Newfields School Board Meeting 10/02/25

001I'm going to call this meeting um the October Newfield School Board meeting to order at 6:00 on the button. Okay. I'm also going to open up um the public input uh per RSA 189.74. Um we have to have at least 30 minutes and we like to have the entire time if possible for public input. So, we have an awesomely robust presence here today. Uh, feel free to I think you're all part of the um committee that we're going to be hearing from later. So, um if you have any input that you want to um provide before, during or after um that committee part, please do. And if anybody else comes in, they're happy to they're welcome to um chime in as well. But, uh the first item on our agenda is to approve the review

002and approve the minutes from last month. So that would be the September 4th public and non-public meeting minutes. >> I had no changes per item. >> The only change I had um which I actually me failed to mention on the um agenda last time under 7.5.4 DSD it says gauge receipts. I'm like what the heck is that? And it's gate receipts. We probably should just fix that. Oh >> because it's referring to a policy that doesn't exist. >> Um that was it. That's all I have. >> Okay. If you want, I will put a motion to approve the minutes as amended. >> Beautiful. Second. All in favor? >> I I Okay, perfect. Now, um about the non-public um meeting minutes. >> I have no changes. >> So, I will put a motion into approve those.

003>> Any second? >> Okay. I I will second. >> Uh all in favor? N. Okay. So, those are approved as well. Okay. First or next item is our central office update. So, um superintendent office. We have >> Yes, this is new. We So, we created a template for all of our agendas, our board meeting agenda, so that we would be consistent from board to board given that we technically have eight school boards. Um, so that speaks to some of the work that's been done already this school year, having um Chris Andrisky in as a new superintendent and having some new staff on our senior leadership team that we have done a lot of work around aligning our expectations um within our own team and clarifying some of our own um norms and um as I

004said expectations for what does it look like when we are adhering to our own norms and how are we holding each other accountable, how are we holding ourselves elves accountable. Um and then we've extrapolated that out um as well to our overall leadership team um with our principles in SEU 16 as well as the our um entire administrative group that we've referred to as the K through2 administrators. So that includes curriculum directors and special education directors, assistant principles and principles and senior leadership team. So really there's been a large focus on continuing to further align our practices um especially within the MTSS framework so that we can make sure that we are really doing as as best we can to meet students where they're at and give them what they need across the board through

005various interventions all relying on using data to make decisions. So that just gives you a little bit of a highlight in terms of what's been what's been happening um at the central office um under our new leadership and things are going very well um I would say and we have things are feeling very hopeful and we're creating a lot of positive changes and the feedback has been good so we are we have hit the ground running. >> I love it. Um the other item on there is update on the uh use of impact fees. >> Yes. So, from what I recall, we had mentioned this briefly at the last meeting when we talked about um the board voting on some of the impact fees for some additional concept work for the potential school safety project.

006Um and then at that point in time, given the total amount that we had in that um pot of money for the impact fees and the scheduled um expenditure for when they need to be used, um the board had asked Susie if she had some other ideas in mind for how to potentially use those impact fees. So I'll let her speak to that. >> So we looked at our past um list and some of those things include uh the drawer in the multi-purpose room. um we're not able always to get a large um freight things in that and so that door and the dorm frame of that needs to be updated. Um LED lighting was part of that package. Those were two of the um big ticket items. I know painting on the outside um

007updating our painting uh was also one of the top priorities in that line item. >> Okay. So um I we last had last month's board meeting be voted to approve up to 2500 of impact fees for the use of what we're hopefully going to hear a little bit today. Molly, I think I remember hearing you were going to update us on an updated number. um >> of what the impact figure >> instead of her email. >> Yes, she did. >> She did. >> But she can look it up again. >> Okay. Wait. So So can I The last number I have is 42,575. >> Let me go. I think she sent it. >> Yeah. If I didn't, I did. >> Fine. Um, and just for the for the folks who are here, um, if it's

008not clear, um, we have there are impact fees that the town um, collects, uh, whenever there's new development in town. Please stop me if I'm mischaracterizing it. Um, and there's some calculation that figures out that number. Those have a certain um, life to them, and if they're not used by the school district, then they ultimately will get returned to the developers, my understanding. And the intention to to use the money is to um uh use it towards um you know impact potential impact from the additional folks that are coming into town and the use of the school is my understanding. >> Yeah. The impact is essentially more housing. There's going to be more foot traffic meaning that we need to keep this place on. >> Yep. and you had sent over to us on the

0099th. There's a total of 42,575 available and 9,825 must be spent by the end of 202. >> So the number was was accurate. >> Yep. You are 100% right. >> That spreadsheet is maintained by Sue McKinnon at the time. >> Perfect. So at the last board meeting, we voted um where we agreed to allow um up to $2,500 to be spent uh towards that first um effort to get some more data, which hopefully we're going to be seeing here today. >> Um beautiful. That's super helpful. Um Susie and the estimates that um we have on this sheet for this was created by >> Frosty last year. Yes. >> Yeah. Which is really helpful. This is the first time I think we've ever had something like this or at least that I've ever seen anything like

010this for NES. And it sort of gives us projection wise up to 2029. So it's not very far in the distance, but at least giving us a graded view of the things that are need needed to be addressed. um uh building wise. Um and so the amounts on there were 15,000 for the multi-purpose door, uh 15 or so for the exterior paint, and then I I heard you guys talking. I thought I remember last year I us talking about the LED lighting being incorporated. >> Yes. >> Um does anybody >> Yes. So, we did incorporate the $40,000 in the LED lighting to the repair and maintenance fund for fiscal year 26 budget because of the fact that um the rebate was going to expire. So, that if we didn't get that project in during this

011fiscal year, we wouldn't be able it would be not as fiscally viable. >> So, that that one project is um going to be addressed budget-wise, but the other two are ones to keep in mind. >> Yes. And then I know just real quick while we're on this topic that the board has asked about um kind of a capital improvement plan or more of a like a more macro level um comprehensive facilities again capital improvement plan of that sort. Um and what Russy gave us was very helpful but again like something more I think large scale um and detailed would also be helpful. So I did look into that a bit. I spoke to our new facilities director, Brian Sans, and really his recommendation is that if that if we wanted a capital improvement plan that

012we would um look at or consider um hiring out for that. There are companies that come in and do a very very thorough job and they really go through the whole building with a fine tooth comb and give you, you know, um, a very complete report as to what their recommendations are and when to do what and when and what the cost would be. He had the name of a couple companies. >> So, that's something we could consider as we're once we get to talking about fiscal year 27 budget. >> Yeah. So, not that um we need to do anything else other than just exploratory stuff, but is there any way that he might be able to give us like I guess some of those names or a ballpark of how much like it could

013be about how much >> $100,000 would be $5 >> about how much it would cost to get that done? >> Um his estimate I believe I'll double check my notes was about $10,000. >> He wouldn't expect it to be more than about $10,000. >> But again, that depending on the amount we could maybe put it would you recommend putting out an RFP or something for that >> or we could talk about that? Yeah, we could talk about that. >> All right. Excellent. Anything else under uh the impact fee update for the superintendent? >> That's Molly, too. >> Oh, so um so impact fees the the when we expend it when we receive the money is a revenue offset. So we're not actually using that money. We would offset it with the revenue coming in for

014the tax rate purposes. But if we want to expend above and beyond the voted appropriation with that money, we would have to have a public hearing for that. So that's a we wouldn't have a public hearing for that small amount of money because it's just a revenue offset. But if we want to actually take the money and increase our voted appropriation for some larger projects because we have it was like $40,000. Yeah. We'd have to have the public hearing that we talked about last year. >> Okay. Just want to remind everyone of that so we don't get too far down the road. >> No, that's super helpful. >> But that's something that we can very much post. And you can you can do that because impact fees were not planned revenue in the current year.

