Board of Selectmen Special Joint Meeting with Board of Education 2/18/2026

001Good evening everyone. I'd like to start our meeting. Please stand for the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. So, we've called our special meeting together with the board of education to hear Dr. Britain present the school project. >> Welcome everyone. >> Hi, >> Nick. Do you have the the presentation to throw up here? All right. Hello. Thanks for giving me the opportunity to talk to you about our education specifications plans. So quick couple quick um housekeeping um matters before we get started. So this is a a presentation for the boards for the board of education and the board of selectmen. Um there I know at the end

002of the meeting there's an opportunity for audience of citizens for people to ask uh make statements essentially. Um, following this, I do plan to do a a series of community forums. Those will be more conversational. So, if there's anybody here tonight that would have questions or is watching online that has questions, you could either email me, ask the questions or share your comments tonight or wait. And I promise that over the coming weeks, I will be putting information out about a series of community forums to make sure that um, everybody has opportunities to ask and answer questions. Tonight though the questions are reserved to the board members. So board of stock board education as I go through this if a question pops into your mind you can either stop me and I'll pause or write

003it down and then as we get to the end um ask them at that time or there will you know of course as we we switch slides and move through the different topics. I think there will be some natural breaks in the in the presentation. Also I want to recognize tonight that um Bryce Sens is here from Frier Architecture. He's going to come up and answer any questions that you have specifically about um the education specifications plans. You can tap into his many years of experience and many billions of dollars worth of school construction projects that he's done across the state. Also online is um uh Bob Shett, our current facilities director. If you have questions about capital improvements or any uh condition of the facilities, we can unmute Bob and and he's here online

004and he can address those. Um, so with that said, what I'm going to do is kind of walk you through tonight. You can flip the slide. Um, here's my hope that we're going to be able to get through. I want to give you Nick, can you advance the slide or do I have a clicker that I could use? >> Y. >> Okay. I'll just call out to you ask change. So, my goal is going to be to give you a brief history. I think, you know, important just to kind of walk you through how we got to this point. After I give you a quick overview of how we got here, I'll pick up from the work of a strategic planning committee that wrapped up its work last June. Um, then I'll talk to you

005about what we did this summer and fall where we had u a task force working on the education specifications plans that I know you have in front of you all tonight. Um, Bryce will come up to answer any specific questions about those plans that you have in front of you tonight. Um I'll talk brief I'll get then get to the financial implications. Um and then we'll talk about at the very end here I'm going to give you a comparison of renovate to new versus capital projects and what the differences are between those two. Um, and then there's going to be an opportunity for us to talk about next steps. And, you know, one of the most important next steps is for both boards to have a conversation and see if you're all, I hope, behind

006this plan. And if so, how we all need to, you know, move this project forward. Next slide, please. So, brief history. Um, this whole thing started way back during the pandemic in 2020. Um, and I'll just give you a a quick lock down memory lane. In 2020, the board of education commissioned a firm called Gordian to come in and do a full facilities analysis. It actually worked out that while our students were home remote learning, they came into all of our schools and took a deep dive into the condition of the facilities. They presented in 2021 a report called the sightelines report. That report identified about $28 million worth of capital projects across all five schools. The board of education formed a committee and we worked for a year looking at that. And at that

007time 28 million seemed like an awful lot of money. Still is. But that was even before the inflationary times that we've lived through. But the board of ed was starting to ask questions like how do we go about doing this? Is this the right way to spend our money? Do we want to continue to maintain all of the schools that we have? Um and the board of ed got to a point where we shared some initial impressions and some findings with the board of selectmen in 2021. The board of selectmen heard that and said this is good work. Keep going. By resolution of the board of selectmen, the board of selectman formed the facility study committee. Bobby remembers that. He served on that committee. Meg served on that committee. Dave served on that committee. Former

008board of select member Mike Hernandez served on that committee. It was chaired by former member Lupair had a community member. I was on it. Exeicio. We worked for two years. We got to know Frier well. We hired them as our architect and we did an extensive amount of work from 2021 to 2023. At the end of that process, that committee by a vote of 53. It wasn't unanimous, but that committee brought forward some recommendations. Those recommendations were to decommission Gildersleeve, to renovate to new and expand Valley View to create a preK3 school, to renovate to new Brownstone to create a grade four through six school, and to apply overhead savings from a consolidation to address capital project needs at the secondary school. It wasn't unanimous. It was 53, and it was a difficult decision, but

009this is what we came to. We shared that report and those recommendations with the board of selectmen and the feedback was this is a very complicated plan. Specifically, the plan called for with Brownstone having only part of it renovated to new, part of it left in its current condition and turned over to the town. That was going to require some special legislation. There was a lot to it. It was a very complicated set of recommendations. I think the board of selectman made a decision that this is this is really important. We recognize this is hugely consequential for our town. If you remember, that's when the board of selectman decided to do the the townwide survey. You had great blue come in. Everybody got postcards. All of the options were shared with the town. At the

010end of that process, the decision was made not to embrace the recommendations of the facility study committee, but to go in a different direction. And that direction would have had us decommissioning both Brownstone and Gildersleeve, moving sixth grade to the [clears throat] middle school, and renovating to new and expanding Valley View to create a preK5 school. That's the plan that went out to the voters in November 2024, the date of the federal election. And that plan was pretty resoundingly defeated. So by I left the vote totals up there for you. That plan was defeated. Right after that in December, the board of selectmen said, "Well, we need to do something. We know the condition of our schools. Doing nothing isn't an option." The board of selectmen by another resolution formed the strategic planning committee. That

011committee was formed with the goal of working right after the uh presidential election that in the following spring like within a couple of months come out with a plan B like let's get another referendum out in front of voters in the spring. That timeline was way too aggressive. The committee needed time to digest and to process and therefore was unable to meet that that deadline of a spring 2025 vote. instead spend a lot of time trying to, you know, figure out what a good plan B might be. So, let me stop there and is this strike everybody's memory is pretty accurate. Otherwise, I'd be happy to elaborate on any parts of of how we got here. Okay. So, I'm going to pick up from the strategic stud planning studies committee and ask Nick to flip

012to the next slide. All right. The first thing the strategic planning committee did was elect the chair and he just walked in. So, I think they made a great choice and and Carl became our chair. Right. >> That committee started meeting and I see several members of that committee here tonight. I appreciate them coming out. I know how much time and energy and passion was invested into this process. After electing a chair, I think one of the really important things that committee did was ask why did the community not embrace a prek to five school, right? Wh why what were what were the objections over on um my left hand side of the screen? These bullets reflect those things that we believe motivated people to vote no. Over on the right side of the screen

013on the numbered list are those things that the strategic planning committee embraced as what we want to accomplish. So what this did is I think it really gave us a vision, gave us a goal. The committee agreed that we should first be able to in whatever plan we recommend address the concerns as well as articulate how whatever our plan will be will accomplish those things that we want to do. Right? And if you look at that list, I think you probably will remember a lot of River East editorials and comments on Facebook or conversations with neighbors about why they voted no. But I think also everybody could agree that if we [clears throat] could accomplish these nine things and provide all of our students, faculty, staff, and our community these things, that would be a

014great end goal. So away we went. Next slide, please. All right, very quickly, and I was actually surprised at how I think our first meeting, Carl led us in a discussion about what could we all get behind as a committee. Very quickly and unanimously, the committee agreed that continuing to maintain three elementary schools wasn't in the community's best interest, that consolidating from three to one was a bridge too far, but consolidating from three to two elementary schools made sense. that investing funds in fixing two up and making two very nice with our current student population would be the best path forward. We didn't decide at that time which elementary school would decommission, but the decision was made unanimously that an elementary school should be decommissioned. The second thing that the committee decided almost immediately and

015unanimously was that moving sixth grade from Brownstone to the middle school makes a lot of sense. You don't need to add any space at Brownstone. There's enough, excuse me, at the middle school. This middle school was built and is in its current configuration big enough that we could move the sixth grade there without having to add any space. So these two decisions were, I think, very important, very consequential that the strategic planning committee with Carl leading us put us in the direction of consolidating from three to two and moving the sixth grade up to the middle school. Next slide, please. Then we went and did our work and we spent many nights together, lot lots of time having lots of discussions. Fortunately, we had our architects with us and Carl was doing a great job,

016you know, putting together our agendas and and helping us move forward. At the end of that process, these are the recommendations that came out of the committee. And I'll remind anybody if you want to see the committee report, it's still on the homepage of the schools. So there's a both a link to the video recording, all of our meetings are recorded, and the committee report is is still on the website. The committee recommendations in addition to moving the sixth grade to the middle school were unanimous that we need $8 million to replace the roof, HVAC systems, controls at the secondary school. So, everybody recognize the roof needs to be replaced and the air handling units and HVAC system the way it was designed at the high school wasn't designed the best way. It's too humid.

