001at 6 pm I know everyone's back and excited to hear about all the stuff that's gone on over the summer and projects that I know we were looking to continue either getting funding on so I'm going to throw it right over to you um Mike and see ya if you want to start off yeah great great so thank you Michelle welcome back everybody um this is uh the first sites committee meeting um of the year and we have a pretty packed agenda there's only five items on it but there's there's a lot in each one of these items and I know there's a city council meeting coming right up at seven o'clock so um we'll try to try to move through this as best we can so that everybody who's heading over there can can
002make it in good time and get a good seat so um first up rich jalbert did you get on here yet you hear I don't see Richard okay uh would you mind uh chair cuello if we come back to item number one when Rich is on absolutely not a problem okay by all means please great so I'm going to jump into the enrollment update and here we go okay so uh we did an enrollment count today around one o'clock um our total number at this moment is about 12 048 um and I'll give a little bit more of a breakdown of that um in short order um there's a couple points in this there's about a hundred students right now that are sort of in still trying to get paperwork in you know uh you
003know proof of residency all this all these sorts of documents that that are required before we move them to the next step um that's about a hundred kids so in realistic terms right now we're probably looking at about 12 150 students enrolled um these numbers are growing every day um so I I have no doubt we're going to be well over 12 200 uh within the next couple weeks um probably well on Pace to to that 12 300 which is right about where we were at the end of last year and as you know these numbers they they will fluctuate in these in these first weeks as students come in late and also students who don't show up where you know they move to a different district and didn't tell us and then you know
004we go and we subtract them from the role so sometimes these numbers do balance a little bit but but I do expect a steady climb as we keep going so a couple bubbles that I just want to point out here are second grade is the covet bubble that that we've been talking about for a little while where this is the year where a lot of parents whose kids were supposed to enter kindergarten in that uh fall of 2020 uh waited a year so that created a sort of it compounded it into fall of 2021 that group is now entering second grade so that one has about 90 to 100 more students that's 992 students in that second grade and then we also have a bubble around ninth grade which is pretty typical um and this
005is uh for a number of reasons um the one of the biggest there's two big reasons why we always see a bubble around ninth grade that's again 1119 students in ninth grade 972 and 10th grade 867 and 11th grade 764 and 12th grade and the reason we see this bubble in ninth grade like I said there's two real reasons one is if students don't complete a full six credits in freshman year um if they they fail a class or or just don't have enough credits they're still counted as a freshman and then by the holidays sometimes we see them move out of that because they've missed they've picked up that half credit or whatever that course was that they were missing and then they gained sophomore standing so these numbers too also balance out and
006the other reason too is that if we receive students um who are high school age but don't have enough information on their transcript where we can you know understand you know if they came from South America or a a district or we can't verify information um they'll get put into ninth grade until uh more information can can come out or we can get that transcript just so they can get started in school so again that ninth grade number it is it is a bubble it tends to have a little bit more at the beginning of the year and then it'll start to balance out as more information comes available so like I said 12048 as of about one o'clock this afternoon uh realistically with those extra kids that are still defiling in paperwork and whatnot
007probably about 150. Mike just to confirm are you trying are you trying to share something we can't see your screen I don't know if you're sharing or not oh no I'm not actually I'm just reading from some notes yeah yeah I'm sorry you can't see me my my uh screen is blurred but did you say for the second grade bubble I'm sorry is 90 or 100 or 192. I I think I yeah it's about 90 to 100 students higher than kind of average where we would expect it to be yeah okay yeah um are there any members that have any questions regarding enrollment or anybody over there I have a question Michelle please um do we know um when can we know how many students has been withdrawn from public schools for the Denver District
008yeah that's a really good question Julie it's kind of a hard question to know parents don't always notify us if they're leaving or moving away um over the next month we'll probably get a pretty good sense by you know because we we have to go and you know make follow-up phone calls and emails so we're able to to get a pretty good guess of of what that number is within a month or so but it just takes time because you have to identify the students that you need to reach out to then you need to do the Outreach you know and if they've moved somewhere else they see Danbury schools come up on their phone they don't always answer you know so it takes a little bit of investigative uh investigative but you know research
009to figure that out so um I would I would hope within the next month or so we we have a good count on that okay thank you uh Michelle I have a question please Louisa um uh Mike uh just twofold one the the second grade bubble is that um primarily in one area like one area of the district one school um or is it spread across the entire district and number two how is that affecting class size and uh student teacher ratio yeah thanks Louisa that that's a good question um I don't have the school by school breakdown in front of me um I it is it is a a district-wide phenomenon because the impact was you know it was it was really that sort of covid related you know concern that that kept parents
