001[Music] public forums the next meeting will be held on Thursday June 7th at 7 o'clock the purpose of our committee when we started it was to look at the four public school systems that we have the configuration of the grades and to come back with any recommendations that we have following the presentation tonight we will be having a question and answer session so that we may answer all of your questions we ask that you limit your questions to two minutes please additionally we have surveys with us this evening asking specific questions as to what you feel our schools need this will help us to continue to work towards the best interests of everyone this survey will also be available at Town Hall in addition to our Facebook page which is bps strategic Phyllis facilities committee
002our committee is comprised of members with a wide range of views from PTO presidents to Board of Education members to EDC members including a person representing our seniors and a member of the Select mens office to give a brief history of our committee we have had several meetings so far we have toured the schools we have reviewed and we have inter interviewed architectural firms ultimately we decided to hire Tecton associates who is here this evening with us I would like to welcome Tecton associates here this evening as well as members of our strategic steering committee Superintendent John Burrell select woman Susan Slater PTO president Kristina Zimmerman who unfortunately is home with her daughter SEC Board of Finance member eilen Koch retired IBM executive paul Loftus who is not here this evening EDC member Josh flowers
003who is has not yet arrived EDC member and former Board of Education member Paul Chico who has yet to arrive and Board of Education members Debbie Brooks and joy Greenstein members of the Board of Education I would also like to welcome you here tonight chairwoman Collette Sturm and Jen Layden are with us also so thank you again for coming this evening now I would like to turn this forum over to Tecton associates Thank You Eve my name is Jeff was insky I'm a principal in charge from tech town architects I'm gonna kind of cue up our presentation this evening the agenda for tonight as you've already mentioned I'm gonna go over introductions from our consultant team and who's going to talk about what each about each category we're gonna outline the goals of the project
004really tonight we're the pre tonight's presentations is really focused around the existing conditions analysis and collection of data so it's not all that exciting but we have a lot to share with you this evening the workshop and community input as even mentioned at the end and then will outline the next steps as well so you've already mentioned the strategic Facilities Committee but from our consultant team I already met introduce myself Jeff was insky Steven melon CONUS is with us he'll speak to the architectural components both interior and exterior Ryan chmielewskij civil components and then Derek bride will speak to the building systems mechanical electrical plumbing fire alarm fire safety systems so goals of the project really the idea was to create a master plan for the future okay and this is the tonight is the
005first step the existing conditions is the first initial step in this whole process okay so bullet number one we're analyzing those existing conditions now we'll present some of our findings tonight bullet two we want to engage the community and explore responsive solutions prehensile responsive solutions for all the schools a sustainable approach to address the facility and educational needs so long-range look at it it's a combination of not only capital projects large capital projects potentially but also maintenance life safety projects we want to look at it all of it and then lay it out for a long-range master plan for all the schools so that you have you know 10 15 20 year look at this thing communication keeping the lines of communication open the committee meets they have three meetings already on the schedule April
0064th at 6:30 May 1st in May 22nd both at 6:00 at pocono Road 2nd floor conference room so those meetings are open upcoming forums we have identified June 7th as the the next step and that'll that'll be a public forum focused around potential options phasing options for solutions and then further on we'll get into the 10-year master plan and maybe the first phase to be determined a website mentioned Facebook set up as well so existing conditions what have we done so far so we've been at it for about 2 months now we've collected this team's walked through every school spent several days walking through taking visual observations of the existing conditions analyzing the deficiencies and we're in the process of collecting our proposed recommendations to remediate those deficiencies things like roofs windows doors and things
007like that we've also had programmatic discussions with various stakeholders and interviews to discuss the current and future programmatic needs as it relates to the educational piece because that's the other component here and then lastly we've started in an initial phase of studying the state reimbursement options and impacts of each of those so in general your schools average age of the building of the four schools two elementary middle and high school is about 60 years the original buildings okay and then each buildings received multiple additions over the years and that that the the additions ranged in age from around about 17 years call it 20 years what's interesting is no building has ever really been fully developed or modernized since it was originally built so these were add-ons only touching the additions and other minor portions
008of the building so the format of our existing conditions I'm going to kind of give you the highlights sight they walk the site accessibility codes useful life conditions of things like pavement sidewalks safety security lighting drainage utilities all those kinds of things you'll hear a lot from Ryan on each school structural we had our structural engineer walk through all I'll give you the highlights on each school there but code condition any major concerns that we see any minor concerns that we see document at all architectural is broken down into exterior envelope and then interior and interior finishes roofs walls windows soffit stores all the things on the exterior envelope and then interior it's the finishes doors finishes those kinds of things and then building system survey which Derrick will speak to plumbing mechanical electrical fire
009protection and fire alarms so in our report we rate them one through five basically one indicates needing prompt attention and five is in relatively good condition so what we'll end up with is a booklet here of each school containing all these different existing conditions that helped us kind of step back and take an assessment of what things need to be really addressed and when and with that I'd like to turn it over to Ryan to start in on each school so we'll walk through each school starting with the center elementary school thanks Jeff good evening my name is Ryan shulansky I'm a licensed Landscape Architect in the state of Connecticut walked each of the four schools in Brookfield and you can see from the chart all the numbers on the graphic represent the assessed condition
010a one would be the worst condition and up to four or five would be the best I'm so in general generally speaking as Center elementary the roadways walkways all the pavement the paved play is in pretty poor condition the grass play is actually in decent condition given its a an elementary school you're really restricted on pesticide and herbicides and what you could put down on your site so it was in pretty good condition the playgrounds could be updated they looked everything looks well maintained however they are at the end of their life cycle and could be replaced the mulch is a constant battle to keep refreshed but the town seems to making a good effort that that one of the concerns here is the emergency access and circulation around the building it's a very tight
011site and the parent drop-off and pickup circulates around the back of the site and that driveway could be widened a bit in case an emergency does happen during those times and an emergency vehicle needs to get by a DA accessibility you see a in the center of the front parking lot the configuration and the slope of the grades are slightly exceed what's allowable by code these days and then the courtyards they're in pretty good shape a couple minor things here and there but overall and in pretty good shape so the structure for Center Elementary primarily is wood-framed some additional supplemental steel this is unique to the school's Center Street our Center Elementary is is really the only structure that has a significant amount of wood framed construction other related to this structural condition there are
012there's areas of spalling concrete and water infiltration relatively minor no major concerns related to the structure minor slab cracking where it comes into play is if you were to renovate this building those items do need to be remediated before you apply new finishes to them so that you don't continue to chase kind of your tale as far as the renovate to the building so these small items although they may be small they add up quickly and they they do need to be addressed so that there's not an accelerated deterioration of the structure hi good evening my name is Steven melon Jonah's walking through some of the architectural components the interior and the exterior components along with what Jeff had said about being a wood frame structure you know coming with with that with that type
013of construction you do end up with materials that don't last as long as other more durable materials particularly on the outside of the building we had seen some issues with the finished material the siding material was beginning to kind of deteriorate to get closer to the ground most likely due to moisture some of the older parts of the buildings the windows were original windows and those have really reached the end of their useful life and would probably benefit from being replaced the interior of the building and just as a general comment for all the schools that we had had viewed the upkeep and the interiors was was was pretty good but there are some situations where the materials have just they've done the best they can and they reach really the end of what they
014should have have accomplished so some of the stuff like the ceilings and the floors we saw some issues with some cracking and some stained tiles / to indicate that some of the stuff would probably reach the end of his useful life this building in particular had minor accessibility issues and that just due to the simple age of the structure not being and built post Americans with Disabilities Act my name is Derrick bright I'm with consulting engineering services I'm gonna talk to you briefly today about fire protection and alarm security plumbing mechanical electrical system so a lot of the things like Jeff said and your schools have been built over time so a lot of the the condition assessments that I saw is a lot of it is past it's useful life near the end of
015its useful life or coming near the end of its useful life so first off with this school you know talking about security active security modern security you do have limited security ie access control closed-circuit televisions and video entry systems most of the security for this school is handle programmatically through the staff and is achieved well it's just not up to modern school standards this school does have a full fire protection system it is what's classified by the building code is fully sprinklered that means there's wet piping with sprinkler heads going out through the facility in case of a fire plumbing and this school is achieved through a well in a storage tank located down the hill on an adjacent site so that provides all your your domestic water the building your hot water for your
016domestic system is achieved by an indirect coil off of your boiler system HVAC your heated and ventilated through the use of various systems you have different systems for the different renovations in the building you have a variety of universe fan coils air handlers and baseboard radiation the hot water is achieved by the use of two cast-iron boilers that are oil-fired they're not the most efficient products out there but they're in good working condition the one thing about this school is it was built over time as I said back in the 70s when they did the last renovation it was very typical for schools to be a hundred percent exhausted so that is exactly what's going on with this school you're exhausting a hundred percent of the air out of all the classrooms during all occupied