017We need to upgrade HVAC and uh get a new roof at the middle school. That was a unanimous um uh recommendation. The following recommendations weren't unanimous. There [clears throat] were 72 votes. And I'm not going to unpack all the reasons for the yeses and nos, but this is what came down at the end. The committee recommended a $47 million project to renovate to new and expand valley to create a prek2 school. The committee recommended 72 to put $27 million into Gildersleeve to do capital improvements and alterations to turn Gildersleeve into a grades three through five school. And the committee recommended to put $2 million into Brownstone so that [clears throat] at the end of five years when it's done being used as swing space, it could be turned over to Portland Parks and Rec, Portland

018Youth Services, Portland Food Bank, and expand the lease with Oakill as it's turned back over to the town. And of course, within that 5-year period, additional considerations might be needed in terms of what Gilder could, excuse me, groundstone could become. So those were the recommendations. Again, all of this is outlined in the report that's still on the website. Next slide, please. All right. One of the things I started with is I said the committee committed to making sure that whatever plan we put forward, we addressed both those things that generated no votes on the preK5 school as well as those things that we'd like to see for our kids. I'm confident that though the committee recommended a plan that if actualized would definitely create all of the things on the right that we want to

019see for our kids. High quality academic space designed with school security in mind. Good indoor air quality for our students. ADA compliant um capacity for future growth. Nice spaces for the community to use when we're not using it. checks on all of those things that we hope to accomplish coming out of the strategic planning committee. As far as the reasons for the no vote, the first reason for the no vote we think was the mega school, the fear of a large school, the concern about a school being so big in a school that's as small as it is. Well, if this plan is actualized, Valley View would become a prek2 school. Valley View used to be a preK2 school. Gildersleeve would be a three-grade school. Gildersleeve is currently a three-grade school. The middle school would

020become a grade 68 school. Back in the early 2000s, Brownstone was a 68 school. Many of you in here may have gone to Brownstone when it was a 68 junior high school. So, there shouldn't be any concerns about the size of the school. We're just going back to the future here. We're we're turning the schools back into what they were at one time. Any concerns about traffic? Well, we have a lived experience with schools those size and currently that size. So, there shouldn't be any concerns about traffic. Uncertainty about decommissioned schools. I have to check that as incomplete mostly. Right. There's there shouldn't be a concern about what to do with Gildersleeve and Brownstone. Here we have Gildersleeve currently being proposed to be used as a school. There is however a need to continue looking

021at Brownstone. The plan the strategic committee put forward was use brownstone for five years as swing space, then turn it over to parks and rec youth services, Portland food bank, and expand the lease with OKL. Even with those, you'll still have a lot more square footage there. There has to be some ongoing discussion about how all of Brownstone could be used or what it would be used as. So, I'm marking that as mostly. As far as loss of community gym space, you're gaining a gym dependent your the renovation to new calls for a full-size gym at Valley View. No impact on travel basketball. We'll continue to have the space for the community to use that. Um secondary complex needs is addressed in this plan. We have the 8 million in there. These last two I'm

022putting TBD. I'm going to talk to you about where we are with the bonding table, which unfortunately I don't have tonight, but I will shortly. Um and then communication and outreach challenges. So this is our first step, right? I'm sharing the plans with you tonight. Lots of discussion, community forums, and then I'm hoping I'm really hoping for unanimous support on both boards. I'm going to ask for unanimous board of education and board of selectment support. I'm hoping that you'll all see the value of what I'm going to propose tonight. You'll all get behind it. And if that's the case, we got to work together and educate our community about it in the leadup to a referendum, right? So, we'll see if we can get there, but I'm I'm I'm really hoping everybody can get behind

023this. We we know what happened last time when divisions were created. Next slide, please. Okay. Once the strategic planning committee finished its work, wrote its report, we did our presentation, it then went back to the board of education. It's the board of education's responsibility to develop the two documents that you have in front of you tonight, which are the education specifications plans. These are required by the state. We have to develop them and they provide a detailed overview of what the board of education would like for its instructional programs um in in the preK2 Valley View and 35 Gilders. Additionally, we have a budget for you. This is also in your folder tonight. The budget numbers are included in the ED specs plan. This budget was developed by Downs Construction. In addition, I'm going to

024review the timelines with you. And then all of this information is what would need to be used to design a bonding question that if again if this is embraced by the boards of selecting boards of education, we would need to begin a process to move this forward to the community um for a bonding referendum. Next slide. Okay. So, let's talk about Valley View first. The specifications that you have in front of you call for val calls for Valley View to be renovated to new. Now, I'm going to invite Price up here in a minute. This is you have to think of it a complete gut of the school, essentially expanding it and building to to the point where you're getting a new school, right? That it it is everything is new. Everything the whole school

025is replaced. It's like if you've got a house and build it back, it's entirely new. So, the plan calls for um the renovation to new and slight expansion of Valley View to create the space to move the second grade from Gildersleeve back to Val. Next slide, please. Here's the budget. Again, Bryce can answer questions. I can too. There's a there's a lot to unpack here, but this is really important and exciting news, I think, for Portland. We just found this out. So this year, Portland, the the cost for education is a shared endeavor. It always is between local communities and the state, right? The state public education in the state is a constitutional right in the Connecticut state constitution because that is the ultimate in unfunded mandates. The state does put money towards these things,

026right? So the state helps towns establish and pay for public education. It is a statewide public good. Portland's reimbursement rate, which is based on our Anglic rating or town wealth rating, we're eligible for 53.93% reimbursement from the state. I'm going to round up and say 54. This is not a competitive grant. This is an entitlement. If you build a school to new, you are entitled to 54% reimbursement from the state of Connecticut. Additionally, this is new. This is enormous. we are entitled for a 15% bonus on top of that because we're including a prek in the new school. Last year, if we had done this, that 15% would have only been applied to the square footage used for prek. The state is trying to incentivize schools to expand prek access. So, they're now offering 15%

027on the whole project. Additionally, Portland has a relationship with Open Choice. We're eligible for up to to 10%, but we're going to say that we're comfortable with reserving 5% of our students or seats for open choice students. If we hit that target and have 5% of our students um as open choice commuting here from Hartford, we would get a 5% bonus. So the state is looking to reimburse or we are looking for reimbursement from the state to the tune of 74%. Which would mean 26% would be um a town of Portland responsibility. Additionally, we anticipate excuse me 15% for spaces in the building used for special education. That's not included in this budget, but obviously it will be someday. The only reason it's not is that we're not entirely sure. Thank you. What spaces we're

028using just yet. >> So, special education, this reimbursement is going to be in addition to, but it's not quite there yet. So, putting all this together, this is the the the big reveal moment. Portland could get, if we get this across the finish line, a $47,547,234 school or on the local property tax base $14,29,491. Pretty darn good deal, right? >> And that's Yeah, that's woohoo, right? That's that's a lot of money that we're getting from the state. It wasn't included, by the way, in the prek school because this uh prek bonus is new. So, next slide. I'm going to invite Bryce. Come on up, Bryce. And Bryce is our architect from Frier. He'll be happy to talk to you or answer any questions you have about the work, reimbursement rates, planning, operations, project expectations. He's

