Board of Education: March 09, 2026

001is 21 >> regular meeting >> 2026 order. For those of you who can stand, please stand for the pledge of allegiance. >> I aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all for business. Public comments. Any public comment? Any public comment? Public comment. Hearing none, we'll move on to public comment. And moving on to special reports. And we do have S here's >> Hello everyone. kick things off in early February, we did have some some student athletes recognized, scholar athletes, Ruby Thompson and Nick Cami, both seniors here. They were recognized for both being solid athletes and scholars in our community. Moving on to February 19th, we had our rising Vikings night for pro where the

002rising freshman turning eighth graders came with some of their parents. I think parent one will be later on, but this one was mainly the students get a little bit more familiar with the school. We love those tours and fairly large groups like 10 to 20 kids per group. They also had some opportunities to Q&A with us which is great. February 24th the East Unifi basketball team unfortunately had to cancel their senior night due to snow but that reschedule is currently TBD if so. And then on the 26th our DECA chapter here in Connecticut at three first place finishes. Stray Bugwat, senior in accounting, Owen Garvedian, a junior with a business service operations plan. And then a Mir Hiro, sophomore with a startup business plan. And all three of these students qualified for the international deck

003competition next month, which will be in Atlanta. How that works is I think they're still figuring out who's being ne the deck advisor finance teacher here at the school has to go with them or if their parents can go with them as well, but that is in Atlanta as I mentioned. So they'll probably fly there and then that's national decathin the with all the chapters in the country. And then late February the uh pathways program here provided students with the opportunity to collaborate with the nor technical high school some students were able to specialize in crew training programs and biotechnology cosmetology electric and electrical work as long along with some plumbing. And then moving on to March just last week we had our course selection during advisory. So, everyone filled out some Google uh it

004was on Infinite Camps actually where students can go in and select what courses they want to take for next year. And then us juniors will have our junior meetings which we'll meet with our counselor and finalize those things. Then on March 3rd we had our go. So this was just recently brought back to the school. Mr. Macgyver in the social office took the liberty of bringing that back. It's a little bit different this year because National Geographic is not running it, but instead a few professors at Harvard came came forward to try to bring back competition. So the 10 that won in that qualifier will compete in schoolwide competition and then those the our school champion will then go to a state competition and if they advance then they have the opportunity to go to

005the Harvard campus in the coming months to compete in national competitions. Then um in on March 18th, 20th, next week, we will have some half days, during half days for parent teacher conferences. Then um or earlier on this Friday, the Wizard of Oz play starts. If Annie was here, she probably would have been able to talk a little bit more about that. And then now spring sports registration's open. Believe that closes on the 19th and winter sports come to a close. The boys and girls basketball team both finalized up. And then on April 2nd, we will have our SAT or PSAT school day and tests will be administrated for grades 9, 10, and 11. And then another program offered for some of the students at the high school is the votes for nextgen program through

006pathways and that is offered through a partnership with General Dynamic ED and that will take place on April 1st and April 2nd, providing students with some hands-on exposure to maritime careers. Um I was wondering if the students are aware of the public hearing that we're having on Thursday about army security guards of the schools and if anyone is planning on coming and speaking. >> So I definitely think there could be a little bit more we should do a better job kind of make I can do a better job making my peers a little bit more aware of that. there has been a little bit of conversation especially during lunch and during some during study hall but I don't think it's as widely or it hasn't been made aware to most students but I think definitely

007with maybe an announcement on on the morning show or something when people will >> if you could encourage your friends when you hear them talking about it to come and talk to us so that we can hear their feelings and thoughts. >> Yeah, definitely. And I can even talk to some of my friends who run the morning show to try to make an announcement on them. >> Yeah. reminder remind their parents too of the you know again that it's Thursday notices gone out so >> true >> thank you we drill down just so DECA I think you said can you I don't know if you know but can you just give a little more like what is DECA so the yeah so DECA is a business club it stands for distri distributive education clubs of

008America so the name's a little a little weird for a business club but >> but yeah they're pretty pretty much recognized in America specific or in the United States specifically as like the largest business organization or business club for high school students and I believe actually have some college chapters as well. But that organization hosts state competitions during this time of year every year where students can select an event which is either a role play or a presentation project. So for example, one of the one of the competitions that was a role play because all the ones I mentioned were were all presentations like principles of entrepreneurship where a student was presented with a scenario in business and then in I believe 10 minutes preparation had to go on and talk to what would have

009been a client or a boss in in a sort of entrepreneurial manner. And I believe at that event there were there were probably around a thousand or so kids who all competed in these different events and then the top five of every event then qualify to go to the national event which last year was in Orlando. They shared mention is in Atlanta and they refer to as the the ICDC and that competition is like incredibly prestigious and there's a lot of a lot of competitiveness there and they believe they offer like scholarships. It's it's a really cool organization. Have we had people go in the past to the nationals? >> So, I remember last year two students went. Okay. >> They they placed first place in their group event at at the at the state

010qualifier, but unfortunately didn't place in national as as it is a >> lot. And then can you also the Harvard one I I didn't catch all that. Can you just expand a little? >> Yeah. Yeah. So the the National Geographic GOB which is obviously typically hosted or ran by National Geographic in the previous years I think due to co had to be cancelled just because how their finances worked out but in I believe the last year a group of Harvard professors who are all uh national go alums came forward to try to bring back the program. So then they uh of course offered that up to to the country and made it pretty well aware. So then recently our students took a online virtual I believe there were some free response questions and some multiple

011choice questions and the top 10 of that competition are going to be moving to a schoolwide competition where our school champion will have the opportunity to then qualify for state championship and then move on to national championship at at Harvard campus. >> So that's earlier in the process. DECA is already still within our school. >> Okay. Thanks. Yeah, other questions. >> Yeah, I'm moving. Yeah, question. How long has DECA been in existence? >> Um, so I know the organization I don't know if you can hear me, but the organization is has been has had a pretty uh n large national presence for a pretty long time. I would have to say probably above 20 years. But I know now that with schools becoming it's become a lot easier for schools to have chapters that they've

012grown significantly. But I know they have they have been around for a pretty long time. They have made a pretty solid name. Like I don't know if you heard of FBLA, Future Visitors of America. That's another big one. But I think they have been around a little longer actually. Act actually I believe a little bit more recent than them. But they both been been around for a long time. No, we had a DECA organization when I was in high school, which was many moons ago, and I I'm assuming it's the same. >> I'm assuming it's Okay, I see people. Yeah. Okay. Just curious. >> Thank you. >> It's Joe. >> Joe, 1946. >> Oh, yeah. I graduated in 1948. So, yeah, that's good. Okay. >> Thank you, Kim. Thank you. Thank you, Jeff. >> Thanks.

013>> I don't think we have a second. >> Yeah. Candace reached out and let the panel this afternoon if they have a selection budget. >> Okay. We do have a consent agenda. Anyone want to make a motion for this consent agenda item? Does anyone want to make a motion? >> I'll make a motion to approve the consent agenda that you >> Thanks. Alisa made the motion and with the uh seconded all those in favor say I. I oppose abstaining. A motion passes unanimously. For those of you at home or here, uh there were some minutes to approve and then there was a donation uh to the high school softball uh Tai High School software in the amount of $500 from Mr. and Mrs. Nolton. So, thanks so much for their donation and uh really appreciate

014it. Always helpful. So, um that is the consent agenda. Moving on to discussion action items. Uh we do have a pretty full agenda just so everyone knows and we do have need for executive session. um for discussion action. The first item we have for finance, facilities, and community is from the high school vision committee and we have Mark Serno is going to come and give us an update the from the uh where we got where we are from the high school vision. >> Got a couple copies too if anybody mind. >> Grant, you're going to display that? >> Yes. Okay. >> Yeah. Oh, okay. Um, it's in it's uh in board. Mark, are you all set? Can you see from there? >> I'm gonna walk over here. >> My eyes haven't given up on me

015yet, but I'm gonna walk over here. That's all right. >> I'll go. >> These are the speakers. degree, you know, just so you walk around just so you know. >> Okay. >> You're facing the screen like you actually good. >> Yeah. >> You're welcome. >> Okay. Uh my name is Mark Serno. For those that don't know me, um I'm chairing the uh the high school vision committee. uh we have put together a report for you tonight to go over what we've been doing over the last year. Um so we'll go to the first slide. So I think all you know this but the original school was built in ' 67. There was amazingly a major addition that was put on here in 71 and that is most of the school. We're obviously in the new

016wing that was built in 99 after I graduated which is the newest part and this is the part where the public sees most of the time. So when everyone comes into the school, they come in here and they think that school is looks fantastic and it does because this is the newest part. Um, but do know most of the wings are a lot older and they're approaching 60 years. Um, on that picture there, I actually put one in the middle there. That's actually a picture of my father who was uh was wired the auditorium back in 1967 when he was 24 years old. Just goes to show you how old the school's become. Okay, so we'll go to the next slide. So um I think you guys know what our primary charge is. It's to

017is to research options to renovate or replace the high school building and campus due to its aging infrastructure. Uh so that's what we did. Um we'll go to the next slide. Um we have um a bunch of members uh obviously some um from the public as myself some we have Mariana from finance we had the Diane from facilities and as some administrations and lawyer singer from um as a teacher representative and a couple couple folks from your commission and Sam. So we have a very diverse uh group of folks from different backgrounds uh to research. So the next slide. So uh just some accomplishments uh since uh we've been going this year. So uh the biggest one was oversight and collaboration with silver and petelli um on their phase one study. You guys approved this.

