001[clears throat] Good evening everyone. Hello. Hello to my name is Dr. Benales. I'm the chair of the ad committee. I' like to welcome everyone. Like to welcome my two committee members, Mr. Joe Sak and Mr. Robert Traver. He's in online. Also, we have a staff minister um George Garcia and thank you for the rest of the people here to uh this meeting. Um tonight we want to be talking in an agenda and discuss well discussion on possible action of the the commission of sorry the commissioning of Bass High School. So Mr. Joe Garcia you got the floor. >> Thank you. Good evening. Um, so this evening I wanted to run us through exactly where we are at the old Basic High School in terms of um what we're doing fiscally, uh, what we're expending, some
002of the hardships that we had, and hopefully we can come to an accord to revert the building back to the city and get this uh, building off of the books. So, [clears throat] in 2025, we expended 471,886.89 in utilities. Uh we we won't be spending that much. We'll probably be spending about half of that. So, somewhere in the range of uh $230,000 we're anticipating if we carry the building. Um we have to have a custodial staff member on site just for security reasons and to make sure that heat is running and things like that. um you know, annual salary of 48,000 before benefits. Uh we've been having some vandalism issues with folks breaking into the building as uh a lot of you folks have seen in some of the videos. Um you know, that's costing
003us roughly $1,000 a month, give or take, depending on, you know, the extent of uh the the damage done when they break in. There's security costs. There's IT costs. We still have to remove snow on site. Um, you know, so these are some of the costs. Currently since September to December of this year, we have expended $7,384 purely on electric. I just wanted to to to show you guys the differences in two of our schools, the old bass and the new bass. So in the old bass, 77 70,384 has been expended since September. Um and then um in the new basket we've expended $121,162 on electric. So we're carrying two bills here. Um you know the building is becoming more and more uninhabitable. It's becoming more and more of a challenge to to maintain. Um
004you know this tiles are starting to become a problem due to the fluctuations in temperature cuz you know we we we have no control of the building. So, that's becoming an issue in terms of us having to turn the heat on, turn the heat off, we're down to one boiler from three- boilers. Um, if we lose that boiler, which right now there is, there is a crack in one of the sections. We will have no heat in the building. Um, like I said, the spec tiles are popping up through throughout the the entire facility. Um, the floor between the bridges because we can't pump enough heat is starting to eve up. There's no longer any kitchen equipment because we had done the decommissioning and that was um auctioned off and a good portion of those
005items were reallocated to other schools in the district. Um most of the desks and furniture have either been sold and auctioned. Um all of the door locks that were in the building because they're on our key system have been removed and they're going to be reallocated. So we'll be taking the door locks from those from those um cores and doing two buildings. I believe they're going to be at um Howland and um carry out. We'll be completing that. So now those those schools are currently at will be up to date on our king system. Um the I uh the IT has dismantled the PA system. We are still carrying the cost for cameras and for intrusion. Um and then all of the IT equipment, computers, smartboards, wireless devices have been removed from the building. So
006we're at a point now where the building has been broom cleaned. It's ready to be turned over. Um, you know, I think we're in a very good state. We're not going to be turning this building over. Um, like Harding was turned over. Um, you know, we had complete auditable trail of every single aspect of that decommissioning. Um, so we're in a good state. We're ready to turn the building over and hopefully this evening we can sort of have that conversation to move it to the full board and take this uh burden off of the books fiscally. >> Thank you. proceed. For the record, I have online Mr. William Medina. Welcome, Mr. Medina. >> Thank you. Good evening. >> And I'm going to observe the committee. Mr. T, you have any question for Mr. Garcia? >>
007Not right now. Thank you. >> Sorry, I know you have a question. Yeah, I've got some questions, comments, observations. >> Um, as far as um this really should have been looked at in conjunction with the facilities master plan to come to a decision that is did not come before the board earlier, but we should not be making this decision because if you if you look at it, we can look at it in a different way. It requires $82 million estimated to renovate to bring it up to new. Would we be able to bond out perhaps to integrate into the master facilities plan for what whatever the reimbursement rate is? I forgot exactly what it is. Like 85 on the rental, 90 something like that. >> 78%. So with a 22% that would be about see
008$18 million in the city or something like that. I got my >> roughly um but remember this is if >> that's before that's before >> so so this number is based on repair so renovation number will be higher if we're going to do a renovate is new or if we tore it down and rebuild it um you know just taking the number from bass you're probably in 150 $260 million and then there's the added thing of where we may need to build capacity in other places we have absolutely no swing spaces for our kids to move and larger buildings and it's going to be at a premium. If one thing goes wrong in one of our schools, we're kind of screwed. I mean, excuse my language. I mean, we're kind of messed up. Um and