029an expert. He's done this with lots of other towns and districts. and Bryce wanted. >> Oh, you're the best. Thank you. >> Good evening. Bryce sends Frier Architecture. Um, as Charles just explained, I've I'm here to answer any questions you may have on what he just presented to you regarding EDSP specs, reimbursement, state, DAS, regulations, proposed plans we have. >> What was yours? >> So, you've done projects of this size and similar. >> Yes. um walk through if you can um from the first shovel in the ground until I guess the second building uh would be built if this this is what happens. Kind of walk through because I think people are asking a lot of questions about how big of a project where do the kids go. So kind of walk through the mechanics

030of it if you can. >> Yes. So one of the good things you guys have going for you is um you're overbuilt right now. That's why we're looking at consolidating the schools so you have the room for swing space in your other schools um while you're renovating a building. So when we talk renovate is new, what we're talking is, as Charlton mentioned, a new facility. The goal of renovate is new in the eyes of the state who will be reimbursing you is to create a new facility that meets all the codes. the building code for egress, life safety within the building, including fire alarms, sprinkler systems, um the energy code, making sure your building envelope is um energy efficient, including your roof, walls, windows, um mechanical systems, making sure all your mechanical systems meet the

031ashray um energy codes and energy efficiency codes. Big thing, accessibility, making sure the whole facility is fully accessible um throughout A [clears throat] to Z. Um, so the goal would be with Valley View. The intended plan is to exe essentially gut the building as Charles has mentioned um down to your foundations which is expensive construction so it's good to keep uh and your steel frame and then reconfigure the school within that existing footprint. In the um instance of Valley View, there will be some small additions because the allowable square footage uh that is prescribed by the state will allow us to put some small additions onto the building to um fulfill the requirements of the education specification that Charles has put together. So um the idea would be to empty out Valley View, find space

032for them in other schools so you don't have to pay for swing space, portable classrooms on site while this construction is going on. They can find homes elsewhere uh in other schools. the students of that um facility while this building is renovated. So we would gut it down to that slab foundation steel frame and then re rebuild this school meeting all of those codes as I had just discussed. Um plan after that would be to move on to I forgot the [clears throat] years of construction and >> Sure. Okay. And then the plan after that would be to move on to Giller in a similar fashion. Mike, I hope that answers your question. >> Absolutely. So, uh, just a question. It's because this is going to be a wild card number, but, uh, and I'm

033going to ask it, uh, maybe when we get to the Gildersleeve portion, but what percentage of 47 million is is the educational special ed portion of that? Like, what's what's that 15% for? Right now, we were talking about Valley View, but I'm going to have the same question for Gildersleeve. Do the two of those number come out to $2 million? Is it $3 million? Or is it 300 grand? So that 15% for special education, as Charles mentioned, it only applies to the special education programs and other programs that the special education students use. Um so we'd have to calculate that out. I do you have a couple special ed rooms? >> Special education. >> Exactly. Which could be um >> three, four classrooms. >> You said playground potentially too. Anything that has an impact with

034special education >> accessible and to the special education program and they're using it could potentially also be included. So, I would guess I I don't think we're talking millions. I think we're talking um hundreds of thousands. But I really would need to figure out what that um square footage is, >> figure out what the cost of the construction of that square footage is, and then apply that 15% to that to get you a good number. >> Okay. >> I have um one or two questions. And may if the question is for you or for Charles, um how much does the swing space save the town of Portland? because we have that and other towns when they have to build, right, >> need modular classrooms, whatever. So, is there some way we can is that going

035to be >> part of sort of the presentation to Okay, >> we could we could figure it's a swing space is not inexpensive, right? Um and and it's money that you're paying for um space that is not permanent. You know, it is reimburseable by the state, but it still comes at a cost for something that you know, you just you guys don't need because you're so overbuilt at this point. you can move the pieces around while construction is going on. So, it comes at a significant savings to the project, >> right? So, it's a benefit to that we'll want to talk about. Um, also the Valley View um addition, I imagine if you think back to when it had modular classrooms when first grade was off of that, is it building up out like what's

036the plan to at the addition to value? You're saying you're going to take it. So, where is the addition? >> We're the largest addition would be off the gymnasium in the back, which is going to allow us to provide a full size um elementary school gymnasium court um in that space, >> but still one level school. >> One level. We're not going up. No. To answer that question, is is that addition in the back and a couple smaller additions to make sure classrooms are right sized and and fitting into the footprint. How close does that um expansion come to the neighborhood that is right behind? >> Not close. Um the one in the back of the gym is maybe 20 ft deep we're showing. Then everything else is maybe like a 10ft addition just to

037kind of fill in a couple gaps and like I said provide square footage where we need to rightsize the classrooms that we're proposing in that area. >> How many second grade classrooms is it? >> Six. Six kindergarten, six first, six second grade. Then gym, cafeteria, office space, teacher, faculty room, kitchen, >> and still a dedicated music, still dedicated art. Right. >> Now, will the complete renovation, will that include air conditioning? >> Yes. In your calculations, what's the average increase every year in terms of construction costs? I know that's a question. >> 4% a year is what we're calculating at this point. >> And typically, um, how is the reimbursement rate from the state when a project's conducted? Um, what's been your experience with other projects in terms of how quickly they pay once the project's

038done? >> So, once you, um, get your first couple months of construction done, you apply and then it's about two months until you see your reimbursement after that application for that first payment. relatively [clears throat] straightforward process. [laughter] >> Yes, >> there you go. >> We'll help you for >> I think there was heavy heavy emphasis on relatively that >> checks in the mail. >> There you go. Um >> to meet this weekend at a basketball game, those reimbursement rates just sound too good to be true, if not possible. So can you just speak to the certainty of the anticipated reimbursement rates? Why why we have confidence in them? >> Sure. I we have met with um DAS Charles and Frier. We have talked with DAS about this. Um Charles put together an excellent email

039to DAS department administrative services who who runs this grant um organization here. um were a great email asking them to confirm those numbers and we did receive a confirmation email from them that um these are indeed real numbers and people are paying attention to them. So we're getting a lot of people around the state, a lot of different districts reaching out to us um because it's it's a great incentive for for municipalities of Connecticut um to to put these prek classrooms into their facilities. Um so it's it's a popular one and it is real. I think it's important um to consider that this year is a guminatorial election. So the leadership of the state could change which in terms of a state agency and what they reimburse could also change. >> Um so I think

040it's it's something to you know when we're >> Bryce in your experience do you see these reimbursement rates going up for that in the future? >> I can't the iron's hot. Like I said, we we've never we've never seen this 15% bonus before, and I wouldn't assume it's going to be around forever. It's the the best I can say. I I can't predict um how reimbursements are going to go up and down. Usually, when they do change, they change by a point or two in either direction. Um but at this point in time, you guys have a a great number in terms of the 70 70 plus percent for reimbursement. >> Price is going to come back for sleep. Why don't I I move on and see if you have questions about how you'll keep

041us moving. >> Okay. >> All right. So, so that's where we are with Valley and and again you you see the ED EdX plan there. I'm gonna I'm going to pivot now to Gildersleeve, but as I go through Gildersleeve, if you have questions about Val, Bryce will be back up here because there's another slide that says answer your questions about Gildersleeve. So, can we jump to the next slide? All right, Gilder sleeve is is a little bit more complicated and I need to unpack unpack this for you because this does involve a change in recommendation from the one that the strategic planning committee made and I think I'm going to explain to you the logic by it behind it and and um again the chair of the committee is here and you know hey if

042you're like I we would be more comfortable if the strategic planning committee made a change in their recommendation you know well the chair is here and and perhaps we we could consider that But the strategic committee recommended by 72 vote to put $27 million into Gildersleeve not to do a renovate to new but to do alterations and a capital improvements. And when Bryce comes back up here, one of the good questions for him might be, Bryce, what's the difference between a maintenance plan, a capital improvements plan versus what you get with a renovate to new? Okay, that's a really important question and and I really want you to if you're com want to know that difference, ask the expert with a capital improvement plan. We wouldn't get all of the state reimbursement. The state looks

043at maintenance plans, capital improvement plans as a town responsibility. You get to that higher level of reimbursement when you're asking for either new construction or renovation to new, which is considered new construction. So the commit to get to this point, we would be expecting about 25% reimbursement from the state for things like roofs, ADA compliance, and school security issues. The rest the state would be looking at is Portland, that's on you. You're responsible for taking care of your buildings, not the state of Connecticut. So the committee recommended 27 million with the anticipated reimbursement of 6,750 from the state and the town would need to borrow 20,250,000. Next slide, please. Why why did the strategic committee recommend that and not a renovation to new? Because renovation to new is sensitive to student enrollment. You can't overbuild.

