001Good morning and welcome to our special meeting of the facilities committee. Today is Thursday, March 26th. We have an exciting agenda today to discuss the middle school Middlesex Middle School Educational Specifications. I'll turn it over to Dr. Byrne. Well, I'm going to pass it over to our facilities team um and our uh director of of finance and operations, Rich Furl, and uh Eric Ryer from KGMB who has been leading the work on the new study. Well, thanks for having me. Is this live? Can you hear me? You're good. Uh we're going to be able to put this up on the screen? Hold on for a minute. We're getting there. Okay, forward one. Point it this way. I see it this way. You need to go up there. Okay. We're good. Well, thanks for having me
002this morning. We've done a a lot of work over several months. Our focus this morning is really going to be talking about the educational specifications, but there was a process that led up to that as well. So, uh this slide right here just talks a little bit about the existing facilities on campus. Uh the total building area today is 195,000 square feet. Uh the building was built in in two primary uh phases. The original building 1925, which faces uh Hollow Tree Ridge Road, and then the addition that was uh completed in 2000, 26 years ago. And the total acreage on campus is 16 1/2 acres. And we when we're talking about uh improvements to the building, we also wanted to talk about uh what our replacement would be if you were just to build rebuild
003the existing building today um in the existing amount of square footage, and it would be about a almost a $200 million project. It would be a very expensive building to build if we were to tear the whole building down and reconstruct it. So, any sort of alterations and planning should be thought in terms of that context. Just in terms of the work completed to date, uh the step one was a facilities assessment report. That was done by architects and engineers. And that basically is a physical of the building. If you go to a doctor, the doctor tells you everything that's right and wrong with you. That's pretty much what we do for our building. The architects and engineers go in and do that. From there, we do a master planning effort, which takes that information,
004and we also sit down and we talk about the educational program of the building and what's deficient term what's working and what's deficient in terms of the existing spaces that are out there. So, that is done in collaboration with district and building level administrators. We do interviews. We do a lot of walk-throughs. Uh this is a back and forth over several months uh throughout this process, and that culminated back, I believe, in late November where we had an initial Board of Ed discussion and a review. Uh the public was aware of the meeting, and from that we we received some additional feedback. That process started uh the educational specifications. And what are Ed Specs? I'll refer to them as Ed Specs. I'll refer to them as educational specifications, one in the same. It's what's necessary.
005It's it's document that talks about everything that's needed in the building. Um both existing and proposed. Talks about each of the individual spaces, the systems within the building. And ultimately, it's a document that's used to submit to the state for grant funding. Uh this slide right here shows uh the existing building and what could be an addition on the east side of building or the left side as you're looking at the picture. And when we get into the educational specifications and talk about the different portions of it, uh the last section talks about community use. And so, our our school buildings are obviously for educating our children, but it's really a community asset as well. And so, when we're talking about some of the spaces and and rooms in the building that get used after
006hours, how do you access them without necessarily providing access to the overall building and all the other classrooms, etc., in the building. So, planning schools, really you want to look at this from multiple angles, and one of the angles will be how do we provide access for special events? community use What is the practical definition of educational specification? There There's a a very sort uh formalized one, but the practical one is the written justification of the educational needs for the project. Description of the educational activities which will be supported by the building at its completion. Text describing the types of spaces which will best accommodate the program requirements. Complete text version of the proposed building project, which uh has been distributed to 72-page document at this point. And then a tool used by the design
007professionals to guide through the design phases. So, obviously, this is to be sent to the state for for grant funding, but ultimately, whoever your design professionals are that are going to to execute this project with with the school district and administrators, they will utilize this as kind of their their tool to really understanding what the purpose of the project was. And when we get into individual spaces, how those individual spaces are supposed to be equipment, finishes, furniture, technology, etc., will be in each of those rooms. Uh in the executive summary of the document, it talks about school district goals. This is just a short form. This is not dedicate specifically for the middle school. This is a district-wide set of goals. But goal number one is enhancing teaching and learning. Second, and each one of
008these in the document, it goes into much greater detail, but this is just kind of the headings for each. Two is fostering a culture that promotes wellness. Three is developing a balanced definition of student success through the portrait of the graduate. Four is expanding the professional capacity of staff. Five developing and enhancing systems to promote effective communication. Six improving school facilities for student student safety and access to learning. And seven is improving technology to support the teaching and learning process. The educational specifications are broken into There's an executive summary, and then it's broken into five different sections. Uh the first section, which is the learning and educational activities, is more [clears throat] of a general section that talks overview of uh the goals and what the different areas that are planned to be renovated and
009the different spaces within. It also It does start to go into how many additional spaces we need in each of the each of the areas. For example, general classrooms, when this building was originally built, it was designed for generally 900 students, and we have 1,100 plus or minus students today. I've been told that that 900 isn't necessarily completely accurate. There was a discussion at that point in the late 1990s uh that we needed to plan for expansion. There was a a portion of that project that was never built. That's our understanding. And so, where we're proposing this addition, actually at that time, there was discussions of of um planning an addition or addi- additional wing to accommodate additional classrooms at that time. So, the key recommendations, uh general classrooms, uh to have 50 general classrooms
010in total. And when we say general classrooms, all the subjects that are are met there is math, social studies, English, world language, health. Currently have 42. So, it's about an 18% increase, plus or minus, something like that. When we get into talking about uh there's three grade levels in the middle school, there's four sections per grade level. So, there's about 12 different uh sections total if you add that together. Typically, for uh the general classrooms, you multiply that times four because you have math, social studies, English, and world language, and that would give you 48 classrooms. And we have health. So, that's plus or minus how we accommodate and how we get to those 50 classrooms that that we need today. The science wing currently has eight. And um the the ask is for 12
011if it's the lab science classroom technology spaces. And those 12 classrooms, again, there's 12 sections. So, it's basically a plus or minus one per per uh section. The library and learning commons is a wonderful, beautiful, well-lit space that really needs to be reimagined. It needs to be more flexible. Uh the furniture and uh bookshelves, etc. They're very inflexible today. So, if you would uh plan to have some sort of event, board meetings, any sort of sort of um where you need to rearrange the room, it's very difficult. Uh the technology in the space really doesn't work for a multiple purposes. And and today, the way that we use libraries at global learning commons um is somewhat different. We need to have breakout spaces. We really need to have collaboration rooms where a a large group
012can break into smaller groups. People can and students or teachers can work together in spaces and not disrupt the other activities that are currently going on in that that room. The music and performing arts wing, currently, it's uh sort of uh landlocked in the middle of the older portion of the building. It accommodates uh approximately 400. Uh there's a couple seats that are sort of like Fenway Park where uh there's columns that obstruct the view a little bit. The sound system, the system, the lighting it's um that whole room, if it was maintained in its current place, would have to be completely uh redone. Uh there's a real ask for a larger auditorium. 400 seats really doesn't accommodate the needs of the middle school. And so, the proposal here is to actually construct a new
013as part of the addition, a new 800-seat auditorium. When you're talking about the performing space and music space, those two they they want to be together. They want to be adjacent to each other. So, if if you're moving the performing space, the theater auditorium to different different part of the building, you really want to move the music, band, orchestra, chorus all adjacent to that so that you're not lugging large equipment back and forth throughout the building. And that it really has a center so that the music instructors and performing arts instructors really have a place that they can uh efficiently work. The existing theater uh and I'm probably at some point going to turn this over to Kate to talk about the multiple uses that that existing theater can be. But uh there really is