010back um but I could get a school by school breakdown and Kevin I I don't know if this is something you can you can um talk about in any greater detail without some some analysis that we would get from Cara um but I I I I don't know the the exact impact on class size at the second grade level so hi hi Louisa and good evening everyone um so Mike had pointed out earlier we have uh roughly a hundred student 100 plus students more in grade two than all of the other grades and so we average about 900 um in K through five uh whereas grade two is about a thousand and so um to your question Luisa we have more teachers in grade two um and so our average across all schools is 22
011per classroom um and I don't have to break down per School in um to break it down for every grade level and I've had FX Mike to provide more detailed update at our board meeting at the end of the month um and then when Carol wants it comes in in October she'll be doing a more comprehensive breakdown for everything but but right now of course we have some you know bubbles in some schools where class size is a little bit higher but right now um so for example we have 47 teachers in kindergarten and I know that offhand because we talk about kindergarten so much in this office we have 890 students across all schools and so that's average and at about 19 per class but again grade two is is our bubble that Mike
012uh referred to um and I don't I don't as I'm jumping in and out of screens I don't have how many teachers but I do know we have more than we have in kindergarten that's averaging at 22 uh average class size right now as of the week of 8 28. great thank you so much no you're welcome okay if uh there's no more questions we can jump back to item one Mr jalbert has joined us to share my screen or the uh evening everyone hello thanks for joining thank you I apologize it was taken me a little while to get on my home computer no problem thank you okay everybody can see the slideshow right yes okay great okay so I want to go through the summer projects um we installed 10 bottle fillers throughout
013the school districts uh and while we were doing that um if there was any broken bottle fillers that needed repair we also repaired uh existing bottle fillers just to you know a lot of everybody access to good clean water I think that's very important um we built two special ed offices over the summer for those of you that know the area it was the uh called the seminar room and and see building it was one big open area and it requires private conversation so we blocked off of all area and created two offices over there um I'll have a picture and of that later uh we replaced flooring in eight classrooms at Mill Ridge Primary with a new vinyl tile that doesn't require a floor finish they were all carpeted offices and we had a
014lot of staff members complaining of headaches and whatnot uh you know they take a beat in those carpets so we replaced it with the with the hard floor that's easy to clean uh less time stripping and waxing in the in the summer more time to do other detail cleaning and painting so I think it's a home run uh we did the same thing at King Street uh intermediate we took one pod and and replaced the flooring in eight classrooms uh that that one requires a abatement we were going to try to remove the carpet off of the asbestos floor tile and the tile was coming with it so there was no way we could do that without an abatement um we also replaced the the carpets at both King Street Intermediate and Mill Ridge Primary
015uh gave a nice New Look to the offices um the the game plan you know you know providing we can get the money in the budget get one pot at King Street in one pot at Mill Ridge ideally if we could do that same thing over the next two years we would we would have all new flooring in both of those schools and would be a really nice look I think uh reorganized and painted offices at 63 Beaver Brook um we've had a lot of work going on in the basement as far as replacing uh damaged uh baseball and sheetrock and replacing the heating covers so we're just about done with that and we'll have some nice new office space down there there is one of our bottle fillers these are great they've been a
016big hit certainly over the last few days I'd like to try to get 10 to 15 a year installed until we can really get rid of the old ceramic bottle fillers and uh or you know a lot of them don't have the the bottle filling uh on that it's just you know putting your mouth to the the faucet so these are really great I think and Rich and I'll just add to that you know one of the challenges you know it it sounds like a simple thing just to pop the old one off and put the new one on but um these because they have sensors um they are electrical they they require having an electrical hookup in the wall so even just in places where there was an old water fountain um it's not
017just so easy to just pop that off and put this on we got to have electricians come and wire it too so it's a bit more involved there's there's um there's more steps certainly more labor involved and more coordination with the city to get these in so um it was really quite impressive that rich got so many in in such a short amount of time um but it's it's it's great it's it's if if you know if you've had access to one of these in a place where you had to either stand at a sink and you know wonder if water was was clean they're they're wonderful so can you tell us where they were located because I know that there was somebody had approached me over the summer about water and it was either
018reach or Ace did any of of them get installed possibly in one of those schools we installed one at Ace and we repaired uh two at Ace uh we you know between last year and the summer we installed two at West Side two at Park Avenue one at Shelter Rock uh South Street uh one eat that King Street Intermediate and uh King Street primary uh one at Morris Street might be missing one or two but it was uh majority of them okay so I think reach might have been the school that I had heard something about water you know I don't know if maybe that was something earlier on in the summer and it was taken care of or you know if we have a schedule that we're going to be installing them because clearly