009this this kind of pressure this far in without having a discussion to add to that that there's going to be somewhat of this is somewhat of an abrupt meeting 24 hours definitely linked to the fact that the city already put out an RFP to sell this building without board of education or leasing that elder. It's we and only we that can decide this building has no education or purpose. I said, not anybody else. We got to have an hope to turn this over. And I'm really really not happy about how this is coming out. This is not a good way to govern. We are not governing with intention. We are not governing with discernment. We need to get on the ball. We need to get this facilities master plan in front of us before another
010building comes out before something else happens and we need to study it and we need to really decide what happens. I don't want to go into whenever they get five minutes before we decide whether we should um build a new school in the Harding and have the last minute have a last minute decision for us and then have only be one decision and we can't make any other choices. We need to really look at all this in conjunction with each other. We need to be responsible stewards of the buildings we have. We need to be responsible stewards of the master facilities plan that the city paid upwards of a quarter million dollars to have conducted which is currently just sitting on the shelf gathering dust outside of the board's governance. And I mean I'm sure
011administration's been looking at doing the things we have but administration is not the final operators of what we do with our buildings and how we staff how we um allocate our schools or students. That is us the board. That is our perfect perfume cuz we're we're the ones that approve it. We're the ones that have to own it at the end. That's all I got. I'm going to be voting. No one turns into anything over. That's all. >> Just like to make a comment. So, with the size of the building and the way that school grants work, obviously capacities play a role. Um the size of this facility will preclude us being able to find a use. That's another piece of it. And the longer we hold on to it, the more liability we're taking
012and the more cost we're incurring. And that's from from my perspective, you know, my budget is already at a at a bare minimum as you really really uh scratch the niches together right now just to get through the season. And it's heartbreaking because I'm looking at, you know, the potential of, you know, $2 $300,000 that we're that we're putting into this facility that I could be using to move the ball elsewhere, you know, and I'm I'm deferring I'm deferring other things right now that I would really love to get out. And you know, we've got we've got to start to make a business decision here based on the time frame that we're in, the fact that the building is so far gone. Um, you know, and we just wouldn't be able to put together the
013the the kind of um enrollment that we would need to really do something impactful to really move the ball here in order to get a state grant or to justify expenditure of the level. And it's just going to increase in cost. You know, we start at 82 million based on a facility's condition assessment, but that was while a building was occupied and and was well in hand. You know, we we are now bare bones doing what the bare minimum to just scrape by there. So, I just want to make sure everyone understands we're exactly where we are. Um, you know, every dollar is critical to facilities at this point. And, um, you know, we just want to make everyone aware that this is a extremely hazardous and expensive building for us at this point. We
014have one person in this building and you know last week we had to have the police there because they thought someone was in a building with them you know and and it's just you know we're trying to cycle the managers as part of our daily routine now just to provide visibility working with the police department and security. There's a lot of logistics and you know when we think about what we do in this district we we want to we we've got to find a way to make sure that every minute counts because we don't have the workforce. So, you know, as you guys know, there was a reduction in our workforce. We just did an analysis of the workforce, right? So, we're we're seeing that, you know, with the level of folks that we have
015in the district, the time that they have acrewed over over the years that we have a 15 to 20 person delta every single day based on sick, personal, and vacation. Right? So, then you start to take in these other little activities, you add that on top. We're coming to a point where this is not sustainable for us. And you know, I tip my hat to the staff because they've done a job to hold this district together, but we keep on asking for things from them that at one point we're going to break their back, you know, and and I have to be a steward of the staff and making sure that everyone understand exactly where we are. Now, I know that staffing and everything else that's going on really doesn't weigh on this. But when
016you look at the big picture, right, because I have to look at that picture every single day. I have to take into account what's happening with the staff and and the effect that we're having with our dollars. And right now, we're just throwing bad money into this building. And I'm hopeful that, you know, we need to sit down and talk facilities master plan. We need to talk strategy, but we we have to be realistic in how we move forward as a district. I don't look at this as a half empty. I look at this as an opportunity for us. You know, we have more data than we've ever had as a district, and I think now is the time for us, but there's going to be a lot of uncomfortable conversations over this this time