014need for a multi-purpose, a large multi-purpose room for conferencing, for special um events, uh for indoor recess when uh the weather's not good. And for Yeah, th- this will be in the middle of the technology and art zone. You could see that there could be robotics events and all sorts of wonderful things that could occur in that that room. Fitness studios. Today, we have if you count the gyms as two uh PE stations each, uh you have five PE stations. Really, there's an interest to grow that by two to have seven PE stations. Uh the locker rooms are very lightly used today. Uh there is need to have small changing rooms, smaller changing rooms with a smaller quantity of lockers. Uh but that gives us the opportunity to convert a sizable portion of the boys
015and girls locker rooms into uh fitness spaces. We can take the weight room, which is upstairs, convert that upstairs room to a a really some more flexible space. The the weights uh make it fairly inflexible for multiple uses. We can move those weights downstairs to these to the locker room area, to these areas that we're calling new fitness spaces. Cafeteria and servery. Uh in terms of size, it's uh it's it's not terrible. The the plan here actually has provisions to to be able to expand into adjacent areas. But uh basically, there it's to make sure that the servery is as efficient as possible so students can get their lunch, eat their lunch, and not um be in line longer than they need to be. Uh lighting and things like that also need refreshing in that
016space. Special education has some some good dedicated areas uh for both ALC aim as well as special ed classrooms, which are dispersed amongst the the general use classrooms. There is some overall increase in space that's needed to really accommodate that program appropriately. Uh similarly, support service space. We have most of those spaces, but um in general, they're undersized. They're in small offices or large closet spaces as opposed to um having spaces that really right-size for the the the either one-on-one, two-on-one, three or four to six uh students that go into these rooms at any given time. And and finally, staff work rooms. Uh when this project was uh completed in in 2000, uh all three grades had dedicated staff work rooms. Because of the increase in population over the last 26 years, uh they've been
017repurposed for general use classrooms. They're not really sized for appropriately for general use classrooms, but they're being used. And the staff really um lost that space. So, uh part two of the Ed Specs is more of a detailed description of each of the individual individual spaces. This slide here just shows an example. We start talking about general classroom design. And then you go into all the specifics and key features. And it goes into the furniture, the technology in the space into a great much greater level of detail. And that is utilized um the section utilized for every different space in in the uh educational space in the building. So, I said we spent a lot of time uh both at the administration, the building administration, and the district administration level talking about the program, the
018need for expanded space, the need for renovated space. We talked about that this in a couple previous slides. This slide right here in blue is new construction. And then purple is existing renovated renovated space. This is the first floor plan. So, on the right side of the page, you can see that there's uh six science lab in the addition. There's six science labs with uh prep room space. And you can also see at the top of the page there, there's an 800-seat auditorium with a chorus room adjacent to it. Uh that addition is a two-story addition. So, you'll see on the second floor, at the lower level, some uh new construction spaces well. That portion of the site is level for the majority of it and then it slopes down. And so, we're actually taking
019advantage of that slope down. When you talk about an auditorium, uh this auditorium is planned to be a stepped floor auditorium. Uh And the beauty at this age group of a stepped floor auditorium is that the students who are on the stage need to to look up at the audience. And when you look up, you open your vocal cords and you project your voice better. Also, it has better sightlines from the audience to the stage. And those sightlines, if you have good sightlines, you typically have good hearing lines. So, uh the there's a great opportunity to take advantage of that. And also, for incoming services, uh whether it's equipment for the stage or etc., having a lower level there, um having having access at that, can alleviate some of the use of um the bus
020drop-off for incoming and outgoing services. So, that when that's used for recess during the day, uh we can still have product coming in and out of of campus. The second floor, similar to the first floor in term I I guess I didn't talk about the renovations here. But just very briefly, when we're moving science labs from the existing building to the to the uh addition, the existing science labs get converted to general use classrooms and uh staff work space. You can see that uh in the bottom left there, that's where the current theater is and where current band and orchestra. When we move that to the right side to the blue side of the page, that can be converted to art rooms. Currently, the art rooms are up on the third floor. This brings them
021down and puts them adjacent to where the technology labs are. There's a real synergy between those programs, getting those next to each other. And then having this multi-purpose space, again, when we're talking about robotics and all these wonderful things that that that whole zone becomes a very creative area for for the middle school. Right in the middle, you can see the library, uh learning commons. And that's it's a wonderful location. Should never move. It's right in the middle. It's the heart of the building. Uh it's right off the lobby. It's a perfect location for it. But it as we said, it does need to be reorganized. So, we do need to create collaboration space. And directly above that, you can see in the darker purple, that's where the locker rooms are. And the locker rooms
022will be reduced in size and then part of it converted to fitness space. On the second floor, similar to the first on the right, the new construction, there's the other six science labs. So, that is a total of 12. You can see there's a music room at that on that wing as well, as well as some prep room space and office space. Uh the purple on the darker purple on on this uh floor on the left, again, are science labs today that are being converted to general use classrooms. Uh Uh as well as the uh support services, looking at those spaces and making sure that they're right size for and appropriate for their use. On the far left there, there's uh two purple boxes, and those would be additional uh special ed classrooms. That is
023that left wing is where the existing ALC classrooms are. Plan to remain there. It's a it's a beautiful dedicated zone and uh very appropriate for that purpose. Uh third floor, just a couple of science labs that are being converted to general use classrooms in the classroom wing. And then on the far left there, there's a couple uh science and art rooms that are going to be converted to general use classrooms. So, uh that's um It's more minor work on the third floor. And you can see in the far right in the top corner there, that's the lower level. When you go to the main level, I I talked about the step floor auditorium, the lower level would be where the stage is, and also where band and orchestra could be, so they could be directly
024adjacent to uh the stage. Those rooms could also double as green rooms during performances. So, in terms of additional space, uh from general classrooms to 40 42 to 50, that's a neck gain of eight. Science labs from eight to 12, it's a neck gain of four. Special ed rooms, believe there's six today. Uh and that would be increased by two. Two additional gym, P, fitness spaces, and that additional multi-purpose room. So, there's approximately 17 additional educational spaces added to the building. Part three of the ed specs talks about the different building systems, the mechanical systems, electrical systems, plumbing systems, uh technology, uh uh fire protection, etc. And and goes through all of those. And as part of the facilities assessment, we went through and and there were key recommendations from that assessment of infrastructure, which
025included roofing, masonry, some mechanical uh improvements, especially related to air conditioning, uh the building management system, which operates all that like all systems in in the building, mechanical systems need these to be replaced. There's electrical work. There's some architectural finishes throughout. And then we mentioned furniture and technology and um as well as main entrance. The main entrance creating um a space that's uh more of a a welcome center security office there. Uh and uh a secure zone as you come into the building, which you have today, but you don't have a canopy out front. So, also uh degree of protecting from the elements as you're coming up to the building. Part four is site development. That section talks about any sort of modifications or changing your changes you're planning to the the balance of the
026campus. Uh at this point, uh the playing fields are are have not been discussed, and it's they're remaining as is on this campus, at least as far as the educational specifications are are called out here. And then in terms of vehicular circulation and parking on campus, also the plan is to to maintain the the current uh layout of vehicular circulation and parking. So, just want to bring that to everybody's attention. If that's something that needs to be modified prior to submitting to the state, that would be something that we would want to talk about. This again just shows uh a little bit more globally where that addition is in relationship to the existing building. And then part five is community uses. How do we use this building when it's not being used by the school?