018Uh we met with them in the beginning kind of to set what the goals were and what we were looking for. Uh we met in between a couple times to uh get some interim reports of where they were at. They briefed you here I think on November. Uh we actually met with them afterwards. Uh we incorporated some of your feedback plus some of our feedback to get a few other uh things added to the report. I'll talk about that in a few slides. Uh we also last summer uh we conducted a high school facility survey of teachers, administration and staff. I'll kind of share some of those results. And then uh the other thing we did, we were busy. We were going on field trips to other high schools in the region to see what's

019the state of the art. A lot of towns around here uh have built new schools, some have renovated. So, we wanted to see what was uh uh what was state-of-the-art for new schools and what were different towns doing and and that was good because we got to form a set of likes, dislikes. We also got to talk to some of them that were involved in the building process that gave us lessons learned and things to look out for. So, all that uh data that we gathered will be useful in the future. So, uh the facility survey uh these are some of the big topics. So, um you guys probably know a lot of these heating and cooling issues, right? We know that's going on. We know we had a problem a couple weeks ago with

020a leak and some some rooms were taken down. This is becoming a more and more common occurrence and it's not unusual for a building this age. Um lack of storage is always one. Bathrooms are fairly original uh especially the ones in the Awin. Um they look exactly like it when I was here. Um security um front entrance that was built um in 1999 before. So, um there could be some improvements there uh with modern standards. Uh ADA issues. I think you're all familiar with that, especially we have a problem with the elevator. It seems regularly that that is going to have to be addressed. Um and a few other things with bathrooms. Uh we're doing, you know, we're doing, you guys are doing a good job with what we have. Um technology issues, wifi, spotty,

021all sorts of stuff. And then finally, hold on, my eyes aren't that good. um lack of central location of support systems and I'll talk about that in a little bit. That was a common common theme. So these were kind of issues we went in with and then we went with silver and petali. we, you know, these are some things we brought to them and they were almost all confirmed in the report, right? So, uh, these are the schools that we went to go visit. Um, North Brford, Guilford, the Morgan School and Clinton Brasso Tech, they were all new schools. Uh, we went to Waterford, which was new construction with renovation in New London. And, um, all differentiz schools were one of the bigger of the schools, uh, especially in square footage. Um, and you we

022kind of put what the price was. does now remember these prices some of them date back to to uh 19 2015 2016 so uh prices have definitely gone up since then but gives you kind of an idea and we have the number students there um you go to the next slide but um the takeaway from this is you know out of all the schools that we visited most schools were replaced or renovated within 45 to 7072 years with the exception of Guilford which apparently was a historic building um most Islam High School is currently 53 to 59 years old. Um if if we assume a 7-year buildout, which I'll get into later, how long it takes to actually start this process from beginning to end would be at around 60 to 75 years old for

023the oldest part of the building, which is the majority of the building. So, we're kind of in the ballpark or more toward the later part of where other communities have already done renovations and built new schools. I want to talk a lot about what's uh this the status of school. I already talked about some of the deficiencies, but um there's two parts of this. One is we have an aging infrastructure and we have issues with the school that we're going to have to deal with one way or the other whether we make a choice or not. Um but there's also some modernization needs. Where is where is the classroom in 10 to 20 years? We got a lot of that by looking at other schools. We may not know exactly where we are 10 years

024ago, but we know we're just, you know, if we were to design a school now, there would be a lot of things different than we would than we did back in the 60s and 70s. things have changed. Um, centralized support, uh, student support. We have a lot of, uh, facility, you know, or security, administration, nursing, counseling, mental health services are scattered throughout the school. Um, that's preferably to have that more contained and more toward the entrance for privacy of students. Um, that's a common theme and we saw that a lot of new schools that was all done. And actually, this school used to be like that until the addition in 1999 where they moved everything. It's all centralized over here. Um, science and tech labs definitely could always be modernized and and more ADA compatible.

025um strategic layout and flow that kind of goes goes with any new designing building. But prior to you, we would want to prioritize functional proximity and then infrastructure um public access, you know, for example, like a lot of places have definitely a you know, for the gymnasium of areas where the public's going to be, they have a way to just cut off public from entering the main school. We don't we don't have that here. It's it's way open. Um these are just a few not to mention any new technology coming. And uh so as we move forward this is going to be one of the things we look at. What do we do with modernization? Where do we think we're going to be in 10 to 20 years and plan for if we were to

026do uh any renovation or new construction? We'll go to the next slide. So the existing uh condition study summary. So uh you got a preview of that in November. Um, and they started by saying, "Your school's in good shape." And it is in good shape because because of our staff, they take care of it. But it doesn't mean that we don't have aging infrastructure. It doesn't mean that we don't have issues coming down the line. It just they keep it up to date, which is we should be doing. Um, but I'm going to go into some of the things that we're going to need to do to the school whether we um do a renovation or new construction or not. Um uh since after you guys all got briefed by them uh we asked them

027to better organize priority items with breakdowns in electrical, ADA, plumbing and mechanical. So if you do look at the final report that you guys should have, you'll see that there. You'll see more details and space needs assessment. We also see u we asked them to provide uh rough cost estimates directed by major uh trouble areas which um we'll talk about that a little bit. So, but basically the existing condition study confirmed uh that while the school is wellmaintained like I mentioned in good conditions, there's many high priority deficiencies that need immediate attention. Um plumbing issues, potential electrical system breakdown, ADA issues, required roof and HV upgrades. All things that need to be done and then when replaced, it's not going to improve anything here, but they have to be replaced, right? We're not going to

028go any of the modernization needs we want. It's just stuff that has to be replaced and it's going to be costly. Okay. Um, so I kind of want to jump now into what a nominal construction timeline is and talk to you about where we are in this. So there's about we we broke it down into about seven different uh um components. One is the planning and feasibility study. That's where we are now. And then once you get that could take up to 24 months. already year into that. If we get through that and we decide to move forward in the community, then there's approval to the referendum. That takes could take 8 months to 12 years. You got to go through more finance. You got to go through start with you. Um it has to

029go through a referendum. That takes time. You have to go through then approval uh appropriations and bonding. That also requires going to the state getting approval for how much they're going to reimburse us back. um bonding, getting all assigned up, and then we get into the architect detail design. That takes a while. Uh we went through that about 6 years ago with the elementary schools. Um that's where they're going to do all the detailed design. They're going to take all the feedback that they have before and then there's going to be some back and forth with uh the building committee or whoever it may be to actually put together a make sure they're meeting all our needs. We'll go to the next slide. Once you and that that's that could be 12 to 18 months.

030Then we get into construction bidding, getting a um PM, a project manager company that takes six months. Now we're already like six years in, right? And we haven't even put a a shovel in the ground. Procurement permitting got to go through the town. You got to get all your permits and construction can take 24 36 months. So this is a 7 to9year process. All right? And we're in the very beginning of it. So if we go to the next slide, so that's where we are. So if we were to continue with our feasibility study, then the you're looking at 2032 2034 before we would have a new renovated school or a new school. All right. So you all did the right thing by starting this now because I think that is the right timeline and

031I'll show you why. All right. So let's talk about how it fits in with other projects. So we know we just redid the elementary schools. Again, that was completed in about 2020. That was like a six-year process that we went through. We went through a couple back and forth. It may have even been longer. Um, so that just goes to show you that that's how quick time goes. Um, when we did the elementary schools, we went back and forth. Do we renovate as new? Do we close a couple schools? And at the time, um, as a community, we decided to go forward, let's renovate as needed, not renovate as new. Renovate as new. For those you who don't know where the state requires if you're going to renovate as new, you have to upgrade the

032school so that everything will survive 30 years. There's some number. So you may have a roof that's 10 years old and only has 20. They're going to make you rip it off and put a new one on. They're only has to be certified to get so many years. So when we did that, we decided not to do that because we had a we had it was approaching hund00 million for one school and we decided to renovate as needed and we had to do three schools at once which was costly and they came out pretty well. That was only designed to buy us 20 years. So we're clock's already ticking. We're already 5 years into that. So we're probably going to have to review and look at what we're going to do with elementary schools in

033about 2040. that'll be here fast. The middle school was built about the same time 19 2001. So that's in great shape and we should be proud of that. That's coming too. Uh you can't ignore it for too long. You know, we're you the upgrade I mean we're maintaining, right? Say that gets us to 2050 before we have to start looking at what you going to do. Remember once you get there then you start that timeline again. So where does this land? This lands if we were to start it now this would put us at 2032. that would put us in between and it would stagger um us between having to do elementary schools and middle school at once. So I think the next slide is just saying that. Um this is a good time to

