001Next Generation School Building Committee. Ron, would you do the roll, please? >> Sean Kimble >> here. Sarah Steven >> here. >> Jeff Sen >> here. >> Greg Rosenl >> here. Chris Daddy >> here. >> Megan Rockwell >> here. >> Dennis Ru here. >> Chuckn here. >> All right. Uh this meeting is uh a meeting that was uh is required by the state in order to approve the FFN, which is our furniture and uh uh technology budgets. Um and then send that up to the state of Connecticut. Uh I'm going to turn it over to Justin Hopkins from Tecton Architects. He's going to do a short overview of uh the package that is in front of you. Do I Okay, everybody can hear me here. Good evening. Uh Justin Hopkins. I'm a senior project manager at
002Tecton Architects. Uh with me uh this evening is Nicole Tetro. Uh um I wanted to introduce her to uh the BOE and the NGSBC. Uh but she's very familiar to some of the folks uh in the district. She's really been leading the charge uh on the FFN. Uh just to give you uh by way of background our process here. Uh prior to school getting out last summer uh we scheduled a series of what I would consider pretty intense uh one and a half twohour meetings uh prior to faculty breaking for the summer. The purpose of which was to establish the basis of design for FF& technology. Uh once summer break happened, we put our heads down, started assembling quantities uh uh basis of design furniture. We regrouped uh at the start of the school year.
003Uh and the results of which are the package that I'll be going over this evening. So uh first of all, I hope everybody's feet have thought out uh from the walk. Uh it's always interesting walking on those uh fresh concrete floors in the evening. your feet get pretty pretty cool. Okay, I'm going to just as a reminder of where we are uh for from a global project summary, uh we have Barnum Elementary uh formerly known as uh North End Elementary School and Norton Elementary School. Uh both prek to six, but as we mentioned in the walkthrough at Barnum, uh the distinction there is we have uh the early childhood program there. So that accounts for the overall increase uh comparatively uh in student enrollment 790 students at Barnum, 661 students at Norton. Uh so that
004accounts for our line items in construction cost, total project cost being modestly higher at at Barnum than Norton. [clears throat] I'm just going to set this down over here. Just going to go through uh to reenter everybody's familiarity uh with the site. We have Barnum uh site plan up on the screen now. Uh where we were parking uh this evening was in this uh parking lot here. Uh and we approached the building uh from the west side or the uphill side of the site. Uh what you weren't able to see due to darkness is the amount of playscapes. Uh the playcapes aren't installed, but the infrastructure is out there now uh uh to the east of the building or the downhill side of the building. So, that's something as it gets closer, uh, we encourage
005everybody to to walk through the building again, uh, because that's really going to be a memorable, uh, spot. Uh, just a blow up of, uh, the building footprint and you'll see the the playscapes, uh, going around towards the eastern portion of of the building. Floor plan. I think everybody is well familiar uh, with the floor plan now. uh main level uh upper level and for Norton Elementary School uh we were we came in uh from the Sharon Drive entry and and parked uh around this area here and approached the building through one of the egress uh stairs or secondary uh means of egress out of the building. So what you weren't able to do was experience the building uh from the front door entrance there. Uh but we have Norton uh the existing Norton school
006operational uh uh currently uh the goal is uh when school breaks for summer 2026 uh the new building uh will be ready to receive FFN it uh etc we'll start tearing down the existing building going through the abatement process first uh and then there will be a slight overlap in the fall of developing the parking areas and some of the storm water detention uh towards the southern portion of the site. But if it wasn't reiterated at our walkthroughs, both buildings are on schedule under budget uh ready to be occupied uh summer 2026. So all systems go in terms of moving into the schools at this point. As um it's always a good point at this phase of construction is saying we're out of the ground. uh we have uh we've been able to mitigate our
007risk with digging holes uh in the site and uh getting the steel superructure and the building envelope uh in place for both schools. So both projects in very good shape. Uh blow up of the the uh the building footprint. As I mentioned, we entered uh right about this area. The front entrance is to the southern portion of the site. The uh recreation fields uh to the southeastern port uh southwestern portion and eastern portion of the site yet to be developed. that will that will uh come into development when we expand uh towards the south and start uh tearing down the existing building. So main level floor plan, upper level floor plan, I wanted to highlight uh because this will be a discussion topic uh about our overall FFN and IT budgets for both schools. At
008Barnum Elementary, our uh combined budget is 3,520,000. Uh for Norton it's $2,199,100. Uh one of the things that through bid savings the NGSBC had allocated uh some of our bid savings rather than to project contingency uh applied it to the FFN and IT budget. So that is the differentiator between the two uh VA the two amounts. So a little bit about the uh furniture and fixtures. Uh I thoroughly put the NGSBC to sleep the last time I uh gave this presentation. So I'll try and and be uh brief as we go through, but if there are any questions along along the way, feel free to raise your yes. >> On the last slide, >> yep, >> you were t you were talking about the differentiation and I really did not grasp what you were saying.