019you know you got 10 this year and you need more um but I just wanted to bring that up just because I had somebody had approached me about that yeah and just yeah thanks Michelle and just another note on these two um because these these now are more complicated to manage they have filters and when that filter goes bad it turns yellow or red so we it it actually it requires us to have these built into our preventative maintenance schedule so we're staying ahead of the filter changes the filters obviously cost money you know it's a it's a it's a day for the the you know which you know for the maintenance people to go around and and insurance so there you know there is a a cost of maintaining these as well but um
020I I think well worth it in my estimation yeah thank you especially on a day like this yeah no kidding you know what I mean thank you okay the ace basement go ahead oh I'm sorry uh the end of the school year we had a little surprise flood um so we had to do some a serious amount of work in the basement removed all the damage sheetrock more or less a flood caught two feet up install new sheetrock taped and painted um we replaced all the flooring in the basement it was old uh VCT flooring and before we put that in we we applied a moisture mitigation uh to prevent any moist from seeping up in the in the concrete uh you know in in the future you know you could tell that some of
021the damage was from the flood that we had this summer but there was other as we started things up there was other long longer term uh moisture issues that we found there that I think we took care of during this whole process moisture like a moisture barrier you added that's exactly right yep um install the new LED light fixtures and all the rooms there's a few pictures later on in the in the uh presentation looks really nice yeah yeah I don't know if you guys were down there before it had been down there at all last year I mean it's an old building right and and I mean the refresh it's like it just looks awesome I mean it it just feels fresh it smells new you know from a point of view of you
022know a learning space that kind of makes you have some pride in where you're going it's it's it's a world of difference so that's wonderful yeah John is thrilled and and the custodian over there was an absolute uh it's just awesome all summer and helping us manage and and you know get get people in and out of there to do the work they were they were fantastic so hats off to them as well that's great because I know that there was an issue at the beginning of the year when Lauren and I went walking around and you know it was it was a dress but not you know clearly what it totally needed so yeah this is great fantastic it's looking awesome so yeah that picture on the far left is actually is actually the
023first coat of the moisture mitigation uh just so you know people could see the process it's great all right yeah um so last year we had a lot in the uh the gym area at the high school you know which prompted us to replace the gym floor it also damaged the ceiling tiles in the room um so it's one thing leads to another you're you're replaced the ceiling tiles in the weight room you got a nice looking ceiling now the floor looks like garbage and then we were able to uh Salvage a lot of really nice gym equipment from the Cardis building um so we yeah we put uh carpet tiles in the half where you know treadmills and the ellipses and that kind of equipment will be and we replace the other half with
024the the free weights with the rubber floor so it has a look of almost like a real gym I'll say screen that's a picture of our special ed offices uh between the taping and painting before they painted the uh uh special ed is very happy with their new offices yeah Kelly is very happy as well and just to you know a reminder of you know this is typical for activities deep cleaning of classrooms refurbishing or refinishing of gymnasium floors annual assistant maintenance Mechanicals uh air filter replacement uh we always have a bunch of teachers to move from either one floor to the other or one bull to the other um assisting on board a new administrators phone Furniture Etc um we uh actually had a huge project at the beginning of the Summer where there
025was uh books that were no longer being used in the curriculum and we retrieved approximately 60 pallets of of uh Elementary books from all the elementary schools that are now in our warehouse that uh Cara casimero is dealing with um and just you know there's a few pictures of the uh floors that I took um we've been teaching people to use a a particular process um with a thin brown prep pad that you don't need to strip and wax it's you know just a scrub and a repo and and using this process the floors look almost better than when you strip them and you know it saves on the cost of using stripper we we have less injuries from slip and falls with this process and the floors look brand new I think I have
026a picture of Broadview middle school and then um Shelter Rock there's proud of you and shelter yes we're both there yeah I I have to give a shout out to my head custodians I you know I have a you know a few people in new positions I have a new head custodian at Broadview middle school and she really wanted to make a difference and you can see that in her in her work wow um that's really made a difference uh Morris Street was another school that you know I I went through there towards the end of the summer and the floors looked like brand new so the guys really took took pride in their job this summer and and really did a nice job yeah and Rich I just want to say you know your
