001We're good. All right. Well, thank you so much for coming everyone today. This is um actually we counted them up recently. This is our ninth uh public uh information or forum that we've done over the last year. So, we're tired. Um, but I like to start on time and thank you all for coming on time today. If you want to move up, we can this will get a little bit more, you know, comfy and intimate. We just did one of these at the library yesterday and it was great. There were about seven of us total and we sat around a table and had a nice chat um and it was lovely. So, thank you so much for coming today to um become informed a little more informed about um this proposed renovation and expansion of
002this building, the Hollis Primary School. So, all right. So, um we have a pretty clear agenda uh today. So, this is being recorded so that um members of our town who aren't able to see here be here today uh can attend. So it is a little bit more formal than like say yesterday's um session at the library. We will have another session at the library on February 7th which is a Saturday at 11:30 which will be another more of a casual conversation. Um so just a a heads up to anybody listening at home and to anyone here if that's something you're interested in later. Um so today we're going to take a few minutes just to talk about our goals and to introduce members of the committee. Um then we have a presentation that will
003probably be more like 20 minutes, but we're kind of um putting aside 25 and then until 4:30 we can do question and answers. Um and if anyone afterwards really feels like they would benefit from having a tour, Miss Vicki and I um are willing to do that and and walk you through and answer your questions as we do that. Okay. So, um, the purpose of today, um, is really we're going to talk about the history, um, of this enrollment crisis that we're currently experiencing, um, and how the enrollment committee has been working to address this over the last two years. We're going to talk about the varied impacts of increased enrollment on the school and on our town in general. um ways that you can better inform yourself on the issue going forward leading up
004to the vote and the important dates for the public hearing and of course the annual meeting. So um our committee is composed of members of the community um and from the school administration. So I'm an wake deep. I'm the chair of the enrollment committee. I am a representative of the town on the Hollis school board. We have, of course, our superintendent, Gina Burksog, our principal of the Hollis Primary School, Mrs. Paula Bicki. Um, we have our teacher representative, Ellen Rousunger. Um, we have Mike Levit, who is here. He is on our town budget committee and on the town planning committee as well. He also substitutes at the co-op in the Brooklyn High School and Middle School. So, Mr. You're not anymore. Are you done there? you know, oh, I've I've seen him there before. He's
005all over helping out. Um, not present today, though, very um instrumental over the last two years has also been um Julia Piscorski. She is our represent parent representative. She has children both at this school and at Hollis Upper Elementary School. We have Lance Fine. He is our facilities director and knows these buildings inside and out and everything that's been done to them. Um, Raphael Zach is also a school board member and he is he's the alternate for the enrollment committee and he's on the budget committee and he and I have constant communication so that accurate information is reported to our budget committee. Um, and Brad Prescott is normally in attendance. He is from Banwell Architects. Um, all of our consultants were present for our December 4th forum and that presentation is available online. um as
006well as the live recording if you are interested. They are not able to be here today but they will be here at the annual meeting. So um a brief history uh this is a very cursory overview. Um the reason I you see that there's a hyperlink on a brief history is so that when this goes up people can access that document easily. this we have a document posted on our enrollment committee website that really takes you through um what we've been doing since the beginning so that anyone can easily go to our meeting minutes to get more information. So um prior to in the wake of the COVID pandemic the school board noticed that there was some increasing enrollment and there was the question of is this a bubble or is this a trend um
007which really needed to be determined before any action could take place. um by the fall of 23 it was determined this is a trend this isn't doesn't seem to be going away we need to study this so the enrollment committee was formed in January of 2024 and it was charged with studying the impacts of increased enrollment and coming up with solutions to address the problems that are were created by an increased population. Um, our first problem that we identified that we needed to work on after making a list of all of the challenges that Mrs. Bicki um has been facing for years now um was that we realized that we had a three classroom deficit for fiscal year 25. So that first spring that we were together, we after touring both buildings, after assessing all
