001All right. So, we will get this party started. Um, so what I'm going to do is I'm effectively going to seed to Mike and Karen. Not Mike, Karen. Keith and Karen. Mike can do it too. Linda Parker. And what we're going to do today is kind of look at all the safety concerns, kind of make sure that we understand what they are. Um have a little bit of but not solution going at and then from there we'll kind of prioritize them. What's our top? What's our bottom? Where are we in the middle? And then um after that we can talk about what potentially we want for deliverables from the board that we want to get to the board so they can deliver to the town. So the board will have to do some things like
002anything monetarily related but this is something that I can go back to the board next month and say this is what we're looking at making sure that you are prepared with um as we kind of go into uh the new school year. So, I will hand it off to you guys. Okay. Uh, I'll start. Uh, like she said, uh, the goal for today is identify the main goal is to identify the pressure points, the points that, um, you know, again, safety concerns. Uh, and then basically wants versus needs, what you guys are expecting out of him. So, a lot of it, Susie, is going to come from you. Sure. Um, because you have firsthand knowledge every day. Well, Beth, too, best. Oh, and I'm sorry. This is Beth last time. Sorry. So, she is one
003of our amazing teachers. She's essentially the librarian here, but she's also one of our teachers. So, she's Anybody can input. It doesn't matter, but the school association is the one who's going to really provide it. So, what we want to hear is where you're having the friction, where the problems are, where again we have to break it down to wants versus needs. like something that you would be in need is uh is a safety violation, not meeting code standards, modern code standards, even if even though safety really isn't grandfathered in. And then um anything that you see coming up in the future that someone said uh hey this is going to be need to be fixed within the next 5 years that would fall into more the need. The wants is again we can prioritize
004them in the wants. Everybody wants that glorious thing that's here but we can't do it. So we got to evaluate based on wants and see what it's so it's the wants are something that would be really really nice. we have we'll prioritize it that this is most important to least important but the goal is to narrow this down and kind of categorize them and really just kind of eventually develop the scope of the project that we're trying to achieve and uh work towards the eventual goal of the recommendation. So um I don't know where you want to start. I think um do you want to start with this or do you want to go to the other business first? No, let's start with this and then we'll do the other. And Chris is our noteaker.
005Are you still comfortable with that? Just making sure. Okay. Jane, do you want anything? Jane, sorry. I mean, when I started thinking about this, in all this stuff that's been talked about, there were safety issues and then there were other issues that have to do with parking or routing or that stuff. And so I think one of the things before we even get to the wants versus needs is what are the pieces that are on the table. Yeah. So, and and so I just put two columns here cuz you know the safety things for example you know the kids can't get across and have to walk across the so why don't we start with the safety issues that we know we start with the known so well there there were a couple people who came
006and watched um and so I certainly don't want to take the floor first but if you have if you like saw um anything of note um yeah I half half a harrowing half an hour, 40 minutes with Wayne this morning at the at the crosswalk and then I got uplifted when I saw Susie welcoming everyone and seeing what it was like up here. But I got to tell you, I had no idea what it's like down there with the traffic coming in, turning right, the crosswalk, uh cars not paying attention to the crosswalk, um and the buses having to swing really wide to get in or out and they go into an opposite lane. Um, so that that is to me that's the crux of the safety problem. It's probably a very large part of
007it is just how to get into the property and the difficulty with the sight lines and the structure of that entrance making it a very sharp turn and then an upgrade. Um, so that's very difficult. And then the tight corners where the the sheds are at that far corner. um that kind of stands out like why are those sheds right at one of the tightest corners uh on the property. Um, and then the difficulty up here as well with uh, you know, the m and as a sidebar, the winter's got to be even worse. Like, you know, how you deal with snow removal and ice and slippery conditions and then where does the snow go and then it goes from maybe two cars getting through here to one at a time because it's parking probably
008is even more difficult. So, um, and I talked quite a bit with Wayne on that and and he, uh, who's Wayne? Uh, Wayne is the police chief. So, Wayne is he's down at the crosswalk in the morning. So, he's in the crosswalk in the morning and, uh, you know, is, you know, living that every day. And, you know, he deserves a purple heart. I mean, the way the traffic is and and just the the the mix. So, I didn't see any bike riders coming in, but I could see when you had bike riders coming in, and there were very few kids walking today cuz it was kind of a a cool day. I only saw one bike rider on Monday. Yeah. Um, so that would complicate things. And then up here, there's also an issue
009where kids are crossing in front if they're, you know, if they're dropped off down by the lower level or they're walking up, it seems like they're they're running a gauntlet of traffic there as well. Um and so nothing that um Susie and Ellen certainly are not already aware of, but it was a real eye opener for me that like it it's really seems bad and um I I could see the part of our challenge is going to be we really need to engage parents in the community, but we also don't want to frighten them in terms of like Susan, I'm taking your com comments about, you know, if we make it seem really dangerous, are people really going to freak about it. But somehow we've got to find a way that for the community to
010get a feel for the immediiacy of the need and the fact that there hasn't been any kind of injury, knock on wood, is a small miracle. And so Mike, can we keep going and get all the issues down and then we can talk about each of them, right? Because otherwise I think we're going to run out of time. Karen, I think you brought up site length or how many Chris, maybe it was you. Somebody talked about all the different points of entrance um that students have to do. So, coming up, then crossing over um in front of the school, then crossing over the crosswalk to get into the um front door. So, there's lots of different areas. And then um so kids crossing in front of cars. Well, I think it's you're crossing 87 if
011you're a walker, then you're crossing the driveway, then you're crossing the driveway again. So, you're crossing the driveway twice twice, and then crossing 87 if you're a walker. All right. So, so it's crossing 87, crossing the driveway, and then crossing the front of the cars that are go hard enough. Yeah. It's the continuation of the drive. Uh, another concern, another concern that I would have I'm not trying to swing my gun in here. um is because things are not delineated incredibly clearly. No matter how many times I put it in a newsletter, there will be cars that come up from that side and come in through openings and I again I can say there was yeah there's one car that did that on Monday. So come in this way. Um because kids and other parents
