001Ladies and gentlemen, um sorry for the delay. >> Seems that the uh roads around Warren Township are having a day. We can also rise to the pledge of allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands one nation indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Thank you all so much. We are going to open up the agenda by seeing if we have any public comment on the items on this evening's agenda. >> We're double checking comments. No, we do not. >> Okay, we do not. So, with that, we are going to go on to Mr. Simpkins and discuss the CBA, >> President Burke, Dr. Hansen, members of the board. Good evening. Uh, I have before you for your consideration what is currently now the tentative 2526 clefting
002agreement. upon upon your approval, it'll be the final clean version that will be turned into herb at the state and posted uh publicly on our website. Be happy to answer any questions if you have any. >> I make a motion that we adopt the agreement between the collective bargaining and the Warren Township. I triplet second the motion. >> So we have a motion made by Gloria and a second by Lashana. Is there any discussion or any questions hearing and seeing none I think we'll have Kevin call the vote if that's okay. >> Miss Williams. >> Yes. power. Madam President, >> yes, >> Madame Vice President. >> yes. >> And there'll be a yes from me also. >> Motion carries. Thank you so much, Brian. >> Thank you. >> There it is. There's the score. And
003with that, we are going to move on to our big discussion of the evening. Not that getting the CBA done isn't a big deal. Don't stress that one. Um, and we're going to Marcus and not Matt. Okay. >> We're going to be a team today. >> Okay. We're gonna flip between the two of you. Good times. All right, President Burke, Dr. Hansen, members of the board, and to our Warren community. Uh, this evening, we appreciate the opportunity to talk about what has been taking place here in Warren Township since 2019, and that is our construction journey. understanding that we have students that in our that are currently in our early uh childhood center and some even in our elementary schools that all they know is construction here in Warren Township because again this has been
004a journey and we have successfully and we continue to transform our school community one building at a time and we'll touch on some of that history. I want to welcome some of our our guests tonight. Um from um our architects to our construction companies that will um guide us through this ne the next part of our our journey as we close down on close out on some of the others. Lord, we continue to place our strategic focus at the the center of everything we do. Um as I've mentioned, we are transforming our our school community one building at a time. So, we'll continue to invest in academic excellence and student achievement because we believe our students we believe our our kids deserve the best the absolute best. We want to provide exceptional teaching and learning
005environments. We want to provide um excellent programming to support that journey of a graduate and we want to make sure that they are in buildings that they are proud of that they can take pride in and that they love to compete, debate um and um spend time with their their their friends and family. So again, we understand how we're rooted in the how well we're rooted in the community and our facilities speak to that. Uh we're going to continue again to invest in our warren student journey and meet the needs of the whole child as well as invest in safety and operational excellence. Even though we're having a conversation about construction and um buildings, um it's important to note to our community that everything we do starts with with safety as well. So this evening,
006uh, we'll Matt will come up, um, that Matt right there, Parkinson, he'll come up and provide an overview of our, um, construction and and finance and where we stand and, um, the the route we will take. And then we'll, um, talk about our our team that's a part of this this next round of construction. um what that will look like uh some of the uh projects that we will propose around our intermediate schools as well as the the high school and then we'll end with a a discussion where we can gather feedback in terms of what that path looks like moving forward. So with that being said, I want to introduce Matt Parkinson. Good evening everybody. Um so board, you'll likely recall that in summer of 2025, we asked the board to take action approving
007first mortgage bonds. Um those first mortgage bonds are how we're funding uh the projects that we're going to discuss this evening. So essentially what we put up here is just um repeating for the community the the scope that we discussed. We're going to get a little bit more specific tonight in terms of the the specific types of projects that we're ready to move forward with or that we're suggesting we move forward with. Um but at a at a high level for the intermediate middle schools when we asked the board to approve those bonds in the summer. What we discussed were jog centers, classroom improvements, floors to ceilings, HVAC roofing, and investments in building longevity. And then on the high school level, modernizing the fieldhouse, art classrooms, career and technical education classrooms, addressing the Warrior Dome,
008performing arts spaces, athletics, JOTC, HVAC, and again, investments in building longevity. Um, so we're going to go a little bit more in depth about the kinds of things we've been studying over the last half year or so. Um, since we asked the board to take that action, uh, lay out some of the specifics along those lines. I do think it's important because of the scale of what we're discussing tonight to um go through the the financing components. Um so I'd like to spend just a couple minutes um talking through that for the for the board and for the community. Um so as a reminder, the projects that we're discussing tonight are funded by what's called first mortgage bonds. Those are one of two types of debt that um school districts take on. Um payments are
009typically made on first mortgage bonds over a 20-year window. Um, our school district, um, for the last four years has kept a stable 52cent debt service tax rate. We anticipate that being the case again in 2026. And I'm going to show a few slides that our municipal advisor prepared um, here in just a minute. Um, laying out that the school corporation has options moving forward. Um, and among those options is is sticking at that 52 cent debt service tax rate. Um, but I do want to say in the environment that we're operating in right now, um, one thing that's going to be true fairly universally, we believe across the state is as a function of Senate ruled Act One and new deductions that were introduced, assessed values, we believe are going to decline over the
010remainder of the decade before starting to grow again. Um, and that's going to have an impact in many places of increasing property tax rates, increasing debt service tax rates specifically. So again, we're in a a really fortunate place um and that we have some options. We could take on projects even beyond what we're going to discuss tonight um and stay within that kind of statewide norm. We could choose to stay at that 52 cent tax rate long term. Um and we don't have to make that decision tonight. Um those would be decisions to make over the coming years, but we're in a really good place in terms of of having flexibility. I'm going to show a separate slide in just a minute, but I do I do want to jump to this one. Um just
011timelinewise in terms of the debt proceedings. This is where we're at, where we're going. Um so we had two preliminary determination hearings. Um one in June and one in July. In July, the board um issued determination of the need to issue the bonds to fund the projects. Um now we're in fall 2020. Now we're in fall 2025 planning for the projects. From a finance perspective, we would anticipate selling the bonds in 2026. in the fall of 2026. At that point, we'll know what our assessed values are for 2027. So, we can aim for a target tax rate. And then the construction itself is going to occur over a two-year period roughly um from the fall of 2026 to the fall of 2028. So, I'm going to pull up two different files and um take a
012look at them with the the folks in the room where I believe you have these files um in your packets. Um there's two examples that we're showing here. There's there's the default example which is what the board approved this summer and then we want to talk about a supplemental package that the board could consider um relating to to a high school project component. So let me start with the package that the board's already approved. I'm not going to go through these in extensive depth. What this column chart is showing is a schedule of our outstanding debt um and the debt payments that we have to make by year. And so there's a really distinctive pattern that I think is easy to see here, which is our debt service payments drop pretty quickly over the next
013couple of years. That's the reason we're in a position today to take on the level of projects we are. We've known this was coming since before phase one. We structured our our debt payments over the last half decade to put us in a position to make these decisions. Now, um this is a summary of general obligation debt. It's not really the the focus of tonight, but we have a constitutional limit on how much general obligation debt we can take on. That's the reason that we're funding these with first mortgage bonds. And this is what our debt service schedule would look like over the next few years for debts that we've already we're either going to be issuing in 2025. So, a reminder for the board and for the community, we're selling a $6 million geo
014bond issuance later this week, uh, and then the 2026 first mortgage bonds that have been approved. And then we've illustrated $6 million annual geo bonds moving forward as part of projecting this debt service tax rate. This is the key slide where I really want to spend a minute. What this slide illustrates is what our debt service tax rate would look like over the next 20 years based upon what we know today with our bonds that we've already sold layering in annual GEO bonds for the next three years and then the $75 million first mortgage bond issuance that we've asked the board to approve. The kind of yellow orange color is the $75 million in bonds. The key line I want to point out is the dotted line. That's the second one going across. Um so
015knowing what we know today, we anticipate being able to structure a level debt service tax rate through 2030 and starting to see dips in that debt service rate which would let the school district take on additional projects within a stable debt service tax rate if that's where the school district chooses to be over the long term. So, I want to pause there for just a moment because I'm going talk about a separate scenario in just a minute. Does anybody have questions about um what what these charts are indicating to us or or what it would mean for us? Okay. So, one of the conversations that we're going to have tonight is in regards to a supplemental high school project that we could choose to take on. Um, we're going to present a package on the
016high school portion of this project specifically that takes on a lot of facilities at the high school, but it does not include a large standalone practice facility. U, one of the scenarios that we're preparing for as just a discussion item that that you know the board could consider is we could choose to issue supplemental debt in 2026 or another time soon to take on that standalone facility um as an additional project. And so in this example, instead of doing $75 million worth of bonds, we would do two sets of bonds. One at 75 million and a separate one at 25 million for a total of $100 million. So I'm going to show what that looks like on this other um slide deck. This is all the exact same information that we just went through and
017I'm going to move straight to the the same column chart. This is what that column chart looks like if we do an additional $25 million in first mortgage debt in 2026. Essentially, what's happening? We're we're still able to keep that debt service tax rate at or below 52 cents in the coming years. The trade-off to it is we trade off the ability to take on future projects of other types and stay within that tax rate. As we take on more now, that's less flexibility to do things later. There's pros and cons to the decision. Um they're both fine decisions. Um but just, you know, for illustrative purposes, we wanted to call that out. So, we're going to suggest a package of projects that doesn't include that facility this evening. Um but if the board wants
018to go down that path, we're happy to talk through, you know, procedurally what we need to do, timeline impacts, um all those pieces. I'm going to move past the debt portion. Are there any questions I can answer about debt before we move on? >> I just want to ask when you say um what you were proposing to us for the um are you talking about adding on to the high school? Can you break that down a little bit to explain to us what you were talking about as far as >> I can new program? >> Sure. So, we're gonna um the the largest portion of what we're going to talk about this morning is going to be split into two components. We're we're going to talk about work in the middle schools and then work
019at Warren Central. Um most of the work we propose, all the work we're going to propose as part of that $75 million is to existing facilities at Warren Central. The additional component that we could discuss would be a new standalone facility on the same campus as Warren Central, but it would be new construction. It's not part of the existing building today. >> M you said, what about the middle schools? Are you saying that you're going to focus just on the high school or are you going to include the middle schools in that? Because, you know, we've been looking at many things that need to be done on the middle schools level. So, can you explain how that would affect the middle schools as well as the high schools? >> Sure. Um, so of the $75