044You could only build to a certain amount and based on how many kids would be in Gildersleeve, we would have had to demolish almost 20% of the building. We would had to take off 9,000 square feet of space at Gildersleeve. And the strategic committee was looking at that going, we don't want to demolish square footage. Like what why would we want to do that? We want to keep all of our build. So that's largely why we said we wanted the strategic committee said we want to go in the direction of capital improvements in order to fix the school up, make it workable for a 35 um population but keep all of the square footage and not have to give everything up. That was the recommendation that came out of the strategic planning committee. After that

045committee met and the EDS specs committee started meeting, our architects dug a little deeper into this 9,000 square foot penalty or demolition we would have had to do. And they found out, believe it or not, part of that 9,000 square feet is that bus, right? Because it's attached to the building that's counted within the 9,000 square feet. We'll give our kids umbrellas, right? So, we're comfortable ripping that awning off, right? So, that ate into some of those square footage. I see I don't know exactly how much. Maybe when Bryce comes back up, he can give you that number, but some percentage of that 9,000 square feet means giving out that kind of rusted overhead awning there. Again, it is what it is. We will try to, you know, keep our kids inside when it's raining,

046but we're comfortable not having a bus on. We also reached out to the state in this email I wrote and asked we want to keep that space. Would we need special legislation, special permission? We want to use it for a special education program which could be eligible for the additional 15%. Right? We have several in-house special education programs that we've designed largely to keep our students here so we don't have to incur the expenses of outplacements and more importantly there are children we want to educate them in Portland and not have to send them to other communities who have these types of programs. So we got permission to keep the additional square footage use it for special education space but it does mean sacrificing this bus. I think that's a sacrifice that the board of

047ed is willing to make and and we could make work. Next slide, please. So, that led our ourselves to ask, well, here were the options then. We could either ask the town of Portland for 20 million, leverage that against 6 million from the state and do $27 million worth of capital projects. Now, you have to add some to that because we're going to need Gildersleeve for three years as swing space. you asked that question. So, you know, we don't need to build a portable classroom school. We have Gilderson. We're going to need it for the time it takes us to empty out and and renovate to new Valley View. So, Bryce said, add 4% a year for three years. And if you add 4% a year for three years until we can start working on

048Valley View, that 20 million through the miracle of compounding interest, this is why we save. This is our financial literacy for our kids. Add 4% a year for three years, 20 million becomes 22,778,000 by the time we would have to start doing we'd be able to start doing those capital projects. Could do that or we could ask the town for 23 million, leverage that against state reimbursement, get 29 million from the state and do a $ 52 million renovation to new. That number 23 includes escalation in the budget that you have tonight. So that those were our choices. We could either do 27 million worth of capital projects or 22 million on the town of Portland or 52 million worth of renovations to new for 23 million on the town of Portland. Nick, next slide.

049So that's what it came down to. The difference between renovation to new and capital improvements with escalation is $336,000. So the question the strategic planning committee asked was that hey is it worth an additional $336,000 to get a $52 million brand new school as opposed to $27 million in capital projects. That was a lot to unpack. So, I'm going to pause there and see if there are any questions about that that logic because that led to the ED specifications task force to take a different approach than that which was recommended by the strategic planning committee. >> Just a clarification, maybe to shine a light on something, Charles, because I was representative from this board on the strategic on the uh capital improvements committee. When that committee made the choices it made and went with the

050route on Gildersleeve school, the knowledge of those additional state reimbursement rates that were were proposed in the current legislation that we have were unknown. >> I just I just want to be clear that this isn't something that's that is one thing's just being pushed out. the knowledge of that additional the additional percentages didn't come about until that committee had made its choice. I just want to make sure you're clear on that. >> Excellent. Yep. Good. Good point. So, [clears throat] I I want to I want to one of the criticisms I know and I need to address them because it's important is that the boards chose to do something different than was recommended by the facility study committee. Right. that that that some people looked at that and said oh I don't like that you

051you asked the facility study committee to do something they made recommendations you are doing something different so that was a criticism that we heard that the town heard that the boards heard right here the EDS specs task force is again recommending something different from that which the strategic planning committee did right now in fairness the chair of the strategic planning committee is sitting here and we could call that committee back together and ask them in light of this new information to reconsider that recommendation or I think common [snorts] sense says hey for an additional $336,000 you can get a $52 million school or save $336,000 and only get a $27 million capital project school. I hope people will see financially it makes a heck of a lot more sense to leverage state reimbursement and maximize

052that to get a brand new school as opposed to a maintenance plan capital projects school. But that's something that you should talk about and again that I think that's why Carl is here tonight and I see other members of the strategic planning committee. And if hearing this it's worth that additional $336,000 that's what that's where we are. Otherwise, I just want to call that out because that is a change from what the strategic planning committee recommended. So, the ED task force ED task force said we want to go with the renovation to new >> and Charles and just add part of the conversation um amongst the folks who are who are volunteering on the education specification task. Part of the conversation in debating Oh. No, no, thanks. >> Identify yourself. >> Um, Laurel Steinhazer, board

053of ed. Um, uh, part of the conversation about, um, about the difference in these two plans was really a concern over, um, you know, if if we if Portland is asked to invest 20 million or $22 million in capital improvements alone, um, what we can get for our money is relatively limited. and within a matter of five years, 10 years, there's this scenario where we're having to come back to the town to ask for more money to complete more projects um because the school wouldn't be, you know, ready to go for the next 20 25 years, which would be the case with a renovate to new project. So, I just that was a big part of the conversation that took place. I don't know if John if you wanted to add anything to that, but

054I I think that's worth highlighting that that there has to be consideration for um how we get through the next couple of decades if we're investing this kind of money in our schools. >> And and again, Laurel said addressed it to me. I was not only on the previous committee, but I was asked to be on this task force as well. And I remember that evening when Charles came in and said, "You're not going to believe what the state legislature is now offering for reimbursement." And I think the qu the the conversation was can can you ask them to get us the difference? What what will we be getting accomplished and what will be the cost for capital improvements and what will we be getting and what will be the cost or renovate to new

055because I I mean from from my perspective because I was on both committees and I think and Carl sits on both committees too. We wanted to make sure that I mean logic dictated to me that if the price was roughly the same and you're getting three times the work. Um and the that as Bryce mentioned earlier that 4% increase each year in construction costs. Um you know I I didn't want to have to go back to the residents of Portland one or two or three more times over the next decades to get more work done when we could potentially get it all done. now at this is the price the same I think is what we asked and I think that's kind of what came back to us was within a couple hundred,000 and if

056I I correct me if I'm wrong Charles the special education component had not been calculated in the potential savings from Gildersleeve school yet so it could be apples to apples it could actually be the same cost >> exactly so so Nick why don't you jump to up the next slide. I'm going to show you show you the cost. Right? So, with all that in mind, the the EDS specs that you have in front of you tonight is uh renovate to new at Gilderson. Now, what you don't see on here is the preK bonus because there's no prek in in Gildersy, but still the general reimburse construction reimbursement state um is is 53.93%. Google it. It's online. You can see every town's right. It that's witness on the website posted general construction rate. You know, Stephanie

057and I look at it all the time. I remember July 1st this year, we were like, what's it going to be? Because it changes every year. But right now, this is what it is. And additionally, the bonus for our participation in open choice with our commitment to maintain 5% of our STE seats for open choice students puts us at 58.93% reimbursement from the state, 41.07 41% on the town. To your point, it doesn't include the special education space, but we're going to consider we have we're going to have two programs, our bridge program and our our RISE program in addition to special education classrooms, OT, PT space. Bryce is going to sit down at some point if he's the architect working on this and everything goes well, right? and calculate that and say to the