017times which is not very energy-efficient your electrical system you have a modern upgraded electrical system it was done in 1997 in your last turn one of your last renovations so that's in decent working condition your lighting throughout though is fluorescent lighting those of you that know about fluorescent lighting you know it needs constant repairs ballasts bulbs so it is a maintenance issue with this facility and then I guess going back to your fire alarm system I should touch base earlier is a modern fire alarm system it's up to current standards the one thing I did want to spend a little brief time on showing you right now and this one is the two IR photos up from up top there in the upper right hand corners unfortunately we came out last week when the temperatures
018were a little bit milder than we would have preferred to have this happen but we wanted to get these in for this presentation so that what you want to look for in that photos is white colors the lighter the colors the more infiltration and convection that you currently have so as you can see the windows you have a lot of heat loss through all those windows the mullions around them and there's other ones that you're gonna see for the other schools where the walls it's coming through the walls where you have probably breaches in your insulation and gaps in your thermal envelope so we did get some nice photos for each one of your schools on that Thank You Derek just sort of summarize some of our findings on center elementary as Ryan and mentioned
019pavement conditions and accessibility on the site are concerned playgrounds and emergency access around the perimeter the structure as I mentioned is wood frame primarily wood framed and where it comes into play is that's difficult to expand the building due to the code restrictions portions of the exterior envelope are in poor condition windows walls that Steven spoke to not energy-efficient related to the 100% exhaust and then in short all building systems related to mechanical electrical plumbing have really passed there and of their expected useful life huckleberry hill site just a general comment about circulation on site the main access in and out of the site is shared by buses and parent vehicles modern day practices try to separate that vehicular circulation to help the drop-off and pickup experience a little bit as we all know people
020are rushing to get to work and anything to do to help alleviate that frustration in the morning and afternoon would be we'll look at that when we look at options in the future so the roadways and parking generally most of the pavements here sidewalks are in poor condition except or the newest addition around the back of the building the pavement is in good or almost new condition the the paved play area is shared with the bus turn around and drop-off area the skinned in fields of your baseball fields and the grass is in very good condition compared to a lot of towns I've been in you guys take good pride in your fields who is reported that there's some drainage issues potentially in the fields due to nearby watercourse and potential underground water some of
021the back stops the fencing and the dugouts they're starting to show signs of deterioration and accessibility today's code requires that you provide an accessible route to your spectator viewing areas your umpire areas or coaching boxes your all parts of your baseball in fields around the playgrounds again here they are at the end of their lifecycle replenishment of chips it's a fairly large playground which is nice but it's the chips are replaced recently which was a good sign that you're trying to maintain the playgrounds the outdoor play outdoor classroom to the north of the page on the upper level it's not a TA accessible the it pretty much needs a complete overhaul a lot of the pavements are failing settlement at the stairs no handrails and the list goes on up there so the structure for
022huckleberry huckleberry Hill primarily steel open web joist metal decking and concrete slabs so in generally no significant issues relative to the visual observations fair condition overall each of the buildings additions also contain the similar structure steel open web and concrete planks so no real issues related to the structure on this particular building so entering the world of non combustible materials you know masonry and steel will tend to last a lot longer than the previous building that we had seen the exterior of the building we had seen will be expected the condition of the walls were generally in good condition the age of some of the items in the wall like the caulking the windows in some of the exterior louvers we're starting to become problematic as they would be expected to with a building of
023this age the roof however being replaced recently was in pretty decent shape the one of the biggest things that we had seen and the interior this school was there were a lot of accessibility issues particularly with the classroom doors and with the addition of the media center and the elevator recently really helped kind of elevate the level of accessibility but this this building would would be deemed having issues for a DA compliance the finishes on the interior again with with a lot of good upkeep there's been a lot of effort to keep things looking pretty well there what we did see some issues with cracked tiles on the floors the walls painted masonry we're in generally in good condition there were areas of ceilings that needed to be addressed some of the tiles broken being
024replaced but one of the others is that we had noticed and Derek would be getting to this is that the plumbing facility seemed lacking in this building just a general number of fixtures that we had seen that we're actually operable are gonna become problematic thank you this school like your last one it has limited security systems in it that are active card access CCTV and access control the security is also handled programmatically through the staff here as well unlike your last school this school does not have a full fire protection system it is not classified as fully sprinklered for the building code it does have what's called a limited area fire protection system that means there are sprinkler heads in the area of high probability of fires ie electric room storage room spaces like that
025the fire protection in this building is handled mostly programmatically through the construction facility being a Mason Arian steel structure like Stephen was talking about that was common for the age of when this facility was built but not up to modern school construction standards plumbing like your last school is handled via well storage tanks and vault and tanks located in a vault out of the front of the school this school though for hot water is achieved by the use of very electric hot water heaters sprinkled out throughout the facility it's not a very efficient piece of equipment nor is a very durable piece of equipment so they do require a lot of maintenance mechanically all heating through this building is done through electric resistive heating through the use of electric heated unit vents Mountain each one
026of the classrooms there is no central boiler plants so these pieces of equipment like the water heaters are not as robust as some of the other systems and other buildings but they do the job but they are not very energy-efficient your electric system is nearing the end of its useful life or almost past the end of its useful life it is appears to be mostly original to the building but is in good functioning condition this building also has fluorescent lights like your last facility and it but it does have a modern fire alarm system in it so to summarize our findings for the site pavement condition accessibility similar Ryan I mentioned the traffic concerns separation a parent bus drop-off those are all issues and concerns consistent and found at this site playgrounds and approved site
027drainage really related to the fields are also issues that we highlighted buildings not fully accessible as Steven mentioned finishes some finishes have reached the end of useful life toilet areas things like that tile not energy-efficient at all all electric heat Derek just mentioned and then code compliant so this building was code compliant at the time of construction but doesn't have sprinklers so moving on to whiskey near again all traffic is in and out through the main access off of west whiskey near Road the site is topographically challenged there's a lot of slope from East at the highest going west at the very lowest point down past the fields so getting another access in will will be a little challenging pavements are in poor condition throughout the school there are small sections of pavement that are
028slated to be replaced this year but there there is a lot that still needs to be replaced the emergency access around the building on the east side of the building is a little bit narrow you could see tire marks probably in the areal causing dirt and erosion the play fields themselves the ball fields look like they were newly renovated there are some low spots in the outfield the we were there when the ground was frozen so I was collecting water so it was you could see them a little bit better than you would if it were in the spring condition or in the summer a DA accessibility could be improved on the site as well the parking in the front is does not meet current code nor does it meet code during at the main
029parent drop-off and pickup so the structure for the middle school is a steel superstructure steel beams metal deck concrete slab good for a longevity of the structural system the issues are concerns that we found at this site are related to the deterioration of the South facade at the gymnasium we believe it was due to moisture from roof leak at one time that since been repaired but deterioration is still there and needs to be remediated same thing with several other areas of the building related to repointing flashing and weeps to extend the longevity of the structure in visiting and in studying this building one of the things that is most evident with the exterior is the there were multiple additions that were completed at different times which would which kind of results in what we call
030an a discontinuity of the aesthetic meaning that the building looks like he was built in different times and different phases but the real problem you get with that is that all the components are a different age so it becomes really difficult to do maintenance on them if something needs to be replaced you only do bits and pieces at a time but again being a masonry structure you know walking the exterior the the masonry walls were in pretty decent shape the newer windows looked nice the window the older windows you know obviously our showing age and and some of those were probably benefit from being replaced same thing with the rooms the rooms that are newer we're in good shape some of the older areas that had flat roofs with internal drains you can see evidence
031of where the water was channeling to not necessarily evidence of ponding but those roof areas are just an older type of roof that would need to be addressed relatively soon as Jeff said there were some areas of it's spotted where where cracking of the brick was becoming a bit of an issue I mean the interior of the school kind of the same result where you have a circulation pattern that wasn't really um logical and irregular and seemed like the multi-purpose spaces like the gymnasium you know or on a different side of the building as the academic areas and we're kind of wondering what that does to the time it takes to get them went into the school to the other this building did have portable classrooms that are in use we took a quick look
032at those and they they do seem like they're at least way past their useful life and could benefit from either being decommissioned or or renovated heavily but the teachers to their credit did a wonderful job of making those classrooms useful and seemed like that they they were being treated as if they were a classroom and the rest of the building which which probably helped benefit the quality of those spaces tremendously the same issues we had seen in the other schools where you know we saw some evidence of materials and the inside of the building with the floors and the ceilings the walls that could possibly benefit from some from being upgraded replaced but generally the school seemed to be in in pretty good shape on the interior and the exterior like Stephen said with the
033architecture how it was built over multiple years the MEP infrastructure was built over multiple years in multiple generations that leads itself just like Stephen said to having systems that are a new good working condition some that are in okay working condition and a lot that are past their useful life in needing a lot of maintenance like your last two schools this school does have limited active modern security and the security is handled in this one like it is in your last two through programmatic needs through the staff plumbing just like your last two is handled through a well on site with storage tanks and pump located in a vault out in the back of the building you're in your domestic hot water is achieved also with electric hot water heaters throughout the school again like