017frame. >> Let me just Yeah, I don't disagree with anything you said, Mr. Garcia. And again, you've been doing what you have to do. I applaud facilities, as you know. I've always been a supporter and tried to avoid the cuts from you guys and go somewhere else for them first because I understand the pressures on your department and you're not wrong. The only challenge I would have is if we had this conversation a year and a half ago, we may have found a way to make the numbers work in the student population. But because again, I'm going to reiterate, it's not you dropping the ball, it's us as a board not pushing to get this on the agenda sooner. Thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. Secretary. For the record, I want to recognize Miss Marissa
018Himenez, Mr. Andrew Woodson, and hello Dr. Avery to be with us. Um, Mr. Robert, you got the floor. >> Yeah, I I said before I didn't have any questions. I I you know, uh I do have an opinion, which is I don't I guess I don't understand uh when Mr. Sakalik says we have dropped the ball. I I I'm not sure I everything I heard in the discussions over the last year and it's it's not a year and a half. Um it's uh it's a little over a year since uh you know we switched administrators. Um and um uh in that time that we've had the facilities master plan done and everything else um you know it's only recently that I started hearing discussion about doing something else with BASIC. Uh we we to in
019my understanding we had a uh a really uh thorough effort done to make sure that that Bassic was not Harding. We didn't do it to Basic what we did to Harding. Um and we closed it down and we've done a phenomenal job. Uh uh Mr. Garcia, his staff, I know Mr. Banahan Graales was part of that and lots of other folks worked to make sure that we took everything out of there that we wanted to take out of there um to make sure the building was uh uh preserved. We preserved what we wanted to preserve and we we took out what we wanted to take out. Um uh it's only recently that I've heard talk about uh doing something else with the building ourselves. Um, as I understand it, there's one possible use for part
020of the building, the other part of the building, one one building, the other building being uh really structurally very unsound and not really usable. Um, so I don't I I I don't see that we have lost a great deal of time, but I also don't see that this is a necessarily a good use for our our district in the financial condition that we're in. Um, and uh, I given the drain it represents on our budget right now in our financial situation, unless we do pull off this miracle we're trying to pull off in the legislature, which, you know, God willing, we can pull off something miraculous, um, uh, we are, uh, and but if we did pull off what we're aiming to do in the legislature, I don't want to see that money go towards,
021uh, renovating a building that's this old. Uh, and I don't know that I want to see us uh apply for money with the state when we have other things that we're trying to move forward on in the building master facilities master plan. So I I don't agree that that's the direction we want to suddenly stop and say, "Okay, let's rechange the facility master plan to do something with the old Basic versus the stuff that's laid out in the facility master plan that we want to do." And in particular, as as I'm I'm quite straightforward about, I want to move forward with doing the work we need to do over in this side of town, my side of town, uh with talking to the people that live in this neighborhood about whether or not to build
022a new uh facility in this neighborhood. Um and that is already been put forth um to get funding, and we need to now talk to the people in this neighborhood. Uh and I don't want to see that get derailed. Um, I want to have that discussion with the people that live in this neighborhood. Um, and that is on the agenda and has been processed and should be processed and should move forward. So, uh, you know, this is like out of out of left field to start talking about let's stop, go backwards and do something with Basic to me when it was not discussed six months ago. It was not discussed nine months ago, but it's not been a year and a half. That's for sure. Um, so I uh uh think that we should move
023forward with uh doing what we said, which is we've we've processed the building, it's ready to go, and let's uh move forward with closing it up and transferring it back to the city. Thank you, M. Uh Mr. Chair. >> Thank you, Mr. Traver. Mr. Williamina, you got the floor. Thank you very much sir. Um so I'll start with where we just ended. Uh I beg to differ very highly and and respectfully that we have discussed and I've one that have mentioned many times from the get-go beginning of all this discussion about getting rid of basic or decommissioning surrendering back that we should highly consider it. Even I even mentioned a specific goal or objective is to have adult education uh maybe looking to that field but also thinking just like Mr. um Sakalbec said about
024our space that we don't have an extra space and recognizing um that we've been having trouble um throughout trying to find a place a location building space as Mr. Garcia says about spacing. Very hard to find the space that we would need to build another school or build anything at all. Um to give up this space right now. Um I have a question for Mr. Garcia. Um, if we had an empty space right now and there's no schools under construction, don't we have that added cost of maintaining that space with security, with maintenance, with, you know, cameras, with all that stuff responsibilities still, correct? >> I'm sorry, you broke up a little bit. You asked if um if we had a swing space, >> for example. Yep. Exactly. If we had a swing space, as
