Special Board of Education Meeting 4/29/2020 @ 5pm

001there I think we're good right Eric no I'm just all I'll let you know soon as realize it's it's going as of okay we are live okay so good evening everyone and I called the special meeting of the Brookfield Board of Education to order and first we should stand for the pledge I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all okay so first up we have public comment is anybody that's tuning in want to make a public comment that is pertinent to tonight's agenda I see it rich did you want to make a comment okay so I'm going to take the silence I guess as a No so we are going to move

002on then to approval of proposed changes to grading so at this point I'm going to turn it over to Jen to sort of summarize or actually let's get a motion first so go ahead I will move that the board approve the updates to greeting and reporting procedures K to 12 due to the coab in 19 pandemic inclusive of governor LeMans executive order 7c to close all connecticut schools and the necessary shift to distance learning the remainder of the 2019 2020 school year as recommended by assistant superintendent dr. maureen ruby director of instruction deb Christ BHS principal mark galanba WMS principal Dean Renda HHS principal Melissa labrats Graciano CES principal Mary Rose diamond and the Cape subcommittee second thank you joy so go ahead Jen if you I want to summarize this for us and talk

003about the work that the Cape committee has done with this okay it is Maureen here Maureen's here all right yes okay so I'm just going to do a like a high-level summary and I think I'll leave it up to Maureen and some of the principles and debits they want to drill down to more of the specifics so the big picture idea is that we all I think know and understand that we're living in very uncertain and different times and what could suffice as grading in normal school times really can't suffice anymore so we have to think about what are ways that we can give students and parents feedback on what we can assess and know and also not disadvantage our students in any way particularly those who might be applying you know to developing a

004transcript to apply to colleges so Maureen and the principals and Deb really did a lot of research and looked into sort of best practices and what would be the most fair way to assess students so you know just again a big-picture way is the at the elementary school is probably the most difficult because we really rely on our parents to be our partners in supporting our students so the main thing that we're going to be assessing is students participation really did they participate and weren't they at the and at the middle school in high school we're going to be looking more in more detail but looking at a pass/fail way to assess we know that those those students are obviously much more independent and they're able to produce the work on their own but also

005the reality is that we don't know what's going on in everybody's homes we don't know who has support who doesn't and so by moving to a more of a pass/fail assessment it gives us a chance to assess the students in a broad way but it doesn't disadvantage everybody I think Maureen can I turn to you to sort of fill in some of the specifics that I may have skirted over or any of the other people I have a hard time unmuting myself sorry about that yeah so what I think that you gave a really nice summary Jen and there was it was a pretty long meeting as you can see from the minutes so there was a lot of detail that went into the decisions at the different grade levels in terms of how they

006were all different and you touched on some of that so I think what would be the most feasible thing to do oh and I also want to go back to and really emphasize the facts that you talked about with student the variables that are involved in individual experiences of each and every one of the students and they the variables are not limited to just access although I want to point out in Access that if there's that there are more than one student in a home and let's say that somebody has four children and they have four computers but two parents are also working at home there's a lot there's got to be sharing of technology there's also bandwidth problems there's parents who are in jobs where they're actually going out to work those students particularly

007younger students and Mary Rose and Melissa may address this with more specificity but some children are in in daycare situations and so if they're in daycare from 7:00 in the morning until three four five or six o'clock at night they they don't have the opportunity for someone to help facilitate their their distance learning there the variables are so numerous that we do not want to put ourselves in a situation of making judgment calls on on students or for their performance or what they're doing somebody could also be in a situation where a very doting and caring parent or caregiver is at the child's side for you know way way too many hours a day and they are very involved in the distance learning and actually enjoying the teaching experience I'm sure there are hordes and

008hordes of those people but they're out there and they're trying to be the very best care giver they can and so then how much of the work is being done by the parent or caregiver and how much is being done by the student so we're not really Solomon you know in in our role and so we want to be objective and non-judgmental so I don't know we for elementary we are looking at the K through four grade levels in the same way and I don't know if which one of you wants to speak to that but feel free Mary Rose or Melissa just who won't raise your hand if you want to be the one Mary Rose you're the one so again as Maureen was just describing we're really focusing on just the participation piece

009of this and it's hard to really make any judgments as Maureen just described I'll go through that again it was well well said in terms of the different family and home life things that are going on and a lot of what we're doing our teachers are working really hard to help create experiences and learning that kids can do independently but the bottom line is they're little and there's lots of other factors that kind of play into that in many ways so again our goal is that we'd have evidence in some way teachers are collecting evidence in a variety of ways they're looking at students not only accessing the lessons that teachers are creating but also accessing our online program such a zesty math and some of the other things that we have access to during

010this break in school so we're looking for just making sure that kids are somehow being accountable for their learning in some way and then in addition to that it's so if we're not seeing that less than 90% participation and 90% referring to the amount of time we've been out of school so our goal is that 90% 90% of the day's students are participating in some way anything beyond they're below that would be assess of grade or reported as not participating on their poor garden mary-rose can you address how we are doing looking out for Student Wellness in terms of their participation because I think that's really important the work that you guys are doing to track children and make sure that we know where they are even if we don't see their work right so

011there's a lot of outreach and I know most of the same things happening at huckleberry in terms of if we're noticing that a student does not log in to something so as I said you know either the slides that we provided different different grade levels that have kind of established a different way that they're they're collecting information answering the question of the day so there's there's some way of daily that we're asking for for students respond to the question the day they were to their online program to see they log in for something they didn't just not log in for multiple days in a row or two days in a row then the teacher is reaching out directly to the family and having a conversation and then if it's on three day at least the

012center scope is beyond three days then I'm reaching out to the families I think my computer might have frozen okay so then if if it's you know three days or more that the students have not checked in then that I'm following up our secretaries are following up on attendance families who are not able to engage it as Maureen Mustaine we have a number of families that are still in daycare kids are in daycare and the kids are at home and during the day and then they get home and just getting that done is not it's just becoming very difficult we have other we've some of our pair is reaching out to follow up with them I just was on the phone today with Kevin Holley we're working on some of our ell families where this

013year the language is a barrier as well so we're trying to do some workarounds for that as well for those families so again especially at the younger levels Elementary it's it's a lot of engaging with the families to help them engage the students and work around some of those other family barriers and challenges they have so that morning to that know if that's I just wanted to make sure that everybody knew that we were not just saying oh you don't participate to that that you know you're off our radar where were to keep trying to make contact and know why we have lost or they didn't right go to a different state or a different town you know where kids are because we do have a responsibility to keeping track of our students just like

014we would if they were in school right so we I can say I mean there's there are all I think there's there was one student that we still hadn't had contact from for a couple weeks so I spoke with the mom we have our school psychologist dr. Glazer is now doing a zoom meeting with that student to motivate you okay a couple times a week so we're really I feel like the I'm established - they're doing a great job of coming together and making sure that we've got everybody doing what they can given their circumstances - to help them through thank you Mary Rose Melissa did you have anything that you wanted to add so it's very similar at huckleberry as well you know luckily we haven't had many families that have it have been