027And it's it's really important to be able to because everybody in the community pays for the building, everybody should have some amount of access to to our public buildings. So, uh this rendering right here shows that addition on the left side, and that that could be a special event entrance. So, that could provide us access to the to the theater as well as to the cafeteria for outside use. We And and then creating doors within the building that close off hallways so that you only have access to this. Obviously, when you provide something like this, you also have to provide other means. So, the bathrooms, for example, will have to be in this zone. Uh the more public zone, so for their use. But this this will provide as well as by the way, the
028gymnasiums also have have access to here so that we can open up some of the portion of the building without opening up the entire building to Uh and then very briefly, the appendix. And then this uh is the part of the presentation that we presented in in November to the board. It just basically says that the buildings are well maintained. This isn't about uh maintenance of the building. It it's about the the building is now The entire building is now 25 years old. Part of the building is 100 years old or almost 100 years old. And there's no health and life safety issues here. Uh really, it's it's about just improvements, program, and um some deferred maintenance items that over time that when you do a capital project, you put both the the infrastructure in
029with the program related things, and that's that's uh very smart way to do it. Uh when we were looking when we're looking at facilities assessments, we put it in priorities. Priority one would be life safety. There was no priority one items listed as part of this as part of that report. There are priority two and priority three items, which were included as part of the budgeting for this project. And um then there's a category B, which is more associated with uh either desirable upgrades, things that you'd like to do, but aren't necessarily associated with infrastructure and or program. So, uh the roofs, some of the roofs are 25 plus years old, and so they're at the end of their useful life. Architecturally, some of the interior upgrades associated with some of the spaces that we
030previously talked about. Mechanically, mentioned that the air conditioning of the overall building, there's uh today that most of the classrooms and offices use window units as opposed to a central system. And then there's a series of other items that are all part of that uh facility facilities assessment report that was previously uh presented. There's nothing uh electrically that is a high priority. It's a priority It's a priority three work in terms of upgrades. And uh last night I updated this slide, but this is the older version. What was put on the slide last night was a big red sign that basically said that this slide we're in the process of talking to O&G, who is your construction manager on your current projects. They're very interested in participating in this early grant application process, putting together
031a budget, which is going to be required to be submitted. It's an Excel spreadsheet. There's actually two different documents that are uh cost-related documents that need to be submitted to the state. And before we get too excited about this project and too ready to send this to the state, it's really important to make sure that we have the right number. And and then talk about it. So, um some information was sent to to them this week. Uh we're getting together with them early this next week. We're going through this whole project. I'm not sure they'll have a number for the April 8th board meeting. I would expect it's going to be in April, but it probably will be after that. So, when we're talking I assume that O&G may request be part of the meeting
032on the 8th. I think it would be good for them to to talk about the process that they go through at that meeting and then the probably the following board meeting we'd be able to update what actual number would be. Um when we in November we we said that the project that we were looking at and this is from our estimating is is in the 85 to 95 million dollar range. Um again we're going to get a second opinion on that and then we will share that and talk about it collectively. But at the beginning of this presentation said that a replacement project would be about a 200 million dollar project. If we're replacing it and we're providing the additional program space that number gets even larger. So, that number on the screen here is
033240 million dollars. So, we're talking about a big number to replace and that's why it's so important to compare. How do we make the existing building, which is a good building, it's been well maintained, it functions well for the school. There's some aspects of the building that programmatically and infrastructure wise that should be addressed. So, um this should look at through that lens. Um well, that's the cover of this 72 page Ed Spec document. Um and I'm missing a slide here. Okay. So, I'm just going to I guess I'll just talk to it. And that it will be submitted afterwards. I wanted to talk about the grant application process. So, in front of you some of you have a black and white version of what uh you can pull off of the state website. But
034in just in general terms this submission for grant has has to happen before June 30th depending given year because this is a priority project, which means it's not just a small infrastructure project. It's a more larger capital project and goes through a a more detailed process to get approval by the state. We never recommend submitting it on June 30th because that's the very last day and then if there's a whole bunch of school districts that are all trying to submit at the last minute their system probably will go down and then we won't be able to submit it. And there isn't a a a period of time that you can submit it on the 1st or 2nd. It's not like uh mail-in ballots or something like that. It's a different subject. So, what do we
035have to do between now and mid-June if we're going to put a project together this year? Doesn't mean that we have to. We might slow it down. But if we were to accelerate this and get this process and like grant submitted by by mid-June the Board of Ed needs to review and approve the Ed Specs. So, on April 8th for example, we'll have that review meeting. Uh you put together meeting minutes there. Those meeting minutes need to be approved as well and also part of the submissions for the grant. So, you can't just approve it and then submit it the next day. You actually have to have another meeting where you approve the meeting minutes. Uh the Board of Selectmen approval to apply for and accept grant. There needs to be a resolution by the
036town and meeting minutes from the town. Typically, that's also Board of Finance is part of that, Board of Select. We need to establish a building committee. So, there needs to be a resolution by the Board of Ed and minutes that a building committee has been created. There's a list of names that are people participating in that. Authority for preparation of schematic design and outline specification. So, what does that mean? It means that you're going to plan on this fall going ahead with doing schematic design on this project. Doesn't mean you're doing full design you're not yet doing construction documents, but you're you're going out to hire architects, hire construction managers and start that building pro pro that design process. And that also needs to be a resolution and then meeting minutes. Uh proof of local
037funding. So, um again, that's at the town level. It's a referendum, meeting minutes that to talk about how you would actually go ahead and pay pay for this project. Um preparation of an Excel and PSCCD, which is public school construction something. Uh uh cost estimate. So, there's two cost estimates that have put together. We just talked about O&G getting involved in doing cost estimate. There's two ways to put that together. I know Rich knows how to do this and probably can talk at great length about it. We need to have a full district enrollment report. Um and then we prepare the state grant. And that's led by the school district. We assist. I believe that Rich has uh well, been the one in the past that typically has has led that or assisted. Um it's
