11/1/23 Sites and Facilities Committee Meeting

001we're meeting tonight for sites and Facilities uh committee uh meeting and I know we've got a lot of information so thank you everybody for joining us and thank you uh Kevin for uh attending the meeting and Mike if you want to go ahead and take it away that' be great absolutely all right I'm going to share the agenda and then uh once I jump I put everything in a PowerPoint tonight just for the sake of um because there's a lot of different documents and stuff and I didn't want to uh have to keep bouncing back and forth so uh once we leave the agenda I'll jump into the PowerPoint and then it's all broken up according to the five steps so um five big items tonight kind of five and a half um Kevin's gonna

002talk very quickly about uh tomorrow with the High School uh then we'll talk a little bit about the DCA tour a bunch of board members were able to come out for that um and see the construction updates we'll talk then about the HVAC Grant uh we have some new enrollment projections for 20 uh I'm sorry that should be 2425 um and uh capital budget proposed list for 2425 and uh then we'll talk some about uh uh about the proposed operations departments budgets for 2425 it'll just give us a nice snapshot of everything that we're looking at moving forward in the year where we're expecting some of our big expenditures um and just some some things we're we're thinking through for managing that so um Kevin do you want to do you want to jump in

003on high school sure sure thanks Mike um and good evening everybody um so um I I'm having a hard time with access on my laptop so I'm joining by phone um so that's why might look a little different this evening um we've been working for the last four or five hours uh with the high school with the city of Danbury uh we've had a a longstanding pipe repair issue and I'm not not sure how long mik can provide the details um at the high school um related to our boiler system um and so given our um anticipated drop in temperatures tomorrow uh we are looking to start the high school tomorrow on a three-hour delay um this will this will allow the city of Danbury um and contractors to get in the building in the

004morning hopefully get the um heating system repaired and hopefully the building will be warmed up in time by the kids arrival if it's not warmed up in time certainly we hoping it will be warmed up before the kids leave um it is our understanding that the G building is not impacted because they were on a hbac system um also the auditorium could be an outlet for classrooms that are too cold to have classes in so we can move them to the auditorium um and then the block box the black box that three the Black Box itself and the two adjoining classrooms will also have heat because they're also part of a separate AG back system with forced air um and so you know ideally um we would prefer to have heat of course heating sources

005in all of our classrooms and throughout the school um Rich jalbert facilities team is uh trying to literally find as many alternative heating solutions that we can put in some of our uh more uncomfortable condition classrooms by tomorrow morning and so he's um literally going around the district now trying to find um Heat fans or um heat heaters to put in classrooms um he thinks he might have at least 25 to 30 that we can put throughout different classrooms in the morning um but again you know we we're expecting a significant drop in temperatures tonight and so we do anticipate that building is going to open up pretty cold tomorrow um particularly with no heat coming in um our hope is with um the sun coming up at least on the east or western side

006of the building I forget which side the the football field is on now um at least that part of the building will be a little bit warmer as it was um this afternoon when we were touring the school and trying to understand which parts of the school is going to be a little bit more comfortable than other parts and like I said the G buildings approximately a quarter of the building will be heated uh but the other parts will not and um and so we were going back and forth and whether not do we cancel to school totally tomorrow um or do we open up on a delay uh the reality is and for the board members who remember last year how challenges it was outside for high school graduation it's even more uncomfortable in

007the school in June so one way or the other we're going to have to get this day back and um we we're we we are betting that the work that they're going to start very early tomorrow morning is going to give us some comfort later toward the afternoon by noon 1 o'clock to tomorrow afternoon and hopefully we can get to half day in at the very least um so soon you will your emails will be populated with an update uh saying that we're about to send an email out to our families and admin counsel uh making them aware of this shift for tomorrow and the three-hour delay will mean that will give us the time to drop off our kids for all the other morning routes um so the middle school is second second tier

008elementary is third tier um and then that will give us time to then Circle back to get the high school so that will be on there um on the three-h hour delay schedule so that will not in that will not impact the other two tiers and then everyone will have a regular dismissal at the end of the day so wanted to provide that update obviously not something we're happy about but you know that is kind of the cause that we've been dealt and the city did work with us I guess initially there was plans to do that work this Saturday they were able to move it up to tomorrow but they could not get anyone there tomorrow tonight um so the three-hour delay it looks like the the best possible solution that we can find

009short of closing tomorrow thank you for the update appreciate it and obviously there's a lot of people involved in coordination so I know it's it's hard to get somebody like this kind of a trade at the last minute with these kinds of issues so thank you yeah for sure and thanks Michelle all right thank you Kevin um all right I'm gonna reshare my screen here and does everybody see a blue screen that says DCA yes all right so this is item number one um as many of you know we had a little tour of the site uh so what I tried to do here is mix together the renderings and then the actual pictures hoping there would be some sort of parody some of it worked some of it didn't but anyway we got some

010good artwork here so um there's the uh rendering of what the building is going to look like everyone has seen that um and then this is that exterior section so if you're looking there that's pretty much where that picture is is right there you can see the gym area is going to be just to the left um and that's where we came out it was very dusty everyone was was coughing and breathing into their sleeves so was a little relieved when we got back out into that parking lot there um there's the gym section which is again it's going to be right there just to the left of that cement mixer and so this is the second or third third floor I think um again it's hard to tell what you know what you're looking

011at here but um these are all going to be the classroom spaces um yeah it's just a big big open shell but that's good news because that means uh they're they're well past the demolition phase uh and and moving into phase two so um it's now a shell and moving well into the um construction phase that's the old cafeteria if you remember it where we actually left that piece in place um because it's actually a really good uh Food Service section we'll building around that adding to it there's Dena pazo our mayor Esposito with Antonio uh a couple board members there in the background um and that is just inside you can actually see that little patio off to the left there where some of that outdoor furniture was and this is that entry way

012if you remember um the original entrance when you walked in through the turn Styles those turn styles would have EV just to the right um that's going to be where the um I think that's the uh Emergency Services section um of the Career Academy and that's what it looks like now completely gutted and there's everybody right at that entrance there so the turn styles on the picture on the left would have been right behind you um Antonio is right there on the the front on the the right hand picture so just his back would have been those turn Styles in that original boardroom when you walked in and there's going to be our library media center and there's our wonderful board goodlooking board I think aren't we we have a good looking board all right

013there we all are so thank you everybody who attended uh it was just so I just think it's great to see these things in action especially when you've been looking at pictures for so long and you know renderings and trying to imagine how does it go from you know from this sort of corporate you know uh you know structure into a you know into a school and well we get to see it in real action so it's it's it's it's fun um and I'm glad everybody got to got to come out and take a look so um all right any questions about that before we move on to HVAC does anybody have any questions comments I just want to say it was I was on the site walk and it was very exciting to see

014uh it actually happening uh live and in person so that was really great to you were able to get the whole board and other elected officials out there I think um you know add a lot a lot of wind to uh to what we're doing here I think you know so just want to say thank you thank you and I kept asking Antonio and Dan everybody said it's on schedule right it's on schedule so the the the take away it was uh yes it is so all right HVAC Reb rebate Grant um so again if you remember we've talked about this hvat grant this came out last year um the way it's it's set up it's it's it's a little I don't want to say it's misleading because it is a grant um but it's

