001Um hello coming tonight. We are in our second uh public >> everybody. Good evening. Thank you so much for coming tonight. We are in our second uh public forum for the Hollis Primary School possible addition renovation that we are looking uh to get your vote on when the bond comes out. Tonight's going to be um a lot of information and we're going to present that and then we'll have time for questions. Before we get uh started and going into it, I just want to introduce a few people so you know who's here. Um I'm Paula Vicki. I'm the principal here at Hollis Primary School. I'm also part of the enrollment committee which has started um studying our enrollment increase a couple of years ago and has led us to this point. Um over there we
002have Gina Burksog, our superintendent of SAU 41. Uh Lance, where is he? I saw him here. Lance Finmore is here. He is coming down now. He is the director of facilities for SAU41. He is also on the enrollment committee. Um Mike Levit, I know you're not up here. If you want to wave your hand. Um he has been um our budget and planning board representative on the enrollment committee. Um Amy Johnson isn't here right now. She is on her way. The weather's having her drive a little bit slow. Um she is the project manager from Pusset O'Neal uh the civil engineers. We have uh Brad Prescott who is our project manager from Banwell Architects. We have Matt Gifin um also from Banwell Architects. He is our um project designer. Matt Smith right there is the
003director of operations for EEI. U Matt Weaton right here is the executive vice president. >> Yes. >> Of DEW Construction. Um Ann Wake Pasqual is school board member who is also on the enrollment committee and um is going to take over next to sort of lay the land of what we're going to hear tonight. a few. >> So, we want to hear from our um professionals as soon as possible. So, I just want to first thank everybody for coming tonight to learn more about this project. Um if you have are new to learning about this project and I do see some familiar faces here. Um but we have given a lot of information on our enrollment committee website and there are some new documents there to kind of give you some context if you need
004it tonight. Um there is a document that gives a summary of the work that we've been doing over the last two years. So, if you would like to go for minutes and agendas um to get more detail on that and why you came to the decisions that we came to, all of that is there for you, as well as former PowerPoint presentations that we've given and other building design drafts that we've gone through before getting to where we are tonight. So, the tonight's um goals have to do with this new information that we're getting straight from our professionals who are here today that have been working with us. So, um as they give their presentation and as they go through the updated designs um that they have for us, these are designs that have been
005evolving over time, were first presented to the public in September um and have been refined for you. and the cost estimates that are associated with that, the next steps going forward, and then we will have questions and comments for our professionals afterwards. Um, so without further ado, I'm going to bring up um our main architect um Brad Prescott from Dan Architects. And by the way, Amy did come in from Quen O'Neal. She'll be talking to us as well about the site plans. So Brad, thank you. Hey everybody, thanks for coming tonight. I know it's a little uh a little windy out there. Um we just drove uh down 89 and 93 and and the roads were really rather sketchy. We drove into Holland and everything was fine. So I I don't know what you guys
006got going on, but it's working. So um but it's our pleasure to be here and it's been a lot of fun working with your team uh to figure out the needs for the school and understand the building better. Um, so thank you Ann uh for going through that what we're trying to achieve today. So I'm going to try to go quick. This is an update from what we briefed you on in October and the all the options we went through and how we try to refine those. Um, so I'm looking forward to discussing your questions and concerns at the end. So really quick on process, there's about seven steps that we we catalog as a process to get to a possible bongo in this conceptual um uh evolution that we go through to figure out
007the appropriate building and we are about at step uh step six at this point. So, um, and all of this information, as as Ann had mentioned, is is up on the TAP website. So, you don't have to memorize what you're seeing on the board. You don't have to take a picture of it. It's all available right online. So, I'm not going to read all the words, but essentially, we've gone through the information gathering steps. Um, we've assessed the conditions of the building. We figured out what the needs, the programmatic needs are with your um, educational professionals. uh and have that all cataloged into it every itsybitsy space that's a need for the curriculum of the building. Um we've explored several options um for designs and narrowed it down with your um with your leadership team
008and your school board to one option and then refined that option since October and come up with some cost estimating pricing and then refined that pricing to try to um you know get it right size um and see where there was cost savings and and achieve a lot of that. So, we're at the uh the point here of of having an outreach campaign uh so that more people can know what's going on, which is what this is about, and to get your feedback on that. We met with the school board last night, which was which was very productive. Um they seem to have a very positive response and have asked us to continue to move forward uh toward March. So, this is what I was just talking about. um since October uh improving the function
009of the building, reducing the cost of the design. Um really uh doing a better job um when we got went from three options to to actually four options to one option of refining the definition of what that option really contains. all the little parts and pieces of that so that our construction management team could really dig into the detail of getting a a solid estimate together, something we can rely on for a possible bond vote and then they did the estimate and refined that estimate. So, I'm going to ask um Amy Johnson to come up for us in O'Neal to talk about the site as our civil engineer. She's done a lot of work uh refining everything and she's got a lot of good information for you. Thank you. Sorry I was late, but luckily
010I found parking pretty easily today. Um, all right. So, since October, we refined the design as uh Brad was saying, and we really worked closely with the team to make sure that we were meeting those goals. So, they tasked us with a couple of items, um, that are kind of lifted up here. So, a big problem that is currently going on in the school is that a lot of cars are backed up on Silver Lake Road before pickup and drop off. So, we wanted to maximize the space on the school property so that we could fit as many cars as possible. And Brad was mentioning that program. Uh, we were given 57 cars as our goal for getting the queued spaces for vehicles on the property. We were able to meet that goal. We actually
011exceeded it at 59 spaces. So, um, there should be more available space and hopefully we'll get more cars off of Silverl Road because of that. Um, another one of the refinements that we were tasked with was separating parking circulation um from the drop off pickup areas. Uh, we were eliminating some parking because of the location of the building audition. So, we're trying to maintain as much parking on as possible, but make sure that that was safe for parents dropping off their kids and also faculty coming into the building. Um, also easing the bus uh and car kind of circulation and exiting the site. Um, there are a couple intersections where buses and parents are kind of interacting with each other. So, we want to minimize those in those intersections and interactions as much as possible.