012don't think cars are coming that way. I can't stop them when they're coming, right? Multiple entry points. There's there's lack of signage. So, if you were just, you know, a grandparent or someone who's not a daily driver, you wouldn't know cuz there's no signs. Even when you come up this drive, you don't know if you should keep going straight or if you turned to get up to the front office. Yeah. Well, and even your your sign that says like you go into that parking area on this side and then it says do not enter, but that do not enter sign is so faded that Right. Okay. So, the signage signage and and people going in different directions. Lack of clarity in signage. Yeah. And the other thing is there's no line drawn. So, the parking
013is a free-for-all. And I think that is that safe. Do you think that's a safe? because it impacts it it worsens the blind spots at the corner of the building. And something that Chief Young has mentioned is, god forbid you have an emergency vehicle that has to come onto the property, the path for them to pass and get to the right entrance to the school is hampered by the parking. Tonight's a good example. Yeah, there's no restrictions. There's no I walked out my daughter's at the field right now. So I walked up and I was looking the same thing but it was people are parked everywhere and you ask where you're going to spot. So my you know I don't have solution but that's what that's the problem. Susie, did you have additional safety concerns
014from your perspective? They're more facts but I think they're important. Um we have 34 spots that are needed for our full faculty parking spots and then Sure. Yep. And then when there's um an when there's something like tonight or a spring concert, it would be 86 additional cars um for our full community to be together for the And how many do you have now? How many parking spots? A great question. since they're not delineated, right? If you can't, there's no clear answer. Don't have an inventory. So, there's not a plan from the past. Depends on whether if you can use that lot in the winter time, you have more spots. If if it is in the middle of sorry, if it's in the middle of the winter time, then that lot is not usable and
015you just have this and then people use the fire room station lot. If the um what is the capacity of the we're not at full capacity of the school, right? That is correct. So what would be the full staff capacity if we were at full capacity? Full student capacity or staff full student if we're maxed out at we're maxed out at students. What's the max? That wouldn't increase that much, Kate, because right now we have smaller class sizes. The teacher allotted for that class wouldn't change. we would just add additional students into the class. So, so the staff parking change, the parent and community would change. Yeah, I think where Keith is going with this is slightly looking ahead at a new development going into town. So, if a new development goes in town and
016there are an additional 40 to 70 kids here, what does that do? Do you need more staff? Again, we can't we don't have enough we don't have enough um classrooms. So, we have nine classrooms. Yeah. I can't go bigger than nine classrooms. So, what she's saying is what Yeah. Where I'm getting to. So you're you have max capacity of the school. If we hit the we have to have a parking lot designed for enough staff for that capacity. If we get a 100 kids coming in now we're looking at a expansion of the school. Whole different game. We might as well not even plan for it because that's a whole Yeah. new parking lot that you're going to get. So that's a whole new wing. Yeah. That's a whole new wing and that's all different
017funding involved. Hold on. That is an important part to know. One of the reasons why we have a flat roof is because we're planning on building up. So the expansion wouldn't go down. It wouldn't it wouldn't go up. Like I said, it funding wise we would get we would get I just didn't want people really big project. No, it just becomes a bigger project that you can get more funding than just but is park so my question is is parking a safety issue? Sure. goes helping if you don't want because for emergency number one emergency vehicles access that's staff right so if there's enough room for staff I would have today cuz you could have a parent event I'm so sorry but a parent event and then all of this is the perimeter parking and
018a vehicle has to get to school an emergency vehicle let's let Chris finish I'm so All right. I was trying to reiterate that access for an emergency vehicle under any circumstance, even if it's just the teachers that are here parking. What I heard said earlier is that there is no it's not just the no lines. It's it's also the tight corners. It's like emergency access is not if you needed the fire department. Of course, they're right next door, but if you needed the engines to come up here, think about that coming out of the building and then trying to turn in to the current facility. It's it would take them extra time. So, so what I'm thinking is that the fact that there's not enough room for all the parents to park isn't a safety
019issue. It's where the parking is currently. Well, it would be a safety issue for any for any events. If there if all the if the whole community is coming together, then everybody wants to be here and if there were an emergency, it gets even worse. So, it's bad enough with the staff parking, but when you add in event parking and even if it's an out of school event and it's the the ball fields in the back who don't have their own parking, I gather they share. Then now all of a sudden like we're here. Maybe there's, you know, uh the choir's doing something or or something and somebody had an an emergency and we need an emergency vehicle. There's not enough space. So is there a feeling for safety reasons that we need to expand
020the amount of parking for the staff? No. just in general. I'm just I'm trying to keep we need to clarify the parking situation so that it doesn't become a so it doesn't become a safety issue. Okay. I think the one less part in that um I wish that this wasn't the case but in our current situation um we do spend quite a month quite um a lot of resources around school safety um and we do drills around um school shooters all that I have never been in a school. And if you look around other schools, having the drive completely up against a school is could be considered very dangerous because it would take Mhm. um someone who's become a drive by shooting. Yes. Literally. Literally. Yeah. and it would take out could has the potential
021of taking out most of our population. So part of what I'm what I would like this committee to consider is we're moving this part of the line away from the school. If we're talking if we're talking reality, that's that is it's like you need a buffer, Susie, right? There needs to be a buffer. Optimal design, right? If you start over. That's right. Anything else? What else would be Go ahead, Beth. I I think the lack of visibility of the crosswalk itself um especially when there's wet pavement early in the you know in the morning when we are doing um everyone's coming in and I'm coming this way and when the conditions are particularly bad you really cannot see that crosswalk. So whether it's lighting that is going to be activated at those two times a