015really set up as a rebate and uh you have to have a project completely set to go with the money set aside literally sitting in account or in a capital budget somewhere um before you can even apply to that Grant so as we've gone back uh and and worked side by side with Antonio and Dan and and other folks from Department of Public Works uh we didn't really have a project that was teed up and ready to go that would that would win the award um because we didn't have these you know these millions of dollars set aside for these projects the projects that we did have that would have qualified for HVAC were already Bond projects uh that we're getting reimbursement from so they wouldn't have qualified um because they're already getting a state

016reimbursement so uh Rich myself and and Antonio and D we sat around just kind of thought of different ways we could still make some good on this Grant and we sat in on a webinar rich and I did a couple weeks ago um and and based on the the way that they've set up the guidelines we have an idea where we can come up and probably get about um about $25,000 back on this and um so this round to submission which is due December 31st uh what we're going to be doing is going back and and filing for rebates on a lot of previously paid for HVAC stuff that we had a lot of it things like air purifier stuff that we bought during the pandemic you're allowed to go back into March of 2020

017so we went back and found a bunch of things that we spent money on and we're still coming across some of these Billings so right now the the total sum is just about $42,000 I mean we'll get a 63% reimbursement on that so it's you know it's it's it's it's something you know and and certainly for um you know the position that that we you know we find ourselves in always sort of you know looking for an extra dollar to you know repair you know repair some Plumbing or do some electrical work you know 20 you know 20 25,000 bucks will go go a long way for us so we'll we'll certainly you know take that if we can if we can get it now the you know the headline here is there's still two

018more rounds of the HVAC Grant so in a in a couple slides here I'm going to talk about our Capital project list that will'll be submitting up to the city um this coming uh November 30th and in that Capital project list we've identified specific HVAC projects so that when if and when they get funded will then be able to take that and say okay here's the money it's now sitting in the capital budget you know account um so rich I will be able to go in and put in the application and we'll get the award for rounds three and four just depending on how the timing works out so while this December's Grant isn't going to be anything that significant we're very optimistic about rounds three and four which will be next year and I

019believe the year after I think they're they year after year which is actually good because um once you get awarded the grant you only have something like 12 months to to spend it to to actually do the project and complete it um so depending on when that money is released and and all that we'll we'll just have to make sure we time it so that we qualify for those grants so yeah that's the hvat Grant and uh yeah we'll have that first one in December 31st all are there any committee members that have any questions comments okay I guess we're all good M okay so next up is our enrollment projections um most of you probably have seen this I think we shared a very similar looking uh chart at the beginning of this year

020um I want everyone to just see the trajectory um grade byg grade isn't isn't probably as as interesting it's just the yellow line at the bottom that shows the the total roll up numbers and the the way we do these projections there's really two things we look at um so for example if you look at the the two gray columns on the right 2324 YTD and 2425 you'll notice that the grade one number from this year which is 900 is the same as the grade two number for next year so a lot of times we're literally just rolling those kids up into the next grade level um but for some of these we do make some tweaks and adjustments based on new information that we have if we're expecting an influx of a certain grade

021if there's some legislative or policy change the prek and K numbers are heavily dependent on our demographers projections with look at which look at things like birth rates In-N-Out migration building permits uh it factors in all those things to to make a guess about how many kids are actually going to be showing up in in kindergarten um and for the most part they're they're pretty much on the on you know on with their number um so we kind of take those Pro projections and then we take some of the the internal um numbers that we have and and we come up with with our our projection um so our 2324 YTD this is uh this was actually our October 1 number so this is the number that went to the state it was 12,114 now

022we know that that feels a little bit low and honestly it is because we see kids showing up all through the year so by January that number is probably going to tick over 12,200 by March or April it'll probably back right around 12,300 so this 12,300 number we have here is a realistic projection about what we're going to be need to prepare for and frankly budget for for next year um if you remember during the budget book I uh we provided a a there were was a 3D bar chart and at the top of each one there was a little red box that said adjusted um some of that adjustment was the difference between what we see in October versus what we see in January February um because the kids are here and we need

023to have a desk for them they need to have a teacher they need to have their lunch and a bus service so um it it ends up costing whether or not it's in that October number so so we have to budget for it so we feel pretty comfortable that 12,34 is a is an accurate number for budgeting purposes um as we enter this this budget cycle okay oh sorry I just want to make sure anybody have any questions I have one Mike so are you saying that it's customary that after January let's say 30th we see 100 students at least minimum enter between January and may yeah that's realistic yeah okay yeah thank you yep okay so capital budget I just mentioned this a little bit before um so just to set this up uh

024I'm sure all of our our board members know about how this works but for anybody else listening um so our capital budget is there's really two ways that we think about how we manage our buildings um Rich has a maintenance budget right and depending on the year and what we think we're going to need to do he could have anywhere from you know six s $800,000 in there and that focuses on things that by virtue of the facility sharing agreement fall in our Bailey Wick so this could be desks um this could be door locks door repairs broken windows whiteboard boards uh you know installations of of you know smartboards projectors things like this rich I I know I'm missing a whole bunch of stuff flooring right we do flooring um I don't know rattle

025off anything I'm missing here um we'll do minor plumbing repairs you know all that kind of stuff um so that comes in out of our budget but capital is bigger projects right and these are generally things that will fall to City Department of Public Works so these will be things like hvx systems Plumbing major plumbing repairs um Stadium lights new Fields New playgrounds playscapes um you know exterior doors you know things that you know things like that so you know my general rule is if you you know if it's if it's a major system right an electon an electrical system a plumbing system that's generally going to be the city um if it's something smaller and internal that's generally going to be us there's always some caveats in there but that that's just a sort

026of good good way to think about it capital budget is really some of those big things right that that we need to do it's it's you know adding an addition to a school things like this so uh what we're doing now as we partner with the city is we're we're pro we're giving them a list of what we think are priority projects and then we'll work together on determining which of these sort of get get you know put to the top of the list the city's always going to have its own priorities so perfect example today is um the steam pipes at Danbury High School um that's an HVAC concern it's it's an HVAC a it's a it's a heating concern it's a boiler concern um it's not the sort of thing that rich and

027I really think about on a daily basis because it's I mean it's really like a deep system thing that ties into City you know water and plumbing and all that kind of stuff so it's it's really not on our radar so sometimes they say no no no this this is a priority project we're going to fix these steam pipes and then that becomes a priority project because it's it's just not on our radar but our our priority list here is really things that are on our radar things that we've recognize that we need so we went through and broke this down into three different sections and we thought about it in terms of just general buildings and repairs um security and then technology and it's not uncommon for for things like technology um to get

028put into this budget when you look at it across all the different city departments so I'll run through this quickly there's a lot on here um but basically our one-ear total for next year is about $7 7.68 million um and from the buildings this includes and Rich you can jump in here because you you have a lot more description and detail on these um but uh KSP so King Street primary um this was a big one if if you've been there recently you know uh this was a school that was probably built in the 70s when that open open school um I don't even know what it was called it was like a theory of of Education that Without Walls kids would have to learn with distractions and they'd be more yeah I don't know

029it's didn't last very long it was it was a trend it was a fad um but for the schools that were built during that time they are still struggling with trying to manage through this so um KSP is one of those schools and there are really not walls there's some partitions and things like that but it's it's not a great learning space um for kids that just need to focus and and not have distraction so uh we really want to put some walls at that school and um just it'll support the teachers it'll support the the the learning and the kids um so that's that's just a big project that we want to do right uh Rogers Park uh that elevator has been uh challenging now for several years so we want to just get

