001live all right we're live now should see us because we should be able to ask questions now good evening guys how we doing uh I want to welcome everyone to uh tonight's presentation uh we have a continuation uh with MP planning uh and Studio Jade uh they will be um providing the community with an overview of some of their recommendations so I'm going to turn it over to Matt p uh and um Patrick Mike you still muted unmute myself and then I'm going to kick us off tonight Dr Avery thank you for the introductions I'm Mike zuba with MP planning I'm going to get us started tonight and then we're going to uh we have a bunch of slides that really pick up from where we left off um from our meeting last week so
002we'll just start with a recap of some of the information from last week with really the focus of today is going to be the recommendations um we'll spend the majority of our of our evening tonight talking about those at the various levels the Elementary and high school and then end on funding opportunities and then talk about what the next steps are as part of this process so we always start the conversation and for those that were with us last week this may seem a little redundant but for those that are new I want to be able to cover it um the master plan is really the road map for the district it's Bridgeport 's long-term guiding document for Capital Investments how to be able to promote more efficient operations and achieve your desired educational V
003uh Vision over the next decade and Beyond um at last week's meeting we spent a lot of time talking about that blue box on the lower left really the discovery phase we'll provide a little bit of a recap on that tonight but really tonight we're going to talk about the master planning phase what those long-term um planning options look like and how that's going to impact Bridgeport Public Schools so getting into the recap of our key findings and both Pam and I will tag team this section I'll start us off we covering the enrollment projections so as part of any master plan we develop 10-year enrollment projections both districtwide and school specific um as we discussed last week en enrollment has been declining over the last decade Plus in the City of Bridgeport um we're
004projecting that decline to continue albeit at a lesser level than you've already declined but overall with a projected law systemwide of about 800 students um over the next decade we see enrollment at the elementary declining as well um so that's that light bluish colored bar that teal colored bar on the bottom of the screen represents that pre8 projected enrollment um as you can see as you work towards the projection midpoint um we're going from about 14,200 according to the October enrollment of this year out to about 13,800 where you're going to be around that current level for the elementary schools over the better part of the uh over the better part of the next decade the high school um has been near its recent Peak at nearly 5,800 students shown in that green color on
005the top of the stack bar chart um over the next couple years we're projecting enrollment at that elevated level um upwards of 5700 students in the uh in bridgeport's high schools over the next three years and then enrollment um eventually kind of papers off as we have some of those smaller grade cohorts that are in the elementary schools begin moving up into the high school and those larger grade cohorts move on out of the uh out of the public school so you know what does it all mean um we take those enrollment projections and we do them at the individual School level as well um if you want to see more information on that that's part of our slide deck that we presented last week this is really kind of the Capstone of that we
006went through all of the buildings over the summer we did deep dive into all the programs inventory of classroom spaces and then from that we were able to do an existing and then a future utilization so what this is showing us in that chart on the right hand side is we've categorized the elementary schools into really four categories um well utilized are those schools that are upwards of 90% utilized um we don't have a lot of headro um we have are efficiently use utilizing all the space in the buildings um we have seven schools that fit that category um a lot of those are the um in District and intradistrict magnet schools as well as some of the neighborhood schools um that are highly utilized then we have our next category is our moderately well
007utilized where we don't have a lot of free classrooms in those buildings but what we do have is we have Headroom in the existing classrooms where we could add some students without really having the need to split out a section into an additional classroom and then getting to the lower half of our chart we have underutilized where Headroom exists in the form of some free classrooms we call them Flex rooms as well as available seats within the existing buildings themselves these are really the schools that are in that 70% utilization and then in the bottom category we have our very underutilized schools um schools that are below 70% utilization all the way down to around 50% utilization these are schools that have significant Headroom and significant Flex rooms available um within the school buildings themselves
008so now look ahead at the next 5 years so as we talked about just a few minutes ago we're projecting that Elementary enrollment to continue to drop off before it stabilizes um what we're seeing here and noted on the uh in the red color numbers on the right is we're seeing a little bit of a shift um so what we're doing is we're dropping off one of our well utilized schools falling into that moderate category and then we're having a bigger shift from underutilized to very underutilized so those schools that already have excess space they're going to have have additional schools in there with that excess Bas totaling a total of 10 schools that fall into that very underutilized category on the next slide is where we looked at the high school so going through
009that same exercise developing those 10year projections for the high school looking at the spaces there understanding the program assigning a capacity to it um we have um in shown in yellow so this is a little bit of different um stylized chart rather than having the categories what we do here is we look at our schools that are over 100% so as part of any one of our planning capacity studies we're not really working around a maximum capacity we have what we call our planning capacity or planning Target on which we're striving for 100% but when we reach 100% and noting that any utilization above that um we know that we could have some operational impacts above that Mark so above that Target so when we get upwards of 110% um we could have some larger