022day to just really you know are you talking about well or lighting like the exit like exit has like they're called vegan lines. Yeah. Are you talking about the crosswalk in which of the three locations across the right across 87? Yeah. So whether it's getting better paint, reflective paint that will show up when it's wet and dark or some sort of actual signal. Yep. Um I think that is definitely a safety u concern particularly in the winter when it's wet and dark. The glare in the morning. Okay. Another another safety I was just going to add is the right now the way it's configured everybody comes around this direction and the traffic has to turn left to get back out. So they have to go across the lanes of traffic and you know and and
023the site isn't great there either because of the hill and you know somebody said well that's traffic but it's like well kids can be in cars coming in because not everybody comes in at the same time so there people rushing to get into line and there's people rushing to get out because they dropped off their kid and it's it's really easy to have an accident when people have to make the left turn and then you've got the waiting for the left turn onto 87 that could back things up as well. Yeah. And that's signage too as well. There's no signage to tell you really which way to go. Well, it's it's both both signage and, you know, road marking and having an a lane that you could have people that want to turn right aren't
024trying to like sneak around. Yeah. The people that are waiting to turn left. Yeah. or just a grandparent coming and they're confused like you said earlier. So, are there more safety? Yep. I think we need to be aware of that. We do not currently have um accessibility for any wheelchairs. Is that a safe? It absolutely is because we we are responsible for any student under any condition. And the fact that we don't have a child in a wheelchair doesn't mean that we should not plan for one. Can you help me understand? Because I thought the ADA laws said you had to have access to the building, not the property. So, so that if you can get in by a car and then get into the building, then it's okay. I I'll bring in an expert
025that actually does this. She actually lives in town. I'll ask her if she'll come. But what she had advised was we are we can't be open as a school unless we have a way for a child to get onto the property. We do. It's up the driveway. It's a terrible option. Okay. So, it's not just that you have to be able to drive in. So, that goes to the other question. Do we have any codes that we are not compliant with? I know we have the the terrible option, but are we are we a violation of anything? A potential violation of anything. So, you had mentioned you have a friend that understands the ADA compliance. Yeah. Is do they also know all of the compliance related to a school like and I'm just thinking of
026an optimal design. Maybe we're not in violation today, but if we were to do it all over, what are the best practices? I don't know if anyone knows someone. I'll ask cuz there is in terms of walking and crosswalks and curbs. Yeah, she's to do this for the state. So, I'll ask. We also have a new director of facilities coming in as of July 1st and we have Russy Listister who is here until June 30th. So, we could consider bringing one of them in. I'm sure because this would be their area of expertise and they've been involved in multiple building renovations here in SU6. So I'm sure this this concept of optimal design like we you know with compliance in mind and not just compliance but also like you know when we know better we
027do better you know doing right by our kids with disabilities in terms of accessibility. So that's another point to consider. These are all really good ideas. I I would say regarding accessibility, you know, my dad was a blo amputee and uh he would come to the kids program in here and I realized that the crosswalk is is one issue, but frankly um you know that he was able to pull up to the front door and get in and and so I I would hate I would want to be able to have a very close proximity uh you know for drop off or handicap parking nearby for and all in whatever solution we come up with because in in practice this the the school is actually was was quite competing for him and much better than
028um the middle school for example where where you can park there or even the high school um you know is a shorter walk and and closer to the entry. Good point. It's not just kids with disabilities but adults with disabilities as well to be mindful of. Sorry. So Susie, where do it seems I've dropped off a couple times. We It varies from spot. Where is your Where do you drop off and where do you pick up? I mean, I know sometimes it's been out back, sometimes it's been out front. Obviously, the back door is not accessible for anybody other than the students or teachers in the past. The front door is going this way. So, the question is is where do where's the optimal access, I guess, for students? Well, I wouldn't say one is
029different than the other. or better. The reason why we used to have students dropped off in the back is because everyone did morning recess. When we did um some work around what types of activities are best for students, the variedness of that. Some students come in with low energy and um need a quiet activity. Some come in needing a big activity. So now we have options for our students. As they come from the front door, they pick out of three or four opportunities and go to those opportunities. It it really just very and we were trying to give by coming up front we allowed all the car more cars to be in the drive than when we parked when we had um in the back people piled up before I got out at 8:15. You
030have the majority of cars. Then there's a backup at the fire station because we lost all of this space. Whereas when we come in the front we have the entire roundabout of the school. Yeah. So the ideal part would be at this point it is drop off or entrance to the front door not the back which is current. Well with the yeah with the current configuration but that doesn't mean you couldn't do it in the back if you had something like I drew and what I shared where you're coming in and and you got more and the answer doesn't matter where they drop off. No. in the current situation it does because the the current flow of traffic now I'm I'm thinking if you had to pick one regardless of the flow of traffic cuz
031that's what we're trying to change. So we could design around you where you want them to be. Do you know what I mean? Well then the best would be in the back. Okay. So in talking to walkers they prefer the front because so it is just Yeah. Yeah, this is good. They loved when it was switched to the front because that was less harrowing in having to go drive. That's right. When walkers and bikers when we were in the back, it was it was very concerning to have bikers and walkers along this like where we have no sidewalk and cars are coming up. But if you changed the configuration as I as I had shared it where that you would make that pedestrian only zone because that was one of your wish list things that
032you said then we can immediate that because the cars are going then way around and the bikers and walkers can still get up and get to the back door. It's longer in in bad weather but you know you so we'd have to think about bad weather options as well. So we looking at Go ahead. Well, just just for perspective, because I think I've been around now longer than even you guys, but we have had three different entry points since I've been here. So, the first one was the front. Then we did the side. So, the buses would go all the way around. The cars and buses went all the way around. This one Kate SE was here. And they would stop where the you know the little L is where the gym entrance. But they