015>> Yeah. >> And you can vote to accept and expend that unanticipated revenue via a public hearing. >> Thank you. That's a wonderful segue, I think, into our next item, the finance update. >> Yeah. >> So, um, thank you for signing the manifest. I bring the manifest since the last time we met. Um I also brought the audit um agreement letter which we thank you for signing. Um included in your pack is a current year financial. This financial is always a bit tough because we have to have this done a week and a half ago which is pretty much mid September. Um so we're still learning about the students. We're still learning about what the students need. Um the admin time the admins are just starting building on the conferences. So they have to start

016thinking about snowfl even though it hasn't snowed or thinking about alnova next spring to build those year-long encumbrances. So there is a lot of money showing remaining but it doesn't mean that that's necessarily true. It means that we're still building on the encumbrances. >> Right. >> So um next month you will see the comparison to the current year and it's going to be those building. Well, the one thing I noticed wasn't here and it's probably because of what you just said was that lovely handy dandy chart with colors on it. >> Yep. So, and the reason you don't have it that is because that chart does a comparison to the prior month and there is no prior month here too because this is monthly. >> Awesome. I will look forward to that. >> Yeah, I

017did. >> Yeah, I can add more colors for you. >> That's great. >> I did double check my notes. He did say approximately $10,000 if we wanted to do that and it could be something we could the board could consider out of fiscal year 26 budget provided that we had the funding available. >> Um so food for thought. >> Susie and I are well underway in our 27 budget plan. >> I feel like that might be the second year in a row at least. >> Awesome. Uh is there any questions evidence-wise? >> Nope. I mean, this is super early, so >> yeah, >> we're good. Awesome job. >> Um, all right. We were going to do some rearranging anyway because we have a guest speaker, but it turns out we have multiple guest speakers. Um,

018and so I was going to um see if that we could potentially move the um new business to 8.1 first. We we are lucky enough to have a presentation from our um lovely staff faculty members here for on MTSS and assessment presentation. Do we have a ballpark how long >> you might want tops? >> 7 to 10 minutes. >> Yeah, I'd like to do that um first if that's okay. >> Hey, you guys. >> Let me introduce them. They are fantastic. Two of our strongest U faculty members. Melissa Toby is our reading specialist and Jody is a track of all a jack of all trades. Um she focuses a lot of her time coaching um for and so they're going to run through our first round of assessments, fall assessments with you. They're going to

019do some comparisons um of to last year this time. I believe they're also gonna um kind of give you a good sampling of what kind of questions students um have to answer when they are taking the assessments um and they are ready to answer questions and >> give you a vision of where we're headed. >> Cool. >> All right. Okay. Hi. All right. So when we look at MTSS, MTSS stands for a multi-tered system of support and we focus on academics and we focus on behaviors with those two. Um we really hone in on the academic side. So tier one instruction right here, that's our biggest area. Great students are receiving their core instruction across the board in their classroom levels. um 80 to 90% of the students are mastering those goals in that tier

020one instruction. Tier two um we look at about 5 to 10% of our students. Those are students who typically would need an extra scoop of instruction in um and repetition in order to get the concepts um or to back fill some gaps that they might have. And then tier three is a smaller amount of students who really require uh individualized intervention that's more longterm. Um you can see you might have seen the models in the past that were the triangle shape for the pyramid and it's obviously a little bit different now because we're additionally looking at enrichment as well at being an intervention. So that's kind of the crash course in whats >> No, just that the tier 2 and tier three over here are for kids who might have mastered a skill already and

021we just want to take them deeper rather than having them do more the same. So that's kind of the newer part. >> And this was called a diamond now. I feel like I called it something else. >> It was a pyramid before >> pyramid. And now pyramid now it's I don't know. There's not really a ter. I didn't want to say the wrong thing. >> I don't know. I married the Matthew. I know. >> I'm gonna call it a >> I think they've been calling it a diamond. >> That's what it is. >> All right. The quadrilateral. All right. Um and so our universal uh kind of screener for students is the I Ready Diagnostic. And um we wanted to show you a quick snapshot of some questions that students might see on the I

022Ready Diagnostic. Um and you can certainly talk more about this, Jody, too. The diagnostic is interesting because it's adaptive. So if students are getting a lot of answers correct, the challenge level will increase and it will decrease if they're getting some wrong. But the diagnostic is also designed to push students. And so they're going to see a lot of questions that they haven't been exposed to yet, which is interesting. >> And it's something that we talk to them about. With the older kids, I'm usually just very honest about you will see stuff that you haven't been taught. And that's okay. Don't stress out. Don't cry because it's it's meant to do this. And then they'll ask why. And we always say because we want to see how far we can push you and then go

023from there. With the younger students, I learned from our first grade teacher. I love it. It's in math in particular because that's what I'm in for. It becomes someday math. That's how she explains it. It's someday you will know how to do this. And I absolutely love that because the kids go with it and they get excited when they see someday math rather than stressed out. And if I start to see stress and I'm in the room, I'll say, "Isn't that exciting? Someday they'll know how to do that." >> But not tonight or not today. All right. So, the first few are some different math questions that students might see. Um, but right off the bat, just to put a plug in for reading, you can see you have to you have to read pretty

024effectively to take off the mask, too. There is this little speaker button. The kids can press that and if they have their headphones on um it will read the question to them. However, it is so a lot of visual and spatial. We won't read all of them, but just to give you a sense of what they're looking for. Um, this is interesting. Click the number line to show one half. So, you know, getting that skill and figuring out technology wise where to click. That's a piece of um and then this one is yeah, measurement, but then they're also typing it in. So, it's not just point and clicking. Um, and then this one is the drop downs. So, they're answering multi-layered questions about the map and they have to choose from the menu. Um, and

025you can see down there at the bottom in the teal, that's kind of those are their choices for each. Um, this is a multiple choice item for reading. So, this is how a lot of the vocabulary tends to be assessed. They're looking at um can students use context clues in order to figure out the meanings if they don't know the word. Um this would be for younger students really more of our K through two, but it's looking at their awareness of letters to sounds. So move the letters to correctly spell the word thanks. That's a pretty significant cognitive load for little ones. Um because you're not only thinking about the letters and the sounds, you also have to move the letters around. There's a lot going on. Um, and then these are some drag drops.

026So, they're reading this piece over on the left. And you can see this particular first passage is four of these pages long. There's also passage two. So, they're going to have to do some compare contrast or some tying in a text to text. And then they're answering the question, but they have to drag the correct answer and then show the support for it. Um, this one is a highlight. So they have to find the text evidence that most supports the claim and they have to click on it to highlight the best quote. And then we look at our overall data for NES for this fall. In the fall for I Ready only grades 1 through five take it. Kindergarten is not yet. Um and I'll talk a little bit about that in a minute. So

027this is our overall placement. Um obviously you can see kind of green, yellow, red. Um, we wanted to mention that in the fall we're looking at yellow and up being really positive. And the reasons for that is that let's say that you have a third grader who's in the yellow. That means they're scoring at the grade two level. That means that they are ready for third grade, right? If that makes sense. So, we don't see yellow and panic um at all. This is actually a fantastic sign. Um, but what I'm really excited to show you is the difference comparing from last year to this year in the fall. So, we can see that the yellow, even though yellow is fine, has actually shrunk considerably, green has grown considerably, which to me says, if I'm analyzing

028this, children are not only doing really well and are very much ready for their grade level, but they are retaining from last year. And that's what really matters. because if they have it in the spring but they don't have it in the fall, that's not super helpful. This is telling me that they do have it um and that they are carrying it forward. So, I'm really encouraged. We start this the second or third week of school. So, it really is baseline. As Melissa talked about the yellow, if they're scoring what looks to be a grade below, it's really not. It's right where they're supposed to be because they haven't had instruction yet in their current grade level or they haven't had much instruction. >> Exactly. And I think it was mentioned earlier too, a lot

029of irre is based on year end. So it's really really encouraging. >> All right. >> This is the math side of it from this year and then >> this is last year. This is this year. And the same thing, our green has definitely got bigger. The yellow has gotten smaller and the red's gotten a little bit smaller, too. So, that is telling us that from last fall to this fall, we're seeing improvement. Only going to go up from there. Exactly. All right. And then talk about reading screening in general. So, we use the diagnostic as kind of the baseline. Um, for kindergarteners, I use because they don't take the irony in the fall, I'll use the Acadians benchmark three times a year for kindergarten. Um, I will also use the Acadian benchmark for any student

030who's scoring red on the I Ready right off the bat. Um, andor who are brought forward as as a needing some deeper diving into their reading and what's going on. Um, so those students will be assessed three times throughout the year with that benchmark. Um, obviously if the student is brought up mid year, they'll get it twice. Um, I might jump into what's called the past, which is the fun ological awareness screening test for students who struggle with the acadians that is checking things that have really more to do with hearing and auditory processing more so than reading from page because these are students who might not have a good sound symbol correspondence yet. So that's when I would use that. Um, and I might also use what's called a QPS or a quick Sconic

031screener in order to figure out what are the skills the student has, where do we need to intervene if we're looking at a decoding uh piece. That helps me pinpoint what they would need. Um, with all kindergarten and all grade one students though, regardless of whether the grade one student is going to take the full cadence benchmark, um, I do what's called the RAND with them, which is um, rapid automatized naming. And this is not a necessarily indicative of um a flag for for dyslexia or a reading issue, but it does help us paint a fuller picture of a student. And so what they're asked to do is to name there are five items and then five letters and they're all mixed up and there are 50 of them on the page and they have

