001All right, afternoon. This is facilities committee. Um, it is Wednesday, May 7th. Um, the time is 42. I'm Jennifer chair. Mr. Ben members in Mr. Woodson's online board members. Nice to meet in person. Nobody else online. The first item on agenda is a minutes from April 1st. Moved by Mr. Ben. Second. Second by Mr. Gibson. Any changes? All in favor say I. I. I. All right. Next item on agenda is discussion and posable action from the full board of the Xback for East X School. Yeah. What is there's a mag each each clip is everything for the season. Okay. So there other emergency. So good evening everyone. Uh thank you for having us at the facilities communicating this this evening. Um this evening we're looking for approval for the EDS spec for the east the
002proposed east school. Um give you a quick overview of what the what the project will look like some of the details and then we get to start to discuss the expect. So um as you all know we embarked on our facilities master plan roughly a year ago. Um, as we started working through the facilities management plan, um, you know, we saw that there were some there was a part of town that had an extreme amount of cost needed to renovate many of the buildings. When we started digging into that part of town and looking at those specific buildings that needed the renovations, we realized that the state wouldn't be able to uh or the state would not approve a grant based on the square footing or based on the acreage of the sites um and
003some other details. So, what we started doing was looking at every buildable address in that zip code. And what we quickly found out, myself, Mike Circle, Mike Fel, and PJ was that there aren't any buildable sites in that part of town. So, we went through just about every address in the zip code, anything that was even close to feasible. We went out, did a road trip, sort of uh, you know, took a look, pulled GIS to see if there was a way to make it work. And we quickly found out that there wasn't many opportunities in that part of town to be able to build a school. There were two parcels that did fit the bill. One is the rent brick parcel which we did look at. The city has started to redevelop that. Um
004they they tore down the shot towers and adjacent buildings and they've done some remedial um work there. But GE still holds the title to the environmentals on that site. So what that means is that if there is something on that site that calls out some sort of environmental, it could take G up to 20 years or whatever the duration it takes them to be able to uh remediate that. And being that we have to remediate to a residential level, it just was not a feasible site for so we pivoted and we started looking at the Harding site. As many of you know, Harding um is a damodated building at this point. There's some fire, vagrants. Um, it's kind of heartbreaking when you drive by, but you know, when we started looking at it, we saw
005a whole new vision for what could be at the Harding site moving forward for the school, for the school district, the students, the parents, um, and also the taxpayer. Um, you know, there's some benefits to to the potential of a program there. So, with that said, um, we went ahead and started looking at the parcel. And if you look at this overview, this is just a a rudimentary site plan. uh it is to scale because we wanted to see if we can get all of the circulation of traffic in that area that has to do with the with the school itself on site. So what this does depict is that we're able to do everything on site. uh essentially taking the traffic from the school off of the roadways. Um as you know, this is
006a very busy area um congested and being able to do everything on site was a big part of us um wanting to to execute on this program because it fits well. Um what we propose is a K840 student building state-of-the-art net zero meaning that we would generate our own utility on site right through many different sustainable opportunities. Um there aren't any net zeros in our urban school district and we be the first. We feel confident that we can do this. We've been doing this type of work for a long time. Um, we've been doing a lot of sustainable work in the schools to save the school district money. This this past four years, we've been able to do LED lighting throughout the whole entire district. We've completed that and we're saving a million dollars a
007year. So, we feel strongly I'm sorry, prek prek. Um, I feel strongly about our ability to make this happen. So, we went ahead laid it out wanted to make sure that we can get the building on site. We're able to accomplish that. With that said, the next phase to to to the process was us looking at what the costs will be. So myself and Mike Zurkl along with Jamie started looking at what the the outlook is in the industries that are going to have to come to a nexus in order to be able to to to build this site. Looking at inflation, looking at all the different factors that we've all had to uh deal with on a daily basis. Now, we took all of that into consideration, and our budget came out to about
008$120 million, but once again, we're we're not a construction company, but you know, we we we're pretty good at understanding what the needs to to make this happen would be. Uh we went ahead and had outside construction company go ahead and give us an estimate, which is attached. Um their estimate came back at $125 million. Now, said it's a lot of money, $125 million. and and I truly understand, but there's a couple different things. So, for instance, the school district pays uh 6040 when it comes to new construction, right? Um but there are kickers at the state level. So, the state level allows for additional reimbursement percentages based on different programming within a building. So, one of those is preK, right? PreK is a hot topic. We all go at the state level and it's
009a much needed piece of the educational foundation here in Bridgeport. Um, you know, it's not just preK4. We want to go to preK3. We want to make sure that there's equity across the board where parents have this option and this opportunity. We're able to achieve that in this program because we wanted to put an emphasis on being able to deliver prek. So, there's a premium on prek space here, which we do not have currently. Currently, we don't have space to expand on our preks. And this is a conversation that we have um at the cabinet level on a regular basis. We've done analysis the whole entire district of where there may be opportunities. We don't have opportunities to have those the the proper spaces with the restrooms and and and the size classrooms and all
010the needed aspects to deliver that program. We know that. We talk about that regularly. This gives us the ability to have a relief valve and start to address some of these issues, right? Through the prek program. That's a kicker at the state level, right? That gives us an enhanced burden. The other piece to that is that when it comes to energy efficiency, there's another kicker at the state level. So this is why you see our buildings are all lead certified because we get additional reimbursement through lead certification through sustainable components built into our program making our you know and and the way that we envision this as as a net zero which is the highest level of of efficiency is that this is not just about us building a highly efficient school but be uh
011building a teaching tool and starting to look at how we can integrate the future of the students here in Bridgeport into how we build our buildings moving forward. So, $125 million roughly 30% reimbursement currently. We're looking to get 90% reimbursement on this program. So, we're talking about $12.5 million investment from the city to build 125 million 125 million million state-of-the-art net zero building that addresses a lot of our issues in this part of town. So let's talk about these issues in this part of town. So we did the facilities master plan. The FCA is the facilities condition assessment. We went through every single building, every crawl space, every mechanical component. Check the envelope, windows, doors, world. We looked at every aspect of our buildings. And as we went through that part of town has buildings
012that are a lot older and vintage and there wasn't an investment made and school construction. Um, and you can tell by the vintage of buildings and the costs that it would take to get those buildings up to up to par. So, we're talking about Bearsley, Edison, and Hall. Those three buildings need $60 million in tier one repairs. Now, we're not talking about anything outside of repairs. So $60 million if we made that investment that'll be 100% paid for by the taxpayer in Bridgeport with no reimbursement from the state and we get nothing except for the building being repaired. There's no programming difference. There's no renovation. It's just us getting the building to a healthy and state a healthy and safe state. So just going to ask anybody in the audience if you need to have
013a conversation go outside. Yeah. So with that said, $125 million you say, "Wow, but we're talking about 60, right?" But at the $125 million, there's the potential of us being able to make that happen for $12.5 million. When we look at what we do as an operation, we look at it from the fiscal lens, right? Because we understood and we talked about the fiscal cliff. We talked about the impact of lesser two three years ago. The reason why we went and signed anou with UI to save that million dollars is understanding that we were going to come to this fiscal cliff. Right? So this is just us continuing on that journey of trying to find the most efficient means to be able to deliver the highest level of service that we possibly can in an
014in an urban school district. Right? So that's what we have in front of you this evening in terms of the east end school ed spend K12 840 student all on site circulation the ability to work with the city to not just build a school but make sure that we look at the adjacency right the sidewalk the the the urban edge there clean that up right make sure that that rip rock wall where the where the field is that rock wall that comes down pushing that back making a walking prominad because guess but folks walk that block from the hospital and enabler making that safe and attractive for our students. That's what we are proposing this evening. Um and the Espec is the document that pretty much just calls out the the the construction methods and
015what will be within the building. Right? So your mechanicals, it gives a brief overview of the programming, but we're we're well ahead of programming. Um you know the rationale behind it. Obviously, this is based on studies that we've done. And then we get into talking about the interiors, the building systems, um you know, uh the construction bonuses that that may apply here of site development, you know, but there's another piece to this, right? It's just not us building a building for the sake of the the children that are in much need of this. This is all also about the neighborhood and tearing down that building that has been sitting there far too long. That's an eyesore, right? I drive by I drive by that building, it breaks my heart. You know, my parents, they went
016through heart. You know, we have a lineage here in Bridgeport, you know, and we believe in in the things that we do, myself, my team, the folks facilities. Any questions? Mr. Trader, I was also during the call. Um, committee members, do you have any questions? Start. Mr. Ben, Mr. Woodson. Um, no, not at this time. Thank you, Mrs. Kovich. There's quite a few. Um, good. All right. Now, we're looking at I'm looking at the document you gave me. Seeing a couple issues on the like a typo on the top needs to be fixed. And um then we're talking about equity. saying all Edison and beers leave it all on one side of the town and we're referring to the master plan as having been adopted by the Bridgeport Board of Education. We did not adopt
017anything right now. That plan is a proposal which could be changed at any moment and to consolidate Hall Edison and Beardsley into one building would require a vote of the board to go through the process school closing process. So to put this forward towards the state as having a plan adopted is misleading. So the state should be aware that these plans could change at any moment. We've got an interceding election coming where new board should not be bound to close three schools before the election even happens. I've been trying, begging and pleading this committee and the superintendent to move forward the master plan so we can discuss it and perhaps make amendments and changes to it in order to deal with this these issues coming up but still we happen to have one actionable portion