034the last building not the most energy-efficient and most reliable products out there your HVAC system is comprised of different systems for different renovations you have a variety of fan coils unit vents air handlers and baseboard radiation some of your spaces are heated only some of them are heating ventilated some of them even have air conditioning actually this whole school mostly has air conditioning in it this is one of is your only school that is mostly air-conditioned he is achieved through the use of two oil-fired cast-iron boilers on the site and air conditioning is achieved through the use of split systems DX cooling throughout the facility your electric system is a newer foreigner 4e volt service you do have two services in this building you have one that serves the original building which is older and
035past the end of its useful life you have one that serves some of the newer additions that's in good working condition so yet again it's a dissimilar systems like Stephen was saying to similar materials you have dissimilar electrical services it just causes for a little bit extra maintenance a little bit more work on them thank you and summarize the findings at the middle school consistent thread for some of these items pavement condition and accessibility traffic again separation parent bus lack of emergency access around the perimeter the building condition fair condition isolated envelope concerns that we highlighted the building as many have mentioned the multiple editions leave a fragmented building the challenges are many including maintenance and joints and various different conditions that tend to make challenges prevention provide challenges to the maintaining continuous building envelope
036Derrick mentioned but building systems are all various age most of them are at or near and the beautiful life fluorescent lighting is in installed but needs significant repairs and we just want to apologize real quick we noticed that we put the highschool photo in there versus this particular school so we just wanted to point that out to everybody lastly the high school it's a high schools usually take the most time they're the largest of sites you have the most athletic programs as you can see from the aerial photo I'll run through the same sequence as before the roadways and parking generally are in at the at the end of their life cycle and poor condition in various areas there's a small parking lot in the back by the baseball field that is in relatively good
037condition the when you enter in through the front entrance into the building it's for a first-time visitor it's confusing to where the front entrance is the storage and utilitarian areas right in front of you in your pensions that could be improved the sidewalks and the back of the school again this is a very there's a lot of topography change from the front of the building to the back of the building some of the walkways in back and the retaining walls and such are starting to fail due to settlement it's a tough construction feat when you're operating in tight conditions to get the proper compaction below your your pavements and your structures so from a site perspective that's going to be some maintenance over time the tennis courts themselves are in poor condition there's what we
038consider structural cracks meaning they're not hairline cracks that are staying together there's cracks in the and the tennis courts have been repaired over time but they're two-three inches wide so those really need to be replaced the baseball and softball field the grass is in beautiful condition the skinned in fields are in beautiful condition there's some on the baseball field there's some chain-link fence repairs to be to be made but nothing in an emergency situation the dugouts look like they were recently done some of the plywood is showing signs of deterioration due to moisture and again accessibility most of the facilities are accessible back here however the tennis courts the baseball and softball court are not the turf fields there's plans for upgrades and replacement over the next coming years and the the javelin the throwing
039event area is in relatively good condition there's a set of batting cages it looks like they've been abandoned or they're just in very poor condition I wouldn't recommend using them right now and some a lot of the on most of the sites a lot of the perimeter fencing is will need to be replaced it's rusting starting to fall apart in some areas lighting on all the sites we did not observe during the night time however on most of the sites the fixtures are aged some of the light bulbs are missing or damaged and there's an antique on this site in front of the in front of the building out on the far east of the front parking lot that just haven't seen before but it was unique I liked it Thank You Ryan so the
040structure for the high school it's a steel superstructure open web steel joist cast-in-place concrete slabs and portions of the building and then there's also cast portions of the building are cast in place and that's where we saw some areas of deterioration for some spalling and that we believe is due to the rebar being too close to the face of the concrete beams but should be remediated it doesn't prevent a immediate concern structural concern and as observed in the was Kinnear school it we kind of had seen the same thing going on with the multiple additions at different times this is a long site and it's a long building but in general of the exterior wasn't was in pretty decent shape the things that we would expect to see with a building that had components that
041were older than the others were observed where some windows were in different conditions and others some of the the joints and the caulking around the windows were aging at different times and the others and then some conditions look like they would benefit from being replaced the roof had recently been redone in some areas of the building we didn't really generally see any issues with the roofing looked like that things were in pretty decent shape on the roofs with the interiors again with us with the long sprawling layout of the spaces you had some long corridors which again would would we really want to look at the adjacencies of the educational spaces to the multi-use spaces but we had seen the same thing throughout the rest of the district where there were items including some of
042the floor tiles some of the doors and some of the ceilings that could benefit from being renovated generally the upkeep of this building seemed to to really keep it in in generally a pretty good shape no major concerns really really jumped out at us just like the architecture the ME MEP infrastructure in this school was built over multiple years like your last school this school though just like Stephen said was maintained very well everything we saw while some of it being old some of it being new was in good working condition just like all your other schools you do have limited active modern security in here it's being all handled by programmatic means just like your your other three schools you do have a full fire protection system in this school and it is classified
043as a fully sprinklered system by the building code your domestic water is achieved through the use of wells and tanks and pumps located in the front of the facility and your domestic hot water is achieved through the use of very large 3,000 gallon indirect fired steam heat exchanger so not a very energy-efficient piece of equipment your mechanical systems there are a variety of systems in this facility air handlers unit vents rooftop units split systems have been done different parts throughout the building depending on when they were built some of the spaces have a air conditioning some of the spaces don't domestic hot water well you have the combination this facility of domestic are heating hot water along with steam heating the older parts of the building are heated by a steam those you that no
044steam no it's not very energy-efficient you can't control it very well so when the classrooms get hot it's hard to turn it off there's a heat exchanger in the mechanical room that converts steam to hot water and circulates hot water throughout the facility for the newer section so you do have a combination of the two systems in the building air-conditioning is achieved through the use of split systems and packaged units located up on the the roof you do have a 3,000 amp electrical service it appears to be older probably not original to the building but during one of the expansions that was done you have energy non energy-efficient fluorescent lighting throughout like your other facilities and that's really all you have Thank You Derek okay to summarize the findings at the high school again consistent
045with some of the other schools pavement condition and accessibility are concerns the tennis court erosion and the settling behind the school it's beginning and as Ryan I mentioned but it's an area where we would recommend some attention be given to remediate the concerns over there and find the source of the issue fair condition of the building envelope minor concerns observed some of the finishes on the inside of reached the end usable life in particular boy showers and some some isolated areas and then the sprawling inefficient layout is a bit of a challenge when it comes from a programmatic and I guess building efficiency standpoint building systems are all various ages as you've heard as a theme they were either all at or near the end of the useful life partially heated with steam as Derek
046had mentioned and lacks temperature control so we've made our way through all four buildings and you've heard you probably are tired of hearing us say end of useful life and aging condition but the buildings have been maintained well as I mentioned there on average the original buildings are 60 60 plus years old so there's some portions of the building some major portions of the building that really start to need some attention after that period of time we've heard related mostly related to the additions and multiple attempts and maintenance of the buildings where you've added multiple different systems and it creates an inefficient building from from a utility standpoint but it also may create some challenges from a maintenance standpoint as well so at this point what we'd like to do is shift gears a little
047bit and open open up some com-pub comments in the form of a workshop and and the idea here is to it's really a platform to ask the questions express concerns or voice opinions on what you heard tonight or what you've heard in the past or your views and opinions on up at this potential project I just want to reiterate that this is the first step for us this existing conditions so we're at the beginning stages of this effort we don't have any options to show tonight it's about this first step is about to explain what we found and to listen to the community and their concerns and try to translate that into some options for the future okay we hope to have an interactive and continuous process and the goal here is to have a
048plan our plan create a plan that's responsive to the entire community and then I'm going to leave this is the last site I'll leave up and and these are some of the questions that as a committee we just brainstormed to get the conversation started so we hope you found it interesting as far as our analysis or our findings of the existing conditions we welcome any questions you may have on that or any portions of the project and thank you all okay when you come up if you could please give your name and your street address that would be helpful for us thank you good evening thank you Scott McCarthy six Sivas Drive a couple of quick questions before first can you clarify the the next couple of meetings are they going to be a similar
049form to this or they're going to be a slight variation to the next I think you said in two meetings that are already scheduled we're gonna be having two public forums um the next one is like I said Thursday June 7th at 7 o'clock and they're going to be similar to this yes I didn't know if there would be a slight variation so no that's thanks thanks for the clarification so um two other quick questions for you one being at what point will you prioritize everything that you've found saying you know looking at will you be doing it by building by school by will it be a variety of all the HVAC s need to be replaced or how will you go about prioritizing what you've seen so far sure so in multiple ways multiple
050methods will most likely prioritize them based on building systems and our findings so that'll be the existing conditions there's an the other piece the programmatic piece that we need to look at as far as programmatic needs related to the existing conditions in space so you take that you take the existing conditions and are over the next several months until basically the next public forum is to start to generate some options to address those priorities so there's good it's not going to be one a particular thing that's going to raise the priority it's going to be a combination of a series of discussions with the committee with the community and in a variety of different areas of the buildings as well and programmatic so it's a multitude of categories that are going to basically create some