058state, here's the special education space. Add the 15% bonus to that, which might net out that 336,000. Right? Bryce just told us likely a couple hundred,000. We don't know exactly yet. That's why it's not included. So, here's the cost then. Total budget 52,296,000 gets you a brand new Gilderson down to studs except for the foundation and the steel right ask Bryce about that. Cost to Portland 23 million cost to the um state 29 million. So that's the ED specs plan that you you have here tonight. Next slide please. Um so that again we took that developed the EDS specs plan. Next slide, please. And we're back to Bryce. He can answer any specific questions you have about about Let's go over that one. We do want to talk about the square footage briefly that um

059Charles was mentioning. Uh the 9,000 square feet in the canopy out front. There was one other thing that changed that allowable square footage as we were working with the EDFs committee after the um first committee. Um, so first the the the canopy was Charles described it perfectly. We can take that thing down. It's 900 to,200 square feet. It's a pretty big canopy. It's going to bring that 9,000 uh square foot number down quite a bit. There's another change to state documents that occurred while we were working with the EDSP specs committee. They did change their um eligible allowable square footage calculation. So they issued a new form um that changed that allowable square footage which is based on your projected student population. and you take your highest projected students over an 8-year period, you plug

060it into this nice little spreadsheet they made and it tells you how big your school can be. That that form did change um in in municipalities favor. So that allowable square footage went up a little bit too. So now what we're looking at is an overage uh if I remember correctly at Gildersleeve of about 6,000 square feet instead of the 9,000 that was up there. Um there is a way to um kind of ask the state for forgiveness on that overness of square footage. There's an um space standard waiver that you can apply and as long as you have justification for that overage of square footage which we believe Charles does with this he just mentioned the rise in the bridge programs um the state will consider that um waiver and and wave the overage

061of square footage. Um 6,000 square feet isn't it's not like we're doubling the size of the school. It's a small amount and as I mentioned um I believe it is justified. So we are fairly confident that the state will approve that space standards waiver once we get rolling >> hopefully. Talk to them about renovating to >> get that status and why that's so >> jump into that. Can you tell us other other districts that we've seen in recent history get the space standard waved reserve square footage in an existing footprint? >> Yeah. Yeah. As they had mentioned, if if you know you've got an existing facility in particular and you have a justification for that overage of square footage like a specialty program like we do have, then uh it's highly likely that it will

062be um approved. Now, as far as Charles, that's um renovated as new process to get all this reimbursement has to be classified as renovated new, right? >> Why are you confident that it will be classified as renovated? confident that it will be classified as renovated as new because it'll come as a cost savings to the town. As I mentioned before, we're saving key elements of this existing structure, the foundations, that's expensive work for excavation for foundations, pouring the concrete foundations, etc., etc. Um, it it we're confident that this is the way to go because we're saving all that existing construction [clears throat] and then building within that footprint so the town won't have to pay for it uh as part of the construction budget. and states >> in the state one. Correct. >> Bryce, could

063you we talked a little bit a few moments ago about the original recommendation which was capital improvements at Gildersleeve and then the questions we asked about can we get more for the same money? >> Can you just speak roughly to what you would get in capital improvements money we were talking about versus what you're getting in renovate to new for roughly the same dollar? >> Sure. capital improvements. Um, we're really looking at as a maintenance plan for the facility. Um, I think we all own homes. We know what maintenance of homes uh is like. You finish one project, you stop one issue, you got something else to move on. So, really that maintenance plan, you're going to be chasing that maintenance plan for years to come. There's always going to be something to fix in

064that building. Whereas the renovate is new. As I had described earlier, as I was previously speaking, you're getting a new facility with the exception of the items I have already mentioned, your foundations and your steel structure. Um, again, you're getting a fully updated facility that's um, you know, designed and capable of um, supporting modern teaching and curricular method for 20 years. state looks for a 20-year facility, but 20 25 years, that's what they want to see. A building that doesn't need to be maintained for 25 years with the exception of replacing filters and air handling units or belts and certain pieces of equipment, things like that, that that you need to keep up with almost like oil changes on your car. That's always going to be inevitable, but have a 20 year 25 year facility

065that um minimal maintenance for that period of time. How much more efficient is a is a brand new school or built a new school versus let's say we kept Gilder Sleek the same way it is in terms of energy, electricity, heating, etc. It's going to be um completely different. You're going to have LED lighting throughout. You're going to have uh exterior walls with windows that are insulated to a higher standard, higher level than you currently have. Your roof is going to have where you lose most of your energy. Most of your energy loss in the building is through the roof. that's going to be built to uh current u energy code standards with an R30 insulation up there keeping that in in inside the building. All of your HVAC equipment is going to be um

066up to modern standards of efficiency. Like I said, they're going to meet all your ashray standards or perform better than that. That's part of the goal of uh lead silver equivalency which Connecticut requires. So, it's going to be a massive difference in the efficiency of the building. So the plan that the that came out of the strategic capital uh committee of the the 20 what was it uh at at today's money would be like $29 million was a big pretty band-aid but it was a band-aid. >> Yes. Yes. >> Right. I mean it was you were going to do some stuff but at the end of the day it was >> a band-aid. Five years from now, three years from now, you'd be spending millions somewhere else >> to chase something. >> You're ch you're

067chasing. >> Yep. >> Okay. >> Yeah. Paint painting the car, putting a new exhaust on and, you know, redoing the upholstery and then five years down the road you got to redo the engine and Yeah. >> Yeah. >> thing on that first committee when you had the site in court authorized because he was feeling the building maintenance. that I need to know what's really going on. All it was was engaged plan to make that happen and all we were doing is catching up. The elementary schools were already in terms of maintenance. So if we did that we all were going to be creating another bunch of and we clearly came to conclusion that was more and needed more social question I had Um, I know in the the plan last year when we were looking

068at doing it, they were looking at changing like some roof lines and things like that to get away from flat roofs in some cases. Is any of that changing or is it all going to be going to stay with flat roofs or I know we've we've had problems with leakage and things like that. So, how I want that >> something that's been discussed um Carl and Bob mentioned it um repeatedly building them up to, but at this point we've just put together floor plans of it, you know, and we put square footage numbers onto it. But that's something that'll really need to be looked at in terms of when you when you get to the actual design of the building and then we're working through to the >> So yeah, we can improve those characteristics

069too for the long haul. >> Absolutely. Yep. >> Thank you. >> Let me let me keep pushing us forward. So we got a we got a little little more ground to cover. We got to get to the financials and and and the secondary school. So So Nick, if I could ask you to advance the slide. >> All right. So again, secondary school, this was a a unanimous recommendation coming out of the um facility study committee. Um and Bob's on the line if you have questions specifically about this. He's got the quotes. We we've asked for some vendors to give us a sense of how much it would cost to replace the roof, the air handling units, the controls, and an upgrade on that at the secondary school. This would be a non-priority list grant, but

070we are because the state is investing in schools indoor air quality. That was a very big deal coming out of the pandemic. If you remember, we had the chance of some grants back then, but we didn't. They rolled those grants back over and and they they are available for us. Um 4 million on the town of Portland, 4 million um from the state would would enable us to replace the roof and upgrade um the HVAC system at the secondary again. And that was something that that that Carl's committee unanimously agreed. Next slide, please. Okay, so here are the totals, right? Um, it's it's not an insignificant ask. I recognize it's to do get a brand new Valley View and a brand new Gildersleeve and a significant investment, not all of it, but a significant investment

071in the secondary school. We're asking that the town of Portland for 41 million, which we are expecting back uh uh from the state's chair 66 million for a total of $107 million worth of projects. Now, I just have to say, and maybe a little civic lesson here for anybody watching, it's all taxpayer money. Let's remember there's, you know, Bill Gates isn't coming in here or Elon Musk isn't swooping in to, you know, donate a school to us. This is all all taxpayer money. The difference here is that the state money here is coming from all of us. Every time we buy a coffee or gas or an article through our sales tax or every time we get a check from our income tax, it's going to the state, right? that money if you vote no

072on people who vote no on this thinking their taxes are going to go up your sales tax and income tax isn't going to go down right it's just that that money that's going to the state to Harford is going to then be redistributed to Weathersfield who just passed a bond for their town to Cromwell who just got a beautiful new middle school to Middletown who is taking advantage of this and to lots of other really smart superintendents and boards of education that are going whoa 15% on prek. We should get ours right now. My recommendation to Portland is to see this as your opportunity to get some of your sales taxes and income taxes back to make your town schools beautiful because I promise you many other towns in the state of Connecticut are doing