012Um, and then the most creative one was uh kind of modifying the septic. So, we looked at where the septic systems are currently located. There are two systems for leech fields that are in a butterfly formation if you're familiar with septic design and like me. Um, so that takes up a lot of valuable real estate and kind of defines the site constraints for where we're able to reprogram that space. So we were challenged with, you know, how can we reduce the size of these septic fields? how can we modify these septic fields um so that they're more usable for parking or playground or whatever reprogramming we're looking to use. So those were kind of our challenges and then as a result of those challenges we really wanted to do as much cost savings so that
013that bottom line you know was decreased as much as possible. So reducing the leeching fields is uh what we ended up going with for that modification of the septic system. We found an advanced treatment that actually uses microbes to break down that um septic matter um so that the water is treated a lot more effectively and that reduces the load onto those leech fields um which results in a up to 60% reduction. So we're able to eliminate those leech fields that are located just to the south of this building and that way we can put in a new parking lot so that we are not losing parking on the site. Uh the playgrounds are also remaining in place and are not really being modified. If we were to touch the playgrounds, then we would have
014to do a rubber surfacing underneath that play equipment, which um is pretty expensive. Um so that is also some cost savings. And then looking at how we can take advantage of where the pavement currently exists so that we can use that subbase gravel and uh base gravel material that's underneath the pavement so that we uh you know already have that material in place and we don't have to put it in place. So there's some cost savings there. We will be repaving the whole site so it does look cohesive, nice and new at the end of the project. Um and then we uh had a vehicular bridge in the last iteration between the SAU property uh to the north and to the HPS site. Uh we eliminated that which resulted in significant cost savings. And then
015it also reduced our permitting requirements. So if we were to impact wetlands because of that vehicular bridge, it has the longest lead time for permitting requirements. So by eliminating that permit requirement through eliminating the bridge, we're also saving time which results in saving some money. So those are kind of the highlights. And now I'm going to flip over to the existing. So this is how the site looks today. I'm sure you're all familiar with kind of circulation and the pain points of this site. So now I'm going to flip over to what we're proposing for the final rendering. So, not too drastic of a change um at least for circulation wise of where parents are dropping off, but you'll notice a couple things that are different that I'm happy to point out. So, first thing
016is that cars are going to be entering into this uh northern entrance along with buses. So there is that still bus car entrance interaction, but we removed that middle driveway that was there before, which was a lot of kind of interactions with those cars entering and exiting. So that eliminates one point. The cars for pickup and drop off will continue around the back of the school in two pickup and drop off lanes. And we set this up so that you can separate cars that are going to continue up to Hughes versus cars that are exiting the site. and really keep that as streamlined as possible so that there's not, you know, interaction crossing lanes. They're in the lane. They're going to stay like that until they exit the site. You'll also notice that there's kind
017of this clear striped area that goes around the site as well. Um, that allows for emergency vehicle access. So, even if the Q- lines are all filled up during pickup and drop off, we still maintain that access for emergency vehicles to get around the entire site. Um that area is also used for pedestrian circulation um when pickup and drop offs not happening. Um and then the emergency vehicles can use the pickup and drop off lanes because there wouldn't be any cars there. Um all right. Next, uh the entrance was relocated to the front here. So we realigned parking and added more spaces along the front. We also reoriented them so they're 90° parking. Currently there's angled. you actually get more spaces when they're 90 degree. We also added ADA spaces so that um that meets
018the requirements for ADA and there will be some visitor um position uh spaces that are designated there as well. The biggest change is this area in the south of the building. That's what I was talking about with that existing mounted septic system. That's not really doing anyone any, you know, favors right now. There's a couple benches maybe and a a cage of fencing, but uh we can use that space to actually have 47 spaces, which increases our overall count for the parking on the site by 16 uh spaces. So, that's a net gain. In the back, we're not touching the playgrounds. We're just going to redo the fencing around them, but we are going to do loming and seating on that back septic area. This is where the second septic that is going to remain
019in place is located. Um, so that will add additional play space that's not currently being utilized. Um, so kids can play soccer and run around in the grass over there. And lastly, I'll point out uh adding in a turning lane on Drury Lane. So, we kind of shifted the parking in this little lot right here. It maintains the same number of spaces, but we just reorganized it a little bit so that there would be a designated right-hand turning lane to get uh out of the site onto Silver Lake from Drew Lane since we know that all the cars are kind of being channelized down right now into Drew Lane for both schools. That covers it. >> Sure. Yeah. Uh this is not changing, but for the vehicles that are coming around and going up to
020Hughes, there is a turning lane um that's exited here. And then um all the other cars that are not going to Hughes can come down this side lane and have an alternative exit out onto Silver Lake by crossing over the bus. Um, this is another bus interaction point, but because the building and the existing entrance is kind of tapered back, that allows for great sight distance so that you can kind of see and direct those traffic uh as needed so that cars can safely pass queue in this area before they're exiting the site. >> Oh, yeah, sure. Um the buses are shown here in yellow across the front. And so that will be designated buses only um for for drop off. And then the buses will continue out. They have their own designated little lane
021right here. And most of the buses continue up to Hughes. So they're able to make that turning movement out uh onto Drury Lane and then continue up to Hughes to make further drop offs. Okay. Great. Thank you. >> So, I'm going to make one more uh one more plug for transparency before I go to [clears throat] the next slide. Um we um we have some uh printed out boards of the design material that you're seeing. They're a little tardy making it to the meeting this evening. They were up at Hughes with the school board meeting last night and they're making their way down here. They'll probably be there in the next 10 minutes or so. But after the meeting, you know, we we don't have to go to the slide deck for you to see
022these designs. They'll be right up over here for you if you want to take a closer look. And we'll be around to answer some questions as well. Um on those boards, as well as on the board that's in the back right now, you'll see a QR code. So, you know, if you wanted to actually just scan with your phone, you can go right to the website where all of the project information is, including the information that is available this evening. So, just want to make sure you don't feel like you have to memorize everything that you're hearing all at once. So, um building design refinements. Um since October, we've moved the entrance uh from the on the 1A design in this 1B design um to uh basically make it a little bit more intuitive in
023both its design and location. Uh we've also shifted it um closer to um the spaces that might be uh used utilized more often for after hours use like the gym and and the library and so forth. So there's a very strong connection between those spaces in the lobby now which we think is is more advantageous. Um there's some cost savings in that as well. So that was a double bonus. We also moved the uh the stage closer to um the u to the music room which is down at the end of the wing. acoustically that works really well. Um so and that's a good strong connection between those two functions for performances and the support of that. Uh in terms of cost savings uh in the building we were able to do some refinements to
024its size um to bring it down a little bit which you know every square foot counts. Um so we've been very careful about that. Um in addition we've reduced some of the renovation area uh through a little bit of of uh further refinement which is wonderful. Uh we took some uh skylights out of the design which really were determined to be unnecessary. Uh we could and we'll be showing you in some 3D drawings. Um here some renderings how we have windows around the perimeter of the um of the gym at a very high level. Uh so they're not, you know, not in danger of being broken by basketballs or anything like that, but when you have that many windows up high, you really don't need expensive skylights. So we took them out of the design