033didn't go into the gym entrance. They went down the sidewalk and went into the back corner door. Then David Foster wanted us to have morning recess and so then we switched to drop off in the back. Then now we've switched up. So just to say we have utilized three different entry points over time. Quick question on the crosswalk issue. I guess that would be mainly kids who are walking to school would be using that. Would that be fair to say? So, well, biking and bikers and bikers. So, what kind of percentage of the population would that represent? It was a tiny number on Monday. Not many% day on a really beautiful day. We have about 12. After Memorial Day, it's going to be That's right. And once the nice weather hits, it's quite But it's
034still I think a small percentage. So, if you had 20 Yeah, that's about 20%. I counted 10 days. I was going to say 10% average maybe. And then on nice days go up. Do we think we've identified all the safety issues yet? I want to add two others to the other column. One is uh sidewalks. We've talked about sidewalks. Sidewalks where on the school property. Okay. And then or pedestrian ways. Um and then the other is um to your point um ensuring handicapped uh parking spots um to the building. Do we have enough at four? We have We have two, right? There's two up front, two out back. Oh, it's just something I want to have on the list as we consider the new redesign. If we cut off entrances, I don't know. That's a
035compliance issue. We can we can we can re revisit that. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Anything else? Karen, do you view safety from a driver standpoint? Like is that do we have that as a consideration? You know, in terms of like the dangerous entrance and exit for drivers, I mean it's not the left turn is terrible. The left turn to get out to get out. Yeah. Right. And motor vehicle accidents are absolutely on the rise. Yeah. So I would say driver safety would be a, you know, is legitimate. It's not so much pedestrian. If I put turning right in, left out. Those are And not only here, but over there. It's terrible turning left if you're going down the dirt. There's a big tree. It's very hard to see like no sight line. Well, not down there.
036No, he's dry. Turning left is fine out the this entrance because he's directing traffic. That's Yeah, but that and that can change. That's right. We could have a crosswalk person. two. Yeah. I don't think that should limit our Okay. But in talking about where the crosswalk is going to go, I sorry I don't want really hard to keep you guys from solving. We've got I think we've got lots of good ideas, but I think until we know what this sort of requirements piece is, um we're we're a little ahead of the game. Also, as a reminder, this this committee, our charge is to, you know, look at the look at the situation, assess the situation, make recommendations to the board. We are not a decision-making body. Right. Thanks for that clarification. We can offer up
037suggestions. Um, work with bodies to get what we need. The ultimate decision maker, the body is the board, which will I'm going to be leaning on you guys. I mean, I I think from a practical standpoint, if this committee is not on board with what's going on, you're losing some power of getting people in town to Yeah. agree to fund whatever we choose. I'm in agreement with that. No. Yeah. I think that's implied that the work of this committee is critical and this committee will generate the recommendations to the board. Yeah. And realistically, the board is going to take what this body puts together and really want to make sure that that is what we do because there are smarter people on this board than just three people at like do we know what the
038board's perspective is because they apparently the board agreed to go ahead to try to put this on the ballot last year this format. So um so I'll give you a little So we have effectively a new board. Okay. So um Brian is a new board member. Um I was not in favor of this project as it is now. Um or as it was as it was drawn. Um and we have other board members who said, "Well, let's at least see what the community appetite was for." So I would not take the any prior decisions of the board as positive or negative. I would say let's go for neutral. And they I can tell you right now that the board is really looking forward to what we do in general. So that if we can do
039something fantastic. If we can't that's okay too. So the whole spectrum is open. So are so out of all of this stuff, are there any items that we want to discuss to sort of put forward which we think might be the most important things before we try to rank for them besides the safety? Well, I you know this is a very long safety list to go to to the town with and say we want money for, right? I think I think it can be boil a lot of that can be boiled down to the intersection. The intersection needs to be redone down there, which is the the turning right into the road, the the blind corner, the crosswalk. What other stuff you have that? Well, it's the turning right, the crossing 87, crossing the driveway,
040cross and the kids crossing in front of cars is is that's two pieces cuz there's one crossing in the driveway. So drives using multiple I mean that's all associated with that one corner which is the big it seems to be the common answer is the major safety issue and the lack of any sidewalks I would say is also major safety on the property because right now for kids to get around they're walking through a traffic light. Well there's there's no crosswalks. Yeah. There's no separate access for students to walk around the building other than walking the roadway. the way that I was thinking of it and I know you sent the drawing out and and I I remembered last year I had a drawing so it's like we want to change the flow in my
041mind I'm wondering what's the optimal path of the child and the optimal path of the car and how few times can they cross right and then we need to consider some of the other things like your suggestion to cut this off or to cut the blind corners but I was like that's how I was sort of thinking of it is like two lines of what helps it work best so Jean that would A good question about does the board is the board hoping to hear from us some solutions? Yes. Okay. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. As many but I would say yes solutions but if we need to go out and have a professional who designs these types of things, not a problem. But we have to find the budget for that. We don't have, correct me
042if I'm wrong, a line item budget budget for this project currently. Is that correct? So, and Oh, sorry. Go ahead. I was going to turn this around. Go ahead. Do you guys think that you can remember this while I turn this around? Should we take a picture of it? Sure. Well, I'm not on the video. Yeah. Or you know what? Let me go over there. Can I write Oh, if I wrote on the other board. Yeah, I think we can see it. It's okay. I'll put it on the video. Okay. So all I was going to try and do is say so Keith said you know so if we can encapsulate this crossing issue right as as sort of one thing and while you're doing that one thing I did want to point out a
043reminder that I had to myself recently was that when TF Maran did that site work that was approximately 20 to $30,000 that we used out of local funds to get that work done that you know they when they came out and then and they developed the plans and they assessed the site. I might not be using all of the exact accurate vocabulary, but that's my summary of what occurred. Just I do want to remind people that that we did invest money into that. So, just something to consider um in terms of being fiscally responsible and the fact that we we did already expend funds. Okay. So if besides So the crossing is one big thing, right? Can we consolidate any of the others? Oh, you said crossings. It's not it's not just a crossing. It's
