001call Finn yep um Mr D white here miss Rosenberg is here and Mr eki is not here we do have a quorum and let me share my screen I'll show the flag and we could do the pledge have the flag I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you yeah you're welcome I don't have any audience um there is no audience present but I did not receive any audience or email or other correspondents so if it's okay I could just jump into the uh topic of the meeting which is the Highland Portables yeah please do it's important and hoping to uh take action tonight and keep this moving along okay thank
002you VIN you're welcome so um I'm showing on the um screen the agenda just so that you can actually follow along so the update portion of this will be pretty straightforward we had issued an RFP back in February um to actually purchase the Portables as the first step we got some reasonably good bids we awarded to Nadler modular to purchase two modular class classrooms for Highland at a total cost of um you know we had to go follow the town process we did go to Inland Wetlands they they didn't require you know any action because there are no Inland Inland Wetlands impact we then went to Planning and Zoning we did receive Planning and Zoning approval to add the two portable classrooms on May 13 and subsequent to that we had all the information that
003we needed uh we've been working with anazi Associates which is the selected architectural firm uh they completed the construction design and bidet drawings on June 11th uh and a week later June 18th we issued a second uh request for proposals to do the all the related work to get those Portables in place which included site work Paving work Electrical Plumbing and construction work last week on July 10th we opened up the the um four proposals that we received and as you could see on the agenda you know the prices ranged from 38967 from retriever Group LLC uh up to a high of 94698 to that was received from NAD Nadler modular um which is the same company that won the RFP for the just the purchase uh and delivery of the Portables um so I'm
004going to flip over to a summary screen and this may be a little bit hard to read so I'm going to expand it so on the left side you'll see that there's a line a division and a description and I'm I'm just explaining this because I'm I'm going to Breeze through this but um you'll see that n landor's proposal highlighted down on the bottom in yellow was $46,988 to do all that related construction work we received a proposal then from I'm just going to scroll to the right from Beacon electric and that price was 755,000 each of the components of the work that was requested uh so as part of our RFP process we have asked them to provide that detail it's very important that we have that detail because the way the RFP was
005issued we can if we so choose mix and match the work to be done by different contractors that may not necessarily be desirable but it is an option that we have um the Third third proposer was nozzle um and we've worked with both Beacon electric and nozzle before on various projects and so they they certainly are both qualified as far as we're concerned and you'll see that nozzle provided the breakdown as we asked for and their total cost was 735,000 which came in at 384,000 [Music] that it is all inclusive so we're not throwing that out I'm just cautioning the committee members that you know that may not be a an accurate number that we could use to get the construction work completed so just to give you a little bit of of context you
006know back in 2013 we had asked anazi to give us a cost estimated cost uh of this project including the purchase of the Portables and it was about 1.1 million all in however that was for four Portables we decided that we needed two portables so the construction cost if you take um Anton's original proposal the construction cost should have come in in the neighborhood of 600,000 so if we use 735 5,000 as a benchmark it's about 135,000 higher than than we would have expected not completely crazy considering it's a year later and also that we've added additional uh items in our proposal to make the two portable classrooms at Highland we want to add match the existing TX decking overhang use of that gazebo area so that you have one con us line of Portables
007that fits that area and also I'd like to just um mention that part of our long-term strategy here is that we if we have sufficient room in at Highland after the new schools are built and we've moved our students over to the new schools that we could keep the two newer Portables and take the older Portables offline and detach them and still maintain the structure that we build for these two new ones so there is some some add-ons so the point is that 700 you know 35,000 we could make it work and and there's certainly some validity to make it work we've still got some more nuances that I want to explain and so I'm going to go on to the next chart which is I think a little bit easier to read um so
008what I'm what I'd like to spend a couple minutes on is well how do we fund this the there's several different scenarios but I'm going to start with that at the top here where it says purchase of Portables from Nadler module and the estimated construction costs so the 2426 that's a firm number um the $700,000 I'm using that as an estimate based on the RF PS that we have from um both Beacon electric and from um Na nazle and I I dropped it down to 700,000 because we we do have some ability to reduce some of the scope so that we can get the price down a little bit so just follow that along the total cost of the project then will be $942,500 to fund it we have several different scenarios scenario one is