020million that the board approved this summer, we're we're going to propose spending half of that at the middle schools. So, $37.5 million at the middle schools and then half of that at Warren Central, another 37 and a half. Um, the additional piece, if we were to take it on, would be an additional $25 million roughly for further high school work. Matt question. >> Um, for our groups that use the indoor facility that we're talking about rebuilding and just postponing it, where are those groups meeting now? Is there enough room in the high school for them to have their practice time as well? >> It it would be a new type of use compared to what we have today. I mean, >> I know our dome is gone. Not a new use. it's, you know, is
021going to be gone or is gone. But I'm just saying where are the students in the meantime that use that? Is there room in the high school right now for them to get their practice time with all of our other sports and other groups meeting at this time? >> There there is uh I mean it's it's all the same student groups that are practicing today. Um this would be an additional facility beyond what we already have today. So if if we didn't move forward with that indoor facility, I do believe there's still adequate space. Um it would be a major improvement to what we can do um for student groups having that additional space. >> Terry, we still have the >> I know we were talking about >> Yeah. We we still have use of
022>> and when we get when we get into the projects, we're actually going to discuss the potential for keeping the dome ongoing for a longer term. I just wanted to ask Kevin is this uh talking about what you were thinking about and and wanted to suggest. Could you explain to us about that? >> Yes. Well, ma'am was alluding to the the which is now a separate project will be an indoor practice facility that we will be as he said it was a standalone building and that will be now a new project. >> So it is including that. not in not into the >> separate project. That's the second thing we're going to assess >> and yeah, we we've got quite a bit of material about the the components of the work itself which we'll be
023happy to go into here here in just a few minutes. Are there any qu questions I can answer about the the finance component of this? Okay. So, we'll move through this piece fairly quickly, but um I do think it's important as we look at making major financial major operational decisions about the future of our school district to look back at what we've done over the last few years. Um so, we've used the terms phase one, phase two, phase three since really shortly before the pandemic to define the biggest projects that we take on. Phase one, as a reminder for everybody, was a major major renovation of Low Elementary School. Uh, and then work at Warren Central High School, specifically modifying pickup drop off, building the practice field, Hall of Fame, lot of site work in
024phase one. Um, phase two, we did large major renovations to Grass Creek Elementary School, Pleasant Run Elementary School, touched all the classrooms, new gyms, major site improvements of those buildings. at Warren Central. In phase two, that was new administration office, new career center office. We relocated the counseling center, nurses office. Um phase three, uh work was Eastridge Elementary renovation, Hawthorne Elementary renovation. Those projects are in closeout right now. So, we're, you know, 99% complete on those. More in central phase three is most of the classrooms throughout the G hallway, the H hallway, um in the career center. Um and then we've taken on work through other um funding mechanisms as well. So ESSER um we were you know recipients of quite a bit of federal pandemic relief revenue. Um we did some pretty major renovations
025at Crestston um and incorporating new um cooling tower which is part of the HVAC um system in that building. Really getting MCRC off the ground in the first place was was a function of Esser Warren online academy setting that up for the northern half of Highlander Park. Um, in the last few years through general obligation bonds, um, we've been able to take on flooring work at Crestston, flooring work at Lakeside, flooring work in the classrooms on the first floor at Renaissance, um, student furniture at Crestston, at Lakeside, at Liberty Park. We've got furniture on the way for Sunny Heights. Um, and then roofing work. We've done roofing work um, in small pieces of Crestston um, and Stony Brook, specifically over the gym where we had issues. We did a pretty wholesale replacement at Lakeside within
026the last year. Um we do have further need for roofing investments at the middle school levels and at Raymond Park which we're going to discuss this evening. And then just what I'm kind of calling infrastructure is sort of you know larger projects some of our other buildings. Um at the Warren Early Childhood Center we spent multiple millions of dollars on HVAC improvements and we built out the secure vestibule. Same at Sunny Heights secure vestibule moving the office to the front of the building. Um, and then at Warren Central High School right now, we're in the process of replacing one of the three large boilers and the two cooling towers. So, I say that to say as we get ready to move into what I might call phase four of construction, um, we've been able to
027touch an awful lot of our buildings over the last five, six years, and that's something I think we can be very proud of. Okay. Um, we're getting ready to transition into I want to introduce our teams that are here and we're going to talk about the intermediate middle schools and then we're going to move on and talk about the high school. I do want to identify just an item or two on the middle school work that I I think it's important for us to to note for kind of where we are timing wise. We have a pretty big unknown, really two big unknowns when it comes to intermediate middle school work. Um, we're still able to proceed with most of the work and we're going to discuss that discuss that this evening. um board, as
028you're all aware, um a key component of what we applied for in Lily phase three, um was funding to support the jog centers, which is incorporating CTE spaces into the intermediate middle school level. We're going to have to come back and revisit this conversation once we know uh the outcome of that application. We anticipate finding out in December, so not too far away. We're going to discuss the kind of work that we believe we can proceed on even while we wait on that. Uh and then the other one is redistricting is of course a really active conversation that we're going through. It could have an impact on the classroom specific investments we choose to make at the intermediate middle school level. So I say all that to say the intermediate middle school projects going to
029be worth you know more discussion as as those variables become known uh in the months ahead. Okay. Before we get into the middle school work, I do want to take just a moment thank you sincerely to everybody that came out this evening. We've got um great partners that we're working with, partners that we're really excited to be working with um on these rounds of work. Um so I'm going to start with the intermediate middle school side. Um we've had really active administration team involvement on intermediate middle school projects. Um Tyranny, Ryan, Marcus, and I have been meeting with this group regularly for months um planning out the work. Um so I'd like to introduce we've got a couple folks in the room, three folks in the room from Schmidt. We've got Cindy, Mary Ellen, Thomas,
030um Schmidzen Architecture Firm. They're also helping us um with some work at Warren Central on the plant right now, helping us at Highlander Park as well with engineering project. And their engineering partner is JQOL. Construction manager on the intermediate middle school project is Powers and Sons. I see we've got Mayan, we've got Nate in the room. You'll recall Powers and Sons. Powers and Sons was our construction manager on the locker room project at Warren Central. Also helped us with the performing arts center. And then over on the high school side, so Marcus and I have been meeting regularly with with Cso. Mimba has been in most of those meetings. Derek, Dr. Rogers, um Ryan and Dr. Sullivan are involved in the Warren Central project as well. Um so we've got from CSO, we got Stephanie
031and Brent and Emory all here from CSO. CSO has been a longtime architect for the school district as you recall. They were our architect on our phase one, phase two, phase three projects and some smaller projects around the school district. They've got partner farms we're working with JPS Context and KBSO. Then we've got Myron Asian um in the room. We've got got Jonathan. We got Skip. I'm so sorry I'm blanking >> Hillary, I'm so sorry, Hillary. We got Hillary with us and partner firm for for Iron Agent MB General. Um this is an excellent team that we're really proud of that we get to work with for these projects. They brought us a really wide range of perspectives. Our conversations are are unique. When we're having the middle school conversation, when we're having the high
032school conversation, they're tailored to the needs of those buildings. These firms bring a lot of experience from our peer districts and peer districts around central Indiana. It's been a joy getting to know them, getting to work with them over the last few months. Um, and I know that we've got great things ahead on both the middle school and the high school projects. Okay, I'm going to turn it over um to Cindy who's going to talk about um what we've done so far on the middle school side. Good evening. Um, thanks Matt for the introduction and as >> I hate to bother you. Could you pull the microphone down? >> Yes, I can. Thank you. Uh, my name is Cindy McClode. I'm an architect with Schmidt Associates. I'm also the project manager for the um intermediate
033middle school projects and we've um had the opportunity to do building assessments on these three buildings recently. Um assessments are very common tools that help building owners make decisions about what your buildings need and what projects that can they can form um from those assessments. So Schmidt has done quite a few um assessments. We do around 30 a year. It's very common for school districts to use this tool to plan out their projects and we we have a large team of engineers and architects and interior designers that have focused on your buildings particularly there and there are four categories that we look at when we do an assessment and those four are the building shell which is reviewed by the architects and then interior finishes, which is evaluated by interior designers and the architects. And
034then all of your environmental conditions, which is really your mechanical, your electrical, plumbing, and your technology systems um in your building as well as the site. So, our team has visited your buildings multiple times and um takes a look at every little thing that is in your building to create our assessment document. So the the components that we evaluate in your buildings as part of the assessment are is the building shell. And the shell you can think of as the the enclosure for the building. That's your windows, your walls, your roofs, your hard doors and hardware. And then you also look at your interior finishes. So that it would be all the things that you can touch and feel, your carpet and your um your paint and and ceilings, things that that you notice about
035a building and what makes it feel new and and good. And then the mechanical systems um that's all the things that make you feel comfortable. So that would be your cooling, your heating, your air distribution and controls. Plumbing of course is all the water services and sanitary. So we look at every little thing from the domestic water, the fire service, sprinklers, water softeners, the heaters and pumps. Um, and then we also look at your whole electrical system as a whole. How much power is at the building? Can it handle new loads? Can it handle renovations? Um, and the lighting, is it updated to LEDs? Is it um efficient as well? And we also look at the technology. That's the thing that you know we can't do without and it keeps progressing year after year. But
036um technology includes the intercom systems, your Wi-Fi, all your cabling, your clocks, your video surveillance and um all the hubs for your main data frame as well. So we look at each component of the building and each component is for in our assessment either a zero through a four and a zero would mean that that item should be replaced. A four means that it's okay um that you could keep that it needs no work and no replacement. So, the common things that we have found about all three of your intermediate and middle school buildings, these buildings each have pieces of them that are they're 30 years old. So, as you can imagine, things that are that old or at the end, some of them are at the end of their life. Like, you still have
037pieces of roof that are original to the building. um windows that are original to the building where the seals have cracked and um they're just not holding in the heat anymore. Also, at each building, there are significant mechanical, electrical, and plumbing issues that need to be upgraded where your your equipment and fixtures are at the end of their lifespan. And another common thing among all three of your buildings is the interior finishes are a little bit worn. We'll get into Crestston has has had updates over the years, but specifically about each building. Um at Crestston, that building was built in 1962. Um, as I said, there have been recent updates to the finishes there, so it's not quite doesn't score quite as bad on interior finishes as the others. Um, there are a couple of
038issues at Crestston with stair railings that are not up to current code. They have more than um you could fall through them if if you're not careful. And then um at Crestston also the chiller boiler uh are at the end of their life. Specific things to Rayland Park um that building was built in 1993. Um there are there's classroom wall coverings that are delaminating off the walls in the classrooms and then Casework has countertops that are peeling as well. And Raymond Park has older boilers. Specific things to Stonybrook. Um this building was built in 1970. Um it you walk in there, you can see that the interior of the carpet is worn and there's tile that's worn. The corridor surface um has the corridor walls have a surface protector on it that's delaminating off the