032to tell me what they are as quickly as they can. Um, which is a delight with little kindergarteners, let me tell you. Kitty, cat, chair, boot, shoe, shoe. Please just tell me you got this. Um, it's wonderful. Um, and so all kindergarteners, all first graders do that. Um, and then kindergarten students also do first sound fluency. So I give them a word, they tell me the first sound. Um, and grade one students are segmenting or splitting apart words into their individual sounds. Again, it helps us to know if they are making those sound letter correspondences. Um, kindergarten and grade one students do letter naming fluency as well. You can see it's a mix of upper and lowerase. Um, and then we have Acadians also does nonsense word fluency uh through grade two, which it helps

033me to know, are they guessing when they see a word or can they actually decode the word? Do they actually know what what these letter sound combinations are? Um, Aadian stops at grade two for nonsense word fluency, but you can absolutely run it with older students um if you would need it. So, this is from the grade one nonsense word list. um oral reading fluency. So, this is a grade two passage. They read three different passages for one minute and then they have a minute to give me a retell as much as they can in the passage. So, that's helpful for decoding and for comprehension. So, can they read it and do they understand it? Um and then grade three additionally gets what's called a maze. So every so many words they take the word

034out and they give them a small bank of three choices. They have to choose which one makes the most sense. So that's an excellent comprehension check to make sure they're reading what they are understanding what they are reading. So that's kind of my um my start of the year. Now we're on to math. Uh the like Melissa said, we don't have kindergarten take the I Ready for math or for reading. So there's another assessment that we use. It's called the universal screener for number sense. And that's K to five and I assess the whole school in the fall. It's a really cool assessment because it's not in the computer. It's sitting down with me or with the teacher or actually Susie has done it too. And it's fun because it's an interview and we have

035a a paper and we might ask the kids to count. Like this morning I was with kindergarten. They had to count one to 10. They had to identify numbers. As you get into the upper grades, they might have to start at 345 and count up from there or count back. So it gets increasingly more difficult just to see where they're at. It's 100% interview. They're not allowed to use paper and pencil. It's just I call it in your head. It's in your head now. They might have tools that they can use, but as far as actually doing computational work, they don't. When we do it again in the winter and again in the spring, there is a paper pencil component to it so we can see their computational skills, but in the beginning of the

036year, it really is just an interview. It's generally 5 to 10 minutes, so it's really quick. When I pull the students out, they're not missing much in class. And we just I tell them, "We're just gonna talk about numbers. That's it. We'll just talk about numbers." And I always tell them, "If you don't know it, tell me you don't know." And I'll say, "Okay." So, it's they don't I know that they don't feel pressured at all. I think they actually enjoy coming out and having that one-on-one interaction. So, >> and yeah, these are just I've dropped in copies of what the interview papers look like. So, you can see I just picked grade two, kind of middle of the road there between the grades. So this one in the fall started they had to start

037counting from the number 27 and they had to go up to 43. And that is it's hard for some kids to start at a different number than one. Kids often especially in the younger grades want to go back and start at one and this doesn't this does not allow them to. In the winter they have to count forward starting at 198 and then they stop at 202. So it gets increasingly harder. By the end of second grade, they're starting at 697. So it it is a big jump. And what's really neat about this program is well this assessment tool is there is kind of a program attached to it where when I put the information in about what the kids got right, what they got wrong or they scored on the rubric, I can then

038click on it and a whole bunch of activities pop up that will support where they may have doubts. So that's really handy to have because it's just built in RTI right there for that specific skill. >> That's us. >> Thank you so much. >> I did particularly love seeing the um I mean all of it but the irony examples because like all of our kids use them and it's really it was hard for me to visualize what it actually looked like. Um, and I got a a real, you know, not only are the kids being assessed of on the topic, but it's also a digital fluency, you know, tester, right? And so you sort of showing the different kinds of >> assessments between it is they do have to have fine motor skills. They have

039to have a certain degree of tech skills. They have to know for that drag and drop, they have to know how to hold a button and drag at the same time. Um, certainly kids who are identified as having motor problems, there are accommodations that we can put in place for them if it's an issue, but for your just average middle of the road student, just kind of have to navigate it. There is um for math there actually for reading there is too. They call it the pathway. So after the students take the diagnostic, it gets scored and there's a whole algorithm for it. And then each student is given a pathway. That's what they call it or path. And it's individualized for how they scored which is nice. It's on the computer. So it does

040actually kind of help with learning how to do that because it's the practice on the computer and it reflects a lot of what they'll see not only in the diagnostic but also the state testing. So they do get a lot of practice with it in that way which is nice. But yes, there is there is Oh, and it's a fair question too because if a child doesn't do well because of motor issues or because of of lacking tech skills, let's say they score lower on the reading than they really should have, then they can let their teacher know or us know and we can help adjust their pathway manually. um or if they're like, I don't know how I scored so high on this. I don't know what's going on, then they can bump it

041that way, too. So, it's not like it's locked in on stone once they have the pathway. Um but it's a great question. >> That's where it is also really nice to have the other assessments that Melissa showed you. Okay. I'm a universal screener because I already it's just one. >> It's just one day one data point. >> So, it's nice to have that time with us. It's actually oneonone with human. So it does give us a lot of information, we can really see, okay, if a score say is right here, is that showing in the assessments that we're doing or is there a huge discrepancy which then >> Thank you so much. Um, does anybody else on the board have any questions? >> No, this is great. Thank you. this gives me a lot more

042context to what you guys are doing to just make our kids more successful. So, super appreciate it. Thank you. >> I just want to say thank you for being with your family son to give us the time to be here and that you put into this. It's really it's nice to see the presentation especially from you guys directly. So, I really appreciate your time. Um I also appreciate that you have done the whole diamond and understanding that trying to grow all students and making that uh to meet our families are also given that opportunity as we create the budget. I think it's really important to hear needs to through the principal. So if you have needs and there are things that you're identifying as areas but like hear about sometimes it's just a matter of

043conversation figure out how the budget make sure that they come to us. >> Thank you. Thank you so much. >> Love having students and staff here. So hopefully this will be a start of a >> new trend this year. >> Thank you, Melissa. Thank you, >> Tony. >> Don't you good. >> Thank you. >> That's hilarious. >> Thank you guys. >> Thank you all. >> All right, so that was awesome. I think we were going to also, if it's okay, move our other guest uh speaker up because it is contextual to um a number of other reasons, including our audience, most of our attention. >> Yeah. So, this is um taking the place of uh the the school safety project committee report effectively. So, um first off, um I just want to say thank you

044to all of our committee members, including the people that are here. they have really done an incredible job just making sure that you know we have a really good idea of what the priorities of this project are. Um making sure that we are staying within a reasonable budget and thinking about all the things that there is no way in the world that one person could do. And I just wanted to say you guys are amazing. Couldn't have gotten to this point with with like without you. So thank you. And then um for I just wanted to give everybody a reminder of the priorities that we kind of looked at when kind of um focusing on this specific project. So the priorities there were four of them that we really focused on for this one was

045you know crossing at 87 you know the safety of crossing on Route 87 the traffic flow around the building making sure that we're no don't have any intersecting paths between kids and vehicles and then making sure that we had signage pavement markings on crosswalks and parking. And then making sure that and this kind of goes in with that traffic flow, making sure we have that buffer around the building so that we don't have again kids crossing vehicles and and such. So um we'll talk about a bunch of things today. We have um Chris from TF Moran here. We at the last meeting had um given the board had given us kind of a little bit of that impact fee money to really build out a couple of options for us. uh the committee met on

046Monday and we kind of have a our suggestion and I'll let you guys talk about that but I wanted to give Chris kind of an idea of what we had talked about and then um if you don't mind I know that the public really has three minutes but since these are committee members I would like to be able to let them speak at will on the project if that's okay with the board. Um but um I'll let Chris you kind of take it away for now and then we can kind of talk about um some of the options as we've gone forward and then what really what the committee has kind of pulled together and some of the details that kind of keep you pulled together as well. >> Jim, while Chris passes this out,

047I just want to clarify um is this the first time the committee and you were seeing this or you guys saw this on Monday? We saw a version of this on Monday and then there are small changes to the version on Monday that we saw but the recommendation should should not change. [Applause] >> I'm okay. You okay? Did you want more light? >> All right. The guys need anything lighting >> cuz you know we're old. >> There we go. Yeah. Good idea for the screen. That was easier. >> Hi Chris. >> Yeah. So at the last meeting we kind of came up with two options. This first one which is copies of this uh was kind of what we call the bare bones option. Basically just a new drive around the scassic road putting in