034be doing it if you don't want to have concurrent projects which can be possibly sped down. Okay. So we took a look at how does this fit into town debt. This is the town debt projection that just uh was released. Um, it's hard to see, but I think uh the upper top I think we're going to peek out about $10 million. I do need to note uh this town debt includes water and sewer debt, which is paid for by the rate payer, not the taxpayer. So, it's not quite the the town uh town taxes outside of water and sewer is not quite that high, but you can see we're about to peak in about three years. Um, if we if we start the high school now, the high school debt would start to be added

035on when the debt starts going down, which is a good time to do it. You don't want to do it when it's going up. You'd have large tax increases and it could affect our bond rating. So, as our our tax is going down, this may fit well into that. Okay. Okay. How does it fit with anticipated high school maintenance costs? So, uh, Chris and I went through, um, they have a 5-year capital plan which they submit. I think you approve and then it goes to the town referendum, um, or the town meetings, excuse me. And in there, I think uh, there's a whole bunch of things in there. We have a roof coming in three years. Uh, we have solar cells on the roof that are going to have to be removed first at a

036million dollars, then a new roof. And we're talking millions of dollars. There's hold on again messing my eyes. We have HVAC continuous replacement. They're all aging like and we're going to need to just replace every year. That's going to cost millions of dollars. Um auditorium updates in 2031. Bathroom ADA security upgrades. We're not even budgeting that or planning that to 2032. Um I mentioned roof replacement. the electrical system. The electrical systems, we don't even appreciate it, but it's really old and if it fails, we're going to have according to the report and talking to the the could be danger issues here. So, it's not something we can avoid and we're going to have to upgrade that at some point. It's not going to change the quality of life for anyone. Uh except for the fact

037that it will reduce risk that we could have a shutdown um at some point. So, that's something that's going to have to be addressed. All right. So with that, if you could if you look at that, we're talking $43 million value, we're looking at a probably over 10 years, $43 million just to maintain the school as is, not to do any upgrades, no modernization. So we're going to be paying money anyways to just to stay where we're at. All right. So, if we were to move forward with this project, then a lot of these these items could be wrapped into the renovation new project, right? If we decided that we were going to build a new school in seven years, you wouldn't want to put a roof on in three, right? We did that with

038Olivia Haynes and we had people complaining at town meetings for 20 years that we did that, right? We don't want to do that. Um, so planning now is good and that will if if we continue on this process that also helps Chris and Diane with their renovations and what we're going to do with regular maintenance. Something to also note, you were looking at about $4 million a year. If you build a new or you renovate is do, those costs are going to go down. The the maintenance cost is going to probably it go way down. So So while you're going to be taking on debt, you're not necessarily going to be putting out money in maintenance costs because you have a new or renovated school. So that's the last piece on maintenance and then finally

039we're at next steps. So uh we're kind of concluding our work at this point. Um there when we uh got the quote from Silver Petelli it was broken out into two. One was a a status of the school how give us an update of uh what's wrong with the school what needs updating stuff like that. And that's that's what we just got. Right. The next one is performing a futures study. So, um look at what what our options are for renovating. Renovating is new. Uh building a new school, getting a rough cost estimate so we could actually make a more informed decision on what we do. Um study uh and that's study the possibilities. Um look at uh facility locations or property limitations or opportunities. These are all things we're going to look at in

040the next phase if if uh the the board of education goes forward and funds that. Um and then um we would recommend or up for conversation is continued communication dialogue with the east sign board of selectman the board of finance and oh by the way the town of town town of Salem right they send kids here too and uh they have been attending our meetings just you know so we are keeping them in the loop um but we would want to continue to keep them in the loop uh because it will affect so these are what we think some of their next steps are um and I will open it up to you and we also have members from the video if we have questions. >> Thanks so much, Mark. That that was that was

041great. I just wanted to know we did invite Salem to this meeting as well. They actually have their own board of ed meeting tonight as well. So that's why there's still so we do want to, you know, make sure they're part of all of these discussions. So, um, open up, you know, for questions, clarifications, anything want to dig any deeper into anything that that Mark said, but one of the outcomes that we need to get to, um, or the ask from the vision committee is to make sure that um, what are our thoughts on progressing on the phase two of the study with silver petric um, but any maybe start with any clarifications, want more information, kind of double click down on anything that might presented the >> Oh, sorry. I saw her >> if

042yours is more like tactical question. Mine kind of is a little members committee. You know, it looks like you just it's a pretty pretty small group in my opinion. two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, 10, 11 people who are regular attenders of the meeting and then you're the chair of this committee or commission or whatever. >> Yes. Yes. Yes. >> Okay. So, I guess my question is I know before I moved here, we developed five schools in Lincoln, Nebraska before I moved here. So, like that was like 93 90 n late middle 90s. Okay. But they had like a whole team of people and lots of teachers and lots of input, lots of conversations about best case scenario. But maybe we're not at that point of like critical design of what it really

043could look like or should look like. Maybe that's something that would happen down the road. It's just what I'm thinking. It just seems like a really small group and like all of you people are I know you're all out there talking to people, but just garnering the support and the conversations. Is that part of the process? >> Yeah. And um when the when we did the elementary schools there was the committee that met and it was a little smaller and then when it got past this step and we got into the more planning with the architect that's where we brought on more the group got bigger. Yeah. Yep. >> And then a follow up on Silver Patelli. Aren't they the ones who did our police station? I >> think they are. and number gathering and

044numbers and that >> yeah do a lot pleased with the so I'm just >> pleased with the outcomes of that that there were design issues with that that there was lack of clarity I think there were some concerns with them as our >> this is this yeah this is just the architectural stage you think >> yeah and just so you know we didn't hire them you hired them >> yeah we had them on board Yeah, in the school in the school world, they're very well regarded in the state for their times. >> So maybe they were out of their lead by doing what they did. >> I just know that they've done a lot of schools uh throughout the state, they're all really well done. >> Okay. I just think it needs to be brought

045to the table. >> Sure. >> Yeah. >> So, but before we get whatever chevron that was, we're at the beginning of Chevron in terms of just collecting information. So, we went with people. So for Australia who we know we work with consistently it there a year or two years whatever if we we keep progressing down this there'd be a step where we bring in proposals this a question we'd have other architects bid on this >> would not necessarily be the architect >> there would be a process to go through that >> yeah this was just for a study >> yeah this is just to get what's going on here so we know them we work with them what's going on here they know our buildings facilities a bit and then >> so they did the

046they did the detail design for police station. This is not a detailed design. I know when we did the middle school, Jeff Guyire from Fizer who was a project manager pro bono did all of the design work and helped to make that a beautiful facility that is today to no cost to our district back in no seven. >> Is he offering a services away? >> Thanks. Um, [clears throat] so in terms of clarifying questions, I just want to make sure that my understanding is right on kind of the two most compelling points of this presentation, which um, thank you. This I think um, it was put together really solidly. Um, one is the piece around was in the presentation and I think you kind of closed with it as well where um, you're talking about

047the capital expenses over 10 years is $43 million and earlier in the SL the um, earlier you talked about the um, modernization piece. >> Yes. So you don't get we don't get anything on that modernization slide for those 43 very little I think in there is um you know some work on the auditorium which wouldn't be necessarily reimbursible has some security upgrades in there earlier but nothing that deals with like the educational components of the building. >> Thank you. I I thought that's and I think that you said that this list is not inclusive of the modernization needs that have been identified. >> Yes. >> Um Okay. >> And also keep in mind, you know, when I say 43 over 10, that just and it doesn't mean that ends in 10 years, we're still going

048to be maintaining, right? >> Yeah. No, I just wanted to clarification on that. And then the other slide was the um how this project fits in with the other project. And I don't I know this is the high school vision committee, but I think it's I liked this slide because it kind of gave that holistic lens that I think if we're committing to and I know we haven't said we're you know what the commitment will look like, but um you know there's it's it's significant and I think that it is going to be really important for us to regardless of the plan that we choose for that high school for us to kind of have this holistic um view of you know where we are with our elementaryaries and middle. So, you know, this is

049our this plan makes like makes sense as presented, but um you know, I don't exactly know sort of how what we've asked in terms of what's scope, but I I don't think we can look at it in a vacuum, especially with you know, given the um you know, the dollars associated with it and looking kind of at the whole district >> and that'll come back when we talk about the next part after we clarify and see what we as we start thinking about the next depth. Um, you know, when how do we involve board of selectment, board of finance, not only line but potentially in Salem as well. So that talks to the the bigger picture of the town and debt and these are our buildings. These the education buildings might be you know we

050have senior center we have library. There's other things that are also happening that that happen. >> Yeah. No, absolutely. And I think this is one piece of kind of that bigger integration. So, I just kind of wanted to make sure that we were >> thinking about that that integrated picture. >> Thank you. I know this was a lot of hard work and I know you guys have been working hard and visiting other high schools across the state. So, thank you for all of you guys bring this to us tonight. Um, one of my questions is I don't know I know it's going to be a big what big no what the answer is but has there been any discussion on where this high school would go or how it would come about. >> So that's