010class sizes we're a little less resilient to Bubbles um becomes a little bit more intensive of a scheduling exercise so we do have several schools that fall within that category you'll see with the new bassic coming online and BMA moving into bassic we do lose um some considerable capacity with BMA moving from the south and school out of that space into bassic um bassic being upwards over 100% over really kind of the next 10 years of our planning Horizon um looking down the chart we have Harding of um Harding High School also upwards of that 110% really kind of especially in that next couple years of those bubble years where we have that higher enrollment but eventually dropping off a little bit closer to that Target and then last but not least we have Fair
011tral wheeler which kind of Falls in that underutilized category um and that's one of those unique circumstances being an interdistrict Magnet School um you could only be able to put so many Bridgeport residence students in there as you have Suburban enrollment so for every three Suburban students um you're able to add a bridge for every one Suburban student you're able to add free on Bridgeport Public School students so um we do have some empty seats within that building and it's really a function of the interdistrict magnet program operating within that building and we'll talk about um for each of these we'll talk about some of those recommendations that we have as we work through our next section um on the next slide I'll pass it over to Pam to talk about the findings from the
012facility condition assessment thanks Mike um as as you stated we gave a pretty deep detailed overview of our process but ultimately Studio Jade was charged with walking all of the buildings with Architects and Engineers to evaluate existing conditions and ultimately identify what are the capital Improvement needs and improvements that are required over the next 10 years for the buildings to function in their current um program or capacity um we don't none of our findings have anything written or anything to do with the current with the program or related to the capacity or utilization is strictly based on conditions and what would need to be invested to get you to um an a current state an appropriate current state so in the upper leftand corner uh is a chart that looks again this is districtwide for
013all buildings um we we calculated um all of the different needs and for each line item we had we tagged each project is either a time frame of immediate within 3 years within 5 years or within 10 years is how everything was broken down and you can see by looking in that top chart that um comprehensively across 10 years it total $ 72.5 million with 56% of those Capital Improvements recommended to happen within the first three years and 84% in the next 5 years um we also looked at that data broke it down not to just the when but the where so the bottom right hand corner which is supported by the pie chart in the center we broke that data down to look at um which building systems were impacted the most and where's
014where are those dollars um for example building envelope which includes for example um the exterior walls doors windows roof anything that would Encompass keeping the building as a whole the exterior struct structure um when you look at the far right of that you'll see that 29.7% of the total dollars districtwide uh were for interior architecture so that's interior finishes and construction things that um are related to walls doors um finishes on the floors the ceilings and uh and the walls as well as things like casework all right so it's nothing that's movable it's not technology um but it is everything related to the interior architecture of the building you'll also see that 27% was related to Mechanical and uh then falling behind that was electrical and building envelope so that helps you understand over the
015next 10 years where those dollars are looked at um but ultimately the greatest forecast of need is within interior architecture Thank you Pam so getting into kind of melding that together um we've C categorize the buildings based on the highest Capital need those that have greater than $300 a square foot um moderate in that 2 to 300 and then the lowest capital need um less than $200 a square foot and kind of broke that down to a little bit understand saying the lowest their maintained state of good repairs they received minor Renovations um on the far end of the spectrum the highest Capital needs these become priorities schools for Capital Investments reconstruction or um renovate as new um and then moderate it's kind of in between and then on the next slide is where we
016really took all this data and really wanted to be able to get an understanding not only when we have buildings that are much different sizes we have buildings that are much different vintages um so we normalize the data by looking at it on a cost per square foot basis for each of the schools and that's shown in that bar chart on the left um and then we look at it based on a capital needs a cost per student shown in the bar chart on the right and these include all of the building components that Pam just talked about priority one through four items and these are all shown in on escalated Q4 um this really helps us kind of draw a focus on what are those most needy schools across the district especially from the
017elementary school standpoint who's in the top part of those categories um from both normalizations both the cost per square foot as well as the cap the capital needs and a cost per um student and you could see that we have schools like Hall Beardsley Edison Howen Bryant ske right up there on that Capital needs per student um and you know when we look at it as a cost per square foot um we add a few others in there um classical studies at Maplewood um Park City magnet um and that's because some of those have a higher enrollment um so looking at it both ways is really important and then you could see the schools that we have in the Middle where we have those moderate Capital needs um a change changes a little between the
018two charts um but really our lowest need schools are those schools that saw attention um really in the last 20 years as part of the recommendations from the last master plan that Sparks some school construction across the district um those have our lowest dollars or lowest needs per square foot and our lowest needs per student overall so taking both data sets the utilization and um the fcas that Pam talked about we really wanted to create a Matrix that helped us draw our attention to you know where do we have not only um buildings with the highest Capital needs but buildings that are the highest Capital needs and that are in our more well utilized or uh moderately well utilized category and that's shown in that upper leftand corner where we have blackham Park City Reed