039wall. Uh there's broken and unused unusable lockers as well. And then there boilers, chillers, air handlers, cooling tower all need to be replaced. Um receptacles and light switches are in bad shape. And then one specific thing that's kind of a programmatic thing is your your locker room layout is not very good for supervision of students in that building. So, all this to say, every little piece of your building we um tallied up scores on to give it a suitability score based out of 100. So, Crustin suitability score ended up being 65% out of 100. Raymond Park 62% and Stony Brook 58% out of 100. At this time, I'll turn it back over to Matt to talk about recommended projects. Thank you, Cindy. So, I want to just take a moment to talk about where the
040architect and construction manager overlap at this point in the process. We we've been believers for a long time at having as much of our team at the table as early as possible. Um and the reason for that is we get perspectives from both sides. Um an advantage we have to bring in our construction manager when we do is we get estimating um done really early in the project. So these are kind of conceptual stage right now. We've identified that we need to replace a boiler. We've identified that we need to do electrical work in a building or that bathrooms need need work. At that point, we're going to ask um in this case the powers and sons team to work with us and work with Schmidt to identify what that scope could be and to
041assign a dollar amount to it at a conceptual level that we can use to make informed decisions. Um you heard Cindy mention a lot of things that we saw or that that she reported the middle schools are I think what we would have expected to hear. Um that they're they're you know they're aging buildings. Um they're buildings that haven't been touched extensively uh in the same way that we've worked with the elementary schools and we've worked with the high school in the last few years. And so we think there's a lot of things we need to do in the buildings to ensure their longevity to ensure comfort for our students um in the kinds of learning environments we want our kids to have. Um so we've identified um on this slide and I'm going to
042go to another slide in just a moment with a few dollar amounts. Um we've identified on this slide um a set of projects that we could consider taking on. The projects are really divided into two lists. There's um those that are in kind of the upper half that we've put into black font. Um these are items that are just kind of essential to the building itself. And um just give me my opinion. I I think kind of really non-negotiable kind of items that as part of this construction project, we need to give very strong consideration to taking on. I think it would be tough to get into the buildings um and do work um in other areas only only to realize we haven't addressed the roof or the heating or the cooling or or the
043plumbing issues. Um we also heard I think loud and clear from the school board when we went through this process this summer um that there was interest in making sure that we did significant work at all three of our buildings and that's going to be reflected in the set of projects that we're taking on here. Um so at all three buildings we're recommending to the board that we do um building envelope which again is the exterior of the building roof walls um electrical mechanical mechanical it's going to be your big your big systems in the building um plumbing and technology um we're going to additionally recommend at Stonybrook that we take on a set of classroom finishes, restroom updates, corridor finish updates in that locker room. By the way, for just sort of location purposes
044at Stony Brook when we're referring to the locker room, um these are the spaces that are on the east side of each of the two gyms. They're used both for PE class um and for athletics. And I know many of you have walked into those spaces. When you walk in, it's it feels like a maze in there. And so when we talk about supervision challenges, I mean, I can't imagine how many adults you'd have to have stationed in those spaces to really keep an eye on your kids. that it's more adults than we have staffed for a PE class, right? And so, um, that's the reason that we think just from a safety perspective, that's a project makes a lot of sense to take on when we're in that building. Raymond Parks, many of Raymond
045Park's classrooms, um, have not been meaningfully touched in the 30 years that building's been open. Some have been. If you walk in, you'll see some classrooms that have new floors, for instance. Um, many of them do not. They have carpet that either is original or at least is close enough to original and it's got to be addressed. Um, Crestston, we don't have anything showing up here in white. We are going to look at a budget slide in just a moment that shows a small piece going there. But just as as a reminder, Crestston, in the last few years, we've done floors, window film, paint, um, all new student furniture. So, just the scale of investment in the class spaces themselves um has been different at Crestston relative to the two other middle schools. >> So,
046can I ask a question? >> Of course. um in in touring the middle school buildings. Um can you go back to the um previous slide? >> Yes. Um I know that extensive work has been done at Crestston, but in our visits, it seems like there was still things that needed to be done as far as uh the project list is concerned. and some of those things on the bottom of the project list. Have you considered uh completing those tasks >> at Crestston? Also, >> we we have and look, we we'd love to take on all the the work that we can at all the buildings. Um and there are additional needs at Crestston that are going to have to be addressed um in the years to come. I I absolutely agree with that. In a
047relative sense, what we were able to identify through the um facility reviews is as great as that need is at Crestston in those spaces and there are some spaces that need it in terms of the facility itself, Stony Brook is a notch behind even where Crestston is right now and Raymond Park is a notch behind where where Crestston is right now. Um so the recommendation that we're bringing to you is to move forward with that type of work. You know, leaning a little bit heavier into Stony Brook and Raymond Park than at Crestston. Uh the reason I was saying that when we uh renovated our elementary schools, we made sure all of our elementary schools were up to par. So now if you go to any of the elementary schools, they all can feel good
048about, you know, everything being complete. And I was just thinking since we're uh taking on this task with our middle schools, we want to also have that same feeling, you know. So I know what you're saying. Stony Brook really do need those um updates for sure, but is there any money available? Because you were saying we were in a good place where we can continue and finish Crestston and then continue to finish the other buildings. We want all of our students to feel good about the building that they attend. >> Yeah. I mean, we we'll certainly take the the board's direction on where we want to go on this. Um I think the recommendation we're going to have with with this pot of money is is Stony Rook um primarily and Raymond Park to a
049lesser extent. Um we are looking at with our general obligation bonds. For instance, there's a roof project that we're going to address at Raymond Park outside of this that we're funding through a general obligation bond. The classroom furniture, flooring that we did at Crest, the paint we did at Crest's through general obligation bonds. there are additional opportunities um in the next few years to take on those kinds of projects at Crestston um and elsewhere. This this isn't, you know, kind of the end of the projects that we can take on. So from a budget perspective, this is um what the investment in each of the buildings would look like. Again, keep in mind these are conceptual numbers um without, you know, some kind of specific detail and you know the models of equipment that we're
050going to put in or how much you know line we're going to have to run from one one room to the next. Um a lot of the investment is weighted toward MEP. Um so that's mechanical engineering plumbing consistent with what again we saw in our facility assessments uh and the building envelope as well. Uh and then we've got interior work at about $6 million. I do want to speak to what these dollars mean and how we should be thinking about them today. And what we're getting ready to say on this piece is also applicable to the high school project. We have budgeted at this even here probably beyond what we're going to be able to take on or at least potentially beyond what we're going to be able to take on. Um when we go
051through the estimating process with our architect and our construction manager, um we do ask them to budget conservatively or to help us to budget conservatively. Then at their recommendation and consistent with what we've done in the past, we're going to propose a set of projects that's somewhat beyond knowing that when we get to bid time, we may put certain things as alternatives or alternates as part of the bid specs. Um, and then if it turns out that we go over budget, there's pieces that we're going to have to scale back. The flip side of that is again I'm going to deferring to our our colleagues at Powers and Sons and at my nation for the high school project. When these things are priced out, they're really kind of priced out as individual projects. There could
052be efficiencies that we find when we get a contractor at, you know, at Stony Brook to take on project A. Perhaps the estimate to take on project B comes down a little bit because that contractor is already on site, for instance. Um, either way, I I guess the message I want to convey here is I don't think we should take these dollar amounts at this stage as gospel. That's not fair, you know, to the construction manager and architect team that's working hard to get us, you know, numbers we can work with. But what these do is help us guide the conversation. Um, so we have a high level idea of where we're going. Happy to answer any questions about middle school work before we transition on to the high school. >> Yeah, I' I've got
053a question and it has to do with the amount of money we put for the three middle schools. We're going with 37 and a half 37 37 million. The other piece of that that there's also 37 million being applied to the high school. My question would be these are additional repairs for the high school. Let's go with that first. The 37 million, >> I believe. So, >> earlier you you you broke it down. You said $37 million was going to these guys, >> the middle schools. And 37 million would go for the high school. >> Yes. >> What portion of the 37 million that's going for the high school? Is this new repairs and and construction and innovative stuff or is this including what's already been done to the high school? >> It it would
054be new work that's not been taken on yet. >> Okay. So, we're putting 37 million half of that piece of the I don't know 70 so million dollars into the high school for more additional stuff and then we're only giving these particular middle schools. They have to share in $37 million and they're ancient. I mean, I saw you know your number the 58% the 58% uh was the score for Sunny Stony Stony Brook and you had 60s for Rain Park and Crest. I'm just having a hard time understanding why we putting with such a large amount of money while we putting so few not few dollars. a lot of money, but uh equal amount of money into the middle schools and equal amount of money into the high school. It is something does not feel
055good to me about that. I'm just curious to see what you what you >> Yeah, I think why why and I guess maybe you're going to get to this soon, but I'm just curious about why half goes to the middle school and the other half go just to the high school. I >> I think it's a really fair conversation. you know, we we started at um half and half when we laid this out because it's roughly equal dollar amounts per student, right? So, we've got four grade bands at each of the middle schools with, you know, a little over 3,000 kids. We've got a similar number of kids across four grade bands at Warren Central. So, while half the money is going to one building and half's going to three buildings on a per student
056basis, it's really about the same. The the high school itself is a million, as you know, high school itself is a million square foot building. Each of the intermediate middle schools is 200, you know, thousand or so square feet, a little over. Um, and so just to keep a building as large as the high school serving as many students as the high school does up to par, it just it does require a scale of investment that's different from other our other buildings. >> Uh, to add on to what he said, um, that's why I was asking you about Crestston and the others because we did extensive work on the high school already. our um objective is to try to make all of our schools be up to par. So um as he was saying, why
057couldn't we take some of that money that you're talking about paying on the high school, complete what we need to do at Crestston, finish what we need to do at Raymond Park and Stony Brook, so they will be complete like our elementary schools, and then we can use the additional money to add on to our high school. And as I understand it, the money that you're talking about don't even include the indoor training facility. So you're talking about spending that kind of money just to add on additional things to the high school, which does not include our training facility, and it does not include making sure all of our middle schools are up to par. I just believe in finishing what you start. Don't just half do your job. That's what we teach our kids.