025to to save there. Um masonry is an important um component of material for schools because of its resilience uh in a couple of different ways. So we do have masonry in some of the design of the building, but we did pull back on it in the last couple of months for cost reasons. So, we've been very strategic in this location, keeping it um on the outside of the building of the additions um on at a what's called a wings level, which is below basically the window sill height down to the ground so that when the salts get on the building from you know the road, they're not corroding the finish of the building. Um, also in the gym, the interior face of the gym remains um, CMU or concrete block, which is great for for
026resilience and you know, all the balls I hit and all that stuff. Um, but the rest of the building is just fiber cement clapboard and and fiber cement paneling uh, which is very economical. Um, exterior uh, cooler and freezer were uh, uh, put in the project instead of having them inside the building. another cost savings measure. And then of course refining the finishes, which you know when you're doing a 20,000t addition or 19 in this case, um every square foot of finish can make a make a difference when you're talking about a dollar a square foot here and there. So this is the uh the what we call the 1B design, but it's the final design based on the 1A design that was selected by the school board. And as was finding the last couple
027of months, um I'm sure you've all been following this diligently, so you know everything about this plan. I won't run through the whole thing, right? under under documents. So it's on the right hand side of the of the site, right? Uh yes, but within the next week we are preparing more of the visual representation now that we've sort of finalized um a design. So that way you can see all of these just in very clear form as opposed to searching through documents to identify where all the individual >> I'm just saying agendas is it >> so if you look into the power from >> it'll be more clear >> I would say we had to make sure board was in support of of the plan. That was last night. So I just shifted all the
028documents over to our person to create that page. So within the next >> So for those of you Did everybody hear that? >> You did. All right. Great. I'm getting some nods in the back. So we're good. Okay. Great. Um so just walking you through this. Anybody just to bring you up to speed. Um, so the existing building for the for the school is where my pointer is right here and goes up to about this point and everything to the left of that is existing. This is the second floor. Okay. Uh, Silver Lake Road is right here and everything in green is a general classroom. So the general philosophy of this organization for the building is we we're trying to keep the general classrooms for the grades all grouped together in the same area as
029pods in grade pods. Uh that allows us maximum flexibility. Uh when you have um bubble grades and maybe you have a large kindergarten and a slightly smaller first grade, they can switch classrooms back and forth on even odd years, things like that. Um, so we have kindergarten here, first grade here facing Silver Lake Road. Um, second grade is down on the lower level of the twotory portion of this building. And the third grade is on the second level of the twotory portion of the building. Everything you're seeing in purple are um special education or individual instruction rooms, intervention rooms, things for for kids that need special attentions uh for instruction. And the light blue are your specials. So um we have environmental science, art, and music. And the orange are administration or educational support. So
030we have our administration main office. So the principal um and support the conference room and things like that and then um the the staff uh break room office work room and some other storage rooms um and the school psychologist and the and the nurse. So, in terms of general organization of the building, what we've done is moved the main entrance of the building from over here on the corner to a more centralized location because we've added on to the building right here with a with a gym, library, art, and music room addition. And then a small twoclassroom addition on the back so that we could actually get achieve our our educational um uh programming. So as you walk in the new entrance to the building, we have a secure administration wing right next to the
031entrance. So you don't have to you don't get access to the building like you do now. Um just by walking in through the vestibule. You actually have to go through the office to gain access to the remainder of the building. It's a very important safety protocol that's recommended by the Department of Homeland Security. And then we have a lobby here with if you turn right, you end up with a library on the right hand side and there's a gym across the hall which is actually a multi-purpose room. So you have a full gym space that could that can accommodate a middle school size basketball court, but it also has a a stage or a platform at the end for those performances that happen throughout the year. And it's got a um a rigid [clears throat]
032um panelized uh partition that can open and close. So they can have lunch on one side of this space while they're having physical education for the lower grades on the other side of the space. So we're giving that space dual use. And then when you have uh physical education for older grades like like a second or third grade, you can open up the whole space um and use it for PE throughout the entire full size gym. And then this is the um the kitchen portion of the addition in the back. the remainder of the building is is either getting left in place because it's just fine or it's getting uh reconfigurations where necessary to satisfy your your educational program. The entire design is is geared toward reusing what you have as much as possible because
033you guys have done a lot of work and invested a lot of money in um stabilizing this building and keeping it running properly. So we want to just build upon that investment and um reconfigure as little as as we can pretty much. Um so we'd like to show this as part of the presentation. We don't expect you to to read it, but what it is is a a conceptual demolition plan. So, if you were to go on to the website uh and look at it, you see the dashed lines above walls that are actually being demolished, which gives you a sense of the very um surgical way we're working on the building to try to minimize the disruption to the building and therefore the cost. And with that, I'm going to turn you over to
034our project designer in the office at Vanwell, Matt Gippon. He's just going to walk you through some of the exterior views of the building, which I think you'll find enlightening. Good seeing everyone tonight. Uh so some of you are probably seeing these floor plans for the first time tonight. Um some of you may have been with us every step of the way and this is the fifth or sixth time that you've seen it. Um most of you unless you joined us last night, you've not seen this building in three dimensions. So tonight I get to for the first time show you how we envision this building looking like in 3D. Um so what I'm going to do is I'm going to give you two trips around the building. One at a highlevel bird's eye. I'm
035going to fly counterclockwise around the building and then I'm going to zoom in a little bit closer so you can get a better idea of the character of the building and we're going to fly around the building one more time. So again, the first trip around the building is going to be a more high level just to give you an orientation of the site. Uh Amy did an awesome job explaining what the site looks like and how it functions on that uh 2D rendered plan, but sometimes these 3D drawings explain the story a little bit better. Um, and also there's a few slides that I've done where I turn the existing building gray. So, I'm going to flip back and forth so it gives you a good idea of what's new versus not. So, uh,
036right off the start, just to orient us, this is the front of the building. This is Silver Lake Road and this is Drury Lane. These are the play fields out back. So, I'm just going to go back and forth again real quick just to show you what's new and what's existing. All of this is existing. This is new back here and this is new right here. So again, back four or got a few more of these. The uh as Amy mentioned, the 10 buses will queue here and the pickup drop off will move around the back of the site. You'll get a better view of that later. And we have our new parking lot over the existing satic fields here. Existing Now we're north looking south. So again, this is the main entrance here. This
037is our library, art room, music room, multi-purpose room, stage, and I'll when I get around the back, I'll show you some more. Again, this is where this the cars enter. Um, we've got a storage shed, our propane tanks. Now, we are uh looking really at the back of the building at this point. Um, a lot of service entrances are happening back here. Again, this is the pickup drop off line. We take a right and head up to the upper primary school or take a left and come back to Silver Lake Road. Uh, this is one of the two or one of the three egress entrances and exits from the gym. This is the kitchen entrance. This is the uh the coolers. This is one of the entrances. This is the environmental science, the new environmental
038science room that you probably noticed from the last, excuse me, floor plan. And this was the intensive needs um program. This all is existing new. So I'm going to go back and forth one more time. At least for me, it helps kind of going back and forth a few times. Before I move to the right a little bit, I'll also point out that these are the uh playgrounds that we are keeping keeping in touch. So, this is the existing school. This is a nice view of that new uh new parking lot. Again, playgrounds, Drury Lane, turning lanes. You can see the the buses queued up back here. This is the current um main entrance of the building. Again, Silver Lake. So, like I mentioned, we just did a full loop around the building from a