008of our issues, we decided that's what we needed to focus on. And that was when we converted um what was a huge library to three classrooms and we moved our library over here to what was a kindergarten classroom. After that um from August to December we really dove into the data uh really thought about what is going on here what are major issues and a huge issue is this room right here which you'll learn more about shortly and um after consulting with some architects an architect that we had worked with on multiple projects in the past um and some engineers we determined you know we really need to renovate this building and expand it and that was when we put together warrant article six that was voted on at the annual meeting last year and
009approved and that was $164,400 that was for hiring consultants to come up with the designs for a pre-bond designs. We've done exactly that since then. So, what do we need? Um, in a minute I'm going to be showing you a film uh that was put together to just kind of summarize all that for you. It's six minutes. Um, but bulletointed here are the main issues that we're facing. Of course, we it's insufficient space, insufficient classrooms, insufficient storage, insufficient office space. We have specialists in utility closets, and you'll see some of that in the video that you're I'm about to show. Um we have do not have a dedicated gymnasium. This room that holds 297 people and yet we have 386 in the school. Um is is is just not enough um for our kids. Um
010the unreasonable traffic on Route 122 and the crowded drop off and pickup um times do not allow for emergency vehicles to access our building which poses a huge safety risk to not only anybody on this campus but on the upper elementary school campus as well. And you'll if you were to speak to our Hollis fire department chief or police chief that's one of the major reasons why they support this measure. So, we're going to do I need to exit out to get to it. Perfect. So, um yeah, so this video was made. So um energy efficient investments is um an electrical engineering company with whom um the SAU has worked on multiple projects over the years not only in Hollis but in Brookline and at the co-op. Uh they have a company that they we've
011worked with before that makes short films to kind of summarize projects such as ours. So we'll be showing this at the annual meeting as well but you get to see it first. So here we go. Thank you Paul. Over the past 13 years I've been here, we have gradually seen an increase in students. We've also seen a growth in our kindergarten, a growth in our preschool population, a growth in our intensive needs population, and all of these programs take up space. The school has more requirements now put upon from the state and agencies. So we don't have the classrooms that we used to have. Those classrooms go to things like occupational therapy, speech therapy. We have been doing everything that we can to use every possible inch of the building. We are just busting at
012the seams and we have nowhere else to go. We used to have a very beautiful library that was really the heart of the school and we had to move the library to this smaller space here and library into three classrooms. >> With that, we've had to take a lot of things that no longer fit in our library and put them in storage. We have moved special case managers into smaller spaces. We have doubled up, tripled up staff members who are working with smaller groups of kids, so now they're working in the same room. >> We've also had to move one of our preschool classrooms into the hallway. When the PE teacher goes out for PE and takes his class out, he has to walk right through the preschool classroom. I also have a cafeteria that's
013my gymnasium and that directs the entire schedule of the building. I can't have lunch and PE going on at the same time because they use the same space. >> But I think what's most visible to the community is the traffic problem. >> But we don't have enough space on our lot to get cars off the road. So we have cars pulled over on the side of the road. >> Even with the assistance of a police officer, we cannot get all the cars in and out without creating huge congestion on State Route 122. >> All of this together is a part of this problem with enrollment and having a building that was built in 1957 and we may have outgrown. >> We put together a enrollment committee to really study what are alternative solutions other than
014the obvious of just increasing space in the primary school. >> We went through every single space including the bathrooms to see what the use was and what we could use it for. We talked to the principal and the staff members at Bahalas Upper Elementary School and we explored the possibility of moving the third grade to that building. >> We studied quite a few options but unfortunately we're limited with where we can place kindergarten and first grade. They have to be on the first floor. So it doesn't matter what we do to grade levels that are on a second floor that doesn't open up space on the first floor. >> So before we ever looked at any floor plans or drew any pretty pictures, the first thing we did was catalog every single space in the
015building and really identify how many students going to be using each one of those easy busy spaces and what sizes those really needed to be to address the problem. We took that document which was so carefully vetted by the enrollment committee and the administration and then translated that into the plans. >> The proposed gym can fit a middle school basketball court. >> We have a panelized movable partition that goes down the middle of it. We can have a lunch in the cafeteria on one side and on the other half we can have physical education. It just makes for a building schedule based on academic needs and not a building schedule based on when I can march. >> This project also has thoroughly examined better ways to fit more cars on the property and off of