018of this facilities master plan. There's several questions around this plan that needs to be addressed like why was Brian dropped off? Why aren't we, everybody, please don't react, don't freak out. Why aren't we redistricting the whole city to discover how to save transportation costs? What's going to be the increased transportation cost for these schools? We say we can save5, $6 million, $10 million, even $20 million maybe on the building costs. That's city estate money. What about the operating costs? If we pay an extra1 million to$2 million dollars in buses just because this plan is better for the city and for us, I'm not saying I'm against a new school. Absolutely 100% these children deserve a new school. These they deserve to learn in an environment and they they definitely deserve it. But this is not
019being approached in an equitable manner. to say it's approaching the network matter and to hold up um I saw in the neighborhood going on three four years now that's one building we're talking about shutting down three buildings you know we going to move as fast and quickly on Harding only reason we're getting Harding is because the city couldn't get rid of it what was the plan before before the hospital fell through and said no they don't want it and you got to give us millions of dollars to repair it. What was what was the plan before that? If we didn't have Harding general, why won't the city why won't the state fund renovate as new in these three buildings? We've got uh 600 and 700 students school at Winthre that are moving on the north
020end. They're all moving into another school, repairing their school like brand brand new and then they're moving back. Why can't this be consideration on the east end? Why can't the same thoughts be given to them? And why are we only talking about the three schools on the east end? Why has Bryant dropped off the list? Bryant is in just in bad shape. There's more than three schools in our system that are underutilized and pass their useful life. Is that not correct? You want me to answer? No, you can do one at a time. Yeah. So, you write down I can answer one question just on the facilities master plan. Uh the final version of the facilities master plan is not finished yet. It's going to take about another two weeks, two and a half weeks
021before the company gives us the final version. So, what what you were looking at was a draft version at that point. They haven't given us the final copy yet that we can get out to you. We're still I asked them yesterday for a concrete date and they said either next week or the week after they will let me know tomorrow on that date when they page that they're going to have their final copy done. Just on that note, I just want to just add real quick. It's not a final plan from the company. We get confused just I can't answer a couple of your questions. Uh we're talking about Bears League. fall and right. Um when we did the cost analysis of these buildings, the top four elementary schools capital needs per square foot, Bearsley
022Hall, Park City, and Edison are the top four. When we look at elementary schools capital needs per cost per student, Hall, Bearsley, and Edison. So, we're not just picking these schools out of the sky saying, "Look, we want to go to this part of town and and change everything." What we're doing is saying we have needs. We have issues. We have an opportunity. We have a delegation that's prepared to go and fight for for the dollars that we need and and and and potentially um the reimbursement rates that we need. We have a council that we've briefed and we talked to that feel strongly about this program also. So, we have this opportunity and the time is right to make this happen. I understand that the worlds might not might not line up perfectly. I
023get that. But I've said it time and time again in Bridgeport. Opportunity comes and we talk ourselves out of opportunity. This is about children. This is about bottom dollars that the taxpayers have to pay in their taxes every single day. This is about us getting these kids into a building where they have a fighting chance that's ADA compliant, that has air conditioning, that has the proper ventilation. We talk about air quality. We talk about all these things. We talk about the der the gap and education where you can't plug anything else in. Kids can't use the same technology as their peers in the new building. Those are just the facts. And I'm not here to debate anything. I'm here to give recommendations. That's my job. And I'm here to do this based on data. This
024is not us coming to you. And you know, we've come to you plenty of times having to do this work on our own. This is a third party. Now, a lot of this stuff we've talked about years and year in year out. We talk about same thing. Joe, you know it. You You've agreed in the past, but here we are. Agree right now. Here we are with the opportunity. Council is prepared. The delegation is prepared. The state is prepared. And this is not a program that happens overnight. This is a four year. This is a four or five year journey that we're going to embark on. Absolutely. And um that's what I respon follow questions and points. Everybody sitting here, no matter which side of the issue we're talking and debating, wants what's best for
025our children. Not one of us sitting in this room wants torn down buildings in our school. We got different ways to get the it needs to be thoroughly thoroughly discussed and debated and analyzed because yeah, we get the new buildings, but like I said, if we're doing $2 million more in buses, $1 million more in buses each and every year, that's coming out of the operating cost that children will have to bear in reductions on their services. They need to we need I don't know why, you know, Russia has to say it's a four, four or five year process. The proposal's master facility plan has us going out to bid not out to bid going before the bond either this school year or the next school year. This process feels rushed. We don't we don't
026even know if it's going to end up saving us money because the transportation cost could eat everything because we haven't done that. Can I answer that question briefly? Sure. Um in terms of rushing I think we're rushing uh this opportunity and embracing it. Right. number one, but number two is that every other city in the state right now is rushing to get projects on the the list, right? And every time that we don't make this move, we risk that the state's going to cap out on school construction. What happens if a year from now the state said, "Look, we take on too many obligations. We're going to have to kick the can for 5 years." Then what? This is not something that we're asking because we want to see a new building. This is something
027we're asking for because these buildings are in a state that it's in disrepair. They're not healthy. They're not safe. Those are the facts. So, so, so it's an absolutely beyond it beyond a doubt that the state will never approve renovate as new for any of those schools that we're closing down. They don't they don't fit the criteria for a state grid. You need that English unless if we're going to do what we've done in the past based on the same state formulas of eminent domain. Are we going to tell but we we can't we can't gut renovate these buildings as we did to we can but we're going to pay 100% of them and we're not going to make them 88 compliant and we're not talking about 60 million for the three of them. We're
028talking probably $80 million a building that this this the taxpayer of Bridgeport's going to have that whole entire burden on their back based on us having to bond a full dollar a month to do that and we're still not going to be able to give them everything they need. Those are the facts. I think the other thing, you know, those three schools are pasuum here at K. you are bumping those children out, the the um seventh and eighth graders that are in the neighborhood because furiously all uh in Edison are K6 schools. So you have to bus them out with with with the advent of busing, it's a possibility that there would be and stay in the same school in that continuum um to be able to gradu you know to be able to go
029on and graduate from eighth grade and go on to high school at that time. Right now they are being moved and sometimes when you really look at it prek they're somewhere else they could be moved in. So they're doing two moves already while other schools are only doing one move if that before they get out of school. prayer. And the final thing is before we even get to the state, before it goes to the board, definitely need to move remove the misleading language that this plan was adopted. Page one, number two. Okay. Not adopt one. We did not adopt anything. We need to fix the title before it says and which are moving out. May second at the time. He's going long range. You still on the adopted part or which part of your revision
030that be sent? I don't Oh yeah, the revision here. Yes. Say nothing. That was Oh, I think that might have been added. Point of information, Madam Chair. Yeah, that was that last point of information. Okay. It It is no longer in the draft and um in the draft. Okay. I I I had the same question. Yeah. No, we'll we'll have it uploaded to the portal. I read it I read it this afternoon. Had the exact same question. So, and it's and it's talking about a lot of upgrades. If we're building a new building, we're putting in new stuff instead of rather than upgrading. We're not taking the old stuff for it's just it's just updating by the state. These are templates that filled out a portion of this was filled out by construction services and
031then we followed up with some of the details. name is not inspects for special education. Yeah know but but it is diametrically opposed to what you just said the format format should be going to this second document that was prepared as well but it's not just being built new it doesn't look like template wasn't okay that's all thank you I want to kind of come up that just move around then you mentioned for those that are in the room you mentioned 6040 that is for new construction correct yes what is the re uh renovation new uh numbers 6040 is building a new building renovated is 8020 roughly 80% something 80% 20 for the renovations and new is 6040. Yes. You mentioned also the PK was going to bring a actually let me let me let
032me give you the correct number for the new construction. Uh reimbursement rate is 68.57. That's reimbursement rate. That's the reimbursement rate from the state. So the city portion of that is 31.43%. sorry 57 in your pack the new one that we discussed the new one we would you said PK you mentioned the prek program brings in a s an an incentive what is that incentive for the PK I'm not sure exactly what the kickers are The state decides those figures. You mentioned need certification the net zero that also brings incentives. Yes. So you when you build a highly efficient building the state also gives you a kicker because they want our buildings to be highly efficient you know because that is no because those those are negotiated by the legislators. So where do you you
033mentioned 90% reimbursement? So where did you get that number from? That's a number we feel that is reasonable because we're looking what other towns are doing. Other towns like let's take Stanford for instance who has plenty of money. They have just gotten I believe the 8020 for school construction for the next 25 years. Their delegation negotiated that. Right now, the state is is is willing to do some things for school districts that are in need. They had a facilities master plan. They had $800 million worth of need in their school district. So, the state took the fact that they had these issues in the school district and they were able to give them a different reimbursement rate for the next 20 to 25 years. That's when we started looking at that Winston uh Winstead Connecticut.
034They went from uh 20% to 50% reimbursement. So when we started looking at those details, we said to ourselves, well, here in Bridgeport, we've got some issues and we sat down, spoke with the delegation, and we feel that they can uh they can request a 90% reimbursement rate. Those conversations they've been having. So we feel confident about that. You said $60 million to repair tier one. You had mentioned two schools, but then you talked about $60 million is what the FCA, the facilities condition assessment calls out in needs for Bearsley, all mentioned two and then you said three later. Then you said at the three mark, you mentioned 80 something million. You said if we're going to renovate those, if we're going to renovate those buildings, we're looking at around $80 million per building roughly.