039high perspective. Now, we're going to zoom in so we can show you a little bit more of the architectural character of the building. So, we're familiar with the fact that this building is located in the historic district of Hollis. This is also an addition onto an existing building. So, we're inheriting an an aesthetic that already exists. Um, so understanding that there's historic character that we want to make sure that we're respecting, but also an existing aesthetic. You'll notice a lot of similarities between the existing school. Uh but we also added some architectural intrigue. So for example, some simulated divided lights over the windows, some panelings over the windows. Brad mentioned the brick and masonry ways cut that goes around the building. Uh that is a nice aesthetic feature, but it's also an important durability feature
040of the building as well. So this is the main entrance of the building. Uh one thing that we think this entrance does um is really helps define the entrance. You enter the site, it's pretty clear this is where you're supposed to go currently. It's tucked into that corner and you may not actually be aware of where you're coming and going from. This is the library that pops out. And again, this is the music room, art room, and gym and stage behind a nice more close-up view of the library. Uh we have a a nice curved little element between the library bumpout and the main entrance. This is really kind of the main architectural feature of the building. So this is moving to the rear of the building. Uh this is the side uh after school
041hours entrance to the gym. Um of course you can go in through the main entrance as well, but this would be the second main entrance. Uh these are the entrances out of the the the egress entrances out of the gym. coolers, library, and again gym behind and intensive needs program right here. Now, we're really at the back of the building here. Um, so again, you just saw this from a slightly different perspective, so I won't spend any time here. Um, but this is one of the uh this is one of the accessible entrances that we've created. The site dipped down at the back, as a lot of us know. So, this is an entrance that'll have an accessible ramp as well as stairs. And with that, I'm going to turn it over to Matt Smith
042to talk about construction phasing. >> Good evening, Matt Smith with EI. Um, we've been asked to come in and help uh define some of the more construction, get into the D, Matt Weaten, and myself. So starting off this is a conceptual phasing plan and when we looked at the whole site we wanted to figure out how do we get as much work done without disrupting the students and the faculty right so one of the things we've done is we've kind of separated this out into summertime work and year round work okay so that first summer where's that light there we are um the first summer, we're going to get into some of that septic work and get um get that new septic in Leechfield all set. So then we can move right into the parking
043space because where the new addition is going the the teachers are going to lose a ton of parking. We're going to need to make sure we get that done prior to them getting back to school. We're also going to get in here and get this north side of the driveway and some of the propane tanks moved uh so that this queuing line starts to form shape for that first year. Then we get into Oh, excuse me. And we also get into the south wing, taking on a couple smaller pieces of the renovation work inside so that we can have those areas done and complete prior to the kids getting back so we're not shuffling them around during the school year. A little later in that summer, that's when we get into the big push of
044the 14-month project, which is the new additions, these green areas here. So, we're going to start those in the summertime, but those are going to go clear through to the end of the project. We're going to stay focused on those and try to keep our noise year around on the outskirts so that we're not again bothering the children and and and the faculty. Um, so that that's planned to go for the full 14 months. That second summer is when we get into these core renovations, right? in some of this area where like the new nurs's office is going. Uh we obviously this that's a part of the kitchen right now. We can't give up the kitchen during the school year. We got to wait till um they're gone for the summer and by the time
045they get back after the summer's over, we'll have the new kitchen done. So that frees us up to do a lot of these um core construction areas and get that admin ready. Um that's summer two. We have quite an undertaking with um the east, west, and south uh driveways and getting everything complete. But by the time they get back after that second summer, that project should be wrapping up completely. Um again, this is conceptual. There's a lot of things that need to go into this with um discussing further with the school, discussing with local jurisdiction, um you know, expectations of the fire department and things of that nature on where are we going to receive deliveries, where are we going to have lay down space. We did kind of set this temporary fencing up here
046that is pretty realistic to where that would go for the whole duration. uh whether or not we're going to have enough lay down space in there. Again, there there's a little further discussion and we need we need to get into that, but this is a good jumping off point to give everybody a basic understanding of how we're going to work through the project with as little disruption to the class as possible. So, we want to give you give you an introduction to that >> 100%. Yeah. >> So, the other I'm Matt We construction. Um the other thing we want to do is we won't be mixing construction workers with student populations and teachers. So when we're in this building, there is no student, no teacher here. Um and then when when the students come back,
047we're out, right? We're clearly marked. Uh we understand how to work on the school grounds. Um as a construction company, we were in uh 12 projects last year um in school districts. So we understand how to operate, how to sequence, how to stay out of your way, how to how educators need to educate, keep noise at bay. Um when we have to work, it's not quiet um work all the time, but we understand testing schedules. We plan that into our sequence so that we understand if there is a duration of time where uh testing has to happen, we can limit the noise either early or late or just not do the work. So we'll build it into our sequence and schedule. So um everybody on site will be safe. It's clearly marked. There will be
048some chaos. Disruption is always disruptive. So we apologize district apologizes but um there will be some disruption. Uh but it's it's it's uh managed >> organized care. >> All right. Moving to the next screen. I believe a lot of people may be familiar with this, some of you may not. We were tasked early on to um get into conceptual cost and this this was at a really high level. These were we were basing prices off of ideas more than anything else at that point. And what we wanted to do was kind of go through and make it more of a comparison drill. when the school had multiple projects in front of them. They had three or four and three main ones in the beginning and we just wanted to get a fundamental understanding of what
049the difference was between each of those um costs. Okay, so this was more of a comparison. Um, now luckily the schools did go with option A which is the cheapest out of the three when we were doing the conceptual comparison pricing. And that kind of leads us into this next slide which is um a more refined and more defined. Um the design team has done a tremendous job. Um really giving us more to work off of. Uh some real defined written scopes of narrative. Um you know, obviously we've got a ton of drawings that got passed around. There's a little value engineering that went into it back and forth, but this is where we got to. And I'll ask Matt to set up again. you may want to get into a little more defined on
050how we've gotten to this to this place. >> This is usually where people get the most irritated, so I apologize um to >> with numbers. Um so the way we start to look at these things uh so DEW has worked with this architect um or design team rather on almost 50 different projects. So we sort of know where they're headed. We understand schools as I mentioned earlier. Um, so we can at a high level, even though when the plans look like some of these color diagrams over here, um, we tend to know what's going to be on that wall, even though if they don't very clearly state that it has to have padding plus durable systems, etc. We can we can get there. Um, the other thing we do is we look at a lot
051of cost history, cost data locally, regionally, figure out um, what it might look like. Um but to do this exercise there was enough information for our estimating team and myself to look at not brick by brick but you know a little more detail u because there was enough information to look at. So the numbers here are informed they may not be welcomed um but they're informed um information. Um we have uh as Matt mentioned there were a number of projects uh sorry documents provided to us um a lot of uh historical information. Uh EI uh did all the mechanical electrical plumbing um which they do a you know a mountain of uh mechanical systems in in school districts all over the state and we had a local uh site subcontractor take a look at site.