051more for the phase two study. I mean, we had had some we have had some internal conversations like um like we have land out back fields. We talked about the field over there. >> Um but uh that's premature I think at this point besides more than just talking some ideas. Yeah, because second study could tell us after warnings that you know what, nope, we can't build up there or there's de restrictions or zoning issues or you can't line >> that would give us exactly that would give us the that >> that's like my big big question because I remember when we did the elementary project >> the question was what are we going to do? Where is it going to go? Yes. >> So that when I see this I think that same thing. I'm

052like, "This land is pretty taken up with parking in school, so it would have to go >> either somewhere else or back in the backyard >> if it was new." Yes. >> Yes. Yep. >> All right. Um and then I'm going to piggy back on Alisa with the um the bonding. I know that um we're having some massive bonding going on um between the schools, the town, the beach, the bridge, the road. >> [laughter] >> So, >> yes, I think that shows up in that. I think that >> does that show up? >> I It's recent. Yeah, I think it does. Everything that that's most recent projection for everything across the town. >> Okay. So, this is like showing the beach, the roads, and all that other stuff coming up. >> Okay. I just know

053that there's a lot. >> Yeah. I So, [laughter] and I know and I know you're on the pressure. I know there's a lot of budget pressures coming and I know you have an elementary school study coming up. Um but this that's why I wanted to show that's why I wanted to show the long-term impact. Yeah. >> I mean I it's been very clear for quite some time. >> Yeah. >> I'm concerned about >> No. And we all should be um and and I think the next if we go to the next study I think that'll answer some of those questions. Um, and we'll also be able to determine, you know, what are we going to save money by not if if we delay this by three years, then you have a new coupon and that

054now limits what you want to do, >> right? So, um, and the, uh, Rush song that I love so much, uh, if you fail to fail to decide, don't, >> right? >> So, yeah, >> that's pretty good. >> I use it all the time. I use it all the time. >> Thank you. >> So, oh have this may be a very naive question. I mean you acknowledge and all of us in this room acknowledge that there we have budget pressures and similar to Jamie I'm one of the things I worry about is how much is this going to cost which again we are not there there yet to talk about it but considering we are we are making all these assessments if we if we go forward with and continue with the planning is there

055a way for us to make an assessment that okay we're going to continue with this process we're going to you know come up come up with a um a modern modern building what can be now postpone so that we are not incurring cost right now considering that this is happening in the future so I I don't know whether that should be part of the equation or not because this is not a certain thing we are we are still planning and we don't know whether this will go through but is there a way for us to kind of maybe delay certain things that we are considering now because otherwise it's money sunk and if [clears throat] you decide to go forward it's it's more money so >> yes um Chris could talk about that more um

056but I think that the big ones are I think the roof is the most costly one coming um and could that be delayed I'll I'll you know if we were to do something I'll let them Yeah. So that's Mark that's a perfect example. We did talk about that. So you know the roofs are at or just beyond or just coming up on their in service life. So for example this section above us is one of the sections that in 2028 when the solar array is supposed to come off will be just in time for its roofing to be done. Some sections are beyond that. Knock on wood we have they're in pretty good shape. So, you know, we would address it by patching problems as they came up. Um, you know, for example, Niantic Center

057for several years past there. It's actually pretty good shape. We've been [clears throat] keeping up on those little things that have sprung up. So, I would use that as an example of this is how we're going to maintain this building if we know that we're going to be reaching this point that we're going to put a major investment in. And there are other systems in there that we're doing that right now. You know, things break, we know that they're not on the list for a year or two down. Um, so we address to the extent we need to to keep us going until we can get to it. So that's pretty much the approach we continue. >> Okay. All right. Well, that's a good example and I think I think we need to keep keep

058this in our vision as we continue having these conversations and I guess so Eric. So I'm going to look at you and Jeff. You know, these are things we probably need to consider how to manage these. >> Yeah. And maybe if I could just quickly comment because I think for the vision committee there this sense of and because you could say is there a sense of urgency? >> Yeah. >> It's like well it's seven to nine years to figure and and the real sense of urgency is that we don't want to spend money on a building if we make a different decision. >> Yeah. And and that's the part that we're coming up to these big expenses as we're Mark's articulating 43 over 10 or whatever you know so over these next few years that

059that's a lot of money that that could 43 million could start a small building or something like that. So anyway, so these are I think that's where we're pushing that's where that study too which is the next part of our conversation that's really important is um getting that next information because that will really be telling what our options are like now you know right now we we're just speculating that that'll get to like what are our real options and I have I have a converse question to what Jamie asked you know means we you know Where will this go? I guess we'll figure it out. But if we do get a new building, well, what happens to the existing structures? So that's I I don't know if if that is part of this discussion. >>

060phase two, that will be part of phase two because >> because I think we have to figure out, you know, means what what's our school school enrollment and what what would be the size of the student body >> and and then figure it out. Now I'll I'll defer this question until phase two, but that is an important element, right? If if you decide to go with a new building, well, what what happens to the existing structure? Yeah. And >> because if if you just let it let it stay, then there's a cost of cost to maintain and you know, it's a cost to the town. So those are things we have to think about. But >> yeah, it's a complex it's a really complex question because the answer may be multiple answers like this part

061of this wing is 20 99 2000 2001. the other way. So you might say, "Well, this is only 20 years old. We keep this. You don't keep some part. We have our athletic facilities that are pretty good." You probably keep most of them. You might renovate some. So it's a it's actually a very complex question because there's multiple pieces to it that you might decide to do different things with different parts of this building. Um that's a really complex. >> No, that's exactly right. Yeah. people the burning questions too that I kind of keep going back to is you know 43 million to fix you know behind the walls type things right but you know that's 8 to 10 years if you want to call it that but then 10 years after that we haven't

062modernized anything where is education and are the people that are sitting around this table in 20 years or 15 years even saying what the heck did they do why didn't now we have to go and renovate the building to modernize it sort of thing because it's so far behind it's just a question that kind hangs out there. Um, it goes back to kind of the the elementary projects with we're still having so many issues like with heating and and components at Lily B because of behind the wall stuff that wasn't, you know, wasn't stuff. It's kind of a little bit of the reverse. So, just something to consider. You know, 43 million is a lot of money versus maybe 70 to 100 million to really modernize that. You know, it's the better choice. I It's

063a burning question. So, >> to go move from phase one to phase two. Thanks Alisa. So that so we really need to discuss is how do we so so when we originally got this study there it was a twopart study but we potentially could have approved it all at once. If you recall this was right around the budget time a year ago or whenever that was and um we threw everybody and we're like let's just get to this babies. let's see the readout because if they said hey everything's pretty good here you just need a you know couple nails heal here or whatever um then then we don't need to do the second part of it so we've done this I think got a good um analysis of where we are so next is phase

064two and what do we do and I I think there's kind of two parts one is do we think we should move forward with phase the phase two part of the study and then two, if if that's a if that's a no, these conversation's over. I don't know, we might go back in the drawing board whenever we figure something out. If the answer is yes to that, it's then how how do you want to do it? So, kind of the two options that I I would see is one is we can approve it. Um it's 401k 41k 40 >> around 40k give or take. We we're going to talk about the um non-lapsing account. we could potentially fund it from there rather than an operating body. So, so we can kind of talk through that

065and we can make that decision. And for me, it's sequencing. Do we make that decision? We go forward phase two and then we brief the fords of finance and selectman from our town from Salem kind of what's going on. You know, this presentation I think is very good that we could probably share with them and go through. Um, we could brief them before and say, "Hey, here's what's going on. We need FA, you have a lot of they're going to ask these same questions. What's next?" It's like, "We need phase two. We're just letting you know we're going to do phase two." So, we could do that. Um, the third is we get through all the we say yes to phase two. We get all the analysis, then we go to the boards. Um, because

066now we'll have be able to answer a lot of the questions they're ask. So, it's kind of three. Either we we can approve it then discuss it with the boards of the boards of finance boards of selectment. We can talk to the boards of finance boards of selectment. Not that they're approving our spend because it's it's our funds, but just to brief them prior or so that that's option two. Option three is we actually agree to do phase two. We get all the results and then we have kind of all the information. Then we go to airports with finance board selectively. I think those are the three if if it's yes that we're going to do phase two um then I think those are the three scenarios that but if there's others we can we

067can talk about that but be interested in people's thoughts of if it's if one is is it yes and then two is if it's yes how do you think we should move forward >> sorry um I think that we need phase two because this high school. I mean, it needs whether or not it's a renovate as new renovate as need or hold or build out. It needs needs work. Um, and we would be remiss in doing our due diligence if we didn't do a second base. So, I guess maybe let's Is everyone roughly on board that we need base two? Does anyone oppose you phase two beats? >> Can I just ask a question? 41,000 is >> to find or finance the um silver and cheese whatever >> that's to hire or that's for their

068purposes for them to do the work. >> That's what the 41k is. >> Okay. I guess I heir on the side of communication. I think it's good to have a collaboration with other people in the town. I think that if people know what we're doing and know why we're doing it and if we have clear like Jeff what you just said, if it's if it's I don't remember what you said exactly, but if we spend this now and then have to resend it or redesign it, then we're wasting. So, you know, I think that's a really good point, but I and I think that people need to be brought in on that communication because I think communication always lends in the end. >> I'll just add to what Kate said. You know, it's based on

