001foreign wow good morning um first and foremost my name is Jim Adams superintendent of schools and I would just ask that we all rise please we're gonna do the Pledge of Allegiance before we get going to begin pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you everyone this is such a momentous occasion for the town of Ashland the Ashland Public Schools and I can't thank everyone here for coming and spending some time in the sweltering humid heat today um thankful the the rain has held off for us because I really wanted to be out here so you get an idea and some visualization of what this is going to look like in
002the future as well we've got a couple Renditions over here of the rest of the project as you can tell we're still under construction a little bit and we'll be for some time but the school itself is is completed and we've been in classes for a week which is great um and the the number of folks who are here that have been a part of the Mendez history I thank you for coming today and for for gracing us with your presence that building was so loved by this community from the 50s on forward serving different grade levels all the way through and to have the windier thanks Paul to have former administrators employees Educators school committee members finance committee members to show up this morning is just it's a blessing for us and I thank
003you for for taking that time a lot some of you came from quite a ways away and I appreciate that and the community thanks you for the work you did prior to this building being built I want to say thank you again to everyone here we've got a number of speakers it is warm out I'm going to keep these remarks short and just really be the MC of the morning again I'll introduce myself Jim Adams superintendent this is my 10th year as superintendent of schools my 15th year in the town of Ashland I couldn't be more proud of of what we're doing here as a district and the opening of the school is really seven years 2016 is when I started the process of of creating a feasibility study not just with the msba but
004us looking at the demographics and the enrollment changes as many of you know Ashland is growing and has been continuing to grow and it's exciting and this is that you know the vision that we had to make sure the students the community faculty and staff have a facility Worthy of the work they do here and I believe we've done that and accomplished that and you know again I would miss somebody if I listed them all out who helped make this a reality but it's really comes down to the town the citizens who voted for this in overwhelming support during covid there have been challenges for sure with this project but the end result I'm most proud of so thank you again for coming as I said remarks brief we will be hearing from a number
005of folks and I'm going to start with introducing the school Committee Member but also the chair of the proper order here good uh oh my glasses on uh and uh chair of the school building committee Mr Paul Kendall thank you Mr Adams and thank you all for coming helping us so uh the grand celebrate the grand opening of our new building it's been quite a journey uh we're excited to show off the building so I'll try to be brief as well but how to be brief about something that we've been in the works for seven years if I was trying to sum it up in a word might be grateful as Mr Adams said grateful Community for their overwhelming support not just for the project but our schools in general so thank you for that
006I have the school committee here with me select board thank you for your really unwavering trust and and support during this process to my building committee it's been a long road and we faced lots of challenges but you've made remain committed to the promise we made to committee to the community to deliver a building and that they can be proud of and I think we've done that but this building is really just the realization of a lot of hard work dedication and vision of our educational team here led by Mr Adams and so thank you for your commitment to our students staff and this community we've had tremendous support at the state level Senate presidents bilka representative Lewis thank you for your continued uh advocacy and support on this project the msba you've been a
007partner not just financially but also you really embraced our educational Vision on this project so thank you very much and then finally a real big thank you to our project team it's it's pretty typical for somebody to stand up here and and just thank somebody for doing their job but this project was not business as usual to vertex our owners project manager the team you've been just a trusted knowledgeable leadership you've been the glue that's hold that held this project together and I don't think we'd be here without you so thank you flansburg architects you've really just did an amazing job helping us realize these great amazing spaces that really embrace our educational vision and then you had to redesign it all over again on the fly as things changed but somehow we still maintain
008exactly what our design intention was so thank you for that and shama design and construction uh you delivered a building with exceptional challenges never once looking for the excuse to push a date but instead rolling up your sleeves working with the team to find resolutions to the problems and delivering this building on time so thank you very much together you faced uh tremendous challenges in a construction market we've never seen in our lifetime yet you faced each challenge you Rose to that challenge and you faced it as a team and with great professionalism so thank you very much I'm proud of what this team's done and it's an honor to work with all of you so with that thank you all again I hope you're as excited to see the building as we are to
009share it with you thank you [Applause] and I would now like to introduce Ms Laurie tosti chair of the Ashland school committee good morning everybody um thank you for being here today and thanks to everybody here for your part in making this possible um this is my 13th year on school committee so I was around in the early days I see Kathy Bates in the audience and she was a school committee member that was here when we just started the early days of these talks and I see select board members and finance committee members and former teachers and principals and all kinds of community members who made this possible by supporting the vision from day one the statement of Interest which was submitted to the msba in 2017 I believe that in and of itself