052So the the the variables in most of these projects are the site. Um so we like to get a little more uh refined and detail to those numbers. Um so and then the vertical is a little more quantifiable sites part. Um so I don't know if I missed any grad specifically but there was a lot of detail that went into this. Um there were a lot of conversations about whatifs, right? So, if we don't do this, could we replace it with that? And then the conversation then stems to if we do that, what's the durability and longevity of that product um long term? Because it's not always about putting down the cheapest thing initially because then you have more maintenance or repair long term. So, there's a balancing act that that goes along. And we're
053not done yet. Um and and uh there's more to come probably. Um, but this number um is not science, right? These aren't hard bids from a lighting vendor. Um, but but they're informed numbers that um you can plan for. So, >> I I think I'm I'm done question. >> I know people are eager to to ask questions to have a dialogue. So, we're going to and we are at at the end. So, we're there. Um, what's the next steps? So, uh, the district is is continuing to effort in doing more outreach, uh, to the community and and getting this information out there so everybody can [clears throat] be making informed decisions in March. Um, they are uh, intending to have another public forum in January. I believe that's uh, January 21st. Um there may be
054uh some other uh meetings in addition to that that uh are just not up here yet. So stay tuned. Uh and then the bond hearing is February 10th with uh the annual um uh meeting in March uh March 17th uh for the school district in which the vote would uh would take place. Um, and I won't I won't belabor the the looking at the website and staying up to speed, but it's all up there. >> I was absent minded. I forgot to to talk about soft costs. So, building costs are building costs, right? Site site soft costs are all other components that are necessary to construct the project. um permit fees, uh engineering architects, uh surveys, geotechnical investigations, um FFNA fixtures, furniture and equipment, uh any sort of IT equipment that has to go into
055these new classrooms or the new multi-purpose space, some of those things. That's what that's what quoteunquote soft costs covered. Sorry about that. >> So, I know you guys got a lot of information. Um, so when you ask your questions, we are going to ask, we are recording this so that this will be available online for anybody who is not able to be here today. Um, and also so that we can summarize some of this information and have it out there for you. So if you do have a question, we do ask that you come up to this microphone um to ask your question so that everybody here can hear it. Um, then we'll have the appropriate person come up to answer your questions. So, um, please come on up if you This is our fire
056marshal, Jen. >> Oh, you can go behind it. >> Oh, wow. [laughter] Um my question is has there been any consideration towards adding sistern for fire suppression to an increase in the fire pump for the addition of the building? Is that included in the cost? that is included in the MVP cost the mechanical electrical plumbing cost that we do. >> So the short answer for anybody didn't hear is yes. That has been considered and included. >> Do you need a name? Yeah, >> it would be great. >> Sure. Uh Dave Perry. >> Hi. How are you? Um this proposal is it uh is a union scale wages that are included in this or is this a um a non-union proposal things like uh prevailing wage is that included in this or not? >> Yeah, we
057so typically prevailing wage we pay all of our subcontractors in our company are well above prevailing wage. It's not union versus open shop or merit shop, right? It's it is best quality and best price, right? And and uh ability to be scheduled. So, some of the things that are going to come up at some point, right? The site works a big site. We have to have that parking ready and torn up and and Leechfield moved in one summer. It's going to limit the size of some sub subcontractors. Um but it is not based on union scales or non-un, you know, it's just come from a place where that's that's uh >> big deal. >> Yeah. Connecticut. So I escaped. [laughter] >> Thank you. Right answer. [laughter] >> How's it going? Um my name is Victor
058Dorlando for the question. Um I haven't gone to a lot of the meetings just to catch you up a little bit. How many additional classrooms is this adding to our current amount? And then what is the expected additional um enrollment capacity that increases >> that adds to it rather? >> That's that's a a great question. Um you're going to make me look at my own stuff. So um the first part I could answer easily. So the number of classrooms in AD is five. So uh we're adding uh see so it's four general classrooms and um those include flex classrooms to handle local grades and future expansion. >> So just to clarify that's additional to what we already have. That's four classrooms including ones that may be purchased. Um that's if you took the grand total
059of number of classrooms we have now and the new design the new design has four general classrooms added to the layout of the building. We don't look at the building as the existing we look at it as one cohesive hole because we're trying to leverage as much the existing building as we have. Um, so it's four general classrooms for um, K through um, K through three and then there's one preschool classroom added. I guess you can call it one because you sort of have like a third of a preschool classroom in the hallway out here. So I mean I wouldn't count that as one and then you have a full preschool classroom. So when we're done we'll have two fulls size preschool classrooms. um en Roman. [clears throat] Okay. So program I just don't want
060to get that underwrite. The design capacity is believe it's 450 with the Oh, here it is. Sorry, got it now. So, um yeah, 450 students is the design capacity for the classroom design. Um but the core spaces being the gym, cafeteria, library, nurs's office spaces, the first few spaces I mentioned are very hard to expand in the future. So like if you had a couple of classrooms added on the building on, you want those core spaces to satisfy a larger number for an eventual expansion should you need it. So we've sized those spaces to 480 per the direction of the tree. So just to to recap, that's 450 capacity for the building and 480 for the core spaces only should you need to add on the building in the future. >> What's the current capacity
061of the building? >> The current moment is >> 386, right? I I had 386 at the beginning of this process earlier. Thank you. >> Sure. Hi there, my name is Sarah Burns and I just had questions in regards to the MIT multi-purpose space. Um, so will it not alleviate the problem of sharing space and cafeteria and timing of so that problem still exists or no? You know when we talk about needs and months, we really wanted a separate cafeteria and a gymnasium, but it was not costefficient, nor was it space efficient. So the the compromise that came to is that there will be a partition in the middle of the multi-purpose room. So that when for example when little ones are having their older kids are having their lunch the younger kids can still have
062dinner because they don't need a huge space >> but then the older children have their PE time the younger kids will already have their their lunch um and so they'll be able to have the full space that they need and also be able to have the basketball courts and things like that if they're not. So essentially the kindergarten and first grade if I'm wrong follow it they will still have the that smaller space while the cafeteria is functioning for the older children that have a larger space and that large space will be there for events you know school meetings etc that right now we're not able to do in this space. Okay, thanks. >> Yeah, just a small footnote to that last answer. Um, over with these boards here, there's there's actually an existing plan
063with all the square footages of the existing spaces. So, if you're looking at the board to the right of that with the new design, you can actually compare the sizes of spaces to each other. And I think what you find is that um the PE space for the kindergarters [clears throat] and first graders are pretty close to the size of this room um for half of that multi-purpose room. So is is pretty pretty [clears throat] good size for that age group. >> I'm going to add to that as someone who walks through the buildings. Um, and while this square footage seems to be pretty comparable to half of the multi- the proposed multi-purpose room, this also serves as a hallway to this space and a hallway to that space. So, the usable space here for
064PE class is not the full space. So, trying to get by the hula hoops and the jump ropes can be um a task for the adults walking by as well. So, so it becomes much more functional um with the propuls. Thank you so much. I want to thank Ann for her continued uh information that she sent to me um through the Positively Hollis uh website and newspaper. Um I'd also like to thank the the committee for all the work that you've done. I did notice however that um in the more recent meetings and you had mentioned that you are looking for uh a member of the community who may have engineering experience etc. How have you reached out to the community to impress that upon them to participate in this? >> Well, we've announced it