051some options for us and then in within those options we're gonna illustrate the benefits and concerns of each great and just one other quick other question if I may all right so um regard to programmatic and in regards to options I'm presenting I think most residents are expecting you know to hear a lot about huckleberry right you've that's no surprise you're gonna get a lot of we're anxious about huckleberry and what that all means so when you're looking at the options and programmatically I know is like a k5 or is it a you know I can - you know - for whatever the case may be new building versus renovating the existing are you also going to be looking at options for more efficiencies like I believe just south of huckleberry as an example there's
052a gas line that doesn't quite reach huckleberry will we be looking at state and your like options like that where the line can be brought up - huckleberry or the water line can be brought down to the high school as an example so we've explored an impasse projects you know working with the gas comes to see if they can bring it up to the different facilities we've done projects and it's town wide it's not just the one school that would do it so we've done project in towns where the towns have gotten the citizens that the members of the the community the business members to all get together commit to natural gas and then the natural gas company would bring the services up the facility so it to be honest with them it's all up
053to the demand and they want to make sure they can make their profits but if there's enough people on board and if the town wants to gather around it and there's people from the town that want it we can have those conversations okay so I guess that would be a discussion point at some point of what we're gonna how that's gonna be handled yes okay thank you it's Brian frame Kimberly Drive one quick question you had the on the legend you had one two five for the one being worse by being good what was the a again accessibility okay was that showing that it was good accessibility or now that there was an accessibility concern concern on those very good right just I think you guys would being a little too kindly says that the
054portables and the showers were past their useful life I think the town I've been the arguably is portable since my 25 year old was in fifth grade at whiskey near so I think the town would what I get rid of themselves right what is a time frame when we I thought we've been studying this it seemed a bit study this for a long time what's that what's a time frame when this plan would go to the voters and that made up a Esther's view but we're gonna vote for this this year is it - this is your two years from now when is this in mr. frame the next so there's three meetings in between committee meetings and the architects will be working on the priorities that mr. McCarthy was just asking about on June
0557th there will be another public forum and the plan is to have those options three four or five different options costs concerns except strengths weaknesses prepared for a public forum just like this on June 7th in terms of going to the voters part of getting and having text on with us they can really navigate the state bureaucracy in terms of the significant reimbursement for building projects when you either renovate his new or build a brand new facility whatever we might do or do nothing or part of our ten-year plan whatever ends up happening but the there's an ambitious plan to see if we can get this to somewhere in the November range for on referendum if that happens part of that has to do with state deadlines and either waiting another year in terms of
056knowing if we're going to get the reimbursement or not and how fast we can move the project along that does answer the questions I certainly encouraged more the better I mean yeah of course we were you know we had the third of the vote for the library and we're concerns about we wanted to do that but then what we won't really want to do our schools so let's do it you know so I don't this is a drag on exactly quite honestly the way the our committee is is focusing is we want to make the best decisions for our children our staff for the community we are not going to be rushing this project at all we are going to be taking our time and we're going to be doing it correctly because this is
057going to be lasting us for quite a few years so we do have you know November in mind but again we're not going to skip any steps to get there just to get a vote we want to do it right the first time thank you hey good evening it's Lisa a snob and I'm at 10 Belden Hill in Brookfield first of all I just want to thank superintendent Burrell and the board and this committee for doing this for doing this project it is obviously long overdue and this is great information that we're learning just a couple things and I'd like to get tech times perspective on this so you guys said that were 60 plus years for average life how does that compare to other towns statewide and how about nationally is it where are
058we kind of on the scale are we way overdue well each community varies on average past 50 years of expect of of use I think that's that's beyond the timeframe where you would need a significant capital improvement to the structure and some of ours are what did you say it's it's 60 is the average so yeah the original construction of Center Elementary is 1937 so so there so there's the original construction of each building on average that's 60 plus years and then there's these there's I think each building has I think at least two additions some through the 70s 80s and 90s and I thought you gave a good I guess a fair representation of conditions but if you look at our conditions in Brookfield again on some of the other towns that you've seen
059where do we stand in comparison when you go into these schools and you go we're up here we're somewhere in the middle or we really need help and be honest yeah no I certainly will be I think you've heard in our presentation that there's not there's a lot of areas that need concern that there are areas of concern and they're passed their their their useful life I don't know if we walk through any of the buildings and we're of the condition so that that's the good thing and maybe that's what we were trying to convey is you could see that the community they added in different errors to address their concerns and they've they've tried to maintain as best you can but it's it's kind of like your home if you have a 60 year
060old home it's time for significant major capital improvements and and that's the challenge here and and when you add two buildings over a series of decades you hear you started to hear a little bit of the complexity of or the concerns that you have related to building systems but also like Building Code jeez can we add to the building again you can only you can only add so many times on the building code so that those layers those additional pieces to the building are all provide challenges to to this master plan that we that we need to look at so where do we stack up are we I don't I guess to be honest with you I don't I don't think they're the worst we've seen we've seen certainly worse conditions and some of the
061schools but I don't I don't think any one school is in good shape overall okay to summarize in a couple and lastly just very quick I heard you talk about in each of the four schools what got me very troubled was limited and outdated security and it it's troubling that that didn't show up in any of the summaries and I personally as a mom of a Brookfield high schooler and whiskey near would like that to be a priority all right not necessarily above other things but certainly in the summary that we need to address we can add that to the the summaries but I will say your schools yeah your schools do handle security like all municipalities that I go into that have schools of this age so you've upgraded the front entrance vestibule you
062put in the security measures that need to be there to make them safe you've locked down the exterior doors during the occupied hour so schools that have been built that are older have renovated and done exactly what you've done and it's very common throughout but we're looking for the future so that should definitely show up in the summary in my opinion thank you very much and thanks again you guys Laura orabeoni 95 Stony Hill Road I I I don't think I heard anything tonight in terms of severity of the problems that I would say is has not been echoed in the community already and you know I think we all from what I understand and what I've heard I think we all feel that something has to be done right not doing anything is not
063really an option so it's not just a matter of getting something to a vote right but we want to get something to a vote that the community will feel that they can support and that they have contributed to and that they buy into and so I appreciate the fact that you're doing these three workshops and looking for community input there was nothing that I'm aware of in any of the publicity for this meeting the Facebook posts in the email that said that you were going to be collecting community input this meeting was publicized has you know your presentation so I don't know if any one of the people here knew that that's what that this was one of the three opportunities for the community to come in and say what we think is important and
064if we don't have community buy-in it doesn't matter when we vote or what we vote on people are going to say well I didn't get to say that well I don't think this is what we should do and we won't pass anything so my question is what is the plan and I think it has to be really proactive and strong what is the plan to get the community to support whatever it is that this committee comes out comes up with and how do how can people who are invested in this project top so missus Orban the posts that went out and school messages and so forth did talk about community input I know as a committee we took a look at those and put those together so that that was part of tonight but the
065the other part is the June 7th meeting where viable options will be discussed as another opportunity for input and at the end of the evening we're gonna be putting a survey up as well this has about 15 different areas where people could provide their input as well so June 7th will be another opportunity in person the survey will be at the end of tonight and of course the input right now okay so I I'm gonna I'm gonna stick on this because I don't want to get to November or whenever we vote and have everybody say like they did with the library which had and my issue is not the library but tons of meetings and coffees come talk if the community says well that's that's not what I asked for I'm gonna vote no all
066of this work will be for nothing the Facebook posts did not say this is about community input it didn't I just looked because I'm not gonna get up here and say that they didn't I didn't know what I was talking about they didn't so no it's fine but you can't get people to come to a meeting right I mean look at how many people are here so that I think three meetings is not enough right don't we all know that people they don't come to meetings so there has to be more what else what else is there gonna be this is probably the most expensive project brookfield will do in its 10 year capital plan there's got to be more if you don't have an answer right now that so no III think you're making
067valid points and no that was a concern of ours we talked amongst ourselves about that and you know brought up the library as well is that you can put down there as many times as you think is enough and people are still gonna say they didn't know about it so it is a concern we will have the forums and you know we'll get out any other suggestions that you have will take and we agree we need to get out and educate the the residents okay thank you i rated stephan 11 old woods road thank you for the work you're doing and i had a question for you guys since you're doing this is basically an assessment presentation about the concerns and the areas of need and things pass their useful life and so forth all
068the things we've heard tonight but while I understand we're not presenting any plan tonight if some of you or all of you could kind of just summarize where you see on some priority thought give some thought to priority of what are the greatest concerns that you had about what you saw what are the greatest areas of need I'm not saying necessarily that are gonna get addressed first because of course there might be smaller things that are able to be addressed first so I'm not suggesting a course of action I'm just saying from an assessment standpoint what are the areas you saw that caused you the greatest concern building specific parts of buildings so forth from a site perspective anything that can has a health safety and welfare component to it as our trip hazard is