058Don't half do your job. And if we don't complete those middle schools, it's like we're, you know, half doing our job. So my recommendation would be to take some of that money that you're trying to give to the high school because they have had a lot of renovation already and it's beautiful. It's time for us to beautify the middle schools also. So, take some of that money and put it towards completing the the things that's needed in our middle schools. >> Matt, I have some questions, too. I'm sorry. Um, if we get the Lily Grant, would And I know that we have some construction that we were planning in that. Is that correct? So, that would go towards the >> SH Okay. >> And then also at the high school, do you have like the
059building like the the other interior stuff that needs to be done like infrastructure type stuff too? >> We we do we're going to so all the scope we just went through at the middle school level, we're going to go through at the high school level here in just a minute to talk about what those projects would be. You're you're right on Lily. Lily has a a really meaningful impact and assuming that Lily money comes through, it puts us in an interesting position to make choices. I mean, we could choose at that point to move a portion of that money to the high school level because we've got more to do with the middle school work. We could choose to go the opposite direction. Um, I mean, we're at a place where if the board was
060to tell us to do so, um, you know, we can move money between the middle school and the high school work. I will say we when we laid this out this summer, we identified at that point we anticipated half and half and we've spent at this point in fairness to the teams that are here about a half year building out projects that were in line with the way we discussed it this summer. Um so if we're talking, you know, kind of multi-million dollar shifts, we are at a stage we can do it. Um that meaningfully changes what we've done over the last half year. And so I think that's a really important conversation if we're going to have it. I do think it'd be important that we get through the high school piece. I think
061we have a lot of worthy projects um in that building as well. And kind of to the point of or to the notion of of work that's not yet complete for all the work we've done at Warren Central High School in the last few years, some of the areas we're going to cover, all the areas we're going to cover this evening are portions of the building we haven't had a chance to get to yet that just like the middle schools are showing their age. Um, and that are going to have an impact on a lot of students. Um, we have a lot of worthy projects across our campuses. Um, and we think we've come up with a package, we've tried to come up with a package that, you know, gets to as many students as
062we can. Let me let me just follow up with with my concern because when when when Cindy gave us the numbers for the dates that these schools were established that 70 1970 hit me hard with stone. It's a lot it's a big gap between 70 and right now. Uh no the rubs and and all of the things that she had mentioned. Um I'm having a problem with that we've got a middle a middle school. It might not be the case, but I know she said this. We've got rugs that are have been there since 70 and I'm sure when they did their assessment, uh it looked like crap. It's got to I mean 50 some years rough seal there. You know what I mean? That sort of thing. And that probably wasn't the only thing
063that was had been there for a long period of time when she said of what she actually saw there was no break like as if well the building was built in 70 and maybe 90 we had new rugs put in you know I don't know if that actually occurred but what what I heard was something that was distressing to me if we've got a problem with for example rugs that have been there since 1970 we got real problems in other areas that have been around a long time and I and I know you guys are addressing that and probably the assessments did really really did highlight what we really need to do with the middle school, but I'm still hung on and and I guess we'll talk more about it. Especially, it'll probably be clearer
064when you start talking about the high school and we need, you know, need a world class nitorium. Well, got a good one. We got a world need another worldass basketball program or or basketball courts, maybe some practice courts, and we we're going to go and we're going to do some other things that are really, you know, revolutionary. Maybe we know technology and all that kind of stuff's coming in. cost of AI and talk about that kind of stuff. I know you're gonna probably get to that, but right now at this particular juncture of the pro of the uh the project presentation, I'm having a real a problem with having equal amount of money going to the middle school and going to the high school that's already been worked. I'm going to sit back and listen
065to the rest of this, okay? But I'm really having some problems grabbing the presentation as it relates to or the estimates as it relates to the presentation. >> And one other question, since the uh indoor training facility has not been mentioned, how is that going to be a part of it or is this going to be a part of the money you're spending in the high school or is this going to be a separate um thing that you're going to do? Um can you explain that? So, the indoor facility is not part of the package of projects that we're recommending within the $75 million. Um, the board could choose to take on um an additional bond issuance to fund the indoor facility. I think that's it's a it's a worthy project. Um it would be
066outside of the scope of what we're discussing tonight. >> Now, with your expertise, you said we could take on another bond. would we be able to do that um you know without any problems because you're saying that we're in a good space. So what would your recommendation be? >> So I probably have to be the most cautious person in the room. I'm going to be that I'm going to play that role. Uh I I am nervous if I'm candid um about the opportunities we would potentially forego to take on other projects that could come up in the future. Um, so for instance, if we look back, you know, over the last few years, if we looked back five years ago, three years ago, I'm not sure we would have known back then that we were
067going to be replacing uh the boiler and the cooling towers at the high school or taking on the same project at Highlander Park or that we were going to need to replace the roof at Lakeside. You know, we operate close to 20 facilities like we do, 3 million square feet, um, and we have aging buildings. there are projects that are hard to foresee in 2025 that could come up in 2027 or 2028. Um, so we can take it on and we can take it on with what we know today within an existing debt service tax rate. Um, ultimately it's we're going to support I'm going to support whatever the board, you know, opts to do. That's the trade-off that I think everybody needs to be aware of is we lose flexibility to take on other
068kinds of work in the future. Well, I'm so happy to hear that because, you know, that indoor training facility would be valuable. Uh something that would make Warren U township stand out, you know, for our children to have some kind of facility they can train in uh on the indoors and that's a good safety thing. I think we had a safety meeting and so that would be great safety right there. Um so we're we want to move towards the future, you know, try to better things and try to improve things. So, I think that that would be the way to go. Uh, so like you said, if we have another bond that we could do in order to add that on, that would be great. That's something to think about. And in reference to what
069Howard was saying, if you can present us with something where you said either or, we can take some of that money that you were uh suggesting going to the high school and put some of it towards the middle school. if you could um show us how much could go towards the middle schools in order to try to complete what they need to have done and then the rest going to the high school if you can sort of let us know how much it would take in order to do that. >> Sure. I'll be happy to bring options to you working with you know Marcus and with our teams here. I do think it we we should talk about the high school projects too. I mean, they're they're worthy projects as well, and I want to
070make sure that those get, you know, kind of the opportunity to to be showcased in the same way that we've been able to do with the middle school projects. But certainly anything that the board needs, I'm happy to bring options. >> Oh, don't get me wrong. I I feel our high school is very important. But because we've already spent thousands of dollars on our high school, I just wanted to make sure that we spread spread it out a little bit. Okay. >> Understood. >> All right. >> Yeah. I'd like to I'd like to have you go ahead and continue on so we can hear what's going on at the high school, too. >> Okay. Do you want to introduce the high school work? >> I think you're done with this part. If you're not, go
071ahead and finish this up. >> I'm okay on the middle schools if you guys are. What we're going to do next is we're going to invite I'm assuming Bren, are you coming up from CSO? Gonna invite Brent from CSO. Um, so again, just kind of resetting who we've got in the room. Um, on the intermediate middle school projects, Cindy was with Schmidt. Brent is with CSO. CSO has been our architect that's helped us through phases one, two, and three. They did a facility assessment at the high school. We've been meeting with them over the last half year, really even a little bit longer, um, planning out what the high school work could look like. All right, this adjusted. Thank you, Matt. Um, so my name is Brent Height. I am with CSO. Um, so we
072are very appreciative to be here tonight and as Matt said, we have worked in Warren for almost 20 years. Um, I am probably a newer face. Um, as I'm sure you have experienced as our as our older generation and our boomers are starting to retire, we've had to retool our team here at Warren. So, I'm kind of a a new face here. I'm a principal at CSO. Um, Stephanie and Emory are here with me tonight. Um, a principal and an educational planner with us. So, uh, honored to be here. Again, we're very proud of our history here with you guys. Um, and we're going to kind of run through this. I'll try to be brief because I think there's a lot of good conversation to have after we kind of get through this. um but
073certainly happy to answer questions as we go along. Um our friends at Minimum has helped us along this in terms of uh thinking through things thoughtfully as well as from a cost and constructibility perspective. So we appreciate them being here tonight as well. Um as well as Mimba and Marcus and AD and all of the coaches and everybody who's put time into some of our conversations thus far. Um looking back at facility assessment um won't shock you that good architecture firms do very similar facility assessment work. So um the original facility or the most recent comprehensive facility assessment that was completed at the high school was done in 2016 and it's what phase one two and three of all the work at the high school has been completed on. Um so for this phase we
074really built or built ourselves on that foundation went back through updated things um and made sure that we were still aligning and then identified really the areas of the building that haven't been touched yet um to make sure that we're giving that that equal opportunity to those areas um especially as you think of staff around them seeing areas of the building getting updated and and still thinking hey when when's it going to be my turn? When's my program going to get the same type of attention? Um, so we wanted to be really sensitive to that, but we went through the same kind of scoring criteria looking at building and maintenance. So all of your systems, code compliance, safety and environment, and educational operation and effectiveness. That's one that's a little unique for us as we
075think about teaching and learning and how that changes over time. Making sure that the building is still contributing to how you guys deliver instruction um, and make it not a hindrance. So making sure it's appropriate. that's especially um poignant in our times about CTE and career development programs that require really specific space like the Walker Career Center. So, I won't I won't belleaguer this point much longer, but if there's any specific questions, we're happy to dive into those facility assessments and look for answers. Um as we as we jumped into this, I don't think it will shock anyone to know um that the phases one through three at the high school really very heavily academic focused. Um, a lot of the, um, interior of that building got touched. There were some small additions to help
076with circulation and ins and out of the building, but the outside of that building in terms of, uh, venues were kind of one of the big key forms that came up um, as um, starting to deteriorate, especially as we look at towards some of your peers around you where they've been making investments in some of those athletic fields. So, those were kind of a heavy emphasis as we got back to the assessment of what was kind of remaining to do on that to-do list. Um, Fred, I'll invite you up if there's anything you want to add to that. Um, Fred is with Context Design. He is our landscape um architect and planner. Um, designs athletic facilities all over the state. So, he's really the best person to speak to this. >> Throw away all the
077hard questions. >> Good evening board. Fred Pra of Context Design. Thank you again for the opportunity to be here. I would echo a couple things that Brent mentioned. Um, and I really appreciate your comments about not halfdoing any any particular project. I think that's really important to think about. As we went through the facility assessment for the outdoor athletic components that you see um on the screen right now, most of those are not half done. They have never received attention. Those are in conditions that are 30 and 40 years old. As well, as an example, if you've been to your tennis courts, you're going to see structural cracks. You're going to see failing upgrades. You're going to see heaving surfaces that really aren't safe to play on. Um, so it's not a cosmetic issue. Um,
078there are structural issues, there are safety issues that are all worthy projects as Matt mentioned. Um, of those that you see on the screen, there are there are focuses that we'll talk about tonight. um on things like soccer, on the ball diamonds that you have, um certainly on drainage issues, um accessibility challenges, concourse areas and surfaces that that really have been kind of left behind. So, we're trying to do the best that we can to work in conjunction with Bren and his team to identify what those needs are so we can make good decisions together about how to move forward. >> So, here on the screen, what you see is what we're calling the master plan. This is not necessarily all the work we've captured into the project to date. This is kind of the
079long-term here's where we want to get even if it's 101 15 years down the road. Um we wanted to do that so that we're conscious and making good decisions today about things that tomorrow or that will affect tomorrow as it um so we don't want to put something somewhere and then three four years from now find out man that was a really bad investment and now it's in the way. Um, so if we are going to build an indoor practice facility, whether it's now or whether it's 10 years from now, let's not put a field where it's going to go. Otherwise, we wasted the dollar investment on that field because we're just going to tear it out later. So, this is kind of a comprehensive look of what that what the campus will look like.