030it replaced and um not have to uh just hope that you know the the repair folks come in on time and and replace whatever the pieces are and that it doesn't go down um it's a three story building they have students in that building that um are on crutches I think they have they might even have um uh I don't know I don't know if they have a wheelchair I know they have crutches and and things that kids just need to access the elevator so um we want to get it replaced um and then you'll see here I was this is what I was referencing in the HVAC Grant we have four different air conditioning lines and one air balancing line um priced accordingly uh Westside is is a bit of a different one because

031they actually have all the duct work in place this they would just need the unit put on the roof and hooked up um South Street Morris uh would would need full uh full systems in order to work um Ace because it's such a small building uh they also have duct work we think we could do this one for for a little a little bit less money as well uh DHS our Stadium lighting there um is going to need an overhaul pretty soon um we're constantly uh replacing uh bulbs and wiring and um uh Rich can talk more about this but we we we think it's just time that that all those lights um get replaced um Ellsworth Avenue um there's been a section of roof there that's been leaking for a while we think it's

032connected to a problem with the way the solar panels were installed but uh regardless we think that that R roof is going to need to be replaced um Rogers Park is going to need new lights in their Auditorium it's not a lot of money but it's a tricky installation because um it's they're over the seats and it's very high so you need a c scissor lift and some scaffolding it's actually a very complicated process of replacing those lights so we're putting that in here as well um at KSI um if you've been there during or after a rainstorm you've noticed that there's some very unfortunately placed puddles in play areas um there is drainage there but for some reason that the just the gravity doesn't take over the way it needs to uh so we

033want to reset some of those drains um so so that the kids don't have uh little potholes and and and puddles um in their way when they're playing um MRP uh Midge primary um we've talked for a couple years now about trying to get this done but um the those pods that the three round pods have overhangs and on those overhangs there are IE beams and on those ey beams um sit all kinds of birds and um we had uh some bats that were living up in there that we had to clear out um so it's it's a constant headache and we just want to enclose those those areas with sopit so uh we don't have to worry about pigeons and all the things that fall as a result of that and um that's a

034play area for kids too um they'll hold um PE out there too when it's raining so and you go there and you see there's there's chalk on the ground and then there's you know bird droppings it's it's just something that needs to be taken care of um MRP also needs a new playground um there's we've made multiple repairs on that one um but it's uh there's just some some damage on some of the plastic areas of the playscape and um it's they they need a new one um sidewalk bus Park Paving um at DHS this is one we put into 25 26 it's a need but um we we just think it's better suited in 25 26 um South Street School um needs an office conversion and one of the modular spaces Haz toown needs

035a bathroom renovation um districtwide we want to do fence Replacements at we're saying 18 schools um there's some that obviously need it more than others but uh we're putting them all in there Rogers Park uh door replacement for the front exterior doors Penbrook uh we want to change up some of the window and blind Replacements there as well uh any questions about buildings before I jump into security Mike I I I just wanted to raise or underscore a point about some of the schools up here um that's okay Michelle please do uh so one I just wanted to mention something about KSP um Rich given his um historical responsibilities in his department for maintenance and security and Mike is also well aware um as security reports to his office now um we ALS o have

036some considerable security challenges at KSP with all of these open um classrooms um I believe it was last year we were able to install um doors in our um library media spe Li library media space um and so in the event we have any type of lockdown at the school we can get a number of different classes in that space now with closed doors um but that is not the case for everybody in the building um and and um you know I I just recently had a walkthrough of the school with the principal um and for the board members who have been in District for a long time or have gone through danburry public schools to Mike's Point earlier I believe it was and Rich you probably know all of the buildings but I believe

037Rogers Park stadley rough um and I'm sure I'm missing a couple of schools that were were were part of this open school open classroom model um and for whatever reason we were able to get the vast majority of them closed um but KSP is still open and I understand um there there's some issues and challenges with um the flowing of air from classroom to classroom by putting up walls so it's not just about putting up the walls but it's also about um making sure the there's appropriate air air flow throughout the school um the air condition upgrade helps us significantly at the schools for summer school uh right now we are really strain for strain for space um at our buildings um particularly with um special ed summer School scheduling um and with the new

038legislation we have to invite in more schools more more kids uh for summer school remediation and um and so the more schools that we can provide air condition the better for the system um and as Mike pointed out um including it in the capital budget allows us to uh maximize the opportunities available from the hbac brand so Mike I appreciate your leadership and and thoughts on this and Mike can you clarify the exterior front door at Rogers Park Middle School is that the same door that we had an issue with before I believe it is Rich can you share anything about that no actually um the city did replace the front doors there was somebody that actually had driven into it that door is okay but looking at some of the other exterior doors uh

039the doors and the door frames are are uh getting rotted so we will need to replace additional door there at some point okay thanks Rich Louisa do you have a question I do thanks Michelle um so out of this 2425 uh portion of the list how many items on this list are we looking at that are high priority and how much of this list is a wish list that's a great question I mean I I would say everything on here is high priority but um you know I rich I don't know if you you want to well what I can say is the air balancing for 300,000 uh that's actually a state mandate that was the original deadline was this December 31st and the state extended it to December 31st of 200 uh 24 and

040uh you know what's going to happen after we get all that air balancing done we'll basically have a report of each School of of how the HVAC is working and that will help us determine the the the most important schools to go after for HVAC upgrades uh based on the individual scores um the lighting projects DHS Stadium lighting we've been probably spending uh 10 to 15,000 a year just replacing light bulbs and ballasts um and uh that 350,000 would get us the LED replacement which would save us considerable amount of money um yeah any any lighting projects that we would we would do uh would save us uh energy costs um the K the KSI uh parking lot uh that's been a problem for a few years and that number um I'm having problems reading

041here I think it's like 250,000 um really the whole the whole KSI KSP parking lot um is due for replacement and I know from speaking to Tim Nolan he's been putting it in his capital budget every year um and uh he hasn't quite gotten the funds for it yet so uh hopefully we can support him on that l I'll I'll stick by my my position which to me it's all it's all critical and um you know I I I use this example with with some of my team Rich has heard me say it a few times you know I I feel like there's times when we're driving on a flat tire and yeah maybe you could get another block out of that flat tire but at what point does it damage the wheel and now

042you've got a $1,000 repair as opposed to a $50 repair I feel like we get into that situation a lot uh with with our repairs where you know could we get through another year well yeah I suppose but then if we are in a position where we have to do an emergency repair you know and we're paying you know somebody to come in to work the weekend and over the night and you know something that could have been done for 10,000 bucks suddenly cost us 75 um that's the sort of thing I'm I'm really trying to to avoid getting into here and I feel like while some of this may be preventative um a lot of it is really just like the time is now we we have to go on some of these things

043otherwise the price is just going to start to increase on them right but Louisa the good news is um the HVAC upgrades are U reimbursable up to 63% I believe yes and to Kevin's point if the HVAC figures into the walls at KSP which it will um that would also qualify can I just have a followup question Michelle yes um so these total amounts that we're looking at here these are not going going to get put on our school budget does this goes on a separate where does this get paid out of yeah the capital budget's a separate Ledger okay so that's coming from the city directly correct okay perfect thank you and again yeah and again thank you Louisa and I'll just reiterate this is going to be our request that will get merged