048the new crosswalk and the concrete walkway from this location and some jersey barriers there and there that just cut off traffic. And then we did option B, which was everything in option A, but had some kind of all all cart items, if you will. Uh, that included moving this existing walkway was an option. Uh, doing an overlay of the existing paving area was an option. Knocking out some of the pavement here to just make it walkway essentially to discourage cars from going through there. Uh, restriping some parking here, adding a few spaces here, and some PDA, and then installing a new gravel parking area in this location. Uh this piece here is just removing the existing driveway that was really carried in option A and option B because it would look kind of silly for

049the driveway to be right next to the existing. So that cost is carried and I coordinated with RTV Northern Round. Um they sent both options to Barusa who's a site contractor. They got back to me today with their numbers and the only thing that he had left out was they had carried forming for the concrete and in this option here for redoing the ADA ramp and then forming for this and then I subsequently got separate for that. So that's why I kind of circled it right on the estimate that I gave just so it was clear. So option A and some of these these estimates are pretty solid. I would say they had to make some assumptions. They felt pretty comfortable when I spoke to them that costs could go down, but there's some things

050that they just wanted to account for. So, they've carried some money for ledge removal. We don't know until we grading plan. They can hit any ledge. So, the cost could come down from what you're seeing, but they wanted to make sure we we covered everything. Now, there is a little bit of drainage that we assumed for the second option just to handle some of the runoff that we generated from the parking area that we put in some kind of like retention right here. Be kind, but we covered a cost for that. So assuming the board or the public decides they want to go forward with one of these plans, we would have to do a little bit more just to a grading plans. They can put a finalist together. But I think what you're looking

051at gives you pretty much what you'd be looking at. Again, cost come down to either option, but what it boils down to is that option A uh would be somewhere in the range of 218,000 to 275 depending on some of these conditions that we run into. And then the option B, which would be everything shown, uh, was coming in at 500 to 57. And if you wanted to kind of pick and choose, they broke they itemized option B. So if you want to not remove this existing walkway, that was cost of $2,700. If you wanted to not remove this asphalt here, that would save five grand. So you kind of, >> depending on what your budget is and what you'd like to accomplish, you could pick the things that are most important to you and

052go from there. But essentially that's that's where we're at. >> Um, thank you. That's really helpful. I've been I want to hear from folks. Um, but I do want to just ask clarifying question. This is obviously my first time I've seen this. So although this is not my first time having this conversation and so I I do want to just um make sure I understand um this is option A and it is a potential precursor to a potential future option B if we wanted to or are these mutually exclusive and A doesn't basically option A we we left a little here. So option A is a new pave drive. The only thing I'll caveat this with is I showed it as a 16 foot width to discourage people from thinking it's a two-way aisle. >>

053Yeah, >> most fire departments typically require 20. So that's something I'd want to check with the fire department. So this could be a little wider, which might put you on the higher end of that range. >> But I think that in this instance, 60 should be more than enough, but just wanted to point that out. So what we've shown on this is this drive also that would tie into the existing gravel there. And then option B, this does not move. It's just installing kind of expansion white gravel area. So everything works off of this. Nothing has to change. >> I asked that because um members of the public have in the past asked is there a potential for phased approach. I just want to understand that this is compatible with that. >> There is. And

054that's that's kind of how they broke up the pricing too. So that you know you could do everything on this plan except for this if you wanted and do that later and that would save you I think they came up with uh that's roughly 200 $250,000. >> It says it's asphalt. >> It is gravel. I don't know if you just had a typo. >> The original the original plan we saw on Monday had gravel. So the >> It is gravel. I think the original plan we show >> I'll have to confirm that. I thought they gravel, but that does seem >> as Yeah, they do say asphalt, but >> we'd ask for gravel. They say both. >> That might change. >> Say a base gravel. >> Yeah, it says both. >> It says base gravel

055and then asphalt. >> Yeah, it's just the subbase. That's all. >> When I spoke to him and I they all worked on this pretty quickly plans that they tried to give me pricing for tonight. So, I'll confirm. When I spoke to him, my I believe what he told me was they had assumed taking out roughly 18 inches of material under this to get rid of the year loan on suitable soils and put in a foot half a new ground. So, I'll confirm that. that number goes down. But uh >> and just to be clear, it says on the top section for A for crosswalk signal and then it doesn't have a price. >> Uh it said right above it says plus three grand 3 to $5,000. >> Oh, for the crosswalk >> for the crosswalk.

056Right. So yeah, again the site contractor included forming this area and prepping for the concrete. And then that's what's in his number. And then the red that I had was from Martine where they said to actually pour the concrete for this is 15 to 20. And then adding a crosswalk signal if you wanted to signalize is another three. >> Thank you. That's really helpful. I know I know that's in there. >> I will confirm that. >> That's a confusing. >> Fantastic. >> Um >> yeah. So Palavi, can I put you on the spot? >> I just did. Um, would you and like maybe you guys want to kind of go through I can definitely talk about it, but we all had a wonderful conversation on Monday um about kind of where we landed on the

057different concepts and um kind of what our out of these two options where our preference would lie. Would you mind kind of and you know Keith please chime in as well. Anybody can chime in but and I know wait oh wait actually Pavi wait a second. I know you have numbers. Let's talk about your numbers too. >> Yes I'm sorry. >> My numbers are are pretty similar to what they have this I work with uh RH White on this one. Uh if they're estimated mine are actually a little bit lower. Um mainly because I think now that we see the pavement in there. We carried 80 grand for the ground driveway. Same same thing. Removing, you know, a foot to 18 inches of gra of of top soil gravel. That's it. So, coming in at

05880 grand versus the 250, which, you know, drops their number significantly down. So, my uh our option A is 363,000. Option B is 480. But that also includes 35,000 for the the crossing light, 15,000 for the tank removal on both of those units. you as those numbers include that number. >> Yes. >> Yeah. >> Guess which I don't >> cross. >> So >> we're going to be within 10% of each other on. >> Yeah. >> And we didn't cover any we didn't carry numbers for tank removals. If you're talking about those distant tanks, >> I threw them in whether we do it or not. >> I know that was in a prior go year or two ago, but where we're not impacting now where I thought you were trying to fight there, leave it if

059we don't have to touch it. And this just gives us a little bit more validity to the options that we're looking at. We're within 10% of one another. >> Yeah. >> Um we're in the right ballpark for what we're looking at and um kind of the different options available to us. Um so that that kind of really helps me feel really good about if we go with option A or we go with option B, we know we're in the right range. >> I I applaud. Thank you for doing that and thank you. I mean this is really helpful. >> The team as a whole said we can if we would recommend B but we can do it phased because of the way we thought about it and the way it's been priced now. So you

060know it's it's entirely up to the board how uh you would like to present it to the public and uh and how you would then acquire the necessary funding over time. I guess we were going to get some insight into funding options possibly. Yeah, go ahead, Pali. >> So, just walking into this whole process, um, our number one goal was to minimize the interaction between the kids and the vehicles. We started with a blank sheet of paper and we started drawing arrows and that's that's that was the whole impetus of this. See these numbers is amazing because we didn't know up until two minutes ago how wide the spread was between option A and option B. >> Oh, I see. And then it's either further encouraging to me that we've got now another set of

061running of the numbers and we're we're within a tight enough range. Um but again, the idea was to minimize the interactions, improve the flow, introduce oneway traffic flow, and create buffers around the school. And I think that we've achieved that in both plans. But ideally, we recommend option B because it solves for everything. And I'm again, as I said, I'm so encouraged that there isn't a wide disparity between the two options. And working towards option B would cause a one-time disruption as everything gets replanned. >> And day one, when it's all done, reorienting the entire town on the new flow. You don't want to have confusion and redo the design flow twice because the overall idea is to reduce the interaction between children and vehicles and any confusion could create an issue. Um and so

062I think it's our team's recommendation that we would pursue option B um at once at one project. >> Thank you. any what else would >> I would just speak for option B that from a from a perspective of the town I think doing it one and done is much better than doing one request and then following up with another request I think there's a bit of a reluctance I think for multiple projects so to me it makes sense to particularly as close as these two projects are in terms of the relative cost. Just do it once, make one ask and really address that solution of car kid conflict interaction and eliminate almost entirely that risk of kids and cars coming into contact. >> I just I I thank you um for the purposes of our

063minutes if we could just that was Mike >> Mike. Yeah, sorry. Thank you. And we also talked a little bit about sort of town perception in all of this. And we we in our minutes I think there were some comments about some of the hurdles that were faced and you know to for the committee to maybe talk a little bit more about that to help um present whatever case is um from a financing standpoint that are used to talk about this. I think, you know, if everybody's using the same script, >> um, but then you have a story as opposed to different people saying stuff. So, I I found it really helpful to hear what people were saying about that stuff. >> No, I I totally agree. >> If you all, you know, would want