080And I'll show you a future slide um that shows you the the areas or the venues that we're we're proposing to tackle um in this initial project. Um, in addition to those areas, you can see this is a first floor plan of the high school and it identifies all of the areas um essentially that haven't been touched yet or haven't been touched recently at the in the high school. So, um, some of them like the fieldhouse aren't there. It's uh a 20 25 year old facility. It's not an old facility, but as we've talked with your coaches and and your principles and your other users of that, it's probably the most used square footage in this district, right? you've got kids in there 247, so it's a very high use area and is starting to
081show that wear and tear. So, while it may be a newer facility, it's definitely impacting a lot of kids. Um, PE locker rooms were one that we looked at similar to the middle school of sighteline supervision problems. Um, wrestling room renovations as we look at girls wrestling becoming a more prominent sport, needing to accommodate more space for that program. Um, aquatic center renovations. This is really pretty minor. um the existing ceiling in there um has some paint that's starting to peel off the ceiling and fall into the pool. So, we wanted to address that issue as we were going to be in the building anyway. Um but other than that, that pool remains as it is. So, it's a pretty small investment, but just one that's kind of critical. Um performing arts, dressing rooms renovations,
082so that's down by the auditorium. Just some light cosmetic updates to those spaces. Um science lab renovations. So, those labs u have not been touched. That's item kind of six on the bottom right corner there. So, there's two stories of labs there that haven't been updated. Um, the science teachers have actually been really gracious in this and basically said, "Don't ruin it. Just give me some new flooring and some new paint and leave me alone and let me do my thing." So, that's that's a pretty cost-effective renovation for them. Um, communications item seven there, that's the uh radio, TV, and broadcasting group there within the high school. Um, there's been some recent kind of development on that on collaborating with the Walker Career Center maybe a little bit differently. Um, so that may be a
083piece of scope um that that changes over time. Um, art room renovations, similar to science, those rooms haven't been updated, starting to show their wear and tear. Same with um, fax. Um, in addition, that that program has changed a lot over the last 10 years. And so, we're trying to really bring that into the new into the new millennium here with how those programs operate. Um, and then the last one there, ROC renovations, which you'll actually see on the upper floor. Um, that's really just some small updates for that that CTE program. Um, they've got carpet in the room that they're using and that's not really conducive when you're doing push-ups and you're a sweaty person and the floor smells. And so some minor cosmetic stuff. So we this is kind of a comprehensive look,
084right? The site plan as well as the floor plans identifying all of the areas kind of in the high school that are of an issue or of a concern. Um we went then my gym uh helped us with a cost kind of exercise on that very high level to look at you know what's the total cost to accomplish all this work and it won't shock you to know that it was over hund00 million worth of work. Um so that's obviously well beyond what we have the capacity to do today. So we um with the administration and the high school kind of went through a conversation of prioritizing of what's most critical, what's most important. Um, and so what you see up here today, um, is currently of about $37.9 million of work. It's a little
085grainy up there. I apologize for that. Um, to really tackle some things that, um, the high school and the administration felt like were the most important. So, I'll read through those here real quick. U, one, which I haven't mentioned yet, is the dome replacement. Um, so initially the thought was, hey, maybe the dome just needs to go away or be replaced with a different facility. We have looked at just replacing the membrane on that covers the top of that as well as updating the HVAC system so that it can continue forward. Um, and it satisfies a lot of performing arts needs today. So, it just kind of checks a box and keeps that facility moving at a pretty minimal investment. Um, fieldhouse renovations. So, as I mentioned, that's the that's the space that's really not
086that not as old as others, but um has certainly had a lot of use. Um, wrestling renovations for girls wrestling. So that's adding a locker room for them and expanding a practice space. The aquatic center, so that's the the paint that I mentioned. Science lab renovations, art room renovations, I mentioned, fax lab renovations, ROC. Uh football stadium improvements. So that's replacing the track and the turf on the current football field. Um both of those are at the end of their life. Um and the track is starting to I believe that's another one of those heaving safety concerns where you're starting to see cracking in the surface of that track. Um, so looking at a long-term solution for that, um, thing. Um, lost my um, in addition to those athletic venues, we're also looking at varsity
087baseball and varsity softball as well as soccer. Those would be really bringing those facilities up to par um, with your competitors in terms of a of your CLA class 6A um, high school athletic facility. So, um, with that said, um, as Matt mentioned, >> sorry, before you keep going, I'm I'm gonna get lost if I don't ask this question. >> Oh, sure. >> You You use the term. What What did you mean? >> You said those facilities. >> Those >> Oh, you said those. >> Sorry, I don't speak well. >> I'll try to annunciate. >> All right, I'm with you now. >> I thought he pointed at me. I was really >> um So yeah, so that varsity, baseball, softball, soccer, and lacrosse. Um, as I said, these are kind of initial numbers, but we're
088getting to about 37.9 million even in that. So if we're talking 37.5 um total project costs, we're probably still going to have to back off that number. We're hoping that as we actually get a full package together, there'll be some kind of what I call bulk savings. You shop at Sam's Club, you buy a bigger piece. So if we do three athletic fields together, we're going to get a better price for that per field than if we do them each individually. um that I have a question. >> Tennis courts as he said, where would that go on this priority since it's not bold? >> Um I would have to defer that question to the administration team. Um I don't know. >> It's not safe for our kids or other schools to play on. I mean,
089why are we not touching that when it's outdoor all the time? We have winter coming. and stuff and erosion and everything happening to it. Why is that not going to be a focus? >> I'll touch on that when I get up here. >> Um, so this would be of those selected site items. They you can now see what's being hit. So you can see the baseball field, the varsity softball field, um, a new soccer field going in place of where JV baseball is today. um the dome structure that's remaining and then the track and turf at the football stadium being updated. So just encapsulating all those with all of those fields. We'll have to talk about detention which is a big which is a big bogey number in terms of cost. Um we'll try to
090do a mixture between surface and below ground to accommodate that. Um I mentioned the fieldhouse renovations. One of the things that we were asked to look at is looking at an indoor track to serve your track athletes. Um, so trying to place an 200 meter indoor track within the existing footprint of the fieldhouse. Um, or as we talked about that indoor practice facility as a separate facility. Um, those things kind of go tandem like could you put the track in there versus in the fieldhouse. Um, this becomes a pretty cost-effective way to to provide a space for those students since we're going to update the flooring in this space anyway. So, um it's kind of hard to see up here, but the red lines are kind of the existing track around the outside, which really
091isn't conducive for running because of the radiuses of the track. You have to slow down to make that turn. Um so, we can basically kind of massage that and still fit within the existing footprint of the fieldhouse by adjusting some of the existing courts um and getting that in there. Some of the existing basketball goals would have to move with the courts um but it would fit um and it would function for a practice facility really, really well. What what about the um track above the on the second floor? >> Yeah, it would still be there. Um we would just probably resurface that um if if dollars are available to do that. I think the the main floor is probably the priority one of the space. So, all right, I'll stop there. The next two
092slides are dedicated to indoor practice facilities. So if there's anything on the renovation or athletic venue side, we can take those questions now or I could barge through the last two slides and let you guys just have discuss from there reference. >> Um I know Matt has said the 37,000 is this what that money would go towards is what they are talking about. >> Yes. >> Okay. And um could um my question is could you um do some of these things with less money because if we decide to share part of that 37,000 and put it over in the middle school, you know, because I look at it like this. If I'm staying in a $200,000 house and somebody's only got a little $50,000 house and I go, "Oh, I need new carpet. I think
093I want some new drapes today, you know. Oh, I think I want to paint my driveway and make my garden nice." you know, when they're so much less than I am and they really just want to make their their house not a shack. Okay? And I'm not saying our middle schools are shacks, but I'm just saying a lot of work is needed. So, I understand us wanting to do things in the high school, but it's just like, oh, I think I want some new curtains. I we do need that. You know, I see a mark on the wall, you know? I'm just saying we need to take some of that money and share it with the middle schools so that we can make sure that all the schools are up to par. So can you
094my question is can you do some of those things for less and how much less so that we can use some of that 37,000 towards our middle schools? >> Sure. I guess my my commitment to you guys would be whatever you set the budget for these projects are, we'll try to stretch your dollars as far as we can get them to go. Um, does that mean we can get everything? Probably not. But there probably is ways where we can shave off some savings similar to what science and art have kind of said out the front of, hey, you can leave this alone. Just give us a little bit of a refresh and we're fine, right? We don't need to start over. So, >> good to hear that. Yes. All right. >> And one last question.