016the street to allow for better flow of traffic. >> I'm excited about our music teacher having the space that she will need. I'm excited about our PE teacher having the space he will need. I'm excited about inviting our community into our multi-purpose room where I can say we're having a Veterans Day assembly. Please come. >> So, we we've done a lot of work in this building, put solar panels on, you know, HVAC work, but for the most part, the actual shape of the building and the size of the building have not altered since 1976, I believe. That's what makes this project unique because now we're going to be addressing enrollment needs and projections to really rightsize the building looking for the future. >> We have done everything that we can to use every possible space
017in here. We have cleared out closets to make them offices. We have moved people in with other people to make sure that we are using our space as we can. We understand that a lot has been asked of the town of Palace. We would not be making this ask if we didn't think it was absolutely necessary. I would like for voters to know that at every single possible stage of this process, we have taken into consideration so many possible solutions. I've been on many committees here to further bonds, projects, whatnot, and this is the most thorough committee I've ever been a part of. And I feel really comfortable presenting the best possible option. >> It would be amazing to come in and not have to do a jigsaw puzzle of who's going where, what programming
018am I going to have to eliminate. It's so much time spent on this jigsaw puzzle that could be better spent on the curriculum. the academics, the students. We want to start planning, we want to start creating, we want to start doing for our students. So, the first thing I want to do is correct two dates. So, the building was not built in 1957. I'm sorry. It was built in 1952. 1957 was actually when the first edition went on it. Um, and the last edition wasn't 1976, it was 1987. So, want to make sure that that gets out there when we were So, Brad and I misspoke. Apologize for that. Um, so I hope that was a little helpful. Um, these are some pictures that again, obviously, people are going to be looking at this PowerPoint
019at home as well. Um, but you are welcome to look in the room is right there. um that our library is now. And it's not just our library, our technology special. So, our technology specialist is located there as well. Um and her computers that she has to take to our children in their classrooms. There is our prek classroom that's in the hallway that you heard. Um you're going to hear me talk in a second about like spaces that used to be used for children to go in that no longer can be. So, sometimes you'll hear of schools taking a staff room and turning it into a classroom. Our current staff room used to be a classroom. Um, fire codes have changed. Uh, you see that there are stairs here. I mean, our staff that are
020here can probably giggle about this. You know, if there were a fire, there's their second egress right there. And that's acceptable for adults. It is not for children. So, um, when people talk about there used to be more kids at this school, this is one example of the kinds of things that have changed over time that have limited what we're able to do with what we have. Um, the proposed renovation would have a dedicated music space. So, this room right now would be able to be a classroom. And you can see, um, it is lined with storage. Over here are her risers. We have nowhere to put them. Um, and then everything that she uses throughout the year. So basically our music teacher is teaching from that carpet. Um I I added uh no grandma's
021allowed uh to that picture. And why is that? Um I actually very personally encountered this. So we have a concert right we concerts for our children and the second grade where I happen to have a child right now has 103 students. Well, two parents a kid. We've already gone over the maximum. I have my mother and my husband has his mother living right here in town. So, child, do you want your parents to come or do you want your grandmothers to come? No grandma's allowed. It's very sad. [laughter] No fun. Um, so established in 1952, not 57. Um, so this question about having held more students in the past. Um I I have this link here. This is these are numbers that we prepared for our information session back in January of last year. Um
022I updated it a little bit, but it is much more thoroughly updated on our website on the FAQ document that's linked here. We actually went through and cataloged um which classrooms we have lost to programming, whether that was um occupational therapy, reading or math specialists, um the switch from half day kindergarten to full day kindergarten. So now those numbers that were doubled up in one classroom are now have to be split up into classrooms. Um and we added also the the addition of intensive needs, preschool, etc. We have lost the capacity over the years of about 120 students and that's on the conservative side. Um if you want to read more about that, please do. We we really took some time going through that to to quantify that for everybody. Um this was addressed in
023the movie. This these are some lists of what we've done to try to address this problem and what we've considered. Um some of you might want to know, you know, what are we getting out of this? Uh, as far as actual numbers of classrooms being added, there are five classrooms being added. But you have to have to keep in mind that, you know, with the the wing of the specialists, we're also going to be getting back that music room and the art room that are currently in the building um that can now be housed for classroom space. Um, we're going to be getting a performance stage. We'll finally get that um library with appropriate storage um and a gymnasium, cafeteria, multi-purpose room. appropriate for the amount of students that we have. Um the Warren article