010was a tremendous undertaking superintendent Adams had to do a lot of work and spend a lot of time putting that together and it was the quality of that submission that hopefully got us the approval from the msba to get this off the ground and then from the support of the community and the other boards in town with the feasibility study and then the community vote for the building this is just such an amazing moment to be able to sit here and celebrate that we have a new school in our town for all our students and Mr Kendall the building committee as well and the anybody who planned it built it did any work on the building we so appreciate you but I do want to say a few words about Paul Kendall and he doesn't
011really enjoy that and I'm probably going to get daggers looking at me any second now but seriously from day one his dedication and commitment to this project he is a volunteer in town he's on the school committee and he did volunteer to step up and chair the building committee but in my time here I really have never seen anything like it um if if it's not hundreds of hours that he put into this project but probably thousands of hours and the demand that he had for excellence from everybody involved and just the care that he took he was here all the time bringing people through Tours the entire building committee offering focus groups to get the community involved so Paul we appreciate you so much this would not have happened in this way without your
012leadership and as well to every single person on that building committee everybody had an input and what we're looking at here and thank you again for the community support for everybody else who had a role we appreciate you thank you Lori and next Ms Jenna lorenga who's the principal of the David Mendez School good morning everybody thank you for coming this is my second year as the principal of the Mendez school and we might just say that I hit the jackpot I knew when I took the position that the building project was going to be a part of what we needed to do what I didn't anticipate was how supportive the community would be the town of Ashland has been incredible with its support and its dedication to making this building happen thank you to
013the district leadership the building committee and the school committee for the hours of time you've devoted to creating a warm beautiful state-of-the-art building for all of our Young Learners I would also like to thank the teams at vertex and Shawmut every person has been dedicated professional and wonderful to work with I'm excited for the project to be complete but I'm a little sad to imagine what it will be like without all of the faces next year this week at Mendez was huge I wish you could have seen the looks on the faces of the children and the teachers as they entered the building for the first time I walked around and I asked the kids what they thought and here are some of the things they shared it's huge kids are learning and having fun
014at the same time the media center is beautiful it's very futuristic and one student noticed that it has a wonderful design so I hope everybody enjoys the morning and enjoys their tours and can bask in the glory of what you have all accomplished [Applause] thank you Jenna next from the Massachusetts Massachusetts school building authority executive director Mary pacetti [Applause] good morning very happy to be here today as uh stated my name is Mary picchetti I'm the executive director I have been with the msba for will be 16 years this fall I was recently appointed as executive director as of July 1st of this year on behalf of Treasurer Goldberg Chief Executive Officer Jim McDonald on the msba I'm very happy to be here today and certainly want to congratulate you on this beautiful new school
015I found Ashland's mission to be committed every minute every hour every day to every student very inspirational we can clearly see that mission in action as we stand here in front of the new school Ashland and its project team vertex flansburg and chamet have worked together and as mentioned responded quickly to the unanticipated changes in the marketplace from covid something that all of our school projects have had to face over the last several years they pivoted to make sure that materials would be available and this schedule that could be maintained so that we could be here today and they did that every minute every hour every day with an eye towards sustainability the school is designed to be Net Zero ready using geothermal Wells for heating and cooling and ensuring that the building is ready
016for photovoltaics while designing a building with the environment in mind you have also constructed a building that promotes the best possible environment for the students including Outdoor Learning spaces a courtyard within the building footprint and a rooftop learning space that will Overlook the new playground in fields this is a building that provides Ashland students with access to the latest Innovations in education and a building that the town of Ashland will be proud to use and share for generations to come I too must commend the community who demonstrated their strong commitment to the children by voting 95 percent in favor a town meeting to support this new school you've invested in the current Ashland students and you're delivering a 21st century 21st century education for future students here in Ashland I would also like to commend
017the support and advocacy from our partners in the legislature for being strong proponents for this project and the msba their steadfast steadfast support to every student has been critical to the success of today the msba appreciates its continued partnership with the town it's our honor to be here with you today to cut the ribbon and celebrate the opening of the new school with that I wish you congratulations congratulations Ashland thank you [Applause] next calling to the podium is Jack Lewis Massachusetts state representative [Applause] oh the scissors are actually at my feet I wondered what I was kicking they're big ones they look nice it is so great to be here with all of you and as the previous speakers have said once you start thanking folks it's hard because each of you have played such