069on on the work that the the the committee has done, I do see a pretty strong reason why we should be moving on to phase two. And I do feel that you know based with based on these in this these pieces of information and and and the plans that have been kind of laid out over here I do see justification that we should we should move forward with phase two but I do agree with K that we should probably bring them bring the board of finance along because yes we may use use them you know the non-lapsing account for for funding this but we we getting everybody on board. We are we we are not doing this on on you know just because we chose to do it everybody on board because at the end

070of the day it's Tom's money. So >> that makes a lot of sense. Yeah. A parallel track of communication and you know forward other thoughts. >> Um yeah I'm on board with the phase two. I think that um if so that next steps I think kind of outlines you know what if I'm reading that as you know we're we're going to have you know more than one option to look at and they're you know looking at at various options. I think I'm um encouraged to see what what those look like. um and you know those I think become then bullet points after I mean they're already part of this presentation but to share you know this is kind of the expectation and I don't know if there's more on that blurb on the next steps

071blur for like phase two to >> you know just double clicked on that what that looks that looks like in terms of just a little bit more clarity on what we're anticipating getting back to phase >> two I should put that the last side I don't have it but we do have uh statement of work >> yeah we got an outline phase two bringing to the April 6th meeting um for discussion action so you could kind of review it then final discussion and then move forward >> yeah and I guess the other thing too is um you know we had a timeline presented with the you know what's happening under each of the um phases I'm not sure if it was phases that you called them. But um I guess is there any sort of

072context like is this sort of the average? Is it um just to kind of pressure test the timeline? >> It's nominal. So you know um from my research it was seemed like it was between sevens and nine. It seemed to be consistent with what we did with elementary schools. Um I think squeezing that to the left is probably hard to do. I'm concerned about going to the right though because of where the other projects fall and the risk there. So I think just kind of looking a little bit more closely at at the timing. Yeah. I mean I I didn't know if things could kind of run in parallel if these were um you know sequenced because there were you know approvals then it triggered the next pieces of work. But um but just to

073kind of for us to relook at that timeline to you know is it is this sort of case? Yeah, that's a good question and I think that the way I ask that I think they should study right >> answering on that. >> So just just for my own clarification, so I think there's generally broad agreement we need phase two. I think there's broad agreement we need to communicate to board of selected and board of finance. And I'm going to put both towns in because Salem has a lot of questions about how this impacts them. And I don't think we've really fully sorted out because it's like we have to actually do like if we start building buildings, how how do they pay or what's the impact for them? And we can look at the co-op

074agreement, but it might be broader discussion. Anyway, so they have a lot of questions uh just to make sure on that from that perspective. So I do think we need to talk Do we want to So it's really do we want to take the phase two this was just for discussion so we'd have to go to April 6th uh for discussion action to approve this um and in the mean and and so approve this and get on the calendars of the different boards the town boards to then brief them uh on we're moving forward phase two Um, and you're going to get more information, but here's where we are. And then when we get phase two, we'll come back to you and give you more information. Is that kind of what is that what I'm

075hearing? >> Good. >> Okay. >> So, this will come. Thank you. Thanks, Mark. Thanks, uh, vision committee. Um, and so this we'll bring this back April 6th. We'll have a quick discussion I guess and action but then I think for the vision committee it's us trying to get on to the different figure out how to not have four different if there's some way not to do four different meetings. Um that's that's a lot. Um >> it does. >> Um so we can have but it's a lot to have one meeting. It's a lot of people. Uh and it and it's actually the Salem board event as well. Uh I mean they're busy now. We did invite them to this but they're not here. So >> yeah. So between all of that it's it's probably 40

07650 people or something. I don't know. But they don't come. They don't come. But you you've invited them and you you've given them the invitation and the opportunity. So I think that's half of it. And if they choose to not be available or not tune in or not hear the discussion. >> Yeah, they're trying. I mean they they they've been very active and want to come and >> Oh, okay. >> So let's So Mark, why don't you and the team figure out how to best get to those groups? But let's try to get to them over the next >> Would you like us to brief the the group like this? >> Yeah, let's talk with timing. I think >> figure out figure out the how the you know >> so I think from board we're

077saying we need to brief them. >> Yeah. >> And then like you will start working the vision committee can figure out the best way to make that happen. >> We can make that happen. That's what you want us to. >> Thanks. >> All right. Great job. But April 6, we'll approve it. So then SPA can get moving on phase two. >> Sure. >> Y right. >> Yeah. Okay. Correct. Yes. Yes. >> Great. >> Thanks so much. Great. Thanks. >> Thanks to the committee members for tonight. >> Okay. Um agenda item is a discussion for proposed security strategy or deployment of security personnel this special. So um >> that's just really kind of one final recap of our plan. Yeah, because remember so we have the public forum public meeting whatever on Thursday special meeting Thursday

078at 6 o'clock at the middle school. >> As of now I don't know that we have any good idea of how many people might be there. I don't I didn't think so. So maybe I'll turn it Jeff send us kind of what >> Yeah. Everything that we've received up until Friday uh this past Friday is when it closed. Um so we've compiled and we've received all of that. Um you know we've we've pushed out multiple you know communications um the article today. Um, so I think now it's just a matter of, you know, have a brief PowerPoint to to share. Um, and then it'll really just be kind of open it up for feedback, questions. Um, those that had written in public comment back that public comment will be strewn in the minutes as we

079uh we told folks uh for that meeting. So we won't be there. But I would hope that some folks that you know had a few questions would come and ask those questions at the meeting. Again, on the side, we've talked to some folks. Don has talked to, you know, one or two parents. I've talked to one um but that's really been it's been quite >> yeah and Don has been updating the FAQ. >> Yes. We have the FAQ document and then for us because we know this is a this is a board of ed >> um driven I guess uh you know we voted we decided um so while we will be somehow front and center I talked about >> yeah we'll set up the table in the cafeteria we'll have a table set up

080>> so we'll be front and center but obviously you know Jeff and Don will probably end up feeling ing a lot of the questions. Don may be fielding a whole bunch of the you know what questions people have but you know we should also obviously uh respond and you know take a look at the FAQs um that kind of gives pretty clear on on where Jamie >> um I have a qu like so I'm just trying to figure out the agenda in my head so is it going to start with the presentation? Oh >> it's the agenda right there. Yeah, it's basically just open the meeting called the order pledge and then basically we'll jump into the PowerPoint presentation which is a >> is like what we're thinking about doing or what the >> basically

081just an over a brief overview of you know where we started from over the course of this year executive session and discussions on deployment of security personnel to talking about it in open session um and then coming to the point of pushing that communication out to parents um gathering feedback. So we're recapping everything that's happened up until this point and then really kind of getting into some components of the differentials between SRO ASO so it's clear for folks we we might get questions you know about uh you know well uh how many are armed every bill we you know individual we've talked to we've shared some information we want to be very careful too in a public meeting about how much we share about our security um >> no I understand all that I just

082didn't I didn't know if this was it are we giving responses to the public comment. >> Yes. Yeah. They're going to get up to microphone, talk, ask questions, and we are going to engage in Right. >> No, myself and Don will do most of >> that. Just want to make sure we're >> in related. >> We'll take care of it. Uh it needs to respond to the question. And and I think one real important thing as we go through this is that this is one part of a this is one part of a comprehensive security strategy because I think we get >> people are going to kind of focus on this and saying is that our only answer actually we have a lot and there there's a slide I think that Jeff will talk you

083know we'll talk about um that you know our broad um security strategy. Lee I see your hand is up. >> Yeah. Um just a wanted to um thank uh Don for kind of the compiling the FAQ um and then all the information that's been passed along. I have received some questions from folks around like where to access and find that document for the public. >> Which one? The FAQ. >> Yeah. >> Right under on the website. If you go to the website and then departments >> Yep. >> and then you go to security. Okay. So, it's on the security correct page under departments. Okay. >> You're probably ahead of me. Yeah. I'm not there, but that's what I remember. >> Got it. Okay. >> Yep. >> Thank you. >> Yeah. Do do you think that

084we need to figure out I don't know. Do we need to get this more prominent somehow some way, especially leading into the public forum? >> I think there could be some some merit in that. I think um our new website looks great and I don't know like a parent that's like hey I want to go access this document learn more. I don't know that like intuitively that would necessarily I think it might be a little bit of an Easter egg hunt for folks to find. So if there's a way to push that out and more folks have eyes on it before the public meeting on Thursday I think that would be ideal. Um >> might be the letter Lee that we shared too. Didn't we put a link in the letter? you did. >> We

085could reference back to the letter for folks too if >> Okay. >> Um if they want to find that. I had that up. >> Yeah, that's a good point. Okay. >> It was in that letter. >> It was >> um >> a letter that went to elementary parents. All parents. >> All parents. Yeah. All All parents and staff. All staff across the district as well. There was ed camps uh on uh Friday this week. Um Don and Henry did an ed camp presentation on just this topic. I had about 30 teachers that came in uh which was great. So some good conversation back and forth um from what Donna had reported to me. Um all very positive I believe and >> yeah it was good conversation, good questions. A lot of people wanted some clarification.