024that we're presenting is $19.38 million. Uh I know that's a lot of money and I know one of the questions is how is that going to impact our taxes. Um that is answered at the public hearing. We cannot give you that answer. Now that's determined by the budget committee and that's also dependent upon whether we go um with advertising the bond over 20 25 or 29 years. Um the house school board is is promoting 25 years. Um but that will be discussed further at the public hearing with the budget committee and that will be um as it says here on February 10th at 6:30 in town hall um to informed. We really hope that you go to our committee pages. Again, this PowerPoint is going to be posted. All of these hyperlinks are there. The
025brief history document has a lot of hyperlinks on it that just makes it very easy to find all the information that you want. And we are all very accessible and we're happy to answer your questions via email. So, that brings us to our question and answer. We have um obviously superintendent Burksog. We have our principal is Vicki and myself. We'll be happy to answer your questions if anyone would like to begin. This is a microphone to come speak to Sorry. >> Um, quick question. >> Is that working? >> It's just feeding that. Perfect. Okay. Thank you. >> Quick question. The in enrollment projections were receiving >> based on the New Hampshire Department of Education, were projected to decrease in student enrollment. the company you guys are using. I'll give an example. In 2019, they projected
026we'd have an enrollment about 464 kids. I think on our website, I think it says we have 390 kids. Have we looked at the enrollment estimates from other sources that have conflicting viewpoints or maybe balance those enrollments of other options? >> Absolutely. Um so certainly that's the first piece of this whole puzzle. we had to figure out if we really if is this a bubble or not and um if not what are we going to build to because it's I don't know about you but I don't have a crystal ball. Um so trying to really figure that out. So we use NASDAQ. Um if you look back at the reports over the years for the past five years we've consistently exceeded the NASDAQ's projections for the past five years. So 2019 is beyond that. Um
027and every year we come in the fall and we have more students than just was which was predicted the year before. We also have developed our own internal um projections that look at the three years and that really looks at our actuals. What are we actually seeing coming in in K123? Um and and we use that as another source to balance out the NASDAQ projections. The New Hampshire projections are statewide and statewide enrollment is decreasing. I don't know if they're all moving to Hollis, but but we are not seeing that that decrease. >> The reason I ask is because I just pulled up the next year for 2020 for the I forgot the how you pronounce the acronym. It's the New England School Development Council. Um, and again, they're projecting crazy numbers every year. For
028example, the academic year of 2024 to 2025, and this is what they projected, 2020. They projected 453 students. I think we're at 390. It's still way above what we actually have. I would like to see if you guys had some other than the one that supports increased enrollment. Do we have any other studies outside of the school and this one New England School Development Council that just shows increased enrollment every time? >> Sure. No, I'd have to look back. So, I do have the actual report straight from NASDAQ published every year for the past decade. So, I I'm sorry I I didn't uh recently pull up the 2020 or the 2019 version. However, we they do project for 10 years. We don't feel that that's a reliable source. There's so many variables, the economy, um
029you know, if there's a pandemic, uh that certainly impacts what we see. So, we really only look at the next five years. As we said, we've been watching and we've consistently over the past five years, our actuals are exceeding what we thought possible regardless if we're looking at an increase or decrease enrollment from projections. Just we are growing year after year and um we don't have space for our students. It's no longer feasible to say it's simply a bubble and we're going to have space the next year. Um, I have yet to see projections that demonstrate a decrease in enrollment for Hollis. >> So, just a couple of questions. One, is there a plan for the upper elementary school in the future? >> Two, two, uh, how much of this building is going to stay?
030Um and and three, what's the fallback plan if the bond doesn't pass? >> Sure. Um thank you for your question. So uh the upper, if you remember, I don't know how long you've been in town, but it used to be the middle school. So there is >> Okay. So then within that time frame, um there are some spaces in the at the upper where we would not have to expand the upper. It is prepared to handle a large enrollment. Another um aspect is the we have board specs which determine our class size and our uh budget committee really expects that we stay below that class size. We've actually um researched the history of where that class size policy came to be. Why is it that I know why I prefer class sizes to be smaller?