065at all of our enrollment committee meetings, all of the school board meetings, and we've consistently been announcing polic budget committee meetings. Um, so actually our representative from the school board um is is actually here tonight that represents um the board at the house budget committee and every time he was announcing that person um and we just in the news >> um it's hard it's hard to get information. >> It is and so we did have someone for the whole first year but that person did have to step aside. Um I did have one person reach out to me at one point um and never showed up. So >> okay. >> Yeah, I I appreciate that. That is a critical position. I'd actually like to see two or three more of taxpayers on the committee uh
066as soon as possible. I know you can't make that happen. So, what I would like to ask is within the $164,000 that we voted to, you know, provide so that you could have the study, I would like to have you do an all taxpayer mailer, uh, to every home in Hollis, um, as soon as possible. Um, and certainly no later than, you know, 3 or 4 weeks before you have the, um, the budget meetings, etc., where these discussions are critically important. It'll do a couple of things. Number one, if you do that more immediately, you will have people who respond because I don't have children in the schools. Um I'm not on an email list. Uh so I don't receive that as most people, you know, in who don't have kids in the schools were
067kind of blind to to this. I know that you've made a great effort on social media, but there are many people who don't use social media. So, I think that in um your efforts to be transparent, which I know you have done, this is a critical step and I would ask the committee to create uh a flyer of some sort that gives some kind of detail and also the detailed information um that will now be up on the website. >> So, I would appreciate that. Yes, it seems possible. >> We have about 31,000 we haven't spent. We've been able to manage our money very well. So, >> yeah, having done mailers myself, you know, we're talking about, you know, $3,000 to hit every mailbox. Um, so that would be money well worth spent in my
068opinion. Um, the other question I had is regarding the all-purpose room, the gym. Um, you know, over the years we've had these spaces added to the high school. For example, we have a beautiful auditorium uh with a stage. And when that was uh money was raised for that, we were promised as the public that we would have access to use that facility for town plays or town meetings, etc., etc. And over the years, that's been um less and less. you know, you can correct me if that's if I'm wrong, but what my real question is this beautiful space that you want to create. Will our um inter basketball uh teams be able to use that? I remember my my son used to play at the upper elementary school and use the gym outside of school
069time. Will there be an opportunity if somebody says, "Hey, we like to have a small pickle ball absolutely game." Will that be is that a guarantee that that space will be open to the public when the school is not in session? >> Absolutely. So, we have a facilities use request form. There's a policy that drives that. The hall's policy. I was just looking at it last week. Probably needs to be updated for um Brooklyn school district and co-op. It's very specific per space. The cost um but we don't have a lot of space here that people want to rent. So, we don't have the specifics. Um so, I think we need to refine that. But yes, Hollis Upper Elementary is booked solid with basketball. Um and then on the evening at the weekends, we have
070some additional groups that come in. To my knowledge, the only time we've denied an outside group is because um the school had a use for it. Um so or if there was inclement weather. Um but um absolutely we have outside groups using our facilities that will be part of this 100%. Wonderful. Thank you. >> I'm sorry. I've got a couple as long as I'm here. And I just came back to add on to that cuz I don't know if you haven't noticed um they they included in this that is part of our plan that they there are doors that are here that cut off these spaces that can be rented from the school. So we we they've made the design. We all talked about that making it available for the community and that there would
071be restrooms available for the community um if they are using that area and they wouldn't be able to access the classroom that the kids go to. So restrooms there that is part of the Thank you. And then um I as a member of the historic district commission uh here in Hollis um I appreciated um your >> Thank you [laughter] for your um attention to that. Will you be coming to the HDC um prior to you know while you're in the design phases to present this um as a courtesy? >> Absolutely. Uh so in addition to reaching out to folks like you, we'd also be reaching out to the fire department. What you're seeing here is a really good step in the process, but all the floor plans, exterior aesthetics, all of that is to be
072refined once the hopefully the bond is passed. So we don't want to fully design this at this point. We have to kind of defer some of that effort. Uh but knowing that you're on this, maybe I can get your contact information at the end of this. >> Oh, no. I don't care anyways. [laughter] >> I'm willing to reach out to you when appropriate and take a break. Yeah, we would appreciate that. Thank you so much. Um, so I think for now that's all my questions. Again, I want to thank you and and I'd love to talk to you about increasing [clears throat] that number of your committee so that we can get more input from taxpayers on a regular basis. Thank you very much. I had a couple of questions. Just uh aesthetics. Um got
073a picture of the roof. Yes. Maybe put one up there. [clears throat] But our roof is just so lovely right now. >> [laughter] >> Is it going to look like that or what's going to happen to all that I >> that part of your demolition? [laughter] >> When it comes to the equipment, I'm going to hand this over to our mechanical guy. So with the initial conversations uh we talked about uh more renovations in the existing part of the building but it wasn't driving the project right. So a lot of that HVAC equipment that you're seeing on that side of the building um unfortunately is going to be existing to remain ETR. uh the new equipment that's going on this this you know in this area this new area um you're not going to see
074all that shining silver duct work that's all going to be run within the building. There is rooftop equipment that no matter how hard we try we uh we can't do much about that. we we have to give it a place to live and expanding on the building to keep it inside would just blow the cost out of the water. So for the new areas, you will see the mechanical equipment, but you won't see all that octopus of of uh all those legs of of um branch duck work wrapped in silver spreading throughout. >> Oh, I thought it was beautiful. [laughter] >> Yeah. I just Oh, I'll I'll [clears throat] miss it. Yeah. So that end of the building is going to stay that way and you know when it comes time we'd love to work
075on getting it all into the building. Right? >> Yeah. All right. So we we'll we'll you harp on him and I will too. [laughter] >> I just want to know if what I'm seeing is what I'm going to get. And if I'm not gonna get all that silver gone, then you need to put it back in your picture because that's not what I'm going to get. Well, I think I think u I think you make a good point. Uh we would not model every single piece of pipe uh and all the solar panels and all of the stuff that's on the nor we intend to do that. Um but I think you know we can say with great um great conviction that the cleanliness of this portion of the roof that is that is new
076that we're building uh will have uh rooftop units on it but it won't have clutter that is existing to remain on the remainder of the building. This is a valueoriented design. We're leveraging what you've invested in to date. We're not spending money unnecessarily. That has been our charge. And therefore, we're leveraging systems and reusing systems and leaving systems that are uh working properly in place. And that's the way they're going that's the way they're going to stay this part of the building. Um, we'd like to show a drone view of the building so people can get a a big overview. Um, we're not trying to be misrepresenting, but at the same time, it's it's rather labor intensive to model every single little itsybitsy piece of of the group of purposes. So, that's not something we're
077intending to show. >> So, you're not intending to show that? I mean, I I think if Some people just come to one meeting or the end meeting and they see a rendition like that, that's what they're going to expect to see in the end. And if that's not going to be it, you need to have a true rendition. This is this is not fair to us. >> Okay? If I buy a car, I see it and I say, "Okay, I'm going to buy it." Same thing with the house, sir. Uh, one thing that I appreciate you bringing this up is that that mechanical equipment is something that you wish you wouldn't have to see. Um, one of the reasons why we have these meetings is to hear things like this. Um, there are strategies that