044it's the multiple crossings, right? So is there another way to combine some of these other things that we might then say are I think what um sorry how you say your name. Pav. Yeah. Pabi. the the lines of the flow lines for traffic and children about intersecting paths is the way I'm looking at it. That's a great way to put it. Crossing and turning too, right? It's not just crossing, just turning. You're talking about personal crossing. It's the the flow of traffic and the flow of kids. both of them um with non-intersecting paths. The the other one I want to put out there is what's the perimeter around the school? Part of the perimeter around the school because I feel like um that would solve for that would cover blind corners and that would cover
045your um concern against a buffer have the road away from the building outside of the building like a no car zone. Yeah. No cars in or what would you block out? Y cuz that would solve for safety vehicles, right? As well. That's what I was think. Could it be striped still for, you know, fire lane, right? Yeah. Where you don't park there, you know, you can still get a truck and you don't drive there. If it's drivable, then you know, but kids could walk there. Yeah. Yeah. I mean we're doesn't solve your problem not being able to get signage too. So So where do we want to put? So signage itself signage would be in general regardless signage there is none signage and pavement markings pavement markings. Yeah. Put those two together. Good news is
046it's a blank slate. Kind of is right. On a on a side note, I'm sure the town and paint is relatively cheap. What were you thinking? I said the town probably has the existing drawings from when the the gym was built that shows the markings of how much Well, there's this whole thing that you mentioned too that the pavement's a mess. Yeah. I mean, that's not a safety concern. That probably goes in the other, but the asphalt's destroyed. Plus, it limits available parking, too, right? because there are certain areas that are it's so compromised. So is parking and I mean a parking is not safety but is parking something or is it I mean parking is safety adequate parking I think it's well defined or well delineated maybe well delineated parking is it's a general
047term I mean obviously you can see tonight but you can also see problems with the the assemblies even when the assemblies aren't here there's still it's still well you have people parking in anywhere they and fit your vehicle versus, you know, in what should be a slot of discipline, I think. So, it looks like we've got coming into the school, going around the school, parking at the school, right? And access to the school for and access mobility issues. That makes sense. Yep. So, if we were to rank these Number one is the intersection crossings is my I'd rank number one. That's your biggest risk. I think too many blind corners, too many people crossing at the too many things going on. That's obviously why I have the police officer, right? But I'm sorry. I see
048bullet one and two as one as a single item. Are you or do you guys see crossings and traffic? I see it separate because I'm talking about the the intersection alone. 87. Okay. So that's the 87 at the bottom of the hill. Gotcha. Where traffic flow around the school is different. But that also has a lot of crossings too, right? Absolutely. So there's crossings on the school property as well as outside of the school property. Right. There's an external crossing which is 87 and then there's one soal within the fence which is the crossing in the school. And so I think that's the that's in the traffic flow there. And they're almost going to be like 1 A and 1 B because one crossings of around 87 is probably more risky because you've got more
049vehicles that are not turning into the into the um school that are being impacted by turns into the school. So that's going to be more vehicles and more chances of of problem. But then once you get into the school, you've got a higher risk of pedestrians and cars interfering with one another. So, so here was one of my thoughts is um and and I don't want to go backwards really, but there was so much push back about what this was this one, right? That that that the concept of ranking is like maybe you can't do everything this year and so if you can do one thing, what would be the one thing you want to do? And I think that's yeah, that's where we're going to developing the scope. want to finish the ranking listed.
050Yeah. Why don't we finish and see what I had a question for for the crossings over 87. Is that to um accommodate walkers or is that to accommodate walkers and drivers? What I'm the intersection in general because you have cars going in and out. You have cars turning, you have people coming across, you got people coming down the hill from the the stairs, people going up. It's there's too many intersecting points with too many vehic uh too many moving things whether it be emergency vehicles, uh people, buses, cars, it's it's that intersection in general that is the most uncontrolled area. So, how about number two? I'd still say traffic. Yeah. Yeah. Cuz that crossing needs to be really broadly so many which again going back to what you said is the biggest risk. People crossing
051in front of the drive the driveway. Yeah. Walking down here, walking out there. So yeah. Yeah. And just a quick comment. I would I think the community got really sidetracked by thinking of this project as a parking project. Mhm. So to the degree we keep the focus on safety and crossing and traffic and people being separated, that's a win for us, I think, because the community will buy that idea that anyone who drives by here is going to say this is crazy, you know, you know, and there needs to be a better way of doing it. And it's not necessarily a parking lot, right? But the biggest the biggest cost driver of the proposed solution there was was the parking lot. So that's you know the elephant in the room. Um right you know so
052one has to you know but if we said earlier that the parking probably would be adequate if we get the signage and I would say signage and uh pavement markings are probably number three in my mind because that's something that would address the flow and the other things and and support it. Um whereas the buffer is a more of a nice to have. Do we want to put this delineated parking up in the markings and just I have I have a question to piggyback on what you said Chris. If we eliminated the parking alongside of the building which does cause the issue of not having a buffer and having too many people being very close to a school. Hence the another school safety issue. So if we eliminated this, would we have adequate parking? Well,
053for the I count I counted today. I mean, when I came in at quarter to three, there were 23 cars, you know, parked. Mhm. So, you know, and there were allowing for not not waiting for the kids. And there were there were no cars here. There were four out towards the front corner, but none of these right here, you know. Okay. Um, and then there were, you know, at least 13 available spots, whether they're down by the, um, where the front parking is by the up on the hill. Um, there's there was one still a spot available towards the front of the school. There were, um, several towards the back by the playground. So, I counted 36 spots as it is now. Um, you know, approximately. And I do wonder if you could somehow expand