025we should have, wouldn't we have those costs like the light, heating, security, uh, maintenance, all that stuff? Correct. >> Yes. But I mean, ultimately, the number one goal, the reason why I'm here, >> the reason why I'm here is that we as a district need to rebuild this district one building at a time. If we create a swing space, which we're once we start to make the shift that we need to do in the current construction program that we're in, we will not have an empty swing space because the goal is that we need to rebuild this district. We have buildings that are falling apart. A week ago, we had four buildings with frozen pipes throughout. I had masons chipping away, blocked in in teachers lounges to get to to to to plumbing that is
026just withering away. If we don't come to grips with the reality of where we are as a district, we're going to start to have buildings that fail. And they're not going to be one building. They're going to be multiple buildings. We're carrying buildings now that are in uh, you know, well above 90, multiple. Um, you know, once again, I tip my hat to the staff for the work they do, for the late nights, for coming in at 5:00 a.m., for coming in on the weekend, for for listen, it was a stretch of 3 weeks where we're where a good portion of our staff didn't have a day off cuz we worked seven days a week. But this is because of the state that we're in. So, we have to come to grips with the fact
027that if we keep carrying these buildings, we don't start to make business decisions, we don't start to push the city, the state, and anyone that gets in the way of us doing the work we need to do. Now is the time. We've got the data, right? In Bridgeport, we do a lot of things on our word and in conversation. We finally have the data to support every single activity that we need to do to get this district to a healthy state. I hear what you're saying that there's carrying costs. I rather carry a building that I know has value as opposed to carrying a building that I know we're never going to be able to get back to where it needs to be to to to to provide a safe space for our children. >>
028I agree with some of what you just said. So, I know that we got to carry a building. That was my question. We do have to carry a building. We should be carrying a building through this process because we need a swing space. But again, when I when I talk about space, uh, uh, you know, you talked about the master plan and we're we've been talking about it, but we haven't done any action. And I tell you again, and I've been preaching this from the beginning is if we fail to plan, we plan to fail. And that's one of the biggest mistakes that I think the city has made over year year after year as collaborators relieve in a sense because I wasn't part of the board, you know, 5 10 years ago, but that,
029you know, they failed to look ahead and plan ahead. That's why, you know, I I I beg to differ to everyone that mentioned about Harding that we made mistakes with Harding. You know, it wasn't our building. We surrendered the building over to the city. So, we didn't do any mistakes except of, and I I agree with Mr. Ben is that we should have taken some of the, you know, artifacts and the things that were in there. We should have made sure of that. I think that was I could say that was ours. But every vandalism and all the other stuff that happened that was not in our watch or in our responsibility to manage that building after we surrendered it to the city. What I'm saying is knowing we've been having problems always to find
030space and I'm when I talk about space is the land to be able to build anything around our city and you know that. So, you know, we have a master plan that we haven't we should at least minimum hold this conversation that we're having right now to try to move it to full board and at least have a special meeting as soon as possible as soon as your team is ready to really to discuss the master plan according to what with the PL with the pathic plan or what it will cause what it was what can we decide because we have not planned anything. No one has had discussions. I've put it out there many times to everybody as far as an adult education as a swing space. Listen, the same way some people are
031planning to build uh get rid of part of the building and not the other one and build here and not build there. Well, the same thing we can have a plan, but we failed to make any any objective conversation about possibly making a plan. Sorry, this thing is having Sorry, I don't know what's being read here. I have a new phone. >> Mr. Millia, >> um >> I'm sorry. I thought you could hear this thing running around here. Uh I apologize. Um but again we have failed we have failed to really do have those conversation and that's why I'm totally against this right now because we have failed to actually even take a look at what can be done with this property as far as a property. We have failed to look at really sit
032down and have cordial conversation about the building as a whole. What is a safety thing? What is not? I mean, listen, public might not know this, but I maybe you don't know this. Maybe it was out there. I don't know. But I know that some there were some plans at one point in time prior to this discussion that some people were trying to use the school for a basketball game, for a middle school basketball game. And that was uh concerning to me completely. So, you know, people are having conversation, but they're having the wrong conversation. We need to sit down as a board with you guys and really look at this master plan concerning this particular building before we make any decisions, rash decisions. I know we have a dire financial situation. But when we