078we can do that help that could help kind of make that disappear. Not disappear, but maybe make it less noticeable. Um, so one thing that we can do moving forward is look at strategies. Uh, so as Brad said, we're not going to take it away. it's working fine and it would just be a cost. But maybe there's something that we could do up there that maybe we could paint the duck port so it's less obvious. Maybe we could put up some uh some uh mechanical fencing or grading up there to make it go away. So hearing that that's that's an issue and I'm sure you're not the only one who thinks that. >> I'm sure I'm not >> exactly. Um so maybe that's something that we can add to our list moving forward so that
079that's something that we could address. Not changing the equipment, but maybe there's a different strategy that we can do to make that look a little better. And I'm not sure if I heard you correctly. Is the solar business going to remain too? >> The solar would remain. >> And I'd also just like to I know I don't probably need to say this, but most of us aren't flying around the site from this perspective. Most of us are kind of at this view. Um, so you are 100% right that at this perspective down there, you can see that. So, I just want to point out that we're not that's not going to be nearly as obvious down here. >> Well, I think what we could do um is we could put a a little footnote on
080the renderings that we are posting on the website to be clear that the existing mechanical equipment that you see now is remaining. Um it's, you know, Matt's talked about some mitigating measures that we can take. >> You know, we're architects. We we love to make beautiful buildings. Um but we also like to service our clients and meet you where you are uh and meet your needs. And part of that is making [clears throat] sure we're meeting the financial need um and being responsible with your dollars. So um the design that you see here is very much value oriented. Um it's it's not spending money where it doesn't have to be spent. Um the district has been very judicious about um very careful about making sure that uh we're only focusing on what what the need
081is. So um if there are some monies found to to paint duct work or put up screening or some other things to make the building more palatable, we would love that. Uh we would love to do that work. Uh, but I it's my job up here to help you make informed decisions and give accurate information so you can you can really understand what we're proposing and I just don't want to steer you in, you know, down a wrong path and give you a misimpression. Well, I think a a footnote, a big footnote so people can read it about that this is not true rendering in terms of the reduct of the original duck work that's going to remain or whatever that you've got to be transparent. What's the capacity of the um school buses that
082can be in the front of the um school? There's several school buses and I'm I'm just wondering if those are going to be the things hanging out on um 122. >> Yeah. No, buses would definitely have priority. We have a designated space for them and you can fit up to 13 buses currently with the new facade and front um drive aisle. So, I think the district has 10. So, we are exceeding that capacity for what is available space. >> Okay. Um, that's all my questions for the architects. My other questions have to do for the schools. Okay. >> I have another the district currently has eight buses. Um, and let's see, they require 10 full seven full size and three small ones for the future for the 10 total. But what's shown on the rendering
083is >> 10 and too small. Uh so it's 10 and two small but 13. >> So you have how many now? And you have a space for 13 and now they said going forward they only need 10 years but there's space for 13 more >> what about for the numbers that you're thinking about for growth I mean you know if you're going to need more bus space you're going to be hanging out >> three additional fulls size buses um in the design than we currently have right now we have 10 but we could we would be able to have 13 loading and unloading at the same time so to the off of 122. >> Okay. And how um how long do you think that this addition renovation is going to bring us how many years
084is it going to bring us into? >> Sure. So that is the um that's the question of the year, right? That's where everything started. Um we've been watching at first this was just an enrollment committee watching the enrollment. Is it a bubble? um are are we going to see a change when the economy shifts? And what we saw is the bubble just keeps growing. We have more and more students and we have more and more BS. Um so we've been keeping a close eye to the point where we have a classroom in the hallway. So we we had to move forward, but picking that magic number that was our starting point and it took a lot of conversations, a lot of thought. We don't want to overbuild and have an empty building. But at the
085same time, we don't want to build an propose an addition that only lasts four years. So we fully believe that this is going to meet our expected growth. My hope is for the next couple decades. I can't speak to what the enrollment will be like in 20 years. Um but you know, we we look at our projections the next five years. We have a solid belief in um we have projections out 10 years but a lot can impact that the economy moveins move outs etc. But as the uh enrollment in New Hampshire public schools is dropping everywhere we have never se we have not seen that we just keep going up and so it appears as though families are are moving to our town. Um so I believe that um that it'll last for a
086couple of decades. What was really important uh even though all of the the classrooms have names first grade or preschool um they're all flex spaces and so they can if we have more students in first grade one of those classrooms can become a first grade classroom or we could shift it over. So the idea was we have to propose something that was um that could change with the times. It wasn't um it wasn't static. We we don't want to build structures into the classroom. So, it's only capable of being an environmental science classroom. What if we needed another kindergarten classroom? Could we expand, you know, move environmental science for a year if we need to? Um, and so we've been quite thoughtful about what is that magic number and how do we build for the
087foreseeable future. >> Okay. Um, I just want to know um from you that preschool I know is not mandated by New Hampshire and I know I've read your FAQs. Okay. um that it was decided if I remember correctly the wording 15 years ago or so. I've been living in this town. I can't I don't want to tell you how long but very long. And um what concerns me is it's I know I'm very familiar with special ed too. Um I've worked with uh developmental disabilities children and received special ed for one of my own children. So I'm very very familiar with it in this state. Um what concerns me is one who is it was decided 15 years ago and I I suspect it was the school board. But the other thing is, have you
088thought about the ramifications of that? If you if you have preschool in this district, does that mean that every child who lives in in Hollis is entitled to come to preschool here? And why not? Um I actually I'm sorry but I did state at the beginning we're trying to focus on new information and specifically information about our design and our site plans because we've actually addressed a lot of these concerns in previous forums and they are addressed on the website too and I am happy um to Vicky and myself to talk with you about your concerns offline. um we'd be happy to do that. But out of respect for our consultants that are here tonight, we want to keep this more a building and site focused conversation. And so we could talk about preschool at
089another time if that's all right. Thank you. Okay. >> Okay. Well, it was just other other options in terms of some of this problem. >> So much is out out of our hands, you know, but we're happy to talk with you afterwards just as this is a meeting about our site and design. Are there more questions on that topic? >> Thank you. It's actually very good because it brought up the the topic of solar and I'm wondering has the energy commission been involved with any of this is any of the um buildout looking at continuing the solar because I know there's been a great impact that you've [clears throat] seen from the project both between um Hughes and here >> at this point we haven't gotten that far into those weeds if you Um, so
090the the numbers that you're seeing do not reflect additional solar to what you have on the building. Now, I know um I know because we're a part of the projects there, we have other things going on. Um there's the high school and the middle school that are getting uh solo projects and we're in the middle of working all that out right now. Um but as of right now at this point no what we've done so far for this school does not include any extra solar >> yeah absolutely >> so but what we did do is make it solar ready quote right so the roof system the framing the the weight of the solar panel can be taken the roof system is built up with a coverboard if you will right that would allow sort of
091a ballasted system PD array or system to be installed. So should you want to expand its its capable the structure is capable of carrying it. >> Okay. >> Has anybody from the energy commission been involved with any of the meetings or anything so far? >> October 14 representative. >> Okay. Thank you. >> This is a quick question on the energy part. Um, do we have any estimates on the increase in energy cost and utilities for the expansion? We are currently in the process of putting together uh there's a half program that kind of lays it out. Um but again, we're more in that conceptual. We haven't we're not at that deep dive yet to we've started talking about equipment and the best way to heat and cool the spaces and what type of uh efficiencies