054the current blacktop a little bit. create more create more parking in in the front potentially too, you know, depending on what what you're going to do. Yeah. I mean, looking at a mean kind of pulling pulling back on solutions if we're looking at a couple of different things. Yeah, that's possible. You know, create the buffer, expand this a little bit, create pull- in parking. Mhm. So I think there is adequate there are 34 spots available for the staff as it is now without without having all these cars here as they are tonight. Correct. The staff park here in the morning. Correct. Yep. About down to the pole. Yeah. Okay. I'm going to interrupt. It's possible. It's possible. It is possible. And I think there's also like regulations on how many inches you need right between
055lines. So, I'm just learning how to get this. So, we have two more things left that we've pulled out. It's the ADA access and the buffer around the building. So, I feel like we might achieve the buffer if we properly design number three. Mhm. Yeah. The buffer and the traffic flow are together, I think, aren't they? Well, they could be a solution. I'd say the ADA is more important, right? Yeah, I agree. The ID is more important than the buffer for the building. Well, the ADA compliance is if we're going to do Yeah. If we're going to do any changes, we have to by law ensure that that is done. If we make any significant changes to how our access is to the building, we need to make sure it is compliant. And that we
056are compliant, right? We are compliant but we are compliant as of when we were built. Right. So no, we are compliant now. Okay. If we change where kids are going to access the building, if we move where the crossing is now, we need to make sure that that crossing has access for anybody with disabilities. So regardless, no matter what we do, we have to keep that in mind as we move forward. So if we if we did this as an example, there's no crosswalk here on this side. So we have to make sure that there is, you know, a crosswalk that is ADA compliant. Now, we don't have one because they come up the driveway. That is the compliance. The kids come up the the kids if they are in a if they are in
057a wheelchair, they can't go up the steps. have to come up the driveway and go all the way around and into either um this door. This has a ramp and then you can get in the front door. You can get in into three doors, but you have to come up and around the building, which is again the worst way to be in compliance, but we are technically in compliance. They have access to the building, but it is a terrible way to get there. So if we move this current crosswalk to anywhere else, we need to make sure that it is compliant. So the ADA compliance is something would you have the same thing? Like if the crosswalk were down here because you have people coming in here. Now if you have the crosswalk over here,
058you would have to have this is I believe I don't remember where it was. Well, I'm just thinking you you still have the same, you know, roadway here. the way this is drawn as over there. So, it's just a matter of it's steeper here right now because it doesn't matter the steepness because you would have to have the compliance in making it graded properly. Right. So, no matter if you move it from its current location. So, are you saying that if we do anything we have to put in an ad ADA access sidewalk? Um, it depends on what you do, right? Yeah. So basically, if you if you eliminate that crosswalk down there and you put it somewhere else, that has to be ADA compliant to get to the same. If you move the crosswalk
059from the firehouse side to the stairway side, would you have to do that? Absolutely. Cuz there is no crosswalk on this side of the road. You're crossing them over here. No, no. I want to cross I want to just move the crosswalk from the firehouse side to you don't have to cross twice. Oh, so you're moving it from here to here. Yeah, technically no, because they can still go up here and still have our still have our terrible solution. Yeah, I it's a terrible solution. I'm trying to figure out, you know, if we do the if we recommend to do this in steps, are we more likely to get town buy in, right? Right. And it's not just I would also make the case that it's not just we don't want to be just compliant,
060right, with the terrible solution. We want to fact that when we know better, we do better. It's a terrible solutions. We want to do right by kids and right by and adults with disabilities. Anything about life cycle, how long is this for the next 50 years, right? This isn't for five. It's for and I think even if we are going to say that we want to space it out and we can do it in segments, we still have to have the master plan, right? Such that it's clear, okay, if we do this, then you know this is our first step, step one or step two. Yeah. and and we should have the the master plan in order to make sure that all of those steps would get funded sequentially and we're just taking it in
061bite-sized pieces for the community. Great point. Yep. So, so theoretically we could solve that crossing by moving the bus. Yeah. Right. A little bit, right? Or taking the hill down or whatever. Um and not have to go and get the built the all the excavation that would have to go into We might even be able to angle it from where the current cut is in the sidewalk and angle it across because crosswalks don't have to be 90° and if we put up some lights, you know, so there there are multiple solutions that are possible. I'm just trying to figure out. So if so, does the ADA thing belong in there as even an action or is it it's a requirement? We have to design it. We have to consider everything solution we consider it has
062to be in part of that. But I'm thinking maybe it's not an extra thing. It's not an extra thing. It's part of everything. We can't rank it because it's okay. So, should we take it off? Um, no. I think it should still priority. Yeah, it should be. It should be there. Okay. But it is part of it. So, our four is buffer. Okay. And ADA is part of each one of these as we walk through them. I know we only have like five minutes left. Okay. Um, aren't just excuse me, Jen, aren't the buffer and the traffic flow the same thing? Because you're buffer by definition, you're separating the kids from the cars. Not necessarily. Not necessarily the cars from the building. Well, that's what I mean. If you put a buffer here, the cars
063are going to be on the other side and the kids can walk through the buffer, right? That's how you get a design, but that's not designed next to the door. I mean, I think it all depends on what the design is. Yeah. And we want to make sure that we are taking that in consideration as we kind of think about how the project is working so that if we have the option for the buffer for a buffer then we take it. But with the issue of crossings you're going to have a constant issue with crossing issues on the property. If you don't have something where kids get out of the car and can walk into the school without crossing it completely agree there's no way around that. Yeah, you got to have some way where
064they get up and then they're aren't going across the driveway or the road, right? Well, I saw yesterday a kid who's who wasn't ready to get in the car, so the mom pulled and parked on the side of the traffic and so that kid had to cross through the traffic to get to the mom's car. And then the mom couldn't get out because nobody would let her in line. Of course not. Why would you wait for three seconds? All right. Um, when is our next meeting? Because I don't have it. June 5th, 6:30 here. Um, what I will do is I will kind of bring this information to the board. Um, and in the email that I sent when when is the board meeting in case you want my notes? No, next week week after