073this. Bryce, am I wrong? So, here's our chance for Portland income tax and sales taxpayers to get 66 million of that back for your kids. Right? So, that's the 66 million. It's all taxpayer money. It's just which pot it's coming out of, right? The 41 million though, yes, that is a direct impact on what you levy from your your property taxes, right? So, little civics's lesson, there's three main vehicles to tax. local raises revenues primarily through property taxes. State through sales and income tax. This is our opportunity or Portland's opportunity to leverage $66 million back from the state in what you pay every time you buy a cup of coffee. And then of course when you pay your property tax bill, you will see the impact of the 41 million, which is what I'm going

074to talk to you about next. But again, 41 million gets you $107 million worth of work on your schools. Next slide. Now consolidating I want to talk about the financial side the fin the big question is going to be how much is this going to cost me in my my mill rate my property tax there are three things we have to consider the first is the savings you can generate if you consolidate from three elementary schools to two I'm I'm often asked regularly by board of selectment members every year in the budget Charles can you close a school right the answer is this is a Okay. Right. Right. This is a way to close a school. If you close a school, there is a way to save money that doesn't raise class sizes, but these

075are all sort of support positions that you need if you're going to run a school. No matter how big or small it is, right? No matter how big or small the school is, you're going to need a principal. If we consolidate, we can reduce one principal. We can reduce a clinician. This is social worker, school psychologist types positions. Teacher, one nurse, two custodians, two administrative assistants, two pair of professionals, all of the health insurance costs. And get ready for a very difficult conversation about health insurance cost increases in Portland coming in the coming months. one large bus we can reduce and we can reduce the utilities which is the gas overhead maintenance electric copy lease everything on the hills [clears throat] I project that by reducing these positions we can save in a range of

076875 to 1.175 million the range is based on what level of insurance plan these employees are taking if every one of these employees were taking a family health insurance plan it would be at that 1 175 million level. If all of these employees were on their spouses health plan and nobody was taking insurance, it would be the 875,000. So Stephanie and I can't tell you exactly what that number is going to be, but we're comfortable giving you a range. So let's split the difference and say 1 million. So, I'm comfortable that the year we take one school offline and go from three to two elementary schools, we can reduce $1 million from the board of education operating budget. Now, my recommendation to you is going to be don't just cut that money and run out

077a really low board of ed percent increase in the year. take that money, ask for a reasonable increase, and you know, and I'm going to come to you that year and ask for a a zero to 1% increase. You'd be smart to go out and ask the town for a 3 to 5% increase. Generate that 1 million, take it, move it from the board of education operating budget from salaries and all of the accounts that fund these positions and things and move it into capital, right? put it in capital for a couple years and do things with it. Fix roads, fix the schools. We know we have plenty of projects in the schools. Fix the town, invest in your town with it until such time that you have to start paying back a bond, then

078move it from capital to debt service. So there will be this savings in year one. how that the budget is adjusted or where the funds go. My suggestion will be not to cut it but to move it to capital because what you don't want is in one year that you start paying back debt to see a giant mill rate jump in that year. You want to smooth it out. That's my recommendation. That's a political question and something that that the board of ed and the board of selectman would have to adjudicate on as you consider budgets. Any questions about overhead savings? Next slide, please. Then you have to consider two other parts of the puzzle. So you have the overhead savings. You know that that million is there. You're going to have to then consider

079the bonding table and whether you're going to want to borrow that money and pay it back over 20, 25, or 30 years. And you're going to have to consider growth in the net brand list, especially new revenue generated in the net brand list, which currently you're realizing to some extent from new cars. I know there's a tax abatement on Brainard Place, but the folks who live there and register their cars in Portland are now paying property tax. Additionally, you're going to have to consider when the abatement on Brainard Place comes off and the timeline for additional revenue from that. That's new revenue and you know you have the Nordic spa coming online now. I know Mike is working on the net grand list. I don't have that tonight. I'm sorry. I wish I did. We

080should have it soon, Mike. Right. >> Yes. >> Additionally, Mike and I met with uh the town's financial planner yesterday. We were hoping to have the bonding table so you could look at a 20, 25, and 30year amortization schedule. It's how much you have to pay off principal and interest on a $41 million note. Unfortunately, we don't have that now. I believe we're going to get that Friday, Mike. >> Friday, Monday, >> right? >> Yes. >> So, soon you're going to have everything you need. You now know what the overhead savings. I just put it out there for you. You're going to be able to look at how much a 20, 25, or 30-year note would cost, and factor that up against your growth in net grand list, especially new revenue, in order to calculate

081or project and determine the impact on the mill rate, which affects the average property tax payer. That was a lot. Any questions there? What are you following me? Seeing no questions. Next slide. So, I know it's going to come up. It's going to be asked. What's plan B? What if either of the boards don't support this plan or we take a no vote? Right? What if the town said what do what what what else option could there be? The strategic planning committee looked at capital improvements only. And I know Bob Shay is on the line and you have several members of the the strategic planning committee here. The strategic planning committee spent hours literally went you can see the videos line by line through the old Gordian sightelines report with Frier at the table. They

082did their own analysis and Bob Sheay at the table figuring out escalation and what we needed to do and how much roofs cost and whether we need how much it would cost to repair elevators. Like holy mackerel, it was an exhausting but important very long process. I see Carl shaking his head. We went through every single line. the end of that process, the strategic planning committee with input from Frier agreed that these are the baseline baseline, not all baseline amounts that we would need to invest in the schools for capital projects. You can see the numbers here. Again, this was a a broad agreement after doing all of that work on the strategic planning committee that would get us to we would need $58 million to do these baseline work on all five schools, including

083Brownstone, anticipating 25% reimbursement. So, we would need a bond $44 million. We It'd be interesting to see the cash flow matrix on this, like when we would borrow it, because we'd have to figure out which to do first. But this is how much it would cost to do baseline capital improvements and that number was generated out of the work of the strategic committee. So that's plan B. That's a capital project. Next slide, please. So I did my best to compare the two. So here are the options. A renovate to new project would ask the taxpayers to approve a bond for 41 million. match that with six net $6 million from the state and do $107 million worth of work. So the bond we would need to ask David Eisen to develop an amortization table and

084decide whether you want to do 20, 25 or 30 year or 41 million and change that. The pros of doing renovate new are you generate overhead savings by reducing those positions and consolidating. You maximize state reimbursement, including the prek bonus. You create two brand new elementary schools that that Bryce told you are good for the next 25 years with general maintenance. Those things are going to last 20 to 25 years from Bryce. Believe them. And it addresses some, not all, but the $8 million, some of the pressing needs at the secondaries. Those are the pros of borrowing $41 million and doing this as a renovated senior party. But there are cons. It doesn't address all the secondary school needs there. The strategic planning committee identified 18 million in projects that need to be done at

085the secondary school. This would knock off eight. At some point in the future, those other $10 million worth of projects at the secondary school would need a funding source and need a plan. Likely that would have to be through capital. That's why if you took the million dollars and put it capital for two years, you could chip into some of those, too. But in fairness, this plan doesn't address all of the needs at the second. Additionally, one of the cons of this is that the town board of selectmen would have to engage in a process to envision a future for Brownstone at the end of the five years when it's no longer needed as swing space. The strategic planning committee recommended Portland Youth Services, Portland Park and Recck, Portland Food Bank, and expand the lease

086with Oakill. But that's not enough for that giant building, right? At some point a committee, a group has to come up with a plan for Brownstone, you know, after its use as a as a uh school. This compared to capital where we need to borrow 44 million, anticipate 13 million from the state and do 58 million of capital projects. So here you're borrowing 41, there you're borrowing 44. Here we're getting $107 million worth of work. Here we're getting 58. Obviously the pros here are it addresses all the needs at the secondary school. Well, most pressing needs at the secondary school and you don't need a plan for Brownstone. Brownstone would continue to be Portland public school for our fifth and sixth grade students. The cons are no overhead savings. I'm going to need a principal,