038a pretty it's a 25 page document where you have to fill out all sorts of things all along. We provide some information. O&G would provide some information. School district um does the the lion's share of it. And then that would get submitted at some point in June. After it gets submitted the state review uh of of the grant starts. That typically uh they start reviewing in the fall. So, September through November they they look at at all the different grants. They make sure that your grant application is complete. They may ask for additional information. It might be a little bit of back and forth. Get a notification of completion. And the DS uh submits prior as priority list for legislative review. And that happens by February 1st. So, we've submitted in June. This thing is
039going through the state review process. And it finally makes it to to the governor's desk in in in February. And uh then there are and the legislative review. That happens then and they they determine which projects get funded and which projects don't. And then we would find out about our grant approval likely that spring. So, that's the overall process. And again, this this handout here kind of goes through those steps as well. There follow following that process being new to this in the state. That approval comes in. What happens after that? And when would construct you know, actual design construction docs when when would you envision construction? So, we're looking at approval if we submit by this June 30th, potential approval in the spring of 2027. So, scoping that out time wise, is this a
040'28 '29? So, in the fall you'd be selecting your architects. You would be doing the schematic design. By the spring time you would have full schematic design. You'd have cost estimating, etc. As soon as you receive that approval, if this project's approved sometime in the spring, then you would authorize that design firm to continue with the design development and construction document process. That typically is about three months each. So, it's probably six months. So, sometime in the fall you would have a set of construction documents or late 2027. It's all 2027. There's different steps along the way where you meet with state the state and go through the projects at each phase. And uh those can be quite they they're fairly lengthy meetings. Um and you need to sort of contact them in advance and
041make sure that we can get on on their schedule to get reviewed when we need to get reviewed. Potentially by the end of 2027 you'd have a set of documents that were already for a bid And so in early 28 winter January through March of 28 we could bid this project out which is from our point of view the best time to bid a project is early in the year. From you you know that's your past projects you tend tend to get better numbers in in January and February because the contractors out there are looking for work and by by May and June they have their summer full of other projects and if they get if they throw a big number and they get the project great if they don't it's okay they're going to
042be fine. So they tend to be a little bit hungrier earlier in the year. So if we can if we can hit that schedule that'd be great. Part of it has to do with the state process. So there's a little bit of unknown there. But the goal would be to bid it in in winter 28 and start construction summer of 28. The way that this building is planned here similar to some of the elementary school work the plan would be to build the new construction first finish the new construction in the summer time yes we can do interior renovations but summer 28 summer 29 there'll be interior renovations done. But that from the summer 28 through the summer 29 that period of time would be the new construction which would give us some ability if
043we had to do work during the school year to to move people into the new and be able to transform those existing science rooms into general science general classrooms etc. things like that. I just I just want to follow up on the funding so um because we have to have proof of local funding and because there's no way the state is going to pay for all of this and when we did Ox Ridge um it was really more of like a reimbursement question and it was like what percentage is the state going to contribute to this but the way that this conversation just went made it sound as if if the state doesn't approve our project for funding that we wouldn't then go forward with it but but really this is the town paying for
044this building and the state potentially contributing to some portion. Is that correct? I I I might pass this to to Riz but yes um the the [clears throat] town pays for the project state reimburses but when certain pieces of it are complete. Right. They they will reimburse at your rate your state reimbursement rate which that always is. So if you have a if we we talked about a 90 million dollar project so at 20% 20% of that 90 million dollars which would be 18 million dollars there will be aspects of the project that probably don't qualify for reimbursement. >> Right. Right. [clears throat] >> it's 18 million maybe it's 15 million. So of that 90 15 million could possibly be funded would be funded by the state. And so the taxpayer Right. So I guess
045my question with the timing then is because the state would be contributing a small portion of it and I feel like with Ox Ridge we were talking more at like 7% because the qualifications are an important piece. I'm not sure if everyone's familiar with that but the state will reimburse a certain classroom size. So if we want to build a bigger classroom size we absolutely can but the state is not going to contribute to that. So there could be quite a few aspects of this in terms of expanded lunch or theater like whatever. So my my question is really the with the timeline that you outlined it's it sounded like there would be a hold up that I'm not I guess I'm I'm not quite understanding why that would be if in the end you
046know it functions almost more like ECR where we're we're providing the services and then what we get back is what we get back and we hope for the best. Your question I'm sorry your question was >> my question is why are we waiting for state approval when it's really a reimbursement as opposed to approval? In the timeline. If if you don't wait you you don't get any reimbursement from the state. >> is the state's timeline for that. Okay. Thank you. That's thank you. So if we don't file there's zero chance of getting any money back. Correct? Oh well no that's obvious. I I more meant about like waiting for them to to approve it. We started. Okay got it. Thank you. So in a perfect world we'd be looking at opening fall of 29 with
047a renovated middle school. Is that You come straight to the updated >> [laughter] >> I I would A perfect world I mean I obviously >> I would expect that fall of 29 perfect world you're going to have that new construction portion open and you're still going to have some spaces in the building that you're going to go back and continue to renovate. Okay. And then that my follow up question to that then is on um the necessary improvements to the school such as roof and things like that can we wait until fall of 29 to complete all those or we have to move some of those up into capital projects and I don't know if that's a Nest one Eric who who is going to answer that. You don't have any priority ones. Which when
048we say prior one that that's a project that should be done in the next year two years tops. We're still we're talking about a project that potentially will will start in a couple of years. So the roof's it's not roof's past its useful life but it's not necessarily leaking or if leaking there it's easily patched. So we can live with the existing building for another two or three years. Kate's not particularly happy. >> [laughter] >> So even even if you were to put it in the capital budget the earliest the roof could be is two years cuz you're going to have to hire an architect to do the design you're going to have to do the yeah. >> Okay just trying to trying to understand >> where [clears throat] to put the garbage cans to
049put the water [laughter] in the hallways. We may just have to buy some more garbage. Right. That comes out of operating. Can we go back I have some questions about the the timeline piece of it and it sounds I don't want to use the word rush like there's still two months three months but it just seems like there's a lot to get done in those in the next few months. Um this is a question for Robin and for Eric. What communication has been done with the Board of Finance and Board of Selectmen and do they know this is coming and can we get on their agendas? Um The the town definitely knows this is coming. Um I've we've had conversations with the head of the Board of Finance with the First Selectman the First Selectman