035And those are estimates, right? But looking at construction cost square footage and what we've seen in the past, those are reasonable estimates. It's pretty in the facilities match that there was three different tiers for each building or so. I think that's So he's talking about tier one, the immediate needs. Yeah. But when he spoke today, he mentioned the 60 million and he mentioned the schools and tier one. He said it clearly but then he went back and mentioned something on three other schools or three schools and then he mentioned 80 million and I'm taking my notes he went from 60 to 80 figure out 60 to 80 now we jump over on numbers based on the question words kind of person like you already know words matter to me and I just want to make
036sure that we're getting to the facts and the numbers because you also mentioned in the beginning of your of your thing that we're looking for an approval um and I just want to make sure you're clear that there's no approvals made in a committee meeting. You know that, right? Well, approval or, you know, recommendation goes to the full board. Okay. Just want to make sure I again made it work. Um, if this project is moved together, you mentioned it was 12.5 total cost to the city. Yes. At the end, that's what it was. Yes. Based on a 90% reimbursement rate of $125 million. Thank you. I just want to make sure I put my notes right. Thank you. I'm Mr. Mr. Traver. Thank you, Madam Chair. Um, George, have you ever submitted a project and
037withdrawn it? Yes, that's uh you can pull the root board. It's happened. Um, obviously when you get to the state level, the state has to approve it also because we have to put an application in. So, it's not a guarantee that if we put this in that they're going to approve it. Um, you know, this is this is one of another one of those reasons why you want to get on a priority list as fast as you can because there's going to be a cap and depending on what the state wants to spend for the year. Uh, we might not we may be above that cap number. So getting this in an expedited fashion, right, which we have everything geared up to be able to submit first day of when we can't submit in June.
038We would like to be the first in line. Okay. Um let me be uh clear from my point of view. Um I am not I I have stated to different people in different discussions. I lean to favor this project. As a resident of this neighborhood, as a grandparent of two children who would probably attend this school, um I don't have the misgivings expressed by uh Mr. Sakalavvic. Uh I think that this is focused on three schools in my general neighborhood. Uh Beardsley not being my neighborhood in so far as it's the uh east east side, not the east end. But um I think one of the reasons for the disparity or the u um the isolation of this part of the city is that it's been neglected. Um, Bryant actually did get renovated. Uh, and
039it was a little surprising that Bryant was on the list originally because Bryant had been renovated. It had been shadowly done for other reasons that I won't go into. Um, and so it was in need of fixing up because it had not been well done the first time, but it is a school that had been renovated for whatever reasons, um, but not been well done. And so Brian is a school worth um uh keeping in that neighborhood. Um but uh uh um so I I do understand why Brian did not get put on this list. Um but the schools in my neighborhood have been neglected for ever, if you will. Uh that's rhetorical, obviously. Um the um and so something needs to be done. Um my concern and and I've been upfront with anybody that
040I've talked to um is uh that we have yet to have a chance to really hear from the neighborhood um despite my feelings. Um and uh uh so I believe that we still need to make a better effort to reach out to the neighborhood. Um and in having a discussion with two members of the delegation, uh they both agreed with me. Uh but they also both agreed that we need to get this submitted for the reasons that you've expressed. um and that we can withdraw it if we need to. Uh if the neighborhood comes out in strong opposition to this plan that we can withdraw it at a later date. So my support is conditional on us making that good faith effort. Um the best plan that I've come up with at this point and
041I I I qualify it as the best one that I have come up with. there may be somebody who comes up with a better plan and I would be more than open to somebody's ideas for a better plan is that we spend a solid week um having uh meetings in the cafeterias of uh Paul Edison and Beardsley with intense um you know uh efforts to make everybody aware of those meetings. Um and then the following week we hold a neighborhood meeting in um uh Harding. Uh and hope that the meetings that were held in those three cafeterias would stimulate discussion and awareness among the people that live in those neighborhoods. Uh that there will be a bigger meeting in Hardy. um so that we have something better than the I believe less than 10 people
042that showed up at the uh meeting at Harding the first time. Um but uh I don't think that that needs to be done for us to act on what you you're proposing here. Um, based on the discussions I've had with the de two state reps and what you're saying, what you just answered to my question that I asked you at the outset of my time tonight that we can submit a uh request for uh funding and that uh if it turns out there is strong opposition in that neighborhood, then we have to re-evaluate our position. Um, now I do want to ask a few questions uh about the actual plan that you've put on the table before us. Uh, Mr. Sakalawik asked the one about the uh uh correcting the language at the outset. Um,
043we went from 750 to 840 students in this proposal here for us. Can you explain what that's about? So the state mandates that outside agency do the um do the the projection the projections um for the next 10 years. So based on those projections uh we had to shift from 750 to 840. Okay. Um those are in are they in the facilities master plan that we're going to go up or where did that come from? Um that was uh by the outside index that was commissioned. I I guess Rob some of the difference differences is that being a right now um all three schools are K6. So part of the projections is to look at I think that's why it went up uh looking at 78 and then we also have a model of I
044think usually one or two prek to um three kindergarten 3 first 3 second 33rd and so and so. I think they part of the model was they bumped uh prek up to four because there was that kicker to where they were trying to get more prek space um inside of that school. And I think that's what pushed the numbers up knowing the state um whatever we propose as a number or whatever they do, the state's going to come back and cut that in half. um they're going to come back and it's going to end up being no matter what we have a 750 uh student school is what it is. Um we send them um the edge back. We let them look at it. We tell them what we need. It's almost like what we
045did for uh all of our schools that have been underbuilt. They come back and say, "Well, we're only going to give you dollars for this many students." And that's how they handle it right there. I I would say it's better to be a little higher anyway. Um let them let them work on it rather than, you know, give them something at 750 and they say, "No, we're only going to give you for five bit." First thought that crossed my mind when I saw the higher number was that they've always lowered our number. So that was the first thought that crossed my mind, but I figured I wouldn't put words into your mouth. I'd hear what you had to say first. Yeah. But okay. And then my next question is on page four of what I
046saw. I think it's page four. No, it might be page three. Uh it's uh site development. And I apologize, but what my printer spews out is tiny print. So I have my uh magnifying glass to try and read it. Um but it's site development uh sub and under that traffic flow it says um uh parent vehicles to remain on city streets and use established drop off areas. Um is there going to be any modification of central because Lord knows you ain't going to be dropping off on Boston Avenue. There's there's already Well, let me just finish. There's already a disaster that will be disappearing after this year uh from the charter school where the parents all park on Boston Avenue uh waiting to go into that parking lot to pick up their kids. Um and
047if we had anybody else parking on Boston Avenue to pick up their kids, it would be a disaster. And I would think a school that size waiting to pick up kids because with the high school there, you know, that was never an issue because the kids walk out and walk away. But if parents were picking up, I know what Blackum was like at uh school dismissal. It was a nightmare. Um because those streets around Blackam were clogged with parents waiting to pick up their kids. Um, and if you had busy streets like uh um um C view and uh um or Bishop Malls and and Boston, it would be uh it would be a nightmare. So, would there be any plan to modify the street, widen the street? Because I thought everyone was going to
048be driving on property and off to pick up kids, but I guess you're not. Um, no, the intent was we we submitted this overview that we created and because we didn't call it out on that, it ended up like this in the EDS spec in terms of um on street parking, I mean on street drop off, but we have opportunity on site. So, if you look at the the site plan itself where you come in and you have the bus drop off, we'd add a lane there sort of like what we've been doing in many of our schools. Yeah. So that's what I originally thought the parents would be driving that loop around in the back Yeah. of the old high school and dropping off kids there. So So that that's the intent. Okay. So
049your sentence says on you know existing in in in that section I just cited it says you know city streets site development. Yeah. vehicles to remain on city streets and use established drop drop off areas and you're telling that you I my impression from your previous presentation was that wasn't the case and now you're saying that's not the case. So that either needs to be corrected or you know we will amend that. There's plenty of space to do a parallel path here for parents. As you can see where you have the bus drop off in red, you can continue forward and do a parallel for a parent drop off. There's plenty of there's plenty of space on site. Okay. All right. That's all the questions I have, Madam Chair. Thank you. Let's take going back
050off of his um comment about the capacity for 840 is the idea that all of Beersley all all residents currently are blind clarify that I think a good portion of that I think that we have some underutilized schools where we're pulling in students I mean this is not my world but understanding the heat masks that we've been utilizing for a lot of this um you know some students will go to to Uber school obviously which is at 200 students now capacity about 50% underutilized. Um so there is some shifting um will see some relief in some instances. So as you start to as you build this school things will start to develop in terms of the location of the building itself and um you know that'll that'll that'll have some holistic change in terms of