015off the radar but we do the very same thing at center school we are in constant communication with families that if we notice they've been absent for a few days but you know like Maureen said and Mary Rose said I think for us it's you know having these attendance questions and these checkpoints isn't the you know completing the work is important but for us it's just to make sure these students that are okay and that you know it's more of the wellness piece that you know these children are account for and that they are being taken care of and we know where they are you know their safety is just as important as them completing the assignments so Thank You Melissa rather than move on to Dean and then have to remember if you had

016questions I'll come to you Dean does anybody of the board have a question regarding what the plan is for k4 that they'd like to ask I guess my question is just just because the motion is to approve updates you know other than the contact is there any update from and from the grading perspective and are things gonna be graded differently or reported differently or how what can parents expect that's that's maybe yes and that's I think just to clarify that rather than giving we can't do our report card as a standards aligned report card can't assess on progress towards standards we typically give the the one through four appraisal of where you are with regard to mastering standards so we can't do that so it's it's participation non participation so that that's what that basically

017is the sustenance of the substance of what the conversation was addressing so I'm anticipating that when it's all said and done children are we're keeping such good track of the children in k4 and to see that they're participating that their school they're great if you want to call it there how we would be reporting on what they did is that they participated and then there should be very very few instances of children that didn't participate because we're constantly seeking them but it should be clear that that is reporting which is on the report card a regular basis every single day and the principals can speak to this if they would would prefer but I'll just say as an overarching statement we have focused on feedback just which is what we should be focusing on when

018we're in school but this paradigm shift has really afforded us the opportunity to change how we're really thinking about the information that we give back to students and we are actually I believe this is a true statement providing more feedback now then maybe we would be providing on the ground because we're operating in a different way and so students are getting written and now that we're doing some zoom activity with students oral feedback and because what we want is what we've been talking about for the past three years we want to create self navigating learners and the way you do that is to provide feedback not yes you got it right no you got it wrong but feedback and asking kids to go back and look at their work and revise did you want to

019say anything about that mary-rose or Melissa so I think the feedback thing is pretty important you know I was saying I think you know at whatever we're being very conscious and aware the same about you know when we're asking students to do assignments we're giving them things to do and they're turning big thing that they're the teachers are really taking a lot of time to go back and do whatever they can to just offer as you're saying that really feedback on the assignment that they're doing and the work that they're seeing students students too so we're trying to be responsive in that way yeah and I would also say to you know in addition to the feedback it's a lot more emphasis on the quality of work as opposed to the quantity of tasks being

020completed so it is really neat that you know teachers are giving feedback on all turned in assignments whether that feedback is verbal or written so children are getting constant feedback for improvement based on any of the assignments that they're turning in I just want to mention to dr. Webber part of their reporting is also going to be a narrative comment so in addition to the participation opportu a patient that the teachers will include at the end of the year as they would anyway but it would be a little different obviously but they'll also be putting a narrative coming does that answer the question Rosa yes thank you you're welcome anybody else okay moving on to the mayor mr. Brenda oh so at was skinnier we um we are going to be continuing to since we

021started March 13th for grading we are can continue to have our assignments on a zero one if they didn't do it or if they did the assignment it's so that's how we're tracking the assignments I think I don't want to reiterate too much of what the elementary teachers talked about but you know obviously the feedback is much more than you would be able to ever get in the classroom teachers are doing their best to keep up with that they've started the zoom office hours also which I think have been twofold has been good for some kids that needed help but interestingly I would say probably 75 percent of the kids that show up for the office of course are there for the interaction in the relationship and something that we spoke to teachers about how

022students in the surveys and the parents and the surveys talked about they wanting an interaction and it was pretty funny we had 47 is the highest in the first week I think two or one was the lowest but someone had 10 kids and 9 has a 10 kids didn't have a question and the other kids question was just a quick one so again you know her classroom but again the way it will be the grade will be assigned will be either the student handed it in got credit for it or did not and hand it in with a 0 for 1 we do have some instances where students are handing in work and teachers are asking some students to resubmit work forget they get the full credit and I mean that's rare but in instances

023where you know you may ask a kid to show certain evidence of something in a reading passage and they don't use any evidence from the book so they may give it back and say you know please please give evidence for this question or even in like math obviously they need to show their work so that's something with with the grading part of it the reporting part of it will just be a pass/fail so you know hopefully students will be doing in enough work to be able to pass I mean we really have been the teachers also the counselors the school psychologist the social workers and administration we've been reaching out the students who missed you know a couple days in a row they missed that we'll reach out to the student and and then at

024a certain point the counselors get involved or administration gets involved we do not have any students that have not participated at all we have every student has participated some more sporadic than others you know but we've done like today I did a zoom meeting with a student because you know he just didn't have access all the time to the computer and even when he did sometimes he wasn't getting things done so we zoomed with a couple of the teachers and got them back on track so that's those are some of the things that we're trying to keep all the kids you know doing what they have to for the distance learning any questions for for Dean on what is happening at the middle school Dean did you say just the participation part of it is

025going to be pass/fail so they'll still get regular letter grades and all the subjects no it'll be a pass/fail it'll be a period they may right now have just a letter grade because they're handing in certain percentage you know of this so it's almost like it's all based on the total number of assignments by the number of assignments that are completed okay it'll be a pass/fail okay so moving on to high school it gets it always gets a little tricky when we get to mister Belinda things in high school are in terms of grading and reporting become influenced not only by the variables of the students and the type of course that it is but also by outside agencies and so I you had the opportunity to read the minutes we needed to to be

026really careful to consider what information we had with regard to colleges for seniors as well as for underclassmen because there are things like GPAs and that sort of stuff that really is kind of high stakes and the minds of students parents and post-secondary institutions so the Connecticut State Department of Education has been working with colleges both in-state and out-of-state since this began and we had our first meeting we had a meeting with the associate commissioner talking about you know what what kind of guidance are you gonna give us on grading and they needed to make sure that they had contact and information from post-secondary institutions so pretty much as written in the in the minutes the colleges and universities themselves are going to pass/fail options for students because they're doing distance learning as well they're

027in the same boat we are and they are going to be accepting and not penalizing students who are coming into college this year and people who have pass/fail grades on their transcripts for courses for this particular quarter or trimester depending upon what the secondary school system is the other issue that we had to wait for unfortunately we got we got the final word last Tuesday before in the morning before our Cape meeting is something that a lot of people made that I think about and it's n-c-double-a and mark and and Steve can speak to that you know n-c-double-a has believe it or not really strict regulations with regards to grades from your senior year for incoming freshmen in terms of their eligibility and they typically have not accepted pass/fail grades in the courses that are

028on their list of courses that kids have to come in with a a passing letter grade four so they the n-c-double-a approved acceptance of pass/fail grades in the letter came out last Tuesday right before our Cape meeting so that was very fortuitous for us in terms of being able to codify what mr. Blanda and his team felt was appropriate for Brookfield High School you know we looked at all of the information we didn't just look out the window to see what our neighbor was doing because it has to work for Brookfield and so at this point in time I would ask mark to explain what we decided to do for the high school so as always there's a challenge when it comes to high school there's part of me that you know likes the a