050discussed it and costs around this range in his presentation to the RTM about the town's debt service and financial position earlier in the year. That was back in the fall after uh the first presentation with with Eric and KG&D so it's certainly not I mean I would say there hasn't been official memos and documentation and things like that but there's certainly a high level of awareness that we're in this process. Yeah that's right. Yeah so I actually want to go back even further than that. Um I I do feel this process has been very rushed and actually really curious about what the process even to get to this point has been. We had a presentation you know a a couple of months ago with what in my opinion was way too far developed um potential
051for what this renovation might be and um you know I know for myself and at least a few other board members there was a bit of a like whoa like where did this come from? So here we are today without you know at least board conversation in between that with Ed Specs and I'm just curious about how we got here and what the process going forward is to refine these specs. So you know for example you had said Eric that there was a real ask for a larger auditorium. From who? I I I have not like been aware of that ask so I'm curious to understand what the metrics behind that are what the data [clears throat] is. You know like we talked about seating capacity but that's it. There's no data on number of
052events and what types of events they are. You know to me it sounds like a larger auditorium and we're talking about theater productions that sounds extracurricular to me not curricular. So that's a really important consideration for for this board to think about how are we funding and thinking about academics in the school day and then what are nice to haves and what are potential extracurricular and who are those nice to haves being driven by? Is that by student need? For example I'm curious about these plans and how they support the possible expansion of elective choice. This has been a conversation that has been building over several years that we're hearing from students and and and and there there is data on the some of the rollback of the the arts that we've had in elementary
053the limited options that we have in middle school and then once kids get to high school we see an explosion and that is the group of students with the highest number of enrollment. I mean essentially those are students who are voting with their class schedules for what they want to take classes in and those are in arts and we're not talking about that at all in this program about how we might expand arts. We're just talking really about science and extracurricular theater. So, I think that we have a lot more discussion about what the programmatic use is, how it relates to curriculum, and what the drivers um and desires and who those are coming from. Um and then I have other questions, but I'll pause there. I think those are great points, and I think
054that the community deserves to understand why we're doing this project and what the the significant purposes of it are. And I I think from an educational point of view you probably should Sure. Um one of the things that Colleen Thompson and I spoke about when we talked about the benefit um and need for a new auditorium was not limited to the extracurricular focus, but actually thinking about where are the performance spaces that our ensembles, not only at MMS, but across the district are able to perform. Right now those ensembles are sharing the high school auditorium, which is heavily used over the school year um and the access to that is limited of course by the high school needs first. So, thinking about if we have a forest concert band concert, um those all take place
055at the high school, which means in order to rehearse as a full ensemble ahead of those concerts, we need to move equipment over, we need to bus students, and interrupt learning in order to do those things. Um and then operate around the entire all the buildings' calendars. Having the additional auditorium as Eric referenced as a community space enables more flexibility not only in the MMS programming of those curricular items, but also in theoretically the five elementary schools to have additional flexibility and access um in creating in that programming. So, my my counter to that would be um why does every ensemble have to happen in an auditorium? And how are we looking at using gym space? Um you know, how are we looking at using the town hall auditorium? I can't imagine that our only
056option currently is the high school and that our only future option is building an enormous and expensive um theater at the middle school. So, I think that my my main point here is that this is a major undertaking, and I'm not sure that we've had the adequate discussion to be as far along as we are. And I would just follow up that, you know, I'm sure it's troublesome to have to load gear and move buses and things like that, but you know, does that does that cost us millions of dollars a year compared to this build? I don't think so. So, having some data around that, number of shows, number of times, cost, believe an idea of what the difference is would certainly be helpful to support it. Sure, I'll add that um our current
057auditorium, if we want to have a grade level assembly in there, we are setting up chairs um we barely fit as a grade. And as the class sizes are anticipated to get larger when we look at the enrollment study, um that room is really not able to house a grade and the adults who need to supervise them in order even to sit in an assembly um if we have an author visit, for example. So, the space isn't What about the gym? Well, the gym doesn't have the same acoustical um qualities as an auditorium, of course. And then you get into where are you relocating those classes to during the school day? So, so these are things that would be really helpful for the board to see. Like this could be a very simple table that
058shows us scheduling constraints, that shows us what does it take in order to utilize a gym? What are we talking about in terms of labor and time to set up chairs? What are we talking about with an auditorium? So, this is my point about looking at alternatives and being able to compare data and metrics with this is what we could do, this is the alternative we're proposing as opposed to going full steam ahead into a multi-million dollar project. I would also be curious to know how many schools have auditoriums. My middle school certainly didn't. Um you know, like what's what's the standard in terms of what we expect a middle school to have. I I I going back to our conversation in November, it seems like this renovation has thoughtfully taken into consideration expansion of
059the arts programs and redoing those arts and making sure that there are spaces that, you know, the music being closer to the to the auditorium and um you know, I I don't think it's I don't think our school district should be what the standard is. I mean, I think we should be doing what what is right for our community, and our community to me, I mean, my own personal opinion, and I said this to Eric before the meeting, like I don't think the auditorium's big enough. I want to have a chance to have all three grades sit together and become a community. So, I mean, I I think I've I've heard conversation around why curricularly we are the auditorium is is needed. So, um So, I I was I would just push back on that
060because I have yet to see a curricular need for it. So, we have band and orchestra and choir as part of our curriculum, but you know, this it's middle school is not like high school where there are competitions and performances and auditions. So, that would be interesting to know, like yes, I'm sure that there is a portion of a grade in attending a concert twice a year, but again, that comes back to like what other spaces? Is this the only thing? My my big issue with this, and I think it's really important, is we need to be really careful about the specificity of the language that we're using to make sure that it's accurate because this theater proposal does not enhance all the arts at middle school. This offers an opportunity for extracurricular theater and
061then for music. It does nothing for art classes. This does nothing for um anything that's not performance based. And that's what that's part of my issue where I think that this district has been neglecting non-performing arts for a number of years. >> We're we're making new arts spaces. Like where we're increasing the arts curriculum by, you know, they're enhancing the arts curriculum by moving these those darts to creating a new arts wing. So, I I don't I don't necessarily agree with what you're saying, but can I ask another question about Well, so Mr. Like it's it's not Sorry, I'll I'll not Yeah, you're right. It's not it we need to look at the dollar amount of what we're investing is my point. Like this isn't this is a very inequitable investment into performing arts in