009we use the 450,000 that was appropriated by the Town Council for this project in 2023 um and then we take 4926 from the appropriated operating budget for this year so that would get us to the 9426 we need that wasn't my original plan we could make that work um option number two is we use the 450 take 3426 from our operating budget uh use 150,000 from the building CNR fund which has a balance of $230,000 and I'm just footnoting that does require board and Town Council approval um so that would get us to the 9426 and then funding scenario three that I'm explaining is we used the 450 from the appropriation last year there's an old appropriation which is from 2001 that if you read the language um it's my belief we could use it
010that's 140,000 remaining there however we have our the town Bond Council will give us an opinion on whether or not we can use that money and that would reduce what we need to take from the operating budget so on this example I said we use 2526 from the operating budget and 100,000 from the building CNR fund so the bottom line is there's several different ways that we can fund this you know I I if we go to funding scenario one what we would have to do is just put a spending cap you know probably uh you know 5% cap on our non-payroll expenditures for the year and that would get us to where we need to get um and if we do that and as we go through the year we have some other costs
011that are are running high that are causing concern we can then go back and ask the Town Council to appropriate money from the building CNR fund that's what that fund is for and we haven't used any of the funds in that 230,000 since 2018 so that would work the Nuance is that um I I did want to talk about is you know number one there's a legal question that Bond Council I'm waiting for a final answer on I'm working with Jim jascot the finance director and Sean Kimbell that if we use funding scenario one as an example the 450,000 was appropriated by the Town Council the 4926 was also appropriated by the Town Council in our operating budget but the question is does this require a referendum because it's over the $500,000 referendum limit in
012the past it was you know my understanding that as long as as long as no additional funds are being appropriated even though we're going above the $500,000 threshold does not require a referendum and that's what we're waiting for Bond Council to confirm if it does require a referendum we would certainly wouldn't be able to do that before November you know which would essentially mean we cannot do the project we can't start the project this summer um and so we would have to then go to a plan B for Highland which I can talk about in a minute so I want to pause there u in the event that there are any questions um and the only thing I maybe I should say first is I don't have all the answers on the construction costs rich
013and I uh met with Lisa Yates from anazi this morning you know she put together this schedule that I just showed a few minutes ago um breaking down all the costs as I explained we're waiting for Beacon electric to give us their um line by line uh dollar costs and then we're also looking at can we revise the scope to get the total cost down at this time um so with that I'll I'll just pause and see if there's any any questions or or comments Tim you're chair so you could take it away Mark Mark's here now oh hi Mark I didn't see Mark join in um I'll just jump in anyway he's he's still on mute um so let me see the uh spreadsheet you showed us before I just want to I'm wondering
014if you could scroll back to the left on that or whatever scroll to the roow headers so I'm seeing is it utility excavation and electrical like some of these numbers seem like they're pretty different like 50% differences or more um do you have any insight on that at all or you're just saying we could act as the GC and pull out different pieces of this and that's all that I that should concern me basically we could do again that's not preferable and I know that um I'm gonna scroll over one more because nadler's numbers are fortunately I'm gonna have to downsize this nadler's numbers are not the numbers that I would use as a reference they're very very high okay okay but nozzle I I think is the better one to talk through and Rich
015you're gonna have to help me with some of this um the you know and I I'll go from the top General conditions at 109,000 um sight prep fencing and erosion control 93,000 um the general conditions is a bit higher on nozzle than the others but their overall number at 735,000 doesn't seem too far out of line the um concrete at 30 49 um that number seems reasonable the metal railing is at 52 297 I do want to explain that what we're trying to do is match the metal railings that we currently have on the walkway yeah and the um ramp that leads out to the two existing Portables they're they're very substantive um as is the decking which is TRS on the existing decking um and and ramp and so we're trying to match that
016so that is adding cost over and above antoni's original estimate which were smaller railings and wood decking uh and so that was the carpentry Framing and decking includes tracks Roofing and gutters at 572 um fire sprinkler at 56 that is a place I'll just mentioned on the fire sprinklers um by technical code um we don't need fire sprinklers but our um Fire Marshall we committed to not only the Fire Marshall but Planning and Zoning that we would do it there's a comfort associated with having those sprinklered and the two existing Portables are sprinklered Plumbing uh for domestic water and sanitary and and plumbing having to do with the fire hydrant relocation um those numbers seem reasonable um Rich can you talk about electrical because there's a little bit more to that than meets the eye
