, >> and what we should expect. So, if you can walk us through that, that would be great. We'd appreciate that. >> Yes. So, so let's start with this reality. Okay, this the pending referendum statute does not limit your first amendment rights as private citizens. Okay, the statute only says you cannot use municipal funds and that would include the board of ed in this case to advocate for or against the project. So, let's let's give you a good comparison. And this comes up with a lot of clients because they're always worried
025about it. You have an email address that's portland.ct, CT doc, you know, portland at, you know, portland.gov, right? If you email your friend and say vote yes on May 11th, you're using municipal funds because they maintain the list serve and the all that comes with that email address and say vote yes, you're using municipal funds to advocate for the project. If you use your Gmail on your personal computer, you have nothing to worry about. where where I see towns and clients get in trouble. People have used photocopers to print flyers that say vote yes. You can't do that. Can you go on your own personal time and knock on doors? Of course you can. Can you go to fundraisers advocating for or against it on your own personal time? Of course you can. Could you
026tomorrow morning go knock on 4,000 doors on your own personal time? Sure. You just can't use your town resources. So things to look out for are the email in particular. Um you know that again the computer if you have a town issued computer just be careful there. Flyers that get printed. I mean there's not a lot of things that that you could do. There are also community notification system requirements. Back in 2013 the legislature changed the law to limit what the superintendent could do with his or her own list. They used to be able to just send out an email only to board of ed parents and that got changed because people thought that was unfair. The first selectman can do that time, date, and uh time, date, and question. No problem. That's the one
027thing they'll let you send out. Again, that's kind of explanatory text like in many ways. Uh but the first and I have talked about the community notification system, the limits there. But for most of you, you're not going to run into any problems. If you have a personal Facebook page, great. post vote say I it's the worst project of all time is the best project you're not going to get in trouble just don't use your town resources or the town website for example the town website you know as of tonight can't have advocacy materials just on the front page of the website vote yes it's the most important project of all time vote no it's the worst project of all time can't do that so those are the things where we see towns get in
028trouble but please know that when you're on your own personal time nothing in the law is precluding you from advocating for against the project. >> If if someone if someone invites me to one of their meetings, one of the groups in town, um, and I say I'm going to go there as as, you know, individual, not as the first selectman, uh, is that a gray area? Is that something I need to be careful of because they'll know me as the first selectman and I want to make sure that I >> Yeah. There's nothing you can do to undo the fact that you're the first selectman. So, um, that's the reality. >> Some people here, they try. >> Yeah. So, well, that that that aside, if you get invited to go speak to a lunch or
029whatever and you, you know, you're on your personal time, there's nothing wrong with that, right? It's a little unique in your situation because you're probably always on the clock. >> Um, but you going to speak to people on your own personal time is not going to be a problem. >> Um, you know, having a meeting at town hall like tomorrow where the seven of you all go on video cameras and say, "This is the greatest project of all time or the worst project of all time." Yeah, that could be a problem, right? That's town resources filming it, for example. So, [clears throat] you can email me with any questions. I'm used to that. Like, for example, you might get asked to write an op-ed for a newspaper. You can do that. There's actually an exemption
030in state statute for that. Um, the schools can put a flyer in backpacks, time, date, and place. That's it. They can do that. Actually, that's the one thing that they can do. People sometimes forget that. Just ask us the questions. Myself, my partner Danielle will answer them right away for you. But just, it's just common sense. anything related to municip town hall, municipality, you know, municipal funds, just email us before you do it and we'll give you the green light. And if we if it's a close call, we'll call the state election enforcement commission. They're wonderful. They will answer questions quickly for us if we ask them. >> Right. Right. >> Okay. >> Right. Any >> Tom, we the town produced we produced a podcast with Charles and and that Michael came on and explained
031the whole project and the dos and don'ts. That's on our town website. Should we take that down? >> I'm assuming in that podcast there's advocacy for the project. >> Yes. Yes. >> Yeah. If it's buried in meeting minutes, which it sounds like it's not, then it's a little different. If you just have a a podcast, I would take that down. Yeah. >> Yep. >> That's a good question. And that's just being safe. That's just being cautious. Right. See cannot invalidate your referendum. They could find someone for egregious behavior. This podcast seems pretty harmless. You probably do them. It's probably a routine podcast that you do on a monthly basis or weekly basis, but to be safe, I would just take it down. Yeah. >> Right. >> You don't want someone to raise the accusation >>
032unnecessarily >> on the website. It's on your website, too. Correct. >> Um and and all the folks here um have either been writing or will be writing letters, you know, to the local newspaper and stuff as individuals as who they are. So, >> y problem with that. Yep. You got first amendment rights still. There's no town resource involved in writing a letter. And a as a town, we have signs that say come out and vote because we also have a budget vote that same night. Um so we've created signs that are neutral that say come out and vote on this day. Um can we produce more of those signs if we wanted to put more out there that encourage people to vote? >> Um if we're referring to the time, date, and place, then that's
033an exception under the statutes. I don't know exactly what they say. Um I think you sent me a picture, but >> I'll send you a copy. Again, I I don't I think in telling people when the vote is is fine. Um they want we're not Again, you're not telling them how to vote. You're just saying vote. They may all vote against it. They may all vote for it. That's that's that's the neutrality of it all. It's got to be neutral. >> I think just telling people to come vote is fine. I do. >> And and one last question. Um I've explained to to all the folks here the reason we have to get 20% is because of um our charter. Um it's a heavy it's a heavy lift. um because not not which is why
034we're so motivated to get the word out and let people know. We want, you know, if it's a no vote and we can't convince someone, we still want them out there to vote. We hope that we get more yeses, of course, but uh maybe you could just explain one more time why the 20% and that way people are listening at home. Just it's part of the rules. >> Yeah, it's your town charter. It's not state statute, so it's a local thing. Um some towns have it. I've run into it before. Um but you got to hit 20% pursuant to your charter. It's specific to the issuance of debt, which is interesting. So, whoever wrote your charter or revised it many years ago felt strongly that there had to be a certain turnout for the issuance
035of debt. >> Got it. >> Yeah. Yeah. It's a unique provision there. It's not a statute. >> Okay. Got it. All right. Um Matt, thank you very much. I really appreciate all the help all your help with this in the background and we'll we'll reach out to you with any specific questions. Keep us we can >> go go I I'm glad to stay on. Is there more people from the public hearing that might have questions? We're going to do public comment. >> We're about to do public comment right now. You stay a couple more minutes. Let's say >> Yeah, I'll stay put. No problem. Yep. >> Beautiful. All right. Um All right. Public comment. Anyone in the audience that has not spoken that would like to or that has spoken already would like to speak
036again. >> I just have a question. What is the time and the place of the town meeting on April 27th? I don't think I heard it in the >> I don't believe it says it's 7 o'clock at the uh middle school auditorium. >> Okay. Thanks. >> And and Mr. First Selecman, in the resolution that was read, it referred to the warning of the town meeting >> um which is an attached document that has the time, date and place and that's what will go into the newspaper and be published. >> Okay. Yeah. So that is in the whole body of the document. It wasn't in the resolution. just makes reference to the warning of the town meeting. >> Very good. And we and we do have that. So, all right. Good question. All right. Anything online,
037Nick? >> All right. With that, Bob. >> All right. Second over there. Discussion. All those in favor? Any opposed? Abstension. Motion passes. We are We are done.