027your crew did a fantastic job this summer so you and your team from from the you know the major construction projects on down to you know the floors and just the minor repairs um just a fantastic job I I you know facilities I'd say you guys and then you know the I.T folks are kind of the unsung heroes of the district you know you only get calls when things go wrong very rarely do people say hey thanks thanks for making the Wi-Fi work today or you know making the water run but uh you know I I my hack goes off to you guys you you and your crew did a great job this summer but thank you thank you Mike you're here and what was her name your new employee that you uh Scarlett Elena
028she was she actually transferred she was a uh a food driver uh previously and she uh she moved over to the head custodian position at Broadview Middle School really fantastic wonderful well tell her thank you we appreciate it I will thank you certainly pass along the uh the thanks to the board all right so that's the the last one right yeah okay so that's the summer updates uh Michelle would you mind if we jump to number five uh I want to get John in here um it's great and then we can go back to three okay you lead the way all right thank you oh that's the wrong one sorry ah sorry here we go okay Mr Spang are you there yeah thank you Mike hello everyone okay um John I'll I'll tee this up
029a little bit and then you can you can jump in so um we always talk about capital projects and you know when we think about the way we do construction facilities in Danbury there's really sort of two pots of money there's our repair budget which is the things that rich really just talked about today you know minor repairs things that are generally kind of under fifty thousand dollars um you know that will kind of contract out or in many cases you know we'll do ourselves um if our internal guys have the the trade skills um capital projects is a little different generally it goes forty five fifty thousand dollars and up um they tend to be things that you know just uh uh they're you know they're they're going to be more serious projects they're
030going to require uh you know bringing in outside contractors and and sometimes you know a multi-year implementation so the way we work with capital projects is we'll sit down with the city and talk through a whole variety of of needs right and this can be anything from the aesthetic features of the building um all the way down to things that frankly we don't even know that much about you know um because there's so much in the rudiments of you know the workings of the building you know for example you know steam tunnels at the high school you know we we know about those but you know it's Antonio and his guys who really have their have an understanding of how old those are when they need to be fixed you know so so we sit
031down and we work together and we say okay with a certain amount of money what do we want to go after this year and they say you know okay I know that this this is coming due on the maintenance schedule so you know we need to focus on that and we say okay that's that's a reasonable allocation of money but you know it's important for us to have a few of these different projects in so that's where this list comes in and uh last year there was this you know 15 or 20 projects here on this list it was totaling about four million dollars uh but the the only the ones with the Asterix got put into the budget um so those were and I say the budget when we say it's it's the CIP
032it's the the capital Improvement plan so those projects that went in uh it was the installation of soffits on the overhang at Mill Ridge if you've been there you know there's all kinds of issues with bird droppings bathroom remodels and fixture Replacements at hazetown exterior doors at Rogers Park uh there are some roof repairs at Ellsworth and did I miss one here rich I think that was all of them so that's that's what sort of made last year's cut and we're talking with Antonio about either how those are going to get done what the timeline is but now we go back into another year so we're starting to think already about the 24-25 capital projects um and our starting place is really this list of the things that didn't get funded because obviously these these
033problems don't go away they just you know roll forward another year so I'll pause there and I'll let John jump in to talk a little bit more about it and how we want to think about this list going forward and you know what sorts of projects we're going to focus on yeah thank you Mike um Capital budgeting it's probably the one area where uh what goes on in business or corporations is uh the same thing that goes on in local governments and what I mean by that um is there are there are two budgets that happen every year there's the operating budget that we're all familiar with and everything that goes into that but then there's also the capital budget and that's uh on something of a parallel track the capital budget here is uh
034managed and directed by the city planner and the planning department getting input from the different department heads and as Mike pointed out when it comes to the Board of Education the input comes from Antonio or has been the uh Capital budgeting too in Connecticut um it's you know if you look at there probably are three uh Landmark court cases in the Connecticut Supreme Court that deal with education um Horton versus Mexico you've heard of that uh Chef versus O'Neill more recently uh but one that involved Capital it was uh the Board of Education versus the City of New Haven and back in 1996 the city of the board in New Haven sued the city because they said you're not taking care of our buildings and it's starting to impact uh teaching and learning it went
035all the way up to the state supreme court and uh unfortunately uh depending how you look at it uh the City of New Haven prevailed and the Connecticut Supreme Court said there'll be a a fine line of demarcation operating budgets Boards of Ed have control but Capital budgets schools are otherwise they belong on the city side and and so um so what you see here is is what goes on uh everywhere else in Connecticut and um but it's a different calendar too and uh what the planning department uh wanted their date we haven't seen the dates for this year uh but last year they called for everything by November 1st uh which uh backs things up for us a little bit um we'd like to have capital projects uh adopted by the board the full