009>> Okay, so there is there are line items. I'm going to just quickly go back uh to this slide uh which is the total project cost. Total project budget for Barnum Elementary is $89.9 million. Total project budget is $76.6 million. Within that total project cost, you have hard costs which are the actual construction costs, the bricks and mortar that you walked through earlier uh this evening and then soft costs uh which consist of FFN technology fees all of that goes kind of below the line of the hard construction cost and helps um aggregate what your total project cost is. So, as part of that soft cost, uh, Barnum has a $3.5 million FFN and IT budget. Norton Elementary School has a $2.2 million FFN and IT budget. Those two figures were closer together at the
010start of the project. Uh, but through uh we achieved uh a greater greater bid savings at Barnum than Norton. And a part of that savings uh rather than go entirely to the owner's contingency or the contingency for the project um it was applied to the construction or the FFN cost. So we were closer into the $2.4 million range for combined FFN and it uh at the start of the project. We're now at 3.5. >> Thank you for that. Um, also, um, it was I was under the impression that the Norton building was going to be more expensive because we have the demolition involved. Is that not the case? >> In a cost per square foot analysis, yes, it is more expensive because part of that abatement and demolition goes into your cost per square foot
011number. But Norton because we do not have the additional students for for the early childhood program is a smaller building. So uh that gets uh translated into the overall project cost. So lower overall total project cost, higher unit cost in a cost per square foot number. Yes. >> Thank you. Yeah. Yeah. So, what I just heard you say before is we basically had these two projects that started off at $80 million each for lack of a better description. You got savings when you did the RFPs and then we shifted some of the money from the RFP cost avoidance over to FFN at chat. Does that >> So, >> I'm just curious thought process because I'm looking at it, I'm thinking, oh, we could have saved money and now we're going to spend the money, which
012is not necessarily bad. I'm just trying to understand that what >> so um the total project costs remain the same because that's the budget that's what's bonded uh savings ultimate savings at the end of the project it's it's the decision of the town and the and the recommendations of the NGSBC um what how that contingency is being spent if it's being returned back to the town etc. But for the purposes of the bid savings that were realized on both projects, both projects came in under budget uh when we bid them. Uh basically because that is no longer a hard construction cost or a hard budget cost, that savings gets transferred below the line to an owner's contingency. So healthy owner's contingency, very healthy owners contingency on both projects currently. >> If I could just for
013one second, >> I don't know if this works. There we go. Um the [clears throat] building committee is handed a specific budget for each building and has to work within that total dollar figure. Within that, the committee has the ability to shift money uh from one line item to another. Um [clears throat] from the very beginning, the North End budget has been healthier than the Norton budget. Norton budget has been a bit tighter and we've had to make some uh adjustments as we've gone along to make sure that the Norton budget stayed within the allocation. Um when the bids came through and we were an extremely healthy position at the north end, we did uh transfer within our uh allocations some additional money into the FFN budget. Um the Norton budget is still in good
014shape and we're sitting on a healthy contingency for the Norton budget. Um but we didn't at that time uh make any adjustments to the FFN budget. Um not that we can't still do that. Uh that's always an option and the committee on a regular basis is always looking at any changes as it will affect our contingencies on each of the buildings. Uh but as I said, we have a healthy contingency in both schools, both the main contingency and uh we've come in under budget on the the construction bids and both buildings. >> So yeah, I just because I don't want to be misunderstood on this. The basic idea what I'm hearing you say is this the money has not been spent in FFN. you put it into a budget where it could be spent there.