051um student population. Mr. Go ahead. I just wanted to add I thought that I I meant to add that the prek thing is true. Whatever the number ends up being that comment about adding more. Um both of my granddaughters are going to Park City magnet right now because that was the closest they could get to. Um so you know or the one I have and the next one we expect would be going you know halfway across town to get into a prek school. So, it's a much needed service in our part of town, too. Mr. Woodson, do you have any questions? Um, no questions. Just a comment. Um, I just want to remind the, you know, the just the the board members here that, you know, we are being, you know, under this under the
052scope of the state right now. So, you know, if we could make any progress, especially progress towards, you know, you know, opening school buildings and closing some of these old 100-y old buildings. I think that'll look good for us throughout, you know, the state. Thanks, Benham. Thank you, Madam Chair. I'll make a motion to the whole board and especially for the East End school, Mr. Bennett has made a motion committee members second. I'll second it. Second. Um, do you have any questions to the maker motions? Any further debate on that? There's a couple of questions that can come to mind. the J speaking the the upgrade from 8:40 to 750 or 750 um concerning so so when say we're saying none of these three schools they have prek and the prek was restricting that or
053wasn't the original plan put forth in the facilities master plans do have prek going in there was that something that we added after in this one in the in the new in the proposed master plan yeah so so I think they upgraded two classrooms. Um, from that perspective, if we can get four, we're trying to get four prek classrooms that are that are going to be in the school. So, remember, it's a projection. So, one one of the things they take the 8-year projection and they look at the highest of the eight years that they would have. So, uh, when they do that, the company at least, they said that that number of 8, whatever it was, 836, 840, whatever it is, that's going to be the highest is what they're projecting that will be
054in that area. Right now, that's not our number. I mean obviously the the I think the difference is when we look at the school um right now with the prek6 classrooms what what this will do is this will allow kids in the area to be able to go prek8 it'll allow that continuum to go through so that they can stay in the same school have that experience in school and then from there go on to whatever the high school is now I'm not saying that just like anything else is this going to solve everything. There may be overcrowding just like just like everything else right now. We we don't know at this at this point. Those are the projections of what the company has given us. And right and I I don't disagree with everything
055you said right there. Definitely continuity all the schools should have been probably Kate from the beginning like the rest of the schools. Maybe they would have higher capacity which would be such a predicament as they are today. But however, my main concern in asking this question is because master the plan got a projection of 750. This plan has projection of 840. We are 90 higher from one projection to another. And the facilities management plan is predicated on a shrinking population in Bridgeport over the next 10 years. That's right. So which numbers are reliable in planning the future of this district? the facilities master plans number or this new firm. I think maybe we might need a second opinion on the demographics. It's actually the same firm. It's the same who did who did um the
056projection for this new school um because obviously we have them and the state mandates an outside source that is doing those projections and can't come from me you know or anybody in the district. So do do you do you understand my concern? Am I No, I am. Am I missing something that's obvious that I should be able to meet? Yeah. So those projections that they were given if the school if the schools were still being opened, that's what the projection would look like for that school based on exit. So there were no schools that were closed. Those are the projections of what it would look like. Now making a new school projections are going to change because what we're doing is we're modifying those and saying okay based on the new school and if we
057took all those students you know and looked at the highest point and put them in the areas this is what we could be looking at based on all those numbers that 836. Um could it be 836? Absolutely. Could it be less? Absolutely too. Um we're not we're not there at that point to see if that's it. That's why your numbers are when you're saying nine short, really those projections in the K6 schools are only for K6. They're not for preK8 or preK6. They're not for preK8. So adding those in there is going to up that um projection in the new school to a little bit higher value than what looks like. So basically overall we're still expected to contract as a city in the next 10 years for that school that overall because like the
058whole master plan big holistic weave of things that got to come together is predicated upon a shrinking population right for the city of Bridgeport right so that still holds true I I would I would say that I'm not the one who wrote the you know master plan but the reality is that's what they're saying is going to occur. I think the expectations now is having those extra classrooms for prek and everything else could could take away from some some of those community sites and start bringing more back into the district. I I can't answer that. Just like in just like if something happens to a charter school in the next two years and we have to absorb all those children. How do we know? I mean, we're saying it's a projection of what what they're
059looking at. They do it off birth rates. They they they took they take a look at um certain development development, birth rates, uh they they look at other factors that play in there. That's how they come up with with their numbers realizing we're in Bridgeport. Anything could change at any time. So, so again, get some good governance. That's right. So, that's why it's my Okay, final final question. As far as um the per people cost that mentioned more fair per capacity cost, especially since these schools do not have prek through eight and it's kind of numbers are kind of skewed because if they if they were at full capacity and they have prek through eight the cost per pupil would go down. So so it was done two ways. One was cost per square foot
060which is industry standard and which is another industry standard to balance that understanding the efficiency of your building. It was done cost per student. So that gives you the the clearest picture because it takes both both ends of the spectrum and analyzing. So when you look at cost per square footage the tiers stay the same the um as far as the three schools being the most. Yes. So, so for instance, Paul's per square foot, Bearsley Walls, Park City, Magnet, Edison, Falls per student, all Bearsley Edison. Thank you. That's all I chair. Um, you asked me to look at this document and I'm looking at it now. The last the last sheet with the with the numbers. I see there a number there. It says reimbursement rate says 68.57. Why is that? Isn't that a reimbursement
061rate that you gave me for a renovation? Not you. Isn't this for you or am I missing something there? That's what we're talking. No, I'm saying this is for new. Yeah, but I thought new was 6040 with the other thing. The 68 corrected myself. The 68.57 was for renovations. No, no, I had correct. I said 6040. I meant to say 68.57. I should have done that accurate because I had a doc. Okay. For for renovations, I mean for for new construction and then renovation is the 78 whatever. Is that 8020 or something? Okay. So, that's the right number. Okay. I got a menu. Okay. Thank you. There's been a motion and a second. Um, uh, committee members, do you have any further motion to move this to the full board on table? Um, you can
062say I I I any questions. All right, that one's going to the school board Monday. The next one is discussion possible after the toll board specialized school. So, one of the things that when we look at the district and we look at what we've been going through over the last year, the duts and, you know, having to to make strategic moves to print the budget, one of the things that's been reoccurring is that special ed and the cost for out of district placement is one of the things that we have to have better control of, right? um you know we go to the council and we say we need more money and you know we have to find a way to start to shake the tree here ensure that we're getting the most efficient use
063of our dollars so when we do ask for funds from the state from whoever it is they understand that we're doing everything possible to be as efficient as we possibly can. So that theory of all of that started a conversation um and this is a conversation that's been happening for a very long time. And I know that there's been conversation about building something uh to help save off the cost of out of district placements has gone out for a long time, but we wanted to do something um that actually put the paper apron. And when we saw that we were going to have the potential of the the bassic site, we started talking, wow, imagine if we took the bass site and did X on it. Um, understanding that there's a good e economic development
064path for a bassing site um and that we're moving skate to win, we pivoted to the SC site. So what we have here is and this once again is me and Mike going out doing some scale measurements of what we could do on site and we uh you know take the once again putting everything on site circulation and the whole thing and we just wanted to lay something out to see if it was a feasible project which realized it was. um to that we would propose to build a specialized center obviously site um I know Dr. Avery and PJ can speak more to that would help us to start to change the dynamic of special ed to start having an offering here in Bridgeport that is substantial. Um you know there's been a lot of
065work and a lot of discussion about how that would look. I know that PJ and his group have been reaching out to hospitals and universities that have you know um curriculums or or specialties in these areas. um you know trying to see where we can create partnerships with UB and other other entities because we understand that we got to start doing things differently in Bridgeport. We have a tendency of doing the same thing and trying to find a different a different result. We all know how that works. Um so we put something together that we think can help to start to change the tide a bit in terms of um spe I'll take the first part of it. Um so so this uh special ed building um basically is going to be prek to 12.