029little bit of simplicity to be able to say pass no pass but it is significantly more complicated than that there's a lot of factors that we need to consider you know some of those factors include the work that kids and students have done through the first three quarters they had done a significant amount of work they've earned grades we calculated a seventh semester GPAs to determine rank for seniors you know and and what I didn't want to be was be disingenuous and say you know well everybody gets a pass so everybody gets a fail because that really paints everybody with a broad brush and you know we're really I wanted to be focused on providing a differentiated option for kids really that made the most sense for them that also speaks to what they can

030do after graduation what their transcript looks like because it's a pretty complicated process you know and I didn't want to paint a full year's worth of work with AP or an NP no pass or even a pass with distinction that doesn't really give a whole lot of information about the student and what the work they had done we've worked really hard to refine our assessments and the instructional piece that we do in the school so that we feel our grades are pretty representative of a student's actual ability and just if there was too much too much variability with that sort of thing so what we did is we took a look at a couple different things one we realize we need to continue to grade traditionally so right now teachers are grading they're giving assignments

031and they're actually grading assignments just like they would normally and by normally we're not doing the same workload there's certain expectations that teachers have as to the amount of work they're to give kids based on the number of a days or the number of B days in any given week so students are being assessed and provided feedback in terms of grades at the very least on the work they're submitting what this allows us to do is we took March 12th as the baseline that we created that was the last full day of school we do that as a baseline and said okay while the quarter ended while we were still out of school technically because distance learning began on March 23rd which is a full week later we had about you know almost two full

032weeks of distance learning that was counted in third marking period and with the bulk of third marking period or third quarter being occurring while we were in school face-to-face as a traditional setting I made the decision at that point that we needed a baseline so anything is we adjusted the distance learning that kids had done their grade is not going to go any lower in third quarter than what they had done when they were in school so a student can be completely disengaged there could be any number of different transitions and and issues that going along there so that all they could do is either maintain or improve their grade for third quarter so that was a process that teachers got to engage in and go back work backwards and and figure out what that

033grade was the bulk of fourth quarter and while I know we're at this point out till May 20th I know we'll still wait to hear what happens in terms of the governor and the Commissioner as to when we may or may not come back but so far to date the bulk of fourth quarter has obviously been in in this distance learning environment and it may in fact extend through the remainder of the year it really all depends on what they say we've got a little but it's time to figure that out what I didn't want to do was you know given that everybody's situation as Maureen and dr. ruby is shared and other good principles and John have talked about all the different situations that kids could be under we don't know but we also

034don't want to you know if they're working hard and some kids are they're putting a lot of effort in and they're really working towards and I've gotten a lot of feedback from some students saying they are working hard they appreciate the distance learning we have a lot of kids doing better than they had been doing prior we created an option that would actually allow them to pick for fourth quarter what they wanted would they be getting a traditional grade right so or would they go to a pass no pass or a pass with distinction option and I've detailed in the in the updated Kate minutes you know some information as to how what that looks like and what that does it really it does not penalize anybody depending on the option they choose but it

035does give them some flexibility within the fourth quarter so they can choose based on those three options that the options of traditional or they can choose the pass pass the distinction or no pass option but then when it comes to the final transcript their transcript is still going to show an overall grade which will be helpful I think across the board it it's it's a nice mix of giving kids options while at the same time still reporting a traditional grade you know would still be would noted on the transcript that in fourth quarter that students have the option for these three possibilities and what each averaged came through but this allows us you know to really have a pretty transparent transcript and a real true representation of what kids can do you know the thing

036that I wasn't entirely sure of last week at Cape when we met was also percentages I have to change the percentages if we eliminate final exams like we want to do because it's not fair to give a final exam that changes grading percentages across the board so I had to work through that with my team which we did and came up with a suggestion that we have here that were putting forward to you that gives you a balance students do have options what I don't want to do is is force kids into a corner I certainly have as dr. baurel said talked to and dr. Ruby talked to other surrounding districts that look at what they're doing then compared to what we have at Brookfield and there is no one-size-fits-all you know it sounds simple

037from the State Department to come down and say okay you can you can call fail or pass and it's up to you and but each individual school you'll find has their own tweak and version of it because it really has to suit their community and what they do which is why the local Boards of Education are given the opportunity to make you know make the final decision of how this goes so I don't know if there's anything any in particular it is it is pretty complicated I'll be honest there there's a lot of steps that have to happen in terms of waiting and what this is worth and how to calculate in the backend but you know in the conversation with my team the easy way is to go pass or fail but that's not

038right for kids and you know John's signature it says you know the the I forget exactly what it says all the time ahead I've seen it so most there's so many times but you know it's it's the focus of what we do every day and so I want to give each kid the opportunity to really demonstrate what their what they're doing rather than give them all the same sort of grade one way or the other so that's the that's the proposal I have putting forward today so I'm obviously happy to answer any questions and there's some sample students you can see a typical a student a typical B student what it looks like we round things up and give them different grades and how their averages come out to be and the end and what

039gets reported so there's some options there but I just want to put that out for you so you can and I'm ready for any questions mark thank you very much I think that the additional chart that you prepared with the the numbers to be able to show folks what the different options impact is on what students transcripts will look like is very very helpful and I appreciate the fact that you took the time to to do that and get it to us so that people could have it to look at so any questions for mark mark is there any difference in terms of AP classes how those will be reflected or factored in yeah it's a really it's a really good question Deb so we made a decision in terms of AP we have AP

040weighting and part of the board policy that's also connected to what our handbook says is that and student who takes an AP class gets a higher weight than I mean then somebody was in an honors class that's always been the case that will continue to be the case what we have done in the past is that we've we required students to take the AP exam that has always been an expectation if you take the AP test if you take the AP class you have to take the AP test in order to get the AP weighting because what we didn't want was kids taking it get in the weighting and then backing out and just bailing on the test we really wanted kids to focus on the test the challenge this years with so many changes

041to AP and for those of you that don't know you know Advanced Placement the test is now going to be online it's going to be a 3035 before 30 to 45 minute test it's only free response questions there are no multiple choice it's only 75% of the content that was originally kids were responsible for we just didn't feel comfortable you know forcing every kid into taking that test given the last bit of since the last time we were in place was March 12th so regardless and the conversation has been with the AP teachers they've been teaching at a college level across the board since day one so is that as that at a higher level than an honors class absolutely it is and they've been expected to meet that level of college work so those

042weights for those grades will count as an AP AP Stat a score so an AP weight so they are waited more than honors definitely so that's still that has not changed okay so I if if there are any other questions we're happy to take them I just wanted to to state thanks for all for the administrators because we have been working on this I don't know what guys like six weeks off and on little the conversations as information was coming out and we in dependable work independently mark and I am his his staff looking at what was coming out from high schools across the country and what was coming out from the colleges to be able to have an informed decision and not just what's everybody else doing or what's the state telling us to