036board uh were thinking at the October regular meeting which backs things up uh even more we'd like to talk to you again about the specifics uh sometime in in the next few weeks and um our thinking now is um well let me let me just point out that last year when we presented our um our items we we heard a couple things first uh long before it even got to you we I I asked the city engineer why were there no capital projects in the in the town's capital budget I looked at a surprise and the answer was well you didn't ask for any said okay um so we asked for some but it uh it came too late well we submitted them a few days before uh the November deadline and and we were
037told that was um not not enough time for an adequate review so this year uh we're we're learning our lessons and we're going to do everything uh according to Hoyle uh we'd like to um uh refresh this list of capital projects with um you know there may be some changes in costs there may be some new projects that we've become aware of and uh come up with a current a contemporary list but to which we'd like to add to that uh some other uh some equipment needs which qualify as capital uh you've heard us talk about our copier and printer needs around the district we think that would be a good place for Capital spending we also have some we always have emerging technology needs as to not technology grows so we'd have some things
038there not just with infrastructure but you'll recall some of the technology security items we've brought in front of you we think that might be a good place to budget those so Mike and Rich I guess we'll be back uh with a bet with a newer list uh in a couple weeks and we're hoping it will be uh well received and on time this year yeah so rich and I and John as well we'll be talking with principals over the coming weeks as well as Antonio and Sean and their crew to get an understanding of just what what the real Focus areas need to be going into 24 25 and when we come back for our November meeting we expect to have a pretty solid sense of what that list is going to look like and
039we'll be sharing it with you then yeah buddy have any questions any members regarding Capital Improvements are we going to be including every single one of the schools including High School and um projects for the academies within the this budget yeah so there's there's actually we yeah I forgot this little part to include there's actually a third stream of money which is the bond projects and that's actually coming up here in a minute because that talks about some things that are also happening um at the high school um as well as you know all the different schools but the the answer to your question is yes we you know we think about the totality of the district um and that even includes administrative buildings um you know one of the things on here was exterior
040doors at Beaver Brook if you've been over to Beaver Brook lately especially walking in that board uh room uh you know with the you know that that door is just kind of you know in disrepair and it it just it just needs you know some some beefing up so you know we look at everything from the elementary schools and the preschools um all the way up to you know the high school and and the administrative offices to to focus on the highest areas of need can I ask a quick question yeah um do we have items plus list that have been hanging out in our CIP wish list for more than a year or two Rich he might be better at that than me I wasn't involved in this list prior to last year so
041um let's see here I think the MRP honestly these those soffits at MRP has been one that's been going year after year so the fact that that one got an asterisk on this list is is pretty significant um air conditioning constantly you know this this is an ongoing conversation yeah sorry um but oh no no Rich primary going on for the days it's always been one of the hot items on our list uh to get the uh the soffits enclosed the middle Refinery uh it would allow eliminate a lot of the burden and problems we've been having yeah um yeah so a lot of them that I see are new uh exterior doors at Beaver Brook that's been an ongoing issue for over five years I do know that uh public buildings has a purchase
042order with a contractor uh so those should get replaced I would think this falls sometime um yeah yeah right rich and and if you look at the last item on this list uh we put uh install air conditioning at five elementary schools but of course that number there is just for one um and then air conditioning at Ace we have to go a little bit further up is is fifty thousand dollars just because it's a much much smaller building so air conditioning certainly on on um you know everybody's lips over these last few days um and and it you know from you know the weather reports and whatnot it doesn't look like these extreme heat events are going to be going away anytime soon so that's that's also going to be one that we talk
043about year after year um but the the timing might be be now to to start you know pushing harder on that one and even if we can get you know one or two a year done you know over the course of the next decade you know it'll it'll you know solve a lot of problems for us and certainly help us with summer school as well well thank you both for answering that that was very comprehensive thank you thank you thank you okay so Mike real quick you were talking about the possibly putting the security um on the Capitol Report list and I know we've got like what 700k or something towards like a grant that we were trying to get for the security is this to kind of bridge what we were adding a couple
044you know it was a little bit more of a price tag that we were looking at is that what that would do on your yeah to the capital yeah I think the way the security grants work their two-piece meal because what they end up being is an accumulation of little things um and you know the the offset so that 700 000 grant that you mentioned you know that is um we still owe 30 on that Grant so we end up paying I don't remember offhand 250 something like that I I can't do the math in my head um but that 50 is comprised of you know a twenty thousand dollar camera system you know you know all that kind of stuff right yeah I don't think it would cross over but if if there is