033have nothing to look forward to, then I don't think that there should be a haste to jump on this all of a sudden right now when we have not had a really good look on what are our plans. We have no swing pace. You just said it. We have dire buildings. So if it's knocking these buildings down and building a new school there as a swing space and use it for adult ed too or whatever the case, we got to sit down and really have these discussions. And we haven't had that. And again, I am not going to be an adult in this community that is going to hold our kids hostage and cause collateral damage to our students because us adults fail. And that's where my passion comes from. I want to let you
034guys know, I know your team is running short. I'm surprised that nobody came out to speak, you know, before the educ uh education plan and and budget plans, and I look forward to having you guys come and join our team and and move forward. But this is the things that we want to push forward. Tell them, listen, we don't have the people to be able to even keep these buildings at a level that where they should be. We could do better if we had the right staff, and I agree with you, but we need to put that out forward. That's why we need the money. That's why we've been underfunded all these years and then nobody's been crying out. But now the other towns are crying out because now it's hurting their pocket. But we've
035been crying out for a long time. And I'm not going to be one of the adults that cause collateral damage against our kids. So that's why I'm voicing my opinion. I've did it before and I'll continue to do it. And if anybody wants to sit down with me, please. My door is open. Thank you, Madam Chair. >> Oh, Mr. Chair. Sorry. >> Okay. I'm going to say okay. What's going >> Thank you, Mr. Manina, for your time. I appreciate your time. Yes, Mr. Garcia, >> chair. So, I think one of the conversations that we need to come to grips with also is the enrollment of the district. We not only do we have buildings that are are extremely old and need a lot of care, but we also have buildings that are 40% occupancy, 50%
036occupancy, 60% occupancy. So, you know, that's another piece of this, right? So, we're paying 100% of the bills in buildings that are 40% occupied, right? We have to look at this as a business. If we don't look at this as a business, we're going to fail. I understand the need for swing space. I think at as we start to embrace the facilities master plan, you'll see that there's going to be opportunities. There's going to be opportunities for us to have uh the potential site for a parent center for an adult ed that we control a building that is within the kind of scope that we can sort of manage. This is a sprawling building that is falling apart and we are in a dire situation and the longer we talk about it the more it's
037going to cost. And what we're doing right now is taking money away from every other facility that we can strengthen and hold together every single day that we don't work. >> Excuse me, Mr. >> And I understand that comment. That's Mr. Garcia. I just want to rebut because he's answering my my making a statement on my statement. Madam Mr. Chair, if I may. Um, so um I understand your point clearly in regards to uh >> Yes, sir. Sorry to interrupt you. I got two more people that want to speak. I know give you the time and I don't want to stay here till 11 o'clock and understand your decision and you you know we will like you say I would love to sit down with you so we can explain and talk about this. Thank
038you for your time Mr. Medina. Mr. Tman you got the floor. >> Yes sir. Thank you uh Mr. Chair. Uh yeah, first off, I just wanted to clarify because Mr. Medina suggested that I had said something I didn't I I know quite well that we didn't control Harding High School when it went to seed. Uh my comment about Harding High School had to do with the lesson everybody learned about what happened at Harding. Uh and we paid attention to it to make sure that it didn't happen at Hard at Bassic. Uh it wasn't our responsibility what happened at Harding. It was the cities. I know that quite well as Mr. Medina knows since we both live within blocks of the Harding. Uh I'm quite aware of who whose responsibility it was. But we've all learned
039the lesson because we care about it and live nearby. Um and it affects our neighborhood. Um but uh we paid attention and we made sure that it was done right this time. uh we were as he pointed out uh negligent in making sure now we neither of us were on the board at the time. I don't think many of us were uh in getting out the materials that needed to be removed but this time it was done properly by Mr. Garcia and the group that worked at Passik. And that was my comment that we did it right this time to get the materials out and there were precious materials left in Harding that uh should have been removed before we vacated the building. Um, and that I was pleased to see we did right and
040there was an extraordinarily thorough and complete process worked out by the P people involved and my compliment to them was what I was pointing out. Um, but um, if I understand correctly, what was being discussed was creating a swing space at Bassic and if I understand I'm venturing to guess and I want to confirm with Mr. Garcia, that would involve applying for a state grant, securing a state grant um in the next year or two. Uh it would have to be created and submitted for this session, a short session um and uh maybe getting it this session, not likely, but maybe um optimistically or at the very uh or then waiting another year till the next. Um so if he could speak to that in a second when I'm done. Um and then uh four
041or five years down the line uh as with the new proposed middle uh prek to 8 school on the east end um four or five years down the line there would be a new facility. Um so we would have that swing space in about four or five years uh if we were lucky uh after get securing uh the uh funding from the state. So that would uh put everything on hold for five or six years. Um so I don't know that that's going to uh be the plan that we want to go with. Uh we already have plans for trying to move things around. It's not the best plan in the world, but we're moving forward as best we can to sort of move uh one ch one piece here and one piece there to