043do so I think that the care that people took to to come to these recommendations is commendable and I also would like to thank the elementary principals and them and Dean because we really made this child centered and took the family situations and everything into consideration rather than just taking you know the easy way out just like just that everybody at a scale so that's our work and if there are any other questions we're here to answer them okay does anyone else have any questions or any discussion comments okay so seeing none all those in favor aye okay thank you the vote is unanimous and now we can move on on our agenda up next we have the Rose Oh could I just could I just ask one question so our plan was that we

044will collectively draft a document that can be sent out from the district to parents and I just want to make sure that you're all on board with that yeah that would be great okay thank you up next is the Brookfield high school locker room discussion and possible motion so this is just an action and I'm going to turn it over to joy right now to run through this presentation okay so since our last meeting on April 1st when we first presented the boys high scream locker room presents you several things took place since then I wanted to give you information about so I'm most important the Board of Finance only put 300 thousand dollars back into the capital budget on April 8 there was another Board of Finance meeting Rosa was an attendance and she

045spoke about the project and how this could affect our accreditation wouldn't he ask I also spoke more in depth about the importance of the project and how it affects our children in the community next morning I reached out to Steve Don and Mark Mulaney to address some suggestions and comments that were made after I spoke with the Board of Finance meeting in the meantime I sent them the presentation that they asked for and started to prepare for a presentation to give them in June and I answered on the immediate questions that they had so both the Board of Finance and Steve Dunn also emphasized that they really valued pulled check owes feedback and insight on the project so they asked me to reach out to him and pull and I did connect I just wanted

046to quickly summarize what Paul had said he feels that the project needs to be completed it's in its entirety that a piecemeal approach doesn't work and we need to do it right and do it once dori he feels that it doesn't make sense to do it in pieces he actually recommended more fixtures in the exterior restrooms because what we currently have in the plan is certainly not enough Jeff from Tecton also reached out to the state and put in a grant application inquiry I request for like possible reimbursement and unfortunately the feedback was not so favorable I could get into detail about what they said but that's the gist of it we were able to expedite the process and present we'll be presenting tonight at the seven o'clock Board of Finance meetings so that's where

047we are now I've worked with Eddie from Tecton to make some edits and changes to the PowerPoint presentation that we showed you at our last meeting and the options have not changed but we want to make sure we're you know on the same page and you know at least having unanimous consensus as to where we all stand you know with this project so that's what we're going to do do tonight is present the project one more time and to you know ask you if you have any questions or concerns before we go forward to the Board of Finance and the sort of the motivation behind this really was because there is an opportunity due to the the changes in the budget approval process there is an opportunity to add more funds back into that project

048and I to be honest I don't really think that the Board of Finance is favorable to funding the entire project as Tecton had presented it but there may be you know considering you know Paul check those advice and everything um you know I I agree it doesn't make sense to do a piecemeal but we need to have that discussion of you know do we wait until the entire project can be funded and that means doing nothing now or do we want to reconvene around maybe some of these small more piecemeal parts of the project because those may be possibilities so I know I would like to I don't know if you want to do the presentation first joy and kind of just look through the options again but I would like to hear sort of

049from mr. Belinda about you know is there something that is an immediate need now that could maybe prevent you from having to make a report to me ask so you know the knee and the knee as visa is a complicated piece certainly and I explained to you know the superintendent you know yesterday and some of the conversation you know so this technically you know one of the one of the things that we got hit on in terms of our report specifically that I have to file a two-year report on is community resources for learning and that has to do necessarily with budget and support and so you know one of the things they talked about was a change in budget and planning so while the board put together a you know a $600,000 and we

050know those we all know at that point that this was less than what we needed even to do the project at seven hundred thousand I think it came to seven hundred something initially with some of the basic things than one point seven across the board you know they're what I would have to do at this point I wouldn't have to submit a substantive change form because it is do it was due by tomorrow is the last minute and they're still not some official responses yet so I'm not completing a substantive change report all that basically means is that when I do my two-year report in December I will highlight where we are in terms of funding for the particular the boys locker room project you know because realistically it's not going to start right away

051anyway it's not gonna start by the fall so I'll have to highlight where we are because it's I have to respond to every single recommendation and my two-year report you know like what can happen is that they can ask for additional updates every year traditionally it's a two and a five year report and then your ten year visit that's traditionally how it works if things are going well but I have I have been known in other districts where there's been the two-year report didn't ask for a special three a special for the five - six - seven - just make sure because one of their big pieces was it's great to have a plan and the board has done a great job putting that together the challenge becomes you know when our feet get cut

052out from underneath us that we have a plan but we can't ever implement it because it keeps changing and you keep knocking things out so they they applaud us the fact that we're planning ahead but then we don't we can't get anything done with it because it keeps getting cut from underneath us so in terms of where we stand for accreditation we wouldn't lose accreditation tomorrow we wouldn't lose accreditation in a year the process involves going on probation I'm warning first and then from warning they go to a probation status and then from probation status you can go to you know loss of accreditation that happens in very extreme cases the idea for warning and then probate it's progressive and you know from that perspective so that people can see and it's officially reported on

053the Neos website these schools are on probation these schools are on warning so that you know you can use it as a leverage to try to get the support and resources for the kids that that we need so right now there's nothing significant that I would report I would put it in my my 2-year update that's coming in the fall and I'll have more information by that point in time in terms of budget but in terms of what we need I think it's been pretty well laid out and I appreciate the board and the subcommittee facilities subcommittee taking a look at that and really getting behind some things that have been desperately needed for a long time and I just I want to put my appreciation out there and the work that Steve's done as

054well as Eddie and the rest this facility subcommittee and Dan to really kind of put something forward to try to help our kids because we need it it's it's it's a rough space as those you know that have been there so that's the best thing I can share right now but your two year report is going to be next year yeah my to report is gonna be doing believe it or not in December so it's it's it's a two-year report that's the next step the expectation is I have to respond there's highlighted recommendations that I get that I have to respond to the and the boys locker room is one of those highlighted recommendations and then there's a whole list under each standard of like three or four you know important but at least less

055important than the original highlighted I have to respond to every single one of those and provide a status report completed in progress not yet addressed and then you have a narrative that goes along with that so that that's that I'll start writing that in the fall and it'll be doing December so if we so if we don't end up achieving increased or even just the same funding that we had planned you would have to in that report you know say I don't know you know that and that's that's the the finesse part of it where I'd have to really you know work in conjunction with with the superintendent the board to talk about wording and what that looks like you know their recommendation was it needs be addressed and you know at that point if

056we're at not enough funding or there's not enough plans moving forward you know it might be a not yet addressed and then a description as to what what we've what we're dealing with at that point in time if it seems like you know it's moving forward a little better than we can talk about that but right now I probably say you know if it went forward even with a three hundred thousand dollar which is the one that the recommendation that's in there in terms of budget for next year that's less than half of what we need even for the base level project I would put that it's it's not yet not yet been addressed and it's in the process of moving forward so and and if I could if I could just add on that