064us to continue looking at that stuff. >> Um, I love that there are five members or actually more than five because we have Susie and Alan and Jane here. But um I think it would be even going along with that spirit. It would be really more powerful to hear that the the committee was unanimously agreeing on option B for example after seeing this information. >> Yes. >> I don't know if there's a way to obtain >> Oh, I can tell you it was. >> Okay. >> Yes. >> 100%. >> Even on Monday before the numbers >> on Monday we had talked about I mean I'll be honest the these numbers are fresh like probably not more than a couple of hours old. >> The ink is still wet. It is really. Um, but we had

065kind of a it's it's going to be in this range. You know, what's our top, what's our bottom? And if it's our top, where are we at? And everybody was in agreement. There was not one person who was dissatisfied with where we had gone to. And that's an incredibly good question. I appreciate it. and the depending upon what we decide to do as a board. Um this committee is ready, willing, able, and excited about kind of getting to that next step of, you know, community conversations and strategies and all that good stuff as we head up to March. I mean, that's music to my ears hearing not only that the committee is a diverse representation of voices, but also that you laid out all of the priorities that um were all sort of agreed upon,

066looked at multiple options and came away with agreement. >> Yeah. We would be remiss to as a committee, I'll speak for our committee, to not to not thank Jane for her leadership and Keith as well, but truly she >> I was waiting till the end, but okay. We were we were a very very focused group and we were extremely productive over many meetings and I I as someone who's been on many committees throughout my career I can say that that's not always the case. So this really is an exceptional group of really hardworking committed people who cared a lot about the project and really did start from scratch as Palavi explained and Jane kept us focused and kept the group moving and was extremely helpful in her guidance. So thank you to Jane >> and

067everyone else as well. I am extremely thankful and appreciative. >> Yeah. So the I know that so really we're looking at concept B as the committee's recommendation um and concept B as kind of that pricing range that kind of that Chris was talking about um somewhere between the 505 576. So, we have a couple of budgetary options to consider, to talk about, figure out how we want to fund this, whether it's going to be some out of, you know, the maintenance budget, some out of we we have to do a bond. >> Yeah. >> Um, regardless, but what that bond number is going to be is kind of up to this board. Um, but we do have plenty of time right now. we're in a good spot to hit those milestones for bond hearings, understanding

068everything from from this point forward. >> Oh, hello there. >> Agrees. >> Um, so the so we have a couple of of next steps to consider. One is >> Can I just Yeah. Yeah. Sorry. the numbers and I know these aren't we're not married to these numbers but I just want to understand this top number did not include the you have the um crosswalk and concrete as an additional did the bottom number have it all included >> yes yeah I kind of carried it through so >> everything in option A is option B >> in option A if you look at what Barusa provided they gave a range of 200 to 250 and then I added in what Martini gave me for the concrete work and the crosswalk >> all items I option Yeah, I

069mean they carried through it just out of the again they carried the forming of this but Martine had to give me that for the concrete of this piece. >> Okay. >> No, no, no. And that's >> they both said that numbers can come down. They wanted to be a little bit on the more conservative side, >> right? I mean, and this all has to go out to bid. If if this passes in March, it all has to go out to bid. We we we can't um kind of >> it has to go out to bid, but I think what was a little unclear to me before is before it goes out to bid, we have to put some if we're a bond is in the in the picture, some figure needs to go on the

070bond and what uh influences that bond number. It was always to me, well, what do you use for that? And so, it's helpful to have this data. This is a um and that's what we really wanted to help help determine. >> Yeah. So even getting the numbers from Martini, the numbers from Barasa and the numbers from you know um TF White, it's this gives us a high a super high, a super low and a really nice range within you know a certain percentage to be able to ensure that no matter what happens, we're going to be able to hit all of the milestones um that are in option B that we were all talking about. It gives us multiple data points for that number that would be on the, you know, on the ballot essentially

071for the bond. Well, I think that was a concern before that we had one data point. >> Well, it was one data point and it was an all-encompassing. This does not um Chris, correct me if I'm wrong. There's no lighting here. >> There's no lighting. No curving. >> There's no curving. This is a very simple um plan. And you know, if sometime down the road we want to pave this, it's >> paveable. But right now, I think this is if we paved it and we looked at this as an option, >> it increases the price exponentially. >> Um, one of the other things that decreased the price exponentially, and Chris and I talked about this, is this is not at the same level as the school. >> This is leveling it at we're not bringing

072in material or tons and tons of material. um this is, you know, significantly lower than school level. We're not bringing the whole thing up. So, it does give um us a lot of different cost-saving measures by keeping it um by sticking to the priorities that we had focused on in the beginning, which is really that crossing people and cars. to that point while we have you and multiple people here who understand this um is there going to you might have said this I apologize is there going to be any leveling or um >> so that's one thing that we still would have to do if you ever scored if you're going to put out the bid what I suggest is we would do our next step which is kind of a bid set if you

073will which would have a little bit more detail than this this is kind of a two-dimensional view >> sure >> uh the one the only thing that I would really need to take into account is how do I grade this out to minimize is material you're bringing in or taking out. And so, you know, this this land kind of slopes. >> Yeah. >> If you're looking from there going this way, it's like that. So, you might have to bring a have to move a little bit of material around here and there. >> Um, you know, the road at this entrance might have to change a little bit because I have to grade this out. We don't want, you know, the buses coming down to the main road of the steep bank. We probably here and

074then start climbing up. So, this that location might shift a little bit to match a better grade in here. So we would need to spend a little bit of time just detailing some of that stuff so that we can go out to bid that everybody's spitting apples to apples. I don't know you know they probably had to whoever is it probably made some assumptions for yeah what's the leation of this >> but that's why I want to be clear there were assumptions made it wasn't zero >> correct >> yeah there were lots of we like you said we had to assume underneath the gravel road you know 18 inches of subbase okay underneath the road itself you have to dig out assume some sort of fill >> you know something like so and that's the

075where we came with the the working with the contractors is they know how to take a road from you green field to a road. They know they said, "Well, it's going to be, you know, two feet of of of average on fill." So, that's where these numbers came from. So, yeah, >> but it's probably not going to include if we find any surprises underground. >> There's Yeah, it's like ledge, you know, 90 I bet 90% of the chances you're not going to hit any ledge. stand around here. But, um, yeah, you could find, you know, the foundation on the front end, the oil tanks that are somewhere under there. Um, you know, a pile of stumps that need to be removed at the home whom were buried, you know, 50 years ago. So, yeah, there

076are surprises and we can't assume everything, but um, we can assume as much as possible, >> right? Okay. So, next step, sorry. >> I want to say the other thing that with these plans, should we go out to bid say for, you know, say we do a bond for 600,000, we go out to bid and we kind of if it's a little bit over, you can cut scope. You don't have to cut. It's not not everything is tied together. And that's the other thing we wanted to try to do is not have it all or nothing. So we could cut the the ramp in the back, move that out, use, you know, 20 grand here, cut the green space next to the building, do that for another year, cut that cost and bring us down

077the smaller costing operating budget, >> right? Do the major chunk. So that gives us the option as well, >> right? >> Still achieve the overall purpose changing the flow, minimizing the intersection of kids. So I think there is like he said pieces that we can break off if we hit the limit. >> Yeah. >> And that final detailed set would kind of get rid of some of those discrepancies. You know if there guys assuming 50 in of gravel and Bruce is assuming 18 in that's where there's going to be discrepancy. But at least once we get that bid set together the same >> and I think um I know that you have a more detailed set of numbers here that aren't here and that was >> that was sort of you know and and that

078you talked about transparenc So provides some insight into what the thought process is. I think people are more comfortable just like you're saying more comfortable. >> Sorry. >> I would I would say I mean we pencil whipped these things and I know he did too. So I mean we we worked on a very short timeline this week. I bet you know I can we can go back and refine these and get better numbers. You guys better numbers like not to the point where they've been numbers but to clarify some of these larger numbers. But I still think we are well within our our range together and with within a reasonable percentage >> and surprises. >> But at that point, it's just more of um back to the transparency, clarification, people understand what they're looking at

079rather than just a big number that scares everybody. >> Yeah. And I think this is a significant >> but I think somebody talked to the police chief. >> I did. Yeah, >> you did. So that we do know that the police the police is you know they've been engaged about the location of the crosswalk and stuff like that. So there are people we still need to talk with for details but we did check some of the major items. >> Thank you. That that was one of my um hopes at the last board meeting was that we can continue to engage with the police chief with you know the select board planning board folks fired you know who have expressed interest concerns >> road agents all the whole the whole team. >> Yeah. And I mean