044with the p Department of Public Works requests so we're telling them what our priorities are from from a schooling perspective and you know how that ultimate decision will you know gets made well you know we're certainly going to lobby as best we can on behalf of the projects that we know need to get done Mike if I could just add one more thing about the pem window and blind replacement too uh there's probably about three or four schools that we have old single pane windows that on a cold windy day you could put your hand up to the window and you can feel the the draft coming in through the windows um we've been spending a lot of time and effort replacing Hardware um you know to make sure that the door the windows locked

045properly it's become a security issue that you know there's some schools you know they're they're putting sticks in the windows because they're worried that it's not going to stick um and there would be a return on investment with with the energy saving it's not as quick of a return on investment as lighting is but but there are some savings involved in that Thank you Rich Mike air balancing guess the air balancing that's going to be done initially for the conditioning analysis is KSP going to be a part of that in other words you've got the walls you said that that would be included the hbac does that number that one million the system that would be required is a new system you know to handle the yeah yeah I don't know exactly what the system

046is there currently I know in these spaces you have to have a supply and a return and I and I know for a fact that there's not a sufficient Supply and return for all the different classrooms that are in there so you whatever that is we would have to figure out how to section off that part of the budget and um you know and then make that an application for the HVAC Grant um Rich do you know what what what's currently in there I I would believe with the walls at King Street it would require some HVAC modifications to to ensure that there's a supply and demand in each space and as part of the followup on that um we would want an air balancing company to come in to ensure that the HVAC is

047working as it was designed do we have a layout or proposed layout as to what the you know the new floor plan would look like in order to con consider what the hbac system would be in other words as part of the analysis because if that seems to be one of the major prior you know like one of the main priorities here on our list listed first um obviously that needs to be considered if we're doing the air balancing and trying to get the grants right this is one of the first in you know real projects moving forward is this like a priority because it looks like we would need something like that a layout or something to yeah figure definitely I I would say that the one of the first steps with that project

048would be to get an architect to come up with a a design of how we how we would want that laid out including the any HVAC modifications we haven't approached that yet right we're just is there any Mike do you know if there's any kind of a layout that's being considered or yeah so I I when you go in there there is a there is is a footprint for a classroom but it's it's you know like I said there's kind of partitions sometimes there's a bookcase it's you know there there's kind of like curtain things up there there there's a number of different ways that sort of create a footprint for a classroom my sense is we would start there right you know and say okay does this work and maybe you got to nudge

049something a few Fe feet either way Kevin which it might be helpful because we we did have to actually close in one of the rooms at King Street primary I it was this summer um Rich can you walk the committee through like kind of what that room looked like prior because to Mike's Point the footprint for the classroom itself is already there and each classroom is separated by a wall in between but the front facing of the room it's almost like watching a TV show like if you're on a set of a live TV show you're looking straight in and there are no walls there's no door there's nothing and so as you once you come out of that room I mean you can just hear the noises in classroom chatter you know through throughout

050the the entire hallway right um actually there was a special ed room that we enclosed last uh summer and um as you walk down the hallways through King Street uh primary you have a a counter with a sink in it um I believe the orientation of the sink would need to be changed if we're enclosing the room because the the sink is facing the the hallway not the class room so that that countertop and sink would have to be changed so you could use it from the classroom and then build a wall uh en closing that countertop so I think there is a nice easy design to come up with on that I know that Lauren and I had walked it last year and it is very awkward you're absolutely right Kevin it kind of

051feels like you're on a set so that's what I was wondering like if you close it off obviously there has to be certain exchanges and you know intakes and you know and electrical too I mean I I you know we we said you know mil Ridge um was originally open pods and when they closed them off they you know they they did them kind of on the fast and cheap and there were only a couple electrical outlets in those whole rooms of course it was you know the 70s nobody was anticipating what was about to come but you know the that you literally couldn't plug in a pencil sharpener or you know a laptop charger so um yeah another consideration which is you know do do we need to add electrical in there is it

052just a wall that goes up so yeah a lot of considerations but yeah thanks for raising that it's it's an important important thing to start thinking about yeah I mean if we just want to really kind of start addressing it if we can at least start getting you know trying to think of incorporating it with the see you know next to rollment you said three and four or whatever I don't know how long it'll take but just thank you all right okay so I'll jump into security and Technology here quickly um so security as I've mentioned in the past a lot of our sort of day-to-day security stuff which is things like locks alarms cameras a lot of these get funded through our security Grant and uh because again those security grants just like the

053HVAC Grant they're rebate grants we started with a good healthy amount of money that got those rolling and now we use those replenishments of that 63% as they come back in to sort of buy the next thing and it is sort of dwindling down over time So eventually we're going to have to replenish it but uh where we decided to put our our Capital request for security here was in these four things um so if you all remember Raptor was uh we talked a lot about it last year uh we are are still waiting to put forth our district share of what we we believe that's going to cost us so I'm still you having conversations with raptor every week or two uh either by email or or phone just to check in um we

054want to go on this you know especially after you know some of the concerns that we've we've had recently we really want to push hard on Raptor we just need to to make sure we have our district share of that those Grant funds uh which is about $150,000 for the for the full cost the whole thing is going to end up being about 450 if I recall um jump back up to the top here uh cell phone boosters we have a lot of campuses um where you you just have a really hard time getting a cell phone signal um I'm sure everybody has experienced this um sometimes a minor inconvenience but in any emergency that's a security issue so uh for our security budget we're putting cell phone boosters and then also right below that

055line we have radio boosters um walkie-talkies uh just to to make sure the signal is clear it's not grainy um and that would actually allow us to um especially in certain cases here radio at different schools so if there was something happening in the region folks with the radio could all tune to the same channel and and communicate with one another uh so radio boosters would help with that and then uh in anticipation of raptor we want to get tablets and devices uh for all of our safety Advocates um so they have access to the system and and can can use it just as fluently as everybody so we're expecting about $45,000 for those devices and then moving down to technology um as a onetoone district we're constantly in need of doing refreshes um this

056is an expensive Endeavor uh but we have estimated that if we do a refresh every three on a about a three to four year cycle we're saying 4,000 Chromebooks here because we we're leaving a buffer but realistically every four years the entire cycle of Chromebooks should turn over 3,000 a year that's 12,000 Chromebooks we leave a buffer in there for breakage and Spills and you know malfunctioning um so that's about 1.2 million which we want to just start having built in year after year um and then we have to refresh teacher devices too so uh about $175,000 uh for the teacher devices um photocopiers and printers um that we have some very very old copiers and printers and uh we're looking to do a initial uh thrust of about $760,000 that would get us about

057I think 30 or 40 copers um we have about 112 copers in the district if I recall correctly so that would get us about 30 40% of the way there obviously going to have to add more with the academy so we need to start that replenishment uh viip we still have a lot of phones that are on copper lines um they're expensive to pay for the lines to pay for the service um to get everything over to viip um it would it would solve a lot of our problems there also Aren't Enough copper lines um so we would we would be able to to switch over to that and then over time we would see that money all come back to us Sentinel one uh this is a product that we started using shortly after

058the data breach over the summer um it is a without getting too wonky about it a a technology security product it constantly scans our Network for threats um it's just sort of like a like a watchdog that just constantly roams your network and looks for nefarious materials um something like this would have uh would have very likely caught um the the incident that happened uh and last but not least uh DHS we need to rebuild the website um as well as the academy website there's going to be a new website that has all the academy information on it it's going to be easier to navigate um it's going to Rebrand the high school um but there's 's also a tech reason for this which is kind of boring but I'll tell you anyway um when