066Okay. Um we're going to start it off with prek to 8 is how we're going to start it off. But we realize that once these students are in eighth grade, we would need a wing to have a continuum. So we're when they're in eighth grade, we're not sending students out again. They're in the same school in the same facility. they're just going to go to the high school wing and they're going to start high school. We're not planning to bring back high school students into the school immediately. So, the um enrollment is going to be a little bit low. We're going to start with our prek, build it up all the way to 8th grade, and then from that year when we start to build, we're going to be focusing on our prek and 8
067population. understanding that while we're focusing on that, we're going to start building out this high school component because it makes no sense to build a school just for prepaid aid and then send these children out somewhere else where we have to pay for them. Why not keep them in the same school, have a um a wing that houses our high school population at this point, and allow our high school students or those eighth grade students graduating into high school to uh stay with the program inside of that same school building. Um but yeah, I think I think that's good to share. uh really try to make sure that we this whole process with special education and expanding the continuum of services is a massive massive undertaking. So I think one of the things that we're
068wanting to do is to incorporate the um uh the Bridgeport Learning Center into into play but expanding upon the great things we're doing with that particular school. uh having a brand new site for them and then really looking at how we're programming that facility, you know, into this new facility because if we don't build the programs in house, we can't bring kids in house. Uh because the reason why they went out of district placements is because we could not serve them in district. So we have to be able to create and and redefine and re redesign programs that's going to be meet the needs of autistic students, cognitive delays, emotional disabilities, sensory impairments, and a magnitude of different other learning disabilities within our district. And we got to do it very well. So, this will
069be a a great start for the our our district to be able to, you know, really, you know, turn the leaf on an area where we're spending a lot of money sending kids out. Uh, a lot of kids and a lot of spending would like to be close to home with their families on the dayto-day and being able to kind of make that connection with with their regular peers within our district as well. So, this is this is a great opportunity and and I can tell you I' I've talked to a lot of superintendent and state legislators across the state and the focus of trying to there's a lot of legislation out there that's going to help district bring more of those dollars back into the district for programs, you know, to to expand upon
070the programs that all districts across Connecticut are doing for kids uh with special needs. And so, again, this is a great start. Uh there's no guarantee that we would we would we will even get the funding for the the campus, but I think we have we're probably one of the largest districts spending the most money millions of dollars for out of district placement. And so if the state feels that we they can provide that opportunity for us inhouse to build a program, I think we need to take that opportunity and and um uh really, you know, take it and and really do a good job with it. So yeah. Yeah. I'd like to jump in for a minute. So, we did work with the technical assistance team and we took their recommendations. Um, at first
071we were looking at having a a regional special ed center or at least looking to build it so that we can start getting costs and bringing money in from uh you know uh the surrounding towns and everything else. One of the things is that we weren't ready for that. The recommendations were that if we build the school to start off with Bridgeport public school students um and then build that to a regional center at this point once we make sure that this school is able to operate in the manner that we need it. I mean we we need we need we need to have um certified teachers. We need to make sure that the programs are running properly. We don't want to get an X on you know Bridgeport. We want to make sure that
072while we're building this facility for our children that we have the capacity to be able to make it if we decide to and the board decides with us to make it a regional um special ed center that we could have that also before we put the edge backs together that was the one big thing that I wanted to make sure if we decided in the future that we wanted to do this were we able to do this and the state said yes we could amend and make it if we decide a regional special ed center. Yeah. And to that point, um the way that the site is, we can add if we needed to build additional square footage, we have the ability to build additional square footage. Now, the other piece to uh the specialized
073center is that the state reimbursement rate on that is 95%. On a $75 million program, I mean, that's 2.95 lost to the city taxpayer. I think that's one hell of a bang for the buck. And not only is that a great deal for Bridgeport, it gives us the ability to now start turn the tide and bring those dollars back, if we can start to bring back dollars and start to to to really look at how we're operating, we're showing good faith on our part. We talk about the fiscal responsibility constantly. I hear you loud and clear for years about how we're coming to a point where we need to start looking at things differently. When we Aubrey, I know that my team, we look at this like a business. Can we afford that? And if
074we buy it, can we sustain? Because that's part of it, right? The sustainability of anything. And at times, because there's a need, you make the investment, but you don't think downstream. We can't think like that. We don't have the ability to continue to think like that. It's time for change. These are drastic changes, right? They're disruptive, but it's time for disruption. question. I just want to um say that same the same issues from what Mr. B pointed out with this adopted in this okay this packet so it's amend that and then um somebody else had vulner yes yeah that will be amended as well questions for committee members first Mr. Thank you much. Just to listen to you, you know, it made me emotionally into tears. So, this is amazing product, you know, and I
075know like you said, I'm trying to save money here for us because I know we got our schooling around for different city and we pay a lot of money especially when it does special education and this is something that will be you know like you said the first time there's something history you know why we have to have children's outside when we can't have it here in our city. So I know parents that will listen and leaders and everyone know the board members I know they will be you know excited to have something like that and you know I'm very glad that I will approve this 100% just right now because you know guys how I am with special education you know Mr. about special education that they read too all of us but you
076know when they talk about special education you know you guys know we are 100% there to support because that's what we need and that's what our parents need some parent they say why my son or my daughter have to be go so far away you know this and that worry something happen to communicate the time and know they're going to know they're going to have something here in court trust me the parent will be happy you know so I'm very glad break this I know the process it's a protocol it take time approve you know people they think we're going to do this tomorrow you know sometime people don't understand the message this a protocol you have to bring you know to the committee we talk we discuss you know they will take time but
077for now on for the record I will say yes for this you know so you know I will support you for going for this no more question m Mr. Uh yes. I want to I want to congratulate the the the staff that worked on this. This is a excellent thing. Like Mr. Benahan said, um this is a long time coming. We've been talking about it for a long time. You know, it's been getting shut down, but I'm glad now that, you know, everything is going to be starting to come to fruition. We're going to start being be being able to bring money back to the district. we're going to be able to look at the state and say that we're being responsible with with the money that we're being given and when we ask for
078more, you know, they won't have a problem giving it to us hopefully. I want to thank you guys. You want doing a wonderful job. That's a wonderful thing you're doing. Well, Mr. Cher, then Mr. Mr. Cher, I'm sorry. I thought you said somebody else before me, Madam Chair. Um yeah, I I concur. Um I I one minor disagreement with Woodson. This is a a vast difference over what was previously proposed and a vast improvement over what was previously proposed. Uh because it is a a site that will be dedicated to the special ed kids. Um the other site proposal have been one that would be half half special ed and half um uh expelled kids. Um, if we recall, um, this is going to be a a a much larger site, a much nicer site,
079and one that will be used, um, for, uh, the special ed kids and a much more attractive site. And I think about the tour I took of BLC year, you know, uh, last year. And uh to think that those kids would have a new site like this is just uh as Albert said a wonderful thought. Uh so I applaud you for that. And I I'm I you I think you answered my my greatest fear was can we do this and make it work if you're already talking to the technical assistance team um guys and they're agreeing that this is a a worthwhile thing for us to step into because I know uh will Mr. Medina and I sitting on the on the CES board, everybody's sort of trying to figure out how can they set
080up a a site to attract new business, if you will, um to be uh crass, frankly. Um and uh we want to make sure that we do it right and we do it well um for our students first and then if what we're offering in doing well uh and we have had our problems uh if we're doing it well for our students then uh other people will be interested in uh participating in the program that we set up at at the new new site. So, I I applaud you for what you're proposing and I'm happy to hear the state uh the state uh technical assistance team is is is participating in these discussions. Thank you. Yes. Couple questions. I'm much more supportive than as many questions. It's not uprooting communities. Let's let's move into parts
081of this. I do have some concerns and I will support them definitely want us to go ahead and try this. Some of my concerns is okay as far as the building we had discussed when the city when the board basically was being neighbors and gave part of our property away for the city to gain rental income off of because that's not coming back to the school district. A piece of that parking lot. Where is that located on the outside of this on the left side? the left side of the gun, right? It's in in this rear corner where it says fields. This farthest area right here, but it's a very small parcel that drops down around 20 ft, right? So, it's not usable. But if we still had that, if we still had that property,
082we could have rented it out and had the revenue for ourselves, right? You know, that's a signs people need to know where the money's going to where we're trying to get it. Okay. Now, the second thing is um I believe I might be mistaken, but you said there was a issue with the sewage drainage or something on that property that we wouldn't be able to use it anyway. So, there is currently septic on site and further exploration. There are opportunities for us to bring sanitary lines, water, and everything to the building. So, we're going to follow the same path of the current water lines in order to achieve that. So obviously we don't want to blast and we don't want to do all these things and there's still some feasibilities that have to be done
083which should be commissioned the school building uh or the the city council commission the feasibility studies but our first go through we feel that this this can happen um and we're and you know as part of that that'll be a costly feature of this building to be able to get to that. Is it incorporated into the everything is incorporated into the dollars baked into the budget. Okay. And as far as economies of scale of making this work, as Mr. Traver said is a lot of districts are trying to do the same thing. And if anybody sat through the hearings, the special education hearings where the private entities came out in force. The private entities want us sending people any of course. Sure. They they weren't they weren't speaking as people. even even to the state
084some extent profits off of our children by going to their special education sites and we I mean I mean Craig was it Craig and system the people that very people that fund us actually call back some of our students and some of the funding through their program so I wouldn't be surprised if we get push back from the state on stealing their revenue programs to bring our children bagging and try to expand and take some more of their students and bring like say a trouble student or attractive students closer to their hometowns which will be a less restrictive environment for them and they have more learning opportunities. So so the re the regional side of that we haven't approached that as we said. So, we're looking at right now our students and yes, if there