080this has changed to the flow of the building and you know there's a lot of questions that go to that which is right now the town plows us for free. Um is this going to change you know and what gets plowed things along those lines. So there's all kinds of questions with the town that we need to just um you know have a good open communication with them. I mean I I've talked to you know some select board members and it's like okay we're ready >> you know we're ready when you're ready to have a conversation. And so they're um open and and willing to um really make sure that this is going to >> make their lives easier >> and make the kids a lot safer >> and I think got all the dates

081that we that you guys need. So I think that's really important to them. >> I sent them to the board. >> Thank you. I do just want to acknowledge Molly, you're here because clearly this is a big financial discussion. I was I know you're here longer than usual and I really appreciate that, >> but if there were any next steps that we could involve Molly with first maybe. >> Yeah. So, there's a couple things that kind of need to happen both for us and then for the committee. So, if if the board wants to move forward with putting this on a bond, then it's hey Molly, what do we need to do? How do we need to prepare to put this on, you know, the ballot as a bond? We need to kind of decide

082that number. we need to decide, you know, what's going to be funded from where. Um and then um the committee's kind of next step would be if we decide to go ahead and move forward with this would be okay let's start talking about um community conversations and um making sure that everybody within the committee can talk about this can um you know go to select board meetings, go to um the concom um you the planning board and make them aware of this um and you know share what we know, share the information and um be as transparent as possible with this and invite them to the board meetings for any you know questions that they have um formally then oh sorry go ahead >> I just want to make sure Brian is there any um

083question or input you wanted to have before we >> well so so I just wanted to say thanks to Jane I think after attending the meeting where we talked about this at the town the town last year realizing that this does do everything that they asked to do and you know interesting uh having experience at schools knowing uh being on the other side of the table know we have to do this eventually and so we're just kicking the can down the road so we might as well pay what we're going to pay now versus what's going to cost to do this before somebody gets hurt you know we're kicking the can down we're open so I I I feel like you guys did a really good job with the charge and so thank you for

084>> yeah Can I ask a clarifying question? >> Absolutely. >> Chris, um when we talked as a group, the side parking lot um that it uh Yep. Right there. We had it cut off at the angle of the old um >> No, the old steps where there's red >> right here. >> Yep. We had it cut off that in that that all the other part would be green because we're trying to eliminate the crossover between pedestrians and cars and there are two entranceways that students are walking up and potentially cars are coming around the bend >> and that's one of the objectives of our team. So I don't know if something got lost in translation or if I'm off as a committee member >> on the right side of that >> or there would be

085walking space not the misunderstood because I thought maybe last time I spoke to Jane I know there was some discussion we were adding a down here >> that keep the ones that were up here. >> We need to keep the ones up there. You're 100% right and I probably wasn't clear in my communication with you so this is on me. Um, you're absolutely right. We we're the ADA can be in the back. It there has to be kind of in both, but the front entrance is in the front. So, there's no way for anybody who's coming to the building to go to the back door and get entry without going to the front door. So the the change in the plans would be that there would be a barrier at somehow in the front of

086the building. So cars can't come around the front of the building. That's kind of where you were going with that clarification. >> Green space. >> Yep. That would be green space. >> by the current stairs it would be green space. >> That's fine. We could make that change. I'm guessing that if you're doing everything in option B that the costs will at least offset each other if you're not going to overlay that area. It's probably cost you the same amount to tear it up. Put in I can confirm that but >> I don't think it's >> I just wanted to make sure that I >> No, that's a really good question. >> Two more parts of >> contact that we're most concerned about. >> Yeah. >> And it's those spots. >> Yep. >> Do you

087want Do you want something done where you just cut this here and >> and green space over? Yes. Okay. >> But to your point, we wouldn't be overlaying that with concrete. So potentially >> it's probably cheaper to actually tear that up than it is to overlay it. >> It wouldn't change numbers that much today. >> Just lovely. >> But when we do the bid set, >> I mean this is remember this is just concept. This is us. >> But that's an important concept to include. Bobby, >> it's just getting us to the next level >> so that we have a number and we can go to bond and go to design >> and then >> 100%. But that's a really good clarification. Thank you for pointing that out. That's >> Yeah, there was also a

088concern in that space about would there be signed parking for handicapped people up front there because they're going to have to access the building? No, >> they have to cut this off here. >> That was going to be the side parking. >> Yeah, the parking. But that would be if you redo this. >> Okay. >> I mean, we have the new ads here. So, we then have a crosswalk. So, if you kept this or did this piece, that would be your can access way for ADA would be parked this way. >> Yeah. I think we were talking >> maybe we just maybe just leave a walkway to the front door and do the rest of space, >> right? Or you could have um a a handicap spot um up near the top. And whether it's

089green space, that's the front door. So, there has to be some type of >> I have to look at that. Honestly, I know the grades in here definitely don't meet AVA. I'd have to look at it in here. It's probably not too good. >> Yeah. So, a little >> a spot or two up there to make sure that we can have a nice um you know, way to get into the building at the front door >> would be ideal. Um you know, so people aren't you know, going from the back of the building to the front of the building. Um >> handicap access, right? >> Yeah. Exactly. Yep. >> And the and the handicap parking, just just so I'm clear in terms of what we're saying right now, the handicap parking would be where? >>

090Well, on this plan, it was in two locations. It was kind of keeping the ones in the front and adding two at the back. >> And in the then in the new one, I think we're talking about >> talking about keeping the >> keeping the one in the back and then one on the >> maybe one or two. You put up here, you have to provide a way for them to get out of there, too. So, that might be something we have to look at because this is all sloping down. So >> maybe you lose one of the existing standard spaces as like a turnaround space and you just stripe it off. >> Yeah. Okay. >> We could definitely do that. I mean that's really the only pieces I think I have left for a

091bid set would be to do a grading plan for this finer drainage comp size what size pond you need here to just keep closed the way that they are and then update that >> whatever else you want. >> Yeah. I just I was going to make a suggestion that you might want to leverage when you get to the next phase of the planning of this you might want to leverage the committee the committee people only because of all the discussions that were had not as decision makers but it's information gather. >> Oh yeah >> um I want to make sure I to me that sounds like yes of course but um what was was there anything controversial about what you just said? >> I don't think so. So, for example, Susie caught that. But what

092you know, because we've been talking about this so much, we looked at plans as they're going along, we might catch something that you wouldn't necessarily >> 100%. First of all, just to utilize the people on the committee. >> I would love to. Yes. >> You know, not decision makers. We understand. >> No, I totally agree. >> Yeah. >> There's still comments from from the police, final comes from police, from fire, from public utilities. I mean we're not >> but still those all that doesn't change our >> our budget. >> Yeah. >> Just one other observation I want to make moneywise since it's on topic and as we talk about communication you know this fiveyear plan of things that we are supposed to be maintenancing um on there for this year includes driveway needing to be

093repaved which is expense as $120,000 that we don't necessarily have budgeted. >> Right. We don't. >> So that would be I think an important message to to communicate which I'm sure you were going to. >> Yeah. And that's that's absolutely part of it. It's >> how much is that bond going to be? Is it going to be for, you know, 600? Is it going to be for 500? You know, how much is coming out of the, you know, maintenance fund? how much is or do we want to do something different where we, you know, um depending upon when this project is going to be put together, put a bond to not a bond, put a a warrant article on there to say, hey, if we have $100,000, put it in this general fund >> so

094that we can have access to it and still, you know, put another one in there for next year. Okay? So, we can talk about kind of financial options and Molly can really help us kind of figure out and and so can you know everybody over in this table help us figure out where the money can come from, how much we're going to ask more. We're going to ask the town for and how much is going to be coming from, you know, an existing budget potentially. >> As far as tonight, what decisions should we consider making >> if any? Um, I would love to be able to say this would be my ask um would be if we can decide on plan B. Maybe Molly can give us some options for potentially, you know, impact on

095budget and bond next time because we have a good idea of the general number we're talking about by now. And then we can start moving this forward so that we the committee itself can start moving towards okay we have another meeting at the end of this month and we can start putting together plans for who we're going to talk to how we're going to talk to them and start moving forward with that. If we don't want to move forward with anything, that is totally cool. Um, not a problem. But, you know, we I think this is for, in my personal opinion, I think this is really a really healthy option for the school. >> Um, that makes a lot of sense to me. Brian, is there anything else that you would want to add? >>

096Well, I think the numbers are are sc less scary than I thought. These these numbers are not scary. So, >> okay. >> Yeah. >> Do you think we need to have a vote or can we just sort of plan to move ahead with more numbers? I don't think it would hurt to have a vote. That's my two cents to have. >> I just want to make sure I understand we're voting on because we're not I I'll let you make me make a motion so I can hear you. >> So, I would make a motion to formally adopt concept B to work on putting this towards a bond um that will be on the March ballot. >> Is that good enough? >> Yes. >> Perfect. Okay, I think that encompasses everything. So, firmly accepting concept B