042to move our our plans forward to get Winthrop done, Winthrop out uh the next part of the plan done and keep things moving. So, uh, you know, to to sort of put everything on hold to create a swing space, uh, at the old BASC site is not the best, uh, uh, proposal that I want to support. Uh, so, uh, I would still that doesn't that that's not something that I think is worthy of us holding everything up. >> Thank you. Uh you go ahead and what am I right about that timetable? >> Yeah. So uh we would have to make the request to the city. We go through the capital process. So you're you're kicking that out a year cuz we're already in the process now. So we start that process a year from now
043to secure capital. They're going to have to decide if the money they're going to invest makes sense there. We have multiple issues that we have to overcome. One is the size of the facility. um and the enrollment piece of that, right? Can we get enough enrollment to justify um us even going to the state? We've got to check off those boxes on the application. Um so you figure if we were able to do all of that, we get it in by next March. We put the application in in June. So you're probably talking 6 years before we're able to turn that around. Um, and in the six years, we know that we're not going to be able to keep this building functional. So, theoretically, the building will will be shutting all the utilities off, no
044security, nothing, right? Because we will not be able to maintain it for that long. So, it becomes a der building because even boarding up a building, folks are going to find their way in. So there's really no feasible way for us as school district in the condition that we're currently in to carry this without tremendous hardship to to every single staff member and student in the district >> and as the as the uh responsible party for the building. I heard you mentioning the asbestous piling up and other things. >> Yes. So we are becoming more and more liable as every day goes on. Yep. >> Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Contra. U Miss Marisa manag uh thank you so much um chair. Um I have a few comments about this. So as many of
045you guys know um I actually was going to school for masonry. Um, and one of the things that we learned in in shop in our masonry field in construction was that it's once you have a building that is very old, it is cheaper and better to knock it down and start from scratch. Reason for that is because if you have to upgrade di different heating systems, you have to upgrade plumbing, electrical, the the actual um labor costs are going to be so expensive from having to demo p bits and pieces just to get to the to the systems that you need to upgrade. So just from the from the aspect of upgrading the existing and keeping the shell it's very difficult labor intensive it's really not worth it. I'm looking at this old basic almost
046like Mr. Garcia said you know what is the benefit relative to the cost here. We don't have $40,000 a month a ye a month. $40,000 a month to keep basic. In my mind, I think of $40,000 that's a parah I can put in a kindergarten class. We don't have the money for it. We can use that money better elsewhere. So, what I'm proposing here is that when we got the facilities master plan, we ended up getting proposals that were rated priority. Are there any priorities on the west side that this building would would be useful for? And if the answer to that is no, then we we need to do something with this building. We cannot keep a building that's costing us $40,000 a month when we could use that money elsewhere. The other thing
047to asbestous tile that cost is cancer. We shouldn't have people near near any of that. So that's a huge liability issue from you know the perspective of the BOE. So we really need to get this like resolved rather quickly. And and that's all the comments I had. Thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. Himenez. M Ander Woodson, you got the floor on? >> Um, yes. I just want to say that that that was that that um facility report has been out for over a year, hasn't it, Mr. um Garcia? It's >> been out for some time. We have had several um re um we have presented several sections of it. I know we had talked about the facilities condition assessments. I know we had talked about the recommendations based on the facilities master plan. We just
048have not been able to sit as [clears throat] a unit to really go and dig deep into it. I think there's a lot of factors. I think our budgeting cycles that we've had to expend tremendous amount of time and effort in um you know we've got so many moving parts. we open a new high school. Um, you know, we're we're we're kicking off a new grammar school construction program. There's a lot of moving parts here. There's just not enough time. Um, you know, when I look at my staff alone, you know, there's there's there's three of us that are really managing the day-to-day operations. And when we look at other districts and we start to break that down, you start to realize that there's only so much bandwidth, right? I think once we start to
049get through this budgeting cycle and we start to set up some milestones for ourselves, we'll have time. But this has been out for some time, we have reviewed the the the different se sections of it, the demographic piece and things like that. So I think everyone has a general understanding of what's in here, but you know, I want to get in and dig into this with everyone. Um but you know right now we have these immediate issues and time is fleeting fast and we have to take advantage of the momentum that we have garnered in some different areas. Um one the ability to to construct new the other the state being here and understanding where our arts are and two having the data to support everything that we have to say moving forward. Yeah, I