085is a program that is inside of the uh brand new facility that we didn't have before, then yes, the opportunity is there for our children to be brought back. Uh and that's just the way it is. Um the reality is um when we're building the facility, this is where when we need to make sure from a programmatic standpoint, we're hitting those areas and those pockets that um are in most need for the Bridgeport public schools, right? Some of our kids who are medicual who, you know, um were hard to service, it's going to be hard to bring those children back. But the reality is if we look at the areas where those are um um the highest level of students that we're outsourcing those are the target areas we're going to look to bring back
086set programs. We've already done our homework as far as we've been out to multiple facilities and we're going out to more going out to New York. We don't think Pennsylvania has one. We are trying to go and make sure that when we build this facility um we're not missing anything that it's state-ofthe-art that when children come in all of the needs are met based on um you know based on their area of disability. Let's put it that way. Do we do we know um what the highest disability is that would be feasible to bring back? like um what's the autism or I'm just throwing out there. We haven't really analyzed that that intense because a lot of it depends on the needs from the PPT. So right what we'll have to do is evaluate the
087PPT based on why the kids was sent out and what's being serviced in that entity and then from that point could we bring them back into our facility or we have the same because we have an opportunity to say you know instead of paying $250,000 for that facility we can bring that in house and provide him that but we have to you have to work through that through the PPT and a whole lot of a lot of process the evaluation, the test, the things that we have to look at to say we can do the same thing, right? Yeah. But what I'm talking about is like just do that like an analysis perhaps beforehand. Say you've got I'm just going to make up autism again and somebody on a spectrum whatever level and you've got
08820 kids and you know you could build an awesome program that's better than the ones out there. When you go into the PPT, you can say we got this program now. We're going to propose this program. is going to be better than this because it'll have a higher staff higher staff members, right? Because we can afford it. We know we can afford because right now if we try to sell it to them before we've got that infrastructure or a plan for that infrastructure in place that would be least less likely to want to take their children down somewhere, right? And so we wouldn't even propose that to them now to rebuild it. This is a different unique situation where you have to have the programs built before you could even start doing a little bit
089of that, you know, and and what what in my in my head a lot of the kids that are at BLC, we program reprogram them the things that they're doing now already. So, how do we expand that and and and let the BLC kids experience that that expansion? And as we grow it, we know that it's serving those those those kids' needs in a in a more profound way. kind of large boards to continue to build up on that. So, and then then also going to other sites to see how they're there's so many innovative, you know, you know, um facilities now, uh that that we could we can really kind of, you know, replicate within our setting. So, those are the things we're looking at, but you also we know the cost of every
090kid. We have a list of every kid in our district and what we're paying for that district placement services. We have some kids that we spend over a million dollars on. But those with those kids with with higher needs, they stay at the facility. There's no way we're going to be able to bring those kids back in. So, we know that we won't even hit that that level of of care within our system. But there's a there there's a lot of kids right in the middle that if we build a system, we're going to be able to look at how we're going to bring those kids back in. And and it's it is it is it is a very integral process, you know, but you got to go through PPT. The district can't say you're
091coming back here. It doesn't work that way. It is a mutual uh perspective with the parent to say if we come to our system, come to our programs, let's let you go through the program, let you feel and understand what the program is all about and then you make that conversation about would you give us an opportunity to bring your gift back. There's a beautiful ways to be able to do that. It's just a process that we we're trained staff. The way we do business with special ed need to be different and it's all about a caring building of the relationships between the parent, the student, and the schools and and the caregivers within the schools to make sure you make a program that's going to be worth me as a parent bringing my kids
092back to. You know what I'm saying? So there's a lot of different things that we we have to take care in to in this this facility for sure uh to maximize what we do and how quickly we can get those kids back in. I think the other thing is the area. So when you sell a program and you want to bring parents back, you you you have a brand new building, but in a certain area where you bring that, it entices other people to feel um you know that wow, I I want my child to go to this program um to this school and and that's something in Bridgeport where I say um I'd like to get to the point where every school is desirable. Like when we talk about a school, it's nice to
093say, well, why are we going to X school? Well, why don't we want to go to X school? We've got to get to a point where with Richport schools, we're selling every school. In other words, we're motivating families to stay in their neighborhoods, go to their neighborhood school. These are these are things that we've discussed and talked about, but you know, still when you look at control transfers, um there are a ton of those that are coming through. And I think that's another factor that for another time we're going to need to have a discussion on it. Through Dr. E's leadership, one of the things that is refreshing is that we're getting outside of boxing. We're not just looking at it from from our lens. We're actually getting out there and going to these different
094programs and seeing things from a different perspective. And I think that's something that, you know, to me has been very powerful in this journey because understanding others others are doing. If they're doing it well, why recreate the wheel? Let's let's expand and build. Final question. Permits burn cost. The city charges us to file permits for schools which they basically in essence own that we turn over to them after we're done with them. Yes. Mina, I saw that tweet and I was like, "Wow, all that 1.5 and $2.2 million." Um, same thing that Mr. Traver said. I was gonna try to skip Joe, but Joe would know, you know, we go through the CS that we know. So, I appreciate your your words, PJ, that you said and we're not bringing a lot of district in
095until we have the program lined up with our kids. And we also want to make sure we got to make sure that we have again doesn't smoke that we got to make sure that we have our program set in this building before we even bring any of our first kids inside that building. Absolutely. Um because it's going to it's going to be a challenge. Um and like you said when he left but he said to me as George said you know we're not reinventing the big wheel. I'm glad we're going out there and checking out, you know, other it's been bestowed on me that, you know, George, um, some understanding and knowledge of other district and other other cities and maybe as we're not reinventing and we're trying to do things differently and just to
096consider in other bills or even some of these, who knows about playgrounds that are here in New York having playgrounds on top of the schools. That's that's out of de that's out of need and and that's that's out of what? That's out of me because the footprint but well of course. Yeah. But it's interesting because some of our you know buildings are older or whatever and then we don't have the space and everything. So when you say fields here um just for so we're talking about um dedicated special ed playscapes outdoor classrooms getting those students outside of the building. Um you know remember this is also a tranquil area. So when we had the opportunity, me and Mike got the opportunity to put our hands and start to sort of lay this out in our
097mind, get a chance, go skain and stand out there. It's it's kind of quiet. It's serene. It is it's it's such an inviting site uh for for this type of programming. Um so we're excited about the the the the potential. Listen, we're excited about the potential of all of this. We're excited of the potential to continue to forge forward. Although we have fiscal issues, we also want to provide solutions. Yeah. So when you talk about fields, it's just basically play playground. And then I I was going to ask about the playscape circles that we have here. Yeah. So fields open open fields, playscapes, you know, or is that green now? Um there's some green. There's some ashall that's a bash of days. There used to be a trailer there. It's no longer there. I mean,
098you know, that that building seen uh its better days. Now we saying 75.5 square feet. How many classrooms are we? So So that number that was a that was me and Mike when we laid it when we first laid it out just to get a scale of what we could build there. The buildings would be right around 45,000 square ft based on the populations and and as we grow. Well, what we do is and the reasoning behind us wanting to lay out a bigger building because that potential is if we do get it right and start to develop the workforce here and we find the right partnerships and where we have the ability to now regionalize, we have the ability and the square footage or the acreage on site to add to the built. So,
099so you know, we think we we think short and long term here when we're talking about this program. uh we haven't left any any leaf unturned you know I mean I think it's important for us to think big so what am I looking at here that you gave me I reference a 75.5 so so that 45 square ft so what are we because then we're talking about permits over here and there's dollar amount that's based on the 45 everything the dollar amounts are based on 45,000 the layout is just reference okay the layouts are just reference just like the match I'm sorry I just don't and he needs to just to see what could couldn't been. No, no, no. Yeah, I've heard him before about adding. So that's what I was going to ask because
100I when I look at this, where are we adding? Where will we be adding if we wanted to add when we Yeah. So So that'll be a shrunk down that that you know that's us. So 45 architects 45k grave foot. How many classes are going to be in that building then? So, so for us that's that's another um aspect depending on the programs that we bring back at this point what it's going to look like from a class size. The state the state mandates how much space a classroom sizes a classroom sizes based on a student and a student with disabilities. So they'll mandate yes in other words they can't mandate a building to be built on a on a student's need. We build buildings, then we bring kids into. So, so when they look
101at that, it's a square footage per because in a in a in a certain room where you have 29 students, your desk can be put together at that point. You're building certain rooms. It's based on this the footage that the student needs and it's a different footage than what you a regular classrooms need is. So the the the the classroom, although it looks the same, it's not going to have the same number of students inside of that classroom. And some of those classrooms may actually be spaces where um we're going to be able to bring children to do other things in those spaces. Not in a classroom space, but like um like they'll tell you like what we've seen where it could be a sensory room where kids are going to go into this room
102because um this room is built for them to get in there. They need to get in there. So there are other type rooms. We looked around and we've mapped it all out. When we start going really through what the building's going to look like, we can tell you exactly how many rooms that we expect us to have with all the other amenities to help our children um in those areas um that need to be helped. In other words, swings. We may have to have a room that that has swings for kids to be able to get. There's all kinds of things that go on at this point and I don't think that's all been 100% mapped out yet. Yeah. And building capacity, same thing. We're not We don't know what building capacity. Now we're going
103from 75.5 to a 45K square foot. So we don't know what the building capacity is going to be needed. So it was broken down based on 45 square foot that what we were looking at based on the highest could be 263 children. It's that 45K square foot still because I see here uh two stories that's still starting at his two story. Once again, that's just a reference that is going to look different. That is just a reference for us. That's just a reference for us to make sure that we had enough buildable space, D fields, place gates, all of that. Wait, you start talking about programming and and building and square footage per pupil and all of that. Me and Mike don't we don't do that. So for us, we are making sure that the
104site is a feasible site in order to build on what we can potentially put. Let me give you a little home for me. I know you guys are visiting other site and my understanding is you guys already visit other sites. So, I want you to take note of that because when you go to those sites, find out what's their square footage and how many students they have in that building because it's going to matter because when you have a bu a classroom that you only can have two two to five kid in that classroom, they get that type of classroom, you can't tell me that you're saying that building has a capacity of 262 kids when that one classroom is not a 29, it's not a 28. That's the chance. that right now they have