097is the one we're going to move forward with. >> Formally accepting concept B as the one we're going to be moving forward with trying to figure out how to >> put it on the ballot. >> Yep. >> I think for the sake of clarity, I don't know that we need a motion, but I again I think for the sake of clarity and for transparency, too, right? That we've talked about that there were some concerns before that the board is I think it's a great idea. I think you've worded it well to say that yes, you are indeed agreeing to move forward with >> Thank you. because we did not vote on that last year and that was made things a little unclear. >> Mhm. >> Um so okay. >> Yeah. I again I don't know

098that it's necessary but I I don't see the harm in it and I think it I think it enhances transparency and communication about the intentions of the board. >> Yeah. Okay. >> All right. Do we have a second? >> Second. >> Okay. All in favor? >> I Okay. Thank you. So for the next big work for next um meeting what I typically do is get hypothetical bond bank schedules. So I'm thinking five seven and 10ear schedule. >> Please >> to put in perspective Brentwood just did a $662,000 bond and I believe they did a sevenyear. Um so I do have to give the bond bank a number. So option B, I would probably give them the higher number than 76. >> I would I would I would do 600 and that's not because I if

099you guys don't mind that suggestion only because it's going to give us the flexibility. We can as a board not decide on 600. >> Yeah. But that'll give us numbers. >> That'll give us the worst case scenario number >> and there's going to be a little bit of a little bit of an extra expense tiny bit like where bond council has to do their work and they don't do it for free. So um just expensive things like things already there's no lighting >> but we >> no signage we would have to do something >> when you're doing the planning the final thing that whatever other stuff that's missed in these things has >> an allocation. Yeah, and we can that that gives us some wiggle room. But if there is kind of like all right,

100what does it look like at five? What does it look like at six? >> Well, I would I agree. I think doing $600,000 I would ask if you can ask as many options in terms of terms as possible. We had comments from from the public about what about 10, what about 15? We didn't have that. So yeah, I think three years might be a little bit um unrealistic maybe. Agree. >> And so maybe Five, seven, 10. I don't know what the numbers are, but >> clarifying question. Does it cost us any money to get these? No. Okay. So, get them all. >> Does it cost any more to get five and six? >> 500 and 600,000. >> No. What? You mean get hypothetical schedules? No. The bond bank does it for free. >> Okay, great.

101Fantastic. >> Get different. >> Let's get five and then let's get six >> and then Yeah, we'll get different options for that and then I'll bring those next. >> Awesome. Awesome. Thank you so much. >> Thank you, Chris. >> So, Jane, I'll confirm the versat. >> Yeah. And can um I think we're okay with we know that this is this is this little corner is going away for >> as well. >> And then >> No, no, no, no. I don't think so. I don't think anything's going to change because of that. It just needs to be not accessible by >> at some point. Could get a a a beautiful sort of blow up like that that we can put present to or are you going to throw that away? Yeah. Can we >> Yeah, that'd

102be great. Thank >> you. >> Just so we can go to committees or things you have PDFs. >> I have the PDFs. >> Thank you. >> And if I if I need anything else, I have your number >> and we'll be in touch with like um >> I'm not doing anything with that. I just >> kind of get in touch with the weeks that did set and >> all the other things that need to happen to happen. >> Okay. 100%. >> Thank you so much. You have been fantastic. We appreciate it. >> Thank you very much again for your time. >> All right. Thank you, Molly. I know that was an extra long one. >> Good night. >> All right. You are obviously more than welcome to stay for the rest. Um >> going to

103be as excited. >> No, it won't be. It'll be very boring. >> Thank you so much, guys. >> Thank you guys. >> Thanks so much. >> Well, we do have the principles before, which is not boring, but >> it's never boring. All right, >> beautiful. So, next >> Susie, thank you for um being present for all of that. I know. >> I know we principal's report, but I feel like we were able to get to a lot. >> I know that um there's been a lot on the agenda and I know that y'all I'm positive that you read my report. >> I did. I think uh besides it just being a phenomenal start to the year, um one of the highlights have been that the NPTO just kicked us off and got us running. We

104they raised $10,750 in >> That's amazing. >> A matter of three weeks. >> I cannot believe >> there were some big incentives that the kids were really uh excited about. >> I heard about the taping of the walls. >> There was some taping of the walls. There was some water dunking and uh but I have to tell you that um it was it it was a great way to start off the year. There was so much joy there um so much anticipation um and just goodwill all around that uh I do think it set a fabulous tone of excitement. Um and the NPTO should be so proud of themselves for doing it so quickly and raising so much in three weeks. >> I do agree. I just also want to give you credit for establishing

105a setting where we have I know one of the goals was that we could have a monthly um community um >> um what happens on Friday it's like assembly but that having that time where there's a community time where folks come together to gather together almost like >> raise attention and excitement >> that sort of I think allowed it sounds to have the excitement build at those assemblies. So >> yeah, >> thank you for sending that. >> Excellent. Any questions for Susie from the um I know you have the links here for this uh family handbook. I I clicked request hope it was okay to have the staff handbook to be shared. It was just really helpful to see. So, um Jane, good >> I would like to actually um acknowledge that there was a

106team of uh teachers who took the entire year >> um a monthly meeting. I I believe that there were seven of them. It was a cross-section of a unified arts teacher, two classroom teachers, a pair professional, admin, um um the counselor, and we laid out all of the various handbooks in our SAU and cross-cheed, looked to see what we were potentially missing in ours, um the layout so that it was very user friendly. and that committee um they did a bangup job. I was just so impressed with how um meticulous they were and thoughtful. Um and I feel like this is probably one of the best handbooks that I can't believe I'm getting excited about hand. A lot of great work got put into it. >> I love that. >> No, and it was it

107was you could tell it was um you know freshly created. It was very up to date. So yeah, it's great. Thank you. Um, I don't have any questions. >> Awesome job as usual. Thank you so much. The everything that you've been doing for like the community, the kids has has been great. I mean, just the presentation alone, you've obviously inspired um the teachers to really um, you know, bring their aim and it's appreciated and and seen. So, thank you. >> I appreciate all the clothes understand after school. That's a quite a great mix of things to do after school. That doesn't happen people care. Stay second shift is a hard job, man. That is not as easy as as as sometimes. So, thank you to the people that are staying after school and all those

108clubs. Yeah, I really do love having um I think we all having the um students and staff come to >> So, Ellen and I have worked out a schedule where um it will either be a student and or a presentation. So, we'll touch on um we'll touch on our social emotional um curriculum which is purposeful people. Tracy Edward would do that one. Um we'll talk about un our unified arts. We'll talk about our technology plan. Clearly um you can tell how important um technology is and their understanding of how to utilize technology because unfortunately if you don't know how to use it and navigate it, it doesn't matter what you have um as an understanding of the material. You have to be able to do the navigation on the tool to be able to do

109that. So, um you'll hear a broad range. Um and you'll get to see students along the way. Uh so that we should really make time for about five to seven um minutes for each meeting to be able to hold that space for them. >> I I love it. I think it's great. I one question I would ask I I didn't really ask if this is okay, but um I love having the public being able to to ask the presenters. Was that >> I think you Okay. And I and to be honest, I mean they Jod and Melissa did a beautiful job. I think it is so important for people to see uh at the granular level what we do and and to professionalize how uh how important what we do and how serious the work

110is that we are doing inside the walls of this school. Um, so I I I'm very pleased that we're going in that direction because I can represent some, but when you see it uh and that shared distributed leadership is happening throughout the building, you guys get a real sense of uh just how extraordinary this staff is. >> Thank you. Speaking of um one of the items that Susie that the board asked Susie to look into um well asked me to talk to Susie about right about having to look into this um was around the policy that came up for review last month the IHA teaching about drug alcohol and tobacco. So Susan and I did have a conversation about that and she does have some additional information for the board just briefly about that. >>

111Yeah. So um >> we like to do our homework. Yeah, >> Ellen's a good homework partner. Um, that of course it's age appropriate, but it is touched upon um in our purposeful people um as well as in our uh physical education classes. A lot of it is around making good choices and being healthy. um being an exceptional um bystander or upstander, being able to um say no or be informed but at an age appropriate level. >> I just wanted to make sure that our policy was aligning with what we're doing. >> No, it was a good question that we both needed it was helpful >> for us to have a further conversation around. Is there any way that um some of those slides could be posted with with our minutes to the website? >> So