069there is there a code compliant issue those are the types of things that I would prioritize whether it's the curbing and sidewalk system they have in front some of in front of some of the schools there's integral concrete walk and curb which is a newer way of construction that's done at whiskey near and if and it doesn't cause differential settlement between the two there's ways of grinding down concrete and and maintaining it over the time that you have until you decide to go for a full replacement from an MEP perspective I would say the two biggest concerns is energy efficiency and maintenance I'm given the age of most of your systems they're you know not very energy efficient compared to modern systems and because of the age there's a decent amount of maintenance s need
070to be done to them if you were to prioritize building wise in that regard how would you prioritize the most at least energy efficient building that would have to be Wisconsin mostly Oh huckleberry next I'll come every second thank you one of the concerns I had the least is is the special layout the corridors Ian efficiencies when it comes to the way the spaces are arranged it's it's more I'm more concerned with the safety of the occupants so we're looking at building code issues EDA accessibility you know you want all the students to have the the same opportunities as everyone else prioritizing the schools it seems like the older schools have the most problems the newer schools have gotten the most attention and upkeep it recently so and to be clear on it you're talking
071that Center and huckleberry being the oldest boots yeah I was just gonna say to simplify a Senator in huckleberry from an architectural standpoint building envelope interior exterior code type of construction ability to add and modify big picture those are the two area two buildings two sites that for for me our concern great thank you very much appreciate it good evening Deborah Kerr case Meadow View Drive um I'm a little confused um I guess I didn't really know enough about the nature of how this was all gonna play out that was additional meetings I just thought it was tonight but are you all gonna be on the committee on the panel every meeting or are you all gonna be here as well or is it gonna once you've done your part are you releasing it to
072us and then we go according to your findings how is that gonna play out so this is one component to this master plan we'll be here participating working with the community and the committee through the design options and prioritization of what to you know of options of what to do in the community through the master planning so to answer a question related to a previous question related to the uniqueness I think what's unique about this town and your approach is that you had the foresight to look at all the schools master planning and that's also part of our job so it's not just about the first project it's about trying to place priorities and in the long range plan so that you have a kind of a game plan for the entire future so yes
073we'll be here through design options also according to what school would be worked on next I was kind of expecting to hear you all tell us what the worst school was and this is what needs to be done right now but I get the feel that obviously they all need some work we know that and then a lot of it is going to be our public input on which goes next is that how we're doing this I just want to get some clarification on that because I'm a little confused on what's going to be next like is it going to be whisking near school and then this is what's going to get done or is it gonna be center school or whatever school like I'm a little confused on the process sure sure so the
074idea of this evening is we thought it was a good stop point to share what we found in the existing conditions so yes we are are part of our work is to trial prioritize our concerns and proposed remediation of those concerns the other piece is the programmatic piece the state reimbursement piece so there's probably about a half dozen dozen other elements that we have to work into great it's not just existing conditions we're gonna take all of that prioritize it develop options and come back okay only because we know that structurally you know they're sound as of right now our children are in there but obviously things are outdated and windows are outdated I'm just surprised that no further other findings like this the only findings that you tested for or is there gonna be
075additional tests because like you didn't speak of any environmental findings such as there's been no lead testing mold spore testing radon testings in any of the schools so we know that things are outdated in terms of the heating system well you know electrical systems and stuff like that I'm just surprised that no other further testing was done on what is caught what's going on environmentally in those schools to help make our decision you know and what school needs to be addressed first you know yeah I understand your point and your concern and it's a valid one and we'll take it back to the committee our charge was to to take a look at each school visually observe the conditions and give an assessment of the various different components of the building and then as far
076as security also I can tell you right now my child goes to center school and the parent pick-up line I have no choice but to pick up my daughter for our own household scheduling purposes and I can tell you that I'm literally chopped on that line sometimes up to 30 minutes trapped when I say trapped if I'm not trapped going in then the bus's block us off so aside from that I find it a big humongous security breach what goes on in the back of that school there's kindergarteners they're like they're waist-high windows there's air conditioning units that are in the windows anybody could just bust through there the fencing is dilapidated and falling down there's a dilapidated structure that backs up to the backyard there anybody can be living in there for weeks nobody
077would know that's a huge concern to me also where huckleberry school playgrounds are not only huckleberry but center school is well a stranger can literally drive onto the property and face to face with a child on that playground so that is a huge concern for me as a parent also whisk in here when I say environmental findings the portables over atmosphere my son is turning there and during the winter he saw mice daily in the portables going back and forth so I'm very concerned about the health of what goes on there I know that there are 16 ators I have spoke with the principal the teachers have never seen mice themselves but they said they've seen evidence of Mice and mice droppings so that's a huge concern for me as well as a safety concern
078of there's a big disconnect from what goes on there safety wise in the portables over at whisk and air so I'd love that to be addressed right away thank you for coming up and talking because this is exactly why we're here tonight and exactly what we needed to hear thank you thank you I just wanted to echo that that's exactly why I asked for the microphone I you know to to piggyback on what Laura said maybe there was a miscommunication about what the purpose of tonight's meeting is but that's exactly what we want to hear we want to hear from all the parents who are in and out of the schools daily people who are in the PTO or in the school for conferences or volunteering we you know you're in the school's day in
079and day out and these are the things the Tecton folks need to hear so thank you very much buzzing in and passes and things like that all of our schools they do an amazing job checking out everyone's ID so I don't want that to be you know that to be taken that way because that's not the case I just the overall updating of just the layout of our schools and extra security I think you know we know what goes on today and those things need to be addressed oh as well as read on I would like it that because we live in a lockdown world today that their lockdown where the closets are are right by doors I would like for coat closets to be in interiors of the classrooms so that got for a
080bit of lockdown in a serious situation those children are not lines up in front of a wall they're lines up in an interior wall where they're protected thanks mrs. Cooke Kayson you know it's it's interest had some of that discussion the other day we were talking about those things so just so you know we weren't discussing that and thank you for for all that detail input that's really important I do have to at this point I think it's very important and mrs. case just mentioned that the the staff maintenance staff custodial staff our teachers administration they really do do the best with what we have and we know we have aging facilities and they have to be complimented on that as we talked about it's through programming that we secure our facilities we have harden
081them over the last few years for sure and for schools of this age it's very very good what we have but it isn't modernized for that for that particular topic people have said it's kind of sad to me and I know it's not a typical to Brookfield but of the nearly 2700 children in our school system there are maybe 75 parents here at most so how do we plan on getting public input on these important questions from the other people not only the other parents who aren't here but the rest of the community actually Thank You um for that and Laura thank you for bringing that up - that is something that definitely the committee has to sit down and discuss we do have a brand new Facebook page that was started recently and a
082web page that we're developing if you have any suggestions again we're going to be handing out a survey and you know this is really we do this is your our community your kids go to the schools our kids go to the schools and this is something that we want to work with you together on we don't want you to come back and say you didn't listen to us because that's not what a community is about so I would welcome you know the input as ways that we can reach out I know that the Brookfield school system did send out announcements or I was told they were sending out announcements to the parents through their communications I'm open we're open we're happy to talk about it and that's why we're here the other point is just
083sorry the committee meetings are also public meeting so anybody could come to those those are noticed and posted there's there will be three and I think it'll be up on the slides again and this this PowerPoint will be posted for everybody after the meeting this evening the other pieces is the June 7th will be another forum and then while kids don't go to school in the summer the committee will work in the summer so there's no more opportunity for community input in that kind of a thing - and the staff there are wonderful we're very happy we moved to Brookfield for the school district we didn't move to the other towns you know specifically but there are some serious security concerns that I've seen and I just wanted to emphasize to you if you could
084take that into account even when talking about if it gets to redesigning classrooms but what she said about hi I'm Jamie clavin's 11 we'll run I just I don't know if you are in huckleberry at what time you were in huckleberry but if you were on the first floor of huckleberry later in the afternoon then you might have gotten a better idea of the plumbing in huckleberry because those bathrooms especially the boys bathroom backs up more at that time I think then it's let's say you were there first thing on Monday but the bathrooms in huckleberry I wouldn't call them bathrooms I'm a parent my kids my son is in his last year of huckleberry but and I work in the schools as well as a substitute but not just like the mice and everything
085there's a lot of ants in the classrooms now so more in more classrooms have ant problems so know that wants to be addressed I know they try and get rid of them but they keep coming back in very big clusters and these are not dirty teachers or dirty like kids but they seem to be coming back and it's not just like one or two like it's multiple multiple classrooms sorry but I did get louder I did I did get I do have an idea for reaching more people and you know because this is not going to cut it for a vote and we saw that with the library because everybody has their own ideas and it becomes telephone and everybody you know is like oh that's not what I heard I didn't know that and
086that's what will happen with this but if we can somehow go live with this meeting on Facebook then those who like to post on Facebook can't post anything but what they're hearing instead of what they might want you to hear this is being streamed live right now it doesn't matter they're not watching the stream but they're on Facebook oh and they're writing okay and they're commenting and they're commenting on comments and then it becomes like a big game of telephone well we we do have that and that's a great suggestion and I have met with Eric Conklin who is our technician for the web pages and and things of that nature and we are going to put a link on the Facebook page and we will be putting a link on the web page but