045one big thing that we end up going for it I don't think it's impossible that it could be included on here okay that's what I was wondering I didn't know if that's what we were trying to do because I know that we were outside numbers to really or if it was a part of the security that doesn't meet that grant that we need to you know somehow supplement whether it's labor or it doesn't fit within the grant that's what I was wondering no totally totally and it's it's a really good thought and and it's probably something to keep thinking about because um and I'm trying to think now because we just wrote a new Grant um for the state that we're waiting to hear back on um but again it's it's it's all these sorts
046of little things that accumulate you know up to this one was 900 or a million dollars or something like that right right yeah so um but yeah something to think about if if we can find like a big thing on there to cover out of this and then you know we're we're getting right because I know we're short on it that's why I'm wondering when you're bringing it up if this would be a place where you could do that and we could actually I mean yeah no it's a good idea yeah yeah we'll think on that see if there's a way to structure it so something could come in here absolutely and I'm sorry I think we talked about this a while ago and it might just be me is it possible to group I
047thought we were going to do like the schools together because it'll say like Shelter Rock here and then at the bottom another thing like it was it possible I thought oh yeah maybe group it so that we could see what everything is required at that school or you know perhaps just get all the start items together and then break it out by school just to get a real understanding of which school really has you know three hundred thousand dollars worth of work and maybe I can quickly look at the other school and say oh that one's got like 2 million based on what you know what I mean right right right right yeah yeah we can we can Shuffle this list I'd appreciate it if you're going to be doing it up anyway you know
048yeah yeah for the November list we'll we'll make sure thank you yep okay all right so next um let's see here so we're gonna jump back in the agenda and I'm gonna give a quick update about uh some thoughts we have about an enrollment study and then we can finish with the bond projects and the um the neesque um uh study that that we talked about at our last meeting last year I had promised an update on all that that list of projects that were coming out of the bond so one of the things um as we were talking about enrollment just a few minutes ago we know that these numbers are going to keep going up um and uh we know that in the past we have exceeded all of the high projections of
049our previous demographic study uh which I believe was late 2021 um so we are in the process of well we're certainly thinking about and reached out to a few demographers to start getting a sense of of is it time to do a new demographic study and we'd like it to to ideally be done in time to inform the budgeting process um as we enter the season coming you know just in January of next year um so a demographic study is is it's really an interesting process um for you know the there's a whole bunch of different models that they use to do this but they'll look at everything from um you know birth rates to um immigration patterns to building permits in town and are those really are those building permits for you know uh
050are they really designed for you know single young professional adults or is it more units that are are designed for families with two kids and how many families would you reasonably expect to go into a unit and what's the average number of kids so they they have some very complex mathematics that goes into these things and they they get pretty close to a good estimation like I said they they were a little low on us um the last the last study um but we want to have this this new study come in because uh we have a lot of planning to do and as we keep growing and are starting to see these bubbles like the second grade bubble work its way through the system we just need to have a better sense of where
051we're going and how to plan for that and how much money we're going to need how many teachers we're going to need to hire so that's something that we're we're going to be engaging in over the next month or two and we've like I said we've done some initial Outreach to a company that does this work they're called slam and uh we're hoping to have that study put together in time uh for the January budget process um so we can we can plan accordingly for next year anybody questions yes I have a question yep when was done your your last demographic um study yeah because the numbers as you should have a really good sense from the last decennial census you'd give they give they provide you with a really good sense on how much
052we have grown in the last 10 years yeah yeah I I Kevin I don't know if you remember the exact date on it was either late 2021 or early 2022 I remember it was pretty fresh um the first time I saw it so um I I think it would have been late late 2021 does that sound right to you Kevin it does so we had hi Julie hi everyone uh so we had two studies done one one done um during the pandemic and I'll find out the date before we get off this call and then the second one was done um post pandemic because the feeling was oh we needed an update um as a result of the pandemic um and we needed an updated study done submitted to the state after we left the
053gosh I don't even remember the name of the old site now but when we moved to the Cardiff site versus the other site that we were initially going to go to we needed a new updated study done and so like I said before we get off the call I will find out exactly when that date was when the study was conducted another reason why we are looking at and consider an additional study is you know Mike reviewed with you earlier and talked about the bubble in the second grade where we have you know at least 100 extra additional students in grade two we are anticipating some types of shifts and enrollment as a result of the governor's mandate around around being at least five years old um before you can enter kindergarten and so we