017because we have to add some equipment yeah I mean it's the home run that is long because we have to go to the opposite side of the building uh to be able to work out of electrical closet um we have to install a Step Down Transformer because um Highland is a 480 volt service so that's going to require a Step Down Transformer plus a a pretty long home run uh to tie that into the the modular trailer so that's what makes up that number um before you go on the only thing I want to remind everyone is we still have not done a scope review so although it's it's in the line item the the the the proposer has presented a number under a line item we still don't have an idea they have yet
018to explain to us what makes up that number so we still have to cross that bridge and our intent is to do that over the next week so um I I see Tim you has a hand raised yeah I'm just um just generally speaking uh when you do the scope review do the numbers the cost more often go down or up or does it totally depend I guess my question should be your expectation for this particular project do you think there's a chance that it the scope review would lead to lower costs um it could that value I think that would value engineering would lead to lower cost and then also these are rfps so all of these proposals are negotiable But ultimately the scope view basically make puts everyone on the same at the
019same level so you know if everyone understands what the scope is then the cost should be relatively the same okay so this is more of this is like a starting point it's not set in stone as they're their only right number okay yeah and that's typical of any any proposals that we receive we typically we do this analysis with this with the spreadsheet just to take a look at it so we can do a comparative analysis of the number then the next phase would be to do the scope review to make sure that the contractor a understands the scope and B you know isn't adding unnecessary fluff for lack of a better term is there so a couple more questions if that's okay Mark um uh are we on track if you do the scope
020review a week from now on July 24th are we on track for actually potentially getting these things in place for use by whatever August 28th August 29th no we we're not gonna make August however yeah however we can there's still time to get those Portables in place and then we can go in and finish up the work and you know have these ready for late fall and what would we what from a from a programmatic perspective what were we thinking about I think Norton uses uh uses the modular for the specials art music Norton uses theirs for yeah for this for this yeah and obviously you know we've been talking to Scott Jeffrey the principal and Jeff stolen you know who who had other had another commitment tonight that's the only reason he isn't here
021and I did talk to him about this so you know his perspective is you know to continue forging ahead because we believe we do need these for this year for the coming school year it's likely that we would use these U more for specials uh including the possibility of using them for some of our speech language or occupational uh and physical therapy and for next year they might very well be needed for classrooms the thing that um is a little bit interesting and I'm using that word because I can't think of another word is Highlands enrollment when we ended the school year was 8.99 um it dropped back a little bit to8 90 part of the reason for that is you had the sixth grade class has been promoted out um and we don't have
022all the kindergarten enrollment in we don't think however based on the trend we may have a kindergarten classroom available that we weren't expecting so we believe that if we don't open with these Portables at the beginning of the school year or even don't get the Portables this year we can get by we may have to increase class size in in you know one of the grades because we would try and get a net of two classrooms so we could get by the but there's a this threat that hangs over our head that with all the new housing that we're going to really fill up the place more quickly than we would have liked it you know have seen before the new buildings are open and that's going to be the expectation on that right now
023I'm thinking of the stuff in the North End um just this is a statement but it's a question the expectation is that we will have more uh more influx of kids during the school year than we normally would have yeah okay so we start on September 1 the number might be 900 same as last year but it could bounce up pretty quickly right a lot of the the housing in that new North End complex which is 300 units um I think that will open the last I heard is potentially starting in September but on a rolling basis sure so you know that that is that is a reality that we don't know what's going to happen but that is certainly a possibility that we would see enrollment continue to grow as the year moves on