095When you were talking about that track, were you talking about uh putting that track in the field in the fieldhouse or were you talking about uh the uh training facility that we were talking about? >> So, so that slide was showing it in the current fieldhouse. So, we would be using space you already have. The flooring already needs to be replaced because it's at the end of its life. So in that process, we could update how it's lined and how it's laid out to provide that 200 meter track in that fieldhouse. >> So if we're going to be doing a outdoor training facility, that wouldn't be necessary. >> Correct. >> So that would be unnecessary money. So I can see money cut from doing that already. So that can go right on. >> Yeah. So
096So to your point, um, when we looked at the indoor practice facility, you can see two options up here. One has a track and one does not. Um, so if we decide to put the track in the fieldhouse, we could avoid, you know, the additional monies that may be required to put that in the indoor practice facility. Um, so what what we looked at two options here. Option A is really just doing a full football field of turf indoors that could serve it would be multi-purpose line. So not just lined for football, but line for soccer, lacrosse, marching band, and other sports who might use that field. Um, we'd likely look at doing batting cages and other things in there so that your really a lot of your cleat sports and your outdoor sports can
097use that space in the winter months. Um, so it serves a lot of them during that time. Uh, we think that's about a 70,000 square feet facility somewhere between 16 and $18 million. As Matt said, we were we were looking at a total project cost of around 25 with the bond planning um option. >> Facility are you referring to them? I just want to stay on track >> the indoor the the practice facility. this one up here. >> So, this is this is not part of the current 37.5 million. >> You're talking about the training facility? >> Yes. Yes, ma'am. >> Can I ask a question? >> Are we naming this the Kent Schroeder Indoor Athletic Association or something? Just kidding. I see Kent's name up there and I've seen him on several slides. I
098I just want to put a little humor in it. >> Oh, okay. >> He's listening. That's um and then option B as as I mentioned is to put that 200 meter track out here. Um one of the things that that does do is would reduce the amount of turf that could fit within the kind of the circle inside. Um so while we can still get a 200 meter track looking more like 70 yards um of the turf which still serves you know practice purposes flag football um marching band can use half of an endzone you know those kind of things. So it does a lot but it doesn't do kind of a full field setup. So, um, we're we think that facility is closer to 55,000 square feet foot. So, it is a little smaller.
099So, it is a little less dollar. So, 15 to 17 million is kind of the ballpark we've set with that. Um, admittedly, these are very simple buildings or what we call pre-engineered. So, it's basically a big metal box that looks like a house. Um, as the more the nicer you make it look, the more expensive it gets. And so that that would be a consideration for you guys as you think about this sitting on your campus because it is a large building. So um and this is just a rendering we put together of what the inside of that facility could look like just to give you an idea. So you can see you know turf. This is the just turf, no track. Um it's got batting cages up on the left hanging that you can't
100see very well because of the the screen, but um just give you an idea what that facility looks like to serve your athletics um out in that space. Okay, it's my turn. And I'm amazed that Matt didn't warn you that it was like red before a bull. When you discussed um detention earlier for water, you discussed the possibility of above ground detention. Is there any way to avoid that? >> Yeah, the expert. >> The the answer to that question is yes. Um the high school campus is very flat, very very flat. every phase that we've touched. Um, we've we've tackled that as the board's likely aware with the the high school projects that we've tackled so far where the the band practice area is now on the south and and west corner of the campus.
101We knew that mother nature wanted water to move that direction. We were going to have a pond there. We were going to dig and excavate infrastructure in that that location. That became a discussion with Matt and Marcus at that time to say, what's the best and highest use of that real estate? Can we bury the storm water below it and get use of that? And I think the same thing would apply here. We want to make sure that we get that infrastructure below ground everywhere it's possible. One part of that is safety. I think that might be what's on your mind. We don't want open water for the risk that there may be to students to patrons and visitors to the campus. The second is you don't have any more real estate. >> So you
102have a lot of needs and a lot of demands. We really can't hold acres of ground uh for ponds. We don't have that that flexibility anymore. >> And yeah, it's the inherent danger that is worrisome. >> Well said. >> Let me try to help Miss Glory out a little bit. >> Well, one of the uh key advocates for the middle school projects is that Lily Grant So the Lily grant will be directed towards the middle schools. So they will be taken care of. So all of those things will be answered. >> Okay. and the needs at the high school. And and just as he alluded to, if you come to Warren Central during the weekend, it is literally a 7-day operation. Sunday, it doesn't matter. The fieldhouse is open, the fields are filled. I mean,
103the athletics facilities that we have at the high school serve the community. more than anything we have to offer them because they're used literally they're literally used seven days a week. The place never shuts down and that's anytime you come by there. >> So there is definitely a community project. board, if I could proceed. Uh, just as Matt pointed out earlier, just conceptually just share some numbers with you from, you know, the information shared previously by CSO. Um, as we look at the breakdown of the different projects that were pro proposed and the estimations given to us by our construction company, um, as you can see, you can kind of get an idea of what that fieldhouse renovation um, the expansion of the the wrestling room. And I'll just kind of touch on these. Obviously,
104you guys know I have a unique experience in this space. Uh, from the 19 years I spent at the high school, 12 of which I served as athletic director. And during the my 12 years as athletic director, um, and um, over 20 years in the district, um, as you know, as what was pointed out, uh, we've made minimal investment in our overall facilities at the high school. I've worked with many of you as parents that had uh student athletes that went through our programs and you know that wasn't the case 20 years ago and Mr. Dorsy, I know you're familiar with this because through uh vision 2005 um through the investments and quite honestly the the foresight um at that time um when we um built the freshman academy pretty much that whole west end
105of Warren Central High School, we included a fieldhouse. We were the first school district in the state to have a stand a fieldhouse as part of our high school. And not only did that, you know, serve our our students, it it transformed the way we did physical education, the number of kids and classes we're able to put in there, but then it also transformed what we did in terms of athletics as well as arts just because of the the sheer space. And to this day, it continues to be, and this is someone that works on the facility side, it is by far the most used facility in the district. And we can probably count on two hands how many days per year that that facility is not being used at at some point. And with
106that, it looks like it, you know, so a a facility that's just slightly over 20 years old quite honestly looks like it's 40 plus years old um because of the the usage of it, which that's what we built it for to maximize that usage. As we talked about, include the indoor track. um we had a um a lower level track as well as the um upper level tract. And again, just from a usage standpoint, what does that look like? Well, if you want to see what that that looks like in person, wait until we get back in school around January when you will see our winter sports that are in season using that fieldhouse every single day. You will see our spring sports that are in preeason vying for fieldhouse time as well. And then
107you will see our fall sports that are in starting their offseason programs starting to use the fieldhouse. And you know, long time ago when I was in school, we just had one gym. And if you were on the freshman team, you had to show up at 5 in the morning if you wanted to get, you know, use of use of of the gym. And with, you know, the number of facilities we have, that's still the case. If our student athletes um or JRTC for some of them, if they want to use that fieldhouse space, some of them have to come as late as 7 o'clock at night just in order to to get into there. But my point is is that what we discovered over the time is that specifically if you look at our
108track program for example that track that design was not made for indoor track. It doesn't have real curves. The surface isn't something that you can actually put spikes on, which that's what they compete in. And because it's not a surface designed for that, a number of our athletes over the years um develop injuries. Um everything from shin splints to stress fractures to the point where um our coaches have had to adjust and they just even if you know days like today they'll go practice outside just because they want to prevent the type of you know potential injuries that can come from that. So with that being said, as we you know, one of the challenges we we we gave to our architects is, you know, we need to design safer facilities that can facilitate the
109the the large number of students that use that facility. And again, we're just talking about the high school. We haven't even talked about with our our youth leagues that come in there. We have a partnership with the YMCA. They run our youth basketball leagues. They use that pretty much year round. Um we have um our um we use that facility for when when it rains outside, you know, and and programs have to come in. So, um, conceptually, when we look at that fieldhouse, and again, I I I hate to spend so much time on it, but, um, I think, um, we have to just because of the usage of it. So, uh, board, whatever direction we go, whether this is something that we kick down the road or something that we we take on, the
110need, um, has definitely exceeded um, in this case, what the the reality of what what we need to do. Um, we talked about wrestling innovations and and that's, that's the thing, too. I think um, what's also changed just from the five years that I've I haven't been over there is we've expanded programs. We have four um IHSA sponsored programs with girls wrestling being one of the the top additions and um that wrestling room was not made to accommodate boys and girls. So right now our girls they can't they can't dress which makes it I should say within the wrestling room. Um we don't have a dedicated locker room for girls inside the locker room. So, right now they have to walk to a locker room that's outside the the wrestling room um right next to
111right above the fieldhouse in in that corner there just um above door 14. So again, you can imagine what is that? You have boys in the wrestling room that you got to supervise and then you have girls that are getting dressed in this locker room and then we have to get them there. So, as we look at opportunities, how can we from an equity standpoint create and expand that program so we can accommodate both boys and girls inside that wrestling room so we can make it safe and supervision wise, we can make it uh doable for our kids, you know. So, again going through um again the aquatic renovations, we're not Lawrence, we're not building two brand new 50 meter pools because that's what they did. Um they build brand two at LC and at