087a nurse, secretaries, clinicians, custodians that need people to run that building as a school. Significantly less state reimbursement, 25% on capital versus well more than that for the renovate to new. And well, Bob's on the line. If you really want to ask him, I'm sure his head is going to spin. The logistics and management of doing this as a capital project over multiple years is daunting, right? This is going to be a lot of work, but we're going to form a building committee and get at it for five years. >> This plan, I I don't even know which one to do first. I would h we would have to hire an expert like Bryce to come in and say, "We have the 41 44 million. have what the strategic capital plan identified how where do

088we start like then of course we have to do bids and GC and my goodness so the logistics on this plan are are pretty daunting the logistics on this plan are equally daunting but I believe more more feasible we can get this done in a more expeditious way than this which is a manyear maintenance plan essentially so those are the kind of the the two side by side so this is plan B if this goes down. >> I think I'd like to hear from Bob if he's on the phone just a little bit about the capital projects. >> Can we unmute Mr. Shay? >> Yeah, I'm here. Can everybody hear me? >> Yes. Yes, Bob. >> Hi, Bob. >> Sorry I couldn't be with you guys tonight, but I'm glad I'm here online. Um, yeah.

089So, capital projects been involved with capital projects in many different ways uh related to the town. Also being included or part of the capital long range planning committee for over eight years. I know the process very well um on both ends. Funding is difficult um for our budget and we've seen that over many many years um and struggling with being able to do that. So, I will tell you, and I can't give you a a good answer, but a capital project plan for the schools will be incredibly difficult. And I will tell you that you will be adding costs to that 58 [clears throat] or $44 million because you will have to you'll be breaking those projects up. You'll have um you'll have different different uh requirements uh different sections of design work that needs

090to be done uh for each project depending on what school it is. Uh you'll be going out to bid multiple times. You could be changing uh your contractors based on that bidding process and the cost that goes along with that. Um, and and I can speak to that because I'm still working hard each day trying to spend some time to figure out [clears throat] how I would do the capital improvements just for the secondary school that the committee has recommended for $8 million. I mean, that's going to bring us, you know, roofing and HVAC and air quality and hopefully with some savings that we have to remember. It's critically important. the the town of Portland's done very well. Um when we bid large projects, we we usually win. We usually um you know have some

091savings and we get some good um bids back and we hope to continue that even in this process. All of these um renovate to new and/or capital projects will be part of a a very large bidding process and we hope to you know hope to see some good numbers on any of these projects which which will in the end which is really critically important save us all taxpayers some money um at the end. We only we only you know the borrowing number it's important to know is not the final number at the end of our projects. Uh the bidding is is really critical for that. So hopefully we'll save there. But to get back to the capital um projects um it is daunting. Uh it is it is hard to figure out where to start

092especially in a school environment which is you know fairly new to me over the past five years. um and how we're not going to impact what we're trying to do as far as education and trying not to impact the safety concerns on the sites if we're going to be trying to do some of those projects during um school uh sessions and or if we have to actually close uh to do those and how quickly we can do them. So, um yeah, it is difficult. It is it it really is difficult. renovate to new. Um, you're going out to bid and you're going to get a GC and you're going to get an OPM that's going to work for us and then we're going to make and that OPM is hired by us to to make

093sure that we're getting the quality of work that we're looking for. Um, those things are all separate uh and and there's really no funding or reimbursement for that stuff on capital improvements. So there is a there is a great improvement or a great benefit when when we're looking at renovate to new especially with these new numbers that the state um you know has brought forward uh that you know we didn't get like John mentioned till the very end. So um yeah it's tough. Bob, Dave Kusbiski here. Uh, is that 8 million that, uh, you had earmarked as far as the, uh, capital improvements, does that include any improvements that you and I have discussed on the the wolffully outdated lighting system in the auditorium? Uh, I mean, you know, there, you know, obviously with the

094new energy efficient LEDs and so forth, and I know that the lighting panel in the back there is wfully outdated, and I don't think you, you have discussed, you can't even get parts for it anymore. Does is there anything in that 8 million that addresses any of those needs? >> Yeah, it does, Dave. You know, we're hoping that, you know, unfortunately, you know, we may be looking at I'm looking at other options to do that now because we might not make it to that. Um, you know, as far as the lighting is concerned, you know, as you mentioned, you know, I sit I sit in front of a Windows 98 computer with a floppy drive. um to be able to keep our lighting um at the schools uh that type of management system um that

095runs our lighting. We I've made some changes. I've taken parking lots and and things off of that system that I was able to do um with very simple timing control, manual timing controls that I'm able to, you know, easily make changes to and can guarantee that. But the the the 20 5,000 square feet of that school um has that master program and we're really looking to make improvements. We've been lucky enough to have to work with a consultant that looks like they have a retrofit versus a complete change out, but you're you're right that that is a priority. Um, and that would be one of those that would need to get done uh as soon as we're able to get the roofs and the HVAC um improved there, which we get funding back um from

096the state. The roofing is about a 51% reimbursement for us. So, you're talking a very big number for that roof on the middle school and high school side. So, we'll have to do some studies and we might not have to do all of the expensive work on the middle school side um because that was basically a very new start, you know, that was the addition of the school. But certainly the high school side um that was the original um is in really tough shape as well as >> Bob, can I just ask you a quick followup? I I wrote your quote down and it stresses me out when you say quote we might not be able to make it >> right. that that's telling to me not just about the lighting at the secondary school

097but in general where we are with Valley View, Gildersleeve, Brownstone and the secondary school. Can can you maybe just unpack what that means? We might not be able to make it even understanding that, you know, this is still a five-year process that we're talking about to in order to get all of this this done if renovate to new is the direction the community goes. >> Yeah. So, it's difficult. Well, you know, every day I struggle to keep the schools, you know, open and we've been very lucky to do that. But, you know, I have so many items that are on my desk that I'm extremely concerned about where if we have a failure, it would it would definitely impact the ability to open a school. Certainly roofing and HVAC. Um, you know, we just looked

098at what happened at Brownstone. We're we're we're doing new boilers now. We waited 11 months for boilers. Um, that's, you know, our industry right now. or have still having difficulty getting certain product um into the field uh from the manufacturer. So, you know, we're struggling there. But, you know, those are the things when when the heating system, let's not talk about Dave mentioned lighting. The heating system controls that control Brownstone, Gilders, and Valley View are in the basement at Brownstone. Windows 98, same computer, floppy drive. Uh we're working on that to to make that run each and every day. Um you know, thank goodness we're pulling brownstone off of that because of our updates with the boiler systems there and I made sure that when we were doing that that new controls were part of

099that upgrade so that we can divorce ourselves from that old computer and that leaves me Gildish Valley View and we continually have communication failures with that system that we work on each and every day. And and I'll tell you this, I I can only do what I can do. And we've certainly spent an awful lot of money on contractors coming in to help me get over that hump where sometimes I just can't um I can't I can't get it done. So, we're spending um additional money with contractors at two to keep to keep those particular um items up and running. They're old. Our infrastructure is old in in that regard. You know, should have you know, we can we can go back. Should it have been replaced years and years ago? It should have. But

100you know, that's that capital discussion that it's very difficult. >> Thank you. >> Thanks, Bob. >> Yep. >> All right, Bob. Let me let me push us forward. Right. So, Nick, if you go to the next slide. So, so again, those are the the the the plan A and plan B, right? Again, if tonight and the board of education is going to meet tonight and and potentially take action on the EDS specs plan and and you're hearing this and but if tonight everybody says, "Boy, this renovate to new makes more sense fiscally and and will get us the kind of products we want for our kids." This is how we would we would need to accomplish it. It's it's important that we would would stick to this time frame so that you know that that

101we might not be able to make it quote is is is something right. um this spring. I'm hoping that that we can get out in front of the voters and and convince them that this is a really good investment for your town to make, especially leveraging that state reimbursement. If we prevail at that referendum this time and and we're celebrating that that success, Stephanie and I will submit our priority list grant application to the Department of Administrative Services. The deadline for that is June 30th. We're then waiting, right? So, nothing next year. So, no changes to the school, no changes to the grade level configurations. Next year, we're between now and December 26th. We are having conversations with Dance. They're looking at our grant. Bryce can tell you how did they do that. We're we're