015And [clears throat] I'm just saying in general, we don't need to spend. I like nice things. I want nice FFN. But the bottom line to me, I'm thinking is if the money doesn't get spent, it ultimately doesn't probably get authorized, appropriated, spent. So that it does ultimately have some sort of effect on [clears throat] taxes. I'm not saying it's a fake. >> We we have to live within the budget that we have. Any any money when all the projects when the project is completed, any money that is not expended is just that much less that the town has to bond. >> Exactly. >> Uh and as I said, we're sitting on very healthy contingencies right now. Uh assuming everything stays the way it is, the town will uh in the end up bonding substantially less
016than what they originally anticipated. Thank you, >> Justin. Just clarify the acronyms for those watching at home. >> Thank you very much. Uh NGSBC is the Next Generation School Building Committee. That was a joke. Uh FFN, Furniture, Fixtures, and Equipment, IT, Information Technology. We have a ton of acronyms in my profession. Thank you for reminding me that. Yes. Uh the other thing uh since we're talking about project budget, I I know the chair had uh um apprised everybody here about the increase in reimbursement uh for the total projects based on current legislation or recent legislation uh that has been enacted by the general assembly that increases the reimbursement at uh Barnum Elementary by 15% and a portion of uh the Norton school uh by 15%. %. So, that was a that was a welcome uh
017that was welcome news uh for the town. Any other questions before we get into uh the furniture and fixtures? And um again, stop me if uh anything uh if you have any questions along the way. Uh but part of Nicole's work uh with the folks in the district uh were to uh select and uh basically outfit the schools uh starting with uh some of our prek and early intervention classrooms. Uh you'll see on the screen uh a mixture of uh tables uh some bookshelves, some storage, some soft seating uh rugs and teacher stations. Uh that was all gone through uh with the district, multiple iterations uh of uh review, selection, feedback, a lot of feedback. Um and ultimately this is where we landed. I will note that all of the colors that you see are
018not necessarily the the final colors. Uh these are basically uh product uh images that we're showing. We'll go through a color selection when we get closer to actually ordering uh the furniture. So, just to kind of go through quickly, uh floor plan is to the right. Uh you'll see kind of uh keyed uh uh the keyed furniture with images to the left. Uh so outfitting of the early kindergarten or early childhood kindergarten classrooms very similar uh mixture of also play or activity uh uh units uh that are in these classrooms as well. uh going up in in age, the our lower elementary classrooms, we get into some more uh desks uh formal desks and seats uh as well as storage around the perimeter of the of each classroom. It is worth noting that uh all
019of these classroom desks are are designed so that they can uh that students can sit them in at them in a traditional way facing the the the teaching station at the front of the classroom or be grouped together in small groupoup learning or large group learning. Upper elementary very similar going to the media center obviously uh we'll have you all walk through the media centers uh this evening uh we'll have book bookcases uh there uh some formal seating some occasional seating so hard and soft seating at each area uh at each location I I think I pointed out uh we do to a number of people my favorite place uh at Barnum is the uh reading the small reading room uh on the upper level of the media center at Norton. Another combination of book
020storage uh tables, chairs, soft seating. Our resource classrooms were outfitting uh with student desks, student chairs, file storage, uh shelf storage, teacher stations, cafeteria. We're covering uh new mixture of sizes and shapes uh for the cafeteria seating. Uh also providing uh individual chairs, stacking chairs to help support if we're having uh functions such as this. Uh we'll be able to get some of the the chairs out uh and move the cafeteria tables out of the way. Visual arts uh set up as kind of a uh a flexible space. larger tables there as well as some some rug seating and area seating. Our music spaces very similar instrumental spaces, ensemble spaces. Uh stage will have portable risers as as part of uh the assembly within the platform at both uh both locations. our administrative areas uh
021utilizing some system furniture uh for both the kind of open admin space and our office space. So that's furniture and fixtures, equipment and technology don't have a lot of Yes, Mr. Grippo. >> Thank you. Um so I I noticed there's a very distinctive design choice in all of these things that are going to be in our classrooms. um make sort of reminiscent of a certain store. Just my opinion. Um is is the durability good on this stuff or is it like you know three screws and it's going to start coming apart after a couple years or >> so. So all of the the furniture um h is durable. It's purposebuilt for it. It's not, it doesn't show up with an Allen wrench and uh some concealed fasteners and and uh wood dowels uh to put
022together. Uh it's been tested on all of our school projects. Uh I believe we al did we we set up um we set up some test spaces >> at central office uh for the faculty to try out. Um so all of this stuff is durable. Now that being said, it is a school. Uh we do have kids that that uh put it put the furniture through the paces, but this is about as rugged as it gets for for school furniture. >> Yeah, I'm not aware of our our current um burn rate on furniture and stuff as it is, but as long as it's similar, I guess, to what we use now, that'll be fine. Yeah. Thanks. >> I know you mentioned there were plenty of iterations around the prek classrooms, and I'm sure I know