059we redid our district website that old District website was on a server uh platform called intrado um when it was rebuilt it went over to the server of the company that built it for us called Lumi um every one of our schools is a Google site so that's the second server they're on Google or Lumi the old DHS site is the only one still remaining on that old server so we have to pay an additional fee for that hosting service so as soon as we can lift it off of there we can save that money now it's it's not significant it's about 105,000 a year but you can see over about nine years um that would come back to be more money than it's worth so it's it's appropriate to do this rebuild now when

060we have to do the Rebrand anyway when we have to change everything to work so that it meets the the Aesthetics and and the the information needs of theems so this is just the the right time to rebuild the the Danbury High School website get it on the right server make it look right and uh be prepared for the future so um all told are uh 2 2425 ask is about 7,680 th000 and that's across buildings security and Technology some of these we've spaced out over three years so our threeyear ask at this time is 12,1 $8,000 question Mike yeah uh insecurity radio boosters for seven schools can you give me an uh you rich give me an overview on what type of biod directional amplifier plan you have to for seven schools for 50k

061yeah I'll have Rich uh get back to you on that that's uh that's outside my my expertise unfortunately but um I would certainly love some of your Fe feedback on that too Mr Russo I know that's uh that's an area of your expertise so okay I'll connect with you offline can you add anything to that rich um um actually uh Rich Torres has been uh handling that I think he's been working with with norcom okay um so he would probably know know the most about that yeah I'm sorry Mr it is Rich Torres yeah sorry there's two riches we get confused would you would you feel if you feel comfortable could you go have maybe have Rich send me the 50,000 foot plan you know yeah absolutely how you're gonna accomplish that for 50k yeah

062absolutely okay thank you sure so any other uh committee members look can ask any questions any non-committee members I have a a quick question Michelle may I ask please K go ahead um Mike can you help us understand sort of like the process you you mentioned that this gets submitted to the city as part of a a plan can you talk about sort of like the steps that take place between what we submit what we end up getting and how we prioritize the different projects yeah yeah thanks Kate and and I'll I'll I'll I'll need a little help from Kevin and and rich on this because it is a complex process so um our our due date to submit this into the city is no November 30th um from there there's there's uh what their

063actual process is I I know there's several uh individuals that go through these budgets with the fine tooth comb and and they'll compare you know what does Public Work say they want versus what does the school say they want um I you know Kevin and again you know please help me out if you have any more detail on this U what that process uh actually involves in terms of priorities um I I I can't say I've I've been through it I know historically um the schools didn't really put their priority projects in this is a relatively new thing for us in the past um Public Works would would generally just say that you know this is what we've identified as the things that are are critical so this is really something new for us um

064and it was uh you know John Spang and and um you know Kevin and myself when we we were just sort of thinking through this last year we said we we need to make sure we have our our priorities up there for them too because they can't know what you know what's happening in the school so yeah in terms of what the the individual steps are once it sort of hits that that City process um this will really be the first time we're going through it together Kevin I don't know if you can add anything more to that Mike I might be able to very briefly oh sorry John I forgot you were on here I should have thrown it too so the capital budget uh process runs on a separate track from the operating

065budget and it's um actually created and and managed uh not by the finance department or by the mayor's Department to start with it's managed by the city planning department and the process is headed up by the city planner uh Sharon kitro uh she'll send out instructions deadlines things like that um once all the projects are collected from the different departments um you know for example police fire and so and so forth they submit their own projects uh then one of the main thing they they uh converted into a fiveyear plan uh some things they may say uh say it were a roof uh it's almost ready to go they may say okay we'll do that in year three or something else is more urgent we last year we thought we could do it in year

066four but it won't last so we're moving it up to Year One and in in the mayor's budget you can see the capital budget and the different five years and when they plan to do what but um probably uh the most important thing they look at is affordability and they'll they'll F how they how are they going to finance these projects and it's it's one of two ways uh they'll either issue um General obligation bonds could be for per a 10-year bond or a 15year bond and those might have some of the the longer term projects more of the bricks and mortar kind of things that's one of the two sources um the other source is the operating budget itself uh the mayor's budget there will be some some of these projects that will be

067just funded out of um the regular budget which is from uh property taxes and and paid in the first year so it's um it's sometimes how how much can they afford uh to do in in one year and and how much debt do they want to issue uh what can wait till another year and those kind of things then um the the recommendation comes out of the city planning department and goes to the mayor's office uh in the middle of February for when all other Town departments are due for included in the the overall budget that the city council takes up uh the first week of May thank you both Michelle can I ask one quick follow-up question please it was a great question no please go ahead um so I just want to make

068sure I understand John you're saying that typically the city planning department does this based on a fiveyear plan is that right uh that's correct and that's um very typical of uh cities and towns um around Connecticut especially okay so I'm I'm wondering like we've got this list here together and and Mike you were talking about how this is split across a three-year plan so I guess my question would be are there additional things that we should be adding to this list to make it a more comprehensive list for A Five-Year Plan I think I I defer to um rich and and Mike on that um I think they um you know they they encourage people to look ahead and it helps them to know uh what's coming up that's big yeah thank you Kate um

069I actually think that's a that's a really good idea we've we've tried to think ahead here and you know Al you know without making it into a Christmas kind of wish list um but I think we will talk more about you know before sending it up maybe if there's anything that we just you know want to make sure we get on here if it if it is a 26 27 item like I said we tried to do that a little bit with technology because we're starting to to see these are things that just need to be built in as a sort of cycle um you know it shouldn't be every year you know crossing your fingers and hoping um the buildings projects are are a little harder um just because you know you you sort

070of see what what's what's happening and and you don't know what it's going to be that sort of emergent project in the next year or two but I Know Rich and I have been talking through a facilities master plan something like that certainly inform a longer look um you know we do know of some you know some long-term window projects Roofing projects things like that so um I think I think we will talk a little bit more about that in in the days before we we officially send it up about you know filling out those those future years columns yeah just to add to what Mike mentioned we are working on uh putting out an RFP for a facilities master plan which would be completed either by an architect or engineer and after this facilities

071master plan is done this would give us a better long-term snapshot and would help us fill out the the long-term planning of what do we want to do in the next four years what do we want to do in the next five years what are the end of life of the various systems in the buildings thank you both appreciate it by May Pardon Me Al did you want to say something please uh I see the line on on the student Chromebook refresh uh a three-year plan at 4,000 units per weren't we going to get some of that accomplished from our our operating budget and we so I guess we didn't do that now we're going to opt to put that in to a capital expense is that cor am I addressing this correctly John um

072yeah we did um early in the winter uh before our our forecast began to turn down a little I think it was about $565,000 worth of uh pre- buying of Chromebooks we did last year does that sound like the right figure Mike you remember yeah yeah I think it was about 3,000 we were able to buy and uh Gina found us a great deal on them um so we we we were able to get a you know really stretch our Dollar on that one um but that was this year's refresh so those you know for for something that's annual yeah this would be this would be for next year U but yeah we did get um I'm trying to think because I I I think we did a K3 refresh this year uh we had

073touchscreen Chromebooks um and then we were even able to get some additional ones for the high school so this year we were solid we got we got our full um you know 25% of the cycle done this year so this this would be for next year so this will be a continual expense of 1.2 million at today's dollars yes okay thank you yeah probably increasing honestly with uh with inflation and just the cost of Technology understood thank you Mike is there any way when we submit this I'm glad to hear one that you just said that we're at least now kind of working closer with the city to try to figure out or at least be a part of this I I don't see honestly how we weren't before but now I'm glad to see