112when I put out when I put out our my principles report, I can add that. I just I'm having to remember if that's already gone out because I've been giving the families. I just mean in terms of like the folks in in town maybe I can't >> we if you if you put it maybe >> with the minutes >> put the principal's report with the minutes. >> Sure. >> Because then it really helps people who aren't in the school system the non-parents or caregivers an idea of how well the school is doing and where our successes and places to work on are. I think that's really helpful. Um, so I want to I want to make sure I understand what you're saying embedded in my report. You want that? >> Um, no. I was just

113I was specifically asking for like today. Is there any way that we can have the slides that Jody and um Melissa presented just available? >> I think we could embed them in the minutes that are posted. >> That's what I That's a good idea. Send me the link. We can embed them in the minutes because >> And then we while we're at it, we can throw it in your recording. >> Yep. Yep. >> Perfect. Maybe moving forward we can embed it into my principal's report. >> Yeah, we could include it. Yeah. >> Thank you. >> That's all I have. Susie, you have you're a trooper. Thank you for staying. Um >> you obviously more than welcome to stay. We have policies and other committees and things. >> I think it's I mean we have a

114homework policy. >> Yeah. I mean >> these are applicable for for you, right? >> Okay. Um, so to that end, let's move on to the board report and committee reports. Board report and committee. That's an interesting subtitle, but I that's a new structure. So I know that's okay. Um, so the >> the policy um committee is the one that's right here. Um, I'll skip down to the bottom. We adopted 7.1.4, the parental bill of rights last time. Um, there were no changes at that at our policy committee. So, I don't think we need to readress that unless there were questions. >> No. >> Um, >> well done by the way. That was helpful. That that passed >> that we >> last month. Thank you. >> Um, JJ, there were some slight changes that we discussed

115at the policy committee. Not a huge number of them. But if we go to that, do you guys have any questions about the >> No, I don't know if these are >> some of the more formatting of the paragraph. >> These are non like I like the additions of the smartwatches versus like the texts and emails and instant messages and things along those lines because you find more kids having them. But >> we had some good discussions about field trips that maybe spam the end of the day. It was a really interesting and helpful conversation to have to understand the law. >> Yep. >> What school looks like and what are some of the exceptions and how to spell it out carefully. But as I said before, there's at least one lawyer on our comm

116on the policy committee to help interpret and a lot of lawyer wannabes do a lot to help apply the law. The only thing that I I'm just noticing it now where is it's under review um section E. Um where it says review policy and collaboration with parents >> um should that be parents and caregivers? >> Parents and or caregivers. I can do >> and not that it's it it I'm just trying to make it >> consistent, right? >> Yeah. I think it I think it would be not parents but whatever the parents and or caregivers that's a little more consistent with that could bring in some issues potentially. So maybe just changing that little smidge. >> Sounds good to me. That's a yes that's a common catching as a respectful. >> Yeah, >> but that

117is interesting that if we updated it um to change the parenthesis and so that we didn't include >> didn't include Yeah. And >> discussing >> Yeah. I think that would be the only change would be instead of >> um I don't know if it would be instead of parents but parents and or caregivers. >> Okay. to be it make it more make it more broader. >> What if we said parents caregivers and teachers? >> Yeah, I wouldn't I wasn't suggesting taking away teachers. >> I mean, but instead of parents or caregivers, parents, >> then it's inclusive of both. >> Okay. >> Yeah, sure. It's easier to add. >> Yep. >> Okay. >> All right. So, that's good. Um >> there's a fly that fly the whole time. >> Yep. Um I J instructional materials um

118Dr. Bryant is that who? >> Yes, Alison Bryant. >> It was excellent. She and there was a number of folks who came to the policy committee to explain >> why some of these updates are happening. Some of it has to do with the law, but some of it also has to do with us wanting to clean up language to make um she sounds very committed to um updating things. Uh, and I don't know, Susie, you work with her a lot. >> Yeah, she's fantastic. >> So, it sounded like um the reason for the updates made a lot of sense and we didn't really have too many adjustments based on what she had other than just formatting. >> Yeah. And I think the only thing that I had in here was consistency things like I know

119we're saying school district here, but in our all of our other policies, unless we're moving to change that, it has said the district. Um, and then that's capitalized and there's just capitalization issues in here, but that's minor. >> Yeah, >> it's super minor. Um, and then superintendent or design is supposed to be capitalized, but I mean it's super otherwise other than those like little tiny nitpicky things. This is not a problem. Let's see. This is an issue. Yeah, she's this is her, you know, she's >> new within this policy role and so yeah, she'll but these are helpful things to point out. I agree they're not significant. >> They are not significant. The the context is more significant. >> Um and then IKB homework. Um we actually had a really good conversation. um there was

120some change in language like one of my examples I brought up was you know the um homework must be viewed as purposeful to the students how can you ensure that you're right that it was an interesting >> sort of philosophical conversation we had so we changed and updated some language to have it make sense >> um to us at least so I didn't know if the rest of the board had any questions about that um Susie did you you want to see that or do you feel good >> no I I agree I didn't have a problem with this one tonight. >> All right. So, I'm going to make a motion if we can update um excuse me, accept uh IKB homework. Um J as slightly amended and JICJ as slightly amended. Do I have

121a second? >> All in favor? >> I Perfect. >> All right. Thank you. Safety and security. Um, I do have an update. We do need to go into nonpublic for me to give it to you. >> Perfect. Okay. But you guys met? >> Yes. >> Okay. Superintendent evaluation. >> We have our next meeting on October 31st on Halloween and spooky day. >> You guys dress up like >> I love it. >> That's great. >> Okay. >> And strategic plan. >> Um, there are no updates since last time. I know Chris Indriski is working on um some of the feedback that we had given him and some of you know his personalization on that plan. So he's got some work but um we have not met nothing has changed yet. >> Okay. Um and I just

122want to again give a shout out to the NAS school safety committee all three of you in particular Jane as ch uh you weren't chair but as a board representative and our chair all people came today that was awesome. Um, any additional pieces? Yeah, >> I think we went through it all. >> There's plenty. >> Perfect. Uh, just wanted to note our next meeting is a slight change from our usual cadence. It's November 4th, which I believe is a Tuesday. We had voted on that or discussed that last time. That's at 4. Um, any suggested agenda items that we have for that meeting that we want to mention? Now, >> the only thing I have is that we're heading into budget season. So making sure that um we kind of start looking for canvasing for

123our you know budget advisory committee. >> Yes. >> Um we do have many of the people that were here are on that committee but you know trying to bring in you know more names, more faces, more thoughts. I think that would probably be appropriate as we kind of head down the road um towards like the November time frame, November, December. >> I think that's great. Um, and think I know you've made social media posts before. Um, but not this year, but in years past. Um, I don't know if there's any role for mentioning it to to parents. Um, but this is the board. >> Yeah, you can put it in the newsletter. You know what I mean? Agree. >> I typically send an email. I can email the folks if you folks have names of

124folks you want me to include on >> include on the email. Um, other than the ones that I have done in the past, let me know. Um, I think I usually send it about Octoberish because they can they we want them to start coming as soon as we review the budget. I think they come right away. >> Yeah. >> Um to be included in that process. >> Yeah. >> So I can >> That's a good That's a really good point. We should start recruiting even now. >> Yeah. I'll start recruiting now. >> And invite them to the November meeting. >> Yeah. And I'll um get in touch with her. You have the current names and Yes. Okay. Yeah. They can come to November. start there. It doesn't mean and then ask >> I'm assuming they're

125all going to come back. >> They love it so much. >> I mean, >> they've been really good about um understanding and opinions and suggestions and you know, advocacy. So, I think that's great, but the more the marrier in my mind. >> I agree. Okay, >> perfect. Um, when is the next school safety committee? You said later this month. >> It is January. No, no. Safety committee. >> Oh, school safety. I think 27th. I think it's >> No, no, no. 10:27. >> Sorry. April pass. >> 10:27. >> It's on a Monday. Last Monday in October. >> Yeah, I think it's the 22nd. Let's start there. >> And um perfect. All righty. Um without any objection, I'm going to make a motion to >> end. Oh, so excuse me. I'm not going to do that. Forget

126I said that. I'm going to make a motion to enter into non public. Right. >> Under what? I >> under section chapter 91A section I at 7:38. >> All in favor? >> I All right. Uh at 8:00 I I'd like to make a motion to get out and not public. I second that. Second. All in favor? >> I Okay. Um, if there are not any additional items to discuss, I'm going to make a motion to call to the end. >> To order to order at 8:01, um, do they have a second to end the meeting? >> All right. All in favor? >> And before we do that, I just wanted to thank the custodians for Newfield Elementary School since today is custodian appreciation day. Thank you for all of your hard work. >> Thank you.

127Sorry, that was actually after the meeting was over at day one. But thank you Kazi uh team.