019and ske Center as those with the highest Capital needs and that are very well utilized and then we could kind of flip over to the other side of the axis looking below that and we have buildings that are um still on the left hand side of this Matrix that are our highest Capital need as well as our underutilized facilities that's when we have beardslee Bryant classical studies Edison Hall hen and hooker um and then we have a number of schools that are in the middle that are you know either well utilized shown on the top or more moderate or or underutilized but still requiring um some moderate Capital needs and then you know to the far right hand side we have our buildings that have our lowest capital needs on a cost per square foot
020as well as our most well utilized facilities Baya Geraldine Johnson um Discovery Madison and um Roosevelt and then we have our underutilized facilities but that don't have a lot of needs um in bar Barnum um clater Tisdale and waltersville um so by going through this analysis and crunching all those numbers we're able then to be able to bucket out some strategies um based on the data based on all of the body of work that our two firms compiled over the last 6 to 8 months to really kind of begin to focus and frame um what that Capital Improvement plan what that Master Plan looks like over the next um 10 years and Beyond so then getting to the next component um I'll kick off the recommendations and I know Pat's been waiting patiently sitting there
021for his turn so I'll pass it off to Pat shortly um the board of AD provided us with guiding criteria um these are both short-term and long-term in nature I won't spend a lot of time we've been talk talking about these at our last several meetings um but it's really to be able to put funding where it's needed um generate a funding strategy and capital Improvement plan be able to improve the overall health and safety of the schools um utilizing state and federal dollars where possible um Trying to minimize the impact to the district and the city align the facilities overall with bridgeport's enrollment um be able to best serve the educational community be able to best facilitate the programming that's desired for each of those buildings and last but not least to include the
022community stakeholders along the way as part of the as part of the overall process and then this is just our big picture before we get into the individual recommendations um so the the plan was really as we've talked about there's a lot of data um there was a lot of boots on the ground there was a lot of numbers crunching spreadsheets analytics that we've worked with um we have both qualitative and quantitative that led us to where we're at tonight um this is going to be really the framework um to provide those necessary improvements to be able to support your vision I think one of the things with the master plan that's so important is it's not a rigid document this is a a plan that needs to have a life of about 10 years
023um but also it's a plan that doesn't become locked during that window um so we look it as a malleable framework that needs to be responsive to changes in enrollment funding timing and educational needs um things that we talk about educationally now um we're may be talking about different things um years from now um as well as um different funding opportunities may exist a number of years from now than they exist today so we want to ensure that this document is a guiding document um but it's not so rigid that it cannot be subject to some changes um one of the things we always talk about as planners as planning is a continuous process um the document should be referenced and should be reviewed and updated to align with the everchanging needs of Bridgeport and
024I think that's very important to think that even though we're providing a 10-year plan but often times you want to be able to pick up that 10-year plan and say is this still relevant has some data points changed do we need to be able to update this um just to change our thinking or is it all still following um as the plan was drawn up in 2025 um and really you know the overall structure of it is provide some targeted Investments and structural changes as we'll talk about later each school facility is going to have an action tied to it um that's very important as part of a master plan we also want to be cognizant of bridgeport's financial obligations and ability to bond these improvements that we're recommending as well as the ability to
025be able to guide the structural changes through the system we know this is a long-term decision-making document we're providing that structure we think all the near-term decision making should um align with the overall recommendations of this plan um but keeping this plan somewhat fluid over the life of the plan with that I'll pass the Baton over to Pat if you want to run us through those various recommendations Pat thanks Mike uh Pat Gallagher with MP Planning Group so just for for organizational purposes we've separated out our recommendations for the elementary schools and the high schools so we'll start with the elementary schools and the elementary schools are really um among the facilities that had the highest um needs in the facility condition assessment so this just shows an overall um structural chart of your existing
026elementary school facilities where we have a mix of U neighborhood and magnet schools um and then a mix of grade configurations as well so pre8 K8 and uh k6 pre6 six and then over here on the right noting some of those special schools including ske uh BLC and south end and as we conclude this section we will show um what the recommended plan would look like um and and show kind of that that look into the future I'm going to be focusing on the major capital projects over the next several slides so these are our major um either new construction or major renovation renovate is new projects and as Mike alluded to um we will touch on the other facilities at the end and talk through that overall capital u Improvement strategy Mike alluded to