024and that is what we saw last year as well at Highland the plan the plan for right now is Highland not Chapman I was thinking it was Chapman but it's Highland just to confirm that yeah we you know Dr Solen reshuffled so that they that some of those students could go to Chapman and not Highland um so there's going to be a little bit of a balancing act that we go through until the new schools are are open in two years sure sure um I think it's I think it's two two more questions that I think should be relatively quick um uh 200 you mentioned before $230,000 in CNR since 2018 I just want to be clear on this I'm thinking when you say since 2018 are you saying you that the board the schools
025have not used any CNR money since 2018 n none from that building CNR fund um that was you know commonly referred to as the emergency fund um but yeah we haven't we haven't tapped into it you know quite a few years which is good and I you know I think that speaks to the fact we've managed our maintenance budget successfully within what's been appropriated and we haven't needed to go to that but it's there for that purpose if we do need it but it's and that's good for the town because then my second question is sort of if the money gets spent out of there or out of the operating budget what's not getting covered and this is really just for anybody who's listening at home which is the CNR it falls between the town
026in the schools if we don't use it then it's probably getting used on things like sidewalk improvements as an example various capital projects um I so I'm curious do you do you have any idea right now if we do go down the path of using the operating budget and you you touched on it before about I guess uh non uh like instructional supplies or something like that um yeah the non-payroll non-payroll expenditures which by the way incl our maintenance budget okay yeah yeah yeah and do you have any idea what the CNR is uh is targeted at this year that would get deferred not that you would know it the town the town would know it but don't know if you happen to know I I don't off hand no that's fine I'm I'm good
027right now okay and then you know there is quite a bit of um you know to get those port in you know the plan is not to rip out all the asphalt we'll leave the asphalt they're going to cut through the asphalt to sink the pilings that will support the um Portables when they're installed uh we do have to extend the paving though um in order to you know meet the the fire department's access requirements around the back of Highland School um so you know just to kind of go back and and finish up the point that you uh asked about Tim you know my goal is as we do scope review which we plan to do next week you know rich and Lisa Yates and I um is to see how much can we
028value engineer and still put out a good product that works for the schools that's going to be there long term you know so can we get that number down I certainly don't want the number to go up I want it to go down that's going to be part the discussion that's the question the uh chat uh okay trying to get to it and I've got something blocking oh um so Sam's question is wouldn't the RFP allow us to tap the amount um I may have I may not have heard Tim's question but what is the rationale for the increased proposal cost I'm concerned that the price will increase if we don't take action soon and lock in the cost now would be would we be at risk if something happens with the non-instructional line um
029so I'll take these one at a time you know the RFP as part of the process they have to hold these prices for um a minimum of 60 days I believe um however you know in two of these vendors we work with on a fairly regular basis so if we went beyond 60 days and and you know the the way this process works is we would provide them a notice of award and then work with them on timing so I I I don't not worried that we would lose the pricing that's been quoted assuming that you know we do it by the Fall certainly um they wouldn't hold that pricing to next year um the so that answers the price increase and then you know would we be at risk if something happens with the
030non-instructional line and the answer to that is yes it's the same risk that we run every year which is why we put that expenditure cap as we open up the new school year we typically set it at uh 60% so no one can exceed their non-payroll EXP expenditure by 60% and then we keep ratcheting that up as we see that there are you know no threats to the budget in in 23 24 just as some examples you know our snow removal costs were below budget our special ed costs for tuition outplacement were above budget but we managed you know through those pretty successfully um and then you know besides besides the building CNR fund you know we do have additional funds that we typically use for maintenance that comes from the Student Activity fees that
031we collect so we can use some of that to supplement the maintenance budget which we do on an ordinary course um and the balance in in that you know there's one for for um the high school and one for do that we use across the district and those have a balance roughly of $180,000 so you know we could use that not for this project but we could use it to offset you know related costs in our budget so I think we could mitigate um you know any overruns in other accounts if that happens during the course of the year and the maintenance budget line was increased this year by about $300,000 so that gives that gives me some comfort in that we have some room in our maintenance budget to allocate to this there any