092we're we're looking for. and we we use that for pricing. But as far as um getting into uh any types of available rebates for the equipment and um what the true um what the true cost difference is going to be from from now to then uh no not at this time. Um it it is a part of the process but we're in such the early stages [clears throat] and things are bound to change slightly that it would be premature for me to give you I gota anything more than that at this point. The followup question that I'll have when you guys do figure out the calculations is what is going to be the variability of the equipment for when we're at capacity from a e perspective from the increased plan students versus when we're not
093at capacity and how are we going to calculate for that in terms of their costs when you guys understood. Thank you. >> Hi. Uh another question about the cost estimate. Uh can you isolate what is traffic [clears throat] mitigation versus educational facilities? Is that all or is that all tied together? I see that that is a different priority level and I'm not sure if that can be isolated and you know do one but not the other. Uh I mean I saw the site work [clears throat] the site work is probably for the whole thing and not just traffic mitigation. the conversation. >> Great. >> Um, so that's a really good question. Um, when we started, some of our first designs really looked at traffic flow and how do we get as many cars off 122
094as possible, but as you heard those designs, um, we went away from them because they were cost prohibitive. So, we wanted to make sure that the the we got the most bang for the buck really and and how do we invest the most in educational spaces, but in doing a renovation where you're um enlarging the footprint, you have to redesign traffic flow. And if we uh if we enlarge the space and take over a parking lot, we need to find enough spots for our employees to park. Um, and so in the site work, a lot of those fees are looking at um, not so much just traffic flow, but we have a different building. So, where are the cars going to go? And how do we maximize what we have? If we're repaving it anyway,
095can we strike them at 90° instead of at an angle? Because we're going to get more cars. It's the same amount of paving, per se. Um, you know, the septic redesign, we needed that anyway, but looking at a system that was more efficient, um, that would allow us to capture more space for existing needs rather than creating a vehicular bridge, which seems like a million dollars for a bridge, [laughter] >> you know, and so that just didn't make sense. So, we we while we were focused on those, that didn't drive the decision. So, the site costs include so much more. Yes, it includes parking, but it's those costs were driven by the building footprint really because I worry a lot less about traffic for a few hours because you can take Hayden Road and Rocky
096Pond and just avoid it all together. [laughter] >> Unless you're leaving my office and trying to go to >> I'm going that way. No, but another thing that's really important to note um that we identify but we didn't really specify so much. So we have lines for two um passive cars, one to go up to Hughes and one to exit back onto 122. We still have emergency vehicle access and that is something that we don't have right now. So, not only is 122 backed up, but we don't have proper access at all times, and that's not um it's not what we're supposed to have. Um but we're just trying to get everyone up the state road. So, uh there are really nice features for safety, for cars, for for traffic just by enlarging that footprint.
097>> Okay. Thank you. >> I can add a little bit more to that, too. The site is currently pretty much fully paved um except for that septic area that we're going to now be paving, but uh there is very minimal storm water management on the site because of when it was constructed and when storm water laws were put in place. So, we're also going to be adding in treatment because of the building renovation, because we're modifying this area so that the water discharged from the site is also higher quality that's going into those streams um that are kind of adjacent and wetland systems adjacent to it. So, it it's really overall adding better environmental qualities and we're also decreasing the amount of imperous area pavement on the site in this proposed design. Good evening. Can't
098hear myself. Uh Tom Gian, I had a couple questions. First [clears throat] off, when I saw the renderings, the first thing I thought is, "Thank goodness they got rid of that ugly stuff on the ceiling or on the roof, rather." So, I would I would support the comment around that. I I certainly wouldn't expect anyone going to trouble to render every component, mechanical, and HVAC system out there, but I think even a single silver cylinder on the roof would quue people in and not have them look at a footnote. Um, second question I had is very early in the discussion this evening, it was, you know, the phases of the project culminating in the approval at the town meeting or rather the school district meeting. But after that, you know, it was going to have
099to have um, you know, requests for proposals. Those are going to have to be analyzed, vendors selected or or partners, whatever you want to call them, contractors. What is the duration for the work? You know, when do we expect hammers to start swinging? you know, shovels to hit the ground. And then the last question I had is um the last rendering I saw had a parking lot in the SAU field that's moved over to the uh south side of the building, which I think is great. Does this current rendering go onto that property at all? Okay. So, I think my last two things are or my first and last questions are answered. The middle question about kind of the duration a lot. Think I've got this memorized at this point. Um, but I'll just take
100you back to So, um, the durations are here on the left hand side, but what we're really talking about is April of 2026, finishing up in August of 2027. So, it's a little over 14 months. >> Great. should have sat in the back. >> It's [laughter] all good. It's all good. It's a lot of information. >> The 17th months is actually fairly slow. Uh it's 17, right? So, um we we mobilize, get on site. It's just that [clears throat] that shoulder we're going to do a lot of work in each summer and then the middle is just going to be this kind of steady slow process. Um, if we if everybody left and nobody was here, we could probably do this in uh 13 months. But there's we have to work around people. So, we
101work slower and safer. there are any more questions that we'd like to be brought up to the microphone. Um, we will be lingering around here to answer, you know, individual questions. If you want to come up, look at the boards, kind of inspect and ask some specific questions, especially if you've been following along, you want to understand, you know, why do we make some changes that we make? Um, you don't feel comfortable asking in front of everybody else, we we will be here. So, it is 7:30. Yeah. So our meeting is 6 to 8. So we will still be here um unless there is anyone else who would like to come up. Well, thank you for all of your questions. Thank you for your curiosity. Thank you for your suggestions. Um we are always trying
102to get the word out and trying to get feedback. It's many of these changes that have been made are the result of feedback that we've received from teachers, staff, and community members like you. And it wasn't just at forums. Um, some of these changes were a result of personal emails sent to me um or sent to Mrs. and so then we've passed that along to the committee and to this team. So um you you still have an opportunity to to have your voice heard. This is a very set phase that we're in, but it is not the final yet. There is still time to to talk to us. And we did invite, you know, our our police and our our fire um department representatives here tonight to get their feedback, too. Um everything matters to
103us. We want to hear your voices. So, thank you to our team who made it out here, some traveling as far as Vermont um to get here and to speak with you this evening. And they will be back at the annual meeting on March 17th when this comes to vote. So, they will be here at that time as well. We will have a thorough presentation at that time including a film um about this project from beginning to end and the challenges that our teachers and staff are facing. Um there is also a public hearing um with the town budget committee and that's going to be on February 10th and that is at 700 p.m. in town hall. The um annual meeting on March 17th is actually going to be at Brooklyn High School. Those of
104you who may have attended in the past used to be at the middle school, but that wasn't big enough. So, we are going to be at the high school this year. So, please make sure that you attend. Yes, sir. >> And the public hearing actually starts at 6:30. >> I apologize. >> No, I don't know why we started a half hour early now, the other meeting, but >> he would know if he's the chair of our budget committee. Um, so thank you, Tom. So, the public hearing will be at 6:30. We'll fix that right now. There you go. So, um, you heard it here first. So, if you need anything again, please feel free to stay. And thank you and have a great evening. >> [applause]