027this earlier and and I just want to reiterate it again is that planning again is a continuous process and and as you move forward with each of these individual projects there's going to need to be a planning process that helps Define each of those projects um and so we think that an important component of that is going to be uh making sure that uh self-contained programs such as rise sore and aim as well as prek are proactively planned for as you're developing um all of these projects um often times you know districts that do projects um they simply just replace what they have rather than having that kind of um future um focused perspective where they're planning for maybe not what they need today but what they're going to need in the future and especially
028for um our self-contained programs we recognize that um those have have kind of unique space needs and if those spaces aren't necessarily accounted for as part of a project they're going to uh locate in other spaces that maybe aren't appropriate um or maybe too large for for their student populations so again that proactive process we think um can really help set the stage for those programs um and that really gets down to what we call our educational planning and specifications process so um really having that collaborative effort between both um Educators administrators and the city to ensure that um the projects U meet those educational needs and programs are are properly planned for so we're starting our our recommendations with a um uh recognizing the ongoing work that has been occurring throughout the district um
029with the new winr project uh currently under design with an anticipated opening in the fall of 2028 uh we looked at the preliminary design data and that shows 29 Ka classrooms two rise classrooms and 10 prek classrooms which Encompass um both the the one prek classroom currently at Winthrop as well as the programs at ske currently there are about 607 prek-8 students at Winthrop um so slightly below the design capacity of that building so we're recommending that the district evaluate enrollment 12 to 18 months before that project opens and if necessary consider enlarging that attendance Zone that could help provide provide some relief at some of the nearby buildings um in that Northwestern quadrant um that are experiencing some enrollment pressures um we also recognize that um often times when a new school is being
030built um that may result in a higher uh enrollment than anticipated so maintaining that flexible approach will be important swing space is another really important element in our master plan especially for buildings that are undergoing comprehensive Renovations uh ideally you want the students out of the building um that both shortens the duration of the renovation project and also doesn't have the same level of educational impact um if you were to renovate in a peace mail approach with the students still in the building um so we are anticipating that wind Thro will be swinging into the South End School uh for the 26 27 and 2728 school year um and then starting in the fall of 2028 that can then facilitate that next project that relies on swing space uh once the project is completed the
031SC program will move to the new Winthrop and we uh will have a site available at the current ske property that we can leverage for our next uh phase of school construction um in a city like Bridgeport where there's not a lot of vacant and developable land um that's really one of the key drivers of um where we can build new is is what sites are available and that's a good segue into what we're calling our Priority One construction projects where we're leveraging um two sites that um currently or formerly have District school facilities so our first project is a new Eastside school at the Old Harding site this would be a neighborhood prek to8 facility with a Target capacity of about 750 students which aligns with um several of your recent um K8 construction
032projects as I noted um earlier uh we anticipate this facility will need to incorporate um those districtwide self-contained programs as well as uh provides the base for prek in that Southeast quadrant and this facilitates the consolidation of three to four older facilities in the Southeast quadrant um which were among our least well utilized uh school facilities including Hall Edison Beardsley and Dunbar um this project uh really aligns with that newer and fewer model where our goal is to consolidate some of the older facilities with significant needs um and providing them with a state-of-the-art modern facility in the same neighborhood um that really aligns well with that neighborhood based model that you operate um we're maintaining a level of flexibility here because we know that these construction projects take time um and any decisions around the
033number of schools that are closed should again be finalized in that 12 to 18mth window prior to um the new school opening where we can make that decision based on the latest enrollment data at the time the second phase one project again leverages a site currently under the district's control um at the skce site and for this we are anticipating a new special program school um that would be built on that uh current SC site um we know that this has been a uh project that the district has been looking at for quite some time um and we understand that many districts are struggling with the high cost of um sending High need students to outplaced facilities and by building a new special program school that will allow uh Bridgeport Public Schools to keep more
034of these students in house um and thus provide some operational cost savings over that outplacement policy um so this would that Encompass you know a range of specialized Services um that uh currently are provided by those thirdparty providers um including autism programs and then this is also a potential opportunity to um draw in uh Regional students through a tuition program um we also know this is an area where um there's several bills in the state legislature currently um circling out there where there may be some funding opportunities um that are favorable to the city as well and then finally um this new special program School can incorporate the programs at BLC um at Sheridan and facilitate the closure and consolidation of that facility moving into our phase two project and actually before we move on
035I'll note that um neither of these projects require swing space which is really important um so the the new Eastside school can occur uh on the Harding site without uh educational impact to existing students and the same with the special program School Al although that would need to occur after um this game program moves to WI our next project um our priority 2A project is uh proposing a new dual magnet school at the current Park City site um we know one of the um the challenges over the last several years has been the um two campus model for classical studies Academy and the fact that all of those students are not housed in a single facility um like all of your other magnet programs and the challenge being that there's not a lot of available