050I was bringing it up because you know this just because you know we haven't talked about it nor these the this these are a are this is paperwork that is readily accessible to all members of you know people of the community whoever wants to read it and you know we have I I know I' I've personally seen some type of presentation whether it was from you or from a from from the people who did who actually did the report we have seen some type of presentation on this stuff. So, you know, we we had the the you know, toility the ability to to to listen to them and to decipher for ourselves and see, you know, when you know if if a building we we know that how the age of the buildings because of
051the people who who made the reports and they and and they told us how old the buildings are. So, you know, for for us to say that, you know, that that we haven't talked about or anything, we we we we don't need to talk about it. We we've heard about it. we could make come to you know those type of not a decision but we can make assessments ourselves and see that like Mr. Garcia said that, you know, some buildings are 40%, 50%, 60% full. You know, we those are decisions that we were talking about when when Superintendent uh uh Levy David was here. You know, that that's stuff that she wanted to do back then. So, for people to, you know, act like this stuff is new and we never heard of this stuff
052and that we didn't like we didn't know that these that these buildings are draining our our our resources, you know. I don't know where where these people have been all all of these meetings. That's all I have to say. Thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. Woodson. Trying to get before I made my comment. Dr. Avery, you have um something to say. Thank you for be here. >> Mr. Chair, I'm I'm fine. I think George has spoken for discussion that him and I had prior to this meeting. Uh, and I think we're on point and um, again, it's just something that the board just needs to consider and uh, we'll leave it into your to the board's hands. >> Thank you, Dr. Avery. >> Well, thank you everyone for your comments and anything. Um, oh, sorry.
053>> No, if you go first. I just want to hit on the point that was the city's 100% have the we talked, we've talked, we've been aware, we've discussed, but we have not come to a decision. is one place and only one place the board can make a decision, make a change and make an amendment and that's sitting in a room as a nine member board and it would take five to make anything locked in as a decision of the board. Right now it's a plan that's being moved about, changed about and everything that's happening to that plan does not have the board's fingerprint or approval on it until we sit at a duly called meeting exercise our powers as the board of education has vested us with the state of Connecticut. Blessed. Thank you.
054>> Thank you, Mr. S. Well, I'm going to start talking from before your presentation, Mr. Garcia. And I know that Bath High School, everybody knows my my passion. It been for so many years as a former PTA for four years in Bath High School. I can say what is going on in Bass High School from inside from the from the basement from the top corner. And you know that Mr. Garcia would walk the whole thing. Bass High School and yes, Bass High School is for so many years and is like I say is old and I would love to say Bass High School. Yes, I would love to on the day one. But when we find out women Garcia and the team and professional people come, they certify that Bass High School is not good
055for the staff. They're not good for the students. They're not good for the parents. You know, it's a history but it's not safety for our kids. And I think say what's going on between like I said in and out what's going on at Bass High School. Basic high school will always be my passion and but that's one of the reason we fight and we vote and we um argument and we comment to get the new B high school. They will they take so many years to be sure we spend $129 million to make a new bass high school that I'm very proud. But Mr. I see when I see right now uh is 2025 electric, gas, sewer, water is in total $47186 with 89. That's almost half a million dollar. >> Yes. >> All right.
056That you imagine what we can do with almost half a million dollar for public school. How many people we can bring back for our school need for our staff? That's one. And then also you had you plus that for the custodian salary 2026 uh the vanment you know what they call $1,000 that's $82 million $355 for 16. You know we had to think and see how much money is spending. You say $40,000 to almost in gas. We say right she has a light >> uh in electrical. We'll take electrical. It's easy. We wanted wanted to run a comparison of the new bass old bass. So taking the same time frame from September to December. We're right around Yeah. December to September to December. The old bassic we spent 70,384 in that time frame. The new
057So I get I get a double whammy, right? So I'm paying two bills. Yeah. >> Um on top of the 70,000 I'm paying in the new basket, I'm paying $121,162 in that same time frame. So, this is where we're having our issue, right? Because I'm paying dual bills here and and and I feel like I'm spending more on old basket in terms of maintenance because of everything that's going on there, you know, and I'm taking away. So, for instance, we had a break in the day of the four of when we had the frozen pipes in four different schools. So imagine having to now mind you our our trade staff is very small having to deploy and orchestrate the deployment of all these people and making sure that we're getting our hands on everything, right?