023the answer to my question. And I'm sure you've already addressed it. Um, you've taken into consideration Nyak accreditation. >> Yes. >> And specifics the specifications for furniture and what square footage and everything in the room. >> Yes. Absolutely. And I see Kim over there nodding her head as well. She hold held our feet to the fire uh in a lot of these selections. >> What's required Yeah, you touched upon my question, but um it involves the teacher stations parts of this and how much [clears throat] how much input we actually got from teachers as to because some of the teacher space looks really small to me. But maybe that's my imagination. >> Was it was that at the office? This this guy here, this slide or >> that one so much? Go to the the
024small. Yeah, that one. >> We're talking about this. Yes. >> This this desk here. >> So, it looks like that's in the general music room and the instrumental room. classrooms too >> and the classrooms as well. >> That's the classrooms too. >> So it's it's >> I'm wondering have the teachers had input on that? >> Yes. >> Aspect of it. >> Yes. >> I don't I don't want to say what I'm I'm >> working. >> Yeah. >> Specialized classroom teachers, music teachers. >> Yeah. So our our average participation in some of these working group sessions uh was probably 17 18 uh folks from Cheshire on each of the calls. So >> okay, thank you. I'll say from my own point of view, I sat in on a few of the sessions and they ran multiple
025hours and I can recall the music teacher in particular at one point spending probably close to 45 minutes or so uh just speaking of the needs of the music department and the furniture that they had. So from my point of view at least, I think the staff had tremendous input um and that uh Tecton went out of their way to try to accommodate their needs within within the package. And I know when I had talked to uh Mr. V MSO, I said, you know, I want to make sure that the teachers sign off on this and the administrator sign off on it. He said, yeah, he's making sure that the package that comes to us is something that they have approved of. But you know the buck stops here so I have to ask the
026question. >> No, that's fine. >> Thank you. >> Okay. Uh so just wanted to go over some of the things that are included in the estimates uh for purchase. So, this is uniform across uh both schools uh for as far as maintenance equipment. Uh making sure that we're accommodating uh floor scrubbers and machines, upright and backpack vacuums, carpet cleaners, an electric pallet jack. You saw some of the high spaces. There's uh scissor lift uh that is scheduled for both uh both buildings. riding lawn mower, a snow removal machine, and a number of what we call direct purchase items, uh, which are things like mops, buckets, trash cans, uh, overall maintenance equipment to go into the the each school for technology equipment, interactive displays, 86 in uh, smartboard. Yes, sorry. >> Sorry. Before we moved on,
027uh just unfortunately from personal experience, uh the uh Tiger Cat 2 lawn mower, can it handle the hills over at Barnum? Because I know that can be a dicey situation. Can be kind of steep around here. >> Yeah, I I will need to report back to you on that. The part of the intention of that hillside is to be a natural uh natural wild uh field, if you will. So, not necessarily mowed, maybe seasonal mowing uh rather than weekly mowing. >> Gotcha. Thanks. >> Yes, sir. >> Are there solar? Isn't the plan also is to expand the solar panels that are currently there now? >> So, I know that is a topic of discussion with the NGSBC uh about location of solar panels uh whether they're ground mounted uh or strictly building mounted. I will
028say that that decision has not been finalized yet. >> Okay, >> Tim. >> Thank you. Um, so you you put up a bunch of equipment there. I'm just wondering, uh, question number one, this is probably for you and for Vin together. Have we had the conversation, maybe even with the town as well, Sean? Um, are we maintaining all the current processes that we have? As an example, I think of the Tiger Cat 2. No, not Tiger Cat 2. Snow removal machine. I don't know what the Mammoth 850 is, but I know as I understand it, we outsource the plowing of the parking lots, but not necessarily the sidewalks. >> Correct. >> We do, Excuse me. Thank you. We do sidewalks. We do all the walkways. We do plow some of our own snow, but yeah,
029we contract out >> the driveways and the parking lots. So just using that as a proxy for all this different stuff cutting along cutting logs and stuff like that. Are we basically maintaining the status quo? If we do it now we will do it with the new school. >> Correct. >> Okay. >> That's correct. And that includes um as you know we contract out our cleaning services. >> Yeah. >> So we will be going to bid for our entire cleaning service contract including the two new schools. So that will continue, but our maintenance staff does maintenance throughout the school day. That's why they need the equipment that is on this list. >> Okay. So we have we have a floor scrubber and machine right now at our school. Okay. >> And so thank you for
030that. I appreciate that. Um and not that this had to be like a big deep discussion or review on your part, but I'm just curious, were you and Emily, whoever thinking about it if any of these things should change, if it would make sense to change anything at this time? Yeah, we'd looked at that and we relied also on Rich Clevette, our director of facilities, weighed in heavily uh and consistently on this. And by the way, this is all reimbursible as part of the overall school construction grant. So that is important to note as well. >> Okay. Do we have and I guess I think it's my last question. Do we have equipment that we're getting rid of that's still like salvageable or >> Well, anything that is still usable in the existing buildings, >>