112LN and I got swim moms here. Um and you know we're not looking to do that. We're just looking to improve our as he pointed out our ceilings. We need to touch some of our mechanical space. Again that that uh pool is used year round. And those of us that were on the board that had kids go through the program, we know what that looks like. It's year round. They get one month off and that's in August. And I tell people all the time, swim is the most challenging sport I've ever come across just because of the commitment to it. But as it relates to the wear and tear on our facility, again, that's a facility just a little bit over 20 years old, but it looks much older than that just because the continued
113use of it. We pointed out the academic uh renovations with with again pricewise again 2.1 million is is modest but um at the same time it could have been much more with our science art fax lab and Gerald TC renovations that we talked about. Um >> can we hit the science labs real quick? What are your exact plans for that? Well, not exact but close enough to ballpark. So, as Brent pointed out, um, our our science teachers have been great. Um, you know, they they love the casework. Um, they love the working space that they have. So, pretty much to the extent what they've asked for is just the the refreshes that we we do just as part of a lot of our other projects with the flooring and the walls and the ceilings hitting
114those those major. >> So, you're going to leave their lab tables as is and stuff like that. That's good with me because >> Yeah. Um, my husband's school just is doing that now and they're taking out they took out the lab tables and replacing them with >> portable table. They didn't like that, did they? >> Oh, no. They're not very happy. And so, they would have much rather have their lab tables left as is. >> Yeah. >> I just want to make sure that's the teachers are being talked to about that because that's a that's a very dangerous area that you need to make sure that, >> you know, fires from buns and burners and stuff. So >> yeah, Mima's done a good job of uh talking with her her teachers in in these respective
115areas and getting feedback and and really again this isn't something that she pushed. This is this is you know the feedback they're providing that we're we're good with, you know, some of the the space that we have and and and uh tables and cabinetry so on and so forth. Uh they touched on um the the dome again. If you guys recall, this was a temporary structure that was part of vision 2005, right? And it's just like that that that uncle that just won't move out, right? It's still there. Okay. So, while since it's still here, what can we do? Because we know that it does serve a purpose. Um it's and it it didn't it wasn't built with this intent but as we finished the other renovations and I mentioned some of them with the
116the fieldhouse and the other indoor space and I should also mention that you know the great thing about the investments that we've made um going back to 2019 we have transformed our performing arts space. If you look at our our classroom space, our our choir, our band area, um we talked about the exterior with the multi-purpose field that u band uses as well as the upgrades that we made at the pack center working with powers and cso. But then also that dome is is part of it because you know those young ladies involved in our uh guard and winter guard program um in essence they they kind of have a standalone facility. um we get to modest use in other areas but that facility has become important. So to um find an opportunity to continue
117using that with um again not cheap upgrades but you know compared to building a new facility um it is relatively cheap if we can just you know replace the cover as well as some of the the HVAC work that that needs to take place. So um you know that's part of our re recommendation uh the stadium and and track improvements. I'm just I'm just going to let it speak for itself. We've won six state championships in girls track since 2006. That's more than any other school in the state of Indiana. We've won 10 overall. The boys have won four. Um actually they won two in 0 06 07 and our girls have won six. They finished either one, two or three in the state I want to say like 12 out of the last 14
118years. Okay. We have a proud track tradition here in Warren. And unfortunately, right now, this wasn't the case 20 years ago, but right now we have the worst facility in the county when it comes to track. Indoor-wise, just to let you know, Warren Central, we have the three top long jumpers in the history of the state of Indiana. I repeat that. We have the three top long jumpers in terms of um their record jumps in the history of the state of Indiana. But our our girls and our boys, they can't long jump until the snow melts in the spring. Whereas our contemp I would say our our neighbors neighboring school districts, they have now included indoor long jumping facilities. It's just a pit. You don't need much. It's just a pit with dirt in it.
119Um but they have the ability to do that. Um so it's it's really twofold. It's amazing what our kids have been able to accomplish with what we have. So, we know we can do great things without having the extra, you know, um, resources. But at the same time, if this opportunity presents itself through this project and we're thinking about kids because those jumps aren't they just don't go on a record book, they go on a colleg's board and they're going to recruit our kids and you're going to end up like Jay Leaden at Purdue or KJI um or the Smith girls or just you know the you know dozens and dozens and dozens of young ladies and men that get scholarship opportunities coming through Warren Township schools in part because of the resources that we
120provide to them. If in you know if you look at our baseball, softball, and soccer field, if you've been in Warren Township for a very long time, um or if you left here in 1982 and then you come back today, it looks exactly the same. It looks exactly the same just because again, we haven't made investments. And you know, again, I where I come from, we didn't we didn't have nice facilities. All right? that we ran on cinder tracks and um you know our weight room was probably about the size of that kitchen. So I think there's pride that we take in in doing the best because we are still producing champions. We are still producing opportunities for our kids through the investments we make in facilities. But again I keep saying this if we
121have the opportunity to enhance what we do this is the opportunity to do it. And the last thing I will say just in in in closing about this this investment is that um you're talking about programs that support about a third of our high school about a third of our of our students that attend Warren Central High School participate in an extracurricular activity and we've made that investment and the and again I board I I you don't have an easy decision because we have a lot of money but for the needs we have we know if it if it if far goes beyond the the money we have allocated the budge we have allocated so you guys we just make the recommendation to smile at you you guys ultimately make the decision right but what
122I would tell you is that there's a lot of pride that goes along with our extracurricular activities here in Warren Township families come here because of the programs we have because of the facilities we have and because of the adults we surround them with. I always tell people that if you want to build a championship program or a championship school, a high achieving school, it starts with the adults that you hire. You have to surround our kids with the very best adults that are out there. How do you attract the adults? You attract them through facilities and compensation. our peers whether it's Lawrence, Washington Township, Perry, Decar, Speedway, Franklin C or Franklin Township, and if you go outside of Marian County, Carmel Center Grove, the teams that are coming back in our conference, all of
123those districts included significant investments in their extracurricular facilities as part of their bigger construction projects in 2018-19 that didn't happen with us. So that leaves us with a very difficult decision because I absolutely agree when you go to our middle schools and how dated they are in some areas. It's an embarrassment. It is an embarrass It's an embarrassment that we have to look our parents and our kids in the eye and send them there every day. And they're still doing great things there. We have this conversation internally. This assessment just confirm what we already knew. We need to take care of our middle schools. There's no doubt about that. The challenge that's in front of us is that we have a lot of needs and we understand we're competing for families now. Just call it
124what it is. We are competing. We are trying and when I say competing for families, I'm talking about our own families that live in our district. We have to retain and recruit our families and the facility aspect of it now. It's it's fair game. It's part of it. And it's not about well they did this so we need to do that because I will tell you anytime give me an effective adult I'll take that over a facility any day because we're going to be successful anyway. It's not the facility doesn't make you successful. It's the adults that make you successful. But what I would tell you as someone has done this for a long time in order to attract those attract those quality adults and we can go down the line and name them when
125we were at our best is when our facilities were not necessarily the very best but they were up there. So I leave you with that. It's not an easy decision and you don't have to make that tonight, but um as we look at how we allocate funds, um there's not an easy decision either way you go. >> Okay. In closing argument, defense attorney, you you presented a good argument. Okay. A good case. Yes. About attracting our parents and things through our extracurricular activities. And you said a lot of good things about, you know, what our high school needed and everything. That was great. But as the prosecuting uh >> Oh, you're the prosecutor. >> Yes, I am. >> I need representation if that's >> I am saying uh I would like to appeal to everyone
126and say um like he said, parents also come looking for good schools, not just the facilities. They want to see that their children are in good schools. They want to be proud of their schools and the children want to feel good about their schools when they look around and see other buildings all nice and then they have to walk into this embarrassing situation that the defense attorney admitted that it was so embarrassing and they feel really bad about it. Okay. So, we don't want our children or our parents feeling bad about where they have to go to school. And like he said, for our activities, they do it seven days a week. But what about our children that go to school every day? Every day. All day. So, we want them, they're in that building
127all day, every day. We want them to feel good about coming to school, feel good about the place that they learn in. So, even though we would love to have these extra things in the high school, yes, that's just like me and uh someone that's living in uh lowincome housing and I'm living in a nice neighborhood, 200,000 as I said before, and I look around and say, "Oh, I want to upgrade. Oh, I want new carpet. I want new car. I want to do some um nice yard work, you know, landscaping." And this poor lady that's living in lowincome houses said, "I just want a new wheel. I just want a furnace so I can heat up my house. I just want some good flooring, you know, so my children won't get splinters and things
128when they come home." So he said, "It's a difficult choice." No, it's not difficult. The thing you need have to think about is we want fairness for all children. And it wouldn't be fair for this $200,000 person to say, "Oh, I just want to upgrade when this other person needs it more." I am saying as a prosecuting attorney, okay, that the middle schools need that additional money to make sure that we have a good facility for those children to come to every day. And then if we have some leftover, yes, we can beautify and do some extra things to our high school because mind you, we have already spent, and I said thousands before, but I meant millions, millions of dollars already for our high school. And so, yes, we do need some additional things.