102answering their questions. We're making sure they're committed to those reimbursement rates. You know, we're we're organizing ourselves in collaboration with the Department of Administrative Services and then getting our grant award letter by December 26. At that point, you know, hey, it's time to, you know, put out a bid for an operation project manager, an owner's reput and an architect firm and continue planning for what I'm going to call phase two. So, phase one would be get the bombing referendum passed and then get the grant submitted and then wait next year and do all of our planning. That brings us to phase two. If you can go to the next slide, Nick, that'll be two years. So the beginning of the 27 28 year, sixth grade is going to go to the middle school. PreK2 is

103going to go over to Gildersleeve. Grades three through five is going to go to Brownstone. This is the blessing we have of swing space. [clears throat] That lets us empty out and mothball View. Right at that time, we have two years. So we're going to gut and renovate Valley View with an OPM and a a GC and a construction company. building that school to new over this two-year period. So 27 28 28 29 two years we do Valley. Next slide please. 29 um 30 school year we're done with Valley View. Cut the ribbon on it. Move preK2 from Gildersleeve to Valley View. That means three years from now then we're all the planning is happening while we're working on Valley View for Gildersleeve. So, we're staged and ready to move from Valley View to Gildersleeve

104with that building emptied out for two years, right? So, then we're renovating to new um Gildersleeve over a 2-year period. That happens 2930, 2030, 2031. That's done. We cut the ribbon end of 2031. Move grades 3 through 5 out of Brownstone over to their new home at Gildersleeve. turn over the keys to Brownstone to the town. We would be looking forward to having two new schools open for the 2030 203132 school year and then Charles can retire. So that that would be nuts, right? So it's it's a a a long time frame here where this isn't going to happen overnight. It's it's many many many months of planning and work that would h would have to be done. Next slide, please. So, what needs to happen to to move forward here? You're here tonight. I

105really think that at some point the board of ed selectman and the board of education should get on the same page, right? Like have a have a conversation. What I'm really looking for is unanimous. Like I I think it's important I really do for all of the town fathers and mothers here to to say yes, this is what we think is best for our schools. I I I I think that's important and I'm hoping that with more conversation or questions that you you can all get on the same page. We we know what happened last time when we were divided, right? That that to move this forward, I'm I'm I'm hoping I'm pulling for Portland here that that this can be something that everybody gets behind. That conversation should start now. The board of education,

106it's their obligation to approve the EDSP specs plan. I believe they're ready to do that tonight. I've I've had some workshops with them and and I I know where the the board of education's heads are at. Although unless I've changed their minds tonight, we we'll see what happens when we meet and um hopefully we'll take action on the the plan. If that happens, it's go time where we've got to market this like and and this means get I want to do with your blessing, right? Like with the blessing of both boards, we're going to do community foroms. I think we need to be on Instagram and Facebook and and getting out there and and and letting our neighbors know what the plan is, answering the questions and why this is good. We have to work

107together. I can do as much as I can do, but this has to sort of be a a townwide movement towards towards a bombing referendum. In order for that to happen, also we're going to collaborate with um his name is Matt Ritter. He's an attorney for Shipman Goodwin. He's also the speaker of the state house in Harford. He would need to design for the town a bonding resolution. This is what would be on the ballot that people would need to review to vote on. You know that sometime in April then it goes over to the board of selectman. You need to review that measure, adjourn to a town meeting, hold the town meeting, and then adjourn to a referendum. Right? That would hopefully happen um in the middle of April. Once that happens, Charles has

108to be quiet. we have to follow very clear laws. It's called the silent period that we can't spend any taxpayer money advocating for this in any way. So at that point other folks can speak but but we have we just have to be careful so that we don't run a foul of of those expectations. That's all I've got. Not bad. >> Well, sorry. >> It's just a clarification. >> I'm sorry. 139 West Scotton Hill Road. Uh, I just want clarification on the um Gildersleeve renovation numbers. Not that I'm against renovate to new. It's I'm glad to see the percentages are that high, but could you walk us through because I'm coming up a little bit different. I just want to make sure. So, it was 25% guessing on the state reimbursement. Bryce might want to

109answer this, but we would then get an additional 15% on the give or take 6 to 9,000 square feet, whatever we're going to, right? The 9,000 ft, which we had, we already said the 9,000 was almost 20% of the project. So, 20% of the project should get a 40% reimbured. Isn't 9,000 square feet that we were going to use for special education approximately 20% of the project? Isn't that what we That's what I'm using Dr. Britain's words tonight. >> Off the top of my head, >> square footage wise. Yeah, it's about 20% of the project. So, wouldn't 20% of the project then be entitled to 40% reimbursement because we would get the we would get the average and we're guessing at that 25 because the roof is we know is 51. Thanks, Bob. the 15%

110on the special education >> only. >> Okay. Only on renovate to new, not on renovate. >> Okay, that was the clarification I needed. Thank you. >> But can I this is where I I asked a question on the valley view, but this is on the Gildersleeve portion. uh kind of the same question but it was like how and I know you couldn't answer it right but it becomes is it fair to assume that 10% at let's just talk killer sleeve 10% of the $53 million is allocated to special ed does that sound right and then it becomes 15% of that 10% >> okay cool that that's what I was looking at right so then it becomes if you use the same logic at valley in the quote I don't want to call it the slush

111fund but it's there's like $1.3 million of we're paying for it in the bond but if everything goes right that could be coming back to us and that's $1.3 million that be going could be going towards the 4 million that okay got that uh of the $8 million at the high school is that other than the bonding would be all in but is that asking the state for that 50% % on the 8 million tied to the school project to the Valley View and Gildersleeve or is it a separate ask? >> Good question. The Valley View and Gildersleeve are what are called priority list projects. Okay. >> So that that's the June 30th deadline. Yeah. >> And that's why we're waiting till December 30th. That's why if you if you noticed in preparation for this

112meeting, I CCed our state rep and our state senator because that priority list is actually voted on by the Connecticut state legislature. That's >> a year from now, >> right? >> Yeah. >> So that priority list, which is Valley View and Gildersleeve, that's why you do the June 30th deadline, goes on the bonding list, right, Bryce? In the fall, state legislature takes action on it. We definitely need Norman Christie there going, "This has my support. We want this approved." That's priority list. The 8 million for the secondary school is what's called non-priority list. >> Stands on its own. It could stand on its own if it needed. Got it. >> That that goes differently and that's a more of a rolling application. It's not it's not the June 30th deadline, but >> and the the

113the two million we talked about for Brownstone, that's not part of this. It wasn't in that number, right? I I good catch. We we did we that is not included in in the ask here. You would need to add that too, but you know, at this point, you know, that's another consideration you might want to have when to ask for that as part of this or another time. Um it's not included in that number. >> Good. Okay. Thank you. >> All right, Nick. Is there anyone online? I >> think I saw Yeah, public. I think I saw Ellen's face just pop up. Excuse me. >> Oh, they're just joining. Okay. All right. Any other questions at all? Thank you very much. Bob Shay, you're still listening. Thank you very much. This is important. I know

114we're running late. We're going to take a 10-minute break once we get out of this meeting before we start our board selecting meeting. Um, but I want to thank everyone for their time and for coming here. I This will be a big deal. Uh, there'll be a lot more to u to be heard about this. Uh, the numbers. I know Ben's here for the numbers as many of you are out there. what are the actual costs of it? What's the impact on the grand list on our on our taxes? Uh we should have those numbers Friday slashMonday. Um that's uh that'll be the last piece of the puzzle. We want to make sure it's affordable. We want to make sure we can handle that. Um that'll be coming soon and that'll kind of augment what

115we heard tonight. But um excellent presentation. I think it went through the all the details of the projects and where it makes sense. So thank you very much. >> All right. Um with that um like to adjourn the meeting. I'll make a motion we adjourn the >> second that motion. >> All those in favor >> I >> very good at 7:05. >> We're gonna start about 10 minutes. Hope everything you know it's