032concerns as we get closer to the school year of construction in the back in school with I mean the St ground and all that um yeah the the concern would be that you don't want to have an active construction site obviously when there's students there so because of of where it is and we could um Court in that area off we believe we could work around that it's not ideal you know and certainly Scott Jeffrey would want to avoid that at all costs so if we can at least get the initial work done you know before the students arrive which is all the site work you know that'll that'll help mitigate any concern there but you know we certainly wouldn't want to go forward if we thought it would present a risk to students or
033the staff or disrupt the school day in any way um and so we could work with the vendors to do work after the school day they don't have to be there during the school day but again that's a conversation uh with the vendor that you know we select and the timing uh and again that's assuming that I get the okay from Fond counsel that you know we can go forward without a referendum um which again to me would be an odd thing because you know we would be going to referendum to say hey we want to use the money that's already been appropriated um and can we use it for this purpose but that is not my decision and I'm you know we'll leave it to the bond Council you know to make recommendation and
034we would certainly follow that so that really is the long and short there's no need for any action tonight and if we use operating funding to complete this project as suggested in that funding scenario then um there is no planning committee or board action required I will certainly keep the planning committee um up to date you know I I'll email you soon as we have scope review and then we could decide if we do want to have another meeting to talk further but I I will keep the planning committee members updated um as we go along should have a a you know a better read on where we are by uh the end of next week okay um Mark I just brought up the agenda the there's uh other matters I I don't have anything
035else for this evening but I always put that out on the agenda thank you yeah uh other matters so first of all Vin thank you for the update I appreciate it I look forward to hearing how this progresses hopefully expeditiously with Bond Council um approval on these things uh one side note on it that 2001 appropriation that was outstanding a while and I and I know you're going to be you won't be with us for long but I actually do I'm thinking that it might be useful to like have a review and unencumber stuff I mean 20 20 plus years is a while it might have been an accident I'm not digging into that right now um other oh sorry that that's on the bond councils played as well um okay because we do have
036we do hold on to some of these Capital Appropriations even though um it's been appropriated it hasn't been borrowed against but we can we there is authorization to borrow so you know we do have some older Appropriations that we keep open um because they they have some value you know this particular appropriation was pretty wide open and included um ADA compliance remedies so that's one of the reasons why this one was kept open I get it and I don't mean I don't mean to be difficult about it but I mean 20 years is it's kind of a long time like um anyway uh other matters if we could I'm just curious if you have an update on energia um yeah we're waiting on the RFP and results from the RFP so when we get back
037at the end of August I would expect to have some results that we could share um with real real numbers you know we had energia's original proposal as to you know we could potentially have $600,000 of savings per year but until we get firm proposals and those are vetted but yeah got a couple of months to wait on that one Tim okay so I'm just curious we're in the process the RFP went out it's going out okay so the RFP will the RFP should go out soon and then there's going to be some time for people to reply and then go through the whole process looking through it seeing it Apples to Apples type of thing and what makes sense yeah and we have um you know there on the school side we've supplied all
038the information and we're waiting for just a couple more numbers from the town side on historical energy usage so those those are the two things that have to happen RFP issued and final numbers from the town go into that RFP okay but it's it's drafted and just about ready to go so I'm just going to I I just want to mention as a reminder that we have an election coming up and it is possible that things change and the benefits the incentives that are there right now may not be there a year from now so to whatever extent possible something could get locked in beforehand I think it's just useful to keep it in mind and I don't mean to I don't mean to say you know do so do 12 months of work in
039three months but if there is something to push along a little more quick quickly just because of the potential funding benefits from it I I understand and and agree with you completely you know we have talked to CLA who is I'm serving as a consultant on the IRA the inflation reduction act because that's where the big incentives are yeah um and this is in relation to the to two new schools but you know their opinion is that even if there is um you know a change based on the um presidential election you know they don't believe the way the law is written that those incentives would go away okay but to your point you never know no no so okay that that's it for me thank you VIN you're welcome Mark you good good here
040she right um oh motion I'll second okay all right Sam's in favor all right than thank you very much hope yeah I hope Mark you sound like you're sick as Sam I hope