074that that is that we're gonna have more communication that way but like on this Capital um list here there are some items that are like aged right so maybe they were submitted last year or the year prior like how do we know which ones uh obviously the air conditioning system those are all recent but there are some that have been I'm sure waiting um is there any way that we can you know highlight which ones have been you know waiting several years and really you know for whatever reason you know looked over yeah my concern I know we've got a lot of and then we've got to consider mandates and things we don't know coming down the pike sure um but as far as some of these you know that are have been on the

075list for a while how can I find out how long they've been there or perhaps they didn't make it on this list this time but they were on the list last year or the year before I don't know yeah maybe John I don't know if you can help with with with that but I mean is there a is there a highlighted you know version of this that we can send over you know without you know being crude but well uh I'm sure they would take that information it's very important the um the portal or the uh template that they want people to submit under uh does not include that but U um I think they would listen to us we could make a separate submission or certainly add um other information that we think is

076uh Germaine I think that would be great only because I you know it's hard for us even I think on the committee to know exactly what's going on and what the priorities are so you know being that you know one or two steps move from that process then we might lose that communication saying like hey the board has had this discussion for a while or has been hearing from the community and you know what might be a priority for another department might not necessarily be the same priority that the board or that the district is you know prioritizing and just wants to communicate that thank you all right have any questions non-committee members glus anyone no I think the explanations have been excellent and I'm just enjoying the explanation and learning more thank you Mrs

077Cooper I'm excuse me could you explain John under the technology C capital budget capital budget is something that comes from the city's end of it hoping that they will pay for that's right and and they'll pay for it as I said one of two ways just as a regular expense when it's incurred during the ensuing 12 months or if they happen to issue let's say bonds for a 10y year five even a fiveyear basis then the mayor's budget would include the first year pay down of those bonds the principle and interest of that um but what we've seen is it's um as we looked at what's been approved for some of some of the other Apartments uh we found it was a pretty popular place to have your technology needs uh included um we we

078even noticed some software that was being included in the capital budget you don't see that too often um you like Capital to be of a a longer term nature uh maybe something that's tangible put your hands on it with last at least five or seven years but um the cost of technology is so high that uh danburry and other cities have turned to their Capital budgets as a a way to finance it oh understood I just wondering how practical it was with the City Finance for our our Chromebooks I'm sorry the there's a couple other items under that technology oh the copiers and so they would they would Bond those out rather than have those accepted as in our uh there we go thanks thank you Mike uh Chromebooks copiers printers s yeah I yeah

079I hear what you're saying you you would think that they would match and what you should do in in finance business or corporate is match the life of the asset with the life of the borrowing say uh and not not borrow for 10 years if something's only going to last five years that's the principle uh behind it uh but it seems um it does seem like the overriding factor in their decisions is um how much they want to take out of the operating budget it it could be as low as uh 300,000 a year or a couple million it's it really varies on what else they have going on in in the mayor's budget that year that's that's my read on it so it's kind of hard to say now shame on me but I

080don't remember last year's capital budget for technology did did was that presented uh we did not have Tech we we did um present a capital budget request um we were told it was not timely it was a few days a day or two before the deadline um and it did it didn't make it okay all right thank you John was was it maybe it was with you Mike we had like four and a half million or something what was the last requests like we're looking at seven what am I looking at seven million 680 right um what was the request like what is the typical request that we you know put forth to the city is this number significantly higher in line with like how does this look as opposed to last maybe year or

081the year before one of the things that um was has been missing I think and there hasn't been um I I felt the right kind of um reach out from the public works department to say to us hey um capital budget is coming up what kind of things do you think you need um what are your priorities uh here are the forms to use here's here's when you should give it back to us um I think if you go back a a few years Rich helped me out there was a little more communication uh back and forth but it just seemed to um be at a minimum um until last year would am I assessing it correctly yeah would nobody's really asked us for a capital budget um for as long as I've been here

082and you know with working with Mike and John uh we just felt that the Board of Ed should be more involved with that decision making process so so that's why we've really past year or two trying to get more involved in it so so Michelle I think the answer is it's there really isn't much of a precedent so we're we're trying to establish one now and hopefully that this number is you know kind of in the Wheelhouse and most board Boards of education do adopt a capital budget just like we're having in front of you and and submit it to their their City or town uh the cities and towns handle it a little differently um but it's very common for boards to adopt the capital long-term uh plan for their facilities thank you all

083right I'll jump back into this and there's just a couple more slides so next one here okay so this is just a little overview of some of the drivers that are in my department um number one here I I had described this before so on one side you have Capital which is that list we just talked about and then on the other side for buildings uh is our maintenance and repairs budget um and this is what Rich uses when he goes in there to do things like um you know we just had that leak in the high school and we had to um do some repairs on the gym floor um Ace when Ace flooded um right at the end of last year like on the last day of school uh we had to rip

084up all the flooring rip rip apart walls do a flood cut put new flooring in that all came out of Rich's budget um thank God we had enough in there and and we able to to just sort of squeeze things around a little bit um you know we had to make a few hard decisions but for the most part we're able to save most of what we needed um so this is Rich's Bud proposed budget for next year um so just to sort of run down here Rich why don't you talk through this one these are all you you know a lot about these projects sure no problem uh so starting off with KSI um and we did both KSI and milridge primary we did replace the flooring in one of three pods so my

085my long-term plan is to do one pod uh each of the next two years uh the reason why KSI is a little bit more expensive than Midge primary there would be a ASB bestus abatement involved in it um but after three years we would have totally new floors in both of those schools and we could go on to uh uh another school uh Milleridge primary veg that would be uh a security vegetable and we looked at it two or three years ago and you know we're looking looking at the outside there's not much room where that sidewalk walk in the road is to build outside but working with the principal we have another idea about putting a security vessel inside um Shelter Rock Wall divider right now Shelter Rock lacks a proper workspace for the

086uh teachers which is actually required in their their Union contracts so we'd like to do something with that uh Pembrook uh fenced and sheltered areas there is a section of uh I'll say fence or SE section of open area in the playground area that kids could run into the bushes and stuff and it just would be lot more secure to enclose the rest of that fence um air water filter replacement um as as we add you know get more air purifiers and water bubblers um the average cost of those filters are about $50 a piece so um it it all adds up and uh $20,000 for bottle fillers they seem to be very popular um so we'd like to just you know continue to add them or replace the the older 40 to 50 year

087old water fountains uh restroom repairs as as you go through the schools and I I'll just point out hazetown there there's a lot of old 50 60 year old restrooms that are very tired and could use uh you know a fixture replacement partition replacement uh Penbrook gym floor uh that's one of two floors I'll say uh great plane is another one uh that they have old VCT uh floor tile uh on the gym floor and and what we've done with a lot a majority of the schools is put in a synthetic floor that doesn't require waxing yearly and it's a little bit you know more soft on the on the feet um blind replacement um I've been trying to do at least one school a year with the more modern blind there's several schools that

088we have blinds that are 30 to 40 years old um the capital budget also blind replacement um I it so with the with the uh window uh and blind replacement that we have in the capital budget uh from past experience for instance when they replace the windows at the high school they also replace the blinds uh so that's why we included that in uh with the with the pem window replacement the blinds this would be just to replace existing blinds where we're not doing windows Thank you Rich you're welcome uh classroom counter replacement uh same thing if you're walk into a lot of lot of the schools we have we have uh 40 to 50 year old countertops where the laminate is peeled off um and it's you know beyond its end of life you