062my opinion. So, Mr. Chair, I apologize. We're going to have to drop. Um I guess I would just say what I'm what I'm hearing here in this conversation is that, you know, help us help you. Like there seems to be a real need for some data here. Um I thought this presentation was very much a rehash of what we saw previously. Like I think there's real desire here for the board to get more information and be able to dig in and be able to support this. Um I didn't see it today. So, you know, I'm sure we can have some different conversations at the board level, but I think we just need some more data to support this one way or the other. So, thank you all for your time and the presentation, and um
063I'll catch you up later. Thank you. Thanks, Steve. Thanks, Jim. Thanks, Steve. Please, sir. Um can we go back to the traffic flow and why a traffic study was not or is a traffic study included in this? Because that's a major bone of contention in parent middle school parents' probably your your daily life, too. So, that's why I I brought that up. talking about section four is that there really hasn't been discussion in terms of fields or traffic. And for the there's an a challenge in terms of parent traffic. So, Is And is that if there were to be a traffic study, just so I can get Am I right? Would that Does that need to be completed by June 30th or to be part of the overall If if we are planning to do
064work on site, and that's part of the plan, yes. And how or enrich Eric, how quickly does if we were to say, "Please do a traffic study." Is that possible in this time frame? They can take a while to get it done. How long? So, Well, typically you're going to go out for an RFP for few different traffic groups to come in. It usually takes a couple weeks. Uh you're going to award it. So, I would say it's probably a month before they're they're starting their work in in that traffic study is going to take a couple weeks to do. So, it's probably a two-month exercise before we have the traffic study. Probably will do. Um just making the availability of the company. So, to me, I mean, I I think I worry about pushing
065this forward without doing a traffic study. Yeah. Um So, maybe that's that's a I don't know. That I'm more concerned about that than I am the the curricular aspect of Is that The questions, comments? >> Oh, I have Yeah, please. Please. Um the the property, the senior center property that's town property below there, that's not included in here. Again, Robin and Eric, has that been discussed with the town? Do they Is that off limits to us? Is that or you're not talking about that at all? That was not part of the scope Okay. to discuss. The properties available is underutilized right now. Whether it's converted for parking, for additional play space, playing fields, or another purpose is the town needs to discuss how they want to use it. >> Yeah, I mean I can see
066that overlapping with the traffic study and having that property already available to use that property or not because that could make and I I know that there's some agreements with the residents of Edgartown so it's strictly to What wasn't part of it 30 years ago, but it was a long exercise talking about campus infrastructure and traffic. And so that's where the bus drop-off was created below so it alleviate some of the traffic on Hollyridge. Kate. Yeah, so I I think beyond the question of of if that parcel was in play and is is the impact on the community um and you know, to Sarah's point I think that these two things do speak to each other. There's one there's the the traffic on Middlesex and surrounding, but there's also what is the impact on the
067on the neighborhood and the the residents of Edgartown and who live, you know, behind the middle school. And and those residents, you know, they they are impacted daily by the current situation um and I would I would hope that as a town we're considering you know, all of the implications and aspects of that. So Eric, if you could speak a little bit to how you see this expansion behind the middle school as impacting the neighborhood that lives behind it. Sure. >> [clears throat] >> The the way that I understand it the way it's used today is strictly for bus traffic and for building services. So incoming the food, outgoing waste. Uh the that probably wouldn't change at all. I expect if this plan was to go ahead as as shown here uh that the bus
068drop-off loop would would be maintained. Access to the cafeteria in terms of incoming food and outgoing waste would still be at that upper level. I know that there's been talks about can we reduce that on that upper level and potentially put it to the lower level. But it's it's the same services that would be coming in um whether um it regardless of of whether this project is done. Uh the only advantage to having this lower level would be that potentially we could alleviate some of the traffic that's happening on playground um during the school >> But what about the buildings themselves? Do you are you going to have to take down trees? Is it going to change the views from the homes? You know, what is the impact of um like how far back are
069the construction trucks and Uh well post construction uh um some of the trees on that hillside would come down. Um that that's a pretty heavily wooded area all the way back to to the residents over on the street there. Um the science classroom addition basically is there's a an existing lawn space on that side of the building and it would go to the edge of that lawn. So very little tree removal would be happening because of the science Sorry, when you say that are you talking town lawn or private um resident lawn? No, it's the prop school around the side of the school. Yeah. On the backside of the school there is an access driveway and it's just open grass space that just gets mowed as part of the school property. >> Okay. Uh I
070don't think we have I I think your question is an excellent one and I think that we should show a pre-construction and post-construction site plan that would show the amount of disturbance. >> I feel it's happening here, right? That's right. Uh there'd be some additional more um disturbance and steep slope so there'd be a whole discussion on steep slopes associated with the auditorium as it steps down the hill. Uh then your other question the associated with that light uh Yeah, and just like the >> The only the only light that would be on on that side of the building would be any security light that would be on the building. Uh there is currently a driveway that loops around for for building access. I would think that we would want to maintain a driveway that
071wrapped around the building for both emergency and maintenance purposes. How far down the hill does the school property Where's the property line? You know, it's much farther than this picture. Okay. So there there is a lot Because that's a that it's all the town property that's that we're up against. It's the town property. And going back to parking and what is the current parking capacity at this middle school? Does anyone know? Just part of official parking spaces, not lawn and And what is the the rule of thumb for the auditorium? How how many Is there a rule that you need to have X number of parking spaces for X number of seats? Is there Do you need like 400 spaces for an 800 person auditorium? I don't know. How does that work? There's no real
072rule of thumb, but yes, it's it's usually one space for two seats. Okay. One let's say one to two or one to three. So if you have an 800 seat auditorium, you'd be able to somehow accommodate 400 somewhere between 280 and 400 depending on whether you're using a a two or three to one ratio. Okay. >> We have 170 general parking spaces with seven ADA compliant parking spaces. >> to me that becomes a problem for going 800 that we don't have, you know, some That goes back to that property. Exactly. >> Perfect parking lot there. >> [laughter] >> All right. Well, it also doesn't that doesn't account for where the buses are. So that could be used as overflow parking. Yeah, yeah, yeah, the loop here. The loop, yeah. But still just trying to understand
073our Uh it's it's a good point. You need to basically plan. So if you have a special event for 800, how are you going to facilitate that on campus? And to the point of, you know, disrupting neighbors and community the the neighborhood around it. I am part of that neighborhood around it. I live directly across the street from the middle school. I knew I was buying a house across from the school um and I think that's part of you know, we we we have to do what's right for the town. Yeah, so I used to live in that neighborhood, but I lived in a in a very different neighborhood than you did cuz I lived on the other side and it's wildly different depending on where you are and you know, the town did make