057board finance member asked me this morning about exactly what Marc's talking about and I put that in writing in an email response so I have a summary of what I can share that mark just talked through that I can share the one thing I'd like to remind before we get into the presentation the review presentation is that let's not forget and this is very important this is a very special community here in Brookfield and all of us take a lot of pride in it and we are under no false ideas of the economic times we are in and but we're also not forgetting where we've come from but I don't want to forget that certain things were neglected for years and it manifested in 2015 with Brookfield high school high school because of its achievement

058gap being labeled as a focused high school and what have we done over the last four and a half years it's a nationally it's made it to the net being nationally ranked by US News and World Report and we're very proud of the work of moving up the state rankings and specifically lat moving continuing from last year to this year from 38 to 31st and we're nationally ranked probably of all 24,000 high schools something like 1500 so we are doing great things and we want to continue that Marc often talks about the standard 7 which involves facilities is very difficult because that's standard that many times is out of the educators control is we need the resources to make happen he talked about we can put a plan in place all we want but do

059we have the resources to take action to make that happen so I just don't want us to forget that these are very serious things and while tomorrow there will not be some immediate need that we will be put on some kind of probationary status this happens over time and usually these these probationary or warnings that probationary status or warnings that schools receive are lagging indicators of work that hadn't been done for years leading up to that particular ranking or deficiency or whatever it might be I just wanted to add that even before we get into the presentation and you know John it'd be important to note that the you know thirteen years ago the 2007 knee ask visit standard seven was the same standard that led to the addition in the science department to that

060piece because we were deficient in that area and that that was one of the motivators to get things to move forward you know so this is not the first time this community has unfortunately been hit with that expectation of minimum level of performance and you know I'm obviously concerned about it you know I'm hopeful we can find some sort of solution to it but I just want to say that's that happened also thirteen years ago in 2007 so just to keep that up um so joy why don't you walk us through the the options again and so we can maybe have a better conversation and see what we're what we're really looking at yeah I'm just trying to bring it up on my son having trouble sharing my screen maybe Eric can it might be

061like a permission set yeah I'm having trouble sharing my screen it was it was it was a permission sorry joy go ahead still having trouble usually the host has to did I've um yeah I've given I've given participants permission to do so but I don't want to hold on too much longer so I can pull it up if if that is easier and enjoy so the most important thing that we really wanted to emphasize was the rationale that's one thing that we really left out initially you know the most important thing was it's not just something that benefits student-athletes it benefits the whole school student body and the community it improves our health and PE curriculum and we need to do right by these facilities so that because these are the backbone to the programs

062and experiences we need and want to provide our students so these first two slides this one in particular really focuses on you know what the u.s. Center for Disease Control and Prevention and what they say about the importance of health and self safety and wellness and promoting that and our students just go to the next slide please this these are some statistics of the importance of the facilities and who would impact so it's used 245 days a year for the health classes and the athletic program 350 students a day use it and that's not including visitors and that right now currently is overcrowded it's not able to be used its full capacity were restricted of what we can provide as far as fitness and cardio equipment to support the PE and health classes in our

063curriculum and athletics and there's the Omni asked recommendation the last bullet and next slide when we broke the rationale down into a lot of the areas that we wanted to focus on so the lack of supervision that needs to be improved the pride that we want to instill in our athletes in our student body about how important is of a project for them the transitions of the layout of the physical layout of the locker room making it very challenging to keep the athletic team separate for spacing for the four other teams and officials and also during PE classes it's challenging for an instructional time ok the next slide like we articulated before some of our concerns showers aren't functional only to single-use toilet rooms ventilation is insufficient no physical separation teams will share bathroom the

064referees have no privacy and it's also used as a town shelter which is really important ok the next slide or just the pictures that we showed again last time the existing lockers in our in poor physical condition the next slide sorry not sure why he keeps bouncing back hold change that here's where we can expand the weight room for able to utilize these areas that currently are not functional a lot of unused spaces that now can be used for storage or expanding in the weight room here's where we would have access to the exterior bathrooms and we talked about earlier we added in here that the does not the lighting can't be accessed assessed by accessed by the elderly or families who needs a changing station here's a water filling station that we got they

065use for drinking that needs to be renovated to properly serve that purpose here's the area where I was mentioning about the supervision is very problematic and the area where the office is it's not suitable for supervising either classes during the day for PE or health classes or even for student athletes that's a plan existing conditions right now you here's the plan moving forward and then the next slides are after this let's go to the next one Eric we can go into the options that we reviewed and it's no different than what we showed you originally you go to the next side so everything that's colored is the expansion of or so the way is the existing conditions and then the different areas the alternatives that we'll discuss the next slides taking what out next time

066okay so this is the base work all five alternatives could see the so that the the full scope of the project again is one point three so approved so originally what we had in in the capital plan was six hundred five thousand so that would be seven hundred seventeen thousand eight hundred twenty-four that we would need so that's what all five alternatives option two so this is the base level of the work and alternatives one two and three you can see that colored in red orange yellow so the cost of this work would be one point two approved 6:05 so we would have to come up with six hundred and twelve thousand that's the you'll see alternative 3 is exterior toilet rooms expanding the weight training cardio area okay option three these alternatives one and

067three and the base so that's taking out the office the extra the yellow so the cost this work is one point one having to come up with five hundred thirty two thousand if the 605 was still in the capital plan option for this is the base and just doing the exterior excess toilet rooms the cost of this work is eight hundred twenty-six thousand four hundred seventy nine and then option 5 is just the base work who know alternatives so the cost of this would be seven hundred six thousand three hundred ninety nine that's doing nothing extra no alternatives just the base work so that's no different than what we presented to you at our last meeting as far as the options are concerned it's the one player is it that approved or is it just

068in the capital plan yeah actually what's approved is the is half of that this was prior to the Board of Finance taking the 300 turning putting it back three three hundred only in the capital plan there's only three hundred thousand in the capital plan all right as of now yes so what does approve to me so this is before they so originally we had six hundred five thousand approved in the capital plan and has been approved as what I'm asking there they're in the process in the process of a proven plan well they did approve the three hundred thousand but they now I guess because of the budget approval process and their extension of 30 days they're able to change things again so there there's an opportunity to add more back potentially to store it

069to what we had originally proposed hopefully more but you know this this is that opportunity hopefully and in Bob to answer your question in joy or Rosa just correct me if I'm wrong on this one but the word approved next to the 605 that you have there joy is what the board approved in the capital plan to put forward that's what that means currently oh what we approved yes just to be super clear so I don't know you know what everybody else sort of is thinking I know that when we last had this presented to us we all sort of gathered around the idea that we need to present the full project and we need to push the project forward but at that point you know they had already the Board of Finance had already

070determined that they were going to reduce what was already an underfunded project so you know I don't think there's a whole lot of favor in I just the doing the 1.3 is just I really think it's out of the question in terms of what they're going to approve so the sort of the question that that were being faced with now is do we continue to push for that full project and that means we're probably not gonna do anything you know this year or next or until we reconvene around you know a simpler version of the project and maybe we can get you know funds for that and roses if I may add having some conversations with mr. Cecco and for the public that that is Ewing mr. Chavez the chairman of the municipal ultimately I