031okay, >> will either be redeployed. >> Yeah. Okay. >> Or held in inventory if we need it. >> Okay. >> And that includes all the furniture from the existing buildings. We, you know, certainly have a plan to make sure that, you know, the only thing that gets thrown out is are items that are no longer usable. And then the disposition of the items that can be used will either be redeployed or put into storage. But that is something that you know we'll occupy a lot of time over the next you know through the spring. Get ready. >> Thank you then. Thanks Jess. >> One one more followup on the on the mower. Is that something that will be stored at the schools or is that going to be at the high school? I know the
032guys usually work out of the garage at the high school. Is that do the do do we store mowers at the schools now? >> We would love to store all this equipment in a beautiful storage shed [laughter] at the building. U and to the extent we can't do that, we do uh have our our maintenance garage at the high school is sort of our central location for equipment. Okay. >> So we we would move it back and forth. Okay. >> But there is uh in all seriousness some discussion that will be taken up with the school building committee probably in the spring about storage building at each of the two schools. >> Thank you. Okay, moving on to technology equipment. Um, interactive displays uh uh that conform to the district standard 86 in Smartboard display
033uh just for purposes of where we are in amounts. There's 71 at Barnum and 70 at Norton. Uh our telephones and conferencing equipment, wireless access point, both interior and exterior. There's I believe about slightly over a hundred at uh Barnum, uh about 80 at Norton. Our network switches uh and network server, our mobile tablet Chromebook charging carts, uh interactive wall for the gymnasium. It's a uh a product called a loo um which was something that the district was advancing for kind of an interactive activity uh for kids to be able to do in uh the gymnasiums uh and a number of other uh direct purchase items small in nature uh cables UPS's etc. When I say direct purchase uh there are three procurement methods for uh this type of work. One is state contract. That's
034what most of the uh furniture uh is selected off of. The state of Connecticut is currently going through a transition from CT source, the state vendor system to the MHC, which is the Massachusetts Higher Education Consortium. Uh that basically it it widens the lens of uh available state contract purchases. And when I say state contract, it's uh pre-negotiated unit prices for furniture that are um that are standard and expected uh when you go to purchase them. Uh the state office of grants administration or OGA allows you to select those uh in that procurement method provided that they do not exceed $100,000 in aggregate for for the one. So most of the furniture uh is off of a state contract list. There are uh bid packages that we will be bidding. Most of the technology package
035because in aggregate is it is over $100,000 per unit will go out to bid. And then direct purchase is allowable through the state for small wares items that anything that is under $10,000 uh can be direct purchased and you can still receive reimbursement. >> Yes. Just a question on the technology is so I' I've done a high school in an elementary school and somehow they always have the drops especially in the conference rooms right in the center as opposed to so a is the plan to have smartboards in the conference rooms or some sort of screen >> and then please make sure those drops are not so inconvenient that you know you can't even adjust the room it stays as it is. >> So, uh we do have the conference areas are areas that the
036infrastructure from the what the presentation wall which all of the infrastructure is on where you're going to hang your smartboard um is fed to below the slab to a central point in uh the room. So, the idea is that the the conference room table uh will be will be over it in whatever configuration it is. uh um will be over that port. So So the inputs will go directly down through the uh >> in the center, >> right? But there's no alternate drop >> should the room be reconfigured. >> There are drops that are on the wall uh as well, but but we we did not sprinkle floor boxes throughout the a relatively small conference room. >> Yeah. And then um some of our cafeterias um do have screens. Are we putting screens in? >>
037Yes. Uh those screens are are and projection are part of the construction budget. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Okay. So the moment you probably have all been waiting for uh is where we are with cost estimates and budget and the the conversation about budget allocations uh at the start of this conversation is important for uh the remainder of the conversation. So um once again uh combined budgets up top uh for North End 3,520,000 for Norton 2 thou 2,198600,000 uh the combined estimates uh for FFN furniture fixtures and equipment and technology uh for Barnum is $2,910,49. uh that it represents a uh below budget of $69,951. For Norton, our combined estimate is $2,455,800, which represents a budget overage of $257,200. So there are a couple of options uh for approval and I'll I'll describe these and
038just uh to preface this conversation. Uh as I mentioned to uh the chair, we are in a good spot schedule-wise. Uh we're normally going through this process at the end of December, beginning of January for uh procurement and installation for the following summer. So schedule-wise, we're ahead of the game. Uh we think it's best practice to get through these approvals, get through the state approvals so that we can really phase the procurement of these items and be prepared uh for the lead times for delivery. So I preface uh the following conversation with that reality that we we have a little bit of time to make these decisions. So option approval option number one uh approve only the north end because we're on budget. Um the drawings and estimate and defer Norton until scope can align