018an important role uh but Lori did it and I just want to call out Paul uh I only had one tour of this building or it's because it's construction it was a couple months back and I'm not an architect I've been in schools but I didn't actually know what I was looking at but to see the building being constructed uh through his eyes was contagious and so I am nearly giddy to get in here and see what it actually looks like and to see the vision of all of you but you Paul being here on the ground I'm gonna say every day I'm looking to see if this wife would agree but nearly every day yes um and I also hear it's air conditioned so I'm excited about that as well uh as the principal
019said hearing from students about what the last couple days have been like has been huge I've heard from many of their parents who have shot me emails or grabbed me at the grocery store and what I have universally heard is that students feel even more supported even more safe and they're actually eager to go to school and many of us are parents I would settle for at least one of those things most mornings like get out of bed eager to go to school but this is a testimony as the previous speakers have said to this community but to the Massachusetts school building authority which I think we've all learned the town chips in many many millions but the Commonwealth does the same and it's taxpayers from North Andover to North Adams and everywhere in between
020that contributes to this fund and if communities like Ashland work to meet the criteria our tax dollars combined with tax dollars from across the Commonwealth are used to make sure that our students here in Ashland truly have a 21st century education and a building that makes it all possible I was doing math as I was reading a couple of the articles about the old building that used to be right over there which apparently was so much bigger than I realized now that its Footprints is more exposed and it was nearly 70 years ago that this community invested in a generation building a new school that met the needs of that day making sure that Ashland's next generation was equipped with all the tools to thrive for the 50s and 60s maybe not knowing it but
021it was their kids and grandkids and I will go as far as say great grandkids in some instances who were able to utilize that building and Thrive with the renovations necessary but now to have an entire New Generation who's able to walk in just a couple days ago with a building that has been met to meet or built to meet their exact needs for this 21st century is huge and I am so excited I saw the pictures on social media of the kids eyes and hearing from the principal and from their parents has been huge so again thank you for everyone who's contributed thank you to the Massachusetts school building authority and I am eager to see Paul's vision and the vision of all of you actually in fruition here thank you it always gives
022me great pleasure to introduce Karen spilka Senate President a friend of Ashland a friend of the Ashland Public Schools a staunch supporter of public education in Massachusetts a former Ashland School Committee Member someone who has been dedicated since I've known her to doing what's best for this community Karen was at many of the msba meetings advocating and supporting us and getting this project in the in the pipeline if you will so it gives me great pleasure to introduce Senator Karen spilka so this is a really exciting day and I look at all of the faces here and recognize that I think almost every single one here has some really strong connection not only to Ashland in our community but to this school and the whole school system so it just really warms my heart to
023look out at all of you and I welcome so many of you back it's great to see you and I thank you very much for inviting me to speak with you on this very exciting day uh but before I start I also want to thank uh just a few people I'd be remiss if I didn't and I'm sorry uh but uh superintendent Jim Adams thank you for all of your hard work and so not only did he oversee the the district and the schools and the staff and the kids but help to oversee the planning and construction of this school building as well and all the other issues and you've done a fantastic job Jim and we are forever indebted the other person we're indebted to tremendously is Paul Kendall again you can sing your
024accolades as well Paul so dedicated people don't recognize I don't even know if he recognized when he took the job of chairing this uh committee how much time is involved and what is involved and he more than met that challenge so from all of the bottoms of our hearts we thank you so much for not only taking this this Challenge on but for doing a spectacular job for our kids thank you and the school committee being a prior member and chair I know their hard work as well uh thank you so much for your hard work and support thank you chair Lori and to all of the other members uh present and past that are here again I look out and I see past members principal you did make great timing to come here uh
025wise move wise move and have fun and wish you the best with being here and I want to thank the Massachusetts school building authority we could not be be here today or doing things like this they do a fabulous job of working with all of our school districts sometimes it takes a little while uh for the district to get there to be accepted but they work really closely they work hard they make sure that whatever is designed and built is done to the very top standards for all of our kids and for our school districts and for our tax dollars I have to say so I want to thank thank you for being here taking your time and being here but for your support I do want to just briefly mention uh that the legislature