086Um, you know, I think I think most of the concerns were really kind of um budgetary um to be honest with you about, you know, responsibility down the line, you know, board of ed versus PD, so on and so forth. >> Um, so some some good conversation. >> Yep. >> so you want us to be there on Thursday night if we're available. Is that what I'm hearing you say? Yeah, that was >> But and we're not going to be responsible to answer any questions. Feels all false. >> You can just Yep. You can just be there and uh and listen in because then you'll want to on April 6th, we'll bring this back on the agenda for discussion action whether or not he was the board one before. >> I just wanted to make sure

087I was reading the the crystal ball correctly. That's why I spelled the main question. Fielding questions. I have so many questions. It's going to be >> live broadcast. >> Yes, live stream. Grant's gonna test out the live stream again, I think, Wednesday, Grant. >> Wednesday. Yes, you're testing that out again because we're with the Mills. So, he's already done it once and it worked, Grant, I believe. Right. >> Correct. >> It'll This goes straight to YouTube. No Zoom or anything. >> Yes, there's no Zoom. That's right. So, there's there's no Zoom option. It's it's on site and >> live on Zoom. I mean, live on YouTube, too. Yes. >> Okay. Like the town hall meetings are >> look your best chi >> and just throw a comment out there as well. Um it two weeks

088ago on Sunday there there was a story on the school shooting where the parents were convicted. I don't know if you watched that story or not, >> but um what really stuck out was two parents of victims were talking about the school being responsible in addition to the parents being responsible. And there were many red flags in place that kind of got, you know, they should have set off alarms. And, you know, and I was talking to my school principal about this and and you know, I'm lucky. I teach in a school that's, you know, 350 kids and just it's hard to lose track of somebody. being in a much bigger school, it's it's um hard to have that closer look, but when you the way the story played out, it was clear that wow,

089there were some serious signals going on. So I guess my point and how it relates to our discussion here is I think the fact that this is a piece of a comprehensive thing that we have in place to keep our kids safe where much of it is you know the big part of it is making sure that we have these relationships with kids and making sure that we get the mental health piece in case in place because um if you didn't get a chance to see that story, it was like how could how could this have happened? I mean, parents clearly were responsible for a big piece of the puzzle, but there there were also people in the building that should have been doing something about it. I thought >> I agree. >> That's a

090great point, Bill. Yeah. the fact that we need to reiterate because that has been one or two questions that that I know I've heard from you know one or two parents relation to you know so we're not losing something right you know not this isn't >> yeah we're not we are well aware that this is a piece of a big >> piece um you know that we we have and and we have already made strides in dealing with the other pieces like adding more mental health support um you know doing more to uh make sure students are involved, you know, transitioning from the middle school to all these kind of things that help kids not fall through the the gap. So, I think that, you know, as we're presenting that, we we want to make

091sure that parents are aware that we're we know that just putting an extra security person in place is not the answer because it wasn't the answer. this at this particular school there was an SRO officer there and and yes it looks like may he may have stopped further but still there were people who you know ended up getting shot. So, um, part of a a big big overall comprehensive security. Then it's important, too, that we we're on the same page. This isn't going to be put in place, you know, right away. This will come forth next year. Um, the only thing we're going to attempt to do is is have Don and uh, and Matt become armed for this the rest of this year, but they still have to go through that training course. So,

092this would happen over the summer for everybody else um, but for the late spring or the start of next school year. So just a rolling for that. >> Just real quick in my calendar I have seven o'clock on Thursday, but I just heard six o'clock and wrote down six o'clock. It's at six o' at the middle that's at the middle. Yes, he signed middle school in the cafeteria at 6 o' anecdote. I was on my way here tonight and Charlie says, "Mom, you have another meeting on Thursday." I was like, "Yeah, why?" She goes, "Well, because I was looking at school's calendar when I was at school today and it said you have a meeting on Thursday." at my school, mom. And I was like, "Yes, honey." And then I, you know, I mentioned what

093it was about and I said, "How do you feel?" She goes, >> "I don't know. I'm conflicted." >> So, [laughter] she's almost 12. >> She's processing. >> So, it did lead to a conversation before I came here obviously, but it was just funny. She's like, "Another meeting at my school." And um then it was I'm conflicted. So just you know she's 11 almost 12. So those are her thoughts. She's conflicted >> as divine. >> So speaking of the the calendar I was just looking at their website the calendar um the district calendar and the meeting is listed for 5 from 5:15 to 8:15. >> Oh boy. 5:15 today. Which calendar? >> The district calendar. Like so like if you go like the main >> 55 >> I think that's the reservation from the middle school.

094Like I think that's in their I think that has more to do with the reservation of the building. >> Oh the space for longer period of time from earlier start to get set up. Exactly. Yeah. So but that is confusing to the public though, >> right? We don't want people to show up before they >> meeting security. >> Yep. Or why don't we just Why don't we just We'll adjust it tomorrow um or again tonight to >> Yeah. Yep. >> Yeah. It's part of the scrolling like upcoming event. >> Yep. So that's something we got to consider because that happens I think for other things and maybe if we're if they're if a school is putting in you know from >> regressive setup time. >> Yeah. It's, you know, apparent. I know the parents were

095looking at that since we showed it spot. >> They all show up early. >> All showing up early. [laughter] >> He'll be there before we >> It reminds me of the play The Wizard of Oz is this weekend. >> Yes. So, yeah. >> Okay. >> We're good. >> Yep. >> Okay. >> So, see everyone on uh Thursday at 6. Not if I pick >> Not if I leave a little before. Okay. Um, next item on the agenda is um discussion action for on the non-lapsing account. So if you remember we um we kind of sent it back to the FO to discuss two big items. One is putting some type of we currently have 2% and 4% as the maximum contributions. 2% in a given year, 4% cumulative in the account. And to kind of

096think that think those through and see what we think is best from that perspective. And then the second part is um what types of uh expenses would we spend the non-lapsing account on? Um obviously you mentioned a little bit about that earlier. just pre before uh this conversation. So Kate, you were gonna take the lead to talk. >> Oh, sure. We have three agenda items. Discussion of the non-lapsing account, discussion of energy performance planning and discussion of revenue accounts. The first one um what you just said, Eric, how much should we contribute in any given year? How much should we accumulate? And then our deliberation discussion on these two items was in depth and ongoing. And we were looking at schools across the region and there's a great great range of practices in in very

097many districts and it has ranged from 300,000 to 4 million and of course we wouldn't want ours to be to that extent 4 million. Um, is there any comment or question or just and thanks for joining that meeting and I called you a couple of times that must have had your sound off. Um, but is there more on that that we need to discuss? >> I think we need to discuss. So I think the FO proposed um what? >> So we're talking 75 to 1.25, >> right? So the the two different >> Yeah. So the 75 would be in in a given year 75 of a percent is the most we would contribute in a given year. So that's is that 400k >> roughly give or take. Um and then what's the most we would

098ever have in it? Um which 1.25 is 800k or so. That was the um big thinking that um that's enough to cover um one is you know the town also you know if we have too much money giving money back to the town is debt servicing and other things to to manage as as a town but giving us kind of cushion to cover you know something special ed is something that does come up occasionally or we someone moves into town or something like that. So some unusual expense it could be and this kind of gets into what would we spend it on but we have one time expenditures like the boiler at central office where we had that one time significant cost um to to cover that. It could be things like what we just

099discussed project or analysis that we want done. So, we thought that having those those amounts are taller um kind of the levels that we're thinking and I I don't know Kate and Jill if you have more anything to add on the points but HVAC units and emergency needs and then we said just to remind everybody because we have been talking about this but the purpose of the non-lefting and cap balance is educational. I like air quotes on that because Mariana always does air quotes when we say educational and the interpretation of that is of that is also emergency. So when something comes up and it's a dire need or an important modification or adjustment that we need to make then that's when we step in use >> like special education cost too. She's gonna ask

100a question again still there. Sorry. Um, are we going to put together a regulation that states all of this in it or is this meeting considered the regulation? >> I thought the regulation was as like that limits like that. >> Yep. >> We have a document that you guys adopted last year. So, I was going to adopt >> push that into the document. >> Regulations are just he can do whatever he wants. There is a doubt in a specific uh >> there was nothing specific. >> I'm just looking for something written down like other than a motion. >> Well, we previously so maybe we need to pull that back up. >> I have a full document. >> Yep. We have the whole Yep. We have the whole documents. >> So that this information is going

101to go into that. >> Yep. So, we have >> And then my second thing is I see the the motion that got put into our minutes or agenda and I'd like to maybe ask that we could tweak it a little bit and say that it's based on the current year's budget. >> So, it's not 75 of forever's budgets. >> It has to say the prior years. >> So, it's going to say the prior year because it doesn't say it just says motion to approve to limit the yearly deposit of 75. Yes, I'm just looking for language to say like what what budget we're basing that 75 and that 1.25 off of so it's not next year's budget or three years ago's budget >> just so we could have some kind of marker in there that