036sites in that Southwest quadrant that are large enough to support kind of that unified classical studies campus um and so looking at the park city site we really saw an opportunity to leverage that large Park City site um 16 Acres among the larger School properties in the city um to both build a new park city as well as a new classical studies magnet um and so we're proposing constructing two new approximately 500 student prek through 8 facilities co-located on the site um and there is some precedent for this model with um your dual schools for lack of a better word um with barnham waltersville as well as the JFK campus um where you have two separate um facilities but they may have some shared access to core areas um and uh provide opportunities for programming
037um and so that should be something that's evaluated as as part of that project planning process um and as a dual magnet school we also see some potential opportunities and efficiencies for shared Transportation um so rather than um you know running two sets of buses for two separate um schools this may allow the district to more efficiently operate the transportation for those programs um this is a school that may or may not require swing space depending on uh the phasing plan uh that you'll develop once you get into a little bit more detailed planning and study of this property um if it is determined that you do need swing space then the Park City magnet uh program would move then move to the South End School at the earliest for that 28 29 school year
038once the winp students move back to the new winrep campus um and should you be able to build um this in a manner that doesn't disrupt the current Park City building that may allow for an accelerated schedule our phase 2B project is a blackham renovate as new uh new construction again this was another facility with significant Capital needs and it's also among your largest um schools so we really see uh the need to address this facility um and and make sure that it's able to accommodate that large enrollment in that uh Northwest Quadrant One of the challenges with blackham is that um its large student population does not allow it to swing into the South End School all at one time um and so uh we are anticipating a phased approach um for blackham uh
039where either you would swing um the upper or the lower grades out first um facilitate the renovation of half the building and then flip-flop that for phase two where then the other um grade groupings would then swing to the South End School um while that part of the building gets renovated um should there be a second swing space available uh that could again help consolidate and condense that schedule and allow the building to be um renovated in its entirety all at once um however um the again it would need to be um two facil or two separate swing facilities with a lower grades and an upper grades um separate for a temporary basis moving into our phase three um we're looking at read school as a renovate new or or reconstruction like blackham um this
040is among your one of your largest and most well utilized elementary schools also in need of um quite a substantial amount of work per the FCA um and so this is another school that we're targeting for that more major renovation um we we do note that um if there's no other site available that this school would really be a renovation and would would require swing space um but we also recognize that there may be opportunities for um acquisition of additional land throughout the city that could facilitate um new construction offsite so again we have to maintain that flexible framework and flexible approach allow the city to do its due diligence and assess its options um but uh either or I think um are recommended here and again it it comes down to um phasing if
041we're able to acquire a new site that will allow the project to occur without the need for swing space and thus can help um move that schedule up and then um if we consider building additional space as part of the new read school that could help facilitate the conversion of Madison to prek-8 if that's something that the district um wishes to explore um we'll be U um leveraging that approach as part of the Eastside school where we'll be retiring several of your existing uh k6 facilities so this could help further that move towards that Universal K8 grade alignment and our uh priority 3B construction project is a um renovate as new or reconstruction of high Horizons and Multicultural Magnet um again the this is a large facility um housing uh almost 900 students and so
042it's the importance of maintaining those larger facilities in a state of good repair as part of this plan um and like the um blackham uh project this would require a multiphase um construction project where uh one of the component schools at a time would vacate allowing that substantial renovation and then once that's completed the other school would then undergo its renovation depending on the swing space schedule this may actually fall outside of our 10year um Capital planning window um and so this is a project that you know if you do an update of this plan in five years really should be considered alongside some of the new needs that may arise over the next 5 years um and and kind of weigh those against one another so under the recommended plan uh this would be
043the new uh Elementary School alignment um where we have in highlighted in red our major capital projects um with black them as a renovate is new Reed as new renovate is new Winthrop uh the new Winthrop including ske and the new Eastside school um a new Park City magnet um and classical studies Academy on the current Park City site and then a renovation major renovation of high Horizons and Multicultural Magnet and then finally the new special program school on the ske site this will allow the district to retire several aging facilities including many of the facilities that scored um as having the highest Capital needs uh including Beardsley uh the current BLC building at cheridan uh classical studies Maplewood it'll allow the district to discontinue the lease of the classical studies Annex uh Dunbar as
044a potential fourth school for consolidation in that Southeast quadrant depending on enrollment um we also understand Dunbar out of these buildings probably has the greatest um reuse potential so that so that should be considered as part of that decision-making um process Edison Hall and ske Center um would also be retired as part of this plan so this shows our construction phasing plan for major projects at the elementary level um again knowing that the district can't um do all of these projects concurrently both from a you know staff capacity um management side as well as the um the swing space that's required to facilitate these projects um so this is just more of a graphical representation of those slides that we just went through with the new windr being our our kind of um ongoing effort