039with budget. It is worth noting that the estimates that you're looking at right now represent parody between both schools. So the same furniture, the same technology, the same maintenance uh equipment that's at uh Barnum is at Norton. Okay. We would have a little bit of work to do on the Norton budget if we were to align that scope with the budget. Option number two, approve both North End and Norton drawings and estimates assuming there will be some buyout savings on bid items and state contract vendor pencil sharpening. I mentioned this transition between CT source and uh the Massachusetts Higher Education Consortium. Part of that transition, it was originally supposed to be in place for August of this year. It's not in place yet. So, it's been very challenging to get unit prices uh from the
040vendors because they don't know which one they're they're providing the unit prices for. Uh so, we haven't been able to go back to the vendors and say, "Okay, you're buying a thousand of these student chairs. What's your best number? Can you do better than the state contract number?" There's always some economy when we go for procurement there. Uh we just haven't been able to to nail that down. Uh so under this scenario, the NGSBC would reconcile the final budget allocations from project contingency on Norton uh when final numbers are in hand. Option number three, approve both North End and Norton drawings and estimates with a contingency reallocation to the Norton FFN and technology budget similar to what was done on Barnum to make up the estimated shortfall. So that's really kind of the I think
041the ask tonight. uh that decision really is in the NGSBC's court regarding budget allocations. So I think yeah >> before before uh either the building committee or the board of ed can act, I think the uh building committee must make a decision on these three options and how they want to proceed. So let me turn it over to the committee. uh if you have uh suggestions or opinions as to uh which way you would like to go on the three options that were laid out. >> Rich, what's the difference really? Or Justin somebody, what's the difference between two and three? It sounds like three we just approve it now and it's there and two I mean we would still I would think want to sharpen our pencils and get savings and whatever. It's not like
042it's there to spend it. So >> we do that as a matter of course uh in our conversations. >> [laughter] >> the U. Yeah, I think what what uh we were talking about earlier uh is if the committee was uncomfortable sending this up to the state knowing that the preliminary estimates were uh $200,000 over, then we could immediately make a transfer from our contingency budget into the Norton FFN budget. But as I spoke to Justin both yesterday and today, we don't need to do that. These are preliminary estimates. We would go out to bid. We would see at that time if if it came in at that $200,000 level, we could make the adjustment at that time. Um, but we may also find that we go out to bid and the bids come in and
043we don't need that additional money. So, it's it's really up to the committee as to which which way you want to go. Uh and then we can act as and the board of ed can act on it. >> Rich is it u I think option three allocates the money so that uh from contingency I mean contingency is for unforeseen. So we don't know if at the time if that contingency will be there if we don't allocate it now. Is that is that uh an understanding? Is that correct? We have a health very healthy contingency at this point. >> That's not that but you again contingency is for what you don't know. Yeah. So it could be healthy now but that doesn't mean it's going to be there. >> If you if you move money from
044our contingency into that budget then that uh means that you you have allocated that money and you know then that based on the estimates we will have enough to pay for this. Yes. >> Right. And so when we're looking at other possible reasons to spend the contingency, it will we will have this already allocated so that we don't have a false sense of having an extra quarter million dollars. You could do that. Sure. That's what option three does, right? That's what option three does. Yes. Okay. Either way, this seems like it's something that's necessary. It's gone through all of the people um that that know what they need. It's not like we're being uh there's no real opulence in here. This is this is the committees that have looked at it, all of the users.
045So, this is necessary. So, in my mind, it's like why don't we allocate the money now instead of running the risk of having some other decisions made with contingency that is um that suddenly might be needed for the FFNA. That's just my two cents. >> Any other comments, Dads? Sarah? people. >> Hi. Oh gosh, sorry. So, I think for me, number one is just completely off the table because then I think we start to talk about we lose par, right? And that's just unacceptable to me as a as a parent, as a member of the Cheshure community. So, then we've got two and three. Um I I understand what you're saying, Chris. I think it is really important that we understand how much we have. um especially when some of us want things like storage
046sheds and things like that at the end. So, but I think we're going to see a lot of I think we're going to see a lot of change in the number and I hate to move things from contingency, put it into the line and then we have too much in there and then we have to move it back to contingency. And I'd rather get the real the real numbers first before we actually make the full move and really understand what we're moving. But we know we're going to have to move it. I agree with you. agree with your point. I think if we look at the Barnum where where the money is there, I believe that if when it goes out to bid and we get the numbers in, let's just pick a fictitious number.