102says what we're basing those numbers off of. >> I know. Yeah, it's a good idea. >> So you said prior years. So So I have word in writing here. the board of education may deposit into the unexpected education funds reserve account any unexpected funds from the appropriation to um from the appropriation of the board of ed for the prior fiscal year not exceeding right now it says 2% we would replace it with >> 75 I can get that from the prior year's budget right >> I think is going to make a lot of sense and fiscally responsible >> and is that that stand for the 1.25 also Ariana? >> So then the 1.25 25 would be um if the balance of the account so that doesn't pertain to a budget. >> Okay, I just I'm

103trying to clarify so that we know what these numbers are based off of. >> Yeah, >> Jill, did you want to weigh in anything? Good. um worth uh maybe talking about the sec. Are we I think we kind of brought it up. Are people also generally establish your hand is up? >> No, I just Well, I had a question about like because we do have should this go through policy because we do have a policy on like the unexpended funds. So, I'm wondering this rather than doing a motion, should this go through like as a formal policy with like a policy number and all that to be included that or like what's the most like appropriate like way of avoiding that? >> If anything, I mean, you could put it in as a regulation which

104we could attach it to um that that policy you're referencing. That's we need to actually bring that policy that will come to the next policy meeting that comes up in June. uh because that that policy itself is going to change around this non-lapsing. The language has changed where previously now we had to share it with the unions what the amount was at the end of each year. Now you no longer have to do that. So that will change in June. That just changed. >> That changed. Yeah. Yeah. Yep. So um but yeah, if anything and we can look at it if you feel it's appropriate to put it in as a regulation, we could do that just to have it memorialized. more I think about it >> just so people can find it easier trying

105to find the minute I think it makes sense to think about it we do put that the statute changes we can update it that has nothing to do with >> just because it's going to be harder for people to find the minutes from this meeting than it will be from our regulation >> sure that's just my thought >> great thanks and then so with regards to the types of costs are we Any questions around that? I think the broad is broad um kind of definition would be I'm going to give the negative. We're not going to use this money to fund kind of recurring costs. So, you're not going to take and fund a first grade um elementary school teacher for one year with this and it's not in the budget and then you got

106to have to kind of find figure it out next year. Um it's really for um to cover if anything unexpected happens during a year like we're going to talk about like 22 inches of snow or something like that where you need you know you might need some relief you didn't wasn't budgeted for um special ed costs like we talked about or um unexpected repairs and maintenance and then you know perhaps sometimes some one-time uh costs um like we talked about with that the project. It could also be um a settlement or something like that that we've talked about in the past. So things like that that you could utilize this for. Is there there's there's three it says non-reoccurring unanticipated expenditures for capital items, unanticipated special education needs, and then other unanticipated costs or purchases

107of goods or services above the amount originally budgeted. that kind of regal. Yeah. >> So, I think those three items can cover. >> Yeah. Sure. >> I I think the board of finances biggest concern is that we start funding again, I'll just why I pick first year, but first grade elementary school teacher that we're funding for one year and then next year we're going to say you need to give us more money in our budget because we have this, you know, we funded this for one year or something. So that that um want to be clear that we that is not our intention and it is more of these one-time um expenditures that we're trying to fund. >> Does someone want to make a uh motion with the um addition? Oh, >> I'm hoping I

108I I summed up what Mary said. Motion to approve to limit the yearly deposit of 75% based off the prior year's budget to the non-lapsing account with a cumulative account total of 1.25%. >> Sorry. Of the preceding fiscal year, sorry, budgets >> of the >> Yeah, hold on. >> Is that where cumulative account goes? Say that again. >> Of the 1.25 of the preceding fiscal year's approved budget. Preceding years >> fiscal year fiscal years >> preceding fiscal years okay fiscal sorry year's budget >> sorry approved budget budget preceding fiscal year's approved budget >> all right let me try it again approved motion to approve to limit the yearly deposit of 75% based off the prior year's budget to the non-lapsing account the cumulative account total of 1.2 to 5% of the preceding fiscal year's approved

109budget. Everybody get it >> all carrots and lines. >> So Jamie made the motion and I think the hand went up first. >> Um further discussion. All those in favor say I. I I >> I abstain motion pass unfinously. Thanks um Kate and Jill and for all the work with Mariana and J as well. Okay. Uh moving on. We have for discussion the district repair Improvement Project DRIP. Pass that over. >> So the drip grant. Yes. So >> did we name that thing something else? We would love to do that state grant. I don't know what >> awful. >> Yeah, this is kind of like um back in the beginning. >> Late night when they were approving this fancy, >> but this is a new yearly grant. Um supposedly it's going to come to us

110every every district each school year now. Um and it's focused on repair improvements obviously in the in the title. It's a capital expenditure project um that's approved by >> doesn't have to go anywhere other than the board. Um doesn't have to go be approved by uh by the town. Um Marionics is going to kind of give a little bit of a breakdown and then Chris can talk with you about project ideas, but we get what it's,000 in >> this year. Every year has to be spent this year. >> This year the calc there's a there's a calculation that they go through. So, every year it'll change a little bit, but I'm thinking they're probably going to stay around that 124,000. Um, and basically it just gets once Jeff certifies that he is accepting the grant.

111Um, well, March 1st is when they let us know when the grant from the B, then they send a certification to Jeff. Jeff says okay and then they distribute the funds and then we can use it for any project that falls under the their category which is like safety repairs maintenance etc and can also be saved um it's it runs similar to the town low program. So if we wanted to save it because we have some basic capital project that maybe was going to take 300,000 to do we could save that money and uh accumulate the grants until um we have enough money. The only requirement is that uh every year I have to just issue an expenditure report. The expenditure report is zero zero um but Chris does have some ideas for what it

112can do. So be doing that but it is they are able to do that. The OPM really didn't issue much other guidance on that. They have performed us to the auditors and uh some of my colleagues did reach out to the auditors and members said no. That's [laughter] like the OPM needs to give the guidance. It's not our grant which I knew they were going to say that. So anyway but um just having having experience with the list of grant I it it follows exactly that. So, uh, the Chris wants to give you some ideas of some of the projects maybe. >> Yeah. You want to hit a couple of real quick, Chris? Just things you're you're thinking about. A lot of things that are hanging out there that we we don't get to. So,

113I've already spent the first three years. So, um, so yeah, actually, you know, I think this is a great program. We're really looking forward to it arriving because they talked about last year. See, it was bit more than expected. um because we've had a bit more expected projects that we to do. So, as Jeff mentioned, you know, I have a bunch of stuff that I've been picking up. Um some of those which had been in budget originally which have pulled out, some that have popped up since, some that were in capital budget which were taken out. So, I'll just rattle a couple of these off um for examples. So, the first one on this list, you may recall that at we have some problems with the floor. Uh we had a capital project last year

114for $25,000 that got kicked off the list by capital program reviews and then it was put back on it 50k this year and it once again didn't make it again this year. So it's still now 50k worth of floor fixtures at Hannes. Um there's just a number of repairs things that we hadn't budgeted or already almost exceeded our repair budget for the year. So, um, some exhaust fans, you know, with the north wing in the Hes building that wing that we did not renovate years ago. So, still work to be done there. Uh, we have some repairs here in the high school down the hallway to coming up. You saw in pictures last week in the weekly report how we had a hole in the wall in one of the bathrooms because we have great

115support there. Uh we have projects uh at central office that we're planning to do this summer for specific pavement and you may real remember that it seems like each year we're doing another project there because we're doing mid by room by room. So there's additional work we could do there. U the facilities building where we are now was great acquisition for us but it came with an old boiler. So we knew ahead of time that we're going to have to replace the boiler. um and a number of other smaller things. And one other thing on here um you may have noticed throughout the town and particularly in our parking lots that the keys were not kind to us this year. So we're doing a lot of patching this year in particular potholes and other places.

116So uh just a small list too much. Yeah. Yeah. So, um I'll look for the email later this month uh for the basically the sign off. Um and then the dollars come back to us and then obviously we'll come back to the board for some further discussion as to you know we have recommendations um on how to spend this and hopefully we do the same amount each year which would be nice. Um and I didn't realize that we could roll that that's right we could roll that over year after year. So >> it's a thought too. >> Not the seed grant. >> The seed >> not the seed grant. Just a quick logistical question, especially based on the last conversation. So, not that this will happen necessarily, but if we decide to hold on to

117the funds, does that count towards the non-lapsing account? Is that part of the percentage? That's it own thing. >> It own separate uh separate account entity. Yes. Thank you. >> Yeah, good question. Yeah. >> Yeah. This is a separate separate piece. >> Okay. >> Yeah. Rick and Wald. >> Next is discussion action of emergency expenditure for snow removal. So, as everyone knows, we've actually benefited the past few years um with warm winters and no snow and it all piled on us uh this year uh unfortunately. So, there is um we can have discussion, but we do it's over 10,000. So, we do need to approve it. Um, and I mean we didn't want to put it under consent because we thought we should if we want to have a conversation, we should have the conversation.