087again we just started doing that and but great suggestion because then you can tag people and people can know corrected join yes and you can have you can even have high schoolers come in and monitor certain comments so people can feel like they are contributing and their questions can be heard even if they're home with a child who has 102 fever or you know at the soccer field or whatever but they could still be part of it absolutely absolutely that was really it for me thank you just a quick aside there are monthly pest management visits and check-ins and logs filled out custodians are on top of that much of it comes to the staff behavior and the allowing of snacks in classrooms that lead to certain issues where you do have pests so we
088are on top of that and maintain that and immediately if we ever saw a rodent we immediately would address it and do address it so you know I need to make sure you're aware that our custodians and maintenance staff are really on top of that the other piece excuse me I'm sorry the other piece is I asked the Board of Education if they would work with me and support an ad hoc security task force a committee is another subcommittee of the board last month at our last meeting and so we're gonna talk a little bit about that at our special meeting on Monday night which is April 2nd and that's a makeup meeting from the March 21st cancellation due to weather it's been one of those winters and so if we can get that subcommittee
089going we'll be working with our police chief I see Jay over in the back there as well as getting some members of the community on that committee for what we could do in the here-and-now obviously in concert with what we're finding from the from the architects study thank you hi mark and Jane row 11 Rachel a farm Road I have a couple questions for the architects my first question I understand this is a long term process well my first question is basically since you've walked all the schools you've seen and commented on multiple different types of systems throughout the schools did you come across any immediate life safety issues and if so did you present them to the board for immediate review instead of waiting six months or eight months to get funding for a
090larger project short answer is no we didn't see any immediate life safety issues related to any of the topics and categories that so none come with you I mean you've said you explored for instance like a doors that weren't closing for instance fire or electrical panels that were past age or almost near past age right none of that is any of a concern right now well sure it's a concern well concerned from now until when we estimate that the funding would be you know say six months from now is there anything that you would consider a life safety issue and you need to be addressed now instead of six months from now it's all I'm asking from a building system standpoint I didn't hear or wasn't notified of any immediate concerns that have to be
091completed today okay and my second question is um can you explain a little bit more about the meeting in I guess it's gonna be June where you're gonna present your recommendations and if and when you print those present those recommendations are they gonna be multi-layered in terms of we're not just gonna get 50 million for a new school or 25 million to renovate a school are we gonna get multiple projects multiple layers in terms of pricing and different sources you talked about different sources of grants is that all gonna be in June we're expecting that out yeah there's a lot of work to do between now and June the purpose of the June meeting is to present options and those options will include either additions renovations isolated renovations to each school and it'll have not
092only the scope of work it'll have order magnitude costs it'll also have projected state reimbursement under their current regulations potential timeframe on when renovations additions new whatever they may be when those projects would take place and it would be in an ideal world each option is going to show the impact of all the four schools so that's so again it's a comprehensive and that's the June yeah that's the intent and again the intent of the June public forum is similar to this we want to hear the feedback we want it's not like there's one preferred option that's presented we're gonna say this is what we think are some options may be out of that June 6 meeting grows another option which is completely okay okay and that's the intent okay thank you sure hello Irene
093Korea 45 West whiskey near Road I wanted to know well this presentation be available online somewhere ok ok great ok one my three daughters in the school system so one thing I wanted to bring up is at whisk in year I know when you walk into the portables I can smell the mold immediately walking in and I'm very sensitive to that so I think those are beyond their useful life the traffic I live on West with skinnier drop-off pickup it's right the traffic to do parent pick-up is the most confusing thing I've ever experienced ever you have to wait for the buses to go you definitely needs a new flow plan for you know pickup drop-off and with the buses in huckleberry the plumbing in the bathrooms is terrible I know a lot of other
094parents have said that even for the teachers I've used the adult bathrooms and I know one of them has I don't know how anybody could turn around and early you have to open the door stand behind the toilet it's it's pretty bad um and there's also some of the classrooms have sinks for the kids those all look really tired and old so when you're thinking about not just the main bathrooms the classrooms the facilities in the classrooms I need to be updated also a suggestion to get on some feedback I remember when they did the four corners they put out a survey like do you like this construction this lamppost maybe something like that where you can maybe list your priorities there might be a good idea so good luck thank you for this it
095was very important okay okay it's gonna be electronic the survey will be available this evening I don't have it ready to go and we'll have the address for it and then we'll email it out and we'll post it and all of that so people can participate in that okay great excellent thank you and in addition to that I'm sorry we will have hard copies available tonight for you to take home you could fill out now you could take it home it we there is also in Town Hall we're going to have the surveys available with a box that you can put them in there also okay okay great thank you Victor Lopes 42 up to throat South kind of a million thoughts and maybe some humble suggestions so thoughts aspirations don't envy you for the
096process it sounds ridiculously daunting the library weather was voted down or approved it was disappointing that we couldn't sort of rally around the concept of a library I certainly hope it doesn't happen with the schools so when I say aspiration I guess what I'm thinking is it's hard for me to conceive how you will get you know 15 16 thousand residents to think about we're gonna compress two schools into one school or four schools into one school or three schools into two or whatever the configuration may we're gonna fix the tiles here and the sinks there and the who knows what I mean it's just a very daunting process so thank you all for undertaking this I think sort of following on that I do hope inclusivity and again I don't know how you achieve
097it entirely I do know I didn't live here or five years ago or whenever the four corners project was started the stuff that I saw the outputs I saw from that what I saw as the lead up to those outputs were a number of workshops where community folks were brought in and actually walked through concepts and ideas I think that's what happened maybe it was just a really good YouTube video I don't know or pictures that someone doctored but anyway I thought that was really good I would also suggest that the committee while I know it's a significant commitment and most of the people here are already serving on different boards I would strongly recommend more at-large involvement whether those are parents or non parents sorry I've actually been through all the schools I have
098three kids I am a bit of a pessimist at times I'm not particularly optimistic that my youngest who is about to start kindergarten will actually benefit from any of this I hope I'm wrong but I'm super supportive of whatever it is we do I hope we take the same pride in the school plant that we've taken in our fields which all seem to get very high marks a couple of my kids play sports some don't some prefer to act I don't know but it's all important and I guess I'll finish off by thanking everyone when we chose Brookfield part of it was around education I disappointed at the physical plant not gonna lie a bit embarrassing I grew up in Danbury I find that a lot of the schools in Berea are actually in much
099better condition than the schools here which is a bit sad but the the support from the teachers curriculum administration etc had been top-notch super so we've been super happy on that front which kind of softens the blow on the other stuff when in the end is more important so anyway my a couple of suggestions thank you hello sorry I've got a cold oh hold on a second I got to do a selfie my daughter's lunar and Venus attend high school here one of the things that I often complain about in a winter time it's I said parent you want to have your kids go get all dressed up for winter in a winter time but when they come to class they have to take off all their layers because it's like boiling hot in those
100rooms especially the music room - also they would like to see they just tweeted me by the way they did not they're not here because they're tweeting me but they want to see a more kid-friendly more teen a friendly high school brought vibrant colors some of the classrooms the teachers cannot put anything up on the wall because there's no poster that will stick because of the heat it will just melt off the sticker off the wall and they got just a plain white wall playing Brown wall there and another thing in the library here at the high school they would like to see more outlets or to plug in or USB or to charge up as charging station or they can be a more friendly IT friendly to download books on their iPads they would
101like to see that as a mom I would like to see not just I'm glad at the Board of Ed is here and Board of Finance select women I'm very proud but I also like to see the president of the high school here the student body president I'm surprised they not here because the kids are are also helping make into the decision to help some feel good I just came back from Washington DC with a group of kids from heart for hi and I was just so amazed at how much kids really want to be involved in the process if somebody would just listen give them that opportunity so when you guys come up to your next meeting or such I'm sure kids do surveys but they also like myself I often talked to my
102daughter bite through tweets rather than through text sort of phone calls and that's how it is I'm just have to adjust it to talk to my kid and I'd like to see more kids involved in the process here thank you very much live stream good evening I'm Jess Jessica from Longview Drive and as a teacher myself I I wanted to thank you for the observations you made particularly about building safety front entrance safety is very important and I I will say in my limited experience in the Brookfield schools my oldest is just in kindergarten I think the principal and the staff in that building do a great job with what they have to secure the building and to keep the kids safe but I'm a teacher myself and and I have kind of the inside
103perspective about what it means to really keep kids safe inside the building and just from the 15 years in this school that I'm in I know you know as as you think about building safety and you go ahead with whatever plans and renovations you're making just ask that you you think about the interior of the building and particularly ask yourself the question okay so how easy is it for whatever adult is in charge in this classroom to lock this door in my own classroom and my school it's very easy for me to lock the door I have the key if there's a substitute if there is another teacher covering the class because I'm often out at CSE meetings or professional development my kids aren't safe and I think as parents and as a community and
104as educators we have to really think about as violence unfolds in a school building the front entrance is very important but it's also very important to think about classroom doors and how easy it is to have access to a key for all adults who might find themselves in those classrooms so if you could just keep that in mind and at the top of the priority list I would appreciate it thank you hi I'm Steve Dunn 24 Lindenwood Drive just two things one can you discuss a little bit the plants who incorporate both the teachers and the students in this process I think it's critical as we're changing the way we teach our students that they be involved and I think that is part of the process if you could talk about that a little bit