045East Side school and the special program school being the next priorities after that Park City magnet classical studies dual magnet school and Plum uh for phase two and then Reed and high Horizon Multicultural magnets as phase three so in addition to these major projects uh this plan is also developing an action plan for each of your um buildings so we recognize that you know there are some um buildings that are best addressed through those you know more aspirational and and larger construction projects um but we also have to maintain the remaining buildings in um good condition and so this aligns with those categor that we developed as part of the FCA where our um buildings with the lowest um Capital needs per square foot are in the green category where we're you know really focused
046on maintaining that state of good repair minor Renovations in our middle category um these are our buildings that are in the the um medium Capital needs per square foot where we're anticipating some more mod uh some some moderate Renovations um addressing some of those big ticket items that may be at the end of their useful life for the FCA and then in our our um red category so our schools in with the highest need It's a combination of um new construction uh major Renovations renovation as new or in some cases the retirement of Aging facilities and consolidation into those newer facilities um as I noted and alluded to before um there may be some opportunities to um further um consolidate programs into some of those facilities that are no longer used as elementary schools so
047we know you currently use um St Michaels on a lease basis for adult education um so one of the things to explore would be um whether or not it makes sense to relocate that program to one of the um Consolidated elementary schools from a programmatic standpoint and allow you to terminate that lease so this just shows our swing space phasing and this this assumes um uh just of the avail ility of the space at South End um although we could have a second swing space available um depending on how the plan is implemented so at Winthrop as I noted we'll have two years of Swing space that'll be vacated by the 20 uh at the end of the 2728 school year um Park City and classical studies that project may require an additional two years
048of Swing space depending on the design um blackham with that dual uh or with that two-phase renovation approach would need three to four years of Swing space um and then Reed similarly would need swing space if um that reconstruction or renovate as new is pursued and then finally um High Horizons and Multicultural magnets similar to blackham because of the two-phased approach would need three to four years of Swing space um so ideally if if the district is able to identify a second swing space um with dunar being um out of those potentially Consolidated facilities um the facility that lends itself to being most conducive to swing space um that could help accelerate that construction schedule um and give you greater flexibility as you go through that um construction program otherwise it's going to be kind
049of a one after another um process that's going to um really be done over um longer than a decade in order to move all these projects forward now getting into the high schools um as Pam and and Mike and and I had alluded to in our presentation last week um with the completion of the new baset for next fall um all of your high schools are are in very good shape having undergone you know substantial Capital Improvements over the last 20 years um and so the needs are really being driven by the some of the capacity concerns that we're having in the near- term um with that high enrollment expected to continue for at least the next 5 years and so our strategies are really thinking through how do we best address that with the
050resource that we have at our disposal without having to undertake a another major Capital project so our ongoing project is the new bassic which will open in the fall of 2025 with a design capacity of uh 1,250 students and as part of this building program BMA will consolidate into the new bassic and our projections are holding an enrollment Target of about 250 students um to align with that design enrollment of the building so in terms of our priority projects these are are less tied to physical construction than the elementary schools um and and a lot more influenced by kind of policy um and our first is to leverage available space at Fairchild wheeler if we look at districtwide um High School enrollment relative to districtwide district-wide high school capacity um we're not expecting to be
051over 100% of that planning Target over the next decade but but the challenge is that that space that is available at Fairchild wheeler is not usable because of the need to maintain the state mandated Suburban student percentages um and so we've laid out a menu of options here all of which would be dependent on State uh Board of Ed and or legislative action um but we certainly think that these are are conversations that are worth um having because it is a facility that could help address some of those problems at the other three City High School so our first option would be to seek relief or modifications to the state mandated Suburban student percentages in order to maximize opportunities for Bridgeport students um so um one of the things that we had potentially talked about
052is um we obviously have a set aside of seats for Suburban students can Bridgeport use all of its allocated seats regardless of the number of suburban students so it would Reserve capacity for the Suburban students but it wouldn't it wouldn't tie the number of Bridgeport resident students that could enroll just based on the Suburban interest option two is to grow Suburban enrollment so this would be to look at modifications to your magnet programs to make them more attractive um and other you know recruitment marketing policies that could help drive that increased enrollment and as Mike noted earlier for every one Suburban student that enrolls at Fair child wheeler that opens up three seats for Bridgeport residence students option three is to leverage available space to house a special program such as BMA so BMA is