031It's best for academics. But where did that come from? And that actually came from the community. There was outrage years and years ago that small class sizes are what makes Hollis special and different and that directly impacts our property values. And so there was an urging by the community of non-parents to maintain and put into policy small class sizes. So we've been doing that. Um so we have a cap at 18 jumps up to 20 when you hit second and third grade. When you hit fourth grade it jumps up to 23. So that allows for a slightly larger class size at the upper in addition to the fact that there's um more space. Um the the uh diagrams in the back can show you what um of actually Yep. Your postcard that you have shows
032you what is um space to be renovated and what's to be brand new space. So >> Yep. Yep. Um so there is quite a bit of Everything remains in terms of space here. And then there's a two classroom edition off that end. And then a very large wing addition in this direction over here. But we're repurposing existing space. So this is staying, but it will become more usable space. The main office becomes a classroom. So we're gaining classroom space in our existing space. Now that's not classroom space. >> It just doesn't seem like we're getting a high school. >> It was 30 years ago. Yeah. >> Yeah. adjusted roughly $20 million going back and >> uh specifically we didn't look at that in this committee I don't believe in terms of combining them and and
033building a larger building but I can tell you that building uh many of my colleagues around the state have put forward uh projects to start over build a new elementary whether it's K3 or K5 and we're looking at 89 90 over hund00 million. That did not seem like something uh we felt right about. We have a building with really good bones and structure and we just needed to make some changes to it and then add on. So this was certainly the most cost-effective approach getting giving us new space while also preserving and restructuring the existing space. >> It may not look a lot. It is over about 19,000 It's about 19,000 square feet of new construction and 12,500 square feet of renovation. Um, so it actually is it is a lot. Yeah. >> Um, and
034then was there a third question you said too? >> Oh, so we will >> after we cry. >> Yeah. [laughter] Uh so you know we have asked principles Vicki to rethink space every year now for the past four years and uh you know she currently doesn't have an office. She and the other administrators cannot have confidential conversations with families with each other with with students um because their office space is what used to really be a pass through. It's like a hallway. Um she will continue to sacrifice and pick programs that can't exist as they currently are. That is certainly detrimental to the students, but that's what we would have to do. >> Yep. >> There's a preschool. Yes. >> There are Yes, we've looked at all of that. That's all in the FAQ. Ann
035or Paula, if you want to speak to that um you can, but yes, that was thoroughly investigated and deemed um not in the best interest of the district. Would you mind coming up just so that way your your question will get on record. Yeah. You know what? Sorry. Yeah, we should have done that. I apologize. Um just because that way anybody listening can hear >> and maybe you already answered this and I missed it. How many students are triggering this whole thing? How many students are we are we building this for? >> Well, we're building this this building will accommodate about 450 students and event spaces 480. Um, does that help? >> 450 students in classrooms and the event spaces will be able to accommodate like the multi-purpose room for example in the library 480.
036It's a difficult question to answer because as we were saying before with all the programming changes we have we've lost a lot of classroom space because of things that we have to answer. Do you have a better answer for this? Um to say what triggered the scales? >> I guess what what tipped the scales is just the increase all around, right? We went from having uh half day kindergarten to full day kindergarten. So, we needed more class spaces to hold the kids for the full day. Um we our increase in enrollment in preschool. We now have um two uh two AM classes and one PM class. We used to just have an AM and a um PM class. We have an intensive needs program um which has added a class. We have um increase when
037I when I first started here we had about four um four and when we had a bubble what five at a grade level um and now we have five to six classes at a grade level. um one year I think we had seven but um we you know we've just generally increased with that we've having we've also had more staff added um I think when I started here I don't know if you have the numbers up yeah um so you know when I first started here we were at 350 or even less students and then now we're we're close to 400 um plus staff members um that take space and and uh need rooms to work with students. >> Yeah. So, what if we go back um you can probably you can find it online
038there. We went through the program. We went through a program that's the um where we referred to we spent hours with um Mrs. B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B Scog and I spent hours with the architect going through every single space, what it is used for, what we need, and that tr uh we, you know, we said what we wanted and what we needed. So, for example, we wanted a separate gym because that would, you know, make things a lot easier. But when it came down to seeing what we needed, what I really needed was for gym and and lunch to happen at the same time. So, we we decided on a multi-purpose room that would be more cost-effective. So