054do not know right now if this means an increase in pre-k numbers for us as a district or this means an increase in kindergarten students for us as a district but we know at some point there's going to be an impact we do not know if this is going to mean we're going to need more Pre-K space or if this is going to mean we're going to need more kindergarten classrooms at some point and so not having a full handle on that that is something that we are concerned about because again we're just concerned about our capacity to be able to whether it's Pre-K or kindergarten have the ability to um appropriately plan for those grade levels particularly kindergarten giving all of our kids and not in a pre-k program thanks Kevin I I forgot
055to mention that yeah that that change in the law it's significant it's a third of a Year's worth of kids right because you're talking September October November December all those students who would have gone into the previous year will now be held until the following year so yeah does that mean they'll we'll just be more impacted in pre-k those years yeah these are these are Big questions that that we need guidance on and these experts will will help us figure that out Mike what was the reason for that mandate and what is when are they looking to implement it next year I is yeah next school year yes so next year and it's wow and what is the sense of that is that because of the learning laws to kind of hold children back like
056what is the purpose of that like why did they do that I don't know the Genesis I I think it's really more about um School Readiness at that age um I don't know the full Genesis behind interesting by the mandate that's interesting I'm gonna look into that that yeah yeah both of my kids were the cutoff date so it's interesting yeah yeah my daughter's November too so she's gonna get caught in it so I I should read up on it yeah yeah interesting um right I have a question how much does the study cost how often typically do you do studies I I understand that we did it for the pandemic and but how often typically would you you know prior to this were these studies um done yeah I haven't gotten the quote yet
057from the demographer um so I'll have that number in November um yeah and I think Kevin I I think we're legally required to do one at a regular rhythm I don't know exactly I believe we're required to do it every five years um I'm not sure who asked the question but I think this is our I think this is the fourth one that has been conducted since I've been in a district and and I think mostly attributed to our growth um and I believe the first two we had outperformed so significantly you know we were continuing to try to get a better handle on our growth I think slam came much closer this this last study I think they came much closer to our actual numbers um but you know again given the kindergarten mandate
058we're really concerned we want to make sure whether it's at pre-k or candy guard we want to make sure that we are appropriately staffed um and resourced So when you say that slam came in close are they predicting what it's going to be or like oh yeah the numbers lined up or is it like a validation like what does this study um enable you to do that you wouldn't be able to do if you didn't have it other than verify if they were close or not at a certain point yeah they'll they'll go out eight years and they'll say okay you're starting in 2023 here's how many kids we think are going to be in ninth grade in 2029 and they'll give you every year along that step so you can you know and it
059you know it's sometimes it's a it's a pretty consistent trajectory you know when other districts do this a lot of them are going down you know the the you know the I remember we had a slide budget book a couple years ago where Connecticut as a whole they're they're you know they're going down but us and I think Bridgeport and New Haven there's a few districts that continue to grow you know so um yeah not yeah we we go up and you know and then you know these things also inform um our ability to do construction so you know for that Bond money to come back to us for the new Academy we have to show these demographic studies to say look we do need this extra space this is you know this is what
060we're projecting in a couple years time and then that goes into the application to to get the bond money back um so without that you know the the you know there has to be that you know kind of proof that this is a necessary use of funds right okay all right so obviously we would comply probably with what would be um required but if we were to do another study you're saying that we would have a better um handle you feel on the numbers yeah and as Kevin mentioned you know the the ground kind of shifted beneath us you know so um you know the the last study showed to be to come up a little short you know we exceeded the study so we have to say okay here's the current number it's higher
061than your last trajectory so you know that needs a revision but now also this this kindergarten rule in place when when are those kids gonna gonna show up and in what grade you know so where do we need to add you know is it a high school teacher is it a middle school teacher you know right right yeah okay and you'll let us know what that costs it should be similar to what it was yeah yeah I should have I should have a quote in a week or two I was I was on the phone with them uh just yesterday so thank you and Mike Michelle I just wanted to also point out for everyone on the call um giving because I think Julie had raised this point earlier um given that slam just completed