053currently um an inter District magnet program although not as robust as as Fairchild wheeler um so the district should explore you know opportunities to create a fourth magnet program or pathway um within the building to leverage that available space and that would really help the new bassic um being able to move that BMA program either partially or in full uh to that facility and then finally converting Fairchild wheeler to an um um an intra District magnet school and suns setting Suburban student enrollment so allowing that full capacity to be eligible for Bridgeport residence students again these are more aspirational in nature and not implementable tomorrow based on the the letter of the law today um but certainly something that we recommend having that conversation um uh to move these discussions forward the next priority would
054be to consider expanding aquaculture into a full-time High School um so this is a a facility that's quite unique um in its waterfront location um it's actually quite a tight site given all of the the um things that go on there next to the the working Marina as well as it being in in a flood zone next to the coast that we have to be cognizant of um so this is a school that we certainly recommend having a more detailed study to really determine that the potential for this building to accommodate um a full-time student population um there are some fac facilities that this building does not currently have due to its part-time nature so there's no gym there's no space for some of the electives like art or music and there may be a
055need for additional classroom space to uh to have that full breath of course offerings uh in a comprehensive high school as well as the potential need to expand a cafeteria um and so that'll be something to to do that deep deep dive with an architect um to understand some of those opportunities or constraints um there is some underutilized space within the building in the former Hatchery um that's currently used largely as storage um so I think one of the exercises is going to be to determine if the existing building footprint can be retrofitted to accommodate all of those um spaces that would be needed and in the inum um there could be an opportunity to increase um Bridgeport resident student participation in the aquaculture program as a a strategy for alleviating alleviating some of the
056higher enrollment at your city high schools so today the program primarily caters to Suburban students um and to a lesser extent Bridgeport residence students so even even increasing the number of students who participate in a halfday program can help open up um some seats in the three City high schools and then proximity to Geraldine clater is also a potential um opportunity for this facility um Geraldine clater is one of the new facilities that um uh is uh underutilized relative to some of your other new facilities and so um having some themed programming that takes advantage of that proximity to aquaculture um may help make it a more attractive draw um for students from other neighborhoods within the city and then finally um the district should explore opportunities to move BMA to a standalone facility and
057this is a a longer term strategy um since the BMA um U movement into the new bassic is part of that construction program and so that program needs to stay in place um at least in the short term until the state audit is completed um unless there is some legislative action that allows that to occur sooner um but moving BMA out of the new Basset could free up 250 or more seats um and then also provide opportunity for program expansion for BMA currently um moving into the new bassic limits opportunity um for program expansion because the capacity is limited with the new building and so this is our bubble diagram showing the um investments in the high school facilities with um the new bassic um including BMA and the new special program school which will
058also Encompass High School age students U being our major construction projects um with aquaculture having um uh uh uh Renovations in order to facilitate that conversion to a full-time high school and as I noted before Central uh Harding um are are in you know very good shape Fairchild wheeler also in very good shape and so the focus is really going to be on those minor Renovations the state of good repair u Capital Improvements to keep those buildings in good working order so one of the the benefits of leveraging new construction is that it allows the district to capture savings through cost avoidance so rather than spending that money to renovate existing infrastructure and existing facilities the the district can can spend money on new construction receive a favorable reimbursement rate from the state uh and
059capture some of that savings to invested Capital Improvements that the remaining buildings so this uh slide here really just summarizes some of those cost avoidance savings um as part of that uh recommended plan shown uh earlier so our ongoing projects uh the old bassic and ske um have a combined need of about $92 million uh we didn't assess wiri because we knew it was um going to be undertaken as part of a major project um but um we'll add the windr up cost avoidance in there as well so substantial cost savings from those or cost avoidance savings from those ongoing projects our phase one projects um calls for the consolidation of Hall Edison beard Le and BLC and potentially dunar um so these yield a savings of about $75 million without Dunbar uh and $92
060million with Dunbar so again um the cost avoidance money can be allocated to you know offset some of the new construction cost but also that's money that you can spend to uh renovate and make those improvements at the remaining facilities and then finally um for phase two we're calling for an additional $37 million in cost avoidance um through the park city magnet and Maplewood sites and also allowing the district to discontinue the lease uh at the annex property and Mike I'll throw it to you to us home oh thanks Pat um one of the most important things talking about a master plan in school construction is what are the funding opportunities um and I think that's very important to include as part of this process um and having worked in Connecticut for over 20 years
061doing educational planning um there's a lot that's out there that you know we see other communities advocating for I think one of the first ones is just seeing what has been happening in Fairfield County with Stanford and Norwalk where they were able to receive special legis leg islation for a 20-year period um to support their C long-term Master plans Capital needs and school construction um we would recommend Bridgeport Public Schools to work with the delegation um to seek special legislation for an elevated reimbursement um to ensure that there um is going to be a funding stream available um to be able to um foresee this or see this whole plan through fruition as Pat and I and Pam keep talking it's a 10-year plan but um we know what well when seeing that type of