039we had to make decisions like that going through out. But what we did was look at every single space. And in that programming, we came to what we needed for space knowing u some of our limitations like our classroom sizes. They're not all the same. We can't fit the same amount. There's, you know, certain specs that we have to meet in order to have kids in certain spaces and adults. Um so that all of that um all of those numbers matter and every single uh classroom in this building is is a different size. Uh so they can't all be used for the same thing. Um and then we have the egress with kindergarten, preschool, kindergarten, first grade where they cannot be placed on the top floor, the bottom floor. They have to be level going
040out with a um egress that is level to the building. Um, so all of those decisions uh basically came back to what what we need for space. >> So am I right that you're building spare capacity for the future? >> There'll be there'll be classrooms that are not being used. >> I wouldn't say they're not being used. They're flexible spaces. So the purpose of them, they have the ability to be a classroom if there is a bubble of maybe seven sections. Um but they could also be used for service delivery or um specialist. >> So one of the things that I'm concerned about is that folks in town will try to tuition kids in or other kid kids from other districts will try to tuition in. >> And I just see that as a really
041that from the town of Palace. Um I don't understand why the only tuition in at 80%. Not 100%. >> So um >> that's something that you're going to have to address at the town meeting. >> What I was just going to say is so um we the board has discussed an open enrollment warrant article to limit um non-resident pupils. Um what they do in the legislature is beyond my individual control, but we as a town are trying to limit that financial risk. Um so absolutely that's an important aspect. We are building for the residents. We are not building uh for the masses to come. >> One of the conversations that we had was that while we wanted to address our needs, we also didn't want to overbuild because that has happened to some towns in
042New Hampshire specifically. you know, they happened windum with our our architectural firm actually worked with them on that and they were able to advise us against some things. So, we really tried to be meeting the needs while also not overbuilding. Um, so those flex spaces and we can also like talk about those closer even when we finish the formal presentation and kind of look at these plans a little more closely. um are intended to to help with the fluctuations yeartoear of like one class, one grade level being large, another one not, etc. So, we can be flexible. >> Question regarding the enrollment again. Um, so I'm looking at the numbers per grade, how many kids we have. Do we have a projected enrollment for next year's first grade class? >> Yeah. So, what What what
043we typically do is we have um >> or rather next year's kindergarten classes. >> Yeah. So kindergarten is always our question mark. We don't have uh that's it depends on what we get. Right now we've started enrollment. We have 24 kids already signed up. Um I don't know how uh that's going to lay out. Um every year we get more and more at the beginning of the year. So this again is more than we've had in the past at this point in January still. Um, but I won't know uh until I get closer. We try to get put it out there and get people enrolled as soon as possible. >> The reason I ask is because if we look at the enrollment numbers for third grade, second grade, first grade, >> it goes 105 third
044grade, 98, second grade, drops off to 76 in first grade. >> And then the current kindergarten class is always only 87. >> Yeah. which essentially if we just move kindergarten, first grade, second grade up one, >> that leaves us with an additional a drop of enrollment of 18, >> right? >> So depending on our kindergarten enrollment, this actually may be >> Yeah. So we will Yep. So do I I mean we're going to So we we do like there there will be not as many second grade classes as there are this year. Um which again will like we do that internally. I don't know if you wanna >> No, no. I'm not not so much about the move in the classrooms, but without the >> projected kindergarten enrollment for next year. >> Yep. >> So,
045right now, if we just take the current grades are in the school, move them all up one, we would have eight, we'd be less 18 kids in enrollment without knowing the kindergarten data. If the kindergarten data is more than the current kindergarten class, then I'll dig into that. But still, eight that's essentially I don't class one classroom, one classroom. So, Yeah. And >> are we sure this isn't a bubble? >> That's we've been we've been asking that every year for the past five years. Um and and we had to take away our library to create three classrooms. We had to utilize the hallway space to create a classroom. So um even if we go down by by one and the kindergarten maintains um where they are now, uh we we still have an issue. We
046still have a space concern. Um like I said, I cannot predict I cannot predict a future. Um when I started as the assistant superintendent over a decade ago, uh families were moving in with children in middle school and high school. The families are moving in now with kindergarteners and toddlers. So Hollis is really seeing that bump in the last five years that has historically hit closer to the co-op. So um >> uh so families are moving from Amherst to Hollis. families are moving locally and and coming to Hollis. So I I could make a lot of statements without a lot of facts [laughter] and but I don't want to go there. What I know is that we continue to be further and further crunched year after year. Um and you know we we definitely slow
047rolled this. We didn't want to make a move too quickly. We didn't want to ask for something that we didn't feel we absolutely needed. We wanted to put everyone on uh make everyone aware of the situation by putting forth one article six last year to say we're going to take the time to really study this. We're not going to jump into a big ask like this. We want other professionals who do this all the time to help us understand what are we seeing? Is it real? How do we best support this? So, I've been here over 13 years and every single year it's increased. We we haven't had a decrease and and that's all I can say is that we've lived it. And I I explain it to people as like a frog in boiling