118Um, but um, it kind of a little bit is what it is. Um, but open to questions. Yeah, just this is you know use of a large excavator. I had to come into clear spaces to make things safer, you know, parking and um you know we see the largest appliances just a little and we did reach out to the town to help but they they had their own they had their own challenges as well. So two different companies this year and uh see the total amount for the two days worth of work. >> How much? $17,150. >> Just >> they just pushed it all back up and higher, right? Chris, unless they didn't truck it anywhere like a little bit around to different spots just to get it out, but those piles got too big,

119but it didn't leave any it didn't leave the site. >> So like the back fields and stuff like that. >> Any questions, discussion? >> Were you happy with hand? >> They did a good job. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, yeah, they're actually they came right in. They did it after his school day was done. Stayed out of the way. They stayed in black or dark. I think they did a good job. >> My kid files and he was he was gone for 18 20 hours at a time. Was crazy. >> Very happy with how quickly they responded. >> Does anyone want to make a motion? I make a motion to approve the emergency expenditure of $17,150 for snow removal due to a recent visit. Thanks second. Uh Kate seconded. Uh further discussion all those in

120favor say I. >> I opposed abstain. Motion passes. That concludes our discussion action items for the night and uh move on to administration reports and to Jeff. U couple items just to report out on um tomorrow morning if anybody's still interested. I know there's a few board members that are joining us. We have the workforce visit um tomorrow. U so we've got some representatives from old line coming over Waterford. Um and then we've got uh state reps uh Martha Marks or senators is joining us spokesman state capital. So we're excited. We got about 10 to 12 visitors tomorrow morning. September is not >> uh it's going to be here in this room at uh 7:45 arrival and we'll start at 8 and we're going to go tour the EMT classroom program. >> See that the

121ambulance that um we own now is parked out there. So we're going to take a tour of that. Then we'll come back here before 9ine probably, you know, half hour visit, come back and just recap and then we'll finish by 9 because we know the representatives on our part, they they need to get back to the So >> yeah, so if you're free, you can make it, come join us tomorrow morning at uh 7:45. It'll be a late little continental breakfast and go from there. >> Um remember the Salem co-op meeting is next Monday night. Um I think that time is 6 o'clock. Uh and it's in Salem, so we want to try and work to make sure we have a forum for that. So, we'll get more information out this week um on that

122one. Um March is board appreciation month. So, first let me start by saying thank you to our our board. Um we're going to ask uh our kids to develop cards again. So, we don't have we don't have another meeting in March. So, we'll bring them on April 6th. Um because March 23rd is when we present the book by we second March meeting. So, >> we should bring them to that meeting. >> You think that we you know we could pass them over there. >> I think we should. >> It's not a bad idea. So to show someone we're appreciated. >> I [laughter] like it. I like it. >> Um we're continuing with those because for people's calendars. So we have the forum on Thursday. >> We have the co-op on Monday. Then the following Monday

123we have the presentation of the board of five. >> That's at town hall. >> At town hall at 5:30. So >> that's the 23rd at 5:30. Yes. Um just quick few other pieces. Oh, an important one. Insurance. We got the final insurance number for next year. 10.4 10.5 10.4 >> per% increase, which is much better than 15. Saves us $420,000. >> So, we're all giving Mariana credit for up to Good job finding out. [laughter] >> Good job. Good job. >> Good news. So that's a huge thing. Brings the overall district budget, school district budget, adopt the budget down to a 5.65. >> It's still going to be presented though as the 6.31 because the board final. >> Yeah. That >> Hello. So, what did the Go ahead, >> Jill. >> She's on mute. >> You're

124cutting out. >> No, she's on mute. >> You're on a mute. >> Okay. So, what did you say it was about the percentage of the insurance what it would be? >> So, the percent increase for next year, Jill, we have had it in next year's budget as 15% for an increase. We found out the state the final number is 10.4%. >> Oh my god. Okay. Can I be excited? >> You can be. [laughter] We're all excited to hear. So, yes. >> And so, what's that bring our budget down to? >> 5.65%. >> Oh my gosh. Okay. Okay. >> $420,000 roughly. >> Okay. So, what can we add back? >> Nothing. >> Well, I'm not done yet. Okay. Thank you. >> The state insurance, they're doing a great job. They make us >> It's only 10.5%.

125They did a great job at that. >> We're happy to send. >> Exactly. So that's good news. So we'll incorporate that into our conversation obviously for finance. Then the town save money too. They say 120,000 >> 140,000. Okay. So that's pretty good. Combine that together. You know there just Exactly. Um couple other quick ones. Um the uh great discussion with state board of education. I don't know if if you caught my weekly update, I didn't say much about this, but if you didn't take a look, we had a great conversation with the state board of education and presented to them last week. Um >> the rep's coming down direct the deputy commissioner um Charlie Hughes is joining us tomorrow. Um and then also we're interviewing with Business View magazine on u >> in June. It'll

126be the June. >> Yep. So we our interview is coming up uh soon as recognizes the premier districts and states. That's exciting. >> Which magazine? >> Business View magazine. Yeah. So I put some different >> I saw the relates to other articles that I did say was coming out. >> Yeah. So June our our article will be in June entry from what they told us so far. Um so that's exciting. Um yeah. So that's exciting. >> Some great great exciting things going on. So um that's it. >> Thanks. >> That's a lot. Sorry. I'll keep it brief. We had a really great day on Friday and so, you know, some districts decided not to run professional development as a um result of the snow, but I'm really grateful that East Line provided the space and

127time for staff to engage in their own professional learning. There were um camps across all three levels tied to a variety of different topics that are aligned to our um board goals and our school and district improvement plans. Um, we received some really great feedback from staff, very appreciative of the day. Um, a lot of autonomy for teachers to make it a day that they needed. Um, come up for air, reconnect with colleagues. So, I think it was good for culture and climate. Um, so thanks to the board for the support on all the budget um, information for the book to send down to the board of finance and nothing very exciting coming around my office. I mean, >> think that's great. Wait, what's coming out of your office? >> Moving on. Committee reports, right?

128What's >> um tomorrow? Not tomorrow. Uh the 11th, which is Wednesday, is K's day on the hill. Um, I have a meeting with Nick Menipes at 11:30 if anybody wants to join me. Um, Martha Marx is I'm on call for whenever she has an opening on Wednesday. I'll just be sitting at the capital all day waiting for her. But, um, there is a very important bill coming up this week. If anybody would love to write testimony, I would like you to write it. I'm sure Jeff would like you to write it on Thursday. House Bill 5470 is coming up about the hybrid school buses. Um they're not really changing much on it. So if you guys would love to write a letter telling them to change their minds, that would be fabulous. >> We're we're

129okay though um with with that luckily um because they they the terminology um they changed dispos dis um >> yeah they changed they changed like two or three words >> disproportionate uh disadvantaged buses >> dis this that's disadvantaged um it no longer includes us I guess let me say that so we don't have to have electric buses by 2030 we're 24 >> we're 24 yeah but there still are >> there are still other schools that are going to be having >> yeah other account was justice uh justice community >> weird they got rid of environmental justice community >> that's right that's gone so we're we're Okay. Have to >> That's the one piece that they changed. Um so it's we're okay. >> It just got that not off the press Friday still there. So >>

130what we mean [laughter] we're we've scheduled a meeting um with the town to to actually get that meeting. So So that's that's in process. Sorry. That's that. >> Those financial webinar pieces are still up. I think that's all I got for now. That's it. >> Thanks. If >> anybody wants to come to Harvard on Wednesday, keep me company while I wait for Martha or come see Nick with me. >> Yeah, I'll see. Well, that's right. I will see her tomorrow morning. I will be tell all day. Thank you. >> Thanks, Jamie. uh learn forward meeting on Thursday for learn for that. Moving on, we do have a board comments and future agenda items. We do a reminder we do have executive session. Uh any board comments future general. >> Um so Estabon and I got

131to go to Nyanic Center School on Wednesday last week. think I'm going to have my days rolled together. And we had a really good time teaching a civics class to fourth graders um on town like civics, what it means to be like a board of education member, what our roles and responsibilities are. It was a lot of fun and you have some kids with some really good ideas and they will probably reaching out coming to meetings. They kind of cornered us and oh wait, how do we do this? How do we do that? So we invited them to come down to the our board event meetings and come talk to us. It was a lot of fun. We had we had fun. >> Is it part of the read across America? >> No. >> Well,

132I did read across America in the morning in the first grade class, but Mrs. Landry and Miss Carlin asked us to be part of a civics. This must be a part of their peer mentoring their peer mentoring thing. It was a lot of fun. We kids had the kids had really really good questions. I mean they were I mean as a fourth grader I would never think to come up with some of these questions but their questions were very very very good. Um and they actually made us pause and think and but it was fun. It was great. I would love to do it again. >> J others. Okay. Um we now need to go into executive session. Does anyone want to make a motion to go And so we'll make a motion going to

133executive session uh agreeing to include uh superintendent new that's it. >> I got one question hard if I enter. >> Yes. >> It's the you can check out but you can never Does someone want to make a motion? >> Someone want to make a motion to enter executive session to include the superintendent Newton for the discussion concerning an entire attorney client privilege communication related to board's legal representation under the Salem co-op agreement. Kate has made that motion. Then I hear a second. Alisa is seconded. We are now at