089know it would really make a nice face lift to replace some countertops in the classrooms um flooding and D drainage repairs um so that goes goes along with King Street Intermediate uh we had a few hundred th000 and that that's for more Global to replace the whole driveway um if we if that isn't improved in the capital budget I'd like to at least repair the immediate area in it's the exit in front of King Street Intermediate and what happens is that they have a storm drain that's in the grass um just to the left of the entrance but it's a high spot so the water doesn't drain into there because it's a high spot so we'd like to add an extra storm drain or do some grading to to lower that storm drain so the

090water will flow to that um it's another state mandate uh coming up uh where we're going to need to provide sanitary hygiene products uh the way the state law reads any restroom any uh ladies room third grade and up and one boys room per school grade three and up um and that's supposed to go in effect this coming school year um and then we have Haz toown exterior sidewalk to connect fields for wheelchair um there's an issue with the the lower playground where um you know there's no way for the for a student in a wheelchair to get down to that playground so we'd like to do something with that as well Rich third from the bottom is that an unfunded State mandate or we have some grant money for that uh that's unfunded State

091mandate and did I hear you right in the Boys Room anything okay yeah boys room too and you know I've been talking to a lot of counterparts and and everybody's doing it a little little bit different I've heard heard of people that plan on uh stocking them on a Friday afternoon for Monday and when they run out we're they run out they'll stock it next Monday um we're we're supposed to be we're supposed to provide both sanitary napkins and tampons thank you Rich you're welcome I just want to make a comment the last item I think is very important the exterior sidewalk to connect fields for wheelchair that's something that I see as a priority for yeah that's the uh and there there's also a elevator planned for hazetown too so that'll be the complimentary

092exterior component to that anybody have any other comments oh Louisa I see your hands out thank you Michelle um okay so I'm GNA like ask the same question again that I asked for Mike on his list um how many of these things here are we in dire need of of of getting done within the next year um and how much is this is something that's been going on because I keep hearing 30 40 50 60 year old stuff in these uh schools and I'm I'm sure our list could be much longer than this so um is this just the the more important things that you of identified that need to be uh repaired and does this take into account any other things that may come up during the year and also the the uh the

093Mandate for the hygiene I'm assuming you know I mean we have a lot of students that are um that are in need of assistance so I I I don't you know to to what Al said I I it may be an unfunded mandate but I I do believe that we're helping a lot of young kids with that so you know I don't have an issue with that at all but um I just want to know about the other items on the list and where they fall in the uh priority list well I would I would say definitely the uh sanitary hygiene uh as it's a state mandate that would be probably our top one on the list um you know I would say uh King Street in uh the flooding and drainage repairs for 30,000

094that's very important as well it's been an issue the last few Winters um a lot of these items um you know we've we've let it slide for many years so could we let it slide one more year yes but I I think it's important that every year we do some updating uh just to try to get our buildings up to speed and and actually what happened last year is we had a list of projectss similar to this and there's probably one or two uh that we won't be able to do because this list doesn't include uh unforeseen circumstances like the flood at the high school and the flood at Ace where you know we probably spent upwards of a $100,000 out of this budget to toh do Renovations that weren't were not planned because of

095a flood yeah than thank you you're welcome Mike did you um did we have a discussion about Penbrook and fencing in that area just for security purposes yeah so it and yeah it didn't come up in this one we I I had a question about it in our last board meeting when we were over at the high school um so I'll jump back here so in the capital you can see right I don't know if you guys can see my cursor um where is it we had fencing here exterior fence replacement at eight oh at 18 schools come on uh it's this one here third from the bottom in buildings so part of this is we recognize a need to replace fencing but um depending on whether that comes through uh we could sort of

096use some of that for um security as well um I have where is it in here here in pem one two three four five down fence shelter areas at Pembrook we have 95,000 set aside specifically for Pembrook so this would live outside of that other fencing number in the capital budget um and this one is is really going to be sitting you know sitting down and thinking through where the evacuation areas are um also it's it's it's just good crowd control for for you know the play areas there so they don't have kids kind of running off down the hill and around the back of the school um but also just thinking you know more strategically about evacuation areas shelter areas if they're out there and it starts to rain or it's a windy or

097cold day things like that so 95 out of out of our budget will be dedicated towards towards that specific project and then we had mentioned that the wall divider for the work room that was also something that we have to do right we can find somebody mention yeah that's one that's come up multiple times and and um it's it's come directly from uh Nea on several occasions too and that they need a work room over there so we we want to be able to provide that for them so that's another one that would be considered a priority I would think so yeah yeah it's a small enough amount where I wouldn't expect something like that to you know to get knocked out the nice thing I like you know I won't say the nice thing

098but you know this is our budget you know this is one that that you know we create internally so you know assuming the you know the board budget you know gets voted through and approved you know this is what our our number will be for for Rich so this is this is really our you know an internal you know an internal you know decision that that we make we're going to go after these things and and then we go do them and hope we don't have another flooded Ace on the last day school I just want to ask one question you know how we've been talking about for a couple of years the sinks and making sure that we've got some temporary sinks I thought you were going to bring that up maybe but that

099we were going to possibly roll that all into you know our yeah maybe you can discuss that a little bit talk about how do we you know how we are at least addressing the situation for the meantime sure yeah thank you for raising this question because i' I've had a few uh emails and and questions about it um so the science labs at DHS are going to get renovated starting next summer it's a two-year process just because of the way the ASB bestas has to be abated you can't do do it when students are in the school so it's going to take two years to get through the whole thing part of that renovation is going to be replacing all the plumbing in the walls um the current drains are pretty much solidified calcified I'm

100not sure what it is but they're they're old glass pipes and they they just don't drain it's a very very small trickle so when the sinks are turned on um they don't drain they overflow and then we have a flood uh which causes more problems so we're always in this position when we're looking at something like this so we say boy they're going to be completely renovating that uh that building in two years time but we need sinks now so how much can we spend doing a repair um you know we we can't reasonably go out and spend $100,000 on on a repair um you know when it's going to be built into a a multi-million dollar project just the year out so we always have to sort of figure out ways to navigate this

101so specifically for the issue with science Labs um Rich can talk a little bit more about this we we figured out a way to order portable sinks I'll say we we identified portable sinks as a workaround and the city was able to order I think a dozen or so of them I'm not exactly sure on the number um and then once they come they they literally can just get hooked up it's you know it looks like a sink it works like a sink except the water sources are are portable you have a clean water and a gray water tank um you can use it for the lab and then you can roll it down the hall and move it into the next Lab and then the kids can have it in there so is it

102is it a a perfect solution no um but but given you know the limited resources we have and and you know not want to throw bad money after good um or is it good money after bad I can never get that one right uh you know it just didn't make sense to go and and have a you know you know $100,000 plumbing repair for something that was going to be essentially gutted in in a you know in a year's time so uh Rick I think you rich I'm sorry I think you have an update on the the order we hear it's coming in next week yes um I spoke to Sean this week and they should be in at some point next week um and as Mike said you know it's not an ideal situation