074an agreement with the Edgartown residents about the buses. And it it needs to be honored and considered and we would be very remiss of our duties at a as elected officials if we were not considering the impacts of our decisions on the town broadly. Um we cannot be um myopic in our intentions here. We absolutely need to be thoughtful and considerate as well as providing ample opportunity for town residents to speak to us and tell us their concerns because there are only you know, the number of us at the table are only providing a that limited number of perspectives and there are infinitely more um in this town. So I do think that the middle school is in need of renovations and um I want to ensure that whatever we move forward with is a
075very thoughtful um and well-considered plan. So Dr. Byrne, I guess the question to you is for April 8th, are you comfortable with the questions that have been raised here to present to the board this plan? I mean, do you have Will you have answers to some of these questions before that? >> we'd have answers to some, but not to all and I need some time to sit with the team and make a decision on that. Okay. And I have one more. Please. So um my last question for today is about the deferred list. Um so you had mentioned in one of your slides that there are program-related projects, outdated finishes, and work that should be considered within 10 years. Can you please speak to the pros and cons of delaying that and how we might
076miss out on economies of scale um you know, how you might envision the project as proposed, you know, if we were to spend $100 million, would people walk in and feel like, "Wow, this was money well spent and this reflects like a modern updated school." or is this a never-ending project where there's people saying, "I can't believe you spent $100 million on this and we still have X, Y, and Z."? Well, from a program point of view, I I think that we are really addressing as you mentioned arts before. I think we are addressing all different activities for the all the different students whether it's art, music um with science and technology. And this project really is also about the common spaces, making sure that those common spaces are addressing the needs of this enlarged
077school that has grown over the course of the last 25 years. So the the cafeteria, the library learning commons, and the auditorium, and the gymnasium. So, those spaces are all part of this and and each one of those departments is being improved based on that. Uh the facilities assessment and the different infrastructure pieces, it's always best when when we're looking at capital improvement projects to try to bundle infrastructure projects in with program improvements, educational improvements. A towns aren't all that enthusiastic about spending money on infrastructure and when you bundle it with something that everybody wants, it it definitely makes for a project that's more interesting to more people. But also from an economy of scale, you have construction manager, builders out there and when you can bundle something together, you have a better economy of
078scale from a cost point of view, construction cost point of view. I mean, there are projects that are easy to pull out and do as a separate project. You do roofing projects all the time and you can pull that out and you can do a roofing project independent of anything else and you're probably not spending a whole lot more or less whether it gets bundled or or done independently. But then there there's other projects like a mechanical project which is a very invasive type of project where you need to take down ceilings and and lighting and and and put new ductwork and new piping in the building. And so, if you're going to do that, that's the time when if you need to do a lighting project or classroom upgrades, that's the time to do
079it collectively because you're in there already and and you're taking that ceiling down regardless, so that would be the time to replace it. So, I I guess the the answer is bundling for the majority of this is is probably the most economical. It obviously provides a a larger number and something that you have to think really carefully about. But from a a program point of view, I really think that this has been well thought out in terms of making sure that there's something for everybody in this building. Well, I would appreciate seeing what a detailed list of what that deferred list is. What it What specifically are the program related projects? What are What is the scope of the finishes and other work? It would be really helpful for us to say if we were
080to take care of it now, this is what the total cost the increase would be versus this is what we're leaving on the table and plan for differently. I think that having a clear picture of what we are and are not including would be very helpful. Absolutely. Thank you. And to having that clear picture, if we do want to go forward with the traffic study, what do you need from us to approve that? Uh we would have to do a budget transfer. That would be the first step. Yeah, we have to find how much you have available to do it. It would take a while for the report to be done. So, primarily it would be the funds that Okay. Yeah, if I can just echo Sarah's point, I I can't imagine moving forward with
081this without a traffic study. Mr. Chair, I don't know how we want to move that forward to the full board. I don't know how that works, but Yeah, I'm not sure either. >> [laughter] >> Um but I think we can make a recommendation that, you know, we would like to see that happen for sure. Yeah. That would be the way to move it forward and then we would bring it to the full board. And and to Key's point on on projects, I mean, in here was mentioning of window units, VRFs, UVs, new BMS. What What exactly are all those for mechanicals? What's a BMS? Building uh management system? >> Management system. Okay. And VRF and UVs? Variable air flow. It's It's a type of mechanical unit. >> Okay. And so so I guess >> moving
082from the window units that are there to a more centralized system that has overall controls that you can manage from a laptop for energy savings. >> Perhaps we could get a glossary in layman's terms for some of that. That would be helpful, too. Yeah. I'm just Thank you. That was my question. It's just this is quote unquote central air kind of thing as opposed to a window unit in each classroom. >> necessarily central air. It depends on the aspect of the building. It could be unit ventilators, so something that's in a room that's connected to a larger system, but it feels more like an individual room system. Yep. Thank you. We've been focused for the past few months on this educ- putting together this 70-page educational specification. That that's really been been the focus and
083that was what we really wanted to share with you today. And then also say, if you were to go ahead and do this grant process, it needs to happen very quickly or we say, you know what? There There's There's too much information. This is too important a project. We need to step back. Okay, we might lose a year here. We might have to start this next year, but we know all the different steps that need to happen. Does it only happen every June 30th? There's There's Is there a different >> Because it's a priority project, because of the scale and scope of it, it's only June 30th every calendar year. If you were to do a roofing project or something like that, you can you can every month there's a time where you can submit
084it. Not for a project of this scope. Please Sorry. I I just wanted to ask one question. If we made a budget transfer to do a traffic study in this fiscal year, would the work need to be completed by June 30th? It would need to be dated to move that and have the majority of it started. Okay. All right. Thank you. Kate, did you I just wanted to share that um Eric Thank you. I just wanted to share that I think Eric gave a very high-level overview of the contents that are in the ed specs and um there are There's a lot of information around some important um upgrades to the way the facility supports our aim and HLC programs in particular. Special education has been a very important part of this conversation. The need
085for some community spaces that don't exist right now has been an important part of this conversation just to echo that point. The loss of teacher workspace that was originally built into the building and some storage that have been turned into tiny classrooms and tiny offices have all been part of the conversations and throughout the several months that we've been working on this, um I and we have gotten feedback from the teachers who need it, from our team leaders, from our department chairs, so that all of those curricular voices have been um and the lives of the people who are in the building every day have really guided what we have emphasized in the detailed description in the 72-page document. Thank you. Um one last question for me and what what I'm the the current auditorium