105and before you talk about I just wanna make one more comment over the past couple months we've seen through Facebook primarily fake news coming out about projects and things that we do in town I saw one post that said a new library is gonna cost you three thousand dollars a year that is simply not true it's just simply not true there was a post last week which drew 50 people to our Town Hall because someone posted on Facebook that your social security number is being posted on the town website that was just a lie that's not true so I would ask you when you're communicating with the residents and the staff too on your website be very clear be very upfront here's where we are here's where we got here's the truth and that way
106people can go to that use it as a reference when they get on Facebook okay thank you but if you could talk a little bit about that thanks mr. Dunn the so what we were talking about community involvement tonight and mrs. Orban thankfully brought that up is making sure we have the support in the community that we call those the the external focus groups and external work we need to do internally when this project was initiated about a year and a half ago we set up a number of different internal focus groups so we had the the teacher group custodians nurses administration all the way down the line our paraprofessionals and we set those up and we have collect we collected all that data summarized all that data and that was provided to Tecton because
107Tecton was not part of that at the time but they have that information as well so that'll be part of the prioritizing and in synthesizing everything yeah I did it that get posted yet on the Facebook or the website we have it although Aaron's gonna post all of that for us absolutely hi I'm Jen barzak I'm at 48 Meadow Brook Road three things I'm sorry if I'm asking you to repeat something did you say you were forming an ad hoc committee about school security okay thank you I think that's on Monday night we have a board meeting and so that would hope that's on the agenda so hopefully it is established at that meeting okay I think that's really really important and I think if you really want to grab the public's attention at large
108state that publicly put it on the newspaper put it all over Facebook send out mailers you're gonna get you're gonna get me Julia did you hear that Julia from the news times is right there Julia did you hear that okay we're establishing a security task force Monday night April 2nd yeah you're gonna have people showing up for that very important number two I think you need to or if someone needs to reach out to the senior citizens in this town they vote believe me they vote they talk they vote I believe something should be planned maybe at the Senior Center again mailings you know not all senior citizens the senior citizens that I know born and raised here in Brookfield there are teen years through Brookfield schools I can tell you not all computer-savvy certainly
109not on Facebook you want to reach them send out mailers but you're definitely going to want to take their pulse on this they they pay property tax they don't have children in the school system and they have a lot to say you're gonna want to address that and the third thing and I know I'm following somebody actually so I'm just going to kind of repeat your words I think it's really important that you have to involve the children the students this this is their school you want to have brutal honesty ask the kids they're gonna tell you what's wrong with their school they're gonna tell you it's right with their school you're probably gonna get a whole lot I don't like my teacher whatever but like these are the kids that are in these buildings
110every single day and believe me they're gonna give you the truth so just some insight Thanks thank you I'm Joanie Park and I want to say thank you I think it's long overdue to be looking at the structures that you're looking at and you've done a great job I have one concern and that is that I would like to know what the Board of Education is doing on taking a good look at your curriculum and how the curriculum will fit in with whatever these gentlemen come out with in terms of a program so that they Mel so we're talking about where our children are going to be if we need to close the school if we need to be destroy a school and build a bigger one and expand it are you working together on
111this and I would like to know further what you're doing thank you great question about education right not just that not just the facilities so thank you for asking so number one part of those that was just referring to mr. Dunn's question about the internal stakeholders so we did a lot of that with our educators already matter of fact dr. ruby our assistant superintendent and our director of instruction mrs. farías met with me and Jeff from tacked-on yesterday and we really went through programmatic and what the future might look like and we talked about all kinds of spaces flexibility science technology all of all the things we're working on as a board of education we have a cape committee that meets almost monthly on the stands for curriculum and program and evaluation and we we
112work on curriculum and instruction and adopting new programs and full development of redevelopment of our core programming in terms of the language arts science math in the social studies and then we're moving into next year we're moving into working on our other programs the arts technology areas and the like and we've just done some revamping on health and PE as well so we're really working on our crab major overhaul of our curriculum in terms of adjusting to the common core standards and so forth and the Connecticut standards that we have out there in purchasing new materials and in alignment with that so there's a lot of exciting work in that area going on um I had to have to thank the board for all their support on that so thanks for asking that question me
113again Scott McCarthy um I was hoping that does someone asked the question that I had forgotten but they they didn't so I figure to come back up part of I'm being very optimistic that we're gonna have some major renovations are gonna be happening in the near future and part of that part of those renovations will obviously have to occur when students are still learning so how will that be addressed in who is addressing that will it be from the recommendations that your firm will be doing will be a combination of the ad hoc or where would that be specifically you know at huckleberry if it was to renovate huckleberry in a major way obviously there's how do you continue the learning when you're doing major construction so short short answer is yes we will address
114it typically we address phasing phasing plans things like swing space within the options that we study because it's not just about money it's not just about the scope it's the impact to the students impact to the staff and act to the community so those issues that you cited will be addressed in phasing plans that will show the sequence of the project and how we would go about minimizing the impact and disruption to the school students and will be a financial impact to that obviously I think it would probably be cheaper to renovate an empty school as opposed to one with students in it so will you give some sort of financial gauge if they're certain things is there certainly is a financial impact because it takes longer which means longer condition general conditions and more
115costs so yes time is and the construction side time is this equates to mony so yes that'll be an impact so you're kind of illustrating some of the options that will come up where new takes this long edition renovation takes us long what is the benefits and concerns and that is one that we would discuss great thank you thank you hi my name is Linda frame and I live at for Kimberly Drive and a lot of questions were stirred from this and I thank you for doing this and to to the woman who spoke and she actually left with her kids that she was tweeting with Marc bland our principal here was not here because him and I have worked I'm the president of the PTO here and I've been here nine years not the
116president of the PTO but he was at st. Baldrick's and I think mr. dr. Barilla was there as well and what my PTO meeting was supposed to be tonight and I we worked very hard where he went through his schedule and again people are all on different committees you've seen my face I've seen a lot of your faces trying to work together as a group and I said well we can't have it the same night and again I'll make a comment I'm looking out here in the audience and if people have asked me how many people are here I said 30 is that a reasonable amount for a town this big for such a major thing that's gonna be happening here I'm really disappointed in this I expected a lot more people here I was
117at my booster club meeting we talked about our fields that's great everybody in that meeting I encourage them to come here they are not here because they're with their kids doing sports or what-have-you this facilities is something that we need to look at I'm primarily now at the high school I have two high schoolers I've got one in college and one out of college my 16 year old now back in the day when he was four or five I had envisioned not what I'm looking at right now for him a whole facility of the concessions all that we worked on I was on the board with that that was gone I feel like I'm rewriting this rodeo I say with my husband all over again when my 23 year old came here as a freshman
118they were paving the outside of this pavement here to get this work done and that was the addition that you said was plan 2006 but it was actually 2008 this addition was supposed to be ready for the bubble class that graduated 8 2010 they lived through this addition it was not ready for them so one of the other things that came up that I have on my list about the demographic study we did one once before have we done one now we need to do another one for sure and be on target with this that's really crucial to me I'm not sure if it was done or you've had a plan for that we also talked about the asbestos in the mold I don't know if the asbestos was brought up when I also looked
119at the dates of the building's 1937 1960 1970 and 1959 you know you can only use duct tape so long that's my dad's favorite phrase and man we've abused it we've abused it and your job you know like I think my husband said that a few other people you were really nice to us but I think you were too nice okay when they were talking about huckleberry in the smell I know that small I haven't been in that school for years but I knew it back then okay the portables it was skinnier my senior now who was in fifth grade my in-laws went to do a presentation on Ellis Island the whole thing you know the immigration with my mother-in-law's Italian her father came from Italy perfect timing they live in another state she came
120back asking me when is the edition gonna be done it was skinnier because of those portables these are the things that we have to do something about not for anything but we should have even taken off portables from huckleberry a long time ago I did reading counts there with people I've been in there there several reading programs they should just be off the property and to go back to the whisk in your portables those portables when we move them from where the addition was to where they are now they were exposed to rain for how many days I don't know if you knew that okay they were slapped right back together god forbid I don't even know what snows a loss okay back to the high school we are up for our knee a survey
121and I talked about this a lot to people it's our 10-year accreditation John you know I've talked and talked and talked about it when we look to move here Bethel was on probation not because of their academics because of their facilities and the property values struggled and they struggled for a long time I don't want to see that happen here so are you working with getting us ready because I recently they look at that on what we're gonna do what's our game plan so we have to really put this in a fast forward pace we say we might be ready for to vote on this November no we have to be ready for the high school for this survey for our accreditation for ten years and people need to understand that part so I don't
122know if you're familiar with that what else yeah just when I look at the date having it in black and white when you guys put that out there that's it's you know where I feel like we were just looking at huckleberry now I'm really questioning even this edition that was done in 2000 and 2008 we had to bite the bullet on that edition we were supposed to expand the cafeteria to fit more students in there we didn't expand on that at all we bought smaller tables and chairs for the kids to sit on so we really really didn't do that correctly there was a lot of stuff that went on with that one too so anyway I know it's not an easy job and again listening to all the little bits and pieces meaning she