071don't know if we made that clear having some conversations with him and then just thinking back to the elementary school project and when you look at the the cost of that is very scary seeing the millions and millions of millions of dollars for that project we worked with the board Finance and we worked with mrs. Miriam on building a model of how there could be possibly over time a way to afford that and so I wonder if that's something the Board of Finance would be willing to explore that maybe you don't have to approve the full 1.3 million in 1:1 capital improvement plan fiscal year and maybe there's a way to do that over time I don't know the answer to that but I think it's something asking the question how can we afford it

072immediately putting school all said we can't afford it there's a way we can work together on this and still get the project Specht and bidded properly but finances somehow with bonding and and look at talk to bond council how they might make this work so I just want to put that out everybody's a consideration anybody else 4,000 that they're talking about a bonded capital or a cash capital do you know I don't know believe it's bonded or that's what they would plan to do why would you put forward a bonded project I mean bonded projects you pay for over 20 to 30 years why would you bring forward a bonded project that's funding only a quarter of the project that seems odd to me no and I asked the same question but it was just

073conversations that were coming up so I'm kind of just putting out the thought process of being creative if there's other ways we can look at this but I understand that Bobby if you're going to borrow it you get paid over twenty or thirty years then just borrow it and do the project okay one way or the other if you was cash capital ie it's a capital item but you're paying for it out of the current year budget I feel very differently you might do a little bit this year might do a little bit next year and you accumulate the money and then you go do the project right because you can only afford so much per year from the taxpayer but if you're going to bond it to me it's true it makes more sense

074to say call the ball on what you're gonna do and then go do it mm-hmm and if the answer is we want to wait a year because of the timing like what mrs. Marion did which was very effective I thought when they did the budgeting if she went and timed out what it what the timing of all the bonding would be showed how it played out over time you know and really analyzed the impact to the town tax rates and I'm not hearing that going on here I think this is a discussion of have you really modeled it out I mean if the answer is no we have to do it right we have to we have to fix this this part of our facility doing it this year doing it next year doing it

075in phases over two or three years if you step back and look at this over twenty to thirty year window weather which is the bonding window you're moving the aperture about that much it's not moving the equation that much so but if you thought is I'm only gonna ever do three hundred thousand dollars worth of stuff mad starts making a difference so or if the borrowing level is going up too much because we want to keep a triple-a bond rating when we go to the bond market for the schools that's a different consideration but those are financing considerations that I would that's what I prefer to hear us talking about rather than should we you know settle for a half a half a loaf here right because I'm not sure that anything that you show

076joy in your project these are things that have to get done at some point right think I mean we're only debating do you do it this year do you do it next review that the following year so phasing thing not a not a do you never do it so that would be what I'd I'd really in your presentation I'd say there's no doubt that we have to do this at some point so the question is how do you bite it off and how's the best way to finance it is to me the important question and I think you know that's a question obviously for the Board of Finance but I think what they wanted to know was you know what needs what really needs to be in there immediately so that you know we can

077report favorably back to any asked when mister Belinda has to do that I I feel like we all agreed that the base project and the the outdoor the access to restrooms from the outdoor which is currently option four is really the non-negotiable right so that just that is eight hundred and twenty six thousand so I guess I'm looking at the options that I'm trying to figure out are there other pieces like when you go from option three to option two I'm gonna say what what if we like could we just take the yellow office space between three and two I was thinking if we had option for with the base plan and the outdoor restrooms could we add the yellow office space without the weight room so then we'd have the better sight lines into

078the locker room and me but you know we're picking it apart now and you know Debbie and I think we talked a lot of the you know what at the the times I was able to be present for the facility committee meeting and then and then recently really thinking about going to the state for reimbursement and so forth a big part of this that gets lost I think it's I think it's how we may have discussed it very early on in the project is this really helps with the school day physical education health program no and in the weight room is a big part of that we think of the weight length you know we say four seasons of the fourth season it would be the summer and we think about student athletes that use

079that for for working out but we actually have lifting programs and we try to have cardio programs that would involve that facility in going forward the vision would be to expand the weight room to make it a fitness room and then you'd have all that room for a cardio equipment so it really helps the entire student body with our physical education program so I think that's the piece we need to remind everybody oh I don't need to remind you Debbie I just want to make sure we articulate that yeah you hear that that's really that's the frankly the more important part of the program then athletics comes after that as a you know after-school activities hey Debbie I think two is in in in option two that's an office for the weight room mat the

080locker room the way that they read the office space takes care of the supervision what piece so I mean honestly I mean if you guys asked me what will be the best option in my eyes I mean is model three cuz other stuff we can kind of deal with that's just that's my opinion I mean obviously I would love model one but taking it down to model three takes care of all of our needs in my opinion I I was just trying to figure out a way because I think the feedback Rosa got from Glenn and Rosa correct me if I'm wrong but I thought your interpretation was that they're just not going to go for like the weight room Yeah right out of the gate so yeah that's all I was trying to problem-solve

081is I mean there's even an issue with you know it some of this is a communication issue but there there is an issue with you know there's a discrepancy in terms of how much I guess like viability there is behind this proposal I mean I really don't think they see the dire need and I think you know we did you know not a good enough job of communicating that earlier in the budget process but you know where we're at now they're willing to listen and potentially add you know more funds back into their I just don't think they're at the point of of understanding the need for weights and cardio room and so at the moment you know if we you know if if it comes down to it and they're they're being they're trying

082to you know keep the the mill rate increase as close to zero as possible and you know looking at all of the challenges that we're all facing right now you know I just there's there's a possibility that they don't fund any more than this and then what do we do with I mean I don't think we could do anything with 300,000 I mean what's the point and you know there is no option for that so this is lost topic but it was something I was thinking about a couple weeks ago when this first came up was is there a way to turn this project into some kind of revenue I mean I know some high schools have summer programs obviously if we're utilizing the weight room in the facilities maybe that's it take some of

083the sting out of this is that I mean that's maybe that's more of a question for Steve you know I don't know you know 100 185 days as a school year you know it's used obviously during the day for physical education classes I'm referring to like summer programs camps our kids will use it in the summer as well and then the gym the gyms are used for basketball camps I mean it could be but it'd be obviously bit based around you know what our teams are utilizing - I mean I don't know what how much money we can generate and we need the locker rooms for those summer camps for those basketball camps oh no no not the locker rooms I thought you're talking about the weight room I don't know what you're gonna use

084the weight room for that huh or at all as part of a training program let's say it's a bad weather outside outside of the maybe the football team runs a camp I know the football team runs a camp with the poplar kids at adding in park I mean what if there's terrible weather maybe they can do some kind of a demonstration I'm just trying to spit ball here maybe bring some of that number down as far as maybe turning into some sort of revenue outside of you know we we it's a need but then let's see you know there's tons of advantages of having a plus facility that's what that's what all kids actually look for in in going this the colleges is is just you're really good facilities god I would say Mike to