062a study um I am hopeful actually that they can do kind of an abbreviated version of it um so they can really explore this kindergarten impact uh for us as a district and so we can get some more information from them and update on this this committee um and then you know eventually the board um and and find out what we learned okay thank you Kevin now okay so the last item here uh we're bouncing back to number four now which is the bond projects and the the knee ask report list which is where we ended our last sites and Facilities group last year so let me share which one is it here we go oh that's not it it's all right there we go okay so I I asked Antonio um if you would
063just provide me a memo that updated all the different projects that they were working on um and if you recall there are um uh seven projects in well I'll just walk through these because they they don't fall that cleanly so um the number one project was decreased crowding in the hallways of Danbury in the hallways which was going to be alleviated via the Danbury Career Academy this was part of the niask report so demolition of construction has been completed they're in phase two um and they are on track for completion by August of 25. we're hoping it's a little bit earlier than that so we have time to get the desks and everything else in there too and help people get situated in their rooms and offices so um the second one is uh uh
064repair replacement of the elevators Rich do you remember offhand was this the DH this was the DHS elevators right yes and and all of the elevators were replaced however they had an issue with e elevator that a piston went and I I know public buildings they've rewarded the contract the lead time on the Piston is six to eight weeks so it probably won't get repaired until November yeah thanks Rich that was in the E building did you say e did I hear that yes thank you um so the third one here was science lab improvements uh we were meeting and I think we shared these uh we talked at length about this um this one last uh last meeting too um the the schematic drawings the labs have been completed um Grant application has been
065completed and um construction is anticipated to take place over two summers so this one will start next summer in 24 they'll get some of the labs done and then have them completed in 2025. um so the idea here was that the high school was going to be getting upgrades uh sort of roughly on on you know on a parallel track with the opening of The Academy so students who are in an academy at the current Danbury High School you know don't feel like certain kids are getting you know fancy new shiny science labs because they're over at the new Cardis building so everybody gets you know gets you know new facility seasoned um and equipment and everything so all those all those academies can can be on par with one another um Health Services improvements
066um Rich did you mention this one in your summer updates I didn't uh but that was completed over the summer um it's a nice uh new space the nurses seem to be happy with it and uh yeah so yeah that will turn out nice yeah this this Antonio really moved it uh moved this one for us um yeah they did it all over the summer and I don't know if you're ever in the old nurses station but it was it was just kind of awkwardly set up and you know it's a nurse's office so this private conversations happening and there just wasn't a good way to divvy that up so they they sort of moved some of the walls and it's just it's just such a better um way now for for confidentiality and allowing
067students to to have those conversations and get the consult they need uh number five bathroom improvements this was also an e-wing uh adjacent to the gym Lobby that was completed this summer um six with the steam pipe evaluation um this this yeah this one's begun and um we're still trying to get a better understanding of exactly what the work ahead is going to be but um that's that's in progress and and uh well be getting more updates on that as as it progresses um HVAC study uh they've begun work to perform a conditions assessment on the existing mechanical units and there's a few other projects down King Street primary roof that was completed this summer um I haven't seen it I haven't been up there but I hear it looks good so much I don't
068know if you got a chance to to see was it tart or it was just tar right yeah it was uh it was a Hot Tar roof yeah and uh Ada accessibility to the bleachers um so this one is scheduled for 2024 they'll be replacing um some of the sidewalk and pavers that that are around the athletic Stadium just to make it more handicap accessible uh hayestown Elementary elevator so um this one the design is supposed to be completed this year with construction to start in 2024. um this is a much needed upgrade to Haze town if if you know the school that's it's sort of built into the Hillside and um and they do all have a lot of special needs students there so this will just make uh uh life so much easier
069there once they have that ability for kids to go up and down and they don't have to try to be creative with scheduling to keep kids all on one floor so um this will be a very very much needed addition to that school and then 11 here this is the Pre-K Center um city council has authorized the mayor to begin negotiations for the purchase uh at 14 Grandville and these negotiations are ongoing um we'll be getting more updates on that as they as they come I expect this to be sorted out in the next few months so we'll keep getting updates from from the city on that one all right any questions about the ask report um okay well I guess I just I didn't know much about the Pre-K Center so I mean obviously
070the hour is seven so all you know I'm sure I'll ask you about that that's interesting I just don't really know too much yeah but I'm I'm interested to learn more about that yeah in short it's a it's a building um on Granville that um we currently lease and uh we're looking to expand their our operations in the building yeah and that's all starting okay great yeah all right does anybody have any questions before you know are we in the meeting is good well I want to thank everybody so much um especially Kevin and Rich and Mike for coming um and updating us and um if everyone is good um any emotion to um close to adjourn the meeting I'll make that motion Madam chair the motion by L is there a second I'll second
071that and that's Bridget thank you Bridget okay