065second third fourth fourth the first Wednesday next month the same day. No June 4th meeting we have we meet the next day. We meet the next day. So as soon as the board meets we're going to be up and running figuring out what we're going to do hopefully. So is there anything we missed that? Anybody have any last thoughts about something we might have missed? Susie just had a good one. Yeah. What did you have? Should a few or all of us attend the schoolboard meeting? Absolutely. As many people, please. Cuz can you just send out the date and time? Yes, I will send you the date and time. I think um Mike attended last time which was really helpful because it gave it more than just my voice, which I am not always as
066eloquent as I should be. Um, so one of the last things that I did put on our agenda was to um kind of put together timelines, stakeholders, and things like that. And the key dates that's in that packet that I gave you. I'll try to put together something a little bit more solid um because until the board decides on certain dates, we don't really know what those dates are. But I can give you a general time frame in the X month board meeting. We'll have a deliberative session typically. So we'll work up to those and we can work on that together. Um Ellen and then question because what stakeholders include the parents we set up this thing for parents. Y I I'm not a parent so I don't know I didn't see anything like I
067saw nothing about our meeting in anything that I see for new fields. It is posted. I haven't posted anything on like Suz hasn't sent I haven't posted anything in on Facebook or anything about this meeting, but technically this is a public meeting. So, if you would like me to post something on Facebook or have Sue send out like a hey, I'm just asking where where did you post it today? Because I pay attention. I did. The town hall usually does town hall website, town hall bulletin board, and sometimes they do the post office. Yeah, but the su is different. I'll let Ellen I'll let Yeah, we post it um online. Online where? Um so if you were to go to sau.org and from there you go to school boards. I'll send you. Yeah. And then
068you go to then you would go to New Fields, you would find um something that says click here for school safety committee. No way would I ever find that. That's okay. I would suggest putting it on the sign and then it's also po the notice of the meeting is posted here at the school and it's posted at the SAU as well. Posted here at the school where on the marquee. Oh, I didn't. It wasn't today. Yeah, but that's what I'm saying. In the future, we could have like a week before. And where does the actual posting go? Like the posting for the board meetings there? On your way in the front door, there's a glass. So, it's there as well. Like today's meeting posting, right? But if you want to get the community on board
069with the funding I think well and can we use the Facebook groups because there's a lot of activity for the town of Newfield Facebook post on the two Newfield safe you know two Newfield Facebook groups from as a board member saying we are having a safety m committee meeting it is open to the public this is the agenda here's the link blah blah blah and do that I can also have Sue send out something to the you know email if you would like if if that is what you guys want. I'm happy to do it. I personally think if we want to have the community on board, we need to do that strategically. Maybe not every meeting, but we ought to be making sure that they know that this is happening, that it's being considered
070and that there are opportunities to come and participate because I'm I'm pretty active on those, you know, looking for things and I have It's hard to find. It's hard to find. Okay. And then um one of the other things as a non-school person, maybe your school people know, but that's going to be a minority of the township and you need a majority to get the school board member. It's hard for me to find stuff too. So um so one of the things that I'll talk to the school board about the beginning of the month, fourth, fifth, 6th or whatever day it is, um is kind of what we're going to try to deliver for them. So, what we're going to be working on, which is um when you when we talked about what we're going
071to include is the recommendation would be this specifications, budget, scope, concept drawings. So, we can't create concept drawings if they cost money, but we can work with these and ask the school board if they can find money. to work with either TF Grant or somebody else to do additional concept drawings dependent upon what our specifications are. I think we're a long way from that right now. We are. This is what we This is future talk, not now talk. But do we have anybody in the town that would have that skill and contribute? That would be something we could ask. We can ask. And that's a a good point because I think how we engage some leaders in the community, by leaders, I mean whether it's Hobie, whether it's John Hayden, um somebody on the planning
072and zoning board. I think we have to be really careful how we do that. But somehow they've got to have feel like they've got have had input in this and have some ownership and advocacy for it. So they feel like they've been part of the solution instead of it just being put out there to them and then saying, "Whoa, where did this come from?" And nobody talked to me about, right? And so this might be when we have something to talk about, we set a meeting and talk to the select board members. We talk to a couple of other groups like um planning board, zoning board, those types of groups as well. So once we're at a decent spot where we feel like, okay, this is the solution that we recommend, then I think we're
073in a good position for that. And I think that's where that advocacy piece is sort of gets flipped. Once the board knows, yep, this is the plan. This is what we're good. This is kind of what this body has decided upon, then the advocacy piece starts. Well, I I think we need to make sure that people who think they have a say get are aware. I mean, there's a lot of work and and so just waiting until we think we have the solution and going out there is not. Yeah. Yeah. that is the larger but but yes 100% we need to include as many people as possible to so that they are part of this and are aware of it and don't think it's a surprise like especially like the next door neighbors that are
074putting a lot of money into that house now looks gorgeous Karen do you have a questionative well I just wondered if we want to take these four topics and um put some details under them before our next meeting yes that would be great um if you want. I can create, you know, put this. Can everybody access the Google Drive? Then I'll put it in there. Um, I'll take a picture. Um, I'll grab, you can send me your notes. I'll take a picture of this and then we can I think that's where to start to get a requirements document, right? And then you want us to fill in the blanks on it kind of, Jane, like here's the four. Yeah. And then all of us say, okay, well, here's some details. Right. So for the crossing
075in 87, what are all the pressure points that we're talking about for the stuff around, you know, so it's some of the stuff we did here, but if we use those four things as we put the ADA piece into the sections. Yeah. And I know my homework coming into today was to get some clarity around like what can be done in between meetings. Certainly task completion is not an issue. Um and again it's just back to the reminder that we're not we cannot make decisions. Only the board makes decisions based on recommendations that we have. But certainly we can delegate tasks to be completed in between our meetings such as what we just described. Yep. Okay, that's a great point. And my notes will not come out until next week because I'm away this weekend.