129We're probably going to always keep upgrading, but what I'm saying is at this present time, let's look at our priorities and we want to make sure that it goes towards the middle schools first and then what'sever left over to the high school. I rest my case. Thank you. >> Quick question. >> Yes. Um, in that assessment that you did of the high school, you know, the middle schools, they gave us like 65% for Crestston, 62% for Raymond Park, and 58 for Stony Brook. Is there a percentage for the high school? Do you know, >> we'd have to dig back through the report. I don't know that we scored exactly the same way. >> I know there one is that information. >> Okay, >> that's helpful. >> Again, Miss Gloria Let's not forget the Lily Grant,
130okay? We got the middle schools. We got them. All right. We're covering again. It's it's a big it's a huge task and your and your passion is valid, you know, but where we are now is unfortunately everybody's on the back end is getting caught up. Okay. Now, as far as um the middle schools are the what you saw the the uh reports, they're addressing those issues. Okay. Now, if you remember our tours, the first tour we went through and then when we came back the second time, you could see the improvements that were taking place. So the middle schools are being brought up and that that was already started and you saw that the second the second visit. Now if you want to require a third visit, we can get that too. But again, the
131money that's going now are taking care of those issues. We are addressing the middle school. It's not that um the middle schools are just being left thrown to thrown away and left to the to their own. You understand? So we got that. We got that. the middle schools aren't being left out. And I think possibly a better description or upgrade or maybe you need the visuals of what is going to take place at the middle school so you can get the full picture of the things that going to do. There's some good plans going there. So maybe that's what you maybe that's what we need to let her see what exactly is taking place at the middle school that it's not going to be just throw some throw some paint on the wall or something
132like that. We actually are addressing the things >> $37 million. >> See, I tell you, >> I want to say this though. >> Thank you, Kevin. >> Um, >> when you sit there and think the size of our high school, >> it's way bigger than our three middle schools. I mean, size-wise, it's probably how would how big would you say the footprint is versus one of our middle schools? At least five times. So, we're thinking of five middle schools in our high school versus the three. And we haven't touched all five of those. >> Areas in that high school that have not been touched. >> It's even we spent millions of dollars on the high school already. >> There areas that haven't been touched since I was at the high school. >> We spent millions
133already. We should have spreaded it out a little bit more then. But it's time for us to spend a little of that money on the middle schools. Okay. So, you know, and uh like Howard said, 37, that's a little higher. Why you going to give them the whole 37 and then you going to take these three and divide it up? >> Because they're still getting more money per square foot than the high school. >> We're not looking at money. We're looking at needs. >> I know. And you're So, but I want to go back to when you're talking about needing a roof and needing air conditioning, HVAC facility. All of that is in the bid. Well, it's not a bid. Sorry, that was wrong. But all of that is in that proposal for the middle
134schools >> for some middle school >> for the middle for all of them. Look at that top line right there. >> Mechanical, electronic, and plant physical plant >> plumbing. Darn it. I was so close. That's that heat, >> air conditioning, and all of that for the middle schools right there. >> When he um >> It's right there. Cre's getting the second most amount of money. >> Okay. You know, I'm not looking at the money. I'm looking at the needs. Um when he first is the need. Those are the needs you're talking about. That need for heating, that need to work on the exterior of the building, that need to work on flooring. It's all right there. >> When he um did that first page, if you could go back and it was uh describing everything
135that needed needed to be done in the um schools. >> Um there was a longer list for Stony Brook. There was a medium list for um you know Raymond Park and then there was a shorter list for Crestston. >> Only thing I'm saying is stop dibble dabbling and do everything that need to be done across the board in these middle schools. As I understand it, you have limitations. You're saying you're gonna put the most into Stony Brook, then you're gonna put some, you know, the next into Raymond Park and then Crest. >> No, it's gonna go without. >> Look right there. It's the opposite. >> And I'm looking at the money, but I'm talking about what are you going to be doing with the money. We're I'm looking at the completion. >> Correct. And the
136completion, that's the numbers for the completion of what their assessment said needed to be done. Just like with the high school, it's the same assessment. They did an assessment and then they put money towards what was needed to be done. It's not that something's getting left out per se. It's that Cresten doesn't have a need that Raymond Park does or Raymond Park doesn't have a need that Stony Brook does. And you're talking to some I live in those middle schools. I spend a ton of time in middle school buildings, both ours and across the state and across the Midwest. I mean, there are things that need to be done, but the big picture items, the stuff that we need to get done to make those buildings up to snuff, to make them look good, to
137make them feel better, that's in those numbers. We we don't have a this is the thing we're not doing. And although I'm sure those exist, it's not like with the high school where we can even make that comparison. >> What do you feel that's being left out, Miss Gloria? >> Okay. Uh, as I toured the buildings, oh, I was so proud that there has been improvements. I'd like to thank Dr. Hansen and his team for working really hard on getting that accomplished. But as we went through the buildings, I won't be, you know, specific about things that needed to be done, but there were several things that needed to be done in order to complete it. And um, >> but that's was on that list. What I'm saying is as he began to talk and
138me knowledgeable of what I saw in the building, I did not see that all of those issues would be addressed. And taking 37 u million dollars and just giving it to the high school without saying, now I would have felt better if you said, "Okay, we're going to take this money and make sure our middle schools are completely done like we did for our elementary schools." We did not stop until all the elementary schools were completely done. We didn't have a list. So I wanted to hear that about our middle schools. And then once the middle schools are completely done, we walk through and say, "Wow, everything is done." Then the additional money can go towards these things that you talked about in the high school. And then hopefully we can get a additional bond
139to do our indoor training facility. So that's all I'm saying. I just, you know, I I just want all the schools I want all the schools to be the same where kids can feel good about where they go. And that's it. There I >> board. Thank you for your um conversation and and feedback. At this time, Marcus, you'll kind of there's the timeline there. We can have some offline conversations, too, um to further this discussion and other ways we can address some of the concerns that you bring to the table with um the middle school focus board through lots of feedback a year ago. This time when we met for the Lily grant, when we brought everyone in for dinner, a lot of things that came out of that conversation was our kids don't have
140enough to do on the Far East side. And we have built a strong football program because we've invested a lot of money in football. And when I look at the things that we are proposing up here, knowing that our kids look forward to coming to the high school and with the new IHSA transfer rules, when we're competing for student athletes at the same level that colleges are competing for student athletes, we have a responsibility to put experiences in front of our kids to keep them engaged, to keep our families here, to attract new families to Warren. And everything that's been said tonight is accurate, is correct. We have so much need in this district with our facilities because of their age and because of their use. We are not going to be able to tackle
141all of it at once. The one thing that did not come out tonight, what do we call this? Phase four, right? There's going to be a phase five. We'll come back to the board in two to three years and we'll ask you to issue new first mortgage bonds so we can take on phase five projects. And there will be a phase six. Unfortunately, before we kind of did a lot of projects at once and then we kind of let things set for a little bit. We're that's not our strategy anymore. We're constantly turning over and looking at what else we can improve in our facilities. Gloria, I remember the day we walked in Crestston and it was not a good day. We we went through a lot of paper because there were a lot of
142things that needed to be done. That's our Stony Brook right now. Right. That's that's Stony Brook is now in the same place Crestston was two and a half years ago. And we owe it to them. We owe it to those staff, those kids, those families to make Stonybrook a better environment for our kids. Crestston is good. It's not great yet, but Crestston is good. Stony Brook's not good. And and you saw that when when we walked through there. And you know, that's where I started my career here in Warren. And there are some things that are still issues today that there were issues, you know, then. So we we owe it to them um to do that. >> Take some of that money from high school that put it on over. I want Oh, I
143was waiting for your conclusion. >> Well, yeah. So I I I think we have, you know, and Mimba's been very um quiet there, but I think she would advocate I can hear her thinking in her head, >> you know. I think she would advocate, you know, we want kids um particularly in science, science and STEM and, you know, preparing them for college and career. We we owe it to those kids to make sure their learning environment is up to code. And I don't know the last time that you've been in the science wing. It's dark. It's not the most um optimal learning environment. And >> not going to take 37 million. It's not going to take 37 minutes. >> It's going to take two. That's the reason it said it did. >> Yeah. >> Like
144like don't say it. You look at the breakdown. >> Yeah. >> And the other I'm going to say something legislatively. >> Um the legislature has put us in this position. Honestly, they have um backed off what they give us. They they're giving school districts the basic money they need to barely survive. And they told us that when they switched things around and they said, "If you want to do something special with your district, you need to go do a referendum." So, schools did go to referendums and they were successful and the legislature didn't like that. So, they then went back and started putting all these little um tidbits on. Well, now you can't do it in the primaries. You have to do it and you can't do special sessions. now it has to be during
145the um general sessions things like that and so and then they've then they have created taken away more money for charters and vouchers and they have created a system where we are no longer the public schools that everybody goes to. We are now in the um bargaining pot. People are >> Yeah. They're they're they're trying to they're trying to com put us all in this competition to to and and they're putting us in a disadvantage because we have a book this big that we have to follow of regulations and charters has their book which is this big and privates have their books that's this big and and we have to be able to compete and to compete and bring families into our district we have to make it attractive and um I was glad to
146see our performing arts It's got some stuff done on it and because that is something that brings our kids in. Athletics brings our kids in and um so we we just have to start I hate I hate it but we have to start thinking that way in that mode in order to get kids in our school. Otherwise, we're going to keep going downhill on a number of our kids. Our ADM count was way down this year. That's where we get the majority of our funding for our to pay our bills and to pay our teachers and and stuff like that. So, we we have to set ourselves up to compete as well as make sure our district is good. I mean, our we're doing a lot in our middle schools, and I know you don't
147think so, but but that's a lot of work in there. And I'm really crossing my fingers for the Lily Grant. um because and then we've got another one we're working another grant we're working on I think right I don't know if it's aimed towards middle schools or not but um anyway we we just have to keep things like that in our head too I mean because it's not going to do us any good to build up our to do everything in our middle schools and not have that high school at a place where it's going to attract the kids that want to go into medical school or or biio medicine you know we've done a lot with our um our career center. We just need to do give a little bit of loving care to
148everything and then just continue giving loving care and adding it on to other places as we go. That's my spiel. >> If I could just thank the teams that came tonight, we we appreciate, you know, they work with schools all across the state. So, we've really leaned on you guys to help us think through some of these um projects and and you know, helping us prioritize them. So, thank you for being here tonight um and helping us do that. So next steps uh just procedurally uh late spring we will look to go out to bid on uh some of these projects that uh board that you provide guidance on and then in the summer of 2026 we will come to you for approval on wherever we land projectwise and then the goal is to start
149construction in the fall of 2026. Okay, I think we we handled that part already. >> Yeah, I think we >> I think we're good. We can just next slide that. There we go. >> Um I want to thank everyone as um Dr. Hansen said for coming tonight um for giving your presentations, for being available for us to look through the um information you've given to us in more detail as well. And I think we're good. Thank you so much. Meeting adjourned.