085that point some of the stuff that currently exists right now and Steve can can probably speak more to this we do have Park and Rec camps that are there throughout the course of the summer as well that use the facilities you know and and rain and things like that you know they do come inside whether it be an outdoor tennis camp we have that happens and people come in and use the locker room and the gym facilities you know so we we have some existing relationships with the town and Park and Rec where they do certainly use the facilities already I know the model for example in Bethel when they they just built a huge tract indoor track facility the public access to that is very limited in terms of what they can actually do

086I know there's it's a very small amount of revenue I think it's that they certainly are collecting something but it's very limited but I'm saying to try to get something in there but I think I think it'd be challenging given what we already have running in the summer and what our what our current programs are already using I think it would be a challenge but I know what your kind of where you're coming from to try to get something like that joy do you think there's any way we can get estimates from pectin to show how inefficient it would be to spread the project over three years and and show them what happens to the costs if like I'm thinking if there was any way we got approval for six hundred thousand this year then

087we spend whatever 350,000 next year and three hundred and fifty thousand the year after that to get us to 1.3 million then because we're spreading it out over such a long period of time it's no longer a 1.3 million dollar project now it's a 1.8 million dollar project because we've had to come back three times is there is there any value in trying to look at that and and present it that way joy you're on mute myself yeah sorry about that so I had brought that up with Tecton and Eddie specifically in Jeff and they can kind of do like a phase out approach but obviously it's not fiscally responsible and they said it would be quite an increase year to year stretching it out myself but that would be you know we can present

088it that way I asked Paul chuckle that took when he said that it would be quite a big increase you know based on his work I don't know he didn't get an exact number on him but that was a question I had when I spoke with him last week when I did ask them several times they weren't able to really pinpoint an exact number it was they said it'd be a challenge to do they could do it but it would it wouldn't be financially you know a smart move I suppose we presented that way did Paul have give any sense for whether he thought the pricing that we have is fair he did he looked over everything and he said that everything looked fair I mean he had some you know a couple minor recommendations

089but it wasn't anything that was gonna really take the number down if anything he said that he wanted to add more to the exterior bathrooms restrooms because like I got the impression in at least one board a finance meeting that they thought they thought that we could do this project for much less not not not everybody but there were some that seemed to voice that opinion so I you know I just wonder if that's a factor also some members did bring that up yes and Paul said he would speak to that specifically at the meeting tonight to kind of disprove some of those assumptions just I'd like to add just so people know and I think it's important for the public's you know that mr. Malanda and mr. Baldwin myself collaborated and we sent you

090a kind of a bulleted point narrative on the rationale and the usage of this at the school we're going to do a put a letter to get take that and develop it into a full letter to go to the state office of school construction grants management because while we were turned away essentially it wasn't for it wasn't positive regarding reimbursement we're gonna give it one more try and more accurately emphasized the school day program that would benefit from from the locker-room project and see if we might be able to get some reimbursement again no promises on that but please know we're we're still gonna pursue that the other thing that we could potentially consider in this is more of a Board of Finance decision but we are looking at a surplus of our budgeted funds

091at the end of this year in particular if the schools are closed through the end of the year now that money obviously reverts back to the town automatically you know if this was a project that we you know want to lobby for that money to be put towards this project you know it's something we can have a conversation about I don't think it's anything that would get us the full project but and of course the Board of Finance can have other decisions about how to use that yeah that's a good point Rosa because you know he take the existing $177,000 I'll be it it's not officially a non lapsing fun but we've all referred to it as that from a couple of years ago that's designed for the schools it's being being held there and

092if this estimated surplus in the 400 to 500 thousand dollar range if that comes to fruition you put those two numbers together and you're in the six hundred seven hundred thousand dollar area and you're getting very very close to you know halfway to the original estimate for the project so and maybe there's some balance to what Bob was talking about maybe you bond half and you're able to pay for half or something like that in cash maybe there's a way to do that again that's important finding its discussion and decision ultimately but again trying to be creative about how we might be able to afford this is this important project and keep the keep the obligation down for the community as best again I'll also remind us that any bonding that any project which requires

093bonding of over a million dollars has to go to referendum so that's got to be in their head as well here oh this is a big deal I like I like the thought of taking some of our surpluses and partially funding it with that and then but I'm not sure I want to pull that switch until we see how it plays out with the budget of the budget in the school year for next year and if any special ed needs show up again we ought to be able to drive to understanding by the fall but the but it's actually like that idea partially funded through what we've been giving back to the town and partially fund it with new capital then they might be able to put in six to eight hundred thousand dollars and

094the font rest of the funding comes from our under runs right and if we can't if we can't use the under runs for that then maybe well then then maybe we do it in the two phases over two years I'm not not the project with the funding in two phases over two years right you kind of wonder why we use a lot of those overruns for some of the investments that we like to make yearly dollar that's we're still talking about a net surplus and over that yeah okay right yeah and Bob is that true for this year as well to a million dollar ask needs to go for referendum or is that all suspended as well that's always the the Charter requires borrowing of over a million dollars to go to a referendum okay

095and it's not the size of it's the size of the borrowing and that's different than the budget process for this year that's correct okay and and and that's why they're always very careful about if you actually look carefully the in budget approval there's actually a separate line for bonded capital right and that's that so the town can vote for that as part of the budget referendum that way you don't have to go to the polls more than once so yeah I'm an ami what do you guys get to circle back with what Rosie you said before you know work how do we feel as far as do we want to push the project the full scope the project forward or do we how does everyone feel as far as I would like to push the

096whole project forward but it just doesn't seem feasible I mean in what we can also do I mean is you know we can we can say like you know we would like our first option to obviously be to take a look at what are our surplus is going to be and we would like to you know hopefully get a rough estimate I mean really the rough estimate that we have has got to be I mean good because the Board of Finance is gonna have to make these adoptions within the next couple of weeks before they start to have public hearings and stuff so you know having an estimate of let's say six hundred thousand as a net surplus and we can you know say ideally we would like to use those funds to put towards

097the project in cash and the rest can be bonded that's sort of our primary objective but if you know and of course the decisions there's but maybe as a second option you know we can say if that not something that you're willing to do then here's where we would go next which maybe would be what was a call option option 4 which was you know the bathrooms alternative which are non-negotiables yeah so so let me let me spin it a little bit Rosa what if we walk in and say we know this project is gonna have to be done we know at some point so the cheapest way to do it would be to do it all at once it's gonna cost more according to mr. Chuck oh right if we spread it into multiple

098phases so ideally we would approve the whole project and put it in the bonding package and pay for it over 20 years or whatever your bonding period is if you can't approve that the next one would be approve option 4 in your in your budget as a non bye you know either bonded or not bonded at 826 we would suggest then we hold on launching the project until we see if we need to use the surpluses as going into next year and what the surplus is actually are and if there is sufficient surplus we would apply that to the project and and see if we can fill in the rest and if we don't have the surplus to be able to use then we'll go for option 4 right as a bare minimums that way