123said mentioned the students should be surveyed people outside of the community in the sense of preschool I don't know how you're gonna reach out to them I think that needs to be done too as well as the teachers anybody who works here as well so okay thank you hi I'm Kerry Columbo 29 huckleberry Hill Road echoing some of the things you've already heard this evening I too have environmental concerns particularly my experience now is up to whiskey near Center huckleberry and whiskey near particularly with huckleberry and with whiskey near eyes scent of mold and that sort of thing that I'm sensitive to in both schools additionally another another echo of the bathrooms at huckleberry are just when you're smelling the bathroom when you're on the playground with your kid there's a real problem when there's
124an elementary school or a second or third grader who comments oh yeah it always smells like that over there it's a problem so we really should address that when my fourth grader moved to fifth grade and went from huckleberry to whisk and air I think we can all agree 5th grade is a bit on the early side to be entering middle school her biggest shock and disappointment aside from the joy of the freedom of whiskey near the shock and disappointment was the playground here she is a 5th grader and all she wants to do was go on a playground when it's recess time and that really wasn't available to her and I think it's really too bad considering this is a you know part of development in childhood and and negotiating social skills and such
125so I think 5th graders and she's not in fifth grade anymore so it doesn't matter to her anymore but I think it's important that we address those types of transitions for our children when we are in a position where we have to kind of lump grades together where we may not otherwise prefer to do it the heat at whisking air seems to be an issue I know my daughter complains sometimes about it just being either boiling hot or freezing cold not to mention having to go outside in the middle of the winter when it's you know 20 degrees to get to a classroom she is worried about safety also at whisk in air she's old enough to voice that concern my younger one at huckleberry is not but my whiskey' near child after the February
12614th shooting this year and last month she commented that they're just sitting ducks she wants more tools why I should have to say this about my 11 year old but my 11 year old would like more tools to know how to survive an active shooter situation rather than just going to the back of the classroom so that if a shooter comes in all the kids are right there for them that's my 11 year olds perspective when she's going to school I'm a sitting duck mom they're just gonna shoot us we're all lined up along with that from since curriculum was mentioned and this is outside of facilities but I'll just throw it out there with the you know the me to movement and everything a you mentioned that you're addressing some health class revamping and
127such so I would just like to mention I think the necessity and I don't know what to extent it's currently addressed but certainly I think some time should be spent on sexual assault and appropriate interaction and behavior and healthy relationships and that sort of thing so that our boys and our girls are learning those tools and skills starting in middle school they all have boyfriends and girlfriends that starts at huckleberry so this is not a foreign concept to them but they need to have the conversation so that they can develop healthy relationships that they understand what boundaries are thank you I'm sorry I forgot to ask a question and maybe it was told tonight but I just didn't hear it excuse me we do know we don't know what school yet we're gonna dress first
128right so that's that's you know the plan is to go you know to have more meetings about that but I want to know is that we do know that something's gonna get addressed very soon and have we applied for any of the grants yet sure all the answer's no the grant application process you need to identify a project identify the costs and also have the funding in place in order to submit your grant application but don't you you don't need to know you don't my understanding was for a grant is that you don't you just have to prove that there is you don't have to detail the specific project but just that specifically something is in the works like there's plans for updating the schools in the works is that my no not according to
129filing a specific grant I know I do know that true but for school what is it called I forget the name of it now off the top of my head school updating it's called CIE school school construction grants great I didn't understand think that we needed like a specific proof of its going to XYZ school as long as we can prove that that we have you know a dire need for it in our schools and considering all four of our schools need some updating of some sort sure why couldn't we start the application process like so so the grant application process does require some more specifics to particular projects we intend to communicate our progress to the office of school construction grants so that they understand what our game plan is before before there's if
130there is and when there is an application submitted but for an application to be submitted typically it's June 30th deadline you do need to identify a project meeting us interrupted but our next meeting is June correct so we're kind of hitting our deadline yep so so big picture is - by June early June established some options and debate those options over spring summer identify a priority and then potentially go to referendum in the fall so that would be a whole nother year for a grant yeah there there are some you could request an extension the deadline extension which other communities have successfully completed so that you can submit in the fall is that additional funds that we have to pay for extension okay no so can we do that you could you need to have
131special legislation or acceptance of a deadline extension so it is possible it's been done in the past I just hate that we're missing the potential for this year to have our application in when we know that in the immediate future we have to work on some school yep yeah the funding has to be secured you don't need you need to have if if the project requires a referendum to fund the project whatever project it may be you do have to have the rest for a successful referendum vote in place in order and that is part of the grant application process there's also several or components to that like BOE approval of the educational specimen there's a whole list of items that need to be submitted as part of the eto 49 it's just the biggest
132piece is that referendum the funding in place okay so and then what happens is you submit that that typically in typical years you submit that grant application mm-hmm it goes into the state the state identifies a priority list I believe it's December 15th that comes out and that lists the grant applications in their priority statewide so if you're on that list then that list gets submitted to the legislation for approval for funding the following spring okay cuz I just I was just reading it quickly as I was sitting here sure and it just said the diamond that well that was for local educational agencies that demonstrate the greatest need for the funds and the strongest commitment to use the funds to provide accurate accurate resources in order to substantially raise achievement of students in their
133lowest performing schools but it would just read something that we didn't need to prove that it went to a specific school as long as we we proved the intention of using those funds yeah my experience has been that where you've identified more than just that he had an educational specification you had all the the components of the grant application in place in order to submit but we can certainly thank you thank you my name is Victor Busey I live at 16 Prospect Drive I just want to do that time frame with you if a child enters kindergarten in September of 2018 this year all the things that we're talking about they're not gonna see is that about accurate five six years by the time you break ground not five six years it's several years before
134you see from start of design through construction completion so the chances are pretty good they go through center school and get at least through huckleberry or through fourth grade or shion's of that you know pretty much yeah on average we've seen projects from where we are today to construction completion take it's a little as three years all the way up to I guess all saying like is there any shot at phases those portable classrooms we can't make as good a point for you I'm gonna tell you my oldest son is gonna be forty-seven this year I complained about portable classrooms in Brookfield when he was in school and with all of my four children that went through the system those those are terrible we have to shovel them is that true super or superintendent do
135we have to shovel the roofs but it's really heavy snow for the portable I wasn't here in 2013 but I mean I in my previous district with flat roofs with the weight that is something butts right yeah we had to do that it just would seem to me that they're not totally safe the only other point I want to make to you is in town we have approved 800 housing units that are not built yet but they're approved they're set to go our super our First Selectman has done a good job getting us a moratorium okay but that doesn't stop the building those have all approved they're set to go the old statistic told us that we were gonna get one child for every 13 units but that was done based on 2008 when the
136only units in town that were selling were 55 plus units so that I think the new situation will be more like a one to three kind of thing on the demographics thank you for the information relative to the 800 units um that is a piece in a component that does need to be looked into as far as there was projections completed I believe last August 16 and those do need to be updated and there's statistical methods to get there and then there's some outliers with like how many permits are outstanding what developments in town are planned or approved so all those pieces need to be looked at in the demographic projections so and I believe our projections have really not been all that accurate isn't that true right thank you real quick and in the
137primary kindergardens been off for kindergarten you can't tell and actually because some of the children go to country kids like for kindergarten for first grade you also have a problem usually but we've also had okay in recent years okay before you came here dr. Burrell we had situations where like at wizkid ear we'd have 18 new students in the sixth grade the present in ninth grade was a good example of that where we were running class sizes 27 28 29 which not suburban school district sizes because new children came in but they came in as older children so this has been a problem for us over the years and you know and so an updated demographic study is part of tech Don's work that's a one of the sub-continent coming to the board you have
138to see some more the districts the schools that they have my have a granddaughter in Glastonbury and I'm just blown away by their schools they are gorgeous and I don't know that it's all that much wealthier than we are you know I think our schools are kind of an embarrassment for it's the wealthy town that we have here you know what we've let this go too long thank you so much thanks any other questions comments okay well I'd like to thank everyone for coming out tonight and for your input it's it's extremely valuable for our committee to hear everything that we have heard I am asking and if you could please fill out the survey and you know give us your honest opinion what do you envision for our school system it will just help
139us do our job better and come back at the June 7th meeting with good information information coming from you and it's so important also I'm sorry the surveys are going to be brought down in a moment again we are working on a website and a Facebook page in addition to the schools okay and in between now thank you dr. Brill the June 7th meeting our next meeting is April 4th Jeff could you go back to the first slide where you list the meetings please thank you yes if you want to write them down so this will be on the website the whole presentation tonight April 4th at 6:30 May 1st 6 o'clock in May 22nd at 6 p.m. and again there are all public meetings there open you can come we take public comment we
140take we want you to be a part of this we really do so anyway I'm going to close the meeting again thank you so much for coming the surveys are on their way down oh I'm sorry for now yes yes yes it's up to the committee but you know if I give you this if we gave you 30 questions it would be cumbersome so these are the questions that the committee came up with for what we want or what we need now from you if there's also a section where you can add additional comments thank you okay meeting is adjourned thank you so much have a great evening [Music]