105about 60 children that if if we looked at it right now if you look at the projections without anything else those 60 children would be would be going inside the new um facility. So I mean DLC is possible and building and we're going to have empty well at a certain point. Yes. Oh yeah. Yeah. Just in general. I'm not saying dates or anything that's 5 10 whatever year down the line. Um I'm you know I've always been from the beginning that I've heard about us trying to build a special ed when I met with the the state they said you guys can help us with that and that's definitely something that we can that will help and it'll help the economy of for all of our kids they provided a lot of guidance that will
106assist the state I don't know one of their members um yeah at has built schools and understands this intimately So we have a good group of folks here that are being that are that are that that can support our efforts but once again you know we we have to start somewhere right so we're ensuring that sense um you know state has a specific amount of square footage that you can build out for special for for different programming and that's how we capture all of that. So we do have criteria that we follow in order to get to the numbers and sizes and all that. We can't overbuild and decide we want to build something bigger than than what the state will allow. Right. And and and for our um self-contained classrooms at a certain point
107that that handle a plethora of students that are in there, our max size has been 12. Now although some classes may have for whatever reason gone to 13 or whatever that really they try to keep that component to 12. So, if you look at 12 and then you you look at each grade level, um we've also got to look at I think our our highest grade levels are really high school when you're looking at this right now. But we want to build a continuum from prek forward so that when they're when they're going through the program, we can also take the needs of those children in the younger grades at the earlier ages and work on their disabilities also early. So you can get early work on all that and then once they're going through
108the program they would have the um opportunity to stay till 12th grade or at this point 22 years old um inside of the program. So taking that in consideration when we're bringing students in, there'll be a methodology to where this kind of students that we're going to bring into the school, our understanding is going to be hopefully um that they'll stay with us throughout the program and then they'll go on at that point. Yeah. I don't know if it's through you, Mr. Traver, or what committee would, but I would love to see a a comparison or like to know like how many, you know, K through five or you know six day how many are out there in our district that'll be a good thing. So thank you madam chair Mr. Ber thank you madam
109chair I I'll make a motion to um to the full board of specialized school. I'll second that. Um Mr. final like question there. No, I was going to second it. That's okay. Thanks. All right, Mr. K, do you have anything? Uh, I all I was just going to clarify was that when Mr. Sakalovic was talking about CRE, CRE is a regional education center like CES. So, it it happens to be an extremely large one in the Hartford area because of the chef award. Um and CES down here is much smaller, but all of them are regional education centers created by the state many many years ago. And crack up in Hartford is huge compared to the rest of them. ACES in New Haven is pretty large too, but CES is the same organization created by
110the state. Um it just is CRE is larger. So when Joe talked about um CRE and testifying and fighting for money etc and competing it just happens to be a whole different um level of competition than cess down here. Uh but they are all the same type of organizations created by the state. So just a point of clarification. Yeah. Thank you. No further questions. Um we'll take a vote. All in favor say I. slide. All right, passes. Thank you for that update. Um, the next item is the bass commissioning update. Um, no, I mean I I'll talk about it. No, that's commission. Thank you everyone. see everybody. Thank you. I know you do a missing job. I know it's not easy. You went through a lot of things. I trust you because I know you
111want the best for our children and this a process for people don't understand that. But I have a faith and trust me, I know you and your team will do amazing job, you know. Thank you for everything you do. We appreciate that. Thank you. Good evening. Asked that we do a quick update for you. Um, our team has been working since March 1st. We began with our department. We started removing um custodial supplies that won't be needed that we usually use in the summer for staying and preparing for this for the next school year. Um the decommissioning team met with each department head. So we have a tradesman in our department Dan Bully. He met with each department head and he said from the day he met with them their cooperation has been tremendous. um
112they informed their staff of the tasks that hand and the staff members immediately started um organizing things that need to be removed or moved over to the new bass. Any items not being moved to new bassic or deployed to another school as we said in the past within the district will be left for the determination of being auctioned or resentful. And um we're not moving furniture at this time until everyone's moved into the new bassin so that we know what's needed at New Balink and welcoming the employees and other schools we're going to um we began to organize supplies, equipment, and materials, packing and labeling those packages. You'll see photos um on the next few slides. We removed seven 30-yard dumpsters already and several three-yard dump body truckloads um to recycle metal and other materials
113over the last nine weekends. These are some before and after photos of storage closets. Um you'll see that the before has all the boxes, papers, there might even be books and the after. We've moved any books that are labeled by the staff or department heads that are being moved into other areas. So each department has their own map use it. X photos are just explaining to you that if you do walk past it right now, any empty shelf you see was not empty before it was full. And that's what's been moved or removed or boxed up and labeled. Each department they are packing and labeling their own boxes. Um these are boxes of textbooks and supplies. You'll see it says science department room 360. Those will be moved to the new bassinet. So currently they're
114in room 60. They're not sure what room they'll be moving into yet, but they'll know that that's that room's suppl. All the rooms are proactively being labeled to avoid the future process of looking through those spaces and cabinets. So, if we've already gone through a cabinet, um, a drawer, we mark it empty so no one has to go back in there when we move out to see that those are empty. These are some photos of the one of the music rooms. Currently, many of those supplies and equipment and materials are staying because they're still being used and they probably won't be moved out until towards the last day of school. So you'll see some of the keyboards in the second photo are wrapped and ready with bubble wrap and ready to be packaged up while
115the other ones are still out because they're using the main office already started packaging up supplies they know they won't need for the rest of the school year so that we can label them and store them. Same with um music supplies and math supplies. We just wanted to show you some of the progress the last few months. Our plan is to leave the facility broom swept to be turned over to the city. And the last page is just some photos that I actually found the first photo in the 1969 yearbook when construction began on the second building. I thought that was interesting just to see the progress of um the high school. I believe the high school the first graduating class was from 1936. And that's the end of it. Um, if you have any
116questions, um, we hope this is a drastic change from what was seen at high school. So, madam chair, if I may for one minute on the same topic. So, um, with the decommissioning, we also have a planning and programming committee um, for Bassic High School. So um part of that is aligning um teachers uh in the old bass to the brand new classrooms in the new bass. So some of what we do from that committee standpoint just so everyone's aware is that um we make sure that they are in a classroom and the classrooms are assigned um to that uh teacher andor counselor or whoever it may be. Once that's set up, we work with um um principal Lip and um Dr. Crayola. And from that perspective, we're also working on pathways planning in the
117new schools, working with UB programmatically. So, at another point, we'll talk about that and we'll bring out what's going on from that perspective. Just want to put that on. Mr. Go ahead. Thank you. Um, so all the teachers definitely know what they're going to take, you know, for for the new for the new Bass High School. And also question, I don't know. I we did it last year. We went through the old Bassing High School. We take pictures, you know, things like antique stuff, you know, that represent Bass High School for so many years with the family. Uh, they're going to put it in the for the new Bassing High School. I believe um Dr. Raola is going through that now. what he'll be willing and then I'm not quite sure exactly who makes the
118decision on what remains or that maybe the board would know um better what might go over to the new basket um that is the antique or historical and then anything else would be auction because I don't want um to happen what happened in Harding High School I know with the former madame chair Miss Bobby Brown and George we went through um the whole high Right and break my heart so many history they know I'm talking about students you know teachers you know a lot trust me so I don't want that happen you know so I know went through so I walking trust me that I take a lot of pictures you know because I want that history keep going to the new house so so Alex that was brought up in cabinet today exactly what
119you discussed that um uh with George and Dr. bravery, making sure that we go and we start tagging and looking at items to make sure that um they do come along with the school. So, um I'm sure when George gets back, you know, at this point um or next facility meeting, he'll update you on that. But that's all taken in consideration to make sure we're not going to miss anything um to where we need to bring it over u from a a monumental standpoint. I went I went through last um Sorry, sir. No, this week we were focusing on going through the gymnasium. So any jerseys that have been retired, we're making sure you have standing in a lift and taking that stuff for you. And also like very sad I'll go back to I
120won't show you but like you know making sure that not only bringing them over but displaying them somewhere like whatever's in the gym or you know important like portraits or anything like that we can make sure they're dedicated to that. Go ahead cut you off again. That's good. Um and there is when you walk in and there's a big forum you know. Yeah, I went to the last last week building committee. We went to visit the new Bassing High School. I almost need a scooter. It's huge. It's big. We went to the three floor. We went room by room. It's amazing. It's amazing. I'm You guys know how I am with that and I'm very proud. I'm so excited. I'm telling you, it's it's good. Just a starting when I see the the main office
121there. It's amazing. So I keep walking you know everything the three floor how big is the rooms before sign you know stuff like that the man I'm telling you all these step they were going to be so excited you know the gym amazing cafeteria huge I feel the cafeteria more goes more big right that's the way I see it but you know when the kids inside the is amazing I'm very proud I know we have to go through again and stuff like that so I'm very I'm very glad so I don't have no question for now madam I'm sure any questions online, Mr. Woodson? No, not at this time. Thank you. Thank you for keeping us updated. I know we'll have more updates as we get closer. Um, and that's the next item is the
122facility master plan update. So, I'll update that. Um so um we've been meeting with um the um demographic study facilities master plan team. So um studio jade and uh MP planning. Uh finally right now it looks like we're on the end of our um journey with the um facilities master plan. another two weeks, we'll have a final copy for the board at this point, which um will complete um both studies or one study, but with both companies in it. Um we're planning to get it out to you as soon as that's done. I will confirm tomorrow and send an email on that date from the company so we can get it and send it out. Um, I did take into consideration some of um there were a couple of um grade levels that were needed
123to be fixed and changed. So, we went in there and made sure that every school, every grade level was updated properly. Um, we read over to make sure that what was in there uh was current, you know, um to make sure there weren't any changes. um there wasn't anything that you didn't see. That that master plan that's going out is probably going to be somewhere around 60 pages, 70 pages, whatever it may be. Um our our goal is to get it to you. Um, I did speak to the company about other districts and what usually happens is, and again, our district is different and I'm not going to tell us what to do or what not to do, but other districts don't vote on the facilities master plan because it's a guide that we have.