047Let's say it comes in at 100,000 under, that 100,000 goes back to contingency. >> But but we also well it's it's a vote. It's we're not actually carrying, you know, bricks. It's just a vote and we move it. I'm just more concerned about the fact that, like you mentioned, there are some other things that might come up and we might say, well, we've got contingency. Why don't we add this nice thing or we do this thing because we have it and then we need the money for the FFN, which is not a nice to have, it's a need. And all of a sudden, we're like strapped on the contingency. Whereas if we allocate it here, then when we vote on or or or consider other things, whether it's an unforeseen, whether it's a change that's
048the the the board of ed or somebody else deems necessary or nice to have, we're having that discussion looking at a budget that's available rather than a budget that might be uh fictitiously elevated because we know we're going to need that. That's just my again one person's thought. Yeah, actually I have a question for Arcadus >> Arcadus people. >> Yes. >> In in addition to the contingency that we have for Norton, we also have some bid savings. Correct. >> We do. Yeah. >> In excess of $250,000. >> Um yes, we do for for Norton. For th for those of you that don't know me, I'm Rich Sitnick. I'm with Arcadus, the owner's rep. Um, so regarding available contingencies on Norton, there was a bid savings of $836,000. We put that aside. That's in addition to
049the owner's contingency, which is $4,36,000. like to make a motion um [clears throat] to allocate $257,200 from bid savings towards the FFN and technology package for Norton School. >> Any discussion? >> All those in favor? >> All right. Now we can move >> Greg. I would ask that >> thank you Rich. Um, first motion. I move that the next generation school building committee approve the construction documents consisting of the final drawing set specifications and project manuals for the Norton Elementary School state project number 025-02N phase 3 fixtures furnishing equipment PN FFN closed PN and phase 4 data/technology equipment as presented and dated October 31. And the professional cost estimates dated October 31. >> Do we have a second? >> A second, Chuck. >> November. November 31, I think. >> October. >> No, it's dated October
05031. Got it. That's what we're asking. >> The Oh jeez, I'm sorry. The estimates we act because we had been getting vendor pricing in the estimates are dated for today. So we just >> we'll change October 31 to November 6th >> for the professional cost estimates. Yes. >> Okay. So technology equipment as presented and dated October 31 professional cost estimates as dated November 6th. >> All right. All right. Second. >> Uh Chuck already second if that's okay. Would that change? Uh any discussion on that? Seeing none. All those in favor and it's unanimous and now it's the board of ed's turn. Um move that the Cheshure Board of Education approves the FFN documents consisting of the final drawing set specifications and project manuals for the Norton Elementary School state project number 025-01 02N phase 3
051fixtures furnishings equipment and phase 4 data technology equipment as presented and dated October 31st. >> Yes. and the professional cost estimated dated November 6. Is there a second? Miss Cullinin. Thank you. Discussion. Seeing no discussion. All those in favor of the motion that's on the floor. Tony. No. One. Yeah. Unanimous. I don't know if you needed more time. It's unanimous. Thank you. Back to NGBS. and GSBC. >> And then we have a uh an additional motion that actually sends this up to the state. Greg, >> I move that the FFN documents as approved this evening by the building committee and the board of education for the Norton Elementary School, state project number 025-03. Right now it's 03. Is that three or that? Should it be a two? >> Should be the same. Yeah, it should
052be a two there, right? >> 102. Yeah. >> Yeah. >> Okay. uh state project number 025-02N phase 3 fixtures furnishings equipment pen ff closed pen and phase 4 data technology equipment be submitted to the state of Connecticut DASA department of administrative services office of government accountability for its written approval >> do we have a second >> Chuck any discussion Seeing none, all those in favor and it's unanimous. Um, now because we have two totally separate projects, we always have to do everything in duplicate. So now we're uh we have a motion for the north end school. I move that the next generation school building committee approve the construction documents consisting of the final drawing set specifications and project manuals for the North End Elementary School state project number 025-03N phase 3 fixtures furnishings and equipment
053prenf closep print and phase 4 data technology equipment as presented and dated October nomber 31 and the professional cost estimates dated November 6th. >> Do we have a second? >> Chuck discussion. >> Seeing none, all those in favor? Unanimous. [laughter] >> You you you forgot you have two different hats. You're supposed to change them as I'm wearing your hat [laughter] today. Um, I move that the Chesher Board of Education approve the FFN documents consisting on the final drawing set, specifications, and project manuals for the North End Elementary School, state project number 025-03N. Phase three fixtures, furnishings, equipment, FFN, and phase 4 data, technology, equipment as presented, and dated October 31st and the professional cost estimates dated November 6. Is there a second? Mr. Gripple discussion. Dr. Harrian, I >> have a quick question. Why are