076You that is perfectly fine. In case anybody do anything with them, so you can blame me. No, you did send them to me. The notes from the last time are posted on the SE website. Oh, did I send them to you? Yes. Oh, well. Well, no, you sent an email to the group. Thank you for your thoroughess. You sent an email to all of us and included in that email was were your notes. Oh, perfect. So, I just took those notes and put them in a separate document so that they could then be uploaded to the site. I was wondering why I couldn't find them. So, thank you. Do you need a picture of this? I'm going to take a picture of that before everybody. Um, okay. So, our homework is to fill in this
077copy most of them. Um, I will kind of get it started and send everybody, it'll be in that drive, but I'll send you a link. I will also send everybody a link to um where you can find postings for this. And um what else? What else am I missing? Anything? Well, we if we want to have it posted outside at town hall, Susie and Facebook. Yeah, I'll take care of that. Not I'll call her Susie. Don't Yeah, don't do that. I will. Yeah, I will post some I will post something on Facebook before the next meeting. But we So, we have four things, right? the Facebook. Yeah. Let me write it down. Or can you write it down then? Mhm. I think I wrote I think I wrote them down already. S email blast. Yep.
078Town hall board and school. Okay. No, not the town hall board. This my town hall, too. Town hall, too. Okay. I mean, you might as well. I'll ask if you can ask if we may do that. It depends on what's going on. probably um town hall board, school board, not school board, but school board. Um the Google Drive wherever you want to do stuff. And what else? And the link to where it is on the site. That was it. Yep. Perfect. Um did you have anything left? Anything else? Any No, I think we covered everything pretty well. Can I just ask anformational question? Absolutely. I know we're not focusing on solutions, but um is there any you know, we have the stone wall at the bottom of the hill in front of the school? Yeah.
079Is that a historic thing that can't be touched or state restrictions? No, stone walls are not you can demolish stone walls and move them. Yeah. Like a heritage. Do you know if that was looked at for this for this one? recall, but I because I asked about there was a stone wall here and it's a cruddy one. So, there's a stone wall right here and that one can be because we were told that it was not a boundary. Mhm. So, and New Hampshire's weird about their stone walls. There's no law against ch you can rip up a stone wall, an old farmer's wall unless you're unless the street's designated a scenic street. Well, then you're Yeah, you're talking about historic districts and Yeah. But I I think some of the issues if it's like a
080something trust like if a trust conveys like the Vernon farm, the issue with the stone wall at the Vernon farm that related to a conservation trust and you can't touch certain components of the structure because it's part of a conservation. This is not that. But I can I can take it on as a task to email TF Moran to to just inquire about what their take on that is the current stone wall of those. Yeah, because it could be a routine. That's a whole different story. I wonder about that too. And then I do want to be mindful of everybody's time because we did set one hour for these meetups. There's one other thing that I think there may be an area that is I want to call it a sinkhole. Oh, but on the
081back left of the building that opened up under the parking lot when two years ago, three, I don't remember, but I think it was related to um well, I think it was possibly like outouse pit at some point. Okay. And so that's not something that is on our radar necessarily, but it would be good structurally to know whether there is something that would prevent us from, you know, putting a lot of weight over that area under the pavement or is it I think we we had a a hole that basically kind of the surface of the lot dropped. Yes, I think I think we should do some investigation on that and that can be your homework assignment between someone's homework assignment between now and the next meeting. Um, can Rusty take a quick peek at
082it? Is that a possibility? I can ask. Yeah. Okay. I have a question. Is um there a plan um a capital improvement plan to um black top the driveway every few years? There's a plan, but there's no fund. Oh, so it hasn't been funded. It's not like on the radar. Go ahead, Susie. I'll let you handle this one. Or do you want me to? I'm happy to. So, the drive is in bad shape. That has been something that's been on my radar. And every time I go to put it into the budget, cuz it's about 110 to 130,000, it's a big ticket item. the idea of this type of project shuts it down because if we're gonna why would we spend that kind of money when it's gonna fold into but now we're five years
083in. Yeah. Well, just kidding. There is no to your point there is no fund that's been set up for that. There is a line if I choose to put it in that but it's not like there are in town there are funds for different things. First one is the the fire truck, right? there was a an allocation for that. There is no allocation except for the building fund which is not very big right now. Well, no, there's a maintenance fund, but that's a little bit different, right? But we can let's do this. Let's talk about one of the action items for next time. we can talk about like what what our recommendations could be cuz one of our recommendations could be that well no it could be put a capital improvement together um you know
084trust fund together so that's you know an option for us too but I just want to be really really cognizant of people's time um and I will send out just a quick followup I will wait for next week for your notes And we've got some actions and include those and our next meeting June 5th. Thank you. You're welcome. Excellent. Thank you guys so much. Thank you Karen for facilitating. Yes.