124Um, if there needs to be a vote, we can also do that, too. It's a recommendation of basically what we need to do. where the votes come in. They come in off of the edge. The edge specs are the ones that we look at and we vote and go through. Now, if you decide you want us to bring it and you need to vote to say this is something that they're not going to take back and make changes to, this is something that is going to be a final document of their recommendations um to Bridgeport Public Schools. So, I I just wanted to put that out and make it clear. Um I I think in the light of the master plan, um the master plan is supposed to show obviously our our 10year um projections,
125our 10year growth model of where we're looking to go, what we're looking to do. Um, what it doesn't do is there are there are some cases and I know it's been brought up to where we're looking to redistrict the whole bricks or or you know the whole school district and that's been brought up. The company doesn't recommend doing any of that. So, we took the recommendations from what the company recommended and those recommendations that were there were based off what the company saw based on the heat map. were those points um those pain points that we had to really look at in Britsport. I mean they could have went a lot further but understanding that we can't condense we have to condense and expand. So you just can't shut down schools and say we're going
126to take all these students you know and we're going to redistrict them all into other schools. What do you have now? You're taking those schools and now you're condensing it with a ton of children. So I I think part of this process today in the facilities master plan is looking at how we can take this 10-year model build upon Bridgeport public schools understand capacity levels and being able to have us um yes at at a certain point I don't want to say even out but have enough space for our students to be able to go to school and enjoy their school environment while being in there. That's why some of the new buildings that were proposed or some of the areas down the line, um, some of those, you know, like everything else, we want
127to give that child a learning environment where they're going to be happy. We want to give teachers an environment where they're going to feel they can actually um, teach it. Not saying you can't teach in the older environments, but it give them like buying a new home, a sense of, wow, this is brand new. This is my classroom. and the reality becomes a better environment throughout. So those are kind of some of the things that looked at in the master plan. I'm sure this isn't the end of the master plan. We'll be looking at, you know, things that they talk about in there. We'll be talking about can we do things, can we not? I mean at at the district stance, I want to give you a finalized copy and then we can decide how
128we want to approach all those other things once we have an agreement. Any question? No question but a comment. Um, I know everything is in process and everything but like I told Mr. Garcia we trust you because I know where's your heart. I know you guys you know went through a lot of things and sometime with us be here you guys outside deal with everyone a lot of vendors a lot of contract people everything go back and forth no because they know what he want and I know in the end of the day these people understand you like it's okay he's right I know what he want the best for university post school and I know this master plan go for months you know trying to work people they think master plan is like one
129second you done it we approve that's it no the process And I know you guys going through a lot of things, you know, exactly here. And people don't see that when you guys do behind scene, you know, working with a lot of people, not only with sport, you have to deal with the city, you have to deal with the state, you have to people come in the last minute, come to something throwing you on the table and you feel, okay, hold on a second. you bring this down, why you bring this down, you we talk about, you know, it's a process, but you know, I have to say, you know, thank you and, you know, you you guys always have a support and obviously a team that works so hard to be sure every school,
130you know, and everybody be okay and supporting parents, staff can really lead this everyone and I really appreciate that. Thank you. And I put the Wii in that because everybody everybody here on the board too is working just as hard. may not be technically involved in everything, but the reality is we all want the same for children and families and teachers and staff and administrators. I mean, that's our goal to make it right and that's why we're here. But it's true you may involve, but we have something coming everybody because we got communication. I know you guys outside there, but you let us know what's going on. We know what's good, what's bad, what you're going through. Without communication, how we going to go forward? I really appreciate it. Mr. favor. Yeah. Um, in in
131a in an environment where perhaps we could just have a civil discussion, um, PJ, when would you do a school redistricting plan? So, that's a great question. Uh, Mr. framer. I think right now what we did is we as I said before we went off the recommendations of uh the uh facilities master plan uh demographic study. Um if I I guess it's it's very difficult in the sense that if we're looking at really redistricting I you know and taking a look at what we have. I think part of doing that is knowing where we're going. In other words, if if we look at the buildings right now and we just took what we had at this moment um without any closures, without anything going on, when we look at redistricting, we'd have to have methodology
132behind it. Is it to even out schools? Is it to try to get closer to um uh another vicinity? Those are things once we know what we're really looking at from a standpoint of why we would need to do this redistricting, it would help us. Like we look all the time at busing. Um, one of the things on the quadrants, we're really looking at special ed programming and taking a look at why isn't there one in the north end, but north end children are going all the way down to the south end to the south point to go ahead and get special ed programming. when if we brought a program into that north end quadrant um that could take those children and cut down the distance of travel and allow us to have a program
133in that area. Those are a lot of what we're doing now. We're looking at the special ed programming and the bilingual programming, but we haven't really broken down and looked at a full redistricting because our high schools, however you look at it, our high schools are pretty are pretty maxed out as they are now. So any redistricting, you're not gaining anything off of that. Our elementaryaries um is a different state because when we do redistrict, what is it that you're going for? Are you going for less transportation cost? Are you looking at again evening out schools to where you know you you you want to make sure at least each building has you know 80 to 85% capacity. Those would be things we would need to discuss with the board to figure out in doing
134that what would be the methodology behind it to what you would want to see. Well I I I guess I guess the question has come up in the heat of this. Um, I mean I understand we did a master plan facilities master plan. We did a we did a demographic study because the census was just done. Um, but there are some historic questions about why we're districted the way we're districted. Um, and some of those were raised. Um, and I never heard a good answer, frankly. And I'm I'm erasing this now in the you know not so far as to try and look at them. Um but you know I do live in the district that's under the most um review um and dispute. Um and uh you know and some of them you know
135I do know I' I've heard over the years that I've been involved and I when was the last time we redistricted? probably and again don't quote me on this but probably probably 2012 they did they did minor redistricting when they when not massive right and so we tweaked we've tweaked right do you remember any when was the last time we did a major citywide redistricting and sat down and really sort of that's a great question I I don't I don't know if they I mean I know the company who who did the minor the young as a company, but the the major redistricting I it hasn't been done since I've been here. I can tell you that. Right. Okay. I don't recall ever. I just recall, as I said once before at a meeting, horror
136stories from friends about living in one place and going to school halfway across town. Uh because and it just never made sense to them. Um and and and I and that was over in the north end. Um, and certainly Maria raised the question of why the states don't go to Booker, which is a good question. Um, and you know, it just some of those are really valid questions that are worthy of of, you know, somebody being able to offer us a a coherent question. and and your very answer here, you know, the answer is that nobody who's currently here now has any idea why because they weren't involved in the decision. Um, and it it just it it does it does muddy the water, if you will. Um, when you start looking at the questions
137that we're having to deal with in this other uh in the in the facilities plan. Um so I just think that it makes things harder. Um and that's too bad. Um because uh you know those other question some of those other tweakings were done for other reasons as we know how our city works unfortunately. Um, so, uh, yeah, I mean, I mean to to your point, I do think that there are some areas that, uh, moving a boundary line may help a certain area, um, by having other children being able to go there. I mean there are a lot of factors that that are put into all this and and this is when you start doing that it's major major movement because now you're moving boundaries streets addresses to say hey from now on you're
138going to this school and a lot of that boundary movement is also looked at with projections also um projecting if we move this boundary what is this attendance zone going to look like um in three four or five years are we going to have to do it again in this area because um the projection we did wasn't right. I mean some of those you know there's always going to be false positives and and other factors that play into that as you know though it seems to me some of that we're going to have to look at as we um uh you know in in in a few years. Yeah. a as we um create if we go forward all on the assumption if we go forward and we create a new prek to 8 school
139in the east end on Mil Hill um and we create a district for that school um and um you know we then have to create a new district prek to 8 district that didn't exist before and that affects other districts around it. Absolutely. Um because I what you said earlier was true. When my daughter started at Edison, um she was there at kindergarten and she was going to go to Edison kindergarten through six and then she was going to go to Marin Munos Marin and then she was going to go to to whatever high school um central uh Harding I mean. Um and then uh so it was like uh and that all got changed for her uh because she uh found out she got into uh the magnet school uh 3/4 of the way
140through kindergarten. Um but uh you know that was the normal progression. Three schools as you said um and so uh you know this will change all that for this. Um so Um it'll, you know, you're we're going to have to change the districts. Um some of the kids from Beardsley will go to the new prek to 8, some will go somewhere else. Um maybe some will end up at Hooker, some will end up somewhere else. I don't know. I haven't even looked at that. Um and I haven't heard anything. So there will be some redistricting, if you will, that has to accommodate the new schools. Yeah, and you're absolutely correct. We haven't looked at it either because um everything that's in the plan is a recommendation once we know that right now we're going to
141start doing what it is we're going to do whether it be um you know uh put up a new building whatever that may be. Then we will start once we um have it then we'll start moving into those realms that you're talking about which is to take a look at where we're going who we're bringing in you know what areas all that stuff. Yeah. It's putting the cart before the horse. I get it. Yeah. Thank you, madam chair. Thank you guys for presenting. Um, see no. Yes, Mr. Ben. Very very quick for the record. I want to be clear this could be I don't want to very short very fast. I don't want people thinking that we are here making a decision to close schools because sometimes the message people can get the message wrong.
142We discuss and talk about the fusion between like Mr. Garcia said three or four years. You know that that's not something we going to close. We not to talk about that. We not make it um um um motion to vote. Nothing like that. It's coming from the bring it to the board. So I want to be clear that for the record that we're not closing school, nothing like that because sometime the message go wrong. So I just want to be clear that you guys bring it to us to the committee and then we you know we talk about they take time. It's a protocol. It's a policy. You know you have to pull a deadline. You have to pull the application stuff like that. So we can after three or four years let's see they
143want to put that for the record and I can make a motion to adjourn. I'll second favor I I thank everyone here for joining us. Thank you everyone. God bless you all.