058We're trying to ensure that our assets that are that are true and strong are kept in place, right? But at the same time, we're trying to address uh uh a break-in or vandalism because we don't want that to become that much more, right? So, the balancing act of everything is very difficult. Um, but yes, we're spending a tremendous amount of money. That's just electric. You can probably add another 60 to $80,000 in in in gas for the heating, right? So, you know, we're spending a tremendous amount of money every month um on on utilities alone in in the old desk. >> Thank you, M. And that's the difference between 121 and 70s is around $50,000. you know stuff that's a salary for professional let's put it this way and I was I was my witness
059but I received to you guys I can send it to you videos from people students go to the back high school the whole one destroying the whole thing and I will send it to you guys and they put it in the social media and Tik Tok and now that parent they sent it to me they made they and I sent it to course I sent it to Dr. Dr. Garcia and this is one of the reason we don't want something happen in that school and then what who's going to call for education anything going to happen anything or anything happen on somebody there they can be staff there can be a student it's a board education because that's building is not belong to the city yet and we don't want then the last thing we
060want is somebody sue us so I'm going back Martin said for $40,000 a professional administrator assistant, cafeteria aid, a special assistant, um part of Dior classroom for support, a clinical staff, at the school program staff, the in junior teacher or sign sign language interpreter for $40,000. We can't pay, you know, stuff like that. So imagine you know why why we we spending $40,000 in the building we not using it that we can like Mine said $40,000 we can use it for staff for our for our department and also um it's it's like I like I told you guys I'm sorry everybody was my passion but it's time to return that building to the city. We don't want things h nothing happen you know something happened and it's the for being blamed and we got so
061much enough to do too much stress depress [snorts] meetings go to hard for go here doing working with the cabinet working with the multitation working with the parents and students community in city to keep having that building when it's not necessary I understand what I know and I I I trust you Mr. the rest of your day. I know later on we're going to have a do education a parent center. I know I told you from the beginning and I'm going to keep saying I trust what you do. I trust what you your team do. I trust what your staff do. It's not easy. I be witness you know what you short of staff. You got one staff that sometime they do three or four job on somebody else and it's not easy. You got
062staff they come and you take off. the camp staff they stopped doing with the family to help you like what happened in the the frozen vibe. I know what happened. I seen what happened, you know, and people don't see that. I know we need to have a building for our community, but this is not the time. And I don't agree to have that B high school. So imagine if we going to keep that B high school, we're going to give Lego people to to keep that old B high school. No, I don't think so. And this is the reason why we spent 129 $129 million to make a new bass in high school. I know everybody's very proud and it's amazing and I don't know everybody put a little of the time to be sure
063student you know like I always like always we said our student deserve the best. Uh Mr. T, you have the floor please. >> Um thank you uh Mr. Chair. Um, first I wanted to say I want to throw one other possibility for the use of that money into the hopper. Um, I believe that we are in uh serious need of being able to reach out to the people in the neighborhoods uh affected by the uh proposal to build a new east end uh prek to 8 school. Um, and if that involves a mailing to everybody that lives in the neighborhood, um, that's another place we could use money um, that we don't have in our budget um, to make sure that we reach everybody that would be affected um, in the decision, not just the
064people attending the schools, but the people that live in the neighborhood. Um, so, uh, I throw that out and I make a motion that we, uh, move to the full board the decommissioning of Bassic High School. >> Second. >> Make a motion, Mr. Trevor. Second, uh, Mr. Sak. Any, uh, discussion? >> [laughter] >> All in favor? I >> I >> no for me. >> No for our um Mr. uh Sland. >> So no more question and stuff like that. I'll make a motion for Mr. >> Mr. >> I do want to make a a comment that I'm disappointed that the second item wasn't on the agenda tonight. Um, I thought we were going to have uh a discussion on the East End School um and what we need to do to move forward. I have,
065as you all know, been urging um expedient action on uh our obligation to meet with the people in the affected neighborhoods for um about a year now. Um so, uh that one I would like to see move forward too. So I would urge you to reconvene the committee uh in an expeditious manner so that we can have that discussion too. Thank you. >> Uh well Mr. Fra I know apologize for that but I will put it at the next agenda as soon as possible so we can discuss. >> Thank you. >> Welcome. Thank you for everyone Mr. Garcia like always thank you for your support. Thank you for everything you do. You always honest with us and we have to keep our work because you know we we save money. So thank you for everyone
066to be here tonight. Everyone >> second. >> So good night everyone. God bless you all. All >> in favor. >> Thank you. God bless.