054we calling it North End School and not Barnum now that we've named it? >> It's the project >> that that is what went to the state when it was originally created and even though the town has renamed it as we are sending documents to the state, we have to cons consistently use what we have originally put into the state in our own minutes and things. We always use Barnum. >> Thank you. >> Thanks, Tim. >> Thank you. Um, yeah. So, this is a general question about FFN as well as the overall project. Probably for you, Justin. Have we been, as far as you know, have we been affected by tariffs? And I know that you're under budget right now, but that doesn't mean that we haven't paid more money in relation to tariffs. Just if
055you happen to know, if you don't, that's that's fine. >> We we we have had one claim so far regarding tariffs. Uh we have not uh approved that. Uh I don't know if there are other claims out there. Um they may need to work their way through uh the OMG process. Uh our attorney has uh been involved with that procedure in that we want to make sure that we uh very clearly uh and consistently analyze any tariff claims that might come before us. And I just want I just want to add a little bit because of what I've seen in the past year like at certain moments in time bills were just coming down the line sort of out of the blue to people. But then the way I would normally think of tariffs is
056that we would never even see them as a line item in our bills. It'd get if we're buying steel from China then we're buying it from a local distributor here and we pay them $100. They're the ones who see the >> $30 tariff making it moving it from like 70 to 100. So I'm just curious more >> what what you're saying I think is a little bit more of what I'm thinking about what's happened in the past year. I'm just thinking more broadly like were we buying are we buying Americanmade raw materials? Is stuff coming from overseas? And this is really intended to be a general question. I'm not looking for real details here. >> We go out we went out to bid on most of the projects uh November of last year. Okay. >>
057Uh all of the subs bid at that time. Uh what happened was that was right around the time of the election. >> Yeah. >> Uh come January, February, suddenly uh there were tariffs that were added in. Um there's an expectation that our subs would look for uh locally sourced uh sources and not be paying tariffs whenever possible. In some cases, they may have already put in orders. Uh stuff was moving in and it was something that wasn't originally anticipated. And that's something that the committee has looked at and as I said has brought our attorney into that process. If there's a claim made by one of the subs that this was an unexpected expense that was not foreseeable when they bid on the project. >> Okay. in in terms of the FFN and technology these
058are like these are product these are not commodities like steel or pipe or anything like that uh so the unit prices that we're we're incorporating or direct from vendors and represent current prices so it's a little bit muddier to ascertain what percentage of those are maybe tariff related on the materials that are put together for the product but we do know that we're using current prices so Any further discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor of the motion that is on the floor, unanimous. Thank you. And our last motion, >> I move that the FFD documents as approved this evening by the building committee and board of education for the North End Elementary School, state project number 025 0103N. Phase three fixtures furnishing equipment PRN FFNE clos and phase four data technology equipment be submitted
059to the state of Connecticut DASA Department of Administrative Services Office of Government Accountability for its written approval. >> Do I have a second, Chuck? Any discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor? Thank you very much. It's unanimous. So, I know the board of ed has a meeting coming up. I didn't know if you had any last questions or comments for us. Carol, >> I just want to express my deep gratitude for all that you have been doing for all these years, not just months, but years. and um it's very evident that you know exactly what's going on that you're keeping track of things and doing what's best for the town of Cheshure and uh what's best for our schools and so I thank you all of you. Thank you for your time. >> We appreciate
060it from one group of volunteers to another. [laughter] >> All right. Uh with that in mind Yes. >> Sorry Richard. So, uh, likewise when I write what what Ann said, I I had the privilege of, um, helping select this committee with Sam Rosenberg, Tim White, Don Walsh, I think it was three years ago when you all were crazy enough to volunteer and, uh, I knew back then talking to all of you. Uh, >> I had a full head of hair when we started. >> So did [laughter] I when I started board, but uh, >> criteria. >> But uh, no and uh, so I I can't thank you enough. I I been as board 16 years. This is my last night for now. So, I know what you've gone through and I I can't thank you
061enough. And uh I'm sure as the public hears more and more what you're doing because as far as I'm concerned, you're doing a lot of great work quietly. Well, that's a lot of work. Uh but when the public sees these schools and their kids start going through them, you're going to feel totally elated and we want to thank you. So, thank you. Keep up the great work. You're doing outstanding. >> Thank you. and you had an opportunity to see some of the work today. Uh it's coming along beautifully and uh we're excited to be looking ahead to September of next year when all the children uh start coming in and turning the buildings alive. Uh with with that comment, uh do we have a motion to adjourn by the committee? >> So moved. Second. >>
062Second, Dennis. All those in favor? >> It's unanimous. Thank you very much. Thank you.