062capital needs that it's going to bleed beyond that 10 years and probably closer to that 20e Mark so a you know getting an elevated reimbursement for a longer window ensures a comfort level and that you you're you're ensuring that those projects will be able to see through completion and we know that there's various complexities in a lot of school construction um whether it's phasing swing space talking about school consolidations construction going through Grant applications all of those take time and can experience hi along the way that take additional time so being able to have that larger window with greater reimbursement would serve the district well also look to be able to capitalize on various bonuses out there um to be able to add those and stack those on top of the additional reimbursement or on
063top of your Baseline reimbursement um those are important to be able to understand what those look like not only today but any changes in in future legislation are important to be able to follow along um we also see Grant capacity um the ability to be able to work with the city um build some capacity um to pursue grants that's Staffing Resources um there's a lot of dollars out there from state federal as well as private um that you could seek to be able to add on top of that to reduce the uh reduce the cost of the taxpayer for the city of Waterberry um and staying in tune with what the recent legislation is I know there's been a lot of talk of um various different programs out there that you know the mayor may
064not make it through session um but it's important to stay a priz to those see if any of them are applicable to any of the projects um that we're talking about today as part of this master plan and then on the next slide we just cover what that Baseline reimbursement looks like for the City of Bridgeport So based on fiscal year 2025 these were released um last October in 2024 for new construction so a new school um your local share of that is about 31.5% the state picks up about 68 and a half um there is an incentive for um renovating like new um those receive um an a 10% elevation over a new construction project so about 78 12% State share 21.5% local share and then on the next slide we're just listing a
065couple of the um programs out there um some different grants to be able to identify be aware of um you know the different funding sources and how you're going to be able to look at a priority list grant for bigger projects new construction renov like new and then some of those non priority list grants for health safety code um building roof security so on and so forth um also Bridgeport is eligible for Alliance District General Improvement Grants typically covers Capital renewal items not cover covered by other projects um for about three or four years the state had an IAQ an indoor air quality Grant um the program has sunset sunset it but there's some talk around legislation that they could be um popping up in the near future maybe under a slightly different name or
066form but that's something to keep an eye on um Regional special education facilities Pat mentioned um the talk about building a a special facility um to be able to house these types of programs not only for City of Bridgeport but tuition others in um those do receive an elevated reimbursement rate as well as Agro science centers which you know aquaculture um is an Agri Science Center but from the Marine standpoint um those are also subject to elevated reimbursement and then you know there's utility re rebates as well as going through your local CIP process as a funding opportunity all right so I know we covered a lot tonight and I know um you know we're not done yet we we do have three Community informational meetings shown on the left um beginning on March 31st
067at Harding High um April 2nd at Central and then April 3rd at bassic um so be able to identify which of those you're able to make to make it to which is close by for you um we'd love for you to be able to come out to those we also have a QR reader on the right hand side which is our thought exchange if you were with us back at our December meeting we were able to get a lot of great input um we had a lot of people respond to that sharing thoughts and ideas um based on what we were discussing at that time so now with the recommendations out there with the full breadth of our facility conditions as well as our enrollment and demographics we'd like you to be able to shoot
068up that QR code and give us some thoughts and ideas of what you're thinking along the way way um this is information that we'll have a chance to be able to review and respond to and be able to um think about the same thoughts that you are on um and be able to see what that looks like as we approach our next meetings in about a month or so um so with that I want to thank everybody for your time I know we ran about an hour tonight we covered a lot of information um we're going to have this slide deck posted as well so you can go through it at your leisure and then be able to provide some feedback on that thought exchange so I I want to thank everybody for bearing with
069us we um did a great job of covering a lot of different information and hopefully it was clear for everyone um and with that I'd like to you know wrap up the meeting I don't know if Dr Avery if you have anything else you want to be able to say uh I think I'll just wrap it up with a quick uh um synopsis I want to first thank MP planning and St J St Studio J for the hard work and uh the dedication they put into this project um you know we've got a lot of decisions to make we're going to be working closely with the community um you know we have our community dates that we'll get into the community and start to have these discussions questions answers start to take those recommendations um
070and we're going to be having our first meeting tomorrow evening as the at the facilities committee meeting to start discussing the facilities master plan we're working with um city council leadership to lock down a date so we can have the same discussion um you know with the city council and we'll be doing the same for the delegation um this is going to be a true partnership where everyone weighs in um you know the elected officials will will be the ultimate decision makers in this we want to make ensure that you know we gave as many recommendations based on the data um so they can have a framework um on the decisions that they'll be making moving forward so with that said thank you to everyone um we look forward to continuing the conversation thank you