103it be a little bit more maintenance on my staff's part you know filling the water and emptying it the water but it does create a solution uh that they'll be able to stick to the curriculum for for this coming year until they can get the permanent sinks and I'm sure we can always use them at other schools uh down the road so they they will come in handy fantastic are we so we purchased them we're not leasing them we're we purchased each individual unit uh Public Works purchase them or I should say public buildings purchase them that's yes that's what I meant thank you um I'm just ecstatic about it I think that's fantastic I know it's not the perfect solution but you know we've s at board meetings when they say as soon as

104it gets cold that's it they shut it down from November yeah today till April and that they can't follow the so I'm really I know it's not ideal but at least they have water and they can you know get through um at least part of the curriculum this way thank you thank you for your solution course we had to get creative on that one I think that's great that's do so Michelle you actually brought up a great point because in the in the science rooms at Rogers Park because they're on a exterior uninsulated wall they do shut down the water so when we're done with those at the high school we'll be able to uh redeploy them at Rogers Park and they can have their curriculum throughout the winter that's what Mike and I were

105discussing about a week or two ago so I'm I'm really excited to hear that they were purchased already because we were saying you know if they can be rolled around or move you know rotate that'd be great so I just want to say thank you because I know it's been something since I've been on the board I've been hearing about and I'm just glad that we at least have some sort of resolution you know until we have the the finished the real finished prod yeah important thing is they'll be able to get through the curriculum so that's what matters to me yeah thank you all right so the last piece of this can I question I'm sorry sure yeah what's the lifespan on these sinks oh good question Rich do you know I'm not exactly

106sure but I would think we should be able to get uh probably 10 years out of them as long as they're taken care of properly I I was actually it's funny Louise I I was in my daughter's preschool uh last week for our open house night and um I noticed they had a little one that was for like twoy olds and it was there and it cuz it's in the basement of a church there was no Plumbing or any hookups in that room but they turned it into a preschool room and were able to do it because they had this this little cute little sink and it's like a looks like it been there for a while too so um I think 10 years is a is a good a good bet all right and

107then uh I wanted to just do a little comparison of what identified are some of the big drivers of my my department budget um so without going into the you know the FTE and everything I I wanted to run through sort of four big areas here for me um safety Advocates uh it's it's an ongoing um discussion uh we're currently budgeted for 41 um we're struggling to hire all 41 it seems like right when we get close we always lose a few right away um but we're going to increase that budget number to 43 positions and then uh that um that group is up for a contract renegotiation this year so I've added in a small growth increase um just so we can have a a pretty close ballpark number but we're expecting to be

108at about 1, 342,000 on safety advocates for next year and that'll be 43 total so that'll be adding two more at the high school three at each middle and then one at each Elementary but with the additionals at the middle and the high school it gives us a lot more flexibility for sick days leave vacation you know whenever we're we're missing a few guys um that gives us a lot more cushion to to pull and and and cover positions uh facilities repairs you just saw Rich's uh budget line here it was 684 last year um we gave it just a about oh is it was actually s yeah 780 so just a nice um $96,000 increase um these things have to be done so um IT services this is one I wanted to flag because

109it is significant now this is separate from devices I I put the device replenishment at the bottom those are the numbers that that um we just shared a moment ago um but it services in light of the summer that we had we we really want to beef up our cyber security um so we're doing some reassessment of our current Services um and looking for for places where we can just um have just a a little bit more security that Sentinel one is is is a place that that um we put into the capital budget but number of services like that that that we just believe will keep our our systems more secure so um that's going to increase to about $685,000 next year and those are the the big drivers for operations um we expect

110most other things to well they won't be flat but positions all that kind of stuff is going to be relatively the same and um salaries will just roll over per the um for the contracts that's it that's the end of my presentation all right anybody else with any final questions any on the committee or anybody who's not on the committee Julie or anyone okay thank you I have a question so when I'm sorry that will be for Mr sing when can we get an update because I noticed and everybody has asked about when can we get an update and um from the top um from the whole list both of them from the capital and from the school budget um um when can we get an update and when do we know I mean the

111start and the end of each one of this um projects great question so our our budget will know I mean is as the the uh board starts to see the board the budget presentations in January and February as soon as the budget is voted through city council we'll know um for example if these these facilities lines are on here if Rich gets his 780 We're Off to the Races we know those will all be the projects that get done um Capital could be a little bit more challenging is JN still on here I think duck off um I think he talked a little bit about the timeline I think we we know around January or February and just a little you know what I'm hoping is that when we see that list if we identify

112a priority project that didn't get funded I'm hoping we still have time to run back and say oh maybe we can still slip it in here somewhere or you know move Rich's line a little bit up or down here um so that one as I understand it January February is when we'll learn about the capital projects perfect thank you that's it all right well I want to thank everybody for coming tonight um it's 7:33 I'm looking to adjourn the meeting anybody so move um comment please who was that goddess no comment from Al Russo oh Al sorry I couldn't hear you Al I can't hear you I'm sorry who made the motion I don't know is there a motion did anybody was it Al I'll make Mo I wanted to comment before we go we

113adjourn Al you're are you seconding no I wanted to make a comment to ask question before we adjourn please I I couldn't hear you I guess it's a bad connection please go ahead ask your question uh Mike did I understand it other words we'll try if we have any excess money in our budget we'll try to spend it just accomplish some of these capital capital expenses um I can't answer that exactly but what I what I what I would say is that if if we've identified a project in capital which we know we can't live without I would that doesn't get funded I would certainly sit back down with Rich and John and try to rework his his part to see if there's a way to fit it in or at least you know find

114some some way to do you know phase one of a three-year build you know something like that because um you know I I really do see these these two lists even though you know one is City money one is our money I really do see them as these are things that we need to do to keep the school up and running um so I I you know for you know I I I hate to spend our limited budget money in a place where you know I know it can be funded by Capital so we try not to do that but you know Plumbing's a perfect example you know there were there were places we just needed the sinks to work and we had to dip into into Rich's budget to do that um I didn't

115like to but we needed to get kids to wash their hands you know so um you know when when we have to we will but um you know it's not a habit I want to get into by any means right U my my my thought is and I'm not passing judgment I'm just expressing an opinion sure that not ping Plumbing notwithstanding uh some of the other op options are if we items if we do this that um we're we're already asking the city for three million or three million whatever what is out of reserves and and we're kind of under the scope you I would hate to jeopardize that but just just a thought not not a uh just expressing a a thought not yeah an opinion uh but thank you yeah thank you Mr

116Russo that's well received I I I I definitely hear that and and and that is part of our our calculus when we come up with these lists too and um you know you know and I I I want to make sure we're not asking for the Taj Mahal or it doesn't appear that we ever are you know these are you know things that we need so thank you for the for the thought um and I just want to thank the board this is really a helpful conversation just the feedback and and you know the ideas and suggestions and and you know people will send me an email about oh I was just over here I saw that this isn't working or what's going on with the the swing set or you know these are all

117great things to hear because there's sort of official channels that they come through through rich work orders whatever but um you know when when I hear that people are out there and they see you know we need some wood chips over at Shelter Rock or whatever it is you know um it's it's just I I like hearing those things because they can just be a sort of second layer to make sure we're not missing these things so thank you for your feedback and the suggestions um both on the facilities and and just also just guidance and how to think about you know presenting some of this stuff um everybody has a you know a a very good understanding of you know just how these budgets work and you know how how the district Works alongside

118city council and I'm always always uh interested in in in getting thoughts and about how to make these things work better so thank you all thank you all right so motion to adjourn second Al second by Al all right thank you very much it is uh 7:37