026in this year's budget that we just passed a couple of months ago and the governor signed so it is law put in an extra 100 million dollars to the school building authority to give a little bump to some of the schools who were building during this post-covered time and saw increases unanticipated increases because of covid so there may be some little bump or some help but it was in recognition that so many of the districts did not could not foresee uh the inflationary costs that went on so thank you I do want to thank representative Lewis my partner in crime I shouldn't probably term it that way but at the state house but we work closely to make sure that we can get things done for Ashland and and all of the MetroWest communities I
027also want to thank the entire faculty and staff past and present from the Mendes you know they have worked so hard the facilities team the staff taking care of the old school and you'd walk through the halls and you'd never realize it was like you know 60 70 years old when it was because it was so well kept up despite all the challenges and we know there were many many challenges I won't go into them but uh you know they did a great job and the faculty did a great job and the staff as well and I want to thank them and I know they have been waiting a very long day time waiting for this day for this new school to open Ashland schools have been on my mind for uh most of the
02840 years that I've lived in Ashland uh they've been on my mind the over 20 blows me away 20 years I've been in the legislature as a former member and chair of the Ashland school committee the mother of two boys who attended the mindis school and have met countless people who and fam whose families who have been part of the mindis school I consider the Mendes uh the old but still now the new because it's it's inherited some of the good things I believe I consider the Mendes as the start of my political career so give me just one minute to be a little personal here uh in when my older son was in fifth grade I volunteered for uh Miss Mason and mataris's class helped get the neighborhood started in in the Mendez school
029that's where actually I met Claudia Bennett because she was volunteering for those classes as well and another partner in crime we ended up running for school committee together so that was her start as well um and you know the rest the rest is history uh never thought I'd that would lead me to running for State rapper for state senate let alone being Senate President so I have a really uh soft spot in my heart for the Mendes School and all of the staff and the kids who have gone there and a new life for the space and um a new school that will continue to serve our students families and communities for many generations to come it's a sustainable Net Zero ready building that's designed to put students first and that is typical of Ashland
030you know the way that the vote went to support this school it's clear that our residents our community puts our students and Kids First and that is really important the space Embraces the school community community shares common areas to spark collaboration between students at all grade levels and includes features that align with our learning and education planning it also has outdoor spaces that allow our kids to have a safe and welcoming space outside I'm deeply deeply grateful for all of the thousands and thousands of hours that it took to get us where we are now all of the collaboration between our community local leaders State leaders that has made this possible and I'm really excited to see the amazing things that our students and faculty accomplish in this new school and all the places that
031they end up get going in our their future Generations thank you very much so a couple things I'm going to go through just a little bit of logistics before we do a ribbon cutting so everyone understands what is next after we're done the ribbon cutting we will ask folks if you're interested one in tours of the building which I hope you are we're going to meet in the cafeteria and we also have lunch that will be served in the cafeteria so we have a couple options if you're interested in eating first you absolutely can do that and then we can go on a tour it is air-conditioned so it's fine doesn't matter or we can organize in there we will have a number of us who will give the tours around the building and then
032come back after and have some lunch but we invite you to have lunch with us please and to really see how beautiful this space is for the community and for our students and faculty and staff I think that's really the last part of the logistics we will be opening the building at 12 30 through 4 30 for the entire Community to come in today for tours throughout the facility which is really exciting to share that and you know Dr Cairo assistant superintendent was telling me he thinks there's going to be a lot of people today based on conversations within the community and I hope that's the case because I think it's certainly a facility that's that's worth sharing with this community so what I would ask is Mike can you come up in Gretchen and
033we'll pull out the the ribbon and I'll have the speakers here please stand and join me thank you so again let me finalize the comments by mentioning someone who's very dear to many of you here in this um audience today and when I took the job as superintendent 10 years ago for those who don't know I was a principal at the high school and within my first week of the job I got a visit and it was Dr Barry ruthfield and Dr ruthfield came into the office sat me down and said you're going to love this community you need to put your heart and soul into this community you need to make sure that you're there for them and those words were so profound to me for someone who I know has tremendous respect within
034this community and for him to take the time to to do that with me and sit with me and talk about how impressed he was about this community meant a lot and you know God Rest his soul but when I think of this community and I think of his legacy no one will ever reach that but as a superintendent when you get an opportunity to build a facility that will last here forever at least in my lifetime it feels really good I'm proud of that I'm proud of this community for supporting that so with all this being said let's have some food let's you know break some bread together tour the facility and get inside or it's a little bit cooler and we get the chairs picked up before it does rain so again uh
035thank you again for everyone making the effort to be here today appreciate it thank you okay let's go vamos we'll be getting tours in about 10 minutes