086and we're going to use it as multi-purpose space. Is that the ed specs to me don't really define that area and is that more of the building committee's decision as to what that eventually ends up with? I mean, I I would say that um the building committee would give its blessing on a multi-purpose space. They're They're as a a former principal, there is nothing you need more of than multi-purpose space because you have many different from outdoor recess to suh indoor team indoor recess. Yeah. Indoor recess to teams wanting space for a celebration or an exhibition of their learning or or so. You just don't have enough of those spaces. So, what we have in all of our schools right now is we have gyms, we have cafeterias or cafetoriums. So, you you can be
087one or the other. You can't generally be both. And so, our our gymnasiums are programmed all throughout the day, so they're not great spaces to use for anything else. So, for example, at the elementary schools, we've had uh we had a lot of indoor recess this year. One of the frustrations uh for principals and for families is that we can't have kids running around in the gym. Because we can't have kids running around in the gym because we have kids in gym class in the gym. So, you know, multi-purpose space is a incredibly important asset within a school building for a variety of things. Uh you know, we we want classes collaborating on projects. We need space for that to happen because they can't fit in a 700-sq-ft space with two classes of kids. >>
088Our auditorium also functions as a classroom during the day, so um when there's more than one band or chorus by grade level meeting at a given time, those overflow gets together in the auditorium. So, anytime we use the auditorium for an assembly, for a team meeting, um for a workshop, those classes get displaced and don't really have a place to go. Um so, there that need is also present. >> And and the the the big piece with when you're thinking about a project like this, one, we have a building and we have spaces that were not designed to be instructional spaces. So, we're using closets, we're using and and this isn't the 1990s New York City public schools that you saw on the news with ceilings falling in. We're fortunate that we don't have that.
089But we are using closets to you for instruction. We are using spaces that were not designed to be classrooms that are far smaller than what a standard classroom should be for classrooms because the building was not built for the number of students that were in there. And the other piece is programmatically you know, you're you're building a building and and this is you know, flexibility of space is big part of the research I've done in my career and my dissertation. You don't know what the space needs are going to be in 20 years. So you want to build the most flexible, adaptable spaces that can transform when the program transforms. And the program that exists when this project is done may be vastly different than the program that exists right now in the conversation we're
090having about the educational specifications. We don't know what that's going to be because things are changing so rapidly in education. But what we do know is that you build spaces of a certain size with the mechanicals, with the lighting, with the the ventilation, with all of the key aspects that have the ability to be adapted very easily. That's what you need to do and you need to do it based on what your projections are saying for the number of students. So as as one who has not had to live through this educational specifications project in the past it is a confounding process to me. Um I I understand how it why it exists the way it exists. But the reality is we're so far from design and design is what's going to dictate the programmatic
091pieces and where the building's going to be. In in my previous experience and and I would not say that that process is any better because what you need to submit in New York are schematic designs and then somewhere between 6 and 39 months later you get approval um to move forward and I'm not kidding with you. It is from you know, I don't even know what it is now but it's probably New York. I'm going to correct one thing you said. It's not schematic design, it's conceptual. Conceptual what? What we're seeing right here today was conceptual. Yeah. That's what you're putting a number to. Yeah. What what's one of the advantages that Connecticut has and if we decide to to push off submitting to the state for this June and going to next June you
092do not get reimbursement for true schematic design. So you really can spend the time to develop a plan develop a budget farther and you really haven't lost that much time. And then you submit a project that you the entire town is behind. And you have a real number to it and you spend the time to do it well and understand all the the aspects of that traffic study, etc. So from the conversation having today I if I was to have a vote I would I would say that you probably should authorize go ahead and authorize a schematic design process to spend more time really analyzing the project that you want to do. And then um and be really well prepared for when you want to submit to the state. The other thing I want to
093say from experience is that the you know, the the role that the ed specs play are actually incredibly important to the Board of Ed because that is the limits of our control on the project. Once a building committee is appointed and in action they have control over every design decision and every construction decision as long as it is in line with the ed specs. So that is where the Board of Ed's authority ends. This also comes back to an incredibly important point is who what is the makeup of the of the building committee and typically we've had a board member that sits on that. Um I can't recommend that like enough. Um but but we do need to remember the way that um the way that the projects change as hands, right? Just like with
094the budget is a superintendent and it becomes a Board of Ed and then the town goes to so do construction projects start with us and then get handed off to another body. And Dr. Byrne, thank you for your your points because I think that to me that's what we're missing in this process is is Yes. the why I don't want to say selling but the rationale behind what we're doing, the purpose, the future vision and and if we can build that in I think it will help Agreed. this process and I think we're kind of missing that. So Great. thank you for that. It was very helpful on on the flexible space. Any other points on this? Okay, next next on our agenda is district repair improvement project, the drip grant. That's really a That's
095a great acronym. >> [laughter] >> It's one of my favorite acronyms. Thank you, Eric. Thanks, Eric. Thanks, Eric. So this is new this year for the state of Connecticut. So the state of Connecticut approved drip funding for all districts and so Darien's award is 159,127. The funds can only be used for what's considered minor repair or capital improvements. Um the Board of Ed does have to approve um the funds. So we are looking at doing LED lighting upgrades at the high school and Tokeneke. Um district wide vision kits for the doors so if you have solid doors you can see inside the room and then chimney repointing at the middle school. Um the high snow load that we got this year did cause a little bit of deterioration on the chimney caps and so when
096facilities team went to look at those this past month um those were things we knew we were going to have to do some work on in the next five years but given this grant it's probably a good idea to accelerate some of that work. Questions? Just a the we didn't do the chimneys last year? You did one. Only one. Okay. And the vision kits for doors are modifying doors that don't have a vision panel either on the door or adjacent to the door for smaller spaces in the across the schools. Okay. I feel like the LED lights we were done with at the high school last year. So you did portions of the high school, you didn't do the entire high school and then this would also expand into Tokeneke. So what do we need
097to do with this? Just we So it would have to go to the full board. >> So we recommend approval of this. >> Yep, but then we can send those minutes to the state. >> we're we're in agreement that we want to get money from the state. >> We'll move it to the consent agenda. >> [laughter] >> Okay. Good. Um public comment? We have no members of the public to comment. Uh I'll entertain a motion to adjourn. Katie, seconded by Sarah so moved.