048water. Um we've just been doing it for so long. And if you ask our staff, they'll be they they know that we're in dire need right now. Um although it doesn't maybe not feel like that to to to everybody, but we've been living it for quite a while. So every single year since I've been here, we have moved and matched up people and have made space smaller for everybody so that we could accommodate the students that are coming in. Something that's also noteworthy is that um every year we see with the exception of this past year with the 77 in first grade there is typically a huge jump from the population of the kindergarten class to first grade and there are multiple reasons for this but among them many families you know kindergarten isn't required
049in New Hampshire so many families keep their children home for kindergarten and start them for the first time in first grade. You also have families who do private kindergarten. They might keep them in the same institution they were in for prek through kindergarten and they bring them here in first grade. This is a trend we have typically seen and so kindergarten is typically smaller. We were caught off guard very concretely. We can tell you the story that we were caught off guard this summer that the kindergarten that was being registered kept on increasing and increasing. We're like, "Oh no, what are we doing?" In the summer, we had to make the decision to add another kindergarten classroom because we jumped up to 89, which gets us to our max for our 18 students per classroom
050and we had to increase to six classrooms and hire another teacher. Um, that that caught us off guard. And so even though right now it might looked like well the kindergarten is smaller than the second and third grades, people keep registering and adding throughout gradeto grade. Um, and so we also have all of these unknowns that Mrs. Vicki juggles and deals with every year as does her staff. Um, so that's a that's a key point of information to keep in mind too when looking at the enrollment numbers if that helps. >> So um, >> what's your name? >> Nate. Okay, thank you. >> My kids went here. It was a fabulous education. >> It's bigger than I remember though. >> So, it's obvious you guys did a lot of hard work, took your time, and
051the town of Hollis is very um we believe in education. We spend a lot of money on it, but I think this ask is going to be too big for the town to swallow with the way things are kind of like going. So, my advice to you, and the high school had taken the advice, have a plan B so that you have to wait two years to get what you need or at least a piece of what you need. You may in this town that it's often not done that way. We go for the big bite, it gets turned down and then we scramble the next year. And so how if you can have a plan B for town meeting, it's nice to get everything but you may not get it. Um so respectfully I
052I will share that we don't like plan B is scrambling. If we had a plan B we would have offered it. We really um we worked with our consultants that said cut it cut. It's too much. There were a lot of aspects that we that were in original designs that are no longer here just because it didn't make sense to spend over a million dollars on a vehicular bridge. While vehicular has become my favorite word. um it just as like a roadway for a car that that seems like superfluous spending. Um so we really pushed um pushed our engineers. I don't think they they liked um our response all the time. You got to cut more. We you know we we know this is a big ask. We absolutely know that. Um, but we also
053know to your point like when the high school was built, it was immediately too small. And um, so a plan B of a smaller addition seems disingenuous when when we then would ask for more later. We want to build this for the next 30 years. We don't want to keep asking for more. Um I can't predict um the enrollment with certainty but I can share that in the last decade as principles as Vicki shared we're not getting smaller. Our problems aren't going away. We are doing the absolute best we can managing with a smile on our face. But it you know I am hired to make decisions and make recommendations for what's right and best for kids and that's what we're doing. So, I I appreciate that it's a um I'm a taxpayer, too. I
054understand it's a big ask. I understand we ask a lot, especially in our small towns where everything is property taxes, and I absolutely respect that. Um but but this is a need. If you don't want to come up and ask a question, doesn't mean if we shut this down, you have to go home. Um right away anyway. Uh you do eventually. uh we will be here um we'll be here at the posters to answer questions and talk you through the designs if you would like us to if you would like to take that tour as I said we will take you on a tour and talk you through and ask answer your questions to the best of our ability and some of the more technical questions that you might have please once again our um
055our architectural team our civil engineers our um electrical engineers and the construction company that we consulted with um to help us with giving cost estimates will all be present um at the annual meeting to help make sure that everyone makes an informed decision. So, please keep that in mind and please spread the word. Um did everyone get their postcard uh that we handed out today? If not, there's another version that should be in your mailbox today um to make sure that everyone has the opportunity to go to our public hearing in our in our annual meeting. So, um, with that, seems like it that we're closing question and answers. Okay. Um, sincerely, thank you again for coming. Thank you for your questions. Um, it's been been from meetings like this that we've been able to
056compile the FAQs that have pushed us to work harder to try and refine our designs, make them better, make them as costefficient as we possibly could in this climate where everything is very expensive. Um and so all of this feedback from all stakeholders has been invaluable. So thank you very much.