099you've given yourself many options which is we like we'd like the whole package second option is you put in the 826 I think with the number joy an option for that option for my number 8 so you put 8 6 in the budget and if we don't need that if we generate surpluses and don't need the surpluses then we use that to finish the project and do the whole thing that's so option one and option two both get your whole thing for deals and then option three is we you know it doesn't work out and we're gonna have to do a bare minimums right which is a lot that in my view is that's suboptimal by a lot oh I I really would like to go for this hole object in the logical way oh

100I just said just a different spin you guys put in 826 will contribute but the whole goal is to do the whole thing if we can yes and just so everybody knows I think we have to continue to remind that we do not have an answer on you know the assumptions we're making with the surplus is that school is out for the remainder of the year you know that large of a surplus in this current fiscal year I received a text from one of my colleagues there was one of those governor conference call for superintendents that I wasn't able to attend this afternoon and there is no word on reopening or keeping school closed for the remainder of the year you know no announcement or anything like that tonight so we'll be waiting at least

101another week to see if we find out anything and then of timings in a few certainly the situation yeah Kenny can you guys hear me yep okay I had some problems earlier today on a meeting so I think the way Bob laid it out good sense I just one thing that I just keeps on coming to my mind over the past week or so is that we we don't know what school is going to look like in September we don't know what we're gonna need we don't know what it's gonna cost it's gonna be a completely different reality than we used to so we just all have to know that and sort of accept that and then think about that surplus money if we could used it may be needed for that you know so

102I just want to remind us of that I mean I think we should get the hope it's really important but I've been really thinking about September and we I mean we're gonna have to start to make some budgeting plans once we get some ideas but that's gonna be really hard because I mean we can look at you know Denmark and China and these other places that are Oh what they're doing but we really don't know what the new reality is just start imagine it and then how much might it cost I just really just to accept it's not gonna be yeah you cut out a little bit at the engine but I think I got the gist of what you were saying and I agree I mean there is definitely a danger in sort of

103wiping out our our rainy day fund and we seem to have a lot of rainy days sometimes but you know sort of wiping that out too for a capital project so that's really you know it's a town asset and it should be you know managed that way sorry I agree with what you're saying - yeah I agree with you and we can't make decisions right now that assume we have the money and assume we want the money yeah like that's Jen's caution here be careful until we see what reality looks like yep that's why I think that's why I start with the ideal thing is fund the project carry forward as a bonded project paid for over 20 years let's just do it once and do it right I mean we can write it'll be

104cheaper better for the town all things considered is a marveland is still on or oh yeah there is okay um if they if so if nothing gets put back in additionally and we end up with a three hundred thousand or even the six hundred thousand which doesn't get us any any of the options could you just reiterate for me so that would be you know you maybe you could say something around like in progress or you know that would obviously be a little more finesse but yeah I understand you know I you know there's certainly obviously a level of frustration I think for me is that the high school principal right because there's there's things that I think need to get done across the board that being said I'm also I'm not looking to you

105know to demean or put down the town in the community because I understand this is a significant project it costs a lot of money to do this kind of work and so you know I'm just a priest of that we're trying to address it now so I think with finesse I absolutely can put something down we're in progress this is what we're working towards you know I think depending on what the the Board of Finance says you know I I'm also not looking to create an any enemies either you know I want to work together I think we've had a collaborative relationship in the past I know these are trying times for all of us given the current situation of the economy so I'm mindful of that as well I don't item I'm not looking

106to burn any bridges per se so I absolutely can put things you know we can talk about wording John and I could talk about wording what that looks like I would always send up a draft anyway you know as that time comes I think we can let this play out a little bit and see what happens but I can certainly be creative with how I do it and I can label it as a couple different things and really I I'm I have an English major a wife who's an English teacher so she helps me a lot with wording so we can find a way to get that done okay thank you does anybody else have any other questions joy do you feel comfortable sort of being able to summarize our conversations here yeah any questions

107you know that you know are we I mean I laid out is very clear and concise as long as ever I support that I think as long as we you know use Jen's suggestion of a caution of you know we don't actually know that we have that surplus and also you know again wiping out sort of our any sort of rainy day fund we could potentially have for a capital project is dangerous yep deadly you're mine is there a link to the meeting today yeah I should be up on the town website there's like a zoom meeting ID that you can plug in Amir it was respect earlier last comment we've never really had a rainy day fund until the last two years so opportunity to finally be making decisions based on rainy day funds

108but considering you know what we went through this year I said I understand I understand the point it's not it's not a entitlement and it's not a given right it's so I do love the thought of having a an ability to cover an issue if it were to happen but again we're not down to financing discussions right do you want to take the risk on the current year do you want to deal with a capital project I mean it and that's where the board I've always been a believer this is not a fight between the Board of Finance and the Board of Education this is a partnership this is what do you guys advise how do you make those trade-offs what are the balance points we need you know you mean they need to be

109part of this and and it feels to me like sa here's what we are willing to do and you guys on the board of IDI it's not that it's it's a project that needs doing right and and it's it's we need participation on how the best way to deal with it for the town not you guys and us guys type of discussion so I'm sorry I'm on I'm on I'm on a soapbox Joe and I'll get off of it I think to your point it's I hear what you're saying Bob and that's an important what I want to articulate to the Board of Finance is that you know this is a partnership and you know we want to see the project through and we want their help in doing that I'm working that out and

110figuring out the best way to do it right and for the town we want to do the best thing for the town right it's they want to do the best thing for the town so it's at the core that's what we're all about I think if we can get something done even if it isn't the full project which is well obviously what we all want if we can get option three done with just the bathrooms and the base if we can push that through somehow I think we should do that even though piecemeal isn't the best way to go or we may not get the weight rooms down the road I just don't think if there's a way to get something done this year I think we should go for it because if we table

111it that till when when's it gonna happen I think we certainly don't want to table it it's been tabled for so long right at this point I don't think anything will get done this year anyways because I still have to go out to bid correct yeah but I believe in I'll go to the resident former Board of Finance member on this one Bob I believe timing is an issue because regardless the board Finance has to approve or any capital by 30-day extension somewhere probably before early June or on or about early June and then that's it last they approve it so they have decisions they need to make now on what they're going to carry forward they're intending to have a public hearing online public hearing about the budget and then they have to approve

112a final budget so they have you know the Board of Finance has a decision process they have to work through and so where I think everything that we've talked about here tonight 10 to that and so just to be clear for everybody if things are not approved this budget season and it waits till this time next year that means in the summer of 21 there's no locker room project it weights all the way till the summer of 22 so it's just we've got to keep that in mind that's all right okay does anybody else have any other questions or discussion about this joy do you think you got everything you need and obviously you know I'll be there and anybody else that wants to sort of join in you know it was obviously more than

113welcome to as well but do you think you have everything you need joy okay any other discussion on this before this the last item on our agenda sorry joy did you say something sorry okay so without any further discussion um without objection the meeting is adjourned so thank you all thanks for our key of course hi guys tonight thanks yes